Pate

We did the cake thing this morning b/c I have no idea what the day holds for us, and didnt want to do it close to bed time. It was a small white cake with confetti dot candy things. Hes having a Blues Clues party on Sunday.

Peyton is ONE!!

This is the birth story I wrote last year after Peyton arrived!



I woke up Sunday June 11, 2006 with a sudden urge to clean. Nesting has kicked in quiet a few times over the last week or so of pregnancy, but this one definitely felt different! So I cleaned everything that was left to clean. For the most part I played it cool the rest of the morning. Well at about 2pm, I had this overpowering urge to go grocery shopping. I told David that we had to go NOW! Well an hour later we leave the house, and David runs a few errands while Elijah and I stayed in the car. It was after all 100 degrees outside, and the hottest day of the year so far! All day I had been having contractions, small minor things that I have been having off and on for a few weeks. At about 4:15 we arrive at Wal-mart, I grabbed a cart and headed on in, while David went next door to a video game store! The moment I step foot in Wal-Mart, something tells me to go home and sit down. I just felt like I was going to die, I kid you not!! Well, I waddled to the restroom thinking that if I pee, it will make everything feel better. So I grab my 26lb toddler and rush into the bathroom, all while he is protesting. Anyway, peeing didnt seem to make it better, but I figured that I might as well just get the groceries and do what I need to do while I was there. For the first time in months, I actually bypassed the baby section!! Sheer madness, I know!!
My contractions were 5 mins apart at that point!! When David found me, I was totally stocked up on meat, so we needed to get the rest of the groceries. He kept asking me if I was ok, and if I wanted to just leave. I am rather stubborn, so I said "no, we are here, lets just get the groceries and go!" Anyway, the 5 min apart thing. I looked like an idiot every few mins when I would stop dead in my tracks, close my eyes, clinch my fist and say "OH SHIT!" and stand there for a min, and just walk away like everything was all fine and dandy!!
We got home around 5:45 and I was just wore the hell out!! I thought that the kid was going to fall out of me, the pressure was killing me, I was baring through the contractions. I wasnt convinced I was in labor!! So I sat down on the couch and ate a Hot Pocket, jalapeno steak flavored, may I add!! By 6:00 I was having contractions 3 mins apart, so what did I do?? I went outside and blew bubbles with Elijah for about 30 mins. 6:30 I could barely move, the contractions were so strong. However my fear of giving birth was stronger, so I didnt budge from the house!! Somewhere between 6:00 and 6:30 David called the dr and he told me to come in. During this time, I INSISTED that I take a shower before I went to the hospital. (This is because earlier that morning, Elijah and I were drawing, and he colored on my legs!) So showing up at the hospital covered in blue marker, was not an option!!
All during this time, I couldnt get in touch with anyone at all. All the people that had been harassing me with "call me the minute you go to the hospital" were no where to be found. The only person that I was able to get in touch with was Sabrina, and shes in freaking NY!! This was about 7:00ish, and I told her that we were leaving to go to the hospital ASAP. I am a total procrastinator, so we ended up leaving the house at like 7:45pm, and got to the hospital at 8:00. Of course we were out of gas, so we had to stop for that first. Luckily we live around the corner from a gas station, and hospital isnt all that far either!
We found a parking space and walked into the L&D waiting room, and did our paperwork. And of course David knows every damn person in southwest Georgia, including the receptionist lady! Thank God, b/c she got us in there really quickly. Now this is where it all goes down hill LOL!!
