A New Normal

First, let me officially introduce the newest addition to our family, Conrad Ashley. Conrad arrived on Monday weighing in at 7 lbs 12 oz and 20 inches long.

I had a quick labor but significantly painful delivery. Apparently my body and epidurals don't get along. With Joseph my epi wore off on one side after an hour. I had to get a 2nd epi, which was so dense, I couldn't move my legs for 6 hours after he was born. The upside was that I felt nothing when delivering him. The same thing happened this time, except I was 9 cm dilated when it wore off....and it hurt...bad, really bad....like "Get this kid out now!!!!!!" bad. I begged my nurse to call the anesthesiologist but instead she sent my OB in to break the news that I had no time for an epi re-do and was going to have to deliver virtually pain-med free (at least on one side). I pushed for 10 min with Joseph so I thought to myself "You can do anything for 10 minutes." Well, 10 minutes turned into about 30 min this time. There was some screaming of "Ow. It hurts. It hurts" and "Just let me push!", searing pain and unbelievable pressure and he arrived....beautiful, healthy and significantly larger than anyone in the room was expecting. My OB looked at me and said "Well, I'm glad we did this a week early because next week would have been a whole different delivery."

The last few days have been happy, wonderful, crazy, chaotic and tiring all at the same time. Conrad is a great eater - he likes to eat every 2-2 1/2 hours, which is a daunting task when breastfeeding. He seems content to be put in a bouncy chair or swing for 30 minute stretches - something Joseph was never happy about.

Joseph loves his brother - he's so interested in him and comes running every time he makes a noise to see what he is doing. He loves helping me with diaper changes. He brings me the supplies and waits patiently to put the dirty diaper in the trash for me. He likes to tell me that Conrad has a "butt" and a "pee pee". Conrad is rather dramatic about his diaper changes and Joseph loves to mimic both the sound and volume of his crying and laughs his head off afterwards. Joseph continues to be hyperactive so balancing his need to go "out! out! out!" and my recovery and newborn care is well, hmmmm....challenging. Thank god my mom is here and keeping Joseph entertained. I think I may kidnap her and force her to stay past next Sunday.

I promise to have more pictures and videos up soon. Right now they are still sitting on our cameras and on a long to-do list we need to get to. This to-do list also includes updating the name and look of this blog. Right now we are in serious survival mode. Here is a small glimpse of why it's hard to get much done these days...

8 am - My mom has made everyone breakfast and is cleaning the kitchen. I'm trying to eat while balancing Joseph's desire to climb on the couch and sit with me and climb back off to sit and eat his breakfast....a pattern that repeats 50 times in 10 minutes. Conrad is happily sleeping in his Moses basket. I manage to get on Facebook for 3 minutes. Everything is relatively calm. Then in 2 seconds all hell breaks loose. Conrad starts screaming and I realize he's soaked through (damn leaky diapers). He screams his head off while I change him and while trying to calm him down he starts sucking my neck....time for another feeding! I get him settled in for a feeding, which Joseph sees as an opportune time to run and jump on the couch. After 5 requests to sit down, he gives me a devil-ish grin and continues. My mom swoops in him to send him off to timeout - 2 minutes of Joseph screaming. He comes back out calmer but 30 minutes later and Conrad is still feeding, breakfast is cold and Joseph is begging my mom to take him "out".

So please forgive us if your e-mail goes unanswered, I don't pick up your phone call or you don't see a ton of pictures for a little longer. We're just figuring this 2 kid thing out.

Here's one last post...

before I have a baby!!!

So it looks like tomorrow is the day. On Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, I was starting to think I wouldn't make it that far, but as quick as my contractions came, they went. So unless sometime in the next 11 hours, I go into labor, I'll be headed to the hospital at 7 am tomorrow for induction.

I am not sure if the full reality that I am having a baby tomorrow has hit me. The bag is packed, the nursery is ready, in addition to the mounds of plastic toddler toys there are the plastic newborn essentials of a swing and bouncy seat overtaking our den. However, I have not fully wrapped my head around the idea that I will have a second child this time tomorrow. There have been a few times today when it hit me...when Rich and I drove past the hospital or as I was putting Joseph to bed and told him he'd be a big brother tomorrow...and I would tear up thinking about what an amazing moment it's going to be to meet my second baby boy tomorrow.

