I don’t want to double post, so if anyone is wondering how I’m managing with two kids under two years old, check out my post over at Motherhood Moments !

Posted: October 31st, 2008 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: 4

Are you interested in finding new Credit Cards for yourself or your business, but you’re not sure which one will suit you best? Then you’re not alone! It’s a jungle out there…there are so many different cards with so many different offers that it’s hard to know if you’re finding the best one for you! CardHub.com makes finding the perfect card easy, though! You can put in the things you’re looking for in a credit card (such as rates, rewards, annual fees, etc.) and they find cards that match what you’re looking for! It’s quick and easy and their site is straight-forward and easy to navigate!

Posted: October 29th, 2008 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: none

Before Kelvin was born, I was a little concerned about how much I would like cloth-diapering. I committed to using them until he grew out of the newborn size (which was really quickly…he’s already barely fitting in the newborn prefolds and he never even used the newborn covers), but I wasn’t sure I would stick with it after that. But I’m happy to say that it’s going great for us and I *love* cloth-diapering! I just finished ordering the next size of diapers for Kelvin and I also ordered a dozen toddler prefolds and diaper cover for Ava just to test it out and see if she’ll tolerate them. If she will, I’ll buy more and we’ll cloth-diaper her, too!

In the beginning, my favorite cover was Thirsties, which really surprised me. I really thought I would like the Bummis best, but I *hate* them!! They leak almost every time! The Thirsties leak once in awhile, but not nearly as often as Bummis. Then last week, I ordered a Wonder Wrap and I’m in love with it! I didn’t think I’d find anything I liked more than Thirsties, but I did. It hasn’t leaked yet and the best part is that it’s a one size diaper…it fits from 9-35 pounds. I already know that I like it on Kelvin, but if it works as well on Ava, I’ll just buy only those from now on and use them on both kids.

I’ve also started experimenting a little with all-in-ones and pockets. I bought a Thirsties All-In-One and a bumGenius pocket diaper. I love both of them! Tonight, I ordered a Mommy’s Touch One-Size All-in-One, so hopefully I’ll like that one just as much. I tend to like anything that’s one size…I’ve already gone through three sizes of diaper covers for Kelvin, so the longer I can keep him in a size of diapers, the better!!

Posted: October 29th, 2008 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: 8

If you need Unsecured Financing for your business, you need to check out EZUnsecured. They’re the best in the business and you can definitely trust them with your business. They know what they’re doing and you can have peace of mind knowing that you’re in good hands.

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Posted: October 28th, 2008 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: none

Life has been really crazy in our house lately, which is why I haven’t updated much. Last Friday, Kelvin was diagnosed with acid reflux, which is why he’s been so fussy. We got him on Prevacid yesterday and so far, it hasn’t really helped. Last night was horrible…he was crying until about 12:30 am. I was about ready to pull my hair out! Hopefully now that he’s had two doses of the medication, tonight will be a better night!

Posted: October 28th, 2008 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: 2

With the bad economy right now, there are a lot of people who aren’t really sure how they’re going to pay all their bills every month. Unfortunately, a lot of the bills that these people have to pay are payments on their debts. And with the high interest rates on these debts, it’s almost impossible to get anywhere in getting them paid off.

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If you need help with your debt, this is the site you need to look at!

Posted: October 28th, 2008 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: none

I finally finished Kelvin’s birth story last night! I tend to write very long ones, so that’s why it took so long! Here it is, though:

Technically, my labor with Kelvin started before I was even 36 weeks pregnant. At my doctor appointment that week, I was already 4 cm dilated. Of course, I freaked out and started trying to get everything done because I was sure he would be born any day. My grandma even came down a few days later so that she would be able to take care of Ava while I was in the hospital. But I made it to my 37 week appointment and was still only at 4 cm. It was pretty depressing. The next week, I was at 5.5, almost 6 cm and my doctor told me it would be any day and he didn’t expect to see me for my appointment the next week. But my 39 week appointment came and went and I was still dilated the same amount. My doctor and I discussed inducing labor and we agreed on inducing on October 7. I was really hoping to avoid that, though!

I had my 40 week appointment on Friday (October 3) and there was still no change. My doctor stripped my membranes, but he’d stripped them the week before, too, and nothing had happened so I wasn’t holding my breath. That night, I had a very restless night because I was having erratic contractions. Luckily, my grandma was there and was able to get Ava up in the morning so that I could sleep in a little.

I continued having contractions during the day on Saturday. I didn’t really time them until right before I put Ava to bed for the night and then they were 6 minutes apart. After she was in bed, I decided to take a shower. I knew if it wasn’t the real thing, it would probably slow the contractions down or get rid of them altogether. I was still having them when I got out, so I told Chad that I was going to time them and if they were regular and under 5 minutes apart, I thought we should go to the hospital. He said OK, but I knew he didn’t think I was really in labor, because we’d gotten our hopes up so many times during the previous 4 weeks.

