Better late than never ;)

You will never guess what I did on Tuesday! I got my driver's license!!!!! It has been a huge fear of mine to drive forever, but I just refused to let it control me any longer...so I did it. I got my license. I even have a story to go with it. It was not as easy as walking into the DMV and taking the test...here's the story:

Tuesday, December 15th, Mom and Dad came down so that Mom could watch Bethanie while Dad took me driving. We left the house and drove to Casa Grande (I drove)...it's about 35 miles or something. Well, we get to the DMV and because my permit was expired the lady said that I would need my birth certificate! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! So, we had to drive all the way back to Maricopa to get my birth certificate...I thought I'd cover all the bases and grabbed my passport too. We had lunch and then headed back to Casa Grande. We got back to the DMV and waited for about an hour...you know how it is waiting at the DMV. Anyway...they finally call my number and I gave my paperwork to the lady...BUT she didn't even ask me for my birth certificate! So, I asked her if she needed it and she said no...but then I told her that I just went all the way back home to get it so she better check. So she checked and come to find out she was doing it wrong and she really did need it. She looks at my birth certificate and says, "Uh oh, this has a different name on it (my maiden name)"...good thing I had my passport with me because it has Rector on it instead of Barton...thank goodness!!
So, I finally get to take the written test and I pass...yippee!! Then they tell me to take my car around back of the building so that I can take the driving test. The driving instructor lady had me park and she had to check to make sure all of my lights and blinkers worked...well guess what?!?! The left brake light was out...so she told me I'd have to come back another time to take the test because she could not take me on the road with a brake light out. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!
So, I ask Dad if there is a way that we could just replace the light in Casa Grande instead of going all the way back home. We went to Auto Zone and replaced the light...and headed back to the DMV.
All the lights work now, so the test could begin. Here comes the next challenge...That morning I had called the DMV to find out if they did parallel parking or three point turns in their test and they told me it would be parallel parking, so before we left that morning I practiced parallel parking. WELL, THEY LIED!!! The first part of the test was a three point turn within a bunch of cones...I had 3 chances to pass that portion and I finally got it right on my 3rd try. IF they would not have lied to me I would have practiced that.
ANYWAY...the rest of the test was easy and then we get back to the DMV and the lady says, "It's illegal to drive barefoot, but I won't fail you for that." (I had taken my flip flop off because I did not want it to get stuck on the pedals or something...thought it was safer that way).

So, after all of those challenges...I GOT MY LICENSE!!! YIPPEE!!!!!! :)

Christmas Fun

So, Bryan was off painting a house and I got BORED...so I decided to play around with the camera, Bethanie and Trooper. It was fun. Hehe.

Pictures

Just thought I'd add some pictures...enjoy!

Proud new Daddy

Sleeping in my Hospital Bed

Big Yawn

First Bath

Not a Happy Camper

Very Concerned Trooper

Pretty in Pink

Aw, so cute!

Chubby Bunny...haha!

Had to tape on her mittens so she wouldn't scratch her face. Gotta love her boxing gloves :)

Loves her Daddy...Daddy multi-tasking

Pacifier = Content

Take the Pacifier away...Watch Out!!

She's Arrived! :)

Bethanie Lynn is here at last and we are completely overjoyed! We love her to pieces! I just cannot get enough of her...I could just sit and stare at her all day long. She is beautiful.

Friday, November 6th, we sat around waiting ALL DAY LONG for a call from the hospital to let us know when we could come in for my induction. All of the waiting just about drove me insane. Finally, at 9:03 pm we received the long awaited call. We were told to come to the hospital as soon as we could and they would get me right in for my induction.

After arriving at the hospital we were taken to our room and the fun began. Around 11:20 pm that night the process was started and I was given a cervix softener...this basically made me have contractions ALL NIGHT LONG to help my cervix thin out enough to start the actual induction. I asked for a sleeping pill thinking that I would definitely need a good night's sleep before everything happened...well, the sleeping pill FAILED! I got no sleep whatsoever that night. Then around 11 Saturday morning they started the pitocin drip.

I asked for an Epidural when the contractions became too much to bear. I felt great after the Epidural was in...and it was just a long day of waiting. Well, around 9 or so that night I was feeling a lot of pressure and pain that I should not be feeling, so I asked what they could do for the pain. They sent in another guy to give me another Epidural because they said the first one must have just been wearing off. So, I got the 2nd Epidural and went completely numb from waste down...I was feeling great again. Then around 10 the doctor came in to check me and we all thought that I wouldn't be ready for another couple hours...but guess what? TEN!!!!! WOO HOO!! The doctor said to let the Epidural take effect and she'd be back to check on me in a while. Well, 11:00 pm rolls around and we are pumped and ready to go. We did some practice pushes and started to get real nervous. The showtime lights came on, the bed was transformed into a labor "chair" and we were ready. I started pushing around 11:15 and didn't know if it would ever end.

