Weekly Happenings: We spent this last week mainly getting used to being a family of four. There were doctor’s appointments, small family outings to stores and such, and lazying around the house. Paul has been awesome with Joseph: taking him to the zoo, the park, etc. to make sure he feels like Abigail isn’t getting all the attention. He’s also done a great job taking care of me so I can care for Abigail. The craziest night was last night: New Year’s Eve. Our neighborhood sounded like a war zone from about sun-down to one AM. Joseph slept through the worst of it and Abigail seemed to take comfort in nursing…which she did almost non-stop from 8-midnight. She then blessed me with a 4-hour stretch of sleep. The highlight of the week was definitely today: we blessed Abigail at church. The main thing that stood out in her blessing was that Paul blessed her to have the patience and strength to deal with challenges in her life. While my Momma-heart doesn’t like to hear that she’ll face challenges, it’s comforting to know she won’t do it alone.
The Weekly Weather: It’s been crazy to say the least. Warm days mixed with cold. We have to check the weather report every day (and sometimes multiple times a day) just to figure out what to wear. Crazy!
What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been handling dinner every night, taking care of Joseph, taking care of me, and helping immensely with Abigail at night, making sure I get a break every now and then. He starts back with school tomorrow, but still has one more week off of work. Yay!
What Sarah’s Been Up To: Mainly trying to heal and keep a tiny human alive, haha. Not much else, in reality!
What Joseph’s Been Up To: Loving on his sister, playing with new Christmas gifts, and enjoying his break. He goes back to school tomorrow, which he’s looking forward to. He can’t wait to tell his friends that he’s got a new sister.
What Abigail’s Up To: Eating, sleeping, getting diaper and wardrobe changes (which she abhors), and making us all fall swiftly in love with her. She’s the perfect caboose!
This Week in Pictures:
At the zoo with Daddy.Riding the carousel at the zoo.Joseph got a rock finding kit from one of Paul’s former foster moms. There were different rocks embedded in this brick.Getting ready to break the brick.He loved getting to hit something with a mallet,Smash!Gathering the minerals.Comparing his minerals to the ones on his chart.Sleepy momma……sleepy baby.She surrenders to sleep.It seems to be a common theme with her.I love that open-mouthed sleep right after feeding…Ready for her close-up.Out like a light.Clutching her pacifier while sleeping.Ah, sweet sleep…I call this one, “milk coma”.
I’m breaking from my normal format to write up Abigail’s birth story. Then I’ll add pictures that we’ve taken this week, both before and after she arrived.
Thursday, December 22, 2016
4:00 AM: Paul and I got up, ate breakfast, and got ready to head to the hospital for me to get induced. We had dropped Joseph off at our friends’ house the night before, so he could spend the night and play with a friend while we were busy at the hospital.
5:30 AM: We checked in at Labor and Delivery to get set up in a room…they said it would be a bit since all the rooms were full.
11:30 AM: Yup, that’s right. SIX hours later we finally were given a room. Once we got in, they started me on a pitocin drip and broke my water to induce labor. I dilated to 4 cm rather quickly (I think it was a couple hours), so we went ahead and had them give me the epidural. The epidural seemed to work great for a while, but then I started to feel pain and immense pressure. Paul was a great coach, keeping me calm and breathing so that I didn’t hyperventilate. I also started to literally shake from head to toe with an adrenaline rush (this started about 3:00 PM). I expected it to pass quickly, but it lasted (along with the pain and pressure) until I was ready to push, at about 5:30.
5:30 PM: I started to push and they said I was doing a really good job, so they called the on-call obstetrician (my doctor had already had to leave). I pushed for a little bit and then at…
6:02 PM: Abigail was born! She weighs 7 lbs, 2 oz and is 19.5 inches long. They were able to give me skin-to-skin with her. This was a luxury I didn’t have with Joseph since he had to be taken to the NICU for observation (to monitor his breathing and make sure he swallowed anything he ought not to have, if you know what I mean) right at birth. I was also able to feed her right away. Then they transferred me to a recovery room, took her to the nursery to get cleaned up, and we began our journey as a family.
The next two days were a bit of a blur of feeding, checking vitals, etc. They noticed a slight murmur in her heart, but that was something that went away by the time we were discharged. They also said she didn’t quite pass her first go at the hearing screening. She passed the second test, so they think there was just some amniotic fluid trapped in her ear (since it was just her right one). Paul spent the first night at the hospital with me, but the second night he went and collected Joseph and they stayed at home (after coming to visit). My night solo was a bit difficult because Abigail wanted to be awake and attached to me all night. I finally had them take her to the nursery so that I could get some sleep. We were able to be discharged yesterday, with both of our blood sugar levels being great, and were home for Christmas Eve as a family. Now just to get used to this new stage in our life. 🙂
Christmas 2016: We awoke early, had breakfast, and then opened presents. Joseph got a new DS with a game and case, a book, and some new church clothes. He also got a Pokemon watch from Jason and Saira and some cool science kits from one of Paul’s former foster moms, Barbara Diamond. Paul got a new shirt, a foam pad to put down on the bench in his new office, a gift card to purchase some eBooks, and a couple of new tools. I got some slippers, some new measuring cups, a handmade scarf (one of my friends crochets some amazing stuff), a book I can read to Abigail, and a recipe kit for some yummy dessert from Barbara. Abigail got some cute clothes from Barbara.
