Giggling

Every picture of this activity is blurry, but they are both laughing playing together in the box we cut and painted.  A very welcome sound after all the bickering that has been going on lately!

4 Weeks

Look who is 4 weeks old today and has slept 6 hours the last two nights! 

Today was my postpartum appointment so now I can go swimming! The coolest high in the next 10 days is 107*, so I'm very excites!

Cozy Shopper

We love stretchy wraps!

3 Weeks

Yesterday Asher turned 3 weeks old.  He is still mellow and sweet, sleeping 3-4 hours day and night.  Last Friday he had a low weigh in at the doctor, so with some help from friends' scales, I have been monitoring his weight.  He has been gaining fine and made it to his birth weight today. Hooray!

Rummikub

Today the boys wanted to play Rummikub. It is over their heads, so I basically take every body's turn (at least helping Ethan).  I asked Benton to bring his tray over so I could help and this is how he had put the tiles on his tray.

Checklist

We have a daily checklist for the boys that keeps us all from going stir crazy with nothing to do.  They are loving the games.  We have quite a few new ones from Grandma, a friend of mine, and a garage sale we walked to.  I like this much better than playing with toys, so I'm glad they enjoy it!

How About an Asher Photo Dump?

And here is a photo recap of Asher's first two weeks.  He has been a very sweet, calm, baby.  He has a little fussy time in the evening and did NOT appreciate when I ate broccoli his first weekend, but this has been our easiest newborn phase yet.  

Hospital:

 Hospital's "celebratory dinner".

 Funny yawn.

 Ethan always wants to share his favorite toys with Asher "to make him happy."  He gives me instructions anytime he leaves to be nice to Asher and give him bed time animals or sing him Rock a Bye Baby or another lullaby if he is sad "because that always works."

 Asher is a pretty relaxed baby.  One night in particular he would not be woken up.  We would have enjoyed it more if we weren't paranoid about his jaundic (notice the bandaid on his heel from a test earlier that day, 2 days old).

 He is very snuggly.

 On Asher's one week birthday we went to Enchanted Island because they had a discount night.  Mike has been home for Asher's first two weeks and has done a lot of fun stuff with the boys: zoo, Pump It Up, Enchanted Island, lots of swimming, swim lessons, etc.  He has also done a bunch of projects around the house: planting new plants, cleaning pool filters, cleaning carpets, fixing a bathroom fan, switching out our freezer because it was too warm, etc.

 Screaming in the tunnel.

 Jil has been here for the first two weeks also.  She is great at giving the boys lots of attention, keeping the house clean, laundry done, etc.  Between Mike and Jil, I have gotten a lot of time to just soak in all the cuddliness of my new little guy.

Ethan loves to play games and will keep you playing as long as you are willing.  Grandma got him Old Maid and Go Fish and has spent a lot of time playing them with him.

Tomorrow I start life on my own with the boys.  It will only be two days before a three day weekend, and I'm feeling okay about it.  Asher has, from the start, slept 3-4 hours at a time most of the time at night.  One night I woke him up at 5 hours, but he hasn't repeated that.  I made up a schedule/checklist of daily things the boys are supposed to do.  I'm hoping that will keep our mornings structured so we don't have too much boring time.  I can't go to the gym or swim and I'm so used to a busy schedule, that I'm trying to get our days feeling a little more full.  One of our daily activities is going to be walking/jogging.  Benton is usually up by 5:45am and it is getting hot already, so morning exercise will get us up and going and hopefully be a good replacement for the gym until Asher is allowed into Kids Klub.  I had my first grocery shopping trip this morning and it went just fine (although Ethan wasn't with me and Jil was).  We have a lot of plans on the weekends through the end of June, so time will probably pass all too quickly.

Asher's Birth Story

Time to write my birth story, before I forget too much.  Many of the time details I only know now by looking back at my text messages.   This is the story that has the graphic facts and pictures, so you’ve been warned; you may want to skip this.

