Evan Wesley's Birth Story

Short version: Evan Wesley was born Thursday, January 8, 2015 at 9:26am via repeat c-section, weighting 8lbs 13oz and 21in long. 

Long version: KJ and I arrived at the hospital at 5am Thursday morning. They got me admitted and in a bed to prep me for the c/s. When the nurse hooked me up to the monitor she asked of I was feeling the any of the contractions I was having. Honestly I wasn't! I had been getting a crampy AF feeling on and off for the two days prior, and figured it might be the very beginning stage of labor. Sometimes I would get a BH along with it, but since it didn't hurt I didn't think it was the real thing. Apparently it was! 

As I sat and waited for my c/s the contractions did start to get more uncomfortable and painful. By the time we were ready to go in they were 4 minuets apart. I'm pretty sure we would have been having a baby that day even with out the c/s! 

I had to wait much longer than anticipated for my c/s. We were supposed to start at 7am, but my doctor was late getting there. By the time he arrived we lost the anesthesiologist and had to wait for his next opening, which was 9am. So all the while I sat in an uncomfortable hospital bed, having real contractions, with a catheter in that hurt, in an insanely hot room. I got so warm at one point that DH opened the window for me. It was 15 degrees out and snowing, and felt great!

But once we actually got started, things went very smoothly. Evan Wesley was born at 9:26am weighing 8lbs 13oz and 21in long. He has strawberry blond hair, which was a bit of a surprise! Recovery has been up and down. The first day I felt like I had a major hang over. I was tired from getting up at 4am, dizzy all day from the meds (I couldn't see or think straight), and nauseous from the meds (I couldn't keep anything down). I did feel good enough to get out of bed and stand for a few minuets at the end of the day, though. Day two I felt much better. I had great pain killers, so no pain from the c/s. I did develop major swelling in my legs, though. I had compression stockings on my calves, but as soon as they came off my legs just ballooned. If you had looked at me from the thighs down you would have thought I weighted 500lbs! It was ridiculous! It was harder to move around because of my elephant legs than it was because of my c/s. Thankfully they have since started to deflate. I'm a week out now and they are pretty much back to normal. Other than that, I've been feeling good. My incision was sore for a few days, but I'm really feeling good now. 

Breastfeeding went really well the first day, Evan's a total natural. On day two he developed his super suck, though, and OMG it hurt!! My nipples quickly got very sore, and were cracked and bleeding. That's been something we've really had to work through. On day three my milk still hadn't come in and all he wanted to do was eat. He got very frustrated each time because he wasn't getting a lot, which made him suck even harder. Ouch!! But on day four my milk came in and things have improved a lot. Even though I'm completely engorged, he's much more satisfied. When he's happy, I'm happy. 

Lexi adores her baby brother! She's always wanting to help hold him or hug and kiss him. It warms my heart to see how much she has accepted him into our family and how excited she's been to meet him. I forgot how tiny new borns are! It's amazing that she started out that small and is now such a big girl! 

I'm just so happy our little boy is finally here and in my arms! 

Evan and proud big sister Lexi!

Mr Bright Eyes

Going home outfit

Momma and Evan

Big sister, Daddy, and Evan

Home at last

Finally home and comfy

Lots of Love, 

KJsbabe

My Boy is Here!

Introducing Evan Wesley Jackson! He was born at 9:26 this morning. He's 8lbs 13oz and 21in long. He has strawberry blond hair and is pretty perfect. He has KJ's nose and looks a lot like his big sister. 

It's so nice to finally have him here! Our little family of four is complete <3

Lots of Love, 

KJsbabe

Joanna Rose

Today I am heartbroken. A very dear friend of mine lost her baby over the weekend. She was 26w and had just had an app last Monday. Her baby seemed to be healthy and growing then. The last time she felt the baby kick was Christmas morning so she went to the ER to get checked out on Saturday. She texted me Sunday morning to tell me the sad news. 

I'm just so heartbroken for my friend. This is the same friend who had a miscarriage in April right before I got pregnant. She got pregnant again in July and everything seemed to be going well. She had good betas and a great early ultrasound. The baby was growing right on track... And now they're not. Just like that, her baby is gone. This is so unfair. 

