Victory

It's 10:45 p.m.

Matt is still at work for another hour or so, but both children are in bed asleep and bathed. This is no less than a miracle. Thomas screamed for over an hour, Anne Marie got out of bed 700 or so times, but I won. :)

One month old...

Today was a major party- Thomas's one-month birthday. Here's how he celebrated:

- Woke up at 2:15 a.m. and had a bit of breakfast. Stayed awake until 4:30 a.m. while mama half-slept in front of a tv on mute.

- Woke up at 6:15 a.m. and had a snack. Went back to sleep but immediately woke up to see Papa off to work.

- Went back to bed at 8 a.m. (after another meal, of course), and slept in- it was a long party night.

- Woke up at 10 a.m., had some more milk, threw up. Got a new outfit and posed for a photo shoot.

- Partied with sister. Had lunch at noon, fell asleep, woke up, fell asleep, woke up.

- Had some more milk. Threw up on papa for his lunch break. Got a new outfit.

- Had a good scream.

- Went back to sleep about 3 p.m. Party on.

The results of the photo shoot (for more, click on the link under the photos):

From one month Thomas

From one month Thomas

From one month Thomas

From one month Thomas

Bulking up

Thomas went to the doctor's office yesterday. The kid is bulking up. He was 9 pounds 12 ounces, 21 1/4 inches long. He lost almost a full pound after birth, so he's up almost 2 pounds from a week ago. Of course, he was screaming so loudly that they couldn't check anything else, so we're going back on Thursday. He was diagnosed "physically healthy but tempermental."

Here's the latest, with his environmentally friendly shirt on.


The days in the Frandsen house are going really well. Everyone is happy, and things are falling into place. The late nights are good too. Evenings... not so good.



Here is how Anne Marie and are at the end.



Here's how we hope to be soon.

A prediction

When Thomas first entered the world, one of my first thoughts was, "Who in the world does this baby look like?"

With his dark skin and dark chocolate hair, he certainly beared no resemblance to his fair-skinned sister. Matt's parents attribute it to the fact that both Matt and I are part-Native American. Who knows.

Today, however, I realized his skin is now as light as mine, and looking back at Anne Marie's baby pictures, the two definitely look related. Anne Marie also came out with dark hair. Look at the two of them, one day old.

From Anne Marie hospital

From Anne Marie and Thomas Michael

So my prediction is that I'm going to soon have two blonde babies- a blue-eyed little girl and a brown-eyed little boy. We shall see.>

A birthday miracle

Both children in my house are asleep, and here I am blogging. Any other day earlier this week, I'd be passed out in a coma. Why do I have enough energy to lift my head? Because I got SIX hours of sleep last night!

Matt is normally a great help, even at night, but this time it wasn't him who helped. It was nothing short of a miracle.

For those who don't know, I gave birth to a screamer. Thomas is a sweet little baby- very alert when he's awake and not angry, strong enough to not only hold up his head, but already rolls, and he has beautiful eyes that are already looking to be a deep brown like his papa.

But when he's mad, the kid is mad. He can go for 12 hours at a time without taking so much as a breath. Every night, he does his scream for at least 4-5 hours, but for many of his 13 nights of life, he has gone the full 12. Usually he starts in the evening, and goes through morning. This has caused Anne Marie to wake up in the night screaming, and she ends up in our bed as well. And, Matt has had some late night shifts lately and it's impossible to get Anne Marie to bed with a screaming newborn. When Matt came home from work on Tuesday night, Anne Marie was collapsed on our bed, having finally fallen asleep at 11:45 p.m. I was downstairs in a chair holding screaming Thomas and crying my eyes out, blubbering something about how we had ruined Anne Marie's childhood by having kids 2 years apart.

But on to happier times. Yesterday was my birthday, and it was nice and quiet. Anne Marie, Thomas and I went to playgroup, then Matt and I dropped Anne Marie off at day care for a couple of hours to take a nap (it's her last Wednesday at day care until I'm off maternity leave, so I figured I would use it). We picked her up, drove to IF to look at cars, then went to my mom's. My mom and brother were taking us out to dinner for my birthday, but I was scared Thomas would blow. After all, it was his bewitching hour. But I nursed him until he was so full he could burst and hoped for the best.

