Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Birth Day

Sunday morning, we all woke up around 7:30 am to get ready for church. I had this feeling inside that this would be the day humming low inside of me somewhere. I thought about staying home, but doing NOTHING while being that pregnant was too much to bear. I felt like I needed to go to church. So I got up and got ready and got Jonathan ready, too.

To spare some details, I was pretty sure that my water had started to leak, but I wasn't positive, since I was pretty much passed out from the epi on the table and at 8cm when I had Jonathan. It was 8 am exactly. I remember looking at the clock when I went to our bathroom to put my face on and clean up a bit. But once we started to go out the door, I think I knew I wouldn't make it through church and informed Lars we should go to the hospital instead.

It was just shy of 10:00 am when we drove over to my mother-in-law's to drop off Jonathan in his church clothes. We then headed over to the new Downey Kaiser Hospital on Imperial to check in. Lars was joking the entire way and we were laughing like crazy. After we got all checked in and they made me get into a horrendous hospital gown and hooked me up to the belly monitors, we sat down to wait. And wait. And wait. And wait. At least I was able to wait BY MYSELF!! Amazing feeling, no black women to listen to screaming while I tried to stay calm with each contraction.. sorry. >.>

Lars and I decided to play "I Spy" in the tiny claustraphobic room and he was SUCH a pill! Oh man. I was laughing SO hard. Seriously, I couldn't catch my breath. The nurse came in and asked me to get on the table to be checked since I was sitting on one of the chairs. I stood up and it was Niagra Falls all over the floor. The nurse quickly responded, "Well, no need to check you!" which made me laugh all the harder. Good thing Lars was there. I'm sure all that hard laughing broke my water!!! I'm glad I decided to go the the hospital because my water would've broken right in the middle of Relief Society!!!

The nurse came in to draw blood FROM MY HAND, which made me bawl because they tried to IV me in the SAME PLACE. I started to cry and cry. I would've rather been in labor with no drugs. No matter how hard I tried to breathe through the pain, I started to panic. My attending sent in another woman to IV me, since she didn't want any bad feelings between us since she was going to be with me my entire labor. Smart woman. I remembered I needed a blessing and asked the nurses to leave the room for a moment as a matter of personal religious circumstances. I felt much better afterword and knew I'd get through everything with the Lord's help.

Lars hadn't had breakfast that morning and he was all dressed to the Nines in his church things- tie and all. When he saw the blood residue smeared on my hands and watched the IV needle probe around under my skin, it made him get dizzy. He stood up to get me a cup of water since it felt like the Sahara Desert in my mouth with all that dry air in the hospital, but the nurse ended up getting HIM one while I waited for the wheelchair to take me to my L and D room. He took his tie off per the nurse's request and sat down outside the observation room with a cup of cold water until they had me all cleaned the blood off my skin and threw away anything with my blood on it. While they started me on a hydration drip, a midwife came to talk to us- Tom Morrison. I was thrown for a loop when a man walked in the door and introduced himself as The Midwife. I mean DUH, Rebekah! It was just such a stretch for me to think of a man being something I'd only ever associated with women. Hahahaha!! It still cracks me up!

They brought the wheelchair, took me to the room and hooked me all up to the machines and started me on Petocin for induction. I then had Lars go to his mom's house to check on Jonathan and to change out of his church clothes and hurry and get back to the hospital.

Now I'm sure you all know that I had a terrible allergic reaction to the epidural with Jonathan, so this entire time I was pregnant I didn't really have a problem with doing it naturally (since I was nearly a 7 when I got the epi the first time), up until the first night I had Braxton-Hicks (4 days before I delivered). All the sudden naturally didn't seem so ok. I tried to brush it off, but the contractions started coming faster than I antisipated, especially since I was waiting for the anestisiologist on call (turns out there were 4 on call that day). The anestisilogist wanted to call the other hospital to see if she could get my medical report about my reactions, since she couldn't really pinpoint what specifically caused my hives and burning in my veins.

