Welcoming Wallace

WOW!
So, I am finally getting around to writing about Wallace entering this world. Can you blame me? ;) I promise I'm getting back on the blogging bandwagon. It's a nice break.

So, let's begin with a little side note. My last post was about the Arbouretum. On our way to the car from the Arbouretum I noticed I was having pretty bad Braxton Hicks. Nothing painful, but enough to kinda knock the wind out of me. After loading up in the car (a feat which seems laughable with simplicity now that I have TWO to load up) I realized that these contractions were coming quite regularly. For kicks, I decided to time them. Long story short, after much stalling, we decided to go to the hospital to be safe. I was still at 1cm. False labor. A total bummer and a huge relief all in one.

So I go to bed on Sunday, March 13, and wake up sometime during the night with cramps. Ouchie cramps, but just cramps. Back to bed....kind of.

Monday I have these cramps on and off all day. I start to wonder if this isn't some sign of approaching labor.  I text Daniel at some point that afternoon, "I don't think you'll be going to work tomorrow." By six o'clock that evening I had to sit down. The "cramps" were contractions and were getting stronger and closer together. I get Coen his dinner and decide to relax on the couch. I updated Daniel whenever I could.

Wait....things can't be that simple. Oh yeah! I forgot! Coen starts to vomit at the table. That's right. He gags at the sight of his broccoli fries. Pukes everywhere.

So after I clean up the mess, put away dinner, give him a bath and get him ready for bed I sit back down on the couch. By now contractions are 7-8 min apart and uncomfortable. I wanted to labor at home as much as possible. I knew I was a little more "high risk", but I figured 3 min apart was a good time to decide to go in. Now all I had to do was drink water and wait for Daniel to get home.

Updates are going out to my mom and sis, via text. Daniel gets home around 10PM. He starts cleaning and trying to remain calm. ;) His continues to try and convince me to leave for the hospital. It's not working. Contractions are 5-7 min apart and things are quite painful.

An hour later contractions are 3-5 min apart and I'm dying. Daniel is at my side letting me squeeze his hand. I'm trying all of the techniques we learned at a birthing class three years ago. I'm thinking, "Why didn't a take a refresher course?" However, I am pretty proud of myself at this point! I figure, we'll leave for the hospital and we'll check in and the nurses will tell me, "Great job!! You labored so well! Looks like you'll be able to start pushing soon!!".

I text a friend of mine around midnight. She used to work in the medical field and I knew I could count on her to be my go to person/coach. Daniel's pleas have worn me down. I text my sister a little after 1AM, Tuesday, to see if she would be willing to head to our house to watch Coen overnight so we can head to the hospital. She was. :) She wakes my parents to let them know we're ready to leave. She comes over and we leave around 2AM.

My parent's beat us to the hospital! We get checked in. I don't remember much about this part of the process. Contractions have been 1-3 min apart so I am just trying to remain calm. Here comes my nurse...this is where they tell me I'm at an 8 and I get some kind of award for awesome laboring.....WHAT!?!?!?....I'm still at a 1?!?!? .....Oh you SOOOO did not just tell me this might be false labor.....look at the monitor!! look at those contractions!!! this is the real deal!! get me a real nurse!!!.....don't you tell me to "drink some water" I've been drinking water!!!


Ahem.....where was I? K, so I end up laboring a LOT at the hospital. I lot longer than I had hoped. At 5:30 I'm at a three!! Hallelujah!! The nurse tells me she's going to get me some Demerol. ...What's Demerol? I didn't ask for Demerol! Why are you bringing me Demerol?...Turns out I couldn't have Demerol anyway because of an allergy I have. Back to laboring.

7:30AM I get an epidural. I debated whether or not I wanted to but I'm absolutely exhausted. I cry like a baby and imagine going paralyzed right there on the bed. Or worse. Spontaneously dying. It could happen... 10 minutes later Daniel is asleep on the couch. :D

8 ish My Dr. comes in and checks me. He tells the nurse they'll need to call him soon. Ohmygosh! It's happening! I'm going to meet my baby! I'm doing it! I'm doing it!!!

An hour later they are rolling in all of the gear and I'm pushing with the nurse. Three pushes. Daniel is handling everything really well. "Is that his hair?!" I hear him ask. Now I am really excited!! Dr. comes in and Wallace is born with one more push! Hooray!!!

 I think he looks like Johnny Cash right here!! Am I right?

All in all it was a wonderful experience. MUCH better than my c-section. 

Love you Wallace!!

Lately...

Well, there's been a LOT going on lately in addition to Wallace's quickly (but not quickly enough) approaching arrival.

