Bringing Home Baby: Part 4 – Coming Home

When Lilly arrived home from church she came up the stairs, saw me and the baby and immediately went running off to play with Logan. I thought she would be a little excited to finally have us home but we came in second place to Aunt Angie and Logan.

Angie and Logan stayed for a week and it was the most wonderful thing ever! I felt so spoiled and taken care of. Angie went grocery shopping, made meals, cleaned the house, took care of Lilly, and made sure I was taken care of. It felt like I was a mother of 1 again and it gave me the whole week to bond with Bennett. I have actually felt better and more relaxed with Bennett then I ever did with Lilly. My physical recovery has been easier and because I wasn’t nervous to bring a baby home I have been able to relax and enjoy the newborn stage more. Also, I learned my lesson with Lilly, so now I really do nap whenever I get a chance and I have been trying really hard to spend as much time as I can relishing the newborn stage since I know it goes by so fast.   

Lilly was extremely happy to have Logan and Angie at the house. Lilly has always wanted an older sibling to play with and Logan was fantastic with her. I think he is Lilly’s new best bud. Lilly ended up calling Angie mommy; it was way easier to do that then to remember ‘Aunt Angie’. Plus, Angie is way more fun than mommy and buys her things.

While they were here Angie took the kids to the John Deere Pavilion, the Chick-fil-a play place, and to the park. She saw how crazy our Chick-fil-a play place is here. We also went out to dinner and to the mall. I wish she was able to see more Iowa but I wasn’t up for much. My favorite part was the time that we got to spend talking. It was nice visiting to another adult female, most of the time I am with kids or just Tyson.

When Angie told Logan they were coming here to help with Lilly he told her that Lilly better not try to do girl stuff with him and dress him up in princess dresses. He did really well playing with all of her girly toys and watching her princess shows but when she tried to dress him up in a tutu he was not having it. Good thing we had some superhero stuff.  

John Deere Pavilion

The next week after Angie and Logan left Tyson stayed home. I think he got bored after a couple of days. It was nice having him home for the week and he did a good job of making dinner and taking care of Lilly.

Lilly loves her baby brother. She consistently talks about how cute he is and she seems to want him to come everywhere with her. She really wants him to play with toys and doesn’t understand why he doesn’t. I tried to explain to her that his hands don’t open all the way. She also has a hard time letting him sleep. She wants to touch or look at him all the time. Lilly likes sharing her toys with him. We will see how she does once he starts taking them away.  

Sorry about the underwear - it was too cute, we had to get the picture right away

Bennett has been a really good baby. I am not sure what I did to get lucky with two easy babies. He eats really well and sleeps at night. He does eat a lot though and wakes up several times at night to eat. But I am still lucky because he will go 5-6 hours in between his first and second nightly feeding.

Bennett is a noisy baby. He grunts, snores and makes other various noises. He doesn’t cry very much. Usually when he is ready to eat he starts grunting until I feed him. I have to swaddle him at night to make sure he is quiet and gets some sleep.  He is also starting to coo a little bit and smile. He is getting bigger and is super cute. Now I just have to learn how to balance 2 kids, work, the house work and everything else mommy’s have to do.

Bennett is a spitter so we have to use bibs all the time

 

Bringing Home Baby: Part 3 - Lilly Meets Bennett

Tyson made sure I was settled in the hospital and Bennett was doing well before he went and picked up Lilly and brought her home for the night. We decided to let her have a good night sleep before having her come to the hospital. The next morning Tyson did a good job of getting her ready for the day and making her hair look nice. Then they came to the hospital. When Lilly walked into the room she wasn’t shy at all. She was excited to see me and jumped right into my bed. We introduced her to Bennett. The first thing she said when she saw him was ‘Oh Cute’. Lilly says ‘Oh Cute’ in a really cute way and she says it about a lot of things. It is very endearing. We asked her who the baby was and she said ‘Baby Bennett’. We spent the next couple of hours together as a new family of four. Lilly liked playing with the buttons on the bed, holding the baby, and watching TV. She also ate ½ of my lunch. It was a good thing I ordered a lot of food.  

I wish we took a picture of Lilly in her shirt. It says "I am the Big Sister".

I love this picture because Lilly can't keep her eyes off Bennett.

