Halloween Costumes

Fall Update

Angela is offficially 2!! Her words are really starting to come along and it's a joy to listen to her say multiple syllable words and string simple sentences together. Angela's sleep continues to be good, however I'm still in search of a solution to her waking up crying every time after her naps. Cam has become more difficult to put down for naps/bedtime and he's also been waking up a lot more at night. It seems we've hit the 4 month slump with his sleep, but in turn he's become more alert and aware of his surroundings. At his 4 month appointment Cam was 16 pounds and 25 inches, 60% for length and 75% for weight. The doctor was happy to see that his weight gain has been slowing down and becoming more in-sync with his length. Angela was 25 pounds and 33 inches at her 2 year appointment, 25% for both length and weight. Cam figured out how to roll over onto his belly from him back shortly after he was 3 month old, but after doing it a lot for a few weeks, he hasn't done it recently.

This past weekend we took Angela to the circus, it was amazing - even John & I had a great time watching. She was in awe but after intermission I think she hit an overload and didn't really want to watch too much more, not to mention she was nearing her naptime. Cam was with grandma & grandpa and, just like Angela did at the same age, he cried for a lot of the time he was there. (Poor grandma & grandpa.)

Cam & Angela continue to have a great relationship - he lights up whenever he sees her and she enjoys & love him. Cam gets to tag along for Angela's gym class, ballet class & music together - he loves it all and she absolutely LOVES her ballet class. After the first class she really jumped in and follows the majority of what the teacher is doing; it's a great class - very fun and meant for toddlers but I can still see how it is gearing the kids towards learning ballet, which is perfect.

We're definitely excited for all the fun upcoming holidays and sharing Angela's excitement about all these new experiences. Cam is such a sweet, pretty easy, baby boy and part of me wishes he could just stay as a baby.

Summer is ending

This summer has been hot, too hot to try to drag a newborn and a toddler out and do anything fun that requires that I attend to both children. So, unfortunately, we've been spending our days indoors. Usually in the afternoons I would get Angela in the pool or let her soak herself with her water table. Who knew pouring water from one vessel into another could be so fulfilling?

We've made friends with a neighbor on a nearby street who also has a daughter Angela's age and we've been getting together once a week, which has been nice. And now that its gotten a bit cooler I've been able to take them on walks around Horn Pond in Woburn, which lots of people go for dog walks and the pond is very pretty with ducks and swans. Recently, I ran into the grandmother of one of Angela's "classmates" in her toddler tumblers class and I believe we'll have a new playdate in our pool of things to do.

Since I bought the Good Night Light for Angela her morning sleep improved greatly. She even started asking for it at nap time... this was after nearly a full month of her missing her nap because I was incapable of falling back on my sleep crutches to get her to sleep and I had to dive into full-on sleep training at naptime. It was either that or deal with an extremely cranky Angela until John got home from work. However, it went from full on crying for 60-90 minutes to her falling asleep with me sitting in the chair in her room, to her going doing and letting me leave the room and generally staying asleep until her light lit up as the sun telling her naptime has been over. I am so grateful that her naps have taken a turn for the better. A lot of praying went on during that rough month of no naps.

Cameron has been wonderful thus far. Relatively easy to put down for naps and he generally falls asleep on his own everytime. His nighttime sleep hasn't improved in terms of length of time that he sleeps, he hasn't slept for more than 4 hours in a long time, however, he goes right back to sleep after being fed and overall he sleeps for 10-12 hours at night, so I really cannot complain. He is a relatively easy going baby, in part thanks to his pacifier, and he smiles and gurgles and laughs so easily I cannot help but feel my love for him fill up inside of me.

Angela is turning 2 in a couple of short weeks and although I am excited to watch her grow up, I am feeling pangs of sadness to know that she will never be a baby again. I miss it already, even with Cameron, I wish I could hold her as a chubby baby again. When I hold her I can feel her long legs dangling and cradling her is becoming more and more challenging, I look like I've rescued her from a fire rather than just holding my little girl.

