Checkups!

Today we had Izyk's 2 week checkup and Charley's 18 month checkup. Izyk is 8lbs 10oz...he has gained almost 2lbs in 2 weeks and grew 1 inch (21 inches long). He is in the 5oth percentile across the board. Charley is 75th percentile for height (33 inches) and weight (25lbs). His head circumference is in the 50th percentile. Hooray for growth!!

Amendment

So after my post-0p appointment with MY doctor, we've become enlightened. Things make a little more sense now. First off, Izyk was "OT"...occipito-transverse, meaning that his head was lengthwise, his head was pointing to one side of my pelvis. While I was pushing, the nurse was trying to get him to turn but he didn't. He got stuck. Then he went into distress (tachycardia), which is why when they had started to cut me open and I felt it, they just knocked me out. So he was purple because of his tachycardia and the fact that the anesthesia had gotten to him. My doctor says that when they use anesthesia they have to get the baby out quickly otherwise the drugs get to them, which is what happened. In speculation, all the cuts we have (Izyk and I) are all due in part to doctor trying to move quickly to get the baby out. Not a very good excuse...ha, but whatever. Like I said before, we are ALIVE. That's all I care about. And now...for some pictures.

Charley found a good hiding place.

Meeting little brother.

An attempt at a "family" picture...

Hanging...

Izyk James Nichols

Warning: There are not a lot of pictures at the moment but there will be more coming. If you don't like to read...I suggest you skip this blog. :) Also, I'm a little bit bitter...actually a whole lot bitter about how this labor went, though I'm thrilled that we all survived it. Enjoy...ish.

First of all, we are getting a lot of grief for his name. I don't care if teachers or people won't be able to pronounce his name when he gets older...you forget...my last name was NORBRYHN. I'd like to think I turned out okay even with a tough name. Secondly, his name isn't hard to pronounce, it's just spelled differently. SOUND IT OUT...eye-zik.

Let us talk about July 10th. I'd like to just say that my body does great pregnant. Pregnancy is grand for me. Labor apparently is my enemy. I've learned this and I've accepted this. July 10th was emotionally and physically traumatizing. I will never again drink raspberry leaf tea in my last trimester of pregnancy. I thought it was coincidence with Charley but 2 out of 2...I'm starting to believe the stuff works. I had a big mug of it at work on Friday afternoon. After getting home from work Ryan and I TALKED about how I should probably pack a bag...just in case. I said I'd do it this weekend sometime. I wasn't in a big hurry. I had 2 weeks left and my mom was planning on flying out here the following week anyway.

1:53 am I had woken up to use the restroom. Out came my mucous plug and amniotic fluid. Lots of it. Really? I sat on the toilet and cursed the red raspberry leaf tea. If you believe it to be coincidence, that's fine. It still gives me something to blame. I will blame tea. It took me a good 3 minutes to wake my hubby from his peaceful slumber to inform him that my water had broken and 1) we had no one to watch Charley 2) my bag wasn't packed 3) I'm trying really hard not to stress at the moment.

2:00am - Ryan spent a good 10 minutes calling people. We did not want to have to bring Charley with us being as it he is very unpleasant when woken up. I mean, who wouldn't be at 2 in the morning?

2:15am - We are on our way to the hospital with Charley coverage.

We get to the hospital and sign in. Two other women showed up at the same time with broken waters. Popular night. We got escorted to our room where I was instructed to remove all clothing. Oh goody. Let's begin my "birth plan"...

Side note: I've given up on birth plans as they clearly have no room in my life. I only become more and more disappointed as each time my birth plan is clobbered by the unexpected.

For the first 2 hours of labor, I didn't mention the internal monitors that my doctor had warned me about hoping that they might be forgotten. But 2 hours is all I got. My nurse came in and told me the doctor on duty said I needed internal monitors and if my doctor had mentioned it. Why, yes she did mention it. (As a laboring VBAC, they closely monitor contractions, the uterus, and the baby's heart rate) She then begins to tell me that she doesn't like putting in these internal monitors without an epidural. I ask why and am convinced that's not the kind of pain I want to feel on top of contracting. I agree to the epidural and am very thankful I did. The downhill path begins. The doctor on call comes in and talks about how everyone NEEDS to have their babies BEFORE 1pm. I ask why...wasn't really thinking about maybe she has some personal thing she needs to get to...at that moment, I really didn't care. I wanted to know why there was a cap on my laboring time. I got some "Well..." and "She needs to be somewhere..." blah blah blah. On top of it all, they would only let me push for 2 hours (due to me being VBAC and that whole uterine rupture chance [insert more blah's]). It came time to push, so I pushed. I pushed for two hours. I could've pushed longer...but I had surpassed the two hour mark. I tried every position in the book. It was kind of fun. I found my favorite positions to give birth in...if...I...ever...yeah, onward.

