Thea's Stats

Birth: 8 lbs, 10.5 ounces 21 inches
2 weeks: 9 lbs, 9 ounces 22 inches
2 Months: 15 lbs, 4 ounces 25 inches
4 Months: 18 lbs, 10 ounces 26 1/4 inches
6 Months: 21 lbs, 11 ounces 27 inches
9 Months: 23 lbs, 14 ounces 30 1/2 inches

Same post, different day!

Not a lot has changed around here lately. Cory and I are still working on the juggling act of having two kids, one that doesn't sleep, and managing to get enough sleep to function.

Yesterday morning I had Thea in bed with me (naughty I know, but necessary) and Cory had gotten up when Leila the rooster started crowing at 6:00 in the morning. I had dozed off with Thea and woke up to hear Leila in the living room yelling, "Daddy! Can I watch cartoons!" No response. I waited about 10 minutes and heard nothing from the living room so I yelled for Cory, no response. Yelled again, no response. I yelled for Leila and I heard her sweet little feet running my way and then my bedroom door swung open. "Leila, is your Daddy asleep out there?" Leila responded, "No Momma, but he is just a little bit tired!" and she ran off again.

Shortly after she took off Cory came in the bedroom and confessed that he had fallen asleep on the job...twice. First when he and Leila were laying in her bed reading a book. He said he was reading and the next thing he knew he woke up and Leila wasn't in bed anymore! He got up and came out to the living room where she was playing with her toys all by herself. The cartoon incident was the second offense. I decided it was time for Daddy to have a rest! :)

I am getting by, some days are better than others. I really wish that Thea would decide if she was going to sleep for us or not. From one night to the next I have no idea if I will get to sleep 5 hours in a row like last night (THANK GOD!) Or if I won't ever get more than 2 hours at a time. Either way I am a winner and a loser. If she sleeps a lot, I wake up with a lot of pain from not nursing, if she doesn't sleep than I am exhausted but my chest isn't on fire.

Speaking of my chest, to add to the chaos that is every day life these days I noticed on Thursday that I was having lots of hot and cold flashes. I figured it was a result of the hormone overload, but Thursday night I was FREEZING. I could not get warm even in my bed wrapped in my down comforter. At midnight I woke up and my skin was boiling hot. I had a fever. Friday morning I called my doctor and they got me right in. Turns out I have mastitis! If you don't know what mastitis is I will explain it the way that my dad, who knows all about mastitis from his days as a farm boy, explained it to my baby sister. "It's what happens when you don't get milked enough." Nice. Basically I have a clogged milk duct that is infected. And it hurts. Mastitis causes Flu like symptoms, so I have been tired (imagine that) and achy along with my fever. I am now on day three of my antibiotic and I am feeling better. Oh the never ending joys of motherhood.

Well readers, you now know more about my breasts than you could have ever wanted to know. You are very welcome.

Leila is great, she is adjusting so well. No potty regression so far and yesterday we managed to have a day much like before Thea arrived. We took Leila to the mall for chicken nuggets from Chick Fila and a long playing session at the mall play area. She was very happy and I got to try out my nursing cover. It worked like a charm and everyone was happy!

And, just to make sure that the readers keep coming, here is a newer picture of Thea.




Thea is really loading on the chunk. Cory likes to make up a song and sing it to me in the voice of Moto Moto from Madagascar two. "She's gettin big, She's gettin chunky!" If you haven't seen the movie, you should. And Cory does a really hilarious Moto Moto impression. I don't even mind when he tells me I am hefty in his Moto Moto voice! :)

The Good Stuff

Which is which?

I decided to post this one second so that my ranting wouldn't be the first thing you saw when you visited my blog! :)

Thea is wonderful, she is beautiful and I love her squishy cheeks. I deliver about 1,000 squishy cheek kisses each day. I love to look at her and see her sister in her face. My mom swears that Thea looks like Cory and not like Leila, but I see a lot of my first baby in Thea, and I really like it.
When I hear my sweet Leila talking I look at Thea and I picture those words coming from her mouth and I am reminded that this squishy newborn phase won't last for long, so as much as I am tempted to wish it away in the middle of the night, I am doing my best to cherish it.
Leila has been very good with her sister so far. She likes to hold her, but only for about 3 seconds before she demands that you pick her up and take her away. She rubs her head and she gives her good night kisses. I catch her looking at Thea and whispering, "you are my baby sister," and my heart melts. When I am feeling guilty for not interacting with Leila like I would like to, I just have to remind myself of those moments, and remember how much my sisters and brother have meant to me throughout my life, and hope that Leila doesn't resent these difficult days, and instead will remember how nice it was to get a little sister.

