Tuesday, December 22, 2009

C-Diddy's Birth Story

This is my vbac story. It wasn't the way I had pictured it (had more interventions than I would have liked), but with my circumstances I got the BEST possible outcome! My only regret is that I put my baby on a timeline because I had a repeat c/s scheduled. I just happened to go into labor naturally 2 days before that and delivered the morning before the section. I desperately wanted a vbac but was too scared to not have a "back up" of a scheduled c/s. If I am blessed with another baby, I will definitely be going for a more natural vbac and NO c/s will be scheduled just in case. I've had GD with my past 2 pregnancies and my OB used that as a scare tactic, in my opinion, to deliver early (induced at 40w with E and scheduled rcs at 39w[according to lmp, 38w5d according to ovulation] with C). I will NOT let that happen again. I am not going to give another baby an "eviction date" just because they *might* be big because of the GD. And, by the way, my babies were nowhere near being big. Ugh. The more I think about it the madder I get at my OB and myself. Oh well. Know better, do better...that's my new motto.


I had been contracting for days. I didn’t really think it would turn into anything...especially since finding out at my 38 week appointment that our baby girl was transverse. I had to come to terms with having another cesarean birth, even though I could have postponed the c/s. That’s a completely different story though. *sigh* Anyway, on the evening of Dec. 19 (38+3), our daughter Emily’s 2nd birthday, I started having pretty consistent contractions that were more intense than the ones I had been having. They felt like light menstrual cramps with some cervical pain and a slight backache. I doubted I was in labor though, but since they weren’t going away, we went ahead and called my mother-in-law to come pick up Em and I called the doctor. The doctor on call said it sounded like maybe we were going to have a baby tonight (I doubted it), and that I should come in. As soon as we got in the car my contractions slowed from every 5 minutes to every 7 or 8 minutes. I thought for sure they’d send us home. We stopped at Arby’s on the way to the hospital since we didn’t know how long we would be there, and thinking maybe I would need the food for fuel later during labor. Good thing we did.

When we arrived at the hospital (at10:30pm), I put on my best “I’m in labor” face while filling out paperwork. I don’t know who I was trying to convince, the nurses or myself. We were immediately put in a room and I was put on the monitors. The nurse asked lots of questions while I was contracting. I told her my pain was at a 3...noticeable, but very bearable, often laughing and smiling through contractions. One of the residents checked my cervix, I was at 2cm and 80%. This was surprising to me since I was just at 1cm 50% on Wednesday with no change from the week before. She said she would come back in a couple of hours and check me again and we would decide our plan of action from there. If there was no change I would be sent home. If I had changed, then we would prep the OR for my c-section.. She did a quick ultrasound to check fluid levels, etc., since baby hadn’t been moving much and it was determined that our stubborn baby girl was still transverse.

In the meantime, I was chatting with my nurse, Alice, about my birth experience with Emily, my desire for a vbac, and my disappointment of baby girl’s position. Alice was a phenomenal nurse. Well about an hour after the initial cervical check, I needed to go potty. Alice came in to take the monitors off of me, and I mentioned in passing that my contractions were getting stronger. They’re at a 5 now, I told her. Not horrible, but moderate. I was having to really concentrate through them...and breathe. I was feeling a lot of cervical pain. She mentioned it to the resident OB and she came in to check me again. I was now 4cm and 90%. “I’m in labor, y’all!!” is what came out of my mouth! lol I was so excited just to have gone into labor on my own. Because no matter what, baby girl was ready to be here and I wasn’t forcing her out before it was time.

This is when it got interesting. Since I had progressed, the OB on call came in to talk to me. He (Dr. Joseph) was fantastic. He was an older gentleman who was what I would call “seasoned”. I could just tell he had been doing this for a long time and had a lot of experience. One might even call him “old school”. He was explaining protocol to me and said that we would be doing my c-section within the hour. Alice mentioned to him that I had desired to have a vbac, and he smiled really big and said, “Well, let’s get an epidural in you and we’ll try to flip the baby. You are a great candidate for vbac.” I was elated. I really didn’t need the epidural pain-wise because the contractions weren’t THAT bad, but I had to have it for the version because from what I understand it’s painful, and also in case the version didn’t work I would be immediately taken to the OR. So I got the epidural around midnight and a while later many doctors and nurses descended upon my room. (side note: the epi was stronger on my left side than my right) They did another quick ultrasound before the version to make sure of the baby’s position, and you know what? She had already flipped. No version needed! I couldn’t believe it.

