We're Here and We're Home

It's been a while since I have blogged. I guess I didn't feel like I had much to say. A lot has happened over the last couple of years.

We're back in our home state! Praise God! I'm so much happier here. I'll admit that I was depressed in Washington. I was cut off from the family I knew and I'm too much of an introvert to make friends easily enough for it to not matter that I'm not near family.

The biggest blessing, besides being near family again and finally getting involved in church activities (outside of Sundays) is that we have a home. WE HAVE A HOUSE. No more apartment living in Washington state... the sound of music blasting, the smell of marijuana wafting through the open windows... WE HAVE A HOUSE. 1300 square feet. (Our apartment had just under 900 square feet!) Sky lights! Thank God for sky lights... I get S.A.D. (seasonal affective disorder) and sunlight is the best therapy.

The kids once again live near family, Anna is beginning to make new friends (although she misses her dear friends Sanaiya and Maggie) and seems much more at ease in her new surroundings. Charlie is happy as a clam because he has a back yard! Sometimes he'll go outside and just dig and dig and dig. I think he might be part dog. ;) Anna has snapped two branches from the trees because of climbing on them. She's part monkey, for sure. ;) Her nickname has been Monkey since she was a baby. Did you know she could cross the monkey bars when she was just three years old? I wish I had gotten a picture of that because it just sounds like a wild story without solid proof! But she did! And nothing's changed... she still rocks the monkey bars! I think the second biggest challenge for her, besides leaving friends behind, was figuring out how to go from Common Core math curriculum to a... erm, regular curriculum. I guess, the silver lining is that now she knows how to do both and can use the CC as a strategy that other kids aren't familiar with. We had a lot of tears over that.

I'm not sure what this blog will evolve into, but if I have my way, it'll become a way to document a foster care journey. That's something that is very much on my heart... FC and adoption. But one step at a time.

In the meantime, I think we're just enjoying being able to live an average and happy life. Back yards, sunshine (Yes, it's sunnier in Oregon than in Washington!), family, smiles... and room to spread our wings a little bit!

8 years old... wants to donate her hair when it's long enough... an absolute sweetheart!

3 years old... this is Charlie with his new-to-him friend he named Shelly the Lion. He loves this thing!

Musical boy!

They love each other! I think they even argue less than the average sibling set! I hope. :)

Disneyland

Originally this post was titled "My Poor Lonely Abandoned Blog"! I guess it's been a while since I've blogged here. It's been easier to just jot down my thoughts in a sentence or two on Facebook. It's been really busy with two little ones, but summer is coming around and so is sleep! Anna finishes up kindergarten tomorrow, Charlie is 19 months old, and both are like little hurricanes in our tiny little apartment.

The big thing to happen this year was our April trip to Disneyland. We were finally able to return to the Happiest Place on Earth and we had a blast! Every morning, Charlie would climb into the stroller, all ready to go and excited. Anna of course loved it and loved meeting Merida. I was surprised that Charlie loved the characters, even the ones with the big masks and costumes like Minnie Mouse (he cried when we took him away from her so others could meet Minnie). We walked Main Street, saw the water show, rode rides, strolled through shops, ate Disney food, and basically spent a lot more money than hubby thought we would (I warned him about setting aside X amount of money for food, but he thought we'd spend less... I win!). hehe It was wonderful and I can't wait to return again. We skipped a lot of rides that the kids were too short to ride on or the lines were too long for our impatient little ones to sit through. Next time I think we'll hit the Radiator Springs Racers, the California Screemin' and many others.

Sum-sum-summertime!

This is my favorite season of all. Sometimes the heat is too much, but for the most part, it's so much better than winter. Let's just say, I get S.A.D.! And with the Pacific Northwest's perma-gloom, winter can really suck! I love taking pictures of my loved ones this time of year. It's almost always perfect weather, perfect lighting, perfect everything!

Beach Day

Paul and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary and we celebrated by going to our favorite place: Seaside, OR. Charlie put his feet in the ocean sands for the first time, in the same place where his sister did, and at the same age (7 months). We had a blast. I wish we could do that every month.

