Baby

Post image for Meg’s Update: 2 kids under 3, Jealous toddler, and Christmas

Meg’s Update: 2 kids under 3, Jealous toddler, and Christmas

5 a.m. is my new wake up time! I am sitting here watching the morning news, drinking coffee and not cursing the morning… this is how it was supposed to be with L. But, I can’t mourn the early days I missed with L because of postpartum depression- I can just keep living in the moment and enjoy these early days with M!

It’s amazing how different it can be between two children. Maddie is easy going, happy to be held but doesn’t mind hanging out in her bouncy chair watching me and L play. I don’t remember Logan every being that way…he was my grumpy little guy. I think someone up there was listening when I was fretting about having two under 5 – because I am actually enjoying myself!

Are you enjoying Maddies birth story posts? Next, I will be writing about how L reacted when we got home. It wasn’t good. But he is slowly but surely warming up to his little sister. He gives her occasional kisses, and yesterday he was helping her ‘play’ with her new toys by spinning things for her to watch. She adores him, though, I can tell. She’s a smily little baby, and when her brother enters the room she can’t contain the smiles. She especially likes it when he dances around – he’s going to teach her some moves!

I think it helps that my husband works from home, so when I have to concentrate on Maddie, he can take up the slack – Logan has been having a lot of daddy wrestling time, going to the store time, and visiting his grandparents/cousins time. It’s all about redirection, I am learning, when I see he is starting to get a little jealous or frustrated with Maddie all I we do is ind something for him to do where he can get a little one on one time with one or both of us. He’s still learning how to tell us what he needs, so sometimes the meltdown happens before we can get to him — but I think we are doing well with juggling two. 6 weeks in and we are finally getting a rythme.

How was your Christmas? Ours was filled with both joy and worry – My sister in law had her baby, but developed HELLP syndrome so she had to spend Christmas in the hospital sick. My mother in law also came down with that stomach bug that is going around. But Christmas with my side of the family went fabulous, complete with good food and lots of playing with new toys (for the grown ups and kids!). We usually spend Christmas Eve with my inlaws, so my husband was really bummed out so having a good Christmas with my side really helped. We are still worried about his sister, and hope she can come home soon and we can meet our new nephew. It was kind of a rough week, and he didn’t get a lot of sleep.

It’s been a long time since I have done a rambling post, and I wanted to update my bloggy friends! I also have a new design I am cooking up that will probably launch after the new year… I find that I get bored when L goes to bed and Maddie is sleeping so of course I started designing again! My creative brain is back after leaving for 9 months of pregnancy, ha.

Hey, you should leave a comment so I can come read and comment on your blog don’t you think?

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Birth Story 2

Madeline’s Birth Story Part 2: Happiest baby on the block

After the epidural (that I immediately regretted getting), we settled in to take a nap. It was 4 a.m. at this point, and my husband needed some sleep – I however sat in bed, staring up at a full moon, kicking myself for giving in to the stadol induced stupidity. The epidural wasn’t even done well, my left side was all tingly – nothing like the last time where I could move my legs. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep. For two hours I rested, and then about 6 I started to feel a lot of pressure…

My water then broke. After I told the nurse, she checked me and I was suddenly 6cm! At this point, I told my husband to call my mom and tell her it’s almost time. When he told her my water broke and I was 6 she squealed “We aren’t going to make it!” and hung up. 2 minutes later, I was complete. The doctor wasn’t there, but a very nervous and excited looking resident was — and the nurses started setting up for delivery.

Now this part is always amazing to me, how when the baby is about to come and your body just takes over — the epidural was almost all worn off so I could feel some pain, but my hypnobabies training kicked in and began to breath the baby out. With each contraction, I just let my body do the work and with every breath I could feel her head — and the pressure of it — moving down and…

Suddenly I was crowning. At this point Erin gave me “permission” to push. Halfway through the first push, my doctor came in, looked down and exclaimed:

“GREAT JOB! That’s the way to do it!” and gave me a smile and a thumbs up. Now you would think a woman delivering a baby would be annoyed by this, but I was in such a state that I actually laughed along with him. He called the resident over, who was already all suited up, and instructed him to catch. 2 pushed later, I grabbed her from between my legs and from the residents grasp.

She didn’t cry. She wasn’t blue, but she didn’t cry — you know the first thing she did? She picked up her little head off of my chest, looked up at me while I was telling her how much I loved her, and …smiled. Then, as I was helping dry her off, she wailed a few a times. After that, when her daddy started talking to her she turned her little head and gave him a grin too! Nope, I wasn’t still on the Stadol – she actually didn’t stop smiling the whole day:

Smiling at Papa

Smiling at nanny

All Smiles!