Dr. Joseph then slowly broke my water so he could make sure baby’s cord didn’t prolapse since she had been transverse, then they let me labor and get some rest while I progressed and would check me again in a couple hours. At around 1:30 I started feeling contractions on my right side. I knew this might happen since the epidural was stronger on my left side. Alice came in and turned me on my right side to try to help gravity bring the meds to the right. I told her that my pain level was at 7 now. At 2ish I was checked again and I was 6cm and 0 station. I requested a little more medicine for my epi (they had only given me about a 1/2 dose to begin with), but was kind of hesitant about it because I felt contractions, but my legs were completely numb. It was a weird sensation. Then at 3:45 I was feeling pain on my left side. I mentioned this to Alice and she seemed a little confused as to what exactly was going on with me. She sent for the resident to check me, and when they checked me I was “complete complete complete and +2”. OMG. I was about to have a baby.

They asked if I wanted more epidural meds since I was feeling so much pain, but I said no. I wanted to have SOME control, and since I couldn’t feel my legs, I wanted to be able to feel my contractions. Yes they hurt, but let me tell you they were NOTHING compared to the contractions I had with Emily. Pitocin is the devil. The nurses and techs came in to prep the room and we did some practice pushes around 4 since my legs were still numb. I was really worried about whether I would be able to push since I couldn’t really feel anything down there, but my practice pushes were very productive. Alice said, “Oh yeah, this is so a vaginal birth. Even if something were to happen now, and you needed help, the worse case scenario would be forceps”. This made me feel so confident in myself. I started pushing for real at 4:17. We skipped a few contractions while they were doing more preparations and 14 minutes and 4 pushes later I gave birth to my beautiful daughter Chloe Madison Taylor. They told me to quit pushing because her head shot out of me. They delivered her shoulders then pulled her out. The feeling of her coming out was unbelievable. It was like a total release of pressure. It was amazing. They suctioned her nose and mouth, Daddy cut the cord, then my precious baby was placed on my chest. I did it. I had wanted that for so long, and finally my day came. They let me love on her for a while then took her to be weighed and measured. They delivered the placenta, which I asked to see (very cool), then began to clean me up. The resident checked my uterus and had a bit of a concerned look on her face. “She’s really thin, do you want to take a look?” she said to Dr. Joseph. Dr. Joseph then checked my uterus and said, “Yes, uterus is very thin, but the scar is completely intact.” Relief.

I tore a little when she came out since it happened so fast, so the doctor stitched me up while baby was being assessed. I still can’t believe that I had a vbac. It’s so amazing. I know it wasn’t “natural” or free from interventions, but it was mine. And I loved it. I’m a rock star.





Saturday, December 12, 2009

CAUTION WET FLOOR

Allergies + Extra pressure on bladder from being 13 months pregnant = Not a good situation

EEK!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

See the resemblence?





Yeah. It feels like a watermelon too. Well, a watermelon with arms and legs.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Try this Recipe. You will NOT regret it!!

I've tried a LOT of chocolate chip cookie recipes in my day. I mean TONS! This is by far the absolute best recipe I've found. The cookies are big, soft, and chewy, just like the recipe says. They're like something you'd get from a bakery...no joke. I made some last night to take to a friend's house for dessert, and they said the same thing. It made me feel so good! lol Anyway, TRY.THESE.COOKIES. DO IT.

The only change I made was chilling the dough in the freezer for a few minutes before baking.


Best Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips


Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

My Biggest Fan

You know what? My daughter loves me. No, she really loves me. She doesn't care about my cellulite infested thighs or the stretch marks that adorn several of my body parts. Nope. She LOVES me. For me. She doesn't realize that there are probably better moms out there. Ones who keep the house cleaner, ones who cook fancier meals, ones who actually get dressed and do their hair every day. But she doesn't care. Because I'm HER mommy. And she loves me...and my banana muffins. I really think it has more to do with the muffins than anything else.

And you know what? I love her too. <3

Monday, November 2, 2009

How to Make a Little Sister...Week 32

As the end of this pregnancy is drawing nigh, I am really having some conflicting feelings about having a repeat c-section. On one hand, I know that my recovery will be so much better this time around if I do the scheduled section. However, I am still scared to death of another major surgery. On the other hand, I would LOVE to have a vbac....but I'm scared of that too. I would hate to go through labor and end up with another section anyway. I never even considered a vbac until recently, but now I can't get it out of my mind. I know whatever I choose will be fine, but I want to be sure about it either way. I want to be 100% confident in my decision, and I'm just not right now.

