The Rossiter Family

Rebecca's Birth

2010-08-02T23:54:00.000-04:00

At 2:00am, on May 20th I was not sleeping. I kept wimpering a little in pain. Ron decided that since I wasn't sleeping, it was probably "the night" and we should go see Carol (the midwife). At this point we had seen Carol every weekend, not including my regular weekly appointments!

So I called Carol and told her that we were on our way. I took our bags, Lulla-Bear and a "The Baby Book" by Dr. Sears. We got there and Carol did a cervical check. I was still only 3-4cm dilated. I had great contractions going though. She told us to sleep at the birthing center because she wanted to keep an eye on me. So we settled into The Lavender Room and I tried to sleep with no luck. Ron slept like a champ since he knew I was being taken care of. Haha!

I got up and took my bear and my book and went out to the lobby of the birthing center. I decided that since I can't sleep, I might as well listen to lullaby versions of The Beatles and read up on this baby before she came! One of the student midwives told me that I should try the birthing ball so I hopped on and read my book while moving a little on the ball...then I thought I peed myself. O.O

Oh boy.

I wanted to DIE. I thought I peed on the birthing ball!! Haha. But no. Carol came in, asked me to stand up and WHOOSH!! Just like in the movies, my water broke. This was an hour after we got there (3:00am). So now the fun contractions began.

Being the crazy woman that I am, I stayed on the birthing ball for another hour before moving to a chair. My contractions we strong. I got another check at 6:00am and at 10:00am but Carol would not let me know how dilated I was so I would relax and let labor follow it's natural course.

Between those checks I kept walking around, laying down and updating Facebook. LOL!! Ron had packed movies in our bag just in case labor took a while and boy was I glad he thought of that! I was hooked up to a breast pump for an hour (10 min on the pump, 10 min off and so on) to get my contractions more close together & lasting a little longer (they were 3-4 minutes apart, lasting 45 sec). After the breast pump, I couldn't stand being in bed anymore, so I walked outside. It was such a beautiful sunshiny day! :)

Went back inside and actually napped for 30 minutes. This was all the sleep I had gotten since the night of May 18th because remember, I couldn't sleep May 19th and in the wee hours of May 20th we were at the birthing center. So yea. I was tired!

When I woke up at 1:00pm I had another check (I requested it). I had gone from 4cm dilated, 80% effaced and baby being at -1 station at 10:00am to now being at 5cm dilated, 90% effaced and baby was now at 0 station!! All my walking helped!

I was pretty much in and out of the hot tub after that. I used hypnobirthing, the tub, and Ron massaging my lower back to help labor progress. Hypnobirthing helped SO much with the pain!

At 8:15pm I was 8.5cm dialted, 90% effaced and this baby was coming!! I started pushing one hour later at 9:15pm at 9:30 baby Rebecca was at +1 station and I was 9cm dilated and 100% effaced. They made me stop pushing at 10:10pm though. The thing is, I started pushing at 9cm. The midwife had to move my cervix out of the way so the baby could come out AS I PUSHED. Yes I know what you're thinking...ow. Well, I got as far as seeing her head but I wasn't pushing too well in the tub so they had me lie on my side in bed and stop pushing for 30 minutes.

I wanted to scream. In fact, I did scream and my midwife and Ron held my hands.

At 10:50pm I was given the green light to push again and at 11:48pm our little Rebecca arrived into this world. She weighed 8lbs 13oz and was 22" long. She was covered in vernix, but she was beautiful! Ron was originally supposed to catch Rebecca, but since the pushing got a little complicated he just got to cut the cord. He was so happy with that though. :)

I delivered the placenta 20 minutes after Rebecca's birth. I hemorrhaged though so I had to get an IV with pitocin to help contract my uterus. Once the IV was in, Carol and the student midwives helped me get cleaned up as Ron went to the lobby where our families were waiting anxiously to meet her. Once I was changed my family came in, took pictures and let me rest.

Ron with his dad & our little Rebecca

This is Carol, my midwife.

My Parents

My little sister, the proud aunt!

