Rough Weekend

It's been a rough six days for us. Last Wednesday I woke up with a tight chest. By Thursday I had a mild fever, horrible cough, and sore throat. I called the doctor, and she prescribed an antibiotic thinking I had strep throat. She didn't want to make me come in because I have Jacob and Macy to take care of. By Friday my fever was up to 102, and I felt awful. Off to the doctor I went for a chest x-ray only to find out that I caught the flu. You know, the thing that is supposed to be prevented by the flu shot? Nothing to do but wait it out. When I got home, Macy woke up from her nap and had a 103.6 fever. So she was on a steady dose of Motrin all weekend and had a temp all day Saturday. She was acting pretty normal, but by Saturday night she looked sick. Now we're just watching Jacob to make sure he doesn't get it. I'm hoping my milk will give him the antibodies he needs to avoid it, but it's scary. I don't need my little guy sick in the first three weeks of his life. It sucks too because I can't give him or Macy the attention that I normally would, which leaves me feeling pretty guilty. I just want to feel better all ready so I can enjoy my time at home with the kids!

Almost Two Week Stats

We went to the doctor this morning, and here are the current stats for Jacob:

6 pounds 11.5 ounces (25th percentile)

20 inches (25th percentile)

25th percentile head

He's a pretty proportionate little boy! The doctor said he looks great and was really pleased with his weight gain. It made me feel good too because it means I'm producing enough for him to grow like he needs to. Maybe we'll be out of newborn clothes sooner than I thought! He's getting better at the sleeping thing, and I'm getting more used to being awake at night again. I'm not nearly as tired as I was last week. He's still up every two to four hours to eat, but the doctor said I don't have to set an alarm to wake him up after four hours at this point. So we'll see if he can switch his days and nights around and start sleeping longer! He's such a sweet little guy, and we just love him.

Macy had a concert at her school this week. I wasn't sure how she would do singing in front of a large group of people, but she actually was one of the better ones in her class. She knew all the words and motions to the songs. She even danced the Chicken Dance at the end with another little boy from her class. My dad and I went to watch, and it was super cute. We have Macy on video if anyone is ever interested in seeing it. We're still working on the eyes to try to avoid another case of pink eye. We'll see if this ointment does the trick!

One Week Old

I can't believe we are at one week old all ready! Life has been a little crazy since the little peanut came along, but we are all doing great. Jacob is a sweet little man that I just can't get enough of. I forgot how much I love the baby phase until I caught myself just watching him yesterday. He doesn't do much, but I could stare at him all day. He definitely has his days and nights mixed up, so I'm up a lot with him at night. But that's what Macy did too. And he's only a week old, so I can't complain. He actually slept for a couple 2-3 hour stretches last night, so that was pretty nice. We went to the pediatrician on Monday, and he looks good. He dropped to 6 pounds 2 ounces, but I guess that's normal. He was a little jaundiced, so they had to check the bilirubin level. It turned out OK, so nothing needs to be done about that.

Macy's doing just fine. She asks to hold him once in awhile and gets really excited to see him when she's been away from him. She has her moments of jealousy when she tells me to put him in his swing, but overall, she's done really well. She had one tantrum in the middle of the night when she woke up while I was feeding Jacob. Dan went to see what was wrong, and she only wanted me. I think she misses me giving her all the attention. With my hormones all out of whack, I find myself crying about that because I feel guilty. I'll get over it though...I love having both kids here. We have to remind her to be gentle around the baby because she forgets that he's there and has all ready accidentally hit him with some things. At least she's not doing it purposely!

Macy also has ANOTHER case of pink eye. I'm waiting for a call from a pediatric ophthalmologist to see what she says about the recurring infections. I'm not sure if it's just daycare and Dan providing the bacteria constantly or if she has something that's preventing her eye from draining the right way. We'll see! Until then it's more eye drops and trying to keep her and her eye goop away from Jacob.

Day 2

We started the day off on a good note...Jacob came back into my room in his big boy bed (the one without all the monitors). The pediatrician said that it was probably that he was born early and just wasn't used to breathing all that real air. He's been fine all day and eating like a champ. He's such a little peanut, but such a sweet baby. He wants to be held a lot, which is fine with me. At one point today he woke up, and I swear he was telling me all about his day making cute little noises. :)

Macy also got to meet her baby brother last night and this afternoon. Last night she was tired and not very happy, but today she was really excited to see and hold him. She kept saying that she heard him "squeaking" and said that she wanted us to come home. I really have missed her the past two days! I can't believe how big and how old she looks now that Jacob's here. It makes me a little sad because even though I know how old she is, I've always thought of her as my baby. We took some great pictures of the two of them and of all of us, so we'll have to post those soon.

Tomorrow is going home day. We'll be home sometime in the morning, and we should be up for visitors next week if anyone wants to stop by! Thanks again for all the wonderful messages and for all the support through these crazy couple days. We are definitely one big happy family and lucky to have such great family and friends!

Surprise!

Well...so much for the bed rest! Jacob Joseph was born at 6:40 this morning. Here's the story if you want to read it:

I woke up at 1:30 and had to go to the bathroom. I didn't feel quite right, and my belly was rock hard. As I am in the bathroom I felt my water break. Not having that happen at home with Macy, I wasn't sure at first, but after a few minutes it was pretty obvious. I called the hospital to let them know we were on our way and my mom to come over to be with Macy. We got here around 2:30, got hooked up to everything, and it went REALLY fast from there. My contractions started getting bad around 5:30, so they administered nubane. Then an hour later, there he was. My doctor has been out having just had surgery, so I had the on-call OB there. He was very nice and helpful. He actually almost didn't make it, as this kid came that quickly. The nurses were all gowned up and ready to catch the baby, and I heard them tell me not to push a bunch of times. (Sure...I'll try to control myself.) Then I heard, "He's running down the hall right now." As soon as he got here, I pushed once. Then he told me that one more set of pushes would do it, and he was right. Six pounds, eight ounces and 19.5 inches later, there was Jacob!