To make Lilly feel like it was a special day for her we gave her a present and said it was from Bennett. She excitedly opened a brand new baby doll. She then wanted to swaddle the baby doll up just like Bennett. She had a baby and mommy had a baby. Unfortunately, at home she would just rather make Bennett her baby doll.  

These are the flowers Lilly and Tyson brought me.

After Lilly ate my lunch Tyson took her home for a nap and then went and picked up my sister Angela and her little boy Logan up from the airport. After they stopped to eat they all came to visit me at the hospital. They wouldn’t allow Logan into my room since he was under 12 and wasn’t a sibling so Tyson took him grocery shopping while Angie and Lilly stayed to visit. It was really nice of Tyson to let Angie hang out with me for a couple of hours since it had been awhile since we had seen each other. I wish I would have taken a picture of Angie with Bennett since she was the only hospital visitor we had.

Tyson took this picture for our brother-in-law Tyler (Logan's Dad). Tyler went to University of Nebraska which is a rival of University of Iowa. Tyson thought it would be funny to wrap Logan up in Iowa merchandise.

Although Angie was the only one to visit the hospital we did get to video chat with Grandma and Grandpa Ballard and Grandma Harris.

Grandma and Grandpa Ballard

The next day was Sunday and Angie took both of the kids to church so Tyson was able to come and help me get checked out and ready to go home. The last day in the hospital is always a whirlwind. You have a whole bunch of doctors come and check you and the baby to make sure you are ready to leave, the social worker stops by to ask you survey questions, you have to fill out all of your paper work, etc. etc, and we had a photographer (provided by the hospital) come and take newborn pictures. You are also a little anxious to get home but you are always a little nervous to leave and no longer have the nurses there helping you. Luckily, I got one more hospital lunch before leaving. I love free hospital food.  

Lilly and Logan ready for church.

Bennett’s Newborn Hospital Pictures:

 

 

Bennett in his coming home outfit

 

We went on our way home around 1:00 pm. Once we got home we had 3 and ½ hours before Lilly got back from church and we officially had two children to take care of.

 

Here Comes Baby – Part 2: Hospital

Since we had to be at the hospital by 7:00 am it was an early morning for us. We dropped Lilly off at our friends from the ward. She went running into the house and hugged her friend and said “Juliette, I missed you”. I found it funny because although she likes Juliette and they play at nursery they don't really play together much outside of nursery. It probably made Juliette feel good that she was so excited to see her. I guess I should probably set up a play date if she is getting that excited. The drop off went really smoothly. Lilly didn’t cry and was really excited to spend the day at the Flake’s house. We tried to prepare Lilly as much as we could about what was going to happen. She seemed to understand and was okay with the whole situation.

After we dropped Lilly off we headed to the hospital, checked in, and got everything started. I was given an antibiotic that I needed and Pitocin (when Pitocin is used prior to delivery, it is used either to induce labor, or to augment labor that has slowed down or stalled completely). I had to be on the antibiotic for 4 hours before they would break my water so the first 4 hours was spent trying to kick start my labor. I started feeling contractions about an hour after they started the Pitocin. I spent time sitting up, walking around, and sitting on the labor ball. I found the labor ball to be the most ‘helpful’ to increase my contractions. It was also the most painful since it was increasing my contractions (strength, length, and time between) and I didn’t last long on it.   

I was really worried that the labor induction wouldn’t work and they would send me home. I kept asking my nurse if she thought it was working. She would tell me I was fine and not to worry. I still worried…

The last picture of me pregnant with Bennett

 

My doctor was Dr. Martin and she had a 4 year medical resident going around with her. Both of them were very good. Around 1:00 pm they broke my water. I had asked for the epidural before they broke my water but I think they forgot that request. They didn’t want to give me my epidural until they saw changes but if they broke my water then they were planning on me staying so I am not sure why they didn’t do the epidural before – other then they forgot and I wasn’t being whinny enough.

After my water was broken contractions became even worse and I asked for my epidural. The nurse asked me what level my pain was at I think I said a 9 or 10. At that time Tyson told me I was not at a 10 and that if I was a 10 I would be screaming. He later apologized for trying to tell me what level my pain was at – like he knew. They sent in the Anesthesiologist. I did not like my Anesthesiologist. I thought he took forever to administer the drug and he did it different then my doctor did with Lilly. The good thing is it didn’t wear off half way through, on half of my body like the last one did.

