We're Home (Finally)!

Kimmie did such a good job of updating the blog while we were in the hospital. Thank goodness for that, because I definitely didn't plan to be there for 6 days!! When I went in Sunday night to start the induction process I figured Shim would be born the next afternoon and home by Tuesday or Wednesday. Things didn't exactly work out that way.

I checked into the hospital last Sunday afternoon. Earlier than I expected -- they totally ruined my pool time and called me in to start the induction! They did a bunch of medical things, which I won't talk about and Ben hung out and watched TV with me until about 9:15. I was tired and knew I would be getting an ambien to help me sleep and figured he needed to come home to get a good night's rest since he probably wouldn't sleep too well the next few nights.

Early Monday morning, they came in and woke me up and did a few more medical procedures which are gross and disgusting and I don't like to talk about. They started me on a pitocin drip about 7:00 a.m. and Ben, Mom , and Kimmie came in to join me shortly afterwards. My contractions started pretty quickly and by about 10:00 I was begging for my epidural. Things progressed fairly quickly and I was in active labor by about 4:30 that afternoon. I was scared to death and it wasn't easy, but I ended up pushing for about 2 hours before the doctors finally decided that my little Shim was stuck and I wasn't likely to push him out the old fashioned way. When they told me this, of course I was upset but I knew that this was what was best for me and for Shim. I cried and cried and was sacred out of my mind. Ben quickly got his scrubs on and by some miracle, something was said about having someone else in the delivery room with me and our nice anaesthesiologist allowed Mom to put on a set of scrubs and come in the room too!

Jackson Wyatt Longmire was born at 7:46 PM! He came out looking healthy and crying (and that was the most reassuring sound in the world) but unfortunately his right leg was completely white. He was kicking and moving it but it looked like there could be a circulation problem so the NICU team decided to take him to the transition nursery for observation. Of course I was worried sick and cried more, but was glad that he was being well taken care of. Mom and I went to recovery while Ben followed Wyatt (the fetus formerly known as Shim) to the NICU.

I'm not sure what time they got me to my room, but I was a mess. I was worried about Wyatt and upset that I had only met him for a second before they transferred him away. They did eventually admit him to the NICU and Ben got to go in and hold him for a while at about 12:00 that night. That made me feel much better and Ben kept bringing in positive reports each time he saw Wyatt. I finally got to go down and meet him at about 10am on Tuesday.

Honestly, everything else for the next couple of days is all a big blur. I just know that I was sore and tired and didn't even shower until Wednesday morning (gross). Even then I had a pretty hard time getting out of bed and walking around, I spent most of the days traveling back and forth from my room to the NICU to feed Wyatt. As it turns out, the color in his leg was fully restored a few hours after birth but once he was admitted to the NICU they had to keep him and run several tests to rule out the possibility of any heart or circulatory problems or infection. I hated seeing my baby boy with IV's in his arms (and even in his head at one point) and hooked up to all those monitors but at least spent the week confident that he was healthy and it was just a matter of time before he was released. Sure enough, they released him to my room late Thursday afternoon and we were finally able to check out and come home late Friday afternoon.

Now that we are home, we are just trying to get settled. And I've only had 2 or 3 little breakdowns. I'm sure there are more to come though. Wyatt is doing great so far -- he is a good little eater and sleeper (I hope that continues) and just as sweet as he can be. Ben and I took him to see his Pediatrician this morning and he got a clean bill of health so I guess so far we're doing things right. I do have to admit that we're having a little problem with the whole "little boy" thing. Wyatt has been through 3 outfits today, and peed all over himself, my sister, and my mom! If anyone has any tricks to prevent the rouge urine, please sent them my way! (I've heard the peepee teepe doesn't work all that well?)

I will eventually get all my pictures uploaded to flickr but for now I'll leave you with this one taken this morning! We're totally biased but Ben and I both think he's pretty darn cute!

Shimster stuff

I am now 24 weeks along, and my belly is HUGE. I think I say this each week but it continues to grow with each passing minute. I can already tell that I'm not going to be very comfortable the last 5-10 weeks of my pregnancy! Here is a picture of my belly as of last night. (No stretch marks ... yet. But I'm sure those are coming).

I don't really have a ton of baby updates. I have another Doctor's appointment next week but honestly those are always just quick checkups to make sure things are measuring correctly and my blood pressure is okay. I never have much to report after my appointments but I guess that is a good thing! I'm feeling kicks and lots of movement from Shim and at this point have his/her routine pretty much figured out. At the risk of sounding cheesy, I really really love to feel each movement that Shim makes. Sometimes I even shake my belly a little bit if I haven't felt him in a while. I just like to know that he's okay in there! Ben doesn't really appreciate it when I do that to our child - he says the baby will get me back tenfold after it is born for all these months of me pestering him/her! And Ben is probably right.

