Fab Family Photos.

Last month Joey and I got together with our new friends, Jaquilyn and Travis, for some family photos featuring the new little nugget. It was so great to meet the Shumates and working with them was really fun. Jaquilyn made me feel like a million bucks even though I just popped out a baby, and swapping favorite 30 Rock scenes and punch lines with them made us feel so comfortable and relaxed. It really was such a pleasure.

So if you're ever in the Tacoma area, hit this talented family up!

Thanks again Jaquilyn and Travis, we love you guys!

Hi, I'm Curran // The Birth Story

 Curran Joseph Fleshman

17 May 2014 | 5:29am

6 lbs 1 oz | 19 inches

Bremerton, WA

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In the weeks prior to Curran's birth, I had this grand idea that I would get this post done and officially  introduce Curran while in the hospital after he was born. Everyone swore I'd have so much down time to fill so I might as well get it done then, right? Oh, what a silly girl I was. One month later and I'm finally here to write down his birth story.

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I was already scheduled for an induction on Friday May 23rd at 39 weeks because of my preeclampsia, but things ended up moving a bit more quickly when I went in for one of my twice weekly monitoring appointments on Thursday, May 15th and my blood pressure was higher than it had been in a couple weeks. I had a little headache at the appointment as well, but since there was no immediate cause for concern, they sent me home with the usual instructions for coming in to Labor & Delivery for headaches that don't go away, drastic swelling, etc.

That afternoon my headache quickly got worse. I tried the max dose of tylenol--no relief. An hour later I tried lortab, and still nothing. I called L&D for their recommendation and we decided I would stay home for the night, go to bed early, and see if perhaps some sleep would help the headache go away. 

Off to bed I went, but every time I woke up in the middle of the night my head was still pounding. Around 6am on Friday I called L&D again to follow up, and given my high blood pressure the day before and my persistent headache, I was told to eat a big breakfast and then come in, and it was likely we wouldn't be leaving for a while. Joey and I had a feeling I had made it as long as I could with the preeclampsia and that this was it, so we went ahead and gathered the last couple items for our hospital bags, made sure the pets were fed, and headed to the hospital. 

Once at L&D we started the usual routine for my headaches with blood draws, IV fluids, lots of questions, and contraction and fetal monitoring. My blood pressure was also taken every few minutes, and despite trying to relax, was hovering around 150/108. Not good. I was then given phenergan and IV tylenol to try to get my headache to go away, but even after a couple doses of both my headache hadn't changed. We talked with the doctor and weighed the situation and we all decided it would be best to go ahead and admit me and start an induction. We were definitely having this baby! Right before I left triage to be admitted the baby's heart rate suddenly dropped so all of a sudden I had nurses hovering over me and I was put on oxygen for a few minutes until his heart rate bounced back.

Around 11am I got settled in to my birthing suite and started a dose of cytotec to ripen my cervix since I was only 1 centimeter dilated and 50% effaced at the time. Joey and I ate lunch and then he went back to the house to get Remy and take her to the family that was going to watch her while we were at the hospital (thanks, Monroe family!). He got back around 4pm and thats when things started to pick up a bit. Because I still had a headache despite trying several medications to fix it, plus the blood pressure, his small size, and a handful of other symptoms, I was diagnosed with severe preeclampsia, which meant that I'd have to be on magnesium sulfate for the rest of labor plus 24 hours after giving birth. Magnesium sulfate works by inhibiting the central nervous system in an attempt to prevent potentially fatal seizures while giving birth. And because it inhibits the CNS, from that point on I wasn't allowed to get out of bed and I wasn't allowed to drink much of anything either. So not only was I bed ridden and couldn't drink anything, the dose of magnesium sulfate was so large that it made me feel panicky and like I had the flu. It really was miserable.

At the same time I started the magnesium sulfate I was also given pitocin to induce labor as well as antibiotics because I was Groub B positive--I'm telling' ya, between the magnesium, antibiotics, pitocin, IV fluids, and tylenol, there were tubes everywhere. I even had two hep-locks for it all.

I don't remember too much about the rest of the afternoon and evening; I'm not even sure what time the contractions really started--I think for quite a while I was more focused on how much my tailbone hurt and the fact that I couldn't get out of bed and stretch. But I do know that around 8:30pm the contractions were really rollin'.