He's a little early, so he's been spending some time in the NICU today. He sometimes forgets to breathe, so they're just watching him to make sure that he'll snap out of it. It breaks my heart a little to not be able to cuddle him yet, but I want them to make sure he's healthy before they leave me alone with him too. He's going to spend the night there tonight and hopefully be able to be with me tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm trying to pump and attempting to get some sleep. (Although that's not happening.) Macy and the grandparents are coming later this afternoon to see him, so hopefully he'll be up for the visitors. What a little stinker all ready!

Stay tuned for better pictures...I look awful in this one, but it's all I have available at the moment.

Let the Bed Rest Begin...

As of today, I'm officially done working. Yesterday I went in for an appointment and got a blood pressure of 126/90. They didn't like the 90 number, and since I had been wavering since last Friday, they decided that that's it. They did a non-stress test on the baby - hooked up the fetal monitor to make sure he was doing well - and everything looked good, so no induction yet. In the mean time, I was told to lay down, preferably on my left side, and do as little as possible. I found out about 5 minutes into that that Macy isn't going to make that easy. I'm now on the twice a week visit to the doctor (which I guess gives me something to do in the mornings), so I can't imagine that it will be much longer before something happens. Either I'll go into labor, or they'll induce me in the next couple weeks. Scary that another little one will be here soon, but I'm really ready to be done with this!

Macy was sick again last week, but seems to be doing better now. She talks about the baby a lot lately, so I think she knows something big is about to happen. She's excited for him to sit next to her in the car and to play with her "guys" in her tent. :) Hopefully she'll be just as excited when he gets here!

Here We Go...

I had the school nurse check my blood pressure this morning because I had been a little suspicious over the weekend. She got a borderline reading, so I called and moved my regular appointment from Friday to this afternoon. The doctor got an OK reading, but not great. She said that I don't need to be on full bed rest yet, but that when I get home from work I need to lay down. If I want to be able to stay at work for the next few weeks, it looks like that's what I'm going to have to do. She wants me to have the school nurse check it again on Friday, and if it's up again, then I go back in. If not, I go in on Monday for my now weekly appointments. There's a good chance that I won't be working much longer. It looks like this child will be born somewhere between 38 and 39 weeks at the latest, so we're looking at the beginning of March now. Hopefully he can make it that long so he can get a little bigger! I wouldn't be too sad to be off of work early, but at the same time, it would be nice to actually be prepared this time. We'll have to see what happens!

In Macy news, we are right smack in the middle of the terrible two's. The temper tantrums are in full effect, and Mommy's patience is being tried on a regular basis. On Friday she SCREAMED all the way home from daycare for a reason that was only understandable to her. She's also getting really good at stalling when she doesn't want to do something, and she's way smarter than anyone gives her credit for. That being said, she's also at the age where she is understanding how to be sweet and loving. She says, "I love you" now at random times during the day and completely melts Dan's and my heart. It's still so fun to watch her grow up. :)

Winter Sickness

We have had quite the week around here. It started last Friday with a little coughing (from Macy, of course). She was fine...we went over to visit a good friend from high school and her daughter Macey and had a great time with no issues. Then on Saturday we made the trek out to Madison to visit Sean, Michelle, and Coen and again had a great time. Both kids were sniffling, but it was fine. Sunday we spent at home with a little coughing, but nothing alarming. Then Monday came. At about 11:40 I got a call from daycare saying, "I think your baby is sick." Apparently they noticed that she wasn't feeling well, and she had been sleeping on the floor for an hour. Now considering the child won't nap at home sometimes, this was a little disturbing to me. I went to get her, and she looked AWFUL. She had a 101 fever, and she didn't even want to pick her head up off of my shoulder. We went home, took some Motrin, and she slept all afternoon. That night at bedtime, she kept waking up in these raging fits of cough that were pretty scary to me. I called the pediatrician at 10:45, and he said that there wasn't much I could do for her because of her age and that it was typical of what has been going around. He didn't think she needed to be seen because, again, there wasn't much to do for her. So I got about three hours of sleep that night and Dan's dad stayed home with Macy on Tuesday morning. She seemed to be feeling OK, and then after her nap I noticed goo coming from her ears. Remembering what the ENT had said about tubes, I figured that this meant ear infection. I called the clinic, and they didn't have any appointments left for that night. They scheduled us for Wednesday morning at 9:00. I stayed home, took her in expecting them to prescribe ear drops and be done. Apparently she has a REALLY bad sinus infection, which caused the cough, fever, double ear infection, and pink eye (again). So we left the doctor with a prescription for 10 days worth of an antibiotic, ear drops, and eye drops. Then the doctor proceeded to tell me that since she had just gotten over a sinus infection after Christmas that we need to monitor how she does between now and the end of March because her adenoids could be causing these sinus infections. She could also have a clogged tear duct causing all the instances of pink eye. So I was told that we might have to make another trip to the ENT and to a pediatric ophthalmologist in the near future if things keep coming up. It was quite the ordeal and we left with quite the morning and evening chores to do for the next 10 days.