One Month!

I cannot believe my baby girl is already one month old!!!  It is already going by so fast!!  She is still doing great!  She is dealing with reflux, which Bo had as well.  The difference in trying to figure it all out on my end is Bo was on formula and Charlee is breastfeeding.  HUGE difference I’m learning, especially when it comes to the reflux.  Then on top of that she and I were both diagnosed with thrush last week.  What a challenge that has been.  We are both on medicine…hers 4 times a day and it is such a challenge because she is constantly spitting it out.  The rest of my day is spent pumping, washing & sterilizing anything and everything that enters her mouth, washing my clothes every night in hot water.  I also have to use a new bath towel every time I shower and wash all of my stuff separately because apparently it can spread even in the wash.  I am hoping it clears up quickly, but I’ve been told it is very hard to get rid of because it is so contagious.  I don’t want to have to stop breastfeeding, but I also can’t keep this up for months either.  So we’ll see! 

Here are a few pictures my uncle took this weekend of the kids!!  Charlotte is wearing one of my old dresses and a pink diaper shirt of mine.  They haven’t been edited at all, we still need to brighten, crop, etc some of them but they are still super sweet!

   

 

 

 

  

Charlotte Elizabeth

I had a few minutes so I thought I’d try and get some pictures up.  All in all life with two is wonderful…challenging at times, but still wonderful!  A huge thank you to my parents who kept Bo while we were at the hospital.  Bo was a little unsure at first, but he has very quickly warmed up to his little sister and he loves to help out!  Another HUGE thank you to my mom.  She was here for two weeks and I have NO idea what we would have done without her.  She cooked, cleaned, did about a thousands loads of laundry, would keep both kids so I could take a nap, she was amazing!!!  I don’t know where her energy comes from.  She even stayed up one night til 2:00 in the morning so Jarrod and I could get to sleep.  She was willing to stay up longer, but I came downstairs and made her go to bed.  Jarrod was trying to talk her into moving in, but I don’t think my dad would have gone for that!!  When she left I cried and cried, no matter how old you get you still want your mama!!!  We have all adjusted pretty well.  Having another c-section was a little scary knowing I was going to have a 3 year old to chase after, but for the most part is hasn’t been bad.  I think my first one was harder.  I still have some soreness when trying to lift something heavy or sitting up straight for a very long time, but it’s getting better. 

     Kissing Bo goodbye before we left!

Friends and Family in the waiting room.

Waiting to see if he had a brother or a sister!

In the operating room minutes after being born.

Meeting my little girl!

Daddy making the big announcement!

 

Bo even had his buddy James there.

 

            

   

It’s a GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!

So it’s only taken me 3 weeks to introduce our newest addition, guess this is an indicator of life with two kids.  We would like to formally introduce you to…

Charlotte Elizabeth Lawson

Born May 19, 2011

9:43am

7lbs 5 oz, 19.5 in

On Monday the 16th, Jarrod and I went in to meet with my primary OB to see how things were going with my blood pressure.  At that time my pressures were high, not high enough to deliver, but not low enough to come off of bedrest.  As I was sitting there listening to the doctor talk about another week of bed rest I was just nodding my head and doing everything I could to fight back tears.  Well that didn’t go so well…after about 5 minutes I lost it and burst into tears.  I kept apologizing and just saying how hard it was with a 3 year old who didn’t understand why he was being shuffled here, there, and everywhere and a husband who was needing to work and was using all of his time off while I was on bed rest.  At that point Dr. Arona said…Okay we’ll do it this Thursday!  I laughed and told her if I knew all it took was crying I would have done that two weeks ago!

So I left the dr’s office a very happy girl!  Jarrod and I decided to go grab lunch and have some time to ourselves to talk about everything before calling any friends or family.  It was nice just to have that time to talk about what all was about to happen and change.  Then it was time to start calling grandparents and friends.  Everyone was so excited!  Both sets of grandparents came in Wednesday afternoon, we had dinner with everyone and then headed to bed to try and get some sleep before the big day.  Thursday morning we got up and headed to the hospital, we had to be there at 8:00.  We kissed Bo goodbye, while my parents stayed to get him ready and everyone met at the hospital at 9:30, which is when I was scheduled for my section. 

