New Hampshire Vacation

 

We took a trip to New Hampshire for Chris and Ashley's wedding.  We left Sunday afternoon.  We flew from LR to Detroit; then from Detroit to Manchester.  Shelby did PERFECT on both of the flights.  We barely heard a peep out of her.  It was almost midnight by the time we got to our hotel.  Baby girl was tired - She slept until 10 am.

The crib they gave us was gross and stained so we let her sleep in the bed with us.  There was no way I was putting my baby in that nasty-ness.  The next day we went to Chris and Ashley's house to see where thye have been living. It's a really nice 2BR/2ba duplex with a full basement.  It has nice trails behind it you can walk.  Shelby wanted to play with their dog and cats so bad.  Ava finally warmed up to her.

 

 

Tuesday we drove to eat at a fresh seafood place called Markey's (?).  It was delicious.  I ate chicken strips (don't judge), but the BBQ sauce they had to go with them was amazing.  It was sweet and a little tangy.  We were going to go to the beach, but we couldn't find a place to park.  We went to the pool at our hotel instead.  I don't think Shelby minded one bit.

 

 

My girl LOVES the water.  We ate dinner and then went back to the hotel to sleep.  The next day was going to be Shelby's first manicure and pedicure, but she wouldn't sit still long enough to let to do anything, so maybe next time...  We ran around trying to get ready for the rehersal and dinner that night.  We had a large crowd at dinner and it was so good to see family and friends we hadn't seen in a while.  Aunt Linda flew in from Alaska; Uncle Marcus and Aunt Gloria from St. Louis, Roger and Vickie Hensley came from Arkansas with Aunt Terry.  I wish I would have gotten a picutre with everyone, but baby girl was restless so I took her out to the car to play a little.

 

The wedding was absolutely beautiful!  I wish I would have taken more pictures, but I was trying to keep Shelby calm and quiet. I will post some picutes of Chris and Ashley when I get them. They looked GREAT.

 

 

The next morning we had to leave to head home.  I thought I lost my wallet and I was freaking out a little bit.  Turns out it had just fallen out of my purse under the seat in the car. Whew! Crisis averted.  They had this awesome little play area in the Manchester airport.  It was SO NICE - especially since our flight was delayed an hour!

 

We finally made it back to Little Rock and to our house.  It felt so good to be home.  Overall, great trip!

Some Things About Shelby - 6 Months

Shelby, you're 6 months old.  You weigh 17 lbs 3oz and you're 25 inches long.  You wear 6-9 month clothes and a size 2 diaper.

You can sit up by yourself as long as there is something soft behind you.  You've started pulling yourself up into crawling position, but you can only go backwards.

You're still not sleeping all night.  We've gotta work on that!!  You usually wake up around 3am for a bottle then go straight back to sleep until 7.

You think your daddy is the funniest person ever.  I hope you always do!

You LOVE bath time. Your face lights up when you hear us running your bath water.

You took your first plane ride to Denver.  You were very good on the way back.  I choose not to remember the trip there.  You did not like to sleep in the crib they provided so we let you sleep in between us in the  bed. You're such a happy girl!

Everything goes in your mouth - especially your toes.

You like to "pay" when we buy things.

You had your first solid food - bananas.  You love them. You didn't want to touch them though; I'm guessing it's too slimy for your liking.  You're not very good at getting small pieces of food to your mouth yet, but you will eat anything we put it in your mouth for you.  You don't have teeth yet, so we have to give you soft foods you can "gum up."

We had professional pictures made for your 6 month birthday.  They all turned out GREAT!  We bought the entire disc because we couldn't pick just a few of them.

We are so blessed to be your parents.  Love you sweet girl!

Some Things About Shelby - 9 Months

Shelby - you're 9 months old! You weigh 19 lbs and you're 27 1/2 inches long.  You wear 9-12 month clothes and size 3 diapers.

You're crawling around and pulling up on EVERYTHING!

You love the dog.  He is terrified of you.  Poor Buddy.

You love the lake, pool, bath - pretty much anything that has to do with being in the water.

You eat anything and everything we give you.  Your favorites are mac and cheese and watermelon.  You always make a huge mess!

You have 2 teeth and, and you don't mind brushing them...as long as I let you hold the toothbrush.

You can wave hi and bye bye and play patty cake - even though you don't know anything past "patty cake". You're very talkative.  You say ma ma, da da, ba ba, na na, pa pa.  I think you try to say Buddy.  You love tearing up paper and wearing hats and bows.

