6 weeks old

I can't believe it's been six weeks already.  L is growing like a weed. We've had so many feeding challenges since day one. Cracked, bleeding nipples from a bad latch, which created a supply shortage in the more damaged, right side. But finally, it's starting to improve a little. I've started feeding on the right first every time and then following up with the plentiful left and just today I was able to pump the most from my right since L was born. A whopping 2.6 oz. On my left I'm consistently getting 4+ ounces. It's also a little less painful. I'm not always dreading a feeding. 

L is such a joy. He is gaining and growing appropriately. At his one month appointment he was already 11 lbs 4 oz. By now he must be over 12 lbs. He's a happy little guy. He's smiling all the time and as of the last two days he's trying to laugh too.

Sometimes he fights sleep during the day, but I think he just wants to be a part of things. He loves the Moby wrap and sometimes likes the pacifier but he isn't as obsessed with it as his sister was.

He loves the sound of his sister's voice and smiles when he hears it. She loves him too. Always asking to kiss, hug or hold him. She definitely has her moments of wanting attention, but it's never with malicious behavior, just a lot of talking, yelling, singing and asking for us to watch her dance, run, play or master some new task. She's full of energy. 

L is sleeping "through the night" which is to say he's sleeping 5 or more hour stretches most nights. We're very pleased with that. He's starting to look like he's outgrowing his bassinet, so we're thinking of moving him into his crib in Little T's room. We're going to try to push it a few more weeks, but that day is coming sooner than I thought! I hope Little T will handle the transition well. My guess is that she will. She is such a sound, heavy sleeper. 

And L is so strong! He rolled over for the first time on the couch at around 2 weeks old. We couldn't believe it and chalked it up to the couch helping him. He did it again on the bed a few times, but we still couldn't really believe it. Then at 5 weeks while he was doing tummy time on the floor, he rolled over again. And then 2 or 3 more times that day on a flat floor. That's when we couldn't deny it anymore. I'd be lying if I said I didn't flash forward to seeing him on the varsity football team with his highly advanced rolling skills. ;)  Proud mama moment. 

All in all, we're getting some sleep and feeling pretty great. I do feel guilty on some days when I have the kids on my own and have a hard time being there entirely for Little T, but overall, I think I'm balancing things pretty well. Maybe with the exception of the laundry and housekeeping, which hasn't been as on point as it usually is. But as long as we all have clean underwear, I feel like I'm winning! 

As for me, I'm physically feeling great. With the exception of sore nipples (which I'm really getting used to) and not getting to shower as much as I normally like to, I'm really doing well. I have my 6 week checkup tomorrow and plan to start getting back to my long daily walks the day after. I still have 15 lbs to lose, but I'm not in a huge rush this time. It'll come off. It just may take some time.

I hope to update again soon, but there's so little time! Til then...

He's here!

Sunday, October 5, 2014 at 7:46 pm, our son LTD was born!

I woke up in the wee hours of Sunday morning to some cramping. For me, cramping was nothing new. I had been dealing with some cramping for about two weeks, so it didn't mean much to me. I went to the bathroom and then I went back to sleep like I always did about 5-7 times a night. Thanks to J waking early with Little T, I was able to sleep in until about 8:30 am. I woke up, said good morning to Mu family and went to the bathroom. That's when I saw blood. I alerted J with a big smile that I may be in labor and went to take a shower. I figured I may as well start the day fresh and clean. During the shower my contractions were coming closer. Some as close as 4-5 mins apart. So I called the doctor and they told me to get little T squared away and come on into the hospital. We called J's parents to pick up Little T and I packed her a bag very haphazardly as at this point my adrenaline was kicking and I was excited, anxious, nervous, all of that. 

We got to the hospital around 10:30 am and they hooked me up to the monitors. By 12:20 pm I was 3-4 cm dilated and 50% effaced. My contractions were coming sporadically. I would get three in quick succession but then get a long break. Dr. Logan wanted me to walk around for about an hour to see if that would help them come more regularly. So we went outside and did a couple laps around the campus. It was a somewhat chilly but beautiful day, so we enjoyed that. By the time I got back to Admissions I was having some intense contractions. At 2:15 pm I was 6 cm and 90% effaced. They saw that I was shaking during my contractions and decided I must be in transition. That's when they moved me to our room.

