What can happen during your husband's lunchbreak...

So today Daniel came home for lunch, and I left a few minutes after he arrived...

This is what I looked like before I left: 

I know, aren't they great photos... totally flattering (or not!)

One hour later when I returned home so my dear husband could get back to work. Something was different...








This is me, right before Daniel left to go back to work:

And the darkness of the hair compared to the above photos is only due to the flash going off in the above photos and not these...

So can anyone spot a difference? (totally kidding!) 

I have been growing out my hair to donate to Wigs for Kids. They provide wigs for children who have lost their hair due to medical treatments and the like. They are designed to actually stay on while kids are being kids! Currently the hair is in a bag waiting to be sent, but it will go in the mail sooner than later! I can say the last few months have been torture... as I wanted to chop my hair off, but I still wanted it long enough to donate! 

I decided to donate my hair while it was still a bit fuller due to all those wonderful pregnancy hormones... so I made a goal (unspoken) to cut it before my 6 week checkup before it started to thin out again... and I did - my check up is next Wednesday (I made it by 6 days). 

Side by side:

I never wanted my hair this short again (had it shorter when I was 18), but it will grow back ;). Just not as long... I hated taking care of my long hair - it was a pain as it was this gross wavy  - not enough to make it curly, just frizzy looking (the above photo was when I tried to blow dry it straight, air drying is worse!)

I'm sure when I go to wash my hair next time I'll be rinsing it forever as I'll get WAY too much shampoo... on the bright side, once I adjust we'll not have to buy shampoo as often! ;).

When you feel like a liar for saying, "everything's fine"

You know when people ask you how everything is going? Well my natural response is something along the lines of "great" or "everything's fine." Typically I say "great." Today it really hit me (when my Visiting Teachers were here) that I would actually feel like a liar if I said that. Everything, while not horrible, is not fine or great. 

Side note: the reason I answer great is because when I was in college I heard if you answered "great" every time someone asked how you were or how your day is going, that by the end of the day you'd believe you were great or had a great day. True story. I tried it and at the time my roomies would get together every night and say our favorite part of the day and pray before bedtime (love those girls!) One day I remember sitting down and saying, I had such a great day, let me think of my favorite part. As I thought about the day, it actually turned out to be a not so great day. So it works! Just don't reflect on the day at the end ;).

So why isn't everything great? Well, let's start with the fact that the first 3.5 weeks of our little one's life have been eventful! We've been to the doctor every week since he's been born! 

Week 1 - I was having pain in my calf just under my knee, which can be a sign of a blood clot, so the OB said to come in and they'd see me (no appointment, just come when I could get there...) Luckily it was nothing, but what a hassle (as it wasn't the day he was where we live so we had to drive 40 minutes to get there!) So this wasn't such a bad thing, in fact it was a great thing to know I wasn't potentially going to die (blood clots in legs can go to the lungs and actually kill you, I'm not just exaggerating.)

Week 2 - Marc's 2 week check-up. He was 1 ounce short of his birth-weight, but other than that looked good. However the doctor told us to come back in 2 weeks (that is this Friday - the 24th.) Not a horrible visit either...

Week 3 - It became very apparent that the intense baby blues I was experiencing was more than just the baby blues so we went back to the OB (luckily the day he was in the office over here.) You know things aren't normal when the Doctor comes in, asks how you are doing and it's all you can do to keep the flood waters from escaping! I'm now on "happy pills" (for postpartum depression) and just took my 7th one this morning. However since they can take weeks to work, I'm still not doing THAT great and can break down and cry for anything at all (it isn't happening quite as frequently though).

Week 3 again - We took Marc (and me) to urgent care last Friday (17th) as we suspected he had thrush (and had passed it onto me). Well, we were right and we're now being treated for thrush. While it isn't as bad as I thought it would be, giving him medicine 4 times a day is not so fun. 

Week 4 - We will be going into the doctor on Friday to check Marc's weight. We went to the doctor on Thursday and he'd gained 4 ounces since the urgent care visit, so that was good! (he'd only gained 2 ounces the week before...)

All that on top of the fact that Daniel is busy at work and having to work overtime (we're glad he's not salaried and actually gets the extra money!) He's also been busy with boy scouts, and helped clean the church twice. 

Plus the lack of sleep is catching up with me... or did about a week ago.

So if you ask me how I'm doing anytime soon...   You may hear a fine (depending on how well I know you... but not an everything's fine.) Or I may start crying as soon as you ask. But you won't hear that everything is great, because I honestly feel like that would be lying right now. However, it is more in my nature to try to hide the fact I'm struggling and deal with it on my own... I am trying to be better at that!

