Friday, August 21, 2009

'It's the morning of your very first day"

-"Fifteen" by Taylor Swift

Leah started first grade at a new school! It's quite different from her old school. It's year round and has uniforms. She looks so cute every morning!
Leah wanted to take a picture of herself... apparently she's secretly a pirate ;)
I was afraid she would think the full day of school was too much. I think I may have been a little too dramatic when I explained it was "all day" this year because when I picked Leah up on the first day she got in the van and said, "It's not ALL day Mom it's not even dark outside!". Way to be positive Leah :)

"I wanna remember this"

- Linda Davis
*Ah, the song lyric titles are back! I feel like me again ;)

These are the random things I want to remember forever:

She weighed 8lbs 11 oz and was 19 inches long.

When I came home from the hospital Davis said to me, "Your belly still looks big. What's in there?" Ummmm...

The first night Whitney was home from the hospital she wouldn't sleep unless I snuggled her in my arms. So cute!

A stranger was admiring Whitney in a store and Davis proudly said, "She sneezed and farted and the same time!". Ha ha, it's probably not something she wants him to tell people but I think he thought she was just really talented... and FYI it was true :)

Whitney was taking a nap on my bed and Davis "shared" his toys with her.
1 week old.

The kids were hanging out with my parents when we moved out of the small house, they never saw it empty and haven't been back since. We're staying at their grandparent's house right now so I have a question: When the kids say they want to go home where are they talking about!?

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Update

I haven't had any energy to blog. I've had a hectic few weeks and keep forgetting I'm still in my postpartum "recovery" stage. I was actually surprised at how quickly my energy was depleted while I was packing. My sister kept having to remind me to take breaks and make sure to eat. I am a nursing mother after all.

Anyways, Whitney is a lovely baby. She eats, sleeps and poops amazingly :) She's spent the past two weeks in her car-seat going to Home Depot a few times a day. Meema and Papa Bryan came into town for the weekend and Amber was here as well with her two boys. It was crazy coordinating all those people but it worked out great.

Most things witht this house purchase have taken A LOT longer than projected. And most of it isn't our fault at all. It's a lesson in patience :) The lasted drama is that the flooring we ordered didn't come in when expected. I guess you could say it was backordered but nobody knew it. We paid for it, the distribution company ordered it, and then it never came in! Long story short we had to move out of our little house to accomodate the renters, but our new house isn't move-in ready... so, we're living at Jeff's parents house. Most of our possesions are at the new house in the garage so Jeff sleeps there to protect it. It's kinda crazy I guess.

I'd upload pictures but EVERYTHING is packed! I can't even find the charger for my cell phone so if you've tried to call me that's why it goes straight to voicemail.

Hopefully we'll be in by next week since school starts on Monday!

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

We're off to the hospital...

I wasn't having painful contractions, and even though I felt we needed to go to the hospital, we took our time getting there. We got chicken soft tacos from Del Taco since they don't let you eat or drink once you get there (which is dumb) and just overall enjoyed the excitement of knowing our baby will be here soon.

At the hospital they did a swab to make sure my water had actually broken and then admitted me. I was dilated to 4cm and 75% effaced. Since I wasn't having contractions that were 3-5 minutes apart she said my doctor would probably put me on Pitocin and wanted to put the IV in. Well, my doctor is awesome and listens to me, so I told her I didn't want the Pitocin or the IV until we've given my body A CHANCE to progress on it's own. She said she couldn't promise anything and would talk to my doctor (who wasn't on call for the weekend but gave me permission to have them call him anyways, thank you Dr. Groom!). He agreed with my orders LOL so I was able to sleep as much as I could that night and then have them augment my labor in the morning if I needed it.

By morning I was dilated to 5 ½ almost 6cm, which isn't much progression for 12 hours of labor. I maybe could have waited some more but I did want to have my baby and get out of there :) So I agreed to the Pitocin but told them I didn't want an epidural until the contractions were too painful.

Side note: The nurse that checked me in was a little impersonal, if that's a word, and kinda gruff. Thank goodness she wasn't the one who was assigned to me once I was admitted. In the middle of the night she did have to come in and turn off a random alarm that was going off and had the nerve to say, “You haven't delivered yet.” kinda snarky. What!? It's not a race lady!

So, they start the Pitocin at 8am and my labor was uneventful until about 12. By this time I was only dilated to 7cm and having contractions 3-5 minutes apart. I had a lovely nurse, I wish I remembered her name, and she said that my cervix was completely flat but she felt the baby was still really high. She thought maybe it was because she was facing my hip instead of my tail-bone so she had me lay on my side. In this position it seemed like the contractions were more intense (probably because they were causing the baby to move down applying more pressure on my cervix). My nurse had had a baby without and epidural before so she said that I had to tell her when I felt more pressure because we need to call my doctor to get there before I had the urge to push.

