Posted Wednesday, March 17, 2010 5:01 PM
I know, I know...I need to post pictures...I really do promise that I'll get some on here one day...
I hate to admit this, but the first week of my daughter's life sucked so incredibly badly for me. My sister, her two young kids (ages 3 and 1), and my cousin invaded our apartment the night we came home from the hospital for a visit. I was so thankful my cousin made the big trip all the way from VA to help take care of me while I took care of my little lady, but I was definitely apprehensive about my sister bringing her kids...My niece, the 3 year old, was fine. She wanted to hug and kiss on me and see "her" baby. My nephew, though? A holy terror...In under 5 minutes, I think the kid had grabbed everything possible within his short reach. Of course, it was all taken away from him and put up somewhere high (ie. not where it belongs, which to an organized, type a, anal personality like myself is not what I wanted to see happening to the home I had spent so much time cleaning/organizing and getting ready for my sweet girl). They slept across the street at my in-laws, but were over at our place every single morning and stayed until it was time for the kids to go to bed. I wasn't going anywhere with my newborn, which meant that my sister wasn't going anywhere with her kids. I'm sure you can imagine that a 3 and 1 year old don't much appreciate being in such a small place for such a long time, with limited toys. And my poor nephew...He threw fit after fit because everyone kept taking stuff away from him. I loved not having to worry about any meals or even getting myself something to drink, but when it comes down to it, I would have rather done those things myself and kept my clean home than have it look the way it currently does (Yep, still haven't gotten the chance or had the energy to put it all back together and clean again)...And man does that make me sound horrible...I did love seeing them all, it was just a lot of...noise...to deal with. I was so glad to see them go, though. (That probably sounds horrible too, huh?)
On top of it all, breastfeeding wasn't going well at all. Piper has a small mouth and was destroying my nipples. With my flat nips, it was so hard to tell how much she had actually latched on to. Well, let me tell you...it was NOT enough! For a week, I cried every time she fed and just stared at her while she was sleeping, dreading the next time she would need to be fed. I finally broke down and told Tyler with tears in my eyes that I just couldn't take any more pain. He called the nursery at the hospital and talked to one of the nurses who told us to come right in and she would see what she could do to help. That's when we found out about Pip's small mouth. She showed me how deep the little lady should be latching on, how to make absolute sure her tongue stays down while making that initial latch, and I stared in wonder as this nurse took my nipple, bleeding and all, shoved it in my daughter's mouth, kept her fingers there until Piper started sucking, AND IT DIDN"T HURT! I just couldn't stop smiling. Since then, this nurse has called twice to check up on us. We're absolutely in love with her and Piper and I are going to deliver her cupcakes at some point next week for everything she's done for us.
So that was week one. Not exactly what I imagined, but definitely a learning experience (And hopefully a good excuse for not taking any pictures of our little lady that first week 
Thank goodness my sister and my SIL kept snapping away so that at least we have something to look back on!)
Posted Saturday, March 13, 2010 11:25 AM
I've missed you ladies! Pip has been keeping us quite busy And I'm horrible...I've hardly taken any pictures of the little lady. But we're getting used to each other quite nicely now, so hopefully things will become a little less frantic-feeling and I'll be able to snap some pics of my gorgeous girl.
And on to the birth story...
