It has been quite a while since I have written here. A lot has happened in our lives since A was born. She is now almost 7 months old and the absolute joy and love of our lives! She is trying to crawl, and quite funny in her attempt to do so. She is changing every day and we cannot wait to see the little lady she is growing up to be!
The biggest change in our lives has been our place of residency. R is out of the Navy, early administrative discharge- details not necessary- honorable. We had a 10 day-ish notice and within a few weeks of the notice we were moved back here in PA. His family came down to help us move up and we are currently living with my parents. R has a summer job that he officially starts Monday until he starts school in the fall. He wanted to go for computer networking sort of things that he had done in the Navy, but now is looking at more options before he decides for sure. ( and I'm sure he may change his mind again once he makes a decision!) He is using the GI Bill which means that he'll start this fall and go to college for three years straight- all through summer- to graduate with his Bachelors. And the GI Bill ( for those who don't know) will pay for all his schooling fee's ect. all while giving us the BAH ( basic allowance for housing ) that we received for E5 while he was in the Navy. We ultimately want to buy a home in this 2-3 hour radius of or family but still have a while before we can do that. Our families are graciously letting us live back and fourth between their places- I think they don't mind because they get to spend as much time with A as they want. Things are hard and rocky. Money is not there, but we are so blessed to have such wonderful families who love us and want to help us as much as possible. I don't know how we could be making it right now without either of them. Thank you all who have helped us thus far!
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Friday, November 25, 2011
Baby Girl!
I've had people asking me about our birthing experience so I figured the best way to write it all out in detail was through the blog! For starters, we had a girl!!! I was shocked, because by the time i pushed her out i just knew they were going to say it was a boy, and boy was I wrong!
Starting at the beginning, Tuesday the 14th I was diagnosed with cholestasis. ( you can look it up) So we found out then that we were going to be induced Thursday evening for her and my safety. The only cure for it is to deliver the placenta. We went into the hospital thursday evening and they started me on Pitocin. Not long after they inserted the Foley balloon catheter to help ripen and prepare me for more dilation. ( I was only 1 1/2 cm and 50 effaced when i went in) They waited for over 12 hours then came in to remove it. It was stuck and getting it out was almost the most painful part of the whole everything! That took me to about 3-4 cm's, they then decided to break my water that automatically took me another cm. By now it was after noon on Friday. My labor progressed very quickly from there. My contractions were barely felt until about 2 hours before she was born. They got very intense very fast and they told me that was my window for pain medication. At that time they said I was only a 7 and that they would have me push for at least 2-3 hours since i was a first time mom. From not sleeping for a week or two because of my condition, I knew i just didn't have the energy so I signed and waited for the Epidural.
There is a story alone about the Epidural. We waited for over a hour for it to come get administered, the girl who did it did not have a ton of experience giving it to woman actually IN labor and had to try 3 times before she did it right. And that took over a hour alone. I layed back expecting it to have to wait for a few minutes before it kicked in. 20 minutes later i felt no differently. R came over to look at it.. they never hooked it up haha. So it was in my back and everythign but i had absolutely no pain medication going through it. At this point I felt the huge urge to push, but they couldn't see anything yet so told me I had to wait. I told them I couldnt so they checked me again. She was stuck on the lip of my cervix. At this point I wasnt pushing but my body was. They started having people coming in to prepare for her birth ( which they thought was still over a hour away) They still never hooked the epidural up an by the time the girl got back to do so it was too late, so I ended up having her naturally ( which now i'm so thankful I did because I didn't think I could do it!) The next thing I know they are calling to have the midwife come in ASAP. She went from being stuck at 7 p.m. to out and crying by 7:22 lol.
She came out with her arm beside her face. I tore a little because of her elbow coming out beside her face. If she kept her hand down then I wouldn't have torn at all, but even still, very little did i. When she first came out she was crying, but shortly after was having issues breathing. Because she came out so quickly she didn't have the time for extra fluid in her lungs to get squeezed out through the birth canal. They had to stick tubes down her throat and everything.
The first day or so she was fine, 7.1 oz and wasn't even monitored. Then they found out she had GBS so took some more tests to see if anything else. a day or so later they also found out that she had a UTI which made her temp be raised. She was on 3 or so medications, one that was very rough and kept blowing her veins. ... I'm very tired haha, so I'll finish this up later!
