All Grown Up

Wow. I haven't written since March. I am very very sorry. In my defense though, I have been way mega out of control busy. Busier than I can even describe. So busy, in fact, that Joey and I are thinking about hiring a cleaning lady. Can you even imagine a couple frugal fannies like us hiring a cleaning lady?! You guys, we need it so desperately. My house is a disaster! It doesn't help that Addie Marie is a little Tasmanian devil! She will leave a room and we have to do a double check that it wasn't a TORNADO! She is crazy.. and I mean that in the most positive, loving, sweetest way possible. She has more energy than I could ever dream of having, she climbs, stands and pushes anything and everything she can get her tiny adorable hands on.... She is a tiny tornado. And, everyone, this tiny tornado is the greatest blessing Jesus has ever given me. She is so funny. She is stubborn, but so sweet. I am so in love. It is just crazy to believe that she is mine- Thank you Jesus!

Addie Marie is going to be turning one on Tuesday. Can you believe it?! It feels like I just found out I was pregnant with her... and now she is turning one! I am so excited for her birthday party (even though I have SO MUCH TO DO before Sunday!). I know she is going to tear up her cake! This sweet baby girl loves sweets. She doesn't get them too often, but sometimes I let her have bites of ice cream and she goes crazy! She also started walking a little before she turned 11 months. She is a pro now! She nearly runs. I can tell she wants to run, she just isn't quite there. This baby is always on the go! I was excited that she started walking so early because I knew she would be a pro by her birthday party... and she is. I don't mean to toot her horn too much, but TOOT TOOT! HaHa. With this upcoming birthday comes the end to breastfeeding. I made it a whole year without formula, just breast milk! Whoo hoo! And, I absolutely loved it. Addie loved it. It was an amazing experience and I am so glad that everything worked out! I was so worried that Addie wouldn't want to stop.. she loved the boob... but that girl loves people food too. She did such a good job weaning herself. I think I just need to wean myself now. :/ It is just so weird to know that she doesn't need me anymore. I mean, I know she still needs me... but she doesn't need me. You know? I get anxious just talking about this. Yikes. Is there a breast feeders anonymous group? Maybe I should join. Hi, I'm MaryBeth and I'm addicted to breastfeeding. ;)

Side note: Have any of you breastfed for a year and then when your periods resumed.. where they abnormal? I JUST started mine a month ago and am wondering if I should expect to have super long cycles. I'm not used to going into day 33 with no period (especially when I know I ovulated on day 14-16). Any suggestions or comments would be welcomed! Thanks!

I will try and upload pics really soon, I don't have any pics on the computer Im using right now. Sorry.

Better

I have now been a mommy for 4 months. I always knew that I would love being a mom... and I was right. I feel like my life is better as a mommy. My heart is fuller and my smile is a bit brighter because of Addie. She is absolutely everything I prayed for! I still feel like my love grows deeper everyday! I am borderline obsessive about her. I kiss her probably 200 times a day and tell her I love her just as much. When I have to work I will cuddle with her all day. I just give her the boobie buffet so that I can rest for a little bit. Side note: the boobie buffet naps are going to stop once I start weekend option- I really need to get her back to her good nap schedule. When she got sick a month ago her nap schedule got all messed up and since I have returned to work I haven't had the patience or time to fix it.
It is wonderful being Addie's mommy and I hope that I feel this much happiness with my future babies. I feel pretty strongly that my future pregnancies won't be nearly as much fun as Addie's was. All the feelings that I had during my pregnancy with Addie were so brand new. My only true worry was that Addie wouldn't be healthy and I was somewhat worried about the changes that would be coming to Joey and I's relationship. But, man I sure loved being pregnant! I worry that with my next pregnancy I will be so worried about how Addie will do that I won't enjoy it as much... I guess I will just have to make sure that that doesn't happen. ;) Right now I am just enjoying watching Addie get bigger and reach new milestones (more about that in a future blog entry).
Here is a list of everything that I loved about pregnancy:
*Watching my belly get bigger every week
*Being able to feel Addie kick- I could be sitting at work and she would just be kicking away. No one else would know that I had this adorable little life kicking the crap out of my uterus- and I loved it!
*Reading about my babies development every week.. and sometimes reading the next weeks development because I would get so excited.
*Talking to people about the baby I was growing. I loved it when people would ask me questions regarding my pregnancy. i.e. How far along I was, Boy or Girl, How I was feeling...
*Knowing that no matter where I went.. Addie was always with me.
*I loved having this amazing baby growing in my belly... but since she wasn't outside of my body, I could sleep whenever I wanted. LOL

I could pretty much continue this list forever. I loved every single moment of growing Addie... and I am enjoying every single moment of raising her.

