I get asked almost daily, "how is life with 2 kids going?" I am only 3 months in, but so far I would say it's going great! Is it easy? No! Is it busy? Yes! Very busy!! Is every moment of every day "great!"? Definitely not! But overall I have to say I am absolutely loving having these 2 boys. I was so anxious my whole pregnancy about how hard it was going to be and I just thought I would have to plow through and it would eventually get enjoyable but I am happy to report it is enjoyable (almost) every day! We had about 2 rough weeks from weeks 7-9 where Cash was demanding to be held 24/7 (stinker!) and would scream his head off the moment I put him down. That was hard for Mama and Sawyer! (Poor Sawyer gets totally stressed out when Cash screams haha sweet boy!) During those 2 weeks Sawyer's testing me was at it's peak and he also got the stomach flu. That was when I realized "oh my gosh I have TWO kids!" haha But I am happy to report Cash is happy as can be out of my arms now and is finally taking good naps during the day instead of 20 minute cat naps. He sleeps from about 9:30pm until anywhere from 7:15-8:45am. I am blessed. I know this is not to be taken for granted. Thank you God that both my boys love sleep! And he takes one long 3 hour nap and two 1 hour naps (in the morning and evening).
Cash has so much life and personality to him that he just makes the day to day life so fun amongst the crazy. We joke that Cash insists he will not be forgotten, this kid is loud and talks non stop and goes from happy as a clam to screaming his head of in an instant! He may be little but he has a lot to say! Sawyer has really settled into our new normal and has been such a joy. He has just been so sweet and taken all these big changes very gracefully. Of course we had some really tough days in the beginning and a few weeks of some testing and adjusting but the last month or so he has just really settled in and seems very content with his brother around. He has recently gotten so excited about Cash and loves to kiss him, share his toys with him, soothe him, and his absolute favorite big brother task is to alert everyone when baby Cash goes "BIG BIG POO-POOS!!!" Nothing like a farting, pooping, burping baby to make a 2 year old boy laugh! I guess I better get used to it, with 2 boys in the house, the farting jokes are just beginning!
We have been taking advantage of our pool in our complex and I take the boy swimming a few times a week right after breakfast. It wears them both out nice and good before naps. Cash will either sleep in the stroller while I get some good one on one time in with Sawyer, or if he is awake, he joins in on the fun with us. Cash is a MAJOR water baby. He is so happy in the water, even if it's freezing cold it doesn't seem to bother him. I have a feeling he and Sawyer will get along just fine ;) My sister and mom got Sawyer and me a Pretend City membership so we have been spending a lot of days there too. It's fun having a membership because we can just go for a few hours here and there and not spend the whole day. That has been an AWESOME place for Sawyer to get his energy out while I nurse Cash. It breaks up our day and is fun for all of us.
I know once Cash gets mobile our lives will get much much busier (yet again!) so I am just trying to soak up these precious snuggly moments while they last. There is nothing sweeter in the world than having a sleeping baby in your arms! Our little Cash has brought so much joy into our family after a really hard and exhausting year from my mom's health. He has been so wonderful for all of us. He is so incredibly social and will smile and talk to anyone and everyone who will make eyes with him. Sawyer is a lot like David's personality. He is more even keel and go with the flow. He isn't super happy or super sad, he just does his thing and laughs along the way. Just a happy little guy over all. He loves his family and cousins but is not overly social. He would much rather stay home and just play with the people he loves than go out every day. Cash seems to be more like me from what we can tell so far. He has a little more fiestyness to him than Sawyer ever had. When he is sad, he is SOOOO sad. When he is mad, he is MAD, when he is happy, he is laughing and squeeking! David claims he gets this all from me haha! It's funny because Sawyer acts and looks just like David and Cash acts and looks just like me! Cash has much more extreme emotions than Sawyer ever has had! It's fun to see the differences in the 2 boys. I wonder all the time what it will be like when Cash is older and how the boys will interact. What things will they bond over? What things will they fight over? I love just picturing their lives together in the future. Siblings is one of the best gifts here on earth and I'm so thankful the boys will always have each other!
David and I are doing good. We are busy, we are tired, and we are figuring out our new normal! David picked up a free grill for us and has been BBQing almost every single night since we got it. Husband of the year award. I can still not seem to figure out how to keep the boys alive and happy AND have dinner on the table and the house clean every day. Some days I get it done, some days it's a lost cause! He has been such a sweet help since we had the baby, especially with Sawyer. He is loving his job still and I am loving seeing him somewhere he is happy. Plus we love having him home every other Friday! Such a blessing! The boys are both waking up from their long "swim naps" as I call them so that's all the recap I have time for! Hopefully I can get some pictures up here soon of the boys and life. My camera is broken so I only have pics from my phone and I haven't put any of them on my computer yet...another project for another time...
Friday, June 28, 2013
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Cash Walker's Birth Story!
Wow it has been 10 months since I wrote on the blog...coincidence that the timing coincides with when I got pregnant? Definitely not. Pregnancy takes it out of me people. It zaps every ounce of my physical and mental energy for 39 long weeks! I am SO happy to not be pregnant any more! With that being said, I will move on to the birth story of our precious Cash Walker. I apologize in advance for how long this post will be. Feel free to not read it all! I like to have a place where I have all the details written down and I can go back and read it because my pregnancy/mommy brain is no good these days! I will forget all these details if I don't get them down!
I feel like my labor story should start at 35 weeks pregnant. Throughout my entire pregnancy I would get contractions and cramping any time I got sick or over did it and would just have to take it really easy (which is so easy to do with a jumping, climbing, crazy 2 year old boy right?!) But right at 35 weeks I started getting painful contractions every single night around 5:00pm. They would always go away when I would lay down for about an hour but would pick up if I even stood up to go to the bathroom or do anything. I had preterm labor with Sawyer starting at 35 weeks but with him, laying down wouldn't stop it. It would only stop with complete bedrest and medicine. I was really hoping to avoid that route this time with a toddler so each day was a balancing act of keeping Sawyer entertained but not putting myself into labor. The weeks kept ticking by and I was still pregnant. I was so relieved when I got to full term and I wouldn't have to stress about stopping the contractions.
