I posted the baby’s name below.  It is password protected so that only those readers I’m familiar with and trust can access the post.  If you are one of those readers, please feel free to email me if you forgot the password from my last password-protected post (it’s the same password as before). 

Thanks!

Ahhh, it’s taking some time, but maybe today I’ll get this birth story posted.  I don’t know what it is about Mondays since the baby has been born, but this Monday was just as hectic as last Monday!  Scott called me at 8 a.m. to tell me that he was rear-ended (but was okay).  Good news is that he only suffered some soreness.  I can’t imagine what I would do without my husband right now!  The other good news is that it was the minivan that was hit.  Would you believe that our Kia Sadona has been hit 4 times now?  What are the odds?  We bought it 6 years ago and it has been hit 4 times! 

It just so happens that Scott took the van yesterday morning because the car seat base was in the Expedition and I had an appointment for the baby’s first pics.  So he took the van instead of messing with switching the base out.  If he’d taken the Expedition, chances are that it would have suffered more damage since it rides much higher and then we wouldn’t have a car big enough to transport our entire family!!!  Our minivan miraculously has only some bumper damage this time around.  The lady’s car, however, looked totaled.  (She’s okay too, by the way) 

Anyway, Scott was okay but made an appointment with his doctor just to be sure.  In the meantime, I took the baby for her pictures, thinking it would take an hour tops to go through the entire process.  Two hours later, I was in pain (forgot to take my Motrin), especially after all the sitting, and I was starving (forgot to eat breakfast in my mad rush to get out of the house in time)!  I couldn’t wait to get out of there! 

Mom, Madison, the baby and I loaded up in the Expedition, went through the drive through for a quick lunch, and then headed home in time for me to get ready for my doctor’s appointment, which I had to schedule because I discovered I am suffering some minor complications (don’t want to give too much information, but it isn’t pleasant!)

So, Scott drove straight from his appointment to home so he could drive me to mine, and we were there for a good while, mainly because I had to stop to feed the baby twice between my visit.  So needless to say, we were exhausted by the time we got home! 

Thank God for my mom who is still here helping out.  I don’t know how I would do this without her and I hope she’s not wearing herself out trying to keep up with all these kids!  And thank God for my husband, who still fixed us dinner after his accident the same day! 

It was another eventful day but we survived!  I think that next Monday we are going in hiding!

I can’t believe it has been a week since the baby was born!  I promise to get on the birth story soon!  But obviously it has been a crazy week, and today we celebrated Joshua’s 7th birthday. 

So today made for an emotional morning as I remembered where I was last week, giving birth to my daughter, and where I was 7 years ago, giving birth to my son.  Time flies way too fast, especially when you are trying your hardest to cherish and treasure every moment!

I should be blogging my birth story, and I can’t wait to do so, but for now, I just have to put in a quick post to say we have spent the last 2 days dealing with a lice infestation!  Imagine my horror, coming home from the hospital on Saturday with a newborn and discovering lice on my 5 year old 2 days later! 

It started off so good too.  The home nurse came by for a visit and the baby has only lost 4 ounces since birth!  She was very encouraging and we had a great visit.  Then we went on with the day, thinking it was going to be a day of relaxation and recovery.  But no.  Kelly kept scratching her head, complaining it itched.  So I told her she probably had dandruff and to let me check.

I pulled her hair over and discovered those little bugs crawling all over her head!  “Ewwwwwe!  Oh nooo!  She has lice!”  I freaked.  I was so disgusted, and Scott knew to get out the door and to the store right away, where he spent $150 on lice treatment products! 

So we started with Kelly and she was covered.  I’m not talking about just a little lice.  My mom used the comb on her hair after Scott shampooed it and she covered 3 paper towels with lice and nits!  It was so disgusting. 

Then we checked our hair and sure enough, Mom and I both had nits and then we found two live lice on Madison’s hair, so we treated her too (although we found no nits/eggs). 

