Hey, Who Turned Out the Lights?

Yesterday I met a friend at the gym and spent some quality time with my heart rate and sweat. I just love having a friend to workout with! She helps me stay longer than my typical 20 to 25 minutes. I'm still in awe that I am on the treadmill for an hour! Having someone to talk with is a major help (not to mention a bonus!).

So there I was, with my friend, on the treadmill, happily talking away about some trivial motherhood account when all went black and we stopped in our tracks. The power had gone off. Luckily for the people on the elliptical machines, they didn't need power to keep going. But we were motionless, without help. My friend and I stood there and waited for a bit, but the power did not come back on. We made our way to the stationary bikes instead (again, no power needed for those puppies!).

After riding the bikes for 30 minutes, we did some wieghts then called it quits. Good thing too, as we past a childcare worker and she told us that the childcare room was getting stuffy with the lack of a/c and fans to circulate the air. My friend and I made our way to get our kids and relieve the room of three more bodies making heat.

As I was getting Isabel situated in the truck, she was telling me how the power went off. She told me that the tv's went off. And the lights. Then she noticed that it was light outside and promptly told me that the 'sun is still on!'. I love her observations!

Month of Mae - Mae Day!!!

The day before Mae was born I stayed home from work. I had been having irregular brackston hicks for weeks (with no pain) but that morning, as I got ready for work, I thought maybe I was having some more and wondered if it was 'the day'. It was 3 days before my due date, so I was hopeful. Turns out it was nothing, but I did enjoy a nice day at home.

Early the next morning, say around 3:00, I was quickly awoken when my water broke. I was so excited! I woke Ryan up, then called the doctor (who told me to make my way to the hospital). We took our time getting ready as we had learned in our birthing class that most first-time labors went slow and there was reason to rush to the hospital. After I had eaten some breakfast and gotten dressed and ready to leave, I called my parents to let them know that 'today was a great day to have a baby!'

just before leaving for the hospital we took this picture

And we were off!!!!

We got to the hospital around 7:00 that morning. I could feel some contractions, but nothing with any pain, yet. I remember in my birthing class, seeing a chart with varying degrees of happy faces, ranging from very smiley to a a serious/unhappy face. I walked in the hospital with a full smiley face. I was happy and excited to finally to this show on the road!


In fact, I was quite excited about everything. The hospital we were at was like a nice hotel and there would be no room changing at all during the course of my stay. My room was a one-stop shop, the only time I would leave would be when I checked out with my baby in my arms. And it was a nice hotel hospital room too! The room had updated everything, from the carpet, furniture and colors to the jet tub in the bathroom. In fact, I was looking forward to using that jetted tub!

A couple hours after arriving, my contractions still weren't anything to complain about. I could feel the tightening but with minor discomfort. The nurse suggested I either talk a walk around the halls or take a bath to maybe speed things up. Hmmmm.....walking halls with socks and a hospital gown - or - check out the jetted tub???

I opted for the bath. Thank you very much.

It must have worked. As I was in the bath, my contractions went from minor discomfort to uncomfortable to GET ME OUT OF THE TUB!!!

I didn't really have a birth plan. I'm a 'go with the flow kind of gal', so I figured we'd make decisions as they came depending on the circumstances. I had thought of forgoing the epidural though. My sister in law had had two babies and all she had for meds was something to take the edge off. Sounded good to me. So, there I was (out of the bath by this point) sitting in a rocker talking to the nurse about meds. I told her I'd like to take the edge off. She was fine with that, but did mention something about it wearing off by the time I need to start pushing.

Um, WHAT?! No. There will be no wearing off of drugs! Please give me an epidural. Thank you!

So, around 10 o'clock is when my happy face went from 'smiley face' to 'hurts a whole lot'. But by 10:30 I got my epidural (or 'hapidural' as my good friend called it) and I was back to my super happy face, albeit a bit scared and tired.

