40 weeks and still no baby...

Well, my due date has come and gone...again. Why oh why do I even bother having a due date? My kids never come early or on time. Oh well, what's a few more days, right?!

Since yesterday morning (7/15) I've been having contractions every 10 minutes on the dot. It's been over 36 hours and I'm still having them every 10 minutes--all day, all night. Hoping it means she's coming VERY soon. I'm tired. I didn't sleep last night at all because the contractions were strong enough to wake me and keep me awake...it's been a long day!

Yesterday I went grocery shopping "one more time" hoping it would help my contractions pick up and since I haven't driven in a while I noticed I had to scoot my driver's seat back so much so that I could now barely touch the pedals because my stomach kept hitting the steering wheel when I tried to turn. Ahhh...I'm big and so ready to be done and trying so hard not to complain, but not doing a very good job at that.

40 week picture. Right before bed. ahhh....I look tired and very chubby (probably because I am both). I have put on 32 lbs but really starting to feel the weight catch up with me. Oh well, I'll lose it eventually!



Come on baby, we want to meet you!!

Induction

It's almost 1am and guess what? I can't sleep...big surprise, guess I might as well blog! Inducing is something I never thought I'd opt in to have done, however, after meeting with my doctor today I felt it was fairly necessary for a couple of reasons. My main reason being out of pure convenience. I hate to say that, but it's the truth. My mom is sleeping on the couch in the next room as we speak. I have her down here to watch the kids when I'm in the hospital and I don't have to worry about inconveniencing anyone else to watch them in case I go into labor and she's not here. Secondly, over a week ago baby was measuring 8 lbs. 7 oz on the ultrasound...big enough for me. Thirdly, my doctor is going to be out of town AGAIN from Wednesday until Sunday. So this morning we scheduled me to be induced tonight (7/12) so everything would work out the way I planned.

I was to get a phone call this evening from the hospital letting me know whether they still had enough room for me or not, go in at midnight and start the process. 9:30 rolled around and I got excited when I saw it was a WV number. I knew it was the hospital. I talked to Mandy, the nurse, who told me that I there was good news and bad news. Good news being that I was more than welcome to come in tonight to be induced. Doc was there and they had enough staff. The bad news, however, was that there were 5 other scheduled inductions tonight and 5 scheduled c-sections for tomorrow so if I wanted to be induced I'd almost be guaranteed to have to share a recovery room my entire stay. SHARE A ROOM?? Are you kidding me? They had 4 open rooms for 11 people! This was seriously my biggest concern about the hospital down here and what I had been worried about when I found out that was even a possibility. If I share a room Ty wouldn't be able to stay with me, he'd have to leave at 9pm each night and couldn't come before 9am. I'd have to share a bathroom (!!!) with some other woman who just had a baby (GROSS!!) and I'd have to listen to someone else's screaming baby in the same room as me. NO THANKS! So my dilemma was, do I suck it up because it's convenient for me to have my baby tonight or do I stick it out and see if I go into labor on my own (even though I'm still not guaranteed a private room)? I decided there was just no way I could go there knowing that I wouldn't have a private room. So I told them to take me off the list for tonight. I am so disappointed I can't even stand it.

I am a planner. I make lists and cross things off. I am not spontaneous. I like to know exactly what's going to happen. So now my plans are so up in the air and it stresses me out!! My mom will still stay (but probably not as long) just in case I happen to go into labor the next 2 days. Then hopefully my sister-in-law, Britton, can come down over the weekend in case I go into labor then and my mom will hopefully come back on Sunday evening. I will have another appt. at the doctor's on Monday and if I haven't had her by then I will be induced that night. He is hoping I don't go that long (I'd be 4 days over due) but since he's out of town I cannot be induced any sooner because they won't let other doctor's induce patients that aren't theirs.

