Patrick Brian - July 20, 2010

On July 19 Brian and I arrived at my OBGYN office for my 40 week appointment. Before the doctor even came in the room he called the hospital to schedule my induction for July 22. I thought that was as close to perfect as it was going to get - the whole family (and them some) were up at Sacandaga Lake for the week and that meant I could spend most of my time at the lake with the kids, and not at the hospital.

Unfortunately, Patrick was not pleased with that plan. I went into labor that night. Also unfortunate was that I had decided to spend the night with my parents and he kids up at the lake and Brian went back home (an hour away) to work in the office the next day.

I will admit, I had been having contractions all day long but they weren't organized and I had been having contractions on an almost daily basis for over a month. So I didn't see the big deal. My mother thought otherwise and was 100% convinced that I would have to have a water birth in the lake. So I was a little timid at 1:00am when I woke her up to say that I was in labor and needed her to drive me to the hospital. But, due to her foresight she claimed "I knew it!" and got dressed. She stuffed her curling iron in her purse and we were out the door.

Now, my mother has some minor problems driving at night and staying awake while driving. But I had to take what I could get in terms of drivers at 1am. By the time we got in the car my contractions were two minutes apart and she was driving like Ricky Bobby (Talladega Nights) - going through red lights, going 10 MILES OVER THE SPEED LIMIT! and lastly, banging on the door of the toll booth on the thruway because the teller wouldn't take her 55 cents fast enough. She made it to the hospital in 45 minutes despite completely missing the entrance.

Brian met me at the front door where he had already checked me in. He's helpful like that. They wheeled me into the delivery room where I promptly notified everyone that I was ready for my epidural. NOW. And they let me know, in their kindest terms, that I had to finish half a bag of saline to make sure I was hydrated enough. Fine, I could do that. What I could not do was wait the 30 minutes it took them to get an IV in me. I can't remember what the problem was with my veins but I had nasty bruises for a few days to prove their efforts.

I was only 2 centimeters dilated when I entered at 2am, 3 centimeters when they gave me the epidural at 4:30am, and at 6:30 I was 8 centimeters. And when they told me I was ready to push this is what they saw:

only not so cute and not clothed. Patrick was rear-end breech. And due to health concerns about him intaking meconium in his nose or mouth I was forced to get a c-section. I was pretty verbal at this point about my displeasure of this policy. I think I told everyone who came in contact with me that I was not happy about the c-section - anesthesiologists, a plethora nurses, at least three doctors, and random people in the recovery room.

Patrick was born at 7:24am weighing 7lbs 15oz and was 20 inches long. I could barely keep my eyes open long enough to see him. I don't know if was exhaustion, the medication, or a combination of both.

This was taken a few hours later when I was still heavily medicated but at least conscious.

Later that day my parents brought the kids over to meet Patrick.

They are enamored with Patrick. They want to hold him, pet him, kiss him, change his diaper, be next to him, and smother him - ALL THE TIME. Granted, I'm thrilled that they love him so much but it's a little too much sometimes.

He was only a few days old and already had that "please help me" look.

I don't know why this picture uploaded vertical but I love how content Jamison looks next to Patrick. And poor Patrick is reaching out to me with his hand - Heeeeeeelllllp meeeeeeeeee.

And this is why we are constantly telling Jamie - please don't touch your brother without us in the room. It turns into a tackle.

But as always, Jamison has a sweet heart and makes sure that his sleeping brother gets a bla bla (Jamie's word for these special kind of blankets). Although I have had to remind him a few times that blankets do not go over Patrick's head, just his legs.

So we are all doing well (three weeks later) and with the help of family (my mother and father let us live with them for the first week after my c-section) and friends life is getting easier every day.

Jamison's Third Birthday

Don't ask where I've been. I've been here and I've been doing nothing except waiting. Lots of waiting.

Jamison's birthday was last month and while I had the pictures uploaded I just didn't have the gumption to actually post anything. I still don't have the gumption but I am motivated by plenty of guilt!

Birthday morning-

and no, I have no idea why he didn't have a shirt on.

He loves garbage trucks and his favorite color is green - that was a no-brainer gift!

Birthday walk in school

Handing out his cupcakes at school. Lily asked to join his class for his birthday walk, which I thought was incredibly sweet. It wasn't until cupcake time that I became highly suspect of her request. I'm not saying she didn't care about her brother or his birthday. I'm just saying the girl loves her some cupcakes.

We decided to have Jamie's party at my parents house due to some "minor" (har har) renovations at our house. There will be pictures of that in another post....hopefully sooner rather than later.

This picture epitomizes how Jamison and I interact. He goes 100% into something (blowing out his candle) and I'm giving a lame attempt to stop him (waving my hand - like that would do any good). I wanted him to wait until we at least had started singing "Happy Birthday."

And the minute I turn my back to grab a knife for the cake he just dives in to grab the decorations.

His many facial expressions while opening gifts:

Daddy's are always needed to quickly pry toys out of their boxes.

Or you can just take your own initiative to try to open them. At least they're his baby teeth and not permanent.

Finally able to play with his toys.

So I'm not even going to try to promise to update more frequently. I can't imagine that I'll have any more time or energy once Patrick is born to post but I'll do my best!

Tea Parties

Tea parties have been so popular lately that they even hosted two at my kids school. Of course, it wasn't the political tea party, but an actual tea party.

