Brody's arrival

Well...he finally made it!! Little Brody Tyler Watson joined our family on February 18, 2010 at 6:02 pm. He weighed 6 lbs, 13 oz and was 19-1/4 inches long. We are sooooo happy to have him with us!!

His arrival was definitely one for the storybooks!! I know I'm behind in blogging so I'll give you a quick recap of the events that lead up to his arrival. At my 38 week appointment (about 2 weeks ago) my dr told me that I was already 3 cm dilated and she was certain that little Brody would be here soon... The week went by and no baby. I had been busy trying to get the house in order though so I was thankful that he was taking his time. At my next appointment I discovered that I was now 4 cm dilated and 70% effaced. She gave me the option to go ahead and be induced but I really wanted to try to let my body do its own thing this time. My dr was certain I wouldn't make it another week, but just in case she scheduled an ultrasound for the following week to check on the baby. To everyone's surprise I did make it through the week and that is where the real story begins.

Considering the fact that I knew I was 4 cm dilated I felt really good. I was having contractions often, but they weren't severe and for the most part I felt pretty normal. I was still sleeping great and getting around really well. By Thursday (3 days past my due date) I was ready to throw in the towel and be induced. I didn't feel horrible by any stretch but I was just ready to be done. I was more uncomfortable than comfortable and honestly I think seeing that due date tick by just makes you mentally start getting over being pregnant really fast. I knew my dr was on call for the weekend, so Damon and I decided we wanted to be induced on Saturday. He had appointments lined up on Thursday and Friday, so it would just be easier all around to aim for Saturday. We headed out to the appointment on Thursday morning to get a quick peek at Brody on the inside. The ultrasound showed a healthy baby, but my fluid was low and Brody appeared to be low birth weight (~6.5 lbs) which is an indicator that the placenta is aging. After the ultrasound we headed over to the dr's office still thinking that Saturday would be Brody's birthday....for heaven's sake we didn't even pack the car with our bags! When we met with my dr, she agreed that the news of the ultrasound and timing made it appropriate to get the show on the road and she thought Saturday was a good idea. Of course these plans were made BEFORE she checked me. Much to all of our surprise, I was 6 cm dilated!! She immediately said, the plans had changed and I was to be admitted NOW!! She said it isn't healthy to walk around that dilated for risk of infection and for fear that the delivery would progress too quickly if my water broke. So...I headed to Labor and Delivery and Damon headed to the house to get our bags. I called Mom so she could start the hour drive up from Dunnellon and we were on our way to having a baby. It took Damon a while to get everything rounded up...even though I had it all in one place...but it gave me time to make some calls to friends and family to give them the news. Just after 2pm, Mom and Damon were both with me at the hospital and they started the pitocin to get my contractions going. The dr on call didn't want to break my water right away since it was so low. He wanted to give the baby a little cushion for the the time being. About 2 hours later I was finally starting to get uncomfortable, but not so bad that I couldn't handle it. The dr wasn't planning to break my water until after I got the epidural, so I asked the nurses to check me to see if the intensity of contractions was even working. I had progressed from 6 to 7 cm, so it was working, but at that rate, I wasn't interested in hanging around in pain for a long time. Based on my delivery with Rylee I thought if my water was broken I'd progress quickly, so I decided to go ahead with the epidural and breaking of water so we could get the show on the road. The dr on call was leaving at 8pm and I really wanted him to deliver. It took about half an hour for the anesthesiologist to show up with the drugs and by this time I was thinking I was definitely ready for some pain relief. All went well with the epidural and after waiting patiently for about 20 minutes for the nurse and Damon to discuss real estate and politics they finally hushed it up and told the dr I was ready for him to break my water. Within 10 minutes of him breaking my water I was in severe agony and thought the epidural wasn't taking. The nurse decided to check me and much to our surprise Brody was almost out!! They quickly called the dr back in and 10 minutes (4 pushes) later, Brody was here. It was a whirlwind to say the least. According to the hospital they can't count that my labor truely began until the meds showed a change in my cervix. So from the time they checked me and I had progressed to 7 cm to Brody's arrival was 1 hour 35 minutes!! If Damon hadn't held up the dr breaking my water with all the chatting with the anesthesiologist, I think he would have arrived in less than an hour!! Thankfully I didn't get my wish to go into labor on my own because if I had, I would have never made it to the hospital and the thought of that is terrifying!!

We are home now and doing well! Rylee seems to be adjust better than I thought and we are settling in to our new family. I know the next few weeks and months hold some adjustments for all of us but I feel so blessed to have been given the gift of a son and a daughter. Our family is complete and we are ready to make some memories!

