tank

So, both kids are sleeping and I want to rest too, but I'll take a quick minute to post an update. Sheldon is doing really well. He seems like he is calmer than Coranelle was at this point in her life, and we are really happy about that. When I took him in to the lactation consultant after my last post, he had gained 10 ounces! So, he turned things around and is doing awesome.
I took him in for his 2 week check-up today and he weighed 7 pounds 7 ounces. They are just supposed to re-gain their birth weight, so he is really chugging along. His uncle Josh is hoping he'll be a tank and really chunk up. I feel like all I do is feed him. He doesn't go as long between feedings at night as Coranelle did, so it's been much harder to force myself to get up. But, I am glad that my milk is helping him pack on the ounces.
He is successfully taking a bottle, which is awesome. I love having the freedom to be able to have someone else feed him, especially if visitors are over or it is time for a meal. It's lovely to not have to leave the room and nurse for half an hour. The pump is working great and I really enjoy being able to have a bottle on hand and monitor how much he's getting.
Coranelle continues to adjust remarkably well. She had a fever earlier this week and was a bit clingy, but has been nothing but sweet and helpful about Sheldon. She is always concerned when we go somewhere that Sheldon is coming along too. We are very proud of her.
My mom has come every morning this week and it has been awesome to spend time with her and have her help out. She's been tending my garden, folding clothes, helping to clean, and doing lots of entertaining of Coranelle while Sheldon eats. Coranelle loves it and it has been so nice for me to have company and an extra hand.
Ryan is back at work, but comes home anxious to hold his son and play with his daughter. He is such an awesome daddy and I wouldn't be able to do this without him. He is helping wake me at night and settle Sheldon back down when he isn't ready to sleep at 4am.
So, that's a quick update on things around here. We're really enjoying the new addition to our family!

Sheldon Christopher Mork

Coranelle's new bike from Sheldon! She's a rock star with it!




Proudly announcing the arrival of Sheldon Christopher Mork- born April 7th, 2011 at 10:34pm. He weighed 6 lbs 15 ounces, 19 3/4 inches long. He came out with a head of long, sandy blond hair. Healthy and strong! We are so happy and blessed.
So, life with two kiddos (even with the hubby home) is hectic. I will give a very brief synopsis of the labor and birth and add a few pictures, and add more details when time allows.

