The Triple Chin

I'm proud to announce the appearance of the elusive third chin! Yippee! This will be the only time in Junior's life that he can be proud of his third chin. Before it appeared he resembled Mr. Magoo. Even down to the wrinkles.

Life is definetely different with two children. I've been battling with guilt over who I'm supposed to pay attention to more. I get sad for Junior when I think back to how much one on one time Booger had at this age but then I get sad for Booger when I'm spending too much time taking care of Junior. So it's been a very interesting journey for me this week, trying to balance out who gets me when.

Booger is definetely feeling the changes too. She had a major meltdown on Monday. I've never seen her cry so hard. She finally fell asleep crying but then woke up a half hour later in the same state of yelling panic. I felt so bad for her.

Hubby gets to come home early today (hopefully) which is going to be nice. He gets really great paternity leave but this is the busiest and most stressful few weeks of work for him right now so he hasn't been able to get away and help me. It will be so nice to have him home. I need a nap!

I'm also excited because I think my girlie parts are starting to feel better and that I'll be able to exercise more now. We went for a walk last night and besides being out of shape I didn't hurt when we got home! It Rocked! So hopefully between Weight Watchers, breastfeeding and some exercise I can get this ginormous butt gone and start wearing my pre preggo pants again. And if I'm lucky maybe my boobies will shrink too! (they're obscene right now...or proportional if you're looking at my ass too)

Happy Birthday!

It's been one week and he's still alive! WAHOO! We're totally awesome at this parenting thing. They are still breathing...that's the ultimate goal right?

It's been an adventurous week. He's an AWESOME baby as far as neediness is concerned. He eats, sleeps and craps. He's only had two bouts of crying and I'm pretty sure it's due to the pepperoni pizza I had the other night. Either due to the dairy and spice or because it was pizza hut and not Moose's Tooth.

The first crying fit was in the middle of the day on Thursday. Hubby had gone to work to the 2nd worst day at his job ever and I was having a "baby blues" day. I woke up feeling needy and weepy. Turns out that I was more than weepy. Baby was crying and I was crying and booger was saying, "mama, are you sad?" which just made me wail louder. It was pathetic. But we weathered the storm and his tummy settled down enough for us all to get some (not a lot, but some) sleep.

Sleep. What is that? I had forgotten about the 2 hour catnaps between feedings. I find myself totally wacky at 2 AM and unable to determine how long baby has eaten for. Which means he could wake me up much sooner than two hours later, but I don't care at that moment. I just want to dive into dreamland.

And of course all of the advice is that I should be napping when the baby sleeps, but that advice doesn't say what to do with your two year old while you're napping. Do you chain them up? Do you just let them out the front door to play. Booger is mature enough to take care of herself right? Maybe I could start sending her down to the corner market when she wants a banana instead of getting up and walking over to the kitchen counter. Not a bad idea.

So, to sum up - baby is doing great, eating great, sleeping great and completely adorable. We are slowly adjusting to life with another person in the house and I'm anxious to get moving again. I'm still recovering, but I'm trying to get out and move around as much as possible. Hopefully I'll be able to wear my "fat" pants soon. ALTHOUGH, I went below the 200 lb mark today! YAY! Moving on down!

Happy Birthday!

It's been one week and he's still alive! WAHOO! We're totally awesome at this parenting thing. They are still breathing...that's the ultimate goal right?

It's been an adventurous week. He's an AWESOME baby as far as neediness is concerned. He eats, sleeps and craps. He's only had two bouts of crying and I'm pretty sure it's due to the pepperoni pizza I had the other night. That or it was because it was pizza hut and not Moose's Tooth.

The first crying fit was in the middle of the day on Thursday. Hubby had gone to work to the 2nd worst day at his job ever and I was having a "baby blues" day. I woke up feeling needy and weepy. Turns out that I was more than weepy. Baby was crying and I was crying and booger was saying, "mama, are you sad?" which just made me wail louder. It was pathetic. But we weathered the storm and his tummy settled down enough for us all to get some (not a lot but some) sleep.

Sleep. What is that? I had forgotten about the 2 hour catnaps between feedings. I find myself totally passed out and unable to determine how long baby has eaten for. Which means he could wake me up much sooner than two hours later, but I don't care at that moment. I just want to dive into dreamland.

And of course all of the advice is that I should be napping when the baby sleeps, but that advice doesn't say what to do with your two year old while you're napping. Do you chain them up? Do you just let them out the front door to play. Booger is mature enough to take care of herself right? Maybe I could start sending her down to the corner market when she wants a banana instead of getting up and walking over to the kitchen counter. Not a bad idea.

