Heading home

On Thursday, Nov. 28th on Thanksgiving, we were able to take Dakota home.  She passed all of her tests with flying colors.  I got my staples out, we went to a discharge class, watched a video on infant CPR, and it was finally time to head home.  It was a great Thanksgiving blessing.

We arrived home to a clean house and lunch ready for eating thanks to my wonderful mom and dad.

Dakota's First Bath!  As you can tell,  Dakota was not enjoying this bath time.  Who would when you have to take a bath in the kitchen with everyone watching? :)  

 

 

 

 

 

Dakota Marie's Arrival

Surprise!!!

I woke up in the early morning of Monday, Nov. 25th around 2:30.  I was getting up as usual to go to the restroom and on the way I lost it.  I wasn't sure what exactly 'it' was.  Had my water broke or had I just peed my pants?  Ashamed of the fact that I had most likely peed my pants, I quietly changed and got back into bed.  Patrick woke up to the light on my phone and the beep of the keys as I quickly googled the difference between peeing your pants and your water breaking.  He woke up to assure me that I most likely peed my pants.  All I could do was lay in bed and think of all the things that I still needed to get done before the baby came.  I had planned to work on school stuff over Thanksgiving break and have a transition week with the incoming teacher the first week in December.  I decided that in order to calm my fears, I needed to call the OB triage line and ask them what they thought I should do.  The lady on the other line told me to get back in bed and after an hour or so see if I was continuing to leak.  After confirming that I was, I decided to take a shower and then head to the hospital.  Patrick was still convinced that I had peed my pants.  Shortly after arriving at the hospital, they confirmed that my water had broken.  I was going to deliver our beautiful Dakota in less than 3 hours.

We were ready to go and meet our little girl. I had some fears going into a c-section yet I just wanted what was best for our baby.  Little Dakota was breech and had been hanging out in my ribs all pregnancy.  Due to her lack of room (or prime real-estate as the nurse liked to call it), she wasn't able to make the flip.  Patrick was so supportive through it all.  He prayed for me and our sweet baby girl before going into the operating room.  I received my epidural and once I was all prepped for surgery, Patrick came in.  He watched the whole thing with amazement.  I thankfully felt nothing but the tugging and pulling as our little girl was brought into the world.  They immediately took her and cleaned her up. All I could hear were sweet cries as our baby took her first breaths.  

Because Dakota was about 3 1/2 weeks early, she had to go immediately to the NICU.  Patrick brought her to me before they had to take her off.  I couldn't believe that this precious little baby was ours. Sadly, because of my c-section and Dakota having to be taken to the NICU right away, I didn't get to see her again until about 6:30 that evening.   It was torture, but I was so glad that Patrick was able to spend time with her in the NICU. He was the first to change her diaper and feed her a bottle.  Patrick is an amazing daddy.   I was just trying to recover.  My nurses said that once I was able to eat without getting sick, I could go in a wheel chair down to the NICU.  I pushed myself through quite a bit of pain just so that I could go down and see my little girl.  This was a very emotional time for me.  After delivering Dakota at 9:15 am, I was finally able to hold my little girl for the first time at 6:30 pm.

I pushed myself to recover as quickly as possible so that I could spend more time visiting our little girl.  She wasn't able to stay in our room.  We knew that our little Dakota was in good hands yet it was just hard because it wasn't our hands. We tried to eventually go down to the NICU for every feeding and spend as much time with her as possible. 

We praise the Lord that everything went so smoothly.  We saw His hand in the fact that my doctor was in on that day and could do the C-section.  We saw His hand in the fact that I had been off my blood thinners for exactly 24 hours (which was what I needed to be able to have the c-section).  We saw His hand in the health of our little girl.  We saw His hand in the way that I was able to recover so quickly and how we only had to stay in the hospital for 4 days.  Our God is so good!!

Progress Made

Work in Progress Completed:

#1 Babyroom Completed

#2 Quilt is closer to completion

#3 Baby Bump: well...it is slowly going away

#4 Teaching behind, full-time mommy ahead!

Work in Progress...

Work in Progress #1:  Baby room 

One thing I have learned about my husband is that if he is going to do something, he is going to do it right and never just half way.  I tend to get a little impatient, and I do things quickly.  When Patrick cleans the house for me, he is the one that vacuums behind the furniture and dusts the ceiling fan.  I don't do that.  When we dress up for Halloween, he goes all out and makes the most impressive Double Stuf Oreo costume. I would have been good with going as ourselves...

So when we started thinking about getting the baby room ready, I would have been content with just painting the baby room.  Patrick had different ideas:
1. scraping the popcorn off the ceiling
2. rip out the baseboards
3. take out the closet and put in new doors
4. put in a ceiling fan and center light (old houses tend to not have any ceiling lights)
5. replace the old window
6. put in crown molding
7. replace all the outlets
8. patch any holes in the wall
9. and.... paint

This is a trait that I love in Patrick.  I just have to learn to be patient.  Hopefully this little remodel wont take as long as the basement (3 months).  This little baby room is going to be perfect for our little girl once it is all done.

Choose paint color (not checked) This was my one job so far, and I am having a 

more difficult time than anticipated.  I just want a gray room, but there are 

too many grays to choose from.  I wish I could go to the store and ask

for a gallon of GRAY Aka: GREY..."Ahhh" (that was me screaming)

Work in Progress #2: Baby Quilt

A little over a month ago my first baby quilt was stolen, but I am already back to the point I was at when it was taken.  I am actually loving this quilt even more.  Maybe it was a blessing in disguise.  I decided to actually make a quilt that could fit on a twin bed.  That way she can use it as a little baby blanket and then also on her big girl bed down the road.  I truly love to sew, and I am excited about possibly trying to make some baby clothes as well.  We will see how that turns out.  

Work in Progress #3: Baby Bump

I am soon to be 27 weeks, and will soon be beginning my third trimester. That means I am almost 2/3 of the way there "Ahhh....." (that was Patrick screaming)!!  My little baby bump is really not a bump any more.  It is now quite obvious that I am pregnant and not just getting a little pudgy.  Getting bigger and weighing myself on the scale has actually been a little more difficult than I thought it would be.  I know that it is important to gain weight for the baby, but it is just humbling to see numbers on the scale that I have never seen before.  Also, I don't think that it helps that Patrick is loosing weight while I am gaining.  He is training for another marathon in October so he has definitely not gained any sympathy weight.  My goal is to always weigh less than Patrick but we are getting closer by the day. :)

Work in Progress #4: Finishing Teaching

If you didn't already know, I will not be returning to work after our baby is here.  It is bitter sweet to think about leaving teaching for a while since I love teaching, I love my team, my school, and my students.  I will be sad to say goodbye to everyone, but I know that I will never regret our decision for me to stay home with our kids.  It has been a little strange to start teaching this year knowing that I only have one semester with these students.  I have a great group of kids this year, but they still keep me on my toes.  I have been feeling really good and actually not too tired during the work day.  I try to wear my compression stockings but wow... they are so unattractive.  Because of my unsightly varicose veins (a result of my blood clots three years ago), I have been encouraged by the doctor to wear them.  I already look fat and now I have to wear grandma stockings? I can only handle so much!  I have tentatively planned to work full time up until Thanksgiving break and then come back after break and start transitioning out while the new teacher steps in.   

I will keep you posted on our progress as we finish the baby room, I complete my quilt, see my feet disappear, and say goodbye to teaching for a while.