Oh BABY!

Well, we did it! Remember my last post when I wasn't feeling well and my back was hurting? Those were contractions! Turns out I had contractions all day long--they were just in my back instead of in my stomach, so instead of feeling like cramps, they felt like kidney stones--I know because I've experienced both. Yuck. Anyways, I have a baby now!!! Here's the story....

I kept having those pains I was feeling all day long and a friend called to see if I wanted to bring my dog to the park with she and her dog. "Sure," I say, "anything to get my mind off this pain." So we all went to the park around 3:00 and stayed until about 5:00 I think just hanging out on a blanket while the dogs played (I should say her dog played. Mine doesn't realize she's a dog, so she sat with the people and hung out.) Afterwards, I came home and David got home around 7:30 or 8:00. We both had separate dinner plans, mine with college roommates because it was Baylor's Homecoming weekend, and him with some other friends of ours. I just didn't feel like going, though, because the pains were getting worse and more consistent. I told him I really thought we may be going to the hospital later that night, so we should stay home. We picked up dinner and once I ate, the pains started coming every 3 or 4 minutes with an 8-minute lapse here and there. We called the doc and he said every time there's a lapse of more than 5 or 6 minutes, we have to start our hour of timing over. Ugh. By this time, I am miserable. They hurt SO BAD and I can't find a comfortable position. Not to mention the fact that I can feel it coming on because it starts out small and then grows worse and worse and then dies down. Every time I feel one coming, I tell David, "Here comes another one." And every time I tell him that, he says, "Are you sure? Really? You're sure you're really having another one?" After about 5-8 times of him questioning whether or not I could tell if I was really feeling excruciating pain, I told him that if he questioned me one more time, he wouldn't like the result and that his job was simply to look at the clock and write down the time as soon as I said another one was coming. After we had a clear understanding of what was expected by all, it went a lot smoother.

So, around 11:45 p.m. my contractions had been about 5 minutes apart for an hour (with one 8-minute gap), and we decided it was time for the hospital. When we arrived, they sent me back to the triage room and I was a 4 (I had been a 2 on Thursday). They watched my contractions for an hour and when they came back to check me, I was a 6. They couldn't believe I had progressed so quickly, so another nurse checked me, and, sure enough, it was time to go to labor and delivery. I got my epidural pretty quickly and I'd just like to take a little time to talk about epidurals. In my case, I LOVED my epidural. I think it is a miracle drug and I would do it time after time. I can't imagine experiencing contractions all the way through after having that epidural. I laughed through my delivery because of it. No one could believe I was having a baby because there was so much laughter coming from my room. I can't say enough about how much I enjoyed my delivery and that's because of my epidural.

Anyways, that aside, an hour later I was an 8 and then about an hour after that, it was time to start pushing. I pushed 7 times for a total of about 40 minutes. In fact, they had to make me stop pushing because he was coming so quickly and they didn't have the bed ready and the doctor wasn't in place. At 4:55 a.m. on Saturday, October 24th, 2009, Robert Alan arrived. He was 8 pounds exactly and 20.5 inches long. He had all his fingers and toes and came out crying so we know his lungs work. My doctor said I was an OB's dream, and so I will pass that along because it made me pretty proud of myself. :-)

We stayed in the hospital until Sunday afternoon. I lost it when he got taken from the room to go to his circumcision. It knocked me over when I realized how attached I already was to the little guy. I didn't realize I loved him so much already! Talk about love at first sight....

We've been home all week now, and it's crazy to think that this time last week, I was blogging about some possible contractions. Everything is going great. His daddy is so good with him--he's a natural! We are very happy and just pray every day that we will continue to experience God's blessings and that He will wrap His arms around our precious little gift and protect him.

Here are a few pics of the little man...

Daddy is a natural! He is so good with me and I love him.

Recovering from the harrowing trip down the birth canal.

The Simons Family heading home from the hospital.

Night time. Honey (my mom's mom) is about to rock me to sleep.

This is what I do best.

Induction date set!

I had my weekly doctor's appointment yesterday, and we set the induction date! If Robert Alan doesn't come by November 3rd, we'll induce at 7:00 in the morning! I'm so excited, and while I think he'll come before then, at least I know there's a definite end in sight and I'll have my baby by November 3rd for sure.

I haven't been feeling well today. My back is hurting bad and I have in my head that it's contractions starting. I've made sure that everything is packed and ready to go (not in the car yet) and I'm working on some last minute laundry of things that need to go to the hospital. Other than that, I'm taking it easy today. I'm comfortable with this. I still have some things on my list to do, especially for work, but if my baby is supposed to come today, I'm ready! I know everything will get taken care of without me. I just want to hold my baby!

Well, this is a record short post. I'm going to lay down. I'll keep you posted!

When will he come???

