Our hospital adventures...

Recovery was going well until about 10:30 when I started to get uncomfortable, very uncomfortable. I kept telling myself that I had never had stitches, ever in my life so I didn't know what to expect... and I had never given birth. I just presumed that I should be uncomfortable down there... so I asked my nurse, Christa, if I was supposed to be swollen there. She looked and her eyes got as big as saucers and she called the charge nurse who called the OB on call for the Mommy/Baby wing... By midnight, I was in excruciating pain. The anesthesiologist came in and asked me where my pain ranked on a scale of 1-10, my response was that I would rather give birth all over again! She immediately went to find the OB for his order for meds... I had something in my IV within 15 minutes. Next thing I know, they are taking me to the OR. Now I have never had a surgery before (other than my wisdom teeth being removed but that is different) so I had no idea what to expect in the Operating Room... my only experiences with an Operating Room was on TV... so... When they wheeled me into the OR and I saw it was all white and looked like a demo area for Rubbermaid my first comment to the team (my delivering OB, the mommy/baby OB, a l&d nurse, a tech, the anesthesiologist and someone else) was, "This doesn't look like the ORs in Grey's Anatomy..." to which they all were cracking up!

When I woke up, the team was laughing again (or still, who knows they could have had a party while I was in surgery and I wouldn't have known!). The OB told me that they had drained 4 oz of fluid from the labia and removed 2 block clots which were like quarter size jawbreakers. Guess I was in pain for a good reason!

More of the first pictures of Rylie...

 Papa with his FOURTH granddaughter...

 Grammy with her FOURTH granddaughter... 

 Daddy and his princess... in the nursery getting her second round of antibiotics.

 Mommy and her princess... 

 Look at those cheeks!!!! And all that hair!!!

 Daddy-daughter matching faux hawks...

 Cousin Chris came to visit!

 Cousin Christina came to visit too!

Cousin Caroline brought Ethan up to see "his baby"

Welcome Rylie Cameron Stiller

When Z came back in to check on me at 6:00 she told me that her shift ended at 7:00 and that she was going to see our baby before she left for the day... that being said, she wanted me to start pushing after she did something in the computer. Me being me, I replied that she had told me to let my body do the work as long as I could handle it and I was fine why start pushing? But she was determined she was going to see this through and had me do a test push at 6:05 pm. Apparently I was a good pusher because she decided that I needed to continue to push through that contraction... Ian was super supportive and encouraging throughout the whole delivery. 

At 6:50 the delivering OB told me to open my eyes (I had them closed while pushing to block out all the sensory stuff in the room) and take a look. He was holding my baby girl up when I opened my eyes! My first reaction was, "That's not mine..." since Rylie had a full head of sandy blonde hair and I was expecting a bald baby since I was basically bald at birth!!!

Rylie weighed in at 8 pounds 3.7 ounces (which they rounded up to 8 lb 4 oz) and was 19.5 inches long. She was half an inch shorter than I was at birth and weighed the same as me!

My parents arrived at the hospital about 7:10 pm after leaving Tulsa at 8:00 cst... 

I enjoyed the "golden hour" of having my baby snuggled up on my chest before she was weighed and checked and all that good stuff. She was beyond perfect!!!!

 My amazing nurse, Z and delivering OB, Dr. Mouchawar... I loved them!!!

 Proud daddy getting to hold his Princess for the first time!

Our Labor Story

On Wednesday, January 29, my school nurse sent me home from work informing me that I needed to change my doctor's appointment to earlier in the day and get there ASAP... she felt like I was going to have Miss Rylie soon. I was able to change my appointment from the afternoon to late morning and get home to pack my hospital bag before going... I was a little freaked out that I wasn't ready for this, my bag wasn't packed, the carseat not installed in my car, snacks and drinks weren't bought, my parents weren't on their way or here, the dogs weren't at the kennel nor had I made reservations for the dogs at the kennel!

Needless to say, the OB that checked me reassured me that I didn't need to freak out that I wasn't going to have the baby that day... or that weekend... she felt confident that she would see me at my 39 week appointment the next week... so... I debated with my parents on whether or not they needed to drop what they were doing right then and there and head out to Colorado that day or not and I came home to rest and finish my sub plans.

