Sunday, September 28, 2014

Introducing Our Baby GIRL!!!

On September 13th at 1:52 am we welcomed the newest member of our family!!

Eliza Mary
September 13, 2014
1:52am
8lbs 2oz
19.29 inches
 
She has been such a wonderful addition to our family and we are thrilled that she is here at last.  It is hard to believe that she is 15 days old already.  So cliché but I feel like she's been here forever and it's hard to remember what life was like before she got here.
 
It has been quite a transition to 3 kids but I feel like overall we are doing great.  Samantha is absolutely in love with having a baby sister and I am so so happy that she got the sister she desperately wanted.  Zach is finally starting to do better with her.  The first day in the hospital he came in to meet her, sat on the couch, smiled and gave her a swift slap on the head.  So nice he is!!  He has given her many more slaps since then but they have drastically decreased in the last week and now he enjoys giving her hugs and kisses and pointing out his baby.


Hopefully I will be able to get her birth story written up in the next few days!  It is quite exciting in my opinion and I can't wait to have it written down so I can always remember it.  I will leave you all with a few pictures of her from the past two weeks!


Thursday, September 11, 2014

The Longest Pregnancy!

Today I am 39w2d pregnant and this is officially the most pregnant I have ever been!  When I was exactly 39 weeks with Samantha I went to the hospital for an ultrasound and ended up being immediately whisked away to L&D to be induced and Samantha was born at 12:47am at 39w1d.  I really have no gut feelings as to when I'll go into labor but I'm hoping it is soon!  I am so anxious and excited to meet our baby, find out if it's a boy or a girl, and not be so sore and uncomfortable all the time.  I am however getting a little bit nervous about all the pain and how I'm going to deal with it. 

With Samantha, I was favorable so they started with Pitocin right away.  Things went great until they broke my water and then the pain became unreal.  I ended up getting an epidural which was great, however, I was still numb two days later when I was getting ready to be released from the hospital.  With Zachary, I was unfavorable so they started with Cervidil.  The cervidil did its job so well that it sent me into full blown labor.  The nurse didn't believe I was in labor and by the time I convinced her to check me it was too late to get an epidural and Zach was born before the doctor even made it to the hospital!  It was great afterwards and I'd love to do it again, however I won't kick myself down if I do end up deciding to get an epi.

Now I'm getting off track!  Hard to believe that this is my longest pregnancy and I'm curious to see just how long it goes!

Monday, September 8, 2014

5 years...

No farewell words were spoken, no time to say goodbye.
You were gone before we knew it and only God knows why.

September 8, 2009.  A date that will forever be etched in my memory.  In December of 2008, Chris and I decided to start trying for our first baby.  Shocked as could be, I found myself pregnant the very first month.  December 27th my first ever big fat positive.  I couldn't believe it!  Shortly afterwards I developed a pain in my shoulder.  Since my mom had passed away quite suddenly only 5 months before my heath anxiety was sky high and I immediately consulted Dr. Google who told me that it was most certainly an ectopic pregnancy.  Cue me freaking out.  I called every OB/GYN in Northern Virginia but since it was a holiday (New Years Day) everyone was closed.  I finally got a hold of a nurse who told me to go to an urgent care center.  I called Chris home from work and off we went.  All they did that day was a confirmation pregnancy test, which was also positive, and gave me a referral to a radiologist to have an ultrasound performed.  I was pretty upset they didn't do one right then and there, but oh well.

A few days later I had the ultrasound which unfortunately didn't show much of anything.  Thankfully at that point I was still only a few weeks pregnant so it wasn't too surprising.  The sac, not in my tube, was measuring on track but there was no visible fetal pole or yolk sac.  I was sent on my way and I made my first prenatal appointment with an OB/GYN.  Another few weeks later I had my appointment where the nurse assured me that everything was going well.  I had mentioned the pain and how I had the ultrasound and she set me up with a follow up ultrasound just to see.  I went to that ultrasound and was SO nervous.  The entire walk back to the room the tech kept saying that there was nothing to be nervous about but I just had a gut feeling.  She turned on the ultrasound machine and all of a sudden I saw our baby up on the giant screen.  So cute, I wanted to breathe a sigh of relief.  However that quickly turned to fear when I saw a flat line going across the bottom of the screen.  I asked what it meant and the tech wouldn't say anything.  After that she quickly left the room and came back a few minutes later saying that my doctor was on the phone to talk to me.  The doctor basically said that the baby had no heartbeat and that the chances of the baby surviving were slim to none.  I was devastated.  I left the appointment in tears just knowing that our baby was gone.  I was scheduled for a second follow up ultrasound a week later but I knew I wouldn't need it.

The following weekend the bleeding started.  Alone at home on February 1, I passed our perfect little baby.  Quite traumatically I was instructed to bring the tissue to my OB's office so it could be inspected and then disposed of with the hospital waste.  How awful.  Unfortunately, I didn't know any better and didn't ask for it back so we could bury it or do something a little more humane.  I will always regret that.

September 8, 2009.  The due date of our first child.  Today our baby should be turning 5 years old.  Instead we are left with an unfillable void.  Thankfully since then we have been blessed with Samantha and Zachary and in a few short days or weeks we will be welcoming our third little blessing into our family.  But no matter how many children we have, we will never forget our first and what could have been.

