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

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!

Bye bye february

Well, here I sit, 11:06 pm on the last day of February. I think it's safe to say this baby will be a march baby. She is still pretty damn comfy in there. I had hopes for a feb baby. Because how cool would it be, Austin in nov, me in dec, Dave in jan, and baby girl in feb! Plus, I'm also one of those rare people that thinks a leap year birthday would have been pretty cool. Baby girl obviously doesn't pick up on the cool the same way I do I guess. She must take after her daddy. Lol. I kid.

Anywho, I'm off to bed. Waiting to ring in march and meet my baby girl.

At the end

Tomorrow I am 40 weeks pregnant. Today, baby is still hanging out not coming. Dave went back to work on thursday of last week. He calls on every break and lunch to see how I'm feeling. So far the answer is the same. "same as every other day"

Today I have a dr's appt. Today we choose a final eviction date. Hopefully though I have some progress an baby starts her arrival a little soon then an induction date. Fingers crossed.

All ready to go

Baby's room is all ready to go. I decided that I was going to make my own crib skirt. I found some instructions online that said for the skirt part to buy enough material so it's 2x the depth on the ends, and 3x the length on the front and back. Of I were to do it again, I think maybe just 2x for the front and back of the crib would be good. I'm not going to lie, it's a long process. You have to see the hems, which the front and back piece, before they are ruffled up were 156 inches. That's a lot of hem. Then, evenly spaced ruffles... Well those are fun too.

Anywho, the bed is all ready to go and I'm patiently or err impatiently awaiting.


And a close up of the cute owl blanket I made

2nd time mom's don't know either....

Here we are, possibly just days away from having our second baby, and I've come to a conclusion. I'm no better then I was last time around! Yes, I know what it's like to have my water break, I know what it's like to deal with steady contractions, and I know the feeling of holding your newborn baby in your arms.

However, the beginning of labor? I swear some days in like a first time mom. I feel a twitch or a cramp and think omg, is this a contraction? A twitch and think, ooh, what is that? Sigh. It's not any easier this time around I tell you!

I am trying to relax and not freak out about everything, but some days it's not really that easy. While this pregnancy is a million times easier then the last one, i would still love her to come any day now. Dave is home this week. However as of Tuesday he is supposed to be back at work. With my due date looming we are in limbo trying to figure out if he should take extra time off, and I so, how much? A day? A week? 2 weeks? So many options without any concrete answers.

So dear baby girl, you can come out any day now. We would love to meet you. I promise I won't be mad if you decide a middle of the night departure, it's not like I'm sleeping much anyways.

What cookies?

Well, I'm not in labor. I really don't know if the cookies did anything. With Austin I stayed 0 cm right until the end. I had a dr's appt yesterday and he says I'm 1/4 of a cm dialated. Not very much at all, but it's something right? I don't know whether it's from the cookies or not, but they were so gross and made me want to throw up after eating 2 that I'm not sure I'll finish off the batch I made. (but a funny, my father in law had some and yesterday morning he was joking that he had a bunch the night before and nothing happened to him either. Huh.)

We had an ultrasound. The technician was amazing and they had a little screen at the end of the bed so I didn't have to give myself a neck ache trying to see. He even switched the machine over to 3d for a bit. We didn't do this with Austin, and now I wish we had gotten at least one picture just so I can compare. I posted the picture on my Facebook and have been told it looks like Austin. I really didn't see it until people started saying it which is why I would have loved to compare. During the 3d part baby had a frowny face going the whole time. As I laid there watching I thought, hmm it was probably the cookies that made her sad. Lol!

Anyways, I figured I would do an update for those waiting on pins and needles to see if I was in labor. I'm not. I'm just sitting here suffering from very bad heartburn and insomnia. I'm hoping to be back asleep before 5am.

Making cookies

I decided that maybe I would try making labour cookies. Yes, laugh at me with the old wives tales, but I figured it won't hurt at all right?!???

Well, it did hurt. My bank account. There are a lot of spices in the recipe that we didn't have so I had to buy. And spices aren't cheap! You also can't just buy a few tbs of them so now I have new jars of spices. But anyways, back to the cookies. The whole point is they are spicy and the spiciness induces labour. Again, couldn't hurt. Especially since I have this cold. Figured it would at least clear out my sinuses.

So, here is the recipe I used.

Labor Inducing Gingersnap Cookie Recipe
Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
8 tablespoons (or 1 stick) margarine
1/2 cup granulated sugar (will also need extra sugar to roll cookie dough in)
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup molasses
2 egg whites

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, salt and cayenne pepper in small mixing bowl.  Set dry ingredients aside.

