I think I've established by now that I'm a horrible blogger, but this is somewhat blog worthy (since I don't want to put it on facebook yet). Baby Dos (that's baby two for those of you that don't count in spanish) is on it's way! :) Only about 8ish weeks((EDIT: In reality I'm actually only 6 weeks at this point)). I've actually had a bit of nausea this time around, so I'm hoping that doesn't mean it's a boy. Cause let's be real here... girls are just better. And I just want girls. Which means this baby is obviously going to be a boy.
But yeah.. for those few of you that might happen to stumble across this, lucky you! You get to know before everyone on Facebook.
And who knows, maybe I'll do an update post or two for our little family soon. Don't hold your breath though.
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Friday, April 26, 2013
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Home
It's kind of crazy that I've been gone for six years now, but Phoenix is still 'home'. I'm not sure if it will always be like that for me. Kind of makes sense because I've lived kind of nomadically since I left home, never staying in one apartment for very long. Raleigh, I think, I could definitely call home someday... if we stayed. But more than likely we won't be, which is sad, because I'm really liking the city, love our ward, and love being close to family. Although, we do have the potential to stay in Raleigh for 3ish more years; Tucker just needs to decide if he wants to get his PhD. I'd be fine if he decided that. I'll be fine if he decides he's done with school, as well.
Anyways.
I'm home in Phoenix till Wednesday. Been here since this past Tuesday. I haven't really done much, just mostly hung out at home with my parents and Nettie. That was kind of the main point in coming anyways, so that they could see her again while she's still smallish. Jenna was able to come home for the weekend, which was awesome. It's crazy how much we like each other now, considering all the fighting and disliking we did when we were younger. I was sad to see her leave tonight; had to concentrate really hard on not crying in the airport (but she failed, both when she got here and when she left). We must figure out a way to live close to each other someday.
We had a nice day yesterday filled with family. Got to see my oldest brother and his family (and his kids are so big now it's crazy!), and my Uncle Ron and Aunt Pam. The day was super fun, and apparently exhausting because I fell asleep at like 7:30.
The home ward was great (as usual), though there are so many people that I don't recognize in it now. It's kind of strange being a "grown-up" in the ward. I remember being a kid, watching all the teenagers leave for college, then get married and start coming back to visit with their kids. Now I'm doing that..... weird.
Nettie has been pretty good on this trip. Not gonna lie, I was like super stressed to fly with her. She's normally not a big fan of sitting (while being held) for long periods of time, and that's basically all I can do on the flights. But we survived. The first flight people were super helpful. I was in the last group to board the plane and had a diaper bag and backpack with me plus Nettie, so when I got to my row to sit down, I looked at my seat and then at my bags and must have looked frazzled or something cause a bunch of people sitting near me asked to help me out. I'm so glad there are decent and nice people in the world. Couldn't have made this trip without strangers offering assistance along the way. Also glad that the older lady I sat next to on the flight didn't care when spit up rolled off of me and onto her. And glad that she and the guy sitting on my other side didn't complain when Nettie pooped with an hour left in the flight (this poop ended up as a blow-out too.... yeah....). Second flight Nettie just slept the whole time, so it went much more smoothly, all in all, than I pictured it going. Now we just have to make it home to Raleigh, and I'm sure I'll stress over that trip until it's over.
And tonight I was able to get together with a few of my high school friends (as well as some of their new friends). It's awesome that no matter how long I'm gone for I can just come back and basically pick up where I left off with them. Pretty sure I'll be able to call them my friends for my whole life, which is great, cause they're all awesome people. I wish that I could come home more often to visit, but I'm glad that I can always see them on the few times that I do come home.
But yes. My trip has been good thus far. I've been really bad at taking pictures so far, but I always am. I'll just steal pictures from my mom and Jenna eventually.
Anyways.
I'm home in Phoenix till Wednesday. Been here since this past Tuesday. I haven't really done much, just mostly hung out at home with my parents and Nettie. That was kind of the main point in coming anyways, so that they could see her again while she's still smallish. Jenna was able to come home for the weekend, which was awesome. It's crazy how much we like each other now, considering all the fighting and disliking we did when we were younger. I was sad to see her leave tonight; had to concentrate really hard on not crying in the airport (but she failed, both when she got here and when she left). We must figure out a way to live close to each other someday.
We had a nice day yesterday filled with family. Got to see my oldest brother and his family (and his kids are so big now it's crazy!), and my Uncle Ron and Aunt Pam. The day was super fun, and apparently exhausting because I fell asleep at like 7:30.
The home ward was great (as usual), though there are so many people that I don't recognize in it now. It's kind of strange being a "grown-up" in the ward. I remember being a kid, watching all the teenagers leave for college, then get married and start coming back to visit with their kids. Now I'm doing that..... weird.
Nettie has been pretty good on this trip. Not gonna lie, I was like super stressed to fly with her. She's normally not a big fan of sitting (while being held) for long periods of time, and that's basically all I can do on the flights. But we survived. The first flight people were super helpful. I was in the last group to board the plane and had a diaper bag and backpack with me plus Nettie, so when I got to my row to sit down, I looked at my seat and then at my bags and must have looked frazzled or something cause a bunch of people sitting near me asked to help me out. I'm so glad there are decent and nice people in the world. Couldn't have made this trip without strangers offering assistance along the way. Also glad that the older lady I sat next to on the flight didn't care when spit up rolled off of me and onto her. And glad that she and the guy sitting on my other side didn't complain when Nettie pooped with an hour left in the flight (this poop ended up as a blow-out too.... yeah....). Second flight Nettie just slept the whole time, so it went much more smoothly, all in all, than I pictured it going. Now we just have to make it home to Raleigh, and I'm sure I'll stress over that trip until it's over.
And tonight I was able to get together with a few of my high school friends (as well as some of their new friends). It's awesome that no matter how long I'm gone for I can just come back and basically pick up where I left off with them. Pretty sure I'll be able to call them my friends for my whole life, which is great, cause they're all awesome people. I wish that I could come home more often to visit, but I'm glad that I can always see them on the few times that I do come home.
