Allie & Jay

We have been so busy. I have been out and about and driving for about a week. I can’t believe that Parker will be a month old tomorrow. Where does time go? We have been trying to keep things very normal for Kennedy which means keeping her the center of our universe. She’s done fun things like the okra strut, cooking with mommy, monkey joes, the zoo, and mornings with mommy at church. She has had a ball! Parker is easy going and just tags along where ever we go. Check out her eyes. Blue or brown, what do you think? Her favorite is when I strap her in my Moby wrap. Jay went to Clemson for the weekend and we girls had a ball. We went to the library, publix (yeah I did it! By myself!), and I actually had time to sew them a set of matching dresses:). Here are some pictures everything we’ve been up to lately! Oh yeah, and how bout our tigers?!?

Ok, I didn’t think it at first but now I’m really starting to think they look alike….

can you tell which one is which?

I’ll pick up where I last left off. After our crazy day Tuesday, where we found out Parker was breech and I was low on fluid, I was put on bed rest. I rested all day Wednesday then Jay and I went to our appointment and ultrasound Thursday. We had the car packed and were ready to meet Parker. The ultrasound revealed that my water went up and a c/s scheduled Thursday, Friday, or Monday wasn’t medically necessary. Dr S said we would just wait for labor or he would see me first thing Monday. Well I was crushed. I literally cried. I wanted so bad to know when and I was terrified of going into labor with a breech baby. I thought it wasn’t safe to send me home to wait on labor. I went home from the appointment and went straight to bed. I slept all afternoon. My mom came over later to get my car so she could pick up Kennedy. I asked if I could ride with her and if she minded heading to Target afterward. We went to Target and I bought some different PJ pants to prepare for a c/s. Friday I hit 37 weeks and I just had a feeling I wouldn’t make it past the weekend. My mom came over at 9:45 to take Kennedy to mommy and me at church. I tagged along but let her do all the running after Kennedy. After mornings with mommy we met my sister at applebees for lunch. I ate it up! I even added jalapeños to everything (I do love jalapeños!). After lunch I went home and put Kbug to bed and headed to bed myself. I had killer heartburn and was so tired. After Kennedy woke up I got her dresses and we headed to a smocked dress tent sale. She was SO well behaved and I bought the girls Easter and Christmas dresses! Jay called and needed something from walmart so I then met him there and handed Kbug off to him. He wanted blimpie for dinner. I still had heartburn so I passed. We headed home and put on Robin Hood and watched it as a family. Kbug had so much fun and we put her to bed at 9:00. At 9:45 I told Jay goodnight and headed upstairs. I love my pinterest time and Girly TV before going to sleep. Potter curled up with me and we started our nightly routine. I noticed the Braxton Hicks were happening frequently but that had been happening for months. I started trying to time them but kept getting distracted by Say Yes to the Dress. I then started to notice an odd pain happening. It wasn’t contracting like a BH but it was a gas pain every few minutes. I started timing them and noticed they were happening every 1-2 minutes. I went down stairs at 10:45 to warn jay that something was happening. He freaked out and wanted to go straight to the hospital. I called my mom to see if she could come over just in case we went to the hospital. Unfortunately she had just taken an ambien and didn’t answer the phone. I called my stepdad and he said he would be right over. My mom was such a trooper and came along too. We headed to the hospital and walked into L & D. I informed them that I wasn’t really sure if it was labor or not but that with her being breech I was taking any chances. We had the best nurse who hooked us up to machines and talked us through everything. She was super excited about where she found Parker’s heartbeat and thought she might not be breech. The doctor rolled in the ultrasound machine. Parker was in fact still breech. They watched the monitors for a few minutes and told us not to call family yet, but it looked like we were heading towards a c/s. After about an hour my cervix was dilating fast and the contractions started to take my breath away. They came in and began explaining everything to me. Jay was given scrubs and next thing you know I am walking to the OR. Everyone was in there ready for me. At 2:52 AM just a few hours after we left our house Parker was born! She looked perfect. She had a head full of blond hair. Jay went over to meet her while they sewed me up. They swaddled her real quick ran her over for a kiss from Mommy and informed us that she wasn’t breathing well and needed the special care nursery. Jay went with Parker and the nurse gave me some drugs that made me real sleepy. I slept while they sewed me up then was rolled to recovery. I kept asking when I could nurse Parker and they assured me that I would be able to soon. They then took me to my room where again I asked when I could see Parker. Jay came back and told me she was in the special nursery and she was being heavily monitored and needed an IV. He kept going in and checking on her and taking pictures of her so I could see her. They brought me in a pump so I could start pumping. Family started to trickle in so jay took them to meet Parker one by one. Each time someone went in jay came back with a picture for me. I kept asking when I could see her and they told me I needed to be off the IV to see her. Finally late afternoon jay was able to wheel me down. I was the first person to get to hold her. She was so sweet, but looked so sick. I boohooed and told Jay it was my fault. She was too early. I shouldn’t have gotten up from bed. I shouldn’t have shopped. How could I have done this to my baby? It was the longest ride of my life from the NICU to my room. I cried the whole way. It wasn’t right! She should be with me! I failed her as a Mommy! The neonatologist came in later and informed us the Parker’s problems stemmed from her being anemic. They weren’t sure why she was anemic. It could have been because her blood back flowed up the umbilical cord. They tested my blood to see if that was the case. (later we found that to be negative and it is still a mystery as to why Parker was anemic). Once all the family left we went back once more to see our Sweet P. She looked a little healthier and my guilt lifted a little. We went back to the room and went to bed. At 3:30 I woke up 1: in pain and 2: needing to see my baby. We had the best nurse in there who decided it would be best to pull the curtain and close her eyes and let me nurse. She got it. She knew how important breastfeeding was to me. After we nursed Parker she was a different kid! She was wide awake! She was alert and moving. It was great for my heart to see her like a normal healthy baby. That’s what she looked like! A normal healthy newborn! When we left she was still awake. I woke up twice during the night in pain. After looking out for myself and eating breakfast we headed to NICU to see Parker. I was furious to fund out that her new nurse gave her formula (the evil white stuff as I call it) at 8:00. Why didn’t she call me to nurse? Why didn’t she use my milk in the fridge that I had been pumping all day? Why didn’t she look at Parker’s bassinet that said “I am only breastfed.”. Yeah I was MAD! The next feeding she let me nurse then got my pumped milk in a bottle to give Parker. She needed to measure Parker’s sugar levels and intake at each meal. You could tell this woman was not pro breastfeeding. She is the first person I have met at the hospital who is pro-formula. I tried to get Parker to take the bottle but that just wasn’t happening. She didn’t want it. She wanted boob! Finally jay came and got me because my doctor needed to see me. During this time the nurse and Parker had a battle of wills ver the bottle. I’m not sure who really won, but Parker took it. She needed 1 more feeding to get out of the special care nursery. The next time I came in she had no more wires! She was free! It was 2:30. She needed to nurse and take a bottle then keep her sugar level constant. She nursed well then the NICU was closing to guests so I told the nurse to fight her over the bottle. I told her I didn’t care if she gave her the evil white stuff as long as it got her out the NICU. Once the NICU opened back up we were informed that she was free! She was checked into the newborn nursery like any other newborn. Since then we’ve been in the room snuggling and loving on our sweet baby girl. Thank you to everyone who prayed for our sweet girl. She’s a miracle and we are so happy to be a family of 4!

