NSR: State Fair Fun

 

Today we had a wonderful day at the State Fair of Texas.  My Mom and oldest nephew came over to go with us.  The morning definitely started out a little chilly, so we waited a little late to leave.  We have had a lot of rain in the area over the last week and half or so, and even though it was a cold start to the day, when we got to the fair a little after noon, it was so crowded.  We had planned to go on this day since before the fair opened because it's the only Saturday that our oldest son didn't have a marching band competition.  Honestly, we probably couldn't have picked a better day.  As we were loading up in the car, our neighbor across the street asked if we were going to the fair and if we needed tickets.  Apparently, they had gotten some from one of their Mom's and they had decided not to go.  4 FREE tickets!  Fabulous!!!  We paid it forward some because that meant I had extra coupons when we got there, so I gave those to some of the people around us in line.

 

We had to park in the furthest lot, but they had trams that ran back and forth to pick us up.  We were all so excited and ready to try some food.  We had twisted taters, roasted corn (twice), funnel cake corny dogs (Fletcher's only of course - twice), classic ice cream bar, fried s'mores, turkey legs (twice), and of course, we always get the cotton candy to take home. Oh, c'mon, we all know you go to the fair for the food. LOL!

 

When we got there, we went to the petting barn first, where the littles had so much fun seeing and petting the animals.  They really liked the baby pigs the most, who were under a heat lamp because it was still a little cool inside the barn.  The funniest part was DS trying to "pet" the rooster.  It pecked his hand.  It didn't really hurt him, but definitely startled him.  We had the twisted taters after that and went to watch the dog show.  It was fun and the dogs did some amazing tricks. 

 

 

 

After that, we headed to the kids favorite area.....the Midway!  On the way to the Midway, our oldest son and my oldest nephew spotted a Doomsday Preppers obstacle course.  Of course they did fantastic and finished at 1:24 sec and each got a bag with a shirt and a couple of other things.  Not too shabby for a free event.  We ate a turkey leg while they were waiting in line for the course.  The kids rode plenty of rides and even my little ones are dare devils and will try to ride just about anything they can get on.  Some, they were just tall enough for.  Those things that spin around and go upside down.  Of course, no rides for me this year, so my Mom, hubby and oldest had to fill in and they did a great job.  They rode a few rides and then we got some corny dogs.  Mmmmmm!  They were so yummy!  We had a funnel cake too and then the kids rode a few more rides.  Nope, no one got sick.  After spending a few hours at the midway, we decided to head to some of the exhibits.  The food and fiber building and the car show buildings. 

 

Once we made it through the food and fiber building, we headed to the auto show buildings, but it was getting close to time for the parade, so we decided to scope out a spot to watch.  We didn't have to wait too long before it started and we loved it just as much as the little ones.  The older boys were waiting in line for a car simulator in the auto show building, so we let them skip the parade.  The best part for me were the amazing stilt walkers in their elaborate costumes.  They were so beautiful!!  Here are two of them.  there were several others too.

 

 

After the parade, we headed to Big Tex and to grab another Corny Dog.  I totally blame wanting seconds on the baby....and of course all the walking I did.  I'm sure between the baby and walking, I probably burned a ton of calories.  We got a good family pic in front of Big Tex (the first one our youngest son had the best smile on his face, but DD had her hand over her face, so I'll have to get in photo shop to swap his head at some point), but this one will do for now.  At least we're all looking at the camera and there are no photo bombers.  After our Big Tex photo op, we headed to the Texas Star.  It is the largest Ferris Wheel in North America.  All the kids wanted to ride it.  I haven't been on it since I was much younger and to be honest, going up the first time was a little unnerving, but it was still fun.  It was definitely a bit more chilly 20 stories up.

 

My Mom with all the Grandkids.

 

It was such a wonderful, fun filled day!  Can't wait for next year. 

 

 

Most of our wonderful food below.  The pic of the funnel cake is on my phone, so I'll have to add that later and I missed a pic of the Fried S'mores because I didn't eat any of that one.  hehe 



 

Wonderful Roasted Corn and my beautiful Momma!  This is one of all of our favorites.

 

Classic Ice Cream Bar and the BEST....Fletcher's Corny Dog.  With Mustard of course (although the littles still prefer ketchup).

Turkey Leg - Before......and after.

