We Find Our Own: The Navy Is Big

Ocala, and the surrounding area, is a major retirement Mecca, so to speak. It's highly likely that in your day to day activities you will see many veterans. You'll recognize them by their ball caps, often emblazoned with their command, branch of service, operation/war, or sometimes just "Veteran" with a few ribbons. They are sometimes curmudgeonly but more often they are jovial men who just want to talk. My mind has been on one veteran in particular as I have run into him on two occasions in the past month or so. 

We'll call him Master Chief because I haven't yet learned his name, plus I think he'd be tickled pink if I called him Master Chief the next time I see him (mental note, do that). The first time he approached me was the week after the tragic attack on the armed forces recruiting center and the NOSC in Chattanooga, TN. I happened to be wearing my tshirt that reads "KEEP CALM AND LOVE A SAILOR" it was a custom made shirt for a fundraiser. He came up to my group of babywearing, mall walking mommas and told me he loved my shirt and I instantly identified him as a veteran of the U.S. Navy (thanks to his ball cap). I told him thank you and let him know that my husband was a recruiter here in town. His eyes lit up. He talked to Lincoln a bit and we went our separate ways. 

Fast forward to today, about a month later, my big group of mall walking, babywearing mommas walked past the food court. He and his wife were watching the mall goers. He called out, "which one of you is the sailor's wife?" I said it was me and he and his wife told me a little about themselves. Turns out he advanced to Master Chief before "retiring before your parents were even born!" (He retired in 1968, I think my parents were born in 63/64, he was close!) Master Chief asked what my husband's rate was , turns out that he held the same job my husband holds in the fleet (recruiting is a temporary gig), how crazy is that? We had a chuckle when I told him I was sure things were very different nowadays than when he was in. 

His wife also chimed in a bit, she let us know that their granddaughter was pregnant with her second baby, her first "well she had her first baby at home, in a blow up tub filled with water! She's three now!" His wife was just the sweetest, she had tears in her eyes talking to me about being a Navy wife for decades and about all of our babies. 

His wife finally told him to let us be on our way and we continued our walk, I told him I would see him next time. Such a sweet man and his wife. The Navy is a big family, we may be spread far and wide but we find our own.

Hotel MRMC: Lincoln's Troubled Beginnings

I shared my birth story last week in a link up with a fellow blogger, Jessica Lynn Writes! What I didn't share was the following week, one of the most stressful weeks of our lives. Hands down. I decided that I would write it down in it's own post, separate from the actual birth.

After the excitement of the birth was over (but not the excitement over our new babe!) we were wheeled into our recovery room. It was a pretty nice room, very large, big window, the TV could have been bigger but that's my only "complaint". Little did I know that we'd be staying there much longer than anticipated. We settled in and turned on Monday Night Football. Priorities, people, birth the baby in time for some Green Bay Packer Football! Mission Accomplished!

Mitch and Lincoln watching the Packer's game

The night was a fairly normal one, who am I kidding, I didn't sleep a wink and every sound I jumped. I had no idea what normal was but we survived! The nurse came in early to take Lincoln to the nursery to be seen, as is standard care. She came back relatively quickly with the news that Lincoln was extremely jaundiced and would need to be cared for in the NICU. Our hearts fell. In my mind I thought jaundice is a fairly common thing, we'll have him back in no time at all.  Apparently, Lincoln's jaundice was very severe and somewhat baffling to the neo-natologists that were on staff. His levels were at 14.9, they needed to be at about a 4, tops. It was an immensely stressful time for us to say the least.

We were able to spend as much time as we could with him in the NICU and we came to cherish our time spent just standing next to his little oasis. He was undergoing phototherapy that was administered by a light blanket, a massive light box, and a concentrated lamp. His levels would drop each time they were checked and then he spiked again, up to 13. The older he got the higher his bilirubin level could be but that was still way too high.

