A Happy Home is Filled with Love and Laughter: February 2010

The Arrival of Kaylee Joy Tenney

Beej & Chris

***************************BEWARE LONG POST************************************

I figured I better document the arrival of our beautiful daughter Kaylee Joy now while the details are still somewhat fresh in my mind.

At our 39 week doctors appointment (Wednesday Feb 18 th) the doctor checked me and I was dilated to a 3, 90% effaced and at a +1 station. Since I hadn't progressed significantly we decided to plan for an induction in case she decided not to come by my due date. The doctor gave us a choice and told us we could do it that coming Friday or the following Monday. I really wanted to have Kaylee sooner than later so we told the doctor to plan on Friday morning (the day before my due date). After talking about our decision of being induced Friday, BJ and I both decided that even though it may be a very long weekend that we wanted to wait till Monday so she had more of a chance to come on her own.

Well, that night I started having some strong contractions that were occurring every 10 minutes for about an hour. Just as I was about to wake BJ up to have him help me time them and possibly prepare to go to the hospital, they slowed down and became very inconsistent. Ugh so frustrating.

I woke up and took BJ to the train the next morning at 6:40am and came back to get some sleep. Unfortunately one of the neighbors dogs was going CRAZY and kept waking me up. So I finally got up and decided to get some things done to prepare for our baby girls arrival. I ended up taking our new car to get its emissions done (cause the place where we bought the car forgot to do it. They paid for it to be done but I had to take it in). I got to Burt Brothers for the emissions around noon and waited for about 30 minutes for the car. I was having some contractions on and off but nothing significant. I drove around for a bit cause I didn't wanna go home yet :) and finally ended up picking up some subway and headed home. Got home about 1:00pm and started eating my lunch on the couch. At1:20pm I felt like I had just peed my pants and went to the bathroom. It was a small amount but enough that I had to change clothes. I thought to myself that was weird. I mean you have discharge with pregnancy but that was more than usual. After changing my clothes I was putting away my food in the kitchen when it happened again. I felt it coming so I quickly took my pants off and stood in the middle of the kitchen floor leaking this gucky stuff. LOL I grabbed a paper towel and started cleaning up my mess and as soon as I stood up, I made another mess. At this point I knew this was something other than regular discharge and called BJ. I called him twice with no answer. So I finally texted him "BJ- I think my water just broke". He finally called me back and said "what? you think? Should I come home? Should I have someone drive me or should I catch the train?" I told him that I think he should come home but that I am not having any contractions right now so he could hop on the train but that I probably couldn't come get him and he would have to walk home from the train station. He quickly got off the phone and headed to the train station.
In the meantime I am trying to make it up the stairs to get a pad without leaking all over the carpet. LOL I actually was laughing to myself. I mean I wasn't having contractions and it was kind of funny trying to walk around without making a mess. I grabbed our bags and some last minute things for the hospital and then sat on the couch (I was exhausted from not sleeping very much the night before). I then get a phone call from BJ. He said, "K- I am on the Internet. And it says you need to sit down and relax. Count the babies kicks and ponder your thoughts and feelings". Can I just say I LOVE my husband! :) He is soo cute! BJ finally got home around 2:30pm and we headed off to the hospital. The nurse did the nitrazine test (where they use nitrazine paper to test for amniotic fluid to see if my water had broke and sure enough the test strip came back blue indicating a positive result). The nurse checked me and told me I was dilated to a 3, 50% effaced and at a 0 station (lol totally different than what my doctor had told me....I am thinking the nurse didn't know what she was talking about). They admitted me around 3:00 pm and said the doctor wanted me to start pitocin now. I asked if we could walk around some and try to let me body do the work without the help of the pit. They said ok but that my doctor was going to be unavailable from 9pm till midnight. BJ and I decided to get up and go walking at 3:15pm. We walked around for about an hour. The contractions were getting a little bit more intense but nothing too bad at all.

