Friday, December 4, 2009

A few things I've learned today...

  1. You should never try to paint your nails when you're home alone with a baby. Something will inevitably happen that requires you to pick the baby up before the nail polish is dry.

  2. Batteries will only work to operate a swing when inserted in the correct direction.

  3. If you try to cook fish sticks (which are supposed to cook for 14-16 minutes) and french fries (which should cook for 22-24 minutes) at the same time and leave them in the oven for 30 minutes, they will both burn.

  4. Burnt fish sticks are pretty darn gross.

  5. Sometimes the little yellow line on a baby's diaper that is supposed to tell you if the baby is wet will malfunction and never turn blue even if the diaper really is dirty. If you wait like 3 hours to change said diaper, the baby's pee will soak through it and into her bed.

  6. Even when things wrong, it's way more fun to stay home with Dallas than it is to go to work.

    **UPDATED TO ADD:
  7. Corn dogs are a good substitute for burnt fish sticks because they only take 2 minutes to cook :)

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Dallas's first THANKSGIVING!

Look at me all doin' a post two days in a row!

I must be growing up :)

No, actually, the one doing the growing is Dallas, who, I swear, is bigger every day when I get home from work...blah. Strange considering that the first day I worked the child didn't eat anything all day. That's right! She would. not. eat. So my mom had to bring her to meet me on my lunch break so I could feed her. We had been trying for WEEKS to get her to take a bottle, and at first she would do it as long as I wasn't around, but the last few times we tried, she would just get really, really mad and refuse to drink it. It was so sad! I hate to hear her cry when I know that I could do something to make her feel better....in this case -- nurse her. The good news is that last night I finally found a bottle that she will take: the Medela. Others that we tried: Playtex Drop-ins (both silicone and latex n1pples*), Playtex Advance, Nuby Baby, and Nuk (silicone n1pples).

(*I realize that I spelled the "N" word incorrectly -- I just do not want the readers that will come to my blog only because they searched for that word.)

I am so glad that she is finally eating while I'm gone from the house! It is a huge load off my mind while I'm at work. Working is hard enough without my having to worry about her being hungry. If the Medela n1pple hadn't worked, we also had some Evenflo glass bottles to try, and I was planning to buy an Adiri bottle to try next. I first heard about the Adiri when my cousin Nikki went through this same thing with her son Daniel. The Adiri is not an attractive bottle, by any means, so I am glad that I'll be able to avoid using it :)

Anyhoo...on to the real topic of this blog --- THANKSGIVING!!

Our Thanksgiving really did stretch for over the entire weekend. On Thursday morning, we met up with my family (minus my sister and her family) for breakfast. It has become my granny's recent tradition to have our Thanksgiving dinner catered by Cracker Barrel, so it's easy for us to just meet up there for breakfast since she has to go there anyway to pick it up. I'd bought Dallas an adorable little outfit that said "My first Thanksgiving" and she wore it that morning to breakfast. We arrived at the restaurant, ordered our food, and I took Dallas to the bathroom to change her diaper. OF COURSE as soon as I took her diaper off she peed, so she got to wear her Thanksgiving day outfit in public for a whole six and a half minutes before I had to change her clothes and no I did not get to take a picture of it. *sigh...* Despite the needed outfit change, the rest of our breakfast was lovely. I love Cracker Barrel.

As soon as we got home from breakfast, Dustin and I started packing up for our drive to Leesburg to see his family and OH. MY. WORD. we had to take a ton of stuff for Dallas. Seriously, it felt like our entire house was in our car with us...including Baggie! Dallas typically does not like riding in her car seat, so we were really praying that she wouldn't scream for the entire two and a half hours in the car. She actually did pretty well. We had to stop about half way there for me to feed her and change her diaper (in a random field which could only be described as the MOSQUITO CAPITAL OF THE WORLD), but other than that she slept most of the time.


