Siblings

Zane is still pretty oblivious to the baby in the house. He will pay attention to her if we specifically ask him to give her a kiss or tell her hi. He likes to rub her head, too. But, for the most part, he forgets about her.

This was last Wednesday night, our second night home from the hospital. We asked him to hold his sister and take a picture with her. You can tell he’s got an idea brewing….  Guess what’s coming…Oh, yeah. Another lick. Or ‘the ultimate stamp of approval’, as one of my facebook friends called it.We did get one ‘human’ kiss out of him…It took him a few days to even notice me feeding her. When he did notice, he said, “Her eating you tummy?” I told him yes, that’s how she gets her milk. “It’s white milk?” Yep, I don’t make chocolate. What must go through the mind of an almost-three-year old?

I took a picture of Zane every month on his ‘birthday’ for over two years. Always in this chair, with his monkey. I haven’t decided what Hollin is going to take her picture with yet, so for her first ‘monthly pic’ I just took one in her crib. She looks so tiny in it!

bringing baby home…

 

On Tuesday we got to bring our sweet little girl home! Initially my doctor said that they routinely keep patients three or four days, so we would probably stay until Wednesday or Thursday.

On Monday morning at 7am we were awoken by a jack hammer in our room. Ok, it wasn’t actually in our room, but it was so loud that it sounded like there was a lawn mower or something INSIDE our room! There was construction going on and it was so loud that we couldn’t even talk to each other. (Wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that we have to go back on Wednesday and have her hearing re-evaluated in her right ear?) When Dr. S came by, she said that since this wasn’t our first baby and we were both medical professionals, she would let us go home on Tuesday as long as everything was going well with me and the baby. Hallelujah!

Our stay at the hospital was actually GREAT! Everyone was SO nice. The nurses were great and so, so helpful with getting me and Hollin comfortable nursing. We had a big private room with a bathroom, and Matt even had his own bed. There was a “family kitchen” down the hall with free snacks and drinks available 24/7. I wouldn’t have minded staying longer if it weren’t for the horrible construction noises. Then again, it felt SO good to be home and to see Zane.

Matt said that it felt so different driving home with a new baby this time. He said he had never been so nervous behind the wheel of a car, as the day we brought Zane home. Everything has just seemed more calm and normal this time (including the baby!).

This is the dress that she came home in. Her DeeDee made it and it’s so precious. Funny: Matt and I put it on and buttoned it up the back….We later learned we had put it on backwards. We’re goofballs. Either way, she looked like a little angel. She also had on her Razorback socks. It’s weird to me that we had a baby in Wisconsin! She’ll always have Southern roots, though.

Zane meets Hollin

Is that not the sweetest face you’ve ever seen? Matt went home Sunday morning to tell Zane that his new little sister was here! They both headed to the airport to pick up his DeeDee and then came straight to the hospital so that he could meet Hollin. When he first walked in the room, he came straight to me and asked if had a boo-boo. I still had an IV in my hand, so he was a little concerned with that. I told him that it had medicine in it that was making me better and that baby Hollin was there to see him. He said, “Her not in you tum-tum no more? You tum-tum not big anymore?”He was very excited to hold her and gave her lots of kisses. He said, “She so tiii-ny.”Then, just as any good puppy dog would do, he gave her a nice lick on the nose.And he thought it was hilarious! Here’s a close-up.We asked him if it was ok to feed her pizza and he said, “No, her don’t have any teeth.” Is it ok if we bite Hollin? “No, she not so tasty.” Funny kid. Matt dressed him in his ‘Big Bro’ shirt and then he insisted on the hat and boots. And DeeDee made him a ‘Woody vest’ for Halloween and obviously he had to wear it immediately!

Here’s our first picture as a family of four.Her actual due date was November 5th and we had planned the delivery for October 28th. My mom had booked her flight for the 26th, and Matt’s mom & dad hadn’t booked their flights yet, but were planning to come the beginning of that week, too. So, obviously none of them were here waiting for her arrival when we headed to the hospital on the 15th! We were so lucky that they flew up here on the first flights available! DeeDee left Little Rock on a 6am flight and was here by noon!Nana Beth was at the hospital by 10 that night. They were so disappointed to miss the birth and so anxious to get their hands on this baby that you would’ve thought that they waited a year! They both met her before she was even a day old and she will never know the difference.Here are a few of the only pictures I’ve gotten with her eyes open. They were taken on Tuesday, our first afternoon home.   

