Where did October go?

Whaaaa....??? October is over? Already? You are kidding me! That was fast!

That must mean today is Halloween. Hmm. We aren't doing much for halloween. Gracie is kind of weirded out by the scary decorations, especially the spiders. She likes the scarecrows and the ghosts, but everything else she could do without. So, I think I will have her stay home tonight instead of taking her out and about where she will see people dressed in scary costumes. That might send her over the edge. I got her a Cinderella dress and she can play dress up and help Daddy give out candy at the door. Libby has a pumpkin outfit that she can wear for the day. The teens have their own plans, which better not include defacing political campaign signs! Or I'm going to drop them both off as abandoned children in Nebraska!

That's my newest "behave or else" threat. I'll take you to Nebraska and leave you there! Nebraska has a new law that is a dream for parents of unruley teens everywhere. You can abandon your children (up to age 18) with no questions asked and no penalty. Just drop them off at any hospital, too easy! Now it's be a good teen or we're headed to Nebraska!

Today is also my husband's birthday. I didn't get him anything. Not even a card. It's not that I forgot, I'm just tapped out of ideas and time to shop and things like that. And now, here it is. Whoops.

I guess you could say that I've been busy lately. It's been 31 days since Libby was born. She is now 10 pounds 4 oz. That's up from her birth weight of 7lbs 4oz. A three pound gain! She's starting to get a double chin and chubby cheeks. My favorite! I love fat babies! I'm hoping she'll get really round like a little butterball.

When I took her for her 2 week checkup the doc said she had an umbilical hernia and her belly button wasn't healing nicely either. She got some silver nitrate for her belly button and now it looks so nice! Libby also has newborn congestion. So, she snores and snorts and sniffs and makes all kinds of nasal noises. Kind of scary at night when she's breathing through her congested little nose. She's been sleeping much better in a sitting up position. And, Libby's tear ducts were clogged and a little infected. Got some goop to stick in her eyes. She wasn't a big fan of that, but it helped in no time.

I stuck some of her gooop in my eye the other day. All day long I thought to myself, hmmm, feels like I have a black eye or something. Finally, I looked in the mirror. Ewww! I had a stye in my eye! I kind of pulled my eyelid down and pressed on it and it popped and drained. So nasty! Great, my first postpartum zit and it's in my eye!

I love not being pregnant! But my hair is losing its luster and my skin is losing its glow. Now I can welcome back zits too. Great. I'm thrilled. I'm doing pretty well with weight loss but I am really mushy and soft so you can't tell. I'm hiding my weight loss very well. I''m also still pretty sore, so I haven't been excercising more than the usual daily marathons that I run in the house. Maybe in November I'll go for a walk. Or December.

I started going back to college. Libby is going too. The girl needs an education! We started going back to class when she was 3 weeks. It's exhausting! I am behind in my class, but I am catching up and attending. I think that's pretty darn good for now. I'm hoping to be all caught up by Thanksgiving so I can end the semester in December with the rest of the class. Everyone at school loves Libby. So far, she's well behaved during the lectures. My professor is the best because she lets me bring the baby and she is allowing me to lag behind at my own pace. She's been very supportive! Next semester Libby is going to have to go to the babysitter with her big sister.

Speaking of Big Sister Gracie.... She sure has grown! Suddenly, she looks huge to me! She was my baby last month and now, she's so big! She is still working on potty training. She's not picking it up very quickly, but every now and again we have some success. Just enough to keep the hope alive! Someday she will stop wearing diapers! Someday! Hopefully before she becomes an unruley teenager or I will take her to Nebraska.

Gracie adores her "Baby Dister" She calls her "Yibby" and races to the couch holding out her hands yelling "Gacie's turn Gacie's turn!". Gracie loves holding, kissing, petting and talking to Yibby. She checks out her tiny little toes and fingers every day. Big Sister isn't a big helper though. I gave her a diaper to toss in the trash, and she took it to the biggest sister and told her to throw it away! Passing the buck. Dodging her chores.