I haven't really felt like this yet, but I WANT HIM OUT NOW!!!! I've been having the worst indigestion a person can imagine, thus the fact that I'm sitting in a recliner at 2:54 in the morning unable to sleep because I have this never-ending burning sensation in my throat. My stomach is HUGE and HARD and this is really starting to suck. Not that it hasn't sucked the whole time, but it's really getting bad now. I guess it could always be worse, but really. I'm ready......I guess I'm not really ready, though, because my doctor is out of town until Thursday, and I'd like for him to deliver my baby, so I guess I'll be ready on Thursday. I'd be okay, though, if he chose to come tomorrow.

In fact, I was able to actually throw a to-do list away today!!! This was a huge accomplishment, celebrated by a small pat on the back and a smile to myself that I did it! I completed everything on the list! That was short-lived, though, as I promptly started a new one, but this time with a vow that it won't get too long. Hmmm....we'll see what happens. I guess I could be working on that list right now instead of writing my thoughts, but this is much more therapeutic than working.

I got his lasso rope art today for the nursery and LOVE IT! I've been waiting for about 6-8 weeks on it. It's a lasso rope that spells out his name and we put it above his crib. Which reminds me, Have I told you his name yet? Well, if not, it's Robert Alan. Both names. He'll have a double name. Both are family names--Robert from David's side and Alan is my dad's middle name. It took us a LONG time to agree on the name....probably about 4 months...because I wanted a 1 syllable name with no family names (to stay away from the political ramifications, of course) and David was set on having a family name. But not his name. Isn't that weird? I've never heard of a man who didn't want to name his son after himself. I guess that's comforting, in a way, that he didn't want to name him after himself in that he's not so self-absorbed, etc., but still. Anyways, I finally agreed to settle on a 4-syllable double family name. Ha! Ironic, huh? Anyways, I really like it now, even if it is very formal and old-fashioned. I think it'll fit him perfectly once he's here. I'd just like to avoid the ever-possible nicknames like "Little Robert," "Little Bobby," "Little Anything." One of my first tasks will be to make sure he understands that he is not "little" anyone and it's okay to politely correct people when they call him that. David says that it will be better if Robert Alan corrects people than if I do it, so that's my goal. Robert Alan will be the corrector.

What else happened today?.....Well, my boss came to town. She just got back from maternity leave (she had the most beautiful baby girl twins EVER), and since I'll be leaving *hopefully* any day now, she needed to come see me and get things set up for when I'm gone. It was great to see her and I guess we got a lot accomplished. Although, the most important thing she needs from me is what I should be working on now, and probably will work on as soon as I decide to shut this post down...which I find myself prolonging just to avoid doing the work. Also, I framed some wedding pictures finally. We hung them and everything. We got married in June 2008, and I haven't had a framed wedding picture in our house since then. Isn't that crazy? Anyways, I finally got that done! Exciting for me and for David.

Okay, well, I guess that's all for now. I found out I get to keep my computer while I'm on maternity leave, so I'm happy that I won't have an issue posting pictures, etc. Stay tuned...David thinks I'm having the baby sometime this week!

David and me at the Dallas Cowboys' new stadium on regular season opening night. So fun!

Catch up

A quick catch up: This weekend was good. We had a baby shower on Saturday (Brittney kept saying that the baby was going to come on Saturday in typical Doby-Simons fashion screaming, "I'm here for the party!" but no such luck). I had a great time and enjoyed getting to see everyone. We had guests travel in from Austin, Abilene, and Ft. Worth. It was so nice of them to come.

Sunday was a lazy day for me. I wanted to get so much accomplished but didn't. That seems to be about an every-other-day kind of thing with me. Every day I have a long list of to-do's and every other day, half of them may get done.

Monday I did accomplish a lot. In fact, I think I finally completed my list that had been growing for a week or two. Now I have a new list.

Yesterday, oh yesterday. Well, I woke up at 4:15 a.m. and couldn't sleep, so I got up and did some work. I was feeling like crap and I couldn't tell if it was from contractions or the desire for contractions or from slipping twice on the Office Max floor because I was wearing boots that weren't scuffed up enough. That hurt and stretched things I'd rather not talk about. I didn't fall though. Heavy pregnant lady still has some balance! So, I was supposed to go to Temple yesterday to work with one of my co-workers, but because I felt like I may have my baby, I had to cancel. I decided to take it easy yesterday, again, due to my stomach hurting, so my sister came over and we caught up on two weeks' worth of Grey's Anatomy episodes. Her dogs (a rather sweet pit bull named Sterling and a clueless boxer named Roxy) also joined the party. They will not be invited inside again for a party. In fact, they lasted about 10 minutes inside before I discovered a huge amount of liquid in my kitchen floor and thought I smelled a distinct poopy odor coming from somewhere in my house. Promptly, all dogs (including my sweet Lexi who did nothing wrong) went outside. I didn't care if it was raining like crazy and I forgot to care if they cared. Anyways, I cleaned up the pee and lit some candles because I couldn't for the life of me figure out where the other smell was coming from. Well, I should have looked harder because good ol' Dave discovered it while he was on the phone (he walks in circles around the house when he's on the phone, thank goodness he looks down when he does it) in the corner of our dining room. NOT a pretty sight. He was, shall was say, just a tad purturbed (sp?). I felt so stupid that I hadn't been able to find it all day and I was grossed out that I'd sat in a house all day with that in there. GROSS!!!!!! Anyways, Sterling called and apologized, but I informed him that from now on, he is only allowed outside. I think he's okay with that because we have trees in our backyard, something that's missing in his, so he likes being out there when he comes to my house.

