May 31, 2017 by Stephanie

Second Time Around

Much like this pregnancy, bringing Daphne home has been a much different experience than bringing George home.

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I think the biggest difference was all the unknown the first time around:

unknown job situation
unknown of how to handle a newborn
unknown of how long we would be in KY/TN

I remember being so anxious about our future and trying to keep this little person alive. It was hard to really enjoy those newborn stages.

I think we knew that having a newborn was going to be hard, but I don’t think we were at all prepared for the effects of being in the NICU, difficulties of breastfeeding, and general tiredness.

Tom also barely got any time off with George, especially since 2/3 of his time he did get from the Army we were still at the hospital with the NICU. This time he is off for 4 weeks right now, and will be taking another week or two when I head back to work in August. Having both of us here has been so nice.

This time we went in expecting the awful nights and set our expectations really low. I have been pleasantly surprised with the amount of sleep we are working with.

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Breastfeeding has been tons better this time around. I attribute this mostly to the fact that we were combating a 10 day stay in the NICU with George where he learned how to feed with bottles and syringes. Daphne’s first time eating was through breastfeeding, so I think it has just been much more natural. Granted it has only been twoish weeks, so I know we still have many more milestones to get through. I just hope it continues to go well. All I know is that I have not been breaking down crying in her room in the middle of the night like I did with George, so that is a plus.

Another big difference is that we are not as paranoid. I remember not wanting to leave the house with George. Our trips were very minimal with him in the car, and I just couldn’t deal with the logistics of breastfeeding. This time around, we have been out every other day as a family of four. I have a much better nursing cover that makes things much easier and gives me the modesty I want to be out while feeding her. Plus as I said, she is taking to it a lot better than George. I also think we realize that it is much easier to take a new baby out for errands and eating out than it is to take a toddler.

I also don’t feel like I have to have my eyes on her 24/7. With George, I would not take a shower without Tom being home because I was afraid he would die while I was getting clean. With Daphne, I am in other rooms all the time whether it is to finish cleaning or organizing the new bedrooms or playing with her big brother. I feel fine leaving her to nap in her rock and play without watching her breathe every second. We thank the NICU for making us even more paranoid as first tie parents. This time we are a little more confident that we won’t kill the kid if we look away for a second.

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It sounds like it has been all roses with Miss DC in comparison to Mr. Man. I will admit in a lot of ways it has been a lot easier. We are in a better place in life mentally, emotionally, and fiscally. That has a tremendous affect on how you approach being a parent.

However, having a toddler does make things more interesting. I can’t just sit around and hold Daphne all day which is pretty much what I did with George for the first couple months. My attention has to be split between two kids (and a husband and two dogs), which can be a little tricky. We have tried to keep George on as much of his normal schedule as possible. That can be hard when Daphne decides to eat right now and then George decides as soon as she is latched that is when he has to go potty. And he needs an audience to actually go…So making adjustments and forcing a toddler to change is never a piece of cake.

It has also been something trying to navigate the end of our renovation project with a newborn. Granted we moved when George was 2 months old, but having strangers in your house while you are newly home from the hospital and breastfeeding has been a little stressful this go around. Let alone I am still on a weight restriction so I can’t really help move anything into the new rooms.

There are good and bad moments with every transition I guess. However, I am trying to be positive this time around and try to enjoy these newborn moments as much as I can. Also this is a rare opportunity that I get to be home with my family over the summer months, so we are going to make the most of it. Our family is complete, and really what could be better than that?

May 27, 2017 by Stephanie

Daphne-One Week

Thank you for your kind words in response to our birth story. While it was traumatic in some ways, it also brought us our beautiful baby girl. We are so excited to watch her grow, and of course I am going to document the journey here.

Weight: She is 6 lbs. She was 6 lbs 10 oz when she was born and 18 and 3/4 inches long. She weighs more than George at this point, but he was longer than her.

Health: She is perfectly healthy!

Diet: She is eating just breastmilk. She latches like a champ, but she doesn’t nurse for very long. She usually does only 5-10 minutes each feeding. She ends up falling asleep. If anyone has advice on how to keep her awake to eat more I am all ears. We are nursing every 2-3 hours. I am pumping at least once a day because of engorgement though. It never hurts to start the stock up for when I go back to work.

