introducing the newest babe

The little stinker is FINALLY here!

born October 22nd 3:34p 

9 pounds 2 ounces 

21.5 inches long

Things are going great. We are getting into the flow of things at home. She is already sleeping so well for us at night. The girls are really enjoying her. The middle babe wasn't too sure about things at first. She even got sent to the principals office & then sent home on Friday because she was misbehaving! We took it easy on her b/c we know it's just because of the changes. It was nice to have the weekend with her. We've made it a point to spend extra time w/ her & let her be a part of everything... burping, changing, holding. I can tell things are already better. The oldest babe is just an ol' pro... she's such a helper & has had a great attitude. 

Thanks to my mother in law... she stayed with the girls last week while we were in the hospital. She took them to school & had the house looking great when we got home. Thanks to my mom for all of her support & help. Thanks to all of my great friends... Ashley for being there during labor & Linda for EVERYTHING... my sweet welcome home, organizing our dinners for the next 2 weeks (BTW, Robin... those enchiladas were wonderful last night. I don't think I've eaten anything that you've cooked that I didn't absolutely LOVE- thank you!) It's a great feeling to have so much help & support from our family & friends. We are truly blessed! 

My hubby has been working hard on the "birth video".  

Please check it out. He did a great job. I love it...

Labor story... 

We planned for a natural labor & delivery from the get go. We were fortunate that everything worked out & we were able to accomplish that goal. Because she was 2 weeks overdue they were talking about having to induce labor. I was admitted into the hospital Tuesday afternoon & given a medication called cervadyl. It's a strip of medication inserted near the cervix & is designed to soften the cervix & throw you into your own labor. It doesn't always work though. Fortunately it did for us... right on time! They scheduled the pitocin to be injected at 6a if the cervadyl didn't work. My contractions started around 4:30a!!! Woo hoo... no Pitocin. Around 10:30a contractions started getting pretty rough. My midwife checked me & said that I was ONLY 4 cm. That was a bit disappointing b/c I thought I was at least around 5 or 6. I had this perfect plan in my head that I'd get in the labor tub & it would relax me, take away the pain & speed labor up. SO, now was the time. They filled the tub & in I went. They turned the jets on & next came the 1st contraction in the tub... how miserable! For those who don't know when you are having a contraction you are pretty much paralyzed... can't say much of anything, can't move too much... you just have to wait it out. The jets were bouncing off my contracted belly & I wanted to scream... "turn off the freakin' jets already"... but I couldn't until it was over. After that contraction the jets went off quickly & the next tub contraction came a few minutes later. My wonderful plan was squashed. They hurt just as bad in the tub as they did before... imagine that. Only being 4 cm & my wonderful tub plan ruined I opted for a pain med called Nubain. Aww.. thank you God for Nubain!  I knew I didn't want an epidural b/c I wanted the freedom to still move around & "experience" the birth. The nubain made me feel kind of drunk at first but it took the edge off of the contractions. It was wonderful. The last hour of labor was definitely the hardest. All I could do was lay in bed on my side... which when I took all of the child birth classes & did all of my reading I remember thinking.. I will definitely NOT be laying down during labor... it looked so uncomfortable, BUT it felt the best at the time. So I just lay there waiting for the next contraction... then I moaned & cried through each contraction. Labor is such a roller coater ride! Everyone in the room got SHHed quite a lot & the beeping IV machine even got a pretty good tongue lashing as I shoved it away from me. The beeping, any noise for that matter, was not working for me, at all. Finally the midwife came to check me & to my relief told me I was 8 cm. Then she burst my bubble pretty quick when she said I had about 1 1/2 hours left. It was then that I declared to everyone in the room... "I quit".  Of course that wasn't an option. God must have heard my cry b/c the very next contraction I yelled.. "I think I need to push." Nadene, my midwife said "well then push"... so push I did. Oh, it felt so good! 5 pushes later & a whole lot of grunting & yelling (I thought for sure I wouldn't be one of those dramatic yelling maniacs you see in the movies... how wrong I was!) FINALLY... she was OUT! I don't think I've ever been more relieved in my life! 