Seems things progressed quite well after that. Not that I felt anything. Mostly I rested and waited for my doctor to check me, then tell me any news of my progression. Shortly before 1:00, they started prepping me for birth. They reconfigured the bed and I got into postion. And I said an absolute NO to the mirror. Ewe.

Around 1:00 I was pushing. I pushed for about 15 minutes and she was out! There she was, all red and squirmy and crying. Our Mae Elisabeth.

And our lives were changed in an instant. At exactly 1:16 on the afternoon of May 18, 2001.

Month of Mae - Waiting

The word was out and our families and friends all knew our exciting news. I was pregnant! Now all I had to do was wait. Wait for my tummy to get big. Wait for food cravings. Wait to wear pants with lots of elastic and 'panels' in the front (then wait to not have to wear them any. more.). Wait for my readiness to kick in. But we all know that no matter how much one prepares, no one is ever truly prepared for what comes next.

My pregnancy was, for the most part, uneventful. I was fortunate to not get morning sickness, although I tried to always eat at the first sign of hunger (which was about every hour, so it seemed. can you say 'annoying'?!). However, around the 20 week mark I got real bad pains in the area of my kidney. This was when I realized my threshold for pain and what happened when I reached that threshold. It made me sick. We never really found out what the pain was since I couldn't have x-rays due to my condition. But it was either a kidney stone that I later passed (I doubt that it was it was) or it was the baby pressing on something and cutting off the flow from my kidney. The pain would come and go, but I found that if I laid on my side (the opposite from the one that hurt) then the pain would go away within minutes. This was when I also learned that although I may be pregnant and not allowed to take simple things like ibprofen for a headache, that I was allowed (given!) vicoden. Crazy huh?

This was also the time that I had the long awaited ultrasound. Ryan and I had decided to find out the gender of our baby. We figured why not be surprised before the baby was born. Although we would tell everyone the gender, the kicker was that we had also decided not to reveal the chosen name. So, we found out that we were having a girl, but mum on her name! I'm glad we kept that bit to ourselves, it was fun to have this little secret between us. It was also nice to not get negative feedback on our chosen name, for it's rude to say such things about the name after the baby is born (so I discovered).

The name picking process was difficult. Never before had we both had to agree on something like this in our marriage. I don't why it was so hard for Ryan to accept the names I liked! This concept escapes me (and him as well, apparently). But it wasn't too hard, not really. We chose the name Mae out of honor of Ryan's grandmother who passed away when I was about 5 months along. It was her middle name, and we tended to like classic names so it was perfect. Mae's middle name, Elisabeth, came from our mutual love of the movie Pride and Prejudice and it's heroine . The spelling of the middle name was us trying to make it a little different.

I never got really big when pregnant. Although I would have disagreed with that statement at the time.

Here I was at 7 months. This was taken after my baby showers from family and friends in California.













This picture was taken about a week before Mae came. The day before Mother's Day.



Not too big and not too bad for a young mom-to-be. I chalk it up to being in my twenties and being my first pregnancy. It would be the only time I was 'small'(ish) during pregnancy. *sigh*

The thing I enjoyed most about being pregnant was food. I've always been the type of person that ate for survival and not much for enjoyment, and it was fun to get a craving and fulfill it. My cravings never lasted for very long and sometimes I never knew I was craving it until I started eating it. Like the time I grabbed a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos from the lunchroom.....oh boy were those the best tasting Doritos I had ever had!!! The next day, when I sympathetic co-worker bought me a bag, the chips were good but not the best thing in the world, not like they had been the day before. That was my new thing to say about food 'the best thing in the world'. Other food items that filled the category during my pregnancy was; Vernor's Ginger Ale (no other brand worked), beef jerky, Jiffy blueberry muffins, biscuits and gravy, and orange sherbet ice cream. I've never enjoyed food more than when pregnant with girls (for some reason food was never 'the best thing in the world' when I was expecting Caleb).

