Month Seven: Covered in Light

Seriously. Always. This. Happy. Love.

Month Six: Dempsey is 6 Months Old

We have encountered one of the first big markers, 6 months yesterday. And this little boy sure has lived a life in 6 months already. He was born on the upper east side of Manhattan, welcomed by my very large, loving, and generous New York family. He was immediately put into a baby carrier on my chest as we closed our beloved store. Six weeks after his birth, we headed cross country in our station wagon to Colorado. He took in the landscapes of the country and tested the beds of a lot of hotels and visited welcoming friends across the country, the Dodrills, Zwillings, and Crawfords. He arrived in Colorado to great fanfare from the Colorado contingent of family including our mothers, Michael's brothers, and my grandfather. Some of the NY family even came for a visit weeks after we left which helped the transition and of course, my dad made the trip as well. Three months past in a blur as we transitioned together and learned how to breath normally again. I began to process all that had happened in the last year and my emotions ranged quite a bit. Dempsey remained my center and encouraged me to remain present.

He has also reached his own little markers:

Physical: He has finally started rolling over both directions now. They came around the same time, a few weeks ago. He is working on sitting a bit more in his little Bumbo, activity center and swing. He has tasted rice cereal, sweet potato, banana, and avocado but we are not on a regularly solids schedule now. He has started sleeping a bit more. We are attempting to do away with the night feeding. However, rarely does he go more than 6 hours still.

Disposition: Still lovely. Seems to want you close by more often and lately, he wants to be held more. He gets distracted a lot easier while nursing. He follows voices, lights, and activity in the room.He seems to go to anyone without hesitation still but I still get the biggest smiles. However, I know this is only because I come with milk. And, he is totally in love with his brother no matter if Madeus is yelling in his face or shaking his arm, he laughs gleefully.









I look forward to the next six months, however, I will be totally fine with them being a little calmer.

Month Six: A Thousand Kisses Deep

Dempsey is looking out for me. I have mentioned his peaceful disposition and in his brother's blog, I talked about how once I had to ask Dempsey to go right back to sleep to help get Madeus to sleep and he did. Tonight, he was fussing a bit going to sleep and I went in to rock him, not because he really needed it, but because I wanted an escape from the madness and effort of getting a three year old to bed. Since Dempsey falls to sleep on his own most often now, he doesn't take much to rocking anymore. But tonight, I said, "please don't make me got out there" and he just let me rock and rock him. And instead of singing, he let me keep kissing him, turning from cheek to cheek, back and forth, as the rocker moved. I would add in a neck kisses in between which always sent him smiling. This probably went on for about twenty minutes. I hope I will always remember the complete bliss of kissing those red, squishy, glorious cheeks.

Month Six: Splish-Splash

Dempsey,

You should know. You never get a bath. It is awful but I just never do it. Your Moma insists on doing it when she is around because I never do. Anyway, last night you got your, um, weekly or um, biweekly bath. You found lots of your parts to explore for the first time. You always look a little stunned in the bath, probably because you have never got used to water, because, um, you never get a bath.

Month Six: Brown Eyed Boy

I think it is official. They are getting darker each day. I thought they were hazel but now I am pretty sure. Dempsey has beautiful brown eyes!

Month Five: Looking Back, Different as Night and Day

My poor little love. He is already getting second child status. By this time after Madeus' birth I had already composed many posts for his baby book. But I realized for me, a few things happen with the second child. Yes, there is less time and that definitely plays into it. Two, I tend to just experience the moment more with Dempsey when I do have the time. Three, Dempsey is so laid back that I am pretty sure he won't be mad at me down the road when he is baby book is a little thin. He is just that kind of a kid.

There are so many comparisons that can be made between my two boys and I want to be careful at comparing too much as they grow but I don't think there is any harm in comparing their baby status.

Madeus had a giant range of expressions of emotions from day one. Dempsey has two main ones, pure happiness, or serious contentment.

Madeus slept through the night from 8 weeks. Dempsey has yet to sleep through the night.

Madeus ruined maybe two outfits during his entire diaper time from diaper leaks. Dempsey ruins an outfit weekly.

Madeus was born two weeks late and very developed. Dempsey was two weeks early and still does not hold is head very strong.

Madeus has always been pretty lean. Dempsey is my little chunky love.

Madeus is blond with blue eyes. Dempsey's eyes are hazel we think and he has dark brown hair.

Madeus was actually pretty quiet as a baby. From day one, Dempsey was noisy - grunting, snorting, and now he is always cooing and talking.

Madeus would go from not crying to complete fit withing 10 seconds. Dempsey can fake cry for 30 minutes without any real tears.

Madeus was either awake or asleep. Dempsey will cry with his eyes closed in his crib wining for as long as you "let" him. If you go in and bounce his mattress a little or pick him up he will instantly go back to sleep.

