A Few Firsts

Thought I would post some pics of a couple of "Firsts" in our household. Jacks First Day of School and Eden First Bath. Eden was 3 weeks in the bath pictures. Can you believe that she is 4 weeks!!! I cant believe that she is so big already. Ok, "big" isnt really the right word, but you know what I mean! :) Speaking of size, she is about 7 pounds 1oz now. I am hoping by her 1 month checkup she will be back up to birth weight. It took her longer than some but she is getting there. :) Someday she will fit into these adorable clothes I have. :) Oh, and the last picture is just cute and is a great picture of her beautiful big eyes. :)

Beware.....I'm Long Winded! :)

Edens Birth Story

I went to the Dr on Tuesday August 5th for a scheduled check up at 16 days past my due date. I was in a delima because I knew I didn’t want to be induced and that my hearts desire was to go into labor on my own but I also was REALLY done being pregnant. I went in at 2:50 to see Dr Ransom and I was 2 cm dialated just as I had been for the past month or so. This was discouraging, but she did say that she felt like if I went in and got Cervidil (a cervical ripener) that she was sure that I would not need pitocen and could still have my natural delivery and water birth. This was, of course, up to me. I could still go home and wait it out. Seeing as Ransom was confident that I just needed a kick start I chose to go in that evening for cervidal. This can take up to 12 hours and I figured I could sleep through the night while it worked and maybe things would pick up in the morning. No matter what happened though I would be leaving the hospital with a baby, there was no turning back. J Ransom called and reserved the water birth room and we were set to go! I got to the hospital about 5:45 pm and got all checked in and settled. The nurse came in at 8pm to give me the Cervidil but checked my dilation first. Turns out I was now 4cm dialated and the cervidil would not be necessary. J YAY!!! Now I just had to wait and see if I could continue to dialate. I called my support team (My doula Christie, Des and Sarah and Elizabeth…..oh wait, she moved to North Freakin Carolina…lol) and told them the situation and they could come now or whenever I felt like I was really progressing. By 11 that night everyone was there and now we were just waiting to see what my body would do. We spent the next few hours walking up and down one straight hallway in order to keep my contractions going. Of course as soon as I stopped they stopped. Grrrr! Dr Ransom eventually suggested using a breast pump to simulate nipple stimulation. This also worked great as long as I was not too relaxed. As soon as I would drift off or relax too much all contractions would stop. By 7 am I had had an hour of sleep and was exhausted and extremely frustrated!!! Ransom came in and I finally just gave her the go ahead to break my water in order to get things going. I was fairly confident that this would not only work but would have me progressing quickly. I also knew that once my water was broken that the intensity of the contractions would get MUCH worse but at this point this was my last option before pitocen. By 8am Ransom came in to break my water. Apparently even the bag was stubborn because she had a hard time breaking it. J I must have done something right cause it was very healthy. Lol! At this point I was between a 5 and 6 cm, baby was -2 and I was 80% effaced. They knew that things would start progressing now so they stated getting the tub ready etc…. It took a good hour or so before I really started feeling like I was pretty uncomfortable with contractions. I got in the tub at around 9:10 and my contractions were lasting about 75 seconds and pretty intense. At this point I was still handling the contractions okay but I was in a much more serious mood. J At 10:35 they checked me again because I felt like I was going to lose it!! I was really nauseated and didn’t feel like I could handle it anymore. J I was a 9 at this point and 20 minutes later I was fully diallated. Dr Ransom came to check me and although I was pushing and she said that the baby was right there I could tell that it was not! Something seemed really wrong with how she checked me. Everytime I pushed it LITERALLY felt like I was going to break my tailbone and so pushing into the pain did not feel natural. After pushing and not getting anywhere for 35 minutes I decided to get out of the tub to cool off for a few minutes. Although my intention was to get onto the bed it took a few contractions to get there. I ended up on the floor on my hands and knees for a while. As soon as they got everything from the bed underneath me on the floor I decided to move to the bed. Lol! I am sure that the nurses were thrilled with me at this point. I was also making a fool out of myself by cussing and screaming and then apologizing. Lol! J Once I got on the bed Dr Ransom realized why the baby was not moving down. She was posterior in a non vortex position which apparently means that she was sunny side up and presenting brow first instead of the crown of her head. Her nose was stuck on my pubic bone so my pushing wasn’t doing a whole lot of good. I was SOOOOO exhausted and at this point was ready to give up and asking for a c- section. I wasn’t getting any break from the pain because in between contractions Ransom had her hand in there trying to bring the baby down and stretch me. Good Lord it HURT!!! At some point I started asking to take a nap, lol. I laid on my side ( I think this helped move her abit) and must have drifted off for a minute or so until a contraction must have caused my body to push. I was so incoherent that I pushed through the bone splitting pain and pushed her all the way down and out. Thank God! J All I remember is them telling me to wait and that was Soooo not happening….this baby was coming out! Lol! With one more push I heard someone say “it’s a girl” which let me know that she was here and everything else was bearable! They laid her on my chest at 12:19 so that I could meet this little angel that I had waited for my whole life. Through all of that I didn’t tear at all! Dr Ransom is my HERO!!!! So although it was difficult and seemed unbearable for a little while I would do it again the same way in a heartbeat. For one, if I had had an epidural I would have ended up with a C Section and I am pretty sure if another Dr was delivering I would have had one as well but God was in Control an I am so thankful for every detail He put in place! J

