Doesn't Get Any Better

The Stars Aligned

Preston's Birth Story:

On Thursday Michael and I hit the pavement for some labor inducing stroller walking. Dr. M had told me the day before it wouldn't take much to get me into labor (I was dilated to a 2, 70% effaced), so I was willing to try anything and everything. I REALLY wanted him to deliver this new baby boy, especially because with Michael he let Kyle deliver him. The chances of him being the doctor to deliver my baby (without me being induced) weren't good since he's in a clinic and they rotate who's on call. He had told me at my appointment to come into the hospital on Thursday afternoon if I noticed any change, and he would see what he could do to keep me in there. After our long brisk walk, I was starting to feel more contractions, and more pressure. My mom came to the hospital with me and Michael, and when the nurse checked me, she said I was still a 2 and 70% effaced. Dr. M happened to come in as she was finishing up, and he re-checked me. He said I was dilated to a 3.5 (he wasn't happy with the nurse), but still just over 70%, so they said I couldn't stay. As we were leaving, the Doc told Kyle to have me call him. I was really sad because the chances of Dr. M delivering this baby were slimming by the minute.

So, that night when I got home, I got busy walking around the neighborhood. I was definitely feeling like I was in the early stages of labor after my walk. Between that and my "exam" at the hospital, things seemed to be picking up. I called Dr. M, but he didn't get back to me for a few hours. He told me that I could come back in, or wait until the morning, but he was off of his shift at 1 pm Friday afternoon. I woke up at 5 after not sleeping very well, or for very long, and started walking around the neighborhood again. By the time I was done walking, I was definitely feeling like I was close to having this baby. Luckily my mom had taken Michael for the night, so Kyle and I headed to the hospital around 6:30 am. Dr. M told us to make sure to call him so he could check me. We weren't able to reach him once we got to the hospital, so for the next hour Kyle and I walked around the hospital. I was having pretty heavy contractions, but kept walking because I knew it was the only way this baby was going to come that day. Dr. M called us back and said we could come up to see if I had progressed. He checked me in the exam room and I was a 4.5, and 90% effaced, but the catch was the hospital didn't have a room or a nurse for me. So they told me that we needed to walk around for another hour. Are you kidding me??? I've never walked so much in my life, and I was in labor doing it. The contractions were picking up big time, and I was in quite a bit of pain and discomfort. I was ready for my epidural, but knew it would be a while before I got it.

Finally a nurse showed up and they got me into a room at 9:45 am. Dr. M came a while later and broke my water, and that's when my contractions really picked up, and I still didn't have my epidural. By the time I got the epidural it was about 11:15 am and I was feeling like I was in heavy labor. When the nurse checked me after the epidural she said I was a 6. I guess she decided that I wasn't going to go anywhere fast, so she took a lunch break. Around 12:35, I called the nurses to tell them I didn't think my epidural was working because I was feeling a lot of pain, and the need to push. Well it was too late by then because when the nurse checked me she said I was dilated to a 9. She had to call my nurse out of her lunch break, and get the doctor in the room. Everyone got scrubbed up (including Kyle) and the show was ready at about 12:50. At around 12:55 I started pushing and boy was I in pain and knew that the epidural didn't take like it should have. At this point, Kyle is where the doctor is supposed to be, and the doctor is where Kyle is supposed to be (at my side). I had one of those deliveries where I was yelling in pain; quite embarrassing actually. They kept telling me to push harder. At one point, Dr. M is by my side telling me to look in his eyes and concentrate. I'm thinking, I can't concentrate, my husbands at the wheel by himself! I'll never forget having my doctor be my labor coach. Needless to say, thing went fast, almost too fast. He was born at 1:07 pm, and when he came out he was purple and bruised from the quick delivery, but everything checked out fine. Kyle held the baby while they had me cut the umbilical chord. I'm telling you, we do things backwards! Then they laid him on my chest, and instantly I was in love with my newest baby boy. It's such a surreal experience to know that one minute this baby is in your belly, and the next he's laying on your chest. I said, "he looks small," and everyone quickly responded with, no, that is a big baby. They were right (8 pound 11.5 ounces)! I'm so glad he came 2 weeks early because he would have been nearing 10 pounds by the time July 2nd rolled around. We had three names we were choosing from, so when Kyle saw him for the first time and said he looked like a Preston that's what we went with, and I couldn't be more happy.