Addies Beautiful Cousin

I became the proud aunt, and Addie became the proud cousin of Mahayla Sue Goodwillie on Friday (March 5th). She weighed 7lbs 4oz and was 19.5 inches long. She is absolutely perfect! Becky (my older sister) had a c-section because Haley (that's what we call her for short) was breech...well we thought at least. They last checked the Friday before and Haley was still head up, butt down. The nurse and doctor didn't check before the section because... they didn't think it was necessary. But then once Dr.Adams (yep, he is her doctor too...he is just great!) cut her open, he found Haley head down.

I feel like this is a good place to mention that Haley is going to be sassy! She caused Becky so much trouble when she was pregnant! Haley was known to stop moving for a little bit just to cause Becky some worry. Then starting around 32 weeks Becky started having contractions that she ended up having to go to the hospital for. She would get a few doses of Terbutaline and head home.. and then they ended up giving her some pills to start taking for the contractions. Then when we found out that this little sas-a-frass was breech.. just icing on the cake. And then to find out that she flipped at the last possible minute- are you kidding me! HaHa! But I'm sure Becky forgot about all the trouble Haley caused the minute she held her. :)

She is absolutely adorable! I am soo excited that Becky and I had our girls so close together! I feel like this was Gods way of bringing Becky and I close again. It has been really nice to share pregnancy and motherhood with my sister. She was always the person that I looked up to when I was little- I would always want to hang out with her and her friends, do what she would do and dress like she would dress (Becky was always the better dresser). We are really excited about taking the girls photos together and dressing them alike. I can tell that this is going to be SO MUCH FUN! Addie is already so cute around her. She will just look at her, she is so curious. She also wants to eat every time that Haley eats. Which P.S. Haley is already a boobie baby- Addie must have told her how awesome the boob is. haha.

Oxyclean Nightmare

Who knew that a little bit too much oxyclean could cause so much discomfort, pain and itchiness... I certainly didn't. My husband is determined that I was trying to kill him. I promise you that I wasn't. I was only trying to get his work clothes clean. The only problem with that is that when I wash his work clothes, I also wash his boxers, comfy pants and shorts... and anything else that he puts on his body.

On Monday, Joey started to develop these little bumps on his legs and arm and stomach. By Tuesday the bumps started to get a little bit bigger and widespread. We initially thought that they were just flea bites that he got at a foreclosure property that he had went to. I know that it is a bit cold outside for fleas.. but the house that he went to hadn't been vacant for very long... so we were just guessing that it was fleas. Well by Wednesday they were a little bit worse and spreading out more... but we were still sticking to our initial diagnosis of flea bites. When I went to work on Wednesday night Joey was complaining that his red bumps were much more itchy, widespread and super uncomfortable. I continued to think that it wasn't that big of a deal and that he was fine and we would just have to wait for the bites to fade away. Joey had a horrible night on Wednesday due to the discomfort of the rash and having difficulty falling asleep due to taking care of Addie. He didn't want to take Benadryl since he was with Addie by himself. So I come home Thursday morning (to Joey singing "Boobie buffet" to Addie) and I catch a glimpse of Joeys legs. Holy Cow! I immediately knew something was wrong. This was much much more that just flea bites. It was the worst rash I had ever seen! It was red, crazy inflamed and even more uncomfortable. His rash by this time was everywhere (and I mean everywhere), it was even on the palms of his hands. The only place he didn't have a spot was his face. I told Joey he had to go to the doctor! Luckily he was able to work his schedule out to be able to make it to the minute clinic at CVS by 3:00. The nurse at the Minute Clinic couldn't have been more delightful. She was super sweet! Joey had done a little investigation and read that oxyclean has been known to cause rashes on people all of a sudden who have previously had no issues with it. Then when he found out that ALL of his clothes had been washed in extra oxyclean... a new diagnosis was born. The nurse practitioner agreed that it was just contact dermatitis and wrote a script for prednisone and steroid cream. As a side note... the scripts were super cheap! The prednisone was only 79 cents and the steriod cream was only 49 cents. Crazy huh! Luckily the prednisone started kicking this yucky rashes butt pretty fast. I went home and washed all of Joeys clothes multiple times to make sure that all the oxyclean was rinsed out and then I put the loads on the extra rinse cycle. Hopefully we don't have any of these issues again.


