Blessed

I just can't get enough of this little guy - I find myself just holding him and staring at him in amazement at how much I love him. I catch myself holding him at 2AM and watching him sleep after he has nursed...I just keep thinking, I'll put him back in his bed in 5 more minutes and go back to bed myself.
I just can't believe how much God has blessed us with this precious little guy - God is good!

Here he is

WOW - what a day!
I was induced on Friday and within 6 hours I was 5 to 6 cm - I thought it was going to be a pretty quick process - boy was I wrong! I spent the next 16 hours going from 6 to 10 cm and it was not easy - especially after being awake for almost 48 hours. I was exhausted, but knew I could do it and just stayed focused with the awesome help of my wonderful husband, doula, midwife, mom and mother-in-law. After pushing for 30-40 minutes Jack entered the world and made it all worth it!

Don't you agree? Look at this face!

Olivia is a very proud big sister

She just adores him

This is us enjoying our celebration dinner 24 hours after Jack was born

We came home Sunday night and our first day at home has been an enjoyable one. Jack is just an awesome baby (so far) and we are so happy that he is a part of our family.

Thank you all for the good well wishes and prayers.

It's a BOY

After a very long and hard labor Jack Anthony made his arrival at 4:39 pm on August 23, 2008 weighing 8 pounds 5 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long.
He is absolutely adorable with lots of dark hair.

More to come soon.

It's time!

That's right - I'm being induced tonight. I had my biophysical profile ultrasound and NST today. I got a 2 out of 2 on my NST but only got a 4 out of 8 on my BPP - not a lot of movement from baby and there was no mimicking breathing in the 30 minute time frame so I lost 2 points on each of those. My midwife isn't overly concerned, but just wants to get the baby out before things start looking bad - with my history I just don't think she is wanting to take any risks and just wants this baby out while everything looks good. I trust her judgement and I agree so that's the plan.

The good thing about having a midwife is she tries to go the most natural way possible with everything so instead of going in tonight and immediately starting pitocin she will do a procedure called an EASI - extra amniotic saline infusion - to get my cervix to start dilating. Because I am a VBAC patient she can't use the the cervical softening gel on me because of the risk that the gel could soften the scar on my uterus. This is the same procedure she used on me to induce my labor with Jesse. It was a VERY long and slow process with him because my cervix was closed and thick and I was only 30 weeks - it shouldn't be as long of a process this time. In fact, she is expecting me to be anywhere between 3 and 5 cm by morning. If labor starts on it's own after this then great, but if not then she will start a little pitocin and see of that will get things going.

So, that's all I have to report for now - I will try to do some updates tonight and tomorrow if I can - we'll see how things go. For now, we just need a lot of prayers. Please pray for an induction free from complications. Pray for an uncomplicated labor and delivery and most importantly for a healthy baby boy or girl.

Does a hug help

So I've been having contractions pretty much this whole week - just randomly though. I don't know if I make a certain face with this happens - if I do, it probably looks something like this

or this


But if Olivia is in the room, she ALWAYS notices when I am having one. She says, "contraction?"
me: yep
Olivia: Does a hug help?
me: of course
and then she hugs me

The other night we were taking a walk and she was riding her bike - she even stopped her bike so she could get off and give me a hug. She's just the sweetest thing in the world! I'm sure I won't be enjoying this when the contractions start coming harder and stronger.

Big appointment today - I'll keep you posted!

Award

Megzy over at Prim and Proper has awarded me with this award and now it's my turn to pass it on to a few others.

Robin

Susan

Aimee

Amanda

Winners, be sure to pass the award on linking back to the person who awarded you :-)
Happy Blogging!

Baby sling giveaway!!

How fabulous would this be to win? The drawing for this giveaway is one day after my due date and a mom of a newborn has got to have one of these! It's a very stylish baby sling from Mod Mum and the giveaway is hosted by Little Window Shoppe. Check it out!

39 week progress report

Refer to this previous post - 38 week progress report - that's right, no change!

The good news is my midwife wants to see me after my NST and BPP on Friday to do another exam and strip my membranes. She's thinking this weekend would be ideal - I wouldn't go past my due date and she's the midwife who is on call.

So, that's the plan...for us at least! This baby might have other plans and unfortunately he or she is running the show!

P&P giveaway

Megzy at P&P has a great giveaway up on her blog that I want to win - check it out!!

I'm ready now!

I'm ready for this baby to come now - just look at all of this

What is this you ask?

1 package of red sauce for Lasagna

2 meatloafs

3 servings of pulled BBQ pork

4 servings of ground taco beef

and 6 servings of mostaccioli sauce

All to go in to the freezer to have on hand after the baby arrives and mommy doesn't feel like cooking. I know what all of you are going to say, "well we planned on making you meals....." I know, but it doesn't last forever and Brian takes two weeks off so we also have lunches to think about - I just feel better making up some stuff and stocking the freezer.

