Lenore at 1 Month

Lenore is a month old! She and I celebrated with a wide-eyed party in her room from 1:30-3am this morning...I had to wake up Kevin to take over at 3, and she went right to sleep for him (of course!).

One Month Old

Her stats (from the doctor's office):
Weight: 12 pounds 8.5 ounces (98th percentile)
Length: 22 inches (81st percentile)
Head Size: 15 inches (99th percentile)

What she is doing this month:

• She does NOT like to be swaddled. From the start, I could tell that she didn't like having her feet confined (she would kick and kick until they were free), so we would leave her feet out and just wrap her arms. About a week ago, she started getting angry when we'd even do that, so I tried to just put her down in her pajamas one night, and voila. She slept just as well (or maybe better), so no swaddling for her. [Lewis was the opposite and loved it and stayed swaddled until he started rolling over.]
• She and I have had a rough go at nursing so far. We've been to the lactation consultant at our hospital for an appointment and have talked to her on the phone numerous times (she is wonderful), and we are still working on a few issues. She is gaining weight just fine, but it is terribly painful for me, still. I could write a whole post about it, and I just might.
• She nurses only on one side at each feeding, which is different from Lewis. The LC had me feed that way when I met with her, so I've stuck with it. She was eating every 2-3 hours at first, but now she's usually closer to the 3 hour mark. If she is really hungry, she will let me know it by turning beet red and crying hysterically, so we try not to get to that point. It has only happened a handful of times, but it is scary.
• She is a pretty sleepy baby. She has a few times during the day when she's more awake/alert, but she sleeps most of the day. Nights have been pretty good, considering, too. She goes down between 9:30 and 10pm and has been waking up around 3am and 6:30 or 7am (on a typical night). She has had a couple of nights with another awakening in there and a couple of nights with a nice 6 or 7 hour stretch, too. I try to go to bed by 10 or 10:30pm because I'm still afraid of how the night will go.
• She's usually pretty fussy in the evenings, from the time Kevin gets home, usually, until bedtime (so like 6:30 or 7 until 9:30ish). She cluster feeds during that time, too, usually, because that's the only thing that will appease her.
• She gets mad, usually, after I buckle her in her car seat, so we have to swing her around a little bit which quiets her right down. She's good with riding in the car, as long as we are moving. If she is awake, she doesn't like to sit still, at times (like in the drive-thru lane).
• She is strong! We probably haven't done tummy time as much yet as we did with Lewis, but she will lift and hold up her head well when we hold her on our chests. She also kicks a lot and tries to put weight on her legs.
• We went to my old Mom group once and are going again this coming week. One of my friends I met there when Lewis was a baby now has another one, and she has been going regularly and invited me back. It was a little strange being there as a second-timer, but good to be with other moms and babies. I'm going back this week because it is my friend's last week before returning to work, and I'm looking forward to it.
• She smiles a lot as she nurses, sleeps, and/or has awake time, and it is beautiful. I look forward to when she knowingly and regularly does it.
• She loves bath time, especially having warm water poured on her head.
• We thought she had a growth spurt last week, but I think she started one yesterday into today (she is suddenly eating every two hours). She is wearing 3 month clothes now, but it seems even some of those are suddenly a bit snug. Our growing girl!

Overall, she is a very sweet baby. She doesn't ask for much so far, just to be fed. :) Lewis is a very good big brother--he sometimes needs to be reminded to not be too loud around her when she is napping, but he is very sweet and loving towards her. He says, 'I love you, girls' or 'I love you, Lenore' and gives her hugs and kisses.

One last note...
I would not have made it through the past few weeks without Kevin. He is the best husband and dad. He has helped me get Lewis ready for school, fed bottles while I pumped, listened and been supportive as I cried (again and again) about breastfeeding and other things through the hormonal tidal surge, let me nap/sleep in at times, taken Lewis for some one-on-one time, etc. I go could on, but I just want to make sure to acknowledge how great he has been and how much he is appreciated.

And some close-ups of Lenore, in parting:

 

Naming Baby

Coming up with a name was so much more difficult for us this time, for whatever reason! We finally finalized our decisions over dinner at 38 weeks (and I made shirts to make them official):

The shirt was a bit snug on my big girl. :)

 #size0to3months #thinkagain 

Enough pictures, already! Feed me, woman!

The final decision was: Crosby Pete for a boy or Lenore Elaine for a girl.

