March 11, 2016

Baby Kate!

Baby Kate
 

3-5-16
8:00 pm
7 lbs 11 oz
20.5 in 

Here is how it all went down with baby Kate! First of all, this pregnancy was really hard on my body this time around. I had terrible pain, from the beginning, so getting her out early was something I was really hoping for! I was trying so hard to not get my hopes up of an early delivery, but an early delivery is something I have wanted for every pregnancy!

When I was 38 weeks pregnant, my doctor stripped my membranes. I had heard that this was a terrible thing to do, I heard it hurt like a mother from some people, and from other people I heard it was just uncomfortable, but not THAT bad. So I had my doctor do it at 38 weeks because I was showing progress, 3 cm and about 50% effaced. Definitely not the most pleasant experience, but not too terrible. So that day/night I walked my little big booty off! That night, Monday, I started having hard contractions every 3 minutes! I thought it totally worked and it was time! I even packed a bag and was thinking about calling Dawn to tell her to come over. I decided to wait a little until the contractions either got harder or closer together. By 5 am they had stopped. completely. I was so mad! I went walking for an hour the next morning, then went to the gym to walk more and nothing happened. Nothing. No contractions. No nothing. I had heard that if stripping your membranes doesn't work in the first 24-48 hours, it's not going to work at all. So I was super disappointed. After getting my membranes stripped, I had started to have a bloody/mucusie discharge that I assumed was totally normal considering what my doctor had just done to my insides. By Thursday, that had turned more watery. I called my doctor and he said it was normal after getting my membranes stripped. So all day Thursday and all day Friday I just had to deal with it. Friday night, it was a lot more than what I had been dealing with the last two days. So I called the doctor again Saturday morning, and he said if I didn't have a gush of water, or if it wasn't dripping down my leg, it most likely wasn't my water that had broken, But if I wanted to, I could go to the hospital to have them check it.  (A girl in my ward was 41 weeks pregnant and had been scheduled to be induced, but was turned away because they were too full) Since I knew the hospital was so full, and I would most likely be turned away, I asked my doctor if I would be ok to wait until my appointment on Monday to have him check it.  He said I should be fine to wait. So I took the kids to their first t-ball practice, did two sets of lashes, and went about my day like normal. When Nate got home from work, I told him what the doctor had said and we decided that it would be worth it to spend a few hundred dollars for a hospital visit, to have the peace of mind of knowing our baby girl wasn't going to die inside from lack of fluid!

So we drop the kids off at Dawns house around 2:30 and head to the hospital. Both Nate and I are trying to help each other not get our hopes up having the baby that day, but I couldn't help but wish it was something worth keeping us so I could just have the baby! So we get in, they check me, I was at 5 cm and still about 50% effaced, but she could still feel my water in tact. So they do a swab test to check to see if it was my water that had broken. The nurse came back and said she didn't see any amniotic fluid on the swab, but she brought a more expensive test to try again. After about 20 minutes, she comes back and told us it was my water!!!! I could NOT believe what I had just heard! My water had been leaking!!!! They called it a high leak, so they wouldn't be able to feel it when they checked me. We got back to the labor and delivery room around 4:30 pm and they got me all hooked up to everything. Around 5 I asked if I could get the epidural already, even though I wasn't really having any bad contractions yet. By 5:30 the epidural was in, and I was feeling great! Around 6:30 I told the nurse something was coming out of me... I was either peeing or my water had fully broken. She checked me and said my water was still in tact, but once she took her hand out, it all came out! My water had fully broken! Then around 7:15- 7:30 pm, I started to feel every contraction.... only in the spots you DON'T want to feel it.... my belly was totally numb... but not the other part you don't want to feel when you're having a baby... It. was. terrible. I started getting the shakes, my teeth were chattering, and I could not control it. They sat me up, tried to get the epidural to fall to that spot, but it wasn't working fast enough! I started to feel the urge to push, and I was terrified of pushing another baby out and being able to feel everything! I was seriously panicking. Finally, I couldn't hold back the urge to push, and I think I had numbed up a little, but I still felt a lot of what was going on. I pushed about 4 times, and baby Kate was here!!!! I couldn't help but cry! She was finally here! She was finally out! The end of the most uncomfortable and painful pregnancy, was here! My sweet, perfect, beautiful baby girl was here!