But yes. My trip has been good thus far. I've been really bad at taking pictures so far, but I always am. I'll just steal pictures from my mom and Jenna eventually.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
General Updates (because I can't think of a more clever title)
I realized I haven't actually done a post for about a month now, so I figured I'd take advantage of Nettie's vaccine induced exhaustion and write a quick little update for those of you that read this.
I'll start with Nettie since she's the cutest and most interesting of our little Smith clan. She's 9 weeks old now, which is kind of insane when I stop to think about it. At the risk of sounding cliche, it feels like we've already had her. But what a little blessing she is! She's started "talking" to me sometimes when I talk to her, and she's also smiling on a more consistent basis; though, if she doesn't feel like it, she won't, no matter how long I make ridiculous faces at her. She also can hold her head up pretty good... well, pretty good in comparison to not at all. There's still a fair amount of bobble-headedness going on, but she likes to be held up right so she can look around at stuff.
The stats from her appointment yesterday are:
Height: 22"
Weight: Right under 12lbs
Head Circumference: Hmm... I don't actually remember. We think her head looks huge, but apparently it's right in the same percentile as her height and weight.
And speaking of percentiles, she's basically between the 50th and 75th percentile on everything. A fairly average baby I guess. She got three shots and one oral vaccine at the appointment. Needless to say, she did not like getting jabbed in her thighs, and I don't blame her. The cute little tears were streaming down her face even before I had a chance to pick her up. And when Tucker and I took off the bandaids at home later, the painful scream and tears started again, which made me cry (something that I've never done in relation to her). I just felt so bad that I couldn't make her feel better. But for the most part, she slept all day yesterday and is now asleep (with a small fever) again this morning. Poor baby :( I just kept telling her it was for her own good; hopefully she understands.
I've been cleared to start exercising, which I am itching to start doing. Why haven't I started already? Last week was crazy busy, and so far this week, I've felt too bad leaving Nettie alone cause she's feeling pretty crummy from her shots. Hopefully tomorrow she'll be doing well enough that I can head down to the gym and sign up, cause let's face it, I look pretty gross. Haven't exactly been the most disciplined person when it comes to eating or exercising since we got married, and it definitely shows. I want to try to get back to what I weighed in high school... or at least my first year of college.
Also, I started taking birth control pills about a month ago (because that's when I was told to start taking them back while we were still in the hospital), and since that first week, my milk production has gone down. So far down that we have had to feed Nettie a bottle of formula a couple times a day because I simply don't have anything to give her. While I'm not opposed to formula, it's kind of frustrating that I'm not able to satisfy my baby's hunger. I asked her pediatrician about it yesterday, and she said that my pills probably have the wrong mix of hormones in them for a nursing mother. More than likely I'm going to stop taking them and opt for a more... uh... direct form of birth control and see if that helps with milk production.
Tucker has pretty much finished up his lit review (which is basically 30ish pages of him summarizing stuff that other people have written about similar stuff that he did his research on) and should be starting his thesis soon. He also needs to get his resume updated so he can start sending it out to companies. Kind of crazy to think that we're less than five months (potentially) away from having a real job. Dr. Drake keeps telling Tucker that he should take a job with Glambia, a company in Twin Falls, Idaho........................................................................................ yeah. Not exactly thrilled with the location, but apparently she thinks they would be a great company to work for and thinks that Tucker would fit into the lab there really well. Also, the guy that runs the lab is a Bishop, and I'm sure many of the other workers there are Mormon as well, so maybe she just thinks that we need to be surrounded by Mormons, haha, I don't know. We're not ruling it out as a possibility, but we'd really like to stay on the east coast (could always go work for Campbell's soup in Camden(?), New Jersey: worst city in America 2008!)
I can't think of anything else off the top of my head that I'd need to include in this. It's probably already way longer than most of you will want to read. My bad. Oh! At the beginning of next month I'm going to be flying out to Phoenix for a week long visit which I'm pretty excited about. Flying with Nettie will be a bit interesting I'm sure, but we'll survive. Lots of people do it.
And to Lindsey: One way or another I'll be in Phoenix for Christmas this year. You can count on it.
I'll start with Nettie since she's the cutest and most interesting of our little Smith clan. She's 9 weeks old now, which is kind of insane when I stop to think about it. At the risk of sounding cliche, it feels like we've already had her. But what a little blessing she is! She's started "talking" to me sometimes when I talk to her, and she's also smiling on a more consistent basis; though, if she doesn't feel like it, she won't, no matter how long I make ridiculous faces at her. She also can hold her head up pretty good... well, pretty good in comparison to not at all. There's still a fair amount of bobble-headedness going on, but she likes to be held up right so she can look around at stuff.
The stats from her appointment yesterday are:
Height: 22"
Weight: Right under 12lbs
Head Circumference: Hmm... I don't actually remember. We think her head looks huge, but apparently it's right in the same percentile as her height and weight.
And speaking of percentiles, she's basically between the 50th and 75th percentile on everything. A fairly average baby I guess. She got three shots and one oral vaccine at the appointment. Needless to say, she did not like getting jabbed in her thighs, and I don't blame her. The cute little tears were streaming down her face even before I had a chance to pick her up. And when Tucker and I took off the bandaids at home later, the painful scream and tears started again, which made me cry (something that I've never done in relation to her). I just felt so bad that I couldn't make her feel better. But for the most part, she slept all day yesterday and is now asleep (with a small fever) again this morning. Poor baby :( I just kept telling her it was for her own good; hopefully she understands.
I've been cleared to start exercising, which I am itching to start doing. Why haven't I started already? Last week was crazy busy, and so far this week, I've felt too bad leaving Nettie alone cause she's feeling pretty crummy from her shots. Hopefully tomorrow she'll be doing well enough that I can head down to the gym and sign up, cause let's face it, I look pretty gross. Haven't exactly been the most disciplined person when it comes to eating or exercising since we got married, and it definitely shows. I want to try to get back to what I weighed in high school... or at least my first year of college.
