Liam is here!

I know it's been a while since I posted, but I think the birth of my son deserves a post! So to start off, I'll share my birth story. :)

On July 3rd (when I was 36 weeks and 5 days pregnant) I had an appointment with my OB and I was 3cm dilated and 75% effaced. With Alia I didn't go into labor until I was 4cm, but I just had a feeling that labor was imminent. I had been telling people how I thought Liam would be coming early, and how I just felt like it would be soon. On the evening of the 3rd, I started having some kind of painful contractions, but I brushed them off as probably nothing. I had an "Irritable Uterus" this pregnancy, which means that I would just have contractions all the time for no reason. On the night of the 2nd I'd had some painful contractions, but they had dwindled after an hour or so, so I wasn't too concerned about the contractions I was having on the 3rd. However, they continued to get stronger and stronger, until I knew I was most likely in labor. So we had Trevor’s dad stay at the house while we headed off to the hospital! By the time they checked me, I was 5cm dilated, and the contractions were getting pretty bad. So they transferred us over to a delivery room, and got me the epidural, which was so nice, because by that point, the contractions were probably the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my life.

By then I was 7cm dilated. Soon after, they broke my water, and a little while longer I was at 10cm. The nurse thought Liam was back to back, so she had me lay in a few different positions to see if we could persuade him to flip over, and it must have worked, because when Dr. Ponder came (she was not my OB, but she was the on-call doctor) she said he was face down and we were ready to try a push. Because I’d told her that it took three hours of pushing with Alia, Dr. Ponder said we would just see what a push looked like, but she wouldn’t get her gown on yet. Well, after one push, she said, “Okay! I’m grabbing my gown! I think this will be pretty quick!” And it was, thank heavens. It took only about ten minutes of pushing for Liam to be born at 2:29am, making it four and a half hours since I'd arrived at the hospital. As soon as he was delivered, they put him on my chest and Trevor got to cut the cord. Once he was weighed and cleaned off, they let me do skin-to-skin and start breastfeeding. He was so alert, and kept sucking for about 40 minutes. I knew right then that he was probably going to be a better eater than Alia. So after we had a little time, they moved us upstairs to the recovery room. I had a small second degree tear this time around, but I could tell I was in for a better recovery than with Alia, because the morning after giving birth, I was ready to be up and moving around. With Alia, I had a bad episiotomy and was confined to my bed the whole next day and it took the full 6 weeks before I had recovered. It's now been a little over a week, and I feel pretty much back to my normal self in terms of healing.

My only struggles right now are breastfeeding and sleeping. He's eating well, but I'm so sore that it often brings me to tears when he eats. I thought maybe it was his latch, but I went to a meeting of Le Leche League and the specialist there said that his latch is fine, but Liam has a lip tie and likely a tongue tie as well, which can make breastfeeding painful for me. At his two week check-up, I'm going to have the pediatrician look at it and decide if it needs to be clipped. Alia had a tongue tie, as well, and breastfeeding was painful all the way up until my milk dried up.

As for sleep, Liam sleeps okay, but he's just up breastfeeding every hour to an hour and a half, so not much chance for me to sleep in between. Also he tends to cluster feed until 1am, which means I get a late start to the night, and then Alia is up at 7am. But as soon as he starts going longer between feeds, I know I'll catch up (well, as much as a mom CAN catch up!).

We're so grateful for Liam and very grateful that the delivery went better than it did with Alia. We're lucky that he was such a good weight (6lbs 11oz) for being early, and that he had no complications. Now if we can get him to survive with Alia wanting to pull his hair and poke him in the eye, then we'll be set!

Liam Trevor Koch

Alia is going to have a little brother!

We had our ultrasound on March 4th, but we had the ultrasound tech put the gender picture in an envelope and seal it so that we could hand it off to my friend, Emily Prieto. Emily then bought some balloons in the correct color and put them in a box and brought them to Alia's first birthday party. After all the other presents were opened, we opened up the mystery balloon box, and out popped blue balloons!

Although it was still an awesome surprise, Trevor and I both had the feeling that it was a boy after our ultrasound. His profile just looked more "boyish" than Alia's did. But we are so excited to have a little boy! Hopefully he's not a crazy as his daddy was, though! Lol!

