Austin TX Real Estate - Hill Country Austin Lakeway Homes for Sale: November 2007

Alyssa Nicole Harris, aka BabyHarris, has arrived!!

November 16, 2007 at 9:54am
7 lbs 4.3 oz and 19 1/4 inches                                  

As many of you remember, I was blogging while in labor.  That was lots of fun!  No epidural until 2:30am.  I'm not sure many of you know this, but according to the anesthesiologist, I'm "high strung" and I "don't know how to relax" so the epidural took 45 minutes to be put in place.  Yes, 45 minutes.  Not 4-5 minutes like most people, but actually 45 minutes!  Granted, I have a high pain tolerance, but man oh man, I have no idea how people do it without the epidural.  I wanted to ring this guy's neck for taking so long!

Anyway, labor was less than 14 hours which is good on a first delivery.  Actual pushing labor was only 1 hour 14 minutes.  I was on oxygen because the baby's heartrate was dropping during contractions.  Well, the oxygen was making me a little light-headed and apparently my eyes were rolling in the back of my head a couple of times and I almost passed out.  The nurse told me to relax several times and just let a couple of the contractions go by without pushing.  My response?

"I'm not here to rest, I'm here to push and get her out of me!!"  They all thought that was funny so I took over.  Yes, the control freak in me started having to tell them when I was going to push because they didn't want to tell me when to push as they wanted me to rest.  My doctor thought I would be pushing for about 3 hours, and out pops the head.  He tells me that she has a ton of hair.  That freaked me out because I was expecting bald since I had no heart burn.  Boy (girl), does she have a lot of hair... and it's DARK!  Mike and I are both fair skinned with auburn (red) hair.  Granted, Mike was blonde as could be when he was younger, and I was bright red, but over the years, both of us got darker.  I guess she's going to do the opposite. 

Her eyes are this very dark blue-grey color, which I know can change in the next couple of years.  I have brown and Mike has hazel.  I wonder which way she'll go...  thus far, she doesn't look like either one of us.

We also had our first scare.  She was almost hospitalized for a fever of 100.3 degrees, dehydration and losing 12% of her initial body weight, and 10% is typically the highest end doctors will tolerate.  We had to swtich from breast to bottle for a day, and she gained 5.5 oz just in one day, and we'll go back to the breat (too much info?) at her next feeding in a couple of hours.

She's gorgeous and a high acheiver already!  She can push off my shoulders and chest, she can stand up and take a few steps on my stomach and chest, and she bobs her head to music.  I think the bobbing of her head is because I would beat my stomach like a drum when I listened to music in the car.

Anyway, I could go on and on.  Instead, here are some more pictures!!

The really good pictures are on Mike's laptop, and he hasn't transfered them over to our Shared file yet, but isn't she the cutest!!??

No one thought I would actually do it, but here I am in labor at the hospital and I'm posting a blog!!!

My water broke at 7:20pm Central time, and it's currently 11:45pm.  I'm on a Pitocin drip to help increase the contractions for more consistency.

I'm SOOOO thirsty but no fluids allowed.  My doctor said it was ok, but the anesthesiologist person said no... I can eat popsicles though.

I'll post again after the baby gets here!!  YEAH!!

I just completely one of the worst transactions EVER!  I can't believe we even made it to closing on Tuesday.  (Yes, this is the one with 3 pregnant women in the same room)  This is a little long, and I've also cut a lot out as below isn't everything that happened...  worth the read!

At the beginning of October, I received a low-ball offer on a listing.  I received no call or email telling me to expect this offer, and I also received no approval letter to go along with the offer.  I called the buyer's agent to try to get more information... left a message.  The next day, left a message.  Two days later, left a message...

The next Tuesday, I left a message saying, "Does your buyer want this house or not?  Why would you submit an offer and not return calls?"  I received a call back within 30 minutes.  The agent tells me he's been in Cancun.  Yes, he submitted an offer, and immediately left town and left no one to follow up for him.

I get the approval letter, and guess who is the loan officer?  Yes, the buyer's agent is also the mortgage person, as he OWNS the real estate company and the mortgage company.  Also, he is a builder and does 99.995% new homes, and hasn't done a pre-owned home in ages, and didn't even know the correct forms to submit through the rest of the transaction.

