it's bee a long time...

I haven't blogged in weeks. I feel like I can't just take the time to sit down and actually WRITE anything. I could write short little things, but for the most part, I've been too fucking busy! But now I'll take the time to write something. Aren't you lucky?

So we'll start out with the obvious. The pregnancy. As of today I'm 24w3d...but I feel much farther along. I'm not sure if that's because I realized that there is only about 3 more months left in this pregnancy. Three more months? Are you kidding? I don't feel like I have ANYTHING done yet. I don't have nearly enough little baby clothes....yesterday, Bradford and I went out and bought the last big things for baby girl (a swing, bouncer and playard) that are going to be shipped with our household goods. I'm not AS worried about clothes, or diapers, or anything small and light because we can either try to shove that into our suitcases, or we can have mom and dad hang on to it until we get a house and we'll have them mail it to us. The big things were what I was worried about. Anyway...so the pregnancy has been going good...baby girl is moving like crazy and keeping me up at night now. Bradford gets to feel her more and more (when he's actually trying) Reilly is still excited to have another girl -- though, we're still trying to talk her out of the name Princess Baby. *sigh* I've been trying to reason with her that if she names the baby Princess, SHE won't get to be a princess anymore. Unfortunately, she keeps saying that they can both be a princess. Whatever Reilly. We STILL don't have a name for the baby picked out...there are a couple that we have that we're thinking about, but nothing set in stone at all. But I have no doubt that we'll have a name picked out by the time she comes.

Only a few people know about this, but I had to go to Labor & Delivery last week. I had some bleeding and cramping and my doctors wanted me to go just to make sure everything was okay. So I called Brad and I went and picked him up at work so he could go in with me to L&D. The only reason, I believe, that they had me go in, was because at my first ultrasound, I had a low lying placenta, which, if it doesn't correct itself, could end up covering my cervix -- which would mean a c-section for me. So they had me go in and lay down in L&D...monitored me to make sure I wasn't having contractions (I wasn't), they listened to the babies heartbeat, then they did an ultrasound to make sure everything was the way it was supposed to be. From the looks of the ultrasound and what the OB said, everything seemed fine. I just needed to take it easy for the rest of the day. He also put me on pelvic rest until my next scheduled ultrasound so they can double check to make sure that the placenta has moved. Apparently, he couldn't really tell...he said "it looks like the placenta has moved....I mean, I don't see it by the cervix..." -- he seemed like he didn't know what he was doing to me....butttttt whatever. He gave me a green bill of health, just pelvic rest until 7 June.

We move to Hawaii in about a month. 3 July is our OFFICIAL departure date. We have movers coming this week to pack up all our stuff...which is why we've been trying to get everything taken care of before hand...we have to get everything in the room we want it in, and we're working really hard on getting everything together that we DON'T want, so we don't take it to Hawaii when we don't need it. In the last couple days, I've compiled 3 bags of clothes that Reilly doesn't fit into anymore. wtf. I didn't realize we still HAD that many clothes still that she didn't fit into! Holy crap. Now, if I was smart....or cheap....I'd be saving all that stuff for baby girl. But seriously? Who wants to keep cloths around for at least 3 years? Not this lady. Anyway...we're all pretty excited. Today and tomorrow are packing days.....kinda sorta. I gotta get together all the stuff that isn't ours, (Jake & Trish!!) and I gotta get a couple things back from Brooke (cookbooks!) and I gotta start packing out bags for mom and dad's house...including getting Reilly's DS & iPod together with chargers, and getting our laptops separated. I also have to set things aside for Friday, which is when we have our unaccompanied baggage packed up, and I gotta figure out A- what we want to ship and B- how to get it all together easily.

So that's the next couple days. Just going through stuff. Blah.

I PROMISE I'll take the time to blog more...not that anyone reads this. But whatever.

<3

Mother's Day

I know I'm a day late, but Happy Mothers Day to all the mommies!! For my Mothers Day post, I actually wanted to post my birth story from Reilly. It was written over 4 years ago, about a day and a half after I got out of the hospital...

Just wanted to remind myself that it's all worth it...

