Halloween Parade

On Friday Reese's school had a Halloween costume parade. All the kids wore their costumes to school and then paraded into the sanctuary for a sing-a-long. Aunt Kate accompanied us to help with the picture snapping as well as the baby juggling.

Reese's class was the second one to enter the sanctuary. Following their time posing for photos at the altar, they took a seat and waited for the sing-a-long to start. Unlike many of her classmates, I'm proud to say that Reese didn't shed a tear during any of the celebratory activities--even when Mommy and Aunt Kate helped her remove her costume in the classroom afterward.

At the end of the school day Reese had a small party in her class and came home with two pieces of Halloween artwork as well as a snack cup full of Halloween goodies which she ate for snack later that day.

Pumpkin Time!

Last weekend we carved our first family pumpkin. (Last year we settled for the plastic kind with light bulbs inside.)

While Kim and Ehren were over visiting Paige, Reese helped clean out the pumpkin and dictate its features for Daddy to carve. She was very insistent on having a "happy" pumpkin and NOT a "scary" pumpkin. In addition to carving our large pumpkin, Reese wanted to decorate the three small pumpkins we had accumulated (one from school, two as gifts). Mommy used permanent marker and diligently followed Reese's instructions to make a bunny pumpkin for Paige, a kitty-cat pumpkin for her, and a Big Green Monster (from the book of the same title).

The pumpkin fun didn't stop at our house, though--when Reese spent some time in San Antonio with the Righters, she helped Grandpa carve two additional pumpkins; one of them even has an owl carved on it!

Every night before bed, Reese waits for it to get to dark and then tells us it's time to light the jack-o-lanterns. We have a lovely family of them all by the front door.
PS I'm not sure why blogger is posting some of my pictures in a vertical orientation, and I don't have the time and energy to trouble-shoot, so please do the head tilt on our behalf.

Two Week Check Up

Yesterday while Reese was at school I took Paige to her 2 week doctor's check up. The goal at the 2 week check up is for babies to regain their birth weight. It seemed like Paige was filling out some newborn clothes (opposed to preemie stuff), so I was hopeful about her weight gain but ultimately clueless. I breathed a sigh of relief when she officially weighed 5lbs 9oz. She had gained just over 8oz in a week! With this news, I discussed the possibility of altering our 3-pronged feeding sessions with the pedi. He gave us the go ahead to stop the supplements and pumping and exclusively breastfeed--unless I need the break, of course. The only caveat is that we have to return in 2 weeks to check her weight again, just to be safe. The only other news from the appointment was an examination of her belly button. Her stump fell off within two days of being home, but it still looks a little funny. The doctor confirmed that Paige has an umbilical hernia. There's nothing we can do about it, and 90%+ of cases resolve within the first few years of life as the abdominal muscles strengthen. Apparently umbilical hernias are common in preemies since their abdominal walls are weaker than full term babies at birth.

Reese had a fun visit with Grandma Bailey this weekend and got to do lots of baking, and now she's spending two days in San Antonio with the Righters so Mommy can try to catch up on some sleep.

Today's efforts to get some additional sleep didn't got quite as planned since I had a follow-up OB appointment, desperately needed to go to HEB, and then fought a 3 hour feeding battle with Paige starting at noon.

While Paige isn't nearly as fussy as Reese was during this period of time, she's starting to find her voice and get a little more restless. Getting her settled after feeding can be tiresome and if you put her down before she's ready she grunts and groans until you pick her back up for more soothing. So far the swing is the only guaranteed soothing device for her--just like her sister. She may end up sleeping in it tonight if I get desperate.

The Transition Continues...

While our subsequent nights home haven't been quite as long as our first, the last week has been a long one. Some "highlights" from our transition to a family of four:

* Kevin has been sick--fever, head cold, the whole nine. Between my postpartum night sweats, his on and off fever, and spit up from Paige, I'm trying not to think about how gross our bedsheets are right now (since there's no time to wash them).

* Feeding the wee one: Breast, bottle, pump, breast, bottle, pump. It's exhausting and I'm hoping to get the ok to stop the bottles and pumping soon. Honestly, we're already skipping a couple bottles in the 24hr period since Paige doesn't really seem to latch on well, and following bottle feedings she almost ALWAYS spits up. And when I say spits up, imagine the exorcist. Suffice to say it's a little disturbing to watch milk squirt so far out of a tiny baby's mouth-especially since Reese hardly EVER spit up as a baby.

