Birth Story

April 19, 2012
I had a 39-week OB checkup at 1:30.  I dropped Ally off at a friend's house and drove to Landstuhl hospital.  While I was sitting in the waiting room, my water broke.  They sent me upstairs to Labor and Delivery, who hooked me up and decided that I was not having contractions.  They seemed a bit dubious about my water breaking as well.  At this point, I didn't even call my husband because I figured, if they weren't worried, I wouldn't be worried.  I was just really hoping not to be the person who thinks she is in labor and gets sent home instead.  Finally, after a few tests on my fluid, they decided that my water had in fact broken and that I was in labor.  At 3:00 I called my husband to come join me at the hospital, and my contractions started increasing in frequency and intensity.  My nurse began the admission paperwork (which was not completed until after the birth) and started asking me about pain control.
At 5:24 PM my daughter Nicole was born, after 2.5 hours of labor and pushing through 3 contractions.
Thank goodness I was already at the hospital when I went into labor or I would have been close to having a baby in the car (we live 40 mins from the hospital and 30 mins from J's office.  He would have had to come pick me up and then drive me to the hospital).  She was 8lbs 2oz and 20.5 inches long.  (Ally was the same length and 1oz lighter)
Nicole spent 2 days in the NICU due to fluid in her lungs (a result of being born so quickly), which resolved itself naturally.  She was given oxygen through a nose tube, fluid and antibiotics via an IV in her head ;( I spent most of those two days walking back and forth between my room and the NICU to check on her and hold her.  Poor girl was poked and prodded so much that since I have had her to myself, she has been content.
She is a good baby, sleeps for 4-5 hours at a time at night, and has started smiling at me and her sister.  She had a few issues with breastfeeding but is doing really well now.  I think she was just confused with all the different food options she was given during her first 48 hours.
J has been soaking up all the baby love he can get before he leaves at the end of the week for 6 months.  My college-age sister will be coming to visit soon and play with Ally until we get Nicole on a good schedule.

The day I had Nicole, I spent the morning working in the garden and was planning to host book club at my house that evening.  Obviously my plans changed!

My favorite little girl

Ally is three!  I am so proud and blessed to be her mom.  Here are some of my favorite things about her:

She can read!  Since I also love to read, we will sit on the couch together with our books and enjoy.
Her imagination.  She has conversations among her cars, toys etc. that are hilarious!  She also insists that she is a bird ;)
Singing.  She makes up songs and walks around all day singing to herself.
Independence.  She can get herself dressed, get a snack from the fridge, wipe her own bum, buckle her carseat, make her bed, and peel her own fruit.

I think she has inherited her father's height since she is taller than most children her age.
Every morning (around 8) she wakes up with a smile.

I love my little girl so much and can't imagine life without her!

opportunity missed

House hunting in Germany is a PAIN!  (that is why I sent my husband ahead to do it without me)  Apparently I should have been here as well...
J found a great house, in a great location, and signed a contract.  When he took it into housing, for some various issues, it was denied.  I'm still not sure why the base housing office can deny a house, but whatever.  So he tried to negotiate with the landlord over a few details that would allow us to rent the house.  We really really wanted it, because of the location, price, etc.  did I also mention that it was brand new?
The landlord and realtor one day just quit returning phone calls and rented the house to someone else.
Yesterday, I happened to meet the person who got our house.  Apparently the landlord fixed all the issues in our contract and gave it to this other family.  The kicker is, this house is a duplex, with an American family living in the other half.  Not just an American family, a family in our ward!
I admit that being pregnant makes me a bit emotional, but I cried yesterday with the knowledge that I could have had a friend right away, had we gotten that house.  I cried knowing that all those days I was throwing up and feeling miserable, stuck in my house without a car, I could have been meeting people and spending time with others of my faith.  I cried because I wonder what I did to deserve missing out on such a great opportunity that would have helped my transition here immensely.

A little bit of positive

I feel like my last few posts have been downers, so here are some positive thoughts.

Thanks to Zofran, I am back on track with my life.  I now feel (mostly) normal and am able to function as a person.  I have caught up on housework, unpacked most of the boxes, and am starting to gain (instead of lose) weight thanks to eating food!  I am back to baking and cooking meals, which pleases my family as well. I was really against taking medication while pregnant, but my doctor advised it so that I can be healthy and hydrated.  I feel so much better!  I have not thrown up for three days now and I don't miss it at all!