OK, You guys wanted to see me at 17 past due so here I am in the hospital. :) I Posted a couple of me in the tub and some more of little Eden. :) I sware by tomorrow I will have finished the birth story and posted it as well. Sorry, I have just not found the time between nursing and pumping!
Eden Update........ I took her to the Dr for her weigh in on Monday and we did get some good news. She weighed in at 6lbs 9oz. So she gained 4 ounces in 3 days and that made the drs very happy and it of course relieved some of my stress. She is so tiny and to watch her get smaller really makes you question all the things that you've thought in the past about feeding etc.... Luckily I have allot of people around me to support me and give me good advice. :) Thanks Elizabeth, Jenny, Christie and Sarah! :) Lets hope and pray that this continues and I can eventually stop having to supplement. I am just supplementing with breast milk but it sure is a pain. I gotta say that I don't know how people have the time to bottle feed. Call me lazy but it sure is a big pain in the A$$ to have to get up and like get everything together and then feed them. You have no extra hands to do anything else! Plus in the middle of the night you actually have to get up! Grrrr.......lol! I would imagine that would be a Awful........ 3 am is not one of the time that I supplement.
Oh........ I will also post some pictures of ......get this....... Jacks first day of school!!!!! I know, Right! He LOVES it, he rides the bus to and from school and absolutely loves it. He started last Thursday and I couldn't have asked for it to go better. :) I will try to post those pics in the next few days. :)

A Few More :)

Ok....Here are a few more pictures of little Eden :) She is Really a beautiful baby! Not tha I am biased at all or anything. :) I shoudl be sleeping so I am not going to write anything else. Maybe tomorrow.....or the next day. Laundry or Blogging......Hmmmmmm....I choose blogging, lol! Of course that wouldnt be the most responsible thing. :) lol!

Here are a few more pics of our little Eden.:) She really has been a great baby so far. She nurses alot and is very alert!! At some point I will write out my birth story and post it. At the moment I am typing one handed while I nurse so it will have to wait till later. :)

Meet Eden Elizabeth

Here She is!!!! Isnt she Adorable! Its just a hospital picture but she hasnt left here yet for us to put her in cute little girly clothes! I'll post more soon once I get some!!! How do you like the name? :)

Here we go......

UPDATE: Sara gave birth to a Baby GIRL, 7lbs. 4oz, 19.5 ins long, at 12:19pm Wed. Name is to be revealed later...NO DRUGS at all, no stitches, a completely posterior birth, really rough. But I hear that baby has beautiful dark hair and is precious. Pics to come soon.
-Elizabeth

Ok, This is it! I went to the Dr this afternoon and she said that although I am STILL a 2 (I know, RIGHT!) I do seem to be progressing and that cervidil would do the trick. That way I shouldnt need Pitocen and I can have the water birth that I want. I could just wait some more but I am So done that I feel like this is my best option. We'll see how it works out! lol! Hopefully it will end with a baby no matter what! lol! :)) So......Here goes!!! I am leaving here now and cervidil can take a while to work so i will try to keep you posted as to my progress. Thus ends my LONG wait.............. :)

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have really nothing to say this morning other than......What The F@&$!!! Sorry, I'm in a bad mood!!!! LOL! Maybe its hormones...................OR, Maybe its the fact that I am freakin 15 days overdue!!!!! Yep, thats probablly it! LOL! I'm not actually really laughing when I write that anymore either......lol.......ok, that time I did. :)) Alright.....vent session over.......for now!