I got on the computer and opened the Contraction Master website and started timing them while I checked my email and stuff. In about 30 minutes, they went from 6 minutes apart to 2-3 minutes apart. They were painful enough that I had to stop what I was doing when I had one, but not so bad that I had to breathe through them yet. They were also very different than the ones I had with Ava…they started in my back, wrapped around to my stomach, then back to only my back and then went away. I went downstairs and told Chad that I was going to finish packing the hospital bag so we could go. I think he finally believed me, because he got up and started taking videos and pictures of me packing.

I called my doctor’s answering service while I was packing and found out that the doctor that delivered Ava was on call that night, too. They said they’d have him call me back, but the contractions kept getting stronger, so we ended up leaving for the hospital before he called back. First, though, I ate a bowl of cereal and drank a bunch of water. I knew they wouldn’t let me eat or drink anything once I got to the hospital, so I was prepared this time!

We left for the hospital at about 10:30 pm. The drive to the hospital was pretty uneventful, but riding in the car during contractions definitely made them worse! We passed a police car on the way there and I told Chad that this was our one chance to have a police escort and we should have been speeding and then yelled out the window that I was in labor so that he would have escorted us. We didn’t, of course, but he ended up following us all the way to the hospital anyway (without the lights and sirens, obviously).

On our way into the hospital, the doctor on call finally called back. I told him how far apart my contractions were and that we’d already left. He said that was a good decision and then asked how dilated I’d been at the last appointment. When I told him almost 6 cm, he said, “Oh wow. Yeah, you have to get to the hospital.” LOL

We went up to the fourth floor and got everything taken care of in Admissions. Then we went across the hall to Triage and did all the usual fun stuff…changing into a gown, giving a urine sample, and getting hooked up to the monitors. The nurse checked me and I was still dilated the same, but I was 100% effaced (I hadn’t been effaced at all on Friday). She was pretty sure I’d be staying even before the doctor came in to check me, so she started asking me all the questions to get me admitted. It took a lot longer than last time, because for some reason, my prenatal record wasn’t there (or at the other hospital), so they had to ask me a ton of questions.

The doctor came in a little while later and my contractions were 2 minutes apart. He was going to break my water, but I told him I didn’t want it broken this time. Last time, it made the contractions start coming so strong and so fast and when they combined with the pressure, it was pretty unbearable. He didn’t say anything, of course, but I think he was disappointed because he’d been planning to go home and go to bed (I was the only person in labor at the time).

Anyway, they admitted me of course, and put the IV in and got me into a labor room. The contractions weren’t as bad when I was walking, so Chad and I walked up and down the halls for awhile. Then I realized I’d forgotten the bottle of water I planned to smuggle in down in the van, so Chad went to get it for me. After that the contractions were really intensifying, so we stayed in the room and they hooked me up to the monitors again.

Almost the entire time I’d been at the hospital, I’d been trying to decide whether or not I wanted an epidural. The contractions weren’t unbearable, but I knew I was so close to being 7 cm and I wouldn’t be able to get one after that, so I needed to decide now. I knew I could probably handle the contractions on their own, but once they combined with the pressure, I wasn’t so sure. In the end, the contractions started getting really bad right when I was at 7 cm. Before, they had started in my back, gone to my stomach, then back to my back and then gone away, but at this point, they didn’t have a chance to leave my back before the next one started again. Plus, I was so tired (I’d had the bad night the night before and hadn’t gotten any sleep since then), so I ended up asking for the epidural. I don’t regret that decision at all. As my doctor told me when I disappointed that I’d gotten one when I had Ava, “You don’t get a badge of courage for doing it without one. You might as well get it!”

So at about 3 am the nurse called the anesthesiologist and he was there in about 15 minutes. I wasn’t in as much pain as I had been when I got one with Ava, so I was able to feel the needle a little bit when it went in, but it wasn’t bad at all. Definitely worth it!!

I wasn’t really sure how well it would work this time. My epidural with Ava didn’t work well at all…it only took the edge off the pain. This time, it worked perfectly! I thought it would take awhile to work, but almost as soon as I got it, the nurse said I was having a contraction and I couldn’t even feel it! I was able to feel it a tiny bit at the peak of it, but then I didn’t feel any contractions after that. It was so nice because I was actually able to sleep for an hour and a half (and so was Chad). And I slept really heavy, too…the nurse came in to start Pitocin in my IV (we’d talked about it before I went to sleep) and she tried to talk to me and I didn’t even stir.

At 4:30 am, the doctor came in and asked if it was OK for him to break my water. Since I already had the epidural, I said it was fine. Plus, I was at 8 cm, so I was ready to get it moving a little faster. But when I rolled over, I felt water coming out anyway. It turns out my bag of water had broken on its own up near the top, but he still had to break it at the bottom so the rest of the water would come out.

After that, it went really fast. It was also a lot more painful, though, because he dropped after my water broke and I was feeling a lot of pressure. It was bad enough that I had to squeeze Chad’s hand and breathe through contractions. It didn’t last long, though…I was at 10 cm and wanting to push about 25 minutes later.

