Thursday, July 30, 2009

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful for my husband. (Even though he looks kind of grump in this picture :)) He is my best friend, my right hand man, and the best foot rub giver around. :)
I am thankful for my son. He is the sweetest, snuggliest little baby. I could hold him and cuddle him all day long!
I am thankful for daughter. She is growing up into a sweet, sensitive little girl. I love listening to her stories and being blessed by her innocent take on life.

And I am ever so thankful for my heavenly father, who loves me despite my shortcomings, and who has blessed me so far beyond what I deserve!

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Gabe's One Month Pictures

I wanted to do this one, so that I can compare each month and see how he is growing.
I think this is my favorite.
This is probably my second favorite.
It's hard work being cute :)
Surfer dude!!

I can't believe he is one month old already!! He is such a good baby. He only fusses if he is hungry or wants to be held. He eats about every three hours and the pas two nights has slept one five hour chunk before being back on his feeding schedule. He still sleeps a lot but is starting to stay awake for longer time periods :) I love you little boy and can't wait to see what the next month holds :)

Monday, July 20, 2009

Gabes Birth Story

Well, I am finally getting around to writing out Gabe’s birth story. I have been doing such a bad job of blogging these past few weeks. I have all these things that I think about that would be fun to post, but by the time that 9 o’clock rolls around each evening, I am so tired I just fall into bed. I am really going to try and do better though. Really really  I digress though, back to the matters at hand. Here is the story of my little man’s birthday 

June 23, 2009
7:00 am – I woke up and went to the bathroom, because I pretty much had to pee every ten seconds at this point in my pregnancy, and I lost my mucous plug. Nick was in the shower, and I told him what happened. I told him to go ahead and go to work, because it could still be a couple of days to a week, and that I would call him if anything started to happen. I had one contraction before he went to work, but that was it. I was thinking it was going to be awhile.

In the meantime, I got Hannah up and we got dressed and showered, and ready to go run some errands with my mom and sister. At this point the contractions were 20-25 minutes apart, so I figured it was safe to go get some milk and run to the post office. On the way to the post office, the contractions suddenly changed to 7-8 minutes apart. I got the mail, but went straight home after that.

9:00 am – I decided to call Nick at work and tell him that he should probably start thinking about heading home. I told him it wasn’t urgent and he didn’t need to speed or anything, but that I was sure this was the real thing. Lucky for me, my mom and sister were with me, and helped keep Hannah entertained. Once Nick got home, they took her to the park to play, and we promised to call with updates.

10:30 am – The contractions were now 5 minutes apart and I decided to call the Dr. to see if we should head to the hospital. We live 40 minutes away from where we had Gabe, so I wanted to be safe. The Dr. said to go ahead and start going to the hospital. We farted around a bit, Nick got his bag packed and we loaded everything up and then headed to the hospital.

12:00 pm – We get to the hospital and get into a room and the nurse checks and I am 4 cm. I was excited, because I hade been “a good 2cm” 4 days earlier at my Dr. appointment, so I felt even more sure that this was it. The nurse said that they would check again in an hour to see if things were progressing.

1:15 pm – The nurse comes in and checks again and says that I am still at 4 cm. I was disappointed, but at this point contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and pretty uncomfortable, so I still thought I was in labor. The nurse proceeds to tell me that they will probably send me home, because I didn’t make any cervical change, and that you are not technically “in labor” unless you make cervical change. When the nurse leaves the room I tell my husband that I am SURE that this is the real thing, and if they send me home I am going to kill someone!!
I decided to ask if I could get up and walk to see if that would help move things along and the nurse said that was fine. Nick and I walk the halls for 15 minutes before the nurse makes me go back to the room and says that she will check again at 2:30.

2:30 pm – The nurse check and I am 5-6 cm. HORRAY!! I wanted to tell the nurse “I told you so” but was able to contain myself  At this point I was getting very uncomfortable and I told my nurse that I would like my epidural please. She then tells me that I must have a low pain tolerance, and that they would need to start my IV and get some labs first. I sort of wanted to kill the nurse when she told me my pain tolerance was low, but I again controlled myself, and said that was fine.

The nurse came in to start my IV and missed on the first try but got it on the second, and also drew some labs. She said that once the lab work was back, that they could get the epidural started. She came back a little while later and told me that the blood had clotted that she had drawn, and that they would have to draw it again before the epidural could be started. GRRRRR!

3:30ish – The CRNA came in to start going over paper work for the epidural, and we were still waiting on labs. Once I signed my life away the CRNA told me that she felt by looking at me that it wasn’t going to be much longer and that she would take me word that I was a normal healthy person, and go ahead and start putting the epidural in. I wanted to kiss her!!

3:45 pm – The epidural is in! I am starting to feel some numbness, but can still really feel the contractions. All the sudden my water breaks. I called the nurse and she came in and checked me and I was 9 and a half cm. I was excited, but also scared, because I could still really feel the contractions.

4:15-4:45 pm – I suddenly started to feel really intense pain and a lot of pressure. I tell my husband to tell the nurse. She checks and says I am fully dilated, and I tell her that I am really feeling like a want to push. She asks me to try and wait, so I did my best. Once the Dr. gets there and says it’s a good thing they didn’t send me home. NO KIDDING!! I push 7-8 times. Luckily at this point the epidural has kicked in enough that I can push relatively pain free.

4:46 pm – Gabe is born! He cried right away. They put him on my chest and I fell in love. 

Monday, July 6, 2009

Catching up

Things are finally starting to settle down around here, and we are beginning to get into a groove. I am a total routine person, and I am starting to feeling like the beginnings of a routine are emerging. The week after Gabe was born, was wonderfully busy, but also exhausting. My sister Steph was in town for a week which was wonderful! We don't get to spend nearly enough time together and it was so fun to get to know her little Sera-bean a little better :) The week included two camp fires with family, visiting with both great-grandma's, and lots of snuggling with my two little turkeys :)

Yesterday we all skipped church and just stayed home and relaxed. We slept in, went for a walk, and I was even able to take Hannah up to the playground by our house for some one on one time with Mommy. Hannah has been adjusting fairly well to having a new baby in the house. I can tell she genuinely loves her little brother :) She doesn't like it when he starts to cry and she will say, "its ok little man" or she will tell me to go and get him because he is crying. Too cute!!

Today we had Gabe's two week check-up at the Dr. He is up to 8lbs 12 ounces (he was 8 lbs 4 ounces at birth) and the Dr. said that he is doing really well. That is always good to hear :) Today was also my first day taking the two kids somewhere by myself. For the most part it went really well. I did have to climb up the plaything at Chick-Fila to rescue Hannah, because while she had no trouble climbing up, coming down was another story :) But other than that it went really well. :)

Well I hear little girls waking up from their afternoon nap, so I must go.

More pictures and Gabe's story coming soon!!