To Sleep or Not To Sleep... :)

That's the question I'm asking these days!! I'm starting to wonder if Zane will ever be a good sleeper. :) Poor guy...he just gets so hungry!! This kid is an eating MACHINE!! It's so interesting to see how different he is from his sister. Just today I fixed him a 5-ounce bottle because he consistently doesn't make it 3 hours from one feeding to another. 5 ounces!! He's only 6 weeks old!! :) Oh well, he seemed to be happy with it! It will be interesting to see how that translates tonight...will we get more sleep at once, or won't we? I remembered that at this point Karys was sleeping so well--almost through the night. I went back and found this post that proves what I remembered. Zane still gets up twice in the night. For example, last night he ate at 10:00 and then woke up to eat at 2:15 and then again at 5:45. It's starting to get exhausting!! :) However, with all that said, I'm so thankful for this sweet baby boy and I'm trying to slow down with him more than I did with Karys and really cherish every day, every stage, all of it. He's such a sweet boy. :)

BUT the hard part is that with our house being as small as it is, I don't really have a good place for him to be where I can let him cry a little bit to see if he's actually hungry or just waking up out of habit. If I leave him in his and Karys's room he'll wake her up, but even if I just leave him in the living room we're all in such close proximity to each other that he'll bother everyone!! Oh well, everyone sleeps through the night eventually, right?? ;)

Just a couple of cute pics:

The other day he woke up early from his nap SCREAMING so I finished out his naptime cuddling with him. I guess it could be worse. ;)

Karys loves her baby brother. She's never really asked to hold him, but she does love kissing on him and giving him toys of hers to play with. But on this day I offered to let her hold him and she decided she wanted to. :)

Birth and 2 Week Pictures

For those asking me if Zane looks like Karys did as a baby, I thought I'd post a couple of pictures of the two of them so you can do your own comparisons. First, a picture from birth:

Karys

Zane

And now at two weeks:

(Neither of these pictures were taken at exactly two weeks, but close enough. The picture of Karys is one of my least favorites, honestly, but she does kind of resemble Zane which is why I'm showing it!)

Karys

Zane

2 Weeks Comparison

I'm going to basically copy an idea that my friend, Amy, does on her blog. At least I'll do it for this post!! As her kids are growing up, she blogs about the different things they are learning to do each month. I neglected to do that for Karys and will probably regret it one day, but hopefully I can get it going for Zane! I thought in this post I'd list out some of the things we're learning about him, but also compare what life is like at 2 weeks with Zane versus what I remember it being like with Karys.

Zane had his two-week check-up at the doctor yesterday and things are looking good! When he was 6 days old we went back up to the hospital for a weight check. When he was born, he weighed 8 lbs. 1 oz. When we were discharged from the hospital, he weighed 7 lbs. 10 oz. At 6 days, he weighed 7 lbs. 6 oz. Here's how things stacked up yesterday:

Weight: 8 lbs. 6 oz. (43rd percentile)
Height: 21 inches (60th percentile)
Head: 14.25 inches (29th percentile)

Now to compare that to his big sister. He started out basically a pound heavier than her at birth. She was 7 lbs. and 20 inches at birth. At two weeks, she looked like this:

Weight: 7 lbs. 6 oz. (20th percentile)...notice, still exactly a pound difference!
Height: 20.75 inches (66th percentile)
Head: 14 inches (38th percentile)

I know that they are on different charts since he's a boy and she's a girl, but it's interesting to see the differences.

At two weeks, here are some things I've learned about Zane:

--He is a snuggler!! Karys was absolutely not that way. She tolerated being held but she had too many important things to do to spend time snuggling. :) She's still that way. ;)

--He sleeps best when he is swaddled. The first day we were home I tried laying him down in bed and after about 5 minutes he was screaming!! Then I read Amy's blog and saw that her baby really liked being swaddled because her startle reflex was so sensitive. This seemed to be his problem too so I found a swaddler that a former co-worker had passed on to me when I was pregnant with Karys and we've all been in love with it ever since! (Karys did not want to be swaddled as a baby...again, she had to many things to do to be restrained in any way!!)

