Getting Out

Filed Under Clothes, Firsts, Newborn- Taylor, Outings, Shopping, Two and a half years old | Leave a Comment

Today I managed to take both kids to the mall. I was dying to get up to Gymboree and pick up the Popsicle Party stuff I had on hold. Plus, I wanted to show Taylor to my manager and say hello. I am honestly looking forward to getting back to work (just once a week) and I even talked to her about putting me on the schedule two weeks from now for just a short shift!

I will say that it is more effort to get both kids out of the house. I am kind of thankful Taylor is a boy, because at least I don’t have to worry about fixing his hair or finding accessories to match his outfit. Or putting his earrings in. So he’s pretty quick to get ready, but I have to make sure he has eaten well before leaving. I also travel a LOT lighter than I did when Bailey was this age. I just bring the small black diaper bag from the hospital, for BOTH of them. He is breastfeeding so we don’t need any food related items. Basically I bring diapers for him, an extra outfit, and a burp cloth and then for her I just bring a diaper. I usually throw a binkie in his carseat just in case, and a blanket- which can double as a nursing coverup.

It takes longer to get the kids in and out of the car now, because I use the stroller for his carseat if we are walking any distance at all. We have a rule that Bailey has a choice, she can either hold my hand or hold on to the stroller. She usually “helps” push the stroller. She has done really well with this rule.

So we got our shopping done yesterday at Gymboree, and then I got brave and went to Motherhood to get a new nursing br@. While we were there, I let her play with the toys in the kid area and I sat in a fitting room with the curtain open (so I could see her) and fed the baby. Then we headed home. I was pretty pleased at how it went with both of them.

Here is a sneak peek of one of her new outfits!

First Days at Home with Taylor

Filed Under Being a Mom, Firsts, Newborn- Taylor, Siblings, Two and a half years old | 1 Comment

I have to say that the first two days at home were really rough. Taylor did NOT want to be put down. Big Sister did NOT want to leave him alone. She also kept jumping and climbing right next to him, and I was constantly having Jonathon or my mom take her somewhere else so she wouldn’t smush him. Yeah, it was rough. But he also got so many kisses from his sister, and she “helped” with so many diaper changes, and watched him as he slept, and talked to him, and showed him her toys. It was really rough on all of us, but looking back, it was a priceless time growing together as a family of four.

Here are a few pictures from those first few days.

NICU Day Six- Going Home!

Filed Under Big Sister, Breastfeeding, Firsts, Home Sweet Home, NICU, Newborn- Taylor, Siblings, Two and a half years old | 2 Comments

On Tuesday morning, I knew that Taylor wouldn’t be going home. I left Jonathon at home with Bailey and went up to the hospital by myself to be there to feed him. After his first feeding, guess what his nurse came over and told me? His bilirubin levels had dropped to 12-point-something overnight and he would be going home! What? She said he needed to continue phototherapy the rest of the day and then he could leave, and be monitored by his own pediatrician for the next two weeks.

I called Jonathon and told him I was coming home to get him. We had my dad come over and watch Bailey, and we went by Target and went to get lunch. When we got back up to the hospital, we changed him into some snuggly fleece NEWBORN size jammies. Which were clearly about eight sizes too big.

I love this picture with me holding him!

And one with Daddy-

I love the “drunk on milk” baby pictures. And this baby sure does like to eat!

We kept telling him that the carseat was a good thing- that it was time to go home. He wasn’t easily convinced.

One last family picture in the NICU. It was bittersweet leaving, honestly. It was the only home my baby had known. The place where I spent hours and held him and watched him get better. And cried thousands of tears. The nurses were so loving, the other moms were so supportive. I can’t quite explain but it was strange to leave.

We were welcome home by one very excited big sister, though!

Here she is holding Taylor for the first time. With help.

NICU Days Two and Three

Filed Under Being a Mom, Breastfeeding, Daddy, Difficult Stuff, Firsts, NICU, Newborn- Taylor, Siblings, Two and a half years old | 1 Comment

On Friday morning when I woke up (after a NOT good night of sleep, thanks to all the nurses coming in my room all night long) my OB came to visit. She said she heard Taylor had been moved, and asked how he was doing. Right after that, I went straight down the hall to visit my baby. Each time I went to the NICU, I had to call in from the phone outside the door and they would unlock it for me. They also had the foaming hand sanitizer everywhere to use. I can’t even tell you how raw my hands and knuckles were from washing them over and over every day.

When I went in the NICU they told me that they were getting ready to move Taylor off the CPAP because he was doing better! That was great news. He had been wearing a hat to hold the tube in place, so he got the hat off. I was finally able to rub his fuzzy little head! At this point he was on high humidity oxygen instead. Oh, you don’t know how good it is to feel your baby’s head until you haven’t been able to.