Now up to this point, I had planned to give birth without an epidural. I had prepared ahead of time to do so and had several coping strategies ready to use. Joey had prepared to help me achieve this goal and we even had a secret word so he would know if I truly couldn't do it, without anyone pressuring me for pain relief. And once I learned I was going to have an induction I still thought I could get through it with my coping methods. However I wasn't anticipating the magnesium sulfate. Just about every method I had planned to use was conditional upon being able to move around and get out of bed, which I no longer was allowed to do. I tried to hold out but the back labor was so intense and I felt so stuck, not being able to get out of bed, and I just couldn't cope. Around 9:30pm I ended up getting an epidural. It wasn't my ideal, but I think overall it ended up being the best option for me (and the best option is different for every woman). Before the pain had even faded, my blood pressure rapidly fell through the floor and baby's heart rate dropped again. I think more than that happened too but I felt so weak and out of it I wasn't really sure what was going on. Suddenly I had about four doctors and just as many nurses in my room watching me, on guard if things didn't turn around. An oxygen mask was put around my head for the rest of my labor and after a little while we both perked back up and I was able to relax and get some sleep in between the nurse rotating me every half hour.

We think my water broke some time in the middle of the night and by 4am Saturday I was fully dilated and ready to go. Around 4:40 I started pushing and things were going really well. I could still feel pressure and could feel when I had a contraction and was overall feeling pretty good about the experience. Then all of a sudden the doctor said in a somewhat hurried, stressed voice "we've gotta get him out now". More doctors and nurses rushed in once again and they explained to me that his heart rate fell again and wasn't coming back up and I would need an episiotomy so we could get him out (and I'm confident I could've done it without the episiotomy if I had the time and he wasn't struggling so much). So after about 50 minutes of pushing, Curran arrived. His cord was wrapped around his neck and body and he was purple and silent. They showed him to me for a second before quickly cutting the cord and rushing him away to the other side of the room to make sure he was ok. I remember feeling worried and scared for a split second but just as quickly I felt a sense of peace and calm and knew he was going to be just fine. Joey was able to go over and see him while I was stitched up. Luckily it didn't take long for Curran to make a speedy turn around and before I knew it he was on my chest, staring up at me.

When I created my birth preferences I wrote that I understood that things don't always go as planned and my requests were made under the assumption that there would be a lack of high risk or emergency situations. This was the attitude I had during my pregnancy and I'm glad I did because it made it a lot easier to go with the flow when things didn't go the way I would've hoped. From intermittent monitoring to no routine IV fluids, delayed cord clamping to immediate skin to skin contact---virtually nothing from my birth preferences made it in to my birth experience. But it actually was ok. I felt I was treated with respect and I had a couple great nurses that had my back the whole time and made sure I didn't have to go through any more interventions or procedures than was necessary. Overall we were very happy with our experience.

In the weeks prior to May 17th, Joey and I were having a hard time making any concrete plans to celebrate our two year anniversary, and it looks like it turned out for the best. Sure, Curran totally crashed our anniversary by coming two weeks early, but we couldn't be happier. I mean, what better way to celebrate the love we have for each other and the eternal family we created two years ago than by welcoming a handsome little boy that we made together into that family? 

We're so, so glad that our beautiful baby is finally here!

264 Days Down: Baby Update

And only NINE more days to go!

Yup, that's right, just nine.

Here's what's up lately---

The biggest news is that two weeks after we moved here I was diagnosed with mild preeclampsia, so the past couple weeks have been very busy with monitoring twice a week and an additional couple trips a week to L&D for headaches that won't go away. Yeah, we're now on a first name basis with some of the doctors and nurses on the labor deck, so that's cool. So because of the preeclampsia I now have an induction set for Friday the 23rd at 39 weeks---just nine more days! Bananas. However at my NST yesterday the nurse said it looks like I'm in early labor already so hopefully things will keep progressing on their own and he'll come before we even get to all that induction business. We're just glad that this all waited to happen until after we got through our road trip and were mostly settled in our new house!

