2016

Wow, I only posted once in the entire year of 2015.  And that was Joel's birth story.  Now he is 15 1/2 months and a full blown toddler.  He is walking all over the place and into everything.  I may not have kept up with this blog very well, but at least I post to Instagram 2-3 times a week.  And then print it out using Chatbooks, which is kind of like scrapbooking, but cheating.  It is not as cute as a scrapbook, but it has pictures and captions, which is all that really matters.  I don't have much time to scrapbook, but whenever Joel does something I want to remember, I take 30 seconds to post it to Instagram, and when I hit 60 pictures, Chatbooks sends me a book of all of them.

Maybe I'll do better blogging now that Joel has a predictable and mostly consistent nap schedule.  He is still taking two shorter naps instead of one long nap.  He is not ready to give his morning nap up yet.  He is fussy and grumpy and tired by the time 10am rolls around.  I lay him down and he is usually asleep in about 5 minutes.

Joel really only says two words, hi and hot, and both have actions that go with them.  He waves when he says hi and holds his hand out when something is hot.  When Josh taught him hot, it was over a pot on the stove.  So now Joel holds his hand out to feel the heat.  He might not say a lot of words, but he sure knows how to communicate.  He can sign more, milk, food, and all done.  I'm working on please and thirsty next.  Otherwise, he uses sounds and gestures.  When he wants me to read him a book, he brings the book over, sits in my lap, grabs my hand and puts the book in it.  Lately his big thing has been pointing to everything while making a questioning sound to ask what it is.  He just doesn't feel the need to repeat it back to me.  He has such a distinct little personality and its fun to see how he sees the world.

That boy sure is busy though.  He is always moving.  Only in the last month or so, is he willing to sit down with me to watch Little Einsteins or something of the like.  He is to the point now where he understands what it is going on in the show and shows it.  Children really are little sponges, soaking up everything.

Another big change, probably the biggest, is that we bought a house in Humble, TX.  Josh is working on his PhD at the University of Houston and I was so tired of renting and living in apartments.  Now, Joel has room to play and has his own room.  And I wanted to provide stability for him, to have a house for him to grow up in.  Also, our mortgage for a 3 bedroom house is cheaper than our rent was for a one bedroom.  We also got a dog now that we have a house and a yard.  His name is Spencer and he is a 2 year old Border Collie/Black Lab mix.  He is a very mild mannered dog and is still afraid of men.  He's fine with Josh now, but took time to warm up to him.  It was the opposite with Joel.  He liked Joel in the beginning until Joel started petting (aka hitting) Spencer.  We are still working on the soft concept with Joel.  Spencer mostly just lays in his kennel or in the kitchen all day, until you take him on a walk.  Then he has a huge reserve of energy that comes out of nowhere.

Baby Joel

So I guess its time to finally write down Joel's birth story, for a record for me if nothing else.  Feel free to skip this post if you don't want to hear about his birth.

My due date (October 8th) came and went.  We really wanted him to come on his due date since our doctor was going out of town October 10th for a week.  You can't rush these things apparently, though try as we might.  I think we tried like every wives tale there was.  I ate dates, drank pineapple juice, walked up and down stairs, did lunges, went on long walks around the neighborhood and grocery stores every night, ate spicy foods, everything.  Nothing worked.  Stubborn little boy.  Like his father.

The hospital won't let the doctor induce until a week past your due date.  So we went in for an appointment with our doctor's father (they work at the same practice and she was out of town).  Finally, I was dilated enough to strip my membranes.  We were thinking that he would strip the membranes, go home, and hopefully go into labor that night.  That is not what happened.  When the doctor measured me, my belly had dropped.  Like a lot.  Which we took as a good sign that labor was imminent.  It was too low for our doctor's liking though.  He said my fluid felt low.  So they called the hospital to get me set up for a non stress test.  They didn't open for those tests until like 10.  Our appointment was at 8.  Once we got over to the hospital and checked in, we sat down for the non stress test.  They hooked up a monitor to hear his heartbeat.  They wanted to make sure his heartbeat went up and down to make sure he was moving around.  I tried eating fruit snacks (the only thing I had to eat that morning) and poking him to no avail.  So they get out something to wake him up.  It vibrated at a frequency that the baby doesn't love.  That got him moving around.  Then she did an ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid levels.  She checked in 3 spots and it was low in all spots.  So that was that.  I was getting checked in and taken upstairs to get induced.

