4 weeks

     Wow, its already been almost 4 weeks since Timothy was born. Tomorrow night. Crazy. And I feel like I'm missing it entirely because everything is so rushed and busy with the other two. I want some time to just enjoy Timothy, but I guess that's part of having more than one child, especially when they're close together.

Jessica really loves her brother, and she jumped at the chance to read to him here.

       That would be why I didn't write last week. Just too much to do all the time. So I've got a few things to write about, and a few pictures, they just don't relate.
      Around 2 weeks old, Timothy finally caught the cold that Jacob and Jessica both had when he was born. The poor thing couldn't breathe at all if he was laying down, which made eating and sleeping really difficult for him (and for us) unless he was upright. I would try to suction the mucous out of his nose, but it was all up in his sinuses instead, so it would take 4-5 tries before getting anything at all. Which made for a very unhappy baby. (Obviously).

Chubby baby. I adore the double chin.

      Despite that, he obviously got enough food, because at his 2 weeks appointment he weighed in at 11 pounds 10 ounces... gaining about a pound (since this time he was wearing clothes) since his birth. LOL. The kid is huge I guess, but he still feels so tiny to me. Again, that's just what happens with having other littles. In comparison to Jacob, and especially Jessica, Timothy is tiny.

There ya go grandpa. You may not be here to see it, but you've got another tarheel baby. And hey look! A small smile too!

     I had my birthday last week too. 28 years old. And nothing feels any different. All just crazy. It was good though. Nathaniel did what he could to get me a lot of sleep and then to get up and take care of the kids so I wouldn't have to deal as much with the insanity of it. As I said, it was wonderful. No party this year though, not really at all. Too much stress from new baby. ;) We did have dinner at my Mom's on Sunday though, which was nice, and I'm not sure who was more excited by the gift she gave me, me or Jessica. Mom gave me the movie Frozen. LOL. I think we've watched it pretty much every day in the past week.

And Jacob loves Timothy too... just sometimes a bit too...exuberantly

      This week, Jacob learned a new word. "Smoothie" I've been using my blender a lot, and Jacob loves them. Now, every time he hears the blender, he comes running yelling "boobie!" Yup, his interpretation of the word smoothie involves B's instead of the actual letters. But it is hilarious.

And finally getting some tummy time in. Yay!

     Also this week, Nathaniel's computer chair broke. :( He sat on it, and the base snapped. It was about 15 years old, so I guess its not all that surprising, but still. So, because he needed a chair for work, we cannibalized my computer chair to fix his. so I've been using an exercise ball while we look for a better chair for me. It works, except that the chair had been where I rock kids to sleep... And now I can't do that. And I can't just sit back and relax either. so, here's hoping we get a new one soon. 

2 weeks

     Wow, it's been almost 2 weeks since Timothy was born, and really, it definitely doesn't seem that long. I noticed that last time, with Jacob, that time went a lot faster with an older child to take care of. It's even more so with 2. I'm sure the doctors would say I'm not quite all the way recovered, (duh, since they say 6 weeks for some things) so I won't be doing 'exercise' or some other things, but I realized that with the other 2, I get to be all the way recovered now. No matter how much I want sleep or to just sit, that isn't really an option. So yeah, life moves on now. Sadly, I'm also even worse at taking pictures with Timothy than I was with Jacob
       I do have a few things, some of which were actually from before I wrote the post last week, but that was long enough, and I wanted it to remain my birth story, so I left them out, and you get them this week.
      Shortly before Timothy was born (like the day, maybe 2 before) I finished sewing some cloth diapers for him. Yay! I prefer to use cloth most of the time (though I'm not a stickler about it), and well, they're expensive. I was able to use mostly fabric I had around the house, other than the PUL (waterproof fabric), and I had to get a snap press and snaps, but I was quite proud of myself. I'd tried to make some when Jessica was born, but it didn't turn out too well. This time, they did. :D

Yay, very cute home made diapers. I really can't tell you how proud I was of myself

