The first day of the rest of my parenthood experience

Today is my first official day on my own with my toddler and my newborn. I set the alarm so I could have time to feed Peanut before I got Bear up. It has worked out pretty well so far this morning. I fed the baby and then got Bear some milk and got him out of bed and changed. While he was eating his Cheerios I made coffee and folded laundry. Peanut entertained himself in the pack and play. Now we are all watching Seasame Street.

I'm still not sure on a nickname for the baby and I am thinking about abandoning the nicknames all together and just using their real names. Right now Piglet would probably be the most appropriate nickname for my newest son as all he does is eat and grunt. This is my first time to breastfeed so it has been really exciting to see him growing and thriving purely off what I produce from my body. I took him for his 2 week checkup on Monday and he already weighs 8 lbs. That is 15 oz over his birth weight. Very Exciting.

It has been a challenge getting used to having two especially yesterday when I had to pick up Bear from Mother's Day Out while juggling my newborn. I think going out in public is going to be the most challenging thing for me at first. It's not bad when I have my husband but on my own is scary. We took the boys to the park on Saturday together and that was nice. The breastfeeding has gone better than I could have expected. It hurt quite a bit at first but now I am starting to really enjoy the convenience and the closeness. I won't discuss the sleep right now as I prefer not to jinx myself.

Blessed (and Spoiled)

There is nothing like a new baby to bring out the best in people. These past two weeks have been nothing short of amazing. (Can you believe it has been two weeks already?) I haven't had a moment alone in the past 2 weeks but in a good way. People have been falling all over themselves to make sure I haven't had to do anything but take care of and love on the new baby.

My mom, dad, and grandma have all been taking turns staying with us so that there is always someone here to take care of Bear, run errands and take care of housework. I feel so incredibly blessed. My friends have been bringing meals and baby gifts. My dad is out mowing the lawn as we speak while I take a break between feedings and my husband runs some errands.

I have just been trying to soak up all this time with my family as much as possible because I never get to spend so much time with them on my own. Tuesday will be the last day someone will be here and then I will be on my own. I'll admit I am a wee bit afraid of how it will all work but I know it will somehow.

I know, I know. There is so much to tell you and each day that I don't write the more I feel like I will forget or leave out but yet it is so hard to take the few precious moments I have to myself to update my blog, Facebook, return phone calls, see visitors, etc. Today I got up early and my Mom took me and the baby up to the pediatrician for his weigh in and then over to my OB to get my blood pressure checked and my staples taken out. The baby, who I will call Peanut for now until I can come up with a nickname, is doing well. He eats ALL.THE.TIME and refuses to be put down which makes doing anything else difficult. He has already gained 4 oz since our release from the hospital on Tuesday so all the eating seems to be paying off.

I am doing pretty well. Tired and sore although not as tired or sore as I was after my first c-section. My blood pressure has been way high since the delivery so they are putting me on blood pressure medication for now. (It was 173/103 at my appt this morning). Plus they put me on antibiotics since my c-section scar was red when they took out my staples. Add in my Motrin, pain killers, and Iron pills and I am tired of taking medications. My weight loss has been good though so I was excited about that.

I mentioned in my last post that this was a surprise delivery on Saturday morning. Apparently Peanut felt that the 13th wasn't a good birthday and he would prefer the 11th instead. I knew something was up Friday night when I was so nauseated I couldn't lay down or sleep. Then bright and early Saturday morning my water broke. Immediately I started having contractions that were 5 minutes apart. My dad had just left his house but was still 3 hours away so we called everyone we knew to see if someone could take Bear. We got a hold of my husband's uncle and aunt and they agreed to take him for a few hours until my dad got here.

By the time we were in the car and on our way my contractions were 3 minutes apart and getting bad. The hospital was 10 minutes away so I told my husband to drop me off at the ER so I could get checked in while he dropped off Bear. Good thing I did that because by the time he got him dropped off and came back to the hospital my contractions were intense and approximately 1 minute apart. They did my blood work and IV and I was in the operating room at just under 2 hours from when my water broke. My doctor wasn't on call but he happened to be at the hospital checking on another patient so he stayed and delivered Peanut. The c-section wasn't bad but afterwards I shook in the recovery room for about 3 hours. I didn't have any shaking like that after my last c-section. It was awful and my temperature was 95.2. Brrrr... Once they got me in my room though I was doing better. I was up and walking around the next day with minimal problems.

We got home Tuesday afternoon and it is so good to be home. Bear is doing awesome with his baby brother. He has been giving him lots of kisses and has been very sweet with him. That was a big relief.