So tonight will likely be a restless night of sleep...a mix of anxiety and excitement. Anxious that my labor and delivery will go smoothly, that our baby boy will arrive perfectly healthy, excited to see what he looks like and excited to see Joseph's reaction when he meets him. We can't wait to share our joy and excitement with you tomorrow!

March 15th!

Until today if someone said "March 15th" to mean, I would immediately think "Public company 10-K Filing Deadline!!!" I know for most of you, I just spoke Chinese but as a CPA in audit, March 15th meant my client's deadline for their annual financial statement filings. It meant a long week of 80+ hours at work, working Saturday and Sunday, eating lunch and dinner at my desk, thinking about work so much that I would literally dream about accounting rules and regulations at night.

Well, it looks like March 15th is about to be totally re-defined. Conrad's induction is scheduled for next Monday, the 15th! We had an ultrasound today to make sure the fluid levels looked ok (they did!) and get an estimated weight (7 lbs 3 oz). Conrad is in the 50th percentile for his gestational age and looked great! We saw a 3-D image of his face and although he wasn't being very cooperative (he wanted his hands over his face), he did get one little peak at his sweet little face. His nose looked like Joseph's! We could only pick up some fuzz on the top of his head so he may not have the full head of dark hair Joseph had. We are thinking fuzz may equal blond????

I am very progressed. I will save you the details on the status of my cervix....but today at 38 weeks, I was as progressed as I was when I was induced with Joseph at 40 1/2 weeks. Based on my previous induction history, my doctor thinks I'll be holding Conrad by mid-afternoon on Monday. We promise to keep everyone updated once he is here!!!!

The only catch to this whole plan is that the doctor delivering (who happens to be one of my favorites) is a Syracuse grad (i.e Georgetown's big rival) and the Big East tournament is scheduled for this weekend. Georgetown is scheduled to play Syracuse in the quarter-final and some trash talking went down at the appointment today. I stayed out of it, but since it's not Rich being poked and prodded by this man, he didn't seem to mind talking crap while my doctor examined me. Someone is going to have to eat their words on Monday morning...let's hope it's the doctor!

I know the next week will go by quickly but I am so anxious and excited to meet this little man and welcome him to our family.

Stinky Feet

You probably thought the title of this post was some clever name for something not actually related to feet. Nope, it's really about stinky feet. That's because Joseph's feet stink. They have since the beginning. I think most people would think I am crazy but both my mom and Richard can verify this. If Joseph was in socks or footed PJs for any length of time, even as a newborn, his feet would stink. It's gotten worse since he started walking and wearing shoes.

These days the kid loves his dinosaur Vans (a gift from Uncle Jeff) but they've been worn so much, there is some serious odor going on. If he's been wearing them and I take them off, I literally have to put a blanket over his feet when I am sitting next to him. If I leave the shoes out and walk by, I can smell them.

Joseph thinks his funny. We tell him "Your feet stink!" and he laughs. We think he kind of likes the way he smells. Hence, the reason why he often smells his own feet after we take his shoes off. It looks something like this:

Add this is reason #4592 that Joseph is just like his father. First, his feet stink...and anyone who has been around Rich for more than 24 hours, knows where this trait has been inherited from. I used to make Rich go wash his feet when he took off his shoes in my apartment at college. He blames it on years of competitive running. I blame it on genetics. Second, Rich takes a weird pleasure in his foot odor. He seems rather proud of it and frequently exclaims "Wow, my dogs are barking tonight!" when he takes his shoes off after work. I refuse to touch his socks. I'll spare you any further details as some of you may have just finished eating....

Neat Freak

Could my son get any more like his father? I really don't think so.

Over the last few months it's become obvious that Joseph has yet another one of Richard's personality traits. He's a neat freak. He doesn't like to get dirty. His clothes have to be just so.

Richard can't stand to get a spot on a shirt or a smudge on the couch fabric. He'll obsess over it to the point of exhaustion (as in I am so tired of hearing about it, that I am about to scream). Richard's clothes have to be just perfect before he leaves the house. He re-ties his tie countless times in the mornings, his collars have to be folded perfectly and he uses insane amounts of spray starch to get his clothes the precise crispness he requires.

