The Greatest Gift

I was scheduled for an induction on 12/13 at 8pm. I'd been hoping and praying all weekend that I go into labor on my own and my prayers were answered when my waters broke at 4:30am. I called L&D and asked if I needed to come in right away and they said no, it was fine if I waited for a couple of hours. So I cooked breakfast, took a shower and got Caleb ready for school. Adam & I dropped Caleb off at school then headed to the hospital at around 8:30. I was having contractions but they weren't painful yet. They admitted me and hooked me up to the monitors, they checked me and I was at 4cm. Adam & I walked around, and by noon my contractions were becoming more consistent, intense and painful. I took a shower and tried breathing through my contractions. By 3pm my contractions were coming on strong & on top of each other. They checked me and I was still only at 4cm!! They thought I'd be dialated even more by now since my contractions were coming on so intensely and on top of each other. At around 6, I asked them to check me again because I was in so much pain, I was still barely a 5. I couldn't handle another 3 hours of no progress so I asked for an epidural. 6:45, got my epidural, didn't feel that much pain, just the pressure of the contractions. Around 9, I started feeling the urge to push, but when they checked me I was still only at 8cm. At around 10, the pressure was getting to be too much and they checked me again, I was there!!! After 45 minutes of pushing, Liam was born. Due to the epidural and my exhaustion my pushes weren't very effective. When Liam was almost out, the midwife had to really get stern with me and told me to make the last push count. I found out later it was because the cord was wrapped around his neck. He had swallowed some fluid so they had to suction it out shortly after he was born. After that, they brought him to me for skin to skin and I was in LOVE.

Adam was a great partner throughout the birthing process and I couldn't have done it without him. I reached a new level of love for this man. My sister and his mom were also there and they totally helped me out too. But Adam, he stayed so strong for me and I am so grateful.

I ended up with a postpartum hemorrhage during recovery and lost 1000ml of blood. It was so scary!! I was pumped full of meds to try to stop the bleeding and they kept pressing on my stomach, it was so painful!! Adam said the blood clots were as big as my placenta! They monitored me for 24 hours to see if the bleeding would subside on it's own but had me ready for a transfusion or surgery just in case. Thank God it didn't come to that.

Liam ended up being a little jaundiced so he had to stay in the hospital another 24 hours under the bili lights. That was so hard for us to do, we had to go home and come back to the hospital every 3 hours to breastfeed. :(

For Liam

My dear baby boy,

We are so anxious to meet you. I didn't think I could love another baby, but I love you so much already. Who knew that my heart could hold so much love? It's filled to the brim and overflowing. I think of you and I'm overwhelmed with emotions. I feel so blessed that God chose me to be your mother. That he found me worthy enough to carry you and sustain you in my womb. These 37 weeks have flown by so fast. I remember seeing you on that screen when we first found out you were created and you were just a tiny little thing. Now, you barely have any room in there! I love feeling you move throughout the day, the way you respond to my touch. I dream of your face every night and I imagine holding your warm little body. We are unbelievably excited to meet you and welcome you into this world. Whenever you're ready little guy, mommy, daddy and your big brother Caleb are ready to shower you with love out here.

Thankful.

I have so much to be thankful for. I don't have the words to give justice to all the blessings that God has bestowed upon me.

*I thank HIM everyday for the life he's blessed me with. For a loving family, a wonderful husband, an awesome son & the miracle of life growing inside me. Every day I wake up I know is another blessing. Every breath another gift. I am undeserving of his LOVE, but he still loves me, perfectly and unconditionally.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Besides all the yummy food that puts me into a food coma every year, it's the overall feeling of gratitude and thankfulness that washes over me. It's the warm fuzzy feelings of families coming together to begin the holiday season.

This year we had a wonderful thanksgiving. My sister hosted it at her house and it was perfect. A house full of family, with kids running around, the sound of laughter and love filling every nook and cranny. It was perfect.

Thanksgiving also marked my 37th week of pregnancy. Another reason to be thankful. Full term. Blessed.

34 weeks!

I'll be 34 weeks tomorrow! 6 weeks left until due date and only 3 weeks until full term. If this little guy is anything like his older brother, he might just come into the world a little early. We're all so excited to meet him!

I'm counting down my days left at work, 10 to be exact! I'm exhausted and finding it harder and harder to get up in the morning. I'm also still waiting for that nesting to kick in because I have no energy whatsoever!

Jaclyn sent us the rest of our pictures and here are a couple of my most favorite. I can't wait until baby Liam is joining us for our family pictures. :)

Maternity/Family Teasers + 30weeks!