Clothes: She is still very tiny. She can fit into premie onsies, but full premie sleepers are too short for her. She is still a couple weeks away from completely filling out newborn clothes. I am not upset about that because it means we get to wear clothes a little longer. Although she has so many clothes that she may only wear things once anyway. She is in newborn diapers.

Sleeping: She pretty much sleeps all day. I feel like we are getting a little more sleep than we did with George. I remember crying in sleep deprivation a lot more with him. We do our last feeding before I get into bed around 11, and then she will wake up around 2:30/3, and then not again until 6ish. That’s when George wakes up as well, so that begins our day. I will take it!

Likes: It’s hard to say what she likes right now. I guess boobs?

Dislikes: She is pretty chill. The only time she cries is right after we have given her a bottle. She screams in protest until I let her nurse. She will have just eaten 2 oz with a bottle but will throw a fit until I feed her naturally. Other than that, she doesn’t cry too much yet.

Nicknames: Sister Friend, Girlfriend, Sweet Cheeks, DC, Daphie and Daph.

Quirks: It’s hard to say right now. She doesn’t really cry; she just makes squeaks right now when she gets hungry. Girl has the longest toes I have ever seen.

We parents are: Not doing too bad considering we haven’t had a full night sleep in awhile. Tom is a really light sleeper so anytime Daphne makes a noise he is up checking on her. And I never sleep more than 2 hours at a time with feeding her. So it can be a little rough, but we are making do. It is nice this time because Tom actually has off for the next month with me. Our house should be done here in the next week or two. We were able to move into the bedrooms this weekend, and we are just waiting on the bathrooms and some things on the outside to be completely finished. It is nice that we have this time at home to take our time moving things and decorating the way we want instead of feeling rushed on a weekend. We are absolutely in love with how things have turned out! So besides the sleep, we don’t have any real big complaints!

George is: doing so much better than expected. I am going to write a post soon about his reaction to Sister and all the changes since coming home. He calls her Baby and Sister. He is very curious about breastfeeding and mommy’s milk. He thinks that I have booboos that Sister is kissing better.

The dogs are: doing just fine. I think they love the fact that we are all home all the time right now. They are pretty clingy and want our attention a lot. Grace tried to get in the pack and play with Daphne the first couple nights we were home. She likes to lick her head too. Crosby could care less about Daphne, but he seems to have grown closer to George. He is now sleeping in his bed with him.

And I am totally going to be that parent and compare her to her big brother. Here is George at two weeks old.

May 24, 2017 by Stephanie

Daphne’s Birth Story

It’s hard to believe that she is finally here!

Our Daphne Christine.

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While we had an induction planned, everything about this birth story was not planned. But what birth story is?

A couple weeks ago, my doctor scheduled our induction for Saturday, May 20th, because he didn’t want me to go a day past 37 weeks. Last Wednesday (May 17th), I went in for my final check up. Knowing we only had a couple days, we got everything squared away at the house, and I had everything done that I needed to do at work before I headed to this appointment. That day was also Tom’s last day at work before he started his paternity leave, so we felt good about the finality of this pregnancy. I even brought my hospital bag with me that day wanting to be more prepared.

I just had a feeling that I wasn’t going to be leaving that appointment without a baby.

And sure enough, Daphne and I both didn’t pass our tests that day. She didn’t practice breathing during the ultrasound, and my blood pressure was too high for my doctor to let us go even two more days until our induction. So I checked into Labor and Delivery, and Tom met me there within the hour after securing George plans with his parents.

We got to our room at 5pm, and I was calm about the whole ordeal at this point. We were having a baby!

They started hooking me up with the IV. They checked my cervix, and I was already dilated to a 3, which is awesome that I was already there naturally. Because of my blood pressure, I was being put on magnesium again. I was really hoping to avoid this because of the bad and awful reactions I had with George. And because of the magnesium, I had to have a catheter. Ugh…

My in-laws brought George by after picking him up from the sitter’s. When he walked in the door, he said, “Mommy hurt?” So many emotions right there. It just hit me that my little baby boy was all grown up.