      Friday, after Timothy was born, we had an... incident... as well. Jacob made it into our room as I was setting Timothy down for a nap, and ran over to some shelves and began shaking them. These shelves were full of my fragile decorations, so I hurried over to get him before he broke something. Right about the time I got there, something did fall. A dense glass cube. One of the bubble sculptures. It fell, hit Jacob in the head, and he started screaming (obviously). I picked him up and rushed from the room, so he wouldn't wake up Timothy. He was still screaming, so I pulled him away to see where it had hit him. I was shocked, and scared when I saw a fair amount of blood in and around his eye. Hurriedly I started dabbing at his eye to get the blood, so that we could see where the cut was. Breathed a small sigh of relief to see that it was on the bottom eyelid, not the actual eye. But, to me the cut seemed to be gaping open, and pretty deep, so we decided to have me take him to the ER. Yes, I know, baby Monday night, carrying a toddler Friday morning isn't the best, but I figured it would be easier on me than taking care of the two at home by myself. Anyway... I decided to take him to the instacare first because the blood wasn't soaking through the bandaid, and, well, it's a lot less pricey. So I got there, and they looked at it, and said it probably did need stitches, but because of the location they couldn't do it there. Sedation would be needed to avoid stabbing the eye or gluing it shut. So, then I headed to the nearest ER, and got in there. When the doctor came in and looked at it, he said that while he would sedate and stitch it if I wanted, he didn't think it was needed, and he wouldn't have stitched it if it was his child. *grumble, grumble, grumble* I opted for NOT giving my 2-year-old heavy drugs, and so they put a little neosporin-type ointment on it, and sent us home, wallet stinging. When we got home, I put a band-aid on it so that he would not scratch/pick at it at all. On Sunday, when we took off the band-aid for bathtime, we found that his skin apparently doesn't like the adhesive. So, If you look very closely at this picture, you can see a small red line right next to his eye that is the original injury, as well as a bit of bruising under his eye. However, I find it funny that the band-aid cause a bigger mark.

Ouch!

     Last week on Sunday, while Nathaniel took the older kids to church, I gave Timothy a bath, and was rewarded with this fantastic picture.

"Mama, what on earth did you just do to me?"

     And, of course, eating the fingers. We always love that. Besides, those chubby cheeks are just the best.

Look Mama! I found a sleepy Papa! He makes a great pillow.

SQUEEE!!! Cheeks and a double chin. Such a cute little chunk!

Baby!

     Yay! Timothy finally made his appearance! So, since I know a lot of you like knowing what happened, including details, I'll go ahead and tell everything, besides I want it all written down, so this is also more for me than anyone else. It is very long, so feel free to skip to the pictures of Timothy at the end. That does mean that it may get a little TMI for some people, so I told the basic story of what happened on facebook. If you don't want to read details, you can just go ahead and look at the pictures, and then go read the basics on facebook. ;)