Starting at the beginning, Tuesday the 14th I was diagnosed with cholestasis. ( you can look it up) So we found out then that we were going to be induced Thursday evening for her and my safety. The only cure for it is to deliver the placenta. We went into the hospital thursday evening and they started me on Pitocin. Not long after they inserted the Foley balloon catheter to help ripen and prepare me for more dilation. ( I was only 1 1/2 cm and 50 effaced when i went in) They waited for over 12 hours then came in to remove it. It was stuck and getting it out was almost the most painful part of the whole everything! That took me to about 3-4 cm's, they then decided to break my water that automatically took me another cm. By now it was after noon on Friday. My labor progressed very quickly from there. My contractions were barely felt until about 2 hours before she was born. They got very intense very fast and they told me that was my window for pain medication. At that time they said I was only a 7 and that they would have me push for at least 2-3 hours since i was a first time mom. From not sleeping for a week or two because of my condition, I knew i just didn't have the energy so I signed and waited for the Epidural.
There is a story alone about the Epidural. We waited for over a hour for it to come get administered, the girl who did it did not have a ton of experience giving it to woman actually IN labor and had to try 3 times before she did it right. And that took over a hour alone. I layed back expecting it to have to wait for a few minutes before it kicked in. 20 minutes later i felt no differently. R came over to look at it.. they never hooked it up haha. So it was in my back and everythign but i had absolutely no pain medication going through it. At this point I felt the huge urge to push, but they couldn't see anything yet so told me I had to wait. I told them I couldnt so they checked me again. She was stuck on the lip of my cervix. At this point I wasnt pushing but my body was. They started having people coming in to prepare for her birth ( which they thought was still over a hour away) They still never hooked the epidural up an by the time the girl got back to do so it was too late, so I ended up having her naturally ( which now i'm so thankful I did because I didn't think I could do it!) The next thing I know they are calling to have the midwife come in ASAP. She went from being stuck at 7 p.m. to out and crying by 7:22 lol.
She came out with her arm beside her face. I tore a little because of her elbow coming out beside her face. If she kept her hand down then I wouldn't have torn at all, but even still, very little did i. When she first came out she was crying, but shortly after was having issues breathing. Because she came out so quickly she didn't have the time for extra fluid in her lungs to get squeezed out through the birth canal. They had to stick tubes down her throat and everything.
The first day or so she was fine, 7.1 oz and wasn't even monitored. Then they found out she had GBS so took some more tests to see if anything else. a day or so later they also found out that she had a UTI which made her temp be raised. She was on 3 or so medications, one that was very rough and kept blowing her veins. ... I'm very tired haha, so I'll finish this up later!
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
When does it stop?
As usual time is flying by, if this pregnancy is going this fast I can only imagine looking back to see how big our baby is growing week by week! We are 34 weeks this week, so if I make it the whole way to my due date I only have 6 weeks left. And since no one seems to think I'll make it to December that makes it a whole lot closer! We have almost everything done, which is crazy. All we have left to do besides a few last minute purchases is to instal the car-seat and pack our hospital bag/s! It really is unreal. Thankfully we have had a very good pregnancy despite the few issues, because we really truly never did think we'd get this far! We are so excited and blessed for the easy-ness of it all!
Halloween is fast approaching... which means Thanksgiving is coming up as well... which means that I get to decorate for Christmas!! I told R that come the 2nd week of November our apartment will be done and decorated for Christmas. I want to have it all done before little one arrives. It's so hard to wait even now! We bought our first Christmas tree last year and didn't have it up for very long, but this year it will def. get it's use!
Then that brings me to the thought... what do you do for Christmas when you have a barely month old baby? Do we get little one presents and wrap them under the tree even though he or she will have no idea? Do we even get presents for each other? For those who know R and I know that we are not huge gift people. We got gifts for each other while dating, but never have gotten " gifts" for each other throughout the past 3 years of marriage... so do we keep that and continue with it? All things R and I need to figure out of course lol, but I know it will end up as... the baby is our gift to each other. :-) And we'll prob. end up getting a few toys for Roscoe and wrap them up. We have issues haha.
Halloween is fast approaching... which means Thanksgiving is coming up as well... which means that I get to decorate for Christmas!! I told R that come the 2nd week of November our apartment will be done and decorated for Christmas. I want to have it all done before little one arrives. It's so hard to wait even now! We bought our first Christmas tree last year and didn't have it up for very long, but this year it will def. get it's use!
