Baby Bossy's Birth Story Part II

The nurses quickly prepared for surgery.  My nurse, Kim, was fabulous.  I remember she kept calling me Baby Girl!  To be honest- the evening is basically a blur for me, but I do remember the important stuff! :)

They wheeled me into the operating room.  I had a curtain over me, so I was unable to see a thing.  The anesthesiologist stood behind the curtain with me (near my head) and talked to me the entire time.  He was such a sweet man.  Mr. Bossy was allowed in after I received my epidural.  I remember him having his phone out for most of the c-section, but I just figured he was taking lots of pictures.  Come to find out-  he recorded the entire thing!!

Baby Bossy was born at 7:59 p.m.  They whisked him away to clean him up and check his vitals.  From watching television shows and movies, I always thought babies came out screaming their heads off.  Not mine!  I asked the nurses and my doctor if everything was alright.  They acted like it was normal that he hadn't cried.  In fact, they said he was asleep the entire time!  Mr. Bossy brought our baby to me soon after.  I remember looking at him and feeling so much love, but also SO upset that I couldn't hold him quite yet.  It felt like forever for the staff to close me up, but I eventually was wheeled into recovery.

My parents and MIL came in soon after to say hello and see their new grandbaby.  They left after a little bit so that I could nurse him in privacy.  I remember I still couldn't stop shaking.  The nurses explained that it was a side effect of the drugs I was given.  I wasn't cold-  I was just shaky!  Complete exhaustion started to kick in (Hey-  I had worked that day too!).  I remember they wheeled me into my room after a while.  Mr. Bossy's recliner in the room pulled out into a bed and we both soon snoring away. 

The next morning and day, we had lots of visitors.  I was still in labor and delivery due to some medications they had me on because of the c-section.  I had to be off of them for 24 hours before they would move me to mother/baby.  Baby Bossy was also in the NICU but doing well.  I was later moved to mother/baby and Baby Bossy left the NICU a healthy baby boy.

I spent two more days in mother/baby before they released us to go home.  I can happily say that Baby Bossy is 8 weeks old and absolutely healthy!  You would never know that he was born 5 weeks early.  He's the love of our lives. 

This is the end of the road for my story.  I've enjoyed the past year that I've spent sharing my journey on Bloomin' Babies.  I hope for nothing but the best for all of our readers- especially Explorer Bud! 

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of  Baby Bossy- or Liam as we call him. :)

XOXO,

Bossy Bud

Belated Birth Story, part 1

Howdy everyone! Long time no see. Sorry about that! As I said in my previous post way back in October, my November 11-11-11 baby decided that he wanted to be a September baby! Despite being 6w2d early, and 18 days in the NICU he is home and thriving! At almost 5 months he weighs about 14lbs! It won't be too long now before he triples his 5lb 4oz birth weight. 

Here is the start of my birth story. It's long (I started having contractions 5 days before he was born!) and I think I'll probably also give a summary of his nearly 3 weeks in the NICU before he came home too. So this will be a multi-post story as my farewell. Congrats to all the recent BFPs, and I hope for more soon!

Everything started the day after my 27th birthday. On my birthday, everything seemed fine. I went to work, came home, Mr. Teacher Bud and I went out to dinner, came home, and did a Grey's Anatomy Marathon. I felt huge, but it was perfect.

The next day was homecoming for Mr. Teacher Bud's College Alma Mater, and his 5 year reunion. We were running late (of course!) so he dropped me off to pick up our tickets, and went to park the car. I had 2 FULL water bottles with me (the big stainless steel kind, not a 20oz.) I slowly walked (waddled) the 2 blocks to the stadium, where I met up with Mr. Teacher Bud and some friends. Because we were late, the only seats were waaaaay up at the top of the bleachers. It was a struggle getting up there, let me tell you! It was one of those days, that was sweltering when the sun was on you, but it was also windy, and when the sun went behind a cloud it was down right cold. Sitting on bleachers is also not great when you are 33 weeks pregnant - no back =ouch!

Close to half time, I started having contractions. I assumed they were just Braxton-Hicks, and were probably because A) it was hot, and B) I had to pee. So I climbed down the bleachers and went to the bathroom. I had several more contractions, and man! Those suckers HURT! I stayed in the bathroom for a while, and got to 5 contractions before they finally stopped. (When I had had BH contractions over the summer, my midwives said to call if I had 6 or more in an hour.)