Bump Shot on Wednesday, Jan 29

Finishing my sub plans (or at least attempting to) was a good thing because on Thursday morning about 3:00 I woke up to back to back contractions making it uncomfortable to sleep so I moved to the guest bedroom to not disturb Ian. About 4:00 I casually woke Ian up to let him know that he might need to take me to the hospital because my contractions were 1-2 minutes apart and were ranging from 90 seconds to 2 minutes long and had been for at least an hour. At 4:45 I decided to call my parents and tell them they needed to get here ASAP because I was confident I was going to have the baby soon. For some ungodly reason I thought it was HIGHLY important to take a bath and shave my legs about 7:00... (Which for all you pregnant ladies out there, a warm bath will make braxton hicks contractions slow down or stop but will increase real contractions... and shaving while having contractions isn't recommended... especially if you are as "graceful" as me) I managed to climb out of our deep soaker tub and wake Ian up about 8:00 before calling the doctor's office for triage. I was given permission to head into the hospital by 8:15 but told I probably didn't need to rush... Ian took "not rushing" to a whole new level... we FINALLY left for the hospital about 10:00 and got there by 10:30.

The admitting nurse, "Z", was super sweet and nice. I really liked her. She checked me shortly after we got to the hospital and I was already dilated to a 5... by noon I was a 7... the anesthesiologist (pardon my spelling) was called in to insert my IV port since the nurses were struggling due to my water retention. He asked me if I wanted any pain medication. I told him I wanted to wait until I was at least dilated to a 7-8 before getting an epidural and that I would rather have IV pain meds for as long as I could handle it... that was when we realized I was already a 7! I got the epidural while he was in the room. Life was dandy after that!

My Colorado best friend came up to the hospital with her 6 week old to sit with me while Ian dealt with the dogs. When he returned about 4:00 Z checked me again and I had already progressed to a 9! She said that I was doing a good job. Ian went to get food in the food court and while he was gone my water broke. Z told me that I should let me body "do the work" for as long as I could because it would make my "active labor" or the pushing process easier on me later. So what did I do? Since I was already on my side I took a nap and slept through the contractions!

About 5:45 Z came in and told me that they were going to be placing me on an antibiotic in my IV since my pulse had been rather erratic and my temperature had spiked over 100 after my water broke, they were concerned that I had an infection commonly known as "chorio". This meant that Rylie and I would need 2 more rounds of antiobiotics over the next 24 hours. I was in agreement to the treatment since I didn't want to risk actually having the infection and harming Rylie.

Baby Shower for baby Rylie

In early November, my mom and niece, Misti, drove to Denver to celebrate baby Rylie with Ian, our friends, and me. Here are some of the shots (I didn't include the gift shots, sorry) from the shower...

The Mommy-to-Be... at the beginning of the shower...

Daddy to be... after being decorated by one of the younger guests... 

The AMAZING cake that we had for Miss Rylie... I'm not kidding, the cake was amazing!

With my bump buddy and one of the hostesses, Mary... I love her so!

With Ilene, my other Co bestie and hostess...

With my hostesses

The party goers... 

Misti, me, and Mary... 

Misti's daughter will speak no evil, Rylie will see no evil and baby Adelynn will hear no evil...

With my oldest niece, Misti, who is due 2 weeks after me...

Ian, me, Mary and Chris - the expectant parents... 

with Grammy... I had to sit down after standing all afternoon

It's been a while... a long while...

It's been a while since I have posted! A very long while!!!! As in 3 months long!! Since my last post, we have found out that we are going to have a little girl in February!!! Rylie Cameron will make our family of 2 a family of 3!!!

So far the pregnancy has been super duper easy. Rylie has been growing as expected, I am slowly gaining weight and to date have gained a total of 25 pounds... blood pressure is still in the low average range and so far no signs of the dreaded pre-eclampsia that most first time mom's fear...

Here are some shots since the last post...

23 week photo shoot at a local park...

 Me being silly... shocking huh???

23 weeks at home...

Thanksgiving week... 29 weeks.

Another post will share baby shower pictures from early November...

Pregnancy Updates - 17 weeks

Well gang, I am officially 17 weeks into this journey to Murgatroyd! So far I haven't had many cravings, other than strawberry-mango margaritas (no thanks to my family having margaritas while we were in Tulsa) and Moscato wine... Funny that I have been craving alcohol since I very rarely drink. I think it is the sweet and fruitiness of the drinks that I have wanted.

I have found that Costco smoothies are a nice substitute for my margaritas that I've craved! To date I really haven't had morning sickness and hopefully since I am in my second trimester I won't... I'm gaining my energy back and now that I have gone on leave from my babysitting have more time to rest on the weekends!