Preston is an AMAZING baby. We can hardly believe how good he is. He sleeps, sleeps and sleeps. He is good to his momma, and instantly knew how to nurse. Totally opposite from Michael who took months to get it down. Preston also has slept good every night. I have to wake him up to feed him during the day, and the night is not any different (the last two nights he slept all night). Let's hope this keeps up! Michael is a very inquisitive older brother, and hasn't quite learned how to be soft, but he's learning. Michael loves putting all of his balls in the swing with Preston. Lucky for us we had Kyle's mom here for 4 days to help keep Michael entertained, which was a lifesaver since my mom was at girl's camp.

Rock-a-Bye Baby

Coming soon tomorrow.....the story and update of our newest addition. Until then, sleep tight.

Arrival

Insomnia

Can't sleep. It's 4:30 am. Too much on my mind. Bags are packed, house is cleaned (well at least it was), carpets are cleaned, baby stuff is out of storage, and my body feels ready to get this baby outta here! Yet, I'm still scared, still nervous because I hate the unexpected. I'm still two weeks away, so who knows. It makes me sad to think of not having Michael one on one anymore, but I know it will be a good change, and we'll love having a new homie to kick it with. I feel like I've forgotten how to nurse, which freaks me out. I'm going to pull out the book (and the boppy!) that Azucar gave me before I had Michael and get to reading. At my doctor's appointment yesterday he told me he thinks this baby could come today (no, I'm not being enduced), and he's even on call. We shall see.

This week I found out that Michael is STILL allergic to dairy. So annoying. A couple of days after he was tested I fed him some cheese and cereal with a little milk and noticed that he was getting a bad rash wherever the food touched his skin. Lovely. Just when I thought we were in the clear. I called the allergist to get an explanation and to figure out why they sent me away after three days of testing and said he's good to go, only to find out he's still allergic. They acted "surprised" but said it does happen that the tests are a false positive and said we should take him off for another 6 months. Annoying. At least we know if he does have dairy, he won't go into shock or throw up. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do as far as his diet.

Tomorrow Michael turns 20 months! Holy smokes, babies grow up way too fast. Michael is on a word explosion. He's starting to repeat most words that we tell him. Of course his number one signature phrase is, "get the ball." ALL DAY LONG, he throws. Not just balls, but his glasses, food, toys, books. You name it, he's throwing it. We really should start warning the people we sit behind in church because he has been known to hit people in the head 6 rows up. The kid can throw like you've never seen. We had a friend watch him on Saturday, and her husband used to play college ball and is helping coach the high school team this year. He kept telling us that Michael has more natural talent then any kid he's ever seen. He said he wants to invest in Michael because he's bound to go places. Really though, he can throw a spiral and has perfect form.

Ooops!

Six staples and a nicked artery later......

Why do I have the feeling this won't be our last trip to the ER. Kyle was home with Michael and I was out with my mom running errands at Costco when I got a call from Kyle saying he was taking Michael to the ER because he split his head open. While Kyle and I were on the phone a few minutes earlier, Michael went into the office and got on our swivel chair and fell and hit the back of his head on a sharp corner of the desk. By the time Kyle got him in the car he was done crying, and didn't cry again until the nurses started cleaning him up. When I walked into the room where Michael was, he had his back turned towards me, and all I could see what his head plastered in blood. Although it looked better when they cleaned it up, I still didn't like seeing his head split open.

To top it all off, when the nurses were numbing his head with a solution, some of the solution splattered into another nurses eye. Since it had hit Michael's gash first, they had to do an HIV test on Michael and draw a TON of blood. I think he cried harder for that then when he got stapled. I was annoyed because they acted like they just needed a trace, and they ended up drawing enough to fill a huge syringe. I'll post pictures later of what his head looked like when I saw him for the first time. They are on Kyle's phone.

