The Birth Story

Born May 1, 2018

9 lbs 9 oz

21.25 inches

It’s a boy! Mommy and baby are quite healthy; we even left the hospital a little early. (More on that later.)

Our C-section was scheduled for May 1 at 8 am. The night before I showered with antiseptic soap and drank a small bottle of Apple juice. In the morning I showered with the special soap again. We left the house and arrived at the hospital by 6.

For the next two hours they poked and prodded and made sure baby and I were ready for surgery. We briefly met all the doctors whose names I immediately forgot. We shared our worry with the anesthesiologist who was very sympathetic and felt confident that everything would go smoothly this time.

It took 3 tries to start my IV.

It took 4 tries to start my spinal epidural, but that anesthesiologist and his resident did not give up and it worked wonderfully. My back is quite bruised and sore but it was totally worth it.

The big moment was when they dropped the drape and showed us the baby. My husband was supposed to announce to me what the gender was, but they dropped the drape so low the first thing I saw was his swollen testes and penis (completely normal, by the way).

I admit I cried 3-4 tears for the daughter I’ll never have, but this beautiful boy is an angel and I couldn’t be any happier now. This is going to be great.

I decided I can’t wait…

Good Afternoon!

I had a doctor’s appointment this morning. My baby still hasn’t dropped, and my body has given me no indication of any impending labor, so I asked the doctor if we could have the c-section any earlier than Friday. She told me there was a spot tomorrow at 8 am, and I said YES!

I know I wanted to wait and give my body a chance to go into labor, but I just don’t think it’s going to happen. I’m uncomfortable, and everything is so difficult, and I am just ready to have this baby and move on to the next difficult phase of my life… adjusting to 3 kids.

So next time you hear from me, I will be a mom of 3. 3 times as frazzled and scatterbrained, probably, but it will be worth it!

 

 

T- 8 Days / Everything is okay as long as the sun keeps shining.

As Pete the Cat always says, “The Sun is shining, I’m feeling alright!”

We’ve been getting a lot of outside time, soaking up as much sunshine as we can. We’ve even had a few days that we can describe as “warm”, and I am so thankful for it.

I tried to let some sun on my big belly in the hopes of encouraging the baby to come out, but that did not work. I’m still pregnant, but at least we are now in the single digits of this countdown.

My feet hurt, my back hurts, my head hurts, my groin joints hurt, my hips hurt when I lay in bed. Today the baby was squished up against my rib and I couldn’t turn my body to the left to look behind me when switching lanes very well.

We went to the zoo and playground and the boys had a brilliant time. The Tapir was running around and making a barking sound. The orangutan came right up to the window where they were watching. We saw the daddy and mommy lions sunning on the rocks, and then 6 baby ducks floated by in their little pond. We had a lot of fun and nobody got lost this time.

I did discuss beforehand with my 4-year-old what he should do if he felt lost and he agreed that he would stand in one spot and wait for me to find him. Luckily, though, he stayed fairly close to hand the whole time.

We haven’t done a huge amount of art this week because we’ve been spending so much time outside, but they have been painting on the easel which I keep on the deck. We also made tape collages. Tomorrow we are going to the beach with a friend.

Yesterday, I felt a different sort of pain in belly. It was a sharp and squeezing sensation that was more painful than the ones I normally feel, but it didn’t last very long. Nonetheless I got a little excited until I realized 2 hours later that it wasn’t going to happen again. Both my husband and I feel that I probably won’t go into labor before the C-section next Friday, but I can still hope. We have no science to back up our “feeling” just thinking along the lines of, “Shouldn’t my body be doing something different if I was going to go into labor soon?” As far as I can tell, the baby hasn’t even dropped into my pelvis yet. Even though this is my third child, it would be my first labor so there’s a good chance it wouldn’t happen until after the due date anyways. All I can do is keep waiting.

 

Happy Earth Day / 11 Days

Happy Earth Day everyone!

Today my husband displayed a huge reserve of patience while the two boys helped him put together our grill. We grilled bratwurst for dinner, and it was delicious!

We stayed home and cleaned house today. We finally put the car seat in the car after we had to take it apart and wash the cover and straps. We cleaned all the bathrooms and vacuumed the floor and got all caught up on dishes and laundry.  The main earth day flavored activity was moving all my seedlings into the garden. I had been putting them on the patio during the afternoons the last few days and twice a spider tried to sneak into our kitchen when I brought them back. Plus the zucchini didn’t seem to be doing so well in it’s tiny pot.

Hopefully some of them will survive, otherwise I will just have to devote myself to a summer of beans and carrots.

17 days..no wait, it’s 18.