Jamison's tea party was first. The dress code was not exactly formal, but more dressy than normal. I put Jamison in his tie and sports coat and sent him into his classroom to helps his friends prepare for the party. Fifteen minutes later he comes out to escort me into the room with his coat missing, his tie unzippered all he way and just hanging around his neck, and his shirt untucked. So much for dressy.

We sat at our table with his classmates Isabella and Kerem. Since both of their mother's are also pregnant we were lucky enough to get the three "big person" chairs in the class room as our seats. I love special treatment! Their teachers probably just didn't want to see the three of us struggle in and out of the toddler seats. Kerem's mom was due that week with baby #2, I am due in July, and Isabella's mom is due in August.

One of the many things I love about my kids preschool - Isabella's family is from Columbia and Kerem's is from Turkey. What a great cultural experience just at our small table!

Jamison carefully brought me my tea.

And then he proceeded to act like a monkey.

This lasted through the children's performance...which he refused to participate in for some unknown reason. That's very unlike him but I just ignored him and applauded his classmates.

He also refused to smile for our picture. But overall he was a gentleman and we had a nice mother/son tea party.

Lily's tea party was a few days later. Since this was her third year of having a tea party she knew what to do. She looks so sun-kissed in this picture!

She was very generous with the snacks that she brought me - I'm glad they were all healthy.

Her class performed two songs and Lily sang right along with the rest of them. There was a 50/50 chance that she would just stand there so I was happy that she decided to participate.

Please ignore the pregnancy face....I will look normal again in a few months...

This was Lily's last tea party in her preschool - I'm pretty sure that her kindergarten won't host tea parties. But we'll have many years of school events to come!

My Fantastic Photography Skills

On our sunset cruise, when we were in Charleston, we saw some dolphins playing in the water. I quickly grabbed my camera and started snapping away. Take a look at the magic that I captured!

Did you see the dolphin? No? Try this one:

Did you see the fin? It's right there!

And no matter how many pictures I took.....

That stupid dolphin was faster than my camera. But I promise there was a dolphin there.

Charleston - Day 3

My mammy had suggested that if Brian and I had the time we should visit The Hunley. This was the first submarine in history to sink an enemy warship. After sinking the Union sloop of war Housatonic it never made it back to shore to celebrate. The sub disappeared for over 100 years with no reason as to what caused The Hunley to sink. It was brought to surface in 2000 and research has been underway since then to determine the events of the night that it sunk.

We weren't allowed to take any pictures of the sub itself and it would have been a little difficult anyway since they have it submerged. This is a little replica of the submarine:

This prop was used during a movie or a documentary and is the same exact size of the original. Eight men squeezed in there. They must have really believed in the Confederacy because there aren't many things that would persuade me to go in that metal tube and let someone drive it under water. It was a really neat tour and once they raise enough money for an improved museum it will be amazing. Just the story of the sub itself is captivating.

That afternoon we hired a tour guide and took a three hour tour of the city of Charleston. I am so glad we did this because we got personalized information about the different buildings, homes, streets, and Charleston history. We were going to take a horse drawn carriage tour but frankly, the horses smelled really bad. This tour was in an air conditioned car...not exactly as charming as a horse drawn carriage...but air conditioned! personalized! and it didn't smell!

That night we took a sunset cruise to wrap up our trip. It was a beautiful sailboat and fit about 20 of us. The first thing we saw was the USS Yorktown that is open for tours. We didn't make it to that side of the river because of a very large bridge that I refused to go over. We don't need to discuss my problem with bridges at this time. The particulars about this phobia can get a little weird for some people.

So I'll just show you a picture. Yes it's pretty. But it's very long and it isn't as flat as it looks. My palms are sweating just looking at it. I should never have taken a picture of it.

The homes on the river...very old and expensive homes...

How's this for exciting??!? Brian and I had a long conversation about sailboats during the cruise. We've been married 10 years, there aren't many topics we haven't covered and we realized sailboats have never been discussed. Our conclusion - sailboats are very picturesque and definitely relaxing when the wind is blowing. But they are a lot of work! There's so much to do with all those sails. Yanking them up, tying the ropes, swinging the sails over. It was exhausting watching the crew. And you can't water ski on a sailboat. (That was more my problem than Brian's). Brian also felt compelled to help the crew since we were just sitting there. That was a little weird that they were working so hard and we all just sat there and watched them.

Sunset with the Charleston skyline...which isn't much since there is a law about how high you can build.

We also saw a few dolphins swimming but the pictures I took of them were less than perfect. They were quick little swimmers and apparently very camera shy.

This is the best picture we got of Fort Sumter. If we had another day or hadn't gone to the spa (heaven forbid, but I guess we didn't have to) we would have gone to Ft. Sumter. From talking to the concierge and our own research it sounded like a large time investment to go out the to fort.

This is a rare picture. Not just because we were on vacation and we didn't have the kids but I don't take pictures when I'm pregnant. I'd prefer to not remember what I look like.

And that was our trip! We are very thankful to Sarah Pope and my mom for co-watching our kids. It would have been a difficult and less-than-romantic anniversary trip with a five year old and a two year old. And I am very thankful to Brian who came along on a plantation tour and was patient with me as I walked around Charleston at 1/4 mile per hour, stopping at every restaurant to drool over the menu. I'm blessed to grow old with you.