The Labor Story . . .

So I never forget . . .

My due date was January 16th, but we had an induction scheduled for January 13th. My doctor said that second time moms are always favorable enough to be induced after 39 weeks, and we thought it would be best to have the delivery planned so that we could have work and babysitting figured out. As the 13th drew closer though, it was very obvious that my body was not ready to have that little girl yet. My doctor kept telling me that Maisie was hanging out way up in my ribs and that I was not at all dilating. I was so disappointed. I was ready to hold my baby girl. I was ready to be done with work. I was ready to move on to this next stage in our lives.

So, I couldn't be induced. I went back to the doctor on the 17th, and I was still not progressed enough for an induction. So, just like with Kaiah, I went a full 41 weeks. At that point my doctor thinks that it is safer to do an induction, even if my body isn't favorable, than leave the baby inside. Looking back, I think that the extra time was a blessing in disguise. It gave me a few extra days with my Kaiah before her life changed forever.

Seven days passed due, on Monday, January 23rd, I waited a little impatiently for a phone call from the hospital to tell me to come in for an induction. They said I could receive the call as early as 5:30 a.m., so I did not get much sleep at all. My mom had spent the night at our house, and we all enjoyed breakfast at Kneaders that morning. I finally got the call to come in the hospital at 10:30 a.m. It felt weird to finally be going in, knowing that I would have my baby that day. I had waited so long, and now it was finally here. Kaiah stayed home with Grandma WeWe (my mom) and Jer and I headed to the hospital.

When we finally got a room and settled, they checked me and said that I was almost dilated to a one. They started me on pitocin and the waiting game began. Everything seemed to be moving so slowly. I got the epidural around 2:00 p.m., which just made life a lot happier! We kept waiting, but the nurse said it looked like things were just going to continue going slow and steady.

At a little after 5:00 p.m., the nurse checked me (and accidentally broke my water). I was dilated to a four, and the nurse predicted that it would take about an hour a centimeter from here - so my baby would be coming around 11:00 p.m. I was so tired of the waiting. We called my mom and told her to get settled in for a long night. I posted on Facebook: " 7 hours in and dilated to a 4. I sure hope the rest goes fast."

Boy - I am not sure if I cursed myself or received an answer to my prayers, but fast it went! All of a sudden, I had terrible, terrible pain - the worst in my life besides my bone transplant. I pushed my epidural button, but it didn't touch the pain. I asked for the anesthesiologist to come and give me some more direct medicine. My whole body was shaking, and I was crying and just trying to keep my breath going evenly. Jer knew that I was seriously in pain because I didn't push him away when he came over to hold my hand and push my hair out of my face. The extra medicine helped a little, and I was able to relax a bit. I told my nurse that I knew that I was still very far from giving birth, but I felt like I really needed to go to the bathroom. This was at around 5:40 p.m. This made the nurse check my progress, and she was shocked to find out that I was dilated to an eight! I couldn't believe it - from a four to and eight in about 30 minutes.

The nurse started prepping the room for delivery, and I told Jer to call my mom and tell her to come immediately. By the end of that call I was dilated to a 10! Well, it was, like, the one and only day we have had any snow at all. My mom rushed to meet amid super slick roads and snow. She made it to my room at 6:09 p.m. and Maisie was born at 6:19!

The delivery process was a complete 180 from how Kaiah's went. With Kaiah I pushed for 2 1/2 hours. Torture. The whole time I just thought how unnatural it all felt. I felt like I was having two different sets of contractions that were at opposite times of each other, and I was confused about when I was suppose to push. It really honestly seemed really confusing and unnatural to me. I was exhausted, frustrated, and overwhelmed. With Maisie, it all finally made sensed and clicked into place. It felt natural. I could feel what my body wanted/needed to do. It was so invigorating and powerful. I was relaxed and so were the people around me. This time, I wasn't pressured by what I was supposed to do - I was in charge. It went so fast. 10 minutes of pushing, and my beautiful baby girl was here!

My first thought: she is so little! Compared to Kaiah's 8 lbs 14 oz, she was tiny! She was 7 lbs 4 oz and 19 1/2 inches long. Tons and tons and tons of hair, just like her big sister. I was overwhelmed by how beautiful she was. The first time I touched, cuddled, fed, kissed her - all were very relaxing and just perfect.

One of the greatest blessings this time - because the delivery was so fast and the laboring happened during the day, Jer and I were both very much more "with it" this time. We weren't exhausted, which allowed lots of precious cuddle time. We also didn't have many visitors because of the snow, which allowed for a lot of much needed recovery time.

We love our little girl and are so excited to welcome her to our family. It truly is amazing how something can be both such a huge change, yet so natural. Our lives have changed forever, and I am ready for that change!

