Changes.

Wow...it's incredible how much your life changes when you have someone that depends on you 110%. Your life revolves around them - like it or not - whether you're ready or not. I never thought I could love anyone more than I love my husband, but I do. I would do anything for this little life...

On being a paranoid driver...

I don't think I've actually heard a song on the radio in the last 2 weeks, especially when I'm driving by myself. If I hear a cough, I focus in to make sure she's not choking. If she squeaks (which she does frequently...), I freak out thinking she can't breathe. Just last week actually, Michael and I were on our way to get our taxes done. Julia coughed and squeaked a couple of times, and Michael was like Superman getting into the back seat to check on her. I don't think I've ever seen him move so fast. Of course, she was fine...but still!

I am so aware of what other drivers are doing now too. Checking my mirrors a lot more frequently, making sure people behind me are slowing down or stopping fast enough. I watch intersections for as long as I can before going through them...I watch oncoming traffic to make sure that someone doesn't cross the center line towards me. Rarely do I feel "safe" anymore when driving with my little girl in the back seat.

On sleep deprivation...

Thankfully, we're not losing a TON of sleep yet. Julia eats every 2 hours during the day, and close to every 3 hours at night. Some nights, she will actually go right back to sleep after her feedings, and I'm the only one that loses out on about 3 hours of sleep each night. Michael has been wonderful. He'll get up with her if she starts to fuss after I've already fed her, but there are nights like last night, that she doesn't go back to sleep after her 3 am feeding. Those are the nights that I usually spend on the couch, and she sleeps with me. We are NOT making a habit of her snuggling with me on a regular basis though!

On my habits...

I can't even count how many times I have to remind myself to eat during the day. I'm trying to keep my calorie and fluid intake up so that she can eat, but it's really a challenge sometimes! Even getting a shower is a challenge too. I'm working on it though. It kind of blends in with the whole being paranoid thing. If I'm in the shower, and she's in her bassinet, I might not hear her if she starts to choke or something. *Sigh*

Either way...I wouldn't give it up. It's hard. It's stressful. It's trying. It's wonderful.

St. Patty's Day and GREAT weather!

I know it's not going to last, but...WOW it was gorgeous yesterday! And Tuesday...and it will be again today. I'm LOVING the gorgeous weather! Can't wait for it to be nice all the time. =) I missed my St. Patrick's Day post, so here it is...I got this from a gentleman that is also sponsoring in the RCIA program this year. He is awesome for stuff like this...and can answer just about any question anyone has! He's great!

Lorica of Saint Patrick

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation.

I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth and His baptism,
Through the strength of His crucifixion and His burial,
Through the strength of His resurrection and His ascension,
Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom.

I arise today
Through the strength of the love of cherubim,
In obedience of angels,
In service of archangels,
In the hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In the prayers of patriarchs,
In preachings of the apostles,
In faiths of confessors,
In innocence of virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.

I arise today
Through the strength of heaven;
Light of the sun,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of the wind,
Depth of the sea,
Stability of the earth,
Firmness of the rock.

I arise today
Through God's strength to pilot me;
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's hosts to save me
From snares of the devil,
From temptations of vices,
From every one who desires me ill,
Afar and anear
Alone or in a multitude.

I summon today all these powers between me and evil,
Against every cruel merciless power that opposes my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom,
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft or idolatry,
Against spells of women and smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul.
Christ shield me today
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that reward may come to me in abundance.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, in invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through a confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation

St. Patrick (ca. 377)

God bless!

The Lil Bean has arrived!!!

Procrastination really doesn't pay off, but sometimes it doesn't even matter!!! I had every intention on having the baby blanket finished before the baby arrived, but I was unsuccessful. I can make it smaller if I want to, but I think I'm going to keep plugging away at it today to see how far I can go. I have another 8 hours or so before I go home, so I should at LEAST be able to finish the green squares...

**WARNING**
Some of this post may be TMI, so proceed at your own risk. =)

Anyways...as you see above, the baby is here!!! Monday morning I got up 3 times between 1:30 and 3:30 am with some gassy pains that started feeling crampy , and the urge to pee...a lot. :-) When I got up at 3:30 to go pee, I noticed that the water wasn't "normal" looking. Being a first time mom, I did what probably any first time mom would do...turned around, squatted down to look, and leaked on the rug!!! I figured it was my water, but wasn't positive because it looked like my plug had come out earlier, and I didn't know if it was "still" coming out. I went back into the bedroom, woke my husband up, and said "Honey, don't freak out, I think my water just broke, I'm going to take a shower. Go back to sleep." He stayed in bed for a bit...awake...but got up around 4:45 after I had told him I was going to call the doc and said "did you call?" I told him I had called the hospital, but not the doc yet. He gave me "the look". Anyways...called the on call doctor, and he told me to head in and get checked out.

