Hamra Time: 6/1/15

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Scout is Out!

We welcomed our baby boy Scout Edward Hamra Wednesday, June 24 at 8:31 p.m. While I thought he was about 9 days early, according to my last ultrasound he was 14 days early at a very healthy weight of 8 lbs. 7 oz., 21 inches long, and 14 inch head.

I went in for my 38 week appointment and my doctor decided to admit me to Labor & Delivery because I was dilated to 4 cm with what they call a bulging bag and contractions that were a minute apart (basically my water was about to break). She thought he would arrive 2-3 hours later, while it wasn't that quick, he came about 6 hours later. Besides the fact I kept getting sick from my blood pressure dropping, labor was so much smoother than Sawyer's. Just about 20 minutes of pushing and we met our baby boy. I literally looked down and thought "Oh my gosh I am delivering Sawyer again"....he looked exactly like him!

He is just less than a week old and we are all obsessed with him. He is very gentle mannered and so far calmer than his brother. Only bump in the road so far is he is jaundiced. We have been at the doctor every day since his birth. Today, we hope he can get rid of the biliruben lamp. He dropped to 7 lbs. 12 oz. at two days old but at our appointment yesterday he is up to 8 lbs. 1 oz. and doctor's are very happy with how he is doing.

Sawyer is an amazing big brother and so far just loving on him every minute he can get! Super helpful and loves to kiss him, very interested in how he feeds, of course. We are adjusting well at home with our family of four. As expected, I am definitely more busy than ever, so getting time to blog has been tricky.

I do want to say thank you so much to every one who has helped us these past few days. All the visitors, food, gifts, are beyond appreciated and we can't say thank you enough. It truly takes a village! We are especially thankful every one showed so much attention to Sawyer, this really helped him feel loved! Special thank you to my mother-in-law who helped with Sawyer and driving me to doctor's appointments, I truly appreciate and love you dearly. Also to my Aunt Julie and Uncle Scott who drove down from St. Louis and kept Sawyer for us for the afternoon while we went to more doctor's appointments.

We have taken a ton of photos, of course. Check them all out on our share site, here:
Scout from pregnancy to birth - https://karitravels.shutterfly.com/3914

Scout's visitors - https://karitravels.shutterfly.com/3886

The hospital also took some photos of him through their company Mom 365, view the photos here: https://karitravels.shutterfly.com/4051

It's go time!

Terrible cry photo but I was so overjoyed!

adding another handsome man to the Hamra house

Big Brother backpack for Sawyer

So Proud!

Sawyer wanted to pretend to have a baby, oh geez!

helping with feeding time

bonding

First captured smile!

First neighborhood walk

watching shows with brother

sunbathing on his biliruben lamp

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Hamra Boy #2 // Baby Watch

I had my weekly check up yesterday and things are progressing. And we are officially at that point where any day he could come.

Here are my stats....
Dilated - yep...at a 3 - I was a 1 last week
Effaced - 70% (need to be 100)
Station - negative 2
Measuring - 40 weeks (I am only 37, another big boy) - I measured 37 weeks last week
Baby's Heart Rate - 150

My Stats look a lot like the blog I posted the week before Sawyer came: http://www.hamratime.com/2012/02/baby-hamra-doctor-update.html

She also did that fun procedure (stripping membranes) I mentioned in my blog last week.
It didn't hurt and was very quick. She said she didn't think he would come in the next couple days because my cervix still needs to thin more and his head (while in position and down) needed to descend a little more. The procedure speeds up this process but you just never know if it will work. She said if I make it to my next appointment next Wednesday and no baby she is going to induce me.

Great news though is she confirmed my platelets are still in good range to get an epidural if I want one. She doesn't imagine it will drop enough to change that.

Friday my contractions started really intensifying and are getting more consistent. We had tickets to the St. Louis Cardinals game Sunday but John and I decided to stay home due to the contractions and pre-labor pains (in my back). Sawyer still went with my parents and unfortunately the game ended up getting rained out. I am very glad I stayed back, plus now we have tickets to a game in July for the rain makeup.

