...to write a quick post before my muffins are done! But, you may be asking yourself, why on earth is she baking muffins at 1123pm? Well, I realized about an hour ago that Drew had nothing to take to work for breakfast! He eats breakfast in the car, so we usually have Pop tarts, or granola or almonds or something easy for him to snack on on his way to work. However, we are without a quick breakfast food today, so I just whipped up some strawberry oat muffins and they are baking off in the oven. Thus, the need for the quick post. Hopefully they turn out well.
Yesterday was Luke's graduation party, we had so much fun! We got to see a whole bunch of Drew's side of the family and lots of little ones! Drew's aunt gave us a little ride-on toy for Meghan that her girls had outgrown and Meg was stoked! I wish I had thought to get a picture of her on it, in fact, I didn't take any pictures at all. Bad me!
We drank lots of water because it was hot! And lots of good food, of course. Kim made baked chicken, meatball subs, sausage/peppers/onions on sub rolls, macaroni and cheese, pasta salad, devilled eggs, salt potatoes, baked beans. Plus there was chips, veggies and dip and candy on the tables. It was a feast! I ate waaay too much, but it was so good! Meghan enjoyed her share of chicken, macaroni and cheese and carrots. She loves a good baby carrot over anything else!
Nothing too crazy going on this week, my Grandmother's birthday on Wednesday and Drew's youngest sister's birthday on Friday, hopefully we'll be back out to our hometown to celebrate her 6th birthday!
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Saturday, August 20, 2011
woohoo...
...I added a reply button to my comments! I am stoked, I love to reply to all your lovely comments, but I think it looks awkward when it's not a reply. It sort of looks mishmashed. Like I am replying to my own post instead of your comment!
In other not-so-nerdy news, today is a glorious Saturday! Drew's brother, Luke has graduated high school and today is his graduation party! I am excited to get to see his side of the family and visit with them...and also for the food! There's just something about mil, Kim's, cooking. It's amazing! (and I'm not just saying that because she reads this! :D ) Her food is just super simple and yummy! She even did all the food for our wedding and reception! (except the cake) Which reminds me, I should write the story of our wedding on here sometime...
Maybe another post later tonight!
In other not-so-nerdy news, today is a glorious Saturday! Drew's brother, Luke has graduated high school and today is his graduation party! I am excited to get to see his side of the family and visit with them...and also for the food! There's just something about mil, Kim's, cooking. It's amazing! (and I'm not just saying that because she reads this! :D ) Her food is just super simple and yummy! She even did all the food for our wedding and reception! (except the cake) Which reminds me, I should write the story of our wedding on here sometime...
Maybe another post later tonight!
Friday, August 19, 2011
rant...
...maybe. I wanted to list all the things that I think went wrong with Kait's labor and delivery and share all the wonderful comments my family made to me about her birth, like I had the power to change it afterwards. (sarcasm) But, I have decided to just let it all go as there is nothing I can change, and God made her birth happen the way it did for a reason. He wanted her to experience it that way, just like he put me through the trial of Meghan's birth. I know that her labor and delivery was arduous and so hard and resulted in a c-section for a reason.
I believe it was because I had this idealized plan of how everything would go perfectly and there would be no complications or bumps in the road. God sent me that curve ball for trying to plan out what couldn't be planned and what I should've left up to him in the first place.
One of these days I'll write about what I'd like my next birth to be like...ahhh, a girl can dream, huh? :)
Speaking of, and quite nicely timed, my last post before Kait's birth story was Thursday, August 11th. I had written about how Freddy had arrived and a friend of mine was still nursing her 2 1/2 year old and her period had returned at 18 months post partum, remember? I was musing about how I'd have to wait another 5+ months before the thought of ovulation and conception could even be considered seriously.
