Sleeping, Swimming & Landscaping......

Yay!!! Annie slept for 6 straight hours last night!!! I have so much energy today- surprising how much good a few more hours of sleep can do for you ;) Now, if she'll just do it again tonight......



I took Madelynn swimming at the community pool yesterday. She had a blast! All day today she keeps saying "swimming? swimming? swimming?" There is a small splash park there too. After being in the pool, coming out with the wind made it very chilly. She was shivering and sliding down the turtle slide and refusing to stop to warm up in a towel. I'm glad she likes the water so much, she's sure to be a good swimmer with her big feet (gets it from her momma.) She's already in a size 7 shoe now- good grief. Hopefully, she will be tall too (it would look funny if she was short with big feet-lol!)



Oh yea, Madelynn finally peed in the potty! She told Jake "potty" so he took her to the potty and she peed in it! We tried it again last night, but she just sat there without doing anything. I really wasn't going to potty train her until next summer, but she's been taking off her diaper and if she's ready then I guess we'll go ahead with it. I'm not pushing it though, we'll probably take it slow......until she starts undressing in public, then we may have to speed it up a bit- lol!

So Oncor decided that our neighbors need a new electric line and the line goes through the middle of our front yard. They have the large digging truck out digging a huge hole (a man is in it up to his waist.) They said a landscaping company will replace everything, but I'm sure it'll be winter before that happens. They better not break a sprinkler head with their trucks....... The only good thing is that we were going to replace our yard eventually with St. Augustine grass so I'm hoping the landscaping will be with St. Augustine grass on the majority of the yard and we can fill in the holes with our own grass patches. I guess we'll see this winter........ *insert nervous laugh/eye roll combination* ;) I hope they are done with everything today. Maddie can't take a good nap with all the noise outside her window and I don't have the nerves for 2 napless days.

Ugh, 2 more weeks until I start work again......booooooooooo!!!!!!!! I better buy a lotto ticket tonight....... ;)

One for the Girls

Just to end the day with a smile ;)

One for the girls
Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my shape to keep.
Please no wrinkles, Please no bags
And please lift my butt before it sags.
Please no age spots, Please no gray
And as for my belly, Please take it away
Please keep me healthy, Please keep me young,
And thank you Dear Lord, For all that you've done.

Homeschooling

This pic is brought to you by the colors blue and brown; and by the number one:




So Madelynn and I started our homeschooling. She really likes it- it gives her special individualized time, and she loves the arts and crafts. I'm using A Beka Books right now, may look into seatan (sp?) catholic books more later. We are learning colors right now- 2 colors a day. I also started on numbers- 1 number a week. Some of the lessons are still alittle over her head (prob. more for 2 1/2 or 3 year olds) like reciting a poem, and understanding that colors come from God. But it's good to go over and I can review it again as she gets older. She still gets alittle confused on colors, but they seem to really stick when we eat the color for lunch. For example, today were colors blue and brown; so we had blueberries and brown peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. After that she seemed to get the colors better. Tomorrow is green and black, so we're going to go outside and find green and black objects (prob. just leaves, grass, and dirt.) Hopefully, it won't be too hot ;) I'm thinking kiwi and raisins for lunch too.....

Superheroes!

Maddie and I played superheroes for a day. It was lots of fun making the masks and running around the house (Madelynn kept saying "ready, set, GO!") lol! We start school today, I'll let you know how that goes. I'm really excited! It'll probably take awhile before we get a set schedule, I'm hoping we'll have one before I go back to work though.... I had thought about waiting until the real school year starts, then start our schooling with them; but I'm too excited about playing teacher- lol! Enjoy our superhero pics ;)

Annabelle Grace Wells' Birth Story- a successful VBAC!

**WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS LOTS OF TMI- READ AT YOUR OWN RISK**


Annabelle’s Birth Story- a successful VBAC!


On Tuesday; June 16th, I got acupuncture done to induce labor. Several contractions occurred during the 1 hour long session.

On Wednesday; June 17th, Dr. Halderman said I was barely a 1cm and 80% effaced. She went ahead and stripped and stretched me alittle to try to get things going. We also canceled the Csection for Monday and agreed to take it one day/week at a time as long as my AFL (amniotic fluid level) stayed up and Annie stayed OK.

Thursday night, June 18th, about 8pm contractions started. By about 1am (Friday morning) they were about 5 mins apart and bloody show with each one. I woke up Jake and we called our parents at about 2am. The contractions were about 3-5 mins apart at that time. Jake got the house ready while I continued keeping time.

My mom and Jake’s mom arrived and we waited, continuing to keep time. By about 8am the contractions had started to slow down to 7 mins apart. My mom and I walked around the block a few times, but still they didn’t pick up. By afternoon the contractions were about 10 mins apart. Jake and I went to Target to try to stir things up, but to no avail. Parents then left for home.

At about 5pm the contractions started up again really fast and hard. I started throwing up. Jake threw all of our things and Maddie in the car and we went to the hospital. We called our parents to meet us at the hospital. At the hospital they said I was a good 1 cm dilated and 80% effaced. So we went home to try to walk and get some advancement. Jake’s mom and dad took Maddie for lunch at Mcdonalds, and then met us at the house. My mom met us at the hospital, then bought lunch for everyone and met us at the house.

All evening and night the contractions would go from 5mins apart to 7mins apart. My mom and Jake’s mom and dad slept over. My mom and I walked around the block a few more times that night. And we used the rolling pin for back pain (it really does help!)

