Four Little Birds

It is so weird living in a neighborhood... with real neighbors (not neighbors that live half a mile down the street). A few weeks ago we bout hanging ferns for our front porch and planted flowers in the pots. A few days later, we noticed that two other houses on our street also had hung ferns and flowers and had started taking better care of their front yard/porch. I guess you can say that we are the Clarinbridge trend-setters?

Pretty flowers and nice ferns require lots of TLC which involves watering. Whenever it is going to rain, I bring the ferns down and set them out on the yard so they can get rain water (less water I have to pay for, since those things require so.much.water).

The other day when I went to bring down the fern that hangs on the side of the porch, a little bird flew out of the fern.

When I put the basket on the ground, I noticed that there was a tiny nest with four little eggs!

Of course Benjamin had to come inspect the nest...

So I hung the basket back up... now I am concerned that the fern is going to die because I don't want to water it with fear that the water will interfere with the bird's nesting... 

All Clean

Over the last two days, Benjamin has been quite concerned about Baby Brother wearing socks. So Benjamin pulls Nicolas's socks off and then he gets to see his tiny newborn-peeling feet and says "Baby Brother feets dirty"

Baby Brother was in fact, quite dirty, and tonight he finally got a real bath! Nicolas spits up a lot, and although I try to keep up with it by cleaning him up and changing his shirt, he is still a bit of a hot mess at the end of the day. We have managed to survive almost 3 weeks... but a bath was certainly finally due!

This child does not like to be cold. He also likes to holler a lot - and quite loudly. Here are some pictures of the bath, I will not post the videos because they consist of non-stop, ear-piercing newborn screams.

I look (because I am) tired. Nicolas looks (because he is) cranky:

He is all dressed and is still screaming...

After all that stress, he had a good feeding and then passed out... here we have a clean baby! Or in Benjamin's language "Baby Brother all clean"

Although they are brothers and they have the same genes, we are starting to find out that Benjamin and Nicolas have quite different personalities. I know we do not need to compare them but one can't help to do so specially in situations like The First Bath....... Benjamin loved his first bath and every bath that followed to this date. Nicolas, not so much. This ought to be fun! 

Nicolas's Story - Part 2

We (Norm, my mom, the nurse and I) pushed from 10:15pm until midnight with very little progress. Nicolas was estimated to be over 8lbs and apparently was just not making it down the birth canal.

At midnight my doctor brought up that word that I never wanted to hear "c-section".

I didn't want to have surgery. I was against it 110%.

The doctor was concerned that even if we managed to get Nicolas's head out, there was the very high probability that he was going to have trouble getting his shoulders out due to this size (and my size).

He gave me the option to keep pushing for 30 more minutes or go to surgery at that moment. I decided to keep pushing. Before he left, he also mentioned that if we push for too much longer and have to end up in surgery anyway, there is a possibility that Nicolas's head may get stuck and then the birth would become more complicated because he would have to get pushed back in (that's not the medical term, but that's basically what would need to happen) in order to get him out via c-section.

The doctor left and I pushed a couple more times and that's when Norm and my mom knocked some sense into me. As adamant as I was against surgery, I wanted Nicolas to be born healthy and not be hurt in the process. So we stopped pushing and went to surgery.

The nurse rolled me into the OR and it was a bright room with white walls. There were about 8 nurses in there, each doing their own thing. They were playing music... the radio pop music station.

Everyone was excellent - my nurses, the doctor, the baby's nurses, the anesthesia nurse. Everyone! Before I knew it, they put that blue curtain up, then Norm showed up in his scrubs and shortly there after I heard a voice saying "we have a boy!" followed by a tiny cry... must have been 1:02am.

One of the nurses brought Nicolas over so I could see him, she was cleaning him quickly and he was slightly blue. Norm went over to the newborn table as they did all the birth tests on Nicolas and wrapped him up.

From there, they knocked me out and I woke up at 3:00am in the recovery room. SHAKING. Apparently that is normal as you come off the anesthesia. Good to know. By 3:30am I met Norm, my mom and Nicolas in my room and was finally able to hold my little one.

While I was in recovery, Norm got to have a mini photo session with Nicolas as he took him to the nursery and rang the birth bell - this is a bell that is rang every time a baby is born. It plays a little melody that is heard throughout the hospital.

Thankfully Nicolas was born healthy and strong! We were only in the hospital through Sunday and were dismissed Monday midday. That's when Big Brother came to meet Nicolas as well as Godmother Michelle and Grandma Tillie!

Big Brother gets to hold Nicolas for the first time!

Michelle had the privilege to change Nicolas's first diaper!

Benjamin brought Nicolas a Giraffe on our second day at the hospital.

Finally it was time to go home and someone was not a happy camper...

And just like that, another chapter in our life started... 

Nicolas's Story - Part 1

Tuesday, April 25 we went to the doctor for our weekly check up and there had been no progress as far as Nicolas wanting to come out. With a due date of April 29, Norm, the doctor and I decided to wait one more week until May 2 and if there still was no update from Nicolas I would then be induced by the end of that week - possibly resulting on a Cinco de Mayo birthday which would have made Aunt Kerrie the happiest human in all of eternity.

Scared and nervous about being induced, we kicked the walking up. Thursday Norm took me to Target to walk around for a long time - which was one expensive walking trip. 

Friday morning I woke up at 5:00am to use the restroom and when I got back to bed I noticed very mild contractions. Not wanting to waste any sleep, I didn't give them much thought and got back in bed to catch more sleep. When I woke up for the day, the contractions had become a little stronger, so I started timing them and they were all over the place. Norm enforced a family walking trip around the block (we have a very odd and large "block") and to the mailbox and to the little sandlot at the end of our street so Benjamin could play. 

At about 11:00am, when we were at the sandlot, the contractions had become painful but they were still far apart. The doctor said to not worry about coming in until they were 3 - 5 minutes apart.... I was still closer to 8 minutes apart. 

I kept walking on and off, that day, taking little breaks here and there as we waited for my mom to get off work at 3pm so she could stay with Benjamin while we went to the hospital. Meanwhile, I had snacks and took a shower (and even washed and dried my hair! I have a fear of being stuck at the hospital with dirty hair... I don't like hospital bathrooms). 

We got to the hospital at 5:00pm and the nurse told us that I was already 5cm dilated and it was time to get admitted to have this baby! 

Norm went to the car to get the hospital bag as I was taken to the labor and delivery room. The contractions kept getting stronger and stronger, so it became time to get the epidural. The anesthesiologist walked in my room and explained the procedure. Then he went back behind the curtain to wash his hands. Shortly after he disappeared, he peaked back in and said "Mrs. Aldredge, I do have to tell you that all the nurses are talking about is how calm and collected you are for being 7cm dilated! I didn't believe them, but it is true!". That was just so funny, apparently the nurses were impressed on how I managed through the (very painful) contractions... I guess the breathing techniques from those Yoga classes way back when came in handy!

Here I am reading the food menu to see what I am going to have for breakfast the following day (little did I know I was going to be on a liquid diet for most of the following day...)

Everything was progressing so fast that I was nervous that my mom wouldn't get to the hospital in time to start pushing. Thankfully she got there at about 7:30pm, which actually was plenty of time before the pushing started at 10:15pm.

Back to Twelve Feet

On April 29 at 1:02am, Nicolas Manuel Aldredge was born here in Augusta, GA. We got to welcome him home that following Monday, May 1st. His birth story is much much different than Benjamin's and which I will share later (as in on another day). Meanwhile, here are a couple of videos of Baby Brother coming home!