Carmen Elizabeth Turnidge

I had been worrying for awhile that I wouldn't recognize the contractions when they came, just because all I had experienced before was braxton hicks directly to full on pitocin induced. Thursday and Friday I had contractions all day, but they seemed really mild so I figured it was more false labor.
Friday afternoon we took a long walk to 7-11 for a slurpee, the contractions started coming and actually started getting stronger so I figured this had to be the real thing. They were about 5-7 minutes apart. I started cleaning the kitchen, but around 8:30 they suddenly just stopped. Oh well, I thought, so I started making a cake! I had all this energy and couldn't even think of going to bed. Around 10:30 they came back, so strong I could hardly stand up. But they still weren't even close to what I consider pain, just very uncomfortable. We decided if they were still coming at 12 we would go. Pulled the cake out of the oven and put the frosting in the fridge. Dropped Lilli off and headed over to Abington. We got there around 12:30, but had a hard time finding the right parking garage, they have tons of them. We ended up parking a little far away, but walking never hurt right?!
We got to Labor and Delivery around 1, and sure enough, they were real contractions. I was relieved, it would have been a little embarrassing to be just having false labor.
Right away they noticed that she had an arrhythmia and were having a hard time following her heartbeat, and since the contractions were coming well on there own they said we would just go with that. No complaints from me, so far this was not bad at all! Unfortunately around 5 AM the contractions slowed down drastically and I only had two in an hour. I was so disappointed I really didn't know how to react. But they said "we'll, you're here, lets have this baby." They started the pitocin around 5 (by now I had dilated to a 6). At this point I had been thinking I would be able to go completely natural, but with this new change of events and my past experience (pitocin=pain) I decided to go for the epidural. I got that around 8 AM, unfortunately it only worked on one side and I just felt icky..I have to admit I regretted getting it. The nurse was totally awesome and got the guy back after she realized it hadn't worked, they gave me a bolus for the side that it didn't work on. So it felt like it had worked after that, which was a relief. My doctor arrived around 7 and said he was surprised I was still there, he thought for sure she would have been born by then. Then the shocker..at 7, 8, and again at 10 I had stopped dilating. They upped the pitocin so I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes but it didn't seem to be working, even after breaking my water. I was so scared that I would end up having a c-section. The big surprise was when I went from a 6 to a 10 in less then an hour!
At this point they were still hearing the irregular heartbeat, and had called NICU to be there when she was born, just in case. They did reassure me that this happened all the time, and usually in 9 out of 10 babies it disappeared after they were born. But I still worried. I was thinking that I might have to repeat my experience with Lilli (having her whisked off to the NICU minutes after she was born and only holding her for two or three minutes). I was pretty emotional about it.
At 11 I started pushing and ten minutes later she was born. 9 lbs 2.5 oz. 22 inches long. Several minutes later the neonatologist came and told me there was no sign of the irregular heartbeat, I can't put into words how I felt after that.

Have you ever noticed that when everything seems to be going perfect a curveball is always thrown your way?
As Carmen and I were preparing to be discharged the pediatrician heard the irregular heartbeat again. The next thing I knew they were taking her down to the NICU to monitor her heartbeat, and I was left alone with buckets of tears of course. This was around 9AM; at 10 Eric and Lilli arrived, we sat around for awhile and they came and told us a cardiologist was going to be coming and doing an echocardiogram and it was possible that she might want to do a 24 hour test, which would mean going home without our little girl. About 10,000 buckets of tears later (and several prayers) we went down to the NICU, Eric stayed in the waiting room with Lilli and I went in and waited for the cardiologist. They thought she would be there later in the afternoon, but around 12:30 they came and told me that she had arrived. At about 1:30 she did the echocardiogram, and my prayers were answered. She found a small hole causing a heart murmur, but wasn't big enough to ever cause problems and chances are it would heal itself anyway. She said, make an appointment for 6 months with me to have another one to make sure everything is alright, otherwise go home!
Unfortunately, being discharged from the NICU is a little challenging, so after a really awful car seat video I had to watch, calls to our pediatrician, and orders to have another bilirubin test (she was at 11, and should be 0), and mountains of signatures we were on our way...at about 5:30 pm. We were all so happy to be home!

I am so excited to have this darling little girl home with us and am excited to start this next phase of life..as a mother of 2!



