Month: March 2008

Quite Possibly The Fastest Nine Days of my Life

Published by dee on March 27, 2008

I’ve spent nine days with my little angel now and I absolutely cannot get enough of her. I am completely consumed with the love I feel for this baby. I remember feeling much the same way when Zach was born and it never really went away.

We’ve been quite busy since we got home from the hospital last Thursday. I honestly can’t believe that she’s already been home with us for a week. We actually spent Friday relaxing, but then were out and about on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday we took Zach to the Easter egg hunt at church, then we went to my sister’s house so the kids could all color Easter eggs together. Sunday we got all dressed up in our Easter clothes for church and then went to my Dad’s house where the Easter bunny had left baskets and hidden eggs for all of the kids.

On Monday Evie (which is what we’re calling Geneva if you haven’t caught on) had her first check up with the doctor. The doc thought she was doing great. Her weight was back up to 8 pounds, 11 ounces (after dropping to 8lbs, 9oz at the hospital). She did show slight signs of jaundice, but they weren’t too concerned and just told us to keep an eye on it.

Hubby had to go back to work on Tuesday and Evie and I were left alone for the first time. I have to admit that I really enjoyed being able to just sit and snuggle her. I took some time out to clean my kitchen up while she was sleeping and a friend stopped by for a bit, but I spent the rest of the day after that just holding her and napping off and on.

Wednesday was a pretty relaxed day, but Evie was a little more fussy than she had been. She didn’t allow me much time to do anything but feed and hold her. Fortunately I didn’t mind too much. We snuggled all day and took a much needed nap together.

Today I figured it was time to introduce her to one of my favorite hobbies – shopping! Ok, so we only went to Wal-Mart and the main goal was groceries, but we did take a spin through the clothing section so I could pick up some fat pants to take the place of the maternity pants that are now falling off of me. Evie slept through the entire store so I guess I’ll have to show off my shopping skillz some other time.

After our shopping trip my brother and his little girl Caitlin came over to visit for a bit. At nearly three months old, Caitlin looks huge to me. It makes me a little sad that Evie will be at least that big in a few short months.

It is hard to believe that two of my six weeks of maternity leave are almost over. I don’t even want to think about leaving her with someone else while I go off to work everyday. The only things I want to think about right now are how my little girl’s favorite place to sleep is curled up on my chest, how she stretches her hand out and places it on my chest while she’s nursing or sleeping just like her big brother used to do, and how she lets out the most relaxed, content sigh when she’s just about done feeding.

I’m trying to soak it all in and remember every moment, every quirky little look she gives me, every sound she makes, and every second I get to spend snuggling with my sweet little baby because this time around I know how very fast it all goes by and how quickly these days will fade from my memory.

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Totally In Love With My Daughter

Published by dee on March 18, 2008

Yes, I’m slightly crazy, but instead of sleeping like I should be, I’m taking advantage of the free wi-fi at the hospital. My baby girl is sleeping next to me and I’m waiting for photos to upload to Flickr so I can share them here.

Everything went really well today, but I’m not going to take the time to write about it now. Miss Geneva Dee was born at 2:22 p.m. after a quick 10 minutes of pushing (somebody must have heard my prayers!). She weighed in at 9 pounds, 1 ounce and is 19 inches long. Apparently, even with the early induction, we underestimated her weight. She looks just like her big brother and is beautiful. She has a little bruising and swelling on her face, which I’m hoping will go away quickly.

I am totally in love with this girl.

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Tomorrow I'll Be The Mother of Two Children

Published by dee on March 17, 2008

Well, today is Zachary’s last day as an only child. By this time tomorrow, BabyG should be here and I will officially be the mother of two children. It is hard to believe that it is so close.

I had planned a fun mother-son day with Zach today, but the rain this morning kept us in bed instead. Zach had crawled into our bed around 6:00 this morning, and when he woke back up just before 9:00, he told me he wanted to watch a movie in bed and snuggle. I would have been pretty stupid to turn down that opportunity so we popped in Toy Story 2 and snuggled in the bed for about another hour until I had to pee and just couldn’t wait anymore. Once I was up, he popped out of bed and was ready to play.

We lounged around for a bit, had some breakfast, played with his cars for a while, and then I forced myself to go take a shower. I asked Zach if he wanted to go somewhere special with Mommy and have lunch and of course his number one choice was McDonald’s, so off to McDonald’s we went. I’m sure those salty fries that I inhaled were great for my already swollen ankles and feet. Zach was perfectly behaved and finished almost all of his happy meal before even asking to go play. After we finished eating, he played for about 45 minutes. I had a moment of slight panic when I realized that I couldn’t see him when he was climbing through those huge tunnels. I knew he would be fine, but he suddenly seemed so very small. I think this was the first time I have ever let him play there when his older cousin wasn’t with us to rescue him if he got stuck. Every time he came down the slide he would run over to me and exclaim, “I did it!” He was so proud of himself.

After we left McD’s, I decided to make a quick stop at Sam’s and surprise Zach with a copy of Bee Movie. He’s loved it since we saw it at the theater and I figured it would be nice for him to have something new to watch over the next few days.

Now we’re home and he’s napping. Everything is packed up and ready to go. We’re going to head over to my mom’s tonight and stay there since she lives less than five minutes from the hospital. That way Zach doesn’t have to get disrupted so early in the morning. I’m supposed to be at the hospital at 6:45 in the morning ready for them to break my water. I’m still hoping that my body will decide to do this on its own first. I’ve been having contractions all day today, but they are still anywhere from 15-25 minutes apart.

