Learning to Sit and to Share

Today was Isaac's second attempt with the bumbo seat, and he did beautifully! And putting Isaac in the bumbo seat means a combination of two of Mikayla's favorite things to play with (she can still somehow fit into the bumbo seat; it is quite humorous watching her wiggle free afterward! She also enjoys carrying it around, clumsily).

Since I aspire to be more like my sister in most ways, I realized this was a golden photo op and grabbed my camera. Well, my phone anyway. I will work my way up to taking professional-grade portraits with a fancy digital camera one day. Maybe.

Here are the shots I came up with before the moment passed and Mikayla decided that crackers were MUCH more important than playing with her brother:

"Show Ikey your bug...put it in his lap."

 

"Wipe Ikey's mouth, please."

They are just too precious together! And Mikayla is quite the mother hen. She fetches diapers ("bipas!") even when he doesn't need them, and puts them over his head or pushes them at his hiney. And she is eager to show him how to play with all of her toys.

The troops are getting restless. I guess this momma's blog break is just about over! Thanks for stopping by!

Isaac's 2-month (sort of) update

I guess I'm a little late on Isaac's two month update, seeing as how he was 11 weeks on Thursday. Oops! My tardiness makes it all the more important to capture some of his milestones, so that someday I can rely on my blog to recall when he had all his "firsts". Especially because we don't have a baby book for him yet (thus begins the second child getting the shaft, right?).

Isaac is amazing. At his 2-month appointment (which occurred around 9 weeks of age), he weighed 13 pounds 9 ounces. When we went back for shots a few days later, he was 13 lbs 11 1/2 oz. He's a grower! And thankfully, within a few days after that, his allergies seem to have miraculously cleared up. I don't know if it was our efforts to cat-proof his (our) bedroom, or coincidence, but we are just grateful that he is breathing more easily these days. The cats are now actually gone, having been re-homed this week, so we may never know if it was them for sure.

The anchor of Isaac's day is bedtime, which is in the neighborhood of 8:30/9:00 but has been inching earlier in the past week. He sleeps until at least 3:30 or 4:00, but had a couple of nights last weekend when he slept from 9pm until 5 or 6am! He then sleeps a few more hours, hangs out awake for a bit, and often sleeps the whole morning away after another meal. I'm so grateful for this pattern because mornings are Mikayla's neediest times, with wake-up, breakfast, getting dressed, etc. Often, she will go down for a nap around 11:30 just as he is waking up. Then he goes back down for a nap around 12:30 and I get some quiet time all to myself!

Afternoons vary, with a nap somewhere at some point. He is getting good at falling asleep in his pack 'n play bassinet for both naps and bedtime. If we missed the "golden window" of drowsiness, he sometimes cries it out, but that generally takes no more than 20 minutes. Everyone warned me that because Mikayla was such a good sleeper, our second would be the opposite. So far, though, both kiddos seem to share their parents' love of sleep!

(The above is a generalization, more "guidelines" than rules, but it feels like we at least have a pattern, most days.)

The highlight of my days lately, as with Mikayla, are the first wake-up moments with Isaac. After his first breakfast of the morning, he unlatches with a HUGE grin and would laugh out loud if he knew how. The smiles that little guy turns out are just amazing! (First smile: within a few days of his baptism, probably April 23 or 24.) I wish I had more time to snuggle him, as I used to with Mikayla, but....well, Mikayla has to get up, too! So he hangs out in his swing while I get his sister up and breakfasted. Then it's back to sleep for a nap almost as soon as she's finished with breakfast.

Did I mention he's SUCH an easy baby?

That's if we're on our home turf; days when we head out for errands or events are much more challenging because we don't all get to sleep and eat exactly when and where we like. Isaac, like his sister before him, is fantastic at sleeping in his bed but is getting a bit hit-or-miss at sleeping in his car seat. The BEST times are when EVERYONE is tired and we are all in the car, say, driving home from New Jersey, and we are ALL screaming at the top of our lungs. Yes, those times are quite thrilling. Momma and Dadda do our best to sing hymn after psalm after spiritual song to get the kiddos to quiet down, and when all else fails, we willfully dissociate and pretend it isn't happening. There is so much you can do in a moving four-door...oh, for the days when we will have a minivan and Momma can pop back to help the kiddos out!

