Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Restoration Hardware Baby

Restoration Hardware has always been one of my favorite stores. Granted, we don't buy much from the store because it is expensive, but, I love going there to get ideas, and I have a bunch of stuff on my when I have enough money list...

Anyway - RH has started a gorgeous baby collection - bedding, cribs, etc. It's absolutely beautiful. This bedding set is my favorite at the moment, but alas it will not be adorning baby girl's room - since we already have her bedding set. If it ever gets ruined though...

Today I got an email from them (not sure how I got on their email list!) saying that if you register with them, you can get a coupon for $100 off a future purchase of $300 or more. Spending $300 isn't hard at RH...so this could be quite a deal - if you're going to shop there anyway. (offer ends 10/12, so get there soon!)

Let me know if you use the coupon - I'd love to hear about what you bought!

Monday, July 28, 2008

Labor

I'd heard the stories - second labors are faster than the first labor. But silly me, I asked my Nurse Practitioner if that was true, and she told me that second labors were often different, but there was no statistical evidence that they were faster than first labors. Well, statistics have never been my friends, and I should have known then that I was in for it...

Looking back on it - it was not so bad...in a crazy screaming like a banshee way of not being too bad!!!!!

So, I officially went into labor at about 4:30 in the morning. Nothing too serious, just a few contractions every 15 minutes or so. But they were quiet - not painful - just a slightly more serious Braxton Hicks.

That went on for a few hours, and at about 10am, the contractions started hurting a bit. Not too much, but a little bit. I knew from my first labor that once the contractions started to hurt, it was real. And, I was right.

The contractions started getting regular and they were causing me to use my breathing techniques, but they were still only every 15 minutes. Baby girl was coming home from my mother-in-laws at about 5:15 and I wanted to have a special night with her, so I called dear husband and made plans to take her to the pool and to our family Friday restaurant (Boston Market!!! - don't ask!)

While at the pool they started coming every 10 minutes and required pause and breathing - but still not too bad. We made it through the pool time, dinner and bedtime routine, it was all good. Baby girl went to sleep, and the contractions started for real. It was like they were waiting for Baby girl to go to sleep...

Anyway - about 8 o'clock they were 10 minutes apart and painful, but not too painful. By 9:00 they were about every 7-10 minutes apart and getting more painful - by 9:30 they were every 5 minutes apart and PAINFUL...but I knew there was worse to come.

I had my husband start timing them at that point because I thought that maybe I was going crazy. I thought - no, it's not possible that the contractions went from every 10 minutes to 5 minutes in an hour...yes, it was denial...but it was good for the moment.

By this point they were VERY PAINFUL! And, my husband confirmed that they were every 5 minutes apart. I told him to call his Mom and have her come over, and to call the MD and tell them that we were on our way in. I took a shower. By the time I got out they were every 5 minutes with the occasional one coming every 3 minutes, and Grandma was there.

After a perfunctory goodbye we were on the road. Only there was a major traffic jam on the way to the hospital so we had to go the long way. It was awful...the ride should have taken us 3 minutes, but it took 45 - an extra awful 15 minutes...I repeat awful...

We finally got to the hospital and I ended up registering in the ED with an entire waiting room full of people watching me bent at the waist standing over a desk having AWFUL contractions...a little embarrassing, but thank God I wasn't in a hospital gown at that point.

I got up to the evaluation center at 12:05, and they told me that I was 5cm dilated. I said, give me the epidural - I want the epidural this time!!! They can't give epidurals in the evaluation center, so, I had to wait until I got into an official delivery room. So...I had to wait.

At this point the contractions were non-stop, I was screaming with every single one (but I refrained from attempting to bite my husband or throwing pillows this time - score one for me!) and I was pissed. I knew that if I didn't get the epidural at that moment, the likelihood that it was going to happen before I delivered the baby was small to nill.

Anyway - they moved me to a delivery room 30 minutes later, and the anesthesiologist came in. I managed to sit on the bed, and my pure desire for the epidural held me sitting straight w/o moving for what felt like 30 minutes, but was probably only 5. My husband was holding me as the MD was sticking a needle and a catheter in my back.

