Mason goes to the farm!

Today my mom and I decided to take Mason to see all of the baby animals that were born on the farm! It was one of the first decently hot days of the season, and of course my mom's air conditioner in the car was broken, so it was a windows down drive to the farm. It wasn't very far away. I can't believe that I've lived on Long Island my whole life, and have never been to, or even heard of this farm!

When we arrived, we took Mason out of his car seat and put him in his stroller, and sunglasses were a total necessity. He was stylin'!

We stopped at the information center to sign in, and buy some food for the animals just in case they needed some motivation to come close so Mason could see them better. There was a cat resting on the wooden ramp that led to the sign in sheet, and I noticed that one of the boards under the cat was loose so when we walked over it it moved the cat. My mom thought this was hilarious and had to step on the board once or twice....ok, ok... three times... I promise no harm was done, the cat just went right back to sleep... what a life!

The first animal we saw in our travels was a rabbit. It was drinking, so it was making some pretty loud noises, which immediately Mason HAD to check out!

We continued around for a while visiting more animals. We got to a hen house with roosters, and I took Mase inside to see them. He heard the roosters crowing from outside so I assumed he would be fine. Once we got inside a few roosters crowed and he was ok, but then the one closest to us did, and Mase made a little whine, and the biggest pouty lip I've EVER seen and proceeded to cry... I felt TERRIBLE! Not pictures of that moment, sorry! 

 

Yes his toes ARE up his nose!

 

baby goat that LOVED Mason

Baby sheep!

This sheep looked like an Ewok!

poor cows are going to become beef! :(

this sheep wanted to kill us...

I'm definitely going to be taking Mason back there when he is a little bit older... maybe for his birthday <3

My First Mother's Day!

I started off my morning early, I woke up before Michael and Mason. My Daddy stopped by the house with some lovely flowers! So sweet!

Then when Michael and Mason got up, he gave me his card, which was so wonderful! He always writes his own personal message in the card, and its always so heartfelt and just plain amazing. Then he gave me the card that Mason picked out for me, and of course it was a Snoopy card, leave it to my baby to pick a card with a dog on it!

Then we spent the rest of the day pretty low key. We went to the park with Mason, and shopped around in Target. Mother's Day also happened to be my mom's birthday! So we then went over to hang out with my parents for a bit, and have cake with my mom. It was a really nice, relaxing day. 

Meeting Mason

I was going to wait until Mason's 1st Birthday to post this, but I couldn't wait. It is from my other blog, but i don't go on it anymore and I felt like it would be good to post on here! Who doesn't like a good old birth story? It may even be educational for some people so why not!?


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On 8/24/11, Michael and I headed off to my 36 week check-up expecting to be in and out like usual. I had absolutely no health problems up until my 35 week check-up, but the only cause for concern after that appointment was how much protein my kidneys were spilling. This could be a sign of pre-eclampsia/eclampsia, but because I had no other symptoms it was basically decided that a history of UTIs were to blame. This appointment was different though. Michael and I sat down in the office of my Midwife and wonderful relative (through marriage) to discuss my blood work, which the only abnormal result was that i was anemic which is an easy fix. So i was feeling pretty confident as we moved into the exam room with my handouts on iron intake in hand. This confidence lasted about thirty seconds, which is when they took my blood pressure. 170/100 was my result, and that is NOT good. Michael was told to take me to the hospital, right then and there. Immediately my thoughts began to race. I knew this was serious, and feared that i would be taken right in for an emergency c-section to save my life and the life of my baby. Of course i would do so if that were my only option, but it didn't mean I had to like the idea.

ADMITTED!