So, to sum up - baby is doing great, eating great, sleeping great and completely adorable. We are slowly adjusting to life with another person in the house and I'm anxious to get moving again. I'm still recovering, but I'm trying to get out and move around as much as possible. Hopefully I'll be able to wear my "fat" pants soon. ALTHOUGH, I went below the 200 lb mark today! YAY! Moving on down!

I'm in LOVE...

...with my neck pillow. When I bought it six months ago I never thought it would get used. I guarantee that it will be worn out very very soon. Spending time on the couch is requiring it. I've been trying to sleep in my own bed, but he's not latching very well when we lay down, so I have to sit up and if he's at all awake then I'm lucky I don't fall over in bed! So I migrate to the couch.

And I would just like to add a few things about childbirth for those who may not know. First, a bigger baby does not mean a more difficult labor. And second, having a second baby is much easier to recover from. I actually went to the store yesterday! I'm up and around and walking like I haven't done anything like push a baby out of me in the last four days. It rocks!

Deja Vu

I had forgotten about those first few days of Booger's existence when I didn't sleep and I especially didn't sleep in my own bed. I tried to last night. It didn't work though. He's a night owl. Just when I am ready to sleep he wants to look around and only in your arms.

Hubby has a super crazy work week so I'll be going solo a lot of the time and it's going to be interesting. He brought booger out to me on the couch (cause that's where I live now) and I put on whatever terrible kids TV was on at the time. Fed the baby, then as soon as I figured out he was asleep I jumped up and got food/diaper changed/pee/pants on/vitamins/cuddle with booger time just in case he doesn't let me do it for the rest of the day.

I'm now going to go get the baby wrap and figure out how I'm supposed to fit a 6 Lb object in it, since it's like 7 feet long! LOL! I was not supposed to have a little baby (which for future reference is NOT easier than a bigger one!).

Day One

So it's been almost 36 hours since he was born and we've survived! I know...it's a miracle! Especially since we don't even know how to tie our own shoes, let alone keep a human being alive. Joking joking of course. I can tie one, and joe ties the other one.

We actually were able to get some sleep last night - in shifts of course, but sleep nonetheless. And I've pretty much spent the day with him attached to my boob. It's been pretty great. Our family inundated us with food and great breaks by entertaining ali.

Oh - and we also got a great gift of an upgrade to a flickr pro account, so I've uploaded all of the rest of the photos to my account and will continue to upload them as often as possible. Thanks Val and Zane!

Booger has been absolutely mezmerized by her little brother. If you look at the pics on the account you can see just how incredibly happy she is. What we're not showing you is the absolute pani when we reach to take him back because he's hungry and crying. She clings onto him and cries like we've just told her that there is no Disneyworld, Santa Clause, Tooth Fairy, etc etc...all at once. It's hearbreaking and pathetically cute.

My Mom is coming into town tomorrow to help out and Tuesday will be doctor day for Tucker. What's very exciting about that is that our family Naturopath will be available (and I didn't think she would be) so I won't have to take him to the big stinky pediatrician's office at the hospital, to a doctor that I will never see again. YAY! We totally lucked out!

Hubby and I also want to say thanks to everyone who has been so sweet to post comments or send emails of congratulations. I've been trying to keep up and reply, but you can imagine I only get a few minutes at a time at the computer. Thank goodness I can type 75 wpm! LOL!

Welcome Home Tucker Owen

So after I relaxed on Friday (the 18th) night I went to sleep. and I am SO glad we all did, because just like the midwife predicted I was up again at 4 AM and in labor. It only took 3 contractions for me to realize that they were not only four minutes apart, but they were different and very much reminded me of when I was in labor with Booger. So I woke up hubby and mom and called my best friend and the midwife to come over.

I spent the next four and a half hours just dealing with the contractions. It's funny because I had this idea in my head that this birth would be faster and easier than Alison's and it really wasn't. The contractions were more intense, and did less than when I had Alison.

At 8:15 I started feeling the urge to push and I was completely dilated. I pushed for 45 minutes, with my hubby getting his hands crushed, his shirt stretched, and I'm sure numerous permanent indentations in his flesh of my fingers grabbing and pulling at anything it they could find.

His head came out at 8:58 and the rest of him came out at 8:59. Beautiful and perfect of course. He was 7 Lbs on the dot and 20 3/4 inches long. Just like his big sister he latched on perfectly within the first few minutes of birth and nursed like a champ! He was incredibly alert, opening his eyes calmly and looking around right after he was born and for a long time after.

My Inlaws had taken Booger for the night, so after we got settled and the midwife left they brought her back home and we introduced her to her new little brother. We've been getting her ready for a long time and of course her Papa and Nonna got her all excited on their way over, so it was by far the most precious thing I've ever seen. She wanted to hold him so bad and she was so gentle.