For Real...No Baby Yet!

I am now officially 2 weeks overdue!!! LOL! Who Knew I would have this baby in August. I like the sound of an August birthday better anyway. :) Not fond of July in general! lol! It looks like I almost got my wish of waiting for Ransom to return! I figure if she works tomorrow then she is probably in town today so if I needed her at some point past now then she would be available maybe. :) They gave me on Thursday and it ACTUALLY showed me as overdue! FINALLY! I knew I wasn't crazy!! On the down side I was still measuring at 2cm and nothing to show I was any closer than last week or the 3 weeks before that for that matter. :) lol!! I am supposed to see Ransom tomorrow to follow up but I will have to see if I can get in. :) I'll let you know how that goes!

Prayer Request

Alright, No pregnancy news today. I actually have some very close friends that could use some prayer for any of you who are interested so I thought I would spread the news.
Some of you may know Jamie and Liz and their son Isaac. Liz took Isaac in yesterday to get his iron checked because her grandmother (who was a nurse) said he had some signs of anemia (some coloration things). She asked the pediatrician about it and he sent him in for a test. About an hour or so after the test she recieved a phone call that she needed to come in immediatly to the Drs office. Her pediatrician was not in but another one in the practice got the results and saw need for concern. His red blood count is supposed to be near 11 point something and it was at a 4. They wanted a full CBC done on the bloodwork to see what was going on with the rest of his levels. The results showed that all of his levels were Extremley low and unfortunatly the pediatrician said the results look like Isaac has leukemia. Ughhhh.....It sucks even writting that! Anyway, he was taken to the hospital last night to have a blod transfusion and they are due at Rileys Children Hospital this morning. We are not real sure what thay are to expect in Indy yet but for those of you interested I will try to keep you informed. Thank God I havent had this baby yet because I was able to be up at the hospital with Liz last night before Jamie arrived. Liz seemed to be holding herself together REALLY well for isaacs sake. The poor little boy had No idea what was going on other than he was continually being poked and proded. There are really no words for what, I am sure, they are going through right now so Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers! Isaacs turns 2 tomorrow and I know this isnt what Jamie and Liz thought they would be doing for his birthday. Thank you again!

:-P

Have No new news! :) Just thought I would let you now that!! Lol! Feel free to change your estimates on the size of the baby if you made them before. :) Something tells me its not so small anymore! :/ Your not allowed to guess anything over 10 pounds though, Thats Mean!!!! I think I will go watch "Knocked Up".......I know....its crude....but Soooooooooooooooooooo Freakin Funny!!!!! :)

The Longest Day.......

Yes, Its me, I am still here and still as pregnant as can be. lol. You know its bad when your 5 year old wakes up and puts his hand on your tummy and says "Its still there, huh?" lmao! Today is a better day than yesterday....so far anyway. :) I am pretty sure yesterday was the longest day ever! My hormones must have been out of frickin control cause I thought I might lose my mind. :) Being 7 days past due I am sure didnt help any. :) This baby is going to be well cooked by the time it gets here. I know people say that I am not so big but I am afraid that I am going to have a huge baby if it keeps up. lol. Well, I have nothing really to post about but I thought I would give you all an update. :) If any of you have any ideas of things to do to keep my mind off of being pregnant then let me know! :)

OMG!!!

My Day Sucks! lol! I wrote this Whole HUGE Post about my miserable false labor last night and it got deleted when I was like 2 sentences away from being done! GRRRRRR..............So....in short..........I went to the hospital last night and ended up coming home cause my body thought it would play a little joke on me. I opted to leave as opposed to being induced but I have now given up the oppurtunity to have Ransom do a water birth since she is going on vacation. I guess I am just going to try the non medicated route with one of the 3 other drs or midwife that are more medical than I would prefer. I'm still a F ing 2cm and 50% effaced after a whole week of contractions! LMAO! I have to laugh or I might punch someone. J/K.......kinda, lol. :) On the Upside I get to go see the XFiles movie tonight :) . LOL! I have to have some sort of something to look forward to. :)

Overdue!!

