Proudly Introducing Walker David Randazzo (and his birth story)

Walker David Randazzo 

Wednesday, August 13, 2014 at 1:49am

8lbs, 11 oz  ~ 20 " long

Since Nicolette was born 6 days before her due date I mistakenly listened to and wholeheartedly believed all of the people who assured me that if I first child came early that my second would also come early and possibly even earlier than the first.  WRONG!

In the weeks leading up to my due date I had a significant increase in Braxton Hicks contractions. Sometimes very regular and time able for 2 hours or more so I felt sure that Walker would be coming SOON!

WRONG!

The week prior to my due date the contractions went away and I started feeling great, like I was only 5 or 6 months pregnant. I had plenty of energy and nothing really hurt or ached. I felt certain that Walker had hunkered down and decided to never come out and I was terrified that I was going to have to be induced. So I followed all of the wives tales…I ate eggplant parmesan, put hot sauce and red pepper flakes in everything that I ate, increased my stretching, went for long walks, played with Nicolette and her friends at the pool, tossing them around all in hopes of shocking my body into having a baby. But alas, August 11th (my due date) came and went and not a single sign of sweet Baby Walker. On Tuesday, August 12th I tried to keep Nicolette and I busy so that I wouldn't sit around and obsess over every twinge. We went to the mall for story time at Pottery Barn Kids, walked around, ate lunch and then headed home in time for her nap. That afternoon I took Nicolette out for a long walk through the neighborhood in her stroller (and got totally drenched thanks to a pop up rain shower), came home cleaned the house and made dinner. I gave up on spicy food so we had breakfast for dinner - fritatta with zucchini, tomatoes and onions, biscuits and bacon. We gave Nicolette a bath and I put her to bed (The Italian and I started alternating bedtime duty so that Nicolette wouldn't be shocked when daddy had to take over full time for a bit once Walker arrived). I kissed her goodnight and headed downstairs. I did some stretching (I'd been practicing yoga squats and lunges throughout my pregnancy because I read that it helps prepare your body for labor and is especially helpful if you plan to have an unmedicated birth. I turned on The Real Housewives of New York Reunion and went about my stretching. Sitting in squats or lunges for anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes at a time, did a few downward dogs and then laid down in bed with my feet up and was texting with some girl friends trying to firm up plans for the next day - again, trying to keep myself and Nicolette busy so that I would focus on something other than the anticipation of having a baby.

At 9:48pm I was mid text trying to convince a friend to meet us for a playdate in the morning when I felt "IT".  There was a little "pop" feeling inside and then nothing for a couple of seconds, then all of the sudden there was water! I hopped out of bed and ran to let The Italian know that I think my water broke…headed to the loo to check and sure enough it must have broken. I had just been joking with some of my girlfriends about how water breaking is never anything like they show in the movies with a big gush….well, Walker must've wanted to prove me wrong because there was a big gush and it just kept coming and coming and coming.

My hands were trembling as I called the dr.'s office and they quickly put me through to the midwife at the hospital. I was not having ANY contractions so she told us to take our time saying that I could take a shower if I wanted and just head to the hospital in a few hours. I didn't really feel like taking a shower. Dave hopped in the shower quickly and began putting his bag together. I couldn't settle myself down so I quickly set to rewriting the list of things that needed to be packed up for Nicolette in the morning (her monitor, sound machine, lovey, blankie and all that stuff that I couldn't pack in advance). We called our dear neighbors and they came over to monitor sit Nicolette until our friends who were supposed to keep Nicolette would come and pick her up in the morning. I started having mild contractions around maybe 10:30pm but they were super mild and I had 20 hours of contractions before Nicolette was born so I didn't think we needed to rush. I changed the sheets on the bed, made sure that the trash and recycling were taken out (because I'm crazy like that) and all the while The Italian is trying to hurry me out the door. We left the house right around 11pm and this drive to the hospital was so different than with Nicolette. With Nicolette I was in full force active labor and trying to push as Dave barreled down the emergency lane of the highway at what seemed like 150 mph. This time we were just casually driving to the hospital like we were going to a dr.'s appointment or something. I started timing contractions and noticed that they were about 3 minutes apart.