I was also SO jealous of the moms who had babies in the regular nursery who weren’t even holding them. It really made me mad to see those cribs parked in the nursery. Some of them even had signs “only feed every three hours” or “no pacifier please.” I just wanted to scream at those moms and say, “You can hold your child whenever you want to! Don’t be so selfish!” but yet when Bailey was in the regular nursery I know I left her there so I could nap, etc. Funny how perspective changes.

Jonathon came up after lunch and we went back down together to see Taylor. At this point he still did not want to hold him. I think honestly he was intimidated by all the tubes and wires. He kept saying that it was more important for me to hold him but I think that was an excuse. Up until this point I had also been pumping at least every three hours all day and night. I think when you can’t be with your baby it feels like the only thing you can do to help… By that evening his nurse told me she thought he was ready to try a bottle feeding. They knew I planned to breastfeed but they said we had to start trying with the bottle first. He had been too sick to nurse after his birth (although we didn’t know then why he wouldn’t). So his first feeding was at about 34 hours old. They used a syringe to put pumped milk into just the nipple of a bottle and we got to hold it in his mouth. He drank it right away and we were so happy. They had warned us that a lot of preemies (they were calling him a “late preemie” since he was born between 34-37 weeks, although he was also technically full term but exhibited a lot of preemie characteristics…) can’t coordinate their sucking and swallowing yet so this was great news.

Saturday was the day I was supposed to go home. My day nurse was awesome, though. She told me first that I could stay through dinner and then came back later to tell me she had arranged for me to be discharged after dinner but keep my room for another day.

Sometime early afternoon on Saturday, Taylor got off his oxygen and moved to forced room air. Then later that day he got taken off that too! This was my first glimpse of him without his nasal cannula. I kept saying, “He looks like a regular baby now!”

His poor little face was so sore from all the tape, though.

Jonathon finally held him for the first time since he was admitted to the NICU!

That evening, Jonathon brought Bailey up for a visit. Our nurse Kathy did a great job hiding all his wires and everything inside the blankets. I didn’t know if she would be concerned or even notice them but we didn’t want him to look “sick.”

She also enjoyed playing “This Little Piggy” with his toes… so cute…

That evening, my parents came up to visit. I brought my mom in to see him and the nurse surprised me by asking if I wanted to try nursing! He did great. I couldn’t believe it, he latched on correctly with the first try and just ate. So unlike his sissy, who took DAYS to figure out how to eat. It was so frustrating with her… so easy with him.

Brother and Sister Meet Each Other

Filed Under Big Sister, Birth- Taylor, Newborn- Taylor, Siblings, Two and a half years old | Leave a Comment

After Taylor was born, I was able to get up and walk around within about a half an hour. Not having an epidural was REALLY nice as far as recovery. I was on an IV with fluids basically in case they needed to give me something suddenly. After the delivery I was on Pitocin by IV. I had no idea they did that as a standard practice. Apparently it’s to cause contractions and shrink the uterus back down. I was surprised to hear that they were giving it to me though! Anyway as soon as the IV was out I was up and around, and ordered breakfast, and then they moved us to our regular room.

My parents brought Bailey up to visit soon after we moved to our room. My mom said she was SO excited to meet Baby Taylor. I had been looking forward to this moment for a long time and also stressing out about it. I was afraid it would set them up for sibling love, or hate, or something. It seemed like such a BIG moment. But it was just normal. It was my two kids, just checking each other out. Bailey was excited and wanted to touch his eyes, nose, ears etc. She said, “Hi Baby Taylor Owe-lin, I’m your big sister!” It was so sweet.

She also thought my hospital bed was pretty great and wanted to climb around on it. After crashing against my stomach several times she was removed from the bed.

Rough Week

Filed Under Are you kidding me?, Into Everything, Two and a half years old | 2 Comments

I know I mentioned this on Facebook (what, you aren’t all friends with me on Facebook??) but last week Bailey and I had a really rough week. I just really don’t have the energy to chase her down as much as I need to when she starts getting into stuff or running away from me. She has also been taking advantage of the time that I am in the shower or getting ready. I leave the door open so she can always come find me… but she knows I can’t see her!