So we got her settled and handed him to her. She was SO HAPPY! She just stared at him and kept smiling at us. Then he made a face and you would have thought she'd just gotten taken to Disneyworld. She started giggling and telling us all about what she'd just seen like she discovered the most entertaining toy in the entire world.
When we took him away you would have thought we'd taken her whole heart out. She cried and cried.

She's staying another night at her grandparent's so Joe and I can try and get some rest before we have to juggle both of them. I'm still really sore, tired and crampy and can't move around a bunch. We have more food than we'll ever be able to eat so if you want to come eat some - come on over!

Joe posted some pictures on the flickr account, but due to his lack of ever having used it before he uploaded them too big and I can't put anymore on right now. BUT - he started his own flickr account so you can see more baby pics there after today!

Labor Log

4:15 AM August 18th (Happy Birthday to Layne BTW - wouldn't that be weird)

Yes, I'm officially declaring this "labor". I am in that phase where it takes physical strength to stand it. No fun. I've been having contractions all afternoon and night, but it wasn't until just after 2 that I started noticing that they were getting closer together. I went to bed at 12 hoping to get some sleep and somewhere in there I did, but it didn't last. After 1 1/2 hours of being incredibly uncomfortable in bed I decided to get up.

So here I sit on my exercise (excuse me - birthing ball) ball bouncing to the new Justin Timberlake video "Sexy Back". I've been reduced to dancing to Timberlake and Timbaland at 4 AM. (oh, and a little Beyonce and Jessica Simpson *Sob*)

la la la back to bouncing...

6:30ish AM - slowing down now

So things aren't going as hot and heavy. Mom just got here and I've called the midwife and we're just going to sit back and see what happens. The mw said I should go lay down and try and rest since I've only gotten about two hours of sleep. So I think I'll go do that.

4 PM - ramping up again

After a very lazy frustrating day I decided to get proactive. Mom and I took a walk around the block in the rain, which did no good. Then I mopped the floor, hoping the exertion would help - nope. Then I sat on the couch and she found some really uncomfortable pressure points on my feet and I did some on my hands and we started getting some action! So for the next 3 hours I had very consistent contractions, every 10 minutes or so. then they...just......stopped. GGGRRRRR!!!

11:05 PM - Letting go

I'm closing up for the night and going to try and get some rest. I just had one little contraction and that was the only one in about an hour, so I'm just going to let go and hope that I get woken up at 3 in the morning by pain. yes folks, I'm becoming a masochist. I am excited by the pain. I love the pain. I AM the pain! (not a good sign of letting go huh?)


Side Note - My bestest most wonderful friend bought me the CUTEST most fabulous diaper bag that I've drooled over for over a year! It's a Petunia Pickle Bottom! I'm so excited!

Possible Labor

So it's 9:22 and we just got back from having our date night at Bears Tooth. I had contractions every 5-7 minutes the entire time we were there. Things have slowed now that we're home, but not a ton. So now we're just sitting here trying to figure out what to do. Walk? Talk? Sit? Run? Call someone? gggrrrr....

I will continue this post as we progress (or try to).

8:07 AM the next morning...

So it's all over, and there's no baby yet. Sigh...I went to bed after posting last night thinking that rest would be a smart thing if I was really kicking into labor. I had a few really really strong contractions, but they slowly spaced themselves out from about 5 minutes apart to a half hour. I finally fell asleep and woke up without any. So frustrating.

2:40 PM

So I went to the midwife this morning and I'm 2 cm dialated and while I was there lost my mucous plug (lovely bit of info huh?), so she figures no longer than this weekend. I'm still having contractions, but not consistently. I generally just feel crappy. So we'll see what happens. I'm going to take a nap right now just in case I end up having to stay up all night (knock on wood).

No Gushing Yet...sigh

So it seems that whatever I was feeling last night has gone away. I don't remember being this frustrated before. I can't believe my body would tease me like that. gggrrrr...

So now I'm sitting here trying not to think about the two bottles of castor oil in my cupboard. Even though I know all it would is make me feel like crap. Or like crapping. ick. So I'm going to find something to occupy my time today. I have no idea what that might be, but I'm going to find it. and it's going to involve LOTS of walking.

Contracting

Not the type of contract that you sign, but the kind of makes you take a sharp breath in. Now I can't sleep. It's almost 1 AM (by the time I'm done with this it will be past 1) and I'm half watching bad Emo crap on MTV (sorry Hannibehr!).

I couldn't sleep. How can you when you feel the first inklings that this alien might actually come out of your body? I am so amped. Every time I have a contraction I think, "Maybe this is the beginning!!!", then I'm disappointed when 10 minutes later I haven't had another one. Granted I probably could have walked and made them worse, but it's late and Booger needed to go to sleep and there's probably no way that hubby would have let me escape to walk by myself.

