No more weekly updates!

At least as far as my pregnancy goes! Samuel James decided to make his way into the world a week early. I'll post as much of a birth story as I can remember. It went REALLY quickly and was very intense so I don't really have times for much of anything.

Just a word of warning: From this point on there may be some information that could be considered TMI...you've been warned!

So as many people know I had been having contractions on and off for most of my 37th and 38th weeks. They would get real regular for an hour or two and then completely stop. Thursday March 29th was really no different. Neither was Friday. I had Clara by myself for part of the day since Adam had a 2-hour class. I woke up early with some contractions, but ultimately decided that Adam should still go to school since I didn't think they'd amount to much (I was slightly discouraged at this point that I'd go into labor on my own before our scheduled induction). While he was gone we went about our regular day. At some point while he was gone I had gone to the bathroom and noticed that I had lost a good chunk of my mucus plug. Sidenote: It's very weird to get excited about finding hunks of bloody mucus, but if you've ever been pregnant you understand. I warned Adam about it via text and just decided to wait and see what happened.

Well, what happened wasn't much of anything. He came home, we did a little shopping, I had some more contractions. At one point I had them every 8-10 minutes for 3 hours before I gave up and went to bed, fully expecting to have nothing to show for it in the morning. Well, I couldn't have been more wrong. I had gone to bed about 11pm. At 1:30am I woke up to use the bathroom after a rather strong and painful contraction. I went back to bed and had another. And another. So I decided to start timing them. At that point they were coming about every 3-5 minutes and they had definitely ramped up in intensity. These weren't anything like the ones I had been having. I finally woke Adam up about 45 minutes into this and told him we should think about calling the hospital. Eventually I did call labor & delivery and they told me that I should go ahead and come in.

I called my mom to come stay at the house so we didn't have to wake up Clara. Interesting side note: The first time I tried calling my mom no one answered the phone so I immediately called back and got my Dad. Turns out my mom had gotten up to use the bathroom and had JUST missed my call! Guess she knew something would be happening! We waited what seemed like forever for her to get there and then headed to the hospital. I had 2 contractions in the car on the way to the hospital-and let me tell you that when people say contractions in the car suck, they aren't kidding!

We got to the hospital and checked in. My wonderful nurse Vicki got us all situated and checked me at that point. I was 2cm and 80% effaced. I had been at 2cm my last appointment so I was sort of disappointed that I hadn't made more progress. She also informed me that my own doctor was on call this weekend...Awesome! She left to check in with him and I got settled in to ride out the contractions. I REALLY wanted the epidural but was pretty sure they weren't going to let me have one being only 2 cm. I also didn't want to stall out my labor (though no one was under the impression that it would happen).  When she got back she let us know that I was given 2 options: go home and labor some more and then come back later, or stay and get an IM shot of morphine and some benadryl to better organize my labor and kick me into active labor. I DID NOT want to go home so I elected to stay. She went to put in the order and I continued to work through some not very fun contractions. In the meantime, someone from the lab came to draw my blood. Soon Vicki came back and before she gave me the morphine, checked me again. I was still a 2 and 80%. I asked AGAIN about getting the epi and she went to check with Dr. V.

Before I knew it, my other nurse (I think Connie) came in with a bag of IV fluid and said that I could go ahead and get the epi. I was so happy! Though I was less happy to find out that the anesthesiologist wasn't at the hospital and I had to wait what seemed like an eternity for him to get here.

So Al the Anesthesiologist came and got me all hooked up. By this point the contractions were getting really intense and close together. I kept waiting for the numbness to kick in so I could get some sleep (it was probably around 4 or 4:30am at this point), but they never completely went away. Some of them were less noticeable, but they definitely still hurt. Vicki checked me again and this time I was a 3.

