He's here!

My cousin Jenny just had her baby this afternoon at 4:20pm! He was a big boy...

Gavin Matthew
9lbs. 11oz.
21.5" long

Congrats, Jenny and Kirk! Too bad they live all the way in Texas and I won't get to see him for a long time. Pictures soon hopefully. :) Wait...maybe I should have posted pictures sooner too...I'm working on it!

slowly....slowly

Slowly but surely Hadley is putting on the weight she's supposed to. And after I typed that I realized I haven't posted since Christmas so I'll have to post about that later. It was the quietest Christmas on record which was not the worst thing ever, but we sure did miss our families back home. More about that later.

Back to Miss "I only eat and gain weight when I want to" Hadley. We went in for another weight check yesterday and were hoping for a 3-4oz gain (or a gain of 1oz/day) and just barely got a 2oz gain. That's 0.5oz/day which is only half of what we were looking for. We chose not to supplement as the doctor had asked us to (1oz of formula after each nursing) for several reasons: 1. Hadley choked like crazy on a bottle I tried to feed her of breast milk when I pumped Friday to make sure I was getting enough for her, 2. The syringe of milk didn't go much better, and 3. We felt like she wasn't in dire straights in terms of weight and it was labor intensive for all involved with the supplementing.

That said, the doctor was rather confident in the fact that we should get labs done for Hadley and make sure her liver/kidneys are functioning appropriately. I looked at her with pleading eyes and she sent me to the lab. Without Adam. And fully prepared to cry my eyes out b/c Hadley would be hurting. So off we went and low and behold, Hadley again pulls out front for being my favorite baby/infant and didn't cry a peep when her foot was poked. She finally got mad about half way through her foot being squeezed like crazy and then started crying but by then I was fine b/c I knew she wasn't in pain, but was just mad. Score.

At 5:30pm, the doctor called to report that the labs came back fine. Woo! We are going back on Friday again (what ELSE is there to do on Ts/Fs?) for another weight check and are looking for another 3oz gain (1oz/day) by Friday. I'm going to put my guess in at 2. If it went by tenths, I'd be looking at 1.5oz. Either way, I'm no doctor but I'm almost positive she's fine. Off we go...time to wake her up for another feeding. Poor kid. She'd hate me if she could remember that I had to wake her up all the time. ;-)

One other thing real quick...last night Morgan and I were trying out her new bike from Santa AND the helmet (Morgan - "Don't 'get my helmet!!") and I told Adam if he was free (he had Hadley) he should come see Morgan b/c she looked so grown up on her bike...and on their way down the stairs I heard the terrifying sound of falling. I screamed and found Adam and Hadley on the stairs seeming like Adam had just sat down, but in fact had fallen down I don't know how many stairs. Hadley did some silent screaming, Adam was rather sore, but after everyone calmed down (meaning me and Hadley), we figured out that Adam was amazing and had cushioned her just the right way and paid for it with a sore elbow and heel. Lots of thankful prayers were said that the fall went the way it did and wasn't a forward fall. Terrifying nonetheless. Yikes.

Ok, off to wake her up for real this time...sorry baby...

Hadley's Birth Story

Finally...I'm forgoing sleep/nap to post this because I'm scared I'm going to forget and that's something I don't want to do in the least especially since this was such a pleasant experience. (yes it's possible! but only thanks to an epidural, I swear. I'm no hero, folks.) (ps. it's a long one)

And here we go, Hadley's birth story...

Before Friday, Dec. 9th, I was starting to seriously doubt my midwife's (Kim) firm belief that I would go by the weekend. Nothing had changed, I was still at 1cm dilated and 80% effaced - I'd been at this stage since 36 weeks (so roughly 2-2.5 weeks). Then, Friday morning came. I was at school working my tail off to try to get last minute things done "just in case" Kim was on to something and around 10am I discovered that some "things" had changed a bit. (let's just say it was a little sign that something's about to change. I'll leave it at that.) By around noon, I was pretty sure I was slowly losing my plug and some of my normal braxton hicks contractions were starting to get a little stronger. Nothing that made me stop in my tracks by any means, but they'd changed.