Isaac eats about five times a day, starting with his early morning breakfast around 4 or 5 or whatever. Then another quick nibble around 8, then his (hopefully) long morning nap. Lunch, an early dinner, and then an epic feeding before bed that sometimes begins an hour before sleepy time. It varies some, but that is the typical pattern. And he is not nearly the spitter-upper that his sister was! Once in a blue moon (seriously perhaps once or twice a week) he spits massively, seemingly due to a renegade air bubble in his tummy. Otherwise we are talking perhaps a tiny dribble if he has overeaten. And the dude can BURP. He will give his Dadda a run for his money when he is old enough for the manly contests.

When we put Isaac down for tummy time, he can easily push up with his arms and hold his head way up high to look around. He sat in his bumbo seat this week for the first time and did well for 5-10 minutes until his neck meat got tired, and he went all slumpy on me. Not bad for a first attempt, though!

You'd think I would have a fresh photo for Isaac's update post, but nope. Not on the ball. Did you miss the part about second children getting the shaft? It's just those pesky firstborns demanding all their parents' time and energy...particularly when they are only 14 months older. Phew!

So we are generally all sleeping and smiles over here, on the Isaac front anyway. God is so good, and our children are precious gifts from His hand. May He strengthen us for this daunting task of rearing and disciplining, nurturing and encouraging these little souls toward their heavenly Father.

SDG!

Independence Days

Mikayla is blowing my mind lately, and I have to share.

• On Friday, she grabbed her spoon from me at breakfast and started eating her oatmeal by herself. This is not the first time she has reached for the spoon, but it is the first time she has not placed her oatmeal directly in her hair or sent it flying through the air.
  
  Side note: how long does it take for a baby to "declare" handedness? Mikayla has always self-fed with both hands, but more often with her left. She is using both hands equally frequently to feed herself with the spoon, and seems equally coordinated with both so far (she gets the food smoothly into her mouth with both). Do I have an ambidextrous genius child, or will she eventually decide which hand she prefers?
  
   
• Today, while eating her PB&J for lunch, she looked me in the eye and held her nose with her right thumb and forefinger. I have never seen her hold her nose, and neither Joel nor I have taught her this. She gave me this mischievous smile for a few seconds before opening her sandwich-filled mouth and gasping for air. I'm not sure whether she knew ahead of time that this trick would deprive her of oxygen. Now, I can ask her to "hold your nose!" and she will do it again. Yes, I'm amazed by this because it is possibly the first spontaneous trick that nobody has taught her, and she found it as hilarious as I did.
  
• Also today, we went erranding with our sweet neighbor, Fran. Fran is at home by herself during the day while her teen (special-needs) grandsons are in school, and lately she has dropped by a few times to visit. Today we coordinated a visit to the local thrift store together, so that she could help me carry and corral little ones and actually accomplish my few shopping goals. Typically, Mikayla rides in the shopping cart or, when she is in a really sunny (not) mood, I have to carry her AND push the cart. Today, Mikayla pulled the go-limp-in-momma's-arms-and-slide-down-her-body move that signaled her desire to walk like a big girl. This has so far happened only at home, possibly a couple of times at church. But she walked like a CHAMP at the store, browsing the display cases of jewelry (the plexiglass windows between her and the merchandise were a little baffling at first) and doing laps around the front display aisles. She even attempted to push the cart. And walked through the big doors, along the sidewalk, and out to the car. She only became a tiny bit afraid when she saw the gigantic forklift that the employees use to move big bins of donations around, but hey, that's a little intimidating even to an experienced biped like myself.
  
• Mikayla used to be afraid of both our gravel driveway and the grass. On Saturday she held a few blades of grass in her hand. Today, she walked all over the driveway, around the car, and gave handfuls stones to Fran before they came inside and showed off Mikayla's dirty palms. I saw her grimy hands and thought, she's officially a kid now!
  
