The Last First 11/26/12

Today marked the last of the firsts for my littlest man! Today, the baby turned 1 year old! And I went through my day remembering every little bit of that day last year. The day I gave birth to my last baby!

I am so happy to have this little guy in my life. He has made me smile each and every day. If I was sad or upset, he got me into a better mood each and every time! His smile lights up my heart! the story of today, a year ago...

Around 10 PM the night before my sweet boy came into my life I was being admitted and told they were going to break my water and we were having a baby because he was a full day over due! I was supposed to have my little guy on Thanksgiving Day 2011. He obviously had other plans! I had NO contractions what so ever on Thanksgiving. And hardly any the next day. But that night I had a few really good ones so I called my doctor and in we went! By 12:30 AM on 11/26/11 My water had been broken and we were ready to go! They gave me some pain medication once the contractions were really hurting and I received a few heat packs to keep my back pain to a bearable point. I, as is normal for me, fell asleep during some point of labor (I think this is my body really getting to that point of knowing it is about time to push so it just shuts down for a bit) and when I woke up I wanted more pain medication but she said she could only give me one more of that kind so if I wanted to wait it out just a bit longer I could. I tried that, it didn't work out too well. I ended up getting more and this caused my contractions to almost stop!

So, they bumped up the pitocin and we were rolling again! They had me at 12 drops per minute at one point and that is pretty high! Everything went great for a bit... As long as you weren't ME! The pain was starting to get worse and all I wanted to do was make it stop! My nurse (who turns out was the mother of my oldest son's bully in school!) suggested I try standing for a little while. I had NEVER tried to stand while in labor before so I figured why not, let's try! This was my last pregnancy after all! So at about 10 AM on November 26th I stood there holding on to my Husband and crushing his arms during each contraction that seemed to come closer and closer together. Almost as if they did not break between them. Finally I caved and asked my nurse to give me the pain medication I am allergic to (it makes me vomit and on top of everything else I did not want that as well!) and she informed me that she would need to check my cervix one more time before she could do that. Sure enough, I was dilated to 10 cm and as she was "finishing" her check and removing her hand, my body decided it was time to push! I involuntarily gave a good push and my nurse let the doctor know to get in there quick that it was time to have a baby! The doctor barely got her gloves on and to the table as push number two came (again without my being able to stop it) and Baby Boy followed right with it and I am thankful that she had a great catch! He was born so fast that I was almost in shock at the time. They put him on my chest and he wasn't even crying. I knew that he needed to do that so I asked him to please cry and sure enough he did! There was my baby, handsome as ever! He weighed 9 pounds 0.4 ounces and was 21 1/4 inches in length!

I had to step away from this little guy just 7.5 hours after he was born and go into surgery. I was having my tubes tied. The hope was just to do the surgery and then bring me back to the room. However, I had a slight panic attack and ended up having to be "put under" so that they could finish the surgery in peace! LOL! I was then taken to recovery for an hour or two. That is the only chunk of time I do not have a great memory of due to the amnesia effects of the medications they had to inject into my system! I do remember wanting to get back to my baby so I could nurse him and hold him and just simply be with him! We were released the next afternoon and sent on our way to go be a family with his 3 older brothers! His youngest older brother was leaving just a few days later to go spend time with his Aunt so we really wanted to get home so that he could spend a little bit of time with his baby brother before he left.

But! Only 6 days after this guy was born we were on our way back to the hospital! The doctor thought I had a spinal headache from having an epidural for the surgery (not for delivery, only IV medications for me! LOL) when they took me into the room I asked for the light to be off because I couldn't handle it. They turned it off and then they took my blood pressure, well, tried to at least! It was so high that the machine couldn't even read it. they had to try 3 more times and on the 4th try they got a reading of 205/98! Yikes! The even scarier part was my BP that high with my pulse being super low! My pulse was in the 40's! So they started to give me more medicines and kept me laying down and calm (or as calm as one can be when they are freaking out on top of all of that!) and the room dark! I was readmitted to the hospital in the labor and delivery section and my new baby and husband were allowed to stay there with me! They pumped me full of different BP medications and magnesium until I was back to a normal BP. They determined that I am a freak! LOL! (That was my doctor's exact words!) I had developed Postpartum Preeclampsia. This is so rare that my doctor had only had one other patient have it happen that far out in 30 years! He said that it didn't normally happen that long after having baby and was caught a lot sooner! I hadn't even thought of calling my doctor until 6 hours after a Vicodin didn't even begin to touch my headache! LOL! In any case, I obviously got better... Here I am typing this little story to you!

COOKIE FACE!

