goodbye inhalers

This morning the kids had their appointment with the Pulmonologist. They've been doing very well in the "lung department."  They only had a few colds this winter, which they tolerated nicely. Kaden only had one episode of wheezing, but other than that their lungs have been in good shape. The dr. felt confident today that we could stop their inhalers all together and see how things go once we enter fall and winter.  OK!!  I certainly didn't have a problem with that!!

As you've heard me mention before, Kenley dealt with her horrible diaper rash for 4 months before her pediatrician thought about the possibility of it coming from her inhaler. The pulmonologist said it was unlikely that her inhaler caused it, but things can certainly happen. I on the other hand, don't just think it was coincidence that we couldn't find a single thing to fix this rash for 4 months, and then when I take her off of her inhaler she clears up in a week! Just call me Dr. Holli :)

Cody is already out of sick days so any time he takes off he has to take unpaid. I haven't been brave enough (up to this point) to take both kids to appointments by myself. But we talked it over and thought I should give it a try. I only had a couple of times where both kids were having a tantrum at the same time, or running the halls in opposite directions...but for the most part they did awesome!

I'm surviving!

It's naptime and so far we've all survived the first half of the day!

Cody started his new "summer hours" this morning. He is starting an hour earlier and getting home an hour earlier (which I think I'm going to love). So he left the house about 6:30 this morning.

The rest of us slept until about 7:40, when I heard Kaden whining around in his crib. I threw myself out of bed, went to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, sat out a bottle for Paxton (since it was getting close to the time he would need to eat again too), and pumped. The kids were now just chatting in their room, so I just needed the baby to keep sleeping and everyone would be good! After pumping, I grabbed the kids out of their bed and changed their diapers, just as Paxton started to scream. I changed his diaper and gave him a bottle, just as the kids were hanging on their highchairs wanting to "eat." The succession of things were working out well :)

Paxton has been going through this thing where he just doesn't seem happy after he eats a bottle. He can't decide if he wants to be awake or asleep, swaddled or unswaddled, held or laying out, paci or no paci. It's been taking him a while to get settled and hopefully we'll all figure it out shortly.

Daddy came home for lunch and gave me a chance to get into the shower. Other than that I've been busy with dishes (seriously this breast pump really should come with multiple sets of parts...washing everything every.single.time is getting very old!), laundry, bills, making and rescheduling appointments, and pumping. Now the kids are taking a nap and I'm waiting for Paxton to get up and eat.

Ahh...it's soo quiet in here!!

I'll leave you with this picture, just because I can't get enough of it. It melts my heart every time I look at it :)

(I can't wait to get my hands on the rest of his newborn pictures. I love this little guy!!)

we {do not} have a pooper on our hands!

Baby Paxton does not like to poop. Which can be a good thing and a bad thing. He has only been going about every 5 days or so. Which is good, because who likes to change dirty diapers? But it's bad because when he does go, he has a HUGE blowout. This kid was covered from head to toe last night, taking the efforts of three-gagging-grown-adults to clean him up and an outfit that went straight into the trash!

I love everything about this new baby in our lives. He is totally fulfilling my baby fever, with his soft hair against my cheeks, the snuggles into my chest, his squeeks and grunts letting me know he's hungry, the contorted facial expressions that make me giggle, and the arm and leg movements that remind me of when he was in my tummy...I could have 12 more of these :)

I think we have another paci-lover on our hands. Paxton loves to have his paci in his mouth and has a pretty strong suck. The one he came home from the hospital with was the exact one that we just took away from Kenley a short time ago. We were having some issues with this, so we decided to get him some different colored ones and it seems to have done the trick.

Kaden and Kenley love helping out with the baby. They always think he has to have his paci in his mouth, love to help give him his bottle, love to tickle his tummy, and think they need to poke his eyes out.

Paxton is eating 2.5 ounces at a time. During the day, he eats anywhere between 2-4 hours. He is doing really well sleeping at night. We are getting up to feed him only once during the night and that's it!

This post-partum sh*t is for the birds!! A friend of mine put it greatly... the Lord gives you such a miracle after giving birth, you would certainly think he could perform a miracle with the healing of your body!  To say that I've been a little emotional would be an understatement. I am pumping and bottle feeding, but I absolutely hate pumping! My boobs are soo sore, I cringe just thinking about the next time I have to pump and in between I feel like I'm going to explode everytime the kids crawl on me throwing themselves into my chest. And although it's getting better, my bottom cannot heal fast enough and it's getting the best of me!

updates

*Cody's MRI looked good yesterday!  Wow, I can't believe we are going on 7 years already!

*Paxton had his newborn follow-up with the pediatrician last Friday. He still looks perfect :)  When he was discharged from the hospital he weighed 9lbs. 7oz. and on Friday he was 9lbs. 8oz.

