A Child Is Born

I have a horrible memory.  Even now, I barely remember most of the details of Griffin's birth (who am I kidding - I didn't remember them the week after!).  But here's what I do remember...

Griffin was measuring big the entire pregnancy, so near the end my doctor scheduled an ultrasound to check him out.  I went in on Monday, April 2 to take a look and they estimated that he was about 8 lbs 7 oz.  I was dilated to almost a 2.  Doc decided I should be induced and scheduled it for Thursday, April 5 (2 days before my due date).  I was happy that the end was near, and also glad to have it "scheduled" so my parents could travel back.

Wednesday, April 4 - I was told the hospital would call me to let me know when to check in.  I was supposed to call if I didn't hear from them by 5:00 PM.  I called at 5:45 PM and was told they didn't have room and would call me back within 2 hours.  I called back at 8:45 PM.  Still no room in the inn, and they tell me just to come check in at 11:00 PM.  Mark and I arrive at Northside at 11:00 PM, as scheduled; we have to wait 2 hours before they check me in.  I guess that's what happens when you deliver at the hospital that delivers the most babies in the country.

Thursday, April 5 - We checked into my room a little after 1:00 AM.  Got things going with the Cervidil.  My nurses that night were super nice. At around 3:30 AM I was given a sleeping pill.  Then it went like this...Pitocin around 6:30 AM.  Nurse tried to put in my first IV - vein collapsed.  I should have taken that as a sign that the day was heading south.  I got the epidural sometime in the AM.  All day long, I was being told that Griffin was lying on the umbilical cord, so I was being rotated from side to side.  One side was extremely uncomfortable for me. 

Our little egghead - glad it went back to a normal shape within a day or two

I wasn't dilating; I never made it past a 5.  Griffin's heart rate and oxygen levels weren't looking great, so that was monitored all day.  I was throwing up and pretty miserable.  I also had to have an oxygen mask on, which sucked.  All day long, I just kept saying that I didn't want to have a C-section - ESPECIALLY after being in labor all day.  At around 5:30 PM, I got the news that it wasn't working and I was pretty immediately wheeled into the operating room.  I remember throwing up as they wheeled me down the hall.  In the OR, I started having seizures (a complication from the epidural).  It was basically a nightmare.  I couldn't stop shaking, I was biting my tongue, hitting my arms on the sides of the bed.  But the worst thing was that I couldn't open my eyes.  Griffin was born at 6:41 PM and I heard him cry but I couldn't open my eyes to see him.  The seizures lasted for a few hours so I wasn't able to hold him until 9:15 PM.  It was pretty horrible.  By that time, he was so tired that he wouldn't eat, and that led to eating problems for the first few weeks. 

First time holding him

When we got back to my room, and my parents and Mark's parents came in I was still shaking pretty badly. The next few days were rough.  We wanted to keep Griffin in the room with us at night, but the first night he had too much mucus and they were worried he'd choke so they kept him in the nursery.  He wasn't eating well and lost more than 10% of his birth weight, so they made us give him formula.  I was in a lot of pain from the C section.  We couldn't decide on a name. 

Happy Easter - 3 days old

I was set to be released on Monday, and we were ready to go around noon - except we still couldn't agree on a name.  I liked Griffin and Mark wanted Marek.  And when we finally settled on Griffin, we realized that we'd never thought of middle names.  So we spent the next 5 or 6 hours looking up names on our phones before we decided on Asher. Left the hospital around 6:00 PM and headed home.
So to sum things up, I had a pretty horrible experience. I was talking to a friend 2 or 3 days ago and telling her about it and I still cried. So after 3 months, I'm still not over it.

But he was definitely worth it.

It's About Time, Right?

You might be thinking this post title is due to the fact that I haven't blogged in a year.  Nope.  It's about having a baby. 
When you're Mormon, people pretty much expect you to get married and have a baby pronto.  I wasn't really into that.  In fact, if I hadn't been "pushed", I probably would've waited even longer to have a kid.  But thanks to my BFF (love you, Chris!), Mark and I have grown from a couple to a family.  And I don't want to forget the details; thus the new post.

Last summer, Christi decided it was time for us to have kids.  We got married 3 weeks apart (over 5 years ago).  All of our friends have kids.  We're not getting any younger.  Mark and I just bought our first house.  Christi had it all planned out and let me know that July was go time.  I thought it might take a few months, but apparently her plan worked out and we both got pregnant immediately.  I was in denial for a while...and definitely thought if the second line on the pregnancy test was faint it was a no...but after taking the second test it was for sure.  My due date was April 7 and hers was April 1. 

