Mothers and Lovers Beware!!!

So Todd came home from school the other day with a horror story. He was talking to one of his friends at school and she was telling him about her sister. Her sister has a 3 month old baby. She's a nursing mom and Mother Nature had not brought back her monthly gift yet. Well it seems she wasn't being super careful about certain actions she was engaging in. Now she is pregnant!!!!! So, unless you want little ones that are 12 months apart, be careful!!!!!! :-D

-Emily

Bumbo Chair

When is it okay to start using the Bumbo Chair? Hadley is holding her head up really well now. I can carry her upright on my hip and her head stays steady, and she is starting to try to pull up to sitting when she is laying on the floor and holding onto my hands. But she isn't quite 4 months yet. Should I just put her in it and see how she likes it?

--Amanda

Isaac's big day!

We celebrated Isaac's first sacrament yesterday! Isaac was baptized at our church, St. Matthews yesterday afternoon. It was so special because he wore the same baptism gown that I wore 29 years ago. It was hand made by my aunt, and hopefully one day I can pass it on to Isaac for his kids to wear. Isaac was adorable and wide awake. He didn't even cry when the monsignor poured the water over his head. I was such a proud mama!!! Happy Easter everyone! ~Andrea

On the mend

It looks like Isaac is getting better! He's had no new outbreaks of his MRSA, and just has to finish his antibiotics to be in the clear. We'll have to continue to watch him carefully, since the majority of babies who develop MRSA infections will have a continued risk of getting reinfected. One good thing about living at the pediatrician for the past week is we can track Isaac's growth and ask all our little questions that pop up randomly. Isaac has already almost gained 2 lbs in just 3 weeks! He's now 9lbs 1 oz. I was worried maybe it was too much weight gain, but the doc says you really can't overfeed a baby, and thankfully, Isaac doesn't really spit up much. The one thing we do have MAJOR issues with is how fussy he gets, especially between 6 and midnight. Poor baby just has the worst gas issues!! My milk never did come in, so we're now using the most gentle formula possible, but now the antibiotics are tearing up the poor little monster's tummy. Other than gripe water and gas drops, have any of you guys found anything that helps with the fussiness/gas? The thing we're finding that works the best is keeping Isaac on his tummy until he falls asleep, and then we flip him over to his back to be safe. He's just more comfortable that way. I just don't want to continue that in case he gets to used to sleeping there. He's just in so much pain and cries for hours if he's not on his tummy. Hopefully, once he's off the meds, hopefully, everything will work itself out. Any advice would be great!! ~Andrea

Work Frustration!!!

Oh my goodness, if anything might make me cry about going back to work, it's my pump!!! I HATE pumping while I'm at work. One of my problems is my schedule. I have to pump 3 times while I'm at work. The main problem is the first time I have to pump. I interpret at 2 different schools. I start at the elementary school and have 27 minutes between when that class ends til when the next class at the middle school starts. But my drive time is about 15 minutes. Which means I have 12 minutes to get in the building, set up, pump for 15 minutes, put the milk in the fridge, and get to class. I don't know if you noticed, but that is IMPOSSIBLE! I did try once to pump while driving. I have a hands-free bra to use. It worked but was definitely awkward. Especially trying to figure out where the seat belt should go! But my car charger stopped working. (I guess the machine is trying to tell me something!) So....I now have to wait to pump til I get to the middle school. I worked it out with the teacher that I would be late every day (they start with a warm-up so it's not too big of a deal) but it's such a pain!!! And then I have to pump during my lunch and then during my planning period.

Luckily, the assistant principal agreed to practically move out of his office so I could move in. He now calls it my 'lactation factory.' So far we haven't had any overlapping of needing the office, except for Friday during my planning. That worked out because Todd and Molly brought me lunch and I was able to feed her!

I take a cooler with me with string cheese and apples and crackers and water and other stuff to eat while I'm pumping so that helps a lot. I'm trying hard to be healthy.

Luckily I only have 8 weeks left and then it's summer break!!!!

-Emily

Back to work!

Ok, so I'm finally updating after my first week back to work. I must admit, it was easier in some ways than I thought it would be, and harder in others.
For my next baby, if I'm working, I will definitely try to go back to work on a Thursday instead of a Monday. That way I can work on the routine for a few days but then have the weekend to recuperate before my first full week.

