Our First Week

I can't believe it has already been a week since Sawyer joined our family!

We ended up having to stay in the hospital until Wednesday to be sure my blood volume came back up and my doctor was a little worried about infection. By Wednesday morning we were all so ready to get out of there! Chris thankfully took an extra day off to be home with me. Those first few days were pretty rough on my body so the extra help was great! We had a little time to settle in as a new family of four.

Our first week was amazing and flew by in a sort of blur! I can't believe he is already a week old. He sleeps amazing!!! We are so lucky to have this little man in our lives! Here are a few video clips to share! Karly isn't in most of them because she is usually taking them. Hope you enjoy our little one as much as we do!

Sawyer's First Big Boy Bath

Sawyer didn't like his first bath as much as I thought he would! Poor little guy screamed through the entire thing! Chris did the honors of giving him his first bath and Karly and I assisted and took pics!

Sawyer's Birth

If you aren't into birth stories or hearing all of the details...skip this post! I love hearing all the good stuff so I don't mind sharing mine for those that do. Plus I keep this as a sort of journal to print and keep for myself.

A little background...Going back a few months you may all remember my hopes of having an all natural birth which I shared in this post. Well...I did my class which was a home study. I wasn't quite as faithful in practicing and Chris...let's just say I think he read his portion finally. We never practiced it together which was to be done nightly...oops! The last 2 or 3 weeks of pregnancy I was very frustrated with Chris's lack of commitment to it so I just stopped too. Two nights before delivery I started listening to the recordings again :) From the beginning I was very anti-induction. I wanted him to come when he was ready. I also wanted to labor at home as long as possible hoping to avoid wanting medication. Then I found out my doctor was going on vacation and I really wanted him, so we scheduled the induction. Then I was put on bed rest so 2 weeks of that and I was feeling much better about being induced. I tried every midwife recommendation and old wives tale that I had ever heard! A few days before the induction I was dilated to 2 cm and 39 weeks so I felt confident that Sawyer was good to go!

Sunday night Chris took Karly to stay with Aunt Donna and Emily and we attempted to sleep. I pretty much tossed and turned which was my normal nights sleep at that point and ended up moving to the couch where I slept about 2 hours. I was so anxious and excited to just get started! We checked into the hospital at 5am and by 6:45 they broke my water and my contractions were every 2 minutes. I began to joke that they were all doing dinner together by how fast they had me moving! With Karly it seemed to take forever! The contractions really started to wear on me and all I could think of was how I had to do this ALL DAY LONG!! At about 10am I was only dilated to 4 and I broke down and asked for the epidural. I had a pleasant and painless 3 hours. The epidural was perfect; I could still feel a little pressure and could move my legs. The one thing that really made me not want the epidural was my experience with Kar; I couldn't feel anything! I had no idea when or how to push and ended up needing the vacuum to get a 5 pound baby out. I have seen others have the same issue which I hated having! So needless to say I was pretty stoked about the way this one was placed and dosed.