Here's a video of us opening the box:

 

 

We've had a boy name picked out since we were pregnant with Alia, so unless we suddenly come up with something we like more, his name will be Liam Trevor Koch. Trevor's main requirement for baby names is that they have a good meaning to them, and Liam means "unwavering protector" which we thought was very fitting for our oldest son. I also like it because it's not totally obscure, but it's not really common either (unless you live in the UK!).

Alia's First Birthday!

Well, we made it to one year! It's been a long and difficult road at times, what with sleeping issues and feeding issues, but I wouldn't trade it for the world! Here's where she's at right now:

* She's such a sweet and happy little girl, and VERY sociable!

* She loves to play and smile and tries to get you to copy what she's doing.

* She's just now started to point at things and then try to imitate what I say. She does pretty good with "balloon," "car," "door," "Goo-goo" (since that's the sound I make when I show her her little baby doll), "baby," and "cuckoo" (since I call her my cuckoo baby sometimes), "mama," and "dada".

* She also claps, waves hello and goodbye, and plays peek-a-boo.

* She crawls (it's a very slow army crawl, but still!) but mostly loves to cruise around the furniture.

* She loves to dance and will dance to almost any sort of music if she feels like it.

* She likes to sing her little heart out when she's in her crib and supposed to be sleeping.

* As of today, she now has 8 teeth! Four on top and four on the bottom.

Her party went really well! We had our immediate families, plus Trevor's grandmas and uncle, and a few close friends. We had pink cupcakes instead of a cake, which made it really easy to give Alia one without any frosting (since the poor little girl was still getting over a stomach virus). But she had a lot of fun seeing all the people that she loves and of course the balloons and bright colored decorations. She got some fun new toys and three pretty, new dresses, including one that was handmade by my friend Emily Prieto. We are very grateful for all of our family and friends who have played a part in Alia's life so far. We're so excited to see all the fun changes that she will go through in years to come! (Okay, maybe not puberty... Lol!)

She loved her cupcake!

Checking out her fun new gifts.

Alia loves her grandma!

And she loves bonking heads with Papa.

We were blessed to have family and friends join us.

Her pink birthday cupcakes.

Round Two!

Well, here we are with baby #2 on the way! I'm currently 13 weeks pregnant, so heading into the wonderful second trimester at last. Actually, I don't have much to complain about, because I haven't had any morning sickness, but it will be nice to have my energy back. For those of you who have been wondering, but too afraid to ask, this baby was definitely planned! We wanted our kids to be close in age, with the hope that they will have a strong and special bond growing up like me and my brother did (we're 13 months apart). Alia and baby #2 will be 16 months apart.

I didn't necessarily dislike the OB I had with Alia, but when I heard such great things about Dr. Melissa Brown, I decided to switch to her for this pregnancy, and after just one appointment, I'm so glad that I did! Thanks, Lisa for the great recommendation! Dr. Brown finally made a diagnosis for Alia, since my old OB never did, and as I suspected, Alia had IUGR (Intra-Uterine Growth Restriction). Because of this, the placenta died earlier than it should have, which is why Alia was born so small at so late a gestation. After reading more about IUGR babies, it all just clicks so well. For example, IUGR babies often have gross motor skill delays (10 months old and still no signs of crawling!), they tend to be finicky eaters, and because of their smaller stomachs, it generally takes them longer to be able to sleep through the night. The other thing I thought was funny, is that IUGR babies are usually small except for their heads, which are typically the average size for their age. That explains why my tiny girl has always had a big noggin! Lol!

Anyway, because I had IUGR in my last pregnancy, I have to take baby aspirin everyday to help the placenta stay strong, and I will have an ultrasound some time in the third trimester to check on growth. I'm so glad that Dr. Brown made that diagnosis so that this baby can get the proper care that he/she needs.

A lot of people also ask me if I have a feeling about the gender, or a preference. As for feelings, I don't really have a clue! I guess I've been leaning toward another girl just because this pregnancy has been so similar, but I know that doesn't necessarily mean anything. As for a preference, I'll honestly be happy either way. If it's a girl, then that means Alia will have a sister who is close in age, and they can play princesses and all that fun stuff, but if it's a boy, then I'll know for sure that I'll get one of each gender, and Trevor can have a little mini-me of his own. ;)

Overall, I just feel so blessed that pregnancy treats me well, and that I haven't been too sick to take care of Alia. I'm also looking forward to having two kids and seeing the way they interact and grow together and become friends. Of course, I'm soooo not looking forward to the sleepless nights again, but at least I know what to expect this time!