I, all along, have prayed that the baby would come when she's ready and that God would make her entrance into this world when HIS timing, not mine, was perfect. Even though I am so bummed and disappointed I am trying to look at it like tonight was not the perfect night. She's not ready or I'm not ready or God has something else in mind. All I want is for the baby to be happy and healthy and I know something as small as not wanting to share a room shouldn't be such a big deal to me, but it's hard enough being down here with no family and fewer friends I don't want to feel all alone, without my husband, in the hospital too! I really feel like I could topple over any minute or go crazy with as little of sleep as I'm getting, but I know there is a reason. I just hope and pray that whenever I do go into labor I get my own private room...is that really too much to ask?? I think not!

39 Weeks

At my doctor's appointment today I had another ultrasound and the baby is still measuring just over 8 lbs. She did much better this time as far as the bpp goes. She must have just been asleep the last ultrasound. After the u/s I had an appointment with Tara (the PA, who reminds me SO MUCH of my friend Kristin). She checked me and I was 2 cm dialated, which is great news because 5 days before I wasn't dialated at all. At least I know the contractions I'd been having all weekend were doing something. We also discussed induction and came to the conclusion that if I haven't had the baby by Tuesday (the 13th) I will be induced. I REALLY don't want to be, but my friend, Gretchen, who is planning on watching the kids if I go into labor (and my mom isn't here yet) is gone the day after my due date. Also, my mom is coming on Monday (the 12th) but has to leave on Thursday (the 15th) and wouldn't be able to come back until the next Monday so if I have the baby over that weekend I will have NO ONE to watch the kids...so instead of stressing about it and since it would only be 1 day before I'm due I agreed to be induced. Hoping that I can make it through this weekend without going into labor (my mom can't come until Monday) but hope I have her before I'm induced :). So baby, if you can hear me lets have you on Monday night :)...okay??!

We'll see...I'm so excited to meet this baby and I am praying that Riley and Lincoln have an easy adjustment to having another little one around! Riley seems super excited about her arrival, even today she was talking to the baby and asked her to "come out soon so we can play". Lincoln, I think, understands that there is a baby in my tummy, but I don't think he'll understand how his world is about to change until she's here. Still working on a name...Measured my belly and it's measuring 46 inches around! YIKES!

38 Weeks

This morning I had a regular weekly appointment, or so I thought. I got to the doc's at 10:15, had my appt with the PA (both of my docs are out of town). She listened to the baby's heart beat (140's) and checked me. I'm not dialated AT ALL which is a little discouraging, however, when I went into labor with the other two I wasn't dialated at all either so I'm not focusing on that. I then had my ultrasound to check baby's growth. She looked great except she wouldn't move at all for the "bpp test" that they do. So since the ultrasound tech couldn't get her to move (even after using this vibrating thing on my belly) they took me back and hooked me up to a 1 hour non-stress test to see if baby was moving enough and to monitor contractions. She passed the non-stress test with flying colors, but the PA still wanted the other doctor to take a look at it. Once he took a look at it he wanted me to have another ultrasound just to see if she would pass it this time and maybe the last one they just caught her sleeping. She did pass the second ultrasound but they still want me to really watch how often she's moving/not moving.

Baby is measuring just over 8 lbs (about 8 lbs. 1 oz) right now which is big, but not huge. If that were accurate and she were born today that would be about the 95th percentile. So chances are if I go until my due date she could be 9 lbs or so, but I really don't think she's going to be as big as they think...that's just my intuition though!

It was a VERY long morning, the appt. lasted over 3 hours and thankfully Ty had taken the kids to the play place (gross, I hate those things) at a nearby McDonald's. I don't really want them in the room when I'm being checked so I told Ty to just hang with them there becuase I might be a while. Thank goodness I wasn't there with them by myself, that would have been a disaster!

Here I am at 37 weeks:

Me at 38 weeks:

I've put on about 31 lbs which is not too bad in my opinion, considering I put on more than that with the other two. I had a dream last night that I had put on 17 lbs since last week, so gaining 2 this week was a relief. Although, I wouldn't have been surprised if I gained 17 lbs by the way and the amount I've been eating!! No joke she must be growing because I feel like I'm hungry all the time.