Around 1:00 Aunt Gay came by to say hello and have lunch with Chris. I started to feel a little uncomfortable and thought maybe it was just the newly placed catheter. It was strange because I could feel every contraction squeezing it. Not wanting to be a pain I just hoped it would resolve itself. About 1:15 they headed down to the cafeteria for lunch. The sensations I was feeling were really becoming stronger. I could feel my legs good enough that I could have walked and my contractions were back full force. I really wasn't prepared for the intensity of them to come back. I was trying so hard to stay focused and breath and not panic. I finally hit the nurse button; a not so pleasant nurse came in. When I explained what I was feeling she completely blew me off. She said that she never understands how people expect to come in and feel nothing...I politely told her I didn't expect to feel nothing but if I had a drip in my spine I expected to not feel everything. She truly was so rude she brought me to tears...I felt like she thought I was a junky begging for a fix. I asked if it could be clogged or pulled and she assured me that wasn't possible and left. More time passes and I am really fighting to keep my cool. I am trying different positions attempting to find something more comfortable. I happen to hit just the right spot and realize my bed has a puddle on it?!? I lift up the line to the epi and surprise the plastic part had cracked right open and was flowing into my bed!! I was so upset! I hit the nurse button again and thankfully my nice nurse was back from lunch. She said she had never seen an epidural malfunction like that and went to call the anesthesiologist. We are 45 minutes to an hour in now and in full blown feeling everything labor. Last checked I was a 4 and had no intentions of doing the rest feeling like I was. Chris and Gay showed up from lunch needless to say quite shocked to see me feeling the way I was. Chris was amazing and jumped right in to support me. The doctor showed up and injected love juice directly into the tube in my spine...wait 10 minutes...nothing. He tries another medication that at this point I didn't even want...wait 10 minutes...nothing. I was done waiting and hoping and he was done offering. They can only assume when I rolled over it pulled from my back. There wasn't much they could do other than give me IV meds which I didn't want. I really didn't want to feel drunk and not remember my birth. At this point I was begging the nurse to let me go to the bathroom...I really felt like I had to poo! She said she would bring me a bed pan...which I had no intention of using! She decided to go ahead and check me and was shocked to find I was complete! I had gone from a 4 to a 10 in less than 2 hours. She had me start pushing to move him down and went to call the doctor. From 2:00 to his birth at 3:46 were the most incredible and intense 2 hours of my life! Chris was so great and supportive...I know he was nervous and REALLY wishing we had done some sort of class but he did a great job. He kept me as calm as he could and used the cues he had learned. I will not claim that I was calm but we did it! My poor husband had gone into this saying he wanted to stay by my head and not really spend much time below...he spent more time below than he probably ever cares to see again. I had such an incredible urge to push that I didn't care if the nurse or doctor was there. Chris held my legs and coached me through the contractions, pushing, counting and all! There were a few moments I thought he may be delivering Sawyer himself! My doctor arrived and shortly after Sawyer joined us! Truly words cannot describe the feeling. I had pushed my 8lb 7oz baby out unassisted! His head was turned sideways and he did quite a bit of damage on the way out. I ended up with a 4th degree tear...I will say I kept waiting to feel the doctor cut me and never did (because he didn't cut me) but I also never felt myself tear. The urge to push was so much stronger than anything else that I was feeling. The second that baby emerged I felt so proud of myself and overwhelmingly in love with my family.

Looking back I was scared I would feel ashamed for giving in and getting the epidural. I do realize I should have put a lot more time and effort into my class and made Chris do it too. I do believe I got a lot more from it than I thought I had. I had a much more confident pregnancy and birth than I ever imagined. I learned a few techniques that I did utilize and that did really help me during delivery. Now that it is over I realize I had MY perfect birth. I never had the desire to prove I could handle hours of contractions. I wanted it to be myself and Chris in the delivery room. I wanted us to be dependant on each other and have an intimate birth without a bunch of other people. I wanted to be able to push my baby out without a vacuum or other assistance and I wanted to feel him come out of my body. It was so amazing to feel him slip out (after the head of course)...I could even feel his little feet come out. I hope I never forget how amazing it was. It was everything I had imagined and more.

Scary belly...sadly yes those are stretch marks! Lets call them battle scars :)
Fresh from the oven!

Momma & Sawyer

So in love with my boy!

Meet our new little man...

Sawyer is here living with us on the outside! He was born Monday June 8th at 3:46pm weighing in at 8lbs 7oz and 20 3/4 inches long. He is absolutely perfect! Words can't describe how I feel about this baby. We are all just soaking up every second with him. I wanted to get a few pictures up. I'll be back with more soon! Sorry for the sideways ones...gotta love Blogger

More to come soon...must go feed my boy!

Sawyer update!

I am officially 39 weeks and 1 day pregnant...which translates to...huge, done, over it, irritable and ready! About 2-3 weeks ago I started having some issues with my blood pressure. It wasn't bad enough to deliver early, but was bad enough to put me on bed rest :( It's a really crappy feeling. I am not a very good patient and followed it about half of the time. I did feel much better then when I was running full speed. I had to start seeing the doctor twice a week so they could run stress tests on the baby and we decided to induce on Monday June 8th...yes TOMORROW! For the last few days I have had every pre -abor sign and I am honestly shocked I haven't had him yet. He is his dad's son...STUBBORN!!!

