Our 2nd birth story

Ben’s birth ended up being WAY different than what I was expecting it to be.  I told Mark that whether or not I wanted more kids depended on how his birth went, and if all the rest of my births could be just like this one, I’d have 5 more kids!  (If someone else was paying for all their expenses, that is.)

We got up at 6:09am, and I was really nervous.  VERY nervous.  Like, feeling like I was going to puke nervous.  As the day went on, I got less nervous, but I was ready to call the whole thing off in the morning.  We got ready, I talked to my friend Jennifer about last minute stuff (she came and stayed at our house to watch Abbie and the dogs for us) and we were on our way.  We got to the hospital at 7:32am and I was in the gown, in the hospital bed by 7:45am.

One of the most painful parts of the birth, was getting the stupid IV in.  On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being high), the pain was about a 5, and it took them 2 tries – one on each wrist.  Luckily they got it in in 10 mins, vs the almost hour and a half it took with Abbie’s birth.  I had made sure I drank water though, to help make my veins bigger this time around.  They started an IV drip around 8:15am and I was started on 6ml/hr of Pitocin at 9:13am.  I’d been having contractions for days and this made them be a little more frequent, but my pain level was 1 out of 10. 

At 11:15am, the put the IV drip at max flow and the Pitocin was up to 12ml/hr and my pain level during contractions was 3 out of 10.  They were coming about every 4 minutes and lasting 30 seconds.  Nothing unbearable.  Mark and I were watching TV and I was fairly relaxed at this point.  They took my blood sugar every hour while I was in labor and it got down to 64, so they let me have an orange juice to get it up some.  Otherwise I wasn’t allowed anything to eat – not even ice.

Around 12pm, the nurse told me that the Dr wanted to break my water to pick things up after he was done with a surgery he was doing, so they advised me to get the epidural so they could make sure everything worked before he did that, since that would probably pick up the intensity of my labor a little bit.  I agreed, but I’ll admit, I was nervous.  Everything just seemed so “synthetic”, and I know that when you force labor to happen instead of letting it come on it’s own, your chances of c-sections go up quite a bit.  So the anesthesiologist came in and gave her little schpeel about risks of an epi and all that.  And then at 12:15pm she gave me the epidural.  It took her about 8 minutes (according to Mark’s notes), and it hurt some, but again wasn’t TOO unbearable, and it only hurt for a bit.  It basically felt like someone was pushing really hard on a bad bruise for a few minutes.  I wanted to squeeze Mark’s hand during that part and I did some deep breathing, but looking back, it wasn’t too bad.  Pain was probably 6 out of 10 again.  At 12:33pm, they gave me Ropiphicane (sp?) in the epidural which started to numb me.

Around 12:45pm Mark ran to Subway to get some lunch and at 1pm, they gave me a catheter, and said I was 6cm dilated.  (The nurse had checked me earlier – which hurt a LOT – and she said I was around 4cm dilated.)  Around 1:40pm I rated my contraction pain at 4 out of 10.  I could feel them, and they hurt, but again, nothing unbearable.  Even with the epi, there was one spot under my belly on my left side that I could definitely feel the contraction pain.  I could still feel my belly get hard all over, but that one spot hurt a bunch.  The nurse checked me again at 1:39pm and said I was still 6cm and he was at –1 or –2.  We were still waiting for the Dr to be done with surgery to break my water.  At 1:55pm, the anesthesiologist gave me more meds in the epi to help with the pain I was feeling during the contractions.

After she gave me more drugs, I finally found a decent position and actually fell asleep for 10-15 mins.  The problem was I had pretty much zero use of my legs from the extra medicine she gave me.  I couldn’t get comfortable in bed and my back was starting to hurt and I couldn’t move myself at all, so I had to try to tell Mark and the nurse what position I wanted to be in, and if it didn’t work they had to move me again.  Mark was pretty agreeable to helping me obviously, but the nurse wasn’t, so it was kind of awkward.  At 2:40 the nurse discovered my water had broken on its own.  I had kind of figured it did because I felt a little pop, but I didn’t say anything to her about it since sometimes I felt like I was bothering her anyway.

So around 3pm I told her I had the “I have to poop” feeling during contractions.  I knew he was low.  I don’t think she believed me though, so she waited though about 5 more contractions and me telling her every time that I think he’s coming, to check me.  She finally checked me at 3:15pm and I knew as soon as she did it that he was coming.  She got a funny look on her face and said “I’m going to get the doctor”.  I was fully dilated and he was at a +2.  She left the room and I laid there on my side and cried.  This was the part I’d been worrying about for the past month and a half and if there were going to be problems, it was going to be now.  Mark reassured me and told me it would be okay and I told him that I really had a feeling that this baby was smaller than Abbie was, but I didn’t want to say that publicly and then be wrong about it.