This fall we are signed up for her toddler tumblers gym class again, as well as couple of new classes - Mommy & Me dance (she has to wear a leotard, tights, and ballet shoes - cannot wait!), and Music Together which is on Saturday mornings so either John or I can take her or both of us! Watching her catch on to things so quickly these days and retain memories and information has been a lot of fun. She can count to ten and is beginning to remember the lyrics to songs and sing along.  

I love my kids!

 Month two has been a lot easier. In part because I have accepted the change that was necessary to make day to day living enjoyable. I accept that one or both kids may melt down at the same time. I accept that Angela may or may not get a nap, and it's not going to be at the same time every day. I purchased a "Good Nite Light" for Angela - it's a blue moon when it's time to go to bed and it stays blue till 6:30 and then it turns into a yellow sun. I realized that letting her get up before then not only made her really cranky, but myself as well.

Angela is still a big fan of her little brother... she wants to have him sit on her lap, she wants to hug and kiss him, and she still points him out to people when they come over "baby! baby! Cam!" Yesterday she thought she was doing a good thing by taking one of his black & white books and putting it on his head... which I ofcourse responded with a no, we don't put books on the baby's head. Instead I suggested that she read him the book - so she sat down in front of him, opened the book and started pointing to the pictures and telling him what they were (melt). Later, he because a little slumped over in his swing and I heard her go "ehh ehh" and tried to reposition him so he was sitting upright (melt, again!). So sweet. We are gearing Angela up for her 2nd birthday. Now when we ask her how old she'll be in September she shouts a very enthusiastic "two" and puts up a finger from each hand.



One Month as a Mother to 2 under 2.

It's not easy. The first couple of weeks were easy - he slept a lot and my mother was here. But the past few weeks I've been more on my own during the week and I've prayed a lot for help and I've tried to do my best to accept that there are going to be times (most likely every day) where things are not going to go my way - someone is going to be crying or acting cranky and my stress level is going to rise. By simply telling myself that its going to happen makes it easier to deal with while its happening. Summer is good for entertaining a child outside, except when you have a newborn that wants to be help constantly and you're all sweaty and a toddler who doesn't want to put sunblock on and wants to do things that are just downright impossible to do with a newborn.

Aside from that. Cameron was 8lbs 12oz at his 4 day check up,  a week later he was 9lbs 14oz. Good work, my man. At his one month appointment (which was actually at less than 4 weeks) he was 12lbs and 22 inches.

Although Angela wants my attention when she's cranky and I'm nursing or holding Cameron, she's been a great big sister. She wants to hold him a lot, gives lots of kisses and I often hear "baby baby baby" throughout the day. A queen of saying "sure" when people ask her questions - Laura, our neighbor, asked Angela if she could take Cameron home and Angela gave her a most definite "no". When she does want my attention and I'm holding him (usually trying to get him to sleep so I can play with Angela) she says "baby... chair" and points to his bouncy seat that he usually naps in right now.

At Angela's 18 month appointment she was 22.5lbs and 33 inches and now approaching 22 month old - she's definitely growing into a little girl. She can reach things on the counters, she dances ballet on her tippy toes and puts her arms up above her head as she spins around, and she loves to clap and run and gallup at her gym class. She's starting to learn her letters & numbers and says lots of new words every day, if we say a word to her she'll generally try to say it back to us.

