Milk and Colic and Tantrums

Little Raegan is just over 2 weeks old now. Thus far, she is definitely more vocal than Erick was as a baby. Erick cried on a rare ocassion and he slept so well at night. Raegan, total opposite. While Erick had reactions to anything milk based as a baby, Raegan reacts to pretty much anything I eat. It breaks my heart to hear her little cries because she is uncomfortable and in pain from something that I am giving her. I am at a loss right now. Do I keep breastfeeding or do I go strictly formula? I want to breast feed so bad but I don't want her to be in pain. Also, with the price of formula, it would really be beneficial to breastfeed. Either way, formula or breastmilk, Raegan cries and screams unless she is being bounced between the hours of midnight and 5 a.m. Shoot me now! Colic is seriously of the devil. When I was a baby I had colic and from the time my dad walked in the door from work until 2 or 3 in the morning, I was crying and screaming. My dad loves to remind me that I'm lucky to be alive. Now, here I am dealing with my own bundle of joy in her colicy hours. If her hours of crying and screaming were during the day or early evening, I think perhaps I could deal with it better. I finally broke down this morning out of exhaustion and emotional craziness. Lucky for me, I still have my husband home all day every day and my mom is still here helping me out but it is still a struggle. I love her to pieces but this middle of the night stuff is taxing and to top it off, my sweet son has been not so sweet lately.

Erick has started throwing tantrums really bad again. I'm not sure how to punish him anymore. Spanking doesn't work, time outs aren't doing much and so I don't know what else to do. Perhaps I'm missing something very obvious. I know that he doesn't do well with change, he never has. However, I don't know that his tantrums are associated with the change. Maybe it's age, maybe something else is going on inside of him that he can't communicate but it's enough to drive me insane right now. I have a screaming child during the day and a screaming child at night. I can't wait for my 6 week waiting period to be over so I can start exercising and doing something for me. I think that will be my sanity. 2 weeks down, 4 to go.

Raegan Maree

Ms. Raegan Maree made her appearance on June 12. She came into the world while I was watching the NBA playoffs. It was game 1 of the Thunder and Heat series. I had to do something to keep my mind off of pushing. That's right. I was told not to push because if I pushed, she would come and the doctor wasn't ready for her to come yet.

 Labor to delivery was about 6 hours and the last part went extremely fast. I won't bore you with the details but after baby number 2, I've decided if and when we have baby number 3, Alex just needs to leave the room to go eat. With Erick, the nurse told him to go get something to eat because he had time before I delivered. No sooner had he made and paid for his sandwich did the hospital call him several times on his phone and page him over the intercom system because it was time for me to deliver. He had to come running through the hospital to make it in time. With Raegan, it was an all to familiar story. I was dilated to a 6 and had been for hours. I told my husband to go eat with his dad and step-mom because I clearly wasn't going to dilate from a 6-10 in an hour. He proceeded to the cafeteria and ate his dinner. However, in the short hour or so he was gone, I managed to go from a 6 to a 10. Yep. I told the nurse I felt pressure, she checked me and I made that phone call to my husband saying he needed to high tail it to the room.

Fastest delivery yet! One push and a grunt and she was out. Spitting image of her brother but in a petite girly way. She weighed 7 pounds 9 ounces. Smallest baby for me and my family. She's precious. I adore her and am completely head over heels in love with her. Erick is so sweet with her, always wanting to give her kisses on her head and asking to hold her. I am blessed. Amongst the trials, I look at my kids (when they aren't screaming and crying) and feel like a lucky woman.

7 Days and counting

Today I am 38 weeks pregnant. My actual due date is June 19th but I have an awesome dr who is going to induce me at 39 weeks. So, in one week from today, we will welcome our second child into the world. A baby girl. Her name will be Raegan Maree (for those that didn't already know). We're not quite sure how our 2 1/2 year old is going to adjust to the new addition but we are hopeful that things will go well knowing that there will be good days and bad days.

One of things I really wanted to have happen before Raegan came was to master potty trainng with Erick. I had heard so many different stories about boys taking longer, if you start at 2 plan on going until 3 and if you start at 3 plan on ending at 3. With Alex having lost his job, once we ran out of diapers for Erick, we decided to just try and potty train him. Alex was the patient one. I figured I would just try after the baby came because my patience was so low. The first couple of days were a challenge because we were trying to do it our way. If it's one thing I've learned most about my son through this experience is that he is one who will do things his way on his time. Lucky for me, it was time to potty train and he was ok with that, we just had to learn to let him tell us when he needed to go. We're still working on the pooping part but we've totally got the pee thing under control and I am loving it. He is becoming such a big boy each day and I am amazed. Now that we're a week out from Raegan coming, I am hoping that he doesn't revert once she gets here.

I'm excited to watch the two of them grow together. There are a few things that we still need to do before next week and we're slowly working on them. Very slowly! I just hope reality hits soon. I am having a hard time grasping that we're going from a family of 3 to a family of 4. Excited but it just doesn't seem real. Nine months has gone by so quickly and it doesn't seem like it can be time so soon but it is and I am ready to evict this little girl from my belly!