Food

Since we've been on our own at home we've had friends bringing us food on a fairly regular basis, from homemade lasagna to Whole Foods salads, all delicious and so appreciated. Chuck said he thinks we should just pay our friends to keep bringing meals once maternity leave is over. Hmmm... I have been relying a bit on frozen meals, which are super easy and actually pretty good! We just bought a deep freezer so we can stock up on food and get ready for some serious milk storage as well. Yesterday we had an outing planned and decided to take Clark out for his first sushi (my first sushi in almost a year!), which was a delicious splurge:

Chuck's been tracking his calories with an iPad app during his month-long bonding leave, and he's actually lost a bit of weight. He goes back to work on Tuesday and will once again have buffet-style lunches each day. Hopefully he'll continue tracking his food and making healthier choices. Of course, I can eat pretty much anything and continue to lose weight. Feeding a baby is hard work!

Aurora's school offered breakfast snacks for parents this morning so we could come meet the new teachers and check out their new classrooms. Here she is showing off her pre-K room:

Her teacher told me that she's not eating her school lunches, which often consist of mushy vegetables and things like ham and cheese roll-ups and "blasagna" which I know she doesn't like. They're getting a new food vendor soon and will be updating the menu with healthier options, which I believe she'll prefer. She does eat the snacks they provide - she loves raw fruits and veggies, breads and cheeses, yogurt and raisins, but doesn't seem to like the texture of most cooked or canned foods. I wouldn't be surprised if she also decides to be a vegetarian like her mama. Today I sent her to school with a baggie of spinach and carrots, which made her happy. Strange girl...

3 Weeks

Clark is 3 weeks old today and while he's still a sweet sleepy boy, it's been 3 full weeks since we've had a full night's sleep. I'm up every 3 hours or so to feed, burp, and diaper the little guy - and although Chuck does what he can to help, I usually try to not ask him for too much until morning. We haven't been taking many naps, but so far we both seem to be functioning pretty well. Thank goodness for coffee and friends who bring us food (seriously, thank you!!!).

This weekend Clark's umbilical cord stump finally came off, and he graduated into size 1 diapers!

Aurora's such a sweet and helpful big sister, just exactly as I envisioned. She kisses her baby brother all the time, hangs out with me while I feed him, puts his paci in his mouth if he's crying, and drops everything to get what I need whenever I ask for help. She even thought it was hilarious when he peed on her during their bath the other day (after the initial shock of realizing he was peeing on her).

All in all, it's been a very good 3 weeks. While I'm hoping that a few weeks from now we'll have a more consistent schedule (one that includes longer sleep blocks at night), I know that the next 9 weeks of maternity leave will go by too fast and I'm just trying to enjoy every day as it comes.

Farewell Fireflies

Today was Aurora's last day as a Firefly. It's hard to believe that it's been a full year since our short-haired, barely potty-trained 3-year old moved into Miss Brittany's class. Here she is with a photo of their Firefly parade last August. Yes, next week Miss Brittany will be starting over with a new group of 3-year olds. They'll be so little and most won't even be able to form complete sentences!

I went in this afternoon during their farewell party and took a couple pictures of the class. Clockwise from Aurora there's Blake, Keara, Presley, Julian, Seth, and David.

Tomorrow's a teacher workshop day, then Monday Aurora starts PRE-K! What?!?! Her new class will be the Dinos, and I hear her new teacher, Miss Jessica, is "the bomb." There are 4 pre-K classes so Aurora won't be with all the same friends, but they won't be far away. In pre-K they'll focus on early reading, math, science, and they'll do field trips twice a month. Sounds like fun to me!

Of course, in just a couple short months Clark will also be going to CCOA. I hope he loves it as much as his sister has. This morning I think he wanted to go to school with her:

Seriously, newborn babies do not smile or wave, right? I can barely remember Aurora being this small, and I cannot imagine Clark going into pre-K, but that's the way it goes. Next year Aurora will be off to Kindergarten...

Growing Boy

When Clark was 5-days old we took him in for his first appt with our pediatrician. Normally babies lose weight during those first few days, but he weighed 8 lbs 3 oz, just a bit more than his birth weight. For having just been in the NICU, the doctor was very pleased with how healthy he was.

Today we took him in for his 2-week appointment and he was up to 9 lbs 7 oz! I knew he was a good eater, but I didn't expect he'd weigh close to 10 lbs already! They weighed and measured him, then sent us to the lab to draw blood. I made daddy take him in for that, and they both did great.

