Well, shit...

...and lots of it. Seriously. Hey Adam, remember that time you were worried he was constipated? Um, how 'bout no, notsomuch...

Adam's new catchphrase: "That kid shits in straight lines!" Right off the changing pad and onto everything in the vicinity it seems. Haha, poor Adam always gets the really bad ones somehow. Poor daddy. Not to mention the inevitable accompanying waterfall. Don't worry, I get my fair share of monstrosities to deal with too. I love it when he goes through two or three diapers in one changing—that's my favorite. LOL! But what the hell can you do but laugh and move on with your life? So that's what we're doing. Day by day; diaper by diaper.

Happy Dude Date, Stormy Tyler!

Today is when we expected you...boy, did you catch us by surprise!

Three weeks and two days later, and you are obviously ready to party, lol!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Labor... appropriately named...

So that's why they call it labor! It is laborious.

Let me 'splain... No, there is too much. Let me sum up. [/Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride]

I woke up in the middle of the night, or rather, very early in the morning Monday, May 4, at 2 a.m. and got up to go to the bathroom, per my usual nightly ventures. Well, to say the least, I barely made it this time. This was NOT the usual nightly venture; I knew pretty quickly it was much, much different. Within minutes, I started having pretty persistent cramps. I waited a short while and called the doctor when they didn't subside. (Trust me, I wanted to call right away, but the book told me not to, that I should try to wait to determine if it was false labor or true.) My OB suggested I take some Tylenol and try to time the cramps (aka CONTRACTIONS! holy shit!). She said if it was true labor, the Tylenol wouldn't relieve the pain. Bingo! So they were coming pretty fast and furious from the get-go—about five minutes apart. I called her back; she told to me to go ahead and go to the hospital and she would see me there!

So what did I do with my "waiting" time, pending the doctor's decision that a trip to the hospital was in order? Well, fortunately we had packed our hospital suitcase and put it by the door the day before so I didn't have all that much to do. Talk about timing, lol! So between the cramps and the thousand bathroom trips, I walked around the house since I had read that it helps the pain. Seriously?! Who decided that horseshit? Anyway, I busied myself with putting the last of things for the baby into a diaper bag (read: threw some clothes in his bag without really looking at what I chose...so much for an adorable "Going Home Outfit" pfft!) I grabbed the bathroom bag and my pillow and the phone chargers and a few other items we'd need, and got ready for what I knew would be the inevitable word from the pro. So when I talked to the doc for the second time at 4:30 and got the go-ahead, I quietly got dressed, turned the lights on low, and as gently as I could, woke Adam from his sound sleep. His reaction: "What? Are you serious?" Lol! Well, yeah! I'm not fucking with your head at 4:45 a.m. just for shiggles! Then...I guess it was kind of unexpected being over three weeks before our due date, come to think of it...

He was up and bouncing around our room in seconds trying to figure out what to do first. I'm not sure he'd ever been so shocked in his life. Somehow, I remained calm and told him to take a minute to wake up, gather himself, brush his teeth and whatnot. The last thing we needed was him driving us to the hospital completely dazed, and with morning breath on top of it. Ok, I confess I was thinking of myself... if he was gonna be in my face "comforting" me, I didn't want any a.m. halitosis making it worse, lol!

We arrived at the Emergency entrance of the hospital by 5:30 and were admitted directly to a labor and delivery room. Here's where I sum up. Perhaps a timeline will suffice?

5:45 a.m. ~ Nurse on duty comes in, does an exam, can't find my cervix, thinks I'm fully dilated. oh fuck! you've got to be kidding!
5:46 a.m. ~ Dr. on call comes in, does an exam, can't find my cervix, thinks I'm fully dilated. double fuck! are you serious?! is my reaction. is it even POSSIBLE to dilate that fast? it's been less than four hours since my water broke! this "exam," by the way, is more painful than labor, y'all, honesttoshit. I'm not exaggerating.
5:50 a.m. ~ Dr. announces there might not be time for an epidural. WHAT?! oh shit, oh shit, oh shit... and so on. All I could do was mumble to myself. And I have never seen such fear on Adam's face. I think he was trying to mentally prepare for how he was going to help me get through labor without medication. I would've been terrified too.
5:51 a.m. ~ Epidural can't happen until they have pushed a full bag of fluids through me, so they put a pump on the bag to rush it as much as they can. *fingers crossed that there's time*