Looks like fun...


A whole lb less then Lilli!


Just a little emotional, I was so happy to just hold her.


Our darling little one.

Lilli loves her new sister!

Dad and Carmen


Me and my girls.

Look at that happiness!

Gardening

I've been thinking about updating on our garden status for quite some time, but never seemed to be able to actually get it done! On Saturday Eric grabbed the camera and took some pictures. We have had much success with this venture, it's been a lot of fun..and well..you just can't beat home grown veggies!



The earth box is growing like crazy! We got our first cucumber from it, which was yummy! Eric picked it as we were leaving for our ward's pioneer day picnic so we just stuck it in the car, unfortunately we didn't put it in a good place (right by the parking brake) so when Eric set it the top to the cucumber got cut off. No big deal, I just started eating it right then! It was soo good. We cut up what was left and shared it with a few ward members.


Oh yea, check out that beauty!


The flourishing garden! We have been picking cherry tomatoes for the past two or three weeks. On friday Lilli and I were out weeding and I picked a bunch. Probably around 10, and she ate almost all of them. The magic of home grown, this is the girl who hardly touches the store bought ones.

Our only disappointment was that the bulbs we had planted at the front never came up. :( We figured they were dug up by the neighborhood cats or trampled to death by Lilli, who walked over them a fair amount trying to help water!



Just a random shot of my cute girl!

A Boy Thing

Eric and I have had this piano for close to two years now, we had talked about what we wanted to do with it when we move next spring...giving it away, trying to sell it with the house..etc. Well after talking to a local piano expert we found out this particular type of piano (ancient upright player piano converted to regular- built in the early 1900's) was worth absolutely nothing, (good thing we got it for free right?!) plus we had found out when we got it tuned that it needed completely rebuilt inside...costing somewhere between 8 and $10,000 dollars. I had considered teaching lessons, but because it was so worn out the sound wasn't quite right, not a good thing for a beginning piano student to not hear the proper sound!
The tuner told me that unless I was emotionally attached to it (inherited from family..etc.)he highly suggested that we not hold on to it. So after some discussion Eric said, well you know I really would like to take it apart and haul it away piece by piece (what boy doesn't want to take something cool apart!)..so that's what we decided to do! We really didn't want to deal with the liability of giving it away and having some stranger get hurt trying to get it out of our house! It is an extremely large beast and we were lucky enough to have friends that were willing to help move it into this house.
It's been a very fascinating experiment, and very dirty!


We have really enjoyed this piano, I was actually able to practice regularly and felt like I got a lot back that I had lost over the last few years without having regular access!


I have to admit, I thought it looked pretty cool with the keys exposed.


A little tinkle of the ivories (and this piano is old enough I'm sure these keys really are!)

Piece by piece...

Keys anyone?


Amazing how huge this particular piece is!


This piano really did come apart easier then expected...



...until we got to the harp! Removing all the strings, then pulling out 226 bolts turned out to be the hardest part.


If someone were to just see this part I don't even think they would recognize it as a piano...especially not as the most important (and heaviest!) part of the piano!

Lilli was always willing to take a turn...or maybe she just wanted to play with the cool tools!



Just a few strings left to remove! But we called it a night since it was about 1 in the morning at this point. Serves us right for starting the project at 10 pm!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lilli..Carmen..and other fun stuff

Lilli has recently learned to climb out of her crib, much to my dismay. At first I just thought she was stacking her pillow, blanket. etc. and using that as help. So I took everything out, I even took the bumper out. That worked for about 2 days, and she figured out another way. Oh well.

Watermelon anyone?


Lilli got this baby for Christmas from Grandma and Papa Turnidge, she has always liked it but recently has really gotten very attached. If you ask her where the baby is she will run and find it! I showed her how to swaddle, which of course she tried without a lot of success. But she did burp it and cuddle it. Soo cute, I hope she will be this loving with her baby sister.

