So, to continue where I left off..
Since it was after hours and the main entrance of the hospital was closed, we had to enter thru the ER entrance. Once inside the toasty warm hospital, my husband told the front desk that we were heading up to Labor and Delivery and plopped me into a wheelchair, just to be on the safe side.

We checked in with the nurse at the desk and they got me settled in the triage room. We were both a bundle of nerves, but happy nerves for a our little guy was finally on his way! After many, many questions the nurse hooked me up to the monitor and we heard what is easily the most reassuring sound to an expectant mother, a nice steady heartbeat. I miss hearing that heartbeat thru the monitor although I know I can just lay my head on my little Dylan's chest and hear the real thing. My doctor came in and told me that while he was on call at the moment, he would be going off in a couple of hours and that another doctor, whom I didn't know, would be delivering me. I was sad at first, but I trusted my doctor would put me in good hands. It was now time to go to what would become my labor & delivery room and start doing laps around the ward. After a while, I saw my dad & grandpa-to-be come thru the doors. He continued to do laps with me while DH went downstairs to meet my mom & stepdad and show them they way up.

The laps were finally done and I was hooked up to an IV with medication to speed up my contractions and of course the monitor again. I rocked in the rocking chair for a while and as the contractions sped up, I was allowed to lay in bed. Thankfully I had a decent dinner because there was no food for me until after delivery. I was eventually allowed an orange popsicle, thankfully! Time passed quite quickly it seemed to me but probably not to my anxious, excited family.

As the time went by, my pain increased and I asked for the epidural-the medication of gods! While I waited for it, the doctor came in and said it would be a half an hour because he wanted lab work on me but I could have another medication to take the edge off, Staidol. Yup, no thanks! I have heard the horror stories and decided to wait it out. That lasted exactly ten minutes when the back pain took over and I conceeded-I wanted the drugs! I kind of went into a fog after that. I started sweating profusely and started having technicolor flashbacks of my life. It was the strangest thing I had ever experienced. I told my family it was "trippy" and that it must be what being is drugs is like. I remember my mom & my sister fanning me vigorously while my husband went to have something to eat-he had to keep his strength up for he had a long day ahead of him. Apparently, they turned the air conditioning down to somewhere in the 50's since I was sweating so badly. DH, my mom & the nurses probably had icicles hanging from the noses! I also remember asking "how that Duggar woman could do this so many times" & "get her in here".

I finally got my epidural and some of the pain subsided. But, then the vomitting started. Um, yeah, I thought that part would have ended when my water broke but no such luck. It persisted every hour nearly on the hour until it was time to push and I finally got something to stop it. I dont' know how I knew I had to push, but I knew this baby had to get out and the vomitting had to stop. I told the nurse and she got the doctor. After about eighteen plus hours of labor & fourty five minutes of pushing, the "jaws of life" aka forcepts, our Dylan was born-face up, with the cord loosely around his neck. All that was the source of my back labor. He was perfect! 6lbs 8oz, 19 inches long with a good set of lungs and a full head of hair-hence the heartburn I had til the minute he was born! We were all so overcome with joy!

Late into the night, once the epidural wore off, DH (you know I am done with the DH crap, his name is Chris)(who came up with that stuff anyway?), Dylan and I headed to our new room where we would all recover from the most eventful day of our lives. My husband and mother were so amazing during my labor and delivery. I am a very lucky girl! I changed my first diaper ever that night at 2am when the nurse came in to wake us so Dylan could eat. Instinct took over and we survived our first night as a family. Bleary-eyed and overjoyed.

The next day was filled with visitors and camera flashes as Dylan became the most adored baby. Many laughs were had about the um, consistency, of baby's first poop and who was going to clean it. The next few days are a bit of blur for me but we were discharged less than fourty eight hours after checking in. Homeward bound!

Saturday January 22nd

I was officialy done with work on the 21st for two months and I had mixed emotions. I have worked for more than half my life and thought it would be so strange to not for two months. But on the other hand, I knew I would enjoy the time home with my little family. My mom had been staying with us during the week before helping me get the house ready for our little one to come home to. She left on Thursday night and didn't plan to come back until Monday when I was scheduled to be induced.

