1 Month Old

Baby James is a month old! Actually he's a little older than that (5 weeks to be exact). We are so loving being parents!

James is such a good baby! He usually sleeps like a 3 or 4 hour stretch at the beginning of the night and then I'll feed him and he'll go back down for another hour to 2 hours. He really rarely fusses. Last night he slept from 11pm to 5:30am! I had to get up for clinicals anyway at 6 so I kind of consider that sleeping through the night or close enough to it! We were so happy to get that much sleep...it was definitely needed.

He has started smiling at us. I love it! He started this probably around 2 weeks ago but is doing it more and more and he'll kind of coo too.

I have gone back to school/clinicals and it has actually turned out pretty well. I was super nervous about it all. My sister's in Saratoga Springs take turns watching him while I am doing my clinicals and I am so happy he has been good for them so far. School work is definitely a lot harder to juggle but it has made me be more on top of things and not procrastinate.

We are starting to get the hang of things :)

Meet Baby James

James Quentin Cullimore was born April 13, 2011 at 2:54 am. He weighed 8lbs 5oz and was 21 in. long.

Wow was it a rough trip getting him here! This kid did NOT want to come out!

41 weeks pregnant on our way to the hospital: so ready for the baby. Carson is also ready

We were scheduled to be induced Tuesday morning (April 12) but had to go in the night before to prep my cervix and had to stay overnight to do so. We probably only got about an hour of sleep total that night with all the anticipation/nerves and the discomfort of having to sleep in the hospital and not our own beds. They were going to start pitocin Tuesday morning but I actually went into labor on my own about 6am so they held off on it and let my body do it's thing.

Initially I kind of wanted to try the whole natural birth thing but was open to the idea of an epidural...holy cow did that go out the window! haha I wasn't too shocked though. I got to a 4 and wow did it get extremely painful so I quickly opted for the epidural. The Anesthesiologist is my hero :)

After I got the epidural, things sort of slowed down. I got stuck at a 4 for a while and then jumped to a 7 then got stuck there. A few times they said if things don't pick up we might have to do a c-section. Which kind of scared me. They gave me Pitocin which seemed to help a little.

Going into it all, Carson and I thought that for sure he'd be here by late afternoon but the day went along and it didn't seem like that was going to happen. It was funny, we went through I think 4 nurses and the last one was actually the same one that got us checked into our room Monday night. She came in Tuesday night and said, "You guys are still here!? I went home, slept, and am back again and you're still here. Well, I am determined for you to have your baby before I go home again."

Finally by around midnight it was time to push. I pushed for 2 and a half hours. Again during this process they mentioned the possibility of a c-section. Boy did I give it my all while pushing so that I would not have to have a c-section. They tried forceps which did not work and then used a vacuum to assist. Finally after 21 hours of labor he was born! Wow, we did not expect it to take THAT long! We were both exhausted! Poor little James looked a little beat up too :(

kicking back in the nursery

When he came out he didn't really cry at first. He was sort of grunting so the Doctor was a little concerned that he was struggling to breathe. A Respiratory Therapist came in to work with the baby. They were going to send him to the intermediate nursery where he'd have to be on a CPAP that would assist in his breathing. Geez, just what you want to hear. Carson went with the baby to the nursery while they got me all ready to be transported to the mother/baby floor.

By the time we were all settled together in our new room it was 6 am. Two days of no sleep :( Carson came in with the baby and told me he checked out ok. They didn't need to keep him in the intermediate nursery or do the CPAP on him. It was just the trauma of the delivery that must have effected his breathing and they weren't concerned. What a relief!

The baby developed Jaundice Thursday so he had to be under the bili lights for a full 24 hours....that was sad. He did not like it at all. He checked out ok Friday morning though so we were able to go home! So we were in the hospital from Monday night to Friday morning. Yuck! It was so nice to finally get home.

The first night home from the hospital was a hard one with again, no sleep AT ALL! We were seriously just running on adrenaline after that week.

