Feeling Crafty

I spent all my "free" time today (aka Adalyn's nap times) making this Advent Calendar for Bella. I stole this idea from my friend Jessie who posted the idea on her blog a few days ago.

Mine isn't as fancy as the sample picture, but it will get the job done. I also colored the backs red and green so Bella can easily tell which days have been used. I forgot to pick up trinkets for it, so part of the fun was scrounging around the house to find a few things to get it started (tootsie rolls, stickers and a "B" star charm). I'd better remember to fill the rest before day 6 comes along!

Bella Update

I haven’t blogged about Bella lately. I meant to write a Halloween recap blog but now that just seems silly. So all I’ll say is that Bella loved Halloween. She wanted to be three things – a robot, Minnie Mouse and a Scary Bear. We stuck with Minnie Mouse only. On Saturday, we went to Maple Grove to trick or treat at the shops. It was fun but BUSY! It did allow us to stop at the Grandparents houses afterwards though to show off her costume. Since Nana was working we stopped at SuperValu in Crystal to surprise her. Sunday we went trick or treating in the neighborhood – I stuck with it for about 30 minutes and then let Bella and JT finish up. We ended up handing out candy to a whopping 15 kids at our house. But we did pass a lot of neighbors with their younger kids out and about so I bet we just missed them.

Bella loves talking about the holidays and always asks which one is next. Unfortunately, she’ll bring up Halloween here and there and get sad when we say it’s so far away. The good news is that we did let her have some candy (two pieces each on Sat and Sun) but after the weekend she never asked about candy again! We still have a huge bag in our kitchen but it’s like she forgot we even had it. Just yesterday was the first time we busted a sucker out of the Halloween bag for her…otherwise JT and I have been making a pretty good dent in the stash.

Since Addy was born it feels like Bella grew exceptionally fast. I pick her up and I swear she weighs 100 lbs. She talks about things and has these expressions that I never have heard/wonder where it came from. She’s really into pretending and dressing up. One of her favorite games right now is ‘Dr Daisy’ where all her Mickey Mouse characters need to go to the Dr (Daisy). Minnie’s issue is that she has old tap shoes…honestly no idea where Bella came up with that ailment.

She loves to dance. We’ll put on the Wiggles “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” DVD and she doesn’t’ just sit in a trance anymore - she’ll actually get up and do the same dances. It’s nice to see her imitating and learning. She makes up and names her own dances. One she demonstrated on Thanksgiving for everyone that involved stomping feet, shaking your butt and blinking your eyes.

The adjustment to being a big sister is going fine. She gets jealous sometimes and tells people to put the baby down, but mostly Bella goes about her business as normal with an occasional break to look at the baby and exclaim “Oh, look at the baby! She is sooo cuuute!” If Addy is making noise Bella will ask what is wrong or tell us to feed or change her. Also, everyone has been doing a great job at making sure big sister gets as much attention as little sister which helps someone who is so used to being the center of attention!

Sweet Adalyn

One week down and just like my labor story, the first week with Adalyn has been so different than the first week with Bella. The biggest difference is that JT has been home with us all week. It’s been so nice and I don’t know how I would have done it without him. Because we were in the hospital so long with Bella (Mon night through Friday) and she didn’t even come home until Saturday of the week she was born, it took up the entire week JT had off. So JT was home with us one day before he had to go back to work. Adalyn’s timing worked out much better though.

We brought Adalyn home on Sunday afternoon. JT’s parents and sister came to visit Sunday night as well as friends Sarah and Jason. The first few nights were rough in terms of sleep. She slept on us in the living room and it was the expected unexpected. We didn’t know when she’d want to wake up, sleep, eat, cry, etc. By Wed we decided it was time to get her used to her bassinet and thankfully she’s taken to it well. For the past 2 days she’s gone down for naps in the bassinet and sleeps in it at night! I’m hoping this keeps up as she gets older because it’s nice to lay down in bed at night rather than try to get comfy on the arm chair.

Feeding has been a struggle. I’m nursing and having more pain this time than I did with Bella. It started in the hospital and has resulted in..well, a lot of pain. I won’t go into details but anyone who has nursed may be able to imagine what things started to look like. I’ll admit, it also resulted in a lot of tears and frustration but I am forcing myself to be patient since the reality is that breastfeeding isn’t easy and it does typically hurt. I know that what I’m experiencing isn’t normal, though so I’ve reached out for help. We’ve talked to a home nurse, Adalyn’s pediatrician and I’ve contacted my local La Leche League leader. As of today, things are getting better. Not as much pain and things are healing. I still have thoughts that I’d like to just quit and bottle feed, but know I won’t for a lot of reasons. So now it’s figuring out how to make it easier on me.

