Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
The Big 6-0
As mentioned in the infamous flood post, GramB recently had a pretty big birthday. My sister and I (with David and Charles) hosted a party for her in Huntsville that was quite a success, if I do say so myself. My mom has a great group of friends that all came out to celebrate. It also happened to be the first time for any of them to meet Grace, who may have stolen the spotlight just a bit. We love you GramB!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Santa Claus
Grace had her first visit with Santa Claus yesterday at Stonebriar. She seemed to like him okay, but Reed was not quite as enthused. Poor little buddy...
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Oops
Well, I've officially had my first major "mommy mishap". I'm quite embarrassed to even be sharing it, but I guess that's just part of this whole blog thing.
We made our first road trip to Huntsville last weekend to host my mom's 60th birthday party. Everything went perfectly. Grace slept the entire three hour drive there and back, we managed to make it without forgetting anything, she never seemed to notice being without her crib and swing, and she held up wonderfully with all the excitement and new faces. The one minor incident was a blowout diaper that happened to leak on Papa John.
We got home late Sunday evening and were so tired we went straight to bed. The next day I started the process of unpacking and putting everything away, which included taking care of that poopy outfit. I put it in the laundry room sink with some OxiClean and then walked away to multitask while it filled up. Well, probably 45 minutes later I sat down in the living room to feed Grace. While I was doing so, I noticed a trickling noise coming from the kitchen. It took me a second to put it all together...I'd never gone back to turn off the water! By this point, it was flowing out of the laundry room, into the butler's pantry area, down the two steps into the kitchen, and gathering where the kitchen tile meets the living room carpet. I peeked in the laundry room and the water was probably two inches deep; the drawers were full and everything in the cabinets underneath was soaked (as were my tidy piles of clothing waiting to be washed). To make matters much worse, water came up when I walked on the carpet on the OTHER side of the living room. Not good at all.
I called David to break the news, although he was working with his boss that day and couldn't bail me out. I was scrambling around like you've never seen before! Grace and I had both been in our pajamas, but were in the car headed to Lowe's to buy a ShopVac within five minutes. Luckily Jason - who happens to be in the flooring business - and Jessica came to our rescue. The clean up took hours, and we still won't know the true extent of the wood damage for a couple of weeks. The carpet is definitely toast though...
We made our first road trip to Huntsville last weekend to host my mom's 60th birthday party. Everything went perfectly. Grace slept the entire three hour drive there and back, we managed to make it without forgetting anything, she never seemed to notice being without her crib and swing, and she held up wonderfully with all the excitement and new faces. The one minor incident was a blowout diaper that happened to leak on Papa John.
We got home late Sunday evening and were so tired we went straight to bed. The next day I started the process of unpacking and putting everything away, which included taking care of that poopy outfit. I put it in the laundry room sink with some OxiClean and then walked away to multitask while it filled up. Well, probably 45 minutes later I sat down in the living room to feed Grace. While I was doing so, I noticed a trickling noise coming from the kitchen. It took me a second to put it all together...I'd never gone back to turn off the water! By this point, it was flowing out of the laundry room, into the butler's pantry area, down the two steps into the kitchen, and gathering where the kitchen tile meets the living room carpet. I peeked in the laundry room and the water was probably two inches deep; the drawers were full and everything in the cabinets underneath was soaked (as were my tidy piles of clothing waiting to be washed). To make matters much worse, water came up when I walked on the carpet on the OTHER side of the living room. Not good at all.
I called David to break the news, although he was working with his boss that day and couldn't bail me out. I was scrambling around like you've never seen before! Grace and I had both been in our pajamas, but were in the car headed to Lowe's to buy a ShopVac within five minutes. Luckily Jason - who happens to be in the flooring business - and Jessica came to our rescue. The clean up took hours, and we still won't know the true extent of the wood damage for a couple of weeks. The carpet is definitely toast though...
