Look Grandma and Grandpa! I can pick my head up!!!

Alexa

Alexa Is Here!!!!!

Yes, I know that this is two weeks late, but I've been a little busy...you know, having a baby. In the past two weeks we have discovered that Alexa is a bit of a drama queen (who would have thought that my child would be dramatic?! hehehe). So of course she had to make a dramatic entrance into the world. Enter disclaimer: Obviously, I'm about to talk about the birth of my child. If you don't want to hear about where babies come from, I suggest you stop reading. And without further ado, I present Alexa's dramatic birth:

Nick and I had a plan (I love a good plan) two weeks ago about how we were going to get ready for the baby. We were going to be prepared and have everything cleaned and set up just right. All those fun nesting things which was planned to start on Thursday, September 30th. So Thursday morning (OK, afternoon) I woke up and when I got out of bed a little pee came out. Let's get real for everyone who just made a face. We are talking about a nine month pregnant lady... a little bit of pee coming out every now and then when you change positions is just part of reality. Back to my story. So I started moving quickly toward the bathroom and instead of stopping, more pee came out. Gross! Also I noticed that I was having some Braxton Hick's contractions (so I thought). I figured it was no big deal so I went and layed out in the back yard (all part of the plan, people, all part of the plan). I was outside for an hour and when I came back in I was still having my little pee squirting problem and this time when I went to the bathroom my mucous plug came out. Well that was kind of exciting (and it made me a little nervous) but that thing can come out weeks before the baby comes so I didn't think much of it. The thing that I didn't like was that those Braxton Hick's contractions were pretty close together. They would come every few minutes for a couple in a row and then stop for 20 or 30 minutes. Anyway, around 3:00 I called Nick and we ended up calling my mom (and Merna, her office buddy) to see what we should do. I finally made the decision to just go to the hospital so that they could check me and figure out what this whole contraction thing was all about. OK, fast forward three hours of driving to TMH and sitting in the waiting room. By the way, contractions are now consistently every three minutes but really not that painful at all. We finally got into triage and they hooked me up to the monitors, made me pee in a cup, took my vitals (BP was 160/100) made me drink some juice and water, all that stuff. Around 7:30 someone finally decided to check and see if I was dilated at all. I got all excited and then the nurse said that I was about 1 cm and despite the Q3 minute contractions I was not in labor (well, crap). Did I mention that the Nettinas and the Weavers were in the car driving from Ft. Lauderdale at this point? They stopped in Ft. Pierce to eat dinner and said that they'd call to check on us when they were done. After the nurse had made some comments that I really did not appreciate regarding all the reasons why I was not in labor, she said that I should go home. I asked about the contractions, she said don't worry about it, they aren't real. Apparently I wouldn't be smiling through real contractions. Oh yeah, at this point Nick is repeatedly telling everyone about my unusually high tolerance for pain. Just wanted to throw that in there. So nurse #1 leaves, enter nurse #2 who says that the doctor is now ordering blood work because of my high blood pressure. Fine. An hour and a half later, Dr. Pierce (?) comes in and explains that she is admitting me overnight for a 24 hour urine collection to check for protein. Even though there was no protein in my dip stick urine she was concerned that my BP was so high, she said that my pee squirting thing was weird and, oh by the way, my white count in my CBC was 19.7. I told her that I was glad to be admitted because this contraction thing is really freaking me out. They were still every three minutes and getting stronger. Apparently, still not real because I was able to smile (get the sarcasm? Just making sure). She assured me that I was not in labor and I would be able to go home on Saturday morning. She did, however, order some prn pain meds just in case and said that if I did go into labor, they wouldn't do anything to stop it since I was at 38 weeks. OK, so at this point we spoke to the grandparent car and made a group decision that they should just turn around and go back. Apparently they were having a wonderful time and did not mind the fact that they just drove an hour and a half for nothing.