Otherwise the adjustment has been going well. I’m much more relaxed with Adalyn than I was with Bella. She sleeps all the time (as did Bella, but I was still stressed out all the time with her). I’m more confident. My hormones seem to be back in check (I haven’t cried for no reason yet today! Yay!) I’ll be keeping a close eye on my hormones/emotions because I let it go on a little too long with Bella before I got help and don’t want that to happen again this time around.

Bella has been adjusting well too. It’s helped that she’s gone to my mom’s or my sister-in-law’s 3 times this week (she was home with us Mon and Thurs) to give us quiet time at home with Adalyn. Plus she loves it. I don’t think Bella would be as happy if she was home with me all day everyday. When she gets home the first thing she’ll say is “Oooh, look at the baby! She is so cute!” and will give kisses and pokes. But then for the most part it’s as if baby isn’t around. She goes about her business and we play. Sometimes she’ll tell me to set the baby down and yesterday we had a mini-meltdown when I had to feed Addy and Bella didn’t want me to. Again, it’s nice that JT is here to help defuse those type of situations.

As I mentioned earlier, Addy sleeps most of the time but the past 2 days she’s had some good awake periods. I love looking at her face and watching her expressions. I still can’t get over that she was in my stomach just a week ago and now she is here. I feel like a new mom again in so many ways.

Big thanks to all our family that has helped us out this week (and the past 2.5 years with Bella!!). I couldn’t have done it without all the help and look forward to the weeks to come!

Adalyn's Labor/Birth Story

Wed, 11/17 I went to work and started feeling cramps/aches. I knew I wasn’t having contractions because the pain never went away. It wasn’t severe so I continued work as normal, but it was bad enough that when I heard that JT had to work late I invited myself to stay at my parent’s house for dinner. I knew I wouldn’t feel up to taking care of Bella by myself that night.

Wed night after we all got home, I thought I was starting to have contractions but they were mild and irregular. I didn’t want to get my hopes up …but couldn’t help but be excited that something may actually happen soon. The contractions continued through the night (still mild and inconsistent) and woke me up a few times, so I called into work in the morning deciding that I should wait to see how Thursday played out. I went back to bed and by the time I woke up at 10am on Thursday, the contractions had went away completely.

I knew the best thing for me would be to get up and walk around and be active, but I was so tired, felt so big and just didn’t have any energy. So I relaxed most of the day hoping that the contractions would magically start again. Around 2:00 I forced myself to get up and start cleaning the house. About 4:30 I started feeling something, but wasn’t sure if it was just from vacuuming and running up and down the steps… so I went to get Bella letting my in-laws know that I was hoping to be in the hospital soon but not really believing that I would be.

By the time JT got home at 6:00, I now knew I was officially having contractions but they still weren’t regular. I kept track during dinner (hamburgers and tater tots) and they were coming anywhere from 5-8 min apart. I decided to call my parents since they’d be watching Bella the next day anyway and it’d make more sense for them to just take her overnight “just in case” anything happened. Again, I was really hoping baby was coming but wasn’t convinced anything really would happen. But my parents came to get Bella and JT and I continued to track the contractions.

At 9:30pm they were regular at 8 min apart and the pain was still manageable, but was getting worse. I decided to call Labor and Delivery to see what they would say. I was told that I could come in if the pain wasn’t manageable, but if I could wait another 30-60 min the contractions might get closer together. I decided to wait. Around 11:00 they were still 8 min apart but the pain was getting worse. I was going back and forth regarding if I should go in and JT obviously didn’t know what to do either. We finally decided to just lay down in bed and try to get some rest. I figured if something was really going to happen we might as well get some sleep.
The first contraction I had laying down changed my mind. I decided I had to go in. So we got up and started getting ready…then I changed my mind again and thought maybe I was being too anxious. Finally, I decided to call L&D and even though they sounded hesitant they said they’d plan on me coming in. The drive to the hospital (10 min) I second guessed myself but knew I made the right decision when contractions started coming just a couple of minutes apart and I had 3 by the time we walked from the car to the 4th floor of Mercy Hospital.

They checked me in and got me a bed in the triage dept. We could tell it was really busy and nurses were scrambling to find rooms/beds. A nurse came in to check me and made a comment about how she thought I was measuring 6, but she couldn’t really tell… so she called another nurse in who checked and said “Oh, you are an 8 or even a 9! Good thing we didn’t tell you stay home!”.

