Getting Out and About

Hi everyone,

When we brought Willow home from the hospital, we were basically house-bound for awhile, afraid to take her anywhere for fear of germs. It's been very different with Seda! Now that those first hazy, sleep-deprived and sore (me) weeks are over (mostly), we've actually been getting out and about! I feel like if we didn't, I might go insane, what with the eternal winter and all. Josh is still off work (did I even mention that he was off work?); he got a few days in working for my dad doing some plumbing in their new house, and worked for Chad a few days too. Those days, I was on my own with the girls, and it was hard, I won't lie. But mostly, we've all been home (Willow has Little Huskies on Mondays and Tuesdays).

After a gymnastics session failed miserably a few months ago (Willow didn't want to participate), I decided to try again with a dance class. This time, she loves it! It's pretty funny; I spend most of the class laughing. The little girls are so cute. This photo's not the greatest, but you get the idea. Willow's the one in red.

 

A little more about Willow, since we've been talking a lot about Seda...I also realized I didn't do a "Willow update" on her birthday post like I used to.

How to describe Willow at age 4...hm. Willow is definitely a little girl now, not a toddler by any means. She has just recently started to really test boundaries, putting us to the test, discipline-wise. I read 3 or 4 discipline books when she was about 2, but I don't think I really needed any of that info until now. A 4-year-old's naughtiness is much more sophisticated than a 2-year-old's. Josh and I confer a lot to try to make sure we are being consistent and back each other up, and also that we are not being too harsh. "Gentle discipline" is a term you hear a lot in attachment parenting circles, but I am not sure what it really means. I guess we're figuring out our own methods as we go. If one of us is getting too angry, we try to "tag team" and relieve that person. We've learned not to criticize the other's methods in front of Willow. It is a constant challenge but I think we are improving all the time.

That said, she is also the sweetest girl, and is really funny. She really does love her baby sister, and makes up lullabies to sing to Seda when she is crying.

Willow loves to draw and color, and is pretty darn good at it. She is learning letter sounds at the moment and can write many letters. She still loves to sing, and makes up her own songs. Often they are about rainbows, horses, mountains, clouds, things like that. She does like to dress up; her favorite outfit is this party dress my mom got for her. She's wear it every day if she could.

Some of Willow's favorite foods are spaghetti, cereal, yogurt, carrots...and chocolate. She is not so attached to Elmo, Da or any other specific animal anymore but she loves her little pillow. She loves being read to - we read many stories every day. That is my quick summary of Willow. :)

We've been taking advantage of the endless winter and still trying to get outside. We brought Willow skiing again the other day, and Seda came along too.

 

She made a snowman with Daddy.

Here is a snowman her class at school made (with a little help from the teacher of course). Willow actually has her back to the camera (she's the one in the light green jacket), but I love this picture. Can you believe it was taken on April 8? (Actually, today is April 23 and we have just as much snow as we did then, if not more).

Here's Josh, Willow and Scout hiking at Maasto Hiito. I was behind them with Seda.

 

My preemie mom club got together at Andi's house one day. It was the first time we got together with the kids, since Mary joined. So it was the first time we all met her son Grey. He's the one on the left. What a cutie. These kids were all 25 or 26-weekers. We had a ton of fun by the way. After a while, we put the kids in front of a movie and took a hot tub!

Willow and I (and Seda) have been frequenting story time at the library, which is just a short walk away.

Two weekends ago, we all got out for live music - twice! First we went and saw our friend Lucas play at a bar in Houghton. Yes, we brought two kids to the bar. It was cool though. It was really early, and very chill (the photo makes it seem like no one was there, but there were actually some people there).

The next day we went to the "dam jam", which was a fundraiser concert for the Keweenaw Land Trust. There were many different musicians playing. It was fun, although got pretty crowded at the end.

We went out to Scott and Sharon's  house to meet Jari. He's the one who was not visible in the "baby in, baby out" photo from my last post, Now, he is here!

So that's what we've been up to, along with a lot of hanging out around the house. Seda is 6 weeks old now. She is doing a lot of smiling lately, and just in the past 2 days we've heard some cooing. Fun stuff. Nursing is going well. Too well, really. Every time I feed her, the boob that I'm not using leaks like crazy, which makes it a little harder to nurse in public, though I do it. At home, I use a bottle to collect the milk from the other boob. I'm accumulating a nice freezer stash this way (though I have no plans to end up with two chest freezers full this time!).

We've also been trying to get her started on bottles. Josh has been giving her one a day. We've had mixed results.

Well, I have to go and pick up Willow...gotta run! Here are a few more photos to leave you with.

 

Seda Lee

Hi everyone!

Most of you have heard by now that Seda Lee Jenson (pronounced "see-da") was born on March 10. It's now March 19, and while she is napping in her bouncy chair I am going to try to squeeze in a photo-heavy blog post.

