One Week Old

Our little Greta is a week old today. It's been a great week. Greta is sleeping at night now and has been for the past several days. She wakes up every three hours to eat and then promptly goes right back to sleep. She's been sleeping in her crib for the past several days and seems to like it. The bassinet was a bust just like it was with Wesley. I think it doesn't feel very solid underneath them. That's ok though, it was only $15 at a garage sale. Plus I'd rather she got used to her crib, it will be better in the long run. She loves her swaddling blanket and sleeps the best when all wrapped up like a burrito. What a great little invention.

Sean's parents got here Saturday and have been so helpful since arriving. Randi spent the day in the kitchen yesterday cooking up a storm and we enjoyed a tasty home cooked dinner last night. It's so nice having them here for the week. Wesley is just soaking up the attention and loves having all these people doting on him. It's going to be a shock to his system when everyone leaves next week (including Dad) and he's stuck with old Mom. That should be interesting.

Wesley in hog heaven with Papa Rich reading to him.

Randi cooking up a storm in the kitchen...have I mentioned how I have an awesome Mother-in-law?

A little quality time with Daddy

Greta had a bow on so Wesley wanted a bow on. Isn't he purdy?.

Greta's Birth Story

It all started last Sunday (a week ago?! Yikes, where does the time go) right around dinner time. I started feeling contractions as we ate and started timing them. They came every 23 minutes. Then at 9 pm they started coming around every 14 minutes. They weren't painful, just consistent. I really didn't think they could lead to much so I took a shower and went to bed. As soon as I laid down at 11:50 they started coming every 7 minutes. Still not very painful but I could definitely feel them. I still didn't think "this is it" but I did get up and go blow dry my hair. Went and laid down again to time them. Still coming every 7 minutes. It was now 1:30 in the morning. Decided to get up and call the birthing center. Talked to a nurse, told her we were about 45 minutes away and she said to start making my way in there. I still wasn't convinced since every image I've ever seen of a woman in labor was the Hollywood version of the panting, hunched over, severely in pain woman. Definitely not me. So I laid down again to time them. Now it's 2:30 in the morning. They are coming every 6 minutes apart, kind of painful. I really didn't want to wake my Mom up and have her come over to the house to watch Wesley if they were just going to send me home. You have to be 4 cm dilated for the Birthing Center to admit you. So I woke Sean up and told him I'm driving myself in and if they admit me (still thought it was a fat chance) I'll call and have my Mom head over and for Sean to head in.

The drive in wasn't bad. I had about about six contractions that were definitely painful along the way but I was in control and wasn't a danger to other drivers. Not that there were other drivers on the road at 3am. Got to my destination and signed in. A nurse took me back and checked me out, I was 4cm dilated. Yea, I could stay!





I called my Mom and Sean. At that point it was 3:45 and they were putting in my IV so that I could get the antibiotics needed since I'm Group B Strep positive. Contractions were now every 5 minutes apart. Still not horribly painful but I did need to concentrate during them. Nurse came back in around 5am to check me and I was 5 cm dilated. She said they would most likely break my water in the next hour. I remembered how quickly contractions picked up after they break your water so I asked for the epidural first. I think I could have easily got to 6 or 7cm without the epidural but thought "what the hay?". I figure if I'm going to get one why wait until the really painful contractions appear? So around 6am I got my epidural and then my doctor came in around 7am to break my water. The nurse said I was a "stretchy 6" at that point and all but guaranteed me it would be quick from then on out. She was wrong, another hour goes by without any change. They decide to speed things up with a little Pitocin. So around 8:30am I got some Pitocin added to my IV. And speed things up it did! I started feeling a lot of pressure in lower back about an hour later. Nurse checked me and I was fully dilated and ready to push. Of course they had to page my doctor so we waited around for half an hour. The pressure was so strong that I had to lay on my side with my legs closed. The nurse said if I had my legs open the baby would come on her own. I have to add that the epidural was perfect. I didn't feel the pain of the contractions but I still felt when they started and ended. Also that pressure really made it easy to push, knowing when and where to push. Finally the doctor made her way in and got prepared. Three pushes later little Greta was born at 10:49 am on September 21st weighing in at a whopping 8 pounds 11 ounces.