I was scheduled to be induced on Friday. But, Thursday morning I woke up with some bloody show (sorry if that's gross), but it was the first change in my 9 days of contractions. I went to burritos with Ryan anyhow and the contractions felt harder. I was hesitant to call in, because I didn't want to go to all the effort to go to the hospital and then be sent home. But, I called and they wanted me to come in to get a labor check. Ryan came home and we headed in and dropped Coranelle off with Heido. We arrived around 11:30 and I was 2-3 cm dilated but pumping out contractions every 2 minutes. So, my doctor came and checked me and they decided to admit because the contractions were so often. We did a lot of walking and the contractions got stronger and stronger. I labored on the ball and walking. At 5pm, I was still at 4cm, so my Dr. broke my water just before going out to her anniversary dinner. The water breaking was crazy intense and painful and I swear an entire swimming pool came out of me! We continued to walk and my mom had arrived. The contractions got really close and REALLY bad. I had about a 20 second break between and my back was so tight and painful that I couldn't breathe in between or relax. I tried to push through without the epidural, but I was still only 4 cm dilated and 50% effaced. So, after crying through contractions for a few hours with no progress, I got the epidural. They thought with the amount of contractions and the intensity, I should be at 8 cm. But, no, I was at 5. I broke down then and was so frustrated and tired. But, my mom and Ryan were a great support and calmed me down and I got to enjoy relaxing a bit as the meds kicked in. Some of the contractions were lasting up to 3 min and really affecting Sheldon's heartbeat. It kept dropping way low and that was scary. But, things calmed down after the epidural kicked in. They thought that they might need to put a device in utero to measure the strength of the contractions, since they didn't seem to be bringing Sheldon down. They thought they would have to do pitosin too. BUT, my dr. came back after her dinner at 10pm. We all expected her to say 6 cm. But, She checked me and just looked up and said, "You're complete- I have to go change into my scrubs! Please notify the nursery". What!? We were all shocked and so thankful. The little bit of rest must have been what Sheldon needed. So, Mom and Ryan braced themselves and I started to push. My epidural had worn off so I could feel the contractions and Sheldon coming, which I really liked. I pushed through about 4 contractions and there he was. In about 10 minutes! What a miracle! We just felt so blessed! Very little tearing or blood loss on my part, which was wonderful. He had swallowed some meconium, so they swept him away and cleaned it out and got him weighed. Then, I got to cuddle him and nurse him. He nursed for almost 2 hours and was doing awesome latching! By midnight, it was time to give him his bath. My epidural had worn off, so I got to get up and go see his first bath!
We were very well taken care of in the hospital and things just went smoother than I could have prayed for. Ryan was amazing! He was so strong during my contractions, so calming and comforting and helpful. He was my little servant grabbing me water, jello, and Popsicles. He took out my contacts, rubbed my back, and even ripped my bra off when I got uncomfortable and was frustrated that I couldn't remove it with all the tubes in my arm. My mom was very calm and kept everyone updated and took care of Ryan and myself. Meanwhile, Coranelle was happy and doing wonderfully with Grams and PopPops. We were so well taken care of.
We came home Saturday. We spent part of the afternoon sitting outside at Bruce and Heidi's working on lowering Sheldon's risk for jaundice. It was nice to be out of the hospital quickly and back with Coranelle. She was not a fan of seeing us in the hospital, thus we were ready to be back with her at home.
We arrived back to our house to see the most amazing homecoming imaginable. Josh and Claire had chalked welcome notes and pictures all over our driveway, front steps and garage floor. There were blue balloons announcing the arrival of a baby boy strung up in our yard. We came in to find a huge basket of goodies, snacks, drinks and treats. Sheldon got new hats and Coranelle a new movie. They also took inventory in our fridge and went grocery shopping for us. So, I just couldn't contain my tears of joyfulness and Coranelle was utterly confused as to why mommy was crying. Wow! We are so loved.
Since then, we have had so many wonderful visitors and so much great help!
But, I had to go back to the dr. on Sunday to get Sheldon weighed and his Billy Rubin number checked. That was quite the ordeal- but in short, his jaundice was fine, but he had lost 5 ounces in the day we were home. That meant he lost more than 10% of his birth weight. So, I nursed and weighed him in front of the lactation consultant. She discovered that Sheldon's latch wasn't super effective, even though my milk had really come in. So, I was put on a plan of pumping and supplementing. This was stressful and hard to hear, as I had my whole family waiting for me at home and had never even opened my breast pump. I had a good cry- as I was exhausted and so worried about my little guy losing weight. But, my family helped me open and clean and use my pump for the first time and calmed me down.
Now, the goal is to just get Sheldon to start gaining weight. Which means a lot of pumping for me and nursing round the clock. Yesterday, he was still at 6 pounds 2 ounces. So, he didn't lose anymore, but we have to keep having him weighed until he starts gaining. So, I'll be back at the lactation consultant's today. We've got to get him taking in more calories and wanting it! So, be praying for that- as it's hard to get much time in with Coranelle with all the dr. appointments and feedings.
She, on a quick side note, is doing awesome and loving hanging out with daddy and has done really well adjusting!
More later. I have to finish feeding my boy!

here it comes...

Coranelle was so anxious to wear her new green capris from her Auntie Amanda that she pulled them on over her other leggings.
Coloring with her new dry erase markers.


And the contractions have continued. That's really all this update needs to say, but I'll fill in the details. By my appointment last Friday, I'd had contractions for almost 2 days and I was really hoping that the Dr. would tell me that they had dilated me or were doing something to help bring Sheldon down and out. But, I was still only 1.5 cm dilated. Fortunately, my OBGYN got to feel two of the contractions in the 10 minutes she was with me. She monitored Sheldon's heartbeat for a whole contraction and they're not doing anything to harm him- so that was good to hear. But, I was still frustrated. My doctor could tell that having contractions every 5 minutes was wearing me out, so she offered the suggestion to induce me after 39 weeks if I continued having them all weekend and I wanted to do something about it. We discussed the fact that my contractions were the same with Coranelle- they were consistent and constant, but didn't DO anything to bring her down. She was just floating, as it seems Sheldon is too. In order to bring Coranelle into this world, I had to have my water broken and then had to have pitosin administered when nothing had happened after 11 hours of hard contractions. So, I suppose you could say I was induced with Coranelle too.

