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This is a blog about our life. I started the blog because we lived overseas for my husbands job. That meant it was hard to keep family, back in The States, in the loop about what we were up to. It also became a great way to share my sons birth story with everyone who we wish could have been there. I slowly got busy with life & stopped blogging. Here we are in 2014, living back in the good ol' USA & as we make life changes I find this to be a great way to share my thoughts and save them for my son to look back on someday.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

August 24, 2011

Today was The Kids estimated due date. Crazy, tomorrow he will be one month old already. So I just want to take a minute out to thank my husband. He has gone above and beyond with helping me with The Kid. I knew I had a good husband but he really is amazing. Amazing really isn't sufficient. He literally did everything for The Kid in the hospital the first couple days when I was too sore to do anything. He even jumped right into changing dirty diapers with no complaints. I might have to ask him 10 times to take out the trash but I dont even have to ask to have him to baby related stuff, who knew? I started school this week and lucky to be able to go face to face so soon after having The Kid because the Mr takes care of him while Im at school. He also gives me a break when he gets home from work and does most baby duties until bed time.
I am beyond blessed to have such an awesome husband. The Kid is super lucky to have such an amazing dad. I couldn't ask for a better man in our lives. I don't know how it is possible to tell him that I am so thankful for every little thing he does for us. But I am, more than words could ever express!


Tuesday, August 23, 2011

3 week update

I almost forgot to post this. The Kid has his 2 week well baby checkup last Friday. He was actually 3 weeks old, not sure what happened there. That's just how they scheduled it. Anywho, he weighed in at 8lbs 14oz. That is a 10oz increase from his WIC appointment the week before. He measured 21in long. At his WIC appointment he measured 20 7/8in. So he has grown. The pediatrician said he has actually gained too much,  but didn't tell us that we need to change anything. Other than that everything is good. We don't go back until his 2 month appointment. So here are a couple pics of him.

He always does this weird thing with his lips, he is weird!
 And this is him just now, he is always doing that with one of his arms!


Friday, August 19, 2011

Re: He Deploys. You Run Home

So this post is in response to another bloggers post. I disagree with the post and would like to respond. No I do not have beef with her, I happen to be friends with her and think she is pretty amazing. I just want to give me perspective on the issue.
Here is the original post in case you are curious, He Deploys. You Run Home.
We have only been through one deployment. The Mr was gone for 6 months. I decided that it was best for me to stay here in Germany and stay in school while he was gone. I was in school full time, therefore, I was in class 4 days out of the week. However, if I were not in school and not working I would have gone home for the deployment. And looking back on it, I regret not going home. Yes going home means I would be living with my mom at her house for the entire deployment. Does this make me a "DEPENDASAURUS"? Well let's be honest here, I DO depend on my husband financially. However, when I go stay with my mom she doesn't pay anything for me/us. We actually help her out with bills and buy groceries etc. Mommy doesn't "take care of me" either. Sure she makes some awesome meals, but she doesn't hold my hand through life, although I am sure she would if I needed her to. That is what moms are there for after all. So, I wouldn't move back because I can't handle being alone. I have already proven that is not an issue for me. I would move back for one reason, and that is to spend time with my family.
I feel like our time here on Earth is short. We will spend years and years away from family and missing out on things because of the military life. Why should we spend time away when we don't have to? Those 6 months that I stayed here in Germany are 6 months worth of memories I could have made with my family. I wouldn't have missed out on birthdays and other important events. I feel even more strongly about this now that we have a baby. We will go home as a family as much as we can afford to in order for them to see him and him to see them. And if and when The Mr deploys again, The Kid and I will go home for those deployments (unless I have a job or school that doesn't permit it). Once again for the same reason, that is 6 months worth of memories with family that we cant get back.
So for me I don't see a problem with going home on deployments because it is not about not being able to make it on my own. It is about spending time with loved ones and making memories with them. That is all valuable time I will never take for granted.
Yes it really sucks my husband misses out on those memories and that time with family. But just because he has to miss out does not mean that our son shouldn't have that time with our families.
Also, some people talk about how hard it is not being in your own home. Sure after a few weeks my mom gets on my nerves LOL. But in my eyes it is worth it. 50 years from now I don't want to regret not spending more time with my mom just because she got on my nerves a little.
I want to look back years from now and say " I am so glad I spent as much time with ____ as I could." because once they are gone, they are gone forever and we can't go back in time and do it different. I will look back and know that we made as many memories as possible and The Kid knew his family even if it was only for a couple months at a time.
Also, lets be honest, deployments are not easy. Why not surround yourself with the people who love you the most during the tough times. Time flies when you're having fun and for me time really flies when I'm with family. What better way to make a deployment fly by?
In the end, going home doesn't make anyone a worse Military Wife. To each his own.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

