2 Under 2

I have been really blessed not to have the baby blues that impact many moms. However, every time I bring a baby home from the hospital (ok, the 2 times in my life I have done it) I cry. About nothing. And about everything.

With Trey the first night I came home I started crying because he was so beautiful, I was so happy to be a mom, and yet I was so tired I could barely function. This time I cried because I have 2 kids. In the midst of trying to make sure Charlotte was happy and Trey had something to eat that first night I started to tear up. I didn't want Trey to see my crying because 1. he never has seen his mommy cry and 2. he already had enough upsetting his life with a new sister.

The whole time evening I kept thinking.. how can I take care of 2 kids under 2? I will tell you what I have learned- you can do it with whole lot of help and 2 great kids!

Jay took off a week of work and helped me. He did laundry, dishes, and pretty much anything you can't do when you are constantly nursing an infant! Then this past week my mom came and stayed with me. She helped with cleaning, laundry, and loving on my kids. Yes you read that right- kids, plural. Sometimes I forget I have 2 kids.

Trey has been so sweet to his sister. He likes to give her hugs, rub her back and bring her a paci if she is fussy (which she hardly ever is). So far Charlotte has been content sleeping or just looking around whenever Trey needs to eat a meal or get ready for naptime or bedtime. I am not sure how she knows these are times she needs to be really good, but she is. Whenever Charlotte needs to eat Trey plays on his own or brings me toys to play with him while I sit.

So no longer do I worry about taking care of two kids. Most moms have 2 kids and they survive. Besides, have you ever seen sweeter kids?

It's a Girl!

Charlotte Rose Hipes was born on Saturday, January 8th at 7:51 pm. She weighed 8 lbs 2 1/2 oz and was 19 1/4 inches long. Here is her birth story told from the perspective of her mom:

I have spent a large amount of my time at the doctor's office in the last 9 months and have probably read every back issue of Pregnancy Magazine in the last 2 years. One of the issues had an article about your birth plan and it said instead of some long written out birth plan (which I have never done anyways) to have 2 or 3 goals for your labor/delivery that are easy to communicate with the nurses. My two goals were-

1. Deliver a healthy, full-term baby.

2. Have a natural labor with no medication.

My contractions started at 4 am on Sat morning. Around 8 they were every 5-6 min apart so we dropped Trey off at Jay's parents and came over to Roanoke to be closer to town. It was also snowing at our house and we didn't know what the weather was going to do that day.

The contractions got to 4 min apart around noon so we called the doctor and went to the hospital. I was only at 3 1/2 cm so they gave us a room and let us walk around until I was admitted at 3:00 pm. Because I wasn't technically a patient yet I got a lot more freedom and could walk the halls and didn't have to be hooked up to an IV. At 3:00 my contractions were every 2-3 min and I was at 4 cm. At 5:30 my contractions were really picking up but I wasn't making any progress so I let the doctor break my water. They had offered to do that at 3:00 but I really didn't want any medical interventions. At 6:15ish or so the baby's heatrate kept dropping so the gave me a shot to slow down my contractions so the baby could recover and gave me oxygen through a mask. They also pumped my uterus with fluids and put a heart rate monitor on her head. I was really worried it was going to be a lot longer and then they would do more interventions.

Luckily, Charlotte's heartrate picked up and I continued to make progress. At 7:45 I was at 10 cm and they let me push. Charlotte was born at 7:51 pm. She was awake during the whole labor and kicking and moving as if she didn't want to get out. Despite a few scary moments with her heart rate, I was able to deliver naturally without any pain meds and the whole thing was only 16 hours long.

When the doctor found out we didn't know if the baby was a boy or girl he said he would hold the baby up and let Jay say if it was a boy or girl. It was so exciting to find out she was a girl and then get to hold her right away. The surprise made the delivery so much more special.