Finding out the Gender (& 10 months pics!)

Our sweet little girl has just had another birthday!
She is 10 months old!  I can't believe how fast this year has flown by.

 

It's getting harder and harder to get a monthly pic of her sitting still and smiling at the camera.
And I'm hoping that her little diaper cake that we do the monthly pics with will last another 2 months until her first birthday!  Every month I have to rebuild it. She pulls out the little tulle toppers every time now!

 

Her Aunt Val made these sweet little bloomers for her. Aren't they the cutest things you've ever seen! They are definitely one of my favorite things from her baby shower.  I was one of those mamas who just HAD to find out the gender as soon as possible. One of the perks of announcing your gender and the baby's name is all the sweet little custom gifts you can stare at in anticipation of baby's arrival. Having the custom stuff in the hospital for the newborn pics was another thing I just absolutely loved. I adored going into my postpartum hospital room and my mom and mother in law hung a banner with her name above my bed. It was so girly and lovely and welcoming. All the nurses thought it was so sweet!

Different strokes for different folks, though. If you are a mama who just can't see any other way but to wait until the birth to find out the baby's gender, then go for it. This Lambie Blog is just my story, and why I chose to find out to gender of my babies before they were born.

The Waiters will say, "How could you ruin the suprise?!"  Um... I didn't. I was still suprised when I found out the sex of my babies. I just could not wait another minute.  I wanted to know and plan and be prepared. I didn't want to believe in my head that the baby was one sex and then on their birth day be let down that I was wrong.  I didn't want any hint of disappointment or mixed feelings to be on their birth day. Because I know that I'm human. I know that I have desires and sometimes disappointment creeps in when you least expect that. I wanted to know just how their birth days would go. And save the best suprise for last. What they will look like.  Will she have my grandmother's hands? My husband's eyes? My hair?  Will she be quiet and calm or will she be perky and boisterous? There a SO MANY suprises when the baby comes.

The suprise of my gender day sonograms was so special. It was just hubs and I in the room with the doctor. When we found out we brought in the grandmothers. It was really special. If only Pinterest had been around at that time, I would known all about gender reveal parties and I would have thrown one of those for my friends and family.  Instead we did it the old fasioned way and announced it on Facebook with a sonogram picture. Old School, right?

My mom was pregnant three summers before she had me. A miscarriage and an infant lost due to heart defect.  Maybe it's my family history that made me want to know their gender in a way to feel closer to my unborn children. I could name them and talk to them in a way that felt more personal to me. It probably sounds so weird to The Waiters because any mama is bonded to her baby from the second she pees on the stick. And there are lots of ways to bond with your baby. This was just something that was really special and important to me. I felt like I knew them and it made me feel more confident as a new mom.

Birth class was terrifying and if I didn't have that mental image of baby girl Devyn or baby boy Cade going into my delivery I don't think I would have been able to do it. The doctors would have really had to sedate me completely to get those babies out. The gender made it so real to me. I knew it was Cade that needed to come out when I was tired of pushing and didn't think I could push any longer.  I knew it was my sweet little boy who needed to meet me. Thinking his name and knowing my little boy blue would be here soon if I kept going helped me get through. Again, you think I'm lame and that's no argument but when it came down to the wire, I was ready to give up and go home and let him be born another day. That's how hard it was to me and even though I was so ready to not be pregnant any more I would have waited another day had it not been Cade. 

Sorry Ambiguous Baby, I just couldn't have you. I needed to know who you were. Your 15 weeks and 20 weeks of being Ambiguous Baby were long enough for me. I needed my Suprise Gender Reveal earlier than 39 weeks and 41 weeks.  So, do I have any regrets? Do I feel like I missed out on one of Life's Greatest Suprises? Absolutely not. 0% regret here. I adored every minute of picking out pink and blue nurseries. Shopping for little details that I would NOT have been able to do with such anticipation and excited with a newborn baby. I would not trade those months of excitedly telling strangers and friends, "It's a girl!" for anything in the world. Hearing their advice about little girls, or little boys or having one of each was really cool. Sometimes strangers suprise you and you learn the coolest things.

