Almost a minivan....

With the addition of a new baby comes the addition of a new carseat. And sadly the backseat of my Jetta really isn't made for two carseats. So Andy and I decided it was time for a new, roomier, car. Thankfully we still aren't at the point where we need a minivan, I'm pretty sure I'll cry when that day comes. So we got a station wagon instead... but a really cool station wagon! It is a 2002 VW Passat. It only has 57K miles on it and we got it for half of what it books out for, a very good deal!!!

Cohen James' early arrival!!!

Tuesday morning I woke up feeling really sick. I was so exhausted I could barely move and I was throwing up. We really needed to go to the store so I forced myself to get up and go. While we were shopping I had to stop several times cause I felt so dizzy. I took my blood pressure at the machine in the pharmacy and it was fine, 120/70 so I figured I had just caught a bug.
While we were checking out we were talking to our cashier. Suddenly almost my entire vision went black. I didn't feel faint or anything and was able to carry on the conversation with our cashier, I just couldn't see anything. When we got to the car I told Andy there was something wrong. He got worried of course and told me to call my doctor. I did and left a message. We then went home and I laid down on the couch to rest. While I was laying there I started to feel better and my vision came almost all the way back.
My doctor's nurse called and I told her I was starting to feel better the more I rested. I told her what my blood pressure read had been and that I thought it was just because I was sick. She wanted me to come in and get checked anyway, but she didn't seem too worried.
So around 2pm Andy, Talan, and I went into my doctor's office. Just walking into the office I started seeing spots and felt dizzy again. When the nurse checked my blood pressure it was 146/82. She laughed when I told her I had checked myself using a grocery store machine and it had been a lot lower. She said "those things never work right".
As soon as my doctor looked at my chart he said "well it looks like we're having a baby today". I of course started to cry, I was excited but scared and also really unprepared. We had Talan with us, my house was a little messy and I STILL hadn't packed my bags. At first they were going to schedule the c-section for 5 pm... then they found out I had eaten two tiny tiny tiny bites of an enchilada so they pushed it all the way back to 9 pm. I was sent over to labor and delivery to sit and do NOTHING, they didn't even have nurses checking on me or anything. I was just supposed to sit and wait. Andy in the meantime rushed home to pack up and wait for him mom to come pick up Talan. Around 5:30 the anesthesiologist came in to meet me. He asked when I had last eaten and when I told him he said "well if you promise not to throw up on me we can do the c-section at 7, we really don't have to wait all the way till 9". Of course I said yes... but then I freaked out cause Andy was still waiting for him mom and it was now rush hour traffic. We live 30 minutes away from the hospital in normal traffic... in rush hour it would take hours. I made them promise that if Andy wasn't there they would wait and they said of course.
Andy was finally able to leave our house a little after 6. I was freaking out thinking there was no way he would make it. But by some miracle he was there by 6:40 (he can drive really really fast when he wants to!). The anesthesiologist asked me if I had ever had a reaction to anesthesia. I told him how when I had my c-section for Talan I went absolutely crazy and was yelling, screaming and crying so much that the nurse had to hold me down and yell at me to calm down. He looked at me strangely for a second then said "ok... well if you start to freak out let me know... I've got drugs." About 2 minutes after he gave me the spinal I felt myself starting to freak out again. I said "k guys I'm freaking out"... and then I lost it. I felt like I was going to pass out and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't calm myself down. I was crying and I kept apologizing. Thankfully the drugs the anesthesiologist gave me worked pretty quickly and I returned to normal!!
This c-section was SOOOOO much different than the emergency one I had with Talan. With Talan everyone was super serious and rushed and I was crying the whole time. This time everyone in the room was joking around, they had music playing and it was a fun and excited atmosphere. It really helped keep me calm. As soon as the doctor started to pull Cohen out he said "oh boy this is a big baby!" They started to take bets on how big he was and my doc just kept saying "nope, he's bigger". He was sure he was at least a 10 pound baby!!!
Cohen was born on August 26th at 7:22 PM, he was 8lbs 10oz and 20 inches long... and that is with being almost 2 weeks early. I don't even want to think about how big he would have been if I had gone full term!!
His blood sugar and oxygen levels were a little low when he was born so they took him to the nursery. They brought him over to me before they took him so I could at least rub his cheek and give him a kiss. But it was so so hard watching my baby leave without me!!!!!! He was in the nursery about 2 hours and then they finally brought him in for me to meet. It was the LONGEST two hours of my life!! Heather and Andy kept running to the nursery to take pictures and then bringing them back for me to see. LOL My recovery has been so much easier this time as well. The morning after the c-section I was able to get up and walk around on my own. My doctor did tell me that I was on the borderline for needing a blood transfusion thanks to my iron levels being so low. So I'm still a little weak and pale, but I'm taking iron pills to help get over that. But Cohen is perfect! He is beautiful and sweet and we love him!!!









