Tuesday, November 11, 2008

1 month old..and it's going way too fast

Well, Ava is one month old tomorrow and I can't believe it. She's growing so fast and is getting more and more advanced every day. She's getting so much better at things like picking up her head and smiling... it's amazing. I better not blink, she'll be 18 before I know it (so scary).

Becoming a mom is the best thing to ever happen to me - despite the large lack of sleep. Rich and I feel so blessed to have her here. Despite the "surprise", we wouldn't trade it for the world. We just adore her and Rich says that she's too cute, she'll end up getting away with everything ;)

So much has happened lately, with her birth and the passing of Mom (as Dad calls the circle of life), I wish I could be at home. I miss my family and am so ready to go back (Christmas, I can't wait!).

Ava's sleeping right now - she always looks so peaceful. She'll be keeping me up in no-time and I've got a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning. lol. She'll have her one month check-up on thursday as well.

I finished my master's degree in education on sunday and I'm very, very happy with myself. Poor Rich had to put up with me saying I'd quit every week. Luckily he threated to not help pay my loans back if I quit, so I decided to stick with it.. lol, no but really, I'm so glad I didn't take time off like I said I was going to - Now I'm finished!! Whoohoo!

Anyway, I hope everyone's doing well and i can't wait to see everyone soon

The story of Ava's arrival

Being she's a month old tomorrow, I know I'm a little late, but here's a copy of her birth story. I hope you enjoy and I promise to try to keep the blog up more now ;)

Alright, here's the story :) It'll be long, I'm sure.I woke up at 9am Saturday morning (the day before her due date) with cramping and other signs that I was in labor. But, since I had a false alarm 2 weeks before, I didn't hold my breath and went on with my day. My sister-in-law Heather (thank you for EVERYTHING) came into town on Friday to help out with things, so on Saturday, we headed out to town at around noon or so to go walking in the mall (it was nasty outside) to see if it actually would get things moving. So we were there around half an hour, then went to lowes to pick out a new color for the baby's room since we moved, then went to walmart to find Heather a reading lamp for her room since we didn't have one (this lamp officially caught on fire about 2 weeks later).. After that, I was hungry, so we decided to take a trip to Dairy Queen (nutritious right?). I got a chocolate covered strawberry waffle bowl sundae and Rich and Heather laughed at me b/c I'd said before that that I wanted a milkshake. lol. After that we headed home because I felt the need to rest and my contractions were picking up.

We got home at around 4, I went and napped for about an hour, still feeling them. I didn't sleep much and when Heather came in around 5 to see how I was doing, we decided it would be best to head to the hospital.We got to the hospital and got checked into a room at around 6pm. I was dialated to a 4 and contracting regularly, so they decided to keep me. I was thrilled, although quite uncomfortable. At around 9pm, the anesthesiologist came in and did my epiduryl, which felt pretty good at the time. They also broke my water around 9 too. The contractions starting becoming painful around midnight, I got a break at around 3:30am for an hour or so (didn't sleep) At around 5am, my contractions starting getting really painful, but I wasn't quite progressing fast enough and was in a lot of pain. They gave me pitocin to get things moving along and WOW the contractions really started to hurt. Finally, at around 6, they decided to let me push since I was at 9.5cms and nearly fully effaced. Well, I pushed for 3 hours, she moved down to a +1 station and eventually jumped BACK up to a 0 station.. WELL CRAP..After me BEGGING for it to stop (the pressure was unbelievable, especially w/out an epiduryl b/c it ran out), they talked to the doctor and he told them to let me labor down for a while.. so after pushing for so long.. NO MORE PUSHING. well, HOLY CRAP THAT HURT. So at that point, I didn't care about the screaming b/c I was in so much pain. Finally at 10am, (25 hours later), the doctor comes in and informs me that he thinks the baby is too big and that she's NOT getting past my tiny pelvis. The recommendation: C-section. Rich was a little nervous, but at this point, I was so ready for it to end and so exhausted that I was welcome to see a light at the end of the long, long tunnel.They got me prepped (anesthesia is a fantastic thing) and I was numb from the upper chest down, in order to not feel any pain from the procedure. Eventually, Rich and Heather joined me in the OR for support. Once they started cutting, I felt absolutely NO pain, only pressure and tugging (THAT WAS WEIRD!). About 10 minutes later, I hear some suction (which apparently came from trying to get Ava out of the birth canal) and wala! They pulled Ava out and I immediately heard her cry. I've never been so happy in my life. They brought her over to me, I kissed her on the head and they whisked her away to the nursery for her assessment. They had Rich and Heather go with her since I needed to be sewn back up. The anesthesiologist (different from the one who gave the epi) gave me something to take the edge off of the pressure of being sewn up (once again, it didn't hurt). Whatever it was, it was AWESOME. lol. I didn't sleep, but definitely relaxed a lot more. After putting me back together (lol) , we got the call that she weighed 8lbs, 11.5oz - A BIG girl for my size, definitely takes after her daddy. The dr. then came around to talk to me and told me that she would have definitely been too big for me to push out and he's very confident in the decision to have me have a c-section. That was a relief. They put staples in me, that's definitely interesting.