I started timing them just to see if there was a pattern and b/c it helped keep me focused on work and not sitting around waiting for the next one (b/c what if this was it?!). They ranged from 4-13 minutes apart and were by no means regular although I'm not going to lie, the 4 minute ones made me jump a little...I went to my afternoon meeting and was able to get through it fine without letting on my excitement that maybe things were changing. I went home to get Morgan and wait for Adam to get home from work.

Once Adam was home, I told him a bit about it (although I'd kept him posted all day) and that the contractions were getting a bit stronger. We decided to go out to Applebee's and make the night special for Morgan again, "just in case," and right when we sat down, I had a long, hard contraction that had me unable to talk much and breathing through it a bit. We got through dinner with a few more that weren't quite that intense and had lots of fun with Morgan before bed. I gave her a bath, Adam did bedtime, and then around 8pm, we started timing the contractions again b/c they were getting more regular and strong every time. I was pretty sure we might be going in later but wanted to wait.

I called Kim shortly before 9pm and just told her what was going on - all contractions were somewhere under 10 minutes apart (varied) and hurt enough to make me breathe through them to some degree. I continued to maintain that I didn't know if "this was it" or not and she said if it turned out I couldn't sleep through them, I should come in to be monitored. However, she was pretty sure I was in labor and would see me later. I was to call her before we left so she could meet us at the hospital. (ps. I LOVE Kim. I'm so lucky to have had two amazing medical professionals to have my babies with...but Kim was exceptional.)

My dad was planning to come visit this very weekend and got in around 9pm. I managed to be able to walk and breathe through contractions and he had no idea about them until right before we all cashed in for the night at 10:30pm and I told him, "Ok, Dad, things have been a little "squeezy" today so if, by chance, we have to go in to get checked and see if I'm actually in labor, this is what's going to happen (Morgan to Mary's, told him about feeding the dogs, etc). By about 12:30am I gave in and had been unable to sleep and breathing through each contraction while resting in bed. Walking around helped but they weren't going away so I told Adam it was time. We finished packing bags, I woke and told my dad (who was quite shocked - he didn't really realize/know that I was that close!), and brought Morgan to Mary's on our way to the hospital.

We got there and they hooked me up to the monitors. Hadley was a stinker and liked to dodge the heart monitoring machine but was doing well once they found her regularly. We were there about 1-1.5 hours before I was checked and Kim announced I was 5cm. I did all but hoot and holler b/c I couldn't believe I'd made it that far on my own and was still rather alert/coherent during contractions. Don't get me wrong, there were a few that tested me but I really concentrated on breathing through it and Adam my monitor watchman was amazing at letting me know when they were coming back down so I could focus better.

I was VERY eager to try the tub and see how that made my contractions feel. Turns out Kim was right - cut the pain in HALF. Well, for a while. Then when she said that if I started feeling "pushy" to let her know so we could head back to the room, I immediately told her to call the epidural people. :) I did NOT plan to push this baby out without one, as I stated before - I'm no hero. I stayed in until the Epi lady got there and then got out and back to my room. Contractions were getting pretty intense by this point and I had to stop and really concentrate to breathe through them. When I got to my room was when the contractions really got to the point of almost being bad like when I had Pitocin with Morgan. PS. The epidural hurt a lot more this time b/c I could concentrate and be aware of my surroundings. Totally worth it.

Once the epidural was in, Adam and I worked on trying to sleep. I took some serious prayer time first to thank God it worked. I've heard horror stories of epis not working or only working on one side...whew. Hurdle cleared. We rested until about 5-6am when I started to worry that my epidural was wearing off on my left side. I could feel this odd pain, like a muscle pull in my hip flexor, that extended from my hip to the top of my knee. I debated on having the anesthesiologist come back but finally decided to just in case it "got too late" and it wore off right before pushing. I was glad I made this call as shortly before she came back, I started feeling more pain in my lower left belly. By 7am, I was super-epiduraled and resting nicely again. Somewhere before all this I'd managed to progress a bit more to about 7cm which to me was taking too long. ;)

I would say around 7:15am on Dec. 10th (Sat. morning), the nurse (Jennie - she was GREAT and I was sad she was only there for that night and then off for the duration of my stay) checked me and said I was at a 9cm. I was so excited...we were getting really close to meeting Hadley! She went to tell Kim who came in and checked me at 7:25am (yes, I remember this all clearly, hold on...) and announced I was at a 9.5/10cm and we could get everything ready to push. I then quickly asked if I could push now b/c my first daughter was born at 7:29(pm, not am) and it would be so neat if they were born at the same time...but alas, I had to wait. :) Hard to "catch a baby" when the proper equipment wasn't in place. We were all set shortly thereafter and my nurse, Jennie, decided to come back and wait for Hadley to be born instead of leaving at the end of her shift at 7:30am. Again, she was so great.

