Happy 2013!

I realized the other day that I really should blog more. Not for the handful of people that might still be checking in on me, but for myself. I have journals for both kids, but I haven't been recording anywhere what I'm up to. So here I am.

New Year's Eve found us without any plans, as usual. We are so bad at NYE plans. Every year we wait until the last minute to start thinking about what we're doing. This year was no exception. So, I got things for lil smokies in BBQ sauce and chili cheese dip. Figured I'd call that good enough. Well, Ben didn't think that was good enough. So, he went to the store. He came home with shrimp and cocktail sauce, gourmet carrots, French bread, lobster tails, chocolate dipped strawberries and champagne. Not just any champagne, but the good stuff. I am so spoiled by him.

We ended up making the chili cheese dip as an appetizer. As I was getting the kids to bed (after watching Toy Story 2), Ben went to work in the kitchen. He even set the table with candles. When I came downstairs, everything was ready (again, I'm spoiled). After a delicious meal, we headed down for a movie (Coming to America). I lasted about 1/2 hour. I woke up when Odin started to cry. Poor guy has a cold so he's on a bit of a weird schedule. Anyway, he ended up being up with us for a while. Once he was down again, we only had 15 minutes to go before the new year. We turned on the TV and watched the ball drop. Then we went to bed.

It was a very nice evening. Sure, it would have been fun to go out or something, but with all of our travels, it was nice to just enjoy our family together.

Whoa! Where'd You Hide That Baby??

Odin Benjamin joined our family on April 16, 2012 at 11:15 pm. 

My official due date was April 15. That came and went. No surprise. But having Adelyn born on her due date, I was kind of hoping this little guy would be the same. 

On April 16, we went in for my 40 week appointment. Dr. Hawes talked to us about scheduling an induction. She was going to check the hospital's schedule and call back later that day. She called around 4 saying they could get us in the next morning. We joked about how since she was on call that night, that maybe we should just have the baby that night.

My mom was over watching Adelyn. I went over the plan for the next day. It was after 5 when we sent her home. Around 6 I was thinking that perhaps I shouldn't have let her go home. Ben suggested I lay down and start timing the contractions. I think I only managed to time two when my water broke.  I quickly sent my mom a text telling her to come back. Ben and I threw things together for the hospital (yes, we'd been lazy and hadn't packed for the hospital yet). We decided to take Adelyn with us and have my mom just meet us at the hospital (I think Ben was a little concerned that if we waited he would be delivering his son). 

We made it to the hospital. We got in and shortly after getting a room, my mom was there to take Adelyn home. It was a bittersweet goodbye to my little girl. At least for me. Adelyn didn't really know what to think. But she was excited to see Grandma again.

The contractions were really picking up in the pace and pain departments. They started an IV of fluids. I had to finish the one bag before they would give me an epidural. At my appointment in the morning, I was dilated to 3 cm. They checked again and I was at 4 cm. I thought, "Are you kidding?? This much pain already and I'm only a 4??" I should mention that prior to around 5 pm, I hadn't had any painful contractions, so I was surprised that I was at 3 cm. 

Finally, I was able to get my epidural. With Adelyn, as soon as the epidural was in place, I had instant relief. Not so lucky this time. Perhaps partly due to it going in a vein first. They weren't sure if it was in a good spot. But as time went on, the pain did die down, except for in one area. So, we called it good. My nurse, Sharon, was busy in the room filing out the ton of paperwork. My pain started to go up again. She gave me another dose of whatever magic juice is in the epidural. The machine only allows this every 10 minutes. And every 10 minutes she was giving me more. She finally called the anesthetist back in to give me more. Before she came back, Dr. Hawes stopped in to see how things were going. We joked that my son had a crush on her and that's why he decided to come, so she could be the one to deliver him. Before she allowed any more drugs, she checked things out. She said I was about a 7, but let's try some practice pushes. With Adelyn, I could feel the urge to push. This time, I felt nothing. But figured I could give it a whirl. Guess my body knew what it was doing. The doctor declared no more drugs, let's have a baby. The room came to life with getting the bed ready, other nurses coming in and the doctor getting suited up.

I'll have to ask Ben for sure, but I'm pretty sure I only had two rounds of pushing. Then with a gush of liquid, Odin was born. Dr. Hawes said, "Whoa! Where did you hide this baby??" She was marveling at how big he was. The nurses looked impressed too. When he got weighed, she was right, he was a bog boy! Ten pounds, 5 ounces and 21.5 inches. A few weeks prior, my doctor said that she thought he would be around the same size as Adelyn (7 lbs 7 ounces). Only three pounds off her estimate. And despite his size, I only had one minor tear (compared to 3 not-so-fun tears with Adelyn). 

I have been recovering quickly this time around. Within days I was able to get back to normal activities, like sitting on the floor with Adelyn. Aside from being tired from feedings and what not, I feel back to normal.

Welcome Odin!