Becoming a family of four

Wow. I knew that my life would change by having a second baby, but I was unprepared for how different it feels to be a family of four! More work, less sleep, and more love than I ever thought possible. I can't believe Maisie is four weeks old today. The time is flying, and I just want to soak it all up before I return to work.

I think the greatest blessing I have had is just how wonderful Kaiah has been in this transition. We had one jealously incident around the end of week 1 (Kaiah had decided that Maisie had eaten enough and tried to separate her from mom). Since then, however, Kaiah has been the best big sister ever - way better than I even thought possible. Maisie is the first thing Kaiah asks about in the morning and the last thing she checks on before bed time. She loves giving "soft Maisie" touches and "reading" to her. She also loves sharing her stuffed animals and toys ( for now!). She helps throw away dirty diapers and push her in the swing. Whenever Maisie is crying, Kaiah says "Me, Maisie check." I just love how Kaiah has progressed into a big sister that I am so, so proud of.

Jer and I are exhausted, our house is a mess, and Kaiah is sometimes bored, but every single struggle is worth it for that beautiful little munchkin. She was definitely meant for our family!

We love you, Maisie, and we are so incredibly grateful to you for making our family a family of four!

Pregnancy Number 2!

There are so many things that I want to remember about this pregnancy. I can't believe that it is almost over, yet I am so ready for it to be over. It has been so different the second time around, yet the most important things are still the same. I still feel 100% completely and utterly connected to my little girl already. I still feel ultimate amazement every time I feel her move. And I still spend my whole day and night dreaming about holding my baby girl. Time flies so quickly; I know I need to capture my thoughts about this pregnancy now, or I never will!

While Kaiah was a surprise, this pregnancy was definitely planned. Jer and I are both under 18 months apart from our younger siblings, so we knew that we wanted our kids close together, too. We had been trying for several months, but I didn't wean Kaiah until she was 1 year (March). On Jer's birthday I was thinking that I might be pregnant, so I went and bought a test while he was at work and, sure enough, it came back positive! I couldn't believe it - I was thrilled. I bought a birthday card for him and wrote that he would have to wait 9 months for his present. :) We were living with Jer's brother while we finished buying our house, so we had to be careful to keep it all under wraps. We waited until about 12-13 weeks before telling our friends and family.

Everything happened so much quicker this time. I got sicker quicker and bigger faster. I was really nauseous the whole first TWO trimesters, but I dealt. It was definitely harder this time - between working full-time and being a mommy to a toddler, I was much more worn out. Thank heaven for a fantastic hubby!

There was a little scare in there. At our 19 week ultrasound, the tech found that baby's head was not measuring right compared to the rest of her body. We scheduled another ultrasound a month down the road, and the same concern was present again. They referred us to the Maternal and Fetal Medicine specialty unit to do a third ultrasound. We were terrified. I have a history of Down Syndrome in my family, and all that I could think about for the weeks leading up to the ultrasound was how we would change our lives if there was a problem with this baby. Luckily, after months of worry, everything came back normal from the specialists. It was literally one of the best days of my life.

Since we did have three full ultrasounds, there is absolutely no question that baby number 2 is a girl! Both Jer and I were thrilled - I wanted Kaiah to have what I had in Kamie growing up. It seems so right to be adding another girl to our family.

One thing that makes this baby different from Kaiah: She is definitely a little mover! She has always moved more and bigger than Kaiah did. It is nice - gives me one less thing to worry about! One thing that makes her the same: stubborn as ever! Today is my due date, and the baby is not here! We will see how my appointment tomorrow goes, but up to now my doctor has repeatedly said that she was "way" high and "no where near coming." I couldn't be induced because she is so stubborn!

It has been weird - Jer and I haven't decided if we will have another baby or not. This may be my last time being pregnant, which makes everything so much more . . . I don't know. It is just weird.

We are so excited to have her join our family. Kaiah can say her name and is now constantly pulling at my stomach and telling her to come out! I can't wait to see how she completes our family!

6th Anniversary

Six years tomorrow. Six truly fantastic years. I really can't believe how far we've come in those six years. I was looking back at the blog posts I've written for our anniversaries (3rd on, since I didn't blog before then), and I just couldn't help but laugh to myself. 

3rd anniversary:  I said that this was the year that we really and truly became best friends, and I still agree. Funny. I've said over and over how lucky I am that you turned out to be such an amazing guy - you are a lot better than the man I thought I was marrying. We were just kids. We barely knew each other. We were still shy and embarrassed and said what we thought we should. That third year was when it all changed. We learned how to be us.

