skylar grace : a birth story

Hi. This post is a bit different. I'd like to tell the birth story of our little Skylar Grace. I thought since she turned one it was about time her story was written out. 

I sorta went into my third pregnancy (I did miscarry a precious gift between A and C, so 4th in a sense) with great expectations of having an early baby. Ashlyn was 11 days early, & Carter 14 days early. So when it came to only 5 days before my due date and no baby I was sorta getting a little anxious. I tried to pass the time playing with the kiddos, we had a nice stretch of warm(er) weather, and Spring was finally here. The Crocuses and Daffodils flowers were blooming in our front gardens. The grass was turning a nice green color. I'd say it was good time to have a baby, but it just wasn't happening as early as the other two.

Let me step back a little here to a little more on the actual pregnancy. We found out we were pregnant with Skylar at the end of the summer, 2013. And had decided for the first time to find out the gender. The reveal being on Thanksgiving. (Many of you remember our fun video) And knowing we were having a girl made the planning process/nursery decorating a little more fun this time around. I sold our previous neutral colored bedding and created a fun pink ensemble with a collection of Craigslist, Target and Hobby Lobby. And it was fun, the ladies in my Bible Study group put on a beautiful baby shower. It was perfect! And so fun, receiving all sorts of new "pink" stuff. As for the actual pregnancy, it was my toughest. I was basically sore all the time. And had a hard time trying to do things, life, etc with the older two. And therefore ready to deliver the baby and feel normal again. 

So now we were at 4 days before the due date and it was about 6:30 in the morning, Saturday April 26, 2014. I obviously didn't sleep well, right? So being up early was nothing to me. Except I knew something was different. I knew my body was in early labor, and what I mean by that is I knew the baby was coming that day, it was real labor. Carter's labor from start to finish was 4 hours. So I didn't think I had much time. I got up cleaned up the kitchen a little, and by the time 7 rolled around and the big kids got up and Josh, I mentioned to him how I was feeling and that this was D day (delivery day). I didn't want to wake him too early, since I knew he needed the rest. And the kitchen was a mess from the night before so I thought I'd make it nice. Who wants a messy kitchen when they come home from the hospital?

I texted my sister in law Kensie and told her she may have to come over soon. She was watching the big kids. I forget if I told her to come shortly or give me a bit to see how things pan out.  My contractions basically came on every time I walked, so I walked and walked and walked. I prob walked more that day than any day ever. I mean really...I hardly sat down. But every time I did sit down the contractions would go away. Err. I was not a happy camper. Kensie came over and helped get the kids lunch. But not too much had changed labor wise. So I told Kensie to go home (they lived about 15 mins away) and I'd be calling her when we really needed her. Boy was that the truth. I decided I needed a nap, cuz what else was I to do? I was basically going nutty. Around 3pm I knew labor was coming on. And well that was the moment I should have called Kensie and told her to come and left for the hospital. Instead I thought I would let the hospital know I was coming. Yay, not my brightest moment. And meanwhile Josh is thinking  we should already be at the hospital. And needless to say I almost couldn't get from the bathroom to the car when it was time, so he was totally right. Skylar was a coming. And we didn't have much time before she would be here.

It was about 3:15pm now.

Josh threw a towel on the passenger seat of his Subaru WRX, fyi not the best choice of car to drive while in labor. (If ya know what I mean) And I got in, Kensie showed up, and we were off. I only remember a few spots on the drive, the ones where traffic got bogged down and we were not going at a good speed. And I basically held Sky inside me, since I knew she was on her way out no matter where we were. My water broke about a few minutes before we arrived. I basically told Josh to park at the ER and wheel me in. I knew she was a coming.

Now it was about 3:45-50pm

(this photo explains where we parked, we had front row parking that day.)

Let me slow it down for a minute. 

Josh pulls up to the Emergency Dept of the hospital and goes in. He lets the desk person know his wife is in labor. The person at the dest was a bit distracted and not really listening to him, so basically  he just told Josh to wheel me up to Maternity. And of course he's like no, grabs a wheel chair and wheels me inside the ED. When we entered he made sure to let them know, again, that the baby was coming now! The ED nurse at the entrance gestured for us to go into a room and she'll check me out. We go into a room and her first response was, "Yes, I see a head!" I'm now laying on the most comfortable table (not!) And the fairly tall ED doctor arrived and the next thing I knew he was asking me "How many weeks are you?" I'm super ticked that they are even asking me anything, I say "39" (Now I get it they had no idea if I was 20 weeks or what, so it totally makes sense now) Then, you know the show ER and how many people show up for each person who enters to the ER dept? In any case about 10-15 nurses, drs, assistants, my midwife, etc... all show up and surround me. I maybe pushed for 3 minutes and out came our beautiful 6lbs 8 ounce baby girl, with a head full of dark hair.

She was born at 3:54pm.

