Home again!!

So we came home again today from the hospital!! I went into the doctor Friday afternoon with a bad headache. I knew from my expreience with Isabella that my BP might be high when I felt that headache kick in. Sure enough it was, so they sent me over to the hospital to have some bloodwork drawn. We the liver and kidney functions were out of wack, so onto Magnesium Sulfate I went until early this morning. By today my headache had finally gone away, my BP was back down and the labs were on the way back to normal, so I got to come home!! For some reason my body only decides o have preeclampsia post partum!!! (Thats really what they call it: post partum preeclampisa!!).

Thank goodness we have such good friends!! Christy and the girls took Bell and Austin for the two nights with no notice! Bell was great for them and even slept great at night (I was afraid she would not being in another house!). Poor Bell, mom has been away so much, but she seems to have faired just fine.

Don got to finish up the last of the pool opening when we got home (and Austin jumped in and vacumed it!), so the Jess and Lindsey came over and went in the pool with Aust. They took Bell in for just a little bit, as it was still a touch cold, and then DOn went in with them for awhile. At least we got some fun out of the long weekend - and we still have tomorrow.

Anyway, we are home and settling back in. Once again, blessed by God.

The Birth of Angelina.

Growth sonograms are so not accurate! We knew this from Bell (hers approximated 8 lbs 6 days prior and she was 10.5). But with this babies estimating 9.5 two weeks before birth, we decided to go with the suggestion of an induction a week early. THANK GOODNESS I fought the doctor who wanted me to go in for an elective C section due to the babies size!!

We went into the hospital on Sunday evening, May 20th, after a nice day spent with the family. My parents came to church with us in the morning and then breakfast at the church hall afterwards. We spent the early afternoon just getting some last minute things done and then mom and dad came over for an early dinner before Don and I left for the hospital. I set it up so that we would go in when my favorite Doctor (Chou) was on the schedule, so she met us there and after doing an initial exam, decided to go straight to pitosin instead of Cervidial, as I was 3 cm dilated. We thought we would have a nice relaxing night waiting for my cervix to soften, but was not to be.... We discussed the fact that I thought due to the induction that I was going to want to have an epidural, so she spoke with the anisieiologist and he was willing to put in the catheter for it before they began the Pit. I was trying to be proactive and not have to go through the pain of having it done during contractions.

We wound up with a great nurse April, who was on 7 pm to 7 am, so she was with us the whole birth.My contractions started out slowly, so we were both able to get a little sleep at first. By the time I decided that they were to strong and I was ready for the epidural, it was a quick call down and it was started right away. But we very quickly came to find that I had the same thing happen as last time with Isabella. My right side went numb, my left side did not - at all!! When the doctor came back in he said he could pull it out a little in hopes of it working better, but that might just make it not work at all on either side. Which of course was what it did!! So we were stuck with the decision of having no epi or having him try it again, during contractions. Don and I made the decision to try again, and he was my rock as the doc put in the needle. Epi's apparently do not get along so well with my spine, as this one worked great on the left side and finally kicked in about 15% on the right side. But it got us through a night of contractions!

At about 4:30 AM April checked me and I was fully effaced, but the baby was still high, so we kept going through the early morning before calling in Dr Chou. Well, when she came down she sat on the side of the bed, checked me and said" lets do a push or two to see where we are". So we pushed twice to the count of ten and she said " OK, lets get ready to get this baby out!"

Dr. Chou knew we wanted to be able to see the birth and bring the baby to my belly if possible, so they brought me out the big mirror as they get everything ready. Well we could already see this head of dark hair as they raised up my legs, so when Dr. Chou had me push, the baby just started crowning, just like that!! So I said "do you want me to keep pushing", and she said" yes, lets do this". So I held that first push and out came the head - AMAZING!!! All I could say at that time was "look at that hair!!!". She had me wait while she positioned the shoulder (still worried that this was a big baby at this point) and then with the second push out came the shoulder and the rest of baby!! During that second push she had me reach down to be ready to take the baby with her up to my chest. As I lay baby on my chest, daddy got to open the legs and be the first to see and tell everyone that we had another beautiful baby girl!!!! Angelina Patricia Tuscano!!! Then daddy got to cut the cord - the very all important job of a dad!!