That night, Dustin's mom (Nonna) and I gave Dallas her first kitchen-sink-bath. I had hoped that she'd enjoy it and do all the cute things that she does when she normally takes a bath, but instead she had this reaction:


I don't think we're going to try that again for a while. Maybe she'll do better once she can sit up on her own and isn't sliding down into the drain the whole time. Haha!

The next morning (Friday) we went with Dustin's parents and some friends to breakfast at Denny's. It was pretty cold, so we had to bundle little Dallas up. Here she is with Dustin getting ready to go over to his parents' house. (Clarification: Dustin's parents live on the grounds of a conference center, and we stayed in an RV right outside their house.)


Poor Baggie had to stay in the camper the whole time we were there. Really, though, I think she enjoyed exploring and finding all of the many small places she could hide while we were gone.


After breakfast we went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things and check out the Black Friday sales, and then we took Dallas to have her picture taken with Santa! The poor baby was exhausted from being out for so long, and that plus the HUGE STRESS of having to change into a Christmas dress nearly put her over the edge. She cried up till the minute I handed her to Santa, but then miraculously stopped! It was just too funny that she seemed not mind this huge, strange man holding her for a few minutes. Santa sang to her the whole time they were sitting there, so I think that helped to calm her down. Tons of people walking through the mall stopped to watch Dallas getting her picture taken, and everyone kept telling us how cute she was. It was so sweet!


I was able to wash Dallas's Thanksgiving outfit so she could wear it again on Saturday when we actually ate our Thanksgiving dinner. There were plenty of people around to hold her, but this is where she was the happiest:

I told you...she LOVES her swing! She really was very good letting lots of people hold her. She got fussy when she was hungry and tired, but other than that she did great. Here's what everyone else did while they waited to eat Thanksgiving dinner...


Tyler, Kelly, and my parents (Grammy and Paw Paw) waiting for Thanksgiving dinner


Poppy carving the turkey

Tyson, Owen, and Dayna playing with all of Dustin and Tyler's old toys


Keeping busy in the kitchen

Dallas with her Great Aunt Dianne

Watching some football

After lunch we went out for a very short walk. It was short because Dallas was hungry and decided that she'd rather eat than sit in her stroller.


This picture reminds me to mention one other thing that Dallas has been doing lately....SUCKING HER THUMB (or fingers or hand). I'd thought that this might be an issue since she started doing it in the hospital, but it's gotten a lot worse just in the last week or so. We're still trying to get her to take a pacifier, but most of the time she won't have anything to do with it. Also, she kind of just licks anything that comes near her mouth lately....her shirt, her blanket, a toy, someone's shoulder....it's really stinkin' cute. I asked the doctor about it at her two month appointment, and she said that it's just Dallas's way of exploring things.

This really was a fantastic Thanksgiving. We have so many things to be thankful for, and of course one of the biggest blessings this year was Dallas becoming a part of our family. I look forward to all of the holidays to come and I can't wait to introduce my little girl to this special time of year.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Daily grind

So...I'm back at work. I actually started back on Monday this week. If you're friends with me on facebook, you already knew that. I didn't think it would happen, but it was necessary and is hopefully only going to be temporary. I don't want to talk about it much. Right now, I'm only doing part time, but I don't know how long that will last. I guess it will depend on what kind of mood my boss is in when we finally talk about it.

Moving on...

Can I just say that I have the most precious baby in the whole wide world?!? It's true. And to prove it, here are a few pictures:

Playing with her rattle


She loves her big bows! Well, I guess I should say she doesn't mind wearing them :)


Our first time at church as a family


2 months old


She is such a good baby! She is still eating and sleeping like a champ. She sleeps at least 6-8 hours every night, and sometimes will even go 10 hours without waking up to eat. I love it! At her two month appointment (two weeks ago...yes, I'm a bad mommy for taking this long to write about it) she weighed 10 lbs. 5 oz. and was 22.5 inches long. She's right below average for her weight, but she's above average for her height. She's gonna be tall and skinny just like her mommy and daddy are used to be when they were younger.

