Tornado Warning

The day Elinore was born was amazing.

Although, there was a slight hiccup in the day.

One thing about me, I hate bad weather.  It scares me, and I'm not talking just a little scare, I become terribly afraid and start taking lots of precautions.  I've slept in the basement with the kids many a night because of predicted storms!

Late in the morning, the day Elinore was born my mom came in to visit with big brother Caden and Caleb.  I was so excited for the boys to meet their baby sister!  I think they were too, but they were pretty nervous. 

After they'd been there for a little while, Keith's, my mom's and my phone sounded an alarm we'd never heard before.  We all checked them to find a tornado warning.  So I start checking the weather on my phone and we get it up on the television too.

Shortly after that there were a few different nurses that came in.  They were doing things in response to the tornado watch.  They came in to make us aware, make sure the blind was covering the window and move the baby away from the window.  They took head counts of how many people were in the room and advised visitors not to leave.  They came back with a blanket for each person in the room. 

All the while we were watching the television; I'm not used to that being available in bad weather, so that was nice!  It even seemed to indicate that the hospital location would be clear of the bad weather.  However, it did indicate that our house was in the direct path of the storm!  That was a little unnerving, but I was very grateful no one was there and the boys were with us and not at the sitters just a mile from our house. 

As we were watching that the nurses came around again and stated the weather warning was escalated for our area and we all needed to move into the interior hallways of the hospital. 

They brought a chair into the hallway for me to sit on and I had the boys come stand close, and I held in my fear as best I could.  My mom was holding my baby, and I wanted my baby.  She wasn't 6 hours old, I was scared, and I didn't have my baby.  I kept my mouth shut though and didn't ask for my baby; that was hard.  (And I wish I would have, my mom would have fought me over it, but she'd have gotten over it.)

We were fortunate that nearly as soon as we and all the other new moms from neighboring rooms had moved to the hallways the warning was canceled, the storm had passed and we could move back into the room.  

I continued to watch the weather and peek out the window though, because I still wasn't comfortable sending my mom and boys out into bad weather.  Keith was impatiently waiting for me to make a decision about lunch, but it wasn't even on my radar at that point.  (Radar, bad weather, ha! I made a funny.)  I wanted our safety under control first! 

The skies cleared up soon though, and my mom took two boys, who were getting ants in their pants from being stuck in one small toy-less room for too long, to lunch to celebrate their new big brothers status.

Then we just had to worry about our house!  We were going to send Keith home later that afternoon to check in on things and make sure everything was alright, but just after the storm passed, our Pastor came to visit.  She was kind enough to check out our house as she drove by to say that from the outside everything looked fine.  She said the actual storm that went through wasn't nearly as bad as it was said to be and there was little damage done around town.  Just a bad thunderstorm. 

What a relief!  We were able to settle in and continue to enjoy our new baby Elinore!

Bottle

Elinore:

You had your first bottle today.

I had an appointment to go to, so you were staying home with Daddy, and with my return to working coming up in 4 weeks, we decided it was time you had a bottle. 

I was running late to get out the door as usual, and you were already crying because you were hungry.  It was very hard for Mommy to walk out the door and let Daddy tackle this one.  I hate hearing your cry, especially when I know it's something I can easily fix. 

Knowing you're in your father's very capable hands certainly helped though.  I think you Daddy was excited about getting to feed you for the first time.  There was some extra cheer in his voice as he hurried around the kitchen preparing your bottle as I was heading out. 

I cried as I left, but I swear I'd just left and Daddy was calling me to tell me how it went.

Daddy said you took to it right away and ate 2 oz. in about 5 minutes and promptly went to sleep. 

I'm so glad the transition was easy for you.  I hope it continues to be for you as you adjust to breast and bottle feeding. 

Mama's so happy with you Elinore.

Love,

Mom

Elinore's Birth Story - As Told by Mommy

Monday, July 2, 2012 was my due date.  That morning, I went off to work.  I spent my day at work tired and uncomfortable.  Twice that afternoon at my desk, I noticed a sudden warm, wet sensation in my underwear.  I hadn’t peed my pants at all during the pregnancy, well except for when I had that infection, but I knew it was a common occurrence for pregnant women.  So I went to the bathroom each time, and it still wasn’t clear to me if it was pee.  After the second time, I decided I’d call my doctor’s office.  I wanted to make sure I took proper precautions in case it was my fluid leaking. 