* Baby Sister: Reese can't decide what to make of Paige. If she's sleeping quietly and not occupying mommy or daddy's time or space, Reese seems to enjoy her. She gives her gentle kisses on the head, shows her toys, and loves helping pick up and clean up all of her feeding/pumping supplies. BUT, when Paige needs to be fed, all sisterly love is lost. So far, our favorite lines have been (imagine them being screamed, of course): "Stop feeding baby sister!" . "Put her down!" , and "I'm running away." While Reese hasn't packed a bag and made it out the door, she has announced her intention to run away several times and then proceeds to run to a distant corner of the house. Once she gets there she then yells, "mommy, come get me!"

* Since our return from the hospital, Reese has decided to stop calling me Mommy--instead, everything is "Mom." I feel like I'm talking to a teenager, and it was hard at first to not take the transition personally. I'm sure she's just experimenting with words--still, the timing is strange.

* Reese is still going to school on Monday and Fridays. Today was my first time taking her to school and dropping her off by myself. Similar to our experience on Monday, she was fine until it was time to go into the classroom, then she broke down in tears and didn't want to enter. I'm sure this is part of her transition/feelings of abandonment since it was never an issue before Paige arrived. Her teachers are wonderfully sweet and console her when it happens and she's always smiles when I pick her up in the afternoon.

*Fair warning: due to time constraints, I have not been proof-reading my posts before publishing them; so please forgive any and all egregious grammatical errors.

Night Number One

As promised, a recap of our first night home with Paige and Reese:

We were released from the hospital on Thursday morning and made it home just in time for Reese's one o'clock nap. The timing of our arrival made getting Reese settled for her nap a little tricky, but eventually she went to sleep. About thirty minutes later, Paige was ready for a feeding, and after days of feeding her in an uncomfortable hospital bed, I took her to the rocking chair in the nursery--bad idea. While I can't confirm that it was Paige's little noises that woke Reese up from her nap, within minutes Reese was up after a nap that lasted about 35minutes. Unfortunately, there was no getting her back to sleep. Instead, we decided we'd just opt for an early bedtime.

Our afternoon was fraught with mini-melt downs from our over-tired toddler. Cries of "Mommy, where are you?" could be heard ringing throughout the house if I didn't announce to Reese my every move and intention. If I was out of sight, she suddenly worried I had abandoned her.

Our "early" bedtime coincided with another feeding for Paige (and let's face it,with her eating at least every 3 hours, it gets in the way of a lot of things Reese would rather it didn't). Reese eventually settled for a bath from Daddy and then we tried a family story time while I was nursing Paige. While tumultuous, we eventually got Reese settled for the night.

Our night with Paige was uneventful at first: we woke her up for feedings, changed her diapers, fed her, and she went back to sleep without much fuss. (NOTHING like her older sister who stayed awake screaming for hours on end even during her first days home.)

We had just put Paige down around 3:45AM when we heard Reese stir and wake up. Upon waking Reese began to immeidately dictate a list of needs: We heard cries of "I need a drink of water," "I need another story," "I want more lullabyes," and the like for the next hour. From previous experience we've learned that if we enter Reese's room and grant one of her late-night (or early-morning) requests, she will stay up indefinitely making more....so, we chose to ignore her. After an entire hour of listening to her shouts, Mommy was teetering on the verge of insanity; and that's when Reese turned up the volume on her protests. Instead of making requests, she started alternating between screams of "I'm upset, " and "I'm crying." After another half hour of inattention we were sure she was going to exhaust herself and go to sleep. Instead, she started screeching at the top her lungs and then yelling, "I'm screaming, I'm screaming." Even with the monitor turned off, we were privy to all of her commotion since we share a wall with her bedroom. By this point Mommy was in tears and Daddy was growing tired and impatient too. Only Annie and Paige seemed undisturbed.

