Chessa's Baby Shower

We traveled down to Waco in March to go to my sister Chessa's baby shower! She is due with baby Titus at the end of April. The shower was wonderful and it was great to see our good friends again! The shower was held at Chris Jeffrey's house and we have so many wonderful memories there! She hosted my baby shower for Abigail there and also Chessa's baby shower. Chris is such a sweet friend!

The 3 of 2015!

Well the year of 2015 is going to be a very exciting one for the Snodgrass side of the family! We found out that my sister's Chessa and Charity are pregnant and expecting baby boys! Who would have thought that last year I was blogging about them getting married and now I'm blogging about them having babies!

It's also neat because when I was born, my mom and her sister and sister-in-law also had babies, so my grandmother had 3 new grandchildren born in 1983. They called us the 3 of '83! Now, my mom is having the same thing happen, so we're calling them the 3 of 2015! :) Brody will be so excited to play with his cousin's Titus and Cade! I know the boys will all be close!

It's a...

BOY!!!

We went to go find out if we were having a boy or a girl on October 9, 2014. I was thinking boy, but also wasn't going to be surprised if it was another girl. Bryan said he didn't care, but I knew he really wanted a boy! :) 

When we went into our appointment, we told Abigail we were going to see if she was getting a brother or a sister. Up until then, if you asked her what she wanted, normally she would say a sister. It was funny because we were waiting in the waiting room and she was getting impatient with waiting. She suddenly said, "I want to go see my brother!" We were shocked because she'd never said anything like that before!

We were called back to the room and in no time at all, the technician said she knew what the baby was and she asked if I did. I told her I was pretty sure I knew what it was, and then she announced that it was a boy! We were all so excited...especially Bryan!

Brody Mitchell Moss, we can't wait to meet you sweet boy! :)

Abigail's Birth Story, Part 2

When I got into my recovery room, I can remember how EXHAUSTED I was! It was like I literally couldn't keep my eyes open. The families got there and started taking all of the pictures! There were lots of people and lots of pictures!

I remember that they took Abigail back to the nursery because they needed to run some more tests on her. They told us later that her blood sugar and temperature were low so they gave her a bottle of formula. I wasn't exactly thrilled at that, but I talked to my lactation consultant and we decided that we were going to keep trying to nurse while also giving her the bottle. I know that she needed the bottle and I wasn't freaking out about that, but I do believe that's what made us have such a hard time nursing in the beginning. She would not latch on at all! My wonderful lactation consultant, Cindee, came by several times and the nurses helped too. Thankfully, Abigail finally got the hang of it later on and you can read about that here.

She was in the nursery for a while, so Bryan and I used that time to catch up on sleep. I felt so bad sleeping when everyone was there, but my body just wouldn't stay awake! Bob and Willa had to go back to Shreveport to get back to the gym so they left. My parents stayed in the room with us and just watched us while we slept. I woke up later and they brought Abigail back to us. I was quite a mess, but wanted to take our first family pictures, so I cleaned myself up and re-did my makeup! :)

We had more visitors throughout the day! Other than all of our families, Jason, Jacque, Jillian, Morgan (who Abigail's named after), Chris, Wes, Amanda, Audry, and Garrett all came to visit the day she was born.

That evening the nurse came into my room and told me they were going to take my catheter. She also said that I had to be able to pee before I'd be allowed to leave the hospital. If I didn't, they'd have to put the catheter back in. Now, let me tell you, that thing was my best friend during labor, but there was NO way I wanted that thing put back in without having an epidural! So, in order to go to the bathroom, that meant that I had to get up. Normally, not a problem..after having a c-section, BIG problem. See getting out of bed requires you to use your stomach muscles and well, after they've been cut, that's kinda hard to do! I can remember when the nurse told me that I was going to have to get up and walk around. She said it was going to hurt, but the more I did it, the better I would feel. I thought she was crazy. I remember raising my bed as much as I could and the moment I tried to shift my legs to the side of the bed, I felt this INSANE burning. It was like fire, ripping my stomach apart. I wasn't worried about getting out of the bed, I was worried about just being able to shift my whole body and have my legs touch the floor. The nurse kept making me move and Bryan was trying to help, but it hurt SO bad. I was bawling it hurt so much. The mean nurse made me get up though and walk. I don't know how, but somehow I did it. I cried the whole time. I cried walking, I cried getting back in bed. SO much pain! It took me a couple of times, but I figured out that the trick was to instead of sit straight up like I normally would, to just roll off of the bed. I would just grab onto my nightstand at home and roll off. That caused the least amount of pain.

