Sophia turns 2!

Not sure how but this little girl of mine turned 2 today. It's crazy to think it could have went that fast! She is my angel, a feisty loud one but I love her. lol She can be so sweet, innocent and girly when out but then we come home and she's a total different child. Stripping down naked, playing with boy toys and she screams when she talks. Happy Birthday to my now big girl!

Sophia Gabriella - 1 Year

I thought I'd post a few pictures and show the change. She is looking so grown up. No one believes she's 12 months! I think alot of it is because of our kids and their fast growing hair. Here she is trying to put on her shoes...................
Walking around outside........
She's not a sitting kid usually so getting her to stay still for a picture is almost impossible.
Catching her off guard.....
Right now the big thing with Sophia is dancing. She loves the ICarly theme song. She hears that drumming and then "I know you see...." and she comes flying in the front room shaking her hips. It's hilarious. She's a very happy girl, claps at everything, but lately she's starting to throw toys, hit things, and throw herself on the floor when she's mad. Acting alot like Mia. I am really hoping it ends because I don't really want 2 girls that way. She still sucks her thumb which I really don't care about too much, until she gets older. Her favorite foods now are graham crackers, grilled cheese, mac n cheese, waffles, pancakes, strawberries, grapes, bananas, sweet potatoes, potatoes with gravy. She's a pretty good eater, especially after getting 2 bottom molars. She loves Dora. She loves to climb stairs now which scares me to death and I'm constantly stopping her. She loves to join in when everyone beats up on daddy on the floor. She loves to hang out with her sisters and brothers. She gets excited waiting by the door when a bus shows up to drop off either Damien or the other 2. She's alot of fun to have around and it's neat to see her do new things each day.

Already?

The other day I noticed Sophia's top gums as she was laughing or crying looked like maybe she was hiding some teeth inside there so I decided to poke around. I couldn't believe that I felt something sharp on the bottom! 7 months old and she's getting her first tooth! My kids never get teeth this early so it was a bit shocking. I would take a picture but I don't think she'll hold still for me to do it.

The Goal

Was 6 months. I wanted to keep breastfeeding Sophie ATLEAST 6 months. It's hard to believe that I have gotten us to this goal but what is sad is that it took me 5 kids to get there. This has made me realize several things about myself. I am lazy. I have the time, I just didn't want to make time in the past. I didn't want to be consistant and gave up every time. The longest I did with any of them before this was 4 months with Damien. Wow. It's hard to admit those things as a mom but I know they are all true. I''m not going to be kicking myself for the past though. So now I've set 1 year as my next goal. I am thinking we can do it as long as I don't dry up with being pregnant however I feel like I've been a milking cow for so often now I should be able to keep going even while pregnant. lol

Sophia at 6 months

Sleeping In

We have co-slept with all 5 kiddos. It works well for us since I nurse. However by 3 months the kids are sleeping through and can wait to eat till 7-8 am. Not Sophie. Maybe it's because she's a big girl but she has become REALLY bad about night nursing. I'm pretty much doing it from 3 am-6 am. Yes, the whole time. Sleeping myself mostly through it. As soon as I get her loose she wakes up and starts pressing on me trying to give me a clue. So I've started turning around laying on the very edge of the bed there by the alarm to get away from her. She then starts scratching my back, kicking me, or doing that thing that sounds like a laugh but it's really that she's annoyed you aren't figuring out what she's wanting. She started sleeping through at 4 weeks and now for the past 2 months I've been having to do this. Do you think she knows how to get her way at 5 1/2 months? The only good part is that usually by 6:30 I can get up and then she'll sleep till 9:30 like a log.

Sophia....Growing up too fast.

I can't believe she'll be 4 months old in a few weeks! I think I'm ready to start trying for #6. lol!! No, not quite yet really but it is on my mind.......

Things Do Happen For A Reason, That's God!

