~Welcoming Cody-His Birth Story~

You would think third time is a charm huh? That pregnancy would be a piece of cake after going through it two other times? Wrong! This was my pregnancy that gave me empathy for all of the women who say "Pregnancy is NOT my favorite thing!". After losing so much weight, it was difficult to see pounds come back on. Although I ate much healthier this time, and I craved salads and carrot sticks through the second trimester when I was not sick anymore, it was still hard to hide this third baby and the subsequent weight!

We found out in May we were expecting a boy. This time my hunch was right (my guess was wrong with the other two). I really sort of knew it was a boy based on how I was feeling. We were very excited as this means our princess will be THE princess of the house, and perhaps this will keep that middle child syndrome at bay. Hunter was excited to know he was going to have a brother, as much as he could anticipate the huge change coming his way!

About some time in August, Hunter decided that the baby's name was to be Airplane. Not Cody. He said "Cody is a stupid name! His name is Airplane!" and subsequently when showing people the baby's room in the house, he was sure to say it was "Airplane Cody's Room". So when it came time to decorate the new nursery, we decided that airplanes was the most appropriate way to go. (by the way- he is NOT allowed to say the word stupid... not sure why he said that!)

My due date was October 8th. This happened to be the same birthday as his Grandfather, John. (Jake's dad). Funny thing is that Abby was due on Jake's mom's birthday, and now Cody was due on his Dad's birthday! Abby came 11 days early and was 8 pounds... so my guess was we weren't going to make it to the 8th.

And my guess was right...

Days came and went, I thought I was going to go around mid September, but nothing was moving too quickly. I did have frequent contractions, but that was normal for me in late pregnancy. I would wake to strong contractions in the night, just to fall asleep and they would be gone the next morning. I lost my mucus plug a month early and that still meant nothing to any true labor.

On September 26th, I was pretty much done with everything. I was pretty miserable (like all hugely pregnant women!), so I decided to walk more that day. I walked a mile to Subway for lunch, and a mile back to work. At that point, my contractions were really picking up which was a good sign. I decided to go home around 1pm. I went home and got on the treadmill and walked another mile. I picked up Abby from Nana's and put her in the stroller and went for another mile walk. Hunter got home from school, I put him in the stroller also and went for ANOTHER walk! (imaging a 10 month pregnant woman pushing 80lbs of children in a stroller on a hot day!) At this point, my fitbit stated I had walked about 6 miles. When coming back with the two in the stroller, my contractions started fizzling out. I was tired and now frustrated that they had slowed. This was about 4pm. I went in the house with the kids, sat on the couch and was helping Hunter with the laptop when I felt a bit wet... I checked and YUP my water had broke! I went to the toilet and got prepared for the gushing that I always had with the other two. Jake got home at exactly that time and I had the biggest smile and excitement that it was finally time to start writing our birth story for Cody!

So this is where we were pros at this. As it was the same with my other two, my contractions were small if non-existent after my water broke. My providers all agree that if I was negative for Strep B (which I was) and my pain was tolerable, that laboring at home is just fine. This meant for me that I could probably get a good nights sleep before the next day. We brought the kids to Nana and Papa's and went home to sleep unless if things changed. They didn't over night so around 7am we started packing our bags for the hospital. We stopped and got breakfast and coffee on the way to the hospital while laughing about how calm we were!

When we got there, I was excited to know that my nurse was one of the same nurses from Abby's labor and the sister of one of my professors. I really enjoyed her and she made the day just amazing. She listened to me and trusted my instincts. My midwife was one that I hadn't worked with a lot in the past, but we got to know each other very quickly over the next hours since we had a long road ahead of us!

