One Week Down

The Cox family has survived a whole week of having 2 kids!!! I'm all for positive reinforcement, so I'm just going to go ahead and pat myself on the back for anything and everything possible. Just so you know the gameplan...

Our week was relatively uneventful as we oriented Baby Nolan to our household. My mom was here most of the week and I can't thank her enough for the meals, the Bailey distractions, the middle-of-the-night tag team efforts and, most importantly, the moral support. I'm a bit sad that she's gone now, but also looking forward to the new challenge of getting into a daily rhythm with the 2 children. I only wish Jason could be here more with us, but such is life. I wish paternity leave was more common although, I guess since Jason owns his own business he could grant himself that benefit.....we'd just go broke. So, I gleefully send him off to work in the morning with a big hug. Maybe that hug just lasts a little longer than it used to. :-)

Nolan is a great baby (knock on wood). We had a more challenging night last night, but he's really pretty content as long as he's had enough to eat and he's not cold. He really hates getting undressed and his little teeth chatter when I'm changing him. He was down to 7 lbs. 3.5 ozs. when we left the hospital so I had to go get a weight check on him Wednesday. I was nervous because we went through this same routine with Bailey, which led to an admission to Mercy Hospital to see a lactation consultant. It was kind of scary because our pediatrician acted like Bailey was going to starve and the Mercy stay was key to her survival. Then, the lactation consultant basically said we were doing great, more milk would come and until then to supplement with some formula at each feeding. I REALLY didn't want to go through that all again with Nolan. Fortunately, his weight was up to 7 lbs. 4 ozs. so they weren't concerned and think he'll be back up to his birth weight by his 2 week appointment. On the unfortunate side, the only reason I believe that he hasn't lost any more weight is because I anticipated all of this and already began supplementing. As much as they say there's no reason why anyone should have inadequate milk supply, I beg to differ. Obviously I'm only 7 days into this process, but it's not looking great so far. Anyone have any suggestions? I'm staying hydrated, nursing frequently, pumping, and taking Fenugreek. Sigh....

Bailey has been such a helper. Sometimes she's a bit too much help. She tells us she thinks he has a wet diaper about once every 20 minutes. For some reason, she gets really excited about doing diaper duty. If only she could do it on her own, right?! We've had a couple of battles for attention and several temper tantrums and bad behavior episodes, but overall she's adjusting fairly well.

Okay, now for the pictures. I am taking the cue of a friend of mine who has a super cute blog for her baby, who just turned one. She has taken a picture every week with a little sign to indicate his age....I think it's so cute and will be a great way to look back and compare. We have a family member who's a photographer and took a picture of his first son EVERY DAY FOR A YEAR. Since that's a little exhausting for me to think about, I'll settle for the once-a-week option!

Of course, we had to get one with little Bailey in it!

How cute is this? Probably the only time they'll ever be sleeping at the same time again!

I think his shirt says it all!

Feeding Nolan takes more than one person (or so Bailey thinks!!)

My mom, Bailey and Nolan cuddling

Post first bath...man, I look tired!

Until next time....peace.

He's FINALLY here!!

Some of you may be new to this blog. I've been writing for a few months about Bailey and my pregnancy. So, if you look back, there's some humorous pre-baby posts. For others, you've been following along waiting for little Nolan to join us. Needless to say, he has arrived!

The key labor details: Started having contractions around 3 a.m. Saturday morning. I didn't want to jump the gun and rush to the hospital, so I timed them for about 3 hours before I woke Jason. At that point, the contractions were approximately 8-9 minutes apart. I decided I would take a shower, get dressed and eat a bite before getting serious about leaving. So, Jason did the same. It was kind of weird since my experience with Bailey was a bit different since my water broke....we rushed to the hospital and arrived before contractions even started. This time, I was in pain every time I had one, but then had several minutes of "down time" that allowed me to function as normal. We got Bailey up around 8 a.m. and headed for the hospital.

When we arrived, they wanted to monitor me for a bit before officially admitting me. I guess most labor/delivery folks are familiar with the false labor routine! After an hour or so, I had dilated to a 4 so they gave me a ticket to stay. Then, what seemed like a short time later, the anesthesiologist came in and said he was there to administer my epidural. I hadn't even asked for it yet!!! But, since he was there, I wasn't going to turn him away. He would have been so disappointed. :-) Immediately after that, "the doctor" came in and broke my water to really get things going. I say "the doctor" because it was the on-call doctor and not my OB/GYN. My doctor was in Norman at her kid's soccer games and had said that she would try to make it back by the time I delivered. Sigh.....