The next hour or so was a crazy, mind-numbing blur of activity. I was only partly present for most of it. My contractions at this point were only a minute or so apart. There were a ton of nurses and techs in the room getting everything ready. The anesthesiologist was there setting up. A random nurse who'd come into the room to get something was trapped in by all the equipment; and thankfully so as she ended up being my salvation in the whole mess of the moment. The guy had a helluva time with the epidural seeing as in my condition by that point, I could NOT hold still for him to stick the splint in. Aforementioned nurse shoved a pillow in between us, wrapped her arms around me as tightly as she could, and helped me to breathe. I shook; she held me still for the needle. If not for her, I know that damned thing never would've made it into my spine.

6:45 a.m. ~ They kept asking me if I had any urge to push. I said I had no idea what that meant. They said, oh, you'll know it when you feel it... WHAT in the HELL?! I thought I was supposed to be getting numb, not "feeling" things. I was so tired, and now even more confused. Well, thanks for that wealth of knowledge, assholes!
7 a.m. ~ All was right with the world again; the epidural was successful, and I was on my way to numb.
7:15-ish a.m. ~ The next Dr. on duty, who would end up being my delivery Dr., Rebecca Banks, came in for another one of those awful "exams." *shudder* I braced myself. Well, guess what? She found it! My cervix! Imagine that...it was still there the whole time! I don't know where the hell the other two went looking for it, but they were not in the right place apparently. *eye roll* I was about three to four centimeters dilated and 100% effaced. Once the epidural had me numbed to the point that I could no longer feel the contractions, which had slowed as a result, by the way, I was put on Pitocin to help speed them back up again. Fine with me! Let's get this shit over with already!

The rest of the timeline is a little bit skewed on account of the exhaustion of the previous hours of pain and then the utter relief of the drugs kicking in and doing their jobs. But basically there were phone calls amongst family members going on, my brother had shown up at the hospital, gone home, and come back. My dad had booked a flight to Atlanta and would arrive around 2. My mom was on her way from Florida and made it by noon, I think. Adam's mom was in the waiting room maybe? I don't really remember. Everyone was telling me to rest. Sure, stop coming in my room every two seconds, and I'll do that...

12:45 p.m. ~ We start pushing. They were right; I knew it when I felt it. And it felt like an eternity. With every round, the nurse and Dr. kept saying, One or two more and he should be here! But there were a lot more than "one or two more." Adam stood vigilantly by my side holding one leg while I pushed and my hand while I rested. His voice and the doctor's were the only two I listened to. I could hear everyone else cheering me on and everything, but it was all so jumbled and frustrating. The nurse's counting was so off of what I had going on that I started counting to myself instead. My foot kept slipping on her stupid glove. I chose her to hate during my delivery. Of course, I couldn't have done it without her, lol, but I needed someone to be pissed at to get the job done. Dr. Banks, on the other hand, was amazing. When I could focus on nothing else, she would catch my eye and straightforwardly give me instruction, to which, miraculously, I followed to the T, despite having no patience or strength left to call my own. And Adam just knew me so well in those moments. He knew just what to do, just how to act, just what I was thinking about everything going on.

2:17 p.m. ~ Stormy's arrival. He's beautiful. Just perfect. They wiped his face and layed him on my stomach. Tears and smiles. And as happy as I was to see him and touch him, I was happy as well when they took him over to the table to clean him up and get his stats. I needed a few minutes to let it all soak in. It was over, and he was here. And he was safe and healthy, and we were all together as a family, and that's all that mattered.

And so, I figured today, Stormy's Due Date, was as good a day as any to finally publish his delivery story. Welcome to the world, beautiful boy!

Hour Zero: Little Dude Time

I've come to realize over the past ten days that the hour on the standard clock doesn't really mean much at all. Lately, I'm running on a variable-time clock that resets itself every two to four hours, depending. On the little dude, that is...

Currently, it's about 2:45, Little Dude Time (LDT). For the rest of you, it happens to be 3 a.m. You'd think I'd be sleeping, but thanks to Adam practically locking me in our room when he got home from work last night, I had just woken up from a 3+ hour nap the last time Stormy woke up. And I have been famished for two hours and 3o minutes, LDT, on account of sleeping through dinnertime and taking care of you know who for the last couple of hours. But what goes up, must come down; and he's down for the count. For a little while anyway...