We got to spend a few minutes with her on my belly before they brought her to the isolete right next to the bed to clean her up and weight her. So our "big baby" turned out to be the smallest - 8 lbs, 14 oz!! Angelina has a head full of brown hair and daddy's darker skin - so opposite her sister. But her eye lashes and eyebrows are so fair, so who knows if she will go lighter!! But what a shock that head of hair was for me! I then got to bring her back and nurse her right away, which is exactly how we wanted it to be.

We are so thankful for my parents, who came down from New York. They spent the time with Austin and Bell, so that Don could be with me as much as possible. Bell and Austin got to come to the hospital to see Angelina a few times, and Grandma and Grandpa got to spend some great time with them (I think Bell wore them out!!). Grandpa and Austin even got to go to the Air Base Museum over at Dover Air Force Base on Tuesday afternoon.

It is just so amazing bringing a new life into this world and growing our family by one. We thank God for giving us such a beautiful little girl and for the love that she will bring to our lives and our family.

I am truly blessed.

Angelina Patricia Tuscano pictures!!!

Angelina Patricia brand newborn!! While I got to lift her up onto my chest, Dad was the first to see that she was a girl and cut the cord.

Mom and dad with Angelina all swaddled up.

Grandma and Grandpa Tuscano with Angelina in her first hour.

Big brother Austin and Angelina



Daddy changing her first diaper. We get pistures of daddy changing each babies first one!!

Grandma and Grandpa Barry with Angelina.


Angelina with blanket made by hospital volanteers, sunngled close to mom in a Moby Wrap, and three generations, myself, my mom and Angelina.



Isabella checking out her new sister "Lina" with daddy.

Leaving the hospital, snug as a bug!!

Home sweet home!!

Isabella got to play while Angelina slept on her first day.

Glucose is fine....

So my 3 hour Glucose testing came back fine, no gestational diabetes - yeah!!
I have been having some Braxton Hicks contractions since yesterday, which I had for about a week and a half before Bell as well. Body is getting ready to deliver this baby!!
Karen

May 20th, 6 pm

If I do not go before then, that is my induction date. Sunday night at 6 pm!! Long story, but if I wanted to choose the doctor, I did not get to choose the time! Anyway, by the time they get blood work done, and set up for the induction, it will be a few hours later, so I figure hopefully a baby by morning??
But then again, I go for a 3 hour glucose test tomorrow AM, so that may change things if it comes back high, we will see......
Regardless, this baby is coming sometime soon!!!
Karen

9.5 and growing....

The last two weeks when I went to the OB, they said, "you are measuring a little big", to which my comment was" yeah so, I have big babies!!".
So today we went for a growth sonogram and it showed the baby approximately 9.5 lbs!! Now they can be +/- about 2 lbs offf at this point, and when we had one for Bell 6 days before she was born it estimated 8 lbs, and she was 10.5.
So it looks like we will be talking early induction at my next appointment on Tuesday!! So stay posted......
Baby was head down, spine up, just as he/she should be, and the tech actually got a really good view of the profile of the face, which she said you very rarely get this late in the pregnancy - very cool!!
Karen

Catching up...

Don was back home, felling better on his meds, and is now off in Arkansas for a few days. This should be the last traveling uintil after the baby, yeah!! He had a 6 AM flight Sunday, so we left here at 3 AM to get to BWI to drop him off. He called earlier to say he ran into a friendKevin Hunt he used to work with at Freshkills (who now lives in GA), so they are getting together tonight to catch up.
Don got to watch the kids this weekend while I went down to Rehoboth Beach for a moms only weekend. 10 moms, no kids, no laptops!! We had a great time, shopping at the outlets and on the strip, walking on the boardwalk and just having a fun time together. It is an annual thing the Mothers & More group does and it was great to get away and relax before the baby! Melinda (the other pregnant mom) and I had lots of non alcoholic frozen drinks, and the other moms, well lets just say the fridge was full, but not with food!! Don was a great sport about giving up his weekend for me to go (even though I had to be back Sat night to be up at 3 AM!!), and our grass is showing the signs of him having no weekend time! If it rains this weekend and he can't cut the grass, our yard will be a jungle. Don can't stand when our grass is not as nice as all the neighbors and they were all our the last few days cutting. That's OK, because Austin will be getting another lesson and doing more tractor riding this year, along with the push mowing he does now.

We had a few nice days last week and got some fun pics:


Bell getting a piggyback ride from Austin.

Austin pulling weeds in the driveway (OK, maybe this picture is only fun for me!!)

Bell carrying her doll around the house on her back.