At 5am Saturday morning my water broke. At first I thought I peed on myself because it was just a slow leak; but then when I went to the bathroom and realized it would not stop leaking I realized my water had broke. About 10 mins after, the contractions started up really hard and fast again and I started throwing up again. I woke Jake up and we went to the hospital again with my mom while Jake’s parents stayed to watch Maddie.

At the hospital they said I was 3cm dilated and still about 80% effaced. I continued walking and tried using the birthing ball (now called a birthing egg) and I had to stay on the monitors (huge pain in the A.) They switched the baby monitoring to internal monitors which I didn’t want at first, but then glad afterwards because with the monitors internal I didn’t have to worry about them slipping around and being unable to get an accurate reading.

At about 10am I was so tired I was falling asleep on my feet in between contractions. In order to have any energy for pushing I decided to get one dose of Nubain (sp?), a pain medication. It lasts for about 4hrs, and after it wears off I can walk around again. While it helped to take the edge off, the contractions were still really hard; but I was able to get alittle rest before the hardest part came.

At about 1pm I was feeling alittle rested and back to walking and was still 3cm dilated, but 100% effaced.

At about this time, the anesthesiologist comes and places an epidural line just for emergencies- no medication was given through it. We agreed to this because of the emergency c-section we had to have with Madelynn. If something happened I did not want to be placed under general anesthesia- so a line placed just for emergencies seemed like a good idea. If I had known that everything would work out- no line would have been placed (I’ll refuse next time…..) ;)

At about 3pm the contractions became more like my body was trying to push Annie out. The nurse came to check me and I was 7cm dilated and 100% effaced. I couldn’t push yet until 10cm dilated, so I was trying to get the nurse to check me as often as possible (without risking infection). Went like this:

3:15pm
Nurse: try turning on your stomach, with butt in air- might help get to 10cm
(I did that for about 15mins)
Me: What am I at now?
Nurse: Still 7cm- I’ll be back in 30 mins
(I turned back to my back- stomach made it worse)
3:45pm
Me: Where is the nurse- I think it’s been 30 mins
(Mom and Jake are giving me water in between, cool rags, and turning the fan off and on: on during a contraction, then off when the violent chills would kick in afterwards)
4pm
Nurse: OK, your 10 cm and fully effaced- I’ll go get the doctor. You can start pushing now.

So I start pushing. During this time Dr. Chin was on call for my midwife so she comes in and tries this “massage to help”. When I yelled at her to stop the very painful tugging she says “oops, I forgot you don’t have an epidural and can feel everything.” DUH!!!
So then she gets called on an emergency and Dr. Halderman comes in- for like 30 mins.
MD: “lets do an in and out cath. to see if emptying the bladder helps speed up the pushing”
MD: “wow, bone dry- I’ve never seen that before”
Then Dr. Chin comes back in because the emergency was over.
God intervened at this time and my midwife, Jeaneane Carter CNM, calls from the airport.
“Has Corrie Wells given birth yet?”
“She’s pushing now”
“I’m on my way”
Yay!!! My midwife arrives just in time to save me! She takes off the internal monitors, starts applying warm rags, and massages my legs. All the time the nurse is fanning me nonstop (she has amazing biceps.)
So I push from about 4pm to 6:12pm when Annabelle Grace is born.
They said it took longer to push because not only was Annie my first vaginal delivery, but also my contractions were about 5-7mins apart instead of most peoples are about 2-3mins apart at pushing time.
After the head was out, I got to pull her the rest of the way out. Jake got to cut the umbilical cord. It was very cool! ;)

Annabelle Grace Wells
Born Saturday; June 20th, 2009
6:12pm
8lbs. 9oz
20 in long

So far, Annie is a very laid back baby. She sleeps a lot, and hardly cries. She is very tolerable of Maddie’s loud voice and ‘gentle’ pats.

While I’m very, very grateful to God that everything worked out……I just have a few more specific requests for God for the next delivery ;)

Thank you again everyone for the wonderful prayers and support!!!! Jake and I are so grateful to have such wonderful friends and family!

Annabelle

I'm still working on the birth story that I'll have to post later. But here are the stats:





Annabelle Grace Wells
Born June 20th, 2009 at 6:12pm
Wt: 8lbs. 9oz
Length: 20 in.

She is a very laid back baby (for now anyways). She loves car rides and falls asleep in the car right away. We got her first portraits and birth announcements done the other day and she didn't say a peep. Madelynn still cries through every portrait sitting, but Annabelle let them move her all over and just looked around without even a whimper. It's so crazy how different the girls are. I can't wait to see more of Annie's personality as she gets older.

We went to her 2 week checkup and she is already 9lbs. (70% percentile) and 21 1/4 in long (81% percentile). Also very different from Maddie who is always (and still is) so underweight.

I love this baby stage where I can just cuddle with her. Jake can't wait for her to be older where he can play and rough house with her ;) Jake is a great dad though, and has already watched the girls for me a few times so I can get out of the house some (very brave considering I haven't pumped milk yet, so Annie doesn't have anything to eat while I'm away). I went shopping for some non-maternity clothes I could fit into.....prob. a bad idea- I'm HUGE! I can't wait until the 6wk OK to start exercising. I only bought a couple of items because I refuse to admit I will still fit them in a few months........ so if you see me wearing the same thing several times, it's because it's the only clothes I have that fit-lol!