Christmas Eve-eve

I've been oh so tired lately. The last four nights I've gotten to bed no early then 3:30am. I've been living off of a couple hours of sleep a day. Brody hasn't been falling asleep until 3am but last night he went to bed at 10-11ish! It was amazing, maybe he will be going back to his normal sleep schedule... Maybe. Beyla started to smile at us while awake at 1 week and a half. She is just so smiley, I love it. Brody has been better when she cries and seems to be getting use to her. Hopefully I will be able to go to bed at a decent hour tonight! I will try and post some pictures soon.

December 18th 2012

I am going to try and blog daily to keep a journal of everyday things. It is a lot easier for me to keep a journal through my blog then to actually write it out in a journal right now.

This time around with a newborn has been a bit more difficult,  not taking care of newborn but having to take care of two little ones at the same time. It is hard to deal with Brody, he doesn't like to listen and I don't know how to get him to. It is also really hard because anytime the baby cries or if Brody is sensitive enough any type of noise from her, he freaks out and throws a HUGE tantrum.. crying and banging his head on the ground or if he is in his high chair bashing his head back and forth. It is really hard to handle, he needs to get used to her making noise but we don't know how to go about fixing this. I am waiting to hear back from his speech therapist to get him back into to seeing her that way she can hopefully help us to communicate better with him. I love my Brody but he can be very difficult!

I have definitely felt the baby blues this time around, with Brody I didn't feel any of this so it is very new for me. At night it is especially difficult for me and I think it has something to do with Raul working night shift. I miss him SOOOO much at night and some nights feel exhausted and over whelmed with everything I need to do. I cry some nights and don't have the patience for Brody. I feel so horrible and like such a bad mom to him, I have yelled at him so much during those nights and I rarely have gotten that upset with him. After I yell I feel so horrible and like such a bad mother. I hope he doesn't feel like I am abandoning him because I can't be there for him every second of the day like I use to be. It seems though that the baby blues are going away, I have felt much better the last few nights and have been able to get so much more done. I really love being a mother and love my husband and my children. I am so happy to have my family and to be able to raise these little ones.

Beyla Kara

Beyla Kara was born November 30th at 5:03 am. She weighed 7lbs 2oz and 19inches, just like her big brother Brody! She was a little less then three weeks early.

The birth story:

