Ms Fussy pants

Ms. Addy was a fussy pants today. I hope her tude improves for tomorrow. We're going shopping...nothing heavy duty but I have quite a few stores to hit up so we'll be gone for at least a few hours. I am breastfeeding. It has been going fairly well...one of my only concerns is her eating for about 5-7 minutes and she conks out. She is not an efficient cluster feeder with as much as she sleeps. I am not going to complain...she is a very good baby. Smart too. Already smiling socially...Preston can pick her up and without fail...he'll get a good one out of her. I'll post a few examples below...=) She smiles for me too..but I have to push for it a little more.

More and more she is starting to follow objects with her eyes and really listen if they have sounds. I can't wait to get her a tummy time mat to get her more time on her stomach. I think she is getting one from her great aunt for Christmas...I wonder which one it is. If it ends up being a mini version (the one that just lays flat on the floor- no tent/pop up hanging ensemble sort of thing) then I'll really want to get her the fancy one.

My hormones...Yikes. I cried watching the news last night...they had a toys for tots sort of getup with kids who were sick in the hospital...you see where it was going. I boo-hoo'd for about 10 minutes. I can't wait to be done with the bleeding like a stuck pig and the hormonies!

Well, I have more to write but need to hit the sack.

December already!

I can't believe it's December already! And I can't believe that she is almost 1 month old. Holy shit! She continues to grow and change every day. The past week she has been fussy. Not really crying so much just squirmy and seemingly uncomfortable.

I finally figured out how to put together the Graco swing, after hours of frustration...I was trying to put the feet onto the actual legs of the swing rather than the arms that attach to the bottom. Really irritating but in my defense, I was working off of 2 hours of sleep.

I was very, very moody and hormonal today. Very pissy with Preston...very pissy with the world...I took my frustrations out on a very filthy bathroom. Preston does not deep clean...I am not complaining- he does general pickup and keeps our apartment looking tidy...but deep cleaning, organizing, etc are not his cup of tea. I am ok with that...however, I think my little cleaning escapade may have harmed my bits...technically I am still supposed to be taking it easy while I heal and I know I over did it. Not having too much luck in that department. Yesterday I showered and got soap there....that'll make ya jump. I was pretty uncomfortable for the next 5 hours.

I am gearing up for the holidays =) It's my favorite time of year by far...I really get homesick around this time...missing all of the traditions like going to Grammys on Christmas Eve and eating a nice dinner, opening gifts...I hate to see Addison grow up so fast, but I look forward to creating our own Christmas traditions.

We may get our tree tomorrow (a real one of course). I am going shopping this weekend for our Fall Creek Falls TN trip, which is a tradition for Prestons family that has been going on for years and years. Every other year the clan gets together and spends a few days up there...good food, good company. Unfortunately this year will be spent without Sally, Prestons grandmother. She passed last month from stroke complications. She will be very missed. An outspoken southern belle, she always had a quick wit and slight sarcasm that made my day. This blog is dedicated to her.

It's 1:18am...time to try and get some shut eye.

Amazing

She is amazing! She changes and grows every day...she is 2 weeks old today. This past week, she showed me how smart she already is. She is mocking me when I stick my tongue out at her. She feels like she has gained at least a pound. We have our 2nd pediatrician appointment Monday morning with Dr. R, so we'll see how she is doing then!

Breastfeeding is going pretty well, however, I am feeling quite anxious about how BF will go down once I am at work. I was so worked up about it last night I tried to discuss it with Preston...at midnight..lol. It didn't really take. There is no doubt I will have to buy/rent an electric pump. I have a single manual pump and that is tiring! I was able to freeze my first bag of milk though. I think I got about 4 oz in total. I was quite proud of myself...Don't have much else to be proud about these days besides the baby so give me a break! =)

I am very much looking forward to the holidays. T-day is next week and we'll go about 1 1/2 hour north of Atlanta to his Moms side of the family as we do every year. There are at least 50+ people and they have a very nice spread of food. The only downfall, no leftovers. I think one year I made our own T-day dinner afterwards or the day after...I need my leftovers. We'll just have to see.

