The babies

Gabrielle & Oliver. 

 

And Oliver's weigh in went really well yesterday.  He is up to 8 lbs 7 oz....he gained a 1/2 pound in 6 days which is wonderful!

The first 2 1/2 weeks with two kiddos....

I never thought an 8lb little bundle could make our lives so crazy!  We've had good days and bad days.....but basically Nick and I are working 24/7 to be sure the house is clean, the kids are bathed/dressed/fed, the laundry is done.....etc, etc.  Two kids are hard.  I don't know why it's such a change but it is.  I'm up at night with Oliver and then all day I am bouncing between Gabrielle and Oliver until I go to bed....for two hours....before Oliver's first night feeding.  Hard.  It is going well, I just always feel like I'm neglecting someone now that there are two with very different needs at this point. 

 

The first week went really well; the second week was kind of a mess (mostly due to feeding issues/mastitis).  The same thing happened as with Gabrielle - spiked a fever of 103 at five days old and kept getting them until I was on antibiotics.  I felt better but my milk supply has greatly diminished.  His first week of life he gained 7 oz (which is great!) and is second week of life he gained 1 oz.  Not so good.  I am trying a combination of herbs and medication to see if I can regulate again.  Oliver hasn't had to have any formula yet, but it's a possibility.  He goes for another weigh-in tomorrow.  Other wise he looks to be very healthy and pretty happy too, which is nice!  He has had great head control from birth and loves to lift his head while on your should or even a bit during tummy time. 

 

He seems to have a pretty good little schedule, and does well at night usually.  He sleeps for approximately three hour intervals at night, has awake time in the morning, sleeps mostly in the afternoon, and then has awake time from about 6pm-9pm before going to bed.  We won the paci war yesterday too!  I bought the Tommie Tippee pacifiers because they were supposed to be so good.  Well Oliver absolutely hated them and totally refused to use them - he'd rather have a finger or two if necessary.  Ugh.  So I picked up some cheap paci's from Meijer yesterday - he got that sucker in his mouth and never looked back.  Yay!

 

Gabrielle has been doing really well which is a giant help.  If she was a complete basket case on top of everything else I don't know what we would do.  I feel like she has grown up about five years since Oliver came.  She's much more independent from me and just in general.  Which is good and bad - the other day I was feeding Oliver and Gabi was carrying her stool upstairs.  I asked what she was doing and she said "I just going to get some lotion".  Oy....not something you want to hear from a three year old.  But really she is doing great and likes us to be all together. 

 

 

Meeting great grandma Pat

 

 

Jess came to meet Oliver

Oliver and great grandma Taylor

Gabrielle and great grandpa Taylor

Borrowing Grandma Jojo's pinky

Papa Paul holding Oliver for the first time

Meeting Uncle Greg

Greg held Oliver for a couple of hours so we could get some stuff done.  This was one of a couple of days that Oliver only wanted to sleep while being held.

 

His first real bath.  Before the actual washing began

After the washing started.....

 

 

And we even ventured to my parents for Thanksgiving. 

Feeding the birds with Papa

 

Oliver Maxwell's Birth Story

I had a growth ultrasound on November 1, one day before I was due, just to be sure the poor babe was thriving at some level and was safe to stay in for possibly another week.  Surprise!  Head was 85th%, belly was 51st% (which was the big improvement from 6th%), and estimated fetal weight was 7lbs 13oz (also a big improvement from being in the 11th% for weight)!  Omg.  Femur still measured between the 3rd and 30th% (she had a really hard time getting a consistent measurement of his leg) but even that was fine because it was staying on or above his growth curve from the last two scans.  So he seemed to be thriving ok! 

On Monday the 5th (3 days over) I checked in with my doctor who said, "I don't know where you're hiding this baby - your belly measures about 36cm." Haha.  But not so funny......still 1cm and 50%.  The same as a week ago.  Ugh!!  I really was surprised I didn't make any progress.  My doctor left the room and came back and said "well you're set up with the hospital for 9am on Wednesday".  Ok....guess I was getting induced on Wednesday!  I ended up +32lbs......exactly the same as Gabs.  Even started and ended at the exact same weights.  Weird. 

