12.27.2012
Does this count as a post?
11.04.2012
She's here!!
Oh hi. Remember me? I used to blog here about crafts I did. But then I got pregnant, moved, started a new job, and then had a baby! So things have been crazy. You know how they say, "sleep when the baby sleeps?" Yeah, you don't have to tell me twice, I'm doing that involuntarily!
Our precious baby girl arrived on October 25, 2012 at 9:01 pm. She weighed 7lbs3oz and was 19 inches long. After much deliberation we decided to name her Lily, despite is rapidly rising popularity. We tried and tried to settle on a different name, but in the end she's just always been Lily. And we just love her to pieces!
In case you're interested in the birth story, here it is! If you're not, skip it over and look at all the pictures of her. :)
I do have to include a small backstory though, because it's just too ironic to leave out!
Last year, I met a follow blogger, {Meg}. She won a giveaway I hosted, and when I went to ship her her prize, it turned out that we lived only 15 minutes away from each other! We met up to craft and became real life friends! We ended up getting pregnant right around the same time, our due dates were just a few weeks apart. It's been so funny going through the pregnancy together, and, as fate would have it, we ended up having our babies on the same day. Yeah, really. It's like something out of a movie!
Ok, onto the real story. The aforementioned bloggy friend, Meg, texted me that she had finally gone into labor (she was 42 weeks pregnant! Poor girl!) I drove over to the hospital to keep her company while she walked the halls to get her labor going. I had done a few things myself to "stir up some trouble" and get my own labor going, but I was still surprised to notice that while I was walking the halls with her...my own contractions were starting to pick up! The nurses kept eyeing me, asking me if they needed to get me a gown too! We walked for a couple hours and I finally called my doctor and he told me to come in. We both laughed when I told him I was already there. ;)
They moved me to a room and hooked me up to monitor my contractions. It was determined that I was still in early labor, but they wanted to keep me overnight anyway because the baby's heartbeat was a little sporadic. I sent David home to grab our bags and we prepared ourselves for a rough night.
But it never happened. My contractions stopped in the middle of the night and never came back. When morning came, the nurse came in, looked at my charts, and told me that I wasn't in labor. What I had experienced the night before was false labor.
I cried. This was the fourth time I'd been to the hospital in the last three weeks (mostly for high blood pressure scares) and I was going to be sent home baby-less again!? The nurse grabbed the doctor who looked over my charts and history and told me that she recommended an induction. The baby's heartbeat kept dipping, and she thought it was better to get the baby out rather than keep her in for a few more days. I had already made excellent progress on my own (I was 5cm dilated and 80% effaced and the baby's head was very low) so all I needed was a little "push" to get the true labor started. She started the pitocin.
After about 4 or 5 hours later the contractions had REALLY picked up. I handled them just fine until I hit 12 on the pitocin, aaand then I wanted to die. Did I mention it was all back labor?? Horrifying! The labor wouldn't progress because I was so stressed and anxious the contractions weren't moving the baby at all. I asked for the epidural. Holy crap. How anyone goes through childbirth without one of those glorious shots is beyond me. I was able to relax, calm down, and let the labor progress for a few more hours. I tried to nap, but I was too anxious.
Around 6pm the nurse came in to check me and discovered I was 10cm, 100% effaced, and ready to push. I was a little shocked, I thought I would have a few more hours to mentally prep. LOL NOPE! She quickly gathered her supplies and got me ready to push while I totally freaked out. It was all happening to quickly! Everyone told me induced labors took forever and were just awful, but it hadn't even been 12 hours yet and everything has progressed so smoothly! I guess the doctor was right when she told me all I needed was a little bit of help. And so the pushing began.
For two and a half hours. Augh! Lily had turned herself all crooked (sunny side up anyone?) and gotten stuck, and this being my first baby made it even more difficult. I was utterly exhausted, the pitocin was cranked up too high so I was literally pushing every minute with only a 30 second rest in between. I hadn't eaten in over 24 hours, I had barely slept the night before. My pushes had become completely ineffective. Boo. The doctor came in and suggested an intervention via vacuum. I was very hesitant, I asked if I could try a little longer before any kind of intervention. So I tried and tried, and failed. She was just too stuck and I was too exhausted. The doctor told me I really just needed a tiny bit of help because she was so dang close to try and reassure me. I felt like such a failure, but I didn't want to risk putting her into distress by dragging out the pushing, so I reluctantly accepted the intervention.
There needed to be a whole team of NICU nurses in case something went wrong, so once they were assembled I tried again. Two gigantic pushes later she was out!
She was a little cone headed, and had a little bump where the vacuum was on her head, but she was here! I cried when the put her slimy body on my chest.
In case you're interested in the birth story, here it is! If you're not, skip it over and look at all the pictures of her. :)
I do have to include a small backstory though, because it's just too ironic to leave out!
