Wonderland
Dec. 13th, 2016 04:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dictatorcariTime for my annual LiveJournal entry! Thanks for the gentle nudge, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
erries.
Marion turned two.
What can I say about her? She's fantastic. She went from colicky baby to absolutely delightful toddler, who tells nonsense jokes ("No cow jumping over the moon! Bwahahahaha!") and absolutely adores her little sister. She's spirited and loving and inexplicably blond and wonderful.
We met Alice.
Five weeks ago, we had another little one: Alice June Trease.
(I swear Marion has more than one shirt.)
Alice is a much easier baby than Marion was, or at least we're much better at dealing with babies than we were two years ago. I suspect it's a little of both. But unlike the first time, time seems to be moving pretty quickly. We're almost through the first six weeks—which are the hardest, I think—and she's starting to smile at us and hold her head up and look more like a real baby.
Everyone told me the second time would be faster, but of course it went longer: 27 hours, beating of Marion's 24. Four days before my due date, I woke up at 3am by vomiting in my sleep (yay, pregnancy!) and felt what I thought was my water breaking. So in the morning, after my mom arrived to watch Marion—who naturally was sick and couldn't go to preschool that day—David and I drove to the hospital to get checked out. By then I was having contractions, so I assumed they'd admit me, but they told me my water hadn't broken after all and that my contractions weren't close enough to admit me yet.
They recommended we go kill some time, so I decided we should go see Doctor Strange. While I was having contractions about two minutes apart. It was the middle of the day, so no one was there, and I sat on the aisle gripping the armrest every couple of minutes when a contraction hit. Bottom line, I don't remember a whole lot about the movie, haha.
When it ended, I was pretty clearly in labor, so we went back to the hospital and they admitted me. After my experience with Marion, I asked for an epidural right away, and the friendly anesthesiologist came by after an hour or two to put me out of my misery. But just like last time, the epidural made me extremely nauseated, so every time they topped me up, I'd spend about ten minutes vomiting over the side of the bed. The nausea would pass, but then the epidural would start to wear off, and I'd have to decide what hurt worse: pushing a giant baby out of my nether regions (98th percentile for head circumference, ouch) or being strapped to a table while vomiting. (Neither one is great, if you're wondering.)
Anyway, things progressed very slowly, so they gave me Pitocin to speed up the contractions, which didn't help much. But finally it was time to push. After two and a half hours of pushing, the midwife gently suggested we bring in the obstetrician to either do a vacuum extraction (like we did with Marion) or a C-section, and just as she arrived—Alice popped out. If the midwife saw that coming, she certainly didn't let on.
Just like last time, I was incredibly startled to see a baby all of a sudden. Labor is such an intense bodily experience that I can't help but focus on myself, and I almost forget there's another person in there with me. Until suddenly there's a small, naked, bloody person on your chest. Then the midwife went to cut the cord and we heard her say, "Wow, what a lucky girl." When I looked up, she showed us Alice's umbilical cord—and the tight knot in the middle of it. Of course we panicked, and asked if Alice was ok, but the midwife assured us that she was fine. Apparently when Alice was a fetus, she'd wiggled around and caused a loose knot in her cord, which tightened as she grew. And during the long and difficult labor, the cord pulled tighter. But it must not have gotten that bad until just as she came out, because if it had happened much earlier, she probably would have been stillborn. So two minutes into her life, and we found out that we'd almost lost her. David had to go sit down. (I had to deliver a placenta, so I didn't really get to take a moment.)
And that was it. Alice passed her screening tests, I got poked and prodded, and finally we got to go home. Marion pretty much rolled with it when we told her she had a new baby sister (the gifts "from" Alice helped), and then we were a family of four.
We moved
Two months ago, we bought a new house six doors down from our old house, and we're busy trying to get it in a livable shape. David invited his whole family over from Britain, so by Thursday we'll have six people, plus the four of us, all staying in our half-decorated house with a toddler and a newborn. And then four more people (my family) coming over for Christmas. It's either going to be delightful and merry or a big hot mess.
