Grayson's story

It was 6:30 am on Saturday November 15th. It was a Penn State home football game day. I had gotten up to use the bathroom, a very common occurrence anymore,  and was just crawling back into bed when Adam stirred. He asked me if I was ok to which I responded that I was uncomfortable, but that was nothing new, and we both went back to sleep. 

I woke up again at 8:15 am and felt a little bit like I had "not made it to the bathroom". I got up and went to the bathroom and found that my pajamas were wet but not soaked. I wasn't sure what that meant so I changed and texted Natalie our Doula, and asked if this small amount could have been my water breaking. While I waited for her response I started some laundry and did a few things around the house. She got back to me and said it sounded like my water had broken and that I should let the doctor know. So I called the doctors office at 8:34 am and spoke to the emergency care nurse and she said she'd have him call me very soon. At 8:37 am he called me, asked me a few questions and said to get to the hospital as soon as I could to avoid the game traffic. 

So I put my phone down and took a deep breath... It was go time. I went back into our bedroom and gently woke Adam. I told him that he needed to get up and that we needed to go. He just looked at me and asked why. We both had lunch plans but this was 8:45 am. Then it registered and his eyes shot wide open! So we got showered, grabbed a little breakfast, packed the last few things in the hospital bag and we were on our way!

We got to the hospital around 10:00 am. I was hooked up to the monitors to get a baseline of where we were at and was checked for any progress... None since my appointment on Thursday. So we waited for the doctor to come in and see what the plan was. Once he arrived and saw my lack of progress, he decided I needed helped along a bit.
So at around 12:30 pm, a dose of Cervidil was given. (I won't go into details on what it is exactly, you can look it up if you wish!) this is to 'ripen' the cervix and help the body start labor. Well, since my water had broken, it didn't 'stick' as well as it should so it fell out 90 minutes later. they had to call the doctor back in, and have him reevaluate me again. He wanted to wait and see if that was enough to jump start things so we waited a few hours... and nothing changed. He inserted another tape around 6 pm and we were left to wait it out again.
This time, things got moving. My contractions got a lot stronger and closer together. I had reached the point of being miserable. By 7 or 8 pm, I was saying that I couldn't do this much longer and I needed the epidural. However I hadn't progressed enough, and they warmed me against getting it too early, that it may stall things even more. My goal had been to make it to 6 cm dilated before getting the epidural with 4 as a back up if I truly couldn't handle it. At 8 pm, after over 14 hours of labor, I was only at 3 cm. I was crushed! Natalie and I talked to the nurses and asked what my options were. I either had to tough it out or I could have a dose of Stadol (a pain med put into my IV). The side effects of the Stadol were a 'drunk' feeling.  I really didn't want it but I also was exhausted and couldn't handle much more so just before midnight, I received a dose of Stadol. It helped for about 45 minutes. They gave me a second dose at 1 am. As 1:45 approached and the second dose wore off, I cried mercy- I couldn't handle the pain anymore, I had to have the epidural if I was to keep doing this. So they called the doctor and anesthesiologist (Dr.Frog!) and I was prepped for the epidural.
Adam was excited to watch the process with the epidural, but they wouldn't let him. He had to sit in front of me and help me through a couple contractions. Dr. Frog said "ok, after this contraction we'll do this" however.... he did it about midway through the contraction - which was probably good because I was so focused on the contraction that I barely noticed he was doing anything! So by 2:45 am I was laying in bed, feeling the relief and finally able to rest. (note, not sleep... but rest)
At 3:30 am I was checked again. (Keep in mind, at 2:30 before the epidural, I was 3 cm....) 7 cm dilated and completely effaced. YIKES! Natalie and I were shocked, Adam had slept through this 'check' and woke up to us being like "WOW, this is actually gonna happen soon".
So apparently my body just needed me to be able to let go and relax a bit for it to get ready for the little man to make his arrival! The nurses told me to rest up, it'd be time to meet my little man pretty soon!
Natalie and I chatted for the next few hours as we waited, while Adam caught some much needed shuteye in a chair next to me. (Seriously, he can sleep anywhere) They came in again off and on, but they checked me again at 6:30 and said, we are 10 cm and just about ready!
The next half hour flew by and all of a sudden it's 7 am and we were doing 'practice pushes'. I thought, ok, practice. No big deal. We do a few and our amazing Nurse Tracy says to another nurse that we are about ready for Dr. Szabo to come in. My mind jumps- "wait, what?"
After a few more practice pushes, Dr. Szabo walks in and glances at me and says "Oh yeah she's ready" and gets his stuff ready and sits down and starts talking me through pushing and all.
A handful of pushes later, at 8:46 am on Sunday, November 16th there is a beautiful little guy laid on my chest. (The doctor said "whoa, he's solid" as he laid him up on me!)

