Right Wing Mom

I have been posting alot the past few days, sorry - but anyone who knows me knows that I can get a bit longwinded sometimes

So, Marc and I have been moping around the house tryng to not be too sad. We decided we need a baby to cheer us up! So… I just got off the phone with a friend of mine who is a doula. She gave me a “shake” recipe that she says will get things going in about 2 hrs, guaranteed! Hmmm? How tempting is that???

I am going to go off to the store, get what I need. Make sure things are picked up around the house. Get a good nights sleep (and make sure Marc does too, that crazy night owl!) and the I will call the hospital tomorrow to see who is on duty. And perhaps mix up a little breakfast treat and pray for the best… or I may wait till Sunday. Hmmm…What do you think?

Marc did point out to me this afternoon that I have a 100% induction rate thus far. Yeah, thanks for reminding me.

Sorry for all the downer news. I know most of you guys come here looking for baby news…hopefully in a few days.

Well, we took careof everything today with Samson. That really, really stunk. Marc and I both took turns crying the whole way to the vet. Its just really sad saying goodbye to someone who has been a part of your family for so long. We have taken turns today remembering funny stories about him and what a great dog he was. This morning was extra weird. Gettting up and not calling out to him to go outside… just weird.

I was going through some pics today and found this one. This is probably my favorite pic I took of him. We were driving from Sout Carolina to Texas. This was taken somewhere in Georgia. As you can see he was really enjoying himself. He loved car rides!

Our dog Samson has been with us since he was 6 weeks old. We went to the pet store and picked him out and up the first day he was there. He is now about 11 1/2 years old. Fairly old for a big dog.

He has always been in decent health, except for his allergies which require frequent shots. The past few days his breathing has been kind of labored and just yesterday we noticed that he was having some problems getting up the stairs.

We passed the breathing off as allergies (he is overdue for his shot) and the climbing problems as he is just old and its been cold etc…

Well, I took him into the vets today thinking they would agree with me, give him his shot ans he would be his normal self in a day or two. Sadly, that is not what happened.

Marc has to help me get him into the car, which has never happened and then he was sliding all over the place. He actually fell off the car seat at one point. When we got the the doctors he layed down and just couldnt get up. They had to bring out a stretcher and carry him back.

The doc examined him and did some tests and x-rays. She explained that his heart was very enlarged, probably due to fluid around it. He had a fluid build up in his abdomen and his white cell count was off the charts.

She went on the tell me that he may not make it through the night and is he did it is more than likely the beggining of the end. I cried. Katie, who was with me cried. The vet cried. She said she felt so bad that what is suppose to be such a joyous time for our family was turning so sad.

I am so very sad right now. There is such a big part of me that doesnt want him to suffer at all and to go ahead and pass in the night. But… and its a big but, the real and selfish side of me doesnt want to let go. Darn it, I love that dumb dog. He is our orginal baby. Great, now I’m crying again.

I guess thats it, I just needed to vent a little. I am so praying that tonight I DO NOT go into labor so that I can be with my first baby. Hopefully he will make it through and he can get his heart ultrasound tomorrow and some fluid drained. I am hoping for a miracle. Hoping that that will happen and he will be back to his old self in no time.

ADDED: 9:30pm

Its over.

I was at gymnastics picking up Kaitie when Marc called to tell me Samson had passed.

It happened so quick, for that I guess I am thankful.

We are all going to miss him. He was a great dog and we have alot of great memories of him.

I guess some of you are interested in what exactly we are doing for the birth, so, just becuse I have nothing better to write today (except that I am still pregnant! LOL, that is getting monotonous) I will share.

It starts back when I found out I was frist pregnant with the girls, before we knew there was two of them! The Naval hospital in Okinawa had two midwives on staff and the thought of using them really appealed to me. Why? I have no idea. I had never known anyone to use one so I dont know where the appeal came from, but it sounded like a cool thing to try. LOL! Well, after finding out we were having twins, using a midwife was off the table. They would not allow it, we had to use a OB/GYN. Lucklywe had a good one. Unfortunately I had a different OB at delivery. But, She was fairly decent too.

I carried the girls about 39 weeks and had to be induced. Which is where I developed my strong dislike for Pitocin. I also was given Magnesium Sulfate to prevent a seizure due to the fact that my normally decent blodd pressure went off the charts. I did not however get an upidural, which I was happy about. All in all the delivery was quick (about 5 hours from induction to delivery) and I was happy about it. Of course, it should go without saying that even if it went terrible, the end result would have been well worth it!

