Due Date

Today Isla is 6 days old and officially "due".

I'm so glad that I'm not still pregnant but am holding my sweet daughter in my arms!

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Isla's Birth Story

I woke up at 5:15am with my first contraction. Due to previous false labor I barely made a mental note of the time before rolling over and trying to go back to sleep.

However the next two were 4 minutes apart and then dropped to 2 minutes.

I got up, brushed my teeth and made Evan's lunch still able to function through each contraction.

One hit that I had to stop to breath through and I decided to wake Jed up.

I went to into our room to gently wake Jed up only to have him surprise me by throwing his blanket off and jumping up.  He had been awake, waiting for me so he could startle me.

A little after 6am I called the birthing center to tell them that I was in labor. I talked to the midwife on call, Zoe, who told me to meet her there in 30 minutes.

 Another contraction hit me that caused a flashback to previous births.  While we waited for Jay to arrive to watch the boys, I sat down on the stairs and started panicking.  I had been praying since I got up and most of my prayers were either, "God please help me." or "God I have faith that you're in control and will get me through whatever I'm about to go through."  I was now saying things like, "I can't do this God, make labor stop because I'm not ready." and "Why are You letting this happen to me?"

Pretty quickly, I realized God wasn't planning on stopping labor so I decided to plead with my husband instead.  I begged him to take me to the hospital instead of birthing center because if I was going to do this I at least needed an epidural.  I was loosing it.  Fortunately Jed was levelheaded enough to refuse.

As a wave of hysteria threatened to overwhelm me, I begged God for strength and peace and immediately the wave subsided.  I knew then that I would endure this pain but that God would get me through it.

Jay came over to take the first babysitting shift with the boys.  Joy would come over later when Jay had to go to work.

We drove to the center, the contractions were way worse when I was sitting down than standing so the drive was torture at times.  I remember calling my mom but not much of what was said and I also remember my husband saying, "Look at all those alligators in the lake this morning."  That's when I told him to shut it, stop looking at the scenery and drive faster.  I wasn't in the best place at that moment.

We arrived at 6:50, I was checked as soon as we got there and was dilated to 5/6. I also found out that Isla was "sunny side up", meaning she was facing my front rather than my back.  This is not the optimum position for labor, apparently it causes back labor and it can slow down the pushing phase.  Although I wasn't noticing much back labor the news was discouraging.

We moved into a birthing room and the bath was started immediately.

 I had a hard time deciding if I wanted to get in the bath.  When I finally got in it felt really good but it only lasted a little while.  I had a few really bad, transition type contractions and then my hands began tingling.  It was time to get out.

I really thought I had a long way to go but once I was out of the tub I had a few more contractions while standing up and found myself pushing without realizing it.

Zoe suggested we check my cervix so we did I was complete! However I didn't feel ready to lay down and push, the pain when I was laying was so much worse than when I was standing.  I got up and continued laboring while standing, using Jed to hold onto during each contraction.

 I went to the bathroom and before I could stand up another one hit and my water broke well, more like it exploded (I literally jumped and gasped when it happened), into the toilet.  I was pretty excited, I figured I'd start pushing soon and have a baby in the next half hour to an hour.

I still didn't want to lay down so I pushed while standing for the next 2 contractions.  The last one I felt the "ring of fire" as they call it.  I didn't have time to register what that meant as my body began to shake and I suddenly felt like I couldn't stand anymore.  I turned and flopped myself gently onto the bed.

Zoe began to prepare for the baby but I told her that she could relax, I always had to push for a long time.

Then a couple things happened, Zoe was checking for Isla's heartbeat and couldn't find it.  A contraction hit, I heard someone else say, "Should I get oxygen?"  Zoe was telling me that I had to roll over onto my left side  and at the same time was pushing me over.  I told her I needed to push, she told me I needed to wait for the babies sake.

She found the heartbeat and everything calmed down.  I asked if I could push on the next contraction she said yes but we'd have to roll over onto my side again as soon as it was over.  I agreed.

