I guess I should finally write my blog post about how Adelaide came into this world.  Reader beware: I'm not writing this for anyone but myself.  I want to remember the horrible, gross, and wonderful details about her birth down the road, which means I won't be holding back any details.  You are now warned.

My due date was July 3rd.  That day came and went like any other day, and so did the next day, and the day after that.  I wasn't having any contractions for a few days, if not a week, and was worried what my doctor would say when I saw her on Friday the 6th at 1:20pm.  She checked me out and I was 3cm dilated, but was 70-80% effaced this time.  (When I saw her a few weeks prior I was 2cm and 70%.)  She kept saying, "I don't know why you haven't gone into labor yet.  Your body is totally ready so I just can't believe you are still here and not in the hospital."  She stripped my membranes to see if that would move things along, and boy, it sure did!  Just in case that didn't work though she scheduled for me to be induced on Monday the 9th.  I was pretty bummed that I would have to wait until the 9th.  I really wished she would have scheduled me that night because I really wanted the baby to be born on the 7th.  I just liked the sound of 7-7 better than any other date in July...don't ask.  That and I was SO over being pregnant.

On my drive home from the doctor I started having cramps, like period cramps.  It wasn't too bad, yet.  I got home and was talking to Zach about what the doctor did and how I was feeling and blah blah blah.  I talked to Julianne and she told me not to wait until my contractions were consistent and all that stuff they tell you to wait for before going to the hospital, but to go in when I started having contractions for them to check me out and see if they'd keep me.  So as I was sitting down in the office telling Zach what my mom (I talked to her on my way home) and Julianne had told me, my back started to REALLY hurt, and I was still cramping.  I knew we would end up going to the hospital that night.  I don't know how I knew, I just felt like this was it.  And then I had to run to the bathroom to have diarrhea. That happened at 3pm. I don't know if it was a sign that labor was soon, or that I was freaking out because it was finally going to happen. Then I had the "bloody show" and knew labor was imminent. After that was over with, I was frantically trying to get things done and finish packing the hospital bag.  The contractions were coming stronger and my back pain wasn't easing up.  I started to time my contractions, and soon I felt like I couldn't walk through them.  They were not regular at all, but definitely getting stronger.  I forced myself to eat a little something because I hadn't eaten all day, finished packing the hospital bag, straightened up the house the best I could, took a bath, and then when we decided it was time to go to the hospital, I took a quick hot shower.  The back pain was just terrible, and the hot shower was doing very little by that point. We left our apartment a little after 6pm. We stopped at Subway on our way because we were really in no rush to get to the hospital., and it was rush hour traffic time--which was one of my worst nightmares--I did NOT want to go to the hospital during stop-and-go traffic.  I wasn't even sure they would admit me because the contractions were not regular and the doctor had stripped my membranes a few hours before. I forced myself to eat a kid's size sandwich, not knowing when I'd be able to eat something again. At Subway I could not concentrate on anything! I'm sure the workers thought I was a complete brat. Im guessing those teenage boys didn't know I was in labor.

The traffic was surprisingly not bad on the 217. We got to the hospital, parked, and made our way to the labor and delivery floor. When we went to check in, the lady at the desk asked me questions like when was my due date, when had I seen my doctor last, and how far apart were my contractions.  I told her the doctor stripped my membranes and I was having irregular but stronger contractions.  She looked at me like I was stupid.  Apparently stripping the membranes doesn't usually work that fast.  She said, "Well, doing that will cause cramps."  I said, "I know that, but they are getting stronger and a lot more painful AND my back is killing me."  I think after I said that I kind of had a painful smile on my face and she asked if I was having a contraction right then, I said yes and she said, "Well at least you can smile through it." in a you're-not-really-in-labor, you-idiot sort of way. I couldn't even say anything.  I had to do the painful smile because I wanted to yell at her and punch her in the face!  We were then escorted to a triage room where I would be monitored.