I've seen a lot of other people do little monthly updates on all the new stuff their babies are doing, so I'm going to steal that idea and do that every month on her birthday. I want to be able to remember all of the little details that make up who Dallas is!

For right now, here are just a few things...

  • Dallas loves her swing! She seems to need time to herself every day, away from being held. This is great for me because I can get stuff done around the house. At the same time, I feel guilty every once in a while that my baby spends so much time being entertained by a machine when I'm right there in the same house.
  • She is starting to tolerate sitting in her bumbo seat. She'll only do it for a few minutes, but I want her to do it more often because it's very convenient for me to just carry around the house.
  • She can hold up her head really well! At her two month appointment the doctor was impressed at how strong her neck is. I think it has something to do with how small her head is. :) The only time she goes floppy on us is when she's tired.
  • Dallas loves music. Lo.o.o.oves it. Any kind of music. Whenever she's upset, we can turn on a CD or put her in her swing and turn the music on, and she'll calm down almost every time.
  • She loves to take a bath in her tub. She's just started kicking her feet in the water, so now Dustin and I are getting used to being splashed.
  • She hasn't actually laughed, yet, but we think she's getting close. She smiles on a pretty regular basis. I absolutely love it when I go to get her out of her bed in the morning and she grins up at me. So. precious.
  • She seriously hates it when we change her clothes. A lot of times she'll act like she's DYING when I try to pull her arms through her sleeves. The quickest way to get her to go from happy and smiling to screaming bloody murder is to put her pj's on.

I know there's a ton more I could write, but it's time for me to go home and snuggle that precious baby, so I'm going to end it here. I vow that tomorrow I will post about Dallas's first Thanksgiving. "Vow" sounds even more serious than "promise" so hopefully I'll actually follow through with it :)

Sunday, November 8, 2009

How Daddy saw things...

To read Angela's account of what happened, click here.

September 18th - 6am


My Side of the Birth Story

By Dustin

Like Angela said, we tried to go to bed early on the night before, but we were both too excited and nervous to fall asleep in a timely fashion. Even though I was tired, I couldn’t help but lie in bed and think about how my life would be different after the next day was done. Sometime after midnight, I fell asleep.

We awoke at around 5am and I began loading up all our gear into the car and making sure we had everything we needed while Angela took care of the important stuff, like making sure that each strand of her hair was straightened and in place and that her makeup was done. We left the house at nearly 6am and headed to the hospital. Having the induction scheduled ahead of time sure is nice because there’s no rushing to the hospital or hurrying because your wife is about to give birth all over the back of your car. Angela and I made it to the hospital at about 6:30am and I dropped her off at the door. After parking the car, I gathered up our suitcase and bags and met Angela in the lobby. We got settled into our room not long before Angela’s parents arrived.

After a couple hours of waiting, they started Angela on the pitocin and eventually the contractions started coming stronger. Angela said she could really feel them but she never really looked like she was in discomfort so it was hard for me to judge just how much pain or discomfort she was experiencing. Sometime after that she decided that she needed more drugs and that it would be a good time for the epidural.

It took about a half hour for the anesthesiologist to arrive so by the time he got to our room, Angela was very much ready to get her epidural. The anesthesiologist was a very nice Haitian man who was probably no more than 5 feet tall. He was very friendly and did a good job of making us feel like he was going to take care of Angela. I’ve heard terrible stories of epidurals and the size of the needle so I made darn well sure that I didn’t look at the needle so that I wouldn’t freak Angela out. I just focused on holding her hand and trying to make her feel better. Judging by Angela’s reaction, the epidural was very painful but she was very strong. It hurt her a lot but after only a couple of minutes she felt the best she’d felt in months! After the anesthesiologist was finished, Angela asked him how long he had been doing this. He replied without skipping a beat, “Oh, this is my first day. They have these really good videos online.” I knew he was joking, but part of me still kind of panicked. I’m glad he made that joke after the epidural.

