Happy 2 week birthday, Liam!

Wow - already 2 weeks old! I already feel like he's getting so big... the teeny baby time is fading fast!

Today was Liam's second doc appointment and boy was it an adventure. I left super early (was aiming to leave at 9 for an 11:30 appt but ended up getting out the door at 9:45) and made it just in time.... I decided to take the double stroller cause I have developed a contact dermatitis rash from using disposible breast pads (BOOOOOOOO) and didn't want to make myself even more itchy than I already am. So the plan was to walk up to the elevator subway stop, then get off at 59th street, where there is also an elevator, and then walk a mile back uptown to the doc office. All went well... then I got off at 59th street. Got to the elevator and saw "closed for repairs. sorry for the inconvenience." INCONVENIENCE? I have a double stroller, people!!!! I stood at the bottom of the stairs looking pitiful for a few minutes, then walked around aimlessly for a few minutes, then went back to the pitiful stance. I thought I was going to cry right there. FINALLY a nice man came and offered to help me. Still, I wasn't supposed to be lifting all of that weight!!!! Had no choice at that point, though. Made it through that ordeal and then really enjoyed the walk up to the office. We strolled along central park west and it was such a beautiful day. When we got there, Kathryn was there to meet us (YAAAAAY) and take Eli to the park. I will be FOREVER grateful to her for doing that for us. There's no WAY I would have been able to wrangle Eli AND Liam. No way.

Liam's appt went very well! He's now at 8lbs... they want the baby to be back to the birth weight by 2 weeks, and he is well beyond that. YAY! That means I get to stop waking him up (or lol - feeling guilty that i didn't wake him up when i was supposed to) for feedings! yaaaaaaay.

Ok - I need to get to sleep... just wanted to say I'm SO happy everything went well with Liam and that he's a super healthy guy.

First solo day a success!!!!

Yesterday, Mike had to go back to work, so it was my first solo day home with the boys. I'll be honest - I've been scared about that day ever since I first got pregnant with Liam. Days with Eli alone are challenging enough - so to think about how I was going to manage with TWO was just scary.

Liam and I made a handshake deal Sunday night that he would sleep for four hours at a time, and I'm super happy to say he did NOT renig on his deal! He slept for two four hour stretches - glorious!!! Eli woke up at 6:50, which gave me a chance to get him out of bed and changed before Liam woke up (7am.... they cut it close!). I decided to let Liam cry for a little bit while I fixed Eli his breakfast and then put on Toy Story (a Godsend for us right now) and fed Liam. The day was super balanced.... there were only a few times when Liam was crying uncontrollably when I was trying to play with Eli. All in all, the day was a GREAT success. We even had time to get in some stories! AND mommy got to eat lunch AND spend some time online. There was one scary moment where I realized Eli only had three diapers left (oops!), but thanks to diapers.com, another box arrived the same day! Woohoo!

I didn't take a nap, which was a big mistake, but that's ok - I got to spend some time organizing pictures (I'm trying SO SO SO hard not to fall behind with Liam pictures) and watch a little TV (something other than Thomas, Curious George, Elmo or Toy story! yay!).... so it was still relaxing time.

Eli took a three hour nap (THANK YOU, ELI!) which gave me some good one on one time with Liam. He's such a good baby, really. He cries a lot but it's mainly because he wants to eat ALL THE TIME. He can go for longer stretches at night, but during the morning and evening times, he wants to eat every 90 minutes. Breastfeeding is SO HARD mentally, because it takes up SO SO SO much of my time. I keep thinking about how Eli would chug a bottle down in 10 minutes and be good for hours. Liam only eats about 10 min per side, but if you factor in the in-between diaper change(s), the burping, the waking up, etc... it adds up to about 45 min or so a feeding. I keep setting goals for myself.... right now, it's to make it to at least a month. Hopefully I can make it!

I even had a chance to make dinner last night (yeah, yeah, it was microwavable Indian food, but still!) which really made me feel like I accomplished a lot! I'm also LOVING that we have paper plates and bowls right now....sooo much better to not do dishes every second.

