Welcome George

Sorry it has been so long since I posted, George was born 2 weeks ago but life with 2 small children is a little crazy.  So finally here is George's birth story.
Robin flew in on March 21st and much to our surprise, George hung out until his scheduled c-section date.  It was really nice that he hung out for so long because it allowed time for Micah and Robin to get adjusted to each other again.  Our c-section was scheduled for 7am on March 28th.  My doctor told us to arrive at the hospital 2 hours in advance, but to call the hospital before we left to make sure that my surgery was still good to go and that they had rooms available.  It is a half hour drive to the hospital, so we woke up at 4am so that we could leave at 4:30.  I called the hospital and they told me that my surgery was good to go, but to come a hour early.  Since we were already awake and since my doctor had clearly written 2 hours in advance and told us that, we decided to head on to the hospital.  We would rather be early than be late and end up having to wait hours and hours for another open c-section time.  We arrived at the hospital a little after 5 and waited to check in.  The person in front of us was from a funeral home, picking up someone that had been in labor and delivery...way to make a pregnant lady feel confident right before her surgery.
We checked in, but the lady told us that the prep area for scheduled c-sections doesn't open until 6am.  She pointed us to the waiting room and we got to hang out there for a hour.  Finally around 6:15, they came and got us and took us to the pre op room.  I got all ready and the anesthesiologist came to talk to me about medicines.  I told him that I am allergic to morphine and percoset.  He asked me what my symptoms were and I told him and he was like oh you are actually really allergic, it's not just an I itch thing.  So then he had to go off and search for some medicine for my spinal that didn't have morphine in it.  Apparently no one did this in advance and it is not a simple medicine to grab instead.  Eventually he found some in a pharmacy at the hospital and I was sent off to the OR.  With a c section, the dad has to wait outside the OR room until the mom has the spinal and the doctor's begin the surgery.  So I walked into the OR room, got up on the table and waited for my least favorite part, the spinal.  I sat there and an anesthesiologist put the numbing medicine in my back (it feels like a bee sting) and then went to put the spinal in.  When he did that, my right leg went crazy and hurt incredibly bad.  Apparently, that is a bad thing.  So he numbed me in a different spot and tried again, and once again HORRIBLE pain shooting down my right leg.  He tried multiple times and it kept happening.  During all of this, I was sitting on the table with my head hanging down, my chin touching my chest and my back had to be rolled as much as possible and my arms dangling down.  When he couldn't get it, another anesthesiologist in the room attempted and the same thing happened multiple times.  It still wasn't working, the pain was still going down my right leg.  Finally, they gave up and called in the head anesthesiologist.  He came in and he attempted it multiple times as well with the same results.  At this point, my neck was killing me and my back felt like a pin cushion, not to mention my crazy twitching painful right leg.  At this point I was crying and I began begging for them to just completely knock me out for it.  I was insisting that I would be fine to be asleep for it.  As soon as I started begging for that, he finally got it in.  Apparently since my last c section, my spine has curved and made it very difficult.
The c section finally started and Brandon was able to join me.  I immediately told him about the horrors of my spinal, but he helped me focus on other things.
Just a few minutes later, George Joseph was born at 7:52am.

 He was 21 and half inches long and 7 pounds 10 ounces.  They brought him over to us and took some pictures, but those are all on Brandon's phone so I will post those pics later.  Brandon went off to the nursery with George while they finished up with me.  They took me to recovery and Brandon joined me there.  George had to hang out in the nursery for a little bit while they waited for his temperature to regulate, but Brandon brought me lots of pictures of him.  Not much later, they moved me to my actual room and George joined us very shortly after that.

He is incredibly long and skinny.  He did so good and my recovery was a lot easier this time too.  My c section was on Friday morning and I was eating real food by Friday night.  Saturday morning they took all my monitors and IV out and I got to shower.  Micah came and met his baby brother on Saturday at lunch time and did so good!

We hung out at the hospital on Saturday..

And we were released by Sunday before lunch time.  So we were only in the hospital for a little over 48 hours.
Life is going really good here, Micah has been doing so good with Baby George.  I am so proud of him.  I will post a lot more pictures and more stories later, but I wanted to get the basic birth story done while I had a moment of peace.

