Ice Storm Adventures

What a whirlwind of events in our first 24 hours of bringing Noah home from the hospital.

Around 4am, early Sunday morning, I was nursing Noah and could hear this strange crackling noise coming from outside the house.  We were in the middle of a freezing ice/rain storm that had swept the entire mid-Michigan area.  One of the reasons we decided not to spend Saturday night at the hospital was due to this bad storm.
But anyway, the crackling...  I finished nursing, put Noah back down in his crib, and got back into bed.  I woke John and told him about the strange noise I was hearing.  We both walked into our kitchen to look out our back windows where the noise was coming from.  John could see one of the electric transformer boxes in our neighbor's backyard spitting sparks from it.  This was not a good sign.  Moments later, John watched the box explode and we lost power immediately.  In fact, half of our neighborhood went black.

Hmm... now what?!  We knew that it was not an option to get out of the house at this precise moment.  Our heat wouldn't drop too low between now and the morning when we could figure out the game plan.  So we bundled ourselves up, added an extra blanket to Hannah's bed, and added a hat and blanket to Noah, and tried to go back to sleep for a couple more hours.

John woke early and headed to Home Depot down the road to get the part we needed to hook our generator.  The store only had ONE of these parts remaining.  John waited until the store opened, it was a zoo of people waiting in line.  When the doors opened, people made a mad dash toward the generators.  John quietly (and quickly) walked back to find his part.  Thankfully he found it and rushed back home.

In the meantime, I bundled up the kids and we cuddled in our bed together.  Hannah grabbed a few books that we read and I snuggled Noah up close to my chest.
  
   All snuggled up in bed together (you can see Noah's blue hat in there)                             Hannah being her normal silly self!

I packed up bags for myself, John, and each of the kids and we headed over to John's parents' house a few miles down the road.  They had lost power but they had their generator up and running.  At least we could be in the heat and stay warm.

We later learned that thousands of people were without power.  The whole Lansing area was basically out and most of the surrounding areas had pockets of no electric.  It was also brutally cold.  The temps were in the teens and below with a very frigid wind chill, so with no electric to heat your house, things got cold very quickly.
 
                                                                           
                                                                           Noah all snuggled up over at my in-laws

John and his dad came back over to our house and began setting our generator up.  Thankfully we bought a generator this summer/fall because our house always loses power for just about every storm.  Thinking ahead and planning for the what-ifs was the mission with this purchase.  John had been saying for quite a few months how he needed to complete the set-up by purchasing the power cord and box so we'd be ready to go if we ever lost power.  Needless to say, he never got around to it, and today was the day to get it done.

They spent half of the day installing, running lines, and getting it done right.  Thankfully our generator system was up and running by nighttime.  After some dinner, we decided to come back home and try to get back to "normal".  (Haha!  That just sounds funny even writing it now!)  We knew if we needed to go back over to my in-laws, it was close enough to us if something went awry.

Monday came and went, still no power.  John continued to make frequent trips to the gas station so he could keep re-filling our generator's tank.  He had the whole thing down to a science.  When to fill up, when to shut the generator off to give it a break, etc.  We were just thankful to be able to be home and make sure no damage occurred to our house.

Around 1am on Tuesday, as I sat on the couch nursing Noah, our generator shut off.  I called out to John in the dark (who was sleeping) and he quickly jumped out of bed.  John put on his warm clothes and headed outside to check things out.  He couldn't restart our generator. So now what?  Once again, we didn't want to uproot the kids and leave in the middle of the night.  Thankfully, John's parents had a second generator that we could borrow.  He drove over to his parents to help his dad load it up, and came back home.  Within an hour, the second generator was up and going heating our house once more.

We went through Christmas Eve with our generator and still no electric. We tried to keep things around the house as "normal" as possible.  Here we are trying to adjust to a newborn, a 2 year old who has no clue what this new baby is about, and trying to keep my fluctuating hormones in check.  What a disastrous first few days at home on top of this already hectic holiday season.  It certainly hadn't even felt like Christmas yet.

To keep with our normal Christmas day breakfast tradition of eating polish sausage, John got out the grill and took care of that.  He even snagged a picture of his "favorite things".  His wife, his favorite little girl and boy, grilling, and a beer!  This picture is certainly worth a thousand memories!
 