This week has been much better. My Mom stayed with us for a month...something that we will not do again. It was by far the most stressful week in our almost 8 year relationship. We've never had this much tension on us before. I plan on writing my mother a letter, because there is just too much to fit into a phone conversation and she needs to know how I/we feel. She unfortunately has a substance problem. She has health issues and while these are prescribed meds, they are over done. I worry that she (combined with smoking/drinking/not eating healthy) will pass younger than she should. I am just sorry that my husband and our relationship was put through this, but that which does not kill us makes us stronger.

There is the baby. I'm off.

She's here, and it's over!

Or is it just beginning? My daughter, Addison was born on 11-8-08 at 1:38 pm. I am posting my birth story for those interested :)

I will firmly believe that my appointment that Friday (11-7) was the reason I started having contractions. The doctor had me sitting (not laying) in a reclined upright position. My legs were bent up on the table and she was touching my brain just about. I asked her if she wanted to break my water for me.

I began having contractions regularly at around 8 o'clock that night...they were short, about 30 seconds to 1 1/2 minutes every hour until around 10:30. Then every half an hour, still lasting 30 sec to 1 1/2 minutes. They gradually picked up in their intensity and frequency. I did not sleep at all that night. Around 2am, they really started in pretty good. I called the dr office where they have a messaging service and they paged the midwife (even though we were a designated dr patient) who told me to take a shower and drink water and if they don't let up to call her and let her know and to come in. Around 4:30 they were still very strong, at that point I had already showered and I had told Preston to go ahead and get ready to leave and to tell my Mom so we could be ready to go. We left around 5:30 and got there at 6am.

Admission was fairly quick. Got into the L&D room, got changed and went through the 90 question drill with the nurse. Gave me some sort of painkiller to help relieve the contractions...at that point they were pretty rad. They checked me and I was about 4cm (and ready for the epidural!). Around 8 or so they gave me the epidural. It sucked dick. I feel like my back is kind of screwy after that...even moreso than before. I did not see the needle, but I did not like the feeling of them digging around in my spinal column. I ended up moving/jumping while they were in there which they do NOT want you to do...but that shit hurt. About 10 minutes later the epi kicked in...to my left side. Nothing happened on my right. It had a numbed feeling...but the epi did not affect that side. I could gradually start to feel contractions on my right side so I called the nurse and let her know. They gave me an additional shot of meds which rendered my waist down useless. Literally. I could not move. This created a big pain in the ass a couple hours later.

They checked me shortly after the epi and proceded to put me on pitocin as an epi can sometimes slow/stop contractions, which it had done with me. I don't recall times (please forgive me-short term memory...basically ALL memory has been out the window since pregnancy) but I went from 4cm to 7cm in short of an hours time. This was after the epi was done. Because of the rapid progress, they decided not to hook up the monitoring device that goes inside you to monitor the baby heartbeat and they continued to monitor using the stomach devices.

I was forced to lay on my right side after the epi which became very uncomfortable after a while, especially prior to them giving me the add'l shot of meds. If I were to rotate to my left side, the medicine would continue to drain out of the right, so I had no choice but to stay on the right. The other thing that I was dealing with a couple days prior to delivery and into delivery, was my right hand/wrist was very painful to move. It hurt so badly, it felt like a sprain or when you pinch a nerve. It went away the day after delivery...but it was really odd.

Around 12:30, the device that monitors the heartbeat showed that the babys heartbeat was slowing down. I had about 8 people rush into the room at once. They shoved oxygen in my face and hurried my mom and his parents out of the room. Preston stayed. I was so out of it...I felt like crying but I was so numb, I couldn't muster anything. All I could feel was the nurse massaging my stomach like they were trying to wake the baby. Because of the add'l meds for the epi, I still could not move my legs. It took Preston and 2 nurses to rotate me onto my back so that they could bring the babys hb back up. She had found a way to lay on her cord so the hb decreased very rapidly. They were able to bring it back up, but I felt so bad for Preston. He told me afterwards he was really scared. I don't blame him...they really don't tell you anything until after the fact.

About 15 minutes later, they checked me, and again it became chaotic. I could feel the presence of something, but not so much b/c of the meds. I was dialated to 10 and it was time to push! The doctor left me with the nurse (while I thought to myself- where the hell do you think you're going????) and we started to push around 1pm. Again, we had to rotate me onto my back. Preston got to hold up one of my 80 pound legs while I pushed. I did about 25 minutes of pushing, and the nurse told me to push 1x, then stop. Did the same thing one more time and she said NO MORE PUSHING. They then attempted to call the doc who had made his way down to the cafeteria...lol. He finally came up and he got his t's crossed and Addison was born at 1:38pm. I pushed for about 1/2 an hour.