I'm still having a really hard time sleeping so I finally called my doctor Monday and got a prescription to help. I am now getting about 5 hours a night which is a lot more than what I was getting the past 2 weeks. I think I was lucky to get 2-3 hours a night for weeks and it was exhausting when having to function and take care of two other babies.

We still need to come up with a name for this baby...man, I hate picking out names!! Ty and I can never agree. I wish I had one of those husbands who just said "Hunny, why don't you just name the baby...". Never in a million years would Ty let me name our children without his input :). I suppose I should be grateful he cares and is so involved but picking out a name would be much easier for me if he didn't care!

Maternity Photo Shoot

This past weekend, I had a wonderful maternity shoot with Betsy Wright who who is a very talented photographer. It was HOT out (at least 90 degrees) but I had a wonderful time going around our little town with her and photographing my BIG belly and the beautiful scenery. I thought they turned out great (except that I really need a tan) and I'm looking forward to her shooting newborn/sibling pictures when the baby is born!

CLICK HERE to view her website and enter the password "baby", to view the album.

If you're in the Charleston area and need pictures taken, definitely get ahold of her!

36 weeks

36 week appt. was today. Things are still going well except that I'm exhausted because I cannot sleep (and Lincoln has woken up at 5am for the past 2 weeks). We had another ultrasound and it shows that I have about 25 cm of amniotic fluid and the doc said average at 36 weeks is between 7-10 cm. He's not too concerned because the baby looks fine, he just wants to see it level off and stop increasing (which it didn't since last week). Baby is measuring over 7 lbs. and I'm measuring about 40-40.5 weeks. The doc and his wife (my other doc--they are in a practice together) are going to be out of town July 1-5 so he said not to have her then. Knowing my luck I'll have her early and they'll both be out of town...but, lets hope not. Another u/s and appt. next week.

34 Weeks (Updated)

Update: This afternoon (34 weeks, 6 days) I had another doctor's appt and ultrasound, we are now going every week. It's great getting to see our baby so often. She's definitely going to look like Ty...she has those eyes, you can really see them in the 4D scan. She was a very active peanut and her HR was in the 160s. We're having all these ultrasounds because they are watching how big she's getting and watching my fluid levels. After the ultrasound we met with the doctor. I had my Group B Strep test and he checked my cervix. We should know the results next week and he said my cervix is closed.

He is a little concerned about my fluid level because it is "increased" as he called it. There could be a number of reasons for this, but he's fairly confident it's just because the baby is big and bigger babies produce more urine, hence the increased fluid. Speaking of the baby's size she is measuring at about 7 lbs already (and I'm measuring 40 weeks). He said average size babies at 34 weeks is about 5 lbs (my little sister, McKenna, was born at 34 weeks and weighed 4 lbs. 10 oz). I am fully aware ultrasounds can be way off so I'm not too concerned about her size and neither is the doc. Both of the other kids were big, so I definitely wasn't expecting to have a little baby :)! Although, I am pretty sure if she keeps gaining like she is he'll want to induce because she'll be at least 10 lbs (if the ultrasound is accurate).

In a completely different direction, I am feeling decent but am tired of not sleeping. Riley and Lincoln have been waking up by 5am the past 5 days and I haven't been falling asleep until at least 1am because I have the worst pregnancy insomnia. We're also not getting out of the house as often as we usually do because 1. it's HOT down here and 2. it's getting so much more difficult for me to take both kids out. As much I love being pregnant (I really do, even if I complain about it sometimes) I don't like these last few weeks because I am gigantic (even my doctor said I was :))!
We have another appt. next week and another ultrasound...we'll probably have an ultrasound every week until I deliver her. Thank goodness for good health insurance!!

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Finally found my camera so I could post these. Here's my 34 week picture and no judging on what I look like right after I wake up :)! I'll update this post after my u/s on Wednesday!

WHOA MAMA: 32 Weeks!

