The Story

It's been over a week now, and things are still very hectic around here, but I'm finally sitting down to write out E's birth story.

I was scheduled for my induction on Wednesday, the 21st. My mom came to stay with us overnight on the 20th because we had to be at the hospital at 5:45 in the morning. On the night of the 20th, I had some bloody show, and started having contractions. They were slightly painful, and were fairly close together (3-7 mins apart), but I knew that they weren't nearly painful enough to be the real thing. I was super excited, because it was like E was telling me that induction or no induction, she was ready to come out. The contractions continued for part of the night, but I was able to get a little sleep. By the time we got up in the morning, the contractions had stopped.

We arrived at the hospital and got started on the pitocin around 6:20 a.m. My cerivx was at about 2, so the contractions from the night before had made about .5 to 1cm change in my cervix since I had been checked the day before and I was 1 to 1.5. My contractions started fairly soon after the pitocin was administered, and the nurses turned the pitocin drip up every 15 minutes until my doctor arrived about 8:30. When he arrived, he checked my cervix again and broke my water. E was still at -3 station (her head was still high in my pelvis) so that check hurt SO much. (Picture the doctor with his arm up to the elbow in my hoo-hoo trying to feel her head at -3 station.) I seriously think that was the most painful part of the entire labor because it was before my epidural.

When they broke my water, they found that there was a little meconium in the fluid, so they told me that there would be a neonatoligist present during the birth to check E out right away and to try to avoid having her suck the fluid into her lungs when she was delivered. I was disappointed to have even a small complication like that, but all things considered, it could have been worse.

After my water was broken, the nurse called for the epidural, and while I waited I had some pretty intense contractions for maybe 15 -30 minutes before the epidural was in place. After that, I still had some low abdominal cramping on the left side with each contraction, but the epidural greatly decreased my discomfort. (God bless the anesthesiologist. Amen.)

At around 10:30 my doctor called in to ask the nurse to check my cervix. I could tell that she was skeptical that I would have made much progress in just two hours, but was surprised to find that I was almost fully dilated with only a lip of cervix left. She told me to wait until I had the urge to push, and then call her.

I was worried about calling too early, so I waited until I was feeling a lot of pain and pressure (even through the epidural) with each contraction. That was about 10:45. They called my doctor (whose office is only about 10 minutes from the hospital) and he showed up soon after. As soon as he was set up (literally about 2 minutes after he walked in the door) he told me to push whenever I was ready.

With the next contraction, I pushed about 5 times in a row over a period of 2-3 minutes. At the end of the fifth push, I could feel the head, and the doctor told me to stop pushing. She came out and the doctor put her on my chest briefly before sending her to be checked by the neonatologist. I looked at T and basically said, "Did that just really happen??" I couldn't believe it was so fast. (I pushed for 45 minutes with D.)

The doctor did an episiotome, so he had to stitch me up afterwards. He was humming to himself as he was sewing, and the look on T's face was priceless as he watched how nonchlantly the doc was doing the job. (T is not a blood and guts guy at all. He didn't even look at the head this time. I think D's birth was enough of a memory for him. Haha.)

The neonatologist's check went smoothly, and we've been enjoying our new little bundle ever since. I'll updte with some more "first week" stuff soon, but for now, this is all there's time for. Thank you all again for all of your wonderful comments. It's so amazing to be able share good news within a community where there is so much support.

She's here!

Just a quick update and then I need to take a shower! :)

E was born at 11:17 am yesterday. She is (only) 7 lbs. 10 oz. (!) and 20.5 inches long. She's beautiful and perfect, and we're totally in love. :)

More to come later...

(Update: Thank you so much for all of the wonderful comments. Now that you've had a chance to "meet" her, I removed her name, and any comments that mentioned her name, just to keep things fairly anonymous, but I appreciate all the comments nonetheless!) :)

Dropping?

First, doesn't it seem like the pregnancy tickers should continue after your due date? I mean, I'm by no means the only person to pass their due date, and it seems like I should get some credit for it. It should say something like, "Mommy is ready to kick me out, but I really like it in here, and I'm staying!" Don'cha think??

