Sunday, July 22, 2012

{First Couple of Weeks....}

Here are some pictures of the first couple of weeks of Mr. Landon Thomas' life outside the womb =) He arrived at exactly 9am on Friday July 6th. He weighed in at 9 lbs and was 20 inches long. This little man has completely stolen our hearts and as you can see, we just can't stop taking pictures of "McHandsome" as my mom calls him =) The song below is perfect for this post. I love my baby!


Here are some of my favorites, if you can't tell we like him best naked as a jaybird!:
















Monday, July 16, 2012

{Back in the Game - Maternity Leave Version}

Maternity leave - ahhhh.  I know people say it's not a vacation, it's hard work, but I must say.  It has been a nice vacation for me! We are blessed to have an awesome baby.  He would sleep through the night, but our lactation consultant just informed me that I should be waking him every 4 hours to eat.  I was waking him at first, but many people said they never woke their baby, so I stopped.  We are trying to get him back up to his birth weight of 9 pounds.  He's 8.7 now. Still a healthy baby boy, but just need to put on a couple more ounces and it should be smooth sailing.

Since I am feeling overly well, with literally no pain, I thought it time to knock out a project that I've been wanting to complete for the last week  a while..... =) My mom, Landon and I went to Kirkland's the other day and although it's rare that I find stuff I absolutely LOVE in there. I hit the JACKPOT this time there.  I got two awesome picture frames for 5 bucks a piece.  I love the color! Creamy gray. Then a huge 11x14 for $10 that will hold our favorite of Landon's newborn pictures.  Also I bought a mirror that I loved, the only problem was it had a stand.  It was like a vanity mirror type deal.  While in the store I told my mom that I wanted to hang it on the wall.  So we proceeded to break the stand part off, just to make sure that it would come off and that it would be able to hang on the wall.  Not sure what we would have done if it didn't break so well {oops}.  I joked with my mom that I should say, this is broken can I get another 20% off, but figured that's a little shady {not that breaking it in the first place wasn't.......}






Anyway, it was about $8. So total I spent about $35 for basically the whole gallery wall, because I had the main picture up already and the 5x5 canvas with our wedding song lyrics on it was about $2 {already had the paint for it and the marker}, and the Anthro inspired 'B' was about $5 painted black then spray painted in a metallic that I already had.  LOVE

I am painting STRIPES in the hallway!! So excited!!  Here are some of my inspiration pictures. The first one more so than the 2nd.

via
via
Love it - I am so excited to start painting!! I'm going to wait until the hubs goes back to work to start so we can soak up as much time as a new family of 3 as possible, but then "It's go time!" as my Dear Husband says. And not to worry, Landon will not be in the house while mama is painting =)

I can't call this post complete until I post of picture of my favorite men. I am just loving life right now!





{Landon's First Days - A Slideshow}









Thursday, July 12, 2012

{Landon's Birth Story}

I wanted to get this down before I forgot the small details.  I figure if I have it written somewhere it will be cool to look back on down the road =)

So here it goes. {PS This is very long, so hopefully you have some time =)}

I left work Thursday {July 5th} planning on going home and resting.  It was a long busy week at work, not to mention, I was 39 weeks and 4 days pregnant.  Landon was showing no signs of wanting to come out, other than some lower back pain throughout the day that I kept complaining to my co-workers about.

When I got home my mom came over to bring me dinner but I wasn't hungry.  Mike was not off work yet and my back pain was getting worse.  My mom thought I should start timing when they would get worse.  I went to my room and changed, came into the living room and said "We're going to the hospital, I just want to go" - Part of me thought that maybe if I went I could have him that night! Because maybe they wouldn't let me leave if I was that far along.....well just FYI, they will send you home if you are 39 weeks 4 days pregnant and if you aren't progressing.....

Luckily, Mike was getting off work at the time, that I called him and he was able to meet us in the parking lot at Liberty Hospital at about 7:45pm.  Once we got there they asked us just a couple of questions because we had already done the pre-admission {Thank Goodness!!} and sent us on back to labor and delivery.  My mom and husband were both back there, the nurse hooked me up to some machines but wasn't picking up any contractions of any kind.  When I came in I was 2.5 cm dilated and 80% effaced {which is more dilated than I had been}

Smiling through the pain


Our first nurse Lori was so sweet! She had us walk around to see if I would dilate more.  We walked those halls for what seemed like hours. Came back in and I was still not dilating....UGH! They typically will watch you for about 4 hours and if you aren't progressing they will send you home.  In that four hours we walked the hallways twice and I went into the jacuzzi spa they had, she said that may calm my nerves and allow me to dilate.  I kept telling Mike and my mom that we were going to be sent home.  I just wanted my baby here!! I wanted to hold him, I knew he was ready but was against getting induced if I didn't need to be.


After that, she came in to check me.  I was laying in the hospital bed with my monitor on and Landon's on and as she was moving the bed lower, Landon's heart rate on the monitor did something crazy.  Every eye in the room was on that monitor because we knew it did not look right.  I immediately asked "What just happened?" "Is he ok?" I didn't really get a straight answer from her, she just looked very confused and said she was going to call the doctor.  My mind is wondering what was wrong - she said it could have just been the monitor lost track of him or it could be something more serious.  She did say the whole time before and after that that his heart rate looked "beautiful" she kept saying how awesome the baby looked.

