365 Project

Nothing super exciting to post (and no real time to post anyway!) So I’m just updating with pictures from the past week. Week one (& 2 days): done!

365.4

365.5

365.6

365.7

365.8

365.9 (first smiles!)

{Wordless Wednesday}

365.2

 

365.3

D {One Month Old}

One Month Old! "hello there!"

Phew, that went fast! On the one hand I feel like I was just whining about being pregnant forrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeevvvvvvvvvveeeeeer. I still remember that misery, actually. I remember that better than my super crazy fast delivery! On the other hand, it feels like he’s been a part of our family forever. That’s the funny thing about having kids, when they arrive it seems like they’ve always been apart of your family! And what a blessing they are…

My little snuggle bug is already getting so big. He had his one month check up today. He’s a plump 9#15oz! He’s grown two inches (21 inches now!) I’m noticing his newborn jammies are starting to seem small… I’m not ready to give them up yet though!

You can't tell, but his room is a DISASTER. :/

He’s different than C. C would get hungry and eat and when she ate she would chow down. This little guy pops on and  off about a hundred times while he’s eating. OR he will only eat 5 minutes and fall TOTALLY asleep. So I really never have any idea what will satisfy him! And he’s started up with some reflux, poor guy. The doctor wants to keep an eye on it for now, since he is gaining well she wasnt too concerned. But I’m so sad when it seems like he’s in pain!

He wakes up quite a bit in the night still. My dear friend posted something on twitter the other day and it has become my new mantra:

“The days seem long, but the years are short.”

How SO VERY TRUE. I remember being exhausted and burned out with C… It seems SO VERY LONG AGO now though. I truly can’t believe how fast it goes, so I’m trying to pray “breath of heaven, hold me together” throughout the long nights. And I’m very thankful that while it is SO HARD to wake up in the night, I actually do feel the strength I need to get through the day!

also, looking at this helps

I’m making a point to snuggle this guy as much as I can. Because I thought I cherished these days with C, and they went so fast. And time seems to go faster with two… I love his soft sweet skin on the side of my face for a snuggle! I love looking down at a satisfied face with milk dribbling from both sides of his mouth.

I love when he does the newborn chicken dance (where he’s sort of Pecking my shoulder looking for food). I love the gummy mouth, and how cute he looks with the pacifier in there.

I love his tiny tiny round head. I love the weight of his little body,I love when hes all curled up and clings to me like a little Koala.

I love C looking on him fondly,

I love how much more confident B is this time around.

I’m such a sap!

Just for fun…

{December}

So as you might imagine, December has been very busy! After D’s birth, the parade of the grandparents began.  It included my mom, my dad and step-mom, and my in laws (that’s all the grandparents, for those who are counting!) We thoroughly enjoyed everyone visiting!  C especially loved having all the extra entertainers around. I was going to post some pictures of her with the grandparents but B seems to have moved some things around on the laptop and I can’t find them!

The week we had “off” from grandparents  & B was home from work also happened to be the week before my birthday. I told B what I really wanted was for him to do something with C for me. Have her pick out a card or something like that. So one day he told her they were going to do a surprise for mommy. Only trouble is… a two year old isn’t very trust worthy! So we celebrated a few days early so she wouldn’t ruin the surprise! They picked out a card together and an ice cream cake- completed with thomas the train candles-so I know that C helped pick it all out. I cried when he brought her home and she was saying “Surprise! Happy Birfday Momma” over and over. It was exactly what I wanted. (Plus earlier in the week I had found a groupon for a spa day so he picked that up as well! Happy Birthday to ME!:))

My Ice Cream Cake!

She STILL talks about my birthday. She’s pretty much obsessed with Birthdays. She talks about a friend’s party we attended in November, and she has now learned her birthday is in “Juhwhy”. Sometimes she says “I can’t yike Juhwhy”. I think she says that because it isn’t currently July!

Not so much fun- We’ve all had colds. And either food poisioning or a mild stomach bug(Mild in comparison to last years, anyway. If we get that again I will CRY)- just what you need with a 2 week old! Fortunately my mom came down and gave us a hand when we were dealing with that!

Christmas Eve!

and, um, did you realize that CHRISTMAS occurred in the last month? Because I basically didn’t. Between giving birth and the flurry of visitors rotating in and out, any time I went anywhere and someone wished me a Merry Christmas I was always like “Oh yeah, right! Merry Christmas!”  I definitely feel like I missed out on the holiday season a bit this year. I just wasn’t WITH it enough to enjoy it fully. That said, the things we did get to I did thoroughly enjoy, Christmas is so fun with a 2 year old! I can’t wait for all the excitement Christmas with Two (two bigger kids) will be like!