The doctor got in there and I was still on my side (bc I couldn’t move at all) and he said, “Ok, show me what a good pusher you are.”  (I’d told him before that I did well pushing with Abbie.)  So while I was still on my side with them holding my leg up, I gave like half a push and he was like, “Ok! Stop”, and started getting his gear on really quick.  They got me on to my back and switched the bed quickly and when he was positioned he told me to push with the next contraction.  So with the next contraction I pushed for like 10 seconds, took a breath, and pushed for maybe another 5 seconds and out came baby Ben!  It was a weird feeling because I could feeling him come down and out when I pushed.  It didn’t hurt at all, but I could feel him coming out on the inside.  He was born at 3:32pm on December 8th, and he cried when they put him on me, and so did I.  He ended up being 8lb 15.2oz and was 20” long.  All that worrying for nothing!!

To be continued…

A day in the life….

I’ve seen a few people do this on their blogs, and I decided to join in, while I still remember it.  I like to look back on my old blog posts, and I thought a few years down the road it would be fun to look back and see what my daily life is like now.
So here’s a look at my daily routine.  I’ve estimated times since I don’t have the time, or energy, to go through the day writing down a minute by minute summary of what I do.  But this is the jist of it.
Sometime between 4:30am and 7:30am: get up and make Mark’s coffee and breakfast for him and get his lunch ready to go, while he’s taking a shower.  Say goodbye to Mark and go back to bed.
8:30-9am – Wake up.  Get dressed.  Do make-up (sometimes) and hair.  Let dogs out and give them food and water.
9 – 9:15am – Wake Abbie up if she doesn’t wake up on her own.  Change her, get her dressed.  Sometimes we snuggle for a little bit before she gets out of bed, if we have time.
9:15 - 9:45am – Make Abbie and me breakfast.  Try to convince Abbie to eat all of her breakfast.  Check my emails and blogs and Facebook and talk to Abbie.  (On days Abbie goes to the sitters, we leave at 9:45am and I drop her off at 10am and then go run errands and/or eat lunch with friends or come back home and clean or do crafts until 1pm, when I pick her up.)
9:45 -11am (ish) – If we’re at home, Abbie usually plays while I clean or do laundry or write blogs or letters.  Sometimes I’ll turn on the TV for her to watch while she drinks her milk, sometimes she just plays in her room and the living room.
11 – 2pm (ish) – We almost always go to base.  Usually we try to meet Mark or a friend for lunch and we’ll go check the mail and get groceries.  Sometimes I take her to the park, or I’ll take her (and her baby) for a walk in the stroller if I’m feeling up to it.  Lately I’ve been going to my NST’s or other doctors appointments also.  We try to leave base between 1:30 and 1:45 to make it home by 2pm.
2 – 4:30pm – Abbie naps.  I usually try to get her down between 2 and 2:30pm, and she’ll usually lay in there and talk for 10-20 mins before she actually falls asleep.  Usually she’ll sleep until at leave 4pm, but sometimes as long as 4:45pm.  I don’t let her sleep past 4:45 and usually try to wake her up by 4:30pm if she isn’t already awake.  While she naps, lately, I’ve been napping too.  “Lately”, as in, the past 8 months…  I love naps, but especially right now.
4:30 – 6:30pm – Abbie and I hang out.  We read books and do puzzles and usually eat a snack.  Sometimes we snuggle on the couch and watch TV or I’ll turn one of her shows on for her to watch while I work on the computer or clean again.
6:30 – 7:15pm – Mark usually gets home and we talk while he plays with Abbie and I get dinner ready.
7:15 – 7:45pm – Eat dinner and try to carry on a conversation with Mark, which usually doesn’t happen.  Sometimes it does, just with 14 interruptions per sentence from Abbie.
7:45 – 8:45pm – Clean up kitchen from dinner, play with Abbie, try to get more cleaning/chores done, make lists for next day, clean up living room and Abbie’s room.
8:45 – 9:15pm (ish) – Get Abbie ready for bed.  Bath (usually every other day), books, brush teeth and tuck her in to bed.  Mark usually does her night time routine with her, except for brushing her teeth.  I do that and then we both tuck her in to bed together.
9:15 – 10pm – Try to finish stuff up in the kitchen/living room.  Sometimes we’ll try to watch TV or I finish stuff up on the computer and Mark messes around on his computer too.  Abbie usually calls me in once or twice for a few more kisses or to tell me something.  If she can hear us downstairs, she’ll keep calling for us, so we try to either come up to our room or to go to the basement so I can sew and Mark can be on the big computer.
10 – 11:30pm – Mark and I watch shows upstairs, or read or talk and then we go to bed.  Mark usually falls asleep before me since he doesn’t get the 2 hr naps every day like I do.
12:30am – I get up to pee.
2:45am – I get up to pee.
4:30 – 6:30am – Sometime in there I get up to pee again, usually when Mark gets up to get ready for work.
So there you have it.  That’s our typical day.  Sometimes on the weekends we’ll sleep in until 9:30am or so if Abbie lets us.  She goes to bed later than a lot of kids her age I think, but that’s because I don’t want to get up with her at 6am and Mark usually doesn’t get home from work until close to 7pm at night so he wants to spend a few hours with her before she goes to bed anyway.  It works out well for us and I hope I can get the little guy on this sort of schedule sometime also, although I realize that’ll probably take a few months.

