Time is flying!

Here it is, mid-August and it feels like this year is just rushing past! Cameron will be 2 in two weeks. Zoey is getting so big and my life just couldn't be sweeter!

Due to complications with our lease, we had to move AGAIN... Man I am so tired of that. We are still in the midst of the move and have some things left at the old house in Plainwell. We are now back in Kalamazoo. Much closer to Keith's work. We will be completely moved in by Sept 1st. I will post pictures of Zoey's nursery soon! Speaking of Keith's work, we have our fingers greatly crossed for a promotion that he interviewed for a week or so ago and are waiting to hear the answer....

We will not be coming to Midland for Cameron's birthday this year. We have so much going on and since it is Labor Day weekend not many people will even be in town to attend so it just doesn't make sense. We are having a small party down here at his godmother's house. Nothing big, just a cake and burgers.

Our goddaughter Kaylee turned 1 last week and she is having her birthday party this weekend! I can't believe she is 1 already. Kaylee and Zoey are exactly 10 months apart. Time sure flys!

Updates!

Zoey had her 2 month appointment today. She is 10.1lbs and 22.25 inches!! She is a growing little girl!

She is full of smiles and coos, and is generally a happy happy baby. She LOVES her big brother! Whenever he comes over to her and talks to her she lights right up! He loves to give her kisses and hugs and is always making sure I don't "forget" his sissy!!

Cameron will be 2 years old in 3 weeks!! THAT I cannot believe. He is growing up sooo well. He is talking non-stop and we are starting to get him used to having a potty for him in the bathroom.

He knows his numbers 1-5, some letters, almost all of the body parts and we are currently working on colors. I can't believe how quickly he picks up on things!

Zoey is developing so fast too! She rolled over from her belly to her back at 4 weeks and has done it a few times since then. She can roll from her back to her side all the time. She practically sits up on her own!! From the way this is going she will be crawling by 6 months and walking by 9 months!! Goodness, my babies are growing sooo fast!

I am hoping to get the kids/family pictures done in the next couple of weeks, so I will post them as soon as I get them.

Zoey Sophia is here!! (and birth story)

Zoey Sophia Sylvester arrived at 2:35am on June 9th 2010. She weighed in at 7lbs 7oz and was 19.25 inches in length.

In this blog post I am going to tell the story of my labor and her birth. If you don't want to know that much about me please turn around now.

A few notes to be a precurser to the story.

1- On June 1st we were admitted to L&D for labor but released the next morning as labor had stalled.

2- On June 1st I was already dilated to 2-3cm and 70% effaced.

3- Many times it was noted how incredibly low the baby was every time I was check (from June 1st on...) and how she just seemed to keep dropping lower.

4-With Cameron's labor I had gone in not knowing I was in labor, labored for 30+ hours, pushed for almost 2 hours and did not have an epidural.

5-For the few days before June 8th I had been noticing a decrease in her movements.


Tuesday June 8th I was scheduled to come to my doctor's office for a routine NST (Non-stress test) followed by an appointment with the doctor. I went to the NST room and was hooked up to the monitors. I was contracting (like I had been for several weeks) but not enough to be called "labor." The concerning part was that she was failing the heartrate portion of the test. She was not having the right accelerations and wasn't really moving. The nurses tried to "buzz" her awake and when that didn't work, they decided to send me to ultrasound.

In the ultrasound they perfomed a Biophysical profile (a scored test checking for the baby to perform certain criteria to pass) She also failed this test because in the almost 45 minutes we were watching/poking/buzzing her she did not move..... The doctor came in while we were in the ultrasound and said... OK you are going upstairs to L&D, we will watch you and decide what to do from there (basically either induce or c-section.) She did start moving enough to ease their minds a bit, so they decided on induction.

At 6pm the Pitocin was started. We called Mom and she got in the car and drove down from Midland (for the 2nd time in a week) The contractions started to pick up. I was checked and was still dilated the same as the week before, 2-3 cm. The upped the pit every half hour and the contractions started to get more consistant and stronger. I was feeling pretty good. It was painful but I was feeling like I could handle it.