I started having contractions at 1:40am on November 30th. After about 30 minutes of contractions that were pretty painful, a couple minutes apart and 30-60seconds long Raul called my mom and told her to start heading over here. He got really nervous and said that we should go in because with Brody labor wasn't long. I told him that I wasn't ready to go to the hospital because I didn't want labor to stop and for them to send me home. He called my mom and told her how far apart and how long the contractions were and they agreed that we should go to the hospital. When we got there my mom and sister were already there. Brody came as well and my sister and sister in law watched him in the waiting room. When I got in the room and they checked me I was at a 5cm and 70% effaced. They hooked me up to the monitors for a bit and then I walked around the hospital for awhile. They checked me again and I hadn't progressed but my contractions were very strong and very close together so they called my midwife and she said she would be there in a bit to break my water(at my appointment with her the day before she had checked me and said that my water was bugling and that it might make it hard for me to progress unless she broke it). The nurse then decided to put an IV in the side of my wrist, which hurt like the dickens. Like seriously hurt and was all red around it. My midwife got there shortly after that and I told her how much it hurt and she was so mad at the nurses for even put an IV in because I didn't need it. So they took it out! After that she breaks my water, which is the most disgusting feeling... like you are peeing yourself but worse because you don't actually have to pee and it is a ton of water. After my water is broken then comes the stronger contractions, the bag of water was keeping some of the pain at bay because it is a cushion of sorts for the babies head. I am a quiet birther, when I have a contraction I close my eyes, breath, maybe cry(silently) and move my feet back and forth. The pain started to get a lot strong and I felt like I had to push so they came and checked me and said that I was only at a 8. That was such a blow to me, I didn't know how I was going to continue with the pain and not cave in to get the epidural. I think that actually really brought me to the edge and not able to handle the very very painful contractions. I kept looking and my poor husband and telling him that it hurt so bad and I can't do it anymore. I also told my mom the same thing hoping that someone would tell me that it was okay for me to get an epidural but no one would tell me what to do, they wanted me to decide on my own. I feel bad now for how I must have made my husband feel because there was nothing he could do but watch me be in an extreme amount of pain. Finally I looked at my midwife and told her I was done and that I needed an epidural, she told me that was fine and they called the on-call anesthesiologist. At that point I had no control over my body or the pain, I could not stand it and felt like punching every one of the nurses in the face. Seriously. It is pretty ridiculous that they ask you questions when you are in that kind of pain and expect answers! They had to put a new IV in and they poked me 3 times and dug around before they got it, then I got the IV fluids. That was hard enough and I could barely hold still enough for them to put the IV in. The anesthesiologist got there and I had to sign papers. I stood up and told my midwife that I needed to go to the bathroom but she told me I couldn't because I couldn't have a baby on the toilet. I just started crying and saying that I just want to go to the bathroom. My midwife told me that I had to be able to hold still long enough for the anesthesiologist to be able to put the needle in my back and I either needed to hold still or push the baby out. She asked me if I wanted the epidural or to push and I said no I don't want to sit still I want to push. So the poor anesthesiologist who was woken up for me left and I got back on the bed and they got everything ready for me to push. So she told me to start to push when I felt a contraction and I did and then she said that I could take a break but I couldn't because my body wanted me to keep pushing. I started pushing at 5:00am and had her at 5:03am, only 3 minutes of pushing.She asked me if I wanted to reach down and pull her the rest of the way out and I did, when I was pulling her up to my chest all the sudden there was a snap and her umbilical cord snapped in half. I hear them start shouting to get the clamp and then taking her from me, it freaked me out and I started crying because I felt like it was my fault. They told me it was okay and that they were able to clamp it before to much blood came out. I started to bleed to much so they kept pushing down on my stomach to help contract my uterus. (This happened the other times but seems to get worse each pregnancy) I could hear my midwife getting mad at the nurses (I love her so much she really does care about her patients above everyone else) and shouting at them to push on my stomach and to get pitocin so that it could help my uterus contract so that my bleeding would slow down. I guess I was bleeding a lot and she was very worried but all ended okay, I just was monitored a lot to make sure my bleeding was under control. Little Beyla is just so perfect and would scream this high pitched girly loud scream every time the nurse took her temp, it was so funny!

I love being a mom- although this time around is a lot more difficult and more to adjust to, having a newborn and a 3.5 year old but I wouldn't change anything about it. I love my two little ones so much! My husband and children are my world and make me one very happy lady.

34...

34 weeks down just 6 to go! Hopefully sooner!! I really am not ready for this baby, I am physically ready, I just haven't gotten anything for the baby. I really haven't wanted to get anything at all... Just don't feel the urge to buy baby stuff. I know I need to so we can be ready and not have to stress over that. But I just have no motivation to get baby things. It's almost to overwhelming for me.. Boys are just easier for me to buy things for. Let me tell you this though, i honestly feel like my stomach is going to tear apart. There is just no more room and it hurts me to move and stretch my stomach in any way. Here is a belly pic for all those curious eyes.


Also my birthday was yesterday, the big 24! We haven't done anything to celebrate for it yet because we moved Saturday and my husband works 12+ hours so we are celebrating this weekend. I don't know if I've mentioned this before but I LOVE Halloween! I also love Thanksgiving and Christmas. This is by far my most favorite time of year! I loooove it!! Hopefully not too long after Thanksgiving I will have this baby and maybe get to enjoy the month of December... well as much as I can with a newborn.

Brody pictures

Not much going on here except school and taking care of Brody while Raul does his 12 hour shifts at work. We have been busy with getting stuff done for school for Brody. Also we are recovering from E. Coli that we seemed to have gotten from the Linder Farms petting zoo. Which means he can't even go to school until two tests come back negative for E. Coli. 7 weeks and 2 days left of this pregnancy! Here are some pictures my sister Ashley took of Brody on her last visit.

