Jaxen Kael - Our Journey So Far

From the moment I found out I was pregnant I dreamed of the first moment I would get to hold this precious little life in my arms, the smell of a newborns skin, and late night cuddles. I imagined snuggling this perfect, healthy little babe and falling so madly in love. I dreamed of seeing Shaun hold his new son or daughter, providing the comfort and security that only daddy's arms can provide. I pictured the moment when my little girl would become a big sister, and those first moments as they meet each other for the first time.

Every time I heard this song, all of these things came flooding back to my mind. I am beyond blessed to have been able to have every single one of these moments turn out just the way I envisioned them, and now I would like to share them with you. Enjoy!

(Sorry it is so tiny on blogger. You might be able to see it better here)

Jaxen's Birth Story

It's true... I'm attempting to write Jaxen's birth story down before I forget! Yay me! :o) As with all birth stories, read with caution and please forgive my sleep deprived brain for any grammar/spelling mistakes. LOL.


JAXEN'S BIRTH STORY

Well, for starters... my pregnancy with Jaxen was quite a bit different from my pregnancy with Adelyn. Both were good ... Jaxen's just had a lot more adventures (17 weeks of morning sickness and throwing up, a no-heartbeat scare, and 3 bouts of the flu running through our home ... yikes!). Despite all of that, it really was a good healthy pregnancy and it went by very quickly ... almost too quickly at times!

I was about 2cm dilated for the last month of the pregnancy, and he wasn't really dropping (which is somewhat normal for 2nd babies). Despite 3 membrane strips/sweeps we still ended up going a week overdue and were induced on Saturday, April 17th. I had only slept for a total of 2 hours the night before, because I was so anxious and nervous about what was in store for me in the morning. When we got to the hospital that morning I was about 3cm, so they started with a round of the cervical gel. I wasn't expecting it to do anything, because with Adelyn's labor I didn't feel anything from the gel. WELL ... I was wrong. I started having contractions right away. They were 2 minutes apart and lasting nearly a minute. After an hour of walking around the maternity floor, the nurse suggested that I get into the shower because my doctor wouldn't be there for another two hours ... I thought "2 more hours until my doctor even comes to check on me?!! Yikes!" Just then, my doctor walks into the room and says she wants to break my water. I was so excited because I knew that it wouldn't be long after that until this baby was born!! Yay! (Adelyn was born within 3 hours of my water being broken).

So, she broke the water and right away the contractions were INTENSE! I have bad back pain during labor, so I got into the shower to help relieve it. Once again, the shower was my friend during labor!!! I wish I could have my babies in the shower instead of the bed. It is so relaxing and so much easier to stay on top of the contractions when the warm water is on you. I'm not exactly sure how long I was in there when the nurse came and wanted to check me. I had to go back to the bed (which I HATE!!!). I was only 4cm. Boo. I was starting to get a bit discouraged.

I had to stay on the bed to be monitored for a bit, which totally sucked because the contractions were like a minute apart and where lasting nearly that long. I was starting to feel a little urge to push, so the nurse checked and I was only at 5cm. Sigh. However, given my history of going from 4-10cm in 15 minutes, the nurse decided it was time to get my doctor there and quickly. At the time, I thought she was nuts ... I thought for sure this labor was going to take forever because it felt like I wasn't making any dilation progress at all.

My doctor got there a few minutes later. I was at 7cm. Again, I was discouraged because it felt like I needed to push. At this point I had lost complete control over the contractions. They were so INTENSE!!!! Way more painful and strong than with Adelyn's labor! Yikes. I started yelling at the top of my lungs "I need to push, I need to push!!" and they kept telling me I was only at 7cm. BIG FAT BOO! Next thing I know, my doctor says "Ok, give it a try." Pushing with Adelyn had been a wonderful thing. I felt lots of relief to push with Adelyn ... this time, not so much. It burned so badly. I felt every single thing and it hurt! However, a couple pushes later and my beautiful baby boy, Jaxen Kael, was born! He was so perfect!!!

They put him on my tummy right away (which they never did with Adelyn), and it was so precious to be the first person to hold my little guy!!! They took him to check him out, etc. while I got stitched up.... 2nd degree tear this time around.... still bad, but a lot better than my 3rd-4th degree tear with Adelyn. I didn't have to go to the O.R. to be stitched up, and it was so nice to be able to stay in the room with my hubby and my new little man! I even got to feed him and shower this time!! LOL. Jaxen was born at 12:27pm after 3 hours of labor.

