Anyways, I got some good ones of V by himself, then decided to try out some "self-timer" photos of the two of us. Enjoy!
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Two Weeks
I finally got around to taking some photos of V. I wanted to get some sibling photos, but that is going to have to wait. Caige is happily napping, and I'm going to need someone to help tag team the boys to get any decent photos.
Anyways, I got some good ones of V by himself, then decided to try out some "self-timer" photos of the two of us. Enjoy!
Anyways, I got some good ones of V by himself, then decided to try out some "self-timer" photos of the two of us. Enjoy!
Friday, November 15, 2013
Forehead kisses and the arrival
He's finally here! I can't believe that Jake and I are parents of TWO boys. Kids. PLURAL. It still blows my mind. It feels so weird knowing that we are a family of four, but then I realize that I'm almost 25 (and Jake almost 26), so it's not really weird at all.
Anyways, Valon is here, and I am super excited to share his birth story, mostly because there at the end, things weren't exactly working in our favor, but then things changed VERY quickly. Let me explain.
Tuesday evening (November 5th), we were scheduled to check into the hospital about 11:45 pm and I would start being induced somewhere around midnight. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. One of the labor and delivery nurses from the hospital called me about 9:00pm, and told me that they wouldn't have room for me to come in that evening. They were slammed with women having babies! She asked that we just get a good night's rest and come in at 7:00am the next morning. We had already started getting things ready to go down at midnight, so we just changed course and got ready for bed instead. We have planned on dropping off Caige at my parents' house around his bedtime (so we weren't having to transport him around in the middle of the night, and plus that would give Jake and I a few hours alone to potentially nap). Instead, we gave Caige a bath, put on his pajamas, and watched Monsters University until we all fell asleep on the couch. (If you haven't seen Monsters University yet, I highly suggest it! I actually like it better than the first!)
Anyways, we eventually made our way to bed, and I woke up just about every hour, so excited (and NERVOUS!) to have our baby the next day! 5:00am finally rolled around (which was the time I had planned on waking up, and I laid in bed for an extra 20 minutes, feeling V kick, and the mess of butterflies that were almost nauseating. I was definitely more nervous this time around. It's easier to go into a situation not knowing what to expect, but I definitely remember how much labor pains hurt. Granted, I did get the epidural last time, but still. Contractions suck. Period.
We all got ready, dropped Caige off at my mom's house, and headed to the hospital. We ended up being a few minutes late, but they were still pretty slammed, so we weren't even check in to L&D triage until almost 7:45am. Then from there, we didn't even get a delivery room until 10:00am. In the mean time, they drew blood, set me up on the fetal/contraction monitors (to no avail, I was not having any contractions), set me up for my IV, and checked my cervix. Still dilated to 1 1/2cm. How depressing. They last three weekly check-ups at my doctor's office had the same result. My nurse called my doctor and asked that we start the induction process now, since we weren't sure how long it would be until I got settled into a delivery room. My doctor ok'd for everything to begin. We started out with a cervical pill that will help get contractions going, and hopefully get me dilating. This began at 9:30am. 30 minutes later, we were finally heading over to our delivery room, and then contractions started kicking in.
At this point, my mom, dad, and Jake's step mom were all in the delivery room with Jake and I. Conversations were routinely interrupted by everyone cheering during contractions. About noon, the contractions definitely started getting harder. My doctor stopped by and checked my cervix, and I was dilated 3cm. Better than nothing, but I was still disappointed things weren't progressing faster. She had been on call all night delivering babies, so she said she was going to leave for a bit. She had a dentist appointment, and then would come check on me.
More contractions, more pain. Nothing too exciting happened until my doctor came back between 3-3:30pm. She checked my cervix again. Still 3 cm. Bummer. She decided now was the time to break my water to see if we could get things going. She told me she wasn't expecting anything to honestly happen until after 7pm, just because of how slow progress was. If things weren't progressing at that point, she would sign me over to her associate, Dr. King, since she was at the hospital all night. That was completely fine by me. I surprisingly wasn't upset that there was that off chance that she wouldn't get to deliver my baby.
After she broke my water, she gave me the go ahead to get the epidural any time (if I wanted it), which I definitely did. The anesthesiologist was called, and he got it in two tries! (Thank goodness, because with Caige, it took 5 tries. And boy, does that hurt!)
The hospital has actually changed up the way that epidurals are now. They aren't strung up like an IV like in the past. Now, they are attached to the wall, and a very LOW dose of medications is pumped through the spinal catheter. If I needed a little bit more to take the edge off, I had a remote and could control my dosage. I kept it at the lowest setting possible, and honestly, I still felt all of my contractions (I definitely felt the pressure, the pain was subsided, but not completely). I wasn't flying 10,000 ft in the air. I felt comfortable. I didn't feel loopy or paralyzed. It was definitely a nice feeling.