Today, when Eli woke up (early!), the first thing out of his mouth was "wanna see the baby!" He's still doing really well, sharing his time and being very understanding (90% of the time) when Mommy has to spend time holding and feeding Liam. He currently thinks I'm feeding him from my belly button. lol. The second thing out of his mouth was "tiny eyes!" Lol - ok, yes, your brother has tiny eyes. Followed by.... "sick in the eyes. the baby is sick in the eyes." Hahahaha. No idea where he got that one!

Today's going to be a super busy day. My friend Liza is coming over with her 2 year old, Bryce (yay - a playdate for Eli!!!).... followed by an afternoon visit by Mike's cousins (in town from California)....followed by my friends James and Michelle coming over to make us dinner (yaaaay!). Today is the marathon day since mike made a dentist appt for after work and will be home late... but I think we'll do just fine since we have so many distractions/visitors. Yay!

Liam's Birth Story: Part TWO

This is part two, so if you want to read from the beginning, go to the post before this. I'll again warn with.... this is not for those who don't want the long version! Details abound here.

So my doc left for the day. That's ok - I wasn't expecting him to be able to deliver anyway. A midwife, Sandy, came in and introduced herself and told me she was going to be the one to deliver because all of the doctors had a party they'd be going to. I asked her how long she was on (I was used to people leaving!!!) and she told me "Until you have this baby." Wow. I liked her right away and felt she was very calming and relaxed. I was excited to have a midwife. My second nurse was also going off duty (boo, I liked her) and I met the new one. Sandy told me she'd check to see the progress on the anterior lip around 8pm (doc left at 5:30) and if I was good then, I'd get to start pushing. My brother and Kathryn came by to see me and took my mom out for a quick dinner. Around 8pm, Sandy came to check and said all systems go! We just wanted to wait til my mom got back from dinner to start pushing. I think it was around 8:30 that we started.

I remember thinking how surreal it was that I had been in this room ALL DAY and all of a sudden, boom, I get to start pushing. There was no climactic "OMG! I HAVE TO PUSH!" moment, nor did I really feel much of the contractions. My legs were pretty heavy at this point, since I'd had two epidurals... especially my left leg, so Sandy and Mike helped me lift them up each time a contraction came so I could push. for the first hour or so, I thought pushing was a piece of cake! I thought of it as an athletic challenge and took to pushing the right way immediately. Sandy told me I was a super strong pusher and was surprised I hadn't pushed before (I only got to 5cm with Eli). So the first hour came...and no baby. I was starting to get discouraged, hoping that I would have been able to get the baby out right away. The second hour came and went. My contractions were coming about every 5 minutes and I had to wait til I had one before I could push. That part was SO frustrating. It was during this hour, I think, that Sandy started to get on my nerves! She'd answer her PHONE in the middle of my push and go out and answer it!! There were 5 times when I pushed without her there at all, and my nurse would jump up from her computer and try to get gloves on fast enough to help me. (The nurse and the midwife clearly did not get along....and I don't blame the nurse at all...). Over the night I realized that Sandy, while initially very relaxing and comforting, was quite absentminded and frustrating at times. Still, I tried not to let it get to me. During the 3rd hour, my eyes really started to hurt. I'd push GREAT for about 8 seconds and then for the last 2 seconds, I'd feel the push go all the way to my eyes. I felt like one of those dolls you squeeze where the eyes pop out. I kept saying this and kept getting the response "push from your diaphragm" etc etc.... I WAS, but there's only so long a person can push before getting exhausted. I was starting to get VERY discouraged, especially when we'd see the head come down and then go back up. I couldn't figure out what on earth I was doing wrong and why I couldn't just push the baby out! They kept telling me I just needed to push the head past one bone and they'd be able to help guide it out. I just couldn't get there!

