Headed home with Margaret

We were discharged a day early, we couldn't get out of there fast enough.  Time to be HOME

So little!

Fletcher doesn't quite know what to think of her

Neighbors have admitted to coming up to the house to read this sign waiting for news if it was a boy or a girl- very cute

Charlie is just obsessed with her.  But he doesn't get in her face or hover, he's already a stellar big brother

He likes to hold her and says things like "my eyes are watering because she's so cute" or "don't cry, big brother is here" **SOB**

First sponge bath

Things have been going well.  Matt is back to work,  He took about a week and a half off.  Again, like last time, that time when you are first home with just your husband and babies is such an amazing time.  We put a hiatus on visitors for the first few days and just got a chance to be together.  He's been back at work for 2 days now and we are missing daddy very, very much.

Breastfeeding continues to be my biggest issue.  But I keep plugging away at it.  Every day I say I'm giving up and every day I make it one more day.  I went to see the lactation consultant.  She made me feel better about how things were going and gave me a few good tips.  But there is no magic solution, it's just hard.  Sad thing is that she basically told me if I would have stayed with it with Charlie that he would have been fine.  We're going to pretend she didn't say that....

Maggie is a true McAuley.  She sleeps and sleeps and sleeps.  She sleeps 4-5 hour stretches at night and sleeps most of the day.  Once she is asleep, there is absolutely no waking her up to nurse.  I've used cold wash cloths, ran her feet under water, tickled and prodded her- nothin.  It's best just let her wake up on her own and then she cluster feeds, which is about every 45 minutes for 4-5 hours in the afternoon and the evening.  I go back to the lactation consultant Friday.  I'm anxious to see her weight.

The first day we were home, Charlie was weepy and crabby, crying because he missed his sister, crying because the baby was so cute, he was just a mess.  Something was off so I felt his forehead- screaming hot.  Shit.  So the next day we had to bring Mags in to the doctor.  While we were in there I told him that Charlie had a fever and asked if I should worry about her getting it.  He looked in his throat and....STREP THROAT.  So I walked my butt out to reception, made another copay and got him a prescription.  Do you remember when he had a severe allergic reaction to penicillin?  Well, he's not allergic to the penicillin, but if the virus and the drug react weirdly, he breaks out.  He broke out HEAD TO TOE in dots!  At least it wasn't as bad as last time which sent us to the ER for 2 days straight.  He just had an itchy, yucky rash all over his body.  So BACK to the doctor to switch his meds and he's doing much better.

Remember this from way back when?  My poor baby

Napping at 9am after a long night

 My body is slowly starting to become normal again.  I can wash my own feet!  My hormones are a little out of wack - sleep deprivation isn't helping.  I'm not much of a crier, so to have no control over my tears is absolutely the most annoying thing in the world.  Here are a few things that have made me cry in the last week:

A prescription medicine commercial singing Tomorrow from Annie
A picture of a grandpa crying on facebook
Matt raising his voice to me trying to get me to see reason
Ethan wanting to visit (right in the throws of an epic breastfeeding debacle)
A card from my Aunt Joyce congratulating us on Margaret
Just now looking at that picture of Charlie's allergic reaction from 2013
Typing this list.  God help me.

Matt's daughter legally having a beer and holding Margaret - I find this picture hilarious.  

She has the baby stink eye down pat

This is us trying to wake her up to feed- having nothing to do with it

WAKE UP MAGGIE!

A natural

Aunt Michelle stops in for a visit

Presenting Miss Margaret Catherine

Last week I was so desperate for a beer that Matt went out and bought me an O'doul's.  I didn't need the alcohol, I just wanted a cold beer.  Hit the spot!

Trying to get through my last week at work - it was pretty brutal

One super hot day I ran into my room to spread out on the bed in the air conditioning and try to cool down.  Charlie crawled up and this is him explaining how the baby is going to come out.  Very interesting take on it...

Quality check with George on the car seat.  Oh Charlie, you're the cutest

Calm before the storm - we are ready!

