Recent Pictures of Allison

First Bath

Those precious feet!

You can see the remnants of where she had blood tests done on her heels.  Ouch!

Stick 'em up!

Big brother singing her a lullaby!!

Smooches!!

Sucking her thumb

Fun in the Snow!

Making a Snow Angel

The fort daddy made!

Snowman!

Kisses for Frosty!

Hope everyone enjoyed the snow before it melted.  We did!!

3 Weeks Old!

Wow!  Has it really been 3 weeks already?  I can't believe it!

I apologize for my lack of posts.  It has been a challenge for me to get on the computer at all.  But I finally had a chance today, so here it goes!

Allison is definitely more high maintenance than Michael was as a newborn.  She seems like a typical baby - she wants to be held, eats a lot, sleeps a lot (although it is never when mommy prefers), and poops a lot.  However, Michael was a lot more laid back.  You would never know it today!  But we were able to keep him content for longer periods of time.  He would sit in his papasan, and "watch" TV with us for hours.  Allison, however, would much rather cuddle up in your arms, and be nice and warm against your body.  We are beginning to think the kiddos' internal body temps are taking after us.  Michael is a hot box like daddy, and Allison is always a bit chilled, like mommy.  So next to another body is the most comfy place for her, and we are obliging her.  But it is quite exhausting, and I find it hard to get much done when I have her attached to me all day!  I love her to pieces, but I thought after 9 months, I was going to be able to shed that extra weight!  LOL!

Speaking of weight, I only have 4 pounds to go, to get to my pre-Allison weight.  However, I have 20 pounds to lose to get to my pre-MJ weight, and 30 pounds to get to my wedding weight.  Yikes!

Anyway, back to my update.  Allison had her 2-week appointment, and weighed a whopping 8 lbs, 4.6 oz.  This just happened to be Michael's exact birth weight.  How crazy is that?  So she is gaining weight pretty well.  Boy, I was hoping for numbers like that.  I am nursing her like crazy, so that tells me things are going well in that department!

The pediatrician gave her a clean bill of health except for one thing.  When he was checking her leg mobility, he noticed her left hip didn't seem to have as good a range of motion as her right.  When he tried to stretch both legs out, her left one seems to be a bit shorter.  So, we have to go to the hospital next week to get an ultrasound done.  We are hoping she just was really resisting his efforts to check her, and she might be fine.  Her legs are scrawny, but man does she have some powerful muscles in them!  Her appointment is next Thursday, and I will update when we get the results.

Everyone seems to want to know how she is sleeping.  Sigh.  Not well.  She is up every 2 hours at night.  Makes for a very sleepy mommy.  Especially when we cannot get her to bed any earlier than 10 pm.  She takes long naps in the afternoon, and I can't seem to get her to shift that to evening!  Oh well, we will get there eventually, right?  RIGHT??

Another popular question is how Michael is doing.  He is doing great!  He loves his sister.  He is always giving her kisses, and if he sees me without her in my arms, he immediately wants to know where she is.  He brings things to me if I need them, and sings her lullabies.  If he hears her crying, he comes over to her, strokes the top of her head, and softly says, "It's ok, Big Brother is here."  He is a great big brother!

Mike and I have been taking turns trying to spend some alone time with MJ.  Mike is able to do it more than me, like going outside and playing in the snow, but he seems to enjoy it, no matter who it is.  I did go out and play with him in the snow last week, and I will try posting some pics from that day soon.

We went to go get some family pictures done today, as well as newborn photos of Allison.  The family shots went well, but as soon as I took Allison's clothes off for her newborn shots, all hell broke loose.  Remember how I said she likes to be warm?  Well, that means she hates being naked.  Period.  She was screaming mad!  After trying to nurse her a couple of times, and rocking her, we finally gave up.  We re-scheduled for her again next week.  Hopefully we can get her nice and sleepy, and she will sleep through it.  If not, forget about it!

OK, I pushed my luck a bit, and now have to attend to my little princess.  Love to all, and the next post will be pics, I promise!

Look! I do have eyes!

