Im BACK!

I cant believe I became one of those bloggers who started off with a hiss and a roar and then fizzled.....

SO much has gone in the last 4 months I don't even know where to start!

Braxtons Ureterocele was operated on when he was 5 weeks old. It was by far the most heart breaking experiencing of my life. Seeing him so tiny and in that horrible hospital bed. The surgery took place at Wellington Children's Hospital. Because he had to go under a general he was not allowed to be fed from 6am that morning, but his surgery wasn't until 3pm. So he was hooked up onto a drip for fluids and we gave him a dummy to keep him happy. I was told not to hold him so he wouldn't smell my milk. He didn't seem phased by the whole ordeal at all - think I suffered the worst!

The surgeons made a cut into the Ureterocele and this has so far cleared the obstruction. We visit the pediatrician every 3 months and he checks over Braxton to make sure the blockage doesn't reoccur. He has been on anti-biotics since birth and will most likely remain on them for 3 years to prevent UTIs and bladder infections.

In other news, we went on a big family road trip when Braxton was 8/9 weeks old. We went up to stay with family in Rotorua for a week then travelled up to Bay of Plenty and followed the coast around to Gisborne, then Napier then home. We were away for 2 weeks total with a baby. Luckily we took the house bus and it was quite a nice relaxing trip. Braxton took to it like a fish to water and was happy to nap in his capsule and just go with the flow.

 

And Braxton got to dig his toes in the sand for the first time of many!! He wasnt 100% sure about it....

 

We were really lucky with the weather, had a few frosty mornings but apart from that it was nice and sunny.

Apart from that Braxton is doing so well, growing faster than I can keep up! He has just gone 5 months. He is learning so much each day, he can now sit on his own, grab things from us and giggles and laughs at just about everything.

Being a mum is the greatest experience, every day brings new challenges and it is something I learn as each day goes. I am very blessed and grateful for having such an awesome baby. Braxton is a great feeder and sleeper and he is so tolerant of me. There are so many things that I swore I would and wouldn't do when I was pregnant when it came to parenting. Its fair to say most of that has gone out the window and I take it day by day. Everyone has advice and I take it with a grain of salt. I will try everything and if it works it works and if doesn't then I try something else. We have a pretty good routine now.

Our house is currently on the market, I still feel a little two ways about this.... we have been in this house for over 4 years, it is my first house, the house we lived at when Cody proposed, the wedding, and Braxtons first home.... However it is time to move on and this place has no yard for Braxton to play in, so onwards and upwards! We currently have an offer on a place with some land :) so hopefully once this place is sold we are on the move.

My birthday is coming up and I really wanted to do something different, last year I announced I was pregnant so it was a very low key birthday with just a dinner out. This year I have decided to do a High Tea.... WITH A TWIST! Instead of tea, the tea pots will contain cocktails! Ill still have the usual tea cups, cup cakes, club sandwiches etc should be fun and I cant wait :) watch this space for photos!

So thats a quick catch up, I promise to post more regulary now that Braxton and I have ourselves sorted!

Baby Buchanan is here!!

So I was booked in for an induction for 8am Thursday 19^th April at 38 weeks + 6 days. My specialist decided that it was best I deliver in Wellington Hospital due to baby’s multicystic dysplastic kidney and also a utercele in the bladder. Masterton hospital was not equipped if there were issues with baby so they didn’t want to risk me delivering in Masterton and then things going wrong.

I have known a few people who have been induced and they all ended up getting a c-section which is really not what I wanted…. I was really upset to have to be induced but it was what it was and knowing that we would have the specialist team on hand was reassuring.

So here is how things went:

Thursday 19^th April

8am
We arrived at Wellington Hospital ready for my induction, bright eyed and bubbly and excited about meeting our little one. I was examined by the registrar who declared that my cervix was very thick and closed – meaning that labour was no where near. 2mls of Prostaglandin gel was given to kick start labour. From there we were told to work around for 6 hours and be back to be examined again. We wondered around the hospital -walked up multiple flights of stairs and generally got bored.
2pm
We were back at the delivery suite and I was full of hope – only to be told I was only 1cm – poos. They decided to leave things up to nature in hope that labour would naturally kick start over night so I was moved to a pre-natal room and left for the night. As the afternoon progressed I started to feel some tightening – more like period pains, but nothing to rave about. As night time came the feelings subsided and I felt a little disheartened.