I left work about an hour early that afternoon because I was all caught up on my work and had been tired all day.  On my way home, I called doctor's office, and after the nurse checked in with the doctor on call, they advised me to head labor and delivery.  I called Keith when I got off the phone with the doctor’s office around 4:00, asked him to come home, and explained what happened.  

We met at our house, gathered our hospital bags, took a final photo and were on our way to labor and delivery.  I was fairly certain we weren’t going to be staying at the hospital.  I thought I was probably being over cautious and would be returning home later, while keeping in mind that may not be the case!  I was disappointed we didn’t have time to stop and see Caden and Caleb on the way, but at the same time I didn’t want to get them too excited if we would be home later that night too.  Big brothers were anxiously awaiting getting to stay at Grandma’s house for a few days anyway!

We arrived at the hospital around 5:30; they were expecting us and took me right to a room.  They started monitoring baby and took a quick test to see if my water had broken or not.  As we awaited those results, the monitor showed a sudden dip in the baby's heart rate, which alarmed the doctor.  The nurse said they don't know what caused it, and it could have been a brief disconnect of the monitor or movement of the baby, but without knowing for sure.  The doctor came in shortly after to discuss being induced.

I had really wanted to avoid being induced.  I was afraid it was the first step in moving away from our hope for natural birth in addition to stories I’ve heard of it not working or making contractions worse.  Keith spoke up about our concerns and the doctor spent some more time explaining why she wasn’t comfortable sending us home, all the while knowing that if the test came back indicating my water had broken, it would be a non-issue.  Keith jumped right on board, and the doctor spent some time explaining things to get me on board too. 

She explained that the chance of anything bad happening was small if we decided to go home, but still possible and she wasn't comfortable sending us home with that possibility.  I certainly wanted to do the right thing for the health of our baby, but I struggled for a while with the necessity of induction with the possibility the baby's heart rate was fine all along.  She also knew we wanted a natural birth and explained that my chances at having a vaginal birth were not at all diminished by being induced because I had a favorable cervix and had been progressing over the last few weeks on my own.  I was dilated to 3 cm when we arrived at the hospital, as we'd known from my appointment the week before. 

Since I hadn't ate any supper yet, the doctor let me order a grilled chicken sandwich and a cup of fruit, which I was thankful for.  Keith headed out to grab some Taco Bell, returned and we talked and tried to relax for a while before the came by to start my IV and Pitocin.  

I was very anxious, and I wanted so badly to return home.  All along, I thought that was a very real possibility, and I was counting on it.  I held back tears for multiple reasons.  I was upset I didn't get to see the boys.  I was upset I was going to be induced.  I was tired and nervous about what was to come.  Was I really ready for this? 

Early in the evening, the anesthesiologist stopped in to talk to us.  She was going home for the evening since I was the only one on the floor about to deliver, and I was planning for a natural childbirth.  She walked us through everything, so if I changed my mind, we were prepared.  She said once I changed my mind, it would take about an hour for her to be there and ready to go, and another 45 minutes or so to give me the epidural.  While I wanted a natural birth, I also had committed to keeping an open mind should I change my mind during labor. 

Around 7:20 the nurse came in and started the IV of Pitocin.  The nurse explained to us that since I had progressed to 3 cm on my own, and they were breaking my water, that they were going to keep a low dose of the Pitocin going as they thought I may do well progressing on my own still.  Knowing these things helped me be mentally ready and feel better about being induced. 

Around 7:40, the doctor came in and broke my water.  

I hung out in the bed for some time, then after getting up to pee, decided to move to the rocking chair by Keith.  We had the tv on in the background; we found that even if were weren't really watching it, we liked the background noise, and every once in a while it was a nice distraction for me to pay attention to.  

While sitting in the rocking chair my back really started aching.  It started hurting, and it got to a point where I couldn't tell if it was just my back hurting or it was the need to poop.  Ultimately, it was the need to poop, which the nurse confirmed was a good sign that baby was moving in the right direction! 

