Nursing Avec Toddler

Dear This Person:

I understand and appreciate that you are trying your best to adjust to This Person:

But I need you to know that jumping into him on the couch and generally wreaking havoc while I am feeding him is starting to make me very angry.

When I tell you to stop being a destructo, please do not ignore me and give me This Face:

Or I will be very tempted to drop you off at This Person's:

(Pam wearing Ti Chi outfit, gift from the Olympians)

And furthermore, would it be too much trouble to speed up This Activity?:

Thank you for your cooperation.

I think we all saw this day coming. I'm sure it's only a phase of crazy.

Much love,

Your Mother who may or may not have been reduced to allowing you to run around half-clothed, messy hair, eating cookies off the ground with a wet diaper today.

Then and Now

In the words of Cole Porter, Times have changed.

I used to travel like this:

On the beach in Barcelona, circa 2006. Note the small bag.

And now I travel like this:

Mimi, Jude and Cousin Alice packed like sardines in the SUV. Celia and I happily discovered that you CAN put three to a row in my car and still have the two midget seats in the back! Plenty of room to grow!

My homies and I used to roll in this:


My beloved '66 Mustang.

Now my homies and I roll in this:

This is my "I give up Stroller." Paige and I assembled it yesterday. It's a limo. It's ginormous and I love it, almost as much as my mustang. I love the occupants more.

I used to see bums like this:

Statue of the Promise of Death in Prague.

Now I see a bum belonging to him:


Remember when you thought that your life would be the same after you had kids? Things are different, but definitely better. I like having two better than I like having one kid because I feel more committed and expect just the standard clean house, happy kids, food on the table expectations of myself. We're working on scheduling right now, trying to get little people to sleep at the same time as I want to sleep. Mimi is doing pretty well, only a little regression with hitting and waking up after being put down to sleep for the night. Jude is nursing on both sides pretty well and still taking a supplemental bottle so I can leave him with a babysitter (mom). He's a pooping machine. He sleeps for long stretches at night. He has a clogged tear duct, but we're seeing the doctor tomorrow. Jude's a sweet little boy and I'm in love.

A Baby Story: Jude Edition

The last few weeks of pregnancy with Jude were hard, mostly because I felt like I was in labor all of the time. I had regular contractions and got sent home from the hospital once for preterm labor, once for not being in sufficient amount of pain with my contractions.

Texting and playing with Iphones. It was a technologically enhanced birth.

Finally, after a night of annoying contractions, we went to the hospital at about 9:30. I knew I was having that baby that day because we had the same evil nurse as when I had Mimi. She has horrible bedside manner and doesn't tell me what's going on.

Right before I swooned and needed more drugs.

Still no pain. The nurse checked me and I was at a 2, which was more than I was when I checked in with Mimi. Dx and I did the walk around the maternity ward, mostly because I've always wanted to do the maternity ward walk. By around 11, they hooked me up to the IV and the contractions were actually hurting because I was at a 5. Next, I requested my much beloved stadol and an epidural, although I wanted the stadol to kick in for a while before the epidural. But, anesthesiologists get busy, so if he was available I'd better get that drip in place before they started the pitocin. I was really drugged and shaken during the epidural, I couldn't breathe and I was sweating and shaking violently. It was really scary. My leg didn't do the normal kicky thing when the guy put in the needle, so I was kinda worried that he'd messed up, but the pain went away so I thoughtI was in the clear.

At 12, my sisters Celia and Paige descended in a flurry of hilarious.

Paige "checking" my dialation

No bras in the delivery room!

They went through every closet and played with all the gadgets. They texted and took pictures, it was a total party. When Paige was doing my hair, however, I started to pass out. I don't know what happened exactly, but the nurse apparently turned off my epidural. The pitocin was in and working. When the doctor came in to break my water, I could FEEL EVERYTHING! I freaked out. All of the sudden, the contractions went crazy and I truely thought I was going to die. The anesthesiologist came back in and tried to explain to me that the epidural was fine and that it was too late to change it. I was in complete panic. I had to soothe this guy's ego while going through transition without any medication (stadol had worn off). While he was explaining, Dx held up the phone so Ellie could hear and she told him to demand Versed and another epidural. Everybody thought it was too late to get a new epidural and Celia and Paige had to coach me through 30 minutes of the worst pain I have ever felt. I was weeping. I think I transitioned without drugs. Finally, they dosed me with Versed and I felt much better. Then they gave me another epidural and we had to listen to the dumb guy explain why he hadn't screwed up the first one. But the second one worked!

The nurse checked me and said I was "complete" whatever that means. Hair and makeup resumed. (What, don't you have hair and makeup people at your births? You should!) Paige and Dx held my legs on one side, Celia on the other. Nobody looked at my business. I pushed the baby down for about 20 minutes, then the doctor showed up and rather than catching the baby (who was crowning) he grabbed my camera and started taking pictures from HIS vantage point! We all thought he was taking pictures of the baby coming out and were horrified. But they are actually kind of cool and show nothing disgusting.

One of the pics taken by the Doctor.

In about 10 minutes at 4:05pm, the baby was born. It was a love fest.

Baby Love

Then my crew helped the baby get cleaned up and passed him around to be cuddled and loved.

Baby Jude 8lbs 9.8oz

Shortly thereafter, everybody in my entire family and Dx's showed up or called. Jude must have been cuddled by 25 people in the first five hours of his life. And they wonder why my kids have no separation anxiety and will go to anybody!

I'm glad my sisters and husband were there. All in all, it was a positive experience, despite the unexpected pain and suffering. The recovery has been easier than the first and I am taking it as easy as one can with a toddler and a newborn. Mimi and Jude seem to like eachother and Dx and the fam are helping a lot. I like having two babies even more than I like having one.

Hooray for babies! Apparently I have "Irish twins" which means two babies within 18 months of eachother.