Introducing...

Eric Anthony Herman!!

On Friday, July 12, I woke up with stomach cramps at 5:30 in the morning.  I went to the bathroom and lost my mucus plug.  I immediately thought, "this is the day."  Adriana wasn't awake yet, so normally I would have gone back to sleep.  But, since I wasn't in any pain yet, I decided that I should take a shower.  I didn't know if I'd have the chance later.  I was told labor would be much quicker this time (lies!), like half the time of the first time, so I thought I might be having the baby around 12:30.  I wanted to shower before I had to go to the hospital.

I went to tell Scott what was going on.  I told him he could go back to sleep, though, since we still had plenty of time.  He later teased me about how crazy I sounded.  "We're having a baby, but go back to sleep.  It's not like there's any reason to get all excited."

By the time I got out of the shower, Adriana was awake, and my contractions had started.  Strangely enough, I felt them in my back and thighs.  I started to time them, and they were about 7 or 8 minutes apart.  Scott asked what I wanted him to do.  I told him to go to work since he only works half of the day on Fridays in the summer, and I would call him if things started to progress.  He said he wanted hourly updates.

Around 9:00, my contractions were six minutes apart, but they weren't strong.  Still, I gave Scott the update, and I also updated my mom and Scott's mom.  My mom said she and my dad would go ahead and come since they had a two-hour drive.  As soon as I got off the phone with my mom, my contractions slowed down to 7 or 8 minutes apart again.  Adriana took a nap around 10:00, and I decided that since people were going to be in our house, I should put laundry away and clean up some other stuff instead of taking a nap myself.  Stupid decision.  Scott left work at 11:00 because he said he couldn't concentrate on anything anyway.

By 12:30, my parents were at our house, Scott was home, and Adriana was awake.  We decided to all go on a walk to see if that would make anything happen.  By the end of the walk, my contractions were at 5 minutes apart, but they still weren't at all strong.  When we got back from the walk, Scott and I ran and errand while Adriana played with Mom and Dad at home.  At 3:00, I got my first semi-painful contraction, and they stayed that severity every five minutes for the next hour.

I called the doctor around 4:00, and I told her that my contractions had been 5 minutes apart for an hour, but they weren't as strong as I expected.  She said I could choose to stay at home or come in, but she would recommend coming in just to get checked out, so that's what I did.

Hospitals must make me tense up or something because as soon as I stepped into the hospital, my contractions got really strong.  I told Scott that if I would have known that, I would have gone to the hospital at 5:30 that morning instead of waiting around all day.  I was admitted to a triage room and a nurse immediately asked if I wanted anything to help with the pain.  This was frustrating to me because I had an appointment with a nurse a couple of weeks before where I explained that I did not want to be offered pain medication.  I explained that it had happened with Adriana, and I wanted to make sure it didn't happen again.  She assured me it wouldn't.  Whatever.

The triage nurse checked me and told me I was 3 cm dilated, but that I could be stretched to 4 cm.  The doctor came in then, and she had a stick in her hand.  She asked if I wanted to have my water broken so we could get this moving.  I said that when I had Adriana, the doctor on call that day explained to me that breaking my water would cause me to immediately go into the final stages of labor, and the level of pain would jump dramatically instead of gradually getting to that level.  Scott reiterated my concerns, and said that it would essentially be the same as getting induced, which would increase my chances of "needing" an epidural.  She kind of blew off our concerns.  She said, "it's just going to get you to the level of pain that you would eventually get to anyway."  Still, we said that I did not want to have my water broken, and the doctor left.

The nurse told me that I should walk around for awhile to see if any change had been made.  She then said, "if you haven't made any progress after your walk, you'll have to decide if you want to have your water broken or go home."  What!?!?  Being in labor isn't an option?  My contractions have been 5 minutes apart for well over an hour at this point.  That's when they tell you to call.  If I go home, what has to happen for me to be able to call again?  If the baby is crowning, is that enough to say that I can come back to the hospital?

So we walked.  We were annoyed, but we walked.  Mom was with us by this time.  Poppy and Adriana were at home waiting for Brandon and the boys to get there.  Adriana didn't really know what was going on, but she was excited to get to see her cousins!

When my contractions were 2 - 3 minutes apart, we went back to the triage room to be checked.  A new nurse came on (thank God!).  She told me I was at 4 cm, and could be stretched to 5 cm.  She also told me that I could have a room, and that natural childbirths were her favorite.  She said it's the best part of her job.