The doctor commented on how perfectly round her little head was. Most babies are born with little cone heads because of the time spent in the birth canal during pushing. Little Greta came so fast she never got the chance at a cone head. The down side to all of this is that while it was an easy delivery she never got the pressure needed in the birth canal to push the fluid out of her lungs. So she had a decent amount of fluid that had to be suctioned out of her lungs after she was born. That was kind of hard to watch. We had to watch her pretty close those first 24 hours to make sure there were no adverse reactions. Luckily she's had clear lungs ever since.





It was truly a wonderful birthing experience. Like I had mentioned in a previous post, it was so much different than being induced with Wesley. So much better. I feel very blessed to have two healthy happy children.

Homecoming

It's so nice to be home from the hospital! Greta has settled in nicely with our family life. She, naturally, has her days and nights mixed up but that's pretty normal. We spent the entire night last night in the recliner. Greta spent the entire night attached to me, literally the entire night going from one boob to the other. She worked her little heart out trying to bring in my milk and succeeded admirably. It took me seven days to get my milk in with Wesley and only three with this little girl. I'm so happy not to have to use the little supplemental feeding tube this time. It was important that my milk came in today as we had to go to the doctors office for her first check up and if she had lost anymore weight we'd most likely have to supplement her until the milk came in. She weighed 8 pounds 11 ounces at birth and was down to 8 pounds one ounce when we left the hospital. I had my fingers crossed that she was starting to gain weight by the appointment today and luckily she has. She's up one ounce to 8 pounds two ounces. At least she's not loosing anymore. Yea!
Wesley has been doing great since welcoming his little sister home. He's got more energy than I remember. I think he may be acting a little more crazy these days in an attempt to get Mom's undivided attention. Luckily he's got Dad around as his constant 24 hour a day playmate. Sean has been so helpful with everything. He's really stepping up to take over my duties around here. I can't thank him enough. We are looking forward to Sean's folks arriving this weekend. Can't wait to see them!

My view...this Little Lady sleeps the best in my arms.

Notes from the hospital

First off I want to thank Jessica for the wonderful guest blogging she did for me. You're an awesome friend!

Second, I am so happy that our little girl has finally arrived! I just can't express that enough. She is such a good baby. So mellow and quiet. I had forgotten how much newborns sleep! She's also off to a great start when it comes to breastfeeding. I actually had forgotten how much I enjoy breastfeeding until I looked down at that little pink face just sucking away. The pain on the other hand..... the early weeks of breastfeeding I seemed to have forgotten about. It kind of feels like your nipples are getting pierced every time she latches on (not that I have pierced nipples or anything). Toe curling, but worth it.

Third, I had no idea that my "baby" boy Wesley was so BIG until I saw him with his sister. He really is a big boy now. That was kind of sad to realize. When he was getting ready to leave today after his visit he walked up to me and said "Bye Mommy" and without skipping a beat he said "Bye Sister". Too precious.

Fourth, things that I remember from the first birth don't get any better the second time around. No one tells you how much the IV hurts when they put it in. On the other hand no one tells you how little the epidural hurts when they put it in. I'd take 10 epidurals over one IV. Also, being induced is a WHOLE different species than going into labor on your own. Going into labor on your own is so much more pleasant. The contractions start out slower, lighter and get more intense. Versus the Pitocin induced labor where they come hard and fast and scary. This was a much "nicer" way to have a baby.

Last of all, we get to go home tomorrow. I've really enjoyed my break from reality while I've been here in the hospital. It's really quite nice having food brought to you around the clock, lying around in a bed all day in my bathrobe and having friends and family come visit. It's nice to know Wesley is being taken good care of by his Daddy, allowing Greta and I some quality bonding time.
I'll post more pictures of our new little lady when I get home.