From 37 weeks on I would wake up with horrible period like cramps and contractions. I am not exaggerating when I say every single day for 2 weeks I would have hours of painful contractions and cramping about 2 minutes apart, lasting for 3, 5, 8 hours and then everything would just completely stop. These were not "uncomfortable" Braxton hicks, they were full on, "can't walk, talk, or think straight through them" contractions. They felt identical to my true labor contractions I had with Sawyer. I would call all the family to set up for child care for Sawyer and let my sister know since she was going to be in the room with me. We would get in the car to go and then everything would stop. This happened so many times. It was physically exhausting but also mentally exhausting wondering each day, "is this it?". I was so tired! I did this for 2 weeks until I finally had him at 39 weeks exactly.
I woke up on Thursday morning with my usual bad cramping and contractions. I didn't even bother timing them because they always fizzled out in the past and I just didn't even want to think about it. The contractions were really really painful but were pretty far apart and I honestly didn't think it was anything. I dyed easter eggs with Sawyer that morning and then went over to my sisters house to watch her 2 kids while she took her middle son to an Easter party at school. When I got there I was bending over from the contractions and my sister said "I feel like I shouldn't go, I think you are in labor" I assured her this was no different than any other day, in fact the contractions were only in my lower tummy and they were super far apart. Definitely not active labor, just more false labor. My mom came over later to give Taylor piano lessons and she saw how much pain I was in and made me start timing them. They were 6 minutes apart but then every now and then would be 9 minutes apart...again not true active labor. Still pretty sporadic. After about 2 hours there they got so painful that I couldn't really think straight and I didn't want to talk to anyone or listen to anyone so I told my mom I was going home to put Sawyer down for nap and asked her to stay with Laura's kids. I called David on the way home and said I don't know if this is it or not but I need help with Sawyer, so he left work a few hours early and came home. At this point I started thinking this might be it, started getting kind of excited. I went for a walk to try and get the contractions closer together but they were just getting farther and farther apart. I called the nurse and she said, "sounds like you are in early labor but you could do this for a while. Call back when they are closer together". I came home from my walk, sat down, and EVERYTHING completely stopped. Not a single contraction, braxtion hicks, nothing. I was seriously SO mad. Poor David. I was so grumpy and could not believe after a full day of being in so much pain everything stopped again. We went to the mall to just walk around some and get some jamba juice to cheer me up. I had a few contractions at the mall but nothing regular. We got home and put Sawyer down and started watching a movie and I had a few more but they were seriously about 15 minutes apart. Around 9pm my oldest sister Laura called me and said she thought I should call my dr back and she was worried about the baby being in distress since I had been painfully contracting for so long with no progress. Poor thing, she later told me she had herself so worked up and was so worried about me and the baby. Had she not called me and urged me to call the Dr again I would have not gone in. I felt so dumb for crying wolf so many times that I had decided I was not going in until I KNEW I was in labor. Thank goodness my sister urged me to go because things got pretty crazy really fast!
I called the dr and she said she wanted to check on the baby and make sure it wasn't in distress. Since this was my second kid and I was already dilated she wanted to see me but that I was probably going back home after they checked on the baby. My dad came over to watch Sawyer and the last thing I said to him was "we won't be staying, I will be back home soon". We got there and I was 4 cm dilated (I was a 3 at my last drs appointment) and the baby's head was so low she could feel it. She said "You are not going anywhere until you have this baby". So I called my sis to have her come to the hospital. They admitted us at 11:00pm and I had Cash at 12:30am. That is 1.5 hours from the time we got to the hospital. Like I said, thank goodness my sister urged me to go back in...this kid would have come in the car had I waited!
They admitted me and let me start walking around to try and get the contractions closer together. They pretty quickly went to about 2 minutes apart but if I ever sat down or got on all 4s to try and help my back pain everything would completely stop again. It was just like all the false labor I had in the past. Even when I was in active transitional labor, if I laid down the contractions would stop. This was the strangest labor ever, so different than my experience with Sawyer. My mom, sister, and David were taking turns walking the halls with me. David was trying to convince me to let them break my water to speed things up but I really didn't want them to. I knew I wanted to go natural with no epidural and I remember from my labor with Sawyer, as soon as your water breaks the pain gets SO intense. I didn't want to be in that pain for hours and hours if I didn't need to be. David was worried about my body wearing out from being there all night and kept urging me to let them break it. I decided to let the nurse check me and if I had made no progress I would let them break my water. Trying to walk back to the room from the hall took me about 5 minutes because the pain got really really intense and I couldn't move through them. (This is probably the moment I would have KNOWN I was in labor had I waited at home...and I had Cash about 20minutes, if that, later. Our hospital is 15minutes from our house and we wouldn't have had to wait for someone to come stay with Sawyer. Don't think we would have made it honestly!)
