I have a problem.

With my baby.

And the fact that she is not a baby.

I'm not sure why I'm having a bit of hard time dealing with that.

I keep thinking, she's still too young to do ____ She can't eat that, only tiny baby bites!

Take the puree train forever!

Nope. Not any more.

I mean. she's kind of running around the house. And when she babbles. There is definitely meaning behind it. I watch her and I'm trying to follow along with her. ah ah ah! ah's!!!

But, back to the food. She managed goldfish on the trip, she's even been managing biting pieces off things (like the pizza crust Austin left at the edge of the table, because oh yeah, she can reach the table now too.) And I've had an omg, no more baby food, no more bottles (ha, I can only hope that's soon) and no more babying the toddler. Yes, toddler.

 

Now I'm off to go cry in the corner.

I promise I'm still here

My baby girl is one week and one day old. We're just trying to settle in and get organized. I will get the birth story up here shortly. For someone who didn't want to join us in the world she sure made quite the entrance! And, for those curious, she was not as big as her brother.

Until then, I give you some squishy newborn to hold you over.

A blast from the past.

Well, Since I am recovering from having our new baby girl, I would treat you guys to the birth story I wrote out from when I had Austin. I will warn you, it is long. Hope you enjoy reading and I hope I have a new birth story to share soon!

I wrote these out and posted them on the bump, the message board I belonged to. There were 3 different posts and here I am to share....

The first post, written shortly after my water broke, before we went to the hospital. (I have taken out the things that are probably too much info)

Last night I was tired so decided to go to bed around 10:30/11. I haven't been going to bed since before anywhere from 2-4am the past week. Well, com0e 2am, I have to pee, then I'm wide awake. yay. I stayed up till Dave got up for work. I'm sitting downstairs and feeling a little crampy. I had one cramp after Dave left that was so strong and painful that I thought for sure I was going to squeeze the baby out right there. I finally get out of the chair, realize that it was probaby gas pain. I went upstairs, didn't feel anymore pains. Decided to go back to bed around 6.

Somewhere between 8 and 830 I had the gas pain again and went to the bathroom. As I was about to sit down I started leaking fluid. (Which in the past week has become a normal occurance since it takes me so long to waddle to the bathroom I may have peed myself a little) I go #2 then decide, hmm maybe I didn't just pee my pants. Got up went back to bed and laid down for about 5 min got back up waddled to the bathroom, sure enough, didn't pee my pants. My water had broken.

I call Dave and tell him he better get home. I'm pretty much trapped on my toilet because I'm non stop peeing involuntarily. I then think, oh crap, my mom has her remicade today. She pretty much comes out of it stoned. Because I'm stuck on the toilet I can't look up the number so I call my father in law and get him to look up the number for me. I called my mom and told her what was going on and gave her the option to skip her treatment today or come to the hospital stoned. I realize I should probably be timing my contractions at this point but I didn't have anything to write them down with. I find a pencil and use an empty toilet paper roll to write down the times.

I then get up, get a clean pair of underwear, put on a pad. It still felt like I was peeing myself and the pad wasn't going to do me any good so I went and grabbed the laptop and am currently sitting on the toilet while writing.

The best part? Apparently I completely skipped early labour and am right into active labour because the contractions are 3-4 minutes apart. I started timing about 50 min ago and Dave will be home in about 10 min so we will be leaving and I won't be on for the rest of the day!!! Yeah, here's hoping for an epidural when I check in, I'm in a lot of pain right now...lol.

Oh how I love how much I overshare on the internet. However, looking back over 3 years later there is a lot I didn't remember!

Here is my second post about the birth itself.

Austin Karl was born Nov 13th at 10:58pm. Weighed 11lbs 7.5oz, 23 inches long. All I have to say is ow. His head circumfrence was 39cm!!

When Dave got home we left immediately for the hospital because my contractions were getting hard to breathe through and they were 3 min apart. Got to the hospital and was only 2cm!! Very frustrated but they kept me because my water had broken. By this time it was about 11am. They tried to start an IV in me but I have really bad veins. The nurse was trying to get a vein to come up in my left hand while another nurse took blood from my right arm because I had elevated protein in my urine. My nurse put the needle in my left hand and couldn't get it in the vein. She then called another nurse to try and she got a vein in my right wrist but then it collapsed on her right away. They called in another nurse who finally got the iv in my right hand.

