Makenzie! (Pregnancy and Birth)

I've been a COMPLETE slacker blogging about our poor second child, but hopefully I'll get caught up here soon and then stay more on schedule!  I had many notes saved in draft posts, so it's really just a matter of combining them now into a summary post.

First Trimester:  This was fairly similar to last pregnancy, but I had a lot more nausea.  I never threw up though, so consider myself lucky there!  I was so glad to have a job where I could frequently work from home, so that helped out a lot...and then I sipped loads of ginger ale.  I still had frequent headaches, but my prescription was awesome and would immediately knock them out.  I was much more tired and lethargic this time-- probably because a certain Mr. L. sucks everything out of me!  My weight started out the exact same as last time- at 131 pounds.

Second Trimester:  Unfortunately with my first pregnancy I had to deal with moving, but then what were the chances that it happened again!  This kind of caught us as a surprise, but it was a really good opportunity for Dustin's career, so we decided to move from Missouri to Texas.  We wanted to act fast and get established in our new house before the baby arrived.  That added a lot of stress to these few months of selling our house (which was a complete nightmare and makes me never want to move again).  We came down to Texas for one house hunting trip and just pulled the trigger on a newly built house that was almost exactly what we were looking for.  Overall I felt pretty good, but think I may have just been too busy and stressed over the house to really think about the baby or how I felt!  I really thought my stomach would grow much larger/faster this time around, but I basically was always right on par with the first pregnancy or slightly smaller.  At the 18 week u/s, the technician had said everything looked good; however, the nurse called a few days later saying not to worry but they found a possible shadow on the baby's heart.  So in 4 weeks I would need to go for another u/s with better equipment.  Of course, we start freaking out and researching this online (which I've determined is NEVER good to do with any sort of medical issue).  Luckily it turned out to be nothing or fine, but just caused us 4 weeks of worry on top of everything else!  In order to find out the sex of the baby, we had a picnic at the park and opened a box of balloons...and I really was so surprised to see pink!  I was excited, but a crazy part of me was a little sad because I felt like Lachlan may be happier having a brother than sister.  Hopefully they get along and are best buds though :)

Third Trimester:  So, I was still uncomfortable, but not near as bad as last time.  Thank goodness I didn't have the horrid rib pain I dealt with before.  I think it has helped that we have some much more quality furniture in the family room now and a new firmer mattress.  And I will have almost 2 weeks less time of being pregnant...woohoo!  We moved at the start of the trimester, so I started with my new doctor's office.  They structured it differently where they want you to meet with all the doctors in the practice since you don't know who will be on call when you deliver.  I liked all the doctors, but it got a little frustrating feeling like I was constantly a new patient-- I finally just stopped doing it and scheduled all my appts with the same doctor.  We also had to deal with deciding on a hospital- there were 3 options.  We toured the first one together and I HATED it.  It was small and very outdated- I'm talking VCRs in the room and just horrible decor.  They also just had really strong philosophies on things that weren't me-- for example, basically force you to keep the baby in your room at all times.  Um hello- my plan is that I would like a LITTLE bit of rest while there, even if that means the baby has to go to the nursery.  We decided on Baylor McKinney to deliver at- the hospital was just opened last year and was really nice.  At 38 weeks, think I had some sort of flu and had to cancel my dr appt that day. 

Night Before Delivery:  It is the night before the c-section and it's hard to believe that the time is truly here and tomorrow we'll be holding a little girl!  The last few weeks have had some rough days and some easy days, but overall I am so done with being pregnant.  I've had the rib pain/pressure again, but at least it isn't constant...but seems when I don't have that then I have pain down lower and frequently extends into my right leg.  We are sleeping on a mattress on the floor cause the movers and my husband broke the bed.  I am so nervous cause really need it fixed by the time I'm home from the hospital or I don't know what is going to happen.  I am really interested to see how Lachlan reacts to the baby- we've been trying to prep him as much as possible during the last few weeks, but I don't think he comprehends much.  I think it helps that he now sees a crib and room getting ready.  He has really enjoyed trying to climb into the baby toys- loves to rock in the carseat and getting in the whale bathtub.  He has my old cabbage patch doll that he roughly tosses around and plays with- no concept of gentle at all.  I'm just very nervous he will have no concept and try to pick up the baby or something...and he doesn't really listen when we say "no."  So I just don't know what to think of how he'll be!  I also hope he does well with visiting us at the hospital and understands it is just temporary and we'll be back home soon.  So it seems by default we have settled on Makenzie as the name-- we both just haven't put a lot of effort into looking and seems easy that we agreed on this one.  Been debating the spelling the last couple days, but I kind of like it without the 'c.'  We decided to bank the cord blood, but then last minute (aka night before delivery) I decided we should just do the cord lining/tissue too.  This whole topic actually stressed me out, but at the end of the day felt like it was worth it to pay to do this cause I'd be kicking myself later if God forbid we could have used it.  I still need to pack the suitcase in the morning, but pretty much have most things together to bring to the hospital.  I'm excited to meet her, but also just so nervous that she'll be healthy, so just need her to arrive and get that reassurance!!  I am looking forward to the hospital stay which I refer to as my "vacation"-- i really feel like I just need some time to rest and have people wait on me.  My final weight is 149, so only gained 18 lbs, which is less than last time....pretty pleased with that!

Here are our baby guesses (Spoiler alert: Dustin won again getting closer on 2 of the 3 categories)...
Weight:  Amy- 8 lbs; Dustin- 7 lb 3 oz
Length: Amy- 21.5 inches; Dustin- 20.5
Time: Amy- 12:13 pm; Dustin- 1:17

Birth Day and Hospital Stay!
Picture with Lachs just before we headed out the door-

We got to the hospital around 10am and was scheduled for the C-section around noon.  One of the things I was most worried about was how nauseated I was during the procedure with Lachlan, but I felt much better after talking to the anestegiolist who said she would have medicine ready and just to talk to her the whole time during the surgery so she could adjust the medication.  She did a WONDERFUL job and I loved feeling much more in control than last time.  Luckily the nurses had warned me, but there are these giant lights above the operating table and when they are turned on they reflect what is down below, so you can end up seeing the surgery.  I  was like ummm....I definitely don't want to be seeing that.  Seriously does anyone want to look up and see their insides?!  It was a little weird cause Dustin was not in the room for quite a while during the time they put the spinal in me and got things all ready.  I felt better once he was in there with me then.  The surgery felt similar to last time where you can feel a lot of pulling and tugging.  Except this time they pull out the baby and I hear, "Wow, look how tiny she is!"  As soon as I saw her all I could think of was that she was SO SMALL!  I think someone commented on her "red" hair, the same as they all did with Lachlan.  She was born at 12:19pm weighing 7 lbs even and 19.75 inches long.  We went back to the recovery area and then around 2:00 moved to my room.  Lachlan came at 3:00 and I was just so excited to see that boy...he loved running through this curtain in the room or crawling and standing up on the window sill.  We had got him Big Hugs Elmo as a gift, but he was a little scared of it, but then smiled at it after a while.  He showed more interest in the baby than I thought he would, but he didn't want to touch her.  I think he was just trying to take everything in!  I was so proud of him as he didn't get upset that we were staying at the hospital, and he happily left to go home with grandma Tina.  They gave Makenzie her first bath in our room and did her footprints in there too.

Swimming in this onesie

Bringing little sister home!

My Recovery
All I can say here is it was a BIG FAT AWFUL!  Why on Earth would it have been so much worse this time around?!  I was in so much pain in the hospital most days and could barely walk-- the nurses had to really force me out of bed to walk around.  With Lachlan's birth I as voluntarily up and moving around the room with no issues or pain really at all!  Then I got home and the first days at home were awful and lots of tears.  The pain continued on for a couple weeks before it was fully gone.  I really don't know what makes the difference, but with Lachlan I had used Percocet and this time they gave me 1 Percocet and then the rest Norco.  I basically felt like I had no pain meds in me though cause it didn't make a difference when taking them.  The other difference was with Lachlan they would wake me to give me the pain meds and this time they would just tell me to call whenever I woke up or wanted them...so I think maybe the pain just got out of control at the beginning and then I could just never get ahead of it and keep it reasonable??  This time around they also installed some "pain ball" that was supposed to be awesome and was in for the few days after the surgery...obviously wasn't so awesome for me.  I really don't even know how to describe the pain, but it just burned very very very badly and was sore/tender and very hard to go from laying down to sitting up.  I really don't know what I would do if I had another baby- the recovery was so bad that I don't know that I would want to try a c-section again...it wouldn't be a no-brainer decision like it was this time around!

Lachlan - 2 YEARS!

This will be my last monthly post for this sweet boy...insert tears here...and I'll probably just do quarterly posts going forward for him...and devote my time to doing monthly posts for Makenzie, the already neglected second child that has not been blogged about yet!

Stats:
Weight: 30 lbs 3 oz (75th %tile)
Height: 36 inches (86th %tile)
Head Cir: 20.25 inches (97 %tile)
Clothes: 24 months for pants and 24 months/2T for shirts.  For PJs we have had to buy 3T and even those barely fit him.
Teeth:  I've been trying to get a look in his mouth to see if 2-year molars have started to come in, but I can never get a good look...so basically I have no clue where he stands on this!

Here are my random notes about Lachs...

• He knows all letters in uppercase and lowercase.  I highly recommend Endless Alphabet and Endless Reader apps-- he spends a lot of time on iPad/iPhones and I really think these apps have helped him be so interested in letters.  We've also started to do Lettercise, which is a song they do at school which involves the ABC's, Phonics, and exercise.  His teachers said he asks for it about 10 times/day.
• He knows all numbers from 1-10. He still calls zero an "oh" but shortly after turning 2 learned to say zero.
• Can count pretty well to 20, but I'm still being a little generous giving him all of the teens.  Once he gets to 16, he can get the rest clearly.
• I can't tell if we've made any progress on colors.  Sometimes he gets them right and other times is waaaay off.  I can understand sometimes mixing up similar items like a red and pink...but when he refers to black as yellow or something that different, it makes me think he has zero clue.  He is interested though and doesn't get frustrated at all. 
• He is very into playing with his Busy Bags that I made with my mom's group in St Louis.  We each made 20 of an activity and put it in the bag...then swapped so we each came home with 20 different activities.  He calls these his "games" and is just in love with them.  His favorite are doing ones with clothespins in them and involving Letters and Colors.
• We have a foam mat on our hardwood floors that has ABCs and Numbers on it.  He loves destroying it and then putting it back together like a puzzle.  I also make games where I call out a letter and he has to go stand on it.  It always makes me chuckle when after a while if he can't find something he'll say, "Q, where are you?"
• He enjoyed the xmas tree at first, but has lost interest now.  Of course I only put non-breakables near the bottom and thank goodness cause he could NOT keep his hands off and was constantly removing all the ornaments from the tree...luckily he has stopped that!  I have not done a very good job of trying to get him to understand Santa- I really should have looked for a good movie or book.  He found some Elmo Christmas video on his PBS app that he has been watching, so at least that was some exposure.  The only santa decoration I really have out is this Scottish Santa, that actually doesn't look much like santa...but he keeps saying MONSTER when he walks by it!  We took him on xmas eve to see Santa and he screamed and thrashed about.
• He has continued to be a good big brother for the most part.  Any time he has somewhat harmed her has been purely accidental cause he isn't paying attention to where his arms or legs are going.  Any time he spots a blanket, bottle, pacifier, etc just sitting around he gets it and brings it to her.  He frequently helps me burp her.  He still mostly just calls her "bebe."
• He has been really into giving hugs and kisses lately.  And he likes to do eskimo kisses where we rub noses.  He has just started to ask us to "snuggle" and he insists that we put on a blanket when we snuggle.
• He loves playing "happy feet" where he puts on this musical snowman that waddles around the floor and then we waddle around like the snowman.  And then we'll bump into walls and I'll bump into him and he just dies laughing.
• He loves a little game he invented where he says "Night Night" and I close my eyes to pretend asleep.  Then he says "Boo!" usually in a pretty quiet voice and I'll jump awake.  He'll then say "Good Mornin" and find it funny.
• The weather turned really cold here and we got inches of ice.  Luckily I was stocked up on food and baby items here because the roads were so bad that I couldn't go out for days.  Even 1 week later the stores don't have milk, cheese, etc.  I took Lachlan out in the backyard so he could experience some winter weather...unfortunately it really was pure ice, so no snow to play with.  That only lasted a few minutes and we came back inside.
• He had some weird foot rash that we still don't know what it was.  It comes and goes throughout the day and has been here for weeks now.  The nurse over the phone thought maybe Hand Foot Mouth Disease, but he hasn't shown any other symptoms of that.  I brought pictures into the doctor and they think it could be hives.
• I feel so bad for this boy, but he still has extreme pain and trouble with bowel movements, so we just started doing Miralax again daily.  He's struggled with this ever since a baby, but it is just heartbreaking to watch the pain that he is in.  We had been giving him prune juice which does seem to help.  He does usually tell us when he goes "poo poo."  Although sometimes he says it when he just tries, but there is nothing there.  He never tells us when he pees.
• He splashes like CRAZY in the bathtub that everything is just soaking wet.  We are trying to get him to stop, but at the same time I want him to have fun and like the water.  He just has so much fun when he splashes!
• He still uses his pacifier at diaper changes at home, but this is the only time he uses it.  At some point we need to break this, but I figure the time is so minimal that he uses it that it isn't a huge deal.
• He LOVES and has become attached to his small stuffed elmo that he sleeps with.  He is starting to want to bring it out of bed with him so elmo can play with him.
• He finds it funny every single night when Dustin reads his bedtime books that he races and gets in the chair first and Dustin pretends to sit on his lap.  When the books are done, he always says "Just one more time."  So we stress that it will be just ONE more book.  Then after that book he says, "Just one more."  He's so cute that it's hard to say no, but we do...then he usually is super sad to go to bed and cries sometimes.
• He would watch tv forever if we let him.  He really likes Elmo, but sometimes he will want to watch Daniel Tiger, Mickey, Thomas, or Chuggington.
• Meals are pretty frustrating, but I keep telling myself this is normal.  He used to eat nearly ANYTHING and ate good portions...now, he refuses foods that I know he likes, so it's just impossible to put together a meal that he will eat.  Sometimes he doesn't even eat a bite off his plate.  But I don't get him anything else- he either eats that or gets nothing.  Some meals he eats really well, so I guess I should just be thankful he isn't like that 100% of the time.  His favorite foods that he always eats are yogurt, applesauce, and crackers (triscuits)...so at least those are healthy.
• Bedtime is generally around 8pm and he wakes around 7pm.  He naps usually for 1.5-2.5 hours.

Some Pictures...

I was taking Makenzie pics and Lachlan really wanted in there too!

Birthday boy on his new trike!

I was taking Makenzie's weekly picture and suddenly Lachlan needed his picture taken too...you can faintly see on his sweatshirt that he found one of his monthly stickers and put it on his belly just like her!

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Day in the Life of Gus- 11/19/13

Every once in a while I'm going to try to capture details of how my day goes.  I wish I would have done this when Lachlan was a baby cause would be interesting to look back at BUT...I don't think I ever would have had the time to do it cause he was such a handful!

This post is a little late, but is from Tuesday 11/19/13- so Makenzie was exactly 3 weeks old.  For the first 2 weeks either Dustin or my mom was here, so this was the first week it was all on my own!

1:05AM:  Makenzie wakes up, but is a little early from when she normally feeds, so I just rock her and she goes back to sleep.

2:15AM: Up again, this time I give her a 3 oz. bottle and she is back to sleep at 2:40.

4:45AM:  Makenzie is up.  I change her diaper and make a 2 oz. bottle but she hardly takes any of the bottle before dozing off.

5:50AM: Lachlan decides he is a rooster and to get up at the crack of dawn. 

The good part of this is that Dustin is still home, so he can get him up and dressed for me.  I'm awake, but just lay in bed relaxing.  Lachlan comes and joins me in bed to watch tv.

6:15AM: Makenzie is up again, so I rock her until she settles back to sleep, but only until 6:30.  I feed her a 2 oz. bottle and then change her diaper cause she has pooped.

7:00AM: I decide to go ahead and shower- Makenzie usually enjoys the relaxing noise of the shower and doesn't mind hanging out in there. 

I have everything ready at 7:30 to take Lachlan to school.  However, I let him play on the iPad for a bit before we head out the door.

7:50AM: We take Lachlan to school.  I put Makenzie's carseat in the stroller to wheel her in so I can minimize lifting.  Lachlan is happy to be at school!

8:15AM: We are back home.  I put her in the swing so I can eat some breakfast and relax!

9:15AM: I feed her a 3 oz. bottle and put her back in the swing.  She is asleep at 9:30.

10:30AM:  I fall asleep watching tv on the couch and sleep until noon!  This sounds good, but now I feel more tired.  I lounge about watching Family Feud...yes, I enjoy game shows...especially during the limited daytime tv options! 

12:30PM:  She wakes up, so I change her poopy diaper again.  And I feed her another 3 oz. bottle and put her in the Boppy Lounger.

1:30PM:  Time for lunch!  I heat up my food and start eating...and of course, Miss Makenzie starts crying.  So I stop eating and hold her until she calms down.

2:00PM:  Finish eating my lunch and she is back in the lounger.  She just drifts in and out of sleep, so I decide to get some chores done.  I cleaned the kitchen, vacuumed (which she LOVED and put her to sleep), made the guest bed, and started working on birth announcements.

4:30PM: Makenzie wakes up after sleeping about 2 hours, so I feed her a 2 oz. bottle and we load into the car to go get Lachs.  Home at 5:40 from picking him up. 

6:00PM: Dustin is home and we eat dinner.  Lachlan is always the first to finish, so we let him go watch Elmo while we finish dinner. 

Once I'm done eating, I give Makenzie another bottle.

A little before 7:00 we go upstairs to play until bath/bed time.

7:15PM:  Dustin gives Lachlan his bath.  Makenzie is fussy, so I am trying to calm her.  Dustin reads Lachlan his bedtime stories.

 

8:00PM:  Lachlan is in bed.  We go to the media room to catch up on an old Homeland episode.  Makenzie is still fussy, but finally falls asleep on Dustin around 8:30 while we are watching it.  We watch a little bit of a David Blaine magic show afterwards until she wakes up.

9:30PM: I head off to bed while Dustin stays up to give Makenzie her last bottle before bed.  I play a little candy crush.  The plan is to try having her sleep in the guest bedroom so that way she is close to our room, but far enough away I won't hear all of her grunting and noises.  I can't fall asleep cause can hear poor Lachlan coughing really badly in his room, so am worried about him.  And Dustin does not seem to be having an easy time with Makenzie...she has pooped 3 times in 15 minutes and he is getting all worked up and frustrated with her.

10:15PM:  I "unplug" and close my eyes knowing I have to be tired and will eventually fall asleep.  And I slept great until 2:15AM when the cycle starts all over again!!

Lachlan - 23 months

I really can't believe my next Lachlan post will be for his 2 YEAR birthday...oh, where does the time go?!?!  I really think every few months I keep changing my mind that this is the best/cutest stage, but I REALLY love this stage he is in now and am so lucky to be home spending some more time with him than usual.

 And then he really waned to put his sticker on Teddy and take more pictures...

He really got into pumpkins- he loved going for stroller rides and walks around the neighborhood looking for pumpkins.  We went to the Dallas Arboretum which had a HUGE pumpkin display- I think it was something like over 30,000 pumpkins!  He enjoyed that and got to bring home 3 little pumpkins.  He would just carry them around outside and move them around the landscaping.  However, as much as he loved pumpkins...he appeared not to be a fan of Halloween.  I had bought the cutest Elmo costume, but he screamed and had a tantrum every time I tried to put it on him....so back to the store it went!  Maybe next year he'll want to dress up and go trick or treating. 

It was fine with me cause he spent Halloween at the hospital with me and spending time with his new sister Makenzie!  He has been an awesome Big Brother and WAAAAY better than I thought he would be.  I really thought he would be trying to pick her up or do dangerous things with/to her.  So far he just really isn't all that overly interested in her.  He has been pretty gentle with touching her...or at least attempts to be gentle.  When he wakes up, he always asks where "bebe" is and wants to see her and he always says "bye bebe" before he goes to bed.  He always refers to her as "bebe." I was a tad worried how he would handle us being at the hospital for 4 days, but he had no issues leaving us there! And he doesn't seem to have any jealousy issues with the baby eating a lot of my time.

Loves pumpkins, can finally say Grandma, refused to wear elmo costume, Big brother!

The boy is becoming a little chatterbox...and I love it!  There are many times I can't understand him, and he is so patient and doesn't get frustrated.  He is string several words together for short phrases - and has been doing this for at least a month or so, but think I keep forgetting to mention it!  One of his first phrases was "I see you!"  He is starting to sing words to songs like Old MacDonald, Wheels on Bus, Elmo's World, etc.  One of his big achievements is he can finally say "Grandma" which he struggled really bad with before and usually wouldn't even attempt to say it.

He can count clearly to 13 and he attempts numbers after that, but all the "teens" sound the same.  He can also identify some of the numbers.  He can identify all letters of alphabet in upper case and most in lower case.  He still is not really getting the hang of colors or shapes yet.  He gets them right sometimes where I think he may know them, but then will go on a streak of getting them all wrong...so who knows.

This boy never really enjoyed being held, sitting on laps, snuggling, etc. but lately he has got much better and will snuggle up by us while watching tv. He has also really taken to his stuffed animals and gray blanket he sleeps with at home.  He is really good about giving out kisses and hugs too.  As always, he is really good about going to sleep for naps and bedtime- I am SO appreciative of his, especially with the new baby to deal with now.  Immediately when he finishes lunch, he puts his hand to his head and says "Nighty Night" and heads upstairs. 

He is going to school only 3 days a week now while I'm on maternity leave.  He seems to really like going there now- one of his teachers (Ms. Jessica) came back that had left and Lachlan really seems to take to her.

Hauling around his "heavy" pumpkins

Last picture of our family of 3 before I headed to the hospital

At the hospital to meet his new sister!

Grandma babysat for the week while we were at the hospital

Bringing baby sister home

Lachlan - 22 months

Well, this post is a full month beyond, so it will be short to just include the few notes I had made.  Pictures were a real trip this month as you can see...

Lachlan still just LOVES the ABCs.  He will sing along with us-- he can generally make it through the entire way, but of course can't pronounce everything correctly.  He can identify a lot of the letters of the alphabet it seems.  He plays endless alphabet on ipad and LOVES it-- and I actually think this is primarily responsible for him learning the letters so well.

He still loves ANYTHING on ipad or iphone.  He says "pictures" when he wants to play on those...I guess he says pictures because it started out that he just wanted to look at pictures/videos, but now he spends more time playing apps.

He is progressing with counting.  We count the steps every time we go upstairs and he counts along with us-- it's not real clear, but seems like he can count along with us up to 20.  Of course a lot of the teens all sound the same and are kinda mumble-jumble.

His favorite toy is probably Legos (aka blocks).  His favorite book is probably Goodnight Gorilla to read before bed.  He has a very set routine with the book where on each page he has certain things he likes to be quizzed on- e.g. Where is the giraffe?  Where is the armadillo?

He is getting very good at reading books himself and imitating my voice and saying key words.  I absolutely love catching him reading on his own and is so cute to listen to him!

I'm not sure yet if he enjoys school or not-- many days he cries or has tantrums refusing to get in the car to go in the mornings, but then seems fine once he is there.

His schedule really remains the same.  Bed time is between about 7:30-8 and we try to do a bath every other night.  We are finally getting some days where he is sleeping in late until like 8:00, so has been a nice change!  Some days he is an awesome eater and other days he will hardly eat anything on his plate or refuses foods that I know he likes!  I noticed I am really bad with offering him vegetables, so need to work on offering those more often and trying to get him to eat those.

He had lots of first-time visitors this last month to Texas:

My cousins- Jeremy and Grant

Grandma Tina

"Aunt Miss"

Here are some pics from the last month:

He is always cracking us up doing goofy things while eating

Lachlan LOVED feeding all the animals at the pumpkin patch- no fear at all!