birth story

just a warning, this is pretty long, so if you really aren't that interested you may want to skip this post.

my "big" little lauren will be ten days old tomorrow and i can't believe it. time is already getting away from me, so i thought i'd finally record her birth story.

i need to back up a few weeks. three weeks ago when i went in for a routine checkup the doc told me i was already dilated to 3.5 cm, which is what i was when i started labor with brooklin. so, i started to get a little anxious/nervous about having the baby early. i was ready but at the same time i wasn't. kinda hard to explain exactly what my emotions were. fast forward to the next week, yes i actually made it another week walking around dilated to 3.5. well, now i find i'm at a 4+ and the nurse at the doctors office is very suprised to see me without a baby. i go ahead and make my next check-up for the following week, which happened to be on my due date, the 14th. the doctor said it would really suprise him if i made it that long. but alas, i did. and now i'm at a 5. what the heck! he sent me home with plans to be induced on the 17th if i wasn't able to go into labor on my own. i left the doctors office crushed. i turned to scott and told him there was no way i was going to wait another three days. the baby was going to come out, and she was going to do it on her own. after arriving back at home i started to feel some cramping, but nothing too unusual. then about an hour later i started having some pretty regular contractions, but didn't think too much of it since i wasn't in any pain. for about two hours the contractions were about 4-6 minutes apart. scott was pleading with me to go to the hospital, but i really didn't want to go only to be checked and sent home. i was sure that the contractions would fizzle out since i wasn't having much pain. he was getting a little worried because the doctor had told us that once i started labor it would probably go pretty fast because i was so far dilated. i finally gave in and we grabbed our bags and headed over to drop brooklin off at grandma's house. on the way to the hospital we decided to stop and get some dinner, since i really didn't see any urgency, and we knew that if we didn't eat before we went in it would be a while before we got the chance. while we ate we timed a few of the contractions at about 3 minutes, but i still wasn't in any kind of real pain. so, we finished up our cheeseburgers and blizzard and headed into the hospital. as i was checking in a nurse came out to the waiting room to speak to me, and asked me why i thought i was in labor. after i told her what was going on she uttered those dreaded words, "well, you don't look like your in labor." oh great. just what i feared would happen. but she told me they'd check me out and see. after getting set up in the wonderful triage room, she told me that they were going to monitor the contractions for about 20 minutes before actually cheking to see how dilated i was. not even ten minutes had gone by and she came back and told me that i was contracting like crazy. about every one to two minutes. so, she checked and i was dilated to 6+. i was admitted right away. the three nurses assigned to me were amazed at how great i was doing, pain wise. i was quite amazed with myself too. this was totally different than it was with brooklin. the question of an epidural came up. before, my doctor told me that if i was going to get one i should get it right away, "before all hell breaks loose," as he put it. my water hadn't broken yet, and i knew that would probably bring with it the pain, so i went ahead and got the epidural. i'm all for not feeling the pain if it can be helped. a few minutes after getting the epidural, my wonderful doctor, dr. cook, showed up and he went ahead and broke my water. at this time i was at 7cm and feeling great. the epidural was just enough to cut any pain i might feel but i could still move my feet and legs, and i could feel when i was being touched. it was nice to just sit and relax and talk with scott and my parents. at about 10:30 my mom decided to take my dad home since he had to get up early and drive to everett the next morning. when she left she told my nurse that i had to wait until she got back. right before my mom made it back the doc came in to check me again and i was at a ten and it was go time. after about ten minutes i was able to start pushing, and within about five minutes and three pushes she came. i was able to do it all on my own, which was totally different from brooklin's birth. my epidural with her was so strong i couldn't control my legs at all.

it was so great to finally have her out and be able to hold her in my arms, even if she did pee on me. :) i really could not have asked for a smoother labor and delivery. everything was just perfect. she came on time, my nurses were great, my doctor was amazing, and i have to give props to my drug guy who gave me such a great epidural. while he was administering it he asked who gave me my epidural with brooklin and i couldn't remember. he made a comment about how nobody ever remembers them. so dr. maixner, thank you so much, you did an excellent job :)

Lauren Elise Cunningham was born on December 14th (her due date) at 11:15 pm.
she weighed 9 lbs. 11 0z (amazing) and was 22 inches long.
she's got blonde/stawberry colored hair (depending on who you ask) and she is a beautiful, healthy baby. she has been sleeping decently through the night and is such a joy to have in our family. we feel very blessed. and if you asked me right now, at this very minute, i wouldn't mind having another. but that could change within the hour. :)

george washington???

okay, do i honestly resemble this man?

everytime we pass a sign like this



brooklin thinks it's me on the sign. she'll say, "look momma, it's you on the sign." or "momma you're so special to be on that sign." i thought it was funny at first, but i think she really thinks it's me. do i really look like george washington? i don't get it.

happy halloween!

graycie's halloween costume

i bought this hat for her last year, but her head was still way too small. this year it fits but she doesn't seem to appreciate my choice of costume. she looks a little humiliated/annoyed doesn't she. i guess she'll be a party pooper this year and not dress up again. :)




p.s. we really don't torture her that much. no more than i torture my child or husband. :)

double rainbow

we saw this beautiful rainbow last night when the sun decided to poke out for a minute. some of us let our emotions get a little out of hand.

