A lot has happened in the last month, blog! But before I get to the Good Stuff, I have to talk about the sad stuff—mainly, saying goodbye to my sweet elderly dog. Since I already feel the tears coming on with typing out the first sentence…this may take a few tries. The above picture is from Thursday September 26th–Corinne took the bus over to spend the day with me and the girls.

We went to the park where we have gone countless times over the years–every day, sometimes twice a day–unless a big pregnant body or a new baby prohibited it. And there were lots of cuddles. I see Corinne rarely and I miss her. Staying best friends for 25 years is pretty damn impressive.

Friday September 27th was Special Maggie Day. I took the day off from work, and the girls and I went to the beach in the morning. In the afternoon, ice cream cones from Dairy Queen. I put the girls next to each other for this shot and for maybe the second time EVER Maggie foolishly went for Bear Cub’s cone. Bear Cub lunged at her, snarling, and poor old Maggie dog was knocked down the patio stairs (about five steps total). Had I not been pregnant perhaps my reflexes could have been quicker and I could have caught her. Luckily, she was okay. But what a way to spend their last night together! Friggin’ Bear Cub! Special Maggie Day was completed with cheeseburgers from Wendy’s…and I smartly put their plates far away from each other.

The next morning was horrible, as I knew it would be. It’s a miracle I was able to sleep–of course you can’t take anything when you’re pregnant, but I did take a Benedryl. As it turns out, I now know that I’m slightly anemic, maybe the anemia helped me sleep. At any rate, I started crying from the moment I fed Maggie her breakfast–something I’ve done every day for the past 13 years–and didn’t stop until she left the house with Josh a couple hours later.

After breakfast we put her up on the bed with us to cuddle–Goo was very sweet. And later I sat with her in the living room for a long time on the floor, petting her fur and crying my eyes out. Okay now I’m crying while typing this. Her appointment to be put down was at 9 am and Josh drove her to the vet. We both felt bad later about things we didn’t do–clip her nails, wash her fur.

The glorious thing about having a 2.5 year old happy little boy is that he didn’t perseverate–he asked me a few times: “Sad, Mommy?” And I would reply yes, and he would hug me, and that was it. Josh came home after a while and said that they gave Maggie a Snickers ice cream sundae, they gave her two shots, and she became “soft”, Josh said. We sat on the couch together and cried again. I haven’t seen my husband cry since the birth of our first son, so this was a hard one for both of us. Even now I can barely handle looking at photos or talking about her, the pain is too fresh.

Goo hasn’t asked about Maggie in a little while but when he did, I would remind him that Maggie went to heaven. Now nearly a month later he seems to accept the fact that he just has one dog.

Now here is something interesting. The night that we came home from the hospital after having C, my mother said she saw a black dog out of the corner of her eye. She just assumed it was Bear Cub, but then later on she saw Bear Cub in another part of the house. So. Maggie is still with us. I love you so much Maggie dog.

Okay. Now for the Good Stuff. I worked up until week 38 of my pregnancy, and went to the gym up until 2 days before I was induced. Other than the horrific heartburn and just general HUGEness, I didn’t have the same issues I had with Goo towards the end of my last pregnancy, ie: PUPPPS rash and that friggin’ plantar fasciitis. Man.

These cherry-pineapple popsicles that I was totally obsessed with during most of my pregnancy continued all the way to the hospital–I brought a bag with me because once you get an epidural, you can only have ice chips and popsicles. I ate so many that day (another sign of anemia) that my lips were perpetually stained orange. “What’s ah….that lip color?” asked the confused hospital staff.

Enjoying a sunny day at the park with Goo and Bear Cub and a friendly little puppy who decided to join us.

The last day I was at the gym my trainer came up to me and gave me a fist bump, and told me how impressed he was that I was still there. SO WAS I. Getting off the floor while hugely pregnant is practically a workout by itself.

The family tradition of watching the “Alien” movies while pregnant kicked off with my mother watching the original “Alien” movie in the theater while pregnant with me. I continued it by watching “Alien” while pregnant with Goo (who coincidentally is obsessed with all things Halloween-related) and finalized by watching “Aliens” while pregnant with C. We even watched the extended director’s cut…over two sessions. What a nail-biter!

By week 38 people at work were either horrified by my size or amused. “Still here??” was the phrase I heard all day long (and by “all day” I mean about 3 hours because that’s all I was working per day those last couple of weeks).

Just like with Goo, I had to have weekly stress tests and ultrasounds the month prior to my scheduled induction. Just like with Goo, all was good. I turned down all cervical checks too, just like I did before. I can be pretty superstitious–I figure if something works the first time, why not repeat it?

