Our 1st Birth Story

Our 1^st Birth Story

There are two main things I’ve learned over the past 40 hours. The first is that I married THE most amazing man in the entire world. I’ve heard many, many times from the staff at the hospital how lucky I am to be married to him, and how well he supported me during our labor and delivery and first day as parents, and I couldn’t agree with them more. The second is that births rarely go the way they’re planned, and that’s okay.

We checked in to the hospital at 6:09am on Tuesday, May 19, 2009. Julie, our doula, was waiting for us when we walked in the doors with all of our luggage. You’d think we were moving in for a week if you’d judged by the amount of stuff we brought with us. What can I say? I like to be prepared. By 6:30am we were registered and I was in L&D room #5 and hooked up to the monitors. I should say that when I walked into the L&D room (by myself – they made Mark and Julie wait in the waiting room) the nurse told me to change into the gown and that they’d be inducing me shortly. At that point my heart pretty much stopped and I told her they weren’t inducing me, they were breaking my water. She said no, our orders from your doctor are to start you on pitocin. I said that they should be to break my water because I really don’t want pitocin and she looked at me like I was talking a foreign language and said well that’s what our orders are. I was starting to panic at this point and was about 5 seconds away from bursting into tears and I was REALLY wishing my husband was in the room with me, but I managed to just ask if we could check with Dr. Branaman before we did anything and the nurse agreed to that. Whew.

They let Mark and Julie into the room with me after they’d asked me “personal” questions (that they’d already asked me during our trip to triage) and Mark and Julie got all our junk situated on one side of the room, out of the way. At 7:45am, one of our nurses, Kim, tried to start an IV port. Notice I said “tried”. Both our nurses, Kim and Nikki, checked out both my arms for a good 15 mins before Kim tried to start it in the side of my left wrist. It didn’t work. After a little more inspecting, Nikki decided to try to put the IV port into the back of my left hand, but once again, that one didn’t work either. Yay. So then they brought in a 3^rd nurse to get her opinion and she decided to try on the back of my right hand. She got it under the skin, but apparently it was beside the vein, instead of in the vein, so she messed around with it for a little bit, and then Nikki took over again and messed around with it some more (none of this was tickling by the way), and finally at 8:45am they got the stupid IV port in. What a pain in the butt, but I survived.

At 9:15am, Dr. Branaman came in and examined me, and said I was still 6cm dilated. She broke my water at 9:19am. I was expecting a huge gush of fluid, but it was only a little trickle. I guess I was a little disappointed by that, but I got over it quickly. Two minutes before 10am I told Kim that I had to go #2 and she said that I couldn’t until she examined me again because I guess she had a patient before that thought she had to poop, but it was actually the baby coming out. Ha! I could only dream of that happening. Anyway, she checked me and the baby was at a -1 position, and I was 7cm dilated. We were all excited I was making progress.

I started feeling contractions pretty much right after she broke my water, and they got progressively worse throughout the day. I had to spend 20 mins per hour being monitored in bed. When I wasn’t being monitored, I got in the shower a few times, and walked around the L&D unit a few times and used the balls Julie had brought, but oddly enough, I felt more comfortable sitting on the side of the bed and leaning back on Mark and rocking from side to side during the contractions. By 3:30pm, I’d had about enough of the drug-free delivery idea. My contractions were pretty painful, coming about every 2-4 min and would last between a minute and a minute and a half. Kim checked me again, and I was still only 7cm and I got really discouraged. Mark and Julie talked me through it and I managed to last until about 6pm before I’d literally had enough of the drug-free thing. I was still only 7cm and they were going to start me on pitocin and I decided that I wanted an epidural before they induced me because I was already hurting pretty bad (for almost 9 hours).

The anesthesiologist came in and explained the risks of having an epi, and honestly I don’t even really think I listened to him because at that point I didn’t care what the risks were, as long as the pain stopped. It took him two tries to get the epidural in, and probably took 20 minutes before he managed to get it positioned right. Luckily Mark was able to stay in the room with me, but they made Julie leave. They made Mark sit down in front of me and one of the nurses stood infront of me also. They kept telling me to tuck my chin and relax my shoulders and round out my back, and I was trying to do that but it was hard. About 5 mins into the ordeal, the back of my neck and top shoulder muscles started to hurt a LOT. I was having pretty bad contractions and it was hard to deal with those and stay relaxed without moving at all. I thought my back was relaxed but the next day the anesthesiologist came in and told me that my back was stiffer than a board. Oops. As soon as the epi was in (around 6:45pm), my pain level went from about an 8 to a 2. However it was short lived. The nurses put an internal monitor in me to monitor my contractions and also a catheter, and I could feel both of those, which was my first indication that the epi wasn’t working. After going through a few more contractions with the pain getting more intense each time from when it dropped, the nurses decided to call the anesthesiologist back. He came back and determined that the epi had come out of the epidural space in my back, so instead of pumping the drugs through my system, it was just pumping it under my skin and that’s why it wasn’t working. It took him about 10 mins to get the 2^nd epi out and the 3^rd epi in, and by 7:25pm the epi finally seemed to be working. Thank God. Although I did think that once it was in correctly I wouldn’t really feel anything, but that’s not how it worked. Apparently epidurals are gravity sensitive, and since I wasn’t allowed to lay flat on my back, whichever side was higher would eventually start feeling the contraction pain. So I kept having to switch which side I was laying on more to evenly distribute the epidural. I could also move my legs the whole time and I could feel the contractions, but they didn’t hurt. It just felt like my stomach was a little tight.

At 8:20pm, they started me on pitocin. By 10pm, I was 9cm dilated and she was at a +1 station. We were thrilled about that, however, my neck and shoulders hurt so bad and were so stiff (from "relaxing" during the epi) I couldn’t even move my head. I was pretty much ready to ask if they could give me an epidural from the ears down, my neck and shoulders hurt so much. At 11:30pm I asked Julie to get me some ice for my neck, and she filled up a hospital glove with ice for me, and thankfully, that seemed to relieve quite a bit of my neck pain. I was really concerned about how I was going to push and put my chin down when I couldn’t even hold my head up off the pillows or move it side to side without excruciating pain. They also checked me at 11:30pm and I was a little more than 9cm dilated. At 12:55am on May 20^th, our night nurse, Lorraine, had me push a little to see if I could get the baby’s head to move past the little cervix rim that was left. We made a little bit of progress and by 1:05am I began pushing every contraction. I was trying to remember all of the advice I’d heard given to people on TLC’s Baby Story, and I was trying to put it to use. I knew that I would take away from my pushing if I made noise while trying to push, so I didn’t make any noise, and I never really felt the urge to anyway. I usually pushed about 4 counts to 10 with a breath in between the counts with every contraction. Sometimes I could do 5, but usually just 4. They put me on oxygen for maybe the last half hour of my pushing and we also did a few rounds of “tug of war” pushing, where instead of me holding on to my legs and pulling back from that, I held on to a sheet with a knot in it and the nurse held on to the other side and I would pull as hard as I could during my counting. I didn’t mind pushing that way, but my forearms got tired after doing that about 4 times, so we switched back to the “normal” way.

During most of my pushing, Mark was holding my right leg and Julie was holding my left leg. When they say you lose all modesty during labor, they are 100% true. At first I was nervous about Julie seeing everything (even though she’s done this lots of times), but long before the pushing stage, I was comfortable with her there. At the very end of my pushing, a nurse took over for Julie and Julie took LOTS of pictures for us, which was great. We had a hard time getting the baby past my pelvic bone. I pushed for probably 45 mins and we still couldn’t get her head past my pelvic bone. I kept asking Mark if he could see her head and it was encouraging when he kept saying he could. Mark was INCREDIBLY supportive throughout the entire labor. He was constantly telling me that I was doing a good job and that he was proud of me. I had one time during the labor before I got the epidural where I completely broke down, and he was right there for me and reassured me and made me feel 100% better. I asked him to count for me while I was pushing to give me some sort of reference as to how long I was pushing, and he did a great job with that, along with Julie. Mark got pretty excited when he could see her head and got a big smile on his face, which gave me more energy to continue.

