Here's what we've been up to

Since Makinlee was born, I have taken a ton of pictures but haven't posted any. Don't really know what I was waiting for really. SO without any further waiting, here is what we've been up to around our house with a new baby.

Daddy catching some shuteye...

Don't mind the date stamp, haven't figured out how to change it yet...

Big boy cousins Nixon (left) and Dawson

The DeClerck side of the family had a reunion this summer and Great Grandma DeClerck came over to portland from La Grande. It was great to get all the family, cousins and everyone together!

Gerti DeClerck with her Newest Great Granddaughter.. Kinlee!

Gerti and Kinlee only 2 weeks old!

After the Reunion on the DeClerck side of the family, we also took Kinlee to this years Warrior Dash up at Hornings Hideout. Ryan and I ran this crazy 3 mile race last year. Sadly, we were just spectators this year.  Hopefully we will be up for being Warriors again next year!

Labor day weekend we went swimming at my dad's condo, poor kinlee is not a fan of cool water!

We also walked in the Susan G Komen Race for a Cure in September. Kinlee and daddy in PINK

our little Pink Warrior

Real men wear their babies.  Our favorite way to pack around the baby

Kinlee Cuddle time

Pumpkin patch fun!

Griowing up so fast!  Happy Thanks Giving!

Kinlee on Christmas morning. We had her blessed in church and she looks just like the Christmas tree topper Angle!

When I get around to it I will post all the pictures of the fall and winter things we have done





Falling leaves...a big fat hole

In my heart that is. I dis like this time of year greatly. The ugliness that comes after fall depresses me.  The turning colors of the leaves, the cool mornings and warm afternoons, the crunchy sound the leaves make on the sidewalks, all things about fall that I loved growing up.  Sadly living in thee NW, that doesn't seem to be the case for fall.  Yes the leaves still turn pretty colors. But it happens later and later every year, and doesn't last as long because it starts so late.  The cool mornings around here, turn into cool afternoons.  And there is no crunchy sound of leaves when everything is soggy! soggy rainy grass, soggy leaves, soggy pumpkins.  SOGGY.

I feel a little happier about the changing seasons this year than I normally would because this year, I have the sweetest pumpkin ever to share everything with. And its a year of firsts. Baby's first fall, Baby's first Halloween. It's much easier to put a smile on your face and wade through soggy fields to find a pumpkin when you know how cute your baby will look sitting inside it!


Ryan surprised us with an early Christmas present last night. I'm very excited to say we are the owners of a new computer.  Really its just a new tower, but what a world of difference it has made already. Our old tower was a self built model that got Ryan through college, 8 years ago.  It made the office sound like a helicopter would be landing outside any minute.  It also was so old, that I couldn't download Itunes on it.  Not a great thing when you have an Iphone that must have access to Itunes to be used well. 

It has a ton of great features and I'm so excited to be able to get all the pictures of my sweet baby, and the fun things Ryan and I did prior to baby up. So be ready for lots of catch-up posts this week! 

photo opt

Makinlee had her pictures taken when she was 4 days old by amazingly talented friend and co-worker Jill. (You can find her on face book under See Jill Run Photography.)  We had a great time and Im so happy that we had this chance to capture her amazing newborn days at home. Here are some of my favorites.

 

First family photo

 Chipmunk Cheeks

 Tiny little head

 Mommy and her angle

 Daddy's little girl on the tractor for the first of many occasions

Thank you a million times over to Jill Browning for her talents and time away from her own family to be with ours.  It was an amazing day, and one I won't soon forget.

The Grand Entrance

I figure if I don't hurry and write it all down, i will forget every little detail that seems so crystal clear right now.
Week 35 of pregnancy started off a little on the rough side.  I was at work on Monday morning like always, doing my job when I started to notice that I was getting pretty consistent contractions. Consistent and painful enough for me to take notice and start timing.  By lunch time I was having more than 5 in an hour and called my doc, who of course always just says, come in and lets check it out.


I went in and was monitored on the NST for a while and they could watch the contractions. I was 70% effaced and getting soft and ready for labor. Doctor told me I could go back to work and just take it easy. Probably just Braxton Hicks contractions and I would be fine.  Monday night at home was terrible. Awful painful contractions every 15 minutes or so. No appetite, nausea and I couldn't sleep to save my life.  Tuesday at work, I left an hour into my day to go home and attempt to sleep.  Trying to not go into "real Labor" as I was only 35 weeks along which is not full term and baby just isn't ready yet.  By wednesday I was feeling much better and worked the rest of my work week.. Thursday night when Ryan got home from work we had a good dinner and went to bed later than usually after staying up to watch a movie.

