5 on Friday!

Two posts in one week for me, yay! Happy Friday!

Here's what's been on my mind this week:

1. Being a South Carolinian, the tragedy in Charleston has really weighed heavily on my heart. I am continuing to pray daily for the families affected by it. This picture of Senator Clementa Pinckney's wife and daughters at his service yesterday just breaks my heart.

2. I am a total reality tv junkie. I think the only tv shows I really watch that are scripted are Nashville and Law and Order SVU. Until now...

Anyone else been watching Unreal? Of course I would get addicted to a scripted show that is about reality tv lol.

3. Kennedy and I are absolutely addicted to making frozen jello grapes. They are the perfect summer snack! All you do is take grapes, rinse them with water, coat with dry jello and put them in the freezer. I cut mine because I am paranoid about Kennedy choking. Our favorite flavors of jello so far have been cherry and strawberry banana. Kennedy loves to help pick the grapes off the vine and "do the sprinkles." So yummy!

4. Who's your favorite on The Bachelorette? I am totally Team Shawn! Love how he looks like Ryan Gosling and love his yankee accent! I know a lot of people aren't enjoying this season but I am. Hate to break it to people but Kaitlyn is not the first person to have sex on the show. Yes, the way it was filmed was tasteless and she probably could have gone about it a different way. However, she's real and I have respect for that. Various sources have reported that Bachelor Bob had sex with 6 out of the 25 women on his season and he didn't get slammed in the media for it. Just my opinion!

Oh and another reason I am loving this season? Kaitlyn's bird phobia! I am absolutely terrified of birds as well! It's real people! I can totally relate!

5. Leaving you with this picture that just makes my heart swell with happiness. These two love each other so much already! I can't wait to watch this brother and sister bond over the years. Love them so much!



Let's Catch Up!

Life has been so busy lately! Let's catch up!

 

School is out! I was on maternity leave the last couple of weeks but I was able to come back for the end of the year awards program and say goodbye to my sweet third graders. I enjoyed celebrating their accomplishments with them.

 

One of my students gave me this in a frame:

 

 

I must say these are my favorite kind of teacher gifts to receive, so unique and personal!

 

My parents left at the end of May to go back to Oregon. Very sad to see them go. They were such a big help with the kids. It's really hard to be so far away from them and only see them 2-3 times a year. :( Kennedy sure does love Nana and Spike!

 

 

 

I love the fact that Nick and I are both teachers because we are both home in the summer. Even though we have a newborn, we have been having lots of fun just hanging out at home. Mark pretty much just goes with the flow. We have spent a lot of time in the backyard in Kennedy's little pool and in the sprinkler.

 

 

Kennedy got invited by her bff Janna to go to Sesame Street Live. She doesn't watch Sesame Street very much but she loves to dance and loves music so she had a blast! She danced almost the entire show!

 

 

I was going to wait until Kennedy was 3 to sign her up for dance but then my friend Brandi told me about a local dance studio that has a class called "Bitty Ballet" for 2 and 3 year olds. You can go to the first class for free and see if you like it. We took Kennedy and she LOVED it so we signed up for the summer session. She goes every Tuesday and she has such a blast. Her teacher, Ms. Rachel, and her teen assistant are both soooo patient and the class is just right for her age group. We also have her signed up for a 2 week gymnastics camp that starts in July.

 

 

We have been amazed at what a big help Kennedy has been with Mark. She has always loved to help but we thought it would get old after a week or two. We are on week 5 and she still loves to help change Mark, fetch us burp cloths and help us give him a bath. We are still working on supporting that head though...:)

 

 

Mark is 5 weeks old! We still continue to be amazed at what a relaxed baby he is. He really only cries when he's hungry or just really tired. He is only waking up 1-2 times a night to eat which is so different from Kennedy. However, he is very similar to Kennedy in the fact that he is very wide eyed and alert!