Easter!

Well, we're in our new home in Washington and on Easter we traveled back to Oregon. The weather was perfect. But I know you don't want to read a weather report. What was reportable was that I never felt so blessed in my life. I'm surrounded by family and church family. I wish I could drag them all back to Washington with me. I love them all so much. But I know God has a plan for us in Washington. For some reason we always make our way back here! Sometimes I sit here wondering why God wants us here. There are things we want to accomplish. I want to get my MA, Paul has this wonderful job that will provide great experience in the computer industry and we've been considering foster parenting. I know there are things we have to get into order first, though, before pursuing that last thing. There are short term goals and long term goals, but I really feel God want us there... in the world of adoption and foster parenting. It's something that's always been close to my heart. Paul is open to it, too. We're open to fostering kids with disabilities as well. I'm looking forward to that new chapter in our lives. It seems that every year brings a new chapter. God always keeps us on our toes. Life is never stagnant!

February Update

There's no theme to this blog post. I've been trying to think of one to write a themed post for a while, but I just don't have one in mind. I just want to let the world know how we're doing.

Well, as far as the kids go, Anna is a growing girl! We're weeding out 6X clothing now. She is so tall! She has just gone through another growth spurt, putting her into the 83rd percentile for height and 89th for weight. She is learning every day new things. Just the other day, we were working on a Kindergarten Homeschooling book. The name of the game was to fill in the missing letter. There would be a missing vowel or a missing consonant. For example, there would be a picture of a pig and the letters would be "p_g" and she'd have to fill in the blanks. Let me tell you, I was so surprised at how quickly she filled in the missing letters. She basically filled them in as quickly as any learned reader would! Kindergarten is going to be such a breeze for her! Speaking of which, she will be starting kindergarten in just six months! It's hard to believe!

Charlie is growing as well. He will be turning 4 months old on the 1st and I recently put 9 month clothing and a few 12 month outfits into his drawers, which he fits quite well. He has discovered his toes - which he grabs at any chance! He nurses at night probably too much, but maybe that's because I wake him up with my own movements.

Paul's still job-hunting. Grrr. However, he is working a contract position through an awesome Redmond, WA company which is paying the bills and giving us much needed financial freedom. I am so excited at the prospect of having our own place again and seeing the kids enjoy it, too. You never know how great that freedom is until it's taken from you. That being said, I am extremely thankful for my in-laws for their help during this time. I'm also thankful for the chance to hang out with my church family. Anna loves being around her friends a lot, too. I know she craves more company (i.e. kindergarten peers), but this is the way it has to be. Sigh.

I've been volunteering for a non-profit which houses at-risk youth and offers counseling to the community. It's a lot of fun and it's really rewarding. I love knowing that something is going on my resume at last. It's also great to give my brain some exercise again! I do miss testing and taking courses, but I suppose before I know it I'll be in grad school and hoping for a break again. I guess you can't have it all. ;)

Anna and Charlie love one another, but they are already starting to 'argue'. Anna will get in his face to love on Charlie and he'll push her away, turn his head and/or scream! Oh, boy! The other day, she was sitting next to me and Charlie was in my lap. Charlie kept reaching onto her book and patting it. Anna would get angry and tell me that he kept touching her stuff! Ugh! Today, she told me that it was 'no fair' that I was sitting with Charlie at the restaurant and not her. God save me. Do such disagreements have to be prerequisite to being siblings? No thanks! But I suppose it'll get worse and at the same time they'll learn to share and be friends, so there will be good parts, I'm sure!

Enough for now! TTFN!

2 Months Old!

Newborn, 1 month, 2 months

Weight: 15 pounds 5 ounces, ~97th percentile
Height: 24 inches, ~80th percentile

Charlie is a healthy and growing boy! He's a big boy, too! The appointment today went well. He got three shots and an oral vaccine. He cried just a little bit, but big sister Anna cried even more - poor girl! One thing to note is that Charlie has an enlarged testicle (hydrocele testis). The pediatrician noticed it at birth and it's still there. If it doesn't clear up by 4 months, then we'll have to see a urologist. (Also, it can cause a hernia.) I hope it clears up. I can't imagine what kind of procedure would be used to drain that fluid. :( Please say a prayer for our little man. It doesn't hurt him thankfully - he just looks very endowed!