I was sent to an early labor room, and told that a nurse would be in there in a few mins. Well a few mins turns into twenty mins. And then she had the balls to say "do you think your in labor?" when she was hooking me up, and seeing that I was contracting like crazy. She was just totally absent minded! After hooking me up to the monitors and leaving me in the room, she comes back and told me that she couldnt find my paperwork. Well it turns out that she was looking for paperwork under my maiden name for some reason!! At 8:45 she comes in and tells me that she found my paperwork, and that I need to be checked for dilation. So Miss Boney Fingers checked me and I was 3cm @ 8:45pm. At that point my mother arrived at the hospital, and called my sil to come and pick up Elijah. Eli had been in and out of the room and waiting room with David. Nine, Eli leaves, which of course makes me glad to know that hes somewhere rather than a hospital. David on the other hand was not all that happy b/c sil has dogs at her house, and David hates dogs.
9:15, I get checked again, and I was 4cm, with contractions every 2 mins. Miss Boney Fingers told me that I would be going to a labor and delivery room b/c I was indeed delivering tonight! Well thanks, as if I didnt know this!! So, she ordered an epi, and told me that the anasisologist will be with me in about 30-45 mins later.
At 10pm, I walked to the L&D room b/c the nurse couldnt find a wheelchair. She sounds lovely, doesnt she!? At 10:10, I got a lovely IV in my right hand, that I am still feeling a phantom pain from!! After the IV, I got a brand new nurse! I thought to myself, that I was finally saved from the hell nurse! Oh, how I would have loved Miss Boney Fingers after all that!! The new nurse kept telling me that the anastesologist is on his way. On his way? He finally made it to me at 11:45pm and 15 excruciating minutes later that was all over. He was rather mean and rude as well. I was having contractions while he was doing what he does, and he kept telling me to sit still. As much as I tried to sit still, it was impossible for me to not flinch!! He at one point said to me "I didnt do this to you, I am not the reason that you are getting this epidural, so sit still!" Which just made me feel even more helpless. Oh, and I was contracting in my back since about 6pm, just in case I didnt mention that earlier. I had back labor with Eli, so I wasnt all that unprepared for the back pain.
At 12:15 am, I was checked and went to 5cm. At that point the epi was doing great!! I was feeling a little bit of pressure in my left leg mostly, but it didnt outweigh the contraction pain that I was having, so I dealt with it.
At 1:30 am, I was checked again and was 8cm. I was physically and mentally ready to have this child!! But there were a few problems that needed to be dealt with first. For one, the epi that I received an hour and a half or so ago, was well beyond gone! I was having major pain in my legs, butt and back, but the legs were the worst of them all, namely my left leg. I repeatedly told the nurses that I was having a lot of pain in my leg, and I needed some pain meds, or a new epi. Well they didnt listen to me and kept telling me "Its just the babies head thats making you feel all the pressure. His head is probably close to a nerve!" Gee, ya think!! I complained and complained about this pain over and over, and no one would listen to me. The nurses kept telling me that the DR. would be in soon to deliver, and since my last delivery was so quick with pushing (Eli was 14 mins pushing) that if it was quick this time, the DR would come in as I was absolutely ready to push. Well of course I was ready to push the baby out, I knew that the pushing would be over soon, but the pain and pressure that I was feeling in my leg wasnt going anywhere any time soon.
(Before I continue, let me explain one little detail to ya......... There were 15 babies being born all in the same time frame (all boys btw), and guess how many doctors there were to deliver? ONE!!! My doctor, as well as everyone elses doctors were out that weekend!! How did I luck into that one, is beyond me! So the one doctor that was delivering was a Chinese man who I could barely understand. He had an assistant who truly was a Godsend!!)
Back to the story.... I reckon that the nurses were tired of hearing me complain, so they left me alone for like an hour and a half. At 3:02 I was laying in bed and I heard and felt a popping sound, and whoosh my water had broken.
3:10 the nurse came in to check me again, but it was useless since when she spread my legs, she said "WOW, I can see his hair!" 3:15 The Dr came in, and we started pushing
