After bringing Henry home, I was spotted feeding him by the boys. Yes they were around when I fed Kinsley, but they were 2 years younger and things didn't click like they do now. I'll add here that I am aware that they walk around in the house so I try to be semi modest when I feed him. I don't use a nursing cover, but I do try to keep exposure to a minimum. Anyway, upon seeing what was going on each of them froze and stammered
before I told them to go back to their business and let me feed the
baby. I told Henry about this and we decided that we should have a discussion with them to explain what was going on and why and how they should respond to it. Keep in mind that they are 8 & 6 year old boys so we kept it simple. We explained to them that girls and boys are different and that girls have private parts on the top as well as the bottom. We also explained that when a girl has a baby, she produces milk to feed the baby/babies because we are mammals like dogs and cats and cows... we tried to relate it to something that they already understood. The light began to come on. We told them that they were each fed like that and that there is nothing wrong with it and that we just wanted them to understand. That being said, we told them that it was not something that they needed to discuss at school or with their friends, it was just for their understanding. Henry also drilled into them that though it was ok for them to walk by, they should respect what was going on and not stare or freak out because it was sort of a private thing. That was the end of it.
Fast forward a week and I came into the kitchen with milk that I had pumped. Colin was standing there and asked what I had. I told him that I had milk I had gotten out for the baby. I didn't say how I got it out as we won't go there now. The look on his face was priceless as he stared at the bottles. He never said anything, but I could tell what he was thinking. It was kind of like the look Kinsley gave when she saw the baby, "I didn't think it was going to be a real baby". Colin's look clearly said "I didn't think it was real milk". He looked stunned as he walked away and I giggled to myself as he processed this truth. Though I find discussions about this sort of thing a little awkward sometimes, I'm glad that we are honest with the kids and explain things to them in a way that they can understand. I'd rather them hear the edited truth from us than a full blown or exaggerated version from someone else. I hope that we can keep this door of communication open as they get older and have questions about things. These preliminary conversations give me hope about the whole birds and bees conversation that will come later. It's nice to have warm up conversations to that. ~Kellie~
Friday, December 14, 2012
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Birth Stories and More
I've never written birth stories for any of my kids. Sure I've told them before, but never actually written them down. I've never really felt compelled to do so until now. Henry's birth was very special, but to understand why I've chosen to include a brief birth story for each of my kids.
Colin Thomas Rendleman
August 25th, 2004 - 9:40 p.m. - 6lbs 4 oz, 18.75" long
Pregnancy with Colin was a breeze. No morning sickness, no complications, nothing unusual. It was as my OB said "the perfect pregnancy". I think I gained like 32 pounds. He was due on August 27th I think or something like that. My OB was going to be leaving the country for Africa on the 27th and told me that if I wanted him to deliver the baby, I'd have to be induced on the 26th. Remember that I lived in a small town then and you saw your OB every time, and that was who delivered your baby no matter what time of day or night it was unless they were on vacation. :-P I didn't want to be induced, so I started walking like mad on a Monday afternoon, Aug. 23rd. I had a few contractions but nothing major. They were still kinda happening the next day so I stayed home from work and walked all day long. I walked Walmart and Lowes because it was HOT outside and I didn't want to have a heat stroke. Contractions picked up, got into a good pattern, and Tuesday night I didn't sleep well. I was definitely in labor but not to the point of going to the hospital. By Wednesday at lunch I had had enough and went to the hospital. They of course put me in triage and told me that they'd be in to check me but I'd probably be sent home. I tried to tell them that I was definitely in labor, but being a first timer they didn't really believe me. Twenty minutes later I was admitted and put in a room. I had really wanted to have a totally natural birth with him and did not plan to have an epidural or any pain meds. I labored for hours and coped fairly well with things. My labor kinda stalled at 8cm and my water still hadn't broken. I have no idea what time it was then, late afternoon or early evening. The nurses kept asking the OB if they could break my water and he kept saying to wait. After an hour or so of being "stuck" and being very tired, a nurse suggested that maybe if I got up and walked around my water would break and I'd be ready to push. That was when I lost all concentration and was on my knees by the bed. She said that it could be hours more and I gave in and got an epidural because I didn't think I could handle hours more like that. Hours later when they finally were able to break my water, I immediately went "complete" and was told not to push until the Dr. got there. Had they broken my water earlier when they asked to, it might have all been over alot sooner and I might not have gotten the epidural. So here we were, about 9:00 at night, and the OB shows up. I should add here that he got up at like 4 in the morning, so it was really late for him. They turned off the epidural and I started pushing. I still couldn't really feel a thing, and I wasn't making tremendous progress. It was determined that the baby was face up and stuck behind the arch in my pelvis. During the next contraction (apparently while I wasn't looking) I got an episiotomy and Colin was delivered with forceps. While this wasn't my ideal delivery, it was better than alot of other things that could have happened and I vowed that next time I wouldn't have an epidural.
Jonas Graham Rendleman
April 13th, 2006 - 9:52 a.m. - 5 lbs, 5 oz 18.5" long
Much like my first pregnancy, pregnancy with Jonas was a breeze, sorta. My due date was toward the end of May, I don't remember the day. No morning sickness, everything looked normal, until my 20 week ultrasound. While checking the placenta they said that it looked a little low but that they weren't worried about it because it usually looked a little low early on and that as pregnancy progressed, they anticipated that it would move up and all would be well. A couple months later at my next ultrasound it was determined that the placenta had not moved up, but rather that I had complete previa and that I would have to have a c-section, there was no other way. I was devastated. I felt cheated and robbed. This was supposed to be my redemption birth! No one in my family had ever had a c-section. I felt like I had failed somehow, and the thought of entering the hospital fine and leaving having been cut open was shocking and scary to me. I called my OB and talked to the sweet little nurse who told me that everything would be fine and that it happened to alot of people and that I shouldn't worry unless I had bleeding and that if that happened I needed to go to the hospital immediately. About two weeks later, I started having bleeding. I was admitted to the hospital and monitored. They gave me two steroid injections in the hip over the next two days. Let me tell you, those things hurt! They said that I was having contractions (which I never felt) and that they wanted to be safe and give me the injections to help his lung development in case he was born early. I was about 7 weeks out from my due date at that point. They planned to delay delivery for a total of 4 weeks. I stayed in the hospital on near total bed rest for two weeks. I was allowed to get up to go to the bathroom and to take a quick shower. Other than that I was to stay in bed and be monitored as certain intervals during the day. The contractions were still there and I was given meds to try to stop them. Those meds knocked me out and I basically lost 2 weeks of my life. I had pretty severe bleeding one night which earned me a night nearly upside down and it was determined that I wasn't going to make it the 4 weeks so they set a c-section date of April 17th. After one more light bleeding ordeal, my c-section date of April 17th was moved to April 13th with a 2 hour warning. The OB came in and said we'd waited long enough and if we continued to push things, the chance that I could bleed out increased and one or both of us could die. Nuff said, no? He said I should call my husband and get him there asap and then he looked at his watch and said he had 2 surgeries scheduled and then he'd be ready for me. "You have... 2 hours." I was a little sad because the 17th is my great grandmother's birthday and she was so excited that he was going to be born as her "present". Instead, he was born on my mother's birthday so I guess it all worked out.
Kinsley Claire Rendleman
March 23rd, 2010 - 12:20 p.m. - 7 lbs, 4 oz, 19.5" long
This time, pregnancy dealt me a dose of morning sickness/queasiness. I was glad when it went away after a few months. We planned to VBAC instead of having a repeat c-section and searched for an OB that would support that. Not as easy as it sounds. We interviewed a few and finally settled on one that didn't seem like a freaky idiot. She wasn't hugely wild about the whole VBAC thing, but at least she agreed to let me try. She kinda gave us this scary picture of things that could happen and asked if we were willing to risk that. We said yes and went on. Pregnancy went well, but I must admit that I was a little in shock when they told us we were having a girl. I sat semi depressed for 2 days wondering what in the world I was going to do with a girl. It seems silly now, but at the time I was a disaster. It just wasn't what I was expecting. I finally just told myself to get a grip and that it would be ok and I moved on. By the time she was born I had somehow found my inner girliness and it was all good. The only strange thing during pregnancy was that she stayed breech way past the normal time. I started going to the chiropractor to help turn her, which not only made me feel better and relieved some pain and discomfort, but really did allow her to turn around week 36. I guess I can't say for certain that the chiropractor helped turn her as I did other crazy things that I read out of desperation because breech meant a definite c-section. I laid on the ironing board upside down on an incline, I laid on the stairs facing down, once I even stood on my head. Fast forward to week 40 of pregnancy. The OB had been checking me for 2 weeks and apparently I was showing slight signs of getting ready but not progressing very fast. I persuaded her to let me go another week which she semi reluctantly agreed to. I was seriously hoping go into labor since she had told me that they couldn't induce me because it would increase the chance of uterine rupture. She was also concerned about the age of the placenta because at some point it starts to not function as well. Interesting that you can make a special "single use throw away organ". I'd like to add here that I did research VBAC some and was not totally accepting when she told me things. I can read and have an opinion too. I went back the following week, was still at the same level of progression and she schedule me for a c-section the next day. Again, I was totally devastated. I didn't want a c-section but who was I to go against medical advice? I mean, she was the Dr., she had let me go an extra week so she wasn't just gung ho about the section, and she did seem pretty sad for me that I hadn't gone into labor and was going to have a c-section. We ate Chili's that night while I sulked and stewed over this decision. No one stays pregnant forever though she made it seem like some people would never go into labor on their own. The next day, against my better judgement, I showed up at the hospital as instructed for a repeat c-section for no reason other than being "past due".
