Grace: Two months

9/9

All right, so I had a baby two months ago. I have been a mom of two for two months! And as you can probably surmise, this is why I haven’t written more. The kids are great. Fletch is a wonderful big brother and loves his little Gracie so much. And Miss Gracie is my little rock star. She is doing fabulous. Eating well and sleeping well and growing like a weed.

We had her two month appointment today. She weighs 12.5 lbs – Fletch only weighed 10 at his 2 month! This puts her in the 85^th percentile. And she is 22.5 inches long, putting her in the 54^th percentile for height. And 15.75 inches around her head, which is 79^th percentile. So she’s growing well and doing great in general.

She does have some icky baby acne on her head and chest and arms but the doctor said it’s nothing to worry about and should go away on its own soon. And all four of us have got a cold – already Grace’s second! Jack and Fletch were both sick right when she was born and so of course, she got it too. So she’s been pretty snorty and snuffly since day one but that doesn’t seem to have really bothered her or anything.

Grace also got her first round of shots today. We totally weren’t worried about it since when Fletch got his, basically he cried a little bit, I put him on the boob and he was happy again. Not so much with Gracie Girl. She howled and cried much worse than Fletch ever did, and then when I tried to give her the boob, she wouldn’t have any of it. They also had this sugar water stuff that they normally dip the pacifier into, but since, like her brother, G won’t take a paci, we tried dipping our fingers in and seeing if she would take some that way, but no dice. We just had to hold her and talk to her and bounce her until she calmed down. Then she had some boob and snuffled some more and eventually fell asleep in the car on the way home. She’s slept a lot today which is to be expected.

In general, things have seemed much easier this time around. We are not nearly so jumpy and worried about Grace as we were with Fletch. I have been sleeping in her room so I can feed her at night. But unlike what we did (were told to do) with Fletch, we haven’t been waking her up to eat at night. With Fletch, his doctors told us he need to be woken up every 3 hours at night to eat and he pretty much never learned to sleep longer than 3 hours until he was almost two years old. And that’s only because I finally weaned him after I got pregnant. He is still not a great sleeper and is high-maintenance at bedtime and gets up at least once a night. So with Grace, we decided that once she regained her birth weight, which she did by two weeks, we wouldn’t wake her up to eat. As a result, she is a much better sleeper than Fletch ever was! She’s already going 5-7 hours a night which is awesome for me.

And we are also avoiding the other big mistake we made with Fletch, which is always putting him to sleep with the boob. Which worked like magic but also meant it was incredibly difficult for over two years for anybody but me to get him to go to sleep either for nap or at night. Miss G can fall asleep in a variety of ways, but most astoundingly, I am sometimes able to just lay her in the crib awake (but drowsy) and let her fall asleep on her own – something that Fletch never did as a baby. So I feel really good that we are putting our experience to work for us. And also that I am actually getting some sleep which is totally unexpected and awesome.

Unlike her brother, Grace is not happy at all to have a dirty diaper. Where Fletch wouldn’t even blink at a dirty diaper, GG starts fussing the second she’s even a little bit wet. So hopefully that means an easy road when it’s time for potty training! Also, she doesn’t cry much, even when she’s hungry. Fletch would go to Defcon 5 wailing pretty quickly when he wanted to eat, but Grace mostly starts a low-level fussing, followed by chewing on her hand, which turns to a very loud slobbery chomping on her hand and that is the thing that will actually wake me up at night. So far she is a pretty easy baby, although some of that must be attributed to this not being our first rodeo.

Week 38 of the JellyBean Progression

6/26

TMI Alert: Lost the mucous plug yesterday afternoon. So things are moving! I predict a baby before the 5^th. Maybe the 2^nd?

Pretty quiet week. Saw the midwife Tuesday since Dr. O is on vacation. Dr. O said I was not allowed to have the baby this week because she didn’t want to miss it. She wasn’t on call for Fletch, so she didn’t get to see him until the next day. I see Dr. O again this coming Tuesday.