I have to share a cute Sawyer story too. He is so excited to meet his brother and on the way to school Tuesday he said, "My brother is coming today". I had to fill him in on how there is a chance but really mommy was just going to the doctor to see if he was ready to come out yet and if he was I would go the hospital. He then asked, "Well, who will pick me up then?" I made sure he knew we had a plan. Later that same day, obviously still thinking about our conversation, I got a text from his teacher telling me he was extremely upset and worried about me and wanted to give me a call. He kept telling her, "My baby came out and I am not there." So I called and comforted him and told him he would definitely be the first person to know when his brother is coming. So sweet!

Our bags are packed including a nice Big Brother surprise for Sawyer. My mom took Sawyer shopping Monday to let him pick out a gift for his brother and for himself. He was so sweet and picked out a sound machine just like he has in his room. For himself he got a new Chuggington train and a Jake and the Neverland Pirates toy.

37 weeks

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Hamra Boy #2 // Count Down

I guess I should probably blog about our new little addition since I have been terrible about posting like I did with Sawyer (typical second child issue). I have very good about logging records and photos just haven't shared them.

I had my weekly appointment yesterday and everything went well. Last week my doctor had mentioned she wants to bring him early and she confirmed that today.

I am one centimeter dilated, his heart rate was 150 (what Sawyer's was the whole pregnancy), measuring at 37 weeks and my blood pressure looked great too. She said she is going to stimulate the cervix a.k.a "strip my membranes" at my next appointment on Tuesday, June 16. And when I asked what that meant exactly, she responded "Have your bags packed". The process can get you going in to labor right away or a few days later, so basically it sounds like we should be able to meet our baby boy next week!!! If you are wondering why she would try to bring him so soon, it is because Mr. Sawyer made an 10-day early appearance weighing in two pounds heavier than my doctor thought at 8 lbs. 11 oz. She wants to prevent me having to go through that again, I'll spare you the details.

One concern I had was that my platelets were low, a condition that if gets too low (under 100,000) means you can not get an epidural (mine were at 125,000). I had never heard of before so it made me a little nervous. They did blood work yesterday and they only dropped 5 points, which mean so far I should still be good. They will do another round of blood work when I come in to deliver, fingers crossed they stay above 100,000.

I have been tracking my progress over the weeks with photos, so I will go ahead and share in case I don't get to take another one, ah! We also finished the nursery and will be sharing that soon as well but we might wait until our baby boy can see it first.

Prayers are appreciated as we prepare to become a Family of 4!

Here is a picture at 37 weeks with Sawyer (he came about 7 days later)

Baby #2 Weekly Photos (I skipped a couple weeks)

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Why I love what I do: Part 1 (of many)

This will most likely be a regular blog post, something I probably should have started sooner.

I have been with O'Reilly Auto Parts for more than six years and I can truly say it is more than a "job", I don't even really consider it a job because I enjoy coming to work every day. I am blessed to work in a part of the company that is filled with positive stories and accounts, and I know my role is unique in that fact. I am the Internal Communications manager which basically means I am responsible for getting all the important information/news out to our team members (stores, distributions centers, and corporate offices)....which we now have more than 70,000 of them. What's even better is 90% of the time this is good, positive news honoring or featuring amazing team members and their stories. I get to be a story teller and historian for a company that has such a rich history. I am proud to be an O'Reilly team member!

Last weekend was another reason why I love working for O'Reilly. We held our annual FunFest company picnic, which I am on the committee to help plan (another fun role). This event was a huge success with the help of a wonderful team. More than 2,300 springfield team members attended filled with entertainment, activities, food and a cardinals game. I just wanted to share some of the great things the company did to simple just say thank you!

(special shout out to Cheryl Maddox for some of these great photos!)