Ava had some fluid in her lungs, which is common in c section babies, so she was put on oxygen and given an APGAR score of an 8 (out of 10), after being pulled off oxygen, she was a 9 (no baby is a 10). Perfect!They sent me to recovery for an hour while Ava got weighed, assessed and her footprints done (she has big feet). I then went up to the post partum rooms where both Rich and Ava joined me and I breastfed for the first time (it was AMAZING). Although frustrating at times, it definitely is worth it.

We stayed a couple days while I recovered, got walking around and was able to walk to the bathroom on my own (wow, humiliating). We were sent home on the 14th with a bili-blanket since she started to jaundice. We took her home, wrapped her up in it, fed her lots of fluids (even supplementing with formula) and hoped for the best - we were to return to the hospital lab in the morning to test her again and see if her numbers were lower. We went in the next morning at around noon, got her heel pricked and went to lunch. At around 2pm, Rich got the call from Dr. Luu (the pediatrician) that her numbers were still climbing and that she needed UV light trreatment. I cried like a baby b/c I couldn't stand the thought of something being wrong and my hormones are all over the place right now.. We went into the drs. office, he told us to go over to the hospital and that we would stay 2 days at most in order to flood the jaundice out of her body. We got here around 4pm and have been here ever since. We did get word that after only about 45 minutes under the light, her numbers went from a 17.8 to a 16.2. We're hoping for even better results in the morning (she needs to be a 12).

Anyway, that's our story :) In the end, the c-section was definitely the best choice for both of us and even with the soreness, I couldn't be happier :)

Written while we were still in the hospital for her Jaundice. Of course, it's 4 weeks later and she's very, very healthy :)

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Sleepless.. in Portales

It's 3:53am here and guess what I'm not doing? If you guessedleeping, you are indeed correct. In these last few weeks, sleeping certainly becomes harder to do. I think my mind has trouble slowing down, so I lay awake and think about stuff for ages. It drives Rich batty. He'll be up in about an hour and a half for work.. although I'll probably end up back in bed before then.

Ava is squirming right now and my nose is stuffy. My allergies have gotten worse in the last week or so - yet another reason why I'm awake right now... I don't do well with breathing out of one nostril :-p Apparently this part of NM is well-known for people who didn't have allergies before leaving with them - yeah, that sounds like fun, lemme tell you.

In my 37th week now and ready for this to happen. Although I say that now, it'll be interesting to see my reaction when it actually is happening.

Thanks for reading, time for sleep again.. hopefully

Monday, September 15, 2008

Almost there!

Okay, so its been awhile.. to say the least considering I'm *almost* finished with my pregnancy and the last post was when I was 20 weeks along. WOW, I'm a slacker!

For those of you that read (not many), I apologize for not keeping up with this, but to be honest, I TOTALLY forgot I had it until I was reading labor & delivery blogs on blogspot and suddenly a lightbulb appeared above my head...

Anyway, the pregnancy is going well. I finally got rid of my quack of a dr. back in Del Rio (not really, we moved, but still), but I am VERY pleased with the clinic here in New Mexico. They obviously did things right b/c baby is measuring RIGHT ON and is doing very well.