The nurse checked me and to all our surprise I was 7cm dilated! I was very encouraged and stood up to keep walking. As soon as I stood up my water broke. I grabbed my sisters arm and said "oh my gosh I have to push. I have to push right now". The nurse said get back in bed, let me check you! She checked me and I was an 8 (seriously less than a minute from being 7cm). I had a contraction while she was checking me and she said "you are a 9". Things got absolutely crazy from this point on. I was saying I have to push, I have to push and the nurse is yelling back at me "you can't push, you are not 10cm yet". It was physically impossible to NOT push at that point. My body was pushing for me and there was nothing I could do to not push. The nurse ran into the hall and yelled "I need some help in here" and about 3 nurses came flying in. They start trying to set up for the delivery and tear the bed down and I am yelling at this point "I AM PUSHING. I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE BED. I HAVE TO PUSH" My poor sister, I grabbed a hold of her and was using every ounce of my being to concentrate on her and not push. The nurses are yelling "listen to your sister, do not push" and Laura is whispering in my ear "you are in a hospital Megs, if you need to push then push, it's OK" hahaha love her. Just what I needed to hear. The baby was pushing and there was nothing I could do to stop it. The nurse kept yelling into my little phone attached to the bed that she needs the Dr, where is the Dr, I am yelling I need to push. It was insane! The Dr literally ran into our room, someone threw gloves on her and she sat down. One nurse had the nerve to tell me "you can't push, I don't have the bed set up" and I looked at her and yelled "I don't care about your bed". The dr was there, it was fair game in my book! I remember the nurse still trying to set the stirrups up and trying to put plastic under me as his head was coming out haha a little late sweetie! As soon as the Dr sat down I just relaxed my body and the baby's head popped out. I didn't even really push, my body was already pushing for me. I just relaxed and Cash did the rest. It felt SO good to be able to finally let my body push. His head popped out and then his shoulders slipped out and I immediately felt such relief. Just like that I was in NO more pain. It was crazy. We didn't know if it was a boy or girl and apparently when I was in transition I kept saying over and over that I wanted David to be the one to announce it (haha I don't really remember that part!). There was no announcement needed, she held him up and I immediately saw he was a boy! The first thing I said was "I knew you were a boy sweetie, I knew it". He was just perfect. They laid him right on my chest and he calmed down when he heard my voice. He was so beautiful and perfect. We all were laughing at how round he was! He is just the roundest little thing. They took him away to clean him up and he started screaming again. I told David to go talk to him and as soon as he heard Daddy's voice he calmed right back down. It was such an amazing and crazy experience. I was able to do it natural like I wanted and I'm so thankful I did. It was absolutely crazy and the most intense pain ever but I'm so glad I did it. By far THE most painful part of the whole experience was the last 7 minutes when I needed to push and they wouldn't let me! I think it would have been less painful if I could have just pushed when I was ready. What's funny is when we first got there, my mom told the nurse "just so you know, I have 3 daughters and all of them go really fast once they hit 4 cm and I was the same way with all 4 of my kids." The nurse was sweet but just said "ok, sounds good". After the labor was over she came back in and said "wow grandma you called that one! I wish I would have listened to you more!" haha I still cannot believe I had him within 1 1/2 hours of getting to the hospital. Things went from "this might be it" to me holding him in under 2 hours. It was so inane and intense!
We decided to wait to name him until the next day (we did this with Sawyer too). I needed to be able to try out a few options on him and see which one stuck. We knew we were using the name Walker because it's my grandma's maiden name but we hadn't decided if it would be his first name or middle name. I was leaning towards Walker as his first name but David really wanted Cash. He did look more like a Cash to me but I just couldn't decide. David came the next day and asked me what I thought and I said "I still don't know. I like them both" So David said "then let's name him Cash Walker" and that was that! I think his name just fits him perfectly! We absolutely love it! Cash walker was 7lbs 15oz 21inches long. He was born just after midnight on March 29th which just so happens to also be his cousin Jesse's birthday! (some of you may remember when I had Sawyer 2 years ago my oldest sister Laura was also in labor at the same time! Sawyer and Luke were born 2 hours apart but on different days b/c Soy was just before midnight and Luke was just after). My kids are destined to share birthdays with their cousins! Cash was an amazing nurser right from the beginning and has just been the sweetest best little baby. He had a lot of mucus and choking episodes at the hospital because he came out so fast, his little body didn't get to squeeze everything out of his lungs. My mom spent 2 nights with me and David spent the 3rd night (We had to stay an extra night b/c Cash was jaundiced) and we each just took turns holding him upright and suctioning him out all night long. If we laid him down at all he would start choking and sputtering and throwing up tons and tons of mucus. It was so sad. He finally cleared it all out of his system and has been so easy since. From the day we came home from the hospital he slept 4 hours at a time at night and the last few days he has gone 6 hour stretches. He is gaining great weight and nursing great. He passed his birth weight at 5 days old so I'm not worried about not waking him to feed anymore.
Big brother Sawyer loves his little Cash. He loves to hold him and asks for him first thing every morning. Anytime he leaves the room he says "come baby Cash". He is having a bit of a hard time not having so much of me. The first few days he cried a lot and wanted to be IN my lap or arms 24/7 but he seems to be settling in more the last couple days. Sawyer also had pink eye, ear infection, sinus infection and a fever when we came home from the hospital, so he was extra weepy those first few days. Overall he is adjusting pretty good. It's tricky when I'm nursing Cash and Sawyer starts getting pretty rowdy but we are figuring it out as we go. Today is my first day alone with the 2 boys and we have had a fun day so far. We did breakfast together, ran some errands, and both boys are napping now. Hoping to go to cousin Bo's Tball game later today if I am not too worn out. I did get a uterus infection again (I got one after Sawyer's birth) so that has slowed down my recovery some. With Sawyer I also got a kidney and bladder infection so I'm thankful for just the 1 infection this time. The first week was really really hard because I felt so miserable and Sawyer felt so miserable and poor David was keeping the house and all of us going. But I am starting to feel better each day and am just so happy to not be pregnant any more! If you made it this far, I applaud you! Future blog posts will no be this long I promise!
I feel like my labor story should start at 35 weeks pregnant. Throughout my entire pregnancy I would get contractions and cramping any time I got sick or over did it and would just have to take it really easy (which is so easy to do with a jumping, climbing, crazy 2 year old boy right?!) But right at 35 weeks I started getting painful contractions every single night around 5:00pm. They would always go away when I would lay down for about an hour but would pick up if I even stood up to go to the bathroom or do anything. I had preterm labor with Sawyer starting at 35 weeks but with him, laying down wouldn't stop it. It would only stop with complete bedrest and medicine. I was really hoping to avoid that route this time with a toddler so each day was a balancing act of keeping Sawyer entertained but not putting myself into labor. The weeks kept ticking by and I was still pregnant. I was so relieved when I got to full term and I wouldn't have to stress about stopping the contractions.