I went into labor spontaneously the night of Saturday, March 9. It was 11:00, midnight with the time change. I was asleep and woke up because my water broke. I noticed I was having contractions too. I went downstairs and told Josh. We tried to sleep and chill out a bit during the early labor, but I couldn't sleep; I was too excited. Throughout the night the contractions got stronger and closer together. At about 4 AM we called Jess, my doula. Then I called my doctor and got the only bad news of the whole affair - she was out of town! She was in Marquette for her kid's basketball tournament. This meant that the other doctor, Dr. F., was on call to deliver my baby. I was pretty upset for a bit. I really like my doctor, and she had been very supportive of the type of birth I wanted to have (which I won't get into, here), whereas the other doctor, wasn't so much. But I had more important things to worry about and we had to get over it. We headed for the hospital and arrived there at about 7 AM. One of my favorite OB nurses was working (remember I work there so I know everyone), and she was training a new one who I also really like, who was just at my orientation the week before.

I won't go into all the crazy details here, but I labored for another 7 hours once we got there and Seda was born at 1:55 PM on Sunday. All I can say about giving birth is, it was crazy intense - indescribable, really -  and my experience was everything I was hoping it would be. I want to say right off the bat, to redeem my comments above about Dr. F., that he was just awesome. 100% respectful and professional, and followed my birth plan exactly. I had nothing to worry about. I am honestly filled with gratitude towards him right now.

The birth was as natural as possible under the circumstances. I had no pain meds at all, and the only drug I got was after the birth when they gave me a shot of pitocin in the arm, to help the uterus shrink down or whatever. They made me have a "hep lock" in my arm just in case, but I had no IV. I also had to have continuous fetal monitoring, which meant no water birth, but that was OK with me. I am so, so grateful that I got to experience this; I'm still trying to process it in my brain by writing about it in my journal. It was just awesome.

Here's a picture of us shortly after the birth. I don't feel it's too indecent and don't mind sharing it. Seda was the pinkest baby our doula ever saw when she came out. Her apgars were 9 and 9. She was 6 pounds, 4.5 ounces.

I know I've already praised Dr. F., but I also just have to say that Aspirus Keweenaw was awesome all around. I'm not just saying that because I work there. Everyone - the nurses, CNAs, kitchen staff -  was just amazing and the experience could not have been much better.


And here are a bunch of pictures of Seda. These were all taken at home.

 This is the "I'm hungry" face. She's been a great eater so far.

 

 And here's the big sister. Willow has taken it pretty well so far, I think. She's been a little demanding, but I think she is starting to understand. She does love to help by running for diapers, etc. :)

 

My friend Sharon stopped by for a visit a couple days ago. Her due date is the day after mine was (March 25). I call this photo "baby out, baby in".

  

 Seda also had her first outing 3 days after her birth - a weight check at her doctor's. I was feeling pretty good that day, and after the appointment, we all went out to lunch! It was a pretty incredible feeling being out and about 3 days after giving birth! By the way, we left the hospital the day after she was born. A 1-day hospital stay for Seda, in contract to Willow's 105-day stay. :)

 

 And finally, here is a video of Willow in her awesome snow fort that Daddy helped her build. We've been trying to get her outside daily on her non-school days to blow off some steam. It's needed!

Willow's birthday / 37 weeks!

I know, I've been slacking off on the blog. Things have been just a *little* hectic around here lately. I guess once the baby is born, who knows what will happen to the blog...maybe I'll have time to update it while I am on maternity leave? Or maybe I'm completely delusional in thinking that. In the meantime, every spare minute of the past month has been occupied, basically. This weekend we finally had a second to breathe, sort of. I actually feel OK enough about work now that I didn't feel the need to work this weekend, and at home we are getting closer to being ready. Josh has brought Willow to a "bouncy house" fundraiser at the SDC. I just paid bills and am trying to squeeze in a blog post before they return.

First off, yes, I am still pregnant. I'm 37 weeks today. The baby could come now and it wouldn't even have to go to the NICU. I just took our big stash of preemie books and put them in the box for St. Vinny's! I am so thankful and still can't believe I did it. Here's a picture of me from last weekend at 36 weeks. It was on Facebook too, but for those of you who are not on Facebook, I wanted to post it here as well.

