Nope... No Baby Yet

The castor oil did it's job, but didn't help my body to go into labor. I'm very disappointed about it, but we're trying some other stuff today. We went for a LONG walk this morning, I'm pumping now 10 minutes out of every hour for a few hours, and later we'll be meeting up with my midwife so that she can mess around with my cervix. That's the plan, and I'll probably hold off for now with posting anything else until the baby actually arrives. Tah-tah for now!

Castor Oil... Yuck!

Earlier in the day yesterday, Sarah (my midwife) had given me a call, and explained that if Sydney had had shoulder dystocia, we might need to consider giving birth to this baby (since he/she is measuring rather large) in the hospital. However, we would meet and discuss all of our options and all of the risks involved later that afternoon. So we met yesterday at 4pm at the clinic. Sarah was at that point able to go over Sydney's birth chart. I've also watched Sydney's birth video time and time again over these past couple of years and more so these past few months, and this was helpful in remembering exactly what happened at her birth. She asked me what I remembered happening, and I told her that according to Sydney's birth video... I was pushing on my side (but kind of on my back too), and Sydney's head came out, but for a few minutes she was stuck there. Sarah asked me how many minutes, and I said "maybe 3 or 4"? I couldn't remember exactly how much time. I told her that after that in the birth video, she tells her team to help get me on my hands and knees, and as soon as I got in that position, Sydney slid right out. Sarah's whole countenance changed with this news. She said, "Oh well THAT'S not shoulder dystocia. If she came out right away after changing your position, then that just means that you weren't in a good position to begin with for pushing a baby out." She then looked over Sydney's chart, and was able to confirm what I'd told her. So this was great news, because it meant that I could still safely deliver this baby at home! She also decided to (after much discussion) go with a due date for this baby of August 15th. (This means that I'm now 13 days overdue, and we need to get this baby born!)

So this morning we did the plan (the one that she'd come up with yesterday after realizing I could have a home birth). David massaged castor oil onto my belly, and then I drank 2oz of castor oil at 10:30am. I'd planned on taking it at around 8am, but it just took that long to get myself to down it. I sure hope it does it's thing, and kick-starts my uterus into action! It worked with Sydney, and my labor started about 17.5 hours after taking the nasty stuff. So... maybe we'll get to meet our baby by tomorrow! But I've got my work cut out for me first...

41 Weeks?!?!

I had an ultrasound back at the beginning of July (only a little over a month ago), and according to that ultrasound my due date would have been August 15th. However, they said that an ultrasound at the beginning of my pregnancy would have been more accurate, and that this one could be as much as 2 weeks off in either direction. Apparently, the only way to truly determine the due date would be to get an ultrasound done again toward the end of my pregnancy. So we decided to leave my due date at August 31st for the time being.

Well, at yesterday's prenatal appointment, things weren't adding up for my midwifery team. They looked at my first due date (September 7th according to my last period), then looked at my due date according to how I was first measuring externally (August 31st), and then the due date given at the July ultrasound (August 15th). Now, let me explain the situation with my midwives. I have my main midwife (Sarah), who delivered Charlie and Sydney plus literally thousands of more babies. She has an apprentice working under her (Laura) who I first met and who helped assist Sarah at Sydney's birth. Also, there's Heather, who was also there assisting Sarah at Sydney's birth (Sarah actually trained Heather years and years ago, and Heather is now a licensed midwife herself). I love my team! Well, all along, Laura has been measuring me... until yesterday. Sarah decided to measure me, herself, yesterday, and I apparently was measuring bigger than Laura was thinking. This is where they all began to collaborate after I'd left my appointment.

Last night I got a call saying that my midwife would like me to go in and get another ultrasound (a "biophysical profile"), just to be on the safe side. Because IF we were wrong about my due date being on August 31st, and the earlier due date (August 15th) was correct, that would put me at 10 days over due.

This morning I made an appointment with EPIC Imaging, and went into my appointment at 2:30pm. Well, we found out a few things at the ultrasound. ONE: Our baby is doing great, and is perfectly healthy! TWO: My due date is August 19th and I'm only one week overdue! And THREE: (Here's the shocking one...) The baby is measuring at 10lbs. 9oz.!!! Now, they said that this measurement could be up to a pound on the heavy side, but that would put the baby's weight at 9lbs. 9oz. at the lightest today!! Needless to say, my midwifery team will be meeting tonight to discuss how to best help me go into labor and soon! I'm excited, though! We'll get to hold this baby in our arms soon!! Yay!!

39-Week (and 1 Day) Prenatal Appointment

Well, I went to my prenatal appointment today. I'm 39 weeks and 1 day along in my pregnancy. Nothing has changed since last week's appointment. I'm still 80% effaced, 3cm dilated, and the baby is super low (at "0"). So... it's just a waiting game now. Ugh. I thought I'd have dilated at least one more centimeter since last week, due to all of the crampy contractions I was having on Sunday and into Monday morning. My midwife told me, however, that it's more common to have crampy contractions when you have had multiple children already, and have taken care of them all day. So that could have caused it. Yes, I'm disappointed, but I also realize that I'm only 39 weeks along (not even at my due date yet). And I despite how I emotionally "feel", I know and believe that God can see the bigger picture and that I can't. He sees how the baby is growing, He sees people's schedules, and He will orchestrate everything to work out exactly how He knows is best. I truly believe this, and it's a comfort to my impatient heart.

