Watch Me!

Watch me Little Brother! I love how Kelsey has her mouth wide open, trying to show him how to do it. She has been doing great with sharing and even makes she before she shares her food that its okay with me.

Our handsome little man, oh how I love him! He is just a little sweetie pea and very laid back, easy going. His nighttime habits are a different story. We are (or I should say Greg is) working on getting him to stop waking up and being able to put himself back to sleep. He is 9 months old already! He weighs 17 lbs, 1 oz and is 28.5" tall! Another little string bean. He's on the verge of walking any day now. He apparently will only walk for Daddy, because I haven't seen it yet! I told the pediatrician at his check-up when he asked about how Colin does with solids, "I think he's addicted to the boob and I'll be nursing him until he goes to college." Dr. Macedo kind of got red in the face and laughed pretty hard!

Super Hero Siblings!

During our last trip to the local park while eating lunch

Farewell

We recently said goodbye to Lucy...June 2003 - April 2009

The Little Princess

Now that you've made it through the mess of pictures capturing some of my favorite parts of my Baby Girl turning 3...here is the summary of the week's activities! We had a family party for Kelsey the weekend prior to her birthday. She received waaaay too many gifts, but she was just so excited that everyone was there for her and brought presents! We had some delicious food cooked on the grill and of course....homemade ice cream and cake!

The Princess cake...what a trip! I baked the cake the night before, with the intentions of decorating it while Kelsey was napping the next day. Kelsey and I went to her BFF's birthday bash (they were born 5 days apart) earlier that morning, so when we got home it was time for Kelsey to nap. She was just too excited to nap that day and kept sneaking out of her bedroom to see what was going on elsewhere in the house. One of her trips out of bed, she caught me decorating her cake! She saw it on the counter and said "MOMMA! Is that cake for MEEEE?" After I told her it was for her, she said (in true Kelsey-fashion), "OH MY GOODNESS! I CAN'T BEWEIVE YOU MADE A CAKE FOR ME! It's BEAUTIFUL!" Of course she was speaking in the highest pitches possible for a little girl...I'm suprised I could even hear her it was so high pitched!

When Kelsey was born and we finally new that "Shimmy" was a little girl, I was terrified of being the parent of a little GIRL! After all, what could I offer a little girl? I don't wear make-up and I don't wear dresses or anything girly for that matter. But oh my, what a little eye opener Kelsey is! My friend Sarah always teased me, saying "What if Kelsey is a little girly girl and will only wear dressed?" Well, that is exactly who my little princess is....a girly girl and I LOVE IT! She wears a dress every single day, rain or shine, hot or cold.

So I've decided to start a birthday tradition for her, as long as she'll allow me to do it....I will buy her a new dress to wear on the day of her birthday. I layed a brand new dress out for her to find when she woke up. So the day of her birthday, at 7 o'clock on the dot...I felt a little tap to wake me up. "Momma? Is that dress for me???" I rolled over to a naked little girl with the dress in her hand and told her yes, it was for her. "Oh Momma...I can't believe you bought me a new dress! I love it!" I would give her the moon if I could...

Daddy took her birth day off from work and we made it a family day! We went to Rivertown Mall. We, of course, had to make a stop in the Disney store where she wanted to buy a $50 (it was half off at that price even) princess dress....uh, no! Then we went to Build-A-Bear where she picked out a new little friend, whom she named Nina the Bunny. She was a bit overwhelmed with all the choices here, so Daddy narrowed it down to a bunny or a lamb...Nina won out.

At this point, Greg and I felt like HORRIBLE parents! Kelsey is absolutely terrified of loud noises...and the machine that you use to stuff your new friend is LOUD! So I stepped on the peddle to stuff Nina while Kelsey stood back....plugging her ears. Once Nina was stuffed, we were good to go. Kelsey gave Nina a bath, brushed her fur off, and picked out a new outfit for Nina to wear home. I don't think you can see it in the pictures above, but Nina now sports a pink dress with red panties.

After all of that, we rode the carousel and ate tacos for lunch. Then we braved the playarea there, which is always a mad house. There are too many big kids and areas were you cannot see what the kids are doing. I like to keep an eye on her and other kids after what happened at the Burger King play area. Then we came home, ate dinner and celebrated with a brownie cake with marshmallow filling that I made the previous night.