C-Section

So a lot of people have asked about having a c-section. So I will share my experience and thoughts on it. Keep in mind that everyone is different and I have read many other stories that are different than mine. This is just my take on it.
First of all, anesthesia. There are a couple different options when it comes to the anesthesia. I had the spinal anesthesia. This is different from an epidural. If you are having any surgery and get to choose between these, do the research. They are different from each other. The shot did not hurt. Maybe it did but the contractions I was having were way stronger and distracted me. It went into effect quick. I wouldn't say that I was completely numb. I swear I could feel by legs but not feel them, confusing huh? It was that feeling you get when your foot falls asleep, you know like ants are crawling all over it? It was that times a million. It was a very odd sensation and I did not like it.
I have always heard that it feels like pressure and tugging when they are doing the procedure and taking the baby out. I did not feel anything at all. Literally nothing. I only knew they started surgery because the anesthesiologist told me. I am grateful for not being able to feel anything. There came a point where I started gagging like I needed to throw up. This too was a sensation I hated. It felt like I needed to throw up from the neck up, but the normal muscles you would use to do so were numb so I couldn't feel it. I am pretty sure I was gagging right at the moment they were pulling The Kid (this is his blog alias) out because as soon as they held him up over the sheet thing I stopped gagging. I think it was how my body reacted to the exact moment of him being pulled out.
Once he was out they stitched me up and what not. This was uneventful and quick. The Dr and the rest of the surgical team were actually laughing. They said I had no blood in there. I guess this was a good thing because they said it was easy clean up. Near the end of surgery I started to shake a little. Once again completely normal. Next came the weirdest feeling ever.
I was laying there when all of the sudden I saw my leg fly up in the air. Literally I could see my leg over the little curtain thing. Only it felt like my leg was still laying flat. They were cleaning up stuff under me and moved my leg but I never felt it go in the air. That was beyond weird, I really really did not like that feeling. Its like what my brain saw and my body felt didn't match up and it was not a good combo.
So onto recovery I went. I was in there about 35 minutes. They just checked my vitals a couple times and once I started getting sensation back I was able to go back to L&D to be with The Kid and The Mr. Right before I left the recovery room the pain started to kick in. The nurse put some pain meds into my IV. No idea what they were but they went in FAST.
Now the real recovery began once we were back in our room. The pain meds wore off quick. The anesthesia wore off quick. Another odd feeling, I could feel one leg but not the other. So here in Germany you dont get good drugs like in the states, it was tylenol or ibuprofen. UGH!!! Not what I needed the first 2 days.
So I had The Kid at 8:31am and had to stay in bed all day. Not that I wanted to move around. I wanted the catheter out though. This meant one thing, I had to get up and out of bed to be able to walk to the restroom in order to have it taken out. UGH!!! So that afternoon the nurse came and told me I had to try to get out of bed. HOLY PAIN!! I can't even describe in words how painful it was trying to stand up. I would rather feel contractions that feel that pain ever again. I literally wanted to punch the nurse. As soon as I was on my feet the pain took my breath away and I couldn't even speak when she asked how I was. I just stood there staring at the blood pooling on the floor (another pretty side effect of birth). I had to take two steps to the left and two to the right then I could get back in bed. I really don't think I took a breath for that whole minute or two the process lasted. Pain is an understatement. She said I did good....whatever, I didn't care I just wanted drugs. The nurse told me that it would get easier every time. I seriously felt like she was crazy and that I was going to be in pain the rest of my life.
She was right though, each day the pain was a little less. The hardest part was the motion of getting in and out of bed. You really have no idea how much you use those muscles until they have been sliced through.
By day 3 the pain was bearable enough that an Ibuprofen every 4 hrs kept the pain under control.
So now I am home 3, weeks post-op. My incision is still sore. I can't wear jeans yet because they will hit the incision and that will be so uncomfortable. The incision itself is pretty long. Longer and higher up than I thought it would be. The sutures are all internal so I am hoping the scar will not be too ugly. The incision/scar has already started to shrink. Some days at the end of the day my incision is pretty sore, telling me I overdid it. I still can't sleep on my stomach.
Im not sure what the side effects if any are from the spinal yet. I am praying to not have any but we shall see.
Im not sure why anyone would want a c-section. Recovery was not, has not been fun. I would much rather deal with contractions pain for a few hours than deal with this recovery for weeks. It has not been easy at all. I am pretty sure I won't even be willing to have any elective cosmetic surgery that cuts through the muscle. The recovery just isn't worth it in my eyes.
Maybe in a few weeks when my scar is looking better I will put up pics of what it looked like the day after surgery to compare. MAYBE! LOL! For now I will just put a pic of the end result, The Kid :)


Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Photobooks!

So after our first professional photo shoot I wanted to get at least one picture printed for us, maybe on canvas or something. After asking around about what site has good quality I decided to check out Shutterfly.com I ended up finding these photo books. I decided that would be the cheapest way to get all of our prints done in a way that was easy to keep track of without printing each picture individually. It was super quick and easy to make our maternity photo photo-book. When it came in the mail I was beyond pleased with the results. I love love the book. I was so excited to show the photographer how the pictures came out. She did an awesome job and Shutterfly did an awesome job printing it. I have now used them to make a photobook with The Kid's newborns photos and make his birth announcements. I will not be going back to the old site I used. We also had prints made to send back to family. We will also be sending photo books to a couple people. I THINK that if you click on the link you can order the photo book for yourself!  I am one happy customer!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Photo Shoot

Little man had his very first professional photo shoot when he wasn't even a week old yet. Here is a peek at the pictures. He didn't really want to cooperate. He normally sleeps a lot but I guess he decided he was going to make things difficult. He stayed awake for almost the entire shoot. However, being the great photographer she is, she got some awesome shots!
Please remember that these are professional pictures and do not crop or edit the photos in any way, Thank you!





8.2lbs

I weighed Chango today and depending how accurate it is he is weighing in at 8.2lbs. It is crazy to think that on Thursday he was a week old but actually should have been 37 weeks pregnant still. It has been a great week home with him. He put himself on a schedule. He really only wakes to eat. Last night he even let us sleep for 4hr stretches. Woohoo!! He is a super good baby, thank the lord, knock on wood. He is too big for newborn diapers. We tried one and he peed right out the side of it lol. That was an adventure and melt down number one. Oh I should add that he has peed on me twice during diaper changes but only peed on the Mr once and that was during his photoshoot. Guess he has a favorite! So everything is good! He has his first doctors appointment next week. Until then...