No more PAH in the house

BIG DAY IN THE CALVERT HOUSEHOLD.

Henry no longer uses his pacifier.


I've spent months (alright, years) worried about his pacifier.  Is it good? Is it bad? How am I going to get him to stop using it?  When do we start phasing it out? Am I going to be able to take it away? What happens if he goes to high school with a pacifier?  YIKES.

Then he got hand, foot, and mouth (again) and I guess using it hurts his mouth and he just stopped using it.  Hasn't even asked for it for 2 days.

I'll let you know if he needs it back, but I'm pretty certain we're just gonna ride this one out.  He can fall asleep without it.


YESSSSSSSSSSSS

Baby D Birth Story: Charles Kent

Watching TV waiting for that baby to be born

Last pregnant picture of me ever taken.

First family of 4 picture

  I was so ridiculously excited that Baby D was born. Words cannot describe the feelings of seeing your baby for the first time. There's a baby. That I grew. For 9 months. I just spent 6 months in nausea with shooting leg pains and random RLS and lack of energy and moderately bad heartburn and then took a huge needle in the back and still felt pain and pushed this big little guy into the world And NOW I get to hold him. (cue lots of tears because it's not like I gave those up real fast or anything.) If you have had a baby maybe you'll know what I'm talking about. If you have not, I sound like a crazy person. I'm alright with that.

I mean, this little guy was definitely different looking than Henry. People explained to us how surreal it is that when you have a second baby, it isn't the same as your first/oldest/other baby. Sounds dumb, but SERIOUSLY it was weird. I mean, how many times do you experience the same symptoms and have the same "disease" but with a different outcome? How is it possible to produce a different human? Again, I sound crazy, but it's the truth. This baby wasn't Henry. He didn't have a cleft chin and he had bigger hands and feet. It was a completely different human. So strange and so perfect.

After I pushed Charlie into this world they whisked him away to clean him all up and I stayed in bed (obviously) and kept saying stuff like "OH GOSH I'm so happy to not be pregnant any more. Hallelujah!" and I'm sure I sounded ridiculous. I have video evidence that proves the fact.
Also, side note: If I ever have another baby I want to hold it as soon as it's born, barring any major complications. No clean up necessary.

It felt like it took way longer for the nurses to bring Charlie to me. I started to get nervous because of the horror story people sell about not bonding and breastfeeding NEVER WORKING because you don't immediately hold baby ASAP but I got him and he was the cutest and I loved him so much. It felt 100% surreal that I finally had this little guy.

It was wonderful to spend the evening snuggling and loving this little baby. I was also running on that last 1% of energy that seems to last foreverandeverandever and I finally had to crash around 10 and slept like a rock until 6 hours later when it was time to feed Charlie again. Breastfeeding went waaaaay way waaaay (like 100x) easier with Charlie than it did with Henry, probably because of experience and probably because Charlie is overall more patient and calm than Henry was. He ate really well and actually woke up and was cranky to eat, which was something I never experienced with Henry.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Breastfeeding tangent ahead.  Please skip if you desire.
 And if you are going to breastfeed please do yourself a large favor and get a prescription for Newman's Ointment which is a steroid/antifungal/moisturizer that is safe for you and baby and will prevent terrible infections and things that can make nursing way harder than it needs to be.

Also, my most important piece of advice for any mother who is planning on breastfeeding, MAKE AN APPOINTMENT WITH A LACTATION SPECIALIST BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE HOSPITAL.
Breastfeeding will be harder than you expect and if you're like me you're going to wonder why the eff it hurts so much/if you're doing it wrong/if baby is getting enough milk. Even if you're confident with your skill, it's nice to go for the reassurance that your baby is getting enough milk and you ARE doing it alright. And it's reasonably priced, I paid $30 because insurance didn't cover it. end of advice. And of the weird breastfeeding tangent of this blog.

It was surreal to have Henry visit at the hospital. Honestly, it was really hard to reconcile his existence to Charlie's when I was in the hospital, away from Henry. When Gabbe and Duck brought him to meet Charlie it seemed like he couldn't have cared less about a) seeing us and b)seeing baby Charlie. He put up with it though, and was interested enough in all the cool machines to hang around a little bit.  It was sad to see him go, but the time we spent in the hospital really felt like a vacation, and we were treated good in there.

Henry's favorite hospital toy.

In all, Josh and I spent 2 days agonizing over Charlie's name.  In the end, Charles Kent won.  Charles because we liked the name and it fits with our other old man, Henry.  Kent because of a) my father and b)Josh's middle name (and simultaneously a family name) and c)It's a one syllable middle name.  Which I've got going on in my family, and I like the ring of a double single syllable name.  We picked his name the day we discharged, and hung out all day because we didn't have to leave until 6.  Abbey had Henry that night, so we were in no rush to get home, and ended up staying until around 6:30 because our nurse liked us and wanted to make sure we got dinner before we left.  It was sweet, and when we left I felt a little more prepared to do this crazy adventure all over again.