Bryan was amazing through this whole process...he fed me ice chips (not too many because quite frankly you just aren't in the mood for anything while pushing). He also kept my face cool with a washcloth because I was dying! He told me over and over how great I was doing and how amazing I was. It was nice to hear because like I said...I thought it would never end.

Midnight rolls around and the nurse looks up and says, "Well, I guess it won't be an 11/7 baby." And then 22 minutes later, Bethanie Lynn Rector was born. They put her up on me and she was beautiful! She came out with a cute little pouty lip. Bryan cut the umbilical cord and says that it was much harder than he thought it would be. He had to nip at it 3 times to finally get it to cut. I think he was glad he did it.

Bryan and the nurse took care of Bethanie while the doctor took care of me and we were all extremely happy and of course exhausted!

Bethanie Lynn was born at 12:22 on November 8, 2009. She weighed 7 lbs. 9 oz and was 21 inches long. She is beautiful and we are so excited to be parents.

We stayed in the hospital until they finally let us go home Tuesday afternoon. It is great to be home and we are loving it all even though I still have not slept as much as I need...but it's ok, being a Mom is better than sleep. ;)

Packed and ready to go

My beautiful blue baby :)

Bryan was right there making sure Bethanie was taken care of

So proud...and SO tired :)

Our beautiful little girl

Glad my hospital bed was comfy for someone! :)

Bethanie's Hospital Picture...she's gorgeous!

Another update

Man, working with these doctors is a joke! Today might be the day...after the doctor's appointment yesterday they called us back and had us come back to the doctor's office and wanted me to do some more blood and urine tests and another ultrasound...which was confusing because the last tests came back perfectly fine. ANYWAY...since all of these doctors keep giving us different answers we were obviously pretty upset. Bryan went off on the doctor and I started crying...and after all of the tension and frustration was out, the doctor decided that she'd send us in to be induced. (Seems like we've been there before...) Well, so we got excited AGAIN and came home and made sure everything was packed and just as we were about to get in the car we get a call from the doctor. She says that even with all the strings she pulled there is a good chance that triage might still send us home...so we gave up and said forget it. We stayed home. WELL...this morning I get up real early to make Bryan breakfast before he went to work and before I crawled back into bed I checked my phone. There was a voicemail from the hospital saying that they were calling to schedule my induction. WHAT?!? So I call them back and they say that my induction was scheduled for 7:30 this morning but they just got really busy so they will call me back when a room opens up. So, I asked them if this was a REAL thing and made sure that if we do go to the hospital when they call us that they will NOT send us home. They said, since I'm on the schedule, it will actually happen. SO...now we wait once again for a phone call...it probably won't happen until tonight, but let's hope that it actually happens this time because I don't think I can handle another false alarm. Sigh...this is going to be a long day!

Doc Appointment today

Well I went to the doc today...1-2 cm dilated and 70% effaced. The doc says that the baby should arrive sometime within the next week to week and a half...WELL DUH!!!! I am due on the 16th which is in 11 days, so I would surely hope that she'll come within that time frame. Haha. Dumb doctors! The doc said she could feel the baby's head and water sacs...so I am hoping that is a really good thing and that labor will start SOON!!!! I don't know how much longer I can wait! :) Well, there's the update for the week. Will keep you all posted on facebook and the blog. :)

Back and Forth...ugh

Well, bed rest is driving me crazy, but having to go back and forth to the hospital all the time is even worse. We spent last weekend in the hospital because of my mild preeclampsia, and then they sent me home on bed rest because things were looking better and they said bed rest would keep things under control. They had us go back to the hospital on Monday afternoon for another ultrasound, blood work and more monitoring and sent us home again. Then they had us go to the doctor on Tuesday (not the one in Maricopa, one that was a 30 minute drive) and they checked me over and sent me home once again. Then we had Wednesday as a normal day and then yesterday went back to the hospital (which is a 30 minute drive each way I might add)...everything is still looking good apparently except for the fact that they found more protein in my urine...so they sent me home AGAIN to do yet another 24 hour urine test...have to collect my urine for 24 hours and then go BACK to the hospital again today to take that in and to be monitored again. All of these tests and traveling back and forth to the hospital is really starting to wear on me and Bryan. We are at the end of our rope. It is definitely getting frustrating. So, pray with us when we pray that they will keep us there when we go today and that they will induce us. I am SO ready! If they send me home one more time I'm just going to stay home and deliver at home because I don't think I can handle going back there again without being able to bring home my baby in my arms. As we sat there yesterday in the waiting room I saw 3 new moms taking their babies home...I JUST WANT MY BETHANIE OUT!!!!! So, keep us in your prayers and hope that we will get what we want today.