Some people love being pregnant (I've heard).  I am not one of those people.  I hated the morning sickness.  Hated being so exhausted (especially when working such long hours, as well as renovating our house).  Hated the acid reflux.  Hated not being able to sleep at nights.  Hated when I found out it was a boy.  I  never felt excited or happy, honestly throughout the entire pregnancy, except for when Christi found out she was having twins, just like she wanted.  But everyone said when the baby comes, you'll love it.  Turns out they were right, cause I definitely love this little one.

Griffin Asher Brandau

April 5, 2012

8lbs 3 oz; 21.5 inches

I didn't take a lot of pregnancy pictures.  We went to Mexico in December and took tons of pictures there of course, took a few from my trip to Utah for Christi's baby shower in January (see above), and then a couple the week before I was due.  So here are a few...

Tulum (on my birthday)

Playa del Carmen

April 1

Birth details to come in future post.  For now, I've gotta get back to the babe.

Yellow River Game Ranch

In February, we finally made it to the Yellow River Game Ranch. It's one of the few places left on my Things to Do in Atlanta list and I finally got to cross it off. Chad, Stacey, Khira and Ashton came with and we had a great time. Ok, the kids and I had a great time and the other adults were just along for the ride. But it was fun and the weather was great.Right now, Stacey is thinking, "Is this a deer?" (Don't deny it, Stace.)Ok, who knew buffalo's tongues were so insane?! Not me! You should've seen how long they were (this picture does NOT do it justice).
The only animal I saw Mark feed.Here's the "lame adults" sitting down when they could be getting slobbered on by animals. Chad, you are especially lame for being on your phone. :)

Happy New Year

Did anyone miss me?
Glad I didn't make a resolution to blog more often in '11, cause I would've failed big time.
I had 2 very good reasons for my blogging break. First, we took about 2000 pictures in China, and I seriously stress about posting every single one for everyone to see. That's never gonna happen, so they're coming in small spurts. On Facebook. Second, we're temporarily staying with Mark's uncle, whose wireless Internet makes me feel like I live in 1912. It sucks a big one.
But I'm back now and I'll try to be more regular, for all my millions of fans. Here's a recap of life in the last while.
October - We returned from China at the end of the month. (China was amazing. I'd love to go back for another few months - or a year - but isn't super likely. We had the chance to see some amazing sights and really open our eyes to a part of the world most Westerners will never see.) Moved in with Uncle Bob while we started looking for a house. Thought we'd be out in 2-3 months, but we're pretty much having the worst time house hunting...gone through inspections on 2 places, been outbid on a foreclosure (that we offered full price on), and just had a sucky time. Right now, we're waiting for a response on a short sale we put an offer in 2 weeks ago. Fingers are crossed for this one, but we're not holding our breaths.
November - Celebrated Thanksgiving in Nashville with Mark's sister and her family.December - We were each sick on our birthdays, so those were lame. But Christmas in Florida was really fun.January - I had a voucher from Delta and used to to get away to Boulder, Colorado for a week to visit Emily. We did so many fun things (ghost tour at The Stanley Hotel, tour of Celestial Seasonings, visit to the Molly Brown House and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, to name a few) and it was so great to catch up. I loved getting to meet her adorable foster baby and also being one of the first to find out she's expecting! These pictures took about 45 minutes to upload - no exaggerating - so if you want to see more, I put most of them on FB. I gotta take a break, so I'll be back with February and March shortly.

Happy National Day!

National Day (October 1) kicks off a week long holiday in China. Mark even had a few days off, which was great. Here's what we did...

[Side note: You'll notice that Mark isn't in very many pictures. That's cause I lost our small camera, which I used to take pictures and videos from these days, and also our trip to Macau. We are very sad.]

On Friday, we went to the Shenzhen Safari Park (aka the zoo). It was surprisingly fun. And much nicer than we expected. I learned that Chinese people can speak monkey. I had a video to prove it but it's on the lost camera :( So you'll just have to take my word for it.When it is hot (which it always is, in Shenzhen) the guys walk around with their shirts pulled up. They also go to the bathroom outside. And I'm not talking pee. Stay classy, China.
Exhibit A
Exhibit B
Gotta love the "English"I'm a celebrity!On Saturday, we went to Hong Kong. We had planned to ride the junk boat, but decided to save some cash and ride the Star Ferry instead (and we're glad we did cause it was really windy so the sails were down, and the junk didn't even look that cool). I had planned a busy day, visiting a few different tourist places, but we pretty much scrapped that and decided to visit Stanley Market, on the south-side of Hong Kong Island. This part of the island is absolutely gorgeous. Definitely the prettiest scenery we've seen in China. The taxi ride there was so beautiful and we had a fun time wandering around.The Junk BoatOn Tuesday, we went to Hong Kong again. We had to go meet with a colleague of Mark's dad, and we also visited the Nan Lian Garden (one of my favorite places) and got to go to the temple.
Empty Metro...a rare sight.