      So, Monday morning, things started as normal. I took Jessica to preschool, and then headed to my midwife appointment. 40 weeks 5 days, and still no baby. Everything was going along great, but they decided to listen to Timothy's heartbeat for a longer time, just because I was past the due date, and the placenta can start to "get tired" and not work quite as well. While they were listening, Timothy's heartbeat dropped into the 90s. 130s-150s is normal. Obviously that's a bit of a worry, so they did a 20 minute fetal stress test, during which there were 1 or 2 decelerations. They weren't terribly worried, but decided that it would be a good idea to try some natural induction methods. I had to go get Jessica, so I asked if I could come back for that. So after picking up Jessica, I came back, and they had me use a breast pump for about 30 minutes, as well as taking some homeopathies that can help start labor. I still didn't know what the plan was, so it was interesting trying to do that with Jessica and Jacob running around the room. The midwife finally came in and we talked, and apparently it was worrisome enough that, as she put it, "we're going to make this induction work". They were even considering the option of breaking my water. Oh. So, basically they wanted me to stay there until he came. Okay. So I had to go home again, and get some stuff.
       So, home, pick up Nathaniel and all the birthing stuff, Mom's house to drop off kiddos, and then back to the birthing center to get a baby here. I will say, it was kinda rough. I was uncomfortable a lot of the time, and they kept wanting to do the fetal stress tests, while the midwife who came in more didn't seem to talk to me as much as the other ones. So I didn't know why. Nathaniel was getting really annoyed too. The one midwife seemed to be trying to push me to have my waters broken, and kept putting me on the fetal monitor, to the point where it seemed like more than we'd receive at the hospital. Kind of an "if they're not that worried about him, than why do they keep putting me in the bed and strapping me to the machine? and if they are THAT worried, then why are they not telling us?"
      Anyway, they stripped the membranes, and checked my cervix, at which point I was only about 3 cm dilated, so I went back on the breast pump, which was starting to get painful. After 30 minutes on there, I was having contractions, and they wanted to make sure they kept going, so they gave me a castor oil drink and sent us on an hour-long walk. Holy cow! I haven't done that much physical exercise basically my entire pregnancy. Any time I'd tried I'd get an odd, BAD feeling. I couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was, and it wasn't painful, just... like I shouldn't do that. And, the walk effectively killed all contractions. So, breast pump again, and back on the fetal stress test, and Nathaniel getting REALLY REALLY annoyed with them, because he doesn't like seeing me uncomfortable, and because they weren't really talking to us.
      Finally one of the other 2 midwives (not the new one) came in and we were able to talk to her about our concerns and issues. The fetal stress test, they needed all the ones across the multiple hours to get a good look, and Timothy seemed fine, so they didn't need to do it any more. YAY! She also apologized for the other midwife, and made it seem much more like the breaking the waters was an option, but a last resort, as opposed to what they wanted me to choose.  They did send us on one more walk, which again, basically stalled the contractions. They didn't stop all the way this time, thankfully, but they weren't as strong as they'd been after the breast pump. So they gave me more castor oil, checked my cervix again (5-6cm) and left so that Nathaniel and I could discuss what we wanted to do.
     Sigh. It had been a rough day. Neither of us were terribly happy, and I was struggling because it was seeming very much not like the calm natural birth I'd envisioned. However, the likelihood is that with the heart rate thing, if I'd been at a hospital, they'd have induced me using pitocin, and while that's faster, its not preferable, and could have caused more stress on him, which would have led to a c-section. So long as Timothy was safe, I wanted to avoid medical intervention, and all 3 midwives (two certified-nurse-midwives) were certain that he was still safe. So we talked about it, and it seemed our choices were either break the water, or go back on the breast pump (which was getting EXTREMELY painful by now). We decided to wait about a half hour, with me sitting on the birth ball, since that is what seemed to have the most effect on my labor with Jessica and Jacob. After that half-hour, I was still having contractions, but they weren't quite consistent, so I decided to use the breast pump again, but for a shorter amount of time. I'd been planning on 15 minutes, but after about 5, it seemed like I was in a state of almost constant contraction. They were about a minute long, and then I'd have maybe 30 seconds before the next one. So, I stopped, after which my contractions settled down into a more manageable time-table. Finally, around 8pm (which has normally been my bedtime this pregnancy) I reached the point where I was fairly certain labor had actually started. It was hard for me to tell, because of everything throughout the day. So, at that point, just a matter of time, and based on past experience relatively short time. It also made it so much easier, despite all the discomfort and aches from the day, because it was as though there was an end in sight. Yay! So, around 10pm they checked my cervix again, and Yay! it was at 8cm dilated. However, it was also "tilted back" so they had to move it forward. OUCH!!!!!! I'm not sure exactly what that meant, I've never heard of it before, but whatever it was it hurt. The only consolation was finding out that I was at 8cm. That definitely put the end in sight, and Nathaniel and I got into the birthing tub at that point.
      Yup, I had a water birth, and I am so very happy that I did. Getting in the very warm water helped to ease the aches and pains from the day, and it had an interesting side effect. With Jessica and Jacob I could tell as the contractions got steadily more intense, and I basically knew exactly when they were coming. I never felt that they hurt, just that they were intense and I needed to concentrate more. In the water, sometimes I could feel the intensity of the contractions, but other times, I didn't seem to really be able to feel it, which made it a lot harder to tell when Timothy was coming. After a while of being in the tub, I got out to go to the bathroom, and then my water broke. Oh! Apparently he's coming now. I got back in the tub, and sure enough I started to feel him coming, and the need to push. I don't know how long I was pushing, but I know it wasn't very long. Also, this part, I will admit hurt, a lot. It felt, to me, like he was stuck. And then finally I could feel his head start coming out, and everything was fine again.
     Finally he was out at 11:34 pm, but as I leaned back, two of the 3 midwives lifted him out of the water very enthusiastically, which created a small tear in the cord. Luckily the 3rd midwife saw it, and was able to hold it closed so we didn't have to clamp it early. That was a bit of a scare. We like the baby to get all of their blood, of which some was still in the placenta, so we didn't want to clamp early. So yeah, laid there for a while in the water with Timothy against my skin while we waited for the placenta to come out as well. Then they clamped the cord, and handed Timothy to Nathaniel so they could get me out and over to the bed.

