About Me

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I'm a mommy, wifey, a sister, a daughter, an aunt, a best friend, a chiro, a nerd at heart, a dreamer, a goofball, a thunder UPer, a SOONER.... and I couldn't be happier! :o)

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

12 of the best months ever

2010 was, by far, the best year ever for Team Taylor.  Let me tell you why... in a recap.

January: We rang in the new year with some of our very bests... The Cains and The Trimbles.

February:  Our sweet tiny joined our world!

March: I completed the business proposal for my office.

April: Hubs turned another year older... and let me tell you... that man gets better and better with age. :o)

May:  I got approved for a business loan.. big BIG deal.

June:  Hubs and I celebrated our SIXTH year of marriage.

July: We signed the lease on the practice.

August: I turned a year older AND Owen started crawling!

September: Build out really got moving at the office.

October: Owen got his first tooth, pumpkin carving and trick or treating experience!

November: Owen's first Thanksgiving!

December: Owen's first Christmas and the opening of the practice!!!

It was a great year. Indescribable almost.... and something tells me 2011 is going to meet or exceed the amazingness!   I can't wait!

Cheers to 2011!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Wiping off the dust....

So... I've fallen off the blogging train BIG TIME. And I am sure that is blatantly obvious to any of you readers out there. I was getting some strange comments in languages that I don't know how to read so I went private. Well that diminished my readers tremendously... so here I am again. Public. I need this blog as an outlet. I need it to document this time in my life.

I will have to do some major recapping of the last... oh... almost YEAR... of my life. It's been a doozie! An exciting, stressful, fun, life changing, mind boggling, enlightening, enriching, indescribable, difficult dooze of a year.

We've been raising the most handsome, perfect, sweetest, most entertaining, and smart little man I ever did know.

We've opened a business from scratch and are learning as I type how difficult it can be.

Basically, we've had the highest of highs and the near lowest of lows all within a year's time.

I am back in the blogging game now. I want to document my struggles and joys of being a wife, mother, doctor, business owner, friend, and daughter.   It's definitely an art... that I am yet to perfect... and I probably never will perfect. But you all can follow me on my journey on trying to learn how!

It's also apparent to me that I need to do something with my blog layout.... that will come later.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Lots of Pictures, Few Words... Part 3

Sweet baby boy.
About to put him in his going home outfit.
My two favorite fellas.
About to go home!
It was snowing when we left!

Lots of Pictures, Few Words... Part 2

Proud Papa!
Proud & very tired Momma!
Sweet baby feet!
Melts my heart.
Beautiful flowers from sweet fam & friends.

Lots of Pictures, Few Words... Part 1

Brand new baby boy.
His little hand is still blue!
Grandma and Grandpa meet Baby T for the first time.
Tiny little hand... so sweet.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

A New Team Taylor OBSESSION...

So... I am going to try my best not to make this blog COMPLETELY about Baby T now... however difficult that may be. I already have like 5 more posts about him lined up... seeing how I waited until he was almost 4 months old to even blog about him being born!!! Such a slacker...

Anyway... I'd like to introduce you to the latest and greatest OBSESSION of Team Taylor. It's Big Truck Tacos. Sooooo yummy. So far we have tried the Okie-Baha taco (tilapia, with some kind of amazing slaw), Beef al carbon (beef with poblano peppers and some other yumminess), Crispy-Cado (fried avocado with other goodness) and hubs tried some chicken one as well that looked yummy. THEN they have the '5th amendment' taco that is different every day and they don't tell you what's in it. We think it's a super fun concept. We tried it tonight and it was fried catfish with some hella spicy salsa and poblano peppers. It was tasty but lit my mouth on FIRE! We will be visiting this place often! Especially for the Okie-Baha... it's SO YUMMY! That slaw is TO. DIE. FOR!

We had this for dinner tonight... followed by a cupcake at Cuppies and Joe (another one of my fave spots) and a trip to 1/2 Price Books (love that place)... such a perfect evening with two of the most handsome fellas around!

