We have a Visa appointment

We have a Visa appointment. Our little boy will be home soon!! It is scheduled for June 22nd, exactly 1 month after Gabe was born. We don't have airline tickets yet, so we don't know exactly when he will be home, but it will probably be around the 4th of July. Hooray!! It seems like the wait has been so long.

Gabriel Joseph Stuart has arrived!!!

Seeing as little Gabe is now over 2 weeks old, I think I better write down all I remember about his entrance to the world. Time has been in a warp since his arrival. I don’t know if this past weeks has seemed incredibly short or incredibly long. Regardless it’s been incredibly lovely. And emotional and maybe just a little bit tiring ;)! Last Monday, May 21st, I headed into town to run some errands. I was hoping it would be a quick trip in, but had a few stops to make. First stop, Bed Bath and Beyond. Now, as mentioned before, I’d had lots of contractions over the last couple of months, but it was here (probably around 11 am) that I noticed that the contractions were starting to feel different. Before I had felt a tightening throughout my belly. I can’t really describe how they made me feel other than that they made it hard to breathe, though they weren’t too painful. These new ones were definitely more painful and rather than feeling them throughout the uterus, the pain was concentrated down towards my cervix. So, I started timing them. Every 12 minutes or so. So, I called Dan who was almost 2 hours away up in Dupont to tell him what was going on. He wondered if he should come home and I told him no…I’d let him know if and when they got closer together. I continued to run my errands and then headed for home. After arriving home, I figured I better finish getting my bags packed and ran around doing just that as well as picking up the house, just in case this really was the big day. The contractions were coming anywhere from 5 to 12 minutes apart at this point and after running around like crazy trying to get everything done I wanted to get done, I called Dan to tell him he best get on the road. It was 4pm at this point, which is when he was supposed to leave anyway, but I figured I better make sure he wasn’t staying over. At this point the contractions were getting more painful, so I ran a warm bath and jumped in to see if the water would cause the contractions to make a decision one way or another…to either fizzle out, or come on more strong. They chose the later and started coming much more frequently, like ever 3-5 minutes. Dan showed up around 5:45 and I told him we should probably think about heading in, so we excitedly loaded up the car and made our way into the hospital. In triage I was hooked up to the monitor and we saw that our little guy was looking great! Next was to check my cervix. I was a little disappointed to hear I was only 3 cm, but my midwife said she was sure I was in early labor and I could either be admitted, head home, or just go for a walk. We chose to leave the hospital and take a walk around the surrounding neighborhoods, rather than in the halls of the unit. I’m so glad we chose this option. It was so nice out and I thoroughly enjoyed the cool breeze as we walked the streets. I felt really good between contractions and I found I had to stop walking and just lean on Dan during the contractions. We walked for about an hour before heading back to the birth center. At this point the contractions were getting stronger and I was ready to get into the water. So, back to triage we went where I was checked again and told I was 5 cm dilated. Woohoo! After they got the tub all set up, I got in and labored for awhile until I started feeling the urge to push. My immediate thought was, awesome, this is almost done. But Kate, my midwife, wanted to check me first and after doing so, gave me the heartbreaking news that my cervix was only dilated to a 6.5. Oh dear. For the next bit of time (I had absolutely no concept of time) I tried to continue to breathe through the contraction and just not push. The only way I can describe this is torturous. I had planned on using good breathing techniques as well as think about pleasant things through each contraction to help distract myself. The problem was that if I didn’t concentrate on not pushing, I automatically started pushing. So each contraction came on full force and all I was able to do was try to repeat to myself to not push. Sometimes I was successful and sometimes I was not. Being an L&D nurse in this situation was not very helpful because I knew the consequences of pushing before your cervix is gone. So not only was I in extreme pain, fighting an urge that is extremely strong, but I also was so, so worried that I wouldn’t be able to fight the urge for much longer and would screw everything up and end up back in a c/section. Here is where my team became so valuable. My husband, mom and sister were there to encourage me through all this. My midwife and two nurses (Debbie and Tressa) told me over and over and over again that I could do it. I must say I didn’t believe them, but knowing that I had really wanted a natural childbirth, they never let me waver from that. I must have asked to be checked a million times, simply because I wanted to be able to be push just as soon as possible, since it was so hard to resist the urge. I also told them over and over again that I just didn’t think I could do it. I wasn’t yelling or crying in pain, though, just moaning through the contractions, so they probably thought I was doing better than I actually was. I asked if maybe it wouldn’t help to have my water broken to speed things up, though the thought of the contractions intensifying was more than I could bear. Rather than break my water, I labored through quite a few more contractions, but was so miserable and somewhat unsuccessful at not pushing through the contractions, so I got out of the tub and into the bed to see if a change in position would help. Kate went ahead and checked me again and broke my water at that point. The rest of the story is a bit hazy for me. They hooked me up to a monitor and at first it sounded like the heartrate went down a bit, then I heard Kate say that it was coming back up. I was having such a hard time not pushing, that after a few contractions I was checked again and while the cervix wasn’t all the way gone, I got the go ahead to do some light pushing with each contraction. With pushing the baby’s heart rate went down and stayed down, though they were having a hard time figuring out if they were monitoring me or the baby. Finally, they put a monitor on the baby’s head (called a scalp lead) so they could accurately assess how the baby was doing. His heart rate was down and it was apparent that we needed to get him out and soon (as it turns out, he had a really, really short cord, which probably was the cause of his heart rate dipping so low as the baby came down). My mom tells me that Tressa (my old manager when I worked nights) came to my side and told me something along the lines that this was the most important moment in my life so far, to work to push my baby out. I pushed as hard as I could and before long a doctor came in to help me in my efforts with a vacuum. At this point the room filled up with a TON of people, 3 RN’s, my midwife, Dr. McGuire, Dan, Heidi, my mom and several people from the nursery team to help support the baby should he need it. They hooked up the vacuum to his little head and I think two pushes later, out came his head (with the vacuum popping off once). His body was soon to follow and then the most beautiful sound in the world, his little cry. He was born at 3:31 am on 5/22/12. They placed him on my chest and I got to enjoy looking at my beautiful son while they sewed me up. The whole experience of giving birth was so much harder than I ever anticipated. When I think about the possibility of having another, I quickly think “no way, the pain was more than I could bear.” As I’ve mentioned this to Dan, he’s quickly reminded me that if the pain is the only thing keeping me from having another, I can always get an epidural! I guess that’s true, though I’d probably be too stubborn to let myself actually do it! And hopefully next time labor will be quicker. 