The little guy is still measuring a couple weeks behind and (even though their estimates can be pounds off so I take it with a grain of salt) is clocking in at around 5.3 lbs. So take that, all you random strangers that insist I must be carrying twins or you can't believe how big I am! But though he may be little, he's still rollin' and a movin' like he owns the place. He always has a stellar heart beat and movement at our NST appointments and is regularly bumping things out of my hands if I lean them on my belly. Often he'll stick his little bum out and turn my belly into an almost cone shape---we joke that he's in there doing downward facing dog and stretching that tush up as far as he can. 

We had an ultrasound last Friday (and once again he didn't let us get any good photos of his face, the little stinker) and they said that (as best as I understand) his kidneys are "borderline normal" and they're concerned about potential renal pelvic dilation. We were told there's no reason to worry yet and that he's probably just going to have some more in-depth exams and ultrasounds with the pediatrician when he's born. Sometimes the condition corrects itself before the baby is born, so lets just hope everything is fine and he'll be healthy when he arrives!

Being pregnant has been a really great experience, but I have to admit, there are some things I'm looking forward to about not being pregnant anymore, like being able to cross my legs again and not having to mentally prep myself every time I have to bend over. This severe ligament pain has been terrible (the past week I haven't even been able to get out of bed without Joey moving my legs and helping to hold me up) and after five months of it I'm pretty much ready to be done with it. And ditching all of this swelling from the preeclampsia will be so great! But I'm gonna get all cliche here and say, that even though there have been tough things about it, I'm really grateful for this experience and I wouldn't give it back for anything.

And this guy.

I just wanted to give a shout out to this awesome man. He's been nothing short of amazing these past few weeks making sure I'm as comfortable as possible and helping me with things I haven't been able to do as easily because of migraines or the ligament pain or just plain exhaustion. He's so excited to be my labor coach and practices his skills whenever I'm trying to get through the ligament pain or am having a bit of anxiety about various stressors in our lives. Any time I have a contraction now he smiles the biggest smile and, while trying to stifle his ear-to-ear grin, asks "what's wrong, are you ok??", hoping that I'll say its go time because the guy is just so darn excited for his son to get here. And almost every night lately he rubs my belly and encouragingly tells baby boy "Ya know, you can come tonight if you want to! We're ready to meet you!" Joey just can't wait to be a daddy, and its the sweetest. 

And lucky for us, Joey is going to be home for the birth and will be able to take the full amount of paternity leave. We just learned something pretty neat actually---so Joey was originally supposed to be on a different boat and about a week before he finished prototype we got a voicemail saying the Navy switched his assignment and we'd be going to a different boat. Well we just found out not too long ago that the original boat we were supposed to be on just left on deployment and if we had still been on it, Joey would've completely missed the birth. So the boat change has turned out to be a huge blessing and we definitely feel Heavenly Father was watching out for us and put us exactly where we needed to be and with the crew Joey needed to have. 

Well, the cloth diapers are prepped, the bags are packed, the car seat is in the car, and we're ready to go---or as ready as we'll ever be, at least!

We're Still Alive.

And overall doing well!

Its been just about three weeks since we arrived in Washington and a lot has happened since then, including finding a new home, unpacking many boxes, getting ready for the baby, and Joey starting work at his new command. 

I'm happy to report that so far we love it here. The landscape is absolutely gorgeous and the rain hasn't been too bad. And everyone here is simply the nicest, its almost unreal. Truth be told, I had a bit of a beef during our time in South Carolina because, despite my best efforts to find it, that famous southern hospitality everyone is always referring to (with a few exceptions) was largely nonexistent. I don't know where people get that stuff! So Joey and I have been so happy too see how polite and friendly literally every interaction has been since we've gotten here. 

We're also really happy with our new home and feel very blessed to have even found it. Some of you know that we were pretty stressed about finding a home here not only because we had just a few weeks before baby boy arrives, but also because of the cost of living in this area. We had been told the wait list for base housing was 2-5 years, however out of desperation and after looking at a handful of inadequate houses of base, we went to the housing office anyway. Lo and behold, there was one home that had somehow remained vacant and because no one else wanted it, we were able to skip the wait list and move right in! And its been perfect for us. Its so nice to have a home with a big yard and lots of space for our family to grow over the next three years. We're also close to work, things are quiet, and the area is lovely. Finding this home really was a little miracle for us and we're so grateful. 

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Anyways, I thought I'd touch base and share some photo highlights from our 16 day drive across the country…...

