Postpartum Chaos

WARNING - this post may make you think I'm crazy. Be wary of judging....



Yesterday my mom left after a great week of fun. I was looking for something to do with Steven Edward that would make him feel special and that would take his mind off of the fact that he just lost his playmate of the week. I needed to make pumpkin bread for a fall celebration that took place this morning so I thought that would be the perfect solution. He LOVED it! He thought the flower/sugar mixture was a mini sand box.





We made it all the way through the process just in time for my son to pick up the large Morton Salt and attempt to pour it into the mixture. Luckily I did a movie style dash across the kitchen to catch the line of salt in my left hand and grab the container with my right....shew. I even had the energy to clean the kitchen. Overall I was really proud considering I had my son (and surgery!) the week before. Afterward I felt fine! We even had friends come over for dinner to enjoy some of the amazing food that people have brought me!

Then today we had a fall celebration with the women and kids that come to my house every Thursday for Bible Study. We had 7 moms and 14 children running around my house in costume, eating snacks, and painting pumpkins. It was sheer chaos. Now this is the point when you're thinking....."Courtney! What are you thinking! Are you crazy! You just had a baby!" And yes, you're right....but if I didn't do it here, Steven Edward couldn't participate. And I figured it would be like having 6 other moms to help all at once! I was right....and wrong at the same time. Either way it was such a fun morning.














I then pushed a little too far. After Steven woke from his nap, I went to vote. Unfortunately the line was an hour long, and then we stopped by Wal-Mart on the way home. All in all the day was a little too much. Once I got home I had to take an Advil and a nap before dinner. Tomorrow I vow to sit on the couch and do nothing! Luckily my mother in law arrived today to help me for another week, so I will have lots of help and Steven Edward has another fun playmate!

Tantrums, Cuddles, and Coral Onesies

My last 36 hours at home has been filled with cuddles from both boys. Even though Steven Edward is testing his limits, he still wants to cuddle a lot which is good for my heart right now. Here is a picture of Samuel doing what he does best.....sleeping. You may think it funny that he is wearing an outfit that might appear pink, but never fear it's Coral. What was Gerber thinking? It came in a newborn boy pack of sleepers.....and it was sandwiched between two blue ones so you didn't quite notice the contrast until you got it out at home. It even has trucks on it....I mean really. I have put a pink monkey beside Sam so that you can see the OBVIOUS difference in colors. My husband has forbid him to leave the house in it...but he never said anything about our blog!


We are officially home and doing well. The first night after getting home was a little hard, I was tired and Steven Edward had a difficult time. He would cling to my legs and cry because I couldn't pick him up. He also took up a new past time of hitting while he played. He hasn't seemed to take any of his frustration out on Samuel though and overall he is doing really well. He has been a bit more whiny and wants lots of attention, and I assume this will get worse in a week or so once everyone is gone. But I am feeling good enough to let him sit on my lap and read, and even get down in the floor to play with him. This has helped a lot. I am practically off of pain killers other than Advil, and other than getting tired pretty easily, I feel like I am recovering very well. Samuel pretty much just sleeps and eats. I often forget I have another son, which is helpful when Steven Edward needs so much of my attention. It's just another way you can see God's master plan. He brings them into your life when they don't need but so much attention and they gradually demand more and more. Sleeping is SO much easier than it was when I was pregnant, but I'm not getting a lot of it. We'll see how life is once I'm here alone and no longer have the help of my amazing mother and mother in law!

Thank you all so much for your love, support, and prayers. God has once again proven his faithfulness and has showered us with goodness that can never be earned or deserved. Praise the Lord for the healthy arrival of Sam and the support that we have received from all of you.

Samuel Andrew

Well-even a planned C-Section can become an event evidently if you're me. After getting my amniocentesis (why is it that when something is going to hurt all doctors just say....a little pressure) I went into something pretty close to active labor....contractions 3 minutes apart where I couldn't really talk in the middle. So off they send me to the hospital, where once hooked up to a monitor they had a 5 minute heart deceleration where the baby was at 60 beats per minute.....so my scheduled 2:00pm C-Section suddenly was bumped up, and the results of the amnio were no longer relevant!

Oh to be normal.

Either way God is so good to us, and at 2:11 on October 22, Samuel Andrew entered the world.
He was born 6 pounds 12 ounces, 19 1/4 inches long. We are both safe and healthy....and due to percoset and a wireless connection at the hospital, I am even able to post on this blog. Nice.

Samuel bears striking resemblance to Steven Edward at birth- and they both seem slightly akin to a troll or wrinkled old man - either of which you can use the word cute for. Here are some pictures.... Enjoy.













This is me...laying in bed half asleep. They weighed me after this and I had only lost 2 pounds. Is that even possible? I blame it on the fluids they were pumping into my body.


Striking Resemblance


On the left - Steven Edward....on the right Samuel


On the left - Steven Edward.....on the right Samuel.

I personally think it's their nose everything below it. It looks exactly the same! Samuel has lighter (and less) hair than Steven had and his side burns are less pronounced.

There were a few confused moments in the beginning....due to miscommunication, his name was announced Samuel Anderson instead of Samuel Andrew....and the doctor also told the families that he had red hair. This spread like wild-fire. Not so much. Either way I assume his hair will fall out so who knows what color it will come back!

Pregnancy Update

So, I'm 35 weeks and a couple days and here is one of my few belly shots that you'll see. Overall pregnancy is hard for me so I'm not gung ho on taking tons of pictures as a reminder.