Well, lo and behold, I didn't have to wait 5+ months! I literally published that post, shut off the lights, tv, etc to get the apartment ready for nighttime and went to the bathroom to get ready for bed...and Aunt Flow was there! Hahaha. I was so surprised and delighted! I am so stoked and I wanted to call Drew up right then, but decided to wait because I figured it wouldn't be that big of a deal to him. When I told him about it the next day, he said, "Well, now we can have another baby." I am so thankful that he feels the same way and I think he even got a little excited that a baby is now a definite possibility. :)
I am not so surprised that AF showed up, I had been having serious cramps the week before, but shrugged it off as indigestion. I don't know how much you all need/want to know, but since I'll be sharing any future conceptions/pregnancies/births as they come, you might as well know ;) I had a regular period, lasting 6 days (which is normal for me) It was quite heavy and painful which I was not accustomed to as I had been on birth control for the past ... almost 10 years! Yikes! I can say that I feel phenomenal having let my body do it's natural thing and I think that the mood swings I used to experience while on birth control are non-existent. (I'm sure Drew would argue that point ;) )
So, now that we know I am/should be ovulating fairly regularly, we're going to go with the flow. I don't want to stress myself too much and jinx anything. I definitely want to wait awhile to see if 'it' will just happen before I go charting basal temperatures and counting days. I certainly wasn't doing any of that last time, so maybe it will just be a nice surprise for my birthday next month... :D
I believe it was because I had this idealized plan of how everything would go perfectly and there would be no complications or bumps in the road. God sent me that curve ball for trying to plan out what couldn't be planned and what I should've left up to him in the first place.
One of these days I'll write about what I'd like my next birth to be like...ahhh, a girl can dream, huh? :)
Speaking of, and quite nicely timed, my last post before Kait's birth story was Thursday, August 11th. I had written about how Freddy had arrived and a friend of mine was still nursing her 2 1/2 year old and her period had returned at 18 months post partum, remember? I was musing about how I'd have to wait another 5+ months before the thought of ovulation and conception could even be considered seriously.
Well, lo and behold, I didn't have to wait 5+ months! I literally published that post, shut off the lights, tv, etc to get the apartment ready for nighttime and went to the bathroom to get ready for bed...and Aunt Flow was there! Hahaha. I was so surprised and delighted! I am so stoked and I wanted to call Drew up right then, but decided to wait because I figured it wouldn't be that big of a deal to him. When I told him about it the next day, he said, "Well, now we can have another baby." I am so thankful that he feels the same way and I think he even got a little excited that a baby is now a definite possibility. :)
I am not so surprised that AF showed up, I had been having serious cramps the week before, but shrugged it off as indigestion. I don't know how much you all need/want to know, but since I'll be sharing any future conceptions/pregnancies/births as they come, you might as well know ;) I had a regular period, lasting 6 days (which is normal for me) It was quite heavy and painful which I was not accustomed to as I had been on birth control for the past ... almost 10 years! Yikes! I can say that I feel phenomenal having let my body do it's natural thing and I think that the mood swings I used to experience while on birth control are non-existent. (I'm sure Drew would argue that point ;) )
So, now that we know I am/should be ovulating fairly regularly, we're going to go with the flow. I don't want to stress myself too much and jinx anything. I definitely want to wait awhile to see if 'it' will just happen before I go charting basal temperatures and counting days. I certainly wasn't doing any of that last time, so maybe it will just be a nice surprise for my birthday next month... :D
kait's birth story
haha, Freddy was born a week and a half ago and I am determined to get it written tonight! Ok, here goes...
Once upon a time... :)
First, a little back story...Drew's sisters: Olivia, Eileen and Liz came over to spend 2 nights at our place on Sunday August 7th. Drew and I went out to see Bridesmaids (hilarious, yet shocking at the same time!) on Sunday and we had planned to see another movie on Monday night (I mean, who could not take advantage of free babysitting!) But, I couldn't find our free movie ticket, so I told Drew to go ahead without me and meet his cousin Joey at the movies to see Captain America. I think now that I didn't find the ticket for a good reason! (I have since found the ticket too!) The girls, Meghan and I were hanging out at Drew's other sister, Michelle's apartment (she and her boyfriend Corey live in the same complex as us), just relaxing and playing board games.
Kait started texting me at about 8pm saying that she had woken up that morning at 330am, 4, and 430am with horrible back pain but had been able to fall back asleep. She had left the house to run some errands and ended up at Fred's (baby's father) house in the late afternoon. She and Fred's mother Margaret had been timing contractions, they were regular every 5 minutes or so, lasting less than a minute. I decided to meet Kait back at our Dad's house and see what was going on.