Around 10pm, the nurse came in to check me again and I had dilated to almost a 4. She said she was going to call the doctor and see if he would want to break my water. He came down to check me and we were all surprised as he quicky said "yup" grabbed the stick thing and it was done... As soon as my water was broken, the pain was unbearable. Within 15 minutes I was BEGGING for the epidural. We waited the longest half hour of my life for the anesthesiologist. When he came in, he got the epidural all hooked up and left. After about 15 more minutes the epidural started kicking in....On only my right side... So I was still feeling full strength contractions on my left side. I was told "it will kick in eventually" Uh, not!! After another half hour I demanded they bring the anesthesiologist back in. He came in and I was checked for dilation again, I was only at a 5. The anesthesiologist fixed my epi and gave me another dose.... MAN that was like heaven!!

Once that had kicked in they told me to try and get some rest to prepare to push. We all figured it would be a few hours so Keith layed down on the couch, Mom went down to the car to try and sleep and I turned on my side to doze. Unfortunately the alarm on my BP cuff kept going off every 15 minutes because my BP was low. So a nurse had to come in every 15 minutes to turn it off. Around 2am a nurse came in to turn it off and I asked her if it was normal to feel a lot of pressure "down there" and she said it is and to just breathe through it. Not even 10 minutes later I was yelling at Keith to GET THE NURSE! She came running in and I told her that the pressure was too strong. She had me turn to my back to check me and I was dilated 9.5!!! She asked someone to get the doctor ready. She told me to do a "test push" and see how that would work. Remember how I said how low she was??? Before I could push she checked again and I was already completely dilated. Keith had called Mom down at the car and she RAN up to the room! I did the "test push" and she was crowning!! The nurse told me to STOP! because the doctor wasn't even there yet.

It was SOO hard not to push waiting for the doctor while the baby was crowning! He finally got there and sat down and said OK go for it!! I pushed 2-3 more times and she was mostly out. He said "She is coming! Do you have 1 more push" I told him I had to wait for the next contraction. He said "She is not waiting! Push anyways!!" And she was born at 2:35am and was on my chest with less than 5 minutes of pushing and less than 6 pushes! She didn't even have a conehead because it was sooo fast and she was SOO low.

After she came out she wasn't crying.... I started freaking out because she was purple. Keith cut her cord and they wisked her away while I begged to know if she was OK. She still wasn't crying but they gave her oxygen and she started to pink up. I kept freaking out because she wouldn't cry. I know now that it was just her personality. She just isn't a very cryey baby. In her 2 days here, she has only cried once or twice for a minute.

After she was born they tried to take me to the post-partem room, but my right leg wasn't waking up from the epi... It took quite a long time to get it to work. The nurses started calling it my "bum leg"...

Zoey is such a GREAT baby. She eats wonderfully, snuggles great and sleeps 2-3 hours at a time. I couldn't be happier! Cameron is such a great big brother. He just loves his "baby" Hugging and kissing her! My family is complete and it feels great!

Progress for the sake of Progress!

So I know I have been horrible about updating on here. I was so diligent with updating at almost every appointment when I was pregnant with Cameron, but somehow it seems almost impossible to have 15 minutes to sit down and jot down a few notes!

So, this week was an interesting one. On Wednesday morning I started getting some aching sharp pains in my lower back, so I called the doctors office and asked what I should do. At first they told me to go in to the lab to be checked for a UTI, so in the afternoon I did. But then I called them back concerned because I wouldn't get the results until the next day. When I mentioned my history with pre-term labor they said I should come in and get monitored just in case.

When I got to the hospital, I got hooked up to the monitors and they tested me for the UTI. Turns out I DID have a UTI (no big surprise as I was pretty sure I did) But I was also mildly contracting. They asked me if I had received the steroid shots to help her lungs develop, which I hadn't. So they gave me the first of 2 steroid shots (the second one I had to come back to the dr's the next day to receive, and by the way, those are not pleasant!) and a shot of terbutaline to stop the contractions. If you have never felt the lovely affects of terb, then count yourself lucky! I spent the next 2 hours shaking uncontrollably and feeling like my heart was going to explode from my chest!

