happy...

...Tuesday! Well, pretty ordinary actually. I'm taking Meghan and Freddy to the pediatrician for their 2 year and 1 year checkups, respectively. Kait and I have been playing the compare game since Freddy starting catching up to Meghan, weight wise, even though they're a year apart.

Freddy's always been a chunky baby and so was Dylan, I think because they were only breastfed for a short while and then had formula until a year. Whereas Meg was and has been breastfed for almost 25 months! Never thought we'd get this far. When we left the hospital, I was pumping with little output and Meghan was supplemented with formula. I'm so proud that we got this far.

The look on my face is a little ridiculous because Meghan was trying to lift my shirt as Eileen took the picture!

Well, it's Thursday now, I hardly get around to posting the same day I start writing. I wrote last week about the miscarriage, now here's an update (?) I've been having bloodwork done every 1-2 weeks since we found out I was miscarrying to make sure my HCG (pregnancy hormone) levels are going down. I started out at 87 (sometime in July, when I started asking the nurse what my levels were at), they'd like to see me down to 0 and as of 2 weeks ago, I was at 18. So. I get to go back again. Kim keeps joking that she hopes it's up to 150 (meaning I'd be preggo ;) ) Well, I hope so too! The levels have been gradually coming down, I'm not worried and the office isn't concerned either. I'm grateful they didn't suggest a D&C, I would've liked for it to continue naturally. I'm glad this office has been so accommodating, I haven't had an interaction with anyone I haven't liked (a rare find) and they are so close by.

Not too much in the schedule for today, have to make some phone calls (hurray adulthood!) and give Dylan a haircut. Which I had better get to, since I haven't had a chance the last 2 days. :)

ps-Thanks D. for your comments and the clothes! Meg and I love and appreciate them and I haven't had a chance to say 'Thank you' yet. :)

monday...

...Monday. Definitely made up for yesterday's dreariness. It snowed here this morning, not much, but it was sticking and I was getting concerned! It was very windy and generally freezing out today. Inside too, Drew left the sliding glass door cracked and the kitchen window almost all the way open. I didn't even think about checking them before I went to bed because it's been so warm lately, we've been leaving the window open overnight.

I got in my hour of cardio! Hah. Drew wasn't even phased when I said I'd be back in an hour! Bah, that failed! So, I walked about 3 miles in an hour and 10 minutes. Whoops, just actually calculated it with Google maps, it was really a little over 4 miles! Hah. My legs burned so bad when I got back, but it felt really good. To be doing something. I intend to go everyday, much easier when your other half is home to watch the kids! Not so sure it's going to feel good tomorrow though!

Craft fair is still on Saturday. Still not organized. :) I might actually go through my box o' goodies and see what I'm bringing. Tag everything and get it ready. I haven't even thought about prices yet. I'll keep them low for this fair, as supposedly it won't be that big. I wonder how/if it is even being advertised.

Our big plans with sharing the car with Kait this week were that she would drop it off to me on Wednesday and then I would keep it through Sunday. We're going to our hometown on Thursday and then the craft fair is on Saturday, but Kait won't be able to drive me home until Sunday. But then I got a random text from her saying I should call my dad to discuss keeping the car all week.

So I did. :( The mechanic friend called him back finally and said to have my dad call him back Wednesday night about fixing my dad's car. That means I will probably have to return the car well before Saturday and possibly Wednesday. But then we're out of a ride on Thursday and Saturday. Doesn't help that I have to be out there around 730 (?) Saturday morning. We might be able to ride with Michelle, if she's going that way those days.

We'll figure something out. I know my dad doesn't like us not having a car. The other day, his friend said he took in a Saturn as a trade. We thought it was a local car and thus had been subjected to northern winters and salted roads. Turns out, it's a southern car and has less than 100,000 miles on it. My dad thinks we should take a look at it.

Surviving is such hard work.

oh my word...

...it is ridiculously hot! It is 78 degrees at 9pm, but it feels like 98! I've got the ac on in my bedroom to cool it down from 85 degrees for later when I go to sleep! I'm considering going in there early to just lay in the ac. I've got the living room ac going with a sheet up in the doorway to the kitchen and the doors closed to the bedrooms and bathrooms, but I have a feeling I'll give up that futile attempt and retreat to the bedroom soon! Tomorrow my mom is having a little Labor Day cookout and birthday party for my sister, Kaitlyn. She turned 24 on August 8th, the day before she gave birth to baby Freddy. So he's about 4 weeks old now and is simply divine!

I'm in charge of making cake tomorrow. We usually have flag cake that looks like this. (but we make a Jello cake instead of using sliced pound cake, but it looks the same) We make this type of cake for the patriotic holidays.Well, this year I am switching it up! I want to make this type of cake this year.

