chub chub chub

Ollie has focused his recent efforts on packing on weight. We were at the doctor for a weight check this morning and they asked me if the number could be correct because he has gained so much since we left the hospital.
He's starting to stretch out his sleeping and waking a bit more, which makes mommy less grumpy.

Dylan is showing signs of settling in a bit, and she really does seem to think he's excellent company. She reads to him and covers him up and babysits while mommy and daddy hit the town. There are just so many (2) children in the house, it's really weird.

One week

Thanks everyone for all the comments and e-mails. It was so much fun to have you all following along with us.

This really does seem to be easier the second time. We feel like we know what we're doing, the nursing is going well, and I'm starting to be able to walk farther without getting dizzy and tired. Ollie is sleeping about 20 hours a day, but is highly strategic with the other four so as to prevent me from sleeping more than 2.5 hours in a row.

Dylan is doing great with Ollie. She really likes having him around and helping to take care of him, and has apparently not made any connection between her emotional upheaval and the actual baby. She is not doing great with me, however, and maintains a laser-like focus on trying to keep me from napping or being away from her for any amount of time. Aaron has to pretty much tackle her to let me get any sleep at all during the day. If she realizes there is a choice between being with me, or even near me while I sleep, and leaving the house to do something fun, she will always choose not to leave. And forget about trying to distract her if you are someone who is not Aaron. I am looking forward to preschool this week. Perhaps being off for four days in a row has contributed to some of the intensity.

I turned out to be right about Ollie being big, but it may have been sort of a coincidence because he's mostly really tall, which isn't usually what happens with diabetes. The pediatrician said he didn't look like the babies of diabetic mothers usually do, which I thought also, and he's actually sort of scrawny looking, although chubbing up quickly. None of the newborn stuff fits (Kate: Aaron, do you think this outfit fits? Aaron: Well, only if it's supposed to be culottes) because he's so tall and his shoulders are really wide. The doctor actually offered to be his agent, but I'm not sure this is going to persist into adulthood. He's been easy to take care of so far, especially in comparison to the anxious and emotionally volatile bigger one attached to my leg.

deja vu

And now it's time for a round of...

birth story

This is an easy birth story to write because all I have to say is that pretty much everything was the opposite of our experience with Dylan. In retrospect that was even worse than it seemed at the time, even without the hemorrhage part and accounting for the second babies are easier to get out than first babies part. Except for the enormous baby staging a sit-in and having to be negotiated with to come out, that was about the same, this time with a half pound more enormity.

Seriously though, this was so straightforward it's boring (= not complaining). We went in at 8:30am and did logistical-type things for a couple hours. I started having contractions right away when they started the pitocin late in the morning. They broke my water. I could barely feel the contractions, but they still seemed to be working. I got an epidural pretty soon anyway because Aaron and I still think so fondly of the last one. I contracted away all afternoon while we hung out and watched tv. Aaron alternated between pacing restlessly and sitting restlessly in the rocking chair. I mostly had this odd feeling that I could tell when the contractions were changing my cervix, but that I otherwise couldn't feel anything -- I could have predicted each check before they did it (and did, in my head, but it would have been more impressive had I said it out loud). I started getting uncomfortable around 6:30pm and was ready to push a little after 7. The attending and the nurse both stayed with me the whole time I was pushing, which lasted about a half hour. This time they kindly removed the whole placenta. Then the baby was out and they let him just hang out on my stomach and snack for an hour before doing all the meds and measuring, except for doing the weight right away because we were all dying to know how chunky he was. I didn't think he looked as big as Dylan did, but that was incorrect. And...that was that. Everyone was so nice and supportive and communicative the whole time, and the whole thing was over in less than 12 hours, and now I don't have to be pregnant anymore, which was starting to seem unsustainable anyway.

I couldn't let things go without a little drama and tried to pass out when I stood up a few hours later, but they revived me with modern medical smelling salts. Seriously, they shoved an ammonia wand in my face. No one had mentioned that I had lost a borderline-excessive amount of blood during the delivery because they didn't want to worry me, so I had no idea that I might be pretty anemic. I took to my bed for the night, but I can walk around a bit now. I have actually felt great the whole time, but anticipate grumping out later this week as I get less and less sleep.

