Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Can you tell I'm playing catchup?!

Since I haven't blogged in FOREVER...I'm posting tons of info and pictures to get all caught up on my life. Mostly, I'm busy being a mom and LOVING it!! Since I LOVE looking at pictures of other people and their kids, I'm hoping no one minds looking at pics of my beautiful boy. Here are some more...

Meeting Aunt Sarah


First bath!




Cute bum shot...he'll hate me for this one some day:)


He looks just like a pic of me when I was a babe...he goes back and forth looking like me & Travis. Sometimes he's a perfect combination of both:)


He outgrew these pajamas in less than a month...I was bummed because I liked them:(

More pictures:)

Sleeping baby...one of my favorite pictures of him. He is only 2 weeks old in this pic and he looks HUGE:) I LOVE his big squishy lips...I wonder where he got those from:) He has been a really good sleeper from the very beginning. I've really only had a few nights of him waking up every hour...those sucked! Otherwise, he mostly slept 4-5 hours at first and then 3-4 hours and then 2-3 hours:) I'm very happy to say that now he sleeps 5-6 hours at first and then 4-5 hours after only waking up once during the night! We made it through the week of crying himself to sleep and now I can put him to bed while he is awake and smiling and he falls asleep without any tears:) Woohoo!!



Love this picture because it looks like he is growling:) I swear, he looks different in every picture. This doesn't even look like the pic of him sleeping:)


We kiss him constantly:) Daddy LOVES his boy.


This is pretty much how every picture of me and Cole is taken...by me:) I always grab the camera to take a picture of him with someone else but I never think to ask them to take a picture of me with him. I know I'm going to regret it later...I need to remember to have other people take my picture with him or he might think I was never around:)


Practicing his gangsta pose:)


Cole & Daddy's favorite thing to do...SLEEP!! I would worry at first about Travis hlding him while he slept because he always moves around in his sleep. But I soon figured out that when he is holding Cole and sleeping, he doesn't move a muscle. Must be daddy intuition:)


Poop face. This is the face he makes to this day when he is pooping:


He has been able to hold his head up really well since birth:) Seriously, this boy is a champ at everything. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that he was a week past due.


More kisses from Dad.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Where was I?...


Oh yeah...my boy had just been born and I was a zombie. I remember seeing him for the first time just briefly before they took him away. I told him he was so cute. Seriously, I've never seen such a beautiful boy straight out of the womb:) I got to see him again about an hour later when they brought him to me in my room and he was still cute as a button. I couldn't believe how much I loved him!! He and I were champs of breastfeeding right away. Which I was really freaked out about but I ended up doing a really great job and so did he.

I got to hear this story later from my family...

After Cole was born, Travis hurried out to the waiting room to bring back my family one at a time. He had planned on getting my dad first and he was smiling ear to ear as he walked toward the waiting room. But when he walked through the doors and saw my dad, he just started crying and motioned for my dad to come with him. This, unfortunately was NOT the right thing to do. My whole family seriously thought that there were complications and either Cole or I was dead. Good going crybaby Travis:) As soon as my dad got back there and saw that Cole was fine and heard that I was ok, he called Louisa to tell everyone the good news. Travis didn't think he was going to cry, so when he started, he couldn't talk. Too cute:)

It took me a while to recover from my surgery because there was a problem with my anchor stitch but after a couple weeks I was able to get around. Thank goodness for my mama. She was here with me for almost 2 weeks and took the BEST care of me and Cole. Words can't express how grateful I am for having such an AMAZING mom.

So, there you have it...the whole story of my boy, Cole Michael Stanley, coming into the world. I can't even remember what life was like before he came. I think I was extremely bored most of the time:) Now I don't even get a chance to be bored:) I LOVE HIM!!!!!

Time for pictures...


Grandma & Grandpa


Aunt Lou


Uncle John & Cousins Jaden, Bradley & Owen


1st day home!

AND FINALLY...BABY MAKES THREE!!!

I figure it is high time that I write about my beautiful baby boy:) He is 14 weeks and two days old today:) I am back at work full time. My dad and step mom aren't here today and my boy is napping, so here goes...