Eventually Dr. Branaman said that we should probably give the vacuum a try, since I still couldn’t get her past my pelvic bone and I was pushing as hard as I could. I really didn’t want to use the vacuum or forceps, but her heartrate was at 200 (120-160 is normal), and it had been high for a while, and Dr. Branaman said she thought it was more risky to prolong the pushing verses using the vacuum, so we agreed. She put it on the baby’s little head, and with my next push, she pulled as I pushed. She said that I would be doing the majority of the pushing and she would just help the baby a little while I was pushing. When I was pushing and she was pulling, the vacuum lost suction and popped off the baby’s head, which we later saw caused a laceration on her head. After she was born, you could distinctly see exactly where the vacuum was, but Mark said Dr. Branaman was pulling downward on the vacuum handle trying to get her head past my pelvic bone and it worked. She only used the vacuum through two contractions and then her head was thru. It scared the CRAP out of me when I felt the vacuum pop off her head. For a split second I seriously thought she’d pulled the baby’s head off, but Mark wasn’t passed out on the ground so that reassured me. The next scariest part was when I was trying to push her shoulders thru. Her shoulders were bigger than her head, and Dr. Branaman, as I was pushing, got this worried look on her face, and her voice sounded panic-y and she started saying a bunch of medical stuff and all the nurses started coming towards me. (Julie told us later she was saying "super pubic", which means the shoulders wouldn't fit through my pelvis.) Mark said this was the point that he got pretty worried too, because we really didn’t know what was going on. But just as the rest of the nurses were getting to me as I was pushing, I felt her come out and Dr. Branaman said “She’s okay, She’s okay.”, and the next thing I know Abbigale Rose was in my arms. I just laid there and cried and I couldn’t even really see my newborn through my tears. I remember asking if she was okay a few times and looking at Mark and seeing him smiling, so that made me feel better. They rubbed her down while she was on me, and cleaned her off as much as they could, but she was pretty darn slimy. I held her for a few minutes and then the delivery nurse asked if they could check her out and clean her off and look at her head some, and I said it was okay. So they took her over to the other side of the room, and Mark went with her and they spent about 15 mins checking her out and cleaning her up. They even said she was extra "cheesy" and it took them a little longer to clean her. Because she had a temp of about 104 when she was born, they called a neonatologist in to check her out. (I apparently had a small fever too when she was born, so I think that’s probably why she had a fever.) The doctor ordered a blood culture for her to rule out any infection. They also had to put ointment on her head where it was raw from the vacuum. But overall, she was doing pretty well. Her APGAR score was 9 at one minute and 8 at five minutes.

Abbigale Rose was born at 2:14am on Wednesday, May 20^th. She was 22 inches long and weighed 9 lbs 9.2 oz. Her head was 14 inches and her chest was 14.5 inches. She’s a pretty big baby. Dr. Branaman said that she’s very glad I came in when I did because if Abbie had gotten any bigger, I would have had to have a c-section to get her out. Surprisingly I only had two minor tears.

She is absolutely beautiful. I was pretty worried about having an ugly baby, but she was cute even when she was all squished up. I’d always said I wanted a chunky baby, and I definitely got one. She had the biggest chubby cheeks and she has quite a few of the baby rolls already. Many of the hospital staff has asked if I delivered her by c-section and when I say no, their eyes always get pretty big. At 48 hours old, she’d dropped down to 8 lbs 12 oz, which is still okay. She doesn’t fit into the newborn sized diapers – we’ve been using size 1 on her.

After the delivery, Dr. Branaman stitched me up and Mark left with Abbie to the nursery while she was getting checked out. I was absolutely exhausted, to the point where I could barely keep my eyes open. Our night nurse wasn’t the best though, and she kept coming in to check on me, and she’d uncover my legs and turn on the lights, and then not cover my legs back up or turn the lights back off, so I had a hard time sleeping. Then she made me eat a bowl of cereal. By the time I was done, Mark and Abbie were back and he sat in the chair next to me and held her for the first time. I slept for what felt like 30 seconds, although I’m sure it was longer than that, and then the nurse said I either had to get up and pee or she was going to put a catheter in again. I REALLY didn’t want the catheter so I agreed to try to get up to go to the bathroom. My epidural hadn’t completely worn off, but I was able to stand up on my own, so Mark and Lorraine, the night nurse, helped me to the bathroom. As soon as I sat down, I knew I was going to pass out and I told them. The nurse was telling me to keep my eyes open and take deep breaths, and I was trying really hard to, but it didn’t work. Every time I managed to open my eyes and look at Mark he had this terrified look on his face. I felt terrible and I was trying really hard to stay with it, but it wasn’t working. They gave me those smelling salts and that worked for a second or two, but then I’d start fading. They got another nurse and a wheel chair in the bathroom and I remember them telling me to stand up and pivot myself into the wheelchair, and last I remember I was doing that, but when I woke up I was back on the toilet again. Oops. And Mark looked even more worried. Eventually I got into the wheelchair and they took me out to the bed again and I got into the bed with Mark’s help and slept for a little while. After I rested for about 15 mins they wanted to move me to the recovery room. I was still so tired I could barely hold my head up, but I managed to get into the wheelchair again and got all situated, and then they gave Abbie to me. Lorraine pushed us in the wheelchair to the recovery unit and Mark and 2 nurses followed with all our junk.

So overall, the birth didn’t go anywhere near the way I was hoping. Before the birth, I was worried that I would have my heart set on it going drug-free and if I didn’t do it without drugs, I’d be disappointed in myself. But I was much more okay with things going the way they did then I thought I’d be. I really wasn’t too upset about it at all, and I’m not sure what I’ll want to do with our next birth. At this point, I’m not sure I’d hesitate as much with getting an epidural, even though it took them three times to get one in me.

Mark was absolutely amazing throughout the whole process. He was there for me every step of the way, supporting me physically, emotionally and mentally and he’s stepped into the dad role like he’s been doing it for half his life. He’s had to help me do things that I never in a million years thought my husband would be helping me with, but he never even blinks an eye about any of it. The moment she was born, I think I fell in love with him ten times more than I was before, and I didn’t even think that was possible. I am truly blessed to have him as my husband, partner and best friend.

We're having a baby tomorrow!

Mark and I will most likely officially be parents tomorrow and we couldn't be more excited. We just got back from our OB appt. I'm now 6cm dilated, and she's still at a -2 position and measuring 39 1/2 weeks. Our dr stripped my membranes, which the dr said would probably hurt quite a bit, but really it didn't hurt much at all. It was a little uncomfortable and made me feel like I had to pee, but I wouldn't say it was painful. My dr and doula both think I just have a really high pain tolerance, and I hope that's true. Anyway, she said that if the membrane thing works, it should work within 6 hours, so there is a possibility I'll go into labor tonight. If not, we're going to go to the hospital early in the morning tomorrow (6 or 7am - don't know yet), and she's going to break my water to help get things moving. She's pretty optimistic that breaking my water will be enough to put me into labor if I walk for 4-6 hours after she does it. Luckily she's on call all day long, until Weds morning, so we know she'll be the one to deliver our baby, which is really important to both Mark and me. I'm really hoping that breaking my water will be enough to put me into active labor, but if we have to resort to using pitocin, so be it. I only have 4 more cm to dilate before I can start pushing so we'll see how it goes!