I dilated pretty quickly after that and was ready to go for the gold a few hours later. My mom says the baby cried 6 minutes after the delivery team walked into the room. Everyone was shocked at how quickly it went, including me! Anyway, Nolan Philip Cox arrived at 2:50 p.m. weighing in at 7 lbs. 12 ozs. and is 21 inches in length.

Below, I have included a variety of pictures, some with commentary and others without. We are home now and doing just great....although we haven't had our first night yet!!! Bailey is very excited for us to be home and has been a great diaper assistant. We have had a couple of tantrums over silly things and I had to rely heavily on my mom (who's staying with me this week) to diffuse the situation because I was feeding Nolan. It was a small bit of foreshadowing to how challenging it will be at times to juggle 2 kids.

We basically pulled Bailey out of bed, got her dressed and left for the hospital. Here she is excited, but with still-sleepy eyes.

The time on this picture is 2:41....he was born at 2:50. I was telling Jason "Here we go!"

Jason's parents

Kendy's parents

This looks JUST like Bailey's weight picture.

Bailey is watching Nolan get a bath through the glass.

I know his outfit looks goofy....his pants wouldn't stay on OVER the onesie, so the nursery put his clothes on this way just to keep his pants up!

Nolan gave Bailey this present...a personalized "I'm a Big Sister" shirt.

Kendy's brother Chance

Kendy's brother Conner

That's all for now, folks!

It's All Over But the Waitin'...

So, you'll notice the baby countdown on my page is now zeroed out. I'm sure I don't have to elaborate on the fact that this means my due date has come and gone. Well, it won't have gone for another couple of hours since it's today. But, I'm pretty sure I won't have a baby in my arms within the next 2 hours so let's just say (for fun, ya know) that I'm overdue. While it's not like I'm miserable or even in low spirits, I'm simply tired of waiting. Our whole world seems to be teetering on this edge of baby vs. no baby. I'm just ready to get on with it!! Further, I think Bailey is now convinced that we're all liars and there really is no baby brother coming (which, in reality, may suit her just fine!!).

Now, I don't know if this will really make sense - it does to me - but part of my problem is that I feel like I'm so prepared that, when it actually happens, I won't be prepared at all. Huh??? I've spent the past 2 weeks doing all the laundry in the house so that this won't be a lingering task, I've ironed all of Bailey's clothes so that my in-laws can easily dress her should we have to go to the hospital in the middle of the night and leave caretaking duties to them, I've packed and re-packed my hospital bag and access all of my beauty products out of Ziploc bags, I've purchased snack foods and ample drinks for the inevitable (and welcome, by the way!) visitors, and I'm unnaturally concerned with keeping my hair clean and my legs shaved for fear of having to go to the hospital with 3-day-old greasy hair and a forest on my extremities. All of that is fine and well but, the more time that goes by, the more my good work just becomes CONSUMED. I mean seriously, I'm pregnant, do you think that Sprite and those Cheetos are going to be around for more than a few days?? (They're baked....no guilt!!!) And, laundry has a crazy way of piling up at twice the rate it was cleaned. I just can't make everything perfect...and I know no one in the world cares but me!! But, hey, that's just how I roll.

Finally, to anyone who has so carelessly reassured me that 2nd babies always come early, I say BOOOOOOOOOOO to you. That is all...

A Letter to My Unborn Child....

Dear Nolan,

While I know you are very comfortable hanging out inside my belly, I'd like to remind you that you ARE supposed to leave at some point. Unfortunately, if you don't think that's in your best interest at this time, I'm going to have to exercise my right to evict you.

Love,
Mom

I'm Not on Good Terms With My Cervix

My appointment today yielded the exact same information as last week. While the time is near any way I look at it, there's simply something depressing about a whole week going by with nothing to show for it. Still at that same 1 cm and 0% effacement. At this point, I'm ready to chow down on some turkey on Thursday and then mistake the following indigestion for contractions. Good times....