I did decide on all of Shim's room decor and Mom ordered all the furniture last weekend! (Thanks Mom -- Shim will love it, I know!) I think I am most excited about the Glider that we picked out -- it is soooo comfortable. Hopefully it will make those late-night feedings a little easier to bear. I bought all the bedding and really like what we ended up choosing. The room will be yellow and the wall with the crib on it will be (large) black and white stripes. Sortof a french theme, I guess. Becky did a little rendering of the room and here is what she came up with! (Gives you a little bit of a visual since I won't have any of this done until the LAST minute)
The house is still progressing along. Neither Ben or I have had a chance to see it since we had our pre-drywall walk through with our builder late last week but I intend to go by to check on it today. I'm guessing that by now all the brick will be complete and the house will be dried in. As of last Friday, the builder felt that he was on target for an early April closing date so that was good news. I have heard that things slow down quite a bit once the house is dried in. Here is a picture of Ben and I at the house from a few weeks ago.

Oh! One more thing, and this is totally off-topic, but did anyone besides me notice Barry's terrible makeup last night during his State of the Union Address? He was ORANGE! I think they got a liiiiiiiitttttle carried away with the foundation. Totally not his fault, but I just felt the need to point out that he looked like a pumpkin!

Kicks and Backaches!

big ole' belly
Originally uploaded by katie_longmire

*** I apologize for my terrible spelling error. Can I just blame pregnancy brain?

As of Sunday, I am 21 weeks along now and I have started to feel Shim's little kicks more and more. I started feeling little, tiny flutters a few weeks ago but now we've moved along to more discernible kicks. Sometimes in the bladder and those aren't so comfortable, but the ones in my stomach almost tickle. I tried to let Ben feel it one night when Shim was really active, but I still don't think you can feel anything from the outside yet.

Along with the kicks has come a new little friend. Backaches. I'm not sure if they are caused by the baby's position or just the extra weight I'm carrying, but they are persistent and painful! I called my cousin yesterday afternoon (she's my doctor that I don't pay) to describe my symptoms and see if I was overreacting or if I needed to call my doctor. She has 3 children and one on the way so besides having medical expertise, she is also pretty familiar with pregnancies. She suggested that I call my doc, and see what they say. So I did and they gave me some sound medical advice:

SUCK IT UP - APPLY HEAT AND TAKE TYLENOL.

At least I did learn that Tylenol PM was safe to take, so I guess that is a good thing. I know I shouldn't complain. I have had a healthy and easy pregnancy up to this point and I am grateful. BUT. IT. HURTS!

The house is still progressing. I guess it is basically on schedule, and we are really hoping that it stays that way! We have a few weeks leeway, but not much at all. Mom and I went furniture shopping the other day and I have a pretty good idea now of what I'm looking for. If it actually gets completed before the baby is born, I'll definitley post pictures. I'm excited now that I have an idea in my head of how we'll decorate -- which wasn't easy since we don't know the sex.

17 Weeks Update

When thinking back to some of my friend's pregnancies and also my sister's, I remember I always looked forward for their weekly blog updates so that I felt like I knew what was going on in their and the baby's life (even if I already knew, its just fun to see the blog update with pictures). But with my pregnancy, I just don't feel like there is all that much to update from week to week. I mean, my belly is definitely getting bigger as evidenced in this picture


and I have my regular doctor's appointments and stuff like that but no major news. Its maybe a little harder that we don't actually have our house yet so it isn't like I have little nursery updates to talk about. I'm pretty sure we're going to close on the house about 5 minutes prior to Shim's arrival so that means we're going to rely HEAVILY on Meme (my mom) and Aunt Kimmie to help us throw it together!

I do have my big ultrasound appointment on the 15th, and this would be the time to find out the sex of the baby. But we aren't finding out so this appointment is mainly an anatomy checkup to make sure Shim has properly functioning organs and such. Speaking on the sex of the baby - if you have a second go to the poll on the right hand side of this blog and vote whether you think its a boy or a girl if you haven't already!

You know what I really really really miss and never thought I would? Cookie dough and cake batter. Those aren't things that I eat all that often but just the fact that I am unable to eat them right now drives me crazy. It is one of the few cravings I've had and the only one I'm unable to feed. I don't really miss wine or beer unless I'm in a social situation or if I've had a particularly long day. I do sometimes wish I could take a mucinex or sudafed but I wouldn't say those are things that I necessarily miss -- just necessities during this sinus season but I've been able to get through without them.