Oye, what a week it was!

Emotional Blob

I would just like to preface this entry with a couple of things...

Our family had a wonderful day today and I will share all the details with you after I get the pictures off the camera.

This Momma is feeling a bit emotional...I can't believe our baby is three years old today! I will write more about that when I post the pictures of our day. For now, I will share with you what I wrote 3 years ago today.

Knowing what I know now about the whole birthing process and such...reading back through my labor and experience is a bit overwhelming in a way.

The Good, Bad, & Ugly

The induction and birth...what a nightmare! I went in Friday night to be induced and they hooked me up to the monitors and gave me some drugs to get my cervix to soften. The next morning (Saturday) I was hooked up with some pitocin around 5 o'clock. By early afternoon I was maxed out on pitocin and had dilated a half centimeter and hadn't thinned out any more than 50% at best. So, I was taken off the pitocin for the evening, given another drug to soften the cervix...and a dinner.

Mothers-to-be....be forewarned...you don't get to eat while you're in the hospital at all really!
Anyhow, then I woke up Sunday morning and the pitocin was started up...again. And once again, by mid-afternoon I had only dilated to 1-2 centimeters and still hadn't softened. I would
also like to mention that being checked for progress is a bitch when you aren't
softened or dilated!

I was then presented with the choice of going home because the baby was doing great and was a happy little clam in there. By going home, I would have to go into the doctor mid-week and go back to be induced the following weekend hoping it would work.

So the facts....I was swollen like a freakin' balloon, couldn't bend my legs or move my toes or wear underwear....my uterus was so stretched out and was not responding to insanely high amounts of pitocin....and my blood pressure was still in the 140's over 70-something.

Do we go home or have a c-section? Going home would mean more waiting and worrying that the Belly Monkey would keep growing like a weed, in addition to being worried about my
blood pressure. On the other hand, a c-section is a major operation with some pretty nasty side effects...including death.

Chances were that I wouldn't respond to the second attempt at induction and would end up having a c-section anyhow. So, I said the word and within 15 minutes the doctor was at the hospital and I already had a needle stuck into my back and had tingly legs!

They started cutting and then brought The Husband in...at which point I started freaking out because I thought Belly Monkey would arrive before him! So in he came, not even 10 seconds later, they said "You've got a big baby girl here!" Greg was video taping, from behind the infamous curtain, and sounded so nervous as he said "Oh my gosh, its a baby girl!" He
immediately went to the warming table with her and was looking from me to her the entire time and he was a champ to say the least!

It took about 30-45 minutes for them to shrink my uterus back down to fit back inside. They kneaded it like a dough ball, they punched it, they injected every known drug into it and it still was huge! After I was sewn up, they moved me to a recovery bed and into the recovery room. The Husband and I were left alone for a few minutes to meet our little girl and I knew instantly that her name would be Kelsey. I had a dream a few weeks ago of a little girl with dark hair and a nice complexion and her name was Kelsey. So, essentially she is the baby of my dreams!

After the delivery, I swelled up even bigger and could no longer bend my legs or really move. My kidneys were not working. I had an IV of saline full open for almost 24 hours to try and get my kidneys to kick in. Finally I started to produce urine and was back in business. The c-section incision itself doesn't and never did really hurt...but my legs and basically my whole body hurt because my skin was so stretched! I spent 3 days in the hospital and it wasn't really too bad.

Another tip for new Mom's to be....send your baby to the nursery at night and just request the little one be brought in to feed. Also, it is a very good idea for your husband or baby daddy to stay the night with you in the hospital. The Husband spent every minute with me, took fantastic notes, and is an expert in breastfeeding now!

Breastfeeding...I knew it would be hard, but I thought it would be hard in a different way. Because my kidneys shut down and I lost two huge buckets of blood...my milk didn't come in a quickly as Kelsey wanted or needed. It finally made it's appearance yesterday and hasn't stopped coming in! I'm convinced I have the hugest knockers ever! The hard part of breastfeeding, for me, is how the hell do I manage the milk, pumping, feeding, storing and not
being too full to feed my little chow hound? She latches on so perfectly, but she falls asleep quite easily. She is getting better now and will nurse for about 15-20 minutes now and I have been pumping here and there in 2-3 minute stints.