Our transition from three to four…… (so far)

 

This is going to be a mostly random post full of stuff I’ve learned so far about being a mom of two.

First off, it’s not easy.  Dealing with the transition from one to two kids is hard stuff.

My 3.5 year old is driving me crazy.  He’s throwing fits left and right, he won’t go to sleep at night and he’s just plain moody.  Right now we are all home – hoping the transition flows easier with a couple of weeks at home with the whole fam.  Tim is off until the 24th and so we kept Cooper home from school during that time also. 

Keeping our house clean/picked up is SO DARN ROUGH.  I’m not sure if its just the addition of the extra toys that Cooper has or if its just the general “stuff” we use day in and day out, but I feel like I’m constantly picking up the house, doing dishes and doing laundry. 

While Tim is “off work” he’s technically not off.  He decided that since he’s “off” he’ll do a million projects around the house.  When I say a million, I seriously mean a million.  He made up a list of stuff filling an 8.5x11 sheet of paper, front and back.  He’s got Andrew and one of his buddies working on stuff also.  It’s nuts.  They are making big progress which is nice, but it’s not like I’m getting much help with the kiddos during the daytime.  Oh well. 

I wanted to breastfeed this baby so badly this time.  I quit already.  When Katy was in the hospital for the first 10 days of her life, I pumped while I was home, and breastfed her while we were in the hospital.  Then we came home.  Katy fought me – didn’t want to latch on, so I quit.  I pump every 4 hours, about a half hour ahead of her feeding schedule each time and I feed her from a bottle.  It’s a win/win.  I don’t have to fight with her, I get my part done in 15 minutes pumping, She still gets breast milk and that’s the main thing.  We’re all happier.  I did the same thing with Cooper, pumped for an entire year, I plan to do the same for Kate.

I took both kids out by myself for the first time yesterday.  We just went the 5 minutes to Kroger, did about 20 minutes worth of grocery shopping and headed home.  It wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be, I did let Cooper play on my phone the entire time to occupy him #momfail.  Oh well, it made the trip easier.  The only difficult part was wrangling them both into their car seats and then unloading the groceries into the car, and vice versa when we got home.

Between the behavior issues, lack of sleep for mommy and daddy, and keeping our house tidy, I’ve barely made time for a daily shower for myself.  I’m thankful that I feel pretty normal so far.  No postpartum depression like when I had Cooper.  I really don’t know that I could have survived this far if I had felt like I did after I had him.  It was miserable.  So, things may be rough, but its so worth it.  I wouldn’t change it for the world.  I am loving this new precious baby girl to the moon and back, and my little boy, although he’s crazy, I am in love with him just as I was when he came into this world.  These kiddos and their daddy are my world. 

If you’ve had more than one child, how was your transition experience?  Do you have any tips/tricks that helped you???

Katy: Days .75-10….

 

Another long documenting post coming right up!

So, on Katy’s birthday, her family was there to visit, her older sister, her niece, brother in law, her two big brothers, her nana, both Papas, Grandma Gwen and aunties Erica and Mel.  They were there off and on throughout the day.  It was a great day, hanging out in the room with Kate, her family, and her daddy and me just soaking up time with her.

My mom and her husband Shawn (Papa Shawn) were taking care of Cooper while we were in the hospital, I need to give them a shout out because they did so much more than watch him.  They slept on an air mattress in Katy’s room so that Cooper wouldn’t be out of his comfort zone while we were gone. They cleaned our house, planted flowers, did laundry and even more that I probably haven’t noticed yet, because I’ve been the walking dead for 10 days now….  So THANK YOU! to my awesome Mama and Shawn, for everything.    I don’t know what I would do without you.

So back to Kate.  (Katy, Kathryn, Katybug, etc) Katy’s pediatrician’s office had a doctor on call the day she was born, so that doctor, was the one to actually come to check on her instead of her normal pediatrician.  We didn’t know when she’d be at the hospital to look at her, all we knew was that she’d be there sometime throughout the day.  She ended up coming while Kate was in the nursery for a check-up.  See, since I have diabetes, the hospital checks on my kiddos several times to make sure their glucose levels are ok and that they don’t have issues because their mama is diabetic.

