My (Other) Baby Turns 1!

OK, actually, he just turned 13 months... I'm a bit behind with my life recaps (we've been busy, I swear!) but here is a cute kid photo dump of Sam's first birthday party last month!  His actual birthday double as CLOSING DAY for our new house, and so his birthday party the following week was kind of an open house for family and friends as well.  =)  Much to celebrate!

Sam was actually pretty tentative with the cake.  We didn't get the traditional "smash" that we were hoping for.  In fact, Jacob had to put Cheerios on it just to get Sam to put the frosting in his mouth! lol

Our New Normal

There is been a bit of radio silence on this blog recently... mostly it's because life's been nuts (in addition to the general nuttiness of having two small children).  The Corey family has decided to change things up a bit... rather drastically.  

The whole thing started this summer when Jacob was offered, accepted and started a new job in Vancouver, on the other side of the river, in another state, with different taxes.  Jacob started talking about wanting to move as it would effect his take-home income, but my job and our (awesome) child care situation was holding us back.  Then, in August, you may remember my post about not getting a promotion that I really thought I had a high chance of getting... and was really the carrot at the end of the stick in terms of my then-current position.  

I had an epiphany at that point... I was, once again, "stuck" in a position that I didn't really want to do, for less than 1/3 of what Jacob was getting paid for a job that he loves (and would bring home more from if we moved to Vancouver due to the lack of income tax).  I was spending about 3 hours per weekday with my kids, 2 hours of which was stressing everyone out by trying to get them out the door in time for Jacob and I to get to work or trying to get them to bed.  I never had any energy on the weekends, was commuting roughly 1.5-2 hours per day (same for Jacob) between work and shuttling kids to daycare.  It just didn't make sense anymore.  I have always enjoyed my work and really cared about it's mission... which I still do.  But I couldn't make the argument anymore that I was continuing to work for my family and for myself... it wasn't true anymore.

So, in August, we found a house that we loved in Vancouver and put in an offer.  We put our house on the market.  We got an offer in September, and moved in October, the week before Sam's birthday and in November I finished working to stay home, raise my children, and manage our household. 

 This post was going to be about the process of the home purchase/move and our stumbling blocks... that's what I intended to write about when I started.  But the post has taken a different course, and I'm going to allow it to do so.  I'll tell you all more about the move later, but for now let me just tell you how amazing it is not to have wake up a sleepy 3-year old when it's still dark outside (when she REALLY doesn't want to open her eyes), skip breakfast EVERY morning because there just isn't enough time to get everything done, not eat dinner until 7:00/7:30 because I can't actually start cooking until 6:00, spend more than an hour a day listening to my children laugh and play, go to the store on a Tuesday afternoon when there are no lines, take my kids to the library and week day play grounds.  Jacob is loving it, too.  He can sleep/leave a little later in the morning (and in a better mood!), can come home on his lunch breaks to hang out with us, and is home about an hour earlier every night than he has been for the last 3 years... it's only day 4 (and, truth be told, today is my "me/errands day" and they are actually with the sitter while I go grocery shopping and run other errands - while still taking a Starbucks break for some peppermint hot chocolate and blog catch ups) but so far I'm not regretting my decision at all, and believe that we made the best choice for our family.  I am very much looking forward to seeing what our new "normal" is going to be like.  =)

A Poop in the Hand is Worth...?

Having two kids has been an adjustment... especially one being an infant and the other a 2 year old.  They both have their own challenges!  Several people have asked me if it's harder having two kids than one.  I don't think that it's "harder" necessarily, but just requires more of you, your time and patience.

I would compare it to getting a new, large, responsibility at work.  It doesn't exactly make the job itself harder, but you have to re-prioritize in order to get everything done and you have to figure out what's the most important thing to focus on at any given time... and then you go home and drink a big glass of wine.  ;)

Case and point... my life today as a mom of two while Jacob's at work:

11:20... After sitting in a quiet room having an hour-long power struggle with an obstinate toddler who refuses to put away her play dough (baby is napping at this point), I decided that it's probably a good time to make lunch as I know that baby will be waking up soon.  So, I clean up the play dough, put it away on a high shelf letting Emily know that she won't be able to play with it tomorrow either as she refused to put it away today.  Then I make PB&J for Emily and I (with toasted frozen bread as, apparently, the stuff that's been out on the counter is now moldy).