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Jordan's Concert
The other day we got to experience one of many cool things about Dave's sister moving back to town...we can participate in our nieces' and nephews' activities now! Jordan is in the Honor Choir at her school and she invited us to their winter program. It was so fun! I think we're going to like fulfilling the aunt and uncle role on a regular basis. =)
Sweet JoJo
Grace being a trooper
Sweet JoJo
Grace being a trooper
Monday, December 7, 2009
Pooped
We just recently put together Grace's jumperoo and I think she's starting to like it. In fact, today I put her in it for just a few minutes while I switched over the laundry. When I came back in I found this:
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Three Months
Wow...I had no idea three months could possibly fly by so fast. I'm afraid tomorrow I'll wake up and Grace will be going to kindergarten. It's crazy. Anyway, every month on the 2nd I get a picture of Grace in her chair to capture how she's changing. Here are the three we've taken so far:
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Thanksgiving
Over the last few years, Thanksgiving has surpassed Christmas as my favorite holiday. I love the food, the football, the family togetherness, and the fact that it means a four day weekend for everyone!
We avoided traveling this year and just spent the holiday with David's family. His sister, brother-in-law, and their three (about to be four) kids just moved back to Dallas from Manhattan. While we're going to miss our trips to the city, it's so nice to have them nearby. Sam is a sports fanatic and rounded up several games of baseball, football, and kickball over the weekend. Jordan and Brooke are wonderful helpers with Grace, who of course gave us an extra big reason to be thankful this year.
We avoided traveling this year and just spent the holiday with David's family. His sister, brother-in-law, and their three (about to be four) kids just moved back to Dallas from Manhattan. While we're going to miss our trips to the city, it's so nice to have them nearby. Sam is a sports fanatic and rounded up several games of baseball, football, and kickball over the weekend. Jordan and Brooke are wonderful helpers with Grace, who of course gave us an extra big reason to be thankful this year.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
The Ordeal
As many of you already know, I didn't exactly have a normal recovery from childbirth. There were lots of random little challenges (e.g. a useless right arm from the DTaP vaccine I got in the hospital, a urinary tract infection, and an episiotomy repair). There was also one big complication, one that reminded us to count our blessings instead of dwelling on the lack of sleep/stir craziness/etc.
Four weeks after delivering Grace, on a Wednesday while we were home alone, I started bleeding...a lot. It was pretty alarming; I honestly thought I was going to pass out and leave Grace all by herself. David was in Oklahoma so I called Jessica knowing she was the closest one to me. She rushed over with Reed, despite being in the midst of her own morning sickness. I called my doctor's office in the meantime and was advised to come in. I told them that wasn't really an option at the moment, so they gave me some instructions and told me to call back if it didn't stop. By the time Jessica got here, it had. I brushed it off as just a freak thing, so Jess helped me out until David got home and that was the end of it...or so I thought.
It happened again the following Sunday while David was here, along with a couple from our community group who'd brought us dinner. It eventually stopped like it had before and I promised I'd call my doctor's office first thing in the morning to go in. Well, it happened again while I was getting ready for my appointment, but this time it didn't stop. David called his mom to come watch Grace because he had a feeling we wouldn't be coming home...and he was right. The ultrasound tech was unusually quiet while she looked around, so it wasn't much of a surprise when Dr. Stevenson walked in and said we needed to do a D&C. Apparently there was a tiny bit of tissue still attached to my uterus that was causing me to hemorrhage; only the second time she'd seen this happen with a vaginal delivery. I was definitely relieved to know the problem and have a plan of action, but a little emotional at the thought of leaving Grace overnight. I called my mom to come back up to Dallas, thinking two grandmas (with a four week old used to nursing) would be better than one.
Things got hairier after the surgery. I was just coming out of anesthesia when my heart rate dropped into the 30's and they had to do a blood transfusion. I then had to stay in recovery until my blood pressure stabilized, which didn't happen until almost 3:00 in the morning. Due to the late hour, I had to be in the ICU recovery room...it was miserable. Especially since I went from 10:00 am to midnight without nursing or pumping! It also turned out that after scraping all they could, the bleeding still hadn't stopped, so they'd had to try a 'balloon' procedure (something my doctor had only read about up to that point). Lovely.