As I was waiting, another anestisiologist came in and she was pretty assertive, but hard to understand in her thick Asian accent. But she was adamant that I get an epidural. She told me we'd figure it out as we went, but she wasn't going to let me do an induction without pain meds. And rightly so. The contractions were coming faster than I had antisipated, and after watching this lame channel on cable, I was wearing thin on laboring by myself. I kept calling Larry and there was no answer. Finally, he picked up. By the time Larry actually got to the hosptial, it felt like a year had passed and I was in serious pain. I had Lars rub my temples while I breathed through them and flipped on the tv that had a peaceful music channel). Lars was asked to leave for a half hour during the epidurl procedure (new hospital procedure due to a HORRIFIC accident that happened). It took 3 attempts in different locations for the dr. to put it in my spine without me yelping in pain. She was getting frustrated, and said "How odd. You feel that? Boy, you super sensitive lady!" She also put in an order for a dose of Benedryl to be injected into my IV every 4 hours, which I was grateful for.

Larry came back up to check on me and I sent him back to Gramma's to feed Jonathan and bring him back to our place to nap in his crib. (He doesn't sleep anywhere but in his bed or carseat.) I slept most of the time (minus waking a bit when I was contrating). It was pretty nice. But when the contractions started coming stronger, I called Larry to come back and be with me. I was getting freaked out being alone. So he dropped the Peanut off at Gramma's again and came to nap on the room's couch by me.

It was surreal. I was just sleeping, trying to remember to roll back and forth to keep the epidural spread through out my body. Pretty peaceful, especially because I finally had company. It was so much easier to be calm with his presence in the room.

Finally around 6 pm, my contractions were getting very, very strong and the epidural was starting to wear off a bit. I told the nurse in slurred speech that it was getting overly hard to try to sleep and I was feeling A LOT of pressure with each contraction. She made a call and another nurse came in they chatted for moment and called Tom. He came and checked me. "Wow, you've got another cemtimeter to go!" The nurses sprung into action and tables came out of nowhere and shiny intruments and bowls were prepped and set out on surgical cloths. I tried hard not to watch it all. Seeing all that stuff for a split second made my stomach turn over so I squeezed my eyes shut. Three more nurses came in to dress Tom in delivery garb and set up the baby table.

Once Tom was all dressed, he checked me again and I was ready. They pulled the table apart and I shifted down to the end of the bed. Lars held my hand and all I heard was, "When you feel a contraction, bear down hard. PUSH!" I could hear Lars ask if the nurse could see any hair. "Umm, no. But it's a little early to tell." With lots of encouragement and direction, Avonlea was out in 6 pushes. She officially arrived at 6:50 pm. When she came out, Tom asked Lars if he wanted to cut the cord. Lars looked at me and I asked him if he wanted to and said he didn't have to if he didn't want to. Relief flooded his face as he turned back to the doctor and said, "No. I'm good." She cried twice as she sucked in air to breathe for the first time and then was quiet and curious, just like her brother.

The cord was cut and the nurse placed her directly on my belly and told me to touch her and bond with her. Disoriented, I touched her tiny head with the edge of my right hand by my thumb. Tiny and blue, she was sticky. It grossed me out. I felt bad about thinking that, but I couldn't bring myself to touch her again. She was whisked to the table on the left side of the room and cleaned up, weighed and given to Lars, while I was put back together by the doctor. When I was able to hold her, she looked so foreign to me, a lot like Larry. It was diffecult to gasp the fact I'd just had a baby. A little over 10 hours start to finish. A piece of cake really, which i was ever so grateful for!

Lars spent the rest of the time holding her while I recovered from the numbness in my body before I was checked into the Postpartum Recovery Ward. He was capitvated by her. She was itty bitty and perfect.

The nurse who came to check us into the Recovery ward informed us that Avonlea was the ONLY baby born that evening. The rest had been born that morning and early afternoon and the other women who came in around the same time as me and just after me were still laboring. Now that's pretty cool.


Welcome to the world, Avonlea.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Introducing...

