Happy Birthday Claire!

Obviously there is almost two months worth of time between Halloween and December but honestly there wasn't much that was blog-worthy and in my mind that was just as it should have been.  While I was working a ton trying to wrap things up before my upcoming maternity leave, we mostly just spent time as a family.  We played outside when the weather would allow and ran all over the playroom when it didn't, had a fantastic but low key Thanksgiving, put up the Christmas decorations, cut down a Christmas tree and nested a lot to get baby sister's room and the house ready.  We also broke down and bought yet another TV on the black friday sales so we could put one in the front living room where we could watch movies in front of the fire.  Josh had a new found love for "puppies" (Lady and the Tramp), Toy Story and the dinosaur movie (Ice Age).  He also loves helping to build the fire and with my waning energy levels after a long day at the hospital we spent many evenings cuddling on the couch and that's exactly what we were doing when I went into labor on December 15th at 38 weeks and 4 days.

I'd been very uncomfortable for the last several weeks especially after several really big OR cases and I had told Scott earlier that day I would probably cry if I had to go to my Monday clinic at the University.  I was proud that I had made it through all of my OR cases the week before so my patients and partner didn't have any disruption but as of that weekend, I was feeling pretty done. I was hoping to make it through my last weekend of call which would end that Monday morning and thankfully I knew I would only have to make it until Wednesday when we had an induction scheduled.  Originally I had planned to avoid an induction at all costs after the extended bout of things we had during Josh's delivery but when they gave me an estimated weight of 9lbs 8 ounces for "Sweet P" at my 37 week ultrasound I made sure to get on the schedule.  While I knew those ultrasounds are only accurate plus or minus a pound, I had no desire to wait around and see if the plus part might be true.  Luckily baby girl had listened to me when I started telling her early on that I would really prefer that she decide to come on her own.  After Josh had gone to bed we were sitting up watching Love Actually when at about nine oclock on Saturday night I began to have more painful contractions.  While they were still twenty to thirty minutes apart, I was already five centimeters dilated so the pressure soon was more than I was comfortable with.  I tried to lay down and see if they would improve but after about twenty minutes, I had Scott call the babysitter, I signed my beeper out and we were on our way to the hospital.  I still wasn't totally sure I was really in labor and I think every obstetricians' fear is that they'll be sent home (and laughed at) when it's not the real thing but I was also slightly concerned about delivering in the car or not having enough time for an epidural so I had to know. By the time we made it to the hospital thirty minutes later I already knew - we weren't going home. At least not without a new baby. 

We got admitted just after midnight and I was already almost seven centimeters so I'm glad we didn't hang out at home any longer.  The car ride had definitely kick started the contraction pattern and the hour I had to wait to get my epidural was a long one.  Once that was in though I felt almost euphoric.  I hadn't been that comfortable in at least six months.  We tried to get some rest but honestly I felt too good to sleep.   After they broke my water, the contractions actually stalled out for a bit and Sweet P's heart rate wasn't pretty enough for them to add any pitocin to help them but luckily with some position changes we finally made it to complete just after seven am.  Since I was comfortable and I knew the nurses had shift change, I elected to let her labor down for an hour.  While I knew it was unlikely I would have the five hours of pushing I had with Josh I wanted to do whatever I could to save up some energy and shorten that as much as possible.  By 8 am though, she had other plans and after just fifteen minutes of work, there she was.

Claire Lynn Pulaski

December 16, 2012 8:17 am

8lbs 8 ounces  21 inches

I'm so lucky to have "insider knowledge" on who the great Ob's are in town and I had great prenatal care with Dr. Kennebeck and then Dr. Shannon McAfee gave up her Saturday night to come in for the delivery. 

With my "VIP" status we got a nice big corner room and I spent the entire time snuggling with Claire.  I think she was in the bassinet only during bathroom trips

With such an easy delivery we elected for an early discharge from the hospital. Since she was born so early Sunday morning we were eligible to go home Monday night so in less than 48 hours we were home as a family of four which was especially helpful since Josh was not doing well with us being gone. I'll save the big brother introduction for another post but let's just say it was less than idealic and this is the best picture we got.

We are so thankful that things went so smoothly and once she had her newborn pulse ox screening we breathed a final sigh of relief.  With only a 2 day versus a 7 day hospital stay, no NICU stay, no heart problems, and no interstate move, everything seemed so simple this time.  So we left to go home and enjoy our early Christmas present.



Happy Halloween 2012

While this may have been the last year that I could have dressed Josh up as whatever I wanted, I really was interested to see if he would get the concept of dressing up and what he would want to be.  While his obsession with the "mickey rocketship" episode of Mickey Mouse clubhouse made him talk about being a spaceman for a week or two, his love of baseball quickly won out.  Since this meant a costume that was 1)easy to put together and 2) could be worn again, I was sold.