Opening Christmas Eve Jammies!

One thing we managed to enjoy was taking a ride on the Polar Express! A local train place has carnival type rides and light displays along with a train ride. We chose to partake in the special Polar Express ride, where Liam Neisen (okay, just his recorded voice…) reads the story of the polar express over loud speaker. The train takes you through all these light displays which was really neat! Santa came through the train and gave all the kids a sleigh bell. It was very special to see C get so excited. I cried. (Hormones!)

Super Excited for the Polar Express!

I declared myself super mom after nursing D on the train (where it was basically pitch black). He was not so impressed with the outing

Not So Excited to go on the Polar Express...

On the Carousel (Note D in the Carrier...he's the football head)

With Nan & GP!

She rode two rides, & really enjoyed them, but it was freezing and we were all ready to get home… Next year we will be better prepared. Warmer clothes, a stroller… Of course, C was having a “mood” that night and only Daddy could carry her. (probably related to the fact that I was wearing D in my carrier…). Hopefully she wont still be jealous for next year’s ride!

Christmas was crazy. She tore through presents and was totally spoiled! She is always looking for “somefin for C?” whenever anyone comes over! We need to teach this girl to have a giving spirit, STAT! She didn’t even get to see her big gift -a train table, trains, and a new area to play in our basement- until the 26th because she was so excited about all her new cars and other gifts.  However, she does LOVE her new basement and asks to go down there all the time now. It’s pretty cute. And she will entertain herself down there for awhile, score! Baby Brother got mostly functional gifts this year. I was hoping having a few gifts under the tree would help C know it wasn’t all about her, but It didnt seem to work!

Enjoying one of his "real" gifts! (A bit blurry, but I love his face!)

I love love love baby clothes with something on the bum!

We really enjoyed our first Christmas as a family of four (and even more fun having B’s parents here with us!)

So this was pretty exciting. On Christmas, when we were at my Aunt’s house, C asked to hold D. And then she actually did! Unfortunately neither of them seemed to enjoy it based on the pictures! She’s getting more and more into her big sister role, though!

She will come into the room and say “Hi Babe!” which is so cute. And she still always needs to know where he is and what he’s doing. She’s semi reliable to tell me if he’s sleeping in the van. And tonight was so sweet, she rocked him in his Rock N Play and sang “rock a by baby”. (I actually don’t want her to touch the rock and play… but it was so darn cute!)

Speaking of that moment, I’m going to try and do a 365 photo challenge. I usually do take a photo a day, but i want to get better with my dSLR and not just rely on B all the time. So I’m committing to shooting in manual at least once a day this year. I probably wont post the pictures every day, but as i get a chance I will upload a few at a time. Today I was trying to get a picture of D in his “My first New Year’s” onesie, and C decided to “help”. When she came over to be in the picture I got some great shots. Unfortunately our house has really lousy lighting and I had to shoot @ 1600 ISO at a low f-stop, so a lot of my pictures came out blurry because the depth of field was so little. But I captured a moment I loved which is great and definitely part of the reason to do this! And hopefully by the end of the year i will be better at catching the moment AND the technical stuff. here’s day 1.

{PS I hate when people start these photo a day deals and don’t finish them. I am posting that fact in the name of accountability. I need to commit and follow through!}

This has obviously been edited, but I will post the original underneath just for the sake of documenting improvement in photography.

365.1

365.1 Original

Phew! I feel exhausted after just typing all of that.. no wonder I’m so tired and out of it these days–we’ve been busy! I’m sure there was more to post that I missed but I just can’t get it all in… these kids are keeping me busy and tired! I can’t remember if there is more, and even if I could, I need to stop writing and get to bed… at this point I’m not even sure this post made much sense!!! Yawn.

Can you believe it’s already been a month since D was born!? (well, tomorrow makes a month). Hopefully he will get a monthly update post sometime soon!

Starting 2012 Right!

First walk of 2012, first walk with two kiddos!

Merry Christmas!

It’s been busy around here, no time to post! I barely know it’s Christmas… It’s sort of a bummer to be so “off” at this time of year. I do find that this Christmas I relate much more to Mary than I ever have before. Snuggling my little boy, dreaming of his future. What it must’ve been like to dream about the newborn King’s future!  How awesome that must’ve been.

