A Baby Story

Last I wrote we were in the procedure room waiting to try to flip Grace. Little did I know that within that hour or so Grace would be born.

So, here is how the rest of the story goes...

Dr. Wells arrives starts the ultrasound to ensure Grace is still breech and to figure out where her head was and the other parts (booty, back, feet, etc). Next Dr. Nelson arrived, Dr. Wells' partner assisting). They review everything and get started.

Dr. Nelson takes the booty and Dr. Wells takes the head. They start trying to reposition her and she is not moving. They check the ultrasound again and do not like the heartbeat they see. They hook the other monitor back up and still do not like the heartbeat they see. Dr. Wells calmly explains what is going on and that they need to take Grace right then, emergency c section. She explained how I would not have a epidural, instead it would be done under general anesthesia. With that means no dad in the room like a normal c section.

All of this transpired within 20 minutes - start of the flipping procedure to the time Grace was born. To look back and reflect on this just amazes me. The doctors and nurses at Thomas Hospital were quick to act and take care if us. There were 21 people in the OR helping deliver Grace and ensuring we were both taken care of.

The worst part for Brad - not being able to go with me. He said it was the mist helpless he had ever felt.

The best part for Brad - hearing Grace's cry from the hallway. As Sion as she was born he was able to go with get down to the nursery and do all the normal stuff like bath.

The worst part for me - waking up in recovery in the worst pain I have ever experienced. Apparently there is a big difference between a planned and emergency c section. I am not a fan either way. I also did not like that it was hours after her birth before I was able to hold my baby. This was not because of the hospital but because of the surgery I just had.

The best part for me - hearing that Grace was ok and knowing that Brad was with her.

Paige was at school during the bulk of this and we had arranged for Brad's cousin to pick her up if we could not. She was able to meet Grace about 8:30 that night along with all of her grandparents who made the sudden trip down. The grandparents were prepared to come but per our directions were still in Huntsville when it all happened. Neither brad nor myself expected her to make such an entrance that afternoon.

I am so thankful for our family for jumping in the car and being there for us. I know we could not have made it this weekend without their help - between watching Paige, getting the final touches for Grace done and taking care of our house overall.

And with that Happy Birthday Grace and welcome home!!!

Flipping

Long time no blog. I just added the blogger app to my phone do I wanted to see how it worked.

Right now I am laying in a hospital bed waiting to have a version done on our sweet little baby, Grace. What this means is she is breech and we are going to try to flip her. I am not sure if this will work but we figure it is worth a try.

Okie doke. The doctor should be here soon!

Disney Day 5

Knowing this was our last day we knew wanted to hit it hard or a better way to say this is that we wanted to make the most of the day.  We arrived at the Magic Kingdom before the park opened (we were so proud of ourselves).  They do a fun welcome dance and song right as the park is opening.  As you are walking down Main Street all the store people are outside waving and telling you good morning.  It was so neat and so welcoming.  I probably had just as big a smile on my face as Paige (I love it when people smile and say hello, I guess it is the little things).  All the books say hit Dumbo early and that is just what we were going to do.  Dumbo had other plans and was not open right away so we opted out of that.  The rest of the day was spent flittering around picking the rides we wanted to ride one more time.  We pretty much followed the same route that we did on our first day.  We rode the Many Adventures of Pooh many times, the Carpets many times, all the other fun rides.  One of the best parts was no lines!  Maybe it is just the timing we planned, but we would not wait in a line if it was longer than 20 minutes.  Shoot, we wouldn't wait in a line at all at Small World.  I guess it was because we knew there wouldn't be a line later on.

One fun thing we got to do was go by the Christmas store (we needed to get our vacation Christmas ornaments!).  We must have hit it at the right time because the sweet store attendant let Paige decorate one of their Christmas trees.  They put a nice sign up saying it was decorated by her and she got a little postcard and ornament from the experience.

We took our normal afternoon break and then it was back to the park until past 11 pm.  Once again, poor Paige konked out before we left.  We were able to do some shopping while she slept.

Other fun things -

It only rained once during our trip and it was on this day.  We were in Tomorrowland so we hopped on over to the People Mover.  Wouldn't you know it, the People Mover got stuck/stopped.  Not a problem!  We were outside watching the rain on a covered ride.

We got to meet Paige's favorite princess, Aierl, and Eric.  While visiting with them we talked about dogs.  Yes, we talked about Ellie and Madi and they told us about their dog Max.  I love how interactive the characters are.  They try to relate and do they do a great job.  Belle even asked what Paige's favorite book was and told her she needed to keep reading.

The entire trip was so wonderful!  I know all 3 of us had a great time.  Brad even asked me before we left when we were coming back again.  But, Monday came and it was time to hit the road back home to reality! 

Disney Day 4

It was off to Hollywood Studios for Day 4.  It had been a long while since we had been here and we didn't really know what to expect.  The one thing we did know was first thing get your fastpass for the Toy Story ride.  And that is what we did!  Brad scooted on to the ride while Paige and I meandered around.  He had to wait a few minutes to actually get the fastpass to get the time we wanted because we were planning around our lunch time.  When we got there at 9 am (an hour after the park opened for Magic Hours which we missed) and the fastpass time was 12:30 pm.  He was able to get the 12:50 time by waiting just a little bit and only experienced a little lip service from the hired help (I am not a big fan of the Toy Story workers - they gave him attitude then and then gave us attitude when we rode the ride).

To be honest, it is kind of hard to describe this day.  We were busy but it was filled with shows.  We got to ride the Great Movie ride, see Daisy and Donald, watch Beauty and the Beast (kind of like a Broadway show), and see The Little Mermaid - twice.  Maybe it was because we went to The Little Mermaid show twice, but it was my favorite.  We also saw the Muppets and the Disney Junior show.