Gotta go play with the littles now. Any more reminiscing and I will want to be pregnant again....Not gonna happen! (Yet at least!)

Devyn's Birth Day

Almost 3 weeks post birth, I'm finally able to grab a second to blog Devyn's birth story. I've wanted to write about it since the minute it happened, I was so amazed with how different it was! By amazed I mean, that I'm still waiting to wake up from my perfect dream delivery and beautiful baby and be stuck back in the labor and delivery room with killer contractions and feeling EV-RY-THING like Cade's birth.

My fabulous mother-in-law, Lolli, came over early in the morning to watch Cade while Nick and I were at the hospital. Thankfully we were able to get a "before" picture....Can't lie, I felt like I was getting my first day of school pic made. I definitely had those butterflies and anxiety of knowing the next year is going to be so different, but so AWESOME! At least you hope so. You think you're ready for this, you've told all your friends that you've got this in the bag and you're going to rule the school this year. You smile for your mom, but you kind of want to run and cry just in case your day is scarier that you had thought.

Eventually we made our way to Plano Presby (I couldn't stop hugging and kissing Cade and Izzy and giving Lolli instructions, nervous wreck!) and we checked in with Gold Tooth and got registered. Luckily we ended up in Room #10. (Turns out had we ended up in Room #8, there was a highly likely chance there would be a VERY interesting and unusual birth story according to nurses & my OB).

The pitocin was started at 9:00am. After watching the Today show for an hour I decided laying on my back was too uncomfortable. One of the lessons I remembered my prenatal yoga teacher (before I became a prenatal yoga dropout) was to move around, your whole pregnancy you are discourage from laying flat on your back and the first thing "They" do when you go into labor is put you flat on your back. So I spoke up and asked to move into a more comfy position (something I didn't do in my naive pregnancy #1, thinking "Doctors and nurses are experts, I'll trust them".... dumb move: speak up and get even better service!)

Nice nurse #1 moved my bed and I was so thankful. I told her "I will do whatever you say to get this baby to come out faster and smoother"! She said "Lets try this then" and moved the bed into a super weird, but suprisingly comfy position. Nick called it "The catcher's squat", I called it "Happy Buddha". The idea was to give baby room to move down. I was so happy because all the pressure was instantly lifted off my back and sciatic nerve.

Zenned out prego. My nurse and OB thought I was too happy for someone who had been on Pitocin all afternoon. I dared them to up it, but they said to wait until they broke my water. I had a million billion assurances that this delivery would be easier. Something about my lady parts being a gravel road during Cade's delivery and now a paved superhighway this time.

Anyhoo, Zen prego only lasted so long. I was "allowed" to "eat" juice (I know, "eat juice"...grr) or jello or water once an hour. And I could only pick one! But ice chips were unlimited. F-you! I'm about to do a dang IronMan in here and I only get juice, water, or Jello? Where's my BURGER!?! Oh, and Vent #1: nobody comes in when your hour is up and asks you what you'd like to eat this hour. You have to remember that for yourself!! I'm sorry, but a little service in the food area would have been appreciated!

Lunch of champions below.

Disclaimer: Nick snuck me 4 renegade Reese's Pieces. I credit those little bad boys and the Jello with my unbelievably fast delivery.

So I had come up with a game plan with the anesthesiologist the day before. Problem during Cade's delivery was that I didn't feel my legs but I did feel Queen Victoria. I felt her open those gates let her army tear through the walls of the castle so to speak. Epidurals work differently for every woman every time, but I was assured that if you wait as long as you can at least the relief the medicine provides is measurable compared to the pain you were feeling drug-free. We agreed that once I couldn't breathe through my contractions I'd request the epidural.