I started pushing at 7:34am. It was harder to push this time b/c my epidural was more intense(?), effective(??) and I couldn't feel as well as I had with Morgan. Not painful, just not as much sensation. Either way, I worked as hard as I could and sure enough, 6 minutes later at 7:40am, this beautiful little baby girl came into the world. Hadley. Our Hadley was here! They immediately put her on my chest, she immediately grabbed my index finger, and Adam said I kept saying, "She here! She's finally here!" and we both cried. It was so great. I was a little worried b/c she didn't cry as crazy as Morgan did (for hours, mind you) but really she just gave a few cries to ease our minds and started quietly taking in the world around her. (this shocked us - we only know how to deal with screaming constantly babies)

Her Apgar scores ranged from 8-10 although I have no idea why she was at an 8 for any time. She was perfect. And beautiful. She cried while getting cleaned up and checked out, but for the most part, she didn't cry much at all. We worked on nursing as soon as possible and by about 10-15 minutes later, she was latched on and getting it (again, foreign, since the great Morgan sassy pants was NOT a good feeder at first). They finally took her (with Adam) to get the rest of what needed to be done done. We had a LOT more time with her at first before they took her to the nursery and I wish we could have had that with Morgan. She was just such a beautiful baby (Morgan was beautiful too, please don't mistake that one) and I was so proud to have brought her into the world and into our family.

Hadley was 8lbs, 7oz and 20" long. She was born at 7:40am on Saturday, Dec. 10th, 2011 which just so happened to be a full moon (a friend of mine from high school totally called this, btw). I only felt lightheaded for a brief time and did not become sick like I had with Morgan's delivery. The placenta took a bit to come but Kim was great and it wasn't a big deal.

We were so tired but so happy. My dad came later that morning and when Adam's parents got into town, they brought Morgan around lunch time. I already felt 1,000x better than I had after Morgan's delivery - still slow going for sure, but better. I'm so thankful my body knew what was going on this time and wasn't all "wth!? what just happened here?!?" as that was not fun the first time around.

I wouldn't have changed a THING with Hadley's birth if I were to do it over again. I was so thankful that I went on my own and didn't have to have another Pitocin labor. It was a beautiful thing to feel my body going through it that way and (with the help of the epidural) have such a fantastic labor/delivery. In the days and week/week and a half after, I've been amazed at how my body has reacted and "known" that I had more going on at home (with Morgan) and bounced back so much faster this time. I was +30lbs for this pregnancy (so much better than +40 with Morgan) and two days ago I only had 12.6lbs left to lose. I've since eaten tons of carbs (argh) so I'm sure that's slowed a bit, but maybe the increase in nursing will surprise me. I'm not checking super regularly but that's where I was at for last check.

Welcome to the world and our family, Miss Hadley Elizabeth. We are so lucky to have you and couldn't be prouder of the new little sister we've added to our family. xoxo Love, Mommy

Morgan's update

There's been so much updating about Hadley and our family in general, I wanted to take a minute to update on Morgan. She's so amazing and last night was especially hard for me when I had both girls (awake - makes a difference!) alone for an hour and a half while Adam went to volleyball. I realized in real time that I can't give Morgan the attention we are all used to and between the no's, be carefuls, can't do thats, I felt horrible. I want to tell her positive things but am finding myself doing much of the opposite as she learns how to "be" around her little sister. Anywho, on to the fun stuff...I like that more. :)

Morgan is using more Spanish words lately. Obviously she's getting them from her Dora/Diego shows, but avesante*, arreba*, abajo*, amigos, auda me*, etc. are quickly coming into her vocabulary while she's playing and rescuing anyone she can from the couch/recliner while on her tummy to do so.

