Pure Joy

My next three posts will probably be boring to most people, but I owe it to my kiddos.  See, I want to be a wonderful scrapbooker (is that a word) and a "historian" when it comes to my kiddos births and milestones.  I have a scrapbook for Noah that JUST reached his first birthday and I have one of those milestone books.  I don't know the exact name for them, but you know what I'm talking about.  The books where you record when you saw their first alligator tear, or first drool come out of their mouth.  I did decent with Noah's (and I use the term "decent" very loosely).  I have a scrapbook for Kate that goes up to her THIRD MONTH and loosely recorded data in a pre-made scrapbook that I converted in to a "milestone book".  Then there is sweet Kara.. I have no milestone book for her.  I DO have a scrapbook made for her... but not because I'm an awesome mom.  My sweet sister-in-law, Megan, has pre-made a scrapbook for me for her first year so I can just insert pictures and go.  I don't even have any of THAT done.. and how easy is that??  So anyways, the next three posts is going to be each one's birth story with pictures and all.  I want it recorded for them somehow.  At least they will have this documented!  Thank goodness for BLOGS.  It's actually something I can do in my house while waiting on the "PRECIOUS ANGELS TO GO TO SLEEP" (Can you tell that I am slightly irritated??).  I am going to start with Kara first, just because she is only 6 months old, so it's the freshest on my mind, and I already have the pics. on the computer so I don't need to get any CD's out...

We found out we were expecting #3 right before Halloween of '07 (dang, if I had known I was preggo. at the pumpkin carving contest of '07, I might have actually won!).  I think Chris turned such a shade of white, that they named the color white "Chris" in the new Crayola box...(btw, still mad at that company.. see previous post).  I quickly started the "freaking out" process for SO MANY REASONS:

*um... we have a tiny house (1100 sq ft)

*I have my hands full with Noah and Kate (one for each hand..)

*Kate is FINALLY starting to get a little independent

*tiny house

*room situation (where is this baby going to sleep??)

*tiny house

*will my husband survive the shock of being told 'we' (yeah, "we" why do women say "we are having a baby..."  sure the We comes in to play in the "process" and the WE comes in to play after the baby is here....sometimes.. but I'm pretty sure.. no, I'm POSITIVE that I AM THE ONE HAVING THE ALIEN COME OUT OF MY STOMACH) were having a baby and live through it to help me out?

*Chris, at the time, had a job where he literally worked 24/7 and I'm not exaggerating.  I already felt like a single-mom, so how was I going to survive a third?  OR being pregnant and raising the two I had?

Anyways, I called people to tell them the news and most helped me get a little excited about it.  (I won't go in to what Mimi said.. after all this post is for Kara, and sweetie, she loves you dearly now!  hahahahaha)

At around 12 weeks, we found out that my best friend, Rachel, was also expecting.  We were so excited to be able to share this experience.  I am hesitant to write this because it is not my story to tell, but when I was around 27-28 weeks pregnant, Rachel lost her baby girl (she was around 19-20 weeks)  I won't go in to anything else, and the only reason I am putting this on MY blog when it is HER story is because I want baby girls memory to live on and I want Kara to know she has a best friend/ and a sister that she will meet one day in heaven.    

