Welcome to the World, Baby Marcus!

July 30th at 7:39pm Marcus Emmitt Smerk graced us with his presence.  He weighed a whopping 5lbs 9 oz and was 18 inches long. ...and with blonde hair...yes, he has hair, almost as much as Cassie has right now.

We were admitted to Harris Fort Worth at 8pm on Sunday and started cervidil throughout the night, then pitocin on Monday morning.  I was able to contract through Sunday night, but nothing to write home about.   WARNING:  if you do not want to read about my Epidural then skip to the next paragraph....Around 10:30 am we called for an epidural, why be in pain if you don't have to.  It is a good thing we started when we did, since I have a history of hard to place epidurals.  My first, very experienced nurse anesthesiologist, thought he had a success on his second attempt for which my disks gave him great difficulties, but after about and hour and multiple doses and going through the checklist, we all determined I still had feeling.  At least this made the contractions feel weaker which got me through the next few hours.  Yes, hours.  The second nurse anesthesiologist, the other guy was called into a c section, removed his catheter and started over moving up my spine.  After her second attempt, she was willing to admit her limits, and my disk difficulty, and called in another anesthesiologist from a different department,  "The big guns".   Whoo hoo, right?  Not so much.  :(  He proceeded further up my spine with everyone watching, and having some difficulties too.  I think on his first attempt the needle popped back out - is that possible?  But, he finally was able to successfully insert the catheter and I had a working Epidural, but not without caution.  I was fully warned about an epidural headache that might present itself in a couple of days, but can be combated with lots of caffeine and water. Side note, the new cookies and cream frappuccino is delicious.  So,  3 anesthesiologists, 6 stabbing attempts, and over three hours later, I had a successful epidural.  And, it is a good thing to according to my doctor, but that will come later. 

So after the epidural dramma, we rested, and waited, and rested, and waited, and slept a little.  Sometime before dinnertime, my doctor (the one i've been seeing throughout the pregnancy and Cassie's too) came in and broke my water and inserted an internal contraction monitor.  Over the next few hours my nurse continued to bump up my pitocin until a little after 7pm I started to feel pressure.  I called her in and we decided to start pushing to see where we were.  One contraction and push was enough for her to determine to stop and call the doctor.  Luckily, with the epidural you can stop pushing and wait.  The doctor came in and just about 4-5 contractions of pushing, Marcus was born. 

WARNING:  Don't read this unless you want to be grossed out.  With Wesley, I had one, second degree tear, ripped my stitches the day I got home from the hospital and had a horrible recovery that still hurt 6 weeks later.  With Cassie, the doctor preformed and episiotomy (a cut instead of letting the body tear).  I warned him about my terrible tear recovery, and his stitches stayed in place and healed nicely. With Marcus, I told my doctor about both experiences, and I could tell she was thinking do I preform an episiotomy or not...  she determined that the baby was small enough and with the third, I should be ok.  I could tell she felt really bad afterward, becuse that was NOT the case.  I had two horrible second degree tears and a hole.  Yes, he ripped a hole in me.  She was even surprised.  How does a 5 pounder do so much damage? This is where the comment, it is a good thing I got an epidural, came in to place.  Let's just say that she took her time, thought about how to make the repairs, and made a comment about putting her plastic surgery techniques to use.  1 hour and 40 minutes of stitching later, she was finished. All I can say right now is ouch.

Now for the part you have been waiting for, the pictures.   

Cassie's Big Sister gift, a baby stroller.  She LOVES it!

Wesley loves holding Marcus and was very excited to meet him.

Wesley's big brother gift, the monster truck, Arachnophobia

Flowers from my parents and Larry's coworkers

Yes, they all have matching shirts!

 Welcome to the family, Marcus!

July Vacation and More

Grandma, Grandpa, Wesley, Cassie and I drove to AZ for Anne's wedding.  Larry flew in for the weekend. We had a wonderful time and a wonderful visit with family and friends.  Wes got to swim in the hotel pools at least 7 times.  Anne's wedding was beautiful (especially if you like short services, which I do) and she had lots of yummy cake.  I think the carrot cake was the best!  Who would have thought, carrots in a cake?  It's the cream cheese frosting!  Also, Wesley got his special dance with the bride, which he was looking forward to.  And yay for a third use of the Tux!

Anyway, the next weekend was Peach Festival.  The temp was supposed to be 94 degrees, but I think it was over 100 in the middle of the street.  There was a little humidity but the wind was blowing nicely ever so often so it wasn't as unbearable as last year.  But then again I was sitting most of the day under a fan taking money.  We made over what we did last year, so overall a success and worth the heat.

3 days later.  Still healing

On Monday evening Wes's hand got caught in the back door because of an indoor draft when the the front door was opened.  We had a spontaneous trip to the ER and three bruised fingers.  He did very well at the hospital and got to see his bones from the X ray.  He is still recovering. 

As for today, I have another sonogram at the hospital to check for fluid levels.  Here is hoping to at least 5 cm of fluid and another couple of days.  If not, then baby will be making an early appearance.  Hence the need to update the blog and purge the pictures off the camera. UPDATE:  I had 8 cm!  The Dr. called and said we will check again on Tuesday if it is low then baby will come on Wednesday (25th) or on Monday (30th).  Looks like a July baby, sorry Leah.

Rainbow Kids Summer New York Camp

This year, Rainbow Kids Summer camp theme was New York, complete with a Broadway song for small groups to preform.  Wesley's group did I Just Can't Wait To Be King from The Lion King.

Here is a link to the You Tube video.  I'm still trying to figure out which settings to use when uploading to the internet.  It is a little blury, but Wesley is the animated kid next to the one in red shorts.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76OmQxLu--M&list=HL1340475771&feature=mh_lolz
Here are some pictures.

 

This is how we found Cassie this morning during sewing time.   She had a very rough night last night.

Travel Pouch and Join Me For Tea Classes

Back in March January I signed up for Join Me For Tea quilt class taught and designed by Sally Brown.  The first class covered needle turn applique, the second was hand embroidery, and the third, flying geese and quilt piecing.   I had no clue how to hand applique or embroider so I was excited to learn.  Here is Sally's quilt and some close ups:

 I have (thanks to my mom's help!)  five out of the six aprons finished.  I will post them when I finish the sixth one.   Right now I have been working on the hand embroidery.  I take it to the doctor's office and work on it during the kid's breakfast time and have been storing my current piece in a ziplock baggie.  I wanted a little cuter method for traveling with the embroidery so I took the Travel Pouch Case class, also taught by Sally Brown. 

How cool is this travel case!   AND... I finished it in class, quilting and all!   Expect for the hand binding that I asked my mom to do since I know she loves to bind quilts.  Seriously, no sarcasm here, it is her favorite part of quilting.    Here is mine: 

Isn't this fabric from Riley Blake so cute!  Love it!  The dress form in the middle was machine embroidered, but check out that window oval, so cool, and a new learned technique.  Now, I have no excuses but to keep working on my quilt.  

Oklahoma Visit in May

Ok, so I'm a little behind.  We got away for a weekend in May and visited our friend Taryn.  Here are some pictures from our trip.  It mostly consists of the park, but hey, parks are fun!  Besides, we didn't go to do touristy stuff, we went to visit with Taryn.  We also shopped down one of the main streets with little boutiques and antique stores and I scored an old scale for $16!  So excited to add it to my photography collection.   More to come on that. 

Baby Cayden on the scale I bought.  We added the tray to it.