On Our Own

My mom headed home this afternoon...but not before I figured how to use the Moby Wrap that I got for Xmas from Bill. I've actually been doing laundry since she left and get this...I HAVE TWO HANDS for typing! We also have a baby bjorn (which Eva loved) and a mei tai, which she loved too but that she was too big for soon after we got it.

Now we'll need to figure out how to do bedtime but I have til Thursday to figure that out since Bill has tonight and tomorrow night off.

In other news, we spent yesterday afternoon at the hospital, getting a scan on my leg. I have a sharp calf pain and that is a red flag post-partum because it can indicate a blood clot. I saw Midwife K and she thought it was probably ok (and so did I) but we couldn't be sure so off to radiology! It turned out to be fine (could be tendonitis) and la Lou was a champ...she was soooo good for Grandma while they waited for me in the three different waiting rooms over the course of 2 hours.

I also managed to have a mini-breakdown in the grocery store AND to breastfeed a man out of a room. The funny thing was that he didn't seem to realize I was nursing until well after the danger of him catching a glimpse of boob had passed. But when he figured it out he skedaddled!!

PS We would love to have visitors!

6:56pm and Tear Free

It's a new record!

I've been surviving pretty well, other than being seriously irritable. I'm grieving the end of being a mom to an only child, and mourning the loss of only-childness for my daughter (who is also occasionally upset about that as well.) It's really hard to watch her be upset and know that we did something that is making her hurt, even though it is a good thing overall. She's had a few meltdowns. I'm trying to give her as much attention as I can, but that's not much!

Way is sleeping pretty well...we did have one night where he slept in his bassinet between feedings, other nights it's a combo of bassinet, pack and play, and on my chest on the couch. We both sleep the most on the couch together so that's the default. The night before last was tough and made for an unhappy Christmas for me. (Lots of expletives around the cooking of dinner and lots of tears by 6pm.)

But overall things are going well. My mom and I took the kids to lunch at Friendly's and then to the mall to buy me a new nursing bra (I've surpassed the DDs!) and some nursing tops. Way rode in the Bjorn and La Lou drove the race car stroller. Nursing is going wonderfully, whereas last time I was just having my milk come in on Day 8.

Bill is now at work, for his second night snowmaking on Whiteface. A late start this year, but that worked out well! I am just dreading after New Year's when my mom is gone and it's just me and two kids at Lulu's bedtime. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it!

Quilts 2 & 3

Remember the 4 quilts I wanted to finish by November 1? I finished them this month...Way doesn't have a quilt yet, but he doesn't know it, so I guess he can wait!

Different Kid

While the Wayman looks a lot like Eva la Lou, there is one HUGE difference. He sleeps. And is, so far, incredibly mellow. He falls asleep around 9 or 10 now, wakes at midnight or one, then at 3 or four, and then at 7ish. He nurses, and falls right back asleep. Which means we can too. With La Lou, we spent much of the first week with her screaming, pacing the hall. I think the number one difference, other than basic temperament, is that this time I have the milk. Lots and lots of milk. Flowing, leaking, wonderful milk. Engorgement never felt so wonderful!

He arrived!

Waylon Henner Stahl: born at 10:10pm, 12/18 after 13 hours of labor and 10 or so minutes of pushing! 9lbs 10 and 3/4 oz. 23 inches. Heavier but as long as big sister Eva.

Thursday AM

As long as there is space in L&D, I will be getting induced on Thursday am. But I am starting to panic. Please tell me more stories of people who did pit sans epi!!! I couldn't do it last time...my hope is that I will have more strength going in rested instead of getting my pitocin after 30 something hours of stop and go labor and a sleepless night. I hope.

Stubborn Kids

Two stubborn kids? Can I take it?

All day yesterday I had a strange back ache. And around 9 last night I started having contractions, painful contractions, that started n my back and moved around into my pelvis and abdomen. I had to breathe my way through them. They were 12, 14, 13, 10 minutes apart. And then they were gone. GONE. AAAARGGHHHH.

Due date is tomorrow. Midwife appointment today. Induction on Thursday? COME BEFORE THEN BABY!

Tear of the Day

When asked by Santa what she wants for Christmas, Eva names her brother.

Aaaahhhhhh.

She also got a haircut, enjoyed the car wash, cheered during Madagascar, and let me eat her pickles.

I Have a horrible back pain that seems too high and too constant to be labor.

