Today when we were outside, Aiden was in the little playhouse and I heard him say, “I am going to ask mom in a little bit.” Then he came over and said, “I have a question for you.” So I asked him what the question was and he mumbled something that ended with Dan. So I said, “You want to know where Dan is?” So he said, “Where’s Dan?” I said, “Dan is probably at school.” He seemed satisfied with that answer.
So last week was a busy week as we transitioned from a family of 3 to a family of 4. Thankfully Brandon was able to stay home on Monday and Tuesday to help me get used to the idea of having two kids as well as to be a kind of buffer as I learned what adjustments I would have to make as I juggled the needs of two kids. Now, a week and a half later I am still a bit shell shocked, the drop in hormones is causing my emotions to run wild, but I think if I continue to take things one moment at a time and not look at the overwhelming big picture then I just might survive this big change and adjustment. 😉
We opted to head home from the hospital on Sunday, just a mere 24 hours after Lucas was born. In order to make the concept of having a new brother an exciting event rather then just a huge change for Aiden, we copied an idea from my mom. When I was little and they brought my sister home we had a “birthday” party for her. She got a present for me and I picked a gift out for her. It was complete with birthday cake and party hats. We did the same with Aiden. Aiden picked out a little elephant toy for Lucas and Lucas got Aiden an Elmo K’nex set. We had yummy pizza and birthday cake to eat, wore our impromptu party hats, had a few balloons as decor, and we even sang happy birthday to Lucas.
During the party Aiden played a little golf and of course the party boy slept.
Monday Lucas had his first visit to the pediatrician (mandatory because we left the hospital early) and all of his test results came back normal. Now I wasn’t there so I don’t know all of the details as to exactly what was tested but I am glad that Brandon came back to report a clean bill of health for Lucas.
Tuesday we tried to straighten up as much as we could and Brandon was able to go and get a haircut.
Wednesday I was feeling a bit overwhelmed but took things one at a time and did ok until about 6:00. That is when Aiden got to where he’d had enough of sharing mommy and wanted more, More, MORE attention!
Thursday my grandma and dad came over to visit, see Lucas, and spend some time with Aiden. It was a nice diversion in the day.
Friday I gave Lucas his first bath at home which I can tell you he did not appreciate. Despite the warm water he was shivering and his little hands started to look purple. I tried to wash quickly while at the same time attempting to soothe Lucas but in the end I just had to hurry and finish washing him so that I could get him out of the tub.
Here he is starting to recover from the trauma of a bath.
And now a return to normalcy (a fully clothed state).
Friday Brandon was off work again! HOORAY! So after Aiden and Brandon returned from the dentist we decided to brave going out to get some errands done as a family of four. After a stop to Wal-mart we decided to get a bite to eat at Texas Roadhouse. As you can see, dining out was an adventure, from Aiden’s roller coaster of emotions, to my needing to feed Lucas in public while sitting at our table but we had a nice time and delicious chow!
In the evening we (mostly Brandon) did a little bit of garden prep work. We now have a fence up around the garden, it has been squared (we removed extra grass to make it a more exact rectangle), and we tilled it a little bit.
As you can see Aiden was a big “help”. Any time a tool went unguarded he would hurry over to try and pick it up. When Brandon was finally done with the shovel he stuck it in the dirt and told Aiden that it was his very own sword in the stone and that if he could get it out of the dirt then he could use it. Needless to say, he was not strong enough (and Brandon knew that would be the case).
This is how Lucas felt about the whole thing…
Because Friday was such a success we ran a couple more errands on Saturday. We stopped at the mall because I had something to pick up and then ran to Costco. The trip went quickly and we made it home in time for some lunch. Just before nap Brandon and Aiden put dirt in our little seed planter and then while he slept Brandon and I planted the seeds. Here’s hoping it is a success.
Later that evening my dad dropped by because he was in the area for a dinner. He took some time to be silly with Aiden.
Sunday we got all bundled up and went for a walk. It wasn’t especially cold but it was windy. Little Lucas was snug as a bug in a rug in his car seat (meaning he could not see anything and there was no way the wind could get in to affect him) and he ended up falling asleep during the ride.