From 37 weeks on I would wake up with horrible period like cramps and contractions. I am not exaggerating when I say every single day for 2 weeks I would have hours of painful contractions and cramping about 2 minutes apart, lasting for 3, 5, 8 hours and then everything would just completely stop. These were not "uncomfortable" Braxton hicks, they were full on, "can't walk, talk, or think straight through them" contractions. They felt identical to my true labor contractions I had with Sawyer. I would call all the family to set up for child care for Sawyer and let my sister know since she was going to be in the room with me. We would get in the car to go and then everything would stop. This happened so many times. It was physically exhausting but also mentally exhausting wondering each day, "is this it?". I was so tired! I did this for 2 weeks until I finally had him at 39 weeks exactly.
I woke up on Thursday morning with my usual bad cramping and contractions. I didn't even bother timing them because they always fizzled out in the past and I just didn't even want to think about it. The contractions were really really painful but were pretty far apart and I honestly didn't think it was anything. I dyed easter eggs with Sawyer that morning and then went over to my sisters house to watch her 2 kids while she took her middle son to an Easter party at school. When I got there I was bending over from the contractions and my sister said "I feel like I shouldn't go, I think you are in labor" I assured her this was no different than any other day, in fact the contractions were only in my lower tummy and they were super far apart. Definitely not active labor, just more false labor. My mom came over later to give Taylor piano lessons and she saw how much pain I was in and made me start timing them. They were 6 minutes apart but then every now and then would be 9 minutes apart...again not true active labor. Still pretty sporadic. After about 2 hours there they got so painful that I couldn't really think straight and I didn't want to talk to anyone or listen to anyone so I told my mom I was going home to put Sawyer down for nap and asked her to stay with Laura's kids. I called David on the way home and said I don't know if this is it or not but I need help with Sawyer, so he left work a few hours early and came home. At this point I started thinking this might be it, started getting kind of excited. I went for a walk to try and get the contractions closer together but they were just getting farther and farther apart. I called the nurse and she said, "sounds like you are in early labor but you could do this for a while. Call back when they are closer together". I came home from my walk, sat down, and EVERYTHING completely stopped. Not a single contraction, braxtion hicks, nothing. I was seriously SO mad. Poor David. I was so grumpy and could not believe after a full day of being in so much pain everything stopped again. We went to the mall to just walk around some and get some jamba juice to cheer me up. I had a few contractions at the mall but nothing regular. We got home and put Sawyer down and started watching a movie and I had a few more but they were seriously about 15 minutes apart. Around 9pm my oldest sister Laura called me and said she thought I should call my dr back and she was worried about the baby being in distress since I had been painfully contracting for so long with no progress. Poor thing, she later told me she had herself so worked up and was so worried about me and the baby. Had she not called me and urged me to call the Dr again I would have not gone in. I felt so dumb for crying wolf so many times that I had decided I was not going in until I KNEW I was in labor. Thank goodness my sister urged me to go because things got pretty crazy really fast!
I called the dr and she said she wanted to check on the baby and make sure it wasn't in distress. Since this was my second kid and I was already dilated she wanted to see me but that I was probably going back home after they checked on the baby. My dad came over to watch Sawyer and the last thing I said to him was "we won't be staying, I will be back home soon". We got there and I was 4 cm dilated (I was a 3 at my last drs appointment) and the baby's head was so low she could feel it. She said "You are not going anywhere until you have this baby". So I called my sis to have her come to the hospital. They admitted us at 11:00pm and I had Cash at 12:30am. That is 1.5 hours from the time we got to the hospital. Like I said, thank goodness my sister urged me to go back in...this kid would have come in the car had I waited!
They admitted me and let me start walking around to try and get the contractions closer together. They pretty quickly went to about 2 minutes apart but if I ever sat down or got on all 4s to try and help my back pain everything would completely stop again. It was just like all the false labor I had in the past. Even when I was in active transitional labor, if I laid down the contractions would stop. This was the strangest labor ever, so different than my experience with Sawyer. My mom, sister, and David were taking turns walking the halls with me. David was trying to convince me to let them break my water to speed things up but I really didn't want them to. I knew I wanted to go natural with no epidural and I remember from my labor with Sawyer, as soon as your water breaks the pain gets SO intense. I didn't want to be in that pain for hours and hours if I didn't need to be. David was worried about my body wearing out from being there all night and kept urging me to let them break it. I decided to let the nurse check me and if I had made no progress I would let them break my water. Trying to walk back to the room from the hall took me about 5 minutes because the pain got really really intense and I couldn't move through them. (This is probably the moment I would have KNOWN I was in labor had I waited at home...and I had Cash about 20minutes, if that, later. Our hospital is 15minutes from our house and we wouldn't have had to wait for someone to come stay with Sawyer. Don't think we would have made it honestly!)
