So to finish out my story on our amazing addition to our family...

I've been telling people that Ronan is going to be our difficult child. He had to be turned cause he decided that being head down wasn't cool, and then I had to have my water broken to finally get him here. Actually giving birth was great. No drugs, low lights, soft music, very little talking. Thank you HypnoBirthing and my amazing cousin Hannah for introducing me to it! After Ronan was born, he of course peed all over me, so after some good cuddle time I got up and changed before visitors came. I was feeling pretty great, but at about 3:30 I started to feel really crampy and asked everyone to step into the small waiting room inside of our room so that I could get up to go to the bathroom. The second I leaned forward to get up I felt a huge gush and looked down to find that I was bleeding, a lot. Dan went to get the nurse to help me to the bathroom, but as I moved I only bled more. I then I had to lay down as the nurse pushed on my tummy to remove clots. Gross, I know. With help, I finally made it to the bathroom and got into the tub to clean up, I was super excited because I was going to finally shower, but this became delayed when I had yet another clot, this time about the size of a tennis ball. I was still feeling okay, but the nurse made me return to bed without a shower. Not 2 minutes after she left the room I started feeling really cold, and then my head got really warm. Dan got the nurse and next thing I know my bed is being leaned back and an IV is being inserted into my hand. Of course we had just removed my other one not an hour before. The nurses checked my vitals and my blood pressure had dropped to about 74/40. I don't really know much about blood pressures, but I know this is way bad.

After getting fluids into my body through the IV I started to feel better, but was still having quite a bit of bleeding. Throughout the evening the nurse came back in about every 30 minutes to torture me by pushing extremely hard on my stomach to check for clots and throughout the night she came in every 2 hours. Luckily, with some medicine my doctor prescribed I was clot free throughout the night and shortly into the morning rotation my nurse decided to go easy on me. I was finally allowed to shower and since I "behaved" all evening as my amazing nurse Lauren would say, I was informed that we got to go home! Yay! Another day there may have put me over the edge.

So anyhow, we're home and life is good. I'm still super sore from my day of torture, but other than that, we're all doing well. Dan is home with us all week, and next week when he goes back to work, Collin will go to daycare for part of the day.

As promised, here are some pictures of our precious boy.

7 lbs 8.8 oz

Our first family photo

Dr. Lowden - she's amazing

Our nurse, Lauren - we love her!

Collin loves his baby brother

Getting ready to go home - this is the blanket I made

It doesn't get any sweeter than this

He took an hour and a half nap in his cradle today! What a good boy!

Ronan Michael

He's finally here! Ronan Michael was born Monday, February 23rd at 10:30am. (I'll post pictures later. Right now I'm too tired to go upstairs and get the camera to download them) He weighed 7 lbs 8.8 oz and is 18 1/2 inches long. He's absolutely beautiful and perfect in every way. He looks like his big brother in some ways, but has his own unique qualities as well. He has more hair than Collin did, and it is much darker. Maybe he'll look more like me?



I started having contractions Sunday night at 7:00 and around 2:30am we headed to the hospital. I was dialated to a 5 so they decided to keep me. Unfortunately, nothing else happened. at 7am I was still at a 5 and my contractions had slowed. So at 7:15 they broke my water and things took off from there. At 10:30 he entered the world and instantly changed our lives forever, and for the better.



...I'll writ more later. All the grandparents just arrived with dinner!

turn baby, turn

So we've been waiting somewhat impatiently for the baby to turn into the correct position. A couple of weeks ago the doctor told me I was dialated to a 3 and that she would not be surprised if I went a little early. Super! But what if the baby hasn't turned? So my options became, turn the baby with an external version, or have a c-section if he doesn't turn on his own. Neither option was really appealing to me, so we decided we would just wait and see what happens. I spent countless amounts of time on my hands and knees with my booty in the air hoping that through some devine intervention my little guy would gain some sense of direction and turn head down. It wasn't working. So at my last appointment my doctor asked me again if I wanted to try the version. She's had a very good track record with it in her 10 years experience and was very confident that it would work. I still didn't want to do it, but I went home to discuss it with Dan as that or a c-section were looking like our only options.

We talked, and I cried and in the end, my fear of a c-section outweighed my fear of a version. Plus I think I would have kicked myself if I had not given myself the chance for a natural birth.

So on Thursday evening, February 12th, we went in to have the baby turned. Through protocol an anesthesiologist (sp?) came in to explain the epidural process just in case something would happen. Listening to her talk about sticking a needle into my back made me confident that I wanted to try the version.

The process took 3 tries, but only 5 minutes. I have to say that it was NOT comfortable, and was worse than what I remember giving birth to be. Of course I basically had a perfect birthing experience with Collin.

So the version was successful. My baby is now head down and ready to roll. I'm a little sore, but the good news is, there is so little room in there that the chances of him turning back are pretty slim.

Now it's all just a waiting game. Hopefully he gets here soon. We're ready.

Ronan Michael 36 weeks

monday madness

Every now and then, when I'm in the mood for a good bubble bath, I simply poor in some bubbles and hop in the tub with Collin. There really isn't a time I can take a bath other than when he's already in. So tonight seemed like a perfect night for a bubble bath. The weather is yucky, my back has been achy, and above all, it's Monday. So Collin and I took a bubble bath together, and what a bubble bath it was! I decided to turn on the jets for a nice back massage, which totally freaked Collin out. The best part however was the amazing amount of bubbles the jests created. Had Dan been home I would have made him take pictures. Don't worry, there were so many bubbles in the tub that our heads were all that could be seen. Collin kept trying to sit back down, but then there would be bubbles in his face, and when he tried to wipe them off, he only put more on. We spent a good half hour in the tub laughing and throwing bubbles at one another. It was great.

In other news...

I tried my hand at cutting hair for the first time last night. I decided that it's really not worth 10-15$ to get Collin's hair cut professionally. I mean really, he hardly has any hair. So while he was in the tub last night I gave it a little snip snip. I think I did fairly well for my first time out...?

forgive and forget

Isn't it wonderful how kids love you unconditionally? Collin is at that amazing stage in which he forgets in minutes how mad he just was at mommy. I hate losing my patience with him, but hey, it happens. Especially being pregnant and after a super long day of work with some seriously energetic preschoolers. So Collin loves throwing food and then asking ever so politely for more. My reaction: "Are you kidding me? You just covered me in pasta and you're asking for more?" So I take away his food and make him sit without for a while. Then we try again. However, after having food thrown at me 3 times we're done, and he's mad. Now I didn't let him starve or anything. He did eat 2 crackers, a few bites of pasta and half a banana. As he screams at me I say the "magic" words: "Are you ready for a bath?" And through his tears he replies "yeah". And we're done. No more crying. No more yelling. I get the bath water ready, bubbles included and we're laughing and playing again. Aren't kids amazing? I don't know what I would do without my sweet toddler. Temper tantrums and all.