At around 11 that night, she came in and said she wanted to monitor us for another hour. At that point, my mom left.  I was fine with staying, anything to figure out what was going on with our boy.  About 30 minutes later, she came in and said "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you are going to have to stay the night.  We need to monitor him overnight." Mike and I were actually glad, because if anything did progress, where else better to be than the hospital?

At around midnight or 12:30, Mike fell asleep and I tried to but my contractions started showing on the screen.  They were up to the top and lasting longer than they had been.  They were pretty painful too.

It was about 2 in the morning or so and as Mike was resting on the couch, I had a really bad contraction and felt my water break.  I remember calmly saying to Mike, "My water just broke".  You could see the look of excitement on his face because he knew {and I did too} that we weren't leaving this hospital without our baby!  He went out and got nurse Lori to let her know and she came in and at first said "No, I don't think it did break." I looked at her like she had 12 eyes.  I said, "TRUST ME, IT BROKE!" She checked again, "Oh yes, it did break! Yeah, girl, you're doing this all on your own! See, you didn't want to be induced and you didn't!"

From that point, it became sort of a blur.  I got hooked up to an IV and had to sign some paperwork {I would LOVE to see those signatures...yikes} Because that "cushion" was gone my contractions {that were all in my back BTW} started getting worse.  I did not cry but came dangerously close to it.  It was almost so much pain that you couldn't cry.  I kept forgetting to breathe, and Mike would have to remind me and breathe with me, because if I wasn't getting oxygen, neither was Landon.  I just wanted the pain to stop.  I remember throwing up and moving around in the bed uncontrollably.  I also remember telling the nurse that I felt like I wasn't getting a break.  I said something like "They are coming one after another, when can I get an epidural?" and telling Mike that "I didn't know how much longer I could take the pain." I could tell he so wanted to do something but there was nothing anyone {but an anesthesiologist ;)} could do at this point.

We waited for the anesthesiologist for what seem like hours!! Lori kept saying he was on his way, I just needed to finish the bag of fluids and he would be here.

At about 3:30 am, he finally came up.  I was in so much pain at this point, I felt like I couldn't function, talk, or sit still. Sitting still is necessary when getting an epidural - FYI. When he first came in he asked how I was doing and I said "Dying".  I got a little chuckle from Mike, the nurse and doctor.  But I was SERIOUS.

The anesthesiologist, bless his heart was cracking jokes with the nurse and me.  He wanted to practice how I needed to sit and how Mike would need to hold me forward.  I remember whispering to Mike "I am going to choke this guy out if he doesn't hurry up" HOLY MOLY! I was mad! I wanted some relief!!I know it's his job but I remember he had a clipboard with a bunch of papers and was describing to me the different layers in my back and how thin the layers are and what exactly the epidural would do.  He did all of this in the middle of a contraction.  I totally was not paying the least bit of attention.  And as Jessica my 2nd {amazing} nurse and mother of 3, said "If they had told me there was a 100% chance I would be paralyzed, I would have said bring it on!" That's how much it hurts.

The anesthesiologist said it would take 15 minutes to see if it worked or not.  I vividly remember thinking "IF IT WORKED OR NOT!!???" and that "Fifteen minutes is not going to be soon enough, I will not make it...."

Finally, the pain started to wear off, ahh some relief.  I actually fell asleep and Mike says he was watching my contractions go up on the monitor while I was sleeping, thinking how amazing that was.  At about 6:30 a new group came in and we said goodbye to our other nurse.  In walks Jessica, she is my cousins best friend since high school and I really wanted her to be my nurse but didn't want to bother her or have her come in on her day off.  She is a busy mother of 3!  When she walked in I was so happy! She said "It worked out!!" Thank goodness!

At that point I think it was about 6:30am, The doctor came in and checked to see if I was dilated.  I remember thinking "Pleeeeasse be dilated to at least a 5 or something!"  Dr. Kramer said "Oh my, you are dilated to a 9! His head is right there!" What a miracle! All of this happened as I was sleeping! Jessica told me I was going to start to push and I remember not feeling any pain at all and chatting with Mike and her.  It had been about 45 minutes of solid pushing and I asked Jessica how long they would let me push before they would look at a C-Section.  She said typically 2-3 hours.  After 3 hours, the mother's are just exhausted!  I was determined to get this baby out!! I pushed for a solid 2 hours from exactly 7am-9am.  It was frustrating pushing and I said numerous times "Landon, we are ready to meet you, please come out."  I was making progress and Jessica and Mike were the best motivators!