The Best News!

Here is Michael eating an ice cream sandwich, and yes the ice cream is made of dairy, and yes that is real chocolate. Yesterday was a happy day because the allergist declared Michael free of his dairy and soy allergies. I could hardly believe it myself. I wanted to take him in before I had the baby to see how his allergies were doing. We did a skin test last week, followed up by blood work, followed by a three hour dairy "challenge" in their office yesterday. All three came back negative. Just like the doctor said he would, he one day just grew out of his allergy. We are so thrilled. So far he's tried cheese, a little bit of milk when he ate some of Kyle's cereal, a couple bites of yogurt, and an ice cream sandwich. He's not a huge fan of dairy (we're taking it slow), except for the ice cream.

Seriously though, can you believe it? I can't!

We went to Vancouver for a last minute trip earlier this week because Kyle's grandpa passed away at age 91. All of Kyle's siblings came into town for the funeral. Michael loved being with his cousins, but I did not love trying to keep him entertained and contained from 9 in the morning until 10 at night the day of the funeral with ZERO naps. I felt like I was going to go into labor after that day. To top it all off he got an ear infection. Yes, we did just pay almost $3,200 to have tubes put in. He woke up the morning of the funeral (we had a rough night) and he had tons of blood and puss coming out of his ear. It was then, that I knew it would be a long day. Michael is so good if he can just play, but if he has to sit still during a viewing, funeral, burial, and luncheon he's not on his best behavior.

Speaking of going into labor. According to my doctor I'm on a day by day basis. He doesn't think I'll last much longer. Let's just say this baby is low, low, low, and my body is ready, ready, ready. I however, am not. The doc says that ideally he'd like me to get to my 38 week mark which is a week from today and the day that he's on call. He said if I don't want to go this week I need to not do anything. Right.....I'll let you know how that goes.

Today my wonderful Aunt Thomasene came to visit from Spokane and called to see if she could help me for a couple of hours. She ironed 9 of Kyle's dress shirts before we ran out of starch. How sweet is that? One more thing I can cross of my HUGE list of things to do.

Never Thought It Would Happen

After a LONG week and half of glasses boot camp, I can happily say that Michael will wear his glasses....most of the time. He even let's me put his glasses on without constraining his arms. He still takes them off and throws them, but for the most part, is good about wearing them. I really had my doubts that he'd ever get used to the glasses, but we have made so much progress. It really took some persistent work on my part, and for that I have to give myself a pat on the back. Unless you've tried to keep glasses on a very active 19 month old boy, you will have no idea what I'm talking about, but trust me, it was a huge challenge. I know this sounds dumb, but one of the harder things I've had to do in my life was to train him to wear glasses.

After a few days of trying to keep his arms at his side, I figured out this contraption would do the job nicely. I still had to sit by him to make sure he didn't get out, but it made things a lot easier.

We took Michael swimming on Saturday at my parents pool and he loved it. Maybe too much. We have to keep a major eye on that kid, and I will have to require him to wear a life jacket at all times because he is not afraid to just walk into the pool, which he did over and over again. Michael loves to be with Kyle in the pool. If I grabbed him he'd start fussing and reaching for his dad. Too bad, I'm going to be on a six week hiatus from swimming when I have the baby. I love being at the pool.

Pregnancy Update: I went to the doctor today and after checking me, he said that he doesn't think there's anyway I'll make it to my due date (dilated to a 2, over 50 percent effaced, and very soft). Is that too much information? His prediction was 2 weeks. What?????? I'm supposed to have another month!! I can't have this baby early. Way too many things going on, and my mom has to be up at girls camp June 22-26. I'm really hoping this baby holds out a little longer, but I need to prepare, starting today. This house needs scrubbed and organized. I made up a "to do list," and if you saw how long it is, you might be worried for me! Looks like it's time to get busy. I'm sure at my appointment next week, everything will be normal and on track, but just in case.....