3:22 Three pushes later Peyton (who was still unnamed at that point) was officially born!! And the Dr left to go do some more deliveries, and left me in the hands of his assistant.
(Theres not to much more "times" so I wont bore you with the chronologicals of everything else!!)
The Godsend assistant told me that I had tore, and that I he was going to stitch me up. Well while he was stitching me, I told him to just stop. He looked me dead in the eyes and said "You can feel this?" I told him that I was feeling every last stitch being put into my body. Then he asked me if I felt pain when I was pushing, and I told him that I did. So he ordered some pain meds, and something to numb me up. Well, that came about 15 mins later only because he was being persistent about it getting there. Everything seemed to have been moving in sllllooooow motion that night! After the pain meds came, and the numbing stuff came, David and my mama left and went home. I was rather glad that they were gone! It had been a long night, and I can only handle my mother in small doses as it is! At 4:30 I finally got something to drink, and took some more pain meds. Oh, and as the nurses were cleaning up, and Pate was being weighed and measured, the nurses got a lovely yelling at by Mr. Godsend. And although the nurses getting yelled at was nothing in comparison to the hell that I was put through, I couldnt help by be joyed by it!! And of course the nurses were pissed off about being yelled at in front of other people, but I didnt care.
At 5am, I was taken to the maternity floor, and dropped Pate off at the nursery. I got all set up in my room, and was laying down by 5:30am. The kicker is what I predicted.... at 7am, the nurse wheels in the baby!! Mind you that this was after only an hour and a half of sleep, after giving birth. Luckily Pate slept, and I got a nap. I dont really remember all that much of Monday b/c I think I slept it all away! One of the few things that I remember was Elijah and David coming to the hospital, and how Eli was elated to finally see/hold his little brother!!
In retrospect, the labor and delivery happened rather quickly. I was glad that nothing terrible happened, and that I had a beautiful and healthy baby!
Now recovery: Here I am 2 weeks postpartum, still with stitches, still sore, still recovering!!! I am having trouble with pressure and pain in my pelvis and throughout my left leg. I am on pain meds for that, and they seem to be doing a bit of good, but not where they knock the pain out completely :( Other than that and fatigue, I am doing well. Emotionally, I can say that I am unstable. Its not that I am unhappy, its just everything is so overwhelming at this point. I am home all day with five kids, one of which is a toddler who a total daddy's boy!! The hardest part about it all is that I am still so tired, and I dont trust the steps enough to keep an eye on Elijah long enough for a 30 min nap, so I have to endure being tired all day. So of course between no sleep and hormones, I am an emotional train wreck!
Peyton, thank God, is an absolute joy! He sleeps great, only wakes up 2-3 times a night. At this point, its a pretty predictable time table hes on! (Knock on wood) He eats great as well. And he loves to ride, hes really good in the car!! Hes a great kid, I couldnt ask for a better baby!! Theres only one itty bitty problem......... the kid refuses to sleep on his own at night! I cant co-sleep, not at this point. I am still to sore, and sleeping is worse now than it ever was with my pregnancy. I am tossing and turning as it is, I cant do that with a little infant and a hubby and a two year old in the bed. So we are working on getting him to sleep outside of my bed. He will nap throughout the day in his bassinet, but not at night! UGH!! But I reckon if thats the worst of my problems, I am doing good!!
Eli and Pate are getting along ok. Eli is still in love with his little brother, he lets everyone know that he has a baby! Pate on the other hand isnt all that fond of Eli. Eli has gotten a bit on the loud side since Pate arrived, and I dont think that Pate is liking it to well. But this is just the first two weeks in, so we will see how this "loving" relationship pans out!!
Ok, this email has taken me all day to type, so I am going to end it now!! Here is a picture of Peyton. (Peyton's nicknames are Pate or Pator Gator, I have no idea how I came up with that one lol)
Thank you for reading this far!!