Cool weather

Finally it is starting to cool down here! I cannot wait for fall this year!! Summer has been way to hard on me, I think it is mostly due to me being pregnant.

Speaking of pregnancy I haven't been feeling all that well again. I have no energy and horrible heart burn. I can't eat anything with out it. No matter what I do I wake up in the middle of the night with it and it makes me throw up. It is horrible. I have even been very good with what I have been eating to avoid heart burn but nothing helps. Taking tums is a whole other issue in itself with way to many side effects to me than is worth it. Here's to hoping something changes and I start to feel better.

The pregnancy test

Raul and I had been talking about having another child because we had both agreed that Brody needed a sibling. Of course when we would talk about it I was always like not right now but maybe in a few months we can start trying. I had a nagging feeling that we NEEDED another child. Pregnancy is very hard for me and not something that I wanted to do again.

On Raul's birthday I took the pregnancy test but I was thinking I was just overreacting and miscalculating when I was supposed to get my period. I was really only a few days past my period but I took it anyway. Seriously right after I peed on the stick and was about to lay it straight to wait for the one-two minutes it had already showed the lines that I was pregnant. So I waited and thought maybe the line will go away?? And then I felt upset because I was scared of being horribly sick again and how I would do it this time with a 3 year old.

I went upstairs to tell Raul. He said, "soooooo?" And I showed him the test. This test has two lines if you are pregnant and one if you aren't. Raul saw it and thought that a plus sign meant that I was pregnant so he was like its okay in a few months we can start trying like you wanted.  I was like um no look at it again and then I could see the realization hit him that I was pregnant. He was super excited and wanted to tell everyone about the pregnancy. And that is how we found out.

To test or not to test...

When we found out that we were going to have another baby we had talked a lot about if we were wanting to test this pregnancy for down syndrome. While we didn't test for it when I was pregnant with Brody, instead we got an amazing surprise! This time around we decided that we wanted to test, not because we would terminate our baby if we found out that she has down syndrome because we would NEVER do that but because we wanted a little heads up incase we got another little blessing with down syndrome. We have done all the testing and everything has come back normal no elevated risks or reasons to do the amniotic fluid testing.

This pregnancy was very hard at the beginning because I have HG (hyperemisis gravidarum). I was VERY sick for the first 16 weeks. I was on anti nausea medicine that did nothing but make me sleep all day besides throwing up. It was very hard on me because I was not able to be a mom to Brody at all. The only thing I could do was lay in bed or run to the bathroom and puke. I finally was able and am still able to get it under control with some VERY strong anti nausea medicine. I wish I could completely be of the medicine but the most I am able to cut it down to is half a pill at night and half in the morning. If I forget to take it or take it to late I get sick. Hopefully, maybe!, closer to my due date I can completely stop taking it!!! Anyway here are some pictures of my little love Brody.

And the gender is.....

A GIRL!!! Seriously!! I was so sure that it would be another boy and then I see the ultrasound tech looking and I knew then because it didn't look like boy parts. Sure enough the tech says, "it's a girl!". Super excited but a little scared. I am really good with my Brody and all the boy stuff but a girl is so different! During the ultrasound our little girl kept her legs crossed at the ankles almost the whole time. The tech said it was really funny because most baby's are tucked up very tight to their body but our little one was enjoying the room. So lady like already!

And.....

Baby Carbajal #2
Expected arrival date: 12/12/2012

Big News

Stay tuned for the post..

Brodys 4th surgery

       Brody had surgery on Tuesday the 6th of this month to redo a previous surgery. He had a Nissen fundoplication surgery when he was about 8 months old because he had such severe reflux that he was constantly in the hospital with pneumonia. While doing this surgery they also repaired a paraesophageal hiatal hernia that he had that also could have been contributing to his reflux. Some how the hernia came back and it was making it very hard for Brody to eat so they decided to fix the hernia and redo the nissan. For some reason I was thinking that this surgery was going to be fast and easy- I have no idea where I got that idea and how I didn't remember what it was like last time. I thought that this surgery would only last like 30 minutes, again I have no idea what I was thinking. The surgery actually lasted 3 and a half hours. I was also thinking that we would at the longest be there just one night- which was actually 4 nights. 
      
