Daisy's big day

This is the story of my baby's birth so it's going to be long and winded. But of course filled with my flair.  Just forewarning you.  You're welcome to just look at the adorable pictures and tell me how cute she is, just realize you'll be missing out on my flair. :)

My last day of work was Thurs Dec. 22nd and I had a slight tickle in my throat.  All day I had been thinking about what we were going to do with our last weekend as the 4 of us and holiday activities.  I was going to make sugar cookies y'all.  I don't bake, I hate baking.
I woke up the next day (the 23rd) with a fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, and downright miserable.
I stayed in bed all day only coming out to pee and eat. I felt like a horrible Mother having my children watch Netflix all day and eating cereal.
On the 24th my Mom had a lunch party at her place with all the family since my Grandma and Aunt were in town.  It was a regular family shindig.  Clay took the girls but I stayed home and died.

Christmas came and I felt like my fever was starting to break but I was still miserable and a coughing fool. Clay woke up starting to feel sick as well. (Really?!) The girls happily opened their gifts while we watched. We got a crazy amount of snow that weekend and especially on Christmas.  The poor plow drivers not only had to go out on Christmas but they could just not keep up. We trekked it over to my sisters house and had dinner there with her family and my parents.We had a great time and it was just so nice to get out of the house.  That night we left Lucy, Zoey, and Nana dog (Bella) with my parents and plowed our way home. So our last night together and we have the house to ourselves, romantic right?  Nah, Clay slept on the couch because he and I were both having coughing fits and ironically they weren't in-sync, who knew?
And those bullies at the hospital didn't want me to drink water after midnight. Sure tell that to someone who's throat is on fire.
BUT, I made it through the night without going into labor. So I'm kind of amazing.
Mon. Dec. 26th I was scheduled for a 9 am c-section, but they wanted me there at 6:30.  Clay woke up feeling even more sick.  I finally felt like I was on the upturn, but still exhausted. (duh!  You're 9 months pregnant!)

The very last belly shot

We made it known as soon as we got there that we were sick.  Clay snagged a mask, I just coughed into my elbow, I wear enough masks.  They had me shower and wash up with their nasty, stinky, hospital soap.
And then 4 tries later I had my IV placed.  I couldn't eat or drink after midnight so a little dehydration makes it difficult to snag a vein.  It's cool tho, having an IV placed is no fun but it's more frustrating to the poor nurse who can't get it.

I've been pretty anxious during this pregnancy thinking that I'm going to die or be permanently paralyzed.

I have been dreading this day.

Looking foreward to Poppy Seed/Hulk but terrified of the surgery,

Which was weird to me because I've done this twice now, why not another time?

Those last two times tho I had been laboring and in pain and babies were not doing great so just walking into the hospital for this kind of felt like I was a lamb at the slaughter. (A bit dramatic aren't ya Tiffany) (What are you new here?)

I was even more terrified because now I'm having coughing fits AND abdominal surgery.  I'm not seeing this ending well.  You can barely walk post op I can't imagine forcibly constricting your very tender abdomen over and over and over again.

And during surgery?  Hang on there Doc I need to cough.

Too late!  I totally jammed this sharp blade into your liver.

Wait what's that I hear?  Code blue?!

(Again with the drama, really?)

They gave me a breathing treatment with some lidocaine and it worked great.  Totally numbed my throat, too bad it didn't numb my taste buds.  You think it's bad at the dentist?  Try having it coat your tongue. Bleh

Clay's all ready for surgery!

The last hospitals gave him scrubs to wear, I think Mtn View cheaped out. ;)
Ok but seriously you can see how miserable he looks and you can only see his eyes. Poor guy.

I am so not terrified and so ready to have them rip open my gut.  Let's do this!
By this point I quit talking, the lidocaine was working so I wasn't going to do anything to change that. Can you imagine a silent Tiffany? No like really?  It was awful having so much to say but not being able to. Wo is me.

I had this surgery all planned out folks.  I asked for the clear screen so I could watch the whole time, I was going to ask about a million questions, and I even talked Clay into filming it. Because really to watch your baby born, how awesome is that! 

I didn't get to ask my questions but I did get the clear screen and it was filmed.  I have yet to watch it.

The Dr. and the anesthesiologist had apparently been arguing over which antibiotic to give to me so you could feel some tension in the room.  That's another thing I did not appreciate but what can ya do?  Your legs and voice don't work anymore so let's slice and dice!

The most awesome thing guys, my baby came out and cried right away!

Do you know how deafening silence can be? My other two babes didn't make a peep and then they were gone where I couldn't hear or see them.

They whisked Daisy off to the nursery to clean her up a little and check her out and then they handed her back to Dad.  She was with me as they closed me up.