Last year, I met a follow blogger, {Meg}. She won a giveaway I hosted, and when I went to ship her her prize, it turned out that we lived only 15 minutes away from each other! We met up to craft and became real life friends! We ended up getting pregnant right around the same time, our due dates were just a few weeks apart. It's been so funny going through the pregnancy together, and, as fate would have it, we ended up having our babies on the same day. Yeah, really. It's like something out of a movie!
Ok, onto the real story. The aforementioned bloggy friend, Meg, texted me that she had finally gone into labor (she was 42 weeks pregnant! Poor girl!) I drove over to the hospital to keep her company while she walked the halls to get her labor going. I had done a few things myself to "stir up some trouble" and get my own labor going, but I was still surprised to notice that while I was walking the halls with her...my own contractions were starting to pick up! The nurses kept eyeing me, asking me if they needed to get me a gown too! We walked for a couple hours and I finally called my doctor and he told me to come in. We both laughed when I told him I was already there. ;)
They moved me to a room and hooked me up to monitor my contractions. It was determined that I was still in early labor, but they wanted to keep me overnight anyway because the baby's heartbeat was a little sporadic. I sent David home to grab our bags and we prepared ourselves for a rough night.
But it never happened. My contractions stopped in the middle of the night and never came back. When morning came, the nurse came in, looked at my charts, and told me that I wasn't in labor. What I had experienced the night before was false labor.
I cried. This was the fourth time I'd been to the hospital in the last three weeks (mostly for high blood pressure scares) and I was going to be sent home baby-less again!? The nurse grabbed the doctor who looked over my charts and history and told me that she recommended an induction. The baby's heartbeat kept dipping, and she thought it was better to get the baby out rather than keep her in for a few more days. I had already made excellent progress on my own (I was 5cm dilated and 80% effaced and the baby's head was very low) so all I needed was a little "push" to get the true labor started. She started the pitocin.
After about 4 or 5 hours later the contractions had REALLY picked up. I handled them just fine until I hit 12 on the pitocin, aaand then I wanted to die. Did I mention it was all back labor?? Horrifying! The labor wouldn't progress because I was so stressed and anxious the contractions weren't moving the baby at all. I asked for the epidural. Holy crap. How anyone goes through childbirth without one of those glorious shots is beyond me. I was able to relax, calm down, and let the labor progress for a few more hours. I tried to nap, but I was too anxious.
Around 6pm the nurse came in to check me and discovered I was 10cm, 100% effaced, and ready to push. I was a little shocked, I thought I would have a few more hours to mentally prep. LOL NOPE! She quickly gathered her supplies and got me ready to push while I totally freaked out. It was all happening to quickly! Everyone told me induced labors took forever and were just awful, but it hadn't even been 12 hours yet and everything has progressed so smoothly! I guess the doctor was right when she told me all I needed was a little bit of help. And so the pushing began.
For two and a half hours. Augh! Lily had turned herself all crooked (sunny side up anyone?) and gotten stuck, and this being my first baby made it even more difficult. I was utterly exhausted, the pitocin was cranked up too high so I was literally pushing every minute with only a 30 second rest in between. I hadn't eaten in over 24 hours, I had barely slept the night before. My pushes had become completely ineffective. Boo. The doctor came in and suggested an intervention via vacuum. I was very hesitant, I asked if I could try a little longer before any kind of intervention. So I tried and tried, and failed. She was just too stuck and I was too exhausted. The doctor told me I really just needed a tiny bit of help because she was so dang close to try and reassure me. I felt like such a failure, but I didn't want to risk putting her into distress by dragging out the pushing, so I reluctantly accepted the intervention.
There needed to be a whole team of NICU nurses in case something went wrong, so once they were assembled I tried again. Two gigantic pushes later she was out!
Her birth has created two parents, four grandparents, five aunts, two uncles, and two great grandparents. Needless to say, she is going to be one spoiled little munchkin. :)
We just love having her. :) Hopefully I can get back into the swing of blogging again! I don't know how you moms do it!
9.20.2012
Hospital bags, let's discuss!
I don't know why, but I am utterly petrified of preterm labor. I really have no reason to be! I have no family history of it (that I know of), no current signs or symptoms, AND this is my first. So really, I'm being completely irrational. But gosh dang, I might as well be prepared right?
Right now, this is what I'm planning on using as my hospital bag:
Yeah, I know it's a diaper bag. But really, I never planned on actually USING it as a diaper bag. It's too dang big! I want the bag to be easily identifiable for the hubs:
"HONEY GRAB THE HOSPITAL BAG!!!"
"What does it look like!?"
"The duffle!"
"WHICH DUFFLE!?!?"