UPDATE: This morning I had my 32 week appt (I'm 32.5 weeks) and baby looks nice and healthy. Her HR was in the 150's and I'm measuring just over 36 weeks! We'll be having another ultrasound in 2 weeks because doc says that if she doesn't slow down she's on track to be 10 or more pounds and he really wants to keep an eye on how big she's getting! YIKES. I know they always say each baby gets bigger, but I truly didn't think this baby could be bigger than Lincoln (he was 9 lbs 6 oz), but it looks like if I go until my due date she could be! I'm glad their keeping a good eye on her (and I LOVE all of the ultrasounds) and will be surprised if they let me go past my due date or even to it...I guess we'll have to wait and see. You never know she could just be going through a growth spurt right now and will slow down anytime!

Oh man, are you ready for this? I think baby had a growth spurt the past couple of weeks. Here I am at 32 weeks and getting really uncomfortable:

Literally none of my maternity clothes (except for my dresses) fit anymore and it's kind of depressing since I still have 8 weeks to go. My belly literally hangs out of the bottom of every shirt! I need clothes that mom's of multiples wear, I think...even though I'm not having multiples! Oh and at 30 weeks I had my waist measured and it measured at 42 in :)!

Just for fun, here are comparison pictures of when I was 32 weeks pregnant with Riley, Lincoln and baby #3 (in that order): I wore the same shirt so you can tell if I'm bigger or not...I'll let you be the judge!

31 Weeks and an Ultrasound!

I had my 31 week appt. this morning and everything looks great. I gained 1 lb in 2.5 weeks. I met the other doctor (Dr. Aliff, my actual doctor's wife) in the practice today and LOVED her. She's young and has two kids the same age as Riley and Lincoln--she was also very understanding and sweet about me having to bring the kids to my appts, it's nice when the doc's don't act annoyed when they are there!

Baby's heart rate was in the 140s and when she measured me I was measuring at 35 weeks--pretty big, especially considering 2 weeks ago I was measuring right on (then, at 29 week) so she sent me over for an ultrasound just to make sure the baby wasn't too big and to make sure I didn't have too much fluid. The ultrasound went very well and we even got to see her in 4D--baby definitely has Ty's squinty eyes!! We had her look again, just in case, but this time are reassured 100% that our third little peanut is definitely a girl!

It's hard to tell in this picture but she was smiling!! It was so cute...

Everything checked out fine and they've determined that I'm measuring big because of two reasons. 1. Baby is big, but not huge. Average babies around 30 weeks are about 3 lbs. our baby was measuring at just over 4 lbs. and 2. I have a lot of fluid, but it's in the normal range, just high in the normal range. So these two things combined are making me measure bigger and further along. Not that I'm surprised because I am larger than most 31 weekers :)!

I love the chance to get a sneak peek at my baby so I welcomed the ultrasound! I also discussed with her that my hips which are killing me (actually it's only my left side). She said it could be either my sciatic nerve or my hip but either way she said she'd recommend massages/chiropractic services so our insurance will cover it. Oh I hope they do because I'd love to regularly have a massage and I'd LOVE for this pain to go away. It's getting to the point where by evening I have to limp up the stairs and can't roll over in bed because it's so painful! Good thing all this pain is worth it in the end. I cannot believe that in two months (or maybe less??) we'll be meeting #3. We really need to nail down a name for her but I think we're getting closer!

28 Weeks!!

I had my 28 week appt. this morning and there is not much new to report. I had my glucose testing which I wasn't thrilled about taking both kids to considering it's an hour wait then I had an appt. afterwards but my good friend, Stacey, watched Lincoln (THANKS STACEY!!) which was a HUGE help. Riley does fine at my appts, but Lincoln gets very antsy! Got my blood drawn and now my arm is bruised and it hurts to straighten it, oh well.

The baby looks great still which I am so thankful for. Her heart rate was in the 140s. She's such an active peanut, I'm not sure she ever sleeps...lets just hope she doesn't keep that up when she's here!!! I've put on 22 pounds so far. Not too bad, but I know with the heat still to come I'll be puffy and swollen in no time! We start going to the doc every two weeks now, I cannot believe how quickly time is passing me by!!

24 weeks

24 weeks baby! Feeling good still, nothing new to report yet. My next appt. is April 5th so I'll update this post afterwards...I just knew you all were dying to see my picture :)!

