Amber and Dan's Blog

On July 13, 2011 our sweet little Brookie turned 2! It's amazing how quickly these 2 years have gone.
Brooke is a very sweet, snuggly kid and loves to make us smile and laugh. She adores her big sister Megan and her favorite thing to do is whatever Megan is doing. Brooke is adjusting well (so far) to her new little sister and loves to be near "her" baby. Brooke is a fearless fish and has really improved on her swimming skills this summer. She loves to sing (especially "I Know You" from Sleeping Beauty and "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam). She can count to 10 and say her ABCs. She has a massive vocabulary and has a great ability to repeat almost any phrase she hears. She loves her 2 purple blankies that Granny made and always falls asleep sucking her right thumb and holding her blankie up to her cheek. She loves going to nursery and playing with Maddy (her best friend other than Megan). She is a champion sleeper and still naps for 3 plus hours every afternoon. She goes to bed early around 7 pm and would probably sleep until 7:30 am if her roommate didn't wake her up around 5:30 am most days! She is also potty trained as of 2 weeks ago. Her first day in big girl pants was June 27, 2011 and she picked it up quickly (even at night!). (*Special thanks here to my friend Ashley--she practically potty-trained Brooke for us since we started the week Mom passed away and she had Brooke over so much.) We love you Brooke-a-boo and are so thankful to have you in our family.

It was a pretty low-key birthday. Dan and Megan did our weekly grocery run in the morning while Brooke and I took care of Candace. We stayed home all day and opened presents after dinner. Thank goodness she's only 2 and didn't care that we had such a quiet day!

Taking care of her baby...

What a sweet mama and sister...

Kisses for Candace...

New flip-flops (sparkle-shoes as she calls them)...

And not to forget the sweet 2 day old...

Found the thumb (for a minute at least)...

I love how she holds her teeny hands together!

Brooke on July 14 in her new outfit. ADORABLE 2 year old!

Trying to hold up those elusive 2 fingers...

Well...8 is close enough.

Classic Brooke--excited gasp face!

Her second day as a 2 year old was a little more exciting--swimming with Daddy, coloring, opening presents on skype with Grandma and Papa--a great day.

She also tested out Candace's bassinet and gave it her stamp of approval. (thankfully the bassinet survived the crazy jumping 2 year old)

Snuggles with my sweet Candace on July 14.

Love that little face. 3 days old already.

I've always loved 7/11. Who doesn't want a cherry slurpee on a hot afternoon? Crazy people that's who.

So of course, when our third sweet little girl was born on 7/11, there was suddenly a new name in the running! Slurpee! But I suppose we're sentimental...we stuck with Candace in honor of my mom, Candy.

For the video version of the pictures that follow, look here. It's lovely. My sister Jamie takes great pictures and puts together a mean video.

Here's the long, wordy version...because let's be honest, I blog so I can print a blog book each year and count that as my family scrapbook. So I better record a few more details for all posterity other than the birthdate :)

I was feeling good on July 10--I was 38 weeks exactly. We went to church, we came home for afternoon naps, and we ate dinner at home. After the bedtime routine around 7 pm, Dan and I decided to watch Harry Potter 7 part 1 in preparation for seeing part 2 on Friday when it came out. At 8:45, I had a contraction. Then another at 9:17. Then 9:27. Then 9:35. Then 9:45. Then 9:53. Then I downloaded a contraction timer app :).

The movie ended around 10 pm and we got ready for bed. I called my friend Ashley to let her know I'd been having contractions and we might be calling her if they didn't stop.

The contractions kept coming. I was trying not to get too excited, so I got into bed and tried to sleep. I kept using the iTouch to keep track of things. I realized at 11 pm that my contractions had been coming every 3 to 5 minutes for that entire hour. I decided to get up and shower and shave my legs and blowdry my hair and put on makeup (I just love feeling a little put together when I go into labor). The contractions kept coming--they weren't painful, and they were lasting anywhere from 30 to 60 seconds (or the occasional one that lasted 15 minutes...or maybe I forgot to tell my contraction timer it had stopped). At this point it was about 11:40 and I woke Dan up. He decided to shower too (I guess we're worried the hospital will look at us funny if we come in all disheveled?) and I packed the last minute things in my hospital bag. With Megan and Brooke, I didn't have my hospital stuff ready until sometime during my 38th week, but when I was already at a 2 1/2 at my most recent appointment for this pregnancy and she stripped my membranes, I panicked that it might work so I washed all the baby clothes and packed the hospital bags.