Here we are again

Wednesday June 1st I had my appointment with the midwife. I was feeling good, nothing much to report - no indication that the baby was interested in coming out. Later that afternoon I noticed the mucus plug was coming out and then I started having frequent braxton-hicks contractions. Mom decided to stay the night just in case. Overnight the contractions increased in intensity, I was able to sleep a bit - but not much because the contractions were waking me up. Thursday morning they were still infrequent but becoming stronger and longer. I called the midwives to see if I should come into the office to be checked, but they said no - to just wait until they were stronger & more frequent. So I waited. They became stronger, but not more frequent. If I moved they picked up, if I relaxed they slowed down. I called again later in the afternoon wondering if I should walk or do something to progress the labor or not. The midwife told me to just relax and that the labor would progress when it was ready to. This was not exactly what I wanted to hear because I was not looking forward to going into another night of (now stronger) contractions. So I took a bath and laid in bed. And then they really slowed down - but after about a half hour they started coming every 3-5 minutes. By this time John was able to come home from work and take a shower, and mom got Angela to bed before we left. Got to the hospital about 7:30 and the contractions were still coming frequently in the car. Once we got to the labor & delivery reception desk, we were told all the delivery rooms were full, and we were dropped into an extra room outside of the main doors to L&D. I felt a bit tossed aside - the receptionist just left us in there with no indication when someone would be coming in. About 20 minutes later, though, a nurse did come in and shortly thereafter a midwife came in and checked my cervix - 4-5 centimeters dialated... which was a nice relief to know I had atleast made it into active labor. It wasn't until after 8:00 that I was in a room & I did get to see the midwife that I saw for many of my appointments, before she left for the night (8:30). It turns out - not only were they full of deliveries that night but they were also short 2 nurses. I had requested an epidural, but I guess the message didn't get passed on the first time, and it wasn't until later that I asked the nurse about it and she seemed to not know I had already requested it. I was definitely disappointed that my early labor lasted so long - the midwives had told me it was very possible I could have only a 12 hour labor this time, since it was 24 hours with Angela - no such luck - really, this time was longer than with Angela. So I got the epidural at 9:30 - this time I actually felt it whereas with Angela I don't recall feeling anything at all.

By 11:30 the midwife checked me again for dialation - specifically to check to see if I was going to need pitocin - turns out I was 9cm dilated. They left and I actually fell asleep for a bit and woke up about 12:15am, surprised that no one had checked on me since the last time. Finally the nurse came back in and I told her that I could feel the rectal pressures and was probably ready to start pushing, but she told me that the 2 midwives were both in the middle of deliveries and asked me if I could wait. I had the epidural, so I didn't mind waiting.

Shortly later, the midwife came in and was ready for me to push. This time was much more relaxed, no counting, no feet up in the air or knees to the chest (atleast at first). The only negative was that my epidural was stronger than last time and although I felt the rectal pressure when I was laying on my side - I couldn't feel it lying on my back, so I was actually pushing kind of blind, when I could feel my stomach and tell that I was having a contraction. Despite that, I made good progress in a very short period of time. The head was out, but then the midwife started telling me to really push, and keep pushing and pushing and pushing. The baby never turned his head so that the shoulders could come out one at a time, instead they were both coming at the same time. It got a little scary and she was calling in for help, but somehow I managed to push him out on my own and (don't ask me how) with only a minimal tear. Official birth time - 1:06am. Right onto my belly he went, which was SO much better than when Angela was born and I didn't even get to touch her until over an hour later. As he was on my belly and we were looking at him, I noticed that his hands were BIG... much bigger than Angela's when she was born. I got to hold him for a while and even nurse him before he went on the scale -and when he did and they announced that he was 9lbs 10oz all I could do was chuckle. They measured him at 21.5 inches but when I took him to the pediatrician they said he was only 20.75 inches.

Our post-delivery rooming situation was not so great (the food was good though & the nurses etc did a good job at not bothering us if we were sleeping or otherwise occupied)... we had a shared room because they were so busy. Not fun. We busted out of there as early on Sunday as possible.

38 weeks then and now...

I think I'm in trouble....

Full Term....

Angela had her 18 month appointment in April - 21.5lbs and 33 inches, still running long & lean. She really hadn't been saying too much up to that point - a lot of animal noises, "shuh" for sure but not too much else. The doctor told us she should be saying 1-2 new words each week from that point forward, and I was rather convinced that it wasn't going to happen and we'd be calling back in a month to potentially schedule an appointment with early intervention. Wouldn't you know that very week she started saying words and has continued to add on to her vocabulary. Cat, dog, cake, cuck for cookie, mama, baby, ball, balloon, car, fish, and lots more animal noises.