Henry Rendleman VII
November 30th, 2012 - 5:12 a.m. - 8 lbs, 8 oz, 20.75" long
Once again, morning sickness and queasiness struck with this pregnancy. I think it may have been worse than the time before. I discovered that if I took Prilosec every morning the feeling was seriously curbed so I took it every morning for 3 months. I started out seeing the same OB as before. I told her at our first appointment that I wanted to VBAC. Her response was NOT as open as before. She gave us a horrible doom and gloom picture of things that could happen painted in the most negative way possible and presented as though those things happened most of the time. I knew that if I continued to see her, the outcome would be the same as before. I was determined not to have a c-section or be pressured to have one and to handle this pregnancy my way. I asked around and finally found a midwife that supported VBAC. Now I had been against midwives until this point. My theory was that if you had to have a c-section, some stranger would deliver your baby. I decided that that didn't matter since the OBs here deliver on an on call basis so you probably won't get your OB to deliver you anyway. I was also desperate to have someone support me in my decision to VBAC and not badger me the whole time and try to scare me into doing things their way. I jumped ship and crossed over into midwife land half way through pregnancy after Henry and I had a consult appointment with them and were given a totally different picture painted in bright hopeful colors with the understanding that the doom and gloom things could happen, but almost never do. The whole uterine rupture thing seems to be the greatest fear of all medical personnel with regard to VBAC as that is a worst case scenario. Henry asked the midwife if she's ever seen it happen. She said no and he asked her how long she'd been at the practice. Ten years. In ten years she had never had it happen. That was good enough for us.
The middle 3 months of pregnancy were great and then the last 3 months struck. I knew that he was going to be bigger because I had discomfort symptoms way sooner than with any other pregnancy. I felt full of baby as ridiculous as that sounds. I had back pain that wouldn't go away and my chiropractor determined that I had a pinched nerve because of the way he was laying. I tried massage pillows, hot showers, sitting on an exercise ball, sitting in my office chair backwards, nothing really helped for long. You'd think that sitting or laying down would have helped but that actually made things worse. It felt like it shoved him further into my rib area, not fun. I was sure that he would be early. I hoped for it, I prayed for it, I just knew that the 4th baby was sure to be early. Given the fact that the 3rd baby was late, I'm not really sure why I thought that. The midwife said that I was good to go until 42 weeks. Again, surely I won't go that long... We went in at 40 weeks, saw someone different, and left with a few questions that we couldn't really get her to answer. I had no idea that midwives had to have a Dr. write the order to induce you, I had always been told that I couldn't have pitocin with a VBAC and yet this midwife just said that wasn't true, I had been told that they would try to induce me with non drug methods, and again, she was telling me that they wouldn't as they were unreliable. I came home and sent "my" midwife an email asking what was up. The long and the short of it was that we were to come in for another appointment at 41 weeks and she'd square away the details. Now it was getting interesting.
We went in for an ultrasound before our 41 week appointment. They wanted to check the fluid level and placenta function and make sure that he was practice breathing and had a good heartbeat etc. The fluid looked a little cloudy, but other than that things looked great. We went to the appointment with the midwife and she checked me to see if I was progressing which I was. YAY! She entered information from the ultrasound along with information from my exam into this calculator that they have to guess at the success of VBAC, 87% was our score. She seemed pretty happy with that. We discussed induction and such and she said that she would give all of the information they collected that day to their physician and get back to me with his/her decision. She said that worst case scenario we would have a c-section the following Friday because that was 42 weeks and they didn't want to push things. I was a little sad about that but thought that since I was progressing there was no way I'd make that date anyway. She stripped my membranes in the office before we left just for good measure and as an attempt to speed progression, said she'd call us as soon as she got the info from the Dr., and we came home feeling pretty good about things.
The plot thickens now. Our midwife called us back that evening with info from the Dr. It was Tuesday night the 27th. She told us that the Dr. wanted to schedule a c-section for Thursday morning the 29th and that there would be no inducing, just the section. We were supposed to be there at 8:30 a.m. and the surgery would start at 10:30 a.m. and we'd be done. I was not happy. I was furious and disappointed. How could this be happening again? We'd worked so hard to avoid this, waited so long to try it, we'd switched Dr.s and gotten opinions and here we were again. This was not what we had planned! I felt a little let down by my midwife honestly, but she has to follow their physician's final say so it's not her fault. I sat in my office and sulked about this for a long time. I just couldn't wrap my head around it, I felt blind sided just like last time. Here I was at the end, I'd waited extra time and now someone was calling time. All I could think was that I didn't want to do it. That's when it hit me, I didn't want to have a c-section and they couldn't make me! I talked to Henry about it and we decided that we would be good waiting until Monday the 3rd but no later. If we still hadn't had him by then, we'd give in for the c-section. I called the midwife Wednesday morning and told her that we had decided not to have the c-section. She didn't really know what to say. I said that I wanted to come in for an appointment on Friday to be checked again and that we would have a c-section Monday if he wasn't born before. I figured that if they were willing to cheat me out of a day due to scheduling, they could give me a few extra. She then told me some doom and gloom about my ultrasound results in my opinion to scare me into going in Thursday morning. She said that there was meconium in the fluid and that the fluid level was really low and that my placenta looked like it was wearing out. She said that she'd checked the schedule for c-section dates and there weren't any at least through Tuesday and that I was pretty much on my own since I was going against medical advice and if I wanted a c-section on Monday I'd just have to go to the hospital, request one and wait. I contacted a friend who contacted her midwife and the results were discussed. The opinion of that midwife was that all of my results were normal given the stage of my pregnancy and she didn't see any reason to rush into a section. I was having contractions Wednesday night, but they were all over the place. I took that as a good sign since some is better than none.
Now we get down to business. Thursday morning about 4 a.m. I started having contractions that woke me up. By 5 a.m., they were waking Henry up. We monitored them for an hour and a half, he let the office know that he wouldn't be in, and we labored on. I have to say that this labor was different than my first labor, this one was more intense. Some would say that I just didn't remember my first one so well, but I assure you that I would have remembered pain like that. I still wasn't totally convinced that I was really in true labor until about lunch. By 3:30 I had had enough and we went to the hospital. I have to say that I don't feel that I handled labor all that well this time. I'm not sure if practice would have made a difference or not, but we'll never know. I can tell you that I'm pretty sure that the entire 4th floor of the hospital knew that I was in serious labor a few hours after we got there. I hate to admit that I was "that girl", but I totally was. It wasn't so much the abdominal contractions that got me, it was a pelvic pressure. I was convinced for many hours that he was going to shoot out like a rocket. I have to say that that is the most intense pain I have ever felt and I am glad that we had already decided that this was our last baby because there is no way that I would voluntarily sign up for that again. The labor and pain were pretty intense and I'm pretty sure I had been asking Henry about pain meds for a while, but being true to his word he coached me off the ledge multiple times because I made him promise that he wouldn't let me give in and get an epidural. We decided to try nitrous as a pain control method but I seriously hated that. After a while longer, somewhere around hour 13 of labor, I had had enough and literally screamed and begged for an epidural. I'm not proud of that, but sometimes you have to know your limits. The nurses left the room and Henry and I discussed whether or not that's really what we wanted to do. The midwife said we were progressing but that it was going to be a while longer and the epidural might relax the situation enough so that labor would progress faster. I was fine with that and about 4 contractions later the pain fairies came to help me out.
After a few more hours, the midwife checked me out again. We discovered 3 things, 1. My water had broken at some point. 2. What water was left was clear (remember the doom and gloom report?) and 3. The baby was face up (again?? what is it with these boys?). She decided to have me lay on my side with one leg propped up on the tray thing to see if he would turn and come on down like he was on The Price Is Right. I'm not sure how long I laid there like that but she came in at about 4 a.m. and checked the situation again. He was still face up, but conditions were right to push! This ordeal was almost over. He was still at a zero station so she said we'd do some "warm up pushes" to get him moving before we went to full on pushing. My contractions were about one and a half to two minutes long which got me an extra set of 10 count pushing most of the time. That's 40 seconds of pushing with a few seconds to breathe in between. Henry was a great coach and about half way through the hour that I spent pushing the midwife asked him if he wanted to deliver the baby. It only took him a few seconds to say yes and she gave him instructions about what he would do when. A few more contractions later she told him to put on his gloves and stand at the end of the bed with his hands clasped so that the gloves would remain sterile. A few more contractions and his little head appeared. I had had them put a mirror at the end of the bed when I started pushing so that I could see my progress. I had also read in books that the head rotates as it emerges but I didn't think I'd actually see that happen. First the crown, then his forehead. She told me not to push as his head rotated and his little cheeks and chin appeared. I hung out for the rest of the contraction while she explained to Henry what he would do. She told him to hold the baby's head under the cheeks and that I would push and he would gently pull to deliver the shoulders. One more push and he was out! Henry put him on my chest for some skin to skin contact while the nurses roughed him up a bit to get him breathing well. The midwife clamped the cord a little bit later and Henry got to cut it, why not since he'd just delivered the baby? After delivering the placenta, I asked if it looked like it was old and failing. The midwife kinda giggled as she said "no, it looks fine". I had no stitches with this delivery. YAY!
