The Delaney and Waylon Diaries

Waylon Marley

born: Dec. 27, 4:02 p.m.
weight: 10 lbs., 6 oz (exactly the same as Delaney!)
length: 22 1/2 inches
future profession: heavyweight champion of the world
current profession: heavyweight nurser of the world

More to come as we settle in.

P.S. Why didn't ya'll tell me that having two kids is hard? Oh, wait. You did and it's the topic of most of your blogs...

P.P.S. If you sleep when the baby sleeps, when are you supposed to blog?

So, looks like we'll be havin' a baby tomorrow

This is surreal. Tomorrow's the day. New baby will be here and life, as we know it, will change forever. The day will be happy, it will be momentous, things will be challenging, it will all be new. I'm ready to be done with pregnancy and yet nervous about the procedure. I'm ready to meet our son and yet hesitant to see how Delaney reacts to him. I hate that I have to be apart from Delaney for several nights when the longest I've left her before is 19 hours. And yet, I'm glad I'll have some dedicated time to bond with our son before whisking him into the whirling dervish of our family life.

Sometimes I can't seem to employ words to adequately capture the range and depth of emotions I'm feeling about such an amazing life change. This is one of those times.

Merry Christmas and what does labor feel like?

We had a lovely Christmas. The most difficult part about it was convincing Delaney to open her gifts. She'd open one and then want to stop and play with it forever so it delayed the process a bit. But, of course, since it was fun to watch her and we were in no hurry, it didn't matter. Still, about an hour into the slow proceedings, she absolutely would not open any more gifts and requests from us to do so illicited only screams and sobs from her ("No! I won't open any more presents! Nooooooooo!"). Excuse me for abusing my child by buying her too many gifts. Sheesh! We ended up taking a break and then sitting back down around the tree an hour later after she happened upon the unopened gifts as if she'd never seen them before ("What? All this? For meeeeeeeee?").

I've been slightly sidelined for most of the day with what I've assumed are ill effects of the single king crab leg I'd eaten the night before or perhaps a touch of a stomach virus courtesy of the dear friends with whom we had supper on Saturday night (poor things have been suffering, first one, then the other, since that meal and while I hoped Roger and I would escape whatever it is they have, maybe I didn't). After consulting a pregnancy book and reading that early labor can resemble stomach cramps and diarrhea I began to wonder what it was I'd been suffering from all along. And, since returning home around 7pm from our visit to my parents' house this afternoon, I've started having weird symptoms that led me to wonder exactly what labor feels like and whether or not it's possible I'm in it.

After my experience with Delaney (getting induced at 41 1/2 weeks with no signs of labor whatsoever) I was convinced that my body just doesn't do labor. When my doctor set the date of Dec. 27 for new baby's arrival it stuck in my mind as the birthdate, his birthdate. It never occurred to me that I could actually go into labor, and early at that. So, when new baby started moving around like crazy tonight, pushing down in my pelvis, causing me great bladder (or is it cervical?) pain and giving me sudden, shockingly painful lower back aches I had to ask myself, Is this what labor feels like? I wondered for a few hours and then, after consulting my loving and overprotective mother, called my doctor's office (yeah, on Christmas night...I felt like a total newbie dork).

Luckily (for me, but maybe not for her) my doctor is the one on call today and she called back right away. After describing my symptoms to her and admitting that although I've these weird (for me) symptoms I've felt no discernible contractions she said it was unlikely that I'm in labor and that unless things got progressively worse or I started feeling real contractions I shouldn't worry. She said if things changed or if I was concerned that I should head into L&D to get checked and they would call her. Of course, I'm hoping to avoid that tonight (and tomorrow too) because I've really been planning on Dec. 27 and I've got loads to do tomorrow to get ready. Still, I understand that the timing is not mine to decide and if new baby wants to come (he sure moves like he's ready to come soon) then he will. It wouldn't be the first time a child of mine surprises me.

Still here. Still pregnant. Still packing on the pounds.