The doctor is predicting him to weigh in the 8# range...hoping doctor is shooting a little high! I would like a nice low 7 pounder :) I really didn't want to be induced, but I am really done. I hate using my maternity leave on bed rest so he is coming out! As of last Thursday I was already dilated to a 2, so I feel pretty confident that my body is ready. I know I have progressed more since then and can't wait for 5am tomorrow! I can't believe by tomorrow night we will be a family of four!!! So weird!

We are all set up and ready for him...Karly is spending the night with Aunt Donna and Emily and they will head over to the hospital at some point. I can't wait for her to see her brother. She is so excited! I will admit as much as I have bitched, moaned, and complained about pregnancy I will miss my little man kicking and wiggling around inside. I will try to post pictures as soon as possible. I am going to guess the proud daddy will have them mobile facebooked to his page almost immediately! Thank you to all of our family and friends for your endless love and support! Can't wait to have one more little Oxford running around....eek!

Etsy Update

For those that have followed my blog for more than a few months, or are on my facebook (add me if you haven't!) or myspace you have already heard some of this and I just wanted to send a little update. For those of you that have no idea what I am talking about go here to THIS blog...yes just click those words and it will take you right to it!

I joined Etsy back in January and slowly nosed around and started to get a few things together for "my store". March I officially opened which in reality translates to I told people about it. I was really nervous to share my nerdy creative side but I have received nothing but support! Thanks to everyone for your kind words! I had my first sale mid March and just hit 36 sales! So it definitely isn't enough to live on, but it feels so good when people want my stuff! It also is almost to the point where it supports itself financially...which is the first goal! It would be self sufficient if I weren't always buying new stuff to try out :) I had a lady contact me about selling consignment out of her real store...I was very flattered and going to go for it, but between a full time job and a family I just don't think taking that step is the smartest move at this time. Plus, she makes money off of my stuff which means I have to make a lot more stuff to have the same return. I need to open a store and sell other people's stuff consignment! Any investors???

I have a few projects always going, but here are pics from 2 recent custom orders. They both turned out adorable! I also have a handful of items waiting for pictures to be taken and listed but I am going to have to wait a little so I know I can actually get them to the post office when they are purchased :)

If you haven't checked out my Etsy, please do! www.smoxcreations.etsy.com If you know someone that needs a gift or just wants something a little less Target...send them my way! Help me spread the word...

JC visits!

Happy June! I hope everyone is doing well! It should be summer by now for just about everyone! Warm weather, bored children, ahh...the joys of summer! I wish I had a good excuse for slacking on here lately...I guess all I can say is life is busy and I am exhausted? Does that work? :) Well, today is the day I will catch up...must do so before Sawyer gets here...TOMORROW! Yes, I said tomorrow....more to come on that!

So, I had a lovely slide show put together for the baby shower blog with about 50 of the 200 pictures, but I couldn't get it to appear no matter how many times I tried! Sooo, needless to say you are stuck with just a few still ones (see blog below). I wish you all could have been here!

The weekend after the shower we had another set of visitors...can you feel the love?!?! An old family friend, and dear friend to me JC and his lady came out for a short visit. They brought a crib and only could stay for one night! I tried to tell them the crib wasn't worth the journey but the visit sure was. It was really nice to see them! We went to dinner that night and just hung out at the house. The next day Chris worked and the 4 of us headed to State Park. Sheri wanted some pictures and I figured a quick walk might help me progress some. Yes she got a lot of pictures...no my cervix didn't change :) My huge pregnant ass and JC's gimpy self managed to hobble around the entire lake...so it took us 2.5 hours and I could barely walk that night. It was great to catch up! JC is such a trooper! He broke his leg about 2 years ago and has had a very LONG road to recovery...he never complains even though I know his leg was probably on fire! It was gorgeous out and even started to sprinkle the last half hour or so!

Thanks again JC and Sheri for making the hike out here...it was great to see you!

Karly and Sheri...lagging behind knocked up and gimpy :)

looking down....Sawyer at state park...ahhh...how cute

Raspberries...I really wanted to eat one but was scared! You have seen Into the Wild right?!?! One wrong berry/nut and you are done!

Water moccasins....sick

Karly and JC