37 weeks pregnant

Today I had a doctors appointment. I will be having weekly appointments from now until he's born.

Today came with a few surprises. First, I gained 2 pounds in a week. Which isn't that big of a deal, but it's always interesting to step up on the scale and wait for the numbers to appear. I've gained 48 pounds total so far in this pregnancy. Wow!

The second surprise was that I have group B streptococcus or group B strep or GBS. I wasn't exactly sure what this was. I didn't have this with Garrison so it's all new to me. I know that when your pregnant you get tested for this, but I never really paid attention to what it actually was, until today. They gave me a pamphlet that explains what it is, how your baby could be effected and how it's treated. GBS is a bacteria that does not usually cause serious illness in adults, but can be VERY dangerous to babies. If left untreated and the baby is delivered through the birth canal it can cause serious problems for the baby. It can hurt their blood, lungs, brain or spinal cord and may even lead to death. To treat this I have to have an iv put in during delivery that will be feeding me antibiotics. The pamphlet said that the antibiotics only work if taken during delivery. The bacteria grows so fast that if treated earlier, the GBS will probably grow back. Reading through all this and thinking that I have some kind of bacteria makes me feel a little dirty, but my doctor told me that I carry this bacteria and that it just decided to be active now. (I'm not sure if everyone carries this bacteria and sometimes it acts up and sometimes it doesn't) I guess I'll be adding another needle to my list when I arrive to have baby number 2.

The third surprise is that I'm progressing. Last week when they checked me I wasn't doing much of anything. Today I am 1 centimeter dilated and 50% effaced. I know that this doesn't always mean something spectacular will happen soon because I was 1 centimeter with Garrison for a whole month. It's just exciting to know that things are heading in the right way. With Garrison I had very painful Braxton hicks contractions, but with this one I haven't had a whole lot of pain. I've been more uncomfortable, not being able to sleep well, back stiffness and I can feel my stomach getting hard and soft, but it doesn't hurt. It's crazy to think that in a few short weeks I'll be holding both of my boys in my arms.

Stay tuned...

I never understood...

I was thinking the other day of all the things that you deal with as a parent. At first it seemed like nobody every tells you these things, but then I wasn't sure if that was entirely true. I think people tell you or make comments about different scenarios, but until you are actually doing it you can't completely understand what they were talking about.



I never understood...



- what it meant to love someone more than yourself.


- how it would actually feel to have night after night of interrupted sleep.


- how you could see the world in a completely different light.


- that you make decisions based on how it will effect your child(ren).


- how getting the greatest bear hug with two small arms can make a bad day so much better.


- how much you'll see yourself in your child(ren).


- how proud you can be of someone who learned to use a fork, or sit up, or sleep through the night, or talk, or clap, etc...


- how much it brings you and your spouse together.


- what it truly meant to have unconditional love.


- how scared you'd be when your child gets their first fever.


- that I'd be getting up in the middle of the night just to make sure they're still breathing.


- what people really meant when they said that having your own child is nothing like taking care of someone elses.


- that I would look at myself and feel like I wasn't good enough to be a parent.


- that when my parents said they hoped I would have a child just like me, that it would actually happen. (and he's only 19 months!!)


- how choosing a name can sometimes be stressful.


- how some days I would want to run away for awhile and be alone.


- that saying, "It will only take me a minute" wouldn't really exist once you add a child.

- that I could have so many different voices for all the different characters in the story books.


- that a small child can teach lessons too.


- how kids remind you to look at the little things of life. (Garrison has a way of hearing every single plane that flies overhead and loves to point to the sky and let us know to look too.)


- that picking up the same toys 10 times a day will drive you insane.

- how seeing your husband get down on the floor and wrestle with his son would make you fall in love with him even more.

- that this is a wonderfully hard and rewarding job. One that I wouldn't trade for the world, even when he's throwing a tantrum or screaming his lungs out at the grocery store.

The birth of Garrison

The other day I was thinking about how I'm almost done with this pregnancy and how fast it seems to have gone. I remember being pregnant with Garrison and wishing he would come the beginning of December, which made for a very long month. Everyday I hoped it was the day he would arrive and then he ended up being a week late. God has a sense of humor. Anyway, I thought that I would share Garrison's birth with you as we wait for the story of our second one to arrive.

