Our little man Jasper Nolan-Lee Perkins was born on April 10, 2010. He was 9lb 3oz and 22 1/4". I was in labor for 36 hours before I had to have a c-section and my labor and delivery was the worst thing I have ever been through. I went in with some contractions and found out my blood pressure was 220/112. Yikes! So they gave me pitocin to make my labor faster. Then I got an epidural and my blood pressure dropped to 90/20 so they gave me a whole bunch of ephedrine to bring it back up. It went up and down like that for the entire labor but got a little better for the 2nd half.
Anyways, the epidural kept wearing off and didn't work so about half way through labor a different anesthesiologist gave me another one. Ultimately, it didn't work either. Every 1.5 hours I could feel everything again and the dr. would come back in and give me bolis injections for some relief. My labor didn't progress and only got to 6cm. Jasper was stuck in my pelvis at station -2 and couldn't drop down further. Unfortunately, I ended up with a c-section. Which is probably a good thing because by this point in my labor it was so bad that I had been having constant extreme contractions for at least 25 minutes with NO BREAK in between them. Just one long rolling contraction with the pain intensity going from a 10 to a 9 for long enough for me to shout "ice!" and before they could reach for the ice chips I was back to a 10. I was exhausted and don't think I could have pushed.
A third anesthesiologist (my favorite guy!!) came in and gave me the last shot of numbi-ness stuff in my back epidural catheter thingy and then I went into surgery. I didn't feel them cutting but I could feel EVERYTHING that happened from my cervix down (so in my vagina and such.) I was in sooo much pain.
The next day the anesthesiologist came and talked to me and told me I shouldn't have been in that much pain. He said if I ever have a baby again to not get an epidural because I'm not a good candidate for them and to either get a spinal or go under general anesthetic. Anyways, long story short, my blood pressure was an up-and-down mess and I was in extreme pain the entire time. I don't remember a lot of what happened because it was so bad. I hate not remembering everything. I can recall a few bits and pieces on my own but a lot of it is only if people talk about it and ask if I remember. My main memory of the entire labor and delivery is pain. I remember so much pain.
I was told I may have post traumatic stress because of how awful the experience was. I wonder if women who have natural births have more pain than I did, about the same, or less. On the plus side, the nurses and doctors were extremely impressed with how well I handled the pain and asked if I had taken any classes for child birth. I was proud to hear my mom tell them no. (I was delirious and couldn't answer) Ha! In your face! I say that because they kept stressing how important classes were and that they would help. They made me feel like I wouldn't know how to handle the pain if I didn't take a class. I felt confident the whole time that I didn't need a class to tell me to breathe through the pain and try to take myself somewhere else in la-la land. I did that all on my own and did it damn well. I didn't need to waste my time learning to breathe.
Jasper handled the entire scenerio much, much better than mommy and we are both doing amazing now. Just trying to relax, heal and recover.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Magnolia Tree
Isn't this picture just gorgeous?! That water and those trees are so inviting! I want to sit under those flowers on a cute bench reading one of my fantastic smut books all day long.
Magnolia trees grow around this area quite well. I remember when I was little being in awe of how huge the blooms were. And on a tree! I was amazed...and easily amused. We'll definitely add one to our future property next to our pond.
Magnolia trees grow around this area quite well. I remember when I was little being in awe of how huge the blooms were. And on a tree! I was amazed...and easily amused. We'll definitely add one to our future property next to our pond.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Bird House
There are other, more elaborate license plate bird houses out there but this one fit my country style best. Wouldn't this be a great weekend project? I like how it recycles materials and gives a birdie a home at the same time. Tweet tweet!
Friday, March 12, 2010
Fairy Dresses
Peonies are so pretty, don't you think? They make me all warm and peaceful inside. Like a light sprinkle before the sunshine. This picture makes me think of our future sunroom in the morning, before I go out to collect eggs with my cute basket and cowboy boots.
I love how fresh they always look. Frilly, girly, full, country, vintage, fluffy. If you turned them upside down they would make the perfect fairy dress.
They are my favorite flower but I don't think I've ever had the chance to see them in person. I wonder what they smell like...
I love how fresh they always look. Frilly, girly, full, country, vintage, fluffy. If you turned them upside down they would make the perfect fairy dress.
They are my favorite flower but I don't think I've ever had the chance to see them in person. I wonder what they smell like...
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Irish Wolfhound
I love this breed! One day when we have a huge yard and farm we're going to get one of these amazing dogs. They are extremely loyal and great with kids. I love big dogs and this is definitely a big dog. They are freakin' cute! I've already decided on a name for our future puppy too. We shall call him Paladine. Lurves it!