After I got checked in and into a lovely hospital gown, Josh had to go pick his mom up from the airport.  My parents had flown in the night before, so they kept me company while Josh left.  They started me on the pitocin drip around 11.  Josh got back about noon.  At first, I was great, didn't feel a thing.  The contractions barely felt like cramps.  Then it progressed to menstrual cramps.  And then harder.  And then painful.  The only thing that was helping was sitting forward with Josh applying counter pressure to my knees.  One of the nurses told us about different positions to try.  We absolutely LOVED all the nurses we had at Intermountain Healthcare.  They were amazing.  Everyone was so nice and accommodating.  I've always heard that pitocin made contractions painful, and I can attest to that.  They were quite painful.  And I wasn't progressing very quickly.  Dilating very slowly.  Everyone thought it would last well through the night.  I could not handle 12 hours of those contractions.  So I gave in and got the epidural.  And let me tell you, that was blissful.  The pain was completely gone.  I was numb from about my hips down.  And chilly.  Luckily Josh had brought a blanket from home.  Hospital blankets are not very warm, or soft for that matter.  And after the epidural, I actually got to rest a little.  I was getting worn out already.  I never ate breakfast since our appointment at the doctor was so early and they wouldn't let me eat once I got checked into the hospital.  

After I got the epidural, I spent the rest of the day lying there, being turned from one side to the other every so often.  I watched movies, talked to Josh, played on my tablet.  Anything to pass the time.  And the nurses would come check my progress and Joel's heart rate.  And they broke my water sometime in there.  At one point, his heart rate was lower than they would like, since the contractions were too strong.  So they turned down the pitocin, and I got a shot to slow down contractions.  And they kept putting fluid in since they had already broken my water.  And inserted an internal monitor to his head instead of on my belly to more closely measure his heart rate and the strength of the contractions.  Before, he would move around and the heart rate monitor would be off.  I wasn't sure what was really going on, the nurses around me were all moving so fast, so busy.  I just know everything turned out okay, and went back to normal.

Around midnight, I got to 9 or 10cm.  But couldn't push since the doctor had an emergency cesarean section he had to perform.  So around 1am, he came in and checked and had me start pushing and left.  The nurse, Heidi, stayed with us and coached us through pushing.  I pushed for about an hour and a half with no progress.  And probably would have kept pushing like that if they hadn't noticed the meconium.  Joel had had his first bowel movement.  Which is bad since he was breathing it in through the amniotic fluid.  So then they had to get him out more quickly.  I ended up getting an episiotomy,  which helped immensely.  And Dr Glenn used suction to help a little bit to get him out, but luckily not forceps.  He told me the suction just gave the last 10 or 20 percent to help get him out.  He had a hard time getting his head through.  Even with the episiotomy, he still tore his way out a little bit.  Then they took him over to get cleaned off.  I got to see and hold Joel for like 10 seconds before he had to go to NICU to get the meconium out of his little lungs.  Josh went with him to the NICU where they put a sleep apnea machine on him to help get the meconium out.  Luckily, he only had to stay for a few hours.  We got to see him after his bath in the nursery and meet the pediatrician.  Then we got to take him back to our room with us and have skin to skin time that we couldn't do right after he was born.  He was so tiny and precious.  He seems huge now comparatively.  But it is also almost 4 months later.

No Dice

So I had another doctor appointment today.  Heartbeat is still strong.  My belly measured 37 cm today, so he's still growing.  Last week it was 36.  Turns out I'm not dilated at all.  So it has been Braxton Hicks or practice surges.  When the doctor was checking to see if I was dilated and feeling how big he was, he kicked her.  She was surprised and asked was that the baby?  That was a big kick.  He kicked me like twice.  I was just like, yeah.... That wasn't even the strongest he can kick or push back.  What can I say?  He doesn't like being touched or poked.  He is his father's son.

