Super Quick Summer Recap

The last several months have been a doozy!

In June, I turned 27! Eric took me out to Asian food the day before (his college graduation was on the 14th) and gave me a big birthday surprise, an iPhone!

On June 14th, Eric participated in Eastern Oregon University's commencement. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies with dual minors in Spanish and ESOL. 

My mom, sisters, Ella and myself went up to Catherine Creek Lodge in June to enjoy the Stake Mother/Daughter outing. 

On June 30th, we welcomed the newest member of our little family, Samson Roy Lougee. 

July was spent packing, taking care of the new baby and Eric doing three weeks of his Master's program at Eastern. 

In August, we moved! 

Our new house in Canyon City, Oregon. 

Eric accepted a position with Grant Union High School in John Day, Ore. as the Spanish teacher. He also teaches 7th grade Language Arts. 

Eric's first day teaching. 

And that's where we're at! 

A Beautiful Day to Be Born part 2

Finally at 7pm, Dr. Robinson returned. He checked me and said I was at about 6 cm. He asked if any of my irregular contractions were all that uncomfortable and I told him no. So, he ordered pitocin and he said he predicted we’d have a baby around 10:45pm. At 7:30 the first drips of pit entered my veins. Nurse Angela explained that she’d start me out on the lowest dose possible, wait 30 minutes to see if it did anything and then potentially up the dosage. She predicted that we wouldn’t get too high of a dose to get things started, I told her she just jinxed it. The minimum dose is 2 something or other and goes all the way up to 20. She upped the ante from 2, then to 4 and then to 6. It was probably around the 6 dosage that I really started to feel some contractions, but they weren’t super regular or unbearably painful. Then she put it up to 8 and at about 9 or 9:30 the contractions started coming on quite painfully. I should mention that my friend Teresa was there by this time and helped lighten the mood. Eric helped me breathe through the contractions and Teresa helped me laugh after them. We walked “circles” which were pretty pathetic because the labor and delivery floor was so small. At one point we were walking circles around rocking chairs in the waiting room.

My sister Zoey called around 10 or so, asking if she could come hang out for a bit. She did, and she brought french fries, which I couldn’t eat. Mind you, I hadn’t eaten anything except popsicles since 11am that morning. I was starving! (Okay, that’s not exactly true. My mom had brought Eric TWO Burger King Big Kings earlier in the day, even with the threat of aspirating food if I were to undergo an emergency c-section, I took a large bit of one of his burgers). So everyone was just hanging out, eating french fries and watching America’s Ninja Warrior. I had a yoga ball that’d I’d been sitting and bouncing on. It was quite the party! Things started getting serious fast, though. I had to boss Eric into a supportive position. As I went through what I assume was transition, I crawled up on the bed, with my arms on the back of the bed while kneeling. I remember saying, “I don’t want to yell, I just want to cry.” And then I did for a minute.

At 11pm, Dr. Robinson came in and evaluated me again (something he hadn’t done since 7pm). I was just shy of 10 cm, but they prepped the room and got me into pushing position. I also remember, I kept saying things like, “Oh mother!” and “Holy mother of crap” and “My mother!” One nurse eventually asked if my mother knew I was cursing her. I said no, but that I’d be happy to tell her afterward. My phone was playing some instrumental music that I distinctly remember hearing between each push...as we all sat quietly, waiting for the next contraction. I remember a song came on with a strong up-tempo and I commented to Dr. Robinson that he could tap dance to that one! My nurse must have decided I shouldn’t be able to make jokes between pushes so she sneakily upped my pitocin again! That was no joke. Pushing out Sam was harder and more painful than Ella had been. There was an intense amount of pressure that even pushing didn’t really relieve. I pushed for about 20 minutes, but it seemed so hard and long! Before his head was even out I said, “Just reach up and pull him out!”  I totally felt him crowning, which I barely felt with Ella. When he was crowning, I thought for sure I was tearing, especially because I felt a gush of warm fluid that I was sure was bleeding as a result of tearing. And then his shoulder got a little stuck, shoulder dystocia, and the nurses performed some pretty quick maneuvers with my legs to get him unstuck. Then his little bum didn’t slide right out and my nurse joked that it was “butt dystocia.” Finally, he was out! Sweet, sweet relief! They placed him on me and it is just such a surreal moment. Almost out of body for me. Here’s a little person you created! It’s amazing. He didn’t cry very well and stayed blue a little bit, but I was never too concerned.