I layed in bed for a bit and relaxed until the nurse came in and checked me again around 5:00pm and said that I was making progress and was now dilated to a 4. She told us we could either walk some more or get pitocin. I waited a little bit but then decided to have them start the pitocin. The nurse started the pitocin at around 6:00pm and said we could increase it every 30 minutes. She told me that if I wanted an epidural to give them a heads up because the anesthesiologist was not in house and would take about 20 minutes to get there. I was doing fine so I decided to wait. 6:30pm came and the contractions were getting a little bit more painful and since I knew I had to wait for her to come I decided to have them call the anesthesiologist. BJ

remembered what we had learned in our pregnancy class and helped me breath through the contractions. The nurse came in and gave me some fentanyl to take the edge off. It made me super dizzy but definitely helped relieve the pain. When the anesthesiologist got there I wasn't too bad off but decided to get the epidural before it gets too bad. She gave me a bolus and immediately my legs went numb. It got so bad that I couldn't move my legs at all. It was horrible! It was nice not being in pain but I hated not having control in my legs. I could not get comfortable and my mom and BJ kept having to help me move from side to side to try to help me. I asked them to call the anesthesiologist to come turn it down. It took her awhile to come so the nurse just turned the epidural completely off. By the time the anesthesiologist got there she turned it down and gave me a small bolus. A little while later I told her to turn it down even more. YEAH I could move my legs and the pain was bearable. At around 1:30 or 2:00 am they checked me and I was dilated to a 10 and anterior lip. We started pushing at around 2:30 am. The epidural had worn off a lot but I liked being able to feel the contractions and when to push. At 3:18 am Kaylee Joy Tenney was born. The doctor thought she was OP (Occiput posterior) so he used the vacuum to help ease her out. She ended up being faced correctly but was just in a weird position and needed a little help. By the time Kaylee was born the epidural was almost totally worn off. I had complete sensation in my legs but I wasn't inexcruciating pain.

Kaylee didn't cry when she came out. The nurses had to suction her and use a suction cup tool that they patted on her back to help get the gunk out of her lungs. They gave her some oxygen and had to bag her for a little bit to help her breath. She let out two small whimper cries and then opened her eyes wide and just stared around at everyone. I was overcome with love immediately! BJ and I both had tears in our eyes coming to the realization that this was our baby and that she made it here safe and sound. Kaylee was beautiful from the very beginning and just gets cuter and cuter every day!

(Daddy holding Kaylee for the first time)

(We are parents!!!!)

(The feeling I had in this picture made the past 9 months all worth it!)

(Look at all that hair- isn't she beautiful)

(Thank goodness for modern medicine)

(Kaylee was sooo strong! While the nurses were weighing her she started pulling herself up and hung onto the edge. She holds her head up all the time! I am going to have to post a little video of when the nurses bathed her, they set her in the little tub and she grabbed onto the sides and held sooo tightly as if to say "dont drop me...dont drop me!" It was soo cute. )

Valentines Day

Beej & Chris

This year valentines day was kinda crazy. BJ and I have been so distracted with the car problems and everything else..that valentines day just kind of snuck up on us. BJ still made the day special. Saturday night we went to our ward's valentines day luau. I didn't get to dance as much as I would have liked but BJ and I were able to get a couple swing dances in, which was soo fun and made us realize how much we have missed it. Sunday morning he made me pancakes, hashbrowns, bacon, and homemade syrup. YUMMMY! We then went to my parents house and just hung out. Today was our extended valentines celebration. BJ had the day off of work so we went to see the movie Dear John. The movie was ok, but not one that I would recommend. After I did a few visits for work, we went to Sizzler to get some grub. Then came home and relaxed and watched some of the olympics. Overall the weekend was busy but a lot of fun. I can't believe BJ

has to go back to work tomorrow. I wish this

weekend could have lasted forever!

Birthday

Beej & Chris

So I forgot to do a post for my birthday which was on the 5th of this month. I LOVE birthdays! I started out the morning with BJ giving me the sweetest card along with a beautiful necklace and an IOU for a Wii Fit (the stores were all out). He also bought me donughts and sang to me- it was so sweet.
I then spent most of the morning going through the baby clothes I had recieved from the baby shower that my ward threw for me. There were a ton of people that came and we had a lot of fun. I loved hearing everyone's stories and advice! But my favorite part is going through all the clothes afterwards and sorting them. It always gets me super excited for our baby girl to come.

