The Adventures of Lilly and Maddie Lou

Holy moly this is so much easier the second time around but holy moly this is so hard with a toddler. I don't feel nearly as exhausted as I remember feeling with Lilly. Breastfeeding is going awesome. Everything feels very laid back with this baby. I'm not nearly as sore and I don't have that "how do we keep a baby alive" anxiety. 

On the other hand, it is going to take a while for Lilly to adjust to this. 

We got home Sunday night around 6:30. My mom had supper ready (and it wasn't hospital food!). Lilly was asleep so we all ate and I took a nice hot shower. Lilly woke up around 8 and was very cranky/confused/happy to see we were home. We went upstairs and I laid in bed with her until she fell back asleep. She wanted me to hold her and I wanted to hold her too. I snuck out of her bed and she snuck into ours around 4 am. For those of you that don't know, Lilly does not like to sleep by herself... ever... which was fine... until now... 

We had to take Madelyn to her first doctors appointment Monday morning. Everybody got ready and into the car right on time. That was pretty easy (yay!). Lilly was being a little "off" but she did pretty good. Madelyn checked out perfect. She even pooped all over Mike's shirt. She was only down 3oz. After our appointment we picked up our lunch from Miss Lacy's (thank you Faye!) and went home. This is when Lilly meltdown #1 happened. Mike took her with him to the grocery store and I took a nap with Madelyn. The rest of the afternoon was filled with Lilly meltdowns. I could tell she was just so confused and unsure of everything going on. It was hard. Our saving grace was that she had gymnastics at 6:00. Her G-Ma and aunts took her for us. She was so excited to go and I was happy to see her happy. Mike slept with her Monday night and she seemed totally fine with that. 

Tuesday was WAY better. Lilly was much calmer and content. We played in the basement and watched several movies... I felt like I might be able to do this after all. Liz came over to visit and then Cole came to play so she was very distracted and didn't have time to think about baby and I. Bedtime was a different story. She had not napped all day and was exhausted. She cried and cried for me to lay with her. I did until she fell asleep. 

Today was an ok day but I can feel myself getting a little emotional. That big hormonal drop is coming. Lilly was pretty clingy this morning. I can tell that she loves her little sister and she hugs and kisses on her but at the same time she's jealous over somebody else in her mommy's arms and she doesn't know how to express these feelings. Her Aunt Melisssa came over and played with her and Mike in the basement while I napped upstairs with Madelyn. It was a huge help. While I was upstairs I realized that I haven't brushed Lilly's teeth since Monday (maybe Sunday... I can't remember...). I am going to have to get into a routine before Mike goes back to work. Right now I am feeling scared about being at home with both of them without Mike. I hope Lilly gets enough attention and loved on and that I have lots of patience. I'm thinking about making a sticker chart for Lilly to check off our daily duties, like brushing teeth. I guess the chart would be more for me though :) So here goes nothing! Some days are going to be crazy hard and some days will be a little easier. I'm just going to love on my two girls as much as possible. 

Madelyn Louise Stec

June 1st

Woke up this morning at 4am with contractions. I could actually time these! They were about 10-15 minutes apart and lasted 1-2 minutes each time. They were not too painful, just uncomfortable. I got up around 5:30 and got some water and told Mike. When I laid back down the pain had moved to my back. I fell back asleep and woke up around 7 with pain but the coming and going contractions had stopped. 

At this point I had no idea what was going on. I had to google "how to time contractions". Lilly's labor went like this: no pain, wake up to pee at 3am, get bad cramp, water breaks all in the bed, contractions every 2 minutes (like stop you in your tracks contractions), hospital at 5, pushing at 6, baby at 8:47 am. So these little contractions that I'm feeling today are confusing the heck out of me. 

Mike and I went on an hour long walk around the neighborhood around 8:30. I was in pain the whole time, but not bad pain. I took a shower and called the midwife when I got in. After sitting down everything just kind of stopped. Midwife said real labor doesn't stop. I was starting to feel incredibly bummed out. We went and ate lunch and walked around for another hour or so. Pain came back while I was walking and was a little bit more intense. We came home and I took a nap and the pain was pretty much gone when I woke up. 

 

This explains my mood at that point. I was so ready for the real mind numbing painful contractions. I wanted to feel some real labor so bad. But this baby is going to do what she wants and I've had to pray for patience, like a lot. And also focus on the positives, like getting to take Lilly to her first gymnastics class. It was precious. And spending a day with Mike. That hasn't happened in a while, just the two of us, and it was wonderful. I love my time with him. 