Sandwiches are made, half of mine is eaten, Sam starts to scream.  I go into the nursery and feed him, leaving Emily alone in the dining room to finish her lunch.  After feeding Sam (who hasn't been feeling well and has been spitting up more than normal), I realize that he smells kind of gross and decide to give him a bath.  I fill up his tub, get him undressed and into it, and give him a quick wipe down.  Emily comes in with her face and hands covered in peanut butter and jelly.  I tell her to go wash her hands and face with WATER (not just the dry napkin that she's holding).  She goes into the other bathroom and, presumably, washes up (I have yet to check out that bathroom).

By the time she's done there, I'm getting a screaming Sam out of the tub.  She decides that she wants to take a bath so, I empty out Sam's tub and fill up the bath tub for her to play around in.  I take Sam into his room to get a diaper on and get him dressed (yelling questions to Emily so that, by her responses, I'll know that she hasn't drowned... I'm paranoid).  Sam's still screaming.  I think he's tired again, so I put him in his crib and swaddle him.  He's still screaming, but sleepily so I leave to go check on Emily. 

Sam falls asleep.  I take the opportunity to grab my pump.  Since Sam hasn't been feeling well, he hasn't been eating as much, which means that I've been a little, um, "full".  I set up shop outside the bathroom door so I can keep an eye/ear on Emily and start to pump.  I get a couple of ounces in when, almost simultaneously, I hear:

Sam:  SCREAMING

Emily:  Mom, I pooped in the bathtub!  See??!

I quickly disconnect myself from the pump and make a quick assessment of the situation... screaming child or child in bathtub who is HOLDING her own feces.  Hmm.  Tough one?  No. 

I grab toilet paper, take the offending log out of her hand and put it in the toilet.  Lift her up and put her on the potty so that she can finish, empty out the bathtub, grab some Clorox wipes to wipe down the interior and exterior of the tub (it got everywhere since she was passing it between both hands and then touching things), grab some paper towels so that she can wipe her hands off.  Wipe her butt when she's done, take her to the sink so she can wash her hands with soap and then sanitize.  The whole time Sam is screaming from his crib.

Once I'm pretty sure that all fecal matter has been addressed, I go in to get Sam and Emily heads to her room to get dressed.

Sam is pretty much inconsolable by this point so I'm walking, bouncing, shushing, anything that I can think of.  I go into the dining room to get his vibrating bouncer chair and see my lunch sitting on the table.  Oh yeah.  I was eating lunch, wasn't I?

I take Sam and his chair into the master bedroom and manage to calm him down so that I can finish pumping.  Emily comes in, all dressed.  She sees a bottle of lotion on my nightstand and decides that she needs some.  It's the pump bottle variety so, of course, it sprays the wall when she pushes down on it.  I tell her to go grab a towel.  She goes into the bathroom and comes back with a Clorox wipe.  Oh yeah, I forgot to put those away.  She takes the wipe and affixes it to the wall by means of lotion.  And turns around to leave it there.  I manage, somehow, to continue to rock Sam with my foot, while balancing my pumping bottles on my legs so they don't get detached, and reach over with one free hand to wipe off the wall and hand the wipe to Emily to throw away.

Pumping done, I manage to get myself detached, ask Emily to play with Sam for a minute and put the milk in the fridge.   I think come back into the bedroom and have a few quiet moments with Emily and Sam before naptime.  Phew. 

Then it's time for Emily's nap... which coincides with Sam needing to eat.  So, again, Sam's screaming and Emily needs to get down for a nap.  Sam goes into his bouncer once again (getting red in the face and pretty pissed off) while I try to get Emily into bed.  We get the correct water cup, and the correct blanket and try to go potty and FINALLY get her in bed.  I grab Sam, go into the living room, feed him, and manage to get him to fall asleep, too.

1:30... I finish my lunch.

