Our 2 week update -- Elizabeth Grace & Aaron

What, you're just going to leave me here like this?

Elizabeth Grace had her 2 week follow up appointment and thankfully she's doing well.  Her jaundice has cleared and she has gained weight again!  She now weighs 7 lbs 0.9 oz and is 20 3/4 inches long.  She is still a bit underweight in terms of her growth so we have started giving her more at feedings now so hopefully she'll grow more!  

Just like with Aaron, I am not producing enough breast milk (it took me 3 sessions of pumping to get 1 oz) so I am supplementing with formula.  Right now I'm using an "SNS" (supplemental nursing system) to feed her the formula so that kind of keeps me glued to one spot for over an hour at a time.  And since you're only supposed to go 2-3 hours from the start of one feeding to another, I don't get much down time!  Plus, she's always falling asleep during feedings and I think that's because she's all warm and cozy on my breast so I'm not sure how much longer I can hold out on the bottle.  But we'll see -- I obviously want to do what is best for her while keeping my sanity.  

She's been a really great baby so far though!  She sleeps tons, has started to smile and when her eyes are open, she's alert and loves to look at light and her mommy & daddy.  And today, if I wasn't imagining it, she seemed to be soothed by Dave.  (Dave Matthews Band, obvs).  

The only sucky part has been that Aaron came home with another cold from school on Halloween Eve and of course, I caught it 2 days later.  So now I'm at home, taking care of a newborn, recovering from labor and a surgery and I catch a cold.  Trust me when I say it is NO FUN when you are coughing up a storm with stitches in your belly.  And then Elizabeth caught it.  The poor little angel has to suffer through a cold and she can't get any relief except for rest.  

We all tried very hard to keep Aaron away from Elizabeth, but how can you tell your little boy to stay away from his brand new baby sister?  He just wants to hug and kiss on her all the time!  And sometimes getting him to wash his hands lately is like starting World War III.  So besides Josh who always seems to get away unscathed, we are a house of sickies.  Luckily like I said before, I've had plenty of help from my family and just recently Josh's mom came down to help and stayed for a few days.  

Aaron is still in school and really starting to enjoy it I think.  He got his first birthday part invite the other day (though he couldn't go because it was too close to my due date) and then his first set of school pictures!  He comes home singing new songs all the time and likes to tell us stories about some of the other kids in his class.  He is adjusting to so many changes lately!  Though he definitely has times where he could act better, he's doing pretty well over all.  AND he's finally going to sleep earlier!!!  Thank goodness!

So everyone is doing fine.  I mean, we're all recovering from something but we all have each other and we're all happy about that.  

Before she left, my MIL brought to my attention that the poem titled "Monday's Child" said: 

Mondays child is fair of face,
Tuesdays child is full of grace,
Wednesdays child is full of woe,
Thursdays child has far to go,
Fridays child is loving and giving,
Saturdays child works hard for his living,
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.

Elizabeth Grace was born on a Tuesday. 

 
   

Elizabeth Grace Herring

Elizabeth Grace Herring

Josh, Aaron and I would like to introduce our newest member of the family!  Elizabeth Grace Herring was born on October 23, 2012 at 4:40 am.  She was 7 lbs 4 oz and 20.5 inches long.  This is her birth story:

On Sunday, October 21st around 4:30 pm we were just saying goodbye to some good friends of ours who had come to visit.  Minutes after they left, I sat down to rest and drink something.  When I stood up again I thought Ooookay, I either pee'd my pants or my water just broke.  I rushed to the bathroom to check everything out but the amount seemed so small and I couldn't really tell for sure so I decided, embarrassing as it was, I must have pee'd.  I mean, it happens to pregnant women, right?  And then about 10 minutes later, it happened again.  This time I felt like it wasn't pee.  So I called the hospital and they asked me to come in and confirm that my membranes had ruptured (water broke). 

So we called grandpa and grandma to come get Aaron and set off for the hospital.  The hospital confirmed that my water broke and I was admitted to Kaiser.  I even got a room with a birthing tub, just like I wanted!  This was the beginning of a journey and we were all SO excited.  My birth plan was to have an all natural VBAC attempt.  (VBAC = Vaginal Birth After Cesarean)  The room was great, the staff was pretty great, and they had midwives on staff at all times.  I was set! 

