Catch Up Time

As usual, I have been extremely neglectful of my poor little blog. If my little boy will cooperate, I will catch up on the last couple months.
In June and July a lot happened around here. I got huge, we had 3 baby showers, the nursery was completed, and Rex arrived!

First, I just have to say how grateful and blessed we feel. We have been so taken care of by our wonderful friends and family, both practically and emotionally. We are so thankful. Due to the incredibly generous people in our lives who donated money to my maternity leave, I can stay home with Rex until October. That is such a gift and it was really humbling to see God taking care of us through the wonderful people in our lives. Every day I think of how happy I am to be home and I think of the wonderful people that made that possible. Thanks to everyone for all the love and support.Things would be much more stressful without you!

So my due date was August 16th. In July at my 33 week appointment, it looked like Rex would not be waiting till August. I was already dilating and contracting. This sent us into a wee bit of a panic, there was much to be done. I had to pack my bag, get some last minute items and Wolf had to make sure he was reachable at all times. At the beginning of the following week, I went to the hospital having contractions about every 4 or 5 minutes apart. They discovered I was dehydrated and since it was 6 weeks early, they slowed the labor down and it stopped. While I was hooked up to the monitors, Rex's heart rate dropped pretty drastically once and very briefly. That won us an overnight stay in the Hotel Mercy Hospital. It never dropped again, but while we were there they did an ultrasound and discovered that Rex was a big boy and would have been fine if he had been born that night...We left the following afternoon, and continued the waiting game.
The next few weeks were long....and hot! I was contracting and continuing to dilate but the contractions weren't ever close enough together. My feet and ankles were no longer separated but now big cankles! Very attractive. My doctors and I feared me going to 40 weeks because of the size of Rex and the fact that I am not the largest person in the world. A natural birth was the preference, but the bigger he got the less like that would be. I did everything they told me to help jump start labor....Winnie and I and anyone else I could drag along went on lots of hot and sweaty walks. My feet hardly fit in my sneakers, it looked like they were bubbling out of them...so perty.
On July 29th my doctor said my water was ready to break any moment and I was now 4 cm....so she tried to help things along, and succeeded in starting some more consistent contractions. I contracted all night, and finally at about 5 am on thursday the 30th, we went back to Mercy. Contractions were about every 3-5 minutes apart. The on call midwife that checked me first was really nasty..like she almost made me cry. So, I walked around the hospital for about an hour and half trying to make the contractions come on harder and waited for her to go home. At 7 30, she finally did, and another midwife saw us. She said that Rex was not lodged in the way he should be at this point, which could either mean that he's too big for the birth canal, or his cord was in the way. If it was the cord, it would be extremely dangerous for my water to break somewhere other than the hospital, because the cord could come out with it. Plus she was concerned about the heart rate dropping the last time we were there. My doctor came in and agreed with all of that and they informed me that we would not be going home without a baby.Yay!

They admitted me about 8 am, drugged me up with the epidural, gave me patosin and we waited. The contractions came on hard and strong but he still wasn't making progress, so they broke my water and we waited some more. Every time I would contract, his heart rate would plummet, so they tried all sorts of things to try and move him around in there to get off his cord. Nothing worked, so at about 2 50 in the afternoon they told me it was time to get him about to make sure he was alright. I went in for the C section about ten minutes later and he was born at 3 21. The cord was all wrapped around his neck and he was face up, so its good they got him out!
He was 6 pounds 5 ounces, and 20 inches long and very healthy! My mom and wolf were with me throughout the whole labor and were wonderful coaches, I was so happy they were both there!

So, that is how our little Rex made his arrival. Now he's home and we are figuring things out together. My next post will be about my experience so far with motherhood...this post is far too long already to include that.

If you are reading this, you are a patient and loyal blog reader....thank you!

Hello again!

I promise I am done making promises I cannot keep...haha.

