Macy Alexandra LaPlante

I can't believe it's taken me over a week to get here to announce the arrival of Macy Alexandra LaPlante!

Most of you reading this already know anyway, but our beautiful little girl arrived at 12:08 a.m. on Monday, April 12. She was 8 pounds, 2 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long. For being born at 41w3d, I thought she'd be a bit bigger! She has a head full of dark hair, which I hope doesn't fall out.

Here is a picture from shortly after her birth:


As some of you know, I had a c-section with Maddie due to breech presentation and low fluid levels, and I was quite bummed (to say the least) about being forced into that situation. I desperately wanted to have a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) this time around, and I spent a lot of time researching and preparing for it. My wish came true, and I gave birth to Macy -- without an epidural -- three hours after we arrived at the hospital.

Our first week has flown by. We celebrated Maddie's second birthday on Saturday, April 17. Matt is off work until next Monday, and I'm already dreading his return. It's been nice staying in bed until Macy and I are ready to get up; I'm not looking forward to having to get up when Maddie wakes up!

I would like to thank all of our family and friends who have dropped off gifts, made us meals or simply came to visit. It is much appreciated!

False labor

I NEVER thought I'd be pregnant for this long. But I am. And it's really not so cool at this point. I hurt, I'm tired, and I don't have patience to deal with much.

Thankfully Maddie isn't being quite so sassy lately, and my mom was on spring break last week. She came down for a "few days" and ended up staying from last Monday night through Sunday afternoon. The "plan" was that I'd have the baby during her week off so she wouldn't have to worry about taking off of work (not that it's a big deal) to watch Maddie while we're in the hospital. But of course that didn't work out. I really thought she'd get home last night and THEN I'd go into labor, so she'd have to turn right back around, but the prodromal labor I had again last night didn't turn into real labor.

Yes, false labor. I've been having it for several nights in a row now (and had been having Braxton Hicks contractions every night for about two weeks before that). The contractions are rather strong, but they peter out when I go to bed. I've thought about just staying awake, but I know that's not realistic; when they're real, they'll stick around no matter what I'm doing.

This belly shot was taken last Friday, at 40 weeks:


Because of the mood you can imagine I'm in most of the time, our Easter was just "eh." I'll spare you the details. Maddie sure looked cute, though, in the dress we bought her in Mexico.


This time I'm really praying that the next update from me will include a baby announcement.

Ready and waiting, just like the rest of you

I'm not even going to talk about the nap thing anymore, because it's a disaster, and that's all I can say without breaking down into tears at this point.

I've been receiving a lot of phone calls, text messages, e-mails and Facebook messages/wall posts. I do appreciate that so many of you are thinking of us, but don't be offended if I don't reply. I'm just getting tired of the same old question and the same old answer. It almost makes me more irritated each time I have to tell someone that "I'm doing fine" and "no, I haven't had the baby yet." Constant reminders that I'm still here, still pregnant, still uncomfortable, still waiting to meet my baby, just aren't too much fun. I'm sure you all understand. And you will be notified when baby arrives. You don't have to worry about that. ;-)

I never had to deal with this with Maddie, since she came at 38 weeks exactly, and nobody was really expecting news at that point. I'm now 39w1d -- less than a week away from my due date -- but I could be here for a while. My doctor is comfortable letting me go a few days past 42 weeks before she becomes antsy to get baby out. And while I pray going that long won't happen, I need to be realistic and know it is a possibility.

But baby, if you're reading, I'm ready for you to come any second now. Really. Any second.

Jinxed myself

My child will not nap again today. I think I jinxed myself with last night's post about how she's napping and going to bed better. Lovely.

Now I'm really afraid she's getting ready to drop her nap, and I'm going to be stuck with a newborn baby and a toddler who won't nap. How frustrating.

Waiting game

I'm definitely to the point in my pregnancy where I'm ready to have this baby.

Today I was 38w1d, and it marks the longest I've ever been pregnant; Maddie was born at 38 weeks exactly. I've decided I'm not exactly a fan of this waiting game!