Only other update is the fact that our whole life is packed up in boxes. I literally spent all last week packing things up room by room. I'm to the point now where there isn't a whole lot I'm going to be able to do until the very last minute which is rapidly approaching. I'll be so much more relaxed once we get through the closing. Then maybe I can stop to enjoy the fact that it is Christmastime!

Shim Shady

I've been slacking on my blog again. And I need to get better at doing that because I'm not keeping any kind of pregnancy journal or anything (yet ... I'm sure my sister will fix that as soon as she reads this post) so I'm thinking this blog will be a journal of sorts for me. Like I said earlier, I'm sure this won't all be baby stuff but we'll see. That is pretty much the main thing happening in the Longmire household right now so it is on our minds all the time!

We're still looking for houses. Still a stressful process. Everyone says we'll find the right house but that hasn't happened so far. Our Realtor sends us emails every day with new listings and we just don't seem to like many of those. We're looking for a certain thing and in a certain area and I'm thinking it maybe we need to relax our criteria a bit. Problem is, we want something that we both really love. We don't want to settle. A house is a major investment so why should we buy something that we're not both 100% in love with?

Not a whole lot of Shim updates today. I went in a few weeks ago for my 1st trimester screening -- just a quick blood and ultrasound test where they screen for chromosomal abnormalities. At my first appointment, Shim just wouldn't cooperate and get into a good position for the doctors so I ended up having to go back about a week later for another ultrasound. It turns out it was a good thing, because Ben was able to make it to this appointment and see Shimmy on the monitor. This was a more detailed screen and also Shim has grown significantly since the very first ultrasound so we could see his fingers and nose, and all the details of his little body! He even had the hiccups while I was having my ultrasound! I have a picture to share, it isn't the greatest quality because I couldn't get the scanner to work right. I took a picture with my regular camera so sorry about the flash -- you can't see well enough in the no flash picture. And he/she doesn't have a club hand even though it may look that way in the picture. (I'm pretty sure both hands are above his face)



In case you haven't already figured this out, Shim has lots of nicknames ... he/she started out as just plain ole' Shim and now his or her nickname has morphed into about 12 variations of Shim and depending on who we are talking to Becky-Rebecca or JoBeck. When I refer to it I tend to call it he. That is more because I don't want to refer to my baby as "it" all the time and less because I really have any inclination as to the sex. We'll all find that out in May!

That is all I've got for today. Fingers crossed we'll find a house soon so we'll have a home to bring Shimmer home to!

Announcement

So, I think the cat is pretty much out of the bag on this but some people said that it wasn't 'official' until I posted this on my blog.

I'M PREGNANT!

That is another reason I haven't been blogging for the last month. Obviously, Ben and I and our families have known this news since early September but we didn't want to make any announcement until we had reached the 12 week mark. Now that we have so I am making the news totally public.

I'll be totally honest - Ben and I were both in complete shock when we found out. We were happy, and of course wanted everything to be okay and for the baby to be healthy but it isn't necessarily the best time for us to have a baby right now. But once we sat down and thought things through rationally, when is really a 'good' time for a baby? That sounds terrible, I know. I'm just being totally honest here as to what our initial thoughts were. (Probably our child will read this one day and need lots and lots of expensive therapy because of those statements) Anyway, we were happy but maybe just slightly overwhelmed and of course our families were ecstatic.

Now that we've had some time to digest everything we are thrilled! I'm getting as much sleep as I possibly can right now because I know I'm going to have to give that all up once the baby arrives. I have already had several doctor's appointments and ultra sounds and everything looks to be great with the baby. Right now baby is the size of a lime and I think that is HUGE compared to the poppyseed that it started out as! I was actually able to hear Shim's (that one of his/her nicknames for now) little heartbeat which was so amazing. I was telling Ben last night that I cannot believe there is another human inside of me -- with a heart and lungs, and fingers and toes and everything else! Its just crazy to think about.

We decided that we will not find out the sex of the baby before delivery. That seems to drive everyone bananas, but to us just seems like it will be a fun surprise at the very end. I also think it is fun to hear people's predictions and we'll see if they were correct in the very end. I laugh at people now when they tell me their opinion because I have ALWAYS done that and Ben would typically respond "well you have a 50/50 chance at being right ... you're bound to be correct some of the time". Now that is what I think when people make their prediction to me.