Lincoln all hooked up to monitors 

One of the hardest things for me to deal with, aside from my brand new baby being away from me, was that I wasn't able to breastfeed but the hospital was amazing and provided a bad ass Medela breast pump and boy was that thing awesome! I missed it when we finally left! The NICU staff was amazing and froze all the breast milk and packed it up for us when we finally left. I still have quite a bit in my freezer, 2 months later!

One of the cool things and one of the things I am most thankful for was the hospital's policy on NICU babies and "Stay Overs." I don't know if this is a norm for hospitals to do this but Munroe Regional Medical Center's policy (and I'm stating this loosely so don't quote me for sure)

Lincoln taking a bottle from Grandma Skramstad (my mom)

was to allow the parents, after the mother's discharge, to stay in the room (or a room if that one is needed). We were informed that it was a day by day decision but that if there were rooms available (as in the entire county didn't spontaneously go into labor) then we would be able to stay. FREE of charge. That last bit was a huge surprise for me because even though we have amazing insurance and it most likely would have been covered I felt a huge relief for all of the other mothers out there who had that extra worry of "how am I going to pay for this hospital stay" or those that left because they knew they wouldn't be able to afford it. I was discharged at about 6 or 7 PM Wednesday, December 10th and we stayed over the 11th. The next day things weren't looking great, he still had very high levels, too high to send him home, so I began to worry about what we'd do. I was so anxious that we'd have to leave him there and I knew I would not take getting into the car with an empty car seat while he stayed in the hospital very well. I voiced my anxiety to one of the amazing NICU nurses and she let me know that the hospital also talked with them about the parent's and the cases and if parents with NICU babes were "doing what they should" in order to be approved as a stay over. Meaning that the parents were visiting and caring for their child as much as was allowed and weren't using the hospital as a place to stay and watch TV. We were there for every feeding, took control of diaper changes when we were present, we even knew where everything was so the nurses could focus on the others while we were in. We were parenting our baby the best way we could in the circumstances. They said there should be no problem staying there as long as room was available. 

This was a chart, originally shown to me by our neonatalogist, that I went and downloaded from the internet after. Each arrow corresponds with the blood draws that he had and where those results landed him on the chart. You can see where he jumped back up and finally came down enough to go home!

Exposing the back to the lights is a way to help boost the absorption of the lights into the body because it is the largest uninterrupted patch of skin.

You can see how yellow he was by looking at his eyes where his "baby blinders" were. This was a huge surprise to us, we arrived at the NICU fully intending to stand by his side and feed him his bottle. This was the first time I was able to hold him since they had taken him into their care. 

We ended up staying the night of the 10th, 11th and 12th and most of the 13th before little Lincoln was discharged. We were truly blessed by getting to stay for so long, I don't think that was the norm. We were discharged and left the hospital on Saturday, December 13th and made it home in time to watch the Army v. Navy football game (again, we're a football family)! 

Headed home! Finally!

That Time I Had A Baby: A Birth Story

My plan was to take two months off following the birth of our son, since he will be two months on Sunday I better get back to the grind! What better way of doing that then sharing our birth story. I am working on borrowed time, the swing will only keep him occupied for so long and I already cleaned the kitchen!

Hubby and I went in for our an appointment with our midwife, Alice, on December 1st, our due date being December 5th. Everything checked out perfectly, I was about 1 cm dilated and 70% effaced. My midwife brought up the topic of induction if I were to go past my due date. I was happy that she did because I wanted to know how that sort of thing worked, scheduling wise. She pointed out the dates on the calendar and mentioned they would prefer to induce no later than December 17th. I had no desires to go that far past my due date and she suggested the 10th since their inductions were only scheduled Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of each week. I asked if December 8th would be just as acceptable being that it was my grandfather's birthday and that I'd also like to maximize the time my mother had with us and the baby. So it was set, we'd go to the hospital on Monday, December 8, 2014 if he didn't arrive sooner!

He didn't.

