Wednesday, April 29, 2009

life with Julian

He is a sweet, little guy. So far he spends all his time eating and sleeping, lots of eating! I'm thinking that weight gain won't be a problem for Julian... The third child was been no problem, it's always the other ones that can be interesting. Madeline is in love with her little brother, she pesters me nonstop to hold him. Gabrielle asks to "pet him", she alternates between ignoring him and being fascinated that he has two ears, feet, etc... She of course has been whiny and clingy, which always comes at times when I want to do is rest. 


Madeline has decided that sleep is for babies. Her insomnia started several weeks ago, several nights a week she'd wake up between 12-1am, just wide awake. It wasn't a huge deal, I'd often be up with my insomnia, she'd watch one cartoon or so and then head back to bed. I tried melatonin with no success. Going to bed later, earlier, wearing her out during the day, nothing works. It got much worse right before Julian was born, now she has been up for at least 3 hours every night. Last night we had to start refusing to come downstairs with her anymore, she gets scared and wants Ryan or I to stay with her. We turned on all the lights downstairs and put on a movie and went back to bed. We just can't stay up like that night after night. We are tired and miserable and so is she. I'm at a loss as to what to do with her to get her to actually sleep. I have an appointment with her pedi to rule out anything medical, we couldn't get in until the 11th but I don't want to take her to anyone else. 


These pics are all from the day Julian was born, I'm too lazy to get up and get the other camera that has the most recent pics. 


Saturday, April 25, 2009

name

I realized that I left out the name, LOL. This is the first baby that we've named the same day it was born so it's an interesting concept to me. I've thought about this name my whole pregnancy, and had it at the top of my list, and it certainly fits him.


Julian Miles

baby is here!


A big baby boy arrived this morning, about 9:57 am I'm guessing, no one was looking at the clock! I got the UC that I had wanted. Labor was 4.5 hours long, horrid back labor this time.  I had called our midwife at 7 to let her know I was in labor, she was still 10 minutes away from a birth she had attended the evening before. I called back at about 9:45 just because Ryan was starting to get really upset that she wasn't there, I told her not to hurry because while my contractions were very intense, they weren't that close together most of the time. He came very quickly, contractions were irregular between 2-6 minutes apart, then all of a sudden I had three right on top of each other and I started pushing. I think I pushed 5 times to get him out. I knew as soon as the head started coming that he was larger then the girls. His shoulders were a little tricky, I had to change positions in the pool to be able to get them out. After the shoulder were free, his torso was so large that he didn't slide right out like the girls had, I had to continue to push him out. 


The girls weren't able to watch him being born, they had been downstairs with my mom and Ryan. Ryan came up just to check to see if I needed anything and that is when it got really intense. I managed to tell him "baby coming soon", but he had no idea how soon and I couldn't speak to tell him to call for them. He called down for them right after the birth and they came up. And once again, I got no pictures of the birth. 

He was very blue, but responsive so I just rubbed him. It did take quite a while for him to pink up but he is doing fine. His cord was very short so I wasn't able to nurse him right away because it wouldn't reach. Ryan called our midwife after a few minutes because he was freaking out by then. She was just a couple minutes away. When she got there I had her help me cut the cord as soon as it was done pulsating so that I could actually hold him in my arms, it really was that short. She listened to him, weighed him for me,I asked her to check his blood type because I am RH-, and then she left. He was 8lbs 12 ozs! A full two lbs heavier then my girls, newborn hats and some of our clothes do not even fit him. It was a great birth, I wouldn't be happier at how it turned out. 

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

bye bye EDD

So yesterday was my EDD, course that doesn't actually mean anything, but it does feel rather surreal to actually be past it for the first time ever. I think I'm the same size now as I was when Gabrielle was born so obviously this babe just needs to cook longer. I'm fine with how ever long that takes, it would be nice if it was sooner rather then later but since I have no control over that, I'll just continue to wait. My weight gain is officially 42 lbs as of this morning. Baby has been quite low for a while now and the pressure is driving me nuts. The others weren't quite as bad but this time it feels like either baby or some other organ is going to fall out out at any second. That is one feeling I won't miss! 




Friday, April 17, 2009

canceled!

And it feels so good. I'm referring to the 3 week therapy trip in Denver I had booked for June. Everything has fallen into place for services here so I have no need to travel right now. The private language therapist agreed today to take Madeline as a client. This woman is amazing, we are incredibly fortunate that she took an interest in Madeline and decided she wanted to work with her. We are starting in May 4-5 days a week, she has several trips planned this summer so our entire summer won't revolve around it, but enough. She also is insisting that she is coming to our house to do the therapy, she lives 40 minutes away one way, she kept telling me that I'm the one that will have the new baby, she can do the driving. Did I mention how wonderful she is yet?!


