Emmilyn is here!

Wow!  The past two weeks have been a whirlwind!  I began this blog post several times and just haven't been able to finish.  There really has been so much that has happened in the past two weeks but with my foggy Mommy brain, here is a little bit of my story.

Emmilyn finally made her arrival at 40 weeks and 3 days.  I started to think she was never going to come and then woke up at 5am one morning with contractions.  By lunch time the contractions were all over the place and inconsistent but as I was overdue I decided I wanted to go in to see if anything was happening.  Of course, not much was happening.  The Dr. ordered me to 'walk the halls' of labor & deliver and at 6pm he would check again and either admit us or send us home. 

::sigh::  Chris and I totally thought we'd be going home.

Fast foward to 6pm, I was 5cm dilated and was admitted.  Woohoo!  Fast forward to 7pm, Chris is eating, Dr. has gone home, we are preparing for a long night and bam! -  My water breaks, I'm a 9.5cm, the Dr. is called, and the room is filled with what feels like 100 nurses frantically setting everything up for delivery, and everyone is telling me NOT to push!  27 minutes later Emmilyn arrived with no medical intervention!  Truth be told, I was waiting to get the intrathecal (my hospital doesn't offer a regular epideral) and Emmilyn came too fast for me to get it.  I am so thankful for the experience of a natural birth, though, because it is something I wanted with both babies. 

Recovery has been so much easier this time around and we were discharged from the hospital after just 24 hours.  Everything was going great (as good as the first few days at home with a newborn & toddler CAN go) and then the day after family left I woke up with horrible, make you double over, pain across my back.  I got up to use the bathroom and I had the shakes, plus a very tender belly.  Something was definitely wrong.  We had a morning checkup for Emmilyn and then Chris drove me straight to the Dr. where we discovered I had developed Endometritis, an infection in the lining of my uterus.  By the time we finally got home I had a fever of 102 and was in so much pain all I could do was lay perfectly still on the couch and there I stayed for hours.  Thanks to my amazing husband, Chris, we survived the next 24-36 hours.  The neighbors had already planned to bring us dinner that night and Chris took care of everything else.  Entertaining, bath, and bedtime for our 22 month old and feeding/changing/rocking/everything for Miss E.  With the infection & fever, nursing was just unbearable so I went upstairs to bed and woke up every few hours to pump while Chris came up to get the milk and replace it with an empty bottle ready for the next feeding.  Talk about tag-team parenting!  Chris really is super Dad and an amazing husband.  I slowly started to feel like myself but it took about 2-3 days for the fever & pain to go completely away. 

Now that I have had about 2 weeks to adjust to another baby in the house, here are a few observations I have made:

-Girls are MUCH more demanding than boys!
-Just because breastfeeding was easy with your first, doesn't mean it will be for your second.  E is gaining weight and doing great now, but she definitely requires more guidance than Landon did.
-Cloth diapering a newborn is like riding a bike.  It might just be the easiest part of caring for E so far.
-Losing weight should be easier this time because frankly, I don't have time to eat.
-In some areas I feel like a pro taking care of baby #2, yet in other areas I find I still full of worries & fears of doing the right thing.
-Putting baby in her own room earlier = better sleep for Mom.
-With one child you learn to do things one-handed.  With two children you learn to do things no-handed.
-My life is full of such joy with our newest addition.  Watching my toddler gently kiss his baby sister goodnight, and my loving husband cuddling them both.  Life doesn't get much better than this!

The Boy Who Cried Poop

Just what you were hoping for, right?  Another potty training/poop related blog post.  :)  We had a pretty relaxed 4 day weekend with lots of lounging on the couch, a few chores, and most days sleeping in until 8am.  I don't know where the sleeping in came from because Landon is usually up by 6am but I'm just referring to it as the calm before the storm since I am due with baby #2 in just 10 days now! (10 days, yay!)  Whatever may be causing him to sleep later - THANK YOU!  Despite our super exciting weekend, I am focusing on potty training because we had a little victory to celebrate! 

Public potty use!!

 I learned early on in potty training that as successful as your toddler may be at home, the public potty is a totally different beast!  In my opinion the number one reason public potty training is a challenge?  Those darn scary (& LOUD) super flushers!  When the toilet is as big as you of course that flush will scare the crap out of you!  In fact, my Aunt was telling me that the flush scared one of my cousins so bad that she would have to stop grocery shopping, run home to let her potty, and then go back to the store!  Crazy!  Anyways, we've been using one of those handy fold-up portable little potty seats for L to sit on when we are out of the house.  Those are also a big fail.  Landon has successfully used the public potty a couple of times now and you know why I think it was a success?  We ditched the stupid foldable potty (that on several occasions slips and falls in the toilet with a can't-ever-sit -still-toddler - yet again scaring him) and just help support him sitting on the potty.  Seriously so much easier.  Now if you just turned your nose or said eww at the thought of sitting your child directly on a public toilet seat I'm guessing you are one of those hoverers who are responsible for the messy toilet seat in the first place!  Wipe the seat before you sit down, do your business, then wash your hands.  All clean! 

The humerous side of this weekend's potty training came when my husband referred to Landon as 'The Boy who Cried Poop!'  I couldn't stop laughing because it is so true!  He is really starting to tell us when he has to go but he points to his butt and says - poop? (yes, as a question) - for everything.

Reasons Landon says - poop?:

-He, in fact, needs to poop.
-He needs to pee
-He wants to wash his hands (a new obsession)
-He passed gas
-Somebody is in the bathroom at home and he wants to join
-We just put on PJ's and he's avoiding bedtime
-He heard someone say the word poop
-He wants to get down from his high chair

                                                                                ....and the list goes on.

Beyond the public potty victory, potty training in general has been very up and down, day by day.  Some days he's totally on board and hardly has a single accident.  Other days it's like he forgot the concept completely.  In the big scheme of life my toddler finally going potty in public is most certainly a 'little' victory, but my blog is titled, The Little Things.  At the end of the day, isn't it those little victories that make the day an overall success?