Christmas & Birthdays

It's been another really long week or two. I think it's been about that long since I wrote on here. Anyways we had some more Christmas!!! We got our stuff belongings from out of military storage. It's been almost a year since we got out. It's amazing what you forget you had. Some things I was extremely happy to get back. For instance our nice huge comfy bed!!! Oh how I've missed it! Other things I didn't miss at all and can't remember why we even kept it. Funny how that happens. Anyways we had a lot of fun opening the boxes to see what we had. The girls had a lot of fun to see what toys they had. Boy we need to downsize on the toys. I didn't think we had that many. De junking is definitely on my to do list. Now only one thing was broken, and one thing was missing. The thing that was broken was fragile. Matt had brought me back a little glass heart with a glass rose going through like an arrow from Turkey. He had been deployed and missed Valentines day. It still looks okay, I can make it work. The thing that is missing is a bigger deal. Our love seat is missing. The way the packers wrote on the paper it looked like we only had a couch. We've been in contact with them, and they are looking for it. They said it could take awhile. If I haven't heard from them by tomorrow they will be getting a phone call.

Now on to birthdays. We had 3 birthdays to celebrate this week. First my Dad's which was on the 18th, and the 2 others were McKenzie and Madisynn which was the 20th. My Dad would have been turning 58 this year. Boy how we miss him. We decided that we would go to the cemetery and bring cupcakes and sing happy birthday to my Dad. It felt good to do that! I'm sure my Dad was right there enjoying every minute of it! I love my Dad so much. Happy Birthday Dad!

These are the cupcakes we left for him!

Yesterday McKenzie and Madisynn turned 4 and 2. We celebrated their birthdays on Saturday. We had a princess/baby party. It's hard to believe I have a 4 and 2 year old. They are 2 years, 2 hrs, and 2 min. apart as Matt would say!

This is McKenzie's cake:

This is Madisynn's cake:

These are the birthday girls getting ready to blow their candles out! Princess McKenzie got a Belle doll, a Belle 24 piece puzzel, a princess game, a cinderella learning to read book, and a sleeping beauty dress. My Mom gave her the book and the dress. Here are some fun pics of the princess herself!

Here are some fun pictures of Madisynn. Madisynn got 3 little Mariposa faires for her cake because we couldn't find a cute little baby to go on her cake. She got a baby doll stoller, shoes, crackers, and a potty chair. So exciting!!!

Lastly a picture of the princess game board, and my sweet husband for playing the game with a bunch of girls! He even became a princess first! Ha Ha!!!

I thought it would be fun to go down memory lane for a minute with their Labor and Deliveries. First McKenzie:

I was so excited to finally be pregnant. I was fine when I first found out, and then the sickness came. I was always nauseous, and I just didn't feel good. I had an incident at 35 weeks where I was contracting and feeling so awful. I went to labor and delivery because I wasn't sure what to do. They monitored me checked me to see if I was dilating, and had me do a urine sample. It ends up that my protein levels were way low, and I was dehydrated. They kept me overnight. They wanted to determine if I had Preaclampsia. I barely slept that night, I was miserable. I looked like death warmed over the next day from what our friend Larry said. By the night time I was feeling better, and they determined that I was borderline preaclampsia. So I went home. I started to feel better for the next few weeks and then I felt crappy again. When I went to my Dr appointment he was really worried because my blood pressure was really high so he sent me to Labor and Delivery to have a stress test done. I had to have another urine sample done. I also had my membranes stripped. The doc also wanted me to take a container home and do a 24 hr. Urine sample to see how my protein levels were. This was at about 39 and a half weeks. I can't remember all the details, but I know that I started to contract a couple hrs later, from them stripping the membranes. They hurt, but they stopped. Bummer.... Anyways did the urine test for them and had to wait for my next Dr appointment. So I go to the Dr appointment on my due date the 19th of April expecting to see that I was dilated. I was barely dilated. I was so mad, and sad. So I got dressed and we left. I was in tears when we left and went right home. Apparently though the doc still wanted to see me. She had paged over the hospital intercom for me to come back up to the OB clinic. We didn't here it because we were in the parking lot. So we got home and right after we walked in the phone rang and it was the Doc. She asked why I left and I said I just really wanted to have my baby today. The doc said well I think we could do that if you want. We determined that you have preaclampsia so we could induce you today. I was scared, but excited! It was finally going to happen!!! So they induced me and it was a long hard labor, it took forever to progress and they had to break my water. The epidural didn't really take. At first it did for about an hr. I was grateful for that hr. Then it was finally time to start pushing. I pushed for an hr and a half and little McKenzie Ann was born at 4:14 on April 20th. I was exhausted and had a long recovery. I was grateful that it was all done!

