21

The 23rd was Zuri's official 21st month. Lots has happened for her the past few weeks. She does great with Dot still. She did try to share her soccer ball today, luckily it barely missed Dot's head.

A good part of having another munchkin is that so far Zur has gotten great with other people. She used to not go anywhere with family if I wasn't right there with her. Now she is off without a thought. That's great. She's gotten a bit more independent as well. She's starting to walk down the road by herself to Hailey's house. I have to keep an eye on her wondering self. Thank heavens we don't live too close to any traffic.

Today was Dot's two week check-up. (Yup, 2 weeks already. oh my, oh my). It was just a PKU test and the nurse said we could just wait while she took D in back. Zuri ran screaming after the nurse when she started walking away with Dot. What a good protective big sister already. I was touched and I'm not gunna lie, I got a little teary eyed with her brave action. I love my baby girls.

Zuri talks a whole bunch now. I still can't understand half of it. She's good with showing though.

She learned how to open the front door. Awesome. Dead bolt time it is.

Is still obsessed with Backyardigans. Although I have cut down her time with any show. Pandora Toddler station, I've decided, will become our new thing.

The tent has become the nap station:

Here is the hiccup video I mentioned previously. you can't hear Dot too well, but Zuri's copy hiccups are more obvious.

Lil' Doddie

This is my favorite

The Monday before Dot came about.

This post is much delayed, but I just haven't been very into staring at a computer screen the past few days. Two kids really is much more to pay attention to. That sounds a bit oxymoron, huh?

I thought I'd give a little birth story because lets face it, who doesn't want to hear one of those? (sarcasm inserted). Really though, compared to Zuri's birth story this one was a piece of cake. We learned a lot from our first labor experience and we did almost exact opposite this time around. Worked out almost perfectly.

I wanted to be brave and all natural hypnobirthing with Zuri. I still think it works great for some women. I'm not one of those women though. I take pills the second I feel a headache coming on so really what would make me toughen up with my body contracting at an alarming amount of pressure? I took Staydol (spelling?) with Zuri and it whipped my mind good and clean. Focusing on anything was impossible much less knowing what was happening around me. The epidural after 15 hours of labor was my saving grace. At least I got a healthy baby out of that awful experience.

That labor was more traumatic for Chris cause he actually remembers all of it. He's not one for seeing his woman in pain. We decided this time I'd get an epidural early on and to skip any other drugs to keep my head clear.

Wednesday the 14th we went into the hospital to get me nice and induced. I was definitely nervous about knowingly going into labor and with my test run a few weeks ago I had the pain fresh in my mind. Luckily, I was already dilated to a 4 when we got to the hospital. So labor went something like this:

7am. Show up get the babe and contractions on a monitor

8am. hook up an IV to get some fluids in me.

830. Doctor breaks my water

9am. contractions start.

10 am. contractions are regular and coming on strong. I'm dilated to a 5. I ask for the epidural.

11-12. anesthesiologist come in explains the risks of epidurals etc etc. I suck in my fear of getting poked and he numbs my back. not so bad. He inserts the second needle....goes right through hits my spinal fluid. I loose about 5ccs. hmm....what?! Well that was one risk explained. I didn't have any cartilage in that spot and the needle just went on through. There was no way he could tell. Doesn't happen a lot, but it happens. He felt so bad and said he could give me a blood patch, but he couldn't do it right away (something about the swelling has to go down)

Well I had no idea what happens when spinal fluid is lost was so roughly explained: the fluid level around my brain obviously dropped and my brain lost its cushion around my skull. Therefore, I got a 'spinal headache'. Wasn't awesome, but I'd take it over contractions any day.

After that hiccup:

1-2pm I was laying on my side which made my headache almost non existent. That was a nice pain-free hour.

about 2pm. hit the awesome 9 cm mark. My nurse left to get all the birthing equipment. Then I felt 'pressure' and needed to push. Chris called for the nurse and the doctor came runnin. Alicia was bringing Chris food to keep him energized for what we thought was going to be a much longer event. She got to watch the exciting show down up close and personal. Luckily Chris' family is totally cool with stuff like that (as Chris puts it, ' we grew up on a farm,' literally). We figured it was appropriate since we were naming Dot's middle name, Kae, after Alicia's.

2:08pm. Little/not-so-little 9 pound Dot was born.

She's an awesome baby. She's an excellent eater which is a huge relief. My experience with Zuri on that part was also awful (k, I do have great experiences with Zuri I swear. Labor and nursing her just aren't part of those). She's a great sleeper...during the day. She wants to play around mid-night. Chris took care of her for me so I could get to sleep last night. He ended up with a hickey on his arm from Dot latching onto him so strong. Kind of hilarious. And she smiles a whole bunch. who knows if it's gas or not and I don't care cause she's so stinkin cute.

