Micah's Birth Story

On Wednesday (Dec 29th), Micah started becoming really active and for some reason, I just had this feeling that I was going to have him soon. 

I had my 39 week appointment with the midwife on Thursday (Dec 30th) and when we were there she told me that the midwife on call said that she was not allowed to touch anyone because there were already 4 people delivering at the hospital!  I hadn't been feeling any contractions, but I did notice some low pressure that morning (which I thought was just Micah's head moving down).  I casually mentioned that to Kevin, but I didn't think anything of it.

Later that day, I put Kaden down for a nap and told Kevin that I was really tired too, but that I needed to go to the grocery store.  He suggested I just take a nap and go to the store later.  I am REALLY glad he suggested I take a nap.  So, I lay down for a while and after I got up, I started noticing the same pressure I felt earlier that day.  After a few times of feeling it, I thought, maybe this is more than pressure.  So, I started looking at the clock, and sure enough I noticed I was feeling it every 7 minutes or so.  Then it started feeling a little uncomfortable.  I didn't say anything to Kevin yet.  This was around 7pm.

We went shopping, and on the way to the store, I mentioned that maybe I was feeling contractions and that something might be happening.  This was around 7:45pm.

  

The contractions started getting more painful, but still very manageable.  I started feeling pain in my back.  When we got home, I made dinner, gave Kaden a bath and put him to bed.  By this point, I was pretty sure we were going to be having baby soon, so I started getting everything together that I hadn't done yet.  This was around 10pm.  

Around 11pm, Kevin called his parents to let them know we may be going to the hospital that night and we would keep them posted.

Kevin kept asking me if I was going to call the midwife and I kept saying, pretty soon.  I wanted to stay home as long as possible because of what happened with my first birth.  At midnight, I decided to get in the shower and told Kevin that when I was done I would call the midwife.  Once in the shower, the contractions started coming one right after another.  It was painful, but the water REALLY helped.  When I got out of the shower, the contractions were almost unbearable.  It took me about 10 minutes just to brush my hair because I had to keep stopping.  After I had been upstairs an hour and a half, Kevin came up to see how I was doing.  He told me that I needed to call my midwife, so after a contraction, I called.  This was just before 2am.  After hearing me through a contraction, she suggested I come in to the hospital.  We had someone to watch Kaden, so we let her know we were on our way to the hospital.  We left the house a little after 2 and got to the hospital around 2:30am.  

On the way to the hospital and on the way up to L&D, I felt extreme pressure with every contraction.  When we got up to the floor, our midwife was there waiting for us.  Once I got changed and into the bed, the midwife checked me.  I was completely dilated and my water was bulging!  I was SO relieved.  With the next contraction, my water broke.  Unfortunately, there was meconium in my water.  I got nervous because I really wanted baby to stay with me until my cord stopped pulsating, but I knew that wasn't going to happen.  They called the pediatrician up to the room.  I started pushing, and after only 15-20 minutes, Micah was born at 3:13am on December 31st!!  They still put him on me for a few seconds while the midwife cut the cord quickly.  He was checked by the pediatrician and everything was fine (his apgar was a 9 both times).  Not long after, they gave him back to me and I was able to hold him while the midwife was stitching up my tear.  Within 45 minutes, I was able to start breastfeeding him and he latched on right away!

April 28, 2010

My mind is spinning in a million directions today. I just found out that we are expecting another baby! I am so thrilled and just in complete shock that this really happened. I haven't even told Kevin yet and am still trying to think of ways to break the news to him.

For those of you who don't know, it was not easy to get pregnant the first time. After 18 months and finally having to see an infertility specialist, we got pregnant using clomid, an ovulation inducing drug, and IUI (Intrauterine Insemination) . We hoped it would be possible to conceive naturally the next time around, but I was still very doubtful. We decided we would not do anything to prevent a pregnancy since we didn't know how long it would take the 2nd time around.

