Caroline Joy's Birth Story

You may think me a complete slacker because it's been 7 weeks since Caroline has been born, and yet no birth story has been written. But I'll have you know that I wrote half of the story out one handed on my cell phone while holding Bonnie during a nap. However she awoke suddenly, crying and I closed the app thinking it would save the draft...nope. I lost all that hard work and if you have ever typed a long message on an iPhone or parented two children you'll understand why it's taken me so long to get back to this.

So without further ado, below are the details of Caroline's birth. Oh and it's LONG!

As with Bonnie we were being induced early for Caroline too. We were to report to the hospital at 7pm on Monday, May 6th with serious baby business happening on May 7th. I had a hair appointment earlier in the day that Monday to get my color done (cause who knew when I'd have a chance to get it done again (still haven't)) and my hair straightened. Curly hair isn't conducive to long unwashed periods, so straightening it is my best option to not having Fraggle Rock hair at the hospital. I also got a pedicure, because I was about to push a tiny human out of my body, I deserved it!

Around 5pm Johnathan and I said goodbye to Bonnie for a few days, and headed off to Boston Market for dinner. It's where we ate before Bonnie was born so I was trying to keep the tradition going. Like last time we finished eating way too early so we went to a drug store and wandered around. Johnathan got some snacks for himself, and I bought a nightlight for our room so that I could see what I was doing during the many night wakings ahead of us.

When we checked into the hospital we were assigned our overnight nurse and she was super nice, so much better then our first nurse with Bonnie. We did all the paper work and she had someone come in to start my IVs. One on each arm. Left arm dedicated to Pitocin (to start contractions) and fluids. Right arm dedicated to insulin. The left arm was easy, but they had two failed attempts on my right arm that hurt quite a bit. Finally an older lady came in and managed to get one in. Unfortunately, this time the doctor on call wanted me to get the insulin going over night so I was hooked up immediately to both IV stands and also had the monitors on my stomach for contractions and heartbeat. That made going to the bathroom very difficult. Johnathan had to unhook each IV stand and my monitors. I would loop the monitors over my neck and we'd all wheel the stands into the bathroom with me. Needless to say I had to go to the bathroom a lot. Oh and they had to check my blood sugar every hour, so I was woken up to get a finger prick. The doc recommended I take Ambien, but I'm pretty crazy in my sleep without meds, I was too nervous to take it in the hospital. So I pretty much got no sleep.

They upped the Pitocin in the morning to get the labor going, and  my water was broken...things progressed this time much quicker than last. It helped that I was already 3cm dilated when I arrived. Because of that they told me I could get the epidural whenever I felt I needed it. Around lunchtime I started feeling uncomfortable so I asked for the epi. He had a few emergencies to deal with first so I had to wait a little. I was glad I knew to ask at the first sign of discomfort so that it wouldn't get unbearable before I could get some help. The anesthesiologist finally arrived and had the biggest Eastern European accent. It was actually hard to understand him, which made me nervous considering he was sticking a needle in my spine and I didn't want to misunderstand him and move when I shouldn't. The insertion went without problems, but almost immediately I started throwing up. I thought that my nausea during Bonnie's birth was due to the drugs I was given before the epidural, but it turns out it was the epi too. If I moved around too much I would throw up. It also made me groggy, so I was able to snooze a bit up until delivery time. Ah, and I could still feel some pain in my left side, so I kept pushing the epi button to try and fix it. It didn't seem to help so the doc came back in and gave me more. It took away the pain in my left side, but made my right side completely numb, I couldn't move my own leg.

They checked my progress around 3:30 and realized I was fully ready even though I didn't feel any pressure. We had to wait for my doctor to get back from her office, so we ended up waiting about an hour before she arrived for me to push. With Bonnie, the epi wasn't so strong so I could feel when to push and felt pressure in my pushes. But I was so doped up this time, I couldn't feel a thing. I didn't push very long, and out came Caroline at 4:53. They were able to lay her on me immediately because there was no meconium or cord issues. They whisked her away and took care of her, but I had her long enough to realize she looked nothing like Bonnie. While Bonnie was blond and fair skinned, Caroline had dark hair and skin. Ironically Bonnie is named after my family and takes after us. Caroline is named after his family and takes after them.

After she was measured (8lbs 4oz. 21 inches long) and given her tests we did skin to skin and she fed. It took a while before they took us to our new room because my legs were still numb. I also had to get another catheter put in because I couldn't go to the bathroom by myself for some reason. Luckily I couldn't feel it.

