Last Thoughts on Pregnancy

37 Weeks with Alyssa

I went back through my blog post the last one I did was 32 weeks. So here are my 37 week pictures. 37Weeks with Colin

Total weight gain: About 30 pounds

Maternity clothes? Yes at the end that is all I could wear and most of those were to small.

Sleep: I was sleeping okay as long as the baby wasn't moving too much or having contractions

Best moment this week: Going to the doctor and hearing the heartbeat again. That never gets old.

Movement: I feel the baby every night now he is getting stronger by the day. He likes to stretch with his head in my left hip and his feet in my right ribs. He also liked to push as hard as he could out of the right side of my body.

Gender: Boy! Colin James for a name

Labor Signs: Yes starting at 36 weeks 5 days I had constant contractions for 3 days. They then stopped for a day and then my water broke at 37 weeks 3 days.

Belly Button in or out? Still in, but getting more shallow.

What I miss: Being able to bend over and not think about how I'm going to breathe. My lap is also shrinking so it is getting harder to hold Alyssa for long periods in my lap.


Weekly Wisdom: Slow down and take it easy.

By day 5 after he was born I had packed away all my maternity clothes.
By 4 weeks post baby I am down 24 lbs. (So I have 6 left to lose) though my clothes do not fit the same. I still have a small flabby belly. I can put on my size 8 pants and even button them but don't ask me to sit down in them and it gives me really bad muffin top.

I am not sleeping at night but that is due to my noisy baby sleeping beside me.

My belly button has gone back to normal but does not seem as deep.

2010

2010 has been a year of some of the scariest and saddest moments for me and also some of the very best moments.

I'm sure that can be said about every year but I do have to say 2010 held more good than bad for me.

When 2010 started I was still getting over the miscarriage and my job was getting more and more stressful by the day. By March I could not take my job any longer and started looking for something else. On April 5 I started a new job working with pre-school kids.

On April 6th (my second day on the job) I found out I was pregnant (in the bathroom at lunch time no less).

In June I got offered to do my own in home daycare and turned it down. In July I was offered another time to run my own in home daycare and I took the leap.

Since July I have become my own boss and LOVE it. I have enough kids to hire an assistant part time and she will go full time soon after the new year.

I was supposed to have a baby in December to end the year but he blessed us with his presence the very end of November.

Alyssa is growing up before our eyes she is a blast to play with. To look at pictures and see how much she has grown in the last year is amazing. She is full of words and comes up with the cutest things to do and say. We just watch and play with her at night there is no need for the TV.

2010 has flown by and has been more than I could ever imagine, I can't wait to see what 2011 brings.

Christmas 2010

Christmas was a blast this year. Alyssa was a blast. She knew how to open presents and she loved everything she got. She got to open presents on 3 different occasions with one more to come. She loved all the attention she got and could not have been in a better mood considering she was low on sleep during the whole thing.

Colin could have cared less and slept through the opening of presents. He did look adorable doing it though so that is what is important.

On Christmas morning both Chris and I were wide awake at 5am. Colin and Alyssa were still asleep so we laid in bed talking and laughing that we were up earlier than the kids. Once Alyssa was up at 6 we came downstairs and played for about an hour and then had breakfast and then went up to open presents. Alyssa got to open all of them no matter who they were addressed to. If they were for Colin she would walk over to his car seat and show it to him then be ready for the next one. She loved playing with her new toys. She had a tea party with Grandpa and drew on the chalkboard with Nana and draw a picture on the magnadoodle with Daddy.

She loved playing with her cousins and seeing family.

It was a great Christmas.

Big Girl Bed

Last Saturday I decided Alyssa was big enough to move from the crib to a toddler bed. This was what I thought would be an easy move and just take off the front of her crib and put on the railing. Well an hour later it was fixed. I had to move the mattress down and find the correct screws but it was on.

That night Alyssa went to bed super easy. On Sunday she did not take a nap but went down easy for bed. By Monday night we were having trouble getting her to stay in bed at night. Last night she was so tired from no nap that she fell asleep on the couch at 6:15. By 10pm she was awake and coming into our room. By midnight I had enough of putting her to bed and told her to crawl in bed with us. An hour later she was finally asleep. But I was kicked out of bed at 2 by legs in my side.

This morning I put her crib side back up on her bed. This time it only took me about 20 minutes. For nap today I put her down she screamed for about 2 minutes and was asleep in under 10. She was the first one asleep of all the kids in the daycare. Hopefully we can go back to her easy sleeping patterns.