We stayed overnight one more night, and then was home the next day. I’m not one for hospitals, and I was very anxious to see Logan again! How did he handle meeting the new baby? Stay tuned for Part 3!

Here is Part 1 if you missed it!

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Post image for Her first week… 1 week old Maddie

Her first week… 1 week old Maddie

My newborn is one week old.

Maddie has proven to be my easy baby. Or, maybe the second time around you aren’t as phased by the lack of sleep – or you remember how fast they grow and want to soak every bit of them in. Even though I am sitting here in my bathrobe, ready to go to bed earlier than I have in a year – I’m not defeated by newborn baby wants and needs…and this is new to me!

Some things about one week old Maddie…

  • The only time she cries is when she is naked. Little girl hates being naked. Her sponge baths are particularly annoying to her.
  • When she wakes up to feed in the middle of night, she roots herself into the corner of the co-sleeper and makes little squeeky noises… no screaming, no frustration.
  • She’s so content all the time, and when she is awake she can’t stop smiling.
  • She’s such a cuddler.
  • Sometimes I wake up and she is just lying there, staring up at me with her big blue eyes – I love it.
  • She loves wearing hats, and when she is breastfeeding she has to have her feet touching something or she can’t concentrate.
  • She hates to be wet or poopy and usually wants to be changed right away.
  • She loves her swing, and her first dolly. Her eyes open wide when I shake the dolly rattle, and she reaches out for crinkly things.
  • She loves for me to walk around the house so she can look around, and when she sees her brother she lights up.
  • She loves the sound of her daddy’s voice, and gets real still when I sing to her…

She’s just a little angel baby! Can you tell I’m in love?

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Toddlers first Flu – Parents first sick baby.

So. Scary.

We have been pretty lucky. L hasn’t been terribly sick. Sure, he has had a miserable cold here and there (well, really, only once) and a minor ear infection. But never has he awoke in the night with a 103 fever, crying his “something is horribly wrong” cry – which I haven’t heard since his last immunizations – like he did last night.

I was surprisingly calm, while my husband was sent into a panic – though be in minor – it was like this wave of “you have to be calm so the baby doesn’t panic anymore than he is. Quick, get the thermometer and start checking things”.

We sprung into action. After a very very poopy diaper was changed, and his temperature was taken, I quickly stripped him down to only a diaper. I held him close and rocked him to sooth him back to the present. Eyes glassy, he looked up at me and gave me this “I am sooo glad you came” look. Of course I melted. I started singing him the “Don’t worry baby L it’s gunna be okay” song, and put some pedialite into a sippy.

I forget how thirsty you get when you have the flu. He, of course, sucked it down, and then two minutes later, of course, threw it back up. This of course put him into panic mode once again because he has never thrown up before. He’s only spit up before, and wow – throwing up is different! And man! It can go far!

I calmed him once again, while daddy went into cleaning mode. Something told me at 8:30 that night that I needed to go to sleep, because this is all taking place at 4am. My husband just thought he got a whole daddy night to himself! But he went to bed at 1 am. He isn’t so awake at this time, but in full panic mode.

We gave him some tylenol, and had him take small drinks of his sippy. He fell peacefully asleep in between us, uncovered, only in a diaper, and burning up. Wet washcloth on his head. My baby is sick.

He slept until 8 am (3 hours later) and woke up just looking awful. It’s heartbreaking. I have never seen the “Ohhhh Mama, I feel soooo bad” face before!

He got up, and snuggled on the couch to watch some Pocoyo and sip some more. Then some dry toast. He kept it down, and went down for another nap.

After a long 3 hour nap, he woke again to a 101 fever. Tylenol, washcloth, sippy, tiny bit of puke, and then cuddling.

The Tylenol kicked in, and at 3pm finally, and for the first time since the day before – we got a smile!

*phew*

He played quietly, sneezed up a ton of boogers, snuggled and snoozed with mommy, and ate a light dinner before falling asleep again at 8pm.  He just woke up again at 1am – the fever hasn’t come back, and his color (along with his very very wet didey) is back.

So needless to say we are spending the weekend inside, getting better (popsicles and jello are already stocked in the fridge!), and praying he doesn’t get any worse. I think we might be okay though.

Like I said, this has never happened before, I think I handled it pretty well. Starve a Fever and hydrate hydrate hydrate right?

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My baby is crawling! Baby’s first crawl

After rolling around on his head for 3 months, L has decided ENOUGH! I am going to crawl! He crawled a little bit, and I quick grabbed my Flip and this is what I captured:

…we immediately went to the store, and bought all the baby proofing supplies we could find. I couldn’t be prouder.

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previously on MaM