Austin was hosing off the dogs and Bell jumped right into the action - she got sopping wet and had a BLAST!!

Bell playing her piano she got from Grandma T (Austin likes to play it as well!!)

Daddy is home, sort of....

Don ended up staying an extra day in NJ, due to the project needing to run all weekend. He got home about 1 pm today, and by 3 pm I had him in the car to the walk in clinic (I was impressed that they are open until 5 pm on Sundays! I had a much harder time finding a pharmacy open past 5 pm today!!). Anyway, he has an infection in his throat and ears and is feeling miserable. Hurts to swallow, and he can't eat anything at this point (and you should see the horse pills the Amoxicillian are!!). A kids favorite dinner: Ice Cream, Italian Ices, and soda!! So Bell got a VERY brief hug with daddy before taking her out of breathing range! She kept trying to get back over to him and cried at bedtime to kiss daddy. She really missed her daddy, as we all did!

The weather was finally nice here this weekend!! Austin pulled weeds in the driveway (love job Mom!!), and took Bell out to play a few times. She is just to hard for me to chase around at this point!! We a great new park nearby that is just perfect for her age, and she is such a daredevil!! I need to bring the camera there, she climbed up the curved money bars all by herself and there is a plastic rope ladder type thing she also scrambled right up!

I am hoping that Don is feeling better by weeks end, so I don't have to bail out on "Moms weekend". There are about 10 of us going down to Rehobooth next weekend for a beach weekend - just moms!! It is an annual thing the Mothers and More group does, and it should be a lot of fun (and relaxing before the baby comes!!) - we have two side by side condos right on the beach (one owned by one of the moms - so it is cheap!!). It is only about 35 minutes from home, so just in case the baby decides to come REALLY early, we will not be that far away!! I am coming home Saturday night to get up VERY early Sunday AM to take Don to the airport for his flight to Arkansas, for four days - should be the last of is travel until after the baby.

My Doctor wants me to go in for a "Growth Scan" (May 4th). It is a sonogram that measures the size of the baby, bacause I am measuring a little big. Well lets see, a 9.7 lb baby, then a 10.5 lb one, hummmm - I ALWAYS measure big!! But we will have it and see what they say. I had one with Bell 6 days before delivering her and they said "about 8 lbs", so I don't really have a lot of faith in the accuracy of them.

I had a couple come try on carriers yesterday (she is going back to work and he is staying home!), and their baby was 5 lbs, and one month old! She was a month early at 3.5 lbs. It always amazes me to hold babies that small, as mine are already so big! Bell was facinated by the baby when her daddy was carrying her in our sling (where she fell fast asleep!!). They bought a carrier for mom and one for dad :))

Well, that's it for now, I am off to check on my sick hubby and go to bed! I will post the picture of Bell and daddy to this tomorrow.

Karen

Our day....

Hi again daddy,
I miss you!! Mommy said you are not feeling good, I hope you get all better tomorrow so I can talk to you on the phone.
Today we went to work this morning and then to Tiny Tumblers at the YMCA. It was our first class and it was a lot of fun! I knew some of the other kids there and got to go on a see saw for the first time with my friend Dominic. But I did cry when I had to give other kids a turn because I had SOO much fun going up and down on it!! They had crawling tubes, and mats to climb on and a slide too. At the end Miss Missy plays a song and blows bubbles from the bubble machine - I had fun trying to catch them, but I do not understand - where do they go daddy when they get to the floor??
Then mommy had a doctors appointment and I got to play with the measuring tape. I kept pulling it out and then I pushed the button and it would go back in. And I even got to see mommy get some blood taken - I was such a good girl!!
Love you daddy,
Belly

I lvoe daddy...

Daddy,
Mom let me pick out my own clothes today, becasue she said today is a stay at home day. I reached right into my drawer and picked out my I LOVE DADDY shirt.
I wanted to talk to you today, but mommy said you were very busy at work, so mommy and me made you a video instead.
http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g119/handsfreebaby/?action=view&current=MVI_0369.flv
Time to nap now, I love you!
Bell

Flipping with Austin...

Hi daddy,

I just finished flipping over Austin's shoulder, a whole bunch of times!! I miss you, cause I like to flip over you daddy!!

We had spagetti and meatballs for dinner, but I didn't really like the sauce, I just got real DIRTY!! Mommy says you need to make us real us real gravy.