Overall, I'm not really nervous at all at this point. Every time I go to one of my OB appts, it seems to give me more confidence that my body is made to do this. I'm telling myself that I can do this, and that maybe I do handle pain differently than some people (although I'm not sure that's true). We're both optimistic about the whole thing and super excited. I'm supposed to eat a good breakfast tomorrow before we go to the hospital and the dr said that she'd even let me eat while I was in labor and I could still use the shower after she broke my water, so that was encouraging also. I think I'll be 100% more relaxed just knowing that Dr. Branaman is going to be there for us instead of some random person we don't know.

So hopefully tomorrow we will be parents. Please say a prayer that we have a healthy baby girl and that our labor isn't TOO unbareable. =)

I'm ready.

I think I'm finally mentally ready for this baby. At our appt last Tuesday, I'm not sure I was 100% there yet as far as being ready, but now I am. And I'm not ready because I want her out of me because I'm uncomfortable, I'm just ready to move on to the next stage in my life and to meet this little person I've been "growing" for the past 10 months. I keep hearing from numerous people how they are SO ready to be "unpregnant" the last few weeks of their pregnancy, but I guess I haven't been all that uncomfortable. Sure I'm not as comfortable and mobile as I am when I'm not pregnant, and shaving my legs is damn near impossible, but I'm definitely not miserable.

My OB appt is at 3:20pm tomorrow. Mark and Julie (doula) are going with me. I think I'm going to ask Dr. Branaman about stripping my membranes to see if that speeds things up some. The theory behind that is the dr basically runs her finger around the top side of the cervix which separates the water bag from the cervix and releases proglastins, which is what naturally induces labor. It's not a guarantee that I'll go into labor, but it's worth a shot. If that doesn't work, we're going to talk to her about breaking my water on Tuesday. Mark and I have discussed it a lot, and we've decided that we'd really like our OB to deliver our baby, and our OB leaves Friday for 2 weeks. She was measuring at 39 1/2 weeks last week, so I'm not too worried about her not being ready to come out and I'd definitely prefer to have her smaller when she's born. Plus my situation is a little bit different since last week I was 5 cm dilated. If I was 1-2 cm dilated, our decisions might be different, but I'm already halfway there. And who knows? I might be even more dilated at my appt tomorrow. In fact, I'll be disappointed if I'm not past 5cm tomorrow.

I am just so darn excited to have this baby. My fears are basically gone, although I'm sure that'll be different when I'm on my way to the hospital. But we really just can't wait to meet our little girl. If I have her tomorrow or Tuesday, Mark will be able to stay home with me until next Tuesday, which would be perfect, and my mom would fly down on Monday and help me out after Mark goes back to work.

On a side note, I've been having some pretty decent contractions today. A few even woke me up from a nap. They have been by far, my most noteable contractions to date, and they were even coming every 5 mins for a little bit, but they've pretty much stopped now. Bummer. They were getting a little bit painful, but nothing I couldn't handle. I was all ready to pack up and head to the hospital. I was almost excited to go to the hospital! What the heck is wrong with me??

Feeling kinda blah

Mark's been in training for a little over two weeks now. He's doing academics, so he's gone from around 6:30am - 8am to 4pm-6pm, depending on the day. Usually he can come home for lunch for a half hour to 45 mins. So I'm home for the majority of the day by myself, and it's starting to get to me.

I pretty much feel worthless, mainly because I do nothing all day long. Literally, nothing. I get up between 8:30 and 9:30am, and eat breakfast, call my mom and check my email. Then I usually go back to bed and read my book or watch tv and almost always end up falling asleep again until noon at least. Sometimes when I wake up I feel good and then I just kinda hang out the rest of the day, doing little chores, but mainly messing around online or watching tv. Other times (like today) I wake up and feel pretty crappy. (Headache, groggy, achy, etc) I feel like I should be cleaning the house or doing something constructive, but I still don't. Our vacuum cleaner is probably one of the heaviest on the market and it completely wears me out when I do that, and Mark doesn't want me carrying it up and down the stairs. Sweeping and scrubbing the floors also have me huffing and puffing within 2 minutes of starting. Our electricity plan is where it's a LOT more expensive to run things between 9am and 9pm, so I try not to do laundry then since it costs so much more. I've been having a LOT of pelvic/ hip pain lately, along with a weird crick in my back so when I stand up sometimes I get shooting pains, so walking around hurts a lot. I almost fell over last night the first time I got up to pee it hurt so bad. And besides, walking around outside right now is kind of out of the picture since it's over 100 degrees here every day. I should go grocery shopping right now, but I'm not because I've been having quite a few contractions lately, and while they don't hurt at all, they are kind of uncomfortable and just make me want to sprawl out and not move. So pretty much I sit at home by myself all day and do nothing. Thank God for the weinas because they try to keep me company. I guess I'm just ready for this baby to come so I have something to occupy my time and so I can go out and do things without getting tired really quickly or being uncomfortable or worrying about going into labor when Mark's not around. I kind of feel like she'll give me a purpose again, because right now I truly do feel pretty worthless. Plus, once I have her and Mark's back at work my mom will be here for a little bit to keep me company and then I won't be so lonely.

Not much to report...

Sorry I'm a little late on this. We had dinner at our friend's house after our appt so we just got home.

I was nervous about his appointment. Part of me wanted to be more dilated, but part of me wanted to still be at 5cm so I didn't have to worry about her wanting to break my water. Hence, my BP was 140/102. (At 11am at home, it was 120/62.) So the news is, I'm still 5cm dilated, still -2 position and I'm now about 80% effaced. So not much different from last week at all.

I asked her about breaking my water and how some of you had said that that would make my labor a lot more intense than if it just broke on it's own and she basically that that wasn't really true. She said that when you break your water, usually it causes your body to release oxytocin, which it does naturally anyway during labor, so it would be speeding it up, but not necessarily make it more intense than if it broke naturally. She said the only reason my labor would be more intense than it would naturally is if I didn't go into labor on my own after they broke my water causing them to have to induce me with pitocin. She asked me what I wanted to do - wait another week or come in later this week and have them break my water. I chose to schedule an appointment for next Monday (instead of our usual Tuesday's) with our doctor and see what I'm at then and go from there. I told her I'd prefer to go into my labor on my own instead of trying to rush things and she understood that and was completely open to it. My only concern now is that next Friday (the 22nd) she's going out of town for 2 weeks and I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY want her to deliver our baby. So in other words, I really want to have this baby by next Friday.

Every time we see Dr. Branaman, we like her more. She seems so open and receptive to the type of birth we're hoping for and always answers all of our questions and explains things well and makes sure we have a good understanding of everything. Today she didn't even make them take my blood pressure over after my exam because I'd given her my BP records for the week and I didn't have any protein in my urine and I'm not swollen anywhere.

Our bags are packed and in the back of the SUV. The only thing I need to put back there is our pillows and a blanket. All of that stuff will probably stay there until we come home from the hospital with our blueberry. Oh, and she was measuring at 39 weeks this week... YIKES! I'm praying that she's just super long and not extra large.

No baby yet

Before y'all get your pants in a bunch, there's no baby yet. I wish there was because I would give anything to not have to pee 6+ times EVERY night, and to not be sweating hot even though it's 69 degrees in the house. She'll be here soon enough though. I was convinced two weeks ago that she was going to be early, but now I'm not so sure. I'm slightly worried I'm going to have a 10lb baby. I'm not a little person to begin with, and with my Buddha belly added to my frame, she has a pretty good sized home to live in, and she's taking up ALL of it. That's why our OB thinks she's already 8+lbs, because my belly is so tight and it's all baby. But she seems to be pretty content in there right now. I've only been having minor contractions still. Her due date is in 2 and a half weeks. My next OB appt is tomorrow (Tuesday) at 4pm.

