More Pics!
19
Nov 2009
Rocky’s First Bath
Grandma and Rocky
Happy Dreams
Sideways Zane
My Favorite Picture!
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
Two Weeks Old!
19
Nov 2009
Rocky is 2 Weeks Old! He has been doing great and we are all adjusting really well! Zane is so absolutely in love with his brother, but is really really excited for Rocky to get a little bit older so he can play with him! Rocky is really good baby! He has his fussy time between 10-12 at night, but after that he will usually sleep until 5 which is really nice! He sleeps a lot during the day, but he is starting to have more and more alert times that we are really enjoying! I am still struggling to get my energy back, I was really anemic after I had Rocky so I am hoping my extra iron pills will help. I am starting to feel like the fog is lifting a little bit and hopefully soon we will back to being members of society again!
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
Pics of Rocky
19
Nov 2009
Rocky’s Awesome Hat-The Day We Left the Hospital (Saturday)
The Look Rocky Gave us the Whole First Week of His Life-Like he just couldn’t figure out what the Heck was going on!
One Week Old and So Sleepy!!
12 Days Old
Mommy and Rocky
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
Rocky’s Arrival!!! Part 2-Ready or Not, Here I Come!
19
Nov 2009
**Just a Note: It took me 2 weeks to finally write this so I hurried through to make sure I got it done, I may have left stuff out so I may come back and edit it later!**
I spent most of Wednesday in bed resting, I was feeling a little better but still not back to normal. My body felt so achy and weak, it was hard to walk around. By late afternoon I was feeling a little bit better, and came out in the living room to hang out with my family for a while. I even sat on my birthing ball for a good 5 minutes. Zane was at a play-date with Carys, and Ian, my Mom, Whitney and I were just hanging around in the living room. I was tired of my birthing ball, and feeling pretty weak, so I went to my favorite Orange Chair to sit and rest. As I went to sit down, I raised my leg up so I could sit on it. As I did that I felt this gush of fluid. I totally froze. I immediately jumped up and told my family that I thought my water had just broke, and of course, they totally started freaking out. Everybody jumped out of their seats, they were all asking me if I was sure, and they all looked so excited! I was freaking out. I felt this instant sense of panic. I was not ready for this! I was still so weak and shaky, I had no confidence that I would be able to do this. I started pacing back and forth in the living room, saying I wasn’t totally sure. My mom had me try and sit back the way I had before, and when I went to sit down, another gush of fluid came out. Oh Crap. This was really it! My family started grabbing bags, calling Rachel to come watch Zane and Kaleb, Ian jumped in the car to go pick up Zane. I simply paced back and forth in the living room. I was seriously freaking out. I started grabbing all of this random stuff and putting it in my hospital bag. More clothes, Q-tips, Stuff I thought Rocky might need. My family was making sandwiches, telling jokes, they all seemed so excited, especially since they were not the ones that had to push this baby out!
My water broke at 6, at 7 my family was finally full of sandwiches and ready to go to the hospital. On the drive to Paradise, I started having some contractions. They were just painful enough for me to completely be freaking out. I was seriously as white as a ghost. I felt so not ready to do what I knew I was going to have to do. I had just spend the last few days barely able to get out of bed. My family was talking and laughing while I sat in the front seat totally silent. When we pulled up to the Birthing Center my family started to get out of the car but I made them stop. I asked them to say a prayer with me. Now, regardless of your personal religious beliefs, I am a huge believer in prayer. It makes me feel better. There have been times that I have doubted my beliefs, or organized religion in general, but I have ALWAYS believed in prayer. There is something so reassuring about asking God, or even just the universe to watch over you. I said a prayer asking for the ability to be strong, and not to freak out. I believe those were my exact words, Dear God, Do Not Let Me Freak Out!! Amen. I immediately felt better. As we walked down the hallway my contractions were already coming faster and harder. I told the lady at the desk that my water had broke, and she said she believed me, which I thought was a kind of weird thing to say. Maybe they get a lot of liars at this particular hospital?!
