Our Christmas Party

Last Wednesday, December 10, we had my family over for a Christmas party. The last day of school was that Thursday and we figured we better have them over one more time before the end of the semester. Since we won't be seeing them over the holidays we decided to have a Christmas party and give them their gifts. We had a lot of fun decorating the tree, eating a good meal planned by me and made by mom, and watching Jordyn open her gifts. It was both of our girls first Christmas tree since we didn't have one last year and Jordyn enjoyed playing with all of the ornaments. She got a huge kitchen set from my brothers and tons of play food from Molly, Aaron's girlfriend. The box was huge and she could barely see over the top but she was able to open it and was very excited! We had a great night and are going to miss all the help and visits from my siblings over the next six weeks!

So Worth It

I thought I would quick post an update about how everything has been going. I get to go home today, Saturday, in just a few hours and I can't wait. It has been quite restful here at the hospital and I've enjoyed some time off from all the other mom duties to just enjoy Landyn but I'm definitely ready to get back home to my other beautiful girl and see how this new life is going to be.

My recovery after the delivery seemed really quite quick. I was up and walking around quite soon after having Landyn and the pain was quite bearable. I thought everything was going to be great from then on but it wasn't. Wayne spent the evening with Jordyn, taking her to dinner and playing with her until bedtime. As soon as he left the hospital after bringing her to visit I began to have profuse bleeding and passed quite a few blood clots. I was quickly surrounded by three nurses and a doctor and filled with medicine, 5 doses of 3 different things! The scariest part was not having Wayne for any of it. I did cry quite a bit in those 3 hours I was bleeding and he was gone but God gave me great nurses who stayed past their shifts just to sit with me. I wasn't allowed to be alone with Landyn or feed her because I was busy being attended to and really shaky from the medicine. I also wasn't allowed to be alone in the room and so the nurses took turns sitting with me until Wayne returned. I was told it's just a common thing for red heads to have a lot of excessive bleeding and blood clots. I guess I can thank mom for that!

Everything is great now and the next two days were wonderful and filled with visitors. I was back to my quick recovery despite the rough first day. The one thing I remember thinking through that whole ordeal and even now is that I was just so thankful I was the one going through it and that Landyn was as healthy as anything. She is worth all the pain and trauma and I hope I can remember that in the bustle and stress of the days to come!

Sisters

It feels so crazy to say that Jordyn has a little sister! She was very excited to meet her sister on Thursday night and also very unsure. Wayne brought her over before dinner on Thursday and right away she climbed into bed with me and wanted to touch the baby. She even got to hold her and she enjoyed that for quite a bit. She was very interested in Landyn but at the same time wasn't to sure about her. Last night when she was here she even got a little scared when Landyn went into a crying fit! While she she is still a little nervous she is still very thrilled about her new baby! We know that things will be crazy and Jordyn won't always be gentle but we are excited to see the bond grow between our two beautiful girls!

Landyn Aurielle Yates

Landyn Aurielle Yates

December 4,2008 6:42 am

Virginia Baptist Hospital

7 lbs 2 oz, 20.5 in

The Birth Story

Well, let me say that Landyn's birth was a whirlwind of activity and we weren't able to document it like Jordyn's, although there isn't much to document. While Jordyn's labor was about 16 hours, Landyn's was a total of 4, with only one hour spent in the hospital! Thankfully, we're alive to talk about it as I thought I wouldn't survive.

I woke up at 2:30 am in the middle of a contraction but since I had been having them for a couple of days I didn't think much of it. After laying in bed for an hour and experiencing contractions every 5-7 minutes I was pretty sure this was the real thing. There was only one problem, I was experiencing all the labor in my back and that had me so confused. I wasn't sure if it was real or just false because none of it seemed to be radiating to the front.

Around 4:15 I woke up Wayne and let him know I was pretty sure this was the real thing. After a shower and a call to the hospital I was now having contractions about every 3 minutes. Of course, both Cassandra and Aaron, who assured me they would answer their phones in the middle of the night, didn't. I called Cassandra almost 8 times before I got her on the phone to tell her "Come right away!"