Talan pretty much ignored Cohen in the hospital... he loves him now though, but in the hospital he really didn't care!











This is my favorite pic!!!! He was so excited to go home!!!

Oh... by the way.....

Cohen James will be born on August 29th!!!!!!!!!!! I'll be having a C-section at noon, let the countdown begin!!!!

Car Update!

So on Monday night I sent the car dealership an e-mail. In that one I basically told them what had happened and expressed how dissatisfied we were in how we had been treated. At the end of the e-mail I requested that they refund us the $100 and replace the radio that had been damaged. I told them they had 48 hours to respond or I would be reporting them to the BBB and all that other stuff.
Of course I didn't hear anything back. So last night I sent them a very angry e-mail. I said their lack of response to my first e-mail was just another example of their poor customer service and business practices and that I would be making reports, contacting local news agencies, and writing horrible reviews for them on every internet site I could find. LOL
Well that one seemed to do the trick! I got a phone call at 10 this morning from one of the managers. Who apologized profusely that I had to wait for him to contact me but he had "been on vacation"... yeah right. Anyway, he was very nice and talked to me for about 20 minutes. We finally came to an agreement that they would take the $100 and put it towards fixing our horn since we really need that fixed so we can register our car next month. The first price they quoted us to fix the horn was around $250 and he was going to give us parts at wholesale cost and "tweek" labor so that we wont have to pay anything over the $100 we have already given them. They aren't going to do anything about the radio, but to be honest the radio wasn't that awesome in the first place so I'm ok with what we are getting.

We got ripped off!!!!!

So a few months ago the horn in our car stopped working. Then a few months after that the battery died. After we replaced the battery the radio never came back on. This is because of our anti-theft device. When the radio was disconnected from the battery it automatically shut down until it could be reset.
So 3 weeks ago Andy called and made an appointment with a VW place. They were all booked until today. At 7:30 in the morning he took the car in. He said he just wanted an estimate to fix the horn and radio. They told him if they looked at it and then he refused service they would charge us $90!!! So he almost left right then, but then he decided that the radio should be so easy to fix that it shouldn't be a problem. He came home thinking it would be an hour or two wait. 3 hours later I asked him to call them and find out how much longer it would be since I needed our car back. When he called he got transferred around 3 or 4 different times without a single person being able to tell him what was going on with our car. They then put him through to some random voice mail. So he called back and asked to talk to a manager. Again they only gave him a voice mail. He left a message asking from someone to call him back and give him a status update on our car.
An hour later we still hadn't heard anything. So I called and asked for a manager, and I specifically said I wanted to talk to someone and not to transfer me to a voice mail. But sure enough I was put right through to a voice mail. I left a very nasty message saying this was very poor service that we made an appointment weeks ago and it shouldn't take them 4 hours to do a simple check and then refuse to even keep us informed.
About 40 minutes later we finally got a call back. They told us both the horn and the radio were "defective" and needed to be replaced and it would cost around $500. So of course we said no thanks. Even if it was only going to cost $10 I'd say no because they obviously have crappy customer service.
So Andy went down to pick up the car. They wanted him to pay $96 before they would release it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He fought and fought with them for over an hour and talked to 3 different managers. But they all said they wouldn't give us our car without us paying for them to do nothing to it. He finally had to pay and leave because I needed the car so I could watch Heather's kids.
When he got home he looked at the radio... and they broke it!!!!!!! One of the buttons is missing and the face is all scratched up now. I'm so mad, we had to pay almost 100 bucks for someone to break our radio!!!
I'm writing them a nasty letter tonight, but I don't know what else I can do besides that. I'm going to threaten to make a complaint with the better business bureau and/or legal action. But I really don't think my threats will do anything. Does anyone else have any ideas??? Or are we just out of 100 bucks?