38 Weeks

Well as of today, I am 38 weeks pregnant.  Only 2 weeks left!  It feels like its gone by fast, but at the same time, I feel like I've been pregnant forever.  And this week we're pretty sure I started getting Braxton Hicks or practice surges as they are called in Hypnobirthing.  I don't feel anything, which is weird.  My belly just gets hard.  The only time I notice it is when I'm leaning forward or something and I can feel it against my ribs hard, instead of squishy.  I think at my next doctor appointment on Friday, I'll have her check to see if I am dilated at all.  Cause if not, then its just Braxton Hicks.  I want to at least make it through the rest of this month at work, but at the same time, I'm getting to the point of tired of being pregnant.  I miss being skinny and wearing my old clothes, especially jeans.  I miss being able to wear cute jeans.  I've had to start sleeping in Josh's clothes since a lot of my tshirts are not long enough to cover my bump all the way.

Birth Plan

So Josh and I have been taking a hypnobirthing class to prepare for our little Raptor's birth.  Class the other day was about making a birth plan or your birth preferences.  We actually missed that class.  Josh's work had rented out the aquarium in Draper that same night.  So we went to the aquarium instead.  There's another class on September 13th that I'm going to try to catch while Josh is running his second triathlon.  Making a birth plan/preferences is kind of overwhelming.  So many different options of what to do or not to do.  Josh was a little confused by the whole idea.  His idea of a birth plan is have the baby.  Which is kind of annoying trying to figure out what is and isn't important to me and the baby.  But it's also kind of adorable at the same time.  That is the best plan after all, to actually have the baby.  There's a 4 page list of different preferences in the back of the hypnobirthing book.  I've used that as my starting point and can eliminate from there.  I'm not quite as hippie as a lot of hypnobirthing moms.  And not as anti-hospital and medications.  I just wanted to avoid an epidural if I could.  And the main premise of hypnobirthing is relaxation and staying relaxed.  I won't say no to that.

45 minute call

Most calls at work are around 5-7 minutes.  Or should be.  Every once in a while, you'll get someone with a lot of questions or that takes forever finding their card or something.  Long calls are anything 15 minutes or over.  Tonight, I was talking to a lady for 45 minutes.  I closed the sale, but we were just chatting away about random things.  She was telling me about a car accident she'd been in, and all the problems she had from that.  That started when I asked if she was allergic to any medications.  I mentioned I was pregnant at one point, so she was telling me about the ultrasounds they had when she was pregnant and how they kept telling her the baby was a girl, when it turned out to be a girl.  They never got a good angle or shot on the ultrasounds.  And how her son only wears brand names so boys aren't always cheaper than girls.  All sorts of random things.  She was a funny lady. Apparently she was talking to a girl at the company that does our phone surveys and when she gave her date of birth, the girl said, dang you're old.  And she said and your momma didn't teach you any manners.  Apparently the girl hung up then and a supervisor called her back and apologized saying the girl said whatever came into her mind and was  few cans shy of a six pack.  I hope auditing has fun listening to all 45 minutes of that call.

Glucose Test

So I had to take my glucose test last week.  The test actually wasn't too bad.  The hardest part was fasting for the 3-4 hours before.  I was soo hungry.  I got there, gave them all my information and they gave me GlucoCrush.  I had to drink all 10oz of it in 5 minutes.  50mg of glucose.  I've heard different things from different people.  Some people really like it, others hate it.  For me, it just tasted like orange soda with extra syrup in it.  My doctor told me its common to get nauseous drinking that much sugar on an empty stomach.  It didn't make me feel sick at all, my hands were just a little shaky from all the sugar.  And Raptor was kicking like crazy.  I had to wait an hour and then get blood drawn.  Getting my blood drawn is no big deal now.  The first time I was a little nervous.  I had never had blood drawn before I got pregnant.

We had our doctor appointment this morning.  I was not excited for this appointment.  It was such a relief though when she told my glucose levels were good.  I did not want to be a gestational diabetic.  The doctor said I was slightly anemic, but nothing to be worried about.  I was barely below normal.  Josh is making me eat more red meat now.  In fact, we got burgers on the way back from the appointment.