Other than that crisis, things are going well. I am still having severe pubic bone pain, but I don't think that is going away anytime soon! My blood sugar has been good, so it doesn't look like I will end up on insulin again. Baby girl is active and flips and kicks all the time. Just like her big sister did.

That's about all that's going on right now! Looking forward to December!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Chocolate Chip Bars

We pretty much grew up in the kitchen. My mom is a great self-taught cook and wanted to pass on her love of food to her 4 daughters. One of my favorite things she used to make all the time are these fabulous chocolate chip bars. Chewy, chocolatey, delicious. These are a great treat any time of the year. Oh and they freeze really well! Try them, you won't regret it.

3 Eggs
1C Brown Sugar
1C Sugar
1C Oil
1Tsp Vanilla
2C Flour
2C Quick Oats
1Tsp Salt
1Tsp Baking Soda
1Tsp Baking Powder
6oz. Chocolate Chips
1C Coconut or Nuts (or 1/2 C each) OPTIONAL - I don't add either of these

Combine ingredients and spread on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 15 to 20 minutes. Do not overbake.

Enjoy!

(PS...pictures to follow)

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

How to Make a Little Sister...the 7th month



It's unbelievable to me that I'm already in my 7th month of pregnancy with my 2nd child. I mean, I always knew I would have more than one child, but the end of this pregnancy is drawing near, and I'm a little freaked out at the thought of having the pitter patter of 2 sets of feet running around the house. And if we're being honest...I didn't exactly LOVE the newborn phase. Does this make me less of a mother? It was difficult with E$ at first because we were brand new at being parents...and, well, she was brand new to the WORLD. There were definitely more than a few sleepless nights and and we were cranky parents on more than one occasion. But all of that gets better with the 2nd baby, right? We should know what to expect by now, and shouldn't be so uptight and nervous...right? Yeah...I'm still a little freaked.

Anyway, I'm in the 7th month now, which means my baby looks like a big round squash...with arms and legs. My how she's grown! It seems like just yesterday she was the size of an eggplant.

Ok...Now what?



E$ is finally at the age where we have to start thinking about potty training. Or, as some people say, "potty learning". We HAVE to be politically correct these days as to not offend someone, you know. Anyway, we went out yesterday and bought her this fancy new potty chair (pictured above). It's a potty, a training seat, and a step stool all in one!! And it was only $15...What a deal! So...eager toddler...CHECK. Potty chair....CHECK! Super cute big girl panties...CHECK! So now what? We set it all up last night and put it in the powder bath downstairs and she's been exploring it. Last night she even had her baby doll on there going "poo-poo" as E$ walked her through the process. She's not really ready to sit on it herself yet. She is very interested though. So now I've got to do some research on how to potty train, since I've never had to do this before. As my husband put it, "As far back as I can remember, I've been pooping on the toilet". He has such a way with words. This should prove to be a very interesting adventure!

Monday, October 12, 2009

A special kind of stupid

Nobody tells you that when you get pregnant people can say whatever they want to you without much regard to your feelings. You'll get parenting advice, labor and delivery horror stories, inappropriate comments about your size, and of course the unsolicited belly rubs. So just for giggles I thought I would compile a list of interesting things that have been said to me thus far in my pregnancy. Here we go!

*Upon finding out we were expecting our 2nd bundle of joy, we received many of the "You know how that happens right??"'s. Um, yeah, and we were doing plenty of it, thanks.

*Upon finding out we were having another little girl, we received many "Oh...I'll bet daddy wanted a boy"'s. Um, actually we're really excited about E$ having a little sister. Seriously, can a family really be less than perfect if it doesn't have an equal number of males and females? Get a hobby.

*Upon finding out that we are having our 2nd December baby, one nice lady, who has her own December child, said "OMG, if I found out I was having another December baby, I would shoot myself in the head!". Seriously? You need therapy. STAT.

*I told a family member that due to having gestational diabetes and being on a semi-restricted diet, that I have actually only gained 1 lb (at the time). They said, "So what do you weigh now?" Yeah, nice try.

