Your First Week

Well, Sweet Boy, you can't say that your birth story wasn't uneventful! You were born at 4:26 pm on Wednesday, January 8, 2014. You born 10 weeks and 2 days earlier than your expected arrival. Needless to say it was a little scary to all of the people that love you! You weighed 2 lbs 15 oz and you were 17 inches long. Even though your arrival was a bit of a surprise, you have made us the happiest people in the world, it was love at first sight! 

 Your first picture!

 Daddy cutting your cord.

 First picture of your face

 Meeting Momma 

 Kisses

 In NICU

 I forgot they wheeled me down to see you after recovery, but I'm sure I was really excited to see you!

 Holding Daddy's hand

BIG feet!

Right after you were born they took you off to the NICU and Momma was taken to recovery. Momma was sick, thats why you had to join the world so early, so after you were born I didn't get to see you for a whole day because I couldn't get out of bed. It was the longest 30 hours of my life, I was so excited to see you! Daddy went down and visited you and took pictures and video to show Momma, Nana, Papa, Mimi, and Grandfather. You were born during flu season, so the only people allowed in the NICU are mommies and daddies. Your Grandparents, Uncles, Aunts, and friends are not very happy about not getting to meet you yet! All the more reason for you to hurry up and grow so you can come home and meet all the people that love you so much! 
All of your nurses in the NICU comment about your long arms and legs and your big feet and hands! You are pretty skinny, but we are trying to fatten you up! You have a head full of dark hair and look JUST like your daddy. You are strong like daddy too, you are constantly pushing yourself off your bed and rearranging yourself in some pretty funky positions. We have been really trying to get your lungs up and running, and your doing a great job! The day after you were born the doctors had to put you on a ventilator so you wouldn't have to work so hard to breath. You improved so much that they soon took you off of that and had you on a CPAP, which just pushed air into your lungs. By Sunday, they had you on the nasal cannula and now you are pretty much breathing all on your own. Right now, you are breathing a little too fast. The doctors say you have some fluid on your lungs, so they are giving you medicine to flush it all out. We are praying very hard that the the medicine works so you don't have to work so hard to breath and instead you can work on growing bigger and stronger. 

 On your ventilator

 Off the ventilator and going to the CPAP, loved getting to see your little face!

 Kangarooing 

 Look at Jackson's muscles, similar to anyone we know?? 

Under his Bilirubin light, rockin' his sweet shades

Right now you are eating Momma's breast milk through a feeding tube and doing a great job! When Momma was sick right before you were born the doctors had to give me magnesium to try and keep me healthy enough to deliver you. The magnesium can do funny things to your tummy and unfortunately, you had that in your system too. So after you were born the doctors were very slow in giving you milk. They stared you on 1CC every three hours. As of today you are eating 7 CCs and they are increasing it every few feedings by 1 CC. Soon you will be up to 24 CCs every three hours, and then you will really start growing! I can't wait to see you grow big and strong! 
This week Momma and Daddy have spent a lot of time at your bed. Momma can't drive yet because of her c-section, so Papa is picking me up in the morning and bringing me to the hospital to see you. Daddy had to go back to work this week, but his boss is kind enough to allow him to come to the hospital for a couple hours around lunch time to visit with you. This is when the nurses let us change your diaper and take your temperature and hold your little hands and feet. Once a day for about an hour we get to have "Kangaroo time." Its Momma's favorite part of the day because they place you on my chest and we snuggle and nap together. Its so hard not being able to hold you and kiss on you when I want to, so I treasure that hour each day. Daddy has gotten to do it with you too, but his chest is not as squishy as Momma's, so you didn't like it as much yet! I guess we found out the one negative thing about daddy's strong muscles, they aren't as comfy to nap on :) 

 Kangaroo time

Changing your diaper *disclaimer* its gross!!

