Thursday, June 30, 2011
2 weeks
I can't believe that Calvin is already 2 weeks old... I know it's not that old but I feel like he's already changing a ton! He's still sleeping really well and eating like a champ. Here are a few of the pictures I took of him today.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Calvin Henry Pettit 6-16-11
Our sweet little boy, Calvin Henry Pettit, graced us with his presence on Thursday, June 16th, at 3:20 AM. I will start this story from the somewhat beginning (It's a long story):
I got this weird rash that spread over 90% of my body towards the end of my 3rd trimester. I looked like a burn victim and felt like I had bathed in a meadow of poison ivy. Oh how it itched! It was driving me (more?) CRAZY so I went in to see the doctor. He was shocked to see how bad it was and said he's never seen a rash that bad. Turns out, my body was having an allergic reaction to being pregnant. Really? Allergic to pregnancy?? Who had heard of such a thing? By this point, I had tried every off the shelf lotion, medication, and creme known to man as well as every home remedy the internet could muster. Nothing helped. Luckily (kind of), I also had too much amniotic fluid so the doctor thought it a good excuse to induce me the very next day. The news couldn't be better! I would be two weeks early but seriously I was going (more?) insane! The apppointment to induce was made for Tuesday at 3pm. The hospital called around 1 PM saying that there were no rooms available so we just had to sit and wait until something opened up. You can imagine our anxiety just sitting around checking our phones for missed calls. It was as if I was single again. I even got a little case of sick tummy from the nerves. By 2 AM we accepted the fact that we were eventually going to get called and we'd be better off not worrying about it. After getting into bed just before 3 AM, we got the call. All of our time invested in preparing for this moment began to pay out dividends in time saved. After cooking a quick meal, we headed off to the hospital. We checked in and got situated in a delivery room. A short hour later, the induction process commenced. The good news was that my body was already on it's way to get this boy out and the nurses hedged bets that 4 PM would be the birth time (Awesome!!!). The bad news was that they were really, really wrong. So the long process began. The doctor stopped by and broke my water at 8:30 AM. He had tickets to see the Diamondbacks play that night and after seeing my status, assumed he'd be able to make it. He also gave me the go ahead to ask for drugs. Bring them on! I got the epidural a few hours later when my contractions were really starting to do their job. On a side note, the epidural didn't hurt at all - I don't know why people freak out about them. It was fine. Everything was moving along just as planned until about 10:30 AM. I just stopped progressing. I won't go into detail but for those who have ever been involved in labor and delivery, I was about half way there. Halfway is pretty good for about 6 hours of labor but I stayed at that point for 7 hours. Ugh. They gave me more drugs throughout the afternoon to try to help move things along but nothing really worked. The doctor stopped back in at about 5 PM and realized that he would need to give his son the D-Backs tickets because this baby was going nowhere fast. He also noted that the baby had spun around into the posterior position (face up, head down) which could be problematic. The doctor said we'd try and flip him back around when we were closer to delivering. I got sleepy and took a nap around 5:30 PM and when I woke up 3 hours later, I was almost ready to start pushing!! I'm not sure I would have been so excited at that point if I knew what was about to happen. Another few hours of waiting and at 11 PM the pushing began. I pushed...and pushed...and pushed some more. Seriously, I was the best pusher that there ever was. So much so that the nurses were impressed and afraid of my powers at the same time. I pushed for over 3 hours and had made some great progress but appeared to be stuck in transition. Now, 3 hours of pushing is very tiring and, without the benefit of modern anesthetics, very painful. I didn't realize that second part until the last hour of pushing when the epidural wore off. As soon as this became apparent to me, I quickly let the nurses know but I don't think they believed me. My screams and pained facial expressions were not even enough