Beware: old ladies driving

Today we got in a car accident. We were driving home from the park and we were at a stop sign. with pickup truck in front of us. The pickup decided they were too far out in the intersection and suddenly backed up... right into our car!!!!! It was obvious they either didn't know they hit us or were trying to make a quick get away. I JUMPED out of the car (pretty impressive for an enormous pregnant lady, I know) and ran to the window of the truck and banged on it.... and inside was a little old lady!!!! Why she was driving a truck instead of a station wagon is beyond me. Well in my haste I didn't put my shoes on and the pavement was burning my feet off so after I banged on the poor ladies window like a crazy lady I turned around and ran back to the car for my shoes. I'm sure I was close to giving her a heart attack, but she got out of her car and when she saw Andy inspecting the damage she said "oh, did I get ya?". She obviously felt really bad and the damage is pretty minor. Our bumper is pretty messed up by the headlight, but Andy's dad can fix it for us. So we told her not to worry about it. I'm sure her insurance rates are high enough as it is.

Here are some pictures of Talan playing at the park today. At one point he decided it would be a really good idea to start digging in the dirt. He is such a boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why today sucks

So today we woke up to a sick baby. Talan always comes in and wakes us up in the morning and when he did today the stuffed bear he slept with last night smelled REALLY bad. So Andy went to look at his bed and found Talan had thrown up everywhere!!! However Talan didn't act like he wasn't feeling well at all. He was running around and playing like normal. So we thought he would be ok. But 20 minutes later Andy looked at him and with one look could tell that he was about to get sick again, which he did... ALL OVER POOR ANDY. I'm so glad it wasn't me, Andy actually had to throw up afterwards as well cause it was so nasty! Again, after the 2nd throw up he seemed fine. We even still were able to go to a birthday party for his cousin. Although him and I mostly just sat on the couch watching Blue's Clues. After the party he took a nap and when he woke up EVERYTHING was covered in the nastiest diaper gross ever. Unfortunately Andy was already at work so I had to do the clean up from that one!
Bad thing #2 from today. I went to the store to buy Talan some Pedilite this morning. When I got home I got some trash out of the car and threw it away before coming inside. Later I couldn't find my phone anywhere so I took the house phone out by the dumpster and called my phone. Sure enough my pregnant brain had somehow allowed me to throw my cell phone away!!!!!!!!!!!! If I weren't pregnant I would climb in and get it myself, however I'm pretty sure digging around in disgusting dumpsters isn't advised for women who are 8 months pregnant. So instead I have to wait till Andy comes home tonight and can do it for me. Being without a cell phone SUCKS. I feel so unconnected from the world!!!
Bad thing #3 from today. Talan and I needed to go to the store. Talan loves to carry the car key to the car. Well today when we got to the car he decided to stick the key threw one of the holes in our hubcaps. Thanks Talan... now we are stranded. We don't have regular hubcaps and I tried for 20 minutes to pry the dang things off but I couldn't do it. So once again I have to wait till Andy gets home!!!!!!!!!
All this combined with it being 400 degrees outside and me being so pregnant I can barely move has just made for one heck of a day! I can't wait till it is over!!!!!!