At Last....

3 days late and 21 hours of labor... Zoey Elizabeth Mattes decided to make her appearance on April 29th! Here is the basic run down of events....

Monday- April 28th
9:30 pm - Gary and I was watching television eagerly awaiting midnight so that we can head to the hospitalto start my induction... when whoosh.. my water breaks! I tell gary that he might want to shower now instead of later since my water just broke.. to which he responds "you're kidding right?!?!?"

10:15 pm - Gary and I are off to the hospital and of course hit EVERY red light and get behind the ONE guy who drive 10 MPH UNDER THE SPEED LIMIT! needless to say we arrived safely.. thank goodness it wasn't an emergency

11:00pm - Im getting settled into my room, IV's meds all that good stuff.. only problem is I wasn't feeling any contractions! still 1 centimeter dialted!

11:30pm - Our friends Jenn and Hayden come by to help pass the time with us!

1:00am - Walk #1 - around the hospital floor, around labor and delivery, the children's hospital... everywhere! Gary found the "game room" in the children's hospital and we "borrow" scrabble.. to pass some time!

3:00am - Walk #2 - same route as last time... however we return scrabble and "borrow" trivial pursuit...

5:00am - Pitocin has begun... still not feeling contractions.. still only 1 centimeter dialted Trivial pursuit is too hard and we are never going to win so we call it a night.

7:00 - 9:00am - THE WORST TWO HOURS OF MY LIFE!!! Full blown contrations! i don't think i spoke one word for the entire two hours except to ask my doctor for an epidural!!!! 3 centimeters dialted.... (only 3 after 12 hours! i was soooo pissed)Seriously how and why do people do this without drugs... are you sick?? who wants to be in that much pain!

9:30am - Drug doctor finally comes! I love this man.. the only problem now is I can't feel my legs.. hmmm

10:00am - 2:00pm - sleeping on-and-off...

3:00 - 5:00pm - No pain whatsoever! contractions are getting stronger.. or so they told me... 9-10 centimeters! I begin thinking how am i going to push if i can't feel anything..

5:30pm - Doctor shows up.. start pushing!!! Couldn't feel if i was actually pushing or not!

6:00pm - Im SOOOOOOOOOOOO tired! Doctor uses a vacuum...
.... two pushes and 13 mnutes later.....

ZOEY ELIZABETH MATTES IS BORN!!!! woohoo!

Thank you for all the love and phone calls! We really appreciate them! She is the best thing in the world! and can not imagine life without her!

My final post..

PRE-ZOEY! It is official! tonight we go into the hospital to be induced. I had my ultrasound this morning and everything looks GREAT!! thank goodness! I must say i am sooooo excited to have pregnancy be over, to finally see my baby, and to be a mom... Its one of those things that you always wait and wait for and now that i am hours away the whole experience seems surreal.. my pregnancy has been wonderful with zero complications and for that i am thankful! i must also take the time to say thank you to all our friends and family for their amazing love and support of zoey.. and she is not even born yet! how could i have asked for more!

I am also extremely thankful for my amazing husband who has been there every step of the way... putting up with me, making runs to random food places, putting up with specific cravings, sleeping in another room when i would snore, and most importantly for making me a mom! that above all i am thankful for!


(i made it... 40 week and 2 days!!)

Come and gone...

that would be my due date.. it has come and gone with no signs of baby... i know i shouldn't be upset or disappointed about the whole thing since your due date is an estimate and i am being induced on Tuesday.. but still a part of me is disappointed... i know i'm close to this being over.. but man it would have been nice to be holding a baby today... oh well...

We do appreciate everyone calling with concern and wonder about Zoey.. i think she might be the most anticipated child ever... but we will call you when she is here... we promise!