We checked in, dropped off our snack basket I had put together for the labor and delivery nurses and they took me to triage. The contractions were getting a little stronger but not bad.

I was still able to smile, joke and take pictures and goof around while waiting for them to check to ensure that my water had indeed broken (it had) and they strapped monitors on for a bit to check my contractions and Walker's activity level. By 11:30pm they had determined that I was indeed in labor and dilated 5cm and 70% effaced so they transferred us to a labor and delivery room. They pulled up my birth plan and brought in the yoga ball and made me sign 800 pieces of paper (skipped that last time too since I basically walked in the door and had a baby). They wanted to put me on the monitor one more time because Walker wasn't as responsive as they would like. So Krista my sweet L&D nurse got some juice and told me to lay on my left side while we waited. It was a little uncomfortable in that position but sure enough about 10seconds after drinking the juice I felt Walker start bee-bopping around. Midwife Tina (who also happened to have delivered Nicolette) came into the room and sat to talk with us a bit. She told me to call her when I started "huffing and puffing" so that she could be there to help me.

After that I was clear to move about as I wished. By this time it was about 12:45am. I wanted to walk around to find Nicolette's picture from her "Big Sister Class" so we did that and then headed back to the room.

By this point my contractions had really picked up so I started timing them again and they were anywhere from less than 1 minute - 3 minutes apart and were consistently about a minute long. They were getting much more intense but I was still only rating them as a "3" on my iPhone approx 1-5 pain scale.

 

Then at 1:17am I had a pretty bad one, I rated it as a "4" and I told Dave to call Nurse Krista and ask her to come back in and check my cervix again. I had asked in my birth plan to have cervical checks upon request only and hadn't been checked since we arrived at 11:30. WELL, he hadn't been paying attention when she gave the instructions on how to call her so kept asking me what to do and I remember saying in between contractions, "Just figure it out, Dave".  I'm proud of myself for not yelling at him, just very firmly told him to get it together and figure it out. It probably took 10-15 minutes or so (I couldn't really time things anymore at this point) to figure it out and get her back in the room and when she checked and said I was probably 7 or maybe inching towards 8cm. I took a deep breath and said ok then, I'm going to go to the bathroom then in the 10 seconds it took me to walk from the hospital bed over to the restroom (literally 10 steps) I had a crazy contraction and I felt HIM…COMING OUT! I screamed and said "He's coming out!!!!!"and nurse Krista ran in and checked me and sure enough I had gone from 7cm to 10cm in less than 10 seconds. She said "We have to get you back in this bed now". So I waddled back and just threw myself on to the bed laying on my right side. I started pushing immediately as I heard her on the phone calling the midwife and additional nurses. Midwife Tina ran into the room and said, "You didn't even give me a chance to help you!" I pushed for what they said was 15 minutes (but felt like an hour) and he was here! He was a big boy and his shoulders got stuck so pushing through that was crazy difficult. They made me push in between contractions which is a lot harder to do than it sounds. Dave said that he was worried because he saw how serious Tina got when it got to his shoulders and all of the sudden they were all telling me to push and helping me. It took two big, hard fought pushes and then his shoulders were out and then all of the sudden I heard a little scream and he was on my chest! Again, I can't believe that we were able to do it without any medications!

I was all hyped up after that and couldn't sleep for the rest of the night. Walker and I just stayed up and hung out. 

Daddy however was all worn out from the difficult delivery…poor thing he must have been exhausted. 

The next morning our dear friend Rebecca came and brought Nicolette to meet Walker for the first time.  

And Walker got to meet one of his new friends Nolan! 

And our friend Jessica and one of Nicolette's best friends Isla came to visit as well! The girls LOVED peeking at baby Walker.

We also got a visit from Michelle that afternoon!

We are thrilled to finally have our sweet boy with us. It's hard for me to imagine our family without him and I can't believe that I ever thought that our family was complete without him! We are SO BLESSED! Praise be to God for taking such good care of us and blessing our family with such beautiful and amazing children!

Happy due date to us!

