I've been downgraded

And I'm not going to lie, It stings a bit.

My son is still too young to do this to me. Too young I tell you!!!

I'm now known as Mom. *sob* This past week he started with just one Mom instead of Mommy. Then a few more Mom's! Then before you know it the Mommy was gone. He hasn't called me Mommy yet today, and I'm pretty sure I didn't hear a Mommy come out of him yesterday either.

I am not ready for this. I love hearing Mommy. I don't know if I can handle this Mom business. He's growing up too fast for me.

The poor boy probably thinks I'm ignoring him though. See when he says Mom, I don't clue in right away he's talking to me. It's usually the second or third time he says it, usually with an annoyed tone in his voice, that I clue in. It would just be so much easier if he went back to using Mommy. sigh.

Happy Birthday!!!!

Happy Birthday to my Mom!

Today she is... well, she might kill me for outing her age on my blog, but it's a pretty special year... Happy 50th!

Here's hoping she has a fantastic day and a great party this weekend. Wish I could be there.

Love Dave and I, and your grandchildren!

Wordless Wednesday

My view in bed this morning

Introducing

The newest addition to our family!

Blog Readers, I am pleased to introduce Mackenzie Annabelle.




Tuesday March 6th off we went to the hospital to be induced. We had to be there at 8am. I think Dave wanted me out of bed and dressed by 6:31 when they called to tell us what time we needed to be there at 6:30. I'm not going to lie, I was so nervous. I'd heard about induction horror stories, failed inductions, c-sections, etc. Who knew what would happen.

We got all checked in and settled into a room. The dr came in to check and see if ANYTHING was happening on it's own (I had been about 1/4 of a cm dialated for 3 weeks) and sure enough, nope, it wasn't. Cervadil was inserted just before 9am. The monitored me for about 2 hours. I was then sent to a room in the mom and baby unit instead of labor and delivery. I was put in a ward room with 3 other women. All who were on bedrest so there were no babies in the room. (funny enough the girl beside me lived around the corner from us) We hung out. I was on facebook and twitter. Austin came to visit us in the hospital around 3pm. He was very hesitant when he came in and wouldn't come sit with me on the bed. While Austin and Dave's dad were there I finally started to feel some contractions but it wasn't very consistent.

About 5:30pm I decided to start timing the contractions. To my surprise and excitement they were 4-5 minutes apart. Around 6:30/7 I let the nurse know that I was having contractions and she said I was going to be scheduled for a Non-Stress test around 9pm so they would check me then. at 8:30 they came to get me for the test. I walked over to labor and delivery, got all hooked up, they monitored me for just over 30 minutes. The nurse checked to see if there was any progress from the contractions.

I was dialated to 1 cm.

1 cm. sigh. The nurse left the room and I looked at Dave and said "Only one motherf^*$%& centimetre?!?! You have to be kidding me!"

The nurse consulted with the dr and they suggested I have some morphine and a sleeping pill. Then I could get some rest in case I went into full blown labor during the middle of the night. I reluctantly accepted because I knew I would be exhausted if I didn't get some sleep, but didn't want to because then I would admit that this baby? Didn't want to progress, even after about 6 hours of contractions. Stupid me, thought that something was happening for sure after those 6 hours of contractions. So, off we went to the mom and baby unit. Still having some very steady contractions causing me to stop in the hallway to breathe through them. A nurse stopped to tell me that the morphine/sleeping pill wouldn't be so bad, it will help me rest and if I go into active labor my body will wake me up anyways. Of course I started crying. I was a picture of lovliness walking back to my room.

Because I was in a ward room, Dave wasn't allowed to stay the night. He was supposed to leave by 9pm, so once we were done the NST he had to leave. Of course, I was crying and blubbering and didn't want him to leave. I was worried about him making it back in time (It's about a 25 minute drive to the hospital from our place) and I didn't want to go through active labor alone, in a room with sleeping women, trying to be quiet so I don't wake them up. But, he had to go. So off he went and the nurse gave me my meds. I fought sleep, tried to stay up and watch the duggars. I was also sweating. The nurse came in to check on me and found me half naked, sitting up with my phone in my hand, (I was on my message board) one headphone in, and passed out cold. Finally I gave in and laid down.

