Inductions, Epidurals, Etc, Oh My...

So I promised in the last post I would update everyone on Annie's arrival and the Daddy drama. We found out Thursday evening that we would be induced on early Saturday morning. We arrived at the hospital at 7am and they really didn't do anything until I got an IV at 8:30.

After my arrival I had discussed with Dr. Gass about getting an epidural so that was the plan. They came in shortly after and did that. My anesthesiologist was GREAT. However, I did get a little woozy and nearly passed out. My blood pressure dropped until they couldn't even pick it up and my heart rate dropped into the forties. The baby didn't really like that and she didn't tolerate the next few contractions well. But then they let me lay down again and sprayed me in the face with something cold and things got back to where they were supposed to be.

Let me just now say that epidurals are wonderful things. I spent the next four hours of labor watching CMT and sleeping. I had to watch the monitor to see whether or not I was having a contraction. It was great....then the last thirty minutes the meds wore off and I could feel everything again, but that part was quick and Annie made her arrival.

So what about the Daddy drama you ask? Remember that Lil had the stomach bug early in the week? Yeah well we thought we were all through with that. UNTIL, on the way to the hospital Travis stopped and got him some breakfast and he took two bites and said it didn't taste right and threw it away. I really didn't think much of it until we got settled in the room and he started complaining that his stomach didn't feel right. Basically sometime while I was in labor he had to leave and go throw up. He tried to hide all this from me and kept telling me he was fine, but he kept getting paler and sicker. He sucked it up for my sake and managed to coach me through the last thirty minutes of labor and he was great. He is a champ at this by now, and I honestly can say I couldn't have gotten through any of the labors without him. He held my hand and helped me breathe and was doing great, until we got to the end and it was time to push. All of a sudden he left the room, and I knew what that meant. He was throwing up again, but he did manage to make it back in the room less that a minute before Miss Annie made her arrival.

By the time she was an hour old Travis had a horrible fever and chills and was vomiting so he had to go home and sleep it off. I was very sad that he missed the first few hours of her life without getting to hold her. Thankfully, the virus ran it's course in about 24 hours and he got to come back to the hospital and stay with us after Sunday afternoon. We were glad to have Daddy back!

He did manage to surprise me at the hospital with a dozen roses and doughnuts! He also brought Annie her first jewelry (which he also did for big sis when she was born. He said he wanted to be the first boy who bought them jewelry). Also the night before we went to the hospital he gave me a Pandora bracelet with all their birthstone charms and two little girl and one little boy charm. Yeah...I think we'll keep him...

Welcome to the World

We are very pleased to announce that we welcomed

Ann Elizabeth Parsley

"Annie"

into our family on

Saturday July 24th, 2010

12:52 pm

7 pounds 8 ounces

19 inches long

The above photo was just minutes old

Going home!

Mom and her girls

Mommy and proud big brother

Our sweet angel, with jet black hair! She looks just like her sister as a newborn!

We are so thankful that Annie is perfect and healthy and ours!!! I will post later about Saturday and her arrival into the world (including why there are very very few photos of her with her Daddy...just a sneak peak, it has to do with the stomach bug Lil had earlier in the week, and some REALLY bad timing...)

More potty training excitement....

Hmmm...this girl has got me stumped with a capital S. Remember the post about being totally uninterested and all? Yeah well Friday night, Travis was putting Lil to bed and she informed him she needed to go to the potty. First time she's ever even acted like she knew what a potty was. He started to tell her no because he thought she was just trying to get out of bed and stall, but lo and behold he took her and she did her business. Praise the Lord...but we were pretty sure it was a coincidence.

Saturday morning, first thing, she tells me she needs to go potty, and goes and pees like a big girl. Basically she went all day Saturday and told us when she needed to go. She didn't poop in the potty, but it's a start.

She did do something funny when she had a dirty diaper though. She told me, "I poop...don't say shew..." which is what I usually tell her. She continued, "Don't say nuffin..." So I have to proceed to change her poopy diaper and pretend I don't notice it...