I am still working on sending out birth announcements and thank you cards from Libby. Of course, I lost my list of mailing addresses. This has been a crazy month and losing my address list is par for the course.

I also dropped my laptop. That wasn't a peachy day. It's fixed now though and I'm back in action! That just means I can read blogs again. My "action" isn't as active as your imagination.

There has been some action though. A little excitement to break the monotony. There was the day I was driving, and I might add that I'm an awesome driver! Anyway, back to me driving... in my one year old never been scratched golden mini-van.... and, I hit a parked vehicle. Right in front of the high school. Ripped my back bumper right off! And scratched and creased my back rear panel. I totally misjudged.

That exciting incident got me some much needed rest. That's when my teens and my husband realized that I have been a zombie and my sleep deprivation was probably going to get them killed. It was certainly costing my husband a lot of dinero. He just fixed my laptop and now the van needs repairs. Oh, his poor aching credit card! I'm getting more sleep now. Funny how that worked out.

My husband is a pretty good guy. I'm not just saying that cuz its his birthday. He really is. He's working two jobs and he only got 3 days off when we had the baby. I begged and pleaded for him to take one more day off, so he called in sick and stayed home one more day. He's been doing more around the house and helping out with the kids more this month too. He is even taking Lexie to school in the mornings! Shocking, but true! She hasn't arrived to school on time once this month, but hey, she's arriving. Good enough for now.

And suddenly, October is gone. We had our 20th wedding anniversary this month, brought home a new baby, had my mom and my sister out here for a week, and "poof" October is over.

Gravity vs. Laptop

In the recent battle between Gravity and sensitive electronics in my laptop... Gravity won.

There was an extra surge of gravity, the golden retriever who thinks she is a lap-dog wagged her big tail, all while I was juggling the new baby and the laptop in separate hands.... The laptop hit the floor with a thud. It was all over. The hard drive was damaged.

My husband the geek was able to salvage some important documents and photos and things, but I lost a ton of stuff. And had to wait a good long time, over a week, to get my new hard drive.

Good thing I had a brand new baby and lots of company to keep me distracted! Or I think I would have internet withdrawals. Remember the old days when we didn't get online at all? Wow, what did I do?

Now that I have a new hard drive.... I'm back online! Yippee!!! This is what you missed while my lappy was recovering from its drop to the floor:

We had such a good time when my mom and sister were here. Lots of company popped by, which was nice. And we had a few outings. Gracie was spoiled rotten and so was I. Libby didn't miss out on the spoiling! My mom and sister totally cleaned my house and got me all caught up from my 9th month of pregnancy laziness. The place looked great!

Now that I'm on my own again, its building up. Mom, Patty, Come Back! I have a pink load of dirty laundry that needs you!

Being on my own with the little ones... oh, boy. What a challenge! My husband is back to work, my girls are back in school and its just me and the little girls lately. Doesn't sound like that big of a challenge, but it is. I haven't taken Lexie to school yet, her dad had to pick up the morning duty. She's been late every day this week so I think I'd better get back to my morning mom taxi services very soon!

Little Bitty Baby Princess poops like a big stink bomb! Just thought I'd share that with ya. I've been wiping it off of her neck, armpits, knees and everything in between. Several times a day. She usually likes to explode right when her big sister is having a meltdown over some silly toddler thing. Otherwise, it's been going great!

Sleep deprivation is taking a toll. I am having trouble remembering things, making decisions, remembering things, understanding stuff, etc. I'm getting about 4 or 5 hours of sleep per night and day, but its not in a row. Longest stretch of sleep I've had since Libby's birth was 3 hours. That only happened once, but I have had a few periods of sleep that lasted over 2 hrs. Mostly I get an hour or two here and there. Yawn.

As long as I feed, change, and keep her big sister from squishing her with hugs, I guess I'm doing ok. I know I'm feeding her fine because she gained over a pound already! As of today, she is 8 pounds and 9 oz. At three days old she had dropped a few ounces and was 6 lbs 15oz. So, she's made great progress in growing.