Midwife said there was a little dilation, maybe 1 cm but hopefully we’re further along now. Been having a lot of prodomal contractions. Not Braxton Hicks – real contractions but they stop after a little while before things actually get going. Right lower back and hip are still killing me so I am still hobbling around a lot. But Heidi took me for lunch and mani/pedi on Thursday and it was SO relaxing. My back didn’t hurt the whole day. I keep thinking maybe I should go and get a prenatal massage but wonder if it’s too late in the game – if anyone would still do it. The good news is that Mr. Fantastic brought up my comfy chair from the basement and it really helps my back. I may actually start sleeping in it since I am waking up every morning pretty stiff even though I’ve got a thousand pillows and things propping me up.

Week 36 of the JellyBean Progression

Week 36

We are coming down the home stretch! I can’t believe b-day is less than a month away. It all went by so fast. Although, right about now I am feeling huge and hot and ready to pop any time, so I wouldn’t be too sad if this baby came before her due date.

Had another growth ultrasound today because two weeks ago I was measuring small…but at yesterday’s appointment, I was actually measuring a week big. I asked Dr. O if I still had to go and she wanted me to anyway. So as always, it was nice to see JellyBean on the big screen – and we got some cute 3D pics this time. The tech thinks she has my lips. We’ll see!

So JellyBean looks to be fine, everything was great and they estimate she’s 6 lbs 7 oz right now, which is 59^th percentile. Right on target, but hopefully she won’t get too much bigger! She is all crammed over into the right side of my belly, which is why I think I keep measuring small. It’s hard to see looking at me straight on but when you look down at my belly from my perspective, you can see how lopsided it is. So when Dr. O measures my fundal height straight up and over my belly button, she’s missing ¾ of the baby, so obviously it won’t be as big. Anyway, all went well at the scan today and that should probably be the last one.

Yesterday’s visit with Dr. O was fine also. Did the group b strep test, which I’ll get the results for next time. I was GBS positive with Fletch, which just meant I had to have IV antibiotics in the hospital before delivery so it wouldn’t transfer to him.

Dr. O also did an internal check and was sorry to tell me that despite the fact that I swear this baby is coming early, there was no cervical activity going on right now and that baby’s head has not dropped and engaged in the pelvis. Not surprising – I am carrying really high still right now.

So far at least JB is cooperating and still in a good position for delivery. She is laying on her right side with her back facing to my right. So the big hard lump we can feel in the top right is her bottom. And I had asked Dr. O yesterday what the horrible pain I keep getting up under my right ribs was and she felt my belly and said most likely JB has one knee bent and that’s her heel sticking me in the ribs. And on the ultrasound today, you could totally see her little foot up there! She was dead right and I can’t believe she could tell that just from poking me in the tummy. Guess that’s what years of experience will do for you.

When I told Dr. O how hard it’s been for me to walk – seriously, I can’t even do the grocery shopping anymore or the whole belly and ladyparts gets very unhappy – she said I should be walking even more! Ugh, it’s seriously painful to walk and I can’t imagine just walking with no purpose. Well, I suppose the purpose would be to get JellyBean moving, but still, the last thing I feel like doing is going for a walk.

In general, I’m feeling ok. Having a hard time sleeping still. Not so much falling asleep but staying asleep. Seems like I’m up every hour to pee. Plus my right side hurts pretty much constantly – it’s being stretched (kicked, poked and otherwise maltreated) way more than the left. I was hoping that sleeping pretty much only on my left side would help move the baby back into the middle some but Dr. O said she is floating in her own little bubble and how I sleep won’t make her move.

Also, my feet are swelling. I think a lot of that has to do with the recent heat. But it’s crummy because even my flip flops get uncomfortable after a while! And I can’t wear the same pair of shoes two days in a row because I need to let the parts that got all rubbed wrong rest before I put the same pair back on. I never realized, but my shoe wardrobe has very few pairs of middle-of-the-road shoes. It’s either cheap flip flops and tennis shoes or 4 inch heels. I do have a few pairs of wedges that are comfy enough to wear to work (yet still high enough to make poor Mr. Fantastic cringe when I’m wearing them) so I’ve been wearing those to the office and switching to flip flops when I get home. It will be nice not to have to dress for the office for a while, that’s for sure!

