June 10, 2011 William Thaxton Wright Arrives!!

Wow been a busy last few days!!  Yesterday when I went to see Dr Mason my blood pressure was up, and was up enough that the nurse that took it would not tell me what it was. After laying down in the Ultrasound room for a few minutes (Dr Mason was going to check my AFI.), she retook my BP and it was down a bit but still not normal 158/94.  After reviewing my labs from Tuesday she asked me if my labor bag was in the car or packed and I said no.  She then told me to go home, pack my bag, get some lunch and check in to the hospital for "blood pressure checks and more lab work".  I thought then that this might be my last night to be pregnant as my labs were up and my BP was up and I was super swollen.  At home, Howard and I quickly packed the bag, grabbed the laptop, ipod, camera, fed the dogs and left to head to the hospital.  On the way we stopped at Wendys and got some lunch (I wanted something filling!) When we got to the hospital I went to check in for my BP checks and possible induction and was handed the phone by the admission clerk (who had called L&D) and was asked which room I wanted!! It seems that Dr Mason had talked to Dr Lindsay (perinatalogist) and told him about my labwork, BPs', swelling and AFI; he told her to induce me that evening.  After being taken up to L&D in a wheelchair, Howard and I got settled into room 10, Jill came in to get me admitted, she took my BP and it was 170's /110's for the first 3.  I immediately got an IV, turned to my side and my BP lowered to 150's /90's.  At 1445, I got a 25 mcg cytotec and was 1.5/60%/-2 station.  Not much happened w that cytotec so at 1845, I got another 25 mcg cytotec as my cervix had not changed.  At 1900 Carol Montgomery took over my care as Jill went home, she came in special to take care of me.  We chatted for a while, Howard was playing on the computer and we were watching old movies on TV.  I started having a few cramps but nothing strong, Carol and I were discussing what to do, another cytotec or starting Pitocin and Magnessium  when my "water" broke at 2300.  It was too funny, we were talking  and I just felt my water break and started laughing.  After more talking w Carol I decided to start Pitocin and then get the Epidural and possibly get some sleep.  Around 0300 on Friday I woke up w a little pain on the right side and Carol walking in the room to increase my Pitocin and decided to check my cervix.  I was 5 cm/90%/-1, so time to start the Magnessium as I was officially in "labor". An hour later Carol checked my cervix as I was having few mild variables and feeling a little pressure and I was 8 cm, she decided to call Dr Mason.  When Dr Mason arrived at 0430 she checked my cervix and I was complete so  I started to push as Dr Mason tried to rotate the baby as the baby was direct OP.  As the fetal heart rate had a significant decel we stopped pushing for 45 min to let me try to "labor down".  Around 0515 I started pushing again and Carol went home as Suzanne Laird came in to work.  Suzanne and Dr Mason came in the room to have me start pushing again as Dr Mason tried to rotate the fetal head.  Again there was a FHR decel with trying to rotate the head of the baby to an OA possition, so we stopped to allow the baby to recover and tried to labor down again.  At 0615, I resumed pushing and turned to hands and knees position for 45-60 mins.  Howard was great when I was pushing as he was there and helping and coaching me.  After the Hands and Knees position, I was moved back to mostly on my back to keep pushing.  I pushed and pushed with each contraction until around 0900 when Dr Mason decided it was possible to use forcepts and "help" get the baby out.

William was born at 0914, weighing 7lbs 2 oz, 21 In long, 14 In head circumference!!

 



Here I am w IV's in both arms and Epidural in my back  :)

Tired but happy to be holding my son

clearing my lungs

Look at how big I am!

Chatting w Grandma Ida and Papa Tenny while feeding William

Getting my face washed

First Bath

Chilling all clean and warm

Our New Car!!

Yesterday Howard and I went to Johnson Auto Plaza and were able to finally pick up the car that we ordered about 7 weeks ago.  It was well worth the wait as we used the Costco auto program and were able to save a few thousand that way as well as with Howard's GM card.  :)  Anyway we can save money is a good thing esp w our plumbing issue (now fixed!!), baby coming (sooner rather than later!) and now buying our awesome new car.  :)  The car/SUV/Crossover is a 2011 Chevy Equinox and is "Twilight blue" (actually a kind of blue-gray).  It even has a sunroof , leather seats and other upgrades. I'll have to post pictures of the inside later as it is a sweet car!



