Photos from the last few weeks...

Here are some photos from the past few weeks. My parents were visiting for 2 weeks and my sister was here for a week. We had a nice visit as well as got some help around the house while learning to juggle two little ones...

Here is Ken being Super-Dad. Helping to entertain Finnegan while holding Penelope.

Mommy and Baby...


Brother and Sister -- laying together on Penelope's blanket made by Aunt Gayle.
Mana and Papa with the grand kids.
Aunt Beth with the kids.
Finnegan helps feed Penelope when he can. :)

So I haven't posted in a few days... And my posts will most likely be less often until I get the hang of this "mother of 2" thing and get caught up on my sleep! So, since I haven't posted in a while, here's what's been happening during the Morgan's Matinee performance!

• Mom and Dad left yesterday... It is always weird when they leave. I was reminded that since my parents left, I now had to be the adult again and couldn't just sit around and wait for someone to wait on me, as I did when I was a kid. "Oh wait, I'm the adult and have to do adult things again!" It's always sad when mom and dad leave, as we never know when the next time we will see them. That is probably the hardest part. And now having 2 kids, traveling will be more difficult.
  
• We have an appt with the plastic surgeon for Penelope's eye for early November. Although they won't be able to do anything until early December or later, we'll go and meet the doctor and see what he has to say about her eye. After making the appt, I went online and found the doctors website. This plastic surgeon that we'll be seeing worked in Beverly Hills for a while, and is a highly decorated surgeon. I'm interested in speaking with him about Penelope and her eye.
• I went out with my sister today with the kids. I'm not too sure how I will handle two kids while running errands on my own. I'm sure it will take lots of practice and mistakes. I'm so afraid that Finnegan will get hit by a car in a parking lot, or that I'll forget Penelope in the car because she's so quiet. Lots of changes, and I know I must take it one day and task at a time, until I get used to it all. The count down is on for me to do it on my own. Monday is my first day of my new job... doing it on my own!
• Penelope's newborn photos are in. If you're interested in seeing them, email me and I'll send you the information to view them.
• I'm feeling pretty good for the most part in terms of my recovery. I am pretty tired still, as Penelope is still sleeping a max of 3 hours at night. She's slept 4 hours a couple of mights, but she's not making as much strides in progress. Penelope is very much more cuddly than Finnegan was. She likes to sit with us just to sit with us. I've taken the aid of a hot water bottle on occasions to help her cope when she just wants to be held and I can't do it do to other obligations. Too bad this cuddly baby wasn't my first!! :)

I'm on Drugs...

My parents are here visiting - and have been here for a week, with another week to go. They are helping with the laundry, cooking, and child care. Today, they are out with Finnegan at the pumpkin patch :) I'll post photos tomorrow.

But yesterday, they took a trip to Walmart without the kids, leaving me at home with both of them. I haven't taken pain medication in a few days and was feeling pretty sore, especially at my incision, so I took two ibprofen when I woke up. About 2 hours later, I was still feeling pretty sore, so I decided that I could take some of the pain meds that I was given in the hospital. So I took 2 (the normal dose I'd taken for the past two weeks). I'd already eaten breakfast, so I wasn't really concerned about my stomach. As the medication began to break down in my system, I began to feel funny... I couldn't bend over and talk to Finnegan without having this weird feeling in my stomach. I was getting a bit light headed, and then found that I was just feeling really weird. I thought perhaps I should call my parents back to the house, but wasn't really sure... Then it hit me... I ate breakfast over 2 hours before, so there really was NOTHING in my stomach to help metabolize the powerful drugs. So Finnegan and I sat and ate a banana together and waited for Mana and Papa to return.

Later in the evening, right before dinner, I took two more (knowing that I needed to eat something too). So I ate something and took them... but I still had the same result. I felt loopy and like I didn't really care about much. Just really out of it. It was the weirdest feeling and I didn't like it!!

So today, before mom and dad left with Finnegan, they reminded me NOT to take the pain meds and stick with Ibuprofen.

Our Little Beauty

Penelope had her birth photos taken on Saturday and the Sneak Peek is in!!

http://ambersheree.com/blog/?p=317

Check them out at the blog above!!

And enjoy!

Penelope's Eye Update **UPDATED**

Today, I took Penelope to a Pediatric Ophthalmologist to look at the skin tag that she has on her left eye. At first glance, we thought that the skin tag only involved her top eyelid, and might be easy to remove. But after he looked at it, he found (and showed us) that the skin tag involves both the top and bottom lid of that eye. To be more specific, the corner of your eye is shaped like a "V" turned sideways. When we lifted up the skin tag on that eye, the corner of that eye is shaped like a "C" turned sideways. This Ophthalmologist told us that he could numb it and take it off if we were interested in having it taken off today. However, he also told us that he couldn't guarantee that it wouldn't look different or need additional cosmetic surgery. So he gave us the name of a pediatric cosmetic surgeon to visit. I plan to call tomorrow to make an appointment. He also told us that most doctors probably won't do anything with it until the baby is at least 10 weeks old. And as I told the doctor today, we are in no rush to remove it. We want it to be removed correctly with no cosmetic difference and functional problems with her eye.