39-Week Baby Update

Let's start with LAST week. My 38-week day was on Tuesday, and Wednesday was my prenatal appointment. At my appointment, they checked to see what my status was. I was 3cm dilated, 80% effaced, and the baby was at "0" (very low... and I wasn't surprised). I was, however, surprised to find out that I was already 80% effaced, since I've never been that "thinned out" that early. I went home very happy to know that my body was getting prepared.

Well, on Sunday afternoon, at 3pm-ish, I started having slightly crampy contractions. They continued at an irregular pace all afternoon. After dinner, I decided to try taking a shower (at around 7:30-ish) to see if that would either speed things up or make the contractions stop altogether. After getting out of the shower, I sat down to try and relax, and then all of sudden the crampy contractions started coming every 3 to 5 minutes apart. After about an hour of timing the contractions, I called to let my midwives to let them know what was happening. They encouraged me to try and go to sleep, so that if it ended up turning into active labor, I'd have rested a bit. So I did. All night long, nothing got more intense or lightened up... until 5am-ish. Everything started to subside at that point. In the morning (Monday morning), I woke up so disappointed to not have our baby in my arms. I tried really hard to think of the "up" side of the situation, but I couldn't think of much. I had gotten very little sleep the night before. My mom and dad came over that morning, and my mom told me that she'd be back later that day to take the kids and I somewhere (later we'd figure out where). My midwife called after my parents left, and was really encouraging. She said that sometimes our bodies are like and engine... sometimes they try to rev up, rev up, rev up, and then it ends up starting up good at one point. We just didn't know when that one "rev up" would be the one that took off!

My mom, the kids and I ended up going to Dairy Queen for some ice cream, and then to the park. It was a great distractions, and Talia and her boys ended up meeting us at the park. Talia kindly took Charlie with her back to the house after all the kids were done playing at the park. My mom and I met them there a little while after that. Here are some pictures of the park.

Today is Tuesday, and I took a walk to New Season's market with my kids, which is about 1.25 miles away. My mom drove her car there, and then walked part way to meet us, and then walked the rest of the way back to New Season's with us. This way, I'd only have to walk one directions. I'm pretty sore, and I'm hoping that at my appointment tomorrow I'll find out some good news about how my body is progressing. We'll see...

Little "Dora the Explorer" Fans

Fun Little Ride

About a week or so ago, I took the kids with me to purchase some necessities for the baby. We went to Baby's 'R' Us, and they spied this funky little car. I told them that I'd let them ride it, if they had good attitudes and obeyed mommy the whole time we were in the store. They quickly agreed, and amazingly enough they kept their end of the bargain... so they got to ride the car on our way out to the car. Who knew that 50 cents could purchase so much fun?

Charlie's Performance at Church

Two weeks ago, we made it to church after not having been there for about a month and a half. Well, that Sunday was Charlie's Sunday school class' performance of a song they all (not Charlie, though) had been practicing each week for about a month or so. Charlie had no idea what the words were, had no idea what the tune was, but went along with the show anyway. I felt so badly for him, but it didn't seem to phase him one bit. Because he acted very proud of himself afterward, as though he was the lead in a play or something! So... here's the performance! (Oh yeah... he's the one on the far right.)

Baby Update - 36 Weeks

A few nights ago, David and I were laying there in bed. My mind was drifting from thought to thought, and apparently his was too. He broke the silence, "I wonder what this baby is going to look like." That started a whole string of "wondering" type thoughts about the baby. "I wonder what it's going to be like with three little ones in our family." "I wonder when the baby is going to arrive." "I wonder whether the baby will be a boy or a girl." "I wonder how Charlie and Sydney will react to and behave around the baby." "I wonder..." "I wonder..." "I wonder..." This night of "wonders" all of a sudden made the reality of this baby's upcoming entrance into our lives soooooo real! And I've been getting more and more excited about meeting our little one!!

Now that I'm 36 weeks along, I'm in the legal zone for a home birth! Yay! Ever since tackling my "blacking-out" problem from about four to six weeks ago, I've been feeling great. Now that I'm taking an extra iron supplement and eating every 2 hours (which is quite the challenge, I must say), I'm not dizzy or blacking out anymore! So that's nice. I was pretty stressed out over the scare of being at random places, and having to hold on for dear life to something near me... or just get on all fours in the middle of the grocery store. It was stressful AND embarrassing, I must say, and I'm glad that's no longer happening!

This baby is sooooo active, though! Oh my gosh... sooooooo much kicking! Before Charlie's bed time tonight, he was giggling at how much the baby was kicking him. After feeling the baby move and kick for about 15 minutes straight, he said, " Mommy... I LOVE feeling the baby move... It's my favorite!" Then after he moved away from my tummy, we both saw the baby push out toward the side of my stomach that Charlie was sitting next to, and Charlie said, "The baby's saying, 'Wait! Where's did my hug go?'" And then he giggled again. It's so much fun being pregnant when I see these kinds of reactions from Charlie. Sydney, on the other hand, doesn't really understand what's going on. Although, at least she now knows the difference between "boo boos" and "baby" bumps! But now I believe she thinks that everyone's tummies are also called "babies". It cracks me up! The other day she said pointing at her own parts, "Mommy, boo boos up high. Baby down low." Yep. She's got the picture (lol)

Well, we'll see WHEN this baby decides to comes. I'm predicting sometime in September, but I really would LOVE to be wrong and get to meet him/her in August. I'm sure this baby will come when the time is right, though. And we'll all welcome him/her with lots of loving arms!

These pics were actually taken today... please ignore the stretch marks (lol)