End of leave...

This is my last week of maternity leave, and none of these five weeks have gone as I thought they would. 

I spent the first 4 days of leave taking Brody to the doctor and to the hospital lab for bilirubin checks. While he was nowhere near as yellow as his brother, his levels were a little high and with Sawyer's history they wanted to be sure to keep it in check. 

a much less yellow baby

Then my belly button started really bothering me.  At first I attributed it to postpartum pain, but 2 weeks after he was born I decided that with the pain getting worse with activity or any time I had to strain or use my abs, it needed to be addressed. Sadly they discovered I had an umbilical hernia. With it causing me so much pain it was decided that a surgical repair was necessary. Since my abs had split from each other (a condition called diastasis) because of how big my belly had gotten (creating a nice big space that would make re-herniation way too easy) my surgeon decided to go in both laparoscopically and with an incision so he could place some mesh in my belly to hopefully keep my hernia from coming back. Surgery went okay, my recovery was slow and my 9 different holes in my body were crazy sore. I even ended up back In the emergency room in some major weird pain one night. 

so sexy.

Thankfully our amazing family stepped right in to help us with Sawyer and Brody as I tried to recover at home. My mother in law and mama helped us with the boys while I underwent surgery and the resulting recovery, my friends brought dinner by the house and visited, and my amazing husband has balanced keeping up the house and handling pretty much anything involving Sawyer, and my sweet sister has spent most of her winter break carting me to and fro for doctor appointments and errands.

Sadly, I cant lift over ten to 15 pounds for 3 more weeks, so going anywhere by myself with my already 11 pound baby and that crazy heavy carseat is out of the question. So I've been trapped at my house.

But it hasn't all been bad! I've had great visits from friends, I discovered two shows that I am now addicted to (Once Upon a Time and Walking Dead), and I've had some great bonding time with Brody.

Speaking of the big guy, he is a great baby. While he is gassy like his brother and loves a good long cry between 8pm and 10pm every night, he sleeps much better than Sawyer did (and does).

I hope you all had an amazing Christmas and will have a great New Year! I hope to get back to blogging more regularly once I return to work and can resume a normal schedule!

He's Here!

Brody Scott Edmondson arrived Thursday, November 13!

With my BP climbing and the possibility of preeclampsia rearing its ugly head again, the doctors decided after my appointment Thursday morning (and after discovering via ultrasound that homie was weighing well over 8 lbs) that being induced was the safest route. Since I knew Brody was going to be safe and ready to come out, and that my absolute favorite doctor was on call, I was definitely on board.

I waited around for Josh to get to Greenville (since he hadn't gone to my appointment with me, thinking it was going to be awhile before they let me know results from my lab work) then we headed to the hospital around 10:30am.

After starting pitocin and having my water broken, I hit 10cm fairly quickly around 5 p.m. and with just a few pushes, Brody arrived at 5:11 with a head full of strawberry blonde hair!

He had a little bit of a dramatic entrance with the cord around his neck (which Dr. Taft whipped off quickly with no issues) and him inhaling some meconium in the womb (that resulted in him just getting a few puffs of oxygen and a consult with some NICU folks), but other than that, all was fine! He weighed 8 lbs and 14 oz and was 20 inches long.

Sawyer came to meet him in the hospital and wasn't too impressed. His first comment to me was, "why is your belly still fat mommy?". He did give him a quick kiss and was happy to see they had the same hair color.

We ended up staying only one night since our labs were looking good so we came on home Friday evening!

Now we are learning how to be a family of four and re-learning how to be parents to a newborn again (we're a little rusty).

still here, still pregnant

Just a little update to let y'all know that I am still here, and still pregnant.

I had my 38 week checkup this Tuesday and they're predicting that Brody is currently weighing around 8 lbs. So I'm hoping homie decides to make his arrival a little earlier than Nov. 20, but he is currently being pretty stubborn.

We've had a few moments where I've thought this is it, it's almost go time after having contractions fairly evenly spaced for around 30 minutes... only to have said contractions just STOP. At my appointment yesterday they informed that he is right where he needs to be to make his exit and that I am dilated almost 4cm and 50% effaced so now it's just a waiting game!

I certainly want him to "cook" as long as it he needs to, but I would just love for him to make his debut some time this week (before he gets TOO much bigger).

Sawyer is also getting antsy he actually asked me the other night "Are you sure he is still in there?!" Yes buddy, I am definitely sure.

I'm not going to pretend I haven't been one ill lady. I have gotten to the point where I am sick of answering the same pregnancy-related questions over and over again and super tired of having to have conversations with random strangers about my life. What is it about a pregnant woman that makes people want to know every detail of her life? If I wasn't visibly pregnant, would you be asking me how many children I have, what gender my current child is, or how I am feeling?

So, hopefully my next post will be a "Hey, Brody is here!" post! In the meantime, you can find me walking around my neighborhood, cleaning my house like a crazy person, and trying to keep a smile on my face when people at work say "You haven't had that baby YET!?!".