Things really starting getting uncomfortable after that, and the nurse got a birthing ball for me, which was a nice change of pace position for me.  She gave us some guidance on what to do and how to use it.  She also showed Keith where and how to apply pressure to my lower back as that was the only place I was feeling the contractions.  

I moved around on the birthing ball, which helped, but nothing helped more though, than Keith putting pressure on my lower back.  He said he was eventually just grinding his knuckles into my spine as I told him not to stop and to push harder!  My back was sore for a few days after from all his pushing. 

Around 9:30 or 9:45ish, the nurse said she'd check me again for progress at 10:30.  So between contractions, I was watching that clock; I wanted to know how far I’d progressed!  It was incredibly painful at this point, but having 10:30 to look forward to on the clock got me through each of the contractions. 

But when 10:30 exactly arrived and the nurse wasn’t in the room, I was just irritated!  Just after 10:30, the nurse arrived to check, which meant I had to get back in the bed.  Getting back in the bed was nothing something I wanted to do, BUT, I did really want to know how I’d progressed, so I climbed back in the bed.  She checked me, and I was at 6 cm. 

That wasn't close enough for me, and I couldn't remember anything I'd read about how long it would take to go from 6 to 10 cm.  Keith and I had talked briefly about the epidural before this point, but at this point, I was much more serious and Keith called the nurse back in to call in the anesthesiologist. 

I don't really remember anything about the time it took for the lady to get there to give me the epidural except that once the nurse finished checking me, I wanted back out of that bed.  As soon as I stood up though, witch Keith standing directly behind me, I bent over the bed and peed ALL over the floor.  I don't mean just a little pee, I really let it go and peed.  The nurse came back in and got a few towels to dry the floor and my feet as I was wondering if I’d just peed on my husband.  Keith said repeatedly I didn't actually pee on him, but I'm not sure if he was being honest or just trying to make me feel better about it!

By the time they started the epidural and sent Keith out of the room, I was really struggling to focus on getting through the contractions and both of my labor nurses really had to push me to focus on breathing.  It was either really short rapid breaths or holding my breath, neither of which were ideal, but this is where my labor nurse became even more awesome than she already was.  She held me hand, and let me squeeze the heck out of it and coached me through breathing.  After several minutes of ignoring their breathing directions, I finally got into a rhythm that worked for me.  Deep breaths in a long moans as I exhaled.  I think it may have taken them longer with the epidural because I was really struggling to follow directions and hold still.  

Once they got the epidural in, it was only working on my left side.  I moved to laying on my right side, and went from squeezing the nurses hand to the side of the bed.  Anything to hold on to worked for me, as long as I could hold on tight.  Afterwards, Keith said he came back into the room at this point, but he’d been in the waiting room for about 45 minutes. 

It slowly improved the contractions on both sides, and as soon as that happened, the nurse checked me again.  This time, I was past a 9 and nearly at 10.  I made it nearly to a 10 before the epidural was really working everywhere!  Knowing that, I thought I would regret the epidural since I made it so far; couldn't I have hung on a littler longer?  But, I don't regret the choices made one bit.  I think my husband and my labor nurses had a huge impact on my acceptance of deviating from my hopes for a natural childbirth.

We relaxed for a while; I was really to a 10 by then, but my nurse thought resting  a bit before I started pushing would be good.  I started pushing about 2:00 in the morning, and pushing was tough.  Keith, who was holding my leg on one side, suddenly says: I need to go sit down.  He crossed the room, sat on the couch and was very pale.  One of my nurses got him cookies and juice, while the other stayed with me.  Pushing resumed once Keith was looking a bit better.  I was feeling very weak; I couldn't get enough air to breathe well, and then I started throwing up.  The nurse grabbed a container to catch my puke.  

After that my nurse decided I needed a break and some rest to build my strength to push again and hopefully stop some of the nausea.  They lowered the dose of my epidural, and we went to sleep around 3:00. 

About two hours later the nurse came back asking some questions about how I was feeling and if I was ready to push again.  I was ready to meet baby, but I could have easily slept more too!  This time, I was feeling MUCH better.  I felt stronger again, breathing was easy, and pushing didn't seem as hard as it did before. 

