Month 2

During month 2 we celebrated Mother's Day and Nana and PawPaw's house. I don't have many pictures on the nice camera from this time and I'm guessing it's because it was so busy and you were crying so much. You were pretty good this day though. I think we left early because the crying started though... you were still an absolute joy to me.

 

You found your smile this month!!!! 

Sister has loved you whole-heartedly from the very beginning. Never ill will towards you, been jealous or ugly to you in any way.

Month 1

Those first weeks home were easier than I expected. Maggie handled you joining our family surprisingly well and though the nights were rough, we expected that and it was so much easier this time around!

You were a pretty good sleeper right off the bat if I remember correctly. (You are 7 months as I write this! I'm sorry! Life is busy!) You woke up every 2 to 3 hours to eat, and went back to bed quickly except for once a night around 1 a.m. You wanted to stay awake until the next feeding and Mommy was TIRED!!! That only lasted a week or so though and then we got you straightened out. :)

 

Mommy's 4th grade team came to visit you a few days after you were born. Mommy is looking rough, but hey, just had a baby!

(mommy, Kelsey, Martina, Windi, Marianne, and Amy)

You only liked the swing the first month and hit or miss after that. You were 2 days old here.

Cousin Payton was a HUGE fan. Still is. She loves to hold you.

 



Daddy was able to stay home for your entire first month and it was so nice! We tried to go out and about as much as we could. Here you guys are at Sweet Berry Farms. You were a few weeks old.

 



Maggie's 2nd birthday in our backyard. Grandpa, Aaron, and Greg.

 



Maggie at her birthday party. We had a blast and you were SOOOO good. You got passed around the entire day.

 





Some picks taken right around the 1 month mark. Cutie pie!!!! You look so different now that you can make facial expressions.

 

You found your lungs quickly this month and would go from happy to screaming bloody murder in a second! You were NOT patient about waiting for a bottle. Ha! You started developing colic at this stage and that would last through the 4 month mark. I still cherished those times with you. I was so much more calm when you'd scream having gone through similar with Maggie. The crying would start about 7 p.m. and usually only go for an hour or so, but sometimes more. Eventually it crept up in time until it was more like 4 to 8 until it eventually stopped altogether.

 

At birth you weighed 7 lbs 11 oz.

At 3 days you weighed 7 lbs 4 oz.

At 10 days you weighed 7 lbs 14 oz.

No appointment at 1 month because we were old pros, but I remember weighing you at home and you were about 9 or 10 lbs.

 

 You got lots and lots of snuggles and cuddles. You are our last baby and I cherish every single minute with you. You are so loved.

First Days

You were a very healthy baby and even though you wouldn't wake to eat much in the hospital, you never got jaundice and your blood sugar was great (something they were slightly concerned about with my gestational diabetes). We had family visit in the hospital the first day you were here and then were lucky enough to go home the very next day just after noon. Mommy was so pleased - sleeping in hospital beds is impossible!

 

 

You wanted to be held all night long - I don't blame you! Going from being inside my belly to this big world is tough and I'm sure sleeping in that plastic bed feels so unsafe for a newborn. I cuddled you all night and dozed here and there.

 

 

Grandma and Grandpa stayed with Maggie while we were in the hospital and brought her to meet you a few hours after your arrival.

 

 

I remember Maggie's little nervous giggling when she saw you. I think she really did understand that you were her brother and the one from my belly. She knew you were coming home with us. She was very sweet and gave you a lot of kisses.

 

 



 My handsome man.

The Birth

The night before we checked into the hospital for our induction was busy with grandparents getting in town and Maggie being in full on entertaining mode. We tried to go to bed at a decent time, but I knew I wouldn't sleep very well. I didn't, but that was okay with me.

We kind of felt like old hat at this induction thing. We had been induced with your sister and while it went very well, it also went VERY fast and we expected this one to be very similar. We checked in at Labor and Delivery at 5:45 a.m. and I was hooked up to the monitors by 6:30. My OB came in and said hi and we started the Pitocin around 7 a.m. Contractions pretty much started right away. I had been walking around at 4 cm dilated for the past 2 weeks and honestly couldn't believe I hadn't gone into labor on my own.

After about an hour of consistent contractions I was dilated to 5 cm and was told that if I wanted the epidural, I needed to get it as soon as the contractions started really getting painful. With your sister I hadn't had time to get one and they were expecting my labor to go very fast with you too so didn't want me to miss the window again. I waited for awhile, but knew that the doctor was going to come break my water soon and wanted the epidural before that happened. I got the epidural around 9 a.m. and felt amazing right away. About 30 minutes afterwards, I started feeling really sleepy... like I could hardly stay awake. I mentioned it to the nurse who checked my blood pressure and found that it had taken a huge dip and was around 80 over 60. She gave me some IV fluids and it bounced back up and I felt so much better!