I told the girls I had to go and Eileen and I came back here to put Meg down to sleep for the night. Eileen offered to come and wait until she fell asleep, then I told her she could go back over to Shelly's house. I left Meghan's window open and with Shelly's window open...almost as good as a baby monitor1 ;) Not to mention, Meghan never wakes up during the night and if she does, she's usually back to sleep within a few minutes. I left the girls and told Liz I'd text with instructions for Meg in case this was the real deal and not a false alarm.
I met up with Kait about 9pm. She said the contractions had slowed down, but still had solid back pain. I had her walk the length of the house a few times to see if there was any change. She had a couple solid contractions and wanted to go to the hospital just to get a definitive answer. I told her to call the OB's office first and see what they say, as she claimed she wasn't having regular contractions and her office hadn't broken. She didn't want to and just wanted to get to the hospital so off we went.
She continued to say she only had solid back pain and no real contractions, so I thought we would be sent home for sure. We arrive at the ER where they promptly tell Kait that she should have called her OB before coming in. She's admitted as an outpatient anyways because we tell them her contractions are regular every 3-4 minutes. We're taken to the maternity ward which is half under construction and put into a room literally half the size of my apartment living room! She had to give a urine sample and the bathroom was a toilet and space for your feet. With two doors on each side. That's it. :D The maternity nurses again told her that she should have called the OB before coming in but hooked her up to the monitors to track her contractions and baby's heartbeat. She also had blood drawn. Then we started to walk the halls...
The nurses were hoping that Kait would progress if she walked for a little while so she could be admitted. Which she did, whew! She was a 3-4 (cm dilated) and was a 4-5 after walking for about half an hour. We then got moved from the dinky little room into the newly renovated birthing center room:
the warming bed for baby:
footprints on the ceiling tiles!
tub with jets!
ahem, toilet, and fresh towels, shampoos and bath gels!
kait in labor:
This is Kait and Fred (baby's father) right after we got into the birthing suite. We had one nurse that was determined to have Kait on her back the whole time. She hooked her right up to the monitors and had her get into the bed. Well I put up with those shenanigans for about 5 seconds and had Kait get out of bed and move around into different positions. This is when I started Kait had a lot of lower back labor so she would squeeze Fred's hand while I used by palms and fists to counter-pressure her back contractions.
At about 330am, Kait was checked and at a 7! She had made it all the way to 7cm without any pains meds! She was feeling intense pain, so she decided to get into the jet tub! It looked divine while she was in there, I was a bit jealous! I felt like I was constantly watching the clock, but now I can't recall what happened at what time. I believe a couple hours later, at about 5am, Kait was checked and still at 7cm so she agreed to have some Fentanyl for the pain. I was/am so proud of her for getting so far without any pain medication!
Things moved fairly quickly after that. Kait started complaining that she felt like she needed to relieve herself, so we would take trips from the bathroom to the bed and back. Each time, not producing a baby or anything else. She was checked again at her request and found to be about a 7-8. She had Fentanyl at 5, 6 and 7am. I believe they broke her water at about 730am. And that's where we ran into trouble.
I saw meconium in the waters (obviously so did the nurses) I knew they would not let Kait labor on her own schedule. They continued to hound her. She just would not progress. She got to the point where she was essentially holding her legs shut and refused to do any hip-rocking or swaying or other moves that would allow her pelvis to open up and Freddy to move down farther. One nurse found she had the tiniest bit of cervix left but was completely dilated and not allowing her body to do the work for her.
At this point she was feeling everything and in such distress. She was pleading for a different nurse and for them to do something. She pleaded for a c-section. The nurses refused to give her any more medication because she was so close to being done and I'm glad they did that. I think Kait started pushing around 9am but started hyperventilating and pulling away from the contractions and our hands that were holding her feet. They put her on oxygen and she calmed down a little bit, but was still pulling away. She would push with each contraction and the nurses wanted 3 pushes with every one contraction. And Kait was just too exhausted. She would collapse after every push while the rest of us were egging her on, trying to coax her to push. Soon, it was apparent to everyone that she wouldn't or couldn't do it on her own. This is when they called in the doctor.