I woke up at 2:20am needing to potty, as many pregnant women who can't sleep through the night do, and my water broke.  I stood next to the bed totally soaking the floor and having no real idea what I was supposed to do next.  I woke Ryan up and told him what had happened.  He was so good. Calm and ready to take action. We called the hospital to tell them we were on our way in, then called my mom, (at home in Utah 800 miles away) and told her to get in the car and start driving. I wasn't currently contracting and thought as this is my first child it could be a long day of labor.

We got to the hospital about 3:30am and were put in a Triage room where the nurses have to verify that Im really in labor and my water really was broken.  Bad idea.  The nurse who did the exam told me that there was no evidence of water breaking and I had probably just not made it to the bathroom in time.  Looks like they were sending me home.  By this time i was contracting again and i was in a lot of pain. The nurse said i was to early for them to induce labor, but they would watch me for an hour or so and see if i made progress on my own. If i did, they could admit me and we could have the baby today, if not, i was being sent home to wait for real labor.

The only problem was, the nurse didn't believe i was in labor yet and wanted me to hydrate myself so she kept pushing me to drink more water, drink more water, take a sip of water between contractions.  Well, any women in labor, or who has been through labor before knows that drinking or eating can make you nauseous and want to puke, which is exactly what happened to me. I got so sick i was crying from the contractions and vomiting between them.  The nurse returned to check me at 5:30a and said i had dialted and they could admit me. So off to a real labor room we went.

Just before 7 am my doctor came to round and said I could finally have the epidural, just wanted to check me first and see where I was. In less then an hour I had gone from 2cm to 9 1/2 and ready to push. The epidural lady came in and started her thing, which took way longer than I ever thought possible. Im sure it wasn't really that long, but it felt like it to me.  In the middle of what she was doing I felt the urge to start pushing which scared me pretty bad. Knowing you can't move while they place the epi, and feeling like your baby is going to drop right out is not comforting at all.

Sadly after 2 &1/2 hours of pushing baby girl got stuck. She was sunny-side up, which is upside down for a proper delivery, and her head was tilted just a little bit to the right so she was not gonna make it through.  After trying and trying to rotate her and make it work we opted to stop trying and save her from any more swelling on her little head and me from un-needed stress of doing the impossible. 

Makinlee DeClerck was born 8/5/11 at 11:49am by C-section.  6lbs 9oz, 18.5 inches long and brown hair. With my amazingly supportive husband Ryan by my side we survived the surgery and i even got to do skin to skin with my baby girl just a minute after they got her out. It was the best of both worlds.

My mom made it to Oregon just as we were moved from recovery to the post partum floor.  We were in the hospital until Monday afternoon. My mom was able to be here with us for 9 days. I can never say thank you enough for all the help she and my little brother and sister gave us.  Perfect little baby, perfect little family!

From counting UP...to counting DOWN

Saturday will mark 34 weeks.  Its an exciting day in the grand scheme of things and I must admit there were many times in the last few months that I never thought I would make it to this point. 

The week of the 4th, we had family over on Sunday to celebrate my Mother in-laws birthday. I woke up not feeling real great, but screwed on the smile and greeted family and played Host the nephews and enjoyed a good day.  I had a sudden attack of nausea that left me running for the bathroom, only to end violently vomiting.  It only happened once, and I seemed to feel much better once it was over with. Family left, we cleaned up the house and laid down to rest on the couch for a while.  Ryan notice as i was going to bed that night that I had a very large, dark purple spot in the corner of my left eye.  Nothing to worry about, I figured if I couldn't feel it, it was fine. 

The next day at work, I had another sudden nausea/ vomiting attack.  I called my Dr. at the request of the nurse's i work with.  "Come over and let us check you out", the constant response anytime I call on them.  So, over I went.  I was put on the NST monitor again to watch little Bambina and see how she was doing.  Her heart rate started in the 120's and never got any higher.  about 10 minutes into the monitoring the heart rate started to have "variables" which basically means the heart rate was dropping down into the low 90-80's.  Not a good thing.  It was happening repeatedly in the monitoring. I ended up having to have another Ultrasound, and the drops in heart rate were being seen again there.  Dr. was not thrilled but was unsure how significant it was.  His plan for me.... off the labor at delivery at the hospital for extended monitoring.  I was admitted to the triage room at St Vincent hospital and hooked up the NST monitor all over again.  Ryan came as soon as he got of work and waited with me.  He is such a great man and will be an amazing father. Lots of waiting and watching the strip print out of the machine.  Bambina did not have any more heart decels while i was being watched and they let us go home after about 4 hours.  Again on strict instructions to drink plenty of water and rest as much as possible. 

