Giving Thanks-August

This week has been a rough one...S and I have been missing home terribly, we have all been sick (including Anders), we have had some broken appliances and a couple of broken toes. Realizing that our feelings of loneliness and discord are only going to get better if we make them better, I have decided it's time to appreciate that which we can and to focus on the "little" things that make our family complete.

That being said, here are the things I am thankful for in August:

1) Sunday Mornings. We try and spend about an hour every Sunday morning in our bed as a family. Typically, this happens around 7, when A is awake, the coffee has been made and we have the paper. We feed Anders and relax with the pups while watching sports center or the Sunday news.

Okay, this Sunday's isn't a great example...it was a rough Saturday Night.

2) Books, books and more books. S and I have loved reading to Anders from day one. We own the classics, Goodnight Moon, Runaway Bunny, Guess How Much I Love You, etc... but we really love to read from chapter books, especially at his night feedings which can take 30 minutes or more at times. This week we started A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond. This book is actually a copy that my parents gave me for my 4th Christmas-according to the note on the inside page.

There is something about reading a children's book to your child that makes everything in the world disappear and keeps you right in that moment.

3) The beginning of Fall. This was our first summer in Nebraska and it killed us to have week upon week of 90+ degree temperatures with a heat index reaching over 100. The past 2 weeks have been much nicer, 80's mostly and even a few 70's. We have finally gotten to have fresh air in the house and to use our oven again without getting severly overheated!

4) Family. This month we had a plethera of wonderful visitors. Starting at the end of July we had S's mom, my cousin, Judy, S's sisters and Anders and I went to Florida to visit S's parents and sister. We are so very lucky to have family that is willing to come and visit us in our new home. This week my parents will be coming out for a visit and then shortly after S's parents will be out for a long weekend.

 

S's sisters and a sleepy Anders.

5) Coffee. It has been a tiring few weeks, and coffee is my best friend to get through the mornings where all you want to do is go back to bed and sleep the day away. I like it think as sludge with a pinch of sugar and a splash of cream. There is something about that first morning cup that just gets me going more than anything else can.

Things I swore I would never do before I had a baby...

1) Wear Sneakers with Jeans: did this to the Farmer's Market last week since I was wearing Anders in his Moby and it's a rough cobblestone road.
2) Cry in Public: did this at Target 3 weeks ago when I saw a mom and her daughter with the daughter's new baby. It totally made me miss my family and I awkwardly hid in the diaper aisle for 10 minutes while I composed myself and moved on.
3) Leave Dishes in the Sink: unfortunately, this happens now, quite a bit, especially if it has been a long day....
4) Have Unwashed Dogs: Before Anders they got baths every 2 weeks...now it's about once a month and the poor guys smell like, well, like dogs.
5) Discuss Pooping: Anders occasionally goes 24+ hours between poops and he gets grumpy. If it's been more than 24 hours, poop becomes a hot topic in our household.

Anders' Baptism

Anders was baptised at our church this weekend. S's sisters were out for a visit, so it was perfect timing to get him baptised. Here's a few shots of the day:

Outside of our home

Getting ready to be baptised.

Getting Baptised.

And, finally, at brunch after.

Hiding from the camera.

Sleep Part 2

An update on our new sleeping adventures.....
For the past 2 nights we have had a baby who sleeps through the night. He goes down at 7:00(ish) and gets up around 6:30.
Life is good.

2 Month Appointment

Anders had his 2 month appointment Thursday (at 10 weeks since we were out of town and he visited the doctor a TON the first month) and he is huge!

Height: 25.4 inches, putting him in the 97th percentile
Weight: 13 lbs 13 oz, putting him in the 78th percentile

At birth he was 7 lbs 8 oz and 20.5 inches long.....I think we will have a HUGE boy on our hands! Our doctor was pretty surprised at his size, especially since at his last appointment on 6/29 and he was 21 inches and 8 lb 7 oz. Our little guy can grow!

And now, S and I are off for our first baby free dinner since the Sister-in-laws are out and will be watching him. Score!