The good news and the not-so-good news

The good news: I am scheduled to be induced on Tuesday starting at midnight.. so technically Tuesday morning! After my doctor's appointment yesterday, I expressed my discomfort the past couple of weeks and my doctor said that she could take care of that by scheduling an induction. So Monday I have to go in and get an ultrasound to make sure Zoey's head is down, and then we go into the hospital on Monday at midnight.. weird I know but at this point I would go into the hospital at any time of the day if it meant that this would be over soon! WOOHOO only 4 more days of being pregnant!

The not-so-good news: I am no where near having this child in the next 4 days! I have had mild contractions all ending quickly after they begin... so basically I go through a cyclical depression.. I get excited because I am having contractions and then get depressed when they don't last and go away..in the mean time I am walking all day, cleaning the house, playing wii and doing as many deep knee bends as my knees can take.. and still nothing.. whoever came up with these "old wives tales" really needs to reevaluate their effectiveness because NONE OF THEM WORK! I think even Gary is over this whole thing.. so pray and hope that we don't have to wait until Monday and Zoey decides to come this weekend! We will of course keep you posted!

Stay-at-home Mom???

Am I considered a stay-at-home mom if the baby isn't here yet?? today is my first day with NO SCHOOL! its amazing to be able to sleep in until 9 am, when normally i would be in third period... i made a wonderful breakfast for myself and now am enjoying watching all the TLC shows i can stand! The dogs are LOVING life right now, since someone is home to pay attention to them (as if they don't get enough attention already) this definitely has the potential to become very addicting... one of us just needs to win the lottery so this can be reality one day...

Today I have what will hopefully be my last doctor's appointment where we can figure out what is going on... but for now enjoy what I am hoping this will be that last big belly picture of this pregnancy...



(don't you love the outfit...)

One week...

As of today, I have one more week of being pregnant! I am trying to do everything I can to induce labor so that it is less than a week... but so far nothing has worked.. walking, cleaning, wii.. none of it has induced any contractions.. in fact since I have been trying to induce labor I have had LESS contractions! SO since it appears I will still be pregnant by the end of the weekend at least I only have 2 MORE DAYS LEFT OF SCHOOL!

38 Weeks...

38 weeks... and hopefully less than 2 to go! At least this picture signifies that I only have 5 more days left of school before I am on maternity leave! WOOHOO... that I am definitely looking forward to.. I would like to say that I am one of those teachers that will really miss her students.. but sadly I am not.. I will enjoy every second that I am away from my students and school! The fear of child birth is no longer my greatest fear of the up coming weeks...I am more in fear that my students will show up at the hospital while I am giving birth... (many of them have expressed that they will show up) Be scared for me!

ps- Thank you to everybody that has voted that I will have Zoey early! I knew I liked you guys! Let's just hope it comes true!

1 centimeter!!!

I never thought i would be so excited about something so small... but i learned today that i am one centimeter dialated and the doctor could feel the baby's! WOOHOO! i know to those who have had children that this is nothing and truly doesn't mean a lot.. but it made me soo excited! i have had more contractions in the past couple of days.. of course nothing significant... mostly they are random and infrequent but it just makes me excited that I am that much closer!!!! 9 more to go!

37 weeks and new furniture!

Please try not to look at my face.. only focus on the belly! With this posting I am now excited because it means I have less than three weeks before Zoey is in the world!! With doctors visits once a week and school starting again I think the next three weeks are going to fly by.. at least hopefully... (I think Cyrus was jealous of the picture..)

We made our final pre-Zoey purchase with the help of some of the wonderful teachers that work with Gary... i love it! its so comfortable, i often will just rock there by myself.. now truly all we need is Zoey!

Isn't it BEAUTIFUL!? My in-laws bought us this gorgeous table for our new house! It's perfect for the space and fits perfectly with everything else we have! Though we haven't eaten dinner on it yet i know it will be perfect for many many many family dinners to come! Thanks mom and dad!

What is wrong with this picture?

The below picture might help to illustrate why our dogs our spoiled... and why they think that they are humans... Yes that is our bed.. my husband on the left, both dogs next to him... and yes that area to the right of the picture is where i would be sleeping... all four of us pretty much "spoon" all night... wanna trade spots?