So, on top of laboring, this dude saunters in to my roomattached to the heels of my nurse. I'm a little confused. Is he lost? Does he not realize he's on the Labor & Delivery floor (there are NO males on this floor except spouses, significant others, family, etc.)? Everyone has left the room and Ryan and I begin to discuss this visitor. Ryan is getting a little uptight that he was in there. I think I was more confused than anything because they usually ask BEFORE new people are introduced into the mix. The doctor on call comes in, Ryan asks about this dude. She says they usually ask if it's okay, we tell her they didn't, she asks if we don't want him in there, Ryan tells her as long as he stands...I say no. I don't want random people in myroom.

So I get wheeled into the surgery room with an audience. They prep me for the c-section. The doctor begins to cut and saw away at my mid-section. Much to my horror, I'm feeling this. I say something and the doctor says that she has stopped. That's nice, I'm in absolute pain. Everyone starts kind of running around in a panic. Ryan is getting rushed out of the room, they're talking about knocking me out, and I'm trying really hard to keep calm. I wake up in Recovery with 2 different alarms going off and the nurse telling me to take deep breaths.

Break: Everything written in this paragraph is what I heard second hand from Ryan. He was watching from outside the operating room. Several things occurred. I shall list them:

1) Doctor "stabbed" herself with the cauterizing knife. She needed a new glove.

2) Doctor cut the side of my son's face while cutting me open giving him what she deemed to be a "superficial" cut.

3) Doctor apparently cut me in several areas not anywhere NEAR my c-section area. *thumbs up*

4) Izyk experienced some respiratory issues. He was under stress and couldn't "catch" his breath leaving him purple.

5) Ryan had to carry our newborn son, not breathing, to NICU.

Needless to say, Ryan got to experience a whole slew of emotions within 20 minutes.

Okay, I wake up in Recovery...wait, wait, wait, I get WOKEN up every 2 minutes because (AGAIN) my heart rate is too low. (Note: I've always had a low heart rate. For one, it runs in my family and two, as a runner I am graced with an incredibly slow pulse. This same thing happened when I had Charley).

The rest of the day is spent talking about the events of the day...oh and stats...

Born 2:19pm via c-section (that I was unconscious for) on July 10th 2010. Izyk weighed in at 6lbs 15 oz and measured at 20 inches long.

Coincidence?

So last night as Charley was running around naked, he started making his sound for urinating. He went over to his potty and started to put one foot in. Now, I thought he was just wanting to mess with the potty. So I kind of ushered him into his room so we could start getting him dressed and ready for bed. He started urinating on the floor. I actually got excited. I wasn't sure if he was recognizing the fact he had to go potty or if it was coincidence. Regardless, it's a good start in my mind. Everyone keeps telling me boys are hard to potty train and that's been a little discouraging. I'm not stressing about it and we are just doing what we can with what little time we do have to work on potty training. With this little one due in the next couple of weeks, I have other priorities...which at this moment, seems to be everything.

Charley head planted the other day onto the asphalt. It was an awkward fall. One of those where he forgot he had arms. He was dragging around a stick and there was this little uneven area...maybe an inch lower. I don't know what he was trying to do but head met asphalt. Poor kiddo. Doesn't look too bad in pictures though and as of today it's almost completely healed. Nothing a bite of homemade cookies & cream ice cream couldn't fix. :) The day before he was pushing his little rocket around and fell twice in a row on his knees. Didn't cry, but for once it drew some blood.

And me at 37 weeks. I feel like I look big but then again the child has nowhere to go but out. And lately there have been plenty of times I forget I have the belly and knock over things on tables and counters. As requested, a side by side from my first pregnancy and this one. The one on the right is from December 2008 (Charley man) and on the left is today, July 2010. Side note, as of last week I was a centimeter dilated and 50% effaced. Further than I was at this point with Charley. So...maybe earlier!?!