We were checked into the hospital at 5:40 and by then my contractions were about every 90 seconds and I was already 7-8 centimeters dilated. All I could say the entire time was to beg the nurses to hurry up and give me the epidural before it was to late. They had three nurses working on me to get finished quickly, in time for an epidural, but I was to have no such relief. At about 6:20 I was ready to push and couldn't wait any more for the epidural to come. During the pushing Landyn's heart rate dropped dramatically and they ended up having to perform an episiotomy and use suction to help me push her out quickly. At 6:42 she was here and I was still medication free.

Come to find out Landyn was facing the wrong way and came out face up, instead of face down, which caused the back labor. She also had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck which caused the problems with her heart rate. She was very healthy though and started screaming almost immediatly. To add to the excitement, about 5 minutes before Landyn was born Wayne blacked out and almost fainted. He stopped helping me push even though I was yelling at him and had to be seated by nurses after not sitting on his own. It was pretty scary for me to see him like that but he got over it fast and is now back to normal!

So now we are just resting in our mother baby room and I'm actually feeling great. I've been up to walk around some and have fed Landyn twice already. She's a hungry girl! Hopefully we will have more pictures and info up soon. We love you all and thanks for your prayers and calls.

Halloween

While we didn't have a halloween party this year, we still were able to enjoy a fun halloween day! Jordyn got her very cute costume from Grandma and Grandpa Beer and I was very excited for her to wear it...twice! The library had trick-or-treating and a costume parade that we were a part of. It was very fun and Jordyn loved seeing frogs, ducks, babies and all kinds of other costumes. We got to wear the costume again for trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. We visited about 8 houses and while Jordyn loved climbing the steps and ringing the door bell, as soon as the door opened she was jumping into my arms and acting very shy. Everyone was very nice though and loved her costume. One lady told her that she was the cutest trick or treater she had seen all night and that just made my day! Then it was back home to color her pumpkin and make spice cake cupcakes...mmm, were they good. We had a good night and Jordyn loved having kids come to the door in costumes. Thank you grandma for the cute costume!!

Pumpkin Picking

We went pumpkin picking on Sunday and it was a lot of fun. I had been telling Wayne that we had to go this season since I hadn't been in forever and while he wasn't all that thrilled about it he agreed. So after church we ate our lunch in the car and traveled to Laymans Farms. It was a pretty cool day which made it more enjoyable because it actually felt like fall! We were able to do a lot of fun things that I think we all enjoyed. We went on a hayride to pick pumkins, saw sheep, pigs and goats and shot pumpkins in a pumkin blaster! There was a cow train ride that Jordyn cried when she got on, then decided she loved it and cried when we had to get off too! There was also a mini corn maze for kids that Jordyn got to do with just Daddy! Overall we had a great time and got some great pictures. And come to find out, it wasn't just Jordyn's first time pumpkin picking but Wayne's too!

Long Awaited Update

Hey everyone! I know it's been a long time since I've uploaded the blog but things have been busy around here. Wayne just finished his 8 week class which was taking up a lot of time and causing a lot of late nights. I've been doing the math tutoring thing a lot more than normal to try and save up some extra money for when the baby comes and I'm to busy and exhausted to tutor. The few moments of free time I have are usually spent napping, trying to catch back up on some of my energy. The baby is getting more and more wild every day and my belly is definitely getting larger! According to the doctor everything looks great and I feel more in shape than I have in a long time. Jordyn keeps me busy and moving and most of the time unaware of my pregnancy pains! Jordyn is growing like crazy and many of you wouldn't even recognize her. I can't believe she's 14 months old. She's talking and running and has developed such a personality. There's just to much to describe about her so I thought I would post a video. I know it's long but for those of you that haven't seen her since Christmas or summer, I know you'll appreciate this!