Introducting baby Harvey

Baby Harvey made his way into the world on July 21, 2012 at 8:45 pm he weighed 7 lbs 4 oz. and was 20 inches long.

Labor and Delivery

On Friday the 20th I had a Doctor appointment where he stripped my membranes and set up a induction for the following Monday. I was dilated to a 2 and 75% effaced, the same I was the week before despite lots of Braxton Hicks contractions that I was sure did something, haha but no they were just practice. So after my appointment I wanted to help the process of having my membranes stripped and went shopping at Walmart to get some last minute stuff. I was exhausted and cramping pretty bad by the time I finished shopping, I started spotting when I got home so I decided to just relax and take it easy. I continued cramping and started feeling really sick, like I had the flu, I was nauseous and super hormonal, I read online that when they strip you membranes it releases lot of hormones, which is what puts you into labor. So my parents were coming into town and were going to stay at my house in case I went into labor, I knew it was coming because I felt so crappy!
So at 3:30 in the morning I woke up and had to use the bathroom like usual, I was cramping but thought it was because I waited too long to go pee. I woke up an hour later and went to go to the bathroom because I was cramping again and I couldn't go, I tried to go back to sleep but was interrupted again by "cramping" it was then that I realized I wasn't cramping, these were contractions so I started timing them and they were coming every 6-8 minutes and lasting for about 30 seconds. At about 6:00 I had the infamous "bloody show" ( I know... so gross) so I knew for sure I was in labor. The Dr. told me to not wait too long to go to the hospital because I was B strep positive and needed 4 hours of antibiotics before I delivered, Rosalie's labor was only about 8 hours and I was dilated to a 10 for 3 hours of that before delivery and I knew second deliveries tend to go much quicker, so I went in at about 8:00 when the contractions were 6 min's apart. They checked me and I was at a 4 so they watched me for an hour and what would you know, the contractions slowed down to every 15-20 minutes apart. After an hour they checked me again and I was a 4-5, however, my Doctor wasn't on call so the on call Doctor didn't feel comfortable admitting and starting another Doctors patient so they sent us home. I went home and ate, then went to Walmart to walk laps because my contractions had started up again and I wanted to help the process along. After we came home and I was determined not to go back into the hospital to get sent home again so I tried to sleep but woke up every 8-10 minutes with really really strong contractions. after about an hour of "napping" my mom told me I better get into the hospital because contractions were so painful I couldn't stand or talk through them. It was then that they jumped to every 2-3 minutes apart and I knew I was going to go fast so we went in. I was a 6 and 90% effaced. I knew with Rosalie I went from a 4 dilated to a 10 in about 30 min's so I immediately asked for an epidural. I had to wait until I got fluids in me and the antibiotic started. so about an hour after I got there they gave me one. At that point I was at about an 8 and in transition stage, super, super painful! The epidural was so nice and I could finally relax, watching the monitor spike every minute with huge contractions made me so thankful I couldn't feel them. the nurse checked me and I was at a 10, which I knew because I got the shakes super bad, just like I did with Rosalie when I was at that point, I also had a huge bulging bag of water, she called the doctor and told him to get over there. He said "well she still has another 3 hours of antibiotic left" the nurse laughed and said well she's not going to make it. haha the doctor got there and with 4 pushes he was out! So from the time I checked into the hospital it was about 2 1/2 hours until Harvey was here. I got to hold him while Paul cut the cord, I love how they instantly calm down when they are placed on your chest, I was able to nurse him for about an hour and he was a natural at it!
He has had a little problem with spitting up at random and then choking on it but it is getting better, the doctor said that a lot of babies esophagus' are just immature and they will grow out of it by about 2 weeks, they don't do testing for reflux before then because it is so common. He is getting better and only does it 1-2 times a day now instead of every hour so I'm excited about that. :) He is a very cuddly baby and is so good! He never cries and is just a happy and content baby. We have already had a few run ins with him peeing everywhere. I was changing his diaper when someone came to the door so I looked away for a minute and looked back to find him peeing on his face, poor guy! I'll admit it was kind of funny, wish I had a camera. We love him to and are so happy to have him join out family. Rosalie loves to give him kisses and a pet his head. I found her standing over his bassinet at 2 in the morning the other day and she was petting his head and talking softly to him. She is super motherly and that is awesome as long as I'm watching, but it scares me when I'm out of their sight. Anyways, I love my little family!

