Getting adjusted

Once we finally got home from the hospital, we could start getting used to our new family member. Luckily for us, she was pretty easy. Newborns do a lot of sleeping, and a lot of eating. But she has a really calm demeanor and is seemingly laid back, provided she has enough sleep and enough to eat. We noticed right off the bat that she is LOUD. She grunts, she groans, she gurgles...she even growls! Most of this happens in her sleep, which makes for less sleep for mom. I anticipated her sleeping in the bassinet in our room for about six weeks; because of said noises, this turned into about two weeks. We found we all got more sleep when she was in her room and I went to her when she actually needed something as opposed to every time she makes a noise.

Sunday-Tuesday we were in the hospital, and the day we came home was my first night alone with the two kids. Jay went back to work after having just Monday off (to stay home with Hayden) and I figured nighttime would be hit or miss. I can't lie, I was definitely anxious about bedtime for two babies, especially after a c-section, and given Hayden's history of not wanting to go to bed. Luckily he is just smitten with his baby sister and loves to help, and occasionally gives me a break. We all survived, and even got a little sleep!

The day after we got home we had to go to the pediatrician's office to check her weight. She was 7 lbs, 3oz and they seemed to be pretty happy with that. Travel was interesting, as I couldn't lift her and the car seat because of my incision, and wasn't allowed to drive as long as I was taking pain meds. But we managed until I felt comfortable lifting more weight and until I no longer needed the meds. Our first two weeks passed pretty smoothly, with Jay and I both home during the day and Hayden in daycare during the day. I was anxious to see how having us all home during the day would work out, but certainly ready to have Hayden out of daycare.

Our hospital stay

Needless to say, we were in the hospital much longer than expected since I had a c-section. We checked in Saturday evening fully ready to be gone by Sunday, but after surgery I wasn't discharged until TUESDAY. Which meant having LESS sleep than I would have had at home, and the boys were left to fend for themselves the first part of the week. Poor Hayden, he just didn't understand why mommy and his new baby sister couldn't come home. Sunday was a blur of doctors, nurses, feeding, changing, sleeping, eating, visitors and the like. I remember being surprised that I wasn't in much pain. I think it was late Sunday evening before my incision finally started to hurt and I needed a pain pill.

By Monday, I was ready to go. My doctor came to visit; the attending doctor who delivered her came to visit; her pediatrician came to visit. Then there were the people who needed to record her information for the birth certificate, the nutritionist and for the love of God, the lactation consultants. Here's the thing. I breastfeed. I judge not people that bottle feed, but I choose to breast feed. I did it for six months with Hayden but am planning on going the full year with Lila. Is that enough for the lactation ladies? No. They want to hear all about her wet and soiled diapers, want to know how often and long I'm feeding, want to "score her latch" while she's feeding...here's an idea, how about "don't call us, we'll call you"? They drove me nuts. My favorite? Every time they checked her sheet and wrote down that she ate for 15 minutes an hour ago, they'd look over the list with pleasant smiles and nods. Then they'd get to the previous page and find out *GASP* what happened after she was born.

What happened is that her blood sugar was low. So low that they couldn't give her a bath because a drop in her temperature would cause it to go even lower. So while I was in recovery, they brought her to me to feed. She latched right on, but the poor kid was just too tired to eat. So they took her back and said we'd try again later. They called from the nursery and asked if they could give her a small amount of formula to try to get it back up. After six months of nursing Hayden, I'm not an expert. But I'm a lot more comfortable this time around, which means I'm not a purist. I'm not worried about "nipple confusion" or my c-section preventing us from "adequate bonding" or that the taste of formula will RUIN her for the milk I make. I let them give her a syringe of formula. I LET THEM FEED MY BABY FORMULA. Oh, the displeasure on their faces when they saw that! I feel like I could have told them I was a meth head and they would have been fine with it, as long as I was still planning to breastfeed exclusively.