The next several hours were spent playing the waiting game. The nurses would periodically come in and check her and for a while things seemed to be progressing normally. I guess it was around 7pm when the doctor made the call for the c-section. I don’t know why, but months before her labor, I think I kind of knew that Angela would have a c-section. I don’t know how I knew, but I remember thinking it. Of course, I said nothing to Angela about it because I didn’t want to worry her. I can still remember the fear and the worry that felt like a punch in the gut when I heard the doctor say that they were going to have to cut my wife open. Of course, she didn’t say it exactly like that but that’s what I was thinking. I just remember being scared and worried and praying harder than I’ve ever prayed in my life.

The doctors quickly began filling Angela’s IV full of all kinds of meds and within a matter of minutes that had wheeled Angela out of the room. The nurse said I would have to change into scrubs and they would come get me in a moment when it was time to deliver. She left the room at about the time I realized that I didn’t have any scrubs! I kind of panicked for a moment and jumped into the hallway to grab a nurse just as one was bringing me the scrubs. I changed quickly and my family and Angela’s gathered for a quick prayer. A nurse came and told me it was time. I felt like we were running down the hall. It was like I couldn’t get there fast enough. I stepped through the OR door and I kind of lost my breath. It looked exactly like it does on television. There were nurses and doctors rushing everywhere and my precious baby Angela was lying on the table all strapped down. I was very scared and felt like crying but I made sure to be strong for Angela.

No sooner had a sat on the stool next to Angela’s head when I looked up just to see my sweet baby being lifted from the other side of the sheet. It did not seem real at all. I remember thinking, “I can’t believe that’s my baby. I just can’t believe it.” I remember kind of holding my breath, waiting to hear that first cry that meant everything was okay. I heard a soft whimper from the little table across the room and the nurse called me over. Lying on a towel in a metal pan was my Dallas, my sweet, precious little girl. Tears filled my eyes as she wrapped her tiny little fingers around my finger. I don’t know why I thought what I did, but at that moment I was filled with a level of anger I have never felt. I remember feeling so angry and so mad that anyone could ever think that abortion is okay or acceptable. I don’t why I felt that way at that moment, but I did.


Instead of spanking Dallas to get her to cry, they tickled her, which I thought was funny. As the nurses suctioned her nose and mouth and wiped the pasty material from her body, she cried and screamed the more they tickled her. After mostly cleaning her up, the swaddled her up and handed me my daughter! It was the most amazing experience in my life, hands down. I carried her to my wife’s side all the while thinking, “Don’t drop her, don’t drop her, don’t drop her…” As I headed to the stool to show Angela our baby, I did glance over on the other side of the sheet to see what was going on. I wasn’t as freaked out as I thought I would be, but I did get to see Angela’s guts, which was kind of cool and kind of strange at the same time. I sat next to Angela and I just started telling her over and over again how beautiful Dallas was. I was completely amazed and breathless at how incredible it was to hold my baby girl. Angela was so tired and could barely keep her eyes open, but she was able to see Dallas’s face and stroke her cheek before she closed her eyes out of exhaustion.

After a moment, the nurse took Dallas from me and told me where Angela would be. I went with the baby to make sure the baby snatchers wouldn’t get her and followed the nurse and Dallas up to the nursery. They cleaned Dallas up and gave her the first bath. I was so distracted thinking about Angela and if she was okay that I left the room before they had weighed Dallas! As soon as I stepped into the elevator, I remembered and ran back but they had already weighed her! And I had missed it! I spent a long time just leaning over Dallas under the heat lamp and holding her hand and talking to her. It was so amazing to see her and touch her for the first time! Just flat out incredible! After they had finished checking her over, the nurse swaddled her back up and handed Dallas to me so I could show her off to the small crowd gathered outside the nursery window. After many, many pictures with cell phones and cameras, I put Dallas back down under the heat lamp and went to check on my wife.

