Baby Miles is doing great!

Little Miles is growing like a bad weed. On Tuesday, less than 2 weeks old, Miles is up to 9 lbs and 6oz. That will get verified tomorrow at his first check-up. Miles is looking around, waving his arms, and can even scoot on the play mat if we give him something to kick against. We keep catching glimpses of smiles from him, but they are likely involuntary. He is doing fairly well with sleeping. Laura can catch 4-6 hour stretches of sleep. The lack of sleep has been fairly rough on both of us, but it appears to be getting better slowly.

Guinevere appears to be getting attached to her little brother now. She has been able to say "mise" for miles, for about two days now. When she wakes up in the morning she asks where Momma and Dada are, but now she also asks where "mise" is. Today it appeared as if Gwenny might have wanted to hold her little brother. Unfortunately, she is a bit too young for that. Hopefully she will love her brother this much when he starts playing with her toys.

Mr. Miles

Well, as most of you have heard our little bundle of joy has arrived. Last Wednesday morning, at 6:13 a.m. Miles Darwin Borawski was born. He was screaming before he was even completely out! He's a very healthy boy and the doctor's think he is perfect - I don't know why people insist on telling me something I already know! Anyways, he was 8 lbs 10 oz and 21" long, has a full head of hair and all fingers and toes! Once again, I had a marathon labor of 36 hours, but in my mind I always figure it could be worse. I'm glad that I was able to go all natural again and that he arrived safe and happy :-) Big sister Gwen is getting along with well with Miles, but she is a little jealous of her lack of time with either Mama or Dada. But she has offered Miles her sippy cup and various snacks! We'll see how things continue to go, hopefully for the better :-)

Dad's prospective

Gwen: this girl has developed quite a personality over the last few weeks. Between teething and her cold, she has not been in the best of moods. She is getting fairly demanding and is not afraid to tell us 'no' or 'stop', especially when her diaper is getting changes. She has also gotten fairly good at the remote control. She knows that it works the TV. Sometimes she will hand it to us and ask for "Blue Clue" or "Daba Daba". Othertimes she takes matters into her own hands and knows then up and down button. She also knows that if she presses "OK" several times it often brings on "Moose", her favorite character on Noggin. Hopefully she doesn't turn into a couch potato.
All in all, were trying our best to keep Gwen happy as she has had tooth after tooth coming in continuously and we want her to feel loved when the next baby arrives too. We both think that she has been a bit out of sorts and possibly knows that 'something' is coming. Maybe she's been listening to mommy belly too much.
About one week to go and the pressure is on. Laura has had this amazing list of "things I'd like to have done before the baby arrives". Now, every husband has a 'honey do' list, but this one has a due date and is always getting longer. The real trouble was that I had my own list and none of them were on hers. This has left me exhausted. Not to mention, I'm just about to send out my dissertation to my advisers!
I have had plenty of time to get ready for the baby, in terms of getting the house, cars, etc. ready, but very little time to get myself ready for #2. Well, when Gwen came I told myself that I'm as ready as I'll ever be. I guess that the same is true this time. I also don't have the same problem as Laura, as I'll actually get more of Gwen's attention now that mom is busy with the new baby.
All I can ask for is that this baby will be as wonderful as Gwen. If I can't have that, I'd still be happy with a health baby.

Less than a week - maybe....

So, I think we're down to 6 days until my estimated due date! And I'm really up in the air as to when Tiny is going to make his/her grand arrival. I don't feel anything going on with my body that would indicate that the baby is coming soon; then again, that doesn't necessarily mean anything. I went to my 39 week check-up yesterday. It was quite uneventful. My midwife had actually been called out for a delivery - since they are short staffed due to one of the midwives being on vacation this past week and another is on maternity leave herself (she's due the 15th). So the nurse just did the basic check-up. She didn't tell what my blood pressure was, other than it was good. And the baby's heartbeat was in the 140's and is still growing perfectly. She didn't assess where the position of the baby was, and I was hoping to ask the midwife if she thought the baby might be engaging into my pelvis more - since I've been having a lot more pain when it comes to walking - but the nurse couldn't/wouldn't do that. That was the extent of the appointment though; I was in and out in less than 15 minutes!

This is a picture of Gwen having fallen asleep on my belly - too precious!

Gwen had her 15 month check-up yesterday. Other than having a slight cold, she's great! She's still under 20 lbs - weighing in at 19 lbs 11.6 ozs, and she's almost 31 inches long... So, I think the corresponding percentiles are 10% for weight and 70% for height - tall and skinny (she'll love that as a teenager). The doctor was fine with that though, she just says that's the way she's meant to be :-) I also talked to her about Gwen possibly having silent reflux, since Gwen coughs a lot when she sleeping, or shortly after lying down. The doctor thought that was probably the case, and offered to put her on some antacids. But I asked about TUMS for her, since it's more natural and not chemical based, and she said that would be fine.... So, Gwen is really happy now that I'll share my TUMS with her :-)~ She always wants one when she sees me eating them (like candy), due to all of the acid reflux I have from the pregnancy! I really hope the TUMS work though, since I'd like to stay away from prescription medications. Anyways, I'll post next week after my check-up.... or, maybe, just maybe, sooner with the arrival of Tiny! Until then, here's my 39 week belly shot :-)

August is here :-)

So, another Friday has gone by - so that means I'm one week closer my due date! I think I'm just happy to make it to August. I didn't want a July baby for some odd reason. With Gwen, I didn't want an April baby either - I wanted my May baby, and now I want my August baby :-) I'm strange, I know. Anyways, my appointment this past Friday went well. My blood pressure is still behaving at 112/78. The baby, on the other hand, was not behaving! Tiny was kicking up a storm, I thought the baby was trying to come out through my belly button when the midwife was checking for the heart beat. Now that, was behaving, Tiny's heartbeat was between 138-144 bpm, and still measuring perfect for being 38 weeks. I've been bad with taking a belly picture. I'll take at least one more before Tiny comes - promise ;-) Gwen has been loving on my belly lately. She loves to lay her head on it and give it raspberries - she's so cute! Well, this coming Friday both Gwen and I have appointments. Gwen for her 15 month check-up and me for my 39 week - so I'll have a lot to update with on Friday!