Delirious

I can't believe it's been 7 weeks since our little boy joined our family. I can't remember life without him.  It's been awesome, hectic and exhausting, hence the lack of posts. Ironically, I took on a social media freelance job last week. I'm a little rusty, but enjoy being back on Twitter a bit. There's been quite a bit of drama at work since I've been gone, so I must say I'm kind of even more glad I've been home.

Yesterday was Cinco's first Halloween. S was Merida from Brave, and Baby R was Aurora from Sleeping Beauty, so since we had two princesses, a friend suggested that Chico be a prince. :) I never really got the chance to dress him up though since he slept through all the activity. But that was ok. DH took the girls around the block, and I hung out across the street with Cinco at the neighbor's fire pit. I was surprised that we didn't have very many trick-or-treaters this year.

It's such a small world - we found out that our neighbor's ex-wife went to high school with DH. And another neighbor knows our friend who does our family photography.

This is a terribly disjointed post, but as the title suggests, I'm exhausted and a little delirious. Will post updates soon.

D(elivery)-Day

Saturday morning, DH planned to work on the yard. He left around 8:15am to pick up some supplies from a sod farm/nursery while the girls and I were eating breakfast. At 8:30am, I went to the bathroom and my water broke. Still just a trickle, so nothing crazy, but for real this time. I called DH's cell phone, and it went straight to voicemail. I left him a message and texted him to let him know I was going to take a shower and would be ready to go when he got home. I called my parents and asked them to come watch the girls for a bit. Then I let the girls know we were having a baby that day and I was going to take a shower and asked S to answer my phone if Daddy called.

I got out of the shower and he hadn't called back. So I called again. And then I called my OB and he said he'd meet us at the hospital. I wasn't having any contractions, so I wasn't too worried about time, but I also knew that they didn't want to mess around with it being my 3rd c-section and the chances of rupturing being so high with spontaneous labor. I called DH again. And texted again. I had packed my bag on Wednesday night after the false alarm, so just had to grab a couple last minute things and was ready to go.

At 9am, I still hadn't heard from DH, and I was starting to panic. I looked to see if he had left his phone charging at home, but he hadn't. I couldn't figure out why it kept going to voicemail. I didn't have a backup plan. I had a 1-minute pity party and bawled then pulled it together and called one of our neighbors. They didn't answer. I called another neighbor.

"So, Mr. B, I was wondering if you might be available to take me to the hospital. My water broke and DH isn't here and I can't get ahold of him. I'm going to give him 15 minutes and then I think I need to leave."

"Fifteen minutes? Are you sure? Maybe we should go now?"

"My parents are coming to watch the girls, and they aren't here yet, but will be in a few. I think it's ok to wait."

"Are you sure? Mrs. B can watch them."

"That's ok. Fifteen minutes will be fine."

Five minutes later, Mrs. B was knocking on the door, and Mr. B was pulling into the driveway.

"We didn't want to wait 15 minutes," she said, smiling.

"Thanks," I smiled, back.

The girls were bouncing off the walls with excitement. They gave me big hugs and kisses goodbye.

I had grabbed a couple of towels to put down on the seat just in case my water broke in a big way. I walked out the front door and down the driveway when I saw our van making it's way down the block. I was so relieved. And annoyed. And panicked.

DH's phone had died. Why is it not permanently charged two weeks before we're due to have a baby?!?!?

"I'm never going to live this down, am I?"

Um, no.

He and Mr. B quickly unloaded the bags of seed and peat moss, and we backed out of our driveway at 9:15am. We got to the hospital at 9:30am.

Baby boy was born at 11:15am. Only 6lbs 13oz - WAY smaller than we expected! We still can't agree on a nickname. To appease DH, I'm calling him Cinco on the blog since I won't in real life. We are thrilled that our family is complete.

False Alarm

My c-section is scheduled for Monday the 23rd - a week from today. So you'd think we'd have everything ready to go. But as of last Wednesday, that was not the case. Partially that's because I've felt no urgency since our girls were both late. It's also largely due to the fact that this pregnancy has taken a lot out of me, and I haven't had the energy to think about finishing up preparations, much less actually completing them.

Wednesday evening I was helping S with her homework at the desk in the kitchen. I stood up to go to the bathroom and felt a trickle. Uh oh.

Now when my water broke with S, the nurse had just checked to see if I was dilated and a huge gush happened. DH and I were in awe as we watched my stomach go from looking 9 months pregnant to 6 months over a 30 minute period. It was super cool. With Baby R, my water broke in bed in the middle of the night, and my sheets were very wet. Both times, there was no question that that was what had happened.

