2nd Birthday, Round 1...

Somehow my baby girl is turning 2 in less then 2 weeks. I am just amazed at how quickly the time has flown by and how all of the sudden I have this independent little girl instead of the baby that needed me for everything. I have noticed in the short time Chase has been around at how self sufficient she is if you let her be. We had family over this past Sunday, really to meet Chase, but I made cupcakes to celebrate Audrey's birthday too since no one would be around for her real birthday. She of course was thrilled to eat cupcakes (actually 2, she asked really nicely for the 2nd one) but she was really excited about everyone singing and blowing out the candle too which I wasn't expecting. She got some great gifts (a big thanks to everyone!), including an adorable back pack and a princess tea set that has already gotten a ton of use.

Home Alone...

Well, today is my first day home alone with Chase (we have had family here since his arrival) and we seem to be surviving. My mom was here for 3 weeks and was a huge help before and after Chase arrived, and the rest of my family excluding my brother was here for the long weekend to meet the new arrival. Things have been getting a little easier each day and hopefully they will keep heading in that direction. Chase continues to be a great, mellow baby that loves to eat, sleep and cuddle. He is up to 9 lbs 13 oz as of last Thursday at his doctors appointment. Here are a couple of pix from the last week...

First double stroller walk with both kids... Love it, plus Audrey is proving she can sit in it for 30 seconds which is awesome...

Hanging with Aunt Danielle...

and with Dad...

One Week...

Well, we survived our first week home with Chase. Things are going well, and are definitely getting better by the day. He is a wonderful, content baby as long as I can keep him fed. He is doing the normal infant thing and sleeping tons during the day and not so much at night. I am definitely tired, but he is sleeping for at least one 4 - 5 hour stretch at night so I really can't complain.

He had his 1st doctors appointment early last week. He weighed in at 9 lbs 2 oz already (95th percentile) already. Everything else looked great, though we did end up having to get his billirubin checked again (actually we went 2x because the 1st results weren't what the doctor wanted). He is fine now

though, and his color has dramatically improved. By Friday he was up to his birth weight, which shocked me, but I have to say it is really nice not having to worry about him eating or gaining weight. Audrey took 3 weeks to reach her birth weight and it was very stressful making sure she was eating enough. That said, my mom and I keep laughing that he really doesn't look that big to us. Maybe it is because we have nothing to compare him to but his 2 year old sister. My friend Beth is coming this week with her daughter Katelyn who weighs less then him and is a month old so I guess we will see then...

Coming Home...

Well we are all home now and slowly adjusting to our new life. There doesn't seem to be enough time in the day right now to do everything, but I am assuming that is going to get better with time, right?

We had a slight glitch coming home from the hospital. They discovered that Chase had jaundice on Sunday afternoon and put him directly under the lights due to his level and his age at the time. We were both supposed to be discharged on Monday at 1:30 pm, but we found out Monday morning that Chase needed to stay overnight as his billirubin level hadn't gone down. This was a major bummer, but I am glad that the pediatrician was proactive in getting him better. I ended up being able to stay at the hospital til 7 pm due to my awesome nurse. I called 1st thing Tuesday morning to get an update on whether he would be coming home that day and we got the best news scenario, that his levels had dropped overnight and we could come pick him up!



So the adjustment begins... Remembering what it is like to have a newborn in the house again (like how often they eat), having a newborn in the house at the same time as a 2 year old, and running on no sleep. He had a rough night his 1st night home (or Charlie and I had a rough night) but last night was better and hopefully we are moving in the right direction at least.

Audrey has been adjusting much better then I expected, though I know it is early. She seems to really like that she has a baby and especially likes all his stuff and loves to put her bunny and or doll in all of it (and herself if we don't catch her in time). She got to hold him for the 1st time last night and she actually did pretty well, though she was watching Go Diego Go during the entire thing. She definitely hates when he cries and when I feed him (which has been happening at the same time more often then not) but I'm sure that won't last...

Chase's Story...

After a little bit of an adventure, our baby boy made his arrival today! His due date was tomorrow, May 10th, so he was right on the money, though I did end up getting induced. He ended up sharing a birthday with his Aunt Danielle (my sister) but we knew he was bound to hit someones birthday since most of the family was born the 1st 2 weeks of May. We ended up having his legal name be Charles Granville Dennison IV which I know isn't a huge surprise, but we are going to call him Chase to not be confused with Charlie.