Saturday, September 6, 2014

38w4d

Today marks 38w4d of pregnancy.  On this day in my pregnancy history, Zachary was born!!  Hard to believe that at this point in Zach's pregnancy, I had a baby in my arms.  As with Samantha, Zachary had a dangerously low amount of amniotic fluid and I had to be induced.  The induction started around 4:00pm (I really don't remember, but it was late afternoon) so last night as I was laying down trying to fall asleep all I could think about was being in labor and the excitement of welcoming a new baby into our family.  It's making me really excited to go through the process again!  I am not looking forward to the pain, but a healthy baby in the end makes it totally worth it! 

Although I am feeling "done", I'm still having trouble processing that in a few days or weeks our baby will be here.  I know I've said it a million times but this has seriously been the fastest pregnancy ever.  I don't know where this year has gone!  I have been trying to enjoy it to the fullest because as much as I would absolutely love to have a fourth baby, I don't know if I'll be able to get Chris on board.  For as long as I can remember I have always wanted a big family.  When we first got married it started out with wanting 5 kids, but I abandoned that thought A LONG time ago!!  Definitely don't want that many but I would love to have 4 though!  I guess we will see what the future holds.

At this point in time, I am feeling somewhat conflicted with going into labor.  I have never gone into labor on my own before so part of me doubts that my body can even do it, which I'm sure is not the case!  I feel like everyone has their own opinion on what you can do to jump start the process and well, I can't deny the fact that I have been thinking about trying some of them.  I'm in the mindset that if my body is not ready I can try all the things I want and they just won't work.  Today I was all set to do some exercising and got my WiiU Fit all set up, then I started playing and Zach decided to push every button on the TV he could.  So unfortunately that didn't go over too well.  (Right now the XBOX 360 is turned on and Zach is nowhere in sight!  Speaking of XBOX, maybe Just Dance would be a better way to get me moving, that one really gets me sweating.)  I may attempt it again tonight after the kids are in bed!   At this point in time, I think that's about as far as I want to go with a "natural induction".  Well there is one other thing I'm willing to try, but I'm not going to mention that here.  :-P  All I know is that the only one I refuse to try is drinking castor oil.  No thank you!  Hopefully the baby will decide to come on his/her own terms and I won't even have to think about doing other things to jump start the process!

Have you tried any natural induction methods?  Did they work?

Friday, September 5, 2014

A Family "Tradition"

The big question on my mind, other than when the baby will come, is if it's going to be a boy or a girl!  There are plenty of old wives tales about gender, but truthfully, I don't pay much attention to them.  Sickness wise this pregnancy was more like Zach's.  Pain wise, it was more like Samantha's.  I really just don't know what to think, and I don't have a gut feeling one way or another.  Then you have family traditions.

Going by the family "tradition" this baby is going to be a boy.  Looking back a few generations is my grandma.  She is one of 4 children.  Of the four there are three boys and she is the only girl.  Then she had three children.  Of those three, my aunt is the only girl.  My dad and my uncle each had two children.  Of the four, there are three girls and my brother.  This brings us to the generation of our children.  At this point there are 7 great grandchildren between the 3 girl cousins.  You guessed it, my Samantha is the only girl out of the seven!  I know there is no basis to this tradition since the dad provides the X or Y chromosome but it is still interesting to see.  I'm so eager to see if this baby will break or uphold the family trend!

Are there any patterns in the genders of your families members?

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

38 Week Update!

Today marks 38 weeks, wow!!  According to my ticker the baby is this size of a pumpkin now.  It's almost the right season for pumpkins, haha.

This morning I had my weekly biophysical profile and check up.  The BPP went well and baby passed with 8/8.  My first fluid measurement was 11.8 which was 1.1 lower than last week, but then she found a better pocket of fluid and it jumped up to a little over 14.  That was great news since Chris and I were both thinking I was going to be sent to the hospital today.  She got some cute pictures of the baby, however the printer wasn't working properly so they are a little screwed up.  It looks like baby is going to be a chunker, so different from Samantha and Zach!
 
Look at those lips!!  I just want to kiss them!!  I can't wait.  After the ultrasound I met with the doctor.  I think I actually lost 2 pounds since last week which is good.  I'm so done with this diet and can't wait for baby to get here so I can eat what I want again.  I have an entire list of junk I want to eat once the baby comes haha, starting with all the pumpkin flavored goodness that is starting to come out now.  Pumpkin is seriously my favorite!!  So if you come to visit me...pumpkin is always welcome.  ;-)  I got checked and was seriously expecting to be the same as last week, but to my surprise I am 2-3 cm dilated and 70% effaced!  I know it doesn't mean anything but it's still exciting to know that things are starting to happen.  Maybe I actually have a chance of going into labor on my own.  I would LOVE to go into labor on my own.  Only time will tell!
 
Tonight we took my 38 week belly shots.  Still getting bigger and bigger!  I don't know how much bigger I can get.  I'm really praying this baby isn't too huge.  Under 8 pounds would be great.  Samantha was 6 pounds 12 ounces and Zach was 6 pounds 15 ounces and they were just so cute and tiny.  I love tiny squishes, though of course I'm sure I'll love a chunky baby if I get one too.


These past few days I've been starting to get really impatient and I just really can't wait to see who has been residing inside of me for these past 9 months!!