Madeus was content being held but never very cuddly. Dempsey would stay on your shoulder all day if you let him. I am cherishing naps where he will still sleep on me.

Madeus was a pretty easy eater but could be pretty particular and angry if you were late. Dempsey is an even easier nurser, he is not particular at all and rarely gets mad even when his meals are a little past due.

Madeus was very adaptable to different environments and could sleep almost anywhere. Dempsey is a lot more sensitive to noise and light but will do whatever you want when he is awake. Most times he is very content playing on a blanket or sitting in a chair - as long as you are near him.

Madeus spit up all the time - and I mean- all the time, until he was six months old. Dempsey has that more under control but has always suffered from more digestive issues.

Madeus always kept you guessing as to what his cried where about - tired, gassy, diaper change, etc? Dempsey's cries are completely distinct and easy to decipher.

Madeus has always brought a lot of fun to a room. And as my dad recently pointed out, Dempsey brings peace. Being in his presence instantly soothes me.

Labor and Delivery

I have been procrastinating writing this post which is funny because when I had Madeus I wanted to describe it over and over, I guess the novelty has worn off. But telling stories are important...

I had another bad pregnancy. Michael estimates that I threw up about 500 times by the time Dempsey was delivered. Several things made this one worse. I had the store to run, medication did not help the nausea, and I developed polyhydramnios which is basically a lot of amniotic fluid.

The polyhydramnios caused me to be huge. I kid you not, I was asked daily from 7 months on if I was about to deliver, if I was having twins, and on more than one occasion I was asked if I was having triplets. I was bigger than my friend at her delivery and I still had over 6 weeks to go. My maternity clothes ceased to fit. I was straight out ALL belly.

The polyhydramnios caused me to be tested over and over again for diabetes, oh how I love that orange liquid. And it caused me to make weekly trips into Manhattan for sonograms. Therefore, Dempsey, has more pictures prebirth than anyone I know. (Hey, at least he has that going for him as a second child).

The polyhydramnios caused contractions to begin at about 30 weeks. Mostly these were Braxton Hicks but pretty intense pressure and very regular, all night long. Everyone thought I would deliver early, I was put on modified bed rest, and knowing this made the waiting worse than even Madeus who was 2 weeks late. I did not sleep the last 6 weeks of my pregnancy pretty much longer than an hour at a time. I was miserable.

However, the polyhydramnios did cause my water to break at 38 weeks and to have one of those rushing to the hospital type of moments you see in movies - plus the whole water thing was pretty fascinating.

I kid you not, I have never seen so much water. My water broke in bed around 2 am. I thought that was it but when we got to the hospital I was told the baby's head had capped off the rest of the bag. My midwife broke the rest of my water and for the next 45 minutes it was a flood. Over 12 soaking towels and they had to bring a trash can in to put the towels. One nurse said it was the most fluid she had ever seen. It was actually kind of fun.

My fascination got me to 7 centimeters. I asked for a low dose epidural because of my sensitivity to medication. Michael was not allowed to stay in the room during the epidural because of past legal cases and he was pretty upset by this. Every thing was easy from there until I got ready to push around noon. The nurse and midwife ordered frozen yogurt from a staff member who was going out to get them and let's just say, their yogurts were liquid by the time it was all over.

Right when I was about to push, I had a lot of the pain. I told my midwife but she did not want to give me a dose because we were about to push. I was apprehensive because I know I have children with 95th percentile heads and I pushed a long time with Madeus. For Madeus' birth I used a bar placed over the bed to help but this hospital did not have that. My midwife does not cut or use other tools and while I am thankful for this, I was wishing she would change her mind. I finally gave up, after yelling at the midwife, hitting Mike, and throwing up, I told her I would no longer push until I got some pain management. I really felt like I would need a c-section as was suggested for both of my babies. My persistence and her melting yogurt led my midwife to agree and two pushes after my second epidural dose Dempsey arrived. I have NEVER felt such pure relief (and I also suggested Michael go down a floor in the hospital to get a vasectomy:)

The stats:
Dempsey was born at 38 weeks at 8lbs 11 ounces (he was growing about a 1lb every two weeks)

He was 21 1/2 inches and was born at 2:10 pm.

His labor and delivery was everything opposite of Madeus. He was born early. My water broke. I went into labor naturally. Madeus start to finish was 23 hours. Dempsey was 12 hrs. However, they both gave my body a run for its money when it came to pushing. However, with Dempsey the pain was tremendous and without my own endorphines building up throughout the contractions, it came on so intense. Madeus clocked in at about 1 1/2 hrs and Dempsey at a little over 2 hours.

I have already forgotten a lot but what I always remember is that I CANNOT believe a woman's body does this, can do this, and can produce these amazing people. I really was in "shock and awe" over the experience all over again. In some ways it is worse the second time, because you know what is coming but at the same time you don't have that fear of the unknown so it balances out.

We were in the hospital several days, it was interesting and emotional so I will save it for another post.