Wow we have been on a crazy ride! Parker is still in the special care nursery so prayers are greatly appreciated:). Here are some sweet pictures

Well today did not go as planned. It all started with my alarm going off at 6:30. At this point it was like any other day. Whine. Try to roll over. Whine. Then pull up facebook and interest on my phone. I always lay in bed a few minutes wasting time and waiting for a little kick from Parker to let me know it is time to get up. After waiting and stalling for a while still no kick. I got on up and took a shower. I grabbed a real diet coke on the way out the door. By 9:00 I had drank a whole diet coke and still no kicks. I called my doctors office. At 10:00 they called back to check on me. When I told them she wasn’t moving they told me Dr S was not working and that I needed to go to the hospital. I was worried and felt like maybe she was moving and I was just missing it. I called jay and he was going to meet me at the hospital. We prayed on our way then I thought I may have felt a movement….or was that a contraction??? We went up to L & D to maternal monitoring and of course there is my doctor walking down the hall. He asks why I was there and I told him about the movement and that his nurse told me to come in. He told the nurses that his patient was here and to take care of me. They said his nurse had already called and told them about me and my not so good pregnancy history. Of course at this point Parker starts dancing the tango and gets the hiccups. I am mortified and apologized for wasting there time. They said given my history that it was good for me to come in but now that I was there I had to stay for an hour for monitoring. As usual I was having contractions every 10-15 minutes. I’ve been having these for over a month. Dr s decided to go ahead and check my cervix while I’m there. That is where the story really begins. He checks me and I am 2 cn dilated and 80%effaced and surprise! He can feel a head. They bring in the ultrasound machine and a nursing student and there is her head. Under my right rib cage. Her butt is on my cervix and he feet and up my left side. Her head is facing my arm pit rather than my front or back. Then comes surprise number 2. I have very little amniotic fluid. He send me for another ultrasound (biophysical profile I think they called it). It was here they checked her “breathing”, heartbeat, movement, and fluid. Although Parker scored 8 out of 8, my fluid was low. My fluid is the level of someone who is 41 weeks pregnant, not 36. They sent me back upstairs to be monitored some more. They decided to send me home but I’m not allowed to work anymore. I am officially on bed rest. I go back Thursday for them to recheck my levels. If the levels go down we will have a c-section on Thursday. If it is the same we will have a c-section Friday or Monday. I called my high risk insurance case manager and she freaked out. She couldn’t believe they sent me home being as dilated and effaced that I am. She is super worried that I will go into labor soon. If a miracle occurs they will try to get me a little farther into the pregnancy before doing the c-section. I would be lying if I said a c-section didn’t terrify me but I am excited to meet my sweet baby Parker. I feel that God truly watches out for me. He made Parker lazy this morning to get me to the hospital and He placed my doctor (who is a miracle worker in my book anyway) there to watch out for me. I trust my doctor so much and am so thankful he takes such good care of me!

