Day in the Life Feb 2012

So another Laura at Navigating the Mothership does quarterly or semi annual posts of a day in detail is like an invites others to do the same, since that's sort of what I'm trying to do with this blog I thought I'd try it out.

Thursday Feb 16

5:00am Yep even with a almost 5 month old my day starts out at 5.  This is a fairly new phenomon, just last week Will was waking up once at 2-3 for a middle of the night feeding.  He has been sleeping all night for the past 4 days, hopefully that continues.  We still have him sleeping in the rock n play because it seems like he's constantly stuffed up and the couple times I've put him to bed in his crib, he wakes up super stuffed up, so we keep his head elevated.  I nurse him as soon first thing when I get up.

don't pay attention to the non-centerness of the picture, I had others that were centered but he was waking up and rocking and my shutter speed wasn't quick enough so I ended up with blurry pictures as will be more evident with the next couple pics that were taken in the morning.

5:25am  After nursing Will hangs out again in the RnP outside the bathroom while I get ready for work.  No shower today but the other days he just sits and looks around the bathroom.  He loves the sound of running water.

Will is such a happy baby in the morning

5:30am  Brian gets up and starts getting things put together for the day.  He's in charge of packing his lunch, making sure the diaper bag has diapers, wipes & a wet bag in it, filling my 3 water bottles (takes a lot of water to keep this mama hydrated enough for a good supply), putting my pumping bottles and a yogurt in my pumping bag and doing morning chores.

6:00am I'm ready for work so I change Will out of his pj's and his diaper and head downstairs.  If Brian has everything ready to go I sit and talk with Will otherwise I finish getting things around.

It's harder than it looks to take a self portrait, I think I'll take mainly pics of the baby



Baby loves to kick his legs during diaper changes



6:10am  We get Will dressed and into his carseat and pack everything in the car.  We both work at the same place but for different companies.  I work as an accountant for a large corporation and he is the head electrician for the company that does the maintenance on the building that I work in so we drive together most days. 

From closest: the green gift bag has Will's 3 bottles for the day in it with his diaper bag in front, then it's my pumping bag, then the bag to carry my water bottles and purse in and then Will in his carseat.

6:20  We drop Will at the babysitter's.  It is my aunt that watches Will during the day.  She has 4 kids of her own, 2 girls that are graduated and living on their own and 2 boys still in high school.  I guess she watched my sister and I when we were little.  She watches about 3-5 other kids during the day but it varies each day how many are there and a couple more get off the bus at her house after school.  It's so nice to have someone help get Will and all his stuff in the house.  I've done it by myself but it is much easier with a second person.

6:50:  We arrive at work.  I'm lucky that I sit by a window but below is a picture of what I see when I stand up and look over my cube wall.

7:10am  We have a cafeteria at work so I go down and get oatmeal for breakfast and add walnuts from home.

8:00am  I go to the mother's room and pump for Will's bottles for tomorrow. I'm on the 4th floor and the mother's room is on 1st floor It takes me about 30 minutes round trip to take the stairs to and from the room, pump, clean my pump parts and get back to my desk. 

9:00am I get a text from my aunt telling me Will woke up and took his 1st bottle by 9:00.  She usually sends me a couple texts a day telling me how he's doing.

11:00am Pump again

11:45am  2nd text saying Will is taking his 2n bottle at 11:45

12:15pm  I go to the cafeteria for lunch.  I always bring my lunch back to my desk and check Facebook and blogs while I eat.  I always get a salad of spinach and mixed greens with shredded carrots, cheddar, chicken, sunflower seeds and then either oil & vinegar or french dressing...I'm trying to eat healthier since I'm nursing Will but sometimes I can't ignore the call of the hot pretzel and fake nacho cheese and today is one of those days....at least I get it without the extra salt.



2:00pm Pumping again.  The yogurt Brian packed along with some walnuts is my afternoon snack that I have after my 2:00 pumping.

3:45pm Brian and I leave work for the day and head to pick up Will

4:15pm  We pick up Will from my aunt's

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4:25pm Even though the trip home is less than 10 minutes, Will always falls asleep.  I let him sleep in his carseat.  Sometimes he wakes up in 5-10 minutes other times I have to wake him up when it has been 3 hours since he last ate.  Him sleeping when we get home allows me to get the diapers in the washer.  We only have enough for 2 days and the washing & drying take most of the night so they need started as soon as we get home.  Next time they go on sale I'm going to buy enough for an extra day or two.  I also wash Will's bottles if he's still sleeping or I do that later.  Brian puts wood in the wood burner and feeds the animals for the evening.