to convince them. I'm still unsure as to why I seemed so untrustworthy but all the same, the last hour of pushing was not the most fun I've ever had (for the curious, the most fun I've ever had was on a cruise). My doctor, possibly using his spidey-sense, came in and also quickly realized that my epidural had worn off. He ordered the anesthesiologist to come in and give me more drugs. Wouldn't you know it, he was helping someone else right then so it took about 15 minutes more for him to administer sweet relief. My doctor (Dr. Russell M. Beck) is a superstar and tried everything to get this boy out but to no avail. After repeated attempts to physically move the child out of transition failed, surgery was our last option. After a liberal dosing of drugs to stop contractions, reduce nausea, and re-apply the blessed epidural, they wheeled me off to get a Cesarian. You may think that all of my problems were lost in a dreamy haze of partial cogniscence but unfortunately, the chemicals used in epidurals normally take 10-20 minutes to take effect. The surgery started sooner than that. So yes, although local anesthetic was administered so I couldn't feel the initial incision, I could feel them move things around inside me and it hurt. I was rather distressed at this point and told anyone within earshot that I could feel it and I was in so much pain! One of the older nurses tried to convince me that it was just a lot of pressure and didn't hurt that bad. Right. Let me move some of your internal organs around and see how that pressure feels. The anesthesiologist had his hands full trying to mix a compound that woudn't harm me and play nice with the 8 other drugs in my system. It's very possible that the wrong dosage or drug interaction could stop my heart so it took some time to do it right. As soon as I heard little Calvin cry, the cocktail was completed and put in my IV. That finally gave me relief! Usually a C-section takes 10-15 minutes but I had pushed so hard that my baby was literally stuck. It took the doctors a few extra minutes to coax him out. Jesse brought my sweet son over for me to see and then I promptly fell asleep. Jesse said that after initially crying a bit, Calvin stopped and just looked around, taking everything in. Even after all of the 22 hours of labor and delivery, Calvin's heart rate never faltered. It stayed steady and strong the entire time. He came out 7lbs 8oz, 21 inches long, and calm as a cat in a patch of sun.
Recovery time for c-sections is a day or two longer than "normal" delivery so we stayed in the hospital until Father's day (Jesse: you're welcome). I am continuing to recover slowly; every day I am able to move around a little bit more. Although the whole process was a bit of a nightmare that I would never EVER want to experience again, I would do it in a heartbeat if it meant getting another sweet angel like Calvin. It was all worth it. My sweet baby boy couldn't be more perfect. He is handsome, he has his daddy's mouth and chin, he has my eye brows, the cutest little upturned nose, and the most expressive eyes. He loves to cuddle and he smiles a lot (not just when he has gas). Calvin doesn't really cry often, mostly when he's cold or is pushing a grumpy out. We even have to wake him up for feedings because he is such a good sleeper. He has a hearty appetite and is gaining weight fast.
Calvin is such a blessing in our home. I keep asking myself, "how did I get so incredibly lucky?" I feel like I must be stealing someone elses' blessings, one single person shouldn't be THIS blessed. I have the most amazing husband who loves and supports me; he is so willing to help in any way possible and I never hear him complain (even when I forget to take my pain meds and I'm a bit difficult to deal with). He makes me want to be a better person. Before our son came into this world I thought life absolutely could not get any better, but now that our baby is here I feel overwhelmed with gratitude. Calvin is a perfect little baby, and we love him so much. I could just sit and look at him all day long and not get tired of it (which, for the record, I have). I love his little facial expressions and how when he starts to whimper all I have to do is hold him close and he calms right down. I had no idea that I could love someone so much.
Although we definitely don't sleep as much as we used to, and personal hygiene has become touch and go, I couldn't be happier. Life is good and we feel blessed to have this little angel in our home.
