I blacked out and 4.5 months went by

Well at this point I don't know if anyone is still reading my blog. Its true, motherhood is very time consuming. And I need another set of arms and about 10 more hours in my day. Someone make that happen thanks.

At this point J-Lee is 4 1/2 months old and pritty pritty awesome. I'll be honest, that first month I often stared at him and wondered when he would turn into a miniature person and not a pooping, puking, whining blob that doesn't look you in the eye. Turns out, it does happen and when it does...its amazing! From only a few weeks old he would try so hard to stand up and be mobile and I just knew I was in for one active kid. And its only gotten worse. Its like he wants to break out of his little baby body and run around. All he wants us to do is hold him up so he can stand, roll over, kick and squirm on his stomach (he squeals in delight as if he's actually doing something productive).  There is nothing that puts a bigger smile on my face than when he smiles back and laughs. It actually hurts my face.

New this week: he screams a high pitched squeal for no reason at all other than he loves that he can do that with his voice. His feet now touch the ground in his little scooter (i call it his wheelchair) and he pushes himself only backward. I swear on saturday we tried to stretch his toes to touch the ground and then yesterday (monday) we put him in it and his feet were flat on the ground! They literally grow over night. And he now (As of yesterday) puts his knees under him when hes on his stomach. i think hes going to be crawling soon! If im tired now, I cant imagine how I will feel with a mobile james around.

Daddy with James and Penny

James playing peek a boo with Grandma. 

IM BACK! and this time...with a baby....weird

well its been awhile. I'm not sure where to start with this post but I think I'll just back this train back up to the week (or 9 days) leading up to my delivery. and ill tell you aaaaall about my labor :) lucky you. Time line below:

Week 40:
   My due date (May 22) arrived! Now, keith and i had been preparing for James to possibly come early because they say that people tend to mirror what their mothers did and my mom was early and so was Keiths mom. Well that didn't happen but thats okay. We had our doctors appt the next day (23rd). At that appt she told me there wasnt any change and she was confident id probably give birth in the next week but to go ahead and schedule an appt for the following Tuesday (1 week over due). Plus had to schedule an appt that Friday to do a routine stress test that they do for overdue babies just to make sure he's ok. We went to that appt and they just hooked me up to the heart monitor for 20 minutes. He was all good! just taking his sweet time.

Week 41:
    Yep still pregnant and on my way to my drs appt. They tell me im about 1 cm dilated and the dr said to get something on the books to be induced if I wanted. The next available was Friday night (it was now tuesday). The dr kept telling us they like to induce first time moms at night so you can sleep through the night and give birth in the morning. ok, yeah right. like i would be able to sleep in a hospital room, hooked up to IVs and having contractions. She said we could call the next day to see if anything opened up sooner but in the meantime we were booked for friday night. At this point keith and i were just anxious to get things going and now that i had decided on being induced, I was just ready to do this! This waiting was much harder than I ever thought it would be. The combination of being anxious, having been off work for almost two weeks waiting for his arrival and not being able to sleep bc i was uncomfortable turned me into an emotional mess. I was just ready for him to come already! Keith called the next day (wednesday) and spoke with another dr and said we would be open to any time openings, not just at night and he kinda stretched the truth and said i was super uncomfortable and wanted the first available. Well, turns out the had an opening from 3am-7am the next morning! That means they call in that time frame and say to come in bc my bed is ready.  Keith and I were pretty excited. We both went to bed that night and attempted to get some sleep but that didnt really happen. Weirdest part....at 3am that morning, i started having contractions! This baby has impecable timing. At 430am the hospital called and said to come in.

Thursday May 31:
    We get to the hospital at about 5:15 and at 7am they hook me up to the monitors and IV and the nurse says "did you know youre having contractions?" I did and figured I was going to the hospital anyway so perfect timing!  The doctor comes in and tells me I will most likely give birth late that night and the contractions were going to start coming on real strong and fast once they start the pitosin IV. I had been told by many people to get an epidural as soon as possible especially if im getting induced. around 10am I was really feeling the contractions and thought if I had to deal with this ALL day, I might as well get the epidural bc you have to sit perfectly still to get it and as the contractions started getting more intense, I dont think id be able to sit very still! Got the epidural (amazing. They should give these to people who dont know how to relax. seriously, so great you cant even feel your legs) .  Mom, dad and janet got to the hospital and iw as able to hang out with them for a few hrs but then my contractions started getting pretty bad. I was kinda scared to press the epidural button even though they kept saying "you cant OD" long story short, at 8:30pm the dr came in and said i was fully dilated and she'd be back in an hr to start pushing. she told me not to press my epidural from now until then which was no problem bc I hadnt pressed it in ab 20 min anyway! (again, for some reason kept thinking id OD and hurt the baby or something).