I wouldn't say I'm still shaking this morning, more or less just in awe over what happened in the middle of the night. I normally sleep well through the night, however this morning I felt God telling me to wake up. It was more like "WAKE UP!!!" I sat straight up in bed and looked over at my clock. It said 4:30 am! I sat there for a few seconds, looked over at Dave snoring and sleeping like a log, then laid back down. I could hear Sophia's little feet moving in bed like normal when she repositions herself and then it happened again. This time it was "GET UP!" I am so sleep deprived I would normally just go back to sleep but I knew I needed to get out of that bed because I was being told to. I walked casually over to Sophia and looked in on her. Imagine my surprise when all I saw was her body laying there and no head. Somehow our little 3 month old had taken her blanket and pulled it all the way over top of her head. She was fighting like mad, arms extended straight out, bowed back and sort of a silently grunting I believe from fear because this blanket was over her head. The blanket covered no other part of her body but her neck and her whole head. I don't understand other than grabbing it over and over or getting her fingers caught in the crochet how she could have pulled the blanket so far and that was the only thing it covered.

I took it quickly off of her and she started breathing normally again. I waited there with her until she started dozing off. I wanted so much to wake Dave right then and tell him however I waited until 6:10 this morning. lol As soon as my alarm went off and he started getting up for the day I told him. After discovering a few weeks back that we are on two spiritually different levels than what I originally thought, I am making every effort for him to see that things don't just happen by chance or luck....it's God.

Here's Sophia this morning with her killer blanket.

Little Girl, Big Baby.

This month I have not been able to supply Sophia with all the milk she needs. First, she cleaned out 15 bottles worth of pumped milk in the freezer. Now I'm giving her about 4-8 oz of formula a day just to get her by. I have her on me or pump all the time but it's not enough obviously! Yesterday I pumped early am and then had her on me all day until we went to church at 7:30. I gave her formula at church, 8 oz in 1 hour. Then she drank 4 oz breastmilk before bed at 10. She's drinking a ton. That's 12 oz she had in 3 hours and she's 3 months, 1 week old.

This is definitely a problem as in 3 hours I only have an output of maybe 4-5 oz. There's no way I could do 12!! She is a hefty baby, I'm guessing atleast 14 maybe 15 lbs now. At her 2 month visit she was at the 88%ile. She may be thriving a bit too much!

SO I went ahead and took Reglan last night another this morning. This is the script I had from Mia to build my milk back up after my pancreatitis ordeal. I've never tried Fenugreek and gatorade that I hear so much about but think I'm going to have to try it. I think now that she's over 3 months I'm going to try cereal a few times a day with her as well and see if that slows her down some!! I really hoped I could feed her longer than I did with Damien. I kept with it till he was almost 4 months old.

Size comparison Mia and Sophia. Sophia's tummy is just about as wide as Mia's!!

Guess Who's 3 Months!

Believe it or not, it's came already! Sophia has hit 3 months! She looks about the same as when we brought her home, just alot bigger! Yay breastmilk! lol Her big thing right now is cooing at everyone and big smiles. Giggling when you touch her tickle spots on her sides and on her collar bone. Looking at these pictures you can tell she's a happy girl. And thankfully the growths in her mouth have disappeared for her pretty smiles. Thank You God for that miracle! We are still having her room in with us but she is ready to transfer into Mia's room. I haven't nightfed her forever. I think she started sleeping through on a regular basis at like 4 weeks. My boobs didn't like it at first but have adjusted to fit her needs I guess. lol Overall she's a great baby and we all love her to death!

A New First

Even with 5 kids, an experienced Mom can have a "first." I officially have a thumb sucker. It started pretty regularly a month ago. I didn't want it to be this way (although it's freakin cute!) but I guess I have no choice because Sophie doesn't seem like she's going to change her ways. Now I see pros and cons to this. Let's count them.

Pros

1. She soothes herself all the time when she's upset. Really doesn't need mommy all the time!
2. The child has been sleeping through the night since she was about 3-4 weeks old but now she'll suck her thumb and sleep nearly 12 hours without waking! It's kinda nice early in the morning!

Cons

1. Can't take it away from her when she is older.
2. Everyone I know that has had a thumb sucker or was one still does it. I know 2 adult friends that suck their thumbs. They immediatetly take it out of their mouth when they see you staring at them. lol

A bit of a tie there . lol So has anyone else had a thumbsucker. What should I expect with this? Do they give it up easily or will it drag on? She's not even 3 months old yet and she's already picking and choosing what she wants to do. I don't think I get a choice in this matter!