At 2:30pm my contractions started to get tricky. It had felt like a doable workout, almost laughable all morning, how easy they were. "I can take more, give me more!" But by 2:30 I had to work through them. Previously I had been pacing around my room, did lunges, stretched my legs. Watched Devil Wears Prada and Sex and the City. Crunched ice. Now I was laying on my side and breathing through them. I told myself I had to go an hour longer than I did with Cade's labor before calling the anesthesiologist. That was supremely tough to even make it to 3:00! Oh, and somewhere in there, Nice Nurse #1 was replaced by Nurse #2 (who later earned her "Nice" title). I was so disappointed! Nurse #2 said Nurse #1 had to leave unexpectedly. Um, without saying "Bye!" ? What the f, Nurse #1?? I thought we had bonded! And there you go, leaving my high and dry, no baby and no goodbye. I felt used. Laid up there in my open booty hospital gown and not a goodbye. Luckily I had my faithful Pitocin painful contractions and "breathing through" to distract me.

So at 3:00 I had the nurse call in for the epidural. After AGAIN signing away that I understood the epidural could paralyze or kill me, 45 long minutes later, I got my magic juice. I was concerned howevs, that I could feel my right side. The anesthesiologist and nurse helped roll me to my right side to let gravity bring the juice to the right side. It worked and within 5 minutes my nurse suggested we try a practice push. "Now, if I say 'WHOA' that means STOP Pushing, got it? If I say, 'WHOA' that means Stop right away and we'll get your doctor here STAT". Um, okay, lets practice!!!

I pushed, which didn't even feel like a push that's how magic this juice was, and halfway through the push the nurse says "WHOA!!!" and she runs to the phone and instructs Nick and I not to talk, laugh, move, breathe. Um, cool. I'm good at being quiet. My boss is laughing hard right now if she's reading this. I'm the teacher who gets told to hush during staff meetings.

My doctor instantly appears and casually says "See, I told you it would be faster?! Lets go!" All of the sudden, the Showtime overhead lights are on and there are nurses prepping the baby warmer and everyone is suddenly covered in gloves and masks. My spa-like hotel room has now instantly transformed into a delivery room. So weird.

So my dr says to push and I push through one count to 10 and she says "Great! Look down, she's halfway here!" No shit?!! Liar!!! I look down and there's my baby! "Push again, this time nice and easy, very slow" I give a tiny little push really slowly and she's out!

It felt like several minutes before I heard her beautiful cry, but there she was, perfect and tiny and I didn't even FEEL A THING! For real. I would tell you Cade felt like the Ring of Fire. Devyn wasn't even a tiny little fart. She was so easy!! And cute!!

I was so happy my hair looked decent. I mean, so happy my baby got an Apgar of 9.9! I was so amazed at the whole experience. Tests on the placenta showed no signs of the CMV I was exposed to having been passed to the baby, Thank you God! Devyn looked just like Cade, so incredibly exciting!!! And she was and is as sweet as can be. Mommy's little honey cakes. Daddy's little princess. Cade's little "Baby Sister Girl" was here!! It was one of the best days ever.

And I even got the hospital's BLT AND my daddy bought me a big juicy Gazeebo burger and fries! It was a perfect day.

Hot child in the city!

I knew this part would be the hardest, being 9 months pregnant with a heat index about 100 every day! One more week to go and I'm trying so hard to make sure I enjoy every minute with Cade. I can't believe that most of our lives Nick and I will be parents of two children. I can't even imagine what it's going to be like and just one month from now we won't be able to imagine what life was like before two kids. We forget that we used to have a life just the two of us. We literally sit on the couch with Cade and Izzy and can't recall what we used to do. We've come to the conclusion that we must have been pretty boring. Of course, we will never admit that to the kids!!