I apologize that it has taken more than a month for me to update!Let me see if I can catch you all up on life in the Wolf world.
For starters, I am 31 weeks pregnant now...only nine weeks to go! I have definitely reached the uncomfortable stage. I absolutely have the preggy waddle, and whenever I sit I knock the wind out of my lungs. Rex is definitely taking over.

I can feel his little hand or foot sometimes when he's stretching out which serves as a constant reality check that there really is a HUMAN BEING growing inside me. How does God come up with this stuff??

My sister Jessica designed the nursery and our families and friends helped her put it together. I finally got to see it last night, and it looks amazing! It truly is perfect and I feel so blessed by the hard work and heart that was put into it. If you are on facebook you can check out the pictures!

As it gets closer and closer its getting scary. Its a ton of responsibility and its hard not to worry about bills and the life changes and our financial stability. However, God keeps putting me in my place. I can't worry for too long before He reminds me yet again, that He is always ultimately in control. He did not create Rex and then disappear, He will provide what we need, when we need it, and probably in ways we would not expect. That's pretty much it, when I choose to believe that it is hard to continue worrying. He has provided us with an amazing support system and we know that we are far from being alone. We already feel so loved and supported by the people in our lives and we are so super thankful for that.

Life is getting busier and busier. Rex has got a strong little heartbeat and he's flippin around in there like crazy. As far as my OB's can tell, we are both very healthy and doing really well.
One interesting thing is that because of my past surgeries where they have severed certain nerves, I may not feel my contractions. Wahoo! I will welcome that if its true, but we shall see...

One awesome thing from recently is that Wolf and I escaped to Annapolis for a weekend to celebrate his birthday and that was so fun! We really needed that break and truly loved every minute of it. We came back feeling very refreshed. Annapolis is a really fun place to walk around, I need to take advantage of it more often.


I haven't had any new sonograms lately, so unfortunately I don't have any to post. If I do have another one, I promise to post them!

Let me know if there's anything I forgot to update on....

Yeah about that...

Remember how I said that I wasn't going to take a million years to blog again?? Well, clearly I am a liar. Lately, at the end of the day my brain has resembled mush. However, today is Saturday and before I start the bazillion things I need to do, I am going to give you a bit of a pre-mush brain update!
As far as Rex is concerned, he has a middle name now! His name is going to be Rex Matthew Wolf. We both love the name Matthew and we also both really love Matthew Maloy. Yay for a great name and a great person!
Rex has been kicking and seemingly enjoys to do somersaults constantly. I can see my him move through my shirt now, its very alienesque...but fun! This weekend I am exactly 6 months pregnant. That means...very soon my big old belly will be replaced by a teeny little baby boy. How crazy is that?! I suppose now is the time to come out of denial about our "office" which is to be his room. So, today, Wolf and I are going to start picking our way through the rubble of our office/junk room, to make way for baby Rex. I have decided on having Monkeys as the theme of his room, because I really like monkeys and Wolf wont let me have a real one!

Speaking of my wonderful husband. He is getting really healthy! He's workin out every day and eating really healthy and he is being a very positive influence on preggo wifey. It is a little sad that my belly is growing as dramatically as his is shrinking...as long as never weighs less than me, we'll be fine! He's inspired me to get crackin on the Wii Fit again )even though it is consistently mean to me and always comments on my weight gain! I really do want to invent at Wii Fit program for the Big Preggo.I would make lots of money.

Hmm what else....

I can't think of anything at the moment, so I need to stop procrastinating my projects. Keep nagging me to blog, I always mean to but then I forget!

Rex Wolf

So, my maternal instincts have proved to be correct! I am having a boy, a boy that is not afraid to flaunt his boy-ness...

His name really is going to be Rex. That is the name Wolf has always wanted to name his son if he ever had one, and it's growing on me. I haven't decided on a middle name yet, we'll figure it out soon though I'm sure.