I still can barely believe that this day is here. It feels so strange to have the birth of my child scheduled. I was scheduled to induce with Zach, but we didn’t make it that far. It just seems weird to know that she will be here tomorrow. Plus, I’m starting to get a little nervous about the whole taking care of two kids thing. Taking care of one is hard enough some days!

If you are the type that obsessively checks for birth announcements (like I do) I suggest keeping an eye on my Twitter and Flickr feeds. They will most likely be the first updates. I’m told that the hospital has free wi-fi so as soon as I can manage to take a break from staring at my beautiful daughter, I’ll try to post a pic or two.

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38 Weeks

Published by dee on March 14, 2008

This will probably be the last belly shot I post for this pregnancy. It was taken a couple of days early because we had such beautiful weather on Wednesday. My mom and I decided to have lunch at the little park that sits in the middle of our office complex. She just happened to have her camera with her so we took advantage of the sunlight (notice the extra squinty eyes) and took a few shots. I’m glad we did, because even though they aren’t the best pictures ever, these are probably the ones I will look back at one day when I want to show BabyG photos of her in my belly.

Right now I’m still a little bit in disbelief that my daughter will be here in 4 days or less. It has gone by so fast, and yet I feel like I’ve been pregnant forever at the same time. Of course, knowing that I went the full 40 weeks, plus an extra 4 days, with Zach makes this pregnancy seem short since I’ll be delivering at 38 1/2 weeks. I’m very thankful that I won’t have to wait quite that long this time. I’m so anxious right now I can hardly stand it. Every time I feel a little twinge in my stomach I’m thinking, “Is this it? Is it time?” But, of course it isn’t.

Today is my last day at work for a while and I have to say I’m pretty happy about that. I have a great job, but it will be nice to have a break for a while. I am completely caught up on my stuff and am spending the day today helping my mom out so she can be a little more caught up before she has to take over my job. I’ll be taking 6 weeks off, but will most likely be doing some work from home during the last few weeks of that. Since my boss provides a laptop, I really have no excuses not to.

Unless I go into labor early, this weekend will be spent hanging out with Zach and giving him as much special mommy time as possible. I have a feeling the next few weeks are going to be very hard on him. He’s very excited about his baby sister, but I know he really has no idea what it’s going to be like when she comes home with us. I’m not quite sure I do either to be honest.

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6 More Days

Published by dee on March 12, 2008

Today was my last check-up with my OB. I was hoping for a little more progression and that she would tell me I’m going into labor today, but that didn’t happen (of course!). I have dilated more over the last week and am now at 3 cm, but still only 50% effaced. Really, I could still go at any time.

As I said last week, at the very latest this baby will be here on the 18th. My doc set up the induction today. I am set to arrive at the hospital at 6:45 Tuesday morning and my doc will set things in motion. I will be looking at my baby girl in six days. I’m very excited, yet it still seems so unreal to me that it is so close. I really can’t believe how quickly this pregnancy has passed by.

I was telling Hubby last night as we were catching up on some TV shows that I am just so bored right now. I’ve been keeping up on everything so well (because I’m afraid of going into labor at any minute) that I just don’t have anything to do. Even my TV shows and internet aren’t that exciting right now. I can see TV being boring, but the internet? It never lets me down. It is always there for me when I need something to do, but right now I’m just not even interested.

My pre-baby task list has dwindled down to practically nothing. I need to do a quick glance through the bills again and make sure everything is paid up for the next couple of weeks. I have yet to finish my state and local taxes. Other than those two tasks I really don’t have anything else that has to be done. There are only a couple of items left on my to-do list at work and if the mail would stop coming in daily I wouldn’t have much to do there either. I’m sure I can manage to fill the next couple of days, but I’m really just pretty done there too.

Since I know now that I’ll be having this baby at least by Tuesday, Friday will be my last day at work. I’m planning to take Monday off so that I can have one last special day with Zach. I’m not sure what exactly we will do. It will depend a lot on the weather. But, I want to take him out and do something fun with just him before he loses his only-child status. As much as I’m looking forward to BabyG being here and watching her and Zach grow up together, I’m still going to really miss all of the time that I get to spend with Zach now.

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Another Reason to Hate Day Care

Published by dee on March 11, 2008

I knew something was up with Zach a couple days ago. He barely ate anything over the weekend. He wasn’t really acting like he felt sick, but the whining was driving me up the wall. I noticed myself snapping at him and wondered what had gotten into him. Then I blamed myself for being cranky and pregnant. I thought surely I was just imagining it and that he was probably just being a normal 2-year-old.

I knew last night when I helped him in the bathroom. I knew something wasn’t right then. I wondered when he fought us at bedtime last night, and then again when he woke up fussing just a few hours later. But I really knew when he woke up this morning crying and saying, “Mommy! I gotta poo poo really bad!”

That pretty much set the tone for the entire day. Since I don’t want to miss any more work than absolutely necessary right now, I waited a couple of hours for his stomach to settle, made a quick stop at CVS for some children’s Pepto, then made the poor sick kid sit at work with me all afternoon while I tried to get some work done. I ended up having to stay longer than I originally thought and by the time we finally headed home he was exhausted.

Zach ended up crashing in the car and slept until after 7:30 on the couch. Now he’s up and seems to be feeling better. He just downed a bowl of Cars shaped chicken noodle soup and I’m really hoping that it stays where it should for a while.

Sometimes I have to wonder if the education he is getting at his school is worth all of the illness and germs he brings home. It seems like he was only actually well for about a week since the last round. Plus, the last thing we need in our house right now-with a new baby soon on the way-is more germs.

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