We had some sleeping setbacks that have finally been corrected - e.g. John falling asleep on the floor next to Angela at night, but we moved her back into her crib and she's once again falling asleep on her own, and generally sleeping through the night.

Angela also is much better at feeding herself - she can eat a bowl of cereal with a spoon - which makes me very proud - and very happy to not have to feed every bite to her anymore (yay, freedom!). She's also been expanding the variety of foods that she'll eat, which now includes vegetables - much to my delight. For a while I was harboring a lot of guilt about not successfully getting her to consume a balanced diet, but things seem to be improving.

Regarding baby #2, we've had a few extra ultra sounds due to the fact that the baby has been measuring large as well as watching the fluid in the kidneys. Our last ultrasound at the 34 week mark had the baby measuring about 7lbs (88th percentile) and the kidney issue had resolved.

Now at 37 weeks I still feel good - lugging Angela around a lot and I'm sleeping a bit better (insomnia & RLS were really bothering me for a good few weeks). The BH contractions have been picking up lately, but I now know that real contractions are certainly quite different from BH.

Last weekend we had a family photo shoot at the Arnold Arboretum, this coming weekend John & I are getting pedicures together and after that (aside from a leg waxing) we just need to straighten up the guest room for grandma, set the infant carrier back to the lowest setting, and we'll be pretty much set to go!

Preparing

So, aside from soon having a newborn to care for, I can't help but think how I'm going to take care of baby #1... who will be roughly 20-21 month old when she becomes a big sister. We have a few issues that I would not only like to rectify before my mother has to watch her on her own for a few days, but also to make life easier when it's my job.

Issue #1 - bedtime. We had things in a good place, it would roughly take 5-10 minutes of rocking/singing before Angela was relaxed and we could lay her on her bed (awake, mind you) and she'd go to sleep without issue. It was so easy, that I started having John put her down for bed more often than me... which then morphed into John lying next to her and falling asleep on the floor with her. This then led to her demanding that he lie next to her before she fell asleep, and then... she wanted me to do the same. A 5-10 minute thing turned into 45-60. This also seemed to coincide with her waking up more often during the night and needing us to rock her back to sleep, and I was becoming concerned that the two were related.

 I realized I could not do this to my mother, and last Friday night did a little CIO with Angela - she was mad to be sure, I left for 10 minutes, went in,  held her, sang to her, told her it was night-night, and walked out. She cried for 15 more minutes and then started standing up in bed (that was a new one)... went back in, checked on her, and walked out. But after a few more minutes of her crying after that I could see John felt sad for her (as was I), so I went back in and rubbed her back & stayed with her until she was pretty much entirely asleep - which didn't take more than 5 or so minutes. I was afraid that by doing so I was undoing the whole point of CIO - to teach her to fall asleep on her own without us in the room. The next night my parents were over and I didn't want to have them spend the evening with me running back and forth into her room, so I tried to stay in the room with her until she was asleep - but again, she was giving me a hard time and really wanted me to lie with her - which I didn't want to do. After a half-hour I tried to leave - she sat up and I firmly told her it was night-night time and that she had to go to sleep. She let out two little cries but did put her head down and went to sleep on her own. I'm hoping tonight goes a little bit easier and I can gradually get back to our old routine without much crying.

Now, nap time is another issue. She has never been a good napper and although she goes down pretty easily these days, she can also take her nap a lot later if I let her. Within 10 minutes of rocking she is out like a light and I can lay her down and leave the room. The problem however, is that generally within 45 minutes she wakes up and needs to be put back to sleep, and then 20-45 minutes after that - same thing, and 20 minutes after that she generally wakes up or will be rocked back to sleep again and wake up shortly later. This leaves me constantly looking over at the baby monitor and afraid to do anything that I can't walk away from (a shower, a necessary phone call etc). So, now I am focusing on putting more of an effort into letting her fall asleep on her own during nap time (although, past history has shown she puts up more of a fight during nap time when I've attempted to do this - and I've been told by a sleep consultant that nap time is harder regarding sleep training and CIO isn't always going to work). I definitely do not want to be in the middle of a diaper change or nursing session and have to somehow run back upstairs to try to put Angela back to sleep.