So, we'll keep you posted on how things go and when we make a final decision on what we will do with it.

**Update**
On Friday - I called the plastic surgeon that the other doctor recommended us too, and they told us that they would prefer to see Penelope when she was older, rather than now. Which is exactly what we thought might happen. And as I stated yesterday, she is still our darling with or without the skin tag. We want it to be taken off correctly with no problems, so we won't rush into anything.

Tomorrow, we are having her newborn photos taken. I was sort of going back and forth between whether to go forward with the photos or not. But we have decided to have them done, regardless of her eye situation. This is the way that she was born, and even if she won't be proud of how she looks as a baby (when she's older) we love her the way that she is and want to remember her the way that she was when she was born :)

Which is worse... No Sleep or Sore Cracked Nipples??

I'll take both please!! Boy, the last few days have really begun to be a nightmare for me as a mommy of 2. I as so spoiled with Finnegan, who was a good sleeper and a fairly good eater from the beginning. Yeah, we had trouble with breast feeding, but who doesn't in the beginning. But my sweet darling little girl is proving to be more troublesome on my body as a whole.

Two nights ago, she started cluster feeding, which is fairly normal for babies to do around the time of growth spurts. Most do it in the early evening time and feed nonstop for 2 or 3 hours. My little princess likes to do this in the early MORNING hours - between the hours of 1am and 5am... sometimes it starts earlier (last night it started at midnight). And she will feed (and want to nurse) non-stop for those hours. She'll fall asleep for a few minutes, but as soon as i wake her to burp or put her in her bed, she wakes up and wants to nurse again. Nothing else will pacify her. Oh, man, is this rough. I calculated the hours of sleep that I got on Saturday, and they totaled 3 (2 at night, and 1 hour nap during the day). And then the same was true for Sunday. I slept 3 hours at night (2 hours straight, and one hour during the feeding frenzy), and another 1.5 hour for a nap. And no one can run on 4 hours of sleep, I am convinced... especially a new mom, recovering from major surgery and looking after a toddler. Oh, and my darling husband was suppose to return to work today. It was a little more than overwhelming. So, in the wee hours of the morning, I've been researching how to help my daughter get past these cluster feeds in the early morning hours (if they were in the late evening - or literally any other time of day, I think I'd be coping a whole lot better). And to my suprise, I've found little to NO information about how to get our loved ones through this time. All I've found is in regards to how long it lasts. Some say it lasts just a week or so (to help get them through a growth spurt), and other record that it can happen for weeks and even months. Oh, MY! I certainly can't go on like this for MONTHS, let alone the rest of the week!! After two days, i feel like I'm at wits end. So, for experienced moms out there (especially those who are schedulers with their infants) do you have any suggestions to help us regulate this time? I have a couple of ideas that we're gonna start today, but thought I'd ask those who have experience... (I was also blessed when my husband told me that he wasn't going into work today that he'd work from home. Oh, the best words I could have heard today... so I was able to get a nice nap this morning and feel better about the outcome, rather than my world is crashing all around me as I felt like this morning).

And not only is she not sleeping, but somewhere along the line during our marathon feedings, we've gotten off track with the proper breastfeeding technique and I am beyond sore. To even think of putting her to one side makes me cringe in pain. So, I've resorted to pumping and bottle feeding on and off to give the breasts a bit of a break. We'll see how it goes. In the mean time, I'm nursing sore and cracked nipples and contemplating calling a LC for an in-home consultation.

In other news, we go for her one week appt tomorrow, and we'll learn what doctor our pediatrician will be sending us too about her skin tag on her eye.

Penelope Jean Has Arrived!!

Well, if you haven't heard (and haven't visited Facebook since Wednesday), Penelope Jean Morgan was born on Sept 23rd at 8:40am. She was born via c-section and we are so pleased to have her as part of our family. She weighed in at 6lbs, 7oz and was 19.25 inches long. She has just as much hair as her brother had at birth, is more vocal than her brother, but less observant. She keeps her eyes closed much more than he did. She is a great eater and sleeper, so far, and we are blessed by her each moment!! Here are a few photos from the day!!


The first two were take by a friend of mine who came and took our birth photos. What a blessing to have these photos.








Coming home... She was so small, that the outfit I brought to bring her home in and all the other ones that I took to the hospital were too big. Our friend dropped this onsie off for us and it just happened to be the right size :)


Getting ready to go home with her big brother!!
On our way out the door of the hospital...