You've FINALLY started sleeping all night. I thought this day would never come.  You go to bed around 7:30 and wake up around 6:30.  You don't take very long naps - usually just one or two 45 minute naps.  You sleep in your crib, but occasionally I let you nap on me.  You love cuddle time, especially when you're tired.

You very seldom cry.  But when you do everyone hears it.  And you make the funniest face.  I know you're upset, but I can't help laughing.  It's a good thing you almost never cry.

Shelby, we love you so much.  You are the perfect little addition to our family, and we could not imagine our lives without you!

4th of July Weekend

So, I'll just start by saying "Yes, I know it's been 8 months since the last time I blogged."  I'm going to start doing better.  I've got an "All About Shelby" post in the works that will cover her first 9 months of life.  Hopefully, after I get the first one knocked out I can stay on top of them better!  I'm also trying to convince the hubs that he needs to design me a blog.   Anyway...on to our weekend:

William and I were lucky enough to have Thursday AND Friday off this year.  Thursday, Shelby and I headed to Greers Ferry Lake where my "aunt and uncle" have a lake house.  Sandi and Kevin are two of the most gracious, humble people.  We just love them.  Also, we LOVE their lake house! It's so peaceful there!

Our friends, Alex and Jill, were there with their two daughters.  I'm trying to make sure their youngest and Shelby are best friends!  They are just about 7 months apart so {{fingers crossed}}  I think they like each other, but with kids this age you just never know!

Shelby LOVES the water - pool, lake, ocean, bathtub, dog's bowl...if there is water involved, she is all about it.  We went on a boat ride, swam, and visited.  Unfortunately, we did not get to stay for fireworks on the lake.  Shelby normally goes to bed around 7:30 and the fireworks didn't start until 9:30.  We were back home and in bed by 9!

Friday, William helped some friends move into their new house.  While he was moving Shelby and I had lunch and shopping with my mom.  She had her first Chic-Fil-A chicken nuggets.  She was a fan.  I also got some great deals on some fall clothes.  After William got home, we decided to have a date night (it's been far too long!!)  

We invited our friends, Seth and Amy, on our date night (oops!)  We ate at Kobe and went to see Despicable Me 2.  We had a great, kid-free evening.  Shelby was asleep when we got to my mom's to pick her up.  She slept the whole way home and went right to sleep when we put her in her crib!

On Saturday, we went back to the lake.  This time William came with us.  

We ski'd, wakeboarded, tubed, swam, visited, and ate (A LOT).  We had a pretty large crowd this time.  We joked that we could have just had church at the lake the next day!   Jen and Jared came with their 3 girls, Jill and Alex were there with their 2 girls, Linda and Steve came and brought their daughter and 2 grand daughters.  It was a blast to hang out with everyone outside of church. 

Sunday was a very relaxing day after the busy weekend.  We went to church, ate a Newks.  Then came home and Shelby let us take a 2 hour nap! I'm pretty sure she knew we were tired!  We bought groceries then just relaxed at home for the rest of the day.

Hope everyone had a great 4th!!

Delivery

We got to our private room shortly after 6pm. William and I were so nervous, but excited.  We didn't really know what to expect, but she was coming whether we were ready or not. The nurse antithesis came in to give me my epidural around 9 pm at 8cm.  Shortly after, Dr Simmons came in to break my water.


At 12am, I started pushing. Our nurse, Hannah, was so great! (Another great thing: the epidural, I didn't feel a thing!). I pushed and pushed (almost 3 hours worth of pushing), but she was having no part of coming out. I was exhausted; I hadn't eaten since eating at David's Burgers the night before and I was tired. She had only moved about an inch down the birth canal.

Dr. Simmons came in and explained that we could try forceps or we could have a C-section. I really didn't want a C-section so we decided to try the forceps. During the forceps delivery her heart rate dropped significantly.  So we were wheeled in to have an emergency C-Section.

When I was first wheeled into the OR, the drugs for the C-section were not in the room turns out the new computer system canceled the order since it was ordered from my L&D room instead of the OR. since Shelby's heart rate had dropped (and was continuing to drop), Dr Simmons couldn't wait, he had to her out and quickly.  I remember feeling the initial incision and the muscles ripping before going into shock.  Ray, the  anesthesiologist, gave me left over meds from the previous surgery. Before the hallucinations kicked in, I remember thinking "is this what death feels like?"  I literally thought I was dying.  After the meds kicked in, I remember seeing trains going up an orange mountain.  I woke up still in the OR and asked how Shelby was and how much she weighed.  I passed back out and woke up in the L&D room. I was shivering from being cold and shaking from coming off the meds.  I must have had 15 warm blankets on me.  I again asked how and where Shelby was and how much she weighed then passed back out.  This process continued for about 4 hours.