This time was so different…with Bo I had been in the hospital for a month, we were both just tired and exhausted so there was excitement, but there was more of the feeling of let’s just get this over with so we can get back to normal.  This time we drove to the hospital talking about what was about to happen.  Jarrod was with me the entire time right up to walking in the operating room.  There wasn’t any stress or exhaustion it was so wonderful!  The not so wonderful part was it took them 4 different tries to get my spinal/epidural in.  I actually had both a spinal and an epidural. The do the additional epidural to help administer pain meds after the section.  That was extremely painful, but luckily they were able to get it to take.  Next they brought Jarrod in and he was with me the entire time.  When I first got into the operating room the nurses started asking what we were having and when I told them we didn’t know you would have thought they were kids on Christmas day, they got so excited!  They said no one ever waits and they were as excited as Jarrod and I were.  We had already asked my doctor if Jarrod could be the one to announce the baby and she thought that was great. So once they started to get baby ready to come out they told daddy to stand up.  I realize it was probably just a few seconds but it felt like he was standing there for 5 minutes before saying anything.  Next thing I know I hear “We have a Charlotte”!!!!  Everyone started screaming and all I could say was “I can’t believe it’s a girl”!!!!!!!!!!!  Next I heard the sweetest thing I think I’ll ever hear…Jarrod said “I got my girl”!!!  That absolutely warmed my heart!  She is just perfect!  The first thing out of my mouth when I first saw her was “she looks just like Bo”!!  I’m not kidding either!!!  I had told my friends and family that just from the ultrasounds I could tell this baby looked just like Bo did and sure enough I was right.  It’s scary how much they look alike as newborns.  It’s going to be so interesting to see how she starts to change as her features begin to develop more.

It was the most wonderful experience I could have ever imagined.  While they were finishing up with me and Jarrod was over with baby Charlotte, everyone was asking if it was worth the wait.  And my response was absolutely!!  I told Dr Arona she should tell all of her patients to wait.  There is absolutely nothing in this world that will ever come close to that moment.  After they were done with me, I headed over to recovery with Charlotte while Jarrod went out to tell our friends and family.  One of my good friends recorded that moment, which I can’t even begin to thank her enough.  That is a moment I would have never known and will never get back so to have it on video is absolutely priceless.  Getting to see my family’s reaction was the best thing in the entire world!  Oh and apparently Jarrod took up a new occupation that day according to Bo, you’ll have to watch the video!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

This post is already long enough so I will put up some pictures in a separate post.  We are loving life with our precious little girl!!!

Spring Program

Last night was Bo’s spring program at school.  I was so excited to get the okay to go.  Quick update…not much has changed as far as I’m concerned.  Went to the doctor yesterday and basically I am teetering that line…symptoms aren’t bad enough to deliver, but not good enough to get off of bed rest.  And of course he wouldn’t give me any sort of light at the end of the tunnel.  The dr. did say he still didn’t expect me to make it to the end of May.  That’s all he’d give me.  I didn’t know if I wanted to cry or knock him out!  So we go back Monday and I will see my primary OB and see what she has to say, maybe she’ll have some mercy on me!!!

The positive about yesterday’s appointment was I did get the okay to go see Bo’s program.  I was so excited!!!  I was told I could go, sit, and go straight home.  That’s exactly what we did.  Luckily his class went first so as soon as they finished we were able to get him and get back home.  We have some video but I have to figure out how the camera works.  We just got a new camera so hopefully I can get a clip up soon!  Until then here are a few pictures!!!!

    Waiting with daddy!

Best Friends…Bo & James!

 

    He was actually pointing out that he saw his daddy, who was standing in front of me with the video camera!  He was so excited, of course he didn’t say a word about mommy!

    

I had to take this picture…He was so tired from a busy day and had not rested at all

 

 

Here We Go Again…

Okay so it’s not quite as glamorous as the picture above, but that’s all I could find!!  Monday afternoon I was officially put on bed rest thanks to elevated blood pressure and protein in my urine!  Let me back up…this weekend I was pretty sick with a horrible sinus infection.  Saturday afternoon I made a trip to I guess what you’d consider an after hours type clinic in total desperation of an antibiotic.  When I got there the doctor noticed my blood pressure was a little high.  I let her know I had, had pre-eclampsia with my first pregnancy and at that point she asked if I had a monitor at home, which we do, and she said to monitor it every few hours.  Finally Saturday night we noticed it wasn’t going down at all even with me resting so I called my OB office and of course they made me come in.  Which as I’ve said before, is no easy task when you have a little one asleep and it’s 10:30 at night.  Why these things can’t happen at like 3:00pm is beyond me! 