The night before, hubby and I packed up the car and had a nice relaxing night. I slept wonderfully. I woke up at 4:30 and did some last minute packing and then woke Mitch up to get ready. We showered, got dressed, and made the call to the hospital to make sure there was a bed available, our hospital is the only hospital in town that has a Labor & Delivery floor and there are only 8 beds so our induction could have been bumped if they were full. They had space available so we were good to come in. I ate a healthy but hearty breakfast and we made the trip in. We could be there no later than 6:30. We arrived at 6:15 and I was in a room and hooked up to IV fluids and Pitocin by 7:00. It was time to get this party started! My nurse, Donna, was great. She was a no fuss kind of person and I liked her. I think I would have preferred to have had the first nurse who checked me in but she was night shift, bummer! But still, Donna was amazing.

My mom showed up around 9:00 and we sat around watching Salt, Law & Order, and Property Brothers while my contractions started to get stronger. They were fun to map out on the monitor, at least until they got to be too intense. My original plan was to go as far along as I could without an epidural, I was hoping to make it to half way at the very least, and that I only wanted my husband in the room with me while I was actually pushing. Right about the time I was begging for the epidural I realized that there was no way I could just have Mitch in the room with me, I needed my mommy! Little did I know that when they sent Mitch and my mom out of the room to get lunch while I got my epidural, Mitch was tearful saying that there was no way she wouldn't be in the room, we both needed her. While he was amazing with the physical aspect and being there for back rubs and counter pressure, he told me later that he couldn't talk me through the contractions because he couldn't talk without crying and my mom was doing a great job of that so my team added a new member!

hanging out during the "boring part"

Getting the epidural was...an experience! I made it to 5 cm but didn't know it until after I got the actual epidural! I knew that they would make my family leave to maintain a sterile environment and I had no idea it would take as long as it did! This is where Nurse Donna was my hero. My contractions were hella strong and fast and I had to sit on the edge of the bed....WITHOUT MOVING...um, yeah, ok, sure. Wait, what? All of a sudden I am hit with a contraction, freaking out because I'm supposed to be really still and all I can do is shake because I'm in so much pain and their about to jab a lovely needle into my back. Awesome. Lovely Nurse Donna did everything I asked her to, that saint. I basically ended up hugging her and having her lean back and blow in my face. Whatever works, right? I'm sure she's done some pretty weird stuff in her time as a L&D nurse!

After the epidural was placed I was in heaven, my monitor wasn't picking up anything even though I could tell I was having contractions, so to keep an eye on little guy they placed a scalp electrode. It gave me great peace of mind during but also caused a lovely tear after. I had the epidural right around 12:00/1:00 and things slowed down a bit...then...transition hit. That was the worst, even with the epidural my back was throbbing, I had massive heartburn, and I was just generally uncomfortable. They did give me a lovely dose of minty Mylanta. They checked me and called Alice (who's office was literally across the street) at around 2:30. We did a few practice pushes starting about an hour later. I pooped. Everyone does it. I knew I would. The funny part about that was I noticed Donna walk away and toss something in the trash bin. So, me in my loopy state, asked her. "That was poop, wasn't it." She shrugged and said, no biggie and I laughed, Mitch started to say something and my mom shushed him, I didn't really pay attention to that. Later, Mitch spilled the beans that that was the second time it had happened and he'd witnessed it all! Um, hello!!! You said you weren't watching?! HAHA! Alice showed up sometime during all of this and took over and we started pushing for real. They gave me oxygen and off to the races we went!

Pushing was actually very relieving and not painful to me at all. I don't know if that's a normal thing, if women are relieved or if I was just glad to be getting close to the end. I definitely puked all over my husband, but I barely had anything in my stomach and it was all minty flavored afterwards--thanks Mylanta!--so I wasn't even phased by it. I couldn't speak for my husband but he seemed to take it in stride. I think I tried to apologize but he wouldn't hear it and just kept telling me it was OK and there was nothing to be sorry for, nevertheless I felt kinda bad! After about 45 minutes of pushing our beautiful baby boy was born!

