Dear...

Dear Abs,

Please show up to my next work out... thanks!

Sincerely,
ow, ow, ow


Dear Little Boy,

You're 12 lbs now, anytime you want to start sleeping longer is fine by me. Also, its okay to sleep when you're not being held, really it is!

Sincerely,
Your Very Tired Mommy


Dear Mild Cheddar,

You're not tasty, sorry. Please don't let my husband buy you again.

Sincerely,
A Sharp Cheddar lover


Dear Family,

Last time I checked, taking a shower was not a spectator sport. Just a thought.

Sincerely,
Um, I'm a little busy here


Dear Winter Olympics,

Why do you have to be so entertaining? I can't stop watching you!

Sincerely,
Its a hate/love thing


Dear Little Girl,

Everything doesn't have to be a fight. Sometimes its okay just to do as I say.

Sincerely,
Deja Vu Mommy


Dear Snow,

I'm breaking up with you, please leave & bring on Spring. I'm really over trying to get all the multiple layers on my family.

Sincerely,
Ready for shorts


Dear Spammers,

Stop leaving your creepy/annoying comments on my blog. I am tired of deleting them. Don't make me go private, because I will, but I won't like it.

Sincerely,
Not looking forward to the hassle.


Dear Food,

Could you please prepare yourself for all meals? Also, make sure there's a wide variety of veggies & stuff so we can be healthy. I'm sorry I don't have time to spend preparing you anymore.

Sincerely,
Tired of eating out of the freezer

Dear Dept. of Magic,

There just aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done. Could you please send me one of those time turner thingies so I can get my house clean, spend more time with just my husband & oh yeah, sleep some more?

Sincerely,
So exhausted last night I started randomly singing "Don't Worry, Be Happy"

Super Sariah!

I've spent a lot of time on the blog talking about Bryson, or Sariah and Bryson together, so I thought I'd dedicate a post just to Sariah, because frankly, she's one amazing 3 year old. She's doing an amazing job at dance class & swim lessons and she loves story time. Sure we're going through a big adjustment and her and mommy are going through a big adjustment, but she's doing such a great job and she's learning to do more things by herself.

I know she's feeling a little insecure right now. She's always asking me if I missed her while she was gone or if I still like her. She's never really been one to attach herself to things, but lately she's really into this big teddy bear I got from my colorguard girls when I taught at Bastrop HS. Teddy goes a lot of places with Sariah like the bathroom, he sits next to her at breakfast & he's a must for sleeping. A few time the last week she's woken up & teddy hasn't been tucked into the blankets with her, so she's woken us up to tuck them back in. She goes back to sleep pretty quickly so I think its pretty cute. Here's a picture I took of them together.She was totally asleep and rolled over to cuddle teddy. It was pretty adorable.

Yesterday, Sariah went into her room and got dressed all by herself without anyone helping. She even picked out her own clothes. Here's what she looked like when she came into my room (I was feeding Bryson.)

Yup, clashing flower patterns and if you look closely, her black shoes are on the wrong feet. The mother in me is quite proud of her for picking out clothes and getting dressed all by herself, but the fashionista in me is quite horrified: clashing flower patterns? brown pants & black shoes? Oh my! We're going to have to work on that fashion sense. Ok, deep breath. And yes, I let her out of the house looking like that, although I made her switch her shoes to the right feet. We had to go to the dentist and didn't have time to change, but I didn't take her coat off while we were there. But frankly, nobody but me cares what she looks like. Plus she totally charmed our hygienist (who I love btw.)

A few other things about Sariah...

She's quite the computer genius. She's learned how to open a web browser and get to PBS kids to play her games. She loves the Word World, Martha Speaks, Curious George & SuperWhy! games. She also figured out how to get to the media player & play the songs I have loaded on there.

Speaking of songs, she's got quite the singing voice. Our songs of choice in the car right now are from the Glee soundtrack & I was impressed to catch her singing along on multiple occasions. I was also pleasantly pleased at our last FHE to find out that she knew about half of the words to the Primary song they learned in January.

She's also very helpful. Just right now she "helped" brush the tanglies out of my hair. And now she's brushing Bryson's hair.


Its been much harder to have two kids and I feel bad because right now I really think Sariah is getting the short end of the stick, but I'm thankful that she's such a bright little girl.

Happy Valentine's Day!

1 Month

Bryson at 1 month:

Still sleeps with his mouth open (very cute!)

Still wakes mommy up every 2.5-3 hrs at night (although last night he did 4 at one stretch, so hopefully things are looking up.)

Reacting well to his reflux medicine

Is such a slow eater! Often times feeding take at least an hour.

Still very cuddly and loves to sleep against someone.

So tolerant of Sariah and rarely cries, even when Sariah is "crushing him" or bugging him or yesterday I caught her trying to carry him to me.

Starting to see his surroundings. He likes to look at Mommy & Daddy and of course bright lights and windows.

So adorable!!!

Hair!