I wake up every day and just remember how cool it is that I live in Germany.  The scenery is gorgeous, my neighbors are friendly, and everything is fun to explore.  Ally and I go for walks to explore our fun village and she is constantly fascinated by the amount of nature.  She fills her hands with acorns, flowers, rocks, chestnuts, apples, leaves, caterpillars, snails, etc. and loves it.  We have a playground right across the street, but she spends more time observing and touching than she does playing.  I took my first touristy trip on the train to Trier, which is the oldest city in Germany, and saw some fun old ruins.

My house has a HUGE back yard.  We have a built-in grill and patio on the main level, landscaping and a garden plot on the second level, and a grassy yard with an apple tree, plum tree, and blackberries on the third.  We also have a gate connecting us to the next-door neighbors, who are our age with a 2-year-old girl.

I got my car!  I now have transportation to get me where I want to go.  That, plus feeling good enough to go out, means playdates and other social opportunites for me to make new friends.  We have enjoyed exploring the stores and trying German food.

Last thing on my list is getting internet hooked up at my house, which will hopefully happen today or tomorrow.  Be prepared for some pictures once my connection speed is up to it!

How do you do it?

Some days I wonder how anyone has more than two children.  I have really been struggling with morning (all day and night) sickness, to the point that I am dehydrated, exhausted, and honestly becoming a very bad mom to my toddler.  She has probably spent more time in front of the TV/Xoom in the past few weeks than in the rest of her life combined.  I feel so guilty dismissing my little girl so that I can attempt to take care of myself.  I know she is missing all the quality time we used to spend together.  Not to mention my poor husband who is suffering from a serious lack of home cooking.
I literally throw up everything!  I will find something that settles in my stomach one day, only to have it come right back up the next.  I have tried every suggestion of morning sickness remedies, sucking on candies, drinking ginger tea, eating soda crackers before getting out of bed, etc.  Nothing works for me.  Am I just overwhelmed with moving, etc?  I don't remember being this sick with my first pregnancy.
Some days I ignore my nausea and try to go about a normal day, only to collapse the minute my husband walks in the door and sleep until the next morning.  I suppose it doesn't help that I live in a foreign country, far away from anyone I know, and without the support of friends or family.
I am counting down the days until my second trimester arrives, hopefully bringing with it a reprieve of all the vomiting!  I have my first OB appointment tomorrow, so we'll see if I am sick enough to require medical help.