Lenore Elaine
I've liked Lenore since we were pregnant with Lewis. I've seen it as Lenore, Leonore, Lenora, Elenore, Eleanora, etc. but I just like plain ol' Lenore.

• Meaning is 'Like a Lion' or 'Light, Torch, Bright.'
• I didn't initially realize it, but it's a form of Leona, which was my great-grandmother Webb's name.
• I don't know about a nickname, yet. I've heard Nori, but I don't think I can nickname my child the same as Kim Kardashian. :) I'd liked Leni years ago, but I've since gone away from that (and Kevin is very anti-Leni, so that was part of our agreement). :) I think we'll just stick with Lenore for now.
• We like how that it starts with an L, to go along with Lewis: Lewis and Lenore.

Elaine was Kevin's suggestion--he really likes Julia Louis Dreyfus, especially as Elaine Benes on Seinfeld. It was a first name contender for a while, but we decided to use it as a middle instead. And, an added reason, if you take the letters of my sister's name (Emily Diane) and put them in a letter blender, it kind of makes the name, Elaine. :)

Crosby Pete
Kevin is the one who suggested Crosby, and we both liked it for a number of reasons, even more so as time went on and we thought more about it.

• Meaning is 'Dweller by the town crossing.'
• Crosby Braverman (Dax Shepherd) from Parenthood, one of our favorite shows.
• Bing Crosby is in White Christmas, which is one of my (and my mom's and maybe my sister's?) favorite movies. I watch it every year as I put up the Christmas tree. My sister and I once did the Haynes' sisters' Sisters routine in a high school choir performance (because we are awesome). We go way back. :)
• Songs of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young have been with me, growing up, and with us, throughout our relationship. 
• Our House and Teach Your Children remind me of my childhood, hearing my parents sing around the house.
• Suite: Judy Blue Eyes is just a great song. 
• Kevin really likes Southern Cross.
• One of the absolute most fun days of my life was back in the summer of 2003 at Taste of Bloomington with Kevin and my sister and a friend, eating good food, drinking good beer, and dancing the conga line to Love the One You're With (covered by the band Bahama Llama). [Kevin would like to note that it's technically just a Stephen Stills song, not CSN/Y, but we still associate it with CSN/Y.]
• David Crosby has 'most awesome' hair, and given the crazy waves/curls between Kevin and I, we figure this child is bound to have some awesome hair, too.
• We like that it's two syllables, like Lewis, and we like the shortened version, Cros: Lew and Cros.

We went with Pete because, why not? We thought of using many other names and really went through the ringer with them, but we ultimately decided that Lewis Pete and Crosby Pete sounded right to us. Waycross (the source of the Jim Peters' story and Peter's namesake) is what brought us together, so we decided to just go with it.


So those are/were our names! I really, truly thought it was going to be a boy, based on how the pregnancy felt compared to Lewis' (very similar), but I had started to feel a greater connection to the name, Lenore, towards the end (and I told a few people that in the days leading up to the baby's arrival).

School Pictures (and We're Still Here!)

We are starting to get into the swing of things with Lewis and Lenore--of course, I have a bunch of pictures to post, but not quite the time to do so right now. Things are going well--I'm so thankful for family and friends who have visited and sent gifts and brought over food and checked in to see how we are doing. 

Today is the first day that I've felt *almost* on my own, as far as getting Lewis ready for and driven to school. (I say almost because I couldn't do it without the help of Kevin.) Each day, we're figuring out better ways of doing things, and I think we're going to be okay. ;)

The day before Lenore was born, I went into school to pick up Lewis' school pictures:

I thought they turned out really well again this year. Here are his pictures from last year, and you can really see how much older he looks now! Especially when I see him next to his sister--he is just gigantic! His arms and legs are so big and strong, yet it seems not that long ago that he was a little baby like Lenore. (sigh)

Lewis the Truest, Vol. XVII

During breakfast one day:

Lewis: Mmm, this is alligator soup.
Mama: This is what?
Lewis: Alligator soup.
Mama: Oh! I thought it was toast.
Lewis: It's alligator soup. The little bits of alligator are DELICIOUS.

After I stopped laughing, I asked him where he learned all of this information about alligator soup, and he told me he learned it from Ms. Lauren, his art teacher/school director. :)

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I told Lewis to go potty after breakfast/before getting ready for school. I heard him go into our bedroom to talk to Hattie, as he often does. In parting, these were his words to her:

Lewis: Goodbye, Baby. (He calls her Baby Girl.) I'm going to poootty and poop before schooool!