When the doc came to tell us about Katy, she said that because of all of her bruising, she wanted to get her checked out a little bit more – so she had some blood work drawn, a CBC.  This was around noon.  They didn’t tell us anything until later that evening.  The oncall doctor came in and told us that the results were pretty serious.  Her white blood count was low and her premature cells were very high.  At the time I didn’t really understand what that meant except that she was fighting some sort of infection.  We found out later, that she the number of premature cells meant that her body was working so hard to fight the infection that she the cells didn’t have time to mature enough, and this wasn’t a good thing. 

The doctor that night said that there wasn’t much we could do at the time, just repeat the blood work and see if it came back better in the morning.  She would have to stay in the nursery all night.  We slept the best we could, which wasn’t great.  The next morning, (5/27) THE BEST doctor around (in our opinion) came to talk to us.  She is absolutely amazing.  She walked us through all of the possibilities.  Leukemia, Meningitis, a simple blood infection among others.  Lots more blood work would be done, and she’d started two types of antibiotics around midnight the previous night.  The antibiotic would be the first step in helping her heal from whatever she had.  If it were the blood infection or the meningitis, she’d have to have several days worth of medicine to heal her, then she could come home. 

It took 48 hours to get some results back and PRAISE GOD it was just the blood infection.  The infectious disease doctor said that she would need to have 10 days worth of antibiotics and then she would go home and be fine.  We were so thrilled!!!  On day three of antibiotics, they did a bilirubin test and it came back high enough that she had to be under the ultraviolet lights for an entire day.  That was the first day that I was scheduled to go home, no more nights in the hospital – so I went home to rest since I couldn’t hold her while she had to be under the lights. 

Tim was taking care of EVERYTHING at home and with Cooper after Tuesday morning.  He ran him back and forth to preschool, took care of everything at the house and did laundry, he was amazing.

Back to Kate.  Everything was smooth sailing – day in and day out antibiotics.  I stayed at the hospital again on Friday night using a Parent Overnight visit.  She slept decent that night – until she had antibiotics, around 4am.  I let her stay in there until 6 even though her antibiotics only took 30 minutes, I wanted to get a couple of hours of good rest, so that I could hang out with her until I was kicked out of that room at 9.  Then I headed home, got a couple more hours rest and showered and headed back and Aly came to visit, then my dad and Gwen did, and then Tim came and we spent some QT with our baby girl while Dad and Gwen were at our house spending time with Cooper.

The rest of Saturday/Sunday were same – just more antibiotic doses, lots of time spent out of the Continuing Care Nursery, and in a patient room with us.  I thought my butt was going to fall off from being so asleep sitting all of those days with her – but it was so nice to be able to take her out of the nursery and spend time with her.  Sunday, Tim and Andrew went golfing, so my mom came up to spend time with Cooper while I was in the hospital with Katy.  Cooper and Tim and my mom also spent quite a bit of time in the hospital with us – I had to be there at the hospital the most since I wanted to develop and establish that breastfeeding relationship.  She had finally really taken to it, thank goodness! 

Monday/Tuesday – Tim went to work and Coop to preschool while I went to the hospital all day.  When they were done for the day, they came to the hospital for awhile, then we all headed home together.  We found out on Tuesday that the nurses and doctors thought they heard a heart murmur.  It is nothing major to worry about, but they needed to do an echocardiogram just to make sure.

The echo came back ok, we just have a follow-up appointment with a cardiologist in 6 months.  The heart murmur should heal in time, it may be gone when we go to the follow-up.  We also found out that day that she would for sure come home the next day.  And that it would be early afternoon instead of late in the evening like we originally thought.  Tuesday was a wonderful day, because that meant tomorrow Katy would be home!!!

On Wednesday, on the way to the hospital, we picked up bagels and cream cheese for the nurses in the CCN as well as the AWESOME doctor that we were fortunate enough to have for our baby girl.  She was due for her last antibiotics at noon, so we hung out in a patient room with her until about 11:30, and sent her on her way back to the nursery for her last little bit of time.  We went to eat lunch in the café downstairs and then came back to pick her up.

