Our Week

Our week took a sad turn when we found out great-grandpa died and we had to go to Indianapolis for the funeral.  The kids had a great time with their family since they didn't really understand too much of what was going on.

During the wake, there was a kid's room, so I was able to take the kids away to play.  Caylee loved the kitchen and she found mama's favorite kitchen appliance!

After the funeral, we waited inside the church for everyone, so we played in the little kid's area there too.

The old school toys were pretty exciting for me and Connor loved using the washing machine!

 He asked me to take photos of him eating chocolate cake!


On Saturday, once the funeral was over, we had some family time.

Some silly time at home...

Connor asked me to breastfeed his baby.  Heart melted.  Of course, I will!

Caylee figured out how to use her diaper pail.

I guess this is goodbye...

This week, I retired my pump.  

I won't be spending time each day with this view anymore.  It was actually pretty hard and bittersweet for me to do it, but it was time.  That first day was really difficult, but it helped that I was busy at work.  I ask my mommy friends to tell me that it was okay and I had to remind myself that I gave her over 12 months of pumped milk.  Her frozen stash is getting smaller each day and she's been doing great with cow's milk and water at daycare.  Of course, when I'm around she won't drink any of it, so that made me extra nervous.  It feels pretty nice not to have to lug that big bag around with me, but I also feel kinda naked without it! 

I've been nursing in the morning and night, so she still loves that and I don't see it stopping any time soon.  She's still a mommy's girl! 

Milk Coma

It's very rare for Caylee to sleep on me, but she took some great naps and loved sleeping in everyone's arms over the weekend.  At one point, I heard her start to wake up, so I picked her up to feed her.  She fell right back asleep on me and I treasured that time together.

Milk coma.

And a little no makeup sleeping selfie

Caylee - Week 2

Time is flying by now that she's almost done with her second week! 

We got this adorable little ballerina outfit and I hurried to wash it and out it on her because it was so cute!  The hat even stayed on her for most of the day :)  The timing was perfect because Daddy and I just had a discussion about how I can't wait for her to take ballet classes like I did.

Look at those little ballet shoes!

Her eyes still stayed closed for most of the week and she just started to open them a little more by Friday.  I got a few quick pics during a diaper change of those dark blue/gray eyes.

On her due date (June 23), I did a little photo shoot on the green to commemorate the day.  She's wearing Connor's adorable apple outfit and I added the white bow to make it a little more girly.  I love her little smile here!

And some snuggling in bed in the afternoon...

I think the thrush is under control now and nursing is getting less painful.  She's eating about every 3-4 hours, although she went more like 2-3 over the weekend.  She's sleeping about 4 hours at a time each night, so I usually only have to wake up once.  One night, she slept 6 hours!  Mommy loves you!  Her spitting up is starting to get a little worse like Connor did, so I'm trying to work on burping her more. Overall, she's such a good baby!  I really am lucky to have two babies who were very easy and low maintenance...and pretty cute!

Caylee Joy is here!

Well, I just wrote this entire post over the last few days and then it got erased.  Last thing I need right now!  So here we go again...

Monday started out just like any other morning.  I felt sick, as usual, as I got ready for work.  For some reason, I had an urge to take naked belly pics because I didn't have any.  I felt HUGE, but of course, I don't really think I look that big when I look at these now.

At a little after 8 am, I was at work when I got a call from the OB about my test results.  She suggested I stop by the hospital to get monitored for a short time and it wasn't a big hurry.  I finished up some things at work assuming I'd probably be back later or the next day.  My mom picked me up and we arrived at the hospital at 11:00.  I didn't feel very good, but it was pretty normal at that point, so I didn't really think much of it. 
My appetite pretty much went to nothing over the weekend, but I made myself have some snacks while I waited in the hospital.  They monitored my blood pressure and repeated the urine and blood tests while I rested in bed.  The more I laid there, the more tired I got, but it was also kind of nice just to rest.  The tests took an unusually long time to come back, but the nurses and doctors all seemed to hint that we would be able to leave when they got the results back.

At about 3:30, the midwife and nurse came in and sat down.  "So, you're having a baby today!"  Um, what? They felt that the pre-eclampsia was bad enough that they needed to induce right away at 38 weeks.  I was officially admitted at that point and started to get pretty nervous.  They hooked me up to an IV and started magnesium sulfate to help with the pre-e.  Unfortunately, the side effects made me very sick and weak.

