Countdown OVER! Baby Young is HERE!!

Well the moment everyone was waiting for finally happened on Tuesday, April 26, 2011!!

About 12 midnight I started to have very mild contractions while I was sleeping. They were so mild that I actually thought that it might have been gas, and just kept going back to sleep. Every time I had a contraction I thought to myself, ‘I should probably wake up Darnell so he can start timing them’, but each time I just feel back to sleep. Around 1:00a I woke up to a contraction, which followed by my water breaking! I felt something wet, and told Darnell “I think my water just broke”. I then jumped out the bed, and ran into the shower where fluid continued to run down uncontrollably. Darnell paged the Doctor on call and he told us to go on into the hospital. After I got out of the shower, I told my mom and Cherie that it was time and we all began to prepare to head out to the hospital. We then loaded up the car, and headed in the rain to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital, and checked into triage where we sat in the waiting room for about 30 min. At that point I started to have contractions, but nothing serious at all. When I was finally called into the back the contractions became more intense and I started to feel them in my lower back. Each time they came around I had Darnell rub my back, which helped out tremendously! It was only the beginning, but the pain was so awful that it brought me to tears! I was checked for dilatation, and was only 3 cm. After about an hour I was finally moved to Labor and Delivery. The contractions were starting to get so painful that I requested the epidural as soon as I got back there. They checked me again, and I was still at 3cm, but they were able to check with my Dr, and he approved the epidural. Immediately, the epidural arrived, but they had to poke me about 6 times before they were able to locate the correct spot!!!!! They kept hitting bone which hurt SOOOOOO BAD!!! The incorrect pokes hurt so bad that I thought for a SPLIT second, that I would not get it, but I quickly came to my senses. Finally, it was in, and I was on cloud nine! Why people would decide not to have an epidural is beyond me! I no longer felt another contraction! I was put on my side, and was able to rest. They also had to put me on pitocin because even though my contractions were coming in regular, they weren’t as close as they wanted them to be. They told us that they wouldn’t continue to check me for dilatation since my water had broken, and they didn’t want to cause any infections. I was able to rest, sleep, watch tv, text, talk, etc comfortably due to the wonderful epidural.

Around 11:45a my nurse rushed in and stated that I needed to flip to other side because the baby’s heart rate was dropping. Her, Darnell, and my mom had to flip me because my legs were so heavy from the epi, and I couldn’t do it myself. The heart rate was still not where it needed to be so a resident came in to check me. When she did, she looked up and said “that’s why…you are complete!” I said “huh, what does that mean?!” They told me that I was at 10 cm, and it was time to start pushing!! I was in shock! I went from 3cm to 10cm with no warning in between! They automatically started getting the room together, and paged the on call Doctor. My nurse, who absolutely amazing started the labor process before the Dr arrived. I did several pushes which, again, I felt nothing! The baby started crowning immediately, which of course excited everyone!! After about 25 min the Dr arrived, changed clothes, and began complete the delivery. I did a few more pushes before he stated that he was going to use the vacuum to speed up the delivery and get Baby Young out!! Ha! I did a few more pushes, and then I heard Darnell scream, “IT’S A BOY!!!”

Baby Young was born on April 26, 2011 at 1:22p 8 lbs 2 ounces 21 inches, and a head FULL of hair. God has truly blessed us with a perfect little angel! My pregnancy was great, my delivery was amazing, and the end result is still surreal. The entire labor from my water breaking until Baby Young arrived took 12.5 hours!

We had a girls name all picked out from basically day one, but the boys name we were still clueless on. We had a list narrowed down to 4 names, but nothing was decided on. It wasn’t until the afternoon of the 27^th that we finally determined that our sons name was going to be Joshua Mark Young.

Introducing Joshua Mark Young

Here is a picture of the lovely plant my hubby surprised me with while we were in the hospital!

Baby Joshua has already received SO much love from family and friends. He had so many visitors, and received some beautiful gifts! Here is a pictures of some of the love gifts.

Here is the proud papa hauling off all the love gifts, and taking it to the car once we were discharged.

Joshua on the way home!!

Here is Joshua taking a nap in his Pack & Play that his Auntie Makeda

"I wouldn't be surprised if you had the baby this weekend"

Well that's what my Doc said at my last appointment on Thursday. Did I get excited? Nope! I hadn't made much progress when I came to dilation, water hadn't broke, and I haven't been having any major contractions. So, in my mind I was still going by the fact that, BY will come when they are good and ready.

However, when I left the Doc I called my mom and told her what was said...my mom changed her flight and arrived in Detroit the next day! Everyone is so ready to meet BY!! Here I am on Sunday evening with BY still nice and snug inside with no indication to me that they will be making their grand appearance anytime soon!

Meet Bill Cosby!!

So, for some reason I noticed that Biff was starting to do some random shaking. I never really saw him do this before, and since it was starting to get warmer outside I just knew it wasn't because he was cold. I figured if I was to see him shake it would be during the cold Winter we just had. Darnell took him to the Dr., and they said everything looked just fine. He was still shaking so I decided to at least try getting him a sweater even though I KNEW that wasn't the case.

