Okay so maybe it was just one baby shower but it was gorgeous. Very Pinterest worthy! Over the weekend a friend of mine (who was 20 weeks behind me while I was pregnant :)) had her baby shower. Her little bundle of joy is due the end of November (I want to say the 27th which would be almost exactly 20 weeks behind me…). Wow time is flying by! It seems like she was just finding out and now she’s about ready to pop! I’m soooo dang happy for her too!
My peanut went with me to the shower. My SIL happened to be there and she asked if she could get baby girl out of her carseat. I said of course and then Baby Girl SCREAMED. BLOODY. MURDER. I have no idea what came over her. I claimed she just wanted everyone to know she was there. She was also, oddly enough just as content sitting in her carseat in a chair pulled up to the table like a big girl I guess. That’s where she stayed most of the shower until she had to have a diaper change (do you think the word diaper is weird or am I alone on that?). My SIL changed her for me so that I could get Cassie pictures. Well then Liss and baby girl were buddies. I guess it’s the initiation, if you change the diaper you can’t be so bad?
Baby girl was the youngest in attendance, but she was in good company, there was another baby who was 5 1/2 months. So, from here I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.
I knew that the nurse came in to take my vitals but hubby and I were so exhausted that we wound up going right back to sleep. I remember passing my arm across the bed at the nurse but I’m fairly certain she took my blood pressure while I was asleep.
When I woke up closer to 7:30 that Saturday morning hubby and I discussed breakfast and he called our order down to the cafeteria and then we got baby girl up to hold her. After we ate hubby started packing our things up because we were told we’d be able to go home that day. My doctor came in and released me, we were just waiting for baby girl’s doctor’s nurse practitioner to come in and check her/release her to go home.
Nurse Shanie who gave us a tour of the delivery area a few months prior was our nurse that morning. She and the Nurse Practitioner came in and checked baby girl over, answered a few questions that hubby and I had and said that she was released. So hubby continued to pack up our things so we could leave as soon as we were discharged.
My mom called and asked if we needed some help. I told her if nothing else, please come to our house and watch baby girl so at least hubby and I could shower and take a nap. The night before was a bit rough. She said she’d just head into the hospital and help us finish loading up and then she’d be more than happy to watch baby girl for us.
Around 11:30, I was still in the hospital gown but otherwise everything was packed up and had been moved to the car, except for what I needed to change. We were just sitting in the room waiting for the nurse to come release us. Finally hubby asked me if they forgot about me and told me to come up with something I could ask them.
As you may or may not know, they have you wear those mesh underwear things in the hospital so I finally thought I’d go ask if I could wear my actual underwear home. I know, it was a stupid question but I needed to do something to get the nurses attention. They told me of course I could and asked if I was ready to go home or if we were eating lunch there. I said, I’d prefer to just go home, I really don’t have any reason to stick around here unless I need to. They told me to go get dressed and when I was, come let them know and we’d go through discharge papers.
I walked back in the room and asked hubby to come into the bathroom and help me dress and then we’d be ready to go. I was kind of excited. 2 days in the hospital was long enough for me. The only other time I’ve been in the hospital like that was when I was born and I obviously don’t remember that.
Once I was dressed and got everything packed up that was still waiting I went out and told the nurse sitting at the desk. She said Shanie would be right in as soon as she was finished doing what she was doing.
My mom helped dress baby girl in her going home outfit, we snapped a few photos and then we were out the door running.
Okay I wasn’t running and neither was anyone else. Shanie wheeled me out of the building (protocol), hubby carried baby girl in her carseat (also protocol, babies have to be strapped into carseats before they are allowed to leave the room), and my mom, FIL and hubby grabbed what ever was remaining in our room to go home and then we finally got to head home.
We put our stuff in the car, my mom took my prescription to go get from the pharmacy and we headed out of the hospital parking lot. It was a crazy feeling, even though we’d only been in there for 2 days to leave there. The driving home part was sooooo surreal. I snapped a picture of gas prices on the day baby girl got to go home.
