Isabella Sophia

my smiling princess

Isabella Sophia was born on July 12 at 4:35 pm, weighing in at 6 lbs 14 oz and was 19 inches long.  I had been anxiously awaiting labor to start for a couple of weeks.  Gage came almost 3 weeks early, and I've heard that the second child usually comes earlier - and with a quicker delivery, too!  At my 36 weeks appointment, I was excited to hear that I had started dilating and was about 70% effaced.  37 weeks appointment, I was still about 70% effaced, but dilated to a 3 and the doctor thought sure I would have a baby in the next few days.  At my 38 weeks appointment, which was July 12, my blood pressure was high and I had proteins spilling into my urine.  I had developed pre-eclampsia.  They had been watching me for it for a few weeks, but my blood pressure had remained normal until now.  So I was put on a monitor to watch the baby's heart rate and my contractions.  A few more blood pressure readings were still high, so I was walked to labor and delivery and was induced for labor.

I called Chad to let him know that he should leave work and come to the hospital.  I got an IV and was started on Pitocin to start labor around 11:00.  A little after noon, my doctor came to break my water.  She also asked if I was considering an epidural this time as it can bring down a person's blood pressure.  I told her no.  I had Gage naturally and planned to do this one naturally as well.  I was also put on magnesium sulfate shortly after in order to prevent me from having seizures, since my blood pressure was still pretty high.  About 2:00, I started actually feeling some contractions and they continued to get stronger and closer together from then on.  I think it was about 4:00 when I had a couple of really bad contractions.  Chad was holding my hand and letting me squeeze (break??) his hand while I breathed through the contractions and I knew I was in transition and getting near time to push.

I called the nurse and told her what I was feeling.  She checked me and I was dilated to a 9 and fully effaced.  They called my doctor who thankfully has her office really close to the labor and delivery wing because the next contraction I was ready to push.  But....they wouldn't let me push until the doctor got there.  I think I had two of these contractions that they made me blow through without pushing.  One of the nurses was literally holding in the baby while I blew through the contraction until the doctor got there.  As soon as the doctor walked through the door, I asked her if I could push now.  She said yes and two pushes later (one - the head came out, two - came the shoulders and the rest of her), I was holding my beautiful baby girl.  The doctor asked Chad if he wanted to cut the cord  - he declined, so she asked me.  I cut the cord. 

She was beautiful!  She looked just like Gage did when he was born, but with very little hair.  Even her nose was squished to the right, same as his was, but not as bad.  Hers is already pretty much straightened out, but it took Gage about a year to straighten out completely.  And she has two adorable dimples, too!  She's just perfect!!

Unfortunately, my blood pressure remained high, so they kept me on the magnesium sulfate for 24 hours, which meant I had to stay in my delivery room.  Those beds were not made for sleeping!  I didn't have to have any stitches and was able to walk pretty well shortly after delivery.  Recovery this time was much quicker than when I had Gage.  I was pretty much back to normal three days later, except that my hips ached a little.  And that was taken care of with an adjustment at my chiropractor appointment the following Tuesday.

We got to go home around noon on Thursday.  It was so great to be home and have our whole little family all together finally.  Gage was sort of interested in the baby.  When he heard her cry the first time, he ran over to her bed to see what was going on.  He is fascinated by her tiny feet and hands and gives her kisses on her forehead.  But he doesn't really bother her too much.

At this posting, she is already 15 days old and has gained a pound and grown over an inch.  Obviously, she eats very well.  And she is sleeping well too.  She sleeps anywhere from 2 1/2 to 4 hours at a time at night and generally goes right back to sleep after she eats, so we are all sleeping pretty well.  And so far, she is fine sleeping in her bassinet.  Which is good since Gage still sleeps with us most nights, although he is doing better about sleeping in his own bed and for longer stretches at a time.  I know he will eventually transition on his own, and for now, sleep is the most important thing for all of us.

