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!

Here we go... time's flying and things are happening fast...

Heh, I just realized that my title makes it seem as if I went into labor! Not the case, sorry, but I'm gonna keep it anyway. =)

39 weeks

I've made it to 39 weeks and beyond. I'm excited to report that I finally got all the "nesting" stuff taken care of. Thanks to my father-in-law who was able to stick around for a whole week during my countdown to Taran's return from the rig (which happened exactly one week before the due date) I was able to get a bunch of stuff done and he was able to take care of several of the things that would have been on Taran's plate pending his return from working 7 days a week for longer than anyone cares to. So, lucky Taran, he got a bit of a break from a crazy wife insisting he get to work right away without a single day off or time to think.

I officially have the infant clothes out of the attic and most of them are clean, Noah is sleeping in his own room (well, he goes down ok, but has been waking up at night - baby steps, I suppose), the hospital bag is mostly packed (there are some things I'll use before then), the co-sleeper is up and ready to go in our room, and the car seats are both in the car and ready to go for two boys!

And now, the big news: I had my 39 week visit today (which is more accurately at 39.5 weeks). According to the doc, I'm about 2-3 cm dilated and the baby is pretty low and he can feel the head. He seems to think I won't make it to my 40 week visit next week. We'll see how that goes. He told me the same thing with Noah and I walked around for a week at 2 cm dilated. =) With any luck, the baby will wait since Taran has a training class he's working on this week and it'd be bad if he missed any of it - he told me missing just 45 minutes would require him to retake the whole course. So, as close as it seems, with luck we'll take our time! Until then, I have lots of laundry to keep up with. =)

Has it really been that long?

I can't believe it's been a month since my last post! I suppose I could say I've been busy, but mostly, I've been trying to get by with sleep deprivation and surviving Noah's teething. Oh yeah, and the whole pregnancy thing...

For the most part I've been taking advantage of opportunities to sleep. I haven't been sleeping the best at night and Noah with his two year old molars moving around and coming in, also hasn't been sleeping so for me, that means naps when he naps and early bed times that cut into blogging opportunities.

The good news is that we are almost out of the woods with Noah's teeth. The forth and final molar has broken through and while that one and two others are still pushing through, the initial part is done and with luck, it'll be down hill from here. I'm sure Noah will be relieved - in more ways than one.

38 weeks

My pregnancy continues to go uneventfully which is great. The little munchkin is super active which at times is really uncomfortable, but I'd rather he move around like that than not at all. He's also decided he likes putting pressure on my sciatic nerve which shoots numbing pain down my right thigh. Perhaps he does it because he knows it makes me dance and wiggle around in an attempt to gain relief. The good news is that it's usually fleeting so as long as I move, the pain goes away. A friend of mine who was expecting just a few days ago actually had her baby a week early which made me panic that evening about not having things ready, but I soon recovered and returned to my I've-got-all-the-time-in-the-world status which is neither healthy nor accurate. Luckily, my father-in-law came to visit this weekend to get away from work and he's been helping out around the house and helping to kick my butt into gear to get things prepped for the new arrival. With luck, the next couple of weeks will continue to be boring - unless the baby comes since he's due in 11 days!

6 weeks to go...

34 weeks

I can't believe that yesterday I hit the 34 week mark! That means that in less than two months, I'll have two baby boys to keep me busy. April seems so far away. At the same time, it's probably because I'm in denial about March being halfway over. Even though it's so close, it still seems so far away. I feel like I still have all the time in the world to "get ready." I don't really have a ton to do. The extra diapers have been washed and are ready to go (to be added to the rest of the stash once labor starts so Noah has plenty while we are away and the in-laws don't have to worry about laundering them). Other than that, we still need to retrieve the infant clothes and infant car seat from the attic, set up the co-sleeper, and pack the hospital bag (Taran and I will share a bag). For some reason though, I'm not really in a rush to get any of that done.

Most of the time, I'm more focused on Noah and making sure I'm feeling as best as possible at any given moment. As time goes on, I've been experiencing some varying levels of back pain (probably because Noah weighs 31 lbs now) as well as increasing amounts of indigestion and heartburn. As a result, I tend to focus on what I can do, what has to be done, and what can be put off until another time. I'm trying to stay active but not over do it. Fortunately, my friend Laura and I have gotten the opportunity to be cliché stroller moms at the mall several times over the past few weeks which gets us out of our houses, gives us some exercise (though I'll admit, mall walking isn't very vigorous), and allows our kiddos to get some activity in the kids' play area at the mall.