My boys

So it is only 2 and half days until our baby boy is here.  We have been trying to talk to Micah about Baby a lot.  He knows that baby is in my belly, he will say Hi baby and rub my belly.  He has also given my belly kisses.  It could be a challenge that after baby boy is born for him to realize and understand that my belly is not baby anymore.  Anyway, recently an interesting thing has been happening between my boys.  Whenever Micah and I snuggle on the couch, baby boy will move to the side of the stomach that Micah is sitting on.  He tends to hang out on my right side, but if Micah is on my left side then he will move to the left side.  The boys have already started fighting too.  The other day Micah was sitting on my left side snuggled up to me and baby moved to that side.  Baby kicked Micah and Micah sat up, glared at my belly and then pushed on it.  Then baby pushed back and started going crazy in there.  Micah was not impressed and said "no no mommy!" like I had some control over it :).  I can't wait to see how the two interact once he is born.  I know it will be quite an adjustment and I am nervous on how Micah will be about sharing me.  He is not clingy to me at all, but I am always there and always available to him, so there is no need for him to be clingy.  When his time starts being shared, it could get interesting.  But here is a picture my friend Robin took the other day of Micah, baby and me.

I am just going to enjoy these next two days of my small family.

37 Weeks 5 days..

Well the past week has been quite interesting. Auntie Shannon came and visited us for a few days during her Spring Break, which was a lot of fun.  Micah loved having Nan Nan here.  On Thursday Brandon woke up incredibly sick and ended up having to go to the Emergency Room.  Luckily Shannon was still here, so she watched Micah for us while I was at the hospital with him for hours.  Brandon had the Norovirus, so the next few days were us staying far away from Brandon so we didn't catch it as well.  We seemed to have been lucky enough to avoid it.
A few pictures from our week..
Staying away from Daddy while knowing that he was home and hiding in a bedroom was hard, so Micah and I found a new playground to play on last Friday.  We had a little picnic and then some fun on slides and the horse.

After Daddy was feeling better, it was time for Micah and Daddy to clean all the germs out.

He loves vacuuming!
And then he also found Daddy's beret the other day and was so proud that he looked like Daddy...this is him practicing being a Drill Sergeant.

In pregnancy world, I had a doctor's appointment today and it went really well.  I only have one more appointment and then my repeat c-section!  It is so crazy to me that it is so close.  Only 9 more days or less until there are 2 little boys here.  The doctor kept saying "if you make it to next week, you'll have an appointment on Wednesday then the section on Friday."  If I make it..sounds very hopeful.  My big goal right now is to make it until Saturday.  Robin flies in Friday night and then I can breathe easy.  She will be staying with us for the next few weeks and will be here to take care of Micah and the dogs while Brandon and I are in the hospital.  I'm so thankful for my amazing friend, so thankful that she loves my little family and I completely trust her in taking care of my little man.  Friends that amazing aren't easy to find.
Since I doubt I will find time on Friday to do a 38 week update, I'll go ahead and do it now.  This was me a few days ago..

He feels so incredibly low now.  It is painful to walk or move around at all.  My hips are killing me and so is my back.  I had no idea how exciting and painful putting on pants could be.  On Friday he will be the size of a pumpkin or as long as a leek! He will be about 18.9 to 20.9 inches long.  He weighs somewhere between 6.2 and 9.2 pounds!  His head is about the same size as his abdomen.  He also might have about an inch of hair.  His organs are now mature and ready for life outside.  He now has a firm grasp too.
I am still in complete denial that he will really be born in the next week or so.  I'm so excited to meet him, but also nervous about the change he will bring in our lives.  As of the time that I am posting this...I am more pregnant than I have ever been!!  I have officially passed Micah's birth time! I had him at 37 weeks 5 days at 3:06pm.  We are in new territory now.  It also means I can now vividly remember how big Micah was on this birth day, how alert he was and realize that this baby is now as big as Micah was that day.  9 more days!

36 Weeks

Well today I am 36 weeks pregnant.  I can't believe that it is almost done.  Only 3 weeks or 21 days or less until I will already be holding my baby boy.  Daily life has become a lot more difficult.  It is hard for me to get on the floor and play all day with Micah.  We have been watching more TV than I like to admit and he has been playing by himself a lot more.  He will also bring me toys as I lay on the couch or he will bring me books and we will read them together.
Update on baby...
He is somewhere around 18 inches long and weighs almost 6 pounds now!  He is the size of a honeydew or as long as a head of romaine lettuce.  He should be able to breathe on his own at this point.  He is gaining about an ounce a day.  When this week ends, he will be considered early term.  The new thing is any earlier than 37 weeks is a pre-term baby, 37-39 is early term, 39-40 is full-term and 41 weeks is late term and after 42 weeks is post-term.  So confusing now, but if he stays put one more week, he won't be considered a pre-term baby!
This is my picture earlier this week..

I liked how Micah was staring up at me and my stomach.  And below is 36 weeks with Micah.

I had Micah at 37 weeks 5 days, but hopefully that doesn't happen this time.  Robin is coming to visit and help out in 2 weeks, at exactly 38 weeks.  I just need him to hang out until she is here.
In other news, it appears we will be moving in October, but we don't know exactly where.  The next 6 months is going to be crazy and have tons of change.
Also, we have been cloth diapering Micah for a few weeks now and I really like it.  We have gotten a rhythm with it and Micah really likes them too.  I went to the grocery store last week and it was amazing to not have to pick up diapers!  We have a good little supply built up now, we have 9 diapers and 2 more that we need to pick up (already paid, just need to actually get them).  I will post about the different types and what we think of them another day, but they have actually been quite easy.
Only 21 more days or less!

