Gabriella Jane Rieck

Welp, she's here! We were told we were on baby watch but we really didnt think she would come a whole month early! lol This blog is pretty much a journal for our family so here's the birth story (sorry if its not 2 exciting and a little TMI lol)...

So, on the 4th (a Saturday), Max and i were getting everything for the baby coming soon. We installed the carseat and cleaned a lot of the house. My mom and my sister Alicia came over that day and asked how i was feeling and i told them that i felt great :) I wasnt haveing many contractions (i had been having them for a few months) so i really thought things were going ok and that she would stay in there pretty close to here due date. Then, around 5:30pm i started having some MAJOR contractions. When they got that bad, i would usually take a bath and they would dye down a lot. So before i got into the bath, i noticed quite a bit of blood. It freaked me out and the contractions were stonger than they've ever been so i told Max that i thought it might be time. I called my parents on the way to their house and asked if they could take Lydia. Luckly my sister was there and told us that she would take her for the night (we didnt know if we would get sent home or not).
My mom actually came in the car with us in case things got really bad and i needed more help.
The contractions were pretty bad driving there but my mom kept my mind off it most of the time. The hospital was an hour away so it was pretty tough :(
They checked me into triage and hooked me up to the monitors. By now, the contractions were so strong that i couldnt even imagine getting sent home. I didnt care that it was still 4 weeks til my due date lol I wanted the baby out and for the pain to stop. My dr came by and he said that he wanted me to walk around for about an hour to see i f i would dialate even more (i was already a 4). I thought "r u freakin kidding me?! im in so much pain! i cant walk around!". My dr came back 2 minutes later and said "nevermind, ive been watching the monitor and ur having huge contractions every 2 minutes. We are going to admit you." We were to happy :) They wheeled me back to my room and my dr wanted to check me and break my water. (This is when it gets a little gross but, sorry lol my blog...) He broke my water and, no joke, water came POURING out. Not just regular. It was gallons of water! The dr said he had never seen anything like it. and the nurse said that she had worked at that hospital for 15 years and had never seen that much water come out of someone lol I mustve lost 20lbs just then lol And looking at my stomach after that, i already felt SO skinny haha
The contractions got a little worse so i got the epidural. It kinda worked but not completely. I was so nervous to have another birth experience like Lydia's (the epidural never fully kicked in so i felt everything). So they called the guy back in to give me a higher dose. It worked for about an half hour and then wore off again. By this time (3am), my best friend Lindsay and her mom came to hang out and be there for the birth. I was in SO much pain and was able to feel everything. The nurse checked me and told me it was time to start pushing. i told her that i NEEDED something for the pain and that i didnt want to feel anything. They gave me one more dose of meds but it didnt do anything. They said that my body just didnt get numb from the meds. Oh crap. Thats when i started to panic. I knew how it felt to have a baby natural and i NEVER wanted to feel that again. But they were all ready and in the room so i knew i had to push (even tho i was crying...a lot lol)
i only had to push for 15 minutes and then she was out. It was such a surreal feeling. I could hear her crying and i couldnt help but to cry a bit myself :) It was such an amazing experience. and i loved sharing it with the people i had in the room. They were all such a good support system and they said it was amazing for them to witness. She came at 5:53am and was 7lbs 5oz and 20inches long :)
(thanks to Lindsay for taking all the pics!)

























Brie did ok the first couple nights but then they said she had really bad jaundice. We didnt even know she couldnt come home with us until the day we were getting ready to leave. I took it really hard. It just wasnt what i had planned on at all. There was a lot of crying on my part. Brie took everything like a champ. It killed me tho cause she hardly ever cried and the one time she did, was when we had to take her to the nursery and hand her over to the nurse. She started crying so loud and i lost it. it kinda makes me wanna cry just thinking about it. I had to leave the room fast before i really had a break down. We had so much support from family and friends and people from our ward. it really helped us get through everything.
I called the hospital a lot the next couple of days to check up on her and they would always say that she hasnt changed or that it got a little worse. Then after a couple days, they called and said that we could go pick her up :) it was the best day lol
We just love having her around. Its still so weird to me that i have 2 kids! When did i become a grown up? lol And now this girl is happy and healthy and already almost weighs 8 lbs! preemie? i dont think so lol We just love her so much :)

