Manic Monday- Aly, Lily and Tyler~

One of my best friend's Aly's husband is in the Navy. In June they moved to Maryland. When she moved I was pregnant and so was she. She also has a daughter, Lily. Both of our due dates were August 19th. Her baby came out July 18th. Mine came out August 21st. She's been in Maryland so we haven't met each other's babies yet. 

Well, they came to Florida for Thanksgiving! 

So today I finally got to go see her because I had the day off. It was amazing seeing them. Lily has gotten SO much more grown since I last saw her. She's 2 1/2 now. Wowee. Anyways, here are some of the adorable photos taken!

 For more pics: http://www.facebook.com/jessica.oberlander

Brayden's birth story

I meant to write this right after he was born... but... I obviously didn't get it done. Brayden is now three months old. None the less, this is the story of his arrival.

I had a pretty easy pregnancy. I gained 29 pounds total. My pregnancy seemed to go pretty quickly. Every Thursday I was another week along and boy, did Thursday come fast. I didn't have any real problems the whole time. In the beginning I had morning sickness and throughout the pregnancy my only issue was I was always SO hot. My back never hurt but my feet always did. I had a pretty low and typical "boy" belly. In the end I was absolutely ready to have him out. I wanted my baby in my arms. 

 Last picture I took. 39 weeks, 3 days.

I had an induction scheduled for August 19th, his due date. (For the record, I am waiting till that baby comes out next time. F Pitocin. Never again.) Anyway, August 18th was a Wednesday. We went to the hospital  at 7pm. We checked in, got my room, etc. Dr. came in not too long later and started the Pitocin. Over the next 24 hours they kept pumping the devil medicine. 

To my dismay, in 24 hours I dilated to 1.5cm. THAT'S IT. That made me feel pretty bad. He wasn't ready or something is wrong with me, I thought. Dr. said "We can try some other methods to try to dilate you. You are likely to end up in a c-section though. Also, if you have your baby tomorrow Dr. Mixson nor I will do the delivering. You can come back Monday and we will try to induce again." I WAS NOT HAVING A C-SECTION. I said "See you Monday, Doc!" 

We checked out and went home. It was sad going home without Brayden but it was for the best. I continued contracting. I had been contracting for over 24 hours. I didn't sleep very well at home through the pain. All Friday I continued to be in pain. I have now had contractions since Wednesday. It's now 1am on Saturday. I am still in pain. It's gotten worse but they are not steady "labor" contractions. Rj calls the doctor's office for me. The on-call doctor calls me back. She is not my doctor. but oh well. She tells me "Honey, I don't think you are in labor but if you want, you can go to the hospital. they will give you pain meds and you can sleep there." WHOO HOO. 

I go to the hospital. I check in and get the same room. The doctor checks me. I was still 1.5cm. Damn. They gave me pain meds and I went to sleep. I did not get amazing sleep. The meds only helped so much. At 7am the doctor comes in to check me again. If nothing was going on I was going to go back home. She told me I was 5cm and in labor. WHAT?! YES!! I told my mom and husband. They came to the hospital. The doctor gave me a small amount of Pitocin. 

I napped on and off throughout the day. It felt like I progressing SO slowly. Around 7cm I had the epidural. The progression was so slow I had to have 3 pumps from the epidural and more injected. His head was hitting the worst spots. My back was killing me. 

Finally, it's around 3:30pm. I am around 9cm. The on-call doctor will be the one delivering. She says I can push and they will stretch it to 10. I begin to push.


I have a nurse there that is VERY rude to me and my husband for no reason. She makes snarky comments and we are not going to mention that. I am not dwelling on that bitch and Karma will get her. ;) 

At 4:30pm the other doctor is called to come use the suction to try to help him along. His head was having quite a bit of trouble coming out. The doctor gets there around 5. They use the suction and of course, I continued pushing for what felt like forever.  

At some point they turned the epidural off so it was easier to push.

The doctor. seriously said "one more push!" like 15 times. She's lucky I didn't scream at her. Haha. I wanted him out. 

At last, 5:30pm on August 21st Brayden Joseph Carvalho was born. He weighed 8 pound and 12 ounces. I was completely baffled when the doctor said that. I didn't think my baby would be that big.

Rj was with me the whole time. Right after he was born my family came in. Later, Rj's family arrived. :) I'm so grateful for my amazing husband and family.  

He was and is absolutely perfect.

I do not regret a thing. My healthy and beautiful son arrived without c-section. Just what I wanted. :)

:D

Thanksgiving 2010~

 I am extremely thankful for my healthy and happy family. I love my boys and the rest of my family! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Amazing Shutterfly Blogger promotion!

II have been thinking for quite a while about family Christmas cards. Actually, it's been on my mind before Brayden was even born. :X

A friend of mine, Aly, told me about Shutterfly. She was printing pictures for her scrapbooks. She even made Christmas cards through them and sent us one. It is so cute and hanging on our refrigerator. Another friend of mine, Virginia, told me she makes photobooks through Shutterfly. There are so many things you can do on the  website!

When I saw that Shutterfly was having this amazing promotion you can only imagine how excited I was. We recently got some pictures taken by Lizabeth Photography. We are waiting for the CD to come in the mail. The second that CD is in my grubby little hands I am making Christmas cards! 

There are SO MANY different and beautiful templates to choose from. Click here to view the great templates for Christmas cards. They have other holiday cards too! They also have birthday cards, birthday invites, postcards or you can just get your pictures printed with great quality. 

Anyways, onto the promotion since you are probably anxious to know about it, huh? All you have to do is be a blogger, fill out the form, get the email, follow the instructions and you get 50 FREE Christmas cards! Can I hear a hell to the yes? Here is the sign up form: Click click. Personally I can not wait to make and send out my cards!

I am still unsure on what template we will be using. There's just so many! I am pretty sure I am going to end up using either the 5th one or the last one posted. I just really love the colors in it. Take a peek at the link above and find some of your favorites! Here are some of my top picks: 

Manic Monday- My first "Mommy heart attack"

This started out as a normal day. I worked this morning. I stopped by Target after work to buy diapers then, I picked up Brayden from my sister's. I visited a little bit but had to go grocery shopping.. Brayden slept most of the shopping trip after being slightly grumpy at the beginning of shopping. When we got home he got super grumpy. I started taking his clothes off so I could give him a bath. I decided it would be best to feed him first. I laid him on his changing table. This is where it got manic. I went to the kitchen to get a bottle.....

When I came back not even a minute later he had scooted all the way up his changing table...

His head was DANGLING over the edge of the table.. A few more scoots and oh wow, I don't even want to think about it.

He has never done this before! He doesn't ever MOVE, let alone to a dangerous point!

When I saw that I swear a heart or panic attack was in my future. Thank God he is okay. WOW. He is getting changed on the floor from now on!

Onto some pictures! 

(Disclaimer: none of which depicted the dreaded event)

Trying to roll onto his side.

Trying to break out of his straps. Ha.

He has his daddys "tv watching" face.

 Brayden's new socks from the Target $1 bin. ;)