Transition to a family of 4

I was terrified to have a newborn again. The sleepless nights, the constant worry, etc. Don’t judge me for saying this but the newborn stage is not my favorite stage. However, the transition to a family of 4 has been surprisingly smooth. Audrey is such a good baby and will give me about 4 hours of straight sleep at night each night. And Grady has been so good with her, he loves to give her kisses. I have always heard that having 2 kids is like having 20 but in all honesty for me having 2 kids has been easier. I struggled with post-partum with Grady and I literally could not put him down or leave the room without him. But after having Audrey, Grady keeps me sane(as crazy as that sounds). He makes me get up out of bed in the mornings and actually eat and go outside. Also, Chad’s been amazing I’ve been feeding Audrey on demand instead of putting her on a schedule just yet so I will give Grady a bath and Chad will put him to bed and then get up with him at night if need be. It’s funny I felt more prepared with Grady but actually was less prepared when he was here. I guess there is a thing with being too prepared for a baby or maybe it’s just called trying to do everything.

Audrey - 1 Month

Audrey has been an amazing baby. We have had a rough few weeks and she has been a trooper through it all. She sleeps pretty well, before she got sick she was sleeping 4-4.5 hours at night she is currently sleeping 3 hours at night which is still pretty good considering she still doesn’t feel 100%. She eats and latches really well. She has also smiled, laughed and rolled over from stomach to back. She is growing every day and has the cutest little roll on her thighs. We are obsessed with her!

Life Happens

We have been a family of 4 for 4 weeks now and Lordy has it been a wild ride already and life sure did throw us a curve ball. The transition from 1 baby to 2 babies has been relatively smooth however “life” does not care when you have a baby or what you are going through.

After coming home from the hospital we discovered that we had a leak in our master bedroom from the condensation line of our AC unit. Chad had to tear though our master bedroom in order to replace and dry out the area of carpet that got wet.  Mind you that we do not have a guest bedroom anymore so we were all crammed in our master bedroom.

 The day before Audrey was born I took Grady to the doctor for a diaper rash. He ended up having an ear infection and they put him on some medicine. Well he was still pulling at his ear so at Audrey’s 2 week appointment I had the doctor check him again and sure enough he still had an ear infection so they put him on a high dose of antibiotics. We gave him his first dose late that afternoon and was still giving him ibuprofen since he was cutting his canines as well. That evening we were playing outside and I noticed 3 bumps on his knee which looked like small pimples. I thought he might have gotten bite by something and searched for more bumps but there wasn’t any other signs. The next morning as we were taking off his PJs we noticed more of a rash which at this point looked like a skin irritation rash. He’s had a heat rash before and it looked like the same thing. So Chad gave him another dose of his antibiotic, well later that afternoon his rash turned into hives. He wasn’t having any problems breathing or a swollen throat so Chad took him to a local urgent care that was open. They prescribed us some steroids to take in order for the rash to go down and also told us to take him off of the antibiotics. The next morning his rash looked so much better and Chad and I were both relieved. Later that afternoon it started it get bad again. Chad put him down for a nap and he woke up screaming in pain and would not stand to walk so we rushed to the emergency room. They hooked him up to an IV and gave him fluids as well as a steroid. It went down a little bit but still not the progress they were hoping for. Grady still seemed like he was having problems walking and standing. After about 3-4 hours in the emergency room they move us to the hospital to monitor until the hives got better.  After meeting with an allergist they discovered that Grady is allergic to Penicillin and Augmentin we also learned that ibuprofen can enhance a rash if you are allergic so to be careful when giving ibuprofen with antibiotics, good to know! We stayed in the hospital for 2 nights for continued monitoring and then were able to come home.

The next week I was doing Laundry and all of a sudden our dryer went out. Luckily I didn’t have any clothes in the washer and all Chad needed to do was replace a part. But we were still out of commission for a few days.

Also that week, I woke Audrey up to eat and she was burning up. I took off her sleep sack and sleeper and grabbed a few ice packs. We took her temperature and it was 102. I fed her and we took it again, still reading 102 we went up to the emergency room but this time we went to the hospital she was born at which is also the Children’s hospital in Tulsa. They hooked her up to an IV and drew blood to run all sorts of tests and it came back that she had Viral Meningitis and Rhinovirus. We are beyond blessed that it was Viral and not bacterial. We stayed at the hospital that day and we released that evening. She is on the mends and is feeling so much better thank the good Lord.

These past few weeks have been nothing sort of stressful but I cannot be more blessed that my babies are healthy and here with me. Having spent some time in the hospital you noticed other kids around you and noticed how long they have been there and just as easy as it is for me to wonder why this happened to us it’s also just as easy to wonder how blessed we are. However I do hope that the rest of my maternity leave is nothing short of relaxing.

Audrey's Birth Story

I don't know about you but I am a sucker for birth stories. I remember asking my mom to tell me the story of how she had me countless times when i was younger. There's just something magical about how a baby enters this world.  

