Happy 6th Birthday Natalya!

It's my daughter's birthday today. She is now 6! I'm super proud of her and all that she's become in just these past six years. I can't wait to see her continue to grow and thrive and become even more awesome.

Just wanted to put a Happy Birthday shout out to my wonderful kid.

For Fun, check out my peanut through the years:
http://bwarsh.blogspot.com/2011/10/last-day-as-4-year-old.html


My little pumpkin, born October 25, 2006

My Little Pumpkin, born October 25, 2006

My big girl today, October 25, 2012

My big girl today, October 25, 2012

Up at 5am, asleep before 10pm!

Today was a better start, as I was actually up at 5:15am. Okay, honestly I woke at 4am to a stirring baby, but since he didn't wake up, I didn't get up. Dozed until 5am, and pulled myself out of bed by 5:15am. Goodness that is just so early.

I did MY stuff including a shower, prepping bottles, getting ice packs into the lunch boxes, and making my lunch. Even got a cup of coffee in.

THEN I woke up Natalya who got mad at me as it looked dark and rainy out. As if I had any control over the weather, and besides, it was dark out because the sun wasn't up yet. BUT it was an hour before she needed to leave so I thought a good time to get her going.

Get her fed, and situated, and then off to get Craig up.

And the baby is STILL asleep, so to the pump I go. I get out 10 oz. And then get dressed. Craig is still not dressed, so I gave him a bottle of the milk I just pumped and got to walk Natalya to the bus stop.

Going to admit, I really enjoyed that.

So this morning I got to take care of Natalya while Craig tended to the baby. I still got to pump and got in a shower. Yay me.

I missed not getting to nurse Zach, but it's only one morning. They're not all going to be like this, right?

Tonight will be chaos too. In fact, I'm leaving work early for a dr. apt, and then running errands before getting the kids. It's Yom Kippur and I want to take Natalya to synagogue tonight for Kol Niedre. Time to start acting Jewish.

Which means Craig and Zach get a boys night home tonight. Great for them, not so great on my breasts; and I'll miss nursing time again with Zach.

Thankfully tomorrow being Yom Kippur and having Zach home all day, I'll get my nursing fix in, so I'm truly happy for that.

And as crazy as today is going to be, I still hope to be asleep before 10pm. If I can get to bed early, 5am doesn't hurt as much.

Guess we'll see...

A cluster this morning!

So we were a cluster this morning. Zach woke up at 2am hungry. Fed him until 4am when he finally went back to sleep. Unfortunately come later in the morning, I did not hear my 2 alarms go off. I woke up at 7:22am. My daughter is supposed to be at the bus stop by 7:38am. So you can see my issue here.

I jump out of bed, get Craig up. Run out to my daughters room to find her awake (thank goodness) but not dressed or ready in the least. The clock is ticking. I have to get her dressed, fed, and to the bus stop and I'm running out of time fast. Oh and I'm leaking milk, rather, gushing milk. I'm a soggy mess. I get Taly going, and I shove her and Craig out the door to the bus stop with minutes to spare. Sure she only got to eat half a baloney and cheese sandwich, and a sip of milk, but snack times not that far off?? Rolling Eyes

Then Zach wakes up and needs to be tended too. Never mind I haven't gotten dressed yet, nor had I changed, fed, or dressed him, and we needed to leave right then and there.

At least I got my daughter to school on time and in clothes. But sending her to the school bus with a baloney and cheese isn't exactly a "healthy" breakfast... so kind of a mommy fail.

I made Craig feed Zach a bottle. Nursing would have just taken too long this morning. I pumped quickly at home to catch the spillage, and put that 5 oz bottle in the fridge. When I finally got to work and was settled, I pumped another 10 oz out. I have no idea how my breasts did not explode.

Exactly when is this new morning routine suppose to get easier??? I'm on week 3 here, and we're still a bad family comedy on the FOX network!

Long Time No See!

Wow, it's been a long time since I've been over here to update my Blog! Sorry for anyone that reads this. ;)

So what's new?

I've returned to work and Zachary is now in full time day care. That's been really hard on me, but Zachary seems to be taking it all in just fine.

Natalya is doing great in Kindergarten and is really enjoying her new class and teacher. However she does also miss her pre-k friends. We're trying to keep up with the playdates for her so she can continue to be in their lives as well.

