Circumcision

We as parents made the decision to have Paxten circumcised. Parker was when he was born and the just did it right at the hospital before we left. That was so nice! It seems that times and policies have changed in 5 years and they will no longer do that procedure at the hospital, you have to do it at the doctor's office. So we made an appointment to do just that. I was an emotional basket case, thinking about what they were going to do to my poor little perfect baby. I knew it would be painful, but kept telling myself that he would thank us when he is older. There are several good reasons to have the procedure done and I was sure I wanted to do it. But when the nurses brought in a tray and a thing called a "circumstraint" I started to get emotional. I saw the little "circumstraint" sitting there on the table with it's 4 straps to hold my little boy down I started bawling. So when the doctor came in to explain the prodecedure, he kept asking me if I was sure we wanted to do it. Yes. I finally calmed down and we left the room while our poor little guy had "it" done. He came out calm and not even looking like he had cried. Then the numbing cream wore off and it was bad. The poor thing was crying so hard he couldn't hardly breathe. Now I felt like an awful parent. I told Matt that from now on until it was completely healed, he was in charge of diaper changes. I couldn't even look at it I felt so bad!! Well Paxten has recovered quite well and after 1 long day of feeling miserable, he is doing good and the area has healed up rather nicely. Like I said he will thank us one day, and he will be glad we didn't wait until he was 5 or 12 or whatever.

At The Hospital

After we had our new little guy, I had to stay in the hospital for 2 more nights. It seemed like longer than that because I pretty much spent an extra night there the day he was born. I was very ready to go home and pretty much begged the doctor to let me leave a day early. He was going to have me stay one more night into Saturday, but I had managed to control my pain level and my incision was looking good, so he let me leave on Friday. Having a room in the hospital right by the nurses station would not be my first choice of rooms, you can hear everything!! I didn't get much sleep while I was there and thought if I'm not going to get sleep here, I might as well be home getting no sleep. There was even one night that someone was vacuuming at 10:00 at night, right by my room!! Are you kidding me!! That really made me mad! Anyways, I am glad to be home with our little boy and that everything is going well. I am still adjusting to not getting very much sleep and somehow my body is surviving on 3-4 hours of sleep a night. Matt might not agree, I know I am a bear!

The night my water broke I called my mom and had her come over and stay with the kids that night since they were already in bed asleep. Mom said that Paige came into the bed during the night and just climbed right in and went back to sleep. She didn't even realize that it was grandma instead of mom. When she woke up in the morning and saw that is it was grandma she looked at her and said "grandma!" with surprise. My mom told her that we had to go to the hospital and that we had the baby. She then told her it was a little brother. Paige immediately said, "No, a baby sister" She really wanted a baby sister and this news was devastating to her. She started crying and had a little melt down. My mom told her that she would love the little brother and that she would be able to see him later in the day. I don't think she was convinced yet. I talked to Paige a few hours later and told her how cute Paxten was and that he had a lot of hair and that when she came to visit she would be able to hold him. That peeked her curiosity and she was excited to be able to do that. When the kids arrived at the hospital and got their first glimpse of Paxten, they both feel in love. All of the disappointment Paige had vanished and she immediately went to give him a kiss and a hug. SO GLAD!!!!

The kids have been super good helpers and love to hold the baby whenever they get the chance. Parker has especially been a good big brother and loves his new little brother. He sings him made up songs and tells Paxten how he will protect him and watch him when mommy and daddy can't I am so glad that they are adjusting well and that they don't seem to have any resentment towards him. Let's hope that continues!

Your what???

Tuesday started like any other day on bed rest, other than Matt now is off of work for the next 5 weeks. He decided to start his time off early to be around to help me out. We still had a few things we wanted to get done before the baby arrived and Matt was now home to help. I wanted to get all the bedding changed and washed in both the kids rooms and our room so I did 6 loads of laundry that day (which really isn't bed rest I guess, but laundry isn't too exhausting...so I though) That filled my day in between resting and watching some television. That evening my groin area (sorry if that is too much info) was feeling very sore, like I had pulled a muscle or something and I was really uncomfortable. But I just thought it was the usual pregnancy pains. Matt and I went to bed and had just turned out the lights when I felt like I had peed the bed a little. I had just gone to the bathroom and was like man I can't believe I have to go again. I went into the bathroom and there was green liquid in my pants and a big gush of water....I couldn't believe it MY WATER BROKE!! Matt and I had talked about what we would do if that happened. Guess we would find out soon. I went back into the bed room and turned on the light and said "Matt, my water just broke!" he looked at me and said "are you sure?" Yes I was sure!!! He jumped out of bed and started getting ready. I called the Drs. office and got Scott who was on call. He told me to get to the hospital and that he would call Dr. Leavitt and let him know I was on the way. We then called my mom who came over to stay with the kids, who where already sleeping. It was about 11:00 before we left for the hospital thinking this is it!! I hadn't really been having contractions, but as we were driving to the hospital they started and continued to grow. Before we arrived they were coming about every 3 minutes and we starting to get more and more uncomfortable. We finally arrived at the hospital where they were waiting for me. I got all settled in, IVS started, and ready to go. The Anesthesiologist came and talked to me and assured me that this c-section would be way more comfortable then my last and he answered all my questions and we were ready to go. The Dr. came in, made sure I was ready and then they realized that my blood count was way off. My platelets were extremely high and they didn't want to do a spinal if my blody was fighting off an infection somewhere that we were unaware of. Well after some talk, they decided that it was probably from my blood condition, spherocytosis, and that it was probably normal for me. So we went ahead into the operating room. I received the spinal and then was numb. Dr. Leavitt and Scott started the c-section and about 10 minutes later our little BOY Paxten Wayne was born. 1:34 in the morning. He weighed 6 lbs. 11 oz. and was 20 inches long. He was rushed into the NICU to clean him up because of the presence of meconium in the water... the drs. finished sewing me up and I was wheeled into recovery a little after 2:00 in the morning. I was able to hold Paxten and to nurse him right then and was so excited that everything went smoothly and well. It was a whole lot different than any of my last 2 deliveries and I was so happy about that! We stayed in the hospital until Friday and were able to come home. We are enjoying having the newest member of our family with us. More to come later!