Then that brings me to the thought... what do you do for Christmas when you have a barely month old baby? Do we get little one presents and wrap them under the tree even though he or she will have no idea? Do we even get presents for each other? For those who know R and I know that we are not huge gift people. We got gifts for each other while dating, but never have gotten " gifts" for each other throughout the past 3 years of marriage... so do we keep that and continue with it? All things R and I need to figure out of course lol, but I know it will end up as... the baby is our gift to each other. :-) And we'll prob. end up getting a few toys for Roscoe and wrap them up. We have issues haha.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Time flies!
Well as most know, we have been dying to visit home and have a break from this Navy life and God must have heard our hearts prayers because we were granted last minute leave! We found out Friday the 23rd that we could go home that Monday 26th. So we packed up and took off. The trip up was easy even though it took us a few hours longer than normal. I couldn't fall asleep but R and I talked the whole way up, and in a way the drive itself was needed. R and I are so in love, and I would do anything for him but in marriage you can become disconnected and not even realize it. We talked so much about the baby and about our excitement and just held hands and enjoyed time together. We were able to see a lot of family while we were home, and some good friends. And mostly we were able to relax. We tried very hard to not have any days full fledged planned unless we had to. That Friday all day was dedicated to his family- getting our car inspected- and his mom's family shower for Baby B. So from Monday night until then we were able to just do what we wanted when we wanted. It was amazing. We mostly just sat around my parents house enjoying their company and the food mom would make for us :-). I don't think we even filled up a tank of gas the whole time we were there that's how little we did!
We were able to throw together 2 small baby showers while home. Well our mom's that is. R's family came over to his parents house that Friday night and we were able to get help in gift cards for things for the baby as well as a few items and a baby bouncer all great help. Sunday was my family's shower, and as well as his family, my families first time to see us since before Christmas last year. It was awesome to have my aunts and cousins around again. I was highly surprised when I walked into the church. I expected a table cloth, maybe one decoration, but my family did the whole room up and really made it feel like a long time planned baby shower. We also were given our pack'n'play and my aunt and grandmother put together to get us a crib. We never thought we'd have a crib until well after the baby was born. Both showers were a huge blessing and helped us both feel so relieved about how unprepared we really are for this baby.
So even though the baby clothes and blankets are not washed, the room is still messy and gifts are still in bags, we are prepared! We have a carseat/stroller, soon to have a crib, got the pack'n'play in the mail today, and also purchased our first diapers and huge box of wipes. Only a few things remain and we will hopefully have them taken care of and bought in the next two weeks. But other than that all we have to do is bring it all together! We are so excited!
Also for those out of the loop we are 31 weeks already! 32 weeks on Monday. I cannot believe how far we have come! I still am in awe that we even made it this far, I remember being about 20 weeks and almost dreading the next month because I was so scared we would not get further than that. God has been truly amazing. How do they put it, we are a few weeks away from the baby coming and everything being fine. How crazy is that. If I go full term until my due date we only have about 8 weeks left, and they are saying I'll go possibly 2 weeks before that.... 6 weeks. Wow. No matter when the baby comes.. we have less than 9 weeks until our lives are thrown upside down and full of sleepless nights. Where we will no longer be putting ourselves first, but this new little child. We cannot be more excited about our new lives to come...! People keep saying, " are you sure you are ready for this?" Granted we have no idea what the experience will entail.. but when you tried for so long and lost a baby in the process.. heck yes we are as ready as we can be for this! So ready or not.. here we come! There is def. no turning back now.. but can we fast forward??
We were able to throw together 2 small baby showers while home. Well our mom's that is. R's family came over to his parents house that Friday night and we were able to get help in gift cards for things for the baby as well as a few items and a baby bouncer all great help. Sunday was my family's shower, and as well as his family, my families first time to see us since before Christmas last year. It was awesome to have my aunts and cousins around again. I was highly surprised when I walked into the church. I expected a table cloth, maybe one decoration, but my family did the whole room up and really made it feel like a long time planned baby shower. We also were given our pack'n'play and my aunt and grandmother put together to get us a crib. We never thought we'd have a crib until well after the baby was born. Both showers were a huge blessing and helped us both feel so relieved about how unprepared we really are for this baby.