Part of me isn't ready for this pregnancy to be over. I LOVE being pregnant. I love having random people come up to me and ask me when I'm due and what I'm having, etc, and then tell me about their kids or their pregnancies. I love walking around and getting these knowing smiles from lots of women. I love feeling her move around inside me and being able to push on parts of my belly and have her push back. It's like having our own little language that no one else understands, except for maybe Mark since he pushes on my belly a lot too. Even the anticipation of what she's going to look like and what her personality will be like is fun. If only I could bend over easier, and I wasn't so hot all the time and didn't have to pee tons in the middle of the night, I'd want to be pregnant forever. But I'm sure it just gets better from here anyway.

My parents and Mark's parents and our good friends, David (who was the best man in our wedding) and his wife Amy, all sent me Mother's Day cards, which totally made my day. And Mark got me a Mother's Day card too and one of the things he wrote in it was "Thanks for growing our baby." which I thought was really sweet.

Last week we had another little mishap with Sadie. I swear that dog is going to give me ulcers. We've been doing this thing with them for a while now, that we call "night night drinks". We ask them if they want a night night drink before we go to bed, and if they do, they definitely make it obvious by jumping up, licking their lips and walking around in circles wagging their tails. It's to the point now where we don't even have to ask if they want one - they let you know - and it's not so much a "night night" drink anymore. It's more of an "any time either of us is in the bathroom" drink. So when they want a drink, we'd pick them up and put their front feet on the edge of the sink and hold our hand under the faucet and let them drink the running tap water. They LOVE it. At our new house though, we can set them both on the bathroom counter and hold our hand under the water and they both get a drink at the same time. We've been doing this since we got here, and haven't had any problems. However, last Friday Mark gave them a drink and then turned around to dry off his hands and the next thing we know, we hear a thud and a grunt and Sadie is sprawled out on the floor. Apparently she had tried to jump off the counter by herself. Mark and I turn around (I was in the closet) and see her on the floor. She wasn't yelping or anything, but when she started to "walk", she was dragging both of her back legs, which completely freaked us both out. So I snatched her up off the floor and started to feel her legs for broken bones and at this point I'm already designing little carts in my head for a weina dog with useless back legs (I'd seen them on TV before). Mark got Ollie off the counter and then took Sadie from me and we both checked her over and didn't see any obvious damage, so we tried setting her on the ground again, and she took off just like normal. .... What the heck? We finally concluded that she somehow pulled either a back muscle or leg muscles because she had trouble jumping up on the couch or bed or going up the stairs for a few days, but she's good as new now. That dog is going to give me a heart attack one of these days. I spent all weekend worrying about her and watching her very closely, but she's okay. Lesson learned was to not turn your back on them for even two seconds when they're on the counter. This is why we have weina dogs. They're amazingly good practice for kids and we can get all our mistakes out on them before the blueberry arrives. =)

Almost 37 week appt

I'll be 37 weeks tomorrow. It was my goal to make it to 37 weeks so I'm glad we did. Mark was able to go to my appt with me today, which I was very thankful for. I was so nervous about him going to my exam appts with me at first, but now he's pretty much my security blanket and I'm much more relaxed at the appts when he's with me.

I've lost another pound since last week, and my blood pressure was 135/85!! Woohoo!!!! It was 129/76 an hour before at home, so it didn't go up too much. I'm 5 cm dilated now, 75% effaced and her head is at a -2 position now. Our OB said I'm very close and I'm feeling more ready for this every day. (By "this" I mean labor and delivery.) She did say that she thinks she'll be a pretty decent sized baby - between 8 and 8.5lbs. If she's huge, it's 100% Mark's fault since big babies run in his family. Since I was a twin, I was pretty small and my dad was like 4lbs or something when he was born, so she won't be getting her large-ness from me. Although I'm not sure it'll make a huge difference if she's 7lbs or 8lbs when I'm pushing her out...

I've been tracking my BP at home, and brought my records in to Dr. B, and she was glad that I had done that and made copies of them and put them in my records. I asked her what her opinions were on my BP "problems" and if she thought they'd be a huge issue during labor and delivery and she brought up a good point. She said that my BP seems to be high at the beginning of appts or situations and then it goes down once I get settled down, which is 100% true. She said that if I go into triage with high BP, but it goes down after that, that that should reassure her (or whoever the on-call dr is) that I'm okay. She pointed out that even after she'd completely freaked me out last week, by the end of my appt, my BP was normal, so she thinks once I get settled into labor at the hospital it should be okay, unless there really is a problem. She also said that if I'm 6+ cm next week that they might consider breaking my water. She's worried about me walking around and being far away from the hospital (it's about a 20 min drive from our house, without traffic) because she thinks I'll have a very quick labor and I might not make it to the hospital on time if I go into labor on my own when I'm already 6+cm dilated.

And those of you who kept telling me to pack the bags, they're all packed and they were even in the back of the car during our OB appt just in case. =)

"The trots and the tummy"

Not a whole lot going on here today. Yesterday Mark was pretty sick all day - from 5am to 5pm. He had diarrhea and threw up a few times, and we're still not quite sure if it was a bug, or food poisoning or from pills he took. He has to test what the Air Force calls "go pills" along with sleep meds to see how his body reacts to them, before they deploy. When they do missions over there, they give them the go pills so they can stay alert the entire time they're in the air, and I guess people have problems sleeping while they're deployed so they give them sleep meds too. He took one Ambient, and it didn't seem to help him fall asleep at all, and the next morning he woke up sick. It said some of the side affects were diarrhea and upset stomach, but I think he had a little more than an upset stomach. He said he's not taking those ever again, just in case. Luckily I haven't gotten whatever he had yet, and hopefully I won't. (Fingers crossed.) He's going to make me go to the hospital if I do get it because I'll probably get dehydrated pretty quickly.

I didn't really have any major contractions yesterday, mainly because I laid in bed with Mark for the majority of the day. Every once in a while I still feel my whole stomach tighten up, but nothing major. Mark keeps telling me he's really going to miss my big belly. For some reason he really likes it, although I'm not quite sure why. He pretty much can't walk by me without rubbing my belly and he's always telling me I'm getting bigger, but I don't really see it. In fact, I've lost about 7 lbs from my top weight during this pregnancy. Apparently she's getting bigger and I'm getting smaller, which is fine with me, as long as she's not a ginormous baby when she comes out.

That's all for now!

Mixed emotions

This picture was taken at 36weeks. (Wednesday) Mark keeps telling me my belly is getting huge, but from my angle, it doesn't really seem to be getting much bigger. What do you think?

I didn't gain any weight between my appt last week and my appt this week, and according to our scale at home, I am now losing weigh. Only a pound or two, but still. I don't really have an appetite now, and I get full REALLY fast, and as soon as I eat or drink anything, I pretty much have to go to the bathroom immediately.

The worst part of this pregnancy for me, has been the stretch marks.... Mark says my stomach looks like a watermelon and he wants to paint it green. Nice. As long as they turn white and fade a bunch later on, I'll be okay.

And they go all the way back by my hips too. It's lovely really... I took my diamond ring off this week because it was getting a little tight. I feel naked without it, but I don't want to have to worry about them losing it at the hospital if they have to take it off me there. And I don't want them to have to cut it off either since the band is platinum.

