Well that time of year has come and gone. Last year our christmas was incomplete. Andy had left for basic training on the 13th and missed Wilson's first Christmas.
Look at baby Wilson. With Callie now here, I still can't believe my Wilson is a big boy, and that our baby days with him are gone. *SNIFF SNIFF*
We got to spend our Christmas with our family complete, but far away from our family back home. It was a bittersweet feeling. Those types of Christmases are the only I've ever known. I always grew up far from my family, and now I see that's how my kids will be.
Since they are still babies, I don't have to worry about doing too many things, set up a tree, stick a few presents under there and VOILA! Christmas is done. But in the not so distant future, I'm going to have to start putting more effort into Christmas so that it's as special for them, even if our family is far away.
First on my list is tracking down a cd or copy of the Disney Christmas Songs I myself used to listen to every Christmas. I want to continue that with my babies.
Baking Christmas cookies together. (I didn't do that this year) My favorite: Jam Kolaches
Donating something to a less fortunate child/family. I want to show my kids that Christmas is also about giving.
Having a yummy Christmas Dinner with fancy china. I loved feeling all elegant drinking my punch from a glass flute when I was a kid.
Watching Christmas movies together and reading a Christmas story together.
I want to get or make an ornanment with both the kids names on it as their "special ornament" that they can put wherever they pick on the Christmas tree.
I'm thinking of letting them open a present on Christmas Eve which will have special Christmas Pajamas that they will wear that night. But I don't know about that one. That kind of depends.
So many things I want to do with my family that I can't wait to do! But really I can because I'm already seeing how fast these babies grow!
Thought it would be fun to track my body and weight after having baby girl. This was taken on Thursday. Exactly 2 weeks after giving birth. I'm probably sucking it in a little but there you go.
Scale is telling me I'm around 120-122 pounds. So if I go by the heaviest then I have about 3 pounds until I would be back to my pre-pregnancy weight.
Doing some breastfeeding (shockingly) my milk came in about 4 days after I gave birth and were super engorged. Then I got sick with either a blocked duct or even mastistis in my right boob and I fell into a coma for a day. Plus I think I was just exhausted.
No exercising, but I have been doing a lot of stair climbing. At least now it's easier! No more big belly!
Sleep is terrible, but it was terrible before baby girl came anyways so it's roughly about the same.
Baby girl is an angel. Sleeps, eats, and is just all around adorable.
Wilson... is a toddler. Throwing tantrums, being sweet, needing naps still. Speaking of. It really is naptime. YAY!
So a week ago I gave birth to a sweet baby girl. Wow. She has been amazing and it's crazy to think how much more relaxed I am.
When I had Wilson, I was not used to the lack of sleep. I think I had a hard time reading those baby signals. Or rather learning them. And the breast feeding issue. Oh the breast feeding. I literally sat there and cried about it when we went to the doctors and they had told us Wilson had lost a whole pound. That and the fact that when he was awake he was literally screaming non stop. When we started supplementing with the formula, he literally sucked it down. Breast feeding can be a beautiful and wonderful thing for others. But my experience with it with Wilson made me feel sad and angry about it.
Callie has gotten mostly formula now. My milk came in on around day 4 and I have been pumping a little to relieve the engorgement.
A little is better than nothing, but I'm not going to put myself through the mental anguish of exclusively trying to breast feed. Once my supply diminishes or disappears then it will be over. And I'm okay with it.
It's crazy how every baby is different and so far either my memory is super fuzzy, or it really is the case, but Callie has been a wonderful newborn. I know I remember Wilson being a little more fussy about things, but Callie is super relaxed and chill. I think she is having more gas problems/pooping problems as that is the only time she really fusses.
My fisher price rock n play seat is a HUGE lifesaver. She hangs out it in and really seems to enjoy it.
Unfortunately so does Wilson. I freaked out because one morning I went to get a bowl of cereal and come back in to find him sitting literally on top of her. Luckily I was in there for literally less than a minute but it's scary. What if I had to use the bathroom!? He would've suffocated his sister and not even realized it.