As the weekend progressed, the contractions continued and we tried to decide what we should do. I have been drinking Raspberry leaf tea multiple times a day (it's supposed to cause your uterus to contract). I have been walking, stair stepping, lunging, squating, eating spicy foods, "it", the whole list of things. I even contemplated Castor oil. Ideally, we'd like Sheldon to come on his own, but nothing seems to be changing the contractions. Meanwhile, they're really wearing me down. A few nights this weekend, they were coming every 2 minutes for over an hour, lasting more than a minute. They get more painful as the day goes on and my body gets tired. By 5pm or so, they are hurting my lower back and abdomen instead of just being hard, tight and uncomfortable. Last night, a few of them woke me up and I had to sit and breathe through them. They've continued that way today, being more painful. I am not sure if it's because they might actually be doing something, or because my body is exhausted. I went for a walk this evening and was in so much pain that I was afraid I might not make it home.

Keeping up with Coranelle has been rough this week and my patience is definitely suffering. I have been relatively calm about all of this until today, when I just broke down after my college friend and her baby girl left. Coranelle had been a terror for two hours- hitting, refusing to share, screaming, and having to be sent to her room twice. Then, she was crawling all over me, trying to stand on me. I know she can sense the change and that I am tired and not feeling well and it's just been hard to be calm and reassuring when it's literally hard to breathe.

But, to help me through all of this, we had some wonderful gifts this past week/ weekend. Ryan's parents, aunt and uncle and my mom came over this past Saturday to deep clean our house. While Coranelle and I played at the park with Grandpa Steve, my kitchen was scrubbed from top to bottom. I mean the cabinets, inside and out, the tops of the cabinets, the microwave vent, the fridge, everything. My bathrooms were cleaned, the windows, the floors, etc. Ryan even cut me some new shelves for my linen closet and his aunt reorganized everything beautifully. Seeing the linen closet was enough to make me tear up. So, our house looks amazing. While the ladies were cleaning, Ryan, his dad and uncle were working on some much needed house and electrical projects. I've been spoiled!

My sister, Amanda, sent us a whole care package for Sheldon and Coranelle. One of my friends from MOPs dropped by wonderful gifts for me, Sheldon and Coranelle. Since people have found out about my contractions, I've had non-stop e-mails, phone calls and texts from wonderful friends and family checking in on us. I have been so touched by everyone's willingness to help and everyone caring so much about our family.

So, there are the details. And, here's the bottom line. I had to decide by today if I wanted to schedule an induction by this Friday. Based on reading this post, I'm sure you can guess what I decided. I am scheduled to be induced at 6:30am this Friday, April 8th. I feel almost guilty revealing that information and wish everyone would think I just went into labor on my own on Friday, but I promised to be honest on my blog. I would LOVE for Sheldon to come on his own. But, when I take in to account how Coranelle arrived, I wonder if I would just wait through another week or so of contractions and have to be induced then. I cannot even imagine how tired I would be by then. So, if nothing happens on it's own, the process will be started for us this coming Friday morning. In the meantime, I'll try to rest and spend as much quality time with my family as possible. We're going to have a baby by this weekend! How crazy is that?! I think I need to spend some time wrapping my head around that. Your thoughts and prayers are much appreciated as we embark on this new chapter of our lives. I know that the next few nights I will awaken thinking about nursing, Coranelle's adjustment, labor, the possibility of an epidural, having everything packed in our bags, Coranelle visiting at the hospital, the cost of delivery, what will Easter be like this year? What will next week be like? What will Sheldon look like? How long will labor be? And so on and so forth.

Okay, my head is getting away from me. I am going to be done with this post and watch Parenthood and try to ease these contractions. I hope you are all enjoying the spring!