This is the first Saturday in a long time where the family just sat in the basement in front of the tv and lounged all day. I can’t remember the last Saturday when we did that. Even Pepper joined in the activities or lack there of.

What about last Saturday?

Well it was the boy’s 11th birthday party. He wanted a guy’s game night. Guys. Chick fil-a nuggets, bag o’ dorritos, and cheese cake. What more could a kid ask for. He had an awesome birthday.

It wasn’t til around 8pm when the scare started.

We’ve been waking up Pepper ever 4hrs to feed. But around 8pm she didn’t wake up. So I let her sleep a little more, around 9ish I tried to wake her up again. She just didn’t seem herself. I went downstairs to get Brad and tell him something’s wrong with Pepper. She just seemed lethargic. Brad got her to eat but she wasn’t awake for it like her normal self.

I called the NICU. . they told me to call our pediatrician.

She told me that Pepper could be changing her sleeping habits. (Mind you we’ve only had her home for like 3days. . .there’s noway she could of changed her sleeping habits in that short time frame.) She said if I really felt like something was wrong then I should take her to Primary Children’s Hospital ER.

And in my gut’s gut I knew something wasn’t right and I rather be safe than sorry.

We got to the ER and immediately went into triage. The first thing they did was take her temp. Her temp was too low.

With a baby, if the temp is low or high certain tests have to be ran (I guess, I’m not an expert or anything). Blood and urine for sure and then a spinal tap for Meningitis. Yup, all those tests were ran on our lil’ Pepper. I was in tears the whole night.

If you haven’t been around me before this event. I’ve been handling the whole NICU and Pepper well. True, I’ve been waiting for postpartum depression to hit me like a sack o’ bricks and I thought it would, but it didn’t til this one weekend. I started blaming myself pretty hard. I was in tears for pretty much most of the night and early morning.

Being in the hospital for 24hrs to wait for the results for Meningitis just compounded the depression. I stayed with her for the night and we were surrounded by crying children, from newborn to toddlers. It wasn’t good for me.

Blood and urine = negative

Meningitis = negative

We were discharged on Monday around noon.

I’ve been on pins n’ needles every since. I’m extra cautious of her temp. I have the house at 74 constant, no a/c even if the house is close to 80. She’s got two layers of clothes on her most of time too.

But as the weekend passes. . . it seems more normal to me. . . like how things are suppose to be without hospitals, doctors, and nurses.

Hopefully we are out of the woods for good.

Well I’m up – and thought I should put this down in the blog before it gets old and I can’t remember the details anymore.

Lets start with yesterday early morning around 1:30am.

I woke up to this sharp pain in my side, I thought, “Maybe I’m sleeping funny.” So I readjust and about 5mins later my stomach gets tense. Oh, it’s a contraction. Okay. . . turn on the tv and beginning timing how far apart they are. (FWIW – late night tv sucks just as bad as daytime does) After 15mins, the contractions are coming pretty regularly. My night nurse comes in and checks on me and I tell her that the contractions are pretty much 5mins apart.

I wake up Brad. . . at first he was kind of out of it. But he got up and sat next to me while I was in bed.

The nurse wheels in the big monitoring systems and straps the probs to my belly. One probe to measure Pepper’s heartbeat and the other to measure my contractions.

Still going strong at 5mins apart.

The delivery resident comes in and checks my status. At this point, they still don’t want to check how dilated I am because my water broke so soon. They didn’t want to rupture the bag even more.

So around 3am they take me and Brad down to delivery. At this point the contractions are getting more and more intense. They’re still at 5mins apart about.

Around 4am or 5am. . . (like I’m going to be telling time while in labor) I call the nurse and tell her that my contractions are really intense and I want the drugs!!!!! So both her and the resident come in and the resident feels confident that I’m actually going into labor and checks how dilated I am. . .

8.

That’s right ppl, I’m dilalated at a mother-huggin 8!!!!!!

Get the damn anesthesiologist in here stat!

So I get the epidural. . . but literally after I get it they start wheeling me into the O.R because they’ll have to pass Pepper to the NICU. My midwife shows up and it’s just me, Brad, the midwife, and a nurse in the O.R.

The pushing begins. . .

I feel everything. What does that mean, well the epidural wasn’t strong enough or it hadn’t had enough time to take effect. It was enough to take the edge off the contractions but not enough to take the edge off labor. The midwife and the nurse at this point are asking me if I want more drugs. . . but if I wait til the drugs come, Pepper should be delivered, push forward through it! (literally)

At 5:51am Pepper Karla-Anh Newbold was born.

She’s doing really well.

She’s still in the NICU of course, she’ll check out when she can eat on her own and keep her own temperature. I still say, we’re lucky, for her being such a preemie and those are the only issues right now.

I just wanted to say to everyone, thanks for the comments on Facebook and here. The support is overwhelming and helps us keep the natural high up.

It’s about 5:50am in the morning, and as the time draws closer to the whole inducing of labor I get more and more freaked out about the situation.

Pro:
At least I’ll know when she’s coming right. . . Cinco de Mayo. What time? Who knows?