We woke up Christmas morning to such a beautiful view out our front window.  For as much of a hassle and inconvenience the snow/ice storm had provided, it was still a beautiful sight.
                           

Around noon on Christmas day, John spotted a BWL worker walking around our driveway.  He ran outside to check things out.  The man said they were headed to our area to fix the down transformer box in our back yard!!  HOORAY!  We would hopefully be getting our power back shortly!  Hannah got a kick out of watching the big trucks drive in our backyard, they were certainly a welcomed sight!
  
     Truck drove between our house and neighbors, into our backyard                         You can sort of see the worker in the bucket
                 and did the necessary repairs                                                                                     between the 2 pines - this was the
                                                                                                                                                                     cause of our power outage            

Around 2:30 in the afternoon, as we were sitting in the basement playing with Hannah's new Christmas toys, our computer printer turned on.  Our power was finally restored!  What a wonderful feeling!  It was indeed a Christmas miracle :)

We ended up enduring no power from Sunday 4am until Wednesday 2:30pm.  This was the longest 3+ days of our lives and a crazy beginning to Noah's.  He will have such an interesting story to share with his children someday about the first few days of his life.  Throughout our whole endeavor, I was so thankful for John.  He kept me sane, kept me together, and kept our house afloat.  Without him, the stress would have broken me completely.  This challenge we were faced with, only proves that together we can do anything!!

Friday, December 20, 2013

What started off as any other Thursday, turned out to be the start of our journey to welcoming our sweet baby boy into this world!  I'll start from the morning...

I had my 39 week doctor's appointment Thurs morning at 10am.  Hannah and I picked John up from work and headed to the OB's office.  After the usual measurements and check-up, my Dr asked if I wanted to be checked for any progress, SURE - why not?!  I was 3-4cm.  My Dr has been hearing about how stressed we/ I have been about potentially having our baby on Christmas, so she offered to help speed up the process. She could strip my membranes in hopes to potentially push me into labor.  Of course she had to give her disclaimer that it may not work, my body might not be ready to begin, I may start to feel crampy and uncomfortable, and if it were to work, we would know something in the next 24 hours.  So now we wait...

We went about our usual afternoon - lunch, playing, naps for both Hannah and I as I had to work later that night. We had dinner and off to work I went. At this point I was starting to feel a little discouraged because I hadn't felt anything yet. I was hoping to at least feel some cramps or contractions, but nothing.

As I started at work, I told the other 2 nurses in the room with me to make sure I didn't sit down, I wanted to keep moving around.  I was hoping that this would encourage any progress!

Just before midnight, I was finished feeding one of my babies for that round and sat down to catch up on my charting. Once done, I went for a lap/walk around the unit, to fill my water, and to go to the bathroom. I came back into the room and sat down, but something felt different.  I stood up to ask one of my co-workers if it looked like the baby dropped, and as the words left my mouth my water broke.  I quickly walked/waddled into the hallway in hopes to go back to the bathroom and pad myself up. Passing one of the doorways I saw my ADM and let her know, and ever-so-quickly my co-workers sprung into action. They grabbed my things, found a wheelchair, and sent me off with happy labor cheers.

Now I knew that Labor and Delivery was very busy tonight. There are 12 labor rooms and all but 1 were occupied. Even Mother Baby was swamped, they only had a couple rooms remaining.  (At Sparrow, after you deliver, you are transferred to Mother baby to finish out your stay). I let my triage RN know that I had a quick delivery for my first baby just to give her a head's up. She checked me and I was 6-7cm dilated and about 80% effaced. They quickly moved me into the last labor room available around 12:45am.

John arrived shortly after 1am. His parents came over to our house to stay with Hannah as we didn't want to get her up out of bed in the middle of the night. We had planned for this scenario just in case.

After a visit from the anesthesiologist to offer me an epidural (which I turned down), a quick hello and introduction from the Dr on-call for my OB group, the RN starting my IV and getting things ready, the 1:00 hour passed by rather quickly.  My contractions were rather mild but occurring regularly.

My Dr came in around 2am and checked me, I was 8cm and 90% at this point.  My contractions were regular and coming every 3-5 minutes lasting 15-30 seconds. The Dr said he would come back in an hour and re-check me, but would come in sooner if I was feeling any changes.

Around 2:30 I had two very strong contractions back-to-back. In the middle of the second one, I told John to hit the call button and bring the RN in, it was go-time. She came into the room, checked me (just slightly less than 10cm and 100%), called the Dr, and began to set things up. I continued to labor down (not pushing yet) for the next 15 minutes or so. Then it was time...