I got a room with a labor tub, but I couldn't get in until they had my IV in and they had done some other stuff.  So the nurse started to put in my IV.  Apparently, she hit a valve.  I felt a pop, and 15 days later, my hand still feels funny.  She tried the other arm.  I don't know exactly what went wrong on that arm, but she went to get another nurse after that.  Finally, my IV was in.  After monitoring the baby for a little while, they said I was allowed to get into the tub.  It was 9:00.

The tub did help my pain.  Scott asked if it hurt bad yet, and I said it did.  He said I was hiding it well then.  He said I seemed to be handling it better than I did with Adriana.

At 9:45, I had to get out of the tub so they could check my progress.  Here's where it got frustrating.  I was still only 5 cm.  Just like when I got "stuck" with Adriana, I got really discouraged.  I was afraid to ever have them check me again because I didn't want to hear the bad news.

The next couple of hours were kind of a blur.  Mom was back with us by this time.  The only way I could get semi-comfortable was lying on my side with someone using our massager on my back.  At around 11:00, I started falling asleep between contractions because I was so exhausted.  This caused my contractions to slow down and made labor last longer, which is why I said it was stupid to not take a nap when Adriana did earlier that day.

At about 11:45, I agreed to let the nurse check me again.  I was 8.5 cm at this point, but the nurse said the baby was still pretty high.  To me, that was crazy!  For the past month or so, I had been in such pain because the baby felt so low.  The nurse said I needed to let gravity work for me and sit straight up.

The pain was excruciating!  No one could reach my back when I was sitting like that, so I couldn't get any relief when I felt the contractions in my back.  I started talking crazy at this point.  I yelled at my mom (sorry about that) and started asking for medication.  I didn't want an epidural, just something to stop my back from hurting.  Scott said no, my mom said it was too late, and the nurse just told me I could get some pain medicine once the baby was out.

Then I felt like I needed to push.  The nurse said I couldn't, but I couldn't stop it.  I tried so hard to stop, but I pushed twice when I was told I couldn't yet.  Mom left sometime around here, but I don't remember it.  Then, suddenly, the doctor was in our room (for the first time ever), and I was being told that it was ok to push.  Scott said later that he looked at the clock at this point because he was thinking we only had about 30 minutes left.  Or not.

I pushed once, and it felt just like a head coming out.  I remember thinking, "there's no way...I wonder why it felt like that."  But sure enough, I heard Scott say, "oh my gosh!  I see its head!"  I pushed again, and the doctor said the head was completely out.  But then I was out of energy.  The baby was coming out so quickly that I didn't have time to regain any strength.  Everyone was telling me I needed to push to get the body out.  I tried to push, but I wasn't strong enough, so one of the nurses pushed on my stomach as I pushed, and Scott told me the doctor pulled at the same time.  Scott looked down and told me, "it's a boy!"  Scott's mom later told us that from the time my mom walked into the lobby until she received the "It's a boy!" text from Scott, it was 8 minutes.  None of us could believe how quickly the baby came once it was time to push.

The nurses immediately started commenting on his hair.  They called it blonde (we think it's more blondish-brown) and couldn't believe how much he had.  Then they asked us his name.  I said, "Eric Anthony."  A little while later, our moms came back to meet their newest grandson.

After getting us into a postpartum room and doing check after check after check, we finally got to sleep at about 6:00 a.m.  It was definitely a long day, but it was definitely worth it to have our little Eric join our family.

Adriana Leigh is 22 Months Old

It's hard to believe that Adriana is already 22 months old.  Mostly because I know that this is the month that she will become a big sister.  She does seem "big," though, when I think about all of the things that she's doing.

Adriana knows 21 of her letters.  She still has trouble with N (just stares at it), P (calls it R), S (calls it Z), V (calls it Y), and Z (calls it S).  She also identifies 1 and 2 consistently, and others sometimes.  She can count to 4, and when I ask her what comes after 4, she yells, "five!"  She know several of her shapes.  She knows circle and oval 100% of the time.  The knows square and triangle most of the time.  She practices her shapes using shape puzzles, so she also knows some less-common shapes.  She sometimes mixes up rectangle and trapezoid, but she almost always knows diamond, pentagon (penten), and octagon (ah-ah).

