Nolan's Birth Story Part 1

I can't believe after waiting and waiting for what seemed like the longest 9 months of my life for the birth of my son, Nolan William, in the end it all seemed to happen so fast! It was such a whirlwind of emotions from nervousness, excitement, to amazement all in a short amount of time. It was the best day of my life. Here is Nolan's birth story (nothing gross, I promise).
Note: You'll probably see a lot more boring details than you would care to read, but I want to make sure I don't forget a thing!

At the beginning of July I had gone in to my regular appointment with Dr. Culpepper (she really is the best! I am so blessed to have her as my doctor!) to check on Nolan's heartbeat and to check my blood pressure. Surprisingly, that day my blood pressure had risen to 150/101! She waited to check it again 15 minutes later and it was still as high, so she told me I might be going to the hospital for observation. Oh boy! I was not expecting this at all! I texted Greg and my mom to let them know what was going on and told them I would call them when I knew more. After talking with Dr. Culpepper, she decided to send me home on bed rest and for me to check my blood pressure and I would bring my results the next day to see if I indeed needed to go to the hospital.
So, after checking my blood pressure while at home and on bed rest the rest of the day I came back to see Dr. Culpepper and, thank goodness, she let me continue my bed rest at home!
My initial thoughts were "this would be great!" an actual excuse to stay home and not have to do anything! Those thoughts lasted about a day until I started to go a little stir crazy! Of course, the moment I couldn't go anywhere I had a million things to do! Duh! I was expecting a baby in a month and I did not finish everything off of my checklist! Thank goodness, though, for family! I don't know where I would be without them (and Greg of course ;) Every Saturday my parents and my sister, Michelle, would come to the house to help clean and get ready for Nolan's arrival! What a blessing! The did laundry, the dishes, swept and mopped, and helped finish Nolan's nursery! Whew! I was checking things off my checklist thanks to them!

The rest of the month of July went by with not much excitement. I had biweekly doctor's appointments that I actually looked forward to! It was my time to get out and see people! I also got to see my sweet boy weekly through an ultrasound. Every week we got his measurements and, much to my dismay, his head was measuring 2 whole weeks ahead and he weighed an estimated 8 lbs at the last ultrasound! We were expecting a BIG baby (with an even bigger head)!
Well, fast forward to Monday, July 29th. I was in the middle of my 38th week and we finally get the news that Dr. Culpepper thinks it is best to go ahead and induce. She schedules my induction to begin Wednesday night, July 31.
After going in that Wednesday afternoon to make sure everything is still fine, we are set to go back to Medical City at 5:00 that night. Greg and I decide to have one last dinner together and we chose Chili's (thinking back I wish we had chosen something a tad nicer, but oh well!) After dinner, we have some time to spare, so we swing by Rooms To Go (we were desperately wanting new living room furniture) and browse. I don't think we were really seeing the furniture, atleast I wasn't. I guess I was in shock that we were so close to meeting this little blessing and excited to get things started.
Finally 5:00 pm rolls around and we are at Labor and Delivery at Medical City. I am so excited to get to my room and what do you know but all the rooms are taken! Of course! Greg and I end up waiting another hour in the waiting room. Luckily, one of our favorite shows were on the TV "King of Queens" so we watch until our name is called! Yay! We are taken to our room and get settled for a long night.

Here I am in my nice comfy bed. Poor Greg had to sleep in that uncomfortable green chair next to my bed all night. It didn't even recline all the way! What a trooper! 

Once I got settled, our first nurse comes in and starts the cervidil for induction. And then we wait... we waited until close to 11:00 pm for our night nurse to come to give me ambien. I was a little apprehensive about taking the sleeping pill because I get drowsy pretty easily. In the end, I was so thankful I did! Apparently, Nolan moved around a lot during the night and they needed to adjust the monitors all night long. I vaguely remember waking up once during the night when she had to adjust one of the monitors, but don't really remember much else. So I guess it worked and I woke up feeling so refreshed and ready for this day to begin! I woke up around 6:00 am, took a shower, and got right back in bed. Soon after, Dr. Hart (the anesthesiologist) comes and starts the epidural and pitocin.  What a weird feeling that epidural was! I could tell I had legs but I just couldn't feel them! My mom shows up around 9:00 and we do a lot more waiting. We snoozed off and on, Dr. Culpepper comes by occasionally to check on things and break my water, and we wait some more in LDR room #10

 I had been laboring pretty much pain free all day. Only knowing I had a contraction by looking at the computer monitor. My mom, Greg, and I would take bets throughout the day from family guessing how much Nolan would weigh and how long he was (my brother's guess what 8 lbs and 16 inches long...a little butterball) , what time he would be born (I was hoping for 8:01 pm on 8/01). Anything to pass the time. 