We've had a pretty good low stress week this week, so that's been nice. Well, aside from our very unlucky St. Patrick's Day - things just seemed to keep going wrong yesterday! I just hope the weekend continues in the same low stress pattern as the early part of the week.

Keeping active...

It's interesting. Most of the time I feel like life is going in slow motion. Looking back at the past week, it has been anything but that. So, in keeping with early tradition of my blog, here's an overview of my week:

32 weeks

On Monday, I had my 32 week pregnancy visit. Everything is going well. The baby's growth looks good (in fact he's a bit on the big side). My blood pressure is normal. My weight gain looks good. The baby's heart rate is also good. An added bonus, my doc palpated the baby this time and he's confident that he's head down. Let's hope he stays that way.

Tuesday I attended my regular mommy meeting. I can't say there was anything particularly memorable about it, which I guess is good. We had a new mom at the meeting, that much I remember. Otherwise, it's a bit of a blur. It's likely my fatigue and exhaustion cloud my memory.

Wednesday I went to Hobby Lobby and the mall with a friend. It was so nice to get out and socialize where my kiddo wasn't bullying everyone else smaller than him. I spent the rest of my gift card for maternity clothes since I'm running out of time where such a gift card is even useful. I picked up some cute tees to add to my very boring wardrobe of t-shirts and jeans. Our two little munchkins played around at the kid section in the mall and they were so tuckered out that they both fell asleep in their strollers before we even left. I can't really complain about that.

Thursday the same friend and I met up at Target and picked up a few things we both needed. We then headed to a nearby playground and let the kiddos have fun sliding and running around. Ok, well, my kid ran around. Had anyone else been around they would have gotten a good laugh out of a very pregnant mama chasing a 19 mo old. My back was really bugging me and it wasn't easy. We eventually left the playground with the kiddos wearing out and ready for naps. I chilled at my friend's house for a bit to recover and get some Tylenol before going home. Thursday evening Taran returned from his two weeks in PA on a rig. It's so nice to have him home. It makes the house seem much less empty.

Friday was primarily a relaxing day. I did get some grocery shopping done which was nice. I was able to take advantage of some great sales. I ran out of steam after one store though and didn't get all my shopping done. I may just skip the other store this week.

Super yummy!

Today, we went to the home of one of Taran's co-workers for a crawfish boil. It was my first one to ever attend and the same goes for Noah as well. It was nice to be able to relax a bit. Noah had fun playing on the trampoline and with the two boys of the co-worker. He also really enjoyed the crawfish which couldn't have made me happier. He kept asking for more and more and I couldn't peel them fast enough for him! I love that my munchkin is so willing to try new foods!

Soft soled shoes for Noah

I did have a project that I worked on starting on Wednesday. At Hobby Lobby I picked up some materials and supplies to make some soft soled shoes for Noah. At 19 mo, his feet are too big to fit into most of the commercial brands of soft soled shoes and I can't afford to pay for most of them anyway. It's really important to me to help ensure proper foot development so I really wanted to keep him in this style of shoe. My sister-in-law found a shoe pattern for me that was for 0-6 mo. I did a bit of measuring and managed to enlarge the pattern to an appropriate size. I first made a practice pair of shoes with some scrap fabric (that project I worked on about a week ago). The practice shoes fit great so I felt confident in making the real deal with a leather sole so Noah could wear them outside. So over the past couple of days that's what I was working on in my "spare time" (does that actually exist for me?). The real test came today when we went to the crawfish boil. The shoes are great, but I need to tighten the elastic a bit more since they slipped off of Noah's heal a couple of times. Otherwise, they stood up great and I'm encouraged for the next size up. I may have to narrow the pattern a bit since it's really wide at the top.

Aside from that, life is pretty normal. Ok, well, maybe not. Noah has been really volatile the past couple of weeks because of teething. One of his 2-year-old molars has shown it's ugly face and I'm sure the others are close behind. The poor kiddo has been clingy and wanting to be held all the time (not and easy task for preggo mama over here). He also seems to get easily irritated or frustrated. Add to that the fact that he's not sleeping well and you have just a bad equation. Needless to say, I also haven't gotten much sleep lately either. I'm almost getting used to the constant tired feeling as sad as it is. My only hope is that the teeth come in before the new baby arrives and we can get Noah back to his regular routine. You know, just in time before it's disrupted by another munchkin!