--One thing Karys definitely had on Zane was she was an awesome nighttime sleeper! I remember at her two-week appointment telling the doctor I had been waking her up every three hours for feedings and wondered when I could quit doing that overnight. I remember her telling me that I could just let her go, but no longer than 5 hours at a time. So at two weeks Karys and I were only getting up once in the night. At two weeks with Zane, we're getting up 2 or even 3 times in the night. Hopefully that will be gone soon!!

--I'm still tweaking Zane's schedule. It's crazy how I felt like I knew what I would do with his schedule before he was born, but now that he's here, I feel like, "What do I do??" :) He seems to LOVE to eat so I'm still playing around with how much to feed him and how often. Today we're going to try 3 1/2 oz. every 3 hours. We'll see how that goes! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to nurse again this time. I did it for like 4 or 5 days and then when I realized that I had the same super-low milk suppy I had with Karys I decided I couldn't deal with the emotions that come with that. It's a real bummer because Zane was an awesome nurser (which his sister never was!) but for some reason my body doesn't want to do what it's supposed to!

--Zane will get to take a tub bath soon!! During the night last night I changed his diaper and realized his umbilical cord stump had fallen off...yay!! As soon as it heals up completely, we'll be all about submersion! :)

I am absolutely loving having a baby in the house again. Even in spite of the lack of sleep. :) I know it will just continue to get more fun. :)

Zane Elliott Magan, 12-28-2010

Back at home

Sister and brother meet for the first time

Daddy and Zane


Mommy and Zane...I love how intently he was looking at me :)

Sweet sleeping baby...who will take a paci!! :)

It might take me all day to get this finished, but I'm determined to blog about Zane's birth story! :) First of all, in case you were keeping track my due date was January 9, 2011. And as you can see above, Zane was born on the 28th...12 days early!!! Believe me when I say, I was as shocked as anyone!! If you're ready for a story, keep reading. :)

On Monday the 27th, I had my 38 week check-up with my doctor. When she walked in the room she said, "Are we having a baby today?" To which I said I didn't think so. But I was glad that I was feeling better than I had on Christmas Day. I spent most of that day with Braxton Hicks contractions that just came and stayed. I was so cramped up most of the day...not fun at all!! At that appointment when she checked me she said I was at 3 cm. which was exciting because the previous week I hadn't made any progress and was still at a 1. She then told me that she thought I would deliver sometime within the week. I tried not to get my hopes up too much because I've just been expecting the entire time to go late since Karys was late.

Later that day my parents came to get Karys and take her back to their house for a couple of nights. Since they were off from school on Christmas vacation this would be a fun time for them and her, plus it would give me and Ryan a chance to have a little time to ourselves before adding to our family. I had all these plans of fun stuff we could do...like go see a movie, go out to a restaurant childless, all that fun stuff. Monday night we did end up renting a movie so I guess at least we got to do something! :)

During the night Monday night I took a couple of potty breaks and when I got up I thought that I was feeling a little crampy. But I was able to go back to sleep so I didn't really think anything about it. Around 5:30 I woke up again and thought the cramping was coming at fairly regular intervals so I decided to start timing things. I still wasn't confident that this would mean anything because on my due date with Karys I woke up contracting and after a few hours of watching TV on the couch everything had subsided so I didn't get my hopes up too much this time. After 30 minutes of laying in bed I was tired of just staring at the clock and since I couldn't sleep I decided to get up and watch some TV. Actually the first thought that occurred to me was that I hadn't gotten a chance to paint my toenails like I'd wanted to and I figured if I got out of bed I could accomplish this (which I did). I also knew that if this turned out to be the real thing I wouldn't be allowed to eat anything once I got to the hospital so I decided to eat some breakfast. Around 7:30 Ryan woke up and asked me what I was doing and I told him I was timing things. At this point I also called my doctor's office to find out how I would know to go to the hospital. The on-call doctor told me to call my doctor back at 8:30 and ask the nurse if I could get in for my doctor to check me because that way if I wasn't making any progress she could just send me home and I wouldn't waste a trip to the hospital. I didn't end up getting to talk to anyone from my doctor's office until 9:30 but they told me I could come in right away. Since Ryan and I were expecting to get some things done last week without Karys we had to spend some time before we left for the doctor's packing up our bags for the hospital!!