We knew that once Kaden was close to a year, we would actively try for another baby. I had heard some things about Natural Family Planning and decided to look into it. I was told about the book, Taking Charge of Your Fertility and decided to read it and see if it could help me. I learned SO much about my body from that book and decided to start using the sympto-thermal method of NFP to try to conceive. It involves taking your basal body temperature every morning, and checking some other body signs to determine when you are fertile. Last month was my first month charting, but since I actually started in the middle of the month, April was my first FULL month of charting.

I got pregnant my FIRST full month of using NFP. After 18 months of infertility before Kaden. I am just in awe at God's goodness to us and his awesome blessing to our family.

I can't wait to tell my husband this wonderful news!

I am posting this now because I wanted to make sure we were able to tell our family first, but I still wanted to get my thoughts down before I forget what I felt like the day I found out we were pregnant again.

13 Months!

Kaden is 13 months today! He is amazing us more and more everyday with the things he is learning. He is almost walking on his own. He is definitely at the point where he can do it all by himself, he just hasn't figured that out yet! :-) He has been standing alone more and more which he wasn't doing at all until recently, and he only needs one hand to help him. It's really fun to see him walking, even if he still needs a little help. He knows he's doing something pretty exciting and he loves every minute of it!

He is getting so much bigger too! We weighed him last night and he was about an ounce and a half shy of 18lbs! His face is filling out more, his little legs are finally getting chubby, and his belly that was already big has become even bigger! We are so happy to see that he is growing and thriving like he should.

My favorite part of Kaden's toddlerhood so far is definitely his emerging personality. He has become so FUN! I definitely see a lot of Kevin's personality in him. Not only has he become fun, but he is also becoming funny...or should I say...hilarious. I think he's going to be the one that makes everyone laugh when he gets older. He does the silliest things, laughs, and then checks to make sure we are laughing too. He seems to deliberately try to make us laugh some times.

His other two favorite things to do are clapping and dancing. He is always clapping which is so cute, and every time even one note of music is played, he starts bopping his head. He is starting to really dance, though, too. He used to just bop his head a little, but now his whole body starts shaking. It is so great!

I am so happy that we get to enjoy our days with this precious gift! The other night, Kevin and I were talking about what it was like before Kaden. As much as we enjoyed our time just the two of us, we agree that we like this part of our life even better than the first part.

Kaden's Birth Story

I have been meaning to write this down for a while and since Kaden is already a year old, I figured I better do it now before I forget all the details!

I had a super easy pregnancy with Kaden. I had a few pregnancy related issues, but overall, everything was great. I wasn't even uncomfortable at 9 months pregnant! It was getting close to the end of March and I knew he would be coming soon, but I was perfectly content with being pregnant a little longer. I didn't want to rush things because as much as I couldn't wait to meet my little boy, I knew I would miss being pregnant and I knew that our lives would change dramatically forever. I was soaking up the last little bit of time I had just being a family of 2.

Kevin, on the other hand, wanted Kaden to be born ASAP! He was ready to finally hold him (something I had been getting to do for 9 months). One day Kevin informed me that once Kaden was born, I would not be able to hold him at all since I had been doing it for 9 months! It was so exciting to see how thrilled Kevin was to meet his son!

A few days before my due date, Kevin started asking me every day if I could "Please go into labor today!!!" I tried to inform him that it didn't work like that. I couldn't just tell my body to go into labor. He didn't care what I had to say. He wanted a baby yesterday.

Someone had mentioned that using accupressure is supposed to help a woman go into labor. So, finally, 2 days past my due date, on Thursday, March 26th, 2009, we decided to try accupressure. I was willing to try something that might help me go into labor because I knew how badly Kevin wanted me to have the baby. We looked it up on youtube and found some videos explaining what to do. So, we tried it. And it hurt. A LOT. The video that we watched showed a woman doing accupressure and then a few minutes later having a contraction. We did a lot of accupressure and not one time did I feel a contraction. I did a lot of complaining that night about how it was stupid and didn't work and it just kept hurting. So we just went to bed.