Wii would like to play...

In the midst of a pretty uneventful spring break and with our newest addition well on her way... the Mattes family has purchased a Wii! and in the span of 21 hours hours we have played the Wii for about 8 hours already.. Gary pretty much kicks my butt in all the games except for a couple games of bowling and golf.. i dominated golf last night! so while we are at home with our lil' Zoey... we will have entertainment! I highly recommend them to anyone...

(video was asked to be removed by my husband... those who watched i hope you enjoyed!)

36 weeks.. and growing..

Enough said...

One month.... (or less)

WOOHOO.. as of today i have less than a month(hopefully) before this lil' girl is born! Its crazy to think that in less than a month there will be a lil' baby girl in our house and that we are going to be parents! kinda scary.. but oh so exciting!!! part of me wishes she would come sooner than April 26th, but the other part just thinks that will screw up my sick/maternity leave for school, which means it that would mess up my paychecks... but i suppose its not up to me....

Zoey is about 6 pounds and somewhere around 20 inches long.. and the lil' rascal has stolen my belly button.. that is right i no longer have a belly button that goes in.. it is simply flat...its kind of crazy to look at.. it is also getting much more uncomfortable to sleep or move.. my memory is completely shot. and i find myself forgetting simple words that i have used a million times in life.. as well as how to spell most words.. my students find this to be hilarious.. but i think they are finally beginning to understand... my body temperature is raised constantly to the point that i am freezing my students with tundra like conditions.. contractions occur frequently throughout the week.. which only makes me excited until they stop... but overall i can't complain.. i love being pregnant, despite my gripes, especially when she moves all over my belly! One month to go.. pray and hope for sooner!

ps- sorry about the comment moderating.. i had a creepy one from someone i didn't know.. so it made me nervous...

35 weeks and the parenting experiment

(sorry about the attire... when i come home from school this is all my body can handle... fitting clothes are becoming a scarcity)

35 down 5 to go... part of me can't believe that time has gone by so fast and that in 5 weeks there will be a lil' zoey in our lives! then there is the other part of me that is thinking WHAT?!?!? i still have 5 weeks.. you have got to be kidding me!! how much bigger can a person get.. im not that big to begin with where is this child going to go?!?!?! so apparently bi-polarism is taking over my mind. but in reality i am really excited about the upcoming weeks and CAN NOT WAIT TO MEET MY DAUGHTER!!!

she is currently around 5.5 pounds and 20 inches long.. she moves CONSTANTLY with alien like movements.. its so crazy to sit and watch my belly move about in weirdly contorted ways.. the best is when gary notices and is a little bit freaked out... but then he put his hand on my belly and then she really goes nuts!

so this week we had a wonderful and insightful experience.. one of my friends at school needed someone to watch her beautiful 9 month old daughter, Autumn.. so i voluteered... thinking hey we need to get used to this due to upcoming events... so i brought her to the house and the dogs went crazy.... sniffing, licking, and generally courious about who this person was and why was she in their house.. they eventually calmed down and went on with their day of sleeping and playing... then Autumn decided she was not so happy anymore and basically went on crying for about an hour... of course my first thought was "what the heck am i thinking.. i am not ready for this..." i think gary had the same feelings when he said "im glad you volunteered to watch her" after a bottle, toys, bouncing, games, gary playing with her, and a walk in the stroller, i realized a bottle might not be enough for her and since i was unable to find her food i took out a piece of bread and fed it to her and thankfully that was the magic trick! Autumn then started to enjoy spending time with us.. and gary loved playing games with her toes and keeping her occupied with a soda bottle...Autumn was quiet and after a bottle was asleep.. WE SURVIVED!!! I did feel much bettter about my parenting skills considering the child was alive, she was fed, and we were alive as well.. i did reassure gary that it is easier when its your own child.... i don't know if that made him feel better or not, but he was amazing helping me get pacifers, cooking dinner, and entertaining autumn!... but i guess in 5 weeks we will have a crash course in parenting with no return or end... cause i guess we can't give her back... nor do i want to!!!

my adorable niece...

