Another day in Paradise

Well, it was just another day in paradise, well, as paradisical as Mesa, AZ. is in September that it. The HOA gardeners came and trimmed the plants and mowed, so the front yard looks phenominal. The backyard, well it's another story. Let's just say we have lots of birds, since we live close the the "nature path", and they like to perch along the sides of the side yard. I've gotta clean it up and plan some grass sometime soon so I can send my J.D. out who has cabin fever. Otherwise, he will do like he did today and just run all around to house, even into walls and moms. Haha, that was actually one of the highlights of my day.
So, Adam and I have decided to rearrange furniture this weekend, and then he is taking me out on an all expenses paid date...have I mentioned lately that I really love my husband and he could not have picked a better job. He loves the grocery retail business, although it has been rigorous getting into the upper management levels. However, he just attended the second quarter strategy meeting with about 200 other mangaers and came back home with a gift card for dinner for two at a very nice restaraunt, 2 movie tickets, and a hydrangea plant specifically given to him for me by the President of Fry's himself, John Flora, I have to add his name because he is so nice. I met him at Adam's graduation from the MD-I program to become an assisstant store manager, and I was of course very pregnant at the time, so he asked how Adam's wife and new baby were and sent him home with one of the plants, it was one of the centerpieces, mind you, but the President sent it home for me, so I felt really special yesterday.
What else, well work for me is still as wonderful as ever, I love my mom for starting this business so she could be at home with us kids, and even more for the fact that it is helping me be home with mine. It is rather surreal though to think of me being at the same stage my mom was at, and it brings us so much closer togther now, but also makes me feel like the age gap is much smaller sometimes then I realize.
Well, I guess that is all for now, just got my work done early and wanted to keep up the blog while I had a few minutes. Also, Adam's mother, Lorana was here for a long weekend at the end of August and she took some pictures of our family...thanks Lorana! So, I am going to try to add those, or at least try to make a new slide show, so stay tuned!

Miracle Baby # 2- Michael Melvin

Well, as most of you know by now we had our second child, another boy, and named him Michael Melvin Fenstermaker. He is perfectly healthy and safe at home now, as is mommy, and we are all learning the challenges and joys of being a family of four…who knew I would ever say that?!
We had our set of challenges through the pregnancy; I will spare the details since most of you have heard my complaints throughout anyway…haha. Anyway, and near the end of the pregnancy we also had some other concerns that led the doctor and us to decide to induce labor two weeks early.
The night before we were going into the hospital, Monday July 14th, we got some bad news about Adam’s father passing away, and that was another challenge in and of itself to cope with. I must add a note here that my dearest Adam handled his responsibilities with flying colors and was able to be there for me in every way possible. So, by means of comfort my mother told me she felt that Jared needed to go to heaven to see Michael and send him our way since he wouldn’t have the opportunity in this lifetime. This was very comforting, and as a funny side note, at the funeral Jason (Adam’s brother) mentioned he thought the 51 hours of labor was due to the fact that Jared just couldn’t stop talking and was keeping Michael there. This is especially funny for those of you who knew Jared because he was quite the talker, and really never wanted to stop a conversation, even if something pressing was about to happen, i.e. needing to get to earth!
All joking aside, it was a difficult, but blessed time and we wanted to also add a thank you to all of our friends and family members who were praying for us, we really felt that spirit with us. Also all those who helped us out, from the plane ticket to get Adam to the funeral (thanks mom and dad) to the love and support as Adam was away from his newborn son whom he only got to spend about 2 hours with before leaving.
The actual story of the labor is long and well, laborious, so I will try to shorten it and leave out any gross details. We went in on Tuesday morning 8:30 am and I was started on a very low dose medication to soften my cervix…this went on until the next morning at about 9 am when the doctor decided maybe I needed to be on the stronger medication. All the while I was on monitors and in a hospital bed, yuck. I would get up as much as they would let me and walk around the labor and delivery and postpartum wards and stretch on my labor ball. Anyway, after another 12 hours they finally started me on the Pitocin drip. This is the drug that actually induces labor, so count the hours where you like, but I was contracting the entire time. At this point they were monitoring Michael and eventually he became too overly distressed and they stopped the Pitocin and my body basically just took over by itself. I received an epidural sometime in the middle of the night/early morning and it began working, then was slightly ineffective like last time, and then I could basically feel a great deal of the labor pains, which I told them I wanted because I would have more control over the pushing. However, that’s when things got a little worrisome. The doctor on call was in the OR (Operating Room) and as I was telling them that I needed to push they were telling me I had to wait for my doctor. I continued to insist on pushing and the nurse finally told me I could try and she would see how serious I really was. So, after a couple of rounds of pushing she finally paged another doctor who had to run over from the office in the next building over to deliver me. By the way, for those of you who know me and my apprehensions, I did get the only one I was hoping not to have, which was the male one. By that time of course I did not care and after 20 minutes of pushing Michael was here!
Michael had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and was in continued distress, oh and was posterior, which means his head was facing down (hence the harsh back labor). So, the nurses worked on stimulating him, and the whole time no one really said more than “he just needs a little help”, “they’re just working on him” to me. I was in a panic waiting to hear my baby cry and when he did it was so faint I still was very confused. Basically he just had a hard time breathing at first, but very quickly recovered from an Apgar of 1 to a 7 and eventually a 9. From what the nurses and doctors tell me this is a very speedy recovery and he left with a clean bill of health.
So we are very happily at home now, struggling like I said with being a family of four, Adam’s crazy work schedule, my doctor being extra busy (thank heavens), and nursing, etc. We feel that our life is crazy at times, but we love it, would not trade it for anything, and feel especially blessed in all these things.Thanks again for the love, support, prayers, and phone calls, and please keep them coming, we need all the help we can get. We pray for you also and hope you and your families are well and very happy. Thank you for sharing in our sorrows and especially our joy at this time. Welcome to the world Michael Melvin Fenstermaker!!!

Blogging Will Save Your Life!

Okay, I know this is a bit of an exaggeration, but I have been told my MANY friends and family members that I need to start blogging. So, here I am to appease the masses, and also to save my life. You see some of these blogger fanatics told me very convincing things, like "it will keep us in touch and then I won't resent you for moving away to Arizona", or "it will get my mom her pictures faster and hassle free" (that was my husband, btw), and "it will be therapeutic for you". However, the most convincing and latest piece of information was that my friend Jessica Wilson gave her testimonial to my mom about how all of her pictures were lost on her computer when it crashed, except of course for the ones she had uploaded to her blog. So, here I am to save my life's memories, not necessarily my life, and in hopes of also keeping in touch with friends, avoiding any resentment from one or two, and getting some good 'ole R&R through therapeutic writing.
I also hope this will mostly be a source for the most current, accurate, and pertinent information about our family. However, I do fear and hope no one judges me about this, that sometimes it will be the least current, accurate, or pertinent info. because I might just let it go when other stuff is going on. So, enjoy as frequently as you wish and I hope I get the most joy out of sharing whichever tidbits you have time to glance over. To all of my family and friends, we love and miss you and hope you are also well. By the way, for those of you without blogs...well, I won't hassle you, but it might just save your life!