I called Daddy right away so he could pick up Connor, pack our bags, and get to the hospital.  With cell phones not working in our room, it was quite an ordeal, but he finally arrived around 7. I think we took this photo right after he came in as I felt better having him by my side.  They started the pitocin at about 6:30, but there wasn't much progress at all.

As the hours went by, nothing was happening.  They checked dilation a couple times and there was no progress at all.  I was feeling pretty horrible from the meds and I started to get really nervous that they might have to do a c-section.  Throughout the night, I think I threw up about 4 times and I could hardly move at that point.  My headaches were getting worse which was another sign of the pre-e getting worse.

At some point during the night, I pulled out my new Mama bracelet for some inspiration.  Any chance of having the baby that night was gone, so it was definitely going to be Tuesday.  The night went by so slowly and I hardly slept at all.  I dozed off a few times, but the nurses were checking me at least once an hour, so I wasn't able to rest very much.  I remember waking up right around 5:10 am and saying, "Time to wake up for work!" when my alarm would normally go off.  But no, I was in the hospital about ready to have a baby! 

Around that time is when things started to get crazy.  The monitor with the epidural started to ring and I called the nurse a couple times to tell them.  It was making my headache worse and the noise wouldn't stop.  The contractions also started to get really painful and I knew something felt wrong.  I had been through this once before and I knew I was feeling way too much pain.  There was some kind of miscommunication with the nurses and no one came to help me for about 30 minutes.  By that time, the epidural felt like it had worn off and I was crying and screaming in pain.  Once they fixed everything, I started to feel a little better, but I also started to feel pressure of the baby. 

Things finally started to progress quickly and it wasn't long before all the doctors and nurses came in to set up for the birth.  I pushed for about 30 minutes and there really wasn't too much pain at all.  I felt pressure, but luckily, I couldn't feel the pushing or anything.  At 11:15 am, Caylee arrived!  She was 7 lbs, 1 oz. and 20 inches long.


She didn't cry right away and I started to get really scared.  I kept asking if she was okay and everyone assured me that she was healthy, but might have been a little drowsy from all the meds I was on.  I urged Daddy to take lots of photos as they cleaned her off and got her ready to hold.


She's here!

The newest member of our family :)

I took some close-ups once I got to hold her for a few minutes.

Perfect in every way!

Proud Daddy with his new sweetheart

I nursed her a little after she was born and she did pretty well. 

We rested in labor & delivery for a couple hours while they monitored my blood pressure and then moved us upstairs to the high risk post-partum area.  Fortunately, Caylee was perfect and healthy, but they were still monitoring me and kept me on all the meds for my high BP.  I look gross and tired here, but oh well, it's better than no photo at all.

At one point, she opened her eyes for a couple minutes so we could finally see her eyes.  They're a very dark blue/gray, so they're a little darker than big brother Connor's eyes.

And here you can see how swelled up I got from the IV and drugs.  Proud mama, but I felt pretty gross and sick at this point.

Daddy in his special chair hanging out with Caylee and watching some tv.

She surprised us by being an awesome sleeper like her big brother!

I was still getting monitored every hour by the nurses on Wednesday and into Thursday, so we hardly got any sleep.  I had a very hard time moving around from hip pain and nausea from the magnesium, so I was in a lot of pain.  Our hospital "vacation" wasn't nearly as restful as we expected, but at least we had a healthy baby.

We didn't think they were going to let me go home on Thursday because my blood pressure was so high, but I think we were both ready to go home.  I wanted to sleep in my own bed and get settled to our new life with 2 little ones.  On Thursday morning, Caylee and I both got permission to go home and we packed up all our stuff.  Little sweetie dirtied her diaper a few too many times, so we got delayed, but we eventually got dressed and headed out. 

Her headband and clothes were huge on her, but we tried! :)

As a surprise, we picked up Connor on our way home from the hospital.  I missed him so much and wanted him to see me without any machines or doctors around.  When we walked in with Caylee, he was so proud!  "Look at my baby!"  It was the best feeling to see how he wanted to show her off to all his teachers and friends.  As we all got back into the car to go home, I looked into the backseat and realized it was full now.  Our family is complete and my heart is full.