• She is learning new words almost daily. The cutest is "buh-puh" (purple) and "byyyyeeeee!" every time she hears one of us say goodbye on the phone. Also "doop doop doop" with accompanying hand motion, which is apparently what the ceiling fan "says".
  
• I am happy to report that she seems to understand the question, "Do you want a spanking?" This has, for the most part, turned our diaper-change experiences around considerably, for the better. And I have only had to follow through once - the mere mention of that dreaded smack on chubby toddler-thigh inspires golden obedience. So far. But stay tuned on that one, folks, because I do believe she is her momma's daughter.
  
• She takes her big-sister role very seriously. She brings Isaac his blanket (and puts it over his face). She shows him all her toys (mostly by bopping him in the head with them, but she REALLY wants to give them to him!). She gives lots of hugs and kisses and rocks whatever he is sitting in. And she doesn't let me get lazy...today I strapped him into his carseat, but left the handle back in the reclining position. Mikayla pulled the hood/shade thing up over Isaac's head, and tugged on the handle, looking at me with eyes that obviously said, "But momma, he's not ALL ready to go yet!" I'm amazed at the things she picks up on, like burping her baby doll, putting a burp cloth over the doll as a blanket, and obviously making sure Isaac's carseat is in the locked, upright position so that we can leave the house.

 And those, dear reader, are the ways my sweet little girl has been venturing forth on her own two feet lately, and taking my personal world, at least, by storm. There's a new reason to feel at once proud and humbled every day!

SDG!

CIO: Part Deux (Isaac's Turn!)

These last seven weeks have been such a blur, I haven't had a chance to think about blogging, let alone come up with an interesting topic! Next week I will try to do a two-month update for sweet Isaac, so that you all know what he's up to. For now, though, I just want to jot a few things that might be worth remembering.

Joel and I have been discussing when to let Isaac cry it out. Sometimes during the day I simply don't have the opportunity to go help him out, so he cries to sleep out of sheer necessity. Amazing how a 15 month old can gobble up all your time! But this has definitely been more the exception than the rule, and frankly we are hoping he can become a little lower maintenance. I harbor no expectation that this will suddenly lead us to become well-rested people, since he is still waking a couple of times at night to eat (none of those amazing 5-6 hour stretches that Mikayla was doing at this age...yet...possibly because the poor kid has spent the last few weeks snotting around. The lack of oxygen probably wakes him if hunger doesn't.).

So I decided to peruse back over the blog to see when Mikayla first CIO. Turns out, she was almost exactly two months old. And Isaac will be two months old this Thursday. And this coincides with Dr. Marc Weissbluth's recommendation in Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby, a book that preserved our sanity the first time around with Mikayla. We are such intuitive parents, aren't we, knowing just when to start letting our children CIO? Or...two months is when we've reached our wits end on trying to get our child to sleep. Intuitive, or exhausted, take your pick.

Just now we decided to test the theory. Isaac went down in his playard at 6:25 and started to cry. But I KNEW he was tired, dry, and not hungry. Perfect recipe for a little CIO attempt, no? We set our mental timers to five minutes, because you can let your child cry for five minutes and still definitely be a good parent. At five minutes he was pretty unhappy with us, but we looked at each other and let the clock inch by to seven minutes...the wails were coming and going at this point. At ten minutes I decided to go rub his back, offer the Nuk, etc. Still pretty ticked, so I picked him up for a minute to soothe him. His eyes immediately started to drowse closed, so I dropped that kid like a (fragile) hot potato so that he could reap the full benefit of falling asleep on his own. Generous momma that I am.

Here we are at 6:55 and that little bug has been silent for at least ten minutes, meaning it took all of twenty for him to successfully CIO with a minor assist in the middle. It kind of feels like that moment when...no wait, actually there is nothing quite like the feeling of a SLEEPING INFANT.