The next contraction hit I pushed and to my complete surprise her head popped out.  I took a tiny breath, pushed again and out came her shoulders.  I heard Jed gasp and felt her tiny warm body on my stomach.

I couldn't believe it!  I just kept thanking God that it was over.

Her umbilical cord was short like Ford's so Jed had to cut it so I could pull her up to my chest.

Unfortunately I didn't get to feed her right away as it was decided that I needed a couple sutures. The trade off for such a fast birth I guess.  The last time I had stitches was over seven years ago with Evan's birth!  It wasn't that bad though, in fact a bit later it was decided that I was borderline bleeding too heavily and as a precaution I was given a shot of pitocin which was way more painful, I think I might have even cussed!

Before heading home we had her newborn exam which by the way she passed with flying colors.  And of course the all important stats;

Weight: 6lbs 8oz
Length: 18 1/2 inches
Born at 8:35am

She's healthy and perfect!

Since this is already a book of an entry I'll write about the boy's reactions to meeting their baby sister in another post.

She's Here!

More pictures and birth story to follow... eventually. 

Prodromal Labor

So I'm currently 38 weeks, 6 days pregnant and it would seem, still counting.  As I mentioned in my previous post this is my longest pregnancy with Seth's 38 week 2 day gestation knocked down to second place.  

With my last two pregnancies ending at exactly 38 weeks I had the expectation that I'd have given birth by now.  Not so much.

However that doesn't mean there hasn't been any activity.  A little after the 36 week mark something I hadn't experienced before happened, Prodromal Labor.  To learn more about this click on the link but for a quick run down I'll explain what an average night is like for me.  

I wake up somewhere around 12am and 2am with back pain and/or painful contractions.  My adrenalin starts pumping as I suspect that I'm in real labor.  Contractions come in a good pattern for anywhere between 40 minutes to 2 hours long and just before I wake Jed up to go to the birthing center they stop. At this point its anywhere between 2am and 4am in the morning and due to my stress and frustration it takes at least 30 minutes to an hour to calm back down and fall asleep. 

 Even now that I no longer assume that my contractions are real labor its still too painful to sleep through and I'm up for hours each night.  

I've been a real treat as a wife and mom the last couple weeks, evidenced by the fact that Jed and the boys happily let me sleep in until 10am yesterday morning.  Usually the latest I get to sleep in is 8am before someone comes to "check if I'm still alive".  

Just one more reason to love pregnancy.  

Pre-Baby Pics

36 weeks

Well, tomorrow I'll be 37 weeks pregnant but this is the only recent pregnancy picture I have. 

Picture back story: the night before I had lower back pain and contractions for about an hour, just as I was about to wake Jed up and call my midwife it stopped.  I was disappointed and relieved.  

I was most stressed out that I'd have our little girl before we had taken pregnancy pictures!   To make sure that she'd have at least one picture of this pregnancy, the next day when Jed walked in the door from work, I threw on a clean shirt, took my hair out of my standard ponytail and tossed my camera at my husband. Not glamorous but really what is when you're 8 months pregnant!  

We're hoping to do pregnancy/family pictures tonight after Jed gets home... that is if I have the energy to get all four boys and myself ready!  We shall see!  

Lost A Week

This morning I was in the shower thinking (the only time I have a little solitude to do so) about being 34 weeks pregnant.  I've had my last two babies at 38 weeks exactly so while I don't want to get my hopes up I still have to prepare myself for the possibility that we'll have a baby in just 4 weeks!  I made a list of things in my head that I still need to do like, set up the pack and play in our room so she's not sleeping in a laundry basket her first night home like Ford.  I also need to pick out her coming home outfit, preferably footed pj's with a zipper, not buttons.  The list goes on.  