Then blend margarine in large mixing bowl.  Stir in brown sugar and granulated sugar slowly.  Add the molasses, then the egg whites.  Finally, add the dry ingredients to your mix. 

Roll dough into ¾ inch balls.  Roll cookie balls in sugar to lightly coat each cookie.  Place balls on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake in oven for 8-10 minutes or until cookies are golden brown.

Found here - http://www.justmommies.com/pregnancy/labor-and-childbirth/labor-inducing-cookie-recipe

I busted out my new kitchenaid mixer for the event.

No, the bottle of wine in the background was not ingested at the same time. It's probably not any good since it's been opened and sitting on my counter for at least 4 months now... At least.

Got everything all mixed up.

And..... It looked like poop. I laughed and felt rather odd knowing I was going to be eating these. Then, because I am truly my mother's daughter, I had to prove just how much it really did look like poop.

(and I am so sad I didn't realize the picture was blurry until after I was done baking.) it's likely blurry because I was laughing while taking it.

Anyways, as you can see by the recipe above, it said to roll them into 3/4 of an inch balls. Here are my balls, I obviously don't know what 3/4 of an inch looks like. These are huge.


And the final out of the oven product

Not going to lie, they look pretty darn good!


They came out of the oven about 4:30. I let them cool and then we sat down to play a rousing game of candyland. I thought, oh, I'll have some cookies while playing. This is where I admit, I'm glad I made big balls (bahahaha) because I ended up with a lot of cookies and couldnt even imagine having twice as many. I put a few on my plate, then a few more. I told myself, self, you can totally do 12 cookies. So I went and sat down with my 12 cookies. Austin saw them and decided that he wanted a cookie. I said ok, he could try one all he wanted. He took a bite. I'm not sure how to convey the face. Disgust, fear and a little wtf mom was going on. I tried to hold in my laughter. Dave was nice enough to tell him he didn't have to eat any more of the cookie.

I start on my first cookie. I'm chewing away thinking, wow, these are pretty good, but I thought they were supposed to be spicy? Then I swallowed. THEN it hit me. Yup, there's the spice. (for the record I am a wimp at spices so it may not have been that bad to a normal person) but, one must soldier on. I finished that cookie like a pro. Started on my next. By the 3rd cookie I was slowing down and needed some water.

Needless to say? I did not make it to my 12 cookies. I got to 5. 5!!!! I just could not do any more.

When I first saw the recipe/idea for these it said to eat as many cookies as you can then go have a nap. So I went an laid down. I'll tell you what happened. Due to the spicy-ness I was coughing and could barely breathe and had to take my puffer. I laid in bed rather bored. Baby girl kicked the crap out of me from the inside for subjecting her to that. And I got heartburn. I got up around 7, had something to eat and relaxed on the couch. No idea what will happen tonight, but here is my plan.

Finish this post. Fill up my water bottle and maybe a second one, just in case. Grab some more cookies and turn them into a cookie sandwich stacking as many as I can on top of each other. Stuff them in before I want to throw up. take my puffer. Go to sleep. Hopefully by tomorrow morning I will be feeling something. Even if it's just the ability to breathe out my nose again.

If that doesn't work, well, at least it didn't hurt!

Sibling love

I snapped this pic last night. Austin was going to bed and said goodnight, gave kisses, told the baby good night, then lifted up my top to do this

.
That is him waiting to feel the baby kick him. He said that she did, but I didn't feel anything.

He keeps talking about baby. "when him get here I share my toys?" (he calls everyone a him by the way) "baby kicking in mommy's tummy?" and if you ask him what the baby's name should be - yes, we STILL haven't picked a name- he is very adamant it should be baby girl.

Today I am 37 weeks pregnant and can't wait to see them interacting!! Only a few more weeks!

Maternity underwear

I want to shank whoever said maternity underwear are to die for. They suck.

I'm think around march 15th I'm going to host an underwear burning party. The fire will be going for a while because I have bought a crazy amount of underwear in hopes they are comfy. I have tried so many brands. They fall down in the back, they fall down in The front, the fall down on just one side (yeah, that one is fun.)

I've bought motherhood underwear, thyme maternity underwear, low rise, high rise, and even a crap load of normal non maternity ones. They all suck.

When I was pregnant with Austin he sat so high I wore my regular undies. I had zero issues whatsoever. I was comfy, and thought people just wasted money on maternity underwear. Then this baby started out so low. I have been in underwear hell since about August.

