#4 14 weeks

I should be embarrassed by my photo but you know what?  This is real life.  I haven't showered in a couple days, my hair hasn't been washed in God knows when (5 or 6 days is my guess), the last time I shaved my legs I forgot to shave one of them and for the love of all that is holy my children woke up at SIX A.M. THIS MORNING.  I am not in the best of moods at the moment.

I know that we have missed week 12 & 13 but I was on a lovely vacation far, far away from all responsibility aside from the survival of my current 3 children.  We road tripped out to Washington State to see family and made some stops at Glacier National Park in Montana and also stopped in Rapid City for a day to see Mt. Rushmore.  We had a grand time and Squirt was very nice to mom.  I didn't have to pee too often and my nausea did rear its ugly head a few times but nothing horrible.  All in all a very big success!

Squirtypie had his/her first doctor appointment on Monday.  Susa didn't seem surprised to see me.  All he asked was why my hair looked different.  The man has seen my who-ha 8 million times but he notices my hair.  Which, by the way, nothing was different.  It was wet because I had enough time to shower quick before my appointment.  I'm sure he would have loved doing a cervical in my current cleanly condition.

Squirt's heartbeat was running at 153 beats per minute and I got to see baby on the big screen!  At first I didn't think I needed an ultrasound but changed my mind at the last minute.  I couldn't resist seeing my little pumpkin.  Everyone agreed with my dates so due date remains 12/25 but Squirt was measuring almost a week bigger.  I know that means nothing.  Probably all the snacks I had on the trip fattened him up.  Every single time I see my babies in an ultrasound I'm amazed at what Max and I create.  There really is a baby in there.  That hit me very hard while at the appointment.  Obviously I knew I was pregnant but I'm busy.  I'm running around after 3 kids so I don't have much time to think about it.  I am growing a human baby part Max part me in there.  Another addition to our clan.  I can't believe it.

I got all the normal tests done, I'm doing another water birth so got that extra HepC test done and lucky me it was time for a pap smear as well.  Thank goodness I didn't have the kids with me.  My Gma and my aunt watched them for me.  I can just imagine the questions Dexter would come up with if he was in the room while I was having a cervical done.  "Why is the doctor looking between your legs? "  "Why don't you have underwear on?"  "Can I see that metal thing?  "Does Daddy know what's going on?"  Oh gosh.  Seriously.

I'm anxiously anticipating feeling the baby hopefully this week!  I felt Simon & Ada at 14 weeks so I hope the same follows for Squirt.  I guess I will let you know next week.

Off to shower and hopefully my foul mood goes down the drain with all the dirt and grime and momness that has accumulated.

#4- 11 weeks

This is dejavu times four.

How am I doing this already again?  FOUR KIDS.  I can't even.

Let's stick to the facts.  Fact is this baby is a slight surprise for us.  While we did plan on having a 4th baby, we did not plan on one right now.  This baby is magic.  That's a lie.  We know what happens to make babies.  And here this baby is.

My sweet little squirt is due on Christmas Day.  We haven't gone to the doctor yet because, again, let's be honest.  This is a 4th baby.  I have had 3 very healthy pregnancies before this and there is just no need to rush to the doctor.  I'm well aware I'm pregnant and don't need a pregnancy confirmation.  I'm well aware of the exact date of conception so I know our due date.  I have made the doctor appointment for when we are about 14 or 15 weeks.  I don't remember.

This exhaustion is kicking my A**.  Seriously, this is the hardest so far to deal with.  I have no morning sickness, mild nausea and an aversion to all food that is healthy for me (much to Max's dismay) but man alive I am tired ALL THE TIME.  I have to get a nap in every day and I am normally not a napper.  I can easily go to bed at 8:00 pm and waking up at 7:00 am is very difficult.  Sleep is all I want.  Sleep and homemade mac & cheese with velveeta.  And all processed foods.  I'm looking forward to *hopefully* this exhaustion leaving around 14 weeks like it did with the other three.