Of course when the time came to get dressed for the church trunk or treating event, he was less than thrilled about putting on his baseball clothes.  The black cheek marks especially lasted all of about sixty seconds. 

Of course a little time hitting ball and running bases helped to improve his mood as usual.

By the time we made it to church he was ready to enjoy the festivities. 

 

After one or two cars, he had the whole trick or treat thing down

Of course then Halloween rolled around and it was in the 30's and raining and he had a horrible cold.  We debated about not taking him out trick or treating but he had been asking about it every day since the church party.  So when we asked him if he wanted to go out for candy, of course the answer was an enthusiastic yes.

And just to complete the cuteness factor, here's a video I took that day.  For a little reference he calls all small candy like M&Ms, skittles etc. "beans" after we gave him jelly beans at Easter last year.  I will keep replaying this clip of his little voice to myself probably into his fifties to help remember how little he once was.

For "Baby Sistah"

After celebrating Josh's big brother weekend we wanted to give him a special project to work on for baby sister.  He's loved helping in getting her room set up (i.e. playing with all the old and new baby toys) and is very interested in talking about her at night when we lay down for snuggles so he seems to get the concept that she is a person who is coming to live with us as much as any two year old can. 

Since we're due at Christmas time, we've really been focusing on the fact that Josh was such a good boy this year that Santa is bringing him an extra special present - a baby sister.  Our propaganda seems to be working because if you ask him what he wants from santa three times out of five, he'll reply - "a baby sistah".  Of course the other two times, he'll say he wants a new Christmas tree since we saw Santa at the Christmas tree farm so we're trying to be realistic with our expectations. 

To hopefully help with his feeling of importance as the big brother who also has something to give baby sister we took him to Build-a-bear to make her a lovey that is filled with "Joshy love".

Since it will be Christmas time, we named the bear Holly and I'm sure baby sister will enjoy snuggling with her and her heart full of "Joshy love" soon.  When you ask Josh what he will say when he sees baby sister for the first time his response always is "Baby sistah so cute and so happy". 

If she takes after Josh at all we know these will both be true

Fall 2012

 

Last year because it was so dry we didn't have very pretty leaves on our wooded lot, but this year we had lots and lots of pretty leaves.  

 

 Luckily Scott had a special helper who likes to rake

And "big black kitty" to help supervise

Big brother weekend.

For my last non-call weekend before baby sister is born, we decided to celebrate with what we called "Joshy weekend".   While we are expecting more than a few ups and downs as Josh makes the adjustment to not being the only center of our universe, we think overall he'll adapt pretty well given how flexible he's been in the past. I'm sure being a family of four is going to be amazing for all of us, but we have loved our time as just the three of us and wanted to make sure Josh felt a fraction of the joy he's brought to our lives over the last two years.  So we planned a whole weekend of the stuff we knew he would like best. 

 We headed off to Indianapolis and stopped on the way there at an apple orchard with a petting zoo. 

Once we arrived, we checked into our hotel room attached to one of those indoor water parks.  While the room was certainly overpriced, his excitement over the "fancy wah-wah park" more than made up for it.  He was still too small for all the slides but he got his fill running around the splash area and riding the lazy river. 

The next day we went to see if the Children's museum of Indianapolis is worth all the hype.  Evidently it's the world's largest children's museum and is constantly rated as one of the best in the country.  While the toddler play area was under renovation and was definitely not as good as the one in Cincy, the rest of the museum was pretty impressive.  Josh loved the hot wheels exhibit and probably would have spent most of the rest of the day pretending to serve coffee in the Egyptian village they had arranged.  We explored the place from top to bottom and Josh had a great time.

Whether any of it "takes" or not, we spent a good portion of the weekend hyping up how Josh is going to be such a great big brother.  To help him focus on what that means we fixated on three qualities - Being sweet to baby sister which he is quick to tell you means no hitting, no kicking, no biting, Listening to what mama and daddy say and being patient which he understands to mean you take turns.  To celebrate Joshy becoming a big brother we got him his first train set and it's definitely a hit.   Mama and Daddy appreciate it now and probably  more so in the months to come that he loves to play with it all by himself.

 I'm not sure he'll remember much about the weekend, but for Scott and I it was great to be able to focus on him what makes him happy.  While we are super excited for our new arrival, we want Josh to know that he is what made us parents  and that together we are a family.

Go Blue!

In September we had the opportunity to take Josh to Ann Arbor for his first game in the "Big House" to watch Michigan play Air Force. 

First we had to get decked out in some new gear since everything else was too small.  Josh said he was ready to be a wolverine.

While the kettle corn was probably the thing he enjoyed most, his recent love for baseball translated pretty well to football.  Once we got off the "hit ball, run bases" to "throw ball and tackle" he seemed to get into the game.

By the time the game was over, he was able to participate in the Michigan fight song and could "Hail, Michigan" with the victor's valiant like the rest of the stadium.

While Aunt Lori, may have wished the game had worked out differently, all in all a great time was had.