Saturday, October 30, 2010
Happy Due Date!
Today is my due date!! I can't imagine still being pregnant!!!! Natalie will be 3 weeks old tomorrow - where in the world has the time gone??
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Birth Story - Part II
Around 2:30 am I woke up to go to the bathroom - which was a nightly occurrence by this late in the pregnancy! I shuffled to the bathroom without even fully waking up, which, on a normal night, made it easier for me to go back to sleep. However, tonight it caused me to almost miss the fact that it appeared my water had broken! Although my gut feeling told me that's what it was, I really wasn't sure (no, it wasn't the typical gush you hear about in the movies!) so I laid back down in bed, not really sure what to do. About 15 minutes later some relatively painful contractions started up. I decided after about 20 minutes that they were coming frequently enough that I should time them, especially if my water had broken. 45 minutes later, I was waking Chris up to let him know I needed to call the doctor - they were coming regularly and were getting more painful. Now it was around 4 am.
In a stroke of luck, the McKenney's were staying with us after coming down for Paige's party. (Mike also predicted me having the baby at 4 am that night - kind of freaky). I felt bad but I finally had to admit that we needed to go to the hospital and woke Lori up to tell her. She was super excited. :) So off to the hospital we go!
Painful contractions continue on the way to the hospital. We arrived there around 4:30. Got checked sometime within that first half hour and it was determined that my water HAD broken and I was 4 cm dilated - I was staying and we were going to have a baby. OMG!!
The next 2-3 hours are a blur and I can only approximate the timeline. By around 6 am I was 7 cm dilated. (still no epidural, OUCH!!) Sometime during the next hour I got my epidural, which only half worked (OUCH!!!!) Around 7 am I started pushing. She was posterior (face up) which slowed down the process a bit, but by 7:29 am our little Natalie was born!! She cried right away and it was amazing! No pictures from immediately after, but here are some of the early ones (we hadn't thought to bring our camera in all the confusion).
In a stroke of luck, the McKenney's were staying with us after coming down for Paige's party. (Mike also predicted me having the baby at 4 am that night - kind of freaky). I felt bad but I finally had to admit that we needed to go to the hospital and woke Lori up to tell her. She was super excited. :) So off to the hospital we go!
Painful contractions continue on the way to the hospital. We arrived there around 4:30. Got checked sometime within that first half hour and it was determined that my water HAD broken and I was 4 cm dilated - I was staying and we were going to have a baby. OMG!!
The next 2-3 hours are a blur and I can only approximate the timeline. By around 6 am I was 7 cm dilated. (still no epidural, OUCH!!) Sometime during the next hour I got my epidural, which only half worked (OUCH!!!!) Around 7 am I started pushing. She was posterior (face up) which slowed down the process a bit, but by 7:29 am our little Natalie was born!! She cried right away and it was amazing! No pictures from immediately after, but here are some of the early ones (we hadn't thought to bring our camera in all the confusion).
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
THE Story
Ok, so I promised that next post would be birth story, so here goes:
To go back to the VERY beginning, I need to go back a few weeks to late September, when I was around 35 weeks. We were scheduled to go up to Mechanicsburg that weekend for Katie's birthday. Saturday started normally - we went up to watch Lindsay's soccer game - nothing unusual was happening. On the way home from the game, out of nowhere I started feeling very crampy. After a few minutes I realized that I was having some mildly painful contractions. Not a huge deal, except that we were supposed to be going somewhere 2 hours away from our house. After some discussion, we decided to hang around until the contractions stopped just to be safe. Well, four hours later they were just starting to taper off. At this point, even though they stopped, I didn't feel safe being 2 hours away from he hospital, so we canned our trip to Mechanicsburg.
Fast-forward to my 36 week appointment, where I was SURE that I had to be making some progress based on this and just a general crampiness. NOPE - still closed - nothing. I was a bit disappointed, even though part of me was happy that she wouldn't be coming quite so early - I really didn't want a baby in the NICU!
The following week I didn't have much in the way of contractions, so I wasn't too hopefuly that much had changed at my 37 week appointment. But voila! Now I am 1-2 centimeters dilated, 50% effaced and a -2 station. Sweet! I know that this didn't necessarily mean that labor was imminent but any sign that my body was getting ready to get this baby OUT was a good thing.
We had Paige's birthday party on Saturday the 9th. I was feeling tired and a little bit nauseous that day, but wrote it off to being stressed about the party. I did a ton of cleaning and running around. The party went off without a hitch and Paige had a great time. I stayed up late talking to Lori and headed to bed around 1 am.
To be continued....
To go back to the VERY beginning, I need to go back a few weeks to late September, when I was around 35 weeks. We were scheduled to go up to Mechanicsburg that weekend for Katie's birthday. Saturday started normally - we went up to watch Lindsay's soccer game - nothing unusual was happening. On the way home from the game, out of nowhere I started feeling very crampy. After a few minutes I realized that I was having some mildly painful contractions. Not a huge deal, except that we were supposed to be going somewhere 2 hours away from our house. After some discussion, we decided to hang around until the contractions stopped just to be safe. Well, four hours later they were just starting to taper off. At this point, even though they stopped, I didn't feel safe being 2 hours away from he hospital, so we canned our trip to Mechanicsburg.