I'm 30 weeks into this pregnancy, which means 7 more weeks until full term. Woohoo! Time has flown so quickly and I can't wait for my little guy to be here. We're slowly but surely getting ready for the little guy but at night I toss and turn feeling like I have so much more to do. We received our cloth diapers in the mail & I'm so excited to venture into the world of cloth diapering!



Last weekend, we took our family/maternity pictures with our wedding photographer. She has grown so much!! She's always had a great artistic eye but she has really developed her shooting style and I love it!

She posted teaser photos on Facebook & I love them. I love my growing family and my handsome fellas. :)

An Anniversary & A Birthday

Woooooooo, it's been such a long time since I've written anything. I'm so bad about blogging. I really should do it more because it helps me remember. I blogged a lot when I was pregnant with Caleb and I still love to look back and read those old posts and see the baby pictures of my little monster, who is now 7!!!

An Anniversary
September 6th was our 2nd wedding anniversary. Since it landed on a Tuesday, we decided to celebrate the following weekend.

Saturday came around and I was feeling so blah. I wanted to stay in bed all day, my body was just exhausted. Adam had made reservations for Ruth's Chris in SF and around 6 p.m, I told him to cancel the reservations because I didn't feel like doing anything. Just one of those days. Luckily, Adam persuaded me to get out of bed and we were able to get reservations at the Walnut Creek location of Ruth's Chris. I took a shower and forced myself to look pretty for my husband. I'm glad we went because dinner was DELICIOUS!!! We both had a great time and it was nice to spend some alone time with Adam. We didn't finish dinner until almost 11 and didn't get home until midnight. It was a lovely night in Walnut Creek, and it was a great way for us to celebrate 2 years of marriage.






Sunday we drove out to Half Moon Bay to eat at Sam's Chowder House, I'd been craving a lobster roll for awhile. LOVE their lobster rolls!! The weather in Half Moon Bay was really nice considering that it's usually pretty chilly and foggy. The beaches were packed and you could tell people were taking advantage of the sunshine. After lunch, we went to watch Warrior. ( I loved it, and spent most of the movie crying quietly, lol, pregnancy hormones?)








Great laid back anniversary celebration, I loved every minute of it.

A Birthday

Caleb, my baby, my first born, my little monster, the first love of my life, the one who has my heart, turned 7 on the 14th. SEVEN!!!!! It's amazing how fast time seems to be flying. I can still remember being in labor and meeting the guy who would change my life as if it was yesterday. He's an awesome kid. He's sweet, funny, charismatic (those dimples are killer), he's thoughtful, bright, social. I could go on and on about this guy. He's my favorite person to be around. I just love him so much, even when he's frustrating me to no end.



I took a half day of work to spend time with him on his birthday. We went to lunch. Then I took him to Toys 'R Us to pick a gift. We spent about an hour in that store, hitting up every aisle until he settled on something. He settled on a Spiderman web launcher that shoots out silly string, lol. When we went up to pay, he told the cashier that it was birthday and she gave him a birthday crown and a balloon, he was so happy. After Toys 'R Us, I took him and my sister to a laser tagging place that opened up near our house. They had a blast and Caleb won! For dinner, my whole family went to a new cajun seafood restaurant that just opened up. Caleb got both the things he wanted, a whole dungeness crab and sushi. He ate so much!! We brought a cake to the restaurant for him and when we were finished with dinner, our server brought it out for us to sing "Happy Birthday." Caleb was so surprised and happy. He loves being with my family and when we got home that night he thanked me for giving him such a great birthday.





Saturday, the 17th, was his birthday party. We had a magic theme and I hired a magician to entertain the kids. My friend brought his jumper and cotton candy machine as a gift to Caleb. Adam bbq'ed and we had about 20 kids show up along with about 30 adults. I was so stressed out planning the party. If it weren't for the help of my family and friends, I probably would've lost it. Everything turned out for the best though because everyone had a great time, especially Caleb. And that is the most important thing.

Cravings...

I've been craving crab since this weekend, and Adam & I planned on going to SF to have dinner at one of their many crab restaurants Saturday night. However, my lazy butt didn't want to get out of bed and I just couldn't bring myself to justify spending over $100 on a crab dinner. So, we stayed home, finally getting out of bed at around 1pm and headed over the Great Mall instead. We ate dinner at Outback (blech) and watched Horrible Bosses (FUNNY!).

SO last night, I was determined to eat some crab, I drove to the asian grocers after work to pick up some live dungeness crab. I satisfied my craving with some roasted garlic crab and garlic noodles! yay. Those cravings are just intense!!




Another craving I've been having lately is cucumbers with lemon, salt and chili powder. It's so refreshing. I requested Adam keep our fridge stocked with cucumbers on his last grocery run. Love that MAN. <3