I really have had a textbook pregnancy, so I don't have much to complain about. I have felt so much better physically this time around (in terms of back pain and other aches and pains), and I'm grateful for that. But now that I'm nearing the end, the uncomfortableness is setting in. My mid-back is starting to hurt, and I can't seem to get comfortable on the couch. I feel huge, and it's becoming harder to get off the couch, pick up Maddie, roll over in bed, etc. I've been having contractions -- some rather intense and definitely not just Braxton Hicks -- for over a week now, but they're never regular and I haven't deemed them worthy of being timed.

Yesterday I had a prenatal massage, courtesy of my wonderful mom. (Thanks, Mom!) It was actually her idea, and since she had a scheduled day off and was already in the Dells for a conference, she came and watched Maddie for me. (Friday morning before the massage, we hit up the Johnson Creek outlet mall, and Maddie is now set for summer. I used my Gap 30 percent off coupon, and I saved $42 at Old Navy!)

Anyway, the massage therapist focused on some pressure points that are supposed to help start contractions, and she showed me where they are so Matt and I can press on them at home. She also gave me some essential oils that are supposed to be good for bringing on labor. I'm not actively trying to induce labor yet, because I know I still have time, but I want to be prepared if it comes to naturally trying to do just that. Overall, my massage was wonderful and I left feeling really refreshed, even though the cold front came through while I was there and it started snowing a few hours later.

This is my 38-week belly shot, taken last night. I always forget until right before bed, and I'm always looking so fabulous by then.


Today I finally got most of my hospital bag packed; it's amazing how much sooner I did that last time around! I guess I was nesting, because I cleaned out the coat closet, the laundry room (including cabinets), part of my closet, and I did a ton of laundry.

On the Maddie front:

She's going down for naps and bedtime easier -- thankfully. I actually caved and bought a video monitor this week, because I was tired of sitting on the floor outside her bedroom door and making sure she didn't get out of bed at nap time. It only took a few days until she realized we were watching, and now she hasn't been getting out of bed. It's rather amusing seeing all the funny things she does before she falls asleep, though! I can't believe I didn't get one of these sooner!

We didn't do anything for St. Patrick's Day, but I did turn Maddie's bath water green with these Elmo bath fizzy things. Yellow and blue makes green, you know! ;)


Here's to hoping that my next post is a birth announcement!

Oh, and if you haven't made your guess, you can join our baby pool here. It's free, and there's no prize for winning. All you get are bragging rights!

Quite the day

My friend Andrea texted me this afternoon to say today was one of those days she wished she were a working mom (she stays home with her two beautiful daughters, who are almost 4 and almost 2). I wrote back that I hadn't had one of those days yet since I quit my job Feb. 25, but I told her to give me some time! Then I said I had just put Maddie down for a nap and I was eating a doughnut. I then snuggled in on the couch to catch up on the DVR.

That was shortly after 1 p.m., and by 2:30, it was turning into one of those days. Turns out Maddie wasn't napping in there, and she never did. I went in twice to try and get her to sleep (to no avail), and she played quietly for a while. I decided it was time to give in and let her out when she started pounding on the door and yelling, "KNOCK KNOCK" at the same time.

She saw the doughnuts sitting on the counter and wanted one, so (because she was being such a good girl -- ha!) I let her have half of one. At one point I looked over at her, and she was staring into space, obviously tired. The doughnut rolled out of her hand and onto the floor, and she snapped back into reality. I couldn't help but laugh.

A little while later I thought it would be a good idea to get out the markers and let her draw. Why? Um, I'm not sure. Pregnancy brain? Maybe. I left her halfway unsupervised, and when I came back to her a minute or two later, she was covered in green marker.


Now thankfully this is washable marker (do you really think I'd be stupid enough to leave my 23-month-old unsupervised for even a minute with regular markers?), but I decided a bath was the way to go. So on the way -- naturally -- Maddie touched all the white trim and doors she could get her green little hands on.



After bath was when it all went downhill. She didn't want to get dressed, she wanted to suck on a dirty sippy cup from the dishwasher, she didn't want Daddy -- he came home shortly after the bath was done -- to change her diaper and worked herself into hysterics. She was crying so hard, I really thought she was going to make herself puke.