Adriana continues to "read" stories to us.  Just this morning, she was reading a peek-a-boo book completely on her own.  Most of the time, she finishes lines for us.  Sometimes, she can tell us how a page starts or fill in words in the middle of a page.  Her favorite books to "read" are Llama Llama Red Pajama, Hand Hand Fingers Thumb, The Cat in the Hat, and Green Eggs and Ham.

Adriana has just started putting two or three words together.  She will say, "hi Mommy," "hi Daddy," etc.  She also sometimes calls me "Silly Mommy."  This morning she said, "come with me."  It's funny to see her concentrate on putting the ideas together and then say the words very carefully.

Adriana has shown some interest in potty training.  I'm not forcing it because I know she's in for a big change pretty soon, but there have been days that she has asked to go on the potty.  She has peed on the potty some, and she has pooped on the potty twice!

As far as Adriana's personality, she is just the sweetest girl.  She stops what she is doing to kiss me at least 20 times per day.  She loves to cuddle and hug.  As I type this, she is lying beside me twirling my hair.  She can be independent.  When she is having fun, she doesn't care where I am.  But she also loves to be around the people she loves.  If I ask her if she loves someone, she will say yes, and then start naming off all the other people she loves.

She does have her mother's temper, but we're working on that...

Here is our sweet girl (and her beloved cheese):

I included this picture to show her socks.  She put them on herself!

Baby Herman #2 - Weeks 38 & 39

We're still here...together.  But, I don't think for very much longer.  Stay tuned...

Week 38:

Click here to see Adriana at 38 Weeks.

Week 39:

Click here to see Adriana at 39 Weeks.

Baby Herman #2 - 36 Weeks & 37 Weeks

I'm still hanging in there.  I'm torn between wanting to have the baby because I'm so uncomfortable these days and wanting more time because Adriana is not quite big-girl-bed-trained (almost but not quite) and I'm still scared of labor.

I've started having more pains and more contractions, but nothing is happening regularly yet.  My mom and dad will be leaving for vacation soon, so we're all hoping the baby waits a little while still.  I'm worried, though, because Adriana told me yesterday morning that she wants the baby to come out.  This worries me because Zeke told me he wanted Adriana to come out on September 10, 2011.  She was born the next day.

Adriana said it because she was talking about sharing her toys, and I told her she could when the baby comes out.  She started saying "out" over and over.  When I told her it wasn't ready to come out yet, she said it is "stuck."  I told her it is for now, but I hope it's not stuck in a few weeks.

Here are the pictures of the "stuck" baby from the past two weeks:

This is Week 36:

 Click here to see Adriana at 36 weeks.

And here I am at 37 weeks:

Click here to see Adriana at 37 weeks.

Adriana Leigh Herman is 21 Months Old

On Tuesday, Adriana entered what is likely her last full month as an only child.  I know she can't possibly grasp the major change that is about to occur, but she does seem to be excited about being a big sister.  She is ready to move out of her baby room.  She loves her big girl room.  She loves to play in her room, pick out her clothes each day, and sleep in her big girl bed.  She thinks of it as a punishment to have to go to her crib.  If she ever has trouble getting to sleep, I remind her that she will have to go to her crib, and she calms down to go to sleep very quickly.

She also seems excited when we talk about the baby.  She will run up to my belly and kiss it.  I think my belly has gotten 15 kisses already today.  We went to storytime at the library today, and there were some babies there.  When she saw one of the babies, she turned to me and said, "baby."  Then she came over and kissed my belly three times.  The other mom thought it was the cutest thing!

Adriana is learning to play with friends.  She has a friend in our neighborhood named Mia, who is about 3 months older than Adriana.  We saw Mia Monday and today.  She loves to hold hands with Mia, and will grab Mia's hand without being prompted.  She then had to tell her Daddy all about Mia, and she talks about sharing with Mia often.  She also met a boy named Creighton at the pool.  He shared his pool toys, and Adriana thought that was the greatest thing ever!  Whenever we go to the pool, she asks me if Creighton will be there.  She also asks if Zeke (and Connor & Quentin) can go to the pool or park with us.  She is definitely social, and I think she will really like preschool when she starts going in September.