I still haven't packed our hospital bag. Mark and I will probably do it tomorrow, along with get the car seat in the back of the SUV. I just have this feeling that as soon as I'm completely ready for her to come, she will... And I'm not sure I am (or will ever be) completely ready for her arrival. Part of me just wants to get this whole labor and delivery thing over with, but a bigger part of me is getting REALLY nervous about it. I have a feeling I could take a brisk walk and that would put me into labor, especially considering that a slow mosey to the mailbox (less than half a block away) gives me contractions. I realize now that I've probably been feeling contractions for at least a few weeks. Since they don't really hurt, I thought it was her moving around and changing positions, but now I realize they're probably Braxton Hicks. My entire belly will get hard as a rock for about 30 seconds and then it goes away. I guess I thought Braxton Hicks are usually felt in your back, and I feel these mostly on the top of my belly, right under my ribs. They only scare me now because they're a constant reminder of what's to come.

Mark started training yesterday. I felt so bad because he was nervous about starting training, not because of the training, but because he was worried about leaving me at home by myself. He talked to some of his instructors though, and they said that as soon as I go into labor he can just leave and they'll get him caught up with the rest of the class when he gets back. So that made him feel a lot better, knowing that the Air Force knows where his priorities are, and that they're okay with that. He gave me a whole list of numbers of people to call when I go into labor, who will be able to get him. He's not allowed to have his cell phone with him in classes, so my chances of reaching him on that are slim to none.

Overall, I've been feeling okay. I'm afraid to go do things outside the house by myself though, so I sit at home all day and wait for Mark to come home. I don't want to go into labor or have my water break when I'm alone and away from home, and both of us are more comfortable with Mark being with me for that reason. I've been so tired lately, that it really hasn't been TOO bad being home alone all day. I'm actually getting somewhere on the book I've been reading for a month now, even though I fall asleep EVERY time I try to read it. I usually sleep for 3-4 hours during the day, and I wake up still tired. I think of everything I should be doing, but then I never do any of it so I feel pretty lazy. I figure I'll take advantage of it now though before she's here.

I ordered a pump today, which I'm pretty excited about, along with some counted cross-stitch patterns, from overstock.com. They have the pump I like at Target, but it was $30 cheaper at overstock.com, so I bought it from there. So now the only thing we're really missing is the video monitor that Mark wants to get. I really can't believe we're this close to being ready. I've known QUITE a few people who've had babies in the past few months, and I was (am) so excited for them to meet their little ones. It's a whole different ballgame for me though. I'm very excited to meet her, I'm just praying to God that the labor is short and sweet and that I'm strong enough to do this drug-free, because I know I'll be very disappointed with myself if I'm not able to give birth without drugs. We'll see though... I have a feeling she's going to be here pretty soon.

My first experience with triage...

Today I am 35w6d pregnant. I had my 2nd OB appt here in AZ today, and Mark and our doula, Julie were with me. We had planned on taking a tour of the hospital after our 4pm OB appt.

Got to the OB appt, peed in the cup (and actually hit it!), got weighed (didn't gain anything this week), and then got my BP taken.... It was 151/115. Yikes. I was hoping it would be lower since I didn't feel nervous but obviously I was. So the nurse took it again, and it was something high again over 105... Still way too high. So Dr. Branaman comes in and checks me and I'm 4 and a 1/2 cm dilated, and about a -3 (still not sure what that means - something to do with how low the baby's head is) and 60% effaced. And then she said she was worried about my BP and asked that we go to triage so they could check me out more. At first she said that she wanted us to go straight there and skip our hospital tour, but they took my BP one more time before we left and it was in the normal range, so she said we could go to triage after our tour. (I should add that she said she's especially nervous about this bc they had a patient (mother) die of eclampsia last week and she just didn't want to take the risk.)

I was thinking the hospital tour was going to make me nervous, but it really didn't at all. Our talk with the triage nurse made me WAY more nervous, but more on that later. The hospital seems nice and they seem to have most of the things I'm wanting for the birth (birthing balls, squat bars, mirrors, etc) and they said they do everything to the baby in the room with you if everything goes okay, so that was encouraging too. We'd told the tour guide that we had to go to triage after the tour, and she tried to make us go before, but we assured her that my dr had said that we could do the tour first. During the tour she kept asking if I was okay, and when she took us down to triage after the tour she asked Mark to call her tomorrow and let her know how things went. I thought that was sweet.

So we got to triage around 6:15pm. I had to pee in a cup (hit it again!!), and then I got hooked up to the fetal monitor and the contraction monitor and the pulse rate monitor and the blood pressure machine, and I had to lay on my left side the whole time. That was pretty uncomfortable bc I was bending kinda weird and my ribs started hurting. But I survived. Then the girl came in to take my blood so they could check my kidney and liver functions and she had a hard time finding my vein (partially bc I was dehydrated). Finally she found it and it took FOREVER for my blood to fill up the little thinger. Then when she was putting the blood in the other little vials a clot clogged the needle so she had to poke me again! Grrr! So she took it out of my hand vein and that kinda hurt, moreso than the arm one, but the arm one was uncomfortable since she kept it in so long and kept moving it. Oh well. Again, I survived. They determined that my BP was okay (not great, but okay), and my blood tests and pee tests both came back fine, so they finally let us go around 9:15pm. I felt terrible that Julie was stuck out with us for that long. (She rode with us.)

I think in general, the hospital visit will help in the future, especially since I got the special tour of the triage area. I feel like I know a little more of what to expect now. The thing that did make me worry is that I've been having contractions, and I had NO clue I was. They said I was having them about 10-15 mins apart, but I honestly haven't felt anything. I guess I should say I haven't felt anything painful. The top of my stomach gets hard sometimes, but I really thought that was just her butt or foot or something pushing up, but apparently some of those were probably contractions. I felt one when we were there, where everything got a little hard, but still didn't hurt at all, and the monitor verified that it was a contraction. Now I think everything I feel is a contraction. The other thing that made me worry more than anything else was when I asked the triage nurse (Jen) about having high BP during labor. I'm almost 100% positive that my BP will be high then next time I'm in traige, bc I'll be in labor, and I'll be nervous, and I'll be at the hospital. That's the recipe for my high BP. She said if it's high and the dr's are nervous, they'll make me lay on my left side and keep me on continuous monitoring during my entire labor, which means I'm not going to be able to move around to deal with the pain like I had hoped. I'm not sure I'll be able to do a drug free labor if I'm confined to a bed, on my left side, the entire time. She said even if they do the blood tests and pee tests and everything comes back normal, the dr might still want me on continuous BP monitoring. That'll really throw a wrench into our plans. I'm going to talk to Dr Branaman next week at my appt.

Anyway, that was enough excitement for me for one day... or one week. Mark starts training on Thursday, and everyone seems to think she's going to be early - as in the next week or two - so I don't know. I'd really like to make it to 37 weeks, which is next Wednesday, but we'll see. I'm exhausted now and my head hurts bc my neck is out of whack from laying there for 3 hours, so I'm off to bed. We'll keep you updated! (And I'm not proofing this, so sorry if there are tons of mistakes.)

Baby stuff

Here are some pictures of the baby's room and other things we got her.

South side of her room. (Ollie wanted to be in the picture too.)



View from the closet



View from the doorway. (We decided to forego a bedding set since we got so many hand made blankets for her at the shower.)



Her swing



In true Mark and Monica fashion, we had to try a few things out on the weina dogs....

He would have stayed like this all day. I'm fairly certain Ollie thinks this stuff is for him...

They both enjoyed a ride in the stroller around the kitchen. We'd take them for a stroll in the neighborhood, but we didn't want our neighbors to think we are weird.

They weren't in any hurry to get out of it, especially Ollie. He loved it!