Changing her is no problem. Except that she is a very poopy girl. My husband got over 300 diapers from someone he works with. They were freebies from the hospital where this co-worker of his lives. The story behind the free diapers as I understand it is.... the hospital was throwing them out because the coupons on the packaging expired. Well, I'm not one to turn my nose up at diapers that are a wee bit too old! They are exactly the same thing that I buy in the store. Score!

Wait a minute, wasn't I just going to tell you about her 2 week checkup? Did I mention that sleep deprivation is getting to me? She's growing well, has clogged and maybe infected tear ducts, newborn congestion, an umbilical hernia, and her belly button wasn't healing nicely. So, she has a prescription ointment for her eyes, saline solution for her congestion, and she got silver nitrate for her belly button. What an appointment!

So, that's the update. Most of it. Just to recap.... Laptop lost its battle with gravity, baby is healthy and growing, Gracie is still a two year old and acting like one, all my company is gone. Now we are trying to find our new "normal". Lets hope it includes a little more sleep.

Birth Story! She's Here!

Elizabeth August "Libby" was born Sept 30, 2:46am. 7lbs 4oz, 19.5 inches.

I was having contractions since 2am on the 29th, but I knew they had to be 5 mins apart for an hour before going to the hospital. They were 15 mins apart by 2 in the afternoon and stronger. Still tolerable. By evening they were almost 5 mins apart but sometimes 3, sometimes 10... still not regular enough. Late night they were still pretty irregular, but averaging 5 mins and they were pretty painful. At 1am, my husband said "we're going now". Took me a while to get down the stairs and out the door, but I made it to the van in the driveway. I told the teens to come in the morning after taking Gracie to the babysitter, it would be a long long day ahead. I figured the teens didn't need to be there till they started the pitocin and I know that doesn't happen for hours.

Again, I think I am planning this birth. Ha!

By the time we were in the van backing out of the driveway it was 1:40 am. As we were backing out, my water broke. Ugh, I knew we should have taken his truck! Got to the ER at 1:45.

Admissions lost my file and made my husband fill everything out all over again. Contractions were strong and on top of each other and I was pouring water down my legs. So, paperwork had to be quick, but not necessarily correct. Plus, there was a little kid projectile vomiting in the waiting area too. Other people waiting got to be stuck in the middle of me screaming and that kid puking. I felt bad for them.

Got through the ER doors and whisked down to L&D in a wheelchair. They quickly got me in a gown and on the delivery bed and I was prepped all at once while having strong contrax. I was 7cm. The doc was called and it took her 15 mins to get there.

My husband called the teens and said "NOW!!!!" They hurried and got the toddler to the sitter and arrived in the delivery room at 2:45. Just in the nick of time!

I was being told not to push. I wasn't pushing. Breathing. Breathing. Fighting the urge because the doc wasn't there yet and even though I was at 10cm, the nurse said there was a lip of cervix in the way and she didn't want me to rip my cervix. No matter how hard I tried not to push, the baby shot right out! No pushing! She was born so fast that my husband missed seeing her arrive because he was looking at me and didn't turn his head fast enough. She was out, cried, and the doc walked in. Just missed it!

Delivery of the placenta did not go well. I'll be somewhat vague since the details are ugly. Stop reading if you don't want to know any more!

Still reading? ok.. the placenta refused to dislodge and the umbilical cord broke after the baby was delivered. The doc ordered the nurse to put nubaine in my iv since I hadn't had any pain meds and I was going to need it. Then she performed a procedure to deliver the placenta. I'll give you one detail to give you an idea... elbow deep.

I heard you wince. I told you not to read that!

Anyway, I only got 5 stitches and none internally. I am feeling wonderful. I have no idea how I could be, but I am. The baby is perfect and lovely. I am so lucky! I can't believe the delivery was so fast, but my whole family was there and my doc was there when I needed her. I knew I wanted my doc to deliver me and it turns out, the specialized care that I needed was something she was skilled at performing. Even at 3am.

Libby and I are home now. She's breastfeeding like a champ and her big sisters all adore her. You can see photos on the hospital site or on our family website.

Thank you all so much for the support and messages and posts and phone calls and emails and packages and everything!