These are the days of our lives and we don't even know it!"

I totally stole that quote from a Duggars episode.An episode where 10 of their 19 kids were puking everywhere and they found humor in the stress! Anyways those words that Miss baby maker Duggar spoke reminded me of a recent experience I shared with my boys. I know I only have 2 but that's all
some of us can handle.
It was one of those moments when your like "holy crap I have two kids and smell like pee and breast milk because I haven't showered
in 3 days!" engineering school has nothing on that.

I ventured out to a trick or treat street at our local rec to meet some dear friends and get my ass out of the house. After a great hour of Mason burning energy and Max sleeping in the ergo we decided to head home. Of course as we were leaving,
Max awoke screaming to be nursed and Mason threw an epic tantrum because we were leaving and he was hungry...I am pretty sure I fed him lunch that day but not 100% certain! So I thew everyone in the car and began to nurse Max in the front seat(I flash everyone these days, if you want to see some use to be good boobs I drive a sliver murano) I opened a snack for Mason, turned on the Lion king soundtrack for the million and one time and right when I was about to catch my breath the famous words of a toddler were spoken "I have to go pee!" so I did what every good mother does, grabbed a plastic water bottle, removed the lid and helped him pee in the bottle one handed, all while his little brother nursed! On the drive home I cranked the radio up with Alicia Keys new song "This girl is on fire" and held my head a little higher. I got this mother thing, I have arrived! I am also getting my IUD as soon as possible because 19 kids is not my idea of a good time.
Happy Halloween!

In a month

Hours old

1 week old, so sleepy!

2 weeks old, loves being outside but still so sleepy!

3 weeks old, starting to wake up but maybe he would rather be sleeping!

1 month old, "ok I think its time to start waking up a little and check out this big bad world. "

As most parents of a newborn can attest, these weeks are exhausting, even with the easiest of babies. Max is an easy baby and we are tired. The newborn phase is easier this go around and I am trying to find refuge in all the quiet moments....but of course with an almost four year old there aren't many of those.

this one is mostly on the go

with moments of pure sweetness...

We are blessed.

Birth-day

The day before Max arrived I hit the wall of pregnancy, the "I am really ready to have him on the outside" wall of pregnancy. I had swept our entire driveway that was covered in damn crab apples, secretly hoping it would put me in labor. Some where in my head it felt wrong that I wasn't in labor and I was disturbing this happy little baby in my stomach who wasn't ready to come out. Well I really hurt my back doing this and spent the entire day not being able to walk without a limp...

The night before my parents arrived at our house to stay the night and I tried to keep my nerves calm and my emotions in check. Easier to say than do...I slept on the couch for maybe an hour or two. It was hard for me to kiss a sleeping Mason goodbye....

It was nice to have two of my favorites with me while we waited for two grueling hours before my surgery. Isn't the hospital attire sexy and slimming?!?!

The C-section was interesting....I had the power team of women in there with me. An awesome surgical nurse Jaime, who grew up near me and now dates a guy I went to school with and lives 1 mile up the road from my parents...the super sexy and confident anesthesiologist with cute heels on....my tall beautiful doctor that you just know got all A's in medical school...and the strong and seasoned pediatric nurse who has been taking care of babies for 30+ years....It was a strong team of women. The only guy in there was an assistant to the pediatric nurse. Matt was joking with us later on that he could see the glimmer in my Mom's eyes when she saw all these strong women working on her daughter and grandson...Women power!!!

Max came out purple and not breathing. I could kind of see him off to the side, instant love and worry. Matt and my Mom did a good job of not letting me know what was going on while they quickly worked on him and FINALLY got him to cry. He had a lot of fluid in his lungs.

I too had my freak out moment when they were putting me back together, it felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest, the pressure was out of this world, and again I was thankful for the team of people working on me and more importantly my Mom. She always knows how to keep me calm and because she had c-sections she kept reassuring me it was normal. She kept telling me how beautiful Max was and holding my hand.  

For me, having done this before, gave me the confidence to tell the staff what my wishes were...so when they told me they had to observe Max for a while because his Oxygen levels were low I told them they were not allowed to supplement him without my permission. I didn't get that choice with Mason and breastfeeding was a challenge. Breastfeeding is so much easier this time.

After I was stable they wheeled me up to see my lil' astronaut who was spending sometime in his oxygen tent for a few hours until he was released to our room.

And his big brother and Grandma and Papa could not get enough of him...

His Aunt Angela and GG and Grandpa Larry headed over to meet our lil' guy

and his Aunt Ang and Uncle Nick brought us dinner

It was really hard for me to be away from Mason so when I asked if I could go home on day 2 and my Doctor said "yes" I was ecstatic.

I was ready for life to start with all my boys!

 And boy has it...I think I am finally getting the swing of it with two...the new normal. Mason is doing a lot better since my last post...and we all are so in love with Max. Its hard to believe is almost been a month.