Bring on Baby :)

Well, I'm just gonna say it...hospitals are SO boring lol I was having some bleeding and major contractions. I was also feeling a lot of pressure down there. So i called my Dr and they said to go into the hospital right away. Our hospital is an hour away so we dropped everything and heading right over there.
They had us in triage for awhile and then the nurse came back with an apologetic look on her face. She said "well you just earned urself a night in the hospital". They wanted to monitor me and make sure that all the bleeding would stop. We ended up having Lydia sleep at Alicia's house and Alicia and my mom watched my babysitting kids for me the next day. It was a looong night in the hospital. They had a fetal monitor on me and another monitor on my belly to track my contractions. The major problem was that the baby didn't like either monitor on me so she would kick it off every 15 minutes. Every time i would get comfortable and try to sleep, the nurses would come in and have to find the heartbeat again (which would take about 15 min) so needless to say, i didn't get any sleep. But i was so glad i was there cause i started to have more bleeding. Because of that, they made me stay there another night :( All in all tho, everything looked awesome when i was discharged. They said the baby was fine and they also gave me a couple steroid shots so her lungs will develop faster in the chance that she comes out soon. Now it's just a lot of bed rest for me lol
I had an ultrasound while i was there and it was pretty awesome :) They did a close up on her face and she started yawning :) It was the cutest thing seeing her nose all scrunched up when she did. It made the fact that i was having a baby SO real. The Dr said that we have to be prepared for a baby any day. Thanks everyone for ur thoughts and prayers! i know for a fact they helped us with all this :)

Time Flys!

Wasn't it JUST Halloween?! It seems like when Halloween came up, everything started to just zoom by! Something that kept my sanity for this pregnancy was always thinking 'but i don't have to worry cause I'm not having the baby til next year' um...Its next year! I'm having a baby next month!

I went to the Dr's today and they checked me and said that I'm dilated to a 1 and that this little girl's head is RIGHT THERE! It makes me so nervous but i just have a feeling everything will be OK. They also said that the baby has officially dropped. What that means also is that my contractions are going to get a bit more intense. I didn't really think that was possible at this point ha ha jk My Dr said i just have to take it super easy for the next few weeks and at least keep this girl in for 4 or 5 more weeks. Even that sounds way 2 soon for me lol She's on her way...

As far as everything else is going, we are dealing with the terrible 2s at our house :( We aren't sure what triggered it but, Lydia freaks out over the smallest things. I think she can also sense the baby coming. But she will be totally fine and then just start screaming and we cant do ANYTHING to get her to stop. We have even tried giving her her favorite treat and she will just throw it. She's still my little sweetheart but just has these crazy tantrums :( We are just trying to give her as much attention as we can. She has been through a lot the past few months (new house, big girl bed, potty training, the baby) I think its all coming to blows now. Pray for the storm to pass the Rieck home ha ha

On a lighter note, Thanks SO much to Grama Lora (Lora Loomis) for making Lydia this cute owl poncho and beanie! She loves it! She always pulls it over her eyes and says "i a owl" ha ha We love u Grama Lora!

Baby Update

Well, I'm now 30 1/2 weeks! How insane is that? it has gone by so fast! Anyway, i have been having some pretty intense contractions lately :( SO not pleasent lol We almost went to the hospital the other night cause they were seriously as strong as they were when i was in labor with Lydia. We waited them out and they stopped. So i had a drs appointment today and they checked me just to see if the contractions were doing anything. She checked me and said that i've actually dialated a bit :/ She said its nothing to worry bout unless its even more at my next appointment in 2 weeks. As she was checking me, she freaked me out lol She was feeling and said 'oh my goodness...um...have u been to OB triage yet?' i told her no. Then she said 'i think i might feel this little girls head' What?! She then proceeded to push on my belly (really hard lol) and actually had a hold of the head and the butt! She said that she was trying to see if it was the head or the butt bearing down on the cervix (i dont blame people if they have stopped reading by now lol its very TMI lol) She said that by the feel of it, She thinks its the butt. She wants me to get an ultrasound in a little while just to make sure. She said if its the butt, then thats ok. if its the head, then this girl is making her way out! Lets hope for the butt haha

