It has been over a year…

First off, I need to apologize. It has been over a year since I have written on here. I missed it quite a bit, but the first year of a child’s life is hectic to say the least.
Boy, how my life has changed. About a year ago today this was me..

Just about to pop…..

I was due sometime in February, I know it is bad, but I can’t even remember now. I want to say February 13th…

My legs were swollen so bad I couldn’t even bend them to a 90 degree angle, you couldn’t see my kneecap by lunch, and shoes? Ha what a joke! My tennis shoes, minus the shoelaces were all that fit.

I was miserable and my doctor, although she never said, I think was slightly worried. Everything else was just fine; blood pressure, heart rate, the baby’s stats, all good.

So my doctor offered to induce me early….I was all too happy to meet my little angel.

I checked into the hospital at 5 A.M. No contractions, no water breaking, just me checking in calm and tired. I didn’t face the horrific water breaking in public or having to clean the mess up. I didn’t almost have my baby on the way to the hospital. I didn’t have terrible contractions. I still don’t even know what normal contractions feel like!

I was induced and in labor by 630. For almost 12 hours I was in labor. I am sorry to all you mommas that pushed through terrible, painful, excruciating labors, I felt contractions for all of 3 minutes?

Apparently, I had been contracting for about a month, normal. I had just thought it was my little one kicking me!

Even after I was induced I felt nothing….until they broke my water.

OH. MY. GOD. Then I felt contractions.

But then, the angel with my epidural showed up and like magic….nothing…. amazingness.

This went on for a while longer. My nurse staff was wonderful and kept me calm even when I couldn’t move from my side because my contractions had begun to come too often, I think it was like 5 every 10 minutes and I was not dilating past 6″.

So, as calmly as possible they explained that my doctor would probably want a C-section because we weren’t progressing. This was at about 6 P.M. I immediately start crying because this is never good.

Emergency C-Section. Yikes.

They were so calm and they got me to the room so quickly and like it was no big deal. The Anesthesiologists were super amazing getting me prepped, I am still crying. My husband is waiting for them to get me prepped so he can come in….

He tells me later that my doctor came RUNNING IN AND THREW HER PURSE AT SOMEBODY…..it was that serious. I had NO idea!!

The cord was wrapped around my babies neck and the contractions were intense. Anytime they moved me from my right side her heart beat slowed down and they couldn’t hear it. She was also at an impossible angle to deliver vaginally.

So it begins. They cut into me and I am just laying there trying to stay calm and watching the clock, because that is about all I can see. At 6:40 P.M. I heard my little angel cry.

I will tell you there is nothing like hearing your first child cry for the very first time. I started bawling and I am not sure I stopped until we were back in my room, baby in my arms, everything sewed back up.

It was an emotional labor/delivery, but I have to tell you, I can’t imagine an easier way to have a baby.

I am lucky.

I had NO pain during contractions(minus the 3 minutes), I had no pain during the C-section, I had no pain after. They kept offering me pain killers and I kept turning them down. I didn’t need them….I am super lucky.

Also, I had this beautiful baby girl,

Absolutely gorgeous.

Madilyn Juliet, my little princess.

She was such an amazing newborn. We did co-sleep or whatever you want to call it. I did breastfeed and it made it a lot easier, plus…..she slept like 12 hours at a time and didn’t wake up a lot of the time. We got all kinds of sleep. The doctor even said, she was gaining weight just fine, we were getting sleep, and she was a happy baby.

She is still a happy baby, and almost 1 year old. She now sleeps in her own bed and is perfect…

 

Just a few of my favorites 🙂

Sweet dreams you wonderful people!

My Gender Reveal Party

My Brother-in-laws wife(I wish there was an easier name for this relation!) and I worked all of last weekend to put together our gender reveal box.

When I say all weekend I mean, ALL of Sat. and most of Sunday.

My husband and I waited almost 5 months to see our little baby and two days after that to find out the gender. I had planned to do a gender reveal since I found out I was pregnant. My husband hated the idea of waiting a minute longer than he had too, so it took a lot of convincing to get him on board, and he still wasn’t happy about it.

I had met a lady in a class in the spring semester who did photography part time, and I contacted her two weeks before this reveal and we set up our date.

I rained, POURED at the exact moment we wanted to photograph our reveal.

So my husband, his brother, his brother’s wife and son, as well as my mother-in-law and her boyfriend, my husband’s little brother, and a surprise visitor (my mom, who drove 3 1/2 hours to come to the reveal with plans on driving back right after) and myself pulled together any other option we could think of. We ended up settling on my mother-in-laws house, not ideal but it worked.