Like most mothers at the end of their pregnancy I'm counting down the days until my little squishy newborn comes, but I'm also counting down the days until I can throw all the maternity underwear into a barrel and set them on fire. That's how much I'm hating them.

So, hopefully come march 15th baby will be here and I can squeeze into some of my old undies and be done with the maternity ones. I.cant.wait.

32 weeks

Almost there. Crazy just how fast time has gone. In about 8 weeks there will be a tiny little squishy baby here. I can't wait for Austin to meet his sister and see him interact with her. Life will become crazier, that's the fun of it though. A family bonding in times of craziness.

This baby kicks up a storm and has some crazy moves going on in my stomach. Maybe she's got the moves like jagger? Hmmm she also knows the most inappropriate times to start kicking my bladder making me run for a bathroom.

Despite not having anything ready to go in the house yet, I can't wait for our little baby to arrive.

Happy Labour Day!!!

To celebrate we had a bbq with some friends over. It went over very well and I made some a-maz-ing desserts which I will share in another post.

Anyways. It was all fun and games until something landed on my sunglasses and without thinking I gave it a swat. Well, it was a bee. and that swat sent it right down my shirt. Of course, I panic, I'm sure the bee was panicking. The jerk stung me. Best part? right in the cleavage. I'm freaking out now. Trying to get the damn thing out of my shirt before it stings again. Sadly, I may have knocked over my friend's 1 yr old daughter. I ran in the house and flung my shirt off. Then made my way to the bathroom. This is where I note my husband had all the windows open and the back door that opens into our next door neighbour's yard. I have probably scarred them for life.

Yeah, not cool.

Don't forget, I'm pregnant and hormonal. I was a crying bubbling mess. (insert embarrasment here) And hey, why not add the fact I had an extreme allergy to bees as a child. We've only tested the "grown out of the allergies" theory once before and it turned out pretty well, but I did get drugged up with Benadryl. I was freaking out today about having an allergic reaction and we were trying to figure out if we had benadryl and if it was safe to take during pregnancy. Of course, we don't have any.

The good news? I'm still alive!!! I did swell up a bit, slightly more then when I get mosquito bites. And the area is still sore and red hours later. But I didn't fall over and die from the sting and I survived without any drugs.

So yeah, happy labour day. I hope your day was slightly less eventful then mine.

I am still here..

I'm not going to lie, I've pretty much been sleeping the past few weeks... er month.... whatever. 1st trimester of pregnancy is so damn exhausting. then add in trying to regulate my body on my new depression meds, plus taking diclectin (dr's gift from heaven for morning/all day sickness) which ooh yay, causes drowsyness, I've been sleeping a lot.

There was one week that I was so thankful for swimming lessons because it exhausted Austin so much he would have up to a 4 hr nap. That meant mommy got a 4 hr nap. That meant Mommy was in heaven. I was crawling into bed just after Austin at night. And still I was tired in the morning.

I'm starting to get back into the swing of things and I don't think I've had a nap for at least 3 days! Amazing, I know. lol. Tomorrow though, will be a nap day. I have to go to the Airport to pick up Dave and me tired with a 40 minute drive on the highway ahead of me? Not good at all. I don't want to put myself, my son or any other drivers at risk because I'm driving dozey. So nap time it is. And I'm already looking forward to it! lol.

I've got a long list of to do's (or I guess it would be honey-do's) for this week while Dave's home. He's got some shelves to hang (thank you pinterest for the idea) some curtains to hang, some spiders, empty webs and dead spider bodies to eradicate. Then he needs to fix our outside hose (it was crap and the hose pretty much broke open causing an awesome puddle going down the road) so we can water our flowers. Sorry mom, I may have killed some..... But they did really well until this week!!!! Then I'm sure I'll come up with a million other things by then. Whew, I'm tired again just reading his to do list.

Then we might hit the second hand kids store to see if there are any amazing deals on some baby supplies or things we need. Like a stroller. Austin is a runner and a wanderer all at the same time. He will take off so fast before you know it. Or you will be walking and he will slow right down to look at every single thing around. In crowded places I could care less if people think he's too old, he's in the stroller. So... it stands to reason that we will need a double stroller of some sort. I like the looks of the sit n stand strollers so we might just go with them since they seem to be best for us. Austin will be over 3 when this baby is born, he doesn't need a structured seat like he did when he was a yr old, somewhere to stand or sit, even backwards seems like a good idea. I will have to do some research into strollers over the next little bit.

Anyways, this momma is tired. off to bed I go. This little one 'turns' 14 weeks along tomorrow. Good night everyone!