The nurses and Keith seemed to notice a difference this time around too.  I had some feeling in my lower body from the lowered epidural dosage, and I could move some too.  It certainly wasn't overly controlled, but it was a pleasant surprise I wasn't expecting.  I could feel enough of the contractions to know when to push and with the nurses coaching things seemed to move pretty quickly.  Soon after we started pushing again, we were pausing to call the doctor in for delivery!  

I stopped pushing and waited for maybe 15 or 20 minutes for the doctor to arrive.  Once she arrived, the contractions seemed to slow and we had to wait a bit between them, but at 6:10 Baby Haynes arrived into our world.  The doctor held baby up for me to see and prompted us to look and see if we had a baby girl or baby boy. 

I was crying as I saw we had a girl; and Keith, in shock, says "it's a girl!"  Daddy was so sure you were going to be a little boy!

She was placed on me and Keith cut the cord.  I lay there crying in the happiest way imaginable.  A few moments later they took her for a few moments.  Her APGAR scores were 8 and 9.  She came right back to me and for at least an hour just laid there with each other while the doctor finished up and with 4 stiches, stitched my 3 first degree tears. 

As our baby lay on my chest, Keith got out short list of names for the baby for us to name our baby girl.  It was a list of four and I picked Elinore from the list with the intent to call you Ellie too.  Daddy agreed and Elinore you became! 

After the doctor had finished, I became uncontrollably cold.  The coldness was probably the scariest part of the whole experience.  I was shivering, my teeth were chattering, and I was afraid.  I had my new baby on my chest, and I couldn't stop shivering.  They brought me extra blankets and the nurse held my hand under the blankets as I lay there so scared.  Keith brought me some warm water to drink at my request.  I was so thirsty, but couldn't bear the thought of cold water.  In all my teeth chattering, I bit my tongue and made it bleed a bit.  All the while, the nurse was slowly urging me to start removing the blankets as I had a fever and they wanted to bring that down to avoid having to start antibiotics.  Slowly I warmed up and one by one was able to remove the blankets.

I can’t remember if it was before or after the shivering cold, but by 7:10 Elinore started nursing for a good 45 minute stretch!  I had been anxious about breastfeeding being successful for us, and the ease at which we picked it up that first hour gave me some added confidence. 

Our pediatrician came in, who we know from Caden and Caleb, checked you out and diapered you before coming back to me. 

Shortly after that a new nurse came in to give you your bath.  She warned us most babies cry at their first bath, but not our baby.  She was content the whole time. 

Afterwards, they started preparing us to move to another room where we would stay the rest our time in the hospital and bond as a family. 

First Day of Kindergarten

Separation

In the six short weeks since Elinore arrived I've been away from her twice. 

The first time was when I was in the emergency room with the infection.  We arrive there around dinner time, although we hadn't ate.  We were there so long, Keith had to go get something to eat for himself.  Since we didn't know what they'd be having me do, and I was feeling so awful, Keith took her with him.  Luckily it was just a short half hour and we were reunited. 

 This past Sunday was the second time.  Since I became the financial secretary at our church, I have work I have to do after church on Sundays.  Keith and I had driven separately this week because Keith had to work.  I wasn't expecting him in church at all, but he showed up mid-way through after he finished with work.  He took the kids home afterward, while I wrapped up at the church. 

Both of those times were short and quick and painless.  Tomorrow, however, I have to go to the clinic for an x-ray and ultrasound to check on my kidneys.  I'll be gone for a few hours in the afternoon.  Luckily Keith can stay home with her, since she can't come with me.  There is a very good chance I'll be gone long enough tomorrow afternoon, she'll have her first bottle. 

I know she's in very capable hands with her Daddy, and I know it'll be good for her to start introducing a bottle for when I have to go back to work.  Tomorrow also marks the day Ellie turns six weeks old.  It is also the half way point of my maternity leave. 

I'm so fortunate to be able to stay home with Ellie and the boys for 12 weeks, but I'm already not looking forward to returning to work.  I want to work, I'm pretty sure anyway.  But I'd like to be able to stay home with my baby more too.

Tomorrow is just another step toward growing up and working that I'm not ready for.  I'm sure baby will be fine, but mommy isn't ready!