So when this trickle happened, I thought it could be amniotic fluid, but it might just as easily be urine, since this kid has been sitting on/pushing/poking my bladder incessantly for the last couple of months. Earlier that day at work, it had been exceptionally bad.

I went to the bathroom, emptied my bladder, and tried to ascertain what exactly had leaked, but couldn't. So I called DH who had gone back to the office to give him a heads up, and then called my OB. She told me to jump up and down and see if anything else came out. The image in your head is as hilarious as it was in real life - 9 month preggo lady holding her belly and jumping up and down with her phone pinned between her ear and shoulder. Nothing more happened, so she said to keep an eye on things and if any more came out in the next hour to call her back, but if it didn't, it was probably just urine. So I hung up with her, called DH to let him know it was probably fine, and finished putting the girls to bed.

And then went into panicked frenzy mode.

I brought 8-9 boxes of newborn supplies up from the basement - clothes, towels, blankets, toys, swaddlers, bottles, nursing pump - everything that would be needed immediately if I were to really go into labor. Then I stayed up til 3am sorting through it all, pulling out all the neutral items and washing them, and packing away the girl ones. If my water was on the verge of breaking earlier, this certainly would have finished it off.

Thankfully, nothing more happened. DH was bummed - he was so ready for little man to make his appearance. I wanted to wait to start my maternity leave, so wanted him to stay put another week and a half. Plus we still had a few other important things to take care of which DH handled Friday night - installing the car seat and putting the stroller together for example. Though if Cinco had been born that day, he would have been a Friday the 13th baby like Baby R and me. But it didn't happen.

Though it turned out to be a very good thing that we did have that scare and got the urgent matters addressed before the weekend.

Can't Catch a Break

At my last OB checkup, my blood pressure was 130/90 which is at the high end of normal. While not unusual for the end of pregnancy, I never experienced it with the girls. It's really odd for me because my BP is usually a little low - 100/70. I can tell that it's higher; I've noticed that my feet are swelling a bit, and I occasionally see stars. And I felt my it rise the other day when S was being sassy and wouldn't get into bed.

Also at my last appointment I had my strep B test. And I found out I have a yeast infection. Ugh. At least I don't have any symptoms with it. Just gross.

And at my last two perinatal appointments, they've commented that my amniotic fluid level is dropping. Again, still in the normal range, just much lower than it has been.

Finally, I got my strep B test back and it was positive. I'm sure it will be fine, but it's just one more thing to worry about.

You are totally worth all this, little man, but you are stressing your mama out already! We just pray that the rest of the pregnancy goes well and you are healthy. We love you, and can't wait to meet you!

Chaos

Before we left town, DH bought some steaks and corn on the cob. We planned to leave STL Monday morning, have a leisurely afternoon unpacking and getting ready for the week and grill out for dinner. But then DH found the 10K, so we pushed back our departure time. The steaks had to wait until Tuesday.

That morning, I realized we were out of marinade, so I planned to stop at the store on the way home to pick some up. DH let me know he was going to need to go back to the office after I got home, so I told him I'd try to leave work early and suggested I feed the munchkins supper and put them to bed, then marinate the steaks, and we could have a late dinner date around 9pm when he got home.

This is a story of best laid plans.

I picked Baby R up from daycare at 5:30pm. As we were leaving, she fell and skinned her knees and hands. They were bleeding, so we went back into daycare, got her cleaned up and bandaged. So we didn't get to the store until 6:00pm.

The marinade we use was on sale, so they were sold out. I went to the customer service desk and asked them to check to see if there was any more stock in the back, but there wasn't. The woman was very kind and helpful and wrote me a raincheck, but had to go back to the shelf to see the sale price since it wasn't listed in the flyer. I appreciated it but really needed to get going.

We didn't get home until 6:30pm. And then I told DH about the marinade and he said I should have called and he would have had me pick up a different kind. Good point. Anyway, we threw the steaks in the freezer before he left for work again.

While I was quickly putting chicken strips in the toaster oven to feed our starving children, Baby R tipped over one of the kitchen chairs and broke it. It was an accident, but incredibly frustrating.

Then at bedtime, S was being sassy and disrespectful (the usual as of late - grrrr) and refused to get into her top bunk. I was so mad, I picked her up and put her in it. Bad idea, I know. Especially since my blood pressure is up (see the next post with more info on that).

About half an hour later, Baby R had a BM. I went back upstairs to change her and needed something from the nursery. There were toys in the crib. I've asked the girls repeatedly not to put toys in the baby's bassinet and crib now that I've washed the sheets and gotten things set up. It was just the final straw on an incredibly frustrating evening.