UPDATE: Baby looks great! Her heart rate was in the 158 range. This week I met Dr. Lao and I really liked him. I had to take both kids with me to the appointment by myself as Ty had a last minute meeting he couldn't get out of! It's the first appt. he's missed with any of our babies! Next month I will have my glucose testing and another appt. then after that we'll probably be going every 2 weeks! WOW. I cannot believe how fast this pregnancy is going. Baby is moving a TON. This pregnancy reminds me so much of when I was pregnant with Riley--VERY sick in the beginning and now an extremely active baby. Lincoln was much more mellow. It's just how their personalities are today too! I can't wait to see how this new baby fits in to our family--I'm sure once she's here I'll forget what it was like to have only two little ones!

My Hips Don't Lie

As a disclaimer, I really am not complaining in this post but maybe, just maybe, I am a little...

I wrote this on Facebook so most of you have already heard it, but I'm not kidding I feel like this pregnancy has seriously taken a toll on my body. Having 3 kids in 3.5 years is a lot and I'm feeling it this time around. My hips seriously hurt so bad that it hurts to lay down, hurts to walk, hurts to pick the kids up, hurts to sit, you get the picture...

Maybe it's because I'm bigger than most people are at 24 weeks, I don't know. All I know is that I absolutely love being pregnant, but these are the parts of pregnancy I could definitely do without! As you may recall when I delivered Lincoln my tailbone was fractured. It has always bothered me since, but I felt like it was tolerable but for some reason lately it KILLS especially when I sit too long or sleep on my back! I really wish I could go back to sleeping on my stomach, although I'm not sure that would be very comfortable at this point. Anyways, I will continue to enjoy this pregnancy and praise the Lord for a healthy baby girl and be thankful for no complications thus far, I'm just hoping these pains don't last.

Bring on more PINK!

We had our 20 week utrasound yesterday and finally found out that our third baby is a GIRL! We're so excited and I think Riley was even more excited, she can't wait to have a baby sister to "play dress up with" as she's said. The baby looks great and is measuring right at 20 weeks. I absolutely love having ultrasounds because it gives us a peak at our little one. We almost weren't able to see whether she was a she or he because she had her hands, this time, between her legs, but thankfully by the end she moved them. I told Ty we need to start thinking of names now because we're really bad at agreeing on baby names. Hopefully we can start soon and have something before she's born!

Ty is still not 100 percent convinced we're actually having a girl. I have to admit, the u/s tech was having difficulty getting a good shot because of the baby's hands being in the way, but I'm fairly confident she's a girl...guess we'll find out for sure in 4.5 months. Enjoy a few pictures of our newest!

Baby's face

Profile shot

1 foot and 5 perfect toes

It's a GIRL!!

Update: I had my doctor appointment and I was 20 weeks, 4 days. Baby looks great; her heart beat was at 162. My BP was 96/62 and I weighed 118 (started this pregnancy at 108). So far I've gained 10 lbs. I feel great right now and hope it continues! Baby is moving a ton, I can't tell when she moves the most because her movement is almost constant. However, I can always feel her when I lay on my back. She seems to always lay and kick on my right side.

16 weeks

Here I am at 16 weeks...feeling great now! This is by far my favorite time in pregnancy. I am finally over morning sickness, finally have some of my energy back, and I still don't feel too big where I have a hard time doing things! I am definitely in maternity clothes now (and have been for weeks) and have put on a total of 4-5 pounds (at least that's what the scale at the dr's office said).

I am having a really hard time sleeping--the insomnia is awful and it's funny to remember all (at least many) of my dreams! I sleep on the couch most nights because frankly that's where I sleep the best. No kids coming into my room, if Lincoln wakes up Ty gets up with him :), it's great...and I appreciate that my husband doesn't mind! I already feel like I only get a couple of hours of sleep without the kids waking me up too!

We are so thankful that God has given us another baby to love on, we know how lucky we are!!

Boy or Girl??