The took us into the delivery room and hooked me up to a bunch of machines. They have this awesome machine that they hook around my belly that shows a line graph of my contractions, with the spikes being higher depending on how hard the contraction is. It is pretty cool to see the line go all the way off the chart when you are having a really bad contraction. It kind of makes me feel like, see, this is a really big line, so I am allowed to be yelling like this!! My contractions were pretty painful at this point and coming every couple minutes, but I was in the zone. I was totally focused and my breathing was perfect and I was totally in control. The nurses kept saying how fast my labor was going to go, which I totally expected since Zane’s was only 4 hours. They called the midwife that was on duty, but for some reason she was not there, so they called the other midwife to come to the hospital, and I was so so happy because it was my favorite midwife!! The same midwife that delivered Zane. As soon as she came in the room I knew this was going to go well. We had already done this before, 6 years ago. I knew exactly what to expect from her, and she knew exactly what to expect from me and my body. She checked me and I was dilated 6 centimeters already. My contractions were coming fast and furious, and she reminded me again that this was probably going to go quickly. She also let me know that my entire bag of water had not completely ruptured yet, but as soon as it did, we were going to have to hurry because this baby was coming! I decided to get through the next hour of contractions in the shower in my room. It was seriously dejavu. Ian did exactly what he did when I was laboring with Zane and held the shower head on my back with the hottest water possible as I focused my way through the next phase of contractions. If you have the option, I highly recommend incorporating water into your birth. I cannot even explain what a difference it makes. I felt another large gush as my water broke again. The midwife was right, as soon as that happened the contractions came harder and faster. We moved back into the bed where I was now 8-9 cms. It was almost time. I had remained super focused and composed through all my contractions up to this point. Now it was getting bad. My sister Whitney recorded my voice as I was really struggling through my last phase of contractions. I seriously sounded like some sort of primal animal. My fever was creeping back up and I was beginning to get really nauseaus so they had an air mask for me to breath into in between contractions. It helped so much. Before I knew it, I had dilated to a 10 and it was time. I could absolutely feel the babys head making its way down the birth canal. Rocky came out in 2 pushes. It was so excruciatingly painful, but over so fast! I was in shock! I kept asking if that was seriously it?! I was done already?! The whole experience was so wonderful. There is this feeling after giving birth that I get that is so amazing, such a moment of pride, like I really did this?! I am Awesome! When the contractions got really bad I just kept repeating to myself, You Can Do This Heather. You did this once before and you can totally do this again. I really think having a calm, positive attitude once we got to the hospital made a huge difference.
As soon as Rocky was out they placed him on my chest, which honestly, if you had asked me I probably would of thought would of been gross, but at that instant I did not care. I was so relieved and happy and fell so instantly in love with this little guy. I was much more emotional this time than I was with Zane. I seriously was in a state of euphoria. I was so happy and so proud and so relieved to not be pregnant anymore. Rocky was finally here, and he was beautiful and healthy and everything I could of ever asked for.
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
Rocky’s Arrival!! Part One-Fever, The Flu & IV, Oh My!
10
Nov 2009
Wow. This has been a Crazy Week!! Rocky is finally here!! He is beautiful and happy and perfect and oh so sweet and we have all fallen totally and completely head-over-heels in love with him! <3
I will start from the beginning.
After I posted my blog on Monday, I went to pick up Zane from school and just started feeling bad. Not like a going into labor bad, but a Shaky, Chilly, Weak feeling. I picked up Zane, made it home, and then just laid on the couch totally and completely miserable. I took my temperature and it was over 100 degrees, and every time I took it, it would be a little bit higher. I just felt awful. Ian was at work, so I had to drive to go pick him up. Luckily it is not far from our house and we made it there safely and once we got home I just immediately went to bed. At this point my fever was over 102. Ian and my Mom were both worried, so I called the midwives. They wanted me to start taking tylenol and see how I was feeling in the morning. I wasn’t having painful contractions, so they thought it was probably the flu. That night was the worst night ever. I had this horrible pain on my lower right side, and on my lower right side of my back. I couldn’t lay down, sit down or even walk. I kept taking tylenol, and my fever would go down for a little while, but as soon as the tylenol started to wear off it would creep back up over 102 again.