Soon after they left around 7pm, they put me on pitocin and got the party started. I started having contractions coming together almost immediately. I was also really feeling the magnesium. I was freezing out Tom because I was burning up so much and kept asking for the air to be turned down. The weird thing about magnesium though is that it was just my face that was on fire.

Since I was not allowed to walk around, at 11 pm I decided to get an epidural. It just seems silly to have to deal with all that pain to be able to do it more naturally when nothing about magnesium is normal. The only reason I wanted to try naturally was so I could walk around during labor, and that just wasn’t an option. Give me the drugs then! This time was a lot harder for me to get the epidural. It was much more painful of a process. Tom was in there this time though so that was nice to be able to hold his hand.

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At 12:30, they came and checked my cervix again and broke my water. I was only at a 4. I was a little upset that I wasn’t progressing faster, but I embraced where we were at.

I started shaking uncontrollably at this point. It was like I was cold, but I was hot from the magnesium. I just remember repeating to Tom, “I can’t make it stop.” I shook like this well after the birth was over. This was awful to not feel in control of your body at all.

The nurse had me flipping sides every few minutes in between contractions to help activate Daphne. Every time I had a contraction, her heartbeat went way low. They thought that the umbilical cord may be wrapped around her neck. I just remember being exhausted after every flip because it was so hard to move my legs due to the epidural it was taking all my strength to rotate. At one point they had me on all fours to help alleviate some of the contraction pain. The thing that they don’t tell you about epidurals is that it doesn’t take away all the contractions like one may think, and you still feel ALL the pressure.

I was having contractions every few minutes and some severe pressure in my hooha. Finally at 3:00 am, the doctor came back in to check on my progress.

It was no wonder I was feeling pressure, because Daphne was crowning and her head was making it’s way out! Her heart rate was going down during contractions not because of the umbilical cord, but because my vagina was wrapped around her neck. So they got everyone into position quickly, including my legs into stirrups.

Seven minutes and 6 pushes after they said let’s start this, Daphne Christine was born at 3:20am and laid on my chest.

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They waited a couple minutes to cut the umbilical cord while she laid on my chest. It as so magical to have this moment. We never got this with George since he was whisked away to the NICU so quickly after birth, so this was amazing to have it this time around.

Once Tom cut the literal cord, they took her over to do her tests while they did finished cleaning and stitching me up.

They did struggle to get the placenta out. And when it did come out, it was very apparent why I needed to have this baby early. It was in shreds. Tom said it looked nothing like when I had George.

But soon it was over and Daphne was back on my chest avoiding the NICU completely as a pre-term baby at 36 weeks and 4 days. Here she was already passing her brother on tests. She weighed 6 lbs and 6 oz, and every bit was beautiful.

I remember dozing off a little bit before the sun rose, but after that I was trying to nurse her every hour or so. Tom and I also admitted that it was so very weird to have her in the room. People kept commenting that it was easy for us since it was our second time and knew what to expect, but we both were like uh no the last baby I didn’t get to see for almost two days after he was born. I don’t know how to do these first few hours of life business!

So after about 7 hours of labor, our precious baby girl made her debut into this world.

While she is now born, the story does not end here. The next couple of days were just as eventful and every part of this birth story. Before this week, I had contemplated having a third kid, but one particular part event of last week has me saying there will never ever be any more kids in our future.

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But you will have to come back for that part of the story. For now you can enjoy those baby cheeks!

May 14, 2017 by Stephanie

Just George

We have been scheduled for an induction, so our timeline with just George is coming to an end here in the next week.

The idea of George losing his “only” status is something I have thought about since we found out that we were pregnant. However, it’s been heightened here with the deadline coming quickly upon us. These past few weeks the thought of our time focusing on just him ending has been given me mixed emotions. I don’t know if I can fully put it into words all that I am feeling or if it will even make sense to others.

I am terrified that George will think we love him less since our attention will be divided.
I am scared if I will have the capacity to love a new baby as much as I love George.
I worry that George will be my favorite because I have gotten almost three years to know this kid before DC showed up. How do I create a similar bond with DC under totally different circumstances? Will it measure up?
I am panicked because we have a routine with just one kid, how do we manage two? Seriously…
I am in shock that George is almost three. How does it go by so fast?