Happy 2nd Birthday Gage!

Today, my little peanut is two years old!  I can't believe how the time flies!  And we're anxiously awaiting Bella's arrival any day now.  At my doctor appointment this past Tuesday, she said I was dilated to a 3, still about 70% effaced and the baby has dropped some - it could be any day!  Last night I woke up around 12:30 having contractions and was just about to wake Chad and call my dad to come stay with Gage about an hour and a half later when they just stopped.  Bummer.  What are the chances of having two kids with the same birthday???  I told Chad if she does come today, we need to go out and buy a lottery ticket!

Today at school, Gage took Elmo cupcakes for his birthday treats and they had a party.  Here is his picture from the party.  I love the "look".

Favorite Songs

Gage's favorite song for us to sing is Row Row Row Your Boat. He requests it by saying "Row Row?" and making rowing motions with his hands and arms. Sometimes we have to sing it several times in a row. We think they sing it at school and have motions for the kids to do. He will sing along a little bit at the "Row Row Row" part and again at "Merrily Merrily Merrily" which comes out more like "May-ee May-ee May-ee". If we try to sing a different song (because Mom and Dad can only take so much Row Row Row Your Boat), he gets mad and flails his arms and whines. Sometimes he will tolerate Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, and will do the movements, too. Sometimes.

MY favorite song to see him sing is the Muppet's Theme Song. We have a "Best Of" series of old Muppet Shows and he absolutely LOVES it! He asks for us to put it in the DVD player multiple times in an evening by saying "Muh-mo?" When Kermit comes out and does the introduction, Gage always recites it with him. "It's the Muppet Show with our Very Special Guest Star, ! YAAAAAAAY!" He will say the "YAAAAAAAY!" and clap along with the audience. Then when all the muppets come out and sing the theme song, Gage sings along with a "Do do do do" not really on pitch, but sort of in time, and somtimes moves his arms back and forth like he's dancing.  Then at the grand finale of the theme song "...On the most sensational, inspirational, celebrational Muppetational, This is what we call the Muppet Show!" He spreads his arms wide and sings really loud, sort-of Broadway-musical-finale-style.

There is one episode with Harry Belefonte singing the Banana Boat Song (Day-O, Da-a-ay-O, Daylight come and me want go home) with Fozzie Bear and a bunch of other muppets. It's sort of a sing and repeat part of the song where Harry sings "Day" then the other muppets sing "Day", but Fozzie Bear is about a half beat late. Harry tries several times and asks Fozzie to try to get in time with everyone else, but each time he's just a little bit late. Gage laughs every time. It cracks me up, and I love that he "gets" the humor in that!

I've tried a couple times to get a video of this, but either the video is too dark, or you can't hear the sound (the best part!!). I will keep trying and will post if I can manage to get one. In the meantime, I thought you might enjoy my own recount of it.

Smile...

We received an e-mail yesterday from Ms. Meg (Gage's teacher) with pictures she had taken of Gage for a project they were doing.  Here is her account of the story...

"Smile, Gage!"

"Gage, put your angry eyes away."

"Gage, pleeeaaase put your angry eyes away?"

We also received an account of yesterday's "hair-pulling incident" this morning when we dropped him off.  We tell him to be nice to Enzo when he pets him, so now he's started saying "Nice" when he pets Enzo very gently.  He also says "Nice" when he pets my or Chad's hair.  Yesterday, he was petting Ms. Danielle's hair and saying "Nice", then Ms. Meg caught him with his angry face (similar to the first picture above, but his brows are really furrowed and he wrinkles his nose and you can see all his teeth) and then he pulled Ms. Danielle's hair.  If she sends us those pictures, I will post them, too.  She must have taken photography classes or something because I don't know how she gets such good pictures!  Maybe my camera just takes to long to shoot...