When we got her settled down, she wanted cereal. So we gave her a bowl of Rice Krispies, and she sat at her little table, where she's been eating all her meals lately. It's almost 5:30 by now, and remember -- we're running on no nap. Shortly after refilling her bowl, we heard "uh-oh," and the bowl was on the ground under her table; her lap was soaked in milk and Krispies. But she wanted more cereal, so I had her sit in the high chair this time. That's when this happened:

OK, it is taking Blogger FOREVER (over two hours at this point) to upload this video, so here is a YouTube link to what happened (unfortunately, I don't think I can embed it).

So I carried her to bed, where she's been since (though in the time it has taken for me to upload these videos here, she's awoken twice). We'll see how this goes. She's either taking a really late nap and then will be up until midnight or later, or we'll be lucky enough that she'll sleep all night (but possibly wake REALLY early). All I know is Matt and I were excited to be able to enjoy dinner by ourselves tonight, even if we did eat it while sitting on the couch! And he told me "I've got her" if she wakes up tonight, so I'm holding him to his word!

So even though our afternoon was a bit stressful, I'm still glad I'm a SAHM! ;-)

Locked in the closet

I think Maddie "locked" herself in her closet sometime Friday night or Saturday morning.

Matt got up with her Saturday, and he said he found her in the walk-in closet. Now there aren't locks on the door, of course, but she closed herself in and couldn't get out because she isn't strong enough to pull all the way down on the handle and push out at the same time. Matt said it looked like she had JUST awoken and looked really confused, so he thinks she went in there sometime during the night and couldn't get out (versus waking up in the morning and going in there).

I thought I heard her once through the monitor in the middle of the night, but when I looked at it, I didn't see any lights flashing, and I didn't hear her again. When I heard her through the monitor in the morning, it wasn't a loud sound (obviously, since she was in the closet) and I was already awake, so it wasn't like she was waking me up with her voice like she would have been in the middle of the night. So that means I could have been hearing what might have been her final "cry for help" in the middle of the night before she gave up and settled in on the closet floor. :( Oh, and to make matters worse, her closet floor was filled with stuff we moved out of her bedroom (her pink chandelier, a photo shelf with hooks on it, etc.) when we painted and haven't re-hung yet. So I'm sure they weren't the most comfortable things to sleep on.

I know she was fine in there, but it does break my heart to know she might have spent part of her night on the closet floor. I bet she was scared when she got stuck in there. It's dark, and it gets cold in the closet. I hate thinking about it.

So we're making sure the closet door is shut tightly before she goes to bed. And once she's able to open doors on her own, we'll put a safety cover thing on the handle.

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Oh, and while I'm at it, I almost had a heart attack during her nap on Friday. By the time she went down, it was nearly 2 p.m. So when I hadn't heard from her by 4, I went in there to wake her up because I didn't want her napping later than that; I also thought I might have heard noises coming from her room.

When I went to open the door (carefully, since she might always be standing at the other side), it hit something and kind of thumped. When I looked down, I realized it was her head. I thought at first she was lying there playing on the floor with Baby or something, but then I realized she was face-down and not moving. Then I called her name loudly and gently pushed the door against her head (kind of a nudge), and she still didn't move. Honestly, that was one of the scariest moments of my life as a parent. I really thought she was lying there unconscious or dead.

After yelling her name a few more times, I reached my hand down and pushed her head out of the way, and that's when she started to move. She cried instantly, probably because it startled her to wake up that way, with her face being pushed along the carpet. When she sat up, I was able to go in the room and hug her. She snuggled with me for about 10 minutes.

So again, I'm guessing she woke up at some point during her nap (because I had checked on her earlier and saw her sleeping in the bed) and came to the door but couldn't open it. I didn't hear her, so she eventually gave up and fell back asleep on the floor.

Needless to say, I'm trying to get her to call out for us when she wakes up in the morning and from nap. I keep telling her to say, "Momma!" when she wakes up, and that I'll come get her, but she doesn't. So I guess I need to keep the monitor on louder until she figures it out. I just picked up a new monitor for the baby, so we can have monitors in both rooms, and I'm thinking I should have just gone with a video monitor for Maddie's room.

Poor kid. :(