Busy, busy, busy

Sorry for my absence in blogging lately.  I’ve been quite busy being a new mommy and all, especially because I have a colicky/fussy/high needs baby to take care of, I just don’t get much spare time, and when I do I have been busy with other things – like trying to make my house look like a house and not a train wreck! 

But here is a quick update on Bean.  He has gained over 2 pounds since birth, he smiles a lot now (not just for passing gas either!), he does not like tummy time, and he seems to need to be constantly on the move.  The vacuum cleaner has been a great soothing machine, so either I’m going to have to buy a new vacuum by the end of the year, or I will have the cleanest floors on the whole block!  He sleeps pretty well at night, but I don’t want to jynx it, so I never expect a good night’s sleep, and just am happy when I get one.  It’s soon time to feed him now, so here are some pictures to finish off this post.  I will blog as often as I can, but lately it’s hard and I don’t get much time.  I do have things to post, it’s just being allowed to sit down at a computer and do it!

And my most favorite recent one, taken just yesterday:

I have even more, but some are still in cameras, and I must go check on Bean – he’s outside with the in-laws, but it’s about feeding time!  I can’t believe I have a 7 week old already!

Birth Story

I would say I’m sorry for my lack of blogging lately, but I really don’t feel I should need to apologize as a brand new mother of my first baby!  I finally had a few minutes here to create a post, so I’m taking advantage to share the birth story with you.

On Wednesday morning, June 22nd, at around 7ish, I thought my water broke.  I could have sworn my water broke.  I called the doctor and told them what I was experiencing, and was sent in to the hospital to get checked out.  The nurse tested the fluid and said it was positive for amniotic fluid (she tested from an external source, however).  Apparently washing with soap can cause a false positive.  The doctor checked me and said I was not leaking fluid, and I wasn’t very dilated or having contractions that I could feel.  He did order an US to check my fluid level, because if it was low he would have kept me there.  My fluid level was good, so I was sent home.

By noon that day I started to feel back pain that I realized was actually contractions, but they were coming very far apart and sporadically.  As the evening progressed, they started to come a little closer together and were unmistakable as contractions.  I was having all back labor.  At first it wasn’t so bad because I used to get bad backaches and knew this feeling, so I was able to handle them.  By 1:30am they started coming 5 minutes apart.  I waited the hour to call the doctor to see if they stayed at 5 minutes apart and steady, so at 2:30am I was calling the on-call doctor and being sent into L&D again.  I was checked and monitored, and I was sure enough having steady contractions, and I was just about 2 cm dilated, so I was admitted.  I was still handling the contractions well, but once they got my IV in (oh my God!  they tried 4 times, and bruised me badly!) they started Pitocin.  By around 6am I was dilated at 4-5 cm, and still handling contractions well.  After this, the times get a little fuzzy for me, but later in the morning I asked for Nubaine to take the edge of the contractions.  Since I hadn’t slept since 7am the day before, the doctor also ordered another drug for me which knocked me out.  I slept quite a bit and actually had trouble waking up.  Good stuff!  When I finally did wake up, the contractions were coming closer together and with the high dose of Pitocin I was on, I asked for the epidural.  I was 7 cm dilated when I finally got it at 12:45pm, after waiting almost 45 minutes from when I asked for it, and I was so scared it wasn’t going to work properly.  It finally kicked in and worked probably a little too well!  I couldn’t move my legs on my own for the life of me!  At some point I know they put an internal monitor on the baby for his heart rate, and they did give me an antibiotic since there was question of me leaking fluid, but I’m fuzzy on when that all happened.  The doctor also had to break my water – no mistake in what that felt like now!  By 3pm I was fully dilated and ready to push.  They did have to knock back the epidural a little so I could push better, but it worked out great.  I felt some of the contraction to know when to push, but I didn’t feel any pain down below.  So, push I did…for 3 hours.  He kept checking my progress, saying he’d let me go a little while longer, but baby Bean was somewhat stuck in there.  It didn’t come down to a c-section, thankfully, but I was exhausted, and I was feeling sick, so at one point we thought we might have to use a vacuum assist to get him out.  Luckily my last few pushes were good enough and pushed him right out quicker than they could even stop me to suction his mouth and nose!  Bean was born right on his due date at 6:13pm.  See the previous post for his stats.

I did have internal tearing and lots of internal bruising.  I apparently lost a decent amount of blood and had to be given 2 injections of medications for the blood loss.  I was also packed up and catheterized for a good 24 hours due to the bleeding, so unfortunately I could not get out of bed and missed out on Bean’s first bath and such in the hospital.  I am feeling much better these days, but still not 100%.  My tailbone was bruised and that still bothers me when I am up on my feet for too long or when I sit on certain chairs. 

So, I had a rough delivery, baby was born with a conehead from being stuck, but he’s worth it and I love him so much!   :)

Here he is!

Wordless Wednesday

Welcome Baby Bean!

Born 6/23/11

Weight: 7lb. 3.7oz.

Length:  19 in.

Apgar Scores:  both 9!

More to come – bear with me, still trying to find a good balance of time especially with breastfeeding!

Favorite Kitty Pic Friday!

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This post was previously scheduled, because yesterday, June 23rd, was my due date!  On Wednesday morning, I could have sworn my water broke, but apparently it was other stuff, my fluid level looked good on an ultrasound, and I wasn’t dilated enough to warrant admitting me, so I was sent home.  All the rest of the day, however, I began to actually notice some slightly stronger contractions (and I seem to be experiencing back labor…), but again, they were few and far between, so I scheduled this post then, in case anything did happen that evening and I wouldn’t have the chance to blog at all.