Cotton Candy to go.  6 bags are a bit hard to carry, so they gave us a bigger bag to put it in.

 

 

Happy Birthday and Anniversary!!! - Pt. I

Ok, so I'm breaking the blogging rules today by posting twice, but I promise, it will be worth it.  So many special, happy events today!  The first of which is Baby "E"s first birthday.  Seriously?!  It's been a year already?!  It has definitely gone by pretty quickly.  I texted "A" this morning to wish "E" a happy birthday and I got the following text back, "Hi there!  I know I can't believe it has been a year.  I would not say it's flown by.  Ha!  I love my sweet little man and feel so blessed he's in my life.  It's hard to remember life without him!!  Thank you for the wishes and for bringing him into this world for me to love!"  Makes my heart so happy.  She sent me some pictures from his party too and he still looks just like her.  There were a couple that they were laughing together and it was SO cute!!  Just in case you didn't get to follow my first journey, here's the post from this day a year ago.  Makes me all teary re-reading it.  Such a joyous and blessed day.  I am even more blessed that I get to do this all again!!

Just as the title of the blog states, this was definitely one of those things worth waiting for. After all the hurry up and wait that is surrogacy, our failed first cycle and then each milestone with the 2nd successful cycle, it all came down to today!!!! In the end, it really couldn't have worked out much better.

I woke up at around 3am due to a contraction and I had to go to the bathroom. I went to the bathroom and then back to bed to lay down. I wasn't sure if they would stop or continue. I drank some water and made sure to lay on my left side. I closed my eyes and opened them a few minutes later due to another contraction to see the clock was only at 3:18am. At that point, I figured I would try one more time to go back to sleep and hope they would subside. No such luck. Woke up again a few minutes later so decided to get up and walk around a bit. Luckily for DH, he had been sleeping on the sleeper sofa the last few nights due to my snoring, so I didn't have to wake him quite yet. Good thing my bag was already packed because it seemed today is the day. Decided to go ahead and download a contraction app, so I could really see how far apart they were and how long they were really lasting.

I started contacting everyone and texted "A" first at a little after 4am since the contractions hadn't stopped so that she could start heading this way. She was going to get up, call her Mom and they would be heading this way around 5:30am, which would put her here around 9:30am or 10am. I figured that would be pretty safe and based on my last labor with my DD, she should have enough time. I went ahead and called my Doula, Gina too to give her the heads up that today was probably the day. I told her I was going to hop in the shower and see what happened from there. I also decided to go ahead and call my Mom and then hop in the shower. My Mom was actually scheduled to fly out for a work trip at 2:30pm this afternoon, so we were just hoping he would arrive in time for her to still make it. Got in the shower around 4:15am, still having some contractions during shower and when I got out. Called my Mom back when I got out of the shower and told her to go ahead and head over this way when she could. She would be the one taking me to the hospital, so everything seemed to be working out so far. Contractions continued, so I called Gina again at almost 5:30am and she headed over to the house as well. She was here in about 20 minutes and just before she arrived, I felt a small amount of fluid. It was clear, so I assumed my water had broken. By this point, contractions were becoming a bit more regular and closer together. Since my water had never broken with any of my own kiddos, I wasn't sure how much time we really had at this point. With all 3 of my kiddos, they ended up breaking my water when I was around 7cm. When Gina arrived, we discussed at what point we should head to the hospital. Contractions were now about 4-6 minutes apart and definitely becoming a bit more intense. At this point, I would've loved to labor at home for a little bit longer, but with my water leaking and knowing that morning traffic will start increasing soon, we decided to go ahead and head to the hospital at a little after 6am. Mom and I travel the same route everyday to work that we would travel to the hospital, so at least we knew about how long it would take. As we were leaving, I left a message for the photographer too to let her know we were heading to the hospital. Still had some good contractions on the way to the hospital too. We arrived at the hospital at around 7am and got all set up in triage.

