Before I forget...

Hey! Had that baby, incase you were wondering!

I thought it would be a good idea to write what happened that day down before I forget any more details... so here it is - in absurd length... lol

Tuesday, Nov 1, 2011

The braxton hicks (which will be reffered to as BH from here on out) contractions were getting a bit more frequent. In the morning I had 5 or 6 right in a row and then they stopped for a few hours... so I called Mom, and we decided to go out walking in the mall, as that seemed to help...

We were in the Bay making a purchase and Mom is chatting it up with the lady at the desk telling her that I'm in labor right now and just walking it off.

The nice saleslady is now astounded that someone could be in labor and not writhing in pain on the floor,but walking around a public place.

I thought my mom was getting too excited though, it couldn't have been it - it's still a week before my due date and everyone is always WAY late on their first baby. Aren't they?

I get home, and clean up. But not one of those quick clean ups, the ones where you take everything out of it's place and make way more of a huge mess then what was there before type clean ups, because - hey, I'm still a week out to my due date so I'll be able to finish it up before the baby comes over the next few days.

Chris and I watch our movie, eat our dinner... and then head up to bed. Which I HATE now because I can never find a comfy spot, and it takes forever to haul my huge bod now anytime I need to adjust. But tonight the BH are getting stronger. Chris tries to make me a mock hospital bed with all the pillows we have, but I'm still getting the BH's and they hurt too much to lie down.

I get up and pace in the bathroom, but I feel bad keeping Chris awake, so I decide to go downstairs and watch some friends on DVD. I'm up to season 2 now and Rachel and Ross are about to get together.. yay!

November 2, 2011:

So it's about 2 am and I'm noticing these BH's are coming pretty consistently, and so I decide to start timing them.

They are now coming every 5 minutes, and lasting for about 45 seconds.

But it's still a week out to my due date, this can't be happening now!!! I'll just wait, if I get 3 more I will go up and tell Chris.

3 more come at exactly 5 minutes apart, but come on - this isn't it. So I'll wait another 4 more.

This train of thought continues until its just about 3 am and I think " Ok, so I'm sure this isn't it, but it really hurts and I'd like to be told whether this is it or not - so it's time to go to the hospital."

I go up and wake chris up and he jolts out of bed, and runs to the bathroom to brush his teeth. " This is IT Sara. This is IT." he tells me.

And I finally realize, this IS it. This is when I am giving birth to my first baby. This is the day I will finally be able to join the elite ranks of women who've done it and can use that day as a measuring stick to all other pain, or as leverage for things they want.

This is the day I get to meet my baby girl, straight outta heaven!

We head to the hospital and I have chris call Mom and Dad - I can't talk through my contractions anymore.

We get to the hospital and all the information we got on the hospital tour just a few days ago is no longer in my brain. We wait in emergency for a while, only to get told that we could just head right up to the Pregnant Ladies Giving Birth regristration desk and make my way up to the 4th floor.

Finally, I'm in the room and I'm told I have to lie down on the bed so they can strap the machines up to me to measure my contractions, blood pressure etc... to make sure I'm dilated enough to warrant being at the hospital. This sucks, since my contractions are way worse lying down, and I like to walk around to get through them....

The nurse comes in to check how dilated I am and I'm just praying in my head " PLEASE tell me I'm having a baby! Don't tell me I'm 1 cm and I need to go back home!"

And to my delight she informs me that I am 4 cm dilated and doing great.

They unstrap me from all the monitors and I am now able to walk around again. YAY!

Mom and dad are here now, mom is both weepy and tickled with excitement at the same time... she's so cute. Dad just got home from a business trip that he rushed to get home from and ended up waiting at the airport for a few hours. And by just got home, I mean he got home Nov 1'st in the late evening. Then was woken up by a phone call at 3 am telling him to come to the hospital.

So safe to say, he's pretty tired. He sits down in the rocking chair and is diligently timing my contractions while fighting the urge to sleep.

He says they are now 2 minutes and 15 seconds apart.

The nurse comes in and asks if I want to use the jetted tub for some relief of the contractions. heck YES I do! There's only one in the hospital and I assumed someone else was using it, but they weren't!

I get in to the jetted warm loveliness and hang out in the room with my mom for an hour or so.

She tells me that my Grandpa is there with us. It's awesome.

Chris and my dad come in and give me a blessing of comfort - but my contraction during it was pretty bad so they had to stop during it. My mom tells me that it's time for the epidural.

*** Side story: I made my mom promise she would tell me when she knew the pain was pretty bad and I should get an epidural. I knew I wanted one, but I wasn't sure what the turning point would be, and I didn't want to wait too long....