Avonlea Cherie Sepulveda

Weight: 6.84 oz.

Length: 19 1/4 inches

Time: 6:50 pm








The Proud Parents
Our Little Cupcake


Sunday, July 11, 2010

Diaper Cake Supreme

Alrighty. I've been waiting a MONTH to make this post. But now that I've thrown the shower, I can dig out the photos and put them up for all to see!


To start, I saw an ad for a a diaper cake on Craigslist while searching for things while pregnant with my son. And Oh! I wanted one SO BAD!! I'd never heard of anything so awesome before! Needless to say, I didn't get one. (Boo hoo. I got over it.) I wanted to get one for my girlfriend's shower I was throwing and my sister Rae and I scoured the internet to find one that was affordable with shipping. Simply put, there wasn't one. So we set to work on trying to find tutorials.

That was SUPER hard, too! Finally, Rae found a really good one on youtube. I watched it over and over and over again. Then I decided to check out the other ones on there to see if I liked them better. Some were not how I liked it, but I did glean some fabulous ideas. *If you make one, don't watch the videos that are less than 6 minutes long. They're ads for selling diaper cakes.*

After rounding up the things I needed to make the diaper cake, I discovered that it was more expensive to make it myself than order one. But I couldn't go back. I was on a mission. And seriously, I was so hyped up about it, there was NO WAY I was going back and returning all that stuff. I can't even remember how may stores I had to go to to get supplies that worked for me. What can I say, I'm a perfectionist. (A.k.a. Picky little snot.)

I did make a step-by-step photo tutorial, but my camera died half way through, so what you see here are the finished product from all angles. It took 5 hours for me to make, what with a toddler running around and being extremely pregnant and not able to sit in a hard wooden chair for more than an hour at a time (even though I did).


Front view


Left side


Back right side

Left back side

Left side

I stuffed it full of goodies. I'm glad I'd picked these up, since I was short some diapers to make it full enough at the bottom, so it worked out. This is the bottom layer. I put lots of goodies in it, booties, teethers, baby bath products, and wash cloths to fill it out.


The second layer I rolled onesies to fill it out because once again I didn't have enough diapers. I had just enough to make sure it was all filled. The top layer was all diapers.

Now that I know how to make these, I'm seriously addicted. Since this was my first, it was a HUGE learning experience and now I know how to do them quicker, better, and less expensively. If you have any questions on how to make one or would like to order one, I'd be more than happy to let you know how much they cost (depending on what you want in them) and work out an order. I didn't know I could be crafty, but this is definitely something I love doing. But be aware that I'm 10 days away from a delivery myself, so I'll be taking a break from anything and everything for around 2 months. XD

July 10th, 2010

Yesterday, I threw a shower for this woman. Mary is my best friend out here and a phenomenal person. I wanted to make sure that her first shower for her first baby would be super special.


The delicious food that Janet and Jennie made.

The diaper cake I made and the big gifts that wouldn't fit on the gift table.

Gift table (more gifts were stacked on the floor).

I LOVE this expression. With the generosity of many of the women in our ward, I was able to order Mary's car seat and expedite it in time for the shower for her group gift. I caught the look right as she opened it!!


Kellie put together the little things we talked about and it was perfect. A guessing game...

Loving Advice to for the Mother-to-Be.

And my baby turned 20 whole months old. *sigh*


It was a GREAT day. Without the help of my good friends Janet, Jennie, and Kellie Larsen (and of course the wonderful women in my ward) this shower would not have happened. Thanks ladies! And congratulations to Mary on her upcoming arrival of her baby boy!!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Catch-Up

Ok, so the camera has been unloaded and reloaded by me mostly and I need to blog about what's on there before it's emptied for the birth of the next child....


A couple weeks ago: Jonathan has finally gotten comfortable to sleep on Dad on his way into the apartment to the crib. He's been doing it like a pro the last month and a half or so.


Last week, Jonathan got ahold of a permanent marker... for the SECOND time in the last couple months. Only this time he turned himself into a canvas...