We continue to all stay pretty busy busy busy. Life as a family of four now keeps us running.

Craig and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary. We went to see Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. We got to bring Zach with us, so he's now officially been to his first rock concert too!

Natalya also started Hebrew School and is going to Ohavi Zedek. IT was VERY difficult for me to swallow my pride and take her there, but I am convinced it's what's best for her and these are some of the sacrafices one makes for their children.

And my little Kindergartner officially now has her very own Library card. She's VERY excited about this. The school and library did a big to do giving all the 5 year old's their own cards.

And as you can see, Natalya is growing up quite nicely. She's a beautiful girl full of energy and spunk:

 

AND she now loves Sushi too!!

 and she loves being a big sister.

Zach is mostly a very happy baby boy

and we're all in love with him!

So that's a quick update on us. Hopefully I'll be back in to add more family fun before another 10 weeks pass by. :)

From Fertility Friend to "The Other Side"

Fertility Friend has been a part of my life for 8 years. I've made real and true friends there over the years, but have noticed that Fertility Friend no longer wants to be friendly. I find that kind of sad. But like many things, maybe it's time to move on.

I won't be tracking my fertile cycles anymore. I've had my tubes tied. I'm done making babies. The best I can do is offer support and tips from my 8 years of experience. But if Fertility Friend wants to spank me for having the nerve to even mention a site like mealbaby.com or mealtrain.com to a new mommy to be with no family near her to help her when her baby comes, then I have trouble even offering support in a way modern technology allows us to do now.

Many of my Due in July mommy friends agreed and as such started a new group on Facebook. It's a private and secret group which makes us difficult to find and can only join if a "facebook friend" adds you to the group.

The group is called "FF Due in July 2012". It's only for the mommies that belonged to the Fertility Friend Due in July 2012 board.

I can not mention this on Fertility Friend. I've tried, and have been banned. To try again may result in a banning for life. Don't think at this point I'd miss it, but since I do still have 200+ days left on my membership, I'd rather let it run out on it's own then before hand. Allows me time to say my proper goodbyes.

If you want to be added to our new unrestricted on what you say, post, share, group you need to send me a Friend Request. Once I get it, I will accept you as a friend, add you to the group, then unfriend you to protect your privacy and mine as well.

Anyway on Facebook I can be found by cutting and pasting this link:

https://www.facebook.com/barbara.hammond.31

See you on the other side!!

-Barbara

Zachary Vurtis Hammond - Birth Story

Better late then never...

I'm finally getting around to typing this up and sharing with you all.

As most of you know, I had a scheduled c-section due to issues and concerns with my uterus and the scarring inside. On 7/11/12, at 39w1d, we went to the hospital to have Zachary.

We got checked in to Labor and Delivery. They had me change to a gown, and got started monitoring me and baby. Then they came in to put the IV in. That was challenging. Apparently I'm difficult to stick. Ended up having to have it in my right hand. Wasn't happy about that, since I'm right handed, but it was what it was.

Walked into the OR when they were ready and hopped up to the table. That's where they tried to get the epidural in me. Apparently the only place on my body that is "skinny" is my back and spine, so she had a lot of trouble getting the epi in. 4 attempts later she kind of got it in, and then we started on the spinal. Can I just say the epi and spinal actually hurt like hell and that was with the lidocane applied EACH time.

Finally laying down and DH comes in to join the fun. They had already started when he got in to the OR so he got quite a good look at my insides. Poor DH. More of me then he'd ever had wanted to see.

Well there was some complications. The scarring was really bad. Paper thin bad. So bad that they had to make additional cuts lower and in the process, scalpeled my son's forehead on his way out. (and yes there was a LOT of blood coming out of his forehead) I also lost a lot of blood and had to have a transfusion. My blood pressure got bad and I had a horrible headache. I felt like my head was going to pop off my neck and shoulders. The pounding pressure was awful. I also felt very nauseous out of the blue. So anesthesia pumped me full of more drugs.

I heard my OB mention a problem with my bladder. I heard my son cry. I couldn't see anything. DH left my side to be with my son. I had no idea how he was. No stats. I was left to wonder was he okay? How big was he? Did he want to meet me?

I nearly passed out. About 10-15 minutes later, I still hadn't been given my son. I was really upset. Crying like a little girl. They all probably thought I was just emotional. I was mad, and sad, and confused.