After a couple of little cries they took him to clean him off a little and weigh him. When he had come out everyone had commented, “That’s a big boy!” And sure enough, he weighed in a whole pound and an ounce bigger than his sister. I was really surprised. I asked my nurse if I had tore and she gave me the pleasant surprise that I hadn’t! Dr. Robinson was up at the monitor by this time so I reached out and gave him a fist pound.

Then they brought little buddy back to me and tucked him under my robe. He was so wide eyed, just like Ella had been. So warm. So new. I was instantly in love.

After Thoughts:

Fun fact: So having your water break without contractions is called Premature Rupture of Membranes or PROM. This happens in about 1 out 10 pregnancies. I’m 2 for 2.

Also, I’m quite confident I would’ve gone into labor on my own if given another 12 hours or so. I did not love the experience of sitting in the hospital feeling like a sick person with IVs and fluids and monitors.

I did not necessarily go into this labor planning on having no pain medication. I wasn’t like, “Yes! I’m absolutely getting an epidural!” But I also wasn’t like, “No way jose! Au naturel pour moi, s'il vous plaît.” When I was initially talking to my nurse she asked what I was thinking of for dealing with pain and I said I wasn’t sure, that I wanted to see how things went. I guess she took that as a no, because later on I asked a couple of times about an epidural and she just kind of chuckled and brushed it off. So, yeah.

A Beautiful Day to Be Born part 1

It was about 3:20 am, early Monday morning, I got up to use the restroom as was pretty common in my very pregnant state. After using the facilities I went to lay back in bed. I checked the time on my iPhone and thought, “Well, I guess it’s not happening tonight.” Just as I was about to lay my head on my pillow, I felt a gush. I thought about it for a minute, debating whether I had peed myself or if it was my water breaking. I reasoned that I had just gone to the bathroom, and while it wasn’t uncommon for me to feel the urge to go to the bathroom again shortly after going, I figured I couldn’t have had THAT much urine left in my bladder. So, I headed back to the restroom to investigate. Once in there, there was another gush and I knew it couldn’t be pee. I got out a pad and decided to go do a Google search, of course, “My water broke, now what?” I debated whether to tell Eric just yet, as I wasn’t having contractions and I knew that he’d be anxious and possibly unable to sleep. I know how much my husband values his sleep, but in the end decided I better tell him. I also called my mom as she had explicitly said she wanted “warning.” Whatever that meant? I called her, told her my water broke, but no contractions yet. Eric and I, then unable to immediately go back to sleep, laid in bed on our respective Apple products. Talking, but mostly waiting. Eventually, around 5am, we both succombed to drowsiness and both fell back asleep.

A couple hours later we were up and going about our routine. Eric and my brother did some yard work, mowing the lawn and weed eating. I wanted to go to Wal-Mart. Eric demanded that I take a babysitter, so I rang my mom. Off we went to the store. I was really hoping contractions would soon start. I didn’t want to be put on pitocin. At Wal-Mart I started feeling a little desperate. Desperate enough to buy some castor oil, hoping that it might start my contractions. But, once I got home I just couldn’t convince myself to do it. At 11:30, I started feeling more light contractions, but nothing I would consider active labor. Around noon I finally rang the Family Birthing Center at the hospital. I knew they would want me in asap, and of course, they did.

We got Ella lunch and down for a nap. My mom came over and we headed up to the hospital, checking in to admitting just before 1:30pm. All this time I was leaking water, going through several heavy flow pads. I wanted to be believed this time that it was, in fact, amniotic fluid. You might recall, with Ella, they sent me home from the hospital, only to have me return about 10 hours later in very active labor. So, in an effort to be believed, I kept one of the pads….gross, right? Desperate times call for desperate measures.

