4 Months Already?!?

So I have started and stopped updates on my blog at least a million times now. It seems every time I get to typin....Caroline wakes up or another task must be done. But today, I will finish and post this blog. Today I will commit to writing in this blog as my daughter grows. This is not only for my therapeutic purposes, but also for her. I want her to have something to look back on. Something to know what her mommy was thinking and how she was feeling as she watched her first born grow.

Let's catch up...could life be better? Hard to imagine. Caroline is just over 4 months old. She had her 4 month check up last week and weighed in at 11.7 lbs and 23 inches long. She sits pretty and petite in between the 10th and 25th percentile. We love our pixie. I am happy to report that she is finally growing into her 3 month clothes. And here I thought and planned for sizes that we larger than her age! Live and learn!

What is she doing now...her list of accomplishments include laughing, "talking", smiling and flirting with everyone, rolling over, sitting up in her bouncy seat, standing up with the help of mom, and most importantly sucking on her hands and feet constantly. Oh and the newest trick she pulled from the bag is a high-pitched squeal of anger when she is not getting what she wants at the exact moment she wants it. Is it really possible that my 4 month old can give attitude?

What else can I say except I am a mom in love. Yes I have many moments of frustration through some of her endless bouts of crying, but I always get through them. In moments of frustration, I sometimes have to stop and pray and just look at her to realize that each moment is fleeting. There is only so long that I will be her main source of comfort. While I wish for her to always lean on me for support, I also want to foster her with the guidance to be a strong, independent woman. But for now, I will hold her, be her source of comfort, source of nourishment, and source of strength. The power of a mom is a beautifully amazing thing!

Announcing the Arrival of Caroline Elizabeth Tutor

It was a long journey, but worth every second to meet our daughter....Caroline Elizabeth Tutor. She arrived on February 8th at 10:35P. She weighed in at 7lbs 10ozs and was 20 inches long. But let me start at the beginning of our "laboring" journey...

I went into labor on Sunday morning around 645A. By 1030A contractions were 5-7 mins apart and my midwife said let's head to the hospital. After time in triage, I was checked into my labor room at 1p. We spent the next hour walking around to help the labor process along. After that I was 3.5 cm and they broke my water. Within the next half hour I moved to 4 cm and called in the anesthesiologist for the blessed epidural. To be honest, the labor pains were not that bad at this point but I was told they would get bad and fast so I opted out of feeling what "bad" felt like. I received the epidural around 4PM. By 9PM I was fully dilated, but they had me sit up for another 45 mins before pushing to help bring the baby down a little more.

Around 945P I started to push. Mom, Megan, and Jamey were all in the room with me. And I later found out that the whole family was on speak phone in the waiting room...and every time I pushed they all held their breaths and counted to 10 with me...only a few hernias to report from the rest of the family. Out popped baby Caroline at 10P:35P.

Shortly after she was born the nurses took her over the to baby station in the room and began to try and get her to cry. After continued work to try and suction her and get her to cough, they decided to take her to the nursery. Jamey went with her and the whole family watched from the the window in awe of our precious bundle. After continuing to work on her, they were unable to get her to stabilize with her own oxygen so they moved her to the Level II NICU. After a lung xray, they said her lungs were possibly aspirated, she had pneumonia, or fluid didn't squeeze out while she was in the birth canal. I was finally taken to see her at 2:30A and cried as the doctor explained to us that it would be a miracle if she would be able to go home with us in a few days. They said she would be fine, but to a mother and father, it was devastating news.

We hit our knees in prayer and friends, family, and strangers even joined us in prayer for our Sweet Caroline. With the power of prayer and the power of God, she progressively began to breathe on her own. And Tuesday morning xrays revealed that her lungs were clearing. We were finally able to hold our sweet angel and feed her. On Wednesday morning, our miracle happened and she was released from the NICU and hospital and we all came home.

Home life has been amazing. Thanks for the prayers...we are forever thankful for the love and support.