I can not believe that in a few weeks I will be the mother of 2 little princesses!  I am freaking out a little. (ok thats a lie… I am freaking out ALOT!)  I am not ready.  The house is not ready.  The nursery is not ready.  I am still loving giving Kennedy every moment of my attention.  How the heck do I do the simple things like get them both in their car seats? Grocery shop? Run simple errands?  What am I going to do with Kennedy while I am in the hospital?  How will I get to day car to pick Kennedy up while I’m on maternity leave?  So many questions and so much unknown.  I am SO excited to meet Parker, I just feel like this is all happening too quickly!  Part of me wants to fast forward these last few weeks of pregnancy while the other part of me wants it to sloooow down.

34 week update:

Size of baby: 4 3/4 lbsish the size of a cateloup

Total Weight Gain/we arent going to talk about that.  Its ALOT.  People say that I am tiny for being so pregnant but let me tell you the scale tells me another story!  I actually had a nurse tell me “Less ice cream, more vegetables”

Gender: all girl!

Name: Ellison (or Elyson) Parker but calling her Parker.  We are still up in the air about how to we want to spell Ellison/ Elyson

Movement: slowed down ALOT!  she scares me at times with how quiet she is.

Heartbeat: 160 BPM
Sleep: I dont sleep. Everything wakes me up.  It hurts to roll over.  I have to get up to use the bathroom all the time.  Usually contractions wake me up at least 4 times during the night.  I still get Charlie Horses in my calves which make me leap out of bed.  I always said with Kennedy that you get better sleep with a newborn than you do the last weeks of pregancy and I think (hope) Parker is going to have the same record.

What I miss: diet coke. I drink have one every now and then. I know I shouldn’t but I can’t help it:(
Cravings: good spicy flavored food!
Symptoms: What symptom have I not had?  This baby is going to kill me!  I have about 4 contractions and hour all day every day.  Some hurt bad, some last well over a minute, and some are just pesky little Braxton Hicks that are easy to ignore. Oh there is also the lovely symptom of the rash that is covering my entire belly.  It itches SO bad and no cream seems to help it.  If I start scratching it gets itchier.  Because of the lovenox the more I scratch the more I bruise.  Needless to say there are no cute maternity pictures in my future!

Medications: Lovenox injections once a day (only 14 to go!!!!), prenatal vitamins
Best Moment this week: Going to a friends baby shower and remembering what it was like to be a first time mommy!  She is so prepared with everything ready to go! 

Kennedyism of the Week:

Daddy: Girls are princesses boy are princes

Kennedy: no Daddy, girls are princesses, boys are hot.

“I as pretty as a sincess”

“I ride in Daddy’s car cause he drive vroom vroom mommy not drive vroom vroom.”

“I uve oo, Parker” (Said to my belly almost daily)

“Sherwee (Sherry) spanked my fanny.”

