Why hello my old friends. I feel that every time I start a new post, it has that same beginning. I have failed the blogisphere and any faithful followers I still have. At least this post comes inside 12 months. I think the last one was a Thanksgiving post, towards the end of November. I promise that 2018 will be better. Not sure how, given the few other things I have going on now... Oh yea did I not yet mention the little peanut princess that arrived four weeks ago? We have some catching up to do... let's recap the last 12 months, shall we? I won't bore you with too many details.
December 2016
Decked the halls. Made some life plans. Booked the Hartford Marathon Foundation Run Irish O'Races that consisted of four 5ks in 2 weekends in March {yes we're crazy, but yes there was beer waiting at the finish line}
Christmas came and went. Little did I know it would be the last Christmas celebration at the castle. More on that later.
January 2017
Whole30 time! Great way to kick start a new year.
Whoopsies, Annual Meeting in Chi town happens in January. We won some awards. But when you're in sales, the party don't stop for nothin' - add that to deep dish pizza and I had to start the Whole30 over when I got back to CT. No biggie, tt just rubbed it in my face that he successfully completed it in 30 actual days.
I don't think January brought anything else that we knew of, other than cold weather and probably some snow.
February 2017
We're pregnant! Yes, you read that right. The first few days of February brought some very happy news that was VERY hard not to share with the world. But, you don't do that until the time is right.
Also, when they say that during your first trimester "morning sickness" doesn't necessarily stick to the morning, they were NOT joking. I should have known I was pregnant on the sheer fact that I slept for like two days straight. I thought I was coming down with the flu.
No Incentive Trip for us this year, couldn't risk exposing the little bean to Zika in Cancun. So I took myself to the spa instead ;o)
March 2017
March. Oh, March. So you know how I mentioned we had signed up for these four consecutive 5k's? And then you know how I said I was sick as a dog? Put those two things together and that was the start of my March. March 11th was O'Shenanigans and it was literally <10 degrees out. I almost threw up about that many times along the course.
March 12th was O'Putnam. We drove 1+ hours to get there and run and from what I remember it was slightly warmer that day... but from what I also remember I still almost threw up 10x. But I finished.
The next weekend there were two more races. However our annual St Patrick's Day Celebration happened that Friday... and so we did not run that weekend. I think I had everyone fooled... but acting like you're already drunk when half the people get there is hard. I was clearly not hungover the next day, but likely felt the same regardless. Morning sickness is seriously no joke.
Somehow also survived NCT at corporate without anyone figuring it out. #winning
On this trip, the baby flipped. In {her} newfound breech position, {she} was causing me very intense round ligament pain.
April 2017
In April we made our announcements. TT had the best and super creative way to tell the grandparents- we set up an easel with a blown up copy of an U/S in the baby's room in the new house and took them on a tour of the house. Lots of surprise/happy tears {appropriate for April Showers!} and genuine disbelief... everyone had given up waiting for this. ;o)
We told the world, of course, by incorporating Cecelia into it. This was the actual announcement, but there were some outtakes that were pretty funny, too.
May 2017
May was another exciting month. We moved into our new home {finally} after many months of planning and preparation. It was even more exciting to finish this project knowing our little peanut was on the way.
In May we also found out that said little peanut we were expecting was a pink princess peanut!!
We also went on vacation to sunny SC to get away for a bit.
June 2017
I think June was a little quieter. Not much happened other than focusing on getting moved in and unpacked. Went to a sox game, which is an entirely different experience sans beer and Fenway Franks.
I also snapped one of my favorite preggo pics at 24 weeks. I'm not sure why this one made me so happy. I think I realized that this little basketball {she was the size of an ear of corn at 24 weeks according to my app} was really going to be a person soon!
July 2017
July was pretty quiet also. We traveled to Omaha to see Auntie Erin. It was a very quick trip, far to travel for a long weekend, but worth it. The zoo out there is a-mazing!! Even when it's a bazillion degrees and you're 100 months pregnant! :o)
August 2017
August was a bit more exciting! This month brought the eclipse and my baby shower!
September 2017
The countdown begins. Final touches on the nursery including DIY closet project. Check. Ducks in a row at work for mat leave. Check. Induction date scheduled... Check! Bring on October!
October 2017
It's baby month! Induction scheduled for 10/10. I'll give a brief explanation of our "birth story" in all it's glory for whoever is interested.
- Had a nice breakfast at our local breakfast spot since I was told to eat before coming in and I likely wouldn't be eating again. Arrive at hospital for 9:30am induction on Tuesday 10/10 ~ no progress towards labor, so started with a pill to start dialation. Hung out for a while to let that do it's thing... which it didn't really.
- At 4pm they told me that I was still only 2cm so if we wanted to opt to go home and wait for labor to progress naturally, because my fluid levels had gone down, we could. Um... thanks for the offer but no thanks. Got to eat something, and then they got me ready to start Pitocin to really induce labor. They hooked me up to that around 6pm on Tuesday.
- Fast forward through a few nurses' shifts. Apparently it's a super long process!! Started to have contractions, but nothing too crazy. They wanted to break my water since it hadn't broken on its own, but informed me that contractions would then start getting super intense so if I wanted my epidural beforehand, we could make that happen. We got to this point around midnight and I got my epidural at 2:00am Wednesday morning.
- Going into the morning, we were still waiting to get to that magic 10cm number. The final nurse switch left Eileen as the woman in charge and she was absolutely great. I was having a little trouble with my epidural. I was definitely not 100% numb in one spot on my right side and that was definitely not ideal. The anesthesiologist had come in to give me another dose at one point, and Eileen had said if I need a shot, to press the button any time- but just to let her know if/when I do.
- Around noon, I had been stuck at 9cm for a while. I was feeling the contractions in that spot, and because I figured I was pretty close to starting to push I was about to page Eileen to ask if I could take one more hit... when all of a sudden the resident came in and said it was time to start pushing!!
- The baby was "sunny side up" which can be more challenging to deliver due to the way their head needs to move to get out. I pushed and pushed, and while the baby's head was visible, she wasn't coming out. After 2 long and exhausting hours, the doctor came in. She said that her best guess was that the baby was too big due to my gestational diabetes and was stuck and I could either keep pushing {but they usually don't let you push for more than 3 hours} or we could move forward with a c-section at this point. I said yes, let's do it. And everything is kind of a blur from here...
- My epidural had been on its way to wearing off already, and within minutes of the decision to go to surgery, I was in agony. I can't imagine what natural child birth is like, if I had some combination of drugs in my system and still felt this way. Eek.
- They got me prepped for surgery, and in about 90 minutes, Baby A was here!! Born at 3:14pm weight in at 5lb 11oz, 19.5" long. I don't remember much except that I'm pretty sure I slept thru the surgery {I had been up for almost 36 hours!} but when I saw that baby girl and they put her in my arms, the long two days that had just been disappeared.
The rest, as they say, is history.
And here we are! Four weeks later, we are loving life.
Next up: a likely quiet Thanksgiving, and then on to December and the first of many Christmases in our home with our families. No recipe to share today, but I promise I will keep up.