Lily: Pease, Mommy, can I have some water?
Me: Oh, honey, Mommy has her hands full with Liam. Can you wait just a bit?
Lily (super whiny voice): But my heart is very broken ’cause I want some water!
Sheesh. (And, yes, I got her the water.)
Needless to say, I do not get a lot of free time to blog these days. Or do much of anything else. When I’m lucky, Liam will get sleepy sometime during Lily’s nap (which is no longer a guarantee these days), and he will actually allow me to put him down for a bit, and I may have enough energy to get something done. Over the course of a couple of naptimes, I have managed to get all of our birth announcement envelopes addressed. So we just need to finalize the photos and design and get them printed. I wrapped that up today, and hopefully have enough time leftover for a quickie blog update. So here’s what the Tice Four are up to lately:
Lily: Is busy loving on her new brother. She is very sweet with him and wants to know his whereabouts in the house at all times. She is, however, acting her age a bit these days. I’m not sure if it’s simply her age, or the arrival of the new baby, or more likely a combination, but she is having a lot of trouble with listening and following directions. She has also learned quickly that when Mommy is on the couch feeding baby brother, she is not able to easily hop up for speedy disciplinary action. So Lily will occasionally act out by taking something she’s not supposed to have (i.e. a ballpoint pen, my purse, my glass of water) and run with it to the other side of the room, taunting me with her naughtiness. Since I am no longer consistently able to supervise time-outs and reinforce that she stay put, we have implemented a new time-out spot: the pack and play, which is now crowding our tiny dining room. We set the kitchen timer for two minutes, and then she is given the option of complying/apologizing or staying put for another two minutes. This is still new, so we’re evaluating the effectiveness. Lily is doing really well with the potty training thing. She has gone pretty much entire days in her Little Mermaid panties — even waking up dry from her nap. We are attempting more outings in underwear versus diapers these days, always with backup clothes in the car.
I really need to start writing down more of the things that come from this child’s mouth. She is funny, witty, and sharp, and her vocabulary is sometimes astounding. I think I might try to keep track of her utterances over the period of a day or a week and post the results.
Liam: Wow, it’s hard to write down anything about this boy before things have changed entirely! At three weeks old, he already looks older, more alert, and more brilliant. We are amazed that he is already (since two weeks) reaching for the toys hanging from his bouncer. His eyes are bright and more focused now. At 2.5 weeks, he was back up to his birth weight, which was a huge relief for me because — just like with Lily — we are experiencing all kinds of breastfeeding challenges. In short, we were encouraged to offer a bottle of pumped breastmilk after feedings because he had lost weight at his two-week appointment. He quickly developed a preference for the bottle and stopped wanting to nurse at all. So, currently, with the periodic help of a lactation consultant, we are “practicing” nursing, then giving a supplemental bottle of pumped breastmilk, and then I have to pump to replace what we gave him by bottle. It’s quite a bit of work for each feeding (7-8 times per day/night), and Bill and I have both had our doubts about continuing. But I am commited to giving him breastmilk for now, and I’m hopeful that, over time, he will start nursing efficiently enough that we can wean away from the bottles. The breastfeeding woes have been many over these three weeks, and tears have been shed. But, aside from that issue, things are actually going quite well, I think. Liam is sleeping pretty well at night (knock on wood), and has even given us a couple of 5-hour stretches of sleep. Since we are doing bottles for now, the division of nighttime responsibilities is quite even between Bill and myself. Usually Bill gives him a pumped bottle while I pump for the next feeding. Most of the time Liam goes right back to sleep after a nighttime feeding, so Bill and I are both back to bed in about 20-25 minutes. Can’t beat that!
Bill: Got the best possible “grade” for his annual review at work, which is wonderful for him and gives him a sense of recognition for all his hard work with IBM. Bill has become an expert bottle feeder, and he continues to change more diapers than I do, I’m pretty sure. He is not only successful in the workplace, but successful in all things domestic as well! He has been keeping up pretty well with the laundry, and he makes an effort to make sure the kitchen is completely cleaned up at least once during the day. Yes, yes, I know how lucky I am.
Me: Aside from feeling like a dairy cow much of the time, I am feeling really good for only 3.5 weeks post-partum. I’m amazed and gleeful that I have lost about 25 of the 30 lbs I gained during my pregnancy. I am back in all my non-maternity clothing, and I’m ready to get all my maternity wear washed up and put away. My physical recovery from this delivery has been so much easier and faster than my first. I pretty much feel like my old self, although I am occasionally reminded by my breathlessness during minimally demanding tasks that I have some work to do to get fully back in shape. I am hanging in there, having weathered the “baby blues” (I think), and passing each gloomy, frigid winter day as best as I can, always with a mental countdown until spring.
