Thursday, April 21, 2016

Seattle

We enjoyed a little weekend getaway before Chris truly enters the busy summer season of work. We took a 3 day weekend and headed over to Seattle. The weather there was wonderful! We bought tickets to the Seattle Aquarium and paired them with a harbor cruise. It was a great day to be out on the water. It was interesting to learn about the history of the Seattle waterfront and all the shipping that goes on there each day. The container ships are HUGE!

We also enjoyed meeting up with some friends & family and even made a stop at the Outlet stores in North Bend for a little shopping on the way home. Over all it was a great weekend despite feeling a bit cramped in our hotel room using the king bed, sofa bed and pack n play for all of us to sleep! And we never ended up going swimming at the hotel because Benjamin wouldn't put his swimsuit on. Oh fickle 3 year olds.

Here are some pictures from our weekend:








Tuesday, February 02, 2016

New House!

We have been in our new house for a month now and we are really enjoying it! Although it takes so much time to unpack especially with 2 little ones it's nice to know that we have all the time in the world to get settled and at any time we want to we can change whatever we want to without getting permission from anyone but ourselves!

I'm looking forward to warmer weather so that we can start enjoying the covered back porch more frequently and getting settled into the yard and deciding where to plant trees, flowers, bushes, and hopefully a small garden.

Here are some pictures from a beautiful sunny day this past weekend!





Sunday, December 27, 2015

The Christmas Holiday 2015

We had such fun this Christmas. Despite all the troubles we have had closing on our new house and the fact that we WERE not able to move in yet. We took 2 days off from thinking about house stuff and enjoyed time with family and friends in Prosser.







Katherine's Birth Story - 4 Months Later

Well I decided that I needed to get Katherine's birth story written down so I wouldn't forget. Although I'm sure I have forgotten some of the small details. Here it is:

August 3rd: I was 37 weeks along and I had my regularly scheduled doctor's appointment. My blood pressure had been a bit higher but not into the "danger zone" of pre-eclampsia. At my appointment everything checked out fine. Since I was so far along the doctor wanted me to come in the next morning for a nurse's check of BP and for protein in the urine.

August 4th: Chris and I's 8th wedding anniversary. I dropped Benjamin off at the babysitter and headed to the doctor's office for my appointment. In my head were plans of trying to tie up loose ends at work so I would be prepared to go on maternity leave. My BP was up over 160 which is definitely in the "danger zone" so the nurse had me lie down for 15 minutes to see if that would help. Part of it is definitely the fact that I had to have it checked so much - I always get nervous and it spikes up.

After resting it was still above 150 but had come down about 10 points. The nurse consulted with the doctor and then came in and told me to head to the hospital for monitoring. RIGHT NOW? I actually asked her that. So I went home to call Chris, call my boss and pack my bags. I knew that I would there was a good chance I would not leave the hospital until I had a baby.

When I checked into the hospital the nurse actually asked why I had my stuff! And it was the same nurse that helped deliver Benjamin. She didn't remember but I did. They started monitoring me and everything was fine for now. My BP was still above 140 but it had come down. I got an ultrasound and everything was fine with baby so I got checked into a room and they decided to do a 24 hours urine sample.

I pretty much texted people and binge watched HGTV all afternoon. It was boring and I kept thinking about all the things I COULD be doing before baby.

About 5pm the doctor came in and said he decided he wanted to induce me since my BP had remained fairly high all day and I was so far along. He said he wanted me to be on magnesium sulfate which in retrospect I wish I would have fought against harder since even the nurses didn't think I needed it and it wasn't pleasant.

They gave me the medicine to start the inducement and Chris made arrangements to stay at the hospital that night. He still had some work to get done the next day so he ended up getting up at about 4am in order to get finished before anything else happened with the baby.

August 5th: I had a pretty restless night - throughout the night my contractions got more regular and I couldn't find a comfortable position - especially with the annoying fetal monitors that always fall off not matter how the nurses jerryrig them up.

They told me they would start the pitocin at about 10am so about 9am I took a shower and I had some contractions in the shower so strong that I had to really concentrate. They were definitely regular and it took a lot of concentration and talking to myself to get through them. I called Chris to see when he would make it back from the hospital. He arrived right before they hooked up the IV.

At this point I should tell you that we went through the Bradley Method childbirth class in hopes of having a natural birth and not being induced. Well the non-inducement birth flew out the window so I was open to an epidural but still hoping to make it through naturally.

The pitocin started and the contractions were still getting stronger and more regular. I could not find a comfortable position besides sitting on the bed and leaning as far forward as I could but that messed up the fetal monitors. I also kept feeling like I needed to go to the bathroom. The doctor came in and wanted to break my water. The nurse and I disagreed since we both knew everything was progressing faster then last time and so we fought for it and the doctor left me alone. I was thankful for a great nurse who wanted to help me have the birth I wanted. I really didn't want to have a monitor put on baby's head like with Benjamin.