So today is August 11th, Walker's official due date and so far not even an inkling that this little guy has any plans of meeting us anytime soon! I felt more like I was going to have a baby 3 weeks ago than I do today. If his behavior in utero is any indication of his personality  once he gets here then we're in for it because this little guy is a TEASE! I started having timeable contractions 3 to 4 weeks ago and had them almost every other day. Sometimes getting as close together as 5 minutes with the contractions lasting for right around a minute and that pattern would last for anywhere from 1 to 4 hours! That combined with the fact that Nicolette came 6 days early made me feel sure that Walker would be here early too. But now that we've gotten closer, the contractions have pretty much stopped and he seems to have totally hunkered down showing no intention of evacuating any time soon. While I'm impatient and want to meet him I'm thankful that I'm not uncomfortable (anymore) and am trying to remember to focus on savoring each wiggle, roll and kick especially since this will be the last baby for the Randazzo family. Someday in a few weeks, months or years I will yearn for the feeling of baby kicks and hiccups inside my tummy so I will not wish this time away.

And here are some photos from the sprinkle that my girlfriends hosted for Walker and his soon to be buddies Aubrey and Jack!

Nicolette's 2nd Birthday

Nicolette's 2nd birthday was a perfect family day. We didn't have anything fancy planned and just hung out with the 3 of us! When she woke up she go her presents downstairs…we bought her a balance bike and a helmet and right away she said "BICYCLE"! So I guess it was a "hit"!

Then we had a nice visit from one of Nicolette's besties, Ava, her brother Nolan and her mommy and Gramma Kat.

Giving Nolan kisses and hugs was probably the highlight of her day!

After nap, Nicolette and I made cupcakes and she was all about helping….until I turned the mixer on. She wasn't a huge fan of the mixer!

We let Nicolette pick what she wanted for dinner so we ended up grilling hamburgers and had cucumber salad (cucumbers are her FAVORITE).  

And she went to bed a VERY happy little girl!

2

2…it may not seem like a monumental number to most but in 2 weeks my sweet girl will be 2 years old. And in less than 2 months I'll have 2 babies to love on, care for and worry about/obsess over.

First, let's start with little Nicolette turning 2. 

This hardly seems possible or even fair. The past year has gone by at least twice as quickly as her first year. Every day she is learning more, talking more and making me laugh more. She is such a treasure and really is such a sweet, sweet child. She's an absolute sponge…soaking in EVERYTHING that everyone around her says and does (so please watch your language if you're spending any time around Nicolette)!

The Italian marvels at the fact that she and I can sit at the dinner table and talk back and forth for a good 30-45 minutes. She is my best little buddy.

I can't bring myself to correct her when she walks up to me with her arms up and says, "Mommy? Hold you?" My heart will ache when she says it correctly and will very likely break when she no longer asks me to hold her at all. She loves to curl up in my lap and say, "Mommy, make me cozy?" which means she wants me to cradle her and hold her like a little baby. She'll do the same thing with her dollies and either ask me to make them cozy or cradle them in her little arms herself and beam with pride as she boasts about how she's making her baby cozy. She is obsessed with her baby dolls and could spend the entire day taking care of them. Sometimes she "nurses" them, sometimes feeds them bottles, changes their diapers, always careful to put diaper cream on, pushes them in her shopping cart or "strolder" (which she pronounces like I imagine a German would…she almost rolls the "s" and emphasizes the "d" in strolder"). And speaking of strollers, she still loves the stroller and has no problem hanging out in the stroller for an hour or more at dr.'s appointments or whatnot. She LOOOOOOVES shoes and loves looking at her shoe collection and picking out which shoes she's going to wear for the day. Sadly she also loves hair and hair accessories. The hair is finally coming in but not enough for ponytails and Nicolette asks for mommy to "do ponytails" almost daily…soon enough baby, soon enough.

Exhibit A - hanging out in the stroller happily while
mommy enjoys a pedicure she was given for her birthday! 

Then as soon as we got come, she wanted to
give Daddy his own pedicure!

Nursing her bunny

Obsessed with mommy's shoes

Obsessed with mommy's shoes

"Mommy do ponytails?"

