More days gone by...

It's hard to believe that so much time passes between blog posts. I feel like there is nothing to report, but I suppose that depends on who's reading it and how much they know otherwise.

So, this week has been busy. Taran returned from the rig earlier than expected which was really nice. This go-round out there was stressful for both of us. While out there, the first big tropical storm of the season came through. Well, kinda. It was mild enough that they decided that the rig workers would ride it out. Not that that made me feel better. I also for the first time made sure to do some hurricane prep by getting a few recommended supplies. I wasn't terribly worried about food since I've had a habit of stocking up more since I've started couponing, but things like water and batteries were necessary to pick up. As it turns out, the storm passed south of where Taran's rig was stationed and they just got some waves. We didn't even get rain. Oh well, at least I have some supplies should I need them in the future.

This week I've also been inspired to create new projects for my baby boutique (despite having a lack of time to work on them. I also received some orders for more shoes which is super exciting - we just need to hash out the details for them. I can't wait to get to work on those.

Taran and I went and dropped off my second donation of milk to the drop-off site for the milk bank. I had almost 3 gallons collected which is awesome. It's so nice having Taran with me for those trips since the trip takes about 45 minutes and otherwise I'd have to unload kids and load them back up with no time to stretch legs and play, well, in Noah's case anyway - August would want a snack at the least. The other option is to stop somewhere to let Noah run around which can prove to be difficult depending on where we are. In any case, with Taran it was an easy run in an out so there was much less stress! Thank you, hubs!

Today I went to the local Big Latch On. Conveniently, it was taking place where we normally have our Saturday mommy meeting and almost at the same time too, so it's not like it was out of my way. I would have gone somewhere else though if it were in a different location. There were 15 moms there and a reporter from a local paper so that was pretty cool. They had also set up a silent auction for the Smart Mommies Education Foundation, the non-profit that hosts our meetings. I hope it did well. I didn't bid on anything b/c I'm cheap. Also, I didn't look closely at all the things up for auction but I did see some items which I either had or didn't need so I nothing drew me in.

Tomorrow we are supposed to have some work friends of Taran's joining us for dinner. Taran is planning on making chicken-fried steak which he makes wonderfully. I'm going to make the sides and we'll have mashed taters and black-eyed peas. Not a ton of color on that plate... Oh well.

So, that's the wrap-up of what's been going on with us. Maybe I'll get better at posting regularly, but who knows... =)

It's been two years already?

Ok, so I should have put up this post several days ago, but what can I say, I didn't think about it. Or I'm lazy. Or I was too busy. Or whatever other excuse you can come up with can be filled in. I didn't do it on time. Deal. =)

So, yeah, this passed Sunday, my baby boy became a boy. He turned two. I dunno. Two years in my mind are really the baby years. They change so much from month to month that I can't stop thinking of him as a baby at the age of one. I look at him now though and he really is a boy. He runs, plays, climbs, and throws tantrums. Yeah, he's two.

It's been amazing lately seeing all he can do and all he does. He's starting to put more and more words together which sometimes is adorable (like the other day when he was saying goodbye to the baby, the dog, and the books) and sometimes is not so cute (like when he's whining about something). It is exciting to see the development and depressing because he is getting more independent. At least when he's happy. If he's cranky or upset, that's when he wants his mommy. And some of those times I want to bang my head into a wall because as much as I want to snuggle my son, I don't want him to think crying is an appropriate response (like when the doctor comes into the exam room).

I'm not really ready for him not to be a baby anymore. I don't know if I ever will be. Even with currently have another baby, I'm not ready for Noah to no longer be one. Being a mom makes you funny in the head that way.

Another day...

So, yeah... It appears we didn't make it to the year mark with Noah's tubes before he started having  problems. Luckily, it's not an ear infection this time, it's his sinuses. I'm not sure that that is any better, but oh well. Back to the antibiotics and ear drops.

Over the past few weeks, all of us have been suffering form allergies and congestion. Taran and I seemed to recover relatively quickly. The boys? Not so much. Noah continued to have drainage, but since it was clear and he was acting like himself, I figured it was still allergies, gave him his allergy medication and ran the humidifier when he was sleeping. He had a few really bad nights where he was waking up a decent amount, but I just figured it was a little bit of reverting as I've heard toddlers do and I assumed it would go back to normal after a while. This too, shall pass, I decided. It appears that as in so many other situations, I got the symptoms wrong, and this is why as moms we have to accept that we will screw up.

