Has it almost been a year?

We're quickly approaching P2's FIRST birthday!!  Man, where did the time go???  Seriously, WHERE???  It seems like yesterday I was trying to get pregnant and here we are celebrating the first year with our precious little PenPen.  This Sunday, on her actual bday, we're having M's side of the family over for dinner and cake.  Since my family is mostly out of state, it will just be a small group.  That's OK, I'm sure Mimi will go crazy and buy enough stuff for 100 relatives!!  It's always nice having a shopper in the family. ;)  I wonder who else I know who loves to shop?!?!?  I digress.

Since I'm going to be busy cleaning my house like a mad woman, and getting the party together, I thought I would post the story of P2's birth now.  If it makes you feel better, don't read this post until May 2nd, and then it will be EXACTLY one year to the day!!!  bwahahahaha  :)

Friday 5/1- It was my second day off from work and I had my last Peri appt in the morning. Everything was perfect so I figured I was safe to get some last minute shopping done. I got a little carried away and was gone over 8 hrs! By the time I got home, I was whooped. In the evening, I started having Ctx but nothing too painful. I did notice they were more consistent than normal though. I had been doing laundry and stuff around the house so I figured it was just from me being so active. I did make a list for my hospital bag and P1 was packed to go stay with the ILs so that was done.


Sat 5/2- 3am I had woken up with the urge to use the facilities. Nothing new. Then as I was thinking about getting up, I felt this GUSH. I hopped up out of bed and ran to the bathroom, leaving a trail as I did. I started laughing hysterically and DH thought I had lost it until I told him what had happened. Well, we started running around like crazy. I had an entire day to get ready, this shouldn't have happened!!! I hopped in
the shower and he found the number to L&D. When I was done I called to let them know I was on the way. After throwing everything in a bag (thank goodness I made a list!) DH could not find the video camera charger. Of course. Then the CTX started. OUCH. I told him we needed to go NOW. So off we went. Even though we live like 7min from the hospital, we didn't get there until 4am....still didn't find the charger (my camera takes movies so we were OK). When I got hooked up, Pen's hb was great and I was dialated to a 2-3. YIPPY! Then shortly after I was about a 4-5 and then I asked for the Epi. He came in, did his thing. No problem and I was numb. But when they upped the Pit I felt this odd pain on my right side. My right hip, gut, and lower back just on that side started killing me, and it was happening when a CTX started. I suffered through it for an hour thinking it would go away. Of course it was shift change by then, so I asked the new nurse to call the new Anthes. He came in and just thought I needed more medicine. So more I got. Nope, didn't do anything. It was about 10am and the nurse checked me and said I was at a 7! Yippy. So the Anthes said maybe the cathetir needed to be adjusted, so he pulled it out 1cm. Nope, still pain and it was getting worse (along with the CTX). By this time I was crying through each Ctx. The Anthes came in again and gave me more medicine. It was finally enough to knock me out. I think I slept for an hour and when the dr. came in to check me again, I was still at a 7. It was now after 2pm. Oh, during the 'nap', Pen's hb was dropping after each ctx and I woke up to an O2 mask on me. My OB said she could stretch me to an 8, but it was looking like I would probably need the vacuum to bring Pen out and it could end up being like P1s birth. NO THANKS. So we opted for the C-section, reason being failure to progress.

After being prepped for surgery, Penelope Rose was born with a healthy set of lungs at 3:11pm, weighing 6lbs 3oz and 19in long. She was perfect! Agpars were 9/9. When they told me her weight I said "that's it?!" LOL So much for my big baby! Her head wasn't even that big, but for some reason she was getting hung up on the way out. The surgery was fine, but the shaking. OMG, I couldn't stop shaking. They had some heater hooked to a hose and even then I could not stop shaking. I had to spend a few hours in triage but we never found out why. That first night was a nightmare. They had all kinds of tubes hooked up to me, the foley cath, these blood pressure type compresses on both my legs to prevent blood clots and then the nurse wanted me to sleep on my sides for three hours at a time. The first night was rough. Pen was great though and latched on right away! The nursery said she's tiny but she's tough!