I have an app on my phone that lets me time feedings and chart his growth (it says he's in the 70th percentile - Aurora's always been in the 25th). My neighbors actually recommended it, and since then I've had other parents tell me they use it. I thought I'd share a screen shot because it's pretty cool:

I can actually track a lot more than this, but feedings and growth are the main things I want to record.

Yesterday we had a fun milestone with our growing boy - his first bath! Aurora loved having him in the tub and he seemed to enjoy it, although he was pretty unhappy afterwards.

I've sort of been waiting for him to get over this sleepy newborn phase so we can have more interactive time with him, and I think it's just starting to happen! He's growing and changing everyday, stretching his legs out, focusing his eyes more, and getting cuter and cuter (obviously).

Going Going Gone

It feels like I've been preparing myself for Laura leaving for quite some time now, but I can hardly believe the time has actually come. This week she on-boarded our largest group of interns yet, and on Wednesday our team had a special going away lunch for her:

Clark was only 9-days old and the timing did not work out well with his feeding schedule, but I didn't want to miss it. Our first outing with a public feeding in the women's room went... okay. I asked Laura if she'd have breakfast with us this weekend as well, to say goodbye to Aurora (and me) one more time. We met at IHOPs and it was delicious. Clark doesn't really love being in his car seat yet, but we did pretty well and the timing worked out better.

Today Laura flew away to California, just a few hours before Grandma Nancy flew back to Arizona. This house and this city may feel just a bit lonelier tomorrow, but slowly we'll all find our new normal - Laura in her new city, us with our new baby, and Nancy with her new iPad... gone but just a phone call or face-time away.

Activities

Keeping Aurora home this week has been a lot of fun. It was also a bit of a challenge, as I had to constantly plan ahead and think of special activities to keep her busy. We did tons of art projects, baked cookies, and played games with her at home - then Clark and I stayed home while Chuck and Nancy took Aurora on fun outings each day. You can see in my last post that they went to the Hoppin' House. Since then, it's been one thing after the other and we have the pictures to prove it!

Aurora's getting good at Candy Land and UNO 

She got her Summer Reading prizes from the library

We went to the mall and Chuck picked up some Legos

Yes, Aurora helped build the Millennium Falcon

They had fun at the Children's Museum

She even got to see Elmo!

I've gone out a few times as well. Our first family outing to the mall, a trip to eat at the local catfish restaurant, and a special lunch with friends (more on that in my next post). But for the most part, I've been able to focus on feeding and hanging out with this sweet little guy...

Yes, I'm a little sleep deprived and probably not quite yet operating at 100%, but I sure am lucky to have this time at home to spend with my family. 

Current Events

Today Clark is one week old, and it has certainly been an eventful week. I started feeling contractions just as we watched the rover Curiosity land on Mars. The London Olympics just finished up, though I have to admit we didn't watch any of it - our dish was out of alignment and that just happened to be one channel we weren't getting. Those days in the hospital are now just a blur as we settle into our new life at home. Grandma Nancy arrived on Saturday and we're keeping Aurora out of school this week to spend some quality time with the whole family. Here are a few pics from Nancy's camera:

It's nice to have Grandma here to spend time with Aurora while I focus on the baby and keep everybody fed. Chuck is on leave from work and really seems to be enjoying this family time, and Clark is a good eater and a sleepy little guy. What's happening in the rest of the world?

Sleepovers

As you know, we were discharged from the hospital on Thursday afternoon. What you may not know is that we didn't see Aurora again until Friday at 5:30pm. Instead of coming home Thursday, Presley's mom picked her up from school and the girls had their first sleepover. She's been asking for a sleepover at Presley's house for months, and while I'm so thankful her mom said yes, I really just can't believe our little girls are big enough to start having slumber parties! Elizabeth sent me a couple pictures of our silly girls, who spent hours playing dress-ups and reading books together:

Aurora claims they did not sleep at all, which I don't believe for one minute. At our house... well, that may have been a different story. Actually, Clark's a pretty sleepy little newborn. Chuck set up our sleeping arrangements, which include his head at the foot of our bed so he can hear the baby breathe (he did that with Aurora too), and Clark woke up every 2-3 hours to eat and poop, then pretty much went straight back to sleep. I hope he can keep that up...

Birth Story

I realize that I never really posted a birth story for Aurora - just photos. With that experience I'd say it was pretty hard on me and not so hard on her - all in all, a pretty normal delivery. This one was a little different. Way easier on me, but a bit harder on the baby.