In the afternoon I picked BJ up from work and we went to Costa Vida in the Gateway for lunch. It was so yummy, and I was super excited to spend more time with BJ. After I dropped him back off to work, I met my dad at the Salt Lake Temple and did a session together. It was fun to spend some time with my dad. We dont get to do that very often so it was nice. I went to the Bountiful temple earlier that week with my mom. I love going to the temple and especially with people I love.

After the session I picked BJ up from work and we headed to the mall. We found a gift card for $42. 58 for Macys that we have had since we got married two years ago. lol When I called to get the balance it said it had expired. I was sick to my stomach. It then said "press 1 if your card has expired" and after I pressed one it magically un-expired. ;) I was excited and told BJ that we HAD to spend this TODAY cause I dont

want to lose the money. It was sooo fun. We just wandered around the store looking for stuff we could buy for $42. The night before I was trying to pull the sheet on our bed while BJ was on it and it ripped down the middle. ha ha It was so funny. So we bought some new sheets. We still had some money to spend so we looked at the baby stuff. We ended up buying two cute newborn outfits. We thought for sure we had gone over the alotted amount of money but our total came to $42.55. YEP we spent all but 0.03 cents of our card. CRAZY

(This is a picture of BJ posing at the mall. he he We had fun shopping :D)

After our fun adventure at the mall. We headed to my parents house for some cake and games. My sister and brother Johnathon weren't there but we had fun playing mall madness. Mall madness was one of my favorite games in elementary school. I totally forgot about it and was excited to play. I dont think my brother or BJ were too excited, but they were good sports about it anyway. :)

It ended up being a great day! Thanks everyone for making my birthday so special!

UPDATE

Beej & Chris

Pregnancy class #6:

This last tuesday was our last day of our pregnancy class! We watched a few videos, got a "goodie bag", and took a tour of the hospital and the maternity floor. Not going to lie...I was feeling pretty ready to have this baby but then when we took the tour, I got pretty nervous.

39 Week Doctor Appointment:

My appointment went well. My doctor didn't check me this week but will next wednesday. He told me that I looked like I had dropped even more. When I asked him what the plan was if I didn't go into labor by my due date, he told me that we would make a plan next wednesday after he checks me. He said that if I am dilated to a 3 and 100% effaced or at least a bishops score of 10 or higher, then he would just break my water the following day.

Pediatrician:

BJ and I asked our doctor for a few referrals of some pediatricians. We decided to make an appointment to meet with one of them this last week. I really want to feel comfortable with our pediatrician, and find someone that will listen to us as parents and our instincts. Someone that is patient and willing to take time to explain things to us. Someone that loves kids and is good at what they do. Needless to say....both BJ and I weren't impressed with the pediatrician that we met with and are on the hunt for a really good one. Anybody have some suggestions that live in the Bountiful/Woods Cross area?

Car Update:
The mechanic told us that our water pump is leaking. I was able to get it to the mechanic and home without it overheating, but the dial gets right up in the red zone within a few miles. So we knew we either had to fix it or get a new car. After looking at our car the mechanic said it would take at least 7 or so hours of labor and at least $700 to repair it. We looked up our car's value and it was only valued at around $900 so we decided it was time to get a new car. Since we decided not to let the mechanic fix it and the car doesn't go very far without overheating...we had to get a rental car. And can I just say- CAN'T WAIT for BJ's 25th birthday, cause rental companies wont be able to charge us an additional $15 a day just because we are under 25 yrs old. We got a rental car for a week, set a budget for what we wanted to spend and set out looking for a car. We did a lot of research and test drove a handful of cars every night after BJ got home, and finally came to a conclusion last night. We got the loan this morning and picked up our 2008 Toyota Rav 4! We both love it and are really excited and feel blessed we were able to find such a good company that we could trust (High End Rides) and especially grateful our baby girl didn't decide to come while we still had the rental car.