By the time the 4 needles were done I was bawling from the pain and frustration. Also the contractions were pretty bad (I guess I am kind of a wimp..lol) and the nurse offered an epidural around 1 because the dr was coming to give it to another lady and figured she would ask so that if I wanted one soon I wouldn't have to wait for the dr (We had already discussed whether I wanted one) I said no because I could still deal with the pain but did decide to have a shot of Nubaine instead. The nubaine was great, made me really sleepy and I tried to nap a bit since I had only slept a few hours the night before. I was able to breathe calmly through the contractions where I couldn't before because I was still worked up over the IV plus the pain of the contractions. The downside to the nubaine was that it made my contractions die down. They went to about 5 min apart so the dr ordered pictocin. After the pictocin had been running for a while my contractions were starting to get stronger again and I heard someone mention that the dr was coming for an epi for someone else and decided to get it then. (My room was right across from the nursing station so I heard everything..lol)

Thankfully the dr let Dave stay in the room with me for the epi. I was amazed how well I stayed still during contractions but aparently the dr had to do it twice, thank god I could not feel it! After that things were great. I could still tell I was having contractions but no pain. The dr checked me around 7:30/8 and I was 5cm. Around 9 I started feeling the contractions again and told the nurse. All of a sudden the contractions were horrible and I realized that I could feel my right side of my body again. The new nurses on were trying to tell me that it was just normal but I told them that I knew the epi had worn off on the right side only. They checked me at 9:30 and the right side of my cervix was ready to go but there was still about 4cm on the left side.

Coming up to 10pm I was feeling the pressure and told the nurses I needed to push. They checked me again and I was fully dialated. I started pushing at 10 and baby came out at 10:58. Because his head was so big though it was crowning but then receding more than normal. Another dr came in to help out because my dr was delivering in the next room over but ended up getting Austin stuck so they had to call for my dr and apparently her plus a million nurses came running into the room to deliver me. Within a few minutes of my dr coming in Austin came out. My mom kept saying look at him but there were so many people I couldn't see. When I first saw him I remember saying "Holy crap, what is he, a year old???" By the time Austin was born my epi was pretty much all worn off and unfortunately no one told my dr and she started my stitches. I was just told it was a 2nd degree tear but Dave thinks it was about 13 stitches. OMG they hurt. Yeow. Thankfully though they got me sewn up and everyone came in to see us. Apparently I looked pretty good for just giving birth...lol.

It's crazy the things you forget after having the baby. I blocked out the protein in the urine thing. I've even told my dr that I had no issues with protein. I've had quite a few issues with protein in my urine this time around and the dr has been monitoring it. I didn't even remember the issues in the hospital. Thank goodness for modern technology. And finally, a bit of Austin's hospital stay in story as well.

Poor Austin is very happy to be home now, he had quite the few days. First, because of his size they had to monitor his blood sugar so they had to prick him in the heel before 4 different feedings. He was a trooper though and didn't cry, just fussed a bit. Then, he was very mucousy so every time I tried to get him to latch he would start gagging and bringing up mucous. He really didn't eat much the first day but the nurses said until he brings up the mucous his stomach is full anyways. I had a very hard time getting the latching down and ended up with my nipples blistered.

Some time during the friday afternoon and night shift one of the nurses had said that he had jaundice and ordered blood work for saturday morning. Our day nurse was the first person who told us this info on saturday. DH had no idea that Jaundice was very common and was really worried thinking something was wrong. The blood work came back with a high level and the dr ordered him to go under the phototherapy lights. Dave was at home getting the house ready in hopes we would get to go home saturday and my mom watched Austin while I went and had a shower. By the time I got back from the shower they already had him under the lights. I have to say it's a good thing my mom was there, then some friends showed up because all I wanted to do was cry when I saw him under the lights!! He had to wear a little mask over his eyes and couldn't wear anything but his diaper. The only time he was allowed out of the lights was to be fed then had to go back under the lights right away. I felt so bad for him!! When DH got back to the hospital I think he was also fighting back the tears.