Working Out

I've missed working out. Since Ellie was about two weeks old I've been itching to start working out again with some serious workouts.  I set a goal to run a 5K yet this year, and I'm itching to get back into it.  However, I am starting slowly.  I'm trying to get out a few times a week now for a walk.  Caleb likes to ride his bike, Caden walks along with me while I push Ellie in the stroller and hold onto Belle's leash.  I'm increasing my mileage walking and hope to transition to some running once we get into more of a schedule and I don't have the whole crew with me!  I can't imagine running with all of them.  There's always the treadmill I can start on too when Ellie's napping. 

I've missed working out for awhile now, but have been choosing carefully my activities while pregnant and now while I'm recovering still.  I wish I could say things felt normal again, but I'm sill not comfortable yet from delivery.

I think some of my desire to work out comes from the lack of it that has been in my routine as prior to pregnancy, I was so used to regular runs, kickboxing classes and workouts.  I also think a big part of it comes from my post-baby body image. 

Every time we're going somewhere, which hasn't been too often thankfully, I struggle to find clothes that a: fit and b: would be easy to breastfeed in.  I haven't worn a pair of pants, other than sweats and pjs, in months.  Once I outgrew my regular pants, I never wore maternity pants and just wore dresses.  So what fits me now is all dresses, which are not nursing friendly. 

My regular pants don't fit yet, and I can't WAIT until they do.  I have a few skirts that fit and have some pj pants I've been pulling off as regular pants to wear when we go out for now.  I hate to have to buy something when I have no intention of needing it long term, but it's also a real pain to wash the same skirt all the time so it's clean to wear!  I did buy some new tops that I figure I'll be able to wear for a longer time, but the pants is still an issue.

Talk about a mood killer every time you have to get dressed.

To top that off, the boys tell me good night "big mama."  They're interpreting it as cool because now their big brothers, so now I must be a big mama; however, I did not catch onto that the first time and it took me awhile to think through it!  I haven't said anything to the boys about it; I'm letting them have their fun.  As long as it's staying to our house at bedtimes, I'm alright with it.  The day it goes outside this house though, we might have a little talk about it!

I know it's only been a month.  I know I have time, and working out will help.  I'm eating healthily and hoping to see some progress in the next two months.

Sneaky Boys

When I first started my maternity leave and came home with Elinore, the boys schedules were way off, and we were okay with it for about a week.  They were staying up late, sleeping in late and they may have even taken a nap or two.  But we I could only handle a week before we had to get back to some kind of schedule/routine. 

I was tempted to move bedtime back for a later wake up time because what mom of a newborn wouldn't want a few more minutes of shut eye in the morning?  However, knowing school was coming up the next month and eventually I'll be heading back to work, I decided to get them back to their normal schedule to avoid transitioning them again later. 

There are days I wish they were getting up later, but I think the morning routine is going alright, and will hopefully make my transition back to work easier since I won't have to move my wake up time as much. 

Mostly though, there are days I wish the kids were staying awake later.  It's summer and there are so many things to do in the evenings, especially once it cools down a bit!  But more often than not, I'm exhausted by the time bedtime comes around and ready for some quiet time with my husband. 

I wish the boys had the opportunity to know the relaxed summers of my childhood of late nights and sleeping late on the floor of the living room every night, but it doesn't work for us.  I've tried a few times to let them experience some of those things, and they never seem to end well.  I let them stay up late one night and they're up even earlier the next morning and cranky! 

There are lots of tough choices we make as parents, but there are easier choices we have to make like bedtimes and routines that I struggle with.  I think fondly of my childhood and how different it is from my kids, and I wish it looked more like mine.  But at the same time, I look at their childhood and love some of the things that are different about it from my childhood. 

The most important thing; I know that no matter which decision I make, at least in terms of bedtimes is that everything will turn out just fine. 

So that is absolute not where I was headed with this; so back on track after that tangent.

Once they got back into their regular routine, I hear them stirring in the mornings at their regular time.  Sometimes they play quietly in their room, others they come ask if we can turn the TV on for them, which we agree to sometimes.  However, my favorite are the mornings I hear them trying to sneak into the toy room, which is outside our bedroom to get things.  Lately, that has expanded into trying to sneak into our room.  I'll be laying in bed still and hear them crawling on the floor out of sight trying to get into our room.  I have no idea what they're after.  Maybe they're trying to scare us.  I wait a few minutes and say "good morning."  Most of the time that immediately makes them turn around and scurry back to their room.  Nothing like raising suspicion about what they're up to!  Occasionally they'll pop up and ask for something, but either way, I'm entertained by it.  It is a nice way to wake up in the morning when your boys are coming to your bedroom for you!

