Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Mae is 2!
Mae turned 2 years old last Saturday on January 19th. Her and Henry are exactly 2 years 1 week apart. I'm so happy that Henry didn't come on her birthday because we really got to have a fun day with her and she had a blast.
On Friday we went to Monkey Joes which is a big warehouse filled with inflatable jumpers and obstacle courses. We went a few months ago and she didn't love it but this time she had so much fun. It helped that we were the first ones there so she had some time to get used to everything before it got crowded. The picture below is my favorite. He was trying to sit up there with her so I could get a picture but she freaked out. Shawn looks like he's a kidnapper or something.
She wear this dress about every other day. In fact she's wearing it right now. It's her "princess dress".
38 weeks pregnant
Such a good smile for Mae!!!
We went to Brooklyn Pizza for lunch and Mae got her own slice.
Such a fun day!
Like I said in my last post. Mae is 24lbs which puts her in the 22 percentile. I'm not sure what her height is but she is in the 40th percentile. We are so proud of the sweet girl she is. She is rarely defiant and obeys us most of the time. She loves all things princess (thanks megan!) and adores dresses and shoes. Our biggest battles we have are over what she is going to wear. "No, Mae it's 20 degrees outside you have to wear pants!" She is still a super picky eater. She loves yogurt, pizza, fruit snacks and fruit.
This is a new development but since Henry has been born she has progressed so much in so many ways. She is speaking in bigger sentences and saying words I never thought she knew. She will not let us help her put her clothes on, which she always used to. She no longer wants to wear diapers anymore. Now that Henry has come she wants to do everything herself. I thought she would regress but she's done the opposite.
Mae is a great daughter and I cannot believe she is two. Life goes by so fast. I can't think about it or it just makes me so sad. We are so thankful that God has blessed us with her and we are trying to be the best parents for her.
Monday, January 28, 2013
Henry Reed Watt
My sweet son is here. Praise the Lord.
Here is how the whole deal went down.
This whole last week I've been pretty on edge with wanting Henry to be born. Since we are moving while he is so young, I wanted plenty of time to have help and for everyone to really get to know him. My big fear was him not arriving before his due date and having to be induced again. I know my dr wouldn't induce before 40 weeks like I was with Mae so it felt pretty tough sometimes. This week has been a huge test of trust and by the end of the week I had pretty much come to terms with trusting the Lord's timing and knowing that it is perfect.
So... Friday morning we took Mae in for her 2 year check up. She was 20th percentile for weight, 40th percentile for height, and 77th percentile for head size. haha She did great and we told the dr that hopefully we'd be seeing her very soon with Henry. My mom decided to spend the night on Friday since we were expecting a big ice storm. I said she didn't have to cause I didn't think anything was gonna happen but she wanted to so that was fine with me. The nasty weather started in the afternoon and Shawn, Mae and I all got a good nap in. For dinner I made broccoli cheddar soup and then after Mae went down we watched Twister on tv. I was feeling a lot of pressure at around 7pm. I was walking back and forth around the house with what seemed like a constant braxton hicks contraction. My whole belly was hard the whole time I walked and I kept saying he is so low. I had several inches below my chest where there was just empty room because he was so far down in my pelvis. I decided to take some castor oil at 8pm. It didn't do anything last time I had taken it on Wednesday so I figured it couldn't hurt and probably wouldn't do anything. (I'm still not sure if I think it did) I sat down and watched Twister which is such a tense movie. I had forgotten! We went to bed at 11pm and I was feeling a little bummed that I didn't feel any labor signs.
At midnight, I woke up to some strong low abdomen pain. I laid in bed with them for half an hour and decided to see if they went away with walking. I got up and walked around the house and started timing them. They were coming every two minutes but weren't super strong. I thought that it couldn't possibly be labor because they were so short and so close together. I started to have every other one be fairly painful and decided to call the dr and get their opinion. I called the dr's office and didn't realize that they woke the dr on call to ask. I figured it was nothing and told them not to wake the dr and I would just wait and see. Right when I thought it was getting serious, I would have a really short one without a lot of pain so figured it was false labor cause by maybe the castor oil. Ten minutes later I went into my mom's room and told her I was gonna call the dr. They alerted Dr Cannon and she called me and said I should go in to at least get checked out. I woke Shawn up and he tried to give me a high five. I didn't want to get my hopes up. We carefully drove to the hospital. Our car was covered in a thick coating of ice and the roads were kind of slippery. I told my mom to wait with Mae and if I was gonna be admitted then she could call my dad and then they'd swap.