I was a week past due and Dr. Lewis decided that I had to be induced or my baby was gonna be HUGE! I went into the hospital at 7:30 pm on October 11th. They hooked me up to an IV and inserted Cervadil to begin softening my cervix. They said they wouldn't start the pitocin until my cervix was dilated a bit or at least softened. I was given Ambien by the nurse (Deb, who was AWESOME!) to help me fall asleep because I was SO excited about the whole thing. Oh, I forgot to say that my mom and little sis Louisa were there with us when we checked in. Anyway, the Ambien didn't do anything and I pretty much laid there staring at the ceiling listening to Travis snore until 7 in the am (that man can sleep anywhere, any time...no problem). Deb checked me in the morning and said that my cervix was a bit soft and only open a finger tip. I tell ya, my body did not want to let this baby go. So, they started me on Pitocin and told me to get ready for some contractions. Deb left soon after and I was switched to a nurse named Liz. I can't say it any other way than Liz was an ASSHOLE!! Talk about making the birthing experience totally horrible. Deb was so great and every time she checked me, she was so gentle and even talked about how she sympathized for women when their cervix is checked because she has had 4 kids and knows how much it hurts. Liz, on the other hand, seems to hate her job, hate her patients and not care how much it hurts. She rammed her fingers inside of me until I was literally screaming and crying. I knew that it was supposed to hurt but give me a break. My mom almost punched her in the face:)

My mom and Louisa hung out with me for most of the day and I started getting some really good contractions going. Yeah, they hurt like hell:) At around noon I got up to go to the bathroom and sneezed really hard and all this water came gushing out. I told my mom that I was pretty sure I didn't pee myself because it felt different. So, we told Liz aka loserjerkmeanyassface that I thought my water broke and she just nodded and grunted at me like I was making it up or something. My contractions really started getting pretty intense and I had to breath and try to relax and do all that exciting stuff that happens when you are in labor. It hurt ALOT but I was SO excited! They gave me some Stadol later on in the day to take the edge off and that was VERY nice:) I was checked around 3pm and was dilated to a 3. They gave me the option of having my epidural and I figured, why not. The epidural wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be because my contractions hurt alot worse than the needle or the lightening that was shooting down my legs. They stopped my Pitocin while they did my epidural and when the anesthesiologist was done with my epidural my blood pressure plummeted and Cole's heart rate dropped. I actually almost passed out and that was scary for a minute. They rolled me onto my side and everything perked right back up.

We finally got rid of Liz at about 7pm and another nurse took over...I can't remember her name right now but she was AWESOME. Apparently, Liz was not only horrible to her patients, she was also just a terrible nurse overall. The new nurse kept coming into the room to ask me when certain things where done to me because Liz did not keep any notes on me. And because she did not document the amount of Pitocin she was giving a me at what time, they had to start all over again at the lowest dose!! I was pissed!! And my contractions and dilation came to a screeching hault. I tried to explaing that I was up to a 40 (whatever that means) on the Pitocin but because it was not documented, she could not safely start me at the same level. WHATEVER!!! I was checked at about 9pm and had not progressed (duh). Dr. Lewis came in and when she stuck in some instrument to break my water she told the nurse that she felt hair. I explained that I told Liz that my water had broken and they got all worried and needed to know when it happened because the was no documentation of it. They explained that I couldn't labor longer than 24 hours after my water broke or there was risk of infection. I already knew this, having watched multiple episodes of a baby story on the Discovery Health channel. So I thought I was going to be able to labor until about 10 the next morning. No such luck. The nurse came in around 10 and told me that I was going to have to have a c-section. I started bawling and begged for more time. I alos begged her to up my Pitocin and give me a chance to get him out on my own. She bumped up my Pitocin a smidge and went to ask Dr. Lewis if I could have more time. She said I could have 2 more hours but if I didn't progress, she was going to slice and dice. I was SOOOOO upset, I didn't even know what to do. The nurse told me to switch sides every 1/2 hour to try and thin out my cervix. Louisa made the call to my dad and my sister Sarah to let them know that I might have a c-section. My dad showed up pretty soon after that to see me, along with my step mom and my co-worker Guy (who is pretty much part of our family). At this point I had been awake for almost 40 hours and I was so pumped full of fluids, I hardly even looked like myself. I was told by my family that I was changing shades of green. So, I cried and cried and when she came in at a little after midnight and told me that I was still at a three and my contractions were almost non-existent, I just felt completely numb on the inside. I am not one who likes to have things out of my control and knowing that I was going to have to be cut open instead of being able to push him out just killed me. The anesthesiologist cranked up my epidural so that my whole body was numb and lifeless. The only part of me that I was able to move was my right arm.

They took me away at about 1:25am on October 13th and started slicing me open at 1:40am. My boy entered the world at 1:55am weighing 9 POUNDS!!! Dr. Lewis said that his big head was tilted and stuck in my pelvis, which is part of the reason he hadn't moved down. Uh oh...he just woke up...I'll continue this in a bit:)