What a day. I thought I would be coming home on Friday, just 24 hours after having my little CeCe but her pediatrician wanted to keep her an extra day because I had strep B with her. We begged to be let go Friday because Eric had to go back to work on Saturday (don't even get me started), but she insisted. So at 3:30 Saturday morning Eric had to leave me and our newborn daughter at the hospital. He was pissed. We sent Caroline to the nursery at night so at 5:30am, I got up, and got myself ready and packed so there was no delay when Dr. B made her rounds around 6:30am. Eric's mom stayed at our house with Lyla on Friday so that my parents would be available to pick me up without having to drag her with them. While the day is a blur, I think I was home by 11am.
Lyla and Sherri welcomed us at the car where we took lots of pictures. I promptly came in and started doing laundry. I had it in my head that I was going to have it all together and be super mom. I soon realized that was stupid. We spent most of the morning watching Lyla hold her sister and giving the play by play of everything CeCe was doing. "Mom, she do like this" she kept saying and would make the same noises that Caroline made. We did get it on video so Eric could watch it later.
Eric's mom went to the grocery store for us and when it was time for my parents to leave I started to cry my eyes out. They sat back down and stayed. A bit later I noticed Lyla seemed to be getting a irritated so I took her temp and it was 101. Wonderful. I have a brand new baby in the house and a toddler with a fever. This was not starting out well. I cried some more. Luckily it didn't seem to stop her from sleeping. We ended the day very early knowing it would be a long night!
First Family (of four) Photo
It wasn't long after we met Caroline that we were reunited with the "original" baby girl. Mimi and Pop brought Lyla in to see us and this is our first official family photo.
Expect the Unexpected
Since the moment Lyla was born, I feared the birth of my second child. I thought, even though they say the second is easier, there was no way it could get any easier than Lyla's birth.
I was right.
It was about 9pm by the time we got settled into our room. Once again we scored a huge room. I LOVE St. Joe's Hospital. The plan was the same as with Lyla. They'd use Cervidil to get things "soft" in there and then they would start pitocin in the morning. Here's how it went down.
10pm - The cervidil was in and Eric and I settled in and put in a DVD that we brought..."SNL. The Best of Jimmy Fallon".
10:15pm - I told Eric that I thought contractions were already starting (this is when I realized the feeling I had all morning really was contractions). This didn't happen with Lyla.
11pm - Serious pain. Major contractions.
11:30pm - Already asking for pain meds but I was told it was too early. To make matters worse, when you have Cervidil you need to lay flat for two hours. I was having such bad back pain at that point and just wanted to move. Nope. Eric was watching the monitor and we discovered that I was having really big contractions right on top of each other. I guess I already knew that but the monitor confirmed it.
12am - Nurse checked me to see if I have progressed I should say she TRIED to check me. After digging around for what felt like eternity, she told us her "fingers were too short". At that point I think Eric was going to strangle her.
1am- Finally got some pain meds. I was only allowed stadol as I still wasn't far enough along for the epidural (about 3cm). They told me it would numb the pain but just for a short time. Awesome. They also told me I would feel drunk. Yep. As soon as she gave it to me my eyes started crossing. I started calling Eric a Fraggle Rock and told him he looked like the Hamburgler. I was with it enough to tell him I knew I sounded like an idiot and to write down what I was saying to him...which he did. Then I fell asleep.
1:45am - Woke up in pain. Serious pain. A nurse came in to check me at which point she told me I was dilated to 1. WHAT!? I quickly sat up in bed really thinking I might knock her on her ass. She informed me that they measure differently on the inside and outside. Bull. I've never heard of that in my life.
2am - New nurse, Jennifer, takes over for "short fingers". Thank God. Jennifer is wonderful and I still think about her often. She got me through the roughest part of labor. Still in pain and no meds, I asked to sit in a chair. Eric (woke up and) came over to rub my head. Let me tell you...I've never had such a good head rub! ha. While it didn't take the pain away, it distracted me.
2:30am - Jennifer tells me my contractions are coming too fast. She orders the epidural. Did I say how much I love Jennifer?
