Kate's Birth Story

A few people have asked for birth story details, but this is mostly for me, since we're three weeks in and my brain is already foggy on details.

Really, her birth story starts around week 36. My pregnancy had almost been weirdly textbook. Which was great, but also kind of boring when people want to talk to you about how awfulllll pregnancy is and you're all "umm no I don't have that, or that, nope not that either..."

Then we hit week 36.

-MONDAY-

I was 2 cm dialated and 75% effaced going into my appointment and we had already scheduled an ultrasound to verify that Kate was in fact head down and measuring on schedule before my doctor went out of town. Kate was in position but was measuring around 34 weeks. I tried to assure my doctor that my family makes small babies but she was concerned that my amniotic fluid levels were also low. She ordered a follow up ultrasound with a high risk doctor to make sure there wasn't an issue with my placenta or the umbilical cord.

-WEDNESDAY-

After 7 hours of contractions that were not painful, but were coming every 3 minutes I called the on call doctor, who told us to go to the hospital and make sure I wasn't headed towards active labor. When we got to the hospital I was 3 cm dialated and 90% effaced but not in real labor. So we headed back home. Contractions finally fizzled out after 10 hours from when they began.

-FRIDAY-

High risk ultrasound revealed baby was in the 9th percentile. Any baby under the 10th percentile is considered high risk. Fluid was low, but placenta and umbilical cord were good. We followed up with a Non-Stress Test and scheduled two additional appointments for the next week.

-TUESDAY-

Non-Stress Test and follow up with the on call doctor. Everything looked good. Still 3 1/2 cm dialated and 90% effaced.

-THURSDAY-

High risk ultrasound at the hospital, Kate was measuring in the 42nd percentile (estimated weight of 6 lbs and 8 oz) but fluid was very low. Follow up NST at the doctors office. 

-MONDAY-

I had scheduled an appointment with my doctor for Friday but was concerned that nobody had mentioned a follow up NST or US so I called and moved my appointment for 4 PM on Monday. Then my phone rang at 11. It was my doctors Medical Assistant asking me to come in ASAP. Tense medical professionals make me nervous so I told her I would call my husband and we would be there at 1.

-1 PM-

Evidently my ultrasound results from the hospital were very concerning but the results had gone to the wrong doctor and since it was a holiday weekend it had taken a few days for the results to land on my doctors desk. She was frustrated but more worried about making sure Kate and I were okay. She checked my cervix (still no more noticeable progress) and did an ultrasound. Kate was fine but my low fluid qualified me for an induction.

-2 PM-

We arrived at the hospital, got checked in and was started on a high dose of Pitocin. I was having contractions that felt like cramps and then slowed and stopped. 

-5 PM- 

Two nurses came in to break my water in an effort to speed up my labor. Contractions started again but still weren't particularly painful. 

-5:30-

I got up to go to the bathroom and evidently all I needed for labor to pick up was to empty my bladder. Contractions became more painful and closer together. I requested an epidural.

-6 PM-

The anesthesiologist placed my epidural but it only took on my right side so he came back to inject sterile water to open my spinal column. 

-6:30-

Once my epidural had taken on both sides my nurse came in to check my cervix and place my catheter. I was 7 cm dialated and completely effaced. 

-7 PM-

She got the catheter in, but Kate's heart rate was dropping slightly with contractions so she had me roll to my side. I complained of contractions in my butt, but could say that the pressure went away when the contraction ended. I rolled to my side and suddenly the pressure wasn't letting up any more. I told the nurse that I felt an urge to push so she checked my cervix again. 

-7:20-

Landon started texting the family, getting guesses as to when Kate would be born and her size. I was fully dialated and ready to deliver. She called for the doctor and removed the catheter. The resident doctor and the pediatric team showed up and began to prep for delivery. I finally asked to push since it felt like they had forgotten about me in their rush to get ready. I started pushing and 11 minutes later at 7:50 PM we had a baby! I really only experienced 20 minutes of real pain during my whole labor and delivery. 

Kate arrived at 6 lbs, 2 oz (just barely shy of her estimated weight) and 17 inches long. She had APGAR scores of 8 and 9 and wanted to nurse right away.

It seemed like all the concern of her being in distress was unnecessary but I am so, so glad for modern medicine and for doctors who would rather be safe than sorry.  (Plus, who am I to complain about only being pregnant for 38 weeks and 3 days?)

Baby Kate's Finished Room

I am super excited with how Kate's room turned out! The only things missing at the moment are her decorative comforter (in the mail!) and the dust ruffle for the crib (which my wonderful grandparents are hunting down on Saturday since Babies R Us decided to discontinue the pattern and sold out of it in every Utah location). Now all I have left to do is wash and sort her clothes and toys some time in the next 7-10 weeks and we will be all set and ready for her to come!