STRESS

Beej & Chris

New JOB:

I started working at my company as a LPN. They pay me per visit and it has worked out really nice. I have enjoyed the job and have started getting more challenged lately which has been good. I put in my first IV and got it on my first try, I was soo happy! I flushed a nephrostomy and helped with a central line dressing change. Well- when I got my RN and faxed the license to my work I started charting RN after my name. I was pretty excited for my new raise and the extra money that I will get just for adding RN after my name. A few days ago my boss told me that since I got my license in the middle of a pay period (5 days into it) that it would be too hard for them to pay me RN pay and I would just have to wait to get paid RN pay the next pay period. WHAT??!!! 5 days into the 15 day pay period and I am not going to get paid for that?? My boss said, I tried to talk to payroll and fight for you but they said it was just too hard to do. HARD TO DO?? How is it hard to pay me more money? Why can't they just retropay the extra on the following paycheck?? UGH so Frustrating especially with the car problems we are currently having as well as this new baby bundle on the way.

Car Problems:

We recieved our car from my parents and have really enjoyed it these past two years, but it is starting to fall apart and I am ready for a new one. The heater started giving us problems about a year ago. It will blow heat for a little bit, but then starts blowing cold air. We have gotten used to it though...untill yesterday when the heat totally blew. Good thing it is warming up outside and this little "bun in the oven" is keeping me pretty toasty. :) Well- today the car started overheating on my way home from getting gas. I made it home ok but we have to get it into the mechanics tomorrow to get it checked. Not a big deal except for we just had it in the mechanics two weeks ago for a tune up and a month before that because he totally died on us on our way to Desert Start Theatre. So in the past couple months we have forked out around $700. We want to buy a new car and have been planning on doing that for awhile. But with the baby on its way and our current finances it just isn't the best time. And if we bought a car we would have to rely on my job which we really don't want to do cause I don't want to work very much so I can be home with our sweet baby, and it makes us both nervous to have to rely on two paychecks with the chance of one of us losing our jobs.

I am not trying to complain I am just STRESSED and for some reason writting it down helps to ease my stress. But through all this I have realized what great friends and family I have. I have had cousins, my family, and neighbors help get me to where I have needed to go. It has been a wonderful blessing and something both BJ and I are very grateful for. Despite the stress we both feel extremely blessed and are appreciative of all that we do have. We haven't had a car payment since we have been married, we are both healthy, we got pregnant despite the endometriosis I have, we both have great jobs, and best of all we have wonderful friends and family!

We are both just praying that when the baby comes that we will have a way to get to the hospital! Today was supposed to be my doctors visit, but since our car is having problems we had to cancel it. So I will let you know what he says on wednesday. To end on a funny note. I see a 92 year old patient quite frequently. And this last week he said "You are planning on having your baby at the hospital right?". I told him that was the plan. He looks at me very seriously and says, "Ok- just...don't have her here ok!" LOL I just cracked up and said, "What, you dont want to deliver my baby?" He just stared at me and said, "NO- I really really dont!". SO Funny!

WHAT A DEAL!!!!

Beej & Chris

LOL! I had to take a picture of this when I saw it! You could save a whole $0.01 if you buy this space saver high chair TODAY! BJ and I heard about this AMAZING sale at Toys R Us and decided to go look for some baby things, needless to say the deals weren't all that amazing. But while we are speaking of deals...BJ has been at it again with his coupon deals. Here is the latest deal he has done......

We went grocery shopping yesterday at Smith's and got all this for $38.04. Before all the coupons and our smith's card the bill was over $118.00!!!!! How did we do it you ask? Well- WE didn't do it...BJ did! He follows the following blogs every week and starts to make his plan for the weekend on what deals he is going to attempt.
http://hip2save.com/

http://www.utahdealdiva.com/

http://slavetosave.blogspot.com/

http://thekrazycouponlady.com/

*** Note: Not all of these blogs are done by people in Utah, so some of the deals are not valid here***

Saturday is usually what I call "BJ's deal day". Every Sunday in the morning he cuts out ALL the coupons from the Sunday newspaper and the alphabetizes them by the brand name. Then as he is looking at blogs he usually remembers the coupons that he has and can figure out which deals he can do with the coupons he has. He will also print off some coupons from specific name brand websites as the bloggers advice him to. It is definitely A LOT of work and time but we have saved so much money and our food storage just keeps building! It is always rewarding for him when he sees the bill go from $118 to $38 and having the cashier say "wow- that is a lot for $38 dollars". It takes time out of my BEEJ time on Saturday but it is all worth it to see his face after a great deal!! What can I say- my husband is AMAZING!

