Anthony's Birth Story

Before even writing anything down, I'm going to speculate that Anthony's birth story is probably the shortest one to tell out of all four of my children.  I had spent months wondering, as each Friday moved us a week closer to my due date, whether he would arrive early or late.  Delivering a baby a week past the due date after having two come two weeks early can make control freaks like myself go batty when speculating when the baby might come.  I had pretty much resigned myself to the idea that Anthony probably wasn't going to arrive early, but I still was hoping he would arrive mid-week and early enough in the day to be seen by the pediatrician the same day in order to facilitate us getting out of the hospital after just one day.  

Starting on Tuesday (April 29th) I started noticing that I was having a lot of contractions.  They didn't hurt and I figured they were just Braxton Hicks contractions.  Certainly nothing to worry about.  With the first three pregnacies I pretty much had Braxton Hicks contractions from about 16-20 weeks until I delivered.  This time around I seldom had any contractions of this sort which had me even further convinced that Anthony wasn't in any rush to make an entrance.  So Tuesday and Wednesday were just filled with lots of contractions most of which were relatively close.  Tuesday night I had a few hours late at night where I thought I was close to being in labor, but it was late and I WAS NOT going to be delivering a baby in the middle of the night when I was already feeling pretty tired so I stopped my crazy nesting and decided to lay on the couch and catch some sleep.  I was also determined to not have a baby on Wednesday since it was my brother's birthday.  Wednesday was the day when I decided that maybe, just maybe, it might be a good idea to set up the pack and plays in the family room and our bedroom.  I figured it would be a good idea if I made sure I had some things ready in the event that I had the baby sooner rather than later.  Let's just say it was a really good thing that I decided to get things set up on Wednesday.  But, I still hadn't finished packing that bag for the hospital.  I wasn't that convinced that labor was imminent.

I fell asleep on the couch on Wednesday night and when I woke up it was a bit past midnight.  I was pretty excited that it was now May since I've wanted to have a May baby since Bryan and I got married.  And then it occured to me that today [May 1st] was the feast of St. Joseph the worker so I asked for his intercession for a speedy labor and safe delivery of the baby.  All I can say is St. Joseph works fast.  I woke up about 3:15AM and had this crampy feeling that reminded me of when labor began with Katie.  Within minutes I noticed another sign that I was likely in labor, but I didn't want to wake Bryan until I was sure, otherwise he'd be carting me off to the hospital before I could straighten up the house and finish packing my bag for the hospital.

After a few minutes of cleaning up the kitchen as quitely as I could, I noticed that the contractions seemed like they were close.  I've never been the one to time contractions so I wasn't sure what to do so I grabbed my phone, a pen and a pad of post-it notes and started writing down the time each contraction began.  After had about six of them I took a look to see how often they were happening.  They were all between 2-4 minutes apart.  Hmm....the week before my doctor told me to call them when they were 5-7 minutes apart and to head into the hospital at that point.  I was beyond that so I did what any laboring woman who really wasn't in much pain would do, I ran around cleaning the house, packing my bag, going up and down the stairs all while logging contractions with my pad of post-it notes.  A little before 4:30 I had everything done that I felt had to be done so I woke Bryan and told him that I was in labor and thought we might want to head out to the hospital soon.

Our neighbor who said she'd come over to stay with the girls if I went into labor in the middle of the night didn't answer her phone, so we woke Madeline and told her that she needed to hang out in the family room and stay awake until my father-in-law got to the house.  Then Bryan called the answering service for the doctor.  The on-call doctor didn't call back which had us a little worried.  Bryan called a second time while we were on our way to the hospital and we didn't hear from him until we were checking in at the triage.

The ride over to the hosptial wasn't too bad.  There were a few times where I had to tell Bryan to drive slow over the stretches of the road that I knew had potholes and anytime a light was near I was telling him that he better not stop short since I was convinced that stopping short might mean that the baby would be born in the car.  I will say this was the least stressful ride I ever had while in labor.