 

I was actually a little disappointed, as I thought I might have been a bit further along than I was when she checked me. Once we got all the questions answered, hooked up on the monitor, she checked me (7:15am) and I was a good 2-3cm (10 is the max) and -2 Station (which means the baby is still not quite "engaged"). +3 is when baby is crowning. The nurse also confirmed that my water had broken. I called "A" to let her know where we were. It was a bit funny, because when I told her that I was a 2-3cm, she asked me, "and you need to be at 4, right?" I explained that we needed to be at 10cm before he would be here, so it really would just depend on how fast labor progressed. The nurse said that since my water had broken and I had only had a couple of contractions while being monitored, that they would give me 2 hours to walk around and get labor started back up again before giving me Pitocin to help kick it in (which I did not want). I was determined to have a completely natural birth this time without any meds if at all possible. While they monitored me in triage, I tried to call our photographer again, as I hadn't heard back from her. I was a bit scared that "A" and her Mom wouldn't make it in time, so wanted to ensure that the photographer was there to capture this birth "just in case" they weren't here in time. Gina started to make a couple of calls for back up photographers when Brandi called back and said that she was on her way. Yea!!! I really didn't want to settle for a back up unless absolutely necessary. Brandi had photographed our youngest DD's birth and we have some fabulous pictures from that!! Once I was done in triage, they went ahead and moved me to an L&D room. Got settled in the L&D room, had my blood drawn and they set up my IV lock.



Once we got all the initial items completed, I started walking the halls with Gina while Mom ran to get some breakfast for them. Once I started walking, it definitely didn't take long for the contractions to start back up and labor to get moving again. As I was walking, I was just hoping that labor would last long enough for "A" and her Mom to make it before this little guy arrived. After walking for about 20-40 minutes, contractions were definitely getting stronger and closer together. They were getting strong enough that I had to stop and breath through them. We headed back to the room so that the nurse could monitor the baby for a few minutes. The birth plan was for intermittent monitoring, so just 20 minutes of every hour on the monitors.

 

While the baby was being monitored, the contractions continued and I was starting to get a bit more uncomfortable. The nurse checked me again (8:43am) and at this point, I was 4-5cm, -1 station and 80% effaced. That's a significant amount of progress in an hour and a half. I guess the walking definitely helped things to progress. : ) While I was on the bed, the pain with the contractions was much more intense than when I was on the ball. I remember telling Gina that I might need some Demerol, and she was fantastic with encouraging me and keeping me focused without just telling me "no". I was having a pretty bad contraction while sitting on the bed and she just told me to look at her and do some breathing with me. I was able to get through the monitoring session and then to the balance ball. After the monitoring session, I was able to labor some on the balance ball, which made a huge difference in my labor experience.Being on the ball took the pain from around an 8, down to about a 5 or so and made it seem much more manageable. I labored on the ball for about the next hour or so and then had to get back on the bed to be monitored/checked again. "A" and her Mom arrived at some point during this part of labor, but I was pretty much in my laboring zone, that I didn't bother to look at the time. Ugh!! Being semi-upright on my back was THE most uncomfortable position for labor ever!! When I was checked this time, I was now at 7cm, +1 Station and almost 100% effaced.

Once this session was done, the nurse said that I needed to stay in the bed and couldn't get back on the ball so that she could keep monitoring the baby. Not too happy with that, but luckily, Gina had a suggestion for me to labor on my knees in the bed. They elevated the back of the bed, so that I could put my arms over the back and that was a lot better than sitting on my ass to labor. I was so glad that Gina was there and definitely couldn't have had the labor I wanted without her. After about 20 minutes or so in this position, I started feeling a bit like I needed to push. I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to turn over from the position that I was in, but after a couple more contractions, I was able to turn back over onto my back, so the nurse could do one more check. (10:15am) At this point, I was at 8cm. The nurse called for the Dr. to come in for delivery and when she arrived, my Mom and Brandi (photog) had to leave the room. I was unaware that my Mom had left my camera with Gina and I'm so glad that she did because she was able to capture the moments as baby "E" was born. The next few minutes were definitely a whirlwind. The nurse was having me push some with the contractions and when the Dr. arrived, she told the nurse to not have me push. I told her that I needed to push and she told the nurse, "then close her legs" and walked over and put my legs together. Once she was dressed and they had broken the bed down, I was able to start pushing again. I pushed just a few times and baby boy was here and ready to meet his Mommy! Baby "E" was born at 10:38am weighing 6lbs 7oz and 19.5 inches long. The look on his Mommy's face was everything I had hoped it would be and the joy and tears made my heart happy. That is the reason I did this. To help someone build their family and experience the joy and happiness that I experienced when I saw and held my three children for the first time. I'm so happy for her and for this experience that we have shared together.