When hubby and I were headed home we called my MIL so she and Tbug could come over. We got to the house and unloaded baby girl. My mom got there with my prescription just after we got home. She decided to run to the Amish store up the road to get us lunch. Then since my MIL was there, my mom said she had things to do at home so she went ahead and headed home. My MIL and Tbug watched baby girl while hubby and I took a shower and then went and took a nap. While we were napping, Earl and the kids came by to see Peanut for a few minutes and then she went home to make dinner (for us too).
Later that night Earl, Pokey and the kids came back with Lasagna for us. While they were here they watched Peanut while Tbug, Memaw, hubby and I ate. We all sat here and watched a movie. About halfway through the movie Earl and I went and put Peanut in jammies that Pokey picked out especially for her.
Then we settled back in to watch the movie. Peanut made some of the cutest faces while we sat here and watched the movie. In fact, I have no idea what movie we watched because I watched Peanut more.
Then about the time that Earl, Pokey and the kids went to leave, Moo and Tbug gave peanut a kiss. And then we were on our first night home as a new family.
Since the nurse came in and said that we needed to get breakfast ordered by a certain time I woke hubby up and asked him to call in our order. We both looked at the menu. I ordered Biscuits and Gravy with a side of bacon and peaches with orange juice to drink, he ordered a ham omlet with bacon with orange juice to drink. Our hospital is awesome because they make it so the father’s (and kids) can order off the same menu and it’s one flat price.
Once they brought breakfast and hubby and I ate, the nurse came in to check on baby girl and me and to bring me pain meds and a prenatal vitamin. After that they let us be. Hubby and I started watching Friends and I had baby girl in the bed with me. After my nap with her, hubby took her so I could get up and go to the bathroom and they took a nap together.
At one point that morning a social worker came in to visit with us. Apparently that’s the new common standard, everyone has to talk to a social worker, that’s what she told us anyway. It seems strange to me because none of my friends have experienced this. Anyway she asked us questions and I upset her… note to self, never tell a social worker the carseat is in the trunk. I must clarify that we packed everything for the hospital 2 weeks prior to needing it, just in case so I put it there so I had use of my back seat. She asked if we had a carseat for baby and I said, yes it’s in the trunk. She got on to me for that. I clarified for her that the carseat base was in the back seat, but I carried the carseat in the trunk until it was needed. She yelled at me prior to my clarification and told me Babies NEVER ride in the trunk and I should never tell a social worker that.
Between naps we had visitors come to see us. We had the preacher, Deb, Michelle & Shaye (they brought cupcakes!!),
my mom and Tbug, my MIL, my FIL and so many more I kind of lost track. It was fun because they came between naps so we got to nap on Friday. Around 4pm just before Doug and Rachele got there to see her the nurse came to take her away and do some testing as well as the hospital photos of her.
We had exceptional nurses our whole stay at the hospital. The last night there though (Friday night) we had nurse Nazi as we affectionately referred to her. There was a standing rule that we were only allowed 5 people in the room, including hubby (guests, not Peanut or me in that 5). All during our stay there were a few times we had a few more but people came and left so it wasn’t like I was over the limit long. That night though Earl and her mom walked in on 5 people already in the room and nurse Nazi kicked them out. Told them they were not allowed in until 2 people left.
Okay that was the rules but dang, the director of obstetrics never got on to us about that… but okay. Then that night she yelled at hubby for dozing off with baby girl in his arms. If he was going to sleep, she had to be in the bassinet. Again, we’d taken naps with her all day but okay. I was in the shower when that happened. Then later in the night hubby was asking the nurse about feedings and it took forever to get an answer out of her. Oy! Luckily that was the only night we had to deal with nurse Nazi.
So there is no nursery. The babies stay in the room with the parents at all times unless the nurses take the baby out to the nurses station. They offered that night to take her but I figured she’d be okay with us. Then around 2am when she wouldn’t quit crying and hubby and I were exhausted, we asked the nurses if they’d be able to watch her for a couple hours so we could get some sleep. They came in and took her so they could give her a bath and kept her until around 5am when they brought her back in the room. They took my vitals and we all went back to sleep.