We got to the hospital at 5:00AM.  The woman who handled the registration or whatever the check in process was at the OB triage was painfully slow and apparently oblivious to the fact that I was having contractions.  She kept asking me questions that Bryan was fully capable of answering and I was bewildered as to why she wasn't just talking to him but I was too focused on riding out the contractions to say anything to her.  At 5:05 the on-call doctor called Bryan and he let him know that we were at the hospital already.  Less than a minute after I got buzzed into the triage floor the midwife who was observing me from behind the counter while we checked in insisted on checking to see how much I was dilated since she was pretty sure I was close to delivering.  I was at 8CM and the refused to let me walk up to the labor and delivery unit.  They said something about not liking to have babies born in the elevator.  Since my doctor hadn't arrived yet, the midwife was sticking around in case the baby was born before he got there.

Once I got up to the labor and delivery unit they got me set up with a birthing ball since that seemed to help me a lot when I was in labor with Katie.  I wasn't sure how long I'd be laboring and I kept thinking that sooner or later the contractions were going to become very painful.  I had a few that were pretty uncomfortable but hadn't had too many where I started to get that panicked feeling that I've had with some of the more painful ones in the past.   I was up in the labor and delivery room for less than half an hour when I told them that I needed to push.  They hadn't even gotten through all of the questions they ask when you've been admitted and I don't even think I had been hooked up to the monitors for very long.  I was really surprised at how quickly they sprung into action.  With Katie they actually doubted me when I told them it was time, but these nurses and my doctor who had literally just shown up didn't second guess me at all.  I guess when it's baby number four they don't second guess you when you tell them it's time.  They confirmed that I was fully dilated and told me to push whenever I was ready.  I did let them break my water just before I started pushing and we found out there was meconium in the water which meant they need to get a special team of pediatric nurses in the room in case the baby didn't cry right away.  After three minutes of pushing Anthony was born.  At one point I actually had to ask if his head was delivered because I had no idea how much longer this was going to take.  It may have only been a few minutes, but it felt longer than that.  Once the baby was out he cried right away so the special team of nurses that were brought in for him were satisfied that he was ok.

Anthony weighed in at 7lbs 8oz and was 20 1/2 inches long.  He's my second biggest baby.  This was my fastest labor and delivery.  I was in labor for under three hours.  I'm still amazed at how quickly everything happened.  I had been hoping and praying that this would be a quick labor but I never dreamed it would be this quick or as easy as it was.  I think just staying as relaxed as I did helped tremendously.  Everytime I got hit with a contraction I just tried to relax and pray my way through it. 

Anthony's face was pretty bruised up from the delivery.  He actually looked a bit blue when he was born.  It was bad enough that the nurses placed a sign on his bassinet stating that his face was bruised.  They told us that if we were to take him out into the hallway that nurses who might see him would think that he was blue from lack of oxygen if they didn't know he was bruised from the delivery.  The poor little guy was very puffy and swollen the first day.  The doctors and the nurses all told me that the bruising was attributed to his rapid delivery.  

Bryan told me after the fact that he pretty much was freaking out on the inside that I gave him so little time to work with in getting me to the hospital on time.  I think he should be happy that I decided to wake him when I did because I had contemplated waiting until after 5 to wake him, but I decided after having a few contractions that were a bit strong that I should wake him.  I suspect if I had waited that the baby might not have been born at the hospital.  

Because he was born on the feast of St. Joseph the Worker and I had asked for his intercession, I told Bryan that I wanted to add a second middle name for Anthony.  Despite all our trouble deciding on just the right name for our son, he was good with my last minute name change.  And that's the short and sweet story of how he came to be named Anthony William Joseph.

Introducing Anthony

He's here!

Anthony William Joseph 

arrived at 5:41AM on May 1st after a very quick labor and delivery.  He was 7lbs 8oz and 20 1/2 inches long.

He's such a sweet and loveable little baby.  I'm quite taken by this new little love of mine.  

