Our precious little girl is here! Here are some pics from my mom's camera. Hopefully I'll get to a more detailed post tomorrow. =)
Introducing:
Dl born on November 26th, 2008 @ 12:06 AM
8 lbs 2 oz and 20.5 inches long
looks like we will be heading in to base here in a little bit.... contractions are about every 4 to 5 minutes!!!! and staying steady!!!
so exciting!!!!
Had another doctor appointment. Same as the other day. But afterward, my contractions which were about every 10 minutes started getting stronger. Came home anyway, so hopefully they'll stay constant and get stronger, and hopefully we'll be going back in today. Otherwise, they want another monitoring session on Friday and inducement on Saturday. But if we're going to have to induce, I might decide to just do it tomorrow. Hopefully though, my contractions will get stronger and we'll have to go back in today anyway. =)
I'll give another update soon, hopefully, or if not, my mom can leave a comment to update everyone.
We walked around Caltagirone for a few hours today..... and still, nothing. I thought for sure something would start happening. If it hadn't been rainy we would have driven out to Agrigento, then of course something would definitely have happened, lol, since it's quite a ways away, but oh well. My next appointment is tomorrow morning, bright and early. The doctor will be talking to us about "her schedule" for this week, and will undoubtedly recommend an inducement day.
=(
Here's what we're guessing:
Grandma: 8 lbs 6 oz
Mom: 8 lbs 4.5 oz
T: 8 lbs
Me: 8 lbs 9 oz
C: "uhhhh 3 years old"
Anyone else want to guess?
=)
I had another monitoring session today. They hooked me up to the wonderful machines again for over 20 minutes. Baby's heartbeat is fine. I was having contractions every 4 minutes, but I couldn't feel them, until I watched the machine, and realized... "Oh, that feeling is a contraction?" lol very weak contractions, so minor, I've been ignoring them for some time now. I'm dilated 2-3 cm now instead of 1-2. I met my new doctor, and while her bedside manner is not the greatest, I do like her method of inducing a lot better than my last doctor's..... that is if we have to resort to inducing. I'm still hoping I won't have to. But if we do, she's going to use an internal medication, if that doesn't work, then break my water, and if that still doesn't get things going, then as a last resort, use pitocin. I asked that if we had to resort to pitocin, once my contractions started up, if we could stop the medication, and she said she would be willing to try. So that was a little comforting. Hopefully I won't have to induce, and if I do, hopefully the internal medication will be enough to get things moving along. I'm very excited, and so happy I've stuck to my plan so far. I really think the only reason I've been able to keep saying no to an inducement is because of my mom and grandma's help. If they weren't here to help with the house, cooking, and C, I think I would have been exhausted by now, and probably would have given in to an inducement even though I didn't want one. So, I'm so grateful for their help. I just hope the baby decides to come soon, so we can all meet her! (and hopefully get a little bit of sight seeing in!!!!)
=D
I had the tests done today (another trip to base...) My family is already seeing why we're quite tired of living here sometimes lol. I had to be monitored for 20 minutes to watch the baby's heart rate, my heart rate, and contractions. Apparently, I had 2 contractions in that 20 minutes that I didn't even feel. I'm only dilated 1-2 cm. The doctor was talking about inducing Monday or Tuesday (I'd barely be 41 weeks.) But I think I bought some time. If I don't go into labor by Sunday morning, I have to go in for another monitoring/test session. At that time I will meet with the doctor who will be taking over for my doctor (since he's going on vacation.) She will give her recommendation which I'm positive will be an imediate inducement to avoid having a baby on Thanksgiving when "not all the staff will be at the hospital." ugh. We'll see.... I'll give another update when something happens.... or doesn't.
My family made it in okay yesterday. Had another dr. apt today. Frustrating! I'm not dilated, and the baby is not engaged at all! lol she is quite content where she is..... Like I predicted, my doctor started talking about inducing already. I told him I'm not even 41 weeks until Sunday, so he better hold his horses. heh. He's going to start making me go in twice a week for stress tests, amniotic fluid checks, and possible extra ultra sounds. give me a break. ugh. So, we'll see what happens this week. I'm praying that she'll decide to come on her own... and soon.
for family that's checking in:
Tuesday @ noon: still waiting.... might have decided on a different name... =)
we'll see.....
hehe
=)
It's Monday night... 11 PM, still no baby. My luck, she'll decide to get things going as we're on our way to the airport to pick up my mom and grandma tomorrow lol. *knock on wood*
=)
Today is my due date. Leah is not here. Tony is at work (yay!) And Carlee is keeping me busy. Thankfully, right now she's occupied with playdough. (We've already painted, colored, read, and made & drank some apple cider, her new favorite.) She's definitely keeping me busy....
