7/27/10

23 and 2

Today Blythe is 23 months and Jericho is 2 weeks. Saying that time is flying by is an understatement. So many things have happened in the last 2 weeks, I just haven't taken the time to stop and document them so we'll have to back up a little bit.

This time last week when Jericho was 1 week old I had in mind to do a 1 week photo shoot similar to the one I did with Blythe, but the stars didn't align just right and that didn't happen, but I did get a few cute pictures of Jericho in an ice cream bucket!

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Turning a week old is a big deal in this house so Blythe and I made chocolate chip cookies to celebrate!

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Jason and I wanted to do the baby hanging from a tree in a sheet picture, but by the time we got around to trying it the sun had gone down and we didn't have a tree branch that worked so we'll have to try again soon or wait till the next baby.

Jason has been trying to finish painting the outside of the house and he has set Blythe up with her own painting station.

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We had another downpour today and Blythe played in the rain. At first she wasn't sure if she really wanted to get out in it. She stood on the top step and let the rain hit her hand, then her toes, then her head, and finally she committed to the second step which meant her entire body was in the rain. She looked back at me with a huge grin. She found sticks and leaves and floated them in the puddle of water that collects at the bottom of the steps. She ran from one side the the lawn to the other laughing and giggling. I was afraid that she would be scared of the thunder, but she was content to run back up the steps when she heard the thunder and shout to me "thunder," then she would run back down the steps and into the rain.

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Jericho enjoyed the thunderstorm in the bouncy seat.

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Sisterly Love:

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Sitting Up

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Playing Dress Up (this is a 6-9 month outfit)

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7/19/10

Adjusting

I have attempted to sit down and write this post several times, but hey that's life with two.

I am not an emotional pregnant person, but I certainly get a flood of emotions after the birth of a baby. Jason came to the conclusion when Blythe was an infant that it seemed like I was more emotional on days when I made more milk (i.e around growth spurts) and when my milk was first coming in. I think he hit the nail on the hammer with that one. The first couple of days I thought I was doing pretty good and thought to myself 'o.k. I guess I get to bypass the crazy emotional, cry for no reason period with the second one.' HAHA....my milk just hadn't come in yet.

As I mentioned before it was a tearful goodbye to Blythe as we left for the hospital and each goodbye while we were at the hospital didn't get any easier. Somehow Blythe understood that Mommy had to stay at the hospital, but she didn't understand why daddy had to stay. I thought when we said goodbye she would be crying for me (she is typically a mommy's girl), but nope she was crying for daddy. Blythe is very sensitive to my emotions so I did my very best to not let any tears fall while she was still in the room; oOtherwise, the lucky ones who were going home with her would hear her saying "mommy o.k?" fifteen hundred times. Certainly the hardest goodbye was on Tuesday night because I had never spent a night away from Blythe. I knew she would be fine, she LOVES her Mamo, Ladi, and Papa, but it was hard for me to say that goodbye. Luckily I did not spend the rest of the evening thinking about it, in fact to my surprise by the time Jason got back from taking her down to the car I wasn't thinking about it anymore. Knowing that we would be home mid afternoon on Wednesday I asked the grandparents to not bring her back to the hospital as I didn't think we needed another goodbye.

I thought that once I brought Jericho home Blythe would insist for me to do everything for her and I figured I would feed Jericho and then pass her off to spend time with Blythe. The reality was that Blythe wanted NOTHING to do with me. I couldn't get her water, couldn't take her potty, read her books, nada. It was hard not to feel like she was mad at me, but I knew that everyone was going to have to make some adjustments and things would get better. At this point she had more interest in Jericho than she did in me.

Each day has gotten a little bit better. Each day she relies on me a little bit more and even request that I read books, rock her, etc. Even though I have had the privilege of doing all these things everyday for 22.5 months it feels so good for her to ask for me. Last night was the first night that she let me rock her and I sat in there and just rocked and rocked, all the while with tears streaming down my face. Happy tears for the bond that I know Jericho and Blythe will have. Sad tears for this adjustment that Blythe is going through, but I know is for the better. I always wished I had more siblings and I know how much fun siblings can be and that it will all be worth it in the end. Being the second born, its hard to admit that there is something special about that first born child and that there is no way that the second one will get the same treatment as the first, but that doesn't mean the love isn't just as strong. [Don't worry I have the calendar for Jericho and it will have something written in it everyday for the first year, just like Blythe]

Blythe is doing pretty good with Jericho. Of course she has to be reminded to touch gently, and that the bouncy seat if for light bouncing and not supposed to be used as a sling shot to shoot Jericho across the room (no she hasn't catapulted her out, we always strap her in). But mainly she just loves on her. She gives her lots of kisses and asks to hold her. She really likes the idea of holding her, but there's something about holding her that she doesn't like. I don't know if she is too heavy on her legs or too hot or what. She sits down and gets the boppy all ready and says "hold it the baby, right there," and points to her lap with the boppy, but then instantly decides she doesn't like it. Oh well we will figure it out.