I feel blessed to have such wonderful family and friends willing to share their maternity clothing and baby gear! We can't wait to find out our little monkey's gender in 3 weeks! Tomorrow is my belated 16 week appointment (actually 17 week but couldn't fit the appointment into the provider and my schedule last week!).

2013 Goals: Mid-year review...

Goals Completed as of June 30, 2013: 17
 Goals in Progress: 12

 Life:
1) Get pregnant 
2) Drink 44 oz of water/day
3) File statements monthly - in progress
4) Pay bills together - using bill pay chart
5) Put $50/mo in savings Home Organization:
6) Organize fabric 
7) Sort through boxes in basement – repack/donate/garage sale/trash 
8) Sort through boxes in garage – repack/donate/garage sale/trash
9) Inventory Scholastic books (my house) - in progress
10) Inventory Scholastic books (mom and dad’s house)
11) Organize crafting supplies and sewing supplies (buy 2 white bookshelves)

 Sewing Crafts:
12) Quilt dad's second quilt
13) Sew quilt top for Misti/Daniel
14) Quilt Misti/Daniel's quilt
15) Finish hand quilting "Syrina's" quilt - in progress
16) Baby blanket/burp rag gift set - Mark/Martha
17) Baby blanket - Ana - in progress
18) Baby blanket/burp rag gift set - Kjersti
19) Make 5 baby blanket "quilts" for my collection – 2 (2 started)
20) Make 10 receiving blankets for my collection
21) Make 10 burp rags for my collection - 6
22) Make 5 fuzzy blankets for my collection - 2
23) Make Ian his own video game blanket
24) Make Syrina fuzzy blanket
25) Make crib size quilt - fabric purchased
26) Make quilted bumper pads - fabric purchased
27) Make crib skirt
28) Make 5 heavy blankets for my collection - 2
29) Wedding gift for Blake/Brennan
 30) Wedding gift for Blake/Brennan
31) Wedding gift for Blake/Brennan

Crafts:
32) Finish Ian's Skyline Starry Night
33) Create 2013 calendar
34) Finish Wedding Ceremony book - mypublisher
35) Finish 2010 book - mypublisher
36) Start 2011 book - mypublisher
37) Start 2012 book - mypublisher
38) Attempt Pinterest craft – Everywhere Chair 2
39) Attempt Pinterest craft - Hexagon quilt
 40) Attempt Pinterest craft
41) Make Syrina a photo book for graduation

 Food:
42) Attempt new recipe – Brownie Batter Dip
43) Attempt new recipe – Crock Pot Chicken
44) Attempt new recipe – Deviled Eggs
45) Attempt new recipe – Cinnamon Roll Waffles
46) Attempt new recipe

 Hobbies:
47) Read 10 books – 8
48) Drive "Oh My God Road"
49) Drive scenic drive from RMNP to Grand Lake
50) Drive scenic drive from Georgetown through the mountains (Guanella Pass)
51) Go camping
52) Weekend trip in Crested Butte
53) Complete 80%
54) Make a new list

Heaven's to MURGATROYD!!!

We are having a baby!!!

 After a year of trying and 3 months of taking an infertility drug, we finally conceived!!!

 I am over the moon to FINALLY be starting our family!!! Today I am 10 weeks into this adventure. So far I haven't really experienced the always pleasant (haha!) morning sickness... I get nauseous if I don't eat frequently, or within a mere second after thinking I am starting to get hungry. Some smells make me want to puke, but not as bad now as it was a month ago... (keep strawberry yogurt away from me though!) I get tired easily... I get up to go potty around 3 am and again around 6 am only to get out of bed (still tired but unable to sleep) at 8... take a mid morning 30 min catnap around 10 and another early afternoon nap before going to my speech appointments.

 We had our 8 week prenatal appointment the day before Ian's birthday. Since I was actually 7 weeks and 4 days at the time, we didn't get that awesome of a picture, our little Murgatroyd resembled a little frog.. but on a plus side, we got to see our Murgatroyd and hear its heartbeat!!! Apparently getting the heartbeat to be registered at that early of a date is rare!!! We have the 12 week appointment scheduled for Monday after next where we will meet with my OB and will get to hear the heartbeat again!!! I am debating on rescheduling the appointment for after our trip to Tulsa, I will be 12 weeks 4 days instead of 11 weeks 4 days... We will have the "big mamma" of ultra sounds in September where the technicians will be getting measurements and hopefully gender!

For now, our little baby is lovingly being referred to by its daddy as little Murgatroyd!!! :)

8 week outside belly shot.