Some of her clothes - Mark says she already has more than he does, which could be true..

The only things we really have left to get are a baby monitor and a breast pump. Other than that, I think we're set. The diaper bag I ordered for her should be here soon. I'm excited about my appt on Tuesday - hopefully I'll be even more dilated!

A few house pictures

Here are a few pictures of our house. Naturally, they're in backwards order since I ALWAYS forget that blogger posts them opposite of how you select them. Oops. But you'll get the general idea anyway.

Here's the guest bedroom.


View of the living room from upstairs



My crap, I mean, craft closet, off of the study/ 2nd guest bedroom



Study/ 2nd guest bedroom - that's our new sleeper sofa couch!




Half of our master walk-in closet




Master bathroom (it didn't look this messy when I was taking the pictures, but I guess it was... oops!) Door on the left is a linen closet, door on the right is the toilet.

Master bedroom (view from master bath)

Master bedroom again (view from doorway)

Guest bathroom upstairs

Backyard (The weinas are hilarious bc they think the bricks are their little sidewalk and they pretty much only walk on the bricks unless they're in the yard going potty. Too funny!)

View of the neighborhood at sunset.

Front of the house (and my mom and Sadie)

So that's most of the house. I still haven't taken pictures of the den/dining room/ kitchen bc that's where most of our junk is still laying around. We don't have many pictures up yet either, but we're getting there. We finished the nursery at 11:30pm on Thursday, so I'll post pics of that next.

Productive afternoon

I got quite a bit done today. ... Well I guess I should say that I got quite a bit done today, considering I'm 8+ mos pregnant. I did laundry (AND folded it AND put it all away), and cleaned the kitchen and the master bathroom. I've been having quite a bit of pelvic pain again, and I'm absolutely exhausted! I lay down with the intention of reading for a little bit, and I zonk out almost immediately. I guess I might as well take advantage of being able to nap while I can.

Mark went onto base for a little while to finish some in-processing, and then we went to Wal-Mart to finish up some baby shopping. We needed to get her crib mattress and mattress cover, and we also got her a humidifier and diapers and more wipes and a first aid kit and a few other things. Wandering around Wal-Mart is exhausting now. It completely wore me out. Luckily Mark patiently waits for me to waddle around. As we were checking out, the check out lady felt inclined to tell us all about her births of her 2 kids and how her second one was hard and she was due May 25, but her kid came on the 11th because they had to induce her bc the "afterbirth" came out first and she ended up needing a c-section and then she got her tubes tied, etc. (Apparently I was listening pretty well.) I find it hilarious that people you don't even know tell you all about their birth experiences. After we left, Mark was like "Lady, I don't even know your name! I don't want to hear all about your "afterbirth" coming out." LOL!!

**Side note, when we got to Wal-Mart, we parked next to a van, and I noticed a dog was in this van. It REALLY bothered me to see this poor animal in a van in 95 degree weather. The front windows were cracked MAYBE a half an inch and the very back side windows were open, but still, I just feel like that's completely inhumane to leave an animal in a vehicle in that kind of heat. I wonder if AZ has laws against leaving animals in cars. If the van had still been there when we got out, I would have called the police. Next time I'm leaving a note on the car. Last week Mark and I were talking about how we can't take the weinas with us anymore when we run errands unless one of us sits in the car with them with the air on, so it really rubbed me the wrong way when I saw that dog.

After Wal-Mart, we ran to Target and got a changing table pad and little tiny headbands for her. By this point I was really pooping out. We were going to head to base to go to the commissary for groceries, but Mark suggested we go out to eat instead since I was hitting my limit and it was almost 6pm. He said he could pick up groceries tomorrow after he meets with his commander in the morning, but I was worried bc I had specific things on my list since I'm trying new recipes. He was like 'Monica, the government trusts me to fly their multi-million dollar jets. I think you can trust me to get groceries." *grins* Okay, well when you put it like that.... =)

So we're pretty much ready for her arrival now. I'm going to try to get her nursery set up tomorrow and I'll take pictures for everyone to see. I absolutely LOVE the fact that Mark is so involved in choosing things for our baby. He has an opinion on everything and he's been doing the majority of the research, along with making lists of what we still need for her and what we need to take to the hospital with us, etc. Sometimes I still can't believe that I found someone who truly is my perfect match. I can't wait to have this baby with him.

Our birth plan.

Our wishes for Childbirth - Monica
Due Date: 05/27/2009
Patient of Dr. Rebecca B****
Scheduled to deliver at ***************
4/23/2009

To whom it may concern:

We have a few requests regarding the birth of our daughter. While we realize that births often don't go as planned, we would appreciate your support in helping us obtain the requests we can achieve.
Sincerely,Monica

LABOR
I would like to be free to walk around during labor.
I wish to be able to move around and change position at will throughout labor.
I would like to be able to have fluids by mouth throughout the first stage of labor.
I would prefer to keep the number of vaginal exams to a minimum.
I would like to wear contact lenses or glasses at all times when conscious.

MONITORING
I do not wish to have continuous fetal monitoring unless it is required by the condition of the baby.
I do not want an internal monitor unless the baby has shown some sign of distress.

LABOR AUGMENTATION/INDUCTION
I do not wish to have the amniotic membrane ruptured artificially unless signs of fetal distress require internal monitoring.
If labor is not progressing, I would like to have the amniotic membrane ruptured before other methods are used to augment labor.
I would prefer to be allowed to try changing position and other natural methods (walking, nipple stimulation) before pitocin is administered.

ANESTHESIA/PAIN MEDICATION
I realize that many pain medications exist I'll ask for them if I need them.

CESAREAN
Unless absolutely necessary, I would like to avoid a Cesarean.
If a Cesarean delivery is indicated, I would like to be fully informed and to participate in the decision-making process.
I would like Mark present at all times if the baby requires a Cesarean delivery.
I wish to have an epidural for anesthesia.
So I can view the birth, I would like the screen lowered just before delivery of the baby.
If the baby is not in distress, the baby should be given to Mark immediately after birth.

EPISIOTOMY
I would prefer not to have an episiotomy unless absolutely required for the baby's safety.
I would appreciate guidance in when to push and when to stop pushing so the perineum can stretch.
If possible, I would like to use perineal massage to help avoid the need for an episiotomy.
I would like a local anesthetic to repair a tear.

DELIVERY
I would like to be allowed to choose the position in which I give birth, including squatting.
I would like Julie and/or nurses to support me and my legs as necessary during the pushing stage.
I would like to try to deliver in a squatting position, using Mark or a squatting bar for support.
I would like a mirror available so I can see the baby's head when it crowns.
I would like the chance to touch the baby's head when it crowns.
Even if I am fully dilated, and assuming the baby is not in distress, I would like to try to wait until I feel the urge to push before beginning the pushing phase.
I would like to have the baby placed on my stomach/chest immediately after delivery.

IMMEDIATELY AFTER DELIVERY
I would like to have Mark cut the cord.
I would prefer that the umbilical cord stop pulsating before it is cut.
I would like to hold the baby while I deliver the placenta and any tissue repairs are made.
I would like to hold the baby for at least fifteen minutes before (he/she) is photographed, examined, etc.
I would like to have the baby evaluated and bathed in my presence.
I plan to keep the baby near me following birth and would appreciate if the evaluation of the baby can be done with the baby on my abdomen, with both of us covered by a warm blanket, unless there is an unusual situation.
If the baby must be taken from me to receive medical treatment, Mark will accompany the baby at all times.
I would prefer to hold the baby rather than have her placed under heat lamps.
I would like to delay the eye medication for the baby until a couple hours after birth.
I would like to see the placenta after it is delivered.
I would like to avoid being catheterized if at all possible.
I would like to hold off on the hepatitis shot until the baby is a few weeks old.