However, I do feel like I am handling things okay, I have some moments when I wonder if I can handle it, but they go away in a little while and I'm back to doing okay. Sometimes I'm even doing better than okay - I can actually be doing good, just depends on the minute ;).

My try at Newborn Photography...

 These pictures were taken at 5 days old. I have some I took at 1 week and will show a contrast with Eric's size when I post them... But I'm not promising them any time soon... ;) However we did just get a swing that Marc loves so I may have a few more spare minutes in the day (since it can swing him instead of me!)

 I wasn't sure which I liked best of these two...

Eric wanted to have his picture taken (of course) and I have quite a few of the two of them unposed, but this was my favorite!

The real deal...

After our last experience in going to the hospital, I'd had a few more times where I was almost ready to go... actually Tuesday (24th) I stayed up until 1:30ish (okay so that was the 25th - technically) and decided that it was actually labor and got pretty much everything ready to go and that's when the contractions started to die down, just a bit. However I decided that if I laid down they'd either go away or get stronger again. 2 hours later I woke up and decided that they were dying down. We had an OB appointment that day and I had actually dilated another centimeter, so perhaps those contractions the night before were the reason. Our doctor said that they'd have kept me if I would have went in the night before... However I'm glad that I got some sleep that night!

We had also decided to go the induction route because I was done with having contractions every day and thinking multiple times per week that we'd be going into the hospital. We scheduled it for Friday... normally they schedule them at some unearthly hour in the morning, but we were reprieved as they had a C-Section and an induction planned that morning already so we were told to come in at 9AM (sounds so much better than 6 - right?! Since we'd have left our house at 5!) I never planned on having an induction done unless I went past my due date... but I was just so done with all the worry and anxiety of having contractions every day that I HAD to do it!

Thursday we did some cleaning and last minute getting ready stuff, then went to bed (later than I wanted to but still not too bad.) I woke up a few times that night (as is typical for a 9-month pregnant woman!) I didn't get much sleep after 4:45 as I had some pain in my side and was having some contractions. However I did manage to get some sleep, but woke up again at 6:45 - and since the alarm was going to go off at 7 I decided to just get up and shower. We got ready and headed to my parents house to drop off Eric and all his stuff, then we were on to the hospital.

Once there, they hooked me up to the monitors, and to an IV line (turns out I was Group B Strep positive so I had to have IV antibiotics... funny how that wasn't mentioned any of the previous times I'd been to the hospital!) Oh I did forget to mention that I was having contractions about every 10 minutes the whole morning and I joked with Daniel that we may have been in that day even without the induction... we'll never know (and I'm okay with that!)

We wanted to just have my water broken and not be given medication to start me if possible, and I don't know if we communicated that well or if they always give medication unless you're having contractions but when that came up we then had to wait until our OB was out of surgery (yep, he was the one doing the C-Section!) When he came out and looked at the monitoring, he said that it looked like I could be in labor and decided to try just breaking my water... so he did (shortly after 10AM). They started the first round of penicillin... Daniel and I played a few rounds of a boardgame and the contractions picked up a bit but not very bad at all. After the penicillin was done, we were given an hour to walk around before they had to start the second round. They started picking up while we were walking, but were still very manageable. We probably made about 5 laps around the OB department (it's not very large...) They checked me and I had dilated to 4 cm... So 3 hours after they broke my water I'd dilated a whole centimeter. I had been hoping for more, but I took at least making progress!

They hooked me up for my second round of penicillin and we finished our game/watched some TV. After the second round was done they came in and said we could go walking again. HOLY COW did those contractions pick up that time. We made it around once and I would have stopped after about halfway if I could have chosen any room to go back to... The contractions became so much more intense and painful. Once we got back to the room we asked to have some pain medication because it seriously felt like my body was being ripped in two. While we were waiting I had to use the potty and that was just a miserable experience. After I was done there I got down on my hands and knees (as I've heard that's suppose to help with the pain.) However they put the IV line in my wrist so I couldn't bend it which made that position a bit harder (and super uncomfortable for the first few seconds while I learned that bending my wrist HURT!) During this time I had contractions that were right on top of each other. It was agonizing. They finally came in with the medication and hooked me up to the monitor first before giving me the pain killer. Finally I got it (time: 3:10) and it started working - it was enough to make me able to handle them a bit better but the contractions were still really intense. The nurse came in and checked me shortly after the medication was given and (after being warned that I never wanted to hear 5 cm by my husband) told me that I was at 8 (I was happy to hear these crazy intense contractions had actually been doing something!) So in the past 2 hours I'd dilated 4 cm. At least that explained why I was in so much pain... The nurse also told me that making deep noises instead of high noises 'helps' more. So started doing that while I was having contractions... I'd have hated to be near my room during this point - I'm sure all the noises were rather annoying!