I went back to the bleachers, and told Dan, and we agreed to try to take is easy the rest of the day, but we weren’t too worried. We’d used up our worry with the BH in July! Our group of friends decided to leave the game after the halftime show and go walk around campus. As we were walking to the first building they wanted to visit, I had a few more contractions, but, I was outside of the previous hour. I had 2-3 while we were walking, so when I got to the building, I parked myself in a chair. I had 2 more contractions before they stopped. Again, only 5 in an hour. We sat for a half an hour before continuing on. After about 20-30 minutes on my feet, the contractions started again. Same pattern, 2-3, sit down, 2 more, stop. We had one more stop to make, and again, the same thing. I could make it 20 min on my feet before they would start.

At this point, we decided I would just stay out of the heat, sit, and drink lots of water for the rest of the day. We went to his reunion, and I had a few more contractions, but only maybe 5 more over the next 6 hours or so, as I stayed seated the whole time.

We decided that this was just my body’s way of telling me I was over doing it, and so I would just take in easy from now on. I stayed on the couch for all of Sunday, but still planned to go to work on Monday. I’m a teacher, so I stand a lot at work. Luckily, my 1^st hour was taking a test, so I could just sit, and my 2^nd and 3^rd hours had their final research day for their project, so I could mostly sit then too. I decided to change my afternoon plans a bit, and bring a movie incase I didn’t feel up to my original lesson plans.

Monday morning when I woke up, I felt like the baby had dropped. As I described it at the time – my boobs no longer rested on my stomach. I made an executive decision that my afternoon classes would DEFINITELY be watching that movie afterall, and debated calling my midwives. Throughout that morning I also had some tummy troubles. I was having repeated loose bowels, which I knew could be a sign that the body was clearing itself out for labor. That was the nail in the coffin – I was calling.

To be continued…

Early Arrival

As it turns out, two of us here on Bloomin' Babies delivered on the same day. (HUGE congrats to Teacher Bud)

This is going to be long as its been an adventure the last two weeks, but I wanted to fill you all in on why I've been 'missing'.

On September 27th I went in for my weekly appointment. I was about 37.5 weeks. They did my vitals upon arrival. Blood pressure was up 10 points (140ish/80ish) range. Weight had jumped up 4 pounds in a week. Then my urine came back that I was spilling more protein. I was being watched prior to that appointment for signs of Pre-Eclampsia and it seems I was crossing over into officially having it. Since I was full term, my doctor decided it was go time to get the baby out of there. I had to call my husband from the doctors office (he was at work) and the doctor arranged for a non-emergency transport from her office to the hospital...a grand total of a half mile distance.

A few hours later I'm told that my cervix was starting to dilate on its own (went from 1 to 2.5 in that time period) and that Pitocin was the best option to start up labor. This is when I realized that things may not go as I'd hoped for this delivery. I'd hoped for as intervention-free as possible. With pitocin the baby has to be on monitors constantly, meaning I'd be pretty much restricted to however far the monitors could reach. Add to that the blood pressure cuff...and yeah, I was having to ring a nurse if I needed to use the restroom.

I continued to labor overnight with pitocin. Not much progress was made. I think I got to about a 3cm by 6am that morning. They gave me a little break from the pitocin, let me eat something for the first time since noon the day before (crackers and Jello have never tasted so good) and then we went back at it.

A prime example of my labor not going according to my birth plan. Taken at the end of labor, that's pitocin, magnesium, saline & antibiotics on the IV pole.

Sometime that afternoon (time is becoming a blur at this point), I get the "We need to either break your water and hope that jump starts labor or we need to proceed with a c-section" talk. I opted to have them break my water. Not the most comfortable thing for the record. Once the water was broken the relatively mild pitocin contractions I'd been having kicked into high gear. I went from being able to talk through the to scaring some poor student with the amount of pain I was in who was coming in to ask for permission ti study the placenta to help further understand Pre-E.

Not long after this point I was pretty much begging for an epidural. The pitocin induced contractions were one on top of the other and were really intense. Plus the nurses were having trouble getting my contractions on the monitors (to which I assured them I was having them as i writhed in pain) and getting an epidural would allow them to monitor them internally and start the dreaded magnesium drip. The epidural was wonderful and provided some much needed relief. Amid an occasional wave of nausea (thank you magnesium drip), I labored on. At this point I could feel the pressure as my cervix was dilated and occasionally I could feel break through pain of the contractions.