Also saturday because I was still having some troubles getting Austin to feed we had decided to supplement with formula. Even after having him on my breast he would still take anywhere from 30-40 ml of formula so he was obviously not getting enough from me. I started pumping as well as breast feeding and supplementing. My breasts were very sore and blistered right away. We're starting to get the hang of breast feeding now though but I have a feeling we are going to have to supplement with formula tonight.

We were hoping to come home yesterday but the dr and nurses wanted me to stay another night just to get a bit better because I was still walking badly after all the hip/pelvic pain I had before baby came. Since we were staying anyways we kept Austin under the lights so when they did the blood test for his jaundice this morning it was much better than before.

My lady parts are definately a little tender. I am completely swollen shut down there but it really isn't that uncomfortable to sit. My stitches are starting to get itchy so yay for healing!!

And there you have it. If you've continuesd reading this long, thank you. Hope you enjoyed this birth story.

The day before his life changes

Before I get into my post, let me just say that I'm posting this from the blogger app on my iPhone. Yes, I know there is an app for everything, but it never occurred to me to find it. Or that it might just be slightly easier then using safari. (mainly I'm hoping it will be easier to upload pictures. Fingers crossed here!) so, this is my first post on the new app, let's see how it goes shall we?

Anyways, yesterday I kind of knew there would be no progress in baby land. But, even if there was, I wanted to try and give Austin a fun day. After all, his life was about to change drastically and he had no idea. We loaded into the car (grandpa stayed home because he had to work since he was likely not working today) and headed into the West Edmonton Mall. We left a little later then planned, so we had to re-arrange our schedule.

We grabbed a quick bite at the food court, where I had people asking me how far along I was and couldn't believe I was due last week. Then, we took Austin to see Dr Seuss' the Lorax. Dave was hesitant about going, but once I got him in the theatre he suggested splurging for the IMAX 3D version instead of the plain. It was awesome. Way better then just 3D. Very cute movie and Austin even sat through it.

Then, off we headed to do 18 holes of professor WEM's mini golf. Austin had fun despite a few moments of not listening, but he was excited that he got to choose his own green ball.

Finally, we headed home. A super tired little boy passed out cold on the way home. I'm sure he had a great day out and with me being induced today I hope he doesn't mind that he now gets to share mommy and daddy with his little sister.

Every day gets more dangerous

Every day this baby stays in my belly is dangerous.

Every day my hormones make it dangerous to, well, anyone around me. Ask the guy at the grocery store last week, or even my husband the other night. I am cranky and hormonal. It takes nothing for that hormonal switch to flip.

If this baby girl doesn't come out soon, the next danger is going to be our bank account. All her clothes are neatly tucked away in her dresser and closet. I'm not going in there every day to pull things out to put on the baby. It's like i've got baby amnesia when I wake up in the morning. Every day this baby stays in my belly I want to go shopping. I want to buy all the cute pink, purple, frilly, tutu-y, flowery, butterfly, owly things I can find. I just can't stop myself. It's a big danger to our bank and to the storage space in her already small bedroom. But Gah! The cuteness!!!

So, dear baby girl, you really need to evacuate. Before the danger level grows even more. I personally could care less about the shopping danger, but it's just not safe to the world at large for me and my hormones to be out running free. Please baby girl. Save the world. Think of the world!!! Come out already and join us. We're really lots of fun!

Bye bye february

Well, here I sit, 11:06 pm on the last day of February. I think it's safe to say this baby will be a march baby. She is still pretty damn comfy in there. I had hopes for a feb baby. Because how cool would it be, Austin in nov, me in dec, Dave in jan, and baby girl in feb! Plus, I'm also one of those rare people that thinks a leap year birthday would have been pretty cool. Baby girl obviously doesn't pick up on the cool the same way I do I guess. She must take after her daddy. Lol. I kid.

Anywho, I'm off to bed. Waiting to ring in march and meet my baby girl.

