The night from ....

This is SO Craig's child!!! Look at their faces... just identical. So sweet!!! Just a few hours before the night from 'you know where'. We were awake for almost 5 hours with a fussy baby who needed so badly to take a poopy. Bless her little heart. She was in so much pain. And by the looks of it, she should have cried. SOLID! I know she felt so absolutely relieved.

Can you believe this is my topic of conversation today?? The little things in baby world that make mommy happy!

The labor and delivery experience.... WOW!

So, I haven't really had the chance to go into full detail of my birthing experience of the most beautiful little girl in the whole world...bias? No way!! I really am so in love with her. I love staring at her and holding her and feeding her, and yes, even staying up for a full 3 hours b/c of bad gas with her... Or finding every place in the house possible for her to sleep comfortably...um, that would be in mommy and daddy's arms, of course. Cradle? Crib? Yeah right. Someone has got to invent pretend human arms to put around my child so mommy can get some sleep...b/c she has got our number... She knows what she wants, and well, she gets it. We did, however, have her sleep in a wedge last night... 2 hours in it, 1 hour out of it, 1 hour in it, 3 1/2 hours in it...YEP!! She slept from 2:30 to 6 am STRAIGHT this morning... Thanks to my sister who brought the wedge over last night AND to Mylacon...gas reliever!!! A friend of a friend of mine called it "Jesus in a Bottle". It is pretty great stuff. And Miss Tooty over here, is resting much better b/c of it.

Okay, so I digressed a little...back to the beginning.

We went into the hospital Tuesday night, November 25th to check in. They immediately got me started on a little bitty pill that they stuck right up next to my Cervix... Couldn't feel the little tablet, but I sure felt them putting it up there...lovely thought, I know. It was used to soften the cervix and get it ready to dilate more...I was already at a 1 when we checked in. Again at 2:30, they put another tablet in me... That really got me going to start me on Pitosin, to induce labor. I didn't feel any contractions at all until about 10 in the morning... At first, it just felt like I was really working my abs hard, and they were kind of sore. Then about 11, WOW! Up to a 4, and then quickly up to a 5... That was NOT FUN!!! The anesthesioligist had an emergency C Section and emergency delivery, and I was told I wasn't top priority b/c me and Sadie were doing so well...hahha.... They gave me bit of a pain reliever to "take the edge off"... Um...if they took the edge OFF, I'd hate to feel the EDGE!!! B/c good gracious, I thought I was going to absolutely die. No cussing, no yelling, just lots of breathing. Lots of holding onto Craig's hand - he was AMAZING by the way...he just stood there and endured all of my grunting and moaning... helped me breathe and rubbed my back...so sweet. We also had the absolute BEST NURSE EVER, Erin Peterson... absolutely a God-send!!! She was so great, and so nice, and so helpful. Just loved her to death, and hated seeing her leave that night...I wish I could've kept her.

Epidural time!!! That was not fun either. Between the contractions and them sticking the epidural in me...well, lets just say I was in the worst amount of pain I believe I have ever had, ruptured spleen, broken ribs, all ten toes broken...all nothing compared to this!! But once it kicked in, and my other pain meds were making me sleepy, I took about a 2 hour nap, I think...Craig can't remember, and well...I can't either. The nurse woke me up, asked if I could push... I couldn't feel a thing...NOTHING from the waist down. Couldn't move my toes, bend my knees...I pinched myself...nothing. It left a bruise later...but I felt nothing. The strangest feeling.

Pushing!! the nurse had Craig hold one leg and I held the other, felt like a ton... and I pushed like I had never pushed before...and couldn't feel a thing...so it was kind of hard to push... I'm not going to tell you what Erin told me to pretend to be pushing for...but it worked... She started coming and coming and coming. After 4 or 5 big pushes during contractions, Erin could see Sadie's dark hair. Craig, as weak stomached as he is, even grabbed a glimpse accidentally... bless his heart...I didn't want to see it either...God put that area down there for a reason...so my eyes could not see. Dr. Parrill came in, not my dr., but a dr. in the offices I go to, she had me do a few more pushes as well... then all of the sudden...there she was. 40 minutes of pushing, and this gorgeous, chunky, dark haired, healthy lunged baby came out of me... Just the most amazing feeling anyone could ever experience.

Afterwards: I held her immediately...she was GORGEOUS!!!! And chunky! And just amazing! They started cleaning her up and doing what they do over there... and started noticing that she wasn't breathing correctly. She'd take a big breath, then stop, then breathe again, then stop. Her coloring was beginning to turn "dusky" as they put it. So they took her for a little bit, examined her, and brought her back...she just needed a little help.

The rest of the day was great! We held her and loved on her and just adored God's little miracle! They kept her in the nursery most of the night. Every time she started smacking her lips or sucking her thumb, they'd bring her in to feed. Unfortunately, mommy didn't have much to give her and she wouldn't latch on long enough to get much. She lost 1 pound in 2 days, so we started her on formula to get some meat on her little skinny bones. It's amazing what 1 pound will do to a little 8 lb. chunk. She was so skinny...I was so sad, but she gained 4 oz. in one day on the formula. Finally, mommy got her milk in on Sunday, and immediately started pumping, but tried very hard to get her to latch on...not interested. Once she had the bottle, I wasn't satisfying her at all. I don't mind, I thought I would, but as long as she's getting the nutrients that she needs, that's all I care about. I haven't weighed her since Monday at the pediatrician. She was up to 7 lb. 6 1/2 oz. She's growing again.

Home:

She's wonderful!!! Sleeps a lot during the day, but has a lot of gas at night! THANK goodness for Mylacon and all of my girlfriends that told me about it. Her dr. said that it was fine, and she's doing much better and sleeping much better.