Shortly after that Dr. V came in and checked in with us. I was still having a lot of pain. He checked me again and this time I was a 4. I think that's when he asked me if I wanted him to break my water. He broke it and almost immediately everything got worse. The contractions were coming one on top of the other and were ridiculously intense. I was yelling and crying through most of them and begging for someone to do something to relieve the pain. It took a long time (at least it felt like it) before Al the Anesthesiologist got back up by us and started putting who knows what into my epidural catheter. Before I knew it I was so numb I couldn't feel ANYTHING from the waist down. I felt like a log! Vicki checked me again (about an hour after Dr. V had) and I was now an 8-9cm! I had gone from 4cm to 8-9cm in about an hour.

About 10 minutes later they checked me and I was complete and his head was WAY down...like almost out down. They broke down the bed, got the room all set up and were trying to patiently wait for Dr. V to get there. Long ass story short, I pushed 3 times and little Sam practically came flying out!

He was sooooo tiny! I think everyone was expecting a big baby. Clara was 8lbs 2oz, but I could tell by looking at him he wasn't even that big. Turns out he was 6lbs 15oz. Just a little peanut! He was born at 10:33am on March 31, 2012.

So another short, albeit intense, labor and another beautiful baby. Right now we're still sitting at the hospital. We were supposed to be discharged, but Sam has yet to poop and now we're running into issues with him wanting to eat. So until we resolve both of those things (which hopefully will be before he's 48 hours old) he can't be discharged. Thank God for the electronic age. I've got my Kindle Fire, my phone, and Adam's laptop...along with the TV and DVD player in the room. I'm still bored out of my mind and Adam might be taking his lap top home with him when he goes home tonight.

Here are a few pictures from his first day!

Just minutes old-enjoying a little kangaroo time

Just chillin'

Sam the Sailor Man

Day 2! We're home!

We're home! We're nowhere near organized or settled in yet, but we've taken care of the important things. Sam already had his first feeding and a wet and dirty diaper so it seems as though he's good with life at the moment, too.

I've been able to at least get the living room organized so that I can feed and pump. Our suitcase is still packed and there's still a pile of stuff by the back door, but eventually we'll get there. I'm trying to pace myself a little. I don't want to overdo it on the first day!

So at discharge Sam weighed 6lbs 10.5oz-he lost a little, which is normal, but hopefully he'll keep gaining. We've decided, at least for now, to supplement his feedings with formula just to help him catch up and get ahead from his first couple days. He is a very lazy eater. He doesn't breastfeed the way he should so it's actually more effective for me to pump and give him the colostrum in a bottle. He needs about 15mls for one feeding so I give him whatever colostrum I've pumped and then make up the rest with formula. He's been eating about every 3 hours during the day, sooner if he wants but he does better with about 3 hours in between.

I'm not going to say it has been an easy couple of days, but it's getting easier as we're settling into a routine. I'm so much more mellow this time around. I've worked really hard to get him through the last couple days yet  I feel really confident and capable of caring for him as he tries to make up for lost time.

Tomorrow I may even try to do our first "Two under Tuesday" blog post! We'll have to see how things are going. :)

38 week appointment update

So we had our 38 week appointment today. I was hoping to have made some progress after last night. For those who weren't privy to the information I had contractions last night for about 2 hours. They were about every 5 minutes lasting 1-2 minutes. Just as I was about to call labor and delivery to see if I should come in they stopped. I was hoping they would start up again but they didn't so I went to work this morning.

So as of my appointment today I am now 2cm dilated and about 25% effaced. My belly is measuring 35 weeks which means he has dropped. I also asked to have my membranes swept. So far it isn't doing much of anything but a lot of people I talked to said it took about 2 days.

That's about it. Next week Wednesday we're scheduled to go in to the clinic to have the Foley placed around 3pm...unless I go into labor on my own over the weekend. Either way, we'll have an outside baby by next week Thursday!

Toddle Along Tuesdays-Baby Names!

I've finally got some time and ambition to contribute to TAT this week! The topic is baby names.