They Say It's Your Birthday

This past weekend I celebrated my xx birthday. It was a great weekend! On Saturday we had the parents over for salsa burgers. Perfect day to be outside grilling. To bad that we don't have a deck yet... this early spring has made us get on things a bit and we're looking at decks and fences. But back to my birthday.

Sunday morning Ben got up with Adelyn so I could sleep in. Very sweet gesture. I was awake anyway, but it was nice to just relax in bed for an hour. The two of them made monkey bread for me. It was so good! I ate way too much. After breakfast we went to Home Depot to look and buy paint for the boy's room.

We had to wake Adelyn up early from her nap so Ben and I could go to a movie and dinner. She was a little out of sorts. She went with Daddy to his office, but once there, she wasn't interested in signing the card for me. But she wanted to give me the present. So Ben took blanket and Zebra from her and sent her to the kitchen with the card and present. We're not sure what the problem was, but half-way on her journey she just started crying! Big tears and sniffles as she made the it the rest of the way to me. I met her on the floor and she crawled into my lap and gave me the present and card. (I still laugh when I remember this). The present she gave me was so sweet - a photo album of pictures of the two of us from her birth until now. So sweet. I love it.

After bringing Adelyn to my parents', Ben and I headed to the movie theater to watch the Hunger Games. I was pretty excited to see the movie. I read the books about 2 years ago. I will admit that I am a little upset that the series turned out to be so popular. I generally steer clear of uber popular things. But on the flip side, that does mean it became a movie. And I liked the movie. I think they did a decent job at it. But I do think some parts would make little sense if you hadn't read the books.

After the movie we headed to BLG. I LOVE their Cavatelli with Braised Rabbit. It is so good. We ordered a large portion of that along with another pasta dish and an appetizer. We both agreed that next time, we should just stick with the rabbit.

Ben's present to me was a beautiful necklace. It's hard to explain, but it's sapphire, but not cut like a gem stone. Instead it's cut like slices of the stone. It is very pretty. He spoils me way too much.

Fish Stories

Sadly, our fish tank has taken a back seat lately. Having set it up in a back room that we never go in has made it far too easy to just forget about. Don't worry, the fish are still fed on a regular basis. But as a result of our lack of attention, our tank isn't doing too well.

After Malaysia, I haven't seen our urchin.

While in Austin, our yellow fish jumped out of the tank.

At some point in time, our mandarin goby went missing.

Our Wrasse is sick.

Anyway, once Ben gets home for longer than a few days, we're going to start to make the tank a priority again. It can't return our losses, but at least it will make the tank a happier place for the remaining inhabitants.

Florida Family Vacation

And I'm back. Both in the blogging sense and also in the I'm home sense.

Last week we went on a very relaxing family vacation to the Tampa area (stayed in Treasure Island). We left on Valentine's Day. To celebrate and to kick off the vacation, we went to Steak n' Shake for dinner. Mmmmm.

We stayed at Residence Inn. They ran out of the rooms we had booked, so we got upgraded. We ended up with a suite with two bedrooms and a full kitchen. So, we took advantage of that and went grocery shopping and had most of our meals in.

We spent time at the beach. Adelyn LOVES the beach and ocean. The cold water didn't seem to phase her at all. She also loves the pool. It is so much fun to see her joy and excitement when we would head out to one of those places.

We also went to the Salvador Dali Museum. I have to say, I wasn't a fan of his. But now, I have a great respect for him. His range of mastery of different genre is staggering. Very impressive.

One day it was raining, so we hit up the Florida Aquarium. Of course, Ben and I loved it. Adelyn liked it too. She was a fan of the "Penguin Promenade" that we watched - they brought out a pair of penguins for everyone to see.

That's a nutshell of our vacation. I think we should do that more often.

The Big Day

Continued from last post

I was able to sleep for a little bit. I think maybe about two hours. Ben was able to sleep for a bit too. I woke up really feeling like I needed to use the restroom. When the nurse came in to check on me I told her this. She told me that no, I didn't have to use the bathroom. That was just the baby putting pressure on my nerve as she moved into the birth canal.

It wasn't long after that the nurse had me do some practice pushes. She let the doctor know that I was close. Dr. Paulson had just been woken up to help with another delivery. Our nurse (feel so bad that I don't remember her name!) thought she might have seen something in the "water" that might be a bowl movement from the baby. Just in case, she got a couple of nurses in to stand by in case our baby needed to be suctioned.

When everyone was set (except the doctor) I got to push some more. It's true what others had told me - it felt good to push. The nurse said I was a great pusher. She even said that next time I was delivering they should record it. Not sure how I would feel about others seeing me like that, but it did make me feel good.