January 12, 2008...

It was a Saturday and Thomas had left early that morning, we're talking like 6 am, to go to a Men's Prayer breakfast at our church. I wasn't expecting to see him again until later that afternoon because he was planning on working all day Saturday so that he could take off Monday. Why did he need to take off Monday? Well Garrison's due date was January 6th and that day came and went with no action. I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for January 9th to get an ultrasound done to make sure that he was okay. During the ultrasound we found out that he was more then ready to come out. The lady doing to the ultrasound showed us that he was already loosing skin cells which you could see floating around on the screen. It was weird. When I saw my doctor after the ultrasound she had made an appointment for us to come in on Sunday, January 13 (my 26th birthday) to get set up to be induced the following morning. But God and Garrison had other plans...

I woke up Saturday morning at 7:30 with, what I thought was Braxton Hicks contractions because I'd been having them for over a month and wasn't expecting it to be anything else. I laid in bed and tried to fall back asleep, but by 8:00 I had noticed that there might be a pattern to the darn things. I got up and immediately started writing the time of each "pain" (since I didn't know that I was having actual contractions). After figuring out that I was having contractions about every 7 to 9 minutes I called my mom just to make sure. Thomas and I had taken all the birthing classes a few months prior and I was pretty confident that I was in labor, but I still wanted to call my mom. During my phone conversation with her I had to put the phone down so that I could concentrate on the contraction. When I got back on the phone she said, "Sarah you're in labor!" For some reason hearing that made me feel ok. I didn't want to be one of those ladies that doesn't know if she's in labor or not and ends up going to the hospital numerous times trying to figure it out. So I was glad that my mom, who had 4 children of her own, just told me, 'yes your instincts are right.'

By this time it was somewhere between 8:00 and 8:30 and I had yet to call Thomas, but couldn't. He was having a prayer breakfast and wouldn't be done until 9:00. So I went and took a shower and got ready for the day. Whatever "the day" was going to look like.

Shortly after 9:00 I called up Thomas and told him that at some point he needed to start heading home because I was in labor. Of course his reaction was I'll be right there, but I reassured him that he could run to the bank first and not rush coming home.

My sister, Joanna, lived with us at the time and helped me out with keeping track of contractions because they were starting to become more intense and I was having a hard time keeping track of the time. And at some point during all of this I called the hospital to ask if they wanted me to come in or continue to wait at home. They told me that as long as I could handle them I could stay at home where I was more comfortable. I had learned that during our birthing classes, but for some reason I needed that reassurance.

By 10:30 my contractions were coming about every 2 to 3 minutes so we thought it was best to head to the hospital. By about 11 I was in the hospital bed ready for whatever the day would send me. My wonderful nurse said that I was at a 4 and that she would be going to get the epidural man to relieve my pain. I remember looking at Thomas and both of us saying, "Already? Doesn't this process take hours and hours?" Guess not for us. It took the epidural guy a couple of hours to get to my room and before he showed up another nurse (not my original nurse) came in and broke my water. Let me tell you that next contraction was the worst pain I'd ever felt in my entire life. I remember squeezing Thomas hand so hard I thought I was going to break his fingers. I kept apologizing to him, but he didn't seem to care. Once my nurse came back in the room she was not happy to find out that they had already broke my water. She wanted to wait until I got the epidural before she was going to break it. When they broke my water they had also told us that Garrison had already had a bowel movement which meant that as soon as he came out they would need to run him over to the incubator and suction his nose and mouth before he took a deep breath and sucked all that icky stuff in. So he would not be placed on my stomach after birth, which I was ok with.

I'm not sure how long after my water was broke that the epidural man arrived. (I know I received the epidural sometime between 1 and 2 pm) He was a wonderful man, not because he was giving me the best drug around, but he was very calming and told me everything he was going to do and exactly what I was going to feel. After receiving the epidural I was in heaven. I started having contractions that were above the charts (which means they were super intense) and I couldn't feel a thing. Thomas was so amazed that I had gone from squeezing the crap out of his hand to laughing with him through contractions in a few short minutes.

