I'm BACK! (my birth story + how to manage life with 2 under 2)
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
217.08516
Summary
Mr. Baby was born on December 3rd, 2019. Here s the story of how he came into the world! I m so excited to finally be back on my channel after a long break of almost 4 months!
Transcript
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I have been gone from my channel for 16 weeks, like 4 months,
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which is so weird to think because it feels like forever.
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So 4 months to someone else, like a 4 month old baby,
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It's like he's been around for such a long time.
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My hair is short. I cut it all off because I was tired of having to constantly put it up
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I would rather have my hair down and short than have it long and constantly have to tie it up.
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So I have short hair now and I have 2 babies now.
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My older son just turned 2 and my younger son is 4 months.
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And I really want to share some updates about where I've been,
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I feel like I have too much to say because I've been gone for so long
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But oh my gosh, like, life is totally different now.
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There's a reason it took me 4 months to get back on YouTube
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I mean, you've got 2 kids that you're taking care of.
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You might be able to hear my son right now because he is down for nap time.
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A.K.A. is he going to nap or is he going to play?
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We are constantly living in a state of what is happening when he goes down for his nap.
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But I'm really excited to hop in today's video.
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So I'm deciding whether to share my birth story.
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But I think I'll give you guys kind of, like, the short version,
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But here's the story of how Mr. Baby, number 2, came into the world.
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So if you didn't know, I used to call my older son Mr. Baby.
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These are their internet names because we don't share their faces on the internet
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I woke up at 4-ish in the morning and I was having contractions.
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They were coming sometimes every 5 minutes, every 10 minutes.
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She came over because I thought, you know, I think today is the day.
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Like, I was having contractions but they weren't regular enough.
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I had taken a nap and at 4 p.m. I woke up and it was like every 2 minutes they were coming on
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So I told my husband, it's time to go to the hospital.
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So luckily my parents and my in-laws were here.
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So they took my older son and we went to the hospital.
00:03:02.180
And everyone tells you that your second labor is going to be easier and faster.
00:03:10.120
So with my first labor, the epidural only took on one side.
00:03:14.240
And I found out this time that it's because I have scoliosis.
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So I knew I had scoliosis but I didn't know that that came into play with having an epidural.
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And when they gave me the epidural this time, I hadn't waited too long.
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So with the first one, I waited a very long time to get the epidural because I wanted to
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This time around, I knew I didn't want to try to have it unmedicated.
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I am a big proponent of getting an epidural if you want one.
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I think it's really a wonderful thing that we have access to.
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And it made my labor and delivery so much easier, so much better.
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Yeah, we can get into a discussion about that a different time.
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And so they were ready to give me the epidural.
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So the first time when they gave it to me, it was like an emergency situation.
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This time around, I wasn't in horrible pain yet.
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So I could be more aware of what was happening.
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And it was very painful to get the epidural because I have compression on one side of my
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Which means that the epidural doesn't take evenly on both sides unless the nurse really
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She made sure I was positioned so that the epidural would take on both sides of my body.
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Which was incredible because what it meant for me is that I could push and it didn't hurt.
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Now, the reason I say this is important for me and why I am a proponent of epidurals for
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people who want them is that when the first time around, the doctor kept telling me I was
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And it was because I could feel what was happening when I pushed.
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I could feel that I was probably going to get some tearing.
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I could feel that maybe I was getting hemorrhoids.
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Like I could feel all of that and so it made me afraid to push.
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But I couldn't feel the things that would make me not want to push.
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So this time around, I pushed like for 10 minutes and the baby was born.
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The first time it took me two and a half hours.
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Now, that also might be because it's a second baby.
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So I was in labor from about 4 p.m. till midnight.
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Now, one of the crazy parts of all of this is that my husband got food poisoning.
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I said, I don't think that you should be here while I'm in labor.
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And it just happened to be that I had said to him an hour before, I think it might be
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She's never been at the birth of one of her grandchildren.
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And that's kind of a cool experience that we could share.
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And my husband said, yeah, of course, let's do it because she wasn't at the birth of
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And because she was there when my husband left, my mom was kind of like my support person.
00:06:09.940
And little man has just had the best approach to having a little brother.
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We were really intent on having them have a good relationship.
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So we read a book called Siblings Without Rivalry before they were born.
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I read Peaceful Parents, Happy Siblings, I think it's called.
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I've read a bunch of parenting books because I find them fascinating.
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And we incorporated some of those things before the baby came home.
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So we kept telling little man that the new baby was his baby.
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That was how we communicated that a new baby was coming to the house.
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And we made sure that when we introduced them, I wasn't holding the new baby and it felt
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The new baby was in his stroller, in his car seat stroller.