Reese finally relented in her screams and then proceeded to climb out of her bed and started banging on her bedroom door. (We had live action views courtesy of our new video camera.) After only five or ten bangs, she climbed back into bed. We anxiously anticipated her collapse at this point...instead, she climbed out of bed one last time, walked over to an air freshener near her door (an air freshener she had never touched or played with before), pulled it out of the socket, looked directly into the camera, and then proceeded to try and stick her finger in the electrical socket. We watched in shocked horror and Kevin lept out of bed to prevent her from electrocuting her self.

When we got her back into bed after her nearly hazardous encounter, she managed to sleep for an additional 30 minutes before waking up at 6:15AM ready for her day...it gave us a lot of time to kill before school started at 9AM. We considered not sending her to school, but in the end (since we had already arranged for Aunt Kim to drop Reese off at school), decided to pick her up early and try to squeeze in a good and early nap.

What followed was a long day for all of us.

Paige Marie Arrives!

What a week it has been!

Reese and I started our Monday morning in a very typical fashion--we got ready for a trip to the park followed by a run to HEB. Around 9AM I walked out to my car to fetch my water bottle so I could take it to the park. As I walked to the car I felt a small gush of water in my pants....so, I did what I think most largely pregnant women do: feel embarrassed, assume I urinated on myself, and go change. Walking around 4cm dilated and 80%+ effaced, now I'm not sure this was the best idea, but at the time I was more focused on remembering to bring my reusable grocery bags and snacks for the park.

Once I changed, Reese and I headed to the park. While at the park,though, I continued to feel leaking. I called Kevin and let him know that I was going to call the nurse line to get some advice on what to do before running to the hospital. I specifically told him not to leave work since I was sure that this was a false alarm. The nurse listened attentively and told me to get to the hospital right away for an exam. Convincing Reese to leave the park was ultimately the most difficult part of this arrangement. She was NOT ready to leave. While dragging a screaming toddler out of the park, I was on the phone trying to arrange childcare for Reese with our neighbor--explaining that it, of course, may all be a false alarm.

Our neighbor, Wendy, met us at the house and I packed the car with our bags just in case I was admitted. Kevin called as I drove myself to the hospital and we got in an argument because he decided to leave work and meet me at the there. At the time, I was angry that he was leaving work only to be privy to the embarrassing idea that this was all a false alarm.

I got to the hospital at 11AM and waited to see the on-call doctor. Twenty minutes later Kevin arrived, the doctor announced my water HAD indeed broken, and I was on my way down to labor and delivery. The experience was very surreal since I had driven myself to the hospital, I wasn't having contractions yet, and I rode the elevator down to labor and delivery and checked myself in (no wheelchairs or nurses involved).

Within minutes of getting to my delivery room, I started having contractions and no less than four nurses were swarming me prepping me for the operating room. For some reason, I always imagined that if I gave birth on a weekday (unlike I did with Reese) my doctor would perform the birth. Apparently our baby chose the only day of the week my doctor wasn't working and I met my two doctors only moments before they cut me open.

Since I was much more lucid for this birth experience (I hadn't been laboring for 15hours etc), it seemed like ages before Kevin entered the room and they began the delivery. Since I was on my back with a strange view and Kevin walked in wearing his surgical garb, I didn't recognize him. I was mortified by the idea that they had brought the wrong husband to the operating room and I was about to tell the nurses, "That's not my husband" when I caught sight of his wedding ring and reconciled what I was seeing. They tell me it only took 9 minutes to deliver Paige, although it felt like an eternity. Unlike Reese, she started screaming right away. Her cry sounded oddly like a caterwauling Tom Cat and I couldn't help but laugh. The doctors thought I was crying hysterically (since apparently my abdomen was shaking) and stopped their work temporarily to check on me.

While she was almost 3 weeks early, I was still a little surprised by her weight--5lbs 3oz. Since I started dilating early I had redoubled my efforts to gain weight and beef her up in case of an early delivery.

Since her delivery, Paige Marie has been an angel (knock on wood). The hospital nurses adored her and created special hats and outfits for her daily. We had the same AMAZING night nurse all three nights of our hospital stay who fixed up a comfortable bed for Kevin, helped feed the baby, and kept me on top of my medications. When she walked in to our room on the third night (I was sure we'd have someone different) I actually started crying because I was so relieved to have her help again. (Kevin thought I had lost my mind.)

