Saturday, October 30, 2010
Happy Due Date!
Today is my due date!! I can't imagine still being pregnant!!!! Natalie will be 3 weeks old tomorrow - where in the world has the time gone??
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Birth Story - Part II
Around 2:30 am I woke up to go to the bathroom - which was a nightly occurrence by this late in the pregnancy! I shuffled to the bathroom without even fully waking up, which, on a normal night, made it easier for me to go back to sleep. However, tonight it caused me to almost miss the fact that it appeared my water had broken! Although my gut feeling told me that's what it was, I really wasn't sure (no, it wasn't the typical gush you hear about in the movies!) so I laid back down in bed, not really sure what to do. About 15 minutes later some relatively painful contractions started up. I decided after about 20 minutes that they were coming frequently enough that I should time them, especially if my water had broken. 45 minutes later, I was waking Chris up to let him know I needed to call the doctor - they were coming regularly and were getting more painful. Now it was around 4 am.
In a stroke of luck, the McKenney's were staying with us after coming down for Paige's party. (Mike also predicted me having the baby at 4 am that night - kind of freaky). I felt bad but I finally had to admit that we needed to go to the hospital and woke Lori up to tell her. She was super excited. :) So off to the hospital we go!
Painful contractions continue on the way to the hospital. We arrived there around 4:30. Got checked sometime within that first half hour and it was determined that my water HAD broken and I was 4 cm dilated - I was staying and we were going to have a baby. OMG!!
The next 2-3 hours are a blur and I can only approximate the timeline. By around 6 am I was 7 cm dilated. (still no epidural, OUCH!!) Sometime during the next hour I got my epidural, which only half worked (OUCH!!!!) Around 7 am I started pushing. She was posterior (face up) which slowed down the process a bit, but by 7:29 am our little Natalie was born!! She cried right away and it was amazing! No pictures from immediately after, but here are some of the early ones (we hadn't thought to bring our camera in all the confusion).
In a stroke of luck, the McKenney's were staying with us after coming down for Paige's party. (Mike also predicted me having the baby at 4 am that night - kind of freaky). I felt bad but I finally had to admit that we needed to go to the hospital and woke Lori up to tell her. She was super excited. :) So off to the hospital we go!
Painful contractions continue on the way to the hospital. We arrived there around 4:30. Got checked sometime within that first half hour and it was determined that my water HAD broken and I was 4 cm dilated - I was staying and we were going to have a baby. OMG!!
The next 2-3 hours are a blur and I can only approximate the timeline. By around 6 am I was 7 cm dilated. (still no epidural, OUCH!!) Sometime during the next hour I got my epidural, which only half worked (OUCH!!!!) Around 7 am I started pushing. She was posterior (face up) which slowed down the process a bit, but by 7:29 am our little Natalie was born!! She cried right away and it was amazing! No pictures from immediately after, but here are some of the early ones (we hadn't thought to bring our camera in all the confusion).
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
THE Story
Ok, so I promised that next post would be birth story, so here goes:
To go back to the VERY beginning, I need to go back a few weeks to late September, when I was around 35 weeks. We were scheduled to go up to Mechanicsburg that weekend for Katie's birthday. Saturday started normally - we went up to watch Lindsay's soccer game - nothing unusual was happening. On the way home from the game, out of nowhere I started feeling very crampy. After a few minutes I realized that I was having some mildly painful contractions. Not a huge deal, except that we were supposed to be going somewhere 2 hours away from our house. After some discussion, we decided to hang around until the contractions stopped just to be safe. Well, four hours later they were just starting to taper off. At this point, even though they stopped, I didn't feel safe being 2 hours away from he hospital, so we canned our trip to Mechanicsburg.
Fast-forward to my 36 week appointment, where I was SURE that I had to be making some progress based on this and just a general crampiness. NOPE - still closed - nothing. I was a bit disappointed, even though part of me was happy that she wouldn't be coming quite so early - I really didn't want a baby in the NICU!
The following week I didn't have much in the way of contractions, so I wasn't too hopefuly that much had changed at my 37 week appointment. But voila! Now I am 1-2 centimeters dilated, 50% effaced and a -2 station. Sweet! I know that this didn't necessarily mean that labor was imminent but any sign that my body was getting ready to get this baby OUT was a good thing.
We had Paige's birthday party on Saturday the 9th. I was feeling tired and a little bit nauseous that day, but wrote it off to being stressed about the party. I did a ton of cleaning and running around. The party went off without a hitch and Paige had a great time. I stayed up late talking to Lori and headed to bed around 1 am.
To be continued....
To go back to the VERY beginning, I need to go back a few weeks to late September, when I was around 35 weeks. We were scheduled to go up to Mechanicsburg that weekend for Katie's birthday. Saturday started normally - we went up to watch Lindsay's soccer game - nothing unusual was happening. On the way home from the game, out of nowhere I started feeling very crampy. After a few minutes I realized that I was having some mildly painful contractions. Not a huge deal, except that we were supposed to be going somewhere 2 hours away from our house. After some discussion, we decided to hang around until the contractions stopped just to be safe. Well, four hours later they were just starting to taper off. At this point, even though they stopped, I didn't feel safe being 2 hours away from he hospital, so we canned our trip to Mechanicsburg.
Fast-forward to my 36 week appointment, where I was SURE that I had to be making some progress based on this and just a general crampiness. NOPE - still closed - nothing. I was a bit disappointed, even though part of me was happy that she wouldn't be coming quite so early - I really didn't want a baby in the NICU!
The following week I didn't have much in the way of contractions, so I wasn't too hopefuly that much had changed at my 37 week appointment. But voila! Now I am 1-2 centimeters dilated, 50% effaced and a -2 station. Sweet! I know that this didn't necessarily mean that labor was imminent but any sign that my body was getting ready to get this baby OUT was a good thing.
We had Paige's birthday party on Saturday the 9th. I was feeling tired and a little bit nauseous that day, but wrote it off to being stressed about the party. I did a ton of cleaning and running around. The party went off without a hitch and Paige had a great time. I stayed up late talking to Lori and headed to bed around 1 am.
To be continued....
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Natalie Grace
Natalie Grace arrived on 10/10/10! I figured this was important enough to get the blog rolling again. :) I changed the background to be more fitting of our three little ladies.
Anyway - Pretty cool birth date! She was 3 weeks early so we never expected to have her that day. Stats:
7 lbs. 7 oz.
21 inches
Next post - birth story and pics!
Anyway - Pretty cool birth date! She was 3 weeks early so we never expected to have her that day. Stats:
7 lbs. 7 oz.
21 inches
Next post - birth story and pics!
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