I just keep getting packages from the women in my ward who missed my shower. It boggles my mind how amazingly supportive our ward is. We may be small, but there's more than enough love shown and given. I love our ward!

Jonathan started to ONLY play with his toy container. Toys scatter and he's in and out of it all day long. SUCH a funny boy. I love his antics. I don't think there is a more wonderful child in the entire world!!

This one especially cracks me up!





So our bath caddy died the terrible death- soap spilled ALL OVER inside and even though it said it was water and soap proof, it wasn't. After running the faucet for over and hour and trying to remove the soap, I gave up because after I flipped it over to empty out the water, I discovered black mold growing on it. So I went to the 99 cent store and bought a giant salad bowl and a colander for the toys to drain into. I decided to give them to Jonathan to play with and they've been a BIG hit! Sometimes you have to pick your battles and in this case, plastic containers aren't worth it. XD


Last Thursday morning, Jonathan pulled out a box of one of his infant toys. I'd decided a couple days before that we should build it up again because it transitions into a rocker for toddlers. Since the boy pulled it out right after he had his morning diaper change, Lars set to work putting it together. Lars even let Jonathan have his Coleman for some supervised "help". I ran to grab the camera...


After the rocker was all put together and Jonathan had breakfast, we put in Blue's Clues. If only life could be this easy...

I have no idea why, but for the longest time Jonathan has carried around our clothes and his, deposting them everywhere except where they belong. Last Thursday or Friday, Lars and I finally made the brilliant decision to put ON the shirt that Jonathan was carrying around. I grabbed the camera just in case the shirt should fly off before I got a good shot. I was barely successful...

Ever since we took our short trip to Idaho in Mid-May, Jonathan has been practicing sitting up at the table at Gramma's when he eats and drinks. He learned by watching his cousin Jonas in Idaho (who's just seven months older than him). I was doing some cleaning in the kitchen when I turned around and Jonathan was half way up into his own booster. Lars gave him a banana in half, first time not cut up into pieces. And he ate it all, like a PRO! I couldn't believe how big my boy has become. Seriously, I Lars wasn't home, I doubt I would've even realized how ready Jonathan is to be a big brother. He's been capable for so long, but I've been keeping him a baby. *sigh* But OH! I'm SO proud of him!!

Monday this week, Lars set to work baby-proofing the rest of our place so we could take the kitchen gates down. Jonathan "helping" with Daddy's magnetic screwdriver (the head is removed and is squared-shaped so he wouldn't stab anything or get hurt).
And Tuesday, we got a visit from a very good friend of Lars (and now mine) from college, Christine. She made a sporadic trip here and we were thrilled to have her and her little girl here with us for nearly the entire afternoon. Seriously, this baby is the MOST adorable little girl EVER! I can't get enough of her!


Christine and I before she walked out the door. Please excuse that hideous black blob hugging the adorable woman on the left...
And there you have it. Whew! Four hours and a 30 minute break later, I'm done!

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Master Bedroom Make-Over

For those of you who follow, thanks for so patiently waiting for me. Lars and I just finished our bedroom tonight about an hour ago. It took a LONG time to get here- just SO MANY stupid things. GAH! I don't even want to talk about it!

I didn't even remember to take 'Before' pictures, but believe me, for the handful of people who HAD seen our bedroom before, this is a fairytale. I'm SUPER proud of thinking it up and for my amazing husband for dealing with my extremely moody, snappy, demanding, overly forgetful self as we worked on this project over the last four months, and especially the last week. BIG shout out to our friend Chris, who came over directly from work this past Monday who helped rearrange the furniture in there, otherwise, we'd still be waiting to get this done and with only 2 1/2 weeks until D-day, we needed to make room for the bassinet STAT!!

Now for your viewing pleasure: Our Master Bedroom.







PS. Once the bathroom gets deep-cleaned next week and the decos are put in the Nursery, I'll post about those, since they were started back in March!! (Gotta love keeping a balanced budget. =P)