Now just picture this everywhere. Maybe a little uncomfortable... I also don't think this pic does his rash any justice. This was taken when it was already healing.

I feel like it is also important to note that I don't think this is all my fault. I have always used oxyclean on my hubbys clothes (although I did use extra this time...). I think that he reacted the way he did because his poor body is wiped out. He hasn't been getting much sleep since I went back to work, he is crazy stressed with his work and on Tuesday he was sick from paint fumes and denatured alcohol from stripping paint in a room. Last week was not his week! So I feel like his immune system is not at its top potential!

My Sick Baby

On February 8th my beautiful sweets started running a fever in the middle of the night. :( She wasn't sleeping great and when she woke to feed she just acted like she was miserable. It broke my heart. She had just recently started sleeping pretty good again and it was really out of the ordinary how she was acting. Joey had to work the next day so I was trying my hardest not to wake him up. Unfortunately we did not succeed.. Joey woke up. I had taken Addie to her room to attempt to calm her down and Joey came in to check on us. He ended up getting a bath ready for us. Addie loves her baths and we thought it would help her start feeling a little better. So we took a bath and then snuggled on the recliner together. Although I absolutely hated her feeling so yucky, it was so great getting to snuggle so much! Her temp remained low grade at 99 degrees but maxed out at 101.2. On the 9th (Addies 3 month birthday) we ended up taking her to the doctor because she continued to run fevers and she was just miserable. Due to her lack of other symptoms the doctor decided we needed to cath her to check for a UTI. The nurse (or aid lady) came in to catheterize her. She did a terrible job! She missed her urethra multiple times and didn't use sterile technique at all. It really ticked me off, although I completely understand that it is really hard to cath such a little baby... but it didn't make me feel any less angry at this dang nurse/aid. The verdict: she had a UTI. :( I felt horrible! Dr.Grahm reassured me that it was not my fault, but I couldn't help but feel responsible. He gave me a script for Bactrim and one for Zantac(per my request) and sent me out the door. I also got a coupon for Culturelle, I know how aweful antibiotics can be to your stomach! For the next couple days Addie fought the fevers off and on, pretty much couldn't nap unless she was being held or breastfed and we took many baths.. middle of the day or night- she didn't care. My poor baby made me so sad! Then the nurse called a few days later and said that E-Coli had grown out of the culture and Dr.Grahm wanted to have a renal ultrasound and a VCUG done to rule out any anatomical abnormalities or urniary reflux. Joey and I discussed it and finally decided we didn't want to put Addie through that unneccessarily, so we are not going to do it unless she has another UTI. I am so excited to be done with these dang antibiotics! I think they are bothering her stomach (even with the Culturelle) and I just hate giving her that much medicine. I haven't started the Zantac because I didn't want to put too much medicine on her tiny belly. Unfortunately Addie has not napped well or slept very long through the night since this UTI business. She had previously been sleeping 6-8 hours before waking up.. now we are lucky if we get 3 hours. I am hoping all of this will improve once the antibiotics are done (which will be tomorrow- YAY!).
Even though my baby girl felt yucky she still was able to give me some smiles. It seemed that she would always perk up in the 3rd hour after receiving Tylenol. My goodness I sure love this pretty girl!

The Dreaded...