After they had her all cleaned up and gave her to hubby and me, they asked if we planned on bottle feeding or breast feeding. Said that if we planned on breast feeding we needed to try within 1 hour after birth. Finally once the nurse had all of her information/procedure done including removing the IV’s and the catheter from my epidural, she said we were allowed to have 5 (including hubby) visitors in the room. I honestly can’t tell you the order anyone came in. And I was having a hay day because I still couldn’t feel my legs.
They told us that they had a bet going on in the waiting room on how much she would weigh. Tbug came in with the most accurate at 7lb 9oz. Then Memaw, Grandma J and Earl guessed 8lb 2oz. Mom guessed 8lb 1oz, my FIL guessed 8lb 6oz and my dad guessed 11lb 2oz so that when she came out at 6lb 9oz we could laugh.
Earlier that morning I woke up sooooo thirsty but watching all the tv shows where people have babies, you’re not supposed to drink anything so when this was all said and done the first thing I requested was water. Yup, water. I could have had anything I wanted to drink (obviously within reason… lol), the nurse offered and all I wanted was water. Then we also ordered suckers that said It’s a Girl for everyone since it’s no longer cool to give out cigars… lol :).
We chose to use the pediatrician that Earl uses for her kids which just so happens to be one of the two who comes into the hospital and also happened to be the on call pediatrician this week. She came in to check on Peanut and said all looked well. Yey :).
We had lots of visitors. In fact later on the next couple of days I started listing the visitors and can’t remember them all I’m afraid. I have a huge list though!
Then our nurse came back in to give Peanut her bath. She wasn’t so crazy about the sponge bath.
Finally they released me to eat. Thank goodness! I was hungry. I ordered a cheeseburger and fries. YUM! I woofed my food down. Mom and dad went home to do chores and eat dinner and then came back to pick up Tbug since she wanted to eat dinner with us.
The nurse got tickled at me because as my legs were waking up I kept commenting on how they felt. For the most part my right leg was completely back awake other than a few spots here and there still felt asleep but my left leg… that was another story. I could feel from my knee down but from my knee to my hip still was out of it come around 7-8pm. I had asked at 4 how long it would take to come back and they said about an hour. By the 7-8 time I really needed to go to the bathroom. The nurse was afraid to let me walk to the bathroom though because she figured since my leg was still like it was I would wind up on the floor.
She wound up changing the bedding so she agreed to let me move from the bed to a chair she sat next to the bed. Since I did so well moving there she grabbed my left side and made hubby grab my right side and they walked me to the bathroom in case my leg gave out. I had no problems though :).
Earl had gone home earlier that evening but somehow (whether she offered or hubby asked) she went to our house to pick up some things we left earlier that morning. One of the things hubby had her pick up for us were seasons of Friends since that’s what we normally go to sleep watching anyway. We were trying to create a sense of normalcy in all this chaoticness.
Everyone left us around 11pm that night. Hubby and I were exhausted.
The nurses came in around 2am (Friday morning) or so and took the Peanut off for a bath and to run the hearing test on her which she passed with flying colors. Then when they brought her back, they took my vitals and asked when the last time she had been fed was. The funny thing about these nurses were they were the same ones that checked me in at 2am (Thursday morning). I told them we’d tried feeding her but I was afraid that she wasn’t getting anything so we decided to give her a bottle to make sure she was at least getting something in her tummy. So we had our first of many of 3am feedings.
Then we went back to sleep. Hubby kept the bassinet next to him since he was able to get up easier than I was. She would make noises in her sleep so I’d wake him up, he’d check on her and we’d go back to sleep. Around 7am Becca came in to check on us and take my vitals. She asked how I was feeling and I replied, Exhausted. She said, okay well I’ll come back later to do more. Just to let you know it’s almost 7 and if you want breakfast you need to order it by 8am or so to get it down here.