I spent the next several hours feeling really good and everything was going smoothly. I even got a little sleep. I was starving though and itchy. I had skipped breakfast because I didn’t know if I had to fast before and no one told me. They gave me some Jello but I was still really hungry. I am not sure why I got so itchy and neither did the doctor. I didn’t have hives or a rash. They were going to give me some Benadryl but kept forgetting. I decided just to ignore the itchiness and not to take medication for it.    

As the time got closer to deliver I started feeling sick. I started shivering and feeling nauseous. The doctor came to put an internal monitor in for measuring the strength of my contractions. During this procedure I was feeling really sick. I told the nurse I was going to throw up and needed a bowl immediately. She kind of ignored me. By this time my first nurse’s shift was over and I had a new one. I didn’t like my second nurse as much as I liked my first one. Since she ignored me my doctor got me a bowl and I immediately threw up. The doctor felt really bad for me. She said I was such an easy going and happy patient that it was hard for her to see me starting to get uncomfortable.

A small side note: In all my life I don’t think I have ever been described as ‘easy going’. However, it seems like the older I get the more people use ‘easy going’ to describe me. I am not sure if my personality has changed as I have gotten older or if I am just good at reacting to things calmly. (For example: Hey, Sister Harris, you now have 10, 4 year olds in your primary class that you teach all by yourself, 9 months pregnant…Instead of crying I just say “ok”.) I think anyone who has played card games (or any games) with me wouldn’t call me ‘easy going’.

When they put in the monitor they also checked me and I was dilated to a 5. Tyson was getting hungry so I told him he should go and grab something for dinner. He waited around for about 30 minutes. By this time I was starting to feel gross so I told him to hurry up and go. I was upping my meds and I kept telling my nurse that I was uncomfortable and someone should check me. Since they just checked me and I was only at a 5 she kept blowing me off saying the doctor would come in when she could. About 10 minutes of feeling gross the doctor came in. She said she had a ‘feeling’ she needed to come and check me. When she was walking to my room she passed Tyson and told him he would be fine going to get something to eat. Then she came in and checked me. She was shocked to find that she could feel the baby’s head and he was coming. It was a good thing she had a ‘feeling’. I called Tyson immediately and told him to come back. If he was hungry he would have to grab something from the cafeteria.

The same time I was getting close to delivery there were two other patients of my doctor also close to delivery. However, I was the furthest along so I got to go first. One other patient had a midwife so if she delivered she would have the midwife to help. It didn’t take very many pushes to deliver Lilly so I assumed Bennett would be fast too. I was correct. I pushed about a dozen times and Bennett arrived. I think it would have been even faster except my doctor let her med student do the delivery. If Dr. Martin would have been doing the delivery I think it would about taken ½ as much time. The after stuff took longer too then it should have because of the med student. She did a good job though. The actual delivery went very smoothly and the mood in the room was very light. Tyson didn’t even get grossed out this time.  

Bennett arrived at 7:07 pm on August 30, 2013. He weighed 7 lbs 15 ounces and was 20 ½ inches long. That is exactly 1 pound and 1 inch bigger then Lilly. He came into the world with his eyes open and was very alert. He was also very handsome. He was even more handsome once he got a bath.

 

Here Comes Baby – Part 1: Preparations

The week before I had Bennett I spent a lot of time worrying. My sister, Angela, was planning to fly out on August 31^st which was Bennett’s due date. When I first told her when she should come I thought Bennett was going to be early and I didn’t worry about her arrival date. However, as the time approached for Bennett to come, I became more and more stressed that Bennett would be a late arrival. Since Angela works and has 3 kids of her own at home she could not change her arrival date so I began talking to my doctor about inducting labor. They told me it would be possible if my body was ready. They would check me on my last appointment and we would make a decision at that point. So the waiting began.

The first of the week before the baby came was spent trying to keep busy and distracted. Tyson took about ½ of the week off from work so we did a lot of family things. We both tried to spend as much time as we could with Lilly. After all, it wouldn’t be the three of us for much longer. I worked on cleaning up the house and getting it ready for guest. I was hoping that the hard work would make the baby come, it didn’t. Here we are playing with Lilly's Play-doh.