Happy Half Birthday

to Me!

I'm half way through my year as a 26 year old.

I can't wait to see what the second half of my 26th year has in store for me!

Elinore's One Month Check-up

This morning we took Ellie in for her one month check-up.  She's doing well!

She's grown 2.5 inches to 20.5 inches.  She gained weight and is up to 8 lbs. 6 oz. now.  She's in about the 15th percentile for weight.

For about a week now she's had a bit of a rash on her face, which the doctor said was normal and as long as it wasn't bothering her she would be fine.

We touched base again on the spit-up issue too. We're continuing with the medice for now, but expecting that as you grow we'll be able to quit giving it to you.  I'm looking forward to that since I'm not a fan of having to give you medicine so early!

You have a small cyst on your gum that the doctor also said was fine and nothing to worry about.

One Month Review - Elinore

I took Elinore's one month photo last week, but hadn't say down yet to write about her first month, which I have wanted to do.  Here goes!

Ellie:

You're still wearing newborn diapers and clothes.

We're still breastfeeding, and you're doing so well!  It's been a learning curve for both of us, but it's gone smoothly for us.  This makes for one happy mama!

You go through 12 diapers a day on average.  You get the hiccups several times a day, and you spit up with them and many other times a day too.  You are a gassy baby and we spend a lot of time burping you or getting you to fart. 

Every once in awhile, you snort.  I love it!  Daddy says you get that from me. 

You've made a lot of progress in your ability to hold your head up and look around.  You've even rolled from you tummy to your back about half a dozen times. 

You are letting Mommy get 5-6 hour stretches of sleep at night, regularly. 

You like car rides and walks in your stroller.  You like to walk around with someone holding you, preferably mommy or daddy.  At night, when you're particularly fussy, it is one of our best tricks to calm you down.  Daddy is best at putting you to sleep at night.

We love all the little grunting noises you make all day long, and at night too.  It's one of our favorite things about you at this point!

Your big brothers are so in love with you.  They're always asking about you and looking out for you.  They're making sure you're being taken care of up to their standards and want to help out.  I could ask them to do dishes and they'd complain, but that rarely, if ever, complain when I ask them to get me a diaper or anything for you.  Although they may moan more if it involves too much bodily fluid for them!

That first week or two, I couldn't imagine you growing up, and the thought of it made me cry.  I didn't know how I was going to handle you growing like your big brothers, but now that we're a month into it, I love watching you grow and learn.  You've grown a lot, we'll find out officially tomorrow at your one month appointment.  You're constantly learning, and I love when you hold your head up and look at me now. 

I've learned so much about you in your first month, but I've learned a lot about myself and our family too.  I can't wait to see what we all learn about ourselves and each other in the next month of your life.  I've settled into looking forward to you growing up instead of in fear, although I certainly hope it doesn't go too quickly!

Love,

Mom

Taken August 2, 2012

2012 Goals Update

Back in January I wrote about what I wanted to accomplish this year.

• Finish my second semester of graduate school, while pregnant, with my GPA still strong-  My GPA wasn't as strong as I would have liked for it to be, but considering everything that happened that semester, I am happy with it.  I was pregnant, my father-in-law passed away, Caleb had a hospital stay, a work trip and other little things, all of which took away from my school work.  
• Take some time off work to savor the the last time we're a family of 4 - After Memorial Day, Keith and I took a few days off to spend with the boys, and although I was feeling kind of uncomfortable at that point having a cold and all, we went to the Cleveland Zoo and did some other fun things. 
• Welcome baby into our family - We did this!  :) 
• Breastfeed baby - So far so good!  I won't call it completely checked off until we transition back to working too, but we're well on our way. 
• Send the boys to kindergarten (They're so grown up!) - Later this month!
• Run a 5K after having baby - I miss working out.  I need to start working on this.
• Celebrate our 3rd year of marriage with my husband - My first day back to work was supposed to be our anniversary.  We're taking a vacation day to celebrate together, and I'll go back to work the day after our anniversary. 