 

 

We made it to church for the first time last week! Mark did great! We have contemporary worship at our church and I think it's something about that loud praise and worship music that puts a baby to sleep. :) We kept him in his infant carrier the whole time covered so people wouldn't touch him but we had to move the canopy a few times so people could take a peek. :) It was great to be back!

 

 

My dad's side of the family came to meet Mark which included my Uncle Karl, Aunt Gail, my dad and my sister Augusta and brother Bubba. Kennedy loves having visitors and Great Uncle Karl and Uncle Bubba had lots of fun playing with her and Pinky the monkey. ;) Both my dad and my Aunt Gail have a lot of health issues so it's always good to spend time with them.

 

 

We had a great but low key Father's Day weekend. Nick absolutely loved this craft that Kennedy made for him at school.

 

This was the best we could get picture wise but this still makes my heart very happy!

 



 

I am also blessed to have my biological father and my step-father in my lives. Love them very much!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Mark is one month old!

 

Just like that, our little boy is one month old! It has gone by so fast! Here are some stats about Mark and his first month of life:

 

*Still nursing every 2-3 hours and every 3-4 sometimes 5 hours at night! I am feeling super refreshed right now because I fed you at 9:00 last night and your daddy gave you a bottle of pumped milk around midnight. You didn't wake up again to eat until 5:30 so Mommy got a very long stretch of sleep!

 

*We just moved up to size 1 diapers this week!

 

*Still wearing mostly newborn clothes. Some 0-3 month onesies fit but when I tried on a pair of 0-3 month shorts on you, they swallowed you and wouldn't stay on.

 

*When we took you to the doctor last week to check on your lungs (swallowed meconium at birth) you weighed 8 pounds 6 oz! Up almost 2 pounds since birth, chunky monkey!

 

*You continue to be a very happy baby and usually only cry when you are hungry or this week when Mommy ate chinese food and it did not agree with your tummy!

 

*You love to watch your big sister and play on your playmat.

 

*We have taken you lots of places! It is so different with the 2nd child, Mommy is a lot less paranoid! We just make sure your carrier is covered so people do not touch you.

 

We love you baby boy! You have brought so much joy to our family!

Mark's Birth Story

Our induction date was set for Sunday, May 17th. We were told to report to the hospital at 6:00. That Sunday we went to church and then came home and spent some time with Kennedy before she took her nap. After I laid her down for her nap, I burst into tears. I was so emotional about leaving her! I went over to my friend Laurie Ann's house so she could French braid my hair. My hair was in my face a lot when I had Kennedy so I wanted it out of the way. Having some girl talk on her deck with her and my friend Jessica calmed me down a little bit. Came home around 3 and shortly after Nick and I said goodbye to my parents who were staying with Kennedy and headed to Cracker Barrel for an early dinner. Kennedy was still asleep which was a good thing because I don't think I could have handled that goodbye very well. After we ate dinner, we went to Coldstone for some ice cream. We arrived at the hospital early, about 5:30. When I went to be induced with Kennedy, there were a TON of people at the hospital and a bunch of other women in the waiting room waiting to be induced so we wanted to be there a little early. This time was completely different! The waiting room was practically deserted, only a family waiting on a baby to be born. I was the only one there to be induced! We got in a room within twenty minutes! With Kennedy we didn't get into a room until 10:30 and spent over 4 hours in the waiting room.


When we got to the room, we started all the questions, paperwork and the IV. My nurse was named Denise and was super sweet. She checked me and I was 1 cm dilated, woohoo! We started the Cervadil around 8:00 pm. Nick and I watched some tv and talked about what an easy start we were having. Around midnight, my nurse came to check on me and I was still awake, I just couldn't sleep! She gave me something to help and I woke up around 5:00 am having contractions. She checked me again. I was still at 1 cm, boo. I went back to sleep and woke up about an hour and a half later when my new nurse came in. Her name was Denise too. :) Around 9 am, Dr. Burns came in to see me and check me. At this time my contractions were getting stronger but not unbearable. I was STILL at 1 cm. Dr. Burns told me that even though I was still at 1 cm, I could go ahead and get the epidural if I wanted to. I felt silly getting an epidural getting an epidural when I was only 1 cm but I was worried that if I waited too long, the pain would get too bad. Yes, I am a wimp. So, I called for the epidural.


