Williamson: Party of FOUR

 Life at home has been great-- better than we ever could have hoped. It is much easier this time than last.  Part of that is being in the new house, there is room to spread out and have some quiet time.  A HUGE part of that is having Grandma Carol here with us!  She makes life ohhhhh so good. 

Cal visiting the hospital-- he started warming up to me!

 The day we headed home! Cal came in wearing his BIG brother shirt and was ready to get us out of there!  The day before, he came to visit and he took my hand when they were leaving.  When I couldn't leave the hallway with him, he dropped to the ground crying and said: "no, momma! come, momma!" and I about lost it....well, actually, I did lose it. I started crying immediately. ha!

 This time, he grabbed my hand and led me around the hallway and he had the tightest grip ever on my hand. I was fighting back tears-- he was just so sweet....

 Love the way he's looking at me here, like, are you really coming this time???

 We came home from the hospital on Friday afternoon.  By the time we got home, my medicine had worn off, we hadn't filled the prescription yet, and my milk was coming in in full force (for those of you who do not nurse, or have yet to attempt nursing, this can be VERY painful...).  Cal was screaming in the car, just because he can, but Andy was sound asleep-- he might be a good road tripper!

We got home around 4:00 and I had a bit of a melt down.  I was hurting all over and I think I was just a bit overwhelmed by it all.  Eddie left with Cal to get my meds (thank you!!!), and I sat down to get it together.  Andy started screaming at 5:00 and could not be calmed...for two hours.  Literally for two hours, he screamed and cried.  All three of us passed him around trying to calm him down, and he wouldn't stop crying.  I tried nursing him, but he didn't want that-- and, let me tell you what a screaming baby does to your milk supply... I thought my chest was going to pop.  I tried pumping, but was having issues with the suction cups (I won't go into detail here, but suffice it to say that Eddie had to go out to babies r us on Saturday morning to get bigger suction cups....), and ended up tearing and having some bleeding...


Finally at 7:00, Andy calmed down and passed out.  We have NO idea what upset him so much-- he has not cried like that since! I think it might have been my milk coming in and it just upset his tummy a little bit since he was used to the colostrum.

My mom got a little "baby" for Cal and he LOVES him!  He will grab a bottle and shove it in the baby's mouth and when I am holding Andy, Cal will go get his baby too-- it is adorable.  

 

I decided to sleep in the guest room downstairs with my mom and Andy so if he did scream like that again, he wouldn't wake up Cal.  We pulled the bassinet next to the bed and were ready for the night!


Andy likes to be held!  He will fall sound asleep in my arms while I am nursing and then I will try to put him down and he will wake up instantly.  I ended up holding him for most of the night, and he slept great.  The crazy thing is, in the morning, I could feed him and put him in the bassinet and he would crash instantly and sleep for 3 hours!  But he won't do it at night!


I found it easier to move to the couch, so I set up shop in the family room, with Andy sleeping pretty much on my chest.  That's where we are now, but I think I am going to move us to my bedroom upstairs tomorrow.  I am going to focus tonight on getting him in his bassinet.  Last night was our nest night yet-- he would wake up, eat on one side, fall back asleep for 3 or 4 hours and then wake up and eat on the other side-- pretty amazing for a newborn!


Cal is handling this whole thing MUCH better than anyone expected.  I think he's in heaven having his grandma here-- she has a hard time saying no to him (and he knows it!).  It's been hard on me because I am used to crawling around on the floor with him and having him crawl all over me, and we can't do that.  It makes me sad, but I know that this is so short-lived and I will be back to rolling on the ground in no time. 

Eddie has been super dad when it comes to playing with Cal.  They are doing everything together and I am really impressed with how much Eddie has stepped it up-- I knew he would, he's a great dad!  But I know of a lot of dad's whose worlds get rocked when the second baby arrives, and I am very thankful that Eddie has been such a great help. 

Saturday morning, Eddie and Cal went downtown to have breakfast together and then they decided to wash the cars.  I went outside to see this:

 Cal thought the hose was about the greatest thing ever!  He soon dumped out Eddie's bucket and thought he should do a belly flop in the middle of the suds!  He was SOOOO happy!  I came out and took a ton of pictures and videos.  This was the afternoon that Cal took a nap that was over 4 hours long!  He was worn out from so much fun with his daddah!

 Our sweet neighbors saw the episode above and offered a mini pool that they had for their grandchildren who never use it.  They brought it over to the backyard and Cal (and Hank!) had the best time splashing and playing in the cold water. 

 And, here is the sweet little Andy.  I love his little fingers holding my dad's pinky.  He is a really good baby so far.  He loves to sleep (especially when he's being held!) and loves to snuggle. 

 I love this one of him... very alert...very snuggly!

Happy BIRTHday, Andy!

We are HOME! I wanted to blog as quickly as I could, so I wouldn't forget anything, but it's taken me a while to find the time... I am sure you can imagine!

I wanted to take a few minutes to jot down the birthing story while it was still fresh in my mind...

It was a MUCH different experience this time than last. 

This time, the section was scheduled, so we were to arrive at the hospital at 7:00 am on the 18th.  I woke up at 4:15 to go to the bathroom and couldn't fall back asleep since I was so excited, so I started my day a little early! (Last time, my water broke at 2:30 and we got ourselves together to get there, while I was trying to breath and not scream at Eddie the whole way to the hospital.).
My mom got to our house at 6:30 so she could be there with Cal when he woke up and when the babysitter came over.  Cal woke up right as we were leaving the house and I went in to kiss him goodbye, and I pretty much started crying and didn't stop until about 5 minutes from the hospital.  Eddie's mom called us to wish us luck, and I couldn't get it together enough to talk to her.  Eddie, bless his heart, was SO understanding and SO sweet.  I think a lot of guys in that situation don't know how to respond to their wives acting like that, but he was really sweet...