As for my blog, I really do intend to blog more regularly. I do it for fun, and for my own entertainment so it is something I would like to keep up with. A few people have mentioned that they think my blog will change tunes (less cussing, less bitchiness, less shallowness) and I'm sure it will to a certain extent but I really do intend to keep this blog about me and just whatever I want to write about. Although I'm sure that will include quite a bit of baby stuff too!

This post is getting long.

We did our first 'belly' pictures over the weekend. I won't share them all because there was one pose that we took especially for Ben's blog -- so stay tuned over there if you're interested in that. Also, my mom made fun of me and said I was sticking my stomach out, so you be the judge! I think I'm starting to look kinda fat though! (And this is terrible lighting, I think. I'll have to work on that!)

This is my last paragraph, I swear. So I went to another doctor yesterday morning for my 1st Trimester Screening and when I checked in there was a vigilante nurse who asked me several questions: "do you have a fever?" "have you been around anyone with a fever?" "do you have a sore throat, runny nose, etc?" Well, I HAVE had a little sore throat, and some sneezing. I mostly think it is sinuses but I had to be honest with her. So I said that yes, I did have a bit of a sore throat and I'm pretty sure it is just sinuses but maybe it could possibly be a cold. Two seconds later, I looked like this :

Pirate Ellie

Part of the reason the Pirate Catfish post took me so long, is because I was trying to find a picture of a catfish wearing a pirate patch. (I know, I'm strange) I couldn't find one on the internetz so I commissioned a friend to make one for me in photoshop. He let me down, but then I got this picture from my brother in law this morning!

A Pirate Baby is WAY better than a pirate catfish!

I love exploiting my family, but for the record I had permission to use this photograph. This was taken during a routine vision test at Ellie's 6 month appointment. She's healthy and growing or I would obviously not make light of this picture!

I'm too lazy to think of a title for this post

I broke one of my cardinal rules the other day : always pick out your outfit for the following day before going to bed. Actually, I can't take credit for this one. This was my mother's rule when my sister and I were growing up and even though we didn't necessarily like it, we both appreciated the fact that it made mornings easier and a little less rushed. Obvi, I am married now and don't have to live by my mother's rules these days but I still try to adhere to it. It seems like when I don't two things happen to me: 1) I run at least 10 minutes behind schedule 2) I get to work and end up hating my outfit.

Somehow I was able to avoid running late this morning (7am phone call with my sister ensures that I'm on time) but I got to work and HATED my outfit. Of course that made for a really long day and I got grumpy every time I saw myself in the mirror. I guess the moral of the story here is this: Mom, you were right again :)

Not much else to report to you tonight. I don't have any other controversial things to write about, so I'll recap my Friday night adventures with Ellie. (Nobody will probably care to read this other than my mom and sister)

I went up to Kimmie and Dave's on Friday night to keep Ellie while they went to a hockey game. I had just seen Ellie a few days earlier, but was looking forward to a night with her nonetheless. When I got there, she was awake and happy but really tired so Kimmie put her in her favorite nap spot to rest for a bit.



She woke up prematurely and because of that was tired and cranky. She actually pitched a huge fit when we were trying to get her back to sleep. Such a fit that I was glad her mother was there to calm her down. Once Kimmie gave her a little snack, she was tired but happy so she played on her play mat for a bit. Her favorite play mat activity is the earthquake - this is where I shake the bars so all the animals and attachments swing wildly. Funny how the littlest things amaze babies.



then we played super-baby (she absolutley LOVES this)



I have been craving Moe's for three weeks now, and thought that Ellie might let me indulge this craving so I put her in her car seat and loaded her up. She wasn't having it. She cried and screamed as I was buckling her in and then some more as I put her into the car. Once she started choking from crying so hard, I decided it wasn't worth it and took her back inside. (Not to mention I felt terrible for torturing her unnecisarilly) As soon as she was out of her carrier she got happy again. I eventually gave her a bottle and tried to load her up again. I had pretty much decided against going to Moe's by this point but we did have to do one little outing.



Had to go get a prescription for a job that was too big for Boudreaux (for Ellie, I don't have diaper rash)

By the time we got home, Ellie was fast asleep. She needed a nap, so I was relieved but feared waking her up for her next bottle and her bath. I let her sleep while I scrounged up some food in Kimmie's house and then picked her up once I was finished. She of course rubbed her eyes and stuck out her lower lip to let me know that she wasn't thrilled with me.

I took her upstairs for bath time. This is something that I cannot screw up, apparently. Ellie loves her baths these days and I'm told that it is very relaxing for her.