Then I began thinking about my next appointment which is next week and what I wanted to go over with my midwife.  That's when I panicked as I remembered that my appointment had been set up specifically for my 36th week of pregnancy!  How could next week be my 36th week if I had just reached 34 weeks yesterday?!!  I rinsed the conditioner out of my hair as quickly as I could so I could hop out of my shower to check the calender.  I ran/waddled to my computer and counted down the weeks and to my dismay, instead of 6, I only counted 5.  HOLY CRAP!  I just lost a week of pregnancy, well, at least in my head.  

Some people would be excited to find out that they're further along than they thought. Not me.  I'm freaking out!  Not only do I have one less week to prepare for her arrival, I'm also now that much closer to the physical act of bring her into the world without pain meds.  Yikes!  

So this is what happens when you mix pregnancy brain with an already disorganized mother of four. Thank you, hormones and genetics, for working so thoroughly against me!

Anemic = Lack of Posting?

I had a midwife appointment yesterday, it was the big Gestational Diabetes test, while I passed that with flying colors, I confirmed what I had suspected, I am anemic.  The constant fatigue, ice cravings and my body feeling like it weighed an extra 500 lbs were the big giveaways. 

Since my symptoms aren't convenient for running a 6 person home nor pleasant nor healthy for that matter, I'll be going on a few vitamin supplements.  I'm really hoping this kicks the over all crappy feeling I've had since I got pregnant.  

So I try to nap when the boys nap which is when I used to blog hence my blogging has been few and far between.  Plus life has been busy but pretty mundane.

We did go camping last weekend at the same campground as last time.  When we left home it was so hot I was wearing shorts!  It was a nice change of pace from the usual freezing weather we have but it brought out the bugs in the swampy forest.  The bug repellent did it's job on the mosquitoes but the No-see-ums were undeterred no matter the copious amount of spray.  By Saturday we were all covered in bug bites that would sporadically and intensely itch.  Sunday night was the worst as Ford was kept awake most of the night scratching and crying.  Jed and I took turns cuddling him trying to get him back to sleep, he finally passed out around 5:30, just an hour before his big brothers woke up for the day.

Oh and speaking of bugs, poor Evan got two ticks!  Other than the one Jed had a few years ago Evan is the only one to get them, which doesn't make sense considering his little brothers spend just as much time in the shrubs and rolling on the ground as he does!  I've decided we're just going to shave his head before we go camping from now on that way I might have a chance of catching them before they latch on. Ick!

Despite the bugs we managed to have a great time.  The boys spent the majority of their time on their scooters, in fact they broke two of the three of them!  The big boys (Jed, Jay, Joseph and Jon) mastered the art of melting glass in a campfire and I had both Sonic and Little Caesars in one day (we don't have either in our city).  

Of course no trip is complete without a major Kane melt down.  Here he is screaming at the top of his lungs because he decided to climb on the rocks and suddenly developed a great fear of "rock ants and spiders".  They are apparently invisible to the rest of us.  

A melt down of a different sort, using the holes in bricks as the molds for the glass beads we bought. Quite elaborate, I know but entertaining none of the less. 

They turned out kinda pretty. 

Winding down after a long day of playing hard.  

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And Her Name Will Be...

Isla 

(pronounced, eye-la)

It took us a while to settle on her name and after we did we considered keeping it a secret but we realized that her big brothers would make that hard.  

So you can thank Evan, Seth and Kane.

And Its A...

My ultrasound was earlier this week.  

We decided to take all the boys with us this time and beforehand I had each of the older three guess if it was a boy or girl.  Evan guessed, boy, Seth, girl and Kane, girl.  I was surprised Seth guessed girl because he's been telling me for weeks that he wants it to be a boy! 

   At 21 weeks, this was the furthest I'd been along for my "anatomy sono" so the baby was more squished than usual and kept its legs together for most of the appointment.  

At the very end the technician told us that she'd seen flashes and was fairly confident of the gender but wanted to try to move the baby to get a better look and hopefully picture for us before announcing it.  

 I turned on my side while she tapped my belly with the wand.  I suddenly became anxious.  Would we have to take our tech's word for it on the gender of our baby?  Come on kid open your legs! 