 4th anniversary: No blog post this year (sad). Probably because we were busy living by ourselves across the world in Australia, vacationing in New Zealand, and becoming pregnant with little Kaiah! What a crucial year this was! Living on our own, away from all of our friends and family - I think that is what prepared us for parenthood. We really grew up that year. We learned how to save, we learned how to rely solely on each other, and we learned how to have fun on a Friday night by ourselves with no money. We became unselfish. We became a family.

5th anniversary: To this day, we still cannot remember what we did for our anniversary last year. I know it was nothing big, but I am sure we at least went to dinner. The thing is, it really didn't matter. This 5th anniversary blog post still is probably the most true thing that I have ever written in my life. I meant every single word of it, and I still do. Starting a family with you changed my whole perspective, and the most important thing was that confidence that I had in you, our marriage, our love. I've never questioned it. Ever.


And now, as I reflect on our 6th anniversary, I just have to chuckle to myself. I feel like we've grown so much and come so far, and yet it is clear that we are still just learning about these things called life and love and family. We are still trying to overcome our tendencies and focus on priorities. I found myself this year reverting back to those first two years of marriage - our anniversary needs to be big! We need a night in a hotel, La Chaille ($200 meal?!?!?!), gifts. I insisted that we needed those things to be happy. Then, the new, mature Kasie finally emerged from this regressive state. I remembered that we don't need to be someone else. We are okay just being us. People can laugh that we love drive-in movies - who cares? There is nothing more that I need than to just celebrate us the way we do it. So, our plans for the night: dr. appointment (almost 16 weeks!), Cheesecake factory (plenty of a splurge for us!), and a drive-in. Sounds perfect. Just like us :)

And, yes, this year has been our best year yet. I say that every time, and I always mean it. I was thinking about our Scrabble game last night - I killed Jer. Super won. Jer was pouting and said that he would never play with me again because I am opportunistic (isn't the point to win?) and that I leech off of  him (I'm sorry if I can turn your 10 point word into a 30 point word with just one letter). Later, before we fell asleep. I told Jer that I love him and that I wouldn't change anything about him. Not even his issue with board games and competitiveness. Why? Because we are perfectly matched. If I wished he was better then he would no longer be my perfect equal. Instead of one person pulling the other forward or us wasting our time trying to fix each other, we get the wonderful, wonderful blessing of working together towards our common goals at equal speed. Nothing feels better in the world than having a perfectly equal companion, in the true sense of the world, to live life with.

Well, except maybe raising a baby (or two) with that companion. Now that is good.

This week

I feel like this summer is just FLYING by. Seriously. I don't think I have ever been so busy in my life! My sis and I were just trying to schedule a two-day camping trip for my family (the first one EVER), and we only have two options - one in Sept. and one in Oct. Yes, that means that every single day and weekend through July and August are completely full (and not of fun stuff, either). Ugh. Jer and I decided that we HAVE to go on one vacation every summer because if not, then, well, it pretty much sucks. This is what I get for becoming a coach.

On happier news, we just had a housewarming party on Saturday that was awesome! Thanks to everyone who stopped by to celebrate our new home with us! We absolutely love it and it feels so incredibly wonderful to finally have a place of our own! Pictures to come (umm . . . maybe. No guarantees).

To celebrate the 24th, we went to Tucanos with my fam, then just hung out. No fireworks (which made Kaiah happy). Then my little clan went driving around the Alpine Loop and walked around Cascade Springs - beautiful! It was super fun just to let Kaiah get filthy and play outside.

This is my last week home with Kaiah this summer (sucky) but Jer and I celebrate our 6th anniversary this weekend! Yay! Details to come. Then I leave for a conference in Seattle on Sunday :(

Here's to looking forward to a great week!

Update on Kaiah

Kaiah is spending the week at Grandma Wewe's house because I have to be at this stupid Common Core thing all week long - so, obviously, this leads to me seriously missing my little girl. I thought I would take this sentimental mommy moment to write down some adorable memories of my Kai.

• Her favorite movie BY FAR is Tangled. I have no idea how this happened, but she is obsessed with it. Every time we get in view of the video cabinet, she runs over and searches through it until she finds her favorite movie. Then, she'll just sit still for at least the first half - usually more. Sits still. That never happens!
• She still doesn't say a ton except, of course, for "No!" Jer, being ever clever, made this a little better by teaching her to say "Oh No!" It just seems a little cuter and a lot less bratty stubborn.
• She has learned how to say "Elmo" and "Grandpa" and "Side" (for outside or slide). I love every new word and think that she gets so much more adorable with every one.
• She is still fiercely independent - seriously. She tries to do everything, and I mean everything, by herself. She hates help and needing mommy and daddy!
• Plus . . .
• She is going to be a big sister in Januray! I am 14 weeks along, due January 16th! We can't wait! :)