I feel bad about him pulling Ms. Danielle's hair, but they were all laughing about it this morning.  I'm not sure if he got disciplined for it or not.  When I catch him at home with that face and pulling hair or scratching or hitting or doing something that appears to be mean or aggressive, he usually gets a timeout for it, then has to say he's sorry and give the 'victim' a hug.  Sometimes all I have to do is look at him and tell him no and he starts crying and says he's sorry. It doesn't happen very often, but I want him to learn that behavior is unacceptable.  He's really a very good boy and very loving, so these incidents are few and far between.  He gives kisses and hugs (when he wants to - not always on demand), and we hear that he hugs and pets the hair and says "Nice" to the other kids in his class, too.

Helping Others

We have the opportunity this week to teach Gage about helping others. At school, they were given little boxes to fill up with coins and return this week for the Easter Seals. When they bring their individual boxes back, they will put their coins with all the coins from the other kids in their class, then the class will contribute their lot to the big container for the entire school. I think it's great that they do it this way so they can see that even though their little box may not look like much by itself, it adds up to a lot when you combine it with others. I gave him the spare change from my wallet and we've found some coins on the ground in parking lots, and we've taken some out of his piggy bank to put in the box. I'm sure he doesn't understand at the moment that this is going to help kids with disabilities, but he's having fun putting the coins in the little box and shaking it to make noise.


We are also having a food drive at work this week collecting food and dry good supplies for local charities. We buy a lot of our canned and dry goods in bulk from Sam's Club. The stuff doesn't go bad and we have the room to store it, so it just makes sense for us to buy more at a time for some of these things to get a better price (it's nice to have it on-hand when I forget to put it on the grocery list too). So I've decided that I'll have Gage help me fill up a bag with some of our extras to donate. I might even bring him in to the office to help put it in the big blue barrel.

These are just small ways we are able to contribute to help others. And even though he may not understand that concept yet, we're starting early. As he gets older, he will understand it someday, and he'll be able to make these decisions on his own and hopefully want to help others on his own as well.

20 Weeks Doctor Appointment

I had my regular monthly OB visit today. I was supposed to have the 20 weeks ultrasound done, too, but when we got there, the ultrasound tech wanted to talk to the doctor before she did it since I'd had pretty much the same thing done in Peoria three weeks ago and she didn't think I needed it done again. Especially since I have a follow-up appointment in another 4 weeks back in Peoria. She was afraid it might mess up things with the insurance. She asked me if I was okay with that, and I told her yes and half-way joked that we just wanted to see if it was still a girl. So she looked. She said "What am I going to do now for the next 45 minutes? I just won't charge you for it." And yes, it's still a girl. We also asked her about the fluid in the kidneys that they saw in Peoria and she said it's part of normal development and usually nothing to worry about. She had very good things to say about the people at the place in Peoria, which made me feel better, too.

We saw the doctor after that and the heartbeat is loud and strong between 158 and 160 beats per minute which is normal. My blood pressure was normal (Imagine that...nothing to stress about this visit and I don't have high blood pressure!!) And I actually lost a pound since my last visit. So other than having a crappy head cold, the baby and I are both healthy and normal.

Also, we've decided on a name. We've actually had it picked out for a few weeks now and have been living with it and we still like it. So we're going to name her Isabella Sophia, and call her Bella for short. Yes, we're aware of the similarities between the name and a character on a certain popular vampire series, but this was a name we had talked about the last time before we found out Gage was a boy and we still like the name. And despite the fact that it's very popular right now, we're going to go ahead with it because we like it. And Chad wouldn't let me name her Edward Cullen.

Editor's note:  After a couple of questions regarding "Edward Cullen", I decided maybe I should explain that reference for some of our readers.  Edward Cullen is the name of the vampire in the Twilight movie/book series.  The very handsome and brooding vampire!! 

Valentine's Day Party

We just got a couple pictures from Gage's teacher of their Valentine's Day Party at school.



Love Bugs

 

That's Gage's "girlfriend" sitting on his right.