Sleep Depravation or Hooray for Grandma!

Here's our boy at 3 days old! (Sorry, we haven't uploaded pictures in a few days. We're trying to remember to bring the camera downstairs!) We thought he looked funny in his little bitty carseat. Well, I guess to him it's a giant lazy boy. He LOVES that thing! If I have the presence of mind, I'm going to pop him in there one night when he's fussy and see if it calms him down!

Another 3 day old picture. Just think, he's even cuter now! Right now he's napping. This means I should probably be napping. It takes babies a couple weeks to learn night and day, so we're still learning to deal with interrupted sleep and play time at 3 am. Last night he did really well. He woke up every two hours to be fed and checked for messes. This made me sleepy, but he did go right back to sleep every time. Some nights he wants to stay up for 2 or 3 hours. Did you know that I l,ove Lucy and Leave it to Beaver are about your only non-paid-programming options at 4am? I guess there's an old sporting event on ESPN, but I'm trying to stay awake so I don't drop the poor thing! Luckily, grandma (my mom) is here for a few weeks and is an early riser, so when I'm sitting up with him and I hear her downstairs, we decide it's "grandma time". This gives Ozzy and I up to 4 hours of un-interrupted sleep! My boy likes to nap in the morning. Ozzy is good about getting up with him, changing him, and rocking him to sleep. I still have to get up, as the food supply. :) We love our boy and we REALLY love Grandma!

I'll post a pic of me with the baby soon. I still looked 6 months pregnant after he was born, and that's a little depressing. Normal, but still. Anyhow, Feeding him has made my belly slim down a lot and I look more like 3 or 4 months along. Woo hoo! I guess all that late night sleepy baby snuggling has to have a payoff, right?

The Marshall has arrived!!!

Our little addition has finally arrived. He was born July 22, 2008 at 7:14pm. He came into this world weighing in at 8lbs 11oz and 19inches tall. Monica and I are proud to present to everyone our son Marshall Austin McDonald.

We Brought Marshall Home July 24, 2008 (Pioneer Day). It took the little tike a little bit to adjust to his new enviorment. But he is doing well now. He's sleeping and eating alot. He's on his way to being as big as his daddy.

No baby yet . . .

DUMB STUPID HEAD NURSES AT THE HOSPITAL!
I wasn't dilating fast enough and they kept sending me home. In labor. Even when I told them my doctor was going to break my water. So we went Friday and we talked to our doctor who felt really bad. He wanted to break my water and deliver the baby that day, before he went on vacation, but the hospital was too full. There was a lot of sad things that needed taking care of, like stillborn babies and babies with neurological problems. So we went home with strong contractions 1 1/2 min apart and got my mom from the airport. The baby knows about weekends, I guess, because I wasn't very uncomfortable Saturday or Sunday. The contractions have started to build again today. If the hospital won't keep me by Wednesday, I have an appointment with a baby doctor and hopefully he will send me in to have the baby. I'm getting pretty impatient. If you think I'm impatient, you should see my mom. If you think she's impatient, you should see Ozzy!

baby time

YES! I was not a know-it-all obnoxious first time mom when I doubted that the nurses should have sent me home yesterday. When I went to the doctor today, he couldn't figure out why they sent me home at 3 1/2. He was planning to come back that afternoon and help me have a baby. So, here's the plan.
I'm now a 4 and 80%. This is enough to break water. My doctor is not on call today, so he says tomorrow is better for him. I'm supposed to take naps and do the stuff that "supposedly" induces labor. Since I'm still in early labor, these activities will just make my contractions stronger and closer. When they're stronger and closer, I go to the hospital. He won't let them send me home. If he thinks he needs to, he'll break my water. Then we will get a baby. (I skipped the pain part.)
We are planning to go to the hospital late tonight or early tomorrow morning so I can have my doctor. We'll go earlier if I'm in pain or Ozzy can't wait anymore. Poor guy, he's so restless and excited for the baby that he's moving furniture. He wants his baby to come!

False (ish) Alarm

I woke up with what I thought at first were cramps at 3:30am. Then I realized I was fat. Then I remembered that I am pregnant and these are contractions. After the ice water and pee routine, it was 3:45. And I was bored. So, I timed the contractions. They were not very painful, but bothersome enough that I wasn't able to sleep. They started out 6-8 minutes apart, but quickly normaled out at 4-5 minutes. By 5:45 I was REALLY bored, so when Ozzy woke up a little, I clued him in and he decided we might as well go to the hospital and see if this was the real thing.
I got there and they strapped me into all the monitors and checked me. The nurse decided I was almost 3cm. At least these contractions were doing SOMETHING. Ozzy was very sleepy and I felt badly about that. We watched the monitor screens until my doctor came by to see what was going on at a quarter to 7. He said it was good that I was at a 3. The plan was to check just after 7. If I was 4cm, we stay and have a baby. If I was still 3 but in more pain than when I came, we stay another hour. If I was at a 3 with the same pain I came in with, we take drugs, go home, and sleep. This early labor can take forever.
Well, a different nurse came in to check me. She said I was at 3 1/2 cm. Not really fitting with any of our game plans. I was not in more pain than when I came. The funny thing is when she checked me, I bled because, well, people usually don't poke other people's cervixes. She didn't realize it and snapped the glove off. There was blood everywhere. It was funny. And gross. And now Ozzy and I think she's an idiot, so when it's baby time, she better not be one of our nurses!
The other nurse gave me a percosett and sent me home to sleep more and come back if I get really painful labor or if my water breaks.
After Ozzy fed me breakfast, he went to work. He tried to call to check up on me, but I was OUT. I didn't even hear my phone. He got worried and made his sister wake up to come see if I was okay. Luckily another one of his phone calls woke me up and he could tell his sister to go back to sleep. It's crazy right now because I can't feel the contractions. Maybe justa little tightening. Hooray for drugs!
So, now we see if, when the drug wears off, my contractions hurt a lot. If they do, we go back to the hospital. If not, but they still bother me, no biggie. I have a doctor appointment tomorrow morning early and he can decide whether we should go over there and try to have a baby again.
On our way out, this man was calling in at the doors because he was sure his wife was in labor. She was smiling and her hair was done and she was in a dress and heels and had makeup on. They are so getting sent home. In the lobby, a man was bringing his wife in. She was breathing crazy, looked really mad, and her hair and clothes were all messy. She is NOT getting sent home!