POSTPARTUM
I would like a private room, if available.
Unless required for health reasons, I do not wish to be separated from my baby.
I would like to have the baby "room in" and be with me at all times.

BREASTFEEDING
I plan to breastfeed the baby and would like to begin nursing very shortly after birth.
Unless medically necessary, I do not wish to have any bottles given to the baby (including glucose water or plain water).
I do not want the baby to be given a pacifier.
I would like to meet with a Lactation Consultant.

PHOTO/VIDEO
I would like to take still photographs during labor and the birth.
I would like to make a videorecording of labor and/or the birth.

Ready or not....

.... here she comes!!!

(34w6d pregnant)

Mark and I had our first OB appt with our new dr here in AZ, Dr. Branaman. I was nervous before hand, but as our appt time got closer, I got less nervous. Kinda weird. My blood pressure wasn't even THAT high! Only 138/87 or something like that. At my first appt in OK it was like 169/98... Noticeable difference. Anyway, our new dr is a female and she's probably in her mid-30's. We really liked her. I told her I was planning on trying to have a natural birth, and she was all for that. She said that unless it's absolutely medically necessary, she won't intervene at all, and the only thing she asks is that I get the hep-lock (the IV port) put in as soon as I get to the hospital in case something does go wrong and they need to give me IV meds asap. But she said I don't have to be hooked up to an IV machine, or a fetal monitor the whole time, and I can stay as mobile as I'd like if everything goes fine. She's also open to using other birthing positions, such as squatting, kneeling or side-birthing. So we were very encouraged by what we heard from her. She also asked that we do a birth plan so she knows exactly what we'd like to get out of the birth experience, which was a pleasant surprise for us. We were kind of under the impression that many dr's and nurses kind of think, "Oh, she's one of THOSE people" when you give them your plan, and roll their eyes, and set it aside. So I was impressed that she actually cared enough to ask us to do one.

Then came the surprise.... All during this pregnancy, I haven't really had any internal exams done, with the exception of our first appt - they did the vaginal ultrasound bc she was too little to do the normal kind. So I was expecting her to do an exam on me, since I'll be 35 weeks tomorrow. What neither of us was even remotely prepared for, was the dr saying "You're already 3 cm dilated and I can feel about an inch diameter circle of the top of her head." ...... Um... WHAT?!!? I still have 5 weeks to go! I thought people don't get 3 cm's dilated until they've been in labor for hours already??? I'm not ready for this!!! Okay, actually I am, and in a weird way, after we both got over the initial shock of what she said, it made me feel more prepared for what's ahead of us. Dr. B told us that her head is fully engaged in the birth canal, and when she pushed on the top of her head, she didn't budge an inch. (She said normally at this stage they'll bounce up and down a little bit, but our blueberry wasn't moving.) She also said that once I'm past 36 weeks, if I go into labor they won't stop it bc they feel like all the medicine's they have to give you aren't worth the risk to the baby. She also said that babies who are born at 36 weeks, about 80-85% of them go home with you when you're discharged from the hospital, and at 37 weeks, that percentage goes up to 90-95%. Dr. B said it was a little surprising I was already 3 cm's dilated since this is our first baby, but she also said that it's conducive to the natural birth we want and she wasn't worried about it at all. She predicted that Abbie will be at least a week or two early, so we shall see. My next appt is in a week, and our doula, Julie, is going to that with us, and then for a tour of the hospital afterwards.

So I guess it's time to start thinking about packing her (and our) bag for the hospital. We just got her bedroom furniture this afternoon, so Mark's already upstairs putting it all together. Hopefully her travel system will be here in the next day or two.

It's all so exciting, and a little scary, but we're ready for this.

He likes to sit on my belly now. I think he knows something's up bc he's been even more needy than usual lately.

The "oh sh*t" factor is kicking in....

We dropped our mom's off at the airport early this morning. It's a lot different here without them. They did all the laundry and cooking while they were here, along with most of the cleaning and helping with the dogs. They unpacked, washed, organized by size and put away ALL of Abbie's clothes, which is a HUGE task in itself since she has quite the wardrobe. They helped me re-pot my new plants, and completely organized the kitchen. (It's going to take me a while to figure out where everything is in my own kitchen since I really didn't help all that much with the kitchen part of it.)

Now that it's just Mark and me (and the weinas), it's a little weird. I feel like we're kids living in this grown up house that is out of our league, and I also feel like we're on vacation or something and this is all going to come to an end and we're going to have to go back to Oklahoma. Also, the reality that we're having a baby in about a month is very prevalent, hence the "oh sh*t" factor. During this entire pregnancy, I knew there was so much going on before her arrival, that I was focusing mostly on going home and the move here and getting settled in, etc. Now that most of that stuff is behind us, her birth is the next big event, and quite honestly, that's pretty scary. I liked having other things to distract me some, but now that I'm big as a bus, and we're in the house we're bringing her home to, and in the state I'm giving birth in, those distractions are quickly disappearing. We drove to Scottsdale on Friday, which is in the same direction of the hospital we'll deliver at, and all I could think about was that in a month or so we'll be driving down that road with me in labor and we'll be coming home with a newborn. I feel like I'm ready for this, but I'm also scared - mainly of the unknowns of labor.

We ordered her bedroom furniture on Friday, along with her stroller/car seat. I'll post pictures of that, along with the rest of the house (hopefully it'll be ready by then), when it's all set up.

cell phone drama....

We just signed a new contract with AT&T in February. We've been with them for over 4.5 years and have never had a problem with them... until now.
When we're in our house in AZ, we get no service, at all, none. Every once in a while a call will actually get thru, but you can't really hear the person on the other end and 9 times out of 10, it drops the call. Most of the time our phones give us a message that says "Emergency calls only". As soon as you get out of our neighborhood, the phones work fine. We went to Best Buy and an AT&T store here, and both have told us, yes, you live in a dead area, but they can't help us get out of our contract. When we call AT&T customer service, we get the full run-around. We called them from the AT&T store today, and had the guy at the store tell someone there that we are in fact, in a dead area, and Mark talked to at least 5 different people in 5 different departments before we got frustrated and hung up - a good 40 mins after being on hold with them. They keep telling us that we have to submit a request to have the termination fees ($165 per phone) waived after we cancel the contract. We don't want to cancel the contract until we know for sure we're not going to have to pay $330 to get out of it.
The whole situation is frustrating and we're not quite sure what to do about it. The customer service people keep telling us we're in a "moderate coverage area". Their definition of "moderate" is that the phones work fine outside in open areas, away from buildings. Ironically though, I don't want to have to go stand out in the middle of the street every time I need to make a call, especially when it doesn't even work out there half the time. They also said that based on our call log, we get service, but again, ironically, we don't sit in our house 24/7, and it works perfectly fine outside the neighborhood. I guess our only option is to switch providers and pray to God that they don't charge us the termination fees. Grrr....

Absolutely loving AZ

It's been a crazy week for us. My mom and I surprised Mark and left Dubuque at 8am on Monday (4/6) and got back to Enid around 7:30pm. When I knocked on Mark's hotel room door, he didn't answer at first. When he finally opened the door, he just stared at me for a few seconds before it sunk in. *grins* He graduated at 5pm on Tuesday, and we were on the road to AZ by 1pm on Wednesday. Mark went from having 7 flights and 2 sims left, to being IFF complete and graduated in 8 days, and that includes a weekend. CRAZY! I'm so proud of him. He handled that pressure really well, considering we completely packed up and moved out of our house in the middle of all that too. He never ceases to amaze me.