We got into the room a little after 7pm.  I went to the bathroom, undressed, put the nice hospital gown on and jumped onto the bed.  I wanted to be admitted quick so I could get that wonderful epidural!  The nurse came in to check me.  I wasn't any farther along than I was earlier that day.  I had to do that whole thing about telling her that the doctor stripped my membranes at 1:30 that same afternoon...and then her thinking that I am crazy for coming in so soon.  She hooked me up to the monitors and came in every so often to look at the paper to see how my contractions were looking.  My back pain was by FAR the worst.  They NEVER went away.  Every single time she came in, she had to readjust the contraction monitor.  It wasn't picking up the contractions well even though I was in a lot of pain.  She even told me it doesn't pick up the back labor very much...and like I said, that was the worst part.  At about 8:30 she came back in and told me that the on-call doctor said I had two options: go home and wait for it to get worse, or walk around for about an hour.  I said, "ummm, how about I don't want to do either one of those things." We both just kinda looked at each other, and I knew she wasn't going to let me get away with not doing one of the options, dang it.  I ended up choosing to walk the halls.  I was not about to go home and wait for the pain to get worse.  I thought the pain was already pretty bad!

Zach and I started our very slow paced walk around the labor and delivery floor.  I had to stop walking when a contraction hit, lean against Zach, and have him massage my lower back.  All while I would say "oww oww oww" over and over and over again until I could walk again.  After each contraction I felt like throwing up because of the pain.  I think we did about 4-6 laps, like I said, I was super slow.  We passed by the triage nurse desk and she told us just to do one more lap and we could be done because I was having to stop so many times and was clearly in a lot of pain.  At one point, I am ashamed to say, I cried through one of them.  Not because it hurt so bad, but because I was over the whole thing.  I did not want to walk around anymore.  I did not want to go through the whole labor thing.  I wanted the drugs and didn't see an end to the pain in sight.  I was SPENT.  My back pain was EXCRUCIATING at this point.  We got back to the room at 9:15.  I went to the bathroom because I felt like I was going to have diarrhea again.  But when I got to the bathroom, a contraction came, I steadied myself on the wall and tried to breathe through it the best I could.  And after the contraction I got really nauseous and threw up.  I had never thrown up due to pain before. (Side note: I've never really been a fan of Subway to begin with, and since I threw it up and you could tell it was Subway...yeah, I won't be eating there for quite some time!)  The nurse came in as I got out of the bathroom, I told her I threw up, she hooked me back up to the machines, and checked me.  I was now dilated to a 4 and 80% effaced.  She left the room and said she'd check on me again later.  I swear it felt like HOURS before she came back, when in reality, it was probably less than 10 minutes.  But during that time I was having horrible contractions/back labor.  I was laying on my side (facing away from Zach) clutching the bed rails for dear life.  I wouldn't let Zach touch me.  For some reason it seemed to make it worse, and I was embarrassed because of how I was acting.  I could not deal with the pain.  The nurse finally came back in, looked at the paper--which was still not showing the contractions well--and said, "I can tell you're in a lot of pain.  Just try to breathe through it."  Umm what do you think I'm doing?!?!  It irritated me to no end when she told me to breathe through it.  I was trying to but the back labor was KILLING me.  She left the room saying she would go talk to the doctor to see if they would admit me.  Pretty sure I freaked out after she left.  I was so worried that they wouldn't admit me because the paper wasn't showing how strong the contractions really were.

She came back in and said they were going to admit me and someone was getting the room ready for me.  While we waited for the room to be ready, she put the IV in my hand and took some blood.  I have no idea how much time passed before my first labor and delivery nurse came to get me.  She wheeled me to the room and gave me some medication (phentenol?) that would take the edge off while we waited for the other lady to give me an epidural.  I definitely still felt the contractions and back labor, but it did take the edge off and I felt like I could manage it a lot better.  We didn't have to wait long before the anesthesioloist came in to give me the epidural.  I really don't remember much from when the nurse came to bring me to the room and the time before I got the epidural.  I was out of it!  I could not concentrate on anything except I had to stay perfectly still while she did it.  Any questions they had, they had to ask Zach.  And she went over the risks of the epidural, and I couldn't even pay attention.  She had me sit at the edge of the bed with Zach holding my legs.  We waited for a contraction to be over before she stuck the needle into my back.  Honestly, it was not bad at all.  I don't even remember it hurting or being uncomfortable.  And then all of a sudden, everything was right in the world again and I felt amazing.  I remember looking at the clock after I got the epidural and it was almost 11pm.  Longest and most painful 4 hours of my life.  I can't even fathom or imagine going through labor without drugs.  Especially if you have back labor.