Sometime around midnight I woke up to contractions. I pulled out my iPod and started timing the contractions on my app. (It's called Full Term. It was free and worked well!)They were so mild though that I was falling back asleep and forgetting to stop the timer. About an hour of this and I had the brilliant idea to just start then stop the timer when I got a contraction, then I would at least know how quickly they were coming. They were every 1-2 minutes apart and getting more painful. This was about 1:45am. I buzzed the nurse and asked if I should call my husband to have him come back.


She took me over to labor and delivery to see what was up. They checked me at 2:30. I was starting to get to the point that I couldn't talk comfortably through the contractions. A whopping 2cm. Frustrated,(but I didn't swear this time) she offered me more morphine to try and go back to sleep. I agreed thinking if they were this bad and I only progressed 1cm, I was in for long night. Got the shot, finished doing the monitoring. The contractions, omg they were getting so hard and painful. So bad the morphine had no impact. I was trying to sit up and the pain was so bad down below that I was trying to push myself off the bed with my arms to try and ease the pain. This was 3:45 and she checked me again, a 4-5cm. I was freaking out that we needed to call Dave NOW! However, when I went over to labor and delivery I didn't take my phone so I had to wait for someone to go get it for me. (I swear it felt like an hour for them to bring me my phone.) Finally called Dave to come in at 4am.


I went into this hoping I could avoid an epidural. It wore off with Austin so I knew I could do the pushing without one, plus for months afterwards I had back pain that I *think* was from the epi. The pain was so strong though that I was throwing up (which was hell because pain was shooting through my uterus when I threw up) so I said yes please! to the epi. By the time Dave got to the hospital at 4:30 I already had my Epi. Shortly after Dave got there the Dr came in to check me out, I was at 7cm and she was going to break my water.


Water broken and Epi in I laid in bed and dozed off and on. About 5:30 I started feeling the painful contractions and actually saying ow. 2 of these painful ones then I felt a whole bunch of water gush even though I wasn't doing anything. I Told Dave he needed to call someone to come check me because I think I might have to push. Sure enough, the nurse checked and I was a full 10cm. She told me not to push so they could get the dr.

The dr told me to do a push to see how I was doing. After the first push I asked if they had a mirror or something so I could watch. It was something I never thought I would ever ask for, but after Austin I was rather curious and thought it would be an amazing thing to see. I was told that there wouldn't be enough time. I was a little confused but pushed again, was told to do just a small push that time, then a big push and out baby came.

That's right, 3 pushes.


They took her over to the monitors to check her out and I just looked at Dave in disbelief and kept saying "did that really just happen?" and "3 pushes? are you kidding me?" Due to her super speedy delivery she was pretty bruised in the face and scored low on her 1 min apgars. The dr and nurses decided it would be best to take her over to the NICU to make sure she was doing ok, they figured it was just because she was in shock still from the quick delivery. Finally finished in labor and delivery (managed to escape without any tearing!!) and was on our way back to my other room and they asked if we wanted to stop by the ICN (what they call their NICU) and feed her. We did and she latched right on like a champion. I fed her for a while then had to go back to my room because I was exhausted.



Our little girl in the ICN


I attempted to text everyone and update my facebook and message board, but just kept falling asleep. I kept dozing off while talking and doing anything. It was a long long day of very little sleep. Baby finally joined us in our room after about 3 hours of monitoring in the ICN and Dave and I looked at each other and said, "ok, what is her name going to be?" We had been leaning towards Caroline but something in my gut wasn't saying "yes! That's it!!" so we didn't tell anyone. I am glad we didn't because she just didn't look like a Caroline to me so we finally decided on Mackenzie.