My baby was with me!
I wasn't left in the OR with the surgeon and techs wondering how my baby was doing.

She was brought right to me with that active little tongue.

She started rooting on my cheek guys!  It was the most incredible thing.

And here's a blood shot just to gross y'all out.  Just look at what they did to me!

That's not a retractor that's a golf club.

And little Daisy went and sat with me in recovery. I started to feed her and she started to turn grey so they took her to the nursery to watch her.

Which I was fine with because I could barely keep my eyes open during surgery let alone recovery.

So we both napped.

She has been fine ever since, must have just been positioning.

Ahhh back to diapers.

Clay stop making the same face Daisy is making. :)

Little Miss Daisy Rae.

I've been trying to talk Clay into the name Daisy since we were pregnant with Lucy.

Ya know what finally broke him?

Star Wars.

Yep.

Rae, of course the main characters name, and what do you know her name in real life is Daisy.

Sold.

And that's how I knew she was mine, makin faces. :)

Her tongue is always active and searching.

I was so sure that I would have her before Christmas so I bought her a couple Christmas outfits.

I had been so sure so when everyday that went past 38 weeks I became madder and madder.  Ya know because this is totally something I could control, not.

I had not expected to work that last week of work.

I was beat.

I had my babies at 

35 weeks

37 week

& 39 weeks (by force).
Makes me wonder when she would have come given the chance to come on her own.

I had pictured feeding her by the tree at night and Christmas morning being so relaxing and easy going.

HA! Yet another example that we really don't have control of these things.

Look how big those pj's are!

They told me I could go home 48 hours after surgery but the second day in I felt horrible.

The IV was taken out, along with the good meds,(toradol is kind of awesome) and their went my catheter, (also awesome, you mean I can pee but I have no idea AND I don't have to get up?  Well sign me up!). We opted to stay another day since it was such a miserable day.

Enjoy this grainy picture.

To heal quicker we did laps around the floor.  Daisy just slept through it, Clay coughed through it, and I winced through it. 

We came home Thursday afternoon and had the house to ourselves.  My poor Mom still had Lucy and Zoey.

The next day Daisy had a weight check at the Dr.  All was well, still within the limits of weight loss.  Kind of cutting it close tho.

After that we went to my parent's house to pick up the girls.

Did I mention they had caught what we had?
It is a miracle little Daisy didn't catch it.

And my poor Mother had to take care of these two sickies and then to top it off we shared our disease with her.

They weren't so sure about the masks but once we told them they could color on them the girls thought they were pretty awesome.

They were all smitten with Miss Daisy and couldn't hold her enough.

And Bella has officially adopted her as one of her own.

As I'm typing this Daisy is laying on a blanket on the ground, (because I'm that kind of parent) and Bella is lying right next to her. 

I'd love to change the order of these photos but blogger makes that too difficult, so we're going to deal.

Aunty Keisha came to cuddle.

The nurses and Clay gave her a bath and she came back with a cute, little bow. 

And I was so glad my Grandma could meet and hold her before she had to head back home.

My Mom and Dad gave Daisy a giant teddy bear, we use it as a couch. :)

Welcome to the insanity of 3 children Tiffany! As I push Zoey off my very tender belly and she just doesn't understand why she can't lay on me and cuddle. Cue the sad face and tears for effect.

Some snuggles with Grandpa.

So during my surgery when I was silent and trying to keep my eyes open they told me that my uterus tore.  I have a uterine window.  Basically it's super thin.  It happens with multiple c-sections.

It ripped when they were taking Daisy out, over by my left hip.  He said it was in a weird spot.

Sooo, in the event that I get pregnant again ( I'm not seeing this happening, this whole procedure and post op was terrible) they would take the baby out sooner.  Or ya know my uterus could just rip any time it feels like it.

Apparently other women have this problem too so I'm not the only one, but it wasn't comforting to know an organ ripped.

Can you imagine worrying about that happening through a whole pregnancy too?

All right we'll chat post op later.

For now, I'm totally impressed you made it through that whole post.

As a reward I will allow you to babysit Daisy between the hours of 6pm-8am.  You're welcome! :)  Just let me know when you'd like to use this voucher.

Nov. 2016

Zoey turned 4 this month, little monster isn't a baby anymore! :(

Lucy was so excited to give her a My Little Pony book that she bought for her on her scholastic order months ago.

Lucy also bought her Dad a Star Wars look and find book at the same time.

Clay's birthday is also this month.

Little Zoey wasn't as thrilled to be awake.

And Zoey picked out a BB-8 swirly magoo.

Sticking with the theme I gave him a Darth Vader shirt.

(I'm hoping baby stays put so I can see Rogue 1, because that would be awesome!)