After I had the epidural, I had to change positions a few times every hour. That way not just one side would hog all of the wonderful drug. After the epidural was in full effect, I was checked again. I don't think I progressed any further, but I remember the nurse predicting I'd have the baby by 4:30am. Zach brought in our bags, and we got settled in. It was around midnight when we both tried to get some rest, which Zach was very successful at. Between switching sides and the blood pressure thing on my arm that would turn on every 20 minuets, the sounds of the machines, and the nurses coming in to check me and the machines, I couldn't sleep.

I'm pretty fuzzy on all the little details, so I went through my texts to see what was happening when. At 1:05am I was 6cm, 90%. At 3:10am I was 9cm, 100% and my water still hadn't broken. A little while later the nurse came in to see if it broke yet. It hadn't. She was pretty surprised because I was 10cm and had been for awhile. She came in periodically to see if the bags of water were still intact, and told me to push the button when they broke. I asked her if I would even feel it since I was numb down there. She assured me I would, so I just waited. By 6:40 still nothing happened, so she had the bright idea to stick her hand up there and then tell me to push. She told me to take a deep breath, hold it, and push like I was having a bowel movement until I couldn't do it anymore. So I pushed once and she said it was perfect and do it one more time. The second time I pushed, my water broke all over the nurse...while her hand was still up there. She let out a "ughhh" and we both started laughing. That woke Zach up. He asked what happened and the nurse said, "your wife's water just broke all over me!" We all started laughing again, and I asked Zach if he heard it, which he didn't. I couldn't believe Zach didn't hear it. It sounded like a water balloon popped. I don't remember if I felt my water break, but I most definitely heard it.

The nurse left to consult with the doctor. When she came back she have me two options: I could start pushing, or I could labor down. Labor down means you let your body do all the work without physically pushing. The contractions would push the baby down, and when I felt pressure to push, I would. I was once again worried that I wouldn't feel anything because of being numb. She told me I would...okay...So we just hung out waiting.

At 8am there was a shift change. I was sad to see my nurse Amanda go. I really liked her. The new nurse, Margaret, checked me and was very surprised I didn't feel any pressure yet. She left to find the doctor, but told me to press the call button if I felt anything. Not long after she left I started to feel a little weird, not pressure, just weird. I told Zach that I felt weird and I needed him to check it out down there because I thought her head was about to come out. His response, "umm yeah...you should call the nurse in here..." To this day I still don't know what he saw. I'm pretty sure he blocked it out of his memory. Anyway, I pushed to button, and she came in right away. She asked if I felt pressure, I said no, she checked me and sure enough, the head was right there. Not crowning, just really close. She said she couldn't find the doctor and had tried paging her. Ummm that's comforting...So why she had me push right then I'll never know. I pushed once and the head was just about to crown. She told me to stop (the doctor wasn't in the room yet) and she left yet again to find the doctor. I was freaking out that the baby would come without the doctor. Minuets later a bunch of people walk in. The doctor and about 4 nurses.

They had Zach sit down in a chair kind of next to me. He couldn't see down there, which was what we both wanted. But it was weird that they had him sit down and not stand next to me to hold my hand or legs. It was me, the tray table and then Zach, like I said, weird. It worked out just fine though. After the doctor and nurses got settled in, it was time to really push the baby out. They said the actual delivery part took 15 minutes. Most of that time was waiting for a contraction to come so I could push. My contractions still weren't regular. I pushed twice and her head was out. I didn't have to push anymore after that because she just came out on her own.

Adelaide Grace was born on July 7th, 2012 at 8:42am. She was 7lbs 14oz and 21 inches.

They cleaned her off and put her right on my chest, skin on skin. And immediately she was looking for my boob, wanting to suck. She was wide eyed and bobbing her head trying to find the nipple. So the nurses helped me out and put her on after Zach cut the cord. Then they took her away to weigh and measure her, have a quick bath, but then right back on the boob. The nurses called her a barracuda baby because she had such a strong suck. (more on that later.)

While Adelaide was trying to eat, the doctor was busy fixing me up. I asked her if I tore or if they gave me an episiotomy. She told me that I had a small tear and it happened when her shoulders came out. I was so glad I couldn't feel anything.