I thought Ollie would look just like Dylan, but he really doesn't. He has a very round face and Aaron's ears and a lot less hair, although it's the same reddish blond as hers. He acts just like she did as a newborn though. He is really alert and can hold his head up and track stuff. They gave him a 10 on his second APGAR score, which they don't usually do for sort of superstitious reasons but they couldn't resist because he was so pink and happy. He ate great for the first hour, then took the next 14 hours off from eating as he gurgled out fluid all night. He has been doing great with the nursing since then, also unlike his sister, although such was his enthusiasm that he only let me sleep for an hour last night. You're not supposed to compare your kids, right? That's not going to work out here.

born yesterday

we are limiting his access to credit so opportunistic salespeople can't take advantage of his obvious inexperience.

Ollie

• Oliver Wright Blumkin



• 7:37 pm



• 22 inches



• 9 lbs 3 oz

Everyone is healthy and doing fine.

hanging out

they broke my water ~noon

i have a lovely epidural

i was 5cm last time they checked an hour and a half ago

we have spent the afternoon following nfl games -- i'm still in survivor for next week

and...dylan took a nap for the first time in weeks. all that anxiety wears a girl out. plus she heard us rustling around at 6am and got up too.

getting show on road

We're in the hospital, all checked in, with all the paperwork, IV, ultrasound, etc out of the way. The latest is that we're going straight to pitocin. Aaron is going to have some too out of solidarity.

Dylan is reportedly doing very well now that we've gone ahead and left already.

T minus 2 hours

Going in at 8:30 this AM. Was told "there are two of you vying to come in." Aaron or I will update from hospital, but not sure when.

40.5 weeks: the dumbening

I've been trying to think of something to say besides about my current state of not birthing a baby, but apparently that's the best I can come up with. I spent most of the day staring vacantly at a selection of walls, tv, family members, and the internet.

The car, you'll be pleased to learn, is working again, and we have logged our second visit to our (now beloved) mechanic that resulted in no charge because they felt sorry for us for being so stupid. And! Now we have an HD radio in the car, as soon as we figure out how to work it.

I'll try to think of something of substance for tomorrow, but I might get tripped up on the "think" part. Otherwise I'll give a status update Sunday morning.

another item checked off the to do list

have car towed from driveway

days = numbered

• nonstress test = good
• cervix = 2cm, from 1cm last week
• doctor's assessment = he doesn't seem that big
• ultrasound done anyway to humor me (i know they're not that accurate, but it worked for my purposes) = estimated 8lbs 14oz --> let's check on when they can get me in for induction --> call 6am sunday to see if they have room
• also, I think I have walking pneumonia
  

Chattering on

Dylan is really losing it. She cried for two hours before bed last night and then woke up three hours later to cry some more. I feel like most three-year-olds are not quite this tuned in, and I think it's about the same as Snuffy being so smart, which is that it would be for her own good to be slightly more oblivious. She has big plans after the baby is born to take advantage of my new lap space and to feed me treats. Works for me. She also plans to be able to button her own jeans at some point.

Aaron volunteered to call the car place tomorrow. It's nice when dividing up the household tasks is relatively cut and dry. I have big plans to have absolutely no involvement in pursuit of operation: make the subaru run again.

The deadline to submit abstracts for the big pediatrics conference is today, so Aaron has been all focused and worky and can relax tomorrow. I told him I would not get in the way of the deadline, which his co-workers didn't believe. I actually signed up to do some work at school through this past Monday. It's worked pretty well thus far to assume I won't go into labor and go about my business. I got through all the work I wanted to, and am now onto the dregs of my to do list, including estimating how much tax withholding we should have next year. It's just as well about the work because I did a clean install of windows 7 thinking I had the disk for microsoft office, but really it turns out I just have the box so doing actual work is unpossible for the time being. But my computer's all shiny and clean and I finally found and deleted the hidden lenovo files that have been taking up 50% of my hard drive since I got this computer.

****

And now for some fun links

Newest item on my to do list

Review of our favorite restaurant, sadly revealing its existence to the general public. Aaron may or may not have had a role in this.

Bio-Diversity from the NY Times

Slate's index to Going Rogue

Daily Show episode with a segment on our children's museum and an entreaty to Rochester to "get your heads out of your garbage plates."