The nurse checked me and to all our surprise I was 7cm dilated! I was very encouraged and stood up to keep walking. As soon as I stood up my water broke. I grabbed my sisters arm and said "oh my gosh I have to push. I have to push right now". The nurse said get back in bed, let me check you! She checked me and I was an 8 (seriously less than a minute from being 7cm). I had a contraction while she was checking me and she said "you are a 9". Things got absolutely crazy from this point on. I was saying I have to push, I have to push and the nurse is yelling back at me "you can't push, you are not 10cm yet". It was physically impossible to NOT push at that point. My body was pushing for me and there was nothing I could do to not push. The nurse ran into the hall and yelled "I need some help in here" and about 3 nurses came flying in. They start trying to set up for the delivery and tear the bed down and I am yelling at this point "I AM PUSHING. I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE BED. I HAVE TO PUSH" My poor sister, I grabbed a hold of her and was using every ounce of my being to concentrate on her and not push. The nurses are yelling "listen to your sister, do not push" and Laura is whispering in my ear "you are in a hospital Megs, if you need to push then push, it's OK" hahaha love her. Just what I needed to hear. The baby was pushing and there was nothing I could do to stop it. The nurse kept yelling into my little phone attached to the bed that she needs the Dr, where is the Dr, I am yelling I need to push. It was insane! The Dr literally ran into our room, someone threw gloves on her and she sat down. One nurse had the nerve to tell me "you can't push, I don't have the bed set up" and I looked at her and yelled "I don't care about your bed". The dr was there, it was fair game in my book! I remember the nurse still trying to set the stirrups up and trying to put plastic under me as his head was coming out haha a little late sweetie! As soon as the Dr sat down I just relaxed my body and the baby's head popped out. I didn't even really push, my body was already pushing for me. I just relaxed and Cash did the rest. It felt SO good to be able to finally let my body push. His head popped out and then his shoulders slipped out and I immediately felt such relief. Just like that I was in NO more pain. It was crazy. We didn't know if it was a boy or girl and apparently when I was in transition I kept saying over and over that I wanted David to be the one to announce it (haha I don't really remember that part!). There was no announcement needed, she held him up and I immediately saw he was a boy! The first thing I said was "I knew you were a boy sweetie, I knew it". He was just perfect. They laid him right on my chest and he calmed down when he heard my voice. He was so beautiful and perfect. We all were laughing at how round he was! He is just the roundest little thing. They took him away to clean him up and he started screaming again. I told David to go talk to him and as soon as he heard Daddy's voice he calmed right back down. It was such an amazing and crazy experience. I was able to do it natural like I wanted and I'm so thankful I did. It was absolutely crazy and the most intense pain ever but I'm so glad I did it. By far THE most painful part of the whole experience was the last 7 minutes when I needed to push and they wouldn't let me! I think it would have been less painful if I could have just pushed when I was ready. What's funny is when we first got there, my mom told the nurse "just so you know, I have 3 daughters and all of them go really fast once they hit 4 cm and I was the same way with all 4 of my kids." The nurse was sweet but just said "ok, sounds good". After the labor was over she came back in and said "wow grandma you called that one! I wish I would have listened to you more!" haha I still cannot believe I had him within 1 1/2 hours of getting to the hospital. Things went from "this might be it" to me holding him in under 2 hours. It was so inane and intense!
We decided to wait to name him until the next day (we did this with Sawyer too). I needed to be able to try out a few options on him and see which one stuck. We knew we were using the name Walker because it's my grandma's maiden name but we hadn't decided if it would be his first name or middle name. I was leaning towards Walker as his first name but David really wanted Cash. He did look more like a Cash to me but I just couldn't decide. David came the next day and asked me what I thought and I said "I still don't know. I like them both" So David said "then let's name him Cash Walker" and that was that! I think his name just fits him perfectly! We absolutely love it! Cash walker was 7lbs 15oz 21inches long. He was born just after midnight on March 29th which just so happens to also be his cousin Jesse's birthday! (some of you may remember when I had Sawyer 2 years ago my oldest sister Laura was also in labor at the same time! Sawyer and Luke were born 2 hours apart but on different days b/c Soy was just before midnight and Luke was just after). My kids are destined to share birthdays with their cousins! Cash was an amazing nurser right from the beginning and has just been the sweetest best little baby. He had a lot of mucus and choking episodes at the hospital because he came out so fast, his little body didn't get to squeeze everything out of his lungs. My mom spent 2 nights with me and David spent the 3rd night (We had to stay an extra night b/c Cash was jaundiced) and we each just took turns holding him upright and suctioning him out all night long. If we laid him down at all he would start choking and sputtering and throwing up tons and tons of mucus. It was so sad. He finally cleared it all out of his system and has been so easy since. From the day we came home from the hospital he slept 4 hours at a time at night and the last few days he has gone 6 hour stretches. He is gaining great weight and nursing great. He passed his birth weight at 5 days old so I'm not worried about not waking him to feed anymore.
Big brother Sawyer loves his little Cash. He loves to hold him and asks for him first thing every morning. Anytime he leaves the room he says "come baby Cash". He is having a bit of a hard time not having so much of me. The first few days he cried a lot and wanted to be IN my lap or arms 24/7 but he seems to be settling in more the last couple days. Sawyer also had pink eye, ear infection, sinus infection and a fever when we came home from the hospital, so he was extra weepy those first few days. Overall he is adjusting pretty good. It's tricky when I'm nursing Cash and Sawyer starts getting pretty rowdy but we are figuring it out as we go. Today is my first day alone with the 2 boys and we have had a fun day so far. We did breakfast together, ran some errands, and both boys are napping now. Hoping to go to cousin Bo's Tball game later today if I am not too worn out. I did get a uterus infection again (I got one after Sawyer's birth) so that has slowed down my recovery some. With Sawyer I also got a kidney and bladder infection so I'm thankful for just the 1 infection this time. The first week was really really hard because I felt so miserable and Sawyer felt so miserable and poor David was keeping the house and all of us going. But I am starting to feel better each day and am just so happy to not be pregnant any more! If you made it this far, I applaud you! Future blog posts will no be this long I promise!
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Summer Swimming
Our swimming boy! Sawyer LOVES the water, it's been so fun having a pool in the backyard and taking him every day! Some videos of our little swimmer...we need to work on kicking those leggies but he is very comfortable in the water which is the 1st step! He is 15 months old in these videos!
Swimming to Daddy
Doing "Humpty Dumpty" into the pool and blowing bubbles
"jumping" off the step to Daddy
Swimming to Daddy
Doing "Humpty Dumpty" into the pool and blowing bubbles
"jumping" off the step to Daddy
Saturday, June 2, 2012
15 month catch up!
Sawyer is 15 months as of yesterday...how on earth did that happen?!!! I have let way too much time pass since blogging. What is new with our little guy? Well since the last post months ago, LOTS of things haha but I will just cover the basics! He has mastered walking and is starting to figure out running and jumping. It's so fun to watch his eyes light up as he takes off and giggles towards something. He is a very focused little guy, he is busy, busy, busy and knows exactly what he wants to be doing and cannot be deterred. I love seeing his personality come out more and more, he is SUCH a mix of David and I. He has my focus and (unfortunately) my patience, but has David's sense of humor and personality. He sleeps anywhere from 15-18 hours straight every night, such a Blessing with a capital "B"! We call him our sleeping Giant! God has blessed me with a great sleeper during this difficult time of life, he's such a good little baby (I may be bias though! haha)!
