Emily Ann makes her arrival!

Emily Ann is here!

After a relatively easy labor and delivery our little one made her arrival at 6:05 in the morning on December 3rd.

John and I had gone into the hospital about 10:30 on Wednesday. Uncle Brett was awesome and said he would stay with the older kids while we went to the hospital! I didn't worry about them at all knowing they were with him!

At the hospital we did all the usual admitting and stuff, got showed to our room and I got ready for the show to start! After an hour or two I was in bed, all the papers signed and hooked up to an IV for the pitocin to start! At this point I was dialated to 3cm and 90% effaced but the baby still was not coming down at all on her own, they did the first of many ultra sounds over the next 18 hours and she was still head down but really high.

My parents came out for the day and between them and John we spent the day talking, I napped some and waited for something to happen. The Midwife and nurse kept upping the pitocin through out the day hoping it would cause something to happen, but until my water broke the contractions were not going to progress much. My midwife didn't want to break my water because she was worried that since the baby was so high the umbilical cord would drop before the baby. Around 8:00 or so I was uncomfortable enough that I got an epidural. My blood pressure dropped pretty low after this so they stopped the pitocin and tried to see if things would pick up on their own - again with no luck and another ultrasound had the baby really high still! So about 10:00 or 11:00 my parents headed home after the doctors and midwife said nothing was going to happen today!

After an hour or so my bp was fine and the midwife decided to up the pitocin again to see if we could move things along. Around 1:00 I was asleep and my water broke, I was still only dilated to 3cm and the Midwife still couldn't feel the baby. During this time, John started feeling sick with a head cold. He was able to sleep some in the room but is so tall and the couch so short so he went out to sleep in his truck for a while. This went on for a few hours and about 5:00 am my midwife came in to check and I was finally at 4 1/2 cm and I was having consistently long and hard contractions (at thankfully they weren't too bad for me due to my epidural!!!). But still the baby was really high, she did an ultra sound to make sure she was still head down and thankfully she was! John at this point had gone to the pharmacy to get some cough drops and sinus pressure medicine. At about 5:30 a doctor came in to check and said we were going to have to decide what to do at this point if nothing was happening. I think they were concerned the baby was so high and were ready to head the route of a c-section. The dr could just feel the top of the babies head and said I was at 6 cm. He said at this point it would be a little while but after a few minutes I could tell the contractions were pretty strong at this point so I texted John and told him to come back NOW!!!

The nurse I was with at this point was driving me crazy. I told her it was almost time and she kept ignoring me like I didn't know what I was talking about. She said you were just at a 6, this could be a while yet, but I could feel my pelvis separating and the babies head moving down. I had told all the nurses and midwives I had seen over the course of this that when it is time, it will happen quickly and I will know it is time and when I feel ready to push it is time to push (you would think after 3 other kids I would know how this last part works). This nurse told me to push my epidural button and that might help. She was moving slowly about the room setting up for delivery and I kept telling her I needed to push. John got back about 5:40 and at one point when the nurse stepped out of the room he asked me what I needed and I told him to go get a doctor because I was going to start pushing. As he opened the door my midwife and doctor came in, she took one look at me then she ripped the end of the table off, the doctor was helping her tie her surgical gown as I am telling her I am pushing and she said lets go then. No more than 3 contractions and a few pushes latter Emily Ann arrived.

She was perfect! A beautiful little girl with this adorable face and 10 fingers and toes! It is amazing how they place this little bundle in your arms and you forget the last 9 months of pregnancy and the hours of labor! I took one look at her and was so in love with her it made my heart hurt! I am so glad she is here and part of our family, I couldn't imagine not having her!

Update...

Okay, I have so many things to blog and put up pictures from the last week! It was a great but a busy one! But on the quick side before I try to get a ton done in the next 24 hours. I went to the Dr. today and Baby Garrison is head down, my bp is high, I am 3 cm dilated & 90% effaced. If she doesn't come on her own in the next 24 hours I am scheduled for an induction on Wednesday morning!

More to come.....

Audrey's Big Day #3!!!

Today is Audrey's 3rd Birthday! How lucky are we to have her for our little girl. She couldn't be any sweeter and she is such a joy (okay, I am saying some of this stuff because you tend to reflect as a mom on your kids birthdays!). She truly is a great kid she is just 3! Need I say any more - if you are a mom and have had a 3 year old you know exactly what I mean. There are moments when she is just the sweetest, funniest thing ever and then there are moments when she is just wanting to be her own person and then you have the 3 year old moments.