She loves when I make silly faces at her, can say her first and last name and can also tell you that she turns 2 in July. She has started reciting entire pages of some of her favorite books. Her favorite book right now is an old Golden Book from the 60's titled "Little Mommy".  She'll ask to read that one and randomly recite "Billy is Daddy, he works in the city. He's got a new car, isn't it pretty?" or many of the other pages from the book in her sweet little sing song voice throughout the day. She still loves to "read" and look at books. 9 times out of 10 when I lay her down for nap or bedtime she'll look up at me and say "Book?" I'll hand her a book and she'll flip through the pages until she falls asleep. I hope her love for reading continues as she grows up!

We've made a few feeble attempts at potty training. Had a couple of instances where she asked to go peepee or poopoo on the potty and actually did it. Also had a successful afternoon in big girl underpants and then had 3 accidents in big girl underpants the next morning so I'm not sure where we stand on the potty. I want to take the time to do the intensive 3 day potty training "boot camp" but we honestly have not had 3 consecutive days at home without traveling, dr.'s appointments, mommy's meetings or classes for work or what not. Oh well, we'll get there eventually right?

Our first peepee…I have more photos but refuse to post
nudie pics on my blog. 

We spent a few days with Gram & Papa in Connecticut over Father's Day weekend. Gram was so impressed at what a good eater Nicolette was. We're still 80/90% organic with what we feed her. Right now her favorite food would probably have to be cucumbers with red wine vinegar and a little seasoning salt (this was my FAVORITE snack as a kid, teenager and even now). She'll eat a full cucumber in one sitting and ask for more. She also gobbles up wild alaskan salmon…she can eat a 6-8oz filet with no problem. She loves the oatmeal I make for her in the mornings with old fashioned oats, hemp seeds, chia seeds, ground flaxseed meal and wild organic blueberries. She's always asking for more "booblerries". Avocados are still a go to for us as well. And of course we're still nursing 2-3 times a day. I've tried to get her to drink organic, grass fed milk out of  a sippy cup and she really had no interest and would take a little sip and then hand it back to me with a look of disgust on her face and say "no…no muhlk." She does love cheese though! Don't think she's totally deprived though…she has eaten take out pizza two or three times and even had the grilled chicken bites at Chick fil A once. She's only had cake once, on her first birthday but we'll have cake again this year on her birthday.

Speaking of birthdays, I had so much fun planning her 1st birthday celebration but this year I was really torn over what to do. I finally decided (last week) that what I'd really like more than anything is just to celebrate with our little family. I plan to bake a cake from scratch with Nicolette and we'll have her favorite dinner and just celebrate with the three of us. Simple and sweet. Part of me still wants to have "a party" but I think this will be a better memory for our family. I know she probably won't remember it, but I always will.

And now it's Baby Walker's turn

In less than 2 months, we'll be a family of 4 and I can hardly believe it! This pregnancy dragged on in the beginning. When I was so nauseous it felt like summer would never get here but now everything is in fast forward. My second trimester was very similar to my second trimester with Nicolette but the third trimester is definitely more exhausting this time around. I'm sure that's because I'm chasing a very active nearly two year old for most of my waking hours. Carrying Nicolette around and bending down and picking her up and putting her down is definitely harder on my body than my old job. I've been having tons of Braxton Hicks contractions which I really didn't have with Nicolette but my OB assured me that this is normal, especially for a second pregnancy. He just keeps reminding me to rest while I can and not do too much. Ha! Easy for him to say…he's never experienced the "nesting" instinct that we mommies to be go through. I'll settle down to take a bath and instead spend 4 hours cleaning our bathroom and then decide to spend the next 2 days totally reorganizing the bathroom and linen closet. Go to the kitchen for a snack and spend 4-5 hours emptying all cabinets, drawers and both pantries and deep cleaning and reorganizing the kitchen. Sit down to watch tv and spend hours painting and upholstering Nicolette's tiny table and chairs that go in her playroom. I'm a crazy person. And yet Walker's room is at a stand still.

