Blogging for Breast Cancer!! 4/14/2010

I will start this post by saying...I HATE CANCER!!! Any kind of cancer! Tonight I am blogging about breast cancer. It affects lots of men and women. In 2005 I met a special women who had breast cancer. She was one of the sweetest women I had EVER met. She had two beautiful children and a huge family that loved her to pieces. I followed her story for 2 years. Prayed for her and her family. In 2007 she lost her battle with breast cancer after living with it for 5 years. She was only 34 years old when she passed away. She had two young children. It broke my heart when she passed away. I was broken hearted for her and her children and family. My husband and I walked in the Susan G. Komen 5k. We walked for her. We are still friends with a lot of her family and I continue to pray for them everyday and everyone who is affected by this horrible disease.

Today I am blogging for boobies all around the world....for all those MEN and WOMEN who have been affected or touched by breast cancer!!
Today we are participating in a HUGE Breast Cancer Blogging Event! Hundreds of blogs around the globe today are encouraging our readers to take a moment out of your day and donate $5 or $10 to Jacqueline Reitz, a Breast Cancer 3 Day walker. Jackie is a fellow blogger based out of Dallas, and she's on the 3day team "Betties for Boobies". While the original hope was to include over 300 blogs, only time will tell how many have participated, so be sure to check out the www.bettiesforboobies.com blog tomorrow for more information.
If just ONE of the readers from each of the 300 blogs takes a moment and donates $10, that will raise over $3,000.00 in the fight against Breast Cancer. AMAZING!
So help us out. Let's make this a tremendous success. Head on over to Jackie's fund raising page (it's all tax deductible!) at http://www.the3day.org/goto/jackier and send her some donation love! Totals will be posted on the team's blog tomorrow, to see what an impact we were all able to make!

I hope you will consider donating to this cause today! Thanks for reading!

1 Month Old

I can't believe my baby boy is One Month Old.....it's already going by so quickly! The first few weeks were tiring and still are. Being a mom of four keeps me busy and on my toes!! At four days old my awesome midwives came to do a follow up appointment with Pax and I. My midwife that missed my birth got to meet my little man! She told us on that day that he looked a little jaundice and to keep an eye on it and put him in the window as much as we could. So we did that but a couple of days later his eyes started turning a little yellow and caused us some concern. So we called and made an appt with a new pedi and took him in. The did a blood draw and his levels were at 19....which is really high. So I was told to keep him in the window for natural sunlight and nurse him as much as possible. Well, that was on a Friday and that weekend was the first weekend of Spring so you would think that there would be lots of sunlight and it would be nice right?!?!!? Wrong!! It was March 20 and it was SNOWING in TEXAS....overcast all weekend...go figure. So I just nursed him as much as I possibly could, I had to do lots of waking him up. LOL!! We had to go back a few more times but his levels were thankfully coming down and he was fine. At his two week appointment he weighed 8lbs 13 oz. So we did another weight check at three weeks to make sure he was gaining and he weighed 9lbs 10oz. I am sure he weighs even more now!! He is already starting to grow out of his 0-3 months clothes and he barely fit into newborn diapers as it was! He smiles all the time at his sisters, daddy and I. Over this last month he even went to his first soccer game. A lot has happened in his first month of life. I guess that is what happens when you have three older sisters who are already SUPER SUPER busy!