Today is Saturday, she's a week old and I'm still on the pain meds. C's SUCK. I applaud you moms who have had more than one. The hematoma of P1s birth was worse, pain wise, but this C is in a class by itself. Driving home from the hospital, I thought my guts were going to fall out. Then forget about laughing, coughing or sneezing.

Anyway, so that's her birthstory! Oh, the diabetes is gone, Pen was never effected by it, & yesterday at her first Pedi appt, she's back up to her birthweight! She is a little jaundice so we're having to keep her in front of the window and yesterday she needed labs to check her levels. It was OK but we were told to supplement the BFing, which we were already doing.

My milk just came in on Thursday. I'm also suffering from a touch of PPD. I'm already on meds but I see my OB on Monday to have the sutures removed and I might talk to her about something else as I've been super weepy since we brought her home.

In all, we're all adjusting well. DH has been an incredible help, I couldn't ask for a better husband/daddy. P1 is just in love with baby sister and is a HUGE help. I'm so blessed!!!

Three Words!!!!!!!

Last night, 4-28-10, 4 days shy of her 1st birthday, P2 said three words!!!!!!

Kitty (which she's been kind of saying for a little bit now, but before it was mostly "Keee")
Book (a new one!)
Hi


3 new words in ONE day!  I have a feeling she might be a chatty-kathy like her big sister.  Lord help us!!  ;)

Birthday Preparations & Cake??

P2's Birthday is on Sunday!  I can't believe my little MonChiChi is going to be 1!!  It seems like I just had her!

I've been getting things ready at home for the little soiree we're having for her.  The "My First Birthday" party supplies have arrived, my friend made her the cutest birthday hat, my other friend made her a special keepsake plate, my other friend is making her birthday cupcakes (the same friend who did P1's Tinkerbell cake!),  I've ordered her a pettiskirt for pictures, her chair has arrived (sans cover, apparently it will take three weeks to get here. WTH?!), we got her the kitty (a formal introduction is coming soon!), and now all I need to do is clean my house!  Now, since my friend is making her cupcakes, I'm having second thoughts about giving her one since the French Toast Incident.  I would hate to have the poor child break out in hives on her birthday!  Party foul numero uno right there!  Anyway, I'll keep you posted!!

To My Asian follower

謝謝你寫信給我，但我不明白您的語言。 請嘗試寫英語。謝謝！

What, you didn't know I speak Chinese??  Well you don't know me at all, do you??!!  KIDDING. :> 

Yae for Google translator!

Pen vs Food....food won

Saturday morning P1 was asking for breakfast.  Normally I don't (read: ever) make her a warm breakfast on the weekdays, so I don't mind cooking something for her and I on the weekends (M doesn't like breakfast. Weirdo!).  I had all the ingredients, so I decided to make french toast.

Wheat bread, eggs, milk, cinnamon, and a splash of vanilla.  That's it.

Since Pen was up, and she was munching on some breakfast puffs, I decided I would give her a peice and see if she liked it.  No syrup or butter was added to it, just the ingredients above.  Now, I know babies aren't supposed to have milk or eggs until their first birthday, but since we're a week out (GASP!) I didn't think there would be any harm in trying it.

Wrong.  She ate maybe like 5 pcs and decided she didn't like it.  OK, no problem. I gave her some banana and she was OK.  Well, about 10min later she started coughing and then proceded to throw up her banana and puffs.  She was so upset and I figured she just wanted her am bottle.  We went and sat on the couch and she was just crying and crying, even though she was still trying to take down her bottle.  She finally had tired herself out so much that she fell asleep.  TOTALLY UNLIKE her in the morning.  So I'm holding her and while she's sleeping I notice what look like bite marks on her face.  Odd.  Then her cheeks end up getting redder and redder.  Oh, M had gone to the doctor because he has been sick for a week, so it was just me and the girls. 