While this was going on - I told my MD that if it didn't happen now it wasn't going to happen, that if my water broke - that was it, this baby was coming in 10 minutes.

And guess what...seconds later...my water broke - all over the stretcher and floor, but it missed my husbands flip flopped feet! And the epidural - the lovely epidural that I was hoping and dreaming about...yeah - he missed and it didn't take. (apparently it wouldn't have mattered if he had gotten it right - there wouldn't have been enough time for it to have taken even if it had worked)

So, I sat there and felt that all to familiar urge to push and - yeah - Baby girl #2 was born. Exactly 1 hour and 17 minutes after I got to the hospital!

Baby girl #2 was born and things are good. More on that later!

Saturday, July 19, 2008

She's Here

We welcomed our new baby girl into the world at 1:17am on July 18, 2008.

Baby Girl #2 entered the world with a full head of pitch black hair and weighing in at 7lbs 5.8oz...

She's pretty amazing...although almost an exact opposite of her big sister that you would think they were from 2 different families. BG#2 has dark hair, BG #1 has light red hair...BG#2 weighed in at about 1lb more than BG#1 did when she was born...BG#2 cries...not incessantly, but more than BG#1 who everyone thought never cried...(wasn't true...but impressions count for a lot...) and there is more...but you get the point.

I am sorry to say that the delivery was almost exactly the same as with BG#1...I went from 5cm dilated when we got to the hospital (at 12:05am) to baby girl being born in oh - 1 hour and 12 minutes...which, if you've had a baby or witnessed a birth before you can imagine meant no epidural...just like with BG#1... The difference this time was that they actually attempted the epidural, but it failed, and from what they told me even if he had gotten it to hit "the spot", it wouldn't have mattered because it would have taken another 5-10 minutes to activate and baby girl was already in the world at that point...

Anyway - there was a lot of pain, A LOT of screaming (although less than last time - chalk it up to experience)...and a lot of JOY! We're in love w/ her already...which I was scared of...scared that I was too in love with BG #1 to love another in the same way...but the advice was right - it is instantaneous...

We are having some regression issues with Big Sis, but more on that later...

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Interesting Post

I thought I would share this post...I thought it was interesting - what do you think?

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Prayers

This horrible story found it's way to me tonight...I want to cry.

I always thought it was such a cliche when people said, you can never know a parents love until you become a parent. But, now I know it's true. I love baby girl so much even thinking about her leaving this world make me shake. And the truth is, I think about it a lot. I worry about her constantly, about her getting in the car with her father and driving away and all that could happen while she's away from me...about her falling and hurting herself and me not being there...about her crying for her Momma, and my not being there...even writing this makes me cry...

She's so amazing, so special, so much a part of me...

God bless these parents, and all parents who have lost their children...I can't even focus anymore this whole topic upsets me so much...

Friday, July 4, 2008

Catching Up

I was catching up on my blog reading and found a great little book that PunditMom wrote about.

Check the post out here!

Baby Got New Shoes

I bought some cute new shoes for baby girl, and I got them on EBay. See, you may not know this, but I have a thing for shoes, yes, I like adult shoes, but I am talking about baby shoes. I like knowing that they are well designed and good for her feet. I like them to be cute and to be well made. I don't however, like them to be too expensive.



We went to a local shoe store the other day - Olly - and bought a pair of summer sandals for $41.00!!! That night I went on EBay and thought I'd just check out what was up for sale. I got 4 pairs of shoes in the past 30 days for less than $25.00 and they are all super cute, in good condition, and good shoes. Needless to say I returned the $$$ pair.


2 of the pairs were Stride Rite shoes, which I've heard good things about, but hadn't tried out yet - here are some pictures - cute right! And they were $6.50 a pair when you average them out - what a steal!

So, thank you sellers: madmegee and fb169 - we (both baby girl, I and DH) love our new shoes!``