Without boring you too much more, we can go ahead and speed up to around 8:00 pm. Around this time I was finally starting to feel some pretty intense pressure and things started happening pretty quickly. Nolan's heartbeat was not recovering very well after each contraction and I had to be put on some oxygen which started to help Nolan. Around 8:15 I was fully dilated and ready for Dr. Culpepper (I am always amazed how much the labor and delivery nurses do, because the doctor doesn't come in until the very end) After pushing for a short time, Nolan arrived at 8:38 pm! 

He weighed 6 lbs 13 oz and was 19 inches. Not quite the big boy we were expecting! 

Proud Daddy!

Soon after he was born, family started to arrive! 

Nolan with Papa (my dad) and Aunt Michelle (my sister)

Once everyone went home they took Nolan to the nursery to be checked out and my mom brought Greg and me Whataburger. I hadn't eaten all day and didn't think I would be hungry after all of the excitement, but once the food came I ate it all in about 10 minutes! I was starving and I just didn't realize it! This day was all it was cracked up to be :) It was amazing and scary all at the same time. Greg's and my life changed in an instant and I wouldn't have it any other way.  

Next blog: our first few hours with Nolan.

Nursery Pictures/Update

Well, my goal was to have my next post show the completed nursery! It's taken a while, but it is finally finished (pretty much, we need a picture or two, but for the most part it's done!). The pictures are not the best (taken from my phone I guess I shouldn't expect much) but they'll do!

The majority of the bedding (pretty much all of it except the bumper pad) was made (handmade!!) by one of my favorite people from Eastridge, Jan Walker. She took inspiration from the bumper pad I got on clearance at Pottery Barn (shocking, right?! I don't think I've ever bought anything on clearance at Pottery Barn...didn't know that even existed) and created a quilt, bed skirt, pillow, letters on the wall and curtains! It turned out great and I don't think it ever would've looked this nice if she hadn't done all of this for us! I am so thankful for her! The rest of the nursery was a slow process of seeing something in my head and needing to get it out to see how it actually looked. I'm pretty excited about it and I cannot wait for Nolan to get here to finally make this nursery complete :) 

As far as things go on my end, I was recently put on bed rest due to my blood pressure rising suddenly. Who would've thought during the crazy, busy school year my blood pressure would be fine, then in the middle of a relaxing summer break it goes up?! I really think it has to do with the mean nurse I had last time I went in for the appointment that put me on bed rest. Thankfully, at home when I'm monitoring it myself it is pretty good. Regardless, here I am on bed rest. It hasn't been too bad, but I'm pretty antsy by the end of the day and wishing I could get up and do or go somewhere. But,  I have been really lucky to have Greg help out around the house and my Mom has been coming every weekend to help keep the house up and do some laundry :) I am very blessed! 

Because of my blood pressure the doctor has decided to induce by 39 weeks, which would be around August 2nd. Yikes! How did we get here so fast! I am very excited to be reaching the end, but hoping and praying we will be ready for him to come home. :) Who knows, maybe the next time I update Nolan will finally be here and we can post actual pictures of him! Prayers would be appreciated as we come to that point and that everyone is healthy! Thanks for keeping up with us and this exciting journey! I can't wait for the next one! :) 

Let's skip to the 3rd Trimester...

So much for keeping up with the blog during this pregnancy! There always seems to be something to get in the way. So let's fast forward this pregnancy from the first trimester to the final third trimester!

Thankfully, there really has not been much to update as far as changes or problems (thank goodness!) This has been such an easy (knock on wood) pregnancy and I am so thankful for that! The only thing I could possibly complain about would be swollen ankles in this Texas heat and my back hurting after a long day of teaching. Needless to say, I am looking forward to summer. Most people groan and say "oh you'll be miserable this summer!" but thankfully I have air conditioning and a pool down the street and a husband that will wait on me hand and foot has such a caring heart that he will get me whatever I need.