Cade and I had a great mommy and me date yesterday. We started off with breakfast at McDonald's ("donalllllls!!") and grocery shopping. Then we came home and got ready for "swimming pool time" at Jack Carter. Not gonna lie, it was kind of disappointing to be limited to the kiddie pool. Cade fancies himself an advanced swimmer and kept asking me why he couldn't go to the big pool. Apparently the 200 teenagers swimming laps didn't deter this kid! After a luxurious nap for Cade (and lunch & Real Housewives DVR time for Mommy) we headed to a mall play date. Auntie Annie's pretzels for snack?? Yes please! To top off the perfect summer day, Daddy suggested ordering thin crust pizza for dinner. Perfection. And we only snuck out of our big boy bed 3 times!!

The problem with nailing the perfect summer day is waking up the next day and hoping to recreate the same happiness with a different combination of events. On today's agenda? Library time, pool, nap, OB appt, bikini wax. hmmm... something tells me we're not going to re-create yesterday's magic.

Prego vents

Here we go....prego vents!

I'm clearly about ready to pop. I know you think this means I shouldn't be out in public, but a girl's gotta be places. How about in a crowded mall you MOVE your booty outta my way. I can't just quickly swerve my body around you. Okay, I probably could but it would make me more uncomfortable. You don't realize that I'm 36 weeks pregnant, it's 100 degrees outside, I'm having Braxton Hicks (which means my stomach has temporarily turned to a ball of concrete with a little knee lodged between my tender stomach muscles) and that my body has 40-50% more blood volume, which just so happens to be pooled somewhere below my belly button and above my thighs. MOVE YOUR ASS outta my way!!

I wish people would give me girth. Trust, you will so not hurt my feelings if you keep a good yard away from me. Does my poked out belly button not serve as a beacon to back up? At least it's a small signal that I'm operating at maximum capacity. I may not look like a Mack truck, but that's how I feel.

Another gripe: hurry up. If you see me juggling a stroller, wrangling my toddler (no, I don't "leash" him, thanks for the suggestion, douche), and holding my stomach with white knuckles--- it probably means you should woman up and let me go ahead of you in line. If you're a sales person, just hurry up. Cut the chit chat and upsells. I don't need to be a valued customer and get your emails. Give me your rewards discount and get me outta there.

Memo to salespeople: I get it. I'm pregnant and you asking me all abut it makes you look friendly. It's annoying to me to share my joy in the same three scripted sentences at every store with every "associate". 1- I'm 9 months along 2- it's a girl 3- yes it's super special to have one of each "we lucked out". Do you want me to tell you how I obsessively read every website on gender selection sway techniques, highlighted a book and considered investing thousands in sperm spinning to separate the girls from the boys?

Memo #2 to salespeople: yes, your store has tons of cute shit for baby girls. I don't need you to point it put to me. I'd MUCH prefer to discover the special ruffle butt diaper cover all on my own. It's called thrill of the hunt. And when I spend ten urea debating which baby girl socks: ballerina or Mary Jane style, paisley or butterfly, I am actually highly enjoying myself, I don't want your opinion. It's MY daughter. Not yours. Mine!!!! Tmes like this. Wish I was either a. Autistic and could speak my mind without realizing others were having weird thoughts about me, b. Two years old and can look cute throwing a "mine" fit, or c. 80+ years old so people could write me off as senile when I tell you to "suck it, Missy!"

Whew!!! Shopping prego can be exhausting. Thanks to the salespeople fun-suckers who drained my reserves today. You made my two year old seem like an angel. Oh wait, he is.

Pregancy in Review

It occured to me this morning as I was making my coffee, that it's been 36 weeks and I've barely blogged about this pregnancy! Here is a quick recap of the highs and lows:

6 months of trying - Went to the new OB panic-stricken about possible secondary infertility. It only took 2 months with Cade, wtf ovaries??! She did bloodwork and an ultrasound and, sure enough, there was a ripe egg looking good. Little did I know that egg would soon become my baby!

Day 1 - I took my pregnancy test before we went down to Aggieland for our RV trip to see the Aggies BTHO Nebraska! Just had to know what kind of tailgater I would be that weekend. After 7 months of trying, I finally saw 2 lines! Success!! While Nick was at work Cade and I ran to Gymboree to get a "Big Brother" shirt. We kept it a secret until morning.