Stay tuned for LOTS O' PICS of our sweet babe.... and months 1-4 updates. :o)

Love!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Baby T's Birth Story

** Get comfortable... this is a LONG one! **

~also, I wrote this for Baby T to read someday... so it is written like I'm talking to him... just FYI~

First, let me say a few things before I start the story of labor and delivery. My pregnancy was a dream. I never had any major discomfort or complaints throughout the entire pregnancy… all 42 weeks and 1 day of it. I was anxious to meet you, but was in no hurry to make you arrive until you decided you were ready. Modern medicine, however, does not like a pregnancy to go past 42 weeks. I opted to use a midwife for my prenatal care in order to try and avoid threats of induction and artificial means to make you arrive as well as have a completely med free, natural labor and delivery, but the midwife we were using started pushing for induction via pitocin right at 42 weeks if I didn’t go into labor on my own before then. To try and get things moving naturally I started trying all different kinds of tricks. I started taking Evening Primrose Oil. I ate spicy food… lots of it. I made ‘labor cookies.’ I bounced on my stability ball. Your Daddy and I and Aunt SheShe and I walked and walked and walked and walked. We walked Target, Wal Mart, malls, treadmills, and museums and more. I am convinced even more now that ever before that babies come when babies are ready and no ‘tricks’ work. So… on with the story.

The Friday before you were born (Feb. 5th) I was dilated to 2 cm. That was enough to have my membranes stripped (by another midwife because ours was out of town) to try and get contractions started. Later that evening, contractions started. They were mainly in my back and were very far apart and inconsistent. They slowly got more intense and closer together all day Saturday (Feb 6th) and by early Sunday morning Dad and I decided that we should probably head to the hospital. We went to the hospital and the triage nurse determined that I was still only dilated to 2cm. and my water had not yet broken. They did some monitoring to make sure you and I were both doing fine and we asked to go home. The nurse released us to go home. I tried to get some rest Sunday morning/afternoon because Dad and I wanted to watch the Super Bowl that evening. Once I got some rest and relaxed in the tub, the contractions slowed down and became less intense. They stayed that way for most of Monday (Feb 8th). We made an appointment to see a Chiropractor who also does acupuncture that evening to see if he could get labor to speed up and get me to dilate more. We went in that evening and he worked his magic and by 6:00 Tuesday morning (Feb 9th) when I was scheduled to be induced, I was already in full blown labor, so we went ahead and gathered our things, made sure Daisy was taken care of and went to the hospital. They got us checked in and sure enough, I was dilated to 6cm so we were there to stay and were having a baby that day! (So we thought.)

Let me take a moment here to pause and talk a little more about my laboring at home before I get on to the details that went on at the hospital:

Your Dad was amazing. He drew me baths. He kept the lights low. He lit candles. He played my favorite music for me. He made sure I was drinking enough water. He wiped my brow and back with cool cloths. He rubbed my back when I was having a contraction. He told me how great I was doing. He tried everything he could to try and get me to relax (and found that that is quite a feat). He laid with me and swayed with me. I couldn’t have done it without him.

My favorite place to labor was the bathroom. I’m not sure why, but it was. So I spent many hours leaning over the bathroom counter with the lights off and candles burning and the laptop playing Jack Johnson and Bob Marley, swaying my hips. I spent a good amount of time in the tub as well. One of my all time favorite memories of my entire existence now is of me sitting in the tub ‘Indian style’ with the shower curtain closed, lights off, candles burning, Bob Marley playing, having contractions… and I just gave in and went into my zone. I envisioned myself on the beach at Grand Cayman (the most beautiful place Dad and I have ever been… it’s breath taking) with Bob Marley playing in the background and each breath I took in was a wave coming onto the beach and each breath out was the water going back out to sea. It was such a peaceful and incredible few moments of my life and I was able to truly give in to labor and get in my zone.