Then she got the shot... there it was in black and white, three little lines!  

We're having a girl!! 

Just to give you a little perspective on mine and Jed's mindset when we walked into the appointment here's the conversation we had had the night before, after settling on three potential boy names. 

Jed: "What if it's a girl?"  (said as if it was the first time the possibility had crossed his mind)

Me: "Ha, babe, at this point, I don't think you produce X chromosomes.  We're good." 

Jed: "Yeah." 

Needless to say, we're in shock right now.  In a good way though!  Now its back to the drawing board on names! 

And as of the end of our appointment I've been banned from going to Target by myself!  Thankfully Jed doesn't know about Etsy!  :)   

In the waiting room before the appointment. Blissfully unaware that their all boys club is about to be turned upside down! :)   

He's still my baby boy! 

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Pregnancy and Moving

They don't go together!

After spending all afternoon Thursday cleaning I woke up yesterday sore and feeling almost as tired as when I went to bed the night before.  This is pathetic!  

I had hoped to get everything done but the kitchen was dirtier than I realized (Grease is disgusting!) and Ford was determined to traverse the stairs (my baby gate is currently buried behind a mountain of boxes in the garage).  

Most of the first floor has been cleaned and santized, I did end up throwing in the towel on the kitchen though.  I need something more powerful to cut through the grease. 

Evan vacuumed the upstairs while I took a breather.  I'm still waiting for my second trimester burst of energy to kick in...  so much for my dreams of painting before we moved our stuff in.

Even so we have a lot of work do this weekend if we want to be moved in by Monday morning and I really want to be moved in by Monday!  Goodbye 40 minute drive to and from school every morning and afternoon!

The kitchen.

The view of the backyard from our master bedroom.  We have a pond!  We're going to have a fence put up for safety reasons as soon as we can get someone out to do it.

The "mommy tub" as the boys call it.  This may or may not be what sold me on the house. 

My helpers!

14 Weeks

Tuesday was both the 14 week mark in my pregnancy and my first prenatal appointment. I had to take Kane and Ford with me to the appointment which isn't ideal but worked out fine.  Kane kept asking my midwife if she could take the baby out, now.  He's a little jazzed about having another baby in the house!  

Ford spent most of the appointment happily playing with toys on ground, that is until the doppler was turned on.  He did not like the weird noise it made and he was especially displeased to see me laying down with the wand on my belly!  He became very protective, having to sit next to me and watching closely every move the midwife made.  Ironically he was not nearly as concerned or vigilant during the blood draw, you know the part where I actually stabbed by a point metal object.  I guess he's one, I'll cut him some slack.  

 Over all it was a good appointment, (potential TMI here)  I have a tilted uterus which makes it difficult in the first few months to find the heartbeat.  We found it for a brief moment before the baby scooted off.  Although the midwife had a hard time hearing the heartbeat, she could hear plenty of movement.

Funny side note, right before I found out I was pregnant with Evan I had some "female issues" as my husband puts it and went to the gyno, which is when I was first informed that my uterus was tilted.  The doctor then told me that because of my condition I'd have an extremely hard time getting pregnant if I was able to get pregnant at all.  Bahahaha!  Oh silly silly doctor.

Anyway, I'm happy that the baby is healthy and happy in there!

I think I'm going to go take a nap!  

And Then There Were 5

In early September I found out I was pregnant.

With all the other pregnancies Jed had been with me when I got the news, this time he was at work.  I had only a few hours to come up with a fun way to tell him! 

Evan was at school so I loaded up the three boys and we headed to Michael's.


After we took this picture and I picked out my supplies, we headed to the check out.  While waiting in line Kane and Ford flirted with the group of women in front of us which lead to the usual conversation,

Stranger: "Are they all yours?"
Me: "They are."
Stranger: "Three boys?"
Me: "Yes."
Seth: "And we have a brother at school too! He's in first grade and his name is Evan and I'm in Kindergarten but I get out of school early." (Thanks, son.)
Stranger: "Oh my, how old are they all?"
Me: "Uh, 1, 2, 5 and  the oldest is 6."
Stanger: "Oh my you have your hands full!"
Me: "I do but I love it!"