Things have been going really well around here..I still haven’t had a solo day with two kids, so I’m sure I’ll be losing it around then.   But for now we’ve had lots of fun with the parade of grandparents. And now it’s almost Christmas! C has thoroughly enjoyed the Christmas season- I’m glad we’ve done enough to keep her in the spirit at least! She loves doing “tree chocolate” (advent calendar) each day. And she loves messing with the tree & ornaments, much to my dismay.

She still loves her baby brother, and always wants to know where he is, what he is doing and if he is awake. She also brings me his “stuff” all the time (even when I don’t want it!)…she will say, “here ya go baby, here’s some stuff!” So sweet and helpful.

((this post was started before Christmas, and posted after. So Merry Belated Christmas, I am busy!:))

Love.

I’d forgotten…

How much I love…

…nursing a newborn. He’s so content while eating. He’s not interested in anything else in the world yet, so it’s super peaceful.

…the “marsupial” stage. He just snuggles up as small as can be like my little koala bear. Sometimes he will grasp my shirt or necklace, which makes him look even more koala bear like.

How…
…much they change! 9 days old & he’s already so much more alert than a week ago! He’s gaining weight (back 8#2oz at his 6 day weight check), he’s slowly starting to “uncurl” from that squished up position he had to maintain in my uterus.

…soft newborns are! I can’t help but rub my cheek on his face pretty much all the time just to feel his velvety skin! So different than the (also awesome) two year old kisses i’m used to.

…tiny they are! he’s sooooo small. And it seems even more small next to my now ginormous two year old. When I rock her after rocking him,.. I’m just astounded. It makes me feel like she’s practically a teenager! (hold me!)

…how sweet every little facial expression, noise, even every toot, is.

…how much I absolutely love this stage!

I’d forgotten.

He’s Here, He’s here!!

For someone who was so content to stay in my uterus, he definitely made a speedy entrance into the world!

8 lbs, 7 oz

I ended up being induced at 41 weeks, 4 days (12/2). I had wanted to avoid being induced, but in retrospect I think it was a good thing, since he came so quick! I had to ask the nurse to tell me all the times of everything because I seriously had no idea what had happened afterwards!

Last Bump Pic! 41.4 weeks!

My induction was set for 12 instead of 7 because the hospital was really busy that day. My midwife had me get there early, and basically the nurses tag teamed getting me ready for the induction because they were so busy. I have crummy veins so I won myself SEVEN needle sticks. Aren’t I lucky? When they finally got an IV in me, my induction started, about 12:50pm. My MW evaluated me before everything started and said I was about 3cm.

I had been contracting for the last 8 weeks or so on and off, so the pitocin seemed to finally get me into a regular pattern. Still felt like braxton hicks to me- just more regular. I got up to pee around 2 and when I sat down on the bed again I was like… “Did I just pee myself? nope, I think my water broke!” and sure enough it just kept coming and coming ! I was surprised that it had happened already, it made me feel good that my body was more ready than I had thought!

I had been pretty discouraged about my lack of labor all along and that coupled with being induced made me really unsure about whether or not I’d be able to endure labor without an epidural. B and I went out for a little bit the night before the induction and prayed about everything and discussed it, so i was feeling a bit better until my contractions started to hurt! Up until about 3pm I was reading/playing on my phone (even managed to post on facebook to throw people off around 2pm ) and B was editing pictures…occasionally we would look up and laugh about how weird this was that technically I was in labor but we were just hanging out… such a difference from when I was in labor with C!

Anyway, around 3 I told B that it was time to get down to business as I was getting uncomfortable. My midwife had gotten me on a physioball for the last hour and it started to be uncomfortable to be on there so I got back in the bed and she came to check me. I had progressed to 5cm, which was great, but I still felt defeated about how far i had to go. My midwife (& B) encouraged me REALLY well, giving me the push I needed to keep going. She told me to moan through my contractions, if for no other reason than to have something to “do” during the contractions- and that definitely helped!
She also encouraged me to take something to take the edge off the contractions – the same stuff I had with C- definitely seemed like a good idea to me! I got the medication about 320.

For me, the next part felt like it all happened SUPER fast– which it did. But since I was high on the Nubain I definitely have no real memory of how long this actually was.