First stop was Virginia Beach to see Joey's parents and siblings. We enjoyed a couple family get togethers and even went on a date to get pedicures----so amazing after frantically getting things together to move in a week. We also got to see Luke and Mikhail, a couple of great guys that Joey's known for a while. I know Joey really loved getting to yo-yo together and catch up with them.

Stop #2: Lexington, VA. Lucky for us, Lexington is on the way from Virginia Beach to Ohio, so we stopped for a couple days to visit our alma maters and some of our favorite places from when we were dating. A trip to Pure Eats for donuts was a must---and we managed to snag the last 5 donuts of the morning!

We also took Remy to VMI's parade deck to run around and play fetch with her beloved tennis ball. Our little apartment dog caught on quick to the idea of running wild and free!

And we may have gone to sweet things three times in the day and a half that we were there…..even Remy got to have a little taste of my favorite honeydew sorbet.

We're so glad we got to have one last visit with our best buds Mallory and Andrew before we moved to the west coast. Mallory and I have shared some great memories and I can't wait to be reunited and eat key lime pie together again. ;) We love you guys and little Jane and miss you already too!

Stop #3: Beavercreek, OH to see my family for a little bit. While we were there, my mom's friends threw us a baby shower and let me tell you what---the coolest baby gifts come from your mom's knitting group. Baby boy is so spoiled with the most beautiful and unique had knit clothes, blankets, and booties! Mom, your gifts were amazing and we're so grateful for your kind and generous friends.

Stop #4: St. Louis, MO to meet Joey's extended family. And boy was it a party! We had a great time and I really liked meeting Joey's aunts and uncles, and I know he was so happy to see them all after several years. 

After St. Louis our trip west really started. Queue the nigh unbearable drives through the flattest, most boring, most isolated nothingness that is essentially the central United States. 

We stopped for one night in Middle-of-Nowhere, KS and then headed to Colorado where we were able to meet up with my uncle James and aunt Jenna. We got to catch up after almost ten years and Joey and I got to meet my cutie cousin, Jackson.

One of our favorite yet slightly nerve wracking moments was driving through the Rockies the next day  on our way to Utah. We joked that all of the snow we missed while living in the South decided to meet up with us in the mountains---there was a lot. We managed to find a rest stop (which we couldn't find at first because it was seriously buried in snow) and spent a little time there letting Remy experience her first snow.

 I just love that face.

Stop #7: American Fork, UT. We decided to have a little longer visit in Utah so that I could have a bit of a break from the discomfort in the car and so Joey could see Salt Lake City for the first time. We went by the new Provo City Center Temple site, and tried Cafe Rio for the first time (though full disclosure: we'd probably opt for Chipotle over Cafe Rio. Please don't hate us). We got together with old friends from high school and SVU, and satisfied Joey's craving for In-n-Out as well. We also snuck in a trip to the movies, potentially for the last time before baby boy arrives and the ease of movie-going somewhat disappears. 

Joey loved our time at Temple Square and getting to learn more about church history. And we lucked out with beautiful flowers everywhere because we came just days after General Conference, so things were looking extra spiffy. 

After Utah we had a night in Boise, ID and a night in Portland, OR with Joey's friends, Seth and McKenzie (including an amazing dinner at an awesome Lebanese place that my stomach is still grumbling for), and then we finally made it to our new home!

 We live right across the Puget Sound from Seattle and we've already taken the ferry over which was super fun and so beautiful. Living here in Bremerton has been really great so far. And its amazing how many trees there are…well, everywhere!

Remy and Marley did astoundingly great on the trip, but they're certainly happy to be in a stable place again and even happier to not be in the car constantly. They're really loving all of the warm sunshine that pours in to our new house, so much so, that they will even sort of nap together---a previously rare occurrence in our home. Meanwhile, we've been learning about our new area, have already found our new favorite Vietnamese restaurant (and really, what more do you need?), and have also made innumerable runs to Target as we've rushed to get our home unpacked and organized before baby arrives. 

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Thank you so much to all our wonderful friends and family who hosted us, fed us, threw us baby showers, and made time for us as we hopped from city to city and state to state for sixteen days. While this move was difficult, it was such a blessing to catch up with some of our favorite people as we completely shifted our lives from the South to the Pacific Northwest. We're really grateful for you!

Thanks for reading and we will hopefully have a baby update (and potentially the last one!) up soon!