We had lunch at a yummy place, Mama Melrose's, where we got VIP passes to Fantasmic.  I am glad we did it this way because we are not up for waiting for shows that long.  The VIP passes gave you designated seating at the Fantasmic show.  This way you didn't have to get there hours in advance.  Poor Paige fell asleep during the show and was gone for the night at 9:45 pm.  Luckily we did not have a long trip back, just an easy boat ride to the hotel!

*Sorry for the lack of pictures.  We didn't take that many since we were mainly seeing shows and I figure I have bored you enough with all the pics.

Disney Day 3

This was intended to be a low key day where we didn't have to rush anywhere or do anything and for the most part it was.

Our day started with a character breakfast at Cape May Cafe at the Beach Club hotel.  To be honest, this was probably the worst service we received all week.  Disney is known for their stellar service and this was subpar.  The food however was great.  It was a buffet and the buffet was filled with yummy food for all.

Gotta love the Mickey waffles!

This breakfast had Minnie, Donald and Goofy.  She enjoyed seeing all three.  It makes me laugh thinking back because I always felt the need to talk to the characters.  I thought I needed to tell them something Paige liked about them or just a story about themselves from either their show (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) or their movie.  We told Donald about "Donald of the Desert" and Daisy about how she was on Paige's crocs and how they didn't have a Donald available (that is why he wasn't on the other croc).  I know these characters had to think I was crazy but it seemed to work.

I guess we all need to take time to stop and smell the flowers.

Ready to go back out.  She cracked me up doing this (on more than one occasion).  She would go and put herself in the stroller and tell us she was ready to go.  This time she happened to be "ready" with no shoes.  Silly girl!

After breakfast we went back to the hotel and just chilled until early afternoon.  From there we headed over to Epcot.  Go figure Paige fell asleep on the boat ride over and all through park for about 2 hours.  This gave us time to stroll through the World Showcase and Brad got to ride Mission Space.  The plan was to stay at Epcot and head back early so we would be rested up for the remainder of the trip, but by dinner time Paige was ready to go back and "ride Buzz" and "ride Pooh".  Being the suckers that we are we said, ok and took the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom to ride a couple of rides.  She loved getting to ride the monorail and sang "All the Aboard the Choo Choo Train" (Disney channel people will know the song) almost the entire way there.  It is a good thing there weren't many people in the cabin with us.  We decided it would be fun to take the monorail back and walk through Epcot one last time.  She wanted to stop and see more characters (and of course we said yes) and this put us back at our hotel right at 10 pm.  So much for the uneventful day!

One neat thing we got to experience was the Extra Magic Hours at Epcot.  We had wondered how they worked and how they kept non-resort people off the rides and out of the park.  In case you didn't know, here is what they do - you have to show your room key to get in the park if you enter during the Extra Magic Hours.  Then you have to show it again when you go to get on a ride or for us, get in the character line.  Pretty interesting!

 

Disney Day 2

Our next stop was the Animal Kingdom.  This was our first time here and we didn't really know what to expect.  We arrived pretty much when the park opened and had our semi-plan for the day.

First was the safari!  This was another Daddy/Paige ride as they do not advise pregnant women to ride this.  I am not really sure why I couldn't do this one, but we respected Disney's warning. 

From here, I will let the pictures do the talking -

Checking out some neat fish

Rafiki from the Lion King - she actually wanted to go see him.

Enjoying a mid-morning snack

Fun train ride to the closed petting zoo.  We thought she would like the petting zoo and once we got there we found out it was closed.  Sad!

Playing on the Boneyard Playground

They have a neat picture place by the Lion King show where you can wait to see Mickey and friends.  Paige actually wanted to wait so we did.  I am glad we didn't push the characters since she wasn't sure about them, but I am glad she gradually warmed up to them.  She was too cute wanting to go see the characters and she waited pretty well in the lines.

Thumper!

So happy to finally see Goofy

Enjoying a lemonade slush with our paper straws.  Animal Kingdom only does paper straws.  I guessing this is so if the animals got a hold of one they could it eat and be ok.

Review of Animal Kingdom - not as great as I thought.  Not really the best place for kids under 2.  They had a few things to do but not many.  I think we were all pretty hot and tired by the time we left.  We did get to see the neat Lion King show (which I enjoyed). 

While all of our apps on the phone said this was a low crowd day, it sure didn't seem like it.  We decided the paths are narrower and there really aren't as many paths so you are crammed going anywhere, crowd or no crowd.  I think we will go back, but I think we will wait until Paige is tall enough to do the big-kid rides.

After resting we headed back to the Magic Kingdom and had another wonderful evening!  We pretty much let Paige run the show and let her tell us where she wanted to go.  We spent most of our time in FantasyLand and riding Buzz.  The crowds were so great - there were none!  We were able to walk right up to most of the rides and just hop on.

This what happens when you ask Paige to look at the camera...it just doesn't happen.

Crystal Palace Lunch

Looking back over our pictures at the Crystal Palace for lunch on our first day I realized these really captured Paige's happiness and excitement.  There a bunch of pictures but I just couldn't decide and narrow it down.  So, here you go...

My water bottle became her water bottle (in the end it was fine because that meant it was one less cup to keep up with).

She sees Pooh!

Pooh is here to visit us!

Well, Hello Eoerye

Are you writing anything good, Piglet?

It may take some zooming - but you will see the biggest and happiest look on her face!

Last but not least, Tigger! (who doesn't get excited about Tigger, right?)