In the morning I called the midwives again. Once they FINALLY called me back, they were worried enough that they decided I should come into the hospital. Once I got there they decided I was severely dehydrated enough that they hooked me up to an IV. It took them three attempts to get the needle in me, my veins were so weak. It was so painful and the whole tops of my hands were super bruised. They also monitored the baby the whole time to make sure he was doing okay. Luckily he seemed fine, but the dehydration started to cause me to have contractions. They were moderately painful, but started coming pretty regularly enough to worry the nurses. I was in no position to try and have a baby at that moment. I could barely sit up, let alone go through labor. Ian and I thought it was hilarious that when I got there they kept asking if I was hungry and trying to give me this extra plate of salmon they had. People with the flu do no want to eat your leftover salmon. I stayed at the hospital for over 4 hours before they decided my contractions had slowed down enough that I could go home.
I felt bad when I got home because I think everyone was hoping that they would just keep me there and I would have the baby. I knew that it was not time. I needed to build up some strength, physically and mentally before I was going to be able to get through labor. At this time, I had already begun stressing about about the actual birth. It was beginning to dawn on me that it was actually almost time. I was going to have to push this thing out. I don’t know if you have heard, but labor hurts. Even though my labor with Zane was short (4 hours) and a successful all natural birth, it still hurt like hell. It was just beginning to dawn on me that I was going to have to go through that again.
That night I did feel better. My temperature was still creeping up, but I felt like it was getting better. They gave me some Tamiflu, but also determined that they were pretty sure I did not have the swine flu. My body was still weak and tired and I was still so not mentally ready for labor. I was actually feeling happy that Rocky was not ready yet, I needed some more time. Little did I know, I did not have much!
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
Rocky is Here!
8
Nov 2009
Rocky was born November 4th at 10:51pm! He weighed 8 pounds 10 ounces and was 20 and 3/4 inches long!
Mom and baby came home from the hospital yesterday and are doing great!
There is of course more info to come, but honestly it could be a few days, I am too busy staring at this baby!!!
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
Updates since Thursday
2
Nov 2009
Well, my appointment on Wednesday was disappointing to say the least. My midwives office has 3 midwives, one of which I absolutely LOVE. She is the one I have seen the most, and delivered Zane. Well, when I went in on Wednesday I had a different midwife that I had only met one time before, had absolutely no idea about my situation, and the whole thing was really disappointing and frustrating. I was only dilated 3 cm, which is good, but not quite enough for them to take any action. I was bummed. I am so ready for Rocky to be here already! I have spent the last few days walking non-stop, bouncing on my birthing ball, and doing anything else I can think of to get this labor going!! My water broke with Zane when I was 4 cm, so I feel like I am so close!
I have been having every sign of labor possible, contractions, cramps, etc..but nothing consistent enough! My family is starting to totally lose it. They are more impatient than I am! Ian is so ready for Rocky to be here, he has been walking with me non-stop, which he usually hates doing. We had a really fun Halloween, we trick or treated at all kinds of events starting at noon on Saturday, and wrapped it up around 8. I was seriously on my feet walking for just about the entire 8 hours. Zane dressed as Anakin Skywalker, and we made his costume so he was super excited about it! We hung out with our favorite old-house neighbor Carys most of the day until she and Zane were both totally pooped. That girl is hilarious. Her and Zane are a match made in heaven and we miss having her so close.