Okay, since my last post was completely depressing... how about something frivolous & fun!


I love Bryson's hair. I actually didn't think he'd have any, don't ask my why. It was quite a surprise to see his light brown, almost blond hair. Its growing pretty fast, too. He's kind of got a mullet going on.Look! He's already got Doug's bald spot (sorry Doug!)
His hair is so soft and he's so cuddly, I love to rub my cheeks against his fuzzy head.
Its already kind of long in the back. I wonder how long we can go before he needs his first trim...
He was asleep like this yesterday afternoon for a couple of hours after a feeding. So adorable!

She's all alone... except for us

Have you ever played The Sims? I had a copy back in high school that I would play on my Dad's computer. Of course I was awful at it. See, in The Sims, you're suppose to control your person, make sure he eats, bathes, sleeps, uses the toilet, gets to work, etc. See, I could never get my person to do all that stuff quick enough. When that happens, said person gets dirty, hungry, depressed, loses his job and dies. It got even worse when I tried to control more than one character at a time. It was a frustrating game that I played over & over.

Since my mom left a week and a half ago, I kind of feel like I'm playing a real life game of The Sims minus the whole dirty/depressed/dying part, because I don't think it'll get that bad. But it does seem like my to do list piles up faster than I can get things done. I'm talking about simple things. As soon as I sit to feel Bryson, Sariah needs a snack, I need to pee, etc. I feel like I'm doing my best to keep up with just the basics, never mind the big things like dishes or whatever (thank goodness for Doug!)

Then of course, last week I could feel myself catching a cold, which got worse and worse. It was pretty awful today, and thankfully Doug stayed home so I could catch up on sleep. New mothers shouldn't be allowed to get sick, that's all I've got to say.

Also, it seems that my kids are all doomed to develop reflux around their 3rd week of life. Sariah had it, and Bryson started developing it last week. We were using gas drops anyways because he was having a hard time burping and tooting, but they stopped working so well, so we graduated to gripe water, which helped for maybe a day or two. Finally I broke down and emailed our doctor for a prescription of the same drug we used for Sariah. He's had it 3 times so far & it seems to be helping (knock on wood.) He's stopped spitting up and pulling off during feedings, and he's finally sleeping on his back again, something he was having a hard time doing last week because of the reflux. Hopefully this means we'll get more sleep, since he really hasn't slept longer than 2.5-3 hrs between feedings, which was wearing on my sanity.

So that's a quick update on us. Hopefully things start getting better now. It has been a lonely week for me, even though I haven't really been alone. I was going to post some new pictures of the kids, but I looked on the camera, and there are no new pictures. I guess I'll have to take some soon, I'll put it on the list...

Bryson's Birth Story

Recap: On Jan 4^th, we had a scheduled ultrasound to make sure baby was head down & to check his weight. The tech said that he was weighing about 7lbs. 7oz.on that day. I met with Dr. Bills the next day and after checking the ultrasound report, thought that I wouldn't have any problems delivering the baby whenever he decided to arrive since he would be “so much smaller” than Sariah had been. On that day he checked my cervix & I was dilated between 1 & 2 cm.

Our next appt. with Dr. Bills was Jan 12^th. By this point we figured that baby had to be just over 8lbs. After reviewing my records on Sariah's birth about my 4^th degree tear & checking that I was dilated between 3 & 4 cm, Dr. Bills offered to induce us the next time he was on call, stressing that it was totally elective, but we could go ahead and do it anyways. Since I had to deliver at St. Mary's Hospital, the choice was to induce the next day or wait until the 22^nd, which was after my due date. So we decided to go ahead and induce on the 13^th since they had a bed for us.

The next day we had to be at the hospital at 5:30am. Needless to say, I did not sleep very well the night before, even though I knew I needed to, since I was going to have a very big day. We were very thankful that Doug's mom had arrived on the 11^th,so she could stay with Sariah at home while we were at the hospital.

We took the long walk to labor & delivery and made it there right at 5:30am. It was a little weird to walk up to the desk & the lady there already knew our names, but it turned out we were the only induction that day. They showed us to our room & we got checked in. I got changed, and our first nurse, Billie Jo, got my IV set up. I had tested Group Strep B positive, which meant I got a round of IV penicillin before they started the induction.

Nurses changed shifts at 7:30, so we got a new nurse, who was wonderful and who we spent the most time with, yet I can't remember her name. (I wish I had written it down!) I know it started with a “j” so I'm going to call her Janet. Dr. Bills came on call at 8am, so he came in & broke my water & we started pitocin. He had checked before he broke my water & I was already at a definite 4 cm & 90% effaced, so I was pretty much on my way anyways. As Dr. Bills said, we were going to have a baby that day, there was no turning back now!

Forty-five minutes later Dr. Bills came back & jokingly asked if I was ready to push. I don't think I was even feeling the contractions at that point. I started feeling the contractions in the 9am hour. I was doing my best to relax & ignore them, which was something I failed at miserably when I had Sariah. So we hung out and watched some tv (Let's Make a Deal to be specific, its pretty entertaining.) Janet made sure to know that I wanted an epidural, and she was prepping for it way before I thought I needed it.