I am now officially overdue!!!! Grrr...I know, its only a day, or not even I guess, since yesterday was my due date but it doesnt really matter when you feel like this. LOL!!! I know the baby will come when its ready but if it had consulted me I would have given it the go ahead a while ago. :) I know I could take measures to maybe help things along such as castor oil but part of me still wants to let the baby decide. I would feel awful if I were to induce my own labor and me or the baby wasnt ready. Of course, ask me in a few days and I'll let you know if I still feel the same way. lol. :) Again, part of my urgency is that my Dr is going to be going on vacation at the end of the week so that does worry me abit.....or alot. :) Hopefully I go before that and I wont have to stress about it. :) Then I will be blogging about my lack of sleep, nipple soreness, and crazy emotions. LOL!!! At least then, I will have a beautiful baby to hold and show off with it though. :)
I'll keep you posted! I will try to at least comment before I go into the hospital to give you all a heads up. :) No Guarantees though. :)

Still Pregnant!

Update!!! :) I am still, in fact, pregnant! I know that my official date is not till the 20th but I feel like I am overdue already. This nausea is driving me out of my mind!!!! I know that being done by the end is pretty standard but this seems worse than the first 2 times. It may have something to do with the heat of summer. Grrr.....I'm so not a fan! :)
Anyway, I had a Dr appointment this morning and I am 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced for any of you who know anything about "birthin babies". lol :) Nothing to get too excited about though. I do have to go in in a few minutes and get, yet another, ultrasound but its better to be safe than sorry. The babys heart rate is slower than it should be so we need to make sure everything is ok. I had to get one a week or so ago to check the size of the baby and that turned out fine. It just said the baby was small but growing fine. It did say the estimated due date was August 6th though.......LMAO.............I dont think so!!!!! Good thing they dont go by those. :)
The boys keep asking me when the baby is coming, so I think they are getting excited. Jack has been excited for a while but I think that Asher is just now getting the idea of what is really going on. I just cant wait to find out if this is a boy or a girl! The suspense is killing me!! lol, :)
Alright, I will keep you posted as to what the ultrasound says. I will either post again or just post on the comments. :) Hopefully soon I will actually have a baby to show pictures of. :) Oh, When you comment give me a guess on Girl or Boy and size. Just for fun! :)

Alright, Alright!!!

I know, I know........I just can't keep up! School has kept me insanely busy so I really do have an actual valid excuse for not blogging this time. :) My semester ended on Wednesday so I am done until after the baby is born. I will start up again in September God willing. The first semester went well and though it was very time consuming I am glad that I put the effort into it. I am sure I will come out of it with and A as long as my final paper gets a decent grade because up until that I had a 97 I think. Anyway....so, thats how that is. :) My semester ended on Wednesday and my computer broke on Tuesday. YAY Me! I had to do my last paper on a friends laptop but now am without mine for a bit. Thank God it was only a day before my class ending. :)

As far as the pregnancy goes....well.....its still going. Lol! I have about 3 weeks left and though that may sound good to anyone else it still seems like an eternity to me. :) Plus who knows, I could go way late making it longer. Grrr... :) I am still feeling nauseated allot, can only eat certain foods and now I getting to the point that its very difficult to sleep because everything hurts. :) Dont you all just want to jump up and get pregnant! LMAO! On the upside the baby stills moves a ton and it is SOOOO much fun to sit and watch my belly. Its totally crazy and is not even close to how my first two moved. They were so mellow and this one is a dancer or something. :) It really does make it worth it! :) We finally have the nursery painted and the furniture that is in there painted. Now all we need is the Amby baby and to find out if its a boy or a girl so that we can get the appropriate color accents. lol! :) We'll have to wait for that obviously! :) I am going to try to go and register this week sometime at Target and figured I would register for both boy and girl stuff and once the baby is born I will have Des go and delete all of the other genders stuff.

Wow, for someone who can't find time to blog I sure am long winded! LOL! :) I am sure there is more to tell but can't seem to think of more right now. :) Hopefully this is enough of an update for now. :)

A Few Updated.....