We got there around 9am. I was hooked up to Pitocin shortly thereafter to get the contractions going. It didn't take long and they were coming pretty regularly. By 1-2pm I was in active labor and things were getting more intense. At 3pm I asked for the epidural. (this is all the same as in my other labors... really... all of them were SO similar! which is strange since this is such a rare type of labor!). This was the worst part of the labor because it took him 3 times to get the epidural right. Note to other moms: Don't tell the anesthesiologist where you think center is... trust THEIR opinion first! But, once that epidural was it... it was a miracle! I was at 5cm around this time... and the baby was VERY high up... which was strange since he had been pretty low before. I knew he bounced up and down a lot when I was pregnant with him, so I knew how to get him back down. With the epidural I had, I was able to sit up and sit with my legs crossed and rock him down into my pelvis again. I was hoping this would get him in a better position for moving things along. After 2 hours, he moved back down, but I hadn't changed much. Around this time, my parents came by to play cards and pass the time. I was up for it since I was pretty comfortable and was up for taking my mind off from the waiting game. If I remember correctly... my mom and I won two rounds of 500. They left around 8pm. I was starting to get uncomfortable and my epidural needed to shift to my left side so I had laid on it so it would flood to that area. My midwife checked me around 9:30 and said I was at 7 still. She suggested moving to my right side and that sometimes that will help. After laying on my right side for five minutes, I started feeling pressure. I mentioned it to the nurse. After another five minutes I asked the nurse to call the midwife in. When she came in I told her I was feeling pressure but I couldn't be much further along, but wanted her in the room in case "something fell out". After about a half an hour and some conversation later, I asked her to check me, I felt something coming out... she did and her eyes got really big... she said "Don't push! We have to get ready and he is right there!" and quickly everyone jumped into motion. They were saying that some people who are usually there for delivery would not have time to get there that I was too close. She said I would only have to push once or twice. I moved to lay on my back but that did not feel right... after trying to push twice like that I moved back to my right side. That felt right and like I had control. At this point, I started pushing hard and the strangest thing was happening... although I had an epidural, I felt him moving through the entire birth canal. I was scared of feeling pain, but I felt everything BUT the pain. I felt his head through my hips. Crazy! I even said out loud I could feel everything because I wasn't expecting that! Two other babies and I never had this feeling... it was amazing and creepy all at the same time! With a few short pushes, some coaching on holding at the right time, my beautiful Cody John was born at 10:15pm on September 27th. He weighed in at 9 pounds even. He cried right away and he was my only baby that was delivered right up to my stomach for me to hold immediately. He did have a bit of a gurgle from a last second suck of mucus into his lungs, but he was doing well. He cried and I gushed over how amazing he was!

 I didn't even get a tear from that little big baby, thank God! That made recovery much smoother. I did end up with a spinal headache, but after a week that went away. He has been my champion nurser. He latched on immediately and ate like he was starving. He still does that. Must be why he is so quick to grow!

I'll talk more about him as a baby in another blog... but I needed to pen his story. We all have our own birth story, we all went through the experience and I want my babies to have the ability to know their story when they are older. So I write it, while I remember it :)

First photo and he is sucking his thumb!

4080 grams- exactly 9 pounds!

First bath!

Meeting brother and sister for the first time

Our happy family is now complete!

Oh such an exciting day for these two!

Loving my baby snuggles!

Handsome boy!!!

~* I'm BAAAACK! *~

Hmmm... quite the coincidence huh? No new blog in lets see... somewhere around 9-10 months... right around the time I found out I was expecting baby #3. It isn't that I haven't thought of the blog, in reality I have thought of it many times, but my motivation was gone. But, I have a lot to make up for, a lot of things that have gone on. This was one of the busiest times in our lives, which made it difficult to write it down, but in hind sight I wish I would have wrote down more- because now I'm leaving it up to my four-week-old-baby-momma-brain to remember everything.

Lets start with the nine month highlights:

* Abby turned 2 in March and Hunter turned 4. They had a wonderful Candyland themed birthday party thanks to their Aunt Tara. I was pretty darn sick with morning sickness and couldn't muster up the energy to keep up with the party planning.

* I started a new job in June as Administrator of a senior living apartment building. We do assisted living both in senior living apartments and for memory care. I LOVE my job!

* We broke ground on our house in June. I expect that to be a whole post in and of itself in the future... stay tuned.

* Pregnancy during summer wasn't too bad because we had a mild summer! But boy does it make a difference on your body between the first and the third. This pregnancy seemed to drag on...

* Which leads me to September 27th... the day we met our new baby boy. Cody John Verdon joined our family and we are so happy to have him here!

* We moved into our new home on October 19th. The kids are loving their new bunk beds in their room and Jake and I are loving the space. What a beautiful home we have and we are so blessed to have it.