36.0 Weeks today

Starting w the good news first: This baby is moving well and growing wonderfully! Last week at my ultrasound he/she was 6# 10 oz and I had 18 cm of fluid around the baby, which is high but not too high just makes me wish if my water breaks away from the hospital it is not in bed, on the couch or in the new car (which we get on Tuesday!)  Might be time to start carrying towels in the car!  Soooo.....My doctor has been watching my blood pressure and swelling closely over the last few weeks.  I was put on restricted duty last week (working on Antepartum only and only supposed to be 2 days a week.)  This past Wednesday I got more blood work done and 24 hr Urine tested  with the results of 24 hr Urine coming back at 400 mg of protein (up from 260 a week ago) .  The blood work was mostly good; ast,alt, plt and hct all being well with in normals, but my creatine and uric acid are both creeping up.  Those results with my increased bp (140's/80's) and swelling was enough to put in in the category of mild pre-eclampsia instead of just gestational hypertension.  All of that means I'm done working for the next 12 weeks and am on bed rest until this baby comes out to play. 

The hardest part of being on bed rest is the fact that I'm not totally ready for the baby to come. lol  I still need to organize the nursery, wash the baby clothes and sheets, and pack my bag.  What does it say about the L&D nurse who has not packed her hospital bag by 36 weeks??? hehe (esp knowing all that can happen?)  To me it means limited choices on clothing, I did finally make a list of what to put in the bag so hopefully it won't be that hard when push comes to shove and I NEED to pack the bag NOW! or Howard has to pack it for me.  ;-)   Monday I believe Audrey (Howard's 17 yr old niece) is coming over to help me get things ready and do the laundry for me so after that I can at least pack the things for baby and start getting things ready for my bag as well. 

I'll write more later this week after one or both of my OB appts and let yall know what is going on w me and baby.

May 11, 2011 Week 32 :)

It was a lot of fun to have my parents here for Mothers day!!  We went to church, visited Howard at work and ate our just for fun.  (I cannot believe we forgot to take photo's of us all dressed up for church.)  Monday we painted the Babies room.  It was so nice to have 2 adults help me paint the babies room while Howard was at work! We were finished by 3 PM, paint dries fast here in Colorado! Mom and Dad stayed until Tuesday afternoon after my 32 week appt to check on the size of the baby.  I know they had fun watching the ultrasound as they had not seen one in AGES and I'm not sure if my mom had any when she was pregnant with us "kids".  My OB did a great job of looking around at the baby and showing mom and dad all the body parts that she could but NO we did not find out the babies sex then either.  :-)  Baby was only about 65% now and weighed 4 pounds 9 oz at 32 weeks!! Well on my way to having a 8# baby by my Due date.





May 7, 2011 Baby Shower!

Today I had my first Baby Shower!  It was a lot of fun and the food was wonderful!  Janell, Hope, Heather and Melody all did a GREAT job, putting it all together with the food and decorations and games.  I was lucky enough to have my parents here for a visit this weekend.   I had a lot of fun chatting and visiting with a lot of people who I have not seen since my wedding.   My parents helped me clean the house for the shower and get things ready.  Here are a few photos of the food, fun and fellowship from the shower, not to mention the wonderful gifts I recieved. 

 Howard and I standing under the sign

 The food!

 Baby Carriage fruit bowl

 Tanith giving me my first present a stuffed Monkey!

 Me, Janell and Maureen (her mom)

Diaper Cake

 Friends :)

Family 

Tanith helping me open packages

The amazing baby quilt my Mother-in-Law made me and baby

31 Weeks

I cannot believe how fast this pregnancy is going  I only have 9 weeks left!! Things are going very well.  Baby and I are growing well.  This baby is moving more and more and getting stronger, sometimes I'm actually able to see my stomach move as the baby moves inside me.  We are trying to decide what colors to paint the nursery, we know greens but not the exact colors as matching the monkey theme is proving to be a little harder than we wanted.  The monkeys are so very cute and I cannot wait to finish decorating the nursery.  With  Mom and Dad coming this weekend for a baby shower and to visit I hope to paint the nursery.  :-)

This coming week Howard and I are going to dinner w his mom on Tuesday after meeting w our Pediatrician. (Scary and Exciting to think about!) Then my parents are coming on Friday, a baby shower on Saturday.  It will, also, be nice to spend Mothers Day with my mother for the first time in years.  I'm very much looking forward to this coming week and weekend!!