Thankfully my cervix was still good and closed, and the contractions were stopped. I am trying to take it very easy! So my mom came down to help us out. We have been getting a LOT done this weekend. She has helped me wash and sort through all of the clothes for little girl. We cleaned and washed the carseats (Cam's definitely needed it too!) Getting a good spring cleaning done on the house which I have been wanting to do for sooo long but physically couldn't! It's nice to feel like I have everything almost ready for her. Only a couple things left to do and we are SET!

The tree attacked my husband!!

As if there wasn't enough going on with us right now, a tree attacked my husband and fractured his shoulder blade. So now not only can I not pick Cam up, it is very difficult for Keith to as well.

What happened is this: We took Cameron to the park with some friends on Saturday because it was a gorgeous day and it sounded like a good idea. It is a very nice park with infant swings and all. Above the swingset is one of those giant trees. You know, the ones that look like they are 200 ft tall and have a million large branches? Well apparently there was a broken branch lodged high up in the tree and when the wind blew pretty hard, it knocked this branch loose. And it wasn't a tiny branch. Probably 2 feet long and 3-4 inches in diameter. Keith had just finished pushing Cam on the swing and they were walking back towards me, with Cam in front of Keith. The branch crashed down and nailed Keith directly on the shoulder. The branch broke into 3 pieces on impact, and my husband nearly passed out.

I am not happy that it hit my husband, but if it had to hit something, I am glad it hit what it did. Seriously, if it had been 2 inches to the right it would have fractured his skull. If it had fallen 2 inches to the left, it would have hit my son, and I don't want to even think of the result of that.


ANYWAYS.... Keith is still in pain, but it seems to be decreasing slightly, little by little.

I am 30 weeks pregnant today. I did the math, and if I deliver her at the same time I delivered Cam, I only have 35 days left!!! WOW! Thats seems so much shorter than 5 weeks...

Pictures

Update on all fronts

So it has been a while since I posted, I know. Sorry. Here are the updates:

Pregnancy: I am 29 weeks now. My cervix is at the borderline of having me in the danger zone. Basically at this point anything under 2.5cm is considered "dangerous" and requires strict bedrest, maybe even hospitalization. My cervix was 2.58 at my last ultrasound in March and 2.53 at my ultrasound on Monday. So really boderline. Little girl is growing great and I have had several comments from the ultrasound techs at how much hair she already has and how unusual it is for there to be hair (and this much) this early. She is a beauty though and we are so in love with her already. Unfortunately she is still breech though, so fingers crossed that she decides to turn in the next few weeks! Keith and my mom both agree that my belly is bigger at this point already than it was when I delivered Cameron... great. I already feel like a house!

Cameron- Well, Cameron turned 19 months on Monday and it was like a switch went off, he hit his terrible two's with such a vengance. Mommy is about at her wits end. Tantrum after tantrum and he is definitely trying to push all my buttons. As a result of one of his little "games" he is playing with me, I am being forced to do something I wasn't planning on doing for a while yet. Taking away his pacifier.... SOOO the next few days will be a bit of a challenge, and I hope I can handle it.

As for the good things, He is talking quite a bit now and trying really hard to copy us with his words. He loves animals and LOVES his puppy. I have a bunch of new pictures of him that I will try to post in the next few days. This week has been a challenge here in the Sylvester House so please try to bear with me.

I really can't wait for June. My baby will be here, I will be able to get up and about again (believe me this whole "taking it easy" thing is driving me insane!) I want to be able to clean my house and cook dinner. My wonderful husband does a great job of maintaining the basic things in the house ie laundry, dishes and vaccuuming, but the poor guy is wearing himself out and I hope he doesn't just crash. There are lists of things I want to do, but can't. I feel horrible asking Keith to do any more than he is already currently doing, so it just doesn't get done.

My mom came to stay over Easter and we had a good time coloring eggs and playing with Cameron's Easter basket. And my mom helped Keith clear the yard for the Spring (THANKS MOM!!!)

I can't wait for all the things we can do this summer, go to the park, take the kids to the zoo. I have so many great plans, and I am so glad baby girl is due at the beginning of summer so we have the time and opportunity to enjoy some of this summer (unlike when I was pregnant with Cam! On bedrest all summer....Yuck!)

Enough of all that. I promise to try to post pictures later!!