So last week while I was getting ready- one day she colored on the couch with markers. Thank God they were washable. Daddy left them where she could reach them. She has NEVER colored on anything other than her own skin before so I was really shocked. She also got into some of my greeting cards that I made and messed those up. Then another day, she got down the Sweet Pea soap from the guest bathroom and “washed” the couch. And another day, she washed the tv stand! I was thankful that we have black faux wood tv stands and glass coffee tables and stuff like that instead of super expensive heavy wooden furniture. At least it wipes down easily. Then another day last week she tore apart a book and shoved little spit wads of paper up her nose. I got to pick all of them out later for her.

This is why I worry about having two children.

More Valentine’s Day

Filed Under Playdates, St. Louis, Two and a half years old, Valentine's Day | Leave a Comment

We had a playdate the other day with my friends Amy and Casey and their girls. Bailey was excited to play with Kaitlynn and Addison. We met at a new bakery shop called Yummy and Co. They sell individual cupcakes, cookies, coffees and drinks. They also do custom cakes and stuff like that. They have a room in the back that can be rented out for birthday parties and showers (but it looks like it might be pricey to rent the room from what I’ve seen). When the room isn’t being rented though, you can sit back there and let the kids play. They have lots of toys, a kitchen set, chalkboard etc. It was enough to keep the girls busy for about an hour before they started arguing.

Definitely a cute spot I would go back to again to meet up with a friend for coffee and snacks. Although not too often- their cupcakes were SO good but I felt like I needed fat burner pills after stuffing myself that day!

My Little Valentine

Filed Under Posing for Pictures, Two and a half years old, Valentine's Day, classes | 3 Comments

I know it’s not Valentine’s Day yet, but I wanted to share a few pictures anyway. These were taken the other day before Bailey’s cooking class at the Early Childhood Center. She has gotten really into posing for the camera– which is quite a refreshing change from the tears and facing-hiding of a few months ago!

And a few from class-

36 Week Checkup

Filed Under Doctor Stuff, Gender, Second Pregnancy, Symptoms, Two and a half years old | 5 Comments

Today I had my 36 week appointment at the OB’s office. So here is my official TMI warning. If you don’t want to hear about my cervix, stop reading.
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After a freakishly uncomfortable internal exam (really, I don’t remember it being that bad before!) she told me that I was only a HALF centimeter dilated. I almost cried… but then she told me that my cervix is thinned and soft and the baby’s head is against it. So- that means that he has officially dropped. No wonder I feel like I’m waddling lately. Bailey never actually “dropped” until I was in labor at the hospital with her. That also explains all the pinchy feelings I keep getting in that area!

I also got swabbed for Butt Strep, a.k.a. Group B Strep. So we’ll get those results next week. I’m assuming I don’t have it, I didn’t when I was pregnant before, but who knows. Who even knew your butt could GET strep? Gross…

Baby Boy’s heartbeat was in the low 140s as it has been at every checkup since about 12 weeks. So far he is holding true to the old wives tale about heart rate. I also got a new prescription written for my prenatals so I can start getting them filled at the grocery store where they are now free!

Bailey did surprisingly well during the checkup. She sat in the chair and looked at pictures in a magazine. And wiggled a lot, and told the doctor she was going to be a doctor when she grows up. And then she said, “Dr. _____, I have a question for you.” So the doctor tried to ask what her question was but all she would say was “It’s a question about Grammy.” Then she hopped up on the table after I was done, leaned back, opened her legs and said, “My turn for a checkup!”

Bailey and her friend Claire

Filed Under Friends, Home Sweet Home, Playdates, Two and a half years old | 1 Comment

Lately Bailey has really enjoyed playdates with her friend Claire. I think because Claire is getting old enough to start interacting with her and she sees her as more of a kid or friend now instead of “Baby Claire.” And of course Jonathon and I always enjoy getting to spend time with Claire’s parents, Sarah and Ryan!

Just wanted to share a few pictures I took last week when they came over. You know it’s a good friend when your kid can wear her jammies for a playdate…

The only thing that bugs me about having playdates here is our furniture. We ended up getting more of a modern furniture style and so the coffee tables and end tables had sharp metal/glass corners. They are all packed away downstairs and so there’s nowhere to set a drink etc in our living room now. But someday our kids will be grown and we will have real furniture and I will probably wish for the days when we had little kids…

New Interests

Filed Under Big Sister, Books, Learning, Milestones, Names, Second Pregnancy, Siblings, This Rocks, Two and a half years old | 2 Comments

I know I have mentioned how Bailey is really into dressing up lately- not so much the actual princess dresses, but the tutu, wand, shoes, tiara, wings etc. The other night while I was out, Jonathon went in to check on her and she had taken her socks off and put on a pair of high heeled princess shoes to go to sleep. I scolded him for not getting a picture!