At the end

Tomorrow I am 40 weeks pregnant. Today, baby is still hanging out not coming. Dave went back to work on thursday of last week. He calls on every break and lunch to see how I'm feeling. So far the answer is the same. "same as every other day"

Today I have a dr's appt. Today we choose a final eviction date. Hopefully though I have some progress an baby starts her arrival a little soon then an induction date. Fingers crossed.

All ready to go

Baby's room is all ready to go. I decided that I was going to make my own crib skirt. I found some instructions online that said for the skirt part to buy enough material so it's 2x the depth on the ends, and 3x the length on the front and back. Of I were to do it again, I think maybe just 2x for the front and back of the crib would be good. I'm not going to lie, it's a long process. You have to see the hems, which the front and back piece, before they are ruffled up were 156 inches. That's a lot of hem. Then, evenly spaced ruffles... Well those are fun too.

Anywho, the bed is all ready to go and I'm patiently or err impatiently awaiting.


And a close up of the cute owl blanket I made

2nd time mom's don't know either....

Here we are, possibly just days away from having our second baby, and I've come to a conclusion. I'm no better then I was last time around! Yes, I know what it's like to have my water break, I know what it's like to deal with steady contractions, and I know the feeling of holding your newborn baby in your arms.

However, the beginning of labor? I swear some days in like a first time mom. I feel a twitch or a cramp and think omg, is this a contraction? A twitch and think, ooh, what is that? Sigh. It's not any easier this time around I tell you!

I am trying to relax and not freak out about everything, but some days it's not really that easy. While this pregnancy is a million times easier then the last one, i would still love her to come any day now. Dave is home this week. However as of Tuesday he is supposed to be back at work. With my due date looming we are in limbo trying to figure out if he should take extra time off, and I so, how much? A day? A week? 2 weeks? So many options without any concrete answers.

So dear baby girl, you can come out any day now. We would love to meet you. I promise I won't be mad if you decide a middle of the night departure, it's not like I'm sleeping much anyways.

What cookies?

Well, I'm not in labor. I really don't know if the cookies did anything. With Austin I stayed 0 cm right until the end. I had a dr's appt yesterday and he says I'm 1/4 of a cm dialated. Not very much at all, but it's something right? I don't know whether it's from the cookies or not, but they were so gross and made me want to throw up after eating 2 that I'm not sure I'll finish off the batch I made. (but a funny, my father in law had some and yesterday morning he was joking that he had a bunch the night before and nothing happened to him either. Huh.)

We had an ultrasound. The technician was amazing and they had a little screen at the end of the bed so I didn't have to give myself a neck ache trying to see. He even switched the machine over to 3d for a bit. We didn't do this with Austin, and now I wish we had gotten at least one picture just so I can compare. I posted the picture on my Facebook and have been told it looks like Austin. I really didn't see it until people started saying it which is why I would have loved to compare. During the 3d part baby had a frowny face going the whole time. As I laid there watching I thought, hmm it was probably the cookies that made her sad. Lol!

Anyways, I figured I would do an update for those waiting on pins and needles to see if I was in labor. I'm not. I'm just sitting here suffering from very bad heartburn and insomnia. I'm hoping to be back asleep before 5am.

Sibling love

I snapped this pic last night. Austin was going to bed and said goodnight, gave kisses, told the baby good night, then lifted up my top to do this

.
That is him waiting to feel the baby kick him. He said that she did, but I didn't feel anything.

He keeps talking about baby. "when him get here I share my toys?" (he calls everyone a him by the way) "baby kicking in mommy's tummy?" and if you ask him what the baby's name should be - yes, we STILL haven't picked a name- he is very adamant it should be baby girl.

Today I am 37 weeks pregnant and can't wait to see them interacting!! Only a few more weeks!

32 weeks

Almost there. Crazy just how fast time has gone. In about 8 weeks there will be a tiny little squishy baby here. I can't wait for Austin to meet his sister and see him interact with her. Life will become crazier, that's the fun of it though. A family bonding in times of craziness.

This baby kicks up a storm and has some crazy moves going on in my stomach. Maybe she's got the moves like jagger? Hmmm she also knows the most inappropriate times to start kicking my bladder making me run for a bathroom.

Despite not having anything ready to go in the house yet, I can't wait for our little baby to arrive.

