Happy Halloween!

This year I'm going as a woman who's two kids both have colds. It's an awesome costume. It's pretty much made up of looking like hell and having dried snot all over my shirt. Good times.

Hey! That hurts!

Today Elle kept making herself cry because she would grab onto the hair on the back of her head and yank on it. After I would pry her fingers open she would look all dazed and confused for a minute then her hand would go right back up to her head. Poor little thing. I had to laugh.

Finally, we got a decent night's sleep last night. Elle nursed around 11:00 and then didn't wake up again till about 3:30 and then not again until about 7:00. It was awesome. Jesse and I were on cloud 9 this morning. She's turning out to be pretty darn perfect after all.

Elle's Law

Elle's Law: If Mommy puts you in the carseat to take you somewhere that means it's time to wake up and demand to be fed RIGHT NOW. Do this even if Mommy is running very late and just tried to feed you 20 minutes earlier to prevent this from happening.

Ok, it might sound like a joke but it's not. I think Elle is trying to set a record for how many public places she can be nursed in. I had to nurse her while Joseph was in therapy today. The good news was that she did beautifully. She latched on right away and sucked really well for about 10 minutes. After I burped her she nursed for about 5 more minutes without any problems. I was so pleased. I know it's a silly thing to be happy about but it really was nice to have a smooth and easy feeding. Now she just needs to figure out how to do that at 3:00 in the morning too.

Looking back

I was just re-reading the entrys I posted Just prior to going to when I went into labor. It's funny now to see that the restlesness and weird energy I was feeling was just a sign of my impending labor. I'm a little sad that I got gyped out of that "nesting" urge that I had heard so much about. I was looking forward to getting some good housework done. My body decided that instead of preparing my "nest" for the new baby I needed to spend my engery conditioning my hair. Sigh. Oh well, my floors may not be clean but my hair has been really soft and managable since then.

Elle is snoozing in her car seat right now. She's all tuckered out from staying up all night long. It's hard work being a baby, waking up every 20 minutes and crying like you're being poked with pins. I don't know how she does it. Little stinker.

Joseph is doing well, he seems to be getting back into the swing of things. He is being very affectionate with Elle and making a real effort to "help" around the house. He gets a big kick out of it when he talks to Elle and she looks around to find him. I can tell she knows his voice because she really responds to him. Yesterday she was looking right at him and he was so excited that he said "Look at her look at me! She's learning to focus!" So cute.

Elle on-line

Elle has her own website now. Check it out!
http://babyellerose.tripod.com/baby_elle/

Zzzzzzzz

Elle, bless her little heart, is turning me into a zombie. She wants to do nothing but nurse all night long. She wakes up, nurses for 20 minutes or so and then sleeps for about half an hour. Then she wakes up and we do it all again, all night long. Throw in a few diaper changes and few gas bubbles and Jesse and I aren't getting a whole lot of sleep right now. During the day Elle sleeps like a baby and goes about 3 hours in between feedings. The little stinker has her days and nights mixed up but I'm not real sure how to fix it.

Joseph has been a challenge in the past few days too. He occasionaly is helpful and good but for most of the time he's taken to totally ignoring everything we tell him. I've found that I can only repeat something calmly about 10 times before my voice starts to get loud and shrill. I hate hearing myself talk to him like that and that leads to me feeling bad because I'm worried I'm not being nice enough to him. I just keep reminding myself that this is hard for him too and he just needs a little time to adjust.

Really though, both my kids are sweet. I just need about 5 more hours of sleep a night to be able to appreciate them fully.

The straight poop

Early on in my blog I talked about how my biggest fear about giving birth was that I would poop on the table. Ok, so here's the thing about all that. I can honestly say that after about 3 times pushing I stopped caring if I pooped or not. By the way, if you are one of the few people in the world who knows if I did or not, please never, ever, ever tell me. To be perfectly crass, I didn't care if poop or diamonds came out of me as long as it would hurry things along.

Anyway, the important thing here is that I learned a really valuable lesson in all this. The fear I had of pooping while giving birth would end up being nothing ...... compared to the fear I would develope of pooping after giving birth.

Little Miss Elle

Ok, we're home, we've been home for a few days now. Our little girl is here and she is perfect. She weighed 8 pounds and 8 ounces when she was born (thank goodness she came a week early!) and she was 20 inches long. She was born at exactly 11:30 PM. Her eyes are dark blue and her hair is brown. She had to spend her first night and day in the NICU because she was having some problems breathing but that's all ok now.

After Elle got out of the NICU we spent the next night and day just snuggling and working on getting her to nurse. She had some problems with that, she didn't want to latch on. We tried feeding her from a syringe and even from this special little cup. After about 5 days of that I figured I was going to spend the next year pumping and then syringe feeding her all her meals. Then, out of no where she just started doing it. Now she's a pro! She really is perfect after all.

Joseph has been doing pretty well adjusting to having Elle here. He acts up sometimes and earlier today I had to scold him for trying to use her as a foot rest but mostly he seems to be doing ok. He wants to kiss her and hold her all the time. That can be a bit much when I'm trying to change her or feed her but how can I get upset with him for being a good big brother?

All in all we're all doing pretty well. I'm tired and in need of a shower but I'm also very happy to have my little girl (I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!) home with me.

Things are happening

I was supposed to go in at 7 this morning to be induced but they called us at 6 and said they were really busy and they needed to push us back a little bit. We're supposed to call in a little bit and see when we can come in. There's a chance we won't be able to come in at all but I don't think that will happen. One way or another I am going to that hospital.

All night long I had painful contractions that were about 10 minutes apart and now they're about 5 minutes apart. They've been that way since about 6 I guess. We may not need to induce after all.

Updates to follow sooner or later.

Yeesh

Man, I don't know if it's just nervous energy or what but I cannot sit still. One minute I'm ravenously hungry and the next I feel like I'm going to vomit. I go to lay down in bed but 3 minutes later I'm up wandering around. Earlier this evening Joseph was about to get a (well-deserved) time out for refusing to listen to what we were asking him to do and I just burst into tears. I told myself it was because I didn't want him to get a time out on his only night as a lst child but I'm not sure that was it. Even if it was, that's kinda weird. Later I was laying in bed and Jesse came over to talk to me. As he was talking all I could think was "He's way too close to me. If he doesn't back up I'm going to scream. Why is he so close to me? ACK!!!" Now, all of the sudden I have an urge to deep condition my hair.

I think I'm losing my mind.

The end is in sight

Yesterday was my baby shower. It was lots of fun and I got a ton of really cute stuff. Let's keep our fingers crossed that this baby is a girl otherwise I'm going to have a lot of returning to do! Anway, lots of cute clothes and other fun baby stuff recieved so all is good.

Tons of contractions today. Sometimes they're as little as 8 minutes apart but then I'll go for an hour or so without one. They must be doing some good though because my doctor said I won't have to go into the hospital tonight to get the medication to open up my cervix. I'm no more dialted than I was but she says my cervix is a lot softer and thinner than it was. She thinks the medication I'll get tomorrow to get ym contractions going will be enough to get my cervix to open up.

After I get to a certain point in dialation my doctor will break my water and then I will be able to get an epidural. I can't get one before that just in case I get to a certain point in labor and just things just stop. Then they would have to send me home. That would suck but it does happen once in a while. I'm thinking good thoughts though and saying that I'm not leaving that hospital without a baby in my arms.

Ack, I'm having a contraction and a hot flash and I have to pee. I'm no longer able to make sense. I'll try to give a quick update before I leave for the hospital tomorrow. Otherwise I'll have Jesse update things after the baby is born. God lord, it's hot in here.

Weird stuff

Pregnancy does such strange things to you. I've heard of pregnant women craving dirt and other odd things before but I never understood it. That is, until I developed some really off the wall cravings myself. In the past few weeks I have craved the smell of gasoline. When I go out somewhere I always hope that I'll end up driving behind some big stinky truck belching black smoke. I sometimes have an insane desire to run out to the garage and sniff the lawn mower. I don't know exactly what to make of that.

Perhaps even stranger is the craving that I have gotten for mint gum. I have to chew it non-stop lately. That's not such a big deal big what is weird is that I also have the craving to swallow it. Most of the time I'm able to resist but I couple of times now I have been doing something or other and without even realizing it I swallow that giant wad of gum I'm chewing. Why in the world would by body crave something like that? By the way, I asked and it's just a myth that gum stays in your stomach for seven years if you swallow it.

Anyway, it will all be over soon and I'll be able to drive past a gas station without feeling the need to stop in for gum and fumes.

An actual conversation

This is a 100% true conversation that I had with Joseph yesterday.

Joseph: Did you miss me when I was gone?
Me: Yes, very much.
J: Why?
M: Because I love you and I like having you around.
J: Are you glad I'm home?
M: Yes.
J: Because a home is not complete without me?

Later he pointed to my and Jesse's wedding picture.
Joseph: That's you and Daddy when you got weddinged.
Me: Yeah, that's when we got married.
J: Before you had me?
M: Right.
J: Why did you decide to have me then?
M: Because we wanted to add a child to our family.
J: Because you need a special child like me to make you into a family?

Geez, this kid.