We decided to have Abigail sleep in the nursery that night. Even though I didn't want to let her out of my sight, many of my friends suggested this and knowing about my lack of sleep over the past 24+hrs, I knew this would be best. I was not expecting so many interruptions though! They brought Abigail to me every 3 or so hours to try and nurse and they also kept waking me up to give me my medicine.

The next morning was much better. I got to have the most delicious breakfast and I got to get my iv out that day. We rested, watched tv and had more visitors!

Mommy's sweet 2nd grade teachers from school came to see Abigail (Kerri, Fran, and Chris). They had sure taken care of Mommy that school year and they couldn't wait to see her!

Our friend Mike Alexander also came to see Abigail! Day 2 in the hospital was really good! I got up a couple of more times and walked around. Thank goodness it wasn't as bad as the night before. It still was very painful, but better the second day. We decided that night to have her sleep in the room with us. She did really well. We had planned for Bryan to get up and get her and hand to me when it was time to eat. Well, that didn't turn out exactly as planned! The first feeding alarm went off and I heard Abigail making noises. Bryan's alarm went off, but Bryan didn't get up. From where my bed was and where Bryan had been sleeping I couldn't see him. I started calling his name and heard nothing. I didn't want to scream his name because I didn't want to scare Abigail or bother anyone else in the hospital, so I just kept calling his name. I didn't even know if he was in the room because I couldn't see him! In my exhaustion, I wasn't thinking clearly, so I didn't think of (or don't even remember if I knew there was one) pushing the call button on my bed to call the nurse and I couldn't reach the phone. By this time, Abigail is crying and I realized that I was just going to have to go get her myself. I was NOT thrilled by the fact that I was going to have to get out of bed by myself; however, I did what any good mother would do and got up and got her crying baby! :) I looked and Bryan was completely passed out asleep. I figured he must have been REALLY tired if he didn't even hear me calling him, so I just decided to let him sleep. I got Abigail and took her back to bed with me. Ouch, ouch, and more ouch. Oh and did I also forget to tell you that the nurse forgot to bring me my medicine that night? OUCH!!

Bryan finally woke up later and of course felt HORRIBLE when I told him what happened. I forgave him though and everything was ok. :) I was able to take a shower that morning and felt somewhat human again. :) We were going to be able and go home on Day 3 as soon as Abigail had her first poop. However, that took forever! I don't know if she was stopped up or what, but the nurses finally took her to "help" things along. They finally brought her back and said we were good to go! :)

 I still can't get over how tiny she looks in that carseat! Daddy has her and he's ready to go!

 We were so glad to finally be going home! It was a very safe and slow drive home! ;)

Our new family of three! Home sweet home! :)

Looking back over my delivery, these are some things I learned and would tell my former self!

• Drink TONS of water before you go to the hospital. This will help with your iv going in more easily since you have tiny veins.
• You don't need half of the things that you packed. If you really forgot something, there will be SOMEONE that can go get it for you. Trust me!
• Ask more questions and demand more answers if you don't understand.
• Most importantly, unless your baby is actually in distress or almost there, do not agree to a c-section.
• You know your body and yourself more than anyone else..even your doctor. YOU know your limitations and what you can handle. If you think you can make it through a delivery, you can. If you don't think you can, that's fine too.

Looking back, I wish that I would have not agreed to let my Dr. perform a c-section. My baby was not in distress and I was fine. I wish I would have told her that I was going to keep going and let my body keep working. I'll never know what "could" have happened. I just know what did happen. However, these are things that I will remember and take with me next time. I wouldn't change anything though. Everything happened for a reason and I now have my beautiful daughter..and she was worth every second!