Welcome to the World Greta

Greetings once again from your friendly neighborhood guest blogger. It is I, Jessica, blogging for everyone on behalf of the proud mama Mandy. I officially got the go ahead to post the stats and fun fun pictures of the sweet baby girl that was welcomed into the world this morning. You'll have to forgive me if I get the finer details a bit off, such as name spelling and exact time of birth, but I wasn't actually there when it happened. I'm going from memory here folks. And even poor tired mama Mandy's memory is a bit hazy on her whopping two hours of sleep. So without further ado, please everyone, welcome miss Greta Rosalyn to the world. She was born around 10:30 this morning (If I had to guess, I thought I heard Mandy say 10:36 a.m...but don't quote me). Once Mandy got her epidural on the rocks and a tad bit of pitocin injected into her system, it didn't take long for Greta to decide it was time to come out. And bing, bang, boom...three pushes later...we have a beautiful baby girl. She was 8 lbs 11 oz and 20 1/4 inches long. Yup. Just one ounce away from matching her big brother's birth weight.

And folks, I gotta say, that she is just adorable! I got the pleasure of going to visit this evening and got to hold her for the first time. Absolutely beautiful! The proud mommy and daddy are thrilled to have their new baby daughter with them now. She has dark hair, just like Wesley and from what I could tell, dark gray eyes (she was still pretty sleepy so it was a tad hard to tell). Ten fingers, ten toes and a perfect little round head. Anyhow, I'm not sure just how much Mandy wants me to blog about, so I will wrap it up with a nice posting of pictures. Congratulations Mandy, Sean and big brother Wesley! And welcome to the world Greta!

Proud Grandpa with his new granddaughter.

Big brother Wesley's first meeting of baby sister Greta.

Mama Mandy with her baby boy Wesley. Boy she sure misses the little tyke!

Proud Daddy Sean with his precious new daughter.

First Family Photo. Aren't they a good lookin' bunch?

And just an FYI, if you are a interested in a bit more to the story, I have blogged on my page. Feel free to see another picture of Greta here.

It's Time

Since 6:30 this Sunday evening, Mandy has been having labor contractions. You might be wondering why this is being written in third person and that is because this is Jessica...your friendly neighborhood guest blogger. Don't be confused. I, being Mandy's friend, have been lucky enough to guest blog the progress of Mandy's labor via phone. She is currently having a contraction via the phone with me. At 3:30 a.m. she was admitted to hospital and is now four centimeters dilated and 60% effaced.

Okay, now to the really funny part. Miss independent, Mandy, decided that she didn't want to inconvenience anyone with the trivial fact that she was in fact having contractions and needed to go to the hospital. Sooo...here I am, writing down her story to whittle away the wee early hours of labor with her. She decided to drive the 45 minute drive into the hospital herself. Sean stayed home with Wesley while the lucky grandparents prepared to head over for the overnight babysitting fest. Sean should be on his way right about now. So to pass the time, we are joint writing this blog. So until further notice...this baby will be gracing us with her presence soon...

Enjoying the weather

Wesley and I spent a great deal of the day outside yesterday soaking up the beautiful weather. I've gotten behind on my picture taking so I decided to snap some shots of my favorite subject while we were outside.

My little friend and constant companion

Their last hurrah

Our daily trek down the driveway

Still blooming...gotta love begonias

The shovel collector

39 week appointment

I was sure excited going into this appointment this morning but pretty bummed out when leaving. Looks like there is no change in the cervix, in fact she said it's so high she could hardly reach it. Uggg. Looks like this little lady won't be gracing us with her presence until her due date (next Friday) or after that. What a bummer. I didn't even have a chance to talk about an induction since the doc was called out to a delivery. Might just be letting Mother Nature figure out when her birthday will be.
Oh well, looks like I have another quiet weekend with just my boys. Looking forward to it.
Just thought I'd share.