So, we counter the offer, and it takes over 2 weeks to get an executed contract signed by the buyer which also meant we had to change the closing date because they put Oct 15 as closing date, but when you don't execute until after that date, no chance in it closing. 

But wait, it gets better!  Three days before I get the executed contract, the buyer's agent LEAVES TOWN AGAIN!  This time, he leaves for 2 weeks!  Again, he leaves no one in charge who knows anything, and there is no one at his office who is licensed!!!  My only contact was a loan processor who had no idea who the buyer was, but she did help get the contract from the buyer after I gave her his contact information.

While the agent is out of town, the buyer is supposed to have his inspections.  Does he do his inspections??  NO!  He waits 2 weeks to run his inspections!  And then, he thinks he still had a leg to stand on when he came back and asked for 15 repairs!!  Whatever!!  The buyer's agent is responding to emails every 3-4 days while in Hawaii, but that's doing no good.  The agent, as he's also the mortgage guy, threatened to deny the loan if repairs weren't done.  Silly silly man... he is not familiar with our new Financing Addendum that states that if the buyer doesn't give WRITTEN notice of loan approval within a certain amount of days, he cannot cancel the contract due to financing and expect to receive his earnest money back... boy was he mad!!

In the mean time, the BUYER was at the house, and actually told MY SELLERS that they needed to talk with me and tell me to stop representing them to the tee and give him a break since his agent is out of town.  YES, he told my sellers I was representing them too much.  Can you believe this!!

Fast forward to the agent getting back in town... we agreed to 4 repairs even though we didn't need to, but we weren't going to throw things away because of $750 worth of repairs.  Then, the buyer asked for MORE repairs!!  You've got to be kidding me!!

I'm this |--| close to reporting this guy to TREC as he did so many things wrong.  We got to closing on Tuesday, and this guy even threatened to hold up funding so my sellers couldn't buy their new house the same day, all because he demanded a key to the property right then and there though it hadn't funded yet, and my sellers also have a 10 day lease back.

Check is CASHED!!  And I can't believe the stress of this didn't put me into labor!!!

This has been a very frustrating weekend... still no baby.  After spending 9 hours at the hospital Saturday night into Sunday, we were back at the hospital Sunday night at 10:30pm...

Still no baby!  The on-call doctor was just so worried about when my doctor would be back in town and she seems "scared" to so anything.  I did go to my regular doctor this morning and told him all about the weekend.  He said that he believes that doctor is more used to working with HMOs and not PPOs and she was acting accordingly.  I was like, she should have asked what my insurance was if she was concerned about it.

Either way, the doctor said it could be any day, maybe even today.  He said my cervix is "favorable" and in great position.

We're very excited, but for a control freak like me, I hate not knowing which date it would be!!  I feel like I've lost all control!!  Is she a teenager already??  LOL

Yesterday, I started having some pretty good contractions.  About 9pm, I noticed they were about 6-7 minutes apart.  I called the on-call doctor since mine is out of town.  She told me to give it an hour.  I gave it 2 hours...

At midnight, we gathered all the stuff needed, and we headed to the hospital.  Contractions were coming 1-2 minutes apart and 4-5 minutes apart... but didn't dilate past 2cm, so they just sent me home.

Being sent home was good because I can actually eat something as I'm starving, but I don't like being sent home because the contractions are so close, how do I know when I should go back up there??

Oh well, I'll figure it out.  Hopefully she comes today.  PLEASE keep your fingers crossed for me!!

This is unbelievable.  I haven't seen this happen in many months, maybe even a couple of years.  I have 2 deals closing on Tuesday, November 13.  My buyer's loan got the clear to close on Tuesday and docs were at the title company on Wednesday and we got an approved HUD on Thursday.

For them to buy, they wanted to sell their current home, though they didn't have to.  I followed up with the lender for the buyer on the sale end, and he tells me on Wednesday that docs would be at the title company "tomorrow".  Thursday was tomorrow, and docs actually showed up!!  I couldn't believe it! 

We now have 2 completely approved HUDs sitting and waiting for Tuesday!  Did I mention that I can't believe it!  I still have a deal in the works that was supposed to close on August 15 and we're back in underwriting again.

