Introducing Marcus Cane Updegraff

Thanks for waiting patiently for this... I've had my hands full for the past couple days :).

First things first...How handsome is he!!!????

Marcus Cane was born on December 24th at 3:15 in the morning. Making his entrance into the world a full 2wks early had absolutely NO bearing on his size; he weighed in at 8lbs 12.2oz.

The labor and delivery were unlike anything I'd ever experienced before. First of all my water broke but my contractions didn't show up until a few hours later. If you read the previous blog you know that I also thought my water broke on Saturday. So when I found myself sitting in something wet on Wednesday night I thought, "You can NOT be serious..." Which meant, I know I didn't just pee on myself again!

Hint* if you ever think your water broke but are unsure, Amniotic fluid smells like bleach. No joke, like straight Clorox.

Another thing that made this delivery different was that this time I had to get antibiotics for some test called GBS that I had apparently failed. This meant that I wouldn't be allowed to push the baby out until 4hrs after the antibiotics were administered through an IV. So for the longest time I just kicked it. I knew my water had broken and I knew I would have the baby soon, but there were still no contractions. I didn't even know how dilated I was- there was no point in checking me since I wouldn't be allowed to push anyway. All I knew was that the baby's heart rate was good and that's all that mattered.

Now I'm not sure what time it actually happened but I did eventually have a labor contraction that pretty much immediately reduced me to tears. I had about 4 or 5 of those before the anesthesiologist could get to me but once he did I went right back to just hanging out.

Soon enough though my four hours had passed and they were ready to see how dilated I was.

It literally went this fast.

Nurse: 10cms. You're ready to push.

Me: Oh! Okay...

Doc: We're gonna go on and go on this next contraction.

Me: Okay...

Doc (moving closer to me): I can see his head.

Me: What?

Nurse/ Doc: Okay we're gonna start pushiiiiing... NOW.

I push as the nurse counts: 1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10! Deep Breath. Again. 1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10! Deep Breath...

Marcus says something about the fact that I'm pushing so hard.

Doc: Okay, little tiny push... Heads out.

Me: What!!

Marcus: His head's out!

Me: Already??

Doc: Alright, I'll just pull him the rest of the way.

And there you have it.

Marcus Cane. I think I pushed at total of 4times during 1 contraction and he was here. They gave him to me, let me look him over and talk to him a little, then it was off to the scale. Did I mention he weighed EIGHT POUNDS, TWELVE POINT TWO OUNCES!!!!????

Here are some pics of us in the hospital and his first couple days home.

Enjoy!

I love him so much.

I think Daddy looks pretty proud.

The girls meeting their brother for the first time.

Charlie and Sierra getting to know him better.

Marcus and his son.

Labor Update!

I'm back home.

Apparently hospitals aren't as strict as I thought they were. They examined me today and I hadn't made any progress. The on-call Dr said that since my water didn't actually break and I wasn't officially in active labor I had 2 options.

1. He could break my water and we could have the baby.
2. I could be discharged and go home to wait for Dr. Webb.

I chose to go home. I did so because I wasn't really in labor. The only reason I went to the hospital is cause I thought my water broke. If I had known it hadn't I would've been kicking it at home anyway. So they sent me on my way with instructions to take it easy and pay close attention to make sure the baby keeps moving, which he has been.

When I go back, I'll be sure to let everyone know :)

This is what happens when you don't listen

I'm in the hospital. Not in labor, but here none the less.


On Thursday I had an appointment with Dr. Webb, the man who delivered Charlie, the man who I traveled across the world to have deliver my son. He examined me and told me I was 2cms dilated and 80% effaced. He knew that Marcus wasn't coming to town until Saturday afternoon. He also told me that he was leaving town this weekend and wouldn't be back until Sunday night.
I don't want you to have this baby without your husband, and I don't want you to have this baby without me. So this weekend take it easy. Just put your feet up and relax- at least until Sunday night.


Sounds reasonable right. Unless one of your best friends is also coming to town and you have plans to go to a fashion show on Friday night and to get facials and mani-pedis at the spa on Saturday.


I knew Friday was a bad idea but it wasn't like I was running a marathon, I pretty much sat the whole time. That night though, my contractions were non-stop and I spent most of the night begging the baby out loud to just 'wait for daddy to get home tomorrow'.


