Introducing Baby Girl

On April 7th we started the induction officially around 6:45am by the time they got all the check in stuff done. The nurse got me put on the GBS meds and started the pitocin at the lowest setting. I was at 3cm at that point, 90% effaced. By 9am the contractions had regulated to about 3-4mins apart and were fine for me to handle although I decided to stand up and just rock through them rather than sit or lay in the bed. About 10am I asked the nurse to checked me and we were at 5cm. Standing up through the contractions was amazing and I can was even laughing/talking through them. I remember telling our friend that it seemed like I should be hurting way more since I was on pitocin and no epidural. At about 11:45 the doctor decided to break my water which made me nervous because I've heard the pain is much worse at that point. Thankfully I was able to get back up out of bed and then it didn't take long for things to progress. By 12:15 I could no longer talk through the contractions and could feel her coming down. I felt it all in my hips and I told our friend every contraction made me have the bathroom feeling and it was getting worse with each one. I kept having the urge to squat down as well which really helped with the contractions. Doc came in checked me and said I was at 8cm. 15 mins later I had just barely a lip left and felt like I had to push. Needless to say it was a rush to set things up.

I don't know how many times I pushed but she came fast. She was born at 12:58pm weighing in at 9lbs 1oz and 21inches long. A little chunker for sure. I had no tearing and didn't need any pain meds at all. I was up pretty quick afterwards including getting a shower with in an hour or so after she was born. Even better since there was no epi the IV got taken out right away which was awesome.

I gotta say going natural was definetely an experience. Immediately afterwards I was like "never again!" LOL. I think I even said that to the doc right after she was born. Now, it doesn't seem so bad. Gotta love that memory loss. Our friend that came was a huge help. My biggest thing was really wanting to know where she was at. I wanted to know if you could see her head or if she was crowning and all that and the doc would just tell me to push. So my friend would just whisper to me I can see "xx" or "yy" and it helped me to know how far we were and had to go. I didn't want to watch with th emirror but her words gave me enough of the visual I needed.

Oh and I never in a million years thought she was going to be so big. The way I was carrying I really thought she would be smaller than Toots. Talk about a surprise but a pleasant one too. Her cheeks are just so plump and kissable!

I stink at this

I'm really not a good blogger. Or least I'm not as good as I used to be. Looking back at the history I was posting almost every day for awhile...sometimes more than once a day! Now....it's been like 4 months since my last one. And even that one was laminating over the fact that it had been 2 months since the one before that. What can I say....life gets away from you at times.

Blessings

Do you ever stop and take a momen to count your blessings?? Or do you just take for granted all the things you have whether it be your home, your job, even your kids?? Recently I've been lead to really be thankful for all that we have. Not necessarily the material things either. Yes, I love our home and all of our beautiful things in it. I'm thankful that Mr. X has a job that pays well even if it does take him away from us a lot.


What I'm really thankful for though is that we have been blessed with three beautiful, healthy children. In light of recent events involving a couple friends of ours it has made me realize just how lucky we are. Or maybe lucky is the wrong word because really...what does luck have to do with it??

Whats it been?

2 months since I posted here! Gotta be the longest I've gone with out blogging anything right? And it's not like I haven't had something to blog about. There have been lots of changes in our little world. Some good....well all good really. Lets see.....

Mr. X and I survived our first deployment. He left mid Sept and got back the day before Thanksgiving. it wasn't a full 6 month deployment but the longest by far that we had been apart since the day we met. It was wierd not having him around and having to do everything myself but we survived and the day he came home was bittersweet. He looked pretty good in that uniform too...LOL

At the end of October we moved into a new house. The day before closing I also managed to fall at work and injure my tailbone. Needless to say it made packing/moving interesting but I have an amazing set of friends who helped the whole way. We would have never made it with out them! We love the new house too and the amount of space we now have. This is by far the biggest house I've ever lived in so it's taken some adjustment but not one I'll complain about.

In November, jsut before Mr. X returned home I quit my job. The job I've had for the last 7 1/2 years i walked out on. Not exactly in the most professional way but I did what I had to. Things were already stressful before the tailbone injury. After the fall it got 10x's worse. Between that, the kids, the house, and an impending homecoming I was stressed beyond my max and something had to go. While I'm sure several people would love my kids or house I don't think Mr. X would have appreciated me letting them go. It's been an adjustment not working anymore but honestly, the BEST decision I have ever made.

At the beginning of December, the 1st actually, we had our big ultrasound for baby bean. Hard to believe we're 24 weeks as of today!! Anyways, we found out that our little tie breaker is a GIRL! Yes we have a name for her but we are keeping it to ourselves for now. No worries, only a few more weeks till everyone will know. LOL

The big knews though is that just a few days later Mr. X and I tied the knot. Yes, we got married! I'll do a seperate post with all the details fo that since this one is rather long as it is but it is definitely a story all our own. I always told everyone that it would be a "Guess what we did today" moment and it was exactly that.