Last Tuesday (the 2nd), I went to work feeling "blah". I was so uncomfortable, tired, and just feeling miserable. Thankfully, my long-term sub was doing all the teaching so I just sat and did some curriculum work. Tyler had a meeting at work that night, so I just sprawled on the sofa, trying to find a comfortable position. Never did. I finally gave up and went to bed around 10, just to toss and turn until midnight when I finally fell asleep. Unfortunately, I woke up just an hour and half later, having to pee. So I trudged to the bathroom, grumbling all the way, peed, stood up and "woosh". I thought I had just stood up too soon and had peed on myself. It didn't cross my mind that it could have been my water breaking. I cleaned myself up and walked back to our bedroom. As soon as I opened the door, it happened again. Okay, now I'm thinking that maybe, just maybe, my water had broken. I went back to the bathroom, cleaned myself up again, and thought clearly enough to put on a pad. I contemplated calling the OB's office but decided that sleep was more important. I crawled back into bed, monitored her movements, and prayed that if it was indeed my water that had broken, that contractions would start soon. After four painless tightenings in my stomach and feeling her move around just like normal, I fell back asleep. I ignored my alarm when it off that Wednesday morning and waited for Tyler to wake up. I still didn't know if my water had truly broken, so I sent him off to work, and told him that I would call the OB's office once they opened to see what they wanted me to do. I thought I would just be told to come into the office for a labor check, but was sent to the hospital instead. So I called Tyler and my work to let them know what was going on, hopped into the shower, blow-dried my hair, put on makeup, and re-checked the hospital bags. Tyler came home about 20 minutes later and off to the hospital we went for the absolute most uncomfortable internal I have ever had. A litmus test and slide smear confirmed that my water had indeed broken but, unluckily for me, though, I was only fingertip dilated, barely effaced, and with no contractions happening at all. Tyler walked with me for a good hour. Still no contractions, still only fingertip dilated. On to the first round of cytotec (Thankfully, a male resident with extremely long fingers was there working with my midwife that day...I love Julia but the woman has the smallest hands. He got the little tablet in place the very first time!). Four hours later, still no contractions, but I was at least now one centimeter and more effaced. On to round two of cytotec, once again nicely placed by the long-fingered resident. Four more hours later, I was still at one, a bit more effaced, and contractions had yet to start. I was seriously laying in the bed, watching tv, talking to Tyler, and working on my cross-stitch, just as comfortable as could be. At this point, my water had been broken for 17 hours. Time to start some serious "augmentation" of my labor (Doesn't that sound so much better than "inducing"? Yeah...I didn't think so either...). I learned quickly that pitocin is some seriously nasty stuff. I was trapped in bed with the heart monitor on to make sure Piper was tolerating her low-fluid environment and the contractions started quickly. Laying flat on my back was the last thing I wanted to do, since the little miss' back was pressed right against mine, but the nurses couldn't find her heartbeat with me in any other position. I was so thankful, though, that at least something was finally happening. I was checked again at 1:30 am. I was four to five centimeters, completely effaced, contractions were coming long, hard, and frequent...And all the nurses wanted to talk c-section. My water had been broken for a full 24 hours, myself and Pip were at serious risk of infection, blah, blah, blah. Thankfully, Julia is amazing and completely understood from our previous discussions that I was irrationally afraid of c-sections and really only wanted one if it was absolutely necessary. So she ordered an epidural to get me to relax and let my body work with the contractions more efficiently, penicillin to ward off any possible infections, and closely watched the heart monitor to make sure the little lady was doing okay. I didn't want an epidural either but the pain was just disgusting and no matter how hard I tried, I could feel my body tensing with every single contraction. Not exactly the way to get your body to dilate and get a baby out. Epidural went in at 2:30 am, I slept for two hours, and was woken up by pain just on the left side of my body. That was quickly followed by pain on the right side. Yep, after just two and half hours, the epidural had worn off and the bolus that they gave me did nothing. Anesthesia was called up again two hours later, another epidural was put in place, and I was checked again. 8 centimeters. Almost there! Piper wasn't handling the contractions as well as what would have been liked, so the dosage of my pitocin was upped every 10 minutes in hopes to really speed things up. Too bad that at this point, the second epidural had worn off as well...I stalled for a bit at 9 centimeters, but by 11:45 am on Thursday, I was feeling tons of pressure and was told that I had just the smallest lip of cervix left and could push pass it! I am actually so thankful that the epidural wore off for this part of my labor...With it, I don't think I could have pushed as well as I did and we needed Piper out. Her little heart rate was dipping lower and lower with every contraction. Just a couple of contractions later, and Piper was born at 11:51 am, a healthy pink bundle weighing in at 7 lbs 14 oz. I happily didn't poop on the table and the three second degree tears I had didn't hurt a bit. I breastfed our girlie while I was stitched up and Tyler followed her off to the nursery afterwards to be cleaned up and evaluated. I could feel both legs perfectly fine and was asked if I wanted to get up, but my head was feeling incredibly heavy and fuzzy. I started to feel a bit nauseous and that's when my heart monitor started beeping. My blood pressure was low. 86/40. The nurses pulled me down on the bed, lowered it, and turned me on my right side. I could tell that people were talking and asking me questions, but I was too tired to respond so I just didn't. With all the fluids I had been given over the past 34 hours, along with not being able to eat for just as long, I wasn't surprised at all by how horrible I was feeling...I laid there for a while and when my blood pressure finally got to a more acceptable range, I was brought to my postpartum room and Piper was finally brought back to me. She was fully awake, eyes open wide, just staring at me...She looks just like Tyler did when he was born and I just kept thinking "How lucky am I have to have both the man I love and my beautiful daughter?!?"