I called the doctor around 12:00 am. The on-call nurse was hilarious. I told her I'd been having contractions every 3 to 5 minutes and that they'd started 3 hours ago. She was calm and cool until she asked if this was my first baby. I told her it was my third, at which point she said, "What?!? You need to get here. You need someone else to drive you. How far are you from the hospital? It's better to call an ambulance than have your baby on the way!" Listen to me crazy nurse lady. This isn't my first rodeo. If I can happily hang out with contractions coming that often, I'm nowhere near to crowning. In fact, I was just hoping I'd have progressed past 2 1/2 so they'd keep me at the hospital.

We dropped the girls off at Ashley's around 12:30 am (thank goodness for great neighbors!) and made our way to the hospital. Traffic is quite nice at that time of night and we got to the hospital a little before 1 am.

Here I am at check-in: 38 and 1/7 weeks

Just for fun, a little comparison--with Brooke at 39 and 3/7

And with Megan, at 39 and 4/7

I've always been interested in natural birth (but had great experiences with my first two having an epidural). I'd often thought that if I wanted to go natural, the third baby would be the time to try it--labor should be pretty short, pushing pretty fast, etc. So I re-read Hypnotbirthing: the Mongan Method during my fifth or sixth month of this pregnancy with every intention of spending time every day practicing the relaxation techniques. But for some reason, my priorities completely changed during May and June and I didn't practice at all (a family crisis will do that). But I decided to still give it a go. So we got all settled in the hospital, met our night nurse, and told her our plans for a natural birth. She was very supportive. Being a nurse, I still let them start an IV--I just feel better having IV access and thought anything that made me feel more calm would probably be beneficial.

The nurse checked me around 1:30 am and I was at a 4 1/2. Wahoo! Progress. I was using the deep-breathing-during-contractions technique taught in the hypnobirth book and was feeling great. The on-call doc came in around 3 and asked if I wanted my water broken and I was all for it. So he broke my water and checked me and I was still about 4 1/2 or 5 cm. The next three hours were so quiet. Dan fell asleep and I was able to rest between contractions (which continued to come every 3 minutes and last 30 to 60 seconds). Our nurse pretty much left us alone for a while.

There was a channel of the TV that looked like the stars screensaver (you know, the black background with the stars moving away endlessly) and played really quiet classical music. I had that on very low. I felt calm and peaceful. I was so excited to meet this little baby and felt like my Mom was close by. I thought a lot about Mom and wondered if she was hugging my little one as she was about to embark on her life. I had told Mom that if Candace was late, I'd blame her for keeping her in heaven a little longer. She'd laugh as I said that. But here I was, 2 weeks before my due date. That seems more like Mom. She hated nothing more than being overdue with a baby and I'm sure if she had any influence on Candace's birth, she would have wanted her to come earlier for my sake!

I remembered Brooke's birth almost exactly two years ago and how fun labor was. I got my epidural, Mom and my sister Carrie came to the hospital, and we played Pinochle while waiting for Brooke to arrive. Mom LOVED being part of the births of her grandchildren. She reverenced the miracle of life and relished the opportunity to witness the entrance of a new child into the world. So being in that room with JUST Dan and I felt a little empty. I had called Dad and my sister Jamie when I got to the hospital (Carrie was out of town). But Jamie couldn't leave her nursing baby during the night. And she felt bad leaving Dad to get 6 kids ranging in age from 14 years to 9 months up in the morning, dressed, and fed. So she planned to come around 8:30 in the morning and we both expected my baby to beat her there!

While I was continuing to manage my contractions well and they were becoming more intense, I wasn't progressing very fast. I got checked around 5 am and was at a 5 to 6. I was hoping for more like an 8! The contractions continued to come every 3 minutes like clock work. Because the baby wasn't fully engaged on the cervix, I couldn't walk around like I wanted to either. But I continued to stick to my plan.
Around 7:30 in the morning, the night doc went home and my own doctor came in to check on me. She told me I was at "maybe a 6". MAYBE? She asked how I felt about some pitocin to speed things along (I'd had pitocin with my other labors). I realized that while I was doing fine at the moment, I was TIRED! I'd been having contractions for 11 hours already and who knew how long this would take? So I decided that at 12 hours, if I wasn't complete, I'd get an epidural and we could start some pitocin.

Mid-contraction, after almost 12 hours of labor (no epidural yet)

Relaxed between contractions...