So Chris goes and tells the nurse that I want the drugs.

She comes in checks to see how far along I am now, 6 cm. Not bad! She then says she needs to give me an IV first for fluids. an IV? I've never had an IV before? They look so brutal!

And just like that I revert back to the " No wait, not just, just wait another minute. I need to prepare myself. NO not yet! Just wait!" type coping from my elementary school Hep B shot days. She finally tells me that the quicker she can do it, the quicker I get an epidural and the quicker I wont feel the contractions. I settle down and let her jab me.

yuck.

So now the Dr. doing the epidural for me comes in. I've seen enough episodes of Teen Mom and a baby story to know that this needle is no walk in the park. They give me a couple freezing needles in the spot where they will be inserting it in my spine, a little uncomfortable but it's only really in the skin. I"m leaning over ttrying to hold as still as possible, grabbing chris' hand with every ounce of strength in my body - bracing for the needle.... when, wow. That barley even hurt.

15 minutes pass by and I am ALL smiles. The new nurse comes in (the last one finished her shift) and asks me how I'm doing. Enthusiastically I tell her " I'm GREAT!" and give her a huge smile. Which is the truth! Not only am I no longer in pain, but the epidural is making my legs all warm now, like I have an electric blanket on them. Bonus!

As I watch the needle scream up and down on the machine showing my contractions and I feel nothing at all,I'm pretty happy about it. hah!

After a few hours they come and break my water and all of the sudden I start feeling the pressure.

Like I need to go to the bathoom pretty bad!

An hour and a half after they broke my water the nurse comes in and checks me and says that it's time.

It's TIME.

I felt the same way looking at Chris while we were getting married. This surreal feeling, like - after all this time growing up and wondering what it would be like.. this is IT. this is the moment.

They break out the grab bars for me and I start to push. 30 minutes later the delivering Doctor says she's almost here, I push again and all of the sudden the pressure is gone and there's my baby girl on my chest. 11:00 am. It all is happening so fast I don't have time to get emotional until they have taken her away to clean her and weigh her - I start to cry asking where she is! I want to see her again! My dad and mom and chris are there at the weighing station looking at little beautiful her and I am stuck on this bed!?!?!? Bring her back!!!

The Doctor is going to stitch me up, so she asks if I would like some laughing gas. I've never had laughing gas, so I say sure! Hand it over. I'm sucking it in pretty hard and things get really slow and strange and Im taking a long time to answer questions and respond to things. Chris notices my strange demenor as I get all excited and tell him to "FEEL MY RIBS!". So he makes the executive decision it's time for me to lay off the laughing gas...

I'm back from the gas and I finally get to hold her again. They put her in this cute peachy colored sleeper and it looks so good on her.

I'm going to have to get her more peach colored things.

And she's beautiful.

-----------------

So there it was. Labor and Delivery. I have to say as a whole, it wasn't as bad as I was preparing myself for it to be. Especially with that epidural... ;)

Old Spice | The Man Your Man Could Smell Like

Honestly, this never EVER gets old

How to curl your hair with a sock! No heat

I’m always looking for new ways to do my hair, maybe now that I know my hour hair curling sessions will be eliminated in a month or two with all my morning time now dedicated to playing with an adorably cute and distracting baby... So now i’m looking for ways to get that cute hair with little time and effort - when I came across this: using a sock to curl your hair! Not only easy and quick, but as a bonus it’s totally heat free! Love it!

Surfing

Surfing

So truth be told, I love to surf. No, not water surf, but internet surf. Just start at a point, and keep on clicking and searching for new topics each time something cute presents itself or an idea branch starts to grow in my head.

Today was a particularly meaty day as far as surfing content so I thought I’d document it for future use/share it with whoever actually reads this....

1. Toilet Paper Wall Art

So I know I’ve seen this before, but I really like it, and I might be changing my plans for the wall above the crib in our little baby’s nursery.... How easy would this be? And SO cute! And SO cheap! I only will have to start saving toilet paper rolls, and probably people to start doing the same since our little girl’s arrival date is quickly approaching....

2. When I first saw this picture I was like, WHAT IS UP WITH THAT KETCHUP?!?!?! But then reading further I realized, it's an empty and thoroughly cleaned out ketchup bottle, filled with pancake batter for easy dispensing!!

What a great idea! I’m always trying to get that perfect mickey mouse, or heart, or stupidly attempting something even more artistic like writing my name in the pan - and with this it’s not only totally possible, but soooo easy!