When we found out we were expecting our first, I had originally decided that I wanted to be surprised-thus we had to come up with names for each sex. The boy name seemed to be easy. We didn't want a "trendy" name, we wanted something that was classic.We were also considering family names. The boy name we finally decided on was Alexander Orville (Orville being Adam's grandfather's name). I liked Alexander since I was a young person! And we figured whichever name we didn't end up using we'd save for the next child. The girl name, however, was a different story. I spent countless hours with my nose in the baby names book trying to find just the right girl's name. We still hadn't decided on a name when I/we gave up wanting to be surprised and find out what flavor baby we were having. It was shortly after we found out we were having a girl that we decided on the name Clara Ann. Both are family names from both sides of the family. Everyone that we told the name to just gushed over it! They all thought it was beautiful and timeless. :)

This time around, the girl name came easier. We started talking about names almost as soon as I found out I was pregnant! I wanted something that was "vintagy" and that would go well with Clara (it being sort of an old-fashioned name as well). We ended up deciding on Eleanore Louise. Louise is my mother's middle name. I am TOTALLY in love with this name! It's beautiful, and timeless, just like Clara's.

I'm not sure when it was, but I started having doubts about our choice of boy name from last time. I just wasn't feeling it anymore. Plus I was having issues with the length of his name. I'm not really a fan of the shortened version, Alex. So the hunt was on for a new one. It took MONTHS. I scoured the baby name books and websites for countless hours a day. I just couldn't seem to find the right one...or if I found one I liked, we couldn't agree on it. Finally, I decided I had looked through every name I could possibly look through and thought my head would explode if I looked anymore so I made my "short list" and sent it to Adam to look at. We ended up deciding on Samuel James (James is Adam's middle name). It's a very strong name and I'm in love with it. :) Samuel wasn't even one that I had been previously considering, but we had been discussing names before bed one night and Adam tossed that one out. It took a little while to mull over that one before putting it on the list because I've got a friend with a son named Samuel. We had also considered using Adam's first name as a middle name, but after deciding on Samuel, we decided that Adam wasn't a good choice of middle name (it would have been Samuel Adam lol).

So there it is: our first two children will be Clara and Samuel. They almost sound like a little old couple, don't they? That's what I love about it. And, if we do end up having more children, we've got at least one name picked out already if it's a girl!

38 weeks...just 2 weeks-ish left!

Weekly Survey:

How far along? 38 weeks-2 weeks (14 days) left til my due date; 10 days left before induction.

Total weight gain: +32.2lbs (160.2lbs). The end must be near-despite the massive eating over the last week I’ve only gained .2lbs!

How big is baby?: The size of a leek (6.8lbs and 19.5” from head to heel).

Sleep?: Sleep is getting worse again. I sleep ok for the first few hours of the night and then I can’t stay asleep or get back to sleep. I’m very restless and sore. I’ve been getting up on my days off sometime between 6-6:30am.

How are you feeling physically? Not too bad physically for being 38 weeks pregnant. I have a LOT of pressure when I walk. My sciatica isn’t bad right now-thank God.

How are you feeling emotionally?: On Friday and Saturday it rained on and off most of the day. By Saturday afternoon I was so stir crazy! I’m feeling very restless right now…it’s like I can’t sit still for more than 10 minutes. I ended up doing a lot of cleaning in the kitchen and got all of the bottles cleaned and sterilized for Sam. I also ended up buying 1 small package of newborn diapers for him and got those all opened up and put away. I also found a neat purse that’s big enough to use for a purse/diaper bag combo. I wasn’t looking for one, but I’m glad I found it! I also did my “Easter Bunny” shopping for the kids. I got some interesting looks from people as I was walking around the stores. :)

Best moment this week?: My friend Heidi having her baby! Our daughters are 2 days apart and now it looks like our sons will be about 2 weeks apart. Congrats on your beautiful boy, Heidi!!

Movement?: Yep. He still moves a lot, but they’re much bigger movements now-more rolls and full body kicks. He’s trying to make his house bigger but I keep telling him the only way to get more room is to come out!

