The second child?

I had thought that the second child would be easier to take care of than the first. I mean, it's old hat now right? WRONG! My son was pretty easy. He was, and mostly still is, a very happy, independent little dude. I don't know if it's because she is a girl, but she seems to be more demanding and somewhat of a drama queen. LOL She's got the greatest little lip quiver I've ever seen... and she seems to know when to use it! I am not sure why I thought the second would be easier, I mean, it's not just that you have a baby, but you also have a toddler to care for at the same time. I never even thought of that! Silly, I know. I mean what did I think, that I was going to have another baby and magically the first one would care for himself? Duh! Now that Gracie is over four weeks old and we've moved her into her own room, I am hoping that the quality of sleep that I get will improve. Likely it won't because I'll have one ear and one eye on the baby monitor all night long, but at least Stephen will get better sleep. He won't really hear all her grunting and groaning after each feeding. I swear, it doesn't matter how much you burp her, she's still gassy. Luckily she does know how to work it out herself if we can't get the bubbles out during burp time, so we don't have bouts of screaming in agony. Ok, we've had a couple but nothing that a good backrub, or worst case scenario, a couple of drops of oval can't get out. Now if we could find a "magic" potion to get the kids to nap at the same time during the day, we'd be all set. As I speak Grace is (somewhat) happy in her bouncer and Zander should be getting up from his nap at any time now. And then it's off to the library to pick up a copy of "The Happiest Baby on the Block" and "The Happiest Toddler on the Block". I'll let you know if they help!

Two words....

Sleep deprivation. I am sure that most moms with a newborn and a toddler can relate to this term. When I had my son, it was so much easier. I could nap when he did, so it wasn't too difficult to get up in the middle of the night to do feedings. I should have realized that with him now 21 months old, I wasn't going to have the same opportunities to sleep throughout the day. And it was pretty naive to think that I could get the kids to nap at the same time. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. To make it even more interesting, Grace has decided that she is not going to go to sleep after feeding at 10pm. Even after keeping her awake for most of the time between her 7pm and 10pm feeding, she is still raring to go! I don't get it. Rather, I am getting it. I myself am more of a night time person, I especially enjoy the middle of the night when the rest of the world is so quiet. I can think without interruption and tend to be more creative at this time of day... maybe that is when I should be blogging. As I speak, the swing is rocking away and Zander is eating lunch... I think. Best go check and make sure the dining room floor isn't covered in corn and whatnot.