My stomach pooched out almost immediately.  How do I know this?  About the week we found out we were for sure pregnant (about 4 weeks) Dexter was watching me after dinner and said, "Oh wow Mom!  It looks like there is a baby in your tummy!"  He said that many times before we finally told the kids at 10 weeks.  I feel larger than the previous pregnancies but my uterus is all stretchy and pissed about being in constant use.

I'm still mildly breastfeeding Ada.  She is very attached to nursing and while I have no interest in tandem nursing both Ada and Squirtypie, I don't have the heart to wean her off yet.  I have her down to just before and after nap and before and after bed.  This is all happening on my left side as my right side is as dry as the desert in summer.  My poor working boob hurts like the dickens though.  Ada does a number on it trying to get more milk than what is available.

Do you know what happened yesterday?  This should be embarrassing but I'm pregnant so I'm not embarrassed about anything.  Max was staring at me and pointed out an irregular hair on my chinny chin chin.  I say irregular hair because I refuse to use THAT WORD.  You know... whisker.  It was not THAT WORD.  While I will admit it was not a normal peach fuzz it didn't have the girth or strength of THAT WORD.  I tried to get it but couldn't without a mirror so I *gasp* let Max get it.  That there will get you pregnant.  Watch out.  Nothing attracts a man more than pulling out irregular hairs.

Until next time.  Meaning next week.  Not my next pregnancy which I'm sure will happen two minutes after I have Squirt because Max and I are the KING AND QUEEN OF ALL FERTILITY!

DIY carpet cleaner for poopy situations... literally.

I'm writing this blog for any other mommas out there who might find themselves in the same situation I found myself in at 615 a.m. this morning.

You are never on top of your game at 615 in the morning.  I don't care who you are.  I don't care if you are a morning person or if you had 18 hours of sleep previous to waking up at 615 in the morning.  You aren't fooling anyone.

If you are anything like me, you went to bed *early* for the first time all week and for some magical reason, the universe decided to let you sleep for 6 or 7 hours straight.  But then, the universe strikes back.  You find yourself being woke up from a 1/2 sleep nursing daze by your 22 month old holding his hand out. 

In this 1/2 sleep nursing daze you are in, you don't notice anything in his hand.  You pat his head and tell him to get off the bed.  You lazily roll yourself out of bed bringing the baby with you.  You tell your generous husband who is offering to get up with the kids to go back to sleep since you have been half awake since 530 when your 3 year old came into your room trying to sneak into your bed.

Oh how you will regret turning down his offer.

You will then notice your 3 year old sitting on the stairs.  The carpeted stairs.  You will then notice your 22 month old pointing at something on the stairs.

Then it happens.  You smell something.  Crap.  I mean this literally and figuratively. 

THERE IS POOP ON YOUR STAIRS.  And not just one stair.  And not just a turd.  I'm talking squishy, nasty mushy poop on multiple stairs.

Honestly.  You control your instant reaction (which is, of course, yelling WHAT THE HELL!!!!!) and then carry your poop smearing child to the bathroom so the squishy, smelly glob of doom doesn't spread even more past the top of the pajama bottoms.  You toss said child into the shower while continuing to yell "WHAT THE HELL!!!!!!" in your head but verbally just telling your child you disapprove of this wake up call.

Then you realize... how the devil do you get this poop off the stairs?  You don't have a carpet cleaner (something you are finding that with 3 young kids you should really invest in) and you have no idea how to get this s**t off the carpet.

Here it is.  Tried and true. 

DIY Carpet Cleaner
1/2 qt hot water
1 TB white vinegar
1 TB dish soap
generous dash of peroxide
5-6 drops of Tea Tree Oil

Get as much of the squishy, smelly glob of doom of your carpet as you can with toilet paper or paper towel or if you are a crunchy, natural sort use a prefold.  Whip up this simple little recipe and use whatever you have to scrub to get the rest out.  I used an old toothbrush.

That s**t is off the stairs and now that you have had some coffee, you are feeling a little better. 

