Brotherly Love

Griffin truly adores his little brother. Whenever Nolan has his eye's open Griff say's to me "Mom, Nolan eye's open, Nolan awake" I LOVE it. He hugs and kisses him and hands me diapers when I am changing him. He hands me about 10 of them :) He is super sweet and gentle with him which I love. He talks to him and tells him to "get bigger and play tractahs" He also puts tractors in front of his face to show him and he tries to pry his little fists open so Nolan can "hold one too" I think they are going to be best pals! At least that is what I am hoping ;) Nolan listens to Griff and watches him all the time. It is the sweetest thing! The other thing that melts my heart is every time I go into Griff's room to get him after his nap he has their picture on his bed with him. I snapped a pic of it the other day. So sweet!

September 29, 2009

Kason and I just celebrated our 3 year anniversary! It has sure flown by. I can't believe we have been married for 3 years and we have 2 children :) I couldn't be happier with my choice because marrying Kason was the best decision that I ever made! My whole life I wanted to marry an awesome guy who had a great family and I got my wish. It wasn't without hard work on my part but here I am. Happy as can be. So glad that I cleaned up my act, met an amazing guy and made it to the temple. We celebrated our special day by leaving the babes with Manny and going to Scaldonis for a romantic dinner without distractions :) I love you Kason! Thanks for making me the happiest girl alive.

Doing Good, I Think!

I feel terrible saying this because I adore little Nolan but I feel like I am just going through the motions with him. It's kind of sad! I am so busy taking care of Griff, my Hubby and my house (and I guess myself) that I feel like all I do is change him, feed him and then stick him in a bouncer or swing. Newborns are so amazing, sweet and cuddly but you can only do so much with them. I wish that I could just sit and hold him all day. I would love to just watch him do all of his funny little newborn things but I just can't...I feel like he is going to be one before I know it and I will miss the sweet little newborn stage. I want to savor this time but I truly don't feel like I can. I hope this feeling will pass and I will learn new ways to enjoy him and spend good time with him. He is such a fun baby! I love that he screams when he is poopy or hungry. It makes me a tad nervous because Griff rarely ever screamed. I just have to remind myself that it's normal and he's fine. He is awake a lot more and even smiles already! He giggles in his sleep and it is downright hilarious. He is just a sweet, sensitive and feisty little boy!

What's New.....

The past 9 days have been a crazy whirlwind! The first few days of Nolan's life were a bit hard because he wasn't loving the fact that my milk wasn't in. He was not a happy boy! The MOMENT my milk came, the little guy changed into a sweet little angel! Yayyy for that. He reminds me so much of Griff as a newborn now. He nurses great and quite often I might add! Sometimes hourly. Ugh. But I really do love it :) He can scream though and that is something Griff never did. He hates having a poopy diaper and cries as he poops and cries until you change him. Otherwise he is an awesome baby! He sleeps right next to me at night, all night, every night. I do this thing called "sleep nursing" as I call it. I basically side nurse him laying down and I sleep while he eats and then he falls asleep. It is amazing! I am not sleep deprived one bit! Plus, I love the cuddling and I think he needs to be near his Momma who he was close to for nine months. So, all is well as far as baby goes! Griff is kind of another story....

He LOVES the baby and doesn't resent him one bit. He just doesn't love that Mommy is busy and always telling him to hang on and wait. He likes to kiss Nolan, asks to hold him and is really gentle with him. It is so sweet! He tells me all the time "Nolan get bigger play tractors?" and "Nolan get bigger drive tractors?" etc. He talks about Nolan being bigger and playing with him, it's hilarious! Griff has regressed a little bit since the baby got here. He does things that he has never done before and says little naughty things to me that he has never said before. He has changed a tad but he is still my sweet, loving little boy. I am hoping that he adjusts soon but I also have to remember that he is entering the terrible 2's! Yayy!

As far as I go, I have been feeling pretty darn good (physically). Emotionally I am a little overwhelmed. I am terrified because my Mommy is leaving today :( I am just so scared about having 2 kids and not being a good Mom to both of them. I am SURE things will be fine but I can feel a postpartum meltdown coming on and poor Kason will probably receive the brunt of it, poor guy. Wish me luck ya'll! Mothers of more than one, advice is welcome!! Having a newborn and a 2 year old is a trip!

Nolan's Birth Story

Nolan Daniel Pead
Born at 10:24 pm
September 15th 2009
8lbs 15 oz
21 inches long

We are so happy that our little boy is here! He was a long time coming!
Here's his story:

I saw the doctor around 38 weeks and I was dilated to a 2 and 60% effaced. He wanted to see me sooner than a whole week later so we scheduled another appointment which was on the 15th of September. He wanted to check me to see if I had made any more progress on my own. We both agreed that after the hard labor and delivery, and the size of Griff, that we would want this baby to come a tad earlier. So I went in for my appointment and I was 4cm! I was SO glad to hear that I had progressed some on my own. He told me that there was no need to keep him in there so he called the hospital and they wanted me to come right over. I ran home and grabbed my bags and waited for Kason. We arrived at the hospital around 10:30 and we started the antibiotic for my group B strep. Then at 1pm we started the pitocin to get my labor going. I was already having good contractions before the pitocin because the doctor had stripped my membranes at his office. So, I was well on my way!! At 5pm the doctor checked me and my water bag was bulging out so he went ahead and broke it. After that my contractions picked up like crazy but I told my nurse that I wanted to labor on my own and go without the epidural for as long as I could handle it. Let me tell you that contractions are AMAZING. They are the best kind of pain! It is so hard to describe but with every contraction I felt my body working hard to push little Nolan further down. It really was amazing and I enjoyed laboring and being in pain. After I while I decided that the contraction were getting to be a bit much so they checked me (I didn't want to labor too far and not be able to get my epi) and I was an 8! I couldn't believe it! Once the epi was in and working I was kind of bummed because I missed feeling the contractions! It was nice to rest and relax though because the pushing was getting closer! At about 9:30 that evening I was fully effaced and dilated but Nolan had flipped and there was no way to get him out in the position he was in. I had to have oxygen and flip from side to side in my bed to get him to turn. At one point I even had to lay on my tummy to get him to go a certain way. He finally flipped and it was time to push! I pushed for about 45 minutes to an hour and out he came! It was SO much easier this time around. Then they put him on my chest and I realized he was HUGE. Even bigger than Griff perhaps! Sure enough this little stinker was bigger weighing in at almost 9 pounds! Thank goodness he cried and all was well! Kason helped deliver him which was amazing and I didn't get cut or tear because my nurse refused for either of those things to happen. My recovery has been amazing! I have been up and walking around and doing normal things since the day after he came. I feel really great this time around!

Nolan had some issues with his blood sugar in the hospital so I had to stay 2 nights. It was the saddest thing to constantly see him get poked with needles to check his sugar. He was not a happy boy! His first night he did great but the second night was awful! Poor little man. I ended up having to give him formula to get his sugars up :( We hooked a super thin tube to my nipple and he sucked and got my colostrum while he also got formula from the tube. It worked though so I was very happy! After his sugars were good we got released! He is such a sweet, sensitive little boy! I love him so so so much. He is a bit fussier than Griff but only when he poops, gets his diaper changed and gets his outfits changed. He screams like a maniac when he is upset but he is easily soothed and loves to nurse. I am feeding him on demand so sometimes it's every hour, phew. I am pooped! Griff loves his brother but we have had some little up's and down's with him. My next post will be about that I am sure :)

And Nolan looks JUST like his Daddy! Tons of dark brown hair and olive skin. We compared Kason's baby pics with Nolan and the resemblance is insane. I am so happy I have a dark haired boy!!

39 Week Appointment

So, the appointment went well :) My doc was trying soooo hard to find reasons to just go ahead and induce me but they have to be really careful about inducing before the exact 39 week mark and I am only 38w 4d. Everything looked great. His head is still way low, heartbeat was 150 and I am 3 cm dilated!!! Yay. I am still not quite as effaced as he would like me to be. Still 60% but very soft. I told him not to induce just to induce and to give it to me straight. He will be out of town from Saturday until Monday so we agreed on Tuesday or Wednesday. It is kind of complicated! It will either be Tuesday morning (depending on how I look after my appt at 8:45am) Tuesday night (if L and D has room and they aren't too busy) but definitely Wednesday bright and early in the morning :)I am happy with our decision but so nervous about going into labor while he is out of town, yikes! I love my doc and I want him to deliver but whatever happens is fine. I am just excited to see this little man. I have been power walking almost every single night, even Sundays. I went for my walk tonight and there was nothing powerful about it. I could barely even walk! I feel so ready and I swear that I FEEL like I am 3 centimeters dilated, ouch. Not sure if my walks will continue but I will sure keep on trying! Don't mind the pic :) This was post walk.

Griff's New Room!

So I finally got a new camera yayyy! Hopefully I will still have time to blog when this babe finally gets here!

We moved Griff into his new big boy room a few weeks ago and it really isn't going that great :/ For some reason he needs one of us to lay with him until he falls asleep and it's getting ridiculous! I have even considered moving the kid back to his dang crib! He begs me not to but then why won't he just go to sleep like a normal child in the new room that he LOVES? We have NO clue. Maybe too many changes? Maybe he realizes a really big change is going to happen soon? Who knows. We both hate hearing him cry especially when he says our first names after saying Mommy and Daddy about 5 million times each. It's awful to hear "Kaaaaason" and "Juuuuuuulie" as he cries and wonders why we never answered to Mommy and Daddy. The worst is when he moves on to saying Mema and Pepa. Poor kid is also beginning to have nightmares and crying a scared little cry in the middle of the night. One of us will go in there and say "What's wrong?" and he tells us he is scared. Who knew the child even knew what "scared" meant?! He has dreams about scary tractors (thanks to the Cars movie) spiders and monsters. Lovely.

Hopefully we will get Griff figured out soon because Nolan is going to be here before we know it! I am almost 39 weeks and I am pretty sure once I hit 39 we will be taking him out. I have an appointment tomorrow so we will see how it goes! I am sooooo ready! Bags are packed, room is ready :)