She was usually so easy to put down. You would lay her down and within minutes she was asleep with no crying and sleeping almost 12 hours at night straight with an hour and half to two hour nap a day. Hopefully we will be back to that by the end of the week. I can't deal with two of them up at night!

Snow

On Saturday night it snowed. On Sunday Chris and I figured Alyssa should get to enjoy it. The wind was still blowing about 20 mph with gusts up to 40 so we left Colin inside and took Alyssa out on the deck. Her shoes became covered in snow and I showed her how to make a snowball. She loved it. The whole time( like 3 minutes) we were outside she had the biggest smile on her face and enjoyed everything there was about the snow.

When we came inside she decided that she should put on her daddy's snow gear. She looked adorable and she knew it.

There was not enough snow for a snowman but I promise you that when there is, she will have to be out there making one.

Firsts

Colin has now had his first bath, his first doctor's appointment and his first visitors. It is amazing how different the second child is than the first.

I LOVE to hold Colin and snuggle up with him but I do not hold him half as much as I held Alyssa. Part of this is because I'm already back to work and can't hold him and take care of kids at the same time, but the other part is I need time with Alyssa too.

Colin is very content sleeping in his swing or bouncy seat for hours at a time while I play with Alyssa or take care of the daycare.

Another difference is the firsts. When Alyssa got her first bath we took like 100 pictures. The first time we put Colin in the bath someone had to run to get the camera because we had forgotten it.

As I uploaded pictures to my computer yesterday so that I could write about some of his firsts I realized that Alyssa still had more pictures on the camera than Colin.

Chris and I both love being parents to two kids and are way more relaxed with the second but sometimes I feel a little guilty because we aren't as overbearing as we were with Alyssa.

Picking the Christmas Tree

We usually get our tree the first weekend in December. But this year we waited until the second week because Colin was so little that first week.

On Saturday we packed up the family in two cars and headed out to Home Depot to get the tree. Now usually when we go we walk up and down each aisle at least two times picking up trees and admiring them from different angles to see if there are bald spots and if it will look good in our house.

This year we get out of the car to the bitter cold and wind. We ran inside and got all the things we needed from inside including a cart. I put Colin in the basket part and tried to put Alyssa in the seat but she wanted to walk. So out we go to find a tree. We start up the first row with the wind blowing at about 40 mph. I pull a tree out and say this looks good. Chris pulls a tree out and we say we like that one but it looks like it has been sitting awhile. The wind blows again. We grab the first tree I picked up and I head to the car with the kids.

Once in the car Alyssa is crying because her hands hurt from the cold and Colin is crying. And I'm driving with the heat blowing full blast.

If you know me you know that picking out a tree usually entails at least 20 minutes. This year I could have cared less. It was cold and the kids were cold. It is amazing how your priorities change.

We brought it home to decorate. Alyssa walked behind Chris saying "eww" to every pine needle that dropped.

Alyssa loved the lights on the tree and enjoyed hanging a few ornaments though most were to hard for her to hang.

Colin James

On Wednesday I had my 37 week check up. My blood pressure was up and since Thanksgiving was the next day I was sent to Labor and Delivery for blood work and monitoring. My blood work came back fine and my blood pressure went down but I was having contractions. The contractions did not amount to anything so they sent me home.

I had BH contractions all day Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Saturday night my family went and walked the zoo lights. That finally made the contractions stop.

All day Sunday I felt great and got a lot done.

On Monday morning I got up and at 6:15am my water broke. It was a huge gush that would not stop coming. There was mecuim in the fluid so I knew we needed to head straight in to the hospital.

We left for the hospital at 7:20 and checked in about 8:30 am. When I checked in I was 2 cm and 80% effaced. They monitored my contractions for about an hour and they were not strong or consistent so they started pitocon.

At 11 they finally let me get out of bed and onto a birthing ball. This only lasted about 40 minutes because with every contraction his heart rate would drop. They decided that I had lost too much fluid. So I got the epidural and they inserted an internal monitor and pushed fluid back into my uterus so that he wasn't being squeezed during contractions.

At 5 pm I was finally 5cm. At 6 they checked me again and I was 9. They started setting the room up. At 6:25 I started pushing. He was born at 6:33 after 3 pushes. The NICU nurse that was supposed to be in there to suction his lungs since he had mecuim did not make it in time and he took a breath, but was fine.

He was born at 37 weeks 3 days. He weighed 7 lbs 14 ounces, 20 1/2 inches long and was healthy.

He is eating like a champ and I am so in love.