The last couple weeks have been busy, but good. This past weekend I went on my first ever Women's Retreat with Grace. It was really wonderful. I had such a good time and I really loved the speaker. Her name is Melanie Summey, and she is probably the best speaker I have ever heard. I actually did not want her to stop talking, and normally I have no attention span whatsoever for listening to a talk. It was pretty darn sweet. I feel like I took a lot away from it. It was all about focusing on your foundation and making sure that it's strong so that we are ready for whatever comes your way. Very practical, and very applicable. One fun highlight from that trip is when Terah sat up in the middle of the night, in her sleep, and said "who's there??!!"
apparently, I replied "I am, and I have to pee!" and then I ran to the bathroom to pee. I do not remember that part. I just remember Terah yelling at the imaginary intruder, but Terah told me what my response was.

I can't believe I am 5 months pregnant already, these months have flown by! Definitely growing bigger by the day and I am feeling Rex move around in there all the time. He particularly enjoys to get all crazy when his mommy is trying to sleep. I am just now starting to feel him with my hand, but he likes to trick his daddy by freezing everytime he tries to feel it. Soon enough though! We had to make a trip to the ER two weeks ago at Mercy....everything was fine, but it made for some WONDERFUL stories! Mercy is located in the middle of Baltimore City, and we went there in the middle of a very cold night. We met some very special people. I will have to dedicate an entire blog post to those people...next time I promise.

Here's a teaser: Look for these characters in the upcoming post.
Smelly He/She
Gangrene Foot
Beyond Drunkity Drunk girl
Poo Chair
Transvesty


Anyway,I am honestly feeling great. I love life. I feel really blessed and really thankful. I hope that I will get better at living my life in a way that reflects that.

I do not plan on taking a million years to post again...

Turnip

I am now 17 weeks pregnant and feeling really good, aside from being super tired. I am officially in the preggo clothes now, and fortunately I have lots of hand-me downs from friends and family. My mom is wonderful and took me shopping for a few desperately needed shirts yesterday. In my regular shirts (if I can squeeze into them) I look like a middle aged midget with a beer belly. So, thanks very much to my wonderful mom.
This pregnancy gets more real every day. I can feel the baby fluttering around in there now, it feels like I swallowed a decent sized goldfish! I can't feel it on the outside yet, so Daddy Wolf has yet to feel the alien-esque movement for himself. I look forward to that though! On March 25th, about two weeks, we will go for a sonogram to hopefully see if we are having a boy or a girl! Feel free to make your predictions, I think everyone knows mine:).
Work is a zillion times better right now. I am feeling much less stressed and that is really very good. I am just trying to get my sleepy butt out of bed on time to work out in the morning, the late sunrise is not going to help though!
I have been pondering/praying a lot today and I feel like God is trying to share some important and rather obvious things with me. I am not on this earth to glide by and "get through". I am here according to His will and His purposes. So why then have I made everything about what is easy, what is comfortable and what is fun? Not that any of those things are bad, but I don't think those should be my life goals. My life goals should be for things that are right and good. I am being lazy and I am ready to not be anymore. God has blessed me in more ways that I can count and I think it is time for me to truly grasp that and live a thankful life. I want to be more intentional, I want to be focused on goals and pray and trust God to attain them. I want to fight against apathy and work against my lazy nature. I have no interest in continuing to waste time. It is time to move forward. I want my child to look at their mom and respect the drive I have for the Lord, I want them to see that spiritual growth should never come to an end in this life. There is always more to learn and more to do. I have certainly not "arrived" and I need to stop living like I have.

Tidbits

Work has been a little better, and slightly less crazy. I am definitely developing a thicker skin through this experience, but I am really starting to feel run down, and very ready for my boss to come back to work( a few more weeks).

I am feeling more preggo every week. This week,at 15 weeks Baby Wolf is the size of an Apple! I have another OB appointment on friday, I'm looking forward to it. It's fun to see progress every month.
Today, I succumbed to preggo pants. They are just a million times more comfortable for me then regular jeans are at this point, and I am really tired of wearing sweat pants all the time.

