Sullivan at Three Months

Three months already, weeee! Time is flying and Sullivan is getting big. I feel like these first three months have gone by so much faster than they did with Cece. It's just so much easier the second time. Or it's just that Sully is just so much easier. We hit the baby jackpot with this kid, he's just so happy pretty much all of the time and if he's upset it's pretty easy to figure out why (hungry, has to poop or is ready for bed).

We had one pretty rough week at the beginning of this month because he caught RSV, a respiratory virus, from his sister and had to be on a nebulizer for the week. Then it turned into an ear infection. Even through all of that though, he was pretty happy. He just couldn't breath. Boo. 

He's a good, reliable sleeper. We get Cece to bed by 8 PM and then bring Sully up, change his diaper, swaddle him up and nurse him down to sleep. He's usually out by 8:30 and on a good night will sleep until 2-2:30 AM. There has been one or two nights he stretches it until 4 AM. Ahhh. Usually though, after that first long stretch, he stirs every two hours or so. I usually feed him once and then just put his binky back in after that. If it's been a good sleeping night, I usually stay up after his 4 AM feeding and try to get a short workout in (see this post) and then finish some housework or prep for the day before everyone else is up. Cece usually gets up around 7 and the first thing she does is go wake up Sully if he's still asleep.

I started work again this week so Cece and Sully are in day care 4 days a week until my parents return from their winter vacation next month (then they will be there 3 days a week). Sully has made the transition just fine, in fact everyone seems to love him there. He's a very happy, easy go lucky dude. What's not to love? His teachers are great so I'm feeling good about our choice and knock on wood he's not sick yet.

Besides smiling all the time, Sully loves to coo and "talk" to us. He's just starting to mimic. For example, if you open your mouth really wide, he'll do the same. He also talks back to you and loves to have conversations. He's so stinking cute. At three months Cece was already close to rolling over. I don't see that with Sully, although, to be fair, he spends less "free range" time on the floor than Cece did because well, because of Cece. I don't trust her 100% not to just smoosh him when my back is turned.

 

I don't have anything to complain about with this kid, honestly. He's a dream. Sullivan, we love so, so much. You sure do look like your daddy but I'm not really sure yet who you take after because you are way more chill than either of your parents. You put up with a lot from your wild sister and probably always will, but just know that getting to take care of you each day and watching you grow is one of the greatest honors of my life. Love you, bud.

PS - Cece's three month post.

Because We Don't Build Snowmen in This Family...

we build snow trains! And snowmen, too. But snow trains are way cooler. And also, Percy is better than Thomas in Cece's book.

My Mom Bod

Guys. Having two babies does a number to your body. It's all worth it, don't get me wrong. It's amazing just to think about what your body can do. I mean growing and feeding another human?! That is mind-blowingly amazing. It's also mind-blowingly hard on your body. And more often than not, new moms don't make any time for themselves and as a result, the state of their body and spirit, inside and out, suffers. Mine certainly has.

I know it's a little late for resolutions, but here's mine: get healthy in 2015. And there's more...help others get healthy in 2015. How? Beachbody that's how! A month ago I had never heard of Beachbody. If I thought about it, I probably could tell you that I was familiar with some of the fitness programs associated with Beachbody (P90X, Insanity) but I had no idea those programs were associated with a larger company. Then a friend of mine started posting on Facebook about how she was a "coach" and was looking to help motivate others to improve their health and fitness. I was intrigued because she promised short 25-30 minute workouts and went on and on about the benefits of drinking the super drink Shakeology once a day to improve energy, help lose extra weight and provide your body with beneficial nutrition. So I signed on. That was two weeks ago. Since then I started a new workout routine (PiYO) that takes only 20-30 minutes a day and I've been drinking Shakeology. You guys, I've lost 6 pounds in two weeks and I feel great! And can I just tell you, Shakeology literally tastes like one giant treat. It comes in several flavors (that I haven't tried yet) but the chocolate vegan with almond milk and a banana is to die for.

Lots of room for improvement!

I've been so impressed that I have decided to become a coach myself! If I can help others get out of their rut, change their fitness routine and change their lives right along side me, then why not? After years and years of slogging through long runs and lonely workouts by myself, I'm learning that group fitness is where it's at. Let's motivate each other, help each other through tough days and cheer for each other when the results start piling up. I'm so excited about this that I started another blog called The Mom Bod. I'll be writing about my progress there and hopefully connecting with others who might want to take the journey with me. I hope you check it out. And if you're interested in learning more about the Beachbody business or any of their fitness programs or challenges, or if you just want to check out Shakeology for yourself, click on that link or please let me know! You can start by checking out my Beachbody website or email me directly. I'm so excited to see where this takes me. Hope you come along, too!

