#babyweek

#babyweek started Sunday July 5th and I was so very excited and anxious for this week to finally arrive. It was also very surreal to think that in days we'd have another little one in the family. I went in to the week with a "master plan." My mother-in-law was due to arrive on Wednesday the 8th and had plans to stay through the 16th to help us out with Carson and adjusting to life as a family of four. To get the most out of her time, I secretly told baby his birthday was going to be Thursday July 9, three days before my due date. So let's see how the "master plan" unfolded...

I had my 39 week appointment scheduled for Wednesday the 8th. I went in planning to have my membranes swiped because when they did that with Carson I went in to labor the next morning. This fell exactly in to my plan to have baby's birthday on the 9th. Nonni left Kansas City after work on Tuesday the 7th and arrived to our house around noon on the 8th. I was finishing up work and taking off early to head to my doctor's appointment at 2pm. Nonni decided to tag along as I said these appointments never take too long. The doctor checked me out and I was a 4, almost 5 cm dilated. Always exciting to hear, but never a sure thing of something happening soon (side note I had my 39 week appt with Carson 2 days before my due date and was 4 cm with him then). She did the membrane swipe and I was sitting there waiting for her to give me my induction date (by water break since I was already well into dilation) and I thought I felt a contraction (I hadn't had any to date). Part of me forgot what they were like, so I thought maybe I had "missed" something and had previous ones prior to this. After my appointment, Nonni and I went to Sprouts for a few things before heading to pick up Cason from daycare. At Sprouts I got a few more contractions that were strong enough to make my walking pace slow down a bit. I mostly thought these were happening since I had my membranes stripped and when picking up Carson Nonni said to his teachers, "he could have a brother today or tomorrow." Not what was crossing my mind!

We got home around 4pm and I noticed the contractions were starting to have some consistency. So I got out my handy dandy app and started to time things. Sure enough they were 7 minutes apart lasting about 40 seconds each. I started to put some last minute things into my hospital bag and jumped in the shower. After that my mother-in-law suggested I try to rest and drink water to see if they would subside at all. So I laid down and things only started to get closer together. At about 5 she suggested I call my doctor. I think I waited another half hour before making the call. I left a message and was now down to about 4 minutes apart. I still hadn't received a call back at 5:45p so I told Reid let's go. By now the pain had definitely increased and my contractions seemed to only be occurring more frequently. We arrived at the hospital at 6:23p and I had to make a few stops on my way up to the 5th floor for labor & delivery. It was also then I learned that my doc had tried to call me back leaving me a message "call us back or just come in." Cooper must have known I really like my doctor because she was on-call that evening :) We got back to the room and started the marathon work of papers. They hadn't checked me yet before this process started but I could tell this was the real deal (I always have that fear of being sent back home) as the pain picked up pretty quickly. There was no mention of getting an epidural yet, and I even said to Reid "I don't think I ever got to this stage with Carson before wanting the magic medicine." I remember with Carson that it wasn't the pain that got to me at that point, it was just being very uncomfortable and not finding relief in any way. Well this time it WAS the pain and when the nurse finally asked if I would be getting an epidural I quickly responded YES! Well it was then that the nurse checked me and said I was dilated to a very advanced 9 and re-asked if I was still wanting it. I think I whimpered to her, yes if it's possible! And let me tell you, the only way I was "coping" with this pain was being one of those crazy ladies you see on TV screaming. Yes, I would moan (in a screamingly manner) to distract my mind as much as possible from the pain. Seriously momma's who do natural births, you guys are AWESOME!! The staff rushed around and graciously got me my epidural. I sat very still (and screamed) through 2-3 contractions while it was being inserted, but they were able to give me just enough medicine to take away that awful pain to which the nurses then remarked, "now the other patients won't be scared" (yes, I'm slightly embarrassed). About 10 minutes later I asked if I could start pushing and it only took 5-10 pushes and Cooper Thomas Jennings was born at 7:43 pm. Much different story than with Carson.

As I was thinking about writing my birth story, I was kinda ashamed I couldn't "stick out the pain" and forego the epidural. But in the end it is MY labor and this was how I wanted to do it. Unlike Carson, I was able to feel Cooper being born and it was pretty amazing (never thought I'd be one of those people). I hate to admit this, but I had an instant connection with Cooper. The doctor's laid him on my belly and I was in love! My first thoughts were, he's so tiny!! And after my skin-to-skin time with him, we found out that my little peanut came in at 6lbs 11oz. Honestly I was shocked to hear the number 6 come out of the nurses mouth! My doctors had been telling me that they thought he would be in the 7lb range, and I felt he would be smaller than Carson as well, but I heard the same thing with Carson and pushed out an 8 pounder. Oddly though, Cooper's head was a 1/4 of an inch larger than Carson's, which is what I heard is really the determining factor for tearing. All-in-all my experience was great and I'm so in love with my new family. For most of the time it was Cooper and I hanging out at the hospital and I enjoyed all of my bonding time with him (enjoyed as much as you can being stuck in a hospital room). Carson came up with Nonni and Reid for a visit and wasn't to sure about his little brother. He did like showing him a new toy he picked out. It is very surreal that this phase has come and gone, and now it's time to see what our new routine will be as a family of four.

Hooking up the newborns 

Snuggling with Cooper

All snug

The tiniest feet and longest toes

Just like his brother!

Big brother meeting Cooper

Flowers from Nonni and Poppa 

Hello handsome!

Wide awake when Daddy came to visit

Snuggles with Daddy

Meeting Nonni

Carson giving Cooper a new toy

Our little family

Giggles

We love our newest little man

Love!!