A hidden flag cake! I had intended to bake it today and assemble it tomorrow because it is so hot and humid here right now, but I didn't bake tonight! So, I'll have to bake tomorrow and assemble it before we leave for the party. I also have to stop quick at the store to pick up formula for my sister (more on that at a later date, as well as other things I don't agree with-haha)

Today, Meghan and I went out to our small hometown and picked up my sister and her baby and went to the Farmer's Market in the nearby small city. It was awesome! I was a little tentative because I had never been to the farmer's market before and I really had no idea what I was doing. We got 9 ears of corn, 2 large sweet potatoes, 1 bunch broccoli, 4 large peaches, 1 large tomatoe, and 1 red onion for 12 dollars. Pretty sweet! I am excited to eat our fresh food, and will have to pretty quick because we are going camping in a few days!

After the farmer's market, we stopped at Walmart to pick up the thank you cards for Meghan's birthday (which I have neglected to send out, bad me!) They're awesome and were super cheap!

Cute right?! I only had to pay to have them printed because I won the design in a giveaway I entered awhile ago. It was for 1 design from an etsy store that did custom invitations. I got notified that I had won literally, the day after I had mailed out Meghan's birthday party invites. I was bummed because I didn't have a use for invitations, then I realized I could customize it any way I wanted, so I had the etsy seller change the wording to thanks and had her put in a picture of Meghan eating her cupcake!

Of course, Meg looks comatose because it was late afternoon and she didn't get a nap! :) After our adventures in the small city, we went back to my Dad's house and I cut Kait's hair. It is super cute, she wanted to get rid of some of the length and weight and add some bangs. Her hair was down to her mid-back and I cut about 6 inches off and added long, side-swept bangs. Sister is looking goooood!

By then it was about 3pm, so we decided to stay for dinner and that was a good choice! My dad had been slowing cooking dry-rubbed ribs in the oven all day and then finished them on the grill with a wet barbecue sauce. Yummmm! Meg and I left soon after and stopped at the homestead (Drew's parents' house) to visit his family since we probably won't see them again until my birthday. (gah, going to be 26!) We visited for awhile and Meg ate her first chicken cheddar nugget, which she devoured! ;)

Finally, we made it home at about 8, Meghan went right to sleep after a long day with only a 20 minute nap in the car...and now it's bedtime for me!

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.

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!

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!

switchin'...

...it up around here! I just changed the background on this blog...not sure if I want to change the background on the giveaway blog or not. I probably will. I blog on a netbook, so it's this tiny little thing with a 10 inch screen, so I try to imagine what it would look like on a normal/bigger screen. I also centered the header and changed my profile picture to a more recent one. The old one was May of 2010 when I was pregnant with Meghan, this new one is in May of this year. Hopefully it looks ok! :)

Today we went to my Grandparents house to celebrate my Dad's birthday (7/22) and my sister, Kait's, birthday (8/8) We decided to celebrate Kait's today because this next weekend, my Grandma will be out of town, Kait's baby is due on her birthday, and then the following weekend we all have a baby shower to go to. My second cousin, Brendan and his girlfriend, Ashley, are pregnant with their first baby girl, Abigail Rose and Ashley is due in September. Brendan and his 2 sisters are close in age to my sisters and I, and we were close growing up. His mom and my mom are the same age and are good friends. His Dad is one of my Grandpa's little brothers.

Enough with the genealogy lesson! :) I only have to watch Dylan once this week, tomorrow. He is going with my Grandma to visit some family in Pennsylvania and will be gone all week. I'm hoping we get to see more of Drew's family this week. (hint, hint Kim! :) Haha, I thought she would enjoy that little shoutout!) Tuesday, Meghan and I will be going out to my Dad's house to see my sister Kait. I'm her doula for her labor and delivery, so I just want to go over some labor pain techniques and talk about what she wants to do, as far as hospital procedures go. She didn't take any sort of birth/pregnancy class, so I'm going to make her watch some videos. I've been sending her a couple emails a week with articles for her to read on birth, labor, breastfeeding, circumcision, etc. She has decided to have her son circumcised and I respect her decision even though I don't agree with it. I told her from the beginning that I wasn't trying to scare her, I just wanted to give her the information so she can make the most informed decision possible.

I am glad she has decided to breastfeed. It wasn't much of a stretch though, we've mostly been exposed to breastfeeding mothers. My older sister Lacie did supplement with formula during the first 6 months and then switched Dylan completely to formula at 6 months old when she returned to work. She stated that she never made enough breast milk, but she never had a good supporter and never really went looking for information on how to boost her supply. But, Kait's got me and Meg and I have been breastfeeding for over a year. I can share all my wisdom with Kait! :)

Then we have no plans for Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, Meghan has her 1st Birthday pictures "photo shoot" at Walmart. Saturday is theBig Latch On. The local event is being held in North Syracuse. I might have to treat myself to Ling Ling's! Sunday is free (so far) and then Meghan's 1 year doctor's appointment on Monday the 8th (Kait's birthday and due date!) Finally, we have a WIC appointment on Tuesday. That concludes our crazy busy long weekend!

Off to cuddle and watch Star Trek on netflix with the hubby, night all!

here we go...