My dear sweet friend is the best person I know. She is sweet, loving, kind, and generous. She loves The Lord with all of her heart. How could He let this happen to her? She's always wanted to be a mom. Even as kids growing up, she always loved babies (even when they grossed me out) and would talk about having a whole bunch of them when she grew up. She was meant to be a mother. She is the last person on Earth that this should have happened to. 

Joanna Rose was born sleeping at 8:07 tonight. Rest in peace, sweet girl.

Photo by Carlie Marie The Seashore of Remembrance

Lots of Love,

KJsbabe

8 Months - 32 Weeks!

Another month down! We are getting there! 

Ugh, not that I've had a lot of energy to begin with the entire pregnancy, but third tri fatigue has hit me hard. I'm so freaking tired all the time. More than once I've fallen asleep on the couch while Lexi watched Frozen. She's such a sweet girl. She puts a blanket on me, whispers "night-night mommy", and kisses me on the cheek. 

30 weeks

Another awesome thing I've been dealing with is being insanely warm all the time. It's 20 degrees outside and I'm wearing a tank top! Mornings are the worst. I get out of the shower, get dressed, and I can't cool off for the life of me. I usually have to stand out side for a minuet to feel better. I also can't drink hot tea, coffee, or hot chocolate because it makes me too hot. For once I've been really grateful for the cold weather!

The third tri aches and pains have set in. My belly gets sore a lot. It's uncomfortable to lay, sit, stand, everything. I'm so, so grateful for this healthy baby boy, but I'm looking forward to being done. Truthfully, I'm looking forward to be done with TTC, trying to stay pregnant, and the aches and pains of pregnancy. I'm looking forward to completing our family. I'm looking forward to closing this chapter of my life and moving on and just enjoying our little family of four. 

My apps have been going well. I'm going every two weeks now. Nothing really exciting to report. Baby boy seems to be doing well. I haven't been doing actual kick counts, but he moves a lot throughout the day. Some days are slower than others, but I always feel him here and there. My only concern is that at my past couple apps his heart rate has been around 130. I feel like that's low. Lexi always stayed around 150. On my Doppler at home some days he's 130 and other he's 150.

32 week comparison - Lexi in pink and baby boy in blue

How far along? 32 weeks

Total weight gain: 28lbs... I don't want to talk about it...

Maternity clothes? Yes. I still hate my pants. And now my favorite yoga pants are getting tight...

Stretch marks? Nope

Sleep: Most nights are ok, but I'm still dealing with the once or twice a week insomnia. Either I can't fall asleep to begin with, or I wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep.

Best moment this month: Feeling lots of movement. Baby boy is definitely a mover!

Miss Anything? Not having heartburn every night.

Movement: Most days he moves a lot, but every couple days he'll have a quiet day and it'll freak me out.

Food cravings: Fruit and yogurt Special K cereal

Anything making you queasy or sick: Not really

Gender prediction: Still boy :)

Labor Signs: none

Symptoms: heart burn, swelling, 

Belly Button in or out? Out. Way, way out.

Wedding rings on or off? Off. I made it to 31weeks and then my fingers started to swell a lot. They're just not comfortable any more. I broke out my fake ring I wore last time, but it turns my finger green.

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy, but tired

Looking forward to:  Being done

Next app: November 21 and December 1

Lots of Love,

KJsbabe

Adventures In Potty Training - Round 1

I'm doing the "Oh Crap" potty training method with Lexi

Day 1 10/13

It's the end of day one and I'm exhausted. Lexi peed 10 times today. One was a complete miss because she ran away from me, two were completely in the potty because I made her sit, and seven were caught mid stream and most of it got in the potty. She likes to help me dump her pee in the big potty and flush. Then we wave and say "bye bye pee pee!". She didn't like the couple times I told her to sit on the potty. She got mad and said "no I not sit on the potty at all!" She is a crotch grabber. 8 out of 10 times she peed today she grabbed herself and then peed any where from a couple seconds to a few minuets later. She did good at nap time, no peeing. I put her to bed without a diaper. She peed about an hour before bed, but didn't right before. She was willing to sit on the potty (improvement from earlier in the day) and sat for about 10 mins and didn't pee. I'm going to try to have her go around 10:30... If I can stay up for another hour. I'm seriously so tired. No poop today.