Now, a year later, my little guy is still a dinky guy! But he is full of spunk, character and LOVE! Lots and lots of love! I am also very proud to say that this guy has been breast fed for a full year! With only minimal amounts of formula that he spit up 99.9% of anyways! (Take that, nurse who started giving it to him while I went to the bathroom!) He loves his nursing times and I am not sure he plans on stopping any time soon. He has backed off a bit but he still nurses like crazy! Specially at night! He is for sure a night drinker/eater! LOL! Just like with all my boys I can not wait to see who he is going to grow up to be! I love him so much!

Now that I have just rambled and rambled on about what happened to me a year ago...

Let's come back to today! I have below some of my favorite photos from today. I hope everyone enjoys them! Here they come! Enjoy!

The cake!
Made with love, by Mom!
Red Velvet with blue colored vanilla frosting and chocolate in the middle!

"My cake!"

"You mean I only get this small piece?"

"Well, it does taste alright...."

"I do NOT know what happened to that Smurf! I swear!"

Too good to pick up!

"Nom nom nom!!!"

"What?!?! It was yummy!!!!"

"Hooray for more Giraffe toys!"
The only "good" picture of gift time my phone let me have!
I swear, unless the lighting is just right I do not get good photos!

There it is folks! My baby is officially a whole year old! No more "months" Well, maybe! I usually stop that about 18 months old! LOL! So, maybe another 6 months. But he will always be MY baby! I am not one of those people who says the months all the time.... If I was, I'd have to say I am 323 months old! MAN! I AM old! LOL! I had this conversation with my favorite Starbucks employee today and he reminded me of the part in the movie Grown Ups when Chris Rock asks Kevin James how old his son is and Kevin replies with "48 months!"..... Chris replies "That's 4!" LOL I just so happened to have my 4 year old with me who said to tell them that the baby can walk too, (which yes, sadly, he has taken a bunch of unassisted steps... Grrr .. I want him to slow down on the growing up thing! LOL) so I said, "My 48 month old wants to you know the baby can walk too!" and he replied "THAT'S 4!" LOL! Anyways, that is how today went. Now all my boys are in bed and I am about to do the same! Take care!

~TTFN!

Craft Materials.....

Blog number 40! Can you believe it? Yeah, me either... On to the good stuff! LOL

Well, I was finally able to upload a bunch of the pictures I have been holding back and found that I have a lot of photos of materials I plan to use on upcoming gifts! My Sister showed my Mother how to make what is called a 1600 Quilt and my Mother in turn showed me! So, with some other materials I have (no photos of those) I am making each child in the family a little quilt! I have the first half of my two middle boys' quilts done and now I need to finish the beginning of my oldest so I can get working on the two babies!

Here are the materials I am using for the front of my oldest!

I cut each fat quarter into 8 stripes that were 21" long each. After that step was complete I put two of each of those together (at the thin end) and then they all get connected to where they make this extremely long length of material that is about 2 inches wide. So far, I really like it and I think it is going to be extra enjoyable! My 6 year old and 4 year old are both getting matching blankets and then the 2 babies in the family will be getting 2 different "pattern combos". One is "Letters to Santa with Reindeer" and the other is "penguins in scarves"! I love all the materials so much!

And, this year seems to be the year of the blankets. Either that or I am showing off how well I can work a sewing machine! I seem to be obsessed with making blankets! What can I say though, I like to keep myself and the ones I love warm!

I also ran across all of my PUL material the other day and the patterns to make diaper covers! Since I have a bunch of cloth diapers (I try to put cloth on the baby at night to save on the cost of paper diapers, plus they are super neat! LOL) and they are not water proof at all! So, I would like to make covers so that, for one, I have more bedtime diaper options (I have a total of maybe 3 all in one or pocket diapers that fit my son) and, for two, I can use the materials I got on sale!

Here are my four PUL material patterns that will someday be on Little Mans booty.... LOL....

Owls! (I have been on a hooter kick recently!)

Monkeys (Every little boy should be slightly bananas for mama!)

Dinos! (RAWR!)

Monsters (for my little monster!)

I also have a solid orange and a solid teal (they did not picture well at all!) that I will also be making into diaper covers. These are probably things that will wait until after my trip to see my sister and meet my Nephew at the end of the month! (Side note: He did not show last week due to under developed lungs, so her surgery was canceled  We were all disappointed  But, New appointment on Friday! Yippee! Can not wait to meet this little guy!) Since I have so much on my plate before that anyhow! We shall see. Maybe my Sister has some more diaper sewing tips she'd like to pass on to her little sis! LOL

Now, I have this other material that I am not sure what on earth I want to make, something I know! LOL But what? I just thought it was neat and had to get it! Plus, it was on sale and I do love a sale!

Isn't it super cute?!

I love it!!!

Finally, a FINISHED piece! I know, it has been so long since I did this that no one thought it would ever happen! But here it is.... 

A Mombo Cover! Remember the Monkey head print and the super duper fuzzy material I showed photos of a while back? Here is what finally became of that! I got the energy and ability to focus on my Mother teaching me the whole zipper thing again and got it done! take a look....

