He’s here, he’s here!

He came two weeks early. And thank God. Because the pregnancy was killing me. So let me back up…

In my last post, I mentioned my trip to the ER. Well, I had to go have another procedure on Nov. 9th. That one was even more severe and I spent 7 straight hours later that day in excruciating unrelenting agony. After spending months with a bad case of SPD pain and then this problem in my last month, it was just getting to be so much. I really think that spending those hours on the 9th in that kind of pain made my body say “ok, it’s time to get this baby out”. The following morning at 5:30am I woke up with contractions. Not Braxton Hicks, the real ones. So, at exactly 38 weeks pregnant, I knew that this was the day!

Ron took some photos of me that morning:

While we were waiting for the contractions to be regular and 5 minutes apart, I passed a pretty big blood clot, and that scared us enough to want to get checked out at the hospital, so we left around 10:30am to go do that. We took a photo in the parking lot by the sign (same thing we did last time when Jaimee was born):

I just love the trees in the background. It was a gorgeous fall day!

They checked me out & monitored me and determined that baby and I were ok and that we should go home until contractions were regular. So now it was 12:30pm and I was 3cm dilated and 50% effaced.

We went home and labored some more. My sister Missy arrived and brought us lunch (the yummiest caprese sandwiches from the Nugget) and we waited. By 3:00pm we were headed back to the hospital… the contractions were coming fast and hard! I went from 5 minutes apart to 2 minutes by the time we reached the hospital! In triage they said I was 5cm dilated and I wanted my epidural ASAP. By the time I got it and they checked me again, I was 8cm.

Me, happy and pain free, with Ron – we’re so excitied!

And ohhhhh, that epidural. I was so thankful. It was the first time in months I was feeling no pain. And there I was with my ideal birthing situation with Ron and my sisters by my side. I was so enjoying it, I was in no hurry for baby to arrive.

Me with my sisters Juli and Missy:

The epidural slowed the progress waaaaaayyyyyyy down. By 9:30 pm I began thinking that maybe the baby would wait until after midnight and have a birthday of 11-11-11. But at 10:40p my water broke (more like EXPLODED – it shook me and the hospital bed!) and Bennett starting coming. I let the contractions do the work, gave one genuine push, and there he was at 11:04pm!

I created a layout with a photo taken just before leaving the hospital. A family of six!

(using all Basic Grey digital)

and then a page with photos I took yesterday:

(using all Designer Digitals – click for larger view and details). I just love how those photos turned out!

So now we’re settling in to life with a new member in our family. He’s nursing well, yay! Now we just need to get his days and nights turned around. We’re so happy and feeling so blessed to have a beautiful healthy baby boy in our family. And I’m so glad I’m not pregnant anymore.

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CRAZINESS!

There’s crazy good and… well just plain crazy. Today, I share with you both.

Let’s start with some crazy good. Like how you can win a Basic Grey collection of your choice!! Check out today’s Basic Grey blog post. If you create a layout based on today’s “Basic Sketch”:

"Basic Sketch" Nov. 7, 2011

and comment in the blog post with a link to your layout, you will be entered to win. Here’s my layout on which the sketch was based:

I mentioned in my last post another Basic Grey blog post with a layout of mine, but couldn’t share the layout here at that time. Here it is now:

This uses the Lauderdale Collection from Basic Grey Digital. So vibrant and fun and perfect for Holly’s tropical-themed birthday party.

One of my favorite Basic Grey creations so far is this layout using a photo from when Holly and other family and I were at the mall… we turned around to see her being this adorable:

What a cutie!! She makes me smile all. the. time.