Overall, contractions hurt, yes but they were tolerable. The hot tub really helped and although I didnt give birth in the hot tub because they made me lie on my side in bed, I was ok with that. I'm proud of myself for going drug-free for my birthing experience. I'll be doing this again for our next child. Most women talk about birth as the most traumatic experience "get the epidural" or "make sure you get an episiotomy". I chose to birth naturally and it was not at all traumatic. I remember everything vividly and I felt such joy and such a great connection to my daughter the second she was out. We breastfed right away and we were set.

Under normal circumstances, they would have kept me at the birthing center until 4:00am and then sent me home. I since hemorrhaged, they wanted to observe me a little longer. We didn't leave until 6:00 or 7:00am. Carol let the vernix sink into Rebecca's skin. It's a natural moisturizer. Right before letting us go, she cleaned up her hair, dressed her up for me and this was the end result...

Aside from our wedding day, this was the best day of my life. ♥

Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T22:49:00.002-05:00

So it's a new year. Holy cow. I'm going to be a MOM this year!!! O.O

Ron and I went on our babymoon to Nassau, Bahamas from Dec. 25 - Dec. 28, 2009. It was amazing! I highly recommend taking a one last "hoorah" trip before you have babies. It was nice to get pampered and worry about absolutely nothing for a few days!

Pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marlene_rossiter/sets/72157623090797762/

As soon as we got home, we didn't even bother unpacking. We took our luggage (read: one wheely bag) and drove to our house in Key Largo to spend New Year's there. We just got back today!

-sigh- I hate reality.

On the bright side, in the real world...we have a prenatal appointment on Thursday! I love hearing Rebecca's heart beat every time we go. :)

Ron will be back at work on Monday. He has also been taking my car lately since the rear end on this truck gave out. We're waiting on his friend Jeff to get cracking on his rear end so that he can finally sell us the one that he's not going to use any more.

Oh! Ron's also given me a monthly budget to get started on our cloth diaper stash. We figured no one will get us diapers for the baby shower. So far we've got 5 diapers (read: nothing). LOL. This weekend I ordered like 20-ish online. I got some awesome deals!! I'm trying to keep the colors gender neutral, but it's hard when the pinks and purples are just so darn cute!!

Here's a picture of our tiny stash so far:

Everything is newborn size except for the lamb diaper. That's a small.

As far as resolutions go...I've got 3.

Marlene's Resolutions

1) To breastfeed for at least 1.5 - 2 yrs.
2) To cloth diaper and use cloth trainers exclusively on Rebecca.
3) To get back to 120lbs postpartum. I've got a jogging stroller and my trainer is still on stand-by so I know I can do it!!

Family Resolutions

1) Raise Rebecca in the gospel.
2) Do family prayer more often.
3) Start FHE when Rebecca arrives.

We'll add more as I think of them, but these are definitely my top resolutions.

It's a Girl!!

2009-12-13T21:29:00.001-05:00

We're expecting a baby girl on or around May 9, 2010.
She's weighing about a 1/2 pound right now and is sooo cute to Ron and I!

Here's her 2D scan:

Here's her 4D scan: She sleeps like me!!

These pictures are from our 4D ultrasound on Thursday. We have 14 pictures from our Tuesday ultrasound but they were kind of small and grainy. Luckily we got sooo many pictures and small videos from the 4D ultrasound place on a CD!

Ron is so happy about our baby girl and our families are already buying her stuff! It's crazy! :)

We broke the news to our families with these cupcakes:

We told them that the color of the cupcake on the inside would reveal the baby's gender (pink or blue).

Here are a few reactions we got from Ron's family:

We've also picked out a name for her. Rebecca Charlotte Rossiter. She will be named after my paternal grandmother that passed away in September 2006. I loved her dearly. I cried so much on our wedding day because I wanted her to be there so badly. Charlotte was picked because it's a name I kept coming back to and it goes well with Ron's background.

That's all I've got to report on Rebecca for now!

19 weeks along today! Almost 1/2 way there!! :)

Poke Move Already!!

2009-12-05T11:16:00.001-05:00

So I'll be 18 weeks tomorrow and the little nugget still isn't moving. -sigh-

It's normal though. Most of my friends felt their babies at around 18 weeks, so here's hoping!