When we got to our room we realized immediately that we were in the same room where I'd given birth to Little T! For some reason that meant a lot to me. They told me I could get in the tub, which was so cool cause I wasn't able to do that when I was induced last time. The bath was amazing. It felt so good that it actually slowed down my contractions so I couldn't spend too much time in there.

I got out of the tub after about an hour. J and I spent the next hour watching football (between some really intense contractions). At this point I realized that I could do this unmedicated. I knew I could handle it, but I decided I really didn't want to. I wanted to be able to enjoy the birth and called for an epidural around 4:30 when I was 8 cm dilated and fully effaced. 

They gave me some time to rest, once the epidural kicked in. I had to keep switching sides cause the epidural wouldn't work well on whichever side I wasn't lying on and the baby didn't tolerate me being on my back for long. 

At 6:30, they decided to break my water. I was pretty upset when I found out that there was meconium in the water, which meant that baby had pooped in the womb and it meant we'd need to have the NICU nurses in the room with us. I was worried that s/he may have aspirated the meconium and would have trouble breathing. So, that was very disappointing and scary. 

At around 7:30, I started to feel pressure and told the nurse. She brought the doctor in and they had me do a practice push. Everyone was impressed with my "control" in pushing and said the baby would come fast. 

At 7:41 I started pushing for real. They had me stop around 7:44 because the cord was around baby's neck. Doc fixed it and I continued to push. LTD was born at 7:46pm after five minutes of pushing. I immediately saw that it was a boy, which didn't surprise me at all! I was thrilled and so was J. We were both shocked to find out how big he was! At 9 lbs 7 oz and 21.5 inches, he was a big boy!

And we knew right away he was a Pats fan because he arrived with minutes to go before kickoff. Mama and daddy were so great full for his timely arrival! 

It's been almost three weeks now and we're so in love. He's sweet and happy and looks a lot like his dad and sister. He smiles a lot when he's sleeping and even tries to roll over sometimes. He's incredibly strong and doesn't mind tummy time much at all. 

We've had some breastfeeding challenges. His latch is not great, which means my nipples are torn and bleeding, but we saw an LC today and I really feel like we're going to improve dramatically. 

He's steadily gaining weight unlike his sister before him, so I couldn't be happier about that. 

We're getting some sleep. There are good nights and bad. But mostly good. I am just head over heels in love with both of my kids. 

Thank you to all of you who helped us get here!

A whole year!!

So, I got an alert yesterday to tell me that it has been one year since I started Sister Eggs. I can't even believe how much has happened in the last year.

The fact that we had only just decided on using donor eggs one year ago and now we're literally hours or days away from holding our baby is such a blessing. 

I'm so incredibly grateful. I just feel lucky to have such wonderful support and to have been as fortunate as we have. 

It's been a long, sometimes incredibly tough year, but we've made it this far! 

And now, the doctor has given us an end date. If I'm not in labor before Monday, I will be induced then. It's not what I originally wanted, but I'm over it. I just can't wait to meet our baby!

This time next week I'll be holding our newest son or daughter. 

Happy Due Date!

Well, I've made it to my due date with my sanity intact. Barely! I'm so ready to meet this baby, but apparently s/he is not quite ready to meet us. I have an appointment with my doctor on Wednesday. My guess is that if the baby isn't here by then, they'll suggest another induction. I'm less afraid of the induction this time because I've been there, done that. But I really do hope to go into labor before it comes to that. With the size predictions of this baby, I won't fight an induction. I'll probably go with whatever the doc suggests. Anyway, keep your fingers crossed that it won't come to that!

I'm feeling lots of contractions, some days I have more than others. And the baby feels low. I feel large and am having a hard time maneuvering easily with this big belly. But I've kept up the walking five miles, five days or more a week. I'm almost ready to throw in the towel with the walking, but I'm trying to keep it up. We'll see how I feel.

Here is my due date belly pic:

37 weeks...getting there!

So, I'm 37 weeks 2 days pregnant and I'm feeling pretty good! I'm still walking 5 days a week and I'm hoping that will help when it comes to labor. 

