More Amazing Photos - Second Photo Shoot

Well, she did it again! Lisa came back to take more photos on August 15th and captured some beautiful images of our little family. Here are a few of them:

Thanks again, Lisa! You are so gifted and have blessed us so much by the images you have created!

Tennyson's 2nd Birthday!

Boy, has time gotten away from me. I am finally posting about Tennyson's 2nd birthday a month after the fact. At least I have a good excuse, right? :-)

Since Raleigh arrived much earlier than anticipated we hadn't planned a party for Tennyson's actual birthday (we were already planning on going to the waterpark on August 2nd). But my wonderful sister, Dawn, stepped in and planned a great party for our little guy on his birthday. She got balloons (one of which is STILL floating), pizza, and cake. Thanks so much Dawn for making his day a very special one!

One August 2nd a bunch of my family went to the Massanutten Waterpark for the second year in a row to celebrate Tennyson's birthday! Our little guy loves that place and the four-hour group pass is perfect since there were 18 of us. My sister, Lynley, and her husband, Dan, even came from Hershey, PA for the occassion! :-) After the waterpark we went back to my parent's house for a cookout, cake, and gift opening. Some of the gifts he got were "Cars", "Finding Nemo", "Veggie Tales", Playdoh, a new plate, toy cars, and a towel with Lightening McQueen on it. (Tennyson calls it his "racing towel.")

Here are the photos from his parties:

With Aunts Courtney (L) and Dawn

Tennyson really enjoyed that cake!
Walking with Daddy

You can tell by the look on his face he loved going down the slide
Catch me Cranky! (That's how Tennyson pronounces Courtney. Haha!)

Playing in the kiddie pool. This one might be my favorite.
Not a great quality photo, but I adore his expression!

Some of the waterpark crew

Yes, I took my 13 day old. I wasn't going to miss my other son's birthday party for the world!

The awesome, incredible Thomas the Tank Engine cake Carrie Harman Ashton made for Tennyson. It was truly a work of art!

After dinner and cake Tennyson asked to hold his baby brother for the first time. So you know everyone got their cameras out for that! My precious boys.....I almost cried....almost.

Our Dear Tennyson Harper,

Mommy and Daddy can hardly believe you are two years old already! It seems like yesterday we were bringing you home from the hospital. You are such an unspeakable joy to us. Every day you learn and say something new. We love to watch you play with your Duplos, trucks, and trains, and those "boy noises" you make fill our home and remind us what a gift you are. Some of your favorite foods are: black olives, chocolate milk, jelly sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, cucumbers, and mixed vegetables. You love to draw with crayon or chalk and Playdoh is a newfound experience. You love taking a shower or playing with your "yetters" (letters) in the tub. You love reading, especially Curious George. You love beating up....I mean, rough housing with Daddy, and going to the playground with him. You are so full of life and energy we can hardly keep up with you, but you are so fun and we love you more than anything.

Love,

Mommy & Daddy

AMAZING Photos of Our Boys

My dear friend, Lisa, came and took photos of our boys on July 30th, Tennyson's 2nd birthday, and when Raleigh was 10-days old. As usual she did an absolutely wonderful job! We can't wait to see all of them!

A Few Photos of Raleigh's Birth Day

Cutting the cordNot a bad weight for one born so early!
Our first meeting

Meeting Pop-Pop

Meeting Nana

Not sure how many days old he was when I took these two, but they are so precious I had to include them!

Raleigh's Birth Story ~ Part 2

My Loooong Recovery

Well, According to both my doctor and the pediatrician Raleigh was actually born at 34 weeks and 5 days, a couple days earlier than we thought. Before he was born our pediatrician came in to speak with us and said that he might need to be on oxygen for a week or 2, so we had to (quickly) prepare ourselves for the possibility that our baby may not be 100% healthy or even be able to go home with us. Boy were they wrong!! The birth may not have gone how I wanted, but all along my main goal was to have a healthy baby and God heard everyone's prayers that day. Not only did Raleigh not need any oxygen, but he was technically discharged before I was! (The only issue was that his blood sugar a little low and once they gave him a little "high-powered" formula he was completely fine.)