She's now almost 2 weeks old and we're all so in love with her. Austin is an amazing big brother and loves to help out (whether we need him to or not. lol) and make sure she has a blanket.

Finally, enjoy some cute baby pictures!










Austin meeting his sister and giving her kisses

I promise I'm still here

My baby girl is one week and one day old. We're just trying to settle in and get organized. I will get the birth story up here shortly. For someone who didn't want to join us in the world she sure made quite the entrance! And, for those curious, she was not as big as her brother.

Until then, I give you some squishy newborn to hold you over.

A blast from the past.

Well, Since I am recovering from having our new baby girl, I would treat you guys to the birth story I wrote out from when I had Austin. I will warn you, it is long. Hope you enjoy reading and I hope I have a new birth story to share soon!

I wrote these out and posted them on the bump, the message board I belonged to. There were 3 different posts and here I am to share....

The first post, written shortly after my water broke, before we went to the hospital. (I have taken out the things that are probably too much info)

Last night I was tired so decided to go to bed around 10:30/11. I haven't been going to bed since before anywhere from 2-4am the past week. Well, com0e 2am, I have to pee, then I'm wide awake. yay. I stayed up till Dave got up for work. I'm sitting downstairs and feeling a little crampy. I had one cramp after Dave left that was so strong and painful that I thought for sure I was going to squeeze the baby out right there. I finally get out of the chair, realize that it was probaby gas pain. I went upstairs, didn't feel anymore pains. Decided to go back to bed around 6.

Somewhere between 8 and 830 I had the gas pain again and went to the bathroom. As I was about to sit down I started leaking fluid. (Which in the past week has become a normal occurance since it takes me so long to waddle to the bathroom I may have peed myself a little) I go #2 then decide, hmm maybe I didn't just pee my pants. Got up went back to bed and laid down for about 5 min got back up waddled to the bathroom, sure enough, didn't pee my pants. My water had broken.

I call Dave and tell him he better get home. I'm pretty much trapped on my toilet because I'm non stop peeing involuntarily. I then think, oh crap, my mom has her remicade today. She pretty much comes out of it stoned. Because I'm stuck on the toilet I can't look up the number so I call my father in law and get him to look up the number for me. I called my mom and told her what was going on and gave her the option to skip her treatment today or come to the hospital stoned. I realize I should probably be timing my contractions at this point but I didn't have anything to write them down with. I find a pencil and use an empty toilet paper roll to write down the times.

I then get up, get a clean pair of underwear, put on a pad. It still felt like I was peeing myself and the pad wasn't going to do me any good so I went and grabbed the laptop and am currently sitting on the toilet while writing.

The best part? Apparently I completely skipped early labour and am right into active labour because the contractions are 3-4 minutes apart. I started timing about 50 min ago and Dave will be home in about 10 min so we will be leaving and I won't be on for the rest of the day!!! Yeah, here's hoping for an epidural when I check in, I'm in a lot of pain right now...lol.

Oh how I love how much I overshare on the internet. However, looking back over 3 years later there is a lot I didn't remember!

Here is my second post about the birth itself.

Austin Karl was born Nov 13th at 10:58pm. Weighed 11lbs 7.5oz, 23 inches long. All I have to say is ow. His head circumfrence was 39cm!!

When Dave got home we left immediately for the hospital because my contractions were getting hard to breathe through and they were 3 min apart. Got to the hospital and was only 2cm!! Very frustrated but they kept me because my water had broken. By this time it was about 11am. They tried to start an IV in me but I have really bad veins. The nurse was trying to get a vein to come up in my left hand while another nurse took blood from my right arm because I had elevated protein in my urine. My nurse put the needle in my left hand and couldn't get it in the vein. She then called another nurse to try and she got a vein in my right wrist but then it collapsed on her right away. They called in another nurse who finally got the iv in my right hand.

