The return to blogging,

Since I have a tiny bit of quiet time while Hannah naps in her swing and Cameron entertains himself with a pair of my shoes, I thought I would finally do a blog update!

We have had a pretty smooth transition into a family of four. I'm sure it helps that Josh has been off of work since the day Hannah was born, so I haven't had my taste of reality just yet. The longest I have been alone with both kids was for about 2 hours yesterday, and in that time, Cameron was taking a nap and Hannah was pretty relaxed. I'm sure when Monday rolls around and Josh is back at work, I will be singing a different tune.

Cameron has adjusted really well to having a little sister. He loves to look at her and tries to feed her a bottle. Yesterday, he stood by her swing and put the pacifier in her mouth every time she spit it out. And he did it so patiently. The look on his face when he finally gets it back in is full of pride. He really is a great big brother.

Here he is trying to feed her a bottle.

And trying to put her pacifier in her mouth.

Now, there is definitely a lot of jealousy when it comes to his little sister. Anyone can hold her, but when she is being held, he needs to be held too. He will coming running at us with his arms wide open saying "need! need!" He usually doesn't like it when Josh holds Hannah, either. He has become a daddy's boy since Hannah was born. I know Josh loves it too.

Let's talk about sleep. The girl will sleep alllllll day long, but once 10 at night rolls around, she is wide awake. It usually takes us until at least midnight to get her back to sleep, if not later. The other night, I was up until 12:45 feeding her, holding her, trying to sing to her. Eventually, I sat in front of the computer with her in my arms and she fell asleep. The bright lights from the computer screen had me wide awake, but she was out. That's all that matters. She wound up sleeping for 5 hours straight, which is probably a no-no for a week old baby, but it hasn't happened again since.

How about an update on me? I have been feeling great for the past couple of days. Looks like the pains have finally starting subsiding. I haven't taken any pain pills in a couple of days, and the last time I did, it was because I had a killer headache that just wouldn't go away. Motrin 600 certainly took care of it! I have been lifting Cameron in and out of his bed, and putting Hannah and her carseat in and out of the car. I haven't taken it as easy as I probably should have, but thinking I wouldn't do either of those things is pretty ridiculous. How can you say no when a precious little boy looks up at you with his arms wide open, wanting you to hold him? As far as the baby weight goes, I am about 6 pounds away from what I weighed before I got pregnant. Of course, my body is warped and is definitely not looking the same as it did at that point, but I have plans for that. As soon as I get the okay from my OB, I am joining a local gym and starting back up on Weight Watchers. Look out for those posts, I am really excited about this! I have about 50 pounds to lose once I get rid of the baby weight, and I know I can do it. 

I laid Hannah on our bed this afternoon and took a couple of pictures of her. Here are the latest!

Hannah Elise

I know I don't have too many readers, but I want to document Hannah's birth for those that are curious, and for myself as well.

Thursday, July 15th, I was checked into the triage unit at the hospital. We were told to arrive at 7:30. We pulled into the parking garage at 7:20 and the nerves finally hit me. After checking in, I was instructed to put on a gown and go to the bathroom to provide a urine sample. That took all of 10 minutes. Next, the nurse came in and hooked me up to the monitors. I was having small, painless contractions. She said it was normal since I hadn't had anything to drink since 9:30 the night before. She asked me what seemed like a million questions about my health history and then left the room. The surgery was supposed to start at 9:30. Around 8:30, the nurse came back and attempted to put my IV in. She tried twice in my left arm, and both times she lost the vein and wound up fishing for it for 5 minutes each time. She didn't want to keep poking me for nothing, so she left to find reinforcements. She brought back another nurse who immediately got a vein in my hand. That was pretty painful.

By 9:30, we were still waiting for my doctor. She showed up around 9:45 and we were off to the operating room. They had me sit up on the operating table to put my spinal in. That was pretty painful as well. It seemed to be that 3 was my unlucky number that day, because that is how many times they tried to put the spinal in before it was successful. It is still so crazy to me how weird it feels when you go numb from your waist down. After the doctor started poking me and asked if I could feel it, the catheter went in and the doctor started the surgery. At one point in the very beginning of the surgery, I got really nauseous. I told the anesthesiologist and she put a little tub next to my face just in time to catch the vomit I couldn't control. I think I puked twice and felt better almost instantly. The anesthesiologist said I got sick because my blood pressure dropped pretty significantly. I am pretty sure the doctor was already cutting when Josh was finally let in the OR. After tons and pulling and pushing from the doctors, Hannah was finally born at 10:23 am. The anesthesiologist's partner predicted what he thought she weighed. "8 pounds 13 ounces!" I didn't believe him for a second.

