Baby #2 has arrived!

 On Sept. 12, 2012 at precisely 8:04 am my eyes filled with tears as I heard my little one’s first cries.  As soon as I could see his little body, I fell in love all over again.  My first thoughts were of how bald he looked, but when I got closer look I found he does have a light layer of brown hair. As I was anxiously awaiting getting to see him myself, I heard the nurses score him a 9 on the apgar scale, and I was glad to hear he was a healthy 8 pounds and 9 ounces, and 21 inches.  I was worried beforehand that they had estimated him to be smaller than Theo, but he turned out to be pretty good sized and everything was healthy with him (other than a little jaundice).  He has the exact same size statistics I had when I was born.

First picture.

Two minutes later, Brian got to re-cut the cord.

It wasn't until 8:19 (15 minutes after his first cries) that I finally got to see him up close. 

It seemed like it was forever before they finally brought him close for me to see, and a really long time before I finally got to hold him when they wheeled me back to recovery.  While I was still shaking from the shock afterward this time, it wasn’t quite to the extent I remember shivering last time.  The anesthesiologist nurse did a really good job making sure I was comfortable this time. 

8:50 Finally holding baby!  One of the many cons of a c-section is waiting so long to hold baby.

After this photo they took me to recovery, where I spent a few hours.  Elijah met his big brother and his grandma, and attempted to nurse for the first time.  

We finally got to our room around lunchtime, and spent the next few hours so excited and happy getting to know our new little guy.  So much different than last time where we were exhausted and upset about the c-section and struggling to get through our first night.

The rest of the hospital stay was pretty routine, and I was up walking as soon as possible.  I had almost no feet and leg swelling this time, and knew to keep asking for pain meds to keep myself going.

Going home outfit!

 Elijah is a very sweet baby, but has such a serious little face.  He does not spit up much at all (I didn’t know such a baby existed), and he doesn’t need to eat quite as often as Theo did (but already regained his weight and is gaining fine).   He will stop crying almost as soon as you pick him up and tend to him, and it is pretty easy to figure out what he needs (not sure if that’s b/c he is a second child or just an easy child).   

 “Old Man Wrinkles” was almost immediately my nickname for this little serious face.

 First meeting!

 Theo is adjusting well.  His life hasn’t changed that much now that he’s a big brother.  He is still into playing with his blocks, trains, reading, watching Word World, and playing with his stuffed animals.  But now, he has a little brother to come check on, set beside and watch, and talk about constantly.  

One cute thing is every time he sees Eli’s umbilical cord he yells out “Look-LOOK!” and is freaked out.  Hopefully it falls off soon.  He then claims it is “My Turn” and will climb up on the changing table to change his diaper too.  The toilet is still not looking inviting to him apparently. 

Theo also uses a lot of the phrases I use-he’ll walk over to Eli and say how cute he is.  He likes to keep him near when he is playing blocks/trains/making the bed with blankets on the floor.  And he is always worried about him having a blankie/binky.  He acts like it is completely normal to have a little brother join us. 

I was a little overwhelmed Sunday when we went to our first church service as a family of four, and I had time to just reflect on how truly blessed we are to have two wonderful, healthy boys. 

 

 First pic as a family of four!

On the way...

8/9: I'm starting this blog Aug. 9, but I know I probably won't be posting it for quite a while still. I'm ready to start talking about the upcoming event that will be happening sometime around Feb. 10. --

Tiffany and I have something in common.

I learned a few weeks ago that a friend I went to middle school and high school with is expecting her first in February. So am I.

When my mother and friends were out here at the very end of the school year, I started suspecting that we might finally be pregnant. We've been trying somewhat since January, so it was about time. I've taken many p.t.s in the past when I felt even a day late, so I held off this time and really waited until it was worth the $5 test. Around June 15 I took 3 tests, and confirmed that it was really finally time. With Father's Day approaching, I wanted to wait to tell Brian, but I am of course always too impatient for that. So instead, I planned on telling him when we went out for our 3 year anniversary.

As I've already recounted, we went out to Ole Tapas to celebrate our 3 years together. Even though I'd already told Brian that I was still on a water-only-as-far-as-liquids-go-diet, he wanted to order us a bottle of wine, so I discouraged but let him, not wanting to ruin the surprise. Most people that know me know that I like to give out lots of cards, so he wasn't too surprised when I had a whole stack for him. After he received his anniversary card, and early father's day cards from the cat and new puppy, he found out he'd have to drink the whole bottle himself when he got the card from his newest, unknown, charge.

It was pretty unreal, and the pregnancy took a while to really set in. As far as symptoms, I had cramps at the beginning that were quite annoying. The next few weeks, I became mildly nauseous for most of most days. I never actually got sick, but I just didn't really want to eat or cook much. So I’ve actually lost about 5 pounds in the first trimester.

I had my official blood test on June 29, but didn't get the results until a week into July.

I had my first appointment with an OB doctor on July 24. Brian didn’t leave work in time and we arrived at the appointment late. This was actually a pre-appointment where they asked Brian and I lots of medical history questions, and gave us lots of information and free samples of pre-natal vitamins. And took a lot of my blood. Turns out I’m A-positive.

I ran late to our next appointment Aug. 4 (a student coming for an advanced math test I was giving came the wrong day and I had to sort out his appointment). I’m afraid we will never be on time. This appointment had an internal component, and they also listened for the baby's heartbeat. I had Brian wait outside, but then asked the doc if she would find the heartbeat again so Brian could hear it. It took her a while to find it, and Brian’s face looked really surprised when he heard the 160+ beats per minute. Her heart monitor was running low on batteries, so she went out to get another one, and returned with an old ultrasound machine, and gave us an impromptu, unofficial ultrasound. Since we weren’t expecting this, it was especially awesome. It was really shocking to see the baby moving around in there. I’ve never thought you could really see that much in ultrasounds, but I could see the features fairly clearly of our little one. It was quite active, and kept bouncing around, gaining the nickname from me “baby jumper”. It finally made this whole thing real.

Now we just need to decide when we are going to share this news with our family and friends.