I couldn't find a potty chart that I liked, so I made one up myself with her favorite characters. She gets a sticker every time she gets some pee in the potty, sits on the potty, or helps her toys "go to the potty"

Day 2 10/14

Last night Lexi peed somewhere between 12 and 3. I tried to have her go at 12 and she didn't. I checked her at 3 and she was wet (changed just her pants, not the sheets). She had almost dried by 7 when she got up for the day, so she only peed the one time. I'm going to have her try at 1 tonight. 

I wish I saw some definitive progress today, but it was pretty much the same if not worse than yesterday. We started off the day with a 99% miss. I waited and waited for her to pee, finally I had to pee myself. So we went up stairs, I peed, then sat her on the big potty with her Ariel seat. She sat for a minuet and then said "I want off!! I all done!" So I let her off. She ran into mine and KJ's bedroom and peed yelling "I leaking mommy!" I ran and tried to get her back to the potty, but all that really happened was we just spread the pee everywhere. She did poop on the potty this morning, one tiny nugget. She was really proud of making poo poo in the potty. She finally did really poop in the afternoon, but it ended up on the floor. She had just peed, we flushed it, and then I thought I would have a couple minuets to start some laundry (bed sheets from last night). When I came back up stairs she ran to me and said "mommy! My big poo poo fell on the floor!" I was huge, poor girl! Lol I had her help me clean it up and flush it. While I was finishing up she pooped again. "Mommy, I have another tiny poo poo!" Well, at least she's getting used to not pooping in a diaper. 

She peed eight times today, two complete misses, two completely in the potty, and four mid streams. She was willing to sit on the potty when I told her to, which is an improvement from yesterday. I know was over prompting her, though. She kept faking me out by itching herself. I need to get better about reading her signs. I tried to take her outside to play because it was beautiful out today. She had peed not long before, so I put pants on her (commando), and we went out. Not five minuets later she peed her pants. One step forward, one steep back. I'm feeling discouraged. I don't know if we're ever going to get out of "block one".

Day 3 10/15

Day three did not go well. In fact momma's pregnancy hormones took over and I cried most of the day. Not good. I posted on a mommy's group I'm in. A lot of the moms have already gone though PT or are training now. It went a little something like this: 

Day 3 of potty training (ocpt) and I'm so, so discouraged. I feel like we've made zero progress. I've done nothing but stare at her, play with her, and follow her around the house with the potty for the past 3 days and I'm still only catching pees mid stream. I've missed a couple completely. She never gives the same signal twice. One time she'll grab herself, the next she'll run away from me, the next she'll look down as she starts to pee. I truly suck at this. I feel so bad because it's not her, it's me. She's willing to sit on the potty when I tell her and she's excited when she gets some in the potty. I'm a mess, though. I actually cried twice today when I didn't catch her in time she 90% of the pee went on the floor. I'm sure that's sending her the worst message ever, "peeing on the potty makes mommy cry". I just can't keep it together. :(

The general consensus is that she's just not ready. I really thought she was because she's been showing a lot of the readiness signs. But most everyone said that it shouldn't be this hard. She should be catching on more by now. If she's not getting it, she's just not getting. She's still on the young side and there are a lot of changes on the horizon. If I'm getting stressed out to the point of tears I'm not going to be an effective teacher. 

I hate to just up and put her back in diapers, though. We've been focusing so much on potty things and I don't want to confuse her. I also really hate to give up after all the work we've done in the last three days. I think we're going to try pull ups for a while and just take it one dat at a time. 

Day 4 10/16

Well today was much less stressful. We still worked on potty things, but it was much less pressure. Lexi and I even ventured out of the house in a pull up! First time we've been out of the house since Sunday! No real improvements today. I tried putting her in underwear and pants to play in the back yard and told her to keep Elsa clean and dry (Frozen undies), just to see what happened. She pooped, and now she keeps saying "I pooped on Elsa". I guess I won't do that again. I don't want her to get into the habit of going in her undies. 

Day 7 10/20

Well, I guess I didn't realize pull ups would be so much like diapers. When Lexi wears them she treats them just like a diaper. She still tells me when she starts peeing, which I guess is a good sign, but they aren't really helping us a long by any means. I put her back in a regular pocket diaper today and she wasn't phased at all.  *sigh* I guess attempt #1 is over. I'm bummed. I might try again in a month, or just wait until after baby boy is here.