Today Blythe and I had our first mommy first born date. We ran up to the library to get a book that was on hold for me and to pick out a few new books for Blythe. It was great and I think Blythe felt special to get to go with just mommy, although she asked about Jericho and Mamo several times. Just as we had left the library Blythe asked for Nilla and it dawned on me that we forgot her inside. Right then I said a little thank you that I only had Blythe in tow as unloading both girls to go back into the library to collect Nilla would have been a lot bigger ordeal than just Blythe. Mental note to self: do an evaluation of everything that toddler drags in and reevaluate before leaving!

Jericho is adjusting well to life outside the womb. The first night I have to admit I was a little worried because she was fussy and my memory of Blythe was that all she did was eat and sleep, but since the first night she has fallen right into the newborn routine of eating, sleeping, pooping, peeing, and a few wakeful moments.

7/16/10

The Birth of Jericho Skye Wilkes

It was 8:00am on Tuesday July 13th and I hadn’t been up for more than 15 minutes and daddy was still sound asleep when my phone rang. I didn’t get to it in time, but we had a message from labor and delivery asking us if we could come in earlier than our original 10am scheduled time. I quickly called them back and told them we could be there around 8:30am. I was already less than thrilled with having to be induced so not having to think about it for an extra 2 hours sounded good. I woke up your daddy and told him to get moving because we were going early. We already had our bags packed (for almost 2 weeks now) so all we needed to do was eat breakfast and say our goodbye’s. Daddy and I each ate a bowl of cereal, I poured a to go cup of orange juice since the Bradley method recommends fresh orange juice after birth and we forgot with Blythe, but I wasn’t going to forget this time. Pappa and Daddy loaded the car and it was time to bid our farewells to your big sister, Blythe. I think I did a pretty good job of holding back my tears when I said goodbye to Blythe. This would be our first night away from each other and let’s face it at 41+ weeks pregnant and about to give birth my hormones were probably doing all kinds of crazy things. The three of us (Daddy, Mommy, and Blythe) smiled for our last pictures as a family of 3 and off daddy and I went to the hospital.

We only live about 8 minutes from the hospital which was just enough time to discuss the fact that we really wish we didn’t have to evict you and that you could have come on your own, but we understood the risks of waiting any longer and of course we were excited to meet you. When we arrived at the emergency room it was under construction and there were zero signs. We looked at each other and said “this is still marked as the emergency room entrance, but where do we go?” We were directed by a man in a hard hat to a small door around the corner with a teeny tiny sign that said “Emergency Room Entrance.” Daddy and I were both glad we didn’t have a REAL emergency because the signage was more than lacking. I got out with a few of our bags to check in and daddy went and parked the car. I signed my name on a few pieces if paper and then I was headed to Labor and Delivery room #8. I stepped onto the elevator and my heart began to race. Racing because I was nervous of what ‘induction’ had in store for me and racing at the thought of the beautiful baby I was about to have. I had a “duh” moment when I first entered labor and delivery….I attempted to open the door, pushing on them several times and then realizing, oh yeah you have to press the button, then I pressed the button and stood back thinking that the doors were automatic until I finally saw some arms flailing at me to come in (apparently I wasn’t alone because your daddy did the same thing just a few minutes later). I told them my name and they promptly took me to L8 and asked “are you here by yourself today?” I wanted to say “ARE YOU CRAZY?,” but I politely said “no, my husband is parking the car and will be here shortly.”