approximately 9:15pm
      Im dying. literally I think im dying. these contractions are coming every minute and its no joke. I was squeezing Keiths hand so hard he was bruised and had to tell me to use the bed rail bc i was breaking his hand. Come on Keith, deal with it, I'm about to push a child out of me.  The nurse comes in and says "well did you press your epidural button??" NO lady, the dr told me not to! well the nurse is like "do it...press it...seriously..." and held it in front of my face. Uh....ok? at this point, I press it once and told her "i need to start pushing right now, im telling you....i need to start pushing" they kept telling me I should feel constant pressure and then id know i was ready to push. well, I never felt CONSTANT pressure, just CONSTANT extreme pain and i knew I had to push. So she nonchalantly gets the dr and the dr comes in and says "ok so you'll prob be pushing for 1-2 hrs" OH HAIL NO LADY. Clearly she doesnt know me bc in my head im thinking "this baby is coming out NOW if I have any control of it"  So from the time I pressed the epdiural botton to when i  pushed was ab 5 min bc I was NOT waiting any longer. next thing i know the dr says "well, ok then. this baby is coming now." I told you.

Next thing I know it was like a Nascar race and my car had pulled into the changing station. the dr turns around and the nurse puts this gear on her, nurses come out of the wood work, a mirror comes out of the ceiling, the table comes apart, stirrups come up, all within like 15 seconds. The doctor is yelling to Keith "grab her leg!!  hes coming! KEITH LOOK! LOOK! You can see his head!" (poor keith is terrified to look but he did. thanks to the drill sergeant dr) Basically I pushed as hard as I could and 7 minutes later James Lee Wander was here! All 8lbs 1 oz and 22 1/4 inches of him.

He wasnt crying and so they were trying to get him to cry and getting all the gunk out of his mouth and nose. Meanwhile Im constantly asking "is he ok is he ok???" they were very calm and assured me he was and said his ambilical cord had been around his neck twice so he was just "stunned." Looking back, everytime I was laying on my left side (you have to lay on your sides with an epidural) his heart rate would drop. I think it was bc the cord was tightening. Thank god I didnt know that at the time.

They got him to cry and cleaned him up and placed him on my chest. I couldnt believe it. 10 minutes ago he was in me. now hes sitting here staring at me with one HELL of a head of hair.
                                           
                                                             Arent I pretty?

I was uncontrollably shaking right before I started pushing and then afterward too. The nurse kept saying its a natural reaction to the hormones and everything thats going on but turns out i had a 102 degree fever. This meant that James also had a fever when he arrived so they kept monitoring his closely and it went away.

Things they dont tell you about labor: the aftermath HURTS. Alot. The next day through the next few weeks was very painful. Why has no one told me that would happen??? and why had I thought I would just casually stroll out of the hospital feeling amazing? Which by the way I walked out of the hospital, turning down the option of having a wheel chair. I thought I felt fine but by the time I got to our car...I was crying and limping as if I had just been shot in the ass. Word of advice: get a wheelchair.

                                                   Going home outfit compliments of Grannie!

                                              Such a rockstar

More pics and blabbing about motherhood to come....

week 39

Maybe I'll just start numbering the weeks of my life from here on out. why not?

Weekend recap: Gina came to visit Friday. We made a massive, amazing, cake and ate pizza. Saturday we went down to the strip district which is basically a street near downtown that has markets, restaurants and vendors. We ate lunch and people watched (that means we made fun of everyone that walked by.) then Keith decided he wanted a pair of fake glasses to change his look up a little (not the pair in the picture below). Maybe he's going through some sort of "dad-to-be" identity crisis. I dont know. I'm just going with it. Gina left Saturday evening just as my mom was coming in for the night. Saturday night my mom, keith and I went to dinner with Keiths mom, step dad, step brother and step sister. Sunday Keith made us breakfast and we just relaxed. My mom thought I would go into labor when she got back to Cleveland and she would just have to turn around and come back. Unfortunately I did not go into labor :/  The wait continues....

 Gina brought this stuff below to rub on my stomach. Its supposedly for sore muscles but the good news is that it has castor oil in it so ive been hoping it will move Juan along here!  

Happy Birthday to me!