With Jake’s birth I never really thought about a midwife. I hadnt heard of any in the area and I had never heard of anyone using one. My water broke at 37 weeks and he still took his good old sweet time coming out! I guess he was really stubborn from the start. I made a quick stop at the doctors around 8:30am for check at was told I was about 2cm and 80% effaced. Well, after the quick delivery with the girls, Marc and I figured that we would have our don by lunchtime… Ha-ha! Fat chance on that one! I walked and walked and walked till about 6:30. I was checked again, still 2cm and 80%. Umm, ok…bring on the Pitocin, which the did with great generocity. The nurse came in about every 20 minutes or so and upped the dose. So, but 10:30 that night I was feeling some really, really good contractions. Now, keep in mind I hadnt eaten all day, I had a very small dinner the night before and was really, really tired. At 10:30 the nurse came in and checked me again… any guesses? 2cm and 80%. I was devestated. I couldnt believe that I had made no progress all day and was nearing that mark that my water had been broke for almost too long. So, after a breife conversation, Marc and I decided that I sould just go ahead and get the epidural to get some rest because we knew they were going to be relentless with the Pitocin. Huge mistake. I had a bad reaction to the epidural and have had some pretty bad back pain since. I wasnt sure for a long time if it was the epidural to balme, but after talking to a friends husband who is an anesthesiologist I am fairly confident that is the cause. In addition, I was only in recovery for about an hour after the girls birth and about 5 hours with Jake! That stuff just would wear off!

Which brings me to this one, Baby Emma. Before even getting pregnant I knew of a handfull of women who had delived at this midwife practice. Each and everyone raved about them. A good friend of mine had used them for her last two births and really helped me make the decision to use them. I was in love from the first meeting! They are very relaxed and so down to earth and well, just awesome! Marc is dead set against a homebirth. It just freaks him out that something could go wrong. Truthfully, I cant argue with him at all in this aspect. I may not agree 100% but I do respect his wishes 100% on this. This midwife practice works out of a major hospital in Houston. So, I will be at the hospital and have all the equipment and expertise at my disposal if needed.

My plan for this birth is to really go as unmedicated as possible. I do not want Pitocin anywhere near me. Seriously… that stuff is nasty! I also do not want an epidural. I know I can do it on my own without the epidural, so that is the goal. I want to try and labor at home as long as possible, but with a 40 minute drive to the hospital and neither Marc nor I wanting to have a baby in the car, this is going to be a little tricky. I dont want to be stuck at the hospital, but I dont want to make the nightly news either.

So, there you have in a nutshell. (a rather long nutshell, sorry) I know ultimatly it is not all in my hands and I need to be able to roll with whatever happens, but its nice to have a goal right?

So, as we all know, because I have been complaining about it non-stop, today is my due date. And? Well, I am still pregnant, big shocker there huh? lol!

I had my appointment this morning and all went well. I am now a whopping 2cm dilated! (sarcasm intented) and my cerix is “ripe.” I know, I know… TMI, but while we are on the subject, I was told that I have a “Sweet Pelvis” YES! Just what I always wanted A flattering comment on my pelvis. LOL, Ok, seriously, I love my midwifes. They are great and so down to earth. I cant wait to deliver and really see them in action.

So, the gameplan: I have another appointment on Monday (assuming I make it) where I will have a non-stress test and an ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid levels. After that we may talk about induction of some type, with Pitcocin being at the absolute bottom of our list.

Wish me luck guys! I so appreciate all the well wishes and prayers. And believe me… I will call and blog when things get a-movin’

I come home, read my comments and look what I find! I am so lucky to have great friends!

Love you Bronie!

Well, after last weeks very ambitious Tackle, I am going to take it a little easier this week

After managing to get pretty much the entire house cleaned last week, with help (Thanks again Haley!) we, meaning the entire family, have actaully kept it cleaned! Holy Cow! Someone give us an award!

The one thing I wasnt able to do last week was the laundy room. I have gotten all the clothes that were cleaned, folded, but of course there is more to be done… So, today I will work on the laundry room!

I will get the rest of the laundry done, put away the clothes that are sitting on the folding table, dust, sweep and mop. I may actually take some pics too, we shall see!

Wish me luck!

Oh, for those f you keeping count, my due date is tomorrow and still…nothing! Although I did have a checkout girl at the store yesterday ask me when I was due. When I tolld her Wednseday she said “do you think you will go early?” LOL, I wanted to bust out laughing and yell, does it really matter at this point!?! LOL, I think I am beggining to lose it.

Alicia

What a crazy few days. I managed to get the entire house cleaned (minus the laundry room, but hey, it’s a laundry room!), put out a decent Thanksgiving spread for 9, do a little Christmas shopping and a little craft work/fun.

I’ve got to tell you though… it was hard and without help from Marc and Haley and my kids, it would not have gotten done!

Haley helped so much with the cleaning up. She and the girls tackled the upstairs and our bedroom! God bless them! It looked great too! Marc came in the kitchen and toward the end helped me finish up with dinner. He also fried the turkey this year. Which was devine! If you havent gotten a chance to try out a fried turkey, find a way! It was awesome.