John says the time was 2:50am when I started pushing. After roughly 5 contractions and 9 minutes later, at 2:59am our sweet, crying baby made its' grand entrance into the world!  I barely gave John any time to see what gender the baby was, as I was quickly demanding "what is it?!"  John announced, "It's a BOY!"  As he was placed into my arms, I remember saying "Hello Noah" and holding onto my crying baby boy so very tight.

Welcome to the world Mr. Noah Alexander LaMacchia!
     -Friday December 20, 2013 at 2:59am
     -7 lbs, 10.9 oz
     -20 inches long


Checking to see how the camera lighting looked.  Anxiously awaiting!

 
                    A mother's love!                                                                         Our new baby BOY!
 
                  Snuggling together

  
            Getting checked out                                                                    Such a handsome boy already!
  
       Daddy making sure Noah's doing alright                                        Daddy's boy

  
       Hannah's first meeting of her brother Noah                               Our first family-of-4-picture      
     
   
                                Hannah being a good big sister already!                                                                               Kisses for Noah

 
              Sleepy little man


   Grandpa & Grandma meeting Noah

 
                                                             Noah's gift to his big sister

 
                                                                Noah looks so much like Hannah

  
                                                          Snuggles with Mommy


   And we're off.... Just after noon, Saturday we headed home to begin this wonderful journey as parents of 2 children now.  What a wonderful feeling, what a beautiful experience.

Welcome home Noah!  We are so blessed that you arrived safe, healthy, and oh-so loved!

the big 3-2

Why does it seem that birthdays seem to be closer and closer together as time flies so quickly by, yet we don't feel older?  (well I don't feel old yet!, but have decided to stop counting my age now)

So I find myself celebrating 32 years young. I guess you could say its nothing too exciting, nor was it very motivating to want to celebrate this year. (as I sit uncomfortably pregnant and awaiting this baby's arrival any day now)  Because my birthday is so close to Christmas I never really "celebrated" many birthdays.  During college, we were on our semester break so my friends had already headed home.  During gymnastics days, we were still practicing so there were no big celebrations either.  I'm not upset or disappointed by any of this, but more showing that I've never been a big "celebrator" of my birthday.

John always tries to make a point to celebrate the day.  Whether its a cake, flowers, dinner, whatever it may be - he finds a way to celebrate me. This year was no different.

Hannah woke me up that morning.  She climbed up in bed, gave me big hugs and kisses, and sang her version of Happy Birthday.  Nothing can beat that!  I opened my birthday present from John and Hannah in the morning as we were eating breakfast before John had to leave for work.  They got me a new Chi hair straightener.  A few weeks before, my old one had stopped working. Over 8 years with that trusty thing and it had finally had it's day.  They both got me very beautiful cards as well.

Hannah and I spent the day in our jammies just hanging out, watching her favorite TV shows, playing, and relaxing.  I was happy with that!  Plus I hadn't been feeling so great- a little cold, a little crampy, so it was nice to be lazy and do so with my favorite girl :)  

Not really feeling up to going out to dinner, John picked up take-out from our favorite Chinese place. (which was delicious of course!)  We were anxious to open our fortune cookies, (Our fortune cookies were spot on--see link from days before Hannah was born) but they were nothing spectacular.  I think mine said something about my fortune, which is non-existent and John's said something witty.  Wishful thinking on our part that we'd get a fun message letting us know our baby would be here soon.

John and I decided last minute to go to the MSU basketball game. We weren't sure if it was a good idea, but decided to give it a try.  Even if we couldn't stay for the whole game, we would at least see a little bit.  Plus, we figured this could be our last "date" for quite some time.

MSU played North Florida at the Breslin center and beat them pretty good. John treated me to some "cake" by getting me a cookie sandwich - perfect!  We ended up sneaking out of the game a little bit early to avoid the rush of people.  It was a lovely date with my husband and a perfect 32 birthday!


I meant to take a picture of John and I at the game, but did not.  Here is one from the game though.  

