Sunday, February 7, 2010

life with 2 boys!

ok so I'm VERY Sorry I hadn't posted in several months but it's been a whirlwind of action!

TJ's been great and eats a tub of babyfood at each feeding so we have lowered his dose on his mickey button. Mason was born 12/9 at 602 pm weighing 6lb5oz via repeat csection. I had known labor was coming or starting because I had ALOT of BH Ctx that weren't going away about 2 days prior to me going to the hospital. Even fluids didn't slow or stop them so the day I went into the hospital (37w5d) I made sure not to eat the night before or drink anything that morning. I went in and was fingertip dialated and contracting regularly about 3 min apart. They gave me 3 liters of fluid and that didn't stop or slow the ctx. they also gave me a medicine that made me a bit dizzy but didnt help with my pain.

I BEGGED Them to do my csection and said "i'm ready, you don't even have to wait for 12 hrs to be sure i havent eaten"... I had also carefully tapered my dose of pain meds for my back (oxycodone) 2 days before that and when mason was born I hadn't had ANY in about 24 hrs.

when the doctors tried to place my spinal they kept hitting the nerves where my back is injured which HURT so they had to place the spinal a space or two higher up than normal which SUCKED (they had to place it 3x til they hit the right spot) when they laid me back I got very dizzy and didn't want to scare DH by saying I was going to black out so I calmly told the nurses that I was really dizzy. they upped the head of the bed a bit and i was ok again.

He was great and breathing with a little dificulty but had no withdrawals at all. this experience was SO different from my first one at the hospital and it was harder recovery wise. they ended up putting me on a dilaudid drip for my 2nd night after the surgery to help control my pain and my mother acted like I was using it ALOT (you can push it every 10 min) because in her words "Everytime she looked at me I was pushing the button" but then the pain mgmt doctor came in and said "Wow, you didn't use this nearly as often as you could've. As a matter of fact you used it less than 1/2 the time".... which made me feel good.

The nurses refused to help me and told me id have to care for him myself (even the first night when I happened to be by myself) and I had to BEG to get the nurse to take him for 3 hrs so I could get a tiny bit of sleep since I"d been up 3 days and nights straight. I ended up that first night with mason snuggled against me and the hand rail on that side of the bed up.

all in all it was a good experience.

Friday, October 16, 2009

TJ update, baby mason too!

Well TJ is getting bigger, chubbier and more tempermental! lol. He's still saying dada, and signing mama. But recently he's decided he doesn't really like his teacher Wendy. He gets really fussy when she holds him to do therapies, and as soon as she begins to hand him to hubby or I he will shut right up and be happy. he tends to go from being very smily/happy to grumpy/mad in a heartbeat so we wonder if he's going to have his first tooth soon, it would explain some of the grumpiness!

TJ is attempting to crawl with help now, and is also better at sitting every day. he will hold your fingers and rock back and forth and side to side and just giggle and smile. His skin got REALLY bad for a little while there because we had a cold going through our home and him and I got it the worst. Whenever we get sick, or the weather changes our skin tends to get whacky so right as we were recovering from the colds, the weather cooled off so for a while there (just over a week) his skin would stay dry no matter what and within an hour after a bath would be all flaky again.

It's going to be such a blessing to be able to just give Mason a bath and be done with it, lol.


For those who want to look me up, send me a message @ myspace.com/martikadragoon my profile is private but you can still message me. I'm also on facebook.


Quick update on baby Mason: I had an ultrasound a couple weeks ago and Mason has completely caught up in growth, my fundal heighth increased 5 weeks within 2 weeks and at my ultrasound at 27w he already weighed in at an est. 2lb 5oz so nice and big!!! 4 days ahead in growth also. And the sibling rivalry is already getting crazy with mason kicking and thunking TJ anytime I hold him.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Updates on TJ and baby Mason

Well we took TJ into the Gastro doctor's office for the first time since he was out of the hospital today.
We got the "OFFICIAL" ok for his therapists to start feeding training with him which is WONDERFUL. it's the first major step in getting him off his Mickey button.
he's 13 months old and weighed in at 14lbs 11oz and 25 inches long! he broke the 2 foot barrier, lol.
The Gastrointerologist wants us to begin using a new formula with him, something from the pedialyte brand but hubby was the one who took him in since I had to see my OBGYN today.
He wants us to begin giving TJ juice not only to help with him eating new things, but also to help with constipation.