 

I had my doctor’s appointment on Wednesday. The doctor checked me and I wasn’t really ready to have the baby. However, she said I could still schedule the induction. She thought it would work because it wasn’t my first baby. I was hoping to schedule the induction for Monday since Angela would be here but since it was Labor Day the hospital wouldn’t allow it. They gave me the option to schedule on Friday the 30^th or Tuesday, September 3^rd.  I didn’t have anyone to watch Lilly on the 30^th but if I did it on this date I would have the doctor that I liked (in Iowa you get the doctor that is on call to deliver your baby – not the doctor of your choice). If I picked the 3^rd to be induced then I wouldn’t be home for very long with that baby while Angela was here. So, I went ahead and picked the 30^th.

I personally did not want to be induced. I think that babies should stay in as long they want unless there are medical issues (or tax reasons). If there weren’t time issues I would have waited. I spent the rest of Wednesday and Thursday getting everything ready and hoping the baby would come on his own. Tyson spent the time buying Lilly a fish tank and fish – either he was in denial about the baby or thought Lilly needed something super special for what was coming.

 

We now have 5 florescent colored fish that Lilly loves. She also loves her submarine. She cried when we put it in the tank. Tyson and her feed the fish each morning and night. She doesn't forget. When she see's things on TV she likes, she tells me she wants it to put in her fish tank. Luckily, none of the fish have died yet.  

Lilly’s Nightgown

Several months ago Lilly and I were at target when she saw a princess nightgown. She decided she must have it. I hadn’t used nightgowns before but she was just so excited about it that I bought it for her. The nightgown has been one of the best things I have ever bought her. She would wear it every day, all day long if I let her. She looks so cute in her blue princess nightgown.

 

Lilly wanted to spin in her Princess dress (that is what she calls it)

Lilly is giving baby Bennett a hug.

 

Preparations

We have spent the last couple of weeks preparing for the arrival of Baby Bennett. Here are the things we have gotten done.

We finished the nursery.

We brought up all of the baby stuff from the basement, dusted them off and made sure everything was clean. Every time I brought something new up Lilly would say ‘Oh Cute’ in her sweet little voice she uses for that kind of stuff. She would then spend several minutes talking about the baby item and explaining to me how it works.  She is particularly enamored with the bouncy seat, car seat, and double stroller. She already knows what seat is hers in the double stroller (like Sheldon in Big Bang Theory).

My friend here in Iowa, Heather Bell, threw me a baby shower. It was an open house shower at our ward’s swim day. It was super nice of her and we all had a good time swimming and eating yummy food.

 

We finished buying everything that baby needs. We just need a new monitor now.

We have also been getting some things done around the house including painting the hallway, updating the guest bathroom, and cleaning the carpets. Lilly was hilarious while Tyson was painting. She sat in her little couch watching Tyson the whole time. About every 2 minutes she would comment on how pretty or cute Tyson's painting was and then she would thank him. Tyson had his own little cheerleading section for the chore.

 

Now I am just working on finishing cooking that baby – three more weeks!!

Lilly's Condition

I have been debating with myself about doing a blog on Lilly’s ‘condition’. I have decided to blog about it for two reasons: 1. I have asked for several people’s advice about the situation and wanted to keep everyone in the loop of how it is going and 2. I wanted to write it down for record keeping purposes.

I first became concerned with Lilly when she was around 9 months old. She was not gaining weight and was dropping down percentiles (greatly) on the child height and weight chart. I kept mentioning my concerns to our pediatrician and was being told that if Lilly dropped another 10% they would look into it. She went from 50% to 10% in about 1 year and our pediatrician still wasn’t addressing the issue.   

Then when Lilly turned 2 she started having some digestive issues. The issues were causing extreme bloating, cramping, and constipation. She was having these ‘episodes’ about every 2 weeks. It was extremely difficult to see her in so much pain and not knowing what to do about it.

Around this time her eating habits also became very poor. I couldn’t get her to eat more than two bits of each meal. There were a couple of instances when she wouldn’t eat anything for a week straight and when I would call the pediatrician they would push me off and tell me it is normal toddler eating behavior.  It was frustrating for me because I knew it wasn’t normal and trying to force Lilly to eat was causing a lot of bad feelings during meal times.

After a long discussion with Tyson and knowing that this year we would hit our deductable we decided it was time to take Lilly to a specialist. We were referred to a GI specialist that is based out of Iowa City and visited our area every other Friday. (A GI specialist is a doctor who specializes in diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.) The office is usually scheduled 3 months in advanced; however, we were able to get an appointment for the same week due to a cancelation. I feel like getting that early appointment was a big blessing for us.