My first reaction (other than being relived that we decided to come in and that it was really happening)? “Can I still get an epidural??”. I was worried I lost my chance! Thankfully they said I could, but they’d have to get it going NOW. Also, I tested as GBH positive during my pregnancy which meant that I should have been on antibiotics during labor in order to protect baby from infection. Well no one told us that the antibiotics take 4 hours. So they told us that we pretty much missed our chance because there was no way I was lasting 4 hours (THANK GOD!) and while they’d still get it going for me it meant that they’d have to keep baby for a full 48 hours just to monitor her. My next question was if that meant she could still be in our room (because Bella had to spend her time in the Level 2 nursery/couldn’t be in our room with us) and they said she could still be with us (again, thank god!)

Everyone had sprung into action. They attempted an IV four times before getting it in my arm. In that process, they gave me some pain medication to hold me off until the Epi. I can’t remember what it was called, but it was great. I immediately felt light headed and relaxed. So relaxed that I didn’t care what was happening anymore. Unfortunately, it only lasted a short time but worth it. One other comment I remember a nurse making was regarding how I was starting to shake – she said “oh, you’re transitioning! You’re starting to shake”. Which I assume means that I was transitioning to being fully dilated.

They transported me into an actual delivery room and that’s when my body really started reacting. Thankfully they did get the epidural in me in time. Not long after that, I couldn’t stop shaking. It got to the point where I freaked the nurse out, but I couldn’t stop. It didn’t take long until I felt like I had to push, but was confused because it felt more like I had to go to the bathroom than push a baby out.
While my nurse ended up being great, she admitted to me later that she normally doesn’t do deliveries and that she was newer to Mercy. She worked as a postpartum nurse at a different hospital for many years and recently transferred to Mercy. She does labor when they need help. ..and I’ll be honest that it showed. She wasn’t the most confident, but she got the job done I guess. She kept having trouble with the blood pressure monitor and was verbally frustrated. At one point I almost told her to give up on the freaking blood pressure because I had to PUSH, but I contained myself.

My nurse confirmed with another nurse that if I had to push, I should push. She said “the Dr is in another delivery now, and then has a c-section, and then he’ll be in..”. Well crap! That sounds like a long time. But I was given the green light so I pushed while laying on my side, holding JT’s hand and shaking like a leaf. Before long, the Dr actually came in and I realized that this was it. Here was here to deliver the baby! He got things ready and reminded me and JT how to push (wait for a contraction, push while counting until 10, repeat 3x for each contraction). And guess what? 15 minutes later Adayln was born!

With Bella, I pushed for 2 hours and 45 minutes so I could hardly believe it when they said they saw the head. JT saw way more this time than last time and I could tell he was a little squeamish, but he did really well. At one point everyone got a little quiet and JT was still encouraging me to push, but he Dr said “no no, maybe only 50%” so I gave a little push and asked what was going on. The Dr said “take a look!” and there she was! My baby! Less than 3 hours after we got to the hospital, she was delivered, checked out and I was able to hold her. Totally different experience than with Bella.

The rest of the hospital stay went well. We delivered Fri morning and stayed until Sun afternoon. We got a lot of help with nursing from the lactation consultant and nurses and spent a lot of time cuddling with Addy. We did put her in the nursery at night and they brought her back for feedings.

Visitors included Grandma, Grandpa, Bella (they came twice – once each day), Aunt Lissa, Nana, Papa, Clayton (with Melissa again), Great Grandma (with Nana and Papa again), Aunt Michelle, Uncle Pete, Uncle Andy, friends Melissa, Curt (with Reese!) and Jessica.

Overall the staff at Mercy took great care of us and we couldn’t have asked for a better experience!

One more thing...

Just reading through my comments from previous blogs, and my friend Sarah commented about Bella being perfect in every way. I realize my last post about her (lack of) tantrums also probably made it sound that I feel that way. Well, of course I think she’s perfect … but she does have her moments! She’s becoming more and more independent which is a struggle. In the morning, for example, things have to be just right or else we will be dealing with a crabby toddler way to early in the morning. If she wants a pink bowl and it’s dirty, we wash it for her. If I wanted shredded wheat for breakfast but she tells me to eat Kix instead, I eat Kix. So basically she calls the shots :-P

I’ve been blaming it on my lack of energy due to pregnancy, but she does try my patience quite a bit lately. Again she likes to call the shots and trying to tell her no doesn’t work out too well. So I choose my battles. She watches more TV (Wiggles DVD to be specific) now because after I get home from work I need a little chair/relaxing time. If she was cereal for dinner, I won’t object as long as she had something different for breakfast.

