An Added Joy

I was even more nervous for this second baby than I ever was with the first. Excitement overwhelmed me the first time, and this time I was mostly nervous about the first few months with a toddler on top of it all. I was also paranoid about colic or some sort of medical concern with Carter, but Matt says that's because I'm a pessimist. (Really I just like to be prepared for the worst.) All these worries, so far, were unnecessary, because I'm loving having a baby in our home. Granted, the nights are rough (especially with Caleb waking up frequently), but I love little babies. We're having so much fun with Carter being a part of our family.

Carter is a calmer baby than I remember Caleb being. I love that Carter goes back to sleep most of the time right away after the nighttime nursings. With Caleb, he seemed to be wide awake at night for the first month, and it was not fun training him that nighttime is for sleeping. Carter brings a special spirit into our home (as Caleb did)...maybe because he was just with our Heavenly Father not too long ago.

Caleb is, for the most part, very sweet with Carter. If Carter is crying or upset, he will find the pacifier and put it in Carter's mouth. Caleb will also share his toys with Carter very well when Carter is sad and doesn't understand why this doesn't fix the problem. He's always giving the baby kisses. He's very proud of his little brother. If someone is admiring Carter, Caleb is quick to run over and smother the baby with kisses to take ownership that this is his baby. Caleb also is very aware of Carter, and if he doesn't see Carter, he will ask, "Where's the baby?" I can't wait until Carter is older and they can play together.

Here are some recent pictures of Carter:

9 days old

2 weeks old

20 days old

Big Brother

Caleb being a good helper by sharing his toys with Carter when Carter is crying.

(Carter is 4 weeks old)

Father & Son Outing

One thing I didn't anticipate with a new baby was just how strong the feelings of guilt would be about not giving Caleb the attention he used to have. When I finally do get a chance to spend some one-on-one time with Caleb in the day, it seems like the time is always cut short because of Carter's needs. Caleb has been such a trooper though about being patient when I have to attend to Carter, and he always wants to be a helper. There has been some acting out on his part to get attention, but not too bad. I find myself losing patience a lot more quickly though with Caleb when he is "naughty" on purpose.

I was worried that Caleb would regress in terms of potty-training, because that's what I have heard from so many people. I'm thankful that this isn't the case. He has regressed in terms of sleeping, however. When we transferred him to the "big boy bed" in Decemeber, it took forever (months) for Caleb to be able to sleep through the night again. Now we're back to square one it seems with Caleb's sleeping habits where naptime and bedtime are very difficult, and Caleb will wake up at least once a night (most of the time we are guaranteed twice a night). The funny thing is that Caleb will sleep through Carter screaming at night, and then wake up at some other random time, so the two events are completely unrelated. Unfortunately for Matt, my body is not physically capable of waking up for Caleb's needs in addition to Carter's needs, so Matt has been on "Caleb duty" at night. Nights are rough. :o)

Matt has been very good about giving Caleb 100% of his attention when he gets home from work. They will play outside together until dark when it's time to start getting ready for bed. Caleb LOVES this time with Daddy. If Carter happens to be napping during this time, it allows me some "me" time to be able to get some things done on my to-do list.

Last Saturday, Caleb and Matt went to an Astros game together in order to give Caleb some extra attention. I don't know how much of the game they actually watched, because they spent most of the night playing in the children's area.

Here is Caleb racing the baseball player.
Caleb posing next to Craig Biggio.
Daddy and Caleb
Caleb sitting on a ball outside the stadium.

When the workers announced that it was time to close the children's area for the night, Caleb decided to pull a "naughty" act and refused to come out of the play gym area. Parents aren't allowed inside, so Matt wasn't able to aide in capturing Caleb. Apparently it took all 4 of the workers to climb through the play gym to try to catch Caleb, and they were at it for some time. If I had been there, I would have been thoroughly embarrassed, but one of the workers told Matt afterwards that he's the fastest kid they've ever had in there. Matt wasn't embarrassed, but instead proud that his little boy was so fast. :o)

Easter Festivities

This was Caleb's first year to dye Easter eggs. He loved it!