Here’s my choice this week:

Dusty hard at work – or hardly working!  LOL   I’m leaving him in charge of my blog during this time of very early labor and/or childbirth, so if things are quiet, you know why!

Have a great weekend!  Hopefully the next time I get to blog I will have Bean to show off!   :)

Wordless Wednesday

Like it?  You can own it from here.   :)

Happy Wednesday!

Favorite Kitty Pic Friday!

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I said in yesterday’s post I would try my best to get this post in this week – here it is!  I was a little stuck on which picture to use – I was even trying to find one on Cheezburger that related to my bad blogging or blogging in general, but had a hard time with that too.  Luckily the kitties gave us a nice photo op just a few minutes ago!  And all mostly by accident as well.   :)

  

These were taken with Hubby’s iPhone, and the first one had no flash, but they looked cuter.  I tried my best to adjust the lighting and such, but the other one had flash, so I’m posting that one too.  Ever since we brought Jasper home from having his one rear claw removed from his accident spaz out, he seems to enjoy lounging in there, so we removed the door and left it out for him to enjoy.  And since Jasper likes to pee in Dusty’s bed, we haven’t had that accessible for him lately (you see it sitting on top of the carrier – I need to use one of the baby’s waterproof pads under it, I think), Dusty has also been enjoying the coziness of the carrier.  Today, we managed to catch both of them in there at the same time!  I say it was mostly by accident because Hubby coaxed goosed Jasper into it, but didn’t know Dusty was already in there.  We saw Dusty come out, but Jasper stayed in, and eventually Dusty went back in, leaving this little snuggle session as the result!  I love my boys.   :)

If you would like to share your favorite kitty as well, grab the button above and create your own post.  Leave your link in the comment section below.  If you don’t have a blog, you can still comment and leave a link to your photo if it’s somewhere on the internet.

Have a great weekend!   :)

Serioiusly?! Thursday

I’m linking up with Mrs. to Mama again this week.  If you haven’t checked out her blog yet, please go do so, and link your own post to this fun weekly blog link up.

Seriously?!  Hubby and I ordered a new video camera.  It was a very quick, on the spot decision, but it was a good deal from Amazon, and the purchase made a lot of sense.  If you’re interested, we got the Kodak PlaySport camera.  That way, once Bean does make his appearance, we have a small, cell phone sized camera that we can constantly keep charged and take with us everywhere to record those silly moments and milestones.  However, USPS will be delivering it.  If you read my previous Seriously?! Thursday post, you know my dislike/hate relationship with the postal service.  This issue comes down to our delivery guy – he’s the laziest, most careless postal worker I have ever seen.  I won’t get into everything he does that irks me, or else this post would be way too long, but let’s just say I’m hoping the camera gets here in one piece.  Seriously?!  Why do they have to ship expensive items like that via USPS?  Though, UPS hasn’t been great with their deliveries to us lately either – we’re lucky if the packages even make it onto the front porch…luckily the delivery guys seem to have good throwing arms to get it that far!

Seriously?!  I’m now a week away from my due date.  On Sunday I got hit with some sort of head cold/congestion.  It’s a little better today, but I’m still not 100%.  I get so stuffy I can’t breathe, my ear was so clogged I felt like I only had 50% hearing, and I called the doctor’s office on Tuesday to see what I could take for relief, and they told me plain Sudafed.  Sudafed wasn’t quite doing the trick, and can raise my blood pressure.  Today, the doctor recommended switching to an antihistamine, like Claritin.  I took one earlier, and I can actually breathe at the moment!  But really?  I went the whole 9 months without even a sniffle, and now right before I’m due, I get hit with this!  I want the baby out now, but I don’t want to make him sick either.   :(

Seriously?!  Bad, stupid drivers.  Enough said.

Seriously…  I haven’t done Favorite Kitty Pic Friday in at least 2 weeks.  I have just been very busy and it slipped past me.  I will try my best to get one up tomorrow – I make no promises though…

Seriously…  I’m as ready as I’m going to be for Bean’s arrival.  He can come out any day now.  I’ve been so done with this pregnancy for weeks now, but this last week is frustrating.  I’m tired of not being able to do stuff, being uncomfortable, and feeling like I’m going to be pregnant forever.  I thought Bean was going to be a boy before we knew for sure, and I was right.  I also thought at the beginning that I would go late, but I’m really hoping I’m wrong about that!  And since I know you all want to know  ;)   I just may go late, and have to be induced.  My check at the doctor today revealed I am effacing well (didn’t get a percentage number), but not dilating much.  He said the effacement is good and shows that I would be receptive to induction if it becomes necessary.  I just hope that’s not the case.  If Bean doesn’t come on his own, we’re looking at the 28th for induction.  I do have to go for a non-stress test on Tuesday, and then I have my regularly scheduled appointment on Thursday.  Apparently, even though he has been saying my BP has been good, today he felt it was a little high, and though he only ever told me the lower number was good, apparently my upper number has been borderline high.  So, with little progression, no contractions, and borderline high BP, off to the NST (unless Bean decides to make an early exit!).

Seriously…  Whether Bean decides to come now or by force on the 28th, I will have a baby and be a mom in less than 2 weeks!  So surreal…

Well, Hubby and I are off to Red Lobster tonight to celebrate our 4 year wedding anniversary!  Today we have been married for 4 years, and in July we will be together as a couple for 12 years.  Happy Anniversary Hubby!   :)