So what is that all about? She's now back to using pullups half the time and peeing in the potty half the time. And honestly with just two weeks left in this pregnancy I don't have the energy to full force potty train right now, but she's making progress on her own so I'm happy.

She also had a little bout with a stomach virus apparently Tuesday. She vomited several times, but she had quit today. She was still under the weather and didn't have much appetite, but I think she's on the mend. I really hope that the rest of my family doesn't get the bug about the time I go into labor...that would be stressful

Speaking of pregnancy, I go back to the dr tomorrow to see what Dr. G has to say. Hopefully it's good!

Random Thoughts

I have been making the last minute preparations for baby #3 to arrive and it has really got me to thinking...like alot.

OK, I think I have all the "stuff" I need, and ironically enough, the third go round you actually know what stuff you need and what stuff is just marketed to first time Moms to get in their wallets. Necessities? Newborn diapers, size 1 diapers, wipes, desitin, mylicon, gowns, pacifier, blankies, somewhere for baby to sleep (crib in my room), extra bottles in case nursing doesn't go as planned...check

Emotional stuff....hmmm...am I ready? I remember feeling the same way when I was expecting Lilly. I would hold Noah and play with him or watch a video or read a book, and when it was very very quiet the thought would hit me that it was very bittersweet. I would think...hmmm...it will not be like this again. No longer will it be just the two of us, and me be able to focus solely on the little boy who had become my best friend and constant companion for the last three and a half years of my life. I wondered if I was ready for that and more importantly I wondered if he was ready for that.

But little Lilly came right along and immediately my heart seemed like it doubled in size. Was there enough of me to go around, of course. There was more love for both of them every time I watched them together and thanked God for the blessing of my two healthy children. Sure there was less sleep, more laundry, and more times for me to be spread very thin but it has been a small price to pay for the joy that Lilly has brought to our family. Honestly it seems like since she's been with us always, the same way with Noah.

So occasionally I am going around the house and tending to one of the kids and I have that bittersweet thought of how it will never be just the three of us again. God willing, again, our family will grow, as my heart will, and our family will once more welcome a little person who will seem like she belonged with us from the start...and I am amazed and overwhelmed at how I ever got so blessed.

FYI

Just a quick post...I'm getting ready to delete my facebook account. If you need to contact me please email me at jparsley@windstream.net . Call me at home or cell or leave me a comment on this blog. Thanks!

Lilly...in her birthday suit

Don't worry there will be no photos for this post...

Lilly has recently discovered the newfound freedom of being...well...being in the buff.
We have progressed to pullups instead of diapers (see previous post). Nobody get excited here...she still calls them diapers and uses them like diapers...she just discovered that they are pink and have the disney princesses on them so they had to get into our grocery cart.

Back to the story...she has discovered how to pull them up and down (hence the name I suppose). She has also discovered how to pull off her pants and shirt. I had to chase her no fewer than three times yesterday to inform her that we would not be running around naked all day. Noah once called from the playroom, "Mom, Lillly is naked AGAIN. Would you please come put her diaper on before she poops on all my stuff?"

This morning I was in the bedroom when she runs in stark naked and informs me, "Mommy I peed in my diapers yesternight." (This part was incredibly funny to me because she has made up the word "yesternight" on her own...as opposed to something being yesterday I suppose. Pretty clever if you ask me...

I really think this girl must be all about comfort. She had taken to want to stay in her jammies all day. I mean she would change out of her pajamas she slept in, and right into another comfy pair. However, I think she has decided that naked is more comfy than clothing all together. So dear friends if you pass my house and see that I have a naked child running around the yard, don't be alarmed...I just haven't caught her yet to make her cover up yet again...

PS Perhaps the potty training isn't as untimely as I thought? She did get out of her bathtub yesterday while I was gathering her towel, park herself in front of the toilet and proceed to poop in the floor. Nice! She then made me come look at what she had done. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to praise her for this or not...so I just tried to explain that it belonged in the potty instead of the floor. She just looked at me blankly and proceeded to drip bathwater on the floor. I proceeded to not fall in said bathwater....