GoodBye 09 wecome 10!

2009 Survey

(Thanks Sarah)

1) Where did you begin 2009?

I was at my house with my hubby

2) What was your status by Valentine's Day?

Married

3) Were you in school anytime this year?

Nope not at all :(

4) Did you have to go to the hospital?

Yep quite a few times in Oct. First couple were for observation and then I was there for 8 days while I had my son Michael.

5) Did you have any encounters with the police?

Well I got pulled over once for being on my cell phone.

6} would you live 2009 over again?

Well I would want to live my 9 months of pregnancy again and giving birth to my son. It was amazing!

7) What did you purchase that was over $1000?

Nothing

8) Did you know anybody who got married?

My cousin Sarah, My Cousin Scott, My Cousin Jason and Sarah was married.

9) Did you know anybody who passed away?

Sadly yes

10) Did you know anyone who had a baby?

The question is do you know anyone who didn't have a baby in 09!

My cousin peter had Jack in April

Shawna had Gabriel in March

Lindsey had Lydia in June

My cousin Sarah had Maggie in Aug.

Kelly had Braiden in Sept.

April had Hailey in Sept

Sarah had BrookLynn in Oct.

I had Michael in Oct.

Connie had Maddilyn in Oct.

Nicole N. had Charlotte in Nov.

& I know I am forgettin people!

11) Did you move anywhere?

I stayed where I was but that won't be the story for next year!

12) What concerts/shows did you go to?

Hmmm no shows or concerts

13) Are you registered to vote?

Yeppers sure am

14) Do you still have the same job as you did in 2008?

Well I don't have a job except being a homemaker and I kinda upgraded to mommy hood :)

15) Has anyone betrayed you in 2009?

Not betrayed just kinda changed their ways

Wheres 16?

17) Describe your birthday?

I turned 23. I don't even remember what I did lol

18) What's one thing you thought you'd never do but did in 2009?

I never thought ever that I would become a mother. I have always dreamed of having a baby but just felt it would never happen. The day I found out had to have been that happiest day of my life. My prayers were answered.

19) What has been your favorite moment of 2009?

My Fav. moment happened at 4:41 pm on Oct. 14 when my son was born.

20) What's something you learned about yourself?

That I am able to get pregnant! Haha

21) Any new additions to your family?

Michael James was born on Oct. 14. We also kinda adopted a stray tabby cat.

22) What was your best month?

October.

23) Were you in a relationship this year?

Married!

24) What music will you remember 2009 by?

Sarah was right. Def. Lady GaGa. She has released so much this year and they all get stuck in your head!

25) New friend?

Just got back in touch with old friends

26) Favorite Night out?

My brothers birthday

27) Would you say you're life will be better/worse in 2010?

I have an amazing husband and a wonderful baby. What could get any better than that! I am looking forward to watching our family grow and thrive.

Grandma and Her Boy

Lets start from the beginning. When I tried telling my mom the news of me being preggers, She told me before I could get it out. She said I was just glowing. She was nervous, scared, and there was some excitement but like I said it was just some. She was very scared and nervous because of my weight and it was understandable but the deed was already done and I could only move forward from there. She accepted the fact more and more throughout the pregnancy and realized more and more that I was doing fine after every appointment I had especially with my ob telling me how great I was doing. By the end of my pregnancy my mom was there 100% and stood by my side during labor. As soon as she saw that boy come out her entire attitude changed and she was more than happy to be called grandma. She loves her grandson and I can see how much joy he has given her. Its amazing how one miracle can bring multiple blessings.

One Happy Grandma!

Christmas Day

Grandma with her boy playing

Uncle Jake

I just love seeing my brother with Michael. Its so neat to see them interact. Michael is starting to smile more and more these days and even more so with Jake gets his hands on him.

Do you see how he is looking at him, priceless...........