5:00 pm  I take Will upstairs to change his diaper and nurse him.  Afterwards we sit at the kitchen table and Will plays a little.  Right now his playing is trying to grab different objects.  About an hour after he eats I put him on his tummy for tummy time, any sooner and he tends to spit up a bit.  He's doing pretty good with his head control.  Even though he's 5 months old, he was 2 months premature so his milestones go by his adjusted age of 3 months.  There is really only enough time for 1 session of tummy time at home during the week.  We do it on the table so Mommy doesn't have to lay on the floor, at least until he starts rolling over consistently.



6:30pm I start to get supper around thinking we can eat before Will needs to go to bed.  It is spaghetti tonight, and the sauce was left over from before and was in the freezer so it takes a little longer than I thought.

7:00pm No supper yet and Will is starting to get fussy so I take him upstairs to get ready for bed.  This means a final diaper change for the night and into his pj's (the same  every night so what he was wearing in the picture from the morning in the RnP).  He nurses one final time and I burp him.  It usually only takes about 30 min to change his diaper, nurse, burp and put to sleep.  He's pretty predictable, either he burps after 6 or 7 minutes of burping or he doesn't burp at all.  By that time he's really sleepy so I put him in his RnP.  He's barely awake when I put him down but he goes to sleep and we haven't had to back up stairs in several weeks.  We can hear him cooing and squeaking over the baby monitor but he doesn't cry out.

7:25:  I get the diapers out of the washer and the inserts (prefolds & fitted doublers) and wipes go in the dryer 1st on high to get mostly dry and then I add in the fitteds for another 20 minutes on low.  The pockets get put on the drying rack right away and I add the fitteds and their inserts when they come out of the dryer.  The pockets will dry overnight and Brian will stuff what is needed in the morning.

7:30 Brian and I finally eat supper and clean up the kitchen a bit.  Afterwards we watch some TV, usually the DVR'd shows that were on the night before.  Last night was Wednesday so we watched the premier of the new Survivor and then by time that is over The Big Bang Theory has recorded so we watch that.

9:00ish  After Big Bang, Brian watches a Pawn Stars episode but I go get read for bed and am in bed by 9:30.  Brian comes to bed by 10:00



Will's Birth Story - Part 2 - Pregnancy with Will

    Now for the happy ending part of the story.....

The 2011 New Year was here and we could start trying to get pregnant. We ended up pregnant pretty quickly and were looking at a November baby.  This time we both felt this time was going to be different, don't know why we just did.  Brian had a new job that had him working second shift so he was able to go to the first ultrasound.  (I'm a little fuzzy anymore on the exactness of how far along I was but close counts...)    This ultrasound showed that I was 8 weeks along and everything looked good and this baby was due November 21.  Given our past, I pushed for another ultrasound before 12 weeks and so they had me come back in 2 weeks.  At 10 weeks we had more pictures of our growing baby.   They scheduled for me to have a normal OB appt in 4 weeks which will be at 14 weeks.  The first trimester was pretty easy as far as first trimesters go; nausea wasn't too bad but was worse in the afternoon/evening than morning.  I only got sick once and I blame that on the fact I took my pre-natal vitamin in the morning on an empty stomach.
  On the Saturday before Mother's Day which was right around 12 weeks I started spotting again...actually I passed a rather large blood clot.  Brian was not home at the time, working I think.  Given our past I debated on whether to call the doctor right away or not because I figured at this point in the pregnancy there is nothing they can do to stop whatever is happening.  I think I called Brian to let him know what was going on.  I decide to call the doctor's office which is an answering service since it is after hours.  Obviously they told me to go to the emergency room for an ultrasound. 
    We went to the same hospital as before.  We had wait 30-45 min before getting called back.  All I wanted was an ultrasound to see what was going on but apparently an ultrasound is not at the top of the "bleeding pregnant lady" protocol.  First I had to have a catheter put in for a urine test and a vaginal exam....fun, fun... All of that didn't explain anything so guess what they ordered next....an ultrasound.  Except it was Saturday night so they had to call in the ultrasound technician.  We waited another 60+ min for the ultrasound technician to come in and get us.  Again she couldn't tell us anything as she was doing the ultrasound but she did make the heartbeat audible so we knew the baby was still alive.  I think another hour passed before the doctor came in to talk to us and told us everything looked fine except for a small spot where it looks like the placenta had tore a little.  The ER doc put me on bed rest and told me to call my OB Monday for follow up. 
    The next day was Mother's Day Sunday and I tried to stay down as much as possible, but spring is not a good time to try and be on bed rest.  We were planning on planting the garden that weekend so Brian dragged out an old recliner from the basement and took it outside by the garden so I could watch him plant it.  I wasn't a very good patient, but it turned out ok.  When I went to the OB the next day she told me I didn't have to be on bed rest, that they've found it doesn't really help anything, either the placenta is going to tear or its not.  Thank goodness!!!  Even though I didn't have to be on actual bed rest, we decided that I should take it easy and not anything strenuous like carry anything more than 15 pounds. She had me schedule another ultrasound in 4 weeks to check and make sure everything looks ok.
     The next 4 months of pregnancy was pretty uneventful.  Between the regular OB appointments and the follow up ultrasound and the anatomy scan at 20 weeks, I got to know that the baby is ok by either ultrasound or Doppler every other week for the whole 2nd trimester which is great!  We decided not to find out the baby's gender at the 20 week ultrasound.  To be truthful, I didn't want to know but Brian did.  Since it would be hard for one spouse to know and not spill the beans by using he/she, Brian agreed that we wouldn't find out this time.
     Because of the slight uterine abnormality diagnosed in my first pregnancy, the midwife wanted to see another ultrasound at 30 weeks to make sure baby was growing properly.  I went to that appointment and baby appeared healthy and the correct size.