I woke up around 3:35 the next morning (Friday, March 27th, 2009) with a weird feeling. I didn't know what it was at first. But after a few minutes, I thought, "Am I having a contraction?". It was mildly painful and it would come on for a few seconds and then go away. I was still really tired, but at that point, I couldn't fall back to sleep because I thought I might be having contractions. So, I laid there for a while and counted how many times this pain happened. Well, after 6 times of this, I looked at the clock and realized an hour had passed. At this point, I realized that yes, I was having contractions, and that I may actually be in labor (although I still wasn't 100% convinced of that yet). By this point it was almost 5am. I wanted to wake Kevin, but I didn't want to get his hopes up yet, so I thought I would let him sleep since his alarm would be going off soon for work.

To Be Continued...

One Year Ago...

Happy Birthday Kaden! I can't believe you are one already. This year has flown by so fast and you are growing up before our eyes. You are not our tiny little baby anymore. You are so big and starting to walk! You are becoming more independent and developing the best personality. You are so funny just like your daddy, and you are always smiling and laughing. You make everything better when we are having a bad day. We love you so much! This has been the best year of our lives. -- Love Daddy and Mama

Coming Soon: Kaden's Birth Story and Birthday Pictures!

First Steps

Well, it is official. Kaden took his first steps yesterday. Kevin and I have been trying to help him get his balance and stand in one spot for longer than a second. He just can't keep his legs still! I blame his father for this because Kevin can't stay still either. So, we have been trying to help him learn how to balance himself. Well, last night, I was practicing with Kaden and all of the sudden he went after a laundry basket that was a few steps away. I couldn't believe it, so I tried to get him to do it again and he did! He took about 3 steps both times!

Unfortunately, Kevin was not home and was so disappointed that he didn't get to see it, but Kaden knew his daddy would want to see him take a few steps, so he did it again today! And he did an even better job than yesterday! He was so proud of himself too. He would start clapping afterwards. It was so cute! Here is a video of us tonight. He was a little more interested in the camera than walking. Sorry, you can't see his legs, but I couldn't hold the camera because I had to help catch him. You'll see why...

If that wasn't enough for one weekend, when Kaden woke up this morning, he sat up in his crib for the first time. He can sit up on his own, and he has been doing it for a little while, but he has never done it in his crib. And he knew it was exciting because when I went to get him, he started clapping as if to say, "look what I did mom!"

We are so proud of him and all the new things he is doing. It is crazy how many things he has learned and is continuing to learn! We love you Kaden Jackson, our sweet little boy!

Back on the Wagon

Clearly, I am not very good at this whole updating the blog thing!

My little baby is almost a year old...ONE YEAR OLD!!! Where has the time gone? Everyone says that it goes by so fast and it's true. I can't believe my baby is becoming a toddler. Kaden is learning so many new things all the time. He finally started clapping on his own after months of "helping" us clap, and now it is ALL he wants to do. It's very cute. He has learned that the words "yay" or "good job" go perfectly with clapping because every time I say them, he starts clapping!

He has actually started crawling! Well...army crawling, but I was excited when he started doing it because I didn't think he would crawl at all. He can't stay still for long at all. He is constantly cruising around furniture and when I leave the room I never know where I will find him when I come back! Soon, he will be walking!

He has started saying a few words...his favorite is "dad" or "dada". He also understands A LOT. It's crazy how much he understands. I have also been doing a few signs with him and he is learning them really quickly. He hasn't done any of them himself yet, but he knows what I am talking about.

He has been teething like crazy lately. It's been hard on both him and mama. The poor little guy has been in a lot of pain which is something we are not used to because he didn't even show an ounce of discomfort when he was getting his first 8 teeth. He now has 10 teeth and he is working on his molars.

It is so cool to see his mind working. As sad as I am to see him growing past the baby stage, I am so excited to see all the things he is learning and what the next phase will bring.

Here are a few pictures of the last few months...

Halloween

Thanksgiving
Looks like we forgot to babyproof something!
Just playing
"I love sitting at the table in my new chair!"
"This is pretty cool!"
Taking a nap with daddy
Bath time
Showing off my teeth
"I LOVE the snow!"
"I am so cool."
"Can you see me?"

taking a break from spinning in the computer chair.