12/6/14 Home as a family of 4

I am really glad that we stayed 2 nights in the hospital. I think we needed the recovery time. They tell you to go home, rest, and try to do nothing for 2 weeks, but the number of follow up appointments that we have is a real hinderance to that. Only one of these appointments is my choice, and that is newborn pictures.

We came home Tuesday. My mom was here, had the house all nice clean and warm, and had made us lunch. It was very nice. She had a lot of boxes to move out of our leaking barn room down to her house, but said she was available if we needed her. I napped with Timothy, and Bryan dealt with Josiah, keeping him busy while we slept. The Bentleys brought us dinner and we got to visit. It was good to see them and nice to not have to worry about cooking. It sounds like Jason's new schedule, and Nike trialling working from home on Tuesdays, is going to be a really good thing for them. Remmy was pretty interested in Timothy and wanted to hold him many times. It was pretty cute.

Wednesday I had what was supposed to be an hour and 15 minute lactation consult that took 2 hours. I learned a lot about tongue ties and how Timothy's tie might affect him as he nurses and as he grows. The Lactation nurse was quite scattered and not a good communicator, so it was hard to get all the information out of her, but eventually I pulled out the pieces I needed. She didn't seem to understand my milk over production, so I quit trying to get information out of her related to that. I did get her to tell me about stool and what it looks like if the baby is getting too much foremilk, it turns bright green. After day 5, Timothy should have mostly mustard yellow colored stools. She talked about how injured my nipples were and then wanted to latch Timothy onto my more injured side without the nipple shield in a position that hurts the most for me. I declined to do that and did my own thing to nurse him. She must be so used to trying to check latching and teaching new moms the football hold that she was going to do it to me. I was there about his weight loss, my overabundant milk, and his tongue tie– not at all about latching or positioning. Timothy's weight had started going back up since we left the hospital, which I found very encouraging.  He was 7lbs almost 8 oz when we left, and he was a solid 7 lbs 8 oz at the appointment.  He had a 10% loss from birth weight, but he's not loosing any more. He is nursing longer, and there is plenty of milk for him.

After the long appointment, we had a nice lunch with Kisha at the soup and sandwich place just down the street. It was delicious and really good to see her and chat with her. I was pretty exhausted and had a hard time focusing on the conversation and keeping Josiah content, but I think I managed ok. We got home around 2pm. Bryan was able to get Josiah in his bed asleep, and I took a nap again. Laura picked up some groceries for us when she went shopping earlier, and she and Jess delivered them and visited in the evening. It was really nice to not have to go to the store for just those few things.  It was fun to hear of their Tulsa adventures and how Jess just took it all in stride.  Jess got rather jealous a few times when Laura was holding Timothy, but he got over it without her putting Timothy down each time.  He was even ok when she told him that some day this would be a reality for him to have a sibling.  It also took Jess a little while to be willing to go play with Josiah. He did eventually, but Josiah tried to drag him around and steal his snacks like he does to Remmy.  Jess has learned to fend for himself being around his cousins all week, so Josiah had a good lesson in not being able to force his way.

Thursday we had newborn pictures with Erin in Vancouver. We had to get there at 10, but I was shooting for before 9 so we could keep Timothy awake for long enough to be sleepy for the pictures. We left the house at 7:40ish and made it to the McDonalds near Erin's house before 9. We ordered some grease for breakfast and hung out in the play area to keep Josiah entertained. It was also an attempt not to bother everyone eating there if Timothy got really fussy, but there was a staff meeting in the play area.  The door said the hours for the play area were open, so I figured it was their fault for planning a poor location to meet and for not reserving the room, so we didn't try to be quiet at all. Timothy wasn't too unreasonable with is fussing.  He fussed and cried at times, but we figured out ways to keep him from all out crying the whole time. He nursed really well, off and on, until I couldn't wake him to interest him in on again. Then, Erin took over and worked her magic.

Watching the set up of one of the first poses

The resulting image

Set up with colors I requested

The resulting image

Set up for the hammock pose

Hammock pose resulting image - I LOVE this!

Josiah was not at all cooperative with a laying on the floor sibling shot, so we just entertained him until he was done with a Cliff bar snack, and then Bryan got him to go to sleep in the carrier. He got Josiah laid down where Erin had planned the sibling shot, and we have a shot of both of them asleep together!

Sleeping Josiah

The pose.  I don't have the resulting image yet.

Bryan trying to get Josiah back to sleep for another pose.  No luck, but a cute memory for me of Timothy's not so big brother. 

She did a lot of amazing ones. It's always amazing to watch her work.  Bryan spent part of the time at a coffee shop/ kids play place with Josiah.  It all worked out really well.  We didn't leave there until 3:30.  My mom invited us over for dinner, so we didn't have to figure that out.  We ate delicious spaghetti, then left Josiah there and went home.  My parents said they could keep him busy for a while for us.  I was so grateful to get to go to bed early!  I nursed Timothy and was asleep by 7:30ish. I woke up to hear my mom bring Josiah home around 9, but I didn't get up.  I just stayed in bed until morning. Well, except I get up and pee and take meds and change timothy's diapers and nurse him and stuff. But, even with intermittent sleep, I got quite a bit. I have been successful in nursing Timothy with the shield laying down, which helps me feel even more rested.