Random thoughts

• I just have to say waiting sucks. Big time.
  
  
• Wesley has decided that chewing on his crib is a lot of fun. I don't mean the little dinky teeth scrapes along the railing, but full on eating of the crib. Like the kid is probably picking wood shavings out of his mouth. He's so darn quiet in his room when he wakes up that I have no idea he's even up, little own eating his crib. What's sad is that he's so darn proud of himself too. I walk in there and he points to the half dollar sized gnaw mark and says "Wesley chew on crib!!". Then he precedes to walk over and show me how his teeth align with the bite marks. Me thinks it's time to get him out of the crib. Oh what perfect timing!
  
  
• I read an article in FitPregnancy magazine about how studies have shown that the simple act of turning on a fan in the room your infant is sleeping in can reduce the instances of SIDS by a huge percentage. Something about the white noise. So I went and purchased an air purifier last week to put in our room. This hopefully will help two things, it will provide the white noise recommended and it will filter out allergens. My seasonal allergies have arrived in full force and I'm not drugging it up this year since I'm so darn close to having this kid. Plus I don't sleep anyways at night anymore so why not add a nose full of snot to the equation. It's miserable.
  
  
• I'm completely burnt out on sculpting and can't wait to have this baby so I can officially take a break. I know I should be sculpting more but my afternoon nap lures me away. I feel a little bad about napping for an hour almost every day but then I just think about how little sleep I'll soon be getting and I feel ok about it. Kind of like I'm storing up all this sleep to use later. I'll tell myself that anyways.
  
  
• We are starting the rounds of flu immunizations this week. Wesley goes in tomorrow and Sean goes in Friday. I'm thrilled to be getting this out of the way early this year. That way if we do decide to get the H1N1 vaccine there will be a couple of months in between shots. I sure hope all this provides a nice bubble around this new little lady when she shows up (if she ever shows up).
  

That's about all that is happening around here.

Weekend Update

So the big cooking day yesterday went really well. I was cooking from about 10 am until 1 pm and got nine full meals plus three loaves of banana bread and a huge bag of frozen cookie dough made. I also cooked up a big bag of cubed chicken breasts so that simple meals can be made without cooking meat. All in all a good beginning. In the next two weeks I hope to make several large meals that will have leftovers to freeze as well, so maybe I can get through without cooking for two or three weeks. Here's hoping! And of course my wonderful Mother-in-law said she'd cook us up a huge batch of meatballs to freeze when they get here after the baby is born. Thanks Randi, can't wait!

Today we went and picked up the big load of hay for the horses to eat all winter. For the past four years we've purchased hay from my friend Jessica's aunt but this year she cut the hay and unfortunately it got rained on before she could bale it. We've had a pretty crazy summer in regards to the weather and finding a non-rainy weekend has been tough. So I had to do some calling around and found a guy not a mile away selling hay. Of course it was quite a bit more money but what can you do? He was nice enough to load it on his trailer and all we had to do was go pull it home and unload it. Sean was nice enough to do the unloading while Wesley and I watched. Have I mentioned how I'm married to a really great guy? Well I am. So now I can breath a little easier knowing the horses have at least a 100 bales in the shed this winter.






In baby news.....well there is no baby news. The ticker says 12 days (12 days!?!) and I literally can't wait. I have my 39 week appointment on Thursday so we'll see what the Doc has to say and see if I can plead with her to set up an induction date. I had a really great experience with my induction with Wesley and would love to just duplicate the experience. Most Docs won't induce unless you're dilating, so here's hoping all this cramping and mild contractions this past week are doing something beyond the 1cm I was at 36 weeks! I'll let you all know.
Hope everyone is having a nice weekend!