We spent one more day in the hospital and then got to escape on Thursday, May 9th. We don't like spending more time in the hospital then necessary, because they are always knocking and bothering and poking and prodding. They tell you to get sleep but it's near impossible in that environment. As we left I asked the pianist in the lobby to play Clair de Lune while I waited for Johnathan to pull the car around. As with Bonnie I sat there listening to it while Caroline held my finger.

If I didn't have diabetes I could see labor and delivery being fairly easy. But because I have all of the extra procedures to follow it's so annoying. It's the stuff before the pushing out the baby part that makes me not want to do it again.

Since we've been home with Caroline, things have gone better than I expected. It's a Godsend to have Johnathan home with me or else I'd have gone mad. The hospital said I couldn't pick Bonnie up for a month, so he did everything in regards to her. Because of that, they are super close now. She calls for him all the time now, and I love how much she loves him. I was left to take care of Caroline and she's been such a joy. Either she's an easier baby than Bonnie was, or I'm just better at this Mommy thing. The first week or so she slept A LOT, like more than the doctors say babies should, but the pediatrician didn't seem concerned. At first I thought I was going to have to sleep with her on me like Bonnie, but I quickly devised something. We have a travel crib in our bedroom, so I put the changing pad that Bonnie slept on into the crib to give her some elevation and it's worked.

Bonnie goes to bed at 7 and we keep Caroline out in the living room with us until our bedtime, where she usually sleeps in her swing or car seat. We go to bed around 11 and we change Caroline and feed her. Once she's laid down she sleeps 3 or 4 hours. Gets another change/feed and sleeps another 3 or 4 hours. So we're only getting up once around 3 and again around 6 or 7. When Bonnie wakes up, Johnathan gets her up and takes care of her until I get up with Caroline. Carol still takes Bonnie during the week, so Johnathan and I are able to get some things done.

Now that we're almost 2 months in. Caroline is such a sweet mellow child. She still likes to sleep a lot, and when she's awake she's not too fussy unless she's really sleepy and can't seem to fall asleep. She's started to smile and coo a lot, and that's always fun to see. She lights up when she sees me, and I gotta say that feels good. She had jaundice that we just couldn't seem to kick so the doc told us to feed her formula for 36 hours. It wasn't easy, because unlike Bonnie she hasn't taken to bottles well. But we made it through it, and I gotta say I was super glad to be breastfeeding her again (it's so much easier to soothe her that way). She likes the swing much better then Bonnie did, and we've been successful with using a paci more than we were with Bonnie.

Speaking of Bonnie, she's so sweet with Caroline. We have her give the baby kisses before bedtime and she loves to do that before any of us get kisses. She always tries to give Caroline blankets and paci's even if she doesn't need them. Like any 1.5 year old she doesn't know her own strength so she'll sometimes pat her too hard or try to touch her eye to say "eye" but she does love her. She says "baby" a lot, and if you say Caroline she'll point to her. Yesterday Caroline was in the bouncy seat and Bonnie was dancing around in front of her. Caroline was smiling and cooing at her sister and it was the cutest thing!

I suppose that's it for now. We're doing well, and hope that things keep going as smoothly as they have been.

Baby #2 We Really Do Love You...even if you've got no blog lovin

I'm the first one to admit that this blog has been shamefully ignored during this second pregnancy. I feel bad that baby #2 won't have the opportunity to track her in-belly progress like Bonnie will be able to. But, let's be real here, second pregnancies are NOT the same as firsts. Beyond the fact that it's a bit "been there, done that", you're also having to chase around a tiny human not just sit around and relax. And if you're me, and have been pregnant for 18 of the last 24 months, let's just say no one wants to hear me talk about it MORE.

My advice to those who are pregnant for the first time, ENJOY it! I know your body is going crazy, doesn't feel like yours, and you may be uncomfortable all the time you're not going to get to experience this in the same way ever again. There's the obvious things like seeing your baby for the first time, or feeling the baby move for the first time and those things are amazing! But you can also still function like a truly independent person. Go to the movies when you want, go to the grocery store alone, eat at fancy restaurants, etc. Second pregnancy, no such luck. I remember when I was pregnant with Bonnie, I wouldn't have even tried to crawl around on the floor to do something, hello! I was pregnant. This time around, I would get on my hands and knees every day looking for Bonnie's dropped paci under her crib. I regularly lifted 20 plus pounds of weight, didn't sleep in, didn't lay around with my feet up... you get the picture.

