mr. and mrs. vacay

We have always said that when we have kids we wanted to make sure that we took time for just the two of us.  We know that it is so important to have time to ourselves, especially when we are both working and life starts to get crazy.  Although we have not done that great on the one date a month, we have recently been able to complete our first mr. and mrs. vacation, just the two of us! For our first mr. and mrs. vacation we went to Seattle, Washington.  Neither of us have been to Washington, Southwest flies out there, and we had willing grandparents willing to watch Charlotte for a couple of days...it was perfect.

We had a great time, doing things that would be difficult to do with a five month old on a very rigid nap schedule.  Here are a few of our favorite things...

Meals with no baby on my lap.  Although we were strongly encouraged to go to an indian reservation and get fresh caught salmon by some old bird on the plane, we opted for Ray’s, a lovely and pretty famous waterfront restaurant.

Go on a ninety minute tour of the Boeing plant.  This would have been out of the question if we weren’t flying solo, this tour had some crazy strict rules, one being no children under four feet.  We know Charlotte is tall, but not over four feet yet.  This tour was great and Jay was in little boy heaven!

Hike up a huge snow covered mountain.  Mt. Rainier was amazing. You can see it from almost everywhere in Seattle and it really reminded us of our honeymoon at Lake Louise.  The trails were still covered in snow, so some of the hike was a little scary at times and we ended up doing a good amount of “skiing” down the mountainside by keeping our feet still and just sliding down.  This is one of the most beautiful places we have been to!

Touring the city.  We walked this city up one side and down the other!  We were pooped at the end of the day, but got to really experience the city and all of the hills that go with it!

We really did have a great time.  It was so nice to be able to come and go as we wanted, chat through dinners and sleep through the night.  Our first mr. mrs. vacation was a great success!

It would not have been possible without Grandma and Grandpa Hess.  They had a great time back in quaky virginia!

-melissa

happy anniversary to us

Seven years ago me and some of my favorite girls woke up, went to the hair salon, got some coffee and muffins and headed off to the Manor House very early in the morning.  We got dressed, did makeup and took pictures, all to prepare to walk down the aisle by 11:30 in the morning.  I met Jay down a tangled little path through a garden and we a had a very short, simple ceremony.  We got to enjoy lunch with friends and family and then started off on our honeymoon and a lifetime of adventures! 

Over the past seven years we have moved over ten hours away from everyone we knew, bought and remodeled a house, met friends that we will have for a lifetime, served in a church, had two dogs and one baby, and enjoyed every bump of the ride!

Seven years of marriage, seven years of dating before that and best friends for half of our lives.  Looking forward to a lifetime of bumps, curves and maybe a loopty-loop or two!

-melissa

postpartum pillage

Around a year ago we decided that we wanted to start trying to get pregnant.  Like most people know, when I set my mind to something I get slightly obsessive.  Combine that with always liking a good set of rules and you have my distorted eating habits for the past year.  Pre-pregnancy I cut out alcohol and caffeine, which was not that bad expect for when we had a girl night or book club and I did not get to enjoy a nice glass of white wine.  The caffeine was a little different with a group of forty five spring infused ten year olds, but once I got over the main addiction I was okay.  

Once we found out I was pregnant and we met with the nutritionalist at the doctors office and it was a whole different story.  The items that we (Jay, myself and the doctor) thought that would be best to cut out of my diet was enormous.  The list included: soft cheeses, hot dogs, rare meats, soft serve ice cream, lunch meat, and that is just to name a few.

Well I am no longer pregnant, no embryo to protect, no toxic weird food chemicals can get to her now...so watch out...a postpartum pillage is about to happen.

Today it happened, Jay took me on a field trip and we pillaged Mechanicsville and all it had to offer!  Again because we like a good set of rules we have listened to everything muttered by our pediatrician. This includes that Charlotte can not go into public places for the first month until flu season ends.  What this really means is that I can not go out in public, no Target, no restaurants, not even a quick trip to the grocery.  Taking this into consideration the pillage had to have some boundaries.  We were in the market for a wonderful place that offered delicious hotdogs and creamy soft serve ice cream.  Where else can meet all of my pig-out needs like Mechanicsville Turnpike with its Sonic and Dairy Queen.

Our raid started at Sonic where we enjoyed a succulent lunch of chili dogs with that weird cheese you find out of a can, it was simply amazing. 

We could not just stop there so we also added a side of onion rings (that tasted strangely like french toast sticks) and mozzarella sticks.  

The goodness and rule breaking could not stop there, coming home we passed a Dairy Queen and we stopped to delight in blizzards, made with soft serve ice cream, of course! 

The whole trip was amazing, delectable, and oh so gratifying.  Good thing I at least get those extra 500 calories...I wonder how many days of calories I consumed today?  It does not matter it was so well worth it! 

the journey from husband to father, part 4

Obviously Melissa is alive and well and everything turned out great. Our only goal throughout the whole process was to have a healthy baby and a healthy mommy. Charlotte got 8 and 9 apgar scores and if they handed out scores to people for recovering from surgery, I think Melissa should have received 8’s and 9’s, if not 10’s.

The sound I heard was indeed Melissa being rolled into room #17. There were three nurses who brought her down from the post anesthesia care unit. She had all of the typical post surgery garb. Blood pressure cuff, morphine drip, antibiotics, pulse oximeter, pneumatic leg compression, etc. It took them a while to get her all set up, but as soon as she ready, I had the nurse bring Charlotte back down from the nursery so she could meet her daughter for the first time. Melissa was still a little foggy from anesthesia, but she held her tight and commented on her small nose and how much she looked like me. It’s amazing how I went from absolutely tired and ready to call it a night to charged with energy and excited to spend the night with my family.

The rest is history. We spent the next few days in room #17 learning what it meant to work together as a team to help Charlotte have a great start. I’ll spare the details, but breastfeeding is pretty cool stuff. I still catch myself just watching in wonder. It’s so simple and natural and I’m so glad that Melissa is able to get Charlotte off to such a great start. I’m not patting myself on the back, but you really get to see how much you love someone when they can’t pull up their own pants, dry certain parts of their body or even put their own socks on. I think Melissa recovered like a champ after her surgery and I am so thankful I was able to be there all day every day, so that we could do it together. We’ve always been a great team ever since we met in 1997 and Charlotte has only brought us closer and made us a better team.

Today, Charlotte is nine days old and she’s already gained half a pound past her birth weight. She eats like her dad and is sweet like her mom. This 4 part series was only going to be one post, but after I wrote the first section I realized that there was so much on my heart and so many things I needed to express.

After it was all said and done we found out that in the process of progressing so fast and pushing so hard and Charlotte not wanting to come out Melissa tore her uterus, cervix and into her vagina. It was a blessing that day, that dr. eads couldn’t be found. It meant that once he was located there were two surgeons to work on Melissa. One delivered Charlotte while the other focused on stopping the bleeding. On top of that, there were two anesthesiologists, several nurses and an urologist. Melissa ended up losing half of the blood in her body. At one point they found blood in her catheter and wondered if possibly something around her kidneys or bladder had been nicked. After a camera was inserted into her bladder they found that all was OK. It took just at three hours to complete her surgery and put her back together. 

So....I’m thankful for whoever donated blood, so that she could receive two units of it. I’m thankful that dr. eads used the bathroom around 5:30 that day. I’m thankful for Katie waiting with me when things were uncertain. I’m thankful for great nurses and doctors who truly care about people and I’m thankful for the sovereignty of God.

psalm 55:22

Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.