background

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

LillyAnne's Birth Story

I had gestational diabetes with LillyAnne. Because of that my doctor, Dr. Vance, wanted me to be induced at 39 weeks. When you have ges. diabetes you run a risk of having really fat babies so that increases your risk of a c-section. I had an ultrasound of LillyAnne 10 days before I had her and they said she was 8 lbs. 4 oz. They said that she would probably be about eight and a half to nine pounds. They were WAY off. She wasn't even big.

I was supposed to be induced on St. Patricks Day, March 17th. They told us to call at 4:30am (we had to be there at 5:00) to make sure they had enough room for us. We woke up, although I hadn't really slept AT ALL because of my excitement. And they didn't have room for us. Somehow I knew they wouldn't. I just had a feeling. But I was still really disappointed. I was so ready to meet my new daughter.

So March 17th was a very anti-climatic day. We dressed in green, got shamrock shakes from McDonald's (disgusting) and went to the library and the park. It was nice....but not quite what I had in mind.

The next day was it!!! We woke up (no sleep AGAIN), called the hospital (they said to come on in), got ready and went in. I was so excited. Heath's mother came over to stay with the children until his sister got here around 10:00am to take over. She spent the night here with them.

When I got to the hospital a nurse started to give me an IV. I have really good veins. All nurses say so....every time....they talk about how easy it is to hit my veins and tell me I'm so lucky to have such wonderful easy to hit veins.

This nurse missed my vein.

She had to do it again. I was mad. How could she miss my amazing vein?? She must have been a sorry excuse for a nurse I guess. Heath gets nauseous when he is stressed out. When she missed the vein he got stressed out. He turned all pale and I thought he was going to start throwing up in my labor and delivery room. Weird since it was MY arm that was being mutilated but oh well. They started the pitocin drip and I started having contractions about an hour later. It was 10:00am by this time.

I was having PAINLESS CONTRACTIONS.

Yep, you read that right. I couldn't even tell when I was having them. I have heard people talk about this before but I have always assumed they were telling a bald faced lie. There was no such thing as "painless labor". My friend Lisa lent me a book about how to have painless childbirth and I read it and thought it was a bunch of bunk. But I had decided I was going to go all natural anyway. Well, as far as all natural you can go when you are being induced. All natural with pitocin and ivs and monitors.....so, only no pain meds...you get the picture. I couldn't BELIEVE it. My contractions started about 10:00 and went on all day long. Big painless contractions. I could see them on the monitor so I knew they were big. They looked like mountains. But if Heath didn't tell me I was having one (he could see the monitor and I couldn't without craning my neck around) I didn't even know I was having one. It was AWESOME! I took naps and ate snacks (I had to sneak that part), visited with Heath, dilated very slowly and steadily and went to the bathroom every 15 minutes...ALL DAY LONG. At noon I was 4 cm. The Dr. came in and talked to me about breaking my water. My past experience is that when the water gets broken it really hurts so I asked him if we could just leave it alone. He said that was fine by him. He said there was no need to fix what wasn't broken and he would just come back in later and to call him if we needed him.

Boy, when he said later...he meant later. We didn't see him again until 6:30, after he was done for the day in the office. I had only dilated to a six and a half. Still no pain but I was getting tired of it all and VERY hungry. I told him I was ready to break my water. He was ready too. It took several tries for him to break my water. He said that was strange. He said it was a very strong bag of water. I thought it was DISGUSTING. I hate that part. He talked about putting a internal monitor on LillyAnne. I didn't want to do that. I don't want anything screwed to my babies heads. He said they might have to because she was moving around too much and wouldn't stay on the monitor. She had been moving all day (and the entire pregnancy) and they said it didn't matter before my water was broken but that once my water was broken they wanted to be able to keep an eye on her. Finally he broke my water.

Then it HURT....REALLY BAD.

Remember how I said I didn't want any pain medication? Well after 2 contractions I was asking for an epidural. My hands were shaking, my teeth were chattering and I was miserable. They called the anesthesiologist and it took 40 minutes for him to get there. A very miserable 40 minutes.