Appendicitis

When Harvey was one week old I started having sharp stomach pains, I didn't know if it was just part of the "having a baby after party" or if I had a virus or infection. I started hurting around 2 pm on Saturday and it just got worse, saturday night I didn't really sleep, which is normal but this time it was because I was in pain. on Sunday my pains kept getting worse so I started thinking about going into the instacare. Paul went to church and I texted him about 20 min's later and told him to  come home because I needed to go in. I called labor and delivery and told them I thought I might have an infection, they told me to go to the instacare so that is where we went. They told me since I had just had a baby they couldn't take me there and that I needed to go to the ER. I told Paul, "forget it" I really really didn't want to go to the ER with a baby and I was sure they would just send me home with an antibiotic or something and so I thought I would just wait and go into my doctor on Monday morning. So we went home and Paul told me if it gets worse in 30 min's I'm taking you in. So I took a shower and let the water beat on my stomach and back in hope of relief but it didn't really help, after that I knew I needed to go in. at that point I called my sister and had her take the kids while I went in. I told her it felt like my appendix was going to burst and I looked up the symptoms of Appendicitis and I had most of them. So we went in and they asked about symptoms I told them how I felt but didn't mention that I felt like I had appendicitis because that seemed too far fetched and I didn't want them to think they had a hypochondriac on there hands. (I have issues with that so I tend to not tell people when I'm sick or hurting, it goes back to spraining my ankle and having to swim through the pain at swim practice because they treated me like I was faking to get out of the workout, lol trauma, I'll save that for later) anyways, they checked for a possible bladder infection but I knew I didn't have all the symptoms of a bladder infection and so when they asked I knew I was frustrating the doctor when I answered no to some of the questions that would mean that I had a bladder infection. He told me I probably had endometristis from having a baby but as precaution he started feeling around my abdomen to see if he could pin point the pain. He pushed on my uterus and of course it was tender because I had just had a baby. He touched my right side and I grimaced in pain, I was like that is where I hurt. so he kept pushing on it in shock 4 times and asked "really? that hurts?" It hurt so bad and Paul said my face was in agony, He said "really? that's were your appendix hangs out, lets do a CAT scan to see". so they did one and sure enough he came in and said "well my dear you surprised me, you have appendicitis and we need to do surgery, you're the first 1 week postpartum appendicitis I've seen, usually postpartum women have gallbladder problems" so they wheeled me into a room when to wait for the surgen to get there. at that point I couldn't even walk I was in so much pain. Paul left to go get some food from his parents sunday dinner since we didn't know when they would be ready to do surgery. Of course when he was gone they came and got me, I had to go pee and had to have the nurse help me stand, I started crying because standing hurt SO bad and I was even on morphine at that point. Anyways, they took me to the Operating room and I hate getting the anestecia mask, it makes you feel so closterphobic and its amazing to me how your just instantly out, I woke up and they were just finishing up the operation, but at first I didn't even realize that I had already been put out and I though oh crap I'm awake and they don't know it, I still have tubes down my throat and so I couldn't talk, so I just started wiggling my fingers in a panic, I heard them say she's awake, and I could open my eyes and I saw them standing over me, I then realized that the surgery was over and they pulled the tubes out and I said "am I done?" then I was out again and woke up in the recovery room. I spent the night there and pumped and dumped my breast milk despite them telling me it was okay to breastfeed, I still felt a little weary with all the medications that I had in my body. My sister was amazing a watched Rosalie and Harvey over night, she pulled an all nighter with her 3 month old and Harvey, Harvey kept puking up and choking on the formula that we had to give him, since he already had problems with puking and choking on breastmilk and the formula was just harder for him to digest. Anyways, the doctors were really good at getting me out of there soon so I could see my kiddos. I talked to the Surgen the morning after the surgery and she said that its a good thing I went in when I did because my appendix was "fully dialated and completely imflammed" he said alot of times people's appendix' have just a little section that is infected but mine was totally infected. Thank heavens they were able to do surgery that night because if we had waited and it burst then I would have been in the hosptial all week. What a huge blessing that it didn't and I was able to get home and feeling better.