34 Weeks

I actually hit 34 weeks on Friday, but weekends are always busy around here.  This is my 34 week picture.

And for comparison purposes, this is me at 34 weeks with Micah.

Yup when I was pregnant with Micah at this time, we were preparing to move to a new 2 bedroom apartment.
So at 34 weeks, Baby Ferraro is the size of a butternut squash or a cantaloupe.  He is between 4.2 and 5.8 pounds and is around 17.2 to 18.7 inches long.  He can now hear and react to songs that we sing to him.  His fat layers are filling out, which will help him to regulate body temperature.  The good news right now is that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks normally do fine.  If he was born right now, he'd probably have to spend a few days in the NICU but overtime, he would be just fine.
I still feel so unprepared for his arrival.  Technically, we have pretty much everything we need at this point.  There are a few things I would still like to get, like order some pictures for his room to decorate with and buy a double stroller.  I also need things for me like nursing tanks.  I did go and buy the things that I need for my hospital bag, now I just need to pack it.  My goal was to do that this past weekend, but that didn't happen so hopefully I'll get it done this week.
There is only 32 days until his big arrival.

33 Weeks

We have hit 33 weeks now! Hard to believe.  We have had a very busy week!  We got hit by yet another snowstorm this week.  Micah absolutely loves playing in the snow with Daddy.  Next winter, we are definitely investing in waterproof gloves that actually fit his little hands.

 Unfortunately, he couldn't play very much in the snow this week because he has been sick.  We actually had to run out in between storms to get him to a doctor because he wasn't doing good.

The poor little guy has a double ear infection and a viral cold.  The cough is finally slowing down and he seems to be getting better.  Antibiotics definitely help.
Luckily the weather cleared up for Valentines Day, so my boys took me to Greg's Art and Pottery.  It's a paint your own pottery store in Downtown Fayetteville.  Micah picked out a puppy to paint and Brandon made me a vase.

I was so impressed how great Micah did at it.  He was so focused on it.  I can't wait to pick it up and see how nice it looks.  After painting, we went to Bumbledoo which is our local cloth diaper/baby store and picked up a few more things that we needed and then it was to Red Robin for dinner.
As of Saturday, Micah is cloth diapered during the day.  We are waiting for some more diapers to come in the mail, so we can only do daytime right now but he is loving it.  On Saturday, Brandon also went to Lowe's and got everything and made us a diaper sprayer.  We decided we could cloth diaper as long as we had a diaper sprayer.  So far we have all really been enjoying it.  Hopefully it continues to work as well as it has been so far.
I have a list of things that we still need for Baby Ferraro, and Saturday and today we have been slowly working on cutting that list down.  We are getting close to being done!
This week is already 33 weeks! My c-section is scheduled at 39 weeks so it is only 40 days or less until his arrival!  Baby Ferraro is the size of a durian, which I have no idea what that is.  He is somewhere between 4.2 and 5.8 pounds now, which just seems so big!  He is between 17.2 and 18.7 inches long and he will grow up to an entire inch this week.  Micah was 20 inches when he was born, so this little one is almost at full birth height.  He now keeps his eyes open when he's awake, his bones are hardening and his brain is going through major development.
I'm trying to slowly prepare for his arrival, but also balance enjoying every moment I can with our family of three right now.

31 Weeks!

I cannot believe that we are already at 31 weeks.  It is actually making me really nervous right now.  In 8 weeks or less, I will have an infant again.  I'm feeling so unprepared again, but too exhausted to do much about it.  Exhaustion has hit all new levels this week.  My body aches horribly, I'm uncomfortable and can't sleep at night.  All of this is making me think more about baby stuff.  We are moving end of June, early July into a new house so I have been telling myself that we will decorate the cute nursery then.  The spare bedroom is technically baby's room and his dresser is in the closet there and it is all organized now.  I was thinking though that we could get the art for his room and put it above the spare bed, to make it look more like his? These are the 4 different options I'm thinking about..let me know which you like?

I want his room to be Elephants and Chevron.  So far the only thing I have for his room is grey chevron and white crib sheets from Target.

Anyway, today is 31 weeks.  He is now the size of a pineapple or the weight of a coconut.  He is somewhere between 15.2 inches and 16.7 inches long and weighs between 2.5 and 3.8 pounds.  He's going through major brain, nerve and eye development right now.  His irises will even react to light.  All five of his senses are working now and he can even partially regulate his own body temperature now.  His bones are hardening now too.  Only 56 more days or less!