I'm glad I went in late on Monday. We had Molly's 2 month doctor's appointment and she got some of her shots. That wasn't fun but I'll write about that later. I got to go with Todd to drop Molly off at Greer's and that made me feel a lot better. It helped that Greer has kept Molly several times prior to me going back to work so I was very comfortable with that situation. Monday at work was pretty easy. I thought about Molly a lot and looked at the picture album I had with me constantly. But I knew she was in good hands with Greer and Todd. I did leave work as soon as the bell rang though and made record time home!

Tuesday was harder. First off, my alarm was set for 6:15am and of course Molly woke up hungry at 6am. I know 15 minutes isn't a big difference but I was really missing the option to press snooze at least once! Anyway, I fed her and put her back down and I got myself ready for work. It was really hard to leave the house with both Todd and Molly asleep but I knew I had to go. Todd took Molly to daycare on Tuesday. That was really hard for me. I realized that the reason I was so hesitant about daycare is that those people don't know Molly, and I don't know them! The way our schedules work, Todd was going to be dropping off and picking up Molly from daycare. I wasn't going to get to know her caretakers at all! As luck would have it, Todd had a late meeting on Tuesday so I actually got to pick her up!!! It was good to meet the women and they were very friendly and told me I was welcome to call anytime during the day if I worry about her.

I was pretty sure Wednesday would be my hardest day. I was soooo tired! More so, in a different way, than when I was pregnant. For that very reason, we had asked Todd's mom, Page, to come on Wednesday to help out. She was a wonderful help with getting laundry done, and cleaning the kitchen, and taking us to dinner. And of course Molly loved having her GramPage around!

Thursday was actually the worst day in turns of exhaustion. And it was another daycare day but I was already feeling better about that.

Friday was the best because it was Friday! I was so looking forward to starting my weekend that I had a lot of energy during the day.

So all-in-all going back to work after having a baby is very doable. I wish I had a job that I could use my lunch break to go visit her at daycare but unfortunately that's not possible for me. But it's ok. I've really enjoyed being with my friends again and everyone seems happy to have me back. I do wish it was either for only 4 hours a day instead of 8, or every other day, but it's ok. I do love my job and am happy that we were able to work it out for me to go back to work.

-Emily
p.s. I do have one major frustration about going back to work but that will be the next post!

We brought more than just a baby home from the hospital

I had no clue what diaper rash looked like, but I was confident in my deductive reasoning skills that if Isaac had a rash in his low, below regions that I could call it diaper rash and treat it as such. Well, we hadn't been having any problems down there until about 10 days after we got him home from the hospital, and these sores that looked like pimples started appearing around his groin. Yuck...I know. I didn't think it looked like diaper rash, but what else could it be. We treated it with diaper rash cream for two days, but there was no improvement and more sores were popping up. After my friend Google and I found some pictures to help me diagnose it, I immediately called our pediatrician because it could be a bacterial infection. Joy of joys!! We took him in on St. Patty's day and while the doctor said it didn't look bacterial, he would take a culture just to be on the safe side. He sent me home with an prescription ointment and told me not to worry. Well, they call me today and let me know...Isaac picked up MRSA from the hospital! Based on the location of the sores, he probably contracted it during the circumcision. Poor little baby. We're starting him on heavy duty antibiotics, but as Oprah will let you know, this infection is freaky and scary and as a new mom I am totally worrying. At least we get to try out our skills taking a temperature (yuck!) We also get to totally scrub down our house and do about 500 loads of laundry during a time when all you want to do is sleep, even for just 5 minutes. The kicker in all of this is that while the hospital gave this infection to my son, we'll still have to pay for his birth and all the follow up care. If a car dealer messed up your car during routine maintenance, I don't think I would paying for his services. Why should health care be any different? The meds that Isaac on will also give him some nasty side effects. I think this is going to be a very long ten days. I'm just pretty overwhelmed and hoping that this isn't going to be as bad as I think. ~Andrea

Baby Food

So ladies, I am probably not alone when I say, I have no idea what to do about baby food. Originally I was planning on introducing it around 6 months old. I had heard that any earlier could run the risks of Andrew developing food allergies. I have been reading a bunch of boards online and have heard so much information. Some moms are starting a little before 4 months and others are waiting as long as 1 year old! I was thinking to myself “I know you are excited, but really are you that impatient you have to the whole messy baby food picture you cannot wait a few more months?!!”

We just had his 4 month check up so I brought it up to his doctor for her opinion. She told me what the old theory was, start solids at 6 months and this is the order...rice cereal, veggies, fruits, meats...and then said that there was some new research on how you should actually start solids earlier than 6 months. In fact if you wait much longer they say it might actually trigger some food allergies. There aren’t too many guidelines to follow, and I can pretty much start with anything I wanted when I thought we were ready. She encouraged "super foods" that would provide more nutrition like avocados, and oat cereal... So then I asked her what she would do in my position. She said with all her children she started with these so called "super foods" and she had looked at the research and it made sense to her.