Lots of Love,
KJsbabe

Hello Third Tri! 28 Weeks

Woo hoo! Hello third tri! 12 weeks to go! 

We're getting there! Sometimes it seems like the pregnancy is flying by, and sometimes it feels like I'm right where I should be. 

Well, I made it running as far as 25 weeks. Not quite my goal, but considering I didn't run at all with Lexi, it's better than nothing. I wanted to make it to 30 weeks, or until the weather got too bad, but truthfully I just couldn't hack it any more. Lexi and I would go to the park in the mornings, I would make it though my run (I cut back to 3.2), Lexi would play for a while at the play ground, we'd go home for lunch, and then I would completely crash. I got to the point where I was too tired to even function. I had no energy to play with Lexi, or make dinner, or really do anything more than sit on the couch. This baby loves to suck my energy! I also was getting really bad stitches under my belly every time I ran. Normally I only get them once in a blue moon. I usually clench my abs and they go away in a couple minuets, but my "abs" disappeared around 12 week, so it didn't really help any more. So, I had to quit running for now. Don't worry, I'll be back at it as soon as I'm cleared to exercise again after my c-section. 

My belly button is officially an outie. 26 weeks and there it is! Yikes! It never popped with Lexi. I don't know why it popped this time and so early. 

Another fun thing I've been dealing lately are hot flashes and dizzy spells. I've had three of them in the past month. Once in the morning before I ate breakfast, once in the middle of the night, and once in the morning while eating breakfast. Each time I got really, really warm, the time at night I woke up sweating. I got dizzy, my eyes went fuzzy, and I was nauseous. Really, really fun. I talked to my doctor about it at my 26w4d app. He said it sounds like low blood sugar. So to prevent it I'm supposed to have snacks throughout the day, especially right before bed and first thing in the morning.  

Also at my 26w4d app, my belly was measuring big at 28w, so my doctor had me go for an u/s. I hadn't seen baby boy since our a/s, so it was nice to see his face again :) And he's still a boy :) The tech said "yup, I see some boy stuff down there." He was measuring ahead at  27w5d. Lexi always measured right on, so I think he's going to be a bigger baby than she was. KJ thinks he's going to come early on his own since he's so far ahead. We'll see, I guess!

I also did my GTT at 26w and passed :) We are also in double digit days to go! 

How far along? 28 weeks

Total weight gain: 24lbs... Again I don't even want to talk about it... Since I stopped running I'm still eating like normal, but I'm obviously not burning the calories I was. I lost the weight before, I will do it again. 

Maternity clothes? Yes. Tops and bottoms. My yoga pants are getting tight :(

Stretch marks? Nope

Sleep: Ok. At least once a week I wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep. I'm either hungry, or baby boy is kicking the crap out of me, or I just can't get comfortable. FYI There's nothing on tv at 4am. 

Best moment this month: Getting to see baby boy again on the u/s :)

Miss Anything? Being able to wear my cute jeans.

Movement: Tons! Oh man this boy is active! Anterior placenta?? What's that??

Food cravings: cinnamon toast crunch, pumpkin spice decaf coffee

Anything making you queasy or sick: Lots of heart burn already. Anything the tiniest bit greasy or spicy and I'm popping tums all night. 

Gender prediction: Still boy :)

Labor Signs: none

Symptoms: Heartburn, fatigue

Belly Button in or out? Out! Yikes!

Wedding rings on or off? On, but getting tighter.

Happy or Moody most of the time: Tired, but happy.

Looking forward to: Getting bigger, because that means baby boy is getting bigger, which means he'll be here soon! 

Next app: Oct 20, I'm at every two weeks now! 

Lots of Love,

KJsbabe

Lexi-Pie - My Little Toddler

I'm going to start doing quarterly updates on Lexi. Since she's getting older she's not hitting a new milestone every month like when she was a baby. We're in toddler land now! 

Summer obsession: bubbles... seriously, this kid wants to blow bubbles for freaking hours...