Con:
Never been induced, don’t know what it’s like – the unknown

Pro:
All the tests results have been good, actually great.

Con:
Haven’t seen her so I don’t really know after she’s delivered if she’s going to be a happy, healthy baby.

Con:
What if I poop myself during delivery?
What if getting induce makes the delivery fast and rips me a new one?
Will I be able to handle all the pain (actually my Lamaze teacher says I shouldn’t associate the word labor to pain because then that’s what I’ll expect.)

I can’t believe it’s Monday already. . . . only a couple more days. . . .

So. . . here’s an update for everyone. Currently, I am at the hospital waiting to go into labor. Crzy right??!!! How many weeks are you suppose to be full term? 40. How many weeks are you at Sukie? 33 officially today.

The whole thing started on Sunday, (in the back of my mind, I’ve been really freaking out about pissing myself. It’s a common prego fear) On Sunday, we had a bunch of friends come over to bbq kabobs. And right before they came. . . it happened. I pissed myself (or so I thought). The baby drops in the last trimester, and sometime they can push on your bladder and you instantly have to pee. Well I thought Pepper had pushed so hard. . . she made me pee myself.

Well throughout the week, it’s was leakage here and there but nothing to crzy.

Last night before bed, I went to the toilet to do my thing. . . and well it wasn’t right. Immediately, I called my midwife and she told me to go to the hospital right away. Called Grandma, and had her take care of the boy while we checked into Delivery.

Tests ran – my water had broken.

Here’s the scenario – I’m on Betamethasone for 24 hours. . that helps Pepper develop her lungs. And with little amniotic fluid in with Pepper, they fear that her and I will have infection so I’m on two antibiotics til I delivery. I’m on bedrest til Friday, where they will induce me because 34weeks is a good time to delivery. But once the Betomethasone, is done – we can have her anytime. We just had an our 2nd ultrasound – and she looks great. . .she’s just swimming in the low end of the pool, really low.

Stayed tuned to the facebook/twitter for more updates.

Thanks for all the care and prays! Love ya’ll!!!

The weekend was crzy packed with fun! My sister in-law (Missy) and gf (Sarah) threw a baby shower for me.

At first, I thought maybe it was lame to have a baby shower. This is my 2nd kid after all. The general rule is baby showers are thrown for the first baby. Then again my first baby is almost 11yrs old. And pretty much all my baby stuff is gone. (Can you imagine me keeping baby stuff for 10+ years??) And first girl. . . so even if I kept all my baby stuff from 10yrs ago, it wouldn’t even apply now to the girl right?

Anyway, had a blast! I’m so glad we packed Sarah’s house with woman. She did an awesome job with the food. The kabobs were a hit!!! Missy was in charge of the games and I though they were pretty dang fun! Baby Concentration!!! was so witty with the candy.

We had the traditional gift opening part of the shower. . . and we got a ton of great stuff for Pepper.

Afterwards, I was thinking of all the stuff I still needed to get.

One of the items is a car seat.

So Brad and I went looking for one at the Target. Well I’m looking at the seats, and all of them stated 5-25 pounds or so on. And I turn to Brad,

“We need to find one that’s 0-5pounds. Where the heck are they!!!”

And Brad just looks at me. . .

And then it’s like a rock hit me in the head. . . “Um yeah I feel stupid. . . nevermind!”

PEPPER’S ONLY 0-5POUNDS IN THE WOMB!!!! So I would be looking for a car seat that can fit over my belly. Does anyone know where to get one of those???

So I’m sitting here thinking about random things. . . .

So Brad’s been working on this huge project at work. The project makes him work crzy hours which is okay with me because I know it’s not a long term thing and plus he’s getting paid for it. So he’s not home for a some of the nights during the week and most Sundays are dedicate to work. The boy has been really helping me out with chores etc. I’m really thankful for that. He does pretty much what I ask him to do without any groaning or moaning.

So I’ve pretty much handed off the laundry duties to him. Because bending so low to load and unload is really annoying. . . well it’s kind of annoying in the sense it doesn’t feel good. So the boy loads the laundry, unloads the dryer, and takes the clothes upstairs for me to fold and sort.

The one thing I remember from when I was prego with the boy and it’s kind of a recurring theme now with Pepper, is that my laundry is all caught up.

That’s right, the most annoying chore for me is caught up. It’s never caught up. . . EVER!!!

It’s strange.

Not only is it caught up but everything is put away. And my closet is clean. The boy’s closet is clean. All of our dressers are organized. Everything is in its place.

Weird.

So things have been going great with being prego. I think the worse thing that has happened to me is falling down the stairs and bruising my tailbone at the beginning. I think both me and Brad are thanking our stars that it hasn’t been worse.

Pepper is a kicker.

At the beginning, I would count down the days to my next baby appt because I would get to hear the heartbeat and know that she’s still doing well. There were times, I was tempted to steal the heart monitor and take it home. I think I was afraid of a miscarriage happening. And it caused some anxiety in the 1st trimester.