Kate has been the best baby! She is so easy and Kennedy, Mason and Eliza adore her! They are so sweet to her. I love seeing the look in their eyes when they look at her. They are all so gentle and want to cuddle her every chance they get!

 Now for the mini photo montage of the day!

 
  
  
  
  

May 11, 2013

Baby Eliza

Baby Eliza is here! 
May 3, 2013
11:58 am
7lbs 7.7oz
18.5 in

Here in Philadelphia, the Dr.'s do things a little different... they don't induce until after your due date... awful... I know... So my mom came out here in hopes that I would just go into labor on my own a little before my due date. Four days after she got here, my sister, Lydia, who was due to have her baby on May 20th, called and said she was at the hospital with preeclampsia and she was going to have to be induced right away.  The next day I had my last Dr. appointment and I begged my Dr to schedule an induction. I told her my sob story of how my sister was in the hospital and my mom needed to go help her, and how I was having serious panic attacks because we live 45 minutes away from the hospital and I don't want to go into labor at home and end up having the baby in the car because we are stuck in traffic and blah blah blah, and my Dr. said she would go check the schedule. She came back and said I could be induced on Friday at 6 am. I was so so so happy, I gave her a hug and told her I loved her! It was the best news I could have ever heard. Before this Dr apt I was trying everything and anything to induce labor on my own, I even got some voodoo spray that I sprayed on my belly in hopes it would do something, it clearly didn't work.

So Friday morning came and Nate and I got to the hospital around 6 am. They got us into a room and took some blood and we got all situated. They came and broke my water at 6:45 to get things going. Around 8:15 they started my on pitocin and I started to feel contractions around 8:45. Around 10 am I got an epidural and by 10:30 I was feeling great! By this point I was at about a 7 and I had Nate call my mom to tell her to go a head and come to the hospital. At about 11:45 I told Nate to go tell the nurse that I thought I was starting to feel some pressure to push, the nurse came in and checked me and said "Oh! You can cough and this baby will come out!" My mom still hadn't made it to the hospital and everything was all set for me to push this baby out. I was set, the nurses were there, my Dr just walked in the door, then another nurse pops her head in and says your mom is here! My mom walks in the room and I asked if everything was set, and the Dr said, go a head and push. So I started to push, and before I could even finish the push, she was out! I couldn't believe how easy it was. But that was it. She was here, healthy and beautiful!

Now for the photo montage of the event...

The night before, my belly in all its glory!

My cute husband entertaining me while we wait.



Bam... She's here!








 Kennedy and Mason absolutely love her! Kennedy loves to hold her and kiss her. Mason points at her and says "baby" and I can tell all he wants to do is love on her by rocking her... with all his hulk might,  in whatever rocking chair she's in.





February 28, 2012

6 Months

I can't believe Mason is 6 months old already! It seriously feels like just a few weeks ago were flying back to Philly with him as a 10 day old. Time has been flying by with Nate at school all day and night. Mason is the cutest and happiest baby ever. He is always smiling. He loves to kick his legs and flaps his right arm like a little birdy when he's really excited. He started rolling over from his back to his tummy on valentines day and can scoot all the way across the room backwards. He does not like to be left alone for too long, but I don't really mind because I don't really have much to do, so I enjoy spending all day right next to my kids!

 A short photo montage of my cute boy!

Another exciting mile stone...Kennedy is potty trained! It took about a week of pee accidents once a day to get the hang of it, but now, she is a champ! This last Sunday was the second time she went poop on the toilet (after a massive poop on the floor) but she did it! She is successfully staying dry during her naps, and the only time I put her in a diaper is when she goes to bed! I am one happy mom!