Also, I started taking birth control pills about a month ago (because that's when I was told to start taking them back while we were still in the hospital), and since that first week, my milk production has gone down. So far down that we have had to feed Nettie a bottle of formula a couple times a day because I simply don't have anything to give her. While I'm not opposed to formula, it's kind of frustrating that I'm not able to satisfy my baby's hunger. I asked her pediatrician about it yesterday, and she said that my pills probably have the wrong mix of hormones in them for a nursing mother. More than likely I'm going to stop taking them and opt for a more... uh... direct form of birth control and see if that helps with milk production.
Tucker has pretty much finished up his lit review (which is basically 30ish pages of him summarizing stuff that other people have written about similar stuff that he did his research on) and should be starting his thesis soon. He also needs to get his resume updated so he can start sending it out to companies. Kind of crazy to think that we're less than five months (potentially) away from having a real job. Dr. Drake keeps telling Tucker that he should take a job with Glambia, a company in Twin Falls, Idaho........................................................................................ yeah. Not exactly thrilled with the location, but apparently she thinks they would be a great company to work for and thinks that Tucker would fit into the lab there really well. Also, the guy that runs the lab is a Bishop, and I'm sure many of the other workers there are Mormon as well, so maybe she just thinks that we need to be surrounded by Mormons, haha, I don't know. We're not ruling it out as a possibility, but we'd really like to stay on the east coast (could always go work for Campbell's soup in Camden(?), New Jersey: worst city in America 2008!)
I can't think of anything else off the top of my head that I'd need to include in this. It's probably already way longer than most of you will want to read. My bad. Oh! At the beginning of next month I'm going to be flying out to Phoenix for a week long visit which I'm pretty excited about. Flying with Nettie will be a bit interesting I'm sure, but we'll survive. Lots of people do it.
And to Lindsey: One way or another I'll be in Phoenix for Christmas this year. You can count on it.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Nettie's Blessing
In church this past Sunday we did Nettie's baby blessing. It was a super special experience (made better by the fact that she decided to sleep through sacrament meeting) and all the guys in Tucker's family excluding Sam were in the circle, and my parents made the trip back out here so that my dad would be able to participate as well. Katie (my sister-in-law extraordinaire) was much more clever than me and wrote down the blessing as Tucker was giving it. I would never have thought to do that, but I'm really glad that she did because this will be something sweet to show Nettie later on in life.
I didn't think to get a group picture of everyone while we were at the church building (mostly because I think everyone was hungry and wanted to get out of there to eat lunch), but we did get some group shots later at Shad and Katie's house, so hopefully Barbi will upload those soon so that I can post them. I did take some pictures of Nettie in her dress though. She's swimming in it, but it's really cool cause it was the dress that I was blessed in. Yeah, that's right; retro.... or vintage. One or the other.
I didn't think to get a group picture of everyone while we were at the church building (mostly because I think everyone was hungry and wanted to get out of there to eat lunch), but we did get some group shots later at Shad and Katie's house, so hopefully Barbi will upload those soon so that I can post them. I did take some pictures of Nettie in her dress though. She's swimming in it, but it's really cool cause it was the dress that I was blessed in. Yeah, that's right; retro.... or vintage. One or the other.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Miracles
I'm not quite sure where to start this post. The subject matter for it is fairly emotional not only for me, but for the whole Smith clan. I guess I'll start by saying that this weekend we blessed Nettie. All but one of her Smith (and Williams) uncles were here, and both of her Grandpa's were here as well. It was a truly sweet experience, highlighted by the fact that her Uncle Scott was still here to participate in the event.
Thursday evening, Tucker and I were getting ready to head up to Shad and Katie's house to play some D&D. Right after 6pm (I think), Tucker got a call from his mom. I didn't really think about it, or pay much attention to what he was saying on the phone because she calls fairly regularly, and I assumed she was just asking about something for the upcoming weekend when the whole family would be here in Raleigh. When Tucker got off the phone, he said that Scott had been in an accident (a motorcycle accident) and they couldn't get ahold of Stephanie to let her know. The hospital chaplain had called Lois instead, hoping that she would be able to reach Stephanie. All they had told her was that they thought that Scott was ok. Not the most reassuring statement, as ok could mean a lot of things.
The next few minutes, Tucker tried to get ahold of Stephanie, calling her cell and her work, but couldn't get through. But shortly after all this trying, he got a call from her instead, asking him to come to the hospital with her. So of course he said yes. I called Katie to let her know that if we made it to the game that night, it would be late (seeing as we didn't know how Scott was doing). Tucker left with Stephanie and promised that he would call soon to let me know what was going on.
About an hour later, Tucker called and told me that Scott was relatively ok. We found out that his accident had happened while Scott was driving home from a job interview on the 440... that's right, he crashed his motorcycle while driving on the freeway. So immediately, I thought that he must have been hurt pretty bad, but his list of injuries was a concussion, a broken collarbone, and some road rash on his hands and knees. Extremely good considering the circumstances. Tucker stayed at the hospital with Steph until about midnight.
The next day Tucker went to school a little late, explaining to one of his labmates that he had been at the hospital late with his brother. When he got to school, he explained his injuries to them and then told them where the accident had happened. More than one of them had driven by (and got caught behind the traffic) of Scott's accident, and they even expressed to Tucker that they were amazed that Scott was even alive from how bad it had looked.
From what we can piece together, Scott somehow lost control of the bike (whether he was hit, or blew a tire, or just lost control isn't really known) and was thrown into the median (just a concrete barrier separating the two sides of the freeway). His bike hit the median as well, but bounced back out into traffic, where it hit one car, and was then caught under another car. The bike (supposedly) exploded, and the car that it was trapped under, burned and melted with it.