On Sunday we tried to rest a little, of course my resting included more walking a ridiculous amount and bouncing on my birth ball. Zane was allowed to eat as much candy as he wanted all day, but we told him once it was time for dinner, he was done FOREVER. This plan worked perfectly for us, he got to eat a ton of candy and feel good about it, and then when dinner time came he was not upset at all to see the candy disappear. In fact, I think he was more than done!
Last night I started having contractions pretty regularly, first about 10 minutes apart for about an hour, and then they moved to 8 minutes apart for the next 2 hours! I thought we were finally getting something going!! I finally fell asleep a little after 12, and I had a couple more contractions that woke me up, but this morning they were all gone. LAME. Today I have felt nothing. I know Rocky is going to be here soon no matter what but I am so tired of just waiting around! Being a Stay at Home Mom is not nearly as fun when your child is in school all day! I want someone to play with!
A lot of excitement either way in the next couple days, my Mom is coming up tomorrow, and my sister Whitney and her son Kaleb!! They live in North Carolina and we have not seen them in months!! We are so excited!!!! I am hoping that Rocky is just being polite and waiting for their arrival before he makes his appearance. My next appointment is on Wednesday, but my expectations are at an all time low.
Back to walking and bouncing.
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
2:37 am
28
Oct 2009
That is what time I woke up this morning. It is now 4:43am and I am still sitting here, wide awake, in the living room. I can remember so vividly doing this exact same thing when I was pregnant with Zane. I would be so completely exhausted at night that I could barely get myself into bed, but then, every night, I would wake up at some ridiculous hour and be wide awake with no possible chance of falling back asleep at any decent hour. I would sit in the living room of our little yellow duplex, which, now that I think about it, was actually larger than where we live now. I did not have a laptop then, so usually I would watch some sort of horrible late night television, usually infomercials. I love infomercials.
I have a Midwife appointment this morning, actually in about 5 hours. I am a little nervous about it. At my last appointment I was dilated 2 and a half cm. She seemed to think there was a good chance that if I made it to this appointment, we would be choosing a time for me to come in and they would break my water manually, if it had not already done so on its own. Once that happens there is no turning back. Everyone is so ready for Rocky to be here. My mom seriously calls me every hour (but I think that is mostly because she is taking a week off of work as soon as I go into labor, and she is ready to be on vacation now!) Ian and Zane are so ready. Rachel is ready. We have a game plan in place and I have a some what packed suitcase. This is really going to happen. I am so ready to meet this little guy that has been hanging out with me these last 9 months. I cannot believe I am about to have two kids. I cannot believe we are about to have a newborn again. It has been 6 years since we have done this. I look at Zane and I cannot believe how much he has grown, how big he is now and sometimes I can hardly remember what it was like when he was a baby. Becoming pregnant with him was such a shock, and then to go through delivery and be given this little person that you instantly love so much that your whole entire world is thrown for a loop.I have never been the same since. Being Zane’s mother has brought me so much unexplainable joy. He has taught me so much about unconditional love. Am I really ready to have my whole life turned upside down all over again?
Everyone else is so ready for the baby to be here, but there is a part of me that just wants to hold on. Hold on to these last few days where Zane is still my baby. While he doesn’t have to share me with anyone. I just want to hold on to this last moment while we are still a little family of 3. I just want a little more time before my heart is turned completely upside down again. I spend every second of every day worrying about Zane and Ian. Are they okay? Are they happy? Are they Safe? What can I do to help make their lives a little bit easier? It can be exhausting and overwhelming. I do this because I love them so much. I just want to take care of them and protect them and hold them close and never let them leave. Now it is time to fit a third person into my heart. My heart feels so full now that it doesn’t seem possible. But I know that feeling. When they place that baby in my arms I know that all my fears and worries will simply disappear. I know that Rocky is meant to be a part of our family, and as soon as he arrives I am sure we will wonder how we ever thought we existed as a family without him.