This Adventure in Pictures:
Playing with LEGOS. Last bit of time as an only child well-spent.I was a bit worried when I saw this weather. Would we need to bring Abigail home in a parka in a few days?!Nope…One more trip to the temple grounds before Abigail made her arrival.There she is!All the babies had these stockings draped over them, with candy-cane hats.Seriously……cutest thing, ever.Sweet baby girl.Proud brother!3/4 of the family.Well, melt my heart!Gah! That look!Quality time with Daddy.Daddy holding both his babies.The lactation consultant said a bink would be a good idea since Abigail likes to suck a lot. She assured me it wouldn’t be a problem with breastfeeding (and so far, it hasn’t been). Here she is, holding her own paci.This face!After we got home from the hospital.Christmas!All dolled-up for Christmas.The open-mouthed sleep.While Paul and I were busy at the hospital, my friend took the kids to the temple. Joseph loved hanging out with their family for a couple of days.
Our friends also got this video of Joseph. The original video was sent as MMS so it’s pretty small but still very awesome.
Weekly Happenings: We’ve mostly been ticking off our boxes for the final countdown before Abigail arrives. Paul finished up final exams and projects, I crossed the last thing off of my “must-do-before-baby” to-do list, and Joseph had an epic last week of school before the winter break (his teacher must be exhausted). When I say the “final countdown”, I really mean it. At my last OB appointment, we set up an induction date. If she doesn’t come independently, we’re going in early this next Thursday morning to put everything in motion. One of my friends has already graciously volunteered to watch Joseph, so we’ll drop him off at her house the night before. It’s baby week!
The Weekly Weather: It’s been crazy to say the least. We’ve had cold days, cool days, and down-right warm days all mixed together. I think the craziest temperature jump was yesterday. During the day, it was literally in the upper-70s. By last night, it was down in the 40s. Today’s high is only suppose to be 41, with an overnight low of 29. Yeesh.
What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s mainly been finishing up with his classes. He’s also been a huge help with Joseph since I just haven’t been up to doing a whole lot. I sure did marry a great guy! One fun thing that happened was that his former coworkers (from when he was working in the DLI library as opposed to the IT department) surprised him with some gifts for Abigail. They made a diaper cake and also gave us some cute outfits for her. We were not expecting it in the least, and it was so sweet! It means so much that they would still think of us even though he’s no longer working in their department.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: Mainly the normal stuff with a few extra things thrown in. I finished up with my piano students until March (making sure I get recovery time in there and also just getting used to the new way our house is going to run warrants for a bit of a break). I also helped out with Joseph’s class party on Friday. I was in charge of the cookie decorating center, so I helped small groups of his class decorate sugar cookies. It was fun, but exhausting, haha. I was ready for a nap afterward! I also went to my final ultrasound/growth scan for Abigail (she’s measuring at about 7.8 lbs) and my last OB appointment (I’m already 2 cm dilated). I have one more appointment for an NST (non-stress test) and the last meet up with the nutritionist to go over my blood sugar numbers (which have been great). I’m so amazed that I have been able to control this gestational diabetes with diet alone. Not every momma is so lucky. For many of them, even if they start out diet-controlled, their numbers start to rise towards the end and they end up needing medication or insulin injections. My numbers have actually been getting a bit lower as we’ve gotten towards the end. It’s amazing to see the Lord’s hands in truly all things.
What Joseph’s Been Up To: He had a really great last week at school. I think he brought home a new craft every day (including a few fun ornaments for our tree). I feel blessed to have him in this pre-k program. It reminds me of what kindergarten was like when I was five. 🙂 It’s been a fun transition into school for him. The more I think of it, the more I’m grateful he didn’t have to go from absolutely no school exposure to a straight 7.5 hours of school. It most likely would have been really rough…on all of us. Joseph has also shown us just how patient and understanding he is. We’ve been getting a lot of stuff for Abigail this last little bit and he has not complained, once. We have gotten him little things here and there (and a sweet sister in our ward included a gift for him when she gave me a gift for Abigail) to make sure he knows he’s not totally getting left out, but that hasn’t caused an increase in the “I wants” in the least. I think that Christmas being so close has helped a bit, since he has presents to look forward to. One of my favorite things about him is that after he receives something, he is immediately grateful. He’ll tell us thank you and express how nice it was of us to get him something. He does that with the other people that have given him things, as well. Last night, we had friends over for games and we had a bit of a gift exchange. Joseph was not forgotten in that two of our friends brought gifts for him. He was quick to tell them thank you and and then later told me that it was so nice of them to bring him gifts. He really is a gem of a kid.
This Week in Pictures:
Mixing up imaginary pancakes for me “since you can’t have real ones because it would mess up your blood sugars.” Seriously…so observant!Just to show a bit of what we’ve been experiencing, weather-wise. The fluctuations have been just a bit crazy.The diaper cake and present from the DLI library staff. I loved all the little useful things tucked into the cake.While I couldn’t possibly photograph all of the cute clothes we’ve received for Abigail, I had to snap one of this onesie that friend made for her. It’s a quote from a show that we have a common love for. It’s pretty awesome that she thought of that when coming up with a present. 🙂We needed to run out to the distribution center by the temple yesterday. While I took care of business in the center, Paul walked Joseph around the temple grounds. It’s always so peaceful there. Here’s Joseph in front of some flowers (I love the landscaping).I love this picture. We didn’t see these rocks the last time I took him there. I’m glad my boys were able to go on an adventure!While the grounds aren’t decorated with lights like some other temple grounds, they do apparently have this really beautiful nativity display.After finishing up at the temple, we had lunch and then took Joseph to the outdoor play area at La Cantera. Notice he’s not wearing a jacket? That’s because it’s almost 80 degrees in this picture. 5-6 hours later, it was in the 40s. All this next week is supposed to be cold, so it’s a good thing we squeezed in this play time! He was playing tag with some insta-friends (kids he’d just met a few minutes before).“Just because” flowers that Paul bought me yesterday. I love how thoughtful he is. 🙂
