meds, therapy, and school

The docs had two suggestions for us. We got a script for Clonidine which is a blood pressure med, it is used at low doses for child insomnia. They wanted us to try Benadryl first though. The only reason I had never tried it before because I've given it to Madeline before for hives and never noticed sleepiness as a side effect, she was still running around like she always does. I've given it to her the last two nights and she has slept for the most part. I'm not holding my breath that it really the Benadryl or the fact that she is just utterly exhausted. She thinks she is getting "real meds" and now she is sleeping is also interesting info. 

Language therapy is going wonderfully. She has completed two weeks already and loves it. I can't remember if I post back when she got accepted to the private school officially, but yes she is in. Now the next issue begins. The school is having to reorganize the grade due to budget issues. K will now be a stand alone grade, 1st and 2nd will now be combined. The wonderful teacher that would of Madeline's teacher will be the K teacher. The other teacher I have not met but have been told from other parents that she is great as well. Madeline met the K teacher and loved her. They gave us the option of putting Madeline in either K or 1st, we have the summer to decide, and can change our minds later if it turns out to be a bad fit. The main issue with 1st grade besides she will be with more advanced students, is that in that both 1st and 2nd grades, there is only 1 girl. That student is in 2nd grade and is quite gifted, I only mention this because there are no other girls in the class and Madeline would obviously be a much different student then her. 

There are several girls in K so that is not an issue. My biggest concern is holding her back if I don't have to. Madeline isn't a young student in her current grade to begin with, her b-day is only 3 months after the cut date. I don't want her to be oldest student in her grade by at least a year. I'm mulling it over and will probably see how she progresses this summer in therapy. 

the house where no one is sleeping

That is our house right now. I blame these 3.

Madeline is still not sleeping at night. We went into the pedi this week, she has never seen this severe of insomnia in a child at age 6. She is consulting with other docs for us. The other thing she could suggest was sending her to my mom's house for  few nights because the only time in 6 weeks that Madeline has slept through the night was there. So we tried that this week, she slept through the night there one night, and was up the other two. 

This little guy is one noisy boy! He wakes everyone up with his nursing, even asleep he makes all sorts of noises which then wakes up the other two children. So starting last night, Ryan moved back downstairs with both the girls. It didn't go as bad as we expected, Gabrielle was upset for one minute and then climbed in bed and went to sleep. We'll see how tonight goes since Madeline will be here then. Naptime is also interesting because I have to hold Gabrielle's hand while she goes to sleep. Only Julian wants to nurse, then he doesn't, then he squeaks and wakes her up. Yeah, everyone is quite grumpy here!

And this is the one picture I thought I'd never take of a child of mine! Julian has a binky and he loves it. It started out of sheer desperation. I've had two other carseat haters and I don't think I could survive a third, not with the amount of driving I have to do now days. Julian will happily ride ONLY with a binky, same goes for any sling or wrap, he has to have a binky before he will consider riding in it. He is also not a comfort nurser which is unfamiliar territory for me, he doesn't want the breast which is fine until I go to put him down and then once again he wants a binky. Sigh. Boys. 

one week old

One week went by way too fast. Ryan returns to work on Monday, I am dreading it. He took 2 weeks off with Gabrielle but his office manager is out recovering from open heart surgery so one week will have to do this time. He is going to *try* to take one day off a week for a while though, we'll see if that actually happens. Julian is a content baby so far, hopefully he will stay that way! 

This pic was the only one that showed Julian's eyes. He came out so quickly and with such force that he broke blood vessels all in his left eye, face and neck. The ones on his skin looked like a rash, just red spots everywhere, they never did show up in pictures but were very visible to the eye. His eye looks better then it did but is still quite red on the sides. 

I didn't get any new stretch marks with him, just elongated ones that I already had. This is the first pregnancy where I got a linea nigra, and the first one where I'm still wearing maternity pants after baby was born. All my bigger clothes are still about 10+ lbs away from fitting so unless I want to buy new pants then I'll wear my maternity ones until I can squeeze into something else. 

I have been experiencing back pain since my labor with Julian, it feels like something is stuck. One trip to the chiro this week made it slightly better, but I'll probably need to go back a few more times to get complete relief. My labor with him was much more intense then with the girls, it was shorter, but that wasn't it. He was posterior, which I had no idea until after the fact obviously. In hindsight, I should of guessed, posterior babies like to hang out in one position, usually on the left or right side. Ever since he was big enough for me to palpate, he had been on my right side.

 I really don't recommend back labor by the way, highly painful compared to regular labor. In my other labors, once the contraction stopped, then the pain was gone, not the case this time. At times I couldn't tell if a contraction had stopped or not, the pain remained for some time. When I'd have contractions 2-3 minutes apart, I was still feeling the first one when the next one would come. It was only when they were 6 or so minutes apart that I could relax for a minute between them. I managed ok, was just more vocal when I never had been with other labors. I had to rock on my hands and knees, rubbing my face against the pool, but each contraction left me utterly drained. At the very end right before Julian was born, I had to have Ryan apply counter pressure to my back, it only helped ever so slightly, but any relief was very welcome. 

I was happy with my fishy pool. I much preferred it to the AquaDoula I used with Gabrielle. I did wish several times that it was wider but I blame my foot for that. My injury from a couple months ago still isn't completely healed and pushing or whacking it against the side of the tub wasn't always pleasant. Apparently I have a thing for foot injuries because Gabrielle stomped on my other foot the other day with a pair of heavy shoes and now that one is bruised and once again I am limping. Sigh. Anyway, the sides were sturdy enough to lean against, hang over, the bottom was cushy that being on my hands and knees wasn't uncomfortable. I will certainly use that pool again if other children come our way. 

gymnastics

Madeline has been taking gymnastics for 2 years now. It quickly became her favorite activity, one that she excels at. One sentence I didn't envision myself saying was, "No practicing cartwheels down the street or parking lot."

I was getting ready to ask that she be moved up to more advanced classes when her anxiety started last summer. Instead I had to ask that I be allowed in the gym with Madeline so she could continue to take classes. Early this year I asked the head coach to move her up and was told that none of those classes were appropriate for my child. The only interaction Madeline or I had ever had with that coach had been when I asked to attend the classes with her for a period of time.
Madeline just completed another 8 weeks session of classes, this time her coach was the only only coach at the gym that can move children up in levels. I was told on the last day of class that Madeline needs to be in the next level and should of been moved some time ago. Finally! 
She started taking classes two days a week this year, but it was piecing together a tumbling/trampoline class and then an advanced beginner girls class. Now she will go 2 days a week year around to an intermediate class. Madeline is thrilled that she finally gets to learn some new skills. And in this class, she can continue to move up, before we reached the limit of what I could enroll her in without a coach's approval. 
Gabrielle loves trying to copy her big sister, and begs to "go too". When she turns 3, she can take classes by herself. Before then there are only classes where I have to attend as well, not happening with other children around. 
Until then, I make sure I take her to the open gym that the gym has every Friday during the school year. She has a little friend that she meets there, they run around holding hands and playing on the equipment. It is too cute. 

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. 

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.