*crosses fingers*

I'm ready to be on maternity leave! Hahaha! AND to know if it's a girl or a boy!!

P.S.

My son is still being confused for a girl at 17 months old...awesome...

Here's my girly looking son...

34 weeks

And yes I'm behind. :) So here I am at 34 weeks. Definitely bigger this time around but I have gained the same weight as I did with Charley at this point so I'm not sure what the deal is...besides loose muscles.

My doctor and I have been discussing how we're going to proceed with birth on this one. It pretty much comes down to just winging it. I am aiming for VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) but if I don't go into labor or have this baby by my due date, I will have to be cut open. Oh goody. Needless to say, I'll be trying everything in the book AGAIN to have this baby before July 23rd. I may be able to convince my doctor to wait to section me until the following week depending on how I am looking. (At least that'll give me another two days!) But we will see. I'm anxious for my first cervical check just to see if anything has happened.

Chattanooga Choo Choo and the Aquarium

We decided to hit up Chattanooga, TN this past weekend as Ryan had a three day weekend (Fri, Sat, and Sun...not Monday...booooo). We visited the Tennessee Aquarium. This was our first actual trip with Charley. The last time we "traveled" he was 3 months old so I don't really count that. We learned a lot about this little man on our overnight trip...such as, he is much more delightful when he's exhausted and passes out in the car. We waited to leave our house until after his afternoon nap (and once I had gotten off of work). He's used to playing a lot so we had to pull over outside of Scottsboro so he could stretch his legs. Once to the hotel, the Chattanooga Choo Choo, we scoured the grounds of this historic hotel. I didn't get ANY pictures while we were there. My bad. The camera was in the car and it was raining. We also kept forgetting to grab the keys so we could get it. Oh well. This is Charley on our way there. The beginning of the trip.

Charley almost towards the end. Reading about the VERY hungry caterpillar.

We brought our bathing suits in hopes of using the pool. We got to after we had eaten dinner and it had stopped raining. It was late but we wanted to get a swim in. The pool was 20deg below zero, I kid you not. This child did not want to leave the pool. His lips had turned purple and he was shivering and yet he fussed when Mama and Dad decided it was too cold. We had been in long enough and it was late. We have since decided to look into swimming lessons for him. We also found out that Charley does not like elevators. I had visited a friend in the hospital a couple of weeks ago (she had a baby) and he cried a little on the elevator going up and back down. I had assumed he was just tired. Apparently, he just doesn't like elevators and our room was on the fifth floor. Lord help us if there was a stop between the ground floor and our floor. It wasn't BAD, he just cried. I'm really bummed I didn't get any pictures but the whole hotel experience was different. Having a crib in the same room as us was different. He's not the sort of kid that's just going to fall asleep especially if there was other things going on. So, we laid him down and we closed ourselves in the bathroom. We showered, got ready for bed. By that time, he had fallen asleep. We didn't sleep all that well, probably because we were afraid to move thinking it was going to wake him up. We all woke up at 7:30am, got ready, went to breakfast where he entertained a couple next to us the ENTIRE time. Played a little in the gardens, went back to the room for a nap where...I had forgotten to hang the "Do Not Disturb" sign and housekeeping in our building were the loudest folks I've ever had the joy of experiencing. Needless to say, we got a 20 minute nap and decided to be on our way to the aquarium. A couple of pictures as we were leaving the premises...

The aquarium adventure begins.

He loved the turtles...

On our way to lunch.

The Tennessee River. Next time, assuming there is a next time, we'll get to do the river journey. Charley wasn't big enough this time and I didn't want to be on a boat for 2 hours with him. :)

He was trying to pet the sting rays but they were at the bottom of the pool so he was having fun just playing in the water.

And the Butterfly garden was AWESOME. I think that was my favorite. We had to continually move because we were worried he'd grab ahold of a butterfly and crush them. He's not the most gentle toddler.

The penguins were fun. One of them just kept swimming back and forth in front of Charley. It was amusing.

The jellyfish were cool.

This is how we spent the ride home. It was a really fun trip and I'm glad we got the chance to go up there.