So after 26 hours of labor, an hour and 45 minutes of pushing, Grayson Westley Unger had arrived into our lives.

I have never had my heart feel so full.

I could not have done it on my own. Adam and Natalie were an amazing support team for me. This was a day that I will never forget.

Introducing....

Grayson Westley

Sunday, November 16, 2014

8:46 am

22 inches long

39 weeks and waiting

Well - here we are - 39 weeks and a few days and waiting! There has not been a lot of activity towards our little guy making his arrival, so we continue to (impatiently) wait. The waddling, the swollen ankles, the frequent bathroom trips, they are all wearing me down. I'm getting anxious (but yet still nervous) to meet our little guy, but I know there really is no big rush to have him be out in the world yet for another week or so, so I'm digging deep and trying to find my patience!

Hopefully my next update will be announcing his arrival!

37 weeks - We are Full Term!

Today marks the start of week 37 of my pregnancy.

I remember a few weeks ago when I was thinking how easy this pregnancy has been, and it really has. I've had minor issues but nothing that was uncontrolled, and I still have my healthy little boy growing in my belly where he needs to be just yet.

I have definitely reached the point of uncomfortable. Clothes aren't the most comfortable thing in the world and most of my shirts are too short so my belly sticks out at the bottom. I've also had some swelling with a few days of it being worse than others. My wedding band and engagement ring no longer fit which I'm pretty bummed about. I got so close to making it!  Adam and I have decided that my attempts to get off the couch make me look like a turtle stuck on it's back. It is mostly comical, but a little sad too. Shoes are another sad thing... It's cool enough now that flip flops aren't always the smartest footwear to choose, but socks/shoes are so far down there to put on!

The nursery is pretty much ready - there are a few things to put away yet, but nothing major. I have bins to sort through some of the larger size clothing. Everything newborn to 3 months is washed and put away. I made monthly Photo stickers this weekend that of course match the nursery theme, as well as a little wall decal for above the changing table.  I think I'm done 'decorating' for now. Adam and I have talked about putting his name above the crib once he's here, but we still aren't 100% set on a name. I want to meet him first.  I know they always grow into the name you give them, but still - I'm reserving the right to change my mind!

So now we wait..... We wait for the little guy to decide he's ready to check out the world and pray for his safe arrival!

Pregnancy and Infant Loss awareness

October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss awareness month, and while I personally have not experienced that loss, I know families who have. I am so thankful for my little miracle and I pray for those who have experienced such a loss.

30 Week Update!

How are we already 30 weeks?!

Things have been pretty good the past 10 weeks. Our 'Little Guy' is growing right on track and doing well. He's been super active the last couple of weeks which has left me with some bruised ribs but as long as he's healthy and happy, I will take it! I'm starting to feel pretty big which is intimidating since I have 10 weeks or so to 'grow' yet! My official due date is November 10th, but they say only 5% of babies are actually born on their due dates and that first babies are commonly on the later side (closer to 41 weeks). I'm preparing myself for being a full week beyond that... however in the off chance I go early, I want to be pretty much ready around 35-36 weeks... Just in case, plus once I'm that big, I may not want to be fussing as much about being ready.

Adam and I have 2 weeks left of our 6 week childbirth class. (or "Huff and Puff" as my parents call it!) It has been quite educational... some weeks I walk out thinking "we got this!" other weeks I walk out and think "what have we gotten ourselves into?!" - either way, this kid is going to come out, so we'll just roll with it. I'll do my best to be prepare, emotionally and physically and we'll take it from there!