While this accident was certainly bad and will leave Scott a gimp for a little while, he was extremely lucky. If Scott had bounced back out into traffic like the bike, he would have been killed. And really, it's amazing that he wasn't killed or more seriously injured just by being thrown from a bike going 70 mph. Even more amazing is that Scott was discharged from the hospital the evening after the accident.
Lois joked today that she was happy Scott decided to time his accident with this weekend since they were going to be up here anyways for the blessing. I think that we all realize just how close we came to loosing Scott, and even though this was a happy weekend, there was a definite feel of gratitude underlying everything. The family simply would not have been the same without Scott, and I know that Nettie was glad that he was able to be in the circle to help bless her on Sunday.
All in all, a very memorable Fourth of July weekend for the Smiths.
Thursday evening, Tucker and I were getting ready to head up to Shad and Katie's house to play some D&D. Right after 6pm (I think), Tucker got a call from his mom. I didn't really think about it, or pay much attention to what he was saying on the phone because she calls fairly regularly, and I assumed she was just asking about something for the upcoming weekend when the whole family would be here in Raleigh. When Tucker got off the phone, he said that Scott had been in an accident (a motorcycle accident) and they couldn't get ahold of Stephanie to let her know. The hospital chaplain had called Lois instead, hoping that she would be able to reach Stephanie. All they had told her was that they thought that Scott was ok. Not the most reassuring statement, as ok could mean a lot of things.
The next few minutes, Tucker tried to get ahold of Stephanie, calling her cell and her work, but couldn't get through. But shortly after all this trying, he got a call from her instead, asking him to come to the hospital with her. So of course he said yes. I called Katie to let her know that if we made it to the game that night, it would be late (seeing as we didn't know how Scott was doing). Tucker left with Stephanie and promised that he would call soon to let me know what was going on.
About an hour later, Tucker called and told me that Scott was relatively ok. We found out that his accident had happened while Scott was driving home from a job interview on the 440... that's right, he crashed his motorcycle while driving on the freeway. So immediately, I thought that he must have been hurt pretty bad, but his list of injuries was a concussion, a broken collarbone, and some road rash on his hands and knees. Extremely good considering the circumstances. Tucker stayed at the hospital with Steph until about midnight.
The next day Tucker went to school a little late, explaining to one of his labmates that he had been at the hospital late with his brother. When he got to school, he explained his injuries to them and then told them where the accident had happened. More than one of them had driven by (and got caught behind the traffic) of Scott's accident, and they even expressed to Tucker that they were amazed that Scott was even alive from how bad it had looked.
From what we can piece together, Scott somehow lost control of the bike (whether he was hit, or blew a tire, or just lost control isn't really known) and was thrown into the median (just a concrete barrier separating the two sides of the freeway). His bike hit the median as well, but bounced back out into traffic, where it hit one car, and was then caught under another car. The bike (supposedly) exploded, and the car that it was trapped under, burned and melted with it.
While this accident was certainly bad and will leave Scott a gimp for a little while, he was extremely lucky. If Scott had bounced back out into traffic like the bike, he would have been killed. And really, it's amazing that he wasn't killed or more seriously injured just by being thrown from a bike going 70 mph. Even more amazing is that Scott was discharged from the hospital the evening after the accident.
Lois joked today that she was happy Scott decided to time his accident with this weekend since they were going to be up here anyways for the blessing. I think that we all realize just how close we came to loosing Scott, and even though this was a happy weekend, there was a definite feel of gratitude underlying everything. The family simply would not have been the same without Scott, and I know that Nettie was glad that he was able to be in the circle to help bless her on Sunday.
All in all, a very memorable Fourth of July weekend for the Smiths.
Monday Picture
So I realize that I missed doing last week's picture, but Nettie has been sleeping weirdly for about a week now, and so I nap a lot during the day. Anything that doesn't involve taking care of Nettie or sleeping sort of goes right out the door and I forget. She's started to sleep a little bit better again, so hopefully this lasts.
Today has been four weeks since Nettie was born. Crazy! And she's still alive! Wahoo!
I would have taken her picture today in her cute little red outfit for the Fourth, but she spit up all over it. So here's a slightly less glamorous picture (or two).
This last picture is the one that was taken today before my parents flew home. They were out here this weekend while we did Nettie's blessing. I'm really grateful that they were able to be here for such a special day.
Today has been four weeks since Nettie was born. Crazy! And she's still alive! Wahoo!
I would have taken her picture today in her cute little red outfit for the Fourth, but she spit up all over it. So here's a slightly less glamorous picture (or two).
This last picture is the one that was taken today before my parents flew home. They were out here this weekend while we did Nettie's blessing. I'm really grateful that they were able to be here for such a special day.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Little Miss Nettie Smith
So I got a surprising 9 hours of sleep last night (total, not in a row) and Nettie is asleep once again. Figured I'd at least try to start this post. Kind of hard to believe that we've had Nettie for almost a week now. She's fit so perfectly into our lives, and to risk sounding cliche, it's like she's was always here. Anyways... on with the story.
Our induction was scheduled for Sunday (June 5th) at 830pm. On the instruction sheet that they gave me at my final doctor's appointment, it told us to call the hospital an hour before the set time to make sure that there was a bed available for me. Neither Tucker or I thought this would be a problem because the two times that we'd been up at the hospital before (once for our tour, the second to be monitored for a little while) it had been fairly slow in the Labor and Delivery area. We called anyways, and the girl I talked to asked if they could call us back because she needed to find out about availability from someone who was on break when we called. That was fine with me.
We finished collecting our stuff and headed down to the car at 8 even though we still hadn't been called back. I decided to call again as I walked to the dumpster to throw away some trash and while Tucker pulled the car around. I spoke with the person that had been on break and (go figure) they didn't have any room for me. Talk about a major disappointment. She said that we would probably have to go in the next morning instead, but asked how late we were willing to go in that night, just in case something opened up. I told her that it didn't really matter since we had been planning on being up the whole night anyways.