How does your heart grow to love two kids equally? George has been my sidekick for the better part of 3 years now. The love that I have for him is crazy intense. With Tom’s schedule, we spend a lot of time with just the two of us. The bond we share is so special because of all this time with just the two of us. He’s my little momma’s boy. While I am super excited to love on a new baby, I wonder how George and I’s relationship will change. There are parts of me that are scared that we will lose that connection. I selfishly don’t want to mess it up.

Then there are other parts who cannot wait to see him become a big brother. He is such a sweet little boy, and seeing him with a sibling is just going to be the best. I am excited to see how our family will grow and evolve. I, of course, am thrilled to start a new relationship with DC and grow even more as a mom.

So this week, I will soak up these moments of just the two of us reading books. I will relish in the fact that he wants to play with me. I will embrace the fact that I am the only person he wants to take to the potty. I will cherish the times he asks me to hold him. I will hold dear the minutes that it’s just the two of us walking hand in hand.

I will slow down to take it all in this week with him.

The time of “just George” may be ending, but it doesn’t change the fact that he made me a mom. These past few years have been magical with George, but I am overjoyed to see what is in store for us as we become a family of four.

Since Tom’s work has him away a lot, I started taking selfies on the nights we were alone to send to Tom so he could still be part of our nights. This is a compilation of those George selfies over the past couple years.

Here’s to the little man who made me a mom and who has given me so many special moments to smile about. I feel so honored that God chose us for you.

Happy Mother’s Day!

May 9, 2017 by Stephanie

Baby 2: Thirty-Five Weeks

35 weeks

How far along: 35 weeks and 3 days. We are on a week to week basis, so I want to make sure we get a last update in.

Sex of Baby W: Little Miss

Weight gain: I am holding steady at 14 lbs.

Size of Baby W: mini-lop rabbit or honeydew melon. Our ultrasound confirmed that she is over 6 lbs now.

Maternity clothes: All the time. Living that bump life.

Baby items: We had our baby shower last week. This little girl is well-loved. Then I went through our registries and got the rest of the must have items. So as far as gear, we are ready for her now. We got all the items we needed out of the basement and washed, so that means we are ready right? The car seat is in the car; all we need is the baby!

Belly button in or out: I am a little bit of an outie.

Sleep: I have been sleeping through the night the past couple weeks. It has been nice to not have to waddle to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

Best moment the past few weeks: The baby shower was awesome. We have also had some great weekends with George. We have been soaking up our last moments with him as our only. We also got to see DC on the ultrasound again, and since it has been since 20 weeks, it was great to see how fully developed she is now.

Worst moment the past few weeks: Well apparently this is the time that my pre-eclampsia rears its ugly head. I have been diagnosed again, and I have had two prolonged stays at the hospital. I am just going to assume we will be at the hospital after our weekly check-ups. Fortunately, they have not put me on bedrest, so I can still function normally once they do release me. It has just been stressful to deal with the sitting and waiting while at the hospital as they do the NST and watch my blood pressure stabilize. It’s also hard to hear “you could have this baby today.” However, the doctors do seem positive that at whatever point DC is born now, that she will be perfectly fine. We are just holding out as long as we can for her to further develop her lungs at this point.

Miss anything: normal blood pressure. Being able to get out of bed without having to do it by rolling.

Cravings: I got my Taco Bell! The other night I was craving hot dogs, and I then proceeded to eat a whole box of mini corn dogs…

Movement: She moves quite a bit, which is awesome. Although she has one spot she likes to kick right above my hip that makes me lose my breath sometimes. It looks like I have an extra hip bone she is kicking so hard.

Symptoms/how I am feeling: My body feels fine, or at least that is how I read it. My blood pressure is just doing it’s thing silently. I am keeping a daily log of it to catch myself if they do rise, especially since they don’t have me on bedrest. I don’t have any swelling or headaches that are common with pre-eclampsia. I am having contractions, so maybe this means we can make it through this more naturally. I feel like I need a nap every day.

Looking forward to: Not having to deal with this anxiety of waiting. We are supposed to do some maternity photos next weekend, so hopefully we can make it another week.