We spent the entire day dealing with the lice infestation.  Laundry, hair, bagging up pillows and stuffed animals, clean up, etc.  My poor feet were so swollen by the end of the day, which was crazy because they hadn’t swollen up the entire pregnancy.  But I had to get that stuff taken care of right away.  It was making me crazy just thinking about it, and you can bet I’ve been picking through the baby’s hair just looking for signs of lice on her head. 

Oh, and if the baby blue’s hadn’t set in yet, Lice will most definitely make a postpartum mom cry!  Yesterday was Scott’s last day off and I was really looking forward to some bonding time.  Instead, we spent the day just dealing with nasty bugs.  Fortunately, he’s still working from home the rest of the week, but he isn’t off work.  I’d love his full attention right now, but I’m thankful he’s at least home!  I love having him around right now. 

Today I continued to find lice in Kelly’s hair so we treated it again and I pulled out several more nits and a couple of lice.  Ugh!  It’s certainly not how I anticipated spending the last 2 days, but thank God for my wonderful mom and husband!  I don’t know what I’d do without them! 

So, now I get to start making some phone calls to let our friends/family who’ve been exposed, know about the situation.  The call I’m dreading most?  My Doula.  That’s going to be a fun one!

Hi, this is Melissa’s mom again.  I am now officially the worst blogger in the world!  I know Melissa’s desire was for me to keep everyone informed, and that is what my intention was also.  The way things occurred, it just didn’t happen.  I did try to get on the internet while we were at the hospital, but they hadn’t given me the password that I needed to hook up.  So, I gave up on the blog, and just concentrated on the events going on around me.

So, I’ll go back to where I left off on my last blog.  On Wednesday evening, we just knew Melissa was in true labor.  The pains were consistent and getting stronger and stronger.  After the kids were taken to a friend’s home, we timed the contractions and waited.  The strange thing was, the pains didn’t come closer together.  They kept coming, and eventually started became inconsistent, but stayed strong.  Melissa decided she was going to take a bath and rest.  Scott and I layed down for a few hours, not able to sleep too well knowing the baby could soon be on the way.

The next morning Melissa was just exhausted.  The pains had lasted throughout the night, but never formed into a consistent pattern again.  We were glad that she had a scheduled doctor’s appointment this morning (Thursday), hoping that he would be able to enlighten us as to why labor wasn’t progressing as we thought it should be.  When the doctor checked Melissa, he said that she was dilated to 3 already, and was 85% effaced with the baby at minus 1 station.  We were all so encouraged at the news.  With Melissa’s permission, her doctor stripped the membrane to help labor along the course.  He said that Melissa should be in active labor within a day or two.

We then picked up the kids and went home, with the thoughts of having a good nap.  Melissa was still feeling pains as we ate lunch and afterwards as we all went to rest for awhile.  I wasn’t able to sleep too long, probably an hour, and after puttering around in my room for awhile decided to see if anyone else was up.  I could hear voices coming from Scott and Melissa’s room, and finally I heard Scott calling for me.  He asked me if I would stay with Melissa while he went to make some phone calls.  He needed to call a friend to come stay with the kids.  The doctor had been called, Melissa’s pains were now 2 to 3 minutes apart, and poor Melissa was having strong, hard, painful contractions.  As soon as their friend arrived and we had the kids settled (Addison was still napping), we left for the hospital.

I will let Melissa post about the things that she wants to share about the labor and delivery.  We took many pictures, and waited and waited and waited.  The baby didn’t come that night, but decided to wait until the next morning.  I will share that Melissa, through all the hard work and excruciating pain, did wonderfully, and that she was able to have the VBAC that she so desired.  I am so VERY proud of my daughter.  And I’m proud to announce that my new grandbaby was born on my birthday, July 4, at 9:15 in the morning.  The baby is a girl!  Yay, Team Pink!  She was 7 lbs 15 oz, and 21 1/2 inches long.  She is so absolutely beautiful!  She is the best birthday present in the whole wide world!

Baby Girl

Well, this is Melissa’s mom.  First, let me say that I am not the writer that Melissa is.  She can write things and make them so interesting, just full of life.  But I told her that I’d try to keep everyone informed, so here I am.