Another Broken Leg

On Thursday Rosalie was going a little stir crazy and running around the house like usual, going from jumping on her bed to touching baby Harvey and doing laps around the front room. I was opening mail at the dinning room table when I heard a huge thud and Rosalie started crying that "cry" I thought Oh crap! I know that cry! I went into the front room and found her laying under her chalk board, I realized that she wasn't moving her left leg and so I was able to discern through the cries that is was around her ankle on her left leg, I asked her what happened, I didn't know if she fell off the couch and rolled under the chalk board or what happened, she told me she was "jumping on the wall" I had no idea what that meant but I guessed that she was standing on our base boards and jumped but how could that hurt her so bad. Anyways, I knew that she either sprained her ankle or broke her leg so I called paul and had him come home from work and we went into the instacare and had the same doctor that took care of her break from Anti-gravity trampoline park 6 weeks ago. He didn't recognize us but of course was leery that we were in there again with another possible break, especially when I couldn't totally explain what happened, even though I was sitting 5 feet away from her when it happened. Its such a crappy feeling to have someone question your parenting. So they did a x-ray and I was shocked when I heard the doctor say this break is a bad one, and show me that x-ray of a spiral fracture where her tibia is split in a spiral up the bone shaft at a angle. The doctor said this break couldn't come from just jumping, she had to have caught it on something. the only thing I could think of was if she got it caught between the leg of the chalk board and the wall. When we got home I asked her what happened, now that she was a little more calmed down. She told me she was trying to climb on the chalk board and fell, which makes sense that she must have caught her leg between the wall and the leg of the chalk board when she fell. The doctor said it isn't normal for a 2 1/2 year old to break 3 bones, so we might have to do some testing to see if she has some problems with brittle bones. She might have possible metabolism problems with calcium or other things. We get a cast, (thanks heavens no surgery as far as we know) on Tuesday and we'll see. Ugh.. what a crazy past week and half its been. but in a weird way there have been more blessings to counteract the bad. Tender mercies, or sure!  

Thank you

Can I just say that people have been so completely amazing at helping us! I can't even express how thankful I am to them, my sister charity has been an angel by taking the kids, bringing us dinner 3 nights in a row and helping with so many things. My sister in law Laura has been amazing too by coming and cleaning my house and doing my laundry, taking Rosalie to the park, she's been amazing! My Mother in Law has been awesome by bringing us food and helping do my dishes. My mom tried to make it here but ran into some complications and wasn't able to come, but will be here this week to help me with my Doctor appointments. My Brother Josiah stayed with me while Paul was at work, he made me breakfast which included mint chocolate chip ice cream crepes, they were delicious! Even my sister in law Dominique who just had a baby last week came and brought us lunch! and of course my visiting teacher have been amazing, and ward members have been inspired to help out. A couple from our old ward that work with Paul even brought us dinner. I really don't even know how to thank everyone enough. I'm not the type of person who likes to let people help me out and this has definitely been a humbling experience and learning experience in letting others serve us. So thank you to everyone who has helped! I can't go without saying what an amazing husband I have! seriously I couldn't have done these past 2 weeks without Paul, He helped in every way and still worked full time because he couldn't take any work off. He stayed up all night with me and the kids and even slept on the couch with me so he could help with Harvey after I had surgery and I couldn't breath laying down. I definitely married an incredible man and I'm so so grateful for him!  I love him!