The Big Freeze

Tomorrow is my big cooking day. I plan to cook and freeze about 10 meals plus some breads. I'm looking forward to it, should be fun. I had no idea there were whole web sites devoted to Once A Month Cooking (or OAMC as it's known on the internet). I guess it's fairly common to devote one whole day a month to mass cooking and then you have tons of freezer meals. I found so many good recipes that I'm excited to try. I'm also trying some Chocolate Chip Oatmeal cookie dough that you form into balls and freeze, then just take out enough for a tray whenever you feel like a hot from the oven cookie. I just hope they last until after the baby is born, knowing me I'll be eating frozen cookie dough straight from the freezer.

Yesterday I ventured into the grocery store to pick up our normal two weeks worth of food and then on top of that I purchased all the fixings for these freezer meals. What I failed to realize is that I would run out of room in the cart far before I was done gathering items for my list. To add to that, Wesley was in a rather foul mood and thought tossing can goods on the floor every other isle was a blast. Bending over at the moment is not exactly easy so this just added insult to injury. I was so fed up by the time we made it to the checkout lane I failed to notice the inept cashier double bill me for several items including a big box of diapers. All in all not a pleasant shopping experience. Here's hoping I don't have to do another mass grocery shopping spree while pregnant. Wish me luck with all the cooking tomorrow, I'll need it!

His Show

I mentioned a little while ago that the antenna that was once in the attic is now on the roof. Last year we canceled our cable TV because no one watched it, it was expensive and I didn't want Wesley watching television. It's amazing how much can change in a year. With the antenna now on the roof, combined with the converter box, we get somewhere close to 18 channels. I'm amazed at how clear they come in too. I can't tell you how excited I was to find that we now get Sesame Street. It was like the most exciting thing that has happened in months (that should tell you how exciting my life is at the moment). It comes on at 9 am which is about an hour before Wesley gets up in the morning so every day I tape it for him. Every day he runs out of his room in his little footed jammies and sits on the couch and watches his show. It's an all around win win situation....he gets to see something he enjoys and I have a whole hour to get everything I need to get done finished (it takes about that long to feed every animal on the property). Here is the skinny little kid himself, enjoying his show.

18 days

So I said I was going to stop bitching and moaning about being pregnant. I said I was going to focus on the positive side of it all. I pretty much lied. This has got to end soon. The little ticker to the right says 18 days but that might as well be two more years because the days are going by sooo slowly. I know, I know it will be over soon and I'll have a sweet little girl in my arms to focus on but for now I can't stop focusing on being miserable. It was so easy to glorify pregnancy when you wanted to be pregnant. To look at the beautiful side of it. And I will be the first to admit there is a beautiful side to it. It's beautiful up until about 28 weeks. Then reality sets in and the days slow down. Here are a few key points as to why I'd like to not be pregnant anymore.

• I'm sick of being a bi-stander to my life. I sit and watch Sean rough house with Wesley. Play their chase game. Just be fun and silly and I'm not able to join in because I'm too dang tired or physically can't get off the couch. It's sad. I miss being a fun Mom.
  
  
• I'm selfish enough to say I need my body back. I miss my body. I miss my body being my body. Just mine. Not sharing it with anyone else. Just for the record, I've officially evicted my tenant. Yes, she got her walking papers last week yet she's not getting the message. She's just camped out in there until next year.
  
  
• One word. Hemorrhoids.
  
  
• I know every pregnant woman complains about sleeping but it's just so true. There is very little sleeping going on. It's just going from one bathroom break to another. I got up five times last night. Five. I'm debating getting some Depends and just not getting up to go to the bathroom anymore. It's tempting.
  
  
• I'm so tired of driving 1.5 hours total,there and back, to the doctor every week for them to test my urine, take my blood pressure, hear the heartbeat and send me on my way. That I will not miss at all.
  
  
• I can't wait to wear my normal clothes again. I'm down to two maternity shirts that actually fit and completely cover the giant belly. After those two have been worn I start wearing the shirts that almost cover the belly, thus making me one of those skanky women that walk around with part of their belly hanging out. Luckily I don't go out in public much these days and when I do I have my trusty two shirts. Poor Sean on the other hand....
  
  Ok, I now have that all off my chest and can get on with it. Sorry, had to vent.
  

