Baby's first 2 weeks

Checking on her baby sister

On February 12th, we could not wait to get home. There was a sign posted in our hospital room that read: on your day of departure, please be ready to vacate room by 10AM. We were more than ready, and when our nurse popped by a little before 10, we mentioned to her that we wanted to leave, and asked about any documents we needed. She advised us that the pediatrician on call did not want the newborns departing before 36 hours of life, so we would have to sign a discharge waiver, or wait 3 more hours. No problem, where do we sign? There was something about being disturbed every 2 hours for 30 straight hours that we found disconcerting. Whether it was for a vital sign check or an overhead announcement, we were exhausted, and could not stay a moment longer!

First 2 weeks in numbers:
Average dirty diapers changed per day:10
Average amount of time spent nursing per day: 8 hours
Average amount of sleep Baby #2 had per day: 16 hours
Average amount of sleep Baby #2 had in a row: 1.8 hours
Average amount of nights Baby # 1 slept through the night since her sister's arrival: 0

No wonder we are exhausted!

First 2 weeks in pictures:

First photo taken of Baby #2

Wish I had her life!

Nursing her doll

Regressing...

Baby # 2's Arrival

Baby # 1 holds Baby # 2 for the first time

Baby #1's last day as an only child was February 10th 2012. The day did not go quite as I had imagined it would. Earlier in the week, both my husband and Baby #1 had developed gastroenteritis. By Thursday February 9th, they were both feeling better. Right before going to sleep that night, I turned to my husband, and mentioned that I was relieved (mostly for Baby #2's sake) that I had not gotten sick.

Sometimes it is best not to say certain things. For at 3AM on February 10th, only a few hours after I spoke those words to my husband, I woke up, ran to the bathroom, and as my father would say "tossed my cookies". Several times. Then again a little later on in the day. I remember at this point hoping that Baby #2 would stay in my uterus a little while longer. Luckily, my mother was over on Friday to play with Baby #1. She left shortly after 14h, once the Baby had fallen asleep (napping was a rare event recently, but she was still recovering from her gastroenteritis). Even though I was feeling a little nauseous at this point, I thought I would also nap…and that my husband would be back from work soon enough. As it happened, Baby #1 decided that she had napped long enough, and woke up at 15h. I had just tossed my cookies again, and found it difficult to entertain my toddler. And to make matters worse, my Braxton Hicks contractions were occurring more frequently.

At this point, I decided to call my husband. And for the first time in a long time, I could not reach him. He was not picking up his cellular phone, nor responding to my text messages. I would later find out that he was in a meeting, and had turned off his phone. At long last, a little before 16h, I was able to reach him. He said he would leave right away.

By the time he got home, a little before 17h, I suspected that my contractions were not Braxton Hicks, but in fact early labour. I waited an additional 30 minutes, and as the contractions occurred more frequently, and were more and more painful, I decided to go to the hospital. My husband drove, and I sat behind with my toddler. We decided that I would go in alone, as we were nearing in on Baby # 1's bedtime. If in fact they would be keeping me at the hospital, I would call my mother to take care of Baby #1, and my husband would join me later on at the hospital.

I was placed on a monitor as soon as I arrived, but I waited a good hour before being examined. Initially I was going to wait for the exam before calling my mother, but as the contractions got more and more painful, I made the call shortly after arriving at the hospital. Normally, my sister would have driven over with my mother, but she too had caught the gastroenteritis that my toddler had no doubt given to her. They were going to call a cab, but finally some relatives offered to drive my mother to our house. 

Back at the hospital, my husband arrived shortly before 20h. By which time I had been admitted to the hospital, was in my own room, and had just gotten the epidural. I thought that I would forego the epidural the second time around, thinking surely everything would happen very quickly. But on exam, I was only 4cm dilated, and 100% effaced. So I knew that it would be at east several more hours of painful contractions. While the epidural was partially effective, I continued to feel the contractions right up until the end.

My obstetrician happened to be on call that day. She examined me initially, and several times thereafter. She ruptured my membranes just a few minutes before my husband arrived at the hospital, whereupon he said "I always miss the good stuff." At a little after midnight, my doctor re-entered the exam room, examined me, and declared that it was time to have a baby!

While the labour didn't progress as quickly as I thought it might for a second pregnancy, the pushing was very easy compared to the first. For baby # 1, I had pushed a good hour and a half before her arrival. This time around, I pushed approximately 10 times over 4 contractions. And out she came! My obstetrician suggested that I should pull her out myself, and that I did! My husband cut the cord, and before I knew it, Baby # 2 was on my chest.