So, we went and got some hamburgers from Burger King (we had already started driving by the time I finished talking with the woman), which we probably wouldn't have normally done, but I hadn't eaten since noon-ish per my instructions, the nurse told me to go ahead and eat since they didn't know when I was going to be called in, and we didn't have any food in our apartment (sort of, nothing to make a meal out of at least). Back at home, we decided to watch a little tv before I went to bed, but between 930 and 10 the nurse called and asked if we could come in at 1130 that night instead. Um, duh.
When we got to the hospital, we had to check in at the emergency room because patient registration (where we would have gone during the daytime) was closed for construction. Checked in, and made our way up to L&D. When we got to the desk there, a nurse took us back to our room and started to ask all the normal questions. By the time I had gotten changed and stuff signed it was close to midnight, and they needed to check my 'progress' to see if they would start me on pitocin or a balloon thingy (honestly can't remember the name of it) that they would put in my cervix to help me get started dilating. I was only about 1cm, which wasn't much of an improvement from when they had checked me on Tuesday. So in went the balloon. They said that I should start feeling a little crampy (which I did), and so they would give me a pill to help me sleep. I agreed to take the pill, thinking it would take like half an hour tops to get the dang thing, but didn't end up getting it until after 230ish am.
The next morning my new nurse woke me up at 6 to take a shower and to check to see if the balloon would come out easily (meaning that I had dilated to at least 3cm). The balloon definitely came out, and I was between a 3 and a 4, completed effaced. They got all my IVs started right around 645am and so now all we had to do was wait.
Around 1130am, they came to check me again and decided to break my water. In doing this, we found out that little Nettie had already pooped for the first time because there was some staining to the fluid. The only difference this really made was that they would have to check her briefly before allowing me to hold her right after she was born. No big deal. Up until this point though, I hadn't been uncomfortable or feeling any sort of pain, like, at all. I remember thinking how easy being in labor was. Little did I know that as soon as my water was broken, things would change. I started to actually feel the contractions, and to me it seemed like they were coming like 3 minutes apart (I never actually timed them out though). My parents and Jenna had arrived at the hospital by this point too, and whenever I started to have a contraction, my dad would let me squeeze his hand. I went like this for about 15 minutes before I decided to call the nurse back in to tell her to start getting me ready to have an epidural.
So they started me on another bag of fluids that I had to drain before they would even call the doctor down. They finally called him down around 1pm and by 105pm they had the IV in my back and the medicine going. Ah, sweet relief! I felt great again. I dozed off and on for awhile (pretty sure that my family left to go do something else when they came to do the epidural), and they didn't really feel the need to check my progress for a few hours. Around 440pm, though, the nurse came in and told me that she was going to turn the pitocin off because Nettie's heartbeat was starting to look a little bit questionable. Nothing to worry about, but it was starting to look like it could become irregular. They also gave me an oxygen mask to wear to see if that helped at all.
While the nurse was in the room turning off the one IV, I mentioned to her that I would sometimes feel pressure like I had to go to the bathroom. So she called a doctor in to check me (and like 5 people came along, apparently they had all been at a delivery next door and decided to come; a couple of them were 'student' doctors though, so they were just observing). They checked me, and lo and behold, I was completely dilated! They had me try pushing a couple times (which I don't know if I was doing right cause all I could really feel was that pressure), and then they decided to let me sit for about another half hour before doing more pushing so that I didn't have to push for like an hour and so that Nettie could descend a little more on her own.
I didn't really care that I would have to wait a little bit longer, but it was exciting that stuff was actually going to start happening soon. My Dad left the room and we waited for about 15 minutes before I decided that the pressure (which was starting to strengthen and was really hard to ignore) was great enough that I had to call the nurse back in. I definitely felt the need to push now. So she sat down on the bed with me around 520pm, I'm sure thinking that we would probably be pushing for awhile because she didn't bother to call the doctor yet.
We started pushing. It took me a couple of contractions to figure out exactly what to do because of the epidural, but about fifteen minutes later, the nurse got up to call the doctor. We kept pushing, and I could definitely feel something coming out of me. In just a few more pushes, Nettie's head was about half way out of me and my nurse told me not to push anymore. I remember thinking that she was ridiculously stupid. How the heck was I supposed to hold off on pushing when the baby was basically coming out of me on my own? I kept telling her, "I need to push, I can't stop, I need to push," but she kind of ignored me. I really couldn't stop myself from pushing though; it was physically impossible.
The doctor arrived just in time to wash her hands real quick and watch as Nettie came out into the nurse's hands (way to go, Doc) at 538pm. Tucker cut the cord (I think), they checked her out, and then I was holding her. My perfect, sweet, little baby. She was here, and I couldn't have cared less that they were starting to stitch me up (I had a 3rd degree perennial tear because Nettie came so quickly).
In total, I pushed for about 20 minutes. Apparently that's quick. I'm just pro at pushing I guess, haha! Both Jenna and my mom were able to be in the room with us as well when Nettie was born, which I think is kind special.
Now as far as naming her goes.... During the time that my family had been gone that afternoon, Tucker and I looked at the list of names that we liked and narrowed it down to three. My favorite: Eleanor Janet. Tucker's favorite: Emmeline Lynette. And then a completely out of the blue name that we hadn't really discussed before: Lynette Meryl. Tucker suggested it, saying that he thought it would make a pretty first name as well as a pretty middle name. I actually kind of like it. We both agree that if that name was used, we would not be calling her Lynn for short. And we decided to pair Meryl with it (my little sister's middle name) because unfortunately, Lynette Janet didn't quite flow well enough for us. At this point, we didn't decide for sure on a name because we both still wanted to see her first. But I think that my mind was sort of already set on Lynette, and as soon as she came out, I was certain that that was her name.
Little Nettie weighed 8lbs 2oz and was 20 1/4 inches long. When she popped out of me, she inhaled quicker than the nurse could suction out her mouth and nose (remember the meconium staining in my water), but she was screaming so well right after they checked her that they weren't concerned about that at all.
