End of the Week

It's Friday... which means that I have made it 2 1/2 days with Don back at work. It's been good... for the most part. The hardest thing about it is that I am at the mercy of the moods of two small children.

If Ryan is having a good day he can be super helpful and self sufficient. If he is having a bad day, he wants me to make 300 snacks and then refuses to eat any of them, he cries, throws things and refuses to listen to anything I have to say. So far I can't seem to determine the trigger except for lack of sleep.

Audrey is much the same, if she sleeps it's pretty easy. If however she wants to eat every 2 hours (from start to start of feeding) then it's hard to do much of anything else but sit and feed her, which makes it really hard to keep up with Ryan.

We are figuring it out and Ryan and I are getting used to things not following a strict schedule. It helps when we plan things for our day so we will have to get better at that. Everyday we are adjusting and learning tricks to make this juggling act work. Luckily I have two kids that are sweet, and Ryan genuinely cares about Audrey a lot. That being said, I'm really glad the weekend is approaching and Don will be back to help during the day!

Back to Work

Today was Don's first day back at the office since Audrey was born. I am not going to lie, it was rough. I swear Ryan has been an angel since Audrey came into this world but today he was... how do I put this nicely... the devil.

He threw fits and toys, he cried at every change of activity, he was rough with the baby... I am exhausted. Hopefully we fall into a Rhythm because I'm tired. Don walked and I handed him the kids and went upstairs for a shower so that I could have some quiet time. Luckily Don started on a Wednesday so the weekend is only 2 days away now :)

Ryan has school tomorrow which is good because we are out of food and after today I can't imagine taking both of them to the grocery store by myself. We will work our way up to that!

2 Week Stats

Audrey had her 2 week appointment today.. here are her stats:

- She is 7 pounds 5 oz- less then 2 weeks ago she was only 6 pounds 9 ounces! But this is still only 20th percentile. She is a great eater, if she keeps this up I suspect the percentage will be higher next time.

- She is 20 1/4 inches long which is 50th percentile.

- Her head is 13 3/4 inches which is 20th percentile (as compared to Ryan who has always had a 90+ percentile head).

The doctor said everything looks great! We don't have to go back until her 2 month appointment.

Weekend Pictures

Here is a picture that I am actually in!

First Playdate

I took Audrey and Ryan to a playdate at my friends house today. It was the first time that I took both kids out by myself, and of course I picked the day with a 110 degree heat index day.

The whole outing went incredibly well, Ryan was great and kept making sure Audrey was okay. When I got him out of the car and told him to go knock on the door he refused to leave the car until I got Audrey out, he wanted to make sure I didn't forget her. Then he helped me carry in her blanket.
Both Audrey and Ryan were wonderful during the two hour playdate, it was actually relaxing! It was nice to get out of the house and have some girl time and Ryan was able to play with his best bud.

I feel my confidence raising, I think I just might be able to do this whole mom of two thing... though this is parenting, the rules change daily, check back tomorrow to see how I am feeling about it then ;)

Timing

You cannot understand the importance of timing until you become a parent of more than one child. It seems like the whole day is made up of trying to get one thing to end before the next begins.

To illustrate, here was Don’s morning…. Audrey was super fussy last night, she has been having tummy troubles and it is keeping her squirmy and uncomfortable. Don had the second night shift so he was up from 1:15am while I got some sleep. Usually Audrey sleeps between feedings so it’s not a big deal he can still get some sleep, last night that was not the case. So she was fussy until 5:45am, after giving it 15 minutes to make sure she was really out Don got ready to lie down just as Ryan made his first peep of waking up. That would be bad timing. It seems like with two small kids on different schedules this is the sort of thing that happens all the time.

Babies eat every 1-4 hours all day and night, so before you head out you have to make sure you have fed them recently enough that they won’t need it the second you get out on the road. It’s even harder when you are starting to breastfeed. First off because breastfeeding is kinda hard when you first get started, secondly if you have both children with you can you imagine trying to breastfeed your baby and keep a 2 year old from getting into trouble/ having a breakdown? Yeah that’s what I thought.

You also have to time diapers correctly (at least as best as you can). Not only does everyone have to be freshly fed, they have to be freshly diapered. So it takes about an hour to get out the door (and then you are eating into your maybe 3 hour window to be out before it starts again). Lastly, when Audrey gets into a nap schedule we will also have to work around the fact that Ryan sleeps from 12:30-3:00 and she will likely be sleeping from 10-11:30 and 2:30-4 or something similar.