We’re having a baby tomorrow! (Take 2)

 

I’m being induced tomorrow.  I was looking back on my blog at my account of Abbie’s birth and how I was feeling the day before I was induced with her.  (You can read that here.)  It’s kind of amazing how differently I feel this time around.  I really wish I felt the same way I did with her, but I don’t.  Honestly, I’m scared.  I feel guilty because everyone is asking me if I’m excited to meet my little boy, and I am, but I haven’t even thought about meeting him much.  I’m so focused on getting him out and all the problems that I could have with that, that I haven’t really thought much past the actual birth.  I’ll probably be so relieved to actually get him out okay that I’ll pass out after he’s born.  I did that once with a tetanus shot.  I was SO worked up about it that I passed out after I got it because I was so relieved it was over with.

Monday I had another NST and I met with the doctor who will be delivering our baby for the first time.  They have three doctors and a midwife on base, and I’d met the other 2 dr’s and the midwife, but not this dr.  I wish I had met him a long time ago.  I’d typically be nervous about having a male ob/gyn, but I REALLY like this guy.  He has a very calm, soothing demeanor about him, and he almost immediately put me at ease.  He was easy to talk to and smiled a lot and threw in a few jokes where appropriate and he knew when to be funny and when to be serious.  I pretty much drilled him with questions and he answered all of them honestly and without delay.  I didn’t feel like he was trying to beat around the bush at all, or sugar coat things for me, but on the other hand, he was very reassuring at the same time.  I told him all of my concerns, what I was afraid of, my experience with Abbie, what I was hoping for this birth and he was agreeable with everything I said.  He told me that he doesn’t see why there’s any reason I won’t be able to deliver vaginally and if that’s what I want, then he’ll do his best to make that happen.  I told him how people have me all freaked out about a shoulder dystocia with this baby and he said part of that is because on of the doctors here had a shoulder dystocia when they were in their residency and they lost the baby.  So that person is extra sensitive to shoulder dystocia’s and takes a very cautious approach to them.  But this doctors approach was that he thinks everything will be okay.  He said it’s his job to worry about that if the time comes and that he will be prepared for the worst but planning for the best.  There are a whole list of maneuvers they can do if a baby does have a shoulder dystocia and he said he’s never had to go past the fourth maneuver in his 10 years of being an ob/gyn.  So all of my chat with him was pretty reassuring, but I’m still scared.  I just want the birth to be over with, so I can start focusing on my baby boy and not worrying about the birth.

I had an ultrasound on Friday.  I was 38w1d and he was measuring 40w5d and weighed 9lb5oz.  My dr was laughing because the cut off for them offering me a primary c-section was 4250g, and baby boy was like 4232g, so he BARELY missed the cut off for that.  But it’s a moot point anyway since I don’t want a primary c-section at all.  If it comes to that, eventually, then fine.  But I’m just happy they’re going to give me an opportunity to have him vaginally.

I’ve been having some contractions lately.  They’re not consistent, but my whole belly gets as hard as a rock and it gets a little hard to breathe and is just kind of uncomfortable.  They don’t necessarily hurt, but sometimes I have to breathe a little funny through them.  I was timing them a few nights ago and they were coming about every 10 minutes and lasting about 2 minutes.  If I’m out and about, I have them pretty regularly, but if I lay down or put my feet up, they usually go away.  I had one of them wake me up last night, but it was mainly because I had to pee and the contraction made that even more noticeable.  Hopefully that means I’ll be more than 3-4cm dilated tomorrow when they induce me.  A few of my friends have said I look like I’ve dropped quite a bit, but I have no clue.  I can’t tell if I have or not.

So tomorrow is the big day.  I’m hoping and praying that everything turns out okay and that he doesn’t get stuck.  I’ll be very glad once the birth is over with.  Abbie is pretty excited about having a baby brother.  My friend, Jennifer, is going to come over early tomorrow morning to stay with Abbie for a day while Mark is with me at the hospital.  Then he’ll come home to be with her and he might drop her off with other friend later on so he can spend more time with us during the day without having to chase Abbie around.

Time to go get a few more things done and ready around the house!

2011 Christmas card demographics

I love doing Christmas cards.  This year was a little different because I wasn’t sure if I should wait until after the baby is born, or do them before.  I decided to send Christmas cards out before and then I’ll do birth announcements later on.  I thought I had done the demographics on my blog for my 2010 cards, but I can’t find them anywhere.  I did find the demographics for 2009 though.  I sent out 116 cards in 2009, and I think it was a few more than that last year.  This year I’ve sent out 150 and they’re all officially mailed!

Here’s where they went.

43 of them went to APO addresses here in Italy.  (Most of these are people in our squadron.)  I sent 25 to IL, and 24 to IA. 8 went to CO, 7 went to WI, 5 went to FL, 4 went to OK and 3 went to AZ, IN and VA.  Two went to MO, NC, SC, TX and UT.  And I sent 1 card to CA, GA, MI, NE, MN, NM, NV, SD, TN, and WA.