Climber

What happens when you add together:
1 curious baby
4 dining room chairs
+ 1 dining room table
_______________________
One VERY mischievous little Peyton!! Oh yeah people, he figure out how to climb things. Hes climbing the couch, dining room chairs, oh and my personal favorite, the entertainment center. Hes not even one yet, and hes into everything. I cant believe my little man is going to be one in 10 days. Its a very bittersweet kind of thing to think about.
Tonight I am going to go and see my sister and nephew, so I will be away from the boys for about a day or so. David is such a great dad, I am so lucky that I have him. I know to many dads that cant function without their wives. I am glad to know that I don't have one of those men.

My bad boys!

Elijah certainly defies logic sometimes. One minute, hes clueless then next minute, hes thinking on his feet like a strategist! He has been potty trained since November 2006, and toilet trained for a whole 23 days now! I am very proud of him for all the efforts he tries to make while being a big boy! He insist on using the toilet all by himself, door closed with a book in hand. (Not a far stretch from a man!) This morning, I am sitting at my computer desk typing an email when I hear this sound "Mommmmmmmy, come here, NOW" so I spring outta my seat like a lion who saw a zebra fall. And walk into his bathroom to see his little hand covered in green poop, and his underwear around his ankles. I thought to myself "What and how the hell did you do that?!" Just as I get him to wash his hands, Pate comes flying into the bathroom. B/c you know running water near Peyton is like a fly being drawn to the light, its happening whether you want it to or not! I remove The Pate from the bathroom, to return to poopy hand man, where I realize that the sink is filled with all of these soap bubbles, and Elijah's arms are slick and slippery! It took me a min to acess what happened before the "Mommmmmy, come here now!" Elijah pooped (Ok, so I havent figured out how the poop got on his hand, but thats not hard to figure out!) so he attempted to clean his hand with baby shampoo that I stupidly left on the bathroom sink counter last night, after giving the boys a bath. And in the process spilled it on himself, the counter and the floor!
I cleaned up Eli, and the shampoo and told Eli "When I was pregnant 3.5 years ago, I never would have thought of all the things I would have to do as mommy!" Wait, something else just happened as I was typing this! I gave Eli a bowl of cereal because "I so starving" and now Peyton is sitting on the floor eating it. Theres milk and cereal and a very happy Peyton! Oy Vey!!

Elijah is THREE!!!!!

Heres the birth story I typed up three years ago!

