Johan's not so funny, yet now hilarious birth story

I had my sweet baby boy Johan Michael on December, 19 2012 at 12:53 pm weighing 6lbs 15oz 20 3/4"
He is so beautiful and perfect and so much more than I ever expected.

I wanted to tell his birth story cause its something I never wanna forget and definitely not what I ever expected.

I spare no details, so if you don't wanna know, don't read haha

I guess it all started the weekend before, well actually the whole week before.  I had been saying forever how I was going to have him 2 weeks early, I don't know why, I just had a feeling. Since I hit 37 weeks I had been trying anything and everything to naturally induce labor.  I mean every old wives tales I did.  I did stadium stairs, walked everyday a ton, spent my days bouncing on an exercise ball. We had tons of sex, I was taking evening primrose oil, I mean everything(minus castor oil cause I heard that can make baby poop, no bueno).  The nurse told me that the new chief of midwifery and his wife swore by eggplant parmesean to naturally induce.  Said it worked every time all 8 kids. My birthday was Thursday, then Friday our anniversary.  I started the day by getting a massage, hoping the labor pressure points would work, then me and Alex went to the mall and walked for a couple hours.  Then for dinner we went out to a really nice local restaurant and I got eggplant parmesean.   I got to 38 weeks on Saturday the 15th and after all of that I had  totally given up hope that my baby would come early.  But nevertheless I walked a little more that day, then for dinner I went and got eggplant parmesean to go at olive garden. Then me and Alex ended the night, at 11:30 pm by going off-roading in our jeep haha I'm tellin ya, I was determined.(side note, I was so determined because I was scheduled to be induced at 39 weeks because of blood pressure issues and I did NOT want to be induced, I wanted to go naturally)  We did have a really great time night off-roading and it was kind of our last fun special thing we did as a two person family.
Fast forward to Sunday night. At about 10:00  I started bleeding(mucousy blood) and having really bad cramps. I text my cousin who works at an OB office to see what I should do.  She said to start timing them and take tylenol, chug a ton of water, take a warm bath and see if they go away and if they do its not real labor.  I did all that and nothing made them go away and they got slightly stronger.  I tried to go to bed but the pain was so bad I couldn't sleep.  So at 4:30 Monday morning I woke Alex up and told him I needed to go to the hospital. We got there and I got hooked up to the monitor.  They were still happening about ever 5-8 min I think but nothing was showing up on the monitor.  I got checked and I was at a nothing.  Most frustrating thing ever.  False alarm, so I wasn't in labor.  They told me they didn't know why I was cramping and sorry but go home and deal with it.  So we went home and and got absolutely no relief.  I was just hoping that when I went to my twice weekly NST they would be able to do something.  My appointment was a 1pm.  Again, hooked up to the monitors there.  No contractions, not a one.  But I sure was "cramping"  actually one got so bad I cried. weak I know but it was bad. I told the nurse about what was going on, she went and talked to the doctor. "Sorry we can't do anything, if you get in severe pain go to L&D and see if they could give you something to relieve the pain or sleep".  Ughhh so back home I went, in even more pain.  At this point everytime I had a "cramp" I would get shooting pains in my hips. Monday night, another night of not a wink of sleep.  Just pain pain pain allll night.  Tuesday was baaaad, having no sleep for so long and tons of pain I was just delirious.  I can't really recall anything I did that day besides trying to deal with pain.  I was having "cramps" every 3-5 min at night I couldn't do anything.  I couldn't sit still couldn't stand still.  I was up and down and on the floor, and on all fours, the back sitting then sitting on my knees.  I was going to the bathroom ever 5 min cause I just felt like I had to poop so bad.  Every time I wan't on the toilet I was desperately  crossing my legs cause I felt like I was gonna poop my pants, then when I was on the toilet nothing.  I was getting shooting pains in my hips and down my thighs every time and shaking, moaning, and crying.  Then at about 11:00 pm, every time I stood or moved kind of I would feel a little gush of water.  Smarty me just thought I was peeing my pants a little, no joke.  So all the above mentioned symptoms lasted till about 5:00am till I finally couldn't handle the pain.  I told Alex we needed to go to the hospital so I can see if I can get something to sleep cause I couldn't handle the pain anymore and I had never been so sleep deprived in my life.
 We get to L&D and I tell them why I'm there and how I went in 2 days ago and wasn't having contractions, they were cramps and I wasn't dilated at all. The nurse put her hand on my stomach and goes, "yep thats a contraction, and a strong one, holy cow." I get hooked up to the monitors and my contractions are barley showing up but the nurse can tell they are much stronger then they're shown. I get checked and one of the doctors doesn't say anything, he asks the nurse to double check and she goes "ya I have a 7-8 hes right there all I feel is the hair" Holy crap holy crap.  WHAT?! I ask her 7-8 what and she says centimeters.  Me and Alex are freaking out now.  Everyone told me I wasn't in labor.  No wonder I was in so much pain! I called my mom and funny thing is she was actually coming in that same day.  She ended up getting in 3 hours after he was born.  Perfect timing.  Anyway they quickly took me get blood work to send so I can get an epidural.  I know it's like I was so close but I couldn't handle the pain anymore, my body needed the rest. I had to get the epidural. I got the put in a room and got the epidural not too long after luckily.  Also luckily after I got the epi my contractions slowed way down.  I know this doesn't sound good but I was entirely unprepared and my body needed the rest before it was time to start pushing. They decided to start pitocin at like 11-1130ish geez I can't even remember.  Then at 12:35-40ish it was I started pushing, ps my epi ran out at about 12:15 so alll of this I could totally feel, everything.  but I'm glad I got the experience to feel the birth.  Anyway after just 15 min of pushing, Johan came into the world.  It really is the most amazing experience and feeling ever.  I have never been overcome with so much love and emotion.

