Love, Life and Appreciation

Wow, the time is flying. May is now one week and one day old. My what a week it's been. From giving birth to her, to bringing her home, to the sleepless nights (what's sleep? LOL). I still can't believe she's here though. I keep thinking, "I really carried her for 9 months? She's ours?" I can remember the first time I felt a flutter, like it was yesterday. Or when I called my mom, when I first felt her kick. Now she's here and exploring her new world :-)

The long awaited day finally came. May is here and she is cute as ever. We can't believe we're parents to such a beautiful and happy little girl. I'll break down the story of her delivery.

The morning of December 12th, I woke up to what felt like cramps. I was 40 weeks and 4 days pregnant and had a doctor's appointment at 9:45 that morning. The appointment was to monitor how May was doing, as she was overdue. The cramps where mild and I didn't want to over excite myself because for the weeks before, I had not felt anything close to being in labor. When I went to the appointment, I was given my schedule for an induction on the 18th at 7:30 am. I was hooked up to the monitors and at first the doctor was not happy with the results. May was not moving much and her heartrate was low. He wanted me to have an ultrasound done but as I waited for another woman to finish hers, May began to move and the results were more pleasing. The doctor checked me and found that I was 80% effaced and 1.5 cm. This made me happy because I was finally dilated. He also asked if I was feeling the contractions, that I was having, which I replied yes. He said that he didn't think I would make it to the date of the induction and because of the results of the fetal monitoring, he scheduled me for an ultrasound and another Non-Stress Test, that Friday. He said I'd mostly have her by the weekend.

I left feeling happy there was more progress but also concerned about the results of the test. I continued having the contractions throughout the day and Rex and I decided to walk, to help speed the process. It didn't work and by 4 pm that evening, my contractions were still 10 minutes apart and 20 seconds long. By 7 pm, I started feeling stronger contractions that were lasting longer and thought, "Hey, May might actually be born on 12/12/12." The contractions were very uncomfortable and the pain level was around 4. Prior to visiting the hospital, my office requires calling the on call doctor who clears you for the go. I called and he told me to wait until they were 4 to 5 minutes apart. Waiting was hard, as I was tired and the contractions were getting stronger. I tried to go to sleep and all I could think was, "It's going to be a long night."

I timed them, and at around 11 pm, they were much closer together. I called the doctor and he gave me the OK to go the hospital. We arrived at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, 25 minutes later. I was in pain and we took the elevator up to the fourth floor for the maternity ward. I was taken back to triage, where the nurse checked me and said I was 3.5 cm dilated. She confirmed I was in labor. She asked if I wanted to get an epidural then. I replied I did want the epidural but I'd wait it out. As I waited to be admitted, the contractions got stronger and more painful. The nurse appeared after a while to say I was admitted and as I was moving from the bed to wheelchair to go to labor and delivery, I felt a few drops of water and the nurse tested it and saw it was amniotic fluid.  I was settled in my room and was checked and the nurse found that I was 4 cm. I got the epidural then. I had a contraction while getting the epidural. Not long after getting epidural, I felt a gush of water and knew my water had broke. The contractions started to feel like pressure and I felt better. It was about 2 am around this time and I decided to try get some sleep to save energy for pushing.

The nurse keep coming in and checking the results of my fetal monitor. At one point I was given oxygen. Soon the doctor came in and they both were looking at the monitor results. After a little while he told me that the heartrate kept dropping and they were concerned. He checked me and said I was around 6 cm dilated. He left and shortly came back in and said that due to the results of the monitor, and how many more hours I had left to start pushing, he advised that I get an emergency C-Section. My thought went back to what my mom told me when I was born, that she had to get an emergency C-Section due to the umbilical cord wrapped around my neck. I thought this might be the same case with May. I agreed to the C-Section, and very quickly things changed. Rex was given scrubs to change into and not long after I was taken to the operating room. I was prepped for surgery and at 6:19 am on Dec 13th, May entered the world. Upon hearing her first cries, I cried. I couldn't control my tears. The nurse brought her to my head after they were done cleaning her off and I kissed her cheek. She weighed 8 pounds 7 ounces, and was 21 inches long.

We spent 3 days in the hospital and got discharged early due to being healthy on both accounts. We are absolutely in love and May is so adorable. Though the emergency c-section was kind of scary, I am happy that she is healthy and safe. I know my recovery process will take a while. So far though, with all the help, it hasn't been too bad.

 Well we're past May's due date. I'm am currently 40 weeks and 2 pregnant and still no real signs of going into labor any time soon. I know she could be born any day now but I don't feel contractions at all. She's still moving with as little space she still has in there. I'm hoping she's OK. I have my non-stress on Wednesday and that will better monitor how she's doing in there. I definitely can see that babies come when they want and we are all so ready to meet her.