I'll share more pictures of my little guy and his birth story soon....I promise.

Nursery Decorating Woes

Now that it's been a week and a half since we moved Katie into her big girl room, I finally felt like I could go into the nursery and work on switching out the bedding.  I felt ill removing the perfect flower bedding that I had used for both Ellie and Katie.  I love this set and I was desperately hoping that this baby would be a girl so I could look at it for another two or three years.  So right off the bat I was setting myself up for an underwhelming experience.

Once I had all the girly bedding stripped away, I started to open up the boy alphabet bedding.  I put the pillow sham on our small Pottery Barn Kids pillow and was upset to see that it was huge on the pillow. So I went and checked the girly sham from PBK and saw that the dimensions on the tag were exactly the same as the new sham.  Odd.  The old one is a snug fit and this one is way too big.  Not a good start, but I told myself I could try to shrink it.

Then I pulled out the crib skirt.  I wasn't sure if I'd have to wash it first or not, but I knew either way, I'd have to iron it.  But first, I wanted to see how it fit on the crib.  I thought it was odd that the skirt was pooling on the floor so I checked to make sure I had it on properly and took a step back.  On the crib's lowest setting about 3-4 inches of fabric were on the floor on all three sides.  Seriously, how can this be?!  At this point I was on the verge of tears.

I went searching for a navy blue crib skirt that I have for my nephew's crib set and pulled that out.  I noticed the package said it had a 12 inch drop for the skirt.  So then I checked out the PBK one and see that it has a 16 inch drop.  I suspect it's just the perfect length for a Pottery Barn crib on the lowest mattress setting.  Had I been able to buy the crib skirt for Ellie's set 9 years ago (I believe it was either sold out or backordered.) I might have already known from experience that the skirt was going to be too long.  But since my mom made the skirt for that set I was blissfully unaware.

I'm tired and exhausted.  Naps don't happen for me at all thanks to a dog who barks when I try to sleep and a few other factors like me having to pick Ellie up at school when I would like to be sleeping.  I don't have the desire or the energy to alter a crib skirt for this new bedding set.

I sat on the nursery floor and cried for a bit.  Bryan offered to buy a new crib if that would solve the problem but I told him I didn't want it.  Then I decided to try the crib skirt from the girly set with the boy sheeting to see if I could live with it.  I thought it was a possibility until I added the baby blue mesh bumper.  I really dislike baby blue for boys and this was just too much.  I sent Bryan another text with a picture of that combination.  He suggested finding somethign that works, as in another bedding set.  No, I already brought wall decor that worked with this and my chances of finding something I like that goes with the wall color are slim to none.  I'm picky, and when it comes to decorating a nursery I have to have everything just so or I'll fixate on everything that is wrong.

I started to wonder what I'd have to do to make the crib skirt work.  I can't hem it from the bottom since it has a design and applique work at the bottom.  My only choice would be to hem it from the top.  After I had my little pity party and cried again about the bedding situation I put the skirt back on the bed and tucked about three or four inches under the mattress on one side.  That gave me the look I wanted.  So now I know what has to be done.  I either need to alter the crib skirt myself, or take it to a seamstress.  I'm not sure which option I'm going to go with at the moment.  I really don't want to get into a sewing project.

I talked to my mom and she suggested running it through the washer and dryer to see if it shrinks up a bit so that if I take on the alterations myself I don't find myself having to alter the crib skirt twice.  The bedding is in the wash right now and will be going in the dryer soon.  Here's hoping that it shrinks a bit.    If not, I will probably cry a bit more.

On the bright side, I do like the way the bedding looks and I think it goes nicely with the color of the room and the wall art I picked for the nursery.  

Guess what I've been up to?

I know most of you have probably been wondering why my blog has been a bit a bit quiet over the past  three months.  Part of that is due to us unexpectedly jumping feet first into homeschooling.  My goodness, I never realized just how much time and energy homeschooling could take.  And, those Jesse Tree swaps I hosted also took up a nice chunk of time.  But there's another reason why I've been so quiet.  We're expecting another baby!