The first thing he asked was if she had an epidural. haha. He was quite surprised when we said no! He used a vacuum to help Kait get Freddy out. He pulled a little while Kait pushed. Frederick Harry Ceratt IV was born at 928am on Tuesday August 9th! Weighing 7 pounds 14.4 ounces and was 21 inches long.
Kait was in labor for about 30 hours and we were at the hospital for about 11 hours. She did not have to have an episiotomy and only had a small 1st degree tear internally that was quickly stitched up. Since the birth, Kait has taken no pain meds and is breastfeeding with minimal complications. Freddy was circumcised on his 2nd day and so far has had no complications.
Once upon a time... :)
First, a little back story...Drew's sisters: Olivia, Eileen and Liz came over to spend 2 nights at our place on Sunday August 7th. Drew and I went out to see Bridesmaids (hilarious, yet shocking at the same time!) on Sunday and we had planned to see another movie on Monday night (I mean, who could not take advantage of free babysitting!) But, I couldn't find our free movie ticket, so I told Drew to go ahead without me and meet his cousin Joey at the movies to see Captain America. I think now that I didn't find the ticket for a good reason! (I have since found the ticket too!) The girls, Meghan and I were hanging out at Drew's other sister, Michelle's apartment (she and her boyfriend Corey live in the same complex as us), just relaxing and playing board games.
Kait started texting me at about 8pm saying that she had woken up that morning at 330am, 4, and 430am with horrible back pain but had been able to fall back asleep. She had left the house to run some errands and ended up at Fred's (baby's father) house in the late afternoon. She and Fred's mother Margaret had been timing contractions, they were regular every 5 minutes or so, lasting less than a minute. I decided to meet Kait back at our Dad's house and see what was going on.
I told the girls I had to go and Eileen and I came back here to put Meg down to sleep for the night. Eileen offered to come and wait until she fell asleep, then I told her she could go back over to Shelly's house. I left Meghan's window open and with Shelly's window open...almost as good as a baby monitor1 ;) Not to mention, Meghan never wakes up during the night and if she does, she's usually back to sleep within a few minutes. I left the girls and told Liz I'd text with instructions for Meg in case this was the real deal and not a false alarm.
I met up with Kait about 9pm. She said the contractions had slowed down, but still had solid back pain. I had her walk the length of the house a few times to see if there was any change. She had a couple solid contractions and wanted to go to the hospital just to get a definitive answer. I told her to call the OB's office first and see what they say, as she claimed she wasn't having regular contractions and her office hadn't broken. She didn't want to and just wanted to get to the hospital so off we went.
She continued to say she only had solid back pain and no real contractions, so I thought we would be sent home for sure. We arrive at the ER where they promptly tell Kait that she should have called her OB before coming in. She's admitted as an outpatient anyways because we tell them her contractions are regular every 3-4 minutes. We're taken to the maternity ward which is half under construction and put into a room literally half the size of my apartment living room! She had to give a urine sample and the bathroom was a toilet and space for your feet. With two doors on each side. That's it. :D The maternity nurses again told her that she should have called the OB before coming in but hooked her up to the monitors to track her contractions and baby's heartbeat. She also had blood drawn. Then we started to walk the halls...
The nurses were hoping that Kait would progress if she walked for a little while so she could be admitted. Which she did, whew! She was a 3-4 (cm dilated) and was a 4-5 after walking for about half an hour. We then got moved from the dinky little room into the newly renovated birthing center room:
This is Kait and Fred (baby's father) right after we got into the birthing suite. We had one nurse that was determined to have Kait on her back the whole time. She hooked her right up to the monitors and had her get into the bed. Well I put up with those shenanigans for about 5 seconds and had Kait get out of bed and move around into different positions. This is when I started Kait had a lot of lower back labor so she would squeeze Fred's hand while I used by palms and fists to counter-pressure her back contractions.
