We really missed having Jason here to take some pictures with us, but he will be home soon enough and we will get some good family pictures then. Love my boys!
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Welcome to the World Caleb!
So I am finally updating the blog! A lot has happened since our last post, Jason left on his first deployment to Afghanistan, and about 6 weeks later we welcomed our second son into our family. Caleb was born on January 20 at 6:56 am, weighed 7 lbs 10 oz and was 20.5 inches long. He has a full head of blondish reddish hair, and is such a sweet low key baby. When we found out that Jason was going to be gone for the birth, I was terrified. With the horrendous experience I had with Ethan I didn't think I would be able to handle that again without Jason. He was the person who kept me sane through that whole ordeal. Living out here in North Carolina near a military base I realized that this kind of thing is actually quite common and realized I needed to stop feeling sorry for myself because many women had gone through much worse. I gained strength from the women around me and was incredibly blessed through the whole experience. It was really an incredible blessing to be stationed here where my sister lives 5 minutes away. I could not have gone through this without her. We flew my mother in law out to stay with us for a few weeks to watch Ethan while I was in the hospital and to help out when the baby came. I was so stressed and worried about delivering on time so that I didn't waste her time, and I ended up delivering 4 days late. Those 4 days seemed like an eternity though! I tried every "trick" I could to kick start labor, and nothing worked. On Thursday I came to the conclusion that I really had no control over the situation and decided to let the Lord decide when it was time for us and put it in His hands, and that night I went into labor. For those who don't want to hear about the labor and delivery, don't read on, and just skip to the pictures part :).
So I went to bed Thursday night with some light contractions, but didn't think anything of it because I had been having the same ones for weeks. Then around 1:30 I woke up with some stronger ones, so I started timing them, they were coming around 5-7 minutes apart. I got through those for a while then got in the shower to try and labor through some more. The shower helped a lot, and helped me relax. When I got out I started timing contractions again and they were about 3 minutes apart. It was about 3 am at this point, and I was thinking ok well this hasn't been too long I should be ok for a while, but something told me not to wait and to call my sister. So I called the hospital they told me to come in. By the time we got to the hospital it was 4am. They had me sit in triage and get monitored for 20 minutes which was pure torture, I was so nervous that I was going through all of this and was only going to be at a 4 or something. They finally checked me and I was almost to a 7! That's when all the rushing started. They didn't have a room ready for me yet, they were so busy that night they were cleaning up a room to get me in, then they struggled to get the IV in me. They couldn't get an IV in so they had to get anesthesiology to come in to do it, but they had 2 other women to give epidurals to before they could even get to me. Finally another nurse gave my veins a try because she didn't think they would even get a chance to get over to my room in enough time. She was able to finally get the IV in then they had to ask me the 50 million admission questions like if I smoked or drank or did drugs which was really annoying trying to answer during contractions. Thankfully Heidi was there and she did most of my talking for me. I was exhausted and knew the worst was only coming so I asked for an epidural, but it kind of seemed like they were ignoring me and were like oh you are doing great you don't need one. Then the nurse told me ok What I thought was going to be the hardest thing I had ever done really turned out to be a lot easier than I expected. I am so grateful for this beautiful baby boy, and even Ethan seems to like him :). We can't wait until Jason comes home so he can meet this sweet son of his.