At 4:28 PM we welcomed Lincoln Cash Anderson into the world! He weighed in at 7 pounds 4 ounces (a full pound under what we had both guessed!) and measured exactly 20 inches long with a mohawk of bright blonde hair! He was amazing!

Daddy watching Linc after his first bath

This baby just can't even. 

This story is part of a link up so make sure you head over to Jessica's blog to share your own story or to read everyone else's!

http://www.jessicalynnwrites.com/2015/02/a-birth-story-link-up.html

Maternity Pictures: Why I Think They Are A Must

Last week I blogged about finding an outfit, from my own closet, for a maternity shoot. Today I'll share a few of my faves from the shoot!

Love how the sun is just peeking through the trees. The best part, we're on the side of a somewhat busy road! Someone yelled "CONGRATULATIONS!" as they passed by!

I decided to wear my skinny maternity jeans, white maternity t-shirt from Target, my Express jacket and a cute scarf. Hubby had on dark wash jeans (probably from Target, we love that place), his Johnny Cash t-shirt (definitely from Target, I remember getting it for him since Johnny Cash is a fave of his), a leather jacket and his newsboy hat that has made an appearance in our pictures before! 

Engagement pictures in Knoxville, TN by Terri Rogers!

Engagement pictures in Jax Beach, FL by AMP.

As you can see, it is a well loved hat! 

Being a photographer I can't stress enough how getting in front of the lens is a necessity! I love to be in front of the camera as much as I love being behind it! I might be a touch bit vain. Trust me, there are times I hate every picture taken of me but I power through that because it's just my brain trying to bring me down. Photos of milestones are so important. Spoken word is great, written word is better, but being able to show someone the emotion that is captured during those milestones is the best. But you know what? Candid photos, random snapshots, selfies with friends (are they still called selfies? Facies? Groupies?) are also a wonderful documentation of life! They serve as a reminder to us about how we might have felt that day or they might remind us to never cut our hair again (personal experience, I'm still heartbroken). 

Another great location, we're right by downtown/historic Ocala. I liked the look of the trees and there just so happened to be a trail off the side of the road, so I took it! You have to keep your eyes peeled for great finds!

 

I implore you, even if you're a private person or aren't a fan of photos, at least have some shots of you. Shots of you alone, with your partner, with your kids (especially with your kids!) so you have those moments to hold on to. Once those moments have passed all you'll have are your memories and, hopefully, your photographs. It's nice to leave a legacy behind, one peppered with great, and not so great, photographs!

Shot in downtown/historic Ocala, FL by the ever lovely Alison Soracchi! Pretty sure this was outside a gym. I thought the heartbeat was fitting. ;)

Football Season: How Not To Lose Interest

This post could also be titled: How To Remain Relevant To Your Husband From The Months of September to February!

I'm a Cheesehead. I'm part of The Pack. A Packer Backer. A Lambeau-Lover. I love me some Green Bay Packer Football! GO PACK GO!

OK, now that that's out of the way. I will admit that in previous football seasons I have only had interest in the Packer games. Since beginning a life with Mitch, a diehard member of the Steeler Nation (I know, how could I?!), come Sunday I'd plant myself on the couch, watch the Packer game, or what little was on because hubby would switch around to other games he was interested in, and when that was over I would switch my attention to Netflix or a book. More often than not, I'd take a nap. 

Until this year when my dear husband decided he wanted to put together a fantasy league. That's right, I'm sleeping with the commish. (commissioner for all you non-football fans out there) He needed participants and I said I'd play. I'd played in a league once before and done rather well so I figured, what the heck?! My start was rocky, losing my first two matchups. But, I got better, smarter, picked up some good players and even cashed in on a pretty sweet trade (I picked up Jamaal Charles for Martellus Bennett....I know you're jelly). One thing I didn't really factor into this endeavor was growing a little bit closer with my husband on the sports front. Previously our sports interactions were relegated to the two rivalries we have; I'm a Gator Girl and he's All Vol (but I've converted him, for the most part, at least he's no longer a Gator Hater!) and, of course, the ever present Packer/Steeler rivalry. All the rest of our interactions to do with sports is him asking if I saw that play and me, not looking up from what I was doing, mumbling "uh huh, it was cool." Now, don't get me wrong, my eyes can still get a little glazed when he talks about certain things and this does not spill over into any other sport. But I will cherish the extra bonding that we get by playing in a league together. 