How do you say awesome mom?: .........How about Pancake shape connoisseur.

3. Felt foods.

How adorable and touchable is this banana? I love to create things, and especially like the idea of creating awesome playthings for my little girl that she can play with, suck on and have zero-choking hazard.

The beauty of hand sewing is that nothing is perfect, and nothing is duplicatable. So each piece comes out unique and fun.. AND this is just felt food, so it’s not like it going down the runway in France or Spain or some fancypants place. This is just a toy to be enjoyed by a drooling toddler.....

Crunch time?

9 weeks to go and I'm starting to get all "EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE PERFECT AND READY" - bless Chris for being so calm and understanding every time (which is basically everyday) I come up with something new that has to get done asap or my baby getting ready world might collapse in on itself....

We've gotten quite a bit ready for our little girl's nursery... a crib is set up (minus a mattress yet), a cute little bookcase with cubbies for some extra storage, a chair and ottoman are in there, and a carpet (which has yet to be rolled out)... Hopefully this weekend I'll get the dresser that I sanded, painted a very pale green color {called: Turtl

e Dove? love it!} and found THE most adorable and perfect knobs for at Pier 1:

Ok well, this is the product picture of them from the Pier 1 website, but the color of the glass on the knobs is actually a pale light pink, not this dirty coffee mug brown. Man. Makes me think twice about ordering anything straight off the web from them now....

Anyhoo... Pillows have been made now, it was my first time using piping, and thanks to the positive reinforcement from my dear mom - they totally worked out and look so much less a.13.yr.old.homec.student.barley.made.me then all my pillows usually turn out! yay!

Since this dresser isn't in the room yet, everything that is going in the dresser is just in bags all over the floor, and in her crib - so the nursery as of right now looks completely disheveled, and not at all ready and it's driving me crazy!

You know when you are doing a massive cleaning of your house, or even just a room? And you take everything out to clean it, or organize it... and 50% of the way through it just looks like you created a much bigger mess and didn't even accomplish anything?

Thats kind of how I feel about the nursery right now - I'm just on the brink of being able to put things away and FINALLY start to do the little decorating things I have been leaving for my waddling, tired-easily, 7.5 month pregnant self...

Except for a quilt.

Yeah - a quilt. I fell in love with the idea of a quilt made with lots of pastely and vintagey tones, tossed over the edge of the crib like in these pictures:

With the hopes that I could find one at a decent price (yeah right) I've been waiting and waiting on making one... and now it's come down to the wire what with weddings I have booked and the time I need to spend editing photos from those too!

Now with this adorably amazing quilt fantasy in my head, memories of EVERY SINGLE OTHER QUILT i've ever made are coming screaming back... including mostly hating every single one by the time I finished it. One time, I had to take a 6 month break from the making of one quilt otherwise it would have probably ended up in shreds in the dumpster behind our apartment.

So my mind is jumping back and forth deciding on whether or not to make a quilt for the nursery. It wouldn't be a regular size one, just a baby sized one.... which is somewhat comforting.

but thats it. thats the only comforting thing in my head right now. I KNOW it'll take me like 5X the normal amount of time to sew all those freaking squares together with my big belly hindering my regular movements. I KNOW by the end I'll probably crap out with some part of it, take a shortcut somewhere and then I might not like it anymore.

But I also KNOW that the nursery in my head definitely has this quilt. sitting it all its precisely placed glory hanging effortlessly over the edge of the crib until my baby needs the extra warmth - which will also definitely occur since she's going to be born in November.

ARG. what to do what to do.....

more like your monthly dose of the bells.....

Gosh, it's just been forever!

But it my defence I'm pregnant, and was sick, WHILST editing wedding photos... It can get pretty busy - and I tire out so much quicker now, so my down-time apparently has shifted from writing out witty blog posts to going to bed at 7pm instead.

But I'm back! 20 weeks along and I'm feeling WAY WAY better. wow. so much better.

My light-hearted "oh I'm not that sick, I can't complain too much" post entries were deemed moot as I started to wake up every single morning feeling just terrible! Chris and I even had to start scheduling in throwing up time for me in our morning routine so he wouldn't be late for work...

Then, once the nausea started to ween off a little, I started to get headaches! Every day! I'd wake up in the morning with one, muscle through the day just to get home and lie on our couch with the lights off and windows blocked off by beach towels to block out any sunlight to find any kind of reprieve - of which did not come; as I would then go to bed with my skull pounding with it's own heart beat until I finally had the sweet release of sleep.