An hour later I felt a VERY mild sensation like I wanted to push (or I thought I did, but I'm not completely sure...) so the nurse came in to check me and I was only at a 9 (and the pain killer had worn off but they couldn't give me anything because I was so close to delivery)... then about 2-3 contractions later I really felt the urge to push and so she checked me again and waited until I was having a contraction (which I can say was awkward AND painful.) I pretty much only had an anterior lip (so was pretty much dilated). So she went to make sure the OB was really on his way (the OB clinic is in the same hospital, just down the hallway.) She came back in and I said that I really needed to push... I really think that urge is one of the strongest urges that a body can have and is one that does NOT want to be repressed! They got the bed ready and such so I could push and the nurse told me that I wouldn't be pushing for 2 hours like with Eric, but for just a few pushes. I'd have to say I was a bit skeptical, but... you know. A few contractions and about 5-6 pushes later, there was a baby! I can say that I don't remember the contractions while pushing being painful with Eric (just the fact that I was pushing a baby out...)

I got to hold him for a minute or two and then they took him because they were worried about his color and put oxygen on him (he stayed in the room but was mostly out of my eyesight.) I got stitched up (because I tore - not too bad but I did get 6 stitches the last of which wasn't completely numbed - OUCH!)  Then I got the shakes really bad. My whole body was seriously shaking (and for the first time in MONTHS, I was freezing - even my feet!) They got a warm blanket and put on me and that helped, but I was still shaky. The OB went back to clinic and said he'd stop by after his last patient. They felt our little boy was breathing well again and would have let me hold him again, but I declined as I didn't feel I had the muscle control to safely handle a baby. So Daniel got to hold him for a bit. Then they took him to the nursery because he sounded like he had some fluid in his lungs (oh and also to weigh him and get all that stuff done). While they were gone I got to eat (finally!) Hospital food is not one of my favorites, but it's amazing how good anything tastes after not eating all day! It was about 5:30, so it had only been 10 hours since I'd eaten (not almost 24 like with Eric)...

Eventually they brought the baby back in and I got to feed him, then they took him back to give him a bath. (The pediatrician on call had taken him before they were done so I could feed him - he said he'd stole him from the nursery and the nurse agreed... But I was happy to see my baby again ;) Eric came to visit that night and was a little shy around the baby... but was happy to see us all. Grandma took him back to her house that night. 

Eric had lots of fun playing with the divider curtain!

We decided to name him Marc Allen. Marc after my youngest brother (who died when I was in High School) and Allen after Daniel's grandfather.

 

The next day Daniel went to get Eric to bring him to the hospital and when Daniel put Eric in his carseat, Eric looked over at the carseat and said, "That's for Baby Marc." When they got to the hospital, Eric wanted to hold the baby and giggled when he first held him. He also smothered him with kisses, it was super cute!

Eric giggled when he got to hold Marc

And Marc hits Eric in the nose!

 

Eric is great at helping keep Marc's pacifier in... and tries even when Marc doesn't want it!

The first grandchild my mom got to meet the same day he was born.

Daniel took Eric to get some dinner (cafeteria is only opened for lunches on Saturdays so Daniel needed to get something to eat as well... and it was a special papa-son outing) and after they ate, they decided to get ice-cream. Eric wanted to take it back to the hospital. Daniel asked if they were going to share with Mama. Eric added, "And Baby Marc." Daniel had to remind him about what babies eat (we'd had that discussion before they went to get dinner). ;).

When they got back with their ice-cream, I'd just finished feeding Marc and the nurse was coming in to take him and give him a bath. Shortly after the nurse took him, I was in the potty and I heard Eric say, "Where did Baby Marc go?" at least 3 times... I had to make sure Papa explained where Baby Marc was because Eric was very upset that he wasn't there anymore! Daniel actually took Eric to the Nursery so he could see where Baby Marc was... Grandma came and took Eric back home with her. Eric loved spending time at Grandma's house.

We're pretty excited about how loving and accepting of a big brother Eric has turned out to be. He still has his moments when he wants all the attention, but overall is doing very well I'd say! We left the hospital Sunday afternoon, stopped by my parent's to pick up Eric (who was happy to see us...) Then were on our way home...