I saw my doctor today for the last time before my C-section. While last week I'd lost a pound between weekly visits, I made up for it this week by gaining four. FOUR POUNDS, people. In one week! WTF? OK. It's true. I enjoy food a lot more at the end of my pregnancies than the beginning. I'd like to pin it all on water weight but truth is, I'm swelling a lot less than I did with Delaney. Guess it's just cheeseburgers and chocolate chip cookies after all. But no matter what it is, at this rate, I'll be a hippo before the 27th. Merry Christmas to me--I hope I get a new zip code to reside in under the tree because I'm HUGE. Well, the truth is that I'm not huge, exactly, but my belly sure is. This baby feels large. Maybe that's only because I'm expecting him to be big because Delaney was (10 lbs., 6 oz. at birth). But, my doctor agreed that I grow 'em large and this one appears to be no exception. She also pointed out a study done recently where they compared the doctor's guess at baby's weight vs. the sonogram's estimation of baby's weight vs. mom's guess of baby's weight for a second child. In almost all cases the mom's guess was closest to the baby's actual weight. If that holds true for me this boy will be 11 pounds or more. All I can say about that is thank God for C-sections and pass the morphine.

Also? I'm starting to make people, particularly strangers, nervous. I catch a lot of people staring at my belly, worriedly, as if I'm about to drop this kid right in front of them in line at the video store. It's more funny than unnerving and sometimes I pant heavily (heee, heee, heee, hoooh, hoooh, hoooh) just to intensify their reactions. Good times.

A lot can happen in two weeks. And that's what I'm afraid of.

Please tell me I did the right thing by leaving Delaney in that germ-infested cesspool otherwise known as preschool today. The poor kid is finally healthy again and then I go and drop her at school this morning with a kid who's got a hacking cough and another who's got green snot streaming out of both nostrils. Add to that the slips of paper they sent home with me detailing all of the illnesses currently going around the entire school: scarlet fever, colds, flus, pink eye, more vomiting, RSV. Oh my! It's like a horror movie over there. It was all I could do to drive away when every cell in my being wanted to scoop Delaney up and run straight for home. Add to that the fact that she's been out of school for a week and stuck to me like glue in the meantime, and Delaney was NOT happy for me to leave her today. She went through the whole sobbing for mommy thing again. It broke my heart!

The C-section's happening two weeks from today and the last thing we need is for me to be sick or for Delaney to be sick while I'm in the hospital or for Roger to be sick. I can only hope that the last few months of illnesses she's caught at school have toughened up her immune system so she can fight those disgusting preschool germs off for the next two weeks. But, what happens then? She'll bring a bug home again at some point or other and then I'll not only worry about her but about her newborn brother.

There's really no end to the string of sicknesses and worries, is there? Only brief breaks in between. Sigh.

Change of plans

New baby will now be born on Thursday, December 27th in the afternoon instead of on Friday, December 28th in the morning. The reason we moved dates is a long story involving our insurance and how they will make us pay two deductibles and two out of pockets for both me and the baby if we're in the hospital on Dec. 31, 2007 and Jan 1, 2008. If we went with the C-section on Dec. 28th there's a small chance we'd still be in the hospital through Jan. 1, depending on how things go. A friend of mine, who has the same insurance we do and who also had her C-section on Dec. 26 of last year, told me to check into it because she was told last year that she could be charged double the deductibles and the out of pockets if the insurance policy renews on Jan. 1 (which ours does). I called the insurance company this week and it turns out that it's TRUE! So for the last week my doctor has been calling the hospital to try to get me in a day earlier and yesterday she was finally able to confirm it.

Whew!

To the boy in my belly

I always thought I'd be a mother to girls so I was surprised when I learned you're a boy. It caught me off guard at first but as I learn more about you through your rhythms and your movements I'm so excited to meet you and be your mom. I can't wait to see if you're anything like the patterns I feel in my belly. You wiggle and twist a good part of the day but you have your quiet moments too. And, you're gentle. The only time you've kicked me hard was recently when your sister put her hand on my belly. It was if you knew that was her and your swift karate kick told her, "Sis! Here I am. Wait for me! I don't want to miss any of the fun!"

I can't wait to hold you, to see you, to know you. Will you have your dad's eyes? Will you be rambunctious or timid? Will you remind me of your sisters or your brother? Or will you add a completely new dynamic to our family?

No matter who you are, I know that you'll be, "...everything I never knew I always wanted."*

* This line's always stuck with me - it's from some silly Matthew Perry/Salma Hayek movie I saw years ago, but so fitting for my little man.

Hormonal rage

I'm definitely under the hormonal influence and lost it several times tonight in addition to feeling that horrible, unexplainable, inner rage I've only felt one other time in my life - on and off for a few weeks after Delaney was born. I felt totally out of control tonight and all I could think was, "Uh oh. I'm not even post-partum yet."