Calvin with the hiccups:
I got this weird rash that spread over 90% of my body towards the end of my 3rd trimester. I looked like a burn victim and felt like I had bathed in a meadow of poison ivy. Oh how it itched! It was driving me (more?) CRAZY so I went in to see the doctor. He was shocked to see how bad it was and said he's never seen a rash that bad. Turns out, my body was having an allergic reaction to being pregnant. Really? Allergic to pregnancy?? Who had heard of such a thing? By this point, I had tried every off the shelf lotion, medication, and creme known to man as well as every home remedy the internet could muster. Nothing helped. Luckily (kind of), I also had too much amniotic fluid so the doctor thought it a good excuse to induce me the very next day. The news couldn't be better! I would be two weeks early but seriously I was going (more?) insane! The apppointment to induce was made for Tuesday at 3pm. The hospital called around 1 PM saying that there were no rooms available so we just had to sit and wait until something opened up. You can imagine our anxiety just sitting around checking our phones for missed calls. It was as if I was single again. I even got a little case of sick tummy from the nerves. By 2 AM we accepted the fact that we were eventually going to get called and we'd be better off not worrying about it. After getting into bed just before 3 AM, we got the call. All of our time invested in preparing for this moment began to pay out dividends in time saved. After cooking a quick meal, we headed off to the hospital. We checked in and got situated in a delivery room. A short hour later, the induction process commenced. The good news was that my body was already on it's way to get this boy out and the nurses hedged bets that 4 PM would be the birth time (Awesome!!!). The bad news was that they were really, really wrong. So the long process began. The doctor stopped by and broke my water at 8:30 AM. He had tickets to see the Diamondbacks play that night and after seeing my status, assumed he'd be able to make it. He also gave me the go ahead to ask for drugs. Bring them on! I got the epidural a few hours later when my contractions were really starting to do their job. On a side note, the epidural didn't hurt at all - I don't know why people freak out about them. It was fine. Everything was moving along just as planned until about 10:30 AM. I just stopped progressing. I won't go into detail but for those who have ever been involved in labor and delivery, I was about half way there. Halfway is pretty good for about 6 hours of labor but I stayed at that point for 7 hours. Ugh. They gave me more drugs throughout the afternoon to try to help move things along but nothing really worked. The doctor stopped back in at about 5 PM and realized that he would need to give his son the D-Backs tickets because this baby was going nowhere fast. He also noted that the baby had spun around into the posterior position (face up, head down) which could be problematic. The doctor said we'd try and flip him back around when we were closer to delivering. I got sleepy and took a nap around 5:30 PM and when I woke up 3 hours later, I was almost ready to start pushing!! I'm not sure I would have been so excited at that point if I knew what was about to happen. Another few hours of waiting and at 11 PM the pushing began. I pushed...and pushed...and pushed some more. Seriously, I was the best pusher that there ever was. So much so that the nurses were impressed and afraid of my powers at the same time. I pushed for over 3 hours and had made some great progress but appeared to be stuck in transition. Now, 3 hours of pushing is very tiring and, without the benefit of modern anesthetics, very painful. I didn't realize that second part until the last hour of pushing when the epidural wore off. As soon as this became apparent to me, I quickly let the nurses know but I don't think they believed me. My screams and pained facial expressions were not even enough to convince them. I'm still unsure as to why I seemed so untrustworthy but all the same, the last hour of pushing was not the most fun I've ever had (for the curious, the most fun I've ever had was on a cruise). My doctor, possibly using his spidey-sense, came in and also quickly realized that my epidural had worn off. He ordered the anesthesiologist to come in and give me more drugs. Wouldn't you know it, he was helping someone else right then so it took about 15 minutes more for him to administer sweet relief. My doctor (Dr. Russell M. Beck) is a superstar and tried everything to get this boy out but to no avail. After repeated attempts to physically move the child out of transition failed, surgery was our last option. After a liberal dosing of drugs to stop contractions, reduce nausea, and re-apply the blessed epidural, they wheeled me off to get a Cesarian. You may think that all of my problems were lost in a dreamy haze of partial cogniscence but unfortunately, the chemicals used in epidurals normally take 10-20 minutes to take effect. The surgery started sooner than that. So yes, although local anesthetic was administered so I couldn't feel the initial incision, I could feel them move things around inside me and it hurt. I was rather distressed at this point and told anyone within earshot that I could feel it and I was in so much pain! One of the older nurses tried to convince me that it was just a lot of pressure and didn't hurt that bad. Right. Let me move some of your internal organs around and see how that pressure feels. The anesthesiologist had his hands full trying to mix a compound that woudn't harm me and play nice with the 8 other drugs in my system. It's very possible that the wrong dosage or drug interaction could stop my heart so it took some time to do it right. As soon as I heard little Calvin cry, the cocktail was completed and put in my IV. That finally gave me relief! Usually a C-section takes 10-15 minutes but I had pushed so hard that my baby was literally stuck. It took the doctors a few extra minutes to coax him out. Jesse brought my sweet son over for me to see and then I promptly fell asleep. Jesse said that after initially crying a bit, Calvin stopped and just looked around, taking everything in. Even after all of the 22 hours of labor and delivery, Calvin's heart rate never faltered. It stayed steady and strong the entire time. He came out 7lbs 8oz, 21 inches long, and calm as a cat in a patch of sun.