Laboring wasn't bad at first and in fact, I was kind of surprised how "easy" it was going.  They never checked my dilation because my water had broken and they didn't want to risk infection, but I can tell you that a week before I was only 1 cm.  Since I was refusing pitocin and my labor seemed to be moving slowly, they suggested using a breast pump to stimulate contractions.  I gladly accepted the alternative and it seemed to work pretty well.  But, coming up on hour 10 and seeing that my contractions were still not getting down to the 2 minute mark, they warned me that at hour 18, I posed a great risk of infection to both myself and the baby and that the baby would have to have a blood test after she was born.  I continued with the breast pump, walked around the halls, took 2 showers, got in the tub and around 24 hrs later -- having kick started the contractions that were now coming in faster and in both front and back, I felt like it just had to be time.

I got out of the tub to check my progress and finally my dilation.  When she told me at that time that I was only 5 cms and I had felt like I had been ready to push, I knew I wouldn't be able to take much more.  I was sobbing and in pain as she was trying to check me in between contractions.  Since they were irregular and she was also trying to stretch me as much as she could, I was just DONE at some point.  So I finally asked for the epidural, which couldn't seem to come fast enough.  

 

After the epidural was given, things seemed much better.  But of course, that slowed my contractions down again and it was suggested again that I try pitocin at the lowest dose to see if that would help me with the contractions again.  At this point, with the epidural already given, I consented.  The pitocin did work and I finally reached 10 cm and the pushing/active labor finally began.  But after hours of pushing and the baby not moving down far enough I was told I should start considering a second c-section.  The midwife had also stopped my epidural, thinking that perhaps I wasn't "feeling" the contractions well enough and that I didn't know well enough when to push.  Or that I couldn't push hard enough.  So for the last few hours of me pushing, I had NO pain meds again.

Please know that baby girl had been closely monitored this entire time and she was never in danger.  Her vitals were always steady, always good.  But having come this far, having labored for so long, having pushed and gotten far enough for Josh to even see her hair....... and then have all progress just stop.  I was so spent and worried about the baby I agreed to the c-section. 

More than 24 hours in labor, I was finally wheeled into surgery.  At this point I was so wiped out that after they finally got some heat on me and my body stopped shivering and my teeth stopped chattering, I fell asleep.  When I woke up it was because I felt them pushing baby girl around so they could get her out.  I will spare you the details of my actual experience on this surgery, but I will tell you there were further complications than just getting baby girl out. 

Apparently I had multiple adhesions from my first c-section and these had somehow fused my uterus and bladder together.  Now somehow the doctor had to get baby girl out without injury to my bladder.  On top of that, I guess I did such a great job pushing that baby's head was stuck in the birth canal and could not be pulled or pushed out.  She also had stretched herself out straight and so when the doctor tried to pull her our by her legs instead, he couldn't because her legs were too far in.  Oh, did I mention that I have a small pelvis that no one knew about until this surgery too?  So the small pelvis is why both Aaron and Elizabeth could not make it out of me all the way.  Had I known that, I might have made a different decision regarding my birth plan!

But again, sparing you with all the details of how they tried to get her out, they finally had to do a 2nd incision in my uterus going the opposite direction (now I have a cross) so they could get her out.  It took them 10 minutes to get her out of my belly.  She wasn't breathing or moving and was blue but she had a heartbeat.  It took them another minute to get her breathing.  Finally they wrapped her, brought her to me to kiss and whisked her and Josh away to do some tests on her.  And that's the last thing I remember.  In fact, I don't even remember all that, but with Josh's account and the doctor's explanation, that's what happened.  Then I was in surgery for at least another hour so they could separate my bladder and uterus and put me back together.  Because the surgery was longer than expected, I lost 4 quarts of blood and had to have a blood transfusion.  Everyone that came in to see me, from doctors to nurses to techs to visitors, commented on how tough of a labor I had - and that I did all I could...... The doctor that did the surgery on my came back to see me and told me how well I was doing after such an ordeal.  Thanks to that doctor, I'm sure!

Elizabeth and I recovered well and though I was up and walking the day after surgery, we stayed in the hospital for a total of 5 days.  Elizabeth was fighting a little bit of jaundice when she left so we brought her back to the hospital today to check on her.  Her levels are back up so she's got a "good to go" on that one.  But now we're looking at too much weight loss (close to 10%) so we take her back again tomorrow to weigh her.  I'm hoping once we get the weight issue taken care of, that we'll be home free.