I also sent one to an APO address in Germany and one to an APO address in Japan.  And then one to Spain, Sweden, Belgium, Vatican City and Italy.  The nice thing about sending mail from an APO address to an APO address is that it’s free!  You don’t need to buy stamps, which saved me quite a bit of money.

So I sent cards to 8 different countries and 24 different states!  Part of the fun being involved with the military is that you end up knowing people from ALL over the place.  I’m going to try to keep track of where I receive them from this year.  I’ve only received one so far, unless you count the one I already got back in the mail that I’d sent…  I’ll have to resend that one.

There are probably few people in this world that love sending out Christmas cards (or any mail) as much as I do.  I get so excited when I get the cards I’ve ordered in the mail and I’m pretty happy with the way the Shutterfly ones turned out.  And I love hanging all the cards and pictures I receive all over my window sills for the holiday season.  I actually keep them all and put them in dated plastic bags.  Hopefully someday I’ll get around to actually organizing them all, but I have a bunch of other stuff to organize first.

Happy mailing and happy receiving to those of you that like Christmas cards as much as I do!

November 2011 Abbie-isms

**We picked Abbie up from a friend’s house and she was bouncing off the walls.  She got in the car and said, “I’m wound up!!!”.  On the car ride home, she said to Mark, “Daddy, do you want to wind me up when we get home?”.  (I occasionally tell Mark to not wind her up before bed time.  Apparently that didn’t slip by her.)                                                

**Abbie loves bologna and could probably live on the stuff if we let her.  However, she refuses to eat bologna unless you cut a face in it.  (Thank you very much, mom, for starting this wonderful, time consuming tradition.)

**Last night I got home from a squadron function and Abbie came running down the stairs into the garage to greet me.  I said hi to her and she said, “Hi mommy.  I’m so proud of you.”  Occasionally she’ll ask if I’m proud of her, or she’ll tell me one of her stuffed animals is so proud of her.

**At least a couple times a week Abbie will say, “Mommy!!” and I’ll say, “Yes Abbie?” and she’ll say, “I love you.”  It’s pretty sweet and makes me melt every time.

**Abbie and Mark LOVE to play together.  I think little girls need to be “roughed up” as much as little boys do by their daddies, and Abbie is all giggles and shrieks when Mark is wrestling with her.  Now, as soon as Mark walks in the door, Abbie will run up to him and say, “Daddy, do you want to tease me?!”  “Tease” is her code-word for rough house, but it’s amusing to hear her ask him like that.  We’ll also be in the car and she’ll ask him if he wants to tease her when we get home.

**Often times Mark and I will be trying to talk while we think Abbie is entertaining herself.  We’ll be in the kitchen and she’ll be talking with her stuffed animals in the living room.  Yesterday, this was the case, and I asked Mark if he looked in the bucket in the driveway.  (There is a HUGE beetle in there – seriously, the thing is over 2 inches long.)  Abbie and I had seen the beetle earlier and she had said she wanted to show it to daddy.  So I had no sooner asked him if he looked in the bucket and Abbie comes RUNNING over to us yelling that she wants to show daddy the bug.  It truly amazes me how that kid can monitor the airwaves.  She was literally talking with her toys and in a different room, but as soon as I mention the bucket, it triggers something in her brain and all of a sudden she’s part of the conversation.  We’re going to have to be careful about what we talk about when she’s around because she doesn’t miss a thing.

**We’re still working on Abbie not interrupting us when we’re trying to talk, and her waiting her turn.  Sometimes we won’t be talking at all and Abbie will ask out of no where, “Is it my turn now?”  We’ll tell her yes, she can have a turn and then she’ll say, “Uuuhhhhhmmmm” and try to think of something to talk about.  She’s not one for enjoying the silence at all.  Bummer for us…

**Abbie recently learned the word “frustrated”.  She was having some difficulty changing her baby doll’s diaper and she said, “Baby, you are really frustrating me!  I am getting very frustrated with this!”

**In one of Abbie’s favorite “Olivia” episodes, one of the characters says, “I cannot work under these conditions!!” and we have heard Abbie saying that a few times around the house now.

**Jets were taking off as we were walking in to the commissary on base to meet Mark for lunch.  Abbie did her normal excited yells about them and then added, “Goodbye jets!  Have a nice day!” as they were flying off.  I asked her if she thought her daddy was in one of those jets and she said, “No, there are other daddy’s flying those ones.”  Guess she understands that now, after all!

**Abbie and I had lunch with 2 of my friends and I was talking about how they had to break my water with Abbie’s birth.  Abbie picked up on that right away and asked me about it.  I told her they had to break my water to get her to come out.  She contemplated it for a second and then went back to eating.   That night at dinner, out of nowhere Abbie said, “Daddy, they had to break mommy’s waters to get me to come out.”  I think she kinda caught Mark off guard.

**Every time I try to get up from the couch or from sitting on the floor Abbie always asks me if I need help getting up and will RUN over to me to grab my hands to pull me up.  Or she tries to get behind me and push me up.  Such a big help!

**Tonight Abbie came up to me and told me it was time to take her blood sugar.  Ha.  I wish she didn’t even know what that was.