Word count at 15 months is: Mama, Dada, Nana, Hey, Hi, Night night, "gagalalala" (which means Mowgli hahaha), Baba (ball), Bbbbbbbbbb (Cousin Bo), Broom, and Bubble. He will mimic sounds and words after us but the above words are apart of his everyday use!
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| Soy LOVES his Cousin Naomi |
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| He reminded us of Tom Cruise in Risky Business walking around the house in nothing but his button up white polo! |
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| Such a Daddy's boy |
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| Every meal he puts his feet up at the table to eat |
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| Sitting JUST like his daddy! |
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| He is obsessed with sweeping! |
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| Craft time with the cousins |
Monday, February 27, 2012
taking steps! (videos!)
Our little Sawyer Boy is taking steps all over the place! He is definitely not walking yet but he is taking steps here and there. We have learned he is not a performer! All day long he walks from this to that, or across the living room (only takes about 5 steps at most though) but the moment we try to stand him up and have him walk his legs turn into little wet noodles! It's hilarious! He absolutely refuses to bare any weight and just collapses! We have been trying to capture his steps on camera for a few weeks now to no avail! Finally tonight we got a few steps here and there! You can see in the video he is not thrilled about it and would rather just be left alone to play with his toys but Mommy would not give up! I kept trying and trying hahaha poor kid! Enjoy the video of our little ham! (ps, please excuse his totally dorky outfit he's wearing! He is wearing his baby legs but then we put a pair of shoes on him right before we started taping so he looks totally goofy! He was doing pretty good in his new shoes though! haha)
Saturday, January 21, 2012
recap on life...
We fell off the blogging bandwagon. Life got crazy! A quick recap...
In October we drove out for my grandma's 80th birthday party thinking we would be in CA for a few days then return back to Vegas for a fun Halloween party with our church friends. We were supposed to drive out on Friday but decided VERY last minute to just throw some stuff in a suit case and hop in the car that night. I don't know why on earth we decided to do that, other than the fact that it was from the Lord. We called Mom and Dad from the road when we were 1/2 way there to give them the heads up we would be arriving at about midnight (this was Wednesday night). We got in late that night and Sawyer reached out for my mom who was sitting on the couch. He laid cradled in her arms for over 30 minutes, he just sat there perfectly still smiling at her and patting her chest. For those of you that know Sawyer, you know he does NOT sit still for more than 3 seconds, no matter how tired he is. It was the sweetest moment and I'm so grateful to have that sweet memory.
The next day my mom was at work (as usual) but when she walked through the front door at the end of the night I could tell something was wrong. She was walking kind of funny, she was slumping over some, and she just looked disheveled. She went straight upstairs to get changed and I looked at David and said "something is not right with Mom" I just had this feeling in my gut that made me sick. I left the baby with David and went to talk with Mom. I had just been with my mom 2 weeks before this and she was complaining of headaches but she was still busy, full of energy, doing a million things Mom. For a few years she has been mixing up her words and forgetting words but we all assumed it was just stress and exhaustion from working SO hard at her business. I was shocked at how much she had deteriorated in just 2 weeks of seeing her. I went up to talk with Mom and said "something is going on, we are not ignoring this any more and we need to go to the hospital RIGHT NOW." She was having NONE of it. She said she had a Dr's appointment in 2 weeks and she will be fine until then. I begged her, I cried to her, I tried everything to get her to go to the ER now and not wait. She and my dad thought she was OK though and it could wait until her appointment in 2 weeks. I went to bed and called my older sister Laura and my Aunt Karen and filled them both in. They both left me with the instructions of my one and only job the next day was to get mom to the Dr. For those of you who have not met my mom and dad, they are 2 of THE most stubborn people you have ever met (no wonder they bred 4 type A, extremely stubborn children!) I spent the better 1/2 of the next day convincing my mom and dad that we needed to get Mom into the ER asap. I thought she had maybe had a stroke or something, by this point she wasn't making much sense, her words were all jumbled, her hair was all messed up (SO not like my extremely stylish mom!) she could hardly walk straight. Finally after much convincing, we headed to the ER around 1:00pm on Thursday (my parents 38th wedding anniversary by the way). From the moment we walked in those front doors time sped up and everything changed. The Drs could tell right away something was wrong and got her into an MRI quickly. They came out and said she had brain tumor the size of a tennis ball and she had 6 weeks tops to live. We were devastated. There is not enough time or room to go into details of the few days and emotions that followed. It was the worst weekend of our lives. All the family was flying in for my Grandma's birthday so praise God EVERYONE was there. My poor sister Laura and her family live in CO and had to switch their flight by a few hours because Mom was deteriorating so quickly, we were worried she wasn't going to live through the night and that Laura wouldn't get to say goodbye (This was Friday, just 1 day after the diagnoses). Laura and her family made an earlier flight and were able to be at the hospital with us for what we thought was our last family time with Mom. Mom was only lucid for about an hour and I still feel so horrible for my sister that she was not able to process any of this with my Mom before everything changed. She literally flew in, sang some songs, said goodbye and within