Cameron's Birth

I wish I could be short, sweet and to the point, but we all know that would be a little difficult for me.  I love hearing others birth stories, details and all, so I figure you would love hearing mine just as much:).  The whole process of creating life is amazing to me.  A true miracle.  Once again, I have been blessed with a precious child to tend for and teach them everything (most everything) in life and am extremely grateful to my Heavenly Father to able to do so.

Cameron Jared Astorga was born at 3:33 am on Saturday, July 14th.  This birth was very different from the rest and much shorter.  I had been contracting for a month straight and the previous Friday was contracting all day long.  They never intensified, but they were painful and they were accompanied with lower back pain.  All these contractions probably led to a much shorter labor, which I had pretty much expected.  With the others, I didn't feel a painful contraction until the actual day I went into labor.

After going to L&D on Monday, I finally started to feel like myself on Wednesday.  I exercised that morning without feeling wasted for the rest of the day.  The rest of the week was pretty much normal.  My mom and 2 nieces, Emma and Katie, came in on Monday evening to help until the baby arrived.  The kids thoroughly enjoyed having them and so did I!  Friday evening I talked David into going with me to the church youth dance since I am one of the leaders over them now.  Right before we left, around 7:00, I started feeling contractions that were different from the others I had been feeling.  I mentioned it to David and he suggested we stay home.  I was like, "No way!  I need to leave to get my mind off it.".  I didn't even mention anything to my mom.

At the church dance I said nothing to anyone about my contractions.  We pretty much sat and chatted (although I would have preferred dancing).  My friend, Jan Gilreath, said she was talking with her friend who is a nurse and the nurse commented to her about me, "That girl is going to have her baby tonight.  I swear it dropped just as we have been sitting here.  Is her husband timing her contractions?".  No way!  I couldn't believe that.  I admitted to Jan that I had been having contractions, but nothing too strong yet.  Well, like every 9 month pregnant woman, I had to go to the bathroom multiple times.  Around 9:30, I had the "show" and knew it was baby time.  I found Jan and told her we were going to the hospital to have the baby.  She was in total shock and brought me to her nurse friend to tell her the news.  There were about 5 women in the kitchen, who I did not know, who were congratulating and hugging me.  Hilarious!

I called the on-call doctor, who happened to be one of my favorite in the practice, Dr. Creighton, and told her what was going on.  She asked did I think I needed to come in.  I said, "Yes." knowing that I was going to have paperwork and questions to answer - none of which I wanted to do when labor was in full swing.  We walked into our house and announced, "We are going to the hospital to have this baby!"  My mom, Emma and Katie thought we were joking, but soon realized it was no joke.  And we left.  David forgot the priceless rice sock we have used since Ashlyn, but I didn't want to turn back (my mom ended up bringing it to us at 11:00).

The contractions were hard to walk through, but still not unbearable.  We arrived right at 10:00.  Ironically, this is the time every night that Cameron would get super active while in the womb... coincidence?  Not sure.  We were hoping to not have a Friday the 13th baby, but were pretty confident that I was not going to have the baby in less than 2 hours.  They took me right back as soon as I arrived...no one else wanted a Friday the 13th baby either, I guess, because no one else was in labor.

Anyways, I was at a 3, but that was no surprise.  My labors go fast, so I wasn't worried that I wouldn't make progress soon.  I was comfortable enough to get all the paper signing and tests out of the way.  I told them that my platelets has been low, so I was concerned whether or not I would be able to get an epidural.  It is so crazy...even though I had done my last 2 births without an epidural, neither David or I were mentally prepared that we were going to do it again without meds that it was hard to even think about doing it naturally.  Anyhow, I was GBS +, so I had to be hooked up to the IV antibiotics which had to run for an hour and then be in my system for 3 in order for the baby to have to undergo any extra testing.  For this I was grateful that I did have an epidural, because labor did progress quickly and had I not had the epidural, I would've given birth way before I did.