Two nurses met me in L8 and directed me to my attire for the day: the oh so lovely and always WAY too big hospital gown. I tried to call daddy to tell him to come straight to L8 instead of back to the emergency room entrance, but he didn’t have his phone within ear shot. After I put on the enchanting attire I was directed to lay in the bed and they hooked me up to the monitors to monitor your hear beat and my contractions. They then started talking about Pitocin and IV’s, etc. and I quickly thought wait, wait I haven’t even had a chance to share our birth plan or to let these nurses know that we do NOT plan to follow the typical birthing plan of medication, pitocin, etc. I explained to them that I thought we were just inducing with breaking the bag of waters, but apparently I had misunderstood what Dr. Sanders had told us the previous week. Dr. Sanders had explained that this wouldn’t even truly be an induction because you were already head down and engaged and I was dilated to a 4. He said that usually when you induce someone their baby isn’t engaged so you need to give them pitocin to force them to have contractions to bring the head down before you can pop the bag of waters; otherwise, you run the risk of the baby falling down onto the umbilical cord. So from that I incorrectly concluded that we weren’t going the pitocin route and we were just popping the bag of waters. Luckily the nurses didn’t argue with me and just went and called Sanders who then called me and explained to me that he needed to have a few contractions on the monitor before breaking the bag of waters just to make sure you were indeed as lodged as possible and your umbilical cord was free. He did reassure me and tell me that we would do the lowest dose of pitocin. Right about then daddy walked in and I explained the ‘new’ plan. We both just looked at each other and sighed; even though this wasn’t exactly the birth we had in mind we were ready to meet you!

The nurses got the IV in and the machine pumping the pitocin around 9:20am. I have heard so many negative things about pitocin and how it is so powerful and makes your contractions unbearable etc. that I was a bit nervous what the next few minutes/hours would hold. At this point my contractions weren’t anything more than they had been (not painful, but lots of pressure). I asked Daddy to set up the music and suggested that we listen to the ELI party mix instead of starting with Enya since we could be here for a while. We sang along to a few songs, laughed at each other, posted a status update on Facebook, got the video camera ready, and by then it was 10am. I wasn’t sure when to expect Dr. Sanders to come by to break the bag of waters, but he was there sooner than I expected. By 10:10 my bag of waters had been broken and now it was just a matter of time. Within 10 minutes of my bag of waters being broken my contractions changed. Daddy and I were still being goofy, but this stage was quickly coming to an end. I had daddy take one last picture of me hooked up to the pitocin machine.

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We went to the bathroom and by the time we got back to the bed I looked at daddy and said “this is getting more serious,” and he responded “hey, I am the coach, I will make that call.” Haha funny daddy, but that’s the last joke. After a few contractions we went back to the bathroom to make sure I wasn’t working against anything and we labored on the toilet for several contractions. This is a less than ideal laboring place for me because my feet didn’t touch the ground so it was very hard to completely relax. Daddy put his feet up under mine to help bridge the gap between my feet and the floor. Despite the discomfort it is a good place to labor when your bag of waters is broken/leaking and when the baby is making its way down the birth canal.

By the time we got back to the bed the contractions were getting pretty intense. I felt like I was having back labor so daddy tried to help me relieve it, but in the end I was better off left alone. The back rubs in between contractions were very nice, but during the contractions I needed to be on my own. Apparently when you are on pitocin they want to monitor you at all times and not just a 20 minutes strip every hour so we were only able to take the monitors off for 5 minutes when we went to the bathroom. The heartbeat strip had fallen down so the nurse came in to fix it and I had to make her wait to mess with it until I wasn’t having a contraction. At this point she asked me how the contractions were (I knew she was checking to see if she should increase the pitocin) and I told her that they were getting more intense and that more pitocin was NOT needed. About 2 contractions after she fixed the monitor I was really uncomfortable and tried a few new positions, but none of them were relieving the back pain and in the end the side laying position was the best. I looked at daddy and said “I remember this, this is bad, why did we think we wanted to do this again?” Daddy reassured me and told me I was doing a great job. Not too long after this I was really feeling like I couldn’t relax at the peak of the contractions, but I wanted to make sure that was the case so I made myself go through two more contractions before asking daddy to ask the nurses to check me. Daddy started to walk out the door to get the nurses and then he turned back (thinking, maybe I should get her to do a few more contractions) and when I saw him turn back I yelled “GO, I don’t care if I am not ready, I want them to check me.” I was slightly nervous to be checked because I really didn’t think that it had been long enough for me to be at this point, but on the other hand I knew this feeling and it really felt how I remembered it feeling towards the end of Blythe’s birth. At this point we had had little to no communication with the nursing staff and in all fairness I hadn’t been communicating with daddy all that much because it was all happening so fast. Daddy poked his head outside the door and said “can I get someone to check her?” The nursing staff said “oh sure, she wants to know where she’s at?” Apparently just 2 minutes before Jason poked his head outside the door Dr. Sanders had called up to the nursing station and said that he was on his way and asked if he needed to drive fast. They told him that not only did he not need to drive fast, but that he didn’t need to come. Dr. Sanders had warned them that last time once my bag of waters broke I moved really FAST. I think I had maybe 2 contractions before then nurse came in to check me and those two contractions were significantly more intense than the ones before. She checked me and said I was at a 7 and then another nurse to the side of me said that I would probably have this baby in 30-40 minutes. I thought to myself ‘o.k. I can do this.’ Then the next contraction happened and I had a ‘I am not pushing, but my entire body is pushing’ contraction and luckily the nurse was still there because she quickly saw that this baby was coming NOW! The nurse beside me was yelling at me to “blow out the candle, and not push because my cervix would swell.” Daddy quickly leaned over and said “listen to your body.” The nurse asked me to roll over on my back and I remembered from my birth with Blythe how painful that was so I told her no. After another contraction she didn’t really give me a choice and I was rolled over and they were telling me to push. I pushed twice and within 4 minutes and about 4 super painful super explosive contractions you were born. Daddy and I looked down and saw that we had another beautiful baby girl; finally we were a family of 4!

