Bellevue Botanical Gardens

Sunshine

Mom brought the sunshine with her!  And when we've got sun, we enjoy it!  Here we are playing at the park.

Grammy!

 My mom is simply amazing.  I know all moms are not created equal and I just thank heaven (literally) that I was blessed with mine!  She came for a full week to help me after Ian was born and it was blissful.  I pretty much got to be a kid again.  You know, the days when Mom did all the laundry and cleaning and when dinner rolled around all you had to do was show up?  Ya, that was me.  A grown woman with a husband and 3 children. :)  Now you know why I say it was blissful!! But the best part was getting to hang out with her all day, every day.   I loved every minute!  Since I had just had a baby there was no pressure to be out and about and so we just got to relax and watch chick-flicks and play games in the evenings.  (Eric was loving life...heehee!)  We also did do a lot of fun activities... I have pictures coming soon!

snuggle bug

[I'm back online and so relieved! I had some issues with my browser and blogger... it took me a few weeks to figure out the simple fix (obviously I'm no computer whiz).  I'm excited to catch up now!] 

I could snuggle with that cute little bug all day!  But alas, I do have two other equally adorable children to take care of, so Ian does have sleep time in bed occasionally.  Here he is at 3 weeks:

2 weeks old and the sweetest smile you've ever seen

I can't believe our little guy is already 2 weeks old!! How incredible is that?! He turned 2 weeks on his due date April 19th. He measured in at 8 pounds 2 ounces and 21 inches! I'm so glad he came early... I got out of 2 miserable weeks of pregnancy and instead got to enjoy him on the outside for 2 extra weeks!! :) And I've loved every single second. I even captured a smile on this big day!! Granted he is sleeping, but still. He has been smiling like that since day 3 and every time it melts my heart. He has the sweetest little spirit and when he is dreaming his happy little dreams and I get to see his smile, I just can't help falling in love with him a little more each time.

first bath

Ten days old and Ian gets his first bath in the bathroom sink! :) Gabe was super excited and helped me the whole time. He is utterly adorable with his baby brother. (I have so many sweet stories to share... and pictures too!) But anyway, Ian didn't love his bath but we tried to make it quick and cuddled him extra long afterward! Nyah was there too, sitting on the counter watching the whole show intently!

days 4 and 5

I know I can't blog about every single day with Ian but I took so many darling pictures the first week, I have to! :) Here are some favorite pictures of him on days 4 and 5 respectively. (At 4 days old Ian weighed 7 lbs 1 oz) I added some cute pictures of the kids outside playing on the 5th day... they were finally feeling up to a little physical activity and thankfully the weather permitted us to all go outside and enjoy some sun. I captured some great action shots of Gabe kicking his new soccer ball! I LOVE his form, haha!! He is so cute!! And there is out little princess - one of the first smiles on her face for days!

2 days old

For the first few days after bringing Ian home, my whole world revolved around this little man. When I wasn't sleeping, I was feeding him or burping him or changing him or snuggling him or kissing him or thinking about him! That is life with a newborn. A tiny, precious, brand-new baby. He is so helpless and sweet. So soft and warm. So perfectly fresh. Oh I've loved every minute. I may feel like a zombie pulling myself out of bed to nurse in the night but it is so worth it. Even at times like that, I have a hard time putting him down. When he's all sleepy with a tummy full of milk and curled up on my chest... oh my goodness, it's heaven! It doesn't matter that it's 3 am and I've had 2 hours of sleep! :) Nothing matters because it's like time is standing still and I just want to stay in the moment for a little bit longer. I LOVE having a baby in our family again. I LOVE this little boy...