The Story of Sam

I can't believe that it's been almost a full week since Sam was born and I haven't even made a "He's Here!" blog announcement!  Well... he's here.  =)  Samuel (Sam) Joseph was born October 30th at 3:28 PM.  8 lbs, 18 inches.

Sam's birth story started LONG before his arrival however.  You may all remember reading about the false alarm on the 24th, the day before his due date.  After being sent home, I continued to have contractions off and on, though with no real regularity in frequency and they never really got much stronger.   It seemed like every day I continued to experience other labor related symptoms (stop reading now if you don't want to hear gory details)....................................................... if it wasn't more contractions, it was soft bowel movements, loss of the mucus plug, increase in discharge... all kinds of wonderful stuff.  Every day I would touch base with our doula, and every day nothing happened.  I continued to go on walks, bounce and circle on my exercise ball, and try everything else that I could to get labor moving.

Finally, on Wednesday, Oct. 29th at about 7:00 PM, something extra weird happened.  I was cleaning up dinner dishes and felt a weird "pop".  It was like someone shoved a pin into a ping pong ball sized balloon in my "area"... a little water balloon to be exact.  I said something along the lines of "well, that's weird" to Jacob and went to the bathroom to check it out. 

My underwear and pants were both wet, but nothing else seemed to be going on (no additional "leakage").  I had had a similar wet incident a couple days prior (without the "pop" though), so thought it was just more of the same.  I took of my bottoms and went into the bedroom to get some dry clothes.  I got about two steps into the bedroom and another ping pong ball worth of water came out.  At this point I went back to the bathroom and yelled to Jacob that something was definitely going on.  I put on a maxi-pad and some clean clothes, Jacob called his mom.  We then made calls to doctor, doula and my mom and waited for Jacob's mom to arrive to hang out with Emily. 

At this point I think Emily sensed that something was going on and was acting out a bit so, I sat down on the couch with her to cuddle for a little bit, talk about what was about to happen, and take in the last few moments of being a mother of one with an amazing little girl.  =) 

A few minutes later, Jacob's mom showed up.  I got up off the couch and started walking back to the bedroom to grab some last minute things to head out.  Halfway to the bedroom a GUSH of water came out.  I yelled for Jacob and hightailed it to the bathroom.  I had him bring me a hand towel this time and another dry pair of pants.

Thankfully the hand towel was sufficient coverage to get us to the hospital without making more of a mess.  ;)

We got to the hospital, got checked in, and myself undressed and into bed where I was once again hooked up to monitors and checked out... still having the occasional gush of fluids... weirdest feeling ever. 

Since my water broke, there was no going home this time!  I was told that the baby would be born, one way or another, in the next 24 hours.  At that point I wasn't really having contractions and, when they checked me out, my cervix was still posterior (really high) and I was barely dilated.  The nurses called the on-call OB who suggested that I try to get some sleep and that I be checked again at around 5:00 am and started on pitocin.  I told the nurse that I was all for getting some sleep, but that I wanted to avoid the pitocin as long as possible.  At this point we checked in with our doula, told her what was going on, and asked if she could be there for the 5 am check.  Then Jacob and I tried to get comfortable and get some sleep.

Right around 3:00 am I woke up with contractions.  They weren't overly strong at first, but they continued to increase in strength and frequency... to the point that I woke Jacob up and asked him to ask our doula, Kristin, if she could come earlier.

Kristin got there around 4:00 and, since I was awake and having contractions, they checked me out early.  My cervix was still quite high, so Kristin encouraged me to start moving around.  We walked up and down the halls for a little while, and then bounced/swayed on a birthing ball.  The contractions continued to get stronger little by little.  Around 8:00 am (I think, time is a bit fuzzy for me at this point), my OB came by to check in on me.  I think I was dilated to about 3 cm at that point.  She agreed to hold off on the pitocin as long as I was making progress on my own, and said that she'd be back during the lunch hour to check on me again.  So, more walking, more bouncing. 

By this point, bouncing on the ball was feeling great until I had a contraction, and then, something about the ball just intensified everything... and moved it to my back.  Up until this point I was so grateful that I wasn't feeling pain in my back.  After the intense back labor with Emily, I REALLY didn't want to experience that again.  But, something about that damn ball just relocated the pain.  Kristin was helpful with some massage/pressure during the contractions, but, ultimately I gave up on the ball and just walked around the room for a bit swaying my hips in circles trying to get the little guy to DROP already!

