Happy Halloween

When I first found out I was going to have a baby in late October I told myself that I was going to get costumes ready for my kids nice and early. But then I didn't and I told myself that we could take a year off because I just had a baby. But then I started to feel guilty that I was depriving my children some of their childhood memories. Except it would be one of those "memories" they don't really remember because they actually remember it, but they know about because we take pictures. Enough rambling.


Luckily for me (and my kids future scrapbooks) my mom found some cute pumpkin costumes for the kiddos. An added bonus is that Will is fascinated with pumpkins, or munyucks as he calls them (the kid really struggles with the "p" sound), and so he would actually wear it.

He means business.

Will loved pretty much everything about Halloween. The costume. The candy. The attention. Oh the attention. Just what the doctor ordered for a boy struggling to come to terms with sharing his parents attention. Will doesn't care that our friends and neighbors probably found most of the kids cute. All he knows is that when he went up to their door they were really nice and gave him candy. In fact, he was on such a candy/attention high tonight that he even gave Baby Lauren two kisses.

She was looking awfully cute in her pumpkin headband.

I'm also told that our ward's trunk or treat would probably rank quite high on his list of the most awesome nights of his life (so far). I wasn't there (Lauren and I decided to stay in), but the reports were positive. He had as much fun giving out candy and he had receiving it.

Happy Halloween!

"birth" day

Thanks to TJ's updates throughout the day, most of you know the highlights of Lauren's "birth" day. I'm just going to add a few details, mostly for my own record, to give a more complete picture.

At my last doctor's appointment I was showing no signs of progress and my belly was growing rapidly, so my doctor and I decided it would be best for me to be induced. On Thursday evening I would check-in to the hospital to begin the process with Cervadil and then Friday morning they would break my water and start me on the pitocin. I had some mixed feelings about getting induced, but I'm glad I did because TJ took a day off work and we were able to have a fun last day as a family of 3.

Will in his "rightful" place--the center of our universe.

I know I have a tendency to get sentimental in general, but between that and my hormones, I was really dreading leaving Will, knowing that our lives would never be the same again. I was originally scheduled to go in at 8, but the time got pushed back to 10:30. I'm really glad it did, because we were able to put Will to bed and I was distracted with annoyance at the hospital that my time was changed that when the time came to leave I only got a little emotional.

Here I am in all my full-term glory.

When we got to the hospital I got all checked in, hooked up, and ready to go with the cervadil. It wasn't the worst thing I've ever experienced, but I wouldn't necessarily request it again in the future. We slept okay that night (thanks to sleeping pills), probably better than the night before I had Will when we had to be at the hospital by 5am.

In the morning my doctor broke my water and they started me on pitocin. I was really hoping for fast results and they did not come. I tried really hard to not get my hopes up that things would go much faster this time, but of course, I did get my hopes up and I spent most of the day frustrated. As the day went on the contractions got worse and I asked for an epidural. The epidural worked great for about an hour. I was able to relax enough that I fell asleep for about 20 minutes. I know it was 20 minutes because the last thing I remember seeing before I fell asleep was the contestant introductions on Jeopardy! and the first thing I saw when I woke up was Trebeck announcing the final jeopardy category. When I woke up I was in serious pain. I felt like the epidural had worn off and my entire pelvic region was on fire. I asked Anthony to find me something I could use in case I needed to throw up, which I did end up needing. The next hour was awful. With Will I remember feeling a lot of muscular pains. This time it was all in my bones, specifically my pubic bone. No matter what position I got into I was not comfortable. All I could do was focus and breathe and grab on to the side of the bed and wait for the entirely too short "rest" in between. I had some pretty extreme thoughts through all this. I'm glad I wasn't asked to make any important decisions during that time. :) My parents and Will stopped by to say hi and though I really wanted to see them, it was all I could do to not scream from the pain. They didn't stay long. Finally after throwing up again from the pain, my nurse checked me and said I was complete and my doctor was on the way. I was so, so happy. But also a bit discouraged. With Will I had to push for a long time and it was the most painful part of the day, and the thought of having to go through that much more pain was almost too much. Luckily this time went much faster. And the pushing didn't really hurt, it brought relief. I could feel her moving out of my body and the next thing I know the nurse is telling me she she has hair like me and the doctor is asking if I want them to put her on my chest.