Unfortunately time is scarce and I only had time to upload two pictures of the little man. The one with Damon's hand is to help you see how small he is! I hope to be able to keep up to date on blogging now that life is returning to normal...as much as having a newborn and 3 year old can be called normal! Thanks to everyone for all your prayers along the way!! Don't stop now...I'm sure I still need them in the weeks to come!

You can view the hospital photos by clicking this link. To search you have to enter his DOB 02/18/2010 and city of Gainesville, FL. You'll also need to enter the first 4 letters of our last name (wats) and the password: 23141290657511

http://www.our365.com/NewbornPortraits

ENJOY!!

Busy, busy, busy!!

I know it has been ages since I've posted and I'm sure you guys are wondering if I've given up on this blogging thing! I'm still here, but life has not been so easy the last 6 weeks or so since I've posted.

Let's see...I guess I left off a few weeks before Christmas. I'm sure there is enough said with that right there. A lot of time was lost simply in the hullabaloo of Christmas shopping, parties and festivities. Not to mention work, Dr's appts, and just being Mommy! We didn't actually do any decorating for Christmas because the house construction was WAY too hectic. Luckily my mother-in-law had a pre-decorated 'mini-tree' she wasn't using, so we were able to set that up on a table and at least create a little mood of the holiday season for Rylee. She also bought Rylee her very own purple tree to keep in her room...purple is her FAVORITE color, you know!?! About a week and a half before Christmas Rylee came down with a bit of a cold, so that was a bummer. 4 days before Christmas I got what I thought was her cold... Unfortunately I was wrong and wound up giving her my cold, too...so she was sick for about 3 weeks, the poor thing! It was a wonderful holiday season as usual with a lot of time spent with family and friends. Not being around my family is always tough during the holidays!! I think so many people get wrapped up in the 'gift giving' and totally lose sight of the blessing of family!! Althought it is sad to say goodbye to fun of the holidays, I'm certainly thankful for some of the stress of the season to be over!

We recovered from the holiday craze only to hit the house remodel head on! Monday, January 4th the constructon officially came indoors! They had to knock 4 holes into the house to connect us to the new addition... Right after Christmas we had to quickly pack up every room in the house except our master bedroom and bathroom. Even our master bedroom closet had to go... On top of the stress of the constructin at this point in the game, Florida had a 2 week cold spell that hasn't been seen in like 30 years or something like that. When they knocked the holes in the walls, we didn't even have heat to the new addition, so we were freezing!! We've weathered just about every setback possible it seems, but I certainly don't want to jinx us so that I can see how bad it could have been. Our builder had hopes to be have the kitchen remodel done in 1 week. He was gonna hit us hard, but be done quickly! Well....that didn't happen! In 3 days it will have been a month and our kitchen is still not usable. In the grand scheme of things, time has gone by quickly and it is all worth it but let me just say...I'm ready to have my life back. It is stressful knowing that Brody is 2 weeks away from his due date and we don't really have a place to put him if he were to arrive.

The new house addition is basically complete. We are hoping to get our CO (Certificate of Occupancy)tomorrow...of course we've been waiting on that since last Wednesday, but I'm still hoping!! All that is really left is closet shelving and a garage door and lots of little finish work like touch up paint and stuff like that. We still have a lot that we are painting in the old part of the house, but I think that will go quickly when we aren't crammed into one little room. We had new baseboards and crown molding put in the existing bedrooms as well as new flooring in the old living room and new cabinets/countertops in the old bathrooms, so there is virtually no room that hasn't been affected! (Except for Damon's baseball card closet that has remained locked throughout the construction...hmmmm)

My sister and Mom came last weekend and spent 5 days with us to help get the kids rooms ready. They were basically finished with the remodelling of those rooms, so Jill flew down with Dani and she worked rather hard to put everything in place! She also redid the kids' bathroom and helped me accessorize much of the rest of house. My credit card is smoking... Luckily I've been saving, so all is good!! I was pretty useless for helping with the manual labor, but wrist is sore from swiping my card...HA!!

I don't know if this kind of living is something you could ever get used to, but the sad thing is I think we are almost adjusting. Funny story... Jill's plane left at 7am so we got up at 5:30am and I drove her and Dani to the airport which is literally 5 minutes away from my house. I dropped them off and went back home to climb into bed for an hour and a half of sleep before the hammering started. Damon was snoring like a mad man, so I put in ear plugs and drifted off to sleep. I woke up to our cat sleeping with us which I couldn't understand since we lock them out of the room. Come to find out...our builder told us that 3 workers were here at 7:45am banging on the doors and ringing the doorbell to be let it. They had called him on his cell and he said for them to find an unlocked window and go on in. He knew we were taking Jill to the airport and figured we were gone. So they climbed in and got to work. When he got here at 8:30 he walked by our bedroom and saw us conked out in bed sound asleep. Apparently the cat had pushed the door open and come on in and since I had ear plugs in I couldn't hear a thing. Damon and Rylee can usually sleep through most commotion. I'm the one that hears a pin drop. I guess the ear plugs work! In some ways it is embarassing, but we've let these workers into every corner of our lives, why not let them see us sleeping, right?!? LOL!!