Somewhere around 11:00 am things started to change.  The contractions were MUCH stronger now, and I was feeling most of the pain in my back, even not being on the ball.  Heat didn't make much of a difference, pressure/massage still helped but not enough.  There were suggestions that I get into the tub, but that just seemed like way too much work when I was in so much pain that I could barely even move.  All I wanted to do was lie down.  The nurses came in to check on me and decided to call my doctor, who advised them to check and see how dilated I was.  By the time that they got back into the room, I was in so much pain (in my back) that I could barely move and, it was at that point, that I decided that I wanted the epidural.

My plan, with both births, was always to see how far I could get without pain meds as I knew that getting them could prolong/slow down the labor process.  But, at the same time, I didn't feel the need to put myself through so much pain when relief was available.  I think that I could have gone longer had the contractions not moved to my back... but that pain is like nothing else imaginable and I had had enough.

Since I was in so much pain and asked for the epidural, the nurses decided to wait on checking my cervix until about the drugs had been administered.  So the anesthesiologist was called.  I think she arrived pretty quickly and got me set up for the needle.  Our doula had to leave (protocol apparently) until everything was said and done, but Jacob was able to stay there with me.  It was really hard not to clench/move/yell in agony while sitting on that table and getting contractions while trying to also get a needle shoved in my back.  The doc told me that I have some pretty strong back muscles... still not sure if that was a good/bad thing given the situation.  =)

After the drugs kicked in, I got settled back into bed and the nurses checked me out... 7 cm.  I was pissed. With all that pain, work that I'd gone through, I thought for sure that I'd be farther along then that!  Shortly thereafter my OB came back up to check on me.  It had been less than half an hour since the nurses checked me, so I wasn't expecting much... but THANK GOD I was at a 9!  Two centimeters in less than 30 minutes!  I was THRILLED. Since I was making so much progress on my own, pitocin was no longer on the table and my doctor advised the nurses to let me labor for awhile on my own. 

It was now lunch time on the 30th.  I joked with Kristin and Jacob that they could feel free to go grab lunch and bring it back into the room... as long as it wasn't a bacon cheese burger.  =)  Since I wasn't allowed to eat, I certainly didn't want to smell anything TOO good! 

That's the last thing I really remember until "waking up" to a room full of people in blue scurrying around in what felt like a bit of a panicked state.

I didn't really know what was going on and what the problem was.  All I knew is that I was shaking pretty uncontrollably.  The anesthesiologist was back in the room, as was my nurses and one or two more, and my OB.  I remembering hearing something about a "cord issue", having a hard time finding the heartbeat, and references to my blood pressure.  Someone else put an oxygen mask on me.  Needless to say, I was getting a little freaked out... which probably didn't help the shaking.  However, I do remember the anesthesiologist telling me that the shaking was perfectly normal... so that helped a bit.

After things calmed down a little bit, I was able to determine that the "cord issue" was an issue with the blood pressure machine's cord (not the umbilical cord).  They were having a hard time getting the heartbeat with the external monitors in the position that I was in, but once they put an internal monitor in there was no problem.  I'm still unclear if I actually had a blood pressure spike, or if the machine was just malfunctioning.  Either way... way to freak out a laboring mama for no apparently reason!  (And without much communication during the process!).

After calming myself down and getting some explanations, I was able to relax and rest for a bit longer... getting checked ever so often to see about my dilation and cervix thinning.  They also asked me constantly about any pressure that I may be feeling and if I was feeling a need to push.  I was definitely feeling pressure (much like the pressure you feel when you need to have a bowel movement) but wasn't feeling the need to push. 

At around 3:00 PM, my OB came up again to check on me, and decided to try a couple of "practice pushes".  She explained what I was going to do and how (deep breath, push for 10 seconds during a contractions while pulling myself into my bent, raised legs... three times during each contractions).  We then waited for a contraction to come (which I still knew was happening because that's when the "pressure" felt the strongest) and I "practiced" a push.  After that one practice push, my doc was asking for a robe because the baby was coming!

