He's here!...a month later

Well well if I thought life as a mother of 2 was busy- I hadn't seen anything yet!  3 kiddos is very busy, so busy that I haven't gotten a chance to update the blog with Clay's birth story, so here it goes!

Let's go back to my 36 week ultrasound.  Typically my Dr. does not do a 36 week ultrasound, but after measuring so far ahead throughout my whole pregnancy they were concerned about the size of baby boy and wanted to get a better look at him with an ultrasound.  The measurements on the ultrasound said he was an astounding 8 lbs 11oz!  Obviously at this point I was very concerned about going full term and thought that we would schedule an induction at my 37 week appt.  My amazing, but somewhat hippie, OB did not seem too concerned about his size using Madison's 9lb 3oz birth weight and Julianne';s 8lb 9oz birth weight as data for why I would be just fine delivering a big baby.  Yikes!  So onto week 38...Christian came with me and we were ready to schedule a time to meet baby.  After checking me, my Dr. said she thought baby might be in a somewhat wierd position and sent me directly to ultrasound.  At this point I was joking about breech thinking it wasn't even a possibility- boy was I wrong.   We got called back by the same ultrasound tech that told us Julianne was a girl when we were so planning on a boy!  He pulled up the ultrasound and sure enough said, "breech."  I started to cry and told him he is a really nice guy, but I don't think I want to see him again, because he always gives me news I don't want to hear.  Thus begins the week of flipping baby boy.  We opted not to do versions as I was not a good candidate.  Baby was big and my placenta was on top, so they would have to put pressure on the placenta which is not necessarily the best thing and could be very dangerous for baby.  I did, however, follow several suggestions from friends on facebook including:
1. washing the kitchen floor on my hands and knees
2. Spinningbabies.com (inversion technique)
3. PRAYER- lots of it!

Low and behold we went into our 39 week appt hopeful that maybe little man had flipped positions and he had!  I was so thankful I started crying and wanted to go directly to the hospital to be induced!

For those of you who don't know I was TERRIFIED of having a C section- not sure if it was mostly the fear of the unknown or the idea of the recovery with 3 small children at home.  Either way I wanted to delivery vaginally on all accounts as long as it was safe for baby and me.

So, we urged the Dr. to get us in for our induction.  Initially she said they don't schedule weekend inductions, but with Christian's Dad leaving that Sunday for a long trip we really wanted to have baby before so he could meet him and be there.  She made some calls and determined that we could go in the next night (Friday) to begin cervical ripening and get the show on the road!  We were ecstatic!! We were finally going to get to meet our little boy!!

That night we got to the new birthing center at St. Cloud Hospital.  I was so excited/nervous/ready to meet Mr. Man.  Christian had on his Daddy shirt, so we knew this was for real :)  We checked in and got to our room where we first found out we had Nurse Alice!  I was ecstatic as I immediately recognized her as the Nurse that was with us to deliver Julianne and remembered the amazing experience we had with her.   She was very nice and numbed the site for the IV before inserting it (my veins are very finiky and getting an IV in can be extremely painful)  She then checked me, inserted the cervadil and away we went. At this point I was dilated to about 1 1/2 cm.  It just so happened to be the opening ceremonies for the Olympics, so we had a fun time watching them in the hospital room.  Jan and Morgan were watching the girls for us so they brought them to visit and my Mom stopped by later in the night. We were looking forward to meeting baby within the next 24 hours!   They gave me something to sleep and we waited out the night.