 I just love this crib! We went with a convertible style crib so that it will transition to a toddler bed and a full bed when the time comes, although I realize that by the time she is ready for either of those things there will more than likely be a new baby to go in the crib- which is also why we went pretty traditional and gender neutral on the style and color.

 The dresser matches the crib, and weighs more than I do. It's huge. But you can never have too much storage when it comes to baby stuff! I've had that lamp for a while but it had this awful, tacky 1980's shade on it. After hunting for a while and realizing that it was going to be hard to find another lampshade to fit that particular lamp I ended up just ripping all the decorative ribbon off of it and painting it out with leftover paint from the letters that spell out her name.

 I originally had planned on getting a double curtain rod for Kate's room since the drapes are from my old apartment, where I needed total black out curtains- that way we could hang sheers behind them and have some soft light without having it be all or nothing. But then I was wandering around Lowes one day and spotted this curtain rod and fell in love with it. Her bedding is dahlias and there are paintings of gardens above the dresser so I figured a little bird in a garden themed room never hurt anyone.

My grandpa actually found this sign for us and sent it with instructions that it go in Kate's room. My favorite book as a child was Guess How Much I Love You and we said this to each other every night before I went to bed. 

 Speaking of Guess How Much I Love You- that is actually the copy from my childhood (same with all those books, that's why when people offered us books I declined!) The Willow Tree was a gift from my grandma and the bookcase is something I got from a neighbor I was nannying for when they hadn't sold it in a garage sale. It was a sage green when I got it, and it stayed that way for a while, then I moved it into our laundry room at our last apartment where I painted it white and pumpkin spice orange. It was our TV stand for a while in this apartment while we looked for the perfect stand to fit and now it is coral and the perfect bookcase for her room.

The middle sign, also a gift from grandma and grandpa, is a Winnie The Pooh quote and was the first thing to go into Kate's room. The garden scenes were my grandma's- I remember them from growing up but couldn't tell you where they were in her house. But I found them in a closet before I moved out and decided I wanted to hang them in a baby girl's room some day. Lucky for me it worked out and they went with the theme of her room. 

On Staying At Home.

I remember the first time someone asked me how long I had dated my husband before we got married. When I honestly answered "three weeks" her jaw hit the floor and after a semi awkward moment she blurted out "are you happy?!".

I've been at home for, oh, about five months now. And I get a lot of the same response when people ask what I do.

Random stranger/person at church/ party/ grocery store: "So what do you do?"

Me: "Oh, I stay at home."

Random person: "Doesn't that suck? Aren't you bored? What do you even do all day?"

It kills me. Honestly. It kills me a little inside because hello. It is 2015- staying home is a choice very few women still make. A choice. I choose to stay home and it is a choice that lucky for me, my husband supports and we can afford. But it is still a choice.

If I wasn't happy I wouldn't be here. Just like when that girl at that party asked me how I was possibly happy married to my husband. I choose to stay because I'm happy.

Are there days when I have a million and one adult responsibilities that I have to deal with simply because I am the one at home? Oh yeah. Do I sit down and just want to cry at the end of those days? Yeah, sometimes. Does the house stay ridiculously clean and laundry manageable? Not always. Is it worth it? You bet.

People seem surprised that I chose to stay home before our first baby was born. That wasn't a complete choice, I'll give you that. Even though we had decided to start a family we were a little caught off guard by the timing when I actually turned up pregnant and were surprised again when morning sickness hit me so hard that I simply couldn't reconcile with the idea of going to work after we moved. But it was a direction we were headed anyway- there was no way I was not staying home with my baby when the baby finally did come. So here we are.

I love that I get to stay home now. And I know that even though there will be hard days after the baby comes that I will probably long to go into a "real job" but I also know that my heart wants to be home.

So to all the people who want to ask me if I really am happy, yeah. I am. I really am.

Nesting

So all the pregnancy books and apps and pinterest say I should start nesting around 30 weeks. Umm either I'm an overachiever or just super neurotic because I've been nesting for 2 weeks.

But by nesting I don't mean cleaning my baseboards with a qtip. I mean sitting on the floor of the empty nursery with my 2 page long list of things I need to do before baby gets here and freaking the eff out.

We find out the sex at my next appointment if baby cooperates, so fingers crossed it isn't camera shy. I think not knowing yet has added to the anxiety because "omg 23 weeks left and I have no baby stuff but omg what do I buy if I don't know what it is omg I need to have a baby shower is anyone throwing me one omg what have I done to our lives omg". Do that over and over for an hour or two every day and you'd be right about where I'm at.

So basically what I'm saying is if you run into me in the next two weeks and I'm running around like a chicken with no head and can't answer any basic questions, don't ask why, just nod along.

Oh yeah...blogging...that thing...