By 3:23 PM a contraction came and we were set up and ready to start the "real" pushing.  I pushed through 2 contractions (6 pushes) and the little guy was OUT... at 3:28 PM.  That's right... only FIVE MINUTES of pushing.  So, so happy that part went so quickly!  (As opposed to 3 hours with Emily!).

I had no tearing.  The placenta came out shortly thereafter.  I got to hold my little guy while the nurses started clean up and checking him out.  He even latched out for his first feeding without me even trying to get him there.  I'm so, so thankful that everything went so smoothly and that we now have a healthy little guy with a head full of blonde hair (I'm glad the heart burn I had was due to something!) and, what appears to be, brown eyes (which is super weird as both his dad and I have blue eyes!).

Jacob's folks brought Emily by the hospital later that evening so that she could meet her new brother.  She was pretty excited about it and wanted to hold him and "pet" him.  She calls him her baby and gives him kisses and cuddles up next to him. 

We were able to get discharged on the 31st, in the evening.  This was really important to me as I wanted to be there to see Emily off as she went trick-or-treating for, really, the first time.  Her grandmother's took her to a few houses around the neighborhood.  She was dressed up as a princess and had so much fun. 

I love my family.  And I love how "complete" I feel that we are now with Sam in our lives.  I am so looking forward to seeing what the future brings for us!

Photos!

Almost a year ago I won a silent auction at a fundraiser for a photo session.  I decided to cash in on that session for some family/maternity shots.  I LOVE the results!  Some of my favorites below!

(c/o Jessica Kirkland Photography at The Oregon Garden).

I Left My Heart in Portland

I'm out of town for the first few days of this week at a conference for work.  A conference that I really wanted to go to, and had to fight for.  I've been looking forward to it for months.  But then the day came and I didn't want to leave.

I realize that I'm a mom now and leaving my kid and husband is REALLY hard.  I had to do my best not to tear up because I didn't want Emily to get the wrong impression... but, I'm telling you, it was really difficult, and I know that my voice cracked a few times.  Especially when I told her that I was going to go "bye bye for a few days" and she said, "I'm fine.  Mommies come back".

She's been watching "Daniel Tiger" recently and that's one of the songs/themes "Grownups come back"

She melts my heart.  I love her so much.

And, of course, I'm missing Jacob, too.  ;) 

Camping While Pregnant with a Potty Training Toddler

I was a little nervous about our camping trip last week... both due to the fact that I'm 6 months prego, that Emily was only one week into potty training, and that it was forecast to be roughly 90F throughout the weekend.  But, we had the reservation, so we went for it.  And, for the most part, I'm happy to report that it went very well!

We went up to Camp Dakota.  Jacob had a Groupon for some of the activities.  Since I'm not really able to go ziplining, rock climbing and paint balling, he invited his brother to go along.  Emily had an absolute blast hanging out with her cousin Sophie! (It would be cool to go back sometime when the kids are older and I can actually DO some of the stuff!)

So, the key things to note before I overwhelm you all with pictures:

1. Emily didn't have a SINGLE accident!  She "went" the whole weekend in her little potty!
2. The air mattress that I slept on was almost more comfortable that my Tempur-pedic bed... had a lot more "give" to it.
3. We were at a higher elevation, with more trees... so it only got in the 70s or so.  Great weather.  Though, still 6 months pregnant and over heating.  =)
4. Holding a potty training toddler over a porta-potty in the heat while pregnant is really, really gross.

OK... now for some photos.  =)

Perfect combo: One cousin learning how to read, another cousin who loves to be read to!

Emily would fall asleep each night on her air mattress in her sleeping bag, but every night she ended up squeezed between Jacob and I.

Our "indoor plumbing"  ;)

Learning Frisbee Golf!

She's got quite the arm!

Jacob and Sophie working their way to the top!

Our tee pee.  It was too hot to actually use, but cool to look at.  ;)

She LOVED this tire swing.  Scared the crap out of me though!

Making a fire in the tee pee while we hang out outside.  =)