My contractions kept spacing back out so they had to increase my Pitocin several times. I remember mentioning to my mom that I was surprised it was taking so long ("so long" being relative as most labors average 12 hours), but I was dilating well and was about 7 cm at 10:30 a.m. At that point I was just hanging out and watching Breaking Bad episodes on the iPad when I noticed that during contractions your little heartbeat was dropping pretty severely. I started to worry that you were in distress and started imagining emergency C-sections and very, very scary scenarios. The nurse came in when she noticed the decelerations on her monitors too. She asked me to roll over to one side saying that sometimes the cord can get compressed during contractions. We waited for another contraction and it was even worse! We tried the other side and worse yet again. At this point I was nearly sick to my stomach when she simply said, "Let me check you one more time. I know I just did, but sometimes decels during contractions can mean baby is in the birth canal ready to go." Sure enough, 10 cm and completely effaced! I had felt absolutely no pressure and was sort of shocked. It really shouldn't have surprised me as it happened the EXACT same way with Maggie, only I KNEW I was complete with her because she practically was forcing her way out and the pressure was incredibly intense. With you, the epidural did such a great job that I felt nothing.

The nurse called another nurse in to assist with a practice push. Your father and I just looked at each other in amazement and I said, "I wasn't ready for this, but okay, I guess we are having a baby!" Your dad was so cute and just stood there with excitement on his face. He was much more calm this time too. We did a practice push since I had never really had to push before with your sister. I was apparently good at it and you were in the perfect position. They had me stop pushing and wait for several contractions while the doctor came in and got ready. I think I pushed through 3 contractions and you were born. It was the best thing in the world. I was happy, not hurting, not scared, just full of joy and able to soak in the moment. I wanted to notice everything about you and remember it all. You were perfect and were born with a grumpy old man face, but I could tell right away that you were a beautiful newborn. You seemed so tiny to me, I was guessing about 6 lbs, but you were 7 lbs 11 oz! A big baby compared to your sister, though average for most. They cleaned you up and gave you back to me. My mom and dad (your Nana and Papa) came in to see you shortly after and fell in love too. Your other grandparents and Maggie came a bit later and watching her see you for the first time is a memory I will never, ever forget.

The Story of You

It is 10:19 p.m. on a Tuesday and I just suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to document everything that has happened in the past 4 months and 11 days. You, my little love, are 4 months 11 days old and this is the first time I've sat down to document anything about your life so far. I am sorry. Your sister, coming first, had an entire blog with nearly a post a day about her conception, time spent in my womb, and life through the first year or so. If you are upset about that - I totally get it. I was a second child myself. I'm sorry. If you choose to have children of your own someday, you will understand. I know that you hear that a lot as a child/young adult, but it's true. Many things you just have to wait to experience yourself to truly understand.

Where was I? So yeah... I was sitting in my nightly bath with you just outside the door in our room sleeping peacefully. I was thinking about you and how much I love you and how I want to remember everything I can about how my world was changed when you entered it. So I will start with your conception. Don't worry... I'll spare you the details, but your start was quite the surprise for us.

It was summer of 2012 and I was just starting to feel that familiar pull to have another baby. Maggie had recently turned 1 and was changing so much every day - I had a harder and harder time seeing the baby that was once there. I was trying to make the career switch to teaching though and it really wasn't a good time for us and your father was definitely not feeling ready to start the newborn thing over again so we decided to wait another year before we tried again.

Imagine our surprise when you decided that you were ready whether we were or not! I'll admit that I cried at first. I was scared of what it would mean for our life (I was about to start my first year of teaching in a matter or weeks!) and scared about what your dad's reaction would be. I thought I'd keep it a secret for awhile until I could sort of ease him into it. (How do you ease a person into finding out they were going to have another baby?? I have no idea, but my world had been seemingly upturned so forgive my stupidity.) Instead I burst into tears and laid it on him at the first chance I had. You know what he did? He laughed.

It took me awhile to finally believe it was happening and to fall in love with the idea, but I soon did and you started giving me kicks just 13 weeks into the pregnancy and with every little nudge we bonded. I loved you before I ever laid eyes on you and I knew you before anyone else had the pleasure. We found out you were a boy around 18 weeks and we were shocked and your dad was thrilled! I on the other hand was sad. Don't get me wrong - I got over it quickly... but, and I'm not exaggerating, laying on that table with the ultrasound tech still taking measurements of your tiny body parts, I started thinking about you growing up and getting married and moving away (DON'T YOU EVER MOVE AWAY!!!!!!!) ((kidding)) (((kind of))) and just felt sad. I knew that I already loved you like crazy and that that love would just grow and grow with time. I knew that I would have to live through all of these things in your life that would leave me missing you (see, my throat is clenching up just thinking about it now). Like I said though... after some pep talks and some time I got over the sad and fell in love with you even more. A boy. My son. You were MY little guy and I felt special for getting to be your mom. That feeling grows with every day that goes by.

It was an uneventful pregnancy (aside from a touch of gestational diabetes, but that was nothing) and though everyone thought you would come early, you were happy where you were and we had to give you the old boot on the morning of April 2nd...