 The great thing about Monday was that Emily was there to have baby Link, and I got to go see her! I was ready to be up and at 'em and dressed and walking on Monday, so I walked down to her L&D room. Which, as luck should have it, had been my L&D room! Emily was excited to see me alive, as they had just told her a c-section was a distinct possibility for her. Nothing like seeing another Salem sister to make you even MORE excited about the birth of your baby! All told, I believe four Salem babies were born that weekend.

I did rather enjoy the room service experience, and my nurses that went to every corner of the hospital to find my cranberry juice. I was an easy patient, never paging them (why would I? They were in every hour regardless!) and my only request was the cranberry juice I had become addicted to since I was allowed liquids again...so they obliged. They kept saying how easy I was and how they wanted to do more...all I wanted was sleep and my own house. And the juice.

On Tuesday I expected to be kicked out by "check out" time at 11. So I ordered my breakfast early, packed us up, did my hair, etc. Jay got there at 10. Car seat was ready to be inspected. Lila was dressed. The only problem? No one seemed interested in discharging me on time. We waited and waited, and finally someone showed up. Oh wait, she's the picture lady. It was well after 1pm before my discharge doc came in, asked two questions and left. Then we had to wait again, for them to write up my notes and discharge papers. A little after 2, we were in the car and headed home. Without any cranberry juice for the ride. But with a sweet new girl snuggled in her seat, ready to go to her new house!

Now what?

A baby story

So we've been a little busy. But I figured I should update so I can remember all the details later!

On Saturday, January 21st we had a pretty normal day to start. Hayden and I got up and watched cartoons, waited on Jay to get up, cleaned and did some laundry. We didn't have anything planned for the day and were just hanging out as a family, enjoying the relaxing day. We ate lunch in the living room, and as I went to get up from the loveseat I felt something funny. Then I realized...my water had broken! I said to Jay, "Um, my water just broke?" and he jumped up, running upstairs to change (and get me a towel). Once I felt like I could safely head upstairs it dawned on me that I wasn't yet having contractions. To me, this meant I had plenty of time so I decided to take a shower and get myself "ready". Jay was a little surprised at my calm, but I knew we had plenty of time.

I showered, blow dryed my hair, finished packing our bags and the like while Jay got himself, Oscar and Hayden ready for a night away from home. Hayden was super excited to be going to my brother's, as was Oscar. We stayed pretty calm so we wouldn't scare him, but all the while I kept thinking "I cannot believe this is happening". Once I was finally ready we headed over to Eric's. I called my OB's office to figure out who the doc on call was and as luck should have it, it was my least favorite doctor. Figures. We dropped off the little guys and headed to Women's Hospital to get all checked in, a process I had made a little faster by pre-registering when I found out I was pregnant. The nurses did a few things, and walked me down the hall to labor & delivery.

We got settled in and found out I was only dilated to 3 cm. Nurses kept coming in and asking the same questions, I had monitors on me and an IV and was just sort of hanging out for a long time. We watched Duke lose to Florida State, and shortly after I asked for the doc to check me so I could make my decision on the epidural. He came in and found that while I was fully dilated, our Lila Bean was still fully breech, and informed me that they just don't deliver breech babies naturally anymore. Lots of stress on the mother and the baby, so we would need a c-section. As I had never even read that chapter in my baby books, I told the doc to get comfortable as I had questions.

He and the nurses walked me through the procedure, and everything started to happen really fast. I had a hairnet and Jay had a too-small gown, I was signing things while being wheeled down the hall, and then they took me into the operating room. Jay had to wait outside a bit while they prepped me. My anesthesiologist came in, talked me through the spinal block and all of a sudden I was laying down, losing feeling from the chest down and trying not to worry. Jay came in, and really wanted to watch the whole surgery but the nurses wouldn't let him. Bogus! I literally could not feel a thing, but then heard the nurse say, "Ok dad, I see a butt...stand up." He stood up, I heard a strong cry and felt the most enormous sense of relief. She was okay! In uncharacteristic fashion, I started to cry like a baby. It wasn't long before I got to see her in Jay's arms and she was just beautiful, with a head full of dark hair. My water broke at 1:30pm, we got to the hospital at 3:30pm, she was born at 8:21pm. Another quick delivery!