She is also really into “big girl books” with real pages. She looks at board books sometimes but has to be in the right mood. Her current favorite books are anything princess (Especially Cinderella!), Wocket in my Pocket, Where the Wild Things Are (she calls it “Wild Fings ARE”), Sneetches, Dora Visits the Dentist, and Berenstein Bears Big Honey Hunt. She used to like the Little Mermaid but we were at a friends house one day and the movie was on. She saw the part where Ursula turns back into the Sea Witch at the end and now all she says is, “I don’t like the bad lady!” and she won’t have anything to do with it anymore. We have to be really careful what she watches and what parts of the books we “edit” when we read because she has such a big imagination!

Another thing she loves is her new colored pencils. She likes to draw with them. She doesn’t like coloring books much anymore- she would rather draw her own pictures and have us draw/color with her on blank paper. I guess that’s a good thing because it gets her to be more creative. She also likes to pretend to wrap presents for us. Anytime she can find a piece of tissue paper or scrap paper she starts folding it around a small object and then brings us the present to open.

She has just started learning the “grownup names” of people in our family. I think it’s good that she knows what our real names are, including last names, in case she ever needs to get help or talk to another adult for some reason. We are also going to start working on a phone number soon. She can say her full name and we are starting to learn how to spell it. She really likes knowing what adults’ names are, and she knows not to use their names but for some reason thinks it’s fun just to know.

She loves talking about her baby brother, and talking to him while he’s inside me. She always tells him, “Hi, Baby _____ ______. I’m your big sister! I love you and I will take care of you.” She puts stickers on my tummy for him, and talks about how she will hold toys for him to look at and read books to him when he is too little to hold the toys by himself. I love to see her excitement about him.

My Little Flower Girl

Filed Under Congratulations, Firsts, Friends, Posing for Pictures, This Rocks, Travel, Two and a half years old, Weddings | 3 Comments

Yes, she was the best flower girl ever. I was so, so proud of her. I was laughing AND had tears in my eyes as she walked down the aisle. These first few were taken before the ceremony. I will be ordering some of the professional pics from during the ceremony so that I can remember the way she looked forever!

Getting Ready

Reception

(Clapping as the bride and groom are introduced)

Can you tell she was getting really tired?

Here she was about two minutes into the car ride home and already falling asleep!

We enjoyed a Wendy’s stop on the way home. I miss Wendy’s since all of them around here closed

Congratulations and Best Wishes to Faith and Bryan. It was so good to see you guys. And Bailey has been playing “wedding” since we got home, with my bouquet and her flower basket. It usually starts out, “Mom, let’s play wedding! You’re Uncle Bryan and I’m Aunt Faith!”

Trying New Foods

Filed Under Avon, Cooking/Baking, Food, Sensory Processing Disorder, Two and a half years old | 4 Comments

We had some major progress today with trying new foods! It is SO hard to get Bailey to try anything new. After hundreds of hours of OT, and a cooking class at her Early Childhood Center, we have determined that she is just going to be a picky and hesitant eater. It frustrates me to no end. It’s like if I could just get her to try a certain food, I know she would like it. Mealtimes are not pleasant at our house- mainly because I stress out over everything and Jonathon keeps trying to convince her to eat.

Well tonight, I made a pot roast for dinner. Roasts are one of my favorite comfort foods. Jonathon is not a big fan, and Bailey has never touched one before. Well despite the opposition from those two, I make a roast anyway once every few months. Today Bailey smelled it cooking and started asking what it was. She said she wanted to taste it. At dinnertime I put a few carrots, pieces of celery, and meat on her plate. Along with a half a banana, a buttermilk biscuit, and some corn. We always give her at least one thing she is guaranteed to eat (in this case the corn and banana) and one thing we KNOW she won’t eat (the roast) and one thing that she might try (biscuit).

She started off by telling us that biscuits were for dogs, and flat-out refusing to taste it. So she kissed it goodbye and handed it to me. That was fine. Then she ate all of her corn, as expected. Then I casually picked up a carrot off my plate and commented, “I’m going to bite this little carrot in half.” She picked up her own carrot, repeated that, and ate it. Then she said, “That’s very good!” and ate the rest of her carrots. AND tried the celery- which I thought she would hate- but she said, “These green beans are good!” Since the child has honestly not eaten a green bean in at least a year I guess she didn’t even know that wasn’t what it was. We just went with it and she ate about five bites of cooked celery and took seconds on carrots!

Once she was done with that, she wanted to get down and I told her to eat her banana first. She did, and then as I was washing dishes she came into the kitchen and asked for more carrots. I’m not one to ever deny my child a vegetable (maybe because she only eats them once every six months) so we stood in the kitchen and picked cooked carrots out of the pot and ate them together.