They took her to the heated baby table and started cleaning her up. I thought she was beautiful. I instantly had visions of newborn Cameron and thought she looked so much like him. They got her all cleaned up and shouted her weight out for the rest of the room. 9 pounds 4.8 ounces. I couldn't believe it. I thought little girls were supposed to weigh less than little boys! She weighed a full pound and 3 ounces more than her brother. Later, in recovery, I learned she was 21 inches long and had a head circumference of 16 inches. She is a big girl.

Recovery in the hospital went great. Cameron and Hannah's first meeting was so special. He just stared at her. The first time we tried to let him hold her, he pushed her away, so we haven't tried again. She lost about half a pound in the hospital, which is a normal amount according to nurses and the pediatrician. She looked great, and her bilirubin levels were low, so no jaundice for our little girl! We were discharged Sunday morning and were so excited to finally go home. Cameron came home from his grandma and grandpa's that afternoon, and we have greatly enjoyed being home as a family.

My mom left to go home this morning. I am terrible at goodbyes, so of course, it was very hard for me to see her leave. Hopefully we won't go a year in between visits again. Christmas in Michigan is beautiful mom! Come back!

This morning, Josh and I took both of the kids to the pediatrician. Hannah had to have her newborn physical, and the doctor said she looks great. Still no jaundice, and she is in the 90th percentile for her weight. Such a big girl. Cameron has a little bit of a fever, so we took him just to be sure. She said his ears look great, which is good news. There seems to be a little bit of a bug going around, and he must have caught it. His throat was red, and she said he should be feeling better in a couple of days. Poor guy. He looks so miserable.

I will leave you with a few pictures of our girl and our boy. Our kids. That is so crazy to say.

here I am in triage, just before the IV was put in. ready to meet baby!

one of the first pictures of Hannah. Testing out her lungs.

big brother and little sister meet for the first time.

why is it crying?

finally leaving the hospital.

big brother watching his sissy take a nap. he's becoming very protective over her.

0 months old.

pretty girl with her eyes wide open.

She's here!

Hannah Elise Heystek was born on July 15th, 2010 at 10:23 am. She surprised us all by weighing in at 9 pounds 4.8 ounces and measured 21 inches long. She is gorgeous and healthy and has completed our family.

I will post again with her birth story once everything settles down a little bit.

Today is the day!

Well, the day has finally come. We have been waiting for what seems like forever, and now in just an hour and a half, I will be checked into the hospital and waiting to have a baby. This just seems surreal.

Last night was terrible. My mom took Cameron to her sister's house for the night so we could get everything ready at the house. I knew I would get emotional, especially since I cried like a baby when I left the house to have Cameron and worried about the dog. But man, did I cry. I feel so conflicted for my sweet little boy. He will be shuttled back and forth between grandmas today through Saturday, and when he does get to see Josh and me, he will have a pesky little sister to 'compete' with. He just doesn't know how much his life is going to change. But we will manage. He will be much happier with the situation when he sees the Woody toy and new book his sister bought for him. =)

So now I wait for the dryer to be done. Josh's brother will stay at our house with Buffy while we are in the hospital, and we will have clean bedsheets to come home to. I guess that is the beauty of not being able to sleep until the alarm goes off. Josh will be in the shower shortly, and I will put on some makeup so I can feel normal this time around. Life is certainly going to be different 4 hours from now, but I am excited to see where it takes us.

Nerves.

Last night, my dad sent me a text message. "Are you excited? Scared?"

I had to think about it for a second. It does not seem possible that I am only 2 days away from meeting my little girl. It seems like it was just yesterday that I took a test on a whim and found myself face to face with a positive result. It seems like yesterday that I was camped out on the couch for what felt like a month while Cameron played around me. And it literally feels like yesterday that we had our big ultrasound and found out that we were going to be having a daughter. Time has seriously flown by.

To say that I am excited is an understatement. I am thrilled that I am being blessed with another baby. I am exceptionally nervous that something is going to happen during delivery like with Cameron, but have been doing my best to keep that in the back of my mind. Hopefully with this being a planned delivery, and the fact that I have not had any signs of labor coming, everything will be perfect with Hannah when she is born. That really is the only thing I am scared of. Well, that, and the IV. It seems so silly that I am having surgery, and the thing I am most afraid of is a needle in my arm. The spinal block doesn't scare me. They don't really show you that needle. As long as the surgery goes well with no complications, and I can feel my legs when the anesthesia wears off, I will be just fine!

I have been keeping myself busy for the past couple of days. Yesterday, Cameron and I went to the mall with Josh's mom to waste some time. Mission accomplished. We left as soon as he woke up from his nap, and stayed gone until he was ready for another one. Today I am doing lots of laundry. I have waited until the last possible second to wash the mountain of clothes that were piling up on the basement floor. This afternoon, I will vacuum the floors and dust all the furniture. And of course, clean the bathroom. Josh will mow the lawn when he gets home from work, and we will have dinner. I will leave the house around 9:15 to go pick my mom up from the airport.

