Yet another weekend that my husband had to go away for a conference.  It was Eli and I rocking our house.  We had a wild weekend, grocery shopping, visiting grandma and big daddy pops, then church.  I think we really outdid ourselves this time.  The good thing is, is that I did not spend money like a crazy person.  Normally when Kyle goes away, I do shopping therapy, but I must say, I had a good bit of self control.  Having him go away makes me realize why I’m so glad that I’m not in this alone.  Sure, Eli is not a demanding baby, but it means the world when you can hand the baby off to your spouse every now and then so you can get a break, or even get some cleaning done.  I’m so glad he’s home!

Jessica the Mom, Jessica the Wife

1.  My dear sweet husband

2.  My baby boy Elijah

3.  Sleeping in with my family 

4.  Pizza

5.  Elijah snuggling in close

6.  Being a stay at home mom

Jessica herself

Just thought I’d catch people up on my life.  Elijah is now 3 months old.  He is an amazing young man who now sleep though the night, however hes not really enjoying naptime.  I’m starting to get really worn out during the days for some reason.  I’ve got about ten pounds to go until I’m back to my prepregnancy weight.  I’m struggling a bit with my self image, but slowly but surely the weight is coming off.  I had to get new sports bras because my breast feeding me has blessed me with a chest that no longer fits in anything that I own.  Some women would kill for these ladies, but, I’m about ready to get rid of them!  Its going to be a vicious cycle though because once I’m done breast feeding, I’ll probably be impregnated again.  Kyle and I are doing well, we are still getting used to the whole parenthood thing and still being husband and wife thing.  Today however he did give me tons of quality time which is what I was dying for!  Heres to the first three months of motherhood!

 

Uncategorized

Well, I broke down and finally bought a Moby Wrap and I’ve got to tell you that I love it!  My back has never felt better holding my son.  We were using the baby bjorn, which was fine until he started to get some mass.  I feel really great while wearing it and I got the Elijah seal of approval!  He fell right asleep.  Yay!

Uncategorized

It was the night of January 18th and I had become fed up with my pregnancy, even though I had a little more than three weeks to go until my due date.  I expressed my frustrations to my friend over the phone saying how the weekend before I felt contractions, but since then, I had not felt anything.  I demanded chocolate cake from my sister and as she delivered it, I jumped several times trying to get the baby out.  Little did I know what was in store!

My husband was away at a conference and coming home late that night.  He arrived home at 3:30am, which of course woke me up, so I did what any pregnant woman would do, I went to the bathroom!  As I sat on the toilet I noticed that my shorts soaked.  Hrmm, what could that have been?  I did not think much of it so I went back to bed.  That morning we woke up, same thing, wet shorts, still, I did not think it was anything.  I suggested to go out to bunch at our local favorite diner.  After some delicious baked oatmeal, which I would later regret, we stopped off at the post office to pick up some packages.  As I waited in line, I noticed my jeans felt wet, and I looked down, and they were wet!  It was so embarrassing.  I quickly walked back out to the car, showed my husband.  He about turned white and said, “Call the doctor now!”  I called and told them I thought my water had broken, and we were told to pack our bags and head on in to the hospital.

When we got home, my husband could not have been cuter, and I could not have been more freaked out!  The baby was coming!  Luckily our friend was on her way over to get the keys to house sit for us when we were going to go to the hospital, good thing she came that day.  We grabbed our bags, said goodbye to the dog and headed to the hospital.

In shock, we called our parents, by the way, my in-laws were en-route to Cancun, Mexico so we actually could not get a hold of them, and well, we told my parents we’d keep them posted.  We entered triage around noon, video camera in hand, and waited for them to conclude, yes this is labor!  I was 4 cm dilated, my bag of waters had definitely ruptured, and we were off to the labor and delivery room.  Holy crap!  I learned that because my water had broken, we needed to have the baby by about 3:30am the next day.  At this point, I had still not begun to feel contractions and was wondering when my labor would start. 

Once we arrived in the room, I was hooked up to antibiotics, and placed on the fetal monitor.  I was encouraged to do some laps to try to progress my labor.  I walked and walked and walked, peed, had some italian ice, and watched a Bring it On marathon on Fox Family.  Still nothing was happening.  My doctor arrived to check my progress and decided I needed to get induced.  I started to cry because I knew that this was going to be no walk in the park.  My whole birth plan from that point on went out the window.  They started the pitocin, and it took about a half an hour to work.  My first contraction I felt was not so bad.  Then, the next one was worse.  I thought, well, I better go to the bathroom while I still can.  I had about 3 contractions on the way there, looked at my husband and demanded the epidural.  He, knowing I wanted to try to go natural, tried to encourage me against, but, in the end the epidural won.  Through much screaming and painful contractions two minutes apart, the anesthesiologist arrived.  They hoisted me up in the bed, and placed the epidural.  It hurt really bad, but I figured, hey, my contractions have got to get better soon.  Much to my dismay, the epidural did not help after 45 minutes, my nurse encouraged me it should work soon, but she called the anesthesiologist just in case.

I should take the time and discuss how much of a champ my husband was.  Unfortunately I could not use him as my coach, it was too weird, so he stood behind me and rubbed my back, since about the only thing I could do was lay on my left side.  He was very encouraging and patient.