June 3rd 

Woke up at 3am to a pretty painful contraction. I actually had to breath some with this one. I had about 4 more over the next hour but then it fizzled. I finally fell back asleep just in time for my alarm to go off. Oh joy. Having some pains at school but nothing consistent. I can't wait to go home and take a nap. Madelyn is still moving around really well so that is a good thing. I go to the doctors tomorrow so hopefully I have progressed some. Still praying for patience. I'm just so ready to meet this baby. 

June 4th

I got a good nights sleep last night and woke up feeling refreshed. I went to the doctors at 3:15. There was no real change... Still 2 cm and about 80% effaced but baby is very healthy and still moving around really well so that's great! I'm starting to think that this labor is going to be very different. It's weird but I feel more calm now about everything. Madelyn is going to come when she's ready, and that might mean 40 weeks, and that's ok. I'm not completely miserable and I can make it a few more weeks. 

June 7th

Yep.. Still pregnant. But I keep reminding myself that my due date is the 17th. 10 days away. I think I can do this for 10ish more days. I miss my ankles and my skinny face. And it is HOT. So hot. So so hot. I'm still having irregular contractions everyday. There is only 2 1/2 more days of school. We might need to have a dance party tomorrow so I can shake this baby out. :) 

Yes... This is it in all its glory. Veins everywhere. Super tight. Super big. Super excited for her to get out of there. 

June 10

I made it to the last day of school. I can't believe it! But I'm glad I got to see my babies off to third grade. I'm 39 weeks.. Due date is a week away. I go to the doctor tomorrow for another checkup. Currently feeling very excited to hold this sweet baby. Any day now!!! 

June 12th

Here we go! This part of the story is a little TMI :) We had a baby today. A perfect baby with 10 fingers and 10 toes and a head full of dark hair. It's almost midnight and we are currently nursing so I'm going to write all the crazy details down while I'm awake. 

Mike stayed home with me today. I did a bunch of nesting stuff like laundry and we ran some errands around town. Contractions were very sporadic, just like they had been, but a little more painful. We picked Lilly up from her last day of daycare for the summer around 2:30. Mike met his friend Brandon and ordered me some takeout around 4:00. Around 4:30 I started having contractions closer together but I could still talk and breathe through them. My mom came home and I took a shower. They started to pick up . I told Mike to hurry home. I went downstairs and folded clothes and then brought them upstairs to put them away. I was doing anything to stay busy. Then I dried my hair. This is when the "hospital time" contractions started. I went downstairs and told everybody that it was time to leave. Mike had our food. He grabbed the bags and we left ASAP. I had crazy awful painful contractions the whole way to the hospital. They were about 2 minutes apart. We told them to get me to a room ASAP. It was 6:00 pm. I was 7 cm dilated. They started the IV for my antibiotic (I was strep b positive this time). The contractions were still about 1-2 minutes apart and I wanted to die. DIE. I was screaming "epidural" inside my head but I knew I could do it again. They were way more painful than I remember with Lilly. I think I even screamed some out loud ... I knew I wouldn't be able to push for 3 hours like I did with Lilly. 

This baby didn't even let me push for 3 minutes. After I barfed, pooped, and peed myself (yes it happened) I felt a ton of pressure. I told the nurse that I felt like pushing. The feeling got way more intense. They got the midwife in there and BAM!! I pushed about 5 big times and there she was... 35 minutes after getting to the hospital and I was holding my baby. I cried and cried. It was a beautiful moment. 

My water did not break with this baby and she was actually born still in the amniotic sac. It was the craziest thing I've ever seen. Apparently this doesn't happen very often. The nurse had never seen a birth like that and the midwife had only seen a few. My placenta was also very unique... It was pretty much like I had two placentas in there that were connected. This baby is one of a kind! She weighs 6 lbs 5 oz and is 19 1/2 inches long. And she has hair!!! 

Since Madelyn was born 35 minutes after we got to the hospital I didn't have time to get the strep b antibiotic in me. This is something I stressed about while I was pregnant. The midwife assured me that she would be fine (only 1 out of 200 babies will get sick if they don't get the antibiotic in time). We have to stay for 48 hours to monitor her just in case. I'm not really worried but I do hope everything will be ok. 

After Madelyn was born we had skin to skin time for a good hour. I nursed her and kissed her. It was the best hour of my life. Lilly came up to meet her and held her hand and kissed her. Now she's all cleaned up and we are moved in to our new room for the next few days. I'm not feeling as sore this time, mostly because I didn't have to push for 3 hours. We are still in complete shock. I thought she might come fast but I never thought it would be that fast. Her new nickname is Speedy Gonzalez. 

 

We are so in love with her! 

Sisters