Sleeping, or lack thereof

I remember the first night Molly was born. I thought, as I tried to soothe her to sleep, why did we do this again? Not because I regretted having another child because my nights of sleeping all the way through were over for many moons. Cassidy is so easy at nap and night time. Bottle (if she wants it), brush teeth, change diaper/clothes, prayer, songs, and crib. We don't see her again till it's time to get up. And she's usually down around 6-6:30 pm till 6:30-7 am. She may wake during the night but she goes right back to sleep.
But this little Molly... I was telling her tonight not to fight sleep so hard and she smiled and cooed a mocking coo. Really I'm not making it up. I laughed at her. But that's how it is. She gets so tired but has the hardest time falling and staying asleep. Like right now, we've been trying to get her to sleep for almost 4 hours now. Every time I think she's out, she wakes up. And cries, and screams, and cries, and screams so more. Once I get her down it's just a matter of time till she's up for her 3 1/2 hours wakeful marathon. It usually occurs around 2 am. I must average 4-6 hours of sleep, broken into 3 parts. Days like today are rough.
Pacifier works till she drops it. Nursing works till I take her off and she realizes she's no longer sucking. Rocking, nope. Swing, nope. Crying, nope. Luck, that must be it.
Any suggestions?

A little update

Where did January go? I know I didn't sleep through it. Anyway. Just a quick update.
Molly had, has, her first cold. A lovely runny/stuffy nose courtesy of Cassidy. She's doing well though. Thank heavens for the bulb syringe. She is up to 7 pounds, or was as of last Thursday. We were worried about her weight gain because it took 3 weeks to get back up to birth weight. I shouldn't still be worried, but I'm a mom.
Cassidy is loving having a little live doll that she can grab and love. She no longer cries when Molly does and seems to ignore it. She is talking up a storm and is the cutest thing EVER. So funny and full of life.
I scheduled Molly's 2 month and Cassidy's 18 month appointments today, they get to go in at the same time. Thanks Dr. W. One trip instead of two, but two kids getting shots instead of one, no fun. Lots of treats for Cassidy that day. Lots of Mommy for Molly that day.
Joe has had to help out a couple of nights this week with Molly. I don't know how single parents do it. When I get to that breaking point I can ask him to help and thankfully he is there to help.
I got out of the house today. With the break in the rain, which has been torrential at times, we escaped and visited some school friends. The hills are bright green. My spirits were definitely lifted, until I had to come home. Tomorrow we get to go visiting teaching twice and then visit my dad and sister. YEAH!!! Love the rain, and love the sunny days in the midst of the rainy days.

A Christmas Eve to remember

I'll try to keep this short. When Joe tells the whole story it takes 90 minutes...

So Joe and I decided to spend the Christmas week up at the cabin. At my OB apt Monday (before Christmas) the doctor said the baby was low but I hadn't started dilating. When I asked about setting up a date for an induction she said we'd wait till the 38 week apt (Jan 4). That meant that it must be ok to go away for a week. So we leave that same day and Joe's parents come up Tuesday. Thursday morning (Christmas Eve) I wake up at 4 am with contractions, just like what happened with Cassidy. They were super irregular and short all morning, some 30 minutes apart, some 15, and usually only lasting 30 seconds. My doctor's guidelines for going to the hospital are contractions 5 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute each, going on for an hour. Well that didn't ever happen, they stayed no closer than 10 minutes apart until about 2:15 pm when I got 4 or 5 about a minute apart. At that point we knew we should call the hospital and let them know we were coming. While Joe was warming up the car (it was 20 degrees outside) I got a contraction so bad I couldn't stand up and I knew I'd never make it to the hospital 12 miles away sitting in a car so I thought an ambulance might be more comfortable. So my father in law called the fire and ambulance. At this point I started feeling like the baby wasn't going to wait to get to the hospital and it took all I had not to scream through the subsequent contractions.
After about 15 minutes the fire department finally arrived and the chaos broke out. They had no clue it seemed. Fortunately, a female volunteer fire fighter had seen the ambulance en route and decided to follow. Though she had never delivered or helped deliver a baby, at least she had had 3 of her own and knew what to expect. She became my impromptu breathing coach/angel. (Side note- in all the chaos the fire department left an oxygen canister at the cabin, in front of the fireplace) After what seemed like another 20 minutes of confusion for them and excruciating pain for me it was decided that the baby wasn't quite making her entrance and there would be time to get me to the hospital. Let me tell you how not excited I was by the prospect of delivering my baby with a bunch of men who had no idea what they were doing and somewhere other than an equipped hospital. Once they got me on the gurney and somehow safely down the icy front steps (one of the scariest parts of the whole ordeal) I was loaded in the ambulance and we were off to the hospital, Jennifer my coach was in back with me and Joe was up front. The whole 20-25 minutes it took to get to the hospital I kept asking for something for the pain, and they wouldn't give me anything. I really thought my pelvis was going to explode but I couldn't make any audible noise because when I did I would end up pushing and I was not allowed to push. Even so, my body was pushing and at the end of each contraction I really could feel the baby descend and was well aware when the amniotic sac started coming out. Gross huh? Yeah. My water broke a couple of minutes before we got to the hospital.
The whole ride over I had worked so hard to keep the baby in and once we got to the hospital I couldn't wait to get it out. All I wanted to do was push, I knew it would get the pain over. Hallelujah when the doctor finally gave the ok to push. I think it was only one push and out she came. There was a slight pause between the head coming out and the body following but that was nothing compared to the contractions and the burning that lead up to that moment. We had been at the hospital less than 15 minutes at that point.
The hospital was not like the ones we are all used to, it is more an urgent care with an on call physician and a couple of nurses and one emergency room. They only deliver one or two babies a year there and so when they were unsure of possible complications or whatever need may arise they called in the LifeVac from Reno just in case. So they were there too. And we almost needed to use them. In fact I was strapped down on their gurney and had the whole plan laid out about me going by helicopter and Joe and Molly going by ambulance to Reno because there is a much bigger hospital that could handle the complication I had of not delivering the placenta quickly enough. When I finally did, just a couple minutes before we were to fly out it had been over 3 hours from the time I delivered Molly. At that point the risks to me get real high. Thankfully I finally did deliver it and we were taken to a much closer hospital (only 40 miles away) where we stayed for the next two days.
In the end everything was fine, our little girl was born perfect and everything turned out ok with me. I think this recovery has gone a little easier but the not sleeping much at night has been a lot harder to deal with because I have Cassidy to look after during the day. She has been so good with Molly. She loves to come up to her, pat her somewhat gently, and say 'baby'.
Molly was 6 pounds 8 ounces and was 18 1/2 inches long and 22 days early. She has super long fingers and toes and has skinny skinny legs and no butt. It's really cute. She has what I call old man hair, hair on the sides but not on top. She is such a doll. Molly will sleep all day long but when she is awake she is so alert and just stares at you with dark blue eyes. I don't have my camera with me so pictures will have to wait.
With the way she came into the world, she won't ever have to worry about her birthday meshing into Christmas. Those are two very distinct days in our lives.