Hope you enjoy. (btw, this is direct cut and paste so apologies for anything that's off in the post. lol)


Late Tuesday night I started having contractions [around 12-1am] that weren't that bad...they just felt like I was starting my period. I was able to sleep through them. Around 4am I woke up to go pee and I noticed that they were a little stronger, but again I was able to sleep through them. Brett had to get up at 6am because him and Brooke had to go get Brett had to get up at 6am because him and Brooke had to go get his mom's truck for the day and I was the one with the alarm clock, who would actually wake up to it. So I got up at 6, with the plan being that Brooke was going to go get the truck, come home, get Xander and take him to the dentist and then school and I would sleep in with KK. Well, around 7am, after everyone had left, my contractions started getting really bad. I was still able to talk and walk [I was trying to call my mom and I ended up talking to my brother] through my contractions. When they were getting so bad that I was trying not to cry through them, I told Brooke that she needed to figure out something to do with this kids because I wanted to go to the hospital...this was around 9am. I was going on 2 hours of contractions by myself. I wasn't have a very good time coping with them. I couldn't breath right, nothing I could do was calming me down, and I was panicing, mostly because I was by myself. Brooke called Brett and told him to come home from work. Brooke came home to me sitting on to me sitting on the couch trying not to cry. She got KK ready [Xander got dropped off at school and was going with a friend after] and packed me a bag for the hospital while Brett was on his way home. About 15 minutes after Brett got home, we headed to the hospital.



I got there at around 10am and was immediately admitted in. By this point I had very much decided that I wanted an epidural and told them upon admission so that they would have it ready for me once I was examined. I got taken back to the exam room where they checked my blood pressure, and babies heart beat and my contractions. My mom met us there. I peed in a cup and got dressed into my gown [they are so hot by the way] and was on the table. The nurse checked me and I was at 6 cms. Holy hell. I didn't plan on staying home THAT long, but I obviously had no way of checking to see how far along I was, and I was in such pain I couldn't time my contractions, so I had absolutely no clue how far along I could possibly be. They got a room ready for me and I headed down there, having contractions the whole way. I don't really remember much of what happened between the time I was admitted and the time that my epidural started working because I was in such pain. They got me in the room, got an IV started and everything. They got Sharon, my midwife in the hospital. They got the epidural guy [I don't know how to spell it] and everything went by pretty quick. The epidural hurt, and it was hard to stay still through my contractions, but god damnit it was worth it! I would have had a horrible birthing experience if I hadn't gotten that epidural. I got that around 10:45pm. Between 11am and 12pm I was checked every ten minutes it seemed like. Blood pressure and temp. My dad and brother had shown up by this point, as had our friend Jessi. At 12:30, my midwife came and checked me to see how dilated I was and I was at 9.5cm. 3.5cm's in a little over 2 hours. The nurse said that like that it would be likely that I'd start pushing within the hour or so. At 1:40 or so, my midwife came back, checked, and I was at 10cm and it was time to push.

The pushing was by far the worst. Not because I was in pain, because I wasn't, but because I pushed for almost 3 hours. I started on my back [not flat] and pushed that way for about an hour and a half. They then flipped me to my side, which seemed to take hours to do. Then my midwife started suggesting that we use a vacuum and that was NOT something I was AT ALL interested in. But I protested a bit, and she understood, and we tried squatting with the bar, and then back on my back. About half way into my third hour of pushing, my midwife said that I would have to have an episiotomy. I was NOT about that. I tried protesting it, and she said we could try about 4 more contractions and if there wasn't progress, we'd have to or else we have to do something more...so I said okay. I ended up having an episiotomy, but from what she said afterward, I needed it. And knowing that she doesn't do them unless they are absolutely necessary made me feel a lot better. After that, a couple more contractions and my baby was born into the world! They layed her on my tummy, and since I had been pushing for so long they cut the cord immediately [:(] and put an O2 mask on her to make sure she was breathing okay...which she was. We came home on Thursday after spending a day and a half in the hospital with all the awesome nurses! We're breastfeeding and she is an awesome eatter! She latches on so well and just goes and goes! She's been liking to stay up and night and since Wednesday I've been running off of about 10-12 hours of sleep! But I never realized that you could love something so tiny so much. I'm trying not to cry right now I'm just so happy to finally have her here. I don't want to let her go and putting her in her swing or bassinet is just yucky for me. I love it when she sleeps right next to me, especially on my chest. *sigh* This is what heaven is. :)

Reilly Eryn, born March 29, 2006 @ 4:39pm. 7lbs 1oz, 20in




Happy Mothers Day!!! :D