I started maternity leave exactly one week before I had Addie. I was originally only going to take 12 weeks off of work.. but as the days went on Joey and I decided that just wasn't going to be long enough. I continued to push back my return date until I simply couldn't put it off any longer. I wasn't sure how long I would be able to stay off work and continue having insurance. Darn you insurance!! So.. unfortunately that brought me to the dreaded day of returning to work. I could literally feel part of my heart tearing! I knew Addie would be fine without me, but I was pretty uncertain on whether I would be fine without her. For 14 weeks I was the primary caregiver. I changed her diaper, fed her and was with her 24-7. I absolutely loved it! Jesus put me on this earth to be a mommy and I was taking my job very seriously and enjoying every minute of it! So due to my impending return to work Joey had to buckle down. We had to make sure that Addie and Daddy could survive without me. Joey had yet to change a diaper and now it was time to learn. So, starting on Friday the 12Th, he changed his first diaper, bathed her and did his best to give her a bottle. He did fantastic with the diaper change! Adrianna even gave him a poopy one and he did awesome.
Next came the bath. He put on his swim trunks and jumped in with her. She was really fidgety and didn't do as well as she normally does. I think she could sense that things were about to be changing. :( Joey still did really good with her and didn't let her fussiness get him down. Then... he attempted the bottle. After Christmas we started giving her a bottle every night and she got to the point where she did AWESOME! I quit giving her the bottle at night because she had been doing so well, but Addie showed me how big of a mistake it was. She hated this bottle business. She cried and cried until she finally cried herself to sleep. Talk about heartbroken! I hate seeing Addie crying for the boob and I can't give it to her! She only slept for about 45 minutes and then started the crying again. We decided we just didn't think she was feeling well because while Joey was holding her and trying to calm her down she threw up on him (yummy). After she cried for a while longer we finally decided that she just wasn't feeling well and I should just go ahead and breastfeed her (thank goodness!). I try to stay calm and let Joey do his thing when she is getting really upset about the bottle, but I am always secretly hoping Joey just tells me I can go ahead and feed her and hold her. My heart breathes a sigh of relief when he tells me to go ahead and do my mommy thing with her. :)That night she woke up every 1.5-2 hours (yikes!) The next night, Saturday the 13Th, Addie did phenomenal! She took the bottle great and slept fairly well. Then on Sunday, the 14Th she did fair.. not great.. but not horrible. That brings us to Monday the 15Th.... I literally felt sick to my stomach I was so sad about coming back! I was excited to see everyone at work.. and I love my job. But come on.. I love my job as a mommy much much more! I felt like a cat being put into water and trying to claw my way out. It was such a helpless feeling! But I couldn't just sit and feel sorry myself. So I made sure everything was ready to go for Joey and I cuddled with my sweets as long as I could. When it was finally time to head to work I couldn't help but shed a few tears. I didn't want to, but they just flowed out when I was trying to kiss her goodbye. I might be a little over dramatic.. But I love my daughter more than I could ever put into words and it hurt so bad leaving. With that being said I feel so extremely blessed that I don't have to leave Addie in daycare- she gets to stay home with her daddy. Hopefully soon she will start sleeping better and it will make it easier on him!
Here are a couple pictures of us before my first night back to work:



P.S. Everyone at work was so super great and once I got there I didn't cry again. Also Addie did good with Daddy and didn't give him too much trouble with taking a bottle.. she didn't sleep the greatest, but she hasn't really slept great ever since being sick (that's another blog entry...)

My Valentine

This was Adriannas first Valentines Day and I had so much fun! Daddy bought Addie her first dozen roses. They were pink and smelled so good. Daddy also bought me a dozen red roses and some wild flowers- they were gorgeous!




I got Addie a Snoopy doll that blows a kiss and then opens its arms for a hug. Its really cute! I know she is a bit young this year.. but she will soon learn to love it. :) I couldn't find a Valentines dress that I really liked for Addie, but luckily I had a really cute dress from one of my baby showers for her. I even had a hair bow that matched her perfectly! Addie looked absolutely adorable! We went out to brunch at the Gaslight Grill. It was yummy!! Addie was so good while we were there. She just hung out in her car seat almost the whole time. She has really been teething lately so I just gave her the teething ring and she was occupied!



Addie talks all the time now! It seems like if I am going to take her picture and I tell her to say "cheese" she will start talking. It is soo cute. That is what is going on here... I love it!

I also bought Addie an outfit that says "Babys 1st Valentines". It is hard to resist!


We had a great Valentines Day as a family and I can't wait to see what the future holds.. they can only get better!! :)

Bath Time Fun!