Brody surgery was at 9am which meant that we had to check in at 7am. Brody wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything during that time and he did really well. We ended up not even going back into pre-surgery until ten minutes before his surgery was supposed to start. Turns out that Dr. Curnow (the surgeon) had a surgery scheduled at 8 that he didn't know about, but lucky for us it was a really quick one. Right after we got to our little waiting room in pre-surgery we met all of the staff that was going to be back with our little man. Different people came in; nurses, anesthesiologist, and the surgeon and went over all the different type of paperwork and information about everything involved in the surgery. They anesthesiologists asked if we thought brody would do okay being carried back by a nurse or if he needed to be sedated before going back, me and Raul both said he would be just fine with the nurse.We were in pre-surgery for about an hour and then they came and carried Brody away. He was so happy to be with the nurse and walking around, it was so sweet but so sad because he had no idea what really was going on.


Surgery started at 10:30ish and then we just played the waiting game. We both get so nervous during surgery because of what happened the first time he ever had surgery. When a Doctor comes out and tells you that you need to follow him to a different room because he needs to talk to you, well that is something that you never forget. It makes me so nervous that something might go wrong with this one too. Finally at about 1:30 the front desk lady in the waiting room told us that Dr. Curnow was finishing up and would be out to talk to us shortly. About 15 minutes later Dr. Curnow came out and brought some pictures of the surgery and explained that it went really well and Brody did amazing. He explained the pictures to us, which still I don't really understand. He said that this surgery was a lot rougher then the other one because they had to do more; cut through the scar tissue that was there, another incision, permanent titanium staples, some knew meshing for the hernia to hopefully make it scar better so he won't get another one. They also cut a vein but they sewed it up fast so he only lost about 6 tablespoons of blood. With Brody being older then he was when they first did it also makes the surgery harder, it's just harder on his body and takes more time to heal. Then Dr. Curnow left so we had to wait for Brody to start waking up so we could go back and see him.


About 15 after 2 I went to the desk and asked if they knew how long it would be until we would be able to go back and see Brody and she was like, "oh right now! The light just lit up for him so we can take you back now!" 
We followed them back and right as we were walking in they were calling the desk and saying "Brody's parents can come back, he's awake now."
I saw my little pumpkin in his room, a nurse was holding him and saying "look Brody who is that? Do you see your mom and Dad?"
He looked so sad.. he was whimpering and just looked plain miserable. 


The nurses helped me get all situated with Brody so I could hold him with all the things connected to him. He looked so pale and couldn't get comfortable. When he was crying/whimpering you could tell that he had a sore throat from the tube they put down his throat. His voice was so horse. They gave him pain some more pain meds after him crying for about 15 minutes and trying to get comfortable. We were waiting down there for tylenol because Dr. Curnow wanted it given to him right after he woke up and before we went to the peds unit. We waited in that room for an hour and half and still the pharmacy hadn't sent the tylenol. It was so frustrating. They decided to take us up to his room in the peds because we would have more room and they thought it might help Brody to feel better being out of that room. The nurse that took us up to his room was not happy with the nurse that was over Brody in post surgery. She was saying that she had no idea why it took the other nurse so long to order the tylenol prescription for Brody when Dr. Curnow wanted it right away and some other stuff. 


When we got to the peds unit she told the nurses at the desk that this was Brody and was asking what room it was. Come to find out they hadn't even gotten the room ready so we had to stand in the hallway and wait for that to be done. The nurse that brought us up was very angry about that, while we were waiting she got the tylenol and gave it to Brody through his IV. They got the room done and we went and sat down in there. Brody was not allowed to have anything, fluids or food, for a few days because it could make him sick. That wasn't much of a problem the first day because Brody was so out of it and in pain when he was awake. The first night Brody cried for a few hours straight in so much pain, his voice was so horse and his eyes swollen. Raul and I were so frustrated because the nurses weren't listening to anything we were saying. When one of the times Raul took Brody and tried calming him down I went to the bathroom because I couldn't hold back my tears and I needed to control my emotions that way I wouldn't upset Brody. 