To sum it all up, here's how I feel. I'm not sorry that I changed Dr.s or went against medical advice. I do feel like a bit of a rebel for standing up for myself and saying no to something that I didn't feel was right. I knew things were happening and that I just needed more time, much like animals "just know". I'm glad that I trusted my instincts and had limits. I'm glad that I got an epidural so that I could enjoy the birth that I always wanted. Pain free childbirth that you still participate in is good and I don't feel like a sell out. I feel that I "experienced" all I wanted to experience. Do I feel a little cocky for having a successful VBAC when everyone said that it was too risky at the end? Maybe, but I had God on my side and he had it all under control. The people who were supposed to be at the birth to make it happen were there. I had never met any of them before but it didn't matter, and they have a special place in my heart for trying their best and helping me out and making it happen. They didn't give up on me even when things were unclear. I feel that I was in the right place to "try something risky" because if Vanderbilt can't fix you, it's probably your time anyway. I'm also thankful for a couple of friends, Melissa and Hillary, who shared their knowledge and opinions on the matter. I couldn't have made the decision to "rebel" without their support. Mostly I'm grateful for Henry because he stood by me and stood up for me through it all. He was always super supportive and never left me hanging. I'm glad that he got his son and got to carry on the family name. I'm glad that he got the opportunities that he missed with Kinsley, like coaching me through labor and delivery and seeing the miracle of birth rather than the miracle of modern medicine. I'm excited that he got the unusual opportunity to deliver him himself. How many guys can say that they delivered their own baby? I'm thankful that we shared such an awesome bonding experience that we will have forever, and I'm glad that we did it our way. ~Kellie~
Colin Thomas Rendleman
August 25th, 2004 - 9:40 p.m. - 6lbs 4 oz, 18.75" long
Pregnancy with Colin was a breeze. No morning sickness, no complications, nothing unusual. It was as my OB said "the perfect pregnancy". I think I gained like 32 pounds. He was due on August 27th I think or something like that. My OB was going to be leaving the country for Africa on the 27th and told me that if I wanted him to deliver the baby, I'd have to be induced on the 26th. Remember that I lived in a small town then and you saw your OB every time, and that was who delivered your baby no matter what time of day or night it was unless they were on vacation. :-P I didn't want to be induced, so I started walking like mad on a Monday afternoon, Aug. 23rd. I had a few contractions but nothing major. They were still kinda happening the next day so I stayed home from work and walked all day long. I walked Walmart and Lowes because it was HOT outside and I didn't want to have a heat stroke. Contractions picked up, got into a good pattern, and Tuesday night I didn't sleep well. I was definitely in labor but not to the point of going to the hospital. By Wednesday at lunch I had had enough and went to the hospital. They of course put me in triage and told me that they'd be in to check me but I'd probably be sent home. I tried to tell them that I was definitely in labor, but being a first timer they didn't really believe me. Twenty minutes later I was admitted and put in a room. I had really wanted to have a totally natural birth with him and did not plan to have an epidural or any pain meds. I labored for hours and coped fairly well with things. My labor kinda stalled at 8cm and my water still hadn't broken. I have no idea what time it was then, late afternoon or early evening. The nurses kept asking the OB if they could break my water and he kept saying to wait. After an hour or so of being "stuck" and being very tired, a nurse suggested that maybe if I got up and walked around my water would break and I'd be ready to push. That was when I lost all concentration and was on my knees by the bed. She said that it could be hours more and I gave in and got an epidural because I didn't think I could handle hours more like that. Hours later when they finally were able to break my water, I immediately went "complete" and was told not to push until the Dr. got there. Had they broken my water earlier when they asked to, it might have all been over alot sooner and I might not have gotten the epidural. So here we were, about 9:00 at night, and the OB shows up. I should add here that he got up at like 4 in the morning, so it was really late for him. They turned off the epidural and I started pushing. I still couldn't really feel a thing, and I wasn't making tremendous progress. It was determined that the baby was face up and stuck behind the arch in my pelvis. During the next contraction (apparently while I wasn't looking) I got an episiotomy and Colin was delivered with forceps. While this wasn't my ideal delivery, it was better than alot of other things that could have happened and I vowed that next time I wouldn't have an epidural.
Jonas Graham Rendleman
April 13th, 2006 - 9:52 a.m. - 5 lbs, 5 oz 18.5" long
Much like my first pregnancy, pregnancy with Jonas was a breeze, sorta. My due date was toward the end of May, I don't remember the day. No morning sickness, everything looked normal, until my 20 week ultrasound. While checking the placenta they said that it looked a little low but that they weren't worried about it because it usually looked a little low early on and that as pregnancy progressed, they anticipated that it would move up and all would be well. A couple months later at my next ultrasound it was determined that the placenta had not moved up, but rather that I had complete previa and that I would have to have a c-section, there was no other way. I was devastated. I felt cheated and robbed. This was supposed to be my redemption birth! No one in my family had ever had a c-section. I felt like I had failed somehow, and the thought of entering the hospital fine and leaving having been cut open was shocking and scary to me. I called my OB and talked to the sweet little nurse who told me that everything would be fine and that it happened to alot of people and that I shouldn't worry unless I had bleeding and that if that happened I needed to go to the hospital immediately. About two weeks later, I started having bleeding. I was admitted to the hospital and monitored. They gave me two steroid injections in the hip over the next two days. Let me tell you, those things hurt! They said that I was having contractions (which I never felt) and that they wanted to be safe and give me the injections to help his lung development in case he was born early. I was about 7 weeks out from my due date at that point. They planned to delay delivery for a total of 4 weeks. I stayed in the hospital on near total bed rest for two weeks. I was allowed to get up to go to the bathroom and to take a quick shower. Other than that I was to stay in bed and be monitored as certain intervals during the day. The contractions were still there and I was given meds to try to stop them. Those meds knocked me out and I basically lost 2 weeks of my life. I had pretty severe bleeding one night which earned me a night nearly upside down and it was determined that I wasn't going to make it the 4 weeks so they set a c-section date of April 17th. After one more light bleeding ordeal, my c-section date of April 17th was moved to April 13th with a 2 hour warning. The OB came in and said we'd waited long enough and if we continued to push things, the chance that I could bleed out increased and one or both of us could die. Nuff said, no? He said I should call my husband and get him there asap and then he looked at his watch and said he had 2 surgeries scheduled and then he'd be ready for me. "You have... 2 hours." I was a little sad because the 17th is my great grandmother's birthday and she was so excited that he was going to be born as her "present". Instead, he was born on my mother's birthday so I guess it all worked out.
Kinsley Claire Rendleman
March 23rd, 2010 - 12:20 p.m. - 7 lbs, 4 oz, 19.5" long
This time, pregnancy dealt me a dose of morning sickness/queasiness. I was glad when it went away after a few months. We planned to VBAC instead of having a repeat c-section and searched for an OB that would support that. Not as easy as it sounds. We interviewed a few and finally settled on one that didn't seem like a freaky idiot. She wasn't hugely wild about the whole VBAC thing, but at least she agreed to let me try. She kinda gave us this scary picture of things that could happen and asked if we were willing to risk that. We said yes and went on. Pregnancy went well, but I must admit that I was a little in shock when they told us we were having a girl. I sat semi depressed for 2 days wondering what in the world I was going to do with a girl. It seems silly now, but at the time I was a disaster. It just wasn't what I was expecting. I finally just told myself to get a grip and that it would be ok and I moved on. By the time she was born I had somehow found my inner girliness and it was all good. The only strange thing during pregnancy was that she stayed breech way past the normal time. I started going to the chiropractor to help turn her, which not only made me feel better and relieved some pain and discomfort, but really did allow her to turn around week 36. I guess I can't say for certain that the chiropractor helped turn her as I did other crazy things that I read out of desperation because breech meant a definite c-section. I laid on the ironing board upside down on an incline, I laid on the stairs facing down, once I even stood on my head. Fast forward to week 40 of pregnancy. The OB had been checking me for 2 weeks and apparently I was showing slight signs of getting ready but not progressing very fast. I persuaded her to let me go another week which she semi reluctantly agreed to. I was seriously hoping go into labor since she had told me that they couldn't induce me because it would increase the chance of uterine rupture. She was also concerned about the age of the placenta because at some point it starts to not function as well. Interesting that you can make a special "single use throw away organ". I'd like to add here that I did research VBAC some and was not totally accepting when she told me things. I can read and have an opinion too. I went back the following week, was still at the same level of progression and she schedule me for a c-section the next day. Again, I was totally devastated. I didn't want a c-section but who was I to go against medical advice? I mean, she was the Dr., she had let me go an extra week so she wasn't just gung ho about the section, and she did seem pretty sad for me that I hadn't gone into labor and was going to have a c-section. We ate Chili's that night while I sulked and stewed over this decision. No one stays pregnant forever though she made it seem like some people would never go into labor on their own. The next day, against my better judgement, I showed up at the hospital as instructed for a repeat c-section for no reason other than being "past due".
