Happy Birthday, Noah!

Happy birthday to my sweet baby, Noah!  He is such a little rascal and doesn't listen to us 90% of the time, but we still love him so much.  When he wants to, he can totally melt my heart.  He has been very loving towards his baby sister most of the time, showering her with kisses, patting her head (gently), and bringing her bottles for her milk (even though we haven't been using bottles). 

Noah has been waiting for a looooong time for his birthday.  He was the youngest in his daycare class, so all year he's been singing happy birthday to his classmates.  I can't remember when or how, but we started singing songs as part of his bedtime routine and in the past month or so, he'd been asking to sing "Happy Birthday Noah" before going to sleep.  Finally, it was his turn!  We did cupcakes at school, a small party with a few toddler friends (okay, my friends, with toddlers around his age), and of course a party with family, so he got to hear "Happy Birthday Noah" three times and blow out the candle many times.  Of all of the pictures I took, he definitely looked the happiest during the singing and blowing out of the candle.  As a parent, I think there have been few moments that have touched my heart as much as seeing him so happy being the birthday boy.  It was a bit crazy planning birthday stuff with a brand new baby, but Peter and my sister made it all possible and I'm so glad we were able to pull it off.  Yesterday when I put him in his highchair for breakfast, he said, "Happy birthday time?"  Unfortunately it was not happy birthday time again, but I did sing it to him one more time today before having some leftover cake after lunch since it was his "real" birthday today.  All in all it was a very happy birthday! 

As far as developmental updates go, Noah continues to talk more and more, and is putting together more sentences everyday.  He is also starting to "assert more independence," which is my euphemism for being totally out of control.  He doesn't listen.  We can ask him nicely fifteen times, not as nicely twenty times, or in ten creatively different ways, but it usually doesn't matter.  If he doesn't get his way, he almost immediately resorts to crying/whining.  I know that we probably shouldn't give in to the whining/crying, but it is really hard not to when your patience is worn so thin.  We usually try not to give in fully and try to compromise instead.  We'll say that we'll read the book just one more time and then it's night-night time, instead of just saying okay, let's read that book as many times as you want.  Not sure if this is better, but it's the best I can think of for now, and usually he'll hold his end of the bargain. :)  He also likes to grab random things from where they are and throw them around.  It's like he's just making a mess for the fun of it and then laughing at us when we get upset.  It drives me nuts, but I recently had this revelation: in this power struggle, I'm not going to win.  I think I actually have this revelation every month or so, but I always forget.  So I can either get mad at Noah and lose both my mind and any sort of control over my child, or I can remain calm and simply reinforce consequences.  So far, I've found that the latter produces better results and more happiness all around.  But man is it hard to stay calm when he spills his milk in his high chair tray and then proceeds to splash it everywhere with his hands!!!  What a rascal.  This week is the official beginning of my time as a stay-at-home mom of two, by myself (during the day).   I hope that in my next update I'll be writing about how unbelievably calm I was all month long. 

Baby Sarah is here!

Hello, Sarah!  7 lbs, 19 inches.

After 40 weeks and 3 days of pregnancy, Sarah finally decided to make her way into the world! After an uneventful due date (August 10th), I finally went into labor some time in the early morning on the 14th.  I was really starting to believe that she was never going to come and that I would most likely have to be induced the following Friday.  Fortunately, labor started on its own and continued fairly smoothly and Sarah was born at 9:53 that night!  I was a bit concerned about how it would all go since I had a c-section for Noah and we were going for a VBAC this time, but everything was fine. The only part that was not fine was the epidural.  First of all, I stupidly waited a bit too long to actually ask for it, even though I knew I was going to eventually get it.  I guess I got to 7 cm and it seemed somewhat bearable and I thought that if I could get through it without the epidural, that would be one less thing to recover from after delivery.  But soon after I thought these thoughts, I came to the conclusion that I really needed the epidural to make it through.  So I asked for the epidural, but the anesthesiologist was busy with other patients so he didn't make it to our room until maybe 40 min later - that's a lot of contractions. When he finally got to me and did the procedure, only the right side of my body was numbed, so I was still feeling contractions in full force on the left side.  He tried repositioning the tube so that the drugs would take effect on my left side as well, but that didn't work.  He ultimately had to do the whole procedure again, and then it worked the second time, but all of this occurred over a period of around 2 hours.  By the time the epidural had taken effect on both sides of my body, it was basically time for delivery.  Even though it would have been nice to have the drugs earlier, I'm super relieved that it came through in the end!

So that's pretty much the story of the birth of Sarah.  I'm really glad I was able to go through with the VBAC.  My OB said it was important for us to try for it because if I had another c-section, then any other subsequent babies would have to be delivered via c-section as well.  Although Peter and I have pretty much decided that there won't be any more babies, I kind of felt a bit cheated out of the childbirth experience last time.  I suppose it would have been more of a "real" experience had I forgone the drugs as well, but I don't think I need unbearable pain to really feel like I had a baby; there are plenty of after effects to remind me that I did indeed give birth to a baby!  I'm glad pregnancy is over, but it was a pretty amazing experience altogether and, more importantly, we now have a beautiful little peanut!

But poor Noah. :(  I missed him so much when I was at the hospital!  He seems to be adjusting to life as a big brother about as well as any 2 year old can, but it makes me a little sad that he can't have all the attention anymore.  Sarah has been nursing every 2 hours for 20-30 min each time, and sometimes nurses every hour even, so I'm totally preoccupied with her and have very little time for Noah.  I had a toy for Sarah that I had just taken out of the packaging and when Noah saw it he said "this mine" like he always does, but I had to say "no, this is your baby sister's" and he just looked at me and then walked away without saying anything.  I don't really have a hard time saying "no" to him, but this was more of a "no, there's someone else now" and he seemed so dejected!  When he does interact with her though, he's very gentle and sweet.  He actually spent the past couple of months toting around one of the baby doll toys at daycare, calling it his baby sister.  Other kids in his class were becoming big brothers and sisters too, so maybe that helped him to get ready.  To be honest, I think I'm having a harder time adjusting than he is.  I love baby Sarah, but I miss the days when it was just me and Noah.  Today, I managed to nurse Sarah and read Noah a book at the same time.  I guess that's a good first step in figuring out how to balance two babies!