Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Christmas was extra special this year as we celebrated Sophia's first Christmas. It is amazing how the meaning of the holidays change somewhat once you become a parent. We have so much to be thankful for this year. I really enjoyed sitting back and watching everyone open gifts, especially the kids. What a wonderful holiday it was!

Chase Ryan Hannon

Born 12/23/09

8lbs. 3oz.

20 1/2 inches long

Welcome to our new sweet nephew!!!

What a nightmare!

We brought Sophia home from the hospital on December 3rd. The nights were long and we were definitely in need of sleep! But it was amazing spending time with our new baby girl even if it was at 4 o'clock in the morning! On December 7th, I started feeling kind of strange. My friends Erin and Tiffany came over to meet Sophia. When they were leaving I stood up and got really dizzy. I immediately handed the baby to Domingo. I just thought my body was still recovering from childbirth. That night I felt really off. My heart was racing, I was sick to my stomach, and noticed that I had really dark stools. At 4a.m. we woke up to feed Sophia. Domingo looked at me and said that he couldn't even see my lips they were so pale. I was as white as a ghost. He wanted to take me to the hospital right then, but I insisted that I would call my OB in the morning. By morning I could tell that I was bleeding rectally. I call the OB and they told me to go to the ER right away. When we got to the hospital they checked me in immediately. My resting heart rate was 135 and a doctor verified that I was bleeding internally somewhere. My hemoglobin was a 6 which is apparently dangerously low. The doctor wanted to do an NG tube on me to see if I had blood in my stomach. That was awful!!! They stuck a tube down my nose into my stomach...while I was awake! At that time there was no blood in my stomach so they thought I was bleeding somewhere else. They sent me straight up to ICU. Later that afternoon I had an endoscopy done (while asleep thank God) and they found an Ulcer sitting on an artery at the top of my stomach. Apparently the ibuprofen that I was taking for pain after having Sophia caused it to bleed profusely. They burned it to help cauterize it. Afterwards I swore I was dying. I was throwing up blood and was in horrible pain. The gas that they fill you up with causes such horrible stomach and chest pains. They came in and did an EKG and chest x-rays just to make sure I was okay. But once the air got out of my stomach I was much better. That night in ICU I got 4 blood transfusions. My hemoglobin slowly started to rise. I spent a total of 4 days in the hospital. The worst part of it all was being away from my brand new baby girl. I cried so much because I just wanted to be home with her. It was the worst thing I have ever gone through. However, I'm very thankful that the GI bleed did not occur while I was pregnant. Thankfully I'm starting to feel much better. Although I still get weak towards the end of the day. It will be a magical holiday season for us as we have so much to be thankful for this year.

Welcome Sophia!

On December 1st Domingo and I checked into the hospital at 6:30 a.m. The nurses changed shifts at 7:00 so we just sat around and waited for awhile. Around 7:30 they started my IV fluids and at 9:00 they started the pitocin drip. Mom and Dad came up to the hospital and we walked the hallways for awhile to get things moving. At first the contractions just felt like small cramps. At 11:30 Dr. Rollins broke my water in hopes of getting things to progress. What a strange feeling! The contractions started getting stronger and stronger after my water broke. Around 12:30 I got my epidural. I was only 4 cm at that point. The epidural was wonderful!!! I didn't feel anything! It was fun to watch the contraction monitor and see how strong they were and know that I couldn't feel it. Dan and Amy came to the hospital and we all sat around laughing and joking. Around 4:00 the nurse, Janelle, checked me to see if there was any progress. I was 5cm at that point and thinking that it was going to be a long night. We continued to sit an wait, but around 5:30 I started to feel the contractions more and more. I also felt like I had to use the bathroom (#2 lol) so I called the nurse. Sure enough, I was 10 cm already!!! It was time to push! I couldn't believe that I went from 5 to 10 cm in an hour and a half! So at 5:55 we started pushing. The nurse did practice pushes with me. Dr. Rollins came in a little bit later and before I knew it...Sophia was here!!! She didn't cry when she was born so I kept asking if she was okay. But she was perfectly healthy! Born at 6:35p.m. weighing 6lbs. 14oz. and 19.75 inches long. She's absolutely amazing! Unfortunately it took them 4 hours to stitch me up because Dr. Rollins kept leaving to deliver other babies. I was not happy about that! And boy was my Mom mad! I had several 2nd degree tears, but it was all worth it. Domingo and I couldn't be more in love with our new budle of joy.