*A family member saw me about halfway through my pregnancy and commented on how nice I was looking. "You look great...I'm sorry, but when you were pregnant with E$, you didn't look very good." Wow. A compliment and an insult all in one sentence. Thanks Mom.

And these are MILD compared to what some women are subjected to during pregnancy. Got a story about when you were pregnant? Share it here!

What a spectacle!!




I ordered my new glasses today. YAY! They're really nice and I think they look pretty good on me. Of course anyone would look good in frames with non-prescription lenses. But me? Yeah, I'm farsighted. And you know what that means right? That means that when I wear my glasses, my eyes appear larger than they actually are. And because I'm particularly awesome, my left eye is way worse than my right eye. Mmm-hmm. Are you giggling? You're giggling. Perfect. I know why you're laughing. You're laughing because not only will my eyes look twice their normal size, my left eye will appear twice as large as my right eye, making it approximately 4 times the size of my normal eye. I rock. I rock so hard that my eyes are literally bugging out of my head. Or so it appears.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

How to Make a Little Sister....Week 28

Well I had a great OB appt on Thurs. YAY for good appts! haha

First, we had an ultrasound to check Little Sister's growth. She is a perfect 2lbs 11oz and measuring right on track. We got to see her little face and she is just beautiful. We think she looks like Emily...of course that's just from looking at a 2d u/s. She does have some perfect little lips though. She and E$ get that from their daddy.

Then, I got weighed and everything and I've lost 3lbs, which is fine for me since I've got it to lose. Doc says everything looks great which is always nice to hear. I got a flu shot, which I expected, and she does want me to get the H1N1 vaccine when it's available as well.

I mentioned my pubic bone/pelvic pain and while she was very sympathetic, she said it's pretty much to be expected in subsequent pregnancies. She said that typically the 2nd and 3rd (and so on) pregnancies are more painful than the 1st. She said to just take it easy.

I go back in 2 weeks...yay! Oh and there was a number written on the top of my check out paper....it said 12/27...wonder if that's a foreshadowing on when Little Sister will make her grand entrance? It's a Sunday though, so maybe not! haha I'm pretty sure my doc does surgery on Tuesdays.

Here are some pics of our little C-Diddy. (Sorry so crappy...it's a pic of a pic
because we are cheap and have no scanner)


Saturday, October 10, 2009

Sticker Time!

Aunt Sissie bought E$ some stickers before she was born and we just found them the other day! So we got out some drawing paper and I gave her the stickers to play with. She needed a little help getting them off the sheet, but she did really well sticking them on her paper. Then we colored!













E$'s Joke of the Day!!!

We were laying in bed trying to get E$ to go to sleep and she decided to work on her stand up routine...

E$: Knock, Knock.
Daddy: Who's there?
E$: Fishy.
Daddy: Fishy who?
E$: Fish.
Daddy: (pauses) That wasn't very funny.

Well it's a start at least!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

All tuckered out...

I was tidying up the living room as E$ was finishing her lunch. I noticed the lack of noise and I peeked into the dining room and this is what I found:



I guess eating that last bite just took it all out of her. Little sweetie.

Monday, October 5, 2009

More Counterproductive Conversations with my Toddler

E$ comes up to me holding a plastic hanger

E$: What's this?
Me: Its a hanger.
E$: What?
Me: It's a hanger.
E$: No, it's not a paci.
Me: I didn't say it was a paci. It's a hanger.
E$: .....
Me: (points to hanger) What's this?
E$: It's a paci.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Hoochie

I was cleaning the kitchen earlier as E$ was playing quietly in the living room...or so I thought. I went in there to check on her, and it turns out she was in the dining room...at the table...going through my purse.

She found my eyeliner.



Apples and Oranges

This happened as I was peeling an orange for E$ and I to share for snack...

E$: It's an apple?
Me: No, it's an orange.
E$: Apple?
Me: No, orange.
E$: It's an apple?
Me: No, it's not an apple. It's an orange.
E$: It's a peach?
Me: Yeah...it's a peach.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Bath time!

Bubbles on head first...wash face later.

Monday, September 28, 2009

I'm not sure what events led to this...

But I'm SURE it was interesting! lol


As long as he has his baby...

Looks like E$ pulled the old switch-er-oo on him.

Welcome!

Welcome to our new blog! I figured it was time for a new blog since we are going to be a family of 4 in just a few months. Wow. I can't believe I just wrote that. It's completely true though. Albeit a little overwhelming to think about. So, check back often for updates!!