Doc said 2 things: He didn't think that I'd deliver vaginally. He expected that we'd have to do a C. He gave me a big pat on the back for that feat.

Also, he was amazed how quickly I delivered, which is why he was down at the cafeteria.


-I look back to the day we found out I was PG and how horrified I was. I wouldn't change anything now. The whole process of life is so amazing. I sit here every day and can't believe that she is mine. She changes and grows every day. I love her. I love watching Preston with her and know that he will continue to be a great father. Babies are truly a miracle.-

So behind!

I'm a slacker! Yes I'll admit it. It's been almost 2 months without an update. There hasn't been too much going on but I'll try to break it down the best I can with my horrible memory.

The update on baby is as of today, she is 4 days overdue. She is still active and we had a NST (non-stress test) Monday I believe and everything checked out. We have a follow up appointment tomorrow at 8:30, where they will schedule me to be induced either Sunday/Monday. So at the most we're looking at no more than 4-5 days until she is here! I am very excited but also nervous. It is such a huge life change that incorporates so many emotions and changes...it still seems very surreal that I will be a Mom.

Over the last couple of months we've had a few appointments obviously. At the end of Sept, (9/26 I believe) I had an appointment with a midwife who stated the baby was growing bigger than they'd like, so they scheduled me for an ultrasound that following Wednesday, 10/1. They determined that she is in the 89th percentile for growth however my fluid was low (a 7) so they placed me on bedrest for 3 days. I returned to work that following week with improved fluid levels at an 11. Don't ask me what "normal" fluid levels are...I have no idea.

At 36 weeks, I had them check me- I was 1cm dialated. They typically don't check until 39 weeks, so we'd have to wait a couple more to see what progress I've made.

We've had appointments since then every week...We saw the last doctor, Dr. Ivan on the 17th who also made a comment about our big baby. He scheduled us for another u/s the following week on 10/22. Saw Dr. Amy who informed us she is 8lb 3oz give or take a pound however she was not concerned with the baby being too big. One thing that sucks about having so many doctors at a practice- you have about 8 different opinions from 8 different people...one says she is too big, the other says she is fine and not to worry...I think next round, we'll make sure we have one doctor handling things. I can't deal with all of these personalities.

My last day of work was 10/24. I was growing increasingly uncomfortable and tired...now with her being late...I almost wish I would have tried to stick it out for another week. ..but what are you going to do? P has made a few comments about it which gets me upset because again, what am I going to do? If I deliver vaginally, I get paid for 6 weeks. C-section, 8 weeks. We'll be ok financially but just tight.

Anyhow, our last appointment was 11/3, and I was still only 1 1/2-2 cm dialated and still 50% effaced. I hope I will have shown some improvement tomorrow. I'd really rather go naturally than be induced.

My Mom arrived on 10/15. It has been interesting to say the least. I think it'll need its own post which I will do at a later time.

I just wanted to get this out of the way before I totally forget the last month and a half.

Crossing my fingers my daughter will show herself soon! Mom is tired!

The Waterbed & KungFu Panda

What I've nicknamed my stomach: The Waterbed
What I've nicknamed baby: KungFu Panda

I think both are self-explanatory! I don't have a whole lot to say today. I have had a monster headache since this morning. It is awful. I have been extremely tired this week. I am ready for her to come out, but not ready. I want her to stay put until at least Halloween. We'll see I guess!

Sorry no funniness today. I just can't muster it. Off to nurse my headache and rub my swollen feet.

Pound for Pound

Mondays...blech. Also...I want to know what genious thought that a 5 day workweek was a good idea...with only 2 days to rest. I'd love a 4 work/3 off. That makes sense. Maybe we can adapt Mexicos lovely tradition of siestas. Work in the mornings and then nap for a couple hours during the day. Who's with me??

Woke up this morning feeling like I was much heavier. The scale only shows a 2 pound gain (this is weighing at the end of the day) but I feel like she's grown. Hips and groin are very sore. Getting up from a sitting position to a standing is taking more and more effort...getting the show on the road is snails pace.