Docs 6 days in advance?  When was the last time any of you saw that??  I'm amazed!!

The part that angers me is that this would have been the best time to go into labor since everything is done, but yet, NO BABY!  She'll probably come the day of closing which would make me miss both closings, and then she'll get a spanking!!  LOL j/k

Is it wrong to use your kid to advertise??  This was one of my baby shower gifts.  I thought it was so cute.  In case you can't read it, it says:

Houses for Sale
donna@donnahomes.com

The size is for 18 months so she'll be a "walking" advertisement instead of a "crawling" one where you wouldn't be able to read it as it's on the front.  I got a couple of others too.  One says "My Mommy WILL sell your House" and the other one says, "Realtor in Training". 

It was very creative of my friend to think of this as she created them herself.  What do you think?  Has anyone else sent their kids to day care with their advertising on their clothes?  Have you taken them to the store or the park with your advertising to strike up conversations?  How did it go?

I'm so excited for her to be big enough to fit into these!!

Proposition 6 has been a thorn in many people's sides.  This proposition was supposed to set a property tax on vehicles for all people who use their cars/trucks for business.  This wouldn't just effect REALTORS®, but also landscape people, Mary Kay people, Avon people, HVAC repair people, etc... basically, anyone who has to use their vehicle to drive around to meet with their clients and customers.

The proposition passed overwhelmingly with 74%!!

Personally, I can't believe 26% voted against this.  Who are those 26%??  What were they thinking?  They must have been corporate world people who had no idea what they were voting against... unless they voted NO because they thought a NO would mean they didn't want it, as it was confusing to say you needed to vote YES for NOT having the tax.  I hate double negatives.

ANyway, bottomline, at this time, we will not be taxes on our cars... but keep an eye out for this coming up again as this is not the first go-around trying to pass this tax.

Well, I just got back from the doctor's...  I'm a couple of days early of 38 weeks, but my doctor is going to a wedding and will be gone from Thursday thru Sunday, so I had to have my appt today.

I'm having contractions, but they are not consistant.  They are either 20-25 minutes apart or they're more like 40-45 minutes apart.  We need to get those closer together!

I'm about 2cm dilated, but still not enough to strip the membranes to do much of anything.  It's another week of waiting, as I don't really want to go into labor with him gone and get stuck with a doctor that I don't know.

I've tried almost every trick out there, including a couple of things that were suggested from others commenting on my blog like working in the yard, and nothing... I heard a few days ago that eggplant parmesan can put you into labor, so that's for dinner tonight!  I made it earlier and I'm just waiting until 4:30pm to put it in the oven to bake it.  I love eggplant parmesan, but Mike doesn't, so I did double duty, as the nice wife I am, and made him chicken parmesan.

Please keep your fingers crossed for me!!  Doctor doesn't leave town until Thursday around noon, so there is still time to have her tomorrow before he leaves!!

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 ARE YOU PACKED YET?!

So frustrating, so frustrating!!!  At today's appointment, it looks like she is just "baked" enough.

I am retaining so much water, it's starting to concern my doctor, but still not signs up pre-eclampsia.  My hands are so red and I can barely type at times because my fingers are so swollen, I can barely bend them, especially in the mornings.  My knees are getting much worse and it's hurting to walk.  Blood is pooling behind my right knee which is causing more pain.

However, blood pressure is still fine, 118/60 so he sees no reason to actually induce as he still thinks it will lead to a C-Section.  It's very nice of him to be so concerned about not performing a C-Section, whereas other doctors probably wouldn't care.

He hooked me up to a monitor for about 10 minutes to check activity and such.  Apparently, I am having contractions, and I'm like, "that's" a contraction?  I've been having those pains for a couple of weeks now, but I guess they're not strong enough to make a difference, but at least it makes me feel better to know that I actually am having contractions.

Diagnosis: SEX

I asked him if I could just acquire some sperm and insert.  He laughed.  He said he had never heard of anyone suggesting that.  He said most people go to a sperm bank to become pregnant, not to become un-pregnant.

So frustrating... maybe she doesn't want to come until she has a name... looks like I've got a stubborn one on my hands!!