Finally Pen wakes up after about 20min, and finishes the rest of her bottle.  When I pull her away to look at her, I see she's COVERED in welts, bumps, etc ALL over her body.  I slightly freak out and I'm waiting to see if she starts having trouble breathing.  I had my phone ready to call 911 if she suddenly started having a difficult time.  THANK GOD she was happy at this point, despite looking awful. 

Since we have Zyrtec in the house, I gave her a dose and snapped a few pics. 

These pics were the beginning of what it started to look like.  It got much worse, and the top half of her ended up looking like a bad sunburn, while the bottom of her was all red bumps and welts.  It was awful looking and I felt HORRIBLE for giving her those foods.  Again, thankfully she wasn't acting funny. 

I'm so thankful the medicine started doing its job, and I'd say about 40 minutes later she was about 98% rash free.  It was SOOOOO scary.  Now I know when I do try to introduce those foods again, I will need to do them one at a time (BAD mommy, I KNOW this, yet didn't...BAD MOMMY) and see where the allergy originated from. 

I'm happy to report that the rest of the weekend she was fine and only had some reddening around her diaper area that was cleared up with some cream.  Poor baby.  No more french toast for PenPen.

That was quick

Not a minute after I posted the last entry on here did I get a call from the sleep center.  Apparently I DO NOT have obstructive sleep apnea.  YIPPY.  So that means it's my bed, husband, weight, mattress etc that is to blame for my awful sleeping patterns.  I could have told you that. ;)  Thank goodness I don't have to repeat it again!

Sleep study minus the sleep

I had my sleep study done on Sunday night. Notice today is now Tuesday. Why didn't I blog about this on Monday? Take a wild guess. Yep, TOO sleepy. I now think the phrase "Sleep Study" is an oxy-moron. There was ZERO sleeping during my sleep study.


I arrived at 8:30pm for my appt. I went shopping earlier in the day and did some other errands so I made sure I was pretty worn out by the time I got there. Once checked in, I was shown to my room.

Then I was told to get in my nightclothes and use the facilities. It was then that I noticed all of these lovely things hanging on the back of the door.

Once I was decent, the tech came in and proceded to put aforementioned lovely things all over me. My head (in my hair). My neck. My face. Both legs. My chest. I would post a pic of that too, but I don't want to scare you all (I look AWFUL, I mean, really really bad!!). There were four sensors on my head to measure brain activity. One near my eye to detect REM sleep. One under my nose to detect whether or not I stop breathing. One of my throat to detect the vibration caused by snoring. One of my jawline to detect teeth grinding. The two on my legs to detect if I have restless leg syndrome (I guess), and then two on my chest to detect heartrate.

Afterwards the tech got me situated in bed, I tried to get comfy. That's when the fun part started. Can we say UNCOMFORTABLE?!?! Besides behind hooked up with a million wires stuck to me, I had one of those oxygen detectors on my index finger and it was starting to bother me and it hadn't even been 10 minutes in!!

I tried to watch TV and even though they had cable (which we don't at home. I KNOW, I can't believe it either), I couldn't find anything to watch. I played Bejeweled on my phone for a bit, and the newly discovered game Bookworm. I even updated my FB status. Since I didn't want them to have to tell me to go to sleep, I turned off the TV and (re)read the book I brought (Eclipse!) Once I started getting sleepy, I turned off the light and just laid there. Now, I'm not a back sleeper. I like to sleep on my sides. Everytime I tried to roll over, I would feel this tug from one of the wires, so I would roll back to where I was. I think this happened most of the night.

Roll.


Tug.

Roll.

Tug.



Did I mention there was a man snoring so loudly across the hall?!?!? OMG, I wanted to smother him with a pillow and I would have had I been able to untangle myself from the prison wires!

Wouldn't you know it, after a while nature started calling so I had to alert the tech of my need to pee. I had to turn on the nightlight and sit on the edge of the bed. Sounds easy enough, right?! Well, this nightlight had one of those slide thingamabobs to turn on and off. I couldn't get the damn thing on. Turning it off was OK, but trying to turn it back on was a PITA. So after fiddling with the darn thing for a minute, I finally got it. So as I attempt to hoist myself to the edge of the bed, I'm met with my familiar problem. Roll. Tug. Tug. Pull. etc... Ummm, HELP. I managed to get my legs on the side of the bed and my torso was halfway upright. That's as far as I could move without really unhooking something. I'm sure I was a pretty sight and I hope I gave the gals a nice little chuckle while they're watching me flop around like a fish. Finally she came in and rescued me.

