New Children and Old Children

Boy has it been a long time since I posted anything. And speaking of boy....I'm about 10 minutes (not literally) away from having another boy. John and I had a plan to wait until Duncan was 1 and then our plan went to pot. I think I'll like it better anyway if they are closer together. Well, it might take me about 20 years before I REALLY think it's better. Two under two is extremely frightening but Duncan is a sweet baby (unless we're teething or tired or hungry or can't find his passy quick enough. Speaking of Duncan, I should post an updated photo. We are fully launched into a Thomas The Tank Engine phase. I'm not complaining too much. He will sit quietly and watch a video so I can have a second to prep food or just sit and veg out when I'm exhausted. I can't believe he's a year already. He says words and runs around my house like a maniac. If the house gets too quiet you better watch out. He's hiding and is about to jump out and scare you...and he's really good at it. Books are his favorite and we spend lots of time just sitting on the floor of his room reading. When he's older a have a ton of books he's going to love so I'm trying to keep him a little reader. I'm sure in a few months I'll have another fun and exciting post about childbirth. Can't wait for that. I'm using the same doctor who delivered Duncan and she knows how terrified I am. She assures me things will be easier this time. I really like her but I don't believe anything anyone says about childbirth being easy. I would be fine with being hooked up to the epidural now and just dragging it around until I went into labor (but apparently that's frowned upon:)). Hopefully updates to follow.

Ocean Front

We've felt the ocean for the first time! As you cant tell by our expression it wasn't our favorite. He had just woken up from a really good nap and was a little grumpy. We have been experiencing a lot of new things now that he is much more alert and ready to be entertained. We like cows much more than horses...we like dogs but couldn't care less about cats....we like books but only the kind that fit in our mouths. It's an interesting world to a 3 1/2 month old. He has started laughing out loud and it's so funny. He is already really good at throwing enormous fits when he thinks 5:00am is a good time to get up and play and mommy says no. But, he really is a good baby. We've even been through our first "sickness." There's nothing like a good case of hand foot and mouth disease and it's even fun when you have a buddy to share the sickness with. He gave it to John (who according to our doctor is too old to get it) and he couldn't talk for 2 days. Apparently it hits adults harder than children. Poor John had to drink Ensure for a week he was in such pain. We're all better now and ready to plow forward and see other new and foreign sicknesses we can get into. I think I have healed emotionally from the trauma of childbirth, as long as I don't think about it. I occasionally rehash it with John just to make sure it actually happened. It's kind of like a Twilight Zone experience. When you have a little one that smiles every time he sees you it makes it worth it. Quote of the Day: Dwight: Jim, tell him wear he can stick his grapes. Jim: In the fridge!

The Miracle of Surviving Childbirth

I'm finally able to update about having Little Bit. I have always been afraid of the actual labor part of having a child...and now I know why. As much as I studied up on what will happen during the labor process and things I can do to make the process not as traumatic I was pretty shocked as to how it actually went. I've had several friends who have recently had children and experienced either no pain or 3 pushes and the tiny child was born. Not so with me. I should have known that you usually have the type of labor that your family members have...rough. My mom and Martha had a tough time with it and I should have been hooked to the epidural before I even went to the hospital. I guess the main issue was that the epidural only affected one side and not the other. So, 15 epidurals later I was finally feeling good. Then...dun dun duuuuuuuun...it wore of about pushing time. Thankfully, I only pushed about 2 hours. Even though it seems like a long time, time itself doesn't register when you're in the moment. John passed out right after the epidural. He never saw them do anything but Karen things it was the smell of the sterile pads they were using. Plus, tired and low blood sugar didn't help. He was ok and thankfully sitting down anyway but it still scared me. We had an awesome doctor that night. She was the one I was hoping would deliver us. We had a scheduled appointment with another doctor for an induction but we went into labor on our own along with everyone else in the state. The labor and delivery unit was completely full and people were waiting for rooms in triage. Praise God we didn't have to deliver in triage. The whole hospital would have heard me have that child. Debbie told me that babies know their mom's voice from the start but I was able to experience how cool that really was. They handed him to me right after he was born and he was crying. As soon and I spoke to him he looked at me and the crying was done. Neatest experience ever. Duncan was born with jaundice issues. Different blood type and my body attacking him meant he had to go into the blue light bed the day after he was born. They first put him in the open bed with the blindfold on him. This was a no-go. I told the nurse this from the start. (Begining Rant) They wheeled him into the room in the little bed and he was already screaming and clawing at his eyes. He is really sensitive to sound and alarms went off all stinkin' night in the hallway so he would flail his arms and start screaming again. I sat on the side of my bed, held him in the blue light bed and cried with him all night. The nurse came in sometime early in the morning and I crawled all over her. I told her it wasn't working and something had to change. My newborn had scratches all over his face because of the blindfold and no one had slept all night. I was ticked. She got the message and went and got another type of bed (second photo). This was a little better but really didn't work. He would scream, we would pick him up to calm him down, the nurse would come in and tell us to put him back in the bed yadda yadda. This continued until I let one of the nurses know that when he cried I was going to do something about it. They backed off. His counts kept going up so we had to stay an extra few days. We were so ready to go home! We have wonderful families who brought us food every night and clothes. Finally his counts started dropping and they told us we could be discharged. Actually, a very sick doctor came in...sneezed...picked him up and told us we could leave. All I could thing of was, well, we'll be back soon for a raging cold. But, God is good. Our last 2 nurses fast tracked the discharge process and we were outta there before lunch. I hate to complain because we really did have a wonderful and healthy baby. We did a lot of praying to get him here safely. I'm just not in love with hospitals and we did have some serious issues while we were there. However, my momma bear personality kicked in right after Duncan was born and that paired with crazy hormones made me go into hyperactive protect my child mode. At least I know how do deal with things should we decide to go down this road again. Child is crying...must go....