Unfortunately, this momma was not faring so well. I talked about "the mag" in my previous post and it took 24 hours to wear off, so I was still feeling some of the effects of that and the epidural well in to Tuesday. I had gotten some morphine the night before to help with the pain from the surgery and I was able to sleep off and on. Tuesday, however, I developed a horrible headache from my epidural. During that procedure I was throwing up from the magnesium and contracting and I flinched at the wrong time. I heard something "snap" and a jolt of pain went down my left leg. The anesthesiologist said, "Oh, you're probably going to get a headache from that" and he was right. So not only was I in pain from the c-section, but my headache was so severe my shoulders hurt so badly I literally couldn't breathe. I couldn't sit up and wasn't even able to start breastfeeding because of that. (When you lie flat it's supposed to help with the headache pain, but that made my not being able to breathe much worse.)

My doctor (Dr. Aamodt) came in mid-morning to check on my progress and he recommended doing a blood patch. Basically, what happened was some of my spinal fluid leaked out during the epidural and my brain settled causing this worse-than-migraine headache. He had an anesthesiologist come in to discuss the procedure and the risks. (Thankfully the anes. that did my epidural left everything in my back so the blood patch was relatively easy to do.) After some thought and hearing that 80% of people have instant relief from the patch I decided to go ahead with it. Since I had been stuck SO many times over the past 2 days they had to IV Therapy draw my blood. They took 20 ccs of blood from my left arm and pushed it through the tube back into my spine to "refloat" my brain. Yes, it was just as disgusting as it sounds! The (female) doctor was struggling during the procedure and looked at Tom and said, "Here. You're a man and have stronger hands." That's right, my husband, the teacher, was the one that did the blood patch. (And yes, I am in the process of filing a formal complaint against the doctor.)

I wouldn't say the relief was instant, but within an hour or so the pain in my shoulders left as well as my headache. Later Tuesday afternoon they removed my catheter and I was feebly able to get to the bathroom and back. It was struggle having been in bed for 3 days, but Tom was right there every minute to help me. I don't know what I would have done without him! He stayed with me all 4 nights in the hospital and only left the room for as long as needed. (Secretly I think he was more worried about me than he let on. What a good husband he is!) Once I was able to sit up they brought Raleigh in as I hadn't even seen my baby in almost 24 hours. I won't go in to detail, but another prayer was answered in that he's a great breastfeeder! He latched on the first time and went to town! I was able to get up during the night a few times, hunched over and holding on to Tom the whole time. And even with the steady regiment of ibuprofen and percocet it barely took the edge of my incision pain. But I am not a wimp or a complainer, so I just tried to make the best of it. It took a lot of encouragement from my hubby, but I did finally eat something Tuesday night.....for the first time in three days. Something about getting my energy back. Haha!

Sometime Wednesday the worst happened, well at the time it was the worst thing to me, my headache came back (though this time without the severe shoulder/neck pain). So back I went to lying flat in bed, on my back, no lights on, and cold washcloths on my forehead. The worst part was that I couldn't even bring myself to sit up to breastfeed. Going to the bathroom and back was a 20-minute, and very painful, ordeal. And I was bummed we had to keep turning away visitors over the past few days. So many people wanted to come and visit and I just wasn't up for it. :-(

Basically Wednesday and Thursday was spent trying to manage the headache and surgery pain, a task which was not going well. Sleeping was difficult and moving was nearly impossible. Sometimes I'd try to roll over in bed and "get stuck" because it hurt too much to go on, so I go back in the same uncomfortable position. Finally Thursday came and that morning I had a fever of 100. Thankfully, it was just because I was really hot when they took my temperature and not for any other reason. Though the doctor was a little concerned because of it and talked about not sending me home that day. She was also concerned that my headache had returned and both she and the anes. on call came to talk to me about doing another blood patch. My response: "Not interested. It didn't work the first time and there's no way I am going through getting another epidural when it may not work again." I think they were less than thrilled. Haha! Since I refused another patch there was nothing else they could do to ease the pain other than send me home with some useless percocet. I was finally discharged that evening, and was very, very glad to be home!

So, there you have it. My headache finally went away a week later. Ugh! And to top it all off I have a keloid, which is extra scar tissue around my incision and it will always be there. Not surprisingly my mantra since Raleigh's birth has been: "I don't think I am stupid enough to do this a third time." But after everything I went through it's SO worth it!!! And yes, I would do it all again if it meant getting our sweet, adorable, precious little Raleigh. We have been so blessed beyond what we could have ever imagined with two healthy boys!