Ready to go home and not loving the carseat

Big Bro (left) and Lil Bro

lil bro 38 weeks

TWO MORE WEEKS! Ah I can't believe it! I'm ready, not ready, excited, stressed, so many emotions going in to the final stretch! I finally have the nursery ready, a stock of diapers, clothes washed, cleaning underway but the list goes on still!! Good thing I have a 3-day weekend coming up.

For being two weeks out I'm feeling pretty good. I have been going to a pre-natal BARRE class on Saturday mornings and yesterday one of the other ladies commented, "If I were 38 weeks I'd be in bed or on the couch!" I definitely do not exercise as much as I should (aside from chasing around the toddler or cleaning up the yard and house) and I have been trying to be more motivated about it, but for whatever reason right now I focus more on organization of the house and getting last minute things done. And unfortunately my body is hurting because of it. With Carson at this point, I remember feeling so large and unable to move at a reasonable speed by the end of the day. But I was waking up every morning and doing 10-15 min of stretching/yoga before work so my body wasn't achy. Actually I was achy for other reasons. I've learned this go-around that I can not eat full meals as it creates a pain in the upper side of my back. So you will find me snacking lot these days. Now I'm a different kind of achy. My hips hurt and thanks to the summer heat my lower legs and feet feel swollen. But thankfully I do not feel as large this go around, I still walk at a decent pace and have energy to chase the toddler around/do housework. Overall I feel great for for being 38 weeks.

At my latest appointment there was still no signs of dilation. When asked if I had any concerns, I said only if this kid is bigger than Carson was and having a c-section. So we played the "guess what baby will weigh game" and my doctor is estimating 7-7 1/2 lbs. While this sounds great, I'm not getting my hopes up because she said the same thing about Carson (I think she may have said upper 7s for him) whom I delivered at 8lbs 6.3 oz. But she also said that there have been some recent studies between a mom's guess vs an OB's guess at the size a baby will be at birth and the moms were more accurate. So I'm crossing all fingers and toes that since I'm feeling smaller this time luck might be on my side! I guess all we can do is wait and see!!

Lastly Reid and I had a wonderful baby shower from his co-workers. There was delicious snacks and a ridiculously good white-chocolate raspberry bundt cake and everyone was so kind in getting us a few last minute things to help prepare for our newest bundle. Unfortunately I didn't snap any pictures, but someone did a fantastic job hand-making adorable nature-themed decorations in teal, green and orange. Reid is so lucky to have found such a great work environment.

Final Adventure as a Family of Three!

Last weekend we decided to take a break from the house projects to enjoy one last adventure as a family of three. We decided to head out west on 285 to avoid the hustle and a bustle traffic of I-70, or so we thought. We ended up getting stuck in major traffic on 285 due to a merging lane. The traffic in Colorado in to the mountains drives me CRAZY!! You can never seem to catch a break. But we finally made it to Conifer and headed south on Colorado 126 through Buffalo Creek where we found some dispersed camping just before reaching the Buffalo Creek campgrounds. There were quite a few camp spots, and unfortunately for us a lot of them were already claimed by the time we rolled in at 6:30pm. Another crazy, small world we drove right past the gate to some to some of my relatives cabin. We have only been once before and didn't know we'd be so close. We even thought to ourselves we should give them a call and see if we could camp on their land since our luck seemed to be running out of finding a spot. But luck was on our side and we found ourselves a spot.

Poor Reid had to do most of the work setting up camp as I was a very pregnant 36 weeks and 5 days! But he got a fire going and I started on dinner while he then got the tent set up. And much to my surprise my non-meat eater son grabbed a chicken sausage and ate the whole thing while walking around the campsite! He even went for seconds :) Carson did great at the campsite, other than standing in the campfire smoke then crying when it burned his eyes. Silly boy! Our campsite wasn't remote, but it was far enough away from the neighboring sites to be comfortable. The parking area for our site was up a hill, and we pitched out tent about 50-100 yards down the small hill. Well just as we were wrapping up dinner someone decided they wanted to pitch a tent on our grounds up by the cars. They ended up playing R&B music, not quietly, and their conversations grew louder and louder as the alcohol was consumed. We were nervous it would last all night, but thankfully they quieted down at a decent hour. It only ruined Reid and I relaxing by the fire and enjoying some country music from the neighbors site.

Carson went to bed an hour or so before us. This was our first time camping with him without the pack n play so we were not sure how well it would go. He also doesn't sleep under covers, so I was a little nervous about him getting too cold. We weren't at high enough elevation for the temps to drop a lot, but enough I thought for not having a blanket. Well this kid did great! We put him in the tent and just let him wrestle around til he was tired enough to fall asleep. And this happened to be laying on all the pillows we brought to keep us, mostly me, comfortable. We had Carson laying on some sleeping pads and unzipped his sleeping bag for a cover, I ended up laying on Snyder's dog bed because inflatable pad had a hole, and Reid snuggled with Snyder to keep him warm. Well even though Carson slept all night long, he slept very restlessly and was all over the place. He eventually took over the dog bed and slept with no covers...but it didn't seem to bother him. Even though we didn't go far, we still had a great time escaping the projects at home and enjoying time as a family.

Another reason we picked this spot for camping (aside from it being less than an hour from Denver) was we knew there were some trails nearby for us to hike a little the next morning. We set out on the Colorado Trail where we hiked about 2 miles roundtrip. Mama can't do much hiking these days! But we were able to make it to a spot to see some snowy peaks and let Carson roam a bit himself. All in all it was a good trip and we can't wait to take baby 2 out now!