By the time I got to 41 weeks pregnant I was feeling pretty discouraged thinking I would have to be induced.  A friend from church had suggested using evening primrose oil to help induce labor.  My midwife had also mentioned it on Monday when I was dilated to 1cm, 50% effaced, 0 station.  So, I text Stefanie and she brought over her oil capsules.  I used them for 3 nights and each night when I woke up (the first of many times) I would feel crampy.  The third night after laying back down I woke up 2 or 3 times shortly after getting back in bed feeling crampy again, so I decided I should look at the clock in case they were contractions.  That was at 1:50am.  It happened again at 2:00.  I was too awake to sleep between contractions so I got up to time them.  I mostly walked around hoping to keep them going.  After an hour I was still having contractions and they were only a few minutes apart, although weak.  I woke Mike up to see what he thought we should do.  I knew I was still early in labor, but I had test positive for Group B Strep which meant I needed IV antibiotics during labor, preferably at least 4 hours before he was born.  We considered having me drive myself so we didn’t have to call anybody to watch the kids at 3 am when I was so early, but ultimately had my friend Sarah come over.  Mike got his things together and we headed to the hospital.

We got to the hospital around 4:00am.  I was at 3cm, 80% effaced.  They put a monitor on the baby for about 20 minutes before calling the midwife to see if I should be admitted.  The only reason they admitted me was because I have a history of fast labors and needed the antibiotics.

For the next few hours we hung out watching TV, walking around, sitting in the jetted tub, etc.  The contractions still weren’t bad and 4-6 minutes apart.  If I sat down they were further apart, so I mostly kept walking around, even though the midwife said she didn’t think my labor was going to stop.

 Last belly shots while we were hanging out at the hospital.  As soon as I got my hospital room I got rid of the gown they had me in in triage and stayed in my own clothes for the rest of my stay.

At 9:30am the midwife came in and checked me.  I was at 4.5cm 100% effaced.  She said that I was ready to go and that if I wanted her to break my water she was sure I’d go quickly (I had gotten both doses of antibiotics, so we were good to go anytime).  We had chosen to go with midwives because I wanted to go without an epidural and the midwives are there to provide support during labor.  The midwife on call, Lisa, was awesome and had picked an awesome nurse for us.  We told her we’d like to wait to break my water until she thought it would be a good time for her to be in our room and help out (they were having a really busy morning, running out of rooms even).  She said she would go check on her other patients and let us know.  She ended up having two deliveries right after each other, but then I was the only one left on her service.

By that time we had about an hour before my next dose of antibiotics and I really did not want to have to deal with them hooking up an IV bag if my contractions were bad, so I opted to wait until after the next dose.  They monitored the baby through one contraction about every hour, but besides that I was free to do whatever.  My contractions were bad enough that I practiced the breathing I learned in yoga through them, etc., but they were still 4-6 minutes apart and not terrible.  I liked laying over the yoga ball and Mike or Lisa would rub oils on my back. 

After the next dose of antibiotics I was at 5cm but effaced with the baby ready to go.  They broke my water, monitored the baby through a contraction to make sure the cord didn’t get squished or anything, and then I got in the jetted tub.  This was at 1:30pm.  I had several contractions a few minutes apart.  

The midwife was sitting by the tub with me and was very perceptive of what I was feeling in the contractions.  She knew when I felt the need to push for the first time, and we moved to the bed.  10 very intense minutes later, Asher was born, only 40 minutes after breaking my water.

They left Asher attached to his umbilical cord until it stopped pulsing.  Since Mike didn’t want to cut it, they asked if I did, so I did.  Unfortunately, my placenta was difficult to deliver and that was very unpleasant, especially since I would have rather been focused on cuddling my new baby.

Asher Jeppson Abegg  was born 5/8/14 at 2:11pm.  He was 8lbs 2oz and 20in long. 

He has been a great eater and sleeper so far.  They did not test him for Group B Strep since I got 3 doses of antibiotics, and he seems to be doing fine.  His bilirubin was a little high, so we had to get extra tests done after going home, but with indirect sunlight and a few days patience, it went down without any medical help, phew (Ethan’s hospital stay for jaundice makes us take it quite seriously).

My recovery has been really good.  I didn't tear/have stitches, so I feel good, although tired.  My IV site was quite colorful, so I look at my arm to remind myself that if my IV site is still healing, so are my insides, and I need to get back to regular life slowly.  Mike and his mom have been here and will be until Asher's two week birthday, so I have been fortunate to have time to soak in all the cuddliness of a squishy little newborn.