At about 8:55, Jessica called Dr. Kramer in and told me to stop pushing.  She also called the nursery nurse down and another nurse.  I remember thinking, "After all this hard work and 9 months I get to see my baby in less than 5 minutes! This is really happening."  Dr. Kramer came in and I pushed about 3 more contractions through, and out he came.  Her first words were "Ohhh, that's a big baby!" He was purple and the doctor said "Don't worry about his color"  One of the nurses said "Look at his cheeks!!!" The nurse cleaned out his lungs and nose and we heard a big cry! Mike and I both started uncontrollably crying and I started clapping out of excitement! He, went over and watched Landon being cleaned up.  I was so chatty and excited and I just wanted to hold him! They weighed him 9 pounds!!  I remember the nursery nurse saying "Where did you hide a 9 pound baby???" I was in shock at his weight! But he was a healthy looking boy.







Mike would later tell me that he was freaking out at the time because he thought that there was something wrong with him.  His head was totally cone shaped, bulging eyes, swollen all over.  He said he was thinking "Oh no, we have an ugly baby!" I know what newborn babies look like because I'm a woman - but he apparently didn't.....

Overall, labor and delivery was an amazing experience.  I'm ready to do it again ;)!! The worst part by far was the contractions even only being dilated to a 3.5.  I kept wondering how all the women in history have done this without medication and 13 or more times!! Ouch!

The most amazing nurse Jessica! 


The follow-up nurse came to the house on Tuesday and she said I am recovering wonderfully.  I stopped taking pain pills the day after he as born and have not taken any medication or had much pain since.  I feel really blessed to not have to deal with much pain while on maternity leave and just get to enjoy my baby.  She also said Landon looks perfect, {I may be biased, but I think so too}, is gaining the right amount of weight, and it looks like we are doing great and right on track as parents!


Sunday, July 1, 2012

{39 weeks}




How far along? 39 weeks! One week {hopefully less} to go.  The nurse said they will not let me go past 41 weeks to which I told her I want to try not to be induced if we can at all help it until after 40 weeks, just because I feel like I'm pulling him from there and he's not ready.  I've also heard horror stories about people getting induced and they just have a really tough labor. Especially when not dilated - like me.  We go into the doctor tomorrow and will see if any progress, but I'm still thinking that it will happen all at once.  I'm going to be the one that doesn't dilate until my contractions start or water breaks. 
Total weight gain/loss: I weighed in at 143 this past week. Gaining right on track - whew!
Maternity clothes? Not really, just mainly dresses, leggings and tank tops. 

Stretch marks? no!! And I've almost made it so I'm praying for none!
Sleep: Some - the other day I slept in until 6:30! What?! Yes that's sleeping in now for me. My pregnancy pillow helps like I said last week and Mike steals it once I get up every morning {that guy and pillows...I swear} but I tell him every time I switch sides it feels like I'm wrestling an alligator.  He has to laugh.  I mean it is a pretty funny thought.....
Best moment this week:  Brunch with my friends Kasey and Courtney at the Classic Cup! Yummy!! Kasey and I ordered the dutch babies and we all got iced caramel lattes. It was deleicioso!  If you ever get a chance, you MUST go there for brunch.  I had never been! Possibly my new favorite place and it was nice to have some girl time/girl talk before baby comes.





Miss Anything? Nope - just missing my baby.  I want him here!
Movement: Some, not as much! He's definitely out of room.
Food cravings: Grilled cheese, carbs, sweets, grape juice, grape gatorade, grapes!
Anything making you queasy or sick: some meat, nothing else really
Gender: Boy =) my baby boy =)
Labor Signs: Some cramping here and there other than that I think he's pretty warm & cozy in there.

Symptoms: Back pain, acid reflux, waddle, I have also been having a complete episode for the past 2 weeks of nesting. Last night, I cleaned and scrubbed the kitchen, out house is literally *SPOTLESS* and everything has  a place.  This morning I woke up and cleaned our shower, the microwave, stove and dishwasher.....all before 9 am! I think I'm scaring my husband.  Then we went on a walk to try to induce labor! I also have had on and off swelling feet, hands and face (it is seriously HOT outside!! 108 degrees last week one day! What?!!! And I'm thinking being due at the beginning of July - eh it won't be that bad....

Thanks Laura Couch for posting this on Facebook - my thoughts EXACTLY!
& of course Mike and I both are dealing with constant impatience, I have to keep telling myself, he's not ready, he wants to cook a little longer and that perfection takes a bit longer......... ;)
Belly Button in or out? OUT! Way out!
Wedding rings on or off? off - Still wearing my promise ring, which if I can get it off is coming off today and staying off.  My fingers don't look swollen to anyone else but I can tell they are because my rings don't fit!!  It's weird that it fit still and my wedding set didn't but now it's getting a bit tight.  I think it's because the wedding set is really thick and my ring from HS is skinny.
Happy or Moody most of the time: HAPPY and excited! Two nights ago {and last night} he was going crazy in my belly Mike and I were cracking up and Mike says, "He's trying to punch his way out" then moves down to my belly and says, "If you want to come out buddy we're ready for you, all you have to do is move down the birth canal.... BIRTH CANAL ON 3! 1, 2, 3, BIRTH CANAL!" To that he kicked Mike's nose....a little stubborn, maybe?
Looking forward to: Doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon, 4th of July on Wednesday and meeting our little firecracker. Obviously the latter we are the MOST excited for :)