Decor-aitch

Today we went to the Wild Center. Afte Eva was in bed we decorated the tree. Which was after she head butted me, which gave me the bloody nose. Sigh.

Tomorrow E and I are going to Friendly's for lunch, to see Madagascar 2, to meet Santa, and maybe even to get her hair cut. Bill is having a tooth pulled. Who is going to have more fun?



Yes, this giant pregnant lady.

O Tanenbaum

This is the one!

On the way to the tree farm, Eva practiced her duck calls...

Still quiet here...I didn't get my membranes stripped. They will check me on Tuesday, and if I've made any progress, we will induce on Thursday if I want. I've been trying other methods of natural induction...the sex, evening primrose oil, spicy food (thai), walking, but no luck.

Poor Eva la Lou has been up and down all night with a fever.

I'm done with work!

I feel strange. I'm just saying.

Tomorrow, if I am dilated at all Midwife K will sweep my membranes. If you don't know what that means, I suggest you decide not to find out, and just wish me luck anyway.

Is "The Gimlet" a good fetal nickname?

Three Years Ago (again)

"Hello, Pineapple.
Even though you hurt my tummy, I am eating you for the deliciousness and for the old wive's tale about you and labor starting. Even though I know baby will be born on Monday due to my highly scientific "the number of cars I pass going the other way on Haselton Road between Black Brook and the Methodist Church equals the number of days from now baby will be born" method of prediction. Listen, if the also scientific "if I see three horses and a white dog on my way home, I am pregnant" works, this must too! And what about "the gender of the person driving the next red car I see is the gender of my baby" test? Also scientifically proven."

So I remember always being disappointed by the outcome of these "signs" last time, and my disappointment in not going early (or on time) was indeed founded. So I am trying to avoid reading the signs I make up. But this afternoon there was one that not even I can deny. (Play along, will ya?)

When I got home my cocktail shaker was sitting on the kitchen counter. It lives in the freezer, but apparently Bill doesn't know that. Anyway, the top lid on the shaker, the one that covers the strainer, has been stuck on that thing since last summer. I've tried freezing it, boiling it, warm water, lubing it up with oil, holding it between my legs and grunting as I pull on a towel wrapped around the top. Nothing. I can use the strainer, but have to use a complicated combo of a half removed bigger lid and a sieve in order to make some drinks.

Anyway. There was the shaker. I walked right over, picked it up, and OFF popped the lid!!!! I cheered! Lulu cheered! eMILy cheered! I yelled, "Come on out baby, Mama wants a gimlet!!!" La Lu repeated that and went into hysterics. Then she ran around chanting about gimlets and mama and the baby!

A definite sign something will happen soon.

I am so large the camera can't focus!

3 years Ago..

"THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2005
If you are pregnant, and think you are peeing yourself, you probably are. That is the lesson I learned first thing this morning. Needless to say, I felt like a fool on the Ob's table.
Got vistaril for my PUPPs rash. KNOCKED ME OUT."

That was 10 days before my Due Date with Eva. I am so glad I am not peeing myself (that much!) and that I don't have PUPPS again. And I am glad that, should I decide to, I can have this baby in 11 days.

I do feel like I am getting the sickness others have had, so I am lying low today....finishing a quilt for Z's boy (I hope!) and baking some cookies (perhaps!) Right now Bill has taken E. to Placid to get bagels and visit a friend from NYC who is up for the weekend. eMILy (my mother in law) is still snoozing. Yesterday I went to the Mirror Lake Inn and had a massage and got my hair trimmed, so I got some nice alone time then too!

She brought it up...

So today midwife K. offered induction two weeks from today. I don't have to make up my mind until next Thursday (and could wait longer to decide than that.) I can argue both ways. Bill isn't thrilled with the idea of inducing, and I'm not either. But I found waiting 9 days past my due date to cause mild insanity last time. And this time I won't be working after next Friday.

I have been looking online for stories of induction with no pain meds.

I don't want to be thinking this

I am starting to freak out that Eva's lil brother will decide to follow in her steps and come on the, say, 26th. You know, the day between Xmas and our family party. And because of this, and the feeling that he is a freaking GIANT, that I am feeling tempted to ask about the "I" word. The thing I said I would never ever do again. And I won't. At least I won't do pitocin again. But maybe some membrane stripping couldn't hurt. Sigh. I hate feeling impatient. But at least I am not being impatient and ITCHY this time.