Jay watched as they cleaned and measured while I got stitched up and wheeled to recovery. I hung out there for about an hour and they brought my sweet baby to visit. At three weeks early she was a healthy 7 lbs, 8 oz and 20 inches. She looked so much like Hayden, and I couldn't wait for them to meet. I fell in love with my little girl immediately, this little eager beaver who just couldn't wait til her due date to meet us!

Getting ready

We decided after the showers, it was time to get ready for baby Lila! I set out putting together the bassinet for her to sleep in the first few weeks, and Jay and Hayden got busy on the crib. They both came together fairly quickly, working as a family. It's funny how much more calm you are with the second baby. We haven't stressed out about finishing the nursery, because we knew how much time she'd spend in the playpen, swing, car seat, bouncy seat, bassinet and our arms!

I also took a fun trip down memory lane as I went through all of Hayden's old baby clothes to pick out the things that Lila might use. Bibs, burp cloths, blankets and newborn clothes...it's hard to believe this wild three-year-old was once a tiny baby!

Showered with love

My Salem friends threw me an amazing shower to celebrate the impending arrival of baby Lila. We planned it for MLK weekend so our out-of-town guests could attend without rushing, and we had a blast! Lizard and Stephie came for the weekend to clean and set up, and we had dinner with some other Salem friends Friday night. We had a good ol' fashioned sleepover with chatting and catching up, baby stories and the like. I managed to stay up until about 2am, which is pretty good for a preggers, and finally had to hit the hay. The girls stayed up and with the help of Jay, finished up some "diaper decor" for the shower.

On Saturday morning, we all took our time getting up and ready. We had a few hours before the guests would arrive, but it was nice to have time to catch up and relax a bit. Lizard and Stephanie got busy straightening and shopping, preparing and decorating. When it was all said and done, everything was perfect! A beautiful mix of black, white, pink and diapers to welcome our baby girl!

We had so much food! Dips and sandwiches, shrimp and veggies, fruits and cheese, cookies and some of the most adorable cupcakes you've ever seen! Lizard even whipped up a "taste of home", adding bubbly water to lemonade like they do in Germany. It was perfect!

We had a great time playing games, opening gifts, swapping more baby stories and catching up with old friends. Who would have thought, when we were all hanging out on Clewell Patio and in Bitting basement, that this is where we'd end up?

Shredded pork

We needed something different to eat the other night. I had pork chops and no idea what to do with them, but I was tired of everything I'd done recently. So I tossed them in the crock pot with some brown sugar, honey, garlic and pepper. I set them to low for 4-5 hours, and ran a bunch of errands. While I was out, I stopped at Country BBQ (my very favorite NC BBQ place) and picked up a pint of their BBQ sauce. I came home, shredded the pork, added the sauce and cooked on low another 30 minutes. Voila! Pulled pork, which tasted like my favorite restaurant's, but for a fraction of the price.

Hayden had gotten a package from our friends the Bakers in Germany, full of kid-friendly cooking utensils. So he helped me stir the sauce, prepare the potato wedges and even make the baked beans. I debated hush puppies, but that's a lot of work for what was a low-maintenance dinner. The best part? Leftovers!

Starting off 2012

We knew this year was going to be about change. Our family was going to grow, we had set goals (not resolutions) and there were things to be accomplished. So we got down to business!

First, we figured out a plan for the kids. Jay signed up for two evening classes so Lila wouldn't have to go to daycare. Since I have to go back to work, we figured this would be best for all of us, as it would give them a chance to bond and keep me from freaking out about putting an infant in the arms of strangers for eight hours a day. Initially, we were going to keep Hayden in his new school until this summer, to allow Jay and Lila to get used to their schedule and to keep things consistent for Hayden. Then we figured out that more and more, we were unhappy with his current school. Rather than look for a new daycare from February til May, we just decided to go ahead and take him out. I struggled with it, but in the end his safety and well-being trump that of his socialization so we put in our two-week notice in mid-January. I slept better at night after our decision was final, and started to realize that Hayden didn't seem to like his new school all that much either. Win-win.

2012 is our year to get out of debt and be healthy. We have plans in place for both, we'll see how it goes!