Then we parted ways and went about our business.  I sighed as it hit me that I only had a few more months before I'd have to talk with random people about how I had four boys and was obviously pregnant.  Yay, for more awkward conversation fodder!

 

This is what I came up with.  I bought a little wooden box, a wooden 7, the "family" stamp and markers specifically for coloring wood.  The best part about it was that the markers ran out faster than I thought they would only allowing for a single coat so it appeared a small child had colored it.

 When I gave it to Jed he assumed it was made by one of the boys at school and had no idea what was coming!   

He was pleasantly surprised! Mission accomplished!

So come mid May this little guy is due to be a big brother!! 

Our Pumpkin Family

Each one of us got a pumpkin this year!  Jed picked out a scary face for his pumpkin and I picked out an owl.  We let the three big boys paint their own little pumpkins with glow in the dark paint. I did the two youngest's pumpkins for them.  

(I probably should have dusted this table before taking pictures on it but I haven't dusted much of anything in a few weeks. Oh well.)

I bought the little pumpkins a week before Halloween.


Kane thinks they're the cutest little pumpkins ever so of course he has been carrying them around and snuggle with them all week long.  My kids have never taken a liking to stuffed animals, apparently, mini pumpkins were what they were holding out for.  Who knew?  

Anyway, this weekend, once I was able to pry them from Kane's death grip of love, we painted them.  Evan was pretty intentional in not mixing his colors together as he painted (his is at the bottom of the second picture), his brothers weren't so careful though.  Black took over pretty much everything, oh well, its their masterpieces right?! 

Oh, and if you can count or do simple math you may have figured out the little announcement made in this post.  :)

Things You Probably Shouldn't Say To A Pregnant Woman

-"Oh my gosh you're HUGE!" 

-"You've really gotten a lot bigger since the last time I saw you, WOW!"

-Stranger: "So how much longer do you have to go?"  Me: "Two months."  Strangers eyes pop out of her head then says: "I thought you had days not months, I mean look at you." 

-I'm out with the boys, stranger says: "Oh I sure hope you're having a girl this time!" 

-"There is just no way you're going to make it to your due date, you're just too big!"

- Stranger: "So this is going to be your third boy?!"  Me:"Yup."  Stranger:"Weren't you devastated when you found out."  Me:"No, I'm pretty excited."  Stranger: "Well I would have killed myself if I found out I was having a third boy."    

-"So are you getting your tubes tied after this one?" 

-This next one needs a little bit of background.  Last week I had an UTI and needed to get a prescription for antibiotics but b/c my midwife cant prescribe medicine I had to go to a walk in clinic.  This is some of the conversation between me and the doctor.

Doctor walks in the room and says, "Miss, you know this is not the place to come to have a baby, right?" Tone was flat out condescending.  Me:  "Yes I know.  I'm not having a baby I have a UTI."  He tells me to go pee in a cup, I do and then go back to the exam room.  He walks in and says, "Well you have a lot of blood in your urine but no bacteria."  Looking puzzled at his chart he then turns to me and says, "What do you think is going on?"  I was kind of shocked and all I could say was, "I dont know.  Arent you supposed to tell me?"  After we sat down and discussed "options" we decided to just go with an antibiotic but he explained that he needed to do quite a bit of research to find out what would be safe for me b/c I was pregnant and he wasnt sure.  Oh my confidence was just soaring at this point.  Anyway he gave me the script, I went home, got on the internet and did my own research.  Thankfully it turned out to be the right kind of antibiotic for UTIs and pregnant women. 

For the most part I'm not offended by these comments, I actually think its funny (that's why I'm sharing on here).  I know I'm huge, its a part of being pregnant, you have another person living and growing inside of you!  The doctor experience was kind of annoying yet I can laugh about it but I'm never going back there.