Smartly we decorated the house for Halloween and took Goo to the pumpkin patch nice and early, before the induction, which was scheduled for October 17th. Our pumpkins still need to be carved, but they’re THERE, dammit.

We did our usual. For a while there were a few real spiders dangling under the fake web to add to the ambiance.

Final belly shot, three days before induction. I may have a new stretch mark or two on the underside of my belly, and I had an outie for the first time in my life, but was it worth it? Oh yeah.

Goo’s portrait of Mama at 39 weeks pregnant. He did this with Josh, who knows where I was. Looks about right!

One day before induction: Josh’s sweet co-workers throw a “baby potluck” at his work, complete with Thai take-out, a few presents, a generous gift card, and this cute blue cake–which was shortcake with fresh strawberries in the middle, mmmmmm.

My parents arrived on Tuesday. My mother will stay with us until early November, when she has to fly down to CA to attend Molly’s baby shower. My father unfortunately had to fly out the day I ended up having the baby–to attend his 50th high school reunion. He missed his second grandchild’s birth by a few hours. He was missed.

I figured I would find this turban too scratchy to wear at the hospital but guess what? I wore it!

And here we are: the day of induction! They schedule you to come in at night, so you only have to spend ALL DAY thinking about it. I did my best by watching funny Netflix shows with Dad and eating chocolate donuts, but the closer the hour crept to 7 the more antsy I got. My blood pressure, which had been nice and low the entire time I was pregnant, was naturally quite high upon arrival. How could it not be?

They checked my cervix and told me it was already dilated to 4.5 cm, which was exciting news! I wouldn’t have to have any “cervix ripening” pills, and could just start the pitocin drip. Around 9 pm I asked if I could have a Benedryl to sleep, and was told no, it would make me too fatigued for the labor I was sure to go through quickly. MISTAKE.

They didn’t even start the pitocin drip until midnight. So: imagine this, you are hugely pregnant, have a tight belly band attached to your midsection with alarms all over it monitoring your baby’s heart rate. You have a blood pressure cuff and ports sticking out of your wrist for fluids and pitocin. If these things aren’t in perfect position, someone comes in and fixes them. The blood pressure cuff squeezes your arm at regular intervals. Meanwhile, you are getting up to pee EVERY HOUR and dragging the entire pole with you every time. Also you are having contractions. Guess who didn’t sleep alllll night? Me.

Around 11 am I received the awful news that I was STILL only dilated to 4.5 cm. Not only that, but my baby was “sunnyside up”, which (I’ve read) makes delivery that much harder. Not the news I wanted to hear, at all. I opted to get the epidural, too early I thought, but at least with a catheter in I wouldn’t have to get up every hour to pee. In contrast…I wouldn’t be getting up AT ALL. And unlike last time, they gave me the button to control how much epidural I got.

Over the next couple of hours, I hit the epidural button, positioned my legs awkwardly to flip the baby over, watched “So I Married an Axe Murderer”, ate a shitload of ice chips and popsicles (anemia!) and marveled at the feeling of a totally numb left leg. At 3 pm, the nurse felt my cervix and delivered two excellent pieces of news: one, my cervix was WIDE OPEN, and two, baby had flipped! She said I could start pushing or “labor down”, and recalling the four hours it took me to push Goo out, I opted to labor down for 30 minutes. This was wise.

Next: 23 minutes of pushing. Josh playing “Hello Nasty” (my choice). The team of women extracting my baby screamed: “DAD! LOOK AT THIS HAIR COLOR! WHAT COLOR DO YOU THINK IT IS?” I didn’t need to guess because I already predicted his hair color on my Vision Board months ago…

Red, of course. He came out of my body and started breastfeeding almost immediately (a sign of things to come). Weighing NINE POUNDS AND THREE OUNCES WHAAAT all that time I thought he was smaller than Goo.

And everything has been a post-partum blur since, although less blurry than the first time around. Visits with family, lots of breastfeeding sessions, a few insomnia-riddled nights (to be expected).

Welcome to my cankles.

Goo is doing so well. He is so sweet and loving and the first thing he wanted to do when he got home from school yesterday was hold his little brother. I love it.

Baby was a little jaundiced because of his conehead (just like his big brother) but it’s resolving fast. At 6 days post-partum he is only 2 ounces away from his birth weight–he’s a champ.

He didn’t even fuss last night, and we all got decent sleep. Amazing. What a miracle baby. TWO miracle babies. We are so lucky, and we fought for this for so long.

Oh my sweet boys you were worth the wait. Okay. My face is sore from crying and it’s time for me to go feed my new baby. Catch you later, blog.