It was a little deja vu-ish as we knew exactly what was going to happen because after going through this with Bo for over a month you quickly learn the vicious cycle!  We went in, I got hooked up, after laying down, my blood pressure eventually went down and I got sent home!  They did find some protein in my urine, which is another indicator of pre-eclampsia so they sent me home with a a 24 hr urine test and told me to come in for my regular appointment on Monday.  So Monday morning I made arrangements for Janice to pick up Bo from school, just in case I were to get sent over to labor and delivery to be monitored again (can you tell we know the drill)?  So it’s appointment time and to be honest my blood pressure wasn’t that extremely high, however I had, had a pretty high reading at home that I felt I needed to tell her about so between that and the protein they sent me over.  My pressures did go down after being there for a few hours but the doctor was waiting to see what my protein level was in my 24 hr urine test before sending me home.  If it had been too high, we would have had a baby that day!!  Jarrod met me at the hospital and I was eventually able to go home on bed rest. 

I go back in tomorrow morning to be checked again and have an ultrasound, I’m assuming to check baby’s growth.  Now the big question is how long are they going to make me wait this one out?  I’ll be 37 weeks tomorrow, which is exactly when they took Bo.  Of course I have very conservative doctors, which in my head I know is good, but I wish you could have heard me trying to convince him that Bo was healthy as a horse at 37 weeks!!!  He wouldn’t give me a definite…”we won’t let you go past this point”.  Which if you know me, is exactly what I was looking for!!!!  He said he didn’t think I’d go to the end of May and if he had to guess it would be next week sometime. He did say if I were dilated they’d go on and deliver…no such luck! 

Along with just being done with being pregnant, it’s so much more challenging this time around having Bo.  Jarrod is working from home, but he can’t do that for weeks!  I can say I have had SO many friends and family offer to help.  We have people lined up to take Bo so Jarrod can go with me to my appointments, others have brought food, Janice is taking Bo to and from school on MWF,  my aunt and uncle may take Bo this weekend…it’s really made me realize how lucky we are and how many amazing friends I have!  At this point I want to get past tomorrow and see what the doctors say…we may have to re-evaluate our plan if it’s going to be much longer.  I can say that Bo is having a blast getting to spend all of this time with his friends.  I’m sure if it were up to him mommy could stay in bed forever!  For example tomorrow when Jarrod and I are at the doctor my friend Jasmin is going to keep Bo.  Her little girl Callie is one of Bo’s favorite people in the entire world!!  They are going to set up the baby pool, play outside and make ice cream!  I mean really???  Why would he ever want to come home!  I’ll be sure to update once we know more.  Please just pray for a healthy baby, healthy mommy, and a delivery sooner rather than later!!!!!!

I Won’t Let Go

I heard this song, I Won’t Let Go by Rascal Flats, on the radio this morning and all I could think was how the is the best promise that I could ever make to Jarrod, Bo, and peanut.  Life is hard and it’s important to know we all have someone who feels this way. It’s such a beautiful song!

 

Rooms!

So I can now say that Bo’s room is 99% done!  All I have left to do is get two photos printed to put in picture frames.  I have one of him dressed as a fireman and another of him and my brother at the fire station so those are what I’m planning on using.  I love how it turned out and honestly it’s cuter in person!  He is so proud of his big boy room!!

We also moved some more furniture into baby’s room and hung drapes this weekend.  I’m still trying to figure out a few things because our secondary bedrooms are very small so I’m trying to figure out space and lighting…need to add a lamp next to the rocker which then becomes the question of floor lamp, table with small lamp, will that be too crowded, does the book case stay or go, so on and so on…don’t you know Jarrod just LOVED that conversation yesterday of trying to decide on things!!!  Again, thank God for a patient husband because I know I drive him nuts, even more so right now because I am so indecisive, which is clearly pregnancy related because I am normally one who can instantly say yes/no on something.  So I’d say baby’s room is mostly done, still waiting on baby to decorate!  Oh and if you’re counting…25 DAYS LEFT!!!!!!

 

   

 

 

 

     

This is his little reading nook. 

I bought a basket and these are all books that are okay for him to have whenever he wants.  The only thing here left to order (eventually) is a magazine/book rack to put up on the wall behind him.  They have them at Pottery Barn and they are super cute, but right now I can’t think about one more thing!  Oh you can also see here where I replaced the knobs on his closet, just thought the red was really cute and added a little something!

These are actual ads from an old magazine.  They date back to the 1950’s

And here is a glimpse into baby’s room…