I was really happy with dinner. We had turkey(of course), sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole (which Marc made and it was the best!), rolls, two types of dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes (Oh man! Delish!) and pumpkin and pecan pies. It was great!

Even better than dinner was the company! It was so nice getting to spend the holiday with family. In addition to Dave, Haley and Jackson, Marc’s Mom and Dad drove down. It was really nice as they hadnt seen our new house yet. We were a little nervous about the visit, as well, you never know how it will go, but we were all pleasantly surprised! It went fantastic!!! We were all happy and worn out that evening.

Haley and I got up super early to hit the stores Friday. I was a little disapointed in theis years sale ads though, nothing really good was going on… but that didnt stop us! We hit a few stores and finished up at Archivers (where we spent way too much money on ourselves LOL)

Saturday, I was wiped out! Big time. Very sore and run down. But, today I feel much better, well as well as I can. Which brings me to my next topic…

WHY AM I STILL PREGNANT??????

Seriously, this is boarderline ridiculous is it not? My next appointment is Wednesday which is my actual due date. At that time it will cross over into completely ridiculous. LOL, I really thought after all that craziness of the weekend, somthing would have happened…nope! On a good note, I feel like the baby has dropped even more (lots of pressure) and I have been having some decent “practice” contractions. So… lets see what happens!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I cant wait to see and hear what everyone is doing for the Christmas season!

Alicia

Well, I was really hoping to get me entire list done yesterday, but… I fell way short. Not a huge deal, but it would have been nice to get it all done then. On a good note Haley came down last night. We werent expecting her till this evening. So, she is going to help me finish up the house today. I am so thankful for a sister-in-law who is so thoughtful and helpful! She is great and she kknows the importance of the house being as clean as can be for the “inspection” on Thanksgiving Day.

Jackson, my nephew, came down with Dave earlier in the day yesterday, but he slept alot, so I didnt get to hang with him, sadly. But, when he woke up last night, I picked him up and he gave me the biggest grin and started “talking” to me! It was great!!! He remembered me Seriously, this kid is quite the cutie!

We decided to try our hand at frying a turkey this year. Not knowing how it would turn out, we got a small “practice” one. Marc cooked it up last night and WOW! It turned out great! Very moist and tasty!

Ok, enough with the updating. I am going to hang out a tad bit more then get back to work!

Alright,my first adventure into the “Tackle it Tuesday” frontier. Why? Simply becuase I have so much little stuff to do, the house is a bit cluttered (didnt I just clean this thing!?!) and I really have no energy or motivation to do so. I will be utilizing my two little helpers, Kaitie and Mandy. I would say 3, but seriously, getting Jake to help out cleaning takes more work than it is worth most of the time. I will have him help a bit, but… I’m just not going to figure him into the days plan!

So - why all the fuss? Well, Marc’s Mom and Dad are coming down for Thanksgiving. We are very proud to be able to show off the house to them finally! But, being 39 weeks (yep, you read that right, I am 39 weeks as of today!) pregnant, I need to pace myself just a bit! LOL!!! I want to be able to get most of the food prep and baking done tomorrow, so that leaves today for the cleaning.

Here is my checklist:
Shower (yep… still in the jammies at almost 10am… so very sad)————— DONE! (Man, what a difference a shower makes!)
Clean off kitchen table——— Done! Thanks to Hubby
Sweep and mop kitchen floor
Straighten laundry room and sweep and mop
Clean our bathroom Done! Yippee!
Wash bathmats——Done!
Clean up playroom Done!
Pick up clutter in guest bedroom Done! (well,need to grab one more pile, but Dave and Haley are sleeping:)
Clean up Jake’s room——Done! Those girls are kicking butt!
Straighten office/schoolroom Done!
Move all the kids books and bookcase to downstairs Done! But, they need to be put away, oops
Clean up Marc’s office
Pick up our bedroom
Dust
Vacuum whole house
Straighten our closet—————— Done! (Not nearly as bad as I thought )
Make sure the girls’ room is clean———–Done! (They did a good job, but man…it is cluttered in there, need to work on that!)
Clean upstairs bathrooms
Finish up any extra laundry

Man, that seems like alot… but, I know with help and pacing I can do it! I’ll be checking back off and on today making sure to update the list and check things off. I am definately a check it off the list type of gal! And heck.. who knows, this may be the thing that gets the labor going…I can only hope! But, then again… Do I really want to spend Thanksgiving in the hospital? Oh well… God’s time, right?

(11:43) so, I finishd a few things, the girls are cleaning their room and Jake is on a dirty clothes hunt! He loves it when I let him thorw the clothes over the balcony! Hey, whatever works, right? I needed to take a break though and drink up some water!