Saturday morning I woke up early and excited to be checked!  The Cervadil was removed and I was dilated to a whopping (3 cm) :(  I did get to take a shower which was amazing.  We now had to wait for the Dr. to decide between breaking my water or starting pitocin.  At 8:45 Dr. Stacia Anderson arrived and decided she would do an ultrasound to make sure he was still head down- confirmed! and then chose to start the pitocin to get contractions started.  They started the pitocin and contractions began, but nothing too strong, so I kept asking them to up the dosage to get things going!  They were hesitant as we were having trouble with the monitors getting a steady heartbeat for baby, so we just trudged along.  At 11:15 the Dr. arrived to break my water.  I was not nervous about this at all, as with the girls this was no big deal and I didn't feel a thing!  Wrong.   Dr. Anderson broke my water (tons of fluid which explained my extra large measurements) and then discovered the craziest part...Baby had his hand out of the cervix essentially above his head.   She explained to me that she was going to try to pinch his fingers so he would pull his hand down as I would not be able to deliver a baby in that position because the shoulder and head would come at the same time ( not good)  So she pinched the fingers (extremely painful) and was successful in getting him to pull his hand down.  She did however warn me that he could push that hand up again so we would need to keep an eye on it.  I told Christian if that was going to have to happen again I would need the epidural- so that was the next request!
12:30-The anesthesiologist arrived and the epidural was inserted.  This relieved a bit of the discomfort I was feeling from the contractions.  It was somewhat of a high epidural though and I did have a little trouble breathing and got the shakes hardcore.
I am only going to mention this briefly so I remember, but around 11:00 they took Nurse Alice away from us and gave us another nurse with a trainee.  I understand the need for training, but I really had trouble being a guinea pig.  We ended up requesting a change in Nurses and got Nurse Alice back around 3:00.
We got Nurse Alice up to speed with everything that was happening with baby and his hand and discussed a couple of other things before she started looking closely at baby's heart rate on the monitor.  It seemed to be dipping with each contraction and not coming back up quite as quickly as they would like to see, so...she decided to check me.  I was excited to hear what she had to say, hoping she would say I was at a 7 or 8 and almost ready to push!  Negative.  As she was checking me her face changed and I said, " His hand is out again isn't it!"  She said no and explained that what she was feeling was actually umbilical cord.  Obviously I am no OB nurse, so I immediately assume if they can move a hand they can move a cord!  Alice has me flip onto all 4s and says she is going to call the Dr. to see what she would like to do.  The Dr. arrived in like 30 seconds which I found somewhat suspicious, but I just assumed she was right there, so no big deal.  She went to check me and said oh yep there is a loop and another, yes I feel 2 loops of cord.  At this point she explained to us that what was happening was called a prolapsed cord and that I would no longer be able to deliver vaginally- I would be heading across the hall for an emergency c-section.  She said she would not have a floppy baby and that it was imperative that we got baby out as soon as possible.  Therefore, she explained that they may have to put me under, as they might not be able to get enough meds through my epidural in time for me to not feel it.  This also meant Christian would not be able to be in the room.  I was scared out of my mind at this point, but I just went into prayer mode and told God that Baby and I were in his hands and I trusted him to take care of both of us.  The nurses all came rushing in our room and they whisked me in my bed across the hall. Nurse Alice held my hand as they flipped me to a different table and the anesthesiologist arrived.  He asked me if I wanted him to try putting stronger meds through my epidural or if I wanted to be put to sleep.   I told him that he was the expert, so whatever he thought!  There were people everywhere and all I could hear was them saying, "Category 1" and "It's OK Melissa we are going to take good care of you."    Next the anesthesiologist asked me to tell him if I felt anything and I asked, " What are they doing something?"  To which he said, " We're good- let the husband in!"  Christian was rushed in and the show was on the road.  I felt some tugging and pressure on my hips, but definitely not any pain.  Dr. said he had the cord around his neck as she pulled him out and I heard him cry for the first time.  A nice strong loud scream and I was so relieved!  They brought him to a warmer to my left side and I could not believe how big his head was and how much hair he had!! :)  Such a little cutie!  They wiped him off and brought him to me in a blanket as soon as they could.  I couldn't really hold him, but I could touch my cheek to his and that was so special for me.  Christian and Clay left for a couple of minutes when they were finishing putting me back together and then we were whisked off to  a post-op room where they did some more testing on Clay.  He had 8 and 9 apgars which is just outstanding.  I requested oxygen for about 30 minutes after surgery as I was having some trouble breathing.   After a short while I felt ready to hold little man and they brought him over to snuggle me and do some serious skin to skin.  It was very special bonding time for Mom and her boy.  I looked up at Christian and said, "I'm not sure he's a Clayton..."  Christian agreed and the 2 day adventure of determining a name began.  We had decided on Clayton long before we even got pregnant with a boy.  It was a name that came up to both of us at the same time and 1 of the only boy names we could agree on...however looking at him we just weren't sure right away!  We spent the first night looking up names and meanings online.  WE considered Luke/Lucas because we liked the name, we like the biblical connotations of Luke and he seemed kind of like one and we also toyed around with Finn or Finnley because he basically tried to come out with his hand on his head like a Fin.  On day 2, however, we decided we needed to give baby boy a name and Clayton "Clay"  just seemed like the name for him.  Allen is Christian's middle name and a family name on his Mother's side of the family.  Only fitting as Clay has a dimple just like Christian's Grandma did :)
So...since this is long overdue I will cut myself off here or this will never get published and I will never be able to blog about anything else we are up to.