Lastly, Lucas was smiling a bit in his sleep on Sunday so we took the opportunity to try and snap a few smiling photos. The top is a partial smile. The bottom photo we took because we thought it was a humorous expression and felt it necessary to catch on film.
Last night Lucas tossed the entire contents of his stomach and started dry heaving. It was obvious that he was in distress and would not relax so that we could better assess what was going on. I am blessed because in our tiny sons moment of distress I was able to ask Brandon to give him a priesthood blessing. When he was done Lucas was still a little distraught so I sang I am a child of God. This calmed him down almost immediately and by the time I finished singing it and started to sing I lived in Heaven, he had fallen asleep. There is a power in the gospel that is sometimes almost so tangible. I have a strong testimony of the power of a priesthood blessing and of the miracles that it can bring about.
As selected by a random number generator the winner of my giveaway is
# 3 Sherrada Says:
March 28th, 2010 at 10:08 pm e
I regularly check your blogs to see what’s new. Lydia loves to see pictures of her cousin!!!
Go ahead and go to my online boutique and let me know what two items you want. I will send them home with your parents when they come out to visit.
I have been debating back and forth for months now on whether or not to go private. On the one hand it is a pain when my fellow bloggers go private because their blogs no longer show up in my google reader feed. On the other hand my blogging has become more journal keeping and a way to keep track of all the cute things that my kids do. As such I have finally decided that it would be prudent for us to go private. If you would like to be invited to view our blog please leave a comment with your name and e-mail address. I will turn the blog to private on April 23 or 24th so you have two weeks to leave a comment.
So I wrote a little story awhile back about Aiden finding a air soft pellet outside. It can be used for reference here. We haven’t heard him say anything about it or mention the words choking hazard again until two days ago. Then yesterday I was feeding him lunch and he says, “I need to eat the choking hazard.” What a nut!
Today my grandma was asking Aiden, “Where does Brandon work? Where does your daddy work?” and Aiden replied, “On the computer.” LOL. While laughing, I said to my dad and grandma, “That is more true then anyone could have said.” Kids are so perceptive. Maybe they understand the universe better then we do. Too bad they can’t explain it to us…
So yesterday Aiden was being stubborn about having a messy diaper that needed to be changed so to infuse some humor into the situation I asked him, “Do you want a diaper change or a swirly?” He grinned and said, “I need a swirly.” LOL.
And I am home from the hospital. I had forgotten how very little sleep you get at the hospital. Why don’t all of those nurses, doctors, and lab people come in at the same time, which ought to be when you are up to nurse, rather then when you have just finally fallen asleep. Anyway we will get back to all of that in a little bit.
Monday and Tuesday were, on the whole, rather uneventful. In fact, I can’t really remember them at all except perhaps that there was the need to finish last minute preparations for Lucas to arrive. Wednesday went pretty well but around 5:00 in the afternoon I thought that maybe I was leaking amniotic fluid. I put on a pad and when Brandon got home from work we went up to St. Mark’s to be tested. The results came back that there was no amniotic fluid but I was dialated to a 4, at a -1 station, and still 75% effaced. The nurse said that she would be surprised if I made it all the way to my induction date of Saturday.
Thursday night I slept poorly, waking every 2 hours and finally at 4:30 I got up to time contractions. From 4:40 to 6:00 they were every 5 mins. so I called L & D at St. Mark’s and made plans to go in when Aiden woke up. Unfortunately after that they died off and because I was emotional Brandon had to make the hard decision of leaving me to go into work. After waking at 4:30 and then adding the disappointment of not really being in labor I just did not know how I would get through an 11 hour day without Brandon. Thankfully my mom came over and we decided to go to the mall and see if I could get contractions started by walking around. While we were at the mall Aiden saw the Easter Bunny (whom he actually liked and shook his hand and hugged), got some chocolate at See’s (I asked Aiden if he wanted chocolate before we got out of the car and from the time we got out until we got the chocolate he kept saying, “I need the chocolate.”), and ate lunch in the food court. Aiden liked being out and about and while walking did nothing, being able to get out and be distracted really lifted my spirits. We all kept praying that my water would break but it never did. Incidentally, Thursday night was the best I had slept in a few weeks and I knew the last really awesome night of sleep I would have for awhile.