Within the next few days we could literally be closing the door on this chapter of our lives... I'm hoping and praying that the CO comes through tomorrow because that would play a HUGE roll in us being able to slowly put the pieces back together of the chaos we've been living in. In looking back at the pictures I posted at the beginning of December a lot has happened!! I'm really excited to start living a normal life again!

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!

We have officially named our BABY BOY!! It was a LONG and painful process....but we are pleased to announce....

Drum roll, please!!!

Brody Tyler Watson

Remodel update

A lot of progress has been made on the house since my last entry. Unfortunately the progress doesn't show up as well in pictures, but I've still got some good ones to show. My last update showed the workers finishing up the roof structure. In looking back at where we were a month ago, it certainly makes me realize how much progress has actually occured! In my last post, we were praying for no rain so that the roof wouldn't leak until it was dried in. Well...as typical...it rained at 3am, no less!! I woke up to hearing drip from the new roof to the old roof and inside the fireplace. I woke Damon up (who could sleep through a tornado) and he had to brave the storm and try to get a tarp over the section of roof that wasn't protected. It only rained for an 1 hour or 2, but it was a harsh way to wake up out of a dead sleep, I promise you. That day the men finished drying in the roof with tar paper and we felt VERY relieved!

The next hurdle that occurred again involved an inspection. Apparently the shingles could not be placed until the framing inspection was complete which includes walls framed out, plumbing and electrical. I'm not sure why there needs to be inside walls in place in order to put a roof on, but those are the rules. Well, supposedly a framing inspection also includes the windows being in place and our windows were very late arriving. After about a week and a half delay the windows arrived and were installed and the roof was FINALLY shingled. The next step was stucco and hardy board. It was really neat to drive home and see the exterior finished out to look like one house instead of 2 houses connected. We had them remove the 'decorative' boarders from around the windows because we didn't like it. I don't think stucco and a ranch style house really go together but by removing the boarders around the windows and adding the hardy board accents I think it looks AMAZING!

Stairs to bonus room over garage

Bonus Room over garage

Trusses over old roof and MORE STORAGE SPACE!!

There will be a door across from bonus room entering new attic space.

Stucco in progress and removing window boarders

Stucco application and windows

Front view after stucco and hardy board

Garage side view

Rear View

Other side view

The next week was Thanksgiving, so we had insulation added and all the finish work to get ready for sheet rock this week. This week they have already put most of the sheet rock on the ceiling and will be starting on the walls soon. Now that will be exciting. They also officially started 'invading' the inside of the house. We are having 5" baseboards placed in the new part of the house and so we are having them replace the old baseboards so the house will match and look uniform. That has been an ordeal because we are having to move a lot of furniture and are starting to live with boxes stacked up everywhere. Luckily I'm pregnant, so I've been able to leave most of the hard work to Damon. LOL! We got a 'PODS-type' trailer brought to the yard to store some stuff in too. That will make it easier, I think. In my mind, I feel like we are going to have soooo much more room, but seeing what Damon is pulling out of every nook and cranny that I've been shoving stuff in I think I'll be surprised how fast we fill up the new house! The good part is that we are getting there, the bad part is that I'm realizing how dirty my house is!! The carpet has taken a serious hit since the construction started. We sweep loads of dirt every day from the front and back door and it is visibly starting to show on the carpet. Luckily all the carpet in the main part of the house is being replaced, but it is starting to be UGLY to look at. The baseboards have been in serious need of repainting for years and the dust behind furniture that hasn't moved in 8 years is horrifying. Hopefully the workers don't think we are too disgusting because I'm beginning to wonder myself.

In my mind I was thinking that the last month wasn't super productive but it is quite amazing to look back and see the actual progress. When I look at the photos we've taken and how much work has been done each week it really is a lot. I know it feels like an eternity because we are soooo excited to be finished and to have some peace and quiet, but the few months of headache will totally be worth it!

Pregnancy update

Well...I'm still pregnant. LOL!!