And I think my time is up! I hear a grunty, squeaky little boy starting to wake, so I know I’ll soon be called to service. Hope to update again soon!
So, about a week ago I met this guy…. And it was totally love at first sight. I’m not ashamed to say that he already has me wrapped around his little finger, and I jump at his every whim. He has handsome dark hair, dreamy dark eyes, and the sweetest, most kissable lips.
William Walter, our little Liam, entered this world on Monday, January 4th, at 1:06 p.m. His amazing birth followed a textbook labor, and I couldn’t have asked for things to have gone more smoothly.
I spent the day preceding the big day wrapping up some details on the nursery — hanging the crib mobile and making the letters of the baby’s name to hang on the wall. After dinner, I started cleaning up the kitchen, and found that I couldn’t stop. I had to clean the living room, tidy up the playroom and Lily’s room, too — even organizing her bookshelves. I didn’t know the true meaning of “nesting” until that evening. Finally satisfied with the state of our house, I headed to bed at 10. At the same time, Bill declared that he was heading out to fill the car with gas. “Why tonight?” I asked. “Just in case,” he said.
Just after midnight on the morning of the 4th, I woke to my water breaking and alerted Bill, who hadn’t even gone to bed yet. After some discussion about whether or not my water HAD actually broken (not always as obvious as it is in the movies), we called the on-call OB while we waited to see if contractions would ensue. They soon did, and the OB told me to head down to the hospital when I felt ready, if the contractions seemed to be growing more intense. Wary of the time it would take to get my parents to our house to stay with Lily, plus transit time to the hospital in questionable weather conditions, we didn’t wait around too long.
At 3 a.m. in the hospital observation room of Labor and Delivery, the nurse confirmed that my water had broken, and my contractions were monitored at 3-4 minutes apart, and I was 3 cm dilated. The nurse admitted me and offered an epidural, but I decided to wait it out, since I know the epidural can sometimes slow labor.
By 7:45, the contractions had gotten strong enough and close enough together that I was ready for the epidural. I was around 5.5 cm at that point. The contractions were getting intense, though still tolerable, but I wasn’t getting much of a break in between. And my delivery nurse had warned me that the anesthesiologist had to do a C-section at 8, so I could either get the epidural right then, or wait for over an hour for the C-section to be over. I asked for the epidural, and the anesthesiologist and the resident who would give it were there within minutes, and kind of in a hurry.
This is where my lovely labor story gets a little less lovely. I was fine for the numbing shot, but when the resident started to insert the epidural needle, I started feeling some (not too bad) nerve pain near the site. This made me panic a bit, and I had a little “episode” of falling blood pressure, profuse sweating, and lightheadedness. Bill was fanning me and patting me with a cool washcloth, but they couldn’t let me lie down in the middle of the procedure. So I told them I had to stop, and they asked if I was sure, and I said yes, maybe I could try again after their C-section. They were gracious, I was embarrassed, and they told me it was fine and they would be back later.
I should note here that I had ZERO problems with the epidural during my first labor. I just get a little high-anxiety around needles, particularly when they are angled at my spine. So I guess I just flipped out a bit.
At 8:45 a.m. I was given staydol through my IV for my anxiety (which feels like the equivalent of a couple of glasses of merlot), and I got the epidural with no problems. The resident had it in within seconds this time, and I didn’t feel it at all. Within minutes, I was no longer feeling the intense contractions, and I felt fantastic.
RIght after the epidural was in, my doctor arrived. He said that, even though I had a leak of amniotic fluid, there was a pocket of fluid that hadn’t broken that might be blocking baby from descending (he was still at -2 station). So he broke my water to help move things along.
Around 10:30 a.m., I was 7 cm, 90% effaced. I was resting comfortably, and trying to nap, but too excited. Bill was trying to catch a snooze on the couch.
11:30 a.m.: 9 cm, 100% effaced. Still waiting…
At 12:45 p.m., I was fully dilated and effaced. My nurse said, “Let’s try a couple of practice pushes and see what kind of pusher you are.” Apparently she was satisfied, because she had me push through a couple of contractions while we waited for my doctor. He arrived shortly and coached me through 3-4 more contractions.
Liam was born at 1:06 p.m. Bill cut the cord, and my son was immediately on my chest, where he stayed for the next hour while we stared at him in amazement. How lucky we are to have experienced this second little miracle addition to our family.
Here are some pictures of Liam’s first moments:
And here is Liam at four days old:
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