They admitted me to labor and delivery because the antipartum unit was understaffed for the night (thank God). I got hooked up to the monitors and started my 24 hour urine collection which was annoying because every time I got up to pee the monitor things came off. Finally the nurse said that since I wasn't in labor (are you starting to see a trend here?) she only needed a half hour strip to show that everything was ok. Around midnight my friend Nakima came to visit for awhile and then after she left Nick fell asleep. These "non-labor" contractions have been slowly getting worse but everyone kept on insisting that they weren't real because I was able to talk, laugh, smile, etc. Finally, at 2:00 I called the nurse to get something for pain. That got Nick up real fast...I don't like to take anything for pain in general, even Tylenol, so he knew something was wrong. I got a percocet at 2:30. By 3:00 the contractions were getting much worse and I asked for the Stadol. That is some horrible stuff. Not only did it do absolutely nothing for the pain, it made me crazy. I mean super crazy. I just remember saying over and over how this hurts too bad to be false labor. And instead of questioning the falseness of my labor, I was thinking 'Oh my God, this is really going to suck when I really am in labor!' Anyway, when she put in the IV and gave me the Stadol at 3:30ish, she put the monitors back on which showed that (suprise, suprise) I was still having contractions and they were closer together now. I was getting upset because I was feeling crazy, I was in all this pain that these pain meds did nothing for and now there was pee coming out with every contraction. Have I mentioned how wonderful Nick was through all this? Amazing. So finally the nurse said that she could swab to see if the pee was really amniotic fluid. WHAT?!?! I have been leaking pee for the past 12 hours and no one mentioned that they could just swab it to see if my water had broken?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! Now I could feel my craziness slipping away and I was getting mad. She swabbed it and guess what? My water had broken. Who would have guessed? At that point (at about 4:45 in the morning) she thought it might be a good idea to check to see if I was dilated more than the 1cm that I was 8 hours before. She checked me (I tried not to punch her) and said 'I feel her head, let me get my charge nurse to double check this.' WHAT?!?! You feel her head?!?! Damn right you're going to get your charge nurse to double check this!!! So charge nurse chick comes in, checks me and says 'you're 10cm and +1 station, there's no time for an epidural.' At this point, I don't remember specifics of what happened but I do know that a small break down took place which I'm sure looked something like mad Kristin (few people have seen her) having an adult temper tantrum mixed with a little bit of that Stadol craziness still on board. It was not attractive, I'm sure. Nick called the grandparents and Katie who were in the car and on the road by 5:00. I started pushing sometime after that and Alexa was born at 6:41am.

Apparently I am a good pusher, I have a lot of control over my body. I don't know if it's an awareness I have from dancing or if Dr. Pierce was just being nice to the crazy girl by complimenting pushing techniques. Probably the latter. Many people have asked me if I were to do it again, would I have the epidural. Yes. Are you insane? Of course I would have the epidural. But I suppose I'm not entirely upset that it happened the way it did. I was up and walking to the bathroom 1/2 hour after she was born and it's kind of cool knowing that I was strong enough to do it without drugs (or at least, without drugs that work). I think I'm most disappointed that my mom wasn't there. And Katie (she decided as she was frantically driving that she wanted to be in the room). But again, we will eventually have another baby and they can be in the room that time. Plus, it was kind of nice that it was just Nick and I.

Pictures of the belly

Alright, for everyone who has been asking for pictures of the belly, here are week by week so far. Well, kind of week by week. I'm going to take some pictures of Alexa's room and put those up too...maybe tomorrow.

Ode to Chick-fil-A (and random thoughts about people's maternity pictures)

Can we please talk about how amazing Chick-fil-A is? I feel that if I were to name one food that I've "craved" during this pregnancy (even though I really don't think of it as a craving, more like an ongoing love) it would be the chicken nuggets at Chick-fil-A (and maybe also Mexican food!). They are so good...the nuggets, that is. Do you know what's better then Chick-fil-A nuggets? Chick-fil-A breakfast sandwich. The one with chicken on a biscuit (it's a number 1 in case you want to stop by for breakfast sometime). I discovered this little piece of heaven about a year and a half ago. My friend Magan and I would discuss food, amongst other things, at work in the middle of the night and she suggested that I try breakfast at Chick-fil-A. So the few times that I drove to Orlando after work to visit Katie, I would stop at Chick-fil-A for something to eat before driving for four hours. I only did this a few times and considered it my treat for having to drive after working all night. Do you know what else I deserve a morning treat for? Having to go to a doctors appointment at 8:30 after working all night. Wouldn't you know that the past 3 doctors appointments have been mysteriously scheduled for 8:30am after a night that I worked. Hmm, funny how that worked out.