Happy Easter!!!

Easter is a great time and a great day! It is a time of fulfillment of promises and hope.

This week has been a good week.  Howard and I had our third childbirth  education class where he learned about Vaginal Deliveries and Cesarean sections as well as different pain medicines.  :) Only one more class to go!  Howard is also replacing our master shower, which is a great thing as the old one just needed help.  (I'll post a photo of it when he is finished.)  He took the shower down to the studs and is now bringing it back.  It should be done this week.
This morning I went to church and had my good friend Mandy join me.  Then the two of us went to Applebee's for lunch and to talk and catch up.  It still amazes me that I have a friend here in Denver that I have known since 2nd grade!!

Mandy and I at Applebee's

April 17; 29 weeks

No new photo's to share this week, but we did have some interesting news.  It seems that we have a big baby growing inside me!!  At the 24 weeks ultrasound, the baby was already 2# 1oz ( 85%)  m OB was not worried at that time, just told me baby was growing well.  :-)  This past week I had my 28 weeks growth ultrasound, just to make sure that baby was growing adequately and this little one is 3# 1 oz (80%)!!!  Baby grew 1 full pound in a month!  Good news is that I'm not Gestational Diabetic, my one hour glucose test was normal!! I'm just growing a good size baby.  It will be interesting to see how big this kid is in another 4 weeks!!

On another note Howard and I are half way though our childbirth classes!  The first class 2 weeks ago was hard for me to keep my mouth shut on as the teacher gave some miss information as far as Rose Med is concerned.  The funniest part was Howard kept asking me if the information was right or correct and I would whisper yes or no....lol.  By the end of class he stated that if the other class participants knew I was a L&D nurse here I would have a LOT of questions to answer.  The class this past week was actually pretty good as it taught relaxation techniques and massage. I enjoyed getting a 45 min massage, what woman esp a pregnant woman would not?? This coming week our instructor will talk about vaginal deliveries. hehe  (May have to tape my mouth shut, going to be interesting for sure!)

I can't believe there are only 11 weeks left!! This pregnancy is going great so far, I cannot complain.  :-)  I'll keep yall updated as things happen and continue.

Wednessday April 6, 2011

The past two weeks have been pretty status quo.  Not too much going on just enjoying the spring weather.  Though two weeks ago Howard and I did get a new High Efficiency Washer and Dryer!! They are actually fun to use and today Ruger was barking at the dryer as he could see the clothes going around and around inside it. hehe  Not the brightest dog but still made me laugh.   Last week we went to the Denver Auto show and saw a ton of cars! The fun part was you actually got to sit in them and play w the buttons (most had battery power) and see if it worked for you with out being in a high pressure situation.  We are looking to buy a new car sometime before the baby comes as Howard's car is 11 yrs old and has 130000 miles on it.  Our camera was screwing up that day though so we did not get any photo's from the auto show. 

I've been told that some of my friends and family would like some baby bump photo's so here ya go.  These baby bump photo's were taken last night in our living room.  :-)

The new washer (look at all those settings!)

Inside of the washer

The Dryer (tons of settings!)

trying to show the inside of the dryer

my profile at 27 wks

Us :) 27 wks pregnant

My "usual" stance 

another side view

27 wk belly side view

27 wk front view

Week 24 of pregnancy

This has been a fun week.  I had my 24 week ultrasound on Monday and then went to my OB on Tuesday.  Things are going well  with the pregnancy no worries at this time! Everything looks great!  This kid is growing big!  I asked my OB for a copy of my ultrasound report from the day before and she asked me what the sex of the baby was and when I said a surprise she smiled and said she could not give me a copy of the ultrasound d/t it having the sex of the baby on it.  hehe  Good thing that Howard was with me or I might have given in and asked for a copy anyway.   I really wanted to have the copy to see the measurement of the baby.  DR Mason told us that this baby's femur and abdomen were the biggest  measurements this time which pushed baby up to 85%!!!!   Which means as of Monday this kido was almost 2 lbs?!?  which is about 1/2 to 2/3 lb bigger than "normal" or 50%.  hehe  Now I'm curious how big the kido will be when he/she is born!