So that brings us to today. One of my goals with our blog is to keep track of some of the small things I won't remember in one, five, ten years. So I'll get ready to post the birth story of Cody and then another of where the kids are at age wise. Going from two to three kids has been a leap for me. It was MUCH easier for me to go from one to two. But I haven't quite gotten a rhythm down yet, maybe it will get better after that happens.

So, I'm happy to be back. Stay tuned for more blogs, more fun, and more insight to our family life. I'm happy to have you, thanks for joining.

*~*Cold January Post*~*

January 17th

I have said before that my kids are picky eaters... even when it comes to candy they are picky. They both don't really like chocolate, hunter won't eat fruit snacks or gummy bears/worms/etc. Although, Abby is much more of a candy eater than Hunter. She usually is the one these nights talking us into candy for her night time snack. Tonight (1-22) she tried to get candy at quarter to eight (eight is her bed time) but she was too late. The past few nights she has tried to get it a few times and sometimes we have said yes, sometimes no. This night they were enjoying some leftover candy from Christmas. I like to throw away candy that sits around from holidays after some time, so I guess it has to be eaten sometimes!

January 18th

 

 

Dad was in charge of the camera tonight, I was tired and laying down with Hunter in the bedroom watching a movie. Abby was out in the living room, entertaining Jake. He got a sweet photo of her in her true form, smiling and probably getting into/out of mischief. 

 

January 19

 

 

This was the day of the potty party. Abigail had a great time! We had around 17? people here for the party! It was a huge success, everyone seemed to have a great time. We had the kids color, do a diaper toss (they received pull ups for throwing away a diaper!) and then they were able to get a sticker for going on the potty. We had a great time, thanks to those who came out to party with us!

 



January 20th

 

 

As you can tell, we had a relaxing day after the potty party! Abby was a big girl and used the potty almost all day, with very few wet diapers. She has since digressed (this post was started well before I posted it) but she will get the hang of it.

 

 

January 21

Abigail had spilled her water and had to run to get a towel... how does she clean it up? Step on the towel of course!

Hunter was having a great time this night working on his puzzles with dad. He has always loved puzzles. He wanted to put them together this night to take his fist and "smash, smash, smash" the puzzle after it was all together.

January 22

This is one of my favorite pictures of the month. The kids were all bundled up for the frigid walk over to Nana and Papa's house for the day. They look so cute like little marshmallows! Our mornings are pretty similar every day. We get the kids ready to go out. Hunter has to be carried by one of us, usually dad, on "The daddy express" and Abby wants to be carried about five feet with me and then says "I do it I-self" or "walk" and she gets down and has to take on the slippery walk way herself. Then we get over to Nana and Papa's house and they are loud and squealing, and excited for the day. Abby will seek out the surface (a tablet/Ipad thing) and Hunter will request a movie or cartoons on TV. I love these memories!

~Our Life in January~

January 14

One of the things that I'm looking forward to with this 365 challenge of photos is that I'm going to be documenting all those things that mean so much to me in my world, that I would not think of taking a photo of usually. These two things below happen to be two of my favorite things about where these kids are at in their ages currently. They both amaze me so much. 

Abby has a corner on her blanket that she MUST hold onto when sucking her thumb and holding her "May May" (blanket). She says "Torner" (Corner) and we have to search the blanket for the corner with the hole that opened up to a simple edge without the stitching. She thought of this around age 1 and it means so much to her. She is amazing.

I love watching Hunter play the computer. For the longest  time, he would hold those fingers on his right hand so tight moving it on the touch pad that he would have to stop every 2 minutes and massage and stretch his hand. It was so funny! He is smart when it comes to these games online. I sat there that night watching him do gogirlsgames.com playing the cooking class. He knew right where to go and right what to do. He is amazing.

January 15

This ended up being another day that I didn't get to see the kids all day due to work. Things have been crazy at work and I've been needed to be there to keep things going as smoothly as possible. Just one of those things in life where lots of changes are going on at work and once we get through it, it will be better, but we have to muddle through the changes to get there. I won't post a photo of my work... but that was my day.

January 16

Our puppy-Tucker- LOVES "chewy's"... he gets so excited! Tonight was a good night for him because he got one.

Peeking out from behind the camera!

Abby said "Peek a boo!" with a great big smile!

He pulled this toy off the shelf and he hasn't played with it much since we bought it. Funny how things will come around again!

