Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Hey baby, hey baby, hey!


Well as most of you know, our little bundle of joy came out to play on Friday the 18th. He was born at 6:05 pm and weighed 7 pounds 11.6 ounces and 21 inches long. The delivery was actually pretty smooth, just took forever! We arrived at the hospital at 7:00 am, got checked in and hung out in the waiting room for about 10-20 minutes before our nurse came and brought us back to the room. I put on the lovely hospital gown and got into the oh so comfy bed. She strapped two monitors to my belly, one for his heart and one for my contractions. Apparently I'd been having contractions and didn't know - what I thought was him stretching out and pushing his feet against my belly was actually a contraction. After she did all that, checked my blood pressure and my temperature, she hooked up my IV and started the pitocin.

I have to say I pretty much wimped out. As soon as the pitocin kicked in, I started feeling my contractions in my lower back and asked for the epidural right away. And here is the most painful part of my labor journey. when they inserted the epidural, he must have hit some sort of nerve as I no longer was experiencing my contractions in my tummy and lower back - they were all concentrated in my right upper thigh. That was probably the most excruciating 2 hours of my life until they got my epidural out and redone. They actually had to call some one else in to fix it, the guy that gave it to me the first time struggled for about 30 minutes before he called some one else in. Once the 2nd epidural was in, it was smooth sailing. I no longer felt anything and actually napped.

At about 3:30 I got the urge to push, so we started that. The worst part of it was feeling like my head was about to pop off my shoulders when I was pushing. :-) 3 hours later, Ben decided to come out and see what all the fuss was about! I did cry a little when they put him on my chest for me to see and hold him - I couldn't believe he was finally here and all mine.

The rest of the hospital stay was pretty basic, I suppose. My parents came out that night while i was still in the labor & delivery room to see Ben and bring me some freshly baked cinnamon rolls - I was dying of hunger. They said to have just a light meal before coming in, as I might have a reaction to the medicine. I was so excited, I couldn't sleep past 4:30 that morning and so at 4:30 I had a croissant and a small glass of orange juice. Didn't eat until after 7:00 that night and was RAVENOUS. I made every one in the delivery room laugh when I said "I can't believe all I can think about right now is how hungry I am" in between pushing sessions. I ordered a hamburger from the cafeteria and I swear it was the best tasting food I'd ever had.

The next day we had a few visitors. My brother, Carin and the kids came and Victor & Tiffany came and then my parents came out again. Ben passed his hearing test and got the a-okay from the pediatrician. We were discharged on Sunday and sent home.

Having Ben at home is so wonderful and so challenging at the same time. He does absolutely beautifully during the day - eats and sleeps on a pretty consistent time line & he fusses very little. Actually the days are pretty boring while he's sleeping. I don't know what to do with myself. I'm trying to nap often in preparation for those nights that aren't as fun. For some reason, Ben's got an insatiable appetite at night. Sunday night was horrific. Monday night was only slightly better. We visited the doctor on Tuesday and she instructed us to replace every 2nd or 3rd feeding with formula to encourage those wet diapers (he was only having one wet diaper a day) and I have to say since we started doing that, last night was much better.

I'm so stoked about pee and poop now. Every time we have to change him, I cheer a little. I giggle over all the little faces he makes. I excited to watch him grow and change and develop. I'm excited to get to the point where we're sleeping through the night again. :-)

I can't believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve. Since I stopped working, I have completely lost all perspective of time. It just doesn't feel like Christmas! Usually at this point, I'm running around like a chicken with it's head cut off, trying to finish my last minute shopping and get everything wrapped. This year I'm all done and there's nothing to do but wait.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Time's Up!

Well, today is officially my last day of being pregnant! It's been a pretty amazing journey so far - started way back in April when I finally took a test that came up positive just three days before Nick's birthday. I was going to wait and tell him on his birthday, but I was just so excited I couldn't keep it to myself. I giggled like a little kid ALL day long that day. Then we told my parents not long after Mother's Day and his parents right after that. Then we shared with every one else our good news!

Pregnancy has been a fairly easy adventure for me. I did have a bout of morning sickness for most of my first trimester - I soon discovered that Strawberry Pop-Tarts, vitamin B6 and taking my prenatal at night instead of in the morning were my life savers. So while I was sick every day, it didn't seem as bad as some of the horror stories I'd heard. Sick in the morning, fine by mid-morning and smooth sailing for the rest of the day. I didn't have any surprise STD's (you have no idea how relieved I was to learn that I did not in fact have herpes....and if there was ever a need for a sarcastic font, this would be the place to use it! LOL!) and I passed my glucose test with flying colors. Even the drink wasn't that disgusting - I mean, it's nothing I'd ever say "oohh, pour me a glass of glucose drink!", but I was able to get it down.