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Kevin and Lewis went out to dinner a few weeks ago while I went to a wine/canvas thing with Kate, and Kevin sent me a text about Lewis's review of the restaurant:

Lewis: I like Moe's. It is not yucky.

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Lewis was admiring Lenore the other day after a feeding. I asked him if he wanted to say anything to her:

Lewis: Choo choo train. Tractor. Airplanes. Orange. Basketball. Leaves. Dada. Mama. Peter. Hattie. Baby. Lewis Pete. Dada. That's our FAMILY.

I was writing the words down as fast as they came out, and I thought I might have missed a couple. I asked him what came after tractor, and he said, 'airplanes, orange, basketball, etc.' and kept rattling off the list again, in the same order. It was too, too funny.

Lenore's Birth Story

When I left off on pregnancy updates, we were scheduled to be induced on Wednesday, 10/29 (40 weeks 5 days). Tuesday night, we packed our bags and went to bed, ready to wake up to call the hospital at 5am to check for bed availability. As long as there was a bed available, we were to check-in at 7am to start the induction.

Well, well, well...I woke up at 2:30am to pee, and, much to my surprise, as I stood up from bed and walked to the bathroom, my water broke!!!

I didn't know what to do at first--go back to bed? Walk around? I decided to call the hospital, and they instructed us to come on in since my water had broken. We took showers and finished packing our last-minute things and headed out. Check-in was smooth (we arrived a little after 3:30am), and we were put in lucky Labor & Delivery room 13.

The nurse was getting everything set up and ready for the induction--even though my water had broken, I wasn't in labor yet (labor is cervical change). I hadn't had any contractions, so they were going to start me on pitocin. The nurse checked me, and I was still just 1cm and the baby was still very high. She also seemed a bit unsure of what she was feeling when she checked me, head vs. butt, which of course made me anxious. She went and got the doctor, who did an ultrasound, and we instantly knew something was awry. 

Baby had flipped again, back to the transverse position. :( Head was up in my right ribs, and butt was pointing at my left hip, just as before. The doctor said that the baby would not be able to be born vaginally, due to its position. I asked about a version, if it was too late, and she said that was no longer an option--they have to have the waters intact to use as a cushion, and mine had already broken, counting me out. 

Before we knew it, anesthesia, baby nurses, etc. were all coming in to talk to us, and we quickly realized we needed to call the grandparents to get to the hospital asap. It was around 5:15am at this point, and the anesthesiologist told us we'd have a baby by 6am! (Our heads were spinning...)

We went into the operating room around 5:30, and baby was born at 6:06am. They let Kevin say what the gender was as they lifted her up over the drape--'It's a girl!' I think I said, 'WHAT? A girl?! WHAAAT?' (I think we both were convinced it was another boy.) We both started crying, and Kevin went over to watch her exam with the baby nurses. Her APGAR scores were 9 and 9, which is excellent. Meanwhile, I was still on the table getting sewed back together and trying to hear everything. And crying and smiling in disbelief.

After they finished with me, they moved us into an anesthesia recovery area. Kevin went out to the waiting room to tell his parents and my parents that it was a girl and her name and stats, and then Lewis came back into recovery to meet Lenore. I think we were in there around an hour, and then they moved us over to Mother/Baby.

In the course of that day morning, I went from being elated about going into labor on my own (or what I thought would be labor), to great disappointment in having to have a c-section. The pain is no joke, but hopefully it gets better soon. The whole day was so fast-moving and a blur, but we've all come out of it healthy and happy (and sleepy) on the other side.

Lenore Elaine Thompson

Born 10/29/14 at 6:06am

10 pounds, 1 ounce

21.25 inches

Fall Festival at Gallrein Farm

Kevin and I were talking, and we think we have officially gotten our fill of fall festivals this year! Our last stop was a trip to Gallrein Farm on Saturday with my parents--you'd think that walking around for hours might kick start labor, but alas. 

Lewis and I had been out to this farm once last year with Tonya and Carlton, but it was during the week, without the full scope of activities up and running. I'm so glad we went back--it was a beautiful weather day, and just about everything they offered was right up Lew's alley.

First stop was a farm-themed bouncy house with a tractor inside--hello!

He spent most of the time in there running up one side of the tractor and leaping/bounding/sliding down the other.