Tomorrow will be spent with my mom. I haven't seen her in a year. It seems so crazy that there was that much time spent between seeing each other. We literally talk to each other on the phone at least once a day. The days that we don't talk are weird. I love talking to her. Anyway, we will be having breakfast at the Cracker Barrel, since I can't get Josh to go there, followed by some shopping. The best part of the day? Pedicures sometime after Josh gets out of work. It was pretty important to me to look better when Hannah is born than when Cameron was born. I was in labor for many hours before Cameron was born, and looked terrible. My eyebrows should have been waxed before he was born though. The pictures of us in the hospital are atrocious. My eyebrows looked like caterpillars and Josh looked like a long lost member of the Beatles. This time we are prepared.

39 weeks!

This is it! The week we have been waiting for, the final one! I will have Josh take a picture tonight so I can upload it, but for now, you can use your imagination. =)


How far along?: 39 weeks.

Total weight gain/loss: I stopped looking again. I don't want to know.

Maternity clothes?: Absolutely, and I can't wait to stop wearing them!

Sleep: Eh, not so much. Between getting up to pee every 2 hours, and the restlessness that goes along with being excited, I am not sleeping very well.

Best moment this week: I floated around in the pool at Josh's mom's yesterday. That was glorious. Tomorrow night, my mom comes into town! I am so excited.

Food cravings: The usual suspects. Tacos. My heartburn has been exceptionally bad the past few days, but I cannot get enough spicy. So good.

Gender: Girl

Movement: Slow and steady. She must be out of room, poor girl.

What I am looking forward to: Spending some time with my mom. It has been a year since I've seen her. Also getting in some last minute quality time with Cameron, and meeting Hannah on Thursday, of course!

What I miss: Breathing easily. I think it is safe to say this girl is not going to drop down any lower.

Milestones: Only 3 more days!!

Self restraint.

Today is Sunday. Hannah is being delivered Thursday morning (if she does not decide to come sooner on her own). By this point in the game, you would think I would have my bags packed, the car seat bases installed and everything ready to go. Wrong. I am a super planner. I love to have things done and ready in advance, but I knew that if I did that this time around, I would drive myself crazy. Having bags packed and sitting by the door for 2 weeks just sounds like something else to move when I need to clean, and more excitement for my heart that is already full and ready to explode.

Don't get me wrong, there are a few things packed already. I washed clothes last weekend and set aside all of Cameron's best looking outfits and PJs for his trip between grandmas. I picked out some clothes for Hannah too and put those aside. Her car seat is sitting on the floor in the office, right next to the breast pump, ready to be installed and occupied.

But none of my clothes/toiletries/personal items are packed. Same with Josh. He claims he couldn't go too many days without some of his clothes, so he will pack last minute. Seeing that I will probably be living in hospital gowns for 3-4 days, I don't have much to pack, and I can probably wait until Wednesday too. I just can't believe how much it is eating at me that I have the lists prepared, but I'm not doing anything about them. The planner/control freak in my brain is screaming at me!

Instead, I focus on cleaning the house. Washing clothes, bed sheets and mopping the floors. It is significantly harder to do most of these things now that my stomach is as large as it is, but I will do it to keep my mind off the fact that in 3.5 days, our daughter will be born and our family will be complete. Crazy.

Look forward to the 39 week (and final) pregnancy post tomorrow!

Under Construction.

In case you were wondering, yes, our blog is currently under construction. I have been nesting BIG TIME, and got really annoyed with the way the blog looked. So I started to remodel it yesterday. I am hoping to have everything looking great in time for Hannah's arrival and introduction post this week! (It is still so crazy to say that.) So bear with us!



edit and we're back! check out the 'meet us' page to learn about our family.

My last OB appointment.

This morning was my final OB appointment. Technically, it was my 'pre-surgical consultation.' It went like any routine appointment. This time, I saw the OB that is going to be doing my surgery though. She asked if I had any questions and did the measurements and listened to the heartbeat, and sent me on my way.

Thursday is the day, and I cannot believe it. These past 9 months have definitely not been a walk in the park. The first couple of months were filled with morning sickness, followed by months of heartburn and feet in the ribs (all.the.time), and to top it all off - the hottest summer I can remember to finish it. I know she will be worth every single second of pain and every tear I've cried in a hormone-raged meltdown. I am so ready to hold her.

I am ready to see Cameron as a big brother. I don't have any idea how he will react to her. I assume he won't want much to do with her. Probably won't want to hold her, and will be scared when she cries. But I am hoping he wants to be around her all the time, and that he wants to hold her and bring her a pacifier when she cries. 6 more days and we will find out!