My morning sickness is pretty much gone, which is great! I am finally able to -almost- enjoy food again!! Thanksgiving was great! Ron made an amazing turkey and I made the side dishes. We hosted nana and she brought cranberries and her homemade pumpkin pie. Yum!

Now Christmas is coming and Ron and I have been shopping online and in stores trying to find gifts for our parents and siblings. I have decided that this year I am not short. I'm elf size! :)

We also got some cute ornaments marking the occasion that 1) We're expecting! and 2) It's Chloe's first Christmas with us!

Ron is pretty thrilled about this baby coming. He keeps reminding me to eat healthy and exercise. I know he's going to be a wonderful dad to this tiny human growing inside me.

For those of you that do not follow my Facebook, we get to find out the gender on Tuesday! This coming Tuesday, December 8th! We're so excited to see our little baby again! We haven seen him or her since October so it's gotten big!

Thhis next week, aside from finding out the gender I will be hanging out with the pregnant ladies of my ward. We're all going to the zoo and it should be fun! I honestly can't wait!

Oh! I forgot to mention that I will not post the gender until the soon-to-be grandparents know on Friday. I have ordered cupcakes from a friend of mine on TheBump.com and she's making them pink or blue with a marzipan baby on top. It's going to be cute!! <3

Next week is going to be the best week ever.

We Fell In Love Yesterday...

2009-10-17T09:51:00.007-04:00

We had a midwife appointment yesterday and we got to hear the heart beat! Our baby's beating at a healthy 160 bpm!! We were so happy that they found it right away and it was sooo loud!! Haha.

You can hear it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOltX4pYhiA

We also got to see the little one and we were expecting for it to be a little bigger than last time (when it was a bean) since it's only 1.5in right now. Oh no! Our little one has arms and legs! The baby was happily swimming around for a little while and then decided to fall asleep or something when we turned the camera on!! Smart kid...XD

You can see it move around a little here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bIoR6IRxIM

The head is on the left side. If you look close you can see a foot and an arm! :)

Here's a picture so you get an idea of where the baby's head is. The arrow is pointing to the beating heart. We saw it flicker on the screen! (Click the picture to make it bigger)

Can you tell we're ecstatic about this little one? The proud daddy had the biggest smile yesterday!! He was so happy to be able to record this. ♥

I cried during the heart beat and then again when we saw it! It got sooo big!! I was a sobbing mess!!

As far as morning sickness goes, it's still there. Unfortunately. The baby behaved for our appointment yesterday and I actually didn't throw up until dinner time! Progress! My midwife gave me B-6 vitamins to help with the nausea/vomiting. We'll see how that goes. Supposedly it'll subside between 12-14 weeks. I'm 10 weeks 6 days today so we'll see! =/

We're so happy about this baby! It's such a huge blessing in our lives!!

How Big is Baby?

2009-10-12T11:42:00.001-04:00

I'm 10 weeks & 1 day pregnant today and the little one is about the size of a prune! ♥ ♥

Not too cute, I know! XD

I've been keeping more food down these days...sort of. Lets's see how this week goes!

We can't wait to see our little one again this Friday! Yay midwife appointment!! :)

Weekend With Ryan

2009-10-11T22:22:00.001-04:00

This weekend Ron's brother Ryan flew in from Kansas. He's staying with his dad for 2 weeks!

We got to spend the weekend with him in Key Largo. Ron, Ryan and their dad all went fishing Saturday night.

Here's a picture of the 2 brothers at lunch on Saturday afternoon:

How Big is Baby?

2009-10-04T19:19:00.003-04:00

I'm 9 weeks pregnant today and the little one is about the size of a green olive! ♥ ♥ ♥

The baby is still making itself known by making mommy miserable! I'm literally counting down the days until this first trimester is over! I love you kiddo, but you are seriously making mom all sorts of sick! :(

Dad's Birthday

2009-09-26T15:49:00.001-04:00

So my dad's birthday was yesterday. The old man turned 47! O.O

We gave him a limited edition Rock Band Guitar (John Lennon's Rickenbacker) and The Beatles Rock Band game. He loved it!