She was asleep, I think, when I first made it to the recovery room, but she woke up after I arrived. She was shaking from the adrenaline, I guess, and she was really thirsty so I fed her some ice chips. She could barely move and was kind of sore. I stayed with Angela until her mom came and then I went back to stay with Dallas (gotta watch the baby snatchers). After a couple hours in recovery, they rolled Angela to her room and I wheeled my little baby to meet her mommy for the first time. The nurse handed Dallas to Angela and we both just cried in amazement at the little blessing we were holding! It was truly awesome and not a day goes by that I don’t thank God for my precious baby, Dallas! I will never forget that day, down to the smallest detail! Being a daddy is so much fun and I could not have hoped for a sweeter, more precious daughter. Thank you, Jesus, for my sweet, baby Dallas! Thank you!


Saturday, November 7, 2009

9.18.09 - The day I will never forget

September 18th - 6am


Dallas's birth story...


We tried to go to bed early the night before, but of course that didn't work out too well. I think we were actually in bed by midnight, but I have no idea what time I went to sleep. I woke up around 5am to get dressed, because I had to call the hospital to see what time we should be there. They said for us to come in as soon as we were ready, so we left the house right around 6am. By 7am, I was in my hospital gown and tucked into the bed with about 49 pillows around me. My back was KILLING me from all the (Braxton Hicks) contractions I'd been having plus everything else that had gone on during the pregnancy. I was also starving since I wasn't allowed to eat or drink ANYTHING after midnight.

We had called our parents on our way to the hospital to tell them we were going in, so my parents arrived shortly after we did. The nurse put in my IV....OUCH!! and they started the pitocin around 8:30am. I was told that I could ask for the epidural at any time, but that I should wait until I was having to breathe through the contractions. They say this because once you get the epidural you're not allowed to get out of bed. What they didn't tell me until it was too late was that they also won't let you out of bed after they start pitocin, so I was stuck anyway.

BOY DID THE PITOCIN DO A WORK ON MY BODY. I started having crazy contractions almost immediately. Soon after, the midwife, Amy, came in to try to break my water. Notice I said "try." It didn't work...for some reason. I really think that was one of the first indicators that things weren't going to go smoothly. Can I just stop right here and say that her trying to break my water was one of the worst pains I had all day? Seriously. It's been almost two months, and I feel nauseous right now just thinking about it. Moving on...

Me with my mom, my dad, and Dustin

I stuck it out until about 10am, then asked for my epidural. The anesthesiologist arrived around 10:30, but by then I was having strong contractions one right after another -- only about 2 minutes apart. Needless to say, their instructions for me to just "relax" while they did the whole thing were pointless. There was no relaxing going on at that point. I am happy for all of those people in the world who say that the only pain they felt from the epidural was the numbing shot...but I felt ALL OF IT.

Wow. Thinking back, it's crazy to remember how much that hurt. Am I scaring those of you who haven't had a baby yet? I'm sorry. Don't be scared. It's worth it.

If it wasn't for Dustin and the very nice nurse who let me squeeze her hand to death during the twenty minutes or so that it took for them to do the epidural, I think I would have died right there on my bed. DIED. Like DEAD. The silver lining, not 5 minutes later, the nurse asked me, "How was that one?" I said, "How was what?" Apparently I'd had a huge contraction right then, and I didn't even feel it. And THAT, my friends, is the beauty of the epidural.

The next few hours are a little blurry because nothing was going on that was of much interest. Dustin's parents got to the hospital a little after noon, and we all pretty much just sat around talking all day. We watched The Sound of Music and Meet the Robinsons to pass the time, and Dustin, his parents, and my dad all had a sodoku contest.


All throughout the day the nurses came in to check on me and yet-to-be-born Dallas, adjust my blood pressure cuff and the monitors on my belly, and mess with the pitocin levels. They had to increase my epidural at one point, also, because I started feeling the contractions. A few times they had to lower the pitocin because I was having too many strong contractions too close together.