3am - Epidural arrives. With Lyla, it was one poke and done. Not this time. I felt as least three pokes and them actually moving the needle around in my back. At this point, having been up for 24 hours and no food in his stomach, Eric almost passed out and needs to sit down. Jennifer is there to hold me up. Sitting in that position without moving with terrible contractions was by far the most painful part. Immediately after the epidural is finally placed, the baby's heart rate drops. They quickly threw an oxygen mask on me and start turning me from side to side. Things start to stablize.
3:30am - Jennifer tells me that the contractions still haven't slowed down. I ask her if this continued would it lead to a c-section. She tells me she can give me a shot to slow the contractions down a bit which will be better for me and the baby.
3:45am - I get that shot. Contractions slow.
4am - Finally feeling relaxed, I am able to fall asleep. I sleep in 15-20 minute intervals for the rest of my labor.
6am - Doctor Egan comes to visit to check on me. They decide not to start pitocin to speed up the contractions again so we just need to wait it out.
12pm - They bring in the big table with all the scary utensils.
12:30pm - Nurse has me try to start pushing. She's impressed. Doctor Egan happens to come in around then to check and is also impressed. I even remember saying, "I am super good at this."
1:22pm - It's a Girl! Again, surprise of my life. Even the nurses the night before were telling us it was a boy because of the heart rate. There was no question about the name this time. Caroline Clare (CeCe). I have two kids! Two daughters!
She weighed in at 7lbs, 1 oz. Well, that's what the scale said, but they later said her official weight was 7lbs 2oz. 20 inches long.
A few hours later our visitors started to arrive, including big sister Lyla. At first she was pretty interested in the baby, but that soon wore off and she just wanted to run around the hospital room like a typical two year old. After the Laxton crew came later that night, Eric and I spent the next two days just cuddling our new girl We knew that as soon as we came home other responsibilities would cut down on cuddle time so we just soaked it all in.
I was right.
It was about 9pm by the time we got settled into our room. Once again we scored a huge room. I LOVE St. Joe's Hospital. The plan was the same as with Lyla. They'd use Cervidil to get things "soft" in there and then they would start pitocin in the morning. Here's how it went down.
10pm - The cervidil was in and Eric and I settled in and put in a DVD that we brought..."SNL. The Best of Jimmy Fallon".
10:15pm - I told Eric that I thought contractions were already starting (this is when I realized the feeling I had all morning really was contractions). This didn't happen with Lyla.
11pm - Serious pain. Major contractions.
11:30pm - Already asking for pain meds but I was told it was too early. To make matters worse, when you have Cervidil you need to lay flat for two hours. I was having such bad back pain at that point and just wanted to move. Nope. Eric was watching the monitor and we discovered that I was having really big contractions right on top of each other. I guess I already knew that but the monitor confirmed it.
12am - Nurse checked me to see if I have progressed I should say she TRIED to check me. After digging around for what felt like eternity, she told us her "fingers were too short". At that point I think Eric was going to strangle her.
1am- Finally got some pain meds. I was only allowed stadol as I still wasn't far enough along for the epidural (about 3cm). They told me it would numb the pain but just for a short time. Awesome. They also told me I would feel drunk. Yep. As soon as she gave it to me my eyes started crossing. I started calling Eric a Fraggle Rock and told him he looked like the Hamburgler. I was with it enough to tell him I knew I sounded like an idiot and to write down what I was saying to him...which he did. Then I fell asleep.
1:45am - Woke up in pain. Serious pain. A nurse came in to check me at which point she told me I was dilated to 1. WHAT!? I quickly sat up in bed really thinking I might knock her on her ass. She informed me that they measure differently on the inside and outside. Bull. I've never heard of that in my life.
2am - New nurse, Jennifer, takes over for "short fingers". Thank God. Jennifer is wonderful and I still think about her often. She got me through the roughest part of labor. Still in pain and no meds, I asked to sit in a chair. Eric (woke up and) came over to rub my head. Let me tell you...I've never had such a good head rub! ha. While it didn't take the pain away, it distracted me.
2:30am - Jennifer tells me my contractions are coming too fast. She orders the epidural. Did I say how much I love Jennifer?
3am - Epidural arrives. With Lyla, it was one poke and done. Not this time. I felt as least three pokes and them actually moving the needle around in my back. At this point, having been up for 24 hours and no food in his stomach, Eric almost passed out and needs to sit down. Jennifer is there to hold me up. Sitting in that position without moving with terrible contractions was by far the most painful part. Immediately after the epidural is finally placed, the baby's heart rate drops. They quickly threw an oxygen mask on me and start turning me from side to side. Things start to stablize.
