The longest weeks of my life

I'm not gonna lie, these last 3 weeks have sucked. Dan has been gone, Kyson won't nurse, and my sweet little Maicee turned into a monster. My days consist of changing poopy diapers, pumping then feeding Kyson, fighting with Maicee, and trying to keep my house somewhat clean. I don't understand why I can't just nurse my babies. While we were in the hospital, Kyson was super sleepy, and they were worried about his weight. They encouraged me to give him a bottle until he "woke up" a little more. I refused, because giving Maicee a bottle is what did me in with her. Well, Kyson lost a lot of weight, when we left the hospital he was at 5 lbs. 13 oz. On Thursday he had a dr.'s appointment, and they were worried about his billirubin levels. So I went home that day, started pumping and then feeding him breast milk from a bottle, and he slowly started to gain weight back. We had 3 dr.'s appointments in a row to measure his billi levels, and luckily he didn't have to do the blanket like Maicee did. I kept thinking, "as soon as his jaundice is gone, he will nurse again". That Sunday, June 12th, Dan left for Texas, where he will stay until July 26th. My sisters came that night, and stayed and helped out for a couple of days. When they left on Wednesday, Maicee turned into the monster. She'll wait until I'm either pumping or trying to get Kyson to nurse, then she's into everything. When I ask her to stop, she tells me no. I tell her to go to time-out, she tells me no. That Thursday Ksyon had another dr.'s appointment, and he was at 6 lbs. 6 oz., so he's slowly gaining his weight back. Everytime I try to nurse him, he falls asleep. I try to wake him up, unsuccessfully. So I pump and then give him a bottle. I really hate pumping. My only salvation is my sister-in-law Tracie when she invites me over to her house for the day. Maicee isn't as beastly at her house. And for some reason, I think it's the air conditioning, Kyson will nurse there. We are counting down the days until Dan gets back (26!). I feel like I have no time to take pictures, sleep, shower, clean, or do anything to make me feel human. I have to fight Maicee over everything. And I can't even enjoy having a newborn. I'm open for suggestions on how to get Maicee to like me again, and how to get Kyson to nurse.

Especially for Grandma and Grandpa Heilmann: some pictures!

I guess I should clear up some things from the last post: I never did get my epidural, I did it all natural again. I wanted the epidural but there was just no time for it. Maybe next time... And I should give a huge thank you to my amazing sister-in-law Tracie who kept Maicee Monday night, Tuesday, and most of Wednesday. Did I mention she already has a 2 year old and a 2 month old? Well, she does. I don't know how she did it! And Maicee slept so good for her!

One of his first pictures.



If you look close enough, you can see his little pee stream at the bottom. He peed on Dan's leg.



I would like to think that this isn't what Tracie's week was like.



So tiny!



Going home.

Kyson Daniel Heilmann

Our baby boy is here!!! I am still at the hospital, didn't bring a cord to connect the camera to the computer, but I thought I would write about his birth. I'll post pics as soon as I get home.

Yesterday I had a dr.'s appointment at 9:15. Dan had class, so I had to take Maicee. She has been to the dr. with me a million times. For some reason, she decided to throw a fit. She was screaming at the top of her lungs the entire time we were there. She kept telling everyone to go away and kept telling me to leave. So when they took my blood pressure, it was a little high. I had my dr. strip my membranes, and was soon dilated to a 5 and started having contractions soon after. They took my blood pressure again at the end, and it was still high, so my dr. sent me over to the hospital for some labs. My wonderful sister-in-law Livvy came and picked Maicee up and had her most of the day. I guess I had the beginning stages of pre-eclamsia, (I thought it was just Maicee stress) so my dr. broke my water around 12:30. My contractions started picking up after that. Luckily I had the most wonderful doula ever, thanks Nancy, and she helped me manage my pain without meds. The nurses wanted me to have an epidural right at the beginning, but I wanted to see how long I could go without one. As they got more intense, I started to feel light headed and see spots. I almost passed out once. They finally checked me around 5:00 and I was at an 8. I wimped out and asked for an epidural. My nurse worked really fast, had me ready to receive my epidural in about 3 minutes, and I was already dialted to a 10 and the baby was crowning. They grabbed a random dr. out of the hall, she ran in threw gloves on, and Kyson was born 3 pushes later at 5:20. My dr. didn't even get to deliver him. He weighed in at 6 lbs. 10 oz. and is 20 inches long. And I have to say he is pretty cute. He is super mellow right now. And he likes to sleep, which Maicee never did. He is eating like a champ and I think I might actually get to nurse him! My blood pressure is still a little high, so I have to stay at the hospital until tomorrow. Maicee came last night to see him. She thinks he's pretty cute, but doesn't want to take him home.