The nurse gave this analogy to describe how contractions affect a baby --
Imagine you're in a swimming pool and someone comes up and dunks you under water for a few seconds. Just one time, and it's easy to recover. But if you get dunked under water for several seconds over and over and over with no recovery time, it puts a lot of stress on your body. That is what my contractions were doing to Dallas. Thankfully, throughout the whole day they never saw any signs of distress. They just had to be very careful not to let it get to that point.

When I was admitted into the hospital, I was 3 centimeters dilated and about 60% softened. My doctor and the nurses checked me several times during the day, but the progression was very, very slow. By 7:30pm, I was still only 7 centimeters dilated and about 70-80% effaced. It was then that my doctor decided that I was going to have a c-section. She examined me and said that my pelvis was not wide enough to fit her hand through it, much less a baby. This began a WHIRL of activity.

Of course, I was a little bit freaked out at the realization that I was about to be cut open. I really had not even considered a c-section an option before that second. I was so tired and emotionally drained from the whole day on top of which I felt nauseated from not having eaten anything in such a long time. The nurses all began prepping me for the surgery. They shoved what looked like tube after tube of stuff into my IV and gave me a cup full of the most AWFUL green liquid EVER to drink. I have no idea what the purpose of that stuff was, but it caused me to throw up several times almost immediately....very difficult when you're lying flat in a hospital bed.

As they were all doing their thing, my doctor decided to check me one more time. I didn't know it until much later, but she was concerned that I'd developed a fever, and she had smelled infection in my fluids the previous time she'd checked me. After that, she had the nurses hook me back up to the baby monitor to check on Dallas one more time. Again, I didn't know this until much later, but Dallas's heartbeat had dropped from 150 to about 80. Suddenly things went from fast mode to INSANE mode.

All of a sudden there were nurses everywhere. They pushed me on my bed through the hallway and into the operating room. I was lifted from my bed onto a different bed, and I watched as seemingly hundreds of people in scrubs ran around the room. They set up a sheet just like what you see on TV to block my view of whatever was going on with the lower half of my body. Someone put an oxygen tube in my nose, and I immediately felt like I was drowning in the much too strong air.

The anesthesiologist came to stand beside me and tell me what was about to happen. He promised that I would not feel anything, but I did not believe him. This was the same guy who'd said that I wouldn't feel it when he gave me the epidural, and we all know how well that turned out! I was lying on the operating table with my arms stretched straight out and strapped down, and I knew that I was about to be cut open so they could take out my baby.

I don't even know how to describe the disconnected feeling of panic that took over. I had no idea where Dustin was. I hadn't seen him since they took me from my room. (Come to find out, he'd been sent to change into scrubs.) I was scared that he was going to miss the whole thing! Finally, someone put a chair next to my head, and Dustin sat down. At almost the exact same instant, I heard a noise across the room. I looked over, and saw my baby for the first time...

Dallas Julia
8:01pm
7lbs. 2 oz. - 20.75 inches


We got to spend about 10 minutes together while they finished up with the surgery, then I had to go to recovery. My doctor stopped by to tell me that I will only ever have c-sections for any other children I may have. Yet another thing we didn't learn till much later -- after she delivered Dallas, the doctor saw an abruption in my uterus, meaning that the placenta had started to tear away from the uterine wall. They have no way of knowing when this happened, but had they waited even one more hour to do the surgery, my doctor believes that Dallas would have had to spend some serious time in the NICU.

My family all took turns coming to talk to me, and my mom showed me a video of Dallas in the nursery. It was only about a minute long, and I watched it over and over. Finally, after two hours, I was taken to my room, and the nurse brought Dallas in to me so I could hold her for the first time...






Pictures from the rest of our hospital stay to come!