I am doing a lot better with the nausea thankfully. I still have moments, but for the most part I think that is just my stomach running out of room in there. I don't feel as exhausted as I did in the 1st trimester, but I can definitely tell that I'm approaching the end of the pregnancy since I'm not sleeping as well. I frequently wake up from being uncomfortable, but thankfully I'm quickly able to go back to sleep. I know that will only get progressively worse, so I'm trying to rest as much as I can. The baby is moving A LOT, but it hasn't gotten to those painful moves yet. Rylee still hasn't felt him kick but she really isn't patient enough to wait. I'm almost looking forward to the hiccups so that there will be regular movements that she can feel. She got a big 'kick' out of feeling her little cousin in my sister-in-law's belly. My last doctor appointment was the week before Thanksgiving. I was still under 20 lbs of weight gain, but I think Thanksgiving probably put me over! Oh well. I'm right on track for how I gained weight with Rylee so hopefully he'll be a tiny thing, too!! I passed my glucose test, so that was good. I didn't expect to have a problem, but you never know. The Braxton-Hix contractions are still very regular. There was a night last week after a busy work schedule that I had about 7 contractions/hour for several hours in a row. That is higher than they want to see, so I've really got to relax more... Yeah Right! I have a 3 year old...it's Christmas...getting ready for baby #2...and a house remodel... Relaxation isn't on my to do list right now even as much as I'd like for it to be! The latest development in the pregnancy is that I've developed this horrendous itching. I don't have a visible rash for the most part, but I itch ALL over, ALL day long! It is CRAZY. I called my dr on Monday after about a week of suffering and they said it is common in the 3rd trimester which I've officially hit. So...I had labs drawn this morning to measure my liver function and bile salts. I guess the itching is a potential sign of things going on with the liver and gall bladder. I don't think there is much that they do about the itching but it could lead to an early induction. I'm certainly not looking forward to 2 more months of itching. Hopefully it is a false alarm and my blood work will come back normal... I think I should get the results back by Friday. I have another Dr appointment next week and then I start going every 2 weeks. It is fun to go in and hear the baby's heartbeat, but working something else into my schedule isn't the easiest thing to do. The picture I posted was actually from last week, but it is the most current one I've got. Hopefully I won't let so much time lapse before my next posts. I was noticing on the 3D pregnancy widget on my blog page that I only have 75 days to go...that is oh so exciting and oh so scary at the same time. I want to get a 3D ultrasound soon, because I'm anxious to see him again....want to make sure it is still a boy! LOL!

Official CVS video debut

For those of you that are new to my blog...go back and check out the reportings of my trip to Dallas, TX on 9/11/2009!!

After months of waiting, I finally received a copy of the video CVS produced of my experience as a pharmacist. My story, along with 2 others was presented at a conference in Dallas, TX to over 2,000 CVS employees. The video also includes the closing comments of the conference by the CEO of CVS. I wasn't able to remove the other 2 videos or Tom Ryan's comments, so you'll have to watch or fast forward. I feel like their videos are more commercial and mine is more 'Rescue 911', but it was still an honor to be chosen!! I also couldn't figure out how to add the video to this post, so I added it as a widget to my page. If you scroll all the way down to the bottom you'll be able to view the video.

Without further ado...I am proud to share with you my 5 minutes of fame!!

ENJOY!!

P.S. Please ignore the low cut blouse!! (I forgot my tank top and am still having post traumatic stress from the whole experience!) LOL!!

Rylee's 3rd Birthday

I can't believe my baby girl is 3 years old!! Her birthday was November 16th and we had a weekend of celebration. Since our house is under construction we couldn't do our traditional birthday party at the house so I had to come up with an alternative plan. I'm not much of a risk taker, so planning a park day was too nerve wracking for me. We don't have a Chuck E. Cheese in Gainesville and I didn't feel like she was old enough to attempt a bowling party yet. So...we decided to go to Build-A-Bear in the mall on Friday, the 13th. Not the best day...but I'm not much into superstitions. We invited several of her friends for the party and then went to the food court for lunch and a YUMMY Mrs. Field's cookie! The kids seemed to enjoy it...and for the most part it was a stress-free party for me! It was a bit chaotic actually building the 'bears' since the kids ranged from 18 months old to 4 years old, but I will say that just showing up and leaving the clean up to someone else was NICE!!

On her actual birthday she celebrated again. Nanny and Papa took her to Walmart to pick out her very own cake and to the park just for fun! She had a GREAT day. That night, I made lasagna and Caesar salad for us and Nanny and Papa and Uncle Deagan and Aunt Lis!

It was so enjoyable to watch her open her gifts this year. She would peek inside the bags and then literally start shaking with excitement while yelling, "Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness!!" It was so much fun. Uncle Deagan said it was more fun than his birthday. It really was very enjoyable! We got her a Baby Alive to help her with adjusting to the new baby in February. Nanny and Papa got her her very own camera...'which no one can take away!' She got LOTS of Barbie stuff which she LOVES and plays with EVERY day and tons of other goodies, too!

I said it before...I'll say it again... I can't believe my baby is 3 years old! My how the time has flown and how blessed I feel to be her Mommy!