I am doing fairly well considering........  Josh and I are both seriously sleep deprived but we're happy to be home with our new baby Elizabeth and happy to have Aaron back with us after so long.  One small, happy family.  Next week we can introduce Sir Ulrich to Elizabeth.

Thankfully I have a super wonderful support team.  My parents and sisters and my close friends have been just terrific and gone above and beyond to help us all.  I don't know what I would have done without all of them.  They all had roles and played them beautifully.  Even Josh's mom is coming to help out for a few days in early November. 

Thank you all for being so supportive and for all your well wishes.  In between feedings and naps, I'll try and update as often as I can.

Nesting & Resting

Check out my awesome DMB Shirt!

Well the it's finally here!  My resting & nesting period.  I'm officially off work at 37 weeks and now I get to worry about all the things I have to get done before baby gets here while I lay in bed with my feet up.  LOL!  Not really --- I have a list of things I get to supervise Josh doing!  But honestly, since I'm home now I will be doing what I can while I have some quiet time to finish organizing and cleaning both of the kids rooms.  

We had told Aaron that because we painted Baby Girl's room, we'd paint his too and we let him pick out the color.  His favorite color is green, so we took him to Home Depot to pick out a shade of green (that we approved of) and Josh has successfully painted Aarons' room after a Pinterest room I saw that incorporated green and navy (which was my color choice for Aaron).  There are only a few touch ups left for Josh to do (the walls are textured so some of the paint from the lines bled) and then we can move the furniture back in.  Once everything is back, I promise to take pictures of both finished rooms!  

Aaron has started school part time and he's still getting used to this new venture.  He's hesitant at drop off, but I'm assured by everyone at the school that once I'm gone, he warms up.  When I pick him up he seems to be just fine, though happy to see me.  Yesterday was picture day - his very first!  The idea of it just makes me smile!  I hope he smiled in the picture!  

Fall has finally arrived in Sacramento and I'm so grateful that it did because I wasn't looking forward to having Baby Girl in 100 degree weather.  But that also means in addition to my baby nesting, I have to weed through Aaron's closet and toys and get take inventory of what's left and what we need.  I can already tell you he'll be needing pants, shoes and a new sweatshirt or two.  He does NOT need more toys!

I'm also looking forward to decorating for Fall and I hope that we can get a few Halloween decorations up too.  I think Aaron wants to be a Minion for Halloween but the actual costume is super lame.  I would be better off trying to make one if I thought I could find the items.  Anyone in Sac know how to knit?  As for Baby Girl, if she gets here before Halloween, I've got a purrrfect outfit for her from the Gap.  

I feel like we have so much to do and I'm trying not to feel overwhelmed but I just remind myself that as long as we have the basics, we really don't need the other things.  We do need your good thoughts, prayers, mojo or whatever else you feel like sending us for a healthy baby and uncomplicated delivery!  

Keep us in your thoughts!  We'll keep you all updated! 

Whooooo had a lovely baby shower?

My Adorable Owl Cake

I had a lovely baby shower recently hosted by my friend Stephanie at her home.  It was a small party, but still perfectly lovely and the food, decorations and cake were fantastic!  Of course the gifts weren't bad either!  

With both friends and family to celebrate with me, I had a great afternoon.  See for yourself (on FLICKR)!

Baby girl got some clothes, gear and all of her bedding.  And I got my diaper bag!  Woot!  Or should I say, Hoot!  

With Aaron being born in Seattle and us living near the water in Ballard, choosing a theme for Aaron was easy.  I knew it had to involve water so we went for a kind of pirate/ocean/sea life theme.  For baby girl, we're in Sacramento and land locked.  Ok, there's a river or two, but basically..... land.  And trees.  And land.  So, I decided to go with more of a "land" theme and I've been digging on the whole owl theme ever since I saw a friend of mine and her baby's owl quilt.  So for my baby girl, she's getting an owl/woodland creature/forest theme.  It's pretty adorable.  

Josh got the nursery painted and the crib up so now we just have to wait for other furniture and accessories.  Once everything is in, I promise to take pictures.

I also had my 32 week check up and baby girl is doing well and head down!  So exciting!  The end is almost here.  I've got so many pregnancy complaints, but right now I'm just trying to ignore every single one of them.  Taking things day by day and hopefully will be able to work another month.  