On August 10, 2017, I was 35 weeks and had a normal doctor’s appointment where they did the Group B testing. I also asked him if he would check me and how she was measuring. He said that she wasn’t even in my pelvic area and that it would be pointless to check me. After doing an ultrasound he said that she was measuring a little behind her due date (September 10^th) and predicted a due date of September 11^th. After the appointment we immediately went home and I start all the home remedies of trying to induce labor. The week following my appointment I was climbing the stairs, going on walks, taking primrose oil, drinking red leaf raspberry tea, all the things to start getting some progress. I knew I did not want a September 11^th baby.

On August 18, 2017, I woke up having mild and inconsistent contractions, Since this was an everyday occurrence I went ahead and went into work. I went to the bathroom that morning at work and noticed that I had lost my mucus plug, I though nothing about it since you can lose your mucus plug weeks in advance. As the morning passed by, the contractions started to get worse and really hit me when I was in a meeting. During the meeting I was thinking of how I could skip out or tell them I needed to go home but then I felt something leak out downstairs. I got up to run to the bathroom. Just as I closed the door to the meeting room my water broke (gushed) everywhere, around 10:30 a.m. I was humiliated, my supervisor came out of the meeting to check on me and we immediately went to my desk to gather my personal things. Luckily and by the grace of God, Chad was minutes away. He came to get me, we switched cars and jetted to Tulsa, about an hour from our workplace. I called the doctor’s office to make sure our doctor was on call that weekend and sure enough he was! I did not expect for her to come so quick and thought that she would come later on that evening. I was still feeling ok so we stopped by the house to grab the hospital bag and for me to change and take a shower. As I was changing I looked at myself in the mirror and my belly was scary low so I yell at Chad and off we went to the hospital. By time we arrived at the hospital I was having bad contractions. They were doing some construction on the entrance to labor and delivery so we had to go through the ER entrance. Chad parked the car right in front of the ER entrance which is also a "do not park" area. It was clear that I was in labor so I jumped into a wheelchair and someone pushed me to labor and delivery. They asked if I had the urge to push or have a bowel movement which I told them a bowel movement so they yell for someone to grab an OB kit and walk with us, which I proceeded to yell at them saying ‘you better get me to labor and delivery, I’m not about to delivery this baby in the hallway’. After making it to labor and delivery, all the labor and delivery bed were being used so I jumped up on a regular hospital bed that was in the hallway and got pushed into an empty room. About 10 nurses come piling in while I’m crying and begging for the epidural. Ones taking off my pants, poking me with an IV, checking me, getting my blood pressure, calling my doctor, etc. I was currently at a 7. Little did I know that they have to run tests before getting an epidural. So as I’m crying and confirming that I cannot do this, one of the nurses is giving me a pep talk about delivering without an epidural and saying that the hard part is over with, umm if I do remember correctly the head still isn’t out at this point. Every time someone walked into the room I would ask them if they were the anesthesiologist. By this time my progress had slowed down as she was facing up, she knows her mommy and knows I wouldn’t have been able to make it. A security officer comes to our room and asks us to move our car as it is parked in the “do not park” area which I told Chad for them to take the keys and have them move it that he was not leaving. Also, my doctor comes running into the room as they are finally prepping me for the epidural. I do believe I called the anesthesiologist a saint. My mom and dad show up to the hospital and brought Grady back to see me. Grady was so worried for his mommy, it was the sweetest thing. Still thinking I had a little bit until it was time to push we asked my parents to go get a blanket out of our car. As soon as they leave it was time to push. Since I was on a normal bed instead of a labor and delivery bed, my doctor and I got really close lol. I pushed for about 10-15 minutes and she arrived at 1:27pm! My doctor asked me to grab her and finish pulling her out but I was caught up in all of the cords that I couldn’t get a good grip on her. My parents tried and come back into the room to give us the blanket and they hear baby cries and the nurse telling them that I had just given birth. Everything happened so fast, we were/am in total shock. 

You guys know me and know that I had a plan. I knew when she was going to come and what Grady was going to wear to the hospital. Nothing went according to plan, this girl surprised us all and I could not love her more for that. 

Preparing for the Hood

Big brotherHOOD that is!! I wrote this post before Audrey was here. However, I was terrified about Grady becoming a big brother I felt like we were failing in this area. We bought books for Grady which of course he wasn't interested in books anymore. We tried to play in the nursery as much as possible but he would just take all of the infant toys to the living room and then when we were near a newborn he just didn't care to much about the baby. I mentioned that I needed to buy him a baby doll but didn't get around to doing that in time. There was a new baby that started at his daycare a few weeks ago and I really think it has helped him with the transition.

Besides mentally preparing for the new baby we also created a list at the beginning of the summer of all the activities we wanted to take Grady to. This included going to the Zoo, a splash pad, aquarium, etc. We have had so much fun with these activities and Grady has loved every second of it. I actually kept adding on to our original list as we went and as I thought of more things to do. The week Audrey was born we were actually supposed to go to a baseball game, I guess there's always next year. 

Grady has completely blown me away with how amazing he is as a big brother. He loves to kiss her on top of the head and calls her by sissy. He surprises me everyday with the love he has for her and I hope that it continues in the years to come.