Annalee's Birthday

So, they started pitocin at 6 am, and I felt my first contraction at 7am...and I thought...hhhhhhmmm....that's not so bad...and within an hour this is what I looked like during a contraction :)








Not exactly fun, but still manageable, around 10 the doc came in to check me and my water broke, (and it was ALOT...remember the high fluid levels) and flooded the entire bed...I was sitting in a good inch of water...

Things really picked up at this point, I was 4 cm, and I felt like time was flying by. The pain got a lot worse and Jay was having to help me concentrate through each of them at this point. The nurse asked if I was ready for my epidural, and since I had been hoping to go natural (yeah right, I was such a newb) I said no not yet... a little later she came in and said that the anesthesiologist was going in to a c-section, and may not be available for a while, was I sure I didn't want it now...and just like that I caved...IT HURT! Within a few minutes I was asking when he was coming, it was really getting intense... And when he finally did get there, I had to sit curled over with my feet in a pretty little chair (that got soaked since water gushed with each contraction) and try not to puke as each of the pains came, gripping Jay's hand the whole time, while the doc tried 3...yes 3 different times to get the needle in, apparently the 2 vertebrae they like to go between are to close together in my spine, so they had to go a little lower and it FINALLY worked! YAY!! Thank you Jesus for pain meds! It was awesome, I felt great and ready to enjoy the rest of my labor, which we were convinced would be a quite a few more hours.

My mom and my older sister came, and Jay's mom and daughter came, it was about noon at this point so my mom leaves to go pick up my little sister and I send Jay out to get himself some lunch, and the nurse comes in to check me again, and guess what... I'm a 9!!!! What the Heck???? How did that happen??? And there I was without my husband!! So I made some phone calls and let everyone know it was almost time and told my hubby to get his be-hind back to the hospital ASAP!!

I was so excited!! Baby Girl was almost here! So Jay got back, and and I was checked again, and yep it was PUSH time! My mom and older sister stayed in the room too, while Jay's parents, and sister and daughter along with my younger sister were all in the waiting room...(it was awesome to have everyone there and ready to see herright after she was born)

Pushing was harder than I thought, and at one point her heart rate was dropping and so we had to try some different positions, and I was pretty sure my epi was wearing off (now after my second baby I KNOW it was wearing off)...but after about an hour she was crowning and they told me to wait...WHAT??? You want me to wait??? For anyone who's been there, when you can really feel that baby crowning it is nearly impossible to WAIT! But the doc had not yet arrived and so writhing on the table, I did my best to wait...

So the doc comes in and 2 pushes later she was out...oh sweet relief! And it was totally love at first sight...I loved her while she was in my belly, but it was a whole new thing when I finally had her in my arms!

My sweet baby girl is 2 today...but here are a few pics from her original Birthday...And yes she was that clean when she came out! (I think it was all the water that kept rushing out through the labor, I think it must have worked like a shower :)








I'll post 2nd birthday pics tomorrow!!

To be Continued...

So, we barely get any sleep and get up on this date, March 28, 2007...and my doctor's appointment isn't until the afternoon, so I spend the morning much the same as the day before, just praying, and worrying and planning.

We head to the office, and get a non stress test first, and her heartbeat and movements are great, no worries there. So we head over to Joelle's office and the ultrasound room, and I'm praying the whole time, "Lord please just let us see her breathing, so that we can go into this labor and birth with peace of mind". Joelle comes in and lubes up my belly and starts looking around and do you know that the very first thing we saw was a her little mouth opening and closing over and over again taking those practice breaths we were so longing to see! It was such an awesome feeling to have that heavy weight lifted and to know my baby girl was fine!

The doc's still wanted to induce because of her size, and at that point I was so emotionally spent, I just couldn't fight them on it, and i seriously just wanted her safely in my arms...

So we left the office with the orders to go eat a big dinner and head to hospital, the induction would begin at 6 am tomorrow!

Yippee! We were finally going to meet Annalee Rose, the unexpected little miracle of our very short married life...just barely 9 months at that point...

I was so nervous and excited, I could barely pack my bag, and we seriously procrastinated and didn't get to the hospital until 9 pm...they were expecting us and were beginning to wonder if we had changed our minds. We got the very unfun IV line run while watching our friend Chris on American Idol, and the very nice nurses gave me an ambien to help me sleep that night, but I awoke bright and early at 5 am...Let this awesome day begin!

To be continued...

It's my Due Date!