Kennedy is going to be a big sister. She’s not going to be my baby anymore, she’s my big girl! Every big girl needs a big girl bedroom so that was the mission of the day! Deedee and Papa took Kennedy right after church and kept her until the evening. we worked all day on her room. When it was all said and done she was one happy little girl. We let her play in her new room before trying bed time. She looked so tired so she laid down and listened to me read 6 books. I just knew one would put her to sleep. I kept choosing longer and more boring books. She kept saying “1 more book mommy. “. I then decided to sing her to sleep while laying on her pillow and rubbing her hair. Again she looked so sleepy! Over 20 songs and she kept saying “1 more song mommy”. I then decided to sit in the corner and let her lay there. She decided then to talk to me. “mommy, this is Parker’s bed” “mommy, this is Parker’s books”. ” mommy, this is Parker’s room?”. After reassuring her a bazillion times that it was not Parker’s stuff that it was all hers she finally rolled over! I could hear the yawns. I could here the breathing getting heavier. I knew she was falling asleep. She fell alright! Right out of the bed! Plop! Straight onto the floor!!! She started laughing and so did I! We both laughed until we had tears in our eyes and jay bolted upstairs to see what his crazy family was laughing at! That jazzed her up. I then put her back in bed….again. I grabbed my iPad to play while sitting in the floor. She would lay for a second then look up at me. If I said lay down she would. If I ignored her she jumped out of bed to see me. I moved out the door sitting on the floor outside her room so she said “mommy, I find you”. I then got her back in bed….again. I then sat outside her room with the door pulled closed. She jumped up opened the door and said ” mommy I find you!”. Finally I said “back to bed,k-bug” watched her climb in and shut the door. She sat up and stared at the door. She jumped up and tied the knob. She couldn’t open it so she walked back to her bed and climbed in. She’s been there ever since. She isn’t covered, but there is no way I am walking back in there to tuck her in! She’s out! It took hours! I am really dreading nap time in a big girl bed!

Today was our first gymnastics lesson. Today may have been our last gymnastics lesson. We signed up for 4 weeks of walker-3 gymnastics called playful parenting.

What was in my head? Bubbles, somersaults, perhaps a little dancing and jumping.

What really happened?

Cartwheels?!?
Swinging on high bars?!?
Back flips?!?
Jumping off the vault into a pit of foam 6 feet down?!?

WHAT!!!! My daughter skinned both knees just trying to walk on flat ground to the car from the library!

We showed up in our normal attire. Pink dress and large (very large) white bow. What were the others wearing? Leotards?!?! Seriously? Leotards? I didn’t even know they were made that small!

The amazing thing? These babies (Kennedy was one of the oldest) were actually doing the stuff! They aren’t even potty trained, can only say a word or two, but they can jump off the vault, jump down the trampoline, and jump into the foam pit. I heard the word Olympics twice!!!

None of the mommies talked to one another and there is NO time for pictures! These people are crazy. A few kids had both mommy and daddy there! We will go back for our 4 sessions but no promises after that. Not sure a gymnast is in K-bug’s future!

The important thing? She had a ball! She loved it! She didn’t realize how for he was behind the other kids. She didn’t realize she was unable to do most of it. She didn’t realize mom was a ball of nerves! All she knew is it was fun and it ended with a stamp on her hand and a coloring sheet. Maybe dance is in our future…

“mama, let’s go swim in the BIG pool” AKA the lake

“Mom, you cooking?” “yes, I’m cooking”. “Mom, you’re the best cooker.”

Yes, my daughter now calls me Mom and I don’t like it.

“oooo, Daddy’s bed Fluuuuffffy!” -just bought an $80 egg crate

“what’s you sister’s name? Pah-kah” think Boston accent

“kennedy, do you wanna wear Parker?” pretended to stick my belly onto her belly. “no mama, Pahkah hot”

“mommy make me a dress? Mama make me a pretty dress? Mama make me a blue dress? Mama make me a circle dress!”

“Kennedy, can Parker have you’re bed? No, that MY bed. Parker can have that (changing table) and Parker can have shapes (circles on her wall). Doc can’t sleep in my bed!”

She really has a hilarious since of humor and I wish I could remember all the funny things she says!

Kennedy is such a mess! She is the sweetest, funniest, sassiest little girl I have ever met! We spend the day at the lake with our great friends and she had a ball with them. She has a HUGE crush on their oldest son, Joshua. Her day started when she saw the lake and immediately she said “I want to swim in the BIG pool!”. Her day continued with boat rides, swimming in the lake (and she does a great job kicking her legs and steering), and jumping off the diving board! She had a ball today! The other thing she did today was talk, talk, and talk! Boy does that girl have ALOT to say! Here is a video of her chatting it up! You will notice the sweet, the funny, and the sass all in one video (lots of sass!)