Our first snow and it's a tiny skiff, doesn't stop Zoey!

She was itching to go out all morning.

She was out there making snow angels and yelling "Best snow angel ever!"

Hours later after she had come in, she looked out the window and saw that it had melted.

Oh the tears.

And some days are just exhausting, I can't say much, I take more naps than they do.

See they love each other!

They share a bunk bed but sometimes they want to sleep on the same bed.  Sister cuddles. :)

(It was night but I had to turn the light on for the picture, priorities.)

The girls were having a tea party before church and Bella was invited.

Bella didn't mind because she was given Teddy Grahms also.
They ran to play in there room and the poor dog kept sitting up there. I finally had to tell her to get down.

 My parents had the week of Thanksgiving off and decided to head to the coast to feel the sand in their toes. So we celebrated a Thanksgiving dinner at their house with my sister's family at the beginning of the month.

Actual Thanksgiving was just our wee little family.

We sent a selfie out to them.

They sent me back their selfie.

Making friends wherever they go. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

The no good, rotten appendix

Remember in August when we spent 4 days in the hospital for Lucy's burst appendix and infection?

And then she had the drain placed? (bubble)

With the promise that they were going to remove said appendix in 6 weeks.

We didn't forget.  Lucy started school and had a rough go for the next 6 weeks.

So much anxiety over so many things, you could tell that a huge weight was on her shoulders.

In early-mid Sept. we were able to set the date for her surgery.

She asked when it was and I told her, she put it on her calendar.

And we talked about it A LOT.

I tried to compare it to my upcoming c-section and Clay's previous sinus surgery.

The day before surgery we dropped Zoey off with Grandma and it was date night with Lucy.

We went to Leo's place and had pizza for dinner and then played on the arcade games.

Leo's is pretty much her favorite place.

And then we stopped off at Cold Stone for some ice cream.

Once we were home her realities began hitting her and she was of course terrified.

My favorite sister bought her a minky couture blanket that she absolutely loved! 

http://www.softminkyblankets.com/

So we broke that out to try and cheer her up. It did. :)

But reality soon hit again and Bella had to cuddle her and look at me with evil eyes. "Why are you torturing my puppy?"

It was well past bed time and she was heartbroken , but I remembered that it would be a good idea to take a bath since it would probably be a while post op.

I had just washed her hair the other day and I wasn't willing to deal with long,wet locks that late in the night.

So I had her wear a shower cap, which she thought was hilarious.

I called it Lucy's dorky hat.

The next morning we were up bright and early, like 4:30 am early, eww.

No tears tho, so that's a good sign.

Her biggest concern was the IV.

I had been told that they would place it before surgery, but while there they said they would do it after she was put out, bonus!

My Mom, sister and I had collected random toys, activities to keep her busy while we were at the hospital and healing at home.

We had about two hours to kill before surgery so that's what we did.

And as we got closer to surgery they had her put on another dorky hat!
(So glad I did that the previous night and made it into something funny.)

The Dr. had told us the surgery would last about 1.5 hrs, he hoped, maybe longer.

So Clay and I went down and bought some breakfast and started coloring a picture for her when she woke up.

I can't remember how long surgery was but it went by wicked quick, like 45 min? I was totally not expecting it!

He said it looked really good in there and that's why we wait for 6 weeks of healing.

He took pictures for me!  Seriously best Dr. ever! Well if he had let me in the surgery that would have been better but we'll take what we can get right?

Only one parent could go back and be with her while she was waking up.

Clay didn't have a choice, I went back there. Poor fellow married a control freak.

The nurse led me around the halls and as we got nearer I heard lots of yelling and knew exactly who they belonged to. :(
She was completely hysterical.  I sat with her and the nurse and I tried to calm her down, eventually some pain and chill meds were given to her and she calmed, I think that took longer than the actual surgery tho.

Here we are waiting in recovery to go home.

Bless her Dr. Dr. Lemon he closed the wounds up with super glue so we didn't have to worry about bandages.  The drain had bandages and that was a nightmare.

So I was very grateful to not have to deal with those again.

I took a picture of her abdomen to keep track of the incisions to make sure they weren't changing but she made me promise not to show anyone.

So don't tell her I showed you,

Just kidding! I'm not THAT bad of a Mom.

She now has 4 scars on her belly. A round eraser size one where the drain was placed on the right side, and the other 3 are under an inch long. One above her belly button, one on her left side (Where the bully appendix came out), and the other down closer to the pubic bone. They've healed up beautifully!

You can see that the weight has physically been lifted from her shoulders, she's still a crazy 6 year old but so much happier knowing she doesn't have to do that again.

Her surgery was on Thursday and she was back to her normal antics but Saturday.