While standing in the kitchen, I felt a trickle
of
water going down my leg. I really didnt think to
much
of it, because I just left the bathroom and
thought
that it was just some pee. So as I walked into my
bedroom to change, I realized that the trickle of
water was still coming and my pants were soaked.
This
all happened at 11:00 on Saturday night. After
realizing that my water MAY have indeed broken, I
like
an idiot waited. For what?? Pain, contractions,
anything that would indicate labor in the near
future.
I wasnt convinced that my water had broken b/c
when I
sat down it stopped. (the baby's head was
blocking the
water from flowing out) So i got on the internet
surfed a bit, just kept myself busy. Nothing was
coming out for a little while so I thought that
ok,
maybe I peed a little on myself. After I got
bored on
the net, I went and layed next to David in the
bed and
thats when the dam broke and the water came a
flowin!
So after I woke him up and went to change again,
I
came back and he was half sleepily trying to get
dressed and find the phone number to the L/D
department of the hospital. Once he found it, I
called
and they said that I need to just keep a check on
the
contractions, and come in when they are really
close.
I told her that I wasnt having any contractions,
and
that my back was killing me. She told me that I
need
to get my butt to the hospital asap. (Asap b/c my
contractions needed to be started soon).
So I get to the hospital at 1:00 (b/c of all the
waiting around and surfin the net, 2 hours had
passed,
it only took 5 mins to get to the hospital.) They
find
me a bed and hook me up to the monitor, give me
an IV
of saline solution and tell me that once they get
an
empty bed in the labor/delivery rooms (I was in
the
"early labor" room) i will be the first on in the
l/d
room. Well I think that EVERYONE in Albany
Georgia
was giving birth or something b/c I didnt get
into the
l/d room till about 4:30. The bed was so damn
uncomfy
that I couldnt sleep in.
So anyway 4:30 I finally get to a comfy bed and
try to
sleep. Well the nurse came in to check and see
if I
was dialated any bit at 6:30. Of course I wasnt
so
guess what she decided to do??? Yep, induce! So
at
6:45 am I was put on pitocin. Contractions
started
immediatly, they were tolerabe at the beginning,
I
beared through them. So after about an hour of
bearable contractions and still no dialation,
they
upped the pitocin. The next two hours or so I had
such
horrible contractions I thought that the world
was
ending (little did i know that was just the
beginning)
they couldnt give me an epideral b/c i still
hadnt
dialated to the alloted 4cm. They offered me
some
pain meds, that I thought that I could do
without, but
finally gave in. At 11:00 I was given meds, they
managed to wear off in like an hour or so. But
trust
me they were so wonderful while they lasted. At
some
point after they wore off I realized that I
couldnt
close my hands, they were swollen beyond
recognition.
Come to find out that my face and feet were also
swollen, and that my blood pressure was sky
rocketting. So they monitored me and upped the
saline
solution so that I wouldnt dehydrate. At around
12:30
I finally made it to 4cm, and of course I wanted
the
epi.
The anasteciologist (sp?) came in and preformed
my
epi. AS he was doing it, I was trying to
convince
myself that the needle going through my back was
all
worth it b/c I will be numb soon. I indeed was
numb in
a few mins, but only on my left side. I was
feeling
these unbeleivably horrible contractions in my
right
leg, right side of my back and the right side of
my
butt. I told the nurse about it and she said
that I
needed to wait and see if it will kick in on the
right. While I am dieing in the bed with right
side
contractions I asked the nurse who was being a
bitch
if she had any kids. No, she didnt. So that
pissed me
off, so I kept telling her that the epi wasnt
working.
She told me that she would find the
anasteciologist.
Well she did and it would take a few mins for him
to
get there. Well a few mins turned into 45 mins.
Once
the anasteciologist got there, he took out the
one he
previously did, and put in a new one. So that
meant
that my left side of my body was double numb, and
the
right side was just numb.
So after the second epi kicked in, the midwife
ran in
the room in a panic and threw an oxygen mask on
me,
and sat me up and told me that I needed to keep
this
on b/c my blood pressure was sky rocketing. So
from
1:00-3:00 I was stuck with an oxygen mask on
laying
down, and my upper back was killing me from not
moving! So after 2 hours, I was checked still
not
dialated past 4cm. She sat me up in the bed and
told
me that if I wasnt dialated anymore by 3:30, they
were
going to have to do a c-section, because I was
already
in the hospital 14 hours and not dialating to
well. So
at 3:00 I sat up and waitied for 3:30 to come
along.
WEll once it did, the nurse checked me and I was
8.5
cm. Boy that was a relief, I didnt want a
c-section.
So after more waiting, I was fully dialated at
4:15,
and began pushing at 4:20. Four contractions
later my
baby boy was born! At 4:34pm. It only took 14
mins of
pushing, which to my suprise was extremely
simple. I
was so scared prior to the whole pushing thing
that
the hardest part would be pushing. For me the
contractions were 500% worse than the pushing. On
my
last push I felt this slight pressure and then a
releif and then I heard my little man scream.
During the pushing, they had put a mirror in
front of
me so I could see his head, oh my god, that was
the
second most amazing sight i have ever seen in my
life.
The first being that moment that i saw my son,.
I
cried like a baby, all I could do was cry and
stare at
him and rub him.
Oh, and during this whole process, my "lovely"
sister
who managed to stay in the room was snapping
pictures.
I told her that if I saw that camera one more
time i
was going to shove it up her @$$.
Thats the labor part, I wont bore yall with the
rest
of the details about the after birth stuff, like
how I
was so numb on my left side that 12 hours later
my
left leg was still immobile thanks to the 2 epis.
Elijah Miguel Boyd was born on May 16, 2004 at
4:34
pm. He weighed 5lbs 15oz, 18 3/4 in long. Oh and
he
has a head full of hair!!

April 26, 2007 - Thursday


For my child

The color of my skin doesn't determine my character

I am not a slave to the typical sight you see

The way I wear my hair doesn't determine my strength

Every person has a right to be seen and heard

No one has the right to take away anything you don't give them


Dont rape my soul because you dont believe in me

Dont take my innocence and naive thinking away from me

Teach me how to do things rather than harass me with your words

Show me your way is better, and I may see your point

Make me better for those around me


Feel my strength, hear the words I speak, see my truth

Listen when I tell you what that my world is brand new

You can take away from me what you want, but you cant take me down

Roll your eyes, arch your back, thumbs up or thumbs down, don't mean smack

Your impression of me, makes me, love me even more


Oppression, Impression, Discussion, these words all look alike

Take these words and make them yours

Dont stop talking, make yourself heard, speak out loud

Stand up tall, be your own self, everyone wants to spectate

Kick them in the ass, by not stepping to their level

Be brave, be strong, be who you are.