I was only at a 4-5 when I asked for the epidural at midnight, but my doctor was concerned that it would slow me down.  She told me to hold on for 4 more contractions and it would be administered....she lied.  I didn't get it until 1:15 (we had a few words after delivery about this:)).  Our anesthesiologist was quite the weirdo...there was a very faint beeping noise because they detached my BP machine and he was flipping out..."what's that noise?  Can you turn it off?  Oh my gosh, it's driving me nuts.  Turn it off!".  And I shifted when he was inserting the needle, because it hurt and he said, "Could you stop doing that?  If you keep doing that I won't be able to do it correctly."  Seriously, you speak like this to a laboring woman?  And then afterwards he was trying to enter info into the computer and it froze on him.  He kept hitting the keyboard, "What's wrong with this?  Why isn't it working?  Come on, computer!"  Um, dude, go get some much needed sleep!  Well, apparently, he is one of the better anesthesiologist, so I suppose he's "allowed" to act that way.


We were able to sleep until 2:15 when my water broke.  When my nurse (who was FABULOUS, by the way) returned, she said she had been watching my contractions on the monitor and they were very intense and very, very close together.  She was pretty sure I was very close to pushing, but didn't want to check me since I really needed to hold on until at least 3:00.  I had a lot of pressure, but felt I could hold off since I had the epidural.  We really did not want any extra blood work to have to be done on the baby, so said a little prayer that he could hold on just a little longer.  


Our nurse came in right at 3:00.  She said all the other nurses were watching my monitor and kept telling her, 'You need to go in there, she's ready to push'.  Our nurse replied with, "Don't worry, we've got a plan.  We've got to wait until 3:00".  She checked me and I was at a 10 and ready to go.  She called the OB who took her time getting her stuff on while I was beginning to push.  But, hey, this was my 4th, I know how to get them out.  She was like, "You've got to stop pushing, I'm not ready" - yet another reason why the epidural worked in my favor:).  It took 4 contractions and he was out.  The first thing they mentioned was his juicy lips.  Oh my gosh, seriously, holding your brand new baby straight from Heavenly Father does not get any less amazing or emotional.  This beautiful, healthy baby was just inside me and now out in the world.  How did he fit? :).  


They took guesses on how much everyone thought it was, but could tell he was definitely not 8 lbs. 12 oz. like Spencer.  Cameron weighed in at 7 lbs. 15 oz. and 20 1/2 inches long.  His lips looked like Spencer, but the rest of his face and color looked just like Kylie.  He nursed like a champ for 30 minutes straight.  We all finally got cleaned up and in our room by 5:30 and I was starving!  


Cameron didn't have a name until an hour before we went home.  We were trying to decide between Cameron, Connor, Carson and Colin.  Man, it was hard.  The kids really wanted Carson, but David's sister has a Carson.  Ashlyn just this week stopped calling Cameron "Carson".


Even though the hospital was very different experience than the birthing center, we were super happy with how everything turned out.  The only bad experience we had was with a nurse tech who was very annoyed every time she had to help me with something...hello...isn't this her job?


The kids are loving, LOVIng, LOVING Cameron.  Even Spencer is finally coming around.  I'll post more on this later.  


Did you make it this long?  Thanks for sticking around until the end:).

Ready or Not

I am a little nervous about having this baby now.  Yesterday I was so sick that I ended up going to Labor & Delivery to get IV fluids as well as urine and blood work done.  I had all the flu-like symptoms except without a fever and vomiting.  I really debated whether or not to go, but decided in the end that it was probably a good idea just to make sure the baby was fine and if I had a bug, I wouldn't want to give it to anyone in the doctor's office (I had an appt. later in the day scheduled).  I found out 2 very interesting things that I wouldn't have known otherwise:

1.  Just how much paperwork I was going to have to do when in labor, but because I was already there, they went ahead and did the bulk of it all...thank goodness and      

2.  My platelets were borderline.  I have to have 100 in order to be able to even get an epidural and mine were 101.  Now, I know the last 2 were without meds, but we weren't quite sure that we wanted to do it again.  We weren't sure, but we would at least like to have the option of the epidural.

