Labor and Delivery

This is the 3rd time I've been on the internet since Liam was born on the 22nd. Sorry for the delay in info and cute pics. Here's the low-down on the whole labor and delivery. Wednesday the 21st my mom and I took a super power walk. My whole body was sore when I got home. Around 12:30 in the morning on the 22nd I woke up and started timing contractions. They were very mild but they were happening every 4 minutes. After about 4o minutes and several prayers, I decided to wake Lonnie and call my mom. We got to the hospital around 2am. I told my nurse I was a little nervous that I was jumping the gun but I didn't want to have the baby in my living room! I was dilated to a 2 and she reassured me that I had made a good choice to come in because I was definitely in labor. Well, unfortunately my labor stopped around 5:30am . . . completely! After the waiting for it to pick back up on its own and getting a new morning nurse they finally put me on pit around 8:30. My nurse was new and was worried that there were problems with the umbilical cord so they upped the pit very, very slowly. At noon I was only at a 3. Ugh! I was feeling so frustrated because I had expected Liam to be born by noon. At this point, they decided to give me the epidural. I was really shaky because I hadn't eaten anything and my blood sugar was low. I kept telling the nurse I felt like I was going to fall of the bed while the anesthesiologist was getting started but she didn't come to me and brace my shoulders. The epidural sent shooting pain down my back and leg. I started sobbing and finally the nurse came to me. The anesthesiologist tried again . . . more shooting pain followed by my right leg flopping around like a fish. Excruciating. I was so glad that Lonnie wasn't in the room because it was so painful and I was crying so hard. Around 1:30pm my doctor came to check on me. He wasn't pleased with my progress and decided to increase the pit a little more. Then he said he'd be back after his office hours . . . around 5:30. I almost had a panic attack because that meant he didn't think Liam would be born for another 4 hours. I was trying so hard to keep myself in control. Luckily my contractions did eventually pick up and by 5:30 I was ready to push but the doctor wasn't there! The nurses kept telling me to hold on but after nearly 18 hours I didn't want to hold on. I wanted him out!!! Thankfully my doctor got there by a quarter till and Liam was born at 6:03pm after 3 massive pushes. He was 7lbs 12oz and 20 inches long. He is a great nurser and sleeper.
Just barely born.

Kayla meets her new baby brother.

Beckham wasn't too concerned about having a new baby . . . he just wanted my fruit cup!

Officially a family of 5.

My parents holding Liam . . . their 6th grandbaby.

Liam and his new monkey.

Dressed and ready to go home.

Cute baby!

Waiting

I have to say that the last week or so of pregnancy is not my favorite. As most of you know, I'm the type of person who likes everything nicely organized. I like to plan things in advance and schedule them in so I know exactly what to expect. Well, unless you are getting induced or a C-section you can't really pencil in when you are going to go into labor and have your baby. It makes me just a little batty waiting for this little guy to arrive. I had an appointment yesterday and I thought for sure I'd already started dilating. The doctor told me that if I wanted to feel good about my progress I could claim a centimeter. That doesn't make me feel good. I thought I'd be a 3 or 4 with all the pressure I've been feeling. Ho-hum. I've finished everything on my "Get-it-done-before-the-baby-arrives List" and now I'm just waiting.

Pumpkin Time

Yesterday we took the kids to the Pumpkin Patch and got to do a few fun things like a bounce house, carousel, hay pyramid, corn maze and hay bale maze. It was FREEZING outside but we had a good time. We ended our fun with a trailer ride out to the pumpkin patch where both kids picked pumpkins. All in all, some good family fun.
Pyramid . . . I was so scared Beckham was going to fall off!

Freezing on the trailer ride out to the pumpkin patch.

Kayla looking very serious about her pumpkin. She was probably too cold to smile all the way!

Beckham loved his very little and very bumpy pumpkin!

Baby Shower

Well, it's official . . . I have the best sister-in-law ever! Actually all of my sisters-in-law are great but yesterday Jess threw me an awesome baby shower. Everything was so beautiful and the food was fantastic. We had chocolate fondue and lots of yummy things to dip in it, cider, an apple cake, a veggie tray, crackers and pumpkin butter. There were a nice mix of guests . . . some people I haven't seen in at least 10 years. I wish we could have gotten a group shot but . . . my camera's batteries died. This was the first shower I've had where my mom and grandma could attend. That was nice, too. I received a lot of really great gifts and several packs of diapers. All of which will come in very handy. I can't believe that I am 37 weeks. I miss laying on my stomach and being able to run. I've been getting tons of braxton hicks with this pregnancy . . . I hope that means Liam won't incubate too much longer. I think he will be born on the 23rd and I'm crossing my fingers he won't be late.

YUM!

Debbi playing the Dirty Diaper game . . .

Julie, Shelli, Sue and Natallie checking out the contents of their dirty diapers . . .

Natallie?!? Don't worry, it's just chocolate!

At home after the shower showing Lonnie some of the things we received. Thanks everyone!

Lonnie's Birthday

Lonnie just turned 29 and this is the first time in our marriage we haven't been in CA with his family to celebrate. I think it was a little weird for Lonnie but we had a fun day anyway. We got a babysitter and went to the movies. It's amazing that it's been so long since we've been to a movie considering we used to do that all the time . . . before we had kids that is! We saw the newest Harry Potter and loved it. Then we went out to dinner at Red Lobster and finished the night off with homemade icecream cake. YUM!

That's one cool cake!

Beckham helping daddy blow out his candle.

Kayla feeling the love for daddy's cake!

My mom and grandma.

Happy little family full of cake!

McKayla's Potato Heads

A few weeks ago McKayla made these potato heads. I thought they were quite ingenious!

One cute kid

A little while ago there was a blog post going around of childhood pictures. Well, I finally got a few pics of me scanned into the computer and thought I would share.

Me and my parents a day or so after birth. April 1979
My Grandma Sue and me. August 1979

One year old. April 1980

My brother Benjamin (20 mo.) and me (4 mo.). December 1980

Mother's day 1981.