Infections

Two weeks and one day after I had Elinore, a Wednesday, I woke up with a headache, and I'd been sweating most of the night in bed.  I didn't think a whole lot of it until I got up and felt kind of light headed and moved into freezing cold with goosebumps. 

After a bit, I took my temperature and had a fever of 101.9.  I was feeling completely miserable at this point.  So I called my dr. office, who sent me to my primary care Dr. office, who scheduled me an appointment.

I called Keith to come home and drive me there, because I was feeling that awful by this point. 

They determined they thought it was some type of bladder infection and sent me home with an antibiotic and instructions to go to the emergency room if I felt worse or my fever didn't get under control with Tylenol. 

After a three hour nap, my fever was 102.6; we were off to the emergency room. 

Keith called my mom to meet us there and take the boys for the night since it was shortly after 6 until we arrived in the ER and knew we wouldn't be leaving soon. 

They ran blood work and another urine culture and provided IV antibiotics to hopefully knock it out faster and increased the frequency of Tylenol to get the fever under control and sent me home.

I was feeling better the next few days, not great, but certainly better than I had been and my fever was hoovering around 100 and under, so I thought everything was improving, until I was getting ready for a shower Friday night and noticed the underside of my one breast was very red.

Since it was a Friday night heading into the weekend, we called the Dr. on call.  After explaining everything to her, she sent a different antibiotic into the pharmacy the next morning knowing now that what was probably really causing my problems was mastitis. 

It only took 3 days and 3 different Drs. to figure that out, and it certainly wasn't fun!  Apparently it is normally more evident due to pain in the breast, which I never had.  And since the redness was on the underside, I didn't notice it until I happened to catch a glimpse of it in the mirror on my way to the shower. 

Balance

One of the biggest challenges I've had as I've transitioned to a mother of three is making time for all of the kids.  When one is an infant and needs LOTS from mom, it's hard to make quality time for the older boys.  The first few weeks, I'll admit, I didn't spend a lot of time with them.  Sure I was with them every day, but I didn't sit down and actually play or work on something with them.  The last couple weeks, I've tried to make that a priority.  At least once a day I sit down with each of them or both of them together and work on something.  Some days it's working on a page in one of their sticker books, others it's reading stories, and others it's coloring.  I'm working on it, and we're working on activities to prepare them for kindergarten which starts in later this month!

Random Happenings in Motherhood

Caden and Caleb are loving being big brothers!  They have handled the transition fairly well I'd say.  We've had some behavior issues, which I expected as our family life changed, but I think we've all handled it very well! 

The dog has had the biggest issues with transitioning I think.  Belle was used to being the main attraction when people came to the house.  That's not the case anymore, and she's pushing for more attention

A few days before Ellie was two weeks old, she slept through her first church service.  We watched her big brothers in their Vacation Bible School Program during the service.  A week later, she slept through most of her second church service with only a few moments of grunting. 

Ellie is a champion at grunting.  It is very charming to her Daddy and I!

The first time I left the house with all three kids in tow by myself was to rescue Daddy who ran out of gas on his way home from work.  He had worked late on a night he was to take the boys to the church for VBS after he cooked his supper, so with little notice I had to throw together a meal and get everyone out the door.  Keith had to wait for me on the side for the road for probably 45 minutes and the boys were late to VBS, but we survived!  (I dropped the kids off on the way to get Keith.)  It was further complicated by Caden taking an hour to eat a salami and cheese sandwich.  Yes, an hour!

Our first real outing of me and the three boys was to the grocery store the day Ellie turned 4 weeks old.  It was a smooth success!  With top notch behavior from all!
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Elinore - 1 Month Old

Compare to 9 Days Old

Caleb Lost a Tooth!

Caleb has had a loose tooth for a few weeks now and every once in awhile he'd complain about it while eating.  He never really played with it or anything. 

This morning he came into my bedroom after breakfast.  As we were talking, I noticed he'd lost a tooth!  He didn't even know!  We have no idea where the tooth is.  Keith and I think he might have ate it with his breakfast. 

We agreed to leave a note under his pillow for the tooth fairy.

I'm so glad I've been home with both of the boys when their first teeth were lost!  I won't always be able to say that as a working mom.

Ellie