My new favorite part of the day is bath time! Addie used to HATE it! The first pictures are from Adriannas first bath at home. I knew she wasn't going to be a fan because the nurses would tell me how much she hated it at the hospital (they had to give her one a couple times because diapers didn't like to stay on her tiny tushy). At first she didn't mind so much but then she was quick to notify us of her displeasure. Because of her hate of baths at the beginning we used to only give her one every other day. I would try and make her baths as comfortable as possible, but would always be super careful about how warm her bathwater was. At my baby shower I received like 3 of those duck thermometers for the bathtub, so I was aware that babies shouldn't have too hot of water. I would always give Addie her bath in our sink, I could fill the water up high enough to keep her warm and wouldn't waste too much water by using our big bathtub. So... around 5 weeks I was giving Addie a bath and at the end of her bath I always spray her off to make sure that all the soap is off. She was crying (like usual) and I started to spray her off with the warm water and then all of a sudden the water starts to get really warm, I was just about to try and make it colder... and Addie stops crying. Yep, Addie is definitely like her momma- she loves hot water (of course nothing too hot... but pretty warm). After that I discovered that as long as I make her baths with nice warm warm water- she loves it. I started to give her nightly baths at about 6 weeks since she was so much fun during bathtime! I started to throw her in the bath with me too- then she REALLY loved her baths. She will just lounge in the bath, kicking and talking. I love it!! It is so nice to spend the quality time together and we both get to relax! So here is some pics of our bath time together. I always put a washcloth on her head to keep her head warm. She seems to like it.. so I keep doing it. I know it looks silly (I think it looks cute!).







With all the bath talk.. I must also tell you that we have had one accident. I decided to give Addie a bath in the middle of the day because she was cranky and acted like she didn't feel well. So we are in the bath and she toots.. and that's alright- no harm there. Then I hear a rumble and the water starts turning yellow- YIKES! So I quickly scoop her up and am standing in this yellow yucky water. That day Addie took her first shower. LOL. The shower went well and I cleaned up the bath tub right after our shower. Even with the accident, I am not afraid to take our nightly bath. Our nightly baths are so much fun!

My Big Girl!

I may be partial... but I think she is the cutest ever!

Shot In My Heart

Before the dreaded shots!

Addie is 10 weeks old today! I can't even believe how fast my baby girl is growing up! I don't even realize how big she is getting until I look at all the clothes that she can't wear anymore. :( But... she can't stay tiny forever. She has so much fun stuff to do as she gets older and I am excited for all those things!

Unfortunately, because she is getting older... it is time for vaccinations. I never in a million years thought I was going to be the mom who would cry when her baby got shots or was in pain. I always thought I would think of it more from a medical stand point and just comfort my baby.. but know that it was completely necessary and therefore not get emotional. Boy was I wrong! Addie went for her 2 month check up last Monday and boy was it a doosy! She had to get 3 shots and then the rotavirus vaccine by mouth. Addie has always been a champ at taking medicine by mouth. She takes her gas drops and vitamin D like it is the yummiest stuff around (other than my milk... she really digs that!). She took the rota vaccine just as good- that's my baby! Then it was time for the shots- yuck! The nurse (or aid... I don't know what she is) asked if I had Tylenol and if not she would give me some. I didn't know she was going to give me a bottle of tylenol- had I known that, I wouldn't have even hesitated about asking for some! I had a bottle of tylenol.. but an extra free bottle is always great! So we gave her the yummy tylenol and then it was time. :( I was hoping to be able to breastfeed while she was getting the shots because I had read that it helps decrease the pain quite a bit... but I was fine with feeding afterward. So the nurse/aid held down Addie's legs and I held on to her hands for support. Shot 1 went in and my poor baby looked stunned and then started screaming. My heart nearly fell out on the floor! It was HORRIBLE! Shot 2 & 3 weren't as bad as the first, but shot 1 was enough to break my heart. Luckily as soon as I started feeding her she calmed down. She still would eat a little and then let out a whimper cry to let me know how much it hurt. I had no idea that it would hurt my heart so much! Addie and I were blessed enough to have Aunt Becky with us. It was SOOO nice to have Becky there with me. I could give support to Addie and Becky could give me support! I was in tears and Becky was in tears... a true bonding experience. LOL. I will have to return the favor once Baby Haley starts getting her vaccines! For the rest of the day Addie kind of felt like junk. She took a nap around 6ish and when she woke up she started screaming. I tried feeding her to calm her down and she would eat and then scream.. eat and then scream. It was awful! So I gave her some tylenol and we took a bath together. When Addie and I take baths together she is able to stretch out and soak a little bit. She LOVES her baths now and she enjoys our baths together a lot! Once she was in the bath she calmed down a lot and was able to relax. She then slept fine that night and didn't have any problems after that. Yay! Our first shots done... so many more to come. ;(

On a brighter note- Addie got a clean bill of health and always does great with the doctor! She is such a good baby!!