Audrey was so excited that her Pop and Uncle Brett where here for her birthday. I think it may be a close tie between Daddy and Uncle Brett who is her favorite these days!

Today we had a lazy day after Thanksgiving day. John and his dad & brother ran some errands and the kids and I relaxed at home. Audrey got to play with her birthday toys and for dinner we had one of her favorites, Pizza & spaghetti! We had birthday cake and ice cream and she was in 7th heaven!

Where did November go?

This month has flown by! I think for nine months I have been counting down to Thanksgiving so the last few weeks have been a whirlwind of getting ready for the baby to come and fitting in everything we possibly could into this month!

On Tuesday before the kids got out for the Thanksgiving holiday week Annie had a Thanksgiving Feast in her class and a little performance. She was so cute in her pilgrim hat and singing her songs!

No Baby Yet

Still no baby Garrison at our house. Yesterday I went in for a check up and it turns out she has a mind of her own and decided she wanted to be breech. So with Uncle Brett and Pop here we left the kids and John & I spent the evening at Kaiser. (we did go to the new labor and delivery at Roseville and let me tell you after sampling the L&D and both South Sac and Morse, Roseville was incredible!!!)

The doctors did an enjoyable (not) procedure called an inversion where they give you some medicine to relax the uterus, rub your stomach with mineral oil and then 2 doctors work together to try to rotate the baby from the outside - yes one pushes up on the butt while the other was pushing down on her head trying to twist her. They finally got her head down after about 20 minutes of this enjoyable baby & organ moving experience. They monitored her for an hour after wards and she was fine - today I am sore but okay.

Now hopefully she decides to stay where she is supposed to until she is out!

Conversation with Annie

Yesterday Annie & I were laying on my bed talking and she said to me "you are my first favorite Mom!" I asked who her second favorite mom is and she said totally straight faced "Dad's next wife who is going to be our mom after you die". Seriously where do my kids come up with this stuff!

Does she know something I don't?

The Three Whale, A garbage dumpster and a 6 inch cockroach!

So Charlie had a test this week on a story called the Three Whales. I had printed off some study guides for him and he was ready for the test on Wednesday.

Wednesday night I was straitening up because the cleaning lady was coming on Thursday so when I cleaned out Charlie's backpack I saw what I assumed was the study guide from his class on the three whale story, along with all the other worksheets he didn't need I tossed it all into a big black garbage bag.

As a total side bar that comes up at the end of the story I had also gone around cleaning up the living room later on that night and I found this 6 inch plastic cockroach the kids had been playing with from an insect kit they had. Hating cockroaches and knowing the kids had been scaring their dad with it for a few days, I just tossed the cockroach into the big black garbage bag as well.

Well Thursday morning comes around and I had gathered two big bags of garbage and trying to save room in the can I asked John to take the bags to work and throw them in the dumpster (do you see where this story is going yet?). Thursday at dinner time Charlie comes to me and asks me where his Whale test is.

My response, "Did you get it back already?"

Charlie, "no, instead of putting it in the in basket I put it in my cubby and brought it home from school yesterday."

My thought "NOOOOOOOOOOOO"

Charlie "so mom, where is it because if I don't take it back to school I have to stay in from recess and take it again."

Mom "well Charlie, I didn't realize it was a test and I think I threw it away."

Charlie "can I look in the garbage?"

Mom -In my head "how do I explain this" to Charlie - "well I think it went to the garbage at Daddy's work"

At this point John walks in and we tell him what happens. He says no problem, I didn't put the bags in the dumpster yet. So I go out to his truck and there is nothing there. I came in to tell John and he said "oh yeah, Tim drove my truck and he emptied it first"

So we explain to Charlie as he is sobbing that we will go to the dumpster to see if we can find the bag. John did point out that he shouldn't be so upset at anyone - he is the one who didn't put the test where it belongs!

John being the great dad he is went to the dumpster and had to rouse 3 Dumpster divers as they call them out of the can. So by the time they are gone and he can get to it the bums have torn all the bags open and scattered everything in the dumpster and around the can on the ground. John climbs in and spends 2 hours going through the garbage with no luck. He said it was horrible because while he was in the can 4 or 5 bums came to try to look through it also and some guys from the business next door came over and found him looking in the can (although they laughed when they heard what he was looking for and offered to keep an eye out to make sure he wasn't mugged). While he didn't find the test what he did find in the dark as it fell on his hand was the horrible 6 inch plastic cockroach that once again came back to scare the pants off of him!

***we are still waiting to hear what the teacher says to do about the test!****