Ada's birth story

On Monday the 10th, I had my 39 week apt.  I was measuring 39 weeks, baby's heartbeat was at 162 and I was still 4 cm dilated.  Let's just say my doc was getting really antsy about inducing.  I mean REALLY antsy.  He knew that I wanted to go into labor naturally so I could have my element of surprise so he didn't push me.  He stripped my membranes and we started discussing options for inducing.  I decided to wait a couple days to see if stripping my membranes would do anything.  He said he was available any day I wanted to induce and would even call us early in the morning one day and tell us "Today is the day! Come on in!" so that I could have my surprise birth day and still be induced.  Ha, that is how much he wanted to induce.


Tuesday morning I was making breakfast for the boys and a gush came.  My water broke naturally with Dexter so I know how much amniotic fluid comes when your water breaks and this wasn't enough.  It wasn't a tiny amount since Dex said I peed my pants but not enough.  This was when I noticed I started losing my mucus plug.  I called Max and updated him but nothing happened the rest of the day.  I chalked it up as peeing my pants.


Wednesday morning I woke up super early and lay awake until Max got up for work.  I got up with him and figured I would take a nice long shower without kids hollering at the door.  While in the shower I felt another gush and the rest of my mucus plug was out.  Again, I told Max to treat it as peeing my pants.  I sent him off to work and went about my morning.


I got to thinking about what IF my water had started breaking and it had been past 24 hours.  I called Max and asked what he thought about calling Labor and Delivery.  We knew that if I called, they would just tell us to come in so they could check us and if my doc knew that we were in the hospital being checked, he would just keep us there.  I ended up calling and of course, they said they wanted us to come in so they could check.  After more discussion with Max, we decided we were ok with going into the hospital knowing that we would end up staying there and being induced if my water hadn't broken.


Max left work to come get me and I made arrangements for the boys.  I also got some stuff done around the house so the place was decent for my mom while she stayed here with the boys.  We dropped the boys off at Max's sister's and we were off.


We checked into the hospital and was shown to our room.  Remember, I wanted a water birth so that was the room we got.  The nurse told us that when she talked to our doc he said "She's staying!  Ruptured membranes or not she's staying!"  Ha, we knew he would say that.  When they checked me it turns out I did indeed pee my pants and my water was in tact.  So we started the inducing process.  They checked me and I was 5 cm at this point.


For me, this means getting hooked up to the penicillin for four hours before anything happens.  I am a particularly bad stick, which I told them, but no one ever believes me.  One hour, three nurses and multiple bruises later I finally had my IV in and we started the penicillin.  This was roughly around noon.  At this point, we just hang out.  Watched some TV, Max ran some errands and putzed on the internet.


I noticed at this point that contractions were coming more regularly than they had before.  Nothing serious but enough that I think if we hadn't been in the hospital already, baby would have probably come either that night or the next day.  The nurses commented a couple times as well how my contractions were starting to pick up speed.  Nothing that would count as labor though.


At 3pm the doc came in and broke my water.  It was easy and took about 2 minutes.  He said he would be back around 5pm to check on me and see how things were going.  It took about 15 minutes before I started really feeling the contractions.  They got strong very quickly.  The nurse was in and out getting stuff ready and she wanted to go over that information packet they have.  She was getting nervous though that things were going too quickly so the packet was forgotten.


The contractions were painful of course, but nothing horrible.  I kept pacing the whole time not stopping during contractions.  Once it got to be too much to move, I just stayed by the counter in front of the TV and just gripped the counter.  I felt like it was 1000 degrees in there so I didn't want anyone touching me so Max got out of having to have his hand squished.  I asked at what point women normally go into the tub and the nurse told me generally around 8 cm.  I thought I was a long way off from this so I wanted to wait even though she and Max kept asking if I wanted to go in the tub yet.  I thought I would have lots of time for the tub.  Mind you, this was about 45 minutes after my water broke.


At 4pm they wanted to start my second dose of penicillin so they checked me before hooking me up to that dog gone IV machine.  I was 8 cm.  We started the tub and I got hooked up to the penicillin.  Once the tub was filled enough for me to get in I got out of my skivvies and was about to get in the tub when I had what felt like a 10 minute contraction.  Oh man they were painful at this point but I hadn't had any reservations about going natural at this point.  Finally, I was able to move enough to get myself hoisted into the tub. 