Recovery time for c-sections is a day or two longer than "normal" delivery so we stayed in the hospital until Father's day (Jesse: you're welcome). I am continuing to recover slowly; every day I am able to move around a little bit more. Although the whole process was a bit of a nightmare that I would never EVER want to experience again, I would do it in a heartbeat if it meant getting another sweet angel like Calvin. It was all worth it. My sweet baby boy couldn't be more perfect. He is handsome, he has his daddy's mouth and chin, he has my eye brows, the cutest little upturned nose, and the most expressive eyes. He loves to cuddle and he smiles a lot (not just when he has gas). Calvin doesn't really cry often, mostly when he's cold or is pushing a grumpy out. We even have to wake him up for feedings because he is such a good sleeper. He has a hearty appetite and is gaining weight fast.
Calvin is such a blessing in our home. I keep asking myself, "how did I get so incredibly lucky?" I feel like I must be stealing someone elses' blessings, one single person shouldn't be THIS blessed. I have the most amazing husband who loves and supports me; he is so willing to help in any way possible and I never hear him complain (even when I forget to take my pain meds and I'm a bit difficult to deal with). He makes me want to be a better person. Before our son came into this world I thought life absolutely could not get any better, but now that our baby is here I feel overwhelmed with gratitude. Calvin is a perfect little baby, and we love him so much. I could just sit and look at him all day long and not get tired of it (which, for the record, I have). I love his little facial expressions and how when he starts to whimper all I have to do is hold him close and he calms right down. I had no idea that I could love someone so much.
Although we definitely don't sleep as much as we used to, and personal hygiene has become touch and go, I couldn't be happier. Life is good and we feel blessed to have this little angel in our home.
Calvin with the hiccups:
 |
| At the hospital waiting to be checked in |
 |
| When I am FINALLY able to eat... I was a hungrysaurus |
 |
| all clean! |
 |
| first time home |
 |
| he loves daddy kisses |
 |
| I love his cute cry face |
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Swimming with Katie Jane
Today we took my adorable little niece, Katie Jane, swimming at our pool. We had lots of fun hanging out with her she has the biggest imagination ever, I love it! Anyways I just thought I'd post a few of the pictures, plus it shows how huge I am at 36 weeks along.
Maternity Shoot by Still Life Studios
I am seriously amazed at the raw talent that the photographers at Still Life Studios have. Dani did an absolutely amazing job on my maternity shoot. I always think yeah I'm definitely NOT a photogenic person, but by some miracle (or just a lot of talent) Still Life always makes me feel good about myself. I look at the pictures that they take and I think hmmmm I actually look pretty dang good, why can't every picture I take look like Still Life took them of me? I'm so so so grateful that I have phenomenal photographers to capture these precious moments in my life. We are expecting our little bundle of joy the 27th of June, and we are planning on naming him Calvin Henry Pettit. He's already a VERY active little boy....seriously this kid never sleeps, so we are excited to have our hands full when he comes. Here are just a few. . . (I could not narrow it down more than this) of my favorites.
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