We got the chance to try breastfeeding while they were stitching me up, and Nettie latched on perfectly (and has ever since). About an hour or so (I think, not really sure) after Nettie was born, my family all got to come back to the room to see her. Lois and Stephanie had arrived as well and were able to see her. When they came in, I asked if Tucker had told them her name yet (because he had been the one to go out and get them). He hadn't. So I told them, and immediately started to cry when I said her middle name and looked at Jenna (I'm kind of a softy). I'm pretty sure that we caught Lois off guard with our name choice though (Lynette is her middle name), and the next morning when she came to visit I remember her asking if we like Meryl Lynette better, haha! Lynette is definitely her name though.
The rest of the hospital stay was pretty easy though. I was never really in any pain or discomfort from my stitches (still aren't actually), and so I never had to take anything stronger than Ibuprofen. Poor Tucker though, due to lack of sleep the first couple nights that we were in the hospital, started to feel really crappy and got a sinus infection sort of thing. Because of this, and the fact that Nettie did not like sleeping in the little tub they had in our room for her, I got a total of about 6 hours of sleep for the 3 nights/days that we were there. Though, that hasn't really bothered me much either.
Also, holy crap, I am a milk making machine! I know this is gross/tmi, but the second that I take my bra off to nurse or take a shower, I'm seriously dripping all over everything. Kind of annoying. But I shouldn't complain really, because Nettie has already passed her birth weight, and according to the lactation consult I talked to this morning, she's done it a week faster than most solely breastfed babies. Go us!
Mostly she's just the best baby in the world. She's adorable, and she sleeps really really good. Lately (meaning the past two days) she's gone for 4-5 hour stretches before waking up, which is very nice for me and Tucker because we both seem to have gotten a head cold. We also got some newborn pictures taken of Nettie (courtesy of my mother-in-law and two awesome sisters-in-law), so hopefully those will get edited soon so that I can show them off to everyone :).
But yeah. Be jealous of my uber cute baby :D
Our induction was scheduled for Sunday (June 5th) at 830pm. On the instruction sheet that they gave me at my final doctor's appointment, it told us to call the hospital an hour before the set time to make sure that there was a bed available for me. Neither Tucker or I thought this would be a problem because the two times that we'd been up at the hospital before (once for our tour, the second to be monitored for a little while) it had been fairly slow in the Labor and Delivery area. We called anyways, and the girl I talked to asked if they could call us back because she needed to find out about availability from someone who was on break when we called. That was fine with me.
We finished collecting our stuff and headed down to the car at 8 even though we still hadn't been called back. I decided to call again as I walked to the dumpster to throw away some trash and while Tucker pulled the car around. I spoke with the person that had been on break and (go figure) they didn't have any room for me. Talk about a major disappointment. She said that we would probably have to go in the next morning instead, but asked how late we were willing to go in that night, just in case something opened up. I told her that it didn't really matter since we had been planning on being up the whole night anyways.
So, we went and got some hamburgers from Burger King (we had already started driving by the time I finished talking with the woman), which we probably wouldn't have normally done, but I hadn't eaten since noon-ish per my instructions, the nurse told me to go ahead and eat since they didn't know when I was going to be called in, and we didn't have any food in our apartment (sort of, nothing to make a meal out of at least). Back at home, we decided to watch a little tv before I went to bed, but between 930 and 10 the nurse called and asked if we could come in at 1130 that night instead. Um, duh.
When we got to the hospital, we had to check in at the emergency room because patient registration (where we would have gone during the daytime) was closed for construction. Checked in, and made our way up to L&D. When we got to the desk there, a nurse took us back to our room and started to ask all the normal questions. By the time I had gotten changed and stuff signed it was close to midnight, and they needed to check my 'progress' to see if they would start me on pitocin or a balloon thingy (honestly can't remember the name of it) that they would put in my cervix to help me get started dilating. I was only about 1cm, which wasn't much of an improvement from when they had checked me on Tuesday. So in went the balloon. They said that I should start feeling a little crampy (which I did), and so they would give me a pill to help me sleep. I agreed to take the pill, thinking it would take like half an hour tops to get the dang thing, but didn't end up getting it until after 230ish am.
The next morning my new nurse woke me up at 6 to take a shower and to check to see if the balloon would come out easily (meaning that I had dilated to at least 3cm). The balloon definitely came out, and I was between a 3 and a 4, completed effaced. They got all my IVs started right around 645am and so now all we had to do was wait.
Around 1130am, they came to check me again and decided to break my water. In doing this, we found out that little Nettie had already pooped for the first time because there was some staining to the fluid. The only difference this really made was that they would have to check her briefly before allowing me to hold her right after she was born. No big deal. Up until this point though, I hadn't been uncomfortable or feeling any sort of pain, like, at all. I remember thinking how easy being in labor was. Little did I know that as soon as my water was broken, things would change. I started to actually feel the contractions, and to me it seemed like they were coming like 3 minutes apart (I never actually timed them out though). My parents and Jenna had arrived at the hospital by this point too, and whenever I started to have a contraction, my dad would let me squeeze his hand. I went like this for about 15 minutes before I decided to call the nurse back in to tell her to start getting me ready to have an epidural.
So they started me on another bag of fluids that I had to drain before they would even call the doctor down. They finally called him down around 1pm and by 105pm they had the IV in my back and the medicine going. Ah, sweet relief! I felt great again. I dozed off and on for awhile (pretty sure that my family left to go do something else when they came to do the epidural), and they didn't really feel the need to check my progress for a few hours. Around 440pm, though, the nurse came in and told me that she was going to turn the pitocin off because Nettie's heartbeat was starting to look a little bit questionable. Nothing to worry about, but it was starting to look like it could become irregular. They also gave me an oxygen mask to wear to see if that helped at all.
While the nurse was in the room turning off the one IV, I mentioned to her that I would sometimes feel pressure like I had to go to the bathroom. So she called a doctor in to check me (and like 5 people came along, apparently they had all been at a delivery next door and decided to come; a couple of them were 'student' doctors though, so they were just observing). They checked me, and lo and behold, I was completely dilated! They had me try pushing a couple times (which I don't know if I was doing right cause all I could really feel was that pressure), and then they decided to let me sit for about another half hour before doing more pushing so that I didn't have to push for like an hour and so that Nettie could descend a little more on her own.