Photos - Anna and Charlie (10 days old)

Charlie is now 2 weeks and 5 days old. He is well over 10 pounds and we'll be retiring newborn clothes this week. (They look so short on his arms and legs!!! Also, they're short on his long torso.) He is a great breastfeeder, just like his sister! I'm so thankful for that. I loved nursing Anna and I'm loving nursing this little guy. :)
Anna just had her 5th birthday party. She got lots of My Little Ponies, Littlest Petshop and Squinkies. She had a great day. We went to the Children's Museum with her and enjoyed her experiencing something new. :)
Anna loves being a big sister. Charlie is crying now, so this was a short update, but here it is. :)

BIRTH STORY! :)

Charles David, born 11/1/11 at 5:21 PM PST, 9 lbs 13 oz (12.6 oz), 21 1/4 inches, head 15.25, 41 weeks gestation

2:30 AM - Paul (DH) woke me up because my nose was wheezing. I got up, feeling like I had to pee, but every time I sat down, it hurt really badly and my back was hurting. I woke up about every 1/2 hour until around 4 when I gave up and stayed awake.

5:45 AM - Left for the hospital, scheduled induction. My back was killing me, my pelvis hurting. I wanted to kill DH for stopping for coffee.

6:00 AM - Checked in to L&D - it was the exact same room that Anna (our daughter) was born in! They attached the monitors and I was already in labor! Here I thought I was having the most horrible back ache ever (just as it was on "false alarm day", but worse). I guess it was meant to be this little guy's birthday! Contractions were around every 2-3 minutes. I labored on my hands and knees to relieve the pain. I went into the whirl pool until that didn't help any more. I kept trying to go pee, but it was way too painful. DH kept saying, "Maybe you don't have to pee? Maybe he's just pushing on your bladder." Maybe, I agreed.

I was checked and I was 2-3 cm and my cervix was way posterior! What?! I had actually regressed?! How could that be with all of this horrible pain? (I had been 4 cm, 70% for the last two appts and anterior for the last appt.)

8:30 - Given 1/2 dose Phentanol for the pain. Ah, it felt nice.

9:30 - Made wise choice to have epidural. I could tell it was back labor all over again. I prayed the epi would work this time and it did!!! :)

The doctor came in finally and checked me. He was also feeling a posterior cervix and then he thought the baby was breech! He had an ultrasound machine brought in and it was hard to see the baby. He realized the problem and had the nurse give me a catheter. I had over a liter of urine in my bladder! I knew I had to go!!! He could see that the baby was actually head-down, not breech! Whew! I was praying so hard that he wasn't!

After that, the doctor checked me and I was actually 5 cm and 80% effaced! I knew I had made progress!

10:00 - My contractions were alright, but needed to be augmented with Pitocin. Yay for having a working epidural on board! I kept checking the machine to make sure I was still in labor!

11:00 - 6 cm, 80% effaced, -2 station

12:10 - 6 cm still, water broken. This part was hilarious. I had so much fluid that it was gushing out, soaked the doctor's sleeves and the sheets all the way up to my ribs! I had "copius amounts" of fluid, according to the nurse. My stomach actually deflated quite a bit with that. I did not have that experience with my daughter!

There was meconium staining in the fluid. :(

1:00 PM - 7 cm, 90% effaced

2:15 - 8-9 cm, 100% effaced. I couldn't believe how fast this was going!

3:15 - Just a lip of cervix left. They noticed he was ROP (right occiput posterior) and had me start pushing to get him to turn on his own. I pushed like this for a couple 1 hour, 45 minutes. He didn't turn on his own, just a little bit, but not all the way. I had to keep turning from my left side, to the back, to the right because of heartrate decels, while keeping an oxygen mask on. I was praying the whole time this didn't turn into a c-section situation.