Sleep!

We moved A down to his crib (which is on the first floor of our house, the master is on the second) at 6 weeks. Instantly, we started a sleep routine to get him used to his new room and schedule. Between 6:30-7:00 we go into his room and start our bedtime ritual: first he's changed into a new diaper and a sleep gown, then S settles into the rocker with A and feeds him his pre-dinner bottle (usually 3-4 oz) and I read-this week it's Alice in Wonderland. After the food is finished and Anders is burped he goes down in his crib while he is drowsy but awake and we head out of the room. Anders will typically talk to himself for about 10-15 minutes and then he is out for the night.

At first we had feedings around 1:30 and 4:30, then Anders would be up for the day at 7. As of Sunday, Anders has finally knocked himself down to one feeding a night! We put him down around 7:00 and he wakes up at 4:15 to eat. Sometimes he is waking up at 1:00, but when he does he just talks to himself for 10 minutes then falls back asleep. S has been taking the 4:15ish feedings, since that is when he typically gets up for work, and then Anders falls back asleep until 7:30.

After having 6 weeks of 3-5 feedings/night, and then 4 weeks of 2 LONG feedings/night, this 1 feeding thing is FABULOUS! S and I have not felt this rested in a very long time, and we finally have the energy to do more around the house. Admittedly, it means I finally have the energy to start a workout plan to lose the post-baby jiggle...but I would much rather be playing in the garden!

Baby Pudge

At 10 weeks old, Anders has officially entered into the world of Pudgy Baby. We have leg and wrist rolls, which is a wonderful thing since he started out with such extreme weight issues.

We will find out how much he offically weighs on Thursday, but I'm thinking low 11's.

Also, Anders slept for 8.5 hours STRAIGHT last night! I'm not sure if it's catching up from our traveling, or a new sleep pattern, but I will take it!

Sangria

Here is M's Sangria Recipe, which we are currently enjoying on our back patio....

1 Bottle Red Wine (I love Cab Sav.)
3/4 Orange
1 Lime
1/2 Lemon
1/2 cup fruit cocktail
1 cup White Rum

-Take red wine and pour it into a serving pitcher
-Slice the ends off of citrus fruits, then slice in half length wise and then again to get long quarters. slice into thin slices.
-Add 1/2 cup of fruit cocktail, removing grapes and reserving juice.
-Add 1 cup white rum
-Add reserved fruit cocktail juice for thinning out sangria as needed.

Add it together, serve over ice, and get:

Florida

Anders and I headed out on Tuesday for our first vacation to Florida. We had to leave S behind with the puppies because he has WAY too much work going on at the office to come with us, which made me nervous for our first flight with Anders to be a solo one. Needless to say, any worrying was done in vain since Anders slept the entire time, on our first flight, on our visit to the Atlanta airport, and then on our second flight. Hopefully he is just as good when we head home on Saturday!

Here's a few shots of the little guy in Florida:

Look Mom, I found my fist!

Getting his feet eaten.

Our awesome flying buddy.

Being Green

Part of my goal since moving to Nebraska has been to increase what we do as a family to live "green". On average, Nebraska is ages behind Vermont in "green living"-when I told our painters we were looking for a "green and environmentally friendly" paint for our home this spring I was told that Home Depot has tons of shades to choose from...... but there are tons of residents who really go above and beyond the "green" lifestyle. While I am not brave enough to venture into the world of cloth diapering like our friend is, we are doing our part to reduce what we can. Here's a few things we do....

• Paint with only "green" paint
• Recycle
• Buy local produce, meats, etc... as much as possible
• Eat seasonally
• Limit our light usage to only when we are in the room
• Take shorter showers than ever before (this is a challenge for S)
• Limit our consumption of "goods"-be it food, clothing, material goods, etc... (I'm attempting a new blog on this, hoping to get it up and running by September!)
• And, finally, my favorite, we line dry as much clothing as we can....

Note the fabulous baby gowns...