Well, 2 years ago anyway :)... This was my due date with Annalee...I woke up and still no baby!! But I had a doctor's appointment that day for an ultrasound and a biophysical profile of Annalee. At my doctor's office, if you make it to your due date, they do this just to make sure the baby is still doing well in utero and not in any distress.

I was already on Maternity Leave, and my plans were to have lunch with Carla and Dana and then meet Jay at the appointment, excited to see our baby girl again and try not to give in to the doc's about induction. I was hugely pregnant as you can see from the picture that was taken just a few days prior, and very ready to have her, but I wanted to go into labor on my own.

So we get to the appointment and they start the ultrasound, the biophysical profile is part of the ultrasound, where they check certain things as a way of gauging how well the baby is doing. They did a lot of measuring all her bones, and they measured my amniotic fluid and they checked for her practicing breathing.

Annalee failed the test. Apparently my amnioitic fluid levels were higher than they liked to see, she was measuring 9 lbs already, her leg bones measured at 41 weeks, and the scariest one...she wasn't practicing breathing... Jay and I sat in that room will Joelle the u/s tech (that I now know on a first name basis after these 2 babies, she's also the one that was with us and told us about the spot on Jude's heart) as she told us what she was and wasn't seeing. She gave Annalee a good 15 minutes of us just sitting and staring at the screen to start practicing taking breaths, and she just didn't. No amount of prodding would get her to do it.

I can't really explain what it felt like to sit there,willing this baby inside my body to please take some practice breaths so we could know she was ok. Up until this day, I didn't realize how important this was, but suddenly it seemed monumental. Their were a couple of questions running through my head "why isn't she practicing, has she not been practicing at all, are her lungs completely under developed to the point where she will not be able to breathe on her own outside of my body?? Are we going to have a sick baby that has to stay in the NICU for weeks until her lungs develop, or worse yet, is she even going to make it??? How can you have a full term baby with under developed lungs?"

It was a very scary time, and I really didn't know what to think or do. The doc came in to talk to us. They really wanted to go ahead with induction that night. Mainly due to her size, they were concerned about a possible c- section if she got any bigger. But I was terified of delivering a baby that couldn't breath on her own, and it was just to much for me to take in. I went in hopeful and excited and was leaving scared to death... We convinced them to give us 1 more day, to wait one more day...so we were to come back the next day for another u/s and biophysical.

I remember Jay and I leaving the office and we were so scared. We kept talking about it and all the possibilities, and what it all meant. I know we spent the rest of that day and night scared and praying and we let our friends and family know so they could also be praying. I prayed and prayed and prayed that when we saw her on the screen the next day she would be taking those practice breaths.... to be continued...

A Sunday of Firsts...

Well yesterday I did the inevitable...put Jude in the nursery for the first time.  It was hard...I keep thinking all of these things are supposed to get easier with subsequent children...and they just have not!

Anyway, he did great, Adrian, (the volunteer, and I like her a lot, so that helped) was very excited to get Jude for his first service in there, but was a

lso very disappointed to learn that Annalee, would be moving up to Little Ark, our 2-3 y/o class!  I also was very sad!  She's getting so big so fast, but I knew it was time, she has totally gotten bored with the nursery and is ready for more.  

She had an awesome time, and her teachers were very nice too.  They said she did wander during the lesson, but that all the newbies do.

And the best part of the whole day...she made her very first Sunday school craft!! A beaded bracelet with a heart charm... It was just about the sweetest thing ever and is definitely going in her keepsake box...

Here are a couple of pics of her wearing it...

And here are a couple close up...notice it has a name on it...not exactly her name...a bit annoying...but I'm getting used to it, people constantly mispronounce it write it with a space and capital A and L...It's Annalee people (pronounced like emily)...anyway I better get used to it!

Either way the bracelet is precious and I will treasure it forever! 

His Shadow

Today Jay came home for lunch and decided to install one of the ceiling fans that we got for the kids rooms (probably not the best idea on your 1 hour lunch break...but ya know we've been living here for 2 1/2 years with light bulbs hanging from the ceiling...so I was NOT gonna say anything) so he is walking back and forth through the house going from tool box to Annalee's room several times, and we notice that he has a shadow... a very small shadow...Annalee is following him every where he goes carrying her tools she got for Christmas!  She so wants to be like Daddy! 

*******Disclaimer**********

Please excuse her hair...she had just had lunch and had dumped her bowl of Mac and cheese on her head...this hair was the result of me trying to clean it up as much as possible with a wet paper towel to avoid a bath in the middle of the day...