     Let me tell you, that bed was so much better than any hospital bed. ;) Nice and big and comfy. What was not comfy however, was them trying to get the bleeding to stop. Yikes. That fundal massage was the worst ever, with me screaming in pain as they worked at it. And they wouldn't stop, even to give me a little break. Again with the same midwife as before (that we had issues with) not being as kind/gentle as the other two, and honestly, I felt violated and that there was nothing I could do at all, and that I had no say.
     That being said, I do know what they were doing and why. I tend to bleed. A LOT. (Hemorrhage actually) So they were obviously trying to stop the bleeding. They couldn't get all of the clots out, and so long as there are clots in the uterus, it will continue to bleed. (kind of like when you get sand in your eye) The fundal massage helps the uterus expel those clots, but it wasn't working, so they had to be very aggressive with it. They were also trying to go quickly so as to have me lose as little blood in the process as possible. Sigh. Not fun, but it would have really been no better at the hospital. With Jacob I was just so close to passing out that I didn't care about much of anything. They finally gave me some nitrous oxide (laughing gas) to help me as they finished getting the clots out, at which point the bleeding slowed immensely. (So much so that I'm surprised at how little I'm bleeding less than 6 full days later)
     After they finally got my bleeding taken care of, they got all the stats on Timothy. Oh, he's perfect. He's big, and perfect. 10 pounds, 8 ounces, 22 inches long, head circumference of 38cm. Apgar scores good, everything wonderful. Then I needed to go to the bathroom... and despite about 3 of them helping me walk, I ended up on the floor with an oxygen mask to my face. The cold floor alternately felt good, and had me shivering. Though, I suspect part of the shivering was the adrenaline from baby leaving my body. I'm not sure how long I was down there before they helped me up onto a toilet, but I suspect it was about a half hour. And once I was on  the toilet, my body wouldn't work quite right, so I couldn't use it. Grr. Trying to get back to the bed was basically the same thing. But this time I had the oxygen mask as I walked, and I passed out in the bed. So much for Nathaniel going home to rescue our babysitter.
     At 3am I woke up, and we decided to try again. I again didn't quite make it to the toilet, but at least I didn't end up lying on the ground, only sitting, before they helped me back to the bed, and brought a toilet to sit next to the bed, then I was able to make it, use it, and then get back into the bed. Finally, we brought Timothy to lie next to me in the bed, and Nathaniel went home to relieve Kristi.
     5am I tried again to go to the bathroom. This time I did make it to the toilet (with help) but on the way back I started getting dizzy, and then I was sitting leaning against the wall. I lay down, on my own volition, and waited for a bit before getting back up to go feed Timothy, who, apart from a tendency to chew, was latching rather well.
      7:30am, Nathaniel called, asking if he could bring the kids over and pick me up, and if we had someone to take care of them while we recovered. I felt much recovered, so I said yes, and then texted Mom to ask if she could take the kids (yes). Then I needed to go to the bathroom again. This time I made it to the toilet by myself, but then felt weak, so I had to have help getting back. And... No, I couldn't leave yet. With me not being able to get to and from the toilet by myself yet, they didn't really want to let me leave (duh). Instead, Nathaniel took the kids to Mom's, and then went and got some breakfast for us, while I got an IV to help get my fluids and electrolytes up. By the time he got back I was doing much better, and we ate, and then headed to Mom's ourselves, where Nathaniel fell asleep in the basement, and I did upstairs. Yay! Birth done, now exhausted. It did seem to take a few more days than normal to get to where I could even move around normally, but at the same time, I feel like I'm in a far better place at 6 days later this time around than I was in previous pregnancies.
     Timothy has been eating very well, though the first couple days were rough. He would eat on both sides until they were empty, and then I would even go back to the first side, and he'd still be crying for more. Apparently, for such a big baby, I didn't make quite enough colostrum. But once my milk came in we were fine.  Oh, and at 2 days postpartum (so when I'd leave the hospital) Timothy was almost back to his birth weight. Technically the scale did say 10-8, but he was wearing clothes.
And now... for pictures.
     First we have a video. I'm not sure how loud you'll need to have your speakers, but this was early in the morning right after he was born, and he was making cute squeaking noises as he was breathing.