Sweet boy

After noticing some discharge around Noah's ear yesterday, I didn't think a whole lot of it, because I could have missed some food bits from breakfast when I washed him up. I wiped his ear off and later I swabbed the entrance to the ear canal. This morning, he had more stuff in his ear and I was sure at that point, that something was going on. I had to cancel plans with my friend Laura (we had a Target and mall playdate for ourselves and our kiddos) and scheduled an appointment with the ENT. So, yeah, Noah has a sinus infection. He had a low grade fever, but you'd never know it. I suppose that's the reason that he was better behaved around the other kids in my mom group - and here I thought he was getting over the bullying. Way to go, self, you were so wrong...

Wee man

Luckily, wee baby is doing just fine. He still has some of his congestion, but it seems to be improving. Otherwise, he's doing his baby thing - eating, sleeping, and making diapers. Although, lately he has really taken up the whole cooing thing and has been talkative as anything. Complete with baby toothless grins. So adorable!

My newest pair of baby shoes

For me things are same ol', same ol' with the exception of having new projects to work on for my baby boutique. One of which is a pair of shoes for a little girl. I had to rework my pattern and pick up the material, but I managed to get those completed in record time. I just hope they fit, otherwise, it's back to the drawing board. No biggie though, I need to figure out how everything will work out with the shoes though since I've officially added them to my baby boutique. I've also worked on some new ideas for cakes which is awesome and I'm excited for opportunities to integrate them. Beyond that, I want to add some sewing projects to my baby boutique items, but that may be a bit down the road before I gather materials so I can experiment and have pictures for examples.

New bouquet for diaper cake topper

We did a bit of yard work today. Taran mowed, we both worked on trimming the bushes, and I weeded some. That's a never ending project, let me tell you! It's kinda like laundry and dishes. No matter how much you do, there's always more to do...

July!

It appears I'm behind... And once again, a friend has reminded me that I haven't updated my blog in over a month. So, I guess I will update it. I can't promise anything particularly witty or intelligent, but here's what's been going on...

3-tier Frog Cake

I, of course, have kept up with my regular attendance at meetings for my mommy group. The "group owner" has been working on getting her non-profit organization (a mom support and education organization) off and running which is cool. I really would like to help out, but since I still feel like I'm pulling my hair out with two kids, I really don't want to promise to do anything and then flake out. In the mean time, I'm just standing on the sidelines and observing what's going on and if I see an opportunity, I'll jump in. For example, today, they are having a booth at the local Independence Day "festival" and along with holding a bake sale, they were looking for items to either raffle off or sell in a silent auction. I made a diaper cake and donated it for said event. I hope it does well. Though, I have to admit, it was a bit selfish since I'm hoping to get my name out a bit more in the diaper cake biz. I suppose it's win/win really - as long as someone actually wants to bid on it in the silent auction. I really hope it goes for what it's worth and not a super low amount - that would be a blow to the ego.

My pump - it's a hard worker these days.

I've also been working on pumping a lot of milk. Well, the purpose was not to pump "a lot," really. I was just pumping. See, I had contacted the Mother's Milk Bank of Austin to get signed up as a donor. I went through the phone interview and was waiting on the donor packet to arrive in the mail so I could complete the next step as a donor. About that time, I heard of a mom in our mom group that was having some supply issues and was welcoming milk donations. I figured, why not? I could certainly pump and help her out, so I set off. I pumped some for her and some extra to boost my supply enough so that when the paper work went through I could donate at least something to the milk bank. The paperwork seemed to take forever and in the mean time, I'm just pumping along and creating a stash in my freezer as well as passing it along to the mom that needed it. Finally the packet arrived and I got it filled out and sent back, received my donor ID and was able to pick up some bottles for donation (they require "rigid" containers for collection at the milk bank). So, starting with the first day of July, I was officially able to start pumping for the milk bank. Yay! It turns out also,  that the mom I had been pumping for has been on a new milk boosting medication which has helped her immensely and she won't need me to pump any more (at least for now. I told her not to be shy if she needed more at any time.). So now, all my pumping efforts can go toward the milk bank which is great, but that means unless I get more bottles with each visit to the drop off site, I'll be going once a week to pick them up. We'll see how it all works out. I also have to get blood work run before I can drop off my first "installment" but they recommend doing it when you are close to having enough for your initial donation of 100 oz. So, I guess that means in the next several days I'll have to see about doing that.

Aside from that, I'm mostly trying to survive with two kiddos. Luckily the mommy meetings and regular trips to the mall or where-ever with my mom friend, Laura, allow me to get out of the house and give Noah some extra stimulation so he's not crazy with boredom and cabin fever. It's rough though. That kid needs to be able to run and climb to really burn off that energy which isn't the easiest for me to keep up with having a baby strapped to me, but I try.