I started timing contractions late Sunday night, and while they weren't painful, I figured it was his due date so they must be the real deal. Laura came over to spend the night with Aurora and we headed over for a labor check. By 4am we were around 3cm, which doesn't amount to much progress but since we were full-term they admitted us and started the process going. I was 4cm by 8am when they broke my water and gave me an epidural, then started a slow pitocin drip to help speed things along. By 11am I was just 5cm and they said we were taking baby steps, but we'd get there - then they left us alone for awhile. Just after Noon I started feeling intense pressure, so around 12:40pm I called the nurse and asked if they could re-check my progress. At 1pm she brought the doctor on call and when they went to check me, little Clark was right there and ready to come out! Wow. I pushed just a handful of times without any pain and was really able to experience it this time - whereas I was pushing and in pain for close to 2-hours with Aurora and really starting to struggle at the end. 

While I certainly experienced less distress, Clark wasn't quite as lucky. His cord had wrapped his hand up near his neck, and he came out covered in meconium, which means he had his first bowel movement at some point during the delivery. He'd swallowed and potentially inhaled it, which can be dangerous. They quickly started assessing the situation and within a few minutes had taken him to NICU to help him breath and take chest x-rays. I wasn't scared, but it wasn't quite how I'd expected things to happen next. The doctor and nurses explained everything very clearly and gave us some worst case scenarios: we may be there for a week, we may not get to feed or hold him for awhile, I'd have to pump, etc... and then we were in the room alone. Once we could finally go see him, he looked like this. He wasn't happy, but he was definitely the biggest baby in the NICU!

The next time we went in, he was very hungry and I was able to give him his first bottle. He'd already been downgraded to where he didn't need the full breathing apparatus. There were some streaks in his lung x-ray at first, but he was breathing well on his own so they were just administering extra air.

The days are a blur, but soon they were able to take the nose tube out and let him in our room. At that point all he had was an IV in his head for antibiotics and I was finally able to feed him myself.

By Wednesday evening they had confirmed a clear x-ray and were able to take out all the tubes and let him room in with us. We did have to stay in the hospital one extra day, but it certainly could've been worse! Laura had been bringing Aurora to visit us each evening, and yesterday she was finally able to meet her little brother. We had a birthday party for him complete with favors, gifts, and cake.

Aurora loved touching his soft head and gave him some sweet kisses. I like to think they'll get along!

The NICU and postpartum nursing staff took great care of us, and the hospital food wasn't bad at all. I can't thank Laura enough for taking care of our girl and fighting traffic to commute to work and the hospital each day. Our family will miss her when she moves to California next week.

And now we have this adorable little boy! He looks different each day, but I see a lot of Aurora as a baby when I look at him. I thought Aurora looked so much like Chuck at first, but Clark might look a little more like I did as a newborn... 

Being home definitely feels good. Chuck's kept the atmosphere relaxed all week long with soothing music, and tonight we're just having a quiet evening at home. Here's hoping we sleep well tonight!

We did it!

After a surprisingly fast and easy labor and delivery, Clark William Wadey joined our family today at 1:31pm, weighing 8 lbs 1 oz and 21 inches long. The doctor said that since it's a leap year, he was really right on time... I hope this picture works. More to come when we get home!

Due Date

This baby sure seemed like he wanted to come early, but here we are on his official due date and he seems fairly content staying right where he is.

He's been moving less, I think my belly has dropped, and I'm feeling achy today - but I'm not sure if that amounts to much. Will we have to work tomorrow? Will I have to set an appointment with Dr. Belt on Thursday and schedule an induction? How big is this baby going to be? How much longer can we wait patiently for this little boy? So many questions...

Birthday Boy

I think it's safe to say that Chuck will remain the only August 1st birthday in our house, which is just fine. This evening Aurora and I picked out a yummy dinner and some cute desserts to celebrate.

I had my 39 1/2 week OB appointment this morning, which was interesting. Just as I recreated a photo from 4-years ago in my last post, today I felt like I relived the exact conversation I had with Dr. Belt 4-years ago. It went something like this:

Dr. Belt: "Well, you're still 2 cm dilated and there's been no change. I'm going out of town for a week so we'll make an appointment for next Thursday and at that point we can talk about induction."

Me: "No, the baby's due this weekend and tomorrow's a full moon. I will not still be pregnant next Thursday."

I was right last time. Aurora came during a full moon weekend, just before her due date, while my OB was on vacation. I see no reason why this would be any different! Of course, I don't actually have any control over it and I know plenty of women who go past their due dates, so I probably shouldn't be so confident. The most important thing is that Clark and I are both very healthy - he's measuring just right and I'm feeling good. This boy will come on his birthday, whenever that is supposed to be.