My anesthesiologist came in and ya'll, it was crazy, he looked JUST like McDreamy from Grey's Anatomy! I was like "whoa....!" LOL. When I had Kennedy the doctor had a really hard time placing the epidural and I got very wheezy and shaky. This time he placed the epidural in very easily and it really wasn't bad at all...so we thought. About 1:00, I started noticing that I really didn't feel very numb. I alerted my nurse that I thought my epidural was somehow wearing off. I then started feeling every single contraction, which at that time were about 2-3 minutes apart. My hats off to all you ladies that do natural childbirth. OMG....I was in so much pain. I was crying and squeezing Nick's hand and trying to breath. McDreamy aka the anesthesiologist, came back in and said he was going to try putting a different kind of medicine in my epidural. As soon as he did it, I started to feel very light headed and dizzy. I called out that I felt dizzy and my heart started racing very fast. I felt like I couldn't catch my breath. The last thing I remember was saying "I think I am going to pass out." I blacked out completely. When I came to, there were a bunch of people in the room and I had an oxygen mask on my face. Nick said he was terrified because my heart rate had dropped and so had Mark's and he could see it all on the monitors. McDreamy took out my epidural and while he was doing that, he discovered what the problem was. Apparently the epidural had somehow moved and gotten trapped in a blood vessel! McDreamy said he had read about this happening when he was in med school but he had never actually seen or heard of it happening to anyone. My nurse has been a L and D nurse for 18 years and had never seen it happen either. Of course it would happen to me! He replaced my epidural and thankfully, everything was okay and it worked well that time. I was so worried about Mark but Dr. Burns came in to check on me and said not to worry that he was okay.


The craziest thing is that while all this was happening, my mom, who was at home with Kennedy,  said she got a really bad feeling that something was going wrong. She went outside in the backyard to pray and my stepdad thought she was just being dramatic. Come to find out, it was exactly around the time I blacked out. Mother's intuition is for real folks!


About 3:00, Dr. Burns checked me again and finally I had progressed to 3 cm. He said although he was glad I had progressed past 1 cm, he was still nervous about the fact that I was progressing very slow. He said he would be back to check on me at 6:00 and we would go from there. I was a little anxious because I thought "oh man I am going to end up having a C-section!" But then I remembered that we originally thought that with Kennedy because I was progressing very slowly and then everything happened so fast near the end. Well, that's exactly what happened this time. Shortly before he came back to check on me, I started feeling a TON of pressure, like I needed to push. My nurse checked me and I was between 8 and 9 cm! She called Dr. Burns and he said "okay, looks like we will be having a baby within the hour!" Right at 7:00, I was at 10 cm and ready to push! This time was so much easier than Kennedy. I only pushed through a few contractions and at 7:22 pm, Mark was here! He weighed 6 pounds 10 ounces and was 19 inches long!

Unfortunately, he did swallow some meconium and he had to be checked out right away by the baby nurses. I got to hold him very briefly and then he was whisked away to the nursery. They came back and told me that his blood sugar was low and he had to be given formula, which really upset me because I had wanted to nurse right away. Fortunately when they stabilized his blood sugar, they brought him to me to nurse and he had no problems latching on. He has nursed like a champ ever since! They also were able to suction all the meconium out of his lungs. His pediatrician says his lungs are all clear!



I did not have to have an episiotomy this time, praise the lord! I did tear some and had to be stitched up but it was nowhere near as bad as Kennedy. I think it was because Mark had a much smaller head than Kennedy, hehe. Recovery has been sooo much easier this time.

We are so thankful that Mark is here and healthy. Despite the crazy situation with the epidural, I think everything went great. We are loving being a family of four!