By the time the 4 needles were done I was bawling from the pain and frustration. Also the contractions were pretty bad (I guess I am kind of a wimp..lol) and the nurse offered an epidural around 1 because the dr was coming to give it to another lady and figured she would ask so that if I wanted one soon I wouldn't have to wait for the dr (We had already discussed whether I wanted one) I said no because I could still deal with the pain but did decide to have a shot of Nubaine instead. The nubaine was great, made me really sleepy and I tried to nap a bit since I had only slept a few hours the night before. I was able to breathe calmly through the contractions where I couldn't before because I was still worked up over the IV plus the pain of the contractions. The downside to the nubaine was that it made my contractions die down. They went to about 5 min apart so the dr ordered pictocin. After the pictocin had been running for a while my contractions were starting to get stronger again and I heard someone mention that the dr was coming for an epi for someone else and decided to get it then. (My room was right across from the nursing station so I heard everything..lol)

Thankfully the dr let Dave stay in the room with me for the epi. I was amazed how well I stayed still during contractions but aparently the dr had to do it twice, thank god I could not feel it! After that things were great. I could still tell I was having contractions but no pain. The dr checked me around 7:30/8 and I was 5cm. Around 9 I started feeling the contractions again and told the nurse. All of a sudden the contractions were horrible and I realized that I could feel my right side of my body again. The new nurses on were trying to tell me that it was just normal but I told them that I knew the epi had worn off on the right side only. They checked me at 9:30 and the right side of my cervix was ready to go but there was still about 4cm on the left side.

Coming up to 10pm I was feeling the pressure and told the nurses I needed to push. They checked me again and I was fully dialated. I started pushing at 10 and baby came out at 10:58. Because his head was so big though it was crowning but then receding more than normal. Another dr came in to help out because my dr was delivering in the next room over but ended up getting Austin stuck so they had to call for my dr and apparently her plus a million nurses came running into the room to deliver me. Within a few minutes of my dr coming in Austin came out. My mom kept saying look at him but there were so many people I couldn't see. When I first saw him I remember saying "Holy crap, what is he, a year old???" By the time Austin was born my epi was pretty much all worn off and unfortunately no one told my dr and she started my stitches. I was just told it was a 2nd degree tear but Dave thinks it was about 13 stitches. OMG they hurt. Yeow. Thankfully though they got me sewn up and everyone came in to see us. Apparently I looked pretty good for just giving birth...lol.

It's crazy the things you forget after having the baby. I blocked out the protein in the urine thing. I've even told my dr that I had no issues with protein. I've had quite a few issues with protein in my urine this time around and the dr has been monitoring it. I didn't even remember the issues in the hospital. Thank goodness for modern technology. And finally, a bit of Austin's hospital stay in story as well.

Poor Austin is very happy to be home now, he had quite the few days. First, because of his size they had to monitor his blood sugar so they had to prick him in the heel before 4 different feedings. He was a trooper though and didn't cry, just fussed a bit. Then, he was very mucousy so every time I tried to get him to latch he would start gagging and bringing up mucous. He really didn't eat much the first day but the nurses said until he brings up the mucous his stomach is full anyways. I had a very hard time getting the latching down and ended up with my nipples blistered.

Some time during the friday afternoon and night shift one of the nurses had said that he had jaundice and ordered blood work for saturday morning. Our day nurse was the first person who told us this info on saturday. DH had no idea that Jaundice was very common and was really worried thinking something was wrong. The blood work came back with a high level and the dr ordered him to go under the phototherapy lights. Dave was at home getting the house ready in hopes we would get to go home saturday and my mom watched Austin while I went and had a shower. By the time I got back from the shower they already had him under the lights. I have to say it's a good thing my mom was there, then some friends showed up because all I wanted to do was cry when I saw him under the lights!! He had to wear a little mask over his eyes and couldn't wear anything but his diaper. The only time he was allowed out of the lights was to be fed then had to go back under the lights right away. I felt so bad for him!! When DH got back to the hospital I think he was also fighting back the tears.