Her goal for Madeline this summer is to have her be able to print her name, and recognize most of the alphabet before she starts first grade. After careful consideration, we've decided to stop working with Madeline on printing, other then her name, the therapist will only teach her cursive right now instead. Madeline has fine motor issues, she can not hold a pencil correctly (this is something she will also address), printing with it's fine lines is painful for Madeline. Cursive with it's loopy form is something that she should be able to do easier, and printing can be taught later. We are hoping that this type of therapy program will improve her speech, eliminating the need for speech therapy. We can't say for sure that it will, she has had success with students similar to Madeline. They spend a decent amount of time of the mouth portion of language and that can help improve some speech issues. We are willing to give it some time and see what happens. Worst possible case, we end up doing speech therapy.

I did mention first grade, Madeline got accepted today at our second choice school! I've spoken with the private dyslexia school just the other day, it will likely be an option for 2nd grade. They would prefer that she have one year of school somewhere else before coming to them, this other school is all that I could of hoped for without specializing in dyslexia. Our private therapist will go there for 60 minutes a day to work with Madeline. The school is not to do any instruction in reading/writing with her and they are fine doing that. As soon as baby is born, the teacher is going to work with us getting Madeline comfortable in the classroom this year. We'll start by bringing her in after school, and working up to brining her in during recess. We can spend a decent amount of time with her there during school hours. Parents are encouraged to come for lunch, they have a weekly afternoon "wilderness day" which is hiking, snowshoeing, etc... which they love parents to attend, in addition to field trips, etc...

Madeline doesn't know she is for sure attending school next year. It has been mentioned to her and she has responded with nothing less then sheer terror. It is not going to be easy,  but I have no other choices. I wish more then anything that things were different that I could keep her home with me which is where she desperately wants to be, but her special needs are too great. I know this is what we have to do but it doesn't stop me from feeling like my heart is being ripped out she is crying over anyone mentioning the very idea of school to her. 

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

39 weeks and counting


I've never been pregnant this long. On one hand, it's good because I have a hubby that is knocked out of pain meds still and not able to help that much, but on the other, I'm getting to the point where I'm done. 



Monday, April 13, 2009

our easter



Easter as a holiday always throws me. I'm never quite sure what to do for it since we are not religious in any sense and I don't do things like Santa, Easter Bunny, etc...  I think I'm finally ok with not trying to do much more then egg hunts, egg dying and candy, which is what we did this year! 



We also ended up making a trip to the ER for Ryan. He had sudden onset of severe foot pain with no injury, when it started radiating up his leg and the swelling was increasing, I forced him to go in. It was bad enough that the man who never ever takes a day off of work for illness/injury was given IV narcotics for the pain.  He was diagnosed with gout which actually surprised me for a minute because I never thought of it because of his age. His blood pressure was quite high as well so I'll be having to force him to do follow up care for that.  Of course he isn't doing anything that he is supposed to, taking meds, resting, changing diet, drinking water, sigh. For a minute I thought he might take his health seriously, but that might be too much to ask. 

Friday, April 10, 2009

not a baby post

Someone is still happily inside. I would be happier if it decided to emerge but since it isn't up to me, I wait. I am trying not think about the fact that Madeline was already born by this point in my pregnancy with her...


 Anyway, the point of this post was about other news. For 4 years now I've been getting credit for being a LLL leader, my end goal was to combine those hours, my RN, and sit for the IBCLC exam. I discovered today that the pathways for the exam have been changed, and I have twice the hours already to sit! The exam is only offered once a year in July, but with all my contact hours out of the way now, I can focus on the last things I need to do to qualify for the 2010 exam. Which involves more school, blech. Not really what I want to do with a newborn, and everything else we have going on but I can take the classes online and it shouldn't be *that* difficult. 

I'm not going to use the IBCLC for a while, it's more about having options. Having been out of the work force for over 6 years already, I know employers frown on hiring a "rusty" RN, but if  I am an LC and have been doing volunteer work for the last x amount of years, then it could play out differently. I'm one of those that always like having something to fall back on. I don't want to pursue employment for years, but it's always nice knowing that if need be, that I could still get a decent job. 

Monday, April 6, 2009

38 weeks




Ok baby, don't you want to keep up with your big sisters and come out when they did? That would be this week, so get working on that!

Saturday, April 4, 2009

random pics


I'm awful about taking and actually posting pics so here are a few recent ones. 


Madeline loves the diving board at the swimming pool. Too bad Ryan has yet to figure out the focus feature on the camera, next time I'm going to be in charge of taking the pics there. 

Someone decided that Mimi needed to go potty.

I liked Cinnamon and Dobbie in the background of this pic.