The next day was equally as bad due to all the blood counts they had to take. Not to mention that I started feeling like another UTI was coming on, so my nurse had to do a catheter to get a urine sample...not fun! When I found out that they may keep me another night if my blood counts didn't keep improving, and the nurse mentioned possibly doing another catheter, I went a bit hysterical. Dr. Stevenson came in not long after and said the nurse had described me as "tearful". She was incredibly sympathetic though and thankfully ended up sending me home within a few hours. I don't think I could've handled anymore pokes by the time I left! The only good thing about it all, I came home to this...
In all honesty, even after all the random things that happened, I don't have any negative feelings toward childbirth. It's really pretty crazy how quickly you forget all the bad stuff when the result is so great. Grace was definitely worth it.
Four weeks after delivering Grace, on a Wednesday while we were home alone, I started bleeding...a lot. It was pretty alarming; I honestly thought I was going to pass out and leave Grace all by herself. David was in Oklahoma so I called Jessica knowing she was the closest one to me. She rushed over with Reed, despite being in the midst of her own morning sickness. I called my doctor's office in the meantime and was advised to come in. I told them that wasn't really an option at the moment, so they gave me some instructions and told me to call back if it didn't stop. By the time Jessica got here, it had. I brushed it off as just a freak thing, so Jess helped me out until David got home and that was the end of it...or so I thought.
It happened again the following Sunday while David was here, along with a couple from our community group who'd brought us dinner. It eventually stopped like it had before and I promised I'd call my doctor's office first thing in the morning to go in. Well, it happened again while I was getting ready for my appointment, but this time it didn't stop. David called his mom to come watch Grace because he had a feeling we wouldn't be coming home...and he was right. The ultrasound tech was unusually quiet while she looked around, so it wasn't much of a surprise when Dr. Stevenson walked in and said we needed to do a D&C. Apparently there was a tiny bit of tissue still attached to my uterus that was causing me to hemorrhage; only the second time she'd seen this happen with a vaginal delivery. I was definitely relieved to know the problem and have a plan of action, but a little emotional at the thought of leaving Grace overnight. I called my mom to come back up to Dallas, thinking two grandmas (with a four week old used to nursing) would be better than one.
Things got hairier after the surgery. I was just coming out of anesthesia when my heart rate dropped into the 30's and they had to do a blood transfusion. I then had to stay in recovery until my blood pressure stabilized, which didn't happen until almost 3:00 in the morning. Due to the late hour, I had to be in the ICU recovery room...it was miserable. Especially since I went from 10:00 am to midnight without nursing or pumping! It also turned out that after scraping all they could, the bleeding still hadn't stopped, so they'd had to try a 'balloon' procedure (something my doctor had only read about up to that point). Lovely.
The next day was equally as bad due to all the blood counts they had to take. Not to mention that I started feeling like another UTI was coming on, so my nurse had to do a catheter to get a urine sample...not fun! When I found out that they may keep me another night if my blood counts didn't keep improving, and the nurse mentioned possibly doing another catheter, I went a bit hysterical. Dr. Stevenson came in not long after and said the nurse had described me as "tearful". She was incredibly sympathetic though and thankfully ended up sending me home within a few hours. I don't think I could've handled anymore pokes by the time I left! The only good thing about it all, I came home to this...
In all honesty, even after all the random things that happened, I don't have any negative feelings toward childbirth. It's really pretty crazy how quickly you forget all the bad stuff when the result is so great. Grace was definitely worth it.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Sleeping Grace
Ever since she came home, I have have been snapping pictures left and right of Grace while she sleeps. There is just something so sweet and innocent about a sleeping baby. Anyway, here is a little collection of my favorites...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
