What Labor is Really Like

My mom is in town, which we are so grateful for. She took the kids to the library and I was desperately trying to sleep, but alas, TRYING to sleep has never worked for me. If I fall asleep reading to the kids or something it's a lot easier:)

We were SO happy that everything went well and Mackayla was healthy, but don't we look EXHAUSTED?

Yep, pretty tired...

I had it all planned to be induced on Aug. 20, 5 days before my actual due date. In my mind I was going to get my epidural, rent a movie and we would watch it while I peacefully dilated. Ha ha! I don't know what I was thinking, honestly. This is labor, not a vacation!

And this is what really happened:

I woke up at 5 am to horrible cramps, like the worst kind you have monthly. They lasted all day. Then during the day I would have actual contractions but I couldn't concentrate to time them and they weren't even close to every 5 minutes apart.

Meanwhile Cody and Macey took out every book, toy, and thing we owned (I'm not even joking) and poured them throughout the house:)! I called my mom crying and my sister crying periodically throughout the day. Then I finally decided around 3 pm to call the doctor and get some advice and she told me to go to the hospital and get checked because I was probably in labor.

I had talked to Ben periodically throughout the day and he came home from work right away. I called a friend and she came at the drop of a hat 5 minutes later and grabbed the kids. She also took them to dinner with her 3 and 5 year old that night and made them pancakes the next day. Basically I think she is the most amazing person.

When we got to the hospital we went to triage. I went in a wheelchair which I never pictured doing, but I was in so much pain it was nice and I felt like people were staring. But I felt like that when I was pregnant and Ben says I was paranoid:)! The woman didn't seem hopeful that I was in labor-but I was dilated to a 4-5 so I was staying and having a baby! But she was being slow because she figured I was slowly going into labor. I warned her a couple times that I go fast but my contractions still weren't regular. Meanwhile she tried SEVERAL times to get an IV in, all the while talking about how she missed and fished around (my hand is so swollen in the picture from all her misses). I hate needles and I finally had to tell her to stop talking. I fainted last time for crying out loud. I also told the anesthesiologist not to tell me what he was doing and he was fantastic.

I was getting pretty desperate because no one believed I would dilate that fast. I finally made Ben go out to get someone to rush things, which isn't necessarily Ben's style, but like I said I was getting desperate. I dilated to a 7 before the epidural finally was put in. Then once it worked, I felt like a MILLION BUCKS. I was even going to take a nap but the doctor came in to break my water and I missed my chance. It still hurt when I pushed because she came out "sunny side up" instead of face down and that makes it more painful. It also made it harder to push, even though it wasn't that bad. The nurse told me not to push until the doctor came in because she would just slip out. And she didn't just slip out because of that. Oh well, she came!

When the doctor put her on my stomach as soon as she came out I don't even know what happened. Something about them cutting the cord, blah blah. I just remember thinking how tiny she was and how beautiful she was and how much I loved her. I know not everything thinks that and there's nothing wrong with that either, but I do just love newborns. Even with all the stress I associate with them. It is probably the most stressful thing I do, giving birth and having newborns and hormones and no sleep, but at the same time, one of my favorite times of life because newborns are so sweet. I think I could hold her all day if that was realistic.

And I don't know why I'm going to end with this but she poops like 10 times a day. I had forgotten about that part, but my goodness that is a lot.

Mackayla Crosland

Mackayla: born Aug. 12 at 8:22 pm.

6 lbs. 12 oz.

20 in.

She is an ANGEL, the sweetest. little. baby.

Our little hospital visitors:

She loves to be cuddled.

Blessed

There was a huge storm here last night. Winds around 60 mph and lightning and thunder. I have no idea why I took this picture because most of the broken, damaged trees were in our backyard, but this is our driveway debris. We have had a tree leaning on our power line (that I have mentioned twice to our landlord...) that blew over last night and was precariously hanging on the line this morning. The power went out last night, which made it hot, but it came back on this morning. Perfect I thought-at least we have power.

I called the electric company and they put us on a LONG list of people that needed help. But their priority were the people without power or lines down. (10,000 people didn't have power this morning so we were low on the list).

Luckily my neighbor happens to be an electrician. This afternoon he came over and said he happened to notice that the neutral (?) line of our power line had snapped and if we kept running our electricity we would burn our house down. So he turned all the power off to our house for me.

It was not as hot as it has been, but it was 99 degrees today, so naturally I cried and panicked. I'm not in a normal state of mind anyway, right?:) But then, as if that wasn't a blessing enough that he kept our house from burning down, I looked out our back window and there was a power guy in our neighbors backyard. I ran out there and told him what was wrong. He looked at me and told me his wife just had a baby and got his ladder and fixed our line in 20 minutes. I guess it helps to be humongously pregnant.

I feel so blessed that those two things happened within 10 minutes of each other and that our house didn't burn down.

I thought setting up the tent in our living room would be a brilliant idea, but it wasn't as cool to the kiddos as I pictured it. Still, they got to watch a movie from inside - the Star Wars cartoon, a current favorite of Cody's.

As requested, here is a picture of the belly. Isn't it crazy how low I am? Sometimes- no actually multiple times a day, I literally fall on the floor from pains because she is so low. Just 13 days! My doctor doesn't check unless you want him to, and I opted not to bother because it doesn't really mean anything. But, I am curious to know if anything is happening...I guess we'll find out when it does happen!

Ben has been working nonstop for the last three days-and obviously all the other days, but just these last three we've barely seen him. He's had calls at midnight and lots of emergencies. He did take Cody in yesterday to "help" him with treatments, which was pretty cool to Cody and they got to spend some time together. Next time Macey will get a turn!

Death by Heat

Record Heat. Day 41 of 100 degrees or hotter; all time record is 50. We will pass that. July broke all records for heat in OK history. This week will be hotter than that.

This is the temperature at 10:00 at night (95) and it's really blurry, but also the forecast for the hottest week this year. It's 109, 112, 112, 110, 109, 108. Crazy! We've been great, just staying indoors, and if we're outside, we're in the pool! Luckily, we got rain yesterday, a huge blessing.

Our washer and dryer is in the garage and I just left our laundry to bake because I couldn't go roast to get it out. Our garden is starting to die because it's so hot I can't motivate myself to go outside to water it multiple times a day. My body just hurts. I am walking around like I am going to fall apart and I look like I'm going to burst at any moment. Don't get me wrong, I'm not always crying about it. More like AMAZED that I moved to the hottest state in the country while I am 9 months pregnant and still alive. It's incredible.

Any indoor summer ideas?

And I couldn't post this without once again blessing our AC. Thank you thank you thank you. And we don't have to pay utilities. Double thanks.

And I'm not sure why this pregnancy is different, but Ben is strangely more sympathetic to my pains this time around. I really don't know why-no school stress, older, more children and experience. No idea. The other day he gave me a massage for an hour because I literally couldn't walk and it made me feel 100% better. And then I felt like making dinner so it worked out for both of us:) But how sweet is that? He's great. And working a TON lately.

Goat Undecorating

Cody and his friend Brody competed in the Edmond Junior Round Up Rodeo. Next year he thinks he'll be up for a little mutton bustin and this year he grabbed a ribbon from a goat's tail. The goat never moved a muscle with all the little kids running at him grabbing ribbons...I think he's done this before!

Watching the show:

A little wrestling

This is Macey while they rode the flag by putting her hand on her heart

Proud ribbon rippers