One of the most exciting things we have done recently was a 3d/4d ultrasound. We weren't quite sure what to expect, and were a little worried Nolan wouldn't work with us. Sure enough, the first time we went he had his arms in front of his face the whole time. I guess he was a bit camera shy. We rescheduled our appointment and I made sure to wake him up with a bottle of good ol' Dr. Pepper and we were able to see our cute bundle of joy for the first time!

We could not get enough of this sweet face and are even more excited (if that's possible) to meet him in just a couple of months!


My next goal is to get some pictures of the nursery loaded...hopefully before Nolan arrives :)

12 week update!

So, it looks like maybe I won't get to updating this thing as often as I had hoped/wanted to, but once a month isn't too bad...right?

We just got back from our Nuchal Transulency test. Some of you are probably asking "what in the world is that?" I asked the same thing when I first heard about it. I found it tests for defects early on (down syndrome and things like that). Not that this would change our mind either way, but just to have the knowledge of what we might expect is nice. Well, we are very happy to say that so far everything looked great! We got about a 15 minute sonogram, and the whole time the doctor was trying to find out what the gender might possibly be.
And so she looked and looked and finally told us that our baby..............................................................
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likes to moon us :/
The whole time our baby had it's back to us! A little disappointing, but still something to look forward to for next time.

It was such an amazing sight to see how our little alien baby from 7 weeks has now turned into something actually resembling a baby We saw the beating heart (HR was 171 bpm), the spine, the brain, and even a little hand was waving to us :) the doctor said it will probably be a piano player looking at the long fingers. How anybody could look at that picture and not say that is a human life is way beyond me!

I am so excited to enter the 2nd trimester and start feeling back to normal, but I'm even more excited to see our baby grow :) It feels more real every day and makes me look forward to summer even more!!

Here's our baby saying "goodbye" for now! (see the hand?)

A reason to come back...

I originally started this blog in hopes that I would find something to write about. That something in my life would be interesting enough for me and other people to read and remember. I was pretty good writing in my diary when I was in elementary school (apparently I had a lot to write about!) but the older I got I think it became more of a chore. I was made to keep a journal on my semester abroad in London (which I am thankful for now), but I wouldn't have done it if it were not an assignment I would be graded on later. There are plenty in my family who have written their memories down and my grandpa has even started his own autobiography. That way things in life are not forgotten. That is why I have started this blog back up.
Greg and I recently got some exciting news that we have waited for for over 2 years now. We found out that we are finally expecting in early August (August 9th to be exact :)! We are thrilled for this blessing and want to remember this journey and look back on it to see what we went through to get to where we are.
It wasn't an easy journey to get to where we are at this moment in time, which is 9 weeks along :) but it is one I am thankful for.
So, needless to say, I think this reason is a pretty good reason to come back and begin writing again. I hope to be able to go back to this and remember everything from now until we become a family of 3 (5 if you include our dogs...which we do ;)

So far I have been blessed with a fairly easy pregnancy, just some nausea and fatigue, but easy from what I've heard :) It's just a reminder I guess that there is a life growing inside me :) Which amazes me everyday. Here is our first sonogram of our little bean. This was taken about 7 1/2 weeks along. I was in awe when we heard the heartbeat that day. I only wish we had recorded it, but I don't think I could ever forget that sound!

Isn't it funny...

Isn't it funny how you can get so excited about something and spend so much time and energy on it only for it to be forgotten and left behind soon after. I am like that with a lot of my "projects" I like the idea of starting something, but I need to be better about continuing those things as well! So, here it is...take 2 on this blog.

Finally! A place to put all of my jewelry!

Ok, I just had to share something I am super excited about! I don't know about you, but I had the hardest time finding a place to fit all of my jewelry. Especially now that all of my necklaces are long. Not only did they not fit, but they would get tangled, earrings would get misplaced, and then I forgot what I had because I couldn't see everything. They just didn't fit! So I was surfing the web for some ideas to help me organize my jewelry. And I came across something fantastic! So I had to buy it :) It just arrived the other day and I had to put it together all by myself because Greg was gone on one of his trips. So here it is! My jewelry organizer...

                              What? A mirror?

You might just think this is just some ordinary mirror, but wait until you see what is inside :)

                                    Tada!

This is my new jewelry organizer! I was so surprised how much  jewelry I actually had once I could see it all together. If you look to the right of the organizer you can see my old jewelry case. I can't believe it all use to fit in there (actually it didn't really fit, it was more crammed than anything).
Maybe I need to get more jewelry just to fill in the extra spaces ;)