Baby Update

Here we are 22 weeks (and 1 day, but who's counting ;-) lol) I'm pretty sure baby went through a growth spurt these last few days. Monday night I laid down for bed and all I could feel was kick kick kick. So far it's been random kicks but nothing steady. Then Tuesday morning was full of kick kick kick too. The last 2 nights I've been feeling the resistance in rolling over and getting up during my many pee trips. I was expecting to start feeling this stuff a little earlier, but here we are. with 18 (ish) weeks left until this little one is here it will be kicks and stretches like crazy.

I know that every pregnancy is different, but I didn't realize just how different it would be. With Austin, I almost wondered if he was growing outside my uterus becuase he hung out pretty much the whole pregnancy between my ribs and my belly button. This baby is hanging out down low. Every kick I'm feeling is in my lower stomach.

I've been waiting for the aches and pains to start hardcore, but so far it's been just minimal. I've been feeling great and fully enjoying every minute. And exciting, I have another ultrasound tomorrow since baby had it's back to the ultrasound tech and he couldn't get a good look at the heart. I'm excited to see baby again!!

14 weeks

It took me 14 weeks before I had to start sleeping with a pillow between my knees. I really thought it would have taken longer, but everything happens sooner with 2nd kids. If I have the bed to myself and can spread out I don't need the pillow, but with Dave home, I'm using the pillow.

Also happened at 14 weeks?? I felt my first for sure kick. I had been wondering about some movement going on in my stomach for a while but there was no doubt about it Wednesday evening.(14wk1d) This excited me so much. I can't wait to just sit and watch my belly do odd things. Maybe even watch baby with the hiccups. (and yes, you can tell.)

I head to Ontario on Tuesday to visit for a while and will probably be having my big ultrasound there. While Dave won't be with me for the ultrasound (or at least it will be very unlikely) I think I'm going to do some sort of gender reveal and wait until we can both find out together. We will see what happens.

I am still here..

I'm not going to lie, I've pretty much been sleeping the past few weeks... er month.... whatever. 1st trimester of pregnancy is so damn exhausting. then add in trying to regulate my body on my new depression meds, plus taking diclectin (dr's gift from heaven for morning/all day sickness) which ooh yay, causes drowsyness, I've been sleeping a lot.

There was one week that I was so thankful for swimming lessons because it exhausted Austin so much he would have up to a 4 hr nap. That meant mommy got a 4 hr nap. That meant Mommy was in heaven. I was crawling into bed just after Austin at night. And still I was tired in the morning.

I'm starting to get back into the swing of things and I don't think I've had a nap for at least 3 days! Amazing, I know. lol. Tomorrow though, will be a nap day. I have to go to the Airport to pick up Dave and me tired with a 40 minute drive on the highway ahead of me? Not good at all. I don't want to put myself, my son or any other drivers at risk because I'm driving dozey. So nap time it is. And I'm already looking forward to it! lol.

I've got a long list of to do's (or I guess it would be honey-do's) for this week while Dave's home. He's got some shelves to hang (thank you pinterest for the idea) some curtains to hang, some spiders, empty webs and dead spider bodies to eradicate. Then he needs to fix our outside hose (it was crap and the hose pretty much broke open causing an awesome puddle going down the road) so we can water our flowers. Sorry mom, I may have killed some..... But they did really well until this week!!!! Then I'm sure I'll come up with a million other things by then. Whew, I'm tired again just reading his to do list.

Then we might hit the second hand kids store to see if there are any amazing deals on some baby supplies or things we need. Like a stroller. Austin is a runner and a wanderer all at the same time. He will take off so fast before you know it. Or you will be walking and he will slow right down to look at every single thing around. In crowded places I could care less if people think he's too old, he's in the stroller. So... it stands to reason that we will need a double stroller of some sort. I like the looks of the sit n stand strollers so we might just go with them since they seem to be best for us. Austin will be over 3 when this baby is born, he doesn't need a structured seat like he did when he was a yr old, somewhere to stand or sit, even backwards seems like a good idea. I will have to do some research into strollers over the next little bit.

Anyways, this momma is tired. off to bed I go. This little one 'turns' 14 weeks along tomorrow. Good night everyone!