Pregnancy:
We're making progress and have some good news. Still on track for VBAC!! Dr. McAlpine said that as long as the baby isn't too big we can go up to my due date and even a bit after! If he doesn't come by then, though, we'll have to do another c-section. When I went in last Tuesday I was dilated to a 1 which was cool to hear because I don't think I ever did that with Coen! Of course, now that he told me I have been SUPER impatient and expect to go into labor any second. I have another appointment in two days and Daniel has the day off, so we plan on taking Coen to the zoo. Then I'm buying some Raspberry tea. The combo should work. Fingers crossed!! ;)

Home:
So around the house has been....busy. I've been frantically trying to do everything I want to have done before bringing a baby home which is difficult when I have a two year old who doesn't understand that I am trying to keep the house tidy. We mostly spend our time outside of the home. Playing outside, running errands and hanging out at my mom's house. Me and my sisters trekked it out to IKEA and got a dresser for Coen so we could use the old dresser for Wallace. See? 

This is Wallace's little corner of the world! We'll see if he ever even uses it!

 So fun!

So that diaper cake is from my baby shower! A very dear friend of mine, and her mom, threw us one!! I don't have any pictures on my comp, but they are out there! It was so fun to get new things for a new baby boy. Mostly it was just nice to be "showered" and loved on by great company!

New Things:

Well, Daniel has started working closer to home, which is wonderful!! We can ever meet up for lunch now, which was out of the question before, and it doesn't take him forever to get home at the end of the day. 

Also, my Dad got my Mom and new car! It's exciting because we got their Volvo!! WOOHOOO!!! Three rows of seats, leather interior, safety, I could go on and on about how much I LOVE this vehicle. Thank you Mom and Dad!!!

PLUS, my littlest sis found out she is expecting! I can hardly believe it! We'll have three babies in the fam by Thanksgiving!! That also means Coen will be the oldest cousin. Weird...

Oh, and I've started work on the garden. So far, not so good. I've only planted spinach, but it's well on it's way!

Coen:

Coen figured out how to get out of his big boy bed. We are desperately lacking sleep at my house because of this little stunt. He literally had a melt down day and finally crashed with no dinner, sleeping for, like, 14 hours or something crazy. He's been better about staying in bed now, but he comes in our room in the mornings, carrying his silky and blanket wanting to snuggle. Fine with me, as long as he's snuggling and not putting his fingers in my nose while I try to catch a bit of shut eye.

He also went potty on the potty once! We're taking the potty training thing really...really...relaxed. I DON'T want him to feel pressured and I honestly don't want to deal with training and a new baby. Everything we do is on his initiation. One day he finally went! So exciting! Here he is taking his sweet time one day...

I'm sorry, son. You're just so darn cute.

We've also been playing with playdoh, and coloring and painting...

...and spilling paint...

...and unrolling numerous tubes of toilet paper...

 ...and acting like we didn't.

Also, Coen has REALLY gotten into helping in the kitchen. He's always liked to, but now I can't keep him out of the kitchen! Here we are making pizza dough.

Me:
Because it's apparent that I have too much free time on my hands, I have started up KENO again and started up in a Book Club! We only meet once a month, each, but it's nice to have some time out of the house, having adult conversation. If you can call our conversation "adult". ;)

1/6/10

1/6/10 was the due date of our "other baby".

I thought about our other baby on New Years but 1/6/10 came and went like any other day.

Actually, it was a great day. I spent it at Ikea with my friend Emily and I bought a big boy bed for Coen.

I don't want to forget about our "other baby" but I don't necessarily want to dwell on the loss.

I believe in life at conception so I do feel a loss. I feel the loss of a child I'll never know or see. A sadness really, at missing out on someone important. When I consider losing Coen, my body aches. A fear and sadness like no other overwhelms me. I could not possibly go on living my life. I cannot comprehend it. This loss is different.

Sometimes, I think, "If I hadn't lost that baby, I wouldn't be feeling Wallace pushing against maternity jeans right now. There would be no Wallace." Then I kind of feel guilty. Like I'm replacing one child with another.

I haven't forgotten about you, other baby. I just wanted to say that.

::sigh:: October

Ok, so October was kinda crazy...
I totally abandoned this blog but I'm back on the wagon, or whatever. So here's what we've been doing.

I had to stop keeping Cooper and just in time too. I've over done it a few times this week. I'm sure Coen misses his playmate, but hopefully we can get together soon in the future.

 

My sister got married! See?

Awww, such a beautiful bride. Look! There's my son!

Then the Texas Rangers made it to the World Series!!! So I spent a lot of nights watching baseball over the internet. :)

During most of those games I was working on Coen's birthday party.

 He turned two on Oct 20th, which was a wed, I believe. Here he is birthday morning.

 We got him a BIG barn for him to put all of his tractors and animals in. I was worried he wouldn't be into it, but he loves it! yay! Later we met my family for a small birthday dinner at Chic-fil-a. Coen got to play in the play place,

he completely devoured his cupcake, 

and then got to open a few presents.