No baby yet

We didn't get our storm on Sunday, so I'm still pregnant. Instead of a storm, they took me for a walk and put me in the pool. Today I'm still having early labor pains, but they last all day now and I don't get a 6 or 8 hour break. They're far apart, though. The storm is supposed to come in tomorrow night, so Ozzy hopes that'll cause me to start labor.
My mom scared Ozzy today. She called his phone on accident while he was at work. She never calls his phone, so he was afraid I went to the hospital by myself.
Ozzy is still arresting people like crazy at work. He still loves his job. This is good. He's excited to take time off to spend with the baby and I, though.
That's about all that's new, except I've become a coupon clipper for diapers, wipes, bum cream, bottles, and all things baby. This reminds us of Ozzy's grandma. :)

Still preggo . . . .

I have the most amazing cervix. Still 2 and 50%.
The doctor says he doesn't know when the baby will decide to come out. It could be any day, or I could end up overdue. We're supposed to get a storm Sunday. Ozzy hopes that makes the baby decide to come out. Everyone pretty much wants him to hurry up and come out and play. I figure I haven't had enough discomfort yet, so he's going to stay in a little while longer. I am getting bored of being a big fat lady. Oh well. Nothing to do but wait, right?

Hey, but look what my Ozzy put on to cheer me up!

Ok, its really for the Scottish Festival we're going to Saturday. Maybe going somewhere a little far from our house will convince the baby to inconvenience us and decide to come so Ozzy can drive like a crazy man in a skirt . . . . KILT (sorry Kevin!)

For Your Listening Pleasure . . .

You may have noticed Ozzy and I have put some pretty fun hours in selecting a playlist for our blog. Today I set it up so it will start at some random spot on our list so you won't hear the same song every time you visit us.

You are probably thinking that this is the most schizophrenic list of tunes you've ever seen, but remember, Ozzy and I worked together to put this together. We both like country, the crazy rock is from him, and the folk music, dance tunes, and classical stuff come from me.

James Taylor popped on when I surfed over here. The song was Copperline. It reminded me of when I was new down here and was invited to go country dancing with some girls in my singles ward. Ozzy was there to teach us all what the heck we were supposed to do. One of the first times I went, they played this song. I was singing along and he noticed. He asked if I knew the song. I guess nobody really knows it that well there. When I said that I love James Taylor, he offered to dance with me. I remember feeling super safe with him. I also remember thinking how I'd fix him up with Mandy Lou . . .

So, each of the songs has background. If you're curious why one is on the list, let us know. We'll explain.

No baby yet. More labor pains. We discovered that tickling gives me contractions. So does Ozzy being a goof and falling off our bed. I had very regular, almost hospital-worthy contractions when I had a nightmare. Well, guess I'm just going to be in labor a while.

Early labor . . .

Yep, I've been having early labor pains. They are not Braxton-Hicks contractions . . . because they hurt. They are not REAL labor, because they're crazy irregular. I'll have them 5 minutes apart and Ozzy will get all excited, and then they'll go to an hour apart, 20 minutes, 45 minutes, 15 minutes . . . crazy stuff. He was so excited that the baby is getting ready to come that he had a hard time going to sleep. Hopefully he still has a good day at work! So, that's the update. Thought ya'll might want to know. I'm going to go run errands now and try not to go into real labor. That would make it tricky to drive my car. And make Ozzy drive home in an unsafe manner. I don't think he can drive as fast as he wants in his car, he'd need the patrol car for that. :)

It's getting a little crowded in here

Yep, I'm still pregnant. I went to the doctor yesterday because Monday I had noticed the baby was not moving very much, so I called the nurse and she had me come in for a fetal non stress test to make sure he was okay in there. My doctor has way better interpersonal skills than nurses. My blood pressure was high and the nurse freaked out. (The other two readings were normal.) The baby's heartbeat wasn't jumping up to 155, and the nurse freaked out. The baby kicked the monitor off my belly and the nurse freaked out. After 1 1/2 hours of the nurse freaking out, I saw my doctor, who says things look fine. He's a little puzzled by my cervix, still holding the fort down, dialated to a 2 and 5o%. Oh well. I held it together while the nurse freaked out pretty well, but pregnancy hormones being what they are, I started crying when Ozzy got home. Just because the nurse freaked me out. Poor guy. I don't think I'm allowed to go to the doctor by myself again.

It's Ozzy's birthday soon! yay! He's not so excited. I think he was hoping the baby would come on his birthday, but I think we've got at least a week or two to go. Here's a picture. My belly looks fake, but trust me, it's not.