Our First Christmas as a Family

Christmas Day I woke up to a very lovely kiss from my husband wishing me a merry Christmas and saying how thankful he was for the gift that was giving to us and we both looked over to our sleeping miracle. We both took a moment to just soak in the thought of him. We gave each other our stockings and opened them together. We got Michael up and woke my brother up and called our mom. Once mom got there she gave us our stocking and we opened them. We all got silly string like we have for a few years now and Jake decided to go to town with his. Jake passed the presents out and then we all started opening gifts. Michael didn't enjoy much of anything since he slept the whole time but Sean and I had so much fun opening the gifts for him(even the ones we bought for him!) After we were done with gifts, Jake took Landon on a walk and when we got back we bombarded him with silly string! Aw what fun. Thank goodness he was in a good mood and just laughed about it. Mom went home and Jake had to get ready to go to his girlfriends house to meet her mom and dad for the first time(they had only been dating two years!) Sean played his new game and I started to clean. The tree came down and so did all the decorations. I couldn't stand to look at our tree any longer. I take pride in my Xmas tree and my mother always says I go Martha Stewart this time of year. This year the cats went nuts with the tree before I even had a chance to decorate it so I just said no decorations or anything. That lasted a week so I went to the dollar store and bought 5 strands of golds beads with small bulbs on them and wrapped them around the tree. The cats had a blast with those. Branches came out, bent down, the strands were all over the place thus dubbing this years tree the charlie brown tree. We cleaned up all the boxes and I wrapped up all the decorations around the house and they went into storage. Ahh first year that had ever happened. To top off our wonderful day we had a yummy ham and scalloped taters. :) All in all we had a wonderful Christmas together especially as it was our first.

Early Christmas morn

Oooo the boy loved his treats!

Merry Christmas Michael Mommy and Daddy Love u!

Michael with his Build a Bear and Seahorse

Jake with all his silly string

Christmas Eve

On Xmas eve day we didn't do much besides run around and finish last minute shopping. I became overwhelmed with so much happiness because we were spending our first Christmas as a family. We have such a wonderful handsome little boy and I am just so happy. My brother and his girlfriend came over and she opened her gift from us since we wouldn't see her on Christmas. We all had a good time.

Michael asleep in his Bumbo

Alyssa with one of her gifts

And the stockings were hung on the wall with care.............haha lol

Michael's first Christmas and first stocking!

Our Charlie Brown Tree with TONS of gifts for Mr. Michael

What a BUMBO!

Gotta Love Him!

Nice Hat Honey

My Miracle

A year ago I never thought it was possible that I would ever become a mother. Now I have a miracle and I couldn't feel any more blessed. I love my little boy! Thank God for him.

1st Date Night-No baby

It was my brother's 21st B-Day on 12/23. He came over and we had a yummy chocolate cake with raspberry filling and a butter cream icing from Larson's bakery. Jake wanted to go out to see a movie so my hubby's parents offered to watch Michael so we all could go out. Now this was my first time being away from Michael for more than an hour and it was tuff but at the same time it was nice to be out on a date with my husband.

Alyssa(Jake's g/f), Jake, myself, and Sean

We decided to go see the movie at the cinitopia which was PACKED, thank goodness we bought our tickets on-line. When we got there we had to sit second row from the very front row!

We saw AVATAR in 3D which was absolutely amazing and everyone should go see it

After the movie Alyssa went home and Jake, Sean, and I went out to continue celebrating at Tip Top Tavern on Main Street

Jake and I toasted to an AMF--Happy 21st Birthday Lil Brother!

Our little Bandit

Since birth Michael has ALWAYS fallen asleep with his arms up and hands open like he is under arrest. So since birth I have called him our little bandit. For Christmas gma and gpa gandy got little Michael a cowboy hat the says bandit. Too Cute!

I think he likes his new hat!

Under arrest

Sleepy Baby

Michael needed his diaper changed but was also hungry so we needed to do the routine of changing the diaper. Michael of coarse does not like waiting for his food so he cried and cried. Once we were done I set Michael on the couch to wait while I made him a bottle. Once in the kitchen I grabbed a bottle, pored water in the bottle, then realized....................silence? Hmmmm what's wrong with Michael? I poked my head around the corner to find this.......................... Sleepy Baby :)

Little guy tuckered himself out
His head relaxed into the couch pillows :)

Like his shirt says "Too Cute"

A little bit about Michael

Michael is wearing 0-3 months clothes and is already outgrowing them. We are starting to put him in 3-6 and they are big but not huge.

He is wearing a size 1-2 diaper and I am thinking he will be in a size 2 very soon

He is starting to smile now that he is awake

He is making new noises everyday

His favorite activity is sitting up and Bath Time=Splash Time

He enjoys his swing

Loves having toys in his hands

GETS HUGE EYES when he see something weird, and it's so cute!

Mommy Or Daddy

Michael is now two months old and his features are coming out more and more everyday but I still can't tell who he looks like! I think there must be a perfect balance, what do you think?!