Then a nurse comes up and say's "Don't worry about his toe, it can be fixed". WHAT? What's wrong with his toe? This is how I first find out something is wrong??? More crying from me.

Finally DH comes back and tells me Zachary is perfect. The OR pediatricians wave goodbye to me and confirm my son is perfect. I still haven't seen him by the way.

DH sits with me, holds my hand and they finally bring me Zachary. But only briefly, then they go back to work on me. Zachary went into a warmer I guess, and I saw him again in my room/recovery. I had to insist on skin to skin and that I wanted to nurse him right away. I was really unaware how bad "I" was. I just wanted my son.

So they got us situated and finally I got my skin to skin with my boy and started to feed him. At least I tried. It was awkward. I was so sore and couldn't understand why. Shouldn't I be full of anesthesia?

The thing was, I was in the OR so long that the anesthesia actually wore off much sooner then I thought it should had. DD's c-section was over in 30 minutes. I was apparently in the OR with DS delivery over 2 hours. I had no clue.

I finally got a chance to look at his head wound. Lots of blood, but the nurse was able to clean him up, and it wasn't as bad as it first appeared. Head wounds bleed a lot. And his toe.... he has 11 toes. His big toe on his left foot is a double big toe. And yes, we will be getting it fixed.

After finally leaving recovery and moving to my room in maternity, my stress level began to come down. But man what a long day. Didn't get settled into my room until way past 6pm and my surgery was at 1pm.

After speaking with my OB afterwards, it turns out that having the c-section really was the right call. I had unusual scarring on my bladder and my uterus was a mess. The scarring left from my myomectomy was paper thin. No exaggeration. It's so bad that had I not had a tubal ligation (tubes tied) I'd be advised to never get PG again, as the chance of a uterus rupture is highly great.

I also developed pre-eclampsia postpartum. So my blood pressure went up and my headaches were terrible, among other things. And about a week after my staples were removed from my incision, I developed an infection. So I've been having a rough go all around.

Was it worth it??? Hell yes. Zachary is a beautiful, sweet, mellow, happy baby and he's in perfect health. Sure he has an extra toe... more to love right? We are all in love. He's a delight, and we couldn't be happier.

By the way, he was born at 2:26pm, Wednesday, 7/11/2012. He weighed 7 pounds, 13 ounces, and was 19.5 inches long.

I'm glad he's my last. I'm glad I will NEVER have to have a c-section again. I don't do c-sections well apparently and I'm happy to close that chapter forever.

We have an appointment scheduled with the orthopedic surgeon for Zach's toe the end of August and will go from there. We suspect he'll have a surgery to remove and reconstruct his foot sometime between 6 months and a year... basically before he starts walking or needs shoes for real.

My Body This Coming Week - Last Day!

My Body This Coming Week
Congratulations! You'll be a mommy very soon. You're about as big as you can get and you're also ready for your baby to be born.

Along with your pregnancy symptoms that may include discomfort, fatigue and Braxton Hicks contractions, you probably feel very excited, nervous and anxious about labor, childbirth and having a baby.

Your skin feels stretched and taut across your belly and it probably feels itchy. You may experience "pins and needles" in your legs.

If you haven't shown any symptoms of labor by week 42, your doctor or midwife may become concerned and may discuss inducing labor.

My Baby This Coming Week
Hooray! You're in your fortieth week of pregnancy and your baby is now due. Don't worry if you're still waiting as you due date passes. It's not unusual to still be waiting for your baby to be born since a normal pregnancy may last for up to another two weeks.

An average size baby now weighs about 7.5 lbs (3400g) and measures about 21.5 inches (50cm) long. Crown to rump measurement is about 14.8 to 15.2 inches (37 to 38cm). As you will see when your baby is born, these are averages only and vary from baby to baby. Your baby may weigh and measure more or less that this.

The presenting part is down in the lower portion of your uterus and pressing through your softened and partially opened cervix.

You may be surprised by the initial appearance of your baby when it is first born. Her head may be slightly misshapen from passing through the birth canal, though this usually does not last more than a day or two. Her coloring may initially appear bluish, purplish or pale yellow and she may be covered with vernix, blood, lanugo and some meconium if she passes her waste in utero. Her genitals may also be swollen due to high hormone levels that were passed from you during your pregnancy, and she may have some skin discolorations or spots which will probably fade quite quickly.

 

38w6d