*He really is the best little baby. He is soo good!!  The first couple of days he was home, he didn't seem to quite be content during his awake times, but he seems to have that figured out now. He is still sleeping a lot and only cries when he is hungry. Last night he slept for 7.5 hours straight!!  It was awesome!

*My mom is helping out this week. I haven't felt the best yet this week and have been moving pretty slowly, so having the extra set of hands has been a blessing!!

*I haven't healed up in the "nether regions" as quickly as I would have hoped and that's taken a toll on me. Finally, today, I have noticed a difference. I am hoping this is the turning point and things will start going up hill from here on out!  Apparently nothing good happens "down there" after pushing for 3.5 hours!!


***(I started this blog post three days ago and still haven't posted it. So, even though I don't feel it's complete, I'm just going to call it done and post!!)

I've dropped the ball on this one...

Cody has his 6 month MRI tomorrow!!

Scan at 9:00am and then we see the dr. at 2:30.

going home

We are going home today.

Because we had him before midnight on the 14th, that counted as our first night...in and out!!

They just came to get Paxton from us to be circumcized.

They will monitor him for a couple of hours and hopefully we will be on our way.

They have checked him for Jaundice, but it sounds like his levels are looking good!

Everyone is doing so well!

Paxton is eating and sleeping like a champ.

Mama is still pretty sore and is moving pretty slow, but hopefully that'll start getting better soon!

The kids came to visit us and meet their new baby brother last night.

I have been missing them like crazy and it was soo good to see them!

They didn't really seem that interested in the new baby.

They noticed him a couple of times, but they were too busy running around and playing.

They might think of him differently once we are home and he's there to stay :)

It'll be interesting.

He's here!!

Happy Birthday,

Paxton John Finke

May 14, 2012

11:00pm

9lbs. 14oz.

22 inches

Here's our story:

*6:45am check in at admissions

*get settled into our room. had lengthy discussions with the doctor and nurses as far as the traumatic experiences we had last time, what we wanted the day to look like, and the decisions we needed to make in order for it to go more smoothly.

*9:00 started the induction with a single dose of cytotec, dilated to 2cm, contractions starting to get more consistent

*1:15pm 3cm, dr. breaks my water, now contractions really starting to intensify over the next few hours

*3:00 dilated to 4cm, ordered my epidural

*4:00 epidural. the anesthesiologist was aware that I did NOT have optimal pain management during my last labor/delivery, so he was determined to make this experience different. he gave me a combination spinal/epidural and he was the new love of my life :)  I was 100% numb from my belly down (I was enjoying the idea of being pain-free, but not being able to move or feel anything, really kind of messed with my mind, and I didn't like it very much)

*5:00 dilated to 5cm

*7:00 complete and ready to start pushing! there was only one doctor on the floor, so we needed to wait for her to come in and give us the "ok"

*7:30 started pushing. contractions were very consistent at 2-3 minutes apart

*9:00 my spinal was starting to wear off. I was really starting to feel a lot of pain again and we weren't really getting close to delivery, so it started to worry me with how long we had to go yet. the anesthesiologist was paged again and he came back and gave me another bolus of a different medication, in hopes of getting me through delivery! he didn't anticipate it doing much, but boy it worked out perfectly! it took away my pain, but I could still feel touch and pressure, which really helped me in the pushing process.

*11:00 baby was born!  three and a half hours of pushing, I didn't know if we were going to get it done!

*Paxton was here, all 9 pounds and 14 ounces of him! I never thought he would be that big!

*I can't even begin to tell you how awesome this experience was as compared to the delivery of the twins. we had an amazing team from start to finish and I couldn't have asked for anything to go any differently. the whole proces, worked 100% in our favor and that makes us very happy :)

Today is {hopefully} the day!

We are all checked in and hanging out in our room. We were here at 6:45 this morning and in our room at about 7:00am. 

I was checked and dialed to 2cm. My cervix is pretty soft, but baby remains kind of high.

Cytotec was given at 9:00. This is the induction medication. Last time, they inserted it vaginally, this time I just took it orally. This is to help kick-start my contractions. Dr. will be back around 1:00 to re-check things and hopefully break my water at that time.

Now we are just "waiting".  I don't know if we'll expect him today, but that is our hope.

38 weeks

I was 38 weeks on Monday and had my appointment yesterday afternoon. I first did my NST and then met with the doctor (unfortunately not my regular OB). The NST looked good. Baby boy was pretty active right away in the beginning, giving them the information they needed and then he got a little sleepy. I stayed hooked up to the monitors for about 45 minutes. It simply amazes me that they can put me in this chair, recline me, and put my feet up and I won't have a single contraction for 45 minutes, but once I stand up or move around, I start contracting like crazy! 