Last year he enjoyed looking for eggs, but this year Caleb really got into it. It was a race to gather as many eggs as he could!
Carter and I watched the festivities from the sidelines :o)

Welcome Baby Carter!

3 days old

Carter Matthew Call

Born March 30, 2010 at 10:23 pm.

Weight: 7 lbs. 13 oz.

Length: 20 3/4 in.

Here is the long saga of the whole birth experience. Feel free to skim as it is quite lengthy (hence the reason it has taken me so long to write up...a little here and a little there when I had some spare moments).

Following our day at the zoo last Monday, Tuesday the 30th began as every other day. It was my birthday, so it was fun to hear from friends all day long via email and Facebook. Caleb and I started the day with some exercise: going on a walk with my sister and Dallin. Following that, Caleb and I met up with some friends and rode the free Trolley ride they have in our area a few times. (Caleb loves riding the "Choo Choo Train"!) After that we met up with Ariane and Dallin again to let the boys play in some fountains that they also have in this area. Ariane and I sat on the side drinking our Jamba Juices and the boys had a great time.

After that fun-filled morning, Caleb was tuckered out and we went home so he could take a nap. Matt then surprised me by coming home from work early with my birthday present. It was a wonderful surprise. :o)

Later that night, we headed up to meet up with some of my high school friends. Leticia was in town from Wisconsin with her boyfriend, so it was a fun excuse for us all to get together (whoever could make it). She and Dave cooked us dinner, which was very yummy. Leticia and I grew up just down the street from each other, so Matt and I dropped Caleb off at my mom's on the way over to dinner.

I had been having a little cramping throughout the day, but didn't think much of it. I felt like this baby was going to go past the due date at this point. At around 7 pm, however, contractions started about 10 minutes apart. They weren't bad yet as I was able to continue to talk and laugh with everyone. At 8 pm, it got to the point where it was uncomfortable to be in front of people as I pretended that I wasn't in pain during the contraction, so we made an early exit after some yummy pie. We went to pick up Caleb at my mom's. I explained that I was having contractions to my mom, but I wasn't sure how serious it was and if things were really going to pan out. I didn't want to leave Caleb there unnecessarily, and he put up a big stink about not wanting to stay at Grandma's, so we took him with us. (Obviously I wasn't thinking rationally.)

On the way home, we timed the contractions, which were now coming every 4 minutes. They were also very painful, and it was very uncomfortable dealing with them while sitting/laying in a car. Conincidentally, it was about at this time (8:30 pm) that I decided I wanted an epidural. When Matt and I had been reading about natural birth, one book talked about the emotional signposts of labor. The first is excitement, the second is seriousness (this is really going to happen!), and the final emotional signpost is self-doubt. There were tips in the book for the partner about how to coach the woman through this self-doubt signpost. So when I told Matt that going natural was for the birds, and I wanted an epidural, he was unsure how to approach the issue. He finally just asked if he should try to convince me otherwise, and I told him No, I was getting an epidural!

During the ride home, Matt called my mom to let her know we were going to head to the hospital, and we wanted to take her up on her offer to watch Caleb (even though we were just there!). While we waited for my mom to come once we were home, I laid down in the "relaxation position" that was talked about in my books while Matt rubbed my back. Poor Caleb was very confused about his mommy hurting and was trying to help, so he climbed over me to put pillows on me to keep me warm and also tried to help Matt rub my back. Unfortunately, his "help" was only annoying me.

As soon as my mom got to our house, Matt and I took off for the hospital. Again I felt so bad for Caleb as he cried and cried wanting to be with Mommy and Daddy. The whole situation was just tense, and he knew that something was "wrong" with Mommy. He was a bit of a troublemaker the rest of the night for my mom because he was upset, confused, and probably a bit hurt that we didn't take him with us.