I'll let you all know about the whole recovery process and how we've been making out as a family of three in my next post!
Posted by
Kim B.
Filed under: Piper
Posted Thursday, March 04, 2010 3:01 PM
After 34 hours of labor, Piper Francine was finally born this morning, just before noon! She shares a birthday with her Grandma 
.
Birth story/pics to come! I need to go love on my adorable daughter!
Posted Thursday, February 25, 2010 9:54 AM
I wanna go home!
My teaching schedule was condensed into three very busy days for my substitute, since she also has another job that she's continuing to work at. Which means that today and tomorrow, I have no students to deal with. I still have to be here, though. Joy. I did get my grades entered this morning and I have curriculum work that I haven't even started yet that's due on March 17th that I really need to get done. (I don't want anything work related that needs to be done once I'm on maternity leave. Heck, I'm not even checking my work email after next Friday...) And I need to get information together and sent out to parents for Earth Day in April when the veggie garden beds on campus will be planted. So, I really do have enough to keep me busy...
Problem is, though, I have such little motivation to get it all done! And I really do want to be done by the end of tomorrow. My sister and cousin are coming up next Thursday (three days before my due date/birthday), so I plan on using sick days for Thursday and Friday (my last two scheduled days at work) so that I can just hang out with them and relax.
Well, it's only 10:23. I'm going to head out to Panera for lunch at around 11. I should be able to pull together the gardening business in that time, so I guess I should be going . Here's to hoping that I can force myself to get some work done around here!
Posted by
Kim B.
Filed under: Work, Pregnancy
Posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010 10:28 AM
Note to self: Copious amounts of apple juice is not your friend!
Ugg...
Total TMI, but I drank so much delicious apple juice (Ever tried Simply Apple? Yeah, it's flippin' amazing!) with my equally delicious breakfast and now the bathroom has become my best friend. And it has nothing to do with ingesting a large amount of liquid 
So now I'm just hanging out on the sofa, thinking about the stuff I want to get done today...I had to go into work yesterday to get some curriculum work done and, since I had to work during my week off, I treated myself to some Starbucks before heading into school and then a manicure and pedicure once I was done! (Any excuse for some pampering, right?). With all that running around yesterday though, combined with the fact that I'm feeling chained to my bathroom, I have no desire at all to leave our apartment today. I'm thinking that I'll just tidy up a bit, take a nice long shower, fold the last load of baby laundry that we washed, and attempt to put together our stroller!
::sigh:: I love being home...I get to take care of our apartment the way I want, I get to spoil my husband with nice dinners, and I still feel ike I'm getting enough rest and not over-extending myself! Too bad Tyler can't double his salary so that I could stay home all the time
Posted Monday, February 15, 2010 12:59 PM
My baby shower on Friday deserves its own post 
My SILs hosted a baby shower for Pip at my MIL's place on Friday night! I thought that I would be exhausted by the time 7 pm rolled around but some late afternoon caffeine kept me going!
There was so much laughter and lots of oohing and aahing over all the gifts! And the treats were delicious! My MIL made the cutest baby cake with yummy chocolate cake and my favorite white icing! And the gifts were just overwhelming...So many beautiful handmade blankets, an absolutely unbelievable handmade Christening outfit (All inclusive with dress, pinafore, bonnet, and booties...I'm telling you, the only word to describe it is GORGEOUS!), tons of clothes and shoes in all different sizes, our stroller, burp cloths, toys...I could just keep going! It's so amazing and touching that my little girl s so loved by so many people!