Saturday was cool. The spa was relaxing. Marcus came in as scheduled. Everything was great until about 6:45pm, when alone in the kitchen I felt something fall out of me onto the floor.

What the hell is this? Did my water just break??

I cleaned up the kitchen and without a word to anyone went to my room, walked past Marcus who was asleep and Bri who was reading a magazine, and took a shower.

When I came out of the bathroom I whisper to Bri,
Soooo, I think my water just broke, but I'm not sure.

The next 30 or so mins is filled with Bri on the computer, googling her fingers off on how to know if your water really broke if there aren't any contractions.

Marcus wakes up just as I'm taking a "test" to see if it was the real deal and we explain to him what's going on. He makes me call the Dr. and the on-call Dr suggests that I go to the hospital.

If your water broke, we'll keep you. If not, we'll send you home.

Sounds reasonable, and as it turns out my water didn't break.
Great I can go home...
Not so fast.
Also turned out I was 4-5cms dilated and 100% effaced... so they decided to keep me.


So I've just been hanging out. I sent Marcus home to get some sleep at around midnight. I slept until about 5am. He's gonna bring the girls here a little later so I can comb their hair before they go to their first play with Grandpa (the Nutcracker). And my plan for the day is to try to keep this baby in until Dr. Webb makes it back to town tonight so he can deliver me.

Sounds reasonable. I mean I haven't haven't been in any pain. The baby is doing great right now. I think I can do it.

Except that's not how hospitals work. My guess it when Dr, Bartels gets here in 15mins they'll examine me and if I'm more than 5cms they'll break my water and make me deliver without my beloved Dr. Webb.



Either way wish me luck!!

7 Pounds

Not the Will Smith movie, the weight of the gigantor baby that currently resides in my belly.

I'm not due for another 5wks. Standard weight gain at this stage is a half a pound a week. For those of you not doing the math that puts me at 9.5lbs.

Did I mention that his head is measuring 2weeks larger!

Thanks, ultrasound tech, for officially freaking me out.

Is the Sun up yet?

My Charlie just turned 5.

She was so excited that she didn't want to go to bed the night before.
I told her, "The sooner you go to sleep, the sooner the Sun will come up and then it will be your birthday."
Needless to say, at 5:30 Tuesday morning I was greeted by one of the most precious things in my life, her sweet voice asking, "Mom, is the Sun up yet?"

Our family has been through a lot over the past month. We have suffered an incredible loss in the passing of Marcus' mom, a great woman who Charlie had an indescribable bond with. When you lose someone that you love so much it's easy to wallow in sorrow and sometimes it's a lot of work to keep yourself from winding up in a dark place. So far, we've all done a pretty good job managing, but there's a sadness that creeps up and we just have to find those things that make us happy- that light- wherever we can.

When my amazing little girl asked me if the Sun was up yet, I couldn't help thinking that that moment was one of those times. So I smiled a sleepy smile and replied, "As a matter of fact it is Sweetheart. As a matter of fact it is."

Here's a picture of my angel from her birthday party.

Another day on the grind

Today was a pretty good day.
I spent 5hrs at the Schilling Community Center on Kadena Air Base selling books.
I didn't do bad, didn't do great, but shared my children's book series and vision with a ton of people and it made me feel good :).

YAY for me!!

A Girl named Charlie Presents... has been featured for the first time on a website that is not my own :). Please check it out here!

The first taste... of 'hate'???

This past weekend while selling books at the USO Bazaar I met and became friends with tons of other vendors. Most of the vendors were very friendly! We purchased products from one another and sent customers to each others tables. The Bazaar was completely dead all weekend. We were competing with the Grand Opening of the new BX which had been under construction since my family got to the island last year. It was pretty clear from the start that none of us would sell as many products as we'd hoped. Still we weren't in competition with each other and were pretty excited whenever any of us made a sale.

However I had an interesting experience with one of the vendors that didn't really make me upset as much as it made me wonder why people are a certain way.

This particular vendor was sitting directly across from me. When I set up early Saturday morning it was clear that we could be looking at each other all weekend so I made my way over to introduce myself. She was friendly enough. She said hello and smiled, but it was a stale smile, almost as if she were sizing me up.

At one point early in the day she asked if she could take a look at my book so I walked one over to her and she sat it on her table. She was Black and had a young daughter so I just knew she would buy it. Duh- what woman with a little black girl wouldn't buy a book titled "I LOVE my Cotton Candy Hair!" We made small talk and I bought a couple of lip glosses from her.