About the third time I had Chris helped me to the bathroom I told him I felt like I needed to start pushing. I was already going through the transition stage and even said the textbook line: "I can't do this anymore" so Chris knew I was ready!

He pushed the call button in the bathroom and the nurses came running in to help me to the bed. I was ready to start pushing - just had to wait excurciatingly long for the doctor to get there.

Once I officially started pushing it only took about 3 big pushes. Once for my water to break, once for the head to come out and once for the rest of our beautiful baby girl. I had done it!!! She was born at 11:30 am only 1 1/2 hours afyer pitocin. Crazy. It felt amazing except for the fact that I had a pretty bad tear from everything happening so quickly.

The huge downside to the magnesium sulfate was that the placenta was very slow to come out and I had quite a bit of bleeding. The nurses had to really pound on my stomach and get it out and thankfully it came out right before the doctor was ready to go in and surgically remove it. Getting that out was more unpleasant then the actual birth.

Katherine did great - they put her on my chest right away and we waited until the umbilical cord stopped pulsating before cutting it. After about an hour they took all her vitals and weight. She was born at 37 weeks and 3 days and weighed 7lbs 2 oz and was 19 inches.

She did wonderful except that she had to be under the lights for her bilirubin levels so that was 2 extra days in the hospital where I could only hold her while she was eating. That was torture but we made it through. I have been so excited that she has been doing so well breastfeeding and gaining weight since we had trouble with Benjamin and his tongue tie. She doesn't have one and it's been such a difference.

We are so happy to be a family of 4!

Monday, September 14, 2015

Katherine Emma






Just some pictures now. More details and birth story to come.

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

36 Weeks!

I cannot believe it is the last month of my pregnancy. I have reached a new milestone - 36 weeks and 2 days.

With Benjamin I was induced at 36 weeks and he was born the following day so I have never been pregnant this long.

I had a Dr's appointment today and my blood pressure was great! It had been a little bit high so I had to have some extra labwork done over the past couple of weeks. Every day I am pregnant I consider a blessing and I can only hope the outcome of this pregnancy is not inducement but baby coming on their own timing.

Plus I am thankful I have more time to get ready. I ordered some things from my registry that I was hoping to get such as muslin swaddle blankets and of course lanolin for breastfeeding. :) We have the pack n play with bassinet & changing table set up in our room and just need to move in a small dresser for newborn clothes.

We are talking to Benjamin about how he has to give his soothies (pacifiers) to the baby once the baby comes. Let's just hope it goes smoothly when he actually has to do it and that we stay strong!!

Now he only other thing that would make the end of my pregnancy great is if the weather would stay cooler. Unfortunately that is not in the forecast...ugh.

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Every 6 Months or So...

Time for my semi annual blog update! It seems I only get to this blog every 6 months or so. At least I'm fairly consistent.

We have had a fun and busy spring and beginning to summer. In February, Benjamin celebrated his 2nd birthday. We just had a queit party at home with grandparents and that was nice.

We took a fun trip over to Western Washington for the tulip festival. I'm so glad we went. I've talked about it for a long time but we never actually went over.

Benjamin did pretty well despite never getting a good nap in all weekend. He mostly napped in the car. We did have one almost pretty bad meltdown at a restaurant but I don't blame him since it took FOREVER for our food to come and it was already running into nap time.

We've also enjoyed going to the park as the weather has warmed up (before it's started being to HOT for this preggo lady) and spending time with friends and family.

Here are some pictures from our last 6 months of adventures.










Sunday, January 04, 2015

Merry Christmas 2014

We had a great Christmas this year. It was a little chaotic splitting the day between both sets of parents but we all survived any.d had a great time. Benjamin was fun to watch this year as he really enjoyed opening his presents and taking everything out to play with it.

It was a relaxing day overall and we enjoyed being with family.











Winter Vacation

We enjoyed a trip to Victoria British Columbia in December. I got a great rate at the Marriott hotel during their 1/2 off associate rate deal. We had never been there and we ended up having a lot of fun exploring. It is a beautiful place. A little cold during December but pretty to see the lights and Christmas festivities going on.

We explored Victoria, visited the Royal BC Museum and The Butchart Gardens north of the city. I'm sure it is an amazing experience when all the flowers are blooming but it was very pretty with Christmas lights everywhere.

Here are some highlights of our trip:
 On the ferry.
 The Fairmont Empress Victoria (not where we stayed, haha)
 Victoria Inner Harbour
 Out for a stroll.
 In front of the BC Parliament Building.
 The Royal BC Museum lit up at night.
 Looking towards Washington across the Strait.
 Chasing peacocks at Beacon Hill Park.
Christmas light at The Butchart Gardens.
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