I'm tired of waiting. I'm so ready to be in the next stage of our life already. I want to hurry up and have my two kids! to be in our new schedule! to get my energy back! to be able to go somewhere without thinking, "Oh, but I might go in to labor." I'm even missing out on a Christmas Card workshop today =( boo. It's okay though, I'm still buying the supplies so I can make them here at home.
My mom and grandma are going to be visiting soon. They're coming in on Tuesday. I'm so excited! Hopefully Leah will be here by then... we'll see. I'm hoping she doesn't wait too long. I want my mom and grandma to spend as much time with all of us as possible. I don't want to spend it being tired and eventually in the hospital. Speaking of which. Another reason I hope Leah decides to come soon, is I know my doctor is going to be pushing for an inducement at 41 weeks at the most. I really, really, really, do not want to induce. He's making a big deal about the weight I put on in the last few weeks. Even though, really, it's not much and I haven't changed ANYTHING in how I'm eating at all. (Besides, I ate less healthy and put on more weight with Carlee, so I'm so not worried about it.) He's just weird, wants to be in control, and is beginning to irritate me.
anyway... time for lunch. Send labor vibes my way!!! =)
39 weeks and counting..... =) my friends were guessing the day she'd pick to arrive. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday were their guesses. Tony decided to take Thursday. We shall see...
=D
hopefully she won't keep us waiting for long....
the baby was going to decide to come last night..... Had my first contraction at about 11 PM. Had a few more throughout the night, just enough to keep me awake, anticipating things to happen, water breaking, more contractions, anything! But no... they just stayed very mild and far apart. Yay for false labor! lol But hopefully this means she'll be here soon!!!!! I did practice my relaxation and feel pretty good about that. Carlee also kept getting up throughout the night, so it was a rough night. Thankfully she let me sleep in this morning. =)
On an unfortunate note, my doula had to go to the states for an emergency. =( I'm praying for her and her family, and also for me since she won't be here if I go into labor before my due date. Keep us in your thoughts! =)
Even when I was pregnant with Carlee, I wanted pregnancy pictures, but wasn't able to get them done. This pregnancy, I am so blessed to have a really good friend, Angie, who is a really really awesome photographer! This past Saturday we did a shoot together and I loved soooo many of the shots. We even had to deal with low lighting due to thunderstorm clouds that came in, and with Carlee's weird smiles and constant moving and they still came out great! These are my super super favorites. :)
Is she awesome or what?!
Thank you so much Angie!!!!!
=D
This afternoon, I had a meeting with my prospective doula. I had a different lady that I was going to start up with as soon as she helped the last lady to have a baby, but she let me know that she would not be able to be my doula after all. Completely understandable, as she has a lot going on, and she wasn't charging. So, she referred me to a different lady here who is a certified doula, but who charges. I knew I still wanted someone with me, so I met with her. She gave me a third off her normal fee since I'll only have 4ish weeks left by the time we will start our doula/patient relationship. I'm very excited though, since she seemed very concerned with what I wanted and helping me achieve it.
My labor with Carlee was not traumatic by any means, in fact I was extremely blessed that everything went so well. But looking back, I regret a lot of things, I'm disappointed in how things went, and there are so many things I would change. I was not informed, I was scared, and only had Tony to help me (who was gone most of the pregnancy, and who also didn't know a thing about labor and delivery.) I gave into the doctor's advice on drugs and an epidural, even though I had originally told him I didn't want one. I felt completely not in control, like I wasn't even having a baby, and passive. My epidural was so strong that I didn't feel a thing after they administered it. I was lucky that even then, I had a strong mind/body connection and could still control my body without feeling anything, otherwise I don't doubt for a second that they would have suggested a C-section if I couldn't push effectively.
I blame the epidural and drugs for how I felt after having Carlee. I was so out of it, and felt like I had been hit by a truck. It was like my body was wondering what the hell had hit me, since during the whole event I hadn't felt a thing. I also blame the epidural for Carlee's sucking problems. It took her 2 weeks to learn how to suck right in order to eat well. Even with bottles, not just with breastfeeding, so I know it wasn't me or that she needed to "learn" to breastfeed. I never knew epidurals could cause that until recently.
This time will be different though. I have a birth plan in my head and am currently planning it out on paper. I'm hoping to go natural, do my early laboring at home, not be restrained to the bed once I'm at the hospital, and have my doula present. I want to be relaxed and will have the environment a certain way, I want to shower if I feel like it, walk if I feel like it, work through the contractions in whatever position I feel most comfortable in, hopefully snack if I need to, etc. I'm really looking foward to this birth. I can't wait to welcome our little Leah into this world, on her and my terms and in our own way.
Thank goodness! I didn't start doubting my intuition until last night, and then I didn't sleep very well, but the ultrasound results today say she's perfectly fine! Her measurements are right where they should be. My amniotic fluid is fine. Everything's good. The guy tried to get a few pictures.... buuuut she's already head down! and was facing my back. =) She's getting ready!!!!