It's clear that in his little toddler way, Joseph is already exhibiting these habits. The other day he was drawing with a pen and somehow that pen meandered from the paper to his little foot. All of the sudden he starts shrieking and screaming "uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh". He comes running to me terrified and points to the ink marks on his foot. I reassured him it was ok, but his screaming only increased until I finally took him to the bathroom and scrubbed the ink off. Of course, the lightest of marks stained his foot and that was just not tolerable. He kept pointing at it, yelling "No!" until I finally put some socks on him to help him forget about it.

Play-doh and finger painting is of little interest around here. He touches play-doh and makes a disgusted face before throwing it down and walking away. Foods that a normal toddler would eat with his hands, have to be eaten with a fork. Banana slices and peanut butter & jelly sandwiches freak him out if they get on his hands. When eating any of these foods, I have to sit next to him with a washcloth ready to wipes his hands constantly throughout the meal.

Last weekend we had a quick bout of spring weather. It was so nice we actually were able to play in the backyard. Joseph had a great time re-acquainting with his slides and balls after a long winter away. The only problem is that it was still a little wet and muddy. This caused major problems after tumbling down the slide.

Some pictures before sliding down the slide:

Post-slide, as he realizes there is dirt on his hands.

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And his attempt to wipe his hands clean on me (which is also an awesome habit - he won't wipe dirty hands on himself, only on us):

So my advice to everyone reading this would be to buy some stock in spray starch companies in the next few years. We're going to be using even more of it around here before long...

A rare sight...

Joseph actually sitting and reading a book. Even stranger, Joseph sitting and reading a book for long enough to let me get the camera and grab a few shots.

Trust me people...this is rare...really, really rare. However, lately he's been really into this Train book he has. He's mostly into it because it has a lot of lift and look flaps and he likes to point out things like clocks, puppies and babies. He's been handing us the book and pointing to his chair and insisting we sit and read it together.

Of course, as much as he likes the book, we still only get about 5 minutes of reading time in before he gets fidgety.

Starting to get a little rambunctious opening the flaps of the book....

Off Daddy's lap and demanding to take his paci with him...

And we've officially lost interest in the book and moved on to shaking the floor lamp...

5 minutes of reading a day....that's better than we were doing!

Happy!!!!

Any parent knows that as many hopes and dreams that you have for child, the one thing you really care about is just that they are happy. Somewhere around 2-3 months old, they start smiling and cooing and eventually giggling to let you know that they are happy. As they get older, they find more ways to express their happiness.

Recently, Joseph has learned a very direct way of letting us know he is happy. He simply starts yelling "Happy!" The first time he did it, it took me by surprise because I didn't even know the word "happy" was in his vocabulary. We pulled into the parking lot of his music class, which he LOVES, and he just threw his hands up in the air, kicked his legs and screamed "Happy! Happy! Happy!" over and over again. Since then he has been saying it for all sorts of things...like seeing a puppy at the pet store, realizing our trip to the mall is going to include a stop at the bookstore play area, Daddy walking through the door at the end of the long day (this makes me yell "Happy!" too). There is nothing like the pure, unfiltered joy that only a child can express.

Joseph is also clearly starting to understand that others people have emotions too. I had been sick for 2 weeks (part of the reason for the horrible lack of recent blogging) and finally last Wednesday had just had enough. I was tired, I felt horrible, I hadn't smelled anything or tasted food for over a week, I was over being pregnant. As I sat and watched Joseph play it all seemed overwhelming and I just started crying....well sobbing, really. He came over to me and said "sad", gave me a hug and then smiled at me and said "happy!". It was one of the sweetest things he's ever done and also the first time he'd ever used the word "sad". I am constantly amazed by the things he comes up with sometimes.

Now we are working on him saying "mad" and "frustrated" instead of throwing his toys, hitting me or throwing himself on the floor while kicking and screaming. It might be awhile....

And now...a picture of Joseph when he's "Happy!" I'll spare you pictures of angry Joseph.