So now I am in limbo. I want to do my own research and I will probably wait a little longer, maybe around 5 months before we start, but I was curious what you guys were planning on doing and why. If I am planning on starting him at 5 months I got to figure it out fast...He is almost 4.5 months old now :)

mel

So Funny. . .

So Hadley is starting to learn to grasp things and is trying to figure out how to hold her bottle. She will put her hands on it, but then she can't keep them still long and the bottle flies out of her mouth. Formula flings everywhere! Today she even got it up her nose. Then she gets frustrated and cries, and the cycle starts all over again. It is making feeding time take a lot longer and get a lot messier, but it is so funny! I could not help but laugh at her today--she furrowed her brow at me for that.

2 months old!!!

Exercise Frustrations!

Most of you know that I consider myself an athlete. I've always been athletic; I played volleyball through college and have been a coach for the past 3 years. In the past, when I've gone to exercise dance classes I've considered myself to be near the top in coordination and energy level. I've always been that obnoxious girl that likes to be in the very front of the class! :-D

Well, last week I went to a class called Group Groove. You can imagine what it's like: Top 40 music with workout and dance moves, lots of hip action, etc. I was pumped....and then the class started. I felt like I had never swayed my hips in my life! Things were shaking that have never shook before, and never should shake again! I have never felt so uncoordinated! I almost moved myself to the back of the class. They were shimmying and jumping up and down and I wanted to cry and laugh at the same time cause it hurt my boobs so bad! I'm not sure how those Baywatch lifeguards run with those things flopping around!

Now I know, intellectually, that I had given birth to my daughter a mere 2 months before and I shouldn't be expected to immediately be able to do all the things I could do before I was pregnant. But emotionally, I was a wreck!

So, the first step is to get a new sports bra. A girl in our New Mama group recommended bras from Title Nine so I think Greer and I are going to order some and check them out. Next step is to keep going back to the classes. The only way I'm going to get back in shape is to keep moving!

Here's to hoping the weather gets warm again and stays warm so we can start walking outside and enjoy the sun!
Emily

Reflections on a Rainy Day

Isn't it great how rainy days make you reflect on and enjoy the simpler things in life? Hadley was napping while I was holding her upright this morning after one of her feedings and I took her up to the nursery to *attempt* to put her in her crib. But then I looked outside at the rainy day, and I thought, I don't have anything else to do today, especially since it is raining, so I am just going to hold her. I ended up holding her for three hours while she slept peacefully in my arms, and it was just the most wonderful thing! I just never imagined what it would feel like to want so badly to protect someone from the ways of the world, and yet I know that one day she will grow up and make her own decisions and I will not be able to protect her. I just hope that I can give her the foundation she needs to make the right decisions when the time comes.

Can she stop growing up already? Can't she just stay this small forever?

--Amanda

Clarification

I posted a clarification to my comment to Andrea's comment.

--Amanda

letters

I want to try and write semi-regular letters to Laine as she grows up, both for her sake and for mine. I know there will be so much that I forget about how she was and how I felt and all of the little things that brought so much joy or so much frustration. So I figure she will be able to use them for insight into what it was like for me to be her mommy, and I will have them as a way to remind myself of what these crazy first baby times were like! I figure between this blog, my personal blog, and these letters, I will have pretty good documentation!

Here is the first one I wrote her for her upcoming 4 month "birthday": http://greercaldwell.blogspot.com

same old frustration, just a few months later than the rest of you

Star light, Star Bright
First Star I see tonight

I wish I may,
I wish I might,
Have my milk come in tonight!

That's right, it's been over a week and still no milk. I'm pumping like a mad woman and only get about 4 ml per session. As births go, we had a pretty traumatic one with a lot of blood loss, plus pitocin, so I knew my milk coming in would be delayed - but this is extreme. I'll be meeting with the lactation peeps tomorrow, but honestly, I don't know what else I can do. Isaac is already use to both a bottle and formula since there is no way I could have fed him with just what I'm producing, and he doesn't do great with latching on so pumping has been my only option. It's frustrating and disappointing, and I'm trying not to feel like a huge disfunction. I know in the end whatever makes my baby happy is what matters, but it still doesn't make you feel good when you pump fruitlessly. Grrr. ~ Andrea

Time is flying by---almost 3 months already!