Superbowl Fun

We didn't really have a Superbowl party here at our house because I was on bed rest, but we still wanted to enjoy all the good food. So Matt decided to make his famous wings and my mom and dad came over and we enjoyed a feast of wonderful food. As we were planning what we were going to eat we noticed a theme....Cream cheese and bacon!!! can't have a party without it!!! We had Wings, fruit and veggie tray, chips and queso dip, stuffed mushrooms, bacon wrapped water chestnuts, tortilla pinwheeels, bacon wrapped jalapenos, Texas sheet cake, and sodas! It was delicious and we were all stuffed. Surprisingly I lost a pound at the doctor the next day!!

38 Weeks

I had my weekly Doctors appointment on the 7th of February. I had been in the previous Thursday for a followup from the last Monday. On that Thursday I had a blood pressure check and an NST to check on the baby. Everything looked good, blood pressure was still a little high, but not high enough that the doctor was too worried. My appointment on the 7th went well. Blood pressure was a little elevated but still alright. The NST that day showed good movement with the baby and the ultrasound showed that everything still looked good. My amniotic fluid level was down to a normal range, 16, and everything else looked right on track. I was measruing 38 weeks and the baby was guessed to weigh about 7 lbs. 8 oz. If so this will be our biggest baby yet. I was dialated to a 1 and 50% effaced, so not much happening on that end. So the doctor once again sent me home to stay on bed rest. I had to to another 24 hour protein count and some more blood work, but he thought he would see me on the 15th the scheduled day for the c-section.

Project Finished

I started making the kids levi quilts before Christmas with good intentions of being able to get them done for Christmas gifts, but it didn't happen. I was lacking in energy and it took me a lot longer than I anticipated to cut all the squares. So I bagged the Christmas gift idea and was shooting for Easter, or sooner. Well I put it on my list of things to do before the baby arrived and worked really hard in January to get them done. On the 28th and 29th I was able to work all day on them and got the tops all sewed together. On the following Monday my mom and I got together and tied them both. So glad to have them almost finished. And my mom was nice enough to finish them off by binding them for me. I was so gratful that she was willing to do that, because that day is when the doctor put me on bed rest. The kids are loving their new blankets and they turned out to be the perfect size to fit on their beds during the winter and will be just big enough for camping trips during the summer. I am hoping they will last throughout the kids teenage years as well. I am pretty happy with how they turned out and that the kids love them!! Yay for finished projects!!

37 Week

I forgot to post of picture of me at 37 weeks. Better late than never. January 31, 2011.

37 Weeks...Is There An End?

I had been feeling pretty good and was looking forward to the end of this pregnancy and was so glad that I have made it this long and that the baby is looking good. Then last weekend I starting feeling more uncomfortable and then I started noticing some swelling in my feet, hands and face. I know that is not a good thing. I kept thinking "I wonder what my blood pressure is?" But I held off calling the Dr. because I had a regular appointment on Monday. Sunday was the worst of the swelling and my hands and face weren't as swollen when I woke up on Monday, but my feet were bad! I went to the Dr., and wouldn't you know it, he had left to do a delivery!! Just my luck! I opted to wait and see if he came back soon because my blood pressure in the office was 158/83 or something like that the first time. So she let me rest for a few minutes and took it again. It was 138/100 or something just as bad. So she switched arms and it was 143/96...something that was still pretty high. So I knew I wanted to visit with the Dr and see what he wanted me to do (secretly I was hoping he would say see you in the morning for delivery....ya right!) So he made it back pretty quickly and did the regular checkup. Baby looked good, he was just concerned about the blood pressure and swelling. So he was going to put me on blood pressure medication asap and wants me to start having bi-weekly appts. Also for that day blood work, 24 hour urine protein, and a non-stress test. WOW!!! It was almost 5:00 at this point and decided he wanted the lab work as soon as possible so off I went to the hospital to have the labs done and the non-stress test.

Matt was a little freaked out when I called and told him I was on my way to the hospital for some tests. But I wasn't too worried, the Dr. was calm and I knew I would have been able to tell if it was serious. I got to the hospital and the nurses in Labor and Delivery looked at me like I was crazy walking into the unit telling them what I was there for without a Drs. orders. But the called him and quickly verified why I was there, hooked me up to the machine and drew my blood (again!) The baby looked good, very active and I was having regular contractions...could I be in labor on my own?!! I wish!! The Dr. checked on me after about 1 hour and my blood pressure was way down, in the 126/60 range so what did he tell me?....BED REST for the duration on my pregnancy!! What?? How am I supposed to be on bed rest and still take care of 2 other kids and my house and all that other stuff?? Also still having bi-weekly appts for non-stress tests and blood pressure checks. I am currently filling a jug for the protein count and we will see what the lab results are on that. So we are still looking towards the 15th for the delivery, if all goes well the next few weeks. I just once want things to work out how I imagine them! So for now I am home all the time, relaxing and being bored. Trying not to see the mess and destruction the kids are making and just trying to get some sleep. Wish me luck...I am not one that sits still for long, I hope I can do it! Next appt on Thursday.