As The Story Goes- Part 2

Addie isn't very happy here!

My wonderful friend/nurse Shellie!

I am really sorry that I am just now finishing the story. I rarely get on the computer lately and I always find that there is stuff to do. But... I fear that I am starting to forget stuff about my day of labor- so I really want to finish the story!!

Alright- so I was starting to feel the pressure with every contraction. I could feel my lower abdomen tightening and I could feel pressure on my sacrum. Shellie (my nurse) was turning me quite often (I can't remember if it was hourly or every 2 hours)to make sure the baby didn't come down crooked. Shellie had started pitocin on me pretty early in the morning because after the epidural my contractions started to slow down a bit. She was slowly titrating the pitocin up. The highest I got was 12/hr. Everything was going great thus far. My family was all there pretty much and I wasn't too uncomfortable at this point. And Addie was still doing great.. until about 11am. Shellie came in to turn me to my left side. When she did this she started to mess with my monitor around my belly quite a bit- I didn't think this was weird because that sucker always fell off. Then someone came over the intercom and asked Shellie if she needed any help. Shell said "No, I think its picking up moms heart rate". I don't know much about labor and delivery- just a little from nursing school... but I knew something was probably wrong. The nurse on the intercom stayed on for a sec and then said "Call me if you need help". Its nice that they all watch out for each other! So after that Shellie finally was able to pick up Addies heart rate for sure and YIKES it was in the lower 60s. Shellie hit the call button and asked for a nurse to come in and place a fetal scalp probe. She then put me flat on my back, turned off my pitocin, started a fluid bolus and started me on oxygen. Luckily Shellie is a great nurse and was able to stay calm- because that really helped me not freak out. Addies heart rate came back up finally (slowly but surely) and Shellie told her she couldn't do that again. LOL. After Shellie left the room my mom asked me if that scared me and I started to cry. I didn't realize in the moment how scary it was- but afterward I felt it. Its scary because if anything went wrong- she is inside of me and we couldn't get to her immediately. However, Shellie did a good job of making me feel better and assured me everything was fine. After that anytime Shell would try to turn me Addie would drop her heart rate. I had to continue wearing oxygen for the rest of the day...I'm not going to lie- it sucked. It was a face mask! But oh well- I would do anything to keep Addie safe. I got in trouble a couple times for letting it just sit around my neck (well.. not in trouble, but I was asked to put it back on. LOL) So for the rest of the day I was mostly stuck laying on my back. Sometimes I would try to sit my bed up and Addie would always drop her heart rate. I would frequently hit my stomach and tell her to stop (sometimes it worked!). Shellie would always turn back on the pitocin and then end up having to stop it again and give me another fluid bolus. Dr.Adams came in a couple times and would always say I wasn't as dilated as the nurses would- he sure is stingy! But he continued to be optimistic and let me continue to labor as long as I would continue dilating. Shellie stayed in pretty close contact with him. When I was first admitted he had told Shellie to place a mint on my pillow and give Joey as much demerol as he wanted- LOL... I love him! Ok sorry- back to the story. Well the time kept tickin away and I was very slowly but surely dilating. At one point I felt like I was going to poop (such a horrible feeling!) so I called Shell in and she checked me and I was only a 7. Blah! As the day progressed my body was getting so worn out from the pressure of contractions and being unable to move very much. My back was starting to ache and I had a headache from being so hungry and worn out... I was physically and emotionally exhausted! Everyone kept asking if they should leave to give me quite time to rest and I kept telling them no. It didn't matter if people were there or not- I wasn't going to sleep. I was able to take cat naps here and there, but quality sleep wasn't on the agenda. And that's fine... it was only one day of my life! Around 6ish I was close to 9cm dilated so Shell and another nurse turned me on my stomach/left side and contorted my legs... it was suppose to help me finish dilating. They were ever so gentle to not upset Addie and have her drop her HR. She dropped a little, but then recovered just fine. Finally around 7:45 I was a 10 and fully effaced! YAY!!!! I started pushing and Dr.Adams had warned me that it would probably take around 2 hours to push her out. You guys- I had practiced pushing almost my whole life- I was PUMPED! I was also however having a horrible back ache from the 100 hours of laying on my back. So between contractions Shellie would rub my back- what an amazing nurse/friend!!! I pushed for 15 minutes and then Dr.Adams said he was going to leave for a bit and would come back in 30 minutes