We are going to do a few home improvement things over the next few weeks, painting, adding some laundry cabinetry etc, but other than that, we are just letting Little G continue to grow and ready himself for his arrival. I'm excited to meet him and start this new chapter in our lives .... but not too excited that I can't wait for him to be ready!

10 Beautiful Moments in my life

So I was tagged on facebook in a "I feel beautiful" challenge... I stewed on it awhile, forgot about it for awhile, and then, came up with this spin (I can't do anything "as is" can I?!)

10 Beautiful Moments in my life.

(from left to right, top to bottom)

1) Dinners out with Jess

2) My Mom and I at my wedding

3) My Nephew Noah and I, his first Easter

4) Our wedding - first married kiss

5) My Nana and I at my cousin Paul's wedding

6) Adam and I with our niece Madalyn

7) Engagement pictures 

8) Adam and I in Philly at a book signing with Brian May (Adam was giddy!)

9) My cousin Valerie and I at her brothers wedding

10) My friend Martha and I when I visited her in Seattle (she's an east coaster now!)

Halfway! 20 week update

I am having trouble believing that I am halfway through my pregnancy already. I just cannot grasp it!

At 20 weeks I'm feeling pretty energetic and feeling the little one move quite a bit, which has been very fun. I'm learning that sleeping will often not be easy, and that certain things (like bending over and tying sneakers) are starting to get harder. I get a swift kick if I bend/squish someone too much.

We had our 20 week ultrasound. Everything looked good. I'm measuring right on time for my November 10th due date. Two arms, two legs, two kidneys, a heart rate of 142. We do have a shy one though, the wee one was not anxious to give us a profile shot for a while. I had to lay on my side and the technician kept having me shift around. However we did find out the gender.

We are excited for this little boy to join our family. It certainly makes it a bit more real seeing the tiny human shape and knowing the gender. (Not that my growing stomach wasn't 'real')

That's it for now... I know I need to do a 'nursery tour' post as we have it painted and some of the furniture in... but that will have to wait for another post!

17 week Baby Unger update

This is what 17 weeks pregnant looks like on me! (along with some awesome tan lines!) Our little Bat Baby is just over 5 inches long and over 5 and a half ounces!

I'm feeling pretty good. I'm hungry a lot and find myself forgetting that I need to eat more often than I'm used to, partially because I can't eat as much in one sitting as I used to!  I passed my glucose test with flying colors and all of our other genetic test / blood work results all came back normal. We didn't anticipate any issues, but it's still a relief to have that confirmation that you aren't a high risk for any genetic issues. There is always still the possibility, but it is pretty low.

All of the information I am reading says that between 16 and 18 weeks I should start to feel movements/flutters of sorts. The feeling has been described to me as flutters, a gold fish in your stomach, tickles, etc. So at 16 weeks I started to pay a bit of attention ... and felt nothing. I was sure things were fine, but just kept telling our little 'bat baby' that they could let me know for sure. Still nothing. Finally, Saturday morning I laid down in bed and just 'listened' to my body (if that makes sense...) and thought I may have felt something. I held my breath and waited - YES! there were little tickles going on in there! It was so neat! I jumped up and ran to tell Adam - who just gave me a puzzled look when I yelled "IT MOVED!" Once I explained what I meant, I'm not sure if he was more creeped out or thought it was cool. Since then I heard about the cold water trick. If you drink cold water and lay still, it usually wakes them up and they move around a bit. Monday night, I hadn't felt anything since Saturday so I tried this trick. Very neat! with in a few seconds bat baby was moving around! Since then I've gotten a few kicks or jabs (very gentle ones since they are so little yet) which is pretty neat.

We have our 20 week Ultrasound on Tuesday June 24th... I am getting pretty darn excited to stop saying IT! I will be perfectly happy with either, but Adam would like a boy.  Any guesses? 

Anniversary and Baby Unger update

Adam and I celebrated our 2nd Wedding Anniversary yesterday! It's hard to believe that it's been that long! We had a nice evening out at a restaurant that we hadn't tried before (Kamrai in Lemont) and then relaxed at home for the evening. Quiet and uneventful, and we were just fine with that!