We headed to the hospital, and when we got to triage, they checked me out and confirmed that my membranes had ruptured. It was about 6:45 am. My first thought was "Holy crap...this is happening!!!" They monitored my contractions for a bit, and they were anywhere from 2 to 10 minutes apart. I got into the hospital gown, and we headed to our L&D room. I labored there for about 4.5 hours, walking around, breathing through it...waiting...

My birth plan consisted mainly of having this baby naturally - no drugs - and I would ask for an epidural if I really felt like I needed it. Well, contractions started getting pretty intense, but I was handling it pretty well! They came in at 11:30 am to check me, and said that I was 3 cm, 100% thinned, and 0 station. I was stoked. I asked for something to take the edge off though, so they gave me some nubane . I labored a bit more, and by 1:30, the contractions were getting pretty difficult to bear for me. They came in to check me again, and I hadn't made any progress...I was still at 3 cm. I had a couple contractions that were "off the charts" as my hubby put it, and after one long one (about 3 minutes total with dips included) put me in tears I said to him "you better get someone in here...there's no way I can do this on my own." They sent anesthesia in, and they gave me an epidural. Wow...did that help. I don't regret getting it one bit...yes, I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't do it on my own, but I'm ok with it now. :-) 30 minutes later they came back to check me again and I had progressed to an 8-9!!! The pressure I was feeling was almost as bad as the pain I had felt from a couple of the contractions, especially in my right hip/pelvic area. I started pushing at about 4:30, but was having a hard time getting the baby to come down much. After about an hour, and the doc repeatedly saying "Wow, she's strong..." about my pushing, they had to call the OR and have them on standby because the baby kept getting stuck behind my pelvic bone. Once I heard that, I found some kind of super human strength, and managed to get the baby past the bone! As bean was crowning, Michael said "I can see the head"...to which I replied..."No shit sherlock !" Everybody laughed!!! They did have to cut me a little bit too. The head came out, then one more push and the shoulders came out...a couple seconds later I heard..."It's a girl! Time of birth 5:55 pm." I was blown away...I couldn't believe I had done it! She was absolutely perfect and beautiful. She weighed 5 lbs 2 oz, was 18" long and scored 9/9 on her APGAR's . Since the due date they were calculating off of my last period was 3/30/10, she was one day shy of full term, and was considered a preemie. The Little Lady did have to spend some time under the heat lamps because she was having a hard time maintaining her body temp, but otherwise was doing great. She was nursing like a champ, and is absolutely, positively PERFECT. Her daddy and I are absolutely smitten with her!!!

Meet Little Miss Julia!!!

The first night in the hospital, and Tuesday during the day weren't too bad. Julia had lots of visitors, and was just soaking up the attention! Tuesday night was a little more rough. Michael had gone home to get some sleep, so I was there by myself with the little miss. I really didn't mind because it gave me a lot of bonding time with her. She was up for the majority of the night unless she was touching me in one way or another. She wouldn't sleep in her bassinet very well, but would fall asleep the second she was near my heart. Julia decided at 11 pm that nursing every 30 minutes for 3 hours would be fun...LOL I wound up calling the nurse at 2 to have her taken to the nursery for a little while so I could get some sleep. 5:20 am rolled around, and I woke up, went to the bathroom, and headed down to the nursery to get her and bring her back to the room with me. Michael got back to the hospital around 8ish...I think...can't remember exactly. The pediatrician came in to check on Julia, and everything seemed good! Since she was considered a preemie, though, they wanted me to take her back in on Thursday just to follow up with her weight and such. They discharged us Wednesday afternoon!

Going home...

One of the things they wanted checked while I was at the pediatricians office was her biliruben (sp?) numbers. The MIL and I headed to another part of the hospital (peds office is actually IN the hospital) to get some blood drawn. Let me tell you something...Julia was the talk of the town!!! Everyone that walked by commented on how tiny and adorable she is, young and old alike. It was really neat.

The results of the bili levels wasn't that great. She was at an 18.3 which is pretty high so they set me up for a 24 hour appointment to have her under the bili lights. We wound up bringing her back to the hospital...again...and dropped her off at 5:30 to get treatments started. We headed back home to eat dinner with his parents, I packed an overnight bag for me and her, and we came back to the hospital. Her levels have gone down quite a bit! They ran her vitals and checked her levels at 1:30 this morning, and the number had gone down to 13. They checked yet again around 7:30 or 8 I think, and they had gone all the way down to 10.5!!! My baby girl is getting better!!! YIPPEE!