Even though I did not want to initially go to L&D yesterday, I believe it was a blessing that I went.  I asked the Dr. if there was anything I could do to increase my platelets and she said no that it was all hormonal and not due to being ill.  Well, I decided to do some of my own research:).  I found that low platelets can be from a weak immune system and you can naturally increase it by eating foods rich in Vitamin C, folate and Vitamin B and eliminating all refined foods.  That's what I have been doing since.  I'm sure it's a slow process to get them a whole lot higher, but I am confident that they won't dip if I am eating this way.  I normally eat well, but hadn't been so good the last few days and my immune system was low anyways.  If I haven't had the baby (which I am actually hoping for) by Thursday, I will go back and have my platelets checked.

It is kind of weird though, I feel much, much better, but I don't feel like I have all the energy I normally have. I feel still somewhat drained and normally I have no problem bouncing back, but this time I have.  I am assuming that it's only because of the pregnancy last days and praying that it's not because of low platelets.   Needless to say, this last week of being pregnant has not panned out the way I thought it would.  I thought I would be able to take a class each day (since I finished teaching last week), take the kids to do some fun stuff, and help Ashlyn and Spencer with reading and writing while Kylie worked on math.  Thank goodness my mom and 2 nieces came Monday night or else my kids would be bored to death.  Let's hope and pray that the rest of this pregnancy will treat me well and labor will not be as bad as I am expecting.

I have nothing else to post about, because this is all I think about

 

Maybe I am exaggerating some.  I am telling myself that I am really not getting anxious, but I am.  We have done a good job keeping busy every second by teaching 11 classes last week, going to the pool, going to the museums, shopping, going to the OB, having play dates, etc.  This week is a bit slower - 6 classes, 4th of July celebration, movies, playdates, shopping, doctor....you get the picture. 

 I am feeling really great, but a bit ornery for some strange reason.  The kids love to touch the baby's knee sliding across my belly, but still thinks it's a ball and not a real baby.  Still no name, no car seat, but it'll work out.  I am happy that I have only gained 25 lbs, but the scale is still rising with 12 days until THE DATE.  I will stop teaching after this week and my mom should be here next week.  The kids have really been so awesome, so I hope to do some more fun things with them.  Kylie has been learning how to cook/bake on her own following a recipe.  She has enjoyed impressing Daddy with her goodies (and he doesn't mind eating them either).  It's fun to see her feeling good about something she can accomplish on her own.  I feel like I do too much for her - make her breakfast, lunch, do her hair, critique the clothes she picks out, etc. so I have tried to back off and let her do more.  Sometimes she likes it, other times not so much.

Looks like this post ended up being more random than I originally planned, oh well, there's a pregnancy brain for you.  Well, here's to hopefully less than 12 days to a new baby in the house.  Cheers!

Beach!

 Kylie had to write a paper in school on what she wanted to do this summer.  This is what she wrote:

"This summer I really hope my aunt comes.  Her name is Pamela.  Oh and I hope I can go to the beach.  Also, I can go to Grandma Astorga's house.  I really, really want to do all of them.  That is what I wish."

3 simple things, right?  Well, Aunt Pam is not coming and we are having a baby, so no trip to Colorado.  The only thing we could make happen was going the beach.  On the way home, she said, "Thank you, Mommy, for planning this beach trip.  Or should I say thank you to myself?"  (Since it was her idea.  Funny girl.)

Truth be told, we are not huge beach people even moving from (and living my entire live in) Florida.  Though in Florida, it's no big deal to make a quick trip to the beach for our "fill".  The closest beach from Raleigh is 2 hours away, so we knew that we were going to have make it worth the trip and stay for most of the day.

 I was a little nervous since all the natives said that the beach here is INSANE during the summer.  Seeing that it was also going to be Father's Day weekend, we were going to have to plan to arrive early and stay longer.  Apart from the actual walk to and from the beach, it was absolutely FABULOUS!  The weather was perfect (low humidity and temperature in the low 70s).  The kids had tons of fun.  We came prepared with umbrellas, food and toys.  We made sand castles.  We didn't come home burnt to a crisp.  It wasn't too crowded.  It went so well, I would definitely make the trip again.  Although I would try to find closer parking.