Baby Unger continues to do well. I am 16 weeks along now and have a little bump. I told a woman today that I was pregnant and she just looked at my (lack of) belly and just gave me that 'just you wait' smile...  We have a regular check up next week and then our 20 week ultrasound scheduled for the end of June. I'm very excited to see our little one as more than a peanut or little bat as they were on the first ultrasound. We also hope to find out the gender if they cooperate. We'd certainly like some help in reducing the number of names to comb through!

We also painted the nursery. I am very excited about how it turned out!

... and bump photos....

11, 13, 14.5 and 16 weeks.

I feel like I had a bigger bump (bloat?) at 13 weeks than I do at 16 weeks. It's hit or miss. Some days I feel/look bigger than others. Generally I'm feeling pretty good. I have a lot of ligament stretching so I'm pretty sore, but that's par for the course. Otherwise, we are just moving along, talking about baby names, looking at nursery furniture and keeping up with the house/normal stuff!

A busy couple of months!

I know that it has been awhile since there has been an update from us other than my birthday post. Things have been a bit crazy around here in the Unger house, so I wanted to post an update on what's been going on.

Adam got re-promoted! He is now back to being a co-manager at the Walmart near our house and seems to mostly be enjoying it. He is currently on night shift so that's been a tough adjustment. The back and forth of schedules really just wears on both of us trying to keep up with what is going on. Plus, they just recently went through inventory so that's always an added stress with extra shifts, but we survived and the store did well!

I got a 'promotion' of sorts as well. I'm in the same position with the Ritchie Lab, however we got my position upgraded to a level 3 from a level 2. It is just a way for Human Resources to re-evaluate the job you are already doing and see if it's worthy of an upgrade. It's been a long, 10 month fight, but it was official as of April 1st!

We've been in our house for a full year as of March 18th! We've been fortunate to have had the opportunity to build this house and look forward to continuing to make it our home. We've rounded out our year of first holidays and are into our second spring/summer. We love it! We have a few projects we want to do (paint the office, hang cabinets in the laundry room, switch from mulch to river rock, etc) but overall we love every bit of our house and really enjoy spending time at home either by ourselves or with our guests.

We are still spoiling our guinea pigs. They want to share some news with you:

Yes, it is true. Adam and I are expecting our first child this fall! I am just over 13 weeks along right now, and feeling pretty good. I had some pretty nasty morning sickness the first few weeks but that faded by week 8 and I could at least eat SOME foods again. Now my two main aversions are chicken (unless it is fried) and the smell of coffee, especially if it is burnt! The exhaustion is letting up as well and I can make it through the day with out a nap now! :O)

Here is our first ultrasound picture at about 9 weeks of our little 'bat baby' as we are calling it. Hanging upside down already! 

We will be turning one of our spare bedrooms into a nursery in the coming weeks/months, which I am very excited about. We are doing a cute safari theme and have a border and paint picked out! Now just to find the time/energy to jump in!

We will find out the gender when we have our 20 week ultrasound if our wee one cooperates. You all know I'm too much of a planner to not know! But we will be sticking with mostly neutral gear / nursery colors anyway. Keeps it simpler if there is a second and neutral to pass on to others!

Thanks for allowing me to share our big news! I'll try to post updates here every so often, so check back!

Thirty!

Back in November, my friend Martha over at Growing Palm turned Thirty and did a post about a bucket list, but of things she had accomplished by Thirty. I thought this was a fantastic way to ease myself into the idea of no longer being in my 20's (which were fantastic!) and focus on what I have done versus what I haven't. 