Day 11 -

Overall, having her in the hospital for 10 days wasn’t the end of the world.  I got to spend lots of time with her each day.  I knew she was being taken care of by the best of the best.  Now that she’s home though, I do not ever want her to have to go back into a hospital for any reason.  I am loving having her home.  Our first night was rough, up and down a lot, but I’m have high hopes for a better night tonight.  We shall see!

If you stuck with me and read this entire post, I’ll give you a high five from afar, because it was long and quite wordy!  Thanks for reading, have a great evening!

Katy is HERE!! ………Birth Story

 

This post has been a while coming.  I’ve tried to write it several times, but for some reason….. holding my baby girl has taken precedence over making sure this post got written….  Imagine that!

 

I’m going to write her birth story a bit like a timeline, before I forget the details that I remember right now.  I may or may not have already forgotten some.

 

May 25th 2013

 

The day started off awesome, I got to sleep in – Tim got up with Cooper and they went downstairs and hung out.  When I did wake up, Tim made me a nice breakfast.  He made eggs, his famous potatoes, turkey bacon and toast.  It was delicious.  Then he went outside to work on the pool while Coop and I played inside a bit, and Cooper went out with him some too.  I had a pretty relaxing morning.  Then Coop and I took a nap.  We had a party to attend at 4pm – so we laid down about 1 so that we’d be ready to get up and get ready before the party.  That was exactly what we did.  The weather that day was great, sunny and high 60s.  A great day for an outdoor spring party. 

 

We got to the party a few minutes after 4, and Tim was unloading our corn hole set and I had just gotten out of the van when poof!  I thought my pants were soaked.  I KNEW I hadn’t peed.  I told Tim.  My BFF, Erica, came over and I asked her to look at my pants to see how bad they were.  I thought, ok, if I peed, can I stay at the party or would I have to go home, at least to change my clothes.  She said they were pretty wet.  So – more and more water started flowing, so we headed home.  I went to the bathroom and more came.  I texted my mom, Tim called the doctor’s office, then I talked to the doctor on the phone.  He told me it sounded as if my water broke (duh!) and that I should head into the hospital. 

 

We got our neighbors to watch Cooper (Thanks Diane & Keith!!!) and we headed to the hospital.  We got there, I got into the wheelchair and they wheeled me up to triage and we got all checked in.  They did some tests on me to see if the fluid was in fact amniotic fluid.  I knew it was, so I wasn’t worried.  Up until this point, I wasn’t really feeling many contractions.  At least I didn’t think they were contractions.  I just felt pressure.  I didn’t know that is what a contraction really felt like I guess.  I had been induced with Cooper and had an epidural pretty early so I don’t think I ever felt much when I had him.  Anyway, my contractions were 3-4 minutes apart and I wasn’t feeling them.  Not bad!  I was 4.5 cm dilated at that point.  The doctor who checked me was a resident and when she checked me, I’d never felt so much pain in MY ENTIRE LIFE.  She was not gentle AT ALL.  I seriously thought I might kill her.  It was awful.  I was so thankful she would not be checking me again.

 

Once they determined it was amniotic fluid, I got a labor and delivery room.  It was probably around 6:30-7pm by this time.  I found out around 7pm that my doctor was going to come into the hospital to deliver this baby, even though she wasn’t on call that weekend.  I owe that lady a TON.  I’m so eternally grateful that she was the doctor to deliver both of my babies.  She didn’t have to come in and deliver Katy, but she did.  So thankful am I!

 

I progressed little by little all night long, just not very fast.  They had me hooked up to Pitocin, I had gotten my epidural and I was dilating, just not as quickly as I was hoping for my second child.  They always say second children come faster, not the case for me…. 

 

May 26th 2013

 

Around 3:30am, a different resident had come in to check me, hoping that I had made some major progress by that point and NOPE.  I was still at 6cm.  The doctor just happened to be checking me when I had a contraction.  Thank goodness she was checking me then because she found another bag of water that hadn’t broken.  She called it a forebag.  She could only feel it while I was having a contraction, so she had to burst it in the middle of a contraction.  That REALLY helped things along.  By 5 something I was ready to push.  My doctor had just gotten to the hospital and it was perfect timing. 