DH was determined to keep me busy that Saturday with errands and such. I had plans with some friends that night for dinner. I rested up while DH had is hair cut a few towns away. When he was done with that he came and picked me up and we were off and running for the day. We went to the uniform store and the owner looked at me and said "not tonight". Ok, thanks for the heads up. Then off to Dunkin's for a snack and some hot cocoa, Kohls for a birthday present for my sister then Wal-Mart. I was doing good getting in and out of DH's truck. To this day I don't know how I did it! After Wal-Mart it was clear I was getting tired. I had a few hours until I had to get ready for dinner so I rested on the couch with Sammy.

Dinner with my friends was only about a mile away from home at a local Japanese steakhouse. I knew I was in good hands should I go into labor because I was going to be with an EMT (mother of 3), former labor & deliver nurse (also mother of 3) & a paramedic. We all met while working at an OB/GYN office a few years ago so I KNEW I had nothing to worry about. Dinner was great; we had a lot of laughs and great food. Apparently we were taking a little too long at our table and were basically kicked out. Ooookkaaaay! We were't quite ready to call it a night so we went to Applebees. Dessert & drinks were ordered and more laughs of course. After about fourty five minutes, I thought, I am tired and should head home. I got some ribbing from the ladies when I said that. Hey, the pregnant lady is tired, cut me some slack! After another fourty five minutes of goodbye's I got home. DH gave me my shot and we watch the ever popular Jersey Shore on MTV. I had never seen it before but I was hooked after that night. I went to bed around 11:00 and left DH on the couch watching the news. He had been banished to the couch for a while now because there was not enough room in our queen size bed for me, my pregnant belly, the dog and the cat. Sorry Love!

I remember waking up around 2am and snuggling around my cat Hazel. Now, Hazel hardly ever sleeps with me so I did think it was strange but snuggled up around her nontheless. As soon as I turned over to snuggle in, Oh no! I knew instantly what happend. I ran to the bathroom, and hollered to DH, "Wake up! My water just broke!" He came running all sleepy eyed and was like, are you sure you didn't just pee. Yes I'm sure. We called the doctor and reached the service. They said they would call the doctor and if we didn't hear back in a few mintues to call again. We waited and waited, fifteen minutes went by no doctor. So we called back, they paged him again and we did get a call less than five mintues later. I gave him the scoop and he told us to go to the hospital.

DH called my mom who I am sure was sleeping with her cell phone! She said they'd be down as soon as they could. I called my dad who also sounded like he was sleeping with his phone and he said the same thing. My mom called my sister who was just getting in for the night! Ah those were the days! She told her to get some sleep and come up in the morning. We ran around the house packing up a few things, I had my bag all ready but DH didn't. Typical guy. Sammy got walked, reluctantly on his part since it was 3am at that point and about 11 degrees outside, and the cats a full bowl of food. Off to the hospital we went.

Pregnant Holidays

As Thanksgiving approached, I got more and more excited. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday mostly because of the food! I love the smell of it cooking away, the look of a fully cooked turkey and of course EATING it! We had plans to go to Massachusetts to my mom's. DH had to work the day before but I was off so Sammy and I hitched a ride with my sister and her boyfriend on their way up from Long Island. It was a late night but we made it safe and sound.

I thought Sammy would just sniff around and climb up on the bed to snuggle me to sleep. No dice. He just kept pacing around the bedroom and jumping off and on the bed. I was so worried he would pee on the nice new carpet that I kept taking him out to go. It's cold in New England in November and not fun for a pregnant woman, or anyone for that matter, to be out in at 3 am. It was a long mostly sleepless night preparing me for many that lay ahead!

I eventually got some sleep and awoke to the smell of coffee brewing. Let me say that I LOVE coffee, but the baby, not so much. I couldn't stand it while I was pregnant, so very sad. It was hard to detox but when I realized that it added to my already nauseous state, it was time for it to go. My mom made a yummy pancake breakfast and I was careful not to over do it for there was a turkey in my future. As the family arrived and dinner was close to being done, my husband sent me a text that he was running behind. He had stopped to see a fellow fire fighter in the hospital to lighten his spirits. We ended up eating without him but were sure to set a heaping plate aside. I was very thankful for maternity pants at that point because with that nice stretchy front panel, I was able to stay comfortable while enjoying my favorite meal. I called them my "turkey eatin' pants"! Bring on the pie!

