Hot Chocolate and Sheet Forts

It's a cold rainy day in October and this tired Mama has been racking her brain with ideas to keep an active 2 year old happy. He was so good to me this morning, he let me sleep until 9:30 and barely trashed my room!

Zooey slept a bit later so Jed and I got up to eat breakfast. After we dined I got the idea to make a fort out of sheets for him to play inside. I draped some sheets over the couch and recliner and then tied parts to the railing, a kitchen chair and the vacuum power extension. I then used a broom as center support and we climbed inside. Jed approved because he said "Super cool, Mom!"

Later on, Jed helped me make some Mac and cheese. He loves to carry his little stool all over the counter to help mommy cook. (he also beings it to the changing table to help change Zooey) He's very good about staying his distance from the stove and tells me that he's "just watching". He did a great job stirring the cheese though!

After lunch I thought it would be nice to make him some hot chocolate since he is a choco-holic! The kid makes it known on a daily basis that he needs two pieces of chocolate. Yes, needs and yes, two. Cracks me up. So yeah, I was going to make Ovaltine but I remembered that I had a pack of drinking chocolate from Vosges, a fancy schmancy chocolatier that I used to deal with in my Whole Foods Market days. It called for 4 oz of milk but I made it 16 because we didn't need a liquid candy bar. Again Jed thought it was super cool when I gave him a warm mug of chocolate goodness. I got to use one of the Starbucks tumblers that I bought and held onto since I was 18 for my future children. It has a lid do I totally thought it was safe enough for Jed to walk around the house and enjoy. Leave it to Jed to prove me wrong! He was in his room and I was in the kitchen feeding Zooey when he runs in to tell me with pride that he made a mess! I entered his room to find that he played kitchen with the hot chocolate and parts from his little kitchen including a spatula and little pitcher. Yep, there was hot chocolate everywhere.

Being a mom of two has really helped me mellow out. Who would have thought, right? It has really helped me realize that between all the messes and chaos, it's not worth stressing about because all messes can be cleaned up. Eventually. I love my kids.

p.s. Dear Zooey, I wasn't ignoring you all day and in this post. You have just been a good little sleepy girl while I keep your big brother occupied! :) l

Double Nap

There is
NOTHING
like
both
kids
Napping.

Big Bro and Lil' Sis

Brother and sister,
an interesting pair.
One's a big boy,
the other lacks hair.

She's just so brand new,
and he's full of smarts.
He loves his race cars,
and she's full of farts.

Big bro keeps an eye on
his new pride and joy.
He'll always take care of her,
like a new toy!

The love that they share
is a very strong force.
They'll will always have each other,
(and Lightening McQueen) of course!

Factory of Faith (A non-Dave Matthews Band related post)

I think my 2nd most favorite band after DMB has got to be the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

In the past 5 or so years I really became a fan when the album Stadium Arcadium came out. I always enjoyed all of their other albums growing up but that album was there for me through crazy times in my life. Good and bad.

When I heard that RHCP was coming out with another album, it was towards the end of my pregnancy and I didn't pay as much mind to it as I usually do. We finally bought the album off of iTunes and Matt burned it for the car. We have listened to it a bunch of times but as Matt says, we need to drive around with it really loud to really appreciate it. With 2 kids in the back, we haven't had that chance yet.

I do really enjoy song #2 though, Factory of Faith, which is interesting because I love #2 the most on Stadium Arcadium. (Snow)

Ok, so here it is for your listening pleasure, if you're interested.

Zooey Marie

When I think back to 3 or so weeks ago, it's pretty unbelievable what we went through to get our little girl here. My pregnancy was pretty "normal" up until week 37, and I didn't expect that to change at all. Unfortunately it ended up being one of the scariest things I could go through, but it was all worth it in the end because like her brother Jed, Zooey Marie is perfect.

It all started on the night of September 3rd. I was 37 weeks pregnant and started having heart palpitations. I was relaxing in bed, trying to fall asleep but I had to pee every 10 minutes, of course. I got up to use the bathroom and noticed that the door at the bottom of the stairs was still open so I shut it and went back to bed. When I got back into bed I noticed that my heart was pounding out of my chest as if I just ran up and down the stairs 5 times. I thought that it was a bit weird, but just assumed that it was a weird pregnancy thing and some how passed out. I woke up a few times throughout the night still feeling a bit odd and noticing that my heard felt a bit irregular. I figured I would be okay by morning so tried to ignore it and get some sleep.

Morning came and my heart was still acting funny. I took my blood pressure on the home machine that we have. It was normal but my heart rate was reading 130-140 which is WAY high. About 5 minutes later I started to make breakfast and noticed that everything suddenly felt fine and my heart was behaving like it should.