Also saturday because I was still having some troubles getting Austin to feed we had decided to supplement with formula. Even after having him on my breast he would still take anywhere from 30-40 ml of formula so he was obviously not getting enough from me. I started pumping as well as breast feeding and supplementing. My breasts were very sore and blistered right away. We're starting to get the hang of breast feeding now though but I have a feeling we are going to have to supplement with formula tonight.

We were hoping to come home yesterday but the dr and nurses wanted me to stay another night just to get a bit better because I was still walking badly after all the hip/pelvic pain I had before baby came. Since we were staying anyways we kept Austin under the lights so when they did the blood test for his jaundice this morning it was much better than before.

My lady parts are definately a little tender. I am completely swollen shut down there but it really isn't that uncomfortable to sit. My stitches are starting to get itchy so yay for healing!!

And there you have it. If you've continuesd reading this long, thank you. Hope you enjoyed this birth story.

The day before his life changes

Before I get into my post, let me just say that I'm posting this from the blogger app on my iPhone. Yes, I know there is an app for everything, but it never occurred to me to find it. Or that it might just be slightly easier then using safari. (mainly I'm hoping it will be easier to upload pictures. Fingers crossed here!) so, this is my first post on the new app, let's see how it goes shall we?

Anyways, yesterday I kind of knew there would be no progress in baby land. But, even if there was, I wanted to try and give Austin a fun day. After all, his life was about to change drastically and he had no idea. We loaded into the car (grandpa stayed home because he had to work since he was likely not working today) and headed into the West Edmonton Mall. We left a little later then planned, so we had to re-arrange our schedule.

We grabbed a quick bite at the food court, where I had people asking me how far along I was and couldn't believe I was due last week. Then, we took Austin to see Dr Seuss' the Lorax. Dave was hesitant about going, but once I got him in the theatre he suggested splurging for the IMAX 3D version instead of the plain. It was awesome. Way better then just 3D. Very cute movie and Austin even sat through it.

Then, off we headed to do 18 holes of professor WEM's mini golf. Austin had fun despite a few moments of not listening, but he was excited that he got to choose his own green ball.

Finally, we headed home. A super tired little boy passed out cold on the way home. I'm sure he had a great day out and with me being induced today I hope he doesn't mind that he now gets to share mommy and daddy with his little sister.

Every day gets more dangerous

Every day this baby stays in my belly is dangerous.

Every day my hormones make it dangerous to, well, anyone around me. Ask the guy at the grocery store last week, or even my husband the other night. I am cranky and hormonal. It takes nothing for that hormonal switch to flip.

If this baby girl doesn't come out soon, the next danger is going to be our bank account. All her clothes are neatly tucked away in her dresser and closet. I'm not going in there every day to pull things out to put on the baby. It's like i've got baby amnesia when I wake up in the morning. Every day this baby stays in my belly I want to go shopping. I want to buy all the cute pink, purple, frilly, tutu-y, flowery, butterfly, owly things I can find. I just can't stop myself. It's a big danger to our bank and to the storage space in her already small bedroom. But Gah! The cuteness!!!

So, dear baby girl, you really need to evacuate. Before the danger level grows even more. I personally could care less about the shopping danger, but it's just not safe to the world at large for me and my hormones to be out running free. Please baby girl. Save the world. Think of the world!!! Come out already and join us. We're really lots of fun!

Father son bonding

I have a picture of my husband years ago shaving. When I was doing my Christmas shopping last year I came across a lightning McQueen shaving kit. I wanted to capture a picture just like the one of his daddy shaving. Today we finally broke out the kit.

First daddy had to teach him how to shave.

Step one, lather with shaving cream


Then he has to check and make sure he's all covered


"this is how you shave"


"don't forget under your chin!"


Now it's Austin's turn!!