But I digress...

Baby girl was doing some major gymnastics last night, but she seems to have settled down a lot today (to the point where I pulled out the doppler before my appointment just to make sure...) I also think that she may have FINALLY started to "drop." I feel much fuller in my abdomen than I have for the entire pregnancy. In other good news, my cervix has (again, finally) decided to start to open for business. At my ultrasound this morning, it was much shorter, and when the doctor checked me he said that I'm 1-1.5 cm dilated. THANK GOODNESS. She's finally getting the message that she is being evicted. My blood pressure was 126/80, so amazingly enough, we seem to have made it through the whole pregnancy this time with no BP issues. Yay.

The plan is to show up tomorrow morning before 6 am at the hospital and get things moving. I guess there is apparently some minuscule chance that the doctor might deem her "not ready" (i.e. not far enough down and in position) for induction, but I'm focusing on positive thinking and expecting that the next time I post here, it will be to tell you that she has arrived.

No sharing birthdays...

Well, here we are at the other side of the weekend, and no baby yet. We made it safely through D's birthday yesterday without adding another member to the family. Babywise, the only thing of note is that the skin of my stomach feels SO stretched right now. OW. If this baby really is going to weigh in at 8 1/2 pounds, that might explain it!

I don't talk about D much on here, but in honor of his birthday I have to say that I'm just amazed that he's three and he's such a little person. It's incredible to watch them grow up. Yesterday T asked D what he wanted for his birthday breakfast. D's response? "Cake."

Oh yes, he really is one of us.

Still waiting to hatch

Happy due date to me.

The non-stress test was uneventful today. Baby is looking like a rock star and my blood pressure was fine.

Ladies, I think I may very well be getting induced next Wednesday as scheduled. I'll keep you updated.

That is all.

How this mama prepares for labor

One of my good friends got a pedicure a few days before her c-section a few years ago. I thought to myself, "BRILLIANT!" and vowed to do the same when I got towards the end of my pregnancy. I took a gamble and scheduled a haircut, highlights, and brow wax for last Friday, and a pedicure for last Saturday. Now mama has her hair 'did, and her toes 'did, and her brows un-bush-ified, and she's ready to party! (And I managed to not go into labor before those appointments!!)

Thanks to everyone who commented about my last post. So far, ignoring the e-mail altogether has worked... And my MIL actually has D for the whole day today so that I can get some things done. She really does have her good points... :)

I just got back from my 39 and 4 days appointment. Cervix is STILL long and closed. OY. My blood pressure was a tad bit high today (130-something over 80). The doctor is sending me for a non-stress test on Friday, and then I'm scheduled for another appointment next Tues (40 and 4) AND scheduled for an induction on Wednesday if the little one hasn't thrust me into spontaneous labor by then. I really didn't want to pass my due date, but I feel better knowing that I'll have an NST on Friday. They also made sure during the u/s today that my fluid is still fine and the placenta looks good too. Oh, and she's measuring 8 lbs. 1 oz. right now, so if that's right, she's gonna be a bigger babe than my little guy, who was only 7 lbs. 8 oz. at birth.

I have been having some Braxton Hicks contractions, so I'm kind of hoping they might turn into the real thing... My doctor is not on call this weekend, and my son's birthday is on Sunday, so if I was a betting woman, I would put money down that I'll end up having her Sunday, just because that's the one day I'd kind of like to avoid if I can. Time will tell.

Here's today's belly shot. Hopefully this is about as big as the belly will get. More stretch marks this time than with D, and I'm ready to stop growing!

Not all peaches and cream

The business end: Yesterday's appointment was great. The baby is doing great, and doesn't look like she has any intention of coming out any time soon. (Cervix is still over 3 cm long and closed.) My blood pressure was 120/70 (even though I had way too much salty food this weekend at D's birthday party!)

