The Birth Story

Friday morning I went in to my OB exam hoping I would be told I was dilated more and couldn't be sent home.  I was told I was 4cm.  It was kinda heartbreaking at that point.  My doctor went on ahead and stripped my membranes for me.  I was sent home with a 50% of having a baby within 24 hours.  We got home around 9:15am.

Josh had class so off he went to the U.  At 11 I started having contractions that were actually painful.  For the last month I've had contractions every day, but they weren't painful.  Josh left class and we got to the hospital at 12:15.

When I first got there I was 7cm already.  FINALLY!  I was moved back to a LDR.  My doctor came in and offered to break my water at that point.  I decided to wait a little longer and see what was going to happen.  At that point I wasn't talking through contractions but I was able to breathe through them just fine.  After an hour they checked me again and found out I was still a 7.  At that point I gave up my plans for a natural birth.  I was still breathing through contractions but I was starting to get really tired.  Then comes the epidural.

So the epidural worked on one side of me really well, the other side it made my leg go to sleep, but I could feel the pressure from the hips up.  Once my legs were asleep they checked me again and I was at a 9.  My doctor went ahead and broke my water since it wasn't looking like it would break on its own.  I still felt the pressure in my leg despite trying to move or increase the dosage of the epidural.  After twenty minutes the pressure wasn't going away and I knew it was time to push.  The doctor came in and I started pushing.  I pushed 3 times during one contraction and out came a cute little girl!


Now came the interesting part.  With Michael I had a bad placenta.  I don't know what exactly was wrong with it but it just sucked.  It was constantly trying to come out, which was why I bled through pregnancy.  I had the opposite problem with this placenta, it wouldn't come out!  After twenty minutes the doctor finally had to put her whole hand up there and rip the placenta out.  It sounds painful right?  Well it is!!  It hurt worse than labor.  Labor was a joy compared to this.  Thankfully it was done in a couple of minutes.

Overall my labor was short and sweet, minus the afterbirth.  Josh and I were joking that we will need to move next to a hospital before we have any more children!

About one day old

My favorite people in the world!

Photo Update

Mostly of Michael again, but I can't help it!  Besides....why would I take a picture of myself?

See those cheeks??  They are just like his dads

Josh was trying to do homework and Michael decided to steal his ruler

FAVORITE PICTURE EVER!

He loves the piano

Cute baby hand and huge swollen prego hand

What We've Been Doing

First thing first, sorry for the length of this blog!!  Lately there have been more and more things Michael won't let me do, blogging is one of them (he tries to hit all the keys on the keyboard).

My Pregnancy

To describe the miracle of pregnancy I will use one word: LONG!  I'm ready to be done!! I'm 39 weeks on Friday and waiting for this to be over with.  There are so many reasons, but mostly I want to be able to play with Michael again.  I miss chasing that little guy!  So I'm done with this! My doctor could tell I was.  If I don't have this baby by next Tuesday she will induce me.  I wish it could be earlier, but because of the days she works and the days she schedules C-sections I have to wait (I'm not having a CS hopefully but she only schedules those on Mondays).  She said it was very likely for me to not make it until then because last Friday I was 3cm already (TMI sorry!).  I went into the doctor for Michael about 2 days before he was born and heard the same thing.  So come out already!

Anyways, I've mentioned I don't post a lot of pictures of myself because I feel extra fat.  Well I still do, but I figured I should post (even take) one picture while still pregnant.  Here is ridiculously huge me at 38 weeks.  I will admit that the only reason I let Josh take this pic was because I felt less swollen that day more than any other day for the last couple weeks.

My Nesting

I'm not the messiest person in the world (I know you're laughing mom) but I'm not the cleanest.  I enjoy deep cleaning.  So much so that when I do clean everything has to be so perfect that I don't clean it again for a few months.  Josh does the spot cleaning around here.  I also hate the dishes, but I'm such a perfectionist about cleaning that I rarely let Josh do them.

My nesting has been a joy for Josh.  Except when I made him move the couches so I could scrub the baseboards.  I've done that, I've cleaned a few blinds, refolded the linen closet, and so much more.  Today I put together all of our bills and pay stubs from last year.  While I was doing that Michael was doing this to our recycle bin.  I would have been slightly annoyed except it kept him busy for a half hour and only took two minutes to clean up.

Crafts

I've almost finished with the top of Michael's quilt.  It was supposed to be his 1st birthday present....ya I'll be happy if he gets it before he's 18 months.  I don't have a picture of it now, but I will soon.  I also did this puzzle I got for my birthday.