The rest is a blur. Zach and I were smitten and so in love with our little girl from the very second we saw her. It was all so surreal. For 9 months we were so curious what she would look like and whatnot, and in just a few pushes she was in my arms. And she was perfect.

We ate breakfast while we waited for me to be able to walk and go to the bathroom. Long story short, I had two nurses help me walk to the bathroom. When I got out of bed and started walking, I looked and felt like my blind granddad. I lifted my knees way too high, but I couldn't help it because I couldn't feel my legs still! Zach and I had a good laugh about it. I was able to pee by myself, which I was strangely happy about. I did not want the catheter put back in! Especially when I had feeling again.

We were moved to the postpartum floor after I could urinate by myself. We checked out of the hospital on Monday afternoon. I did not want to leave the hospital! I loved our nurses and lets be honest, taking a newborn home is terrifying! Luckily my mom flew in Monday night to help us out.

The only thing that I was terrified about pre-labor, other than the pain, was pooping "on the table." (why do they call it a table when it is clearly a bed?) When we got to the hospital and the pain was getting worse and worse, I did not care one bit about what anyone saw or thought about me. But just for the record, I did not poop on the table. And I'm very happy about that, even though I wouldn't care if I did.


I'll blog later about her first week of life and about the adventures of breast feeding.

This past week, week 30, has been by far the hardest. I have been sick, tired, uncomfortable, fat, and the heart burn has kicked into high gear and Tums no longer is effective.

This week the pregnancy has felt way too much like when I had cancer. Not something I ever wanted to experience again. Insomnia, acid reflux, uncomfortable, leg cramps, achy, exhausted for no reason, smells and sights making me nauseous, hot flashes, irritable, pregnancy/chemo brain, always want to be in the bath just to get comfortable. I could keep going because the similarities are endless.

The only difference: I'm getting fatter and I still have my hair. WHY would I ever want to do this again and how do women have more than one child?!


Enough whining.


Now I'm 31 weeks and I wrote what's above a few days ago.  This week has been MUCH better.  The symptoms come and go.  It's insane; every few days is something different.  The heart burn is gone.  I can finally sleep again without having to take a sleeping pill.  Now my only complaint: MOODY!  Poor Zach.  Last week I didn't want to eat anything.  Nothing sounded remotely good and I had to force myself to eat.  This week I can't get enough food!  I want everything!  Especially the sweets. Right now I have a Wild Cherry Pepsi, Oreos, and gummy worms at my side.  


I had a doctor appointment today.  I go every 2 weeks now.  I'm measuring at exactly 31 weeks and everything seems to be A-okay.  While she was listening to the heartbeat, I guess the baby's heart rate dropped a little bit.  I was wondering why she was listening for so long.  And then she tells me that she wanted me to get hooked up at a heart rate monitor for 20 minutes straight to make sure the baby's heart rate doesn't drop.  Well, I did that and everything was fine.  We are guessing the baby did a flip or some crazy move and the heart beat dropped for a second.  But the base heart rate is about 130, which is perfectly normal.  


Oh, and I failed to mention that I was able to get health insurance.  I have what is called OMIP.  Oregon medical insurance pool.  It's for people who are considered high-risk and can't get insurance.  The premium is ridiculously expensive, but we are expecting it to be well worth it.  I actually have a decent plan and it's way better than the one I had in CA.  As soon as the baby comes I can drop that plan and get a much cheaper one.  


I also forgot to blog about our trip back to CA!  It was so much fun and I did not want to leave! My sisters threw me a PERFECT baby shower!  It was so great.  It was perfect weather so we had it outside.  We went to Disneyland, ate at all our favorite food places that we don't have here, Carla put blonde back in my hair, the baby shower, a pedicure with Holly, and lots of family time.  It was great.  I missed being able to go outside without a jacket, and I only wore sandals all week long.  We don't know when the next time we can go back to CA, and that makes me super sad.  Summer better be worth it here, like everyone says or I will FREAK out!


Now, time for pictures!