I had a doctors appointment Friday that Charlie came with me to. I was hoping to go to the appointment and have her tell me that I was at least a little dilated so that she would schedule me for an induction on Saturday which was her day on call at the hospital. Well I was not ready at all and she said to come in Wednesday (if he didn't come before that obviously) and I would get induced with her next day. At the end of the appointment I told her that I felt like I had been leaking a lot, more complaining then anything thinking she would say it was normal. Her eyes got big and she said "well that is different" and examined me again. She thought my water had broken (which we never determined because I never had any tests for it and she couldn't say for sure from the exam) and that was a good reason to induce, especially so close to my due date. So we went directly over to the hospital thinking I was having the baby Friday night. Wrong.

They gave me what they called a cervix softener (there is some technical name I'm sure) that is a tablet that sits on your cervix and dissolves. They said there was a chance I could go into active labor from this, but it was slim. Most people just starting cramping and get a little dilated and they can then start platosin. Well you have to wait 4 hours for this stuff to work, so we ended up going home, getting all of our stuff then going back. I was pissed, I basically felt nothing but small cramping and new darn well I wasn't in active labor. So we got back there and the doctor decided to give me another dose of this stuff, sent us home to sleep (at 1 am) and scheduled us for 6 am to be induced with platosin. I am super tired and annoyed by this point but don't have a ton of options and just hoped that something would happen overnight. I felt nothing when I got up in the morning and kind of freaked out. I didn't want to force this baby out if he wasn't ready and what if my water hadn't broke and I was doing this for no reason?

Well as things always seem to, everything worked out and I have to say for the best. My doctor was on call all day Saturday and was able to be there for the entire process which was awesome. She came in when we got there, announced I was 4 cm and said lets get this show on the road. She broke my water or what was left or whatever, hooked me up to patosin at 8:30 am and we had a baby boy 5 hours later!

Some of you know that I had an ultra sound a month ago and the doctor there told me I was going to have a 9 lb 13 oz baby and I almost died! My doctor assured me there was no way he was that big, mid 8's at most and not to worry about it. Well I went to start pushing and I again made a comment about his size and again my doctor said don't worry. Well I pushed for 15 - 20 minutes and he came out with no issues. We all knew he was big, but didn't realize HOW big til the nurse finally weighed him about 10 minutes later. 9 lbs 9 oz, are you kidding me? I have no idea how I carried that let alone got him out. Thank goodness he didn't stay in there any longer...

But he is healthy and I couldn't be happier! He is very content so far, MUCH different then his sister, but I knew that from him being so mellow in me for the past 40 weeks...

Charles Granville Dennison IV

May 9th @ 1:36 pm ~ 9 lbs 9 ozs ~ 20 1/2 in.

My Little Princess...

This picture just makes me laugh so I thought I would share. I have NO idea where she got this pose from, but we were at the beach and she ran up on the gazebo and laid down and struck this pose. Really funny...

Big Help...

Audrey is growing more independent by the day (like wanting to put on her own clothes and shoes, etc.) and she also wants to help with everything that Charlie and I are doing. This weekend was no exception. We spent a lot of time outside doing projects (ok Charlie did most of the projects while I watched) and Audrey wanted to help with everything.

I decided to try and grow beans this year because I read they are really easy to grow and are climbers so I figured at least they would look cool whether or not they yielded anything edible. I started them from seed and put them in their pot yesterday. Audrey was super excited about the entire process, from putting the dirt in, pulling the bean seedlings out of their containers then watering it at the end. She got a watering can from the Easter bunny and it is proving to be a well used gift. Granted she waters the patio furniture and deck, but she does get the plants too...

Audrey's Cozy Coup was having some wheel issues and Charlie fixed in the other day with Audrey's help of course. Since then, she goes in the basement to Charlie's tool box, grabs whatever she can reach and brings it out to work on her car. It is really funny, though she should probably be using plastic tools instead of real ones, especially with the frequency of her falls...This is the "Mom, put the camera away and help me" look...