A Curious George Birthday Party

 This past weekend we had a birthday party for all three boys since their birthdays are so close together. They are too young to care about themes are anything like that but my oldest loves watching Curious George so we picked that for this year. For some reason the party stores have discontinued Curious George stuff, but I was still able to find some things online. The other things I made myself.

It was a first birthday for my twins and a second birthday for my oldest.

He didn't really want to eat his cupcake. Not a big fan of cake I guess.

People were getting too close to him. He's at the stage where he only wants mommy and daddy around.

Yep, never did eat that cupcake either, silly boy :)

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Two Very Different C-Section Experiences

 Since tomorrow is my twins' first birthday (how did that happen so quickly?!?) today is the perfect time to share their birth story. It's actually quite uneventful and not very exciting at all. Basically I went in on my scheduled c-section day and had a great surgery. Nothing went wrong, I barely even felt like I had one. The boys ended up in the NICU for 17 days after they were born. Since they were sharing a placenta, towards the end all of the blood started going to one of the babies (Batman) and our other baby wasn't getting any. 

I am so thankful we moved our c-section date up one week because we had no idea this was going on. So Batman was our little reddish baby and Spiderman was anemic and pale for a few months. They thought he might need a blood transfusion but he ended up being okay without one. Our poor babies were poked and prodded and stuck full of needles for those 17 long days but we finally got to take them both home together with no major complications. They were born about one month early at 36 weeks and 3 days. 

I've had two c-sections in the last two years and they were completely opposite experiences. I thought I would share a little comparison of the two. Maybe it will give some idea of what kind of things you might expect if you are facing a scheduled c-section.

My First (Emergency) C-Section vs. My Second (Scheduled) C-Section

1. During my first I was having contractions of course, so I had an epidural put in during this time. During the surgery I was shaking so much I couldn't pay attention to anything else. My second, I had a spinal in the operating room right before the surgery. No shakes. I was able to pay attention and watch everything going on. 

2. The first one I was freezing the whole time and they kept putting warm blankets on my arms to warm me up. The second one, I didn't notice anything like that. It seemed like a normal temperature in the room.

3. With both of them I could feel lots and lots of tugging and pulling as they got the babies out. It doesn't hurt or anything, it just feels weird. And then you feel empty once they pull them out. 

4. With my first, we didn't have a camera and I didn't get to hold him before they took him away. With the twins, my husband took pictures of them being cleaned up and weighed and they let me hold the first one while they were still getting the second one out. With little Spiderman they had to put oxygen on him right away so I didn't get to hold him, but I was able to watch what was going on. I don't remember any of this with my first one. 

5. You can read more about it here, but with my first I had a major ileus afterwards and with my second I had nothing like that. Sure there's always some gas, but I was on top of that with stool softeners and gas-x that I asked for right away. I took these a few days before my surgery as well. I didn't eat for a couple of days because I was afraid of what happened the first time, but when I finally did, everything was perfect. 

6. With the first one, a few days after the surgery, the scar got infected and started leaking pus and blood everywhere. They had to open part of it back up again and stuff gauze inside it. I had to do this for a few weeks afterwards. With the second, the scar healed up very nicely. I think she even cut out some of the extra scar tissue because it's much flatter and smoother than it was after the first one.

7. I used an abdominal binder both times. The first time I couldn't put it on until I got home 9 days later because of the ileus and my swollen stomach, but with the second one I used it right away. It helps with the pain and to pull everything back together. The second day after my surgery (the second one) I felt pretty much back to normal and could walk and move around with no problems. 

8. With my first son I was able to start breastfeeding right away even with all the complications. I did that for two months until I had other complications and ended up with another surgery. I didn't know much about pumping at the time, so my milk pretty much dried up while I was there. With the twins they were in the NICU of course so I started pumping with the hospital pump as soon as possible. I kept pumping every two hours the whole time I was there and my milk came in just fine so they were able to have breastmilk. We tried to breastfeed but they were too sleepy and it tired them out. They never did figure that out. I exclusively pumped for them for the first six months and had an excess of milk, which I am thankful for. It was so much work though!