Set up i have yet to see the finished image of

I think my mom will love this one.

Friday was Timothy's 1'st Dr.'s appointment.  It was at 10:20 and took about an hour. The doctor was pleased with his weight gain.  He is up to 8 lbs 11oz. She said his tongue tie isn't horribly restrictive, but it could help me with nursing him to get it clipped. She set up a consultation Monday with an in house Pediatrician who does the procedure. She'll look to see if he needs to be clipped, and if so, she will be able to do that right then.  We don't really see any down sides, and would like to do it if it helps him eat without injuring me.

While waiting at the Dr.'s office I attempted to take a picture timothy's blue eyes. Fail.

Before heading home, we went to REI for some webbing they didn't have, and to Costco so we could have more easy to prepare food in the house. We had hot dogs for lunch. Gotta love feeding a family of 4 for $4.50. We played with Josiah and tidied up a bit when we got home. Bryan had a chiropractor appointment at 5pm on 28th and Burnside, so he tried to put Josiah down for a nap for me before leaving to minimize the amount of time I had to spend managing both kids on my own.  It worked, and Timothy and I fell asleep as well! It was a glorious long nap too. I woke first after an hour and a half and got to eat a meal and work on the birth blog before Timothy woke up.  I got Timothy mostly nursed before Josiah woke up. Turns out Timothy wanted seconds. So he cried a bunch while I got Josiah up and took him potty.  Josiah played nicely while Timothy ate more, then it wasn't long before Bryan came home.  He set up the house for "pizza night".

40 weeks Timothy is here!

We had my parents over and ate pizza, chicken, and salad. We watched some YouTube clips and passed on the movie since it was past 9 when we would have started it. It was nice to just be home and not have a long drive afterword. Their house would have been just as nice and no dishes for us, but not as warm or as many places to sit as their wood stove still needs the pieces to connect the pipe and they have yet to move the majority of the furniture.
Today has been the first day where we didn't have to be somewhere in the morning.  It is so nice! Also, even though I went to bed late. Timothy let me sleep from midnight to 5 and from 5:45 to 9am!!!! So I am pretty well rested in spite of the late bed time last night. The Halls are bring us dinner tonight so we don't have any prep for that. We have just relaxed and played with Josiah.  Bryan napped while I worked on writing all of this down for my memories.

It was great to visit with the Halls. We had fun trading babies and watching a football game. At one point Josiah saw Melissa and I both holding a swaddled baby and he wanted one too. So, he went and got Billy (the doll) and tried to swaddle him, but mostly he just mummy wrapped his head. Papa helped him do it right, and he excitedly took the swaddled doll to his rocking chair and rocked him for a while. It was really cute.  Ellie really enjoyed the Christmas tree.  She just stared and stared.  It was a very nice evening. I am so glad they came!

2nd Pregnancy Reflections

I find myself looking back though my blog posts and pictures trying to remember what it was like last time I was pregnant and how it is different this time. I guess I need to keep blogging because I want it for my own memory.
We are pregnant again. What a miracle this time. We weren't trying. We had decided not to prevent or even chart on a calendar just because we had to have fertility help to conceive Josiah. Then one day nursing started to hurt.
(Yes I made it past teeth and past 1 year and stopped at 1 year 2 months when it was hurting so bad from pregnancy and when Josiah was getting so fussy and not nice about nursing. There was one awkward prenatal appointment with a lumpy breast exam due to backed up ducts because it had been almost a week. That same day when we got home before nap, Josiah asked to nurse, he nursed nicely we both enjoyed it and it was the last time. I expected it would be and already thought we were done when he asked that day. The ducts were all unplugged and we both have a good memory of the last time for him.)
I avoided taking a pregnancy test for a while, thinking I was imagining symptoms. When I could ignore them no longer, I realized that, if I was pregnant, the due date would be very close to Christmas. Thanks to the timing of my own birthday, I was not thrilled about that idea. After a day or two of that fear I finally used a due date calculator and found out the date would be the first week of December. I decided that wasn't bad at all and so the next day I bought a few dollar tree pregnancy tests (figuring I'd have more scares like this each month). The test was positive right away. I actually brought the test out so Bryan and I could watch it change together. We spent the morning talking about potential baby names and didn't tell anyone even family for a few days while we got used to the idea.

The stats:
due: December 5, 2014
2 kids under the age of two
gender: found out it was a boy (after the only name we could agree on was a girls name)

name: we have had a lot of trouble with this but will probably go with Timothy Jacob Wright since is the only thing that hasn't been thrown out by one or the other of us.
symptoms: at first nipple pain, then nausea and lots of it didn't go away till 22 weeks, but no vomiting, tiredness, and rapid first trimester weight gain (7 lbs in 12 weeks...)
social: Katie and Melissa also pregnant with girls. Katie's born in August and Melissa wasn't due until October 8th, but delivered in early September.