As much as I am scared of what the future holds, I know that we are ready. Ready to take this next step as a family. Ready to all open our hearts to this new little person, and forever be changed.
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
The Countdown
23
Oct 2009
So, at my appointment on Thursday I was measuring 2 1/2 cm dilated and 70% effaced. The midwife said that Rocky is very, very low and she thinks he could bust through at any time! If I do not go into labor on my own in the next week, she said we may want to think about a day we would want to go in and she would break my water manually! So we are getting really close!! I am definitely feeling it today, just that general I feel like crap feeling with a ton of pressure in my pelvis and Rocky is so low it is very difficult to walk, or sit, or lie down, or just generally exist.
When I was pregnant with Zane, Ian’s family all took bets (a friendly, bragging rights only bet) on when they thought he would come! I thought it would be fun to do the same thing for Rocky! So, if you would like, post your guess in the comments on this post!!
What Day?
What Time?
How long will he be?
How much will he weigh?
Will he have hair or no hair?
And anything else you feel like guessing!
Should be fun to see who wins!!
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
A New Chapter
20
Oct 2009
I have always felt like I could divide Mine and Ian’s life together into chapters. There is the Dating in High School Chapter, The Moving to Chico Chapter, The Getting Married/Me Getting Pregnant Chapter (those happened so close together I will consider them one), The Zane Being Born Chapter, Moving to Sacramento Chapter, Moving Back to Chico Chapter, Me Starting the Daycare Chapter, and now we have entered this wonderful new chapter. This is a very exciting time! We are officially moved into our new home, and I love it. Yes, it is way smaller than our previous home, but there is something so cozy about it. I feel really comfortable here, which is surprising since our first night here did not go as I would hoped. Let’s just say waking up to the surprise of having our car window smashed in is not how I wanted to start this new chapter. Maybe I will make that the end of the last chapter…
My being able to just be home is such an amazing thing. It is still weird for me to run to the store in the middle of the day, or not have to listen to Kidz Bop in the morning. What’s funny is that I feel even busier now than I did when I was working all day! Trying to finish the unpacking and decorating, Getting ready for Rocky’s arrival, managing all of our schedules, that is a full time job in itself! So far, I am really enjoying it! I had a Doctor’s Appointment last week and the midwife was shocked at how low Rocky is. My labor with Zane was only 4 hours and she seems to think this one could be even shorter! I was already dilated 1 cm and had about 3 weeks left. I am definitely feeling like my body is working, and I have a feeling Rocky could be here soon! I actually would prefer another week or so before he arrives so I can finish unpacking, but I will be ecstatic to meet him whenever he decides to make his appearance!
To sum it all up, Life is Good. This may be my favorite chapter so far. Everyone in our family is really happy. Ian loves his job, Zane loves his little life and friends and is so ready to become a Big Brother. I am finally feeling a real sense of peace and am so looking forward to seeing what new challenges and experiences this new Chapter is going to bring. Whatever it is, I know we can handle it.
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
Zane
13
Oct 2009
I do not know where he gets these poses.
His Awesome Headstand!
My Personal Favorite!
More to come, including some video of his Gymnastics Demo!
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
Missing in Action
13
Oct 2009
Okay, obviously we have been busy. This past week has been a blur of packing, daycare woes, Rocky preparations, Gymnastics, a Wedding, a few meetings, and just plain day-to-day craziness! I am going to attempt to write about it all!
First off, moving is going great! We are almost done packing, I just started today packing up all the stuff that we have been holding off on until this week. Our house is finally starting to feel more empty, which, in turn, makes me feel like we are actually accomplishing something. We are all so ready to move. At first, I really thought it was going to be hard to leave our big house for something much smaller, but down sizing is really bringing us all a sense of relief. Me being able to stay home and not have to do daycare anymore is such an amazing blessing. I am so excited to start this new chapter in all our lives.