While it’s manageable right now, I’ll admit that my biggest concern is when baby comes. She won’t be center of attention anymore. She won’t be the only grandchild. She won’t be the only one I plan my days around. I think it’s going to be a big reality check for her and the ‘3s’ may end up more terrible than the ‘2s’!

Still here..

It’s inevitable. I think I’m going to be an active blogger and then I go for a long stretch without updates. Maybe it’s because there hasn’t been anything really that interesting going on. I’m still pregnant. Bella is still cute. Our lives are plugging along.

Bella had her first real meltdown tantrum the other night where we had to resort to a punishment other than time out. I guess that was kind of a big deal. We’ve only done a handful of time outs because she usually gets it – one mention of a time out and she gets the hint. However, this time it didn’t do the trick. It was my birthday night (yay) and we had gotten home after her bed time from dinner with my family. I can’t even remember what started it (don’t the best tantrums start that way) … I think she just didn’t want to put her PJs on. All I know is that it ended up with Jeremy having to put her in time out. She wouldn’t sit. She kept saying “ok, I’ll listen!” but we told her that she still had to sit for the 2 min in time out. She kept getting up and JT kept adding 1 minute each time. By the time she got up to 8 minutes we decided we’d just put her to bed without stories/book time. That was hard. She did listen and get her PJs on (while still freaking out) but kept leaping out of bed to grab books. She kept asking for me because JT was doing most of this since she started the tantrum with him. It was hard to stand back and NOT give in when you hear your 2 yr old say “I just want Mama!”. Eventually, she calmed down enough for us to still give hugs and kisses and sing her a song and she went to bed.
It was stressful and not how I planned to end my b-day, but it worked. The next night she got her PJs on just fine and when I walked into the room she said “Mama! I’m listening!”. In fact, this entire week she’s been proud of herself for listening and doing really good.

Makes me wonder how life with #2 will go. We are lucky right now that we can bring Bella places and, for the most part, she’s well behaved. For example, we went to dinner at Famous Dave’s tonight and she couldn’t have been happier. Maybe it was because we let her eat 2 cornbread muffins and 2 pieces of corn on the cob for dinner….but the point is that she sits nicely to wait for the food and is calm. I know that with a second one at the table we may not be so lucky.

Speaking of baby – the pregnancy is going good. I actually feel better now than I did a month ago. I was having such a hard time sleeping and getting comfortable for a while. Not sure what changed, but I wake up less at night and my back doesn’t seem to hurt as much. I get really tired out walking still. All it takes is a trip from my desk to the bathroom at work and I’m out of breath. Don’t get me started on the steps in the house. Combine this with minor contractions and I’m sure Jeremy is really sick of me being out of breath and whining.

I took a reality trip to Target today. I know that I could have gone to labor already, and at 2 weeks before the due date it really could happen any time. So I stocked up some new born diapers, nursing essentials, pacifiers, and some long sleeved onesies for baby. We are lucky we can reuse Bella’s clothes for baby #2, but many are ‘off season’. I think I have about 50 short sleeved onsies, but only a few pairs of 3M pants. So I bought a few plus found a couple hoodies that we can use over the onesies. It’s just hard to buy clothes not knowing how big/little she’ll be! I know last time there were plenty of clothes that Bella never even wore because she was never the right size.

The next feat is to figure out how to fit 2 girls collection of clothes into one dresser and one closet… wish me luck!

Typical Day

My friend Jessie inspired me to do this. She typed out a day in her life recently. When I thought about it, I realized that each of my days during the week are scarily similar. The deviation occurs if JT has something going on after work - volleyball (which is done for now, thank god, a work happy hour, or just needing to work late. Usually once a week there will be something and I’ll handle dinner/bedtime – but for the majority of the time here is the day in the life of the Traftons...

5:25 – Alarm goes off. I turn it off and climb back into bed.

5:40 – Second alarm goes off (same clock – 2 alarms). I hit snooze.

5:46 – snooze alarm goes off. I get up and tell JT it’s time to get up. Push him out of bed a bit.

Head downstairs to feed Leinie and shower. JT gets his clothes together and shaves. When I get out of the shower, he gets in (I actually love sharing a bathroom/getting ready together – it’s our alone time in the morning before the chaos of the day). I brush my teeth, start to do my makeup, etc. Put my PJs back on.

6:10 – head upstairs to wake up Bella. Pre-3rd trimester I’d do this myself. Now I wait for JT to join me as I need a little extra manpower with Bella. She greets us with “Good morning Mama and Dad” in her sleepy voice. We take few minutes to get her up and get morning snuggles.