Anyways, today the cleaning lady is coming and I can't WAIT! Our house is filthy and I want it disinfected from top to bottom because of what happened yesterday. I'm going to work on completing laundry duty, wrap up some work stuff I've been trying to get finished, get the nurses' gifts together, load the car with those, maybe go buy a breast pump, help Britt pack for New York, and maybe something else if I can remember what it was. Tomorrow is my weekly doctor visit. I can't wait to see how I've progressed.....I hope the slip helped.

Another Jamaica wedding pic...just trying to figure out how to get these pics where I want them in my posts.

Pic of the nursery...I've added a couple shelves and have some more to-do, but it's functional.

Rainy Friday

So I already broke my goal of blogging every day. Sorry.

I'm here now, and I'm sitting in my house on my computer because it is the only battery-operated thing that will allow me to get something accomplished. You see, my power has been out since about 7:00 a.m., so I can't watch T.V. and catch up on the Grey's episode I missed last night because of Bunco, I can't do laundry (although I probably wouldn't do laundry if I could because I LOATH doing laundry), I can't EAT because then I'd have to open the refrigerator and that would let the cold air out and I can't do that because who knows how long this will last, not to mention the fact that I can't toast or microwave anything.....so, I've been working on getting some work things done, trying to get my territory set up for whoever fills in for me while I'm on leave. I don't know if I'll ever get to where I feel like everything is ready for me to leave. This will be hard, I think, especially coming back and having no idea what has transpired over the last 3 months. Oh well. I can't wait to hold my baby!!

Speaking of baby, I had my weekly Dr.'s appointment yesterday. I only dilated 1/2 cm. more, so now I'm just at a 1 with 3 weeks to go. Probably TMI. Anyways, he told us to be ready to go anytime, so today I will pack my bag and try to get David to put the carseat in the car, although, I probably won't push too hard for that to happen because he worked really hard yesterday for 5 hours AFTER he got home from a full day of work. He had to lay a ground line to our soon-to-be installed electric gate for the fence that we had put up last week. Poor guy. No rest for the weary. Hmm....

So, last weekend, my sister Brittney and I spent literally ALL day Sunday (from 8:00 a.m. to about 9:30 p.m., plus 4 hours in the grocery store on Saturday) cooking meals for the month. I had heard that I needed to freeze some meals before the baby came because I wouldn't feel like thinking about what's for dinner (not that I ever do feel like doing that, even when I'm not 9.5 months pregnant), so I found this website called Once a Month Mom where she posts everything from the menu on an excel sheet to extensive directions to a shopping list. It's pretty awesome, and the recipes looked SO GOOD. Oh yeah, it includes a couple breakfasts and lunches, so I was all in. Anyways, we slaved over the stoves and ovens ALL DAY, more than I care to remember, and came out with so much food that David was promptly sent to the store to get us a deep freeze. Ha! Trying to save money costs money. Anyways, the day went really well, except for the fact that at around (extreme sidenote: my power just came back on!!!) 2:00 I became overwhelmingly tired and needed to rest and couldn't stand up for the rest of the day. Okay, well, I could stand up, but not for more than about 5 minutes at a time. So that threw a kink into it because poor Britt was left to fend for herself and it really is a 2-3 person job. I did everything I could at the kitchen table, though, like mixing stuff, prepping stuff to go into the freezer etc. Anyways, all that said to say that I was getting super nervous that all that food was about to go to waste because of the power having been out for 4 hours, but now it's a moot point. Sorry.

Last night I filled in as a sub for Bunco at my mother-in-law's house. I l0ve Bunco. Fun game. They have a bunco party every month at a different person's house. Those ladies are crazy and fun. I actually came away with a prize of a candle and some Halloween socks that I'll definitely put in my hospital bag. Overall it was a good night, except for the teeny tiny bit of guilt I felt for being at a bunco party while David was slaving away digging trenches and fixing all the electrical issues in the garage. But that sort of passed when I rationalized it with the fact that I'm 30 pounds heavier due to the fact that I've been carrying his baby for 9.5 months and he's been able to continue to play golf every weekend and drink wine or whatever else he feels like drinking while I have gone so far as to only have two Dr. Pepper's this whole time!