September 21.....

Will's Birth Story - Part 1 - Pre Will

I was planning on putting the whole story in one post but as I was typing it kept getting longer and longer so I thought I'd better break it up....

Warning...This story has all things pregnancy/miscarriage/birth related and those are not always pleasant experiences....


Will was born on September 22, 2011 but really I consider his story starting almost 2 years earlier as he was not our first pregnancy.  He was the third...
   In fall of 2009 we finally decided it was time to start our family.  We had been married 3 years and had just finished building our house and were ready to start filling it.  I say "we" because I like to believe that I can control things when really I can only control what is in the Lord's already made plans.  It took us a couple months to get pregnant the first time but in February 2010, we found out we were pregnant.  Brian was working as a construction electrician at the time and was working on a job almost 2.5 hrs away and we decided that he'd only miss work for the 20 week ultrasound appointment so I went to my first prenatal OB appointment by myself at about 7 weeks and found out my due date was November 1 based on the size of the baby on the ultrasound.  My OB office is an OB-GYN and a couple of midwives that all share patients and rotate on call responsibility for actual deliveries.  It has the capabilities to do an ultrasound at the office and they have a TV monitor on the wall for me to view at the same time and technician tells me what is going on.  My next appointment was for 12 weeks and then they would try and find the heartbeat with the Doppler.   They couldn't find the heartbeat at that time but told me I was still pretty early and sometimes the baby is positioned wrong and it can't be found.  I was scheduled to come back at 14 weeks so I wouldn't have to wait and worry for the next 4 weeks.  On Friday of the same week I started spotting.  It was around noon when I called so they did not have any open appointments to do the ultrasound in the office that afternoon so I had to go to the hospital for it.  The ultrasound room at the hospital has no patient monitor and the technician was not allowed to tell me anything.  She had to do the ultrasound and then let the on call doctor read it and then that doctor would call my doctor who would tell me what was going on.  They said it may take a little bit to get all that done so I could either wait there or go home and they would call me.  I opted to go home.  I got home and Brian wasn't home from work yet.  I think it was shortly after I got home I got the call.  There was no heartbeat and in fact there hadn't been for some time, based on the baby's size I had lost it shortly after my first appointment.  They said it could have been due to a slight uterine abnormality that has a piece of tissue like a peninsula, sort of dividing my uterus.  Luckily Brian got home while I was still on the phone with the midwife so I didn't have to be at home by myself after we hung up.  I was able to miscarry naturally and was told we should wait for 1 cycle and then could start trying again.
    So we waited like we were told (I'm a pretty hard-core rule follower) and actually ended up pregnant the first month and would be due April 2011.  We were cautiously optimistic; Brian's mom, sister and sister-in-law all had miscarriages at some point but were able to have a baby the next time.  Again I went to the first appointment by myself only this time there were no ultrasound pictures of a little bean to take home.  This one they called a blighted ovum which means the baby never started growing at all.  Because I was already 7 or 8 weeks and hadn't miscarried naturally it was a bit more concerning because sometimes blighted ovums can turn into cancerous cells.  They wanted me back in a week or two for another ultrasound to make sure everything was gone.  I went back and the doctor wasn't happy with my progress so she wanted to schedule a D&C.  So we did.  At my follow-up appointment after the D&C, the doctor said we should wait at least 3 cycles before trying again.