2 months old

Our little boy is getting so big. He turned two months old yesterday and had his two month check up. He went from weighing 7 lbs 7 oz on his birthday to now weighing 11 lbs 10 oz! Thats just about two lbs a month! He is also just shy of 24 inches now!

Michael James @ 2 months old

NICU

Michael was taken to NICU for 4 hours after birth. He was taken there because when he was born he wasn't breathing on his own. They had to bag him which has been the scariest thing I have ever gone through in my ENTIRE life. I just didn't understand why my son was not crying. When they finally got him to breath on his own they gave him to me and in that instant my world changed. That little boy looked into my eyes and I was his mommy. What an amazing feeling. Sean went to go stay with him while I stayed in the room recovering. Once I was able to get out of bed I went to the bathroom and the nurse told me to get back into bed and I told her no I wanted to see my son. She hadn't realized I hadn't seem him since he was born so she wheeled me down to the NICU. Upon arriving to Michaels private room I didn't see Sean or Baby but once I went in Sean was sitting there holding his son and it was the most precious sight. We both visited for a while and I had to go back to the room. Michael was brought back about an hour later which I was incredible thankful for. We all rested and around 4 hours later the nurse came in to check Michaels blood sugar level and it was down. We tried to give him a bottle but he wouldn't take it so off to NICU again but this time it was for the entire night. Our first night as parents we spent alone..no baby and it was devastating. I know I had my baby but he wasn't here with me and it felt strange. Luckily by morning his BS was up and he was eating so he was realeased back to us. Oh thank heavens!

