So, how's everyone doing? Me? TIRED! Haven't had much sleep ever since the little one arrived. He's been keeping me up most of the night. It's not that I don't get sleep. It's more of the little naps here and there that I get that's killing me. At night, he'll usually wake up every two to three hours and stay awake for about an hour or so. At least that's how long I have to stay awake in order to feed him, change him and put him back to sleep. So every two or three hours, I'm awake for an hour. Then I go back to sleep. Even if I get 8 hours of sleep, it feels like I only got four or so. I just don't ever get long enough of a rest to regenerate myself. Okay, besides not getting much sleep, everything else seems to be fine. I am recovering from delivery very nicely.
How was delivery? Well, it was actually pretty cool and unusual. My water broke around 10 AM that morning and we were in the hospital around 11. After my water broke was when my contractions started to really hurt. I forgot how painful those things were. About 1:30 in the afternoon, I chickened out and asked for an epidural. I was thinking about having Zachary naturally, but the pain was too much to bare. With Nicholas, he was out 1 hour and 15 minutes after my water broke. I was told by many mothers that the second pregnancy would be a lot faster than the first one so I didn't think that an epidural was necessary. Well, Zachary seemed to be taking his little time so I decided to go with the epidural. Michael called me a chicken and I told him that he should try some of the pain before telling me that. It took them about ten minutes to put the epidural in me. After that, the medication kicked in pretty quickly. In about twenty minutes or so, all my pain was gone. My legs were also starting to get extremely numb. At around 3 PM, the nurse checked me and told me that I was fully dilated and that the baby's head was right there. The problem was that I could feel a thing anymore with the epidural so I decided to get rid of it. I wanted to feel some pain so that I would know when to push. Well, the medication took a long time to ware off. While it was wearing off, the nurse told me to push when I had contractions. I couldn't feel the contractions so the nurse helped me by telling me when to push. We did this for about 45 minutes before I started feeling some pain coming back. By that time, the baby was pretty much ready to come out. The expected part of this delivery was that I was told to stop pushing at that time. The doctor that was delivering me told me to laugh as hard as I can. I thought that he was kidding so I asked him again and he told me the same thing. Well, I tried to laugh and Michael tried to tell me things that would make me laugh. I think this went on for about 10 - 15 minutes. Then he finally told me to make one last push. I did and the baby was out. Throughout the whole delivery process, I felt very little pain. Yes, I think that the epidural did prolong the delivery a bit, but it was a very pleasant experience. It was not painful and stressful like Nicholas' delivery. I was not as tired or wore out. Recovering has also been much easier with this pregnancy then my first. I think that if we ever have a third child, I would opt to go the same way. Have an epidural, but have it discontinued right before delivery. This way, I was able to regain my strength much quicker after delivery.
Okay, onto Zachary. If you haven't seen pictures of him yet, you can by clicking on the Zachary link at the top of this page. He's much bigger than I expected him to be. People tell me that the second baby is usually bigger than the first one so I was thinking that he would be around 8 lbs since Nicholas was 7 lbs 6 ounces. I was very surprised when they told me his weight. I could not believe that he was once inside me. A week before my delivery, the doctor was guessing that he was only around 6 lbs and I was guessing that he would be about 7 lbs. I guess both of us are wrong. Both Michael and I really think that he looks very much like Nicholas when Nicholas was born. They look like twins. I have gotten the same remarks from some of those who have seen his picture or in person. Of course, everyone says that he looks like Michael, again! He does have black hair right now, but Nicholas had black hair too when he was born. After he lost his baby hair, the new ones were brown. I am guessing the same will be true with Zachary. Zachary is doing extremely well. He's eating fine and sleeping very well. He doesn't cry much expect for when he's hungry. He's starting to stay awake a bit more during the day and sleep most of the time during the night. I'm just hoping that by the time I go back to work, he'll sleep through most of the night.
Nicholas. Oh, he's doing great also. He's okay with the new baby idea. I think he's gotten use to it because my older sister just had a baby and the baby is always at my mother's house also. I remember when Ethan first came along, Nicholas would always want to touch him and play with him like a doll, but I think he has learned that he's not suppose to do such a thing. I don't think Nicholas is jealous of Zachary either. Most of the time when I'm holding Zachary or feeding him, Michael would occupy Nicholas or Nicholas would be watching cartoons. He likes been a helper though. Whenever the baby is crying and he's at home, he would run to one of us and tell us that the baby is crying. We would ask him to go get Zachary's pacifier and he would go get it for us. There are times when Nicholas would actually put the pacifier into Zachary's mouth. He also will help out with getting the diaper or the baby wipe. I really think that Nicholas is taking the new baby thing very well. Okay, we went bowling this past Sunday and we took Nicholas and Zachary with us. Too bad that we forgot the camera because the event was a Kodak moment that I'll never forget. We let Nicholas bowl for the first time. We had the bumpers up and asked for the little ramp. He was so happy to be able to bowl. At first, I helped him carry the bowl to the ramp and then he would just let the bowl go by pushing on the bowl. After the first game, he started lifting up the bowl by himself. It was an eight pound ball. (That's how much my ball weighs!) He was able to carry the ball to the ramp and put it on himself. He also learned to wait until the rack was finished racking up the pins before he released the ball. He had so much fun. I wish I could show everyone the expressions and noises that he made when he was bowling. They were so adorable. He got so hyper. The first game that he bowled, he bowled a 94. Then he got a 100 and a 104. Not bad for a beginner three-year-old bowler. It was a nice little outing for all of us. I have been suck at home for so long that it felt good to be able to go out again. Of course, when my parents found out about it, I got in trouble. (I'm not suppose to be going out that early after delivery!)
Okay, one more to go. Michael. He's doing fine also. He took last week and this week off to be with us. I think besides being a little tired, he's doing pretty well. The baby wakes him up in the middle of the night also because whenever I change his diaper, he cries. He doesn't like the cold baby wipes that I use to wipe his button with so he cries. Like me, he's very amazed at how big Zachary is. I think he's one happy father, though!
Okay, I think this is about all I am going to write for now. I'm very tired so I'm going to take a nap now while Zachary is asleep.