3 weeks

Hard to believe its already been 3 weeks since Avery was born! On one hand it feels like just yesterday she was born, and on the other hand it seems like she's been with us forever.

I think its obvious that i've been too busy to update the blog as frequently as I used to. I imagine after this newborn stage passes that that might change a little, but I wont make any promises. ;)

Things have been busy around here with a newborn and a busy toddler. Jadon is getting more comfortable around Avery, he gives her kisses alot. But at the same time, he can get a little aggressive with her, and I think that stems from frustration over me holding her all the time. Miss Avery likes to eat and sleep, and when she's not doing that she is usually crying (loudly!!) From about 5pm until about 10:30pm she eats almost constantly (cluster feeds), so I am pretty much confined to the rocker all evening long. She sleeps pretty well at night...knock on wood.

Shes also creating a lot of laundry for me. She only poops about 1-3 times a day, and so when she does go, she makes quite a mess all over her clothes. She has already stained almost all of her newborn clothing already.

I do miss Jadon alot since I dont get to "see" him as much as I used to. So doing the things that we used to do together are really special now when i'm able to do them... like reading before bed, and cuddling in the morning. On monday, my wonderful husband made Jadon and I get out of the house together while he stayed home with the baby. So, Jadon and I did some shopping at the mall, and then went to the library for awhile. It was good for both of us to get out of the house together. The first 2 weeks after Avery was born, I felt so horribly guilty that pretty much everything in Jadon's world had changed so quickly. There were several early mornings when i'd be up nursing Avery and Jadon would wake up and come to our bedroom, and Derek would take him back to his bed crying because he wanted to be in mommy's bed too. I'm sure he doesnt understand why he is the only one in the house who is not aloud to be in our bedroom at night. Anyways, there were several of those mornings where i'd just be sobbing in bed while I nursed Avery because I felt so guilty and I missed cuddling with him in the mornings so bad.

Derek has been amazing these last 3 weeks. I dont know what I would have done without him. He had to go back to work on thursday, and I was really worried how things would go with me alone with the two kids, but things have actually gone pretty smoothly so far. I've managed to get both the kids down for naps at the same time so I have some free time in the afternoon.

Thats pretty much how things have been for us in the last week... just getting to know Avery and her temperment, learning how to handle 2 kids instead of one, and helping Jadon adjust to the changes as painlessly as possible.

Overall, I feel pretty darn lucky and blessed though. I have a wonderful husband who is also a wonderful father, and two beautiful children. Its weird to think that last year at this time I was about to have my 4th miscarriage (november 1st.) I remember wondering if we'd ever have another baby, and I even started imaging that we might only have one child. Now, here we are a year later and we have a beautiful, 3 week old baby girl. Never in a million years did I imagine that this is where we'd be a year later. I am blessed!

Well its taken me 3 weeks to complete this 3 minutes slideshow, but hope you enjoy it!

Avery's 2 week appt

We just got back from Avery's 2 week appt. She is doing very good. She is now 21inches long, and weighs 8lbs 6oz. Yes, thats right... in just 9 days she gained just 1 oz shy of a pound. Little piglet!! Since she has been eating so much, I managed to lose all my pregnancy weight in 11 days! She is literally sucking the pounds right off of me!
On the downside, the doctor instructed us to not leave the house unless we have to. They are seeing alot of really nasty bugs all of the sudden that are not good for tiny babies. So Jadon and I are going to have to get creative at home after Derek goes back to work, since we are going to be stuck at home! I might have to make another run to Michael's craft store! :) Darn, too bad! ;)

Another successful haircut

Jadon's got his daddy's hair, and anytime their hair starts getting a little longer, they look like they are wearing helmets on their heads. They were both in need of a cut, so last night, Derek helped Jadon overcome his fear of the hair cutting clippers, and gave Jadon a buzz. We are very proud of him because this has been a HUGE fear of his since he was about a year old. Here's some pictures of my brave guy:

Then, in another moment of bravery, Derek decided to buzz his hair also. I dont have a picture of that yet. They both look much better! I'm not a fan of long hair on either of them since they have such bushy hair.

Avery's Birth Story

Our long awaited baby girl arrived on Oct. 8th! She weighed 7lbs 9oz, and 19 1/4 inches long. Derek and I were both surprised she was so short... Jadon was 19 inches when he was born and that was 5 weeks early!
Having a full term baby is a completely different experience to having a preterm baby. We were able to leave the hospital the day after she was born, and we didnt have to deal with any issues that come with preemies, ie, jaundice, difficulty breathing, trouble maintaining body temp, etc.
Jadon has been doing really well. He was really having a hard time when we were in the hospital, but I think he was worried about seeing me in a hospital bed, and the whole hospital setting. He has really warmed up to Avery too since we have been home, and now he seems to really love her.