And my MIL, oh my gosh, what she wrote in the card she got for me literally made me cry. Which made her cry. And we just sat there in front of all our family and friends hugging one another, with tears running down our faces, haha. Oh gosh, what a sight we must have been! She's so excited about our little lady, but sad at the same time about being Pip's only Grandma. Our sweet girl won't be able to meet her Maw-Maw on this side of life...The waterworks came on full force when I was reading how my MIL will think of my Mom every time she holds our girl and will shower her with enough love for the both of them. Tear-jerking, right? Add in hormones and yep, I was a mess, haha! This little girl is certainly blessed...She has three amazing grandparents that love her so much!
Okay, back to the cleaning!
Posted by
Kim B.
Filed under: Baby, Celebrations
Posted Monday, February 15, 2010 10:36 AM
We had such a nice Valentine's Day weekend together! We're not really into crowds and such so we went out Saturday instead.
I had been talking about how one of the things I miss most about living in my hometown is all the diners! I LOVE diner food...especially diner breakfast food! So we woke up late on Saturday and Tyler told me to go get ready, he was taking me to the diner up Island for breakfast! Typically, there's no way he would drive that far just for food! Oh my goodness, I was so excited! So we had a ridiculously large and oh so yummy breakfast, stopped by the hospital I'm delivering at to hand in my pre-registration forms and sign both mine and Pip's patient charts, and then just continued our way up Island even more to do some shopping at the outlets! We got Pip some super cute warm pants at Carter's to go with all the onesies she's already been given along with picking up some absolutely adortable hair bands, went to the Lindt Chocolate Store where Tyler handed me an empty candy box and told me to fill it up with any chocolates that I wanted, we stopped by Best Buy and Tyler's favorite fish supply store so that he could pick out a new gaming mouse and a new fish for his Valentine's Day gift, and just enjoyed walking around, holding hands, and spending a day out together, just the two of us!
The whole time we were out, we both kept smiling at each other and talking about how much we were loving our day out together, you would think we don't spend any time together, haha! I think that since our little lady is now full-term, it's really hit home that our weeks together as just a twosome are limited and we're not taking a second for granted!
And yesterday, I woke up to find a card and a pink rose waiting for me! We went to Church, did our weekly grocery shopping, got some laundry done, and I did the majority of the cleaning I wanted done this week!
Now all I have to do today is clean the bathroom shower and floors, do a few loads of laundry, and vacuum the living room and bedroom! And we have our Baby Care Basics class tonight! I just keep looking at my belly and shaking my head in disbelief...We're really having a baby!
And the best part of the whole weekend? Knowing that I have this whole week off work!
Alrighty, this blog is ridicuously long...So, happy belated Valentine's Day to my Nestie ladies! Hope all of your love days were as sweet at mine
Posted Thursday, February 11, 2010 12:59 PM
Only a two hour delay today . But I can't complain...I just have today and tomorrow to work and then I have a whole week off for mid-winter break! I'm so stinkin' close to being done teaching for the school year!
I slept in, got ready for work, straightened up the bathroom, made our bed, dusted our coffee table, and carefully made my way to school. It was a nice low-key morning and I love coming to work knowing that my bathroom has already been tidied and the bed made (Two things that NEVER get done on a regular work morning). The roads were a bit slushy, but not bad, even for my little Elantra. And Tyler was super sweet and cleaned off my car for me before he left for work! It melts my heart at how well he takes care of me...He may not be the mushy romantic type but him helping me with my shoes and socks and clearing off my car, all without a single word from me, is my kind of romance these days!
I taught one class this morning, ate a fantastic lunch of the yummy leftovers from last night (baked chicken breast, stuffing, gravy, and biscuits...so good!), did my recess duty, and now I'm free all afternoon to get ready for my last formal observation tomorrow! I'm so glad that I'll be able to start my February break knowing that all my observations are complete! I really don't mind people coming in to observe me teach, I have nothing to hide and I like the lessons I do with the kids, but it's always nice to get positive feedback and know that what you're doing and how you're doing it is up to the administration's standards.
And on the agenda for tonight? Making a super easy dinner of baked spaghetti with italian sausage and garlic toast and then a whole lot of nothing! Thursday is shaping up to be a pretty darn good day!
Posted by
Kim B.
Filed under: Work, Housework, DH