I am extremely guilty of not paying attention to what is going on in the world and even the very country that I live in. While talking to my SIL who lives in North Carolina yesterday, I JUST realized that they are still suffering from problems caused by the hurricanes/storms that happened weeks ago. I was just told a few days ago that all of the coverage about the economy had really over shadowed any news about those still recovering from the storms in the southeast and especially in Southern Texas and I really believe it.
Yesterday, Amy and all of the kids were off of school. Amy is a teacher and the girls go to a County school. All state funded programs were really cutting back due to the gas shortage. Amy was telling me that they basically have to look online to see who actually has gas, then get in their car and hope that there is still gas once they get to the station. Just the other day, her husband Michael was actually the LAST person to fill up at the station that he was at before they posted the "No Gas" sign.
It is just amazing to me and really kind of hits hard when I realize how "into my own world" I can get sometimes! I am going to try harder to pay more attention to those things outside of daily realm of reality.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Abels Look-alike Meter
5 weeks later
I am finally posting the birthing story, but since it has been 5 weeks already (I still can't believe that!) I am going to give you all the condensed version.
As a recap, I had been to my Dr on Tuesday, Aug 19th and she offered to induce me the next day. Since that was Wednesday, the middle of the week AND my mom wasn't going to be able to be here until Friday, we turned it down. If we knew what we were in for, we would have went ahead with the induction!
So, Wed I chose to try and get as much done on the house as I could and Thursday I took it easy. I didn't do anything! Since my mom, Brittney and Josh were going to be here Friday evening, I didn't want to throw myself into labor with any extra activity and them miss the birth by a day or even a few hours. They missed the birth of both Peyton and Gavin.
Well, as we all know the best laid plans don't always happen that way! James' gramma came over and finished my dishes and laundry and I just sat and played with the kids and napped. She left around 3:00 and was going to try and come back out Friday and sit with me again, so that I wouldn't "over do it". (By the way, she is an 83 yr old woman that lives 30 minutes away from me and was there for me SO MUCH at the end of my pregnancy. I don't know many 83 yr old women that have the stamina to do that! She is amazing!) James had a full day of appointments with clients and wasn't going to be home until late that night so when the neighbor girl got home from school, I asked her if she would come over and play with the kids. She is 13, an only child and just loves my kids. She lets them chase her around the house playing hide and seek or anything else that they want to do...she is such good entertainment for them! While they were running crazy through my house, distracted and entertained by Lauren, I decided to pick up the toys off of their bedroom floor. This was really the only activity that I had done that day and it didn't end well.
I was almost done cleaning in their room and James came home! This was a pleasant surprise especially since he had stopped at a farmer's stand and bought me some huge tomatoes for tomato sandwiches for dinner (my favorite summer time meal!) So, he put them in the refrigerator so that they would get chilled a little bit. He was only going to be home for 45 minutes because he had another appt that evening. Well, when I picked up the last item off of the kids' floor and put it away in the drawer, I heard a soft *pop and my pants were wet. This was about 5:15 p.m. My water didn't break on its own with either Peyton or Gavin, so I really wasn't sure what had happened. My first thought actually was that I was bleeding. So I called for James and he met me in the bathroom. Yes, my pants were wet and it wasn't blood and that was the moment that I realized that it could have been my water breaking! (I know, I am a quick one!) So, after many phone calls to the dr, my mom, Tami, Gramma, and to James' client we were off to the hospital. (*Note, James' gramma had only been gone for a couple of hours and she was headed back to our house to stay the night with Peyton and Gavin).
We were admitted to the hospital about 6:30 and I was only dilated between a 2 and 3. They let me start walking to try and progress the labor because I still wasn't having consistent contractions even though my water broke. By 9:30 or so, I STILL wasn't progressing so they were going to start the pitocin drip soon. Remember, my water broke before I had a chance to eat those wonderful tomatoes meaning I hadn't had any dinner! Well, my sweet nurse had pity on me and brought me in a turkey sandwich, some jello and some chips. She told me just to nibble on them and then we would throw away all of the evidence! so I shared them with James so I would eat too much and then get sick when I was pushing! (or so I thought).
So, they started the drip around 11:00 and between that point and 3:30 a.m. I was only dilated to a 3, maybe 4 (that is what the nurse said, I just think she was trying to make me feel better by saying 4). My dr had the nurses calling her every 2 or 3 hours with updates. Almost immediately after they checked me at 3:30, they lost Brady's heart beat on the monitor so they started rotating me from side to side, had the oxygen mask on me and then made me get on my hands and knees. This part was really hard because even though the pitocin wasn't progressing any dilation, it was progressing the contractions and they hurt SO BAD in my right rib. I couldn't figure out why.
My doctor ended up coming to the hospital to find out what was going on for herself and ended up putting an internal heart monitor on Brady as well as tried to break the extra sack of water, thinking this may spur along labor. I got my epidural at 4, again hoping to relax my body and spur on labor.