**ETA -- I want to clarify that although I did have some problems and things absolutely did not go like I thought they would, I LOVED my doctor and the entire staff at the hospital where I delivered. I do not blame them for whatever may have gone wrong. I actually am very, VERY happy with the way my doctor handled my delivery. I think that it was her insight that actually saved both me and Dallas from having to endure even more trauma. I'm sorry if I made it sound otherwise!! :)

Sunday, October 18, 2009

1 month

Hello blogging world! It's me!!!

I've been dying to do a new post and yet dreading it at the same time because the first post after I have a baby should be a really BIG one, right? Well, I can't put it off any longer, and honestly, I'm probably just going to have to stop typing and just hit POST whenever she wakes up, or it's never going to get done.

I'm not even going to attempt the birthing story right now because I'm sure I don't have enough time to get into it all, and it will be hard to condense a whole month in a short post, so I'll try to just hit the highlights.

First and foremost, mommyhood is FANTASTIC. I love it. Love, LOVE, LOVE!! It doesn't hurt at all that I have the sweetest, most adorable and beautiful baby ever, either. She really is the best and I can prove it in just five words....

SHE SLEEPS THROUGH THE NIGHT.

Yes, you read that right. Dallas slept through the night on her third day home from the hospital. I'm pretty sure she would have done it the first two nights home as well, but we were told to wake her up to eat every three hours until she'd gained weight back to her birth weight.

Okay, she just started making noise, so I probaby need to wrap this up already. I'll leave you with a few pictures. These are all post-hospital. I'll save the pics from her first couple of days for when I tell the hospital story.



We say that she is perpetually slightly concerned.


Baggie....GUARD KITTY




She always sleeps with at least one arm in the air if she's not all wrapped up in a blanket.


4 weeks old - Dallas's first experience with a bottle.....she DID NOT like it.



She's already a Jags fan in her little pink Jaguars onesie.


One month old today!!



Saturday, September 19, 2009

Introducing...


Dallas Julia! She arrived at 8:01 pm, weighed 7 lbs 2 oz, and was 20 3/4 inches long. Dallas ended up coming by c-section but mommy and baby are both doing fine. Daddy is so exhausted. More info and pictures to come of our little cutie, Dallas!

Friday, September 18, 2009

6am -- On our way to the hospital

Monday, September 14, 2009

Update -- still no baby

That's right. Still no baby. Rather than completely rewriting everything, I'm just going to copy an e-mail that I sent out to some of my friends. I apologize for the lack of enthusiasm....it's just hard to be really up-beat at this point.

On Friday, I was still dilated only 1 cm -- no change from the last 2 weeks. My blood pressure was higher than it has been in the last several weeks (140/80), so my doctor ordered some blood work and had me schedule another appointment for today. She also stripped my membranes, which was FAR from enjoyable, but she said that that might help things to move along a little faster. Based on my blood pressure and what the labs said, she thought that we might end up inducing today, but obviously that didn't happen as I'm still home on the couch.

Today I saw one of the midwives, and my blood pressure was the highest it's been yet -- 150/90. I don't know a lot about blood pressure numbers, but apparently having anything over 90 is cause for concern. At first they said that they were probably going to send me down to Labor and Delivery, but in the end they decided it would be okay for me to wait another couple of days. They had me do a stress test to see if Dallas is being affected by my high blood pressure, and everything with her looked fine. Right before I left they took my blood pressure again and it was 130/90. The other concern -- I'm swelling a LOT. As in, I gained 7 pounds between my appointment Friday afternoon and this morning. They told me to just keep an eye on it. I hate vague instructions.

As of now, I'm scheduled to be induced this coming Friday morning -- the 18th. That's one day before my actual due date. They've put me back on strict, full time bed rest to help keep my blood pressure under control until then. I honestly don't know or understand why they're waiting so long to induce since I'm already full term and things obviously aren't getting better, but I just have to hope and pray and trust that they're doing what's best for the baby. I've had contractions almost constantly since last Friday, so at this point I'm just really hoping that they'll become regular in the next couple of days (or TONIGHT) so that I just have the baby naturally. If anything changes, or if they (the doctors) magically decide that I should be induced sooner, I'll let you all know!