Once I get home, I admire my once flat feet, now turned puffy flat feet. I immediately strip off any work related clothing and change into the same jogging pants that I have been growing with me the past few months and change into a sports bra that doesn't fit, but does an ok job of harnessing my girls in. A little side boob never hurt anyone.

I've noticed that her kicks are becoming stronger...sometimes a tad bit painful. She likes to dig right into my hip bones and pelvic area. I am becoming more anxious as time comes closer. I can't believe less than 2 months. September 5 marked the official 2 month mark, and I am 32 weeks this week. Have an OB appointment this Friday. Should be a routine checkup.

We made a little more headway with the nursery yesterday. I was pleased. I decided to fold up the pack and play since it is not needed until she gets here. Organized the few articles of clothing we have for her (also the onesie purchased at Wal-Mart that says "Sugar, Spice, and everything nice". This weekend we will move P desk out of the office and re-organize the room. The crib and dresser/changing table will all be on one wall. The guest bed will be...somewhere in the room. I'm just glad things are on their way up and out.

Hope everyone has a great week. =)

Gas for my horses

K...I know the song is "beer for my horses" but I can't drink beer, so GAS for my horses will have to do. I woke up 2x this morning with charlie horses in the same spot- my right chin. (shin?) The 2nd time I broke down and ate 1/2 a banana. Ms. thang kicking me the whole time. She really is trying to prepare me for the hell/joy that is about to ensue.

Gas...eh what needs to be said that hasn't been said about it before. I should improve my technique, maybe try some new positions to make my case more audible. P likes to pull his foot to his back in a strech-like manuever that is quite effective. Although if I try that, I may not be able to get out of it or move for the next 3 days.

Speaking of which, my flexibility=out the window. I am having problems just pulling my foot up on my leg to get a glimpse of my removed and healing ingrown toenail. Same goes for clipping my raptors...I do 2 nails and have to put my foot down and take a breather. A couple of weeks ago we took ol one eye to the optomitrist...I felt like I ran 3 miles. With these hormones, looks like I'll be running a lot of marathons.

This labor day will be relaxing and working on the outdoor patio closet. It is packed to the brim of camping gear, which will hopefully get one last use this month before we get our permanent company. We were lucky to receive some new pieces for camping at both of our bridal showers...unfortunately we haven't utilized many of them yet. Oh well...we'll just have to see. I was thinking September was really the only option month-wise for camping. I don't know if I want to give birth Little House on the Prairie style...though what a story it would be ;)

I really over-worked myself yesterday. Went grocery shopping to both Wal-Mart and Coscto (oh how I love those free-samples) which lasted a couple of hours. Got home and cleaned the fridge and pantry, put away the groceries and cooked dinner and dessert- Chicken & biscuits w/dumplings (it is chicken & veggies in a gravy) with rice and homemade lemon bars. Everything tasted great....I was dissapointed with the lemon bars though. The recipe I used was a new one, borrowed from my great-grandma Langlois. I greased the pan even though it didn't call for it...in hindsight, I suppose the 2 cups of butter used for the crust would suffice in helping it not stick. The lemon mixture seeped to the bottom of the crust...so I had inverted lemon bars. Next time- no greasing, and I am going to make a double batch of the lemon...and buy some vanilla ice cream to go with.

I hope everyone has a great labor day! Don't work too hard. =)

30 week appointment

I told P that I wanted to sleep in this morning. My appointment wasn't until 10:15 and I purposely set the alarm clock and everything. Yeah right. He woke me up asking if he could turn on the TV. I told him he was ugly.

I am NOT A MORNING PERSON. Ask anyone who knows me. I'd rather kill you than look or speak to you in the morning. I wake up mentally no earlier than 10am. Period.

Then he asked me to make him breakfast. He's got pretty big balls huh? I only did because I was hungry. I made poached eggs on toast for myself and a cheese and egg omlette for him. My first piece of toast tasted great. My second piece had one of those nasty ass egg stringies in it. WTF is up with those. I wish they would just cook out in the whole process. I get one of those, and my meal is ruined. Hudson got the rest of it...I'm sure he enjoyed it. Took a shower and off I went.