They laid her up on my chest & all the pain & drama was quickly forgotten as I help my new baby girl! 

Her face was pretty bruised up b/c she came out w/ her hand on her face. We saw her in this position in a few of her ultrasounds. She still sleeps in this position some times too. Most of the bruising went away by the next day though.

Everything went great! 

Was natural childbirth easy... heck no! I remember at one point being in the bathroom crying & talking to Jesus... "Lord, take away the pain daggonit. HELP me, for cying out loud!"

Was natural childbirth worth it... Heck yeah! What a great sense of accomplishment! There are other feelings & emotions attached too that I can't quite put into words. 

I'm just so glad she is finally out!

Welcome to the world sweet baby girl! 

Today is the day... or tomorrow!

Yipee! It's ABOUT time! Since I'm now 42 weeks & no doc will let me go beyond that they scheduled me to be induced in the morning @ 6:30p. I thought for sure I'd go over the weekend & b/c I didn't, I called my midwife to let her know I was kind of freaking out about the Pitocin. SO... they are going to admit me today @ 3:45p & try a drug called Cervidil. It's a strip of medication that is inserted near the cervix. It's supposed  to soften my certix so it will dilate. She said I would be crampy for a bit & then eventually it will throw me into labor. The good thing about this drug is that once I'm in labor they will remove it so that it will no longer effect me. My contractions will be stronger than usually when it's in, but once removed my contractions & labor will be my own... unlike Pitocin that stays in your blood stream for awhile. I wonder why more women don't use it instead of Pitocin... I guess b/c Pitocin is more guaranteed to work. She did say it was a chance that the Cervidil wouldn't work, BUT I'm so far along that I don't see why it wouldn't. So anyway, here goes. It's FINALLY time! Please pray for a peaceful & uneventful labor & delivery... and of course a happy, healthy & whole baby girl!

Still no baby!

We did some more walking yesterday, hoping that would help. My parents & little brother joined us. We had a great time together. We went down to the canal. I think we ended up walking about 3 miles or so. I had some more contractions last night, but they stopped again. ARGH! 

Here are some pics from the day... 

OK, this is getting ridiculous!

My official due date from the doc was Oct. 8th, which was based on my 1st ultrasound. My due date based on my last menstrual cycle was Oct. 12th. The doc went with the ultrasound date, but I made my own date of Oct. 10th. It was right in the middle, so it just made sense to me. Now, it really doesn't matter b/c anyway you look at it I'm LATE! I went to the doc on Wed. (1 week overdue). They ran their standard overdue tests. They measured my fluid & monitored the baby's heartbeat for about 20 minutes. All of the test came back perfect. Despite that, the doc wanted to schedule an induction for Friday morning (yesterday). I told them as much as I'd love to give in & be finished with this pregnancy I wanted to wait it out. I DO NOT want Pitocin! It's a med that causes the start of contractions... which throws you into labor. Sounds great, but unfortunalty there are negative side effects... one being: harder, stronger more intense contractions (I REALLY want to go w/o pain meds & have this baby as natural as possible... Pitocin would make it more difficult to accomplish my goal) No doctor in the practice that I go to, including my midwife, will allow you to go past 2 weeks overdue SO they scheduled an induction for this Wed. However, I am expecting to go before then!!! This week hasn't been too bad considering I'm overdue & really really really want this baby out. We had campmeeting at church this week... church twice a day every day for 6 days... we had several guest speakers. It was a refreshing time... I feel a rekindled flame in my relationship w/ Jesus. It's a good feeling. It was nice having church to look forward to each day, but now that Campmeeting is over it's seriously time for this baby to come out! We went to the river this afternoon & walked & walked & walked. The island we went to is 54 acres. I'm not sure how many miles that is but we walked around the entire island & it had to be at least 3 or 4. Plus I heard if you eat pinapples it will help. So I'm going to chill out, watch a movie w/ the hubby & chow down on some pineapple. I've been saying it all week... Tonight is the night... daggonit! 

Here are some pics we took today. It's such a beautiful place. We really need to go more often, not just when we are trying to get a baby out :) .... 

My 1st political rally!