After about 3 hours of Brody crying Raul went to get stuff from the car, also to help him cool down from being so frustrated with the nurses. In the elevator on the way to the main floor he saw Brody's cardiologist, Dr Walker. He said "hey doctor walker" and she said "hi, how are you? How is Brody?" Raul told her that Brody just had surgery and she asked how he was doing and then she put her hand up to tell him to wait because she could tell he was upset and the elevator was full. When the elevator stopped she took him to a waiting room and asked if everything was okay and that's when Raul told her what was going on with Brody. He told her he was frustrated with the nurses and that Brody was in so much pain and no one was listening. She told him that she was going up there to find out who the charge nurse was and get things fixed because Brody shouldn't be in pain.


I was standing up with Brody trying to get him some what comfortable in my arms and then Raul walks in and he explained that he ran into Dr. Walker and told me about what they talked about. She told him when they got up onto the pediatric floor to go into the room with me and Brody and that she would find the charge nurse and get everything fixed. She came into the room about 5 minutes later with the charger nurse and the charge nurse asked if we were okay and said that she was so sorry and there is no excuse for the nurses to ignore what was going on or to be to "busy" for a patient because that is there job. 

The charge nurse said that they were going to give Brody enough medicine until he was comfortable and if they gave him all the medicine they could should would call the surgeon to see what else to do. They gave him basically all the medicine they could which took about 3 more hours, because they have to wait a bit for each different dose to kick in, for Brody to calm down. Dr. Walker stayed that WHOLE time. I was SO so so grateful to her, and I don't think she will ever understand how much that meant to us. She told me that she knew god put her and Raul in that elevator at the same time for a reason and her prayers were answered when Brody was able to calm down. She is seriously the sweetest lady I have ever met. The funny thing is that Brody started to play, talk, watch TV and just be happy when the medicine finally worked. The reason that is funny is because usually 1/5 of that dose given to other kids knocks them out for a while and Brody seemed like he was given a dose of energy.


About every two hours they were giving Brody that strong pain medicine because he would start crying right before they could give it to him- along with the tylenol and ibeuprofen. That next day during the afternoon my mom came to be with Brody and we went to the cafeteria to get some food. She decided to try and let him walk because he loves to just walk around everywhere. When we came up he was freaking out. She said that she took him out in the hallway and tried to put him down but he didn't want down he just wanted her to hold him and walk. When they came back to the room he started to freak out, I guess because he was just so sick of being there. He was acting almost like he couldn't stand anything, everything was bothering him. To an extreme point that he was throwing his body everywhere. Let me tell you something that little man is very strong- it took 4 nurses my mother and I to hold him down. He seemed to be wanting to crawl out of his skin. The nurses called his surgeon, who put them on speaker phone because he was doing surgery, he asked if that was Brody he could here screaming in the background- and it was all though where they called from was WAY down the hall from his room- and he said to give him Benadryl and Valium. The nurses told me that when a patient is on such a strong pain medication it can causes them to freak out(severe anxiety) because pain medicines like that are usually only given one time to get things under control. Benadryl helps to reverse the symptoms- or more like suppress them until they have run their course and are out of your system. Valium is an anti-psychotic drug that basically makes the patient completely numb(as in just lying there doing nothing) and out of it. The nurse said that we should try the benadryl and if it doesn't work she would give him the valium. THANKFULLY the benadryl worked for him and calmed him down. We decided to try to go without the strong pain medicine(i think it was morphine) and just stick with the tylenol and ibeuprofen unless he needed it.

After that he was completely fine and didn't need any medicine. The rest of the hospital stay we were just trying to keep Brody occupied in that little room, we didn't have anymore exciting freakouts or anything like that. That just about sums up the latest surgery- I will post pictures soon!

And I am back again!

It has been a long time since I have posted on here so I thought I would share some amazing pictures of Brody that my sister took.

I am going to *try* and update more on this blog!