You know what else hasn't happened yet? A put together nursery. Oh we've picked out a color for the walls, and we have a crib. But there is a no paint on those walls and that crib is in pieces in the sun room. Have I ordered the wall decals? No. I figure those things will happen eventually, probably when Johnathan's dad visits several weeks after the baby is born. With pregnancy number 2, you know a few more things. Like that your baby won't see the inside of their room for any length of time for months and months, so what's the rush?! We have a bed for her that will be in our room, and that is put together. We have sleepers for her to wear (hand me downs from Bonnie, which were hand me downs from her cousin), we have diapers to put her in, I have the ability to feed her...she'll be okay. You don't obsess as much the second time around, probably because you just don't have time to.

This little one has definitely had a different journey then Bonnie, and my body has reacted differently. I wasn't nearly as sick during the first trimester, which is one reason why I was sure we were having a boy. I got big and pregnant a lot earlier, but that didn't bother me because I love the freedom of pregnant belly. The foods I crave or can't stand have changed (no eggs please!). I developed an iron deficiency this time around. They say it's common when you have two pregnancies close together, but that was no fun before I started taking supplements. Also, I've had to take a lot less mealtime insulin this time around. It could be because I'm taking more Metformin (pills) but I don't care, it's been so nice to only have to give myself a shot twice a day instead of four times. We haven't gotten a good ultrasound pick of baby #2 since about 18 weeks, whereas with Bonnie it felt like she was posing each and every time. A lot less hiccups from this baby, whereas Bonnie had them every day. Johnathan thinks my humor has increased with this one, and he says it's much more like his...so maybe she'll take after him? I know one thing for sure, she got his head! Her head has been measuring 2 weeks ahead for about a month now, which as you can imagine, makes me so excited for her exit.

So here we are at 38 weeks, and this little one will be born (unless she decides to come early) on Tuesday, May 7th, less then a week away. We're being induced early like last time. So into the hospital Monday night with all the serious work taking place Tuesday. We're so excited to meet her and see how similar and different she is from Bonnie.

I wish we could have prepared Bonnie a little more about what's going to happen in her life, but at 15 months she doesn't understand the concept of sister or that she won't be the center of attention anymore. It makes me sad for her. But she's a great kid, and I have faith that she'll take it in stride.

I'll report back once she's here... in the meantime I've got some cleaning to do!

Several weeks ago, but you get the point

One Year Stats

For whatever reason I've been super lazy about posting a one year update for Bonnie...umm she's 13 months now. I guess I was feeling uninspired. Today I read another blog with a cute little recap and thought I could get behind that. So here's her one year stats:

Age: 13 months
Stats: 29.5 inches (75th percentile), 20 lbs 13 oz (50th percentile)

Favorite Foods: green beans, peas, mashed potatoes, noodles, cheerios  blueberries, pretzels, squeeze pouches (non-meat flavors)

Favorite Words: Up, Dada, Shoe, Sock, More, Doggie, I love you (which sounds more like Iiiiii YOU). Admittedly some of these words are shortened versions, but we understand
Favorite Toys: Fisher-Price Click & Learn Remote, Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Say Please Tea Set, VTech - Rhyme and Discover Book, Fisher-Price games on our iPhones, riding fire truck, and pretty much any random thing laying around
Favorite Activities: Bath time, putting things to her ear like it's a phone and saying "hello", waving to people, chasing Jericho or Murphy (in-laws dog) for kisses, dancing when the right music is on, nodding her head to Macklemore, escaping the living room at a run when we leave a door or gate open, throwing food to Jericho at dinner time, handing out shoes and slippers to the appropriate person, and putting beads/headbands around her neck

Least Favorite Activities: Going to the doctor, eating meat, and being put in her play pen (unless she has just woken up)
Nicknames: Booboo
Signature Moves: Blowing kisses, waving, and leaning her body forward with hands behind her walking away in her "you're chasing me but I want to be caught" move
Mom's Proudest Moment: When she was little, cutting the smallest tip of her thumb off while cutting her nails. It bled a lot so we took her to the urgent care where they just wrapped her arm up (no bandaids for babies) and sent us on our way.
Dad's Proudest Moment: The moment I turned my back for what seemed seconds and she littered the living room with an entire box of Kleenex tissues. Standing there with her spoils in hand staring at me, smiling as if she's saying, "I'm smarter than you and now you know it."