 baby looking at you (and looking more like a baby w a hand by his/her face.)

stretching his/her back 

Baby's feet that keep kicking me

Starting to get things ready for baby :-)

This has been a fun week.  Howard borrowed Adam's truck on Sunday so that on Monday we could pick up the new pantry to put in the kitchen  without our renting a truck to bring it home. Then on Tuesday we went to Babysrus to pick up the new crib and dresser for the baby.  :)  It was quite funny to try to fit both in a short bed truck but after putting in the dresser (w the help of a guy from babiesrus) and then taking the crib out of the box everything fit in the bed of the truck nicely!  When we got home we carried it inside, I only helped get the dresser to the living room and could not make it further, will need to borrow a strong man to help Howard get it up the stairs!!  Then Howard wanted to put he crib together so we did and it only took both of us about 30 mins, what a nice crib this baby will have.   Now we just need to take down the border and paint the baby's room and it will be close to being ready and I'm still about 4 mo away from giving birth!  After putting the crib together we went to visit Adam, Janell and Brenden (who had a cold) we ended up just getting take out and hanging w friend.  It was a good day.  Here is a pic of the crib and one of the dresser ( a little darker than Howard wanted and a little lighter than I thought I wanted, but now I love them!)

Crib and crib set

Dresser

The first week of March 2010

This past week has been a fun week.  Work was busy but not crazy.  Friday I was lucky enough to go out to dinner w one of my oldest friends, Amanda Koehler (Mandy McDonald as we met in 2nd grade).  We went out to the Rodizio Grill a Brazillian Steak house.  It was absolutely amazing!  The food was great and the company made it a great meal.  The fact that it was Restaraunt week only made it better as we got all our food for only $52.80! and it usually would have been around $75.  Saturday night I went to a Mardi Gras Cabaret at my church and had a good meal and 2 hrs of fun music and good company as I took my Mother-in -Law, Melody.    It was nice to get out of the house and spend time w friends.

Mandy and I at Rodizio Grill 3-4-10

Feb 19, 2011

Howard and I went to a Mardi Gras Benefit for the Special Olympics on the 19th.  It was a lot of fun they do a silent auction and then dinner w a program showcasing the kids and having a live auction to raise money.  We had a lot of fun and hope to be able to go again next year.  Here are a few pictures of us from that night.

 Me wearing a mask

 My Handsome Hubby

Us, check out that grin as he holds my belly.  :-)

Anniversery Dinner 2-9-11

Just over a year ago Howard and I got married!  It was a wonderful marriage ceremony and this past year has been great!  We are happily expecting the birth of our first child in late June/early July (as I'm officially due July 3).  For our Anniversary dinner we went out to a restaurant in down town Denver called Venice Restaurant.  The food there was wonderful!  We will definately be going back for another special occasion.  We went out on Feb 9th as Feb 6th this year was Super Bowl Sunday and Howard had to work so we went out on the following Wednesday.

 Us at Our Wedding Feb 6, 2010

 Us at Our First Anniversary Dinner

Visit to Birmingham over Jan 22 weekend.

I had a great visit down in Birmingham to visit Jay, Hannah and Brody.  Mom and Dad were there for 2 days as well.  Too bad I had a really bad cold for the first 2 days I was there.  Monday I felt so much better Hannah, Brody and I went out to lunch and then went shopping.  It was great fun.  Hannah helped me pick out my first real maternity clothes as I was 17 wks pregnant at the time.  Here are a few pictures from my visit.  Visit JandHHowell.blogspot.com to see more as Hannah posted some as well.

 Brody kissing Mom

 True boy smiling at the remote

 Trying to catch a smile

 Almost got it

Trying on a dress w a baby bump added (not my real belly!)