During the day we didn't get much traffic but my books were selling like crazy. I sold one to practically every other person that came by my table. Those with children and those without. Those with little girls and even those with a house full of boys. Everyone seemed to love the message. I was really happy and my vendor friends were happy for me. But I started noticing that whenever a customer at her table noticed my book sitting there, instead of pointing out my table- which bty all the other vendors did- she would distract them and have them look at another one of her products. Now we were all there to sell so I didn't expect her to send a customer to me mid-sale, but once said customer was walking away it would've been nice if she had pointed them in my direction.
Although my table was directly across from hers it was on the outer portion of the display area so if customers were walking through and their bodies were facing the center display area, I was easy to miss.

Toward the end of the day while passing her table en route to the restroom, I noticed that my book was underneath one of her chairs.
Is she hiding my book?
On the way back we made eye contact and she says, Oh you can just take that. So I smiled, bent my gigantic pregnant self over, and picked up my book. She never purchased one.
I didn't want to assume that this older woman would be hating on little old me so I just shrugged her behavior off as odd and let it go. I even went out of my way to say goodbye to her at the end of the day.

SUNDAY
There was maybe one customer in the bazaar the whole first hour, and she wasn't even really a customer, she was a friend of my nemesis (haha) there to get her makeup done on her way to church. I smiled at them a couple of times and at one point the friend pointed over at my table. When they were finished the vendor got up to do something and when she was gone her friend moseyed on over to me. She didn't have children and wasn't interested in buying a book, she was however interested in how I got mine published. I was super friendly and gracious and more than happy to give her all the info I could. I remember how frustrating it was when I was looking for a publisher and kept running into dead ends so I was happy to help her out. I even gave her my contact info incase she had questions later. Maybe it she just liked my personality but she asked more about my book and after hearing my story, decided she LOVED the message and wanted to purchase one. This would be the first purchase of the day for any of us! Now eagle eye across from me was watching the entire time. As soon as I pulled out my receipt book to write a ticket, she jumped up from behind her table and came rushing over.
Girl what are you doing? she says as she links arms with her friend.
I'm buying a book! Don't you just love these!? Her friend seemed oblivious to what was going on.
It's 10 after 10, you're gonna be late for church! Now she's actually tugging the customer in the other direction.
Smiling, I finish my receipt and chime in. You're pressed for time so you don't have to wait here while I sign it. Just take this to the cashier and when you bring back your stamped receipt it'll be all ready.

The day continued with the lady across from me doing everything she could to stop my shine. Even going as far as to get up and walk customers away from her table in a direction where they would be sure to miss mine. Weird right? But it didn't put a damper on what I was doing at all. Nor did it dim my spirit. I smiled all day long and still sold a book to almost every person who stopped at my table.

I viewed the day as a great success and her behavior as an anomaly that I hopefully won't run into much in the future.

Loves of my life

Charlie and Sierra are so awesome.
This past weekend I had an opportunity to sell my books at the USO Bazaar. Typically these bazaars are extremely busy and being there is a great way for vendors to sell their products and promote their businesses. When I found out I was in, I couldn't pass up the opportunity. There was a problem though- the bazaar was open from 9a-6p on Saturday and 9a-5p on Sunday and vendors were required to be there all day, both days.
My main concern (aside from the fact that I would be missing church on Sunday) was what I would do with the girls. Luckily my friends Carol and Teresa came through for me big time. The girls spent the entire day with Carol and her kids on Saturday, then with Teresa and her family on Sunday. They were up early and went to bed late but they were well behaved and never complained.
Mommy has been extremely busy lately, more busy than they've ever seen me. We used to have down time to watch movies or just hang out between school and organized activities. Lately we haven't had that. That time has been replaced with phone calls, emails and running back and forth to offices and meetings. Sometimes our days are so busy and exhausting. Still they don't complain. They are such troopers :).
Seriously hoe did I wind up with such awesome little angels??

Lonely

I miss my husband.
Marcus has been in the States for about 4weeks and it's really difficult being here without him. I have great friends, I have the girls and I have the launch of my new book to keep me distracted but I'm still lonely. I talk to him pretty much everyday but there's a difference between being on the phone with him and being on the couch with him.
I love being on the couch with him :).
One week to go. Wish me luck!