The five things about me meme: pregnancy edition

As I mentioned a few days ago, Kelly O tagged me with the five things about me meme. She took the always-entertaining route of discussing five things about her life in bars. Seeing as how I'm teetotaling until New Year's (at least!) I've gone in a different direction. Here are five things about my pregnancy that you'll probably wish you never knew:

1. Food doesn't interest me. I know! It's one of the few times in my life when pigging out on all sorts of amazing food is almost mandatory. Not much appeals to me at all. Except for dinner number B-6 off the menu at my favorite Vietnamese place (rice noodles topped with grilled pork, vietnamese spring roll, and vegetables - I ate this on Friday night and Roger's picking it up again for dinner tonight. Yeah!) or anything with chocolate and sugar in it. This baby's swimming in fish sauce and sugar. That can't be a good thing.

2. Trying to suppress nearly uncontrollable gagging has become a sport. It was especially bad during my first trimester what with all of the nausea and barfing. But, the gagging is making a stealthy third trimester comeback, at least in the mornings. I know. I'm one lucky girl.

3. For all of my bravado about having a second C-section, I'm secretly terrified. My first C-section experience was no picnic. First of all, it was unexpected. Secondly, I could not breathe. Thirdly, I didn't enjoy having surgery performed on me while I WAS AWAKE. I keep telling myself that as long as I don't have a sinus infection this time, there's no way it could be any worse than what I've already been through. But, the panicky side of me is worried, especially after touring our hospital's brand-new L&D wing on Saturday during which I peeked into the operating room. Flashbacks of lying flat on my back and gasping for breath while strapped down to a tiny, narrow table and feeling someone tugging on my insides nearly caused my feet to buckle. Doing this again ain't going to be a mental, or physical, cakewalk.

4. I'm down to one pair of wearable pants. OK. That's not true. I think I can fit into two pair, but one of the pairs is dressy, black pants, not exactly the kind of thing that active mothers are wearing while they chase their two-year-olds around the zoo or playground. So, if you see me anytime in the next month or so, please ignore my well-worn, often-washed pregnancy jeans. I refuse to buy more maternity clothes this late in the game.

5. The sex dreams are returning. While I tended to have frequent sexy dreams throughout my pregnancy with Delaney I've only had a couple this entire pregnancy--until now. I've had three nights in a row of racy dreams that include such strange and occasionally creative content that I awake, quite frankly, astonished. But, I can't complain. Being awoken by a titillating sex dream is a hell of a lot better than by a stuffy nose, which is how I've been awakened in the middle of most nights recently. I mean, if I had to choose between the two, the answer is obvious.

I'm tagging all of my friends on my NaBloPoMo list (which can be found here). Show me what kind of "five things about you" meme theme you can come up with!

Hicks encounters of the Braxton kind (I think)

I think I'm experiencing my first Braxton Hicks, but I'm not sure. I never experienced them with Delaney, never experienced any contractions with her until several hours into my labor-inducing pitocin drip nearly two weeks after her due date. So, I can't be sure that's what I'm feeling now. But, I'm definitely feeling something.

It's like my belly is extremely tired. And crampy. And sometimes it tightens up a bit. And I'm having lower back pain, which is something I haven't had at all this pregnancy (or with Delaney's pregnancy for that matter). It's been going on and off like this since about 3pm today. This is all new territory for me. A small part of me is worried that I'll go into premature labor (I'll be 34 weeks tomorrow). The other part of me, the more rational part (there is one, believe it or not!), thinks that my body's just stressed out because I ended up carrying Delaney quite a bit today and probably didn't drink enough water, leaving my body tired and dehydrated.

I probably shouldn't be carrying around a 27-pound preschooler these days, but she and I went on a tour of our hospital's labor and delivery floor today (I hoped that seeing the hospital, the rooms, the nursery would help her be less confused, less scared when the actual event occurs...God willing on the 28th of December as scheduled!). She was well-behaved for most of the tour but because we'd invited my sister and my niece along for fun Delaney was a bit distracted and overly excited. Picking her up was often the only way to quiet her and get her to settle down during the (rather lengthy) 45-minute tour. But, at least she got to see where mommy and new baby will be for the big event. She didn't seem very impressed but I hope that she'll remember having been to the hospital and that the memory of it will put her at ease.

Now I'm off to drink another huge glass of water, lay down on the couch, catch up on our recorded reality TV shows and pray that new baby chills out for six more weeks.