They started setting everything up for the delivery and the nurse called the doctor back. At this point, he discovered that the baby was face-up, which was why I had so much back labor. It also meant that the delivery was going to be a lot harder than if he was face-down. There went my idea of pushing twice and having him pop right out! I’d always heard that second babies came out with much less pushing, but apparently it wasn’t going to be that easy for me!

He did end up coming with less pushing than Ava did, though. I pushed for about 15-20 minutes, versus the 2 hours I pushed with her. But it still seemed like a really long time. They had set up a mirror this time so that I could see him coming out. We could see his head for quite awhile before he actually came out. Right before he came out, I remember saying, “Just GET OUT!!” It did help having the mirror, though. It made me push harder since I could actually see what the pushing was doing.

At 5:14 am, Kelvin James was born on his due date, October 5! He cried as soon as his head came out and his head was very cone-shaped (I don’t remember that at all with Ava…it was only cone-shaped for an hour or two, though). They put him on my chest right away and wiped him off and then took him to get weighed and measured and everything. He weighed 8 lbs, 8 oz and he was 20 ¼ inches long.

After they were done messing with him, they wrapped him up and gave him to me. He was so alert! He was looking at me and kept moving his head so he could look at Chad, too. He also started rooting around almost immediately, so I got to nurse him right away and he latched on really well. I guess that should have been a sign about how much he would love to nurse ALL THE TIME!

After about an hour, the nurse came in and had me get up to go to the bathroom. Chad had to help me walk there because the epidural hadn’t worn off completely yet. After that, they moved us to the postpartum room. That was a little disappointing because last time, we’d been able to stay in the same room the entire time. But once we got settled in our new room, we were able to sleep for awhile before we started calling all of our friends (the people we didn’t want to wake up at 6 am when we were calling all our family to tell them he was here!).

The rest of the hospital stay was pretty uneventful. Ava came to visit us once and we had a few other visitors, but that was it. I got to spend the rest of the time just getting to know Kelvin (and not doing much sleeping at all) before we came home and life really got hectic!

Posted: October 25th, 2008 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: 1

I’ve finally managed to find a few minutes to catch up on a couple things on the computer. Most of my payu2blogs that I just did were due over a week ago, but luckily I was still able to do them. Other than doing those, though, I’m still on vacation from the Internet. I haven’t logged into entrecard except to approve adverts and I haven’t logged into Pay Per Post at all. Right now, I’m just trying to keep up with the the bare minimum of everyday life and I’ll add “extras” like that back in as I’m able to. At this point, I still consider a daily shower a bonus, so it might be another couple weeks before I’m able to do more online. I don’t really mind, though, because this time with Kelvin being so little is going to go so fast! Everything I’m used to doing that I’m not able to now will still be there later, but I won’t be able to get this time back.

Anyway, Kelvin is up to 9 lbs, 6 oz now! That’s a weight gain of 12 ounces in 5 days! I honestly don’t know how he can eat so much! He’s definitely a Mama’s boy…I spend probably at least 23 hours of every day either holding him or laying next to him. That Peanut Shell sling is going to come in really handy once I’m trying to get more done again!

Ava’s slowly adjusting to having Kelvin around. She only showed any kind of aggression to him once and most of the time she’s really sweet with him…she tries to share her food and toys with him all the time! We are dealing with more temper tantrums, but we pretty much expected that. It can’t be easy going from being the queen of the house to having to share your throne like that!

We managed to go to playgroup today. I don’t think we’ll be able to go back to going every day yet (it was pretty hard getting all of us out the door before 10), but hopefully we can start going a couple times a week for right now.

Obviously, we’re not at the Feast like the rest of our immediate family is right now. We decided that it would just be way too much stress and not enjoyable at all for us to try to go anywhere this year. It’s kind of depressing being at home and knowing everyone else is at the Feast, though. It doesn’t really seem like the Feast for us at all this year.

Anyway, my computer time is about up. Ava will be up really soon and I need to make sure I feed Kelvin again before she gets up….she doesn’t really appreciate me having to sit down and nurse him as soon as I get her up when I would normally be able to get her snack right away.

Posted: October 16th, 2008 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: 1

I’m not exactly sure what a HDMI wall plate , but I’m sure Chad would. He’s definitely the technical-geek-type in our family, so he’d probably think that one of these was really cool. As far as I’m concerned, though, HDMI is just the setting I have to put the TV on in order to watch a DVD! I know, it’s sad but true.

Posted: October 16th, 2008 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: none

Well, it’s about time for me to start thinking about how I’m going to lose this baby weight! Of course, I have a few weeks before I actually start trying to lose it, but it doesn’t hurt to start thinking about it now! I didn’t do much of anything after I had Ava and I lost all but 5 pounds of baby weight, so I’m pretty sure paying attention to diet and exercising a little will do the trick! If it doesn’t, though, I’ll have to keep these effective diet pills in mind.

P.S. I can actually button my non-maternity jeans already, but they’re still a bit tight, so I’m not wearing them yet.

Posted: October 16th, 2008 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: none