Getting ready (for school)

We've really been struggling the past two days trying to get our household on a school time frame. In order for Mikayla to be ready for school on time, we have to get up at 6:30am. That hasn't happened yet. Do you know how hard it is to get up at 6:30 when your newborn fell asleep like 20 minutes before that?

David is growing well. At his checkup on Friday, he had gained 11oz since discharge from Temple and grew 1/4". The doctor was very impressed with how well he was doing considering his rough start.

I had a checkup the same day. Turns out my Super Secret Weight Loss Plan is in action again. For those who don't know, my Super Secret Weight Loss Plan is called Pregnancy followed by Nursing. For me, it leads to massive weight loss in the first 6 weeks. So far, I've lost 30 pounds. I'm down to 190! Go me!

SURPRISE! We got a boy!

I'm sure most everyone is aware by now, but David Shane was born August 1st at 6:14pm. He weighed 6lb 7oz and was 20 inches long. After a few hours of observation, it was obvious the little guy was in trouble. He wound up with a chest tube, lines in his umbilical cord and lots of monitors. After a day, he still wasn't better, so he was flown to Scott & White in Temple where he could be watched better. He recovered well and was released on Tuesday August 12.

I had a really good experience with my immediate c-section care. The spinal worked REALLY well and I can't remember ever feeling as good as I did after this section. Brad and I sat and laughed so hard in the recovery room about our little BOY who was supposed to be a girl!

Shortly after they moved me back to L&D (I was on magnesium for my blood pressure so had to be monitored closer), I was feeling great and just wanted to rest, so I sent Brad home to get himself a good night's sleep. Right around 1am on Saturday morning, things spiraled out of control for me. My blood pressure went from around 190/100 to 70/30 in less than 5 minutes. There was a code called and about 20 people swarmed into my room. I have no idea how close I was to actually dying, but I'm sure I was pretty darn close with all those people acting like they did. I rebounded after several bags of fluid (thanks to an additional IV) and stabilized for a few hours. THEN, it happened AGAIN! Throughout the entire ordeal, I never lost consciousness. It's even more scary when you see how concerned the doctors and nurses are! I was once again stabilized.

The doctors (because at that point there were at least 3 involved in my care) decided I was having some post-surgical bleeding and debated sending me back to surgery. I can't tell you how scared I was of that! Thankfully, after four, YES FOUR, units of blood and about 13 bags of saline, they decided I was stable enough to just be watched for signs of more bleeding. After several hours, and lots of blood draws, they decided I was still bleeding, but not enough to send to surgery. PRAISE GOD! I did get two more units of blood though, for a total of SIX units!

Overall, I spent from Friday afternoon until Wednesday morning in the hospital recovering from my section. I was discharged Wednesday and headed to Temple to see my little guy. I had only seen him for a few minutes during all my time at St. Joe because I was not stable enough to go to him and he was too sick to come to me.

We are all home now, and have been since Tuesday evening. I can't tell you how blessed I am to still be here to be a mother to my children and to watch them grow and learn. I'm so lucky that David and I were not any sicker than we were. It could have been SOOO much worse. Spending a week in the NICU makes you well aware of what can happen with sick babies!

I'll be back to post pictures later. I've got THREE kids to get ready for a visit to the doctor. Only one is going with us, but the other two have to be dressed to go to the neighbor's!

Today is Baby Day!

Well, baby will be arriving today! I'm 34 weeks and 6 days, so she's early, but hopefully will be very healthy. My section is scheduled for 5, but I have to be at the hospital at 3:30. Prayers for a healthy baby please:)

Feeling like Cr*p

Well today, I'm sitting around (well trying to lay around) feeling like cr*p. My blood pressure is up a bit, my head hurts like heck and I've been running to the potty like no one's business. This is crazy!

C-section Date

Well, the date is set. If nothing changes from now to then, I'll be holding Lilah on August 26th. Time is currently set for 7:30am, so I'll be holding her shortly after that. They wanted to do the section on August 25, but that happens to be Mikayla's first day of school. And I want to be there for that, so I had them change it :)

33 weeks, 2 days

I'm on modified bedrest now. Went in for a regular appointment this morning and my pressures were higher than the doctor was comfortable with. So I left on modified bedrest, instructions to call if swelling or blood pressures got worse, and a prescription for a blood pressure med. I'm having no other problems other than the high blood pressure, so I guess that's my silver lining.

Sewing from the past few days

So I joined a contest on one of my boards to encourage me to use all the fabric I have sitting around! So far, I've sewn a skirt and a jumper for Mikayla and made myself 25 points! WTG me! Today, I'm going to try to get some Pajamas and undies for Bryson made. I just need to trace those darn Otto patterns!

So the first thing I made was an Ottobre dress that I modified into a jumper. I had to remove the sleeves, increase the size of the sleeve holes slightly and add facings. It was a VERY quick project. I completed it from cut to finish during nap time. The fabric is a clearance lightweight cordouroy I got at Walmart. I even have enough left to make a skirt from the same fabric.

Next, I made her a quick skirt from the Twirly Skirt Tutorial. I used more material I had leftover from another project. I edited the tutorial to remove the drawstrings and add racing stripes to the side. Mikayla LOVES this skirt. And I think I have enough to make another coordinating skirt.