So, Biff and I headed to PetSmart to go shopping for a sweater. Well...as soon as I put it on him I no longer noticed the shaking! LOL! Crazy! Anyway, now he LOVES wearing this sweater. When I take it off of him he will whine for it! If the sweater is placed on the counter, he will stare at it and just whine until someone puts it on him.

So now I call him Bill Cosby because he just walks around all day with this sweater on! LOL!!!

Bathroom #3 Renovation Underway!!!

The road to a new bathroom is on the way! This is the last bathroom that needs to be remodeled, and I am so excited to say that the process has begun! This bathroom was SOOOO outdated with a cardboard vanity, old light fixtures, blue and white wallpaper, and ugly shower!!

Here are a couple of pictures of how it looked before:

Here are some pictures after Hubby knocked out all the tile, and took down the wallpaper!

38 Week Baby Bump

Here I am on my way to church 38w & 1d pregnant. I actually laid in the bed for awhile trying to think what in the world was I going to wear!! I was actually very surprised to see that I could fit this top (barely)!!

Let's see, the normal has been going on...heartburn, pressure, sickness, tiredness...same ole same ole. This morning I literally rolled out the bed!! LOL!! I must admit, it's getting very rough, but it is all well worth it & hopefully will be over very soon!!!

As you can see below, I have gained some weight in the face!! Ugh! Most say they can't tell, but if you go back to the earlier weeks of my bump pics you can totally tell the difference. It's all good.

I'm FULL TERM!!!!!! Yahoo!!! 37 Week Baby Bump

You are considered full term at 37 weeks, and I am indeed 37 weeks today!!! Does that mean the baby will decide to arrive today...ummm NO, but it's nice to know that this little one can come any day now and be considered fully cooked!!!

I had a Dr's appointment on Thursday, and was checked to see if I've progressed...I HAVE!!! 2 cm 70% effaced, and the Dr seemed overly surprised how low the head was!! I tried not to get too excited since I'm aware that women can walk around 2 cm for the longest without any action, but it was nice to know that I have started the process! :-)

My co-workers have been so awesome throughout my pregnancy! We received a changing table a couple of months ago, and since then have still been showered with wonderful gifts for the baby...receiving blankets, toys, first aid kit, books, hangers, snack bowls, etc. With the gifts, some super cute cards came along with it. I'm normally not a card person, but these cards were so cute I had to display and share on my blog! :-)

36 weeks 4 days Baby Bump

Here I am in the middle of week 36! Week 36 has been ok. Mostly HEARTBURN has been kicking my butt, and I've been extra tired!!! I've also been very sore around the lower parts of my body, and swelling is still around some...not much. As much as I love sleeping now, it's not that pleasurable. Turning over from side to side is a huge chore (seriously), but so necessary because my body falls asleep on one side very quickly! When I do have to turn over it kind of makes me out of breath! Of course the nightly bathroom visits are not fun either! I NEVER liked having to get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, so now is no different. I can normally make it with just one nightly run, and that's mainly because I drink water before bed!

The Bump...

...and the pup!! I wanted to through in a picture of my four leg baby! I love him sooooo much!!!!

WAFFLES!!!!

Around the 3:00a/3:30a hour this morning I was still wide awake! I was up watching DVR'd episodes of The Old Adventures of New Christine, and Two & a Half Men, and then flipped over to regular TV to watch The Trump family on Oprah, then flipped over to Nick @ Nite to watch a few episodes of My Wife and Kids along with Everybody Hates Chris. Yes, I was all over the place...why??? Because I couldn't SLEEP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I tried and tried and tried, but it just was not happening. I turned off the light and TV, but still just ended up laying there. I was woke for 3 reasons that I know of...1) Heartburn was kicking my butt!!! No matter how many Tums I took that heartburn just remained. 2) my huge belly was in the way of me getting any type of comfort. I tried several positions, but it all ended up with me being more and more uncomfortable, and 3) I just wasn't sleepy! I did go home after work and took a nap, but that was only for about a hour so I'm not sure why I wasn't sleepy when night came around. So, since I couldn't sleep, and was starting to get hungry, I made the one thing that made sense to make at 3:00 in the morning....WAFFLES!!!!!!!!!!!! I popped out the mix and the iron and got to work! Darnell (yes, D was up with me), and I had a nice 3:30a yummy treat!! I also did the dishes since for some reason I had a lot of energy! Ugh!! After "breakfast", I went back to watching more TV and finally drifted off around 5 ish to be woken by my alarm at 6:30a...time for work!! Aww...the joys of pregnancy...

I just went horseback riding...

...well at least that is how I feel! My inside upper legs are very sore! I feel just like I do when I go horseback riding! The other joys of pregnancy at this stage include swollen feet/toes/hands, and sharp pressure pains. No complaints coming from this way...I'm just documenting how I'm feeling during the last few weeks for I know it will all be worth it! Today I was walking in the hospital (at work), and had to stop every couple of seconds because the pressure pain was just that bad. I tried to remain as normal as possible for I didn't want to attract attention, but it was hard! Again, I work in a hospital so I know folks would have been concerned! I ended up having to just walk holding my stomach pushing it up some to relieve some of the pressure! LOL! 36 Weeks tomorrow!!!!!