Hollin’s Arrival

 

When I got home from work on Saturday night, I told Matt that I had mixed feelings. I knew that it would be bad timing for us to have a baby right then (he was scheduled to be on call all week and we didn’t have any family here yet), but at least I was 37 weeks (term baby) and I was miserable and wanted this baby out of me! Little did I know….

I went to work on Saturday, telling myself that I just had to make it through four more shifts. We were pretty busy and I hurt all day, which was really nothing new. Once I got in my car, I realized that these were a little more painful than normal, so I downloaded a contraction timer app for my phone and started timing them.

Matt had made vegetable soup for dinner and it was yuuummmy! I ate dinner and (secretly) kept timing. After about two hours I realized that they actually were pretty regular, at six minutes apart. I showed Matt my app and he said we needed to go to the hospital. I was worried about ‘crying wolf’ but he talked me into having the doctor paged and she thought it was best if we met her at the hospital just to check things out.

One of our friends, Kirsten, saved the day and came to the house to stay with Zane while we went to the hospital. I was pretty confident that I would be monitored for a little while and then we’d be back home. Zane was already in bed, watching TV and when we got ready to leave he said, “No, You make me weally weally sad! Don’t weave me!” Matt told him he could watch TV as long as he wanted. Z looked at me and said, “Dada say I can watch tt!” Kirsten said he was asleep about 30 minutes later.

Once we were hooked up to the monitors at the hospital, my contractions went from 6 minutes apart to 3 minutes apart, and I went from 1cm to 3cm, all in about an hour. And, just as I remembered, contractions are painful, annoying, and don’t stop. By a stroke of luck, my doctor was on call that night and let me know that they were going to start preparing the OR for the c-section. I got a little upset then, just thinking about how we had a waiting room full of about 40 people when Zane was born and this time it was just me and Matt. Even though that wasn’t the ideal situation, I feel like it brought us even closer together because we only had each other. I was also relieved because I wasn’t going to have to be pregnant any longer, excited to meet the baby, scared to have surgery, guilty for leaving Zane…so many things.

At 12:34am on Sunday, October 16th, 2011 we welcomed our precious baby girl! Hollin Elizabeth weighed 6 lb, 14 ounces and was 20 inches long. (Zane was 6 lb, 15 ounces and 20.25 inches. Almost exactly the same size!) We feel very blessed to have her!  

Hollin Elizabeth Bell

 

October 16, 2011 @12:34am

6 pounds & 14 ounces, 20 inches

call the ‘tt’ man

Oh, gosh. I’m literally wiping away tears because I’m laughing so hard. It’s really difficult to discipline Zane sometimes because he’s SO FUNNY.

Just now we were watching The Incredibles. Zane touched the tv (and fingerprints on the tv drive.Matt.crazy). Matt told Z not to touch the tv. He did it again. Matt told him, more sternly this time, to NOT touch the tv. He did it again. So Matt secretly turned the tv off with the remote and said, “You touched it again and it broke. You touched the tv even after I told you not to.”

Zane says, “I touch the ‘tt’ a wiiiitttle bit.”

At this point I’m biting my lip. Covering my mouth. Looking away.

Matt says, “What are we gonna do now, Zane? You broke the tv.”

“You call that tt man and tell him come fix our tt, Dada Matt Bell. You call that tt man.”

Yep. I snorted. And then Matt starts laughing. I mean, how in the world does he even know that there’s a such thing as a “tv man”??  Needless to say, The Incredibles is playing once again on our ‘tt’.

Sleeping babies

 

This little boy is obsessed with what time of day it is. Every night he asks, “It nighttime, mama?” First thing in the morning he says, “It not nighttime anymore. It mohn-in time.”  Sometimes, just before dark, he’ll say, “It not really, really nighttime.”

Last night Zane and I were in ‘mama’s bed’ watching cartoons. It’s kind of our nightly routine. He’ll tell me, “Ni Hao (or whatever is on) not over yet, mama. Ni Hao not over yet.” So when Ni Hao went off, I turned off the TV and we said our nighttime prayer. Then Zane said, “It nighttime, mama?” “Yep. It’s nighttime.” “Ok. I go get in Ane’s bed.”

WHAT?! He grabbed his blanket and off he went. I just stayed there, a little in shock. I looked at the monitor and sure enough, he had crawled into bed! I waited a minute, but I couldn’t stand it. On one hand, this is a dream come true. Just a month or so ago, bedtime was a kicking, screaming fit. So this is a definite improvement. But it made me SO sad! And there was no way I could just let him go to bed without being tucked in, so I went in to tell him goodnight. I told him that he was such a big boy to get in his big boy bed all by himself. He said, “You get in bed with me.” Um, ok. Today he came and told me, “Don’t wake Hah-yin (Hollin) up, Mama. She’s seeeepin.”  I said, “Ok, she’s sleeping in mama’s tummy.” “NO! She seepin ov-uh dare. Don’t wake her up!” This is what I saw:That’s a good sign of a great big brother, right?  