Anyways, the birth story! I'm not sure where to start really. I had about 2 contractions a day for about a month leading up to the delivery. A week and a half before she was born, I was 3cm dilated... a week later, I was dilated to 3 1/2 cm, and she was really moving her way down. The day before she was born, I woke up with alot of pressure down there, and I kept having these pains (they didnt feel like contractions... it felt more like the pressure would momentarily increase drastically for about a minute). All day I had them, although I wasnt convinced they were contractions, I still timed them several times throughout the day. They were very irregular, and ranged anywhere from 7 minutes apart to 18 minutes apart, and even almost completely stopped that afternoon. By late evening, they were getting more painful, but I STILL wasnt convinced it was contractions, but I was convinced that the baby would be coming soon. We went to bed that night, and I continued to have these pains all night, and probably about 2 an hour and they would wake me up from sleeping. At 4am, I was woken up by a particularly painful one and right in the middle of it, my water broke. I woke Derek and told him my water broke, so he starts getting ready to go to the hospital. I was still not convinced. My pains were still very irregular up until then, and I could still function through them for the most part, so I didnt think it was quite time to go to the hospital. Derek insisted we go. I convinced myself to go as well because I was not feeling the baby move at all and was really worried something was wrong. We left the house about 4:15am or so... while in the car, the pain was beginning to get worse, and started to become regularly 5 minutes apart. Once at the hospital, everything went downhill. The nurse asked me to go the the bathroom and change into a gown... While I was in the bathroom, I had 3 consecutive contractions with no relief between them.
The nurse checked me, and I was dilated to 5cm. About 5 minutes or so later, I felt like I needed to push BAD! I yelled to the nurse that I felt like I needed to poop. She checked me again, and I was fully dilated. It was time to go!! The doctor wasnt there yet, so they had the hospital midwife come in and monitor things. I think they tried to get me to not push much since the doctor wasnt there yet, so I did alot of panting, but the urge to push overcame me several times. Finally the doctor got there right as the baby was crowning, and I think I only pushed once or twice after she got there! At 5:28am, our 2nd little miracle was born!

Let me just say, I had been planning to get an epidural for the delivery, but obviously when you dilate 5cm in 5 minutes, theres no time for ANY pain meds! So, she was born completely naturally. I'm proud of myself, but at the same time, IT HURT!!!!!!!!! Unfortunately the recovery wasnt as grand as they make natural births sound... at least for me. I was doing alot of bleeding, so they put me on pitocin to help me contract (that hurt), and gave me a shot of something in the leg to help with bleeding also. Also, as soon as she was born, my blood pressure shot up for awhile so they had to monitor me for awhile.

Thats all for now! I'll post more later when I get a chance!

Baby poll

So, in looking at the baby poll, I was trying to figure out how to decide who wins.... My first thought was the person who got the closest without going over (like the Price is Right.) So far, that would make Ashley the winner! Ashley, how bizarre that you were the only one to choose an overdue date, and yet as long as I don't go past the 14th, you're the winner! :)
Of course, then we have to figure out who got the closest weight/length as well! At my last appt, the doctor guessed she was between 7.5 and 8 lbs- totally average. Of course, thats just a guess that can be off by a pound or more; there's no way of knowing how much the baby weighs just by feeling her on the outside.

I'm still in shock that she hasn't arrived yet!

Almost 40 weeks

Had another appt today. I'm now 3.5 cm dilated and baby's head is really dropping.
Woke up this morning with an unpleasant headache that has now turned into a migraine. I'm not very thrilled about this... but I guess I have to finish out this pregnancy with a bang.

labor induction

Well, I dont think the full moon is going to induce my labor tonight, but I may have just potentially triggered it on my own! Ok, probably not, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did!

I was in the garage putting away some groceries in the pantry.... one of the bags of groceries was full of bags of cereal, and had been sitting in the garage for awhile unemptied. Well tonight I was putting them away, and a spider was in the bag but I didn't know it. I pulled out a bag of cereal, and the spider was on the bag, and it dropped down from the bag and brushed my hand. Wasn't just any old spider... it was one of the big brownish/blackish ones that I am absolutely TERRIFIED of... and it was HUGE!!!!!!!!!!! When I saw it in the bag and realized what had just taken place, I flipped out, ran out of the garage hopping around like a jumping bean, shaking every limb on my body, squealing. Derek just stood and watched me for a minute. He knows of my intense fear of those kinds of spider, but I dont think one has ever actually touched me, so I don't know that he has ever seen me freak out quite that bad over one... to be honest, I dont know if I have ever had a reason to freak out that bad over one. Anyways, after feeling and seeing that spider, i felt like I could have ran a marathon in record time... I had so much adrenaline pumping through me, I didn't even realize I was hopping around like that, and for the first time in 9 months, I think I completely forgot that I was pregnant.... until Derek said "well that might get your labor started!"

39w3d

No news. Sunday there is a full moon, so i'm keeping my fingers crossed! I know, i'm starting to go to the extreme, but honestly, time really seems to be standing still. To make things worse, my sciatic nerve is hurting now, and I can barely walk sometimes. I've been spending alot of time sitting on the heating pad, which really doesnt help much. Then I start to feel like i'm going to go nuts from not doing anything, so I get up to do something, and just force myself to do things through the stabbing pain in my rear.
Well, thats it... nothing new... still no sign of the little lady making her grand entrance!

Still going...39weeks 2days

Still no end in sight. Starting to actually wonder about going OVER my due date, which is a really really strange thought, considering I thought she'd be close to a month old already! Months ago I remember joking about her being overdue, but never thought it would actually happen... now i'm beginning to think twice about it happening. It definately seems like a good possibility now.

Derek and I have been praying for patience because time just seems to be dragging by at slower than a snails pace. At least I know she's getting a nice layer of fat on her... wont have to worry about any preemie clothes this time around, thats for sure! Hopefully we wont have to spend any time in the NICU either!