Thirty things I have accomplished before turning thirty:

1. Graduated High School (looking back this seems easy, but I remember while I was IN high school, I just wanted to do well, and get out!)
2. Attended Regional Band/Choir in High School
3. Participated in a sport in high school (track and field counts!!!)
4. Was the featured singer in Jazz band
5. Got INTO college at Penn State (those who know me, know this took some trial and error, but I made it in, and into the School of Music!)
6. Marched in the Penn State Blue Band -where I performed in front of over 108,000 people.
7. Saw a show on Broadway - Wicked in 2003 I think!
8. Graduated College with ANY degree (This was another challenge, but I did it!)
9. Moved out of state - I think this counts, even though I moved back in 10 months!
10. After a 2.5 year relationship ended, I put myself back out there, and ended up meeting the most amazing man on the planet who is now my fantastic Husband!
11. Bought a car, all on my own.
12. Sat in the Stands for a Penn State Football Game, and Tailgate! (after 5 years in band, this was a big deal!)
13. Selflessly helped others - I get such a thrill from this one!
14. Developed some pretty amazing friendships, in college and out - that have become like family
15. Met Brian May of Queen - Adams favorite person ever!
16. Saw Jerry Seinfeld at Eisenhower Auditorium
17. Saw The Fray in concert - the '45 minute' concert!
18. Saw Elton John in concert - the 3 hour concert!
19. Went to Hawaii! (and watch the sunset... breathtaking!)
20. Relaxing vacations to the Outer Banks with the man who would become my husband!
21. Got Married to the most amazing man!
22. Went on a trip (as adults with no children in attendance) to the Pittsburgh Zoo
23. Bought a House - had it built even!
24. 1st Anniversary trip to Washington DC - (and the zoo) which I planned as a total surprise for Adam
25. Watched the sunset in Mallory Square, Key West - Stunning!
26. I Do Photography as a hobby - and be ‘hired’ to do pictures for events!
27. Hosted some pretty awesome dinner parties / picnics
28. Have 2 nephews and 1 niece that mean more to me than I can put into words
29. Been a Guinea Pig Mommy for 10 years, to 7 unique guinea pigs.
30. Had my gallbladder removed - only surgery (other than wisdom teeth)

While not all of these are huge events, I feel pretty good about them. I'm also pretty excited to see what I can accomplish in my thirties!

Dr. Seuss!

My dear friend Danielle is a teacher in the area - and for Dr. Seuss's birthday week and Read Across America - she wanted a Dr. Seuss t-shirt! I was more than happy to make her and her Librarian friend each ones with a Dr. Seuss quote!

She picked the quote from the Silhouette online store, and I took it from there!

After cutting out the design on my Silhouette Cameo - I sat and peeled out the negative space.... I found it easiest to sit at my 'bar height' cutting table so that it was at eye level to see the cut lines... and a pair of tweezers/exacto knife!

Then I checked size/shape... something was missing - too bland.

So I pulled out some red HTV that I had picked up - definitely the 'pop' it needed. 

Ready to start the ironing process!

Before this, I had only made small projects. Toddler shirts and onesies - ironing a bigger image takes a good bit longer than I anticipated!!!

(In the middle of this I switched to using a plain white t-shirt for my ironing 'in-between" layer after seeing a post where the color of the layer ran onto the project!)

And - The final product!

I now have two of these amazing shirts for my Teacher friend and her Librarian friend! 

I Need Motivational Quotes/Sayings

My Aunt is going to be starting cancer treatments in a few weeks. I'm looking for motivational quotes/sayings/ideas to send in cards/posters for her. Please post in the comments or send to me via email/facebook.

Big Brother Shirt!

For my nephew's 3rd birthday, I made him a big brother t-shirt. He became a big brother back in August and I was looking for one around Christmas but just couldn't find one I liked.

So I did what any Crafty person would have done... I made one!

For Christmas this year, I got a Silhouette Cameo machine from my parents. Before this I had a Cricut Die-cut machine, which I loved. However, the Silhouette can do quite a bit more! I'm honestly a bit overwhelmed at all it can do!

With my machine, I also got a Heat Transfer Starter Kit - I was excited at the possibilities, but intimidated about how to get started. So I procrastinated and watched a LOT of YouTube videos. Finally I was inspired and felt that I could tackle this project!

I found this file on the Silhouette Online Store that I really liked. I read the instruction book that came with the starter kit a few times to make sure I wasn't going to miss any details and jumped in.