Bumpdate: 34, 35

 

                             34 weeks, 3 days                                    35 weeks, 3 days

My 35 week & 4 day ‘Top Ten List’:

10. It takes me about ten whole minutes to maneuver myself out of bed. First I have to wrestle with “Boppy”, my human-sized pillow that I sleep with to attempt at a comfortable position. After I untangle myself, I then try to roll over. It’s not so much a fluid rooolllll, as it is a ‘scootch, nudge, roll, toss, rinse & repeat.’  Throw legs over bed. Push up from side. And, finally, attempt to stand.

9.  Nine (hundred) times per day (at least) that Zane says one of the following: “Hold me, Mama. Ane’s feet don’t work. Ane can’t walk—he TIE-YUD. Ane can’t go up stairs—him a puppy dog. Mama puppy dog take me up stairs.” Adorably cute, annoyingly heavy.

8. I have eight items that need to be hung on the walls in the nursery.

7. Seven more shifts left at work before maternity leave!

6. I washed and packed six gowns/outfits for the hospital. All with matching hats or bows. Some with shoes. (On a side note, I’ve packed nothing for myself. Plan to do that in the next week or two.)

5. Five seems to be the magic number of times I get up to pee during the night. Five times getting up x 10 minute process = pretty much one complete hour of sleep lost just because of the smooshed bladder.

4. I have four pieces of clothing in my closet that fit. Hope it doesn’t get really cold between now and post-baby because ain’t nuttin’ gonna zip over this watermelon.

3. Three more doctor’s appointments before Hollin arrives!

2. TWO pieces of bedding that I am waiting to arrive in the mail. This is a whooole ‘nother story, but to sum it up….I ordered CUSTOM-made bedding. According to the pictures that I was shown AFTER the bedding shipped, the skirt was not made out of the material I requested. I emailed the lady (and attached my original email stating which fabrics go where) and she replied, “Oh, you’re right. Sorry I missed that.” ???? I was expecting, at the least, that she would refund part of the money or offer to make the skirt in the correct fabric. Anyway, I received the sheet, blanket, and pillow, but am still waiting on the bumper and skirt. We’ll see what I think of it when it’s all here and go from there. And I’ll post pics when the bedding is here and everything is hung on the walls.

1. One more weird pregnancy occurrence this morning. I say ‘one more’ because with Zane I had a few things happen to me that were weird. Well, actually they weren’t that weird, they just occurred in the wrong order. One of those was PUPPPs (puritic urticarial plaques and papules in pregnancy), which only occurs in about 1% of pregnancies, normally occurs in the third trimester, rarely happens in subsequent pregnancies, and may be associated with a reaction to male DNA. (Ha, I’m literally allergic to boys!) Instead of getting it in the third trimester, I got it about one week AFTER Zane was born.  But, no worries…it doesn’t happen in subsequent pregnancies and I’m not having a boy…..Right??? Well, this morning I woke up with this WEIRD, bright red, rashy looking thing on the right side of my belly. Normally, I wouldn’t expose this big ole belly on here, but I had to document:Beautiful, right? Also, I have no idea why my belly button looks so pointy. I had an appointment at 10 this morning and by the time I got there, the redness was almost gone and it never itched. So who knows what it was?? Everything else was normal. Her heart rate was 136, my blood pressure was 110/70, and my weight was still 110 pounds (hahaha yeah right!). Almost there!

Madison Children’s Museum

 

This will probably become our second home during the winter months. Zane could play there for hours. Wait, Zane did play there for hours and still didn’t want to leave. He’s been once before with the babysitter. This was my first time. We were looking for something to do that was outside of the house so that Dada could study (peds boards coming up on Oct 10th!) and that wouldn’t wear me out too much. We wanted to go see The Lion King in 3D, but it was only playing during naptime. I went ahead and bought a family membership. There are so many different things to play with, crafts to make, a cafe…There’s even this little ‘log cabin’ in the middle of the 5 & under play area that moms can use for a little privacy to feed or change babies.                       “Dis one go wiiiight here.”Zane didn’t seem to care that this area said “4 years & up”. He’s pretty brave!                         “Giddy up, hawsey!”               Who’s that handsome guy on the TV? Fun day with my little man. We both came home and took a nap!