Here is me, 39 weeks pregnant, about to leave the house:

We got to the hospital right at 7:00 and walked into the check in area.  (last time, we went to the ER) They brought me my chariot, umm, a wheelchair, and we were off to our "labor room." I got dressed in the gown and Eddie and I just hung out waiting for what was next. 

My mom arrived shortly after us and then my sweet sweet nurse came in!  I have written about her before. She literally got me through the first delivery and we have kept in touch ever since-- I LOVE HER!  If you deliver at Durham Regional, you must request Kelli!  It's funny, after my birthing experience with Cal, I have told all of my friends about her and she has been requested by all of them since!  They all say the same things I do-- she is outstanding. 

She came into the room and we caught up a little bit and then she started prepping me for the c-section.  (last time I pushed for 3 hours, while Kelli coached me the entire time...she was the one who prepped me for the section with Cal too, but that was an emergency situation so there was no small talk then!) My dad arrived and we were all hanging out in the room while I got my IV and we asked some last minute questions. Kelli came back into the room with two sets of "scrubs" to wear over the clothing.  She gave one to Eddie so he could be there for the delivery, and the other set was for my mom (!!!) so she could come in to be with me once Eddie left with Andy after he was born.  I thought that was SO sweet of her.  (There was NONE of that last time-- although Kelli did try.)

The anesthesiologist came into the room to ask me some questions and the next thing I knew, it was 9:00, and they told me to hop up out of bed.  Ummm...wha?  I was wheeled down the hall last time with people yelling things at one another last time, and this time I was just going to stroll down the hall in my totally awesome, yet backless gown?  Okay!  They draped a sheet over my shoulder and off we went! 

We walked into the OR and I sat on the edge of the bed while they inserted the spinal tap.  Last time I had an epidural, so this was a totally different sensation. They told me I would feel heat running down my legs.  I suuuuuuure did!  As soon as I felt that, they swept me onto my back before I became total dead weight.  It was awesome. 

Before I knew it, the doctors told me they were making the first cut!  They talked to me through the entire precess, which was pretty neat.  If they did that last time, I missed it.  Kelli ran out to grab Eddie and he was there immediately talking to me as they delivered my baby!  I was crying again, pretty much right away. 

As soon as Andy came out, he was screaming.  It was the best sound in the world.  They took him over to the baby area of the OR to examine him, and Eddie followed with the camera.  Here is why I love Kelli: she stepped right over to where Eddie was standing and held my hand and explained what was going on both to me, and to the baby.  LOVE HER!

Here is a picture Eddie got of Andy right after he came out! And below it is a picture someone took of me when Eddie was bringing him to me for the first time-- gotta love being tied down when you meet your son for the first time!

Eddie left with the pediatric team while they cleaned up Andy and my mom came in to hold my hand while they cleaned me up.  The whole procedure was over in about 35 minutes-- it was great!  After they were done stitching me up, they wheeled me into the recovery room.  As the doors to the OR opened, I could hear my brother, dad, and sister-in-law cheering! HA!  They were all right there waiting for me...it was so sweet. 

We were just sitting there waiting to see Andy and then all of a sudden, I saw Eddie walking down the hall with a blanket in his arms.  Being the drama queen that I am, I let out a huge gasp.  Kelli thought something was wrong, but I was just so excited to see my new little guy!  With Cal, they took him to the special needs nursery and I was unable to hold him until the next day. Eddie brought him right in to me and I started bawling.  A ton of pictures were taken of this, but I have about a million chins in all of them...see below:

Andy was hungry right away, so I attempted to nurse right away...and he took to it like a champ.  We are still in the recovery room here, but he is chomping away!

Here is a picture of me with the greatest nurse in the WORLD! My face always gets really puffy after the drugs-- puffy and SUPER itchy.  I wanted to claw my face off it itched so badly! haha  But there is Kelli!  Isn't she cute??

We were only in the recovery room for about 45 minutes and then we were off to the postpartum room!  Eddie was thrilled to be holding Andy-- it all came back to him right away.  With Cal, we were unable to hold him until the following day, and I could not attempt to feed him until the day after that. 

My brother came back to meet Andy...and he woke up a little for him:

Cal came to the hospital the day we delivered.  I was worried about him coming up there too soon, but both Eddie and I were missing him and wanted him to be a part of the day.  He didn't want a thing to do with me and even less to do with Andy.  It was very hard for me to take, obviously, but I knew that he was just overwhelmed with everything going on.  Cal is actually yawning in the below picture-- we were clearly boring him.  More to come shortly about Cal and Andy...

Thursday morning I was able to take a shower, and it was much needed!  I felt like a new woman! Wednesday night was rough because every hour, someone came in to check my vitals, I was getting drugs every few hours, and then they brought Andy in to me every 2.5 hours to feed, so it was a night full of visitors!  Eddie stayed with me Wednesday night, and my mom stayed Thursday night to give Eddie a break.  It was also nice for Eddie to be home with Cal. 

Thursday morning:

So, that was Andy's birthing story!  It was about 100 times easier than his brother's experience. 

I will attempt to do a post about life at home now and sleeping, etc...it's difficult with a bambino in one arm!!!