Monday, March 8, 2010
Bankruptcy
Remember that 5 year plan? Well, we just skipped to year 3.5! Wowza!! We did NOT make this decision lightly either. Believe-you-me I've been struggling with the pros and cons for a while and it is, most definitely, the best option for us. We paid our $200 retainer fee to the lawyer today. This means we stop paying all of the bills we are including in our bankruptcy. Which is EVERYTHING but our car and of course our monthly living bills. I feel like we're breaking the law or something. I have never in my life not paid a bill when it was due. Now we're told by our lawyer not to pay most of them. Ahhhhhh!
Right now we have about $16,500 in debt. That amount is only if we request payoffs and put down the cash now. But as it is, we are barely getting by, making minimum payments. If you factor in crappy minimum payments with our super duper interest rates we are looking at at least $32,000 and 8 years to pay it all off. At least!! Are you kidding me?! Barely scrape by for the next 8 years or so hoping to finally pay off all of our debt? No thank you, I'll take the bankruptcy.
And so there it is. We just went from the first half of year 1 in "the plan" to year 3.5. Our new 5 year plan is:
Year 1- The first half of Year 1 is me staying home for 2 months with our new baby and enjoying it without any worries. Save all extra monies and pay off the lawyer ASAP to finalize the bankruptcy. This should be finished by July, no problem. So really that's the first 1/4 of Year 1.
Year .75-Year 5: Save, save, save and save some more. Since we no longer have outstanding debt to pay, every month I am putting at least $400 into our savings account. This will still give us plenty of money to live comfortably within our means. But not give us enough extra that we regress into our old awful habits of spending money on crap.
By the end of Year 5 we are going to be house hunting damn it. I am fighting tooth and nail for this, I want it so badly I can taste the blood from being vicious! (Ha ha ha, I'm joking about the blood.)
*very deep, deeeeeep sigh*
Even though I feel like we are bad people for filing bankruptcy, I know that this is the best decision for us. I already feel ten times lighter having this stress off us. I didn't even realize how much our financial situation was stressing me out until now. It's like our whole world has changed. Our entire perspective of what we can now accomplish is a complete 180. Starting fresh is a great feeling. I'm looking forward to see our savings account skyrocket! Woohoo woohoo woohooo!!!!
Right now we have about $16,500 in debt. That amount is only if we request payoffs and put down the cash now. But as it is, we are barely getting by, making minimum payments. If you factor in crappy minimum payments with our super duper interest rates we are looking at at least $32,000 and 8 years to pay it all off. At least!! Are you kidding me?! Barely scrape by for the next 8 years or so hoping to finally pay off all of our debt? No thank you, I'll take the bankruptcy.
And so there it is. We just went from the first half of year 1 in "the plan" to year 3.5. Our new 5 year plan is:
Year 1- The first half of Year 1 is me staying home for 2 months with our new baby and enjoying it without any worries. Save all extra monies and pay off the lawyer ASAP to finalize the bankruptcy. This should be finished by July, no problem. So really that's the first 1/4 of Year 1.
Year .75-Year 5: Save, save, save and save some more. Since we no longer have outstanding debt to pay, every month I am putting at least $400 into our savings account. This will still give us plenty of money to live comfortably within our means. But not give us enough extra that we regress into our old awful habits of spending money on crap.
By the end of Year 5 we are going to be house hunting damn it. I am fighting tooth and nail for this, I want it so badly I can taste the blood from being vicious! (Ha ha ha, I'm joking about the blood.)
*very deep, deeeeeep sigh*
Even though I feel like we are bad people for filing bankruptcy, I know that this is the best decision for us. I already feel ten times lighter having this stress off us. I didn't even realize how much our financial situation was stressing me out until now. It's like our whole world has changed. Our entire perspective of what we can now accomplish is a complete 180. Starting fresh is a great feeling. I'm looking forward to see our savings account skyrocket! Woohoo woohoo woohooo!!!!
Monday, March 1, 2010
Cute Girly Shoes
I found this project at Homemade by Jill and knew I had to try it out. They are kimono baby shoes and she actually got the pattern from HomeSpun Threads. Lots of links, I know, but these ladies and their blogs both rock so check them out!
Like I said, I'm really impressed with how these turned out. Who knew I could do it? Not me that's for sure! :) My next attempt will be with Spongebob fabric on the outside and lined with a soft fuzzy yellow on the inside.
This is my first attempt at these cuties and I didn't want to use my "good" fabrics for it in case the project turned out like poo. Well, the shoes turned out really awesome (to my surprise!) but now I can't use them for Jasper because I used pink. Ahhhh what can you do? So they'll go in my closet boxed up with other things I'm saving for when we have a little girl.
Like I said, I'm really impressed with how these turned out. Who knew I could do it? Not me that's for sure! :) My next attempt will be with Spongebob fabric on the outside and lined with a soft fuzzy yellow on the inside.
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