MFF and 5QF

 

1. If I could be on any reality TV show, I’d want to be on the Amazing Race with my husband because I think we’d kick butt at it, or Survivor, but I’m not sure I could handle it.  I wish they’d do a couple’s survivor so Mark and I could go on it together.  I think we’d do well then too.
2. This past Thanksgiving was  kind of a drag.  I couldn’t eat anything because of having just been diagnose with gestational diabetes and I was freaking out about my blood sugar the whole time and not exactly enjoying myself.  Plus we weren’t around family at all, so it didn’t feel the same.  But we did have a few nice dinners with friends, which was fun.
3. I’m looking forward to December because I am having a baby this month!  Well this week actually…  And I’m looking forward to the birth being over with, more than giving birth, if I’m completely honest...
4. One thing I’d like to accomplish this month is  successfully give birth to a healthy baby boy, preferably with no shoulder dystocia or emergency c-sections.
5. To me, winter is a time to cuddle up by the fire or go play in the snow.  Unfortunately, we don’t have a fireplace and it rarely snows in this part of Italy.  Oh well!

 

1. What is your favorite Christmas decoration in your house?  The Christmas lights that Mark hung up everywhere.  They really set the mood.

2. Do you finish your Christmas shopping early or are you a last minute type?  Usually I’m a mix of both, but living overseas, you kind of have to get things ordered way in advance so you have time to receive them and then ship them back to the States to all the appropriate people.  So you can’t really do anything last minute.  Although I did order stuff in advance, and it’s still not here, and most likely I won’t get it mailed out before baby boy arrives so it’s all going to be late anyway…  Oops!

3. When do you turn on your heat?  When it gets cold, whenever that might be.  But here in Italy, I don’t think it’s legal to turn it on before October 15 or something like that.

4. Do you ever wish your blog was private?  Sometimes I do, because I do use it as a journal of sorts, but then again, I’m a very open person and I welcome people’s suggestions and advice, so I’m okay with it being public.  I guess sometimes I just wish it was private from certain people.

5. Do you put your deodorant on before of after you put on your shirt?  Usually after, otherwise it gets all over my shirt!!

38 week appt

Today I had my 38 week appointment.  Mark was able to go with me, so that was really nice.  My blood pressure was a little high (140/85ish), but that’s not surprising since I was a little nervous about the appointment.  She checked me and I’m 3-4cm dilated, either 25 or 50% effaced (can’t remember what she said) and he’s still at a –3, so his head isn’t engaged at all.  Normally those exams don’t hurt, but wow…  This one hurt a lot.  I don’t know what she was doing, but it wasn’t pleasant, that’s for sure.

They have agreed to induce me in a week, so on December 8th, if they have room.  Since there are only 3 beds available at this hospital, they fill up rather quickly, especially since so many people are due around this time.  So HOPEFULLY I’ll be induced next Thursday, or even more hopefully, if I go in to labor on my own before then, they’ll have room for me.  I really don’t want to have to go to the Italian hospital, but I guess I’ll survive either way.

I also had an NST today – my quickest one yet.  I’m still fairly certain these things are pointless and they’re just covering their own butts by following protocol, but I was only hooked up to the machine for 10-15 mins and he was so active they got all the info they needed.  That’s usually the case, but I think today they needed the bed for someone else, so they wanted to get me out of there.  Whichever works, I guess, I just wish they wouldn’t waste my time on days when they’re not in a hurry.

My GD glucose numbers are a little bit all over the place, so I asked her if she could put me on a low dose of the meds to help control it and she’s putting me on 1/2 a pill, once a day.  Some of my numbers are in the 150-160’s, and they should be under 140, so she agreed to let me take the pills.  I just want to make sure he doesn’t have blood sugar issues when he comes out and I’m still trying to figure out serving sizes and what triggers my blood sugar to spike and what doesn’t.  I would rather take the pills to help me out in the meantime, even though I’m still going to be watching what I eat and trying to stick with the GD diet.

My next appointment is tomorrow for an ultrasound and then they’ll discuss those results with me and talk more about the induction on Monday, if I haven’t had him by then.  Part of me is excited we’re so close to the end, and part of me is pretty nervous.  They have me really freaked out about this birth and I’m worried about something going wrong and either him or me not being around for Christmas.  Morbid, I know, but it has crossed my mind more than once.

So we could use your prayers if you have any to spare – that they have room on base for us when the time comes, and that everything goes fairly smoothly.  T-7…..

PS:  And maybe one of these days Mark will have time to take pictures of me when I don’t look like crap.  We only seem to think about it when I’m around the house in sweats and a t-shirt, which I suppose is about 90% of the time now anyway.  Hopefully we’ll get a final picture of my belly before I give birth!

Christmas Questionnaire

I saw this on Jane’s blog, and thought it would be fun to do!

Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate all the way.  I’m a chocolate fiend anyway, and I never pass up cocoa.  Well I do now, thanks to my gestational diabetes, but normally I don’t.  I like egg nog in small doses, but I LOVE cocoa!

Colored lights on tree/house or white? I think white lights are very elegant and colored lights are very fun.  So it depends on my mood and the setting.