Here's what has been going on lately...
On February 11th, Zach and I celebrated our one year wedding anniversary.  Never thought I'd be pregnant for my one year anniversary.  Oh well.  We made a weekend trip to Astoria, OR.  You know, where Goonies and a few other movies were filmed.  We stopped in Cannon Beach on our way there so we could see the famous Haystack Rock.  I wasn't the biggest fan.  Maybe because we didn't get out of the car to actually walk on the beach, but rather stayed in the nice warm car.  Our hotel was AWESOME!  It was right on the river and had a jacuzzi hot tub AND a fireplace!  It was heaven.  I love a good bath.  Not to mention a ginormous one that has jets.  Then we went to the famous Astoria Column.  We hiked up a spiral staircase of 164 steps. (I sure felt that for a while!)  We had an amazing view.  All in all, good weekend.

This picture is sideways.

The back side of the quilt.

I am loving being on our own.  As you all know, Zach and I lived with his parents for the first 10 months of our marriage.  I love his family, but I was ready to be on our own.  And I'm loving it.  Yes, we did it a little extreme...what with moving a thousand miles away from our family while I am pregnant.  But hey, we are making it on our own. 

2012 is going to be BUSY, especially when school starts (20 days) and when the baby comes in the beginning of July.

We moved to Portland, Oregon.  We've been here for 5 days now.  I am LOVING being on our own and our own space.  Portland is definitely a change from sunny SoCal, that's for sure.  Everything is new and I'm hoping to get familiar with the area soon.  I hate not knowing how to get somewhere without my maps on my phone.  The streets are all funky to me.  There's tons of highways that are streets.  For instance, Beach is also highway 39, but nobody calls it 39.  There are SO many highways like that here.  And I haven't figured out if people call them by the street name, or by the highway number.  It's all sorts of confusing to me.  But like I said, hopefully that will change soon.

We moved here so I can get out of school quicker.  I realized that it would have taken me a lot longer if we were to stay in CA.  Each state has different requirements to be a court reporter, and CA is one of the hardest.  I don't have all the time in the world to get out of school, what with this baby coming and all.  Although, we decided to move before I got pregnant.  I just knew I wanted and had to get out of school FAST.  Now I know why I felt like that.  Here I just have to graduate and that's it.  I can start working as soon as I graduate.  In CA I would have had to wait for the State CSR test to come around, which only comes around 3 times a year, wait a month to see if I even passed, and THEN try to find a job.  It's a very long time to sit around and wait, especially when you're still paying for school to WAIT.  I'm hoping to be done with school very very soon!

Since I am pregnant, this blog is going to evolve into a pregnancy/baby blog, I'm sure.  I've been meaning to write down what I've been going through being pregnant, but haven't gotten around to it yet.  I feel like I'm still really early in the pregnancy, but that is going to change really fast.  So soon I'll start posting pictures and whatnot, just stay tuned.

I have a lot more to catch up on, but I really should get back to practicing.  I deferred school in late September and I know when I start school here it's going to kick.my.butt!

Last Saturday Zach, Mandy, Naco, Ashley and I did the Bridge to Nowhere hike up in Azusa Canyon.  It was a 10 mile hike! 10 MILES! Why, oh why, did we do it?  I'm not quite sure, especially because Zach and I are out.of.shape.  It took us 6 hours to do the hike, and by the end I definitely had blisters in between my toes.  When we got home, we took showers, and took a NAP!  We were beat and didn't do anything for the rest of the day.  I definitely felt old, and very sore, after that hike.  It was pretty and the company was great, though.  My favorite part was walking through the water.  We might have gone off the trail quite a bit (a lot actually because the trail isn't marked), which made us wade through the water a lot.  But in the end I enjoyed myself, but for sure won't be signing up for anything like that in the near future.  At least, not until I am in better shape.

In other news...lately I haven't been feeling super great.  It started a couple weeks ago, and I can't explain it all that well.  I just get really weak and feel like I haven't eaten all day.  But I eat quite a bit, and I'll feel shaky hungry like 20-30 minutes after I eat.  I don't know how else to explain it.  No, I'm not pregnant, so save those comments.

I have another appointment with my Oncologist next week.  Just a routine visit, nothing special.

We all know I'm terrible at blogging.  I can say that I'll try to do better, but we all know I won't.  Here's what I should have been blogging about, but haven't gotten around to it.  (Note: I started this post September 14th! Yeah, I suck.)