And that's it! Or at least the highlights. Will that do you for another year, Erica? ;)
erries.Marion turned two.
What can I say about her? She's fantastic. She went from colicky baby to absolutely delightful toddler, who tells nonsense jokes ("No cow jumping over the moon! Bwahahahaha!") and absolutely adores her little sister. She's spirited and loving and inexplicably blond and wonderful.
We met Alice.
Five weeks ago, we had another little one: Alice June Trease.
(I swear Marion has more than one shirt.)
Alice is a much easier baby than Marion was, or at least we're much better at dealing with babies than we were two years ago. I suspect it's a little of both. But unlike the first time, time seems to be moving pretty quickly. We're almost through the first six weeks—which are the hardest, I think—and she's starting to smile at us and hold her head up and look more like a real baby.
Everyone told me the second time would be faster, but of course it went longer: 27 hours, beating of Marion's 24. Four days before my due date, I woke up at 3am by vomiting in my sleep (yay, pregnancy!) and felt what I thought was my water breaking. So in the morning, after my mom arrived to watch Marion—who naturally was sick and couldn't go to preschool that day—David and I drove to the hospital to get checked out. By then I was having contractions, so I assumed they'd admit me, but they told me my water hadn't broken after all and that my contractions weren't close enough to admit me yet.
They recommended we go kill some time, so I decided we should go see Doctor Strange. While I was having contractions about two minutes apart. It was the middle of the day, so no one was there, and I sat on the aisle gripping the armrest every couple of minutes when a contraction hit. Bottom line, I don't remember a whole lot about the movie, haha.
When it ended, I was pretty clearly in labor, so we went back to the hospital and they admitted me. After my experience with Marion, I asked for an epidural right away, and the friendly anesthesiologist came by after an hour or two to put me out of my misery. But just like last time, the epidural made me extremely nauseated, so every time they topped me up, I'd spend about ten minutes vomiting over the side of the bed. The nausea would pass, but then the epidural would start to wear off, and I'd have to decide what hurt worse: pushing a giant baby out of my nether regions (98th percentile for head circumference, ouch) or being strapped to a table while vomiting. (Neither one is great, if you're wondering.)
Anyway, things progressed very slowly, so they gave me Pitocin to speed up the contractions, which didn't help much. But finally it was time to push. After two and a half hours of pushing, the midwife gently suggested we bring in the obstetrician to either do a vacuum extraction (like we did with Marion) or a C-section, and just as she arrived—Alice popped out. If the midwife saw that coming, she certainly didn't let on.
Just like last time, I was incredibly startled to see a baby all of a sudden. Labor is such an intense bodily experience that I can't help but focus on myself, and I almost forget there's another person in there with me. Until suddenly there's a small, naked, bloody person on your chest. Then the midwife went to cut the cord and we heard her say, "Wow, what a lucky girl." When I looked up, she showed us Alice's umbilical cord—and the tight knot in the middle of it. Of course we panicked, and asked if Alice was ok, but the midwife assured us that she was fine. Apparently when Alice was a fetus, she'd wiggled around and caused a loose knot in her cord, which tightened as she grew. And during the long and difficult labor, the cord pulled tighter. But it must not have gotten that bad until just as she came out, because if it had happened much earlier, she probably would have been stillborn. So two minutes into her life, and we found out that we'd almost lost her. David had to go sit down. (I had to deliver a placenta, so I didn't really get to take a moment.)
And that was it. Alice passed her screening tests, I got poked and prodded, and finally we got to go home. Marion pretty much rolled with it when we told her she had a new baby sister (the gifts "from" Alice helped), and then we were a family of four.
We moved
Two months ago, we bought a new house six doors down from our old house, and we're busy trying to get it in a livable shape. David invited his whole family over from Britain, so by Thursday we'll have six people, plus the four of us, all staying in our half-decorated house with a toddler and a newborn. And then four more people (my family) coming over for Christmas. It's either going to be delightful and merry or a big hot mess.
And that's it! Or at least the highlights. Will that do you for another year, Erica? ;)