It's just so crazy to me how different the two of them were. I was so nervous for the second one after my first awful surgery but I didn't need to be, it all went very smoothly. If you have had a c-section, what kind of experience did you have?

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photo credit: Julie70 via photopin cc

Two Years Ago on Father's Day...

My oldest was born! Happy Birthday to my Superman! My favorite little two year old. We are going to visit the zoo today and then have some special birthday cake. The birthday party is not until next week because we are celebrating all three boys together this year. In honor of this special day, I've decided to share his birth story with you. It didn't turn out quite the way I had imagined it would...

It all started on Father's Day morning. We were already almost a week past the due date, so obviously we were expecting (hoping) for something to happen at any time. My husband was sleeping, I was up playing video games on the computer. I've always been a morning person, otherwise I'm sure I would have been sleeping too. I had just finished up a dungeon and killed the final boss when I felt my water break. Such perfect timing, I didn't even have to leave in the middle of the dungeon!

As you can imagine, I was pretty excited and nervous. I woke up my husband and called the hospital. Then took a shower and got my bags in the care and we were off to the hospital! I wasn't having any contractions at all yet. When we got there they checked to make sure it was actually my water breaking, and we also found out that there was meconium in the amniotic fluid as well. Still nothing was happening so they started me on Pitocin. 

It took awhile but contractions finally started. We walked around. We waited and waited and walked the hallways some more. They gave even more Pitocin. Nothing was progressing much. I got an epidural eventually but we were only at 4cm and still getting nowhere. The doctor came in because our baby was starting to be in distress and his heartbeat was dropping. She told me it would be best to do a c-section. I was really scared of course. This was the last thing I wanted. But I agreed to it and they took me back right away.

I don't remember much of the surgery except the tugging and pulling and my shaking. My neck and arm muscles were in so much pain from all the shaking and shivering and I couldn't pay attention to anything else. They didn't even let me see my little boy until I was in the recovery room a little while later. The shaking was horrible. It seemed like it took forever for it to stop afterwards. But I got to hold me precious little boy and he was perfect. That was the only thing that mattered.

We were all set to go home a couple of days later but the day after my surgery I started having horrible pains and it got so bad I could not move without help. It turns out I had a bad ileus and ended up being there for nine days. I couldn't eat anything and wasn't supposed to drink water either but the pain meds made me extremely thirsty. I had to have a nasogastric tube in my nose to get all the green bile out of my stomach. 

It was awful. The worst experience of my life. My stomach was swelled up more than when I had a baby inside. They were talking about another surgery but thankfully it started to get better slowly on its own and we finally got to go home! I was able to breastfeed through all of this, which I was also very thankful for. The bad news is that I was in lots of pain and could barely walk upright for the next two months until they finally figured out what was wrong (they kept telling me it was just constipation) and I had to have another surgery to fix my intestines. This was another long week with no eating allowed. (All these issues are the reason I lost all my baby weight plus more in the first month). After that all was well and I got back to normal life. 

And that is the story of the best Father's Day gift ever. Happy Birthday my precious little boy!

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That one time I was shopping with my new baby...

When you have a new baby and especially when it is your very first child, there is always someone who will be giving you unwanted advice. Even those harmless-looking old ladies in the grocery store might have an opinion on how you should be raising your child. Or perhaps they might simply be just a little crazy. Like that one time I was shopping in Home Depot. 

My oldest little boy was probably two or three months old. We were at Home Depot looking at something. Probably trying to figure out how to put a baby gate up at the top of our stairs. My little guy was dressed in the usual cute little baby outfit. An adorable little boy of course! A grandmotherly looking lady was in the same aisle as us and asked if she could look at him. Well, sure, I can't really stop you from looking!

She seemed normal at first, asking about his age and saying how cute he was. Talking about her babies. Pretty normal stuff. Then she advised me that I should really not torture my child by forcing him to wear such uncomfortable clothing. She told me about how later in life when he is thinking back on everything bad that happened to him he will remember the horror of wearing clothes when he was a tiny babe and will hate me for it. That most of his future problems and agonies will most likely stem from this. 