Allison has been very sensitive to bright lights, so she wasn't showing us her eyes much.  Well, today she has been looking at us, and opening them a lot more!  We are in love!

Allison's Birth Story

While my TWO children are napping...

...I thought I would take the time to post about Allison's birth story.  Actually, even Daddy is taking a nap right now.  You see, it has been snowing pretty hard here the past few days, and one of Daddy's jobs is to plow snow.  He wakes up in the middle of the night to get his work done, and so we have been taking turns catching up on sleep.  It has been quite an interesting past few days to say the least!

So, back to the task at hand.

As mentioned here, we were originally scheduled to go to the hospital at 5 pm on December 30th to be induced to have our baby girl.  We had Grandma W. lined up to pick up MJ and keep him for the duration.  She showed up right on time, and it was sad to say good-bye to him, knowing he would not get to be with us at all for the next 48 hours.  But he didn't seem to understand what the big deal was, and happily scooted out the door.

Then we hit a snag.  It turned out that there was no room in the inn, and we were delayed going to the hospital by 3 hours.  We were told to come in at 8 pm instead.  Well, neither of us are very patient people, and do not do well with sitting around and waiting (I know, contain your shock!), so we decided to kill some time and go get a bite to eat.  We went to our favorite Mexican restaurant, but I couldn't eat anything too heavy, so I opted for a salad.  Man, did I really want something spicy!!  Oh the sacrifices we make!

After dinner, we went home, let the dog outside one more time, and then headed to the hospital.  We arrived promptly at 8 pm.  From that point on, everything went pretty smoothly.  We were escorted to our room (#9), answered the slew of questions asked by Nurse Kim, I was hooked up to all the monitors, and set up with an IV.  By the time I was given my first (and it turned out to be the only) dose of induction medication, it was 10 pm. I was only 1 cm dilated. 

 We were not sure what to expect from that point, but my doc was not going to be on call until 7 am the next morning.  I had a feeling I would deliver before then, but you never know for sure.  I was fine with the doctor that was on call when we arrived, because she was the same doctor that delivered MJ!

So we began to wait.

Mike was awesome at taking notes, and the sequence of events that are reported herein are made possible by him!

Steady strong contractions began at around midnight, but I was still only 1 cm dilated.

At 2 am, I had progressed to 2 cm, and 50% effaced.  Contractions were around 2- 2 1/2 minutes apart.

At 3 am, I was at 3 cm, 75 % effaced, and the contractions were now very painful.  My original birth plan was to go without pain medication, but I also said I reserved the right to change my mind!  LOL! 

When I heard I was only 3 cm, and the pain was excruciating, I asked for an epidural.  I hated that I gave in, but dang it, I was not able to stand that pain any more!  I swear the anesthesiologist took his sweet ole time getting there, but he finally arrived and began the procedure.  Meanwhile, the contractions were getting more painful, and closer together - less than a minute apart by my guess.

I didn't get an epidural with MJ's birth, and I heard it was quite painful.  But shoot, compared to the contractions, that needle going in was NOTHING!

If you know anything about epidurals, you know that it takes some time for those to kick in.  Well, by the time that the line was in, and he was pushing in the first dose, it was 3:50 am.  As I laid down after he started the drugs, I all of a sudden felt like I needed to push.  NOW!  Crap.  So much for the epidural.  The nurse checked me, yelled "she's complete!" and called in the cavalry.  They kept telling me not to push because the doc had not arrived yet.  What the what??  She was coming NOW!  I can't wait!  I did managed to breathe through the urge to push for a few contractions, but baby girl was having nothing of that.  I heard someone say the doc was in the room, and I felt Allison coming.  I yelled that out loud, and heard the nurse keep telling me to breathe through it.  Yeah right.  Not happening anymore.  The nurse reached down, felt Allison's head that was OUT, and she yelled, "she's here!"  The doc didn't finish tying her bootie on, slapped on some gloves, without really getting her fingers all the way in, and grabbed Allison's head.  They told me I needed to push her shoulders out.  So with one easy push, she was out the rest of the way.