We love him, he is here and we are now a family of 5!!! :) :) :) :) :)
 

Cliff and Kate's Wedding!

It has been a busy and fun couple of weeks!  2 weekends ago we headed to Madison to celebrate Kate and Cliff's wedding.  Cliff has been one of closest friends since the first week of my freshman year of college and Kate has been his "dream girl" since the moment they met.  I was so honored to be a bridesmaid in their wedding and to have Christian as an usher and Madison as the flower girl.  We decided it would be more enjoyable for everyone if Julianne did not come to the wedding, and were so thankful that Nana and Boo offered to spend the weekend with her.  I think it was very special time for the 3 of them as well!
Friday morning Christian, Madison and I jumped in the minivan and started our 6 hour journey to Badgerland.  Madison did a great job with the drive and watched quite a few shows. It was a wonderfully uneventful ride and very nice for Christian and I to have some time to just chat with each other!  Friday night we arrived, picked up Christian's tux, checked in to our hotel and headed to the rehearsal at Blackhawk Country Club.  The view was beautiful as was the location.   I got to meet a lot of Kate's friends from Chicago who I had heard a lot about, but had not gotten a chance to meet.  After rehearsal we headed to Cliff's parents house for rehearsal dinner. They had a pork roast catered and it was absolutely delicious. Kate and Cliff gave very generous gifts including and amazing Alice in Wonderland pop-up-book that Madison LOVES!

After rehearsal dinner the majority of the bridal party headed to the Terrace, but unfortunately we didn't feel like Madison could handle a Friday night on the Terrace at 9:30pm, so we decided we would drive campus so Madison could fall asleep in the van if need be.  We went to the top of Observatory Drive and looked out over the lake.  I remember going there so many times in college to just think about life and it was so neat to go there with my husband and daughter.  I asked Madison if she thought she could ever live in Madison, and she responded,"  No Mom, you told me I could never live more than 2 hours away from you, and I like our house we live in right now."   Looks like we may have to move closer to Madison if I want Miss Maddie to be a Badger after all! :) Ha, we will see how she feels 14 years from now!

The day of the wedding Madison and I headed to the hotel to get ready with the rest of the girls in the bridal party.  Next came pictures and the ceremony and reception and all of the fun.  As Mads didn't get her typical 1-3 nap, it was no surprise that she passed out in Christian's arms shortly after walking down the aisle during the ceremony.  She slept for about 2 hours during the cocktail hour and reception which was perfect because she lasted until Midnight!  Madison had such a great time dancing with her "Prince" aka ringbearer.  I think they danced for over an hour and even got a shout out from the band.  I had a phenomenal time catching up with my friend Allie who has lived in San Diego since our Senior Year.  I got to meet her boyfriend, who is great, and truly enjoyed seeing her and catching up.

Sunday morning we had breakfast with everyone at Cliff's parents house and then jumped in the van to head back to St. Cloud.  We were missing Julianne so much by then!  It was a great trip and hopefully just 1 of many for Miss Madison :)

Family fun!

Last Friday night the girls had their last night of swimming lessons at the YMCA.  They both really enjoyed them and I know they are both getting so much more comfortable around the water.   Madison is still a little bit iffy about going under water or putting her face in the water, but she has definitely gotten better!  Julianne loves to splash and giggle and try to put every toy in the pool in her mouth- you know the usual for a 21 month old. :)
    Saturday we woke up early to head out to the Stearns County Breakfast on the farm in Watkins.  My stations are sponsors of the event and I knew the girls would have a great time.  They loved petting all of the animals (especially the little puppies) and we enjoyed a homestyle breakfast of pancakes, french toast, sausage and eggs.  I couldn't believe the crowds of people there; it is always nice to see so many people at an event my stations are involved with :) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On our way home we stopped at Fleet Farm to pick up some flowers to add to our landscaping. The girls were super helpful and loved seeing the butterflies flying around the marigolds!  Julianne would run up to flowers and say, "cute" to everyone, which made me giggle.