Speaking of daycare, I could not have had more signs this week that I was making the right decision quitting. This past week has left a very bad taste in my mouth for doing daycare and I doubt I will ever do it again. I cannot really elaborate, but it is safe to say that if we need me to work, I will be finding a different job in the future.
In better news, Rocky is almost here!! On Monday, Zane got to attend a class for Future Big Brothers at our Birthing Center. It was so cute! They talked all about the baby, and he got to practice changing a diaper (on a doll) and how to hold the baby. Then he got to tour the birthing center and see the rooms where Rocky will be born and where we will stay for the next day or so. It made him even more excited, which I did not think was possible! Zane is so excited about everything right now, moving, Rocky, Halloween, he is a giant ball of excited energy!
On Saturday Zane had his first Gymnastics Demonstration! His Gym put on an Olympic Festival to showcase all the hard work the kids have been doing. Zane got to showcase 2 events, the Parallel Bars and the Rings. I am just going to say now that Zane in his gymnastics uniform is, in fact, the cutest thing ever on this planet. PIctures to come.
Then, in the afternoon on Saturday, Ian and I were able to attend the wedding of some dear friends, Erik & Amy. We absolutely adore them, and they could not have had a more beautiful wedding. It was so nice to get all dressed up and go out as adults for a fun evening! I cannot remember the last time Ian and I went out alone… The wedding was so wonderful, and we got to see a bunch of friends that we don’t get to see very often, but we always have a blast when we all get together! The guys were absolutely in awe of my belly. I literally could not get them to stop touching it. You would think that would of bothered me, but they were so cute about it I thought it was so sweet! I have grown up with all of these boys and to see these goofy guys as such sweet, caring men is so weird. But I love them all and felt so honored that they went out of their way to make me feel so comfortable. Being the only pregnant person in a group of young people is not always an easy task.
Well, I have more boxes calling my name. Tomorrow is my very last day of daycare. I cannot wait. It will be so nice to only have my own kids to worry about. I am already starting to feel more relaxed!
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
2 weeks until Moving Day!
1
Oct 2009
We are getting close to Moving Day! This weekend will be our last official packing weekend, so we have a ton to get done! I still feel like our house is way too full of stuff for people who are moving soon! We spent all last weekend packing and cleaning. We went dumpster diving for moving boxes and totally hit the motherload (motherlode?)!
I think we are pretty set on boxes!
We spent all day Saturday cleaning out our spare bedroom, and we are using that room to store all the packed boxes!
Zane decided his time would better be spent doing some modeling rather than helping us pack.
Ian was even so tired of packing he decided to join him!
By the way, I totally underestimated how hard it was going to be for my 8 and a half months pregnant self to pack! It seriously takes me an hour to pack one box, and that is not including at least two breaks. The process goes something like this:
1. Find a Box
2. Place Box on some kind of tall surface (I have trouble bending down too far)
3. Hobble around house finding stuff that is not to heavy. Pick up one thing at a time.
3a. Take Break.
4. Hobble back to box.
5. Place item in box.
6. Repeat steps 3-5 until box is filled.
6a. Take Break.
7. Hobble around trying to find the packing tape.
8. Tape Box shut.
9. Hobble around trying to find a marker (Zane keeps stealing my markers and tape…maybe he is making a runway for his modeling…)
10. Label Box.
11. Hobble around trying to find someone to move box from packing area to the spare bedroom.
12. Take Long Break.
I am almost 35 weeks pregnant now and totally feeling it. Rocky has decided to assume the head down position, which is good, but he has placed himself at such an angle that every time I move his head hits something in my pelvic area creating a sharp pang that causes me to cry out in pain. Not so fun. We are so ready. Our countdown calendar tells us that there is 39 days until Rocky’s due date. And only 16 days until we move. There is only 15 days until I am done doing daycare, and I will only have kids here for 9 of them!! Yeah! I am so ready for this new chapter of our lives to begin.
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
My Feeds