Check out the new shades =)


DIVA!!!

I am so incredibly in love with this little life...I wouldn't trade her for the world.........

The "week late" update

Yeah, I know...I said I would update sometime last weekend, but alas...I failed! Here is the update that should have been posted last week, along with the update for this week. =)

Last Friday (2/26) was my 29th birthday. I took the day off of work so I could chill out a bit. Yeah, me and chilling out lately don't really go together...anyhoo. I got some really pretty flowers and a cute card from my hubby. =)



During the day, I went out and checked out some day care centers for when the little one arrives. I found a place that I really really like. This place is so cool though. I want to go there!!! They have wonderful hours, parent play dates, and a play place that would put 15 McDonald's or Burger Kings to shame!!! We'll see how it works out though. It's relatively reasonable, price-wise, and they have cameras in the rooms...so if I want to see the lil bean, all I have to do is get online! I LOVE that part...and the fact that they keep the infant-teacher ratio to 2-1; much better than the 4-1 at the second place I went to...is 4-1 even legal???

Anyways. That night we went to dinner with my girlfriend, K, and her hubby. Her birthday was on Wednesday (2/24), so it was kind of a joint birthday celebration! It was fun. The food was o.k., but not really worth the money in my opinion. I think I would have been happier with good old Olive Garden...but it's all good. K and I got complimentary ice cream sundaes. =)

Saturday brought lots of shifting, moving, loading, driving, and unloading. Ever since I found out I was pregnant, I've known that we needed to "downsize" the living room. So! On Saturday, we loaded up both end tables, the coffee table, the love seat and the entertainment center between my Jeep and my sisters truck, and took it all to hers and moms apartment. We did replace the 2 end tables with slightly smaller, non-glass end tables that have a shelf on the bottom and a small drawer to keep stuff in. Now, we just need to get a smaller corner unit, a new TV, and we'll be all set! The unit we had stuck out probably 4' from the corner, and took up TONS of space. It was pretty much the kind we needed though since we have a flat screen tube TV (BEAST of a thing...). Now, the TV is sitting on the floor. As is the cable box and dvd/vcr. The stuff that was on top of the entertainment center is sitting on a bench along the wall...



I do miss having the coffee table to put our laptops on, but it's totally not that big of a deal! We have so much more room in here now, it's not even funny!

Sunday, we went to church, stopped at Michael's so I could get some more yarn for the baby blanket, came home, ate lunch, made a grocery list, went grocery shopping, came home, and parked our butts on the couch to watch the US play Canada in Men's Olympic Hockey. WOW!!! What a game that was!!! I don't think I left the couch much more than to go to the bathroom 10 times, and eat dinner! Still didn't feel rested on Monday though. Go figure.

Wednesday I had my first weekly doc's appointment. Remember the update that I mentioned freaking out about my weight when I was on the phone with my girlfriend? Well...that 163 came true this time! I'm o.k. with it though. I'm getting to the point that I can really accept what I'm putting on. And, it's not like I'm gaining a TON of weight. I was 36 weeks 3 days at my appointment, and had gained 27 lbs. I really can't complain about any part of this pregnancy. It's been relatively uneventful, and I'm not too uncomfortable...yet. The doctor found bean's heart beat right away, and it was pumping along at 144 bpm! I love that sound... Now, having said all of that...I'm ready to be done being pregnant. Not because I'm miserable, or in pain, or anything like that...I just want to know if this baby is a mini-me, or a mini-Michael!!! Team green is a tough team to be on!!!

And now...the blanket update. I've been plugging away (mostly), trying to get this blanket done before the baby comes. I have officially completed all of the white and cream colored blocks, and I now have 12 green blocks done (2 are not in the pic), so check out the pics!

The white blocks...


The cream blocks...


Most of the green blocks...


The "big block" that I could put together right now...actually, with the other 2 green blocks, I could add another row on 2 sides. =)


And this is a picture of what's remaining...


I timed myself...and one block takes a little more than 30 minutes (I'm still kind of slow with it sometimes, but I'm o.k. with that...), so in essence, I could have all of the blocks done in about 7 hours. I think the whole blanket could feasibly be done in about 12 hours. It's just a matter of me finding the motivation and buckling down.

Good night. It's now 9 pm, and I...am...sleepy!!!

Baahahhahahahhaaa

Ok...this is hilarious...

Update coming...

I will have an update shortly. I didn't get to it this weekend because we were busy the majority of the day Saturday, and I was plugging away on the blanket Sunday (along with watching the Gold medal hockey game...USA vs Canada)! =) I have new pictures of the blanket, and will be including the birthday update.

26 days and counting...