Does this look like a relaxed baby? (I'll give you a hint: NO)

FAIL. She cried the whole time. I think the water must not have been warm enough because her poor little hands started to turn blue. (Yes, I'm going to be a shit mom.) As soon as I noticed this I got her out, lotioned, butt creamed, diapered, and in her pajamas. We read a few books then she sucked down another bottle and knocked out for the night.

I really did enjoy my evening with Ellie but I think I overheard her tell her mom not to let "dumb aunt Katie" give her any more baths.

Adventures with Ellie

This past Saturday night was an exciting one at the Longmire household! Dave bought tickets back in October for he and Kimmie to go see Kooza at Atlantic Station for their first date night after becoming parents. Before he even bought the tickets, they contracted with Ben and I to babyisit little Ellie. You better believe that date was inked onto our calendar in permanent marker ... we were really excitied for an evening with Ellie Belly!

Kimmie and Dave dropped her off about 5:00 and didn't pick her back up until 12! She was asleep when they first dropped her off and we made sure to keep her in her carseat until she woke up so as not to throw her off schedule. (She wasn't supposed to eat until 6 but when she wakes up she thinks she needs to eat immediatley) Once she woke up, we gave her a bottle and she sucked it right down! She was happy for a FEW short minutes after she ate and allowed Ben and I to inhale our pizza. Then she started crying.

Ellie tends to get fussy in the evenings and she really is tough to console -- she wasn't hungry, dirty, or cold so she was basically pitching a fit for no reason. Kimmie discovered that the hair dryer calms her down for some reason, so I tried that for a little while. I was worried about my hair dryer blowing up, so I found her a new friend.
I kid you not, once you turn on the dirt devil she stopped crying almost instantly! It is crazy ... you would think that loud, harsh noise would scare her but for whatever reason it seemed to soothe her. We would get her calmed down and halfway asleep and then she'd start right back with the crying. At one point, I think we let the dirt devil run for like 30 minutes in order to get her to sleep!

It was a fun night with her, but we were both exhausted when she left!

Ben trying to get Ellie to sleep

SUCCESS!

OH! And there is one more thing that I wanted to share with yall last week, but never did. I went up to visit Ellie last weekend and spent some time at their house. Now just look at this sweet little face ....

Does that look like the face of a baby who would poop all over her Aunt Katie?


Well it is ... shit happens, I guess!

Baby Ellie

Baby Ellie has finally arrived! I got a call at about 6:00 on Tuesday morning from Dave telling me that Kimmie was in labor and was headed to the hospital. (I will refrain from using any medical terms here, because I don't like hearing them).

I will admit that I was a bit shocked when Kimmie first told me that she was pregnant. I think my first comment was actually "oh .... well I'll be happy once I digest this, I know". I know that sounds horrible, but its what i said. Fast forward 9 months. When I heard my phone ring Tuesday morning, I was dripping wet from my shower yet I leapt across the room to get to my phone. I couldn't have been more excited!

I somehow managed to pull myself together and go to work for a few hours. Mom came by the office and rode over to the hospital with me. The whole time when I was waiting on mom to get there, I was barely able to work. Finally, we made it to the hospital where I thought things would move rather quickly. They didn't.

Dave was as calm as can be when he came down to the lobby to lead Mom and I up to their L&D room. We went in there to find Kimmie not quite her usual chipper self. I have to say that although she wasn't as upbeat as she usually is, she was never ever rude or mean despite the great pain that she was dealing with. She finally got an epidural a little while after lunch and once that kicked in she was a happy camper. Making jokes and all.

I won't go into all the specifics, but eventually the doctor came in and decided that it was baby time. During "baby time", Kimmie went through an hour of pure hell. There is not a thing in the world you can do to comfort someone as they go through labor but to feed them ice and give them cold washcloths. I was an awesome waschloth runner though. And I scooped up some seriously mean spoonfulls of ice! I think I even threw in a few words of encouragement as well.

After 15 hours of labor, Ellie Grace Heglin was born at 9:31 PM on 12/2/2008. She weighed 7lbs 3 oz. and was 20 inches long. She is beautiful and and perfect and I cannot wait to get to know her over the years. I know I'm going to be the awesomest aunt ever!! Both Kimmie and Ellie are recovering well and were released from the hospital this afternoon.

Ellie was about 10 minutes old when this photo was taken.

Ellie meets Mom and Dad

Ellie meets Awesome Aunt Katie and Awesome Uncle Ben. (Awesome Aunt Katie doesn't look so Awesome in this photo ... don't judge)

If you want to see more photos of Ellie G, click HERE!

Baby Sloane!

I mentioned in my previous post that I went to visit my friend Meg yesterday and her brand new baby, Sloane. I just wanted to post a little picture of her so that everyone can see how precious she is!