Our little fighter

I'm finally beginning to feel good about this pregnancy and baby, until we know what we are having I'm naming this baby our little fighter. I got to see the baby today and it has little arms and legs starting and a nice strong heart beat and it's such a relief to know that things are looking well! Thank you all for the prayers and I ask that everyone continues to pray everything continues to go well with our little fighter. My first official appointment is on March 18 that is when I will have my official ultrasound and get our first pictures of our little fighter. At this point in my pregnancy they estimate that I'm 8 weeks and due around October 4. Roland and I have decided that with him deploying and not having any kind of guarantee that someone would be able to get her to be with Amelia and me when I give birth that I will be moving to Ohio. I never imagined that I would be giving birth to another baby without my husband being here to go through it with me. I do hope that this time things go smoother and that being in my hometown with our families and friends will help the experience a happier one. He leaves for his deployment in May so that is when Amelia and I will be returning to Ohio, we will be staying with my parents unless I can find a furnished apartment to live in.

Amelia Jean Maxson, 1 year old

I went into labor at exactly 12am on February 21, that was Amelia's due date. I was admitted into the hospital around 12am February 22.



After 36 hours of labor and about 45 minutes to 1 hour of pushing I had my beautiful baby girl, born at 10:54am February 22.

She came out dramatically but perfect. She was 7lbs 12oz and 21 inches long.

I was not able to hold or see her until more the 12 hours after having her due to medical issues we were both going through. Finally at about 1am on February 23 she was in my arms.

My precious little angel bug was finally here and I loved her more then words can say.

She was released from the hospital a week after her birth. My mom, Melissa and I were finally ready to leave the hospital with my little bundle of joy.

The first 5 1/2 months of her life it was just the 2 of us because daddy was serving his country on a MEU. She grew like a little weed in those few months and filled my life with more joy and happiness then I could have imagined.

The day finally came that Amelia got to meet her daddy! August 19 was an unforgettable day for both Roland and Me. 

The time with daddy home was great and went by very quickly before we knew it our little girl was 6 months old. She quickly got to know and fell in love with her daddy.



We are one very happy family.

 Amelia's first Thanksgiving was spent in Ohio with our families. She had a great day playing with her cousins and eating lots of turkey.

We spent our first Christmas as a family just the 3 of us together. It was so much fun to watch Amelia open her presents and play with them. We look forward to many many more wonderful memories like this.



She got to meet Santa and sit on his lap, she didn't even cry or fuss. 



Amelia had the greatest best friend her first year of life, she enjoyed playing with Maggie more then any other little person she knew.

This year has gone by quickly but it has been one of the best years of my life. Amelia is nothing but a little ball of energy and full of all kinds of drama already.

When I look back on this year I can't believe we made it. It brought more challenges and emotional ups and downs then ever before but I would not trade it for anything. My little girl is a year old and I am looking forward to watching her grow up into an amazing little lady.



HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY LITTLE PRINCESS! YOUR MOMMY AND DADDY LOVE YOU VERY MUCH.

What to do what to do?!

Roland and I have been talking a lot about what I should do while he is deployed. With me being pregnant and us just moving here we are not sure if I should stay here while he is deployed. Or if we should put all our things into storage and Amelia and I go back to OH to have this baby. If I stay here in CA there is a chance I'll be alone when I have this baby. I am not sure if I will be able to make any friends that I will want that involved in my life by the time I have this baby. If I go to OH I am guaranteed to have the support of all my family and friends there. I just don't know if I want to go through all the stress of packing things up putting them in storage and moving back to Ohio just to 7 months later drive back here to CA and set up our home again. I'm not really sure what we should do so I would love to get some input from people.

Precious gift from God

How do I sum up the last week of my life, I have never been more scared and terrified of loosing something this much. On January 25 Roland and I found out that we are again pregnant, at first I did not want to tell anyone for the fear of something bad happening. Now after 2 trips to the ER and them telling me it's a threatened miscarriage I have changed my mind. I want to let people know what is happening so they can keep me and this precious gift God has given us in their prayers. More then anything I do not want to go through this alone and I would like to have the support of all my family and friends. As of this moment I am about 6 weeks(due October 4) and considered a high risk pregnancy. When we were in the er today we were able to see that the baby is still there and still has a heart rate. I just ask that everyone please keep us in your prayers and this precious gift we have been given.

Just no drive to do anything

Since we have moved to CA a lot has happened in our lives and it has left me with no drive to do anything. I really need to get this house unpacked and organized but I have no drive to do it at all. We found out that Roland will be deploying in May and at the end of February he will be going to mojave viper for about a month or so for training. I knew that moving here would bring it's challenges and changes in our life but I did not expect to get here and have to start preparing for my husband to deploy before we even have a chance to get settled. On top of that my mouth is still causing me a good deal of pain from having my wisdom teeth extrated. I have taken over 100 tylenol since we have left NC to control the pain of it and I have to say I'm getting very tired of taking them. I will be happy when my mouth is feeling normal again and I don't have to think about what I'm eating because it's going to make my mouth hurt more. At this moment in my life I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed and stressed out about all that is happening, it just makes me what to go home to my momma.