Friday 20^th April
8am
I was moved back to the delivery suite and had another examination – still only 1cm! Another 2ml of Prostaglandin gel was given and was told again to walk around for 6 hours and be back by 2.
11am
This time I made it to 11am before I had to be back at the room as the pain was intense. I was trying to breathe through it but it was so painful.
1pm
Contractions had really started but were very irregular and lasting about 30secs, I was so tired I was actually falling asleep between contractions.
2.10pm
Time for another examination. The thought of the exam brought me to tears - they were so painful! The midwife recommended I suck on the gas for the exam. I don’t know what was worse, the gas or the exam! I felt sick, light headed and it tasted foul! The registrar did his thing and then exclaimed I was only 2-3cm dilated! I felt like a failure…. The only good news was that it was enough to break my waters. So they did that and they gashed out! Then the contractions really started…. However they were still very irregular and lasted from 30sec to 1min. They wanted them more regular so hooked me up ready for sytocin..
3pm
Sytocin started at 2ml per hour and made the contractions hard and fast and 1min apart. It was at this point I caved and took the midwifes advise to get an epidural. I was so tired and couldn’t keep going for 7 more cms
4pm
The anaesthetist struggled to get the epidural in as I didn’t have much space in between my spine, she thinks it was because of all the Pilates I had done during pregnancy, and it had built up the muscle too much over my spine – go figure! After 2 failed attempts she was called into an emergency so I had to sit, arched over, during contractions and wait for her to come back. When she did she gave me fentanyl to try and relax my back. That gave me an out of body experience where I felt light headed, and really spaced out. (I later learnt that fentanyl is the date rape drug! I can see why!!)
5pm
The epidural was sited
5.40pm
Epidural started working and it was instant relief – I don’t regret it one bit. I could still feel some of the contractions but they were nothing like they were. They were totally bearable. I was also hooked up to a self medicated pain relief which I later learnt was morphine. This gave me the shakes and made me feel a little nauseous.
6.30pm
The sytocin was upped to 8ml per hour to get things moving along.
7pm
Another examination, but due to the epidural I hardly felt it. My midwife said to expect around 5cm; yeah I was 10 and ready to push! The epidural was left to wear off so I could feel and control the pushing – stupidest thing ever! The pushing hurt so much more than the contractions!
9.05pm
Pushing started. The head came out a few inches and from there I lost it. I became one of those useless women you see on the TV who keep saying “it hurts too much, I can’t do it!” I had 2 midwifes and Cody telling me otherwise, and of course by this stage it was too late. Somehow I managed to get through the pain and push him out in 45mins – although it felt like hours!
9.52pm
Braxton James Buchanan was born weighing 3.700kg (8lb 3oz)

He came out screaming and was put straight onto my chest where he wee’d and pooped on me! Nice one– I couldn’t believe he was finally here. It took us about 5 minutes to finally ask if it was a boy or girl! My mum and sister were waiting outside so my sister poked her head in to ask what flavour.

I was then stitched up – with 10 stitches! The midwife then went on to tell me that as soon as the head was out she slid her finger under his armpit and pulled him out so he was born in one go. I think this is what caused the excessive amount of stitches, which really pisses me off because they were so uncomfortable – but that’s all in the past now….

Because Braxton wee’d straight away they were too concerned about his kidney/bladder but he did have to have cloth nappies (those big old fashioned ones you have to fold up) so that they could weigh them and keep track of how much urine he was passing.

After 3 days he had an ultra-sound done on his kidney and bladder, the scan showed that the good kidney is functioning well and is a little enlarged as it was doing the work of 2 kidneys but that was to be expected. It also showed he had a 2cm uterecele in his bladder which is a blockage. 2cm is border line needing to be operated on so they made an appointment for us to see a surgeon in 2 weeks to check up on it. Braxton will also have a Fluoroscopy – which is where they will insert a catheter via the urethra into his bladder and fill the bladder with a special coloured dye and saline until the bladder is full and he begins to wee. As he is wee-ing they will take x-rays. I am really worried about this procedure as it sounds quite invasive L

Once both of these have been completed then the specialist will determine where to from there.

Final Visit

Our last visit with Dr Sangalli was last Thursday 5th April 2012 at the MFM clinic in Wellington.

After our last visit with Dr Tuohy at 28 weeks I was really confident that we would walk in there, get the scan done and be sent on our merry way to let nature take its course and deliver in Masterton. Oh how wrong I was!