While we may have liked to leave the hospital earlier, Paige's "late pre-term baby" status kept us there longer. At birth her blood sugar levels were low (33) and they had to be continually monitored for the first two days. Many heel pricks later, her blood sugar stablized and has been great ever since. Due to her small size Paige also had to pass a two hour car seat test to ensure she could be safely transported home. The test involved sitting in the car seat for two hours with electrodes attached to make sure she could breath properly and that her vitals were stable. We dared not think what would happen if she failed the test--would we have to stay longer? Would she stay without us? Luckily we didn't have to find out the answers--after a few hours in the NICU for testing, they wheeled her in and proclaimed her safe to travel. After a run down of post-op care, we were released from the hospital on Thursday morning.

So far, Paige is feeding and sleeping well. Due to her small size, her feedings are a little intensive and require time on the breast, supplemental bottles, as well as breast pumping for mommy until her actual due date. Repeating this three-pronged feeding approach every 3 hours is a little tiresome, but her pedi appointment yesterday proved that it's working. While she's not back up to her birth weight yet, she had gained 2oz in about a day--only 4 more to go until she's back to her birth weight. I'm also glad that I've had experience breast feeding, bottle feeding, and pumping during Reese's infancy. I can't imagine how ovwhelemd a new parent would be to try and learn all three skills so soon, knowing that your sucess impacted your tiny baby's ability to gain weight.


I think we'll be in preemie diapers for a while, and she's got a lot of growing to do before she can fit her newborn clothes, but all-in-all, we ecstatic she's here and healthy.

** hospital pictures coming soon...as well as the tale of our first night home--it's a doozy.

Fall Festivals

Today we had not one, but two fall festivals marked on our calendar.

Reese's school celebrated their 30th "birthday" with a small carnival in the fellowship hall. There were cupcakes, face painting, and cookbooks for sale. (While we chose not to buy a cookbook, Mommy shamelessly helped herself to some of the samples they were handing out.) The highlight of the carnival was a performance by the Biscuit Brothers. The Biscuit Brothers are a small quartet who have their own children's show on PBS. Reese enjoyed seeing the group perform, but was hesitant to participate in any of the clapping and dancing. Instead, she opted for sitting in Daddy's lap and watching intently. Toward the end of the Biscuit Brothers' set, we visited the church pumpkin patch. While it pales in comparison to the farm we visited last year (let's face it, just about any pumpkin patch will), Reese still enjoyed exploring all the palates of pumpkins. By far, her favorite were the "mini" pumpkins. It took a couple reminders before she relented in her attempts to pick up every pumpkin she saw--mini or not.


In addition to the school carnival, our neighborhood was holding its fall festival in the park. Admittedly, after over 5 years (has it really been that long?) in our house, we had never attended one. We dropped by the park and were a little disappointed. Rather than games and treat booths, we were met with lots of vendors some selling puppies, others passing out leaflets for the upcoming gubernatorial election. We decided to spend some time on the playground instead of hanging around too long.

Personally, I'm a little disappointed that we won't be making a return trip to the Sweetberry pumpkin patch this fall, but with my belly ticking like a time-bomb these days, it's hard to justify the drive and the possibility of going into labor during the visit. Guess we'll be bringing BOTH girls for the experience next fall--should be super fun!

October Toddler

I figure I should get some notes/musings in about Reese before things get too hectic around here. I wish I could say that the last few weeks have been filled with blissful cooperation on the part of our little one, but for the most part it's been quite the opposite. Kevin keeps reminding me that it's "The Terrible Twos" for a reason. I think our biggest issue is boundary testing/setting--now that she can communicate ALL of her needs and desires, it's hard for her to understand that she's not in charge of everything.

* School is going great for Reese. Her teachers mentioned that she's very empathetic and gets a little upset when other kids in the class cry, but otherwise she's doing well. Her reports from school usually include, "I played games." On Monday she actually got to wear pants to school thanks to the "cold" front that came through. (We were in shorts by the afternoon, but hey, I'll take anything at this point.) We have Reese's Open House at school in two weeks and will get to see some more of her work and projects then. Next weekend is also the school's 30th birthday celebration and carnival.