I cut out my file on paper first so that I could make sure I liked how it came out, and to make sure it would fit on a 3T t-shirt! (I laid my cutting mat over it to measure)

The instructions say that you can cut the vinyl with out a cutting mat, but I couldn't get my vinyl to feed into my machine so I opted for a mat. When you go to cut your pieces, the cut screen asks if you are using a mat, so I just selected that I was and all was fine.

(* Note: when using Heat Transfer - remember to MIRROR YOUR PROJECT IF IT HAS WORDS!! Thankfully I remembered this before cutting on my vinyl, but I can see myself making that mistake a few times before it truly sinks in!)

I laid all of my pieces out together to make sure everything was sized right and I liked how it looked. (also sent many texts to a few friends to see if they agreed that it looked as good as I thought it did!)

Next I laid it all out on the shirt to get the position right and make sure I liked the spacing once.

Finally I got out the iron, set it to the cotton setting and dove in. I actually had to move off the ironing board and to an ironing mat (a few towels would also work) on the floor because I couldn't put enough pressure on it with it up on the ironing board. Ironing each piece on took longer than the directions stated. I had to press on each piece for a total of 2 minutes before I could cleanly peel the backing away. (my iron has a 30 second safety setting so I would have to tip it back up for a few seconds and then press again)

I'm really happy with how it turned out. It's adorable and I can't wait to see him in it!

Next Heat Transfer project:
The Little Brother match to it!

Be Mine Silhouette Valentines Card

This is my second card project with my Silhouette Cameo. I am a cricut convert!

 I used my Sizzix Embossing machine to do the dot texture. It's a handy little unit that works great with the metallic paper!

I used WausauPaper, Metallics Cardstock for the shimmery white background. I only have a little bit of this. (note some sarcasm here - that bin is full of only this type of paper!) Our wedding colors were silver and navy - this was the only way I could find silver shimmery card stock to use for place cards and table numbers so I bought quite a few packs from amazon to have enough of the 4 pages of silver in each pack!

The red paper is also a shimmery cardstock but the cover has since ripped off the package - I'm sure it's from Joann's though.

I'm not sure what made me come up with the idea, but I like the simplicity of it (it's all one piece!) and it didn't take too long to do. The challenge was gluing it down. The dots make it a little difficult since I only  had a glue stick (ran out of spray adhesive!) but after putting it under my fabric cutting mat for a few minutes, it all stuck and we are good to go.

It's a very basic card, and now that I have the template made, it should take maybe 5-10 minutes to put this card together.

Batman Birthday Card!

My Husband is a huge comic book fan. He loves Batman, Superman, Spiderman etc... but Batman is his favorite so I thought I would use my new Silhouette Cameo to make him a card!

 I actually ended up using both of these. I was making the card and then came across a 'print and cut' file and had to investigate what that meant. SO COOL! I cannot believe it can do this!  I printed a page on my computer printer, brought it to my cameo and it lines up and prints out the image this close!

Now that I know how cool this thing is, I'm VERY excited to learn more and more about it!  (and also take more pictures of the processes of these things so my blogs are a little more informative and not just bragging about my cool BATMAN cutout!

Waiting... and Living...

This is very true. We wait for the weekend, we wait for a day off, a vacation, a visitor. We spend our lives waiting, when we should be spending it living. I know I am guilty of this, and would really like to try to do more living and less waiting.

What about you?

Organizing The Pantry

So I'm a Pinterest junkie-  I pin but don't usually do much with the ideas from them.

Today I did!

I've been looking up pantry organizational ideas this week. Lots of baskets and canisters, but those things are expensive. So I went to the dollar store for inspiration! I got all of these for $8.50 (3 of the bubble baskets, 3 of the wire shelves and 2 of the stacking bins)

I used the stacking bins in the closet close to our keurig to keep my tea k-cups. Iced varieties in the bottom, hot on top. 

I used the rest in out bigger pantry that was in need of organization. Here it is before:

It's all in there, but a bit of a mess. Things shoved wherever they won't fall out. So I used my bins/shelves to clean it up. I took out 3 items that are rarely used and could be stored in the basement, and added a basket of baking extras. 

The finished project: