2 Months

Our little girl had her 2 month check-up. She is healthy and well and did great for the doctor. She wasn't too happy about her shots though. She cried for a little bit when she got them, and then a few hours after her appointment, she started screaming. Nothing seemed to help, so we finally gave her some pain medicine. She finally calmed down and just wanted to snuggle on my shoulder the rest of the night. (I should have picked another night to take my friend, who just had a baby, dinner).

Here are her stats:

Height: 23.25" (83rd percentile)
Weight: 11 lbs 11 oz (74th percentile)

P2 will now smile and coo for us. She is happy to see me in the mornings, and it makes getting up a little easier. She is getting pretty consistent with her sleeping schedule. She'll go to sleep around 9 or 10 pm and wake up around 3 or 4 am. I'll feed her and she will go back to sleep pretty quickly. Then she'll get up around 6 or 7 am. If it's 6 am, then I'll just nurse her in bed and we'll both sleep a little longer. We still have her in our room in a bassinet since P1 is still using the crib. She'll take lots of little naps during the day, and usually 1 long nap in the afternoon when her brother is also napping. And nap time is heavenly!

Pulling faces:

 Put 'em up!

A Birth Story

Well, it's almost been 2 months, maybe I should write down P2's birth story.

At my 39 week appointment, my midwife stripped my membranes. She wasn't sure if it would get me into labor or not, and she was going to be out of town on the weekend. So we were both hoping this would work. It did start contractions, but I have had a lot of contractions this pregnancy, so I just kept waiting for them to get consistent. About 4 or 5 pm, the contractions were coming every 3-5 minutes. I continued fixing dinner: sweet and sour chicken. About 6 pm, I called PE to make sure he was coming home from work. He said he was just finishing up, so I told him to hurry home so he could eat dinner because we may be going to the hospital tonight. The contractions continued to be pretty regular, and we decided to drop P1 off at Grandma's house so he could just go to bed there instead of us having to wake him in the middle of the night.

Well, we ended up just heading to the hospital after dropping P1 off. I wasn't really sure if we should go in though, so we walked around the hospital. Finally, I decided to just go in and see what they say. It was 7:52 pm when we entered the hospital.

I was at a 4 (improvement from a 3 at my check-up) when they checked me, and they decided to let me stay. The contractions were still coming, but they weren't really intense, so we spent a bit of time walking the halls trying to help it along. It was really nice this time to not be hooked up to fluids, pitocin, and oxygen! Around 10:30 - 11 pm, I had my midwife break my water. That immediately made a difference, and my contractions started coming hard and fast. My midwife stayed with us from that point on, and was really great with helping me cope with the pain. I used the birthing ball for a little bit, and PE and my midwife would push on my hips during contractions to help with the pressure. My midwife gave me 4 shots of saline in my back to help with the back labor (but I don't think it really helped, and the shots were kind of painful). They checked me around midnight, and I was only at a 6. I was frustrated, but knew that it could still be over soon because I went from a 6 to a 10 really fast with P1.

My hands fell asleep sometime around then, so a nurse and PE were rubbing my hands. And I remember my legs just shaking like crazy. I started to feel a lot of pressure, so they checked me again and I was at an 8. They asked if I wanted to use the tub or birthing ball, but I didn't think I could move. Suddenly I felt a lot of pressuse, and said so, but my midwife said "Don't push!" because she didn't think I was ready yet. But turns out I was ready, and there wasn't really a whole lot I could do to stop it. I think my midwife only had time to get her gloves on. Baby's head was 3 inches out almost immediately, my midwife told me to slow down, and somehow I was able to hold back for a minute, and then she told me to push. I pushed, and out came a tiny baby at 12:36 AM. I heard crying, and suddenly a little baby was on my chest. We didn't know if it was a boy or girl, so they let us look for ourselves, and we saw that we had a baby girl!

The nurse said I went from a 6 to complete in 20 minutes, and I only pushed for 2 contractions. It happened so fast that they didn't even give me the pitocin to help stop the bleeding (even though they had stuck an IV in me so that it would be ready to go). But they did give me a painful shot in my thigh to help stop the bleeding.

I did the whole thing without an epidural, and honestly, it was incredibly hard and intense. I'm glad I was able to do it, but now that I've done it both ways, I don't know which way I prefer. Recovery was 100 times better this time, but I think that had more to do with the fact that I didn't tear at all.

She surprised us with her dark hair. We thought it might be red like her brother, or blond like her parents, but as of right now, she is a brunette.