The kid slept through dinner, then woke up long enough to be happy and cute for his grandma while I enjoyed cake and ice cream. We got Anne Marie in pajamas, got into the car and left. Both kids fell asleep in the car. We got home, I took the carseat with Thomas in it and put it in the bassinet. I didn't want to ruin the moment by moving or even unbuckling him. He slept for two more hours, until 1 a.m.! Then, he didn't wake up with a scream- he woke up with a polite little cry. He nursed while I read a couple chapters of the Kite Runner. I figured I'd be back to the book soon enough. But he slept another three hours! We had a 5 a.m. version of the 1 a.m. feeding. I woke up again at 7:45 a.m., but Anne Marie and Thomas were asleep. Poor Matt had to go to work at 5:30 a.m. - Home Depot is trying to kill him. I, however, had time to take a shower and eat birthday cake for breakfast before Anne Marie woke up at 8:15. Thomas slept until 9 a.m. I was so thrilled that Anne Marie got birthday cake for breakfast too. It was a morning to celebrate. :)

Here's hoping tonight is just as good. I apologize for the rambling post. I'm drunk on sleep!

Thomas Michael has arrived- the long birth story version

From Anne Marie and Thomas Michael

Well, I can honestly say that, even though things didn’t go according to plan, they went exactly as I would have wanted them to if I couldn't have a vbac.
After a week of pre-labor (1-2 hours of contractions every day, but nothing that lasted any length of time), I had a dream that I was having twins- I could tell because both sides of my pelvis hurt. That woke me up mid-contraction. I started timing them- four minutes apart and a 45 minute drive still to go. Then I went to the bathroom and saw some blood. I woke Matt up, we stuffed Anne Marie in the car and were off. About 10 minutes in to the 45-minute drive, contractions were 2 minutes apart from start of contraction to start and I was puking. I was sure we wouldn’t make it.
But luckily (or not) Thomas had other plans. I arrived at the hospital dialated to a 10 minus a “lip,” but the baby was still only at a station 2, just as he had been the week before. My mom overheard the doctor tell the anesthesiologist to stay nearby because she wasn’t sure the baby would come down at all. To her credit, however, no one gave me any indication that a c-section was likely inevitable. She knew I wanted every chance at a VBAC. The nurse, doula and Matt helped me switch positions, massaged me and coached me through every single contraction. The nurse was even willing to check my cervix while I was on my hands and knees. Last time they made me lie flat on my back every time, which was way painful. I was having pretty icky back labor this time, and as soon as I was on my hands and knees, the pain ended. I’m not even exaggerating. It went from really hard to breathe through and super painful to nothing more than pressure in my pelvis. I spent a couple of hours on my hands and knees draped over a birth ball in the bed, rocking.
After five hours at 10 cm without needing to push, however, it became pretty obvious that the kid was not going to come out the regular way. The doctor was so kind, though. She knew I had a good feeling about the nurse, and she had the nurse explain things to me. She also came in to explain things, and when I asked for 15 minutes to digest and make a decision on my own, she had no problem leaving, and she went and got the midwife to look at my statistics and give her opinion. The midwife agreed. My doula said she would never tell me what decision to make, but that it was really unusual to be dialated that long without getting to the pushing stage. They took the time to show Matt and me the paper with what they called “transition style contractions,” meaning they were at the top of the charts strength-wise and double-peaking. They had been going on the entire time without any progress on my part.
Everything was so much more respectful than last time. They waited until each contraction was over before the steps for the epidural for the c-section, and they did one last check before they wheeled me out, just to make sure. I told the doctor that the situation sucked, and she said, “it does suck, sweetie.” The doula agreed.
Thomas Michael was born at 7:27 a.m. on Feb. 27, 9 pounds and 21 inches even. He is totally different from Anne Marie! He is a high-strung little guy already, and it’s going to take some getting used to on all of our parts. Anne Marie is also turning out to be a great big sister, and seems fairly unphased by her brother’s long bouts of yelling. This photo, taken a few hours after birth, is deceiving.

From Thomas Michael