an a few hours my mom was unable to speak any more. She spent the night with her that night at the hospital. The next day (Saturday) we brought Mom home, she was so miserable and uncomfortable at the hospital. We knew we were not going to treat her there, we wanted her to be treated at City of Hope but they could not take her until Monday so we just had to get her through the weekend. They sent us home with all these medicines but she was comatose by the time she came home and it was clear within hours that she was dying and we could not treat this. The next 48 hours the 5 of us laid in bed with my mom (my 2 sisters, brother, me, and my dad). We never left her side. Our hubbies brought babies to us to nurse and brought food up to us to "eat" (though no one had an appetite...we all lost over 10 pounds that week). We just laid next to Mom and sang her favorite hymns, laughed about old memories, cried about future memories she wouldn't be there for. It was exhausting, horribly sad, yet comforting to all be together. It just happened so fast. There was no time to wrap our heads around what was happening. Sunday the hospice nurse came and said she has minutes to hours at most. We all just hugged her and cried and kept checking periodically to see if she was still breathing. Finally sometime in the wee hours of the night Dad sent us all to bed. He wanted one last night of he and Mom snuggling in bed together. He said when she dies he would make sure we were all there. So we all slept on the couches, in the hall, in our rooms...no one wanted to leave so we all just packed in. In the morning someone pounded on my door and said come quick. I jumped up and said to David "Mom's dying can you take care of Sawyer" I ran down the hall, I didn't have time to put my pants on! HA! I jumped in the bed expecting to hold my Mom's hand as she took her final breaths but instead was greeted with her saying "I love you". I looked around at one of my sisters (who was also pantsless...we have gotten a good laugh about that since then...) and I said "what? She is talking?" I was so confused. We all cried and smiled and hugged her. Her eyes were still closed but she was squeezing each of our hands saying I love you. It was such a blessing from God to hear her voice. She then mumbled that she wanted to go to City of Hope. The husbands put the seats down in our car, laid 2 of Osita's dog beds in the bag and covered it with blankets. My dad carried my mom down the stairs and laid her in the back of the car with my brother holding her. He drove to City of Hope that way. We still cannot believe it. She stayed overnight at City of Hope and almost died several times throughout the night. The surgeon almost called emergency surgery in the middle of the night because she was registering as almost no brain function. She made it to morning and had her brain surgery at 7am on Tuesday (just 5 days after her diagnoses). All of us kids were there with our new babies, those kiddos were troopers! Mom was awake within an hour of her surgery and DEMANDING to see all 4 of her kids at the same time (the hospital staff has a strict 2 visitors only policy but of course 4 ft 11 in Mom once again demanded her way and won. She still had the breathing tube down her throat so she demanded this all through hand motions.Quite impressive! HA!) Since the surgery she has had a roller coaster of a recovery. She just finished Chemo/Radiation and we are hopeful her brain and body can start recovering from this traumatic ordeal. We are so grateful for each day we have with my Mom. We were no ready to say goodbye!
David stepped in the 2nd day of all this and started doing Mom's job at her company. He worked for her for a few years in college so he knew enough about the business to keep things running until we figured out the next step. He drove home that weekend to our Vegas house and was met by about 25 of our new friends from church and my MOPS group and my mom's play group. They and their families ALL came to pack, clean and load our entire house. I am still in shock and in awe of their generosity and help. I cannot even begin to thank them enough. That is the true body of Christ right there. We had just met most of these people and they gave up their Saturday to help our family. It was the biggest blessing ever! We have since been living with my Mom and Dad in CA while David is running the business and I'm helping Dad with Mom. Life has been CRAZY, sad, hard, happy, and everything in between. None of us have had time to even process this traumatic few months but we are all slowly coming to terms with our new normal. I have no idea what the future will hold but for the time we are grateful for each healthy person in our family, we are grateful our precious Mom is still with us and grateful for the amazing people that have been helping with meals, groceries, babysitting, encouragement, moving and everything else in between. So the above story is why I have fallen off the blogging bandwagon! I hope as life settles in to get back to our little routine! If you have made it this far, I am sorry for my rambling! It's the first time I have written it all our and processed a lot of this. I will add a post soon packed full of videos of our sweet 10 month old! He is still the joy of our lives! He has been such a joy and blessing through all this sadness and I am SO thankful we have him!
In October we drove out for my grandma's 80th birthday party thinking we would be in CA for a few days then return back to Vegas for a fun Halloween party with our church friends. We were supposed to drive out on Friday but decided VERY last minute to just throw some stuff in a suit case and hop in the car that night. I don't know why on earth we decided to do that, other than the fact that it was from the Lord. We called Mom and Dad from the road when we were 1/2 way there to give them the heads up we would be arriving at about midnight (this was Wednesday night). We got in late that night and Sawyer reached out for my mom who was sitting on the couch. He laid cradled in her arms for over 30 minutes, he just sat there perfectly still smiling at her and patting her chest. For those of you that know Sawyer, you know he does NOT sit still for more than 3 seconds, no matter how tired he is. It was the sweetest moment and I'm so grateful to have that sweet memory.