Hopefully this gets easier… I will be truly tested when we start to have more scheduled plans outside the house. So far we have been able to drop off and pick up Ryan at school, but even that will get harder when Don goes back to work. I think it is just one of those things that you have to figure out for your family because it is going to be different for every child. This might take some creativity and flexibility but I think we can do it if we stay organized and plan ahead as much as possible.

Family Snuggles

Quick Update

Here is a quick late night update...

- Ryan went back to school for the first time since Audrey and I got home from the hospital. It was a slight nightmare... I think it will take getting used to before things settle down. Ryan isn't a huge fan of change in routine.

- My mom has been bringing us food so I haven't had to worry at all about making sure we are fed. I have a few friends that have also offered to get us food in the upcoming weeks. Best help ever. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. Two friend have sent treats even though they live very far away.

- Audrey has been a great sleeper, allowing us to keep with with things and make sure that Ryan is getting enough attention. Today she had some acid reflux and I kid you not I slightly paniced when she cried because she hasn't really cried at all since we got home.

- Don has been working part time from home which is great, it has allowed us to keep some of this vacation time while still having him available throughout the day. He is the best dad ever, Audrey is obsessed with him and immediately calms down when he starts talking near her... I feel like this is just the begining of the daddy's girl.

Okay I am starting to fall asleep at my computer.. probably a good sign I should lay down and maybe even get some sleep!

See Any Similarities?

Audrey (2010)

Ryan (2008)

Our First Trip Out

I'll start off by saying that things are going well around here. We are figuring out the juggling game of having two small children, and aside from a few hitches we are enjoying it. Audrey has been a great baby and Ryan is a better big brother then I could have ever imagined.

Well, Don and I got brave and decided to take a trek out into the world with both kids in tow. It is a new sort of adventure involving bags and strollers and sometimes cranky children… really you don’t know what to expect, one minute it’s going great, the next there is melt down in the cracker aisle and you wonder if there is a way that you can transport your family magically back to your house without having to figure out how to coral everyone back to the car.

Well anyway… it started off with us packing up the car to go. I swear it took 20 minutes, now I know that seems excessive but it was legitimately our first time… and we didn’t want to forget anything. We have to pack snacks and diapers and wipes (the list is much longer... I'm sure I will figure out how to make the list smaller- I'm just not there yet) I swear if we could we would just latch the house to the back of our car and take it with us. Then there is the dressing of children, with fresh diapers (you don’t want to end up having to change a diaper at Walmart if there is ANY way to avoid it). Once we got in the car and made it to the end of the neighborhood we realized we had forgotten the stroller so we turned around. We forgot at least 2 other things, but eventually we made it out of the neighborhood and we were on our way.
This is the part of the story where the torrential downpour started… I kid you not we couldn’t even see the road. We all ended up soaking wet, but no worries we eventually remembered how to use the stroller! Ryan thought it was great; it was like the biggest sprinkler ever.

The whole trip ended up taking us 2 hours… a trip that consisted of dropping off/ picking up books at the library (that were already reserved so no time was used actually looking at books) and getting diapers. Audrey is smaller than we expected so she doesn’t fit into our stockpile of size 1 diapers, we need the newborn size. It was a trip that if I went by myself would have taken 20 minutes tops, but instead it took 2 hours and everyone was ready for a nap by the time we ended up back home. I can only imagine how it will be when Don isn’t there to help… I see a lot of online ordering in my future.

VIDEO: Brother and Sister

Here is Ryan meeting his baby sister for the first time at the hospital.

Birth Story

Audrey's birth story was a lot different then what I experienced with Ryan. It ended up being a lot quicker and more manageable then what I had pictured which was an unexpected but much appreciated suprise.
Here is a quick preview of what happened:

I started out with "prelabor" contractions for about 24 hours before active labor began. They were noticable but I was still able to functions enough to get through my day, the stayed about 7-15 minutes apart and progressed me about 2 centimeters in 24 hours. My brother David slept over at our house in case we needed to head out quickly to the hospital so someone would be here with Ryan. It turned out to be a wonderful blessing because he was able to help me take care of Ryan for the day as the pre-contractions continued.
Of course my real labor started about 30 minutes after David left to head back to his apartment during rush hour traffic and Don was still at work. When Don made it home he called my brother back (giving my brother a really great almost 2 hour rush hour car ride to no where- he hadn't even gotten out of his car at home yet).
When he finally got back Don and I hopped in the car to head to the hospital. My contractions were seven minutes apart and strong- my doctor had given us the go ahead to either come in or wait until they were five minutes apart. I thought it was possible that we left too early and wouldn't meet minimum requirements to be admitted to the hospital, but it turned out that wasn't something I should have worried about! From the second we parked at the hospital the contractions jumped to 3 minutes apart, I had to take 3 breaks just to get to the first security check in desk!