As the fourth hour approached, I was starting to get upset that the baby wasn't going to be born on the 14th. I had been getting messages all day long to the tune of "Yay! A Flag day baby!" I had grown to love the 14th and was REALLY sad that I wasn't going to be able to do it. As midnight neared, my mom was giving me the countdown and I was pushing SUPER EXTRA HARD to get that baby out. To gather strength, I kept saying "Ok baby - room service is over. You are coming OUT!" All to no avail. Midnight came and went.

Sandy said she was going to give me an episiotomy to see if that would help the baby come out. I did NOT NOT NOT want that, so I pushed SUPER EXTRA HARD again for the next three contractions while she was setting up her little station. Nothing. (Thankfully, she decided not to do the episiotomy - yay!). At this point, Sandy called in the doctors to see what we should do next.

Who comes in? Dr. Morrissey, the doc I HATED from before. Great, right? I was momentarily peeved, but was so exhausted at that point that I wouldn't have cared if the secretary walked in to deliver. There was another doc with her (a higher level doc) who was AWESOME. She was screaming "GO GO GO GO GO!" and replenished every ounce of energy I had left to deliver this kid. They were there to do the vacuum but when they saw how far I was able to push the head down, they had me push for another 15 minutes. They told me that I was soooo close and they knew I'd be able to do it on my own. So I pushed on. (Forgot to mention that for the last two hours, every single time I pushed, I felt like I had to throw up. I'd yell for the bucket EVERY single time and just dry heave because all I'd had ALL DAY LONG was ice chips. My mom and Mike must have been so frustrated handing me the bucket over and over, but I was sure THIS was going to be the time. Lol).

So they decided the vacuum was not going to be the answer, because the baby's head was a little bit swollen and that meant the vacuum suction would not work properly. Lovely. I was like - oh great, I am NOT having a c-section after ALL OF THIS! Then they told me it was forceps time. Fine - at that point, you could have told me you were going to pry the baby out with a dull knife and I would have agreed. My eyes were nearly swollen shut at this point and my legs were cramping so badly. I was not a happy camper. They told me that with the forceps, I'd just have to give one giant push (instead of the three I was doing each time) and then two little pushes as they guided the shoulders out. Fine by me! I told them to please not pull my baby's head off. Dr. Morrissey was the one doing the forceps thing and the other (better) doc was guiding her through it. Had I been more lucid at that moment, I would have sent Dr. M packing! So that ONE push that I'd have to do turned into EIGHT. Even at my strongest, I was only pushing three times in a row. They told me I could NOT stop or bad things would happen. GREAT.... so I used every last ounce of my eye popping energy in those 8 pushes. I was lucid enough to look and see his head coming out and I saw what I thought was a huge hole in his neck... that combined with blood spurting everywhere had me convinced he wasn't going to make it.... but then I realized that "hole" was the doctor's glove holding his neck...and then i heard him start to cry. Yaaaay.

As soon as they pulled him out, the two doctors were like "WHOA! That explains it!!!" The cord was sooooo short that he barely even came out. Translation - there was no way on earth I was going to be able to push that baby out with the cord being as short as it was. I would have had to push him PLUS the placenta out at the same time. So I instantly felt relieved that the reason for his non-progression wasn't me. About a minute passed before we even thought to ask if the baby was a boy or a girl.... it was my mom who called out "What is it???" They turned the baby over and yelled - it's a boy!!! He was born at 12:30am on June 15th. I was feeling bummed about the date until one of my friends told me - good for him for holding out and defying everyone's expectations, picking his own birthday! So true, and now I love that he came on that day.

There was a crazy whirl of activity as the doctors tended to him (he was fine! yay! what a little trooper!) and me and it was just insane. My epidural had warn off RIGHT then (the machine was beeping empty) and I felt the entire sewing up process. My legs were cramping so bad and i was shaking from the delivery (a common side effect), plus I had lost a lot of blood. I was MISERABLE. They brought me the baby to hold and I could only hold him for like a minute - I wasn't doing well and I couldn't even focus on him. I was happy that Mike and my mom were there to hold him and Mike did a great job of taking pictures.