5:00 - The doctor came in and had me start actual pushing. I could definitely feel pain and pressure as he moved down the birth canal. The doctor wanted to get him out of there, especially after noticing more meconium. The doctor talked about using a vacuum. I was so afraid of the same thing that happened with DD (Anna), vacuum and gigantic episiotomy. I asked immediately if it was possible to use the vacuum and not need an episiotomy and he said yes. As I pushed, he used the vacuum to turn him from ROP to anterior. Thankfully he did turn with this help! Once the vacuum was on, it only took two sets of four pushes for him to come into the world at 5:21. :) The doctor noticed that the cord was around his neck. Paul said the doctor was sweating as he pried the cord off from his neck. Paul cut the cord and blood sprayed across the room and soaked a nurse. haha :)

He was immediately brought to the pediatric team who assessed him because of the cord around the neck, the vacuum and the meconium. It took several minutes before I could actually see him. But he was a healthy boy. I was shocked at how huge he was - we all were! No wonder I was so uncomfortable. I gave up my evening one-mile walks a few days before he was born - it was just too hard any more. He's doing such a great job nursing! He always wants to suckle on things - his hands, me, or a pacifier. He likes to be warm and swaddled. He has tons of dark hair.He's fine with sleeping in the bassinet as well. He's wearing size 1 diapers lol! He has a little bruise on his head from the vacuum.

I made off with a 2nd degree tear and I'm doing great with 800 mg of Ibuprofen. I feel pretty great, considering. I feel so lucky. It was a great birth and it's making off to be a great recovery! So many things are working better this time around, compared to last. :) So many things could have gone wrong, but didn't. We are very, very blessed. God answered many of our prayers yesterday - from the breech situation to the healing thing. Very blessed!!!

Oh, and Anna loves her little brother so much! She's currently holding him and singing Twinkle Twinkle to him. That's the song I always sung to her. :)

ETA: I had to add that because of his surprising size, they've checked his blood sugar three times! Paul overheard them say, "Everything's OK. He's just a big boy!" haha :)

ETA2: I forgot to add that his shoulders also got stuck when he was coming out. Another "big boy" situation!

40 Week Appointment

40 Weeks 2 Days

My posts are getting shorter and shorter. Mostly because I'm so exhausted. I'm beyond the point of being excited and now I'm just exhausted and hoping for the end. Charlie's still hanging out... stubborn little boy! Anyway...

BP is still looking good, still 4 centimeters and 70% effaced, bag of waters is still bulging. Still no baby. This kid is stubborn! :) Anyway, I had my membranes stripped, so I've had a lot of contractions since. Hopefully that leads to something. If all else fails, he'll be evicted on 11/1/11 at 6:00 AM (induction). Having an end in sight is helping me to stay sane. If there was none, I'd be... well, like I was two days ago, bawling, upset all the time, etc. I'm in so much pain any more and to top it all off, I've gotten about a million new stretch marks that wouldn't have been there had Charlie made his grand appearance a week ago. :( I'm trying not to think about that any more. That was so not helping my mental health!

Well, I'm looking forward to new mommy things... breastfeeding, cuddling, kissing.
Not looking forward to... pain, pain meds, not being mobile for a few days... not that my mobility is very awesome right now... I can hardly get out of bed! Ugh. Time to come out, Charlie. I'll brave the pain!

In Labor! NOT!!!

Last night was my first ever trip to L&D for false labor. Anyway, I was having real contractions, but they were really inconsistent. I have made progress, though. I'm a "strong 4 cm" dilated, 70% effaced and I have a bulging bag of waters. My stubborn little man is still hanging out in my uterus... torturing me. haha They said they wouldn't be surprised if they saw me soon, so hopefully they're right. Owww...!

(39 w 3 d)

39 Week Appointment

39 Weeks 2 Days
Weight: 153
BP: 110/68

I'm 3, almost 4 centimeters (just like last week), but stretchy up to 5 cm, so that's new. I'm still 60% effaced. Charlie is still -3 station. The only real change is that my cervix is now at an anterior position. (It was mid-position last week.) That bumped my Bishop's score from a 7 to an 8. I hope this is the week. I'm just having a hard time emotionally right now, dealing with pain and discomfort. I'm just done, done, done.