Finding out the gender was way exciting. I had no idea one way or the other. Nick's mom was hoping for a girl, since she has a grandson already; my mom was hoping for a boy since she has two granddaughters and one grandson already; Nick was certain boy since I was eating meat like a caveman; Brenda at work was certain girl....the very first picture we got of him was of his boy bits. He's squirmy and most of our ultrasound pictures are blurry because he won't sit still.

I never had any strange cravings. I did go through a pickle phase, where I probably had 3 jars of pickles total - but I wasn't like dipping them in peanut butter or anything odd. I also had a lemonade phase, where I was drinking a carton of Simply Lemonade every other day. The biggest thing I craved was hamburgers. McDonald's $1 cheeseburgers were what I wanted and I probably had one (or two...) 5 times a week. But that being said, I haven't gained much weight. So far I'm at 5 pounds total for my pregnancy, so by the time this little boy is born, I'll weigh less than I did before I got pregnant (woo hoo). I didn't do the swelling thing, I was able to wear my regular shoes and my rings the whole pregnancy.

I still don't like chocolate. I wonder if that's a taste that will come back after he's born, or if I'm just off chocolate for life. The only thing bummer about that is I keep craving brownies. I haven't made any yet because I'm fairly certain I won't like them but I want one. Other than that, I'm not too bummed about not liking chocolate any more :-)

Decorating the nursery was so much fun. We did it slow - started out with just the crib that Nana Anson bought us not long after we announced we were expecting. The rest of it was on hold until we found out boy or girl. Once we knew we were getting a little boy monkey, we took that theme to heart and picked out monkey bedding. We painted the walls a nice sunny yellow and slowly but surely accumulated all the things we need. I'm sure there's stuff I'm missing and I'm sure there's stuff I thought I had to have that I'll never use - but we won't know what any of that is til we discover we need it and don't have it or go "well, that was a waste of money" :-)

The baby shower was so much fun. I really restricted myself and didn't go hog wild buying things (in fact, I don't think I bought one thing for him before the baby shower) until after the shower. Susan came out from Ohio to host and my mom graciously let us use her house for it. Some of the husbands came and huddled together in the basement with my dad and Nick to play pool, drink beer and be manly men.

So tomorrow is the big day. I go in at 7:00 and will have a baby at some point during the day. I'm starting to get nervous - yesterday I didn't really feel one way or the other about it. Today I'm getting nervous/anxious. I'm not thrilled still with the idea of labor. I'm really trying to not think about that part and just think that I get to bring a bundle of baby home with me, but even that part is a little overwhelming. I know we'll do fine and I have a terrific support system here if I need it but it is overwhelming and intimidating.

Nick is like certain Ben is coming today and as such has taken today off work. And as such, I'm making him do home work. Insert diabolical laughter here. This is actually perfect timing - Nick is off from school for the next two week for Christmas and New Years, so our evenings can be spent together. Since his work is so flexible and allows him to work from home as often as possible, he'll be here at a lot to help. I do have some last minute Christmas shopping to do today, so at some point I'll actually go get ready for the day and we'll get that stuff taken care of.

My hospital bag is all packed and in the car. Ben's bag is all packed (for the 3rd time....I keep changing his going home outfit) and in the car. The car seat is installed and ready to go. And tomorrow! Tomorrow!!! Tomorrow we get to finally meet him!!! The hospital called me a few minutes ago to talk about what I need to do for tomorrow and ask me a barrage of questions. And good news! The ban on visitors has been lifted so you can all come visit me on Saturday :-) And bring me prizes. We'll do our best to keep you updated via FB updates once things get going...because I know it's all each and every one of you will be thinking about tomorrow. LOL

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Happy December!

And Happy First Day Of Maternity Leave! It wasn't a super productive day but any means. I "slept in" until about 8:00ish and played on the computer most of the day. I did make sugar cookies - from scratch (first time I've ever started with home made dough, usually I buy the already made kind). The first batch was a tad over done:

but the rest of them looked pretty good!
I don't much care for them - not "sugary" enough for me - but Nick thinks they're fantastic. :-)

I have been productive other days of this week, though. I couldn't make myself go to work on Monday so I bailed on them yet again and stayed home. I cleaned out the freezer, organized my beef (my parents and I went halfsies on a 1/4 of a beef cow - we each got about 100 or so pounds of different cuts of beef) and then cooked. I made a tamale casserole, a tuna noodle casserole and a lasagna.
I also made some freezer jam with some of the berries I found in the freezer. I made two tubs of strawberry and one tub of blueberry. I put some of the strawberry jam on my sugar cookies today and it's SUPER good!

I've been working on filling out the baby book that Susan got me. I've pretty much got all the entries done that I can do before he's born. I need to fill it up with some photos. I'm also working on a family frame collage for his room. I'm waiting for my brothers family to shoot me over some pictures of them (as I was going through my pictures I found I don't have anything of just them since the 90s! and I realized I hardly took any photos at Thanksgiving, so I don't even really have anything terribly recent of their kids) and then I can order my prints up from Snapfish and get the collage put together and hung up:




Got the car seat all installed and the diaper bag stowed away. We're just waiting for him to arrive.