So now I let him follow me around and get into whatever his little toddler heart desires.
Looks wise the bruising from birth is all gone, but her eyes still have the burst blood vessels. They are going down and I've heard it can take up to or over a month to go away.
There's a little yellowing but her jaundice is practically all gone. Another nice thing we aren't having to deal with this time around. We had to use a special light blanket for almost 2 weeks and go to the hospital lab like every day and get blood drawn. Callie hasn't had any issues so we aren't having to do all that this time. Yay. Can't believe that a week has passed.
So I have been home for a couple days and am now sitting down getting ready to type out Callie's birth story. She has been an amazing little newborn so far and we are all just in love with her. Wilson is slowly getting used to her. He comes up and will look at her and pat her on the head. I think that's about as good as it is going to get for now. I think he is still too young to understand what is going on. But anyways onto birth story!
We went to Willis-Knighton Medical Plaza at Midnight on December 1, 2011. I had preregistered so I had to go through the ER entrance and get checked in.
By 1 am we were in our delivery room 8 on the second floor, and we had nurse Stephanie and she let us get settled in and took care of little things and at 3 am I had my iv put in and a pitocin drip started.
It caused regular but not painful contractions. When I got checked I had only progressed to 3 cm dilation and still 50% effaced. I was a little disappointed that the pitocin hadn't progressed my labor a little more.
So from there we slept and being a hospital would get randomnly woken up.
At 7:00 am, my ob Dr. Gina Gomez came in and with one swift jab with what I call the "knitting needle" broke my water.
Contractions at this point were extremely painful and strong. They came in at less than 3 minutes apart and after the first couple contractions I was READY for that epidural!
I had a new nurse now, her name was Tracy and she told me I had to wait until I was at least 4 cm, so she would check on me in an hour.
Well she made me wait a little longer than an hour but I tried to endure. Finally at 8:30 she came in, and checked me and I was at 5 cm dilated and 90% effaced. FINALLY!
She went and started prepping for the epidural for me and in about 15 minutes, the anesthesiologist came in and popped that sucker in quick! With Wilson I had to wait a long time for the dr. to get the needle and all that in place and this dr. had it done in less than 15 minutes!
My contractions started feeling less painful and by the normal 15-20 minutes all I could feel was some pressure every time a contraction came up. THANK YOU MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY!
I was worried I might have complications from the epidural, as you know things can always go wrong or not work right, but this epidural experience was amazing. I got a different type of drug this time though, where I actually had the ability to feel my legs and move them.
I don't think I would've been able to walk around but at least I wasn't just completely useless from the waist down.
A friend had come and offered to take pictures of the birth for us, so she had come and she, Andy, and I sat around and chatted until 10:30 am.
Nurse Tracy came back in to check me and realized that Callie was ready to come out. Like her head was already in the birth canal. She immediately started getting everything ready and Dr. Gomez notified.
By 11:00 am, everyone was all situated and ready to go. I was ready to push.
I had to wait for that first contraction to start pushing and from the first, I could see a headful of dark dark hair. (I had requested a mirror to be able to see.)
I was so excited and by the 4th contraction had my daughter out!
Callie Joy Kirk was born on December 1, 2011 at 11:25 am.
She weighed 7 lbs. 12 oz and was 20.5 inches long.
She literally was almost the exact weight as Wilson, but Wilson was an inch longer.
She looked very tiny compared to my memory of Wilson. I think it may be because of the head shape. Wilson had the very cone-shaped head where Callie's head didn't look like it got misshapen in the birth canal at all.
She had facial bruising and swelling and burst some blood vessels in her eyes from having such a fast delivery. She cried for a little while, but finally calmed down and was now being the typical sleepy newborn.
I am amazed at how much faster and easier her birth went. I am thankful for having a healthy baby girl and that everything so far has went well. She hasn't had any of the issues that Wilson did. And I will have another blog post about my decision to bottle feed instead of trying breastfeeding again. But I won't make that long. I am at peace with my decision, and no one can make me feel guilty about it.