Wednesday rolls around and I had an appointment with my OB. I told her about my experience and she immediately tells me to go see my primary doctor and get an EKG done to check my heart. Since my doctor no longer practices there I saw a new doctor who I ended up really liking. She checked everything, asked me a bunch of questions and told me that if it happened again to go straight to the hospital. Well, it did.

The following Saturday, almost EXACTLY one weeks after the first episode, I am lying in bed and the same exact thing happened. I was just about to drift off to sleep, but my heart had something else in mind. This time it was super irregular feeling and I started to freak. I used the BP machine about 100 times and kept getting irregular readings. My heart was all over the place. Anywhere from 90 BPM to 150. Insane. I waited about 2 hours and then woke up Matt to tell him it was time to go to the hospital. This was definitely not cool.

I got to Greenwich Hospital around 1:30 am and they immediately admitted me. Since I was pregnant they didn't want to take any risks and treat me the most common way. Since I was going through Atrial Fibrillation(irregular heartbeat) they treated me with fluids and then medication instead of shock therapy. I finally saw a cardiologist and one of my OBs and they thought it was necessary to move me to Columbia New York Presbyterian Hospital which has one of the best Cardiac Care Units in the country. They were concerned about having an early birth as well as monitoring and testing my heart for any underlying problems. They thought that the pregnancy could have brought out something that may have been there all along. Of course this was very scary and stressful, but I was relieved that I would be in good hands.

They called for a mobile ICU unit (A really high-tech ambulance) to come get me and by 10 o'clock or so I was on the move. When the paramedics showed up I told them that I get severely car sick, especially when I ride backwards which I knew I was going to be doing. I also had a very empty stomach which always makes me very sick. The move from the bed to the stretcher instantly induced horrible retching (Sorry, TMI). As I am getting sick in the garbage can, one of the paramedics goes "She may break it herself!" Well he was right, my heart kicked back into a sinus(regular) rhythm and I instantly felt like a 100 bucks. Not to mention the Zofran that they gave me in my IV for anti-nausea.

So long story short, I get to Columbia in a normal rhythm and I remain that way from Sunday 09/11 to when the release me on Tuesday 09/13. I had about 54 doctors, was stuck in the most uncomfortable bed, and was forced to eat the worst hospital food EVER. Finally after the cardiologists communicating with the OBs and then all of the NYC doctors communicated to the Greenwich doctors, they decided to let me have my C-Section in Greenwich on the scheduled date of 09/20. I finally got to go home and see my son and sleep in my bed. It was time to get ready to have this baby in 5 days, so I thought.

Then next day we went for a followup with our OB. She informed us that our case was reviewed in a meeting that morning and we were having a baby THE NEXT DAY. Wait, WHAT? We had 5 days! Now we have 24 hours!?? They considered my condition to be a fluke pregnancy problem because my heart was totally healthy otherwise so they thought that getting the baby out ASAP would avoid another episode. They had me on medication to keep my heart slowed so they wouldn't even know if I went A-Fib again.

After we got over the shock aspect, Matt and I made a million phone calls and frantically started to prepare for the next week or so. Matt had to work for a few hours, Jed went to his grandparents and I did laundry, cleaned, and organized baby stuff.

Before we know it, we were on our way to Greenwich Hospital the next day, ready to meet our little one.

We had to go in earlier than usual so they could double check everything with my heart and prepare me for surgery. Everything went very smooth except for the EXTREME nausea afterwards. Recovery was hard at first but I bounced back quickly, eager to spend time with our baby girl! Zooey Marie was born on 09/15/11 and was 6lbs 14 oz and 19in long. She was born at 1:29pm and was absolutely perfect. It was love at first sight!




Unfortunately Jed had bumped into me in the hall when they were wheeling me to our room and got pretty upset to see Mommy so beat up. He kept crying "Mommy, get up! Mommy, get up!" I asked my Mom to take him home because I was very ill for the time being and felt better that he didn't see me like that. I wasn't able to sooth him at the moment so I figured that would make it worse. My poor baby. :( He easily got distracted by Gwammy and had a great time at her house for a few days. When he came back on Saturday to meet Zooey he was as proud as he could be for his baby sister and was very happy that his Mama was all better now. He loved hanging in bed with me and the baby, he even took her out of my mom's hands and gave her back to me. He was an overprotective big brother from the second he met her, protecting her like he should. That's my boy.


Since we have come home and settled, both of my children couldn't be more awesome. Zooey eats, sleeps, and poops all day and Jed has been great. No jealousy issues, just normal 2 year old emotions. We try to keep him busy as much as we can, and my recovery is better every day.

Being a family of 4 just feels right. We feel complete now and I know for sure that that is it. I am not interested in pregnancy anymore, and I am ready to move on. We couldn't be happier! :)