We opened a new silicone baking pan that I got from Avon, and I showed Bailey how we can make little cakes and muffins in the shape of butterflies, ladybugs, etc. She wanted to try it, so we used a Jiffy chocolate muffin mix (the box ones that are like 2/$1). It was the perfect amount of mix and they only took 12 minutes to bake. She was so excited to watch them in the oven with the light on. After we took them out I told her they needed to cool off, and that when we got back from delivering Avon we could have a tea party with our special cakes.

We went to deliver some Avon orders and drop off new brochures to my customers. She mentioned a few times how she wanted to go home and eat one of her special cakes. She had fun deciding which one to try. She ate a ladybug one and I had a butterfly. They turned out really cute. This is my child who will NOT eat any sort of bread, muffin, or cake. She has has problems in the past with gagging on these textures and basically avoids them at all costs now. I think she was excited enough to try these, that she didn’t worry about that. She ate almost the whole ladybug and then told me she wanted to save the rest for later.

This was a super way to make a snack into something fun. I am going to have to buy more healthy mixes (like berry ones instead of chocolate!) so we can do it again soon. If you have a child who is a picky eater, this pan is an absolute miracle. They aren’t available yet on my website because they are brand new, but I can advance order them if anyone is interested. I believe they are only around $10 intro price.

Anyway, all this talking about food. If you have a child who eats normally it doesn’t make sense. If your kid is a bad eater like Bailey, well first of all HUGS to you, and second, you know why I am so happy about this small step we took today!

Wordless Wednesday- Princess

Filed Under Play, Posing for Pictures, Two and a half years old | 1 Comment

This is my princess.

She likes to wear heels with jeans.

She prefers to wear her tiara backwards.

She likes to eat cookies and not get her mouth wiped off.

But isn’t she beautiful?

Faith’s Wedding Weekend

Filed Under Friends, Gifts, Toys, Travel, Two and a half years old, Weddings | Leave a Comment

This weekend we went to Iowa for my friend Faith’s wedding. I was the matron of honor (doesn’t that sound really old?) and Bailey was one of the flower girls. Actually, Bailey was the ONLY flower girl who actually went down the aisle. She did a fantastic job!

The car ride was fairly uneventful. There was a light rain for about the first two hours of the drive which always sets me on edge. Thank goodness Jonathon loves to drive because I hate it. About the last hour of the six hour drive, Bailey started yelling, “Help! I’m trapped in this chair! Somebody let me out!” we were trying so hard not to laugh!

She was beyond excited about staying in a hotel room. It was the first time that she was really old enough to enjoy it, and there was an indoor pool so we got to swim several times. We had a suite with a separate area where we put her bed (we brought her toddler mattress from home). It worked out really well and she was much more comfortable sleeping in her own bed/mattress on the floor. She ran around the room like a crazy girl for about the first half hour after we arrived.

The first night we were in town, I went to the bachelorette party/lingerie shower. It was a fun and relaxing girls night at her house. I was glad to be able to just put my (extremely swollen) feet up and hang out and catch up. Faith is the type of person who blushes and gets embarrassed easily so it was fun to watch her open the gifts.

She got a really cool set of products from her sister in law. There were all different bars of soap and bath oils and fizzies and stuff. Apparently everything was natural and preservative free. Her sister in law was telling us all about the company and I might have to go check them out. They even have something with top fat burners in it.

On Friday morning, we got up and went to the church to help decorate and set up. Bailey met the other little flower girl who was NOT friendly at all. There were a few other kids there for her to play with, though and she stayed pretty busy with the toys she got from the nursery.

Bailey also got to see Faith for the first time in about two months. She was so excited. On the drive there, she told us, “I can’t wait to see Aunt Faith! And Uncle Bryan! He’s her cousin!” More like fiance, but anyway…

Friday night we had the rehearsal at the church. We all sat and introduced ourselves. I was getting ready to introduce Bailey when it was her turn but she spoke up and said, “Hi, my name is Bailey. I’m a flower girl!” She always surprises me- I mean she’s really outgoing, but I didn’t know she was capable of making an introduction like that to a group of people!

Bailey cooperated for the most part. She took her job of walking down the aisle very seriously and practiced twice. The other little girl started crying, so Bailey walked down by herself. At first her flower basket just contained some Little People…

She was given a Dora house for her flower girl gift. She carried it around with her all weekend and then ended up losing Dora. So we are currently looking for a small (like two inch tall) replacement Dora figurine, if anyone has one or knows where to get one. She’s about the height of Little People, but thinner. You know, to fit through the narrow doorway in her house…