 I have the two cutest kids in the world, and I absolutely love being their mom. I love that I get to see their new discoveries and watch them learn new things. I love watching them play together and I love hearing them giggle at each other. Kennedy is talking more and more and it makes me so happy to hear the cute things she has to say. She always looks at me and makes sure to tell me every time she toots... Mason always has the biggest smile on whenever he sees me, and his little raspy laugh melts my heart! Being a mom to these kids is the absolute best thing that has ever happened to me. I love watching them grow, but it makes me so sad that they are growing up so fast!



January 27, 2012

Mason's trip to the ER

It all started last Wednesday night. We put Mason and Kennedy to bed at 7 like we always do. Nate and I went and watched our tv show and at 9 pm Mason woke up screaming his guts out (not just a normal cry, a cry like someone just punched my face kind of cry). So I run in our room and try to calm him down. It took a while for him to calm down, but he eventually did. About 20 minutes later, he woke up screaming again. I calmed him down, and about 30 minutes later he woke up screaming again... I tried feeding him, he wouldn't take it, so I gave him some Tylenol and he went back to sleep. Every hour or so Mason woke up screaming but he was so tired that he would not open his eyes. He was screaming in his sleep.

So finally at 6 am I tried feeding him again (he normally eats at 7am but since it had been such a rough night I thought sticking to our normal schedule would have to skip a day.) After he ate, I changed his diaper and noticed his poop was really dark green/brown... I didn't really think anything of it. So we went to the gym and 30 minutes later, the girl from child watch came and said Mason had just pooped and asked permission to change his diaper. I told her he kind of had diarrhea so I would come change it so she wouldn't have to deal with it. When I opened his diaper, his poop was black and I noticed some blood in the mix.

So on my way home I called my pediatrician and left a message. The nurse called back and scheduled us to come in later that day. So I thought, oh, no big deal. Went to feed Mason and he wanted nothing to do with that bottle. Mason is a chubby baby... and once it's been 3 hours... he is READY to eat again. At the time, I didn't think much of it, just that he was probably really tired. So about 5 minutes later the nurse calls back and says she just talked to one of the dr.s and she said to just take him straight to the ER. She asked me how long it would take us to get there and said that she had already called the ER to let them know we would be there within 30 minutes. Sooo I started freaking out. The children's ER is in the city. I had never driven into the city (not really that big of a deal, I just hate hate hate hate hate driving in Philly), I had no idea where I was going and I was stressing out because I did not want to go to the ER with Mason and Kennedy all my myself. So I called Nate at school and he said he could leave so I went and picked him up and he drove all four of us to the ER.

We check in and they get us right in and into a room. After a while the nurse came to get Mason for an x-ray. I had to pin him down so he wouldn't move while they did it. Not super sad because he wasn't too fussy about it.They said everything looked good so we went back to our room. A little bit later they came and got him for an ultrasound. By this time it was about 1 pm. Mason hadn't eaten anything since 6 am but was still pretty happy. The ultrasound took what seemed like an hour. Mason was screaming the entire time. I had to help pin him down so the guy doing it could get a clear picture. In the mean time, Nate was trying to keep Kennedy occupied and happy. Poor Mason was so sweaty from screaming for so long. They finally finished the ultrasound and I was able to hold Mason and calm him down. A few minutes later, they came back in with a Dr. that wanted to take a look for herself. So back onto the table he went, the second I put him down, he started screaming his head off. Again, I had to pin him down so they could get a clear shot.

The Dr. the explained to us that they saw that a part of his intestines had telescoped (intaciception). Meaning his intestines collapsed in on themselves and that they needed to do a procedure on him to pop it back out. we went back to our room and little Mason fell asleep instantly. A guy from the surgery team came in to explain how the procedure would work, and if it didn't, they would have to take him into surgery to fix the problem.