And in case you're wondering, YES, I do have a name picked out.  If you REALLY want to know, just ask.  

In another few weeks I'll start going to the doctor every week so I'll probably be updating more often.  We're in the final countdown people!  

The 3rd Trimester Is Laborious (Pun Intended)

Aaron helping his dad paint the fence.

Well, here I am 29 weeks pregnant and just into my third trimester.  Though this pregnancy has been tons easier on me than I remember Aaron's being (*knocking on wood, crossing fingers and making wishes*) the beginning of this third trimester is bringing on all the wariness and awkwardness of pregnancy that I remember toward the end of Aaron's.  Back aches, sore muscles, swelling, heaviness, sleeplessness..... you name it.  

Pregnancy in the third trimester is me saying "I'm too uncomfortable right now.  I think I'm going to go lay down" and 20 minutes later..... "I was too uncomfortable laying down.  I think I'm going to walk around a bit".  If I ever find a truly comfortable place, I am SO not leaving it.  Work and food be damned!

We have been slowly making upgrades to the house when we can afford to and have the time.  With the help of my parents we finally (OMG NO SERIOUSLY..... FINALLY) got a new bed.  YESSSSSSSS!  A wonderful, memory foam hybrid -- KING size and with a frame to match our dressers.  I, am sleeping SO much better since the new mattress.  Even with the waking and peeing and tossing and turning.  Seriously, the bed is awesome.

A few weeks ago we got someone to come and haul away this yucky, old deck that was in our backyard for free (yes, thank you people of Craigslist) which is totally awesome because I felt it was super unsafe for Aaron to play on it.  Rusty nails, rotting wood, splinters.... you get the idea.  Of course, this means we have a backyard that is half icky grass (more like weeds and different kinds of grass) and half dirt and holes.  Now we just have to figure out how to easily and cheaply put sod/grass back there.  That's a project for the next month or so.

This weekend Josh was able to finish up fixing & painting the gate at our front yard.  The wooden trim was rotted and so the iron gate was just hanging there all loose and squeaky like.  So he went to Home Depot and bought new wood for the trim and replaced it.  This weekend he finished it up by painting the wood to match the existing fence and remounting the iron gate.  Aaron is always wanting to help his daddy out with these projects so I figured this would be a good one to help out with.  I put him in some old clothes and sent him outside to help Josh paint the trim.  Of course, here in Sacramento it was like..... OH 107 DEGREES outside on that day so the paint dried as quickly as it was being put down.  Aaron, fair child of mine that he is, can't really be in the sun too long (just like his momma) so I let him be out there for about 10 minutes before I told him what a good job he did helping daddy out and then offered him an Otter Pop if he came inside.  After the Otter Pop we had a shower!  Man, it was HOT.  

But Josh toughed it out and finished the gate.  Then he went out back and did some cleaning up back there by removing a bunch of unwanted rocks and debris from what was under the deck.  Also, those ugly brown rocks that people use for landscaping which I find hideous are all around our house in the yard so I told him I want them all gone.  He got up a lot of them, but not all before the garbage can was almost full.  After he knew the heat was too much he came inside and worked on the bathroom faucet, replacing and fixing the filter in our sink.  It had a super low flow filter that basically gave us drops of water.  Literally, drops.  We bought a better one and Josh replaced it.  Now I can actually brush my teeth!

In the next 2 weekends we'd like to get the baby nursery finally painted and get the crib up.  Luckily, I've saved Aaron's crib so we already have that.  I also saved all his clothes so I finally went through and saved a few that were unisex for Baby Girl and the rest I guess are going to have to be sold or given away.  

At the end of this month my bestie Stephanie is going to throw me a baby shower at her house.  It looks like a might have a visitor or two this month also so that's going to be wonderful!  Next month I only have one thing planned...........

Let's all pray to the gods (and God) now that it be about 25 degrees cooler and that I be about 25 percent more comfortable for this.....

Dave Matthews Band in Mountain View!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, I know, you think I'm cray.  But I haven't missed a year and Aaron went in my belly, so I think Baby Girl can too.  Of course, I wasn't 8 months pregnant at the time.....  But who's counting?

SO, that's the update folks.  Who is ready for Baby Girl besides me?  


   

Settling In..........

Aaron at Morse Park

Aw, Aaron and water parks.  He can never resist the water, even on a cloudy day.  He loves water and has been to water parks since he was a wee little babe (as evidenced here: Flickr).