I had consistent contractions all the way to the hospital and if there was ever a little bit longer in between I got all stressed thinking that it was gonna stop. Looking back, they were so consistent and fairly painful that I realize it was pretty obvious this was the real deal. We got up to labor and delivery at 1:45am and my nurse asked a ton of questions, letting me just breath through any contractions I had. She checked me at 2:15 and I was 4cm dilated and 50% effaced which was a change from being almost 2cm and 0% effaced on Tuesday. She called Dr Cannon and they said this was happening. She said his head was low but still moving when she pushed it so said I needed to sit up or stand. I started to get a little worried now. I was kind of mad/jealous of Shawn because he got the excitement of knowing he was going to get to meet his son soon without any of the pain. I told Shawn I wanted to go home but really, we both knew we were so ready for this. My mom arrived at 3am and things were getting very painful. I was having contraction every 2-4 minutes and was thinking about an epidural a bit. The only other pain option was morphine and that didn't sound appealing. I asked when I was going to be checked again and she said 4:15. I told Shawn if I was less than 6cm then I was getting an epidural. I was standing the almost the whole time and asked if we could wait on the IV so luckily I wasn't really tied down. The pain was really bad but only for about 30 seconds at a time. As we got closer to 4am they were getting really strong and there was almost no spacing in between them. I was about to say I couldn't do it any longer but at my next contraction I said I felt push-y. This was at 3:50. She checked me and said I was 9cm but we had to wait since my water hadn't broken. I was semi pushing through each contraction which was the only relief. About 5 min after she checked me, my water broke.
Now my body was ready to push. Unfortunately no one else was. They called the Dr and made it seem like she was just walking over from somewhere else in the hospital. My contractions are now like every minute and I had the most uncontrolable urge to push. The nurse was telling me to blow out like I was blowing a candle cause then I couldn't push. In between contractions I was trying to persuade them to let me have this baby. I said "Can't you guys just deliver the baby?" "Is there any way you can call Dr cannon again?" "Does she know I don't have an epidural?" I was SO upset and frustrated. Well then at 4:14, my body pushed on it's own and I said "I think his head is out" I was on my side and they were trying to get me on my back. Another second later and I pushed his head out. The nurse caught him and said to stop to see if the cord was around his neck (it wasn't) and a second later his body slipped out and he was on put on my chest. I was so out of it when they put him on me. It happened so fast. Dr Cannon came in about 30 seconds after Henry came out. There was no way I could have had him in a second longer. I was shocked to see a head full of dark curly hair. With Mae, the anticipating of counting through the pushing helped me realize it was time and allowed me to prepare myself. With Henry practically falling out, it took me awhile to get with it. I remember just feeling dazed for a little bit. They took Henry away and proceeded with getting me all situated which was painful. That part seemed more intense than it did with Mae and it seemed to take longer. Luckily I only had a very small tear which is surprising since he was almost a pound bigger than Mae.
All in all, it was about 4 hours start to finish. It felt like longer. The hour of 3 to 4 seemed like an eternity. I've never been super adamant about natural birth. Honestly the only reason I didn't want an epidural with both kids is because I was scared of complications with it. With this birth I labored almost the whole time standing, and I wasn't hooked up to an IV, and got no help with getting labor going. Last time I was on my back almost the whole time, was very hooked up with wires and had pitocen and my water broken. If my labor had been longer I would've opted for drugs but Praise the Lord, it was nice and short.
Henry is a great eater and my recovery has been about a million times easier than with Mae. Everytime the nurses came in to ask my pain level it was a zero.... well, except for right after I gave birth and was saying I seriously need something. They gave me IV nubain which helped immediately. The only place I feel sore is where they gave me the Dtap vaccine in my arm.
Mae LOVES Henry. She holds him and just laughs. She can hardly believe he is real. She is fairly gentle with him and seems to be adjusting well.
We got discharged from the hospital early which was really nice. We were told we would stay till Monday morning but Dr Cannon came in and asked if we wanted to go home Sunday night. We said yes and it was a good decision. Henry was up every 1.5hrs but it was nice to be in our own bed again.
We are so blessed that the Lord let us have Henry 9 days early and that he is a healthy strong boy!
Some negative news is that about 1 hour after arriving home from the hospital, we learned that our contract fell through on our house. Please pray that we get another offer soon. It's gonna suck to have to show a house and keep it clean with a newborn.
Here is how the whole deal went down.
This whole last week I've been pretty on edge with wanting Henry to be born. Since we are moving while he is so young, I wanted plenty of time to have help and for everyone to really get to know him. My big fear was him not arriving before his due date and having to be induced again. I know my dr wouldn't induce before 40 weeks like I was with Mae so it felt pretty tough sometimes. This week has been a huge test of trust and by the end of the week I had pretty much come to terms with trusting the Lord's timing and knowing that it is perfect.