All in all, we are doing our best to reduce our carbon footprint, and we will cotinue to try more in expanding our efforts. Do I think we will get an award from Al Gore??? Not really...but I do hope that our efforts are doing a little something. Plus, the smell of line dried laundry just makes me happy.

Clothes

At 9 weeks we have officially packed up Anders' baby clothing! He has moved into the world of 0-3 month clothing, and I am guessing we will be in that stage until about 4ish months.

In other positive news...I also packed up the end of my maternity clothing.

Next goal, get back into my size 4 J.Crew capris...hum...that may take a while.

Favorite Baby Things Month 2

Now that we are entering our 3rd month with Anders, here are a few of our favorite baby things...

Our Baby Einstein Bouncer

This Bouncer rocks our world. S and I had originally looked into getting one with less excitement (ie: no vibration or noise) and we are glad we went with this one. Many thanks to S's parents for getting it for Anders! So far it has been the most helpful when I have wanted to go outside and garden, Anders gets to join me and I don't have to get overheated while wearing him.

Born Free Bottles

Okay, so I raved about the Dr. Brown bottles before, but now that we have tried the Born Free bottles, with level 2 nipples I will never go back! Anders is less gassy and now eats like a normal baby, no more 1-1.5 hour long feedings. We owe many thanks, and our sanity, to Judy for suggesting a bottle swap out.

Gerber Organic Onesies

S and I Love, Love Love these onesies. Organic clothing in Nebraska is much harder to come by than we expected, and we try and buy as much organic clothing for Anders as possible. The Gerber Organic Onesies are not only insanely affordable, but they also fit Anders really well. He just barely graduated to the 0-3 month size and we are hanging onto his newborn onesies for Baby L #2...in the distant future!

Wimmer Ferguson Infant Stimulation Mobile

S & I agreed that we did not want a standard mobile in our baby's crib because our "research" has suggested they are more for aesthetics than the infant's growth and entertainment. Besides, the thought of our kiddo staring at animal butts all day (yep, that's what you see when you hold most mobiles above your head) was not our favorite thing. Once we moved Anders to his crib, it became apparent that we needed some type of mobile. We LOVE this mobile because it actually faces down at the child, plus Anders is enthralled by it and trys to babble to it when it moves with his fan.

Anders Update

We just finished up 1.5 weeks of visitors, and it was fabulous! First, S's Mom was out for a visit and then my cousin, Judy, came out to see Anders for the first time. During the visits S and I got some much needed sleep and VERY much needed family time.

Anders has a few new tricks over the past 2 weeks, including:
-Smiling all the time, especially when S gets home from work and says "Hi Anders!"
-Giggling on occasion
-Discovering how to smack his toys with his fist. Which makes him giggle if they make noise when he does it.
-A newly developed hatred for his panda on his Bouncer
-The ability to go almost all day without a solid nap. Anders HATES to miss anything, therefore he never sleeps, ever.

And he is officially 2 Months old!

Anders also got Duck Feet from Judy

He is still unsure about them...

We also got a great shot of our poor forgotten pups, Cooper and Bogey, sharing the tiniest bed ever:

They are down to one bed since they have demolished their other 2 in the past month...

Anders' Birth Story

It's been two months and I finally have some time to write out Anders' Birth Story....

First off, I began having contractions at 34 weeks. They would be regular, like 3 minutes apart, for a few hours then quit. Needless to say, I was pretty used to the feeling. We also had two times, once at 36 weeks, and once at 39 weeks, that we called the midwives after hours of regular contractions. Both times we decided to wait it out and try napping at home before heading into the hospital and both times the contractions quit.

On June 3rd, 2 days after my due date, I woke up with S at 4:30am and noticed I was having contractions. I timed a few and they were about 6 minutes apart so I figured it was yet another round of "practice" contractions and started getting ready for the day. After showering, playing with the pups and doing my normal morning routine I went out to my weekly coffee date with my friend Alicia and her 3.5 month old little boy, Adam. The whole time I was having contractions, but nothing remarkable.