This past Friday I took the day off and spent it with Aaron (translation: mom & dad were out of town).  We met Josh downtown for lunch and then headed to this park I heard about from other mommies in the area.  It was a really nice, well manicured park with a play area for big kids and another for little ones.  And it has this really awesome water feature area that runs every day!  Since the day was a bit cooler and overcast, the park was virtually empty but that didn't stop Aaron one bit.  He played on all the big kid equipment and even went down the big slide all by himself!  He stopped for some playtime in the water and then went back to the slide and bridges.  After the park and a quick change of clothes in the parking lot, we went to get some yummy Pinkberry.  It was a great afternoon!

The 3 of us (and Ulrich of course) have made a successful move from our apartment into a house we just rented.  We are very excited to be able to have a bedroom for baby #2 AND another for Aaron and a nice yard for everyone!  We've been busy unpacking and updating and rearranging things and pretty soon it will start to feel more and more like home. 

A few weeks ago I went in for my big ultrasound and now we know that baby #2 is a GIRL!  We are very, very excited and having been planning the nursery.  We've registered at Babies R Us and Pottery Barn Kids.  I am feeling good and things are progressing well with the pregnancy.  I couldn't ask for anything better right now! 

Aaron knows baby girls name and that he'll be a big brother soon.  He tells his grandparents that the baby will pop out on Halloween!  He also says that baby girl is going to share all her toys with him!  I can see where this is heading already............  oh brother!  Anyone have any advice on preparing baby #1 for baby #2?  LOL!

Hope you're all doing just as well! 

Hugs & Kisses from The Herrings!

2 is my favorite number

 

SURPRISE!  I'm pregnant!  Baby #2 is on it's way and should arrive at the end of October.  I'm currently 14 weeks pregnant and feeling great.  My fatigue isn't nearly has bad as it was the first time around but even that is starting to fade.  With Aaron, I was literally falling asleep at my desk during the first trimester!  I would even go to my car during my lunch and take a nap!  It was insane.  This time fatigue and "pregnancy brain" (it's totally a real thing) aren't as bad and that's great!  The not-so-great was that I showed WAY earlier with this one than I did with Aaron and I'm already looking big, though I'm only 4 months at this point.  Hopefully it's just a second pregnancy thing.

Aaron knows there's a "baby in my belly" and he knows the girls name already.  We don't have a boys name picked out yet, but we're working on it.  We won't find out the gender of the baby for a few more weeks though and I think it's no surprise, I'd like to even things out in this household.  Even the dog is a boy!  But anything that is healthy and pink and has all it's limbs will be alright with us!

Right now we're looking for a larger place but so far we've had haven't had the best luck.  I'm still working on it though.  I'm still at work full-time and will probably be so until the end again, though I'm not sure I'll work as long this time.  Last time I worked until December 19th and Aaron was born on December 21st.  This time around, I think I won't push it.  I have a feeling it might have been a subconscious thing.  I wasn't relaxed enough until I stopped working. 

But Aaron eventually got here and now he's 3!  He is past my waist now in height.  He still loves most of the same things -- reading, music, cars (well, any vehicle), animals and now you can add dinosaurs.  He also got his first multi-player game -- Hungry, Hungry Hippos!  He's playing it right now with Josh.  Though he's not really quite clear on the rules of the game yet, he loves to play it!  

Aaron loves being with his grandparents everyday though he's missing his grandpa lately since he went back to work.  This morning he asked "Grandpa, are you staying?" when I went to drop him off and pick dad up.  But he also knows that his daddy comes and picks up him at 4 pm.  He knows that 8 pm is "ni-night time" and best of all........ (drum roll please)..............................

Aaron is potty trained!  HOLLA!!!!!  

Really, he's still wearing pull-ups at night in case of accidents but he is usually dry the next morning and he even wakes us up sometimes in the middle of the night to go potty!  It's all very exciting and something everyone worked hard on.  Thanks Grandma Yvette & Grandpa Howard!

So the Herring household has been through some exciting changes since our last update and I'm glad I could share them with you even though it took awhile this time around.  The truth is, I was laying low the first 12 weeks of the pregnancy and the first doctor visit was, well, terrible.  Perhaps someday I'll write about it, but the important part is that everything turned out fine and the pregnancy is going well.  Let's hope it stays that way!