We got there and I got hooked up to the monitor and they did a swab test for amniotic fluid. After having it done at this hospital, I am convinced that the folks in Hermiston did a poor swab test. Unlike in Hermiston, they had to send the sample down to the lab and we had to wait for confirmation that it was indeed amniotic fluid. Well, this took like an hour and a half at least. Finally, we got the confirmation and I was officially admitted, which meant I had an IV put in my arm. With Ella, there was never time for that. The nurse was trying to put it in while I was pushing and eventually she just gave up. So, I’d never had an IV before and it turns out I hate it. They are awful! I was checked and was dilated between a 4 and 5. After this, we waited. And waited. And waited. I started getting super annoyed. Ask Eric.

Excitement at being at the hospital. 

Irritation after waiting forever. 

Apparently, after my arrival a bunch of “sicker” women checked in. Sometime in the late afternoon or early evening, the on-call doctor, Dr. Robinson came and introduced himself and said he was headed into a C-section and after that he’d come evaluate me. I had never seen Dr. Robinson before, and so our nurse, Angela had given us some info on him. One tidbit was that he was a bit like the guy on Princess Bride who says “Inconceivable!” This meant little to me as the one time I watched some of that movie, I was actually asleep. She also said there was a video of him tap dancing. All interesting things to learn about the doctor who might soon deliver your baby. During this infinite waste of time called “waiting” Eric and I went on a walk out to the third floor terrace. June 30th was a beautiful day. Blue skies, no clouds, mid-80s, the valley was still green and glorious. I said to Eric, “It’s a beautiful day to be born.”

Around the House

Thought I'd share some recent projects I've done around the house.

With my experience with Ella, cloth diapers make the best burp cloths. 

So, I dyed several blue for baby boy (yeah, I should probably do a post about that, huh?) 

We converted Ella's crib into a "big girl" bed back in December. Then, several weeks ago we converted her closet into a bed nook area. I think it's pretty cute and cozy. 

The banner is the same one that was used to decorate at her baby shower. 

Ikea spice rack, painted and used as a book shelf. 

That doll with the green eyes and brown hair is quite old! 

Ella and her Douglas. I found that pillowcase (and its twin) at second hand store. They looked like they'd been folded in an old lady's closet for years. 

Ella shows us how her bed works...

The curtains are made of an old, cloth shower curtain cut in half. 

I also used chalkboard paint on the inside door of her closet for some easy chalk access. 

(Disregard the bare bum, that's her usual home outfit). 

So there ya go. 

The Great Christmas Tree Hunt of 2013

Yesterday we headed out on our becoming annual Christmas tree hunt. It was a bit of an adventure. We didn't want to have to drive too far down the freeway, so we tried going up Owesly Canyon first, not realizing they close the road off to motor vehicles from October to March. 

So, feeling slightly defeated, we decided to try the National Forest area by Hilgard. After a few dead ends and a tour of the slightly creepy neighborhood, we found a legitimate forest service road. Taking our chances over mud, ice and some good sized holes in the dirt road, we pulled off and began the search. 

And then Eric found it! She's a prickly little Spruce, but she looks great! 

Ella was pretty interested in the whole sawing the tree down. First she watched to see what dad was doing and then she took the saw cover and went to town. 

Her she is mimicking her pops. 

See her blurry hand? Saw saw saw. 

Nature's tree farm. 

Then she started getting a little impatient. Particularly with me trying to take her picture.

Waiting for Dad and refusing to acknowledge Mom and the camera. 

The proud lumberjack. 

The best thing about our tree? 

It's so prickly I don't see Ella trying to take too many ornaments off! 

Veteran's Day Parade

I'm behind in my writing! Here are some pictures from the Veteran's Day parade we attended. I was glad that our school district didn't have school that day and that our community took time out to recognize and honor our Veterans.