But as I moved into the 2nd trimester, I could feel Pepper kick. She kicks me everyday to let me know she’s there. Sometimes, it feels like my whole lower half vibrates from the kicks.

So the other morning, I was drinking a iced mocha from McDs. I haven’t really been drinking a lot of caffeine. Honestly, I drink enough to get the taste and Brad drinks the rest. I’m sitting at work and drinking my drink and Pepper starts. . .

BAM
BAM
BAM
BAM

I was like, “Whoa, chica calm down.”

BAM
BAM
BAM

Okay. . . the thought went through my head that maybe the caffeine is affecting all this. So I stopped, I started drinking my water and lemonade. (yes it was watered down, Sam!)

So she stopped.

After like 30mins, I took a couple big swigs of the mocha again. Within a couple minutes. . .

BAM
BAM
BAM
BAM

It’s just funny that it would take minutes for her to let me know that the caffeine makes her hyper. And also that her mom would test the effects of it before she’s born.

So I knew last year that my driver’s license was going to expire on my birthday.

Who is going to try to renew their license 2 days after Christmas??!!! What! I know you can renew up to 6mos in advance. . . but I didn’t want to be a person who’s actually on top of their shit. That’s just ridiculous!!!

So what do I do instead?? Plan a weekend trip to Cali and then wait to the last possible moment to get my license renewed. Feel free to sit back and laugh because I deserve it for damn sure.

The day before the flight, I remembered that I need a valid license to fly. Oh shit. . . well gosh thanks to the law change, I need to get my birth certificate, ssn card, and if I have an address change I need two proofs of my address.

I fly out of my office yesterday to go home to rummage through my files frantically looking for my birth certificate. I found the boy’s. . .but I couldn’t find mine. So I head down town to Utah Dept. of Health. No problem.

My dad calls me while I’m heading to the DMV and I noticed on my birth certificate, it stated that Mom was 22 when she had me. Dad was 38. . . that means he robbed the cradle!!!! So I asked him about it. Do ya’ll know how my parents met?

How my Parent’s met:
My dad was fighting on the side of the US in the Vietnam War. He’s got this wicked scar from a knife fight on his leg. Well after they lost the war, he was able to come to America. (now this is his words not mine) While he was boarding the boat, he saw my mom, she was kind of cute so he asked her if she wanted to go to America with him. If she did then he would come to America first and get a job. Once he got a job, he’d save enough to bring her here. And what girl in a war torn country would say no to that. So after a couple months my dad was able to get all the paperwork done to bring my mom over. They go married. They got prego. And here I am.

So I asked Dad about my birth certificate and he said there’s no way he married a 22yr old. She was way older than that when she had me. To which i was like, she could of lied. . .about her age. But why would she lie about being older, you usually lie about being younger.

But I did call my dad a cradle robber and we had a good laugh about it.

Back to the DMV drama. . .

I get to the DMV at 5pm and I’m already behind like 30 ppl waiting to get a number. At 5:20, they say, “We are no longer handing out numbers. There are people with numbers that might not even get served today.” At this point I’m freaking out and stay in line in hopes that I’m somehow special because I’m the one who left it to the very last day possible to get a license renewed to fly the next day. I got the front of the line and the lady informed me that ONE DMV is open tomorrow @ 7am since they have so many people to serve.

I woke up this morning at 5am.
Showered
And got on the road by 6:10am
Got a coffee
Arrived at the DMV
20th Person in line by 6:20
Got in at 7am
Took a written test at 7:20
92% Passing (missed 2 questions. . . which after I reviewed it made sense why I missed it)
Got a Temporary license til my new one arrives in 3 weeks.
Get to travel without being hasselled by the man. . . not priceless, PAINFUL!

So I haven’t updated for a while. . . I think blogs are dying. But I’ll try do some mouth to mouth on this blog and maybe it will come back to life. If that doesn’t do the trick, I’ll have to find a island with a temple that has a magical pool that looks like someone pee’d and crapped in it for god knows how many years. . . and soak life back into it.

If you don’t follow Brad on Twitter, here’s his twit last night:

“Wudan07: @sukie80 refuses to gain a lb\week – there goes my dream of a full-term baby.”

I had my recent baby check-up appt yesterday. Currently I’m at 21/22 weeks, and I’ve only gained 6 pounds. If you think I’m bragging about this put yourself in the assuming bunch of people. I’m really worried about it actually, even though the midwife said that I’m in the normal range but on the lower end. She told me that I should be gaining a pound a week til I pop. Holy shit! I’m half way through and I’ve only gained 6pounds how the hell am I suppose to gain a pound a week???!!!!

Brad suggested that I get a tub o’ lard and a big straw and put it next to me at work and start chuggin’.

I’ve been eating 6x a day and I haven’t been holding back. Ultimately, the whole reason I worry about the weight gain is because I don’t want to have another prem-ie. If you don’t know, the boy was born 6weeks early. He was due 7/4 and he came 5/22. 5 pounds 2 ounces. We were really lucky that he was healthy but how can I expect to be struck by lightning twice???