Henry Rendleman VII
November 30th, 2012 - 5:12 a.m. - 8 lbs, 8 oz, 20.75" long
Once again, morning sickness and queasiness struck with this pregnancy. I think it may have been worse than the time before. I discovered that if I took Prilosec every morning the feeling was seriously curbed so I took it every morning for 3 months. I started out seeing the same OB as before. I told her at our first appointment that I wanted to VBAC. Her response was NOT as open as before. She gave us a horrible doom and gloom picture of things that could happen painted in the most negative way possible and presented as though those things happened most of the time. I knew that if I continued to see her, the outcome would be the same as before. I was determined not to have a c-section or be pressured to have one and to handle this pregnancy my way. I asked around and finally found a midwife that supported VBAC. Now I had been against midwives until this point. My theory was that if you had to have a c-section, some stranger would deliver your baby. I decided that that didn't matter since the OBs here deliver on an on call basis so you probably won't get your OB to deliver you anyway. I was also desperate to have someone support me in my decision to VBAC and not badger me the whole time and try to scare me into doing things their way. I jumped ship and crossed over into midwife land half way through pregnancy after Henry and I had a consult appointment with them and were given a totally different picture painted in bright hopeful colors with the understanding that the doom and gloom things could happen, but almost never do. The whole uterine rupture thing seems to be the greatest fear of all medical personnel with regard to VBAC as that is a worst case scenario. Henry asked the midwife if she's ever seen it happen. She said no and he asked her how long she'd been at the practice. Ten years. In ten years she had never had it happen. That was good enough for us.
The middle 3 months of pregnancy were great and then the last 3 months struck. I knew that he was going to be bigger because I had discomfort symptoms way sooner than with any other pregnancy. I felt full of baby as ridiculous as that sounds. I had back pain that wouldn't go away and my chiropractor determined that I had a pinched nerve because of the way he was laying. I tried massage pillows, hot showers, sitting on an exercise ball, sitting in my office chair backwards, nothing really helped for long. You'd think that sitting or laying down would have helped but that actually made things worse. It felt like it shoved him further into my rib area, not fun. I was sure that he would be early. I hoped for it, I prayed for it, I just knew that the 4th baby was sure to be early. Given the fact that the 3rd baby was late, I'm not really sure why I thought that. The midwife said that I was good to go until 42 weeks. Again, surely I won't go that long... We went in at 40 weeks, saw someone different, and left with a few questions that we couldn't really get her to answer. I had no idea that midwives had to have a Dr. write the order to induce you, I had always been told that I couldn't have pitocin with a VBAC and yet this midwife just said that wasn't true, I had been told that they would try to induce me with non drug methods, and again, she was telling me that they wouldn't as they were unreliable. I came home and sent "my" midwife an email asking what was up. The long and the short of it was that we were to come in for another appointment at 41 weeks and she'd square away the details. Now it was getting interesting.
We went in for an ultrasound before our 41 week appointment. They wanted to check the fluid level and placenta function and make sure that he was practice breathing and had a good heartbeat etc. The fluid looked a little cloudy, but other than that things looked great. We went to the appointment with the midwife and she checked me to see if I was progressing which I was. YAY! She entered information from the ultrasound along with information from my exam into this calculator that they have to guess at the success of VBAC, 87% was our score. She seemed pretty happy with that. We discussed induction and such and she said that she would give all of the information they collected that day to their physician and get back to me with his/her decision. She said that worst case scenario we would have a c-section the following Friday because that was 42 weeks and they didn't want to push things. I was a little sad about that but thought that since I was progressing there was no way I'd make that date anyway. She stripped my membranes in the office before we left just for good measure and as an attempt to speed progression, said she'd call us as soon as she got the info from the Dr., and we came home feeling pretty good about things.
The plot thickens now. Our midwife called us back that evening with info from the Dr. It was Tuesday night the 27th. She told us that the Dr. wanted to schedule a c-section for Thursday morning the 29th and that there would be no inducing, just the section. We were supposed to be there at 8:30 a.m. and the surgery would start at 10:30 a.m. and we'd be done. I was not happy. I was furious and disappointed. How could this be happening again? We'd worked so hard to avoid this, waited so long to try it, we'd switched Dr.s and gotten opinions and here we were again. This was not what we had planned! I felt a little let down by my midwife honestly, but she has to follow their physician's final say so it's not her fault. I sat in my office and sulked about this for a long time. I just couldn't wrap my head around it, I felt blind sided just like last time. Here I was at the end, I'd waited extra time and now someone was calling time. All I could think was that I didn't want to do it. That's when it hit me, I didn't want to have a c-section and they couldn't make me! I talked to Henry about it and we decided that we would be good waiting until Monday the 3rd but no later. If we still hadn't had him by then, we'd give in for the c-section. I called the midwife Wednesday morning and told her that we had decided not to have the c-section. She didn't really know what to say. I said that I wanted to come in for an appointment on Friday to be checked again and that we would have a c-section Monday if he wasn't born before. I figured that if they were willing to cheat me out of a day due to scheduling, they could give me a few extra. She then told me some doom and gloom about my ultrasound results in my opinion to scare me into going in Thursday morning. She said that there was meconium in the fluid and that the fluid level was really low and that my placenta looked like it was wearing out. She said that she'd checked the schedule for c-section dates and there weren't any at least through Tuesday and that I was pretty much on my own since I was going against medical advice and if I wanted a c-section on Monday I'd just have to go to the hospital, request one and wait. I contacted a friend who contacted her midwife and the results were discussed. The opinion of that midwife was that all of my results were normal given the stage of my pregnancy and she didn't see any reason to rush into a section. I was having contractions Wednesday night, but they were all over the place. I took that as a good sign since some is better than none.
Now we get down to business. Thursday morning about 4 a.m. I started having contractions that woke me up. By 5 a.m., they were waking Henry up. We monitored them for an hour and a half, he let the office know that he wouldn't be in, and we labored on. I have to say that this labor was different than my first labor, this one was more intense. Some would say that I just didn't remember my first one so well, but I assure you that I would have remembered pain like that. I still wasn't totally convinced that I was really in true labor until about lunch. By 3:30 I had had enough and we went to the hospital. I have to say that I don't feel that I handled labor all that well this time. I'm not sure if practice would have made a difference or not, but we'll never know. I can tell you that I'm pretty sure that the entire 4th floor of the hospital knew that I was in serious labor a few hours after we got there. I hate to admit that I was "that girl", but I totally was. It wasn't so much the abdominal contractions that got me, it was a pelvic pressure. I was convinced for many hours that he was going to shoot out like a rocket. I have to say that that is the most intense pain I have ever felt and I am glad that we had already decided that this was our last baby because there is no way that I would voluntarily sign up for that again. The labor and pain were pretty intense and I'm pretty sure I had been asking Henry about pain meds for a while, but being true to his word he coached me off the ledge multiple times because I made him promise that he wouldn't let me give in and get an epidural. We decided to try nitrous as a pain control method but I seriously hated that. After a while longer, somewhere around hour 13 of labor, I had had enough and literally screamed and begged for an epidural. I'm not proud of that, but sometimes you have to know your limits. The nurses left the room and Henry and I discussed whether or not that's really what we wanted to do. The midwife said we were progressing but that it was going to be a while longer and the epidural might relax the situation enough so that labor would progress faster. I was fine with that and about 4 contractions later the pain fairies came to help me out.
After a few more hours, the midwife checked me out again. We discovered 3 things, 1. My water had broken at some point. 2. What water was left was clear (remember the doom and gloom report?) and 3. The baby was face up (again?? what is it with these boys?). She decided to have me lay on my side with one leg propped up on the tray thing to see if he would turn and come on down like he was on The Price Is Right. I'm not sure how long I laid there like that but she came in at about 4 a.m. and checked the situation again. He was still face up, but conditions were right to push! This ordeal was almost over. He was still at a zero station so she said we'd do some "warm up pushes" to get him moving before we went to full on pushing. My contractions were about one and a half to two minutes long which got me an extra set of 10 count pushing most of the time. That's 40 seconds of pushing with a few seconds to breathe in between. Henry was a great coach and about half way through the hour that I spent pushing the midwife asked him if he wanted to deliver the baby. It only took him a few seconds to say yes and she gave him instructions about what he would do when. A few more contractions later she told him to put on his gloves and stand at the end of the bed with his hands clasped so that the gloves would remain sterile. A few more contractions and his little head appeared. I had had them put a mirror at the end of the bed when I started pushing so that I could see my progress. I had also read in books that the head rotates as it emerges but I didn't think I'd actually see that happen. First the crown, then his forehead. She told me not to push as his head rotated and his little cheeks and chin appeared. I hung out for the rest of the contraction while she explained to Henry what he would do. She told him to hold the baby's head under the cheeks and that I would push and he would gently pull to deliver the shoulders. One more push and he was out! Henry put him on my chest for some skin to skin contact while the nurses roughed him up a bit to get him breathing well. The midwife clamped the cord a little bit later and Henry got to cut it, why not since he'd just delivered the baby? After delivering the placenta, I asked if it looked like it was old and failing. The midwife kinda giggled as she said "no, it looks fine". I had no stitches with this delivery. YAY!