Our 4th of July weekend.

Let me just start out by saying that we had an AWESOME weekend. Josh didn't have to work on Monday, so we had 3 days together. I love 3-day weekends.

We started our Saturday off with some breakfast, followed by a trip to Menards. We have been putting a lot of effort into our house lately, finally trying to live like 'real' adults. (I wrote this post about our beginning project). This weekend, we focused on the backyard. Josh had put in some edging, planted some lillies and hostas and mulch a couple years back, and we didn't keep up with it. Needless to say, it looked awful back there. He pulled weeds and got all the leaves/sticks/etc. out of the area and filled it up with the same kind of rocks that are in the front yard planter area. Then he spent some time with his new chainsaw cutting down little groups of bushes. Our backyard is not fenced in, and we have a dog that uses a run connected to the house when she goes out to do her business. She is always getting caught around these bushes, digging holes underneath them, and making the area look gross. So Josh took care of it! It looks awesome back there now.

Saturday night, we drove to Holland to have dinner with my family for my dad's birthday. My brother is in town from California (he is in the Navy), so we got to see him too. That was nice.

That's Josh, Cameron, me, my dad, soon-to-be stepbrother, dad's fiance, soon-to-be step sister, my brother and his girlfriend. Phew. 

We drove home after dinner and got back just in time to walk down to the high school to watch fireworks. Cameron did not love them, but didn't hate them either. Not to mention, it was 10 before they started, and he was exhausted from screaming half the car ride home.

Alright, on to Sunday. We spent some more time playing in the backyard. It was SO hot though. Cameron took a nice, long nap, and we headed out to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner. I am forever craving tacos. After dinner, we did our grocery shopping, then came home so Cameron could see his grandma. She brought over the changing table she bought at a garage sale and repainted for us. Hannah's room is now 99% done. There are a couple of wall decorations that still need to be hung up, and picture frames that have to wait for her to be born, but besides that, her room is done!

We headed to Dairy Queen after Josh's mom and step-dad checked out all the work he had done in the backyard, and Cameron got his very own ice cream cone. Now, when MIL ordered the ice cream cone, she told them she wanted a 'baby sized' cone. We assumed they would put a tiny bit of ice cream in the cone and give it to him. Heck no! That thing had about 4 inches of ice cream on top of it, and with the heat, it melted way too fast. He loved it though, and ate a little bit of ice cream and most of the cone. Then, he helped his dad drink his milkshake. My boy has a sweet tooth!

That is not the best quality picture, but you can clearly see how much he loved the ice cream!

Monday was spent with more time in the backyard, followed by lunch and some shopping. I hope you all had as great a weekend as we did! I can't believe we have one more weekend as a family of 3, then Hannah will be here! We are so excited!

38 weeks!

How far along?: 38 weeks.

Total weight gain/loss: Hovering around 30. Sigh.

Maternity clothes?: Absolutely. If I don't wear a maternity shirt, my belly hangs out everywhere.

Sleep: Well, it's currently 6:58 am. Sleep is just not my friend these days.

Best moment this week: Visiting with my brother!

Food cravings: Tacos. Ice cream. Yum.

Gender: Girl

Movement: She's a busy little lady.

What I am looking forward to: Spending these last 10 days with Cameron. Then, meeting Hannah!

What I miss: I would have liked a beer with everyone at dinner on Saturday night.

Milestones: We have officially reached 10 days left. So excited!

37.5 week checkup and ice cream cones!

I had my 37 week checkup yesterday. It is so crazy to me that I won't be going in to see midwives anymore. My next appointment is Friday the 9th, and that is the pre-surgical consult with the doctor that will be doing my c-section. I seriously can't believe it. The midwife I saw yesterday seemed to be pressed for time, which is what I get for scheduling a 4:00 appointment (half an hour before closing time). She measured my belly and found Hannah's heartbeat and didn't have much else to say. She said everything looks great, which means I'm probably still measuring right on track, and Hannah won't make her grand entrance any sooner than July 15th.

Let's rewind a couple of days. Wednesday night, Josh and I swung through the drive thru at Dairy Queen and picked up a couple of ice cream cones. Me, being the pregnant cow I am, had my cone almost gone by the time we got home (hey, it was a small!), but Josh still had quite a bit left on his. We came into the house, and he decided to give Cameron the very bottom of his cone. I have never seen the boy so excited. He ate off the cone until melted ice cream covered his entire body, so I made Josh take it away from him. Bad idea. Here are some pictures that show the disaster that took place.

I think it is safe to say that the boy loves ice cream. And that his dad will never take another cone away from him.