So... Friday morning we took Mae in for her 2 year check up. She was 20th percentile for weight, 40th percentile for height, and 77th percentile for head size. haha She did great and we told the dr that hopefully we'd be seeing her very soon with Henry. My mom decided to spend the night on Friday since we were expecting a big ice storm. I said she didn't have to cause I didn't think anything was gonna happen but she wanted to so that was fine with me. The nasty weather started in the afternoon and Shawn, Mae and I all got a good nap in. For dinner I made broccoli cheddar soup and then after Mae went down we watched Twister on tv. I was feeling a lot of pressure at around 7pm. I was walking back and forth around the house with what seemed like a constant braxton hicks contraction. My whole belly was hard the whole time I walked and I kept saying he is so low. I had several inches below my chest where there was just empty room because he was so far down in my pelvis. I decided to take some castor oil at 8pm. It didn't do anything last time I had taken it on Wednesday so I figured it couldn't hurt and probably wouldn't do anything. (I'm still not sure if I think it did) I sat down and watched Twister which is such a tense movie. I had forgotten! We went to bed at 11pm and I was feeling a little bummed that I didn't feel any labor signs.
At midnight, I woke up to some strong low abdomen pain. I laid in bed with them for half an hour and decided to see if they went away with walking. I got up and walked around the house and started timing them. They were coming every two minutes but weren't super strong. I thought that it couldn't possibly be labor because they were so short and so close together. I started to have every other one be fairly painful and decided to call the dr and get their opinion. I called the dr's office and didn't realize that they woke the dr on call to ask. I figured it was nothing and told them not to wake the dr and I would just wait and see. Right when I thought it was getting serious, I would have a really short one without a lot of pain so figured it was false labor cause by maybe the castor oil. Ten minutes later I went into my mom's room and told her I was gonna call the dr. They alerted Dr Cannon and she called me and said I should go in to at least get checked out. I woke Shawn up and he tried to give me a high five. I didn't want to get my hopes up. We carefully drove to the hospital. Our car was covered in a thick coating of ice and the roads were kind of slippery. I told my mom to wait with Mae and if I was gonna be admitted then she could call my dad and then they'd swap.
I had consistent contractions all the way to the hospital and if there was ever a little bit longer in between I got all stressed thinking that it was gonna stop. Looking back, they were so consistent and fairly painful that I realize it was pretty obvious this was the real deal. We got up to labor and delivery at 1:45am and my nurse asked a ton of questions, letting me just breath through any contractions I had. She checked me at 2:15 and I was 4cm dilated and 50% effaced which was a change from being almost 2cm and 0% effaced on Tuesday. She called Dr Cannon and they said this was happening. She said his head was low but still moving when she pushed it so said I needed to sit up or stand. I started to get a little worried now. I was kind of mad/jealous of Shawn because he got the excitement of knowing he was going to get to meet his son soon without any of the pain. I told Shawn I wanted to go home but really, we both knew we were so ready for this. My mom arrived at 3am and things were getting very painful. I was having contraction every 2-4 minutes and was thinking about an epidural a bit. The only other pain option was morphine and that didn't sound appealing. I asked when I was going to be checked again and she said 4:15. I told Shawn if I was less than 6cm then I was getting an epidural. I was standing the almost the whole time and asked if we could wait on the IV so luckily I wasn't really tied down. The pain was really bad but only for about 30 seconds at a time. As we got closer to 4am they were getting really strong and there was almost no spacing in between them. I was about to say I couldn't do it any longer but at my next contraction I said I felt push-y. This was at 3:50. She checked me and said I was 9cm but we had to wait since my water hadn't broken. I was semi pushing through each contraction which was the only relief. About 5 min after she checked me, my water broke.
Now my body was ready to push. Unfortunately no one else was. They called the Dr and made it seem like she was just walking over from somewhere else in the hospital. My contractions are now like every minute and I had the most uncontrolable urge to push. The nurse was telling me to blow out like I was blowing a candle cause then I couldn't push. In between contractions I was trying to persuade them to let me have this baby. I said "Can't you guys just deliver the baby?" "Is there any way you can call Dr cannon again?" "Does she know I don't have an epidural?" I was SO upset and frustrated. Well then at 4:14, my body pushed on it's own and I said "I think his head is out" I was on my side and they were trying to get me on my back. Another second later and I pushed his head out. The nurse caught him and said to stop to see if the cord was around his neck (it wasn't) and a second later his body slipped out and he was on put on my chest. I was so out of it when they put him on me. It happened so fast. Dr Cannon came in about 30 seconds after Henry came out. There was no way I could have had him in a second longer. I was shocked to see a head full of dark curly hair. With Mae, the anticipating of counting through the pushing helped me realize it was time and allowed me to prepare myself. With Henry practically falling out, it took me awhile to get with it. I remember just feeling dazed for a little bit. They took Henry away and proceeded with getting me all situated which was painful. That part seemed more intense than it did with Mae and it seemed to take longer. Luckily I only had a very small tear which is surprising since he was almost a pound bigger than Mae.