To sum it all up, here's how I feel. I'm not sorry that I changed Dr.s or went against medical advice. I do feel like a bit of a rebel for standing up for myself and saying no to something that I didn't feel was right. I knew things were happening and that I just needed more time, much like animals "just know". I'm glad that I trusted my instincts and had limits. I'm glad that I got an epidural so that I could enjoy the birth that I always wanted. Pain free childbirth that you still participate in is good and I don't feel like a sell out. I feel that I "experienced" all I wanted to experience. Do I feel a little cocky for having a successful VBAC when everyone said that it was too risky at the end? Maybe, but I had God on my side and he had it all under control. The people who were supposed to be at the birth to make it happen were there. I had never met any of them before but it didn't matter, and they have a special place in my heart for trying their best and helping me out and making it happen. They didn't give up on me even when things were unclear. I feel that I was in the right place to "try something risky" because if Vanderbilt can't fix you, it's probably your time anyway. I'm also thankful for a couple of friends, Melissa and Hillary, who shared their knowledge and opinions on the matter. I couldn't have made the decision to "rebel" without their support. Mostly I'm grateful for Henry because he stood by me and stood up for me through it all. He was always super supportive and never left me hanging. I'm glad that he got his son and got to carry on the family name. I'm glad that he got the opportunities that he missed with Kinsley, like coaching me through labor and delivery and seeing the miracle of birth rather than the miracle of modern medicine. I'm excited that he got the unusual opportunity to deliver him himself. How many guys can say that they delivered their own baby? I'm thankful that we shared such an awesome bonding experience that we will have forever, and I'm glad that we did it our way. ~Kellie~
Monday, November 26, 2012
Down to the wire
Well here we are, probably the last 4 days of this pregnancy. I'm trying to decide if I'm more excited to get it over with and never have to do it again or if it's a little bittersweet and I'll miss never doing it again. I'm leaning toward the first option because honestly I just want to sleep in some position other than on my side. Don't misunderstand me, pregnancy is fun and exciting and everything, but all good things must come to an end. I definitely don't want any more kids, but there is something to be said for the whole growing a baby in your body thing as creepy as that is when you really think about it. Anyway, I go tomorrow to decide what my options are for evicting the tenant that just won't leave :-P We are at 41+ weeks now and they really don't like for you to go over 42 weeks because of potential problems. I'm thankful that the midwife has allowed me the full length of time given our delivery choice of not having a repeat c-section (we hope). Things are progressing toward the whole labor thing, but obviously not very much or I wouldn't be writing this post. We are hopeful that labor will begin spontaneously before any kind of induction method is used, but I think that Henry and I are just ready to get it over with and inducing is still better than a c-section which is better than lots of other things that could go not according to plan. We have all the bags packed, everything is ready to go, Christmas shopping is done, heck, I even filled and plugged in the wipe warmers. Now we wait, more, and see if he will be a November baby, or a December baby. Sooo never thought that was an option... :-P ~Kellie~
Monday, November 19, 2012
Movies & Pregnancy
Groundhog Day the movie, that's what this pregnancy is starting to feel like. I'm all for letting nature take it's course and I know that he will get here when he gets here and I'm ok with that, really I am, but every morning I wake up and my first thought is that I am still pregnant and that nothing has changed. No "signs" of labor, no specific end in sight, just more of the same. I get over this after I've been awake long enough to get busy but it kinda sucks to wake up and think that every morning. I'm thankful to have at least one more day to get things done. There's always something else to get done.
I also feel like I'm in the movie Alien, and I'm sure that all of you who have been pregnant can relate to that. It's kinda weird to harbor another human in your body. As cool and amazing and miraculous as it is, there comes a point when you realize that they are fully capable of functioning on their own and much like the college student that won't find a job, it's time for them to move out. I have felt more elbows and knees and feet in this pregnancy than I think I ever have before. I swear yesterday morning I felt his butt overlapping the bottom of my ribs and it was not a pleasant feeling. It literally took my breath away and Henry can vouch for how high his little bottom really was. I had a dream last night that I could see and feel his knee in the middle of my chest, not pleasant.
For all of those who say "you're all baby", I'm gonna have to agree with you. Though I am not physically huge, I feel totally full, overinflated, & waaay too firm. My skin is stretched so tight that I can't even move it, and I'm pretty sure that I have horrible stretch marks around my belly button which is something new. I've had stretch marks since Colin, but they've always been limited to my hips, sort of an odd place to get them in the grand scheme of things. I guess my butt had so much extra skin that my belly borrowed from it, who knows. I also had a dream last night that he was born and weighed 8.4 and was 22 inches long. Folks, that's a big baby.
I said above that there was no specific end in sight, and that's true to a point. My "due date" which I've already said was more like the "use by" dates that they put on milk was 4 days ago. I don't place alot of faith in those guesses of arrival/time expiration, but it doesn't help the frustration of STILL not having him here on the outside. It kinda feels like waiting on the mail to arrive with an awesome package, you get mail every day, but the way cool package still isn't there. ACK! Anyway, I have an appointment with my midwife on Wednesday at my 41 week mark. If he's still not here by then, and it's looking like he won't be, she will set a date for me to be induced. As against induction as I've been in the past, I really don't care anymore. It isn't a c-section and I'm tired of feeling like turkey.
Speaking of turkey, we're hosting Thanksgiving this year because I really thought I'd have a baby by then and wouldn't want to travel 2 hours a week-ish after he was born. It seemed like a good plan to have dinner here, I could go to bed if I needed to, everyone could come see the baby... oh the best laid plans. I'm still going to LOOK like a turkey by then and with him nested up in there, there's going to be less room for me to gobble dinner. Oh I'm soooo punny! :-P My mom brought dressing yesterday because she's not going to be able to make it for dinner because my dad won't be able to travel due to a knee replacement. It's in the freezer and I'm so tempted to just heat it up and sit down with a serving spoon and stuff myself because honestly, what's more comforting than dressing??? Anyway, I feel a little better now and I can always go back and read my own blog and pretend that someone else wrote it and that they really understand how I feel . I'll keep everyone posted on delivery, but until then I leave you with a picture so that you can understand how I feel. I'm not sure if seeing the picture makes me feel better or worse, but you can at least have a good laugh at my expense. ~Kellie~
I also feel like I'm in the movie Alien, and I'm sure that all of you who have been pregnant can relate to that. It's kinda weird to harbor another human in your body. As cool and amazing and miraculous as it is, there comes a point when you realize that they are fully capable of functioning on their own and much like the college student that won't find a job, it's time for them to move out. I have felt more elbows and knees and feet in this pregnancy than I think I ever have before. I swear yesterday morning I felt his butt overlapping the bottom of my ribs and it was not a pleasant feeling. It literally took my breath away and Henry can vouch for how high his little bottom really was. I had a dream last night that I could see and feel his knee in the middle of my chest, not pleasant.
For all of those who say "you're all baby", I'm gonna have to agree with you. Though I am not physically huge, I feel totally full, overinflated, & waaay too firm. My skin is stretched so tight that I can't even move it, and I'm pretty sure that I have horrible stretch marks around my belly button which is something new. I've had stretch marks since Colin, but they've always been limited to my hips, sort of an odd place to get them in the grand scheme of things. I guess my butt had so much extra skin that my belly borrowed from it, who knows. I also had a dream last night that he was born and weighed 8.4 and was 22 inches long. Folks, that's a big baby.
I said above that there was no specific end in sight, and that's true to a point. My "due date" which I've already said was more like the "use by" dates that they put on milk was 4 days ago. I don't place alot of faith in those guesses of arrival/time expiration, but it doesn't help the frustration of STILL not having him here on the outside. It kinda feels like waiting on the mail to arrive with an awesome package, you get mail every day, but the way cool package still isn't there. ACK! Anyway, I have an appointment with my midwife on Wednesday at my 41 week mark. If he's still not here by then, and it's looking like he won't be, she will set a date for me to be induced. As against induction as I've been in the past, I really don't care anymore. It isn't a c-section and I'm tired of feeling like turkey.