I've been reading about going over the due date and seeing that it could be because of a miscalculation of when the baby was conceived. I'm thinking that could be the case. Though I know the first day of my last menstrual cycle, I'm not entirely sure of when May was conceived. I did find out I was pregnant in April and I do know for sure she was conceived in March. I'll just have to be patient though. She'll come when she is ready. Until then she'll continue to grow and develop more. I'm really hoping she does not get to 9 pounds. There might be a bit of difficulty there. I did do walking yesterday. Rex and I went to Baltimore for a liquidation sale. Of course I got the "When are you due?" and "Is it a boy or a girl?" We walked around the convention center were it was was being held, because the entrance was not clearly marked. Let me say that is a big convention center and I did walk up and down flights of stairs too. We've also tried other methods of natural induction, but that didn't work too. The pineapple was good though :-)

One day though I'll be writing that she's here and finally in our arms. We've been waiting for that day ever since we found out I was pregnant and I know I'll cry once I hear her first cries. I'm already tearing up about it now. We love you May.

Just wanted to wish my husband, I very wonderful and exciting birthday today. You are so amazing and I'm so blessed that God has lead us to one another and that we can share our life experiences together. Our gift may still be cooking, and soon enough she'll be here. I love you!!!

Yay! I got my Influenster Cosmo VoxBox 2012 in the mail yesterday. I love it. The items they included are wonderful and I feel very honored to be one of the 5,000 members chosen to receive the box.

If you aren't familiar with Influenster, according to their website, "Influenster is a free-to-join community of invited trendsetters who live to give opinions of products and experiences. Influenster creates links between brands and members to reward participation and influence future products."

Currently Influenster is by invite only (I do have invites if anyone would want them).  For members as by the website, " As a member, you prove your influence by gaining Expert Badges and show how you live by earning LifeStage Badges...both of which are won in a variety of ways, such as: completing surveys, writing reviews, creating videos, and engaging in other social media."

I've completed a couple of surveys like my shopping habits and some demographics. Some people might find what they ask to be somewhat personal. I also write reviews of products I use daily and I blog. I do not create videos reviewing products like many other member though. The VoxBoxes are themed boxes and only offered to members who meet a certain criteria. They are sent out every month. I've been a member since December 20, 2011 and was not very active on the site. I missed out on many VoxBoxes before this one. Recently I got an email asking me to take a survey for Influenster. I took the survey and found out I was selected for the Cosmo VoxBox. I've become more active since then and hope that I'll be selected for another VoxBox in the near future.

Now to the box.  Here's what was in the box:


Here a breakdown of what was in the box:

So I had my weekly doctor's visit today. I'm 39 weeks and 4 days. May is still cooking and her heart rate is at 137 beats per minute. I've gained about one pound and I am still not dilated. My doctor suggested a nonstress test for next week, given I don't go into labor by then. That'll put me at 40 weeks and 4 days, which would be 4 days past my due date. The nonstress test monitors the baby's heart rate and movement. I looked online and saw that this test is given for high-risk pregnancies, near the due date or past due. This pregnancy has been pretty normal.

I haven't been having any contractions over the past few days and I know the longer May stays in there the bigger she'll get. I know when she's ready she'll come though and plus the doctor told me they won't let me go past 42 weeks. At another appointment they said if she doesn't come by her due date, they'll induce me 7 to 10 days after that. That would mean either the 15th or the 18th. She'll definitely be out before Christmas. I'm trying not to get too anxious. We are still so ready to meet her.

As I was leaving the doctor's office today, a man asked me if I was having twins. I shook my head and said "no" and told I'm due in 3 days. He looked at me like I had two heads. The doctor did say her head seems lower. Which is good. We'll just have to wait and see. We love you May.

A few days ago I received my Holiday Spruce Up 2012 box from a subscription service called Cravebox.  Cravebox features a selection of themed boxes that range from $10 to $15 plus free shipping. They used to have a regular subscription which is $10 which I heard about last year, but that subscription wasn't open to new subscribers. The themed boxes feature products that relate to cooking, beauty, health and wellness, pets and more. 

I went to their site a few weeks ago and saw they were offering a variety of new themed boxes. I saw that the Holiday Spruce Up 2012 box was available as well as a Coffee Lovers box and decided to take the survey for the Spruce Up box. I'm not really a big fan of coffee and there's always room for cleaning :-) The survey ended with a statement that if I was selected, I'd be notified by email. A couple of days after taking the survey I got an email saying I was selected and that I'd be getting the box. The cost of the box was $13 including shipping.




 To be honest, I was not very happy with the contents of this box. The TidePods and Stain Lifting Pads are given out as free samples. The Dishwashing Booster is useless because we don't have a dishwasher. The Febreze Set & Refresh is nice and the scents usually smell nice.

The price of this box not including coupons is around $12.50. For $13 I don't feel this box was worth it. I checked their Facebook group and many others feel the same way. I've seen previous boxes that Cravebox offered for $10 and the products in those boxes were amazing. Just look at the Summer BBQ box. Though I'm disappointed, I think I'll give them another chance. Their past boxes look very good and this box was perhaps a bump. However looking at their Korr Thanksgiving box, which was the one before this box, I don't know if I'd be too happy receiving two can of green beans. The upcoming boxes I'm looking forward to are the Holiday Favorites, The New Mom, and The Beautiful By You. You can see all their upcoming boxes here.

Disclaimer: I  purchased this box with my own money and was not monetarily compensated for this review. Opinions are honest and are completely my own.