Here are some pictures of McKenzie when she was born and a video of both of us after she was born. I was so exhausted enough said. Thanks Alysha for taking the pics, and thanks Heather, and Alysha again for being there with us. It was an experience that will never be forgotten!

Isn't she beautiful!!!

Next Madisynn:

Madisynn I was only sick in the beginning thank goodness! I had an incident at about 13 weeks. I had gone to hospital with a friend who's daughter had to do some tests for bladder infections. She had to have a catheter put in her to do these tests. My friend had told her daughter that I knew what it felt like to have that done, so her daughter wanted me to come too. So we go, I was feeling fine. We get called into the room. They are getting everything ready to go, and then it comes time for the catheter. I don't know what happened for sure, I know I wasn't even looking, but I passed out. I hit my forehead and my lip on the floor. It was painful. I had everyone pretty scared. When I came too, I realized that I had never seen so many Dr's. before! Apparently I was out for a little bit longer than they would have liked. The doc that was in the room said that she was about ready to call a code blue or something like that and start doing CPR. It was so weird, and scary. They took me to the ER to do some tests. Everything was fine, it's just I can't handle medical issues. The rest of the pregnancy went well. I was healthy and so was madisynn. The doctors were kind of worried at my 36 week appointment though because Madisynn was measuring really small. They scheduled an Ultrasound to see what was going on. It turns out that I have a Bicordinate Uterus, which means it's tilted. So Madisynn looked healthy plenty of fluid in all the pockets. They weren't too worried after that. I went into Labor on my due date April 20th. It was so fast and painful. It was SCARY!!! I wasn't sure if I was in labor because it felt like when they had stripped my membranes with McKenzie. I thought it was going to die down. Nope I started contracting at about 2 P.M. I decided to call some friends to make the time go by for about an hr and a half. When Matt came home I started to cry because I hurt so much. He called Labor and Delivery. We left to go drop the girls off with a friend and booked it to the hospital. We made it up to Labor and Delivery and they put me in the testing room to see if I was in labor. When I'm in labor I don't feel the stomach contractions, I feel the back labor. The nurse when she was putting the straps around my stomach felt the contractions and said wow those are some strong contractions! In my head I was like you think? Duh!!! I hurt to much to say it. So we were in the room for about 10 min. I was praying that my water would break, and walla one very hard hurtful contraction and it broke. I remember saying it so calmly: Matt my water broke. Matt runs to go get a nurse, and the nurse comes in and has the nerve to ask are you sure you didn't wet yourself? I was like I'm pretty sure. So they tested it to see. No urine, so they checked to see how far I was dilated. I was at a 7 they asked what I wanted for pain, and I said GIVE ME THE EPIDURAL! Then the doc mid wife nurse I don't remember what she was came in. I told her I needed to push. She asked me what number of child this was for me. I told her 2 and she said I believe you. She checked me and I was at a 10. No time for an epidural. They wheeled me over to another room and had me start pushing. I was starting to hyperventilate and they had to remind me how to breath. Also I couldn't relax my legs enough to bend them so I could push because I hurt so bad. They had to hit my legs to get them to bend. I think I pushed for 5 min and little Madisynn was born at 6:16 p.m. April 20th. They barely got the IV in my hand when Madisynn was born. I was supposed to have some antibiotic in my I.V. because I had strep B. They didn't have time to get it to me so Madisynn was born with it. They had to take her to the NicU overnight to do tests on her. We had to stay in the hospital for 48 hrs to make sure she would be okay to come home. She was fine and came home at the 48 mark. It was so crazy having 2 very opposite experiences with pregnancy labor and delivery. I'm scared out of my mind to have another baby, and not for just that reason, but for a few others. I'm grateful to have my 2 beautiful little girls! They are a lot of fun, and they keep us VERY BUSY! Happy Birthday Baby girls!

Here are some pictures taken by Shaina on my due date with madisynn. Thanks shaina you did a beautiful job!

This one was taken right after I had her. I think it's such a dramatic difference from when I had McKenzie! All I know was that it was instant that the pain was gone. It was a nice feeling.

This one is of My Mom holding Madisynn the day after she was born

Matt liked to put her in the doll stroller and take pictures! I can't believe she was that small!