Picking out all the chocolate chips from her granola bar to eat separately.

 One guess as to what this girl is doing:).  Hey, it's nature.

 Had to find some way to get the back of my legs.

Many people witnessed this 9-month pregnant lady booking it back to the car to put more money in the meter.  You can pay by credit card over the phone, but you have to know your plate number in order to do so.  Really?  Could they have posted that somewhere?  WHO knows their plate number?  Well, I do now because it's in my phone.

Fire Station

Nothing too exciting about the fire station to post.  Sure, the fire truck had to leave right in the middle of their spiel and Spencer knocked someone across the head with the yellow hose that's hanging down, but that's just normal stuff.  Spencer had been asking me to visit the fire station, so I arranged a little playgroup for all the kids in our ward.  I told the firefighters that we would probably only have 10 max.  Well, I lied.  But goodie for us, they were well prepared for a much larger crowd.

Improvements made by my kiddos from all the other previous visits to fire stations included actually sitting in the fire truck, not crying when the firefighter suited up, going up to and touching the firefighter and wearing the fun fire hats.  Hey, we focus on the small things.

Kylie was thrilled.  I think she is getting a little too old for stuff like this, but she is great sport about it and helps out a ton.  

On a side note - she can literally spend the entire time we are reading or watching television holding her hand on  my belly to feel the baby move.  She can hardly wait to hold this baby.  It is so cute and fun to watch her excitement!

Memorial Day Weekend

 Happy, smiling children staring at the sun in 80 degree weather at the top of Pilot Mountain, NC.  You know how we take pride in our skills of getting the children to look at the camera, right?

 Being 34 weeks pregnant, we figured this would the last time for a while that we could go camping.  It was so beautiful and besides being just a little hot (but not humid), no complaints.  We stayed 2 nights which left us just enough grouchy and tired. 

 Uh, yeah, just a little too over the edge in my opinion, but we survived.

 Affectionately known as "The Knob" of Pilot Mountain.

 These riders followed the trail through the water, we opted to go around the water.  Snakes, unknown depths and small children were not a good match for us to venture through the water. 

Cleaning up camp.  We were literally on the side of a mountain camping.  Gratefully the pad was flat, but everything else was uneven.  Needless to say, I was super happy to get back to level ground.  We had wonderful company, beautiful weather and only a few mishaps.  I sure hope the people who were camping childless enjoyed the occasionally screaming and crying from our campsite.  It is family camping after all, right?  We just wanted to make sure they didn't forget that.

35ish weeks (and no make-up)

I have not gained as much with the others this far, but I started heavier (due to muscle - thank you BodyPump:) - but smaller clothes).  I am hoping it's because I have been able to exercise throughout, I've eaten well and have gotten 8+ hours a night of sleep.  But, whatever, it is what it is.  Besides the new spider veins (which are getting zapped ASAP), I really cannot complain.  It's been much easier being pregnant with older kids instead of chasing toddlers around the house.  It will be quite different this time.  When Spencer was born, I had 3 kids under 3...yikes!  Whenever we watch little kids, Kylie and Ashlyn are so eager to help; we are hoping that carries on.  I am still teaching 9+ classes a week.  Some classes I am taking more low impact options and I have decreased my squat/lunge weight in BodyPump.  I plan on teaching all the classes through June and then backing off of at least Attack in July.  Besides wanting to rest, I want to spend some time with my kiddos doing extra fun stuff before the baby arrives.  I feel like this has gone by fast, but I am kind of impatient and have been counting down days/months.  It seems like time as flown as I look in the past, but not in the future.  For example, my last regular posting was 5 weeks ago which seems like not too long in the past, but in 5 weeks from now, I hopefully will be holding a sweet, healthy baby boy and it seems like an eternity.  We don't' have a name picked out, no car seat nor bassinet.  I just started thinking about the actual labor especially since I will be delivering in the hospital this time.  No epidural was hard in the birthing center, but even if I decide to have an epidural in the hospital, I think it will be more difficult.  I don't like silly rules and mean nurses.  Hoping and praying the experience will be positive.