In just a few more days Dan will officially be 2 years old! I can't believe how quickly these last two years have gone. Quite a lot has happened since he made his
arrival. Besides all his milestones, we have lost family members (Great-grandpa Wester and
(first) cousin
(twice removed) Tom McClintick), and probably the biggest change is the arrival of Anthony!
Anthony made his debut on June 12th, 2015 - exactly 21 months after Dan arrived. He was 5 days "over due" when he arrived. Here's his birth story:
I was due on Sunday, June 7th. As subsequent births tend to end earlier I was expecting to go into labor before then. Alas, the 7th came and went and no baby. My next appointment with my midwife was on the 11th. We discussed options to help encourage labor to start as we didn't want me to go too far over due. Baby isn't getting any smaller and with Dan being born at 8lb 2oz, we expected at least another 8+ lb baby. I ended up agreeing to a "stretch and sweep" which is where you gently release (sweep) the membranes from the uterine lining and gently stretch the cervix a little bit wider. At 40+4 I was already 4cm dilated. She was able to stretch me to about 5cm. I left with the knowledge that it could still take a few days for things to get moving so I wasn't expecting much.
That evening I started feeling contractions. This wasn't anything new as I had been feeling Braxton Hicks contractions for a few weeks already. I took notice and tried not to think much about it. It didn't take long to realize that this may be the start of labor. Jason had a football meeting so it was up to me to get Dan to bed. Let me tell you, trying to read bedtime stories while contracting is NOT easy!
By 11 or so that night I let my midwife know that this was the real deal and I was needing to concentrate a bit more during contractions. She arrived around midnight and checked to see how I was progressing. I had hoped to have another water birth, but unfortunately with being a second pregnancy and how far along I already was, there wasn't time to get the tub set up for me. I ended up laboring for a little more than 4 hours in my own tub. Again, unfortunately, I wasn't able to get into the position I needed to in order to push comfortably. Off to the bedroom we went. It was already set up with plastic under the sheets and chux pads on top of the sheets. After a few minutes, we checked to see where I was and I gave the go ahead to brake my membranes. I had been pushing through some of the contractions already and we wanted to make sure that I was dilated far enough so I wouldn't hinder my progress. Turns out I was far enough along and good to go for breaking my membranes.
Warning - a bit of TMI in this next paragraph. Skip it if you wish.
So you hear about how your water breaks and you get that big gush. Well, gush I did! I had to lay on my back for my midwife to break my membrane. Lots of water came out with the initial break. She then ran her fingers around my cervix in which even more water "escaped." Then a contraction came. I HATE LABORING ON LAND AND ON MY BACK!!! As soon as that contraction was done I was back on my hands and knees in a "child's pose" like you see in yoga. On my way over, even MORE water came out. This time I "leaked" on Jason. I later learned that he almost puked from that. I can't blame him. That's probably one of the last things you want to leak on you. Anyway, over the next 8 minutes, if I wasn't pushing my body was. Anthony made a splash into the world, coming out with EVEN MORE water!
OK - you're safe to continue reading now :)
As soon as he was out, I took a deep breath and turned back over and took him into my arms and onto my chest. After a 10 hour labor, 4 hours of active labor, 8 minutes of real pushing, he was here. He needed some extra help getting all that fluid out of his lungs. He was breathing fine, but was very gurgly. They took 8mL of fluid out of his lungs through suctioning, knocked some loose through inverted palpitations, and further loosened some using a respirator mask and 5 artificial breaths. They also massaged his placenta which helped keep blood moving through his body keeping his oxygen levels up. I also noticed a broken blood vessel on his left eye just outside of his iris. This was from how quickly he came through the birth canal. There was no time for his head to mold, which would have prevented the bruise. After a few weeks he was all healed.
After making sure Anthony was taken care of, breathing fine and had his first nursing session we took all his stats. He weighed in at 8lb 2oz and was 20.5 inches long. In comparison, Dan was 8lb 2oz as well and was 20.75in long.
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| Welcome to our family! |
Dan has been fantastic adjusting as a big brother. The first few weeks he was so excited to help out. He would get diapers and wipes, look for a blanket if we asked for one, just being overall a big help.
(as big a help that a toddler can be anyway :) ) Recently, Dan has been taking stuffed animals and treating them like his own "babies." It is so stinkin' adorable! It makes my whole being smile seeing him hold his "babies" close, wrapping them in blankets to keep them warm, gently laying them down on the couch or baby seat... He will even gently lay his hand on Anthony's head when he's crying. It really makes my heart melt. I can only hope that this lasts as they grow up and that there will be minimal fights between the two.
Jason was able to get two full months off for paternity leave, giving me lots of time to recover and adjust to having two boys. The first few weeks I took advantage of Jason's help and had him take care of Dan most of the time. By 6 weeks, I was ready and feeling confident to handle both on my own. Football season had already started so there had been some evenings where it was just me and the boys.
So while there are times throughout the day where Dan gets frustrated that I can't help him RIGHT AT THIS MOMENT, it's been great being home with both of the boys full time. Some days I just need to laugh at the chaos. There has been times where I'm trying to get Dan down for a nap and Anthony is fussing. Then as soon as Anthony settles down, Dan starts fussing. Then it goes back and forth for a few more minutes before both of them are now sleeping. There are times where I wish I was a better parent, but I think all parents have moments like that. I won't even begin to comment on keeping the house clean. As long as things are relatively orderly, the dishes get done every few days, there are plenty of clean clothes, and everyone still has all their hair/limbs/various body parts and are happy at the end of the day, I say the day was successful.
As of now, Anthony is outpacing Dan for growth. At two months, Anthony is already almost 2 full pounds heavier than Dan was at the same age. He is just as long, but we'll see how that progresses. It does seem like I have two linemen in the making!
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| Newborn |
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| 1 Month |
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| 2 Months |
As you can see we are using the moose again for the monthly pictures. I think it will be fun to have all the kids pictures done in a collage and set side by side to see how they are similar and different as they grow up.
At this point, I'm about a week out of starting to teach yoga again. I'm so excited to get back on the mat! Not only am I returning to the Wednesday night class, I'm also teaching a postnatal mama/baby class every other week on Saturday mornings, teaching a core functional fitness class Sunday evenings, and starting a 12-week meditation/mindfulness series also on Sunday evenings! If you happen to be in the area, please come to my class! I would love to have you and show you how amazing yoga can be!
So we'll call it a night for now. I'll leave you with our new family picture. Love from all of us <3