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And it felt like, okay, here's a new addition, but you aren't being replaced.
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And so the transition for the two of them has actually been incredibly smooth, which is
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Like my older son loves his little brother and my younger son loves his older brother.
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And it's also been really amazing because we've never done screen time.
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My older son is very good at independent play and my anxiety before the new baby came about
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what he was going to do while I was nursing was very high.
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My older son would just go play by himself or he would read books with us.
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Or maybe sometimes we would watch like a two-minute Winnie the Pooh short on YouTube together.
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We never set my son in front of a screen ever by himself.
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But mostly we read books or he plays or I narrate while he plays and my younger son is nursing.
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One of the crazy things that happened postpartum was I had the worst postpartum contractions.
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I had a week of postpartum contractions that were absolutely debilitating.
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I had to alternate taking the highest level of Tylenol you're allowed to take in a day
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and the highest level of Aleve you're allowed to take in a day.
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And I also had to sleep with a heating pad on my back.
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I was waking up at 3 in the morning with these horrible contractions.
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I would have to get in the shower just to let hot water kind of ease the pain,
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which did help, but it was like 3 in the morning, so I was already exhausted.
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So next time around, I'm going to try the after-ease drops.
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I've heard good things about them, but oh my gosh, my postpartum contractions were worse than labor.
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Like it was crazy and I didn't really know about them.
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So if that's something you've never heard of, maybe be prepared in case it's something that does happen to you.
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One of the things that I've realized is the first three months of any baby being born
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I have a very clear picture with my older son that the first three months,
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the adjustment to just becoming a mom was so hard.
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And then it was like I hit that three-month period and oh my gosh, like completely different.
00:09:07.640
but the difficulties of that adjustment are the first three months.
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That is the adjustment period where my husband and I are trying to figure out how we work with two kids.
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We like don't ever see each other because the younger one is crying while the older one is doing bath time.
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And then at three months, the younger child, the new baby, kind of figures himself out.
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Like he starts putting himself on a feeding schedule.
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He starts taking naps at more regular times and he gives himself a bedtime.
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And he starts stretching that first sleep of the night.
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And my husband and I can spend time together again.
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And my younger son having more of a feeding schedule meant that it's easier for me to go out with both boys
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and not feel like, oh my gosh, am I going to have to nurse?
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For me, any hard thing in life is not as hard when it has an end point.
00:10:01.700
When I realized that like morning sickness for me tends to last about eight weeks.
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Or the first three months of having a new baby is going to be hard.
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But at the end of those three months, things are going to ease up.
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if I don't think or know when the end point is for something difficult,
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So it's been nice knowing, okay, three months is the mark.
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And now I can kind of take that knowledge forward for our next baby
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and feel like, okay, so the first three months are going to be hard
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But being home with both boys has been such a blessing.
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I have had such a good time with both boys, taking them out.
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And I get to have special time with both of them.
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One of the things that I've learned this time around too though
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is that you can't have a schedule with your second
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The second, you're still on the schedule of the older child.
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So he kind of has to sleep on the go or he won't sleep.
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where he doesn't take great naps during the day,
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which means he doesn't have great sleep at night.
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I think when you have the time to stress with your first
00:11:22.780
about their schedule and about making sure you get to sleep at night,
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then you will stress about their nighttime sleep
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and your nighttime sleep a lot more than when you're like,
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well, there's no way I'm going to be able to get them
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So there's probably not going to be a lot I can do
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Like you could survive with less sleep than you think.
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And once I've come to that conclusion and realized that,
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then I don't stress about not sleeping as much.
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If I have to sneak in a nap here and there during the day,
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it's fine as long as I recognize that it's okay
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that my son isn't sleeping perfectly through the night.
00:12:02.760
like a few nights where he completely slept through the night.
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And then of course the four months sleep regression hits
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One of the things that I learned actually from my mom,
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of having to wake up after a bad night of sleep.
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I just was resentful that I wasn't getting enough sleep.
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but aren't we so lucky that we have so much energy?
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She will be the person who is making lunches for everybody
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And I'm always wondering how she has that amount of energy.
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and said like, aren't we lucky we have so much energy?
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And I say, isn't it great that I have so much energy
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to approach those times where I'm feeling more tired.
00:13:46.760
where I'm more interested in certain platforms,
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And lately I've taken a big interest in Twitter,
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which has been kind of on the back burner for a while.
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And I realized the thing that I was interested in
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And I'm excited to do that on my YouTube channel.
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I want to say the things I know are good and true
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and talk about it from a like common sense perspective.
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I'm really excited to share more of that kind of content
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So thank you so much for watching today's video.
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because then I'll know you watched the entire video.
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And make sure to subscribe if you haven't already.