We walked into labor and delivery and they were waiting for us. I was taken to triage immediately where they hooked me up to an IV and began monitoring my blood pressure every 5 minutes for and hour. It continued to spike. The highest i can remember reading was 184/120. Upon seeing this result i was diagnosed with Eclampsia and they immediately added blood pressure medication to my IV and hooked me up to a high level of magnesium to keep me from having a seizure. I was warned by the OB that magnesium is some nasty stuff and will make me feel pretty aweful, and oh boy it really did. It burned going into my arm, and had the same effect on the rest of me as well. My body felt like it was boiling, and my nose clogged, and i felt like i had some kind of aweful flu. On top of this, as if it weren't enough, it makes you retain even more water than normal, and if i wasn't peeing enough there was a risk of magnesium poisoning. So every hour the nurses would come in to check my reflexes to make sure that i wasn't starting to be poisoned by the magnesium, and every time i went to the bathroom a nurse had to measure how much i went to the bathroom. There were quite a few times where i failed the reflex tests that were being done so they would take blood over and over to make sure i didnt have magnesium poisoning, thank god my labs always came back negative. 

The Horrible IV that I had for DAYS!

Me looking VERY swollen from the horrible Magnesium

It was decided that Mason was strong enough and wasn't being affected by all of the things that i was dealing with so we could take a little time to try to ensure that i was able to have a vaginal delivery, and cut the chances of a c-section. Upon examination, they found that I was 1cm dialated, my body had already started going into labor because of the stress it was under. The midwife on call decided to use something called cervidal which is a medication that they place on your cervix for 12 hours to help speed up the labor process. When this was placed into me, i can't even explain to you how much it hurt, but after it was placed it was painless. Then began the wait to see if my body would react to it, which if it didnt there would only be one other even more painful technique to try before a c-section would become necessary. 

After the 12 hours, I was examined and found to be 1 1/2 cm dialated, but now 80% effaced which apparently was REALLY good. They decided to try a second cervidal. By this time Careen, my midwife, was on call and was inserting the cervidal. She made it much quicker and less painful. But now the nurses weren't happy with the amount of my urine output, or lack of it in this case, and they decided a catheter would be necessary... that was NOT cool.

Time was weird in the labor room, there was no clock so i never knew what time it was and days just blended together. And at some point i remember doctors telling mike that the medications would make me pretty forgetful and not remember things, apparently this was true.

At some point on day two (i think) my mom came to visit, and we hang out for a bit to take my mind off of the gross feelings i was having, and the crazy swelling in my whole body that was leaving me looking like someone that suffered from elephantitis. Later on a nurse came in to check my blood pressure, and she decided it would be a good idea to switch arms and check on the arm with the IV feeding 4 meds into me. I asked her if that would effect the IVs and she said probably but it will just set off the alarm. Well let me tell you, no alarm went off, but my arm started BURNING. I told mike and because of his training as a combat life saver in the marine corps, he knew exactly what happened, and went to get my midwife immediately. My IV infiltrated, it was not fun. So they had to take it out to make the pain stop, and switched it to my other arm, which was too swollen by this time to find a good vein so it was put into my wrist... not a fun spot.

Now at some point in day 3, cervidal number 2 was expired and it was time to check me again. I was only 4 cm dialated and 90% effaced. I begged to just start pitocin, instead of the next painful method, and Careen decided we could give it a shot. I decided to take pain medication through the IV, but all it did was knock me out. When i woke up i could feel the contractions getting stronger and stronger and much closer together. Michael decided to get some lunch, and while he was gone the contractions became unbearable. I was so upset with myself because Michael and I both decided that we were NOT going to use an epidural, but i needed it. The pain was to the point where i wanted to throw up, and i had a contraction every minute and it lasted for a minute. I couldn't handle it, and Mike was no where to be found to attempt to see if he would be ok with me getting the epidural. Careen was in the room with me and told me that it could actually be beneficial in a case like mine and would even help lower my blood pressure. I told her to contact the anesthesiologist and get me an epidural. I knew that her opinion was very important and Michael would be ok with the decision. It seemed like hours before they came to give me the epidural, when in reality i'm sure it was only about 45 minutes. Mike wasn't allowed in the room when they were giving me the epidural which i thought was weird, but there was nothing i could do. It was the first time he had left my side during something serious in the whole time we had been at the hospital. Careen braced me as they tried THREE times to get the epidural to numb me correctly, which was difficult being that i was having horrific contractions every 45 seconds or so by now. They eventually got it to numb me properly and i was able to lay back in the bed. It becomes really fuzzy after that, but i know that i fell asleep at some point. When i came too, i could hear people talking, but it took me about 45 minutes to realize that my mother in law was in the room. I slowly came out of the fog i was in and joined in the conversation. 