Almost There

I'm going every week now to the doctor until delivery. Things seem to be progressing nicely. I've had 2 colds in the past 3 weeks and apparently coughing mimics contractions so there is a small chance this little one could come early. We'll see. His kicks are getting so strong that he feels like he's just going to break out on his own. I'm not sure what labor is going to be like but I can say that as far as pregnancy goes it's been a rather uneventful one (despite all my complaining). I'm very thankful for that. I'm finishing up the baby room this week and getting the stroller and car seat just in case I run out of time. The excitement grows and so does my need for sleep. I used to feel guilty spending all day on the couch but I'm finding it's so hard to get up that it's just easier if I just sit there. I'm very ready to see this little one and be able to get on a horse again.

Quote of the Day:

Robert California: Last week an accounting mistake resulted in a client getting their order for free.
Andy: Ooh. That's not good. Chalk that one up to Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb out there.
Robert California: Who're they?
Andy: They're both Kevin.

Oh Baby

So, here he is. It took us a while to get a photo of his little face. He was fast asleep even though they had me drink a very sugary drink to wake him up. It was so amazing when he came into focus. The lady doing the ultrasound even went over our scheduled time to make sure we were able to see him as long as possible. It's motivated us to get the baby room organized and ready. Plus, I'm feeling rather huge these days so the sooner we get everything fixed the better. I have about five thousand photos and some are really cute. I'm so excited!!

Quote of the Day: "Death once had a near Chuck Norris experience."

3-D

We go Saturday with hordes of family for the 3D ultrasound. I'm so excited! I should get a DVD with it so I can put him on the blog. If all goes well this will be the last ultrasound until we see him in person. I hope he's awake. If not I might bring some sugar to help him wake up. Then I'll let him sleep the rest of the day. The nursery is in progress...not like he's even going in there for awhile. He'll be staying with me. He's a pretty active baby. He kicks like a wild man and this morning he found a fun new nerve in my back to jump on. I've heard that being active in the womb usually means a calm baby in person. Let's hope so. If not I'll have to recruit Cedar to help babysit.

Quote of the Day: "Last night, I dreamed that the number two was the most valued number in the world. The vice-president had all the power, athletes fought for silver medals, women were considered the best gender, and stadiums of fans shouted, "we're number two!" As with all my dreams, I'm guessing it was about my fear of immigrants." -Dwight Schrute

What I Can't Do

I rode a horse the other day. It wasn't a great idea. I didn't fall off and John stood and played safety patrol so I didn't do anything stupid but it wasn't a comfortable experience. It did show me how much I've missed riding. Now that I'm about halfway through this pregnancy I'm really starting to get stretched out and a little uncomfortable. I know it only gets "better." I'm trying to enjoy it but goodness gracious am I tired. My OB laughed at me my last trip when he found me almost asleep waiting for him in the exam room. I got the "you think you're tired now" speech. Anyway, so far so good.

I'm sad about missing State Fair this year but there are other competitions I can enter besides the horse show. John is also going to be entering some competitions. I'm excited for him. He has a pretty good chance of doing well. We are considering entering Laurel in one of the classes at the horse show on a friend's horse. She has become quite the little rider. She talks about it all the time and has bonded with Lilly. Noah even rode last weekend. We had to tone him down a bit. Screaming "heeeya" at the horse while snapping the reins may be how the cowboys on TV do it but Lilly just froze and didn't know how to react to the little monster on her back. If his allergies hold off we can probably do lessons with him too. TWO YOUTH RIDERS! Hopefully I can start posting more often. We have been so busy with barn activities (injured horses, barn drama) that posting has been last on my list. It would be fun to put up a ultrasound photo or 2. I'll see if I can figure that one out.

Quote of the Day: "This morning Danny Cordrea stole a sale from me so what do I do? I go out and I steal Danny Cordrea. Funny thing about it, we don't even need 'em. We already have Packer on the road! Crrrrap. I forgot about Packer!" -Michael Scott