 

Helping unload the dishwasher
 

So, since Lexi turned two in June she has been a busy little girl (not a big girl because as she says, "I still little"). We've been going to the park a lot to jog and play. Social situations have actually taken a huge step back this summer. She had been doing pretty well, still shy, but she was ok with being around and playing with other kids. But then we had a couple play ground incidents where some random little kid ran up to Lexi and screamed in her face for no reason. It happened once with KJ and once with me. I seriously hate other kids sometimes. When it happened with me it scared her so badly the poor girl just clung to me for dear life and balled her eyes out. Since then she's literally been terrified when she sees another kid at the play ground. I think she expects every kid to be scary now like those two little a-holes were. I've talked to her so many times about how it's ok to be nervous, but that most kids are really nice. And that I know she got scared, but mommy and daddy were there and she always safe with us. I feel so bad for her and I really don't know what to do. I know avoiding social situations is not going to make it better, but it's always such a disaster when we go out and try to play. She's fine with adults and older kids, but with kids her age or size she just looses it. It make me sad. :(

A new love: parades! She loves, loves parades and asks to go to one at least once a week!

Running beside the stroller because she wants to "run like mommy does" :D Love that!!

For her birthday Lexi got the movie Frozen... We are officially Frozen obsessed! She seriously can't get enough of this movie. She "sings" all the songs and acts out different parts. She loves to knock on the door and does the whole "do you want to build a snowman" bit. It's freaking adorable!! I got her a set of plush Anna and Elsa dolls and she's in love with them. They sleep with her every night. When we play she's always Anna and I'm Elsa.

Looking at herself in the mirror with her Anna doll

For Lexi's Halloween costume, I asked her a bunch of times what she wanted to dress up as. I didn't want her to say one thing, I make her costume, and then have her decide she wanted to be something else. So first she wanted to be Daniel, then Katerina, then she finally settled on Anna. I really like how her costume turned out! I spent about $13 on the material and trim, so less than it would have been to buy one, and this way when every other girl is dressed up like Anna or Elsa she'll look a little different. :) 

First French braids!

She's really gotten into playing dress up in the past couple weeks. She has a Tinkerbelle shirt and I got her a green tutu to wear with it, so she says she looks like Tink. She also loves her Ariel shirts. I found one at a yard sale that she calls her sparkle Ariel shirt and asks to wear it just about every day. That was $2 well spent! 

The Tinkerbelle outfit


My little tree hugger in her sparkle Ariel shirt. This shirt gets a lot of wear!

Lexi continues to love books. I've read some to her so many times that she has them memorized. She'll sit and "read" them to herself now and recite them pretty close to word for word! I love that she loves to read. I'm really trying to nurture that love so it continues when she gets into school. (Not this year, probably next fall we'll start her in preschool a couple days a week)

Lexi got this doll house for her 1st birthday, but only really started playing with it recently. She loves it now!

Other things, she learned how to pick her nose shortly after her birthday. So, now I'm constantly saying "don't pick your nose" and "get your finger out of your nose". She's a little parrot and repeats pretty much everything I say. Her favorite phrase right now is "don't worry, I promise". She also imitates Daniel Tiger a lot. She pretends to be mad and grrr, or wants to "twirl like Katareina does", or wants to rub noses and say "ugga mugga". She's working on dressing and undressing herself. She can take her jacket and shoes off, sort of pull her pants up, and put her shirt on and off. 

We're heading towards potty training. Lexi is starting to show a lot of the readiness signs, so I think it's time we get more serious about it. Right now we talk a lot about using the potty and practice when she asks to. We have a couple potty books. Princess of the Potty is a good one. It explains step by step how to use the potty, which some of the other books just kind of glaze over it, which isn't terribly helpful. She has yet to actually pee on the potty and doesn't always want to sit on it when I suggest it. So, I'm reading up about it and trying to come up with a game plan. The more I think about it the more I think it will be easier to PT before baby boy comes and deal with possible regression, than to wait and PT after he gets here.

Singing "The Elsa song" (Let it Go) on her "stage" with her "microphone" (the top of my turkey baster lol)


Lexi has been asking for weeks to go to the zoo (thanks DT!) so we all went to the Pittsburgh Zoo on mine and KJ's anniversary. The carousel was the highlight of the trip!


A very tired momma and a happy Lexi :)
 

Lexi is bigger than a 3 month old rhinoceros! 
 

Lots of Love,
KJsbabe