At about 330am, Kait was checked and at a 7! She had made it all the way to 7cm without any pains meds! She was feeling intense pain, so she decided to get into the jet tub! It looked divine while she was in there, I was a bit jealous! I felt like I was constantly watching the clock, but now I can't recall what happened at what time. I believe a couple hours later, at about 5am, Kait was checked and still at 7cm so she agreed to have some Fentanyl for the pain. I was/am so proud of her for getting so far without any pain medication!
Things moved fairly quickly after that. Kait started complaining that she felt like she needed to relieve herself, so we would take trips from the bathroom to the bed and back. Each time, not producing a baby or anything else. She was checked again at her request and found to be about a 7-8. She had Fentanyl at 5, 6 and 7am. I believe they broke her water at about 730am. And that's where we ran into trouble.
I saw meconium in the waters (obviously so did the nurses) I knew they would not let Kait labor on her own schedule. They continued to hound her. She just would not progress. She got to the point where she was essentially holding her legs shut and refused to do any hip-rocking or swaying or other moves that would allow her pelvis to open up and Freddy to move down farther. One nurse found she had the tiniest bit of cervix left but was completely dilated and not allowing her body to do the work for her.
At this point she was feeling everything and in such distress. She was pleading for a different nurse and for them to do something. She pleaded for a c-section. The nurses refused to give her any more medication because she was so close to being done and I'm glad they did that. I think Kait started pushing around 9am but started hyperventilating and pulling away from the contractions and our hands that were holding her feet. They put her on oxygen and she calmed down a little bit, but was still pulling away. She would push with each contraction and the nurses wanted 3 pushes with every one contraction. And Kait was just too exhausted. She would collapse after every push while the rest of us were egging her on, trying to coax her to push. Soon, it was apparent to everyone that she wouldn't or couldn't do it on her own. This is when they called in the doctor.
The first thing he asked was if she had an epidural. haha. He was quite surprised when we said no! He used a vacuum to help Kait get Freddy out. He pulled a little while Kait pushed. Frederick Harry Ceratt IV was born at 928am on Tuesday August 9th! Weighing 7 pounds 14.4 ounces and was 21 inches long.
Kait was in labor for about 30 hours and we were at the hospital for about 11 hours. She did not have to have an episiotomy and only had a small 1st degree tear internally that was quickly stitched up. Since the birth, Kait has taken no pain meds and is breastfeeding with minimal complications. Freddy was circumcised on his 2nd day and so far has had no complications.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
a new...
...arrival! My sister had her baby on Tuesday morning! It has been so crazy since Monday night, I haven't had a chance to do a thing except sleep and eat! :) I'd like to write out her birth story from my point of view (and post it, obviously) but I know I won't get to it tonight because it is late and I am tired! I'll probably write it bit by bit over the next couple of days and maybe I'll get to posting it this weekend...sometime!
On a semi-related note, it seems like everyone around me is either pregnant or just had a baby! My sister, 2 girls that are sisters and daughters of a woman my Dad used to date when we were younger had babies in May and July (the 2nd on my Dad's birthday!), my 2nd cousin's girlfriend's baby shower is on Saturday (she's due in September), a girl I grew up with was at the same hospital as my sister at the same time, a handful of blogs I follow happen to have currently pregnant mommas as well as a close relative on hubby's side just found out she was pregnant with her 17th baby!
All of this is such joyful news, but at the same time, I am sad. When I held baby Freddy for the first time and smelled his new baby smell and snuggled his soft, cute, little baby body...I got that overwhelming urge to snuggle my own newborn babe. (not that I don't have that urge constantly...) I know the next baby will come at the right time and I have no control over when or if that will be. (though I pray sooner rather than later!) A college friend of mine told me she didn't get her period back until her lo was 18 months...so hopefully I only have to wait 5 odd months! :)
At any rate, it's been a lovely week and I will post details about the last couple of days soon!
On a semi-related note, it seems like everyone around me is either pregnant or just had a baby! My sister, 2 girls that are sisters and daughters of a woman my Dad used to date when we were younger had babies in May and July (the 2nd on my Dad's birthday!), my 2nd cousin's girlfriend's baby shower is on Saturday (she's due in September), a girl I grew up with was at the same hospital as my sister at the same time, a handful of blogs I follow happen to have currently pregnant mommas as well as a close relative on hubby's side just found out she was pregnant with her 17th baby!