...folks! A real post. For reals! So much has happened and I'm sure I'm going to forget most some of it, oh well! You don't need every minute detail, I suppose.

Meghan is now a little over 9 months! Time has flown by so fast, everyday I wish she would just slow down and be a tiny newborn again. I hated it at the time and now I miss it. I miss her sleeping all the time, I miss her tiny fingers and toes, I miss her sleepytime smiles. I do not miss ebf poops, projectile spit ups and that fussy period after dinnertime-I definitely do not miss that! Meghan is so sweet and devilish at the same time! She has a sneaky sly smile when she knows she's getting into something she shouldn't. And she does the most adorable "head hug" (as my sister calls it) where she lays her head down on the shoulder of whomever is holding her when she's sleepy or shy. Oh, she's soooo shy! It is the most adorable thing! I just cannot get enough of her-and I spend all day with her! :)

I'm still watching my nephew, Dylan, 4-5 times a week for my older sister, Lacie. He is just a whirlwind of movement and noise! Always on the go. Something to see, do, touch, or play with. He is a sweet boy when he wants to be, but also has only child attitude, too! When the weather is nice, we walk the less than 2 blocks to the playground and Dylan is just in his element. He loves to be outside, climbing on everything, playing in the dirt, and swinging on the swings. He does not, however, quite grasp the concept of "pumping" his legs to propel himself on the swing. So, if I'm on a swing and Meghan's in the baby swing, then I have to jump off my swing to give him a push every once in a while. He gets pretty cooped up when the weather's bad and it's rained every day here for the past 8 days in a row or something ridiculous like that. Poor kid, every day I have to tell him it's raining or too wet to go outside and that we'll go tomorrow if it the ground dries up. The playground is on a grassy hill but the ground is covered in wood chips where the actual jungle gym is at and they just retain water like it's their job! Much too wet to play!

Drew still has the same job at the computer repair company. He did get a small raise a little while back for his 1 year anniversary. I, of course, would like to see him in something with a better future. His dad works for the water treatment for our county and it's a great job. I want him to get something that he loves to do as well. He wants to go back to school, to finish his bachelors degree. He has always talked about being a teacher so he could get the summer off! :) Who wouldn't want that?

I spend my days watching the little ones, crafting, scouring the internet for good deals and making our apartment a home. Tonight for dinner I baked some marinated chicken from Omaha Steaks, and made white rice and broccoli to go with it. It was delicious! Tomorrow it's Lasagna, garlic bread and key lime tartlets so tonight was worth it!

My younger sister, Kait, is pregnant with her first baby. She's due on her birthday, 8-8-11. We (everyone I know!) were all in shock when she told us that she was pregnant. Apparently, she was not even in a relationship with the father (she had been previously) at the time she conceived the baby. And she's just one of the those irresponsible people who can't really take care of herself, so we were all mystified as to why she would want to keep the baby or move in with the father! (whom she is still not in a relationship with)

When she first told everyone that she is pregnant, our mother, sister and grandmother all told her to have an abortion because she wouldn't be able to take care of a baby. And I really think that just pushed her in the opposite direction, because she did end up deciding to keep the baby. She said she doesn't believe in abortion and wouldn't consider adoption, either. I advised her to keep all her options open and get all the information she could about all her options. In the end, she's keeping it and I will stand by her and her decision. I want her to have the birth experience that she wants and not the 3 ring circus that I did.

So, I have been trying to share with her all the information I've gained since I gave birth and I also offered to go and stay with her after she has the baby to help her transition into motherhood. Because I know it's going to be so tough for her, because it was for me. I suspect I had ppd but was able to work through it. There were days where I felt like I had been crying for 24 hours straight-and so had Meghan. When I was offering to go and help her out after the birth, I was telling her how that is the normal thing to do and our family isn't like that. It had occurred to me, as I was watching "Bringing Home Baby," or one of those TLC shows, that our family is not the norm. Of all the episodes I've watched, the grandmother goes to stay with the new mom and baby to help them adjust.

I never expected Drew's mom to offer to come and stay with us because she has little ones of her own, but I thought maybe my mom would want to come and stay or come when she could to help us out-especially because I was having breastfeeding issues. But, the offer never came and I never felt comfortable enough to reach out to her with all the questions and concerns I had. So, I turned to the electronic community for answers and I found so much love and warmth and knowledge. It's like an e-family! :)

Kait seemed keen on the idea and I would like to help her succeed. So, depending on our nursing situation, I may spend weeks or just nights or go over during the day to help her out. I'd like to be there at night, because nights are the worst! Right now, Meghan is breastfed on demand during the day and usually sleeps 7pm-7am straight through the night. If we are still in the same situation when Kait has her baby, I may put Meghan down for the night here and then go to Kait's house for the night and be back in the morning in time for the 1st feed of the day. I'm not sure, she may not want me there that much! At any rate, Kait mentioned the other day that I've stepped in for our mother and she's really appreciative-not in so many words, but I could tell from the sound of her voice.

It's getting late, babes, so I'm going to sleep!