Melissa has been having steady contractions now for several hours, and, of course, we’re wondering if this is the real thing.  These contractions have again been steady, but this time they are even more intense.  I have to say, Melissa has been doing so well, and she’s handled things wonderfully.  I’ve never gone through labor having 5 children around me.  Even little Madison has been sensitive.  She’ll look and see Melissa has her eyes closed and say, “Mommy is sleeping.  Be quiet.”

Scott has just taken the kids to a friend’s home.  The pains are coming too close, and are too intense now.  We’re hoping and praying that this is it, and that both mommy and baby come through wonderfully.  Melissa deserves to have exactly what she is wishing for (a successful labor and delivery and healthy baby).  And I believe that is what the Lord has planned for her.

What is it about the night that makes my uterus want to work?  I was up all night again.  The contractions became more intense and eventually I got out of bed and headed downstairs with a couple of pillows and sat on the recliner part of my couch.  I had the heating pad on, which did wonders for my back, but these contractions were definitely doing something.  I could feel the tightening sensation work its way down, and while painful, I have to admit there is something powerful about being able to feel this muscle work from top to bottom.  There was no talking through these, just focusing on relaxing and breathing!

I had the tv on when I first went down and ended up flipping to that reality show with Tori Spelling.  It caught my attention and I was able to pause between contractions so I could keep up with what is going on in the show.  I have to say that I got a good laugh when she was waiting to see her OB and freaking out about her baby possibly punching through her placenta and uterus and damaging vital organs (therefore drowning itself in her own blood).  Oh my gosh.  What a way to lighten up (false) labor!  Her husband tried to rationalize with her that she has nothing sharp to puncture through the uterus with, but Tori said, “Hello!  She has nails!”  As she held up her hands with her neatly manicured (probably fake) long pink nails attached to her fingers.  Just what I needed to lighten up a long, exhausting night!

Finally, I moved off the recliner and lie on the couch where I was able to sleep for 2 hours with a few contractions waking me up in between.  They apparently spread out after I stopped timing them, but I’m stilling having a few every hour!  This could go on for days, folks.  I guess I’ll deal, because I know I’m getting closer to having this baby! 

I’m off to attempt to take a nap now.  I don’t know why I’m even trying.  The contractions are starting up again, but who knows, maybe I’ll get lucky!

I’m still having contractions.  They are just here and there.  They got pretty intense early this morning.  I really had to focus on my breathing and there were a couple of times they caught me off-guard and I was not in a relaxing position when they hit…nor could I get in a relaxing position until they stopped.  OUCH!  I got up later this morning and sat with my achey back and hips against a heating pad.  It felt so good!  I guess my body is just getting ready for the real deal.  At least I can take comfort in knowing that I’m going to have a July baby!

We did manage to get the t-shirts done and packed in the bags the other day.  Here are a few pics of what the kids will wear when they show up at the hospital to find out if they have a brother or a sister.  (Okay, we have t-shirts too!)  Since Dwight is on Team Pink but didn’t want to wear pink, I made his special. 

Now, I’m going to go get ready to get out of the house for a bit.  Scott is working from home and taking us out for some Mexican food for lunch…maybe that will get things going!

Of course this is how it happens!  We call our Doula, call the doctor and let him know we think we are at the beginning stages of labor. 

I have a moment where I start crying because I just feel so guilty about leaving little Madison at someone else’s house overnight without being able to explain to her what is going on.  She’s still just one and although she senses something is going on, how could she possibly understand?  So I cried because I really didn’t know how she’d handle the night and felt guilty about leaving her somewhere else, wondering where her mommy is.

We get the kids all fed and bathed and pj’s on, bags packed and ready to go to “Uncle Joe’s” and then the contractions start spacing out.  At first they spaced out about 10 minutes apart but were much more intense.  Then they just kept spacing.  I’m still having contractions, and they are slightly painful, but not consistent enough to call labor!

We’re calling this one a fire drill.  But the bags are still sitting by the front door.  I called my doula back and let her know what was going on (and of course the contractions start picking up again), but that is how it works!

I’m going to try to get some sleep.  Maybe tomorrow…