The last few weeks have been amusing and stressful, but as usual, we made it through. In the last 6 weeks we moved, got a new dr. for me, Rich found a new job and we got the house (mostly) painted the way we want it. Although, the baby's room IS done, to say the least.

I'm 36/37 weeks (it depends on who you ask), so now the countdown is really on. My body is definitely starting to prepare for this big adventure considering the consistent aches and pains that occur on a regular basis. Not to mention the insomnia that ensues. For example, its 1:36am here, Rich is fast asleep and well, I'm blogging apparently. From how active she is, it seems that Ava is going to be a night owl as well (uh-oh).

I have to say that between the braxton-hicks contractions and not trying to pee myself, its been an interesting few weeks. As of right now, I'm calm about labor & delivery, but I'm sure that if my water broke at this minute, I'd probably panic - although the baby's carseat is in the car and my hospital bag is in there too...

Rich and I found a house for really cheap today that we absolutely loved. The mortgage payments would actually be about $400 cheaper than our Base Allowance for Housing. Now to just see if we can move out of the off-base housing for Cannon.

Anyway, more later, I promise I'll keep you updated in these last few weeks.

xoxo

KWM

Thursday, June 5, 2008

20 weeks

Well, we are WELL on our way :) A little over 4 months to go :) yay! I'm getting big, which is strange - as stupid as it sounds, I thought it'd never happen. lol.

I feel good. Still tired, but I figure I should get used to that ;-). We're doing fine and trying to survive until moving time at the end of July. Rich leaves for Survival training on Wednesday and won't be back until July 5th. It's okay though cuz I get to go home June 17 - 24th! My oldest sister, Shannon and her kids are even coming up and I can't wait to see everyone!!!

I really don't have much to update - the last US went well, the baby looks fine and healthy - we DIDN'T find out the sex (dangit!) but - we have another 3D ultrasound on Monday so WE BETTER find out!! I'm totally losing my patience here!

I miss everyone and hope you're doing well!

<3 Kelly

Monday, May 19, 2008

WHOA!

Holy crap!


20 weeks now, or close to it. I don't know where we are right now. lol.


The baby is doing *great*! We had an appointment last week and heard the heartbeat (152). It always makes me feel better to hear that. He/she is kicking like crazy, which is also a blessing. I love being able to feel that movement!


We had a little hiccup a few weeks ago. We got our triple screen results back (which test for down syndrome, spina bifida, and trisomy) and one them was positive. We got a 3D ultrasound done and everything looked fine! There's no markers for any of them, so a false positive :-p. Those things have a 90% rate of false positive, so I'm not really sure why they do them in the first place! Our prayers were answered and everything was fine :) Praise Him!


I'm feeling pretty good these days. I had a really bad headache the last few days, I'm not really sure why. I'm getting bigger these days (belly-wise) but my walking daily has kept my weight down elsewhere. I'm gaining weight exactly where and when I need to, which is awesome.


Rich is doing well, he just graduated from AF pilot training on Friday (May 16th) and we were all really excited to see him finish! His parents came down to share the occassion and we had a great time seeing them. We're headed to Ohio for a family reunion on Wednesday until next Monday - a much needed break, I think. He's really looking forward to seeing his extended family and i'm looking forward to meeting them for the first time (at 5 months pregnant! lol).


On saturday, some friend of mine here in Del Rio threw me a surprise baby shower.. it was awesome :) So sweet, I definitely was not expecting it and we got some great stuff!!!


We'll find out the sex on May 30th!! I can't wait!!!!

3D US at around 16 weeks:


Monday, April 21, 2008

15 weeks, 5 days :)

Well, we're almost to 16 weeks now :) Everything is going according to plan. I'm healthy, the baby's healthy.. so far, so good!
Rich went with me this time and was absolutely amazed at the ultrasound. Even I was, and I saw the first one at 9 weeks. This was totally different though since it actually looked like a baby rather than a bean ;-). We saw its little hands and feet and everything. It was amazing. I can't wait for my next one, I'm hoping they do another one at my appointment on the 28th.
I'm started to feel more excited than nervous now that I'm in my 2nd trimester. I'm also feeling better now and more energizing now.
I've started feeling the baby move every once in awhile. That in itself is a phenomenon, it feels funny.. like someone's poking me from the inside.
Oct. 10th is now my due date according to the ultrasound. Yay for a couple days earlier, but I also know that most first time moms have late arrivals...
Here's the 13 week ultrasound pic:


Sunday, March 23, 2008

11 (or 12) weeks and counting ;-)

Well, we're in week 11, or 12, I don't really know for sure. I've got different pregnancy calendars telling me different things, so I don't know. lol. I'm feeling pretty good these days, but I had a serious bout of morning sickness a few days ago. I'm also starting to show a little. My normal clothes are now having trouble fitting, which is sobering in itself.