Tonight was one of those nights after long days at work, lots of stress, and what seems like a VERY long week... I just wanted to snuggle my babies all night. I only got a few short hours with them, but I did make sure to get my cuddles in. 

One thing I was super excited about today was that I received an email from one of the apps that I have on my phone that Abby uses. It is called Kid Zone. It sends me a weekly update of what games/songs/apps that Abby is choosing. It also sends me copies of her drawings on it and tonight she figured out how to send me a video message! It is a great program, I'm happy my sister told me about it! It was a bright shiny moment in a very long day!

~13/365~

Well I'm currently on day 13 of 365 for my 365 days of photos goal. I have to admit, I've so far missed one day. I didn't get to see my kids on Friday this week, so I missed taking their photo, or any photo for that matter. Hopefully, in the future, I'll take a photo that would do something.. but my progress thus far has far exceeded my hopes, so I'll just keep on with what I'm doing and understand that sometimes, life happens.

January 9

This was a Wednesday, which makes me capture photos of us in our "prime" our real life- so this night was the truth of what happens in our house- Hunter feel asleep at Nana and Papa's house, so he was brought home sleeping and stayed asleep all night. Abigail felt the need to dress up in anything that looked appropriate to go around her neck, and for me to get a picture was nearly impossible... she was super spicy this night! So here she is, in all of her sassiness giving me a look that says "take the picture already"

January 10

This was the theme of our night on Thursday, the kids love to cuddle with Dad, as he is the cuddly one of us two. They both requested him to lay with. Lately Abby has been a super stinker about going to bed and staying in her bed, so a couple times we have to lay her back down or lay with her on the couch until she settles down a bit more.

January 11 (no photos... sorry!)

January 12 (lots of photos- I made up for it)

 Hunter was having a great time this weekend playing SkyLanders on his Nintendo DS 3D. His cousin Gavin gave him the game as he is "getting too old" for some of his games that he has. Hunter is the right age though, I think we changed characters, umm... maybe 50 times?!

 I LOVE these photos! What sweet, wonderful kids I have. Jake was busy a lot of the weekend studying, so we were having a great time taking photos, playing games, and having fun.

Below you can see photos of Hunter and Abby running. This is one of their favorite things to do! They run in circles around the living room, run from the living room to the bathroom, all over! Jake and I are surprised with how fast Abby is... she is maybe going to be a little runner (yay!).

Abby playing with her baby doll carrier and stroller... she loves her baby stuff!

January 13

 A Sunday always starts out good when you can play sword fight and dad is Snake Eyes!

 Remember playing this game? Hunter came running out to me saying "Mom, it is really hot, there is LAVA in the living room!" this of course leads to two naked kids running around... of course.

 Hunter and Abby both had fun riding his new horse from Grandpa and Grandma Tom and Lori... he sure had it running fast!

 My beautiful daughter dressed in a new outfit from Grandpa Dana and Grandma Julie... she even had her hair back in a ponytail. As old as she looks in the photo below, she still is a thumb sucker and still my little baby in the photo above.

Onto another week! Wishing you and yours a good one!

~January continued~

January 6

On Sunday, we woke up and the kids had a scrumptious breakfast of hot chocolate and doughnuts! Guess what though? No one ate much of any doughnuts (for the kids anyway...) and only one drank their chocolate milk. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my starbucks and doughnut. Hunter was excited to get home that day and ate some of his sandwich from subway once we got home. Our kids have been refusing food all day lately, just to eat like crazy around 4-5pm and then all night some more. I guess I have days like that too...

January 7

Well, on Monday night Jake was at a Beer Brewer meeting so I decided to take the kids to the dollar store in hopes that I could find some stuff for the potty party that I'm having at my house. For more information on the potty party... click here. Well, I didn't find much for the party, and I ended up with a HUGE headache, but I did score some great $1.00 pirate hats that the kids wanted (along with a bag of bubble gum for each). Luckily the kids went to bed early as my head was about to explode... I was hoping that the next day it would be better.

January 8

These photos don't look like much, but I wanted to post them here because what we were doing at the time was watching America's Funniest Home Videos. I remember watching this all the time as a kid and I was excited to know it is still on tv. It is good clean, fun, and everyone in the family enjoys watching it. Even Abby giggles at it!