Merry Chrimas!

I find that as a parent now, my language has changed. It's perfectly normal for my regular conversation with my husband to involve the words 'geeeenoooooooo' or 'ahden' or 'bwead?' and it this time of year....Chrimas. Kenzie could never say Christmas the first year so the holiday became known in our family as Chrimas. So Merry Chrimas from our family to yours!

 

A beautiful Day for corndogs and icecream

 I took 'supermom' out of the closet today and decided to take the kids out to a local foodstand for some lunch.  As a professional amateur photographer i immediately thought about how great the lighting is outside at said stand and decided it would be a great opportunity to FINALLY get some pics of my own kids!  Well the food bribery worked for them to look at me and Kenzie only asked me if i was done with the pictures twice...an overall success if you ask me.  Baby Owen was along for the ride but unfortunately had to sit out the festivities....he was devastated.

Baby Owen has arrived!

And now for a more personal post...My baby boy has arrived!  Mr Owen was born on 8/21 at 6:50am at 6lbs12oz and 19 inches.  I was only 37 weeks along to the day so I guess that makes him borderline late term preemie and full term.  I am always fascinated with birth stories and think they are amazing so for those who care...i'll post mine.  For those who don't, please continue to the bottom of the post where you will get a dose of baby 'awww.'

First off....anybody who knows me knew that i was absolutely miserably huge with this pregnancy and was convinced that i would be carrying a 10lb baby at 39 weeks or so.  So Joel and I jokingly decided that since with every induction of the other kids, i was contracting on my own, so theoretically all I have to do is pick a date, and i'll have the baby that day!  Well...we picked Monday August 20th for THE DAY.  I woke up on Monday around 2am to go pee, but walking down the hall lost control and started leaking fluids.  I sorta thought maybe...just maybe it was my water breaking but from everything I've read it's supposed to start and then just keep leaking non stop.  Well it stopped after that initial gush and I didn't get much more. Around 830 i called my dr and made an appt to be checked just in case. At the appt she checked my cervix and said it was still high and closed so it was def. not amniotic fluid. Picked up the kids from my friend's house and noticed a little more leaking which became annoying really because if I was in fact losing that much bladder control then i'd have to go purchase adult diapers.  So I went home and started leaking more every time i would lay down/stand up or do anything strenuous. I called the dr again around 330 and the nurse said to wait until 5 and call just before the office closed and she would call my dr if it was still happening. So at 5 it was still happening every 30 mins or so..little gush here and there. My dr was still very doubtful sounding on the phone but left it up to me so we went to L&D at the hospital. They check me in and do the 'paper test' for amniotic fluid and sure enough...while checking me it gushes and the test is definitely positive. They call my dr and believe it or not she still doesn't believe them and has the head nurse test me AGAIN!! So she does and again...positive. My cervix was like a 1 and still really high but they check me in around 6pm and are instructed by the doc to hook me up to pitocin, which i needed since i wasn't contracting AT ALL. I was trying to go pain med free and everything was going fine for the first few hours. I was able to get up and move around on the birthing ball and stand/squat as needed. They kept losing the baby's heartrate on the monitor when i would be standing up so they kept asking me to lay in bed but with so much pitocin it made the contractions 10x worse and unbearable. The nurse called my dr to see if i could just stay out of bed because baby's heartrate was fine and they could pick him up every once in a while to check things anyways. I was getting annoyed because there were NO signs of distress with baby and my dr seemed to be more worried about him than even I was...and it was MY baby!!  This is where things went bad....my dr not only said no, stay in bed, but also told the nurse to up my pitocin again...to level 50.  The nurse was visibly annoyed and i was furious.  I was already contracting every 2 mins and like i said...they were AWFUL. So i stand up anyways to get through a contraction and the dr calls my room on the phone to talk to me. She says, 'your water has already been broken for a really long time and at 24hrs you run a large risk of infection so we need to get this baby out and you're dialating so slowly...this is your third baby you should have had him by now!' I'm thinking...well i'm sorry to disappoint you but i don't exactly have control over when this kid comes out?! I was only like 4 cm after 8 hrs or so of pitocin. At this point i started another contraction and told her to hang on. My husband picked up the phone and she gave him the same talk. He told her that i couldn't handle anymore pitocin being upped. She then tells him, 'well if you guys don't get this baby out in 2 hours i'm going to TAKE it out.' My husbands eyes got huge and he said ok well then we'll find another dr, and hangs up on her. Dr apparently called back to the nurses station and actually told them to disconnect everything and SEND ME HOME. I was furious obviously but had enough things to worry about. The nurse stopped the pitocin for a few and they called the on-call OB who instructed them to cut my pitocin in half to level 24, and let me continue but add some antibiotics since my water had been broken over 24hrs. Since i was still only at 4cm, hadn't eaten in over 12 hours and was so tired (2am ish) i opted for an epidural at that point. Everything kept progressing just fine, i got a little nap, baby was handling everything fine and around probably 530 i was 8cm and they called the dr to head in. Maybe 5 mins later i felt immense pressure and said to check me again...sure enough...10cm! I had to wait 437 hours for the dr to get there..or so it felt and i was BEGGING to push the whole time. Eventually the dr rushed in, walked into a gown and said ok PUSH! About 45 mins later @ 6:50am Owen Henry was born...6lbs 12 oz 19'' 37 weeks to the day They laid him on my chest for a little while but he started to make grunting noises so they brought him to the warmer and nursery for monitoring of his oxygen levels. He ended up being in the nursery from birth until the next day at 5pm because he was breathing too fast and his oxy levels would fall. It was rough seeing him with all the monitors but it was for the best i know. I'm so glad that we ended up firing my dr and getting the on-call one because she was amazing, and handled everything SO well. So that's my story...i never plan to go back to my old OB. Threaten me with an un-neccessary c-section and then to send me home in full blown labor...nice try. We spoke to the president of the hospital and he already was made aware of the situation and plans to have a sit down with my dr to let her know that the decisions for my care are mine and mine alone....not hers.