So, I'm here, letting it all out, and relishing in the fact that I just ate a bowl of Cheerios in the middle of the night. In fact, I should go ahead and stuff my face some more, while I have the time! *mentally scanning the kitchen pantry* I could have anywhere from 15 minutes to another hour before the LD clock resets. And I'd venture to lie down for a few minutes of that time, but if it's only 15 minutes I have, waking up would be sheer torment to my nervous system.

Really, that nap did wonders, I tell you. This is the first night I haven't wanted to cry for the past few. Don't get me wrong, this kid loves to sleep! And he's more than willing to let us catch some zees too. But my brain has been in a continuous debate with my body since we came home from the hospital. Do I get the stuff done I need/want to get done, or do I sleep? I'm trying to find a balance between the two somehow. A lot of times, I'll lie down to rest only to find that I'm creating To Do lists in my head. And then there's always one last thing to do before I can really relax enough to drift off.

Last night, I called Adam into our room (after lying there for a few minutes trying to read myself into a sleepy submission) under the pretense of asking him to turn on the ceiling fan. Then: Hey, would you make sure Stormy doesn't roll over? He needs another blanket to keep him up on his side, I said. Ok, he answered, and began to shut the door. I could tell he was onto me... Before the door hit the casing, it reopened with Adam sticking his head back in and saying, Everything's ok now; go to sleep, and the door closed behind him. And I cried...from utter exhaustion hitting me full-force, from feeling like I was abandoning my child, from the pure relief of knowing that I could actually sleep soundly for a while...I don't really know why. But I cried myself to sleep. Oh, don't worry; it took all of three minutes before I passed the fuck out for over three hours. LOL!

Yeah, I've heard it a million times already: Sleep when the baby sleeps. And I do actually take a nap most afternoons, sometimes holding him in my arms. Other times when he's sleeping, I just watch him breathing in and out and listen to his soft baby noises, amazed by the fact that he's here and that he's so beautiful. And other times, I scurry around the house, trying to cram in some laundry and dishes before Hour Zero comes around and we start all over again. It's all about balance. (And it helps to have a husband who's willing to force you to lie down and take care of yourself once in a while!)

Every day, I take a little time of my own to remind myself how truly fortunate we are to have the time together that we have as a family, no matter who's clock we're running on.

First Sponge Bath — This is the Life!

Getting ready...

Help Meeeee!!!Hey, that's nice and warm!

This isn't so bad!
Snug as a bug...
...and ready to fight the next time we try to pull that bathtime stuff on him! Check out that left hook, hahaha!

Mother's Day Surprise

Little did I know this Mother's Day would be my first official, and I couldn't be happier that it was!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Welcome Stormy Tyler!

Remember that last post? The one where I was talking about lack of sleep? HA! So much for that! Less than 24 hours later, I was awake yet again, but for a completely different reason...

Please join our family in welcoming to the world

Stormy Tyler Antell!!!

He was born at 2:17 p.m., Monday, May 4, 2009. Weighing in at just under 7 lbs. (6 lbs., 15.8 oz.), he was a whole 20.5 inches tall! When he introduced himself, he had dark curly hair and dark gray eyes; he was so bright-eyed and content as you can see in the picture! Almost immediately we could see he had my wrinkly forehead and expressions, but with every day that goes by, he looks more and more like his daddy—so adorable.

Well, you can imagine, having spent the last nine days getting to know each other, there is a lot to say, so I'm gonna get to it. : ) I'll try to break it up some, though I could go on for days and paragraphs about our little dude. LOL! Adam and I agree he is the most amazing thing we have ever seen, and we are so overjoyed with him we could both burst with pride and love. And we are so happy to be sharing all of this with you all. Be sure to check back often: There's a lot of stuff coming your way!

Sleep as a Precious Commodity

So, here it is, approximately 6:45 a.m. on a Sunday morning, and the third or fourth (?!) time this week I've been awake before dawn and wondering what to do with myself... I mean, honestly, what do you "morning people" even do at this hour? This is totally nuts. Don't get me wrong: It's a lovely time of day, what with watching the sky light up, seeing the first outlines of the tree-tops, listening to the birds wake up and get on with their day. But really, even Mac the turtle who lives in our front yard isn't roaming around in the grass yet, and he lives out there where there is no shutting of the blinds to keep out the light; where there are no pillows to put over his head to hide from the early sun.