So even though the baby clothes and blankets are not washed, the room is still messy and gifts are still in bags, we are prepared! We have a carseat/stroller, soon to have a crib, got the pack'n'play in the mail today, and also purchased our first diapers and huge box of wipes. Only a few things remain and we will hopefully have them taken care of and bought in the next two weeks. But other than that all we have to do is bring it all together! We are so excited!
Also for those out of the loop we are 31 weeks already! 32 weeks on Monday. I cannot believe how far we have come! I still am in awe that we even made it this far, I remember being about 20 weeks and almost dreading the next month because I was so scared we would not get further than that. God has been truly amazing. How do they put it, we are a few weeks away from the baby coming and everything being fine. How crazy is that. If I go full term until my due date we only have about 8 weeks left, and they are saying I'll go possibly 2 weeks before that.... 6 weeks. Wow. No matter when the baby comes.. we have less than 9 weeks until our lives are thrown upside down and full of sleepless nights. Where we will no longer be putting ourselves first, but this new little child. We cannot be more excited about our new lives to come...! People keep saying, " are you sure you are ready for this?" Granted we have no idea what the experience will entail.. but when you tried for so long and lost a baby in the process.. heck yes we are as ready as we can be for this! So ready or not.. here we come! There is def. no turning back now.. but can we fast forward??
Monday, September 12, 2011
Wahoo 3rd Trimester!
Well.. it's here! I'm finally in my Third Trimester!! I honestly didn't think that we would ever get this far, and now that we have it's so surreal. If I go full term ( or past it) I only have 12 weeks left, and that they are saying I'll go sooner, or they will take me sooner is crazy! 12 weeks... that's nothing anymore! And every week the health of our baby goes higher and higher and better, what could be better than that!
I had my glucose test this week, and it went fine! No issues for me except a iron issue. I have always had issues with Iron, like my mom. One doctor says I'm anemic, the next says I'm not and so on. ( same as my mom too) So I guess it was not a huge surprise that I now am required to take supplements 2ce a day every day until after the baby is born. ( 325 mg 2ce a day! lol) So my diet and everything has been suddenly changed for this little baby child and I couldn't be happier to make the change!
Nothing new is going on around here, R and I have decided to stay at our current apt. until after the baby is born so no worries with packing before he/she arrives. This also means we can decorate decorate for Christmas, which I'm very excited about! I don't know if i'll be able to wait till November 1st to start getting decorations out! I told R I'm starting them the 1st so that way for sure they are all done before little one makes their appearance!
My next apt. is next week, where I'm going to seriously ask about the possibility of twins with how I'm measuring, so until then!
I had my glucose test this week, and it went fine! No issues for me except a iron issue. I have always had issues with Iron, like my mom. One doctor says I'm anemic, the next says I'm not and so on. ( same as my mom too) So I guess it was not a huge surprise that I now am required to take supplements 2ce a day every day until after the baby is born. ( 325 mg 2ce a day! lol) So my diet and everything has been suddenly changed for this little baby child and I couldn't be happier to make the change!
Nothing new is going on around here, R and I have decided to stay at our current apt. until after the baby is born so no worries with packing before he/she arrives. This also means we can decorate decorate for Christmas, which I'm very excited about! I don't know if i'll be able to wait till November 1st to start getting decorations out! I told R I'm starting them the 1st so that way for sure they are all done before little one makes their appearance!
My next apt. is next week, where I'm going to seriously ask about the possibility of twins with how I'm measuring, so until then!
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Nostalgia...
I am one of those people who hears a certain song and I can close my eyes and remember a memory exactly and instantly want that to happen again. Smells do the same thing. Mostly fall smells, the leaves and trees, they make me yearn to be back in PA and doing something for Halloween haha. Well most of my nostalgia does have to deal with wanting to be back in PA, since that's the place that I miss the most. I don't know if it's the cooler weather we are having today or what, but I really am just wanting to be back in PA with R and my family sitting in the living room, or going to the mall like we used to. I think you hit a time in your life where you realize your growing up, and you think of the things and the times that made you feel like you aren't. And being back in PA makes me feel that way. Here we have no one to count on except ourselves it seems most of the time. We have a ton going on that no one else besides us knows about because we don't have the family to support us in person. It's amazing how different support in person and over phone changes and how different it feels. I think a wanting for us to be back in PA is also a wanting of support. We have a lot of changes coming alone with the baby, yet alone with the handful of other things that could change our lives in a second that no one else knows about, and to be able to fall back on family and just being able to go to one of their houses and vent and be told advice and given help is something that we just don't have here. I don't know how people do or.. can function without God in their lives to count on, because there are times where you literally have no one else to count on or talk to!