By the time I got in the tub it was like 430pm.  I had about 30 seconds before more contractions and it felt really relaxing for those 30 seconds.  This was the only time, the ONLY time I thought, "I can't do this!"  Once the contractions started I needed to push.  I mean seriously needed to push.  I told them this but the nurses said I needed to try to hold off a little bit since they just checked me and I was 8 cm.  They didn't want me to tear if I still had some cervix left.  Let me tell you, there is no way on God's green earth that I wasn't about to push.  I think for 2 or 3 contractions I tried not to but after that I didn't care anymore.  I pushed. 


Things get a bit fuzzy at this point but I remember them alerting my doc to get down there as I was hollering that I was pushing.  It was during this particular moment I felt the baby.  I was on my knees in the tub leaning against the side of the tub and once I yelled, "baby!  baby!" the nurses finally took me seriously and started running around.  One nurse asked me to try and turn on my back and I yelled at her "NOPE!  NOPE!  NOT HAPPENING!".  Another nurse was yelling into the intercom, "GET THE DOC IN HERE!" as another nurse reached down and was honestly holding the baby in.  She said it was because they didn't want me to tear with the baby coming out so fast but Max and I are pretty sure it was because they wanted to see if the doc could get there.  Let me tell you, holding a baby in your birth canal for any length of time is not comfortable.  It's funny how the pain is gone, just gone when you are pushing and back when you aren't.


Either way, the nurse was holding the baby in and everyone was screaming for the doc when finally he arrived.  The nurse had just said that the next push the baby would have to be delivered so either way, baby would be out.  Max says that while the doc was getting his gloves on the nurse moved her hand and 2/3 of baby's head popped out.  Doc reached down in the water and one push later baby was out.  It was 4:44pm.


I can't even tell you the relief I felt when baby was finally out.  I have never experienced anything like it.  I was still on my knees facing the tub wall and the baby came out behind me.  I didn't see the baby come out or feel it.  I heard the doc lift the baby out of the water and said, "Here Max, tell us what the baby is!"  Max wanted to be the one to announce it but hadn't had time to tell the doctor so what a nice surprise that he let Max tell me.  I heard Max say, "It's a girl!"


She was finally here.  Our beautiful little girl. I had to maneuver myself to my back and do some leg lifting to avoid the umbilical cord  but finally she was in my arms. 


It's amazing the difference the water birth made for her.  She didn't cry at all!  She was very alert and was looking around.  We sat in the water for a little while and still she didn't cry.  It wasn't for another half hour that we would finally hear her cry.


One hour and 44 minutes.  That is how long my labor took. 


If we would have waited until my water broke naturally I doubt we would barely have made it to the hospital.  My doctor said, not even 5 minutes after she was born, "and this, Jessie, is why we are inducing you at 39 weeks for the next one."  I suppose he is right!


A girl. She terrifies me with the thought of future hormones but my, oh my, how I love her.  I love to stare at her and smell that wonderful newborn smell.  I miss her when she's actually down in the swing and love to use my wrap to carry her with me all day.  Her brothers love her so much.  They shower her with hugs and kisses.  I am one lucky lady.

39 weeks

This week has been a very stressful week.  I think God made a very good plan in keeping this baby inside of me until we got some house issues taken care of.

Our electric started going haywire to the point where barely anything worked.  It took two days to get it figured out and a visit from the electric company.  (Who at this very minute are updating the transformer outside our house.)  Then, we started having a problem with our sewage and nothing was draining into the septic tank.  We haven't been able to laundry for a little while again and it go to where we couldn't shower or flush the toilet.  My dad came and saved the day and got that up and running so now we have the ability to use water and we have electric.  Thank goodness our house is heated by propane so we didn't have to worry about getting cold.

My husband was a saint through all this... dealt with everything calmly while trying to keep me from freaking out as well.  He made many trips into the cold and running around the house without complaining.  I married a good man.

All this may seem like it has nothing to do with my pregnancy but it does.  If baby would have come out I would be writing a very different story.