And hey, look! I'm winning this week against my friend's hubby! #SorryNotSorry, Reading Rainbow!

Week 12 and I'm winning! And yes, my team name is, in fact, Clay Matthews Band. Love me some Clay Matthews! 

Large & In Charge (OR What to Wear at 38 Weeks Pregnant)

I'm pregnant, 38 weeks today. We've been exhaustingly busy since August --Hawaii, Tennessee, Baby Classes, Getting the house in order, you get the picture-- We've somehow pushed having maternity pictures taken out to the last minute. But the day has finally come and I had no idea as to what I was going to wear. Mitch is easy; jeans, t-shirt and chucks. I, on the other hand, am the size of a VW Bug and have no budget to buy something new to wear. So what did I do....I turned on my 90's Pandora Station (the one with angry white rappers and ridiculously good looking men who wear bandaids on their face for the sake of fashion) and I spent the morning trying on every imaginable outfit combination in my closet. See below!

Find the same or similar items here: Skinny Jeans (in all photos), Aztec Dolman Sweater (3rd outfit - I got mine from Zulily but try this site for a different look!), Pink Old Navy Tank Top (not maternity!), Leather Jacket (also not maternity and bought 2-ish years ago from Express), White V-neck top.

 So, which one do you think I chose, which one do you think I should choose? Guess you'll have to wait for the big reveal!

In the past, photoshoots have been a huge deal for me, as a photographer I tend to overthink things and plan extensively and put a lot of effort into getting ready. With this I've kind of let all that slide to the last minute which means I'll be doing my own makeup and hair. I did go and get my eyebrows done because it served three purposes; 1: I needed it, badly! 2. I wasn't having my picture taken with caterpillars on my forehead! 3. I wasn't bringing a new baby into this world looking like a cavewoman! (I know, he won't care!) Here's to hoping that Mitch can make it to the shoot (he's currently an hour's drive from home) and the lighting cooperates because we have a very limited time in which to get the shoot completed! YAY!

Three Questions You Might Be Asking

Three questions you might be asking right now: 

3. Who is this person?

A. I'd like to think I'm still looking for the answer to that question myself. Without getting too deep and existential I will give you the rundown! My name is Tiffany and I live (and up until recently, worked) in Central, FL. I am married to my best friend who I met in HS - but we were not high school sweethearts, so hold the Awwwwws. We met in 2001 and did not begin a romantic relationship until 2009. My husband is currently a recruiter in the United States Navy so that makes me a Navy Wife! We're both in our late, soon to be very late, 20's and are expecting our first child! It's a Boy! We also have two Boston Terrier pups (Ok, ok, they're 6 years old...they've moved on from puppy-hood) and their names are Mojo and Tipsy. 

2. What is this blog about?

A. Well, this is my third attempt at writing a blog. I don't necessarily consider myself a writer but I do feel I have important and fun things to say that others might like to read or need to hear. I hope to provide lots of laughs, important information, family updates, DIY, and a look into my photography. 

1. What's with the name?

A. HAHA, well, I take naps. I really do! I love them! Sleep. is. awesome. With that logic, naps are also awesome. Don't you think? Does this blog have anything to do with naps? Nope. Although, I can't promise I won't post about our son's napping routine or my utter need to take a nap because of our son's lack of a nap routine! I didn't want my blog's title to be too literal. I struggled immensely with picking a name for my blog and I just wanted to stop and take a nap....so that's what I did. And then named my blog after it. I hope people can see the humor and don't think it idiotic and ametuer, and if they do, then I guess I didn't want them to be readers anyway! 

So there you have it. My first post a Q&A so to speak.

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