The meeting time was 6pm, we had an hour set up with the photographer to take ALL kinds of pictures.

At 645 our photographer text my husband she had been in a fender bender and had to wait for something(maybe police?) and then she had to pick up her kids at 7.

We all kind of stood around for a minute before all the attention turned to me.

“What do you want to do?” “Do you want to wait, do it another day?” “Just do it?”

It hadn’t been the best day for me as it was, and disappointment overtook me.

I disappeared to the nearest bathroom to cry it out for a minute. All the work, all the planning, all the time and effort not only I had put in but almost every single person in the room. What should I do?

I decided it couldn’t wait, my mom had to leave, the helium would only last 8-10 hours and had been paid for, my husband certainly wouldn’t wait, and the whole point of the pictures was to capture our emotion of first finding out.

I probably didn’t handle it like I should have, but I said, “Let’s do it, forget the pictures, it has to be done.”

I wasn’t even excited anymore.

My mom and brother-in-law’s wife pulled out their digital cameras.

Thank goodness my husband’s reaction was great otherwise I am not sure I could have managed a smile.

So it’s a little girl.

Miss Madilyn Juliet.

We took some funny pictures:

And we took some cute ones:

That’s our little nephew, (he didn’t know I was pregnant until the day before and he told his mom “But, she’s not even fat!” Love that kid!)

That’s my momma. 🙂

It ended up being a good great night spent with family.

Today the photographer messaged me on Facebook and offered a free session of anything I want.

Should I do it? I was thinking no on principal alone, my husband says, free is free.

Dear John,

My husband, John, and I are very different. I love scary movies, he likes cop/war movies. He hates scary movies, I really do not like cop/war movies.

He loves Mexican, I really do not! I like spicy things and I like sour things(pickles, lemons), he really does not.

I like mainstream and alternative music (Yellowcard, Jason Mraz), he prefers not to listen to that. He LOVES rap/hip hop, I have a serious issue with rap/hip hop.

Some of the most important things in life we disagree on, like finances, how to handle people, and the above. But the other day during an argument he says to me:

“I may not understand you all the time, but I will do whatever it takes to make you happy every time. I hate seeing you cry or unhappy in general, and I will find a way to fix it every time and that is what should matter.”

It shut me down so effing fast and I thought to myself, this man is amazing.

This is why I love my husband, he teaches me lessons I didn’t think to learn.

Don’t sweat the small stuff, is all that matters is your partner and you.

My Little Guy

This is Coda, he is my little guy. He is 3 years old now.

He was my very first dog, I got him from the Humane Society when he was almost 1 yr old. I had him for almost two years. He is a Terrier Mix, not sure with what though.

He was my husband and I’s “Love Puppy” (instead of love fern haha How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days) so he was the very first addition to our family.

I recently had to give him to my mom, who is 3 hours away, in MO. Unfortunately, we discovered he is not good with children and only good with other dogs on occasion. I feel he is very dominate towards other dogs.

Some back story: My husband and I moved in with my mother-in-law so I could go to school full-full time(as much as possible) and finish school. The deal was he worked I went to school and fast tracked to a degree. So to save money we moved in with his mom.

We were allowed to bring Cod, as we sometimes like to call him, and lived with her from January until currently. In August we gave him to my mom, following the arrival of a 4 month old Akita, that is as big as me. Coda did not like this and we were forced to leave him in our bedroom at all times, to avoid peeing and fighting.

This sounds terrible, and it was. No dog should be cooped up. The only bright side was that I was taking online class so I was home ALL the time. He didn’t get to leave the room except for to go outside, to go potty or walks, and to eat.

One of Coda’s favorite things is to cuddle so I held on to him for a month after getting the new puppy. We cuddled every day and I spent every day with him and most hours of every day. That was the only thing I could give him to make up for his being stuck.

Once I knew school would be starting and I was going to be gone 6-10 hours a day some days I knew it was time for him to go somewhere he would like much better. It was selfish of me to keep him like that anyways, but he was my puppy and he knew it.

He always has to be next to me!

So now he lives with my mom, who gladly took him. She adores him. Now he gets to sleep in bed with my mom(which my husband would not allow, as Cod took up a lot of room to be next to me), he gets to get on furniture, he gets spoiled rotten with food and toys, he has full roam of the house, and to top it off a fenced in back yard he will run around in for hours.

He is very well behaved though, except around dogs and children(which we keep him far away from), and he is happy now.

He loves soccer balls!

Hopefully he will always remember his momma and how she loved him!

My Little Guy.

My Husband and I

Our first helicopter ride 🙂 He is the best!