So I went to bed Thursday night with some light contractions, but didn't think anything of it because I had been having the same ones for weeks. Then around 1:30 I woke up with some stronger ones, so I started timing them, they were coming around 5-7 minutes apart. I got through those for a while then got in the shower to try and labor through some more. The shower helped a lot, and helped me relax. When I got out I started timing contractions again and they were about 3 minutes apart. It was about 3 am at this point, and I was thinking ok well this hasn't been too long I should be ok for a while, but something told me not to wait and to call my sister. So I called the hospital they told me to come in. By the time we got to the hospital it was 4am. They had me sit in triage and get monitored for 20 minutes which was pure torture, I was so nervous that I was going through all of this and was only going to be at a 4 or something. They finally checked me and I was almost to a 7! That's when all the rushing started. They didn't have a room ready for me yet, they were so busy that night they were cleaning up a room to get me in, then they struggled to get the IV in me. They couldn't get an IV in so they had to get anesthesiology to come in to do it, but they had 2 other women to give epidurals to before they could even get to me. Finally another nurse gave my veins a try because she didn't think they would even get a chance to get over to my room in enough time. She was able to finally get the IV in then they had to ask me the 50 million admission questions like if I smoked or drank or did drugs which was really annoying trying to answer during contractions. Thankfully Heidi was there and she did most of my talking for me. I was exhausted and knew the worst was only coming so I asked for an epidural, but it kind of seemed like they were ignoring me and were like oh you are doing great you don't need one. Then the nurse told me ok What I thought was going to be the hardest thing I had ever done really turned out to be a lot easier than I expected. I am so grateful for this beautiful baby boy, and even Ethan seems to like him :). We can't wait until Jason comes home so he can meet this sweet son of his.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Washington DC Trip
So my wonderful old roommate and dear friend Natalie who lives in DC just renewed her lease for a year and as a gift for doing so she got a couple of free nights in their guest suite that she graciously donated to Jason and I. We of course had to take advantage of her offer, and since we only live 6 hours from DC we decided to head up there a couple of weekends ago for a fun family road trip before Jason has to deploy. Natalie and I first met my freshman year of college but didn't realize how cool we were until we spent the summer as interns in DC together. I have been dying to go back ever since that summer of 2005, but haven't had the chance until now. A lot has definitely changed since then, I am married with a two year old and pregnant with my second. Natalie is now a hot shot lawyer with an awesome apartment in the city all to herself. Traveling the city with a child and a stroller is a little less glamorous then how we used to roll back in the day, but it was still a blast. I did realize I am not as young as I used to be. My pregnant feet were not very happy with me over the weekend, but it was well worth it. Thank you Natalie for inviting us up and arranging a free place for us to stay!! It was a fun weekend and I can't wait to attempt it again, next time with a double stroller just for you :)!
Marine Corps Birthday Ball
So Jason and I had to attend the Marine Corps Birthday Ball, and while the thought of getting dressed up fancy for a night out would normally appeal to a girl like me, doing it when I am 7 months pregnant was not exactly ideal. I remember how difficult it was finding a dress in high school for dances that were modest was a difficult task, but now adding that to finding a dress that would fit my pregnant belly to the mix was an even crazier task. Not to mention that our budget for a dress I would wear once was virtually nothing. So who would have known that the dress my mom picked out for me to wear to my junior year homecoming dance ten years ago would actually fit my now large pregnant self. My sister even had a matching jacket that worked perfect with it. The evening was still pretty horrifying. It felt like prom all over again, except I was huge a pregnant with a 2 year old at home. I definitely felt like a spectacle with all the other tiny girls that still looked like they were in high school wearing gowns that covered the bear minimum were all around. Not that I can be the only one to complain, Jason's dress blues looked far from comfortable, he could barely move his neck poor guy. The dinner at the ball was pretty awful so afterwards we went with another couple to the Golden Corral for some fancy buffet dining. If I didn't feel like a spectacle at the ball I definitely did at the restaurant with everyone staring at the crazy people who were wearing formal gowns and dress blues to the Golden Corral. We are praying that next year we don't have to do that again!!
Pumpkin Carving Contest
Well our annual pumpkin carving contest came and went. We had it later this year since Jason was in California for his pre-deployment training over Halloween. We took votes and Jason's mater won. His was a little more difficult I admit, but I am still proud of my Elmo. Ethan liked both, but of course Mater was a shoe in for him. Oh well, what matters is that we had fun, and that i am going to beat Jason next year :).
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
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