Collin Paxton's Birth Story

Since I was a little girl I’ve always dreamed of one day finding an awesome man and marrying him and having a big family and living happily ever after. What little girl doesn’t think of these things? I always envisioned myself with four kids…2 boys and 2 girls to be exact. As I got older I still held on to the dream of someday being a wife and a mom. I loved kids, I loved being around kids and I knew I’d be a great mom. After meeting my husband and falling in love with him and getting married we talked about how many kids we would have. He wanted 2 and I of course wanted my four that I always dreamed of having. We decided three kids would be a perfect compromise. LOL! God was probably laughing at all our plans because HE had other plans for us, better plans than we could have ever imagined having. After having two girls my desire for a boy was even greater, especially knowing that I was only going to have one more baby. After my third daughter arrived I knew that my three girls were perfect for me and that God knew what he was doing. I was sad that I would never get my dream of having a baby boy. But I had my girls and I was very thankful for all of them! From time to time over the next three years I talked to DH about having one more baby. He was NOT on board at all. He was happy with our girls as was I, but I wanted more kids, whether it would be another girl or a boy. Of course I dreamed about having one more and it being a boy. Finally, DH was on board and said OK, we have one more but no matter what we were done after four kids. We started charting and “trying” to have another baby. This was the first time we charted and it was a different experience and it took us a little longer to get pregnant than previous times. I found out in July that I was pregnant and I was so excited!! In October at 17 weeks we found out what our little bundle of joy would be. It’s a BOY!!!! Neither one of us could believe it. Matter of fact we both figured it was another girl and we were just happy with that. We were both in a state of shock when we found out it was a boy. I had a feeling but I figured it was just my desire and longing for a boy that was making me feel like it actually was. We got another sonogram at 22 weeks and it confirmed it was a little boy. The girls were so excited. All three of them wanted a baby brother to have.

From day one we had told the girls that the baby would be here around Spring Break as I was due March 14 the day before Spring Break started! Starting around the beginning of March they asked me almost every day when the baby would get here! I just kept telling them soon, he would be here soon! I loved that they were excited and David and I really enjoyed sharing the excitement of when he would come. The girls would take guesses, they would always say “I think he’s coming tomorrow.” J

On March 9^th I woke up to get the girls ready for school and I started having contractions, I could talk and breathe through them but to me they seemed a little stronger than your normal Braxton hicks contractions. I was 5 days away from my due date so I figured it was just my body getting ready for his birth and went on about my day. I did ask DH if he could work from home because I was starting to have some anxiety about him being 45 min away and him missing the birth. So he stayed home and my contractions were very sporadic throughout the day. They would be regular then stop, start up again, then stop again. I had texted with Delilah throughout the day to let her know how I was feeling. I love talking to her, so any excuse ya know! J I didn’t get very much sleep that night as I had contractions all night long. On Wednesday it was pretty much the same thing. Delilah checked on me on Wednesday and all I was able to tell her was that it was the same as the day before. After we got the girls from school we all went to Costco to get a few last minute things that we needed. We walked around for about an hour or so and then got dinner at the little café there. After Costco DH asked me if I was up for going to Connect Group (bible study with some of our church members) I told him sure, it would get my mind off of these stinking contractions that weren’t doing anything! We got home around 9pm that night and got the kids all in bed. DH and I started catching up on some of our shows and around midnight I actually decided to start timing the contractions I was having. From midnight to 1am they were 10-13 minutes apart. It was then that I told DH maybe we should try and get some sleep. So he came to bed and I continued to time my contractions using Contraction Master. I tried to sleep and at first I was able to sleep in between them. Around 3am I could not sleep in between them anymore because waking up to them was starting to get rough on me. At 4am I texted Delilah to let her know what was going on. She encouraged me to try and go back to sleep just in case. So I did and I just couldn’t. I texted Joyce around 6am to let her know what I was experiencing and she called me right away. She and I both decided to let Rachel stop by and see if I had progressed any since my appt on Monday. The plan was for her to check me and give me something to help me sleep because I was EXTREMELY exhausted. I called my mom to ask her to go ahead and come help me out with getting Avree to school. Around this time my sister had called to check on me and I told her she might want to head this way as I didn’t have any other way to get a hold of her, I told her I thought that MAYBE we would have a baby today but I wasn’t too sure. Rachel got to my house around 8am and I only remember this because DH had just left to take the girls to school. She tried to check me and couldn’t get to my cervix but told me it was VERY soft like melted butter. Delilah and I continued to text throughout all that was going on. After Rachel tried to check me she called Robin the other midwife who was closer than Joyce to give her an update. About that time I had a contraction and it was pretty strong and I started moaning through it. Robin told Rachel she was on her way. Rachel told me she thought we were going to have a baby today and that we could get the tub ready. I on the other hand wasn’t so convinced but I called my friend Natalie who we invited to the birth, I told her I wasn’t sure if this was really it but that she might want to head this way just in case. At that time Delilah told me to let her know when I was ready for her….I told her I was ready NOW!! So she headed my way. Rachel told me to sit up through some of my contractions to get the baby to come down so I did.