This morning mommy took me to playgroup and left me with Roxy's mommy, because she had to go to the doctor. I had fun and then went back to Roxy's house with them. Mommy came there to get me and we had grilled cheese and apples with Roxy and her sisters. She has two sisters, and they are going to have a little brother in August too!! I was so tired from playing I fell asleep as soon as I got in the car.

I am going to call you now befoe I go to bed to say night!!

Love,

Isabella Susan Tuscano (Thats my big name says mommy).

It was COLDDD today daddy....

Hi daddy,

Mommy and I went to a babywearing meeting this morning and I made a new friend named Sadie. She is a few weeks older than me and we had fun playing together. She also has a cat named Trixie, who let me pet her a lot. In the afternoon I went to work with mommy, I always have fun playing with the kids there, but today I kept trying to climb on the tables!!

Guess what I got to have for dinner?? Shrench Shries from DQ!!! (Austin too!). I tried to call you but had to leave you a message, but then you called me back so I could say I love you!!

I was so happy I got to talk to you before I have to go to bed, and mommy said you are going to get to see your friend Danny tonight and "shoot some pool". I don't know what that means, but I wish I could get to go in the pool too!!

Night, night daddy, love you,

Belly

This week is dedicated to daddy...

Don left this afternoon for a week in NJ, he will not be back until Saturday evening. They have a big plant shutdown at work and he needs to be in early and put in long hours each day, so it just makes the most sense for him to be there. But we will miss him and he will miss us. So this week Bell will write to daddy everyday! (I hate when he goes away, but feel blessed it is not that often, OK so a week later he is going to Arkansas for 4 days as well. My friend Lori down here just learned her husband will soon be deployed for 6 months and they have a 1 year old, so I can't complain!)
Karen

Hi daddy,
I was busy playing with my cars when you left, but stopped for long enough to say goodbye and blow you a kiss, and then right back to playing. Mommy says you took this picture of me while I was sleeping today, I love my Lucky dog to sleep with! I hope you did not get to wet in the rain and you call to say night-night to me later.

Mommy let me type this all on my own on the new computer at mommies new work desk, and then Austin and I played "foot fight" on the couch. I need to get bigger so I can beat him.

Now it is time for bed!!

Love you daddy,
Belly

Easter (in addition to the pics)

Busy week!
We had a wonderful Easter weekend visiting with our family and friends. It was nice to see everyone and get a chance to get back home one more time before the baby comes!
We went to NJ for dinner on Friday night and got to see Grandma and Grandpa T and Uncle Ed.
Saturday Michelle, Liz and I went down to he waterfront with the kids to play minature golf. Well we decided it was to cold for us, so we went and had a bowl of chowder while the kids played golf - I think we all had more fun that way, and then back to my moms house, where Maryann joined us for a while (Robbie was sick). It was great to see everyone they all look awesome - loosing weight while I am gaining!! Daddy stayed at Grandmas with Bell for some relaxing time while I went out with the girls!
Saturday night we did pizza at Dan and El's house, the girls always love to get to spend some time with Austin, and Bell had a fun time with them.
Easter Sunday we opened gifts from the Easter Bunny, and went to Mass in the morning with my parents, getting to see other Freeport friends there as well, and then headed over to Steve and Gina's for brunch. This may be the last in their house, as they have it on the market, they hope in exchange for something bigger!
Then packed up and the drive back home. Luckily we did not hit a lot of traffic, so that was nice.
It was a nice weekend and I love getting home to see everyone - we miss you all!!
K
Oh, and I finally got a picture of my belly (which many of you got to see already now). Don really pushed to get his belly out as far as he could to be bigger than me!!

Easter

A kinda, sorta picture of my belly...

Bell and I went down to Salisbury, MD (right on the border of DE and MD) last week to the first Babywearing meeting we are setting up down there. I am very excited as the group has branched out from just Dover to three meetings a month (actually mine own are the most inconsistent - need to work on that). The new moms had a great time trying on carriers and this is a picture of Bell having fun leaning backwards!! Someone wanted to know if she would fall out of the wrap if she leaned back and she had a great time showing tham that she was very securely on mom. And you can kinda of see my growing belly, I will have to get Don to take an official picture to post!!
Karen
PS - Oh, by the way that last post was on APRIL 1st (i.e. April FOOLS day!!). So for those of you reading our blog consistantly (mom, Laurie and the Fabbs - sorry to get you so excited!!). Still only one - gender still to be determined at birth.

Our BIG news!!!