Sometime after 3pm the doctors started talking about checking me around 4pm to see how I was doing for progression. At this point I was starting to get the first signs of a fever courtesy of having my water broken. I remember chiming in that they might want to check me before then. I could feel him down really low. No urge to push, but I knew he was further than they seemed to think he was. I was right. I was at a 10 and it was go time.

The pushing stage is kind of a blur to me. I'd been laboring for 24+ hours at that point and was spiking a fever. I felt incredibly weak and remember telling them that I didn't know if I had the strength left in me to get him out. They must've believed me, because they called the vacuum guy in to take a look. He didn't end up helping out (I hadn't progressed far enough).

After that I started to get the hang of pushing. I was pretty much a train wreck...in addition to all the fun down below associated with delivery, I also puked for the first time in my entire pregnancy during the pushing phase. I'd like to blame the magnesium as a known side effect of it is nausea, but the truth is that sometimes women puke during labor. Kind of frustrating to make it to about 20 minutes before I'm no longer pregnant before tossing my cookies though...but it is what it is...

Dylan James joined our family on September 28, 2011 at 4:21PM. He weighed 6lb 2oz and was 19.39 inches long. He came out kind of bluish pink, the doctors say courtesy of the magnesium I had to be on (Apgars of 6 & 9) and had to be worked on a bit to get his lungs cleared. He also got a 4 hour stint in the NICU and 2 days of antibiotics courtesy of the infection I developed during delivery. Him being taken to NICU was so hard as I was stuck in L&D getting myself fixed up (2nd degree tear) in the meantime and couldn't leave. My husband went with him, but it was so hard to not be there...

We ended up with an extended 5 day stay in the hospital courtesy of my Pre-Eclampsia. My labs weren't coming back how they were supposed to and my blood pressure wouldn't drop. In fact, it wasn't until just yesterday after I'd been put on blood pressure meds that my BP has gotten back to normal. The extended stay in the hospital in some ways was a blessing as we had some breastfeeding issues to overcome. Due to the babies slightly early arrival, he didn't have the stamina to put much effort into feeding until my milk came in on Day 4. We actually had to supplement with formula some in the hospital for blood sugar reasons (fed by tube, not bottle), but we've since weaned off of that and are 100% breastfeeding now.

We're now at home and doing well aside from myself and the baby having a head cold.

Without further adieu, here are some pictures of our little man

Riding home from the hospital.

Posing for the camera yesterday.

He's here!

First photo. 

Baby Teacher Bud was born 6 weeks early.  Born 10:30pm Wednesday September 28th by (sort-of)-emergency cesarean at 33w5d. 

He's still in the NICU, but he's doing well.  His only real hurdle to coming own is being able to stay awake long enough to feed himself, and he is making improvement on that each day. More later. 

Welcome Baby BrainyBud!

Hello all! I wanted to drop back in and let you know that our little one finally arrived... under not so pleasant circumstances. I was 39 weeks and 1 day on the day of our scheduled induction. Here is our birth story....


On June 14, 2010, our lives were forever changed....

After an eventful day of work and visiting with a friend or two. We quickly gathered our things and headed to Steak-n-Shake for our last meal. My mom met us there. I ate chicken and fries, just in case I threw up. We then headed onto the hospital for my scheduled 8:00 pm induction. I was taken back around 7:50pm, undressed and put on the lovely blue hospital gown while they started my IV (YIKES! I cried) and drew some bloodwork. Once I was hooked up to the fetal monitors, Nurse S had me turn on my left side because the baby wasn't responding well to contractions. I was only 1cm and hadn't even felt a contraction yet (nor would I ever). She said his heartrate was fine but she called Dr. K anyway. I felt that everything was just fine and mom was about to leave for the night, but thank God she decided to stay. Within the next 30 minutes they decided my baby was in distress, Dr. K was called in to the hospital, and I was told I was about to have an emergency c-section. I wasn't ready for this. I was put on oxygen and felt okay, even if I wasn't ready. We started making phone calls to my BFFs, Pastor, and In-laws.