The beginning of our lives in Oceanside, California

After 1 week of packing, cleaning, and moving we began our 4 day cross country road trip from Jacksonville, NC to Oceanside, CA. We stopped on the way in Murray, KY to visit with some friends of ours, which was a good thing since our little girl was sick and throwing up and having diarrhea everywhere. As we continued on our way we ended up dropping off of I-40 in TX to I-10 due to the snow/ ice that AZ was getting, which added 2 1/2 to 3 hours onto our trip. When you have a 11 month old in a car seat believe me that is a lot of time to add onto an already very long trip. Well finally after 4 days on the road we have made it to CA and I still can't believe we are going to be living here for the next 3 to 6 years. I still don't know how I feel about being here, it doesn't seem real to me yet. I suppose after we pick up our keys to the new house and get settled in it may feel more real. I do have to admit that I miss Jville more then I thought I would and all my friends that I left behind. So tomorrow officially starts our lives here in Oside and I am looking forward to everything life is going to bring to us while we are here.

The labor, delivery, and everything that follows of Amelia

My pj's did not fit me so I was wearing the hubs
since he was deployed that's why they bunched up. 

Ok here is the labor/delivery story and everything that followed of my little girl, Amelia Jean Maxson.

I went into labor at 12 am on February 21, at about 3am I called my mom and let her know I was in early labor and she could call and tell Roxanne (my mother-in-law) and they could decide if they wanted to start driving. Well they decided to leave which was a good idea, I labored at home all day until they got here. I then called the labor and delivery triage to let them know I was pretty sure I was leaking fluid and had been since Friday. They said if I was not saturating a panty liner then not to worry about it and stay home until my contractions where more frequent and longer. So we went and got dinner at Olive Garden and then went to Wal-Mart and walked around for about an hour or so to get the contractions going more frequently. Oh and I can’t forget to say that my mom was so not funny making fun of the way I was waddling around Wal-Mart! What can I say other then I was 40 weeks pregnant and felt like there was a head between my legs.

We then went home and I laid in bed and walked around the house for about another hour and finally got to a point where I wanted and needed to know how far along I was. So Melissa called them and let them know we were on our way, and Roxanne and I left to go, Mom and Melissa followed behind. 

When we got there and they did the usual thing of hooking me up to monitors and they tested to see if I was leaking fluid and checked to see how far along I was. After laying there a while the midwife came in and checked me and let me know I was only 2 to 3 centimeters dilated and that I was not leaking fluid. She swept my membranes and told me they were going to let me go home. So I was waiting for the nurse to come in and tell me to get dressed I was leaving and instead she came in and said well I think the midwife wants to check you again and she may just have you walk the halls for a while. Apparently they made this change because I started laboring differently and they were starting to come sooner and stronger. So she came back in and checked me and I was 4 centimeters dilated and it only took me about 30 minutes or so to get there! So they decide to admit me, that was at about 1am, that’s when we called my doula, Jeanette Dion to come to the hospital. I decided having a doula for this was necessary since Roland would be deployed and this was my first baby. 

From that point on I began the challenge of laboring with absolutely no pain medication, so I walked the halls, sat on my birthing ball, squatting, and every other position that you can think of to help with labor. My labor was so painful (I’m sure all women say this, LOL), I was having back labor really badly and also front labor. How I made it through my entire labor with no pain medication I will never know, I do however know I would have never been able to do it without my doula. My midwife and my nurses that I had were so amazing the entire time I was laboring they did everything they could to honor my birth plan. At about 9:30-10am ish they checked me again and I was 9 centimeters, I was so happy to hear that but also so anxious to start pushing. Then the midwife said she would go ahead and break my water now, but when she went to do it there was nothing to break. I had in fact been leaking fluid since Friday and there was nothing left by the time it came to push, how they didn’t know that I’m not really sure. 

Before I was able to push the urges to push were coming so hard, strong and frequent that it was everything I could do not to push. This is when my doula, Jeanette, was invaluable, she helped me breath through contractions I never would have thought I could breath through without pushing. Finally after about 10 minutes or so they came in and said I was 10 centimeters and ready to push, praise the Lord was all I could think. I began pushing with the urges and they came so fast and frequently that I didn’t even have time to catch my breath or eat a piece of much needed ice. Well after about 30 to 45 minutes of pushing, when I didn’t think I could push anymore, the room suddenly filled with nurses and doctors. I had no idea what was happening, suddenly there was a nurse on top of me pushing on my abdomen while I was being told to push and to push again and again. 