I think that gets you pretty well caught up. Here are a few more pictures to tide you over until I get time to write again.

We're Home!

Baby boy made a surprise appearance on Saturday morning at 9:50 a.m. More details to come later but I just wanted to let everyone know everything is OK and we are home safely. Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes.

Like a kid in a candy shop

So my new iPod nano arrived today. Finally. The UPS man didn't come until 5 and I was getting worried. I really wanted to get all my songs uploaded this weekend so it can come to the hospital with me on Monday. I am officially in love. Although I am certain I am going to smush it or lose it. This thing is seriously small.

I have been downloading songs and trying to get my cds into iTunes. It is a lot of work. And those downloads add up quick.

I may need an intervention.

Holy crap, 5 more days?

In case y'all were counting we are now a mere five days away from D day. Crazy. I am so, so ready to be done with this pregnancy thing but still really nervous about the whole getting cut open while naked in front of a room full of strangers with a needle in my back thing. In addition to all my pregnancy discomforts I have now added allergies to my list of health woes. I woke up all stuffy, itchy, yucky last night and it has morphed into runny nose/headache/yucky feeling today. I just pray it gets better before my surgery on Monday.

In other news, Bear is all nicely recovered from his croup. Amen. Whatever those doctors at the ER gave him really worked. Plus the 5 days of steroids that he finished up yesterday. So I do have his health to be thankful for. Although is it awful to say that I kind of miss the sluggish/cuddly behavior that comes from a sick 2 year old versus the bouncing off the walls craziness that I have now? I love him being healthy but it was nice to have his energy down a notch for a little bit.

I am also excited to report that I got my first baby gift for me last night from my husband. I think the mama is definitely overlooked in the whole gift giving department when it comes to giving birth. Seriously, the baby only needs so many onesies. I need a medal or something shiny for getting gutted like a fish dontcha think? Anyways, he bought me a shiny new iPod nano in green. I am so excited. I could possibly be the last person on Earth (or at least in America) under 65 without one. There have always just been too many other things to spend money on like clothes, pedicures, GPSs, my camera, etc. I am open to suggestions on songs I should upload onto it when it arrives from Amazon on Friday.

Busy, Busy

Has it already been a week since my last post? This week has been a little crazy. My husband was sick all weekend with some cold or allergy thing so we were pretty limited on what we did all weekend as he wasn't up for much. I had my regular doctor appointment on Wednesday and my blood pressure has been going up. The doctor checked it three times at my appointment and asked me to come back today to have it checked again.

Yesterday was supposed to be my easy day but Bear started running a fever and having chills while we were out at lunch with my best friend. We took him home and gave him Motrin before his nap hoping it was just a little virus. I checked on him several times during his nap and his fever had broken so I thought he was doing better. She left around 3:30 and I got him up around 4. When I got him up I immediately noticed the fever was back along with wheezing. I gave him a breathing treatment with our nebulizer and it did nothing for him. He started wheezing really badly and couldn't seem to cough or really talk.

So I threw him in the car and off to Urgent care we went. I called my husband on the way and he was on his way home and he said he would meet me up there. He got there before me and they told him it was a 2 hour wait. He explained that we had a 2 year old who couldn't breathe and we weren't waiting 2 hours. As soon as I got there they took him right back and grabbed a doctor. The doctor was really concerned with his breathing and told us we needed to go to the hospital. She called the ER and told them we were on our way.

So we got to the ER and they did two more breathing treatments with him and gave him steroids which helped a lot. Apparently has has a bad case of croup. What was scary was how fast it came on and how quickly it got severe. Luckily they saw him quickly and we were on our way home after about 2 1/2 hrs at the ER. He is still breathing rough and coughing today but nothing as severe as what I saw yesterday. They gave us a prescription for steroids and said this should be cleared up in a week or less. I scheduled an appointment for him to have a checkup with his regular doctor next Tuesday to make sure he is all better.

Today my friend came back over and watched him so I could go and have my blood pressure checked again. It is still high but not as high as it was Wednesday. The nurse wants me to come back at 3 today and have it checked again. Ugh.

Next week is going to be crazy with doctor's appointments for me and Bear, a vet appointment for Rocky, the Pest control guy coming for our quarterly spraying and last minute preparations for the baby. Then the following Monday is c-section day. The doctor said I should expect to be released that Thursday afternoon, April 16th. Luckily my nesting has been in such high gear that I really don't have a lot of baby prep work left. It will mainly just be getting the house ready for guests to be here while I am in the hospital. It's hard not to be stressed out right now but I am also really excited that in 10 days (or less) I will be holding my newest baby.

Whew!