=D
My 32 week checkup was a week late as my doctor was on leave. We went in today, and everything was fine except my belly is measuring 4 inches smaller than it should. I'm not particularly worried, I can feel this child doing her little gymnastics in there; I know she's fine. But the doctor wants to be sure, so he scheduled me for another ultrasound.
....yay....
Can you tell how excited I am? lol I have to drive down to base again this week, (ugh) on a full bladder (UGH) and get looked at for an hour (DOUBLE UGH!!!) buuuut maybe I can con the guy into printing some more pictures. *crosses fingers* heh. Gotta have those pictures for the scrapbook! =D
I'll give an update on Friday. Hope everyone is having a good week!
I haven't been able to update any of my blogs lately... Saturday my friends threw me a baby shower!! It was sooo awesome. THEY are sooo awesome. It was kind of weird for me, because I've never had a party thrown for me as an adult, so I kind of kept forgetting the party was for me LOL. I kept finding myself in the kitchen, and my friends would give me looks like, "What are you doing? Go to the living room!" haha. I hope no one was offended, I didn't do it on purpose. =) I will post pics later. I loved everything I got for the baby. I'm so grateful for my good friends I have here. I don't know what I would do without all of them.
So, why am I sleepy? Well, for the past week I've been dealing with Carlee's weird sleep patterns that showed up out of nowhere! Seriously, is there a reason to get up at 3 AM and NOT go back to sleep for the rest of the day!!!???!!! I'm not kidding. I'm 30 weeks preggers and dealing with this. I'd like to enjoy my sleep for the last few weeks I have it, Carlee, thank you. One night when Tony had duty, I fought to get her to sleep for 1.5 hours in the middle of the night, and finally decided to just let her cry it out, and went to bed. Well, she came in to my room and crawled into bed. I was too tired to even say anything... my biggest mistake. Well, I did tell her that when Daddy was home, she would not be able to do that, but she knew better.... LOL The next night, (when Tony was home) she did it again. Came into our room around 1 AM, went straight to my bed and started feeling for my face (since it's so dark in there, heh). "Can I help you?" I asked.
"yeah, you can help me. Pick me up." I had to laugh... little smart butt. We let her into bed. It's a battle for me, because I naturally parent with attachment parenting. I did it even before I knew what it was, just by following my instincts. But now, my brain is telling me that she's going to start taking advantage of it, and I don't need to deal with bad habits after the baby gets here. Anyway, she wanted to sleep on the edge, so I was forced to the middle, which is horrible for someone who can't sleep in their current state if it's higher than 71 degrees. It was so hot between the both of them... ugh. I couldn't move, my back was killing me. After laying there for a few hours, I finally had enough and told Tony to take her to her bed. Just as he was laying her down, she said, "What are you doing with me?" AHHH!!!! She ended up back in our bed.
Last night, I told her she had to sleep in her bed. It took me a while to get her to sleep the first time. As I left her room, I put the baby gate up in the doorframe. Yeah, she was not happy about that at 2 AM this morning, let me tell you. LOL I took her to the bathroom, then back to her room to try to get her back to sleep for over an hour. I didn't want her crying loudly since Tony had to work this morning. After that hour, I gave up. I was exhausted. I left the room, and of course she got out of bed, opened the door and screamed and cried and was pissed. I kept hearing her open and close the door, say Mom!!! (she's been calling me that lately,) turn the light on and eventually quiet down. Turns out she passed out with the light on the rest of the morning lol. sigh.... I don't know.....
I hope this weird phase passes soon. She used to be such a good sleeper. We'll be doing the baby gate again tonight. I hope she gets the point.
I have a ton of pictures to go through for the 365 project... LOL it's not going to happen right now.
Carlee caught another viral infection and started showing signs of it on Sunday. She's feeling better now as long as she's on tylenol.
Been busy the past week with MOMS Club stuff, taking Carlee to parties, and whatnot (not knowing she was carrying that yucky sore throat bug.)
Last Tuesday I went in to the college office to talk about my credits. The one guy who would know anything was out of town until yesterday. So, I have to wait for him to take a look at it and email me...
Pregnancy is still going good. This child is always kicking me. LOL I go to bed, I'm getting kicked, I wake up and I'm getting kicked, I'm cleaning/eating/walking/sitting/etc/etc/etc and I'm getting kicked! little booger. :)
We found out yesterday that a mutual friend from highschool died over the weekend. I saw him last about a year and a half ago. He was only 25. He had just gotten married 2 months ago. :( My heart broke for his wife when I found out. I can't imagine. Just makes you realize it could happen any day. I'm so grateful for everything I'm blessed with.
