Our sweet baby girl was born January 24th at 8:40pm. She came into the world fast and beautifully.
Ruby weighed 7lbs and measured 19.75inches. She is absolutely healthy and perfect and we are beyond thrilled with our new family member.
Birth story and much, much, much more to come!
(I started this post a week ago and never finished it! It’s important to document this time before our new baby arrived)
I am so glad that we are past the tough transitions of moving and starting preschool. It was super tough there for awhile and I really couldn’t even write about it. I didn’t know how. I didn’t want to be negative and miserable, even though at times I felt hopeless. I couldn’t figure out how to explain what we were all going through while we were in it.
I know we are about to endure another major milestone and life transition with our expanding family. I am hopeful and also realistic. I thought now might be a good time to reflect on how much Theo has grown since he turned three and underwent the biggest changes in his life, thus far.
Sleep: After moving (and even a little bit beforehand) we went through night terrors a few times per week, which were so very upsetting and probably the worst feeling of hopelessness I’ve had as a mother. You have to just wait it out and hear your sweet baby thrashing around, crying and upset. He would fight us if we tried to help and he never remembered in the morning. He was also waking up extremely early (anywhere from 5am and on) and still clearly exhausted and would absolutely fight and refuse any mention of going back to sleep. He fought any sort of nap during the day, and then would be an absolute wreck by 4 or 5pm. We started very early bedtimes from that point, but he would still wake very early in the morning and be cranky. we were all exhausted and I probably cried daily. I’d say after about 6 weeks sleep improved. He no longer naps but he has gotten over the hump of being a wreck in the late afternoon. He is asleep by 8pm and typically wakes up about 7am. Slight variation here and there, of course. The bottom line is he is usually well rested and therefore seems to be on a good schedule for his needs. He often wakes up once or twice in the night and one of us lays with him until he falls back to sleep, which is usually instantaneously.
School: He walks into school now and shouts “good morning!” to everyone. We quickly have our big hug and big kiss and he is able to only give me ONE monster spray, we exchange our “I love you’s” and I’m outta there. I’m hoping to hear an update from his teachers on how he has really been in school during the few hours he is there, but from our perspective he seems to enjoy having that time away and he talks much less about Mama leaving and how he doesn’t want me to go to work. We still have our moments when he says he doesn’t want to go to school. I look forward to hearing how he has improved behavior and participation-wise from his teachers.
Behavior: His temperament and behavior has improved tremendously and he just seems so much more mature all of a sudden! I assume it’s everything rolled into one… sleeping better, being more comfortable in our new space and also maturing a bit from the big changes of turning three. His ability to express himself is great and he rarely has tantrums or meltdowns. This is probably also due in part to our learning his triggers and always being very clear with him and processing feelings, etc.
An interesting connection I thought was that it was no wonder he was having such a difficult time with things being a certain way because he was thrown into a whirlwind of change and all he wanted was a sense of normalcy and routine. Well, that took us a little bit of time but he really snapped out of all of it within about 6 – 8 weeks. Once Thanksgiving and Christmas rolled around, Jay had taken a lot of time off work (which was so helpful and amazing for Theo) and we had many visitors in our new home and had already begun to make our new memories and make our home cozy and comfortable for everyone.
And now we will begin our new chapter… life as a family of four. Hang on for the bumpy ride!
I’ve been enjoying many moments with my favorite sweet boy before our family of three becomes a family of four…
Wow. I feel huge and achy and tired.
Last Friday when I visited the birthing center for my prenatal, the midwife gave me a referral for one last sonogram. She was concerned since I measure small. Since I’m having an out-of-hospital birth, they need to cross all T’s and dot all I’s. She wants to be certain the baby is over 5.5 lbs and that she is in a good position. I measured small with Theo, too, so I wasn’t too concerned but I was happy to get confirmation yesterday. She is approximately 7 lbs, 1 oz (Theo was born 7 lbs on the nose!) and in perfect position. Everything looked great. So, I’m cleared for birth at BBC. Now I guess we just wait.