When we went to the appointment they took Lilly’s weight and immediately labeled her has failure to thrive. Children are diagnosed with failure to thrive when their weight or rate of weight gain is significantly below that of other children of similar age and gender. I had mixed emotions when they told me this. I was relieved that someone was actually taking Lilly’s weight issues seriously. I was a little sad that she was labeled with that since I am the mother and it is my responsibility to ensure thriving occurs. I also told myself not to be too concerned because failure to thrive is mostly something we can work with.

After listening to all the symptoms the doctor put her on a fiber plan and decided Lilly needed some blood tests. She said that her symptoms sounded a lot like Celiac Disease. Celiac disease is an immune reaction to eating gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye.

Lilly did so amazing with the blood tests. They took 3 vials of blood from her. When we first walked into the lab they asked me if I was getting the blood tests. I told them no, that it was for Lilly and the lady visible cringed. She went to get someone in to help her. Lilly sat on my lap while they took the blood. She cried for about 5 seconds right when they pocked her and then for the rest of the time was so interested she didn’t say a word. She couldn’t stop watching. The ladies were so impressed with how well she did that they kept giving her prizes and telling her how wonderful she was.

Side Note: Lilly loves the doctor and any doctor tools.  She loves going to the doctor with mommy and she thinks she is the doctor and nurse. She even does well when it is an appointment for herself. She gets really engrossed with everything and is super interested. She usually likes to bring her own doctor tools with her to mommy’s appointments and then tries to help. Blood and shots don’t seem to bother her and she wants to be right in the action. If she continues to be this interested I wouldn’t be surprised if she did something in the medical field. She would be a good Physicians Assistance.

About a week later the doctor called us with the blood test results. Everything came back normal. They checked her thyroid, vitamin D levels, and the celiac stuff. The doctor said we had two options. They suggested we do the next step in celiac testing and have an intestinal biopsy since her symptoms matched so well. I guess < 25% of people that tests come back negative end up having it, especially when the patient is so young. They also suggested we put her on an increase calorie plan and have a follow up appointment in 3 months to see if she has gained any weight. We decided to go ahead with the increase calorie plan. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try this and we wouldn’t have to do any kind of surgery.

So for the last month and a half Lilly has been taking daily fiber and we have been increasing her calories. A lot of people have asked me what an increased calorie plan entitles.  It is me following Lilly around the house with food. If she asks for candy or a snack I give it to her and she knows I’ll let her eat on the couch so she eats ½ of her meals there. But as long as she is eating I don’t care. I’ll fix the couch issue later. I have also been doing stuff like putting butter and extra mayo/sauces on her sandwiches, trying out new snacks, and giving her anything with a lot of fat in it. She has a treat after EVER meal. Usually moms are looking for the healthiest snacks at the store with the fewer amount of calories. I am looking for the less health items with the most calories. If a granola bar is dipped in chocolate – fantastic we will take 2 boxes.  We still make sure she eats her full meals with fruits and vegetables but if she wants a bag of chips to go along with it I give it to her. (This is all doctor approved and suggested by the way.)

The fiber has really made all the different though. It has been a small miracle in the Harris household. She doesn’t have any more issues with cramping, bloating and constipation. Because her stomach feels better she is actually eating all of her meals and I don’t have to fight with her. She is in a better mood. It has been nice just seeing her feel better.

Our follow up appointment is in mid August. To me it looks like Lilly is starting to fill out. Her thighs are getting bigger and she has little love-handles. On our scale she has gained 1 pound; however, I don’t trust our scale that much. On my doctor’s scale she has gained 2 pounds but who knows if my doctor’s scale is the same as Lilly’s doctor’s scale. We will have to wait and see. If we go to the doctor’s and she still is small I think I am going to continue with the fiber plan and increased calories. She is doing so well with it I don’t feel like the biopsy is needed at this point of time.

Another Side Note: This area is an approved zone for celiac individuals to come on their mission. We usually have one missionary with the disease at a time. It makes cooking a meal for them difficult but it has been a learning experience for us. When I walked out of Lilly’s first doctor’s appointment one of the families in our ward was sitting in the waiting area. Hopefully having the celiac missionaries in the area isn’t making us all paranoid our kids have celiac disease. 

Lilly has set up a picnic in this picture with all of her snacks...and don't forget koala