The baby has been a pain lately. I still hate food and have more aversions than cravings. I really wish it was the other way around! :(

Ughhh -Diessss-

2009-09-24T10:39:00.001-04:00

So this week has just been plain awful! This baby hates me, I swear!

I hate food. I hate the sight and the smell of food and I've been throwing up all my organs lately. When I'm not throwing up I'm insanely nauseous. I'm not sure which is worse yet...felling like you gotta throw up but nothing coming out or the act of throwing up...

I bought Preggie Pops and they help a little but not much. I think I set the bar too high for these things. LOL!

On the bight side, I did lose 7lbs of unwanted weight!! :D

How Big is Baby?

2009-09-20T10:35:00.002-04:00

I'm 7 weeks pregnant and the little one is about the size of a blueberry! ♥

So far this baby has been fairly nice to me. Let's see what this week brings...

Midwife Appointment 1

2009-09-18T09:46:00.001-04:00

So yesterday I went for my first appointment! It was so exciting!! :)

The midwife said I am due on May 9th like I thought. LOL. Yay for charting!!

They drew soooo much blood. I'm really glad that Ron was there because I am deathly afraid of needles.

Oh! Ron got to see my cervix! LOL. He srsly couldn't believe that a baby could fit through that in about 8 more months! Hahaha. I'm so glad he went because he really learned a lot.

We did get to see the baby! They did an ultrasound and found a little Rossiter bean! LOL Unfortunately the machine wouldn't print so we took a picture with our own camera.

We also got a tour and I took a picture of one of the rooms. The birthing rooms are actually separate from the actual appointment area. It's really cool! They're so homey and nice! I still haven't decided if I'm doing this at my house or at the maternity center. I fell in love with the lavender room. LOL!

The only not cool thing I found out is that I cant do any inverted yoga poses anymore. Boooo.

See the little red square? That bean-like thing is Baby Rossiter!!

The jacuzzi for a water birth.

The bed and mini fridge so I can bring some snacks! :)
We're beyond excited! Ron got to see the baby and I think he feels better now. The only main concern is money but hopefully medicaid kicks in soon!

We're Officially Expecting!!

2009-09-10T10:23:00.002-04:00

The doctor confirmed it...

Awesome News!!

2009-09-07T21:05:00.002-04:00

We're expecting!!! :D

I took a pregnancy test this morning and it was positive, and then I took another one tonight (diff brand) and it was still positive!

My period's been MIA for a week now, so I was concerned since I had cramps, sore breasts, but no period.

I'm hoping I can get squeezed in at my dr's office tomorrow for a blood test. THEN we'll tell the whole world!! According to the all-knowing internet I'm about 5 weeks along.

We'll see what the doc says!

We're so excited!! :)

♥

Marlene's 22nd Birthday + Other Stuff...

2009-07-14T00:21:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted in forever and a day.

My birthday (June 25th) was awesome! Ron really out did himself with all the gifts I got! I want to say that my favorites are the ones Wii related. ;)

One of Ron's gifts to me was a Wii Fit and his mom got me Wii EA Sports Active. I need to start the 30-day challenge on Active. I've kinda been doing whatever I want lately...which will get me nowhere fast. My dad got me a Rock Band guitar for one of the many games Ron got me (Rock Band 2)! I seriously am counting down the days until September 9, 2009 when The Beatles Rock Band will be released... I'm a geek. I know.

For my birthday, we were treated to dinner at Olive Garden by nana (she got me an awesome vacuum for pet hair removal - much needed! and work out clothes).

Ron had a whole week off from work last week so we went to Key Largo and enjoyed he sun for 3 glorious days! He fished with his dad on Tuesday and I went to KMart and got a sweet deal on a Metallic Rose Nintendo DS Lite. I paid $75 for a BRAND NEW one!! I swear they messed up somewhere but whatever...I'm not complaining. ;)

I've been pretty much obsessed with it since I got it. I think I made some wise game choices so far:

New Super Mario Bros.
Brain Age (Looking forward to getting Brain Age 2)
Mario Party
Kirby Super Star Ultra

My one pitiful impulse buy? Wall-E. The movie rocked so I thought the game would too. SO WRONG!