Life as a married woman has been interesting and it's only been just over a week. I love my rings and try not to stare at them TOO often. Mr. X likes to spoil me though so they are beautiful. Anyways, more on that later.

Guess thats it for now.

Rules of Marriage from a kids point of view

Rules of Marriage, as described by kids....

1. HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHO TO MARRY?
-You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming.. - - Alan, age 10
-No person really decides before they grow up who they're going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you're stuck with. -- Kristen, age 10

2. WHAT IS THE RIGHT AGE TO GET MARRIED?
Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then. -- Camille, age 10

3. HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF 2 PEOPLE ARE MARRIED?
You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids. -- Derrick, age 8

4. WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR MOM AND DAD HAVE IN COMMON?
Both don't want any more kids. -- Lori, age 8

5. WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO ON A DATE?
-Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough. -- Lynnette, age 8 (isn't she a treasure)
-On the first date, they just tell each other lies and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date. -- Martin, age 10

6. WHEN IS IT OKAY TO KISS SOMEONE?
-When they're rich. -- Pam, age 7
-The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn't want to mess with that. - - Curt, age 7
-The rule goes like this: If you kiss someone, then you should marry them and have kids with them. It's the right thing to do.. - - Howard, age 8

7.. IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED?
It's better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them. -- Anita, age 9 (bless you child )

8. HOW WOULD THE WORLD BE DIFFERENT IF PEOPLE DIDN'T GET MARRIED?
There sure would be a lot of kids to explain, wouldn't there? -- Kelvin, age 8

And the #1 Favorite is .......

9. HOW WOULD YOU MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK?
Tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a dump truck . -- Ricky , age 10

Getting back on the wagon

The blogging wagon that is. I took my R&R time and now it's time to get back to it. Things have been pretty hectic the last few weeks but have finally started settling in a bit for us. Mr. X has officially left for deployment. While it's not a full 6 months it's still just long enough for us to REALLY miss him. I've been getting a lot of people askign for specifics on where he is or when he'll be home. Please don't take offence if I say I can't tell you. It's for the guys safety and there are rules about what information we give out and stuff. I'm not going to be one to break those rules! Just know that when he is finally home EVERYONE will know cause I'll be shouting it from teh rooftop.

We are starting to get into a routine though. The kids are adjusting and Toots doesn't fight me so much on the things Mr. X used to always do. I swear those first couple days he fought me on everything. Wanted nothing to do with me when it came to the bedtime routine which was his daddy time. There was one night we were all so pathetic, Toots was crying which made me cry. then Monkey started crying because I was crying. It was a river of tears in our house. Thankfully there have been no more nights like that!

Yesterday i finally got my motivation back a bit and cleaned up the house. My room is still suffering cause there are clothes everywhere. Seriously, it looks like a department store threw up in there, just minus the crappy hangers. To solve that I've decided tonight I will start packing. All of Mr. X's clothes will go in boxes and then any of my non-maternity stuff. Things we obviously will not need anytime before the move. I figure once i get that done my room will be decent again, I'll have accomplished soem packing, and we'll have tons of room in the closet and dresser again!! Ahhh...it's the little things.

So we have about a month before we move. So so so so so so excited to have all that space and get settled in. i'll be busting my bottom to get things unpacked once we move. I'm hosting Novembers bookclub so I'll have like 2 weeks to get done what I can. Honestly, we don't have THAT much stuff and if I get my way we'll have less when we move cause I fully intend to get rid of things we aren't using. Seriously, I have boxes and bins in the shed that have been packed up since April of 2008. Stuff needs to go. We are so thankful that we were able to rent the house out quickly and the people who are getting it I know will take good care of the house so we won't have to worry. It's bittersweet leaving our current house. As Mr. X said as he kissed me for the last time out front before he left, it's our first house together. The house we brought our son home too. It will always be special for us and the memories we have there.

Everythign else is going ok. Baby bean is growing well and has an official due date of April 5, 2010. I have the big ultrasound scheduled for October 24th and if he/she cooperates we'll know what our tie breaker is going to be. It's sad that Mr. X won't be here for it but I have lots of friends offering to join us for the big event. Good thing the lady who does them doesn't limit the number of people who can come!!

Well I guess thats it for now. I"ll be around for more later as things progress with the bean, the house, and everythign else we have going on!!

To Be Continued:

So for those that follow my blog I apologize for the lack of writing lately. Most of you know we jsut have a lot going on lately and honestly, by the end of the evening the last thing on my mind is blogging. So Needless to say I'm going to take a breather and say........To Be Continued.

I promise it won't be that long though. Mr. X leaves for deployment very soon and then I'm sure I'll have lots to write about as I go through with buying the new hous eand renting this one. Yes, we're crazy but we LOVE the new house!! What can I say...it's 3x's the size of what we have now. I can't wait for all that space!!

Anyways, I'll save that for another time. Until then......