Monday, January 19, 2009

Sleep? Sleep is for wimps! Ha!



So the past couple weeks have been wonderful and busy and slow and horrible and all things in one! I feel SOOO blessed and ridiculously happy. In fact I never would have imagined I would feel so overwhelmingly happy. I love having 2 sweet girls. Isabel is still as snugly as ever and I am eating up every second of it. I wasn't sure exactly how adding another baby would work as far as my love and our family group dynamic, but it is bliss. Pure bliss. In fact it has made me want to have more and more babies, if every time your heart grows this much and your joy increases so immeasurably. Although, I will admit that I am exhausted. We still are a bit confused about when it is a good time to sleep and when it is a good time to be fussy/wide awake, and being as I have Miss Lily it isn't always an option to just adjust to the baby's pattern.

My mom came this past week for the 3 days that Matt was working and I was SOOOO grateful because I came down with a nasty stomach bug the first 2 days she was here. I was so glad that she was there to supervise the girls while I made frequent mad dashes to vomit :)


She also brought a birthday cake with here and we had a little birthday party for miss Isabel, which was fun. She got Izzy a dress that matches the one she got Lily for Christmas. I can't wait to take them to church all matchy-matchy! SO cute! :)



People keep asking me if Izzy looks like Lily did, and I haven't really thought so. i have been thinking that they definitely look like sisters, but that they have a lot of differences, but last night as I was looking at Izzy sleeping in the bouncy I was really reminded of Lily at that age, so I took a pic to compare. what do you think? You can certainly tell how jaundiced Lily was.



Lily Grace @ 1 week--------- Isabel Marie @ 2 weeks

Anyway, life is good. Exhausting and overwhelming, but good :) Pics from the week:



Smiles!


Riding her Trike in the Garage with Daddy


Putting on EVERY article of dress-up

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Catch up!

So I haven't blogged since before Christmas...oops! Below are a few blogs, all written today that will catch you right up! If I were you I would go back to the Christmas blog and then read up if you want the story in chronological order, or if you only care about the birthday info, you can just read that one :) but I am all caught up now, and I am sure that I will be adding loads of new baby pics weekly at least!

The Big Arrival!


So Friday I had been having contractions (as usual), but they still weren't strong enough for me to pay too much attention to them. Around 11:30pm I sent Matt to the store to buy some "depends". Yep. You read that right. I am pretty much sharing with the world wide web the most humiliating experience EVER. Friday night I started having issues controlling my bladder while having contractions. I have NEVER had that kind of a problem and it really was pretty much the most humbling/embarrassing experience ever. Having to admit to my husband that, yes, I actually would like you to get up and go to the store to buy me some diapers, when he jokingly suggested it, was definetly not the high point of my life of pride. Anyway, while he was gone my contractions got stronger. ALOT stronger. It was just after midnight when I got the first "Oh yeah, that is DEFINETLY labor. I called my mom in at 12:20 to time them for me, because I was in alot of pain. They came ever 2-4 minutes lasting around a minute and were killing me. Imagine matt's suprise when he got back from the store and I was in full blown labor! A little after 2 Matt talked me into going to the hospital (I wanted to wait longer), so we left for the hospital and got to the ER a little after 2:30. All I could think about was getting an epidural! They checked me into OB Triage and called my Dr, I was 5 cm dilated, they were going to put me in a room, get me an epidural (which I was DYING for) and then break my water. I was SO excited that this time I would get an epidural BEFORE my water broke, because I remembered how much more it hurt with Lily once my water broke and I felt like I was already past my pain tolerance level.
So the delivery nurse comes to get me from Triage and MAKES ME WALK to my room, which is through some doors, past a nurses' station and then 3 rooms down. I thought I would die. I was feeling SO much pressure and it really took everything to get to that room, which took forever since I had to stop about every 30 seconds for a contraction. I of course kept asking about my epidural to which she kept responding "it's going to be a while, the resident needs to examine you first and she is busy with a delivery". She kept treating me like a total wuss and was very patronizing. She is not my favorite person in this story. My triage nurse had been SO nice and my Dr had ordered my epi right away, the nurse who had been monitoring my contractions (and knew how intense they were) was very reassuring that I would get that epidural quickly. But not my delivery nurse. When we were in the room I don't remember much at all. I asked to PLEASE get something, ANYTHING for pain if it was going to be a long time before the epidural (which I knew it would be since my nurse wasn't taking me seriosuly), so I got a shot of statol, which just made me incredible tired and dizzy. The nurse was still in the process of getting me checked into my room and asking me background questions, when I felt my water break. I told the nurse, "I am pretty sure my water just broke". "ok", she said and continued to ask me questions without even checking my fluid or even acknowledging that anything happened. As soon as my water broke I felt the sensation to push. But I figured, it just must be the increased pressure from me not having any water and I didn't say anything, because the nurse was already treating me like an idiot. After about 10 minutes, I couldn't take it. My body was involuntarily pushing and it was hurting to try and not push, so I told her, i really feel like I need to push. She then told me that she really didn't want to have to check me, because they don't like to check very often, to which I replied, I REALLY HAVE to push. My dear sweet RN husband took that very seriously and so then she went to check me and what did she see?? A baby's head on its way out. To which she then freaked out. (she was a new grad) And hit the call button calling for "someone, anyone, to get in here NOW" The resident was still in delivering whoever else's baby and my doctor was still at home since it had only been about an hour since he was called and I was at a five. Nothing in the room was set up since I had only been there for about a half an hour, the nurse was literally holding the baby's head keeping it from coming out and she was seriously freaking out. My sweet husband was great in instructing my how best not to push, which by the was is NOT an easy thing to do. I am so glad that he is a great nurse since at this point my nurse was freaking out and of NO help to me. Luckily some family practice Dr's were there, they had delivered someone else's baby and were still in the hallway, so they came in and delivered my baby. They literally didn't even have time to break the bed apart, the Dr had to stand on one side of the bed and lean over. It was CRAZY. I really didn't want to push her out, since it hurt and all, but my husband and the 2 Docs (one of whom I STILL don't know his name!) were SO great. They were really supportive and kind and I pushed that baby out without an epidural--something I NEVER want to do again, but it is good to know that I CAN do it.
Isabel Marie was born at 4:17 am. She weighed 7lbs 2oz, was 19 1/2 inches long and has a full head of dark hair. She is a very sweet and snuggly baby. She doesn't give you any warning when she is about to cry, she just errupts into a loud full scream (full of drama like her sister), but unlike Lily she quiets down immediatly and never cries for long. She is so precious and is a perfect addition to our family. I just feel so blessed to have 2 beautiful and healthy girls with a daddy who loves them and it a great, involved dad and loving husband. My mom was here the first 2 days we were home and it was a great help to have her here, I miss her already. And lily misses her even more!
Lily has been doing remarkably well since we have been home, although there has been more drama since grandma left, I really couldn't ask her to adjust better. She is such a great big sister. Our ward brought meals the first 3 nights, which was SOOO great. We have such a great ward and I am so glad to have such a great support system within the church. The recovery physically has been a thousand times easier than with Lily. I still wouldn't call it a walk in the park, but it is so much better than last time. Isabel seems to have her nights and days mixed up, which is hard, but Matt has let me take a nap during the day, which is the only thing that has kept me going. I am really hoping that my mom will able to come back next week when Matt goes back to work. We initially were told that he would get 2 weeks off, but unfortunetly although Matt's supervisors approved the time (and were game for more) there are some CHW policies that are pretty jacked that we just found out about today and Matt will have to go back to work next week. I am not going to say anything else, just that it sucks, because there is no point in getting into all the irritating details of the complicated and crappy circumstances.