my VERY long day

Since I have been in Germany for three weeks now, I decided it was time to tell the story of my trip getting here.     Due to the Air Force and their delays, we did not get our orders (which are necessary for booking flights) until a month before our departure.  This meant that there was not room on any flights for the dogs, prior to the dates Josh needed to report.  Also, my pet-friendly TLF (hotel) reservations were cancelled by some unhelpful person, so we had nowhere to put them once they arrived.  We opted for Josh to come alone, find us a place to live and get everything set up, then I would have one awful terrible stressful day and bring Ally and the dogs at a later date.  I stayed with family for three weeks prior to flying to Germany.
 I was a bit apprehensive as the day approached, knowing that I would be dealing with a lot.  My day started at 4:30 AM, when I woke up to take the dogs to the airport.  The Air Force booked me on Delta, which does not fly dogs during the summer, so they were flying Continental.  I found the cargo drop-off and filled out the paperwork.  Then a guy helped me finagle them into their kennels and attach all the necessary paperwork.  He also attached zip-ties to all four corners of their doors, which I did not think about until later.  Did I mention it is quite expensive to fly two large dogs across the country?  So I paid the fees (gulp!) and hoped to meet up with them in Baltimore.  Then I drove over to the terminal, parked, attached all 4 suitcases together and rolled through the airport.  Thank goodness Delta did not charge me for my extra luggage (which might be partially because of that video on YouTube of all the army guys returning from a deployment...) which I was not expecting because Delta and I do not have a good track record.
After I finished dragging my four large pieces of luggage through the huge long line to drop it off, my parents showed up with Allison (who I left with them so she could sleep for a few more hours) and we went through security.  Sometimes it is nice to travel with a toddler and not wait in lines.  Many airports have a line for families that is a lot shorter than the regular one.  Such is the case in Salt Lake City, yay!
Unfortunately our 4-hour flight was completely booked.  I decided to bring Ally's stroller and carseat for our upcoming layover so I had a little trouble getting down to the plane.  Plus the gate people neglected to let me board first, so I may have bumped a few legs, shoulders, etc. as I worked my way to the back of the plane with everything, through a full flight.  Why oh why do they board front to back?  I have never understood how that makes sense.
I had just taken a pregnancy test the day before flying, so I knew that I was expecting, but not feeling it yet.  That changed throughout the day as my exhaustion began to set in.  Halfway through the flight, I decided that snacks were just not enough, so I opted to buy one of their boxed lunches.  Of course they ran out before getting to my row towards the back of the plane, and by this time I was desperate for food.  I ended up getting some random snacks in a box (and paying plenty for the privilege!) such as marinated olives and whole grain crackers covered in birdseed.  Seriously Delta.
We landed in Baltimore and that is where my day really began.  Delta (who I will never again voluntarily fly) did NOT transfer my luggage to my connecting flight.  I had to collect my luggage, this time with Allison, and take it to the AMC terminal to check in.  I was hoping that they would let me do so 8+ hours before boarding.  When I approached the military international terminal, I was immediately offered help and snacks.  They checked my orders and took my bags.  I then ran back to the other end of the terminal to collect my dogs, who had a layover in Houston and therefore landed after me.  I picked up the dogs (on big flatbed rolling cart) and took them outside to the pet area so they could relieve themselves.  Then I remembered the zip-ties on all 4 corners of their kennel doors.  Ugh!  Of course I had nothing even remotely sharp with which to cut them (since nothing sharp is allowed to pass through security).  I asked every random stranger who passed until one person finally produced a knife, (not sure where they thought they were going with a knife in an airport, but I didn't ask).  I thanked them profusely and allowed my dogs to run around for a few minutes.  Then I rolled them back to the AMC terminal, where I was informed that I could not check the dogs in for the flight until boarding time.  In 8 hours.  Seriously.  I paid the fees for this flight (did I mention that flying dogs gets really expensive?) and rolled away, piling Allison and her carseat and carryons on top of the kennels.
I had been looking forward to enjoying the comforts of the USO, which has such amenities as couches, beds, movies, snacks, etc. but unfortunately does not allow dogs.  Instead I had to roll my kennels (and carseat, and carry-ons, and toddler) around the airport for hours, trying to find food outside of security and something to entertain.  My flight was scheduled to leave at midnight so I needed distractions, and lots of them.  I had packed a bag full of such distractions, many of them gift-wrapped, so every time Ally got antsy I allowed her to open a "present" and play with it for a while.
Luckily my flight ended up leaving sooner than expected so I dropped of the dogs, put Ally in her pj's, and boarded the flight.  I was hoping for both of us to sleep for the majority of the time, so that we would acclimate quickly to the new time zone.  That did not happen.  We got a few hours of shut-eye, but mostly watched movies and stared at each other, bleary-eyed.   Ally did take a short nap on the shoulder of the (single) young soldier next to her, who was obviously not used to children.  Sorry!  She also threw up twice, which I think was more due to travel than illness.
We landed at Ramstein, where Josh was waiting to meet us.  Unfortunately, he was not allowed into the baggage claim area, where bags were strewn all over the floor.  I claimed the dogs (did I mention that they weigh 80 and 100 pounds?) on another flatbed cart, piled the bags on top of that, rolled the carseat and stroller behind, and stumbled my way out to meet him, maneuvering through all the people and luggage scattered everywhere.
At this point, I was so frustrated and exhausted and gross and hormonal that I might have cried a little bit.  My poor husband (who I had not yet told about the hormonal part) was very sympathetic, loaded the bags and took me to the hotel where I was able to shower and regain some dignity.  I then informed him of the news (which I wanted to do in person) and tried to stay awake the rest of the day.
The End
Oh, and then I started throwing up, and have not stopped since...

jet lag and morning sickness

...not a good combination!
Well it's official, the puking has begun again.  Last time it started at 10 weeks, apparently this child is impatient because I am only 6 weeks along and puking merrily.  I literally get 'morning' sickness, which hopefully subsides as long as I keep my stomach in close proximity to food for the remainder of the day.

And officially, YAY!