Jamie arrived around 8:30 in the morning and started documenting things with pictures. And at 8:45 (12 hours on the dot!). I called my new nurse (and her nursing student) and said I was ready for an epidural and some pitocin. My anesthesiologist came right in and the epidural went great. I was all settled in with that and started pitocin around 9 am. **One funny thing with the epidural was that when the doctor came in to do it, she asked if I was ok with a student observing the placement. I said sure as long as the student didn't touch me (I don't want an amateur practicing on me when I'm in labor!). She assured me he wouldn't, so in he came. He looked really young, but I figured he was in med school or CRNA school or something so I asked him what he was studying. He said, "Oh! Well, I think I want to study medicine someday. I'm only 17". Seriously? Here I am thinking I'm helping some grad student gain some experience and come to find out I'm giving some teenaged kid in a health professions class an eyeful. Next time, I'll ask a few more questions!**

Dan, Jamie, and I had fun chatting, talking and occasionally tearing up while talking about Mom. I tried to rest for a while. Around 10 am, the baby's heart rate started dropping during contractions and popping right back up after(usually this is because the cord is getting pinched somewhere during the contraction), so my nurse had me change positions a few times. At 10:30 or so the heart rate continued to drop with contractions, so my nurse had me put on oxygen (this happened with Megan too, so I wasn't overly concerned), then checked me--guess what--complete!

My "I know I look like an idiot with this on my face" smile...

But of course, my doctor had just scrubbed in on a surgery so we decided that as long as baby was doing well, we could wait for her to be done. At 11, the baby's heart rate started dropping with contractions again, so we called the on-call doc. It was the same doctor who delivered Brooke! I really liked him with Brooke, so I was happy to have him again for the delivery. He even recognized us.

Pushing this time was harder than it had been with the other two. With Megan and Brooke, my epidural had been going for longer and had worn off just a bit. I had been able to feel all the way down my left side and leg. This was great because I could feel just enough to know when to push but not enough to be uncomfortable. But this time, my epidural was only 2 hours old and I could NOT feel a thing! AND, they couldn't find me a mirror (really? there had to be one somewhere), and I missed having that. But nonetheless, I started pushing around 11:15 am and about 3 contractions later, out she came! She was born at 11:26 am. With a tight nuchal cord times 2 (that's nurse-speak for "cord around the neck"). No wonder her heart rate had been a little screwy! Dan cut the cord and they put her right on my belly to rub her down. She pinked right up and was just the cutest thing ever. They let me hold her like that for about 10 or 15 minutes before weighing her and doing her eyes and thighs (again with the nurse-talk, sorry I can't help myself...that's erythromycin eye ointment and vitamin k injection).

She weighed in at 7 lbs, 6 oz. and was 19.5 inches long (weight was halfway between Megan and Brooke, length was same as Brooke, 1 in. longer than Megan). Just like with Megan and Brooke, we fell in love with our little Candace at first sight. We were so happy to have her join our family!

Welcome to the world little one...

Isn't that bow darling? Our night nurse made it just by taking one hat, cutting two slits in it, and sliding another hat in the slits. Too cute.

In Daddy's arms for the first time...

After delivery, I was SO tired. As soon as they took Candace to the nursery for her assessment and bath and such, I fell asleep. Dan was exhausted too, so he headed home to nap before he picked up our girls. I got to my postpartum room around 3 pm and we had our first visitors around 4 pm! Grandpa and Uncle Tyler came to see our sweet little one. It was great to have them, but it was emotional for all of us. I felt as if we were all waiting for Mom to walk in the room to meet this new grandbaby. We decided that the reason why I was progressing slowly through the night was because Mom had a few more things to tell Candace before she came. I also think if Mom really was helping decide the timing, that she slowed things down just so Jamie could be there. She was really happy to know before she left us that Jamie was staying through the summer and would be there when I had my baby.

Grandpa inspecting his 12th grandchild...

Grandpa, Uncle T, and Candace

Dan and the girls arrived around 4:30 pm. Megan was thrilled, Brooke was a little nervous but loved looking at the baby and was happy to see me. They only stayed about 30 minutes before they were driving us nuts and Dan took them home for the night.

Shad and Amy stopped by just before Dan left too. They brought balloons (Megan and Brooke were in heaven).

Later in the evening, around 7 pm, Jamie came up with all her kids.

Catherine (9 yrs)

Adam (4 yrs)

Madelyn (6 yrs--ALMOST 7)

Julianne (11 yrs)

Sweet angel baby...

My big sister Jamie with Candace and me. While I'd seen many, many births from when I was working and my sister Carrie had been at most of the births of Jamie and me, this was the first birth Jamie had ever witnessed that was not her own! She decided she was a fan--it's just as thrilling, but the recovery is much better :).

Sweet baby getting ready for bed her first night in the world!

Sleep well little one, sleep well. And she did. She was a great nurser from the get-go and while she was up every 2 to 3 hours, she was pretty good about going back to sleep in between. It was a MUCH more restful night for me than the last!

Friday, July 15, 2011

"Parry Hotter"

Thursday, July 14, 2011

2 Years Old!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Bringing Home Baby

Who does she look like?

Monday, July 11, 2011

Slurpee...