So here I sit...waiting. ugh. I wish my water would just break. That was so much easier with booger. I didn't know what was happening until I gushed. I just wish I could commence with the water balloon popping.

sigh...I suppose I should try to sleep at some point. Cross your fingers that I wet the bed!

Bowling for Baby

Maybe it was the laughing. I haven't really done much of that lately, so when we watched the silly movie "RV" and I laughed super hard through a lot of it I think I might have relaxed things a little bit. When I got up I almost couldn't walk. I swear there was a bowling ball pushing down on my pelvis.

It hurt so bad, and yet it gave me an excruciating case of the giggles. I couldn't look at hubby without busting up just with nervous excitement that we might actually have this baby one day. I know! I can't believe it either. I just thought I would stay fat forever.

It's just so hard to imagine going into labor and then having another human being to take care of. You can't imagine the change because it's so huge, so just catching a glimpse makes me freaky anxious and giggly.

It didn't help that I had gas too...that always makes me laugh.

Post Headache

I tried really hard yesterday to write...and my exploding head stopped me. I never get headaches, so it's quite disturbing when I do get one. It made me very very pissy. What a great lady to have around - pregnant and pissy. A double-P! AAAHHHH!

I'm officially 37 weeks pregnant this week so I could legally go into labor and birth at home now, which of course makes me anxious and frustrated. I so want to get this baby out of me, but at the same time I have family maternity pics and a baby shower next week. Not that my wishes really make any difference as to when the baby is ready to come out.

On happier news I am almost, and I mean SUPER close to having every single diaper and cover ready for baby when he gets here. I only have to finish putting the velcro on the last cover and I should have enough! I'm very excited. It's been hours of sewing and lots of recycled t-shirts!

I also have all of the materials I'll need for the birth. I was supposed to have receiving blankets that were old and absorbent for when the baby is born, but we didn't have any of ali's old ones and I hadn't bought any used ones for the baby, so I started hunting. I went to the Salvation Army but they had nothing! And what they did have was on an icky table in a big pile. It was just awful. Yesterday I went to Value Village and I found the Meca for linens! Not only did they have EVERYTHING that I needed but it was organized, hanging up and 50% off!

So I brought home my new treasure trove of absorbent goodies and stuck them in the washing machine on hot (I wanted to strip whatever ickies might have been in them). I was folding them later and realized that one blanket had a blue side and a pink side. Hhhmm...I don't remember this being pink. Then I look down - all of the blankets that were white (which was most of them) had been stained pink from either the red towel or the red sheet that was stuck in the wash with them. HA HA! There's no escaping the girlishness in my house. (insert evil laugh here)

V-V-V-Voxxy!!

Hubby and I argued last night (what's new? I'm apparently arguementative by nature.) about whether or not myspace sucked. Here's my continuation of said arguement:

Myspace Sucks Because:

- Every time I click on a link that comes in my email it never load.
- It decides at random whether or not I can log on.
- In order to read messages or reply to messages or read comments or reply to comments I must go through multiple screens which all run the risk of never loading because, after all, it's myspace.
- It sucks "."

So thanks to the hannigods (my new name for the fantabulous bloggess)I am now a member of the newest coolest networking site. It has some features that I find much more useful than myspace, but best of all it's platform seems to be built for growth, which means we may luckily not end up with the dreaded "Tom is busy working on the site blah blah blah".

Interested? Wanna we what I got? Wanna get an invite? Click on the link to the left to check it out and let me know!

Best Form of Flattery

Booger has started to practice being Mommy and it's so funny. When I ask "what's in Mommy's tummy?" I get in reply "Baby's in Ali's tummy Mama!"

Oh excuse me! I'm just getting fat!

Yesterday we went to see Treeka, our chiropractor. I got adjusted and was resting for a moment before I stood up when booger decided to grab a back bolster with one hand, a fistfull of my hair in her other hand and tried to sit me up via hair-grab and slide the booster under my back. "sit up mama".

Then today we had our Midwife and her assitant come by for a home visit. Since it's only going to be a month to my due date we have to get stuff ready for the birth and the midwife needs to know how to get here and where things are in the house. In order for her to get a good feel of the baby while I laid on the couch she had to slide a book under my lower back (an elmo book). They checked the heartbeat with the doppler then decided to do another check in my room. As soon as I got up from the couch Ali grabbed a book and put it on Daddy's chair to sit on, which was cute, but not as cute as her taking my place on the couch and lifting up her dress so that they could listen to her baby's heartbeat.

SO FLIPPIN' CUTE!!!

Baby Ticker - Because Wordpress SUCKS!