We are getting so excited for Christmas around here :) I cant wait for Lydia to open her presents lol She is sooo excited. She knows whos present is whos under the tree and will hand me mine and hand her dad his. She's always asking 'Kim-miis?' (christmas lol) I always feel so bad telling her 'not yet...' :/

Thats about all thats going on in the Rieck house :) I'm so excited for this next year. There are gonna be some big changes and i cant wait! (and it seems like this baby isn't very patient either hehe).

LOVE This Time Of Year!

Everything about this season just makes me happy :)
The decorating...

Family time...

The yummy food...

And just getting cozy in the cold weather...

Its even more exciting now that Lydia knows whats going on and is getting excited too. Last night, we were driving to my parents house and she wanted me to stop in front of EVERY house that haad lights up lol She just freaks out and says "Stop! Whites, Mommy!" haha And her new favorite word is Beautiful haha So we are already loving Christmas time with this girl :)

Well, i had a drs appointment a couple weeks ago (im down to every 2 week appointments! weird huh?!) and had to get an ultrasound to make sure my placenta previa was gone. Luckly it is! Hopefully no c-section for me lol They also said that the baby would probably look really skinny still cause in the next couple weeks, she should gain the baby weight. BUT when she looked at her on the ultrasound, she was shocked to see that we have a little chunk on our hands haha She has the biggest cheeks i've seen. Her height was measuring normal BUT her weight (which is supposed to be measuring about 2 lbs right now) was measuring over 3! When i was born, i weighed almost 11 lbs! My poor mom (AND she did it all natural!). This is what karma is all about... Please be nice to me, baby Brie...haha

Wouldn't it be nice?

I tried to win this amazing prize last year (and obviously didn't lol) and I'm determined to win it again this year! All my Christmas shopping will be done! haha Check it out for a chance to win!

http://laurawinslowphotography.com/blog/2011/11/21/10000-holiday-bloggie-bash-laura-winslow-photography/


It's pretty amazing :)

The Bright Side

It's been really hard for me lately to think of the bright side of things. I've been so stressed with things. Between house payments, Contractions with this pregnancy, work, and TONS of other things on my irrational pregnant mind, i can barely get any sleep at night. I also freak myself out thinking that this pregnancy will end with an awful labor experience like last time. And not only that, our new Dr only delivers at 1 hospital. And that hospital happens to be an hour away. I freak out that we wont make it.
Well last night, Max and i were just sitting and talking about things we r a little worried about. Then we realized, we r just thinking of things that MIGHT go wrong or things that we just don't have any control over. Money's tight, yes, but we are making it. There are SO many things we have to be thankful for. As far as house payments, we HAVE a house. Not only that, its an amazing house. And as far as the pregnancy goes, in February, we are gonna have another sweet little girl to add to our family :) Sure there are tons of things that can go wrong with the pregnancy and the labor but, those are out of my control. I just think of my friends who have had a hard time getting pregnant or the friends of mine who have lost their babies. It breaks my heart to think of those situations. So it makes me think 'what really am i worried about?' That i might go through some pain to get this girl into the world? That is ridiculous. I admit, the pain i went through delivering Lydia was the most pain i've ever felt. But it was the most amazing experience of my entire life. So much so, that im doing it again lol
There's just so much to be greatful for that i cant just dwell on things that are overwhelming me. I have an awesome little family. A husband that cares for me more than anyone. i know he would do anything for me. He's been putting up with my morning sickness, aches, pains, emotional break downs, and times where im just so irrational haha i also have a little girl that amazes me everyday. She's so smart and its so fun to see the world thru her curious eyes :)
I'm going to be more positive and just enjoy the now instead of worrying about the unknown :) Bring on my favorite holidays!