Big baby, getting ready to be measured.

Checking heart rate. And yes, his face is a different color than the rest of him. Poor guy kept ramming his head against my pelvic bone, and got a bruise.

And there he is. Like I said, huge.

Being weighed. If you look close, you can see that we're not exaggerating his weight. ;) It does actually say 10 8

Early morning on Tuesday. I just love how soft this photo is.

All bundled up at Grandma's house. Love those chubby cheeks and the double chin. Also, you can see how small the newborn clothes are on him. They, and the newborn diapers didn't fit from minute 1.

Sleepy cuddles are awesome.

I just thought this face was too cute. Apparently he's unhappy about something. ;)

 So yeah, there you have it.

40 weeks... plus

*Grumble, grumble grumble*
    I know, I know, I'm not being very gracious with this, but I really didn't want to go past 40 weeks, and well, I hit 40 weeks on Wednesday. So, today, we're at 40 weeks 4 days. And, in all honesty, I'm about ready to cry most of the time. This pregnancy has been a lot harder on me physically than previous ones, and much of the time now it hurts to even stand up, let alone move. But, I'm a mom of small kids, I don't have the luxury of just sitting still the whole time.
   I already told you about my midwife appointment last Monday, since I wrote the blog post on Monday, but here is my 40 week picture.

Yup, 40 weeks pregnant... with laundry in the background

     So yeah, not much going on around here, because I can't make much go on. However, there is a cute story from Jessica.
     For Valentine's Day, my mom got Jacob a Star Wars colors board book. One of the pages (obviously) says Darth Vader wears Black. So, this past week, on the way to preschool, Jessica pipes up from the backseat "Why does Darth Vader wear black?" Me: "That's probably just what he chooses to wear." J: "When will he wear pink?" M: ... *trying not to laugh hysterically* "I don't know Jess, I guess just when he decides to."

    And, because I did have my camera out somewhat this week....

They love when Nathaniel allows Jessica to play on his tablet. Jacob will do whatever he has to to squish himself as close as possible so he can see the screen too.

    And, Jacob watches a movie everyday that helps him learn words, and it has songs in it too. It is absolutely hilarious to watch/listen to him get excited about it.

Not the best he's done, but listen closely on the "shout hooray" verse, you can hear him shout "hooray".