Anyway, in general, things are good. We are exhausted, but extremely blessed and happy. :)






Lily couldn't WAIT to get her out of her car seat!





Holding her sister for the first time!





KISSES!!

She found her thumb at only 3 days old! Here we go again!

My Dr's office sent me these flowers witht he balloon and stuffed animal. It made me very happy!

The Waiting Game

The Monday after Christmas I had a Dr's appointment, where he told me I was 3cm dilated and about 50% effaced. I was continuing to have lots of contractions at irregular intervals and still feeling semi-miserable from the cold I had. Which by the way, if you can ever avoid being 9.5 months pregnant with a cold, you should. No bueno. Anyway, that week was a crazy and good one, 2 of my all time best friends who I L-O-V-E love love love were in town for Christmas, Heather and Kellee, so I got to spend some time with each of them, which is always fabulous. And it really lifted my spirits to be around good old friends, when I had been feeling so miserable. And Matt's good friend Mike and his wife and their 2 kids were also in town for the holidays, so we got to see them, which was great. Also my mom decided that she would rather just drive down and be here to get used to the Lily routine etc, rather than waiting for the "I'm in labor" call. So we had a busy week, between visitors and getting well. It was awesome to have my mom here, because I was exhausted and she pretty much just played with Lily non-stop. Lily loved having her here possibly even more than I did. They had a great time. And we all just hung out...waiting for me to pop!
Random pics from the week


Grandma was Lily's play SLAVE they played all day long, here they are grandma is pretending to drive to the store while Lily is riding in the car seat in the back, they will then pretend to go shopping and drive home and bring me whatever they bought.

Christmas

Well, to tell the truth, we had a pretty miserable Christmas. All 3 of us were sick. Lily had stomach issues (we went through 5 pairs of PJs Christmas day alone), and Matt and I both had nasty colds. When Lily got up she didn't want to open any presents or see any toys. Neither did she want Matt or I to participate in said festivities. We all just had to sit quietly on the couch for a couple of hours until we could eventually coax her into opening some presents. She loved them all but her energy/enthusiasm level was pretty low. Of course as soon as she was feeling better we got to see the non-stop new book and toy action and feel the force of her love for her new things, which was nice. But we definitely had about a week of total rotten-ness. And to be honest, we are just now shaking the remaining dregs of the nastiness. Anyway, here are some pics :)






She loves to wear her helmet and also all her new dress up stuff. I do have to admit I love to see her running around with her tutu's and other princess gear on. She is such a big girl!