Though we haven't formally met.. i can already tell that she is adorable.. blogging world meet Samantha Colleen...

Too many things...

I know more than one post in a day... lame.. but i figured if i didn't do this today.. it might be weeks before i got the pictures off my camera and actually posted them on here... so here you go..

1. My dad, step-mom, and little brothers came into town this weekend and though we didn't do much.. it was fun to have them around and hang out with family. We did manage to take them out to McGuire's-the greatest restaurant on the the planet.. and as you can see from the picture below my dogs LOVE their uncle brett!


2. So one of the horrible side effects of my pregnancy has been constant runny/bloody noses, and TERRIBLE snoring! I even wake myself up sometimes! Its absolutely terrible and worse of all my poor loving husband has been reduced to sleeping in the guest room almost every night since we have moved in...(he tries to sleep in our bed every night and then inevitably lands up in the other room..) So tonight i am experimenting tonight with these remedies... any suggestions??

ps- the ear plugs are for Gary... hopefully we can sleep in the same room now...

3. Thanks to our wonderful friends... Zoey's room is just about complete.. notice the letters.. i painted them myself! i know i felt so martha! I just can't wait until there is a little girl living in there!


4. My amazing step-mom made this goregous blanket for Zoey! It's sooo soft and wonderful that i might steal it from Zoey!


5. Alright you must really like us to still be reading this... 34 weeks.. and apparently that turns you ghostly white... i don't know what happened to the pictures but i tried it several times and each time this is what came out.. so i gave in and looked ghostly! the good thing is this picture means only 6 more weeks! i'm excited to see Zoey.. and get some of my body back! Once again I encourage comparision with older pictures for the true effect...

Congrats!

My new niece Samantha Colleen was born today! She is beautiful and healthy! I can't wait to see her in person! Congrats to Kim, Tj and big brother Alex!!

Christmas in March??

It has felt a little like Christmas around here... remember that feeling when you were a kid and you got presents that needed to be put together.. and you couldn't wait to unwrap them from their box and take out all the pieces and read the directions(men maybe dont understand that part)... and then were filed with the great sense of accomplishment for what you just assembled....

That has been my feelings the past couple of weeks with new baby stuff! I love it.. my mother-in-law gave us the bouncer and swing... and I bought the stroller and car seat! It was soo much fun to put it all together.. I love it!


My wonderful mother-in-law came over this past weekend and painted Zoey's room a very bright and froggy green (as you can see in the pictures)! At first I wasn't so sure about the color but i think its growing on me.. which is good cause there is no way we are repainting!

Our fence is also completed thanks to the wonderful efforts of my husband, father-in-law, and friend Hayden... man i'm so glad i'm prego and can't help with manual labor! it looks amazing! Our yard is also beginning to be cleared as well.. which is great!

Baby Zoey is now close to 4 pounds (according to the baby tracker), but when i went for an ultrasounds last week they said she was about 3 lbs 10 ounces... lets hope for small.. and she is about 19 inches (once again... doubtful considering she is half my child)

Don't we live in Florida!?!?!?

I was on time to work this morning... in fact a little early... and then I walked outside and found this....




I can't wait for Spring!
* Note this is a rare occurence for us in Florida so please do not believe this is every morning.. Florida is warm and a wonderful place to visit!

31 Weeks....

Some things I have learned now 31 weeks into pregnancy....
1. my feet are a far distance memory...
2. tums are my new favorite candy...
3. strech marks are so very attractive...
4. i forget how skinny my feet used to be...
5. hunger is a constant... 24/7
6. i'm only going to get bigger.. this is inevitable...
7. waddling is the new model walk...
8. any clothes i had before i was pregnant are long gone...
9. maternity shirts are far too short and not that attractive...
10. I have the best support system! especially my husband who is always there for me and loves how HUGE i am!