Like I mentioned earlier, Morgan is still working hard to learn new rules regarding Hadley. It's tough sometimes but she's working on it. Such rules she is working hardest on are:
1. No, we can't go wake up Hadley with the "Wake up, Hadley" song any time we feel the need.
2. We can't push off/on Hadley when moving our own body.
3. We have to share the boppy pillow. When Hadley and Mama are using it, it's for a reason and not just to keep it away from Morgan.
4. When big sisters are holding little sisters, hands need to stay still and not fly out from under the little sister even if there are pillows around.
5. And of course there are others...those are just a few of the "fun" ones. :)

Now, after I post about all those rules Morgan has to follow, she simply loves Hadley. Loves her. Morgan wants to wake her up whenever she's sleeping. She blew her kisses goodbye this morning before leaving for Mary's while Hadley was sleeping. She enjoys holding her and talking to us about what Hadley can and cannot eat/do/play/etc. Morgan is a great big sister although she's totally figured out diaper duty (throwing in the trash) is NOT as cool as mom and dad make it out to be...but she'll run get anything we need, especially Hadley's nuks.

I mentioned earlier that we have a "Wake up, Hadley" song which really is just a high note, low note, high note, low note. Morgan's rendition - "Wate up, Howdie!" which she sings nice and loud and is cute until she's on verse 54.

Morgan is really starting to show an artistic side. She sings and makes up her own songs all the time. She continues to love to play instruments and asks to paint all the time. Adam would rather her be playing with balls of all kinds, but I'm glad to see her being well-rounded and loving all that life has to offer.

Overall, Morgan is adjusting well to being a big sister. We are all adjusting to what it's like to be 25% of a family instead of a 33% piece. I've told Adam that I really love having Hadley in our family b/c it feels like our family is more complete. We always knew we wanted more than one child and having Hadley here makes me feel like we're there (unless we go for 3, but that's for another day long long looonnggg down the road). We are so blessed to have twogirls in our house but we really thank our blessings that Morgan is adjusting so well and is the best big sister we could have hoped for.

*I do not know how to spell well in Spanish and do not have the time to go back somewhere and get the correct spellings.

Our Peanut is trying to stay little!

Hadley failed went to her weight check today and was hopefully going to be going up significantly from her 8.0lb weigh in last Friday...and had only gained 1oz (8lbs 1oz). Her goal is her birth weight (8lbs 7oz) by this Saturday but we're not on track for that at all. Thankfully, Dr. Mueller didn't seem too concerned but would like me to up her feedings to every 2-2.5 hours during the day and no longer than 4 hours b/w feedings at night until we get her back on track.

If this would have been Morgan's weigh in, I would have been so upset (and was, actually - she failed her first weigh in and had to come back for another b/c of two tiny ounces...nothing like the 6-7oz Hadley is missing!). Since I'm very confident in our nursing skills this time around (Hadley is a much better latcher than Morgan was), I didn't take it personally (so weird for me). Her diapers are good, she's eating when she's hungry (save for the "wake up wake up!" things we need to do sometimes), so I know it's not that.

Hadley had jaundice and is getting over it right now. It's not too bad, a mild/moderate case, I suppose, and she didn't/won't need any real treatments for it. I wonder if that's partly to blame for her slow weight gain.

That all said, I'm confident that she's going to be on the other end soon and I won't be surprised if I have to do a "this kid won't stop eating!" post in the future. I can honestly say that I'm going to miss my 5 hours of sleep straight Hadley's given us the past 3 nights in a row (blissssss) but I also want her to gain weight and be healthy.

Off to shower and get ready for a trip to the Quad Cities with Adam when he gets home just after noon. I am really in love with his schedule right now (off 3 days last week, half days all week this week, off next Monday, half days all week next week, and I think another Monday off for New Year's? Woo!). I have some things to return and purchases to make for fun...and Adam wants to check out Jos.A.Banks since he's never been there and they are having a ridiculous sale.

I want to post more, especially about Hadley's birth story, but alas, it will have to wait. Adios, amigos!

One more item of note (and then I swear I'm done) - Stepped on the scale this morning and went from 14lbs left to lose on Sunday to 12.6lbs left to lose this morning. I'm hoping that upping Hadley's feedings will continue to help this out...again - LOVING second pregnancy recovery so much more!!

Nursing

Nursing with Hadley is a night/day difference than it was with Morgan. (note - any readers out there that don't want to hear ins/outs about nursing, cease reading post and/or wait for the next one). Thankfully it's night/day different in the best possible way and I am so very thankful for that.