I didn't really care that I would have to wait a little bit longer, but it was exciting that stuff was actually going to start happening soon. My Dad left the room and we waited for about 15 minutes before I decided that the pressure (which was starting to strengthen and was really hard to ignore) was great enough that I had to call the nurse back in. I definitely felt the need to push now. So she sat down on the bed with me around 520pm, I'm sure thinking that we would probably be pushing for awhile because she didn't bother to call the doctor yet.
We started pushing. It took me a couple of contractions to figure out exactly what to do because of the epidural, but about fifteen minutes later, the nurse got up to call the doctor. We kept pushing, and I could definitely feel something coming out of me. In just a few more pushes, Nettie's head was about half way out of me and my nurse told me not to push anymore. I remember thinking that she was ridiculously stupid. How the heck was I supposed to hold off on pushing when the baby was basically coming out of me on my own? I kept telling her, "I need to push, I can't stop, I need to push," but she kind of ignored me. I really couldn't stop myself from pushing though; it was physically impossible.
The doctor arrived just in time to wash her hands real quick and watch as Nettie came out into the nurse's hands (way to go, Doc) at 538pm. Tucker cut the cord (I think), they checked her out, and then I was holding her. My perfect, sweet, little baby. She was here, and I couldn't have cared less that they were starting to stitch me up (I had a 3rd degree perennial tear because Nettie came so quickly).
In total, I pushed for about 20 minutes. Apparently that's quick. I'm just pro at pushing I guess, haha! Both Jenna and my mom were able to be in the room with us as well when Nettie was born, which I think is kind special.
Now as far as naming her goes.... During the time that my family had been gone that afternoon, Tucker and I looked at the list of names that we liked and narrowed it down to three. My favorite: Eleanor Janet. Tucker's favorite: Emmeline Lynette. And then a completely out of the blue name that we hadn't really discussed before: Lynette Meryl. Tucker suggested it, saying that he thought it would make a pretty first name as well as a pretty middle name. I actually kind of like it. We both agree that if that name was used, we would not be calling her Lynn for short. And we decided to pair Meryl with it (my little sister's middle name) because unfortunately, Lynette Janet didn't quite flow well enough for us. At this point, we didn't decide for sure on a name because we both still wanted to see her first. But I think that my mind was sort of already set on Lynette, and as soon as she came out, I was certain that that was her name.
Little Nettie weighed 8lbs 2oz and was 20 1/4 inches long. When she popped out of me, she inhaled quicker than the nurse could suction out her mouth and nose (remember the meconium staining in my water), but she was screaming so well right after they checked her that they weren't concerned about that at all.
We got the chance to try breastfeeding while they were stitching me up, and Nettie latched on perfectly (and has ever since). About an hour or so (I think, not really sure) after Nettie was born, my family all got to come back to the room to see her. Lois and Stephanie had arrived as well and were able to see her. When they came in, I asked if Tucker had told them her name yet (because he had been the one to go out and get them). He hadn't. So I told them, and immediately started to cry when I said her middle name and looked at Jenna (I'm kind of a softy). I'm pretty sure that we caught Lois off guard with our name choice though (Lynette is her middle name), and the next morning when she came to visit I remember her asking if we like Meryl Lynette better, haha! Lynette is definitely her name though.
The rest of the hospital stay was pretty easy though. I was never really in any pain or discomfort from my stitches (still aren't actually), and so I never had to take anything stronger than Ibuprofen. Poor Tucker though, due to lack of sleep the first couple nights that we were in the hospital, started to feel really crappy and got a sinus infection sort of thing. Because of this, and the fact that Nettie did not like sleeping in the little tub they had in our room for her, I got a total of about 6 hours of sleep for the 3 nights/days that we were there. Though, that hasn't really bothered me much either.
Also, holy crap, I am a milk making machine! I know this is gross/tmi, but the second that I take my bra off to nurse or take a shower, I'm seriously dripping all over everything. Kind of annoying. But I shouldn't complain really, because Nettie has already passed her birth weight, and according to the lactation consult I talked to this morning, she's done it a week faster than most solely breastfed babies. Go us!
Mostly she's just the best baby in the world. She's adorable, and she sleeps really really good. Lately (meaning the past two days) she's gone for 4-5 hour stretches before waking up, which is very nice for me and Tucker because we both seem to have gotten a head cold. We also got some newborn pictures taken of Nettie (courtesy of my mother-in-law and two awesome sisters-in-law), so hopefully those will get edited soon so that I can show them off to everyone :).
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
The Final Countdown
Well, my due date has come and gone (the 29th), which sucks, but I was prepared for that possibility. My parents and little sister were all here in town this weekend and it was really, really good to spend some time with them since it's been about a year since I've seen them. They left Monday morning to drive up to see my older brother Jeff and his wife Rachel for a couple days in Rochester, and then sometime during the week they'll head down to New Jersey to see my older brother Mike and his wife and daughter (who is about 6 months older than Baby). They'll be back down here in Raleigh though at the end of this weekend to spend just about a week with Tucker and I and little Baby, who will for sure be making her appearance by Sunday night or early Monday morning.
That's right, the induction is scheduled. Sunday June 5th I'm set to go in at 830pm to be induced if I haven't gone in to labor before then. I had a doctor's appointment this morning to get "checked", and not gonna lie, it was majorly uncomfortable and even just a tad painful. We found out that I'm basically not dilated at all, but I am 75% effaced (which I'm still not completely sure what that means even after my sis-in-law Katie explained it to me) so that's apparently good.