Excited for maternity leave and more time with the girls, but also a little dreading the idea of reliving this kind of day often over the next few months. Praying for the good ones to greatly outweigh the tough ones.

Trip to St. Louis

We went to St. Louis over Labor Day weekend to visit my sister, J, and my BIL and nephew. I was a little nervous since I was only 3 weeks out from d-day, but we just couldn't go sooner. They put their house on the market in the spring and then moved the weekend before S's bday. Luckily everything went fine. We got to town a little after lunch on Saturday. We relaxed that afternoon, checked out their new digs, grilled out and had great cousin time. We hadn't seen my nephew since Easter - he's 8 months old now! Such a big boy and so fun!

Sunday my sister and I took the girls to the Missouri Botanical Gardens.

The children's area had a lot of cool things for them to do. We didn't make it to all the parts - it was really hot and muggy - but we saw enough to know we'd like to go back. Their favorite parts were the tree house, the general store and the water splash area next to the store.

Afterwards we went to Fitz's for lunch.

We had great service, and good food. And the girls each got to have their own bottle of "fizz" - S had ginger ale and Baby R had grape. Then we headed back home and had a little nap time/quiet time. DH and my BIL took the girls to a River City Rascals game that evening.

J and I got to have sister time which was awesome. We splurged on an ice cream treat and watched a chick flick. "Safe Haven" was as terribly cheesy as you think it is. But it was great getting to hang out together.

Monday morning DH ran his first 10K - so proud of him! Unfortunately, he locked his keys in the trunk. Luckily, I had my copy, so my BIL was able to take them to him. When they got back, my sister took S to Macy's and spoiled her rotten with belated Hello Kitty birthday gifts. And then we headed back to KC. So thankful to have had the chance to see them.

Girls and Boys

Lately I've found myself preparing for the mind shift of having a boy soon.

DH takes the girls to Lowe's and Home Depot on most Saturday mornings for their build and grow workshops. He couldn't go last weekend, so I took them instead. S can do a lot of the building herself now. The directions are pictograms and she handles the hammer well on her own, so I spent most of my time helping Baby R. S was struggling a bit with some of it, so I finished Baby R's plane and then turned my attention to S. While working with S, Baby R was playing with her plane - flying it around, landing it, rolling it along the ground, then zooming it back up into the air.

And then...

She put it on the ground, stepped back, then scooped it up in her arms and brought it to me.

"Mama," she cooed. "Look! I found a baby plane! Can we take it home with us? Can I name it Pocahontas?"

I told her of course she could, and she cradled it in her arms all the way to the van.

I imagined the same scenario with Cinco in a few years. It's possible he could have a nurturing approach to the plane, but it seems that a boy's first inclination is to zoom it back up in the air.

And then...

Hurtle it down to the ground for a crash landing.

It will be an interesting scientific experiment when the time comes. I don't mean that in a sexist way to say that girls are always nurturers and boys are always destructive. But having seen small children play differently with the same toys leads me to believe that some of their play style is innately different. I'm intrigued to find out the results of this experiment in a few years.



I also find myself considering the implications of the male side of stereotypes and sexism like in this week's drama over Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke's performance on MTV's video music awards. My first reaction was to Miley's role only. I've worked so hard to minimize the princess influence and promote modesty and appropriateness with the girls. Luckily they're too young to know much about what happened, though I'm sure S probably has heard something about it at school. But then I realized that I need to start thinking about how to talk to Cinco about his role as a man and how Robin Thicke was equally at fault in the performance.

A blog I follow, Pigtail Pals and Ballcap Buddies, had the following comments in her post about it.

Here is what I asked of my facebook community, and you can see the discussions play out here and here.

1. Give examples of how we deconstruct this kind of media and its messages to our kids.
2. How we differentiate sexual expression vs putting raunch on display for ratings.
3. How you explain to kids why they might hear Miley taking so much heat but not Robin.
4. How you explain the difference between critiquing media and critiquing a person to your child.

Nearly everyone is focused on Miley and girls. Well, what about Robin and boys? Let’s look at this….
- How would you talk to your tween/teen BOYS about older men using younger girls like sex objects and male performers being surrounded by barely-dressed female backup dancers?
- How would your boys answer: When so many of the female performers are so scantily clad, is that self expression of sexuality or the symptom of something larger? Why were none of the men nearly naked?
- How would your boys answer: How do you feel the representations of women last night affect your female friends and family members?
- How would your boys answer: What expectations does our family have around how you will treat girls and women? Did what you see or heard about from the VMA’s live up to that or fall short?

I think these are good points to keep in mind.