The scan started off really well, we had a student sonographer which didn't bother me at all - until she went to get a college to get a second opinion...... The experienced sonographer came and picked up where the student left off and had a troubled look on her face. It was then I knew something else wasn't right. The sonographer advised that it looked as though the baby had a blockage in its ureter (the tube that carries urine from the kidney to the bladder) but she wasn't 100% sure and she wanted the specialist to have a look.

We then sat in the waiting room for what seemed like an eternity (really it was about 45 minutes) before we got called in. You can always tell the severity of a meeting by the amount of people in the meeting. There was our specialist, an obstetrician, an intern, the head specialist wife midwife and me and Cody.

Dr Sangalli is really lovely, he always makes sure to start the meetings off really positively and asks how I am doing throughout the pregnancy etc. Secretly I am thinking just get to the bloody point!

He starts off with the good news first, the cystic kidney has not gotten worse - in fact it has improved slightly in that the cysts have gone (this is good because it means there is nothing there to get infected) so this means the kidney is just a dud piece of tissue.

The bad news? This kidney also has a Ureterocele which is swelling at the bottom of one of the tubes (ureters) that carry urine from the kidney to the bladder. The swollen area can block urine flow. Now my first question was "well that doesn't matter because that kidney doesn't work anyway!" the Dr then goes on to say that this indicates that potentially a piece of the cystic kidney is still functioning because if it wasn't at all there would be no urine to cause the blockage. Great.

And the treatment for Ureterocele? Surgery.

Due to this issue the Dr then goes on to advise that he wants me to deliver in Wellington, as soon as those words left his lips I could feel my eyes tear up - they must of seen it to because the midwife left the room and came back with a box of tissues. I’m not 100% sure why this news upset me as much as it did. I held it together for the scan outcome and then he mentions me delivering there and I lose it. I guess it was because we had a plan, and delivering in Wellington was not part of that plan - but wait it gets worse. He then goes on to advise that a complication of this condition is infection and irreparable kidney damage, because of this he doesn’t want to risk me delivering in Masterton so will be inducing me in 2 weeks! (1 week before due date)

Induction and C-Section were the 2 main parts of labour I wanted to avoid like the plague. Everyone I know who has had an induction ended up with a C-section. Induction is such an invasive procedure and goes against everything I have read on pregnancy and labour.

But what will be will be. The Dr didn’t seem to have much confidence in the Masterton Maternity teams so wants me in Wellington in fear of being 'lost in the system'. I mean, it’s great that we will have the best possible care and that they know our history when I arrive, but it does mean that my dream of a nice natural water birth are totally out the window. Baby will need to be monitored very closely and with its now 2 existing health concerns they don’t want to risk it.

Being in Wellington is such an inconvenience for us. In Masterton we are literally 2 minutes from the hospital. If I have forgotten something, if Cody needs a sleep etc he can pop home. Being in Wellington means being overly prepared for everything, packing up bags, arranging childcare (for the fur-babies) Cody will also need accommodation sorted - the list goes on. Pros? Family travelling from out of town can book flights and arrange coming up/down to see baby. It also gives us a due date which is mega exciting! (although really baby could come any day now!)

How do I feel about the whole thing? Like Shite. I know being in Wellington is the best place for me and Baby and I should be grateful we have a baby at all - so many couples are dying to have a baby and here I am moaning about ' inconvenience'. But this is our first baby, my first pregnancy - everything is supposed to be sunshine and roses.

Again I am left with more questions than answers and there are still so many 'could be's' could be's don’t help me sleep at night!

In one week we will travel over to Wellington, the next day I will give birth to our baby....the rest is in god’s hands....

One of those...

What is your best friend's names?: Steph Drumm (I guess putting Cody would of been a cop out)

What is your best friend's Mom's name?: Janet Drumm

What body part do you wash first?: Left shoulder

What's the strangest talent you have?: I can open bottles with my teeth

What's your favorite flavored Pringles?: Salt N Vinegar

What was the last thing you ever got grounded for?: Oh Jeez! Its been, like, over 10 years since I got grounded..... probably would of been driving around my mates in Harry (my first car) when I only had a learners license

Which shoe do you put on first?: Well I put my left sock, jandel and slipper on first. But I put my right shoe - go figure!

