Friday, August 21, 2009

Welcoming Madelinn Grace Channell



I was scheduled to be at the hospital at 5am on Friday July 24, 2009 so Jeremy and I had to get up at around 3:30 to get ready and leave for the hospital which is around a half hour away. We got there a few minutes late because we had to stop for gas. Did everything else the evening before but forgot that minor detail! LOL To top it all off Jeremy had an awful migraine the entire day and spent much of it napping in the labor room to try to get rid of it.

So I get there and they hook me up to the monitors and ask a million questions and at around 6am they start me on the pitocin and tell me that my Dr will be up around 9 to check me. I am not even feeling anything contraction-wise by the time she gets there around 9:10am and checks me. She tells me that I am a 4 and that she is going to break my water. She tells the nurse that I can have my epidural at any time that I want it but I tell her that I am holding off as long as possible since it wore off when I was having Wyatt and I didn’t want to go through the process again just to not have one when the time came. I settle in and relax for the ride at this point.

My back starts killing me and I assume it is from sitting on that bed so I ask the nurse about getting up and moving around. She tells me that I can get up and go to the bathroom when I want and she can either get me a birthing ball or bring in a rocking chair. I ask for the rocking chair so when I come out of the bathroom there is one waiting on me. It was a HUGE help and I sit in it until around noon. The contractions finally began getting stronger at around 11am and that is when she tells me that I have pretty much topped out on the dose of pitocin that the Dr allowed. She says she is going to call the Dr to get her to come up and check me and let her know what to do as far as the pitocin is concerned. She checks me and I am at a 5. Again she asks about the epidural and I tell her I am going to hold off a bit longer. At noon I finally sent someone to tell her I want it and within a few minutes my doctor was there to check me and the anesthesiologist is outside the door.

Dr tells me that I am still at a 5 and Maddi wasn’t moving down into position well. She mentions that if I don’t start progressing I may need a c-section because it is suggesting she is too big. This is when I make the mistake of asking if she has a guess as to how big she is and she tells me AT LEAST as big as DS was (8lb 6oz). I had been hoping for a smaller baby! The anesthesiologist then moves in to do his job and this is where the trouble begins.

Apparently I have a really vascular back so he had a really hard time. Does it once and when he pulls the needle out he gets blood so has to redo it. Not to mention he had to draw out once to renumb because he hit some sore spots. He replaces it and gets blood again. Finally the third time is the charm or so we think. My left side is more numb than the right so they have me lay slightly on my right side to help it and he leaves. I settle in to sleep and wake up 2 hours later feeling super strong contractions again so they call him up and he decides to come back with some lidocaine and another full kit because he thinks there is a problem. He hits me with the lidocaine and my jaw instantly goes numb and my ears start ringing. Then Maddi’s heart rate jumps to 200 and then drops to 49 and my blood pressure drops to 80/43. They roll me on my left side and give me oxygen and things start to straighten out. I am crying hysterically at this point because I want her out and OK and am terrified something is going to go wrong. Jeremy is trying to calm me down but later tells me he was just as scared.

Anesthesiologist tells me he wants to take out Epi 1 and put in a new one and though I don’t want to go through the process again I agree. In goes another Epi and thankfully it goes in the first time and begins to work like a charm. Right around 6:30 pm my nurse comes in to check me and tells me that I am at a 9+. I tell her that is what I delivered my son at because I never went to a 10 so she tells me she is going to call the doctor and let her know we are close. She walks out and just 2 minutes later another nurse walks in a tells me that she is going to check me because nurse 1 has the doctor on the phone and she wants an update. She checks me and I made it to a 10! Whoo hoo! She asks if I want to practice push until the doctor gets there and I tell her that I want to wait until I get the urge. Around 15 minutes later I tell Jeremy to get the nurse because I am feeling MAJOR pressure. Within a couple of minutes the nurses and doctor are in and tell me to push through a contraction. As soon as that one was over they scramble to break down the bed. 2 contractions and 8 minutes later Madelinn Grace makes her appearance and 8lb and 11oz and 21” long with apgars of 5 and 8.