First and most important, the ultrasound showed a healthy baby!! God is so good and our prayers have been answered. We aren't concerned on what the sex of the baby is, but more that we have a healthy baby! He/she had a strong heartbeat of 152 bmp and today was the first day we got to hear it. It makes the pregnancy seem so much more real and I also think I've been feeling the baby move for almost a week now (starting at about 15 weeks) which is the greatest thing ever.

We did go into the ultrasound asking wheather we were having another boy or another girl and that's also the question we walked out of the room with. Even though it's a little early to have an ultrasound, it wouldn't have been too early to see the baby's gender...if he/she would have cooperated. This little one had his/her legs crossed and covering its' parts the entire time.

Once the technician checked everything out she went on to check the baby's gender. Once she looked she said "Oh, I think it's a boy" then she kept scanning and looking and about 2 minutes later she said "Uh oh...I actually think it's a girl"... She thinks that the baby's toes, that were in front of the private parts, were making the baby look like a boy, but she wasn't sure. So after trying to get the baby to move for about 40 minutes we gave up...however, she did say she was leaning towards the baby actually being a GIRL because she thinks she saw "the three lines", but she wasn't going to say one way or the other just in case.

I have an appointment on Monday and then will have another ultrasound in about 3 weeks or so (between 19-20 weeks) to check the "anatomy and parts" as the tech called it. Then, if the baby cooperates we should know then what we're having!

Meet our newest addition:

Ultrasound

Tuesday we have our first ultrasound at my new OB's office. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. We are planning on finding out what we're having; neither of us have a preference on what we're having this time around we're just praying for a healthy baby! I really hope though that I'm far enough along to see...I'll be 16 weeks on Thursday and my appt. is on Tuesday.

It could be an interesting appointment because we have to take both kids with us since we don't have anyone to watch them down here, so I'm hoping they (mainly, Lincoln) don't give us a hard time!! Riley is so excited for another baby and constantly talks to him/her and is kissing my belly 24/7. She keeps saying it's a girl and hoping it's a girl so if it's not I hope she's not too disappointed.

I think we're having a girl. Ty thinks we're having a boy. I was sure the other two times that I knew what we were having and I was right with both of the other kids (Ty was wrong both times!! We've always guessed the opposite of each other.). This time around I really am not sure what we're having...it's purely a guess, whereas before I had a huge intuition about what sex the kids were going to be.

Anyone else want to take a guess? I'll let you know on Tuesday (if they can tell that early on) if you're right :)!!

12 weeks

I am going to make it my mission to try and not "stiff" this baby by not recording the events of this pregnancy, so here we go again. I'll attempt to record all the fun aspects of pregnancy and also the parts I'm not a huge fan. A started this blog mainly to journal our lives so I wouldn't forget all the memories I'll hopefully be good at documenting this pregnancy too.

I am now 12.5 weeks along and, thank goodness, am starting to feel better. I found out I was preggo at the end of October and the day I found out the morning sickness began and didn't quit until a couple of days ago (although, I still I don't feel "normal" yet). I threw up at least twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, for about 8 weeks straight. I suppose the most difficult part was moving and unpacking and organizing while sick as a dog. Thankfully Ty, who is the hardest working man out there, was so understanding and while I lay sick on the couch he was busy unpacking our things. I literally did maybe 10% of the work while he did the rest!

Here's my belly picture at 12 weeks! Oh my goodness I am huge already, although I know how I get so I don't have much of a chance to stay too small...but seriously, most people woudln't even be showing yet! Crazy!


**not easy to take a self-portrait!

THREE

I realize most of you already know this, but for those of you who don't I wanted to fill you in...

THREE signifies the number of babies that will be running our household come this July. Yup! We are having another sweet babe, due around July 18th. I cannot believe we're going to have 3 kids, 3 and under!!

I hope this gives you some insight into why I am SO far behind in my blog, but now that I'm starting to feel better I will hopefully start updating once I get back home to WV (the kids and I are back in MI for a week and a half). I am almost 13 weeks along and thank goodness starting to feel a little better and starting to get some energy back.

We hope you had a great Christmas and New Years!