After we snuggle, Daddy takes me home so I can rest a little, I'll need to do that for about another week. All of your friends and family have been taking really good care of us. They have been bringing us dinner and sending us cards and gifts for you. Your Nana, Papa, Aunt Lindsay, Uncle Brian, and Aunt Lauren cleaned our house before we came home from the hospital. I would just like to say that it wasn't dirty to begin with! Lauren has organized a calendar where people have signed up to bring us food. Uncle Tim and Aunt Liz, as well as Will and Elizabeth have made us yummy dinners so far this week. Your cousin, Trey, has drawn pictures for you that are hanging up in your nursery! While Momma was still in the hospital, our friends Joe, Joseph, Allie, and Titus came to visit us, we prayed for your health and it meant so much to Daddy and I. Momma's friends, Lizzie, Nicole, Jenn and Walker drove from Raleigh and Tiz drove from Charlotte to visit. They brought you all kinds cute stuff, I can already tell that they are going to spoil you like crazy. Borgia and Ben visited us and brought flowers and gifts. The Folgers also stopped by to see us, you have 25 high school volleyball players that are already in love with you and can't wait to spoil you! Mrs. Troxell was Momma and Daddy's World History teacher the year we started dating and she was Momma's mentor her first year teaching. She had twin daughters that were premies, and came to visit us the day after you were born. Its been comforting to talk to others that have been through similar experiences. We are so blessed to be surrounded by amazing family and friends that are supporting us during this really hard time. When we planned on having you this was not the way we thought it would go. We are trying to do the best we can, but its hard being at home without you here. Every night we go back to the hospital to spend just a little more time with you. All of your nurses, PAs, respiratory therapists, and doctors are wonderful. We are so lucky that we live close to the best NICU around. They all take great care of you and great care of Momma and Daddy when we need it! 

 Pretty flowers from the Walkers, Lowder, Inc. (Daddy's work), and Set Point Volleyball Club (not pictured)

 Your favorite position, just like Momma

 So handsome!

 Big foot :)

 Sleeping HARD

You are all arms and legs!

We love you so much, sweet boy! Your first week of life has been a roller coster, but we are so happy that you are here and that we get to spend more time with you than originally planned. I am going to spend time writing to you to keep our family and friends updated on how you are doing. We all love you so much and pray that you continue to fight and grow into a strong healthy boy so that you can come home to us soon. 

 I keep finding you in the weirdest positions :)

 Date time with Momma's boy

 Sweet sleeper

 Another funny sleeping position

 Trying to find our thumb, are we?

 Best part of my day

Meet Jackson Crews!

Whirlwind of a Week

Words cannot even describe how much our lives have changed in one week. Last Monday morning (1/5) I was about to go back to work after winter break. I wasn't feeling well Sunday night, I thought I had indigestion or something. I've never had it before, so I didn't really know what it felt like. I got up Monday morning to go to school and got sick twice, so I decided to take the day off. You have to realize, I've probably had the easiest pregnancy ever, only some fatigue during the first trimester. I was at home and feeling a little better, but only as long as I was laying down. I decide to see if my doctor would see me that afternoon for my 29 week check up instead of having to take time off of work later in the week. I went in at 3pm, and the first thing I noticed that was odd was that I had gained 10lbs since my last appointment, which was just two weeks before. I had gained about 10 lbs total in 6 months. They took my blood pressure three different times and they were all somewhere between 155/80 to 170/90. Thats when I was told that I would immediatly be going to the hospital.
Once I was at Forsyth, they admitted me and took me back to a labor and delivery room, this is when Hunter and I started to freak out a bit. They told me I needed to be evaluated for preeclampsia and that I would at least be staying the night. My blood pressure continued to rise, imagine that? Doctors came in and explained the process and started talking about the possibility of delivery, and more freaking out by Hunter and myself occurred.  The same doctor was giving us all of the updates, and every time he came into the room he said "We gotta talk." Every time, the news got worse and worse and I thought Hunter was going to punch him in the face by midnight. Hunter called him Dr. Death, because each time he spoke to us, he was giving us bad news about how close I was to death. Finally, at around 2 am, they had not only established that I had preeclampsia, but that it was severe and I had something called HELLP syndrome. Basically, my body was shutting down and the only way to "cure" it was to deliver our son 10 weeks early. Scariest. Moment. Ever. They pumped me with steriods to help his lungs mature and they put me on magnesium sulfate to prevent me from having seizures or a stroke because of the high blood pressure. They drew my blood every 6 hours for 48 hours to monitor my liver and kidneys, as well as my extremely low platelet count. Another concern was that if my platelet count continued to drop, my blood wouldn't clot, which creates a problem when you want an epidural. Its also a concern when you think about blood loss during a vaginal birth and it especially presented a problem if I had to have an emergency c-section.

The doctors made it clear that a vaginal delivery was the best option and we should pursue that first. When you have preeclampsia, there is a fine line you have to dance around, keeping me alive but also attempting to keep Jackson in me as long as possible to allow the steroids to help out his little lungs. 

