our baby story

My New Man

Beckett has won my whole heart. I don't feel one bit guilty when Kenny comes home from work and asks about my day and I realize I wasted about 6 hours just watching Beck sleep.

He just had his 2 week doctor's visit and he was a champ. He is still doing great! He eats like no one's business and gains over an ounce a day so he weighs 7.8 lbs now and has grown 1/2 inches so he is 20 inches long.

Here's some fun facts about the little guy:

• He can projectile poop about 2-3 feet.
• He won't take a binkie from me (he knows I have the real stuff)
• He is ticklish like his dad
• He will not wake up from a nap if anyone is holding him, he loves being cuddled
• He grunts when he poops
• He only pees on me
• He has the cutest smile but it only lasts a few seconds at a time
• He loves the car and going on walks
• He closes his mouth like a clam when he decides he is done nursing

I'll add more fun facts another time but here are some fun pictures. Kenny says I can't post the videos because no one besides me would want to see hours of him sleeping so hopefully these pictures will satisfy.

He loves the car and sleeps like a baby the whole time

Beck and his grandpa, both sleeping of course

Trying to get a picture of him with his eyes open...didn't work out so well

He likes to roll himself to the middle of the couch

I like to think I'm his favorite place to sleep.

Beckett Kent Turley was born Friday May 20, 2001 at 8:32 pm. He was 6 lbs 13 oz and 19.5 inches long and perfectly healthy (what a wonderful blessing!). He is literally the cutest thing I have ever seen and I'm so happy to say that I love this little guy so much. I had no idea that I could love something so much, so quickly.

So here’s how everything went...

I had my membranes stripped on Wednesday but besides feeling like my period was going to start, nothing happened. On Thursday evening, I went to a work out class that my friend Brit was teaching for relief society to try to get things moving along and by 11:00 pm I was having contractions about 5-6 minutes apart. I woke Kenny up around 2:00 am to help me get the bags packed and make sure we had everything ready to go. My contractions stayed pretty inconsistent all night long, sometimes they were 3 minutes apart, other times they were 7 minutes apart. We went out on a walk around 7:00 am and then we went to hospital. I had no idea if I was really in labor because my contractions were still sort of irregular. They checked my cervix and I was 100% effaced and dilated to a 5 so they called my doctor and admitted me.

We walked around that labor and delivery floor so many times to try to get my contractions to get stronger but my body just didn’t want to get the job done! They broke my water around noon and that definitely stepped up the contractions but after an hour I was still only a 6. So I asked for pitocin (it makes contractions way stronger and consistent), by this point I just wanted to get the show on the road. The pitocin completely changed my contractions, before that point I could handle them on my own, but after...I thought I just might die. After almost 2 hours I asked if it was too early for the epidural and of course it wasn’t, but for some reason I thought they wouldn’t do it until I was farther along. The epidural was NOTHING compared to the contractions and it worked nice and fast.

At 6pm I was dilated to a 10 but because I had the epidural they wanted to wait an hour for me to start pushing so that he could descend more on his own so I wouldn’t have to push as long. At 7 I started pushing. The nurse warned me that “this could take a while”, I asked how long “a while” was, and she said that 2 hours for a first time mom is the average and 3 hours of pushing isn’t uncommon. After 10 minutes of pushing I said no freaking way can I do this for 3 hours. The epidural was wearing off pretty fast but I didn’t want to push the button for another dose because I was already pushing and it wouldn’t have made much difference anyway. Pushing was the hardest thing I have ever done. I tried really hard to stay active and fit throughout my pregnancy and I have no idea how I would have done it otherwise. That’s my one bit of advice...do yourself a favor and keep yourself as fit and healthy as possible to make the delivery not quite so bad. I got nauseous about a half hour in and threw up for a little bit which was not fun at all. Thank goodness my mom was there to cool me down with a rag and hold that little basin to vomit in. After about 45 minutes of pushing we could see his head crowning so they called in the doctor. Dr Craig was the doctor on call and she did an awesome job. His head just would come out, it was so close for about a half hour and then finally Dr. Craig decided that we needed to do a small cut on this band or something that his head couldn’t get past. (It was a band of skin inside that just wasn’t stretching). Once she did that, I pushed once and he came right out. It was immediate relief and they put him right on my chest and cleaned him off. He had the cutest husky little cry.

I tore in two places and the little cut inside, and those stitches did not feel good. It’s funny though, all the little things I was so worried about, like delivery the placenta (totally didn’t notice that part at all), and tearing, or pooping in front of everyone while pushing, were totally out of my mind. All that matters is pushing and getting that little baby here. The hardest part is that it’s excruciatingly painful, its exhausting (physically and emotionally), the contractions are like every 30 seconds apart, and you push 3 times per contraction and you have to keep doing it. You have no other choice. You’re the only one that can get this baby here and no matter how much support and help you have from the nurses or doctors or spouse, it comes straight down to you. It was an amazing experience though...I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Recovery has been okay...as okay as it can be I suppose. I was super swollen right after because his head had got stuck for so long so I couldn’t pee on my own. I didn’t mind having the catheter that first night because it meant I didn’t have to get out of bed to pee. Saturday, I pretty much stayed in bed the whole day since moving was such an ordeal with the catheter, the soreness, and my body being so weak (I bled quite I bit during the delivery so I was quite shaky and weak). Oh and when the nurses push on your uterus every 15 minutes after the delivery that hurts so be prepared.