Is there one thing all of your ex's have had in common?: Strangely enough, all but 2 of them have birthdays in April! They weren't THE ONE

What was your childhood nickname?: Panties, Pants - college counts as childhood aye?

What's the weirdest thing you have done while driving?: I do everything while driving - put on my make-up, use my phone, drink (not booze) eat etc

Name something you do when you're alone?: hehehehe that's a bit personal - I like to have a bath. Also scrap booking, cos I can spread my stuff everywhere without Cody getting mad about the mess I made :P

What is the stupidest thing you've ever done at a bar?: Define stupid..... Ive peed in the sink in the toilets cos they were all full up, been kicked out of a few for being to intoxicated, ummm....

What color underwear are you wearing now?: *checks* grey with black stripe

What are you listening to right now?: Shamely enough S-Club 7 - but its on the radio so not by choice! I swear

What was the last thing you ate?: Marmite on frayers toast with loads of butter = bliss!

Our Maternity Photoshoot

On Sunday 18th March 2012 Me, Cody and Roxy had some maternity photos taken. I LOVE how they turned out!

Considering Roxy was being difficult we got some really good photos. We took her over to the lake by herself to get a nice background, Roxy didnt like being out on her own very much but we managed to get some ok photos.

Now if only I can train my husband to smile and not poke his tounge out well be set.

Here are the results:

 

Marmite Crisis!

Once again the Christchurch earthquakes have disrupted our everyday live's.

Our beloved Marmite is currently suffering a worldwide shortage.

The reasoning? Earthquake damage to a cooling tower at the company's Christchurch factory rendered the nearby Marmite building unsafe. Surely there is another building they could use?

So this whole 'crisis' got me wondering..... I wonder who thought of making a yeast based, black tar-ry substance to spread on toast. So I investigated the 'Birth of Marmite' pretty much it came about in the dark ages (pre 1680) when some dutch scientist found a use for the discarded yeast that's been used to ferment sugars into alcohol

Over the years the process has been refined to get the spreadable goodness we have today.

And of course there is an influx of Marmite on TradeMe now - its just the same as when they took Snifters away (still a touchy subject)

They are selling for ridiculcious prices. One guy is asking $800 for his jar - I don't love it THAT much buddy.

Marmite is definitely one of those pantry essentials that you take for granted until they tell you that you cant have anymore.

I know its not the 'be-all-and-end-all' but it is still a major inconvenience considering Marmite just so happens to be my latest pregnancy craving.

I love Marmite and cheese either in a sandwich or on crackers. Marmite and cheese on toasties is even better!

I was discussing this with one of the ladies at work. My all time favourite use for Marmite is to spread it on luncheon meat!!!! We always had luncheon and Marmite sandwiches for school lunches as a kid - apparently this is weird? Another favourite was Marmite and lettuce sandwiches - again apparently weird.

She then went on to tell me about her favourite Marmite combo, Poached eggs on toast WITH MARMITE! And I'm weird!

What are some of your favourite Marmite combinations??

Maternity Photos

This Sunday me and Cody are getting our Maternity Photos done. We have hired a local 'up-and-coming' photographer to do our photos.

For something different - well not different for me but out of the usual for others - Roxy will again star in the photos. She was also in our wedding photos so its kind of fitting that she is in our maternity photos too.

The photographer asked me to send her through some inspirational photos of the types of photos I like. So I started having a look through good olde Google and found these amazing photos.

I really liked these ones which were more 'horsey' focused and these ones of the couple sitting on the ground with the horse in the background.

I cant wait for our shoot on Sunday, I have a few outfits to use. Watch this space for the final results!

While on my Internet search I also found some real 'beauties' - not 100% sure what these people were thinking, but check these puppies out!


This just doesn't make sense



Play Boy baby - of course totally appropriate!



David Bowie Much?



How appropriate!



For some reason this reminds me of the Texas Chain Saw Massacre!



ON A CHRISTMAS CARD? REALLY?!



I think this COULD be nice .... if she had clothes on!



What a doosh!



I just don't understand the whole leg thing...



Isn't this how she got into this situation?



Does he not scream pedophile!



Redneck wedding anyone?



This also could of been a nice photo......if it wasn't for the stalker in the background!!



Blue rubbish bags? I don't get it...



I'm sorry but there are no words



Hes obviously pretty pleased with himself....she looks like a crack whore .... GOOD SCORE MATE



WALMART!



Wha?

 

Does she know she is having her photo taken?