Pregnancy Class #5

Beej & Chris

Phew- we only have one more class to go. CRAZY! The classes have been a lot of fun and we have both learned a lot, but I am excited to be getting to the end cause that means I am to the end of my pregnancy and get to see our daughter soon! Woot Woot!

This week we talked about breastfeeding. Our teacher is a "Lactation consult" and is really really good at what she does! I ended up staying after to ask her even more questions and made BJ late for basketball (he was soo patient and understanding. THANKS again BJ). There is soooo much to learn about breastfeeding. I kinda wish we would have taken a breastfeeding class as well. She teaches one on top of this class we are in and goes more into depth. For all of you that have thought about taking a pregnancy class- DO IT! Even if it is just to find out about breastfeeding! ANYWAY.........

Quick warning: I spent the last year in a half in nursing school where we talked about everything. We talked about gross wounds or diseases while we ate our lunch like it was no big deal. Not to mention being in the medical field- some things just dont phase you anymore. SO- that being said. SKIP this if you are a guy or a girl that doesn't want to read about breastfeeding in detail :)

Here is a lovely picture of the "breasts" that we got to practice feeding with. :) Neat huh! We learned about all the different ways to hold a baby and what the best way to keep your milk supply up. So I was not going to buy a breast pump at first, but then decided to buy a cheap small one to have just in case. BUT our teacher recommended buying a pump and told us to use it from the very beginning. She said that the baby usually just eats from one breast and if he/she gets a good latch then they will fill up. Sometimes in the beginning they will go to the other breast for "desert" or more foremilk just to top them off. SO she told us to keep our milk supply up it is good to breast feed on one side and pump the other side and freeze the milk. She doesn't recommend feeding the breast milk from the bottle for at least 4 weeks so the baby doesn't get lazy and not want to latch on anymore. It was really interesting and I felt like I learned a lot. I wont bore you will all the details that

she told us. But I did have a question for all you experienced breast feeders out there. Our teacher recommended buying a "Medela" brand breast pump because the motor will last and make it worth the money. Anybody buy a Medela and how did you like it? There are also so many different kinds of Medela's out there. Any other recommendations out there? Would love to hear what everyone thinks!!!

Oh and this is a "ticket to breastfeed in public". It has Utah's law about breastfeeding in public. We talked about how in the United States it is still controversial to breastfeed in public. Where in Italy, BJ would be teaching someone from his mission and they would just whip out their breast like it was no big deal. I dont plan on doing that by all means. But I thought this ticket was funny and informative :)

37 1/2 weeks= No baby

Beej & Chris

So at our 35 week doctors appointment when I was dilated to a 2, 80% effaced, and at a -1 station, our doctor got really excited and told us to pack our bags and prepare cause she might come early. Well- last week..he seemed surprised to see me and not having a lot of contractions. I think he thought since I had progressed so much so early that I would go fast. It has definitely not been the case. I got pretty excited at our 35 week appointment but after last week and not having a ton of contractions as of recently, I thought I was pretty prepared to hear that I hadn't progressed much. But it was still hard for him to say, "well. I will definitely be seeing you next week!" I am still dilated to a 2, still 80% effaced, BUT now a 0 station. That's right. She dropped her little head a little bit more.
Bright side of all this- I will make it to my ward baby shower this thursday. I won't have the baby on my birthday this friday. I should be able to finish my pregnancy class with BJ AND I can keep working and earning some money to help pay for this baby :)
Down side- I wanna see her face soo much! Since she has dropped, she doesn't kick as hard or as much so I get nervous all the time...always checking for her to kick to make sure she is ok. At night I wake up to go to the restroom and then come back and try to wait for her to kick- but then end up falling asleep just to wake up panicked realizing that I had fallen asleep before I felt her kick and try feeling her again just to fall asleep again. Its a viscous cycle. I already know that I am going to be laying right over her bassinet listening for her to breath. I know I know- I worry to much.
Well- we will continue to keep ya posted. Tomorrow is our pregnancy class so I will write about that later!