Tyler has recently learned the meaning of NO, lol. He doesn't say it but will slowly shake his head back and forth if he doesn't want something. It is so cute to watch. He's also begun to say DADADADA and BABABA which is GREAT! Yesterday morning he was laying on my bed and I asked him if he wanted to be held, he shook his head no and about 15 min later when I asked again he threw his arms up really fast. If I am cleared by doctors to go we will be attending our local Buddy walk for Down SYndrome. we also plan to take TJ trick or treating (just our neighboring houses really) and he will be dressed as a "ninja baby" with a very safe, breathable mask on his face (just a "skimask" style hat made with very thin, breathable fabric)

a few nights ago we FINALLY got to see TJ sit in a shopping cart, we had a couple blankets around him but he was able to hold himself upright for about 15-20 minutes with just a couple short spells of tiredness where he didn't want to hold his head up. he's getting alot better at sitting as well, and will now use his ab muscles to pull himself up some if we are holding him in a semi reclined position.
TJ has also begun to throw tantrums, TRUE tantrums. He kicks and thrashes like crazy but will stop when I hold his legs (so he can't kick) and FIRMLY tell him NO, STOP FUSSING! (I don't yell it, lol)
The other day we had a funny situation where TJ woke up fussy in the morning and so hubby held him while we got his feeding stuff together (pump/formula/etc) and as soon as he layed TJ back down he SCREAMED as though he was being hurt. He wasn't, it was a tantrum, so hubby left the room and I patted TJ a few times to calm him a little, then walked far enough from his crib to be out of his eyesight. He stopped screaming and crying almost immediately. When I came to our room again hubby said "What did you do to get him to stop?"

He didn't believe me when I told him, but I showed him again later. he knew that his daddy didn't have his little game figured out so he was playing it for all it was worth.



update on baby Mason: Unfortunately my fundal heighth is measuring about 20-22 weeks and I'm 26 weeks along. We have an ultrasound scheduled for 1 1/2 weeks from now to see how HE is growing. With TJ I had IUGR and I kind of expected it with this baby as well since with my mom, she had it with ALL of us children (4 kids)
I've also been dealing with preterm contractions, and was in the hospital 4 times in the last week to get my contractions slowed/stopped. They would get 2-5 minutes apart, and were never regular %100 but definitely worrisome.
They did an FFN test today (fetal Fibronectin?) to see if I'll likely go into labor within the next 14 days. That would NOT be good. I will find out the results tomorrow. 3 of my visits to the hospital ended with a few hrs of monitoring and 2 shots of terbutaline each time, and 1 was with 1 1/2 hrs monitoring and procardia pills to stop ctx.
Good news is that my cervix hasn't changed really other than being about %50 effaced which I believe is fairly normal. The doctors told me that in their opinion, they think the contractions WONT lead to preterm labor/birth but are just a pain in the rear.

mason has been kicking and moving ALOT and each time they try to put monitors on me or use the doppler, he kicks the heck out of it since he doesn't like it. lol

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Teacher and therapies

Yesterday TJ's teacher came over for the first time in just over a month, since she'd been on a break.
She went to pick him up thinking he would be light, and had to stop and readjust for a better grip because he's so heavy! she was suprised. lol,

Then we played with him, practicing tummy time, reaching for things, etc. And she got out her Oball which is a toy used in therapy that has holes to make it easier for baby to grasp and is very light. At one point she had managed to shove one of those jingling cat toys into the Oball through alot of determination (because it had to stretch the hole enough to fit through but couldn't be small enough to pop out and choke some child)