to see how much progressed I had made. Joey, Shellie and another nurse Shellie stayed to continue to help me push. Joey and Shellie (number 2) held my legs as I pushed. I was told that I was a "very good pusher" Yay! I had practiced and was hoping I would do a good job! Being told I was a good pusher is one of the best compliments I could have ever received!! :) Well... Dr.Adams came back and NOPE, nothing had happened. He then said he would be back in another 30 minutes and see what would happen. During this time Shellie tried everything possible with me. Dr.Adams had them turn my epidural way down so I could feel when to push (they didn't have to do that... I knew when I was having a contraction anyway- I actually would tell them when I needed to push before the contraction showed up on the monitor). So I could move my legs fairly well- they had me squat and push, they had me hold a towel and pull while pushing... nothing was working. Dr.Adams came back in- notta! Addie still hadn't moved. He let me push another 15 minutes and then said it was time to throw in the towel. He thought a c-section was in order and I certainly believed him after 1.5 hours of pushing and absolutely no progress. They had already taken out my catheter so they had to put it back in- I was SO swollen that they had some difficulties... but got it done. The nurse anesthetist was there and they were just waiting on the anesthesiologist. I didn't go back to have my c-section until after 9:30pm. I was shaking so bad- the nurse anesthesis said it was just from my body being so worn out and all the medications. Because I was shaking so bad the freakin blood pressure cuff kept airing up because it couldn't get a good reading. I was tired, worn out, hungry (I kept talking about what I was going to eat after I pushed Addie out while I was pushing), and emotional. I was in no mood for this stupid cuff- it was hurting my arm and I wanted to break it. I even said a few choice swear words about this dumb blood pressure cuff. So Im in the OR and they are starting to clean me off and I can feel it. I tell the nurse anesthetist and she continues to load me with meds in my epidural. She had me wait just a bit and then asked if I could feel it- I could feel it on the left side.. Oh crap. She talked to the anesthesiologist (who is a jerk!) and he said that if I don't get numb then they were going to have to put me under and Joey would have to leave. She continues to give me stuff and I continue feeling sensation on the left side of my stomach... so they kick Joey out. That sucked! I wanted my husband there to see Adrianna be born and to hold my hand. Shellie quickly moved in and held my hand and tried to make me feel better. Luckily the anesthetist was great and just kept trying to get me numb- mission accomplished. I was numb enough down low that they didn't have to put me under. It was definitely a different feeling on the left side than the left- but it didn't hurt and thats all that counted. They had to find Joey because they had already kicked him out of the OR. Finally it was time to get my baby out! Dr.Adams moved quickly and before I knew it (10:37pm) Adrianna was born. It was the weirdest feeling ever! The beautiful baby I had been growing was finally here and we were spatted. We had been together for close to 10 months- it was weird to have her out of me. She was PO'd!! She was sore and hungry. Joey went over and took pics of her and they started sewing me up. Because I had so much pitocin my uterus didn't think it would be fun to contact back down. Dr.Adams had to massage it and they gave me an IM injection to help it go back down. I also had a JP drain to help get some of the fluid out that didn't want to drain on its own. Crazy huh! So Im all sewn shut and ... the needle count is off. WHAT! I heard Dr.Adams say that I needed an abdominal x-ray because of the needle count and I said "Aww dang it". He laughed and assured me that the needle isn't in me.. they think they know what happened (someone just put an extra tally on the board), but they have to check to be sure. It took FOREVER for them to come do the x-ray. The nurse anesthetist kept asking me if I was feeling sick to my stomach and I kept saying no and then BAM- here comes nausea. I got sick a couple times. Then Joey brought over Addie, we took some pics and then I said "Can you take her, I have to throw up". I was laying flat on my back so it was quite the obstacle to get sick! Joey was holding Addie and trying to keep her calm. She was sore from the long labor and pushing so he found that rubbing her legs and feet kept her calm. By now it was after midnight and I asked Dr.Adams to let my family know everything was ok. They had been in the waiting room since 7:45! I finally get back to my room and get to hold my beautiful baby girl! She was absolutely perfect!! I also breastfed her for the first time- she was HUNGRY and did GREAT! I was so proud of her! My family came back to the room around 1:15ish, everyone held her and then went home- it had been a really long day for everyone! Although the day was crazy long and nothing went according to plan- I would do it over in a minute! I loved it!