We had a great first night at the hospital. Jaxen slept wonderfully and we were all able to get some rest. We were able to go home at noon the next day ... less than 24 hours after his birth. Overall, it was a really great experience. I was able to experience everything that I felt I had missed out on from Adelyn's birth. God really answered prayers about that.

We are home, healthy, and doing well! Jaxen is such a good baby and we are beyond blessed to have him in our lives!!!!!!

Baby's Room!!!!

Now that Adelyn is in her new bedroom, we were so excited to get working on the baby's room. To be honest I was stressing about this BIG TIME! When we were pregnant with Adelyn we had the room set up and ready to go by the 4th month of pregnancy (at least)... so being 8 months pregnant and not having anything in this room accomplished REALLY freaked me out. I am so happy to say that this room turned out exactly the way I wanted it too. I could not be happier to be bringing my baby home to this wonderful space!

Here was the room the day we moved in. The previous owner used this as a dinning room (hence the old school chandelier).

I actually kinda liked it, and would have loved to refinish or paint it, but that would have only worked if our baby is a girl (which we have no idea about!)... so we played it safe and decided to change out the light.
AND for the record, like I just said... we don't know if this baby is a boy or girl. Everyone thinks that because the walls are a blue-ish/turquoise color, it means we are having a boy. We may or may not be.... you know as much as we do. :o)

If this baby is a girl, we will be adding some soft pink accents around the room. It will look so fantastic with the turquoise walls!!!

Change table.

Comfy chair. We actually had a different chair that we were going to use, but the slip cover got wrecked in the laundry (boo!)... so this chair was plan B. It's not totally my ideal nursery chair (as far as looks go), but it is really comfy and any breastfeeding mom knows that is really your #1 concern for a chair!

These are the curtains I made for the room. I really wasn't sure at first, but once we hung them up I was so happy with the way they turned out. They match the crib bedding (which I also made).

Here is the crib bedding. I finished this project way back in November and was so happy to finally see it set up in the crib!! I love it.

We will be putting to black and white photos of the baby in the frames above the crib, and the baby's name will go into the frame on the white shelf.

Lamp, monitor and clock.

New light up close.

We will also be putting a picture of the baby in this frame.

The baby's name will go into this frame. 1 letter per section. This is my favorite part of the entire room!

Box shelves. The baby's first initial will go into the middle box.

New door knobs. We are slowly replacing all the door knobs in the house (as each room gets painted). They were old, gold ones... but these one's make the house look so much more modern.

So that is the baby's room! Let me know what you think... I would love to hear comments on this one!!!

36 weeks

We are now 36 weeks! Can you believe how fast this pregnancy has gone by!!! They consider 37 weeks "full term," so we could have a baby as early as next week. Eeek!!! This baby has definitely grown in the last 4 weeks, and I am certainly feeling it. I'm officially a waddling pregnant lady. Yikes. :o) We have a doc. appointment next week and I'm hoping that I will be at 2cm... I've been feeling a lot more pressure there lately and some braxton hicks... so hopefully they are being productive... like i said last time, I love having progress without actually being in labor!!!!


According to babycenter.ca, here is what is going on with our munchkin this week:Baby is still gaining weight -- about an ounce/ 28 grams a day. He/she weighs nearly 6 pounds and is about 19 inches long from head to toe. You may begin to feel an increased pressure in your lower abdomen and notice that your baby is gradually dropping. However, walking may become increasingly uncomfortable -- some women say it feels as if the baby is going to fall out.

The good news is that by the end of this week, your pregnancy will be full-term and you could give birth any day now. (Babies between 37 and 42 weeks are considered full-term -- a baby born before 37 weeks is premature and after 42 is post-term.)

32 weeks!

Here is my 32 week picture! Sorry it's so blurry... my bathroom mirror needs a good cleaning. :o)
I can't believe that we are only 8 weeks away from having this little munchkin in our arms! It's hard to imagine my belly getting any bigger... but I know it will happen. I'm still feeling pretty good, but starting to get puffy in the face and hands (which is certainly NOT my favorite part of pregnancy! With Adelyn, my face was so puffy I couldn't hardly smile. LOL.)