 

     After a nap the girls were ready for the sprinkler and they sure had fun!  I love when all of the neighbor girls get to play together- they are so cute to watch :)

    Saturday afternoon Christian's friend Nick's daughter Amelia came over for a sleepover as he had a wedding.  We went to the Inaugural St. Cloud Rox baseball game (the team that used to be the Riverbats)  They are a part of the Northwoods league, which is what the Madison Mallards are a part of, so it always brings me back to college a little bit as we used to have TONS of fun at the Mallards games :)  This game was the first time I had ever been in general admission, so I got a different angle on the game.  The girls were stir crazy after about 3 innings, so we decided it might be a better idea to head back home.

     Sunday we went to church and then Nick came up and we grilled for lunch.  It is always fun to catch up with him now that he doesn't live in St. Cloud.  We definitely miss him and wish he lived closer!

     Tuesday I had my 32 week Dr. appt.  I have been feeling much larger than I did with the girlsat this point and pretty uncomfortable.  This little man is much stronger than the girls were, and him movements can nearly brings me to tears and sleeping is hit or miss at this point.  When I laid back to be measured my thoughts were confirmed- I am measuring a little over 35 weeks already.  It is pretty strange considering I consistently measure a week or 2 behind with both of the girls, and little man is just jumping right ahead!   I expressed my concern that I would have a 15 pound baby and of course my midwife laughed and said she's not too concerned about that.  She warned me to take it easy and try to eliminate stress factors in my life as much as possible.  I'm trying to work on that right now, but crazy to think that if I stay on this track I will be measuring full term the first week of July!

    Tomorrow we are heading to Madison for Cliff and Kate's wedding. I am so excited to see them and celebrate their wedding!  I am also excited to introduce Madison to the town of Madison! :)  I am hoping pics on Abe's lap, Mickey's breakfast and some Babcock ice Cream can all be achieved!  Jan and Morgan are generously watching Miss Julianne for us as I am a bridesmaid, Christian is an usher and Madison is the flower girl.  Although we will miss JEM like crazy, it would have been so challenging for her to do the drive and we don't really know what we would have done with her during the ceremony, so it is probably best case scenario. Plus, she will get some special Nana and Boo bonding time- lucky little munchkin :)

Back to Bloggin'!

Well, it is official I definitely fell quite a bit behind in blogging, considering it has been over 2 years since my last post!  I decided the "unofficial" start to summer would be a great time to jump back in to blogging as we get ready for our newest adventure- the arrival of Baby Boy Medford!

We are so excited to be a family of 5.  We know things are going to get even crazier around here, but loving on our little girls ranks so high on our list that we know we had just enough love to share with one more little Medford Munchkin.

Our due date is July 28th.  If my pregnancies with the girls are any indicator of how my children feel about due dates we should be meeting little man the first week of August.  He is quite the active baby already and he feels so much bigger than the girls ever did.  I have my 32 week appointment next Tuesday and I can't wait to see how many weeks I am measuring...a lot of my maternity clothes are already too small in the belly! Yikes!  Other than that this pregnancy has been very similar to the others.  Fortunately my body handles it all very well and I don't have any medical conditions that have made it more difficult than it already is to carry around another human being for 9 months!

This past weekend we headed up to my parent's for Memorial Day weekend.  The weather was absolutely crazy, but we did manage to get a couple of nice glimpses of sunshine and make it out on the boat!  Julianne has decided that she loves her life jacket and Madison has a hard time staying awake with the calming sensation of being on the boat.  Both girls love it and have many a day on the lake in their future.

On Sunday morning the girls woke up early, as usual, and Christian and I did all we could to contain their stir craziness and try to keep them quiet while the whole rest of the family slept.  We finally decided a trip to Target was in order.  I knew Madison was starting T-ball in a couple of weeks and needed a baseball glove, so I thought we could get her some practice while we were up north.  Fortunately we found this adorable t-ball set too and both girls had fun learning how to play t-ball with Uncle Dan and Grandpa.