Well on a second note- 26 weeks this week! ( well yesterday) and Little one loves using me as a boxing and kickboxing bag, which makes me sore but I love feeling him/her! We've had a few little scares here and there but everything seems to be going fine now! Little does he/she know mamma and daddy have prepared absolutely nothing so far haha, so we def. have to start working on that soon! I am now getting into the super impatient I want my baby here, but scared to death he/she will come to early. At the same time time is flying, so I'm trying to hold on to each day and being pregnant. I think it's a feeling that I'm really going to miss once little one is here! I'm still amazed God created such an amazing way to pass on life.. it's truly... crazy to love something.. someone so much without ever meeting him/her!
Well on a second note- 26 weeks this week! ( well yesterday) and Little one loves using me as a boxing and kickboxing bag, which makes me sore but I love feeling him/her! We've had a few little scares here and there but everything seems to be going fine now! Little does he/she know mamma and daddy have prepared absolutely nothing so far haha, so we def. have to start working on that soon! I am now getting into the super impatient I want my baby here, but scared to death he/she will come to early. At the same time time is flying, so I'm trying to hold on to each day and being pregnant. I think it's a feeling that I'm really going to miss once little one is here! I'm still amazed God created such an amazing way to pass on life.. it's truly... crazy to love something.. someone so much without ever meeting him/her!
Friday, August 19, 2011
25.. when did this happen??
I am so excited and thankful to say that I finally received a call back from my 20 week ultrasound. The results got delayed and a bunch of other confusing things, but got the call and the nurse said that it reported that they saw no abnormalities. ( Mind you that these scans still are not 100 percent accurate) but that all looked okay! I was told no news was good news, but waiting 4 weeks to hear that was such a relief. Ry and I could care less if they had seen something, that would not at all change the love we already have for this little one, but you still get nervous! I go back to the Dr. on Wednesday to have it elaborated more on ( ie. size of baby and other things.) Also my Due date has changed from Dec. 7th to Dec 5th( although November 30th is still a date that gets tossed around) So yah, time has flown. On Monday/Tuesday I will be 25 weeks already... gosh where did the time go and when did this happen! I know that time is going to start slowing down soon, but for now it's most def. flying and I'm okay with it!
On another note with the baby, I'm starting to feel that completely un-prepared feeling. We have in total bought maybe 4 things this entire pregnancy and it's just some clothing. I wanted to buy tons of things early on, but we both knew that it would be in our best interest to wait it out until we got to a safer point in our pregnancy and people think your crazy for buying things before the 2nd tri-mester and tell you so! lol. Along came 15 weeks and the crib we both loved that was almost 400 dollars was on sale for just over 100. We discussed it and talked to our parents and all thought it was to early to buy it. Well now they have discontinued making it so we had to pick another, but I am happy we waited and did not buy it. But now we are getting to the point where people thing we are crazy for not have getting anything! But we still want to wait a few weeks to get to a viable point. I have only been to babies r us a handful of times in this pregnancy, but hopefully this week R and I are going to go and maybe buy some first items! I have no idea what this will include.. maybe a package of diapers... but I'm starting to get excited! ( no big items though lol)
OKay well now that I have written a small book I'm going to go. :-)
On another note with the baby, I'm starting to feel that completely un-prepared feeling. We have in total bought maybe 4 things this entire pregnancy and it's just some clothing. I wanted to buy tons of things early on, but we both knew that it would be in our best interest to wait it out until we got to a safer point in our pregnancy and people think your crazy for buying things before the 2nd tri-mester and tell you so! lol. Along came 15 weeks and the crib we both loved that was almost 400 dollars was on sale for just over 100. We discussed it and talked to our parents and all thought it was to early to buy it. Well now they have discontinued making it so we had to pick another, but I am happy we waited and did not buy it. But now we are getting to the point where people thing we are crazy for not have getting anything! But we still want to wait a few weeks to get to a viable point. I have only been to babies r us a handful of times in this pregnancy, but hopefully this week R and I are going to go and maybe buy some first items! I have no idea what this will include.. maybe a package of diapers... but I'm starting to get excited! ( no big items though lol)
OKay well now that I have written a small book I'm going to go. :-)
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