Maternity Pictures

I got my hair cut today and since it's beautiful outside and my hair looks better today (having been "fixed" by someone else) than it ever will again until it gets cut again, we decided to go ahead and take some maternity pictures. We figured it's now or never, since I'm 38 weeks along tomorrow and I really could go into labor any time. We had a good time and just did the pictures ourselves with a tripod and remote. Here are a few of the nicer ones.

Domestic Life

What a beautiful weekend this has been! It has been so nice and we have gotten SO much done, which is great!! Let's see if I can remember everything we've accomplished... Yesterday (Saturday) we woke up fairly early and Dan changed the oil on the Altima, Exped, and Willy (our tractor). While he did that, I did my Bible study, picked up around the house and prepped and cooked a turkey that we had in our freezer. This was somewhat of an all day project, as it took a while to cook, then I took off the meat and made broth out of the bones. I also worked on thank you cards (for my shower), read my CPR book for my upcoming class and did some other online education for my work. Just after noon, we headed to my Aunt Janis's house where we picked up a bunch of rocks my Uncle Leroy has graciously been collecting for us for several years. They are beautiful and I'm excited to use them in our landscaping. After getting home, we mapped out where our yard will be, measured and re-measured where we were going to put our sprinklers. Dan did all the brain work on this. I just helped him with the measuring tape. I also staked a whole bunch of the trees that we planted a year ago as well as this year that weren't looking very good and were falling over. Hopefully this will help them survive the summer. I'm not very hopeful. In the afternoon I also was able to weedeat our blueberry bushes. It felt so good to get so much accomplished and my body did pretty well with it. I had some contractions walking up and down the hill to work on the trees, but for the most part I was okay. The evening they came on more frequently and stronger, but they were manageable. The only bummer part of yesterday was our expedition started leaking transmission fluid. Boo! More on that later. Today, we woke up to beautiful blue skies again and headed off to church. It was a great service, but we weren't very successful at getting out immediately. We headed to Home Depot after a bit and picked up some sprinkler parts as well as the trencher and headed home. I was pretty tired, so while Dan worked the trencher I took a little nap, then headed outside to finish staking trees. I just have to say I have the hardest working husband I know. I admire him greatly for his ability to take on big projects. He's good at figuring things out intellectually and he has the gumption to do all the manual labor as well. He's been out there since we got home working himself like crazy. Tomorrow he's going to be tired, no doubt.

