Meeting Gram Gram

Today Miles got to meet my grandma, who is his gram gram. It means so much to me that my kids have a good relationship with both my mom and my grandma. We all hung out at my mom's house and Beth, Amanda, and mommom were there, too. Krys made it for the very end of our day. We filled up on delicious thanksgiving leftovers in a warm and cozy house. Then my mom and the kids made cookies. It doesn't get much better.

It was a great day with all of my favorite women!

Welcome Miles!

So, just like with everything else in my life, this post is a bit late. But it's worth writing out, so here it goes. The story of the birth of Miles Ellis Chewning.

I mentioned in a previous post that I had been very nervous/paranoid during my whole pregnancy, due in part to my nervous nature, and in part to the miscarriage I had last year, and even Oli's diagnosis halfway through my pregnancy with him. In short, my faith in the idea that pregnancy could be a carefree or simple process had been shot. So, I was constantly convinced that something was wrong, and one of my big fears was that my water would break and I wouldn't realize it.Unfortunately for me, this fear was exacerbated by my poor urinary continence during the second half of my pregnancy. To say I peed my pants a lot would be an understatement. Sad, but true. It led to an ER visit while on vacation in Ocean City, MD. And then, on Oct. 22, I started to randomly pee while I was out food shopping. Or was it my water leaking a gush at a time? That was the million dollar question. I tried to wait it out, but after 7 gushes in just as many hours, including whenever i stood up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, I called my OB and they sent me to labor and deliver to be checked out.

I drove myself, because I wasn't in labor, wasn't convinced it was my water breaking, and Tim wouldn't be allowed in triage with me anyway with the kids. So off I went at 2:#0 a.m. I got there, and was checked by the midwife on call. At first she didn't see any signs of fluid, but they hooked me up to a heartrate monitor and had me stay for a while. She didn't seem to believe me, or had an odd way of choosing her words, b/c she "wanted to believe my story" but didn't see any signs of fluid. Then, she did an u/s and saw that my fluid was low. That "supported my story" in her mind, so she had me stay a bit longer. As she was writing up my discharge papers, I had another gush, and this time, they found some evidence of fluid. Once your water breaks, you have to deliver imminently b/c of threat of infection, so they checked me in and labor had officially begun!

About an hour or two later, I was transferred to my room. I texted Tim and told him to let my dad (who was on call to watch mac and oli during labor) to have him come later in the day. At this point, i wasn't really having any contractions. I entered the hosptial at about 2 cm dilated and 80% effaced. But I wasn't really progressing as the morning went on. Even though this was a VBAC, they started pitocin, which they steadily increased throughout the day. Nothing really happened between the time I got there an 7 pm, when I had dilated enough to show a second bag of waters. Once they broke that, it was game on.

I was really invested in having a natural birth, but had only prepared by reading 2 books (okay, 1 1/2 books) and taking the standard L&D class at the hospital. Tim and nixed my idea for a doula, so I was kind of on my own. Luckily I had a great nurse, and Tim was there at that point, as well. For the next hour, I labored in increasing pain. Finally, a little after 8, they checked me, and I was 6 cm dilated. I couldn't imagine going for 4 more cm (which could take hours) in that pain, so I asked for an epidural. I got up to go to the bathroom before they came in with the epidural, and had the unbelievable urge to push. I yelled for the nurse who yelled for the doctor. She checked me and confirmed that I was ready to push, and had gone from 6 cm to 10 cm in 6 minutes.  Of course, the epridural was out and I was in intense pain. I didn't even feel like I could pull my legs back to push. But they made me (of course) and push I did. I kept saying I couldn't do it, and everyone kept telling me I could. After a 2 or three more pushes, out came his head, and then with one more push, he was out. He came right up to my chest, and I got my first look at one of the three cutest babies I have ever seen. Just like with Oli there was such tremendous relief to see this baby outside and moving around.

I was able to nurse him right away, which was a big deal to me. He stayed with me at all times instead of going to the nursery (excpet for tests and a bath). I felt great right afterwards, and was so glad that I never got the epidural.






At first glance, Miles looks like Mac, but with a smaller head. He is changing day by day, and I can't wait to see what he looks like as he gets older. He often makes angry, old man faces. He sleeps sometimes, but I wouldn't say I get a lot of sleep. He has fussy periods, but he can also be really calm.  Mac and Oli love him so much, and always want to touch/hold him. Going from 2 to 3 has been hectic, but not hard. I think the age difference among the kids is just right. He is such a blessing, and I am totally in love with my little trio.

The Stone Museum

Happy Birthday Oli

My little Oli is five! It seems unbelievable that he has wandered into big boy territory! To celebrate, we went to the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia. The kids love it here and it is a great place for accessibility. This was Oli's first time here in his wheelchair and he got around very easily.

Good Stuff!

One of the things that I haven't liked about moving to PA is that we are farther away from the shore. As a family, we love the beach, and enjoyed being less than 40 minutes away. But this week, thanks to my parents, we got to spend the whole week down at the shore! It was a great week, complete with family, food, and swimming. Anytime all of us get together, it is fun, and this year was no exception. Here are some of the highlights.

 Oli and Mac were fish in the pool! My parents had a beach house next to our motel, but rented a room for us in the motel so that we could have the pool. It was great. We found great floaties for Oliver, and for the first time, he was able to float and swim on his own. Of course, we were right next to him, but he was able to play on his own. It was great! Meanwhile, Mac was jumping in and swimming underwater by the end of the week.

 On a rainy afternoon, Aunt Krysie did some artwork with the kids. I'm not sure who started it (Mac, I think) but when I came back out to the porch, all three had creepy Texas Chain Saw Massacre style masks. But at least they were having fun...

 One of the best parts of being at Point Pleasant was being able to see my grandma and Aunt Patti. We always love our visits!

 Being with family is always the best part. Here is half of our party up ahead, while the rest of us lagged behind. We were on our way to Martells (so bad, but so good).

 After dinner, we won big! We never, ever win like this. It was almost a catastrophe when we had only one stuffed animal, but two well-aimed ball throws later, we had four more animals. Plus, the two each that we had one the day before. We came home rich in stuffies!

Rides were a big part of our trip. There were two unlimited ride wrist band days, and we took full advantage. This was the first year that Mac was big enough to ride the older rids, but Oli could only ride kid rides. While that created some problems, since Oli is super attached to Mac right now (they fought it on the way home about whether or not they were best friends). But they could both ride the big swings, as long as Oli had an adult with him. If you look closely, you can see my mom and Oli on the swings.

We also celebrated my mom's birthday and spent a lot of fun time in the ocean. Of course, Mac always wants to go deeper in the waves, and Oli and I stayed sitting at the shoreline getting "toe kisses" from the ocean.

The day after we got home was the beginning of my third trimester! Definitely good stuff!