August had his two month visit last Thursday. I can't believe he's that old already! Everything went well. He's growing (though not as quickly as Noah, but then, he was smaller to begin with so I guess it's relative) and up to 12 lbs 7 oz. He got his first big set of vaccines, which was no fun, but he did ok. Nursing after a trauma like that will fix anything. =) Noah did fantastic and though he was bored at the doctor's office, was surprisingly well behaved. I was so proud of him. I'm glad he behaves for the most part in public. =)

Two pairs of boy shoes size 2T packaged and ready for sale.

This past week I had my first sale of the shoes that I make. Up until then, I had only made them for Noah, but one of the moms in my mom group liked them so much she asked me to make two pairs for her. I was happy to do so and tried to package them up all nicely. Some of the other moms seemed interested in possibly buying them, so I may go ahead and add them to my baby boutique as another product which is a pretty exciting prospect for me.

This weekend, we anticipated going to visit Taran's family but that didn't pan out well since he returned from the rig several days later than planned due to a training course he had to take. We stayed in town and had some friends visit and wouldn't you know it, it's been about a year since we saw the one friend. We had a nice time, though I have to admit, we may not be the most fun hosts b/c we didn't do much but sit and chill and chat. Oh well. They've headed back now and it's back to our regular routine. Hopefully that includes more frequent blog updates, but we'll see...

I'm a Survivor!

Today marks the end of too long of a time period where I had to figure out how to be a single mom of two for the first time. Taran returned from his stint on the rig today to find both boys alive and well and me too.

I have to say it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, though I kinda protected myself. I limited outings to the bare minimum which helped greatly. I also had help on the weekends with various family members coming in to town which was awesome. The biggest difficulty I noticed was in the house. Before having two kids, housework got a bit behind, but I didn't have much difficulty catching up if needed. With two kiddos, it's much harder. Cleaning, laundry, and dishes it seems were done on a catch-up basis - when say, the sink was full of dishes or I ran out of clothes - which is definitely not ideal, but that's how it worked.

In case you were wondering, chasing a toddler is not as easy when holding a wee baby. The Moby is my friend keeping the infant close while keeping Noah out of things or chasing him and bringing him back to the time out chair he was avoiding. It's also not so easy to clean off breakfast dishes if I happen to set August in the bouncy chair and Noah is loving on him a bit too much, and by that, I mean sitting on him. Yes, that's right, I caught Noah sitting on his younger brother in the bouncy seat. Sheesh...

It's definitely an adventure. I'm glad that the hubby is back. Maybe I can go grocery shopping or something now kid free! Or maybe with just one... Even that would be a break. I still adjusting and I'm sure as time goes on I'm going to figure out this two kid thing. For now, I'm attempting to maintain my sanity.

Two weeks? Seriously?

Today our new little man had his two week visit with the pediatrician. I can't believe that it's been that long. Ok, technically, it's been 13 days, not two weeks, but it's close enough...

It may be because our schedule and day to day routine has been abnormal. Taran has been on vacation so we don't have specific places to be and things to do. We've been taking it easy and working out the specifics of how things work with two kiddos. That's not so easy and I'm glad that with few exceptions for appointments (and once for work) Taran has been here to help me out.

Our visit with the pediatrician was good. Our little man had 4oz. to gain to regain his birth weight, the goal at two weeks. He overshot it a bit and gained 13! Even the doctor was surprised at how well he had done - not that he was expecting him to do poorly, he just gained much more than expected. I'm glad he's doing so well. =)

Welcome to Our New Little Bundle of Joy!

I wrote this up and posted it on My Mommy Blog and decided to post it here as well. This is the birth story for our new little man, August.

With my first little one who is now 21 months old, I didn't do a very good job writing up his birth story. It's still partially done. I decided I'd go ahead and write up my experience with my second little one who was born just under a week ago.

After my last labor, I was happy with the care I received and the overall experience, but I still wanted some things to be different, and after experiencing it that time, I felt I knew more what to expect and could plan a bit better. I felt more empowered that I could make the decisions rather than being lead in a particular direction.

The major thing I wanted to be different was that I wanted to avoid medical interventions and medications. I wanted this with my first, but it didn't work out that way and after reflection, I felt that I had gotten so stressed out by the traffic in and out of my room during labor and the constant emphasis on time. I was hoping for less stress and less traffic. I actually got that!