Okay, so now that that's out of the way, I have to take a moment to talk about my MIL. I usually don't because you just never know who might be reading, but... OY. She ADORES my hubby, and my son. Those things are very important to me. (And she's nice to me most of the time too, but gets VERY irritated/sulky/huffy when she doesn't get her way.) Most of the time she means well, but SHE NEEDS A HOBBY. She has way too much time to think about other people's lives and about what they should be doing/what they're doing wrong. She gets things into her head and can't let go of them. As just one example, she's been asking about where the baby will sleep practically since I announced my pregnancy. We have a 3 bedroom, and we're planning to eventually have D and the baby share a room so we can keep our guest room. This doesn't seem to be the answer she wants since she keeps asking the same question over and over thinking the answer might change.

She also has it in her mind that she wants to have some sort of party at her house (in our honor) after the baby is born. She was calling it a baby shower, but I told her I really don't want another baby shower. I already had one for D, and I don't want anyone to feel like they have to bring gifts. She backed off of the "shower" idea and said she would "make it clear in the invitation that gifts were not expected." This would be okay, but she wants to invite all of my family (extended included) as well as her own to "meet the baby." Ummmm... My family will already have met the baby... I'm not really sure why this is necessary. Why not just invite YOUR family? And in case you're thinking "what's the big deal? She's just excited, and wants to honor you." I KNOW. It makes me feel terrible that I am so ANTI party, but here's the thing. She is envisioning something in Mid August beginning with a brunch, then golfing for any of the guys who want to go (5 hours minimum) and then a BBQ in the afternoon. So we're talking about something in the realm of NINE hours. So I'm already stressed out about the idea of handling two kids, while trying to breastfeed one of them, having been unsuccessful at breastfeeding the first. The LAST thing that I want to do is spend NINE or more hours away from the comfort of my own house with a one month old. I was really hoping that she would drop it, (sometimes she does that) but it seems like she's really gung ho about this one. She asked me for about the third time to come up with a list of people I want to invite (including phone numbers and addresses) before things get more hectic.

I talked to my therapist about the whole situation, and she suggested that I tell her that I just couldn't think about it now, but my MIL is VERY sensitive, and I just don't want to cause waves before the baby is born. I'm hoping I can just ignore her e-mail and let it die for now. Blah.

So close

I can't believe that in about two weeks, I'll be giving birth again. 38 weeks tomorrow, and still feeling good. I have found that I have to be realllllly careful about not drinking too late at night (as in, no big glasses of any liquid after about 6:30) so that I don't wake up to pee. I had another night when I was awake for over an hour after getting up to pee, and I don't want a repeat performance of that. It would be one thing if I could sleep in, but with an almost-three-year-old who wakes up around 6:15, that's not an option!

My appointment and U/S was great this week. Baby's size jumped back up into the 63rd percentile, and they're estimating that she weighs about 7lbs. 5oz. now. HOLY MOLY. Hope she doesn't gain a pound a week for the next two weeks! EEK! My blood pressure was 120/80, so I have high hopes that maybe all of our planning for high blood pressure this time might have been unwarranted. That would be awesome! So far, my cervix is still long and closed. I had a few Braxton Hicks contractions yesterday that weren't painful, but I've had some shooting pains in the nether-regions and down my legs which are indicative of the baby hitting nerves as she gets her head more into position.

The doctor mentioned that if I don't go into labor on my own by my 39 week appointment, "we'll talk about what to do." I'm taking that to mean that he's open to an induction rather than letting me go past my due date. Because of my high anxiety with regard to passing my due date, I'm happy to be induced, particularly since I've done it before and had a good experience.

This weekend, we're celebrating D's 3rd birthday with close family on the 4th of July. His birthday isn't until the 18th, but I'll probably be a little busy then, and we decided that it would be good to get it in before the baby is born! (Hard to believe that he's going to be 3!)

We've finally narrowed down our baby name choices to two definites and one probable contender. I feel very strongly that I need to see her before we name her, so we won't make the final decision until B-day.

Guess that's pretty much it for now.

OH, I almost forgot. For those ladies in the home stretch of their pregnancies, you should check out ContractionMaster.com which is a free website on which you can time your contractions with your computer. It looks awesome, and I'm definitely going to use it if I go into labor spontaneously.