.... but as I mentioned before - 20 weeks along and I'm no longer nauseated or have frequent headaches. I'm feeling the heartburn a little, but I would take that over throwing up and a pounding head any day.

I am signed up on the cutest website ever... www.thebump.com that sends me weekly emails on how big baby is, what growing baby did that week, what I could expect as far as pregnancy symptoms etc. For a month now my emails have been saying "You probably are starting to feel WAY better now" or "the second trimester is when most women have the most energy and feel their best!" - so I've been waiting and waiting for all these wonderful promises to start coming true and they finally are. woop woop!

On another totally AWESOME note... Chris and I went to our second ultrasound last week and found out that I'm growing a sweet little baby GIRL in ma' belly! YES!

Of course, if it had been a boy I would have been very excited too, but I have to confess... the knowledge that I will get to dress her up in pretty dresses, cute little baby bikinis, paint her little toenails, do her hair up in bows, and play dolls with her is extremely thrilling!

I do have the snapshots of the ultrasound at home, but I'm not there right now so I can't put up any yet... But just close your eyes and imagine your regular baby ultrasound photos... got it? good.... now add in a bajillion times the amount of cuteness and thats basically what she looked like.

The cutest baby ultrasound in the entire universe. That's what the technician told me.

No lies.

When I called my mom to tell her, she was literally waiting at the mall, with a boy outfit and a girl outfit in hand - waiting to buy the celebratory first boy or girl oriented outfit! hehe - she's so awesome!

Well, I think thats a sufficient update. It's been a slice - and I hereby solemnly promise to post more often. :)

whats new and exciting?

No picture today - I haven't taken anything of consequence lately, but I thought that's no reason to not make a post!

So some pregnancy symptoms have finally set in. I don't like to complain to people too much about it, because really- compared to the awfulness I know lots of other women have been through, a slight nausea throughout the day and one throw-up really isn't too bad. But this is my blog, and I wanted to vent just a little, without making people sick of hearing me complain!

I'm listening to the radio right now, and "Your Body is a Wonderland" just came on. I laughed a little, as I subdued yet again my constant need to throw up all the time. A Wonderland? ... pssht.

Yesterday I was at home and I gave my baby it's first little scolding... "STOP IT! STOP MAKING MOMMY SICK!"

Apparently it's not a good listener... yet.

You wait.

Hmmmm, what else is new and exciting? People ask me that and I usually have nothing to report, until now... now, it's BABY. That's new and exciting! It's growing millimetres every day (or so I read) so every day, a portion of that half-inch child is brand new, and VERY exciting!

But I want to have other things to talk about too!

Wedding season is fast approaching! My first one of this year is coming up in April - Chris' best friend, Mark and his fiancee Megan in Calgary. I'm browsing the internet, wedding photo blogs, etc for inspiration and ideas on new techniques - getting lost in the warm sunny outside weddings, lush with green and flowers... when I see some photos on my MIL's facebook recently posted of some shots around where she lives, and there's a grey sky, and the ground IS COVERED IN SNOW. I got the cold shiver down my spine just thinking about it! Calgary! Come on! Get nice already! Plus, I don't want to have to bundle up with jackets and mittens to shoot this wedding, or to just jet off to Calgary on a mini-holiday to colder weather then what I have here! Bah!

Things Sara needs to do:

- Paint my toenails. Elise, you can vouch for this - I was painting them with a bunch of girls and got lazy when it came to my own toes. So I crapped out and painted a plain barbie pink on them, which probably would have been fine. But I added a Magenta diagonal stripe, and then a purple diagonal stripe right across each toe. Now this description probably doesn't do these toes their tacky awful justice - - - but every time I look at my feet, I think it might be what's triggering my morning sickness each day. Maybe....

- Eat something healthy for dinner today. My cravings so far have been pretty good. Not good, as in I don't have them (which I do) and not good as in they are all the same (which they aren't, that would be so much easier - to just always know the one thing that will satisfy you)... but they are good because I crave healthy things. Which now that I think about it, it's probably because I eat unhealthy things, so the baby is asking for any kind of nutrients besides the prenatal vitamins I take. Anyways... I'm thinking panini's tonight? Chicken, with pesto and maybe some havarti cheese? yummmm. Yep, thats the craving for tonight.

- thats it. Today chris was off work, and I decided when I was making my lunch that I would leave a small to-do list (what a wife I am... lol) for him. But where will he find it? As a computer desktop background. That way, I can catch him before he ends up spending the day browsing wikipedia articles on stuff like Governments in Indonesia and how to learn Finnish.(Yeah, that's what he does)