So here is our little bitty teeny tiny mister...


In the nursery just after birth.  He looked so pitiful with all of those tubes and monitors!!

 

first night in the room with mom and dad...oddly enough he didn't stay in the 'bassinet' for very long...wonder why :)

 

4 days old and the photoshoots begin!

   

So many things...

Well i've kept up my facebook page with preview pics and updates, but haven't done much on here so i'll post a little random here and there update...

my boy loves his bear...

My daughter is crazy...

had a blast with a wedding dress re-shoot...

 a gift for a firefighter on father's day...

and while this was MONTHS ago....it's still a favorite :)

ETA:

when did my baby girl get this big?!

I've been a little down and out...

Well all I can say is thank GOD that this is my last pregnancy...I've been beat down through this one and i'm pretty much exhausted most of the time, which doesn't lend itself to a whole lot of photography.  But to keep my blog alive and kickin' i'll post some snapshots of my own family....

proof of life

So we have 2 children, soon to be 3.  We've all been locked inside for this extreme and frigid winter....lol.  With the one snow we had and all.  I however have been incredibly lazy with a triple threat of 1st trimester pregnancy, a heart condition that makes me tired, and anti-nausea meds that make me even more tired.  BUT...that is now passing and we have re-emerged.  So here is our proof of life....albeit in full sun so give me a break! :)

'post' of Christmas Past

Hahahaha....see what i did there...POST of Christmas past.  buh-dum-dum-chhhh!
ok anyways...i totally forgot that i took these pics and since i got a new memory card for Christmas i hadn't seen the old one for a few days...so here is my family...and even one of me and the hubs.  I know!  I got in FRONT of the camera!
on our way to church service on Christmas Eve...have you ever seen better lookin' kids?  I for one, have not.  :)

quick it's snowing!!

we had our first little snow shower on Monday this week.  I showed Kenzie and she immediately asked to go outside.  It was freezing and she was in a tutu (per the norm) and tshirt.  I threw a coat on her and out she went.  I knew the snow wouldn't last long so why not?!

My little boy

My son is a nutjob.  He is absolutely the most crazy, sweet, high maintenance, fireball of boyhood i've ever seen.  He breaks your heart with his tears, and makes you smile with his belly laughs.  He smiles with his whole face...if he's smiling his eyes are squinted shut and it's the cutest thing in the world.  In the middle of a play session, he'll stop for hug breaks.  His favorite movie is Shrek 2.  If he is fussy and I put in Shrek 2....the world is at peace again.  He'll stand 1 foot away from the tv screen and stare.  He bounces to the music and smiles with his whole face. He also is into anything and everything that he's not supposed to be into, and he has no idea what the word NO means.  His vocabulary is DAH.  It means, i need juice, i need milk, i'm tired, i'm hungry, get that, hold me, go away, play with me, my teeth hurt, i'm done, dad, and mom.  I love my baby boy...

my kids....relative fail....

So I attempted AGAIN to get good photos of my own children.  They are just to aware of the camera and know all too well to avoid it, lest they become printed photos on my wall.  So these are the few cute ones that I got...and of course my daughter NEVER looks at me!

in these two shots does she not appear to be telling Xander to do something bad, and then just sitting back to watch the magic unfold as he ponders if it's worth the spanking he'll get.

workin hard...

My boy turned 1 year old last week...so it's high time that he gets a job...right?

Milk aint cheap, and neither are diapers.  So we put him to work in the fields...

...but that wasn't really working out. 

He kept trying to eat the sticks and strike these GQ poses.  It weirded everyone else out.

So we decided that maybe he could make a living out of being really really ridiculously good looking...

we are in talks with Osh Kosh B'gosh right now for him to be their newest male model.

That's a lie.

But he's pretty cute right?

and then we have my daughter....she's just a mess all her own.
Lucky for her she's cute.
she doesn't have a job yet either but she does love rocks.
Anyone want to pay her to throw rocks up in the air?



one of these days....

one of these days i will actually set up another photo shoot...but until then, the snapshots keep me going.  We had a little pool party today for Xander's continuous bday celebration...

mom cut it out....i'm far too cool for this party...peace out!

1 year?! Where did that go!?

Exactly one year ago today i was probably at one of the most miserable times.  I was 38 weeks pregnant, I was struggling with SVT, It was 95 degrees every day, i was still working part time, and I was about the size of a narwhal...which is 3500 lbs for those who aren't narwhal specialists.  Aren't narwhals fascinating creatures?!  I've never seen one at Seaworld or a zoo or anything, so i thought they were extremely endangered, but no....no they are not.  In fact they aren't even threatened.  Barely even a concern!  So why don't we hear more about them!?  The wikipedia page on them is tiny!  It's like nobody cares!  I care narwhals....i care.
So anyways....my baby will be one year old in four days.  That's crazy!  We had a family get together tonight to celebrate and let him open his gifts in the comforts of home.  We couldn't all get together until around 6:30pm and bedtime is USUALLY 7 so we stayed home.  This little man had the best day and behaved SO well.  We had taken him to the zoo earlier so he had a blast looking at the animals and wandering the zoo...and then he got to open presents, and eat CAKE!  The best pictures of the boy came from cake eating....which was HILARIOUS with this hambone!

we will DEFINITELY be giving this another go with a better photo shoot in the future.  The boy loves his cake!! :)