I wasn't until the anesthesiologists came in that I started to freak out. They said my blood platelets were too low and if I were to get a spinal tap, I would probably bleed out around my spine and be paralyzed OR I could get general anesthesia, throw up and it get into my lungs and I would lose my lungs and die... then he asked, "what's your thoughts?" WHAT?!#$ I'm supposed to decide between being paralyzed and losing my life!? I cried uncontrollably, hyperventilated, I was a mess (so was Mr. BrainyBud and my mom). How could I make such a decision! How can I calm down enough for my distressed baby?! ............ about 5 minutes later, the lady anesthesiologist (L) came back in and said they looked at my platelets again under the microscope and I was just fine to have a spinal. PEOPLE, CHECK BY HAND BEFORE YOU FREAK A PREGNANT WOMAN OUT! And out the door I went!

I was taken back by myself for the spinal. I was scared out of my mind. I wanted my husband with me, but they wouldn't allow him in the room. I cried and cried and shook to death. I held onto Nurse S through the whole thing. She consoled me so well. I never felt comfortable crying with my face in another woman's boobs until that moment, but thank the Lord she let me. I was terrified that I would move too much and die. I was also thankful that Laura was doing the spinal and not that stupid man that gave me a heartattack. It wasn't long until I was nice and numb. I kept asking (maybe 10 times) for them to check me because I was so scared I'd feel something I didn't want to...and that was prior to Dr. K coming in and checking me!

When Dr. K came in, he first came over to me and put his hand on my shoulder. I felt so much relief in that moment. I knew he'd take care of me... just as he promised to almost a year ago. He cracked a joke about me not waiting until morning, which I didn't think was that funny at the time, but I was polite and offered a smile in return. He told everyone in the OR that his 4 daughters where all out in the car watching a movie. You could see every eye in the place look over at him.... turns out his wife was with them and he was just lightening the mood. He actually made conversation with everyone through the procedure, which gave me a sense of peace, weird, I know.

Around that time, Mr. BrainyBud came in with the camera and sat beside me and held my hand. We talked about who was on their way, who was called, anything to take my mind off of what was happening. It was so surreal to think in a matter of moments, our son would be here. Throughout this time, I could hear nurses counting and double counting utensils aloud and it wasn't until I heard Dr. K say "oh yea, lots of pea soup, need suction" that I realized what happened. The baby had meconium aspiration. I had read up on it and wasn't worried because babies go through this quite a bit, and I knew that he probably wouldn't cry when he came out.

At some point later, we heard a faint coo coming from the right side of the room. I turned my head quickly to realize #1) my son was on the table being worked on and #2) L had given me morphine that made the room spin. Then I did something stupid... I turned my head quickly to the left to see Mr. BrainyBud's face and realized that someone on morphine, really shouldn't make sharp movements. We were both blissfully happy...

Baby BrainyBud was born on June 14, 2010 at 9:51pm : 6 lbs, 14 oz : 20 inches long

S told us that he did have meconium aspiration and very low blood sugar. They invited Mr. BrainyBud to go around me (which he still wishes that his peripheral vision wasn't so good because I was still open) to see and take photos of our son. We knew he was about to go to the special care unit while I was in recovery. Baby BrainyBud was so limp, but again, I wasn't worried at this point. We were two happy parents. The only part I felt was of them taking the adhesive off my stomach.

Turns out Dr. K went to the waiting room to tell everyone (my mom, my inlaws, pastor, my BFF, my other BFF and her husband, and my mom's close friends) what was going on. I was taken into recovery for an hour, where all I did was fight sleep. We were told there that Baby BrainyBud was put on a ventilator and at that moment, we knew that we would both be taken to the bigger hospital and NICU across town. We were told that during our childbirth class that our hospital couldn't hold a baby on a ventilator.

We were taken back to my room where I was smiling, hoping that my mom, who was already worried about me and the baby, wouldn't be terrified. I wanted to be brave for everyone. Maybe I just had a faith and peace about me, or maybe I was still high on morphine, I don't know. Once we were back, they brought our son in in his transport incubator as they explained what was going on, how we would be transported by ambulance and that Dr. B had come from the other hospital NICU and evaluated him. Once Dr. B explained everything, to everyone, it was like the room stood still. I was still in good spirits and thought that in less than a week, we'd be home... blissfully unaware the journey we were about to take... that half the people in that room wouldn't see our son again for 3 weeks.