And then I fell in love all over again...

Baby Love

A picture is worth a thousand words

Baby # 2
Born Feb 11, 2012 at 0:27
Weight 3.671 kg (8 pounds, 1oz)
Length 54 cm

More to follow on next week's post

10 Things

Jumping with Joy

As Baby # 2's arrival rapidly approaches, I can't help but think back to my wish list. At least 10 things that I had hoped would be accomplished before her arrival. All involving Baby #1. Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Potty Training. Shortly after she turned 18 months, we purchased a potty. Initially, she was very intrigued. Within the first week, she had 7 successful trips to the potty. How easy is potty training? we thought to ourselves. Then all of a sudden, she lost interest. Since then, she enjoys sitting on her potty, but refuses to lower her pants. We do have a plan though. We purchased some cloth training underwear, and some Smarties as rewards. She doesn't think too much of her training pants, but ran to her potty today with great speed when she realized she would be rewarded with Smarties. She was only partially successful in filling her potty, but there is certainly hope...

2. Sleep in her own bed. She slept with us for the first 5 or 6 months of her life. We then tried to transition her to her own crib. With partial success. However, when she turned 18 months, she climbed out of her crib, and so we converted her crib to a toddler bed. Now when she wakes up in the middle of the night, she simply makes her way to our bed, jumps up between the two of us, where she spends the remainder of the night. We tried returning her to her bed on a few occasions, but the effort it took to get her back to sleep alone seemed too great compared to just all falling asleep in the same bed. If we are lucky, she joins us at 4AM. When we are unlucky, she joins us at midnight.

3. Sleep through the night. She has slept through the night on a dozen or so occasions. But perhaps because of the ease with which she can get out of her bed and into ours encourages her to not sleep through the night?

4. Fall asleep on her own. When she is exhausted, and the situation is right (e.g. a smooth car ride), she might fall asleep on he own, but for the time being we still rock her to sleep. However, since she has given up her afternoon naps, she falls asleep with great ease in the evening, and very quickly. Just not on her own. But at least we get a few hours to ourselves before we too retire for the night.

5. Stop drinking formula, and start drinking cow's milk. I breastfed her until she was 15 months, and then transitioned her to a soy-based formula as we thought she was allergic to dairy at the time. After allergy testing at 18 months of age, we discovered that dairy was no longer a problem. However we simply stuck with the same formula because we knew she liked it. Over the last 2 months, we have tried on several occasions to replace some of the formula in her bottle with homogenized cow's milk. She did not seem to notice the change. However, her bowel movements became looser, and I feared lactose intolerance. In hindsight it may have been a coincidence, as she simultaneously had a cold virus (which, depending on the strain, can sometimes also lead to looser bowel movements). Currently, we are attempting for the third time to replace part of her formula, and so far so good.

6. Stop drinking from a bottle. We have her down to 4 bottles/24 hours. One at bedtime; one around 6AM when she wakes up. The two other bottles are during the day; one right before nap time, and the other when she wakes up from her nap. However, now that she does not always nap, I have tried placing the milk in a Sippy cup instead. She drinks it, but not nearly as much. Her appetite generally varies quite a bit, but if there is one things that we can count on, it is for her to drink all 4 bottles. I am hoping that one day soon, she will simply refuse to drink from a bottle, just as she refused my breast milk when she turned 16 months.


7. Give up her pacifier. We try using it only for bedtime, and during long car rides, but truth be told, we have not tried very hard to get rid of the soother. With all the other things to accomplish, we thought we would leave this to last. We will probably draw the line though at 2.5years...mostly because anytime I am out and about and see a 3 year old with a pacifier, I cringe.

8. Hold conversations. While her vocabulary has expanded significantly since my post on speech, we are still not holding conversations. She has now added Cookie, Papa, Kaka, Peepee, Happy, Yucky and Up to her short list. But it is difficult to explain to her the importance of using a potty, or staying in her bed when the conversations are unilateral. I truly believe this last point will facilitate many of the other items on my wish list, but it is the one that we will have to be most patient with.

I can no longer think of the other two items...or perhaps there were simply 8, and "10 Things" just sounded like a better title. One thing is certain, the arrival of Baby # 2 will create some significant change. She may well regress on a few items, but it may be the impetus for positive change on other items. For starters, the four of us will simply not fit in the same bed...