I'm presently seventeen weeks along and our little one is due to arrive on May 9th.  Of course, with Katie coming a full week late and Madeline and Ellie arriving two weeks early who knows when this little guy will make his way into our arms.

We went to one of those ultrasound places where they do the gender determinations twice last month.  We went when I was 14 weeks along and it was pretty obvious that we had a little boy on the way.  Talk about a shock!  I already had a name picked out for my new princess and was already digging through hand-me-downs to pull out all the cute 0-3 and 3-6 month spring and summer clothes.  So when we discovered that he wasn't a she I went into hyper nesting mode and started getting everything ready for our little guy.

This past Friday we went back for another gender ultrasound (it was a two visit package) and the baby is still a boy. Oh boy!  So now we have some room shuffling to figure out and we certainly need to decide on a name for this little one who my husband is presently calling Quattro.

Ten on Teething

Katie is cutting another two to three teeth so you can very well imagine that teething is something that's been on my mind lately.  So I'm joining in Top Ten on Tuesday with a list of things we're doing and using to help make this latest round of teething more tolerable.

1

Katie's general go to teething toy of choice is this set of fruit keys.  She alternates between chewing on the fruits and the slightly rubbery ring.  This toy has been one of her favorites for months now.

2

One of the newest items in our teething arsenal is a cold wet washcloth.  I discovered that this helps Katie by accident.  She grabbed the wash cloth that I used to wipe her down after lunch and didn't want to let it go.  It's something I would only recommend if you are going to be supervising the baby while he or she is teething on it.

3

Very much along the lines of a wet washcloth are those cloth teething stuffed toys.  Last Christmas Katie got a cute little pink teething elephant.*  It has rubbery feet that she can chew and a trunk that is perfect for teething.  She spent a good while attached to this toy yesterday.

4

I find that distraction can sometimes work to take a baby's mind off of teething.  My parent's gave Katie a neat toy called an O-Balllast week and tossing this soft pliable, chewable ball around has pulled her out of a teething funk more than a few times.  The ball is very easy to squish so it's easy for her to scrunch it down and gnaw on it if the mood strikes her.

5

In the middle of the night when teething pain wakes Katie and has her inconsolable, ibuprofen has been just what she needs to banish the pain so she can rest.

6

Tooth specific teethers intrigue me.  Years ago we were given a Mam teether that had some multi functionality that made it ideal for back and front teeth depending on which part of it was being used.  My older girls were attached to it.  I couldn't find the same teether for Katie, but I did manage to find a similar onethat she likes well enough.  The only drawback to this one is that it is water filled.

This teether is another one from our arsenal that should be helpful with the back teeth.

7

For the most part, none of my girls have been overly impressed with the water filled teethers.  With a few exceptions, nearly every water filled teether we have tried has been rejected by the girls.  They have all tended to prefer the ones that are made of a silicone or rubbery material.

8

Depending on the baby, topical pain killers like Baby Orajelcan either be a raving success or a dismal flop.  Madeline responded well to this stuff, it had no effect on Ellie and  it hasn't done much of anything for Katie.  

9

Teething biscuits can be a yummy [and messy] way to keep you little one's mind off of cutting a tooth.  Just make sure you watch the baby closely and take away the biscuit if it becomes small enough to be a choking hazard.

10

Sometimes there's nothing like a good cuddle from Mom or Dad to ease the discomfort of teething.

* The pink teething elephant is cute, but I don't recommend buying the "pretty in pink" line of toys from Bright Starts because a portion of the sales goes to the Susan G. Komen foundation which supports Planned Parenthood.  I don't think baby products should support a cause that redirects money to another group that destroys innocent unborn children.

Way To Go Chicco!