The past week has been very hard for me in a few ways. First I have been incredibly uncomfortable in terms of itching and my emotions, which made me suspect that my liver counts and bile acids were rising. I went to one of my last Doctor's visits today and the blood work showed that my counts were about as high as they were when they originally discovered my condition. This makes me VERY uncomfortable physically and is not ideal for the baby. My doctor didn't think it would be wise to up the dose of my medicine (which could lower my counts) because I am already on a "pretty high dosage" as it is.

This coming Wednesday (October 22nd) I will go in the morning to get an amniocentesis test, where they will check to see if the baby's lungs are developed. If they are, I will have a C-Section later that day. If they are not, they will push my C-Section back until October 29th. This is the second thing that has been hard for me....trying to let myself accept that Wednesday may not be the end point. I am very uncomfortable, nervous, and quite tired of this entire situation and I very much want it to be over. I write all this so that you may stop and pray.....please pray that the Lord will continue to protect the health of the baby and that the lungs will be ready by Wednesday so that I won't have to go through this much longer. I am physically and emotionally tired. Thanks for praying.

Nesting

So...it is official, I've finally started nesting! And about time too. Today I cleaned the baseboards, the window sills, vacuumed, dusted, pulled out infant clothes, slightly organized the nursery closet, and am about to go finish the bathrooms....that is another story all together.

So after a day of cleaning, I start to work on dinner. My son is doing his normal - grabbing my leg and whining. Eventually I cave and have him on one hip and am preparing with the other hand. Normal I suppose for a mom. Eventually his father comes upstairs and says, "how are things going?" I explain the situation and then put my son down to run along after his daddy. I (silly me) assume that this means he is going to watch or play with his son. After 10 minutes I walk back into our room to check on the boys and tell them dinner is about ready - and what do I find? My husband is putting a lock on our bathroom cabinet (which was long overdue- yes) and my son is playing in the toilet. His father knows this is going on and seems to think it is funny - and is quite happy for the distraction to keep him out of the cabinet while he is working. Meanwhile there is toilet water splashed all over the floor and the toilet itself. My husband is proud that Steven Edward knew what to do with the plunger and the toilet brush....I on the other hand could have done without such knowledge.







Thank you so much honey....for keeping him out of the cabinet where our towels and my extra make up reside and teaching him a new fun habit of playing in the oh so sanitary toilet water. I hope your day at work is wonderful tomorrow while I run from bathroom to bathroom convincing my son the toilet is not a fun bucket of water to play in, while attempting to keep all the doors shut. This may be my new nightmare. As of now - I'm off to mop the bathroom floor and then hopefully catch the middle (I will miss the beginning and fall asleep before the end) of the Giants game.

8 days and counting

The Nature Center

We got a family membership to the Nature Center here in Asheville, which is great because it can also get us into 250 other zoos nation wide! It is a great place for Steven Edward because it is small enough to do in 1-2 hours, and it focuses on animals that are native to our area. So he has a great time. Today they had a big fall festival called Hay Day. It was lots of fun and it was the first time Steven Sr. got to go with us too. There were lots of extras represented today....like pony rides, face painting, cloggers, and fire engines!













Eleven more days!

13 Days...

Not that I'm counting....

So today can be summarized by a quick story. It started like any other day-I got up as my husband was about to leave, helped him put together his lunch, and got my son out of bed. We read some stories as he ate a banana and drank his milk. Eventually we make it to the breakfast table, where he insists on sitting in an adult chair rather than his high chair for breakfast....fine. We clean the breakfast dishes and prepare to leave the house by packing bags, sippy cups, snacks...you get the drill. We finally make it to the car 5 minutes after our supposed arrival time and head out of the house. This particular day it's raining, so we are headed to the mall. Yes, I know what you're thinking...and I thought it too....I never thought I would be the mom that goes to the mall with her child, but lo and behold it has happened. I'm not quite to the mini-van, but we do walk the mall and play at the food court playground. And my son loves it. As I'm walking to the play area with two of my good friends and their children, one of them tries to put my tag back in my shirt. I hear her chuckle, and say...."um..Courtney, your shirt is on inside out." How does this happen? How can you be up for a solid 3 hours living your life and never notice that you are wearing your shirt inside out? I suppose that this is the life of a woman who is tired, about to give birth in 2 weeks, and is chasing a toddler. It worked out perfectly though, because as any good mom would, my shirt was already covered with my son's snacks....so I got to start anew on the stain department with a simple flip. Nice.

On another train of thought, I have my amnioscenthesis test in 13 days...and assuming all goes well, should have my new baby in my arms that afternoon. The suspense of the gender is killing me, not to mention the back aches, the itching, and the never sleeping. So needless to say I am so ready for this to happen. Not quite sure I'm ready for the baby, but there really is no turning back as far as that goes. I also am not ready to look at something so tiny and funny looking and be convinced that it is adorable. I mean....looking back at pictures of my son, who I thought was perfect at the time, he really was quite funny lookin. I expect nothing different from this one. Here are some pictures of Steven Edward when he was born....see for yourself.

Since he was 6 weeks early he was crazy tiny....this blue outfit was a premie outfit my mom picked up for the way home!













Look at all those wrinkles and arm hair! Funny lookin'.






But no matter what he looked like....I loved him and I thought he was beautiful.