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!

Random pictures!

Before this blog becomes post after post of new baby pictures, me complaining about how tired I am, baby stories, etc. I wanted to post just some recent, random pictures of my two little peanuts:

He looks so much like a little boy now and has lost a lot of his "baby-ness"! :(

Riley at her first movie: Toy Story 3

Helping Daddy on the computer.

She sure is growing up and I don't like it one bit!

Caught her tower mid-fall!

Watching a new movie (Riley never wears pants...ever!)

Look who's having a...lion??? Riley is one imaginative little girl. She loves to pretend like she's having a baby and puts baby dolls under her shirt all the time, so she can be "just like Mommy". We thought it was cute when we went to check on her tonight and found her like this:

"The 4th"

We had a very low key 4th of July, which is unusual for us. My sister, Lily's, birthday is on the 4th so we always went to Gull Lake to celebrate both the holiday and her birthday and have lots of fun on the lake. Since we are so far away this year we went to a local 4th of July parade and was planning on going to the park that was having a bunch of activities and fireworks afterwards. However, on the way home from dinner Riley fell asleep in the car (at 6:00) we put her in bed because she hadn't gotten a nap and Ty said if she woke up he'd take her to the fireworks. However, she slept until 7 the next morning so we didn't even get fireworks this year. Lincoln would never had made it until 10 or 10:30pm so we just skipped them all together. Maybe next year. Riley does not like loud noises anyways, so I don't think she would have been thrilled anways...

Ri and Ty went to the "store" to get something to drink because they were thirsty.

Thank goodness the kids are easily amused because, to be honest, this parade was pretty lame :). They were just happy have gotten candy thrown at them.

Don't go...

This is what we go through every morning before Ty leaves for work...the kids never want him to leave so they hang on his legs so he can't!!

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!