Here are some pictures of the baby's room. It's finally finished so all that's left to need is the baby. Kind of funny that we do that, right?? I've thought about that quite a bit actually, as I'm putting together a family Christmas picture wardrobe and as I bought Christmas pajamas for "the kids." Kinda weird having all that stuff ready for someone who isn't even here yet. Oh well, back to the pictures:

Peace....

Ponderings and an Update

Random question: The baby has been head down for the past 7 weeks. Why doesn't all the blood rush to his head like it would ours if we hung upside down? I'm sure it has something to do with the fluid, but the blood still rushes to my head when I do a hand-stand in the swimming pool....

So, I just have 6 more days of work before I start my maternity leave. I usually add, "...unless the baby comes early." However, I've decided to drop that phrase because I'm convinced that I just don't have early babies. Now, granted I'm still 2 weeks out so anything could happen. But, I'm pretty sure it won't. I'll go on maternity leave, sit around my house wondering about every ache and pain, but nothing will happen. At least I feel okay. :-) I have a ton of things to get done at work, but I'm just trying to take one day at a time and recognize that there will be lots that WON'T get done. If only I had the personality to be at peace with that....

The dr. said yesterday that I'm dilated to a 1. That's not much, but it's something! However, the flip side is that I'm 0% effaced which, come to find out, is what really gets things going in terms of labor. So, since this is my second baby, she basically said that that 1 cm of dilation could have been in effect for the last month or even two. Basically, I got nothin folks!!

I do feel like I'm at least trying to make progress in some areas that were previously stressing me out. I've paid my last payment to the hospital (that is until afterward when you get MORE bills), I got the necessary groceries to make and freeze a few casseroles, I at least got out a bag to pack even if there's only underwear and pajamas in there right now, and I scrapbooked ONE page in the baby's scrapbook. Tonight, I have to get back up in the attic to find something I forgot about and desperately need (I'll just stop there for any males reading this), and I aim to scrapbook another page. If I get those 2 things done, I think I can sleep tonight. Tomorrow, I'll deal with the fact that we still desperately need a dresser for the nursery. I can't stand the fact that the room is a mess because I have non-hanging clothes folded everywhere just waiting for a home.

Peace....

Baby Shower

Last Saturday was my baby shower. As I mentioned way back in an early post, I was a little uptight about the whole shower business with a second baby. But, I knew folks at work would want to throw me one and many of those people weren't around when Bailey was born, so I came to peace with it. Then, my MIL wanted to throw me one, as well. I eventually just decided that it was best to combine work/private and just have one shower. I was thinking that, if done separately, each would have had only a handful of attendees.

My estimate was a bit wrong, as we had about 25 people on Saturday. And, I just finished writing a total of 42 thank you notes. It was great! I then spent ALL of Sunday washing clothes, getting things out of the attic, putting other things IN the attic, etc. I officially feel like I can have a baby now.

Here are some pre-shower pics of Bailey and her cousin Lauren.

This is Bailey and Lauren playing in the mini-bouncer my boss gave to Bailey last Christmas. We've actually never hooked up with her to get it, so she debuted the present at the shower. It worked out GREAT because the kids pretty much played outside for 75% of the shower. Bailey did get to open a few of my gifts (and several people brought for HER, which was nice) and ooh and aah over the loot for "my baby" as she likes to say. But, she got bored after awhile, so this diversion was perfect.

Bailey and Lauren (who lives in Houston) played together really well this trip. Lauren has started talking more so Bailey feels like she can interact with her as a peer now, rather than as a "baby" that she has to nurture. Of course, that also brings with it the battles over toys and a lot of the word "MINE!"

Yes, they were being silly and wouldn't close their mouths for this pic.

Here are some pics from the actual shower:

The obligatory food table shot. The cake spelled NOLAN around the top (which will be his name, if you didn't know). And, there were cute train cookies because his room has a locomotive theme.

Is it weird that, when I first walked into the house and saw this I thought, "No it isn't....oh, I guess it is!" I'm still not used to this whole BOY thing. :-)

They gave me the top of the cake with the bow....I got a little sick trying to eat that big of a piece. But, I gave it the old college try, nonetheless! Hey, if I don't eat a huge chunk of cake now, I'll never be able to....since, here in a few weeks it will be back to my old eating habits (boooo!).

Thank you to Rachel and Ilena for helping Jeanne with the shower!! You guys are great friends and I'm lucky to have you.

Jason and I tried to pose for a picture later that night - it's a little close, but I guess not toooooo bad!