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!

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!

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!