After a pretty uneventful pregnancy (I lucked out and had nausea, severe heartburn, and backaches in the later stages but otherwise I avoided a number of other normal pregnancy discomforts), I neared the due date with a sense of calm and relaxation. I was in no rush to have the baby and I felt I had all the time in the world. it actually took my father-in-law visiting for a week and getting on my case to get things done like pack the hospital bag and get the baby clothes ready. I also had been reading HypnoBirthing, a book I borrowed from a friend, to try to gain some skills to keep myself less stressed during my labor and help me tune out the traffic in and out of my room. Inspired by that book and a few other factors, I wrote up my birth preferences (which I had not done with my previous baby) and printed out a copy to take with us. Among my preferences I listed the desire for a heparin block (vs. fluids) and intermittent monitoring so I could move around and change position during labor; reduced lighting, traffic, and checks during labor and delivery; no to limited medical interventions; breastfeeding immediately after the birth; weight checks, evaluations, and other newborn procedures to take place in my presence; avoid taking the baby to the nursery if at all possible; return the placenta to me for donation; and a few others.

My labor started on Friday afternoon. I was getting contractions throughout the day and in the afternoon I noticed they were getting a bit more frequent. Duration and spacing were not in a regular pattern, however. I called my in-laws (both nurses) to let them know I had started getting contractions. They were going to come and watch our older one while we were at the hospital and needed advanced notice since they live about 5 hours away. The rest of the evening was low key. I took a nice long shower and my husband kept our 21 month old from climbing on me too much. I gathered up the rest of the items I wanted to bring with us to the hospital. My husband went and picked up dinner for us to eat and I headed to bed a little early. I wasn't feeling very tired, but I lay down anyway, watched a bit of television and continued to monitor my contractions and practice the relaxation techniques I had read about. My in-laws arrived while I was resting. From about 10:45-11:30 they were coming fairly regularly with almost all of them being about 4 minutes apart. We decided we'd go ahead and pack up and head out.

We arrived at the hospital and checked in around midnight. We went to the triage area where I was hooked up to monitors and we filled out paperwork. My husband handed the nurse my list of birth preferences which she copied and placed in my chart, but barely looked at it. I was a little bit worried, but since I knew my preferences I figured we'd discuss it all as it came up. My contractions continued to be every 4 minutes and I was dilated to 3 cm. We were moved to a labor and delivery room where we filled out more paperwork. With a bit of difficulty, I was able to receive a heparin block rather than being hooked up to fluids and we then settled in for the night. It was a long night. I tried to rest, but it was difficult with the contractions and my very active little boy that didn't seem to like being squished. Eventually, with the help of my MP3 player, I did get intermittent sleep. When the morning came, things seemed to have slowed down some which was a bit unsettling. My new nurse came in and the first thing she told me was that she had read my birth preferences and everything looked great. She asked if I wanted to get up and take a walk, which I was more than happy to do to see if we could get things moving along. We took a stroll around the labor and delivery area but I didn't really feel any different. Around 10, the doctor came in to see how things were going and he check my progress. My contractions were really spread apart and so I wasn't progressing much at all. I had only dilated 1 more centimeter since we had arrived. He talked to me about various augmentation options which I told him I'd prefer to delay some more and see if we could get labor started up again naturally. He suggested I walk around for an hour or so (briskly) and he'd check me again in a few hours. My nurse told me no strolling that she wanted me to come back huffing and puffing and told us we could go further than just the labor and delivery unit. Off we went to wander the hospital - briskly.

We returned after an hour and continued the monitoring. My husband headed out to grab lunch and returned shortly after. When the doctor returned after 12 to check me, I hadn't made much progress. The doctor spoke again of possible interventions that were available to help move things along. Despite his assurance that this kind of intervention is "normal" for obstetrics today, I still was very hesitant to have anything done because I feared the snowball effect that seems to happen and had happened during my previous labor. Eventually, I opted to let him break my water and see if labor would progress some more - after all, it's the least detrimental of the interventions they can do and your water has to break at some point anyway. My nurse suggested that after he broke my water, we could wait a bit and then take a walk around to help things move along some more. This time, we needed to stay a bit closer. We walked around the unit and I was feeling more contractions which was great. We returned to our room where we relaxed for a bit. I sat on my exercise ball some, but eventually decided to lay back down in the bed. My contractions started to pick up and were not only more frequent, but were also stronger. I could feel them throughout my entire abdomen. I was able to incorporate the breathing techniques that I had read about and tried to keep in a relaxed state between them which seemed to work well. The contractions were far from the easy painless ones that I had before.