Then at 10:54am there was this little baby in the doctor’s arms not moving or doing anything and my heart dropped and I didn’t know what to think or do. At some point, I have no idea when, they told me she had her arm up by her head and it caused her to get stuck on the way out, also the umbilical cord was wrapped twice around her neck and she swallowed a good amount of meconium. So she was instantly taken away by the doctors and suctioned out and given oxygen to get her going. After about what seemed like forever, 2 or 3 minutes, she cried I was so happy to hear that. Roxanne then cut her umbilical cord and they wrapped her up lifted her so I could see her and then took her to the nursery to continue working on her. 

In the mean time I was delivering the placenta, and the doctor checked to see if tore during delivery and of course I had so she sewed me up. However I was still bleeding more then they would have liked to they got a med to help my uterus contract harder so the bleeding would stop, well while she was putting that in she realize I had a tare between my vagina and rectum. So they got a surgeon in to check it and see if it really was a bad tare and it was a 4th degree tare (the worse you can get) so I was informed I would need surgery right away to repair it and stop the bleeding. Then the anesthesiologist came in to let me know they would be doing an epidural for the surgery because I had eaten something already they couldn’t put me under, also it was safer to do it this way. All I could think is, I had just gone through all my labor and delivery with absolutely no pain meds and now I would have to get them anyways. But the midwife that delivered me and my doula both agreed that not having an epidural while laboring was a good thing otherwise I may not have been able to push her out fast enough. I may have ended up having a caesarean and she would have been even more unresponsive then she was. 



The epidural wasn’t quite as bad as I thought it would be, they gave me something to calm me down from everything that was happening. They also let me side lye while they put the epidural in, which didn’t hurt at all and before I even knew it they were done. Then they took me in for surgery which wasn’t bad at all because I couldn’t feel or see anything, I kept coming in and out of sleep. After about 3 hours I was finally done and able to go to my recovery room and see my mom, Roxanne, and Melissa. I was very tired and not feeling well at all at, so I had to wait until I was able to sit up and walk without feeling really sick and dizzy before they would let me see Amelia. I wasn’t able to go to sleep though until I got to see my little girl, so finally I just told the nurse that I was feeling better even though I wasn’t. 



Finally at about 1am I was able to go and see my little angel for the first time and hold her, that is when they told me everything going on with her. She was off the cpap (something that blows oxygen into lungs to help get the meconium out) and was just on oxygen and an IV and a bunch of other monitors I’m not sure what they were all for. The next morning they informed me that she had fluid in her lungs and her white blood count was up and some other things weren’t where they should be. They said they would do another x-ray the next day to see if the fluid had cleared and if it hadn’t they would be continue antibiotics to treat her for pneumonia. Well the next day she still had fluid in her one lung so she was going to have to stay for 7 days to be treated for the pneumonia. She had to stay on the IV until she was eating enough to take her off it without her blood sugar getting all wacky. 

On Tuesday afternoon I start breast feeding her and finally by Wednesday night she was able to go off her IV drip and just had to have a port so they could give her the antibiotics. When I first started the breast feeding all she would do is scream and cry we couldn’t get her to latch on at all and I would go back to my room thinking my baby hated me. The next day the lactation consultant came in and decided I should use a nipple shield to get her to latch, that seemed to help. She was still having some problems so we had to put a line on the side of my breast and into her mouth and slowly push formula into her mouth. She is what they call an instant gratification baby and didn’t want to suck if nothing was coming out. Due to the fact that they had me using the nipple shield they also wanted me to pump after every time I nursed her because they were afraid that using the nipple shield would cause my milk to not come in as well. My milk definitely came in very well because within a couple of days the lactation consultant said I was producing enough for twins and I could stop pumping so frequently. 

Ok back to me now, I was having some problems all day Tuesday going to the restroom after they took out my catheter out, that was really annoying, it was taking me 20 minutes or longer just to use the restroom. Finally by Wednesday it was getting better, which was a relief since I was already feeling pretty crappy from the delivery and surgery. I was discharged late Wednesday afternoon and moved to rooming in status, and by about 4am on Thursday morning Amelia was finally able to move out of the nursery and in to my room with me. From that point on things were getting better she was starting to breast feed better, of course not without me putting some in her mouth first to get her to latch on. I was feeling much better, still having a good amount of pain but taking plenty of meds to help with that. Amelia was able to get discharged on Monday, exactly a week after she was born, and we where able to come home. 

Still in the hospital but finally in mommy's room

This was Amelia's amazing night nurse,
she was so helpful to us both. 

Funny little story, we where finally leaving the hospital after what felt like forever and my car had a dead battery so we had to have it jumped and then go straight to Auto Zone and get the battery charged really well. Finally after leaving the hospital at about 1pm we where home at about 4pm, and we could relax in our house, it was a nice feeling.

Finally leaving the hospital exactly a week later. 

She didn't like being put in there
 but she was comfy once she was in there.