Here is some info about what's going on inside there this week:
Your baby now weighs approximately 3.75 pounds/ 1.7 kilograms and is about 17 inches / 42 centimetres long from head to toe. Although his lungs won't be fully developed until just before birth, your little one is inhaling amniotic fluid to exercise his lungs and practise breathing.

Sewing Projects

I've been getting antsy lately about this new baby coming, and I've had a wonderful break from photo editing... so I decided to fill the time with some sewing projects!!!

When we had Adelyn, someone bought us a few of these First Years -Easy Wrap Swaddlers. It is one of the best inventions ever! You can swaddle your baby, without fussing over receiving blankets, etc. It has velcro tabs to keep it in place, and it worked wonders!
We have a pink one and a yellow one, but since we don't know what we are having this time around, pink might not work and I'd like to have more than one (since they have a tendency to get spit up, peed and pooped on. LOL)
SO....... I decided to get some funky fabric and make my own. (Yes they look a little boy-ish, but I think that turquoise can go either way, so who cares. lol.) What do ya think?


I also took my left over scraps and made a blanket out of them....

So, those projects are completed and I just finished the new crib bedding as well! Yay! I've had the fabric for that sitting around since WAY before this baby came into our lives, so it feels so nice to finally be done!!! I will post about that soon.

-T

Belly Comparison...

I was digging through some old stuff the other day and came across a disc full of pictures from when I was pregnant with Adelyn. I thought it would be fun to compare my baby belly this time, to when I was pregnant with her to see if there was much of a difference.
What do you think? Is there much difference?...... Minus the fact that I actually had time to do my hair back then :o) LOL.

14 weeks with Adelyn
(don't mind the puffy hair please!)

14 weeks with "Sprout"



20 weeks with Adelyn
20 weeks with "Sprout"

22 Weeks!

We are at 22 weeks already, can you believe it! The last month has been a blur! Crazy.... but awesome! Since we are snowed in today (not to mention the fact that we are all under the weather, especially Adelyn... poor thing!), I decided it would be a good day for blogging.

Here is some info about the baby now:

• The fetus reacts to loud sounds.
• Baby starts having a regular sleeping and waking rhythm.
• The mother's movements can wake her baby.
• Taste buds are forming on your baby's tongue.
• The baby is 28cm long (crown to heel) and weighs over 450 grams.
• The weekly weight gain has increased to around 70 grams.

Your baby is about 11 inches long and weighs in at about 1 pound. The eyebrows and eyelids are fully developed, and the fingernails cover the fingertips. Sounds from a conversation are loud enough to be heard by the fetus in the uterus. If you talk, read, or sing to your baby, it's reasonable to expect him or her to be able to hear you.

By this week, your waistline is definitely gone. The top of your uterus is now about 1 inch (3cm) above your bellybutton.

Baby Scare...

Ok, so yesterday I went to the doctor's for something totally not pregnancy related and on my way there I thought "Hmmm.... I hope he listens to the heartbeat again today!" I just love that sound and was so looking forward to hearing it again. Sure enough my doc decided to check it. Yay!

Well, after 10 minutes of trying to find it, we heard nothing. WHAT!!!!???
Since we had heard the baby's heartbeat last week and it sounded awesome and he/she was wiggling around kicking the doppler, it never crossed my mind that we wouldn't be able to find it just a week later. Sigh.

My doctor started saying things like "have you had any bleeding?" and "how many miscarriages have you had previously?" etc.... I started to panic slightly and then burst into tears right there in the Dr.'s office. He said that he would try and get me in for an urgent ultrasound and then he prayed with me before I left.

I drove home and told Shaun about what had happened. We were both pretty upset about it and weren't sure how to feel. Sigh, another huge faith test. Having gone through this before 4 other times and only having a good outcome once, it was hard to be positive and to put our faith into action. I must admit, I have failed at the faith thing several times in the past.

Today was our ultrasound.... and after spending the entire morning in tears, I suddenly felt a strange peace as we were driving there.
We got in right away... the lady turned on the monitor and said "There's your baby..."
I was so afraid to look, because I didn't want to see a baby there with no heartbeat. Then she said, "...and there's the heart, beating away!" HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF!

The baby was perfect. Everything looked fantastic and his/her little heart was beating away at 154 bpm!!!! He/she was so squirmy that the ultrasound tech could barely get good pictures. :o)

How awesome is God!!!