Today I have a pedicure and manicure appointment at 4:00 with my friend Leah (I have this nagging feeling that I'm going to forget to go), and I'm also supposed to be meeting my MIL to print out some wedding pics to hang in our house. We've been married for over 16 months now, and I haven't hung a single wedding picture up. They're beautiful....I just haven't taken the time to go through all of them and try to figure out which ones are the best, not to mention how many frames I'll have to buy. But David really wants some up, and what he wants, he usually gets. Me too. I usually get what I want too, so it's all fair. I also know that if I don't get these done now, all we'll have up are baby pictures.

Okay, enough for now. I'm off to get my day started with my peanut butter and toast and then to brave the cold rain to run more errands and see if I can't get a couple more things ticked off of my To-Do list. I'll catch you later!

I've added a couple of my favorite wedding pics...just to add some color to this page. :-)

P.S. The power just went out again. Ugh.

My First Post

So I've been thinking about/wanting to do this for about 9 months now and I keep on forgetting/putting it off. Well, now it's past midnight and I find myself unable to sleep and thinking of only this silly blog that I've been meaning to set up but haven't yet. So here I am. Starting my blog.

Why do I want to do a blog? Well, I like to write, for one. But I also think I'm about to embark on a crazy journey that will bring laughter, tears, and many other emotions I don't even know about and I think I'd like an outlet for all these experiences. You see, I'm about to be a mom in less than 1 month! To a BOY! This is a crazy thing because the only boy I've ever lived with is my husband, David, who I'm sure you'll get to know quite well as I write about him, and I have NO IDEA what to do with a little boy. This in and of itself (raising a son) I figure will give me enough ammo to write about for quite awhile. I grew up with two younger sisters, too, so even my mom doesn't have a clue what to do with a little guy running around....eventually running around.

I wish I had started this when I first got pregnant (my original goal) so that I could have talked about being pregnant. It hasn't been wonderful as some forgetful moms may relay to poor, unsuspecting, naive girls. It has been easy for me, thank God, but it's not pleasant. It's uncomfortable, not glamorous, not fun, not normal. In short, it's nothing really that I thought it would be, but apparently, not too long from now, I'll forget all about it and want to do it all over again. When I start thinking about doing this again, remind me to read my first post. Seriously.

So, I'll just start by talking about what happened today. We met our pediatrician and did a hospital tour. The pediatrician visit was non-eventful because we're going to use one of our friends so we didn't really have any serious questions for her, except for questions about the circumcision because, again, I have no idea what happens with a boy and I'm really nervous about that. More to come on that topic later....apparently approximately 1 day after he's born, to be exact. I'll let you know how it goes. The hospital tour, however, was pretty fun. Well, fun meaning it gave me something to look forward to all day, got me out of the house, and I got to talk to other pregnant moms and find out some more information, all of which I seem to be craving lately. I ran into two sorority sisters at the tour who are both having their second child, so they were really sweet and gave me some tips and stuff. It was good to see them--I didn't even know they lived here! Anyways, David was really cute during it. He was thinking of all these good questions to ask and really into it. It's the first time I've seen him preparing for the baby (besides the obligatory hanging shelves on walls and cleaning out the garage so that I can park inside on rainy days and we don't have to get wet). He's so practical and unemotional, it was neat to see him excited in his own small way. He read all the literature they gave us and then, of course, assigned me to the task of making sure I have all the paperwork ready to go that the literature said we'd need. I, of course, don't remember what that was, so I'll have to read the stuff too. (My memory, another thing I miss dearly).

Anyways, I'm pleased with where we'll be delivering. It's a new hospital and I think it'll be a good place to do what we have to do. The nurses seem really nice and helpful, and all the rooms, except the "triage" room, which David says we need to avoid if possible, are all really big. Plus, room service is included! Really? I'm excited about hospital room service? Ugh.

After the tour, I was starving so we went to eat at a stupid Mexican chain restaurant that we didn't like, and then on the way home, David asked what sign our little guy was going to be. I don't keep up with any of that, (although I do know I'm a Virgo), so I told him I'd look it up online when we got home. So I did and here's what we found out: Our son will be a Scorpio, and if he follows what the website says, he'll be "private and mysterious." Hmmm....we'll see what that entails I guess. The website also informed David and me that as a parenting team, it would be hard to find two people as "sensible, practical and serious" as the two of us. Hmmm again....David patted himself on the back for this one. I, however, became a bit concerned that we may be too rigid for our little one. We'll have to wait and see I guess.

Okay, that's enough writing and reading for now. I have a lot to say, as you can tell......See you later!