The doctor got in the room. She took her spot. It was only a few set of pushes later that our baby girl was born! (Total of 45 minutes of pushing). It hurt like heck. I tore a lot. But our baby was perfect! Her head was even round and "normal" shaped. After the cord was cut (by the dr. because both Ben and I were grossed out about it), I got to hold her. She was so precious! I had her laying on my chest. I felt something cool against me. I thought it was a leg coming out of the blankets. I reached in to pull the blanket around her to discover that it wasn't a cold limb, but poop! The nurse and Ben were laughing at me. But they cleaned me up and got new blankets for our baby. Then I had to hand her off to get measured. And I got to get stitched up. During delivery and stitching, I feel in love with my doctor. She was exactly what I needed.

Proud grandparents (both sets) were the first to arrive. Unfortunately, my new nurse shooed them out right away because she wanted me to take a bath before I moved to my new room. So, they went out to breakfast while I got a bath and moved to another room.

The next 24 hours flew by with other visitors and constant visits from nurses. I was so tired. And we didn't have a name yet. We went into the hospital with 3 names. We still were undecided after she was born. Finally on Sunday we got some quiet time and we went through the names again. After we decided on one, we realized we didn't have a middle name. More discussions. Finally, we decided on a name - Adelyn Elise (meaning Noble, Consecrated to God).

The Day Before

I can't tell you how many times I've kicked myself for not having a better timeline of this day. But, here is what I remember.

The night before: When I go to bed, I have a bit of an upset stomach. I wonder if it's the start of something, but dismiss it because the doctors kept telling me I would probably go late.

3 AM: I wake up with a slight pain. That's interesting. I wonder if it's a contraction? Roll back over and go back to sleep. I'm woken up about every 15-20 minutes. Pretty sure they're contractions.

5 AM: Alarm goes off. Time for my walk with Zoey. I double check that I have my phone with me. Throughout the walk I have contractions. They're not too painful but in the 1 mile walk I have about three. When I get home, I lay on the couch and time the length and distance between them. I'm having one about every ten minutes that lasts 30-60 seconds. When they don't go away after 30 minutes of laying still and drinking water, I decide that maybe this is it. I go wake up Ben. It's about 6:30.

6:30 - 12:30: Ben and I shower and start running errands. We really thought we were going to have the weekend to do the last minute things. We go to Home Depot to get a piece of plywood for the crib (for our monitor that detects movements). We go to Target for some random stuff including some snack food for the hospital. We also run to Babies R Us to buy the car seat. We had one, but Ben decided he wanted it to be more girly. We come home, got the crib ready and the car seat installed. We also eat lunch. All this time we have been keeping track of contractions. They're anywhere from 2-12 minutes apart. Some are painful enough that I have to stop what I'm doing to breathe for a bit. But still, not too bad.

12:30 PM: I call my clinic to let them know what's going on. I am supposed to be having my 40 week appointment today with the only doctor we haven't met yet. They tell me to go ahead and go to the hospital for them to check me out. We finish packing our bags and head out. I think we may have called the soon-to-be grandparents to let them know what was going on.

1:30 PM: We get to the hospital. They put monitors on me to check on the baby and the contractions. They check things out. They agree that I'm in labor, but I'm not to a 3 yet, so they won't admit me. They tell us to walk around the floor for an hour and they will recheck. We make countless loops. We look at the babies in the nursery.

2:30 PM: We go back to the little room and get hooked up again. Contractions are more intense. And they think I'm at a 3, so they start the process of admitting me. But it's also the time where the shift of nurses change, so things take a little longer. But that's ok. When we are brought to our room, I'm happy to find that it's one with a great view of the woods and fields. Nature is calming to me.

This is where the times get a little fuzzy...

5 PM?: It's around this time that we meet the doctor on call from our clinic - Dr. Paulson. She is the only doctor of the four possible that we hadn't met. She's just delivered a baby down the hall. She seems a little more interested in talking with the nurses than with me. But she seems nice. She checks on me and then breaks my water. Apparently it was bulging. It was a very weird sensation.

6 - 9:30 PM: I'm pretty uncomfortable. The contractions are getting pretty strong. I'm not comfortable in any position. And based on the monitor on the baby, the nurses are guessing that she is "sunny side up." They want me on my side to help her move into position. We decide to try a hot bath. That doesn't help. I'm exhausted. If I knew that it would only be a few more hours, I could hang on. But I think I've only made it to a 5 so far so it could be a long time. The pain is getting so intense that I am left shaking and shivering after each contraction. I'm worried that I won't have the strength to push. Ben and I talk about our options. I agree to an epidural. Ben tells the nurse and they put in the request.

10:30 PM: The doctor (not the delivery one) is here to give me an epidural. I'm worried that my shaking will make it impossible for him to get it in. I try to be as still as I can. He gets it in without any problems. Ben asks if it's helped with the pain. I didn't even realize that I had another contraction. So, yep! It helps. I start to feel strange and weird. My head hurts. Turns out it is because my blood pressure has plummeted as a result of the epidural. I get a bag of fluids. I slowly start to feel better. Once I get stabilized, the nurses leave us to let us get some sleep.