Speaking of turkey, we're hosting Thanksgiving this year because I really thought I'd have a baby by then and wouldn't want to travel 2 hours a week-ish after he was born. It seemed like a good plan to have dinner here, I could go to bed if I needed to, everyone could come see the baby... oh the best laid plans. I'm still going to LOOK like a turkey by then and with him nested up in there, there's going to be less room for me to gobble dinner. Oh I'm soooo punny! :-P My mom brought dressing yesterday because she's not going to be able to make it for dinner because my dad won't be able to travel due to a knee replacement. It's in the freezer and I'm so tempted to just heat it up and sit down with a serving spoon and stuff myself because honestly, what's more comforting than dressing??? Anyway, I feel a little better now and I can always go back and read my own blog and pretend that someone else wrote it and that they really understand how I feel . I'll keep everyone posted on delivery, but until then I leave you with a picture so that you can understand how I feel. I'm not sure if seeing the picture makes me feel better or worse, but you can at least have a good laugh at my expense. ~Kellie~
In case I don't see you before then, Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Monday, November 5, 2012
Not sold in stores?!
Thursday, November 1, 2012
All Things Baby Henry Part III- Maternity Photos
I got our maternity pics back today and I just have to share some. These were taken by our neighbor, Suzanne DuBose, who has gotten into photography. If you're doing photos at home, you just don't get more convenient than that. :) I tried not to repeat most of the ones we had done with Kinsley so that we have fresh new photos. So here they are, our maternity photos for baby Henry.
I could not decide which of these to post so I'm posting them both. We somehow manage to always get one amazing photo of us with each maternity shoot.
One would ask, "where's Kinsley?" She was choosing not to participate in this picture so I'm calling this one "Me and All My Boys".
Yay! She decided to join us. We only got her to sit with us by telling her to watch the butterflies that were thankfully flying around.
Because I didn't want to be too blah and have all of the pictures
serious, we painted my belly orange and added a mustache face to match
the kids' shirts.
I could not decide which of these to post so I'm posting them both. We somehow manage to always get one amazing photo of us with each maternity shoot.
Hint: One of the pumpkins above and below is not really a pumpkin, but a pumpkin poser!
Monday, October 29, 2012
All Things Baby Henry Part II
Be prepared for photos galore in this post! I've been meaning to get to this post for over a month now, and I finally have time to do it. I've finished up work things and told everyone that I'm done until further notice. That hasn't stopped people from asking, but with only 2 weeks to go until my due date I don't feel bad at all saying "no". People are starting to ask how I feel and if I'm ready. The answer to question A is: I feel like I swallowed a watermelon whole, and as with every one of my pregnancies (except Jonas because he was born before it started) I have a compressed nerve that really gets on my nerves. I can barely bend over, squat or put on socks. None of those things are pretty, and last night I told Henry that I feel like a Penske truck trying to drive a road course meant for a Porche. I'm carrying him sooo low, lower than any of the others, that my pants really will not stay up. I'm so thankful for over the belly pants, the Bella Band, and long long shirts. On the up side of things, I've only gained about 32 pounds and most of it is belly with a little spread to my rear end. I like to think of the wide load in my aft end as a counter weight to balance out the extreme load in the front. :D OK, question B, am I ready? I'm not sure you're ever really ready. You can make plans and read books and pack bags and do stretches and relaxation things (all of which I'm/we're doing), but the actual act of hours of labor and then birth... face it, you can be prepared, but you are never "ready". :-P All that being said I'm really looking forward to meeting little Henry, probably more than any of my other babies. I think that comes from being in a different place in life and I'm sure that age and mindset are playing a role in that too. It is not saddening at all to know that he is the last one. I've probably enjoyed being pregnant the least out of all the times. I think that's because we have more existing kids and there's more to do which is obviously complicated by the whole beach ball belly thing. Some of you are probably thinking "well if things are that bad, why did you do it?". Things aren't horrible even though I'm really uncomfortable physically. I'm excited to have him on the way, but I'll be glad to put this phase behind me and move on. ON TO THE PICTURES!! :D
I have this cube thing in the baby's room to store toys or blankets or
whatever else needs to be stashed at the time. I recovered the top of it
with minky dot when I did the room for Kinsley. It was cute enough but I
felt like it needed something. I had some awesome appliques that I
thought would look great on them. I stitched them out on felt and glued
them to each side of the cube. I think it adds a little whimsy to the boring cube. 
I also took the time to make Henry some burp cloths. I saw the designs maybe before I even knew what we were having and I immediately purchased them after I found out.
Here is a close-up of the little fox and his fringy tail. It cracks me up because his little tail is so fluffy. I was dying to try a fringe design and this provided the opportunity. I'm gonna talk shop here for a sec and explain sorta how this works. You will see that the body of the fox is stitched flat in what's called a fill pattern. The tail is stitched with a different type of stitch that tacks town the top of long stitches really well to prevent them from coming out when you clip the bottom of those long stitches and fluff them up creating the fringe look. I feel like such a geek for being so psyched about this, but it's what I do and now you know. :-P
Top left is 2 flannel crib sheets. I learned alot about elastic on that project...
Bottom left: 2 sheets (1 cotton, 1 flannel) for the pack and play that he'll sleep in in our room until he sleeps long enough periods to go to his room.
Top right: Boppy covers, 1 entirely flannel, 1 entirely cotton, and 1 half and half, but to add a twist I made it a solid circle instead of the "U" shape, thus mimicking that new Boppy Nest thing that they have out.
So here's the blanket that I made him. It's fleece, and it's printed in these cute little blocks, I didn't put them together like a quilt. He will use this blanket in his pack and play, as well as chilling in the house when he gets older. All of my kids have a special monogrammed blanket, and the boys still tote theirs around. Below you'll see a close-up of the monogram on the left. On the right, you'll see these adorable animals that I ordered from Etsy. I had been eying that fox since I got on Etsy and didn't have a reason to get one. The raccoon was originally a different version of the fox, but I had her morph it for me. 
Speaking of things from afar, I got this little pillow from a fellow embroideress that I'm on a forum with. We've become long distance friends and we have lots of fun talking shop. She lives in Brazil and makes some of the most awesome stuff. She's a workhorse, and I'm a little jealous of her talents. :) Anyway, she made this cute little pillow for him. 
Last but not least, we bought him this cute little coming home outfit. We searched and searched to find something we liked. We wound up having to order it online because we couldn't find the correct size in the store. We also ordered him 2 "babies" right up front since Jonas only had 1 and we lost it all the time, and Kinsley started with 1 but we wound up getting another because washing it was an ordeal since she had to be without it for 2+ hours which inevitably interfered with nap. His outfit has been packed up in a special box, the same box that has held the coming home outfit for each of my babies. It's lame, I know, but it's my thing. It's a very OCD thing because everything has to be folded perfectly and put in in a certain order. I always include 1 tiny diaper in addition to the outfit. The bow tying is also an ordeal because I'm terrible at tying bows so I have to do it multiple times to get it to my satisfaction.
So here's the 3D ultrasound of his sweet little face. The pic is a little distorted because he honestly had/has no room in there. He was also moving around alot and it was super hard to get a still shot. The guy wound up replaying the video frame by frame several times to get an unobstructed view of his face that he could make into a still shot. It was so cute that during the ultrasound, we got to see him sucking his thumb for a few seconds. I plan to do at least one more post about him before he's born. Be on the lookout for that post which will include maternity pics that are anything but typical.
-Kellie-
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Separating conjoined twins
So I've been thinking about this whole office/bedroom situation and about how we're slowly making the one big space into two separate spaces.