She ended up having shoulder dystocia so I am glad that they induced because I would have guaranteed a c-section had I let her grow any more. As it was I had a nurse putting all her weight on me to help push her shoulders out. They thought they may have broken her collar bone but thankfully the xrays the next day showed that was not the case. She also had a bowel movement right before I started pushing so Jeremy didn’t get to cut the cord which was kind of sad. They hurried up and took her to the warmer to suction her out. All I remember asking is why she wasn’t crying and then remembered that they needed her to not cry and inhale anything.

Sorry this got so long! I don’t know how my professors can stand to read my papers because I think I am TOO thorough sometimes. So if you made it this far thanks for reading!

One Month Old

My little girl is one month old today! It is going by so quickly. She is melding so well into our new family of four so well it seems like she has always been here. As I write she is sleeping in her swing beside the bed.

She is right now in 0-3 month clothes (nb only lasted 2.5 weeks), size 1 diapers, and is a pretty good sleeper. She has surprised me with a couple of nights of sleeping all night as I mentioned in some posts before now. She is starting to smile but I have yet to be able to catch it on camera. She has also been tracking me with her eyes as I move around when she is in her bouncy seat or swing in the last few days. I am not sure what her weight and length are just now but her one month appointment is on September 3 so I will update then. I will also add pictures hopefully tomorrow because my camera is dead today.

I am getting ready to post my birth story for her. I need to find Wyatt's and post it as well so I have it on record just in case something were to happen to the computer but I am on a different laptop at the moment.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Post of Randomness

This is going to be a bullet post because there is so much going on and none of it links together!




  • I am a little depressed right now over some news my hubby told me last night. The Emmitt House, the restaraunt we have gone to for every Valentine's Day and Anniversary since we have been together has closed! I am so sad to hear this! Our wedding and dating anniversary are both coming up and I figured we would go there for at least one. It is almost a tradition for us at this point. Apparently, they had been trying to sell it for awhile but were asking too much because of the location (teeny tiny town). I guess it is for sure now though because The Moose club went over and bought all of their food, wine, and liquor for a very small amount. The ending of an era, I suppose, we have to make a new tradition.

  • I am pretty sure that I have been getting some "actual" smiles from Maddi in the last couple of days. I was unsure at first but as of today I think I am getting responses to my smiles! Too cute!

  • Speaking of Maddi, she is still doing pretty well at night. I got one other night of sleeping all night and the past two nights she has woken for a feeding at 4:30 and then she is good until around 8:30-9:00. I can't complain. If I get to sleep most of the night with a one month old I can't complain!
  • She is also one month old today! It isn't technically one month until the 24th but this is the fourth friday since she was born. That is a whole post in itself though.
  • Also, my birthday is coming up as well. September 4th. I can't believe I am about to be 24. I actually had to add it up the other day because I couldn't remember how old I was going to be this year. How crazy is that? I guess it tells you how busy I am right now.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Life with 2 kids under 1.5

I am starting to realize that having two kids of this age isn't as difficult (at least at the moment) as I thought it would be. There are the occasional times when both are crying for one thing or another and I have to assess the needs and decide who to take care of first but I am not as angsty as I thought I was going to be. I HATE to hear my kids cry but I have two children now and sometimes one just needs you more.

Wyatt is doing great as a big brother. Lately he has taken to wanting to read Polar Bear, Polar Bear and Brown Bear, Brown bear over and over, and OVER. He cries when I don't want to read it and has actually tossed it at Maddi and I as she is eating but when I do go start reading it he gets the BIGGEST smile and runs in place and squeals. I am not really sure why all of a sudden these books are his favorite but I am just glad he loves to read. I need to get a few more of those books so that I can get some variety. I already have these two memorized!

Madelinn slept all night last night! I couldn't believe it. I put her in her swing, which is her preferred place to sleep for the first 4 hour stretch of night, right after her bath around 10:30pm and didn't get a peep from her until a few minutes before 6am. Hopefully it isn't a one time occurance. I will worry about breaking the swing habit sometime soon but as for now we all need our sleep!