Here is a link to more pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/tutorfamily/

39 Weeks & 2 Days...plus Bed Rest

Here we sit just 5 days away from my due date and it seems more like 5 weeks away. I am anxiously awaiting the pains and joys of labor. Bring it on! I am ready for it. And I have officially decided that I am going to be the last pregnant girl in the world. Do all women near their due date feel that way? I am sure they do. Yet, as I sit here, every one of my girlfriends who was due around the same time as me is sitting at home holding their baby. And I still sit here with my large and in charge preggo belly!

To help the time pass I did create and online baby pool where people get to guess her arrival date, weight, etc. It has been fun checking it out to see what people think. The largest number of guesses is for Feb 7th, so Saturday here we come. Yet, today is good for me too! And I should mention that there is a full moon on Monday and statistically there are a large number of babies who arrive during a full moon. So we shall see. And for those who guessed my her date of arrival after my due date and/or with a weight of well over 8lbs...YOUR OFFICIALLY ON MY BAD LIST! And forgiveness will require bribery :)

After yesterday's appointment I was officially put on bed rest for my final days of pregnancy. This is not due to my child, but my high blood pressure. I have had great blood pressure the entire time, but it was abnormally high during yesterdays appointment. After a bit at the office, they rechecked it and it was back to normal. So they decided not to send me straight to the hospital, but straight to bed...ugh! I personally think it was a total fluke, but I am no doctor so pajama world, days of tv watching, and Internet here I come. It has been 24 hours so far and I already fear tomorrow. I think I did everything I could think of while lounging on the couch today....what will tomorrow hold. Maybe a trip to the hospital and a baby?!?

I shall also throw in that they stripped my membranes at the appointment yesterday. That was the most painful thing I have ever experienced. Hopefully it will yield some results...if not, I do not recommend it at all. Although, even if it does produce results, I would still not be quick to recommend the process. It sucked that bad!

The next post WILL be about the arrival of the baby!!!!! Until then...

36+ Weeks and A Pregnancy Epiphany

Effacement, dialation, stations....so many words, so many possible meanings! Well I am officially 36.5 weeks preggos. Can you believe just 3.5 weeks to go until D-day?!? Doctors appointments have been a regular part of my week now as I frequently visit with my wonderful midwife, Chantel. I am currently 1cm dialated, 40% effaced, and at a -2 station. For those of you who don't know what any of that means, it means....Caroline is coming....someday! It would be nice to think that we could have a date in mind, but really it could be any day or weeks from now. For now, we sit and wait for the impending delivery. Bags are packed and the car seat is in place. Right now prayers are being lifted by our wonderful friends and family for a safe delivery, healthy baby, and for at least Feb 1st so we can get the supplemental insurance, right?

Oh and last week we had an ultrasound. All looks good in there. She is head down, approx 6.1 lbs, and the ultrasound tech said she has hair!!! Yeah for bows!!! She also is looking a little cramped in there with both a hand and foot in her face. Sorry baby!!!

I am a reader. A big reader. In fact, I cannot stop reading pregnancy and baby books. The toilet reading includes Your Pregnancy Week by Week and What to Expect When You're Expecting. The newest "pleasure" reading is Baby Wise. It was recommended to me by several friends. What a great book so far! And from it comes my epiphany....there has been proven research that links infants children who get a full night sleep are more intelligent, have quicker response times, etc. This all directly ties into experiencing different stages of sleep. If they are awakened every few hours they will never achieve this. So now my brain is churning (surprising due to the lack of sleep I have had for 36 weeks.)...Pregnancy Brain is real! I am not just getting dumb and forgetful! It has been 36 weeks since i have had a full-night sleep. Sure I am in bed for over 8 hours in any given night. However, I am waking up every 2-3 hours to go to the bathroom or for other pregnancy discomforts. So this means my body has no chance at achieving a true REM state. So here's to hoping this Baby Wise stuff works and a few months after she is born both of us will experience the joys of the different sleep states. And true intelligence, judgement, and other joys of a well rested brain will be experienced!