Speaking of the office, my awesome boss has said that after my maternity leave is over, it’s ok for me to work full time from home for at least a couple of months before I start going back to the office. That rocks! I am still dreading when I’m going to have to drag the breast pump to the office and deal with all that, but at least I’ll have quite a bit of time at home before I have to worry about it. Being able to work full time from home with Fletch played a huge part in how smoothly breastfeeding went for us. Since he would never drink even a drop of formula AND my milk had excess lipase so we couldn’t build up a freezer stash, it would have been incredibly difficult to keep him fed and happy if I had to be at the office all the time.

Of course it goes without saying that hopefully JellyBean will not be quite so picky as big brother and maybe take some formula now and then if we need to, and hopefully I won’t have the lipase problem again. But if we can get to 6 months before I have to go back to the office, even if we have the same problems, she’ll hopefully be starting solids by then and can be appeased with some smushed peas if the boobie juice (or the boobie) is not available.

So excited for this baby to come! (And also pretty much ready to not be pregnant anymore…) Lots of things we still need to do…wash some clothes for JellyBean, pick out a going home outfit, pick a NAME for heaven’s sake, get her room organized and finish decorating. Wrap Fletch’s present from JellyBean, pack hospital bag, go to the grocery store and stock up on some frozen essentials so we don’t starve after she’s born, dig out the breast pump & wash all the bits and pieces, find the baby bath tub, swing and bouncy seat, set up the pack n play downstairs. I’m sure there’s plenty more I haven’t thought of yet!

Week 34 of the JellyBean Progression

Week 34

Routine Dr visit today. Nothing exciting except that I’m measuring 32 cm this week, which means I’m 2 cm small…and so Dr O wants me to have ANOTHER growth ultrasound in two weeks. Seriously, this must just be her thing. Whatevs. The funny part is that I feel HUGE – or more like, the baby feels huge. My belly just feels like it’s already at capacity and I can’t imagine JellyBean NOT being big enough at this point. Guess we’ll see, but my gut feeling is that the scan will tell us the same thing as last time.

For some reason – maybe wishful thinking, maybe just because I feel huge or whatever – but for some reason I just keep feeling like JellyBean is going to come early. At the very least, I don’t think she’s going to go a week overdue like Fletch did.

I do feel like everything in my belly is totally crowded. Am out of breath all the time, still can’t eat much at once and boy oh boy, is she walloping me some good ones. Her small parts (feet, hands, arms, legs etc) are all over on the right side and boy is she shoving things around in there. We are now at the Alien stage, where at any given time, you can look at my belly and see it lurching around independently. The bad part of this is that this is one strong kid. She is kicking my ass with some of these movements. It’s less kicking now and more slow, fluid movement and so there is a lot of pressure. VERY FIRM PRESSURE. What is it over on your right side, your liver? Appendix? Diaphragm? Whatever it is, JellyBean is stomping the crap out of it.

The worst part is of course, that she acts up the most when I lie down to go to sleep. Then all of a sudden, it’s rodeo practice time. The other night it was hurting so much I was crying. It was never like this with Fletch since he was faced differently. JellyBean also doesn’t like when I sit too slouched so a lot of times I’m sitting in whatever chair all leaned back and as stretched out as I can, otherwise she starts pushing at me to make some room for her. Ugh!

Um, good news is that the ANGRY LADYPARTS have calmed down somewhat. I ended up getting a maternity support belt that I wear sometimes which helps TREMENDOUSLY. But I can’t wear it all day long or it just makes other stuff hurt. It sure does take the pressure off the ladyparts and hoists up the heavy belly, which is nice. Also still no heartburn or back pain, yay. Sleeping is still hit or miss, though.

So this week, JB should be about 4 ¾ lbs and 18 inches and gaining fat. Central nervous system is maturing but generally babies with no other health problems born starting now do well. So if my gut feeling that JellyBean is coming early turns out right, she should be a-ok. However, we should probably get the crib put up and get some clothes washed and such so I don’t have the naked-baby-sleeping-in-a-drawer syndrome I did with Fletch. I did at least buy curtains for both kids rooms this weekend, so that’s a start.