JT carries her down into the kitchen and lets her pick out cereal, her bowl and what cup she wants. I get my own cereal ready. Bella and I sit and eat while JT finishes getting ready. I ask if she had a good sleep (she always says yes) and listen to any dreams she had. I tell her what day it is and where she is going. I start to think about dinner for the night and snoop in the fridge and cupboards to see what we have.

At some point, JT comes back into the kitchen and we swap. He doesn’t eat, but will sit with her until she’s done and I’ll continue to get ready for the day.

Around 6:30-6:40 – Bella is done eating. She gets dressed and brushes teeth.

7:05-7:10 – out the door, even though we always try to leave by 7:00 it never seems to happen. JT takes Bella. I head to work.

7:45 – arrive at work, head straight to the café for a cappuccino (decaf) and a muffin or bagel for my second breakfast (yup)

8:00 – at my desk, connect my laptop, wait what seems like forever for it to power up and connect to email/internet. It’s quiet as many people aren’t at work yet or just quietly working at their desk.

Once email/internet finally loads I check email and my calendar for the day. Decide if there are any meetings that I can cancel or move. Read through new emails and take action on ones I can.

If I have time, I’ll take some time to check Facebook while I eat my breakfast and sip my coffee. Say hello to people as they walk by. Respond to a question from a team member who stops by.

9:00-12:00 – Meetings. If I’m lucky, a 30 min slot of open time for email. Hope that meetings will end early letting me check/respond to email in between meetings.

12:00-1:00 – lunch and desk time. I buy lunch from the cafe and eat at my desk. Get through new emails, check facebook again, read blogs, talk to a team member or my manager if they stop by.

1:00-3:30 – more meetings and desk time when I can manage it.

3:30-4:30 – finish the day at my desk, respond to more emails, answer voice mails, organize my notes/to-do list from meetings throughout the day, make sure there isn’t anything urgent I missed. Leave to pick up Bella.

5:00 – 5:30 – Pick up Bella, chat with the in-laws or my mom (depending on where she is)

5:50 – home. Get dinner going. Let Bella help me do things like dump water in pots and stirring to keep her entertained and distract her from wanting to eat yet another snack (she typically has just finished one when I go to pick her up, or eats one in the car on the way home). Let her watch The Wiggles DVD or get her settled downstairs to play while I clean up the kitchen and put things away (diaper bag, my purse, mail, etc) and check my email (can’t access my personal email at work) and facebook (yes again).

6:30 – JT gets home. Force, I mean ask, Bella to turn off the DVD or, even better, watch Bella greet JT at the door and ask him to come play with her. Let Bella and JT play for a bit while I wrap up dinner.

Once dinner is ready we eat, talk about the day, answer a million questions from Bella (where does milk come from? What are you eating? What day is it tomorrow? What are you doing now? What are you eating now? What are you doing now?..... Now? Where do beans come from? )

7:00 – clean up dinner. Bella goes downstairs to play with JT. I join them when I’m done cleaning up. JT takes this on if I'm too tired or Bella wants me instead.

We play with her Dora house, we practice trick or treating, we dance to Raffi, Wiggles, Alvin and the Chipmunks and other random nursery rhymes we have on our computer…. Participation from me depends on how I feel – I need a lot of breaks/couch time.

7:30 – Convince Bella to brush her teeth. JT helps her while I putz around on the computer some more. I have nothing to do on the computer, but the important thing here is that I’m sitting yet I can see/hear them in the bathroom so I feel like I’m at least present.

Once done with teeth, Bella gets a horsy ride upstairs from JT. I hobble my way up the steps to her room, by this time of night my body is exhausted so it takes me a while. By the time I get there, they are already in PJs and done with the diaper change.

She decides who picks out books – me, JT or herself. She climbs into bed and we read 4 books alternating between JT and I. Lights out and sing one song (rock a bye baby, twinkle twinkle little star, you are my sunshine or love grows best in little houses)

8:00 – Collapse into my new La-Z-Boy. Kick up the feet. Pull out my laptop to check email (work and personal) and general internet activity.

8:15 – JT hooks up his laptop to the TV and we stream an episode of something good from HGTV.com. If I decide I can handle it, we’ll watch a second episode. Or if something is actually worth watching on our basic cable we’ll watch normal TV.

9:00 – get ready and climb into bed with my book. JT comes in to tuck me in :)

9:15 – can’t keep my eyes open. Set my book down and fall asleep.

10:00-10:30 - JT comes to bed, double checks the alarm and turns off my lamp.

Goodnight!