 

 This week we get to play catch up from the past crazy month and are staying in town for the weekend! Yay!  Friday night the girls have their last day of swimming lessons and Saturday we have a couple of fun family activities on tap.  We hope you all have a great week! :)

18 1/2 weeks

So I know it has been a long while since I blogged, but holy cow we have been sooooo busy! Since I last blogged we lost Grandpa Phil and celebrated his life at his funeral and his wake, celebrated Madison's birthday (2 already!), and had a wonderful baby shower for Auntie Cameo. I have also been crazy busy at work with events, but it seems that life is going to restore itself to a manageable level, so that is exciting. Baby starting kicking at 17 weeks while we were at Grandpa Phil's wake. It was really special for it to happen there, and now baby is very busy inside! About the size of a cantalope, baby is starting to develop the film on the skin called vernix and can hear us from the outside. The gender is already prevalent, but we are going to have to wait 15 more days to find out! Baby will be taking another trip with Mom and Dad to Las Vegas in 10 days and then again at the end of the month. I hope you don't mind traveling inside mommy! Your big sister is getting really excited and has finally decided that you are a boy (fingers crossed that she is right! :)) I am starting to show and had to switch to maternity pants today...whoever made them is an angel! Maternity clothes are so much more comfortable than trying to squeeze this baby belly into my normal pants! I promise some point soon I will be brave and post some belly pics- stay tuned!

15 weeks

Another crazy week for us here in the Medford household. Baby is now 15 weeks old and can now squint, frown, grimace, pee, and possibly suck his thumb. Thanks to brain impulses, his facial muscles are getting a workout as his tiny features form one expression after another. His kidneys are producing urine, which he releases into the amniotic fluid around him -- a process he'll keep up until birth. He can grasp, too, and if you're having an ultrasound now, you may even catch him sucking his thumb. In other news: Your baby's stretching out. From head to bottom, he measures 3 1/2 inches -- about the size of a lemon -- and he weighs 1 1/2 ounces. I love the info I get from my daily pregnancy emails! I'm starting to get anxious about finding out the sex of the baby. Hopefully the next 5 weeks will fly by :) Madison is starting to be pretty serious about potty training which is exciting, so I'm hoping for a small reprieve from diapers between the 2 kids! My appetite has been crazy this week! I think my body is trying to make up for the weight I lost in trimester 1! I'm just hopeful that I won't gain too much with this pregnancy. This week I am traveling to Alabama from Friday to Sunday for work, so I'm hoping I won't be too exhausted when next Monday comes around. This baby sure is getting around. I'm sitting here watching the final Barbara Walters Oscars special...I'm sad baby won't get to enjoy Barbara before the Oscars with me again...holy buckets being preggo makes me emotional. hehe.

14 weeks

Whew the past 2 weeks have flown by! Baby experienced it's first national cheer competition (sorry for all of the adrenaline in Mommy's body!), the flu and first time flying. I came down with the flu last Monday and it was just terrible! I thought pregnancy nausea was bad, but the flu is just brutal. I could hardly get up and couldn't eat for almost 3 days. I went in for my 12 week check up and we heard baby's heartbeat for the first time. A strong 170 beats per minute- it was so fast. Dr. McCarl let Madison hear her heartbeat as well, and Madison thought it was amazing. Now she keeps saying the baby in her belly says, "boom boom boom." hehe. She loves the idea of being a big sister, or at least she keeps acts liking it. Dr. said everything looks good, but there isn't much for them to tell this far along. On Wednesday morning I went to Nashville for a work conference. It was fun once I started recovering from the flu, but Nashville was much more fun last year when I wasn't preggo :) Baby got to hear live music from Taylor Swift, Rascal Flatts, Brad Paisley, Miranda Lambert, Kellie Pickler, Bryan Adams and a slew of upcoming country artists. Thank goodness Christian likes country music, because I have a feeling this baby is going to like country. As of Monday I am 14 weeks and officially in the 2nd trimester. I am welcoming this phase with open arms- it is so nice to finally feel better! Baby is about 4 inches right now and the size of an orange! I love how they always use food as examples of baby's size. I am starting to show a little bit and hoping I will have enough courage to post my first belly pic at 15 weeks :)