Do you hang mistletoe? Nope, I don’t.  I don’t need a reason to kiss my husband and that’s really the only reason you hang mistletoe right?

When do you put your decorations up? Depends on the year and when we have time.  This year they went up right after Thanksgiving since we’re not sure when baby boy will be making his appearance.  It was either then or possibly never, so we opted to be on the safe side and put them up early.  And I shouldn’t really say “we” since Mark pretty much did everything by himself.  Thanks Mark!

What is your favorite holiday dish? My mom has always made a really good shrimp dip that she only makes during holiday dinners.  I love it!

Favorite Holiday memory as a child? Sitting around the tree with my family opening presents.  It was always fun when there was a huge mound of presents and my cousins and uncle and grandparents were there.

When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don’t remember how old I was, but I started figuring it out when I noticed that Santa had the same wrapping paper and handwriting as my mom.  I remember her telling me that was because Santa wanted to blend in, but I don’t think I bought it. 

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yep, we always got to open one present on Christmas Eve.  I’d like to continue that tradition with my kids.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree? With a bunch of random ornaments we’ve gathered over the years, and lights.  We have a decent collection of sentimental ornaments, fancy ones, and kid-friendly ones.  I’d definitely like to add to them though!

Snow! Love it or Dread it? Coming from the mid-west, it doesn’t feel much like Christmas without snow.  I definitely missed snow when we lived in FL, OK, AZ and now Italy, where we very rarely get it.  I definitely like having four seasons.

Do you remember your favorite gift? I honestly don’t, which tells me one of two things.  Either I have a terrible memory, or it’s more the whole atmosphere that I enjoy.  Although I took the Five Languages of Love test and my love language was giving and receiving gifts, so that kind of surprises me.  Now I pretty much remember most things people got me/us and I can go around the house pointing out who gave me what, so you’d think I’d remember a favorite gift.  I will say the year I was hoping Mark would propose, he got me a laptop instead.  Haha!  My co-worker asked me if I balanced it on my finger and said, “Look at the way that delete button shines!”  *grins*  (For the record, no, I didn’t… and he proposed in February!)

What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Puppy chow!!  I actually was just talking to Mark about this last night and how I associate the holidays with eating puppy chow!  (Crispix covered in chocolate chips,butter, peanut butter and powdered sugar.)  I made some, even though I can only eat it in very small doses right now (due to the diabetes).  That might be a good thing though because I could easily eat an entire bag of that stuff.  SOO good!

What is your favorite holiday tradition? Again, just sitting around the tree with family, opening presents.  I’ll miss having more family around this year, but Abbie is lots of fun to watch and we’ll have new little guy to keep us busy too.  I also love going to the candle lit service at church. 

Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum? They’re not terrible, but not my favorite thing either.  Again, I’m much more of a chocolate person.

Favorite Christmas movie? I don’t really remember watching many Christmas movies, besides Love Actually, so does that count?  I need to watch some of the classic Christmas movies.

Saddest Christmas Song? For some reason I always cry when we sing Silent Night at church.  Or songs about people not being together at Christmas.

What is your favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night.  I love it. 

Adding to the clan

So our baby boy should be here within a few weeks.  Possibly in less than 2 weeks if they decide to induce me.  I am so excited to meet him, and I’m to the point where I get all teary-eyed when I see other newborns.  But to be honest, I am a little nervous.

Over the summer I somehow got caught up in listening to this psychologist, who’d done a ton of research on sibling relationships, talk on this radio interview.  He said that it is human nature for parents to have a favorite child – that it’s natural to be more bonded with one child over another.  And that scares me.  I obviously want to love my children equally, and I’m wondering how our relationship with Abbie will change once the little guy gets here, or even more so, how he’ll ever fill the huge footprints she’s left.

Abbie is just a special little girl.  I truly believe all kids are special in their own ways, but obviously I am biased towards my own.    We often have people who interact with Abbie tell us how special she is and we have strangers comment on her beauty frequently.  She has a huge personality, but is very sweet-natured and generally is a joy to be around.  I know that won’t change once this little guy shows up, but I am worried that we’ll always be comparing him to Abbie, even though we know Abbie is pretty advanced in a few areas.

I guess I’m just anxious and excited and nervous to add a member to the family.  I love the way our family dynamic is now and I know it will change.  I’m sure it will change for the better and I have no doubt I’ll love this baby boy as much as I love Abbie, but I know things will be different also.  I’m eager to find out the difference of raising a little boy verses raising a little girl and I’m thankful that I will have the opportunity to experience both.

A night out

Last weekend we had a Hail and Farewell.  (For you non-military folks, a get together to welcome new people and say goodbye to people leaving the squadron.)  It was at a hotel and restaurant about 45 minutes from our house.  I don’t know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t this!  The place was just gorgeous with all the lights and the stream in front and behind it.  Apparently this place was an old mill of some sort and they still had all the old mill parts in the lobby and the watermills behind the place.  I would love to go back and visit it during the day, but it was completely enchanting at night.