We survived Thanksgiving dinner with the family and headed back to CT later that day. We didn't make it out of Mass...I was nauseous. Not good. It seemed that the lack of sleep and motion of the car took it's toll on my body and it decided that it didn't want to keep dinner in. We found a Dunkin' Donuts and that was the end of it. I was so sad to say the least. But I did learn one thing, that a Dunkin' Donuts in Norwood, MA also sells bananas. How random.

Now we had the difficult task of figuring out Christmas. Our original plan was to go back up to my mom's as we had spent the last few in CT. It was clear at that point that my very pregnant body could not handle all the traveling. The weeks went by and I still held out a trickle of confidence that I could still go to MA but as I got closer and closer to my due date of January 27, it was clear that I was staying put in CT. I was very fortunate in the end because my family came to make a delicious spaghetti dinner for me on Christmas Eve since I couldn't come up and DH was working. Christmas day DH's family came for a fantastic meal he prepared.

New Year's Eve came and went without much fanfare. I stayed up until exactly 12:01, way past my bedtime, kissed my husband and off to sleep I went. There would be no drinking or wild parties this year! We were a bit sad to see the next week pass because we usually spend them in Aruba with my family. There would be no trip this year because it was unsafe for me to fly at 32 weeks along. Bummer. Guess we'll have to take our little guy with us in 2012!

In September, my husband and I decided to go to Orlando for a fire fighters conference. It was a tough decision because of the cost, but we talked and talked about it and decided that it would be our last trip, just the two of us, for MANY years to come. With plane tickets & hotel booked, we were off to Florida. I was about 19 weeks along and it was still safe to fly.



We set off for the airport in Hartford early in the day after dropping the dog off at the kennel. Sammy loves the kennel. He has other dogs to play with and he can bark all he wants without us yelling at him to stop. He always comes home exhausted!


We breezed through check in and security and off to the gate to wait. Once on the plane, just as our drinks arrived, I started to feel kind of strange. I couldn't really put a word to the feeling but just not right. I didn't say anything to my fire figher/EMT husband but just sort of sat there quietly. After a few minutes, he looked over at me and asked if I was ok. I apparently was all flush and he thought I was going to pass out. I said yeah, I don't feel quite right so he hugged me tight and the feeling eventually passed. I could feel the baby moving around in my belly so I knew he was just fine. What a scare! I have never passed out before so I didn't know what to expect. I don't know at this point if it was from excitement, being tired or the cabin pressure change. Needless to say, I was now anxious just to get on the ground in Florida.

We had a great trip! It was VERY hard for me to not have a beer since virtually everyone around me was enjoying theirs. As with many fire fighter functions there usually is beer involved and this was no different. I was one of only about 6 women on the trip and I quickly became friends with DH's friends' wife Ann. We went to the pool together while the guys were off at training. We also went to the spa, twice, to get manicures & pedicures-what could be better than that? When we arranged for transportation to the spa at a sister hotel we expected a yellow cab to drive us. Oh no, we rode in style, a nice Lincoln Towncar picked us up and took us to the hotel, we didn't want to get out of the car. The driver was very nice, he opened the doors for us, we felt special. The guys were jealous for they had spent their day riding in a stinky bus full of men.

I was so worried about gaining too much weight on this trip because the doctors gave me a definate limit. As with any vacation, all you do is eat out and this was again, no different. We walked ALOT and I think that made all the difference. I had some great meals and hope to go back to some of those restaurants with our little guy in the future. My favorite was the cuban place we ate at the last night, http://www.cubalibrerestaurant.com/. I wanted a mojito SO bad! The food was amazing and our waitress was very good. We ate our dinner inside the restaurant and when we were done, the guys enjoyed some cigars out by the outside bar while Ann and I relaxed. We had gone to Sea World earlier in the day and my ankles/feet looked like they belonged to Shamu himself. Between the walking, heat and pregnancy they had swollen to an unrecognizable size! It was so gross! Ah, the joys of pregnancy.