Week 32 of the JellyBean Progression

Week 32

Had the growth ultrasound last week. Everything was great – baby girl is right on target size-wise, in the 53^rd percentile. She was about 3 ½ pounds (although this week, she should be closer to 4) and should be around 16 inches long. No wonder things are feeling crowded in there!

I’m supposed to be gaining a pound a week from here out, and even though half that goes to the baby, I still feel like PLEASE PLEASE NO MORE WEIGHT GAIN. Ugh! I only gained 15 overall with Fletch – this time I’m already at 25. I am feeling pretty paranoid about gaining any more weight even though Dr. O keeps telling me IT’S FINE. I just don’t want to have to struggle to lose it after. I know the breastfeeding will help – it certainly did last time – but still. I think I will always be worried about weight, pregnant or not.

But, from here out, JellyBean is supposed to gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next couple months. Also, she now has finger and toenails and is supposed to have hair (but we’ll see if she’s born bald like big brother! I hope not.)

Thankfully, I am not having heartburn due to JellyBean crowding all the organs and pushing up on my diaphragm. It is definitely harder to breathe though, and I can hardly eat much at one time because there’s just no room. I have noticed some definite foot swelling this time around – maybe that’s because the weather’s warmer. Also still having the ANGRY LADYPARTS wah wah wah because that totally makes up for the lack of back pain ouch. I swear it’s worse this time. At my visit this week, Dr. O mentioned that a lot of times the second pregnancy seems to hurt worse because all the novelty that you had the first time has worn off. Probably true!

Having tons of BH contractions. Especially when I’ve been on my feet for even a short period – a trip to the grocery store is enough to make the whole belly tighten up for a good long while unless I sit down and take it easy. Same with the ladyparts – I have to sit down a lot and get some of the gravity and pressure off. I feel bad because it means Mr. Fantastic is doing a lot of toddler chasing and dishes and laundry and everything. Maybe I can lure some unsuspecting loved ones into some domestic help after JellyBean gets here to help him get a break.

I’m still not having the back pain like I did last time with Fletch, which is a good sign since for him it meant he was faced the wrong way. But my hips, butt – the whole pelvic region really, really hurts. And my belly hurts – the sides are really stretching. JellyBean is way up high and way out front. I keep bonking my belly into things because I’m not used to how far it sticks out. But in general, I am just super sore and achy and wish we had a pool downstairs like we did when I was pregnant with Fletch. I’m going to have to resort to hot baths to relieve some of this ouchy business.

I have finally found a pretty good sleeping position at least. And we’ve also finally got Fletch sleeping in his own bed (JellyBean, take note – you are on your own!) so I am getting much better rest at night when I can actually stay asleep.

Last week, the night before the ultrasound, I got sick and ended up throwing up. Afterwards, I felt this huge painful movement from JellyBean and figured she must not have liked me barfing and flipped herself over. Sure enough, at the scan the next morning, they said she had moved from breech to head down (where she’s supposed to be.) Yay for that! Dr. O said it was too early to worry about how she was positioned but after the complications with Fletch being face up instead of down; I really wanted this one to go how it’s supposed to.

Fletch did NOT like being born and was in some distress during his birth. Even though I had an epidural, I was very active during his birth – flipping back and forth from my back to hands and knees because his heart rate kept dropping during the pushing but he was happy when I turned over. At one point, there was a bunch of blood and they handed Mr. Fantastic some scrubs and told him to get ready for us to go to the operating room for a c-section. (Which I really, really didn’t want to do) Bless my OB, because she decided that I was pushing great and was strong enough to get him out and shortly after, I did. But it scared poor Mr. F to death – things were happing really fast and with all the blood, he had a brief period where he thought he might lose one or both of us. SO. This time around, I would like a little less drama. Because I’m sure, being my daughter, and being a Haley woman, there will be plenty of drama in her life to come.