She honestly grows and learns new things every single day. It's nearly impossible to keep up/track. The best we can do at this point is support her and try to aid in her learning. Talking to her normally, trying to teach her the words to things, and trying to get food in her because that girl is PICKY!

We've been working on bedtime separation. She always gets held to sleep, and we can usually lay her down once she's asleep. But we've had spells lately where she'd wake up and cry. We've started letting her cry it out when that happens and it's been pretty successful, she'll only cry a few minutes now. My next move (hopefully in April) is to give her her bottle and then lay her down while she is still awake. I'm trying to get to a point where putting her to bed takes less time, because with baby #2 on the way we won't have time for that. I'm sure they'll be more crying, but it's time.

That's it for now! Be on the lookout for a pregnancy post soon (I'm really behind on those too).

Bonnie Through the Year!

Best Laid Plans of Moms and Men

When you become pregnant for the first time, you immediately start imagining what your life will be like. Most of the time, you imagine an idyllic scene. The perfect adorable baby, the perfect house, the best marriage, etc. Even if those things aren't realistic, you can't help but imagine them. People can warn you that babies can be difficult, but you won't hear it, not your baby! You struggle to keep a clean house, but once your baby is here that'll change!

And if you're like me and start reading Mommy blogs you see all the other super moms out there who make it all look so easy! Especially with the nursery designs. They have fancy paint schemes, designer gliders, adorable decorations, etc. Although I don't put much effort into design normally, I thought I'd give the nursery a little more effort, within a reasonable budget. I thought I did pretty well for myself.

Then Bonnie arrived and as most mothers can attest to nothing goes to plan. Babies throw a wrench in the works. For example, Bonnie never really cared for her glider, it just didn't seem to help her. Plus whenever she wakes in the middle of the night, you don't want to be sitting straight up when trying to get her back to sleep, because heck you want some sleep too. So we moved a comfy side chair from the living room into her room, that way we can snooze while getting her back to sleep, the glider...not used.

But my biggest example of beautiful nursery plans going awry is the crib. Teething babies have their own ideas about what crib rails are for, mostly as a chew toy. Once Bonnie got her four front teeth she started knawing in the side rails. Simple solution, by some rail covers. Done. But then she started to chew on the back and front rails. Of course I could have then bought the same brand front rail cover as the sides, but I found one that had loops for adding teething toys and I liked that idea. I ordered the same color as the side covers, but of course it wasn't the same shade. Sigh. Now the problem of her chewing the back rail, it's curved, there's nothing I have that can cover it. Solution? A green bandana tied to the back, problem solved. The result? I real world crib set-up. Babies always have the last laugh.

Eleven months and she likes to move it, move it!

I feel like such a blog slacker not posting as often as I should, or posting things late. Bonnie has been 11 months old for 9 days now, and I'm just now getting around to blogging about it.

The holidays were definitely busy this year, and as you would assume totally different than years past. I usually take the last bit of the year off work and am as lazy as possible during that time. Not so this year. Oh, I still took the time, but I had a very active child to keep up with, so lazy wasn't much of an option. Luckily Grandma took Bonnie a couple of days for me, so there were flashes of the old times, but generally it was exhausting.

I'm a torn Mama. On one hand (probably the dominate hand) I'm super proud of Bonnie for being so advanced. But on the other hand I wonder what life would have been like if she was just now learning to crawl instead of actually walking around getting into everything. A friend came over with her two year old over the break, and said she can see why I didn't put up a Christmas tree this year once she saw Bonnie in action. Made me feel like I made the right choice :).

I finally got around to baby proofing the living room as much as I could. Cleaned off the side tables and entertainment center so she had less things to grab for. Moved the DVD shelves to the dining room where she can't go. Moved the gamer chair that she loves to climb to a corner against the wall (where the DVDs used to be). There's a chest in the hallway with a drawer at the bottom, whenever she thinks about going in there she always gets into the drawer. So I tried to put a heavy box in front of it. Nope, she moved the box. So I put a big flat box behind the heavy box to cover the whole chest. Nope, she moved both of those. I decided to tape the drawer closed, but didn't want to use duct tape for fear it would damage the chest. Obviously the tape I used was inferior to baby power, because she sat right next to me while I taped it pulling each piece off as I put it on. That girl is smart and stubborn! The other morning I woke up and saw that there was now duct tape on the drawer, Johnathan made an executive decision. I can respect that. So now the living room/play area is as "No" proof as we can make it, it certainly helps with sanity.