On a completely unrelated subject, I've been looking at maternity pictures online because Lissette got me thinking about them. (Wow, I'm really influenced by my friends) So now I kind of want them. I wanted my mom to take them (she's a very good photographer) but she didn't seem too thrilled about the idea. I'm not going to be upset or anything if I don't have them I just feel like since I'm not a Duggar, I'm probably only going to be pregnant one or two more times in my life and I like documentation. And lets face it, I'm probably a lot cuter now then what I'm going to be next time. Anyway, off topic. I'm at work, bored, looking at pictures online and on every website I go to there are maternity pictures with the women naked...naked!!! They don't show anything. There is very strategic placement of arms, crossing of legs, draping of fabric, etc. but they are still naked. That's gross. Why would you want a naked picture of yourself? What are you going to do with that? Do you tell people about your naked pictures? What do you say as a person looking at your friend's naked pictures? "Your boob looks really good in that one" "I really like how they covered your cellulite" Lets get real, that is ridiculous. Plus, I feel very uncomfortable looking at them. And everyone who reads this knows that as a general rule, I am pretty comfortable with nakedness. If any of you have had naked maternity pictures taken and I have offended you, I'm sorry, but thank you for not showing them to me. I don't want to see them. There are so many cute pictures that people take that are happy, smiling, mommy and daddy-to-be with clothes on and then BAM naked pregnant chic. I feel that if you want a picture of yourself naked (pregnant or not), bust out your little digital camera, put the timer on and snap away in the privacy of your own home. And then label the media card so no one ever sees it but you.

My Roach Story

I was just looking back on my blog posts, you know, just looking to see if anyone commented on anything...which you haven't. Sorry, I had to throw that in there. Anyway, I was looking back on the blog posts and I noticed that since we found out I was pregnant there has been pretty much nothing but pregnancy posts. Now I know you all love reading about my pregnancy complaint of the month but who wants to be a bragger? Not I. So as promised, here is a blog about the roaches.

As you all know, we live in the country. Like, full out, can't see the neighbor's house, have to stop and let the deer cross the road country. (OK, so it's not that bad. It's actually a community where everyone has 5 acres...but still country!) So as expected, there are many different...shall we say life forms...that we have to deal with. The fore mentioned deer, raccoons, fox, bears (Seriously, a bear stole our garbage one time! Nick found paw prints on his truck where the bear was looking in the windows) frogs, snakes (scary!) and apparently roaches. We had the house sprayed as it was being built and the company comes out every year to spray again as part of their guarantee. So nothing to worry about right? Wrong. Two weeks ago we were upstairs and saw a roach. It was in the unfinished bonus room so my thought was as long as they aren't in the actual house, no big deal. Plus, it was the first roach we've seen since moving in. Well a couple days after that, again while in the bonus room, another roach. OK, that was weird but again it was upstairs and both roaches were right by the opening into the actual attic. Well...in the past week there have been two roaches in the house!!! Nasty! I hate roaches, I think we should coordinate a world wide effort to kill them all (along with toads and alligators. Snakes are working their way onto that list too). And these weren't little roaches either. They were big, fat, black roaches and they looked like they could probably fly. Thank God Nick was home to get them because they are the one insect that I will run screaming in the other direction. Actually, for the first one I jumped on the couch, curled up into a ball, and put two blankets over me (including my head). Hey, they look like they could fly, remember? And the second time I took the dogs and ran into our room with them, closing two doors between us and the roach. Needless to say, Nick is calling the bug people this week. Any other insects or spiders, I kill with no problem. Lizards I pick up and put back outside. But roaches. I just can't handle that.