Tomorrow I'll try and post some photos of Tennyson and Raleigh that my friend, Lisa, took. They are amazing!

Raleigh's Birth Story ~ Part 1

Welcoming Raleigh

He's here! Five days after my last post our baby boy was born, which is why I haven't posted for a few weeks. I know many of you like to read birth stories, and I need to document it while it's still fresh in my mind (not that I'd ever forget it.....), so here's the story of how little Raleigh came into our lives:

On Sunday, July 19th, Tennyson woke up really early, like 5AM early. So I went into his room to see what was the matter and laid down on the bed in his nursery. I was feeling "off" and uncomfortable, but thought it was just something I ate. Seriously, I did. Tom came in and I told him I needed to go back in our bed because I really wasn't feeling well, specifically I was cramping, but it definitely didn't feel like contractions. But around 6:00 I called RMH and paged the doctor on call. When he called back I described my discomfort and he, too, said it didn't sound like contractions and to take some Tylenol and see if it helped. An hour later as I tried to go back to sleep I noticed the waves of cramping/pain was every 3 minutes, but still in denial I felt my belly for the next one and was unnerved that it tightened. I went to the bathroom to see if it would help (Haha!!) and I was bleeding a little. Time to spring into action!!!! I yelled for Tom, told him to call my sister first so she could come watch Tennyson, and then we called RMH again. I talked to my doctor and obviously he said to go to the hospital since it sounded like labor. You've got to be kidding me! I was only 34 weeks and 4 days! I thought for sure I'd make it to 37 weeks (full-term). And, of course, I had no bag packed!

My sister, Courtney, got to our house in about 8 minutes and we rushed out the door. Thankfully we had just registered at the hospital 9 days before, so we checked in and walked up to L&D. Since I had a c-section with Tennyson I had to have an IV and a baby monitor, so in to the bed I went. For some reason it never occurred to me they might try and STOP labor, but that's exaclty what my doctor wanted to do. Over the course of 2 hours or so my doctor gave me 3 doses of Brethaine, which only slowed my contractions to every 6 minutes. He checked me (an extremely painful process) and found that I was already dialated to 4 cm. I think my exact words were, "Oh crap." :-) He said it was going to be hard to stop labor when I was already that dialated, but he really wanted to try. So they put me on 6 mg of magnesium, which is apparently a really high dose, and then leveled it off to 4 mgs, and then to 2. My doctor really wanted to see my contractions slow to 4 per hour, which they did for the first hour. I was on magnesium, or "Liquid Hell" as I now call it, for about 24 hours. It did slow my contractions, but never stopped them completely, and "the mag" made my throw up.....A LOT and well after I went off it. Horrible, horrible stuff! Somewhere in there they did do an extensive ultrasound and found out the baby was about 6 lbs. and that he was head down. So that was good news!

On the morning of the 20th another doctor from the practice came in to check me and I was at 6 cm. I was actually relieved. They turned off everything, knowing they couldn't do anymore to stop him from coming. Over the course of the next few hours we made phone calls to family and friends to be praying. We called my doula, Steph, so she could be there for support. Our pediatrician came in to prepare us that the baby may need oxygen for maybe a week or 2 since I was so early. At my last check I had progressed to 7 cm, not bad considering we tried to stop labor for a day, but unfortunately the doctor also discovered the baby didn't have his head way down anymore. His head was down but his body was at a 45 degree angle and since I had a prior c-section they won't turn the baby. And that meant one thing - another c-section. I was devastated. This was SO not how I wanted my second birth experience to go! Exhausted we just tried to trust that God had everything under control.

Raleigh Edward Davenport Bates came in to this world at 2:12PM on July 20th, weighing a healthy 6 lbs. 2 oz. Tom brought him over to me, all bundled and pink-cheeked. He was beautiful and it took my breath away. My little boy was finally here! Of course, they wisked him away to the nursery to make sure he was okay. Stitching me up took awhile, what with the scar tissue from before, and it didn't help that I was still throwing up during that. In the recovery room I was doing surprisingly well, especially since the nausea was suddenly gone. My parents were back there and we were excited to tell them the name of their new grandson! We made phone calls to my 6 siblings to tell them the news, as we waited for my epidural to wear off (they won't move you to a room until then). We had some of my family stop by that evening, but I was exhausted from the day and tried my best to get some much needed sleep. Little did I know the next few days and the following week were going to be so difficult....