It wasn't long before i started to feel a pressure. I wasn't sure if this was supposed to happen, or if it was just more contractions but they were numbed because of the epidural. About the third time i felt it, I asked my mother in law if that was normal, and she said that means its almost time, so Michael ran to tell Careen. She came in to check on me, and saw all of my contraction read outs and said that she would check me in half and hour. I told mike to text my parents asap and tell them to get to the hospital. They said they would be leaving to meet us there at 6. Being that i was going to be checked at 6:30 it seemed like enough time...keyword... seemed. Careen checked me at 6:30 and i was ready to go, i could barely control my body which was forcing me to push. Michael frantically texted my mom "HES COMING, GET HERE FAST". I found myself pushing with no direction from Careen or the nurses and they were quite impressed that i seemed to know what i was doing. I asked the nurse if i could push the button for the epidural because i could move my legs freely, and she couldn't believe i hadn't used it already. By the time i was on my second push my mother was now at my side. Thank god she made it. 

In a "short" 45 minutes, I was done pushing, and i could see my baby in the hands of Careen. I remember being so frustrated because everyone made it sound like with each push that the babies head was about to be out but it just wasn't happening, i felt like it should have been way shorter. For the majority of the time it was just michael, my mom, my mother in law, careen and a nurse in the room with me. I was so focused on getting this baby out, i was in the zone. I didnt speak. I didn't scream at michael like i figured i would. There was a point where he was anxious and started shaking the hospital bed and i just asked him to please stop, but then SUDDENLY about 6 other people flew into the room and everyone started talking quite loudly which was really messing with my concentration, and all i simply said was " shhhhhhhhh ". I was so tired. I ended up needing the oxygen mask at some point to keep Mason's heart beat from dipping, which i didnt find out until days later. As far as i knew his heart beat stayed strong throughout the labor and delivery, but i guess not. I'm glad i didnt know until way later. I also didn't find out till way later that Michael wasn't able to cut the cord. It turns out Mason was taking too much from me and my blood levels were dropping to the point they wanted to give me a transfusion, so they had to cut him from me immediately. Without my knowing about these few things, my biggest concern was that he tore me a tiny bit and i needed stitches, which i was able to feel. But for some reason they felt like nothing compared to what i had been through in the previous days. Before i knew it, mason was being placed in my arms. i finally met the little boy that was a part of me for 36 weeks. 

Mason James Faulkner

DOB: 8/26/11 7:15pm

Weight: 6lbs. 7oz.

Length: 19 1/2 inches

As suddenly as everyone came into the room, they were all gone. It was just me and my mother. Michael and his mom left with careen to meet up with my dad and mikes dad to go see mason in the postpartum unit. I wasn't allowed to leave until i peed. Not fair. After two hours of recovery and still being unable to pee, a nurse came downstairs to tell me and my mother that the baby's glucose was very low and they were trying to formula feed him, which i knew mike would be furious about. Even though i wasn't able to pee the nurse got a wheelchair and took me up to postpartum to be with everyone. When i got there it was again just my mom and i in the room. Then everyone came in, followed shortly after by a doctor. He was trying to explain that he NEEDED to formula feed the baby because of the low sugar levels, and we eventually just let them have their way. Visiting hours ended, and mike and i were left alone with our son. OUR SON. it seemed so unreal. But again they came in to take him and test his blood sugar. This time they came back and decided that he needed to be admitted to NICU, the neonatal intensive care unit. My baby was only alive for mere hours and was already in another life threatening situation. I couldn't help but feel that somehow this was because of me. Michael assured me that he would be fine. He was right thank god... we got him back the next morning, and all was well.

Other than the threat of hurricane irene, everything seemed to be at peace. We ended up being evacuated from the rooms at 5 am because of tornado warnings, and we all had to sit in the hallway for a while. When we were allowed back in the room, we watched the storm from our window. It was actually relaxing in my opinion. 

We finally were discharged from the hospital late at night on the 28th. It was finally over, i could finally go home with my husband and my son.

Mason in his car seat, ready to go home!