All of this is such joyful news, but at the same time, I am sad. When I held baby Freddy for the first time and smelled his new baby smell and snuggled his soft, cute, little baby body...I got that overwhelming urge to snuggle my own newborn babe. (not that I don't have that urge constantly...) I know the next baby will come at the right time and I have no control over when or if that will be. (though I pray sooner rather than later!) A college friend of mine told me she didn't get her period back until her lo was 18 months...so hopefully I only have to wait 5 odd months! :)
At any rate, it's been a lovely week and I will post details about the last couple of days soon!
Thursday, August 4, 2011
mish mash...
...
Often, through out the day, I get random thoughts or things happen and I say to myself, "I should be blogging about this..." Of course, at 1:09 in the morning, when I actually set down to write a post, I can't remember anything.
I think I shall resolve this by attempting to write everyday. Remember what happened last time? I attempted to write once a day for 30 days and ended up with about 12 posts. Less than half! I could argue I had a 4 month old bed sharing-breastfeeding through the night-constantly waking baby, resulting in a super tired momma, but I won't.
Point is, I should be able to post once a day. When I think of all the useless things I do online during the day, it not only adds up to enough time to write a post, it vastly exceeds it! :)
Eh, we'll see what happens, I guess.
I watched Dylan like regular on Monday and then on Tuesday I went to my Dad's house to see my sister and do some labor and delivery education! I don't know if I shared this already, but I'm my sister's doula, for whenever baby Freddy decides to join us. :) I had lined up some youtube videos for her to watch of labor positions, natural birth, etc. She did not like some of them that showed actual births, claiming she did not need to see it. I promptly told her she needs to know what's going to happen to her body. She countered with the fact that she's been reading books...not as much as I would like her to though. I just know she's going into this almost as blind as I was, and I would hate for her to have the same birth experience I had.
Of course, it will be different. She's delivering in a different hospital and by a midwife in a team of ob's. Also, I have done so much research and I will be with her every step of the way! Surely, God will guide us and everything will turn out right. (funny side note, I typed 'bob' first instead of 'God'...haha, how funny would that be if we called our deity Bob!)
We also practiced some labor positions, so at least she is vaguely familiar with them!
Ok, lots of prayers tonight for my sister and I just found out a family member-in-law is pregnant! (I did comment on her blog post that she should send some baby dust this way ;) )
Night all!
Often, through out the day, I get random thoughts or things happen and I say to myself, "I should be blogging about this..." Of course, at 1:09 in the morning, when I actually set down to write a post, I can't remember anything.
I think I shall resolve this by attempting to write everyday. Remember what happened last time? I attempted to write once a day for 30 days and ended up with about 12 posts. Less than half! I could argue I had a 4 month old bed sharing-breastfeeding through the night-constantly waking baby, resulting in a super tired momma, but I won't.
Point is, I should be able to post once a day. When I think of all the useless things I do online during the day, it not only adds up to enough time to write a post, it vastly exceeds it! :)
Eh, we'll see what happens, I guess.
I watched Dylan like regular on Monday and then on Tuesday I went to my Dad's house to see my sister and do some labor and delivery education! I don't know if I shared this already, but I'm my sister's doula, for whenever baby Freddy decides to join us. :) I had lined up some youtube videos for her to watch of labor positions, natural birth, etc. She did not like some of them that showed actual births, claiming she did not need to see it. I promptly told her she needs to know what's going to happen to her body. She countered with the fact that she's been reading books...not as much as I would like her to though. I just know she's going into this almost as blind as I was, and I would hate for her to have the same birth experience I had.
Of course, it will be different. She's delivering in a different hospital and by a midwife in a team of ob's. Also, I have done so much research and I will be with her every step of the way! Surely, God will guide us and everything will turn out right. (funny side note, I typed 'bob' first instead of 'God'...haha, how funny would that be if we called our deity Bob!)
We also practiced some labor positions, so at least she is vaguely familiar with them!
Ok, lots of prayers tonight for my sister and I just found out a family member-in-law is pregnant! (I did comment on her blog post that she should send some baby dust this way ;) )
Night all!
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