DH started filling up the tub and we got the ok from Robin who was still on her way to go ahead and get in. I got in and I have no idea what time it was. All I remember is seeing everyone who was supposed to be there start to show up, mom, sister, Natalie, Delilah, Robin, and Michele. I remember thinking to myself I really hope that I have a baby today I would hate for all these people to be here for nothing! DH asked me if he should send my mom to get the girls because they really wanted to be there when Pax was born. And they were concerned they would miss it when he dropped them off. I told him yes to have mom go get them, I knew they were excited and have been waiting a very long time for this day. As I was in the tub my contractions were finally getting closer together and I kept asking if it was really happening today. Everyone kept telling me and assuring me that yes it was happening today. I was still in denial though. I started feeling pressure during my contractions but just light pressure, I now realize I was feeling the baby moving down. They told me if I felt like I needed to push to push. I just let my body do what it needed to do even though the thought of pushing was NOT appeasing to me because I had no energy and was really tired. I just wanted to go to sleep. I kept telling everyone that I just wanted to go to sleep and they told me to rest between my contractions. So after each contraction Delilah would give me some apple juice/water and I would rest my eyes. At some point my mom came to the door so all the girls could see me. They were looking at me and smiling at me and I smiled at them and told them I was ok even though we talked about what would happen when I went into labor I felt the mommy in me to reassure them that I was ok even though I knew they knew I was. I had more contractions and more pressure and more pushing. I told them they just needed to get him out so I could go to sleep. I was really exhausted. After each contraction the pushing got more intense and I could feel him moving down. I really felt like I couldn’t do it and kept telling everyone that. Delilah and DH both kept telling me I could and as soon as I did I could go to sleep. Did I mention how tired and exhausted I was….lol!

I pushed some more and then something happened that I had never felt before. A gush of warm water. I kind freaked and said WHAT IS THAT?? I could hear a few laughs and was told it was my bag of waters breaking. I said oh wow, I’ve never felt that before.

After getting through a contraction and continuing to push Rachel told me to reach down there and feel my baby’s head. The first time I couldn’t really feel much but the second time I could and I wanted to cry. I was actually having a baby that day. It was so neat to feel my baby, I had never had a chance to do that before. I pushed and a few times and finally I could feel his head coming out. All three girls were in the room at this time and I could hear Rachel telling them to look so they could see their brother coming out. I pushed some more and the rest of him came out and Rachel told me to reach down and pull my baby out of the water so I did. And I just started crying, I laid him on my chest and they placed a towel over his body. He popped his head up and started looking at DH and I. The girls were standing by DH and looking and touching their baby brother. We were all just in awe of him. I was still tired but didn’t want to sleep. I just wanted to look at him. We sat in the bath tub as we were waiting for the cord to stop pulsing and everyone was talking about how big they thought he was. After a couple of minutes I was ready to get out of the bath and lay in the bed. So the girls left and I got out and got onto the bed with our baby. I just laid my head back with a smile on my face and closed my eyes and thanked GOD for my handsome little son. I delivered the placenta and DH cut the cord and then got to hold him for the first time. It was a sight to see DH holding his son. I don’t think a smile left his face the entire time. I was cleaned up and the baby was cleaned up and the girls came back in and got to hold their baby brother. He was given back to me and I was able to nurse him. Then it came time to weigh him and everyone was throwing their guesses around. Robin and I said around 9lbs 2 or 3 oz. I heard someone say 9lbs 8oz and another person agree. I think some more went around but I don’t remember. So we weighed him at 9lbs 3 oz 20 ¼ inches long. Everyone left but DH and the two older girls and I was able to sleep while DH played games with our girls and from time to time came in to check on Pax and I. He even got to nap with us a little bit. We were all on cloud 9 and still are. I could not have imagined a better birth experience. And to have all three of my girls experience it with us was truly awesome!