The Dreaded Appointment

Today was the day which I thought was going to be sort of a pre-op appointment for Sophia on the removal of her growths in her mouth. I'm surprised I didn't puke or get an upset tummy, that's how bad I did not want to go to this appointment! Daddy did not make it which with him trying so hard to get the branch manager position there at the moment, I didn't care.

First I must have been so doped up in the hospital after my C-section, I forgot how HOT Dr E. was. Holy Mackerel. He came in and I instantly remembered how good he looked sportin' those green scrubs like he did that day after Sophia's birth. If I would have remembered that I would have put a bit more effort into my appearance for the day...but anyways. He examined her mouth and said that the main growth appeared smaller which I agreed. They do seem like they have gotten a bit smaller but are still firmly attached (sorta like a loose tooth) He also said that as far as their appearance they haven't changed much, they are still filled with something. He still doesn't know what they are and he told me he honestly doesn't feel comfortable performing this surgery because of the indentations on the gums. He doesn't want to mess her poor mouth up and I don't blame him! He thinks we should just continue to wait until her teeth are ready to come in since she has no problem eating or sucking. He referred me to an oral surgeon who we see on December 1st. Hopefully this Dr will know more about whatever this is.

I actually had my dentist appointment a few weeks back and took pictures of Sophia to my dentist and asked if he'd ever seen anything like it before. He hadn't either in all his days as a dentist but said she would definitely need to see an Oral Surgeon so I kinda figured we'd be heading that way. So now we wait for the 1st and another Dr's opinion. I wish the dang things would just fall out or magically disappear one morning so we can just move on.

Happy Halloween!

BEFORE

Can you tell by my face I was not diggin how cold and gross feeling that paint was?? AFTER
I hope everyone has a great time tonight with their kids! The kids had their school parties and tonight we have 2 church fall festivals we are going to and then we're going to a neighborhood where we go every year. Can't trick or treat out here in the country!

Sophia~ 9 Days Old

Well I wish I had something worth while to say however I don't. My emotional well-being has taken a nose dive from bad to worse. At my 1 week follow up my blood pressure was 160/100 and the nurse made me cry/talk with her for about 30 minutes. She just called me today to see how I was doing and I fell apart again to her. I have a feeling they might send her over to my house if I don't get my act together. I don't want to get into anything on here right now but it's just a bunch of compounding issues. I really haven't even told Dave about anything either although he knows I've been crying. When he's gone I'm a mess, when he's home I'm fine. Make any sense?

Sophia is doing great, breastfeeding not so great. I'm about to the point of saying screw it coming from the breast and just pump it for her. Right now she goes breast, bottle, then I pump so it's a LONG feeding process and I hate it. She's still sleeping a ton which is probably a good thing. lol I am feeling almost back to normal. Today I hardly feel anything pain/incision wise. Just some little twinges here and there on my incision but as far as bending and getting things done I'm almost back to my old self.

And could the weather be more crappier? Atleast in Kansas it's crappy! I dressed everyone in thick sweaters today because it's so freakin cold, rainy and windy. I open the door and that breeze about kills my aching nursing boobs. The mail will wait all day because I am NOT going outside.

My eyes hurt and I want to sleep so bad but i have a PT conference in 2 hours. I'll have to go cake my face with war paint to look like a halfway decent human being.

Sophia~6 Days Old

As if having a baby by C-section isn't enough trauma to the body, every child I've had to endure about 2 weeks or so of baby blues. I have to call some places and make some arrangements for different things, have I? No. As soon as I get on that phone I'm bound to fall apart. It started today as soon as my mother in law left. Her job and visit are done and although I'm sad to see her leave, I'm not THAT SAD. She did great helping with dishes and laundry, straightening the mess of constant kid toys, changing diapers on 3 kids. (sigh) 3 kids in diapers no where close to being potty trained. Argh. I hope this goes away quickly but today I just wish Dave would cut out of work early and come home. I really need his hugs. But anyways....Sophie is such a lovely little girl. My little Dracula as I've been calling her. I totally lost it Saturday evening (4 days old) when MIL threw away an ounce of breast milk. I had pumped it and left it on the counter in the kitchen. By that time I was just starting to get milk to come in so anything I had was precious to me. I ran in the bedroom with her and just cried and cried and cried. This thing with her mouth, breastfeeding and upcoming surgery is just too much for this mommy. First what the hell is it!?! Second if your Dr's aren't even sure, do you trust them to just go in there and start sawing away at her gums? Third it could be possibly interfering with breastfeeding. By the 2nd day in the hospital I had a nipple that was all scabbed up on the top. I went to pumping that side, feeding on the other and supplementing formula when that wasn't enough. Today is the first day she hasn't had any formula and I feel pretty good about that. She's eating about 3 oz at a time right now when she has a pumped bottle.