4:30pm rolled around and my contractions had increased in intensity and length, as they got closer and closer together. The nurse checked me one more time, and I was STILL at 3 cm. Seriously, this was killing me! They called me doctor to let her know how intense contractions were, but nothing was progressing. They were unable to reach her, so Dr. King came by to introduce herself and see what options we had. V's head hadn't dropped yet, and his heart rate was starting to dip with each contraction. They discussed giving me a medication to stop contractions completely and give V a break. They discussed inserting a catheter to separate the placenta from the uterus, and if that wasn't going to work. We started discussing a C-section. This conversation carried on until about 4:50pm. Dr. King checked my cervix one last time, just to see where Valon's head placement was, and low and behold, I was dilated to 9 1/2 cm, and was ready to push! I remember feeling the urge to push, but having gotten the epidural, I've always been told you don't feel that natural instinct, but I did, I just didn't say anything because I wasn't sure. The nurses and doctor quickly scrubbed up and got everything ready for me to push. Jake and my dad had gone down to the cafeteria at that time, so my mom called them and they ran as fast as they could back to the room.
4:55pm, my legs were mounted and we were ready to roll. My dad pulled out his phone and started recording everything as my nurse got me into game face mode. She started counting, and I started pushing. Everything was going so smoothly, and next thing I know, Dr. King told me to look down, and there was his head! He looked exactly like Caige! And he was already almost out! One last big push, and this gorgeous, crying little baby was on my chest. 5:01 pm, Valon Cater Smith made his debut. He was perfect. He was beautiful. And I cried more than he did. Forehead kisses, hugs and congratulations were exchanged throughout the room, and I was so excited to be holding our newest little boy in my arms.
We waited until the next morning to bring Caige in to meet his little brother, because the hospital was still so packed with women having babies, we weren't able to settle into our overnight room until 8:30 that night. Introducing Caige to Valon was a little nerve wracking for me. Caige is a toddler, simple as that. He doesn't have a sense of gentleness just yet, so we eased him into it, but he crawled right up on my bed, rubbed Valon's head gently, and rested his head on his and started giggling. He immediately loved him, and my fears were gone instantly!
Adjusting to life as a family of four has definitely been an adjustment for all of us. Caige has since made the adjustment from a crib to a twin size bed, giving him free reign of his bedroom, and also letting him be the "big boy" now, even though he will always be my baby. Valon sleeps soundly in a cradle in our bedroom. Caige is relatively patient for a 21 month old, and he has been great in accepting our changes. I love being a mom of two boys, and look forward to what adventures this will bring us!
Anyways, Valon is here, and I am super excited to share his birth story, mostly because there at the end, things weren't exactly working in our favor, but then things changed VERY quickly. Let me explain.
Tuesday evening (November 5th), we were scheduled to check into the hospital about 11:45 pm and I would start being induced somewhere around midnight. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. One of the labor and delivery nurses from the hospital called me about 9:00pm, and told me that they wouldn't have room for me to come in that evening. They were slammed with women having babies! She asked that we just get a good night's rest and come in at 7:00am the next morning. We had already started getting things ready to go down at midnight, so we just changed course and got ready for bed instead. We have planned on dropping off Caige at my parents' house around his bedtime (so we weren't having to transport him around in the middle of the night, and plus that would give Jake and I a few hours alone to potentially nap). Instead, we gave Caige a bath, put on his pajamas, and watched Monsters University until we all fell asleep on the couch. (If you haven't seen Monsters University yet, I highly suggest it! I actually like it better than the first!)
Anyways, we eventually made our way to bed, and I woke up just about every hour, so excited (and NERVOUS!) to have our baby the next day! 5:00am finally rolled around (which was the time I had planned on waking up, and I laid in bed for an extra 20 minutes, feeling V kick, and the mess of butterflies that were almost nauseating. I was definitely more nervous this time around. It's easier to go into a situation not knowing what to expect, but I definitely remember how much labor pains hurt. Granted, I did get the epidural last time, but still. Contractions suck. Period.
We all got ready, dropped Caige off at my mom's house, and headed to the hospital. We ended up being a few minutes late, but they were still pretty slammed, so we weren't even check in to L&D triage until almost 7:45am. Then from there, we didn't even get a delivery room until 10:00am. In the mean time, they drew blood, set me up on the fetal/contraction monitors (to no avail, I was not having any contractions), set me up for my IV, and checked my cervix. Still dilated to 1 1/2cm. How depressing. They last three weekly check-ups at my doctor's office had the same result. My nurse called my doctor and asked that we start the induction process now, since we weren't sure how long it would be until I got settled into a delivery room. My doctor ok'd for everything to begin. We started out with a cervical pill that will help get contractions going, and hopefully get me dilating. This began at 9:30am. 30 minutes later, we were finally heading over to our delivery room, and then contractions started kicking in.