I've had a few good contractions this week. That's always fun when nothing is stinking happening. ;) I think I need more distractions. I wish grad school had worked out this semester, I'd have plenty to keep my mind occupied. Ah, well.

38 Week Appointment Stats

Weight: 152
BP: 124/70
Charlie's heart rate is in the 120s
-3 Station
Almost 4 cm dilated
60% effaced
Flu shot: Check!

I'm feeling... like crap. I'm ready for this little boy to come into this world! Hopefully he will soon. It seems that after 4 cm, things should get going, right? Last week I was 2-3 cm and 50-60% and too high to tell a station, so things are moving along... sometimes much slower than my liking. I'm tired. I pulled a tendon in my leg/crotch yesterday and I'm in pain from that and the pubic symphysis issue. Ah, well. I keep saying it'll be any day. The sad part is that at this point, I'm not sure if I'm more excited to just not be pregnant any more or to meet Charlie. I guess I'm at the bummer end of pregnancy. I'm not Little Miss Chippy Chipperson today!

37 Week Appointment

Today I met with a midwife named Jody in Newberg. I was so nervous about changing providers so late in the game, but it turned out great. She was really kind and smart. I felt comfortable. As it turns out, I think we should get ready for Charlie soon! That kind of makes me nervous. You'll see shortly why I say that... So, here are the stats:

2-3 centimeters dilated, 50-60% effaced.
BP: 120/68 (I had just jumped off the table and was nervous, so it's a tad higher than my usual, but still actually considered "normal".)
Weight: 150.5 lbs
Measuring... I don't know, but it looked like a little higher than usual. The midwife didn't say anything.
He is still "high" and needs to drop. I'm sure that once he drops, things will progress pretty quickly.

36 Weeks (and 1 day)!

(Above: Overlain 26 week/36 week photos)

36 weeks!

36 Weeks! (The look says either, "Take the photo already" or "If I pop, I hope you have an umbrella.")

Here we are! Less than a month to go. Am I in denial? You betcha! Am I freaked out about labor? Absolutely! Am I terrified of the recovery? YES! But mostly I can't wait to see my little guy... and my toes again! I can't wait for those new baby things... snuggling, nursing, baby kisses!

Here are the stats...

36 weeks, second baby - Charles...
107/59 BP
148 pounds
I'm up around 25-28 pounds. I gained 40 total with Anna. Including swelling.

Compared to 36 weeks pregnant with Anna...
140/80 BP
152 pounds

How am I feeling?
My pubic symphysis feels like it's going to split in two. It hurts so much to walk and to turn in bed. I'm getting a lot of Braxton-Hicks contractions, some painful, most uncomfortable. I'm just really uncomfortable and basically done with being pregnant. I'm past the point of Happy Pregnant Lady. Now I'm at the Complaining Pregnant Lady stage. I'll be full term in 6 days. Charlie is free to make his grand appearance starting next Tuesday. Let's hope he isn't fashionably late!!!

34 Weeks

(Above: Week 33)

Weight: 144 - It looks like I'm right on with the 1 lb-per-week thing. :)
BP: 112/53 - Still nice and low. I hope it stays that way.

Charlie weighs about 5 lbs and 18 inches this week. That explains the discomfort! I feel so heavy out in front and my back has begun to ache when I walk for long periods of time. I love walking! I love exercise! It's such a bummer for it to be painful or uncomfortable. The other day I was walking and I had such terrible pressure and pain down there! Two days ago, I was watching TV and I had contractions, some painful some not, every 3-7 minutes. They subsided and were never regular, so nothing to worry about quite yet thankfully.

More news. I'm switching providers mid-pregnancy. Fun, fun. That means my next appointment won't be until October 6th. I'll be 37 weeks pregnant and ready to go by then. Argh. Oh, well. At least I can keep an eye on my BP and weight until then. As long as both are steady, there's no need to worry.