Monday night - the day before I delivered

This didn't really work because the scale is off, but the top is the night before I delivered Charlie

My belly protector

It just got crazy around here again! Margaret 'Maggie' Catherine McAuley joined us at 7:44am on June 21st, 2016. She was 9 pounds, 10 ounces (the exact weight Charlie was!) and was 20 1/2 inches long. Just like with Charlie, I want to cover the birth story for my own purposes. I've enjoyed going back and reading Charlie's over the years. I wouldn't remember half of the story had I not recorded it. It's all pretty much a blur, especially 6 years removed. The good thing, Maggie was a scheduled C-Section, so the story is significantly less dramatic then Charlie's. Maggie's original due date was June 30th (Charlie's birthday) but we were able to schedule the surgery for as early as possible. Near the end, I was SO pregnant and the Kansas City summer was in full swing and it was just sweltering out. Having a date that I knew she was coming, was SO nice. I can't imagine struggling through the heat day after day just waiting to go into labor. Sometimes modern technology is a beautiful thing. Plus, again, everyone knew this was another big baby...so even if I wanted a VBAC, there was a 99% chance I would have been right back in surgery for a c-section. And this way I was able to have a tubal, so it all worked for the best.

5:30 am 

I can't believe I'm putting this picture on the internet, but you can see the hugeness

Matt was FULL of the jokes that morning.  Was ready to slap him (and hug him for distracting me)

Lets do this!

Trying not to freak out as they stitch me back up

Blessed skin to skin

Bridgette and Ethan stayed at the house Monday night so they could be with Charlie while we checked into the hospital at 5:30 in the morning. I was so annoyed when they told me months ago that we had to be at the hospital that early, but I had been up about 4 am the last two weeks, so I was pretty much up anyway. We got checked in and had this amazing nurse named Ruth. I told her my requests like skin to skin, delaying the K & Hep shot, all things to help foster a good environment for breastfeeding. It's amazing how different c-sections are from just 6 years ago. With Charlie, he was taken away after he was born, no skin to skin, I barely saw him. They poked and prodded him for an hour and then wondered why he wouldn't breastfeed. If I sound bitter, I am. Through this birth I have realized how his whole birth/breastfeeding process slightly traumatized me. It's reared its ugly head several times with Maggie. Anyway, Ruth was a HUGE breastfeeding advocate and really took charge in letting the nurses know important this all was. Plus, she even had additional things we could do to help. And she was funny and sweet. She was off at 7 am, I was sad she wasn't going to be with me the whole day. It's amazing the difference a good nurse can make. She even came to see me the next day, she said she KNEW it was a girl!

In the recovery room - Matt fell in love immediately

Look at her lookin at her daddy

The surgery sucked, there is no way to get around it. Being cut open and put back together is just going to suck no matter how many things they do to make it better. But they had a clear drape this time so I could see the sex the same time Matt did.

 I still can't believe it was a girl. I'm just so grateful, thankful, and blessed. I lost my mom when I was 9, and while I've always been surrounded by amazing women, to be gifted the opportunity to have a mother/daughter relationship is just too much (okay, I'm crying...more on that later). It's something I've yearned for and thought that it was something I just wasn't going get. But God pulls through and blesses me in abundance.

Is this not the most precious thing you ever did see?

We made the kids wait to find out the sex until they came up to the hospital which was SO fun

Charlie is the proudest big brother you ever did see

Uncle Chad

Melinda came down Tuesday night.  I was so grateful to have her there.  She was able to stay with me and give Matt a chance to run home and deal with the kids and the dog.  She is such a comfort to have around for me!

The hospital stay was a lot like last time - annoying.  So many people in and out of your room non-stop.  We were able to be released a day early to go home and find some peace!  Breastfeeding was hard, but was going well.  I swear, I think breastfeeding is the hardest thing I've ever done- that's a bold statement, but I'm totally serious.  So many tears, so much pain, but we do it out of love and I'm determined this will work.  I wish I could remove my nipples and soak them in an ice bath, but we do what we can....

Next post - headed home.  And a list of random things that have made me cry since the birth (damn hormones)