All in all, it was about 4 hours start to finish. It felt like longer. The hour of 3 to 4 seemed like an eternity. I've never been super adamant about natural birth. Honestly the only reason I didn't want an epidural with both kids is because I was scared of complications with it. With this birth I labored almost the whole time standing, and I wasn't hooked up to an IV, and got no help with getting labor going. Last time I was on my back almost the whole time, was very hooked up with wires and had pitocen and my water broken. If my labor had been longer I would've opted for drugs but Praise the Lord, it was nice and short.
Henry is a great eater and my recovery has been about a million times easier than with Mae. Everytime the nurses came in to ask my pain level it was a zero.... well, except for right after I gave birth and was saying I seriously need something. They gave me IV nubain which helped immediately. The only place I feel sore is where they gave me the Dtap vaccine in my arm.
Mae LOVES Henry. She holds him and just laughs. She can hardly believe he is real. She is fairly gentle with him and seems to be adjusting well.
We got discharged from the hospital early which was really nice. We were told we would stay till Monday morning but Dr Cannon came in and asked if we wanted to go home Sunday night. We said yes and it was a good decision. Henry was up every 1.5hrs but it was nice to be in our own bed again.
We are so blessed that the Lord let us have Henry 9 days early and that he is a healthy strong boy!
Some negative news is that about 1 hour after arriving home from the hospital, we learned that our contract fell through on our house. Please pray that we get another offer soon. It's gonna suck to have to show a house and keep it clean with a newborn.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Christmas
Shawn and I got up early on Christmas morning. I was so excited for Mae to open presents. Normally when we get up before Mae we are as quiet as can be but even if we breathe a little too loud she seems to hear it and wake up. Christmas morning we were up early and making breakfast and coffee, being loud as can be, yet we had to go in and wake her up. Why are kids like that? When you want them to sleep, they don't and vice versa!
Mae and Shawn eating a bowl of oatmeal.
Our presents. You can see where Mae started to open one several weeks before.
She is the best present opener. She adores everything and is totally content to sit there and play with it and not open anything more.
Crayons
Our pile of presents looks pretty pitiful compared to the stash around my parents tree!
Mae was the last one left of open present because she was so consumed with playing with her new stuff that she didn't care to open anything else. My parents got her a little play kitchen which she LOVES. H and Em got her the chef outfit.
First tea party with her new princess tea set. Megan has been waiting for this day for 2 years! haha
Christmas night the Gillming/Kirk clan came over to hang out.
Sweet boy!! He looks so grown up.
This was a really amazing Christmas. It was the Kirk's last Christmas in NC and our last Christmas before moving and we got so much good hang out time in. Harrison's family is living at my parents and Meg and Matt were staying there for 10 days so we hung out more than we have in years really. I feel so blessed to have had such a wonderful Christmas where we got some great family time in. Mae stayed up at least an hour past bedtime every night and we're still suffering the consequences of that. (Literally, as I am typing this she is screaming in her room because she doesn't want to go to sleep) It was worth it though..... I think.
Christmas Eve
We had a wonderful Christmas Eve. I had a doctor's appointment in the morning but the rest of the day I prepped some food for Christmas lunch. We went to both services at church and had Mae all dressed up.
I love this one. Jake looks so old and tall!
Mae wasn't in the worlds greatest mood but she loved her new polka dot jacket from Great Grandma Mindy!
Not the best family picture but oh well.
Mae is a seriously picky eater but absolutely loves BBQ. Ribs are her favorite. She is one strange kid.
She usually barely eats anything but she had two plate of bbq chicken and pork. Not quite a vegetarian. ; )
Love this photo. Meg looks so happy and Mae and Jude seem very unamused.
Mae, Elle and Jude playing.
They were pretending to go to sleep and when Shawn would say wake up they would all fall over.
When Shawn would pretend to be asleep, Jude would jab him in the eye really hard. Shawn was telling Jude not to. haha
We had a wonderful night before a wonderful morning.
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