Yeah, we don't need to have that. Plus, I don't want anyone grabbing mine thinking it's theirs at the hospital. I've never hear of that happening...but let's leave the irrational pregnant woman alone mmkay?
So I've been stuffing my bag with things I think I "need." And then I take things out. Put them back in. Take them out. I have no idea what I'm doing!! I've been browsing Pinterest for ideas but honestly, I want to hear from you. You're my friends and I like you.
What did YOU find helpful to have in your bag? What things were you dead set on that you ended up not needing? What was good for you? Did you bring things for your hubby? What about baby?
Oops...did I show this one already? Sorry, she's just so cute. I can't wait to kiss those fat cheeks and that tiny little nose.
PS, 8 days till we move! :o)
Right now, this is what I'm planning on using as my hospital bag:
"HONEY GRAB THE HOSPITAL BAG!!!"
"What does it look like!?"
"The duffle!"
"WHICH DUFFLE!?!?"
Yeah, we don't need to have that. Plus, I don't want anyone grabbing mine thinking it's theirs at the hospital. I've never hear of that happening...but let's leave the irrational pregnant woman alone mmkay?
So I've been stuffing my bag with things I think I "need." And then I take things out. Put them back in. Take them out. I have no idea what I'm doing!! I've been browsing Pinterest for ideas but honestly, I want to hear from you. You're my friends and I like you.
What did YOU find helpful to have in your bag? What things were you dead set on that you ended up not needing? What was good for you? Did you bring things for your hubby? What about baby?
PS, 8 days till we move! :o)
9.05.2012
Baby bucket list
You guys, baby girl's arrival is NEXT MONTH! Granted, it's the *end* of next month, but it is next month nonetheless! I have about 8 weeks left of cooking!
And I'm finally starting to show!! I was 30 weeks pregnant before I got an acknowledgement from a stranger. Good or bad? Not sure! All I know is that the reality of my soon to be turned upside down life is starting to hit home. We've already had some major life changes around here: my husband graduated with his masters, he started his first real grown up job, my little brother got married, and currently we are in the process of MOVING!! In just a few weeks we will no longer be basement gremlins, ohhh I feel giddy just thinking about it.
Despite all these major life changes, I still have a hugely long list of things I want to get done before Baby Girl gets here! I know I won't be able to accomplish half of it, but this nesting chick is sure gonna try.
Car seat blanket from {Toad's Treasures} Since BG (that's Baby Girl, btw) will be arriving right as things start to get chilly, I need something to keep her snuggly warm.
Car seat protector from {Bubbly Nature Creations} This is one of those ones I probably won't get to, but gosh dang, what a fantastic idea!
Nursing shawl from {The Coterie Blog} Let's be honest here, do I really have the patience to sew an all out nursing cover? No. Do I have the patience to sew one line? ...let's hope so!
I have enough fabric to make SEVERAL of these blankets from {How Does She?}
And don't even get me started on the nursery!! For a very long time, we thought we would still be stuck in this one bedroom basement when BG got here, so my dreams of having a nursery were just that. Dreams. I've pinned a whole bunch of images for inspiration and I have no idea how to incorporate everything together to create a stellar nursery in the less than 4 weeks we will have! Either way, let's drool together yes?
Ooooooooo {from Design Dazzle}
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh {from Apartment Therapy}
Preeeeeeeettyyyyy! {from Very Rosenberry}
I just wish I knew what her name was going to be. David and I decided on a name we loved about 3 years ago, long before getting pregnant! But in the last 3 years the popularity of the name has exploded, it was in the top 10 names last year! There are already 2 babies in my church group with this name, so I am extremely hesitant to use it. David thinks it's "despicable" to not use a name we love just because it has increased in popularity. But I don't want her to be one of 3 in her class at school! I want her to feel special. Blargh. Hopefully we'll come to a compromise soon! Or she'll be Baby X for a while. :)
Despite all these major life changes, I still have a hugely long list of things I want to get done before Baby Girl gets here! I know I won't be able to accomplish half of it, but this nesting chick is sure gonna try.
And don't even get me started on the nursery!! For a very long time, we thought we would still be stuck in this one bedroom basement when BG got here, so my dreams of having a nursery were just that. Dreams. I've pinned a whole bunch of images for inspiration and I have no idea how to incorporate everything together to create a stellar nursery in the less than 4 weeks we will have! Either way, let's drool together yes?
I just wish I knew what her name was going to be. David and I decided on a name we loved about 3 years ago, long before getting pregnant! But in the last 3 years the popularity of the name has exploded, it was in the top 10 names last year! There are already 2 babies in my church group with this name, so I am extremely hesitant to use it. David thinks it's "despicable" to not use a name we love just because it has increased in popularity. But I don't want her to be one of 3 in her class at school! I want her to feel special. Blargh. Hopefully we'll come to a compromise soon! Or she'll be Baby X for a while. :)
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