Big Al

It's been quite a while since I've last blogged; partially because I'm lazy and tired but mostly cause there's so much that's been going on! Well ok, not that much, but things have been busy with 2 little ones and there's just so much to catch up on. So I guess I'll just start at the beginning and work my way through till today...

Our year started out GREAT with the arrival of Alyssa Emily Maughan, aka Aly, on January 20, 2010. When it comes to the unknown I am so NOT a patient person. I need results RIGHT NOW! At 38 weeks and after learning that I was dialated to a whopping 1 cm, lol, people kept telling me "that's great news- the baby will be coming soon, they'd been a 1 one day and two days later they had the baby..." so my hopes were up. WRONGO! I grew so impatient and so anxious I was driving myself, the triage dept. and my Dr., crazy!!! After a Sunday of false alarms, my mom sitting with me and Iz at home, 5 calls and a trip to triage and me thinking I knew what a contraction was when I didn't- a week and a half later...I started experiencing the real "joy" of labor. Notice the quotations around JOY... contractions- EWWW. Probably the most physically painful thing I've ever experienced.
One good memory about my contractions is: It was like 430 am and I was trying to walk through a contraction in the family room when I hear Iz chanting "mama mama mama. Yay! Hoo Hoo Hoo."
Ryan, once again, convinced me of going to the hospital just to see what was going on. So after walking around for an hour in Wal Mart we went in. And of course when we get there, the contractions stop. I was on the monitor for 30 minutes and didn't have a single one. They probably thought I was a FREAK! Since I was scheduled to have a c-section the next day, they told me I could have the baby now. We decided to be induced and try the VBAC.
My contractions started at 230 am, Wed Jan 20, and I think 12 hours later I decided enough was enough. Why go through unecessary pain when wonderful medicine was available?! So I got my epidural and it was smooth sailing. I think I may have napped a little :)

Aly's heart rate started to drop with each contraction but the Dr's were right there watching and reassuring me everything was fine. Up until the point where one of the nurses told me it could be because the cord's wrapped around the baby I was ok. At 10:30 pm I went into surgery for a c-section because I had stayed at 5 cm for 5 hours. No progression, darn!

I was a wreck in the surgery room. I kept thinking the cord was wrapped around Aly and she'd come out not breathing or limbless or something bad. Ryan came in to join me and wipe away my tears and fears. At 11:07 pm, weighing in at 8 lbs 7 oz and 20 1/2 inches long they pulled her out. I remember hearing one of the Dr's say "what a big baby! No wonder she was stuck." haha, then I was picturing a giant Shaquille O'Neal baby. But she was perfect; well except for her enormous conehead (which probably added that extra 1/2 inch).

WARNING some might think this next part may be a "bad image" TMI. So if you dare...
After getting stitched up I joined Ryan and Aly in the recovery room. OMG I was soooo tired! Trying to nurse Aly was probably the funniest thing. I could barely keep my eyes open, I'm pretty sure my eye balls were rolling back in my head, I had one arm around Al, I was trying to stay awake and failing. And there was my wonderful husband- holding my breast so Aly could nurse and I could sleep. Hahaha How pathetic am I?! Although, kudos to me, it was 130 am Friday and I had been awake for 24 hrs...
So that's my story. Another pregnancy/labor scare, but everything turned out perfect with a baby born on her due date :)

Isabel's cousins

This is Iz's first cousin, Indy (Uncle Jeff and Aunt Genna's bassett). things started out rough for them but now they are best friends. As you can see they like to scheme on how to get goodies :) At Grandma's, Iz sets out a plate on the floor with a raw hide on it for Indy when it's time to eat :)


Aunt Cecilee's dog, GiGi. She's one wild and crazy pup but Iz loves her. Everytime she goes to Nana's the first thing Iz says is, "GiGi, down...bad!" haha. The other night Iz had a dream about GiGi and woke up saying "bad." I asked her what was wrong and she said, "GiGi, down!" lol.


Iz and Aunt Verity's kittys. She likes to run around with the string and have the cats chase her. Her favorite is the black one, Cota, cause he plays fetch with her. They are surprisingly good with her. She carries them around, sometimes by their paws, and they don't scratch.

I would LOVE to get Iz a dog. She absolutely LOVES animals. Ryan swears that he will love a dog if we get a bulldog; but if anyone knows Ryan...well I think the only one who doesn't know Ryan doesn't like ANY dog (besides a stuffed one) is Ryan.

Just waiting....and waiting...and waiting...

5 more days! OMG it feels like this baby is never going to come out!! I actually get this feeling that she is completely content in my stomach and plans to stay there until something forces her out! Hopefully it will be my uterus squeezing her out :) Everytime I see someone they comment on how much I've dropped, even since the last time I saw them. I feel that I've dropped so much she should already have dropped out, hehe. It's not even my due date yet, so I'm not sure why I'm so anxious... I guess I just wanna meet her.
I had my last dr. appt. last Wednesday. I was a whopping 1 cm, woohoo! I was kind of excited cause I've never been a "1" before. (Iz was a c-section and I wasn't even close to starting any kind of labor...) Well we went back in on Sunday and I'm pretty sure the dr. said I had gone down to like a 1/2 :( didn't quite know that was possible, tear tear. It seems like Ryan might be right again and that my "walls of Jericho" will never come down, hehe.
Ryan is home now for his paternity leave, yay! He gets 3 weeks off. I'm glad he's here before Al comes to help me out with Iz. With all my meltdowns, especially lately, and "nesting" nagging I'm sure he's also looking forward to the arrival of the baby and end of my pregnancy. He's been a trooper.
We're anxious to see how Iz responds to the baby. She understands that Al's in mama's tummy- she even shares with my stomach :) But I wonder if she'll still think Al's in my stomach after she's born or if she'll know Al is the baby. We're not quite sure how she's going to handle not being the center of attention. We think she'll be excited at first but that might quickly wear off when she's not allowed to sleep with us anymore or she sees that she has to share her time with us with Al. (She isn't very good at sharing...)
We're trying to have Aly via VBAC; but if she goes past next Friday, my next dr. appt, then we will be scheduling a c-scetion. The bad thing about that is it probably won't be until that next week and Ryan's parents will be in Hawaii. It will also leave me with a harder recovery and less time with Ryan at home helping out since he'll have to go back to work soon after. So let's cross our fingers and hope our little nugget is ready to come out!

Christmas

So this Christmas was great! With Iz being older and able to understand so much more she was a blast to watch open presents and comprehend what was going on. As you can tell, compared to last year, she did SO much better with Santa :) We enjoyed the holidays with our families and are blessed to live close to both of them. We hope everyone else had a wonderful holiday season.