Here are exhibits A & B. The situation is interesting because everything is shared between the two rooms, much like how things are shared by conjoined twins. The process of dividing this room is sort of similar to separating conjoined twins in that we aren't doing it all at once, not because it would be a shock to the rooms, but rather because it would be a shock to our wallets. We put up a temporary wall as seen in the photos. It's not pretty, but it sorta does the job for now. Today we installed ceiling fans in each room. Now we've wanted to do that since we bought the house, but it hasn't been a huge priority. We chose to do it now so that we can take another step in the separation by allowing each room to have its own air circulation and light. The rooms are still on the same circuit, and one switch still controls both fans, but now we can leave the switch on and just use the fans to control the lights :) This also removes the need for the fan on the bucket since the air is being moved by proper means. Sorta. We are still pondering the next step in the great separation, but we're not in any hurry and it will happen whenever we randomly have the time and money to invest in it. Until then, I am going to enjoy sitting in my office in the mornings with the light off without fear that the light of the sun will suddenly shine down on me when the boys get up and flip the switch. -Kellie-
Here are exhibits A & B. The situation is interesting because everything is shared between the two rooms, much like how things are shared by conjoined twins. The process of dividing this room is sort of similar to separating conjoined twins in that we aren't doing it all at once, not because it would be a shock to the rooms, but rather because it would be a shock to our wallets. We put up a temporary wall as seen in the photos. It's not pretty, but it sorta does the job for now. Today we installed ceiling fans in each room. Now we've wanted to do that since we bought the house, but it hasn't been a huge priority. We chose to do it now so that we can take another step in the separation by allowing each room to have its own air circulation and light. The rooms are still on the same circuit, and one switch still controls both fans, but now we can leave the switch on and just use the fans to control the lights :) This also removes the need for the fan on the bucket since the air is being moved by proper means. Sorta. We are still pondering the next step in the great separation, but we're not in any hurry and it will happen whenever we randomly have the time and money to invest in it. Until then, I am going to enjoy sitting in my office in the mornings with the light off without fear that the light of the sun will suddenly shine down on me when the boys get up and flip the switch. -Kellie-
Respecting your elders
During this last trimester of pregnancy, I've developed a whole new respect for old people. I find myself having more and more in common with them as the days go on. I'm telling myself that it's not that bad because unlike them, my life will start to go back to normal in soon. I hope. Here's what I'm talking about. I'm uncomfortable and that's only going to get worse before it gets better. I talk about how uncomfortable I am because it pretty much consumes most of my day. I can't bend over without feeling like I'm either going to suffocate or break something. I'm very thankful to the person who invented flip flops and slip on
boots because I am so not wearing shoes with laces until after this is
all over. I can't do the things I used to. Oh in my mind I can still leap tall buildings in a single bound, but here in reality land where there are physical limitations, not so much. This is wreaking havoc with my mind and self esteem. I was going to change a light bulb the other day, and actually did finally get the globe off and the bulb out, but then I was too exhausted to finish. Luckily Henry was home and I didn't have to sit in the dark. I got some ceiling fans for the office and boys' room. In my mind I can just put them up in nothing flat, but in reality I have to be happy with the fact that I sat in my little chair and put the little arms on the blades with a screwdriver so that they are ready when he gets home so that he can install them. This reminds me of those trivial tasks they give old people in nursing homes so that they can still feel productive. I'm telling myself that I got started and that I got busy and just didn't have the time to install them and when Henry comes home and really installs them I'm going to tell myself that he's just being sweet and helping me finish projects that I ran out of time to do. Actually, I'm probably going to try to take down the existing light because I refuse to believe that I'm that bad off (I seem to be ignoring the whole thing about the light BULB!!) and I'll then be too exhausted to install the fan and I really will have to sit in the dark until he gets home. Boy am I glad there are two big windows in here. ;) I can't remember things either. I've always had to write things down because I have a very active mind that goes ten different directions at once, but I forget to even write things down now. It's sad!! :-P I actually overfilled a glass with water while standing in front of the fridge the other day, and just stood there continuing to pour thinking that someone really should turn the water off! Several seconds later I realized that I was the one who needed to stop the water and I then had to kick a towel around on the floor to clean up the water because as I said, I can't bend over. I also fear slipping on the floor and falling down. I used to run across hard floors in socks and purposely slide, but now the thought of doing that is like thinking about walking across the interstate. Are you crazy? You'll get killed! Or at least maimed! I actually thought the other night that I would lie in the tub while the shower was on and pretend that I was taking a hot bath. Problem 1. Getting down into the tub was not easy. I got most of the way down, but the rest was basically a controlled slide. Problem 2. I somehow managed to suction my back to the tub and it made it really hard to attempt what became... Problem 3. If I can't get out of the floor, what the crap made me think that I was going to get out of the tub? I was on my back, in the slippery tub, suctioned to the bottom, and it's not like there's alot of room to maneuver in there! I did finally manage to get up, but I seriously thought about yelling for Henry to help me. Talk about an insult to my self esteem. I will not be doing that again, I'll just stand in the shower from now on. If I wanna sit in there, I'll just take a 5 gal bucket and a towel and pretend that it's an elaborate shower seat. Hmm... that actually doesn't sound too bad... Hey Henry! Can you get me a bucket out of the shed?? :-P -Kellie-
Thursday, August 23, 2012
The last of the renovations!!
It has finally happened, the last of the major renovations is over! The whole house has been repainted and the flooring is done. I'm really glad that it's over. We can just live here now and not have to think about all the things that we hate. There are still little things that we'd like to do, but the major things are finished. It's been 3 years in the making, that's alot of renovation! So I've been blogging our progress, and yesterday and today I did the 1/2 bath downstairs which was the last of it. Now I admit, it's not perfect. I should have sanded a few areas a little better than I did but I'm 6 months pregnant and we've been renovating the entire 6 months and I'm tired! Henry is on vacation and due back tomorrow, so he has no clue what the bathroom looks like now. Here's a before and an after. :)
Ok, so I painted the walls purple not long after we moved here. It was due to a desire to cover the hideous wallpaper and no money left in the budget due to the massive exterior renovations we were doing. The pink outside trumped the floral inside :-P I had some paint left over from other projects so I mixed it together and this is what I got. Now I didn't hate it, but I was over it, sick of it, and it didn't go with the rest of our new "back to neutral" color scheme. It was also time for the "what was I thinking" black accents to hit the road, and the clown light was long since overdue to be banished back to the circus.
So, I painted the walls a nice "lemongrass" green that is cool and soothing and a little spa like. The hardware all got a fresh shot of nickel spray paint to match the faucet and new light, the mirror frame went tan, and the clown light got fed to a tiger. I was going to paint the picture frames tan too, but too much of a good thing is still too much and did I mention I was tired? :-P It really brightens up the space and goes nicely with the latte color in the hall. I am mostly excited about the new light. It was only $25, and took all of 10 minutes to install and I feel that it was totally worth it. I am so glad that this is all over. We still have some trim stuff to deal with and some caulking, but those things literally take minutes instead of weekends. Hope you like the renovations, party to follow!!
-Kellie-
-Kellie-
Saturday, August 11, 2012
The Great Flooring Project- Part Deux
So the floors are all finished now. They aren't perfect, and we don't have the baseboards back down, but whatever. We'll get there eventually, and then the remodel will be pretty much complete. We still have to paint them but we wanted to take a little break and it's been too humid for them to dry anyway so that's our story and we're sticking to it! So here are the pics that I took of the kitchen since it's finished. It's amazing how much bigger and more open the house looks now that the floors are all the same downstairs. I'm also amazed at how updated the house looks since we went back to basics. I think 
of hardwood floors (even our fake ones) as old school. I think of beige paint as builder basic. I think that back in the day, hardwood floors and beige paint were the only options people really had to choose from. It was that or nothing. Fast forward many years to a time when you can have almost any color and type of flooring and wall covering you want, and people are scurrying back to basic. Maybe it's because life has gotten so complicated that we need some plain basic things to even everything out. Anyway, the flooring project is done for now and we're settling back into a normal routine. We did have one last tiny detail to hammer out the night that we finished the floors, and it really didn't have anything to do with the floors. Well, sorta but anyway. You see, we got a new fridge a while back, and it barely fit in the space allotted. Since it fit, we were good. The problem came when, you guessed it, we installed the new floors and ate up some of the fraction of an inch of space that we had between the bottom 
of the cabinet and the top of the fridge. So there we were, 8:00 at night, high-fiving because the job was done, we slide the oven back (which had been in the middle of the floor cooking pizza while we worked), things are looking great, we slide the fridge back, thud. I mean the fridge was hitting the cabinet like maybe 1/16 of an inch too high. GRR!! I got out the sander and we mostly fixed the problem. It's not as good as it should be, and it's not even, but it was late and we were tired and we just wanted to go to bed. So here is the tiny gap between the fridge and the cabinet. I think it may actually still be scraping there in the middle but we don't care at this moment. That's another one of those little things we'll eventually get to, maybe. All in all we are happy with the floors. It drives me nuts that they are kinda loud when you walk on them, and that the slab isn't even so the floor isn't even in some spots, and that they have to be cleaned every day or you get crumbs and dust on your feet, and that we have to keep a mop handy for doggy drool and spills, but the fact that they are new, neutral, not pink carpet, and can actually really be cleaned is worth it. When Henry gets big enough to be in a walker he's going to have a blast. That statement makes me laugh because it could be thought of two different ways. Anyway, when we get a few more things done in the house, we're having a party! A thank the Lord that we have the skills to pull off everything that we have, and that we found a way to pay for it all without taking out a loan. Yay debt free!! -Kellie-Monday, August 6, 2012
The great flooring project
We thought it would only take a weekend, we were wrong. Mostly we were not accounting for the learning curve since neither of us have installed laminate prior to this. We have learned some truths and some not so truths about laminate flooring.
1. You can't get it wet and leave it wet for any period of time. Yes it's a thin layer or wood on top, but what lies underneath is basically compressed sawdust/cardboard, and we all know what happens when that gets wet and it isn't pretty.
2. If you do get it wet, the best course of action is to dry the area as quickly and thoroughly as you can and stack some heavy books or something on top of it to compress it back into shape as much as possible. These 2 points we have not experienced yet, but we were told by others.
3. Snap together laminate, while it does in fact snap together, does not "just snap together". The pieces do fit together in those little grooves, but they have to be juuust right or your snap together is more like a train wreck. You will need a little persuasion on most pieces to get them together right.
4. When you drop stuff on laminate, it's really loud. Much louder than linoleum or bare concrete.
5. You will learn how uneven your sub-floor really is when installing this. We're just choosing to ignore this since we are definitely not going back to fix it now.
6.The tools you will need for this project are:
Here's how our schedule went:
You probably can't tell from this pic, the the area between the bar and the table looks HUGE now!