Day 2 - While Nick was starting the RV, Cade and I ran into the house for "one last diaper change". I put on his Big Brother shirt and we went down to the RV to surprise Daddy with the news. Our weekend o' fun just got way more fun!! We debated how it was going to play out b/c our friends would know I was pregnant when I was only drinking water, but we wanted to suprise our parents at Thanksgiving later that week. Luckily they promised not to text, talk, or Facebook our secret! The Aggies won, the RV was a blast, and it was fun to get to tell our long-distance friends who showed up in person about the pregnancy!

Thanksgiving - As Nick said the blessing he ended with blessing our soon to be family of four. I guess the fam was deep in prayer, because there was like 1% reaction. Then some awkward nodding on Nick and I's part "Um yeah, so we're pregnant again" then the fam caught on! Aunt Shanon made the first prediction it would be a girl!

2nd Trimester - Some routine bloodwork came back and my OB called me to let me know that I'd been recently exposed to CMV (CytoMegaloVirus). Since I wasn't ill, chances are everything with the baby was going to be okay, but I'd need to see a sonogram specialist ASAP. The grueling MLK weekend loomed, so I spent the next 4 days Googling CMV and becoming horrified at the possible complications: miscarriage, major developmental and immune disorders, stillbirth, children with 2 year life expectancies, the works. It also occured to me since I was at 16 weeks that we could possibly determine the gender at the ultrasound too. Having had two close friends recently experience miscarriages and wondering if I'd get my wish for a girl I was a hot mess.

16-20 weeks - The ultrasounds turned out good, developmental measurements looked normal. We could see in detail the heart, brain, and other organs were developing typically. Thanking God I said one last quick prayer for a girl as the sono specialist peeked between baby's legs and the 3 lines were revealed -- GIRL!!! As we left the office I broke down into sobs in the hallway. Healthy baby girl was more unbelievable than winning the lottery at that moment, and even now I still question our luck. The chances of any child coming into this world as a typically developing healthy human being truly restores my confidence there is a God and He is good.

Week 20 - 25 Name Debate. We love Caitlyn, but "Cade and Cate" just isn't going to happen in this house. On the way to see the latest Reese Witherspoon movie with Mom we play around with names. I love Dylan (the name of my precious first student ever) even femmed up for a girl. And then I play with the name and come up with Devyn. All through the movie I picture a little fairy of a girl named Devyn and fall in love. We get back to the house where my dad is watching Cade. I excitedly tell him I think I've found a name. He asks me "Isn't that a black name?" Umm... it's not exactly LaQuisha, Dad. Thus begins my 5 week waffling. I buy a baby name book, Google every name out there. I consider Olive, Claire, Madelyn, Poppy, every girly (and random)name out there, but keep coming back to Devyn. I even forbid my mom from saying "Devyn" until I am firmly decided. Nick loves the name, his confidence helps me. We decide on Devyn Alexis.

Week 25 - 30 Nesting instinct even more intense this time around. Now that I know maternity leave isn't a bunch of free time to get stuff done around the house I know that each and every closet and drawer and cabinet in the house must be in supreme organization before this baby gets here! The closets have never looked so good. (Most of them.)

Week 32-35 - School's out for the summer!! Time to get cracking on moving the baby furniture to the new nursery and bringing in big boy furniture for Cade. Transition to big boy bed, painting the room, installing new white doors (my belated Christmas present of '09), sorting through old baby clothes....whew!!

Week 36 - Last week I had my final monthly ultrasound. Baby is still a girl and still growing strong. In fact, her estimated current weight is at 6 lbs 6 oz! wtf?? that's a full term baby! I can't be still 4 weeks out. My OB and I talked it over and decided we'd induce at 39 weeks to avoid birthing another 9 lb toddler. We set the date for Wednesday, July 20th! Now I know when to schedule final hair appointments, wax, mani/pedi's to prep for the big day:) Baby Girl, I can't WAIT to meet you!!