Of course I thanked her for saving my baby from future distress and declared that none of my babies will ever wear another adorable outfit. They will never be forced to leave the comfort of their pajamas until they are old enough to decide for themselves! I even took it one step further and declared that I would never leave the comfort of my pajamas again either. (This was the only part of the declaration that was actually true.)

So please keep this in mind, friends. It is probably best to just leave your babies in pajamas and other "comfortable" clothing rather than risk the consequences that might come from making them wear actual clothes. You wouldn't want your child to be scarred for life and resent you when they are old. Or even worse, when you are in your elder years and just want to sit in your pajamas in peace, they might even force you to get dressed. The horror!

Did you receive any ridiculous or even crazy advice when you were a new mother? 

I want to hear your stories!

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My little Superman is 23 months!

Next month I will have a two year old! That doesn't seem possible! And he's such a good and helpful little boy too. We had to take him to the doctor yesterday and he has an ear infection, poor boy. He also had a developmental evaluation yesterday as well. He did great and acted like his normal self, I was worried he would freeze up, which he does sometimes. He also didn't cry at the doctor's which is a first! He's growing up!

My little man is into cars and trucks and building block towers. He loves all his stuffed animals and gets excited for story time at night before bed. He gets a little overwhelmed when his two little brothers don't leave him alone to play. He loves watching Curious George. His two year molars are coming though. He loves to color and paint and play with playdough. His favorite thing to do is take walks and ride in his wagon. If he's walking, he has to stop every time a car drives by to watch! We live two houses away from the elementary school here so his other favorite activity is watching all the cars line up every morning to drop off kids. He really is obsessed with any kind of vehicle right now!

Since we just went to the doctor yesterday, I know what his height and weight are for once. He was 35 pounds and 36 inches tall. We just had to buy him new pants because I realized suddenly that all his old ones were too short! He's looking so grown up now. He's still doesn't have any words. We are waiting for early intervention to call us so that we can find out if he qualifies for that. The lady who did his evaluation yesterday said he was a very well-mannered little boy. I'm so proud of him! 

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My (Almost) 2 Year Old Doesn't Talk Yet

As the title says, my oldest boy is going to be two in only two months and he isn't talking yet. I am so worried about him because of this and I'm hoping it's just because he doesn't want to. He used to say some words when he was a lot younger (not very many but he did say some) and now he won't say anything. The only thing he will say is "bye bye" and wave, which is super cute and he does it all the time but I wish he would say more. He understands everything we are saying to him and will nod or shake his head or point at things that he wants. He was a late walker, at 15 months, and I read that sometimes late walkers are late talkers...but I feel like somehow it's my fault.

When we were at the doctor for our twins' 9 month checkups I asked her if we should be concerned about it and she said yes right away. So of course now I'm even more worried than I was before. We had his hearing checked the week after that (and it's fine just as I knew it would be) but they won't do any further evaluation for him until he is two years old. So for now we just keep working with him. He is a really stubborn but really smart kid! He is learning his colors and shapes and loves to count things. He can recognize lots of different animals and knows what sounds they make. He used to love making dinosaur/bear/lion sounds (roar) and cow sounds but now he won't even do that anymore. 

It's a little sad for me as well. Especially when I hear all the cute things that other kids his age are saying and he won't even say "mama" to me. I know he can say it because I've heard him say it before (and daddy) but he just refuses now. At this rate the babies will be talking before him, and they are actually starting to say "dada". It's not like he is silent, he "talks" all the time but it's just sounds...I usually know what he is trying to say and he is very expressive, but he doesn't use any actual words. He is a really good little boy and we've never had any problems with him at all, he was such an easy baby. (However, the twins are a completely different story!)

I'm not sure why I wrote this except to say that I feel guilty (did I do something wrong?) and worried and don't know what else to do for him. 

Has anyone else dealt with this before? Do you have any suggestions? 

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