The next day my mom was at work (as usual) but when she walked through the front door at the end of the night I could tell something was wrong. She was walking kind of funny, she was slumping over some, and she just looked disheveled. She went straight upstairs to get changed and I looked at David and said "something is not right with Mom" I just had this feeling in my gut that made me sick. I left the baby with David and went to talk with Mom. I had just been with my mom 2 weeks before this and she was complaining of headaches but she was still busy, full of energy, doing a million things Mom. For a few years she has been mixing up her words and forgetting words but we all assumed it was just stress and exhaustion from working SO hard at her business. I was shocked at how much she had deteriorated in just 2 weeks of seeing her. I went up to talk with Mom and said "something is going on, we are not ignoring this any more and we need to go to the hospital RIGHT NOW." She was having NONE of it. She said she had a Dr's appointment in 2 weeks and she will be fine until then. I begged her, I cried to her, I tried everything to get her to go to the ER now and not wait. She and my dad thought she was OK though and it could wait until her appointment in 2 weeks. I went to bed and called my older sister Laura and my Aunt Karen and filled them both in. They both left me with the instructions of my one and only job the next day was to get mom to the Dr. For those of you who have not met my mom and dad, they are 2 of THE most stubborn people you have ever met (no wonder they bred 4 type A, extremely stubborn children!) I spent the better 1/2 of the next day convincing my mom and dad that we needed to get Mom into the ER asap. I thought she had maybe had a stroke or something, by this point she wasn't making much sense, her words were all jumbled, her hair was all messed up (SO not like my extremely stylish mom!) she could hardly walk straight. Finally after much convincing, we headed to the ER around 1:00pm on Thursday (my parents 38th wedding anniversary by the way). From the moment we walked in those front doors time sped up and everything changed. The Drs could tell right away something was wrong and got her into an MRI quickly. They came out and said she had brain tumor the size of a tennis ball and she had 6 weeks tops to live. We were devastated. There is not enough time or room to go into details of the few days and emotions that followed. It was the worst weekend of our lives. All the family was flying in for my Grandma's birthday so praise God EVERYONE was there. My poor sister Laura and her family live in CO and had to switch their flight by a few hours because Mom was deteriorating so quickly, we were worried she wasn't going to live through the night and that Laura wouldn't get to say goodbye (This was Friday, just 1 day after the diagnoses). Laura and her family made an earlier flight and were able to be at the hospital with us for what we thought was our last family time with Mom. Mom was only lucid for about an hour and I still feel so horrible for my sister that she was not able to process any of this with my Mom before everything changed. She literally flew in, sang some songs, said goodbye and within an a few hours my mom was unable to speak any more. She spent the night with her that night at the hospital. The next day (Saturday) we brought Mom home, she was so miserable and uncomfortable at the hospital. We knew we were not going to treat her there, we wanted her to be treated at City of Hope but they could not take her until Monday so we just had to get her through the weekend. They sent us home with all these medicines but she was comatose by the time she came home and it was clear within hours that she was dying and we could not treat this. The next 48 hours the 5 of us laid in bed with my mom (my 2 sisters, brother, me, and my dad). We never left her side. Our hubbies brought babies to us to nurse and brought food up to us to "eat" (though no one had an appetite...we all lost over 10 pounds that week). We just laid next to Mom and sang her favorite hymns, laughed about old memories, cried about future memories she wouldn't be there for. It was exhausting, horribly sad, yet comforting to all be together. It just happened so fast. There was no time to wrap our heads around what was happening. Sunday the hospice nurse came and said she has minutes to hours at most. We all just hugged her and cried and kept checking periodically to see if she was still breathing. Finally sometime in the wee hours of the night Dad sent us all to bed. He wanted one last night of he and Mom snuggling in bed together. He said when she dies he would make sure we were all there. So we all slept on the couches, in the hall, in our rooms...no one wanted to leave so we all just packed in. In the morning someone pounded on my door and said come quick. I jumped up and said to David "Mom's dying can you take care of Sawyer" I ran down the hall, I didn't have time to put my pants on! HA! I jumped in the bed expecting to hold my Mom's hand as she took her final breaths but instead was greeted with her saying "I love you". I looked around at one of my sisters (who was also pantsless...we have gotten a good laugh about that since then...) and I said "what? She is talking?" I was so confused. We all cried and smiled and hugged her. Her eyes were still closed but she was squeezing each of our hands saying I love you. It was such a blessing from God to hear her voice. She then mumbled that she wanted to go to City of Hope. The husbands put the seats down in our car, laid 2 of Osita's dog beds in the bag and covered it with blankets. My dad carried my mom down the stairs and laid her in the back of the car with my brother holding her. He drove to City of Hope that way. We still cannot believe it. She stayed overnight at City of Hope and almost died several times throughout the night. The surgeon almost called emergency surgery in the middle of the night because she was registering as almost no brain function. She made it to morning and had her brain surgery at 7am on Tuesday (just 5 days after her diagnoses). All of us kids were there with our new babies, those kiddos were troopers! Mom was awake within an hour of her surgery and DEMANDING to see all 4 of her kids at the same time (the hospital staff has a strict 2 visitors only policy but of course 4 ft 11 in Mom once again demanded her way and won. She still had the breathing tube down her throat so she demanded this all through hand motions.Quite impressive! HA!) Since the surgery she has had a roller coaster of a recovery. She just finished Chemo/Radiation and we are hopeful her brain and body can start recovering from this traumatic ordeal. We are so grateful for each day we have with my Mom. We were no ready to say goodbye!
David stepped in the 2nd day of all this and started doing Mom's job at her company. He worked for her for a few years in college so he knew enough about the business to keep things running until we figured out the next step. He drove home that weekend to our Vegas house and was met by about 25 of our new friends from church and my MOPS group and my mom's play group. They and their families ALL came to pack, clean and load our entire house. I am still in shock and in awe of their generosity and help. I cannot even begin to thank them enough. That is the true body of Christ right there. We had just met most of these people and they gave up their Saturday to help our family. It was the biggest blessing ever! We have since been living with my Mom and Dad in CA while David is running the business and I'm helping Dad with Mom. Life has been CRAZY, sad, hard, happy, and everything in between. None of us have had time to even process this traumatic few months but we are all slowly coming to terms with our new normal. I have no idea what the future will hold but for the time we are grateful for each healthy person in our family, we are grateful our precious Mom is still with us and grateful for the amazing people that have been helping with meals, groceries, babysitting, encouragement, moving and everything else in between. So the above story is why I have fallen off the blogging bandwagon! I hope as life settles in to get back to our little routine! If you have made it this far, I am sorry for my rambling! It's the first time I have written it all our and processed a lot of this. I will add a post soon packed full of videos of our sweet 10 month old! He is still the joy of our lives! He has been such a joy and blessing through all this sadness and I am SO thankful we have him!
Friday, October 21, 2011
So proud of my hubby!
David was quoted in the Washington Times today! I'm so proud of him, and really admire his passion for politics. I honestly don't understand a thing about politics and government but David has always done such a good job of taking complicated political issues and "dumbing them down" for lack of a better term for me. We are so thankful for our hard working David! He works just as hard at home being a Daddy and Hubby as he does at his job day in and day out. We love you hun!
(click link below to see David's quotes)
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/oct/21/cain-tops-field-again-nevada-gop-straw-poll/
(click link below to see David's quotes)
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/oct/21/cain-tops-field-again-nevada-gop-straw-poll/
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| We Love you Daddy! |
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