This is the post I should read when I think I want a 3rd.

So here we are in week two of the life of baby Thea. I remember when I first started this blog I did it with the intention of keeping track of Leila, kind of an online baby book if you will. It quickly morphed, and I haven't done the best job of keeping track of the baby/toddler milestones. I didn't start this blog until Leila was about 11 weeks old I believe and right now I am really wishing I had started it at birth so I could look back at how we dealt with these newborn behaviors that have Cory and I both perplexed and exhausted.

The first two days of Thea's life she refused to be put down when sleeping. If I ever wanted her awake for any reason, the best way to achieve that was to put her right in her bed, instantly awake! I believe it was night three when we really thought we had turned the corner. Cory came up with a master swaddling plan that managed to earn us 4 straight hours of sleep! Of course I woke up in absolute misery from my first 4 hour stretch of not nursing, but it was totally worth it.
So of course we bragged that we had figured it out, no more sleepless nights. Sure, I am looking down the road of probably AT LEAST 6 months of never sleeping for more than 4 hours at a time, but right now, that sounds like heaven.

The last few nights haven't gone so well. Very little sleeping has been done by our little Thea. But Leila on the other hand has been sleeping just fine and hasn't skipped a beat on waking up Mommy and Daddy around 7:00 in the morning. The last time we did this, we didn't have to set an alarm, at least not for the first few weeks.

So, there you have the story on the sleep situation in the Coobs' house. Aside from that, Leila has been watching way too much TV, getting not nearly enough undivided attention and far more than her share of frustrated shouting. I suck.

Even our dog is working on an escape route. She has been digging a hole under the gate to our fenced in yard during far too frequent banishments to the outdoors.

Though I feel like I am recovering very nicely from the actual birth, I am still having a lot of soreness in my hips, pelvis and back. I will hope that this is because the ass widening that I received during pregnancy is in the process of reversing itself. *fingers crossed*

Back to the subject of nursing. Nursing is very important to me. I nursed Leila until she was thirteen months old. She never tasted a drop a formula. It was definately the best, most healthy thing I have ever done for my child who now lives on happy meals and baked beans. I will do the same for Thea if it kills me. Now, keeping this in mind...I really want to quit. My boobs hurt so bad and are so full, and every time she latches on it feels like razor blades are being shoved into my nipples. I really really want to quit. I need to remember this when I feel the urge to question another mother's decision not to breastfeed, which I admit I have done in the past. If I, who am bound and determined to stick with this, really want to quit this badly how could I possibly blame someone else for quitting when it may not feel as important to them. Very important note to self.

My house is a total pig sty, and of course this is the time when people want to come and visit and see the new baby. I have been sitting in the same spot on my couch for a week, there is a permanent ass print. My kitchen is covered in dirty dishes. There is dust and dog hair all over my house and I have no place to hide any of the clutter, and frankly I am too tired to do anything about it but complain.

So if ever you hear me mentioning that I would like to have another one, please direct me here.

Thea's Birth story

Welcome to the world baby girl!!!




Thea Dalene Coobs was born on Friday March 13th (The same day that her Aunt Cassie and Uncle Clay were born, 23 years ago). She was 4 days past her due date and weighed in at 8 lbs, 10.5 ounces and was 21 inches long.



Cory, Leila and I debated about baby names for months. We were pretty set on what we would name a baby boy, but we just couldn't decide on a girl name. In the end, the girls won, as Leila and I both had Thea as a top pick, though I think Cory was really coming along to it, and watching me endure natural childbirth may have soften him a bit into letting me have my way ;)



Thea is a Greek name that means "Gift of God," and that she definitely is. Dalene is my grandmother's name. My grandmother was and still is a huge part of the person that I am, and I am very proud to pass on her love and her name to my daughter. I just wish that she was here to meet Thea.


So far Leila has done a great job with her baby sister. Sometimes she ignores her entirely and other times she wants to hug her and cover her with soft blankets.
I am doing really well, my biggest struggle is worrying about Leila and how she will adjust. I don't want her to feel neglected, but at the same time, I just don't have as much time for her now. I wonder how my parents managed this with 5 kids!












