Week 1 with 2

Before you begin, this is quite a lengthy post. Sorry if you don't want to read long posts, but I am using this as my journal and don't want to miss any of the cuteness that is my children. And let's face , that's a lot of cuteness.....

We have had a good first week home with Kendall. He is quite the cuddler. He will sleep for hours on end if he is sleeping on someone, but would wake up every hour if he was left in his bassinet. I think he is finally getting over that since we swaddle him up, stick him in one of those pillows that have pillows on either side of his belly and one of those bears that sound like the womb. This is all craziness to me since Alianna was not a cuddler at all, she even hated being swaddled as a newborn.
Poor boy has to sit in a pink swing. We got this with Alianna and she hated it (again with the swaddling thing) but he seems to love it. Although his daddy isn't a big fan of the pink and thinks he needs to wear super manly clothes whenever he's in it.
Couldn't you just chew on those chubby cheeks? He is such a calm baby as long as you aren't changing his diaper and he is getting enough food. :) He is a crazy nurser. ArJay did not hold him for the first 2 hours of his life because he eat the whole time. My nurses said it was just because he was a big baby and he would slow down once the milk came in. It has slowed down and he even went for 3 hour long stretches last night without eating, but he is still keeping me busy. He had his first doctor's appointment at 5 days and was already almost back to birth weight( he was 8lb7oz at birth and 8lb 5oz at the appt). Our pediatrician kept exclaiming how big he was for me and asking if I had gestational diabetes.
We had my mom here until Tuesday and she was a ton of help with Alianna. I was worried about her getting enough attention still and even more when grandma left and she didn't have undivided attention anymore but she has been great. She LOVES "my baby Kendo". She is always trying to help and tells him "it's ok baby Kendo" whenever he starts crying. The other day he started crying and Alianna came running over and told me "feed him Momma" and grabbed my Hooter hider, boppy pillow, and burp rag. I still wasn't getting myself situated fast enough apparently because she started pulling down her own shirt and trying to nurse him saying " here you go Kendo".She has also tried to use my breast pump by putting on her belly button. We had to have a conversation about how only mommy can feed him that way.
My dad and brother also got to come last weekend and had a blast with the both of them. ArJay's sisters both think Kendall looks like my dad and brother so they had a lot of fun with that. It seems like whenever Alianna realizes someone is holding Kendall and he isn't eating, she needs to be the one to hold him and says" hold it baby Kendol, hold it". And don't even try to call him anything but Kendall. I have said "Hi buddy!" or "How's my little man?" and Alianna quickly corrects me and says "Not buddy, his name Kendol Momma!"
(side note: I know she is making weird faces and looks in pain, but she really is happy. This is the face she has been giving me when I say cheese lately)

She is very protective of him as well. Last night we went to visit ArJay's family and I told Alianna to get ready to go. ArJay's sister Lacey was holding Kendall at the time and Alianna flipped out. She kept saying "kendol home, Momma's Kendol, Kendol home" Apparently she was concerned we were leaving him there with Lacey. I explained that he was coming home Lacey was just holding him. I loaded him in the car seat and put the canopy down and she had to lift it up and make sure we had the right baby and insisted on "carrying" him out all the while glaring at Lacey and muttering "my baby Kendol".

As far as ArJay and I, I think we are adjusting well to 2, we seem to have our roles fleshed out better with 2 than when we adjusted to 1. Tuesday night was a LOONG night. Alianna got sick, we thought it was an ear infection actually and she was burning up. Kendall was still waking up every hour and a half to 2 hours at that point. It was humorous because literally as soon as one would fall asleep the other was up and crying. they did not wake each other with their crying but would wake within minutes of the other falling asleep. I was convinced they were conspiring against us. Normally, me might be prone to getting a little...snappy with each other(gasp). But we just laughed and talked about how they are already letting us know that the two of them totally outnumber the two of us. Maybe we were just sleep deprived and slap happy.....

Kendall's Birth Story

I went in to get induced at 8 pm Wednesday March 2nd.

8:45 pm- they gave me what they nicknamed a "slurrie" which was a clear liquid 2 oz shot of Cytotec that just tastes like water. I was supposed take it every 2 hours and it just was supposed to ripen the cervix. I was supposed to be able to sleep and have my doctor come in at 7am and break my water and start the pitocin.