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7/12/10

False Alarm

This one is a real stinker. As if being 2 weeks late isn't enough now I have to be teased with labor? After being up till 5am with non painful, just lots of pressure contractions, I finally fell asleep. I woke up at 7am to...NOTHING...no more contractions. GREAT. Now I have been up all night and I have nothing to show for it...perfect way to start out with a newborn.

I went to my non-stress test at 9am and the baby still looks great and has plenty of fluids so its not a problem to wait to induce till tomorrow AM.

I am hoping for a decent nap today...we shall see what Blythe has in mind for momma on our last day. So far it hasn't been anything too exciting. It was 11am before I got back from the doctors office and we put the finishing touches on the cinnamon rolls for tomorrow morning. Not sure what we will do after nap, guess it depends on how much gusto this momma has.

We WILL meet you tomorrow Thing 2....we love you, but you are really giving us a run for our money.

Labor?

Yes the time on this post is correct. It is 3am and I am awake and on the computer. I really haven't been asleep tonight and I know I will pay for it, but alas the prospect of being in labor has me awake and happening. OK the happening part is a stretch cause lets face it our house is small and I certainly don't want to wake up Blythe and no point in waking up Jason until I KNOW it's labor. I have been timing contractions since about 10pm and they have been anywhere from 4-8 minutes apart and lasting for 30 second to a minute, but they are NOT painful at all. I never had 'early first stage' or 'pre-labor' with Blythe so this is a foreign territory for me. But I can now see how one might be able to play a card game or a game of yatzee, with Blythe it was a 5:30am wake-up call to full on painful(ish) contractions. Perhaps I slept through this part, but since I was awake when this stage started there has been no turning back. Somehow I convinced Jason that it was probably just nothing and he is in there snoozing away, but that is a good thing in case this all turns out to be nothing but pre-labor and I need him to be on duty tomorrow while I sleep :).

I know I really should be putting forth my best effort to sleep, but part of me doesn't want even the slightest chance of these contractions to go away. I have been waiting and praying for this for weeks now! I started writing down contractions at 11:45, I just had to get up and write them down just to make sure I wasn't losing my mind and because I don't think Jason had a chance in hell to fall asleep to me pressing the indigo light on my watch every 4-8 minutes :). I timed till 12am and then attempted to sleep.....that didn't happen so then I decided that I was hungry so I had a snack, drank some water and then tried to lay back down, but then I had the urge to walk around....hello where the heck am I going to walk around at 3am?? I know that is supposed to help speed up labor, but that isn't very realistic in this house at this hour.

Here is to hoping that these contractions pick up in intensity so this is full on labor and so this little one can come into the world on his or her own accord and not be forced out!

7/9/10

The little things

We are trying very hard to enjoy the small little things in life these past few days. We have enjoyed the slightly cooler weather in the morning brought on by the chance of rain, the speed in which little freshly painted toe nails dry on a hot summer day, the fun that can be had with a simple boppy pillow, the amount of fun you can have when mommy barely turns the water hose on, and the list goes on.

Mamo came into town on Wednesday to help distract us and to see if possibly her presence would entice #2 to come out....no luck :(, but we did enjoy your company and were sad to see you go.

Wednesday afternoon I had my 41 week appointment complete with a non-stress test and an ultrasound. The non-stress test gave great results showing the baby responded as it should to contractions and movement. The ultrasound also yield good results showing that the bag of waters is still plentiful. I am a solid 4, the baby is head down and 'ready to go.' Unfortunately we had to bite the bullet and set a worse case scenario date for induction. That date is Tuesday the 13th at 10am. As you all know we are the natural type and would really prefer this baby to come on its own, but at this point I will be pleasantly surprised if he or she comes before Tuesday.