The weekend before Mae's birth day eight years ago, Mother's Day 2001

I will never forget my first Mother's Day. Although, at the time I didn't consider my own claim on the day as I wasn't technically a mother yet. I remember my neighbor wishing me a happy Mother's Day as I sat on my front porch in my new rocking chair. I was enjoying my new rocker, waiting for the time that I'd sit there with my new baby, and it was going to be any day I was so sure! That year Mother's Day was a week before my due date, May 20th. And I was certain that I'd deliver early. My reasoning was that My mother delivered her two babies early, 6 weeks for my brother and 2 weeks early for me. So it only made sense that I'd deliver early too.

Pregnant women should not put their hopes in false things such as early delivery.

But it turns out that I was going to deliver early, just not as early as I had thought......

Snippets

Conversations, things overheard, or little things spoken by little persons in our home....

We were taking a walk the other night after dinner (we can do that now that it stays light longer) and as we walked we could here the sound of the crickets starting up their nightly song. Isabel heard it too.....and she declared hearing the 'cripets'. But, no, we can't 'pep' (pet) them.

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Praying with Caleb at bedtime......he was concerned for his friend Jake, who wasn't feeling well....Dear God, please heal Jake and his stinky breath.

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Isabel, out of the blue one morning says......I can't like spiders. I like bunnies. Me too, Isabel. Me too.

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Standing in our master bathroom, combing Isabel's hair....

Me: I love you Isabel.

Isabel: I luff you too!

Me: (enjoying the moment and feeling warm and fuzzy from hearing such sweetness from my baby girl)

Isabel: You go poo-poo Mama?

Me: (inwardly - what??!! what just happened to the precious moment we were having? and no!, Mama doesn't do stuff like that!) *sigh* end of precious moment.

Month of Mae - Breaking The News

When Ryan and I been married for 4 years we had already been through quite a bit. The first 3 years we were focused on Ryan going to school and graduating. After his graduation, he got his first job in his field, and this job moved us to Portland, Oregon. During those early years, we were fortunate to not get a lot of questions from family or friends about when we would start a family. Most people were considerate to allow us to focus on surviving our first years of marriage and getting Ryan through college.

However, it was only a matter of time before the expansion of our little family would begin.

In the fall of 2000, we had celebrated four years of marriage and our first full year of living in Portland. Ryan's job was going well and I was doing alright at my own. At that time I was driving a company car, so Ryan decided to sell one of our vehicles and replace it with a sporty Mazda Miata. We knew this was not a good family car, but at the moment it was just Ryan and I, and we didn't need the extra room. There was no need for a backseat, not for a young couple such as ourselves!

Little did we know that just about the time we bought this zoomy addition that there would soon be another...in about 9 months.

We weren't trying to start a family, but we weren't exactly not trying to either! But it was still a little surprising to find out that a baby was coming. After the initial shock, we began to think of a creative way to tell our family and friends. A phone call just wasn't fun enough, it had to be inventive and original!

So this is what we came up with. Ryan took some pictures of our new car along with a borrowed car seat from our neighbors. Then he made a card and we mailed it out!

the front of the card

the inside

We had fun telling everyone with our cute little card. It was the perfect way to tell everyone who was far away. And I think everyone enjoyed it too! Now all we had to do was get ready, as ready as any first-time-parents-to-be can be.

The Month of Mae

Where did the first part of 2009 go? Seriously, didn't I just celebrate the closing of 2008 and the beginning of 2009 just the other day?! I blame the kids for this warp speed of time, for time has never flown by so fast until I had children. See? It's all their fault.

For example, when I was younger I would anticipate the coming of a holiday or my birthday and it would take for. ev. er. And now, Christmas is here before I can pack away the decorations!

The month of May is always a bit of a wake up call for me. It is a month that changed my life like no other. For eight years ago I was expecting my first child. And we all know that you are never the same after that. So, to commemorate this monumental and momentous occasion, all this month I will be posting about my first child, Mae. I'm going to try to recapture in pictures and stories of how she entered my life and how we prepared along the way.

So stay tuned!