He is now 2 weeks old today and sleeps pretty well, waking up about every 3 hours at night. It is quite an adjustment having him here but we are so grateful that he is here and that he's healthy!

40 weeks

Well, I've hit my 40 week mark and I'm still pregnant :(

Today is the due date and it doesn't look like he'll be making his grand entrance on this date. (No prophet baby for my mom) ;)

At my 39 week appointment the doctor said I was comfortably still a fingertip but he was able to force me into a 1. We had another appointment yesterday and they said I'm still a 1. Boo. But that really doesn't mean much...some people are stuck at a 2 or 3 for weeks...you just never know. The thing that gets me down is that the doctor said his head is still high so to me it seems he's not budging much. We have another appointment tomorrow where they will see if there's any more progression and we will then schedule the induction.

Another thing that has been frustrating is that I've been having false labor. Monday I started having pretty intense contractions and I timed them and they were coming regularly. I even had the lower back pain. I was pretty excited thinking, THIS IS IT!! but...nope. After about two hours, they stopped. Then I woke up in the middle of the night that night with more intense contractions so I thought, maybe this is it?....nope. And then I go to the doctor's thinking I've probably made some good progression and...nope. GEEZ!

I work tonight so maybe being on my feet and bending over tons etc will stir some things up???

Oh well, he'll come when he wants to come so I'll just run on his time. :)

Any Day Now...

I don't have any super recent pics but here's a few from what's been going on in the last month:

34 weeks

36 weeks

a cute diaper cake made for my Target shower

I am currently 39 weeks and VERY ready for little James to get here! Just in the last few days I have grown extremely uncomfortable (some days are worse than others). I also think I've dropped a little. I continue to have lots of contractions and since about 37 weeks they have become more painful but still tolerable. They have never been regular though. I actually have been having lots of contractions from about week 28 so hopefully that means I won't go past my due date and possibly it'll be an easy labor???

The last 3 weeks Dr's appointments they have checked me to see how I've been progressing....not much going on there. I have been a fingertip dilated each time but the effacement part has progressed I was a 30 the first time, second time 50% (last week they were running behind so she only told me how dilated I was). The doctor said for the first time that's kind of how it goes: you usually progress in one area at a time in the first couple weeks so I guess it's all normal. I have an appointment tomorrow (Thurs.) so we'll see how it's going.

My due date is right around finals for both Carson and I so we are busting our bums to get as much done as possible. I think things are going well there. It's sort of nice having school/clinicals to focus on. It helps the time go by faster and helps get my mind off of how uncomfortable I am.

We are crossing our fingers that I don't go into labor before April 1st since our insurance changes on that date (I know, we're really pushing it) :) We will have a significantly lower deductible come April 1st. Earlier this week I didn't think we'd make it...but I'm feeling optimistic about it now. I am REALLY hoping that we won't have to wait much longer after April 1st :)

We do have an induction date of Tuesday April 12 so if all else fails, we will have the baby that day. It's nice to have a date but it seems so far away!!! :)

Getting really anxious to meet the little guy!

A lot to be grateful for

Kind of a funny/sad story....it's actually super sad but it starts out pretty funny:

So last week I was at clinicals at the hospital and got an order to do a chest x-ray for a 15 year old female patient from the ER.

I walked into the exam room where the patient and her mother were waiting. The patient took one look at me and asked, "Are you even able to take x-rays?" I immediately thought, oh here it is, she thinks I look way too young to be doing this (I've been waiting for that comment). So I laughed and answered, "I know I look young, but I assure you, I am old enough to do this."

She responded, "No, I mean...." and looked down in my abdominal region (you all probably have already figured out what she was referring to but for some blond and ditzy reason I was not cluing in :)) My badge that reads "Student" hangs right in that area and I again assumed wrong and thought she was referring to me being a student so I said, "Oh, because I'm a student?...don't worry, even though I am a student I have to get my worked checked off by a licensed Radiology Tech so you are in good hands."