Zuri is tolerating her well. She'll give her kisses if we ask her to and I got her to compare her feet to Dot's and she thought that was funny. Yesterday she tried sharing her toys and gram cracker with Dot and when D got the hiccups Zuri started mimicking her. I got it on video, I'll post that later. Mostly she just ignores her and on a few occasions when I've been holding her she's come up to me and calmly says "no baby". It's pretty funny and at the same time I feel a bit guilty. I've tried to pay a lot of attention to her still though. Having my mom here has been wonderful. Much easier to transition and take naps. Over all so far the experience has been a positive one. Big sigh of relief!

Here is to our little Doddie and our big kid Zuri. Our sweet baby girls.

August to September

I've been trying to be better about taking pictures of my every day life the past week or so. I really wanted to get some shots of Zuri during her final weeks as an only child. It's funny how one gets sentimental about things like that... Here's a little photo essay with commentary of my life with Zur.

Hailey got these flowers for me after our hospital trip. They are so real they look fake and I think they are fantastic.

Nate and Caitlin made Dot this awesome diaper cake. This is after Zur and I took all the goodies off. Cool, huh?

Above is Zur playing with the bottle top. She thought it was all for her. haha, little does she know...

This little guy has somehow been in our lives since we moved here. We found it outside and no matter how many times I think we've finally lost it for good it will show up again. For example: I thought Zur dropped it in Target and I found it the next day inside the diaper box I had bought there. Hmmm..

The more I see Zuri get attached to certain toys I can't help but get a little attached, too. She loves this bin and her bus.

These here are her Wheely-Pals. Discovered at Wal-mart and the best little buy. She LOVES them. Plus they're cute to me too. bonus.

I loved this picture. Then I realized what she was doing with her finger...that child.

More pals. She loves anything with wheels.

It's pure excitement and screaming when Dad gets home from work.

A morning walk. I didn't even bother changing her out of her pj's.

She loves the feel of dirt. She scrunches her toes and wiggles her feet around in piles all the time.

The grapes on the farm are coming in and they are delicious.

And what's my life without Paisley and Kelso?

Something like this:

This just makes me giggle. All of these are for separate Vial families. (Two are for Beesleys' and they are in-laws so it counts).

Nice little life we have, right?

poop.

False labor much? That was me twice yesterday/early this morning. I was high with anticipation and now I'm exhausted from NOTHING happening. We've had a nice tour of our new hospital though and the staff is awesome. Couldn't be more pleased with that. Zuri had a blast with Grandma and Weston while we were being taken for a practice run with Dot.

What a tease. I'll let you know if the real thing does actually happen. Obviously cause pictures of a Dot will actually appear that time around :) Happy Friday and Happy birthday to our little nephew, Weston. He's 1 today and is one very cute kid.

Thursday

I might be in labor. I wish my labors were more obvious like in movies. "Honey! My water just broke!" Nope. You'd think I'd be able to tell, but I've had a bit of practice labor the past few months that I'm not 100 % on the decision. It's been since 9 am that i've been having contractions (It's now 2pm) and they aren't easing up. Zuri's labor was more obvious cause I never had practice contractions with her, plus it was past her due date.

So here I sit on my bed, eating my sandwich while Zuri naps and listening to Kelso snore. Seriously, he is snoring like a human. I give him crap for being so clingy lately (yes, my dog is clingy) but I do love him and enjoy his company. His loyalty is so sweet.

I did about zero prep for labor this time around. I'm not sure why...the first time was kind of a bust with hypnobirthing classes that I figure I'll just stay calm and more alert this time around. No drugs except an epidural if it gets awful...which lets face it. It will get awful :) I'm not worried or stressed thinking about it though. Strange.

Zuri had her first Dr. appointment at the new doctor today. It broke my heart, she got three shots in her little arms. The Doc was a bit rough with examining her. Not sure if I feel very good about that.. The office kept everyone moving in and out fast which was nice, but I felt a little too rushed. For being a brand new patient they didn't really spend much time checking Zur out. Luckily I had colored goldfish as a surprise treat all prepped and ready for the shots, and that was a little saving grace.

Thank you gold fish people for making a snack every kid on this planet loves.

I'll get back to all you faithful blog readers (I really have no idea who you are, but thanks for humoring me) if labor is to be...and if it's not well then my hopes have been blown up. Thanks for the kindness of practice labor, body.