What is baby up to this week?: He has a firm grasp, which you'll soon be able to test when you hold his hand for the first time! His organs have matured and are ready for life outside the womb.
Wondering what color your baby's eyes will be? You may not be able to tell right away. If he's born with brown eyes, they'll likely stay brown. If he's born with steel gray or dark blue eyes, they may stay gray or blue or turn green, hazel, or brown by the time he's 9 months old. That's because a child's irises (the colored part of the eye) may gain more pigment in the months after he's born, but they usually won't get "lighter" or more blue. (Green, hazel, and brown eyes have more pigment than gray or blue eyes.)

Food cravings?: Turtle Sundaes from Culver’s and Cadbury Eggs. Easter is going to kill me!

Labor signs?: Yes! Since late last week! I thought I’d end up going into labor over the weekend. I had lots of period-like cramps, back pain, and some contractions on and off since Thursday. I’m really hoping I won’t be subjected to 10 more days of this. I’m going to ask the doctor if he’ll sweep my membranes on Wednesday at my appointment.

What I miss: SLEEP! And before anyone says it, yes, I’ll have a newborn at home and likely won’t sleep much more, but at least I won’t have to get up for work!

What I'm looking forward to: My appointment on Wednesday. I’m excited to see how much more progress I made since last week and after having had all the cramps for the last 4 days!

Random Thoughts: I was unpacking the newborn diapers last night and could not get over how tiny they are! It’s hard to believe I’m going to have a little baby who fits in them! They’re literally half the size of Clara’s size 5 diapers.

I’m really looking forward to meeting this little man. I am a little sad that I won’t be feeling him move inside anymore, but I’ll be really happy to not have to share my body anymore! Not only that, but other people will get to help me take care of him…I won’t be carrying him by myself.

38 week bump pic

38 weeks with Baby #1 (Clara)

Yay! It's Friday!

It's time for an edition of What's on Your Mind! I've really been slacking in the blog department lately. I usually do Toddle Along Tuesdays every week, but have lacked the ambition to put anything together.

So, here we go!

• Not that I'm counting, but I have 6 days of work left after today. After the morning I had, I'm super happy about that. Even a sleepless night at home with a newborn is better than a good day here.
• Speaking of counting, there's 13 days left until my induction. I'm both excited and slightly terrified of that thought!
• I get to do a little online shopping today. That's a pretty happy thought. :)
• I've been having early labor signs for the last couple days. Yesterday I was super crampy and my back was killing me. Then this morning I had one contraction that I actually had to breathe through, but nothing since. I'm hoping either to go into labor this weekend, or that all of this stops. I do not want to deal with this discomfort for the next 13 days! The regular aches and pains I can handle, but all the pain with no baby to show for it stinks.
• Work has been crazy. I'm so ready to be off! Next week we're processing something like 300 people. Should be good times...NOT!
• I got my Scentsy order last night. I can't wait to be home this weekend to have my new warmers going! My house is going to smell awesome!

So, we have nothing planned for this weekend. I'd like to take a couple naps and do a little laundry. I have a few errands to run tonight after work, but that's about it. Next week Adam has a couple PT appointments and I have an OB appointment on Wednesday. It's a short week at work for me next week-I'm done on Thursday. Yay for a 3-day weekend! Then it's just Monday and Tuesday of the following week and I'M DONE!

37 week appointment update

So we had our 37 week appointment today. We must have had poor time management skills today because we were late. Turns out it was fine because my doctor had been next door at the hospital and had just gotten back into the office.

Because we were late Adam ended up having to skip my appointment and go to his therapy appointment instead.

Weight and bp were good and Sam sounded good...even if he did have the hiccups. I decided to get checked even though I was pretty sure I hadn't made any progress since last week. I was wrong! I'm now 1.5cm! I never got that far with Clara before I was induced so this might be promising!

Speaking of induction, we decided to go ahead and schedule one. I go in on Wednesday 4/4 at 3pm. I'll get the Foley inserted and then be put on the monitors for an hour. Then on 4/5 I'll go to the hospital at 5:30am to have a baby! So, knowing the way this little boy works, he'll decide to throw a monkey wrench into all of our plans and come early. :-)