Around this time last year I spent many hours researching infant car seats and travel systems.  I'm very persnickety about such things, so you can bet that I scrutinized just about everything about all the available models.  For the most part, I didn't worry about customer service although it was certainly something that I considered.  The brands I was primarily interested in I knew first hand how their customer service was and figured that I wouldn't have much of a problem if an issue should arise with the product.

Graco is usually very good about handling issues with their products, but they can take a while when it comes to sending out a replacement.  Britax has decent and very knowledgeable customer service, but their process to have an item replaced can at times leave much to be desired.  An experience with a certain review product
 comes to mind.  Baby Trend's service department has never particularly impressed me and Chicco was a total unknown.  All I knew about Chicco was I never had a single issue with an umbrella stroller that I had from them for Ellie.  In fact, the stroller handled so nicely that we were able to use it with Ellie on our trip to Washington D.C. last year when she was 5 1/2.  The stroller is ready and waiting to be used with Katie, too.

On Friday I went to wash the cover of Katie's KeyFit carseat for the very first time and I was shocked when I discovered that the styrofoam impact shell that lines the back of the seat was cracked at the harness straps.  Being the car seat fanatic that I am, I freaked out.  Not once did I ever take the cover off to inspect the foam prior to using it despite the fact that the travel system box arrived at our house very badly damaged last May.  The seat and the stroller seemed to be ok once we took them out of the box so I assumed everything was fine.  In retrospect, I suspect the impact foam was probably damaged on arrival.  Since it was after business hours on Friday I wasn't able to call customer service and see what, if anything, could be done, but I was able to contact them and submit pictures online (very easy process).  Today I received a response from them.  They're replacing Katie's seat
 and have even arranged for the old one to be picked up two days after the first one is delivered.  I'm very impressed with their customer service.  Clearly they get that I have a small baby and are making this situation as easy for me as possible.  Britax could take a lesson from them.  They expect parents of small babies to take their defective products to a shipping location.  I can tell you that it's not fun trying to maneuver a baby in a stroller with a big box to ship something back at the UPS store.

So Chicco gets two thumbs up from me for great customer service.  They even went a step further and told me to keep the original coverings from the car seat with the problem (canopy, seat pad, head rest and so on) since the replacement seat is a different pattern.  With a baby who spits up all the time it certainly is nice to have the extra seat pad.  I hadn't actually taken the time to write up a product review for the travel system, but you can be sure when I do I'll be making note of how well they handled my problem.

A Happy Medium

A few days ago I wrote about how I had to remove the bumper from the crib to keep Katie from trying to smother herself.  I didn't want to remove the bumper for a number of reasons.  I liked the way it looked, I liked that it kept pacifiers from falling out of the crib, and I didn't want Katie getting her arms and legs stuck between the slats.  Most articles that suggest you should not have a bumper in your crib claim that your baby won't get his or her limbs stuck in between the slats of the crib if you go bumper free.  Personally, I think that claim is bunk.

The first two nights Katie slept in the crib without a bumper she pretty much stayed in the center away from the sides.  Our only issue was that her pacifiers were escaping the crib.  At 5AM it's never fun to listen to a crying baby and a frustrated husband who can't find a pacifier anywhere despite there having been several of them in the crib at the start of the night.  I had a bad feeling that missing pacifiers were going to be a problem for us now that the bumper was gone.

Starting during the wee hours of Saturday morning we awoke to Katie screaming.  Usually, Bryan is pretty good about getting to her fast and seeing what she needs.  I was beginning to wonder what was going on when her crying didn't stop for a couple of minutes.  She was stuck.  Katie had wiggled over to the side of the crib and had gotten her arm caught between the slats.  Bryan worked her arm out and brought a very distraught Katie to me to be fed.  Several more times on Saturday morning the same scenario with her arm getting stuck would be replayed minus her needing to eat.  I began to feel sick to my stomach.  I felt like we were going to have to choose between using a bumper that Katie might smother herself with, or we were going to sacrifice sleep and risk Katie breaking an arm or leg with no bumper.