Recovery is going well. I'm sore today but am able to clean and reach down to the floor without much pain, just some soreness. I have some horrible bruises all along the bottom of my stomach where they had to pry her out. That's mainly the area I'm sore at now. Dang ginormous babies. I quit taking Percocet as of Saturday but then I pumped Sunday and had terrible cramps like I was having the worst period ever so I took another. Saturday we took Sophia in for her first little check up at 4 days old and she's lost quite a bit of weight, down to about 8lbs 3 oz so nearly a pound. She was a bit jaundiced too which I had noticed but it's gone now. Sunday we went to church and everyone had to get their peek at her. Poor Dominic thought we were never coming for him and we found him crying at the doorway waiting for us. I felt so awful! I explained to him to never think we would ever just forget him or leave him anywhere because we'd never do that. We loved him too much to forget about him. It was really heartbreaking to see him like that but we've had that happen many times with Alex.

Today I feel really good. I even packed the girls up this morning and ran to a friend's house for a few minutes. Not supposed to be driving but that's the reason I quit taking the Perc's over the weekend. I might even try laying flat tonight. We have a nice wedge pillow that I've been using plus putting other pillows on top so I'm laying down but like in a hospital bed. lol I hate getting down and then trying to get up especially getting up often with a baby. Makes me feel like I'm going to rip clean apart. I've tried to wear loose clothing the past week. I'm wearing maternity jeans today but they are killing my belly button. My legs/feet still look like I'm an elephant from all that fluid. Ahh the joys of a C-section. And can you believe Saturday walking in the hospital holding my sore back some lady in admissions had the nerve to ask if I was in labor? I polietely said "I just had her 4 days ago" pointing to Dave with the carrier. Ugh. I hope all this swelling starts to go away soon.

Sophia Gabriella~1 Day Old and Birth Story

First I want to say thank you girls for all the support through this pregnancy. All the well wishes mean more than you'll ever know. And THANK YOU for not pounding if I had my tubes tied. lol! I think that question has been asked about 30 times in the past day from different people. lol I didn't just to let you all know but me telling willingly is so much better than being hounded by everyone.

The past day has been a bit surreal. It's hard to believe we have this new cute baby and we get to take her home tomorrow. I told Dave when we arrived, "am I really pregnant? What if they open me up and there's nothing in there." He just thought I was a weirdo like normal. lol Dave decided he wanted to compromise on her name which surprised the heck out of me. He said we could put Sophia (my top pick) as her first as long as Gabriella was her middle. Everyone seems to love it! I love Gabriella but I told him I was afraid everyone would shorten it to Gaby which I didn't like. Sure enough as people filtered into the hospital yesterday for a peek and heard Gabriella they said "Gaby" so he had a change of heart.

Monday I started feeling better after about 4 pm. I'm not sure what I had but thankfully it never gave me a fever. I ended up taking 3 naps during the day and that evening I was cleaning like crazy making up for lost time earlier that day, doing laundry, installing carseats and just getting everything I could think of done before having to leave early the next morning. We finally ended up going to bed around midnight after I ate a few pieces of apple dessert pizza from Papa Murphy's at 11:30. I did NOT want to starve to death before and after surgery.

We woke around 4 am and I felt so sick, ended up puking in the shower however no food came up which was good. Got to the hospital at 5:30 and the nurses were ready to start prepping. I was fine but told Dave I think I was possibly hungry already. I couldn't believe it because I stayed up especially to eat and drink right before my midnight cut off. The first thing they usually do is the IV and as soon as she started I felt extremely weak. Didn't pass out but started throwing up over and over. I knew this was NOT going to be an easy surgery right about this time. lol We got the belly bands on so we could listen to our girl and I took the death cocktail (it's a nasty acid drink given before a C-section to control the stomach) They knew I was feeling terrible and said I could puke it up at any time as long as I drank it and kept it in for a few seconds. Well plugging my nose I drank it and kept it in for about 20 minutes and then I lost it again. Poor Dave held a pink bucket next to my head as I just threw up over and over. This is a pic of miserable me with my puke bucket. lolThe nurses were really supportive trying to assure me this C-section would be a piece of cake for me since I was a "pro." Ha. It was so funny seeing these ladies coming in saying "Hey I remember you!"