So we have been waiting to tell everyone this, and decided today was the day to spread the news!!!! From this we can see who is reading the blog!!
Karen & Don

It's finally back!!

Yeah, I got my camera back today!! Austin is at a sleep over at a friends house, so Don and I took Bell and went out for Mexican for dinner, yum (and a few Tums for me for dessert!!). When we got home Bell was tired so I laid her in bed with daddy with her milk and came back to find this:

We have been busy lately, just with this and that it seems. I started working at the Y, so am doing that two days a week, and last weekend we all went swimming to get a good start on using our membership! The four lane pool has a spiral tube slide so we went there and Austin finally got Don to go down the slide with him a few times, while Bell and I played in the low end. Austin is excited about having time off from school for spring break, and getting to see his NY friends over Easter weekend.

We just got a new computer, as this one has been giving us LOTS of problems! So before setting it up here (where a crib will need to be in a short time), we searched the house for the best place to relocate my "office" to for the time being. The living room won out over the bedroom (my being on the computer late would disturb Don), and the kitchen (just to tight a squeeze). And the bathroom was just not an option!! So the hope chest will go into our bedroom for now (to get covered and used as a makeshift changing table while the bassinet is in there), and the desk will take its place. We got a new desk, as Don feels he has lived with my white wicker one long enough, so it will have to go and find a new home! Boy, we can't wait to build the addition to teh house and have a little more room!!

Gotta go and get to bed now as we have church in the morning.

Karen

I wish we could have done Baltimore the way we have wanted to, a weekend with beautiful weather and spending some time exploring the inner harbor. Another time....
Of course this weeknd was 32 degrees out!! I was at the Convention Center all day Saturday and Sunday, but had a lot of fun and did great business!!! Vendors were complaining that it was slow on Saturday, but I was busy all day long. One of the events coordinators told me I had the busiest table in the hall!! I really love being able to show moms in real life how great baby carriers can be, and there was tons of pregnant and new moms there. Perfect venue for me.
Saturday Don took the kids to the National Aquarium, and it sounds like they had a fun time! The aquarium is all people movers and escalators, so no strollers - so it worked out good that Don had HIS Mei Tai carrier to wear Bell in. After I was done, they came and picked me up for dinner (corned beef on Saint Pats Day!!), and then we went back to the hotel for some fun in the pool. I was in bed by 9 pm because I was SO tired. Sunday was another good day at the show, and Don ended up driving home earlier than I did to get a little down time before going off to NJ for the night. Harold came back to work today - yeah for Don!!!
This morning Bell got her bath, and while I was cleaning up the bathroom, she was running around naked. Well in the minutes time I was in the bathroom she got up on the kitchen table (again!!). She was sitting up there, naked as can be, eating grapes out of the bag on the table, juice running down her nice clean front, and when she saw me said over and over "grapes"!! I miss my camera. She just LOVES to climb these days. And she is saying SO many new words. This weeks new ones are : grapes, chair, soda (that comes from daddy drinking DDP, not me!!), apple, juice, nap, moon, stars, windy. It is amazing that she can say so many of the words she can sign, it seems to have really helped her pick up words quicker! One of her favorite words now is dirty (or doooorty as she says it). If she gets the slightest thing on her hands, they are dooorty!!

Nice to nasty!!

A few days ago the weather was 78 degrees here in Delaware andwe were at the park in shorts and today it is just above freezing and raining (soon to turn to hail / snow for a few hours says the weatherman). Typical March weather! Dad said they had two inches of hail in NY today.
Of course it was beautiful all week, and now forhte weekend it will be COLD. We are going to Baltimore last minute this weekend. I just, literally just, had the opportunity come up to share a booth at the Baby and Toddler EXPO at the Baltimore Convention Center this weekend. A woman who runs lactation and baby classes in MD has a booth and is doing some seminars, so for manning the booth while she is speaking I get 1/2 the booth for FREE (booth costs $900.00).
It is a two day event and will be two LONG days, but should be fun as well and hopefully great for business. Don and kids are coming along to help set up and then go spend time at the National Aquarium in Baltimore and the hotel pool! Luckily we were able to get a room at the Inner Harbor Holiday Inn (on rewards points!!) so the hotel, convention center and attractions are all very close together.
We have been talking about a weekend trip to Baltimore for awhile, but this is not exactly what we planned. I really wish the weather was going to be nicer for Don and the kids getting around.
Well, I have to go finish getting stuff ready as we have to be out of here at 6 AM - ugh!
Karen