Abigail's Birth Story

*Well, even though it's been over a year since Abigail's birth, I finally finished her birth story! I've worked on this several times over the past year, but never could force myself to finish it. The fact that I also had almost finished it and then it accidently got deleted might have something to do with it! :) It's VERY long, but here it is! :)

I am finally forcing myself to sit down and write about Abigail's birth story! I've been wanting to, meaning to, trying to write about it for the past almost 6 weeks since my daughter has been born. However, I have not really been able to find the time or really been able to make myself do it. Why? Well, I guess that sometimes I don't like to think about it. I know it might sound silly, but wait to judge me until after you read my story! ;) I should be cleaning the house and doing the laundry, but instead I'm going to watch my daughter sleep and tell you about how she entered the world. :)
At my last OBGYN appointment at 39 weeks, Dr. Hudgens told me that I was not really dilated at all and said that we could schedule an induction if I wanted for April 30th. Bryan and I decided that is what we would do so my Dr. said to come back in on Monday morning of April 30th and she would check me to see if I had made any progress between now and then. After leaving the Dr.'s office, we were so excited because we knew that we were going to meet our baby girl, no later that Tuesday! I did want to avoid being induced, but wasn't willing to wait another week or more to have my baby!

Bryan and I went home that Thursday and spent the weekend trying everything we knew of to induce labor. I kept waiting and hoping for signs of contractions or that my labor was beginning, but nothing happened. We notified all of our family that the plan was to go into the hospital on Monday night at 6:00 to be induced and we would expect Abigail to be born sometime on Tuesday. Bryan and I enjoyed our last weekend as a couple and counting down the days until Monday!

Monday morning we went to the Dr. and surprise, surprise, she said there was still no change. She told us that we could still go ahead with the induction or we could wait another week. When I heard that, I thought, "Are you kidding me lady?!" Both of our families were already planning on driving in that night. In hindsight, I kinda wish I would have waited. However, I knew that there was no way that I could mentally/emotionally wait one more week.

My Dr. told me to go check into the hospital at 5 pm that afternoon and hopefully they would be able to start the induction around 6 pm and I would get a good head start before the nurses changed shifts for the evening. They told me I would probably progress throughout the night, but not have Abigail until the next morning sometime. Bryan went back to finish out the school day and I went home to rest, pack, and finish getting ready.

Bryan came home, we packed everything up, and headed to the hospital. This is my last preggo picture before we left the house at 40 weeks!

On our drive to the hospital we kept saying, "I can't believe this is the last time it'll just be the two of us!" It was so surreal. I can remember the night before I was freaking out, but the actual day of, I was so calm and ready to do this! Bryan however had his freak out moment on the way to the hospital! Ha! He got it together though by the time we got there! :) Here's Bryan carrying in the first part of our luggage! ;)

We got checked into the hospital, completed our paperwork, and then got checked into our labor and delivery room. I changed into my hospital gown and the nurses came to put my IV in. I can remember asking all of my friends what the worst part about labor was, and the answer that I found so surprising was when they said the IV. I wasn't too worried though because I've never had any problems with needles or getting shots or having blood taken or anything. However, the one thing that I do have a problem with is that I inherited my mother's small veins. It's always very hard for them to find a good vein because they're so small. Looking back, I wish I had guzzled water ALL DAY LONG in order to help me with what was to come. I know it would have helped so much, but I didn't..and I paid for it. It took FOREVER for them to get my IV in. They stuck me in BOTH arms, and it hurt like crap! They finally got it in my right hand and still hurt like crap. Trust me, getting an IV is nothing compared to giving blood or getting a shot. It's much worse..now I understood why my friends said that was the worst part.

Moving on. After that the nurses then put in the Cervidil in order to thin out my cervix. The nurse said she was going to check me and then she was going to come back out and then put the Cervidil in. I thought ok, good deal. So she checked me, no biggie, then she went back in with the medicine. All I'm going to say about that is that it was one of the most painful things I've ever experienced. It felt like she was shoving her hand all the way up my throat and I barely held it together while I squeezed the CRAP out of Bryan's hand. The only good thing about when she was finished is that she said that I was at a 2 and 75% effaced! I was so excited I tried not to cry. After hearing that I hadn't progressed at all week after week, I was so glad to hear something positive! I got hooked up to the monitor and they did everything else they needed to do. They showed Bryan what a contraction and Abigail's heart rate looked like on the monitor. After all of that was finished, we began the wait. Here I am trying to act brave like I hadn't just been traumatized! ;)

We didn't have to wait long before the friends and family began to arrive! My parents and sister Chalen were the first to arrive at the hospital. My best friend Jacque came to visit for a little while also!



Everyone left soon after that and we said we would keep everyone updated. Bryan and I were told to try and get as much rest as we could because probably not much was going to be happening that night. Yeah, RIGHT!