Okay, back to the hospital. We got checked in and settled in. Dad and I decided to walk the halls to try and speed things up. The midwife told us if there hadn’t been any progress in the next few hours we would discuss breaking my water. She came back to check me around 8:30am… still 6 cm. We walked more. I tried to lay down and relax and sit/lay in different positions. The midwife checked me again at 10:00am… still 6cm. We (okay… really Dad… he fought so hard for me and argued with the midwife tooth and nail to let me do this naturally) convinced her to let us go a while longer before breaking the water. Grandma and Grandpa came to the hospital around this time and came in to see us. I wasn’t really in the mood for visitors so they only stayed for a few minutes. Dad and I continued to try and rest until the midwife checked me again at 12:00pm… and I was still dilated to 6cm. She broke my water and we expected progress now. If not, the midwife wanted to start pitocin after a few hours to speed things up. I continued to labor in the room until 4:00pm when the midwife came to check me again and I was still only dilated to 6cm. We went ahead and let the midwife start the pitocin to try and speed things up. I was scared the contractions would get really bad with the pitocin, but they really didn’t. I was just getting tired. The midwife, the nurse, and Dad ran me a bath to try and get me in it to relax. Well, the water was less than luke warm, so they brought in hot water from the hall. This whole process seemed to take forever and just made me uncomfortable, so I got out of the tub. Around 8:00pm I still had only progressed to 7cm and was exhausted.The midwife started throwing around threats of having to do a C-section since I was not progressing much. We were determined NOT to let that happen. I was having you vaginally no matter what. I was already upset that they were using pitocin. We weighed out some other options and having a little bit of Nubain was an option. Nubain is a drug that allows you to relax. The nurse assured me that they would give me the smallest dose possible and would administer it on full contraction so very little (if any) would penetrate the placenta and get to you. At this point, Dad and I didn’t know what to do. I was getting tired and was having a really hard time relaxing. Dad called our Bradley instructors (Phil & Nikki) to tell them what was going on and get some advice on what we should do. We decided to go with the Nubain. Almost immediately after they gave it to me, I was able to sit on the bed ‘Indian style’ and doze in and out for a while. The midwife then began to come check me about every hour. Each time she came in I had progressed a little… 7.5cm then 8cm then 9cm then 9.5cm. When she left the room from checking me when I was 9.5 cm, I got out of the bed to try and use the restroom then sat in the rocking chair. I suddenly had an overwhelming urge to push and made this grunting sound that I never would have imagined coming out of my body. I told David to get the midwife back in the room FAST, because I needed to push and I needed to push NOW.The midwife came back in the room and asked if I’d like a mirror to watch. I told her that that sounded like it was going to take too long and not to leave the room because I was ready to have this baby. She checked me and I was dilated to 10cm so she told me to go ahead and get in a position I was comfortable in and go ahead and push when I had the urge for five contractions and then she’d start to coach me through contractions. I was most comfortable squatting, so she put the squat bar up on the bed for me and I pushed on my own for five contractions. The midwife then started to coach me through pushing. I got in two good ten second long pushes per contraction. She had me lay on my side and had David hold my legs for a few contractions and then let me get back up in the squatting position after you started crowning. I almost can’t explain what came over me when it was time to push. I was determined and nothing in the world could have stopped me at that point. Pushing was almost a relief and I vividly remember thinking “This really doesn’t hurt that bad… what does everyone complain about??” I pushed for about an hour (about 10-12 coached pushes) and you were here at 12:42am on Wednesday, February 10, 2010! I didn’t know right away what time it was. I asked a few minutes later what time you were born. When the midwife said 12:42am… I said “Good… 2/10/10… he waited for the good birth date.” I liked 2/10/10 better than 2/9/10 and was excited that that was your birth date… just barely. :o)

I immediately laid back on the bed and waited for Dad to tell me what you were. Right away I heard him say “It’s a boy! It’s a boy! It’s a boy! It’s a boy!” and he got a little choked up. Then I noticed he wouldn’t move from in front of me and kept repeating himself. I then noticed I couldn’t hear you crying and I heard the nurse call for the attending doctor on the hall because the cord was wrapped around your neck twice and you weren’t breathing. The midwife got the cord unwrapped and your nose and mouth suctioned out and you immediately sprung to life and I finally heard you cry. Dad said you were completely blue and lifeless and he was terrified, but you sprung to life so fast and it was the coolest thing he had ever seen. They handed you to me. You were so alert and just stared into my eyes. I then let you nurse for the first time and you did so well! I couldn’t take my eyes off of you. You were just so perfect. Dad counted your fingers and toes while you ate. He also cut the umbilical cord. Then the nurse took you to wipe you off, weigh you, measure you, and get your sweet little footprints. Dad didn’t leave your side. You weighed in at 8 lbs., 14oz. and measured 22.5 inches long! I couldn’t believe how big you were. The nurse put your footprints on a birth certificate for us and then put your footprints on Daddy’s arm. It was the sweetest thing I’d ever seen… other than the ear to ear grin Daddy had on his face.

After they got me all cleaned up (and the midwife had told me I was fully intact… amazing!!), we had a few moments with just the three of us. It was so surreal that you were finally here! And that I had just done that! I gave birth to a sweet little boy… and we were finally a little family. We were just quiet. We just stared at you… and how perfect you were.

Dad went out to announce your arrival and that you were a boy! Grandma and Grandpa came in to meet you right away.

Then we were off to our recovery room to get some rest and spend our first ‘night’ as a family.