When we got to the doctor's office, she walked in and said, "Are we having a baby today?" To which I told her I didn't know and I was hoping she could tell me! I told Ryan before she got in the room that I thought one of two things would happen. She'd either tell me I was still at a 3 and to go home and wait it out or if I was lucky I might be at a 4 or possibly a 5. So she checks me and says, "You're at a 6!!" Of course my first response was, "Are you serious?" And she told us that we needed to head straight for the hospital.

On our way to the hospital I called my parents and told them that apparently they didn't come get Karys so Ryan and I could have a break. Apparently they took her so we could have a baby! Once we got to the hospital they got me hooked up to the monitors and my IV to get 2 bags of fluid in me so I could get my epidural. This was around 10:30. My doctor came in around 12:15 p.m. and broke my water. Unfortunately there was about a 45 minute delay between this happening and the anesthesiologist being able to get in and give me the epidural. I had been feeling pretty good up to that point but those contractions were ROUGH!!! And then once the anesthesiologist got in there he had a million questions about family medical history and all I could think was, "Hurry!!" But once my epidural was in, things were good again. :)

The thing that amazed me this time around was how quickly things progressed. I dilated pretty quickly and the baby moved down fairly quickly too. We got to the hospital at 10:30 and he was born at 3:11 p.m. All in all, it was a really good experience! Here are his stats:

Date: Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Time: 3:11 p.m.
Weight: 8 lbs. 1 oz.
Length: 19 1/4 inches

So far I can tell that his nose and mouth are similar to Karys's but he really doesn't look like her that much. But he's a total cutie!! He's a really easy baby so far too. I've spent his first few nights sleeping with him but after reading that one of my friends has success getting her baby to sleep by swaddling her, I tried that today and it really seems to help! I'm looking forward to our life as a family of four. :)

Reflections on Pregnancy #2

Just thought I'd record a few things I've noticed as being different this time around of being pregnant. First off, today was my 37-week check-up and everything looks good, but I didn't make any progress from last week which is a little bit of a bummer.

I'll start with the good differences I've noticed in Pregnancy #2:
1. All of my rings still fit!! At this point in Pregnancy #1 (and even before now) my rings no longer fit and I was wearing a fake wedding ring so people wouldn't think I was unmarried! :) Granted, my first pregnancy was in the summer, but still. :)

2. I am not dealing with swelling! I think I've had maybe two occasions where my ankles started swelling, but nothing like last time. Again, it's not summertime right now, but it's definitely nice not to be dealing with that!

3. I'm not having heartburn like I did the first time around. I've had it a few times, but again not enough times to even really be bothered by it.

4. I started out this pregnancy about 15 pounds lighter than I was at the start of my first pregnancy. The downside is that I've put on more weight this time than I did last time, but the upside is that I'm not yet at the final weight I was at with Karys. :)

Now for the bad differences in Pregnancy #2:
1. I've dealt with more digestive "issues", I guess you could say. Whatever you want to call it, it's a nuisance!

2. I feel WAAAAY bigger this time around!! I stick out more in the front whereas with Karys I was a lot wider so I didn't feel as big as I do now! :)

3. Now that I'm right here at the end of the pregnancy I'm dealing with contractions way more than I remember dealing with them my first time around. I'll deal with them, though, if it means that I won't be overdue!! :)

As much as I feel ready for sweet little Zane to come, I know I need to cherish the time that I still have him kicking me from the inside and getting those sweet little baby hiccups. :)

New Updates

I realized I haven't blogged anything recently...and I've actually done really poorly on blogging this year!! I was looking back at my posts from 2008 to see where I was as far as progress in my pregnancy with Karys at the point I'm at now with Zane and saw that I had like 60-something posts in 2008 and like 15 this year!! Pathetic! :)