10:45pm- Got the 2nd dose of the Slurrie. Was having major cramping contractions every 4-5 minutes so my nurse put in my IV( she was going to wait until in the morning) and gave me an Ambien the doctor prescribed so I could try to get some sleep.

Midnight-4am- slept-ish while I got 2 more doses of the Slurrie and still having contractions.

4:30 am- I needed to go pee but hadn't gotten up yet when I felt a stream of wet down my leg. I thought " ok I'm pretty sure I'm still in control of my functions enough that that wasn't pee". Sure enough, my water had broken and was a little yellow because there was meconium. Contractions became much more intense( my doc later said it was because the cushion of the water was gone so his head was just butting up against it)

5:15am- My nurse checks me and says I am at a "stretchy 3 1/2" she could call it 4.

6:30am- They start my pitocin so my contractions will be regulated. They started being about 2-3 minutes apart.

7:15am- My doctor came in and I asked what was a good time to do the epidural so it wasn't too early and would slow the labor down. She said I was definitely in active labor and could get it. There was a c-section at 7:30 first and the anesthesiologist had to be in for the hour surgery but I could get it right after that.

8:30am-My nurse has the cart and all the stuff in our room ready for the epidural when a different nurse comes in and says she needs the cart because she's next on the list. My nurse asks "what list?" It was a busy day in labor and delivery and apparently there was a list for the epidural and there were already 2 ladies ahead of me.

8:30-9:30am- I'm not sure, you'd have to ask ArJay but I'm pretty sure I left some serious nail marks on his arms since I was having minute long contractions with 30 second breaks in between. At this point I finally realized why some women might cuss in labor. :)

9:30am- The anestleogist came in for my epidural. He numbed me and tried to get it in for like 5 minutes. It wouldn't go so he had to numb the net spot up and then it went in. This was probably the hardest part because I had to sit still for all of that even thru the contractions.

9:55ish-My nurse checks me and I am at a 9 and zero station. ArJay goes out to call my mom and his dad to come to the hospital so his dad can take ALianna(who my mom has) and she can come in for the delivery. Kendall's heart rate drops and then they lose it so the nurse tells me she is going to call in a bunch of nurses and not to freak out. The nurses come in and give me oxygen and turn me side to side and putting in the internal heart rate monitor. At this point ArJay walks in going "what is going on?" since he was out in the hall and did not hear why there are 5 nurses rolling me around and checking me. They find the heart rate internally and all leave then inform ArJay what is going on. The nurse that was putting in the internal monitor says she thinks I am at 10.

10:05ish- My nurse checks again and I am indeed at 10 and a plus1 to 2 station. They call the doctor and my family and tell them to hurry.

10:16am- My doctor gets there and asks me to do a trial push. She goes "wow you are having this baby" and pages a bunch of people in. They get everything set up and say I'll have him in like 2 contractions. I didn't really believe her after how long it took to push Alianna. Even as I am pushing and she is saying "next one your baby is coming out" I didn't believe her until I saw him.

10:28am-(12 minutes after she announced we would do a trial push) Kendall Scott Gamble is born. He weighed 8 lb 6.8 oz( they rounded up to 7 oz on the birth certificate) and 21 inches long.

So if you count from when my water broke, it was 6 hours. Even if you count from the night before, it was 13 and a 1/2. I'd say that is a huge improvement from last time. Although I did a lot more difficult contractions without the epidural. I kinda wish I had known I was that far when I got the epidural, I might not have. But then Iagain I was pretty done and I probably would have still. :)

He is a great baby, my only complaint is that he is a voracious nurser. I literally will nurse him for 2-3 hours at a time. They say it is just because he is a bigger baby and needs more food. Also I still am just giving colostrum and once the milk comes in he will be more full.

Our dang camera broke during the delivery, so we didn't get many shots right after( and my mom did not make it in time for the delivery, she was minutes late) But she has bunch of pics since then that I will have to get. We can't really decide who he looks like, of course everyone has an opinion. Some say my brother Mitch or Alianna. The only thing I know is he has Auburn hair that looks a lot like mine.