Oval

I've been working with Karson on his shapes lately.  He has a shapes DVD that we watch and I've been helping him do a shapes puzzle while I nurse Kamden.  Monday night Aunt Kris stopped by.  I knew she'd be impressed with the shapes puzzle so I got it out.  The triangle was missing, but rather than find the missing piece right then I decided I'd do it later.  I put the puzzle pieces next to the puzzle and had Kris tell him which shape to find.  Pentagon, Octagon, Oval, Circle, Square, and Rectangle.  He found them all and I could tell Kris was impressed.  Then he yells, "Where's the triangle!"  Now Kris is really impressed.  Karson and I go find the triangle and come back to the puzzle.  Now we have Karson pick out a puzzle piece and tell us what it is.  He gets them right again.  He's so smart.

Tuesday Karson leads me to the pantry and points to peanuts.  So I put some peanuts in a small dish and let him eat them at the counter while I'm picking up the kitchen.  All of a sudden he exclaims, "OVAL!!" and holds up a peanut.  That smart little stinker really knows his shapes and not just the pieces of the puzzle.  Later, we were watching something on TV that had stars on it and Karson runs up and points at the TV and says Star.  I can't believe it!!!  Now, I'm going to start working on letters and numbers so people really think he's smart.

Another Karson funny...I will count to three and he will run to the back door and then I count to three again and he'll run back.  Well, the other day I decided to count in Spanish.  Uno, Dos, Tres.  Karson just smiled and ran to the back door.  Then, I counted in English.  One, Two, Three.  Karson says, "No, Dora."  He wanted me to count in Spanish like Dora.  What a funny kid.

First Big Bad Mommy Moment with Kamden

I always try to bathe Kamden before he eats so he doesn't spit up right after he's clean. We didn't get his bath in Wednesday night, so I did it quick before work on Thursday. He was starving since he hadn't eaten his 'breakfast' yet and was screaming the whole time. So in my rush to get him dressed so he could eat I was trying to put his lotion on in the bathroom (I usually do this in the bedroom), and I dropped a big full bottle of baby lotion on his face!!! The lotion sits on the window sill out of Karson's reach and Kamden was on the towel chest right below it. Of course he cried pretty much the loudest I've ever heard him cry. Dustin was still home and came running. He did a good job reassuring me everything was fine, but I thought for sure I broke his little nose or gave him a black eye. Kamden is just fine and only cried for about 30 seconds. Of course I popped him on the boob right there in the bathroom because I felt so bad. If this is the worse thing I do to him in his life I think we'll do just fine.

On a pissed off note, the hospital I delivered Kamden at has just lifted the no kids ban. So in the three week span I had Kamden they didn't allow siblings and now they do. I am livid about this. I want to go to the higher ups at the hospital's house and burn all the pics of their children together in the first three days of life and see how they like having that memory taken. Grrr!!! Something I will never be able to get back and there is nothing I can do about it. I guess I'll just go kick rocks.

Back to Work

I was more than ready to return to work. The boys have been wearing me out!! Work is like a vacation. It helps that my daycare lady knows our "system" and is here in town same as me. Also, only working three days a week makes for plenty of time with my boys.

Kamden is three weeks old and doing great. He is an easy baby so far (knock on wood). He only cries when he's hungry and even then I wouldn't call it crying so much as grunting. Dustin keeps trying to make things quiet and dark. I tell him to knock it off, Karson can be screaming and I can be vacuuming all while Kamden is sitting in direct sunlight and it never seems to affect him. I really don't want Kamden to become a light sleeper.

Karson is a fantastic big brother. He comes running whenever Kamden cries. Karson likes it when his baby is happy and so do I. For the most part Karson ignores the baby. When I'm nursing Kamden, Karson knows I'm not going to get up and he takes advantage of this time. He drags all his toys out and does things he knows he's not supposed to because he knows I'm not going to stop him. One of these days I'm going to pretend to nurse Kamden and I'm going to jump up and put Karson in time out. That ought to show him!!

Karson is getting so big. We've been working on his colors. He knows the basic ones, but he knows them by character. For instance, Red is Elmo (because we say red like Elmo), Green is Percy, Blue is Thomas, Orange is Grandma's pop, White is just White, Black is just Black, and Yellow is like a duck (rubber duck). Karson is to funny. We were driving down the road yesterday when I passed a semi. Karson says big truck Thomas. Yes, it was a big blue semi. So smart, kind of. He also is talking a ton. When I pump for Kamden, Karson will say, "Milk out baby" (milk out for baby). Most of the time you can understand what he wants, even if you won't let him have it.

All in all we're getting along just fine. Dustin doesn't want me to go back to work, but I need to get out of the house and away from the kids. I love my boys, but I can appreciate them more when I get a break.

It's a Boy!!! (Birth Story)

I had been having contractions for a couple of weeks, but nothing really painful or consistent. So, by the time our scheduled induction rolled around I was more than ready. On the morning of October 19 Dustin and I rounded up our things, picked up my mom, dropped Karson off at daycare, and headed to Waterloo to meet Alisia for breakfast at Village Inn before all the excitement began.

We arrived at the hospital at 8:00 am to begin our induction. The first hour was spent getting settled in, getting blood drawn, and starting my antibiotics for Group B Strep. My contractions were 4 minutes apart and I was already 4 cm dilated and 75% effaced. At 9:00 we started pitocin. That brought my contractions closer together and much stronger.

Sometime between 10:30 and 11:00 I got my epidural and was very comfortable. At 11:45 I was 5 cm dilated and the Dr broke my water. Then the nurse left to go eat lunch before things started happening. About 1:00 I started feeling contractions low in my stomach. With each contraction I could feel water gushing. I decided to just wait for my nurse to come back and let her know what I was feeling. In the mean time I kept pushing my button to up my epidural.

My nurse, Lindsey, came back at about 1:30 and asked if anyone had checked on me. I said no and she said she had gotten caught up helping set up a c-section and figured someone would have checked on me. I told her it was no big deal and told her what I was feeling. When she went to check me my bed was soaked so she changed the sheets. Then she checked me and I was fully dilated and the head was right there.

The nurse called for my Dr, who was in a c section. Dr. Rellihan arrived at about 1:45 and had me do a practice push. I hardly started to push and she says STOP, STOP!! The head was already coming out. She said don't laugh or cough and turned around to put her gloves on while the nurses removed the end of the bed. Dustin later told me he was afraid to leave the foot of the bed because the head was half way out.

Dr Rellihan was ready to deliver the baby and told me to push. I felt the head "pop" out and then the body. I don't think the feet were even out and Dustin yelled "Oh, it's a boy!!" At 1:51 pm Kamden Nile was born weighing 8 lbs 5.4 oz and was 21.75 inches long. His head was 14 inches and his chest was 13.5 inches.

Just before I delivered Kamden, Alisia arrived at the hospital and ended up being in the room for the delivery. We spent an hour trying to figure out what to name our little bundle. Everytime we mentioned Kamden he responded so we went with it.

Karson was not able to come to the hospital due to H1N1 which quite frankly ruined my birth experience. Dustin had to leave a few times to take care of Karson and I spent half my time worrying about who he was with and how he was doing. All in all things went great.