My mom was coming Tuesday evening to spend the night to watch Gabi for the induction and following days.  We thought she was crazy for wanting to spend an extra night on our uncomfortable couch, but whatever.  Good thing she came early!

Nick just got home from voting after work and we got our coats on to go out to dinner.  Just as we were about to open the door to leave my water broke.  Nick looked at me and said "it sure did!" and Gabs started sobbing immediately.  Half because of the sudden surprise/stress of everyone and half because we weren't going out to eat any more.  Poor kid.  We finished packing stuff up and tied up loose ends.  Nick ordered pizza for Gabi and my mom so Gabs was feeling a bit better.  I started getting some back pain a few minutes after my water broke and it quickly turned into contractions.  Soon I looked at Nick and told him we had go. 

The car ride to the hospital wasn't fun...my contractions were 2 minutes apart - basically right on top of each other.  By the time we got to the hospital (about 20 minutes) I couldn't walk.  Nick missed the patient drop off area so he pulled into ER and told some guy we needed a wheel chair.  Nick wheeled me up to L&D triage and when we got there the snotty receptionist told us "well, we're full right now."  And I told her that wasn't going to work for me and Nick said "she's not going to make it".  Then the receptionist bothered to ask if my water broke....YES.  She quickly got up and wheeled us straight past triage to L&D and stuck us in the only open room. 

Contractions were right on top of each other and I was losing any coping skills very fast.  When the nurse came into check me it was all just too much and I lost it.....I threw the biggest fit of my life I think.  So much so that the nurse ran out of the room and got a different nurse to check me.  3cm and 80%.  After a few minutes I was able to get on top of my contractions again and figured out how to deal with them - sitting up and leaning forward.  Then a very up-tight first year male resident came in to ask me some questions and try and play doctor.  He said he needed to swab to be sure my water broken since I skipped triage - before Nick and I could even say anything the nurse piped up that I was grossly ruptured....everywhere.  And he said "well, it's protocol and I could get in trouble if I don't do it."  Fine.  **the next part is a bit gross**  So I moved my leg and huge gush of fluid came out all of him, the bed, and his stupid swab.  The nurse laughed.  :)

I got some IV fluid and was able to get an epidural pretty quickly.  It seemed to work very well.  I could still feel my contractions as pressure, but a million times better than the pain before.  The nurse said that with the frequency and strength of the contractions she guessed the baby might born around 3am.  Awesome!  An hour or two later I was still feeling the contractions as "pressure" so the nurse came to empty my bladder and was going to check me.  She glanced down and said there is nothing to check....the baby was right there!  She told me not to do anything and went to get the doctor in there.  I started pushing and 10-15 minutes later Oliver Maxwell Taylor was born at 11:06pm on November 6th, 2012!  With all of the drama regarding his size, he weighed 7 lbs 11 oz and was 21 inches long!  He has light brown/blondish hair and dark blue eyes.

Everything happened so incredibly quick....from my water breaking out the the blue, to crazy contractions starting right after, to going from 3-10+ in about two hours, to 10 minutes of pushing.  It was incredible.  After the initial craziness, his birth was so calm - just a couple of people in our dim little room.  Everything went so quick and smooth; it was over in a moment it seemed.  I really hoped for a spontaneous birth and had basically given up that I would get to experience that.  Surprise!  I also got to have skin to skin time right when he was born that I missed with Gabrielle because there was meconium with her and they had to suction so much.  Oliver was so healthy and screamed at the top of his lungs for the first 10 minutes of life.  Then he stopped and didn't make a peep for about the next 24 hours :)  The next day/night he didn't want to sleep in his little plastic crib; he only wanted to be held.  I was ok with that but the mean night nurse wasn't. 

Overall, it was great and my recovery has been great.  Oliver has been a great eater from the start which makes everything easier.  Gabrielle is doing very well with her brother.  She always tells us she loves him and wants to be where where Oliver is or she wants Oliver to be with us.  It amazes me that she is totally fine with me holding the baby, feeding the baby, and taking time away from her to care for Oliver but it seems pretty natural for her.