A "morning person," I am not, nor have I ever been. (See entry below.) And I'm not being a curmudgeon about being up early; I kind of enjoy the quiet of it all. I just don't know what to DO with myself right now! It's not that I go to bed too much earlier than I used to. Could it be the naps I've been taking, or just the simple discomfort of staying in one position for too long? I don't think I buy the *cough*bullshit*cough* theory that my body is "preparing" for the long, sleepless nights when the baby's first born (because really, aren't the days sleepless too? ...yeah, I thought so. ha!). I like to think my body is smarter than that and knows it should be sleeping right now while it still can! But I've actually been waking up well before 6 a lot of these days. Sometimes I can force myself back to sleep reading a few pages or just turning away from the window and burying my face in the pillow, like I imagine Mac's doing in some bed of leaves out there right now, I'm sure. But on mornings like this, when my hard-working husband actually has the chance to sleep in, I relent to torture him with my tossing and turning, and I succumb to nature's time clock and forgo the pull of my own. (Come on, Adam has to put up with my shit all day! The least I can allow him is a good night's sleep... haha.)

Well, now the coffee's done brewing and I chopped up a cantaloupe that's calling my name, so I guess that's one thing I can go do. Eat breakfast—yum! Maybe I'll clean out the fridge after that...I don't know; but if I think of enough things to do to wear myself out this morning, maybe I'll be ready for a nap after lunch! Nothing like falling asleep with a good book for an aftenoon nap. Ah, home sweet home (and by "home," I mean my bed)!

[/end bitchfest] Thanks for listening! LOL!

G-Ma Sprout’s Blog Entry

Well…this is long overdue, huh? Just wanted to share a little insight with Stormy about his Momma, and share a few baby photos.

Born 21 Sept. 1978 – 9lbs 6ozs, 20.5” at 10:35 pm…She’s still a night owl~ she was born without too much hair, but that rapidly changed. It grew in thick and curly just like her Daddy’s. Has always been brown too. She looked so much like her Daddy that I used to be jealous, but she DID get my cleft chin. No one EVER said how she resembled me when she was a baby…well she didn’t, so I guess that was to be expected.

She was a cute little thing. Always smiling, creating mischief from the time she could grab things. I remember her Dad putting her crib right under the thermostat in her bedroom and I was thinking that wasn’t such a good idea. But, Dad didn’t realize how well she could pull herself up in her crib I guess – so we awoke the next morning to ‘pieces’ of the thermostat everywhere – to include her mouth! Needless to say, we got a new thermostat and her crib changed locations quickly. She loved taking baths and being naked! Some of her favorite things were puzzles, books; especially story time. She hated her swing though cause it usually meant ‘nap-time’ and naps were just never on her agenda.

Believe it or not, as she got older, she became very shy with everyone. Her first time in pre-school, the teacher called me for a conference (after 4 or 5 months) to find out if she knew how to talk! (What happened???) Eventually she came around. The first love of her life was Jamie Lamerding – a little boy her Grandma used to babysit. She stole kisses from him every chance she got! She learned quickly how to get what she wanted from us too; and it wasn’t by pitching a fit and crying. She was extremely charming and ‘cute’. She would smile and roll her eyes at you like ‘aw come on…you know you want to’. Giving up was never her forte either.

Trust me Stormy, don’t try to pull any shenanigan’s with your Mom…she knows ALL the tricks! The stories I’ll be able to tell you…mmm mmm mmm. Gonna be FUN. Plus remember, Grandmas and Grandpas let you do almost everything that Mom and Dad won’t let you do…hehehe. We figure that after dealing with being the ‘responsible’ one for so long with our kids, we earned the right to spoil the grandkids with too much love and attention. We usually have more patience too.

I can’t wait to meet you; show you all her embarrassing pictures and tell you all the stories in person! I especially can’t wait to hold you, cuddle you and take naps with you. I just hope you don’t turn out like your Mom there…she really didn’t like to be cuddled much – too independent!

Hugs and Kisses
Grandma Mary

~~~
~~~

Two weeks old

First Christmas: 3 mos. old

Seven mos. old in the tub!

Nine mos. old with first kitty, Smitty!