Wednesday evening we got to celebrate Ian Hartl's second birthday with the Hartl's and Romansky's. Its hard to believe that our first little Bradley baby is already 2 and the others will soon follow.

Thursday evening Jason and I decided to take advantage of my mom being here and had a date night. If you remember from the past we usually are not very successful when it comes to date night (movie brakes half way into it, choosing a bad movie, etc). Well, this one was no exception. We tried a new eatery that is supposedly known for their chicken fried steak and we would say it was sub par at best. We then decided we would go bowling, but of course Thursday nights just happen to be league play and there was nothing showing at the theatre that we wanted to see. We ended up making a quick trip into Walmart (a store we both hate, but they have these specific kids rubber bands that I wanted to get to put Blythe's hair in a ponytail) to get a few non-exciting items like q-tips, rubber bands, and shampoo/conditioner. Since Walmart is right next door to Lowe's I conceded to Jason's request to walk around Lowe's and we concluded our 'date night' at Hastings where we rented Where The Wild Things Are. I bailed on the movie about half way into it and went to bed.

I wish I could say that I am still up beat and positive and looking at the glass as half full, but to be honest this 'late/past the due date' whatever you want to call it really SUCKS. I am tired of being tired, I am tired of wishing I had the energy to do more fun things with Blythe, I am tired of waking up every 2 hours to go to the bathroom only to realize that it is another night that I am not in labor. I am tired of waking up each morning to another day without the baby. BUT we are healthy, have great family and friends, and hey we have an end date. From this I have learned that next time the date I am going to put in my head is the 42 week date because no doctor will let you go past that and then I won't have to play this psychological game. Physically I am fine so if I had a 'due date' of July 13th in my head none of these feelings would be here and it just seems so silly to let this arbitrary date rock our world, but alas it has.

The 1.5 mile run I went on yesterday morning, plus the prenatal massage, plus the 20 minutes of pumping have not, thus far, yielded any results. I ran again this morning, I figure I have nothing to lose and heck even if we make it till Tuesday (which I am counting on) I will at least be in better shape going into the birth.

So today is to the small things that we forget to enjoy everyday.

Have a great weekend!

7/6/10

What we're doing now that we are over 'due'

The short answer is that we are doing anything and everything to keep busy and to make our last few days/weeks with Blythe special. I would be lying if I didn't admit that I have had a few brief pity parties. Not because I am in any real physical discomfort, but simply psychologically. I only allow myself a few brief minutes to go down the "why am I so late, why does this baby need longer, is everything o.k., why am I not holding this new baby." Then I pull out my big girl panties and pull 'em nice and high to remind myself that these are all arbitrary dates and there is so much to be thankful for. I remind myself that I would MUCH rather be late than too early, spending time in the NICU. I remind myself that in reality these last few 'over due' days have been great family days.

Tomorrow is my 41 week appointment where I will do a non-stress test and they will take a look at the baby to make sure that he/she is still happily baking in there. A very small part of my brain drifts over to the 'if the non-stress test doesn't come back with good results then we will get to see baby soon,' but the realistic and more powerful part of my brain hopes that this little one will be able to make his/her grand appearance on their own. These 'due dates' make you selfish, but I am not going to give into it, nope, I am going to keep enjoying friends company, living every day as though it will be our last as a family of 3 and pray for the safe, healthy, and God timed addition.

Out of curiosity we went back to look at our chart from Blythe and compare her conception date to her incubation time with this one. Results = based on conception date this baby would of had a due date of July 5th and would have been born on July 4th if it was in the womb the same number of days as Blythe. All that really should make me feel not so 'late,' but when you have had the 1st in your head for 40 weeks and then you do this analysis its not exactly that easy to reset yourself psychologically, but like I said physically I am doing exceptionally and I have to assume the one in the womb is doing the same.

So what have we been up to? We have had many dates with the hose:

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We celebrated the 4th of July at the neighbors house poolside and then made a late night showing of fireworks held by the George Bush library.

We took Blythe for her first McDonald's experience simply because they had an indoor playground and I thought she needed some exercise (according to Jason this is very white trash, but hey we did it :)).

We have invaded friends houses in the evenings to let our littles play and we have enjoyed friends at public pools.

This baby will eventually decide to grace us with his/her appearance and boy will there be a CELEBRATION!

And here I am at 40 weeks
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