The nurse came in to get Mason started on an IV to get some fluids in his body but failed to get it in properly 2 times. By this time, Nate decided to take Kennedy home to beat rush hour and get her some food (since all she had had that day was fruit snacks and whatever other candy I happened to have at the bottom of my purse). Since the first nurse failed to get an IV in, she called in another nurse that tried another 2 times and failed. Mason was screaming the entire time they were maneuvering his hands and feet and stinking needles in him trying to find a good vein. 4 attempts unsuccessful. So they called someone from the IV team (whose supposed to be oober good at getting it in). She tried 3 times and failed. Finally they called in one more nurse to try to get an IV in him so they could get him up to the Dr.s that were waiting on him. She got it in in one shot.

After I got him calmed down, they wheeled us up to the room where he was going to have the procedure done. The nurse explained to me again what was going to happen, had me lay Mason down on the table and she proceeded to shove a little tube up Mason's little bum, and she tapped his little bum up so tight so no air could possibly escape his little bum hole. They rolled him over and had an x-ray machine taking consistent x-rays displayed on a TV screen so they could see what they were doing, and proceeded to just pump air into his bum until his intestines popped back into place. It took maybe a total of 2 minutes, then we were out of there.

They moved us to a more roomy room so we could stay the night so they could monitor him to make sure it didn't happen again (if it was going to happen again, they say it would have happened within the first 24 hours) So little Mason and I got all cozy in our room and tried to get some rest.
Finally, the next morning at around 8 am (26 hours since his last feeding) i was able to feed Mason some pedialite and he guzzled that thing like a champ. I had to wait until he had a nice wet diaper (he hadn't peed since his first black/bloody diaper) till I could feed him some formula. He had no problem filling his diaper because he drank so much pedialite! They gave me the ok to feed him some formula and he was in heaven. They monitored him to make sure he could drink and fill his diapers without any problems.

While we where just waiting around, Mason and I went on lots of walks around the floor. He is such a happy baby and I love that he will always give me a smile or little giggle! Nate and Kennedy came back to the hospital that afternoon and we got the ok to go home.
It is such a heart breaking experience having to watch your child be in pain. I thought I would be able to handle it a little bit better than when we had to take Kennedy to the ER when she was 4 weeks old, but no. It wasn't any easier. I am the one that is responsible for doing everything for this precious baby and sometimes I can't help but think that maybe I did something to cause this problem to happen to him.  I am so grateful for modern technology and medicine. I know it could have been a lot worse, and I thank my Heavenly Father that it wasn't.




January 5, 2012

Arizona for Christmas

 CHRISTMAS WAS AWESOME!!! We loved being in warm and sunny Arizona for a few weeks. We haven't seen a white Christmas and we weren't about to let our children be around one. So we flew a long, screaming, stressful 6 hours to Mesa.



Christmas Morning

Mason weighs as much as Kennedy. Look at those CHEEEEKS!




My husband is hot and my baby girl is beautiful. Wut wut.


He is a momma's boy for sure.


She only loves swinging when she thinks there's a chance she can kick Nate. 

My 2 handsome boys
 BOO!
 POPPERS
 I think Nate was having more fun than Kennedy
Don't be fooled by those teeth. She has a mean bite. For realsies.
 Family Photo sesh. You can find more of our awesome pictures at www.bomb.com

November 14, 2011

Kennedy is 2!


I can't believe my little girl is 2! Well tomorrow she will be 2... Nate will be gone all day so we decided to have our little party tonight. 

We started off by opening all our awesome presents!


 

She was pretty good at opening them all by herself.

 She is way into purses and sun glasses right now.
 Her new Dora bath toys from grandma and grandpa Payne!
 Reading her birthday card from grandma Allen
 She is such a little diva!
 Her first dress ups!
 Singing happy birthday... she obviously thought the flame was too amazing to even blink the entire time we sang...
 Nate shoved her had into her cake and she couldn't do anything until we wiped it off.
Happy birthday to my sweet little girl! These have been the most amazing 2 years ever. I love being your mom and I love watching you grow!