Intellectually, I think Adriana is doing very well.  She remembers things that happened a month (or longer) ago.  She is doing very well with her colors.  She knows all of the basic colors (red, yellow, blue, green, orange, purple, black, white, brown, and gray).  She can tell you that red means stop and green means go when she sees traffic lights. She does not like red lights at all! I call her Little Scott when she gets mad about sitting in traffic.She can identify a circle everytime she sees one.  Now, we are working on mastering a square and a triangle.  I'm trying to focus on square, but we talk about triangles when we see them.  Adriana can tell you when she is holding two objects, and occasionally when she is holding three.  We were especially impressed with "three" because no one sat down and taught her that, she just picked it up.  I haven't quizzed Adriana on her letters in a little while, but she still excitedly points out the letters she knows on a regular basis.

Apparently, Adriana has been blessed with her mother's childhood temper.  She has started throwing little temper tantrums when she doesn't get her way.  We are working on getting this under control...

Adriana's favorite activities right now are music (including her Kindermusik class), jumping, hiding in the sliding door curtain, "swimming" in the baby pool, playing with bubbles, and watching her friends (Mickey Mouse, Elmo, and Monsters Inc.).

She loves exclamations right now.  This started with "oh man!"  She now says, "oh great!," "oh dear!," "oh boy!," "oh crap!" (we're trying to get away from this one), "oh Sulley!" (from Monsters Inc.), and "oh broccoli!"  She doesn't quite get that the last two aren't normal sayings, but she likes them.

We are very proud of our little girl, and we are excited to see what a great big sister you are going to be!

I'm a little off-balance these days.
I almost fell over when I knelt down to take this picture, and she thought it was hilarious!

Baby Herman #2 - 34 and 35 Weeks

I know, I know...I said I would be on time for the 34 week post.  Then we had some weird sleeping days.  I don't want to jinx it, but I think we're under control now, and Adriana is officially in her big girl bed.  She is so excited about it, and doesn't want to sleep in her crib at all anymore.  I just want to make sure we don't have anymore days that begin at 5:30, which then lead to me napping when she naps.  Anyway, I'm actually posting 35 weeks when I am 35 weeks along, so I think I'm doing pretty well.

I went to the doctor today, and she said that everything looks fine.  She agrees with the other doctor I saw that this baby is going to be small like Adriana.  She also said that it's fine that I'm having some contractions now because that's normal for a 2nd (or 3rd, etc.) baby.  She said that even if I did have the baby today, it would be ok because the baby should be big enough and developed enough.  The baby is still head down.

The heart rate today was 134, which is still in line with a boy, according to the old wives' tale.  Adriana was with me today, and the doctor let her hold the Doppler machine while she tried to find the heartbeat.  When she found the heartbeat, Adriana turned quickly to look at me and said, "woah!"

So, since everything is going well, I'll go ahead and get to the pictures.

Here is Week 34:

 

Click here to see Adriana at 34 weeks.

 

And here is 35 Weeks:

 

Click here to see Adriana at 35 weeks.

Baby Herman #2: Weeks 31, 32, and 33

The end of the school year is always hectic, and this year was no exception.  So, I managed to take pictures of Baby Herman's progress, but of course, I didn't get them posted.  Here they are now:

This is Week 31:

Click here to see Adriana at Week 31.

Here is Week 32:

 Click here to see Adriana at Week 32.

And finally, here is Week 33:

Click here to see Adriana at Week 33.

Everything is still going well, according to the doctor.  When I went last Friday, he said that my blood pressure and weight are perfect, and I am measuring exactly as I should be at this time.  The doctor I saw at 31 weeks said that he is expecting the baby to be little like Adriana was.  And this past doctor told me about how labor tends to not take as long the second time.  I hope they're right...

I should be more timely with the 34th week pictures since I'm home now and Adriana is sleeping better.  I think she understands that it's summer and she doesn't need to get up early to see me.  She's been sleeping until 7 or later, which means I can make it through the day without a nap (since I'm up about 5 times/night).

We're working on transitioning Adriana to her big girl bed.  She's really excited about sleeping in her big girl bed, but isn't quite ready for it all the time.  She is currently napping in her crib because she couldn't get to sleep in her big girl bed.  She was upset about going to her crib, but I told her we'd try again tomorrow.  I think by the time the baby is here, she'll be ready to move out of the nursery without it seeming like the baby is kicking her out.  I'll keep you updated on her progress.