We arrived at the hospital at 9:30 pm. It took about 10 minutes to get a room ready for me. I changed between contractions (now 2-3 minutes apart), and then the nurse checked the dilation between another contraction. When she announced that I was a 7 to 8, my first question was, "Does that mean it's too late to get an epidural?" She responded, "I didn't say that. The anesthesiologist is standing by, but we have to get you checked in first." For the next 20 minutes or so, while I'm suffering through contractions, I'm signing and initialing all these papers. As I realized how much time was passing, I came to terms with the fact that I was going to get my wish and end up doing this thing naturally. The on-call doctor peeked in once, then left again. By the time they got the IV in my hand, my body started pushing the baby down on its own, and I announced that I needed to start pushing. I had been laying on my left side at the time, and the nurse made me roll over on my back. The doctor came back in joking with Matt that he didn't really have time for that quick snack he had just eaten. It was at this time, right before I started pushing, that my water broke. I told the doctor that I wanted to avoid an episiotomy if at all possible. With less than 5 minutes of pushing, Carter Matthew Call joined this world. They plopped him on my belly, and I started crying out of relief and amazement that I survived and that Carter was here.

The lovely hospital shot where women are looking their best after going through labor.

This is my second time to hold him after his bath.
After his sponge bath

Caleb meeting Carter for the first time.

Caleb loves "his baby" and smothers him with kisses.

Caleb napping with Carter at the hospital.

These men/boys are my whole world. Napping together on Easter Sunday in between Conference sessions.

So now that I've given birth with pain meds and without, here are a few thoughts about them both.

First I have to share a few "funnies". I don't know that any woman is particularly nice during contractions and labor, but I definitely was in fine form with Matt. I chewed Matt out on the way to the hospital because I thought he had gone to the wrong one (there are 2 hospitals that are within 5 minutes of each other). I had really bad back labor, hence the reason Matt was using his fist to rub my back throughout the contractions. I snapped at him several times for not rubbing in the right spot, and would physically move his hand to where I needed him to rub. He told me after the whole thing was over that he swears he put his fist in exactly the same spot that I previously had told him during the next contraction, only to have me snap at him again and move his hand to a different spot. Matt told me later that at one point one of the nurses whispered to him, "There is no right spot!" I also didn't realize how loud I was as I moaned/sang through the contractions. According to the books, moaning and singing are supposed to help, but moaning is pretty much involuntary. Whenever a contraction would come, I would sing "La, la, la, la" in a high pitch, and then repeat the mantra of "pain, pain, pain" over and over again. Matt was walking the halls calling people right after the birth while I was being stitched up (I had one small tear forward) and Carter was being checked out. At the very end of the hall, the nurses at the desk said, "It must be over." Matt responded that yes, we had our baby, then asked how they knew it was over. They responded that they couldn't hear me anymore. How embarrassing!

Immediately following the birth, I had the thought of why would a woman give birth naturally more than once? I was very shaky for the next hour or so, but 2 hours after birth I was up and moving around and feeling really good. A week later, I have to say that the recovery is so much better this time around. As I look back at the experience, the hardest part was getting through the contractions. I really had a textbook perfect labor though. A total of 3 1/2 hours of labor and only 2 of those hours were really difficult contractions. My water broke at the very tail end, which was perfect timing. The pushing part, in my opinion, was much easier than surviving those contractions. Anyway, bottom line, I'm just going to play it by ear next time around, although it's definitely encouraging knowing that if I did it once, I could do it again.

More to come soon about the special spirit Carter brings to our home. Although I was 1 1/2 away of my goal (I didn't want Carter to come on my birthday), Carter was the perfect birthday gift and the perfect end to my birthday.

Zoo Outing

The last "Caleb and Me" day before the new addition arrived. We spent last Monday (the 29th) at the zoo for the majority of the day. Caleb had a blast looking at all the animals. I felt great all day long and didn't feel that I had to look for an "excuse" to sit down at all. I was tuckered out when the boys were tuckered out at around 2 pm when we headed home.

Caleb looking at the giraffes
Riding the carousel

Grandma came with us to the zoo as well. It was nice to have an extra pair of hands.

Three blonde boys enjoying the day: Caleb, Ammon, and Dallin

(Ammon is a good friend of Dallin's)

Playing at the park