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Because let's face it -- the chances of my doing another post in the next few days are very slim

As has become the norm, I need to apologize for my recent lack of posting. I'm only doing this post because I'm really REALLY hoping that at my doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon they're going to send me to Labor and Delivery on the spot. Do I have good reason to believe they will? Eh, not really, but I can still DREAM, can't I?

If you'd rather not read about the intimate, pregnancy related details of what's going on with my body, NOW would be a good time for you to STOP READING. Seriously, I'm going to talk about dilating and stuff.


Last chance!


Everybody gone who needs to be?


Okay...

Two weeks ago at my doctor's appointment, my doctor checked me for the first time. I was one centimeter dilated and 50% effaced. She told me it could be any day. I REALLY wish she hadn't said that, because it got my hopes up that it really could be any day, and yet here we are, two weeks later, and I'm STILL PREGNANT. Last week, I was still only a centimeter dialated, but I was 60% effaced. Only 10% progress? That doesn't impress me. The doctor may as well have said GIVE UP NOW. YOU'RE GOING TO BE PREGNANT FOR ANOTHER 94 YEARS. That's what I felt like, at least.

What she really said was -- if I don't have the baby before my next appointment (that would be the one tomorrow) we're more than likely going to set a date for me to be induced on Monday or Tuesday. And for the record, Monday and Tuesday are 4 and 5 days away, respectively. I know that doesn't sound like that long to most people, but me? I'm just not sure I can live another 4 or 5 days with a baby IN MY BELLY. I am ready. READY!! Do you hear me?!?

And just to show you how much pregnancy is affecting my view on what normal life, I will share with you a little story that made Dustin laugh at me in the way that lets me know that he thinks I've lost my mind:

Last week, we were watching some football game (becuase it is a rule in our house right now that if there is a football game on, we must watch it.....this is not MY rule) and the camera men showed a shot of the two commentators sitting in their booth doing their thing, and my immediate thought was how HORRIBLE it was that the NFL (or the TV station) was forcing them to SIT DOWN for hours and hours during the football game. Then, I had to remind myself that sitting down is not a bad thing for normal people. Most people do not have to endure terrible pain just from sitting in a chair. Normal people, in fact, are quite comfortable when sitting in regular chairs or on a couch or in a recliner. I am NOT normal people, obviously, because it DOES hurt ME to sit upright in a chair.

I know...I'm pitiful and pathetic, and I'm going to stop whining now.

I just read back through what I've written so far, and although it is not cohesive by any means and I've used more than double my normal allotment for CAPITAL LETTERS, I don't feel like going back and changing it. So...here it be. As is.

While I'm here, I should mention that I haven't forgotten that I need to post pictures of Dallas's room all finished. I said a few weeks ago that we'd just ordered one last thing to complete her room, and while we did get the thing in the mail last week, it didn't work out like we'd planned and we had to re-order it. If we can get it in next week and get it up on the wall (yeah, that was a clue that it's a wall decoration), I'll post pictures next week.

I will leave you with my latest belly picture, which may be categorized under 38 weeks. Dustin actually took this picture this past Sunday, so I may have gained some weight even since then.




Oh, speaking of weight...at my appointment last week, I realized that I have gained exactly 25 pounds since my very first pregnant doctor's appointment. Not bad, I'd say. I've been swelling a lot this week, though, which is why I say I probably weigh a lot more now than I did on Sunday. Granted, it's probably mostly water, so I guess it doesn't really count.

Anyhoo...I'll try and keep y'all posted with whatever happens tomorrow and over the weekend. So you won't have to wonder, I'll definitely make sure that a note of some sort makes its way onto this page if I do end up going into labor or whatever. No news will mean no baby. Okee dokee?

Talk to you peeps later!