We Are Still Alive!

Well, it is hard to believe, but it has been 8 weeks since the birth of baby Rose. Tim and I have been trying to adjust to having two girls. The first 3-4 weeks were the hardest! Madison went through a pretty wild stage. I thought we had ruined her forever. She was (mostly) kind to Rose, but just walked around with an attitude about everything. But fortunately we all survived the first month and Maddy has come to realize that Rose is here to stay, so that seems to have helped her attitude. She is much happier and even a helper of late! So we are very thankful for that!

* I am going to randomly place pictures throughout this post-mainly to catch up for lost time ;)

I have pretty much gotten the hang of getting in and out of the house with two on my own. Although I am sure I look ridiculous to my neighbors as I am walking down the stairs to our apartment holding Rose in the car carrier, holding a diaper bag, and practically dragging Madison down the stairs. I'm always so sweaty by the time I get to the car that I blast the air conditioner as soon as we get in. Sunday morning are the hardest as Tim is the campus pastor at our church on Sunday mornings and goes in fairly early.  So it's up to me to get the girls and myself there with enough time to get them into nursery and sit down before the first song (which rarely happens) haah!  I am trying to do better at getting all clothes out the night before, get the diaper bag packed, and get myself ready before the girls wake up. I will get it someday, right?! I am sure many of you are in the same situation, so if you have any tips, feel free to share ;)

Overall though, I am enjoying this stage in my life and in the girls' lives.  Madison is so much fun and is talking up a storm. She is actually able to carry on a little conversation. It's so fun to know what she is thinking!

Rose is such a sweet baby. She is on a fairly good schedule during the day and is sleeping from about 10p -4a. Then I can nurse her for 20 min. and put her right back to sleep- which is wonderful!

**I plan to write more about the girls soon for their 22 month and 2 month birthdays ;) 

For now I just wanted to throw out a quick(cough-cough) update.

I have to say, that one of the biggest challenges is finding some time just for Tim and I. This is a picture of a date night we had recently. 

I am so thankful to have a husband that loves the girls and I so much. The Lord is so good!

 Tim and I are most exciting about our new morning routine!  We used to both wake up at the first cry of Madison around 7:30 and curse the day with our first breath (you know what I am talking about!) The problem was that we were going to bed so late  just to get some quiet time by ourselves. Well now we are going to bed earlier and waking up at 6am together. Tim goes straight down to our little workout room that our condo has  and works out for about a 1/2 hour. While he does that I get my workout clothes on, pump, and read my Bible (holy cow! This has been such a blessing because I was really struggling to find a good time to read my Bible now with 2!). Then when Tim comes up, I go down and work out for a 1/2 hour (I will get this baby weight off yet! I still have some left over from Madison-ugh!) When I come back up, I jump in the shower while Tim starts making breakfast. By that time Madison usually wakes up and we all eat together  (all by 7:30!!!!) My day has felt so much better. I have had more energy and just felt better.

It has been wonderful to have some time by myself before the kiddos wake up and then to have a some time with Tim before he leaves for the day. I sure hope this routine lasts, because I like it ;)

Rose Lillian's Birth Story

It’s hard to believe, but Rose is already a six weeks old! I suppose I should write out her birth story already, huh?  It’s been pretty busy around here (can you tell, since I haven’t blogged in six weeks!?). Well, Madison had finally adjusted to her little sister, I am feeling much better and getting the hang on having two in the house. But I will fill you all in on that at another time.

Well it was Sunday night August 29^th and I convinced Tim, and two of our friends: Ryan and Kelly to walk around with me at the Palatine Fair. It was 6pm and nearly 90 degrees out still. I WAS going to get this baby out if it was the last thing I did! I started feeling mild contractions as we walked along (and I ate a grilled corn on the cob ;) - they continued sporadically throughout the evening until our friends headed home and Tim headed to bed. I wasn’t tired and was starting to get excited thinking this might be it. From 10:30pm-1:30am I cleaned the house and did some last minute things I knew I needed to get done before Rose came. My contractions were about 3-10 minutes apart, still fairly mild and not consistent. I decided I should try to get some rest.

I continued to labor through the night and slept on and off as contractions got stronger and closer together. I knew I had an OB appointment already scheduled at 9:15 in the morning, so I tried to just labor at home as much as I could. Monday morning, August 30^th, Tim, Madison, and I all woke up around 7:30 am had a big pancake breakfast and then I showered and headed to my doctor’s appointment, while Tim stayed home with Madison. At this point, I was having pretty consistent contractions about 5 minutes apart. When the doctor finally saw me it was 10am. I was 2cm and he said that I was definitely in labor and that I should head to the hospital.  

Tim fortunately had the day off, so he helped me finish packing and cleaning. We called our friends Kelly and Ryan to come over to watch Madison. Meanwhile the contractions had gotten strong enough that I had to stop to breath through them and they were closer to 3 or 4 minutes apart. At around 11:30am Tim and I got in the car to head to the hospital. I was in a good amount of pain by this point and just wanted to get there. But I knew that I wouldn’t be able to eat anything when we got to the hospital, so Tim stopped at Starbucks and we picked up two protein plates to eat on the way.

At 12:10 we arrived at St Alexius Medical Center. We had to wait in waiting room for a labor room to be cleaned. The pain was getting worse and I really had to breathe through the contractions, standing and walking around a bit.

At 1:00pm we checked into the delivery room. My contractions continued to intensify. When the nurse checked me at 1:35pm. I was 4.5cm and 80% effaced with a "bulgy bag" – where the bag kind of twists and makes a bubble just before the opening of the cervix. The nurse thought that she felt something like a ridge – something she shouldn’t have felt. She called my doctor and he said that he would check it out when he came in.

At this point, my contractions got much closer together and so intense that I was in tears. Tim was helping me try to breath through them, but I couldn’t handle it any more. I called for an epidural.

At 2:30pm I got the epidural. Oh sweet relief! I felt warm and calm. 

At 3:30pm – I sent Tim to grab dinner and thought I would get a nap as soon as the doctor came in to check on me.

At 4:00 the doctor broke my water so that we could get things moving and so that he could feel the position of the baby better.  On examination Rose appears breach. He thought he was feeling her foot – or maybe her hand, so he called for an ultrasound. They said I should call Tim and get him to come back just in case we had to rush into surgery or something.

At 4:10 the ultrasound showed that the baby was face-presenting. Her head and neck were cranked way back so that her chin was coming first instead of the crown of her head. Several different doctors came in, including the at risk doctor to check me and look at the ultrasound to help us decide what to do. They found meconium in the amniotic fluid, which could be an indication of distress.

I was starting to get pretty scared, so I was relieved when Tim returned from Chipotle around 4:15. He ate his burrito bowl as we talked through all of our options. The doctors thought if I tried to continue to labor and deliver vaginally, Rose’s health could be at risk. At the very least she would have serious bruising and damage to her face and at the worst, she might become lodged in the birth canal and we still might have to be rushed into an emergency c-section.

At 4:30 Tim and I decided it would be best to get her out via c-section.

At 4:40 I was prepped for surgery.

At 5:20 I was taken to surgery, Tim suits up in scrubs

At 5:42 our sweet Rose was born! We are thankful that even though she came a different way than we had originally planned, that she is safe and healthy!

                                                    

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY Rose!