Sorry this post is super long, I just wanted to get everything written down now while its still fresh. Beckett is a week old today and is still doing great! He is awesome.

A Fortnight and Cake

Tessa has been counting her friend’s mission in fortnights so it’s taught me what a fortnight is...2 weeks. I can make it two measly little weeks right? I have progressed a little farther now. At my 37 week check, I was measuring at 2+ and was 75% effaced and his head was a little lower. Here’s a funny little coincidence! I have been telling this baby boy to come on May 18th, I don’t know why, that day just sounded nice. So I asked her when she will strip my membranes and she said at my 38 week checkup. BUT she doesn’t work on Tuesdays (and my visits are always on Mondays) so she told me if I wanted them stripped then she suggests I change my visit to Wednesday so if I do go into labor she will be my doctor. So I changed my appointment to Wednesday which just happens to be....MAY 18th!

I made this beautiful and delicious chocolate cake to celebrate Tessa's birthday and Kenny's graduation! It was so yummy but I definitely can't take the credit. A friend gave me the recipe from this blog: http://eatdrinkandbemorrey.blogspot.com/.

I'm so proud of Kenny for graduating! My family came up to celebrate with us and it was so nice to have support and love during such a fun and exciting time! Kenny is the first, on both sides of his family (including extended) to decide to go to college and graduate so I would say that's a pretty big accomplishment. Love you babe!

And here is another picture of me in the kitchen...I literally think every picture of me being pregnant has been in our kitchen. This is my 37 week belly. Huge right? At least you haven't seen it without clothes on...its totally alien-ish.

34 weeks and counting the hours...

Seriously, I don’t understand those women who love being pregnant…I really don’t love it. But on a positive note, my back pain is much better…but I think its diminished because the he moved right up by my right rib. He loves that spot right on my rib cage, I can’t tell if it’s a bum, head, or back, but some larger part of him is always right there. I can feel when he gets the hiccups now and it makes me feel a little sorry for him because I just don’t enjoy the hiccups at all and he gets them a lot.

Kenny and I are taking a Lamaze class and it has helped me understand what’s going to happen as I get closer to labor and what happens once I’m in labor. (Even if the video of an epidural birth made me cry out of fear).

Oh and listen to this major bummer! I made some onsies for the little guy with some pictures, words, etc that I cut out on my mom’s cricut onto freezer paper so that I could iron them on and then paint them. One design I was fairly excited about was the male gender sign. I cut out the “Male” gender sign on the cricut and then ironed it on, painted it, and voila! Right!? Not right. Apparently whoever made the silly program I was using got the signs mixed up and I now have a blue female gender sign on my son’s onsie. (I’m pretty sure it was the program’s fault and this little mistake has absolutely nothing to do with my pregnant brain).

Other non-pregnancy related news...Kenny got a job at the hospital! We are so excited because now he can finally start getting the patient experience he needs to get into PA school! Hopefully he can apply this summer and get in for next fall, 2012.

I'll post pictures of the nursery, which is close to being done (I think), and maybe my belly (which is not as cute as the nursery). Apparently I really like eating because every picture Kenny has taken of me lately, I'm either cooking on the stove, looking in the fridge, snacking on something in the kitchen. So I'll wait until I can get a better picture, like maybe when I'm stuffing my belly with food.

Carry On Through Week 26

Week 25: My appetite is ferocious! I ate at 8:30 this morning and by 10:30 I literally felt like I was halfway to the grave. I am going to die if I don’t eat every hour and a half. I have never felt like this before and it’s horrible! It could always be worse though…I could still be nauseous and vomiting before the hunger pains even hit. So all in all I assume it’s nice to feel hungry without the nausea, I just hope my body doesn’t spontaneously drop dead because it’s gone 3 hours without sustenance.

Week 26: We now have a crib, mattress, changing table, changing pad, and glider! The nursery is sure coming along. It helps me feel like I have more of a handle on things when I see progress and have control over at least one part of our lives. Kenny didn’t get into PA school this year and is now re-thinking about doing med school instead. I always thought that once I got married, all of my difficult decisions were over…I couldn’t have been more wrong! It’s so hard to know what do to and where we need to be and how we need to get there. I told my boss that I am planning on staying home once we have the baby…but the stress of not working is making me wonder about that choice. How did you moms out there decide what to do about work? I know sometimes there aren’t a lot of options (which is how I’m feeling right now) but how do you deal with it either way?

Slowly but surely we're getting more and more ready for this baby to come and now we have our glider re-upholstered and painted! Too bad the primary use of this cute chair is going to be those middle-of-the-night feedings. I still need to recover the ottoman but I don't think that will be too difficult.

My stomach is now 5 inches bigger than it was - even though it looks way bigger than 5 inches to me. I have gained 6 pounds so far, according to the doctor, and my scale is still locked away in a closet so I don't drive myself crazy.

Maternity pants are heaven. I don't know why it has taken me this long to be willing to wear them!

Exercising still feels great, although running has become a lot more difficult the past week or so because it makes me have to go to the bathroom the whole time! I think the baby likes bouncing on my bladder or something.