So, Brian comes home from work tonight and this is the conversation that takes place after he looks at all the food on the counter.

Brian: What is all of this for?

me: food to put in the freezer for after the baby arrives.

Brian: Well what are you making for dinner tonight? I'm starving!

me: take your pick - PICK SOMETHING OFF OF THE COUNTER AND EAT IT!!!!

God love him! I mean, I understand that he's hungry, he worked hard today, it's the end of the week and he's hungry. He's used to coming home and dinner being ready. He really did mean well when he said this, but I could have dumped a pot of sauce over his head when he said that!!

Disclosure: I love you hunny :-) I know you weren't trying to be a pig - I'm not trying to make you look like an A$$ :-)

So anyway, would someone give this baby a memo that mom is ready and prepared as I'll ever be for this baby to come.

What a great day

So today was ladies day at the pool next door. Most of the neighbors took the day off and we sat around drinking (non-alcoholic for me) and eating all afternoon and evening and the ladies didn't lift a finger! Anytime we needed something we snapped our finger and requested garçon or garçon #2 to do whatever it was that we needed - this was anything from a drink refill to a warm dry towel when exiting the hot tub! Even Olivia caught on requesting her pool toys to be brought over to the hot tub and a nice chilled juice box! That's right, start them young ;-)

It's the one day a year that the ladies sit back and get waited on - and it was sooooo nice!!

So anyway, it was getting to be dinner time and I told Olivia I would make her a plate in just a minute. Her BFF Abbey said, "I'm hungry too." Olivia's reply was, "order the cheeseburger!" It was hilarious! It didn't take her long to figure out we were all queens for the day with anything we wanted at our fingertips!

38 week progress report

NOTHING

That's right, a big, fat nothing...no progress! Still 1 cm, 50% effaced, soft, and baby is high.

Baby is healthy and appears to be doing just fine, so that's really all the matters, right? As anxious as I am to meet this little guy or gal, I want to meet him/her when it's the right time and apparently that isn't any time soon. So I'll keep enjoying my days and nights on MY schedule, patiently awaiting this little miracle's arrival!

Excited!

16 more days until my due date and I'm getting really excited! The unknown of everything, sex of the baby and birthdate, is enough to drive you crazy though! I was just thinking the other day that if I was a repeat c-section it would probably already be scheduled and we would already know what our baby's birthday would be and it would probably be anytime in the next week, but I am going to stick to our original plan of a VBAC and pray that it's successful and everything I want it to be.

I've been doing all the things that everyone tells you to do to try to get labor going/get the baby out and it's not working! I went out to dinner with Leenie on Friday and we had a spicy Mexican dinner. The place we went to brings a little small container of VERY hot salsa to the table with the regular salsa and I was pouring it on my chips - I think I managed to suck down one and a half of the little containers. My mouth was on fire and my eyes were watering! I didn't get one contraction out of it - NOT ONE!!!! I did get heartburn so bad that I think my esophagus has 2nd degree burns throughout it though.

I've also tried to increase my activity - we've been trying to take a walk every day. Yesterday I did yard work. I've been squatting...and nothing is happening! The baby is just nice and comfy where he or she is and has no intentions of going anywhere anytime soon - I just need to be patient!

Since I have yet to post a preggo picture I figured now would be a good time - even though I'm not a big fan of any preggo pics of me...they never look very cute like they do with everyone else, but here goes...no laughing!!

Cankles and prayers

Well my big fat cankles combined with high blood pressure and a little protein in my urine got me a 24-hour urine collection! My regular midwife wasn't in today and the other midwife just didn't want to take any chances given my history, but she is pretty sure everything will be fine. They drew some blood to check and those labs will be back in the morning in time for my biophysical profile and NST and then I'll drop off my collection tomorrow around 4. Please say a prayer that all comes back normal and that the swelling goes down.

More prayers are needed for family right now. We had a nephew born today at 15 weeks gestation who only survived 30 minutes before growing his wings and meeting our Maker. My sister-in-law is currently experiencing complications and was in the OR the last time we talked to anyone. Pray for Jason and Kristi that God will wrap them in His loving arms and give them the kind of comfort and peace that can only come from Him. If you want to read more about their story click "Jason" on the sidebar of my blog under "friends".

Cankles

Check out the size of these cankles!!

I don't know what my deal is, but my feet and ankles just decided to explode on me tonight. I really haven't had much swelling with this pregnancy - I mean a little here and there, but nothing like I was with Olivia. Then out of nowhere came this tonight! The pictures don't really even do them justice - they are huge and I think they are going to pop! Time to go to bed and put my feet up - hopefully they're back to normal by the morning.

19 more days to go!! I'm starting to get really excited - it's finally setting in that this is REAL!!

Thanks so much to everyone for their continued prayers for this pregnancy and baby, please continue to keep us in your prayers as we wait out the final days or weeks.