Fun with painkillers

I woke up about at about 2 AM in a lot of pain this morning. At about 5 I decided to try to go to the bathroom and I could hardly get out of bed. I had to lunge and heave myself into the bathroom and then back to bed when I was done. I was sweating and nauseus from the effort. Jesse stayed home from work today to take me to the doctors office. My regular doctor has the day off so I saw her back-up who I also really like. He poked and prodded at me and determined that I have a UTI and pain resulting from my pelvis widening and stetching to get ready for the baby to be born. He gave me a prescription for antibiotics and massive amounts of pain killers so that I can walk around the house again. Good times.

Joseph came home yesterday and I am so super excited so I want to update about that but right now I really hurt too much. I am going to take some pills and go to bed for now. More later.

The good with the bad

Ok, I had stuff to say yesterday but I didn't because it made me too crabby. It's allowed, I'm 9 months pregnant. My doctor's appointment did not go as swimmingly as I had hoped it would.

Let's see, first off, the doctor thinks the baby weighs about 7 pounds right now. She asked if I was a big baby and I said no but big babies with big heads ran in my husbands family. We laughed and agreed that's not really the sort of thing you think of when you're dating someone.

She scheduled me for inducement on Tuesday at 7 AM. I may end up actually having to in on Monday night though to get some additional medication to get my cervix ready. In spite of all the pain and contractions I've been having for the past week my cervix is no more dialated than it was so if it still hasn't changed by Monday we'll give it a little extra help.

My blood pressure has gone way up in the last week. My doctor guesses it has something to do with the pain I've been having since everything else (blood, urine and whatnot) seems to be ok. She wants me on bedrest for the next week. Even as she was telling me that she laughed and said she has never seen a stay-at-home-mom actually do bedrest but I'm supposed to just do my best. Mostly I'm just supposed to take it easy and rest as much as I can. That all is what has put me in such a bad mood and I can't even put my finger on why. Maybe it's because it already seems like the last few weeks have just dragged by and I'm just ready for this all to end without any further complications. Sigh. One more week to go.

As for some really good news, we get to pick up my little boy tonght! Hooray! I've missed him so much, I just can't wait to see him at the airport. It makes me a little bit teary just thinking about it.

The blues

I'm in a great big funk right now. All I have the motivation or desire to do is lay around in my fat lady nightgown and think about home made brownies. Don't you dare judge me!

Still missing Joseph

I am amazed at how much I miss Joseph. Everything makes me think about him. We went out to eat tonight with Judy and her parents and I got crackers with my soup. I found myself thinking "Joseph always wants to eat the crackers that come with soup. I should save these for him." I guess in case he's not getting enough stuff in Disney World I should have saved those two saltines that came free with my dinner.

He called tonight while he was watching the Halloween parade in the Magic Kingdom. He was enjoying it too much to say a whole lot but he did tell me that he got a lot of candy and saw the Headless Horseman. I talked to Dad for a second too and he said the Halloween party was "a ball". Then he had to get off the phone to take pictures.

Judy and her parents came for a visit today. It was nice to see them. We went out for dinner and then for ice cream and I don't think I will ever eat again. Judy brought a bunch of stuff she made for the baby. It's all so cute! There were blankets and changing pads and changing pad covers and burb clothes and crib sheets. She used a bunch of different prints and it's all very cute. Good to have that stuff ready to go.

I have to go sit on the exercise ball now, my back is killing me and that's one of the only things that seems to help. More Joseph stuff tomorrow.

My birth plan

I'm going to the hospital in about 15 minutes to meet with a labor/delivery nurse to get a tour of the birthing facilities and write out a birth plan. My birth plan will mostly include things like "give me lots of pain killers" and "I don't want to feel a lot of pain" and "try to get some of that slimy stuff off the baby before you put it on me".

I seriously thought I was in labor last night. I was having contractions and back pain from hell. It went on for several hours and nothing helped. The contractions slowed down and the back pain went away (kind of) overnight but I'm still feeling .... I don't know, weird I guess.

Joseph update! He called me this afternoon to tell me about the rides he had been on and to ask if I had gotten any new Scooby Doo books. My mom got on the phone and said this morning Joseph got very homesick and asked "Why did you have to take me on this vacation? Why couldn't you have brought Mommy with?" Ok, it's not like I want him to be homesick but I am a little bit relieved that he hasn't forgotten about me. I thought for sure he would be having so much fun with Grandma and Grandpa that he wouldn't ever want to come home and see me again. I guess he was so sad this morning that the only thing Mom and Dad could do to cheer him up was to promise to take him off Disney property and buy him some Scooby Doo books. Crazy kid.