Once back in bed, I think I finally fell asleep after laying there for about 45min. Then I woke up and I think I was in and out of sleep for the next 6hrs. I kept waking up. ALL NIGHT LONG.

So, in a nutshell, they needed at least 3 (or maybe it was 6) hours of sleep to reach a conclusion, and I think I may have provided them an hour. YIPPY. Then, I was left with these marks on Monday. A keepsake of the experience.

I will know the outcome in a week. I'll keep you posted!

Krazy Kar= Whiz Wheel= BEST TOY EVER...Yes, I mean EVER!!

I was young, one of my most favorite childhood toys was my Whiz Wheel.  Orange, plastic, and out of this world LOADS of fun!!!!!!!!  Our backyard in Sacramento had two covered concrete areas for me to ride in since our streets didn't have sidewalks.  I would spend HOURS (or what seemed like hours to a kid!) back there riding this thing.

The toy:  As I said, it was orange and had two arm pedals.  Your feet sat in a little cubby staight on in front of you.  You sat low to the ground.  I believe it had three wheels.  Once you started pedaling with your arms, you could REALLY get that thing moving!!  Once you were out of concrete, you could brake hard and spin out!!  It was AWESOME!!!!!!!!  You could also get it spinning in 360^ circles and what kid doesn't like to get dizzy!?!?  I'm telling you, this toy is thee ride-on toy of ALL toys!!  This toy makes Big Wheels, Power Wheels, or any type of other Wheels you can think of CRY!!!!!!  LOVE IT!!!!

Here is a pic of said toy, now called the Krazy Kar (whatev...I like Whiz Wheel better!).  I'm SOOOOO getting one of these for Pen.  It's been my goal for over 20 years to find one of these things and the time has come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Getting ready Penelope (and probably Piper too...I wonder if I should buy two?!?!)

Also, here is another moms blog post of the awesome, incredible toy as she recalls when she was a kid in the late 70s, early 80s!!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Yesterday was my anniversary. 8 great years!!!  I came home to M fixing dinner.  It was just an ordinary dinner for our family, until he made the comment that it's the same meal (more or less) that we ate at our reception.  Cue the "awwwwsss".  Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!   That was very sweet and thoughtful of him!

We decided not to exchange gifts this year, instead we're going out on Saturday and will probably do a nice restaurant.  We'll try to get a sitter, but if not, we'll be taking the girl-rillas with us.  It's OK.  Last year we took P1 with us to Trulucks.  In fact, most anniversary dinners have been spent as a family of three, and we're OK with that.  Since I was pg with P1 when we got married (calm down, it wasn't a 'shotgun' wedding!), we've always looked at it like a union of our family more than a union between husband and wife.  Does that make any sense at all?!  LOL  Anywho....so I'll let you know what we decide to do! 

Here are a few pics from the blessed day!  Isn't my hubby TOTALLY HOT?!??!?!  heehee

April 13, 2002

See the purple napkins with the purple butterflies?!

Amongst the Eucalyptus trees in beautiful Santa Barbara Cty, CA

Groban, Your Sister is a Hussy

 So your father and I have to take in one of her kids...

  

The question is, which one do we choose?!?! 

 I've made the executive decision that I need another cat.  My birthday is at the end of next month, and it's been almost a year since Tweakie disappeared, so I've been thinking another kitten would be a nice addition to our family.  These happen to be Groban's neice and nephews, so I like that fact that they are related. I'll keep you posted!  They won't be weaned for a few weeks still, so as I get more photos, I will post them!!  I want to keep them all, but I'm afraid M would keep the cats and get rid of ME!!!  :) 

Beanpole

This pic shows what I mean by the word "beanpole".  I think my little miss is going to be all legs!  Thank goodness she doesn't take after her mama!!!