I got Jacks 5 yr pictures done (about 3 months late) on a whim the other day so i thought I would share. I wasnt actually expecting to get them done so no one was dressed for pictures or anything but oh well. :) I know Jacks hair is in his face in the one picture. No need for anyone to point it out, thanks. :) Like I said we werent expecting to take pictures. :) How cute is Jack laying on my belly?

Its Official!

I am a college student! How fast was that?? I know, right! Daniel just mentioned it last Thursday and it took me 4 days to research schools, fill out apps and all the other insane forms, and take entrance exams before being accepted and beginning my first class. I actually wrote my first paper last night. :) So I am officially a student of Argosy University in their undergraduate psychology program. The school actually only focuses on two fields and psychology is one of them. Their Online Psychology program was highly recommended from all of the research that I did and God totally opened the doors for this in a miraculous way. I prayed God would open and shut doors to guide me in where I needed to go and he did so so very is clearly. My first class is Interpersonal Effectiveness (PSY180) and I will be finished with it by the time the baby is born. :)
WooHoo! :) I'll keep you posted on how things are going. :)

Welcome to a new Chapter.......

Hey Look, I didn't wait 3 months to post this time. It was a while but a few weeks is better than 3 months, right? :)

My husband came home the other day with the news that me to return to school and get my degree. For any of you who know me know that I have wanted to go back to school since.....well....since I left in 98. Holy Shit, that was 10 years ago! Omg! Anyway, I'm not sure where they took Daniel and who they replaced him with but I'll keep this guy. LOL! Just Kidding. For real, he wants me to slowly get back into school and get my degree so that he doesn't feel so trapped in his job. I informed him that it may take me 6- 7 yrs and he is fine with that, he just needs to see a light at the end of the tunnel. I am so incredibly excited! I have waited yrs for this and now that I have the support behind me its totally doable. Obviously its doable at a slower pace but slow is better than not at all. Plus the online world has made it possible cause without that it really wouldn't be a reality. I am thinking I can squeeze one 7 week course in before the baby is born and then we will see how it goes after that. :) Anyway, I thought I would share my news! YAY!

As for this pregnancy, I need to post some pics of me, I feel like I am going to POP! I see that counter up there and it says I have 76 days till my approximate due date and I feel so discouraged. I am pretty sure this stomach wont stretch anymore and there isn't anymore room for this baby to dance around like He/She does constantly! :) LOL!

HELP!!!!

Ok, So have a situation that I could use some advice on. I know some will think its bizarre in general but for those of you who think its a valid question, I would like your input. :) This is my 3rd child as you know an I am really trying to educate myself more about birth. I am obviously into a more natural approach to certain things like breastfeeding, etc... but I have always taken a real liberal approach to birth. Now I say liberal, I always have a birth plan and with the exception of an epidural prefer things pretty natural, but that is a HUGE exception. I decided to do some reading this go round since it will most likely be my last. I wanted to have the best experience possible. Ok, So the Dr I have used to be a home birth midwife so I totally trust her but she was not able to attend Ashers birth. Her Nurse midwife delivered him which was ok but even she will tell you that she is a "medical" midwife and was not willing to do even some of the things I had on my birth plan for Asher which had been approved already by my Dr. I wasn't super impressed with her (though his birth went fine) and wouldn't really prefer her or her bedside manner. Anyway, she (my Dr) is also in a practice with another male Dr that is WAY OLD SCHOOL and someone I would not trust with my delivery. So, here is my delima (I know, finally, right?) I talked to my Dr the other day end explained that I would like a natural, drug free, water birth and she was super into it but when we talked about my due date she realized she would be out of town around then. She also was honest about the fact that her colleagues would probably not be able to give me the birth experience I was looking for. She said we could just play it by ear an see what happens but what happens if she is gone and that old school crazy guy is on call?? I'd rather have my baby at home! I'm not even really super crazy about the midwife in the practice doing it this time(though that would be better than the alternative). So, do I start looking into home birth midwives, do I stick with it and see what happens? I guess there are 2 in the area that are nurse midwives so they accept insurance and HOLY CRAP are they cheaper. If I had known how much cheaper it was to do a home birth I would have planned it from the start. Good lord! I've had 2 good births, I'm not high risk so I cant imagine it would be a big deal. Anyway, I'll stop rambling now. What do you think?