Homecoming

Friday afteroon we headed home with our sweet Ian! On the way we had an appointment with an ENT doctor to fix his little tongue... his frenulum (membrane that tethers tongue to bottom of mouth) was unusually short and attached too far toward the tip of his tongue. This was causing problems with breastfeeding - instead of the tongue coming forward to cover the bottom gums, he was unable to do this and so was biting down and thrusting his tongue against me trying to get the milk out. Not very effective for him and super ouchy for me!! So just 24 hours after coming into the world he had to have his little tongue cut to free it. Poor sweetheart! But honestly he did great and the ENT told me it causes minimal pain/discomfort. Here is a picture that shows how tight his tongue was tethered:After that small side track to the ENT, we headed to our friend's house to pick up the big kids. Little Ian definitely didn't have the homecoming I had envisioned... Nyah had a fever the day I went into labor so I knew she had been struggling with a virus but what a shock it was to see how miserably sick they both were!! Nyah was like all the life had been sucked out of her and just layed on our shoulder limply with no interest in anything around her. And Gabe too... poor little man was wandering around in a fog. It had just hit him that day and he was burning up with fever too. Just the night before he had been in to see the baby and had been bouncing around so happy and full of energy. Today he was just like Nyah - both were so ill it broke my heart. :( I was also so grateful to all the wonderful friends that had taken care of my little kids during this time. I felt sad that I hadn't been there to cuddle them and take care of them but it felt really good to know that I had loving, kind friends that had watched over them when their parents couldn't be there. Needless to say, Eric spent the next two days holding and cuddling the kids through this awful sickness while I cared for our newest little guy. Thank goodness Ian never caught that bug!

Ian's Birth Story

For me the story of labor and childbirth is precious... I want to remember all the tiny details since it is such a lifechanging experience. This is my journal entry of what happened...Our sweet baby Ian gave us all a surprise by coming a full two weeks early!! His timing couldn't have been better since just 3 days earlier his Daddy had come home from working in NYC for a week. He would have missed his big arrival... and I shudder to think of myself going through this one alone. It all began on Wednesday evening as I sat on the floor sorting through Gabe's old baby clothes to wash in anticipation of our little guy coming...

5:30pm I stood up from sitting on the floor (an extremely uncomfortable seat when your 38 weeks!) and immediately had low back pain hit me hard. I quickly made my way to sit in the rocking chair to wait for it to pass... only it didn't! At 5:45 it was still a constant, intense ache and I called Eric to see how soon he would be home. Thankfully he was on his way after having a feeling that he needed to head home early that day! I was so relieved I could have cried (well, maybe I did a little!) Dinner was cooking on the stove and I couldn't even walk downstairs! He arrived home soon after and helped me into bed where I thought some rest would help. At this point it didn't occur to me that I might be in labor. The pain was constant and I couldn't feel contractions through it. Eric fed the kids and put them in bed, but the pain was only getting worse so we decided that whether or not I was in labor, we needed to go to the hospital.

8:00pm We arrive at Valley Medical Center and I go into the triage unit to evaluate if I'm in true labor. Of course the pain stops almost completely as soon as we get in the hospital so I'm feeling like a fool and just want to go home! I'm at 3cm and 70%. However, at 9:30pm the back pain and contractions start up again but by 10pm they send me home anyway.

Over the next 2 hours it is crystal clear that I am in labor as the contractions are 3-5 minutes apart and are very painful. In fact, this level of pain was definitely new to me. Both of my previous labors were uncomfortable at this point but not painful. So by midnight we were back at the hospital!

12:45am I am at 3.5 cm and 70% effaced. They tell me you aren't in labor unless you are making cervical changes which felt so irritating since Eric and I both KNEW I was in labor, whether or not I was progressing "quickly" enough... well an hour later I thankfully progressed to 4cm and 80% so they decide to admit me. They tell me they are just waiting for a bed to open up and then I can have my epidural.

2:30am This is beginning to feel like a nightmare with no end in sight. I am in so much pain - my back literally feels like it is breaking and it never lets up, even between contractions. I know the baby must be pressing against nerves because my legs are almost completely numb and tingly. The contractions themselves are bad enough that I can't talk and have to breathe through them. And all this on a hard little table with one flat pillow and no pain medication! The thing is, I am completely unprepared to do natural labor... and I have to admit that every hour or so I let myself cry a little and feel really sorry for myself! :)

3:00am So far I have been very trustful of the staff and assume they are doing their best to help me... Eric disagrees. He has had it!  He insists that the situation we find outselves in is ridiculous and unacceptable and goes to the nurses station and lets them know that I need pain relief now! (I'm sure he said it in a very nice way though!) Thanks to my wonderful advocate, the nurse comes to start an IV and give me some fentanyl. (Why haven't they done this earlier??)  It lasts for a blessed hour - taking the edge off my back pain and the contractions. They tell me there is only one anesthesiologist in the hospital that night and he is so busy starting epidurals and doing C-sections that he hasn't had time to start one for me. 