* Why nap? That seems to be the question in Reese's mind lately. I think she has finally realized that the world continues to turn after she's in bed sleeping, and THAT is totally unacceptable. (What she doesn't realize is that nowadays Mommy needs an afternoon nap just as much, if not more, than she does.) She definitely isn't ready to shed her one nap, but getting her down has become quite a process. As if all her routines weren't enough (pajamas, tooth brushing, stories, potty time, and lullabies), she now is trying to stall bedtime with as many last-chance-requests as possible. Even if she has sat on the potty five minutes earlier, when it's finally time to crawl into bed, she suddenly feels like she has to go again. Or she needs a glass of water, or she needs one more hug, or, or, or.... It's hard not to give into the potty request since wet/dirty diapers have cut short naps in the past, but drawing a line on everything else brings the house down. When Kevin came home early on Friday he got to hear the pre-nap meltdown in full effect. Unfortunately, when Reese melts down prior to nap, she always sleeps for short amounts of time, wakes up screaming (as if she's picking up where she left off), and is a cranky girl for the rest of the afternoon. Our solution has been to try and move both bedtime and nap time 30 minutes earlier in the hopes that our issue is being over-tired. It's working better, but her negotiation skills are still something to contend with. I'm finding it's also hard to get her down as early as I'd like on days she goes to school since pick up (at 1) coincides with nap time--the time it takes us to drive home and get her ready seems to escalate our problems on those days.

* Reese is really into dressing and undressing herself. While she's been working on the undressing part for some time now, she now likes to put her socks, shoes, and pajamas on independently (or as much as possible). From what was written above, you can imagine how well the pajama thing goes down some days before nap. She's gotten particularly good with her shoes, though. Thanks to Eric and Chesley, Reese has inherited at least 4 pairs of hand-me-down shoes (a pair of boots, two pairs of patent leather dress ups, and one pair of tennis shoes). One of her favorite past times lately, is to go to her room and play dress up with her shoes. She can put them all on successfully (including buckling them) and even gets them on the right feet most of the time (we've told her the buckles go on the outside, and that seemed to help). She can often be found tromping around the house in mismatched shoes.

* Medical notes: Athletes foot has resolved itself (although with her constant shoe switches I was worried we'd never kick it), but we prematurely wished her wart good bye. It has since come back, and we've resumed treatment. Reese got her flu "shot" this week. She now qualifies for the Flu Mist instead of the injection. It was WAY less traumatic and will be what I request in future flu seasons for her as well. The only draw back is that this year (due to her age and the fact she did not get the H1N1 shot last year) she has to return to the pedi to get a second dose in a few weeks--right around the time baby sister is arriving. Reese is also SO controlling that she is going through another bout of constipation. (I know she'll love hearing how I shared this with the world when she's older.) Her diet is about as high fiber as I can make it and she is great about drinking fluids, so the issue is NOT the consistency of her bowel movements, just the fact that she doesn't want to have them. We're not sure if this fear comes from a traumatic experience with a painful bowel movement in the past or a dislike of having a dirty diaper (although she won't go in the potty)--but it's just about one of the most frustrating things I can imagine. We watch her walk on her tippy toes, break out in a sweat, and cry in her immense effort NOT to have a bowel movement. After some research and talking with the pedi, we're including daily doses of a stimulant free laxative as well as an incentive program to try and CONVINCE her that pooping is fun. So this week I broke out my teaching boxes, located some stickers and charts, and we're officially doling out stickers for making poopie IN her diaper. From what we've heard, it may take weeks or even months to reverse this crazy psychological obsession. Good thing I've got lots of stickers. So far,the sticker thing has been really successful, and she earned a few today with much less drama than most of this week.

* Other developmental notes: Reese likes to sing her ABCs (she calls them "the ABCBs") and loves the calendar Mommy hung up in her room. She puts a new number on it each day and it helps her keep track of days when she goes to school and days when she stays home. After only a few weeks using it, she loves to point to the days and count and recite the days of the week.
I'm going to try and get her rendition of the ABCs on video soon.

Quilting

I'm not sure what got into me, so I'll blame it on nesting, although temporary insanity may be a better defense. Several weeks ago I decided to start making a quilt. To better understand why this is such a big deal you must first know that my sewing skills are probably on par with a six year old girl. I've never even hemmed a pair of pants (and being short I've had plenty of opportunities)--instead I always ask (aka beg) my mom to do it for me, or suck it up and pay for alterations. I recently made some burp cloths for pregnant friends and family, but sewing semi straight lines on something a child will puke on hardly counts. I know I wasn't admiring the hem work on my burp cloths at 2AM feedings. I borrowed my mom's sewing machine and was grateful she remembered to include the instruction manual--I've used it plenty.