Carmen:
Yesterday I went in for an ultra sound to get an idea of how big Carmen is right now to decide if we should induce early..the "educated guess" was 8 lbs 10 oz. I was mentally preparing myself for my appt. today since I wasn't really wanting to bring her out early. I really do think (plus being told the same thing by my friend Tamar- who has been an OB nurse and is a mother of 3)
that it's just better for the baby to not be early! Unless of course she decides to come early! So I was pleasantly surprised when the Dr. said that he thinks she will come this weekend..and if she hasn't come by my next appointment next Wed. then we will talk about what to do then because the last thing we want is for her to be overdue. Of course he had to throw in a kicker.. he said "what if she does end up being 10 lbs?" He offered to schedule a c-section...I told him that unless it was really necessary that I didn't really want one. I pushed Lilli out..big shoulders...10 lbs and all..and I could do it again! I guess we will see what happens, right? Even though I am most definitely not comfortable I am trying really hard to consider the baby and what she needs...if I can do this whole pregnancy thing for 9 months an extra week is definitely doable!


I haven't talked a lot about Eric and school so I thought it was about time for you all to know what he has been up to! He has officially made it through Jr. year, numerous teeth extractions... root canals...fillings...etc., etc....red tape from the school (the way they do things is extremely inefficient..it's lucky that any of the students get patients through!)
He has to get 12 days of outreach for Sr. year, this is where he goes into a clinic outside of the school and works under that dentist. This past Thursday and Friday he went and did that. And had a really good experience. At the school they only see two patients a day, he saw 5 each day at the clinic, which was pretty exhausting considering his usual patients load, but he said he felt really good. As challenging as all his requirements are he is definitely loving dentistry! I am very proud of him for all his hard work. He has said lots of times that he just loves working with the patients, he has met some pretty awesome people and had many interesting experiences. It will be nice when he can be monetarily rewarded for his efforts.

Pure Lazy

This is a prefect description of our weekend! Eric had friday off, which is always nice because we love having him around. But considering the extremely large watermelon I am carrying about these days energy only comes in small spurts. (And apparently I don't seem to have the energy to pick up the camera either)
Some friends had a BBQ on saturday, which we missed because I was asleep on the couch. We missed all the festivities in center city because..well...horrible excuse but we went to the grocery store and there were a gazillion block parties (basically every block in the city has one every summer, they rope off their block and everyone sets up tables and eats plenty of fried chicken/hamburgers..etc, and the kids play games in the street...no traffic allowed..super annoying) so it took so long to get home because we had to keep going around all the closed off blocks. By the time we got home we were so exhausted we decided not to go anywhere. I wasn't especially in a mood to deal with all the people in the city anyway...

Aside from all that..I really do love the 4th of July! Especially being right here in philly where it all started. I am forever grateful to those men who sacrificed everything in order to make our country what it is today. And for all those who continue to sacrifice so that we can be free.
GOD BLESS AMERICA

Just a little history...

10g. The Declaration of Independence

The moment had finally come. Far too much bad blood existed between the colonial leaders and the crown to consider a return to the past. More and more colonists felt deprived by the British not only of their money and their civil liberties, but their lives as well. Bloodshed had begun over a year ago and there seemed little chance of a ceasefire. The radical wing of the Continental Congress was gaining strength with each passing day. It was time for a formal break with mother England. It was time to declare independence.

On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee introduced a resolution to the Congress that declared the thirteen colonies "free and independent states." Congress did not act on the resolution immediately. A vote was set for early July. In the meantime it seemed appropriate that some sort of explanation was in order for such a bold act. A subcommittee of five, including Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, was selected to choose the careful wording. Such a document must be persuasive to a great many parties. Americans would read this and join the patriot cause. Sympathetic Britons would read this and urge royal restraint. Foreign powers would read this and aid the colonial militia. They might, that is, if the text were convincing. The five agreed that Jefferson was the most talented writer. They would advise on his prose.

The declaration is divided into three main parts. The first was a simple statement of intent. Jefferson's words echo down through the decades of American life until the present day. Phrases like "all men are created equal," "unalienable rights," and "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness" have bounced from the lips of Americans in grammar school and retirement. All are contained in the first section that outlines the basic principles of the enlightened leaders. The next section is a list of grievances; that is, why the colonies deemed independence appropriate. King George was guilty of "repeated injuries" that intended to establish "absolute tyranny" in North America. He has "plundered our seas, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people." It was difficult for Americans to argue his points. The concluding paragraph officially dissolves ties with Britain. It also shows modern readers the courage taken by each delegate who would sign. They were now officially guilty of treason and would hang in the gallows if taken before a royal court. Thus, they would "pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

http://www.ushistory.org/us/10g.asp