I can't think of a good reason why we shouldn't get this done tonight other than the fact that our jig saw has issues and I need to either fix it today or borrow one to finish up. Either way, I really seriously hope that tonight sees the end of this project. After this, we will only have the baseboards & some random trim to paint and install and painting the half bath, then we are DONE for a while. :) The projects over the last few weeks have really changed the house. The outside has been done since spring, and now the inside is almost there as well. It finally feels like we have arrived. It feels like OUR house now since we have pretty much redone everything including the kitchen sink. I personally feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders, one that I've carried since we bought the house 3 years ago. Sure there are other things that we'd like to change and do, but none of them are huge issues at this moment. We're ready to think about something other than the house for a while. We're ready to enjoy what we've done and just live here like normal people. -Kellie-
1. You can't get it wet and leave it wet for any period of time. Yes it's a thin layer or wood on top, but what lies underneath is basically compressed sawdust/cardboard, and we all know what happens when that gets wet and it isn't pretty.
2. If you do get it wet, the best course of action is to dry the area as quickly and thoroughly as you can and stack some heavy books or something on top of it to compress it back into shape as much as possible. These 2 points we have not experienced yet, but we were told by others.
3. Snap together laminate, while it does in fact snap together, does not "just snap together". The pieces do fit together in those little grooves, but they have to be juuust right or your snap together is more like a train wreck. You will need a little persuasion on most pieces to get them together right.
4. When you drop stuff on laminate, it's really loud. Much louder than linoleum or bare concrete.
5. You will learn how uneven your sub-floor really is when installing this. We're just choosing to ignore this since we are definitely not going back to fix it now.
6.The tools you will need for this project are:
- A good saw (thanks to our neighbor for loaning us his)
- Lots of blades for said saw because this flooring eats them
- A jig saw (also with lots of blades) for those tricky areas
- Kneepads!!
- A rubber mallet
- A pro pull bar, but we call it a "squirrel" since we didn't know what was really called until we broke the one our neighbor loaned us and had to buy another one.
- An oscillating saw- you'll use this to cut all the door frames that you have to go under (thanks to our other neighbor for loaning us this along with the squirrel we broke)
- A couple of scraps to use as protection against "persuasion"
- A tape measure, a sharpie or other marking device, a chiropractor, some ibuprofen, maybe some icy hot...
Here's how our schedule went:
- Day 1 (which was a Friday evening after he got home from work): We got very little done, but learned alot.
- Day 2- Saturday: We motored through flooring like no body's business. We were armed with a little knowledge and an intense desire to git 'er done!
- Day 3- Sunday: We were so sore we could barely move so things went really slowly. We did manage to get probably the hardest areas in the house done- 2 closets and the hallway which had to join the living room and dining room and we were a'scared that things would never line up but they by some miracle did. YAY!! *happy dance*
- Day 4- Monday after work: this hasn't happened yet, but we are seriously hoping to finish it tonight. We don't have that much area left to go and the cuts will be easy compared to what we had to deal with yesterday.
 |
| Hallway to Living Room |
 |
| Front door to kitchen- ignore the laundry basket, I've been busy! :) |
 |
| Living room |
 | |||
| Dining room |
You probably can't tell from this pic, the the area between the bar and the table looks HUGE now!
 | |||||
| All that we have left to do in the kitchen :) |
I can't think of a good reason why we shouldn't get this done tonight other than the fact that our jig saw has issues and I need to either fix it today or borrow one to finish up. Either way, I really seriously hope that tonight sees the end of this project. After this, we will only have the baseboards & some random trim to paint and install and painting the half bath, then we are DONE for a while. :) The projects over the last few weeks have really changed the house. The outside has been done since spring, and now the inside is almost there as well. It finally feels like we have arrived. It feels like OUR house now since we have pretty much redone everything including the kitchen sink. I personally feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders, one that I've carried since we bought the house 3 years ago. Sure there are other things that we'd like to change and do, but none of them are huge issues at this moment. We're ready to think about something other than the house for a while. We're ready to enjoy what we've done and just live here like normal people. -Kellie-
Thursday, August 2, 2012
All things baby Henry-part I
So I've been really busy trying to remodel the house and get work stuff closed out and trying to get everything finalized before baby Henry gets here, and I really haven't updated anyone on him. This post might confuse some of you because my husband is Henry, and our new baby will be Henry. They will both go by Henry and neither have a nickname or middle name or go by their suffix. Just for the record, Henry's dad goes by Hank and is a Jr. (but really the V), Henry is the III (but really the VI), and Henry will be the VII to correct the lineage number thing. I thought this was weird too, but we have friends who have done the exact same thing with their new baby, George, not to be confused with my other friends who have twins (6 mos) named Henry and George. Confused yet? Good. :) I will add here that I sort of jokingly submitted that we put 007 on the birth certificate just for kicks, but I was denied. I just can't have any fun. hehe O.K. back to the facts.
Baby Facts
Henry is due November 15th and we have elected to attempt to have him naturally instead of scheduling a c-section. We have switched from an OB to a midwife to increase our chances of having said natural birth. So here's a pic of Henry at about 16 weeks when we found out what we were having. In case you can't see it in this 3D ultrasound picture, this would be his back. You can see his little hand on the side of his head near the top left, and his legs and feet near the bottom right of the picture. I think he may have had his other hand near his mouth. Anyway, all parts were present and accounted for in this pic. Ten finger, ten toes, all of his organs, his cord, his boy stuff, all there and functioning like they should be. :) We will go back to the 3D place later on to get good pics of his face provided that he turns to a better position than he was in these pics.
Pregnancy Facts
We knew really early on that we were pregnant. We didn't tell anyone until after we knew what we were having. We thought this would be fun, and it totally was when we finally told. We told my friends sooner than we told our families because 1. it was kinda hard to hide by that point, and 2. one of our nephews graduated high school, and another got married right about this time. It would have been super convenient to tell when we had everyone together, but we didn't want to upstage anyone, so we just kept it a secret a while longer. During the 2nd and 3rd month I was kind of sick. I found that if I took Prevacid every morning and then ate breakfast before I did anything else, I was ok. I hated the smell of tacos during this time which was really unfortunate because we have tacos about once a week. I also craved carbs like mashed potatoes and mac & cheese, they seemed to soothe my semi angry tummy. My bellybutton flipped at about 16 weeks, something that I think comes from 4 pregnancies. I find that with each pregnancy feelings of physical strain appear sooner. Stuff just isn't as firm as it used to be, and I feel like old elastic. Emotionally I'm good, but physically I think all of the renovations are getting to me and I'm tired. I've been telling everyone that all of our kids were planned and we love them all, but we don't want anymore. Henry will be the last, and we're happy with that decision and a little relieved that we know where we will stand as a family unit after this.
Nursery Photos
Ah the nursery. I'm really glad to have it finished except for some details. I'm still waiting on some special order stuffed animals to arrive and I might add another shelf and some photos, but all of the painting and artwork is done. This is the bedding that Kinsley had. It's very neutral and I decided to reuse it. This is the first time that I have ever reused the crib or bedding. That's mostly due to the fact that both boys were in cribs at the same time, and then we decided to get a new style of crib for Kinsley. Kinsley's room picked up on the dandelion details in the bedding, and we painted them in pink to add a splash of definite girliness to the room. Here's what her nursery looked like.
Obviously pink flowers and her name on the wall wouldn't work for Henry's nursery. We decided to go more woodland themed with his nursery.
Top left: Crib wall
Top right: Changing table wall
Bottom left: Window
Bottom right: These are close-ups of all the details in the tree. The fox and name are over the changing table, and the stump with the bunny and skunk are under the window.
I'm not a fabulous artist, but I think the nursery turned out ok. I'm pretty happy with everything and I'm looking forward to doing normal nesting things like sorting and folding baby clothes and hanging out on the couch. I have some other small projects to do for Henry before he gets here, but at least the majority of the big stuff is done. -Kellie-
Baby Facts
 |
| Henry at 16 weeks |
Pregnancy Facts
 |
| 24 Weeks |
Nursery Photos
Ah the nursery. I'm really glad to have it finished except for some details. I'm still waiting on some special order stuffed animals to arrive and I might add another shelf and some photos, but all of the painting and artwork is done. This is the bedding that Kinsley had. It's very neutral and I decided to reuse it. This is the first time that I have ever reused the crib or bedding. That's mostly due to the fact that both boys were in cribs at the same time, and then we decided to get a new style of crib for Kinsley. Kinsley's room picked up on the dandelion details in the bedding, and we painted them in pink to add a splash of definite girliness to the room. Here's what her nursery looked like.
Obviously pink flowers and her name on the wall wouldn't work for Henry's nursery. We decided to go more woodland themed with his nursery.
Top left: Crib wall
Top right: Changing table wall
Bottom left: Window
Bottom right: These are close-ups of all the details in the tree. The fox and name are over the changing table, and the stump with the bunny and skunk are under the window.
I'm not a fabulous artist, but I think the nursery turned out ok. I'm pretty happy with everything and I'm looking forward to doing normal nesting things like sorting and folding baby clothes and hanging out on the couch. I have some other small projects to do for Henry before he gets here, but at least the majority of the big stuff is done. -Kellie-
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)