At 5:15 She came in to check me and quickly left the room without saying anything. She was back within a minute with an ultra sound machine. She put the thing on my lower abdomen and then she put it on my right rib and let out a little huff. (She is from Argentina and her accent is adorable.) Remember my right rib hurting so bad after every contraction? Yeah, that is right...this is the moment that changed everything with my labor and delivery plans that night.
This is the moment that we found out that Brady was breech! He had flipped around and pierced the sack which is what caused my water to break. This is also why I wasn't progressing, even with the pitocin drip...because my body wasn't ready for labor. So, here we are with a baby trying to come out butt first with no fluid left! This is the point where I realized before she even said it that the only option was a C-Section. So they quickly got me all prepped for surgery, fortunately for the anesthesiologist she had already given me the epidural so she just had to administer the other pain med. I quickly called my mom and away we went.
The whole experience was so different! I was laying on a table with a drop cloth in front of my face not really able to feel the rest of my body laying on the table! It felt like my legs were 3 times their normal size. I tried to watch what they were doing in the metal part of the light, but was very limited in what I could see and this was probably a good thing!
Brady was born at 6:33 a.m. and this is where the most difference came! Instead of this messy crying baby laying on my chest, I was watching the corner of the room where the nurse and James were with him. Once the nurse was done with her "stuff" and he was all bundled up, they brought him over to my head. My arms were still strapped to the table so I couldn't even touch him. Then, while they were cleaning and closing my up, James got to spend the first 30 minutes in the room just rocking him and enjoying looking at his nose, toes, and checking out our new gift from God all by himself! Yes, I am a little jealous of that time, but James really enjoyed it!
So that is the birthing story. My dr spanked Brady when he was born for being so difficult! ;) She was so certain that he was going to come quick because that is what happened with Peyton (54 minutes after my epidural) and Gavin (1 hr 23 minutes after my epidural) but that just goes to show you that God is in control...not us humans! Brady has been a great baby since birth so we are very grateful and thankful for that!
Oh, and remember the internal heart monitor that they put on Brady. Those are supposed to be placed on their heads. Since his head was in my ribs...yep, you guessed it! It was in his rear! So he had a little sore on his butt when he was born! All of these things are funny now!
So much for the condensed version.
As a recap, I had been to my Dr on Tuesday, Aug 19th and she offered to induce me the next day. Since that was Wednesday, the middle of the week AND my mom wasn't going to be able to be here until Friday, we turned it down. If we knew what we were in for, we would have went ahead with the induction!
So, Wed I chose to try and get as much done on the house as I could and Thursday I took it easy. I didn't do anything! Since my mom, Brittney and Josh were going to be here Friday evening, I didn't want to throw myself into labor with any extra activity and them miss the birth by a day or even a few hours. They missed the birth of both Peyton and Gavin.
Well, as we all know the best laid plans don't always happen that way! James' gramma came over and finished my dishes and laundry and I just sat and played with the kids and napped. She left around 3:00 and was going to try and come back out Friday and sit with me again, so that I wouldn't "over do it". (By the way, she is an 83 yr old woman that lives 30 minutes away from me and was there for me SO MUCH at the end of my pregnancy. I don't know many 83 yr old women that have the stamina to do that! She is amazing!) James had a full day of appointments with clients and wasn't going to be home until late that night so when the neighbor girl got home from school, I asked her if she would come over and play with the kids. She is 13, an only child and just loves my kids. She lets them chase her around the house playing hide and seek or anything else that they want to do...she is such good entertainment for them! While they were running crazy through my house, distracted and entertained by Lauren, I decided to pick up the toys off of their bedroom floor. This was really the only activity that I had done that day and it didn't end well.
I was almost done cleaning in their room and James came home! This was a pleasant surprise especially since he had stopped at a farmer's stand and bought me some huge tomatoes for tomato sandwiches for dinner (my favorite summer time meal!) So, he put them in the refrigerator so that they would get chilled a little bit. He was only going to be home for 45 minutes because he had another appt that evening. Well, when I picked up the last item off of the kids' floor and put it away in the drawer, I heard a soft *pop and my pants were wet. This was about 5:15 p.m. My water didn't break on its own with either Peyton or Gavin, so I really wasn't sure what had happened. My first thought actually was that I was bleeding. So I called for James and he met me in the bathroom. Yes, my pants were wet and it wasn't blood and that was the moment that I realized that it could have been my water breaking! (I know, I am a quick one!) So, after many phone calls to the dr, my mom, Tami, Gramma, and to James' client we were off to the hospital. (*Note, James' gramma had only been gone for a couple of hours and she was headed back to our house to stay the night with Peyton and Gavin).
We were admitted to the hospital about 6:30 and I was only dilated between a 2 and 3. They let me start walking to try and progress the labor because I still wasn't having consistent contractions even though my water broke. By 9:30 or so, I STILL wasn't progressing so they were going to start the pitocin drip soon. Remember, my water broke before I had a chance to eat those wonderful tomatoes meaning I hadn't had any dinner! Well, my sweet nurse had pity on me and brought me in a turkey sandwich, some jello and some chips. She told me just to nibble on them and then we would throw away all of the evidence! so I shared them with James so I would eat too much and then get sick when I was pushing! (or so I thought).