 

I pushed that girl for 2.5 hours and she finally came out!  It was 7:51am.  She weighed exactly 8 lbs, she was 20.5 inches long and she was bruised.  Really, really bruised.  She came out like Superman with one arm by her face and she was pretty banged up.

 

I got to hold her almost immediately, which was awesome because I didn’t get to do that with Cooper.  Since his heart rate had fallen during delivery, they had to get the NICU staff in the room to look at him immediately after he came out, while Katy had done just fine, and so I got to hold her.  I was in love.  She was bruised and beautiful. 

 

Here are a few pictures of her pretty quickly after she was born.  You can see how bruised she was.  The third picture is of her Daddy and big brother Cooper holding her on her birthday. 

 

 

Baby Johnson: 37 Weeks

Well, I’ve made it to 37 weeks, full term!  Now, Baby Katy, COME OUT!!! 

Yesterday, I had my doctor appointment, and the doctor says I am a good 4 cm dilated. 

I had my usual NST, and baby is sounding great and doing wonderful with her kicks.

The doc also “stripped my membranes” – which is essentially separating the amniotic sac from the cervix from what I can ascertain from online sources.  It wasn’t the most pleasant experience, but wasn’t intolerable either.

I have been pretty miserable this week, I haven’t been sleeping well, I am up way too many times to pee, and just cannot get comfortable in almost any position, sitting up, standing or lying down. 

I’ve had a few contractions, the monitor at the doctor’s office has confirmed them, but they aren’t all that painful and they don’t last very long. 

I’ve been told I’m lucky so far, progressing to 4cm without having the pain that goes along with it.  I will keep this in mind, but I just want her to come now. 

I’m working from home today, so that I can be closer to the hospital just in case something happens, but with my luck, I’ll still be in this same situation come next Tuesday, and I’ll go ahead and come into work if that’s the case.  Working on Tuesday and ½ day on Wednesday, then we’ll be heading into the hospital on Thursday for induction.

Here’s this week’s comparison photo.  I won’t make it to 38 weeks with Katy either way, but I’ll try to take a picture if I make it to Thursday for one last comparison, even though Thursday will still be only 37 weeks 6 days…..

Here’s the progression photo:

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!!!

Baby Johnson: 36 Weeks

The countdown is on – and I am getting anxious, more excited and super ready!  I am officially going into the hospital for induction on the 30^th which we all knew, but here’s the kicker……  My doctor thinks it’s very possible that I go into labor before that. 

I had my two appointments this week, the usual NST on Monday and then doctor appointment and NST yesterday.  The doctor checked me for the first time this pregnancy, and turns out, I am already 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced.  I wasn’t checked until 37 weeks with Cooper and I was only 2cm.  I was 3 cm at 38 weeks, and 70% effaced at that point.  So, I am definitely progressing faster than I did with Cooper. 

Next week, the doctor says she’s going to strip my membranes, whatever that means, so that she can perhaps kick things off.  I guess sometimes this really helps start the process and sometimes it doesn’t do anything.  We’ll see I suppose.

Things have really been status quo around my house this week, busy as usual, running errands, swimming lessons, baseball games galore.  Tonight Cooper and I are going to watch Tim umpire his baseball game, and tomorrow night I’m hoping we hang out at home and do a whole bunch of nothing while Tim’s at his game. 

I still need to get another load of laundry done for Katy, and then there are a few more things that Steph gave us this week that need to be sorted through and put away.  TWO more boxes of clothes, but I think they are for later, so I’m not going to worry about washing them yet at this point. 

Tim is going to get the blind this weekend (I hope) for her room, and I’m planning to shop for a table to replace the one I’m taking out of Coop’s room to put in Katy’s room. 

Other than that, I really hope to get our house cleaned this weekend (between Tim’s double headers on Saturday AND Sunday, a birthday party late Saturday afternoon, Church and grocery shopping on Sunday I’m not sure how much of that will get done…..).

Newborn photos are not quite scheduled yet, as we’re not sure when Miss Kathryn will arrive, but we’ve lined up Kerri Sparks Photography to take pictures in our home.  I just love Kerri, she’s an amazing photographer!

Weekly comparison…

   

Weekly progression as usual!

Have a great Friday and happy weekend to all!!!