So they induced me by (sorry, about to get real up close and personal) placing a medicine up into my cervix in an attempt to get it to "ripen" (their term, not mine) or basically soften. Every 6 hours for 30 hours they stuck their fist up my who-ha, and for some reason whenever it was time for that stupid procedure, the only doctor on call was the little girl with short fingers.... it made it WAY more painful.
During the 30 hours of waiting on dialation, we decided to go ahead and do the epidural procedure before my platelets dropped any lower. They just placed the catheter, they weren't going to numb me up just yet. It was painful, but I expected that, and was just glad when it was over. Then I decided to role over on it while sleeping and pulled off the piece that connects the catheter to where the medicine is administered. Yeah, I broke my epidural. So they had to do the whole procedure over again. If that wasn't bad enough, the poor anisthesiaologist could not figure out my crooked spine. He attempted to place the needle, not once, not twice, but three times before stopping and calling for back up. Yes, that means three different times he took a 6" needle and stabbed it into my back until he hit bone before pulling it out and trying again. When the second doctor came in, he got it on the first try...
After the 30 hours of cervix ripening, I had dialated only 1cm, even though I think they were being nice, it was actually just a "finger tip." Thanks for that. They then decide to place 2 balloons in my uterus and cervix in order help the ripening process and they also started me on pitocin to induce labor. This was when I asked to take advantage of that wonderful epidural that I worked so hard for. I could feel the effects of the epidural at first, but early on Wednesday morning, I was feeling my contractions, the catheter, and I could feel the balloons in my cervix and uterus... yes, I was pumping that button like crazy for more meds, but to no relief. Come to find out, that special piece that I had pulled out after the first epidural, well the second one they put on was BROKEN and LEAKING the medicine all down my back instead of it going in me. I think its fair to say that by this point I've had the worst experience possible with epidurals. After 12 hours of that inflatable fun and labor pains with a broken epidural, they checked my cervix again, and I was only 3 cm dialated. 4 cm was the magic number we were looking for. It was safe to say that while my liver, kidneys, blood, etc. did not want me to be pregnant anymore, my cervix had every intention of keeping me pregnant. At around 3:30pm on Wednesday, we decided to proceed with a c-section. Within an hour we got to meet our sweet son.

One Year Later

One year ago this week Molly joined our family. I can't believe it has been a year since she was found on that snowy afternoon! We are so thankful for Molly, she has brought so much love and energy into our lives this year. Here are a few of my favorite pictures of Molly this year!

First time I met Molly- 600 hall Reagan High School, Jan. 26, 2011

She still sleeps like this! 

Naps went from this to.... 

This!

Funny pup

Look at our little "jack russell/beagle" mix! 

50 lbs later.... we established she was not a jack russell after all...  

thanks for that... 

When we went on vaca, we wished you could fit in our suitcase too! 

puppy pedicure 

snoop dog

ho, ho, ho!

We love you sweet pup! 

A Very Merry Christmas!

Christmas of 2011 was our second Christmas as a married couple, our eleventh together overall, our first with Molly and in our new home! It was a wonderful Christmas filled with love, joy, and time spent with friends and family. I was so excited to decorate the house for Christmas, it was something I always enjoyed doing with my mom growing up. Hunter just rolls his eyes and lets me do it, he really is getting the hang of my decorating obsession, he doesn't even ask me how much I spent anymore!

Pinterest creation... 

Love Christmas cards, we sent out our first one this year! 

       

 

Pinterest creation... our wedding invitation in a Christmas ornament. 

On the eve of Christmas Eve we had friends over to celebrate, it was lots of fun. However, I should have taken more pictures, story of my life. Here are a few of my favorites!

BFFs

My love

Molly greeted guests as Santa... for about 30 seconds.

Family Christmas photo

Pinterest creation... no one would eat the damn veggies because they didn't want to mess up the tree! 

 

Something was REALLY exciting

Love them. 

So on Christmas Eve I couldn't wait any longer, and Hunter, myself and Molly opened Christmas gifts! Disclaimer: do not judge me for wrapping my puppy's gifts and for taking pictures when she opened them. For now, she is my child and Christmas is all about the kids. There, I said it.

yumm, new rawhide chews

                

 

On our way to the Wood house Christmas morning! 

This was my first Christmas morning that I did not wake up at my parents house... I actually didn't cry! Ever since we got engaged, Christmas mornings have been a little hectic and not quite what I was used to, but I'm finally getting the hang of our new Christmas morning routine. First thing Christmas morning we went to the Wood house, opened gifts and then got to the Crews house by 10:30. Then it was to the Showalter house to find out if we were going to have a niece or nephew in May! 

              

                     The grandmothers were pretty excited about finding pink gifts! 

Trey was also pretty excited about getting a little sister :) 

Can't wait to meet Charlotte! 

Trey's gift to Charlotte!

    

After the gender reveal we went back to my parents house to sit around the fire with family.

This was quite the post, I just realized how crazy the last few days have been. This Christmas was a very, merry one indeed.