I really only got "action" shots, because she would not stop following Jay around long enough for me to get a good picture...

And there's this one, where she got bored (and tired since it was her nap time) of waiting on him to come back and work...

She is such a card!

We are ready for Spring!!

For some reason this winter has been unusually plagued with sickness. It seems everyone we know has been sick, sometimes over and over again.   There has been a horrible stomach bug going around  that some families I know have had several times, thankfully we have not had this one!  But we have had our share of sickness this winter.  When baby Jude was just 7 weeks old he got RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) which is basically a virus that attacks the tiny alveoli in your bronchial tubes.  It can be dangerous for children and deadly in newborns and infants.  Thankfully Jude did very well and he did not have to be hospitalized, although he did have to have round the clock breathing treatments and we had to count his breaths and keep track of his temp on a regular basis, slight changes in either would have sent us to the ER.  But he was strong and healthy and fought it off like a champ, and even though we were all exhausted by the time he was better, we also were unbelievable thankful that it wasn't any worse than it was...

Here is a picture of little 7 week old Jude during a breathing treatment.  The nebulizer had a really cool paci attachment that he liked pretty good that made things a little easier.

And now it's Annalee's turn...Yesterday morning she woke up with a 101 temp.  My first thought was "maybe it's just her 2 year molars"  by 11 am I knew this was not the case, her temp was now up to 102.8...so I call the doc and get her an appointment for 2 pm.  We go and they check everything...ears-Clear, nose-Clear, throat-clear, chest-clear, GREAT!  But what's wrong???  They do a flu test just to be sure, but since she really didn't have a runny nose or cough, we knew it wasn't likely , and nope no FLU!  Which is awesome, but it leaves us with some un-namable fever virus! That we can do absolutely nothing for except treat the fever and wait for it to run it's course...so here we are... Day 2 and she is a miserable girl, just laying around, which is just not like my girl...her fever went up to 103.5 last night and thankfully we have not seen that number yet today, but she seems very achey.  I gave her bath today in hopes it would make her feel better (hey, it works for me!) but she cried through the whole thing and acted as though it hurt to have the water touch her skin...so pitiful!  Here is a pic I took of her today... 

Hopefully it will run it's course sooner rather than later...

I just want my girl back...and boy am I ready for SPRING! 

Snow Day!

This week both of my babies got to see their very first snow!!  Well, I don't think Jude actually "saw" it, but it was his first snow regardless!  Annalee, however, LOVED it!!  She wanted to stay out in it all day!  She was completely oblivious or immune or something to exactly how stinking COLD it was outside!  It started snowing around 5 pm on Sunday evening and didn't stop until maybe around 11 pm, I think we got somewhere around 5 inches!!  Which is a huge amount of snow for us!  We took Annalee out soon after it started because we were afraid it wouldn't last.  We didn't even bother putting her shoes on, Jay just carried her around...

Then a little later we actually put her in what little "cold weather" clothes we had for her and let her get down and walk around in it!  She loved loved loved it!  Especially when jay showed her she could eat it!  That's all she wanted to do!

But it was such a wet snow that we could only let her stay out a short while, and she was already soaked all the way through her clothes, so she came in and got a warm bath and I made peanut butter cookies, and we just enjoyed the beautiful snow falling and being warm and toasty in our house!  But it was short lived...at about 11 pm, the power went out...oh joy of joys!  Of course both babies were already in bed, and so instead of packing them and basically everything but the kitchen sink up and heading to Mimi and Bumpy's, we decided to just bundle everyone up in our bed and hope it would be back on by morning!  Let me tell you it was a cold night!  Annalee has not slept in our bed since she was 3 months old, so I really didn't know how that would go, but she did great!  Other than waking up a few times and saying "Hey, Mama, Daddy"  she was perfect, but she did wake up quite often...I had put Jude in the bassinet that we still had in our room, and pulled it right up next to the bed and had him all bundled in a sleep sack and a hat and 2 big blankets, I was afraid to put him in bed with us since we were already squished in, I didn't want to smoother him!  But every time I woke up to check him his little hands and cheeks just kept getting colder and colder so around 5:30 I got him in with us too...we were cozy to say the least!  We finally gave it up around 7 am, and got things ready to head to Mimi's where there was power, YAY!!  So we spent the rest of the day there, enjoying a little time off from normal life, and our power was finally restored around 5 pm on Monday.  And the crazy thing is we STILL have a little snow left in our yard so I took a few pics of Annalee and Jude out there this morning...my little snow bunnies!