For Katie (and Tard)

I'm figuring (is that a word?) that I'm going to have a once a month blog because that's what it seems to be anyway. I think of things to blog about but then I either have to go to work or I get distracted by something at home or something like that. Plus, I feel like there hasn't been a major event in the past month that I really want to share my thoughts and feelings with the whole blogging world about. But, Katie asks for a new blog, therefore Katie gets a new blog. And everyone thinks I'm the spoiled one.

I suppose I'll start with pregnancy stuff. I'm 24 weeks now and finally looking like I might be growing a child. I feel like the past month has gone by really fast, but I realize more for reasons that have nothing to do with the pregnancy. I can feel her kick a lot now and I'm starting to call her Alexa or Lexie instead of "the baby". (That's her name and I'm sticking to it!). When I first found out I was pregnant all these people told me "just wait until you feel the baby kick, it's the best feeling in the world..." Let me tell you, I've been feeling her move around for probably about two months now and at first, I was not impressed. It feels like gas bubbles, I do not understand what's so exciting and wondrous about feeling like you're going to fart soon. I actually didn't tell anyone that I felt her at first because I didn't want to fake through the whole conversation about how cool it is to feel the baby move. Now that she's bigger (the size of a papaya?) when she kicks it's more like a nudge or poke from the inside and a lot of the times I can actually see my belly pop out and shift as she's moving around. OK, now it's cool. Now we can talk about it. I suppose I'm getting more pregnancy symptoms too. I didn't think I was getting cravings until Nick pointed it out. And if I don't eat often I get cranky and don't feel very well. My butt is huge (even more so than it used to be). Who gets pregnant and immediately grows a ghetto booty?!?! Apparently, I do. Not that there are any of my male relatives reading this (especially after the butt comments) but if you are, I suggest you stop now because I'm about to talk about my boobs. THEY ARE GIGANTIC!!!!! You know, for me. I want my little boobies back. I realize I'm not going to get them back for a long time but I don't care, I want them back now. At first I was excited that there was a crease under them or that they kind of bounced when I ran. (Katie and Britt, I know you can appreciate that) But now, it's getting old. I've always enjoyed my freedom of being able to walk around my house in a t-shirt with no bra on but now it's just annoying. And they're not even super perky! If I'm going get boobs I should be able to get nice ones!!!! Plus to top it all off there are two stretch marks on them!!!!! Gross! I know! I realize that might not be completely appropriate to write on my blog but you can't say I didn't give you fair warning. On a more positive and less bitchy note, I do enjoy my shirts fitting better. And I really like bragging about them to those of you who still have the boobies. I guess it's more of a lesson in being careful what you wish for because what I had before was just fine, thank you very much!

George came up for a few days so that he and Nick could paint the nursery and it looks awesome! Nick was all about painting stripes or dots or something like that. Me...not so much. But I decided that he is usually good about choosing paint colors and it was essentially a battle that I didn't really care to fight. I eventually talked him into toning it down by painting a pale green on the bottom part of the room and then doing light pink and slightly darker pink stripes on the top part. Yes, that is the calmed down version. All I have to say is thank God for George and the patience and expertise he had to tape off all the stripes. I love my husband very much but if he had tried to do that alone, every stripe would have been a different width and they would all be crooked. And anyone who knows me well enough to read this far into this blog knows that those are two things I just can't handle. I have to say, even with it all symmetrical and perfect, I was slightly overwhelmed by all the color until we started to put the dark furniture in. Grandma's chair looks perfect in the room along with my old bookshelf and one of the dressers dad found at a garage sale a few years ago. Mom and Grammy came up last weekend to return the dogs and ended up buying the rest of the furniture we needed. Mom got us the crib I wanted and Grammy got the changing table (thanks mom and Grammy!!!). They are supposed to come in sometime next week so I'm getting pretty excited to put it all together. Here's a picture of mom and I in Grandma's chair (and Wolfie)

And one of Grammy and I in the nursery.

Katie, I hope this has been enough blogging to hold you over for a day or two. Maybe if we are slow at work (wishful thinking) during the next few days I'll blog about more exciting things like our current infestation of roaches (there have been two!) or our most recent trip to the vet's office for check ups (Wolfie thinks he owns the place). I know, you can't wait. Get excited.