The Italian spent a weekend priming and painting the room and is insisting on installing crown moulding but that isn't up yet. He's been traveling a LOT for work including some international travel so finding time to complete this is a challenge. AND we're having all of the carpet replaced in our house at the end of the month so we have to work around that too. Poor Walker's dresser and crib are still boxed up in our foyer…no sense getting them out until the new carpet is in. And I've got some really cool vintage golf artwork that's just chilling in the hallway…can't really decide where to hang them until the furniture is in and we've already established that that isn't happening anytime soon, soooooo….just twiddling my thumbs on this project.

Since I can't "nest" in the nursery I started focusing on the playroom. I've started making cornice boards for the windows (a super cheap and easy DIY project) and painted her table and chairs and padded and upholstered the seat cushions. Got some cheap, bright throw pillows for the sofa and am hoping to have enough fabric left over from the cornice boards and upholstery project to be able to make a couple of throw pillows for the sofa. We'll eventually paint the playroom…probably a neutral/tan color. Nicolette's play kitchen is up there and it is red so I wanted to find something fun but not to girly to go with the red kitchen. Hopefully this will all look nice once it's all finished (if that ever happens).

Table & Chairs "Before"

Table & Chairs "After" - I think I'm going to stencil the top
with some sort of pattern

First cornice board - don't have the hardware to hang it yet

PILLOWS!

I don't remember feeling tired as easily when I was pregnant with Nicolette. I get worn out so quickly now with Walker. And not in a "I want to take a nap" sort of way. More of a "I feel like I just did 20 burpees or mountain climbers and now I can't breath and need to sit down ASAP" kind of way. Speaking of burpees and mountain climbers I have only worked out a couple of times during this pregnancy and now that I'm getting the "I'm going to black out and faint if I don't sit down every 15 minutes" feeling I'm afraid to even try. Sometimes I feel like we can go for a walk without fear of me fainting in the middle of the street but not very often. It was scary enough when it was just me while I was pregnant with Nicolette but now that I have her with me and I'm pregnant and could easily black out in the middle of our neighborhood I think I'll pass on the walks (unless we have friends with us).

I had a lengthy prenatal consult with my lactation consultant yesterday and I think we have a good plan moving forward to help breastfeeding with Walker get off to a better start than we did with Nicolette…fingers crossed and lots of prayers that I don't have to go through the rigorous schedule (see here) that I kept up for the early months with Nicolette.

Today I scheduled all of my remaining prenatal OB appointments, pre-registered at the hospital and registered Nicolette for a "sibling class" at the hospital for next month. We had a good OB appointment this morning, he was super active so the nurse had to chase him around with the monitor but his heartbeat was strong at 154 bpm. (My blood pressure is still on the low side at 90/54). I also moved the pack n play and glider into our room so that when Nicolette sees everything we can talk about where Walker is going to sleep and how things are going to change in a couple of months. She already knows where his room is and talks about it a lot. She also knows that Walker is in mommy's tummy, that she's going to be a big sister and that her brother's name is Walker. Nicolette and I went shopping today and picked out a special gift for her to bring to the hospital to give to Walker when he gets here. It's a little puppy dog lovie with his name embroidered on it. She loved carrying it around the store and seemed to understand when I told her that it was a present for her to give to her brother.

Walker is craving many of the same foods that I craved with Nicolette at this point…lots of salad and TONS OF FRUIT! Berries are my obsession…especially raspberries, but pretty much all fruit is fair game at this point…watermelon, mangos, grapes, berries, apples and I'm addicted to lemonade mixed with sparkling water to make it nice a fizzy.

Overall at nearly 33 weeks pregnant I'm feeling good but also a little nervous. Nervous about being away from Nicolette for the first time ever, nervous that this labor and delivery will likely be entirely different than my first so not knowing what to expect, nervous that I'll go to the hospital too early or even worse wait until it's too late (since last time I delivered 40 minutes after checking in I can't say that I'm the best at gauging how far along I am into my labor), nervous that Nicolette will feel neglected once Walker does arrive, nervous, nervous, nervous. But also excited. I can't wait to meet this little guy and have another baby to snuggle and love. And definitely excited about watching Nicolette love him too! We are truly, truly blessed and I thank God daily for trusting not one but two precious babies to our care. He has more faith in me than I have in myself.