As a little side note, I am collecting any baby items that are in decent/safe condition that people are needing to give away. I don't feel a strong need to get all brand new stuff, so if you or anyone you know is looking to get rid of baby furniture, clothes, toys, whatever....let me know!

This week wasn't the most delightful week ever. I was really sick with a sore throat,fever, congestion, and fatigue. I started feeling really bad last saturday and I tried to get into see the Doctor early in the week, but she had an emergency and was out of the office until wednesday. So I had to work throught the yuckiness most of the week. Its hard to call out to yourself from work. Around noon on Wednesday I was finally leaving to get to the Doctor, and then I stepped outside and saw that is was snowing/sleeting and the roads were a wee bit slushy. I was not about to be stopped though....I just decided to drive nice and slow. So, I get to about a mile from the office and I pass this car....that is in the woods. He apparently had hit a problem spot in the road and spun out all the way int he grass, he was ok, just stuck and his friends were helping him. I decided to slow down even more. Then, all of a sudden I am no longer steering the car...it is spinning and I cannot regain control and there's this lovely tree coming towards me. I braced myself for the tree smashing, but the curb pushed me out far enough so that I only grazed the tree. I think I went into the curb a couple times, and then finally stopped. I got out of the car and it looked mostly fine, our hubcap was smashed into little bits and the rim was all dented, the bumper had some scratches but that was about it. So I got back into the car and started driving the rest of the way to the Doctor, but it didn't want to drive straight anymore... I drove ten miles an hour and made very wide turns and eventually made it to the office. I found out that I have strep and that I was going to be very sore from the ice incident, so she prescribed some stuff to knock out the infection, tylenol from the pain and I went on my way.
My parents came and drove me since my car wasn't driveable. It seems like its just the alignment that needs to be fixed, but we don't have the final verdict yet. Our tires were in horrible condition so we are finally having those replaced for the first time since we got the car in 2006!
Good news is that I am finally feeling a little better, the antibiotics are working and I am much less sore today than I was right after the accident. Wolf and I are sharing the Camry until the Yaris gets fixed, which hopefully will be soon!

That about it for now....I will update more later in the week!

Shrimp, is a familiar nickname

So, this is our little critter.The top picture is the size at 6 weeks, the 2nd one is from five weeks when all you could see was the sack(sorry they are not in order) and the last one is just a week ago at 12 weeks!It's nuts how every week makes such a huge difference.The baby even flailed around like it had the hiccups during our OB visit, it was so crazy to see him moving around like that and not feel anything! There's really a baby in there...weird.

Last week baby was a lime, this week a Shrimp. I am very short and many friends called me shrimp for many years growing up. My poor kid will most likely be kind of shrimpy too, but its ok, small people are cool right??

Obviously, the OB appointment went well. Everyone was very nice and everything looks healthy and normal so far. Every time I hear that, it makes me feel very blessed and thankful.

Work has been a little nuts. However, I am learning a whole heck of a lot. I am doing things like...growing a back bone, asserting myself, and growing a very thick skin. If I just continue to remind myself of all that I am learning and the delightful experience I am gathering, just maybe I will remain intact over the next few weeks....maybe. Pray for me please. I feel very young and very small and very inadequate, but God's put me here for a reason and I gotta just do my best. On the plus side, I have been so exhausted that I have been sleeping better than I have in years! wahoo!

We got a wii fit this week. It's wonderful exercise...but it's cruel! When you step on the board that weighs you it goes "ohhh" in this little mickey mouse voice. Then mickey proceeds to tell you just how overweight you are and how badly you truly must need to work out...
It's so genius because it puts you in competition with yourself. I always want to be better than my last time in any given exercise. It's kicking my butt too, my calves are killing me!
My only real complaint is that it does not have big preggo option. I cannot inform it that I will be gaining weight due to the creature that is growing inside me...so it will just keep telling me how fat I am getting and pretty soon I will be considered obese! Maybe I should write a letter...?

Alrighty, I think thats enough updating for the moment. Have a most wonderful week!