Unfortunately it all happened so fast and I had to WAIT for my doctor to get there. Once I'd gotten tired of laboring on my side I sat up and felt a gush of fluid. I was very surprised at how much fluid had rushed out but my nurse was very calm telling me it was normal. Until the next contraction started and it was VERY different. I could feel the baby's head VERY low and felt the urge to push! My nurse checked my cervix and ran out to call my doctor. We all had a chuckle about that. She didn't even tell me what my dilation was until she came back :)

At this point I'm dilated to 9cm and the baby's head it "a lot lower" according to the nurse. The contractions are much more intense and I'm having to fight the urge to push. Looking back I'm sure it was all very comical, like the movies. I was having to do that "hee, hee, hee" breathing technique to get through them. I think if my doctor had been there I would have delivered right then. It took him 15 or 20 minutes to get there so I had to breath through several painful contractions. I could see the clock and after 15 minutes I told Jeff, "Dr. Groom has one more contraction to get here." I was done waiting.

As soon as he walked in the door I could help but cheer! He even said, "you're still smiling!?" since he knew I didn't have any pain meds LOL. Anyways, they laid me back and put my legs in the stirrups as he's putting on his gown and gloves. As soon as a contraction started I could tell there was NO POSSIBLE WAY to breathe through it in this position. Even though the nurses were telling me to breath and let him get his gloves on it was impossible. So, even though I'm not really pushing, the contraction pushes baby Whitney out!! Dr. Groom had one glove on and had to pull the sleeve of his gown over the other to catch her!!

They put her on my chest and I can't help but say, "she looks so little!". Her newness was just amazing and adorable. The nurses assured me she was a good sized baby :) And took her to clean her up and weigh her.

Overall it was a wonderful experience. I don't agree with a lot of modern obstetrical practices, most of my friends and home births for this reason, but overall I felt like my doctor listened to me and let me decide, which I greatly appreciate.

I still don't feel like I can say I had a natural labor since I choose to have it augmented with Pitocin. In the end though I'm glad I was able to have this experience and would do it again if I ever get pregnant again. Only I'd call my doctor MUCH earlier, ha ha. He can wait for me to be fully dilated much easier than I can wait for him once I am!

Monday, August 10, 2009

The day my water broke...

Saturday, August 1st was a busy day. I knew Misty was going to come into town some time in the early afternoon. We tried our best to clean, it was still a mess when she got here, but we tried! My kids wanted to take Abby to Chuck E. Cheese's so when they got here around noon we sprung it on them, and they graciously obliged :) It took us awhile to get ready and in the meantime I realized my mucus plug had come out. Ohhh, a sign of labor!

We went to In-n-Out Burger to eat... because Chuck E. Cheese's pizza is NOT good... and then we spent an hour or so at the pizza place spending the left-over tokens I'd had kicking around. Grayson had stayed home with dad so the big kids just ran around having fun. Leah and Abby even held hands since they are "best friends" according to them :) To say that I was having labor pains during this time would be an over-statement. I will say I could tell something was happening.

Pretty late in the evening I remembered a 30% off coupon I had for Old Navy that expired on Sunday so I insisted on going. I needed to buy Leah some school uniforms since her new school is starting them this year and I ended up getting an awesome deal. So awesome I wish I'd bought more, lots more. Anyways, it was just Misty & I with baby Grace, after Old Navy we needed to do some grocery shopping but on the way we stopped at Tropical Smoothie :) So we get our groceries and I remember I need apples too and we meander on back...

my water breaks right there in the produce section!

If I'd been wearing a dress, which I had the entire week prior to this day, it would have been messy. Luckily I'd opted for jeans that day so it just looked like I'd peed my pants, ha ha. Misty's water had broken with her first baby so she was very empathetic :) I went out to the car while Misty paid.

This was for two reasons:

  1. I couldn't wait to tell Jeff!!

  2. It looked like I'd peed my pants, how embarrassing!

In retrospect it was a very busy day.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Where has the time gone?

It's been a crazy few days. I was released from the hospital Monday, my in-laws had a quick get together for my upcoming birthday that night at their house. There was cheesecake and the kids swam but mostly everyone just commented on the baby. It was pretty much a consensus we should call her "Tiger Lily" since she looks like she belongs in a papoose :)

Then we signed the papers on our house Tuesday morning at 9am! We thought we'd get the keys Wednesday or Thursday so we went to Home Depot and bought a bunch of supplies we're going to need to "fix" it up. But this process is so PAINFULLY slow right now that here it is Thursday night and we STILL have no keys :( Hopefully tomorrow.

Baby Whitney is doing great. She eats and sleeps like a champ! She's reminds me a lot of Leah at this age, even their cries sound the same. Whitney has A LOT more hair though, it's too cute!

The big kids have welcomed her with open arms, it's been nice! One day I'll write about my experience in the hospital but I don't have the hands right now.





Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Baby Whitney is here!

My water broke on Saturday at around 7:30pm in the produce section of the grocery store! Misty had come into town earlier in the day and she and I were doing some last minute shopping... it's funny how things work out :)

I'm super tired right now or I'd write the whole story and upload some pictures.