This is my first post in the blog of my children. It's late in coming, I really wish I had started one before the birth of my first child, nearly three years ago! It would be wonderful to be able to look back now at my posts and relive every precious moment. However, it never is too late to start, and I'm starting now, shortly after the birth of my second child.
First I will tell you a bit about myself. My name is Elizabeth, I'm 23, and am currently finishing my Bachelors degree at a private university. My major is Philosophy, my minor, Psychology. I'm supposed to graduate in December, nearly 5 1/2 years after beginning a four year college. However, that's not too bad after having two children in the midst of it all, is it really? As for my hobbies I love surfing the internet, reading books, but RIDING HORSES is my passion. I have been riding since I was 7 years old. I do a lot of equine rescue as well, and regularly have rescue horses coming in to be rehabbed, and retrained, at which point I adopt them out to loving homes. I currently own four horses (1 permanent, 3 rescues...3 Thoroughbreds and 1 Quarter Horse).
I am engaged to the love of my life. We will have been together for 4 years in December. His name is Shawn and he's a real estate appraiser. He's 28 years old and is divorced with two previous children, a boy that is almost 10 and a girl that is almost 7 (both have birthdays next month). We also have two children together. Alexander (Alex), born November 8th 2005, and Cadence, born April 3rd 2008. My pregnancy with Alex was fairly normal and uneventful (aside from the fact that I took pregnancy tests and they were all negative until I was 10 weeks pregnant, at which point the doctor did and exam and thought I was having twins, until she found out just how far along I was by ultrasound!), aside from lots of Braxton Hicks contractions from 7 months on. I was induced at 38 weeks because they said he was only 5lbs and not growing. I was induced at 8am and started pushing and was complete at 6pm. I pushed for an hour and 20 minutes, and at 7:20pm Alex was born, weighing 6lbs 15oz and 19.5" long. He was healthy aside from some severe jaundice on day 2, and we had to have him under bili lights for nearly 5 days! He has been completely healthy since, except for maybe a cold or two.
He was a fairly easy baby, I breastfed him and co-slept with him for 10 months. He went straight from the breast to whole milk and table food. He's been a very easy child, and for that I've been blessed. He makes it hard to make mistakes as a mother, and for that I am ever grateful. He's truly a very very special little boy. My pregnancy with Cadence was a completely different story. Everything was normal, I knew almost immediately that I was pregnant and actually had a positive pregnancy test a whole week before my missed period! However, at week 29 I started going into pre-term labor. I was hospitilized over 8 times, had over 60 shots of Breathane over the course of 29-30 weeks, as well as three different instances of having to stay and be put on magnesium sulfate. At one point I was even transferred by ambulance (at 31 weeks) to a high risk pre-term women & baby's hospital when the mag wouldn't stop the contractions. I was put on strict bed rest from February 14th and had to take Cardene every 6 hours around the clock.
At my 38 week appointment, I was given permission to go into labor anytime and taken off of bedrest. I was 3cm at that check-up. On the way home, I told my fiance to turn the car around and we rushed to the hospital with contractions. Got the hospital 3 hours after my doctor's appointment, and was already 5cm dialated and changing fast. It was a rush to get my blood work, I was given some Stadol while waiting for that to come back so I could have my epidural. Got my epidural at 4pm. Then my wonderful contractions stopped completely, and they had to give me Pitocin. I started pushing at 9:17pm and at 9:53pm, Cadence was born weighing exactly the same as her brother, 6lbs 15oz, and only 1/2" shorter at 19" long. She, too, had a slight case of jaundice so she was under bili lights for 36 hours, but was then allowed to come home with me.
Cadence is being breastfed just like her brother, and just like brother, she co-sleeps with us as well. She is a little bit more demanding than her brother was at this age (9 weeks), but she is a fairly easy baby, with no colic or issues. She's a primarily happy, smiley baby. Big brother Alex has settled into his role very well, and there doesn't seem to be any signs of jealousy at this point (just wait until she is crawling and walking and can take his toys away though, we'll see then!).
We live in a beautiful little starter home, with only 2 bedrooms (we actually sleep in the living room on our bed, so that Alex has his room and Cadence has a nursery that she doesn't even use (yet!). We own two dogs, a 9 year old rescued Boxer and a 15 week old Cocker Spaniel. We also have a cat.
Well I guess that's enough blabbing for my first blog! I'll post again soon, Cadence needs nursed!