Friday I came to terms with the fact that I likely was going to be induced and we got out and ran errands and we had a good day. I wasn’t overly cautious because I still hoped that nature would kick in on it’s own but I didn’t go and do anything crazy either. We picked up some gardening stuff (seeds, seedling dirt, fencing, a topsy turvey for tomatoes, and the little seed starter containers), went to eat at Chili’s, picked up our family photos from Target and in the evening after we made chicken rolls we went swimming at Holiday Lions Fitness and Rec. That was awesome because we got there at 5:00ish and because the pool was closing in a mere 60-90 mins. They let us in free (saving us $12.00). It was a great pool. Aiden loved the water play area and spent most of the time pulling on the levers, which in turn made the water go on and off. It was also an emotional day because I knew that it was my last time rocking Aiden to sleep for nap and bed and hanging out with Aiden without having to worry about another’s needs as well. Change and the unknown has always been really hard for me.
Saturday was THE big day. I did not sleep well at all Friday partly because I was nervous and partly because I had the Abby’s flying fairy school song from Sesame Street stuck in my head. It is a bouncy song, not exactly conducive to relaxing and calming. I woke up at 4:30 again and was unable to get back to sleep. I called the hospital at 6:00 a.m. and they asked us to be there at 7:00 to check in. My mom arrived shortly after that so that Aiden wasn’t home alone (and to deliver him to my aunt when he woke up) and away we went. We were all settled in very quickly and then we waited, and waited. From what I surmised there were no direct orders about how to proceed from the doc. As such pitocin wasn’t started until 9:00. We then waited around for the doc. to come and break my water which happened at about 10:45. It is important to note that when I arrived at the hospital I was still 4 cm. 75% effaced and a -1 station. Things seemed to be progressing very slowly. I did ok handling contractions ( I was only really feeling every third one or so and could “walk it off” until I got to transition stage and then the contractions got almost immediately worse. I asked for some fentanyl to take the edge off. It never really did but Brandon said that perhaps the contractions got a lot more painful at that point and took off some of the extra pain. I did not like the fentanyl. It made me feel fuzzy/loopy and I just wanted to go to sleep. When I hit the intense phase of labor, I knew it was too late for an epidural and despite my intense fear of a c-section I found myself very nearly asking for one. (That ought to accurately express just how much pain I was in.) I got to the point where I was finally at like a 9/9.5 cm. but there was just a little rim of cervix in the way. It was at this point that I started to feel an urge to push (I thought but couldn’t really tell because of the pain) and I also just wanted to crawl out of my skin. Pushing did seem to ease the contraction pain though so push I did, until Lucas started crowning and the nurse started yelling (I think) “Small little pushes, not so fast.” and then I lost my groove, I was in pain and I just started saying, just get him out. The doc. mentioned that if he did an episiotomy he would come right out and I said do it then, but the nurse piped up with something about me being sure and you can do it on your own. I don’t even think I was really pushing anymore at this point. I said again, “Just give me the episiotomy and get him out.” Thankfully the doc did what I asked, (He later said I would have torn at that point anyway) told me I could stop pushing (I don’t even know if I was anymore anyway) and eased Lucas out (the shoulders were a bit intense again for just a moment). They then put Lucas on my toweled chest and roughed him up there. I immediately asked for my cookie (LOL, inside joke from last time) and we got around to ordering some Subway for my mom to pick up for us.