Her mom then said, "No, she's talking about you being pregnant!" The patient then said, "Oh I sure hope you are pregnant because I'm starting to feel really bad right now!"

I should have played around and said something like No...what are you talking about? but that's just mean to do to someone sick :)

I quickly reassured her, "Oh, that!?...Yeah! No, don't worry, I AM in fact pregnant, I just forget sometimes! And yes I can take x-rays when I'm pregnant" Haha I am such a dork!

So we all had a good laugh and I continued to take her exam. This is where it gets sad. I first asked her why she was in today and her mom explained that she was just diagnosed with Leukemia on Jan. 11th. That's always hard to respond to, especially when the patient has just learned this themselves and hasn't had much time to cope AND when they are so young.

I positioned the patient and as I was doing so the mother mouthed something to me. The only words I caught were "she" and "pregnant" so I whispered back, "Is she pregnant?"

We have specific things we have to do if we need to x-ray a patient such as, ask special permission from the Radiologist, and double lead the patient, etc.

The mother responded with a No so I was super confused. I didn't want to be whispering behind the patients back so I took the mother aside and asked, "Ok, is she or is she not pregnant?" The mother explained to me that she was pregnant but had to get an abortion on finding out that she had Leukemia in order to try and save her life. This was the first time she was able to talk to someone who was pregnant and ask them questions about it and not break down.

WOW!! I can't even imagine not only being 15 and getting pregnant (I mean she can't even drive!) but finding out you have cancer AND have to abort that pregnancy....

It definitely was an experience that left me very grateful for my life and what I have. I am so grateful for my health! So grateful for my unborn baby who is growing strong and that I am able to healthily carry him!

30 weeks!

I've hit my 30 week mark! Wow, that sounds crazy! I remember thinking at 12 weeks that 30 was SO far away....that seems like it was only a few weeks ago.

I am still feeling quite well. Busy working about 25 hours a week and doing clinicals 24 hours a week with scheduled classes about 6 hours a week. (I think that's why it has gone by so quickly)

I am in my 3rd trimester. They say you start to slow down and feel tired again in the 3rd trimester....boy were they right! I swear I hit my 3rd trimester mark and instantly I was more tired :) It's not near as bad as the first trimester, though I still have 2 months....I guess we'll see.

My legs and feet really ache at the end of the day (good thing I have Carson). Haven't had any swelling yet thank heavens!

The baby moves around a lot more now and his kicks and punches are getting stronger. We got a 3d/4d ultrasound but the little rug rat wouldn't let us see his face much. We did get some cute pictures of his feet and a 2D one of him scratching his head :)

We are slowly getting the nursery together. We have the dresser, just waiting for our crib to get in stock. Can't wait till it all comes together!

New Years

Holy cow I have a hard time blogging.

Well, here we are starting a new year. Now we're not the type to make New Years Resolutions but this year Carson and I thought it would be a good idea to try one since we have a problem....

We tend to criticize others

Whether it be while driving, at the grocery store, at school....whatever we find something to criticize someone about! haha I guess we get irritated easy.

I found that once I started criticizing it just escalated and ultimately made me in a bad mood. When Carson and I both criticized someone together, it was just bad new because we fed off of each other, usually resulting in both of us being in a bad mood and being annoyed by everyone.

So....one day we decided we need to stop criticizing.

Reasons:

first- it's not the right way to view people (I mean come on, I have faults too and I'm sure there are people out there criticizing me)....Do unto others as thou wouldst have them do unto you

second- we found it was making us unhappy

Result: Well, it's only been a few weeks but I really can tell a difference. Now we are not perfect and at times find ourselves starting to criticize, but we quickly correct our actions. The other day we were at the grocery store. Carson was saying something to me and I couldn't hear him because this guy was talking SO loud on his phone. I was super frustrated and almost mumbled to Carson, "Well, if this guy wasn't talking so loud I could maybe hear what you are saying." but I bit my tongue and thought of my resolution and my frustration vanished almost instantly.

We are a work in progress :) So far it's been a good experience.