After that I saw the doctor. She checked my cervix and I've dialated to a 1cm. I was really hoping to be further along than that. I know he is still high, because I can feeling him digging into my ribs and I'm always short of breath. But I also know he's dropping because I can feel increasing pressure on my pubic bone. Maybe it's because he's so big and he's just everywhere!

Our goal for delivery is obviously to try a vaginal birth first. My doctor is completely aware that I am terrified I'm going to have an experience like I did with the twins, and she has done everything she can to calm my fears. If at any point, I'm getting uncomfortable with things or the process, we will go straight into a c-section. I'm hoping she's right and things will go much smoother and faster this time around.

I've been working around the house like crazy this week. I really feel like the organizing and everything as far as the baby's concerned is complete. Now, I just want my house clean. Like, deep-spring-cleaning, clean! I know I'm over-doing it, but I can't seem to get my husband to help out :(  My to-do list is still a mile long and we're running out of time. I'm trying to tell myself it's ok not to get everything done. This is not the important stuff (although in my mind, it is a big deal).

Things at work are finally starting to wind down, although I've worked my butt off trying to get everything done in time. I wish I would have this kind of ambition the whole school year!!  I couldn't have done it though without some amazing co-workers who really stepped up to help me out :)


Happy Wednesday!! 

we're set

Well, we've scheduled our induction.

Monday, May 14th at 7:00am (checking in at 6:45).

HOLY COW!!

Now, I'm starting to get a little nervous :)

37 weeks

Pregnancy #1

Pregnancy #2

(yep, same shirt)

*I made it to 37 weeks last pregnancy, that's all the further I went. I was kind of hoping to go at 37 weeks this time around too, but doesn't look like that's going to happen :(

*The pain from my kidney stones has been pretty manageable since getting out of the hospital. I continue to have a dull aching pain in my back on the right side, but I've only had to take a few pain pills since being home.

*I had a follow up ultrasound of my kidneys and bladder this past Monday. The scan continues to show the large stone in my right kidney, but it doesn't show any blockages of any sort, so that's good.

*I also had my monthly ultrasound of baby on Monday. This was my last one :(  He wasn't cooperating very well and kept his hands over his face almost the entire time, so I really didn't get to see much of him. He continues to move around like crazy and was weighing 8lbs. 6oz.

*I met with my OB that same afternoon. She checked me and I haven't started dialating at all yet. Baby has dropped some though because she could now feel the top of his head.

*My feet have just now started to swell. My blood pressure was also a little high at my last appointment. Nothing dangerously high, but just higher than It's been lately.

*We set an induction date of Monday, May 14th. I wouldn't be at all sad if he decided to come before that!

*I honestly do not have a clue how I was able to carry twins my first pregnancy. I have been getting very uncomfortable and feel like I'm about as big as I was with the twins. Taking pictures like these puts things right back into perspective!

*I'm getting a little emotional about Kaden and Kenley not being my only babies anymore. I can't tell you how excited I am to be having another one and can't tell you how excited I am for him to be here, but I still have that hurt in my heart that makes me question if I'll be able to show them as much love as they deserve once I'm busy with another baby. They're not going to be babies anymore, they are already turning into such "big kids" and I know that will be even more evident with a new baby. I'm really struggling with that right now.

*Cody gave me a "pedicure" last night. It was really a nice gesture, but I don't think I'll be recommending him to anyone, anytime soon! Maybe it was becasue we didn't really have the right "tools" but I woke up to raw feet this morning and before long my toes will probably have scabs on them. The massage was absolutely amazing though! If you know Cody, this was pretty huge for him. I don't think I can even remember him ever rubbing my feet before :)

*We had a real tornado emergency this afternoon at school. The weather got pretty bad, pretty quickly. We were rushed into the women's bathroom with nine 4th grade boys who had just spent the last couple of hours in the principal's office for discipline issues. They were now very terrified and a lot of tears were shed. The power had gone out, it had got a pretty warm and pretty stinky in there before we were given the all clear. Needless to say, it was not how I was hoping to spend my Friday afternoon.

*We are still dealing with Kenley's bottom. She hasn't had a rash-free butt for 4 months now!! Poor thing!  Some days she just screams even when she's just peed.  We've been back to the doctor who put her on another oral antibiotic and has started to think it could possibly be from her inhaler. We clean their mouths after their inhalers so they don't get thrush, which is basically a yeast infection of the mouth. Well, if she's getting any of that medicine into her gut then it could possibly be coming out in her stools and we're just never getting rid of it.  We've actually stopped the inhalers now for the summer months and she's starting to clear up!  Not completely, but it's a lot better. Could this really, finally, be the answer?  We meet with the pulmonologist again at the end of this month, so I'll be curious to get his opinion on it all. But seriously, something's gotta make this girl's butt better.