So, they started the drip around 11:00 and between that point and 3:30 a.m. I was only dilated to a 3, maybe 4 (that is what the nurse said, I just think she was trying to make me feel better by saying 4). My dr had the nurses calling her every 2 or 3 hours with updates. Almost immediately after they checked me at 3:30, they lost Brady's heart beat on the monitor so they started rotating me from side to side, had the oxygen mask on me and then made me get on my hands and knees. This part was really hard because even though the pitocin wasn't progressing any dilation, it was progressing the contractions and they hurt SO BAD in my right rib. I couldn't figure out why.
My doctor ended up coming to the hospital to find out what was going on for herself and ended up putting an internal heart monitor on Brady as well as tried to break the extra sack of water, thinking this may spur along labor. I got my epidural at 4, again hoping to relax my body and spur on labor.
At 5:15 She came in to check me and quickly left the room without saying anything. She was back within a minute with an ultra sound machine. She put the thing on my lower abdomen and then she put it on my right rib and let out a little huff. (She is from Argentina and her accent is adorable.) Remember my right rib hurting so bad after every contraction? Yeah, that is right...this is the moment that changed everything with my labor and delivery plans that night.
This is the moment that we found out that Brady was breech! He had flipped around and pierced the sack which is what caused my water to break. This is also why I wasn't progressing, even with the pitocin drip...because my body wasn't ready for labor. So, here we are with a baby trying to come out butt first with no fluid left! This is the point where I realized before she even said it that the only option was a C-Section. So they quickly got me all prepped for surgery, fortunately for the anesthesiologist she had already given me the epidural so she just had to administer the other pain med. I quickly called my mom and away we went.
The whole experience was so different! I was laying on a table with a drop cloth in front of my face not really able to feel the rest of my body laying on the table! It felt like my legs were 3 times their normal size. I tried to watch what they were doing in the metal part of the light, but was very limited in what I could see and this was probably a good thing!
Brady was born at 6:33 a.m. and this is where the most difference came! Instead of this messy crying baby laying on my chest, I was watching the corner of the room where the nurse and James were with him. Once the nurse was done with her "stuff" and he was all bundled up, they brought him over to my head. My arms were still strapped to the table so I couldn't even touch him. Then, while they were cleaning and closing my up, James got to spend the first 30 minutes in the room just rocking him and enjoying looking at his nose, toes, and checking out our new gift from God all by himself! Yes, I am a little jealous of that time, but James really enjoyed it!
So that is the birthing story. My dr spanked Brady when he was born for being so difficult! ;) She was so certain that he was going to come quick because that is what happened with Peyton (54 minutes after my epidural) and Gavin (1 hr 23 minutes after my epidural) but that just goes to show you that God is in control...not us humans! Brady has been a great baby since birth so we are very grateful and thankful for that!
Oh, and remember the internal heart monitor that they put on Brady. Those are supposed to be placed on their heads. Since his head was in my ribs...yep, you guessed it! It was in his rear! So he had a little sore on his butt when he was born! All of these things are funny now!
So much for the condensed version.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
One Month Check up and Update!
Monday, Brady was 1 month old! Can you believe that it has been a month already since his birth?!
Anyway, we had his one month check up at the doctor today so here are the new stats;
Weight: 10 lbs 14 oz, (gained 2 lbs 4 oz since birth)
Length: 23 inches (grown 2 1/4 in since birth)
The doctor says that he is doing great and is really pleased with everything! We have been so blessed that he is so good natured and that the transition has gone quite well. The kids love him and he has started responding more to them! It is so fantastic to watch them interact together. A real good feeling for a mom to have.
Anyway, we had his one month check up at the doctor today so here are the new stats;
Weight: 10 lbs 14 oz, (gained 2 lbs 4 oz since birth)
Length: 23 inches (grown 2 1/4 in since birth)
The doctor says that he is doing great and is really pleased with everything! We have been so blessed that he is so good natured and that the transition has gone quite well. The kids love him and he has started responding more to them! It is so fantastic to watch them interact together. A real good feeling for a mom to have.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Just a little bit longer
I am almost done with "The Birthing Story", but until then I thought I would add some more pictures. Enjoy!
They just love holding their baby brother!
These are not posed...well, they knew I was taking pictures but I didn't ask them to do any of this. It was their own posing!
This is my favorite!
1st Bottle! Went so well.
They just love holding their baby brother!
These are not posed...well, they knew I was taking pictures but I didn't ask them to do any of this. It was their own posing!
This is my favorite!
1st Bottle! Went so well.
Daddy and Brady time!
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Not quite finished
Okay, so I am not near finished with "The Birthing Story" yet, so I hope you will all be satisfied with more pictures!
Brady's first trip to church.
The whole family
Picking peaches with Nana and Gramma (the kids were doing more of taking one bite and throwing the peach down and finding another than actually picking though.)
Brady snoozing away while everyone else worked!
Brady's first trip to church. 
The whole family
Picking peaches with Nana and Gramma (the kids were doing more of taking one bite and throwing the peach down and finding another than actually picking though.)
Brady snoozing away while everyone else worked!
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