Josiah and Natalie. 

Josiah and Eleanore. 

I have been seeing the midwives at Providence Maternal Care Clinic since we moved to the country on the east side. I will be delivering at PPMC. I think it'll be ok, but if I had a different choice I'd probably choose to be some place where I don't know so many people. The prenatal check ups have been great and just the way I like to receive care. They give me information and let me make decisions. 

Now that I am 32 weeks along I am having some complications. It keeps being changed what it is, but I think we are settling on some partial bladder prolapse, or decent or something. It is causing parineal bulging and discomfort. I have been assured that my cervix is up where it belongs so the baby is safe, and that isn't the problem. I just have to go to OT for exercises and maybe some day need a bladder surgery to hang it back up where it belongs.  I have a lot of contractions braxtin hix mostly but I had one hour of real ones. The real ones were probably related to the uterus needing more oxygen and me being a bit anemic. My hemoglobin count was 10.8. Good hydration, careful positioning when sitting, and iron supplements have helped. I am way less fit than last pregnancy, maybe not less active, but I sure can't run or move quickly and I think stairs are worse than they were before.
I haven't had any troubles continuing to work yet though! I am hoping to squeeze as many work days as I can in before the baby comes to maximize my available work time. I will probably end up with 3 of my 4 months of leave unpaid. If he comes on time or early and I am feeling up to it we will probably try to travel to California for Christmas to see my Dad's family and to see Bryan's family, since this is probably one of the only times I'll have this much vacation around Christmas.

Being pregnant with a toddler has proven to be hard for me. I try not to lift or cary him much because the pressure makes the bladder thing worse. It is hard to have the energy to keep up with him and to have the creativity to keep him busy and happy without over wearing myself out. The late summer weather has been a blessing since we can be outside so much. He loves to be outside and doesn't mind playing out there with me just sitting and watching. It's been fun watching him with babies. He seems to love them and want to snuggle them and pat on them like he does for affection, just sometimes a bit too hard. He doesn't seem to understand why we pat my belly and say baby and not his or anyone else's. He also doesn't get why each boob isn't also a baby. We'll see if he figures it out before his brother comes.

5/13/13 Lazy Day

We have been gone from home so much and so busy, that we decided to just rest today. So we got out of bed around 11am (well actually I got up several times before that, I just didn't stay up until 11am). We ate a leisurely breakfast and puttered around. I got a text from Laura saying we should hang out, so I went over there for the afternoon and we talked, played with babies and sewed. It was nice. I got some more burp cloths finished for Nike, and I cut some flannel to surge the edge of for a swaddle blanket. Josiah tested out Jess's (note: Laura checked and this is grammatically correct due to the 's' making a soft sound. So, you add an apostrophe 's' to make the 'z' sound to make it possessive) activity mat. He sure got a kick out of talking to himself in the mirror.

While sewing he got a bit fussy after laying on the floor for a while, so I borrowed Laura's Moby Wrap to calm him down. It worked; he slept some in it and was happy until he got hungry. I wasn't finished with what I was working on so I decided it was time to get creative. I have heard people say that you can breast feed a baby in the Moby. Josiah has pretty consistent head control now, so I just loosened everything while he was in the newborn hold and got him down to the right level and scooted him a bit over to the left and he went to town. I thought it might be uncomfortable, but it was fine, and he was happy, so I finished my sewing project.

He's nursing in this picture

sleepy smiles before bed

 

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5/11/13 Downtown

Josiah was so tired from only short naps and all the in and put of the car and in and out of his carrier yesterday that he slept for 8 hours. He went to sleep late at 10 after we got home from my parent's house. We tried to get him to sleep there but it didn't really work. Bryan was up tinkering trying to fix his old iPhone. He stayed up till 5am messing with it because he thought surely Josiah would wake up for his bottle soon but he never did. I fed him when he woke up at 6 am. He woke up once after that but settled with a pacifier and slept till 9 for another feeding. Too bad Bryan didn't get all that sleep.

he can almost suck his thumb

We left the house around 2 and took Max downtown to Saturday Market. We had fun looking around. We are some snacks and got a couple trinkets.

at the spoon man shop

 

We walked from there to Powells Books, and looked around there for a while.

 

Josiah was pretty hungry but I couldn't find a suitable place to sit and feed him so we went to noodles and company for dinner and I nursed him there. Crazy that I could find a place at Saturday market, but not at Powells. At the market I just sat on a cement riser and put my feet up on the stroller. Powells was just full on people every isle and stool was crowded and the cafe had people at every table. It worked better to nurse him at the restaurant. After dinner we meet Laura and some frients at Cupcake Jones just a few blocks down.

diet sized cupcakes

 

We got cupcakes and took them to a near by fountain in the pearl because there was no seating at the cupcake place. It was just as nice to sit out in a park and chat with friends.

 

They continued on to the Rogue, but we decided to go home since we had been out and about for so long already. We took the street car to the max and home.

On MAX, Edwina's first time on a commuter train.

Josiah's first time too.

 

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