Once upon a time I started a blog and thought that I would actually post stuff. Haha...ha.

And once upon a time I was actually really really good at it. Then I got married and life settled down and nothing seemed worth posting about. And then I got pregnant and got chastised for not keeping people up to date on that.

Oops.

But really. Life is just going on as normal here. I'm 16 weeks pregnant, Landon is up to his eyeballs in work and travelling for work and school, but loves it. I'm at home all day, every day, except when I go to the grocery store or the bank or Cafe Rio.

We still aren't unpacked which is why I haven't shared photos of our new place but Landon got busy at work and I got busy with morning sickness less than a week after we moved in. Things are better now but I'm just so behind that the boxes shoved in corners aren't on the top of my list (my baby registry on the other hand- even though we don't know the sex yet which makes it super lame and boring- is totally distracting)

I've stopped the half hearted job hunting, which I anticipated anyway, since I suspected I was pregnant when I left my old job and moved up north. I had lofty goals to get the design blog up and swinging. That hasn't happened yet. Morning sickness and unpacking was before that. I had plans to sign up for some online business courses. That hasn't happened. It's somewhere on the list. I barely got my drivers license renewed before it expired- which means I am officially a Utah resident, which I'm not super sure about yet.

Right now, life feels like a half done list of to-dos, which only gets longer and loftier. Sorry. Please don't yell anymore! I'll try to be better.

Pregnancy and house updates to come (and maybe eventually school and design news too)

The Secret is Out*

*not pregnant.

We're moving. Like...really moving guys.

We haven't really gone totally public with it, but haven't kept it a secret from anyone either.

Family found out first, then once we both out in notice at work we started texting friends but haven't gone to Facebook quite yet. I think we were both just terribly afraid to jinx what was going sooooo smoothly to put it out in the internets.

But because everyone asks the same million questions I'm gonna do my best to answer them all at once.

We are moving to Tremonton, UT early next month {November}. Because Landon got a new job. And we are sick to death of the craziness of Salt Lake. {I actually had a friend from high school just move to SLC and gush about how wonderful and quiet and friendly it was and I was all "Huh? What? No"} 

I think as long as I've known Landon he was going back and forth with himself about wondering if he was sure he reallyyyyy wanted to go into IT.

I'm one to believe that if you're unsure, then there is a reason. And lo and behold, he graduated, got a grown up IT job and did what hundreds of college grads do every second {okay, that's not a real statistic but its pretty close, I'm sure} and decided to switch career paths.

So. He's going into to plumbing/construction/trade school. We aren't sure sure where it is going to lead us yet, but for starters he's going to go get his plumbing apprenticeship license and was offered a new job with a company up in the land of the cornfield and took it.

He starts in a week and half now, and since I had to give a much longer notice at work so my conscience wouldn't drive me nuts and because the nature of my job is different than Landon's, plus our new town home is still under construction, he will commute for a few weeks and then we'll head up there about a week after I finish up at my job.

Yes, we are getting a brand new 3 bedroom town home, for basically pennies more than what we pay for our ghetto apartment in Salt  Lake. And no, I am not worried about "extra rooms". Guys, there is no such thing.

We are super excited and happy about this move. We had been talking about moving more north for months and even though this is happening before we had planned on it, we aren't too concerned about making the move work.

And no, I don't think I am going to lose my mind living in the country thankyouverymuch. However, I am sad about the hour long drive to Target.

National Cancer Survivors Day

I had no idea that was a real thing. But it is. June 1st.

National Cancer Survivors Day.

How awesome is that? I love that we can recognize people who have beaten the odds and thrived. And it gives me a reason to brag on my grandma for a minute.

Cancer is a scary word. It's a scarier word when you are hearing it for a third time. Which is what my grandma was facing a few months ago. Stage 4 Lymphoma.

This woman who battled breast cancer not only once, but twice was looking at tumors that had appeared all over her body in less than a years time.

Laughing she told me "I don't get colds. I don't get sick ever. I just keep getting cancer."

Her spirit is strong though. She laughed and made jokes on the phone when I talked to her even when she was tired and didn't feel well. She stayed positive and assured everyone that we would all get through this.

And last week when she went in for a round of chemo she got the news that she was cancer free. Again.

She has months to go before her treatment is up, just to ensure that the cancer doesn't come back. But it's gone now.

The woman is my hero.

This lady who not only raised two kids of her own and made a life took me in and raised me too. The same woman who was never sick beat cancer three times. She is strong and brave and funny. She always has an opinion and makes it known, she is nosy as all get out and knows all the celebrity gossip. And even though we didn't always get along she did her best and I never wanted for much and I always knew I was loved.

I love her lots and am so glad she kicked cancer's butt one more time so that I get to keep her around to kick mine for years to come.

And I am so glad we have a national day to celebrate her and people like her.