Do you think it is ok to come to almost a complete stop in the middle of a road, speed limit 45, because you can't drive or have no idea where you are going? If you answered yes, please go under your sink and find the bottle of Mr Clean and chug it. Yes, I had one of these morons in front of me today no less than 5 minutes into my 10 minute drive. My horn got a workout. I didn't even look to see who was driving.

Got to my appointment, read some of FitPregnancy (which is actually a good read). It had good articles and not too many ads. Nurse called me in and did the normal routine. Made a comment about P not being there...he has been to every one of my appointments. Urine specimen and weight check. I didn't ask the weight but last time I weighed at home I was 262, which brings my grand total to 22 pounds gained so far. Nurse also said that I had protein in my urine and if they were monitoring me for that. Shouldn't you know that already?

Dr. came in after 20 minutes of yacking it up outside with co-workers. She listened to the heartbeat which was good. She asked if I had any questions. I had 4.

-When/if do we get another ultrasound? No, only if I have some problem that needs to be monitored

-When should I get my glucose results? Probably not until next week.

-Should I be concerned about the protein in the urine? No, but she'll send off for a UA to see if I have a UTI.

-Can I eat bologne? No.
-Not even if I heat it up? No.
-But it tastes good. No.
Insert middle finger gesture here. It's because of the listeria.

It was weird though because after I asked her she came and rubbed my back and said you can eat all the bologne you want after she is born or something. Like she felt my bologne pain. Still, she didn't need to rub my back to get that point across. You can have the same affect from across the room. She left and closed the door behind her like someone would do if you were to stay in there. Didn't understand that either, wtf was I supposed to stay in there and do, twiddle my thumbs? Went to the front desk and set up my next appointment in another 2 weeks.

Got out of there, went to my insurance company and met with the lady I've been talking to via email for the past year and a half. She was nice. We shot the shit for about 15 minutes. I made a comment about job searching and she started to tell me about this side thing she is doing and she starts telling me about this nutritional product. She gave me one of her cards and said "you can make over $100,000 in less than a year. Ok...number one I can guarantee you pyramid company. Number two, why the hell are you talking to me if you can make $100K in less than a year. Your ass is still working here.

Next headed to tire place to get a front alignment done. They were slammed. End result, I have to get up this morning to drive the truck over there. Girlfriend at the desk was feeding her face and talking to me at the same time. I know you work in a garage sweetheart, but there are two of you at the desk. Go smack your food in private.

Got some gas...paid $3.69 I think..may have been $3.59..grabbed some Lemon Propel (which expired Dec 07 which I didn't realize until 3/4 of it was gone) and TUMS and headed home. I ate some potato chips with ranch dressing (yes, trying to keep it healthy) and a bowl of cereal, then took a nap. P finally got home, we went and ran a couple of errands and grabbed some dinner...Mexican food...lol. I waited too long to eat though, and felt nausiated and got a headache. :(

And now it is 3am...I got woken up by a random cricket in our bedroom and kicks to my bladder. All good things I suppose... Isn't a cricket a sign of good luck in the chinese culture? Something to Google I guess.

Sorry to be so long winded tonight. All that made me a little sleepy. I gotta get up in the morning anyhow.

Sugar sugar

Had to get up bright and early Thursday for my appointment. They started at 8am, so it was pretty much the same as any other day during the week. Roll out of bed at 7, and hurry to get ready. Got there a couple minutes early (gasp), signed in and sat down. Another woman came in obviously PG, said her OB (like mine) had told her that she just needed to come in w/out calling. She had no lab orders, and they told her she was SOL. I felt bad, but at the same time not so much. I did my homework honey.

They took my blood a total of 4 times. The first time at 8:17, then I had to drink the lovely tasting concoction...flat orange soda that tastes 10x sweeter than normal. They gave me 5 minutes to finish it but I downed it in under a minute. Why nurse it??! After that, every hour on the hour.

I look like I shoot up. The areas where they poked me (in both arms) are all black and blue. My veins kept collapsing (that makes you feel healthy...having collapsing veins) so they had to dig around quite a bit and break out the butterfly needle.