Mr. 2 enjoys matching games. He always seeks these out in the sticker activity book we sometimes use. It’s easy to make your own, though! Draw simple shapes or pictures and encourage your child to draw a line from one to the match on the other side.

Afterwards he saw some glue (Mr. 4 had been gluing stacks of paper together to make a “birthday cake”.) and wanted to put glue on top of his paper. I had to remind him several times to put things on the glue, but I think he mostly just liked the act of squeezing the bottle. We are now out of glue.

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The doctor has scheduled us for a May 4th C-section. May the 4th be with you. My husband is very pleased. He said to me that all of our birthdays are easy to remember and May 3rd is just not an easy to remember date. Also, he likes Star Wars.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind having the baby 5 minutes ago, but I suppose I need to be patient. We could still go into labor before that day. It’s a possibility. I am trying (and failing) not to obsess over it.

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It’s been really rainy here, but every once in a while the rain will stop.

We are just trying to have fun and keep busy. Wednesday night, my husband will take me to the Astros at Mariners baseball game. And, last weekend we took the boys to Great Wolf Lodge.

Great Wolf Lodge is an interesting place, and I haven’t heard anyone say anything negative about it. I’ll be the first, because my kids just aren’t ready to really enjoy it yet. Mr. 2 was fine, he liked sticking his hands and feet in all the water spraying, and he even tried the tiny kid slid. He also enjoyed the wave pool. Mr. 4 was overwhelmed by all the people and noise and didn’t really like the water, either. (They have only gone swimming once in the last year, and that was last month.)

Mr. 4 also had a hard time falling asleep in the hotel room. Most of the traveling we do involves us flying to Texas and sleeping at Oma’s house, so he doesn’t get a lot of hotel and sleeping in strange places experience. Mr. 2 just seems more naturally adaptable and slightly more adventurous. Also, the food wasn’t great.

Still, I can see why most people have a wonderful time there. When the kids get older and more confident I believe we will try again.

21 Days

Well we have completed 37 weeks of pregnancy. It’s pretty uncomfortable over here. Even though the doctor told me I’ve only gained 31 pounds, it feels like a lot more than that.

Basically, the baby could come any time now. Any….time….now! Nope. Still there.

The nursery is 90% ready (husband still needs to move the changing table). The clothes and blankets are washed. (In case it is a boy.) My hospital bag is packed. (Again, husband is slacking because he has nothing in there except some granola bars.)

We had another ultrasound yesterday and it is confirmed. Baby is head down and has lots of fluid to play and splash in. He or she was even practicing breathing.

My mom will be here in two weeks to help out, but honestly anytime baby is ready to say hello would be fine. I’m sure my angel children can do some coloring and stickers and play quietly throughout my whole labor…hahahahaha ha…ha.

5 Weeks to Go!

We had an ultrasound on Monday at 34.5 weeks to check on our mystery guest.

My other two pregnancies were both breech with low amniotic fluid which resulted in me having 2 c-sections before I ever experienced a contraction. I may have had 1 contraction with Mr. 2 but I’m not really sure.

Well the results are in and this baby is not like its big brothers! (IS IT A GIRL?? I WANT TO KNOW!!!) As of Monday, it was “Cephalic” or head down, and the fluid level looked fine. We will have another ultrasound in 2 weeks (37 weeks) to make sure nothing has changed, but as of right now we are going to attempt a VBAC or TOLAC (trial of labor after cesaerean) or whatever the doctors are calling it these days.

“Why would you want to do that?” asks my husband. I don’t know, I’m kind of just curious what it’s like. Also Mr. 2’s C- section was quite scary so I’m more reluctant to just hop on the C-section train. (Here’s the story: The  spinal block was not effective and I could feel them cutting open my abdomen. Then they told my husband to leave and put me under anesthesia and it was very frightening. Everything was fine in the end; healthy baby and healthy mommy so don’t let that scare you too much.)

So, I’m going to whip out my favorite pregnancy resource Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy and read up on some important things like “How do I know when the baby is coming?” “What do I do when the baby is coming?” and related questions. I love this book because it keeps all the scary complications in their own separate section. I don’t want to read about increased risk of uterine rupture, because I prefer not to think horrible thoughts like that over the next 35 days.

By the way, I’m not the only one getting an ultrasound these days. We had an X-ray for the cat last Friday and there is something in her intestine. She’s having an ultrasound tomorrow to try to determine what it is. She hasn’t eaten anything in at least 2 weeks, so hopefully we can get this figured out without it costing as much as having a baby in the hospital in a month.

 

42 days/6 weeks/1,008 hours

This little cat is as old as my relationship with my husband; so a little less than 8 years. Unfortunately, for the last week she hasn’t been eating and has been leaving black tarry poops all over the house. We are taking her to the vet tomorrow to see what they say.