Fast-forward to my 36 week appointment, where I was SURE that I had to be making some progress based on this and just a general crampiness. NOPE - still closed - nothing. I was a bit disappointed, even though part of me was happy that she wouldn't be coming quite so early - I really didn't want a baby in the NICU!
The following week I didn't have much in the way of contractions, so I wasn't too hopefuly that much had changed at my 37 week appointment. But voila! Now I am 1-2 centimeters dilated, 50% effaced and a -2 station. Sweet! I know that this didn't necessarily mean that labor was imminent but any sign that my body was getting ready to get this baby OUT was a good thing.
We had Paige's birthday party on Saturday the 9th. I was feeling tired and a little bit nauseous that day, but wrote it off to being stressed about the party. I did a ton of cleaning and running around. The party went off without a hitch and Paige had a great time. I stayed up late talking to Lori and headed to bed around 1 am.
To be continued....
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Natalie Grace
Natalie Grace arrived on 10/10/10! I figured this was important enough to get the blog rolling again. :) I changed the background to be more fitting of our three little ladies.
Anyway - Pretty cool birth date! She was 3 weeks early so we never expected to have her that day. Stats:
7 lbs. 7 oz.
21 inches
Next post - birth story and pics!
Anyway - Pretty cool birth date! She was 3 weeks early so we never expected to have her that day. Stats:
7 lbs. 7 oz.
21 inches
Next post - birth story and pics!
Monday, December 29, 2008
Is there anybody out there?
(I'm thinking Pink Floyd when I write that)
But seriously...just wondering if there is anyone left reading this after my string of long hiatuses (sp??).
Today's Paige-ism: "My name is Ian...I'm always copying"
(A few hours after reading her new Olivia book)
She also perfectly repeated the word "coatimundi" after me. (some animal that likes bananas, thank you Wild Animal Baby) I found that pretty funny.
Lindsay is starting to read and loves butt jokes. (thank you Chris)
Pictures to come!
But seriously...just wondering if there is anyone left reading this after my string of long hiatuses (sp??).
Today's Paige-ism: "My name is Ian...I'm always copying"
(A few hours after reading her new Olivia book)
She also perfectly repeated the word "coatimundi" after me. (some animal that likes bananas, thank you Wild Animal Baby) I found that pretty funny.
Lindsay is starting to read and loves butt jokes. (thank you Chris)
Pictures to come!
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Pumpkin Patch
Today we went to Tylor Arboretum for their Pumpkin Celebration. We met Sheri and Sophie there. When we got there we discovered we could paint pumpkins! (for a small fee, of course). This was great because Lindsay has specifically mentioned wanting to do this. We also got to ride a school bus over to the Arboretum from the Penn State parking lot, since it was going to be a big event and parking is limited. The girls were very excited by that as well. Here are some moments we captured!
On the bus:
Painting pumpkins:
On the bus:
Painting pumpkins:
Friday, August 1, 2008
Conversations
Conversation with Lindsay tonight before bed:
Lindsay: Where did we get that picture? (talking about a picture on her bedroom wall)
Me: It came with the house
Lindsay: Who made this house?
Me: a Construction company
Lindsay: Maybe it was God, maybe he gave it to us
Me: Well, God made the trees that made the wood that built the house
Lindsay: Maybe God gave us our bikes
Me: I think people made our bikes. God gave us big things like the sun, the sky and the trees, our family
Me: You can talk to God when you are by yourself
Lindsay: I can't talk to him, he doesn't know me
Me: Yes, he does, he knows everyone because he is special
Lindsay: How can I go see him?
Me: We can't, he's too far away
Lindsay: But what street do we drive on to get there?
Me: We can't drive there
Lindsay: Oh, he's up in the sky, right?
Me: That's right
Lindsay: I bet an airplane would know the way
Lindsay: Where did we get that picture? (talking about a picture on her bedroom wall)
Me: It came with the house
Lindsay: Who made this house?
Me: a Construction company
Lindsay: Maybe it was God, maybe he gave it to us
Me: Well, God made the trees that made the wood that built the house
Lindsay: Maybe God gave us our bikes
Me: I think people made our bikes. God gave us big things like the sun, the sky and the trees, our family
Me: You can talk to God when you are by yourself
Lindsay: I can't talk to him, he doesn't know me
Me: Yes, he does, he knows everyone because he is special
Lindsay: How can I go see him?
Me: We can't, he's too far away
Lindsay: But what street do we drive on to get there?
Me: We can't drive there
Lindsay: Oh, he's up in the sky, right?
Me: That's right
Lindsay: I bet an airplane would know the way
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