4:00am The Dr. comes in to check me and I've made no cervical change since the last time despite the past 3 hours of agonizing contractions. This is extremely discouraging because the birth center is so busy that night that they keep admitting women ahead of me that are farther along in labor. She even admits that the anesthesiologist was here earlier and they told him he could go because they still weren't sure I was progressing enough to get an epidural!!! What?!!! I am devastated that she has done that and Eric is really upset too... which makes me feel slightly better, knowing I have one person on my side!  The Dr assures me that the anesthesiologist will be back very soon and they will get me an epidural as soon as possible. Ya, I've heard that before - all night in fact but now I don't trust them at all. I have to say here that the worst part about the whole thing was that we felt like the staff was not taking me seriously... that because I wasn't more dilated they were very casual about my pain and getting me admitted. Since I was only at 4cm, how bad could it hurt?! That made it so much worse. It's funny how a little sympathy can make you feel like you can take on the world but the opposite can really sap your strength. I am so thankful I had Eric there to bolster me up and support me through it all.

5:00am I am finally admitted and the only reason being that they got a nurse to come in 2 hours early for the day shift. It's literally an answer to prayer! We have been waiting so long that it feels unbelievably wonderful to be placed in a real bed and have people there to actually help me. My nurse Kim is an angel and suddenly it feels like everything is going to be ok.

6:00am My epidural is finally placed... over 12 hours from when it all started. I am beyond exhausted. I feel emotionally wrung out from dealing with so much pain for so long.

7:30am I am at 5cm and 80%. It is staggering to me how slow my body is changing despite all the pain I've been through. (I honestly think that I was having serious nerve issues and that was a big part of why my pain was so intense.) Atthis point the epidural is not working very well anymore, in fact it feels like I don't have one. The anesthesiologist comes in to bolus it and increase the rate.

9:00am My epidural is still not working to decrease my pain. My legs are pretty numb but I'm still feeling everything in my back and abdomen. The anesthesiologist removes my epidural and replaces it with a new one.

9:45am They check me - no change. The newly placed epidural isn't working either so the anesthesiologist comes back in and gives me a bolus and increases the rate. By the way, he is amazing! So funny and happy - and the first Dr that has truly made me feel validated. He is surprised and worried about my level of pain and it feels good to have someone understand. I'm finally comfortable and pain free for the first time since 5pm the night before! It feels like heaven.

11:45am All of a sudden I start feeling the old, nasty pain in my lower right back again. By noon it is spreading across my abdomen and I'm in serious pain again. Since technically I'm still at 5cm the nurse calls the anesthesiologist to come bolus the epidural again. (They don't want to check me again because the OB is coming soon to check me and I'm GBS+ so they don't want to overdo it.)

12:20pm At this point I am in my own little world just trying to focus enough to survive without completely falling apart. Do I sound dramatic? Well, it's moments like this that you experience once or twice in your life (hopefully) and it is dramatic. The anesthesiologist is there and trying to get my pain under control. This is exactly what happened when I was in labor with Nyah! My labor was excruciatingly slow and then suddenly I had incredible breakthrough pain on my epidural and she was born 15 minutes later! A tiny part of me that wasn't wrapped up in coping with the here and now was wondering if the same thing was going on....

12:35pm The OB finally arrives and checks me. I'm 10cm and 100% and the baby has dropped very low and ready to come! The Dr. asked if I'd like to push and I was ecstatic! Btw, the bolus on the epidural had finally hit me and I was completely numb. I mean completely! Which was fine because I got to fully enjoy the moment of his birth and feel all that excitement and happiness without the horrible distraction of pain. I push through 2 contractions and at 12:51pm Ian is born!!

For the first time I got to have the experience of having my newborn placed on my chest directly after delivery. For me it was an incredible moment... hearing his sweet cries and seeing his tiny body pink up and go through all the miraculous changes with the first few breaths. It was life changing... childbirth always is. I feel like I'll never be the same every time I experience a child of mine born into the world. He is so beautiful!! Just perfect from his soft little head down to his tiny, precious toes. What an experience of a lifetime!! I am filled to bursting with love and happiness and awe that I get to experience this wonderful thing called motherhood!

That is one happy and proud big brother!! :)