Well TJ focused on that little jingling ball, and he put two and two togther, at least in his own little way.
He decided he WANTED That ball in there so he grabbed the Oball with both hands, and tried to stick his tongue thru one of the holes to get the little jingle one. it was SO funny, he had this determined look on his face as he kept moving the toy back and forth (to bring the smaller ball towards his face)

It was HILARIOUS!! My little man is getting so smart, it's unbelievable. This morning he let us sleep in nice and late (10:15am!) and when he woke up daddy made his food and then brought him into our room to snuggle while we had him hooked up to his feeding pump. He kept looking at me and studying my face (not crosseyed either, lol) and then just softly making noises and "talking"...
I can't wait to see how he changes and grows over the next few months before Mason gets here!

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

To blog followers! PLEASE READ

I wanted to thank all those following my blog for their support. Especially Joy and Claire! :) You all are wonderful and the prayers/thoughts and love were always felt during our tough times. It's amazing that we get to celebrate TJ's FIRST birthday, because there were days we thought he might not make it.

I'll be posting plenty of pictures of his birthday. Friday we will go out as a family, have dinner and take a small cake (and plenty of baby wipes!) with us to let TJ experience. We want to do this as a family, since there have been so many things we nearly missed as a family (christmas, thanksgiving, valentines day etc.) Then saturday we will have extended family and some friends for a small gathering just to do the cake thing and celebrate.

Thanks and I love you all!!!

CINDIE

SORRY! AND UPDATE! TJ birthday is FRIDAY Aug 14th!

So things with the baby are going well as well as with TJ. I apologize for not making the blog for Mason.

WE found out we're having a BOY his chromosome analysis came back NORMAL, and we find out in a few weeks if he has the skin disorder. He's growing and kicking and i'm almost 21 weeks now.

Recently TJ started LAUGHING, not just smiling. He's about 15 lbs now, and growing fast. He's learned to act out when daddy comes home. He'll thrash around and laugh til someone pays him attention, then when daddy goes out to work again from lunch, he will fuss for a couple hrs!

TJ also can now sit only semi supported, with just a chair or something behind him. Thanks to the bumbo we've used for about 6 weeks. He's more verbal but still no words. :)

If you know my myspace and would like to see video of him, it's myspace.com/martikadragoon, just send a friend invite and lemme know where your from (blogspot, babycenter, medhelp, etc..)

I'll be getting up the new blog as soon as possible!>

UPDATE!! TJ WILL BE A YEAR OLD ON FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!! Thanks to all our friends who've been with us through the entire ride with him. WIthout you we wouldn't have made it!

Cindie

Sunday, July 12, 2009

16 weeks pregnant/update on TJ

Ok so I STILL haven't gotten around to making a separate blog for this baby. What I think I'm going to do is wait til the amnio results come back and we know if it's a boy/girl and if baby is healthy... I'll do as I did with TJ's blog originally which is take what I've written on other sites and paste it together so that I have a fluid timeline.

I'm 16+ weeks pregnant and have my amnio coming up wednesday. I've been having an issue of nearly blacking out lately. I'll be walking around or standing and all of a sudden be dizzy/tunnel vision/far away hearing and start to fall over... so I have to lean on something or sit and splash my face with water. I also try to drink soemthing. but my dr's haven't told me if it's low blood suger, or heat or whatnot... i'm completely exhausted all the time too! lol.

Baby is moving around lately and I began feeling kicks and stuff at 16w mark a few days ago. I'll post about my amnio/level2 ultrasound after I have it.
my doctors also referred me to a pain management doctor to have them find a treatment for my back pain. So I've got to wait for that referral to go through.

TJ is doing well. We are working with a bumbo and little man can sign Mama now. We are fairly certain that he's teething right now. Because everyday he gets fussy for HOURS. the only thing that stops it is tylenol. We can feel 2 little bumps trying to pop up. One on his lower jaw one of the upper...

HUBBY GOT A PROMOTION! He's now DEPARTMENT MANAGER where he works. It's taken 2 years for him to get this position. It means a hefty raise and possibility of good bonuses every 2 weeks. (like $250 extra)

So we are doing well!