The Birth Story

On the morning of the 13th I had three doctor's appointments scheduled. Because I was over a week late, they had me coming in for an ultrasound to check fluid levels, a stress test to check the baby, and an appointment with my doctor to go over everything.

The ultrasound was first, and it was EARLY. I scheduled it for 8:30 hoping that I wouldn't ever have to show up, but Marlene hadn't come yet so Jason and I had to get up and go anyways.

We both woke up annoyed because neither of us slept well. I had tossed and turned, and felt like I had maybe gotten about 3 hours of sleep. (And Jason had worked till midnight the night before.) So of course today would be the day for me to go into labor.

Five minutes into the ultrasound, the technician says: "Yep. Looks like you're having this baby today!" Because the amniotic fluid levels in my belly were below a certain point, that was her assumption and she was right.

We were able to skip the stress test and go straight in to see my doctor and she sent us right over to the hospital to begin the inducing process. By this time it was about 9:30 am.

I was officially checked in to the hospital and hooked up to the pitocin by about 10 am, and they broke my water around 10:30. Jason ran home to get all of our stuff (we didn't want to jinx ourselves by bringing it to the appointment) and was back before things started to get intense.

No going to lie, contractions are no joke! They were coming no farther apart than 5 minutes and got more intense as they upped the pitocin. I was given some drug that was meant to "make me care less about how much it was hurting," and that worked a little.

Nellie got there a few hours into labor and stayed the rest of the time to help. At about 3 things started to get really bad as I started to feel pressure and the urge to push. At first it was still a little too soon for that so resisting that urge was probably one of the hardest things I've ever done.

Finally, my doctor and nurse came in and said it was time, and actually wondered why I hadn't called them sooner. Apparently the baby was VERY close to coming. So after 6 hours of labor, and 18 minutes of pushing, our little girl finally arrived at 4:11 pm, weighing 7 lbs 15 oz, and 19 inches long.

Pushing was the hardest thing I've ever done, and there may have been some screaming involved. It was very stressfull because I had a bunch of people telling me different things or that I was doing it wrong, but once I finally got the technique I pushed like there was no tomorrow!

I'm moving around pretty slow and can't wait to have my body back to normal so I can enjoy my sweet baby a little more. Jason has been so great and leaps at the chance to help in any way. It was also great having my mom here last weekend which allowed us both time to catch up on sleep.

Right now we're at home adjusting to life with a newborn and its going pretty well. We've had some rough nights, but for the most part our little Marlene is an angel who eats and sleeps really well.

Baby Crafts

This week as we await the arrival of our fashionably late baby girl, Jason has been busy working on this awesome craft to hang over the crib:

As I was thinking of ways to decorate our little girl's room, I realized that this is probably something I should include Jason in. Something people might not know about him, is that he's really good at crafts. 

 

He's very methodical and patient which translates into detailed, put-together projects. I knew this whole crayon melting thing would be something he would be good at because he would take his time, but also enjoy getting to melt stuff.

 

These were our inspiration:

VIA

VIA

To make this awesome heart, we were kind of on our own because the picture linked to pinterest had ZERO instructions. The hardest part was organizing the colors in the right order. Its not necessarily "rainbow order" but more in the order of the color wheel.

 

Basically you just need to order the colors in such a way that when they bleed together they won't make something gross like brown or grey. Also, you have to scribble to colors onto paper to really know what they look like. Don't just look at the crayon itself.

 

Once we had the order we wanted, Jason hot-glued the crayons in the shape that he wanted. The hot glue didn't mess with the crayons like you would think, and I read somewhere that its better than super glue.

 

As far as the melting process goes, what Jason did was use my blow dryer and He went back and forth between the high and low settings. On low you can get close to the crayon for melting it to get the "drip" started, and on high is how you can direct which way it goes. Also, he did the melting in stages so that the drips would all go outward instead of going every which-way as he turned the canvas

before it dried.  

 

Hope all of this makes sense. It was sure fun watching him work on this, and I can tell he's really excited for it to hang in the baby's rooms as something "daddy made."

 

Now all we're missing is a cute baby to

put in our nursery...

 

 

 

 

 

 



Hello February!

Well it looks like our little one has decided she wants a February birthday. All along I was hoping for that, but since I hit 38 weeks I'm so over being pregnant I was secretly hoping for an early arrival.

 

Since last week I've been feeling a LOT of discomfort from contractions/growing pains so I was thinking the baby would be here by now.

 

I had an appointment on Wednesday where I found out that I'm now dilated to a 3, and that the baby's head is so low my Doctor

 "doesn't know how I can even walk!"

 

I'm thinking that's what is causing these aches and pains that have started to keep me up at night and make it incredibly uncomfortable to sit

in one spot for very long.

 

Also at my appointment my doctor told me that I should come in next Tuesday (my due date) if there is no baby before then, and if that's the case then they will induce me the next day.

So there is a light at the end of the tunnel!

 

I'm making plans for Super Bowl Sunday with the hopes that they will get cancelled because I'm in labor. If that doesn't happen, at least I still get to have yummy food and enjoy my

3rd favorite holiday of the year!