Before we left that morning, I told him there was a John Deere tractor train that I remembered from our last visit, and his eyes lit up. I think it lived up to the hype:

Heading out, verrrry excited

He's the one, 6 barrels in from the left. That ride was a pretty empty one, obviously! He was pretty brave, going all by himself.

Returning back, with a 'that was awesome' face :)

Poke, poke, poke

He found that piece of straw and was pointing it around, like a wand, saying, 'Poke, poke, poke.'

After getting sufficiently straw-covered, we headed to the pony ride and petting zoo:

I think the donkeys were his favorite. :) Looks like he was ready to climb in the pen with them.

Next up were the pedal cars...Kevin was prepared to have to pedal Lewis around again, but Lew was totally able to do it himself:

Look out, here I come!

Onto the real tractor, pulling our hayride

We rode out to the pumpkin patch but just stayed on for the return trip (we have enough pumpkins already).

We still had some tickets left, so Lewis asked Gramma if she would ride the barrel train with him a second time:

She said he really seemed to think he was steering his barrel--he'd turn when the train turned and was taking it pretty seriously. :)

Our final stop was just a big play area of straw bales. Kids were throwing it everywhere, and it seemed like the 'thing' to do was to bury yourself in it. Lewis got right on that:

I am buried. Can you see me???

It cracked me up how he covered his eyes with his arm--I bet he felt like he was really all covered up, my sweet boy. :)

The best!

Lewis slipped/wiggled off the bale, straw was everywhere, etc. I love it/them.

We stopped on the way home at the new outlet mall in Simpsonville, and I was excited to find some big kid-sized footed pajamas for Lewis--last week, he was waking in the middle of the night, needing the covers put back on because he was cold. I didn't realize they made the sleepers after size 5T (which he has outgrown), so I'm glad we happened upon them in bigger sizes for our big boy.

40+ Weeks: Baby's Been Served

40 Weeks 2 Days with Baby #2

(3 Days Before Induction)

41 Weeks with Lewis

(Day of Induction...2 Days Before Birth)

We are officially into extra time now, and this baby has an eviction plan in place. At my appointment last Friday (my official due date), things remained unchanged, so we moved on to discuss induction. Of course, she wanted to give the baby a chance to come on its own, and she again said I could go to 41 weeks (which is Halloween). She asked if I wanted a Halloween baby, which I do not, so Wednesday (tomorrow) is the day (40 weeks 5 days). She isn't on call anytime in the near future, so we are going to be with one of her partners who she was able to get to cover our case (and his on call day is Wednesday). I've seen, and been induced at, 41 weeks 2 days with Lewis, and who knows if this one would stay put that long if we let him/her. At this point, I feel like no, definitely not...he/she will never, ever be born. Ever. :)

Thankfully, I have had plenty of time to complete everything on my to do list (and then some!). I was feeling sentimental about the end of pregnancy and the end of life with 'just' Lewis, but I am ready now. 

Note: I did just get sad, reading to him at nap time, realizing it would be our last time to do so without also having a baby to tend to. I am not totally jaded/cold-hearted. :)

Lewis and I have a cold, which is great timing. His is worse than mine (and I caught mine from him). He had a fever Thursday, so I called my parents to come down and start their pre-baby stay with us (on Friday). He had to miss school Friday, and he might have to miss tomorrow, too, depending on how he's doing this afternoon after nap. The fever has been off/on since Thursday, along with a cough, runny nose, being hoarse, fussy, puny, etc. I finally took him to the doctor yesterday to make sure it isn't an ear infection, and it is not. The doctor said it's just an upper respiratory thing, but she went ahead and prescribed an antibiotic, in case there is an infection and to try to help it along faster with baby #2's impending arrival. 

Unfortunately, it has affected his sleeping. He woke up at 3:15 Monday morning, rearing to go--I heard him taking off his PJs and opening his drawers to change into comfy clothes, but I was able to go in and sleep with him until a more reasonable 7:30am. This morning was not as nice--he was up at 4am and he (and I) stayed up. Kevin took a while falling back asleep, too, so, we're all a mess, just in time for the new baby! Hooray! I did catch a nap today while my parents took Lew to open gym, and I'll try to (ha!) go to bed early tonight. I guess we have many more sleepless nights ahead, so why not get a head start?

I have some fall festival pictures from the weekend to post, and then the next will be about the new baby! (Finally!)