My 38 week appointment went well.  Baby's heartbeat was at 153 and measured 39 weeks.  My cervical check showed that I am still 4 cm dilated and am still roughly 70-80% effaced.  I have been having tons of contractions, constant Braxtons and those sharp little twinges in my cervix.  All show that baby is getting ready.  I know I have dropped as well because I can't see my belly button anymore and I haven't had heartburn all week. 

Other then that, we are just waiting.  I'm not good at this waiting game... I want to meet my baby!

38 weeks

Another week closer to baby arriving!

I don't have much to report.  Since everything is ready, we are just in a waiting stage.  Our 37 week appointment went well.  Baby's heartbeat was at 140 bpm and I measured 36 weeks.  My cervical check showed I was 4 cm dilated and still about 70% effaced.  This was good news!  Progress but not tons of progress like my 37 week appointment with Simon. 

We asked a lot of questions about the treatment options for GBS and were able to make a plan that allowed us to go into labor naturally but still have Momma and baby covered in the antibiotic department.  This made us much more relieved about the whole thing.  How exciting to be able to go naturally like we did with Dexter!  Knowing that every hour could be when something starts.  My water broke with Dexter and then I started contracting but it could be the opposite this time.  I'm so excited!

The heartburn has been horrible this week.  Horrible, horrible, horrible.  I wake up every night with it and can't fall asleep for quite some time.  I  can't wait for the heartburn to be over with.  I only get it when I'm pregnant so knowing I am 2ish weeks away from not feeling this for a long time is getting me excited.

Other than that I am just trying to stay in the moment and relish every last bit of my pregnancy with my little Cookie.  Every movement is precious and every hiccup is adorable.  Even the kicks and jabs that hurt I'm taking in stride knowing that soon I won't feel them anymore.  As much as I want this baby to come out and meet us, I also want to enjoy these last little bits of time with Dexter and Simon.  I know Dex will adjust fine to the baby but I'm a bit worried about Simon.  So any additional time to lavish them with my love and attention is good.

Did I mention that I am STILL stretch mark free!  How amazing!  They didn't even come back in the spots where I got them with Dex and Simon.  I still haven't had very much swelling either.  This has been quite remarkable as I was horribly stretch mark-y with both boys and horribly swollen.  I guess another indicator that this could be a little lady?  Who knows! 

This weekend we are going to start doing some natural ways to get labor going.  I am trying to talk Max into a trip to the MOA so we can do a lot of walking and perhaps get the boys a present from the baby.  I don't do spicy food but we will see what other things I can find on the internet to get labor going.  I see that a lot of people have guessed the 2nd for when the baby will arrive.  Time will tell!  I hope so!  2-2-14 sounds like a great birthday to me and fits in with my love of even numbers :) 

Time to Guess

I think it's fun to guess stuff about the baby :)  I might be the only one but oh well.

I think Cookie is a girl.
I think she will either come Jan 30 or Feb 11.
I think she will be 7 lbs 9 oz and 19 in long.

If you are the type to base your guess off stats or previous children, I have included some things midwives tales are based off of for all kiddos.

Cookie:

-Heartbeat has averaged around 150 bpm with the highest being 176 at 10 weeks pregnant and the lowest being 136 at my 32 week appointment.
-I have carried Cookie neither high nor low but right in the middle.
-Cookie has always measured right on track for his/her due date.
- 36 week appointment was almost 3cm dilated and 70% effaced.


Dexter:

-I carried him low.
-He measured on time.
-His heartbeat averaged in the 150's.
-36 week apt was 2 cm dilated 50% effaced.  37 week apt was 3 cm dilated 75% effaced.  38 week apt I measured about the same.
-My water broke naturally at 38 weeks 2 days. 
-My labor took 7 hours.
-He was 7 lbs 2 oz and 18 in long.

Simon:

-I carried him high.
-He always measured large.
-His heartbeat was always higher... in the 160's to 170's until the very end.
-36 week apt was 2 cm dilated 50% effaced.  37 week apt was almost 6 cm 100% effaced.  Was same at 38 week apt and again when I was checked a few days later.
-I was checked into the hospital the day I turned 39 weeks and they broke my water.  No Pitocin needed.
-My labor was exactly 4 hours long.
He was 8 lbs 2 oz and 21 in long.