While he's been putting in trenches, I finished taking care of the turkey broth, made some bread (a recipe my brother recommended from the website thecannyhomemaker.com). Pretty good stuff. I also finished making cheez-its. I had made the dough a couple of days ago and got them in the oven and baked today. They are really good, though I'm not sure I'd make them super often. The recipe is from a book called "Make the Bread, Buy the Butter," a cookbook my brother and sister-in-law got me. I love it and it's been so fun making random things. Other things I've tried from the cookbook are peanut butter and yogurt. Other things I'd like to try from the book are almond butter, hot cocoa, vanilla, salsa and a few other things. It's a really fun cookbook...one I've been reading through cover-to-cover. Anyway, here are some pictures of my recent endeavors. Maybe this is my form of nesting. Cooking rather than cleaning.

Peanut butter. So easy and will definitely continue making!

Plain yogurt. Also fairly easy and so good with strawberries and honey.

Thirty-Five!

We are celebrating 35 today! 35 weeks are under my belt and only 35 days until my due date. Yes, that's just 5 weeks. I guess I should start thinking about what I'd like to pack for the hospital. And we still need to get our infant car seat. Also, we just heard today that Wedley has his passport!! Now for the Visa...

Update on the boys

Well, I've been waiting to post because every day I have kept thinking that maybe, just maybe we'd finally get some Wedley news. We finally got some news yesterday, though it wasn't exactly what we were hoping for. Turns out that we had some mis-information. That in fact, he's only just now entering into the passport phase and that it looks like he'll probably be getting his visa appointment right around my due date (May 25). We will have to wait until after the baby is born for Dan to go pick him up. I'm so excited to bring that little guy home, but I have peace regarding the new timeline. I was feeling a little stressed about the potential of me going into labor while Dan is gone and then having to figure out taking care of a newborn (in particular breastfeeding) all the while feeling torn and like I need to spend my time bonding with Wedley. This way I can more easily figure out the routine with my newborn. I'm hoping it'll be best for Wedley too. I was looking forward to getting to know him without being distracted by a newborn for at least a few weeks, but this way, he'll only have one major adjustment to make, rather than coming and trying to adjust only to be thrown for another loop. Alls I can do is trust that this is God's perfect timing.

As for our other boy, I'm so thankful to say he's still inside me kicking away! Over 10 weeks ago I was so scared that I might deliver early because of all the contractions. Now I'm just a few days short of being 35 weeks! Hallelujah!!! He just needs to make it a few more weeks and I think he'll probably do just that.

Here I am at 29 Weeks along and so very happy.

We continue to feel more and more ready for our boys. I was so incredibly blessed by my friends and family at a couple of showers over the last few weeks. They were so fun and I really did feel "showered" by all the love and support. My sister, mom and friends Wendy, Darla, Carrie and Kari hosted some wonderful parties!

Making some Haitian food with Wendy and Darla!

32 Weeks along!!


In other news, I wanted to post a picture of my sweet little nephew who is now almost 3 months old. I can't believe that much time has passed and I'm just now writing about it on my blog! Not that I'm a faithful writer, but still... He's a really sweet little guy and will reward you with a smile when you look at him.

And this one is just for fun. A seahawks game we went to earlier in the year.

The countdown!

Wow, the time is quickly approaching that I will have TWO little boys in my home to love and care for. We just got the AWESOME news late last night that Wedley has entered into the passport phase! Hooray...and best guess, it looks like 5 to 7 weeks until Dan gets to go pick him up. Lucky duck! And tomorrow marks the 10 week mark until my due date! 30 weeks...It really is going by very fast. It is tempting to get anxious about the timing of it all, specifically that Dan might need to leave fairly close to my due date and what that'll mean, but then I remember God's timing and that comforts me. They'll both come at the right time.