It's a beautiful Christmas present...A baby girl!!!!

Yup that is right we had a very special experience this Christmas! Our new little girl was born 6 pounds 8 ounces at 4:37 p.m. on Christmas Eve in a dramatic manner. God was gracious in more ways than we can count because among all the crazy things that happened in the delivery all turned out alright.

We will post more with pictures and story soon, as we are still trying to recover from the magical event.

Where does the time go?

I heard, or maybe read, a good quote recently. It goes something like this, "time flies, but at least you are the pilot." How true. I am amazed though that it is already December 5th.
Our little family has been busy lately. I wish I could call my belly little, it stopped being little a while ago. I am now 34 weeks and I am ready to be done. The feeling of having a basketball under my shirt is easily ignored and forgotten, most of the time, except when I need to tie my shoes while I'm in the car, ouch. It makes a little shelf for Cassidy to prop on when we sit on the couch and she lays her head on my shoulder. Which is by far one of my favorite things that she does. The biggest pain, literally, is the pelvic joint pains. From what I hear, many second and subsequent pregnancies "attack" that region more than firsts. Night are horrible and mornings make me want to cry. I keep my fingers crossed for this little one to want to greet us EARLY!!! I asked my doctor about induction already, she said 39 weeks. Can I last that long?? We'll see. I really appreciate those pain free moments so much more now. I have much more understanding of how hard it much be to get old and lose the ease of a young, healthy body. But that being said, I would go through it all over again, 10 times worse, for the blessing of bringing another child into our family. I so love feeling the baby move around. I like to think s/he is doing pirouettes because of how it feels to me. The funniest part is that I only feel the baby on the right side, never on the left. Cassidy was the same. I "love" when s/he pushes against my pelvic bone and stretches long, weirdest feeling.
I can't believe that in 5 weeks we'll have another little one. That will be crazy, but so much fun. We've transitioned, partially, Cassidy to her new room. She still takes naps in her old room but sleeps at night in the new room with the new crib and mattress. I thought it might be easier if we did it this way for a week or so. So far so good. I am finishing up getting all of her stuff moved in and putting up the curtains today so that it is all set. We've had a lot of moving and reorganizing to do in the lose of our office but it is very much a great step forward.The nursery has less that needs to be done, just getting all the little baby clothes down from the garage and all the accessories that come with an infant, nursing pillows, bath tubs, etc. So much stuff!!! I do love being able to go through everything and get rid of stuff we don't use or need. Thank heavens for DI trailers that come around every three months or so.
Cassidy is growing up... She is such a little jaberwocky. She loves to talk talk talk. It is so cute. Her vocabulary is great. At her 15 month appointment I was asked if she can say 3-5 words besides momma and dadda, oh yeah, probably 15. Plus some that aren't words per se but we know what she means when she makes the sounds. Give her a cell phone or a remote and she'll hold it to her head and really start jabbering. So adorable. I think the cutest are "upee" "cheese" "co-kie" "ba-by" and down comes out "noun-ee".
She is now 31.5 inches tall and about 22 pounds, she wouldn't sit on the scale long enough to get a good measurement. So that puts her in the 80th percentile for height and 20-25th for weight. Her clothes range from 6-9 months (some pants) to 18 months (sleepers) because of the height/weight and cuts. I do love that we don't go through the clothes as quick and she gets lots of use out of them. She loves to walk around the house carrying baskets, purses, and now she likes to carry a blanket. Thankfully it doesn't matter which blanket it is, any will do. She didn't really get mobile with crawling till 12 months and waited till just after 14 to start walking. She does just what I thought she would do, wonder. She'll go from room to room and find something interesting and play with it or carry back to me. She loves being outside and really lets us know when she wants to "go" "out". She'll stand by the door to the garage, holding her blanket, telling us and if we don't "go" "out" she'll sit down and cry or get upset. So cute.
Joe is doing well. Work is work, busy and that is good. We have much to be thankful for in terms of his employment, especially right now.
Next week I'll post pictures.