Had my weekly appointment on Monday and unfortunately I hadn't made much progress. Last Monday I was dilated to barely a 2 and this Monday I was dilated to a full two. The sound you hear is me banging my head in frustration. I gained one pound since last Monday - probably due to my intense appetite recently. I feel like I'm starving all the time. But other than that, doctor notice my blood pressure has been steadily increasing. It's certainly not in the danger zone but she wants to keep an eye on it. So I decided to start my maternity leave a little early. I went to work on Tuesday, cleared up my loose ends and officially started leave today. Plan right now is for me to go back on March 1st. I have enough vacation to pay me through almost all of January so we'll test the waters in February and see if we really can survive on Nick's check alone. If so, then I'll push back going back to work for the full 3 months FMLA says I get (so going back in May). If not, then March 1st it is.

Nick started his winter quarter on Monday. He finished last quarter with all B's. Not that B's are bad - I'm thrilled he's doing so well - but I have noticed his concentration in school has been decreasing since we found out we were having a baby. I hope that Ben's arrival doesn't make his grades dip. It's important to us both that he do well - I mean....this is a freakish amount of money we're shelling out for his schooling, so we want him to do well at it.

So, baby pool. So far we've knocked out:
Emma - 12/02
My mom - 12/03
Heidi - 12/04
Carin - 12/06
Jamie (brother), Dad & Tara - 12/07
Stephen, Tiffany & Connor - 12/08

Unless this baby comes tonight (and so far it doesn't look like it) we'll also knock out Victor who guessed today.

And that's my stellar update. :-)

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

whine. complain. blah, blah, blah

Oh I'm getting crabby. I left work today early because I had this anxious feeling - got all shaky inside and my palms were sweating and I just couldn't sit still. I came home and did some chores - nothing major like deciding to iron my curtains or something equally as uncharacteristic...I felt like 100% better as soon as I walked in the door but before too long that anxious feeling returned. There's a few things contributing to this, I'm sure.
  1. I'm tired of doing this now and I want this baby to get here
  2. Nick pointed out that my shift in attitude came when the doctor said "any day now" - I've been quite impatiently waiting for that "any day" to be NOW
  3. I'm rapidly approaching my due date and every one that knows me, knows I'm impatient and hate to wait. I want what I want when I want it. Hey, what can I say? I'm a product of my decade of indulgence...
I have exactly 2 weeks from today til my due date. I feel like this part is taking forever. I was certain, convinced and would have bet my life on the fact that he was going to decide to come over Thanksgiving break. I mentally left my job and it was so hard to go back. Every day is a struggle - I keep trying to be ready to have a baby and stay at home and take care of him but apparently he's just not ready to come out yet.

I'm trying SO hard to have patience and just wait it out but dang it that's easier said than done. I know d-day is right around the corner and even that isn't an exact date of when that happens. I think that right there is the crux of the problem. It's just a waiting game. The 16th is his estimated arrival...he could come tonight. He could come tomorrow. He could come next Thursday. He could come on the 18th. We just don't know and I HATE the not knowing.

Had my weekly check up on Monday. I hadn't made much progress dilation wise - I was at about a 2. Doctor did a procedure where she stripped my membranes (if you don't know what that is, you can google it - I'm not going in to it here). It was quite an uncomfortable feeling but nothing that I'd absolutely refuse to do again. So far it hasn't worked. Apparently if it is a successful attempt, baby comes with in 24-72 hours. We're at the end of 48 hours and NOTHING. I've had a few - far between - contractions but nothing to write home about. So. Sigh. I'd also gained 2 more pounds so he's chunking up in there.

Poor Nick is avoiding making plans. He's on full red-alert. Eric invited him to the BSU game this Friday and Nick passed - not wanting to be at the game and get a call that I'm in labor. We're just both so ready to get on with the next stage...but the key player has stage fright.

Oh well. In non-whining, non-bitching & moaning news. ha. Susan ordered me the CUTEST baby book that came today. I spent quite some time filling out all the spaces I can right now. I've got to go stick it in the diaper bag to take with us to the hospital (if I ever GO to the hospital...oh...wait...that was whining s'more...whoops). Nick ordered us new phones (we were both due for an upgrade). I have the coooooooolest new phone - it's a Samsung Exclaim. it's got one of those slide out keyboard dealies and I can get on the internet on it and join the rest of the 21st century. ha! Nick ordered himself the Blackberry Curve. it's preeeeeety. So we've been spending all evening playing with our new phones.

So that's my update. Nothing much but a bunch of whining. We're just waiting. And we all know much I just LOVE to wait.