If you aren't interested in hearing some details of labor and delivery, you might want to skip this post. :)

So, on Thursday night I was feeling kind of crappy from spending the day chasing Leila. I had kept her home from daycare so we could have some mommy/Leila time before my induction on Monday.
I was scheduled for a non stress test on Friday at 9 so I called my mom and told her that as long as she was up here by 8:45 to watch Leila, we would be good. (She usually comes at 7 on Friday's and watches Leila and my nephew.)

I went to bed at like 10:00 and I woke up at 1:00 because I had to pee really bad, so badly it was causing me to have a terrible sharp pain in my groin (or so I thought).
I went to the bathroom and came back to bed, only to have another one of those terrible cramps like 4 minutes later, and it kept coming back. At that point it occurred to me that I was either in labor, or I was going to die. I laid in bed until about 2 timing them loosely...they were about 3-4 minutes apart, and then I got a really strong one and I woke Cory up and told him to call Labor and Delivery, that this was definitely it and we needed to go NOW.
He called and I was laying in bed shaking from the pain and anxiety...I was totally freaked out, you would think I wasn't 4 days past my due date and hadn't realized I would be going into labor at some point!
So we woke up Cassie, who is living with us for a few months, to let her know that we were leaving and not to leave the house in the morning until mom got there to watch Leila.
We got to the hospital at about 3 and they checked me. I was at 5 cm dilated and 100% effaced (I had been 3-4 cm and 50% effaced on Monday). By then I had calmed down some and was handing the contractions better. The nurse asked me what my goal was for labor. I told her that I was open to see how things went, but I wanted to try to hold off on an epidural if I could, because I had some bad side effects from the epidural with Leila's birth.
The nurse asked if I wanted to try out the whirlpool and I jumped at the chance. I am SO glad I did this. Not only was it very relaxing and allowed me to deal with the contractions so much better, but I really appreciated not having a monitor hooked up to me for the majority of my labor.
It was about 3:30 when I got in the tub. I got checked sometime around 5 and I was 7 cm. At that point I was really dealing well with the contractions and I felt like I might be able to make it. I got back in the tub and almost immediately my water broke. It was a very weird feeling! My doctor wanted to check me again to see if that had made a difference, so I waited for one more contraction in the tub and got out for the check. I was at an 8 and my doctor told me that if I wanted an epidural this was my last chance because anesthesia was going to prep someone else for a cesarean. I told her I felt good and I was going to go for it. About 5 minutes later, at around 7:30 I began to regret that decision! The pressure was so bad I could hardly stand it.

Looking back, I really wish I had gotten back in the tub, but every time I got out of the tub they wanted me on the monitor for 20 minutes. By the time my 20 minutes were up at 8 cm I thought I was going to die. Instead of getting back in the tub I sat on a birthing ball, which helped very little. At the same time I was still on the monitor but it was so low on my body to catch the heartbeat that every time I moved it would lose the heartbeat and this nurse kept trying to hold it in place against my body. It was so difficult for me to concentrate on relaxing through the pain with her pushing on my guts!
At that point I told Cory that I was no longer able to do this, and I was just going to die. It was awful, I was trying not to cry, and I know I was behaving like a big whiny baby. I am embarrassed about it now, but Cory thinks I am overreacting. I am sure I annoyed the nurses.
I was feeling so much pressure so the nurse said I could push if I needed to and they would check me when it was over. It really really helped to push, but when I was checked I was still at 8 so they told me I couldn't push anymore. I tried to breath through them, but it was so hard not to push, finally my doctor checked me and I was 9 cm. To help me out she held my cervix up while I pushed through a contraction to try to get me to complete. I don't actually know if I ever got to ten because she kept holding it open while I pushed until Thea's head was through my cervix. Then they gave me the go ahead to push her out and ten minutes later, at 9:09 AM Thea was born, face up with her hand next to her face. When I heard her crying it immediately reminded me of Leila's baby cry.
I have just a couple of little tears but I am already feeling pretty good...not perfect, but pretty good. There is a lot to be said for being able to give birth and then immediately get up and walk. I haven't decided which is better (with or without the epidural) because there are benefits and drawbacks to both. But I am proud of myself for Thea's birth.

Now if I could just get Thea to understand that night time is for sleeping and that beds are where we do our sleeping, life would be grand!