I also came back positive for Group B strep. I was negative with Theo so this does throw a wrench in my plans. I just want everyone healthy so I will do what needs to be done. Basically there is a significant chance that the baby and I will need to be transferred to the hospital so that baby can be monitored for 24 hours. The catch is that I need to receive two doses of antibiotics during labor and they need to be within four hours of each other. Theo’s birth was quicker than that, so if my second birth is even quicker, then the chances are very likely that I will only receive one dose of antibiotics. All I can do is go with the flow and do what needs to be done. We packed extra this time.
Our bags are packed, everything is pretty much set up here for baby and our “plan” for Theo is somewhat arranged. That’s probably my biggest source of anxiety. Worrying about the kid the second time around is definitely different than when there was no child to consider.
This morning Theo came into our room first thing and said, “is the baby here yet?”.
Theo went bowling for the first time and he loved it so much. We found an empty old alley not too far from our place and it was a simple, indoor pleasure for a chilly Monday afternoon. Theo kept saying, “I’m excited!” and “We’re going bowling!”.
All the kitschy things that make bowling fun seemed to keep him tickled… my silly shoes, all the video games, snack machines, picking out our ball, the machine that brings the ball back to you, the pins, the lights, everything. We played one game, ate chocolate covered pretzels from the vending machine and tried a few video games.
My favorite was, “Why is my ball going so slow?” and “You’re a great bowler, Mama!”. Haha.
Afterwards we visited our favorite burger joint in Park Slope and had a lovely, overpriced organic lunch. Thanks, Papa!
We made it! I’m officially 37 weeks and can give birth at the birthing center. 19 days until my due date. What??! Hard to believe. We have met with our doula twice for our pre-natal visits and she is officially on call for us now. We are planning to finish up some baby laundry this weekend and to really get our “go” bag packed. Her dresser drawers are filled and we have sterilized all breast pump parts and bottles. This little lady is coming anytime now and it still feels pretty surreal. But she continues to be extremely active in there and that keeps it all very real. We are so excited to meet her and I am just trying to savor every last moment as a mom to one sweet little boy, and as a family of three. We love you Theo and are excited for you to experience life as a big brother!
(Bowling with Papa post to follow!)
I continue to collect tidbits in my head of the hilarious and wonderful things Theo says. I have been thinking about some of these for awhile. I forget, and then more occur, and then it just gets so tough to get it all down on the blog. Here is my first attempt for 2014. Happy New Year to all!
When we sit down for a meal, Theo will say “so, how was your day today?”. It warms my heart because it’s so sweet and also because I know he learned it from me as I always ask him about his day when we have a meal together.
He loves to shout, “that was unexpected!”. This can be in reference to any number of things.
When we have a spill to clean up, Theo is first on the scene with paper towels… “it’s absorbing”.
Whenever I lay down on the couch to get cozy with him he will hop up and say, “make room for big ol’ Theo!”.
Theo loves a “check!”. As in, jacket? Check! Hat? Check! Scarf? Check!
He will tell me, “you are correct”.
Any day of the week if you ask Theo, “what do you want to do today?”, he will reply in one of two ways… singing “we can take the F train, F train!” or he will give you a coy, side-eye look while shrugging his shoulders up, “maybe we can take the F train?”. Such a charmer.
With regards to Theo’s love of the F train, and his love of observing details, he started telling me about the different lights on the F train. “Some have slit lights and some have level lights”. I can’t do this justice without his amazing hand gestures and nuanced way of saying “slit” and “level” but I really didn’t know what he was referring to initially. He showed me as we have watched many trains come in and out of stations. The “slit” lights are when the white and red lights on the front of the train are side by side, and the “level” lights are when they are on top of one another. He gets excited when he sees the different ones. “I like the F train because the lights are slit!”.
Theo has also spoken to several train operators recently. Whenever the train is stopped and he has a chance to chat them up, oh boy does he! He was with Jay recently and they chatted with one of the train operators. He taught him what a coupler is since Theo was curious to know what it was that connected the trains together. In case you were wondering… it’s a coupler. He came home and told me about it. Jay said the train guy was so happy that Theo was so interested in the train and he told him Theo restored his faith in humanity 😉
Out of the clear blue Theo will shout, “family hug!”. And then we all hug. (This is my personal fav, obviously)
Looking through a new book I received as a gift, “I think this book sounds great… it doesn’t have any pictures in it”.