I should clarify that the quilt I'm making isn't for the baby--I know better than to set myself up for that kind of stress and failure in my last trimester. I just intended to make a t-shirt quilt using old college tshirts that had been sitting in a box for....well, 8 years I guess. I had the project in mind many years ago, but after the tshirts had to be evacuated from the guest room-turned- bi- girl-room my hand was forced a little. And, I figured two kids would leave me no time to sew and I'd end up staring at that box of tshirts (resenting it daily) for 8 more years.

So began the quilting project....it's involved lots of crooked cutting, stitch ripping, and machine battling ever since. Don't get me wrong, there have been moments when I enjoyed taking in my new creation--as long as I didn't look too closely at it. My perfectionist nature coupled with inexperience and impatience went a long way in how this project is turning out.

And when I say turning out, yes, that means I'm not done yet. I'm only one step away from being finished, but I find I have to take breaks from the project in order to keep myself sane.
I may post some long-distance photos when the project is complete.

New Baby Gadgets

It already seems like an eternity ago, but last weekend the Bailey and Righter girls conspired to throw me a lovely baby shower at a local spa. They really went over the top and brought in catered food, flowers, and even magazines to read while we awaited our spa services. It was by far the most relaxing few hours in recent history and I didn't want it to end. While I thought I had instructed otherwise, they also showered me in gifts. I received some lovely pajamas that have become my daily uniform lately. (All of my pants are starting to feel tight around my LOW and growing belly--I'm definitely carrying differently this time around.) We also got the new-and-improved diaper genie--I'm sold on the foot pedal and lack of squishing diapers already. Reese and sister also received a few matching outfits that they can sport once baby sister is into 3mo clothes.

Kevin and I didn't make many purchases to prepare for baby #2, but the two we chose to make were biggies.

First, we got Reese a new car seat. While the one she was using was working perfectly fine (and it will be years before she reaches the 40lbs weight limit), we decided that we finally needed to "christen" Kevin's car with a car seat. Yes, you read that right--in the 2+ years of baby time in our house, Kevin's car has not yet welcomed a car seat. It was never a logistical issue, but now that we'll have two kiddos around we figured there might be circumstances when the kids need to go in different directions and/or we don't want to leave someone stranded at the house without a car that can transport kids. All that being said, a giant investigation was launched about which/what kind of car seat to buy. With the car seat laws expanding constantly, we wanted a car seat that would last Reese and/or her sister for the long haul (no pun intended). All the reviews pointed to one car seat in particular--a Britax. When Reese was a tiny baby I refused to buy into the Britax fan club on the basis of their ridiculous cost. They all pass the same tests, right? Why spend twice the money (or more) on a brand? Or, that was my logic anyway. After lots of searching, I got the options down to two car seats and took Reese to the store to try them both out. And...she and I fell instantly in love with the Britax. Thanks to some coupon cutting it wasn't quite as expensive as I thought it would be, but it was still a bit of a sticker shock. We've had the seat now for a few weeks and I like it even better now that we're using it regularly. Fan club, sign me up...

The other purchase we made in prep for baby #2 is a new monitor. This time, we knew we'd go for the "upgrade," and we immediately started looking into audio video monitors. The search wasn't quite as painful as the car seat (although the price tag was similar), and last week our new monitor arrived--complete with two infrared cameras that can pan, tilt, and zoom around the girls' rooms. The parental base unit lets us switch our monitoring from one room to the next with a few clicks. It's pretty nerdy, but exciting. While the camera function sucks the battery life a little, it is already great to use the video feature while Reese is sleeping or playing independently in her room. In the past, when she'd go play in her room, if I peeked in on her to check on what she was doing, she would immediately loose interest in playing independently and want me to join her, or she would abandon her play completely. At first Reese was a little preoccupied with the infrared lights, but once we explained them, she's been fine.



And so you have it...we're all geared up for little sister to arrive, with exponentially less effort than the first time around.