I found out last night that Palin was going to be in our city today for a rally. SO… I had to go…. Ashley & I went. I would not consider myself a political person at all. I wouldn’t even call myself a republican or a democrat. I vote for who I like & I make sure I vote every opportunity I can. I’ve always felt that the right to vote is a privilege we shouldn’t take lightly. I’ve never been one to be passionate enough to actually attend a political rally though J Til this year… I think that’s only because this is such a history making election. We’ll either have our first African America or our first woman elected. Pretty crazy considering where our country was not too many years ago. 

Anyway, the rally was fun. We got there about an hour early, but those radical republicans were already piled in & all the good spots were taken. We actually couldn’t see a thing. We ended up standing most of the time on our tippy toes trying to get a decent view… never happened. See, this was our view… 

I saw a woman standing on top of an upside down trashcan & asked her to get a pic for me. So she did. This picture was my best view of the day. See Palin in the middle (White shirt, black skirt)…

 Ashley & I missed the memo about the “Republicans wear red to rallies”. Silly us. What were we thinking… who knew? We didn’t even have our face painted, posters made & we certainly weren’t wearing our red. Rally amateurs! We’ll know next time. 

Her speech was good… what we could hear of it. There was this older gent who helped the whole “low volume” thing out though. He turns around to the crowd & yells “on the count of 3 everyone yell “We can’t hear you” 1... 2… 3…" & of course since we are in redneck capital of the world, we’ve just heard Hank Williams Jr (that’s right… the good ol’ country boy) sing his McCain/Palin redneck anthem” naturally the crowd "hollers” (for those who don’t know that’s country for yells) “We can’t hear you”. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite loud enough so the crowd proceeds (as Palin is in the middle of her speech) to chant, “We can’t hear you”. Finally Palin stops mid-sentence & says something like “Don’t mind the protesters they have freedom too”. Crazy people, she thought they were protesters. One lady behind us was really upset about that & starts yelling “we love you Sarah”. It was quite comical! Someone heard the “hollering” though b/c they turned her up.  Ashley said… "I bet that will make the news". She was right... it did. 

Lessons learned for next rally…

• Get there EARLY
  
• Make a pretty poster to wave so all of the people behind you can’t see
  
• Wear red if it’s a republican rally
  

Here were some actual protesters. All 8 of them...

Lots of cameras, of course...

I got a kick out of the secret service guys up on the lift. They kept talking into their sleeves :)...

A few more pics...

I'm due ToDaY!

OK, so today is my due date. I've been having braxton hicks like crazy all day yesterday & today. Hopefully that means SOON! I had my 40 week check up this morning. I didn't get an exam though. I'm pretty sure if my midwife would have told me I'm still only 1 cm dilated I just may have began weeping right there in the office. Then on the other hand if she told me I was 3 or 4 & it still took me until next week to have the baby I would have been miserable. So I figured... what's the point? She's going to come when she is ready anyway. I haven't felt that great today... you know setting aside the fact that I have an 8 1/2 baby inside of me who is... as someone said at church on Sunday... "as low as she is going to go"... I think my iron is low & that's the problem. Just been really sluggish & blah feeling.

My next appointment is Wednesday (if she hasn't come by then). They will do an ultrasound to check my fluid & monitor the baby's heartbeat for 20 minutes to make sure she is still happy in there. If there seems to be any issues they will want to induce me. I'll just be sure I drink lots of water to make sure everything is OK. Of course she will still be happy in there... she will come when she is ready... I DO NOT want Patocin. That stuff is brutal. Wouldn't mix too well with the whole natural birth thing. So we wait...

We went tonight to get a few last minute things at Babies R Us, a birthday gift & Lowes for a ceiling fan & a few other things tonight. So hopefully all of that walking did some good. I'm about to take it easy tonight...  play some Rummy w/ the hubby. Tomorrow mom & Linda are coming over to help me get the house finished. So ducks are almost in a row. As I've been saying for 2 or 3 weeks now... "Come on baby, it's time to come out!" 

39 weeks down- 1 to go (maybe 2)

Photos courtesy of the hubby & the oldest babe (who knew she was a JR photography pro!)