I really like puzzles.  Josh laughs that they are the only thing I actually finish in a respectable amount of time.  It's true, but I still get mad at him for saying it!

The Sippy

We had a few goals for Michael before this new baby comes.  One was walking....he's close but just refuses to do it.  Another was to get him off formula and a bottle.  For being so stubborn about walking, it was easy to get him to a sippy only.  When we got the go-ahead on milk from his doctor we started giving it to him in a bottle.  After about two weeks he was drinking as much milk as he would formula, so we packed up the formula.  Then we started giving him sippys just after naps.  That wasn't working well, so we just packed up the bottles and gave him sippys.  I thought he would resist a little more, but it only took one sippy before bed until he was all for the sippy.  A week ago I actually ran out of clean sippys and didn't want to take the time to clean one,  so I put some milk in a bottle again.  He cried and drank an ounce, then threw the bottle on the ground.  He will never go back to bottles!

Random

So here are a few random things.  I bake a bit.  Not a ton, and I don't claim to be an excellent cook, but I do love baking.  A few years ago I was with my aunt and she cracked open an egg to find two yolks.  I had never seen that before and thought it was pretty cool.  She told me it happened a lot with Costco eggs.  Never having had a Costco card, I've always wanted to find one anyways.  A few days ago I was making Michael and I eggs for breakfast and it happened!  I found one!  Yes I know it's dorky but it's something I've been waiting to see for years.

I've posted some pictures before of deer right outside our doors eating flowers.  I think I also posted about them eating our pumpkins.  Well they've stayed around for the winter.  Here are a few that are frequently around.

There is one on the right in front of the tree

There is also a mother and baby that we see a lot.  This morning they walked by the window while I was giving Michael his milk.  Every once in a while when everything is silent in the house you can hear them walking around outside.  Actually it's kinda creepy...but now I know it's not a person.

Neglected Blog...

I feel like I've neglected the blog lately.  Maybe because the holidays were crazy.  Maybe because Josh is in school again.  More likely because I'm so big we don't do much of anything anymore.  I'm posting this pictureless post to say yes, we are alive and well.  No, there is not a new baby yet.  We are just busy right now, especially since it takes me 4x longer to do anything due to the fact that I can't bend over, can't pick up heavy things, and am exhausted!  The next post will have a few things we've been doing lately....or maybe a new baby post.  It really depends on when this little girl decides to make her entrance (which should be any day now since I've had contractions for the last month :P).  Until then, thanks for reading, and sorry about falling off the grid!

Photo Update

My parents have this basketball hoop to Michael for his birthday.  We didn't think he would use it for a while, but we were wrong!  His new favorite thing to do is to put the ball through the hoop repeatedly.

Christmas

Despite my last blog, we really did have a good Christmas!  Josh and I have great families and we love seeing each other. 

Christmas Eve we spent with my family.  We had dinner, then talked about Christmas, played some fun games, and then opened presents.  Michael was having a really rough day....well I would love to say day, but he has had a rough week.  I'm sorry to my family!

Anyways we had a lot of fun!  Last year we started playing some minute to win it games, and it's stuck with the family.  I rock at the puzzle game, but suck at sucking up M&M's with a straw and moving them.  When I say suck, I mean really, really suck.  My 4-year-old niece did at least 2x better than I did...Ya, horrible.  Josh is pretty good at all of them. 

We spent the morning at home opening presents.  Here is our tree.  We probably should have put more ornaments up, but we were happy with the few we had.  Plus Michael didn't destroy any.

In the afternoon we went and saw my grandparents.  My grandpa found out he had shingles a couple of days ago, but we decided to visit anyways.  It was a fun, but short, visit.

That night we went to Josh's moms house for dinner.  His grandparents were there and so were a few siblings.  We had a good dinner (except Michael was pretty fussy again) and opened presents. 

Josh and I didn't really get anything for each other for Christmas.  We are at a point in our marriage where we buy things when we need them, and most of the things we want are very expensive and unneccesary.  Does this happen with other couples??  I could have gotten him an iPad, but he really wouldn't use it that often.  He could have gotten me a kitchenaid mixer, but I would get so sick of cleaning it that it would rarely get used. 

So we got stuff for Michael.  He got clothes (mostly for the future), a few puzzles, and toys.  We got some really nice gifts from out family as well.  Overall it was a really good Christmas.  I just get burnt out too easily! 

Here are a few more pictures

Michael's ornament this year

Opening presents entertained him for about 5 minutes, hopefully next year he enjoys it a little more