Sullivan's Birth Day

It took four weeks for me to write a post about Cecelia's birth day. It's taken more than double almost three times as long to finally recap Sullivan's. I looked back at the post about my first birth experience and I have to tell you, even I only managed to read a few paragraphs of it. This one will be much briefer, kind of appropriate as Sully came into this world much sooner and much faster than his big sister.

My second birth experience started late in the night of Thursday, November 13th. I hadn't officially started my maternity leave so I had worked a full day, picked Cece up at school and completed our evening routine. After putting Cece to bed around 8 PM, I snapped a belly pic that ended up being my last, ever. Then I sat down on the couch and turned on the TV. I had been so tired that I was going to bed most nights just after Cece did. But on this particular evening, I stayed up to watch two of my favorite shows, Scandal and Parenthood. Silly me, I didn't make an attempt to go to bed until after 11 pm that night. And of course, that was the night I went into labor.

After about 30 minutes of sleep, I woke abruptly to the feeling I was wetting the bed. Lovely, right? It took me a second to realize my water had broke. I yelled to James to get up and get me a towel and I waddled my way into the bathroom to see what was up. My water didn't break with Cece until the very end, right before she was born so I hadn't experience this before. For me, my water breaking was more like a slow moving stream than a gushing waterfall (TMI? Sorry, but this is a birth story. You can stop reading now if that makes you uncomfortable!). At the time my water broke, I wasn't having contractions. I had felt crampy and tired at work all day but never experienced what I would call a contraction. Interestingly though, three different people had commented at three separate times that I "looked different" that day. Maybe they knew what was up. In any case, I sent James back to bed while I scurried about the house doing last minute pre-baby tasks like scrubbing cabinets and folding clothes. Within an hour or so, I started feeling regular but still mild contractions. One every 8-10 minutes. It was probably about 1:30 AM by that point.

Eventually, I started getting uncomfortable enough that I needed to sit down. I got out my handy iPhone App and started tracking the contractions. One every 6 minutes...one every 3 minutes...one every...oh, crap, we needed to get to the hospital, like now! We called my mom and told her to come as soon as possible. The contractions went from literally nothing to hard and fast, well, FAST! Truth is (please don't report us to DCF) we actually had to leave about 10 minutes before my parents arrived. Before anyone freaks, Cece was fast asleep, we could watch her on the video monitor the whole way (not that I did are you kidding) and my brother and sister-in-law were right next door. She was just fine.

By the time we got to the ER I was in a lot of pain. I had already made up my mind that I wanted an epidural this time. I went the "all natural" route with Cece and it was a horribly painful experience that was burned into my memory. I was exhausted after a long day of work and no rest and after being told that the baby was big, I mentally wasn't in a place to take on the pain of childbirth on my own. I wanted the drugs!

I was wheeled up to the maternity floor and checked. I was already dilated 8 cm (out of 10) and was well on my way to babyland. No wonder it hurt so bad. I still made them give me the epidural, which in retrospect probably wasn't necessary (easy to sat AFTER the fact) because things were moving along so quickly. A half hour later, the nurse checked me again and sure enough, it was time to push! The problem was i literally couldn't feel a thing from the waist down. Turns out it was a good thing I didn't have drugs the first time around because I needed to tap into that experience in order to remember what it felt like to push a baby out (the "right" way). It took three stress free pushes and then, at 7:03 AM on November 14th, little baby Sullivan was here!

My birth experiences were so different simply because I had an epidural the second time around. I mean we were laughing and joking and so relaxed that it was a pretty surreal experience. I have to say though, I'll always hold tight to my memories of my first birth, as tough as it was. And while I definitely could have done it again the second time around, I was happy to experience a less stressful method of birthing. I think James was happy too.

One of the best moments of Sully's first day with us was introducing him to his big sister. Cece feel in love with him from the moment she laid eyes on him. Even now, almost three months later, she's still obsessed with him. I hope these two know how important they are to each other and how much we love them both. Welcome to the family, baby Sully. It's like you've always been here.