At this point, my mom, dad, and Jake's step mom were all in the delivery room with Jake and I. Conversations were routinely interrupted by everyone cheering during contractions. About noon, the contractions definitely started getting harder. My doctor stopped by and checked my cervix, and I was dilated 3cm. Better than nothing, but I was still disappointed things weren't progressing faster. She had been on call all night delivering babies, so she said she was going to leave for a bit. She had a dentist appointment, and then would come check on me.
More contractions, more pain. Nothing too exciting happened until my doctor came back between 3-3:30pm. She checked my cervix again. Still 3 cm. Bummer. She decided now was the time to break my water to see if we could get things going. She told me she wasn't expecting anything to honestly happen until after 7pm, just because of how slow progress was. If things weren't progressing at that point, she would sign me over to her associate, Dr. King, since she was at the hospital all night. That was completely fine by me. I surprisingly wasn't upset that there was that off chance that she wouldn't get to deliver my baby.
After she broke my water, she gave me the go ahead to get the epidural any time (if I wanted it), which I definitely did. The anesthesiologist was called, and he got it in two tries! (Thank goodness, because with Caige, it took 5 tries. And boy, does that hurt!)
The hospital has actually changed up the way that epidurals are now. They aren't strung up like an IV like in the past. Now, they are attached to the wall, and a very LOW dose of medications is pumped through the spinal catheter. If I needed a little bit more to take the edge off, I had a remote and could control my dosage. I kept it at the lowest setting possible, and honestly, I still felt all of my contractions (I definitely felt the pressure, the pain was subsided, but not completely). I wasn't flying 10,000 ft in the air. I felt comfortable. I didn't feel loopy or paralyzed. It was definitely a nice feeling.
4:30pm rolled around and my contractions had increased in intensity and length, as they got closer and closer together. The nurse checked me one more time, and I was STILL at 3 cm. Seriously, this was killing me! They called me doctor to let her know how intense contractions were, but nothing was progressing. They were unable to reach her, so Dr. King came by to introduce herself and see what options we had. V's head hadn't dropped yet, and his heart rate was starting to dip with each contraction. They discussed giving me a medication to stop contractions completely and give V a break. They discussed inserting a catheter to separate the placenta from the uterus, and if that wasn't going to work. We started discussing a C-section. This conversation carried on until about 4:50pm. Dr. King checked my cervix one last time, just to see where Valon's head placement was, and low and behold, I was dilated to 9 1/2 cm, and was ready to push! I remember feeling the urge to push, but having gotten the epidural, I've always been told you don't feel that natural instinct, but I did, I just didn't say anything because I wasn't sure. The nurses and doctor quickly scrubbed up and got everything ready for me to push. Jake and my dad had gone down to the cafeteria at that time, so my mom called them and they ran as fast as they could back to the room.
4:55pm, my legs were mounted and we were ready to roll. My dad pulled out his phone and started recording everything as my nurse got me into game face mode. She started counting, and I started pushing. Everything was going so smoothly, and next thing I know, Dr. King told me to look down, and there was his head! He looked exactly like Caige! And he was already almost out! One last big push, and this gorgeous, crying little baby was on my chest. 5:01 pm, Valon Cater Smith made his debut. He was perfect. He was beautiful. And I cried more than he did. Forehead kisses, hugs and congratulations were exchanged throughout the room, and I was so excited to be holding our newest little boy in my arms.
We waited until the next morning to bring Caige in to meet his little brother, because the hospital was still so packed with women having babies, we weren't able to settle into our overnight room until 8:30 that night. Introducing Caige to Valon was a little nerve wracking for me. Caige is a toddler, simple as that. He doesn't have a sense of gentleness just yet, so we eased him into it, but he crawled right up on my bed, rubbed Valon's head gently, and rested his head on his and started giggling. He immediately loved him, and my fears were gone instantly!
Adjusting to life as a family of four has definitely been an adjustment for all of us. Caige has since made the adjustment from a crib to a twin size bed, giving him free reign of his bedroom, and also letting him be the "big boy" now, even though he will always be my baby. Valon sleeps soundly in a cradle in our bedroom. Caige is relatively patient for a 21 month old, and he has been great in accepting our changes. I love being a mom of two boys, and look forward to what adventures this will bring us!
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