If I can resolve those two issues, I'll feel a lot less stressed. And aside from all that, my main concern is to tackle her pickiness at meal time. A 100% fruit diet is not an option, Angela!

Blurbs

I realize now that Angela pulls my shirt up and kisses my belly because she gets that somehow there is a baby in there.

I despise pregnancy insomnia. However, it makes the sleeplessness of a newborn easier because I get better quality sleep despite it being in 2-3 hour increments - yet to be proven 100% 2nd time around.

Although I'm pretty sure Angela does say the word "yes" here and there, she doesn't say no - she just shakes her head. We're dealing with a lot of head shaking these days. She also covers her eyes with her hands when she knows (or thinks) she's done something wrong. She understands a vast majority of what we tell her, I can ask her to do semi-complex tasks (e.g. "go into the kitchen and get the seat that goes to your potty and bring it back here") and she'll do it.

And although she was a pretty picky eater for a while, her appetite has, thankfully, expanded to include not only a wide variety of fruit but also: pasta, scrambled eggs, bagels, open-faced grilled cheese, oatmeal - sometimes, cream cheese on toast, chicken, hot dogs, and the occasional bite of steak, peas & broccoli.

Angela got into a drawer in our bathroom this morning, pulled out a spare head to our electric toothbrushes, stuck it in her mouth and went "rrrrRRrRrrrrrr".

Angela loves to dance & is trying to gallop, although she seems to have the upper-body function figured out, but not so much the lower body creating a very odd motion when it's put all together.

I had an ultrasound at 23 weeks to determine that yes, baby #2 is measuring a bit large at this point in the pregnancy. He/she should be around 1.5 lbs and is instead about 2 1/4 - I have my 27 week appointment this Thursday, so we'll see how far along I'm measuring this time. It definitely felt like the baby was rather long/strong as I was being kicked and punched from both directions.

Angela says a lot of animal noises - Meow, Wfff (for dog), eee, eee, eee for monkey, MMMMmm for cow, tee, tee for bird, and occasionally Rrrrr for lion. However, today as I was changing her diaper she was looking at a book and she kept saying "cat" so I turned the book around to see what page she was on - and indeed, she was pointing at a picture of a cat. She has her 18 month appointment in a few weeks, so I'd like to be able to report to the doctor that she is indeed saying words, because I was supposed to call him if by 17 months she wasn't saying 6 words on a regular basis - and she really wasn't, but I wasn't concerned and I'm not a fan of her pediatrician so I really didn't want to call him - after this appointment she'll be going to a different doctor.



The 27 week bump



Annnnnnd

The baby kicks have definitely begun. Now I can rest a bit easier.

Update on #2

Yea, that's right I forgot I'm pregnant. We're at 18 weeks now and I believe I've occasionally felt a little fluttering going on but it's been hard to tell. It was making me nervous for a while, but atleast at my appointment today with the midwife I got to hear the heartbeat and felt better. Things are definitely progressing and I'm showing a lot more this time than I did with Angela - granted that is usually the case with subsequent pregnancies and some of the credit is due to the extra inch or so of fat that I've been carrying around. "So far" (fingers double-crossed) my weight gain during this pregnancy has been undercontrol. I know at some point the first time I gain about 12lbs in one month, which was scary and I don't think I've past that point yet so lets hope things continue at the steady pace they've been at. Next week we have the second and most likely final ultrasound. We've opted to not know the sex this time around which is perfectly fine with me. Now we have the stressful task of figuring out what we want to name this child. We both knew we wanted the name Angela and now we're going back and forth over both boy and girl names. No verdict as of yet, but it's definitely starting to give me a headache.