Now while I'm ok with waiting till Sunday for things to get rolling, I'd much rather have something happen earlier than that, so Thursday night when Tucker and I head up to Durham to play D&D Katie (my sister-in-law) is going to have a delicious (ha!) caster oil milkshake waiting for me. Yum yum.... haha! While I'm sure this will be gross, I'm totally fine with trying it just to see if it jump starts labor for me, cause that'd be nice. Yeah. And if nothing happens after drinking it, then oh well. It doesn't hurt to try!
So anyways, that's about it I guess. We're pretty much just killing time now and twiddling our fingers. Hopefully the song "The Final Countdown" doesn't stay stuck in my head all week, cause it's been playing in my head all morning so far.
That's right, the induction is scheduled. Sunday June 5th I'm set to go in at 830pm to be induced if I haven't gone in to labor before then. I had a doctor's appointment this morning to get "checked", and not gonna lie, it was majorly uncomfortable and even just a tad painful. We found out that I'm basically not dilated at all, but I am 75% effaced (which I'm still not completely sure what that means even after my sis-in-law Katie explained it to me) so that's apparently good.
Now while I'm ok with waiting till Sunday for things to get rolling, I'd much rather have something happen earlier than that, so Thursday night when Tucker and I head up to Durham to play D&D Katie (my sister-in-law) is going to have a delicious (ha!) caster oil milkshake waiting for me. Yum yum.... haha! While I'm sure this will be gross, I'm totally fine with trying it just to see if it jump starts labor for me, cause that'd be nice. Yeah. And if nothing happens after drinking it, then oh well. It doesn't hurt to try!
So anyways, that's about it I guess. We're pretty much just killing time now and twiddling our fingers. Hopefully the song "The Final Countdown" doesn't stay stuck in my head all week, cause it's been playing in my head all morning so far.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Playing the waiting game
Pretty dang bored at the moment.
No baby yet. Nothing really going on either.
Our sister-in-law Stephanie got to town last weekend and has been staying with us while she looks for an apartment. Not gonna lie, I'm glad it's her and not us that has to look for an apartment; super stressful. She did find one that she really likes that's only about 5ish minutes away from us (and in our ward, woot!) that we're hopeful about. If they aren't approved for it, I think we'll all be really surprised seeing as Tucker's parents are co-signing with them.
It's strange to think that we're down into single digit days for the arrival of little Baby. Even stranger sometimes to think that the little alien moving around inside of me is actually going to have a face soon... and not be in me anymore. I think I'll be glad to "have my body back" to myself again. I'm sick of sleeping on my sides, and not being able to get up off the couch, and not being able to bend over.
Next week Jenna gets here on Wednesday which should be super fun since I haven't seen her in like a year. My parents won't get here until Saturday. And hopefully Baby will decide to make her entrance at a convenient time for everyone (and not late either).
So that's it for now. When stuff starts to happen, I'm hoping that we'll be able to keep everyone posted through facebook and what not.
No baby yet. Nothing really going on either.
Our sister-in-law Stephanie got to town last weekend and has been staying with us while she looks for an apartment. Not gonna lie, I'm glad it's her and not us that has to look for an apartment; super stressful. She did find one that she really likes that's only about 5ish minutes away from us (and in our ward, woot!) that we're hopeful about. If they aren't approved for it, I think we'll all be really surprised seeing as Tucker's parents are co-signing with them.
It's strange to think that we're down into single digit days for the arrival of little Baby. Even stranger sometimes to think that the little alien moving around inside of me is actually going to have a face soon... and not be in me anymore. I think I'll be glad to "have my body back" to myself again. I'm sick of sleeping on my sides, and not being able to get up off the couch, and not being able to bend over.
Next week Jenna gets here on Wednesday which should be super fun since I haven't seen her in like a year. My parents won't get here until Saturday. And hopefully Baby will decide to make her entrance at a convenient time for everyone (and not late either).
So that's it for now. When stuff starts to happen, I'm hoping that we'll be able to keep everyone posted through facebook and what not.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Thanksgiving in Phoenix
So after some 'subtle' prodding from a certain sister-in-law (*coughKATIEcough* :) ), I've collected some pictures from my sister's facebook to post here from our Thanksgiving this year. It was sooooo nice to be able to go home, especially because it seems like it's been forever since I've been there. And the great part about this Thanksgiving was we were able to bring home Sam, Scott, and Stephanie with us! So while one half of the Smith family was having a great time in Spartanburg, the other half was in Phoenix celebrating with the Perry family.
The dinner was excellent, and the grand total for people we had over to eat including us was 17. Needless to say, things were a little crowded, but it was super fun. Scott brought along his Wii, so lots of Smash Brothers and Mario Kart were played. Aside from that, I took Tucker, Scott, Sam, and Stef on a driving tour of the greater Phoenix area. Basically we drove downtown and then went to Scottsdale Fashion Square (a huge, rich people mall). We walked around for a bit, and while the boys were getting a Kobe beef hotdog, Stephanie and I went to a couple stores to look at stuff, and both really liked Anthropologie. Super cute store. We also went to see the Mesa Temple lights one night, but I don't have any pictures from that, Stephanie does, however.
So that's it. Thanksgiving break was awesome, aside from the ten hour drives there and back, but they were worth it. Guess we'll be seeing you guys (East Coast Smiths) soon!!
The dinner was excellent, and the grand total for people we had over to eat including us was 17. Needless to say, things were a little crowded, but it was super fun. Scott brought along his Wii, so lots of Smash Brothers and Mario Kart were played. Aside from that, I took Tucker, Scott, Sam, and Stef on a driving tour of the greater Phoenix area. Basically we drove downtown and then went to Scottsdale Fashion Square (a huge, rich people mall). We walked around for a bit, and while the boys were getting a Kobe beef hotdog, Stephanie and I went to a couple stores to look at stuff, and both really liked Anthropologie. Super cute store. We also went to see the Mesa Temple lights one night, but I don't have any pictures from that, Stephanie does, however.
So that's it. Thanksgiving break was awesome, aside from the ten hour drives there and back, but they were worth it. Guess we'll be seeing you guys (East Coast Smiths) soon!!
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