When I was checked I had jumped to 4 centimeters dialated and was given my room. I answered a million questions, got my blood tests, got set up in bed and started in on my antibiotics. After my blood tests came back I was able to get an epidural. After Ryan I knew I wanted an epidural (and yes I feel good about my decision) I would say it took about 2 hours for all this before I was checked by the doctor and I was already 8 centimeters! They left me alone for about another hour until I started to really hurt- which with an epidural made me think something was up. I called the nurse back, she checked me and I was 10 centimeter and ready to push! She asked me to try one push to see how it would go- she made me stop half way through because she was afraid the baby was going to come out without the doctor.
The doctor was called in (luckily I was his only patient), I gave one push and out she came! It felt completely unreal after the 2 1/2 hours of pushing I had to do with Ryan. She was so much easier and a day later I can tell you she did a lot less damage on my body. The labor ended up only being about 5 hours as opposed to the 13 hours of Ryan's labor... I can tell you in this case shorter is better!
Her APGAR score was 8/9 which is very good! She looks a lot like Ryan in my opinion except for a lot smaller. She is about a pound smaller then when Ryan was born but she feels a lot smaller. She is a great eater and everyone including Ryan just adores her.

I haven't gotten more then 2 hours of sleep at a time since the day before Audrey was born so excuse me if this description wasn't as well written as it should be... maybe I will go back if I ever have time again :), I just wanted to get things down before I forgot anything! Pictures will soon follow once I get them off my phone- we even have a few videos which are super cute. I will post everything as I have a chance.

Pictures!

Audrey is here!

Audrey Elizabeth arrived July 13th at 11:48pm. She is healthy and perfect, at birth she weighed in at 6 pounds 15 ounces and was 19 inches long. Doctor Alvarez and our Nurse Jocelyn helped us get through it quickly and without incident. I only had to push 2 times and active labor only lasted 5 hours! I will post the birth story soon. Thanks for all the well wishes I have received!

We are home from the hospital and doing well settling in so far.

Things Start... Kinda

I have been having contractions between 7-12 minutes apart for about 12 hours now. They aren't getting any closer together so it is still considered pre-labor. Since this started at 7:00pm I am pretty tired at this point. I have been trying to rest in between them and hopefully I can either get some more rest or this turns into labor. I have a doctors appointment already scheduled for later this morning so we will see how much I am progressing. Hopefully I will have more updates to post then!

I ended up gaining 10 pounds this pregnancy... 4 of which happened in the last two weeks. Ah how two pregnancies can be so different.. I think I gained between 35-40 pounds with Ryan!

Morning at the Pool

From Beginning to End of the Day

At the beginning of the day Ryan is clean and fully dressed... these are pictures of him at noon... you can imagine what he looks like by 6:00pm (Imagine this plus or minus a few articles of clothing + splatters of paint, marker, dirt and food).

Quick Update

With less then 10 days to go I am VERY uncomfortable. Today I was so uncomfortable, for at least part of the day I thought I was going into labor. I go back to the doctor tomorrow for a check up and another non-stress test, so I guess we'll see if I'm making any progress.

As of this week I am up to bi-weekly appointments with non-stress tests to make sure everything remains good until I go into labor.

So that's where I am today... another update tomorrow if I have anything to report.

Picture of the Pregnant Lady

Here I am with 11 days until my due date (38.5 weeks). I popped late but I still popped :) My Docs tell me I am 1 centimeter dilated.. so the process has begun, with Ryan I was at this point 7 days before giving birth which would put me at about the 13th to give birth.

Daily Dose of Cute

4th of July Parade

Ryan had a 4th of July parade and ice cream social today at school! It was the first time I got to spend some time with him at school, we both had a lot of fun. He got to wear a fun hat he decorated, a cape, a bracelet and wave a flag he decorated. Even the Mayor of our town came to celebrate! After the parade we had ice cream with hot fudge and sprinkles, can you imagine anything better to a 2 year old?

38 Weeks

I just had my 38 week appointment. I had another non-stress test to make sure baby is okay with the blood sugar medicine. She is doing wonderfully, dealing with lower blood sugar just as they hoped she would. My doctor mentioned that if I don't go into labor by my due date they will induce me, so most likely we will have little Audrey in the next 16 days! I was excited when he said it, then it hit me just how short amount of time that is, literally we will probably schedule an induction next week!