They placed her on my chest, Daddy cut the cord, and my baby girl started wailing.  I cried, Daddy cried through his laughter, and I snuggled my girl for the first time.  They let me hold her for a long time.

They even let me hold her skin to skin, which I was not allowed to do with Michael (he had trouble breathing when he was born).  It was an amazing moment.

They then took her away to get weighed.

 And then they gave her a bath while the nurse attended to me.  Finally, daddy was able to hold her for the first time.  Since I was feeling so good, I was able to snap a shot of them.  You can see how tired he was at this point!

The next day was pretty much a blurr.  We hadn't slept, and there was always someone coming in to do something with us.  Both Allison and I had to get our blood sugars taken before or after our meals, and we were both given the clear by the end of the day.

We were also given the clear to go home the next day.  It would be before the suggested 48 hours, so we would have to come back to get Allison's newborn blood screening done.  But I didn't care.  I felt great and was ready to go home. 

In between the poking and prodding by the nurses, we had so many visitors.  Thanks to each and every one of you!  I know we missed a couple of people, since we came home so fast.  But we reeeeeally wanted to be home, and to see Michael, and to let him meet his sister!

Mike was infatuated with her feet, I think.  They were so tiny, and so cute, and so sadly bruised from all the needle pokes.  He took this pic.

 And I caught him like this when we were waiting to go home.

I have to admit I am pretty smitten with them too!  But anyway, at around 1 pm on New Year's Day, we were finally ready to go!  She was so tiny in the car seat.

On the way home, we were hungry, so we stopped at Taco Bell, so I could indulge in some carb-rich foods, including a MOUNTAIN DEW!  Yum!  But then we went home to wait for Michael to get there.

We didn't have to wait long.  Grandma W. was there with Michael minutes from when we arrived, and Allison was finally able to meet big bro!

He really loves his sister!!

We are all finally getting settled, and look forward to the next few days, just being a family of four.

Loving Two

I borrowed this from another mommy, who just recently had her second child.  She is not the one who wrote it, but It touched me, and I felt I needed to share.

I walk along holding your 4-year-old hand, basking in the glow of our magical relationship. Suddenly I feel a kick from within, as if to remind me that our time alone is limited. And I wonder: how could I ever love another child as I love you?

Then she is born, and I watch you. I watch the pain you feel at having to share me as you’ve never shared me before.

I hear you telling me in your own way, “Please love only me”. And I hear myself telling you in mine, “I can’t”, knowing, in fact, that I never can again.

You cry. I cry with you. I almost see our new baby as an intruder on the precious relationship we once shared. A relationship we can never quite have again.

But then, barely noticing, I find myself attached to that new being, and feeling almost guilty. I’m afraid to let you see me enjoying her, as though I am betraying you.

But then I notice your resentment change, first to curiosity, then to protectiveness, finally to genuine affection.

More days pass, and we are settling into a new routine. The memory of days with just the two of us is fading fast.

But something else is replacing those wonderful times we shared, just us two. There are new times – only now, we are three. I watch the love between you grow, the way you look at each other, touch each other.

I watch how she adores you – as I have for so long. I see how excited you are by each of her new accomplishments . And I begin to realize that I haven’t taken something from you, I’ve given something to you. I notice that I am no longer afraid to share my love openly with both of you.

I find that my love for each of you is as different as you are, but equally strong. And my question is finally answered, to my amazement. Yes, I can love another child as much as I love you – only differently.

And although I realize that you may have to share my time, I now know you’ll never share my love. There’s enough of that for both of you – you each have your own supply.

I love you – both. And I thank you both for blessing my life.

-Author Unknown

Happy Birthday, Allison!

We welcomed our beautiful daughter, Allison Marie, into our family at 4:01 am. It was a pretty short delivery, and I only had about an hour of painful active labor. We haven't had a whole lot of sleep, but hope to get back to a somewhat normal schedule once we get home. Once we get settled, I will post again, and share the whole story, complete with photos!

Welcome to the Krazy Kissel Family, Allison!