Plus, Mikayla just went night-night, so we are enjoying one silent house at the moment. Joel and I are whispering to each other just to make sure we don't break it. Notable quotable from Joel: "Our house hasn't been this quiet in seven weeks."

We are strongly considering letting Isaac CIO at bedtime tonight, but it would mean probably sleeping him in his playard downstairs, so he doesn't wake his sister. But perhaps, if it takes less than twenty minutes, we could tolerate having him in our room.

On that note, gotta run. Our neighbor's dog just started barking, loudly, and Mikayla's monitor just flipped on, meaning she's awake. Keep an eye on the news tonight; if you hear my name, you'll know this didn't end well. No, seriously.

SDG!

Isaac's Birth Story: Part 2

(Part 1 is here if you need to start at the beginning)

It was a gorgeous morning. The sun was just risen, the sky clear as we drove. Joel asked me how fast I wanted him to drive. I responded with something like, don’t be dangerous, but get there. We made great highway time – Joel said he averaged about 85 mph – except when we got stuck behind a car poking along in the passing lane. I may have uttered an expletive at one point, but Joel said he was willing to overlook it because, you know, labor. I held onto the handle above my car door to help steady me as we drove, and managed to send a text or two. I think I texted my sister something like, “This is the baby text! We’re on our way to the birth center!” Joel initiated a family phone tree by calling our sister in law, Becca, to let her know it was all going down.

As with the last time we made this drive in labor, my contractions spaced out a bit on the ride but didn’t stop. Notably, if anyone is familiar with the intersection at “the ladder store” in Ephrata, I had a particularly hard contraction just as Joel took that right-hand turn onto 322 none too gently. Yowsa! Overall though, the spacing of contractions meant I could really enjoy the beauty of the morning and contemplate, to some degree, the fact that we would be meeting our son that day. I continued to manage contractions with relative ease. The relaxation was just coming so naturally to me that morning!

We arrived at the birth center at 8:05 a.m. and were welcomed by Jen, the same midwife who delivered Mikayla. She had the birth tub set up and partially filled with water. A quick check revealed that I was already 7-8 centimeters dilated and fully effaced (!!). I took a bathroom break, undressed, and hopped (well…figuratively) into the birth tub to labor. At this point, labor really….all but stopped. Jen assured me that this was normal when transitioning to a new location, and that I was definitely in labor, and it would pick up again soon. We hung out and talked, joked, relaxed for about half an hour with me in the tub. I may have had a contraction or two during that time, but it was really low-key and enjoyable at that point. I remember Jen telling the nurse that we would be needing her almost for sure within the next three hours, and I remembered being surprised and SO happy that she thought it would go that quickly!

Around 8:30, things began to pick up. With each contraction, Joel rubbed my shoulders and back, and poured warm water from the tub over my belly with a pitcher. He also began to breathe with me through each contraction. At times, I used a focal point of one of the plugs in the inflatable birth tub, and at other times I closed my eyes to concentrate. Different from my first labor, I also tried to keep my arms and hands totally relaxed. With Mikayla, I squeezed Joel’s hands through the really intense contractions. This time around, keeping my arms relaxed was really difficult but I think paid off in helping to manage the pain more successfully and allowing the contractions to pass more peacefully. I know it sounds weird, but it continued to be a peaceful labor even as contractions ramped way up and even double-peaked several times.

Jen captured the (external) serenity of Joel helping me through a contraction.

Joel says it was probably around 9:00 a.m. that I first said I might be ready to push soon. He also says his internal reaction, which he did not voice, was “Already?!? Shouldn’t we wait?” I wasn’t having a true urge, but could tell the baby was getting low, and the intensity from the contractions was getting super low as well. With the next few contractions, it didn’t feel as low or intense, so I waited, but my midwife gave me her blessing to push when I felt like it. At this point, my water had not broken, in case you were wondering.

Now, with Mikayla, I believe I delayed pushing significantly because I wasn’t sure when it was time to try. I think my labor with her could have been at least an hour or two shorter, and that much of what I considered to be “transition” was in fact me resisting my body’s urge to push. So I was determined to be very tuned into my body this time, and not to resist when I felt that same feeling.