Delivery from William's perspective:
When he walked into the OR I was screaming at the top of my lungs and punching the air. He had to hold down one arm and Ray was holding down the other.  After I was open on the table, Dr Simmons tried to turn Shelby around to pull her out, but he couldn't so he attempted to pull her out breach; however, her head was stuck in the birth canal. He had to cut a little more and reach in to get her head out.  When she came out she wasn't breathing and was immediately intubated and taken to NICU. At one point, I coded.  William thought for a while he'd have to choose between me and Shelby.  I told him he better have picked her, but praise God it did not come to that.  He said I felt a lot more pain than I remember feeling. I never did get the real drugs, but the narcotics took away the memory of pain so I don't remember it.

FINALLY at 7:45am, the nurses rolled my bed over to the NICU and I got to hold my beautiful baby girl for the first time.  Holding her in my arms suddenly made me EXTREMELY grateful for Dr Simmons.  I know it could not have been easy to operate on me while I was screaming in pain.  I thanked God right then for getting us both through. I believe His hand was all over our delivery.

























We love our baby girl and could not be happier that she is part of our family.


Shelby's birth stats:
10-4-12 @ 3:14am
9 lbs 3 oz
20 1/2 in long

Pregnancy

We found out we were pregnant on February 6th, 2012.  We were so excited to add a precious little one to our family.

We decided to tell our families on Valentine's Day.  We announced to my family by handing out valentine's cards signed Baby Bridges.  Grandma was so excited and great grandma cried tears of joy.  Everyone was so excited! The next day William's parents came down for a doctors appointment.  We got his mom a "New Grandma 2012" t-shirt and his dad a "new Grandpa" coaster.  They opened their gifts and were so excited! We didn't make a big deal out of telling anyone else.

Our first doctors appointment was at 9 weeks.  We saw Dr. Sellers.  He is very nice, and we were glad he was our doctor.  We got an ultrasound after seeing Dr. Sellers.  Seeing our baby for the first time was amazing.  She looked like a little peanut.  We saw her heartbeat - that was the moment I felt like a mother for the first time.





In the early pregnancy I craved salad and orange juice.  I couldn't get enough.  We ate at Outback (ALOT!!) - They have the best salads.  A little further along I started craving chocolate chip cookies and milk.  I even made William go get some at 10 pm one night from the gas station down the street.  I was drinking about a gallon and a half of milk a week. Yum!!!!

I felt her kick for the first time at 15 weeks while on a cruise.  It felt like popcorn popping in my stomach. I also bought her first baby item.  It was kind of generic since we didn't know what gender she was yet, but I thought it was adorable.



We found out she was a girl at 22 weeks.  We had an ultrasound at 18 weeks, but she was uncooperative and would not open her legs to let us see.  The ultrasound tech said she was "pretty sure" she was a girl, but wanted to make sure on our next appointment.

I quit my high stress, high over time job at 22 weeks.  I was co-supervising 6 employees with no manager.  I was also working 80 hours a week for 2 weeks out of the month.  I didn't want to have a child that I would never get to see. It was also unfair to ask William to raise our daughter alone. I started a new job in June and am loving the hours and free time.

William felt her for the first time at 23 weeks while at a good friend's wedding in Clinton, MS.  It was the first time it felt real to him we were having a baby. He loved to put his ear to my belly and listen to her heart beat.

Most of the pregnancy symptoms people complained about, I never experienced.  I started having heartburn and snoring about 30 weeks and the lack if sleep hit hard about 32 weeks.  Other than that, the pregnancy was smooth sailing.  I gained 36 lbs - most of them coming in the last 6 weeks.


At my 37 week appointment on October 2nd we saw Dr Brenneman.  My blood pressure was 150/92 so he sent my to the hospital to test for Pre-eclampsia (negative).  I was also 4cm dilated and 80% effaced.  Once the tests came back negative the nurses discharged me and William and I went to eat at David's Burgers.  We were starving!!  I was put on bed rest and spent the next day in bed working.

My contractions started occurring every 3-5 minutes so we went back to the hospital around 3.  By the time  I got there I was 6 cm dilated and 90% effaced.  Around 6 pm Dr Simmons came in to check one and admitted us. :). My office took a poll on when her birthday would be -(everyone lost!)