So the ride through Oklahoma is REALLY boring. Think Iowa or Nebraska boring, except worse...

Luckily Ollie was my co-pilot for part of the trip....

Until he got bored too and cashed out with Mark and Sadie... =)

Luckily I had the occasional windmill to look at.

Texas was just as boring as Oklahoma.

But Sadie kept us company too.

When we got to Tucumcari, NM, we were greeted with a rainbow. Actually, it was a double rainbow, but it was on the other side of the car so I could only get a picture of one of them.

The dogs were on my lap for 90% of the trip, but when I kicked them in the back, Ollie positioned himself here...

The west side of NM got much prettier.

We were SOOO excited to make it to Arizona! (I can't believe how huge I look.... Ew....)

So we are officially in our new house. We got here around 8pm on Thursday. All our goods were delivered on Friday morning and we've spent the past 3 days trying to get somewhat organized. I'd say we're about halfway done. We absolutely LOVE this house. It's about twice the size of our place in Enid, but we have so much junk we're not really having any problem filling the whole house. We went to the commissary (grocery store on base) for the first time on Saturday and it was pretty overwhelming. The produce section alone was at least half the size of the entire commissary at Vance. We have any type of restaurant you can imagine within a 5 mile radius of our house. There is a huge park with soccer fields and basketball and volleyball courts and a nice playground about 4 blocks from our house, and we LOVE our neighborhood. Most of our neighbors have 3-5 kids each, ranging from 6-12 years old. We've already met quite a few of our neighbors, and the neighbors right next door invited us to a barbecue at their place on Saturday night! They're having a bunch of neighbors over so we can meet them all. I'm really excited. I'm kind of sad we're only going to be here for a year, because so far, we absolutely love it here. (Of course it's been in the 60's-80's so far. When it's 110, I might not like it so much...)

Mark's mom is coming here on Wednesday and we're all super excited to show her around. My mom has been here helping us a TON since we got here and she drove our Jetta from OK to here, which was a huge help also. We wouldn't be half as far as we are with organizing this place without my mom's help. We're excited to spend some time with just our moms.

I'll post pictures of our house once we get everything organized. Basically we could be living in the garage of this house and it would have been better than our place in Enid. Right now, it feels like we're in paradise. I hope you all can come and visit!!!!

PS - Our cell phones don't work here. They work in Phoenix, but not in our neighborhood. We have to see if we can get out of our contract with AT&T and switch to Verizon, and I'll try to do that tomorrow. In the meantime, our home phone is 623-236-3168. We don't have long distance service here though, which is why we're not calling anyone. Hopefully we'll get it all figured out soon.

Good times with great people!

This weekend was the shower in IL at my parents house. I got to see so many people I hadn't seen in quite a while so it was a lot of fun catching up with everyone, although I didn't get to talk to everyone nearly as much as I wanted to. I think half the reason I wanted Mark to be at the shower also was because I didn't want to be the center of attention by myself, and I was nervous about that before hand. It just seems so indulgent or something to have everyone buying gifts for our baby and I didn't want all eyes to be on me, but it wasn't as bad as I was anticipating and we got so many nice things for her.

Here is the cake that Mark's brother, Alex, made for us. It was 4 layers of yellow and chocolate cake with oreo filling in between them. It was AMAZINGLY good! I have a few pieces frozen for Mark so he'll get to try it too.


I think there were about 30 people there.


Mark was able to "attend" via Skype. You can see the computer set up beside me so he could see what was going on and I was showing everything to him as I opened it and telling him what we got. The internet is pretty amazing.

Here's a picture of my family members that were there. From left to right - Brenda and Michael (my cousin), my grandma, my mom, me, my dad, and Ruthie and Allison (cousins).

All I can say is Abbie is going to be one well-dressed baby! We got a TON of clothes for her. Luckily, they ranged quite a bit in sizes from newborn to 18 months, so I'm going to keep them all. I can't wait to show them all to Mark and get them all organized. We also got toys and bottles and towels and bibs and books, etc. And we got 2 handmade blankets and a handmade mei tai with it's own case. (That's the beige thing in the bottom, right corner.) Amazing!

Thank you so much to those of you that attended. It was so nice to see all of you, even if it was for too short of a time. I'll be back sometime in July with Abbie, and hopefully Mark will be able to join us also, although, as usual, we won't know until the last minute with that.

Home again

The past few days have been kinda crazy. Monday the packers packed up our entire house between 8am and 4pm. Tuesday the movers came and took all the boxes and furniture onto the truck, and it only took them about 3 hours. Tuesday I started cleaning the apartment... The amount of cat hair that was under our furniture was absolutely disgusting. Wednesday I drove 2 hrs to Tulsa to pick my mom up from the airport, and then we came back and cleaned some more. I had an OB appt that both my mom and Mark where able to go to (more on that later) and then we came back and finished cleaning the house and moved all the stuff my mom and I weren't taking with us to IL over to Mark's hotel room on base. Then we packed up as much as we could in our cars so we didn't have much to do in the morning. Thursday we were up by 6am, Mark got ready for work, and then we loaded all the rest of the stuff and the animals into our cars and took out the rest of the garbage and did the final walk thru. Mark left by 6:45am and my mom and I left a little after 7am, but got tied up at the hospital on our way out of town. Mark went back later in the day to check out with our landlord and luckily he gave us our full deposit back, which was good. We were both a little worried he was going to hassle us about the carpets because they had some snags on them, but he couldn't have put cheaper carpet in there if he tried and it was FILTHY when we moved in. Anyway, luckily it wasn't a problem and we're out of that place. My mom and I ended up getting on the road just before 8am and we got back to Galena just before 8pm. The drive wasn't all that bad. I was expecting it to be worse, but as far as me being uncomfortable, I was okay most of the trip, despite both weinas laying on me the entire time.

My OB appt was interesting. My bp high, as usual, so they wanted a pee sample. They found ketones and protein in the sample, which made my dr worry. He came in and asked how my diet was, and admittedly, it's not the best right now. It's hard to eat right when you have no food in the house, no dishes, silverware, etc. We've been eating out a lot. Plus I purposefully didn't drink much on Weds because I already have the constant "I have to pee" feeling, and I didn't want to have to stop 4 times to pee on the way to and from Tulsa. PLUS I'd been doing a lot more than normal with the cleaning and packing and loading and moving, so I probably should have been drinking more, but I wasn't. I asked him why he was worried, and I could tell he wasn't being 100% honest with me. He just said well it's probably a sign of you being dehydrated but he wanted me to do another pee sample in the morning and drop it off at the hospital lab on my way out of town. Mark and mom got to see the last U/S we had here. She is head down now and he thought she weighed about 4.5 lbs and her heart rate was 142bpm. He didn't do any pictures because she's pretty big so it would have been like part of her head or something like that. I did a little research online when I got home to find out why my dr looked worried and it basically said that protein and ketones in urine can be a sign of pre-eclampsia. Yay. I called my dr on our way home to find out the lab results from my 2nd test but they never called back, so I'm assuming it wasn't a big deal... ??

It's nice to be home, but I really hate leaving Mark. I feel guilty leaving him by himself and taking the dogs and cats and leaving him alone. I cry when I'm going HOME to see my friends and family and I'm only going to be away from him for 5 days.... What am I going to do when he goes to war and leaves me for 6 months?? I seriously don't know how I'm going to deal with that at all... Luckily when I said goodbye to him I was fine, but before we got up in the morning he said he was going to miss me and I completely lost it. And the night before when we were loading the truck I had a little melt down, and even now just typing this I'm starting to lose it again, so I'm going to stop. I'm a mess....