Calla & Our Chaos

Yesterday started out being so much fun….I had asked Anne-Marie if I could borrow Calla for a few hours.  I wanted to break out my macro lens (that I never use because I have a hate/hate relationship with my tripod) and try it on a captive subject.  I see people use the 100 mm 2.8 Macro for baby shots all the time and was hoping to practice a little bit before our baby comes.  Plus, Brick and Taryn could play!  Total bonus when they showed up with Kolache’s!  Yumm-o!!  A few from our play date yesterday….I have such a sweet spot for her.  She’s just precious.

I caught this one in between her attempts to either eat the fuzzy blanket and chew on her own arm 😉  I still can’t get over how much she looks like her big brother!

I love baby piggies!!!!

Calla and her beautiful mommy…

We tested out the lighting in Ty’s room for this shot and I love it!  He’s going to get sick of me being in his room when our baby arrives!

So after our play date, our day got a little crazy.  Ty was in and out all day with two of his friends, they were all really well behaved, it was busy.  We had lunch, Taryn went down for a nap, the phone guy shows up because we’re having problems with the phone company setting off our home security system in the middle of the night….don’t ask….it’s complicated (and a very loud awakening to say the least).  They decide they need to test the alarm, so Taryn gets up and our very loud sirens go off for awhile.  Fun stuff.  Ty and his buds are still in and out, in and out.  Taryn is everywhere, fussy from being woken up, the phone is ringing.  The phone guy blames the alarm people and the alarm people blame the phone people.  Another friend of ours made a GORGEOUS wrap for the baby and was nice enough to bring it all way out to us….seriously, I can’t wait to use it when the baby comes and show you guys.  It’s beautiful.  And Ty’s back home, 3 boys playing the Wii, Jase gets home, his brother is going to stop by, the phone is ringing.

But wait, what’s that?  Yup, that’s a doosie of a contraction.  Put my feet up, drink some water and WHAMO, just like that they go from 10 minutes apart to 3 minutes apart for over an hour.  I call the afterhours line and they tell me to head on into the hospital to get checked out.  So we start to pack up the kids, Jase gets Taryn dressed.  Right after he ties her shoes, she goes potty in her pull ups.  Blow out.  Nice.  He changes her.  Not 2 minutes later, another one.  I guess yogurt, 2 bowls of grapes, grape juice, a Kolache and then homemade chili for dinner wasn’t the greatest of ideas huh?  Ty is gathering our last minute things for the hospital and putting them in the car, getting sleeping bags in case they go to McGee & Mikes house, put the leftovers from dinner away, let the dog in, the phone is ringing, we’re calling the grandparents to give a heads up.  I call McGee & Mike just in case, then Anne-Marie who will hopefully be taking photographs at the birth if it works out timing wise.  Jason gives up trying to put another pull up on Taryn and just sits her on the potty.  In between doubling over in contractions, directing Ty about what we need to put in the car and cheering for Taryn because she went on the potty, the phone rings.  Jase answers it and it’s his brother.   The conversation goes something like this….

Jason:  "hello?"
Scott:  "hey man, what’s up?"
Jason:  totally calm….."not much dude, what’s going on with you?"

What?!?  Not much!?!  HA!  Standard brotherly conversation and greeting but I had to laugh….in the midst of complete and total chaos!  LOL!

So off we go to the hospital.  They hook me up, take a look at the contractions and decide to keep me for at least 2 hours since we live an hour away from the hospital.  Jase leaves to bring the kids to our wonderfully understanding friends McGee & Mike, because at this point it’s around 10:30 or so.  Steady contractions, every 3-4 minutes apart, but they weren’t causing me to progress.  Unfortunately I had an awful experience getting checked by the nurse.  Like, crawl up the bed with my heals, scream out in pain, almost broke Jason’s fingers by holding on too tight, pain.  Not fun.  Active labor hurts less, I know, I’ve experienced it.  I’ve nicknamed this particular nurse the "Cervix Nazi" and will be avoiding her like the plague on any future visits.  So after two hours we were sent home and told to return if the contractions got worse or if my water breaks. 

We were honestly really surprised to be sent home with such regular contractions, but part of me was relieved.  Once we got there I started to panic.  I told Jason I wasn’t ready yet, I had changed my mind, I didn’t want to do this anymore, I didn’t think I could do this and that I wanted to go home.  Of course he reminded me through my tears that I can do this, I have to do this, it will be totally worth it when we see our son….it’s too late to back out now.  I think the realization of the amount of pain and the fear hits every woman at some point, the reality of it, that this child is in there and it has to come out, well it hit me last night.  He gave me a good long hug and then gently reminded me that I should have thought of that 9 months ago when I told him I was ready to have another baby.  God love him for giving me a bunch of love and a good swift kick in the butt in the same minute.  On the way to pick up the kids Jase grins at me and says "join the chaos eh"…."yup".

So today I’m incredibly sore and barely able to walk thanks to the Cervix Nazi, and my contractions are less regular, but still coming anywhere between 10 minutes and 3 minutes.  I’m able to talk through them, so our little man in there is just practicing for the big event.  This is the unnerving part…the waiting.  Our family started a pool guessing the babies birthday.  $20 a guess.  Personally, I think I should get the money no matter who wins….what do you guys think?