Sunday, August 16, 2009

17 Months

I CAN NOT believe that my little boy is 17 months old. I am sure that I say that every month but it is so hard to believe that he is growing up so fast. It seems like just yesterday that I had them and here we are just 7 months away from his second birthday. It is absoulte craziness.

He is such a joy but is starting to hit the toddler issues that every toddler has. He is getting to be a finicky eater when he would eat anything I put in front of him before. He sometimes will turn his head away from something that I KNOW that he likes and I have to pop the fork into his mouth when he is going for a drink to trick him to taste it. After that he will usually eat away. About the only thing that he NEVER turns his head away from is fruit in any form, the kid still loves it.

He is still such a sweet little boy who is almost always happy and has a smile for anyone and everyone. He LOVES riding on the 4 wheeler or tractor as he calls it with daddy and will cry when we take him off of it. He also cries when we bring him in from outside as he also LOVES being outside. He is an absolute daddy's boy right now and loves to rough house and do everything that daddy does. He loves anything associated with tractors (or anything with wheels for that matter) and animals. I can't wait to take him back to the zoo and aquarium now that he knows the names of so many animals and the sounds they make.

He picks up on so much and is saying SO many words right now. All of the words may not be completely understood by everyone but Jeremy and I usually know what it means. I am going to work on a post with all of the words he knows. I would like to have it written down for future reference. I am thinking of having all of this made into a book and I also pull information from here to the baby book so it will be nice to have it.

Recently he has become very interested in letters and can point out all of the letters in his first name as well as "O" any place that he comes across them. I am so proud of my little boy!

He just moved up to size 5 diapers, wears size 7-8 shoes and is pretty much completely in 24 month clothing. We have done some rough measuring lately and he is right around 33 inches and 30 or 31 pounds. He is such a big boy and has been mistaken for both a 2 and a 3 year old recently.

Worst Blogger EVER!



Yea, that's me! I am the worst blogger ever! Granted I had a TON going on since my last post with starting a super packed summer quarter (and making all A's, yay, me!) and having a baby and all! LOL..




So that is the big news, Baby Girl was born. Madelinn Grace came into the world on July 24, 2009 at 6:54 pm. She topped the scales and 8 pounds and 11 ounces and 21 inches long. So far she is proving to be a "good" baby in the terms of everyone who asks. She is just over 3 weeks old but only really wakes up one time in the middle of the night. She cries more than Wyatt ever did but he was odd and I don't think I REALLY heard him cry until he was a few months old. She certainly makes herself heard but she pretty much has to because with a 17 month old brother to take up much of Mommy and Daddy's energy she would probably get lost in the shuffle if not. (Not that we would REALLY forget about her, but you know what I mean!)




Wyatt is adjusting quite well and pretty much ignores her most of the time. He is actually much better than I expected it to be. I had kind of assumed that I was going to spend a lot of time protecting her from his curiosity but it actually amounts to a very small portion of time spent. He likes to point out her ears, eyes, mouth, and toes and we have to remind him to be gentle then but he is pretty good reminding himself most of the time. He also likes to kiss her and rub her while saying "Awww, baby" so that is very cute. Whenever he encounters someone he likes to show them where she is and calls her "baaaaaBy" or "baby sister" which comes out more like "baby didtr" which is also incredibly cute.




I am also coping very well. I will post her birth story soon but, as I am sure you know, I am staying quite busy. I was worried about adjusting to having 2 children under 1.5 and also attending school but it is actually working out quite well. Since Maddi sleeps quite often still and Wyatt naps very well we are all settling into a routine. That is until Maddi actually settles and throws it all out of wack!




Wyatt also turned 17 months a few days ago on the 12th but that deserves an entire "milestone" post on its own so I will start working on that as well. I also want to do a post on everything that he says and how he says it for future reference but I think that will require a lot of time to compile and remember them all because he says SO much. He is quite the little sponge.




Last but not least, school. I finished the first session of summer and am still working on an online class that will end in a couple of weeks. I actually finished classes 2 days before I had Maddi and was VERY uncomfortable at the end but it was worth it to get done. As I said above I finished with a 4.0 first session and so far have an A in my summer class as well. I am now down to 5 classes and student teaching. Whoo Hoo! Almost done!