After coffee I ran around and did a few returns at Target and then went off to meet S for our lunch time walk. We took a nice little 1.5 mile walk around the neighborhood his office is in and I remember mentioning to him that I was having contractions, again, but they were nothing major. He suggested I go home and relax, which I promised I would do.

After I left S's office I ran around for 2 more hours, wanting to get a few errands done before the weekend. Honestly, I kept forgetting about the contractions until I would sit in the car. I called my mom on my way back to our house around 2:30 and told her I was still having contractions, but that I was not hopeful at all since it felt like Baby L (we didn't know the gender) was in there for the long haul!

When I got home one of our dogs went out and rolled in the dirt, so I figured it was time to give him a bath. As I was leaning over the bathtub I started realizing that my contractions were much closer together. I figured it wouldn't hurt to sit down and time a few, so I headed downstairs with the pups to rest on the couch, watch some trashy TV, drink some water and check on the contractions. After timing them for 30 minutes and realizing they were every 2.5 minutes and lasting about 1 minute 20 seconds I decided to call our doula and let her know. She suggested calling the midwives to give them a heads up since they were coming pretty close. At that point the contractions were more of an ache than anything. I called our midwives around 3:45, and they asked me to come in and get checked because the contractions were so close together. S comes home around 4:30 most days, so I called him to give him a heads up and then got busy vacuuming, loading the dishwasher, and finishing our hospital bag. When S got home we packed the car "just in case" and headed off to the Nebraska Medical Center, only 2 miles from our house.

We got to L&D around 5:15 and were escorted into a "triage" room to be evaluated. Since they had 13 laboring moms that were all close to delivering we were hooked up to a monitor and told to hang out for a while. My contractions were 2.5 minutes apart and lasting for 1.5 minutes, but I was still able to talk through them and I was pretty comfortable. While we hung out we got to get all of our pre-registration done and chat with the nurse, who, like me, was sure we were having a girl by the way I was carrying. Around 6:30 our midwife came in to check me and I was 90% effaced, 1 cm and had a palpable bag of waters. We were sent home to labor there, but Kate, our midwife, predicted she would seeing us around 2 am when I would be about 4 cm.

We grabbed some food on the way home and got back around 7:15. I tried to relax and eat, but my stomach was starting to hurt so I decided to take a bath. I hung out in the bath until about 7:45, but I never really felt comfortable. I decided to get out and try to get some shut eye. S and I snuggled into our bed with the pups, but my contractions started picking up to the point that they were 1.5 minutes apart and lasting for 1.5 minutes, and they were starting to hurt. Around 8:30 we called our doula and she headed over to our house. While waiting I was handling the contractions by tensing up, which made them more painful, and I was starting to wonder if I would be able to have the natural delivery I wanted

Once our doula arrived she started working with me on slowing my breathing during contractions and staying relaxed. She also showed S how to tell when I was tensing up and to touch me where I was tense-my forehead, shoulders, back, etc... We tried tons of different positions, which I thought I would love, but during the contractions all I wanted was to be sitting upright on our leather ottoman. With the relaxation techniques my contractions slowed down to 2 minutes apart and 1.5 minutes long, and felt much less painful

Around 10 we called our midwife to give her a progress report. I had started getting the chills and the contractions were feeling more intense. She suggested getting into the tub and trying to relax, and if the contractions continued to get more intense to head back to L&D. I hung out in the tub for about 45 minutes, with S using our shower head to spray over my belly and massaging my shoulders. I started feeling more uncomfortable and wanted to get out and walk, and when I got out I could not stop shaking. Our doula said it was a very good thing and maybe we would want to think of heading in. I agreed, not wanting to spend the car ride over in more pain than necessary, and we left to go back to the hospital around 11:15 pm.

Once we got to the hospital we had a long walk up to L&D and I kept telling S and our doula, "I can do it, I do NOT want a wheelchair" which is a sentiment that lasted until we got into the hallway. I started walking and then doubled over with a contraction, at which point our doula asked the security guard for a wheelchair. Between contractions I felt so silly to be in a wheelchair, but when they hit it was the greatest thing ever!