We spent the rest of the week at home since he was feeling a bit under the weather and I had to nurse him back to health. =/

Oh!!! My biggest disappointment... AEROSMITH. We had tickets to go see them yesterday (Monday) and they postponed the show until further notice. I bought floor seats to see them & ZZ Top since it's Ron's favorite band. Huge let down. We're hoping they reschedule soon!

Still no luck finding a job. If anyone knows of any available job in Miami please let me know!

My latest goal: Lose 30lbs. That's the reason behind the Wii Fit & EA Sports Active. I'm trying to make it to the gym every day faithfully but I'm not seeing results. I hate the treadmill so I think I'm actually going to take up running, like in a park. Wish me luck! I was the worst runner back in grammar school and that was probably the last time I ran too! :(

I'm also OFFICIALLY off the NuvaRing. No, we are not TTC. I'm just hoping that being off hormones will help me shed some pounds. I'm trying to do FAM as best I can but I know my periods will be out of whack- for the first 3-ish months so we're taking precautions.

Chloe's doing well. She's not sleeping in her crate anymore. We figured if we have a dog, she should guard the house not be locked up. What good is that?! So she is temporarily sleeping on the couch (aka her favorite spot).

I'm still working on clearing out the game room. Once that's clear, the fun begins! I'll get to paint, buy art and do the whole shebang in both rooms (game & office).

That's all from the Rossiter household!

***Happy Birthday to my Mommy!!***

Mother's Day 2009

2009-05-21T07:00:00.001-04:00

I miss her so much...

Our First Blog!

2009-04-14T13:35:00.001-04:00

Well Ron and I finally got on the bandwagon with the other married couples and got a blog! I use a personal one on another website, but this one will be our main blog to share with our family and friends.

We've been married for almost 6 months. Here's a quick re-cap:

October: Got married & went on our honeymoon!!
November: Honeymoon and Thanksgiving at the Figueroa house.
December: Christmas at the Choy's.
January: We got a puppy!! We named her Chloé and we had to battle kennel cough with her for the first 2 weeks. Ron's birthday. Very small celebration at our house. Just the two of us & I made a cake! I got laid-off my job in the middle of the month.
February: We found out that Chloé was actually 5 months, not 3 months like the shelter told us. Thank goodness for vets! For Valentine's day, Ron got me flowers when I thought we had no money for things like that. He made me cry because he was so sweet. I made him breakfast that morning and got him a card.
March: I visited my grandmother's grave I miss her terribly. Our 3yr anniversary of being together was also on March 25th. We made a dent in our wedding cake that we were supposed to save until our one year wedding anniversary! Oh well...

April has been an adventure so far! Ron got me a vintage pink bicycle and has been teaching me to ride. He got me the coolest pink helmet and pink cycling gloves too! I look like a little pink dot riding a bike!! Hahaha.

We went to Key Largo last weekend and took our pup, Chloé. We went bike riding and fishing. I did pretty well in both departments thanks to my husband's patience! I caught 4 grunts, 4-6 small grouper, 1 box fish and 1 unidentified fish. Ron caught 1 baby shark, 3 grunts and 2 small grouper! We only kept the grunts. After that, the handle on my pink fishing pole broke. So I was done for the day.

This weekend we have a fishing trip planned with Ron's dad and his Nana. We're looking forward to it. We hope that my replacement reel comes in so that I can use my rod. Otherwise, I'll have to use my new freshwater one.

When I can figure out how to upload pictures...I'll do that. =/

The Rossiter Family

Rebecca's Birth

Happy New Year!

It's a Girl!!

*Poke* Move Already!!

We Fell In Love Yesterday...

How Big is Baby?

Weekend With Ryan

How Big is Baby?

Dad's Birthday

Ughhh -Diessss-

How Big is Baby?

Midwife Appointment 1

We're Officially Expecting!!

Awesome News!!

Marlene's 22nd Birthday + Other Stuff...

Mother's Day 2009

Our First Blog!

Poke Move Already!!