My next doctor's appointment isn't until a couple weeks still, but I'm nervous and hope that everything turns out okay once all the test results get back. I don't see why they wouldn't but I can't help but worry.

I'm so in love with this baby, even with how small he/she is. I just hope that the next 6 months go smoothly.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Productive day :)

Today was good.. It was very productive, which made me feel a little better about the coming months :). We got tickets to Mike's graduation banquet, got Rich's mess dress for graduation, dropped off my library books that were due tomorrow (and they call Rich if they're not back on time) and tried to drop his uniform off for altering, but the lady wasn't there, so that will be done tomorrow.

Right now I'm feeling crampy. I think it might be gas (lol). I really need to start eating better (more fruits and veggies). Like I said yesterday, I have a sweet tooth when it comes to my cravings.

The dogs are driving me crazy and it makes me moody because these days I don't really feel like dealing with them since most of the time I'm not feeling well.

Rich has been AMAZING. I honestly don't know what I'd do without him. I swear, nothing would get done around here. I'm ready for my second trimester to start - considering that supposedly you stop feeling so exhausted during the 2nd trimester. Not to mention that I can stop worrying so much about miscarriage.

The countdown to drop is on.. about 6 weeks now. I can't wait to find out what's coming up next :)

That's enough for now ;-)

Monday, March 17, 2008

It's been awhile




So it's been awhile since I updated and I'm sorry for that (for the like.. maybe 2 of you that actually read this ;))




Here's an update -


Life in Texas is good, actually it's great. Finally being in the same house with Rich is unbelievable and never really thought it was possible to love somebody so much.




We have 2 dogs - Pipsqueak and Minnie. They're adorable, even if they annoy the crap out of me somedays




I'm working as a substitute teacher at the local high school here in Del Rio. It's okay most days, but the kids here are different and don't really care about how well they do in school. I don't remember feeling that way when I was in school, but I don't know.




Currently, Rich is running around the duplex riling up the dogs. Hopefully he won't fall and hurt himself. lol




Rich is doing well in pilot training. T-1 was definitely the way to go for him. He "drops" (which is when we find out where we're going next and what plane he'll be flying) on May 2nd and graduates either on or around May 15th.




March 3rd - Rich and I found out that I'm pregnant with our first child. It was a big surprise but we're both really excited. Here's the story:




The Thursday before we found out, I starting feeling nauseous. I thought that maybe it was something I had eaten or that I had caught some kind of flu bug while working at the high school since a few weeks before I had taken a pregnancy test - which had shown as negative, so being pregnant didn't really seem like a possibility - but I later figured out that I took it at the wrong time of day (you're supposed to take it in the morning, I didn't know that and took it in the evening and nothing showed)




Anyway, Finally after 3 days of consistently feeling nauseous and having food aversions, Rich convinces me to go pick up a pregnancy test. I pick one up Sunday night - don't sleep at all on Sunday night and get up at 5:45am on Monday to take the test.




I take it - and face the wall for a couple minutes to try and calm myself - then turn back to expect to see "Not pregnant" and it says "pregnant"!




I then ran into the bedroom to tell Rich - who ended up being really excited.




I'm now 10 weeks along and feeling pretty good. My morning sickness is better than it was last week. The only thing that really bothers me these days is having to pee every 5 minutes (at least it feels like it) and the feeling tired all the time.




My food cravings mainly consist of anything sweet. I'm trying to stay fit but finding the energy to exercise is hard these days. I'm trying to work up the courage to try doing the hatha yoga class here on base. Rich is doing his best to keep up with my cravings, exhaustion and mood swings.




Here's to the next 6 1/2 months!