 Just after he was born

About 4 days later.

gahh hes just so beautiful I can't stand it!

Love this sweet boy

So far everything has been beyond perfect.  He's breastfeeding great ever 2-3 hours.  I usually have to wake him up and make him cause he sleeps so much.  The only time he has cried so far is when I do have to wake him up and feed him, but then he calms down when he realizes he's gonna eat haha.  Seriously I feel like I'm doing something wrong, like missing a step cause its been so great.  I've been sleeping with him on my chest at night cause he sleeps so amazing, in his bassinet, not so much.  I blame myself for that though, he didn't sleep in his bassinet in the hospital once haha.  Oh well, I love it, I might thing different later on but for now I love it.  Alex is the perfect dad.  I love watching him with Johan.  I am just so incredibly overwhelmingly happy right now.  So grateful and blessed for my life. 

Next stop, California!

Alex joined the army just 3 years ago. He got an amazing score on the ASVAB and picked what looked like it was going to be a really great job. Then just a year after graduating AIT realized his job was becoming/was obsolete. I don't think he has ever done what he was actually trained for. We got to fort Bragg a year ago now and hasn't done anything close to what he was trained for. So he decided he wanted to reclass and pick a job that is really good and has good promotion aspects as well. (his current job is not promoting at all. Although he has been promotable for about 9-10 months.)
In August he was able to start putting stuff in to be able to reclass. He had to do a lot and then took a few tests to have a lot of options for what job he wanted. He had it narrowed down to two, then a few weeks ago he finally decided what he wanted to do and put his papers in for a reclass in the BEAR program. He heard back a week later and he got a class date!!

We're moving to Monterey, CA next november! We could not be more excited!! At first I was a little bummer it wasn't sooner, but then I realized this is a really good situation. We love our house here and well be able to be together till Johan is about 10-11 months. Then well have a year in Monterey, then after that, 5-6 months in Texas for his actual job training after that.
The best part is that for the next at the very least 2.5 years there is no chance of deployment. We both feel so blessed thy he was able to do this and have this great opportunity.
We can't wait to get back to the west coast and way closer to our family!

Baby's room

We got so incredibly blessed when in came to stuff we need for the baby.
My cousin has 2 boys 3&1.5 and shes done having kids and when we were in Arizona she gave us literally everything they had. All their clothes newborn-24 months. Bouncer, blankets, and so more.
Then we had a baby shower and got so much stuff and tons of money/gift cards. My mom bought us a travel system, my sister in law is letting us use her swing since my little niece grew out of it. My aunt M&P bought us a crib. My aunt Tammy made the bedding out of my old comforter and sheets from high school. I could go on and on about everything people gave us, again we are so blessed. Here are some pictures.