They continued to check me, which after they put in that medicine, was seriously the worst pain ever. I wanted to know what my progress was, but I dreaded every time they came to check me. I don't remember the exact times, but I would say that by about 10/11:00 I was probably at a 3 or 4. The good news was that I was progressing even before they started the Pitocin! They decided to go ahead and start me on the Pitocin. I had been having some pretty good contractions since my parents got there, but surprisingly, I didn't really feel them. I wasn't having any real pain from the contractions and I can remember Bryan and everyone saying, "Are you sure that doesn't hurt?!" but no, it didn't.

It was probably around 11:00 when we were told to try and get some rest. I remember asking Bryan for my phone and I began to listen to songs to help me relax and sleep. I was only able to listen to one song before the nurse came back in and started looking at the monitor. I could tell that she didn't like something she was seeing. She told me that Abigail's heart rate was dropping, so she made me change sides to see if that would help. I rolled over to my right side, it got better, and then the nurse left. However, it wasn't long after that that she came back into my room and said that it was happening again, so I moved to my back. That worked for a little while before she came back in and made me put on the oxygen mask. Boy, that was fun being hooked up to everything known to man! But if it was helping my baby girl, I was happy to suck it up and do it. The oxygen seemed to work. I "rested" as much as possible. They came back in later to tell me that they talked to my Dr. and she wanted me to stop the Pitocin because they thought that Abigail didn't like it. I hoped that it would help her settle down.

Around 1:00 I tried to relax and sleep but my body started shaking. I didn't know what was causing it, but it started to worry me. I could not make my body stop shaking. I finally woke Bryan and told him and he talked to the nurses, but they said it was normal so basically no big deal. I was not expecting this and nobody had ever told me about having "the shakes". I tried focusing really hard to make them stop, but nothing worked. I wasn't panicked or stressed..they honestly were making me mad! Of course, there was no way I could sleep being hooked up to everything and shaking uncontrollably!

Oh and did I mention when I had to go to the bathroom? Oh yes, that was fun. My inexperienced self stupidly thought, "Why do I have to go pee?" I haven't been drinking anything at all!" Then I realized that oh yeah, that iv that I'm hooked up to is pumping me full of fluid! Well, normally going to the bathroom wouldn't be a big deal; however, when you don't have your epidural yet, you don't have a catheter. That means you have to get out of bed and go to the bathroom. Normally, not a big deal, one which I would have been fine with. However, my nurses were not. I was not allowed to take my oxygen mask or the heart rate monitor off that was monitoring Abigail's heart rate. So what's left you ask? Well, that would be the bedpan! I'll spare you all the glorious details, but you can imagine how fun and easy it is for a 9 month pregnant woman to lift herself up on her bed to pee in a bedpan! Unfortunately, that happened twice before I got my catheter. Ugh!

Around 2:00 am, my contractions began to get more painful, and based on how long I was sure it would take for my anesthesiologist to get there, I decided that I was going to go ahead and ask for my epidural. It took about 20-30 minutes for him to get there and I was ready! Remember how bad I was shaking though? Yeah, the fact that this man was about to stick a giant needle in my spine made me try even harder to control the shakes. Easier said than done though! I remember a little bit of burning, but that was about it. No biggie. The one who had the toughest time though was Bryan. He couldn't stand to see me like that and not being able to help. He was about to pass out and couldn't look anymore, so the Dr. made him sit down and not look. Ha!

After I got my epidural in, I was really relaxed and didn't care about the pain..or lack of! :) I still had the stupid shakes though. The nurses came in soon after to put in my catheter around 3:00 am. I was glad to finally have that thing, but could have done without the nurses discussing their everyday lives, while talking about parts of my anatomy right in front of me! Hellooooo!! Another nurse came in to check me and I was at a 5! Yipee! I was so glad I was still progressing, even though they had stopped the Pitocin.

I was still doing pretty good, though very tired, and tired of my body shaking. They checked me again around 4 am and I was at a 6. My Dr came in to talk to me and said that everything was ok but she was going to go ahead and break my water so that hopefully that would get things moving a little bit faster. She came back in around 5 am to check me and I was at a 7. She was glad that I still was progressing, but things weren't going as fast as they should have been. She wanted me to be prepared in case that she had to do a c-section. They would continue to monitor Abigail and make sure she was ok. I won't lie, I was scared when she said the c word, but was hopeful because I continued to progress.