He was already so puffy and red. We went in separate ambulances. Turns out my friend from college that was being induced there at midnight, saw our son taken into the ambulance and hoped it wasn't mine, only to find out from Mr. BrainyBud that saw them, that it was our son. (her son was born by c-section that next morning) Once we were in my room, everyone tried to convince me to get in a wheelchair to go see him, but at 2:00am I was extremely tired, still couldn't feel my legs or feet, I just couldn't. So my mom and Mr. BrainyBud went to the NICU that night to check on him, then stayed with me until morning, when I could go see him myself.

It is a night, I'm not soon to forget. I saw my life flash before me so many times. So many firsts for me happened that night, and the events to follow where in no place on my birth plan.


Firsts For Me within 6 hours:
first IV
first anesthesia
first hospital stay
first surgery
first ambulance ride
first time having a baby
first moment of becoming a mommy
first time NICU mother

If you would like to continue reading about our son's journey, the rest of my pregnancy, and our lives as parents, we will keep updating our blog so you can read about his 3 weeks in the NICU and his continued recovery.

I just wanted to let you all know that he has arrived and thank you all for this great blog community! I continue to read Bloomin' Babies and wish everyone the best of luck!

Faith, Love, and Baby Kisses,

Mrs. BrainyBud

What a ride!!!

Wow... that's all I have to say. I haven't had much time since my last post to update my Bloomin' Babies fans... remember me - Glow Bud???? :)

**DISCLAIMER** - this post may be long!!! Last I wrote I was still up in the air as to what route we were going to take in meeting little Baby GB.

Well, I was still pretty indecisive up until the last day but we scheduled the induction for the night of the 28th. In the meantime I did all I would with the old wives tales they suggest to induce labor: nightly walks, sexy time, spicy foods, eating pineapple, castor oil.... ok no... just kidding!

No such luck.

So Mr. GB and I took advantage of our last night "alone" together and went out Sat night to dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant and we had a blast. We didn't really talk about the baby much but just enjoyed each others company. Then we came home and just watched a movie, it was very nice. Sunday came and we just spent all day around the house. Not really doing much but trying to keep busy and get stuff done and be as prepared as possible. It was a weird feeling that day knowing we'd be parents in less than 24 hours!!! Around 7:30pm we packed up our bags in the car and headed off to the hospital.

We checked in and the wasted no time getting things going, we were escorted within minutes to room 2040 (Mr. GB's baseball and football jersey numbers from high school!!!). They got me into my gown and hooked up to the monitors for my contractions and for Baby GB's heartbeat - surprisingly I was already contracting pretty regularly and I was dilated to 1cm and 40% effaced... progress and all on my own!!! Then the nurse put in the 1st round of Cervadil, gave me an Ambien and told me to "get some rest." Ya right. The Cervadil was doing its job... All night my contractions were about 2-5 minutes apart and getting consistently stronger. I didn't sleep a wink. Mr. GB on the other hand slept for hours on the couch, waking a few times to see how I was and what he could do. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything but to wait.

Around 9am, our new nurse came in to meet us and to start me on Pitocin and Penicillin (because I tested positive for Group B Strep) and shortly after Dr. C stopped in to see how I was. At that time I was dilated to 3cm (I can't recall how effaced I was?!) - more progress though. Thank goodness! The nurses kept asking me to judge my pain on a scale of 1-10... I kept thinking... well, I don't know how bad this is going to get!!! So I think I kept underestimating and telling them 4 or 5... when now I look back I should have been saying 7 or 8.

Within an hour I was in so much pain from the contractions that I was already considering getting the epidural but wanted to hold out as long as possible. I think it was around 11am I finally caved and asked for it and within 15 minutes the anesthesiologist was up in my room getting it all started. Mr. GB was a rock holding my hands while they worked and within 3 contractions they were finished and I was laying back starting to feel the effects of it.

I don't care what anyone says... the epidural was FABULOUS! :)

After that my mom and sister came in and I could actually hold a conversation and we'd watch the contractions on the monitor and I couldn't feel a thing! Around 1pm Dr. C came in to check me again and to her (and my!) surprise I was dilated to 7cm! At that point she broke my water and that's when I got REALLY nervous cause she said we'd have our boy in the next few hours! Those next few hours were kind of a blur, we didn't do much except hang out in my room watching TV and chatting.