All the decorations I got in high school. I had a surfer/beach room it's so nice to be able to reuse everything for Johan's room. As you can see the only thing we don't have is a dresser right now haha so were being ghetto and using plastic storage bins. Well get a dresser soon

All the clothes in the closet are only 0-6 months. Everything else 6-24 is in 2 jumbo space bags in the storage room

In the closet is a blooming bath(LOVE!) stash of diapers and wipes, all things baby hygiene wise, diaper bag, boppy, bumbo, toys, diaper genie, pack and play(to be used as bassinet) breast pump bottles and a whole bunch of other random baby stuff

The stuff in the drawers are Jammie's(newborn-6mo) pants, shorts, all newborn, blankets, socks and hats

Kitchen drawer FULL of bibs and burp cloths, all from my cousin

A shelf in our linen closet with wash cloths and those adorable hoodie towels. Again all from my cousin.

Travel system. My aunt tammy is making a car seat cover out of the bedding. So excited for that!

And last but definetly not least is a recliner from sams club my mom and Alexs mom went in on! Even though they both already spent so much on us already.

It's so insanely cozy! We wanted something for late night feedings and cuddling baby but didn't want one of those generic nursery rockers that everyone gets that honestly dont look to cozy. But this we can totally just sack out in. We love it!

Now, here is the amazing part, we literally did not spend a dime on anything. We got/ bought everything with money/gift cards people got us. We have been 100% set for about a month now, we don't need to buy one more thing, except more diapers and wipes eventually. But other than that we are done! I really can't thank everyone enough for everything. We are seriously so lucky and have the best family and friends anyone could ask for!

Arizona.

On August 29th we made our trek across country.. Mine and the dogs 4th time, Alex's 2nd.. Back to Arizona. It took us 36 hours which is pretty great considering how much we stopped.

I wanna put up all the pictures of the dogs from the trip but there are sooo many haha so I won't bore you. But seriously. I love my dogs

On the way over we stopped in ABQ to visit our BFF. Mr. Walter White

I had no idea we were going here. Alex surprised me and when we pulled up I seriously flipped a discus. Biggest regret of my life is not getting out to get a picture. I was so nervous I wanted to be so discreet but Alex got out and had me take a picture of him with the house

After getting home i just had to snuggle my perfect little niece Stella Jane. Gosh I love this girl! I miss her so much!

We stayed in AZ for a day and a half then on September 1st early in the morning we left for California. To got to Alexa's moms wedding, the reason we went to AZ in the first place

This is the view from our bed the next morning. We stayed in Oceanside, CA.

A picture alex's cousin in law took of us at the rehearsal dinner that night. I love California. Very candid haha I was really surprised after seeing this cause we honestly had no idea she was even taking pictures.

On Sunday the 2nd Alex's mom, Mary and Phillip got married in laguna beach ca

Beautiful location and ceremony. Only about 10 of us were there. Then we went to dinner in laguna after the ceremony.

We went home the next morning. We spent the next 2 weeks eating out at wayyy to much at all of our favorite places we don't get in NC and swimming everyday and spending much needed time with family. It was quite the vacation.

On Friday the 14th my uncle took us flying in him little plane. I almost backed out of going cause my mom started to freak me out about flying in a little plane while pregnant. But I ended up going and was so glad i did!

The next day, the 15th, we had a baby shower for me and later that night a diaper party for Alex. We got seriously so much stuff. But, that's for another post.

We ended up leaving back home on the 19th and of course just one more picture of the dogs on the ride home.

The ride took us slightly longer than last, cause being slightly more pregnant I had to pee and stop a lot more haha. Still only took us about 37-38 hours. It was such an amazing much needed vacation but it was also so great to get home and get back to our life.

Life between 20-30 weeks

Yes, another baby post. Ha thats my life now so there we go. I can't believe I'm 30 weeks now, well just about, 29w6d, close enough.
I haven't updated since I was 20 weeks. So I'll do a little summary of the last 10 weeks of life.
On August 29th we left NC for our home, Mesa AZ! It was a 2200 mile drive we made in 36 hours. Not bad for being 23 weeks pregnant. We didn't stop except for gas and food, and of course bathroom and walking the dogs break. Yep, we took our cute little poochies with us. Actually they're the reason we drove so we could take them.

I'm gonna do another post of just our trip to Arizona cause it was long and lots of fun stuff happened.