 

My last appointment in Wausau was February 11, and everything was fine - so good that he said I did not have to come back for the final appointment. Right now I'm focusing on preparing for the birth; I've been reading a ton, and have a doula ready to go. Yesterday we took a childbirth class too. I am so excited to actually experience birth! :)

But enough about me. Someone had a birthday recently. Willow turned 4 on February 19. The weekend before, we had a sledding birthday party at the Nara chalet and sledding hill. The party was a smashing success, if I do say so myself. The weather cooperated for sledding, Grandma made an amazing cake, and everyone seemed to have a good time. There were no meltdowns or crying by anyone! Here are a bunch of photos:

Margot, the youngest attendee:

 Cameron and Jess:

Willow and Papa:

Anna and Maisa:

Aspen:

DaveO and Amelia:

Scott and Garrison:

Andi and Cat:

Willow and Maisa:

Here's Garrison taking his turn at pin-the-tail on the pony. The party had sort of a horse/pony/unicorn theme. Willow is very into these lately.

Here's a shot of everyone eating. Somehow, I didn't really get a photo of Lewis or Jacob. I wish I would've taken a group shot of all the kids together!

And finally, here is a video of the Happy Birthday song, plus you can see the pony cake my mom made. It was a huge hit.

By my next post, we may have some baby photos!

Winter Fun, Still Pregnant!

Winter finally, belatedly arrived, and with a vengeance! We took all of these shots after our first real snow. Since then, it really hasn't stopped snowing. It's been so fun.

Willow still likes playing in her cedar tree, even in the winter.

We took her on her first snowshoeing outing. What a beautiful day it was; we even had some sun. She rode in a sled pulled by dad for part of the way, and walked in her own little snowshoes for part of the way. The snow had a crust on top, and at times Willow was light enough to walk across without busting through. We went up by the Quincy mine, which is why there are various artifacts in the background of some of these photos.

I thought this photo was especially cool, with the train. As you can see, Scout had a great time as well.

We stopped at a mound so Willow could climb. Scout loves to chase snowballs and catch them in mid-air. You can see the snowball up at the top of this photo.

Catching one.

We also took Willow out (cross country) skiing. She got skis for Christmas. She actually did a pretty good job, and really enjoyed it too! She didn't want to stop, even though it was getting dark.

Before we put her skis on, we did a lap ourselves with Willow on dad's back. She wasn't too happy about that and kept yelling "get me out of here!". The days in the ergo carrier might be numbered, even though Willow does still only weigh 27 pounds. We decided it might just be because she's so far down, and to see anything she has to lean back, and it gets uncomfortable. So Josh picked up a new carrier (I think we now own six baby carriers!) at the consignment store - it's the type with an aluminum frame where the kids is up higher, and more supported. We will see if it works. Willow was excited about it at home, anyway. The ergo has been wonderful, and will be again for the new baby.

These photos crack me up. This is what happens when you let your kid play with your phone. We were trying to keep her entertained while we were at the store shopping for carpet. You can see carpet rolls in the background of one of the shots.

 

 

We painted the new baby's bedroom, and are also putting in new carpet in that room, plus Willow's bedroom and ours too. We are also getting a new window in the baby's room. This is all great but it is just not happening fast enough for me. I guess I have the nesting instinct going on, but it's fierce! I just want the room to be done so that I can organize it and get everything ready. I also am going crazy because I don't have any time to do these things. Josh is going to Bohemia today so I won't be able to do anything today. I don't begrudge him for that though. I am just jealous. It's going to be a powder day. Anyway, I think when Mother Nature created this nesting instinct, she wasn't counting on moms who work full time. Maybe mine is especially strong since it never had a chance to kick in before Willow was born!

So, yes, I am still pregnant. 32 weeks tomorrow! Blows my mind. After the appointment in Wausau that I wrote about in the last post, I was more worried than I let on in the post. After that appointment, when I saw my regular OB, I had asked her what she thought the perinatologist might do if the baby still wasn't growing like he'd like by my next appointment. She said "he might want to deliver...". The other problem was that I wasn't really gaining weight either. So I was pretty scared. Stupid as it sounds, I was also stressing hard about work, because I'm not prepared yet and I was thinking if I had to deliver in 2 weeks or something, everything would fall apart. I decided what I'd do is just pig out hard for the whole 3 weeks, and I did. I can hardly remember what it is like to be hungry. I just eat constantly. It's not as fun as it sounds. That and the butt-in-the air clothespin thing sort of consumed me for a few weeks.

All the efforts may have paid off though, because I went to Wausau again this past Wednesday and it was good news all around! Josh came with this time too. I gained 5 pounds. The baby stayed on the same growth curve and is now up to 3.5 pounds. And, it flipped and is now head down! So Dr. J. the perinatologist was happy. And I was so relieved I started crying when we left his office. I had my regular OB appointment the next day and she gave me a high five about the baby flipping. Sorry, Sharon and Amy...I guess you will not get to see a photo of me doing the clothespin thing. I was going to post one, but since I'm not doing it anymore, too bad. :)

So all is well in prego-land. I never thought I would be this big. I'll have to post a belly shot soon. Right now I'm in my pajamas and Josh is still asleep so he can't take my photo. But I am big! it's so great. I am trying to savor it.