We planned on revealing to our Sunday Night Dinner friends what the sex of the baby was as well. They tried and tried to pry it out of us but neither of us would budge. Tbug found out Saturday and was sworn to secrecy. While we were at breakfast on Sunday morning after church the kids and adults were even trying to get it out of Tbug but she didn’t budge. I think we annoyed people but I wanted to do a cake for them as well!
Hubby decided he didn’t want me to have to stress out to make a second cake so he went to the store and ordered this cake. This was actually where he and Tbug went Saturday morning while I was decorating the peanut cake.
When he placed the order he showed the lady from their book the exact cake he wanted. The lady asked what he wanted it to say, he said, exactly what that picture shows. So he sent Tbug to go look at pizzas and told the lady, she doesn’t know but the baby is going to be a girl. The lady ignored him. So a few minutes later he said again, the baby is going to be a girl. Finally after being ignored that time he was like, are you going to write it down somewhere that the baby is going to be a girl?
When we picked the cake up Sunday hubby was scared one of 2 things… the outside was going to say it’s a girl instead of Open to see…. or else it was going to be blue instead of pink… lol :). It was a surprise!
So we showed up at the Superbowl party/Sunday Night Dinner with the cake and I kinda guarded it so one of the kids didn’t stick their finger in it… JT really wanted to stick his finger in it just to be ornery but I wouldn’t let him!
We finally decided that we should open the cake before kick off, plus we’d all eaten before this anyway so it was definitely dessert time! Earlier in the week Earl really hurt her foot and is on crutches but when I asked who was going to cut into it, she volunteered so she got up and everyone gathered around. We had bets going as to what everyone thought and I’ll bet it was about half and half maybe. Anyway some were shocked and some were like, “I knew it!”
And yey, the lady got it all right!! :). After we had our two big reveals I put this picture up on facebook with the comment that hubby must have a goal in life to be surrounded by women… lol 🙂 btw, Tbug looks soooo enthused right? I think she was annoyed with pictures at this point :).
If you watch football any at all, you’ll know the last few years haven’t really been good for the Kansas City Chiefs. In fact they were 2-14 last year and this year they made the playoffs. Hubby and I were invited to some friend’s house to watch the playoffs, KC Chiefs against the Indianapolis Colts.
Don’t worry there is only Coke in my Red Solo Cup :).
There was lots and lots of great food! I made Pepperoni Rolls. Dani got back from Germany and brought French and German Chocolate. There was salsa, chips, salami, pepperoni, cheese, crackers, cinnamon rolls, and oh goodness much more.
The game may not have turned out the way we wanted, they lost to the Colts by 1 point, 44-45. We still had a lot of fun with friends while yelling at the tv. At one point Deb was grounded to the kitchen to eat because every time she went in there they did good. I got grounded to the bathroom at the end because same thing, they did good when I left. One TV kept blacking out so at halftime 2 went into the bedroom to watch so we blamed it all on them. It was a great evening is all I have to say!
So Monday when I logged in and started reading blog posts I stumbled across Kenzie’s post of the US. The trick is, she drew the map and then filled it in. I smarted off that she didn’t know where I lived (it’s not drawn on her map) and that got us into discussing this which caused her to challenge me to try drawing the map as well.
Now, first off I’m NOT an artist, but here’s my map.
I got all 50 states. That was the first defeat! In the west I placed Utah in the wrong place :(. And because I didn’t draw the states to their actual size, it kind of scrunched states into places they really don’t belong, but I have them in the right place/order. On the East coast I switched New Hampshire with Vermont, Pennsylvania with New York, Massachusetts with Connecticut. Otherwise, if I had drawn the states to the right size, they’d have all been in the right place.
Just to prove it 🙂
This so reminded me of the Friend’s Thanksgiving episode when Chandler challenged all of them to name all 50 states in 5 minutes. So yeah, anyway, there’s my map, are you willing to give it a try? If so please let me know!!!
And tomorrow is Thanksgiving so I hope you all have safe travels to your destinations. Spend time with family, Eat way to much and have a fantastic weekend!!! I love you all!