We got back on September 19th or 20th, can't remember. But we got back at like 4 in the morning, drove straight through again. Then about 6 hours after we got back my body had a major freak out. All of a sudden my back had the worst most intense pain I had ever experienced. It started in my back then wrapped around my body. Like seriously, it was indescribable and the worst! But after about 45min- an hour of feeling like i was dying we went to the hospital. They did all sorts of tests and monitoring and nothing was visibly wrong and it wasnt contractions cause those come and go but this was constant. while I was there the pain got so bad I was throwing up like crazy. You might be like ya whatever you threw up. You're pregnant. But I don't throw up haha. Serious. It was my first time really throwing up the whole time being pregnant and for maybe 4 years.
After finding nothing wrong I got sent home. Still in an incredible amount of pain, and more sick then when I got there. They gave me an IV and zofran in the IV and Tylenol but nothing even touched me.
So I got home and was just as sick for about 3 days. After 3 days I stopped throwing up but the pain lasted a good 8-10 more days. My back still isn't 100% but it's so much better!
We really think it was just the long trip and sitting in the car so long that just made my body freak out.

Oh geez this is turning long haha didn't realize how much I actually had to update.

Anyway on the 3rd I had a Dr appt. Which went generally fine except for the fact that because I gained 24lbs in 12 weeks my doctor was convinced I had GD. I tried to explain to her that I went on a month long vacation but nope. She kept telling me yes, I had diabetes. Sorry but I dont think 2lbs a week in pregnancy+going on a month vacation is the craziest thing. But whatever. I took my glucose test last week and what do you know? Level are totally normal. Can't wait to go back to my doctor and say "suck it!"

Have I ever mentioned my mom is the best? Cause she really is. I was missing her and so despite having a very busy week dropped whatever,including work, and came to see me. She got her last Sunday and I took her back to the airport this morning.
Another reason I wanted her to come was cause i had an ultrasound and wanted her to be there.
My ultrasound was Sunday night so after driving from Charlotte(that's the only flight she could make) all 3 of us went to my appointment.

I had so much fun with my mom this weekend. She came and brought 3 suitcases. 1 full of decorations for Johan's room, one full of her stuff and 1 full of Halloween decorations. So she decorated his room and our house while here. We also did lots of thrifting shopping and just hanging out. It was so fun!
Also surprisingly I got another ultrasound yesterday. I'm glad she for to be here for 2, that was fun!
Here are the pictures from my appointment on Wed.

I love the 4D one. I can't stop looking at it. It's crazy how much he already looks like Alex! I can't wait to go back for another 4D one in 4-5 weeks.
Also, talked with the doctor at this last appt yesterday and turns out because of my cyst(reason I'm getting so many ultrasounds, large cyst on my uterus) I can have the option of getting a c-section so they can remove it all at once instead of me going back 4-6 weeks after I have baby. I really don't know what to do part of me really really wants it but my mom is really worried about me getting one. So I would love opinions on it from anyone who has had one about what to do.

Also while my mom was here i almost forgot, we went out and bought a new chair! Actually, my mom and Alexs mom went in on it which was so amazing because the both already spent over 200$ for baby gifts, then they bought us this recliner for baby too. They are was over spoiling us! We are so grateful! This chair is so amazingly comfortable!

I still have so much more to update but I realize I need to stop this somewhere haha. I need to blog more But I'm constantly instagraming and that's as good as blogging to me! So follow me on instagram @sashasverd.
But I will be back to update more

New house on post

A little over 2 weeks ago now we moved on post here at Fort Bragg. It's a 3 bedroom 2 bath and has 1300sq ft. It's so amazing to have this much room. I thought we were ok in our 950sq ft townhouse but now being here I couldn't imagine going any smaller. It has an amazing kitchen with wayyyy more drawer and cupboard space then we need, which I thought I would never say. But we have like 4-5 unused cupboards and 3 open drawers, oh and awesome counter space! Needless to say, I love it! I also love that we have so much extra storage space! We have 4 huge linen closets and big closets in all 3 bedrooms.

I feel so lucky that my mom was able to be here also to help us move. She helped us so much it was unreal. We went to turn our keys into our old place and came back and the place was almost totally unpacked and decorated so cute! I sure have an amazing mom. We were 100% unpacked and set up after just 3 days here. Here are some of the pictures of my moms awesome work

And one of the best parts of this is the view of our backyard from our living/dining room windows

So far we really like living on post too, which we thought we wouldn't, why it took us so long to move here. oh and another favorite part, back to a one story! I hate stairs, I need to remind myself that anytime we move again