Items of note that are different:

1. No tears. That is, no tears of pain, no tears of "Why won't she just latch?!", no tears of "am I doing this right and why isn't it more natural?!" Don't get me wrong - it still hurts when she latches and I'm sore and the like, but NOTHING like with Morgan. And I know what I'm doing and when to have her relatch so that helps.
2. If I need her to relatch, she does. Almost right away unless she's dog tired, which is the case often times too.
3. I have to WAKE her to feed her at least half of the time for feedings. She usually goes at least 3 hours (with a random two in there sometimes) and up to 4 hours. I've let her go past 4 hours a few times for sleep's sake (see previous post about going 6 hours last night) but that said, I'm likely going to have to go wake her in about 20 minutes for her next feeding. Which is only the second one today since us "normal" people (who sleep during the night, wake during the day, Hadley, ahem, Hadley, take note). Morgan was a cluster feeder on the DOT every two hours. And it was excruciating in more ways than one. Thank you for this, Hadley.
4. I'm almost positive my supply is greater than it was with Morgan. I realize this could be for a few reasons I know and don't know - she's going further between feedings, hence the actual chance to build something up for her and the fact that this is now "old hat" to my body who knows what to do. Again - super thankful for this.
5. Morgan's not asked too many questions about nursing. She's stated a few facts during nursing times (I'll leave these out...serious facts about what she sees, that's all) but she's not broadcasting it (yet) to anyone who will listen. For now. I realize this could change... ;-)
6. It actually hurt this time when my milk came in. I thought I was going to pop and almost gave in to pumping. I made it, however, and am good to go.
7. Speaking of pumping, I will likely start doing so to build up a freezer stash (what?! a freezer stash?! what's that?!) for later after Hadley's done with her feedings. Yippee. I so missed pumping. ::super sarcastic font here::

I think that's all I have for nursing for now. All I know is it's way better than last time and I am very thankful. Birth story to come soon and pictures...must. get. pictures. downloaded...

Baby Mama Stats

Clearly I have lots of updating to do that's just not happening in lieu of sleep, but here's a quick one...then it's time to wake Hadley for feeding and understanding that it's now DAYtime. :)

Hadley Stats from birth to Friday:

Birth
8lbs, 7oz
20" long
Born at 7:40am 12/10/11 (Morgan was born at 7:29pm...almost the same time but they wouldn't let me push yet) ;-)

Mon/Tues after birth
8.0lbs

Friday after birth (6 days old) 
8.0lbs (the doctor thinks she had her valley of weight b/w her Mon/Friday weigh-ins and isn't concerned (whew!)

Mama Stats
Total weight gain for Hadley's pregnancy - 30lbs
Total weight left to lose as of this morning to be happy, realistic me - 14lbs*

*I can't believe how different the whole weight thing is the second time around. And not even just the weight - my body is changing and going back to "normal after two kids" significantly faster than with Morgan. Clearly that's b/c your body remembers (thank God) what to do and can do so more quickly. Even my MIL noticed during the week they were here that my stomach was going down noticeably day to day. Trust me - I'm not doing ANYthing out of the ordinary besides probably being up and around a little more than I should be(?) but that's how I roll. I don't sit well if I'm feeling well, which I am. I'm also drinking less/almost no milk b/c I wondered if two of our really bad nights were somewhat contributed to my intake of dairy? TOTAL guess but we'll see. That said, I'm really pleased with how things are going. PS. On Friday afternoon, I tried on my normal (not maternity) fat jeans and they FIT. I don't think I even considered real jeans after Morgan until she was at least 6 weeks old and then it was a sob fest b/c I couldn't get them even close to fitting a little.

Side note - we had another (what I call) "fluke" night last night - for whatever reason Hadley was pretty screamy until 10:30pm when it was "acceptable" for another feeding (more about feeding later) and she then went down fairly well. I woke up when the timer said it had been 4.5 hours since her last feeding, considered waking her (doc wants her fed every 4 hrs until she's back to birth weight) but then decided I'd do us all a favor and let her sleep until she was actually hungry enough to wake herself up...and we slept until 6 hours had gone by since her last feeding. Bliss. And even then she was only half awake and Adam had to rouse her completely. To top it all off, I laid her down only half asleep and she put herself the rest of the way to sleep. Adam didn't have to get up at all last night except to hand her to me once. LOVED last night. :)