Ok, ready for some just plain crazy? First, I’ve got only about 2.5 weeks left in this pregnancy. That is CRAZY! My most recent page documenting the pregnancy:

(all supplies from DesignerDigitals.com, click image for larger view and details)

What’s even crazier… early in the morning on Saturday Oct. 22, Ron was awakened by excruciating pain. He’d had an episode about a week before with terrible pain in his back. Now it was worse and was radiating around his right side and a bit in front too. I finally convinced him he needed to go to the ER. If you’re one of my FB friends, you saw me post about the saga. Turns out it was gall stones and he had sugery that evening to remove his gall bladder. I spent the first night in the hospital with him and was so glad I could. He was able to come home late the following night (Sunday). He was mostly recovered within a week. Which is a good thing because…

Are you ready for more craziness?! That week, I starting having some outrageous pain myself. Thank goodness Ron’s mom was here for the week to help with meals and stuff since Ron and I were both incapacitated. That Sunday, it became so bad, I couldn’t take it anymore… the pain coming from a pregnancy-induced problem. Ummm… I hate to say the ugly word, but it was… hemmorhoids. If you’ve never had a serious case of these, you have no idea how painful and incapaciating these can be. There are actually lots of nerve endings there. Anyway, Ron took me to the ER. They couldn’t offer the full hemmorhoidectomy surgery since I’m pregnant, but they were able to do a smaller procedure. Within three days, I could tell it was a good decision as I was able to at least be up and around and take care of the kids. My OB has told me to stay resting for the rest of the pregnancy. Thank goodness it’s not too much longer!

I hope to be updating this blog within a couple weeks and share some wonderful baby news and happy just-had-a-baby kind of craziness!

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cooling off

Thank goodness the weather finally cooled. The 90 and 100 degree temperatures were killing me! Lately it’s been cool enough to open the windows and let the fresh air in. Ahhhhhh! Tomorrow I hit 34 weeks pregnant. I had Drew take pics at 32 weeks and made this:

It’s getting pretty tough now. The pain from the Sympysis Pubis Dysfunction has kept me reclining for most of the day. Even just sitting upright is bad and makes things worse. Things should resolve after the baby comes as long as we’re careful and don’t cause further injury during the delivery. And nope, still no name! We may just leave the hospital with “Baby Boy Summers” like we did with Jaimee!

Today, my first assigment was posted on the Basic Grey blog! The challenge was to use their Lauderdale collection including three specific products from that line. You can see that blog post here. I think my page turned out pretty cute!

On Saturday, this page:

was featured at Gallery Standouts, yay! Love when that happens!

Ok, time for me to get out of this chair! Ouch!

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25 down, 15 to go

The 2nd trimester is FLYING by. I’m super thankful for that because the 1st trimester just dragged and took forevah. I can’t believe another 5 weeks has gone by since I scrapped the 20 week/halfway milestone! I’ve been taking those photos every 5 weeks but for the 25 week scrapbook page I decided to use a quickie cell photo photo I took to post on a pregnancy board. I just really liked it, so I’m using it!

supplies by: Katie Pertiet, Anna Aspnes, Ali Edwards, template #9 by Nettio Designs

Other fun pages I’ve created lately about some of our activities this summer:
(click for larger versions and supplies details)

The kids go back to school next week. *pout* They’re super excited (especially Holly) so I’m glad for that. I’ll just miss them being home and the fun and casual living of summer break. Here’s a wrap up of our favorite things about this summer:

(supplies: Nettio Designs FAVE-OR-ITES Vol. 3 template, everything else DesignerDigitals.com)

Hope you’re all having a lovely August!

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IT’S A . . .

(click image for larger view and details)

On June 24th, just a day after I hit 18 weeks, we got an ultrasound to find out what we were going to have. We are soooooooooooooooo thrilled! Now we’ll have two girls and two boys. I can’t fully describe how blessed I feel! Last week I hit 20 weeks – the half way point. WOW, the last several weeks have gone by so much more quickly than the first 14. I’m sure it’s because I started feeling better after the first trimester and also because of the easy living of summer break.

Not much else to report. I’m just growing a baby, working on the bookkeeping for Ron’s business, and trying to enjoy things with the kids out of the house. Which brings me to this layout:

Just an example of us enjoying summer break and the lovely weather.

Be blessed!

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