After another 45 minutes or so, our nurse sort of panicked.  She could not find the baby’s heartbeat and had to call another nurse into the room.  I did not catch on to her worried look, but it sure freaked Kyle out. So began the movement of the big fat preggo.  I rolled from side to side, was given oxygen, and ended up on all fours, mean while the contractions getting stronger and stronger and closer together.  All about the same time, Eli’s heart rate came up, the anesthesiologist adjusted my epidural and they discovered that I was 10 cm dilated feeling the urge to push.  My pain got less and less, for now, my epidural worked!  My midwife finally had arrived and decided that I could rest while the baby descended in the birth canal before I had to start pushing. It was at this time, my family had arrived and came into the delivery room with cameras and happy faces.  Being paralyzed from the waste down, I had no choice but to smile for the camera.

It was about 10:30pm and time for me to start pushing.  I laid on my back, and did that ridiculous hold your breath and count to ten and repeat three times.  After about a half an hour I was convinced he was not coming out.  My contractions were starting to become very painful, the epidural was no longer effective.  They brought out the mirror to show me my progress, held me open and showed me my son’s head, still way up there!  That boy sure did have a full head of hair.  I soon became very nauseated and up came the baked oatmeal and cherry italian ice, several times over the next hour.  I pushed and pushed, laying on my side mostly, Kyle holding my leg, my nurses encouraging me.  Every time I laid on my back, I threw up.  We tried the squatting which hurt worse so it was side pushing all the way.  Finally, my midwife came in, kicked my butt into gear and had me back on my back pushing, not letting hold my breath any less than ten seconds.  Some progress!  I saw that head pushing ready to come out!  Now that mirror was coming in handy!  I pushed like there was no tomorrow and POP, out came the head!  It was the most insane, amazing, and weird feeling in the world.  I pushed one more time, and out came the whole baby!  Welcome to the world Elijah Michael!  They quickly suctioned him and placed him on my belly.  I really did not cry or laugh or anything.  I was just in shock and what had come out of me after two and a half hours of pushing.  Our little man was born at 12:52am, 6 pounds, 6 ounces, 19 inches long.  What an amazing miracle.  Kyle and I were in awe of what we had created.  Our baby boy had finally come!

Jessica the Mom

I decided long ago that I had wanted to be a mom when I grew up.  In high school as graduation neared, I came to the conclusion that I needed to find a career path so if I never married, well, at least I could bury myself in my job until the time came for me to meet Mr. Right.  Fortunately in the last half of my senior year of high school I met my husband to be, Kyle.  At that point I had already decided to become a physical therapist and I was enrolled in a 5 year program.  Well, as you can imagine, it was a tough 5 years but we stuck it out and we were married the summer I graduated in June of 2006.  If Kyle would have said lets do it, I’d have made a baby right then and there. We decided to hold off, Kyle felt maybe 2 years, I decided, well, maybe 1 year.

A year passed and it was time for our one year anniversary.  We had taken a trip for our anniversary in April to Newport, RI, where I decided, enough was enough, I was tired of birth control.  Within two weeks of our return from RI I went off the BC.  Our anniversary came and we celebrated all weekend, with various activities, many including food and wine, and that other stuff that married peoples do.  We’ll just say, “the cat slept in the moonlight” alot.  For those of you not in our close circle of friends, we’ll let you decide what that means, just think and you’ll get it.  After our fun weekend of anniversary, I woke up nauseated and thought it was weird, but could have been from all the food and drink.  Kyle joked about getting a pregnancy test, and well I took it, and low and behold, two lines!  What an anniversary gift!  When I broke the wonderful news to Kyle, he laughed and cried for about 15 minutes, then went upstairs to lay down.  I found him diagonal on the bed, face down.  Men….

I was so excited and nervous to be pregnant!  Then, like clockwork, the nausea started.  At first it was me just feeling really sick all day, like I was going to throw up, but it would not come out.  Luckily, I was still able to sleep at night, but I was afraid to go to bed because I’d wake up and be sick all over again.  Plus, my job did not know I was pregnant yet.  Each morning, I woke up, cried until I got to Turkey Hill where I purchased a 32 oz coke slushy (the only thing I could eat prior to 10 am when then I could eat saltines), then I went to work.  Eventually I had to tell my boss because my two 32 ounce slushies a day were not cutting it anymore.  I began to dry heave each morning several times before work until finally my midwife introduced me to a wonderful lifesaving drug called Zofran!  Don’t worry kids, Elijah turned out fine.  It continued to be a rough go through the second trimester, including a car accident, but near the end of the third, the nausea was almost nonexistent, thanks to Mr. Zofran.  I struggled with wanting to find out the sex of the baby, but Kyle made a strong case for finding out, so I caved, and boy am I glad I did.  It was still exciting and fun to start calling my belly Elijah instead of baby.  

Things were starting to wind down, I had amazing belly pictures taken by Pea Pod Photography, my child birth class was coming up and I still had not had my main baby shower.  Thanks to my coworkers for throwing my “pampered chef” party!  We went to the childbirth class a little more than 4 weeks before Eli was due, and I was having contractions the whole time.  We left the class and went home to my girlfriends blindfolding me, kidnapping me, and taking me to my baby shower!  It happened all just in time because the following weekend Eli came, 3 and a half weeks early!  I became a mom on January 20, 2008, finally my dream job!  So for all of you out there, they call me mom.

 

Jessica the Mom

Hello to all of you moms out there in computer land.  Welcome to my blog.  This is where I will dish on my daily dealings in life as a mom.  Here is a little about me, my name is Jessica I’m just about 25 years old, I am married for almost 2 years to an amazing man named Kyle, and prior to mommyhood, I worked as a physical therapist. Currently I am a stay at home mom to a beautiful baby boy named Elijah Michael and well, they call me Mom.

Jessica herself