I had 2 different nurses pulling blood. The 3rd draw one of them yanked the tape right off. I told her she almost got slapped. She laughed.
The 4th and final time her friend pulled my blood, she used alcohol wipes to ease the tape off. I thanked her for that and said co-worker wasn't as nice. She hollered to her and teased her for doing that.

She said she was sorry and said to me "At least you're nice, we get some people in here that are just miserable" and walked out of the room.

Nurse said, "you'll have a nice, good tempered baby" (this made me LOL inside)

I replied "don't be fooled, I'm usually a bitch!". She was rolling.

Hey... just being honest.

Finally got out of there and headed to work. Made a stop at Taco Bell. P loves the fact I am feeding our child grade K beef. He doesn't understand why I would rather eat that than authentic Mexican (since I got PG, going into most Mexican joints makes me nausiated, especially if I think about the one food there that starts with an "E"...yeah, just gagged).

Work went by fairly quickly, knock on wood. It felt good walking out of there knowing I had today off.

Holy heartburn

Make it stop!! Most people would say, pop some Tums. After the kidney stones episode, I went to kidney america or some credible kidney related site, and read that "calcium based antacids can contribute to kidney stones". My one jar a month has dwindled down to the small packs and I use peppermint and gum more often. I just don't want to go through that again. So I deal!

Last night, she was so active. Everytime I see my stomach morph into an unrecognizable shape, I smile. I'd have to say that it is my favorite side effect of pregnancy. Her strength is amazing. Americas next gold star gymnast, right in my stomach.

Tomorrow is my 3 hour glucose testing. I failed my initial one last week, with a count of 159. I have to be there at 8am...not exactly looking forward to being there that early, but crossing my fingers for good results. Friday is a normal checkup at the OB. I love seeing how much weight my fat feet have gained.

One thing I never had a problem with pre-PG is having a bowel movement...well I shouldn't say that. I never had a problem with it after my fissure surgery and before getting PG. I went at least 2 times a day. This trimester is filled with sporadic poops, at all hours of the day. I ate a 10 pound Jasons potato filled with broccoli and cheese soup which normally tears me up. I got nothing out of it. Very odd. Baby seemed to like it as well.

The other thing I found out last week was I am anemic. I've always had low iron but was never classified as anemic. It may be a mental thing since hearing it, but I have been incredibly tired this week, even taking the extra iron pill. I don't expect this to subside until after she's born.

Lastly, my biggest annoyance today: SNOT. I won't go into detail about it because it will make me nausiated, but I should invest stock in Kleenex. Absolutely ridiculous.

Not too much else to report for today...I'll be on tomorrow to discuss my appointment.

First blog

Hi all. I have a few friends that keep a blog...figure it is a little more environmentally friendly than using the notebook like I have been. I think I'd keep up with this more than I would writing as well.

Not sure where to start, maybe with an introduction of myself? 26 years old, living in Georgia, originally from Upstate New York. Small fish in a big pond. I've been here for 8 years this July. I've grown to hate it. Traffic sucks, weather sucks, people suck, etc. You get the picture. I own a chow-husky mix named Hudson and a cat named Bobbie (shown on my front page). They are our babies. Newly married as of July 21st to the greatest man in the world. I'm very lucky to have someone like him...I don't know that I could find anyone else who would put up with my shit so I'm not going anywhere...lol. Just kidding P.

We are pregnant with our first child, a girl. Made this discovery March 3rd after having a late period by a few days and a random throwing up the week before. Definately were not trying, but had been off the pill for 2 1/2 months when it "happened". So here we are. I'd have to say I'm definately not in the place where I wanted to be when I had my first, but I suppose everyone has those feelings/thoughts at one point or another about their first. Still, we are definately very excited and feel very blessed.

The pregnancy overall has not been so bad. My first trimester was filled praying to the porcelain god...not being able to keep anything down. The second tri, at 21 weeks I got kidney stones that put me in the hospital for 2 days. We just recently got into the third trimester. It's fine so far, with the peeing all the time, getting out of bed every two hours to both use the bathroom and regain the feeling in my hip and leg depending on which side I am sleeping on. It's been a trip...I can't believe how fast time is zipping by. This week I am 30 weeks, only 10 more to go.

Yes, we do have a name. No, I will not be telling what it is until the big day. ;)

I'll close with the bout of heartburn, kicking of the bladder and my gut.