She's my doodle bug!!! I love her so very much!!!

I'm a new mommy!!!

I can't even explain how wonderful my life is...God really did bless us with the most precious little girl ever!!! The pictures explain it all!!!

2 more days...

I can't even begin to tell you all of the different feelings I have right now. We're in adrenalin mode cleaning around the house, trying to get it clean for baby and guests and just so we won't have to do anything once she's here. I'm nervous, excited, emotional, jittery, etc... I, above all, am so very thankful to God that He's gotten me through this amazing journey with absolutely no difficulty (no serious difficulty, anyway...just what comes with being pregnant). The first 7 months were such a breeze, my growing tummy is all I had to go on (besides the sonograms and dr. stuff). Then feeling her move inside of me (pretty much every single day) was another showing of proof for me... Then SCHOOL started...and then I really felt pregnant. While the days would drag, it really went by fast for me. God's truly blessed us! I know He'll be holding my hand in the next couple of days, I just hope I don't forget to thank Him and ask for His aid in my delivery. I'll say it again, as I've said before, God has entrusted in us this amazing job of parenthood. He has given US the chance to raise a child in His name, in this uncertain world. I can not express how happy and humbled we are to raise this child in a Christian home. It's been an amazing journey!! I know that the REAL journey is ahead of us... the long and winding road of Parenting! Wow!!!

Just a few more days...

I went to the doctor yesterday, got a sonogram, she weighs 7 lbs 6 oz already and is 20 1/4 inches long. She's a big girl! Who knows what she'll weigh when we go in to induce?! We go in Tuesday night at 7:30, and they will start me on Cytotec. They will induce Wednesday morning. I'm super excited - if she cooperates on Wednesday, she will be born on her Mommy's birthday!!! YEA!! What a fun birthday present and HUGE gift from God the day before Thanksgiving. We are beside ourselves. We can not wait to see this beautiful little being that God has created and we've been blessed enough to help her grow inside of me.
I think I'll take ONE LAST PICTURE before I go to the hospital or maybe even at the hospital...we'll see.
We won't be delivered by my dr., but it will be a dr. in her office that I was going to go see for my appt. on Tuesday (if I weren't being induced). They're all super neat people, and I'm just glad it's a doctor I know, or that she knows and trusts.
We're going to be kind of busy the next few days getting her bag, and my bag, and Craig's bag packed... cleaning and picking up around the house and getting things in order for her to come home. Our sweet little kitty, Jaspurr, won't know what hit him, so we will be making sure that we introduce a blanket of her's before we introduce him to her. He's known for a while now that his mommy has been going through a lot of changes. Even my nephew, Ethan, was really receptive to me last night, and let me hold him and hug on him when he got hurt...babies just know a mommy when they see them. :)
Keep us in your prayers that everything goes smoothly and that this beautiful baby girl will be born safely.
Thank you to my faithful viewers/readers...you guys have helped me a ton through this process!!! Obviously I will continue with a brand new blog when the baby girl gets home. Yea!! Miss Sadie is on her way!!!

37 weeks...HOME STRETCH!!!!

So, I'm feeling anxious, antsy, overwhelmed, excited, and any other synonym that goes along with those... We went shopping this weekend with FREE MONEY! It was so much fun to come out with bags of stuff and know that we did not spend a dime of our own. We purchased a lot of things off of the registry that we need now...just to be prepared. We're both in the process of cleaning, organizing, getting ready for baby. We're packing our hospital bags and about to get Miss Sadie's bag packed, too. I have about a thousand thank you cards to write...not complaining...at least we have thank you's to send out. We've been truly blessed on the outpouring of everyone's gifts!!! Giving us things we forgot to register for, or things we just didn't think about, or just adorable outfits that we probably wouldn't have purchased ourselves. The room is really coming together. We got our shelves from the choir last week and our diaper changing table from Craig's aunts...they look great in the room!! He's been BUSTING HIS BEHIND getting things ready for Miss Sadie to come. I don't know how anyone could do this alone...I'm so thankful for him and all he's doing. He's really taking this 'daddy' thing in full stride...I just know he's going to be amazing! While we are so ready for her to be here, we're not quite as READY as we'd like to be (and you all say in one accord "You never will be...". I know that...but we want everything to be just perfect when she gets home.
Fun info below... anxiously awaiting our dr. appt. on Friday!!!!! I'll let you all know how that goes when we go! Love you all!

Your pregnancy: 37 weeks
See the big picture
How your baby's growing:
Congratulations — your baby is full term! This means that if your baby arrives now, his lungs should be fully mature and ready to adjust to life outside the womb, even though your due date is still three weeks away.Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard). Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blonds or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz.See what your baby looks like this week.Note: Every baby develops a little differently — even in the womb. Our information is designed to give you a general idea of your baby's development.
How your life's changing:Braxton Hicks contractions may be coming more frequently now and may last longer and be more uncomfortable. You might also notice an increase in vaginal discharge. If you see some "bloody show" (mucus tinged with a tiny amount of blood) in the toilet or in your undies, labor is probably a few days away — or less. (If you have heavier spotting or bleeding, call your caregiver immediately.) Also be sure to ask your caregiver about the results of your Group B strep culture. That way, if the result isn't yet on your chart when you get to the hospital or birth center, you'll be able to give the staff there a timely heads-up if you need antibiotics.It may be harder than ever to get comfortable enough to sleep well at night. If you can, take it easy through the day — this may be your last chance to do so for quite a while. Keep monitoring your baby's movements, too, and let your caregiver know immediately if you notice a decrease. Though her quarters are getting cozy, she should still be as active as before.While you're sleeping, you're likely to have some intense dreams. Anxiety both about labor and about becoming a parent can fuel a lot of strange flights of unconscious fancy.