This little beauty is 1 month old today!!! She sleeps lots and eats lots! She is my most sleepy baby!!! Today she had a check up to adjust her medication for reflux and thrush- she weighs a whopping 10.4 lbs!!! She is cuddly and pretty easy going unless she is having a problem with reflux or gas bubbles. We sure do love having miss Maddilyn in our home, and it's safe to say these boys have adjusted to their roles quite well and lovingly!!
I was scheduled to go in first thing in the morning! We dropped the boys off at my dearest friend Jessica's house at 5:30 am and headed for the hospital! Unfortunately for me, an emergency c-section bumped my time, and they had only one anesthesiologist on that morning so instead of a 7:00 am baby, I ended up having Maddilyn late morning. After she was out, the first thing I asked was if she had hair!! Dan's mom had teased me about her being bald because both the boys had so much hair. My doctor laughed at me and said not to worry, she had a ton. Indeed she did! She was our biggest baby, weighing in at 8.5 lbs and 22 inches long. I got pretty sick right after my surgery, and had to throw up as they were taking me from recovery to my maternity room. But after that one episode, I was good to go.
Just imagine it. Here I was, 38 weeks pregnant. My last doctor appointment before my scheduled c-section. I had been blessed up to this point to be able to work all my appointments around Dan's schedule so I never had to take the boys. Well, this day, I took them. Will had started acting out during the end of my pregnancy, and I had worried so much about how he was going to handle being kicked out of the baby position. We tried to prep him for it in every possible way we could. He told us several times that he didn't want a baby! Anyway, he had been doing lots of "threenager" behaviors and it was exhausting. I had been on bedrest for 20 weeks at this point, so he knew I couldn't just up and chase him or catch him, and he took advantage. Well, at my appointment, everything went well! We were right on track for a c section in a couple days. The boys had both been really good, and then, as we go to leave, Will decides to run off. He started running up and down the entire length of the hospital main floor. Cameron was doing his best to stay close to me. Meanwhile, people were watching this waddling fat pregnant lady try and chase down her toddler and not a soul helped! No one! No one tried to corral or stop him, even though it was clearly obvious I was ready to cry and kill my kid. We finally got to the car. I buckled them in, proceeded to cry and yell so much that my two boys were also crying and screaming. I look back at this now and chuckle a little. But only a little. How I could have used just one person's help that day. It was a situation that America's funniest videos are made of!!!
I had partially decided to take the boys vs. leave them with some friends that day because my poor tender-hearted Cameron had a major come apart. He had been holding this major fear inside for who knows how long. We were discussing the delivery day at Grandma and Grandpa's and he started crying uncontrollably. When he could finally get out what was bothering him, he said he was so scared that his mom had to get cut open to get the baby out! We had a long conversation and said a family prayer to offer my sweet 6 year old boy some peace about what would happen. We had together decided he would like to go to my doctor with me to ask her how she was going to keep me safe and get his baby sister out. Thank heavens we were able to calm his fears. I don't know how long he had been keeping it bottled up, but the poor boy felt so much better after he got a blessing and a hug and saw my doctor!
This. Is. Real. Life. Currently, I am drowning as a mom and wife and even as a person. The worst possible version of myself and I hate it. My level of patience is negative 1000 and I am exhausted. You know- even just going to the grocery for a couple of things with my boys in tow was a complete nightmare.
I am not excusing myself, but pregnancy is so hard. Some women do it so beautifully, easily, and gracefully. I remain extremely grateful I have even been able to have this experience 3 times. My children are my whole world- even though they are sometimes just terrible little turds. Right now they both really are testing their limits because they know I can’t just get up and chase after them. It’s really hard. Then there are moments where they are best of friends and share rocking chairs and toys and tell each other “love you brother” at bedtime.
This little sister was going to be so many different names. It's been crazy! With our boys, their names came to us really easy. But getting to the right name for this baby girl, took well, almost the whole pregnancy. Some of the names we were going to go with were: Emmaline, Rosalie, Everleigh, Linley, Vivienne, Bethany, Natalie.... And then one day, Dan said, how about Maddilyn?! The funniest part was, I had a dream that we were going to name her Maddilyn, but hadn't said anything because it wasn't my most favorite. But the minute he said it out loud, I knew. It felt right. Our girl was meant to be Maddilyn. So, with 10 weeks to go, we finally have her official name decided: Maddilyn Pamela Pierce.
In April 2019, Cameron started losing his teeth. How cute is this boy?!
i re March was a rough month!! Dan ended up getting extremely sick! He had a kidney infection, then he ended up in the ER with a high fever! I was terrified! He started spouting incoherent and nonsensical things; the one I remember best was he was freaking out that he had this bill for $70,000 that he needed to pay off! When I got him to the hospital, my dear friend Jessica came and picked my kids up for the day to help. After lots of tests, it was determined that Dan had pneumonia, influenza, and staph infection!!! He ended up staying hospitalized for 4 days total, and took nearly a month to recover fully. He has permanent lung damage from this and will always have to use inhaler medication now.
Right after Dan started getting better, I came down with a less severe case of pneumonia, and got put on bedrest! From 20 weeks on, this last pregnancy got real difficult!! We sure are grateful for our miracle babies though!