Ten o'clock rolled around, and I'm not sure if the contractions started getting stronger or if it was just harder to ignore them because people came in to check on us often & every time Doug would turn off the tv. By 10:30 I was dilated to 5 cm, so even though I was breathing okay through them, they went ahead and called the anesthesiologist for the epidural. I was pretty grateful he was on his way by 11am, I was getting ready for the relief. The exhaustion had started to set in, and I was falling asleep between the contractions.

The 11am hour is kind of a blur. I'm not sure how long it took to get the epidural in, but it was done sometime between 11 and noon. I thought I had been relaxing, but he had a really hard time getting the epidural in. Janet was wonderful during this time and even though I don't like being touched while I'm having contractions, she held my hand through them while he was trying to get the epidural in & it was really helpful. I thought I was relaxed, but at one point Janet had to remind me to relax my shoulders. I didn't even realize they were so tense. It was quite a relief once the epidural was in. I couldn't feel the contractions anymore, but then I got pretty itchy for awhile. Dr. Bills checked me again and I was at 6cm. I think at this point he turned up my pitocin drip.

I was pretty tired at this point, so I decided to put my headphones on and listen to my mp3 player and close my eyes for awhile. I figured I still had a couple of hours or so before I had to push. Imagine my surprise when about 45 minutes later I started feeling the contractions again. I thought the epidural had stopped working, and Janet was out of the room, so I pushed the button I had to up the epidural medicine. That didn't work though, I was still feeling pain. When Janet came back in, she checked me and that pain I was feeling was the baby descending down & it was time to push!

Okay at this point I should mention that I was totally not ready to push. I was having some anxiety from remembering pushing Sariah out. I thought I had a couple of hours to rest and prepare and next thing I know, its time to push. I'll admit, I slightly freaked out. Janet rolled me over on my right side for a little while before Dr. Bills came in. He got there shortly before 1pm with the resident (who's name I also don't remember, but I do remember that she was also pregnant because Dr. Bills said we had something in common, but not for much longer.) Dr. Bills asked me if I was ready to push & I remember asking him if he meant physically or mentally, because mentally, I didn't want to push.

They got me ready & I started pushing anyways. It was not fun. I hate pushing. Janet & the resident were very encouraging though and that was nice. There was lots of screaming. But I did a better job getting Bryson out than Sariah. At one point Dr. Bills said there were some scar tissue that they wanted to cut through because the baby was having a hard time getting past it. I was hesitant, mostly because I don't think I was really comprehending, but Dr. Bills was like, trust me, you want us to do this, so we went ahead. About 20-30 minutes later at 1:24pm, Bryson Douglas was born. I ended up with a 3^rd degree tear, but Dr. Bills said it was more of a 2^nd than a 3^rd. (Which is better than last time when they said it was a 3^rd but turned out to be a 4^th.) All in all, the labor took about 5 ½ hrs.

They let me hold Bryson while the worked on stitching me up. At one point the resident said that she thought he looked about 9lbs 3oz and Dr. Bills said “don't say that.” Remember that we thought he was going to be about 8lbs 2 oz according to the ultrasound. After Dr. Bills and the resident left, they took Bryson to get weighed and cleaned up and do his paperwork. Janet laid Bryson on the scale and we found out he was 9lbs 2oz, a whole pound bigger than we thought he was going to be. I cried. We'll blame it on hormones but it was really upsetting that he was so big. I really didn't want to push another 9lb baby out, and even though I had already done it, I was very upset about it. So yeah, I guess we just have big babies. I'm glad we had induced a whole week early. I can't imagine how big he would've been if he had been born on his due date a week earlier.

We were moved to our recovery room around 3pm. I was ordering dinner by 4:30pm. Sariah got to come and be our first visitor that evening around 7pm. She brought Bryson his own rubber ducky. Bryon had gotten Sariah a My Little Pony. Sariah is smitten with her baby brother.

Bryson had been a great baby. He took to breastfeeding better than even Sariah did. Every nurse & lactation consultant that came in was impressed with how well he was doing. It probably helped that I knew what I was doing, this being the 2^nd time around. We enjoyed our time in recovery. Bryson was such a quiet baby, we didn't even bother sending him to the nursery during the night like we had Sariah. Actually that first night both Doug and I kept checking on him to make sure he was breathing, he was so quiet. (Since then he's gotten nosier.) We left the hospital to go home Friday morning (we were going to wait until the afternoon, but we decided we were ready to be home.)

The worst part of recovery for me was actually my back. It was really sore from the epidural. I managed to walk out of the hospital by myself though, carrying Bryson in his car seat. All in all, it was a good birth experience.

Holding Bryson, moments after birth

our big boy

Daddy holding his son

He found his thumb really quickly, I'm talking like an hour after birth

meeting Big Sister