Here are a few things I should also mention…my nurse and I had a personality clash, by the time I realized this I would have felt insanely bad for sending for a new one. She had a very hands on approach and yet didn’t coach very well. She also hovered. When I got to where I was feeling the pain all I wanted was for everyone to clear out of the room so that I could try and and cope with my mom and hubby by my side. In fact at one point the charge nurse came in, she gave me a few ideas with how to try and cope with the pain and also got me a wet wash cloth. I felt that I had gotten more help from her in 5 mins. then I’d had from my nurse all day and she did it all without invading my privacy or personal space. My nurse asked if I wanted her to rub my legs, feet, or back and I told her no but she ended up rubbing my leg once or twice anyway. She also was just hovering and kept asking if I needed anything and I finally said, “We will let you know if we need anything.” She left then but was back soon after just watching me while I tried to cope with my pain. Afterwards, she asked if I wanted a shower (which I declined) and then when I went in to go to the bathroom two other nurses were hovering and I shooed them away and then she came into the room (not the bathroom) and just as I was finally relaxing enough to go she yelled, “Is everything ok in there?” GOOD GRIEF! I decided not to even bother trying anymore at that time and then she came in to help clean me up without even asking. Hello, I declined my shower, when I was ready to get a bit cleaned up I would have either asked for help OR had someone tell my husband how to do it. I was then rushed out of my labor and delivery room and upstairs to the surprise of my mom and Brandon. I would have liked to have overseen some of the picking up of the room and even had a moment to look around myself (from the bed or wheelchair) to make sure we had gotten everything.
Ok, just a couple of things. It was my intent to labor without pain meds. I fully planned to spend a big chunk of my laboring in the jacuzzi tub that is in some of the rooms. I did not know however that when you are on pitocin the baby MUST be monitored during the ENTIRETY or labor and delivery. That would have been good to know. Had I known I may have made a different decision. I also should have done more research on how to cope. I was relying solely on the lamaze I had learned as well as the positions for coping that were in my birthing book. I should have looked for a doula or birth coach, learned some hypnobirthing techniques, and gone without the fentanyl because at that point I had to stay in the bed.
Once Lucas was born I fully felt like I had failed miserably in what I thought was going to be a quick, fairly easy to cope with the pain, kind of labor. Despite my feeling like a failure, the nurses, my mom, and my husband all told me how wonderful I did and that I had indeed achieved my goal and was a success. They told me that I has done amazing (to which I was thinking how is giving up and asking for the episiotomy amazing? How was wanting to crawl out of my skin amazing?). Anyway, the whole thing was just very traumatic and I am still trying to wrap my mind around things. It wasn’t until today when I learned that pitocin contractions are generally by far more painful then regular that I realized maybe I had done something worthy of the praise I received. At this point I do not know what will happen next time around. As much as I despised the ol’ catheter the first time around I was certainly much calmer and able to read the need to push more accurately and push more effectively. I know for sure that if I ever opt to induce again then an epidural will go hand in hand with it. I do still hope to go try going into labor on my own at some point. I have just been too nervous too because I would get to measuring big and the possibility of c-section with each additional ounce the baby put on would grow. We will see what I feel like when the time comes but for now, I am not even going to think about it because if I do then I would tell you we aren’t even going to start trying again until sometime in the next millenia. ;p I know one thing is for sure, I do intend on having the next labor and delivery be more the beautiful experience that I feel it should be (more like my first and less like my second, with as little medication as possible) and between now and that unforeseen date I plan to do a LOT of research. Well, Aiden is awake and the baby needs to eat again soon so without further ado, my 2nd born Lucas Alexander Wilhelmsen (pictured below with various family members). Thank you to EVERYONE who kept Aiden company and entertained while Brandon and I were “out of commission”.
Does anybody read this blog? If so then please post a comment on this blog entry. You can ask a question about the family that you may be curious about, tell me about your favorite blog entry from past entries, or simply write a short comment letting me know how you are doing. You will have until April 5th to do so and then I will randomly pick a winner that can choose two free items (under $5.00) off of my online boutique http://handmadehodgepodgebyerin.blogspot.com/ Good luck! Also if I get fewer then 10 comments then I am going to consider going private with my blog. Let me know if you are reading!
We are a happy Latter Day Saint Family who enjoy being silly. We blog in order to keep our friends and family up to date on our lives, our opinions, and our adventures.