A remote control train and a rocking horse!! Thanks Aunt Julie, Grammy and Gramps!

Next on the agenda was the party. I hate throwing parties because I am always afraid that no one will come or the party will stink and people will be bored and leave. So it took a LOT for me to throw this one. I did it mostly because we had been invited to a bunch of kid parties, so I felt like it was our turn to invite others. So we made a list, and shaved it down, and then shaved it down again. Last round there were still going to be 9ish kids and 14 adults! I decided to have it outside, a farm party, with games and "farm activities" and a tractor and crafts. I bought really nice invitations and party bag toys. I started getting pretty excited! Then the weather man reported rain. First a 30% then a 60%. Saturday morning was cloudy. I scratched the outdoor activities and decided to bring the party into our teeny, tiny house.We ran to the store that morning to get balloons and more food. When we got home, two hours before the party, the wind picked up and our electricity flickered off. I started calling everyone who had rsvp'd to cancel. SUPER bummed. Minutes later I couldn't see four feet out of my window due to the insane wind and rain. Wind and rain which stopped an hour after the party would have ended. 

Yeah.

Mom, Dad and Julie came over with the cake and some gifts. We sat around eating all of the food I had prepared for 14 adults and 9 kids. Coen had fun though, and I guess that's all that matters!

Next came the weekend of Halloween. There was a lot of stuff going on but we weren't about to make it to any events. We thought about Boo at the Zoo...and then decided "no". We ended up spending Halloween night like we usually do, at my mom's carving pumpkins. :) It was a lot of fun. We all sat around eating soup and sandwiches and hanging out. Coen was a cowboy for Halloween! (because we already had all of the gear)

The spurs were interesting...

as is the corny smile. :)

Then a birthday gift from Uncle Jamie and Aunt Becky!

 Here's Coen and Grammy with the special pumpkin decorating kit she got him. They were really cute! Later, though, he really got interested in the real pumpkin carving. especially the goop and seeds inside.

Whew! So, there was October in a nutshell! Later the Rangers lost the World Series and I pulled some muscle in my groin/abdominal area which has been loads of fun. Also, Wallace has started really kicking and moving! I can feel him through my stomach now. I can't believe it's going so fast. I can't wait for him to get here though!! :)

Boy, oh BOY!!

It's a boy!

Daniel and I found out this morning that we are expecting our second baby boy!! I was so geared up to have a girl that a boy took me by surprise! Needless to say we are soooo excited and feel so blessed to raise godly young men.

This works out just perfectly! They can share a room... he can use hand me downs.... woohoo!!

Love now, meet later.

Daniel and I lost our baby number two this weekend.
It so amazing how easy it is to love someone.
It really is a great gift.
From the moment I found out I was pregnant I wanted nothing more than to hold my baby. I was so looking forward to meeting him/her.
However, God knows what He is doing and, if he wills it, I will meet my baby some day. :)

Guess whaaaaaaat...

10/20/08

Well, time for an update. Actually it's way past time for an update! For those of you who don't know yet my c-section has been scheduled. We're going in on Monday, October 20th at 7:30 AM. Coen has had enough time to try and turn over, but he hasn't done it yet, so the best thing for him right now is surgery. I'm not too thrilled about surgery per se. I have never had stitches or anything, so his is a whole new experience for me. I am just asking for prayer that I can keep calm during the whole procedure and focus on the good, not the bad. Daniel and I are both super excited though! We can wait to meet our son, and hold him or the first time! It seems like a month ago when we found out we were going to have a baby, and yet it seems like a life time ago. Everything is ready. Except I haven't packed my bag yet. What am I thinking? That should have been done forever ago!

3D

Hi Everyone! Daniel and I were recently given a very special baby gift and I wanted to share it with you all! Daniel's best friend since high school, Donnie, and his wife Jennifer have an adorable little girl, Presley. When Jennifer was pregnant with Presley they opted to have a 3D sonogram. I had heard them talk about it but had never seen it. They were talking to Daniel about how cool it was when they decided that that was what they wanted to give us! I was shocked when Dan told me! We both wanted to do it but I was apprehensive. I had always imagined seeing my child for the first time in the delivery room. What if he was goofy looking? I would need all of those endorphins and adrenaline to convince me he was a beautiful baby! :)

Of course I made an appointment the very next day. We went to Stork Vision. LOVED it and I totally recommend it to anyone wanting to get a sonogram. The have the cutest, coziest facility and my whole family was able to come and watch! It was pretty awesome and pretty freaky too. Usually women go in around 28 weeks, and I was at 33 weeks, so there was less amniotic fluid and Coen was more scrunched which made it difficult to get a good picture. Most of these pics are of his face, looking down, and there are a few profile shots with his arm and foot in there. She can zoom in on different layers of tissue, so every once in a while Coen would look skeletal. Anyway, here they are! We think he is adorable!! Love his nose!