When I got up on Saturday morning I heard Katie crying once again and this time I went into her room to find her arm shoved through the slats up to her shoulder.  She was lodged in between the slats pretty well and it took me several minutes to free her.

I suggested to Bryan that maybe I needed to make a bumper that was made of only a single layer of thin fabric.  I wasn't really in the mood to break out the sewing machine and try making something that would work, but I didn't know if I had any other options.  I decided that I'd do a little searching online to see if anything existed that would work for us.  It turns out they actually make breathable crib bumpers.  With Monday being a holiday, I didn't want to place an order from Amazon and have to wait until the middle of next week to get it.  Fortunately, Babies R Us, a store on my list of places I loathe shopping had what I wanted in stock.  I was skeptical that this thing would work for us based on some of the reviews, but I'm happy to say that it not only fits our crib better than any other bumper we've ever used, but it also works quite nicely.  You can press your face into this bumper and still breathe easily (the first thing I tested out with this bumper) and it keeps Katie's limbs and pacifiers from going between the slats.  So far it looks like this bumper is the perfect solution for our crib concerns.

Bye, Bye, Beautiful Baby Bumper

We noticed about a week ago that Katie developed a liking for the crib bumper.  In the middle of the night she would wiggle herself from the middle of the crib mattress to a particular corner of the crib where she would nestle herself, usually face first into the bumper.  On more than a few occasions Bryan or I have discovered her so firmly up against the bumper that we were concerned that she was going to smother herself.

I was hopeful for a few days that maybe we could stop her from migrating in the crib but there is really no negotiating with a determined baby.  Bryan and I  discussed what we could do about it and the only logical solution to the problem was to remove the bumper.

It absolutely pained me to remove the beautiful crib bumper that made the crib look like such a warm and inviting place.  I fell in love with this bumper seven years ago when I was pregnant with Ellie and I was so excited that I was getting to use it again for what I hoped would be another year or two.  Typically I only remove the crib bumper if the crib's occupant is trying to use it as a foothold to escape the crib. I have never had to remove it because someone found it to be an appealing place to snuggle up to face first until now.

I  took the bumper out of the crib a few days ago and I really don't care for the way it looks.  It no longer looks like a warm and inviting place to sleep, instead it looks cold and stark, like a cage for the baby.  I really wish she wasn't so determined to sleep with her face pressed into the bumper.  (Monday morning I found her with her face in the bumper and her finger shoved between the crib mattress and the side of the crib.  I still don't know how she managed that given how tightly our mattress fits in the crib.) For the sake of making the nursery look pretty I would love to put the bumper back in the crib, but I know having a pretty nursery is not worth taking the risk that I may wake up to my worst nightmare.

Introducing Katherine Therese

After exactly 41 weeks of gestating Katherine Therese finally decided that it was time to make her appearance. She was born at 5:50PM on Sunday. Katherine, weighed 7 pounds 12 ounces and was 20 1/4 inches long.

Because the baby arrived before visiting hours at the hospital were over the girls and my parents got to come and meet her a little less than an hour after she was born.

 Ellie took a few days to warm up to being a big sister.  She liked the baby, but she wasn't interested in giving her a kiss the first two days.  Katie's first morning home was when Ellie finally decided that she really liked her baby sister.

 Madeline took to being a big sister again very well.  She couldn't wait to hold her and every day she gets off the bus and wants to hold her baby sister.

Bryan, despite the total lack of pictures proving that he was actually at the hospital, was there the entire time.  This blurry picture of him handing Katie to Madeline is the only picture we have of him and the baby at the hospital.  I have no idea how we didn't get a picture of him and the baby or of the three of us.   We're chalking it up to the fact that my labor went very fast and we just didn't think of these things.  I was actually beginning to push when I had to ask him to grab the video camera and the other camera so we'd have pictures.

In a few more days I hope to blog a bit more about Katie's birth and first week.  Things are going very well with the baby. She already has us wrapped around her finger and seems quite content with all of us doting on her.