Anthony's time to shine.

When they put Lauren on my chest the first thought I had was, "she looks like Will!" As she's gotten older she looks less like Will to me, but you can definitely tell they are siblings.

Her stats:

So far she has been an "easier" baby than Will. I say that because she eats and sleeps better than he did and is generally more content. Not to throw him totally under the bus, but her early life situation is much more ideal--I am more confidant in my abilities as of mother than I was when he was born and I have a much heartier milk supply too. Oh, and then there's the whole we aren't in the process of moving, it isn't Christmas and we haven't accidentally starved her or made her sleep in 4 different places in 15 days time. Sorry about that again, Will.

Much more confident parents this time around.

We've been home a week now and are getting used to our new normal. Lauren is awesome and she fits our family perfectly. Will doesn't really have any problems with Lauren personally, but he has had a hard week sharing our attention. It's getting a bit better (fingers crossed) but we still have a ways to go.

Thanks to everyone who has watched Will, made us food, checked in on us and made us feel loved.

brotherly love

Despite the looks on their faces, Will and Lauren are actually getting along pretty well. I think Will prefers to keep her at more of a distance than they are in in these photos, but he is willing to bring diapers and pacifiers and blankets when we need him to. For Will the pacifier is a treat, so he doesn't quite understand that Lauren doesn't really care for it. He also gives great commentary on how she is doing. "Wawen loud." "Wawen pooh."

He is very proud of the fact that his diapers are huge and Lauren's are very small. Here he is demonstrating how Lauren wears her diaper.


And here he is sharing his new Sesame Street stickers with Lauren. When the shift changed and our new nurse came in to check her vitals right after Will left she laughed and said Lauren must not be our first when she found stickers all over her swaddle.


We have lots more to say and pictures to post, but I am trying to ease into being a mom of 2, so blogging is not my top priority.

She is here!

Not only is she here, but she is laying on my lap while I give this finishing touch to my day of blogging.

She is beautiful and healthy. As you can see from the pictures she, like her brother, was born with a nice crop of hair, but hers is even lighter than Wills. She was 8 pounds, 5 ounces. She is a shortie like her mom for now, but who knows if that will last. When she was born she was all sorts of purple, but she is a normal skin shade now.

The love of my life rocked this birth like a champ. Having been through what felt like birthing hell with Will, Carrie mentally and emotionally geared up for the sequel. I have learned for myself, not through any hands-on experience, that complimenting my wife is wonderful, but one should be careful on weighing in on how "easy" or "hard" someone's pregnancy and birth was. But back to Carrie, today's baby was in a different position than Will was, which made her pain different. Her water did not fully break until about an hour before the baby came, though the doctor thought they broke it this morning. But there was a "frontal sack" (Stephanie you can correct me all you want, it won't hurt my feelings) of water that remained unbenownst to our team of helpers. Carrie started feeling really brutal pain about 4:30, at which point things started progressing very fast. She said that the contractions were more painful this pregnancy, and I believe her. She progressed to a 10 dilation and her doctor arrived around 5:55, and the baby was born at 6:15.

Oh yeah, her name is Lauren (pronounced Loo-ren, but we do not fancy ourselves pronunciation nazis) Jean John.

Update V

Progress requires pain. Carrie is progressing now. She is in constant pain but is dealing with it like a champ. The baby's doing well. They checked Carrie and she has dilated to an 7+. They just re-upped her epidural.

Update IV

Armed with the correct spelling of pitocin and having watched Keeping Up With the Kardashians for the first time in years, I feel re-energized. KUWTK seemed to take something out of Carrie and she is getting some shut-eye right now. Maybe that or she is actually exhausted and the epidural relieved enough of the pain that it was possible to sleep. I am not sure.

She is feeling much more relaxed. She said that this epidural seems stronger than the one last time. Other good news is that the anesthesiologist performed the epidural with confidence and no re-dos, unlike last time when they had to stick Carrie three different times.