Around 6:30 the Anasteologist came in to go over everything. I told him of the problem I have every C-section with my blood pressure dropping and how I feel like I'm going to die. He promised he would take great care of me and try not to worry. He was a bit concerned that I had thrown up 3 times in the past 3 hours but said he would do all he could to make me comfortable. My OB came in just a few minutes before 7:30 to say hi and check on Sophia's stats. We were a bit shocked when she came in and told me that the baby had a heart arythmia. I told her I "thought" something sounded odd the past 2 hours on the monitor but figured the doppler wasn't catching her heart rate when I moved in the bed. It wasn't the monitor though, her heart was skipping around I just didn't want to believe it. Talk about wanting to lose it. I held tears back but was scared out of my mind. She said after delivery it may straighten out and we just needed to wait but because of this discovery they were calling our Ped to be at the hospital.

It took about 30 minutes in the OR for them to get me ready. The spinal actually kinda hurt this time, I think he was a bit rough but my legs went numb and I thought I was good to go. He started to lay me down and just like that the feelings that I was going to die hit me. My chest started feeling like I couldn't breathe, the room started spinning, my arms grew extremely heavy. They sat me back up quickly and I told him "this is what always happens." He gave me something to conteract my blood pressure dive, giving it to me twice he said. It started working after a minute or two and they laid me back down. According to him, I should NEVER have a spinal. I've had 4 surgeries awake and I should have had epidurals not spinals. It's a condition called Surprime? where first the dosage of the spinal is given all at once and my body can't handle it where as a epidural it's a slow process. Then my Aeorta is being cut off by the weight of the kids laying flat on my back so both of those together is causing this horrible drop in my blood pressure and cutting off the blood supply to my head. Anyways it was NICE to finally have someone diagnosis what was always happening to me because this has always been my biggest fear going into each surgery since I now expect it to happen. During surgery my OB did tell us that my bladder was fusing to my uterus from all my previous surgeries. That was a pretty big blow (could mean no more babies) but I'm dealing very well with it. I'm sure when my hormones start to change it'll hit me.

The surgery went quick and I had her at 8:03 am. She was so purple and obviously huge when they showed her to us but then they took off with her quick and told Dave he probably needed to go in there. I figured it was just because of her heart but as soon as I got out of surgery I found out from Dave that she had some sort of defect in the mouth. At first they thought it was cleft palate or something so they passed her off to our pediatrician and I didn't see her or hold her while they sewed me up like normal. An ENT Dr came up last night to examine her and he can't even identify what it is. Basically she has 3 low hanging lumps in her mouth attached to her gum plate that are hard tissue. In this picture you can see one of them. She's able to suck and breastfeed so they don't want to take them out or mess with them until she is a bit older. When they are removed they will test them to make sure they aren't anything bad. (or as he said cancerous which has me freaked out) Thankfully it's only noticable when she is opening her mouth or screaming. lol I hope and pray they are nothing, that's about all we can do but this was a completely different birthing story as I've never had a child come out with any issues that could mean a problem.

So now Sophia is 1 day old and today she means business. She's hungry and is rooting all over the place. Yesterday she was all about snuggling and sleeping and I kept her with me in bed all day. Few of the nurses didn't like me co-sleeping instead of having her sleep in her bassinet. I finally gave her to the nursery at 1 am till about 5 when they brought her in for me to nurse her. Tomorrow morning we hope to be going home. The kids saw her yesterday but of course Alex and Dominic were the only ones that really knew much about we were bringing her home. Damien knows but he was all about running around in the room. Mia eyed her but didn't really care. lol I'm getting around great and ready to get home and back to a normal, non-pregnant life. lol I can't even begin to express how happy I am that everything turned out ok and I made it through another surgery safely.