I got my epidural and it worked WONDERFULLY. HOORAY!!! I was back to painless labor! I couldn't feel a thing. Although my teeth were chattering uncontrollably and my hands were shaking like crazy. I had never had that happen before. Everyone assured me it was completely normal for laboring women and they said the epidural just added to that. Weird. The nurses were now insisting on that internal monitor and the doctor said he would check me to see how far along I was before he left. He checked me and he looked surprised. He said, "She's 100%." I responded brilliantly and said, "What does that mean?" He said, "You are ready to push." I said, "Now??? Already???" He said, "Yes." I said, "Whoa." So push I did. I'm a good pusher. They always tell me that. I still couldn't feel my contractions so they had to tell me when to push. After my 2nd push I had to blow my nose. I had been sick with a cold. I started to blow my nose and the Dr. said, "This is going to be the first baby every born by a woman blowing her nose." I thought he was joking. Heath said something about it then and I said, "ARE YOU SERIOUS??? I thought you were joking!" Heath said she came down about half an inch every time I would blow my nose! Then she was born.

Healthy, beautiful and perfect. They put her straight on my stomach and I cried. But I hid my tears because I didn't want to seem too mushy. She was born at 9:49pm (my longest labor ever) and weighed 7 lbs. and 4 oz. and was 20 inches long.

I am sooooooo thankful for her. She is the perfect addition to our family.

Monday, April 18, 2011

April 18, 2011

Today is a big day around our house. Heath turned 33 today and LillyAnne turned 1 month!

So how did we celebrate you ask? We sat around and did nothing all day.


It's true. LillyAnne was happy about it. She loves nothing more than for me to sit and hold her. And Heath was happy about it. He is taking a nap even now. He likes naps. I hate naps. We ate chicken lasagna and garlic bread for supper and had key lime pie for dessert. That's what Heath picked. He didn't even want a cake.

Bizzare.

To be fair we did go to Silver Dollar City yesterday and then we went to Lamberts to eat after that. Now THAT was a fun day! And we are going on a date tomorrow night. Heath's sister, Heather, is keeping the children for us. But not LillyAnne, she gets to go with us. But today we are doing nothing. It's the actual, real birthday and we are doing nothing. And Heath isn't crying. And I just can't wrap my brain around that.

So I'm sitting here about to go nuts due to boredom. Not boredom because there is nothing to do. There is PLENTY to do. I could be cleaning my house, homeschooling my children, brushing my hair...but boredom because I want to be celebrating in a much bigger way and I'm not.

But it's not my birthday. It's Heath's....and he likes this nonsense.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

LillyAnne at 3 weeks

I have time AND internet...it's a miracle!

It's Saturday afternoon. Our backyard in this duplex backs right up to a football field. Usually I hate this. I don't like how people are ALWAYS out there in their underwear, or how loud it is, or how we never have any privacy. But today it's kind of cool. Today they are having a "spring game". I never knew that existed but Heath told me they did. He said all colleges have them. Anyway they blew up this giant slide and put it right by the fence to our backyard. So guess what my children are doing?

Yep, they are all sliding. The oldest 3 are anyway. LillyAnne is taking a nap in her swing. She really loves her swing. Anyway Luke, Levi and Londyn are the only ones on the slide. Well, I did see one other little boy about 3 there, but he is gone now. So my children are all alone sliding on the giant blow up slide.

So I decided to update my blog while the children were busy and the house was semi-clean. But it's not really turning out to be an update, more like me rambling. I would delete it except that I haven't been blogging very faithfully so I feel like I need to post SOMETHING!

LillyAnne is 4 weeks old as of last night. FOUR WEEKS OLD!!!! Where did that four weeks go? I plan on blogging about her birth but I haven't had time and Internet at the same time and I don't feel like doing it now. But I will soon. It's my next important blog update. All my children are coming in now and I have a hard time blogging when they are talking to me.

Friday, April 8, 2011

It's been a long time....

It's been a long time since my last blog post. Here's why. When we were in Milton moving we didn't have internet. Then when we moved we didn't have it. Then we discovered that our phone would give our laptop internet access...and that was awesome, for like 3 days! Then they started upgrading all the AT&T towers in our town so our phone and internet didn't work for about a week and a half. Thankfully it's all working again now.

Here is what's up. LillyAnne is 2 weeks old. When we took her to the Dr. for her 2 week check up she was supposed to be back up to her birth weight. She had gained 13 ounces! She had also shrunk a quarter of an inch. That was weird but the Dr. said lots of babies do that. She said it was probably because her head had rounded out more. She will be 3 weeks old tomorrow at 9:49pm. She has already grown so much. I can't believe it. I do a whole lot of sitting and staring at her. It's really fun.

I have only done homeschooling two days since we have moved here. I guess I should start to do better. I'm not going to worry about it too much though until LillyAnne is 6 weeks old. My life has been a whirlwind since this move!

I'm going to try to do better at keeping up with my blog. As long as life doesn't get too busy and as long as the internet keeps working!