I had an appointment today. Everything is pretty much the same as last week. I think I gained another pound or so, BP is excellent as usual, strep B test was negative. I asked the doctor whether she thought the baby might come late like Little T did. She said that second babies tend not to make you wait as long. So I'm trying to prepare myself for 5 more weeks of waiting but I'm hoping for less than 3 weeks! 

Things are definitely starting to get real. I've been doing some nesting. J has helped out a lot the last few weeks, cleaning out drawers and closets because I'm nesting, but also exhausted, so I need the help! Haha. I also washed all the unisex baby clothes and they're in the baby/Little T's shared room waiting for a tiny person to wear them. We brought out and cleaned the car seat, swing, bouncer, boppy, crib sheets, changing table covers, etc. so I'm feeling a lot more ready.

I've also packed most of the essentials for my "go bag" for the hospital. I have a gift from the baby to Little T. A couple of activities she can do at the hospital during visits. Oh and Little T's "Big Sister" tee shirt came in the mail today. So, all there is left to do is wait for baby! Thankfully, I have a really busy week, so that should help the time go faster. The end is always so long!!

Here's a shot of me today:

36 weeks and feeling pretty good...today

So, I can't believe it's been a month since I last updated. A lot has happened. I am 36 weeks 2 days pregnant. The baby no longer has any cords around his/her neck. It took three more ultrasounds to confirm it, but we got that good news. At my last ultrasound two weeks ago (34weeks), s/he was measuring just over 6 lbs, which is very big, especially compared to where Little T was at that point. 

This weekend was Labor Day weekend and I had a kind of hormonal weekend, to say the least. Little T got a bad case of Poison Ivy last week. She has it all over her face, torso, arms and legs and has been on steroids because of it. Sweet girl that she is, she shared with her mama too. So I have it all over my arms and knees. I didn't think I could take anything for it, so I've been itchy and miserable. On top of the poison ivy it's been humid and in the nineties all week. Oh and I was feeling really down about gaining too much weight. I had a couple of really down moments and started crying on a car ride, explaining to J that there was no way I'd be able to make it four more weeks!! With this huge baby! Basically it was a bit of a bummer long weekend. 

But then today I had a doctor's appointment where they assured me I hadn't gained too much. They told me I could take something for the itch relief (yay!) and that not only has the baby dropped but I'm 50% effaced and 1 cm dilated. I've had a lot of Braxton Hicks so I wasn't totally shocked and I also know that doesn't mean I'm going into labor tomorrow or even in the next 3 weeks, but somehow hearing that things were starting made me feel a lot better. 

So, now I'm just trying to focus on enjoying the next 4-6 weeks left of my pregnancy! Or who knows, maybe this (projected to be 9 lbs) baby will decide to come a little early! (I wouldn't be disappointed, as long as baby is fully cooked).

Meanwhile, J and I have been getting all the baby stuff ready and it's starting to come together. So, for today, things are good and I'm not having crying jags in the car. Stay tuned to see if the positivity continues or if I'm back to melting down by tomorrow! 

Another ultrasound another issue

Well, it looks like this baby wants to put me through the wringer here. ;) this morning we had a really great ultrasound with very cool 3D photos of our baby's face. Baby is measuring big. Book says s/he should be about 3.75 lbs and ours is weighing in at a whopping 4 lbs 14 ounces. That's almost 5 lbs at 32 weeks! Yikes! So I'm not going crazy. This is a big baby I'm growing here! That is the good news.

The not so good news is that the umbilical cord is wrapped around the baby's neck TWICE. This is not super common apparently so they ordered a Non-Stress Test or NST, which we passed. We have another ultrasound scheduled for next week.

I'm doing my best to not panic, as the doctor told me that would do no good and that I shouldn't really need to panic anyway. I really hope this doesn't affect our desire for a vaginal and not C section birth. I guess that remains to be seen, and of course, I'll do what's best for baby. 

My friends tell me I should have some good karma coming my way and hopefully we'll have a great sleeper with a fantastic temperament. Who knows. What I do know is this baby looks a lot like my other. Both are spitting images of their father. I'll attach a new belly photo and some cool 3D images of what I think will be my son! (Though we still don't know for sure!)