Around 3:30pm I was checked again and the nurse let me know she was going to call Dr. C and let her know that I was fully dilated to 10cm and it was time to start pushing... eeeek! I was really worried about Mr. GB cause he told me from the beginning that he didn't think he'd be able to watch or even help hold my leg. Well, that went out the window cause the nurse didn't give him a chance to decline and by 30 minutes in he was watching the whole thing. I also had said I didn't want anyone in the room except Mr. GB and the nurses while I was pushing but that went out the window as well when my mom poked her head in mid-push to see how I was... so I told her and my sister to come on in! So... all you girls on my favorite message board - there you have it... YOU WERE RIGHT! :)

For the next two hours Mr. GB, my mom and my nurse coached me as I pushed and slowly started to feel my epidural wear off. There was a point right before Dr. C came in that I really thought I wasn't going to be able to do it. And once she got there everything was a blur cause I was so worn out and in so much pain. I remember her telling me that she'd need to do an episiotomy and that I'd need to push with all I had the next few pushes because Baby GB's heart rate had dropped and we needed to get him out. Two pushes later and Baby GB was here at 5:49pm - 6 lbs 14 oz - 18 1/2 inches. Dr. C asked if either Mr. GB or my mom wanted to cut the cord - neither wanted to, so as soon as she did it they took Baby GB over the the warmer to check him out since his heart rate had dropped so low right before delivery. Mr. GB was right by his side and I remember thinking he looked so proud!

He came over to me and gave me the BIGGEST hug and told me how proud he was of me and how great I did. Oh and that he loved me of course :)

For the next 1/2 hour as Dr. C stitched me up, all I could do is lay there and shake from the adrenaline. I FINALLY got to hold my sweet little boy as they told me that his breathing was very erratic and that he took in a lot of fluid during delivery so they would need to take him upstairs to the NICU for monitoring for a few hours. So after only a few minutes with him, off he went with Mr. GB. I don't think I really knew what was going on at that point cause I was so out of it because I didn't cry, which is really unlike me.

In the meantime, they moved me to another room where we'd spend the night to get settled and wait for Mr. GB to come back with my little boy. After about an hour Mr. GB came to our new room and said he was going to bring me food and then we'd go up to see our little man because he wasn't going to be spending the night with us - he was on oxygen and would need to be monitored for the night.

Once we got upstairs he was sleeping so peaceful but I got to hold him and the nurse tried to help me nurse him - he wasn't too interested though and we needed some sleep as well so we went back down to our room to do our best to again "get some rest." I think Mr. GB set his alarm to go back up and see him around 3am but was back in bed shortly after.

The next morning, the nurses came in to check me and remove my IV's so I could be more mobile. I took a shower and ate some breakfast and then headed up to see my baby again. This time we met with the doctor who was taking care of Baby GB - he informed us that his chest x-ray had shown possible signs of infection and that they started him on antibiotics through an IV. We wouldn't know for 3 days the outcome but likely the NICU would be his home for 5-7 days... possibly 10-14 days. :(

I spent that whole day between my room and the NICU and I also met with a lactation specialist who hooked me up with a hospital grade pump to hopefully help bring in my milk and to supplement what Baby GB was getting through his IV. While I was spending time with him I was clueless as to what I needed to be doing. The nurses filtered in and out in 12 hour shifts and some seemed to take charge while others just let me do my thing - which was hard as there were 3 monitors hooked to him at all times beeping and just being in the way of holding my sweet boy.

The next day I was discharged from the hospital and I have to say that was the HARDEST day of my life. Going home alone. Alone without my baby that had been with me 24/7 for the last 9 months. Also, Mr. GB had to go back to work to get his mind off things and my mom and my sister hit the road to go back home since they couldn't do much in the way of helping me out my first week with baby. So, for the next week, it was back and forth from our house to the hospital. I tried to spend as much time as possible with him and Mr. GB would go back with me every night after work to see our little man. It was so hard to leave him every night but the hospital had a policy that you could not sleep by his bedside :(

I think it must have been about mid-week that we got the news that Baby GB would be able to come home with us on Easter Sunday. It was an awesome homecoming and we are so happy to be settling in.

It only took me a week to get this birth story done! haha **woot**woot** I'm sure I missed a ton but that's the gist of it... Hopefully in the coming weeks I'll still be able to blog through Bloomin' Babies but I can't promise how much I'll be around. I've got a few things left in me before I throw in the towel but I have to say blogging for BB has been a great experience for me and I'm so glad to have been given the opportunity to do so!!!