Poor dear has been teething something fierce over the holidays too, even developing fevers at night. She honestly has been taking it like a trooper, but has been waking up more often. Even when we know she doesn't feel well, she's still such a sweet little thing.

Bonnie Brags

• Our living room is strewn with toys both baby and dog a like. She knows which toys are Jericho's  and she'll randomly pick them up and offer them to him. I'm not sure we ever actually made it a point to tell her, she just figured it out.
• I can ask her to bring things she finds to me, and she'll actually do it.
• She has several words that she can say (up, arm, doggie, poop, Christmas tree, mama, dada, etc), depending on her mood. Some of them very clear to understand and some of them you just have to know her to understand.
• I was told this morning that at Grandma's house, she went to a dirty diaper, picked it up, walked it into the kitchen, and threw it in the trash. Knew exactly where she was going and what she was doing.
• This may seem small but it amused me. I had just wiped her nose with a Boogie Wipe and set it to the side while I got her dressed. She picked it up and proceeded to wipe her nose some more.
• She can blow kisses, which is just so darn cute!

She turned 11 months on Christmas day, and you can imagine it was pretty difficult getting decent pictures with all that was going on around her. Plus she kept trying to pull the sticker off, so I did the best I could.

Bah Humbug?

I feel like Scrooge this Christmas. Before Bonnie was born I started planning/buying all the traditions I wanted to start. We got our first tree, ornaments, stockings, etc. I got the nativity scene I grew up with from my Dad. We decorated and I have very fond memories of sitting in the living room by the light of the Christmas tree, pregnant and happy.

Until Thanksgiving I had every intention of setting up and decorating our Christmas tree again this year. However, the day after came and I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Bonnie is all over the place now, and gets into everything. I just couldn't find the energy to: 1) Put up the tree and 2) Protect the tree from her on a daily basis. So I made the decision to skip it this year. Grandma has a tree that Bonnie sees every day, and she can handle the hassle of keeping her off that tree :). I thought, I'll at least hang the stockings but then realized my supplies were in the attic and well that was more effort then I cared to expend, even telling Johnathan to get them was too much effort. So no decorations for us this year.

Then the decision was made to not buy Bonnie anything for Christmas. The renters we had in our townhouse moved out at the end of August and it's been empty ever since. We ripped out the carpet on the first floor and installed laminate, which took us a while (it's busy working, taking care of baby, etc). Once we made the decision to use a property management company things started moving faster. We had them finish the repairs, do some painting, do the cleaning, etc. We finally have a contract and we're excited but due to fees etc we won't see any rental income for a couple of months. All of that said to let you know that there's just not extra money floating around for extra Christmas expenses.

I tell myself Bonnie is too young to even know what's going on or that she's "missing out" on anything. Plus the rest of her family will have her covered, we don't need to buy her anything. Somehow it doesn't make me feel any better. I know it's the right decision, and I'm standing behind it but I suppose the consumerism tied to Christmas has dug it's claws into me. It feels wrong not to buy her something. Even though we've been buying her somethings since the day she was born.

I'm not even sure how Christmas decor will pan out next year, having another new little one around. But I do feel that by that time Bonnie might start to understand Christmas more and we can do more and hopefully afford more. We've decided to adopt a new philosophy to gift giving for our children for birthday and Christmas. The rule of four: 1) Something they want, 2) Something they need, 3) Something to wear, 4) Something to read. I'm excited for that and that's something to look forward to.

But I still feel like Scrooge, or maybe the Grinch after he stole Christmas. But if the Grinch taught us anything it's that the things of Christmas don't matter, it's the spirit. I really need to let this guilt go, at least the spirit is still here. The joy of spending time with family and friends.

The Secret is Out...the day we found out

I've been an avid blog reader ever since I became pregnant with Bonnie. It was nice to peek into the lives of other mothers out there and hear an experienced voice. Sometime during my pregnancy I discovered Ashley's page (The Domestic Wannabe), and have been reading ever since. On Wednesdays she has guest bloggers post A Day in the Life, so I volunteered. My "Day" is the one where we found out the gender of baby #2. If you want to know...click HERE.