Labor Day Weekend

I hope everyone is having a nice relaxing Labor Day weekend. Sean has a four day weekend so he's been finishing up the last of the summer projects. Our garage door opener has been dying over the past few months. You have to take a rake handle and whack the thing so that it comes to life long enough to let you get the car out of the garage. Of course once you get home it won't work to even let you get the car back in the garage. This is more of an inconvenience than anything else. Once there are two kids in the car and snow on the ground it turns into a giant hassle. So Sean is out there right now installing a new opener. I'm excited.

I've been cleaning like a crazy person all weekend. Must be nesting. I don't think the poor washing machine has been off the entire weekend. I'm getting ready to go wash cars after I'm finished here. After that I'm tackling cob webs up in the laundry room. With two and half weeks until this baby comes the house is going to be the cleanest it's ever been.
Have a nice weekend y'all.

Play Boo?

Wesley is just growing and changing by the day. I can't get over how his vocabulary has grown and now he's just spouting off full sentences. He really is a riot. One of his favorite things to do now is to "Play Boo". This is a game he plays with Daddy since Mommy is a whale and tires easily. Usually he'll start asking if we can "play boo?" first thing in the morning, sometime as soon as I walk into his bedroom to get him out of his crib. This game involves Sean stomping through the house chasing Wesley. Once Wesley gets far ahead of him, Sean goes and hides somewhere. Then Wesley wheels around and has to go find him. When he finds him, Sean jumps out and goes "Boo!". The kid then giggles hysterically and runs off to do it again. And again. And again. Oh and again. I think the kid could play "Boo" every minute of every hour. It seriously makes me exhausted just watching them. I added a video of the crazy pair in action. Note: If you don't have a toddler yet just look at this video because this is what your house will look like at the end of every. single. day. Then you get to pick up all the toys and put them away so that they can do this again the next day. This is until that magical day when they will pick up their own toys and put them away. That will happen soon right? You can lie to me, I don't mind.

Loose ends

I had my 37 week appointment today. I was under the impression the doctor was going to check my cervix every week now but was informed that she won't do that again until 39 weeks. On one hand I would love to see if there is any progress but it is nice to not have to have that done every week....it's not the most pleasant thing in the world. Everything looks good. They were really trying to push the flu vaccine on me today. They said it's a good idea to get it now and then when the H1N1 vaccine comes out late September or early October get it as well. Since there seems to be only a limited supply of the H1N1 vaccine they are targeting higher risk groups first, including pregnant women. I'm kind of on the fence as to whether I plan to get that one, if they delay getting it out to the public until October it will make my choice easier since I will no longer be pregnant and part of the high risk group. Sean and I do plan to get the regular flu shot as soon as I give birth to provide a bubble of protection around a newborn and a two year old (who will also get the flu shot). I have decided to stop watching the news because all this talk of the Swine Flu already has me worried about bringing home a newborn in the Fall/Winter months. We are currently taking preventative measures when out in public and I don't need the nightly news stressing me out anymore.

I've been busy wrapping up all the loose ends around here. Getting the final preparations done before this little lady arrives. My hospital bag and the baby bag is packed and ready to go. I got preregistered at the Birthing Center today so that's one less thing to do once labor starts. We are installing the car seat and bases in the cars this weekend. I need to sterilize all the pump parts and bottles. I've got a list of frozen meals I'm making, so I just need to go get the fixings for them so I can fill the freezer with easy casseroles, stews and quick breads. That really helped us out when Wesley was born and I plan to double the amount for after this baby is born. I'm also making a bunch of freezer meals and snacks for Wesley, things Sean can defrost and give him easily like mini muffins, chocolate chip pancakes and individual servings of home made mac and cheese to name just a few. Sean is going to be Mr. Mom once this new little one arrives and take over my duties with Wesley for a little bit while I attempt to recover. I figure the poor guy will be more than ready to go back to work after his two week paternity leave is up.