...Oh and by the way, for those of you reading the above that have opinions otherwise and do not believe it is possible to have a baby who will sleep through the night by 2-3 months old, keep your opinions to your self. This is my blog and my happy world...get your own if you wish to state your opinions!!! :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I really have so much to be thankful for this holiday season...and blessings seem to keep growing daily (and so does my belly).

I am officially 32 weeks pregnant and ready to meet my daughter. I have been doing a lot of last minute preps just in case she arrives early. Now I know statistically there is no reason to believe she will enter this world early (or even on time for that matter), but as I meet random people who have welcomed their bundles of joy as early as 35 weeks, that makes me think I need to get my hiney in gear and make sure I am ready just in case. We just had our 4th and final baby shower and were so blessed to be "showered" with so much goodness for our little one.

So enough about me, let me tell you about a few recent happenings in my life and my family's lives that have been nothing short of blessing and miracles.

#1 (MIRACLE/BLESSING) My big brother, Liam is getting married. He proposed to the wonderful Lorrie the day after Thanksgiving in Austin on top of Mt Bonnell (my pregnant butt climbing that mountain was another story). They are getting married April 25th and we couldn't be more thrilled. We truly love her so much and I am so excited to have her as a sister!!!

#2 (BLESSING) My cousins Lee and Andrea just found out they are expecting their 2nd bundle of joy in July!

# 3 (MIRACLE...and surely a blessing) My cousin Jocelyn is pregnant after a very long time of trying to conceive and is due in August!!!

#4 (MIRACLE) It snowed in Houston!!!!

I mean really, it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. (PS There is a little game of "I Spy" that goes along with this tree!!!)

Baby Showers Galore and 12 weeks to go

At what point during pregnancy do you switch from telling people how many weeks you are to how many weeks you have left?...I realized recently instead of telling people that I am 28 weeks, I now say...Just 12 weeks to go! All I can figure is at some point during the pregnancy you realize you are on the downhill slide toward home plate. 28 weeks doesn't sound near as close to the end as 12 weeks does.

Now that's enough for my random preggers thought for the day. Jamey and I just got back from North Carolina. We made our last official trip before I became land-locked to H-town for the remainder of the pregnancy. We had a great time visiting family & friends, had 2 wonderful baby showers, ate too much sausage and biscuits, and were able to relax just a little bit.

So listen, I have had 3 baby showers so far and they have all been a lot of fun. I will say this about all of the showers...baby Caroline will never be naked. In fact, whether or not the need arises, I will be forced to change her outfit 15 times a day just to put her little hiney in every single piece of clothing she now owns. I guess girls clothes are just too irresistible to pass up....so we are all set on clothes!!!

But then the question arises, even though clothes are too cute and seem like a great option as a gift for a baby...are they really? How do you really know how big or little the child will be? And then to properly determine the season of clothes...it is all baffling really. In the past I have pondered this, but it has come to the forefront of my mind more recently as every child born to my friends have been different shapes and sizes. What have I learned for my baby? Keep the tags on almost everything. Resist the urge to wash every item in her closet in Dreft 2 months before she arrives. Set aside a few washed onesies and pj's and cute outfits and worry about the rest after she is here!

On the doctor visit note: I am now officially seeing the Dr. every 2 weeks. The last appointment was complete with my blood work and glucose tolerance test. I am happy to say that I do not have gestational diabetes. However, my anemia did come back. Just a little more iron in my life and hopefully that will re-regulate itself soon. I am headed back for another appointment this Thursday where I will experience the joys of Rhogam shots!

Pregnancy & Halloween...Does it get any better?

We would now like to be refered to as the "King and Queen of Inappropriate". We search and searched for the perfect costumes for Halloween and found a good laugh out of the whole pregnant nun/drunk priest combo! We had a great time, got a lot of laughs. And man, wearing a robe around is very comfortable. I could do without the headpiece in my daily life, but if you see me walking down the street in my black robe....you'll no why!!!