Around 3, the doctor returned to check me again. He had seen that my contractions had picked up so he was pleased with that. I had dilated another couple of centimeters and was now at 6. I have to admit, this news was disappointing to me. I really had hoped I was further along. I began to stress out a bit because I didn't want them to start talking to me about more interventions. Luckily, despite the "slow" progression, the doctor was happy to continue to watch and wait since I was making some progress. While this made me feel a bit better, I was still a bit on edge. My nurse asked if we wanted to walk around again, but at this point, I really didn't feel like it, so I decided to stay where I was. I did sit on my exercise ball again and leaned up against the bed when the contractions came along. Another nurse came in to check on me because the monitors were not reading as well when I was on the ball, but my nurse came in and said it was fine since the baby had been doing well and I could stay on the ball as long as I was comfortable. The contractions were getting stronger and I really wanted to get back in the bed. My nurse came back in and let me know that if I laid on my side and switched from time to time it might help things progress. I liked this idea since the firm bed was uncomfortable and laying on my side/stomach would be more comfortable. It was, except when I had a contraction.

My nurse was definitely right. Laying on my side/stomach definitely made things pick up and the contractions came stronger and longer. I also started experiencing back labor. I breathed through the contractions and tried to stay calm which was not very easy at all, but I managed. My husband started massaging my back which made a huge difference and really helped me get through the contractions. After a bit, I wanted to switch sides. We called my nurse in since the monitors were not reading well as I had been laying in that position so she readjusted them when I turned over. Again, the contractions picked up. Stronger and longer. The back pain was horrible. I felt I couldn't make it though a contraction without my husband rubbing my back. I'd tell him as each contraction came up. He decided he needed to run to get something to eat since things were starting to speed up. While he was gone, it seemed like an eternity. The contractions were so bad and I had fleeting thoughts of asking for meds as I tried to breathe through them. Each time they subsided, I tried to recenter myself and calm down again, but they came so quickly it was hard to do. I felt the slightest urge to push during one contraction but ignored it. The next few contractions, I felt the urge again and it was getting stronger. My husband returned (and, poor guy, got a not-so-happy me complaining that he was gone too long and I really needed him to massage my back - that he should have brought the food back instead of eating away from the room). After another few contractions, the urge to push was so strong I couldn't ignore it any more. I told him - mid-contraction - that I needed them to come in and check me because I was feeling the urge. He said it was too early, which I agreed, but there it was and I needed them to check me. He tried to leave, but since I was in the middle of a contraction, I wouldn't let him go just yet to get them. When that one was over, he went to get the nurse and another contraction started almost as soon as he left. I was feeling the  urge to push so badly. Apparently, despite both of us thinking it was too soon, it wasn't and I was ready to go. I was begging to push but they kept telling me not to. I needed to change positions so they could de-construct the bed and get things ready. I was so close to crowning and they had to rush. The doctor came in right around then and before I knew it, it was go time.

It was all of three pushes, if even that, and they told me to look down which I did and there he was. I couldn't believe he was out already. I heard a nurse call out 6:31 as his time of birth. They placed a very blue, very fussy baby on my stomach and I heard the doctor repeating to the nurses to be careful because the cord was short. The little guy was screaming, which I instinctively tried to calm while my husband was in my ear telling me he needed to cry to get oxygen. I watched as the precious blue little baby cried on my stomach and eventually started to get pinker. When the cord stopped pulsing, they cut it. I had torn some which the doctor repaired and then shortly thereafter, I delivered the placenta with an easy push.

The nurses proceeded to bustle around and clean up as I held my new little baby taking it all in. They weighed and measured him: 8lbs. 5 oz., 19 1/4 in long and returned him to me to hold and nurse. He latched on right away and we had our first nursing session with my champion nurser. 

My husband proceeded to make calls letting everyone know the baby had been born. Before too much longer, my in-laws arrived with our older son and bringing supper for me. I was so elated to see my little man whom I had been missing all day long. He was fascinated with the baby and proceeded to point out body parts, like nose, eye, hands, feet. It was such a beautiful moment.

We were moved to the recovery wing and settled in for the night. There were a few more visits from the nurses to check on the baby and me. Throughout the night we had only a few interruptions for checking vitals, etc. which was a nice change from my previous labor and, according to the nurses,can be credited to my birth plan which indicated a calm, low traffic environment. We spent two nights in the hospital and returned home Monday morning to start our new life as a family of four.

Welcome to the world my new little baby boy!