But I was willing to be patient. I started to push once or twice with contractions and felt that it wasn’t right just yet, that my body wasn’t quite working with me. So I relaxed and waited to have the feeling again. It was just after 9:30 that I really started to feel that it was time – those low, incredibly intense contractions that felt like the baby was ready to come out. I was also feeling like I couldn’t take much more intensity, so that let me know that I must be just about there!

At this point, I told Jen again that I was really feeling like I should push. She checked me and said there was just a small edge of my cervix in the way, but that she would help while I pushed to let the baby’s head pass through. She also asked if I’d like her to break my water. I agreed to the amniotomy, to relieve some pressure and help the pushing to go perhaps a bit more easily and quickly. She broke my water and reported that it was clear, no meconium, and so I was free to have this baby in the tub! I had to deliver Mikayla out of the water due to meconium staining, so I was excited to try this time in the water. (Read: Praise the Lord, I wouldn’t have to throw a leg over the side of the birth tub to get out in the middle of pushing.)

Water broken and with Jen helping, I pushed hard through the next several contractions. Jen was so encouraging, telling me that I was pushing perfectly, and having me shift slightly to improve the angle for the baby. He must have appreciated that, because then he came fast! It was incredibly intense for me, feeling him descend, and feeling as though I must continue to push to get this baby out or I would, I don’t know, die or something. He crowned within a few minutes, and I only allowed him to hang out long enough for me to take a deep breath and push again.

At 9:47, after five hours of labor and just eleven minutes of pushing, Isaac Victor Pearce was born in the warm water of the birth tub, and was in my arms within moments. It took some wrangling, but Jen helped deliver his broad shoulders while I pushed one more time. While Joel wasn’t able to catch him, he said he loved being behind me while Isaac was born. He was able to see Isaac wiggle in my belly just before he emerged, and witnessed the magic moment of Isaac’s head and shoulders appearing in the water below me. I was overwhelmed with emotion as Jen placed Isaac in my arms. He was quiet and peaceful, eyes closed as he moved and tested his new-found freedom. I held him close to my chest and whispered (cried? proclaimed?), “My baby boy, my sweet boy. I’m so glad you’re here!”

The most marked part of the experience for me was sweet relief at having Isaac delivered. I’m sure this was because of the sheer speed and intensity of labor and birth, but getting him out of me and into the water felt so. good. And then I marveled that it was over already! The feeling of relief continued as the midwife and Joel helped me out of the tub and onto the bed to deliver the placenta. Joel got a sweet picture of the placenta for a good friend who had expressed curiosity (yes, really). He also cut the cord, and proudly named his son.

The post-delivery process continued smoothly, and Jen reported that I had sustained no tearing or injury despite the velocity of the birth. (Another perk of laboring in the water, I’m sure!) Isaac settled in to nurse, and Jen took some first family photos. She also captured some great shots during labor, and immediately after delivery. I’m not sure how; she must have actually been in two places at once, as far as I can figure. But we are so thankful for her and our nurse, Bev, for helping us to have a second fantastic birth-center experience. We were heading out by 1:30 p.m., planning to stop by our pediatrician’s office for a quick check on the way home (long story, but everything is completely fine with Isaac).

God is so good to us. We are thankful that Isaac arrived safely, and feel so blessed at how smoothly and quickly the labor process went. Soli deo Gloria!

Isaac's Birth Story: Part 1

This is the first of two posts on Isaac's birth story. These posts are a retelling of the labor and delivery process, in all the detail that we would like to remember. I hope you enjoy reading about this wonderful experience. Be aware that, while it is not graphic, it does include details of the birthing process. Please feel free to comment, and to share the story with others if you find it encouraging. We are so grateful that Isaac arrived safely and without incident, and give glory to God alone for the events that you will read about below!