As you can tell from the pictures, Hadley is finally starting to enjoy tummy time now that she can pick her head up. I have also been propping her up in a sitting position a little bit lately, and she loves it! She just holds that head up high like she is some kind of hot shot!

We've been experimenting with letting her sleep without the sleep positioner, and boy is she a wiggleworm. Tom put her down on her back facing one way, and within a few minutes she had turned 90 degrees the other way like a hand on a clock. Sometimes in the middle of the night, we wake up because she is making so much noise and wiggling so much. But when we get up close to check on her, we realize she is fast asleep. I guess she sleeps like a lion instead of like a lamb . . . it's about time to make the move to the crib.

--Amanda

Canada, eh?

So I'm thinking we should all move to Canada, eh? I had posted something on Facebook about how sad I was to be going back to work in 2 weeks. One of my girlfriends, Canadian, commented on how surprised she was that I was going back so soon. Intrigued, I asked her what it was like in Canada....(make sure you're sitting down when you read this)...and I quote:

"girls, if there was any reason to become canadian, mat leave would be it! i'm a teacher and i get 6 weeks full pay immediately and then we get one year leave (government funded). it's a percentage of your pay, but it's still a good chunk."

I mean really?!?!?! Who's moving with me?!

-Emily

It started with a trickle and ended with a POP!

Just when I had come to peace with the fact that I would be overdue, Isaac surprised everyone and came exactly when he was due! It started on Saturday with me cleaning like a mad woman. The house was already pretty clean, but I just had to rake the front yard, wash the floors, and scrub the shower. Looking back, I guess it was overboard. Since the house was nice and clean, Adam and I decided to go out to a nice lunch and then go and play some mini-golf. Right as we started on whole 2 (which I got a hole in one!!) I felt like a peed my pants. I thought it was just the excitement of actually getting the ball in the whole, but it just kept coming. It was so embarrassing!! I went to dry off, and after another 15 minutes, I was soaked again. I still wasn’t completely convinced, so when we got home I laid on a towel and called the doctor who said to come in to the hospital and get checked out. I kept thinking they would send me home, “Silly pregnant woman ~ she just can’t hold her pee!” Luckily, it really was my water that had broken and we were admitted at around 6:00.

They started me on my antibiotic (I am GBS positive) and pitocin since they wanted to get the baby out within 24 hours and checked me out. I was 2 cm, 80 %, but I was contracting on my own; I just couldn’t feel them even though they were only 4-5 minutes apart. After hours of no progress and contractions now 2 minutes apart, I got an epidural so I could sleep. Within 45 minutes, I went from 2 cm to 5 cm and 90 % effaced. I think I just needed to relax for some progress to be made. Adam and I were able to get some sleep until around 3 AM when my epidural started causing me some issues.

So, while the epidural was a complete blessing, it also caused us a lot of drama!! Isaac did not like me in any position except flat on my back! His heart rate dropped really low when I was on my side, so I was confined to my back for all 20 + hours. I didn’t really mind, but it made the epidural really only effective on one side, and that side was literally dead!! I could still move my left side and feel the contractions (a minor version of them,) but I could feel NOTHING on my right side. They said when it came time to push, they would just lower the level so I could feel my legs some more. It sounded like a plan to me, until I got checked at 7:15 AM. Good news—9 cm, 100%, and 0 station!! Bad news— while sliding down to get checked, my epidural actually came out!! I have so much more respect for Emily, because I have never felt that kind of pain ever in my life. Maybe it was the shock since I didn’t build up to the pain, but I felt EVERY contraction in full force for an hour before the anesthesiologist could get back to put a new epidural in. Looking back, I should have just sucked it up and gone for it without drugs, but I was crying for the epidural so much that they gave me one that just about took away all feeling, and by this time I was ready to push. We tried at 9 AM, and I just wasn’t effective with the lack of feeling in my body. We took an hour break, and they cut back on my meds, and we started trying again. At 10:05, the doc pulled out the vacuum to help Isaac and me as I was pushing. Luckily, he just popped out after about 9 pushes with the vacuum’s help.

Isaac Bishop Coleman was born at 10:24 AM on February 28th. He is 7 lbs, 5 oz and 18 inches long. He is the most wonderful thing I’ve ever been a part of and I am so in love. My favorite thing is watching Adam and my little man cuddle. Even right now, they are getting their skin on skin time, and it just brings tears to my eyes. There is nothing to say, except that I am in love.

I know this was long and drawn out, but this is also my way to remember what happened. It’s all a blur, but it was so worth the 20 hours. ~ Andrea