here is the story of Grace Emileen Agnes, birth. She was due on Tuesday June 24th but I think she was just too happy in there so she decided to hang around a while. On Wednesday, I went to see the midwife for a regular check up and we discussed doing a stretch and sweep. I'll not go into details but let's just say, we did it, it was uncomfortable and there was no guarantee that it was going to work. That night, I started having mild contractions with no discernible pattern, but we called Sarah anyway to let her know what was going on so that if necessary, she could make arrangements to get here fast. She was so excited she said that she was on her way. We watched a waste of a movie, "Fools Gold" which would be enough to turn anyone off, and I guess it turned Grace off because my contractions all but stopped! I went to bed and on Thursday morning, things started again at 5 am and were pretty consistant but then dropped off part way through the day and didn't start up again. Sarah spent the day with us and on Friday morning when nothing seemed to be happening, she went into work. She said she would be back for the weekend, which turned out for the best. Friday night, the contractions started again and occasionally changed patterns but were pretty consistant... They'd change when I would get into the hot bath, but then would eventually get back into a pattern. Around 11:30 we paged the midwife and she came over to see what was happening. I wasn't dilated all that much so she gave me a shot of gravol and told me to get some sleep. At around 1:30 or so, I couldn't sleep through the contractions anymore and rather than wake up the entire house, decided to get back into the hot bath, the time between contractions initially stretched out but then they were back to about 6 minutes apart. So I got out of the tub and woke up Sarah... After about half an hour of contractions every six minutes, we paged the midwife again and told her what was going on... did I mention that my contractions were about 1.5-2 minutes long? Just another way God made me special! LOL (they're usually only 45 seconds to a minute long at first) She told me that things sounded like they were moving along but she wanted me to hold off a bit longer, which made Stephen nervous so she talked to him and explained that there was nothing to worry about, we wanted to make sure that I was in true labour. Back into the tub I went and the contractions were now about 3 minutes apart no matter what, and at one point, I burst into tears. I think I was excited and scared all at the same time. We paged the midwife again and she came over to see what was what... I was sitting on the exercise ball breathing the best I could... Before she could check to see what was going on, my water broke. What a weird feeling that is... She quickly checked and determined that I was a good four cm dilated and that we should get things ready to go. Stephen and Sarah packed up the car, called our parents, woke up Zander and got him in the car, locked down the house and got me in the car to go... We stopped in Ancaster to give Zander to Grandma Jane and then we headed to McMaster. It was a fast drive! LOL The midwife got there ahead of us and had everything set up and ready to go. From that point it's a bit of a blur. I was determined not to get an epidural but did beg for one a few times. :) At one point, my back was so sore and I couldn't get any relief no matter how I sat, stood, lay whatever. One pain management options is called Sterile Water Injections.... and it's exactly what it sounds like. They take four small needles of sterile water and inject them into four spots on your back... with two midwives, it only takes a few seconds to do all four. I agreed to do it and I am sure that they heard me screaming in Guelph. IT HURT LIKE HELL for the first 30 seconds, but after that, I was fine... the contractions weren't as bad and my back didn't hurt any more. At around 2 or so, they checked to see how dilated I was because I was begging for an epidural... I was 9cm dilated but there was a problem.... called an anterior lip. Which means all of the cervix was completely thinned out except for this little tiny piece. Until that was gone, I wasn't going to hit ten centimeters. Oh and this is the hardest part of labour too, going from 8-10 cm is called transition and it is hell. Usually it doesn't last that long but I was in transition for a couple of hours or more.... We tried pushing the lip over the baby's head but it kept snapping back! Finally they said ok, let's do the epidural but by that time, I was getting the urge to push.... I was told to breath through it, and for the most part I could but other times, I couldn't stop my body from pushing. What an amazing, bizarre feeling that is. They gave me the epidural and then checked to discover that I was 10 cm and the lip was gone. They then decided to hold off on getting me to push until I could get some rest. So everyone took a break, we turned down the lights and "rested". LOL At 6 the midwife said, ok, let's try pushing... So we tried on the birthing chair, (which is very difficult when you are numb from the waist down.) sitting on the bed, and lying on my side. At first, it seemed like we were getting somewhere.... and then nothing... After 2 hours the midwife could see a bit of the baby's head but she wasn't moving. So they called in the OB. He checked and said that we have a problem... this baby isn't coming out. Our only option was to do a c-section. THE ONE THING I DIDN'T WANT TO DO. The problem was, no matter what, the baby was stuck. So, we said ok, I mean what else could I say? Just leave her in there? They came back in at 10 to get us and we went into the OR. The anesthetist put extra freezing in my epidural, did all the checks to make sure I was completely frozen and they started the surgery after bringing Stephen in. And then I yelped. I could feel what they were doing, and not just the pressure, but pain. So they tried another freezing which turned my body from a shaking freezing mass to a warm, flushed still body. Again they started and again I cried out. The anesthetist was so upset... He told me over and over, that they didn't want me to be asleep when this baby was born. But they had no choice, they told me I was going to have to be put under a general anesthetic. I started to cry... I didn't get to see or hear my little boy being born and now I wasn't going to get to see or hear my little girl. I was devastated. They put the mask on my face as my tears dripped onto the floor and then I heard that Stephen was going to have to leave the OR. I cried even harder, knowing that he was going to miss out on the whole thing... At least with Zander they only knocked me out with some ketamene in my IV so he could stay, but his time, they were putting me right out, with a breathing tube and all so he would have to leave. I was terrified that I wasn't going to wake up. The next thing I knew, I was in recovery and my husband was standing there with the baby... I had never been so happy to see two people in my whole life. As much as the last part of this story was crappy, and I could have avoided all of this by just scheduling a section the moment I found out I was pregnant, I have to say that the labour experience is incredible. I was so proud of myself for at least trying because we believed at the time, that there was no reason why I couldn't deliver naturally. As it turns out, I have what they call a narrow pelvic arch and the evidence of that is the bruise and blister on the back of my baby's head, where she was rubbing up against bone every time I pushed. Thankfully, my midwife was on the ball, and the doctors took care of us. We have a healthy and beautiful (although I am biased.) little girl. She was born at 10:49pm on June 28th and her name is Grace Emileen Agnes... She weighed in at 7lb 5oz and was 21 inches long.