After I received the epidural Thomas and I just talked about how crazy it was that we were having a baby and that we couldn't believe that it was happening so fast. We were expecting the day to drag on and on, but in reality it was flying and we weren't sure where the hours were going. It really felt like only minutes. It was weird.

At 3:30 my first nurses shift was over and she was so bummed that she was leaving when I was so close to delivering, but she said she would be back in the morning to see how things went. Oh, I forgot to mention that the nurses on the floor were having bets to see if I or another lady down the hall would deliver first. The other lady had arrived before me, but I was progressing faster. So all my nurses were banking on me delivery first, which I did, but that lady ended up having a
10 lb baby!

At 4 my second nurse came in, checked me and said we were ready to go. I couldn't believe that it was already time!! She was great! During pushes all three of us talked and watched the Packers football game. Yes, I had the football game on as I was having Garrison. I didn't care what was on tv just as long as it was on. One of my friends didn't have the tv on and she said that at one point she saw her reflection in the tv screen and didn't want to do that again. So I made sure that tv was on.

At 4:30 the nurse told me she was going to get the doctor and at 4:42 pm Garrison Brian Bush entered the world weighing 8 lbs 9.5 oz and was 20.2 inches long. (Everyone in the room couldn't believe that I had just delivered that big of a baby.) It was the greatest moment ever. When everything was said and done I ended up being in labor for 9 hours and only pushed for 42 minutes. Crazy!!

The first picture of Garrison

a chore

Garrison has become a big helper when it comes to feeding Aza. It's actually something that he started on his own. We feed Aza three times a day and it never crossed our minds that Garrison could help until one day he picked up her dish, walked it to where we keep her food and started pointing and babbling for us to scoop some food. Now at least once a day Garrison feeds Aza, with our help of course. It's a nice little chore for him to do and Aza has become really good at waiting for him because some days he takes his sweet ol' time getting the food to her.

Here is a video of him feeding her. When we feed Aza we try to get her to stay until we say "okay", but since Garrison has not been able to say that word yet he says, "Aya" instead, which is something that he started on his own. It's so cute to hear him say "Aya". You'll hear it in this video.

Room make overs

Thomas and I have been busy this summer re-doing a few rooms. We decided that we needed to start working on all three of the bathrooms, each one has carpet. Gross! So we decided to start with our bathroom first. We tore out the carpet and painted the walls. We still need to finish painting the cabinets, trim and door white again and hang a few shelves above the toilet.

What our bathroom looked like when we bought our house. Picture it with white carpet.

and this is what our bathroom looks like now

We also have been busy working on Garrison's new "big boy" room. He will be moving just one room over from where he is now. He won't be sleeping in there for awhile yet. For one, we don't have bedding and two, he still sleeps in a crib. Once we get his bedding and the baby comes we'll start slowly transitioning him over. We're in no hurry to get him into the room because the baby will be sleeping in a bassinet in our room for the first few months and won't be needing the crib. I think that once we start moving him over he'll love it. He already goes in there all the time to play and read books. He also loves crawling up on the bed and hanging out.

I'm so proud of this room too. The most expensive thing we got for this room was the paint. The dresser used to be mine when I lived at home. Joanna brought it up with her when she moved in, but she didn't want to take it with her when she got married. The futon was given to us for free. It had a really old, ugly cover on it, but underneath was a brand new, black mattress. I was so excited. His bed I found at a garage sale for $5.00. It was blue with a lot of chips so I went and bought black spray paint and painted it. The table was given to us for free from Thomas' brother and sister-in-law. The sports decor was bought at Target in the $1.00 section or at a thrift store for $3.00. The lamp on his dresser is being sold at Target right now for $30, but we found it at a thrift store for $7. The beautiful, white framed picture was made by Thomas' mom and the name above the window was made by Thomas and I for about $20. I love this room!!

Here is Garrison's room before (you can't tell, but it was completely wallpapered)

And now

(the walls across from each other are the same color. So we have two walls that are blue and two that are cream)