The sewing up process was horrible. They said I hadn't torn all the way but had what they call a big "scrape." Not sure what that means, but I HURT. My legs felt like they were broken and my eyes were so swollen. I really felt like I was in a fight... a couple of them. I became a whiny, miserable patient at this point, and was frustrating to myself and I'm sure to the nurse because they kept wanting me to move and my legs wouldn't work. They were cramped up so bad that they literally felt broken. I couldn't move myself up in the bed, get over to the stretcher, etc etc. I wasn't able to even think about feeding the baby, so someone grabbed a bottle of formula for mike to feed him.

Liam, my little trooper, was amazingly strong for all of this. He was SO alert when he came out and was awake, looking around for two hours!!! Amazing little guy. They took me to my room (with an ice pack on my eyes!) and that's when Mike and my mom left for home (it was about 3am at this point!). I was in NO condition to take care of myself, let alone the baby, so they took him to the nursery for the rest of the night. The midwife gave me a crazy heavy duty pain killer in my IV and everything started spinning. When my nurse woke me up shortly after that, I was totally out of it, not even sure where I was. I remember telling her "I hear babies! Are there babies here? Oh my gosh - one of them is mine, i think. Am I supposed to be doing something?" Lol.

I woke up at around 6am feeling much, much better and they brought me the baby around that time. I was finally able to feed him and hold him and I loved getting to really meet him. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and didn't even recognize myself. My eyes were completely bloodshot and swollen, my whole face was swollen, and I had burst tons of little blood vessels in my face and on my shoulders and chest. It was a scary, scary thing to see (lol - and there go all the cute first mother-son pictures!), but everyone assured me no permanent damage was done and everything would go away.

And that, my friends, is how Liam Rhys Flores made his way into this world. I'm so proud of him for handling all that chaos with such strength. He's going to be a tough little guy...that's for sure. :)

Liam's Birth Story

Liam's now 9 days old and I realized that I'd better get this story down in writing before I forget! If you're not interested in the details, this post is not for you!

Liam's due date was June 16th and I was starting to think that I was going to be delivering well after this date. I had no real signs of labor starting anytime soon and figured I had some time. My plan was to finish up working on monday and tuesday and then have some time off to finish getting ready. Well, at least I made it to work on Saturday and Sunday! I woke up Monday morning with slight labor pains. I quickly realized that those 3 or 4 times I had woken up with a start throughout the night had in fact been contractions. (At the time, I just thought it was the baby pushing hard on my bladder). So I probably went into labor around 1am Monday the 13th. We usually leave for work around 6am and Mike and I decided around 5:45 that it probably wasn't a good idea for me to go into work. I was showered and dressed and ready and really contemplated it for a while... but decided that no one would want me at work and I'd be freaking everyone out. So Mike took Eli to his parents' house (our usual Monday morning routine) and headed to work while I stayed back. Contractions at this point were coming about every 12-20 minutes and lasting about 20-45 seconds. I decided to take the day to get things done that had been on my list of things to do for a loooong time.... so that those things wouldn't be nagging at my conscience when I got home with the baby. I took time to rest, even getting a 2 hour nap in despite the contractions. I was worried I was going to have to go to the hospital alone, but luckily that didn't happen, and as 4pm approached, I grabbed my packed hospital bags, took a final look around, and took the subway to my regularly scheduled doc appointment. I thankfully was able to walk fine and had no major contractions on the train (yay!) AND did not have my water break on the train (what a nightmare THAT would have been!). Mike met me at 5:30 outside the doc's office. When I got there, I told the secretary that I was in labor but thought I should go ahead and come to my appointment anyway. Lol..she was like - um, don't you want to go to the hospital? I told her the contractions weren't close enough yet and I was fine.

When Dr. Lee came into the room with his usual "How's it going?" I told him I had been having contractions all day. His response "Alright!!!" He checked to see if I was dilated, and sadly... I was only 2cm at that point. (When I checked into the hospital with Eli, I was already 4cm, so I was hoping for more). He checked the baby on the ultrasound and everything looked good, including the heartrate...so since the contractions were still 6 minutes apart at that point, he told me to go walk around for a while until the contractions got to be 5 min apart lasting a minute a piece, for at least an hour. I didn't want to go all the way home, so we walked down 8th avenue looking for a place to eat dinner. (I had asked the doc if it was ok for me to eat a full meal and he told me to go for it since they'd be cutting me off from food once I got to the hospital). We ended up walking to Vnyl, one of my favorite restaurants in that area. The waiters were super nice (and also did not know I was in labor!) and i decided to go all out.... I got a wrap, french fries, pickles AND a milkshake. It was all wonderful :)

During dinner, my contractions got to be consistently 3 min apart and were lasting for about a minute each. I had wanted to walk around for a while after dinner, but it soon became clear that I wasn't going to be able to do that. The contractions were still coming close together and I didn't want to get to the point where I COULDN'T walk to the hospital. So we headed over. We walked up to the labor triage room, filled out paperwork and then they took me back. I was checked in by the nurse and then one of the OB residents came in to get my history and check to see how dilated I was. At this point, I was hooked up to the monitors where they could keep constant track of both the baby's heartrate as well as my contractions. There were peaks every three minutes. I liked being able to see them on there cause Mike could see how strong they were. The resident who came to check the dilation couldn't feel how far I was dilated because my cervix was up too high for her short fingers. (Dr. Lee had also had a hard time, telling me the same thing...that my cervix was up really high). She said she'd have to get her "upper" to come check me out. So we waited...and waited...and waited. About an hour and a half later, the "upper" walked in and my heart sank. It was without a doubt the same doc who had checked me when I was admitted with Eli... the same doc who was so rough that I'm pretty sure SHE was the reason my placenta became abrupted. (It was when she checked me that I started bleeding profusely.... coincidence? I think not). Needless to say, I was pretty apprehensive about her checking me. She did, and it was rough, but thankfully I didn't start bleeding. They also did an ultrasound to confirm the baby was in the right position (he was). I was SURE that they were going to ruin the gender surprise at that point (wouldn't that be insane?) but they didn't. Whew.

They confirmed I would be admitted and then I just had to play the waiting game.... there were no labor rooms available, so I'd have to labor in there (on the SUPER uncomfortable stretcher!!!) until one became available. I was trying to go no epidural, so those next few hours were pretty rough. The nurse came in to put my IV line in (I had tested strep B positive so I needed to get antibiotics every four hours so that the baby wouldn't get sick during delivery) and toooootally blew the line. EXTREME pain. Ouch. She tried again and got it in, but my arm was still killing me from the first attempt. Just what you want when you're having extreme contractions, no?

FINALLY around midnight, a room became available and my nurse, Chrystel, came to get me and lead me to my room. It was room #31, and as long as I didn't end up needing a c-section, that is where I'd have the baby. The first hour, she took all of my information and I tried to stand up and do squats, etc. The contractions were SUPER SUPER strong and I found it even hard to stand. I wanted to sit, but the monitors would come off every time I tried to do that. So it was either standing or laying down. I knew I'd be laying down a lot, so I tried to stand as much as I could. Finally, at around 1:15 or so, I told her that I needed the epidural. The pain was wearing me down and I knew that since I had a long way to go, I needed to save some of that energy. I was very scared to get the epidural because of the poor experience I had with Eli's epidural (took three times to work and I almost passed out one of the tries!) but the anesthesiologist who came in assured me they would get it. It DID take a long time (felt like forever!) and during the administration of it, I questioned my decision about 100 times. I didn't feel like I had made the right choice at that time and was worried it wouldn't work. Finally, they got it in and all was instantly better. My legs got all tingly and the contraction pain went away. WOOHOO! Sadly, though, the contractions nearly came to a halt.. spacing out so I was having like one short one every 7 to 10 minutes. Booo. They didn't want to give me pitocin cause of the previous c-section, and I was fine with that. So they wanted to just wait to see what my body would do.

Here's the part where I got frustrated. From about 1:45 to 2:30, Mike and I snoozed. I found it hard to sleep cause i was really excited, but I did manage to get some rest. Then I started to get impatient. I felt like everyone was just sleeping (my nurse went on a two hour break... and I never even saw the doc on call) and no one was doing anything to help my labor progress. I asked numerous times if I should be changing positions, but they all said no. So I just waited... and waited.... til about 4:30. No changes, other than my frustration getting worse. Around 4:30, the contractions started to pick up a bit and I started to have hope again. We just kept truckin along.

My doc arrived at 8:30 am and checked to see my dilation. Between 2-3 cm. BOO - SERIOUSLY????? All that for NOTHING? The good news is that I was 100% effaced, though, and they assured me that was a significant enough improvement (I had been 80% effaced) to keep going. Fine. Onward ho. I had spoken to my mom already and she had left to come up to join us - yay! I'm pretty sure now was also the time when he decided to break my water, though that might have been later.

Contractions really started to pick up and I was getting hopeful. Every two hours or so, Dr. Lee would come back and check me and I'd be ONE cm further than the time before. It was a frustratingly slow process.

Around 3pm or so, I started to get an extreme pain in my left hip. The pain was constant but would intensify greatly when I had a contraction. It got so bad that I was crying and just couldn't get comfortable at all. It was horrible. My doc came in and called in the head anesthesiologist. They were both concerned that my uterus could be rupturing (the main worry when you have a VBAC) and were considering a c-section right then. They gave me 2 choices. C-section or repeat the epidural. i wanted neither, but the lesser of the two evils was to repeat the epidural. The guy doing it was THE guy, and sure enough, he got it in in about 4 minutes. Yay. The hip pain, thankfully, went away immediately. Whew.

It was becoming clear that my doctor was not going to be the one delivering this baby, cause he was going off duty at 5:30. Boo. He checked me right before he left and I remember telling him... if you tell me that I'm still at 6 cm, I'm going to lose my mind. The good news: I was at 9cm! WOOHOOOOO! This was the best news I had heard all day!!!!!! Hope again!!!! But there was still an anterior lip on my cervix and we had to wait for that to go away or else when I pushed, it would just get swollen and the baby would not be able to pass. Further waiting...and waiting.

And this is where I'll end part one cause I need to get some sleep!

Liam is one week old!

Dear Liam,

Today you are one week old! You've been home with us for 5 days now. I love you so, so much! I'm really cherishing every moment with you, even those not-so-fun middle of the night feedings. You're so tiny and I love kissing your little head and looking at your tiny little toes. Your legs are still all curled up so I can see exactly how it was that you fit inside mommy for all of those months!

*You LOVE eating. It's insane how much you want to eat. I think you'd eat all day if mommy would let you. Breastfeeding is going well this time around and you're eating for about 10-15 minutes per side.

*You're a pacifier kind of guy. To calm you down, we either give you the green pacifier or our pinky finger to suck on. This usually works for about 5 minutes and SOMETIMES you fall asleep.

*You're a pretty good sleeper! At night, you'll go four hours and mommy has to wake you up to feed you. (Dr. Grant said we only have to wake you up for one more week... then I can let you sleep sleep sleep!). You've been taking a really good 3-4 hour nap mid-afternoon which has been coinciding with Eli's nap! Yay! Rest for mommy!

*You HATE having your diaper changed or your clothes off.

*You LOVE looking at the window, the lights and the kitchen cabinets.

That's about it in the life of Liam right now!

Pinocchio

Just a quick entry cause I didn't want to forget this....

Our new "routine" is that every morning when Eli gets up, he comes into the living room (where Liam and I are currently sleeping since he's waking up several times a night to eat) and we let him watch Toy Story. This is in part to let Mommy keep sleeping (if Liam is! They've been getting up at the same time for the past three days!), in part to let us get breakfast going and in part just to keep Eli quiet for a little bit. Occasionally he asks to watch Madagascar, but it's usually Toy Story. I can't believe he can sit through the whole thing, but he can! Anywho - today I looked through the Disney movies we have and tried to change it up, asking if he wanted to watch Pinocchio. YES! was the response. (Yay - something new!). "Wanna watch Okeedokie-o" was what he kept saying, no matter how many times I tried to correct him. SO cute!

:)

Welcome to the NEW blog!

I was waiting to see if it would be a girl or boy to change the site.... I changed the title and picture so that it can be about BOTH boys. That's right.... It's a BOY!

Liam Rhys Flores was born on Wednesday, June 15th at 12:30am, weighing in at 7 lbs 12 oz and was 20.5 inches long. I was admitted to the hospital Monday night, so it took a looooong time for this little guy to make his appearance! It was all worth it, though, and I really love this amazing little guy. He's the sweetest little guy ever and I love every minute I get to spend with him... even those crazy times in the middle of the night. I take one look at Eli, running around, starting to have more and more opinions about life.... and I KNOW how fast the time really flies. I'm really trying to cherish every second with this new little one.

Liam will be a week old tomorrow... I can't believe it! He's still a tiny little guy who just wants to eat eat eat all the time. He sleeps well, too, thankfully, and will sometimes even give me four hour spurts of sleep! I'm supposed to be waking him up every 2-3 hours to feed him but that is SO tough in the middle of the night, especially when he's sleeping soundly. Thankfully there's only one more week of waking him up for feeds and then I can let him sleep as much as he wants to! (Of course then he'll decide to start waking up every 2 hours....).

Much, much more to say, but he just fell asleep and I need to get my zzzs, too. Eli has been a fabulous big brother so far and has been nothing but excited to see the baby. He gives him kisses all the time, wants to look into his little crib all the time, and even shares his toys and MILK (lol...he tried) with him. I realize things will most likely change when Mike goes back to work next week and he really has to share my attention, but for now I'll take it!

zzzzzzzzz......

The time is near!

Thinking this baby is coming sooner rather than later! Yesterday, I felt tons of pressure all day and had to pee every 5 minutes.... I think the baby is dropping! Last night was INCREDIBLY uncomfortable and I was having a lot of pain. Contractions? no...not quite... but extreme discomfort.

It's 5:40am as I write this and I thiiiiiiinkkkkkk I miiiight be having a contraction. Hmmm. Hard to tell at this point, and it only lasted about 10 seconds, but it was pretty painful. This could be quite the interesting day after all.....

Going to still go ahead and head into work. I have a doc appointment tonight, so if I make it, he'll let me know what's going on. Also, as much as I would hate it, going into labor at work wouldn't be the most terrible thing in the world.... Mike's there with me, Eli would already be at Lolo and Lola's and I'm only about an hour train ride (I know, insane sounding, but it would be quicker most likely than driving!) to the hospital. Hmmmmm.....

We shall see! Only time will tell, right?

:)

The countdown has begun!

The official baby #2 countdown has begun! I'm due in 8 days.... which still feels crazy surreal.

We had a doc appointment on Monday and everything continues to look great with the little one. The estimated weight at this point is 7lbs 10 oz, so hopefully this kid will stay around that point. I'd LOVE it if the baby was under 8 lbs. I was measuring right on target for the due date (which was originally june 18th, then 16th and now it's looking like it could be the 18th? who knows!) so that's good. We'll see if I make it to my next doc appointment on Monday. I've now gone from feeling pretty sure the baby would come early to thinking it will be right on time or late.

It's been REALLY busy at work (soooooo glad to be approaching maternity leave - only 4 days of work left and then I'm freeeeeeeeeeee) so I'm going to try to get some rest over the next couple of days. My hands and feet are starting to swell a teeny bit but that's really not bad, especially considering how hot it's been. Yesterday it made it to the 90s and it's supposed to be up there today and tomorrow as well! Too bad I don't have any maternity shorts or capris!

Eli is HUGELY into Toy Story right now. We let him watch Toy Story 3 (I ordered toy story 1 this morning, along with some buzz and woody pajamas) and he LOVES playing with his little toy story figures. He also loves Thomas the train and continues to ask about Curious George and Elmo...his old buddies.

Off I go to get a few things done!

Ravenously Hungry

So for the past three days or so, I've gone from being not too hungry (cause my stomach is so smooshed!) to RAVENOUSLY hungry ALL of the time. Seriously - I just ate two lunches and now, 30 minutes later, I'm hungry again. SHEESH. lol. It's like old times! :)

It has occurred to me that I need to change the name of this blog, because I don't think having two separate blogs would be all that practical..... though I feel bad that baby #2 won't have the same details written out.... he/she already has to share! Sigh.

I'm trying to do a good job of keeping up with the pregnancy pictures... I VOW to have tons of pics of this kid. No, there won't be nearly as many as Eli, because I took 50 million pictures of him, but I'm aiming for at least 20 million.

Today, cause the weather is so nice, I'm planning on taking the boys to the park for a picnic dinner. HA to Eli staying still outside or sitting on a blanket, but at least one of us will be able to eat at a time. Today's major project was deleting all of the pictures from both cameras and the videos from the video camera, so we're going to take the good camera with us and hopefully get some nice pregnancy shots. (Though it occurred to me that if Mike is taking pictures of me, Eli is totally going to run away.....).

Anywho.... back to enjoying my one day off from work while Eli sleeps!

Getting hard to sleep!!

So last night, I fell asleep on the couch somewhere in the 10 hour (I think? Maybe it was 11?). I woke up at 12 and was ravenously hungry/thirsty. It is SO SO SO not fair that I'm the thirstiest right before bed. I already have a teeny bladder.... and know that if I don't want to be up so much I shouldn't drink before bed, but I can't help it - I'm sooooooooooo thirsty at night. I could down a gallon jug of water if I let myself. Anywho - so I got up and fixed myself a small sandwich, drank tons of water and went to bed. I then woke up at 1:30, 3:30, 4:30 and 5:20 to pee. Lovely. At 4:30, I was wide awake, so I came out to feed the cats (who were meowing as if they haven't been fed in years). At 5:20, I was also wide awake, so I decided what the heck... I'm going to get up. I was starving again and figured a nice leisurely breakfast would be fun.

I know they say it's mother nature's way of preparing you for the lack of sleep you'll get with the newborn, but mannnn... it sure would be nice if I could get a solid night of sleep! (Without crazy dreams.... like the one I had two days ago where my cousin Emily jumped into a pool that hadn't been cleaned and came out wearing a rattlesnake that tried to attack us all. Uncle Tom and his sword to the rescue!).

So here I sit, at 7:09, enjoying the solitude and peacefulness that I know will soon disappear from my life! It's been nice having the morning to myself. I'm sure that the moment Eli wakes up, I'll be exhausted and will be cursing myself for getting up so early, but hey - that's what nap time is for, right? :)

It's a gorgeous day outside and I want to really enjoy the day with Eli. Ya never know - I'm due in 13 days!! It could be any day now. I worked this week on Sat-Sun-Mon-Wed-Thurs....so today is my only break for a few days. It could be my LAST day of just me and Eli! Hmmm....maybe we should go to the zoo. Don't think I have enough energy for that one! I've been wanting to take him up to the Cloisters (museum near us)... but to get there, there are TONS of hills. Methinks THAT is a no go. Have also been wanting to take him down to South Street Seaport.... but that means I have to take him on the subway, which means I have to carry him and his stroller up/down several staircases. SO... I think we'll just stay around here... maybe go for a nice walk around the park and look for some ducks to feed. :)

Hoping to have enough energy to have a little picnic in the park with the three (four) of us this evening!