Our sweet baby girl weighed 7 lbs 8 oz, and was 21 inches long. She had a little bruise on the corner of her mouth. It has faded a lot, but hasn't gone away, so I think it is a birthmark not a bruise. She has done great with nursing, and is a very healthy baby. P1 wasn't too sure about her at first, but he warmed up to her really quickly and has been a great big brother. We are so blessed to have them in our family.

P1 enjoyed the many snacks he could get at the hospital:

Beautiful flowers my mom brought to the hospital:

Dressed and ready to go home!

P2's Blessing

P2 was given a name and a blessing by her father at our ward before we moved. She was blessed in the same dress that I was blessed in, and that my mother was blessed in. I crocheted the white baby blanket specifically for her blessing. I finished it 3 days before she was born (1st and possibly last time I crochet a blanket!). My dad and grandpa were able to be in the circle for her blessing, and the bishop and one of his counselors joined them in the circle. It was a short and sweet blessing, and a sister in our ward was thoughtful enough to record the blessing for us.

A Little Boy

Enjoying all the "new" toys we pulled out when packing up to move:

Playing with a Lego sword he made all by himself:

 Showing off our empty apartment:

Helping Dad make breakfast at our new place:

Eating breakfast with Winnie the Pooh:

Playing the piano, using  a children's book as his sheet music:

Being the sweetest big brother ever:

1 Month

I can't believe our little girl is already one month old! This month has flown by! We've been busy moving, working long hours, and taking care of 2 kids!

P2 is your typical baby. She eats, sleeps, and poops, and then does it all over again. She does okay at night. I usually get up twice with her, and can get her back to sleep in half an hour as long as she hasn't decided it's morning. There have been the occasional nights where she won't go back to sleep for hours, and those make for long nights. But she is a little sweetheart even when she doesn't let me sleep.

P2 does have quite the scream now. She definitely lets you know when she is unhappy. P1 will usually bring me my nursing cover when she cries, because he knows that if she is crying she must be hungry. When I took a shower the other morning, I came out to a screaming baby. I had her in my bedroom with the door shut, and P1 was desperately trying to get into the bedroom because the baby was crying. He is such a sweet big brother.

Motherhood

Sometimes I wonder why motherhood has to be so challenging. I wonder why can't babies sleep through the night, why do they have to spit-up and blow-out, why are toddlers such picky eaters, why won't toddlers listen to you, and the list goes on and on. And then I remember that life isn't supposed to be easy. It's supposed to stretch us and make us grow. And nothing else has made me stretch and grow more than motherhood.

P2 is really a pretty easy baby, but I think a lot of that is because being a mother to P1 caused me to stretch and grow. So now taking care of a newborn is easier for me. But the stretching and growing this time around comes from learning how to take care of a toddler and a baby at the same time.

I've lost my patience a lot more with P1 since P2 came along. I could blame lack of sleep, but while that may be the reason, it is still not a good excuse. I have to grow and learn how to still be patient, kind, compassionate, and loving even when I am exhausted. I have to learn to be Christ-like in all conditions, not just when everything is easy.

Christ suffered more than we can comprehend in Gethsemane and on the cross. He must have been exhausted beyond our mortal comprehension. If anyone ever had the "right" to be less than kind, loving, and compassionate because they were tired or having a bad day, then it was Christ. He suffered EVERYTHING, all of our pains and afflictions, and yet He was still kind, patient, and compassionate.

"At each moment of His suffering, the Redeemer of the world showed exceptional self-control. He always thought of blessing others; with kindness and tenderness, He pleaded for John to take care of His mother, Mary. He asked His Father in Heaven to forgive the executioners who crucified Him." 

-Elder Carlos H. Amado, Christ the Redeemer, April 2014

Christ is our perfect example. And motherhood is truly a gift from God to help me become more Christ-like.

2 Weeks

I better write this down before I forget!

P2 had her 2 week check-up today. Here are her stats:

Weight: 8 lbs 10 oz (59th percentile)
Height: 21.25 inches (82nd percentile)

She was 7 lbs 8 oz and 21 inches long at birth. So she is definitely growing. Some of her newborn clothes are already getting small on her.

P2 is very healthy. The only issue we've had so far is that she ripped off her umbilical cord when she was 4 days old. We ended up having to take her in a few days later to have them cauterize her belly button because it was bleeding too much. We almost took her in again a few days later because the bleeding picked up again. But it finally started improving, and hopefully will be completely healed soon.

P2 is really a good baby. So far she has been a lot easier than P1 was as a baby, but the hard part this time around is taking care of P1 and P2 at the same time. But we are figuring it out, and are very blessed to have both of them in our family.