So to give a few new updates. I'm 37 weeks as of today and really getting ready to be done!! :) My stomach sticks out way farther than I did with Karys and I have contractions more often than I remember having with her. Needless to say, it makes me a little uncomfortable!! Plus there are so many friends at church having their babies now that it makes me anxious for my turn! :) Last week at my 36-week checkup I was already at 1 cm. and 60% effaced. Looking back at my posts in 2008, I'm doing better than I was then! I go back to the doctor tomorrow so I'm hoping to have made more progress. It would be so wonderful if he came a little early!! My doctor was thinking it was possible for him to come a couple of weeks early!! I guess we'll find out...I'm trying not to get my hopes up to much. :)

Second update is on Karys's speech. Things just keep getting better and better. She improves on words all the time and has been doing a great job lately at putting words together. Her next appointment is Tuesday and I'm excited to tell her therapist how well she's been doing and get more ideas and suggestions for ways to help her. :)

The picture at the top of the post is Karys wearing all her pretty dress-up stuff given to her by her friend, Stephanie. Such a pretty little princess! :)

"Bye!"

Yesterday was Karys's second ECI speech therapy session. We've seen several improvements in her speech since her last session. One of those improvements is in the word "mommy." When Karys was about 20 months or so she would say "mommy" as "eh-mee." Then as she got older, it became "ommy." Between our last speech session and this one, we were able to get her to add the first "m." It was cute because Ryan would remind her, "Say mmmmm-ommy" and really over-enunciate the first "mmm" sound so Karys would say, "Mmmmmm-ommy!!" and eventually could remember how to say it without a reminder (and without the extra long "mmmm" :) Another word that saw improvement was "mess." It used to come out as "meh" (as in, without the "s" and now it's the whole word.

Since her last therapy session we've been watching the LeapFrog Letter Factory video daily (sometimes she chooses to watch it more than once a day!) and it is definitely helping her. She's learning letters and their sounds and can recognize them both in the video and out in real life. The other day she saw a magnet that I had and found the "F" and made the "f" sound and the same thing for an "M". It's really impressive how quickly she's picked up on this!

Her therapist was impressed at how much progress she's made in two weeks. At this session, she worked with Karys using the picture cards that she gave her last time. They practiced words, and also did an activity where Becca would hold up two pictures (ex. a ball and a cupcake) and ask, "Which one do you eat?" to try to get her to say something like, "Eat cake." Although she didn't answer in that way, she did know the right answer!! :)

Becca also gave us some new words to work with: "bee, bow, boo, bay, and bye" because all of these words combine the "b" sound with a long vowel sound and long vowel sounds encourage Karys to talk with her mouth open, which is something she definitely needs help with. She's pretty close-mouthed when she talks which is one of the problems with her speech. In practicing those 5 words yesterday, she could say the first three pretty well, but "bay" and "bye" she said with a "d" sound instead of a "b" sound. I had a feeling she would do this, because she's always said "bye" with a "d" and when she says "baby" she substitutes "b's" for "d's." It's definitely something I've been trying to work with her on!! Becca said that maybe it's the sound that comes after the "b" that trips her up sometimes.

For her next session, we're supposed to help her start using a two-word phrase consistently and improve at imitating words.

The funny/cool part about yesterday occurred as I was putting Karys down for a nap. She was sitting in her bed and I was about to leave the room and she looks at me and says, "Bye!" I looked at her and said, "What did you say?" and again she says, "Bye!" I happened to be on the phone with Ryan at the time and I asked him, "Did you hear that?" and he had heard the same thing I had. Karys said it for me again, and the last time she also waved, so I knew that she knew what she was saying. I'm not kidding when I say that she has NEVER said that word correctly...she didn't even do that during her therapy session yesterday!! I don't know how it clicked in her mind to say it the right way, but I was so proud of her!! And today she still wants to revert back to using the "d" sound out of habit, but she just needs a reminder and she remembers how to say it correctly. I can't wait to see what happens between now and her next appointment, December 7! :)