Once again we were taken to triage and told it was a very busy night and that I would probably be there for 1-2 hours while a room was cleaned up. We were hooked up to the monitors and chilled until 11:45 when our midwife came in to check me, at which point I was 100% effaced, 6 cm dilated, and had a bulging bag of waters. We were immediately admitted into one of the labor suites.

Once there I wanted to get back into the tub, and from about 12:00-12:45am I labored in the tub. I started getting a bit uncomfortable and got out to move around and get back to my favorite sitting position. From 12:45-2am I labored sitting upright with S and our doula keeping me relaxed and calm. That time was a blur, but I do remember that the contractions felt "easy" and were more like period cramps. They were 1.5 minutes apart and lasting for over 2 minutes, but I was laughing and talking between them.

Around 2:15 our midwife came in to check me and I was about 10 cm and Baby L was ready to go. She suggested sitting on the toilet and pushing as I felt the urge. It seemed that as soon as I moved to the toilet the contractions got very painful. I remember asking "Isn't there something we can do?" and thinking nothing was happening and I was going to need a c-section. The pressure in my bottom was unrelenting and I was so exhausted I was feeling like I was going to pass out.

After laboring with occasional pushes for about 45 minutes my water finally broke. Upon breaking it was discovered that there were meuconium in the fluid and the NICU team was called. I wanted to move back to the bed and relax, but as soon as I got to the bed our midwife informed me it was time to have the baby. I started pushing around 3:00 am and it felt like nothing was happening. My pushes were week since I was exhausted and I was starting to give up. As Baby L started to come down our midwife could see that he was a compound presentation and had both hands over his head and arms next to his face, which made the labor feel harder and the pushing more painful. Our midwife asked if I would like to feel the baby's head, so I reached down, felt Baby L's head, which was almost out, and quickly pulled my hand back saying "Get it out, get it out!" (which S thought was hilarious) After just 2 more pushes Baby L was out and screaming at the top of his lungs! Anders Daniel L was born at 3:21 am on 6/4/10.

The NICU team rushed in, and thankfully he had not swallowed any meuconium. I remember apologizing to the midwife and our doula for swearing, which apparently I hadn't done at all, and they just started laughing. S went with Baby L, but no one had told me if we had a boy or girl. Finally, after about 3 minutes, S came back and had tears in his eyes, kissing me and saying "it's a boy!"at which point my response was "Holy Shit, it's a boy." Yep, I was 100% sure Anders was a girl up until I actually saw the boy proof.

2 minutes old

After that things got a bit hairy. I started to have uterine hemorrhaging, and it wouldn't stop. S got to spend some time with Anders, but we were all getting nervous, especially when a blood transfusion was ordered up and they were still working on stopping the bleed after 45 minutes. After multiple doses of pitocin and a strong pain killer for me, the bleeding finally stopped.

We spent 2.5 days in the hospital because of my hemorrhage, and they were long....We had a private room, but no AC, and it was a very hot weekend! Healing was going well, I was sore, but not in pain, and I escaped without any tears. The only "damage" I had was a small scratch from Anders' nails as he came out hands first. The recovery in the hospital felt quick, I was showering, walking around, hopping in and out of bed and able to entertain our first visitors, S's parents, without any discomfort. And I sure did pay for that easy recovery!

3 days after we got home something wasn't feeling right. I left the hospital peeing without any pain, and after 3 days I was hysterically crying when I would pee. I went back to our midwives and they discovered that the tiny little scratch had turned into an infection and I was sent home on antibiotics and pain killers. Sadly, getting sick killed my milk supply right after it came in (this happened again with mastitis) and it made the first 3 weeks an extreme uphill battle.

In the end, everything has worked out. I 100% plan to go all natural again for our next Baby L, which will be sometime in the next 4 years, and now that I know the feeling of Labor, I hope to be a bit more centered during the final transition. As for now...we are planning on enjoying every moment with Anders, our dogs, and discovering more about our new home state!