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I was awakened at 4:33 in the morning by the first contraction. While it was more intense than the hundreds of Braxton-Hicks I had been experiencing over the past week or so, I wasn’t completely convinced that it was the real thing. I breathed and relaxed and refrained from getting too excited. One contraction does not a labor make, particularly when the due date is still two weeks away. At 4:43, another contraction rushed over my body – still not sharp or painful enough to be truly persuasive, but certainly enough to make me take notice. I continued to relax and make myself as comfortable as possible in bed, and decided it wasn’t worth waking Joel just yet.

The next hour and a half consisted of contractions every 10-15 minutes, perhaps skipping one here and there, alternating with me telling myself, “Nah, probably not labor…if I have one more contraction, THEN I’ll wake Joel up.” They became closer together and more regular as the time progressed, so that they were really every ten minutes toward the end of that time. While I was intently focused on evaluating what was going on with my body, it was a very peaceful time of experiencing and relaxing through contractions, resting as much as possible in the quiet as the sun began to peek through the windows.

Joel’s alarm was set to go off at 6:00 a.m. At 5:45, I told myself that if I had one more contraction, then I was going to wake him up, no seriously this time because it just might be labor. So I relaxed through a contraction and slipped my hand into his, squeezing it gently. He squeezed back, and I softly told him that I had been having contractions for about an hour and a half. He didn’t exactly bolt out of bed, but to his credit, he did at least wake up and converse with me. (It helped that it was pretty much his normal wake-up time at that point.) I told him that we should probably think about whether he ought to go in to work on time, late, or at all, and whether we should start to rally the troops (midwife, Mikayla’s on-call babysitter, etc.).  Consensus was that he would hop in the shower so he’d be ready for whatever contingency.  I also encouraged Joel to potty immediately if he needed to, before my next contraction hit.

At this point, things I did differently, having learned from the first time around with Mikayla: 1) Wake Joel up when odds are best that it will work, rather than at 1 a.m. when he will likely struggle to comprehend what is going on. Baby helped tremendously by initiating labor early in the morning. 2) Ask Joel if he needs to use the bathroom BETWEEN contractions rather than competing for the toilet in the midst of a very painful moment.

Things Joel did differently, having learned from the first time around: 1) Respond appropriately and supportively to wife’s statement that she may be in labor. 2) Potty quickly and allow wife to resume post laboring on toilet.

Joel hopped in the shower at 6:00 a.m. By 6:10 when he was hopping out, there was no doubt that I was in serious labor. Contractions were becoming deeper and more painful, with less than ten minutes between. We texted our on-call babysitters around 6:30, “Stand by, this might be it!” and called the midwife. We agreed to meet at the birth center at 7:45, to give our babysitters time to arrive. Then, our poor babysitters let us know that they needed to jump-start their car, and that one of them had jury duty (from which he was subsequently released, thankfully!). But they were going to be en route ASAP! We called our back-up babysitter who agreed to come right away so that we could get on the road.

All this was still more ideal than making arrangements at 3:00 a.m. to drive on unplowed roads through a blizzard to the birth center, a la Mikayla’s birth story, but still.

Joel gathered miscellaneous last-minute items for the birth bag, brought some clothes for me, and helped me get my socks on (for some reason this is a job that sticks out in my memory from our first labor too – him putting my socks on my feet between contractions). Things were getting intense for me as I remained on the toilet, but overall it was still a pretty peaceful labor with successful relaxation through each rush. I knew Joel was taking care of details, and my confidence in him allowed me to focus on what I was doing without becoming tense or stressed.

Both our babysitter and back-up babysitter arrived at the same time, so our back-up turned around and went back home (thanks for trying!). I will never forget the sight of Rachel rushing in the back door as I stood in the mudroom having contractions over a chair. She had one daughter under each arm, and as Joel and I began to tell her where the instruction sheet was, etc., she said, “Just go! I’ll figure everything out!” What a friend. Thank you! My mind was at ease as Joel helped me to the car.

Next: Part 2

Welcome, Isaac Victor!

Welcome, Isaac Victor Pearce!

Born at 9:47 a.m. on Thursday, March 8. 

Measuring 8 lb 3 oz, 20 inches long.

At the birth center, just about ready to go home!