Christmas Time in Pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back to Work

After 6 short weeks at home, it was time for Mommy to return to work. I did not have much of a maternity leave this time--most every day was spent answering emails, texts and/or phone calls so really it was a relief to get back to work. Here is Piper the day before her first day of daycare:

Busy times

With the addition of a new baby, we were quite busy in November. We found out that Tim was accepted into A&M!

 

We went to visit Nanny in the hospital. She had a bout of CHF with some flash pulmonary edema that landed her in the hospital for a week. Piper finally got to meet her!

Piper's Birth Story

Due to being gestationally diabetic this pregnancy and having a 10lb baby last year, Dr. Gayle was planning on keeping a close eye on me as we got closer to my due date. I was measuring ahead by fundal height the whole pregnancy. Leading up to my 37 week appointment, I had been having a lot of what I thought were Braxton Hicks contractions, but I didn't think anything of it because I had been working long, hard days at work. It was our busiest time of year and I cannot begin to help you fathom how crazy my days were.

I went to my appointment on a Tuesday and he checked me and found that I was dilated to a 4 and 70% effaced. Guess those weren't Braxton Hicks after all! He had me come back 2 days later for a recheck and I was dilated to a 6 and >80% effaced and he admitted me directly from his office. I was beyond stressed out because I really wasn't planning on her arriving 3 weeks early!

Once they got the Pitocin going, my contractions got going pretty quickly. I was breathing through the contractions pretty well and even doing work over the phone. I didn't want things to be stalled by an epidural so I waited as long as I could.

 With both of my previous deliveries, I had progressively worse hypotension with the epidural so I was careful to warn the CRNA. She came prepared with pressors to raise my pressure, but it dropped quicker and lower than ever before this time. It was harder to finally get it up and took longer and more medications to do so. They lost the baby's heartrate for a couple minutes, the doctor wasn't responding to their calls, and my room filled up with nurses super fast. Tim had to step out of the room to compose himself and I began to panic this time. The nurses took charge and put in a scalp lead to monitor the baby and we finally got her heartrate back up to normal. I was having chest pain and shortness of breath from the pressors and they had me on my head basically to help get my pressure up. It was way scarier than either time before!

The epidural did end up slowing down my labor and as with both other deliveries, Piper turned and began to present face up right before she came out. We had planned for my mom to keep the girls overnight while I delivered so that Tim could be with me, but she had to cancel at the last minute and we had to hire a babysitter to keep the girls long enough for me to deliver and Tim to get home. I delivered about 7:30pm and Tim had to leave by 10pm to relieve the sitter so he wasn't even there when they rolled me to postpartum. I was so sad and tired and emotional!

 

8lbs 11oz and 20.75 inches long, 3 weeks early!

1 year old!

Our spunky Stormie Grey is officially 1 year old! She was destined to be the middle child and is full of fire and sass just like her name. She is silly and sweet and so entertaining. She loves her sissy but is insanely jealous of her all at the same time. And she loves to play peekaboo, anytime and anywhere!

August 2014

Stormie is getting so big! She is officially no longer eating baby food. She has enough toothies to eat real people food. She is walking everywhere and loves to say hi to the puppies through the back door. She has moved up to the "big kid" class at daycare too! I can't believe she'll be a year old next month!

I also cannot believe my baby girl Makenzie has started 3rd grade--where has the time gone? She is halfway to 16!

10 months old!

This has been the most fun month yet! You are Miss Personality and busy busy busy! You started walking about 5 steps at a time during the second week in July. You are loving playing Peek A Boo, blowing kisses and trying to say "hi" and "bye bye" now as you wave. You are so smart. You are into EVERYTHING. We never baby-proofed for Big Sis, but oh my...you open every cabinet and drawer you can get to and clean them out. Everything goes into your mouth--I have had to perform the Heimlech or back blows several times to get out everything from microscopic pieces of plastic to tiny pieces of dead leaves. Satisfying your curiosity and exploring are your favorite things to do. You had your second ear infection over July 4th weekend, along w/ a crazy swollen occipital lymph node that stuck around for over 3 weeks and totally freaked Mama out. We started you back on Ranitidine for reflux and you are sleeping better again. We are so happy that you are part of our family!