An Unexpected Beginning: September 2013

August 23, 2013…a date I still have to stutter through when someone asks when she was born. I was so sure that I would go past my due date this time that I don’t think we were quite prepared for baby! We still aren’t sure what happened this time, but we may find out more soon. All we know now is that we have once again been blessed. God has given us another beautiful child that we are just in total awe of every day.

The morning of August 22, I was trying to clumsily do laundry, and as I was carrying the laundry bag with the metal bars (that may not make sense but we have those hanging laundry bags), I hit the doorway with the end of the metal bar on my way out of our room. The other end of the metal bar hit my lower pelvis. It hurt like heck, but it was low enough that I didn’t really think of it hurting baby. We went on with our day. Right before Matt left for work around 2 pm that day, I started feeling what I thought was Braxton Hicks contractions…they weren’t painful but they were super regular. It was a Thursday afternoon, and I told Matt as he was walking out the door that I wasn’t making it through the weekend. By the time Matt got home from work at 1:30 the next morning, I had our bags packed and ready to go. I still laid back down in bed because I had no clue what to do with LJ at 2 AM! I was hoping that things would slow down until morning when I could make some phone calls!

Also, my parents purposely didn’t travel much during my later pregnancy because none of us really knew what was going to happen this time, and we haven’t let anyone but them take care of LJ since he was born. My sister and her family moved a couple of months ago, so we didn’t have anyone else to call. However, my Dad’s class reunion was that weekend in Oregon, so they went for a long weekend. Mom and Dad got there Thursday afternoon and were back in Atlanta Friday afternoon to take care of LJ…talk about the best parents in the world! In the meantime, LJ came to the hospital with us, and as soon as it got late enough, our neighbor and dear friend, Ashley, agreed to entertain LJ for the day until my parents made it back. That was my biggest stress relieved!

Anyway, 18 hours later, Kaycie Blair Sullivan made an appearance at 5 lbs. 10 oz. and 19 inches long. Even though she was bigger than LJ, I felt the whole process to be much smoother than with him. She went to the NICU for about 6 hours because she was grunting quite a bit, but she met us in our room when we got there. Totally strange and surreal experience having her with us in her first hours of life! Kaycie was born on Friday and we went home on Sunday…all of us. Kaycie was healthy. We ended up coming home with a bili-bed for jaundice, but she was finished with it on Monday. She struggled initially with food, but we are getting there. She is having a hard time breastfeeding. The suck, swallow, breathe reflex only kicks in at 34 weeks and with her being 35, she could not nurse well enough to get what she needed. We are working on it, but she seems to be losing interest in even trying. Unfortunately, for this tired mama and her antsy toddler, we are still pumping then nursing every 2.5 hours or so. I am determined to get her breast milk for as long as possible still, so I will do what I have to do.

It was actually sort of strange having her in the room with us for the 2 days we were in the hospital. There were a few little hiccups, especially with feedings, in those first days. It was a little frustrating. We kept being told, “Oh, it’s because she is still a preemie.” That was a great answer, but no one seemed overly helpful in getting things figured out. With LJ, we had someone right there every second of the day monitoring him, and this time, Kaycie was sort of in a middle ground of being labeled a preemie but not being severe enough for the NICU. We still didn’t know if she would be coming home with us until a few hours before we left. Since she was a 35 weeker, she had to do the car seat test, which she passed with a breeze, but they were concerned about the jaundice a eating, but didn’t offer much help. I have to say, if we hadn’t been through the extremes with LJ, I would have been in tears. Luckily, we had been taught how to get the food down one way or another, I knew to ask for a pump (which I thought strange they didn’t offer), I had to demand a lactation consultant get to us. While we are so blessed to have had it easy this time, I was a little disappointed that the nurses seemed to blow us off until one of them happened to be in the room when we were going through our feeding troubles. We even ended up with the director in our room apologizing for the lack of support and explaining their lack of staffing…it is done, and I would still never have a baby any place else.

Anyway, LJ is adjusting. He had the hardest time with me the first week or so. He was mad at me, which in turn broke my heart. The way he would look at me made me so sad to have “done” this to him. At the same time, he immediately showed interest in his sister without getting too close. Now, at the end of 3 weeks, he tells her, “Love you seester.” I feel much better after those first heart wrenching days.

LJ has seemed to grow up immensely. I don’t know if it is because we look at him differently or if he is really just growing up. He has become much more independent, he is using his words to let us know what he wants instead of just calling out random words, he watches his sister and tries to comfort her when she cries. He is going to be a great big brother!

Matt took the first week off work and mom came to help for a day too. I decided I wanted the inside of the house painted the week before Kaycie came. I joked that it would be halfway painted when Kaycie came…I thought I was only joking. I had painted the lower half of the house, so when we came home, we came home to a halfway painted house and a dusty mess from hanging TV’s and moving furniture…poor Matt spent a day finishing my handiwork, but I am so happy we now have a freshly painted house to go with a fresh new family member!

I have to say, the 2 weeks that Matt has been back at work have been tiring. I knew it would be, but LJ got on a schedule in the hospital. Kaycie is struggling to find one, so we have been all over the place! It seems as though as soon as we finish a rotation of feeding LJ, feeding Kaycie, feeding dogs, pumping, washing bottles, it is time to start over. I was worried about Matt working nights, but it has worked so far! He has been up to help with the breakfast rush and to get us dressed, bathed, and going for the day. The afternoons have been crazy, but we have figured it out! Most days we haven’t gotten around to making it around the house before dinner time, but we have braved the YMCA once so far, and today I decided I had to go to the store because I haven’t been since we have been home. The Y was ok…I had to walk to track with the stroller because Kaycie can’t go to the play center until she is 3 months old, but it is nice to get out and get a little exercise since it is too hot outside for her. The grocery store on the other hand, was a disaster today! LJ was always easy to tote around, but Kaycie doesn’t seem to like to hang out in the carrier for too long…I told Matt that grocery shopping may have to be a solo event for the sake of our pocketbook for awhile...I even had a list, and I still found myself throwing things in the cart to hurry and get out of there!

It has taken me 3 days and multiple tries to ramble this much, so I am done for now! I am sure we will have more updates soon!