Sunday was my birthday and it turned out to be the most BEAUTIFUL day. It was like 78 and sunny with a breeze....perfection. Below is a picture of one of the gifts Keith got me. Before we went to dinner Saturday I opened a gift from him which was this amazing blazer from Topshop that I've been dreaming of and then he took me outside and showed me this:

I immediately started crying and completely ruined the careful makeup job I had tried to perfect. The grey rock behind it was the one Keith TRIED to get engraved because Oscar always say on it but he could barely lift it so he took this rock from his moms house and lugged it all the way downtown to get it engraved. What a guy.  This was the sweetest gift and now Oscar can leave our mantel and go outside where he loved to be. 

We moved into our house in November which means we had no idea what flowers/plants we would see bloom in the spring so it's been exciting to see what pops up:

We have another rodedemdrum bush on the other side of our sidewalk 

I keep forgetting that I was going to post a belly pic on Fridays! This is from today. (38 weeks tomorrow!)

37 weeks!

I'm now in my 37th week and went to the doctor today....progress has been made! The doctor said he has "engaged" which basically means he dropped into my pelvis. I was happy to hear this because everyone keeps saying "you're still carrying so high, I don't think you'll be going into labor any time soon." The doctor said my stomach may or may not drop more but doesn't really matter as far as when I would go into labor. Also over 50% effaced but no dilation yet. I always thought dilation meant labor was coming soon but apparently it doesn't. You can go into labor without ever dilating or you could be dilated for like a month before anything happens! I've learned that there are no rules when it comes to pregnancy and the process can be completely different from person to person. If you have never been pregnant but plan on it, just know that every single person will tell you something different and be adamant about their opinion! 

For instance, when you first get pregnant you will hear "oh, you arent nauseous? DEFINITELY a boy." or "youre breaking out? DEFINITELY a girl" or "you're carrying high and straight out. thats EXACTLY how I was and I had a boy/girl" Those gender wivetales are all bs. i mean you have a 50/50 shot at it being right so of course people will say "oh they're true, it was right for me!" yeah, duh, you had good odds!

When you are in your third trimester you will get unwanted parenting advice and people will be absolutely sure about how your labor will go. I've heard things like "oh it wont be more than 9 hours and you'll just get the epidural and be fine" or "you'll have a long labor because its your first and you'll be pushing FOREVER" or "well did you mom have a long labor? because you will" or "You MUST get the epidural the SECOND you start getting uncomfortable. Seriously. Trust me. Seriously. do it. you have to" 

But on the other hand, I do appreciate some of the advice I get especially if they are sharing it and not TELLING me how it's going to be. Like my friend Rachel just had her baby and let me know to take pillows and a blanket for Keith because they don't give him any. Now because I love him dearly I will do this. BUT if I want to see him suffer (as I supposedly will be), I could pretend I didn't hear that advice. 

And when you're super pregnant people are really nice to you. Like you can waddle across the street and even though someone is trying to turn and you're taking to long in the cross walk they smile at you instead of flicking you off. People will stop and say things like "oh when are you due??? my daughter/niece/hamster/dog is due this month too!"  and you'll have the creepy dude in the coffee shop nonchalantly hit on you by saying things like "wheres your husband? oh...yeah i figured he was at work. You're too cute to get randomly knocked up"  aw, so sweet.

FIRE DRILL!!

I accidentally sent Keith into a panic last night and now that I think about it, it was h-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s. At 3:30 am I shot straight up in bed (turns out my abs still do kind of work) and made some ungodly noise that consisted of whimpering and many swear words. Keith immediately sat up and started panicking "what!? what happened!? is everything okay!? oh my god!" The only words I eventually managed to get out were "My leg....Charlie...." and then he tried to rub my leg in which I immediately responded "DON'T TOUCH ME!" I think everyone just got a good idea of how labor will go for us.

Anyway, no, I wasn't in labor, I just had the world's worst charlie horse in my calf that happened to wake me up out of a dead sleep. Another joyous side effect of pregnancy.

Below are the newest pics of the nursery. Still waiting on that damn chair!

Chair will go in this corner with side table

 Thats a whole lotta baby for one picture! Rachel (middle) just had her little boy two nights ago!

It finally happened...

I got out of bed last night to eat. I have gone 36 weeks without getting the urge to get up and eat but last night we watched a movie in bed around 9 and at 11 I just HAD to have a bowl of cereal. I didn't think I'd be able to last until 8am! My appetite has been so strange throughout my pregnancy and half the time I can't even tell if I'm hungry and I don't necessarily crave anything (except I could always eat sweets) so I thought for sure I could go my whole pregnancy without getting up to eat. I was wrong.

So, exactly one month to go until my due date!! Below is a pic from yesterday. 36 weeks!

I thought the picture below was cute. Penny was following me around everywhere yesterday and kept snuggling up against my stomach. I think she's actually realizing she's going to have a little brother!