I wanted to capture a "typical" day in Max's life before the baby came so I set a goal to take a bunch of pictures today to help document what this typical day looked like. Little did I know that I was not only capturing a typical day, but his LAST day before the baby came and he was no longer an only child.
Each morning when he wakes up, Max calls to us to come and get him (he doesn't climb out of his bed on his own without us being there - it's awesome!). Whoever gets him then brings him into our room, along with his vitamin, a cup with some milk, and some dry cereal. And as long as it's after 6 am, he gets to play on the tablet until we are ready to get out of bed and get ready. He watches shows like Pocoyo, Super Why, Bubble Guppies, or Blues Clues (I am pretty strict on what he watches - just because it's a cartoon doesn't make it okay and appropriate!), plays apps like "bugs and buttons", "bugs and numbers", "squiggles", or "lego trains", or plays a race car game, or watches a few music videos that we have put on there. It's pretty amazing how adept he is at navigating the tablet to whatever he is interested in at that moment. He knows which shows he likes are on Amazon Prime and which are on Netflix. And a few months ago they pulled Pocoyo off of one of these sites and so now he has to go to YouTube to watch it. Having your kid go to YouTube is a pretty scary things because of the content available there. So I taught him (once!) how to go to the "search" icon and then type in "P" "O" "C" and the first thing that comes up on the menu is Pocoyo. He clicks on that and there's his videos! From there, there are some Busy Beaver nursery rhymes and other learning videos that he watches too.
2 years ago I would have said that he wouldn't ever get that much tablet time but at this point I am so tired, I have lowered my standards in favor of getting even an extra 30 minutes of sleep. He is also getting more TV time at night than I would like but I only have the energy to sit on the couch and watch TV.
After showering and getting dressed (at Kindermusik they asked if he was getting pictures today... nope, that's just my stylish kid who I prefer not to dress in t-shirts every day), we did his hair. He helped out by using the spray bottle to get his hair wet. When we do his hair, I always tell him he looks handsome and then he goes to dad and says "Am I handsome, daddy?".
Cool dude!
Serious dude!
Silly face!
Happy boy!
He wanted to take a picture of Momma
He played with this truck and then wanted to bring it with him in the car. We get this question a lot lately about whatever he is focused on for that moment... "Can (insert object here) come with me in the car, to swim lessons, in bed, etc.?"
On the way to Kindermusik he had a snack of cheese.
Kindermusik went okay, it wasn't the best day ever. I am so pregnant that it's uncomfortable to hold him on my lap, what little bit of it is left, for the portions where you have your kid in your lap. Plus, I can't exactly dance around and hold him and get up and down off the floor easily. Not only that but my lung capacity is less so I don't sing as much as normal. So because I didn't fully participate, Max wasn't fully participating and was more distracted than normal. I had a few contractions during the class that distracted me too. We did have a relaxation song where they turn down the lights, play a classical song, and you hold your child and rock. I LOVE this part of Kindermusik and Max is always great at snuggling into me. Since he can't sit in my lap, he now turns around and wraps his arms around me and rests his head on my shoulder. It's super sweet and I treasure those moments. Today he looked at me and goes "I love you, Momma". AWWWWWWWW! This was the last class I paid for during this semester because I figured the next Saturday (2 days before my scheduled c-section) I would NOT want to go to Kindermusik. I will miss it while we are taking a break and I'm healing. I'm not sure how it's going to work to take the time to go when I have a nursing baby but I hope we can figure it out. I really enjoy connecting with Max during this special time we share together. Plus, I truly believe he has benefited developmentally in many ways as a result of this class.
After Kindermusik we stopped to get us both a hamburger for lunch when we got home and I treated us to an ice cream cone that we shared in the car on the way home. He did a great job of sharing and we passed it back and forth many times.
When we got home, it was a lovely day so Max and Peter went on a walk, pushing an empty stroller. I spent about 15 minutes pulling some weeds that were driving me crazy in the flower beds. I am sure I looked ridiculous to the neighbors driving by...a woman at 38 weeks and 1 day pregnant, sitting on the sidewalk, weeding. But, as I've talked about before, I enjoy weeding!
Max had lunch and then it was time for a nap. This is how he sleeps in his bed - at the far end, in the wrong direction, right up against the head of the bed, on TOP of his pillow with his head on top of his blankets and stuffed animals. I absolutely adore this sweet, sleeping angel.
Another view so you can see how much of his bed he takes up. :)
While Max slept, I went next door and enjoyed some time visiting with my neighbor, Mary Ann, while we lounged in chairs by her pool. I even put on my swim suit so I could enjoy the sun. It was good for me to get out of the house. I know I've been in a grumpy mood and short tempered. Peter's been a trooper and has put up with me and has been understanding. Spending time relaxing in the sun and chatting with a friend was a good break. It took me a few minutes to walk back home though, the minute I stood up I had a contraction and had to wait for it to pass to start walking. That was common for today - it seemed that I pretty much had a contraction nearly each time I stood up.
After his nap, Peter let Max play Angry Birds in the media room.
And he watched part of a movie (it still shocks me to see him in underwear - his little bum looks so cute!)
And he spent time on timeout. (I don't remember why, most likely for not listening. That's pretty much the only reason for timeouts lately.) Peter's the one that put him on timeout this time.
Video - Max on timeout. I secretly taped him. He is good about staying on timeout until we get him but he rarely stays there quietly anymore.
Then we headed to Wal-Mart. I was still in my swimming suit top with my cover up as the over shirt. The great thing about swimming suit tops - - you don't have to wear a bra. It was so nice to not have to wear an uncomfortable bra, so I checked with Peter to make sure I didn't look crazy and he said I was okay to go like that. :) THANK YOU!