This baby girl is a heart-rate champ. Will's heart-rate, due to his chord around his neck, gave me an ulcer. Hers is rocking the middle of the screen like it aint no thing. Speaking of heart rate and contraction monitors, at the nurses' desk they have giant TVs with every monitor displayed on there. It is like a cross between the NY stock exchange on Wall Street and sports games at a bar.

Update III

Not too much to report. Carrie's petocin machine keeps becoming stopped up and flashing "OCCLUSION" on its screen. After waiting through 5 minutes of beeping I could not take it anymore. I walked the halls until I found a nurse. Apparently Carrie is holding her hand wrong, which is setting the machine off. The beeping noise makes me want to sprint into the wall so that I can stop listening to it, but then I realize I would be leaving Carrie alone to deal with it.

The contractions are increasing, and Carrie is taking them in stride. In the next few minutes, around 3 PM, the nurse is going to come into measure how far along Carrie is. I think at that point her plan is to pressure Carrie into getitng her epidural. Carrie is reticent to get an epidural...and then literally while I typed that she asked the nurse for one. She is dealing with so much pain. She is ready to eat, no thanks to KFC's new cheesy bacon bowl. Apparently marketing geniuses have decided consumers of daytime TV love KFC. We are getting pounded with ads for that fatty, maybe delicious bowl of chicken and potatoes.

Update II

Things are progressing slowly, or at least it feels that way. I think that because we came in at 5 in the morning and started right away with the Petocin, Carrie was experiencing major contractions earlier in the day. The early time of day is somehow stored in our memories as being quicker, eben though the hours we waited were probably just as many.

Memaw and Will have visited and gone. They were here for half an hour. Will gave his mom a quizzical look, and he clearly disapproved of her IV tubes. But he did not cry once and he left happily with Memaw. The dude does not know what is about to happen to his little world of unadulterated attention. They brought me a egg-sausage mcmuffin, which has never tasted so delicious. We really did not make any plans for my food. I do not feel particularly hungry, but when I took that first bite, it was amazing. Maybe deap down I am addicted to McDonalds. Currently Carrie informs me that she would be up for eating ANYTHING right now, which makes me feel guilty, but I justify eating it because I will get sick and be unable to help if I do not eat.

For those of you who yearn pictoral proof that we are in the hospital you have come to the wrong blog for now. We had one photo shoot of the hot momma, but she disapproved of my results, which is not surprising since I take terrible pictures.

Daytime television, no matter how many channels you have at your disposal, is awful.

It begins...

Back by popular demand, I will be giving updates throughout the birthing process of our second child.

This hospital/obgyn does the induction process differently than our team in Springfield. This time they did a cervadil treatment the night before. I will spare you the details, which is not how I normally roll. At least for now...

We were supposed to check into the hospital around 8. The hospital called during the evening to let us know that they were too full and that they would not have a bed open until at least 10. We followed directions and called back at 9:30, and we were delayed again until 10:30. So that is when we checked into the hospital. We left Will in the care of Memaw and Pepaw Crane- Pepaw pulling the night shift at our house with Memaw manning the day shift.

The cervadil application was pretty uncomfotable, but was done by around 11:30. They monitored our little girl for awhile, and she is doing well. Carrie was supposed to feel cramping all night, but she really did not. But neither of us slept particularly well, though she was able to sleep a bit with some Ambien.

Our doctor and nurse came into visit us around 8 this morning. They took our the cervadil, and checked Carrie, who is now dilated to a "2". Our doctor broke Carrie's water and hooked her up to the Petocin pump. So the induction is in full gear now.

Carrie is a little doscouraged as she feesl like things are not progressing as fast as with Will, but it is hard to remember exactly. Maybe I will have to look back at my blog from then and see if I can glean some sort of approximate timeline. Since Carrie's water broke she says that her back hurts significantly more and she is of course leaking fluids. But not much is happening.

Luckily this hospital has LMN- the Lifetime Movie Network. We are watching what BOTH of us consider to be a dumb movie about a girl who puts on a fat suit to high school to see if people treat her differently. According to this movie, everyone is a jerk. It keeps making us laugh.

We will keep ya posted every once in awhile today. Talk to you later.