My pregnancy went pretty smoothly (well.. I guess that would depend on who you ask.  I'm sure the kids and my husband wanted it OUT of me...  they say I wasn't the nicest person to be around.. can't imagine!).  I craved Twinkies all the time.  I would sit and watch 'The Biggest Loser' while eating a box of Twinkies (not exaggerating...).  Around 33 weeks or so (can't remember the exact week.. Rachel would know) .. I was put on bedrest.  I use this term very loosely because I did not abide to this thing called bedrest.  I took it a little easier.. but not much.  It didn't help to be on it with Kate, so I figured I don't need to worry about it with Kara.  The reason for the bedrest is my blood pressure.  Around 29-30 weeks, my bp started creeping up at every dr.'s visit.  My doctor is awesome and always err's on the side of caution, which I'm happy about.   Anyways, around 35 weeks or so she scheduled an induction for me on June 20th (which would make me almost 38 weeks.. right, rachel?)  I had a regular appointment on June 18th and went in.  My bp was higher than my normal high and this time wouldn't go down.  I was already 2cm dialated so she went ahead and sent me to the hospital, but said if my bp goes down, they will send me home.  My bp went down some, but I started having contractions five minutes apart so they kept me.  Dr. R came in around 6:45 and broke my water .. and enter in the horrible contractions.  Epidurals don't work on me because of the arthritis in my back so this time I opted not to have one..(they usually make me faint anyways and don't help the pain...)  I know some people say it's not that bad without an epidural (Shannan-love ya girl, but I'm talking to YOU!!  :) ).  But I consider myself to have a pretty high pain-tolerance and it hurt like......(I'm going to edit right here.  My daughter's might be reading this while they are pregnant one day, and I don't want to terrify them...  some of my dear friends could be reading this who are going to have a baby... and I don't want to terrify them...  some family members who haven't had babies yet could be reading this.. and I don't want to terrify them).  Around 9:15 the nurse checked me and I was only 5cm dialated but I was all the way thinned out.  5 cm is not what you want to hear when you are in serious pain.  I started crying and my mom walks in to check on me and asks how I'm doing.. and Chris said, "not happy... don't ask"..  poor mom, she said "OK.." and quickly closed the door.  Around 9:25 the nurse asked me if I wanted something to lessen the pain.  I'm thinking in my head , "are you a friggin' idiot???  Why didn't you offer me that before???" ( I'll tell you why, because she was a nurse who should have been a midwife.  She made me get up and pee after my water was broke.. that was fun.. and then she asked me if I wanted to sit in the recliner... (UH.. water is broken.. don't want to sit in a friggin' recliner...) and then asked me if I wanted a friggin' birthing ball.  I finally said, "I DON'T WANT TO GET OUT OF THIS BED AGAIN"  I'm usually quiet during labor because I'm in so much pain.. but she was really getting on my nerves.. o.k.. where was I before I started the parathesis??)  Anyways, she left and came back with some stupid drug called stadol which does absolutely nothing.. except make you say stupid things.  She told me she would put it in my IV, and then after she checked me she would give me a shot of it so it would start working right away.  She told me though that it would make me act drunk.  I told her I didn't care, just give me the stuff.  She puts it in my IV and then checks me and I am at a 10 and crowning.  I told her I need to push.  She told me NO.  (Um, NO???  excuse me???  I'm having a baby here and you are telling me NOT TO PUSH???.. and remember, I have the "drunk drug" in me....)  SO .. I looked at her and yelled (In a bratty tone, too)  "I'M PUSHING!!!!!"  In runs my dr. and she says, "hows it going?" and I yelled at her 'I"M PUSHING"...  She barely had time to get dressed before Kara was born.  Rumor has it I kept yelling "I'm retarded"  the entire time I was pushing... but I think it's just a rumor.  (Even though the person in the next room was Nathan Pair and his wife and they could hear me through the wall.. that's not embarrassing....they had had their baby 2 days before...)

Kara was born a little after 10:00 pm and weighed 6 lb 11 oz, and was 18 inches long. 

 This was the first baby that I got to hold and enjoy after the delivery.  Everything went pretty smoothly, except the dr. said I couldn't be alone with her since I was acting a little woozey.  

Kara has been such a bright spot in our family.  

She is really sweet and always smiling.  The name Kara was the only name that Chris and I both kind of liked.  (I really wanted Lucy.. but we won't go there...Chris wanted Reese, which I love, but won't go with our last name...)  We also liked Kara because the name Kara means the same thing as the name Kaitlyn.  It means PURE. We thought that was pretty cool.  The middle name is Joyce after my dad's mom.  I wanted to add a little of my side of the family to the name :)  So the name Kara Joyce means "PURE JOY" and she is just that--Pure Joy...  

we love you "boose-boose"