Week by week I wait and wonder.  This child may just be the death of me before she even arrives.  Thankfully, baby has been very happy and well behaved since the trip to the hospital. I'm still seeing the Dr. weekly and having testing done at every visit.  the goal is to make it all the way to 39wks.  we shall see. 

Maternity Pictures

I have a friend who just hapens to be an amazing photographer. She is starting up her own business on the side and I was happy to be her willing modle for some maternity pictures.  We had them done the weekend of the 4th at a park in North Portland called Catherdral Park. Its a really nice random park underneath the St. John's bridge. I was 31 weeks at the time and Jill did an amazing job.  Here are some of my Favorites.

We had excellently hot weather and I spent the whole time trying not to glisten...  Ya right. We also had some funny pictures taken of the dogs, and an attempt at a family Picture.

My Big beautiful beast Harley, 16 months, and Kiya, 8 months.

Can't ya just see what a big happy family this is going to be very soon?



Baby blog....Turned Journal

I have had many people in the last few weeks ask me if i was writing down everything about this pregnancy. Keeping track for posterity and what have you.  I thought i was.  "I have a blog" I tell people.  Sad truth of the matter is, I have a blog that is lucky to see a monthly entry. 

While i try to explain away my slackerness, I will just start writing. And keep writing until this little bambina decides to grace the world with her presence.  

I turned 30 weeks pregnant last week, and promptly spent the rest of the week at home on bed rest.... Yet again.  It started last week on Wednesday when shortly after lunch time I realized that I hadn't felt her moving much at all. After much prodding and prying from the loving nurses I work with, I finally called in to my Dr's office.  I was asked to come right over and be seen. So that's what I did thinking the whole way there that it would just be a simple check for heart beat and back to work I would go. 

I was put on the NST monitor, or Non- Stress Test machine where they watch babies heart beat and the uterus for any activity like contractions.  In a normal test in someone 30+ weeks along, the strip should show baby's heart rate increase a small amount 3-4 times in a 20-30 minute time period.  Bambina failed this test miserably.  Her heart rate remained low and steady the whole time.  I was ushered into and Ultrasound room for a scan of baby that would look at her Biophysical Profile.  Basically watching her gross muscle movement, muscle tone, amniotic fluid level and her diaphragm for breathing movement practice.  she gets 2 points a piece for each of these things, and she has to show them to the US tech in a 30 minute time period.  she narrowly passed this test.   Her fluid level should be between 10-20 at this time, and we were rockin it right at 9.7.  The very low end of normal,  I was told. And on top of the low fluid thing, it took baby the whole half hour and some vibration stimulator thing to make her do the breathing movement. 

SO needless to say, I was stressed out, and then told by my lovely DR. that I was being sent home with strict instructions to lay low and drink PLENTY of fluids.  that's the only way to build up amniotic fluid.  Great, two more days off work that I don't need and a whole lot of time on my hands to sit and stew about baby and what could or could not be wrong with her. 

I was allowed back to work on Monday after a restful weekend laying on my couch drinking more water than the lake can hold.  Baby was nice and active all weekend and I wasn't to worried about her by the time i went back to work Monday.  By Tuesday at 11am, I facing Deja Vu!  Baby was again not moving at all!  I hadn't felt her move since going to bed on Monday night. 

Doing what the Dr.'s and nurses had told me last week at my impromptu appointment I call them again to tell them, she was MIA in movement.  Back to the office I went. more NST's and another US after she failed the test yet again.  On the bright side this time, her fluid level was up a little bit just over 10.  so the rest and hydration was doing its job slowly but surely. 

Its so very frustrating to worry about something that A- you have absolutely no control over in the long run, B- you can't see to check on or have any sort of reassurance, and C- that the Dr.'s seem to think all will be fine when you feel like your little world is falling apart. 

So, here I am, wishing there was a window into the womb.... 37 weeks can't come soon enough