3:30am - Jennifer tells me that the contractions still haven't slowed down. I ask her if this continued would it lead to a c-section. She tells me she can give me a shot to slow the contractions down a bit which will be better for me and the baby.
3:45am - I get that shot. Contractions slow.
4am - Finally feeling relaxed, I am able to fall asleep. I sleep in 15-20 minute intervals for the rest of my labor.
6am - Doctor Egan comes to visit to check on me. They decide not to start pitocin to speed up the contractions again so we just need to wait it out.
12pm - They bring in the big table with all the scary utensils.
12:30pm - Nurse has me try to start pushing. She's impressed. Doctor Egan happens to come in around then to check and is also impressed. I even remember saying, "I am super good at this."
1:22pm - It's a Girl! Again, surprise of my life. Even the nurses the night before were telling us it was a boy because of the heart rate. There was no question about the name this time. Caroline Clare (CeCe). I have two kids! Two daughters!
She weighed in at 7lbs, 1 oz. Well, that's what the scale said, but they later said her official weight was 7lbs 2oz. 20 inches long.
A few hours later our visitors started to arrive, including big sister Lyla. At first she was pretty interested in the baby, but that soon wore off and she just wanted to run around the hospital room like a typical two year old. After the Laxton crew came later that night, Eric and I spent the next two days just cuddling our new girl We knew that as soon as we came home other responsibilities would cut down on cuddle time so we just soaked it all in.
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| Clearly this says 7.1 |
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| Meeting big sister |
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| Daddy's girl 2.0 |
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| My girl |
Tonight!?
Wednesday, September 4th. Grama Peach's birthday. I usually don't work on Wednesdays but Lyla was sick (with what I thought was croup) so I stayed home on Tuesday instead to take her to the doctor. That morning I was awake at 3:30am and could not fall back asleep. I walked into work with a bad attitude. All day long I told everyone that if I was there the next day, that they better not bother speaking to me because I would be a beast. I whined to my mom in her office all day about how I couldn't be pregnant for one more minute! I joked all day that I was going to eat a ton a salty foods so when they took my blood pressure that night at my appointment it would be sky high and they would have to send me to the hospital. Like I said, I was joking. However, thinking back on that day, I was having contractions all day but kind of ignored them.
Fast forward to my appointment at 5:30 that night. Pee in a cup. Get weighed (still only gained 16 pounds). Take blood pressure. When the nurse took my BP it took longer than normal. She kept pumping it up and letting it go. Pumping it up and letting it go. Well, I have no idea how to read those machines so I asked (as I did every week) if it was bad. She just looked at me and said "oh yeah". Still not thinking anything of it, a few minutes later the doctor came in (Dr. Egan this time) and said high blood pressure must be in the air today because everyone had it. I asked what it was and he said he didn't want tell me. Wow, it must be really bad. It was 148/102. Now that is bad! That was highest it's ever been! He did "the check" and I was dilated to 2. I was 38 weeks that day. He said he would check my BP again, but why bother since they were going to monitor it at the hospital tonight. TONIGHT? I was in absolute shock. As much as I joked that day at work, I really did not think I would be going to have the baby that night. He told me I could go home, eat, get my things and then come back to the hospital for induction. Panic.
Just the night before I finished cleaning the house and the bags were packed so luckily I was ready to go. In fact, after I finished packing the night before I texted my mom that I was all ready and my house was clean and now I had nothing to do. She told me to relax for the next few weeks until the baby came. So much for that.
I immediately texted her again after my appointment on Wednesday and said she better start heading to my house to get Lyla (she was having dinner at Gram's for her birthday). By the time I actually talked to her on the phone I was crying hysterically. I wasn't ready. I didn't get to play with Lyla that day. She laughed and reminded me about all my complaining that day. Still, I wasn't really ready! I called Eric and he was in shock. He wasn't expecting that phone call either. But, always the one to calm me, pretended he was ready to go! He called his mom to come get Cooper. Oh yeah, forgot about him.