Everyone else took buses to get to the place, but since I’m so close to giving birth we didn’t want to risk us having to ruin everyone else’s fun by me going in to labor.  So we drove separately, which was nice because we got there a few minutes before everyone else and that’s when we took all the outside pictures!


The food was AMAZING!  We had a guessing game at our table to try to figure out what most of it was, but whatever it was, it was good.  One of the courses were fig stuffed dumplings and another was some sort of cheese something under crispy proscuitto.  REALLY good.  I loved it all, but I was afraid to eat most of it since I’d just been diagnosed with gestational diabetes earlier that day and I still didn’t know what I could and couldn’t eat.








We had a wonderful time with our friends and a really nice evening out.  I didn’t get any pictures of Mark and me (bummer!!), but I did get a picture with my friends, Laura and Jennifer.  Next time I’ll get a picture of Mark and me!

Thankful

I’m a few days late on this, but better late than never.  I’ve been in a bit of a rut this past week or so.  I’ve been in a lot of pain, which is completely exhausting.  And this gestational diabetes diet is making me all sorts of pissy.   I feel like I can’t eat anything I want to eat and I’m having a hard time being positive about the whole thing.

I decided to make a list of the top 5 “little” things I’m thankful for – things that can easily be taken for granted.   I’m going to leave out the obvious things – my family, friends, health, shelter, food, etc. – and focus on the less obvious things.

1.  I’m thankful that my husband has a good job.  He earns enough for us to live comfortably and have nice things, and it allows for me to be a stay at home mom, which I wouldn’t trade for the world.

2.  I’m thankful for modern technology.  I loved being able to talk to Mark every day while he was in Afghanistan and I was in the States.  To be able to video chat with him and see his face a couple times a week was really a sanity-saver for me.  And on the same note, I love that we can video chat with our families and that Abbie gets to see and talk to her grandparents that live on a different continent.

3.  I’m thankful for the opportunity to live overseas.  It’s a huge adjustment, and a tad bit frustrating at times dealing with a culture that’s pretty different from what you’re used to, but I’m still glad we’ve had this opportunity.  I think you gain so much by stepping out of your comfort zone and our time in Italy is time I will always treasure.

4.  I’m thankful for other people’s creativity.  I’m definitely not the most creative person in the world.  I can follow a pattern or recipe or read music, but as far as creating things from scratch, I’m about worthless.  I’m thankful that there are people in the world who can create things from scratch.  They inspire me.

5.  I’m thankful for our military.  I think it’s easy to take our freedom for granted since most of us haven’t ever known anything different.  I’m also very thankful that there are people willing to volunteer to defend our freedom.  For years I took for granted that there were many, many people spending months and even years away from their families and loved ones to defend my freedoms.  Obviously I’m a lot more aware of that now that I am directly affected by it, but the truth is, we’re all directly affected by it since we’re all receiving the benefits our military provides us.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you survived Black Friday if you dared to venture out!

5QF

 

 

1. Is there a special dish you prepare that you are famous for?  No, not yet anyway, or not really.  We don’t normally do Thanksgiving with family due to the fact that we’ve always lived at least 12 hrs away from them, and since we’ve moved 5 times in the past 5 years, we’re never with the same people for Thanksgiving either.  (The joys of the military lifestyle.)  But this year I did take Oreo Truffles to the squadron Thanksgiving dinner and got lots of compliments on them and requests for the recipe.

2. Are you (did you) go Black Friday shopping ?  Nope, I’ve been checking out deals online, but the BX is the only place in Italy that would have black Friday deals and there wasn’t anything there I absolutely had to have.

3. What are your strangest holiday traditions?  Probably the strangest thing is that we really don’t have many traditions yet.  Although now that Abbie is 2.5, we should probably start making some since she’s old enough to know what’s going on and possibly remember.

4. Pecan or pumpkin pie? (She actually asked "Apple or pumpkin?" I just T-giving'ed it!)  Definitely pecan!  I don’t really like most pies, but pecan is one of the very few that I do like.

5. When will you put up your Christmas tree?  Hopefully we’ll get it up this weekend.  Let’s face it.  I’m almost 37 weeks pregnant and if it doesn’t get put up soon, it won’t get put up at all.

 

**Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!**

More to think about.