My midwife greets me after Sky was born and lets me know she was there. I suppose you could say this was one of those rip up the birth plan and throw it in the trash kinda deliveries. I was thankful the midwife at least got there. It was comforting knowing she made the effort to walk across the entire hospital to see me. (It was a very long walk from one side to the other. I know because I made that trek when Carter was born, he was not delivered in the ED thankfully.) The nurses in the ED were so kind and did such an amazing job taking care of me. A few of them also made sure to let me know I had given them their first baby delivery. I smiled and let them know it was my pleasure. 

(this photo is the moment I first saw her)

It was fun from there on. Yes, births can be fun. They cleaned the both of us up a bit, Skylar didn't get a bath or weighed till we were up in Maternity however, and put me on a wheely bed and I got to carry Skylar all the way through the hospital into the Maternity Ward. I wonder how many people can say they did that? See it was fun. And Skylar was oh so precious. I was so love struck!

She weighed in at 6lbs 8 ounces, and was measured to be 20 inches long.
My biggest baby too. 

And (below) was from the day we brought her home. Josh's sister Amanda took these hours after we first arrived home. 

(You can check out her Facebook site here, she takes amazing photos!)

It's amazing how fast a year goes. Out little dark hair cutie born in the ED (and almost the car) just turned ONE! 

Happy Birthday Skylar Grace!

Thanks for all those who loved on our kids through this year and my pregnancy. We are incredibly blessed.

Melissa

Our Family Went to Mexico - part dos

Hi Friends.

Melissa here again. Ready for some more Mexico?

If you missed the first post you can find it here.

This post will be a bit fun. 

And there will be one more post after this that will record more on the Actual Day Care and the events during the week...as well as the ministry of Wayne and Claire. 

So here we go...

This here is the Blue room. (duh!) There were two large rooms with 5 bunks. This room was where we spent a good part of the 5 days 5 evenings we spent in Mexico. Mostly because we had kids of our own that needed care. It was fairly cozy and the temperature was super comfortable, about 50 degrees average while we were there. It did hit 74 the first day though which was super nice. Although 50 degrees was still nice compared to the negative temps New England hit the days before we left.

This here is a very sick little girl. (Cue the sad slow classical music) She spiked a few scary fevers and had an awful cough. Made this momma so sad. She had no appetite but nursing, and her nose ran like a faucet. Thankfully I bought some saline and every day a few times I would clear her out and seemed to get her sorta back to normal. She basically slept for 3 full days while we were there. Poor girl :( And thankfully she bounced back and was her normal self.

   And here we have our Ashlyn who absolutely fell in love with the neighboring horses. Sometimes they would come up real close. Our walk from the door where we stayed to the door to the day care included a stop to say hi to the horses every morning. I may or may no have been included in that. (wink*)

Love this photo of Carter admiring the men at work outside our window. It screams Mexico. 

Photo Cred: My super talented husband.

The kids found the simplest things to play with. I think they were mainly happy their cousins came along for the trip. We don't spend a ton of time with them during the year, so a whole week was a real treat.

This girl was hooked on the game of Guess Who to the point of learning to play Solitaire. She is a very independent girl as you can see here. And since a crowded room of other littles, who spoke a funny language to her, was a bit much sometimes, it was nice to have some quiet. It was cute watching her play. And she did play every day. Love her!

In the middle of the week we Ergo-ed up sick Sky and hiked up one of the many hills around with the team. We got a nice view of the city, the other Mtns, and we could even see the ocean in the distance. We were not very far from the ocean. It was a nice break, and it was nice to do something as a team.

This was me every morning. When the hot coffee was brought up to our common area every morning I was the first to pour a cup and admire the beauty. We were located right within the community which is also right within local farms. I watched as the workers, without machinery, took care of the crops, sometimes even seeing a little child walking with them as some people were not as fortunate to have childcare for their kids. (As there was about a 150 kid waiting list at the daycare)

And here is our now happy and healthy Sky. She finally bounced back and let this mommy get a little relief. As well as get to love on those day care kids. Very thankful.

By the end of the week we decided we were going to take a trip into the city. On this particular day a cruise ship arrived, so we were not the only American Tourists around. We sorta just blended right in. Ashlyn put this little headband/hat on and of course the guy on the left was hoping she would convince us to buy it. Sorry girl :( Sorry fella. She did get a bracelet and a Mexican dress. Momma couldn't resist!

Here is Bethany and I shopping for dresses for our girls. She was the barterer. Who convinced the guy to sell us the dresses for less. She did good! I can't wait to put all the girls in them together this summer =)

We also went and got some ice-cream and fish tacos (as in them...since I didn't dare eat local meat) at a little shop. Taco huts were like hotdog huts in America, they were everywhere!

As well as hit up the local grocery store for some snacky foods. It was a real treat to get out and see more of Mexico and experience the city. And by now I felt my Spanish was getting a little easier to understand and speak. It was fun. (The locals would probably beg to differ...)

As I said above I have one more post of Mexico. So stay tuned...