Eric ran to get McDonalds while I got myself together. Our parents all arrived and asked a million questions, none of which I remember. I was so distracted and just wanted to get to the hospital. Now was the time to say goodbye to Lyla. For nine months I thought about this moment. Figured I would bawl my eyes out. Just like every second time mom, I was worried she would feel abandoned, especially since it all happened so fast. Well, without knowing it, my Lyla made it easy for me. Since she was still pretty sick, she was a bit crabby and when I tried to cuddle and smooch her, she fought me and whined. She didn't cling to me like I thought (hoped) she would. She was more than happy to go with Mimi and Pop. So, while it wasn't the moment I envisioned, it did relieve me from a little bit of guilt.
By 8:30 everyone was gone and it was just Eric and I. When I had Lyla, in this very same moment before we left the house, I cried. I was scared. This time, I was in such a rushed state that we just got in the car and off we went. I will still in shock about this whole thing went down. But, I wasn't scared since I knew what to expect. Or so I thought.
Fast forward to my appointment at 5:30 that night. Pee in a cup. Get weighed (still only gained 16 pounds). Take blood pressure. When the nurse took my BP it took longer than normal. She kept pumping it up and letting it go. Pumping it up and letting it go. Well, I have no idea how to read those machines so I asked (as I did every week) if it was bad. She just looked at me and said "oh yeah". Still not thinking anything of it, a few minutes later the doctor came in (Dr. Egan this time) and said high blood pressure must be in the air today because everyone had it. I asked what it was and he said he didn't want tell me. Wow, it must be really bad. It was 148/102. Now that is bad! That was highest it's ever been! He did "the check" and I was dilated to 2. I was 38 weeks that day. He said he would check my BP again, but why bother since they were going to monitor it at the hospital tonight. TONIGHT? I was in absolute shock. As much as I joked that day at work, I really did not think I would be going to have the baby that night. He told me I could go home, eat, get my things and then come back to the hospital for induction. Panic.
Just the night before I finished cleaning the house and the bags were packed so luckily I was ready to go. In fact, after I finished packing the night before I texted my mom that I was all ready and my house was clean and now I had nothing to do. She told me to relax for the next few weeks until the baby came. So much for that.
I immediately texted her again after my appointment on Wednesday and said she better start heading to my house to get Lyla (she was having dinner at Gram's for her birthday). By the time I actually talked to her on the phone I was crying hysterically. I wasn't ready. I didn't get to play with Lyla that day. She laughed and reminded me about all my complaining that day. Still, I wasn't really ready! I called Eric and he was in shock. He wasn't expecting that phone call either. But, always the one to calm me, pretended he was ready to go! He called his mom to come get Cooper. Oh yeah, forgot about him.
Eric ran to get McDonalds while I got myself together. Our parents all arrived and asked a million questions, none of which I remember. I was so distracted and just wanted to get to the hospital. Now was the time to say goodbye to Lyla. For nine months I thought about this moment. Figured I would bawl my eyes out. Just like every second time mom, I was worried she would feel abandoned, especially since it all happened so fast. Well, without knowing it, my Lyla made it easy for me. Since she was still pretty sick, she was a bit crabby and when I tried to cuddle and smooch her, she fought me and whined. She didn't cling to me like I thought (hoped) she would. She was more than happy to go with Mimi and Pop. So, while it wasn't the moment I envisioned, it did relieve me from a little bit of guilt.
By 8:30 everyone was gone and it was just Eric and I. When I had Lyla, in this very same moment before we left the house, I cried. I was scared. This time, I was in such a rushed state that we just got in the car and off we went. I will still in shock about this whole thing went down. But, I wasn't scared since I knew what to expect. Or so I thought.
Beat the Heat
It must be noted that I picked the best summer to be pregnant. I always wanted a fall baby, but it never occurred to me that I'd be in my last trimester during the summer. Not smart. But in the summer of 2013, me and Mother Nature were BFF's. This was one of the coolest summers I can remember (maybe because last summer was SO HOT). I really caught a break. Don't get me wrong, I still sweat, A LOT, but I can thank my hormones for that. In the month of July there was a week where we were in the 60's at least three times! In July! In Chicago! Crazy. I didn't get off scott free, however. We did get a heat wave just a few weeks later...just as our air conditioner was apparently on vacation but it didn't last. Phew!
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