We headed to Wal-mart for a few reasons...return some stuff, buy Max a basketball hoop that he's been desiring, and let Max buy a present that he could give the baby when she's born. While we were there, the contractions kicked up. They were to the point that I didn't want to walk more than I had to. At one point I found some underwear we were wanting to get for Max and rather than go find Peter who was also looking for them, I just stood there until he found me. I couldn't bring myself to walk around to find him and then have to walk back. When the contractions hit, I was having to stop walking and stand still until they passed and on a few of them, I had to lightly breathe through it. Max picked out a little yellow giraffe rattle to give to Baby Sister.
Max and Peter were having a great time and Peter was tickling Maxwell and he was giggling in the cutest way. I should have gotten a video.
We needed to blow about 30 more minutes until Peter's car was done getting the oil changed so after Wal-mart, Peter suggested that we could either go to Home Depot or to Chik-Fil-A where Max could play on the playground. I told him that after the uncomfortable experience of Wal-mart, there was NO WAY, I was going to walk around a massive Home Depot. So if we went there, I was going to stay in the car. We decided to do Chik-Fil-A however when we got there, my contractions hadn't stopped and so I didn't even want to walk into the restaurant. I just wanted these contractions to go away!
The boys went in without me and I stayed in the car. I laid the seat back, I started drinking a ton of water (I knew that dehydration could cause contractions), and I tried to live through the contractions. My dad called and I chatted with him for awhile which helped to distract me. I didn't tell him that I was having contractions while we were talking. After his call, I became aware that these contractions really weren't stopping and that maybe I needed to think about tracking them to see if I might be in labor. I found an app, downloaded it, and started tracking them. At this point I was worried about dropping Peter back at the car shop and having to drive the 10 minutes back to the house by myself, especially if a contraction hit. However when Peter got back in the car and I suggested that perhaps he just drive me back home and then Joe or Brittany could bring him back to his car he looked at me like I was crazy. I didn't want to, but I said I would stick to the original plan and take him to his car and drive myself home.
I made it home safely and called Brittany on the way home and asked her to come get Max out of the car so that I could immediately walk in and lay down once I got home - the contractions were getting worse and I couldn't think about standing out there while I unbuckled Max, then lifted him out of the car, etc. It was just too much.
I came in and laid down, still tracking my contractions, and tried to drink more water. At this point, I really felt in my heart that I was in labor even though in my mind I really didn't want it to be true. I was texting my friend Andrea and she strongly urged me to have Peter pack my hospital bag (since I still hadn't done that!). I had to focus and breath through the contractions. I really wanted the contractions to go away so I took a shower since I had a friend who mentioned that helped her contractions stop once. I stayed in the shower forever (most of the time spent sitting on the floor or on my hands and knees so that gravity did push the baby's head against my cervix causing things to progress) and it did help the severity of the contractions. I stayed in there a LONG time and while the severity got better, I still had Peter pack my hospital bag.
I realized in the shower that my only real choice was to go to the hospital and I should stop avoiding it. If I really WAS in labor, then why would I want to spend more time at home, go through more time in labor, when eventually I would still end up at the hospital with a c-section? Wouldn't it be better to get there sooner and get some pain meds so I didn't have to keep going through the contractions?? And if I WASN'T in labor, the contractions weren't stopping so wouldn't it be better to go to the hospital, have them tell me it wasn't real, and get some meds to help either stop the contractions or be more comfortable?
So I got out of the shower and called my Dr's office. It was the weekend so I was sent to an after hours service and they paged the Dr on call. I was keenly aware that if I had the baby now, my beloved Dr Boyd wouldn't be the one that delivers my baby. She wasn't on call this weekend. :( This made me so sad but I knew that there really wasn't a way around it. While I waited to be called back, I had a few bites of the pizza that Peter had ordered. If I had a baby, it meant it was going to be awhile until I could have solid foods and I wanted to have a little bit of real food! Unfortunately, I didn't feel up to having more than a few bites. Joe was sweet and asked me if he could get me anything and I was in so much pain and having to focus that I sort of snapped at him and said "Joe, don't talk to me". I ended up apologizing to him about it later but in that moment, I couldn't even handle having to say any unnecessary words.
The Dr on call, Dr. Broderick-Thomas, called me back and I explained the situation... that I was 38 weeks 1 day, my C- Section wasn't scheduled until April 21st, however I was having contractions that were about 8 minutes apart and had gotten stronger progressively since they started about 4 pm. They were lasting about 60 seconds. Dr Boyd had previously told me that if I had 6 contractions or more in an hour that I should go in, and that was certainly the case here. Dr Broderick-Thomas (who I have never met) told me to go into the hospital.
Sigh. This is for real.
This was at about 8 pm. We decided to take the time to put Max to bed first before going to the hospital. We didn't talk about the fact that we were leaving and where we were going because I wasn't 100% sure that this would really happen and didn't want to say anything if they were just going to send us back home.
I snuggled with Max while he played on the tablet. I just wanted to touch him. Then we read books, like normal.
Then it was time to cuddle. (Britt took some pics for us...our last pics as a family of 3.)
After we cuddled, we took Max into his room and put him down. When I was giving him my regular kisses ("Momma loves you here" on each of his cheeks, his nose, and his mouth), I broke down crying and could barely talk. My heart was breaking with the knowledge of the loss of the sweet life we had enjoyed with this little boy for the last almost 2 years and 8 months. Sure, I knew that we'd be adding another sweet addition that we wanted but still, it's sad to say goodbye to this phase of our lives. Things would never be the same.
My great husband with the bag he packed for me, plus our daughter's diaper bag, and the breast feeding pillow.
We were ready to go! Time to go (maybe) start the next chapter...
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