28 weeks tomorrow!

i can't believe i'm finally into the third trimester. unfortunately, i think i'm way bigger now than when i was carrying brooklin at this point. oh how the body is so unforgiving after your first pregnancy. it just doesn't seeem to ever make it back to where it was before. but i guess it's all worth it to be bringing another sweet spirit into our family. 12 more weeks to go!

August

i am doing so horrible with this blog lately. i don't know why but i just haven't felt like taking the time to post anything. so, now i'm feeling really bad about not keeping up, so it's time to play catch-up again.

here are some of my favorite pictures/events from august.
















we went to the beach as much as the weather would permit. we had some really warm days and some really cool days. it was kind of hit and miss this summer as far as being able to play outside. brooklin did so awesome swimming in the lake all by herself.

we got started on revamping brooklin's room. her room was pretty gender-neutral (green, safari animals) just in case we were to have a boy next. so, since i got the go ahead from the 20 week ultrasound, we grabbed a can of pink paint (who would've thought we'd see scotty painting anything pink???) and purchased some really cute bedding. i also made a quilt for brooklin to match, but haven't got a picture of that yet. i'll post pictures of the completed room hopefully soon, as we have another big project this weekend.

we also went to the fair in lynden. we went on the hottest day of the week. it was in the mid to high 80's. add that to all the walking we did and me being pregnant with sciatic nerve issues. i wasn't very comfortable most of the day, but i still ended up having a good time.

the best part of august was that i was finally 100% over the nausea that had been keeping me down the previous months. i felt so much better and was able to enjoy life. it was so great.

baby sister!

yep, it's another girl! a few days before we left on vacation we were able to go to our "20 week" ultrasound. even though i was only 19 weeks along they let me schedule my ultrasound since i was going to be gone, and i wouldn't have to spend my entire vacation wondering. even though this is my second time around the emotions were still just as strong as i was laying there watching my baby on the screen. i had tears running down my cheeks as i watched that sweet little girl move around. i was more than thrilled to find out that we were having another girl. of course i would have been overjoyed to have a boy, but i really wanted a little sister for brooklin. we didn't have a girl name picked out, of course. we had agreed on a boys name months ago, possibly before we even knew we were expecting. so, of course when we found out it was a girl, i started to stress out. i know, we still had half a pregnancy to figure it out, but i'm kinda nutty like that. i like the idea of being able to call the baby by name once the gender is known. so, i immediately got to work. it took a little longer for scott and i to agree on a name than it did when we decided on brooklin, and even our boy name, but we found one we both love.

Lauren Elise

Lauren, just because we like it, and Elise, which is a shortened form of Elizabeth, because it's a family name in both of our families. we probably would have used Elizabeth if our last name wasn't so blasted long, but Elise is a little different yet still meaningful to us.

we just passed the halfway mark and we are getting so excited to meet her. she has been moving around more and more everyday. scott loves that he can finally feel her little kicks and punches. i'm pretty much over being sick, and i'm moving on to the getting fat part. i don't mind this part, as long as i don't gain more than i did with brooklin. i'm wanting to get out and be more active now that i'm not so sick, but i have already been suffering from sciatic nerve pains, which can almost be crippling at times. i'm hoping the baby will move and this won't last the rest of the pregnancy. other than that i feel great and the doctor said lauren looks great, so we're pretty darn happy.

cunningham and lancaster family reunion

the weekend before we headed down to oregon for my family reunion, scott's family had one at his mom's house in rochester. we camped out in our tent in the backyard, had some great campfires with s'mores, and we had a big bbq with most of scott's family and the lancaster family (scott's step family). there was even an easter egg hunt. it was great to just hang out and relax. we had amazing weather and all of the little girls loved playing on the trampoline, slip n' slide and in the little pool that grandpa lancaster bought just for them. brooklin also really loved playing with gretta, grandma and grandpa's german shepard. they have become really good friends. it was really good that we had the sunny weather, since we were headed into the clouds for a week on the coast. thanks grandma and grandpa lancaster for the great time and memories!

time to catch up

i feel like the month of July seriously flew by, yet it seemed to be packed with so many fun things. my blog is in desparate need of an update. this may take a while, as i'm totally dreading going through all of my pictures, and loading them on here. it seems like such a daunting task, but if i don't do it soon this nagging feeling is going to absolutely drive me crazy. so, I think it'll be easiest for me to start with the most recent, which was our vacation down to the oregon coast. we had a family reunion at the umpquah lighthouse state park, which is near reedsport, oregon. the scenery was incredible, although we were all wishing that the sun would've made an appearance because it was quite chilly. we had a great time playing on the beach, taking walks around the beautiful lake, eating, playing cards, and enjoying the company of one another. a big thank you to my wonderful mom for organizing the whole thing, we really had a fun time, and took away with us some lasting memories.

this is the yurt that scott, brooklin and i stayed in. it was pretty nice! i especially loved having a bathroom. :)























up next: scott's family reunion