Ok, so it's been a while, over a year to be exact, since I have written. Life got busy. I found out shortly after I began this blog that I was pregnant! DH and I were overjoyed but were now faced with the arduous task of telling the families. Who was going to be first, how are we going to tell them? DH's family lives just a few miles away whereas mine is a few hours away. Since our upcoming weekends were busy, there was no time to gather everyone together. We settled on telling his family in person while mine got a phone call.
I called my mother first near the end of my workday-I held the phone away from my ear right after I delivered the news because I KNEW she would scream! As we told more and more members of the family, this became the standard response. Everyone was so excited and had many questions for us. We didn't have all the answers right away but as time went by we certainly learned alot not only about pregnancy, but about ourselves and our families.

This pregnancy was not going to be easy as I had a since resolved heart condition that I was born with and a current blood disorder. This did not discourage us from enjoying every step of it though. I had doctors from three different hospitals involved in my care and keeping everyone informed was a bit of a challenge. My blood disorder required daily injections which my husband gladly administered when I just felt I couldn't. Luckily, there was enough, ahem, "padding" on my belly for him to give them to me without pain. There still is : )

I had many ultrasounds and doctor visits throughout which were always alot of fun. We enjoyed seeing our little guy on "tv" and were always eager to share the pictures with anyone who would tolerate them. The toughest part of this pregnancy was the morning/day/afternoon sickness that plagued me the ENTIRE time. Everyone said, oh it will be over by the time you are 12 wks, that came and went with no relief. Ok, so maybe at 15 wks, nope. As time went on, it was clear that it was here to stay. Everyone then said oh, it will all be worth it when you hold him, I said it better! And ultimately, they were right.

As anyone who has been pregnant can tell you, the first 12 wks you feel like a narcoleptic. I would be sitting at my desk and my coworker would walk by my office and I'd be out like a light, snoring away. Luckily, it was the quiet season at work and I did not have many patients to take care of. Two of my three coworkers are mom's so they understood my need to sleep. The soundproof booth that I do hearing testing in came in very handy for lunch time naps too! It was spring time into summer and I would be in bed, asleep, while the sun was still out and shining bright.

As time progressed, so did our baby. I started to feel him kicking, punching and rolling around in there. It was the most amazing, weird and comforting feeling. Except when he would decide that my bedtime was going to be his most active! :) If I could just create something that would give expectant mothers a heads up on what that feels like, I think I could make a fortune!

Ok, so I KNOW I am the worst blogger there is...but life happens and the blog takes a back seat. I did try to put some pictures up from the museum & Chinatown fire, but I couldn't get it just the way I wanted it. My husband is going to help me. We have a retirement party to go to this Saturday for his old Training Chief. It should be alot of fun, we'll see alot of people we haven't in a long time. The party is oversold for the venue so it will be nutty! But all in all it will be nice to relax and enjoy a night with the members of his department and their significant others, which doesn't happen often enough. I'll try to post after I recover from my almost assured hangover-afterall, it is hard to NOT drink when you are around firemen!

We just got back from a fun day in Boston. I surprised my husband with a private tour of the Boston Fire Museum. He only knew we were going to Boston. I gave the cabbie the address and prayed he knew where he was going-I didn't want to give the surprise away just yet. As we pulled up in front of the museum, my husband laughed-he revealed later that he thought we were going to see the USS Constitution-saving that for another day. While we were going thru the tour, a call came in! Just our luck! It ended up being a 2 alarm fire in the Chinatown section of Boston. We went over with one of the tour guides and hung around til the show was over. I have to admit that it was very exciting for me. My husband laughed when I told him that-hey, it's not everyday I get to see a working fire in progress. No one was hurt, a dog was rescued and had a comfy seat in the back of a Boston PD cruiser. After the fire, we commenced our tour of the musem. The staff was so gracious, I can't thank them enough. They even invited us for a Boston Sparks Association meeting/dinner that night but alas, we had to come back to CT for another meeting. My husband really wanted to stay but, unfortunately duty called here at our condo. I will post some pictures of the museum & fire. Hope you like them!