After I got the Nubain B suggested we listen to some music on my iphone, which was great. I sort of closed my eyes in betweeen the contractions and then during them made my little moaning noise. I asked B to call for the nurse and I told them I was feeling pressure. When Katie (my midwife) appeared I told her it was probably wishful thinking but I thought I felt pressure… She watched me for a contraction and I motioned that I definitely was feeling it. So she checked me again.

And sure enough, I was 10cm! (This was at 420 pm, the next paragraph takes place in about 6 minutes) But because I was still out of it, I didnt really understand that that was what she was saying! And this whole time, I have my eyes closed…I’m not really aware of all the people coming in the room … Katie called the nurse to bring a birthing stool and get ready for delivery. And then I’m pushing the baby out without even realizing it.  So she calls again, “forget the stool, we’re having a baby!” and she barely gets her gown and everything on/everything under me. I sat myself up a little and pushed out his head- at which point I said to B “what is happening?” LOL!! he was like, “what do you mean what’s happening? You’re pushing him out!” Then they were worried he would be huge since he was so late so they had me lay down flat and push him out with my legs pushed way back- which was so weird. But he came right out and I remember I had to tell myself to open my eyes and look because the baby had come out!

So all in all, I was actually only in painful labor for an hour/hour and a half. And I only pushed maybe three times? So, I’d call that an AWESOME labor. And I am so so happy that B and my midwife were able to convince me that I could do it! I felt great after delivery, no tearing, minimal bruising and swelling.

He's here! He's Here!

D was born at 4:26pm (3.5 hours after the induction started!). He weighed in at 8 pounds, 7 oz (7 oz less than his big sister) and was 19 inches long. He pretty much nursed like a champ right away! I think his apgars were lower, like 7/9 and 8/9…as you can see his color wasn’t great right away.  But I think he was just stunned into the world!

I love this picture...even though i'm still high looking...

Big sister is pretty uninterested and this picture is the closest she’s been to him in 3 days. She thinks he’s SO CUTE (she declares it every time she notices him) but otherwise is too occupied with the grandparents who are visiting to notice him.

I’m so very happy to not be celebrating 42 weeks of pregnancy today, and am instead happily snuggling my newborn son. We are home and settling in, hopefully I’ll post some more pictures soon! Daddy has gotten some great ones!

I never thought I’d have a December Baby…

Still here

41 Weeks, 2 Days

If you know me at all, you probably have heard me whine about December birthdays. While it obviously isn’t AS big of a deal as an adult, I still have 18 years of trauma to complain about…

All my life I swore I would NEVER have a December baby.

Well, God sure is funny! He decided to show me how important silly little things like that are… Cause here it is, December 1 and I’m STILL PREGNANT!

I’ve had testing done for the last week or so and I am so very thankful that the baby continues to be healthy! (there are concerns about the health of your placenta/the baby when you go past 40/41 weeks) He also doesn’t *seem* to be huge- but ultrasound technology can be off, so I’m not holding my breath for a tiny baby either

Most people are shocked to hear that I am still pregnant, because in our current culture it is common to be electively induced even before 40 weeks. But 40 weeks is not an exact science.. due dates can (and often are) off. For example, with my pregnancy with C, my due date wouldve been a full two weeks earlier than when I was actually due, if I had not known my cycle well.  Based on my experiences,  I chose providers that would allow me to go as late as the baby wanted to come. (I’m not judging anyone, please don’t read me wrong!)

However, I never imagined that the second time around he would decide to come SO LATE!  Nor did i anticipate how tired I would be  C was technically born at 39 weeks, 4 days. I thought for sure I would go earlier with this one than i did with her! So I really set myself up for disappointment! I found myself in tears a WEEK ago because I couldn’t get induced at 40 weeks 5 days. Since then I’ve gotten (some!) perspective back… I wasn’t even late yet! 41 weeks is when you technically are post dates. And here I sit at 41.3!

I’d like to take this moment to apologize mentally to all the women who were 40 weeks and got induced for post dates at my old job and I would mentally think, “you’re not even post dates yet!” To watch your due date come and go is pretty disheartening. Every day I walked by our calendar in the kitchen and saw it mocking me… I’m glad to move on to december where I wont have to see “baby boy due date” laughing at me any more

bye bye november!

And other than extreme insomnia, hot flashes and very little patience, I’m actually doing pretty well at 41.3. I can’t wait to meet our little guy, and now we will share our birthday month! and I can’t wait. December will be even more awesome now