Top with super duper fuzzy goodness!
(yes, I see the ripple too, but it is okay!)

Bottom, all monkey all the time!

Side view to show the two materials together better!

Little man with his pillow that he LOVES!
He cuddles more with that thing than me when he nurses now!

So, that is what I have for everyone at the moment! The only other news I currently have is that Little Man turned 10 months in September! Can we believe it, NOPE! Almost too hard to believe that he turns 1 next month! Yikes! And he already has 8 teeth which the dentist said look great and that he is still a few more months from getting molars in! But here he is to say TTFN from us to you.....

~TTFN!

Breastfeeding! And A Birthday!

Breastfeeding First.....

I love breastfeeding my youngest son! I wish I would have been able to do the same with his 3 older brothers. However, things like work, an addiction to cigarettes and my stupidity of my youth caused me to only breastfeed my 3 older boys for around 1 month only for each child!

Here I am at almost 9 months going strong with breastfeeding my fourth and final child and I absolutely LOVE it! I am ashamed of myself for "giving up" on my other children. If it wasn't that I was "craving that cigarette so badly" or "had to go back to work and wouldn't have time to pump", I think I would have had a better time of breastfeeding my other boys. The topic has been itching at the back of my brain since it was National Breastfeeding week and there was a lot of talk about it on Facebook! I have several "friends" who have children the same age as my youngest and they are also big on breastfeeding! One friend has been reading and posting things from The Badass Breastfeeder and I have found myself spending a good amount of time reading some of the things she posts on Facebook and tonight was probably the best part of it all! I found that The Badass Breastfeeder has a BLOG!!! Hahaha.... I love it! And of course, the first blog post I read is "The Sex Argument Ends Here"! (Click the link.... Click it!.... But come back! LOL)

Ha! I enjoyed that post! She is also an Attachment Parent! I think I will have to read more about that as well. But I have found that it is easier to breastfeed when you have more support! I had little support during my breastfeeding efforts with my oldest 3 boys and with my youngest, I was one determined mama! When the pediatrician said "give him formula, he doesn't weigh enough!" I gave it to him a couple times in the beginning and he would vomit/spit up almost as soon as it hit his stomach! So, I said okay... took their "samples" and stuffed them under the bad! Never giving them to my little guy! He did not agree with them and I was not going to push it. When the Doctor would ask how he did, I replied "Fine! Drank it all!" I know, bad me for lying to the baby's doctor. But, I was not going to formula feed another baby just to have him vomit every time he finished eating!

The Birthday!!!! (Pictures to be added at a later date)

My oldest son turned 8 on 8/8! He was up early and ready to go to the movie theater for $1 movie day! We went to see Hoodwinked Too! which was good! (What I got to see of it, the above mentioned Breast-feeder was being extra demanding and I had to leave the theater to nurse him while walking up and down the theater entry ramp! That was an interesting challenge!) Dad ended up missing the "fun filled day" due to being called into work, but the money is always good so we didn't complain too much although Dad was missed! Before the movie started we went to the restroom and on our way back in the birthday boy face planted the ramp! Causing himself to have rug burn on both knees! Poor guy! I ended up getting him some damp napkins to set on them to help "cool" them off! After the movie we went to his favorite birthday spot, Red Robin! (He usually goes there with his Aunt and Uncle and they sing to him and give him ice cream about a month before his actual birthday, they did that and made him so happy to have it happen on his actual birthday!) At Red Robin he opened all of his gifts that we had there for him! I was able to snap a few pictures on a disposable camera that we later got the photos developed for.

Once Lunch was done and the gifts had been opened we headed for Fred Meyer to develop the film, do some school shopping and let the 4 year old play in the "Fun-land"! He loved that! There was a few kids there when he was dropped off but by the time we were all ready to go, it was just him having a tea party with the lady running the place. It was really cute actually! And he can still go there for about another year! (They can only be up to age 5 and not in Kindergarten yet! Yippee!) We ended up receiving all the "Big" boys' school supplies on the Seventh and we now need to find somewhere to store it for the time being and for the school year! We found the perfect totes and the remaining school supplies. As well as some new bar stools for them to sit on at the "bar" counter top! These will be assembled and set up to the counter once I have the school supplies stored and "away". Hopefully that will be tomorrows chore!

Once all the in town running around was finished it was time to go home and start dinner. The Birthday Boy chose Pizza, Cake and Ice Cream for his Dinner! So I heated the oven, cooked the pizza and served it. A little while later it was cake time and he said it was just what he had wanted!

All in all it was a great August Eighth yet again! I sure love that little boy who made me a Mommy for the first time! Without him, who knows if I would have my four great boys today! I am sure thankful he is my son! He truly is amazing!

**I love you doodlebug! Never forget that! Love, Mama!**

~TTFN!