Around 6:00, my Dr. came back in to check me and I was unfortunately still at a 7. She told me then she was going to give me 30 minutes, but if I hadn't progressed anymore in that time, then she was going to preform a c-section. She said that yes, even though I was progressing, I hadn't gotten really any sleep in over 24 hours and she was worried about me having enough strength to make it through the delivery. She was also worried about Abigail because she had been stressed out and she didn't want Abigail to go into distress. She said that it wasn't an emergency c-section, but she didn't want to wait several more hours and have to turn around and do an emergency c-section. We texted all of our families to update them. After she left, I began to pray and pray. I prayed that Abigail would be ok, but most importantly that God's will would be done. I can remember our sweet friend & nurse Julie coming in and laying hands on me, praying over me. That meant SO much to me and Bryan at that moment. It was so sweet and I could feel God's presence in that room! I was completely at peace then and knew that it would all be ok, no matter what happened.

At 6:30, Dr. Hudgens came back in, checked me, and said we were doing a c-section. I knew she was going to say that before the words even left her mouth. I tried not to cry, even though tears were stinging my eyes. Bryan came and told me everything was going to be ok and gave me a kiss. He left to go tell our family and friends that were already in the waiting room that they were taking me to surgery. While I was in my room alone, that's when it hit me and I became really scared. I knew that I couldn't cry or I would totally lose it. I was so tired that I just wanted it all to be over with and to have my baby girl here now! I knew I had done my best and that was good enough.

Bryan got dressed in his scrubs and they wheeled me off to the emergency room. I can remember going in there and realizing that I was about to have major surgery. I heard all the doctors and nurses setting everything up and I told one of the nurses to tell Bryan to make sure he had the camera! I was very adamant about having my pictures of the moment Abigail was born! Today when we tell people that story, everyone thinks that it's hilarious that I'm about to have major surgery and all I'm worried about is the camera! Ha! I'm glad I said something though because Bryan had forgotten the camera, so he ran back to our room to get it. I remember verifying with the anesthesiologist that I wasn't going to feel anything, right???! He told me no, I wouldn't feel anything. Bryan told me later that they didn't even wait on him to return with the camera. When he walked in they had already began to cut me open. He said that he has seen births and c-sections before (having some medical background), but when it's your wife, it's a different story! Bryan hurried up to sit by my head. I remember it felt like we were barely in there at all when I felt a lot of tugging and pressure and then they said she's here! I will never forget the sound of Abigail's first cry. I can't even describe what it was like. When I heard it, I lost it. I just cried and cried. Everything that I had been holding in, just burst out of me. She was ok! I did it! My baby is here! She's finally here!

Bryan took pictures while they cleaned Abigail up and weighed and measured her. I can remember asking Bryan how much she weighed and when he told me 6.7 I was surprised she was so little! Everyone had been making bets on how much she weighed and everyone thought around 8-9 lbs, but I thought she would be around 7 lbs because that's what I weighed when I was born. She surprised us though and was even smaller! The nurse was sweet enough to take our first family picture and some of Abigail and Bryan. Bryan showed me Abigail, but because I was laying on the table, I couldn't really see her that well. I couldn't wait to hold her, touch her, skin to skin. They finished me up and then wheeled me back to my room and brought her to me. I'll never forget seeing her face for the first time and holding her. She was absolute perfection and she looked JUST like me! I didn't expect that AT ALL! I thought she would look like Bryan or be a mix of both of us, but nope..she was a miniture replica of me! I took her and layed her on my chest, skin to skin. I can't describe how wonderful it felt. She was in my arms...she was home.

We kept Abigail in the room with us for about an hour just having some Mommy and Abigail time! I immediately tried to nurse, but she wasn't really interested. They took her to the nursery then to give her a bath and run some tests. Bryan gave all of our families the happy news and they all went to watch her first bath! I was moved out of our delivery room and into our recovery room. Soon all of the family came in with their congratulations! They were so excited to see Abigail and take pictures! You can read more about that in Abigail's Birth Story, part 2!

Even though I wanted to have a natural delivery SO bad, I knew that I had done my best and that God had a plan that was greater than mine. I don't know why He allowed me to have a c-section, but I have to trust in His plan. I will admit that I struggled with this some. I felt like something had been stolen from me. Things didn't go exactly how I had planned, but the most important thing was that I had a beautiful, perfect, baby girl. I was a Mommy and that's all that mattered! Thank you God for your hand of protection over us all and for making my biggest dream come true!

Abigail Morgan Moss

 May 1, 2012 @ 6:51 am

6.78 lbs and 19 in long