Starting to lose it 9 days after Dylan's due date

****

Baby check tomorrow AM, with ultrasound.

superpower

Dylan, as she is being strapped into her car seat: Mommy, what are you eating?

Kate: Um...raisins.

D: No...I think it's a treat.

Kate goes around to driver's seat

D, thoughtful: I think it's peanut butter. No, I think it's peanut butter with chocolate.

K: Fine. Take one. I guess you deserve it if you can do that.

D: Mommy, you're not supposed to have treats until the baby comes out.

Cooked (=40 Weeks)

As I mentioned, one of our cars is, ahem, out of commission. Aaron drives to work two days a week, so Dylan and I dropped him off this morning so as to have access to a vehicle during the day. As we were leaving Aaron called out that I would have to come pick him up if I went into labor, see you later. Luckily going into labor isn't something I do very often.

Plunging ahead

There is something embarrassing about being hugely pregnant and walking into a store at 9pm to purchase only a plunger. But at that point in the evening the cabbage smell was threatening to suffocate us all. Attempts to clear the drain using an allen wrench on the disposal (aaron) or a baking soda and vinegar volcano (me) (the internet told me to) having been unsuccessful, Action had to be taken. We deduced that for sanitary purposes the sink should perhaps have its own dedicated plunger, so off I went. While I was out Aaron requested that I buy one, or possibly several, fuses for the subaru, which I learned at that point has been rendered undriveable due to the Multiday Stereo Installation Process. Aaron made up for this in part with a highly successful declogging operation once the plunger made it home, and I have to say it is fun to poke around an auto supply store in the absence of any knowledge of the needs and wants of autos.

***

I told Aaron a couple days ago that time had stopped, but it turned out I was wrong. At that point it had only slowed. You may have noticed that it stopped entirely from 5-7pm today, for which you can thank Dylan. Her steady whine of Mommy is intimately connected to the spacetime continuum and she has no qualms about using her power to ill effect. She has been very clear with me that she is not worried about the baby, who she is looking forward to having around. She is mostly worried that we her parents are going to take off for the hospital for an undetermined number of days without any prior notice. Yeah, about that... She is also having some discomfort that a little dried fruit couldn't hurt if you know what I mean, so hopefully I cleared that up for tomorrow with a few well placed snacks.

Original compositions

Dylan, singing, at dinner: I'm all done, I'm all done, I don't want any more food.

Kate: Great, let's go upstairs.

D: No, I'm still hungry. That was just a song.

Aaron, singing: I'm having contractions, I'm going to the hospital, I had the baby.

********

Actually, I may have guaranteed labor tonight by clogging up the garbage disposal and not figuring out how to deal with it yet. Aaron has maxed out on manly tasks by replacing the car stereo (the buttons all stopped working besides the CD eject, so we had to choose between listening to the one CD in the car, from the beginning, at high volume, or total silence), retooling our wifi, and contemplating replacing a light fixture, so it appears to be up to me. Never make homemade cole slaw.

Refreshingly less gross

Let us all keep in mind that I was pregnant with Dylan for 15 more days at this point, and she still took some convincing to get out. I have therefore given up on going into labor. I called to try to change my appointment (made yesterday, you will recall) to a little earlier in the week, only to be told I had no appointment to change, and they would have to try to fit me in somewhere. I really think I shouldn't go too much longer than another week so the baby doesn't get 'UGE, so my plan is to lobby for being induced by the end of next week, much as I don't want to go through that again.

In the meantime, we got another Dylan. I think Snuffy likes her.

He's doing a lot better today, but has bought himself a bunch of days of antibiotics.

I'm getting enough stuff wrapped up that if I have a few more days next week I can really just hang out and see movies and spend time with the already-birthed creatures.

I'll see your yuck and raise you one disgusting

You know what is (presumably) grosser than reading about my cervix? Reading about Snuffy's anal fissure. The vet said that the collar drives most dogs crazy for a few days, then they get used to it and it's fine. That's not really Snuffy's MO. He will morosely accept whatever it is you have to do to him, then continue to be morose until you stop doing it. I had to have a baggie to carry all his meds home.