My appointment on Thursday went fairly well.  She checked me and I’m not at all dilated, which I’m a little bummed about.    By 36 weeks with Abbie, I was 4.5cm dilated.  The midwife told me that they’re not going to force me to do anything.  That they’ll give me my options with the risks and benefits of each option and they’ll make it known what they would prefer me to do, but ultimately, the decision is mine.  Good to know.
Saturday I had my third glucose test, and I failed it.  I passed my fasting test.  My 1 hr was 170 out of 180, my 2 hr was 165 out of 155 (failed) and my 3 hr was 142 out of 140 (failed).  So I’m not a “full blown” diabetic since my number were close, but they have diagnosed me with gestational diabetes at 36 weeks and now I have to start in with the finger pricks to monitor my blood sugar and they’re going to try to have me control it with diet and exercise, I think.
Honestly, I feel guilty about this whole GD thing.  I feel like I have it because I was overweight to begin with and if I was athletic and in super good shape, I wouldn’t have GD issues.  I’ve had to go this whole weekend without really knowing what I can and can’t eat and it’s made me paranoid to eat pretty much anything.  I always feel hungry, but I don’t want to eat a lot because I’m afraid it’s going to raise my blood sugar, which in turn, raises baby boy’s.  I know I’m supposed to avoid carbs, so I’ve been reading labels like a mad woman and EVERYTHING has carbs in it.  I know I’m supposed to eat the good carbs vs the bad carbs, but besides knowing sugar is a bad carb and whole wheat is a good carb, I don’t really know what that means.
Tomorrow I need to go in for another NST and fluid check and they’re going to show me how to use the finger poker and give me all of that stuff, and then I’ll have to make an appointment with a nutritionist to figure out this diet, but I probably won’t be able to do that until Tuesday at the earliest.  It’s great having to go on a diet RIGHT before Thanksgiving….  I’m frustrated and angry, to say the least.  And I’m worried that I’ve really had GD this whole time and for some reason was just passing the tests and I want to know what that’s done to baby boy in the meantime.  I have a lot of questions and I’ve had a lot of time to dwell on them over the weekend, which isn’t good.
And because I am officially a gestational diabetic now, they’re going to treat my delivery differently also.  As I said before, because of my GD, they now lower the maximum birth weight to 4500g, which is 9.92lbs – almost Abbie’s exact birth weight.  So if he’s measuring over 9.9lbs according to an ultrasound (which can be up to 20% off, easily), they’re going to recommend I have a c-section.  It’s easy for my first reaction to be to dig my heels in about that and say no way, I’m not having a c-section, but it’s much more complicated than that.
We had a squadron dinner the other night, and I managed to corner the flight doctor, who has experience delivering babies, and ask him a TON of questions.  His whole take on my situation was that doctors would prefer to do a c-section because it’s a very controlled situation.  Since shoulder dystocia is a known problem with macrosomia (large babies), you have to weigh the risks and benefits, and the bottom line is that delivering a large baby can be risky.  It’s not always, but sometimes it is, and how much am I willing to risk?  His take, partially because he’s a doctor and partially because he’s a guy, I’m sure, was, as long as I take home a healthy baby, why does it matter so much how I deliver him?  I told him I’d like to have one or two more kids (maybe) and that I know c-sections have their own risks involved also and how that could affect my future pregnancies.  He said they were valid concerns and something to think about.  I should also add that the hospital on base is very small.  They don’t have a NICU and they only have room for 3 people in labor at once and the ONLY thing they do at the hospital is deliver babies.  So that also needs to be factored in.  I have no doubt in the base doctors capabilities, but they have very limited resources to work with.
So basically I have to decide what I’m more comfortable with.  Since we don’t have any absolute positives, besides the fact that I’m having a baby, everything I have to make my decision is going off of guestimates, which makes this REALLY hard and is causing me to lose quite a bit of sleep.  I could just agree to having a c-section, have a major operation, with a longer recovery time and possible complications later on with future pregnancies, but most likely baby boy would be fine.  Or I could say I at least want a trial of labor, which could end one of two ways.  One, everything goes fine without complications or two, he does get shoulder dystocia, which could end very, very badly.  So what do I choose?  Something that I want to do, that could potentially be life threatening to him, or something that I don’t want to do and might not be necessary at all?  How do you make these kinds of decisions when it could literally be the difference between life and death and all you have to deal with are the “what if’s”?  Can someone else just make this decision for me?
I’m hoping and praying that I’ll go in to labor on my own before the date that they would induce me and then the choice won’t be mine anyway.  That would be the ideal situation, except for the whole trying to figure out what to do with Abbie last minute, but hopefully we’ll be able to deal with that when the time comes, if the time comes.  I’m just ready for it to be mid-December and have the birth and all these decisions and unknowns behind us.

Abbie’s big girl bed

Last weekend we moved Abbie into a big girl bed so we could put her crib in the baby’s room.  I wanted there to be a little time between when she transitioned to her big girl bed and when he showed up, so it didn’t seem as though he was stealing her bed.  However, since we live overseas and only the shoppette here sells beds and mattresses (American sized), we were only able to get the box spring and mattress.  They didn’t have any full sized bed frames or headboards in stock, so we’ll have to order them and then wait 2-3 months for them to arrive.  But in the meantime, this works out well for her.

She seems pretty excited about her big girl bed and she loves having all her stuffed animals sleep with her.  She won’t get out of bed unless I’m in there with her, which is a HUGE relief for me.  She’ll call for me and ask me if she can get up, but she won’t get up unless I’m in there.  I’m hoping this lasts for quite a while because it makes my life a lot easier, for sure.  I still have a monitor on her so I can keep an eye on her when I’m in my room.

We took away her bottle and moved her to a big girl bed all in the same week, but she’s handled it well.  Now we just need to put her new dresser together and get her old dresser/changing table into the baby’s room, but I’m not in any rush to do that, especially since I still use the changing table with her.  And I still need to order her a bed spread and more sheets, but I’ll get around to that eventually…. I think.