Michael James Gandy

Michael James Gandy

Oct 14, 2009

7 Lbs 7 Oz

19.5 inches

4:41 Pm

My labor of love

The first time I held him

Right as they put him down to help him breath

The moment he came out

Trying to focus on pushing

HaHa this was me having a very small contraction. I was laughing here

Oct. 6 I have an appointment with my midwife. Before the appointment I get into the shower and right in the middle of the shower I got extremely dizzy and had gotten a horrible headache. Now this has happened before but once I sat down it went away. This time it didn't. We went to my appointment and turned out my B/P was up. My midwife said I needed to go to the hospital for observation. I got to the hospital and they admitted me for the night to monitor my B/P and in this horrible room. It was so small compared to the ones we toured. Come to find out it was a room for c-section patients. I was released on Oct. 7. because my B/P was stabilized and baby was great. On Friday Oct. 9 I went to get a stress test done and as soon as I arrived at the clinic I got a horrible headache. B/P was back up but baby was still doing great. The nurse called the Doctor and they wanted me to go back to the hospital. On our way there my headache has gotten so intense that we had to pull over so I could vomit (and this literally was only a 5 minute drive). We got into the hospital and they admitted me to an even smaller room than before. I said I was moved out of the closet and into a box! That was my room for the next 3 1/2 days. The Doctors decided that my body was starting to show signs of preclampsia and wanted to have me stay there until I was 37 weeks and at that time they would induce me. Around 2 am Tuesday morning they moved me to my room 127. At that time my contractions began on there own. The nurses monitored me and decided they would skip the pill that goes into the cervix and go straight to the pitocin. Contractions started coming hard and fast and the pain would come in waves but still wasn't at the point where i needed any pain meds. Then the IV nurses came in and poked and prodded around my arms for a good hour. Constantly changing heating pads on my arms and eventually getting a small ultra sound machine to find my veins. They ended up finding one in my left arm but still needed to get one in my right arm. Then all off the sudden I hear "Oh would you look at that one!" Then feel a nurse holding my hand and looking at the side of it right by my pinkie. There was a HUGE vein that seemed like it was bursting at the seems. They said they had to stick me there because there was no other spot. They drove that needle in and instantly I began to cry. I had never felt such horrific pain like that. Once they got it in the pain persisted and I couldn't move my hand at all. After 20 minutes the pain was so intense in my hand I begged them to please remove it and try and find a different spot. They removed it and immediately I felt relief and they found a new vein (THANK GOD). Around 1 pm that day the docs came to check me and I was only at 1 cm dilated. They decided that they were going to put a balloon in my cervix to help dilate me. Well that little procedure did not work. About 2 pm I needed to use the restroom and my nurse Jayme was helping me out of bed when I felt something in between my legs. I asked Jayme what it was and she asked if I had peed the bed and I told her no. As soon as I got to standing a gush of water came out and just kept coming. Jayme went and got a little test kit to see if my bag of water had broken and turns out it had. My water breaking was the funniest moment I had in the hospital. Sean, Myself and Jayme were all cracking up. Around 4 pm I was miserable. They had the pitocin at 12 and my contractions were coming faster and stronger. Jayme had them check me and I was only at 4cm they were trying to have me wait until I was 6cm but the pain was so intense. They gave me an epi and I just relaxed. I was able to sleep all after noon and somewhat into the night. Around 2 am Wednesday morning I was throwing up and shaking from the pain. The epi wore off and that button they give you was not working. By 6 that morning the pain was so intense I could feel everything. I was crying because the pain was that unbearable. The Anesthesiologist came in and was trying to talk to me while I was having contractions and I kept holding my hand up to try and get her to wait and she demanded I talk to her. I wanted to smack her. She ended up redoing my epi and that gave me some relief for a couple hours and then BOOM pain was back. Epi wore off and button was not working again. They came in and injected me with more epi meds and upped the dosage on the machine and then some num nut would come in and say its too high and lower it again. This process repeated itself until 12pm. Finally they had gotten the dosage right for my button and I was pushing that thing as if my life depended on it. Then the witch came back and told me I needed to not push the button anymore so I would know when it was time to push. Around 2pm I told my visitors it was time. My mom originally wasn't going to stay but I asked her to please stay. That I needed her there. My friend cresap showed up to take pictures of the whole birth. They tried to get me to put my legs in the stirrups but it was so uncomfortable that I asked them to put up the birthing bar and I would use that. I got my legs up and it was so comfortable. The then tied a sheet around to bar for me to pull on and boy did I pull on that sheet. When I started pushing I felt SO MUCH RELIEF. All the pain just stopped for those few seconds I pushed and came flooding back the minute I took a breath and relaxed. I pushed for 2 1/2 hours. My husband was my counter and was as I lay there with my eyes closed focusing on his voice while pushing I hear him count " 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, Breath!" This lasted the first 20 minutes and then I had to say something. The nurses all laughed that in spite of all my pain I was able to notice what he was saying because nobody else did. My mom then kept telling me it wasn't time to push yet that I needed to wait, wait, wait, oh take a deep breath, release, now push. There were times I needed to push and she just kept saying wait, wait , wait. The last hour is when I felt the urge to push 4 times instead of 3 and that's when I started hearing Sean and my mom say I needed to just push 3 times but they wouldn't say why. I would try to only do 3 but then a wave of immense pressure would hit me and I needed to push for a 4Th time. The last ten minutes I told the midwife to please get a vacuum that I just didn't have anything left and that he was supposed to be a big baby and to please just help get him out of me. She said that was a very good idea and went and got the Doctor. The doctor got the vacuum on his head and I pushed two more times and out he flew at 4:41 pm. The doctor didn't even pull with the vacuum. The baby's cord was wrapped around him but loosely but I didn't hear him cry. I waited and waited and looked over to see about 20 people around my son, pumping air into his lungs but his eyes were open. Why wasn't he crying. I started panicking and reached for my husband and begged for an answer and then finally after a minute and a half I heard the most beautiful sound I have ever heard in my entire life. My sons cry. My husband grabbed me and we just cried and thanked god he was alright. No sooner had I heard him cry that I started having more contractions and out came my placenta. Then I heard the doctor say do you want to hold your son. They placed him on my chest and he just looked at me. I couldn't believe he was here and even that he was mine. He looked at me then around and then lifted his entire head up off my chest. I couldn't believe how strong he was. The doctor then said they were going to take him and make sure everything was OK and not to worry because they would take good care of him and off they went. They stitched me up and and gave me more drugs and told me I was allowed to push my button again and then I went to sleep. After 38 hours of labor and 2 1/2 hours of pushing I was exhausted.

9 months of ups and downs

Finished Product!

Almost done just a few more touches

The walls needed drying

Sean painting the nursery

It's A Boy!

His little face(My Fav. Ultra Sound pic)

The little guys face from the front

My 1st Ultra sound. This is when we called him my jellybean

Pregnancy for the most part was great. The first 3 months I went through bouts of morning sickness but I wouldn't say I was glued to the toilet. The first 6 months I lost weight. At 19 weeks I found out I was having a boy. The last 3 months is when things started to go down hill. I started to gain weight at 7 months and started swelling around 8. Thats when the weight really piled on. At 9 months you couldn't tell the difference between my knee's and my ankles which really got to me since I always had ankles even for a heavy person. In August we decorated the nursery. We had so much fun doing that.