Midland and a Visit with Santa at Bronner's

John had to do an overnight trip for work to Midland, so Hannah and I decided to tag along.  The hotel he was staying at had an indoor pool, so we figured we could take advantage of swimming while John was working - why not?!  We headed to Midland after my Dr appt Thursday morning and went straight to the hotel.  It was a brand new hotel, it couldn't have been open for more than a month or so, it was beautiful.  They allowed us to check into our room 3 hours early, which was super nice so Hannah (and I) could take naps at her usual time around 2.  Hannah and I dropped John off for his work meetings and headed to the Midland mall that was next to our hotel.  We had one more Christmas gift to get so I was happy to cross the very last thing off of our list. There was a small play yard inside so Hannah played for 30 mins or so after lunch to let off some steam.
 
I was hoping the activity would help with nap time, but no such luck.  This was our first time sleeping in a hotel and Hannah not being in a pack and play, but rather in the big bed.  She must have been to excited to sleep, but at least laid/played quietly in bed during nap time.  I took full advantage of the dark room and snoozed on and off myself!

We met John around 5pm to head with his work group to Midland's Santa House.  Apparently when this place is open for the Christmas holiday, the lines are unbelievably long and wrap around the building.  We had a private tour arranged (No Santa, but that was fine) to check out the place.  It is an actual Santa and Mrs. Clause school.  This past year they had over 100 Santa's learning the craft.  Such a unique and unbelievable place!  There were so many displays, decorations, scenes setup all over the room.  They change out the displays every year to create a new experience.
 
 
  
These pictures hardly do the place justice, it was a very neat place.

We split off with John for dinner, they were headed to a bar and out to eat, so Hannah and I decided to go do our own thing- Olive Garden.  Ha!  Yes, an odd choice to take a 2 year old, but pasta is always a hit for Hannah and I know John wouldn't appease me and go to an Olive Garden with his Italian heritage.  Hannah was on her very best behavior which was very nice for her 37-week Mama to handle.  We had quite a few compliments from other guests on how well behaved Hannah was, thank goodness!  I thought the no nap could back fire and then we'd be in trouble.  After dinner Hannah and I headed back to the hotel.  We decided to save swimming until the morning when we could have more time in the pool.  We relaxed and watched a Mickey and Minnie Christmas show, then got ready for bed.

That's when the cramping and contractions started... I don't remember how intense or how frequently braxton hicks were when I was pregnant with Hannah and of course each pregnancy is different, but I was definitely a little bit nervous.  The whole rest of the night was full of very uncomfortable sleep and John continuing to ask if I was okay.  Thankfully we did not deliver in Midland that night, but it was not a pleasant evening.  I was not feeling the greatest come morning time, so we decided to skip the pool, big time disappointment, and take it easy in the room while John worked.  We picked him up shortly after lunch and headed to Frankenmuth for our Santa visit.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Last year was my first time to Frankenmuth and Bronner's.  That place is truly a Christmas wonderland.  I swear the store is an acre large, full of Christmas decorations, ornaments, trees, etc.  And of course, a trip there would not be complete without a visit to Santa!  We waited for about an hour and a half to see the big man.  (We ended up getting there when he was off for a break)

We have been prepping Hannah for this Santa visit for some time now.  Last year's visit with Santa was full of screams and tears, so we were hoping to not have a repeat experience.  Hannah watched closely as the kids in front of her sat on Santa's lap. There were only 4 or 5 families in front of us in line, and thankfully none of those kids cried.  We took advantage of standing in line to grab a few family pictures.  When it was Hannah's turn, she walked right up the steps and right onto Santa's lap!  I could have cried with excitement!  She was a little skeptical of Santa as you can see in the pictures, but she did great!  He asked her what she wanted for Christmas and Hannah said "A lollipop".  Santa looked at John and I and said that's an easy request!  Santa spent a few more minutes talking with Hannah and off we went!  I'm so proud of how well she did, I still can't believe she didn't cry or freak out!  All our prep work paid off :)
  
 
  
Hannah enjoying the penguin display.  It was hard to keep her focused to take a single picture.  There truly is so much going on in this place.
 
 

All in all, it was a fun trip (minus the cramping and not fun-feeling of being a large preggo person).  I really love going to Bronner's (even though the place can get crazy) and visiting Santa.  Their set-up and Santa display is so very neat.  I didn't get as many pictures from the line since we were closer to the front, but that is okay with me.  I also like how Santa really takes his time with each family, he is so patient with the kids.  We definitely look forward to continuing this fun family tradition with our kiddos and our visit with Santa each Christmas for many years to come!