We’ve had nearly a full 24 hours w/ baby girl now, and I still can’t get enough of her! Yesterday was a long… day, and I’ve taken it easy today as much as possible before becoming Mommy to 5 little ones at one time tomorrow. 
I’m just going to upload a few pictures for those of you waiting patiently, and will get to the birth story later. Thank you for your prayers!
Little Mommy
It’s hard to imagine that at this time tomorrow we will very likely be a family of 7! I mentioned before how I’ve struggled with induction and have been praying for peace. The Lord gave me that peace today when I finally got DH to say what his thoughts were – that induction would be his choice. Funny how that’s all I needed to hear!
(If you’re new here, let’s just say I have quick deliveries, and not only do we live farther away from the hospital this time, we are using a hospital that is farther away than the last one. This makes the 3 to 5 minutes we had before DS3 was born on the wrong side of the hospital should I go into labor at home – meaning, we’d be in the car.)
Braxton Hicks have been more often today, as well as stronger, so it’s clear that she’s getting ready to be born. Overall I’m more hormonal (crying – LOL), tired, and hurting today. While I was hand sanding the walls in one of the rooms we bought paint for last night and couldn’t wait to start painting, today I just didn’t have the energy to hardly think about it. Of course, the rain didn’t make it any easier – that just calls you to take a nap.
So, we will be going in tomorrow mid-day to be induced, unless the Lord decides to start our labor before then. I guess if I had to be specific in my prayers, I’d like to go into labor on the way to the hospital. The bumpy interstate wouldn’t be so bad, the children would be taken care of w/o a rush, and I could avoid any induction meds. That’s what I dislike about the induction – having to have those shot into me and affecting not only me, but the baby.
I’ll also be specifically praying that the doctor would respect my wishes on delayed cord clamping, and that the Lord would provide the most wonderful labor and baby nurses for us!
My devotion this morning was also something I needed right now. I was reading in 2 Corinthians 5, and the first verses jumped out at me in a way I’ve never seen before. They gave me a renewed vision of who and what God really wants me to be, and somehow it’s making the labor easier – knowing God’s will in bringing a new life into this world is what is happening – it’s not about me or DH. This baby was His plan, He created her, and He will cause her to take her first breath at just the right moment.
I’m still in awe, while humbled, that He sees fit to place another child in our care. What a responsibility, a calling, He has given us – to raise one of His precious ones in His ways. I will fail many times in her life, but I have already given her to Him, and know HE will keep her.
My little baby girl, you are much loved and anticipated, and I can’t wait to meet you tomorrow!
Love always,
Mommy
Wow, it’s hard to believe the end is so near! To be honest, it seems like things have flown by now, although looking back, the worries of miscarriage at the very beginning seem so far away.
It’s getting hard to contain my excitement - I want to hold her close for as long as I can, looking over every detail of this life and soul God has entrusted to our family. But the end still seems so far away… it just doesn’t seem right that she’s supposed to be here next week.
We have the induction set up in just a few more days, and part of me doesn’t feel right about it. I’m very tempted to call and cancel it. I understand the logic of having the other children taken care of, and being sure we arrive at the hospital in time for help if it’s needed. But is this not human thinking, is it not the understanding of men? (Proverbs 3:5-6)
I want her to come on the birthday God chooses for her, not me – and the verse about waiting on the Lord keeps coming to mind. It seems part of the experience will be lost thanks to modern medicine, whereas if I waited, there’d be a little bit more of a story to tell over the years. This might not make sense, and I won’t love her any less, I just have a feeling I’m making God’s decision for Him and don’t feel at peace with it.
We’ll be praying about it for sure and trust that HE gives us direction – or better yet, that He allows me to go in labor before the induction starts!
About the 39 week mark – I forgot to weigh yesterday, but today weighed in at 148.5 lbs., for a total weight gain of 26.5 lbs. I spent the day cutting DS1′s hair, as well as chopping off a couple inches of my own hair. Hubby seemed to be in favor of cutting vs. trimming, which I do like, I just didn’t realize how much harder it would be to cut it shorter and keep it even.
(i.e. – If you see me, don’t look to closely at the ends of my hair… they just might not be even. ;P)
I’ll try to come back later and post pics DH took of me at 39 weeks. We had a sweet little guy decide he wanted in the pictures with Mommy and baby, so there might be one or two of those as well.
Little Mommy
I went in yesterday for my weekly check-up, and DD was so excited to go with me! She went a few weeks ago with DS1 and loved it, but DS decided it was NO fun doing errands *after* the visit – so it was just us girls. She has really gotten into the whole pregnant thing, and had slept with her baby doll in her shirt the night before, and brought her along with us to the doc as well (under her shirt part of the time).
She loved getting to see where Mommy has been going, ride the escalator, and getting treated to lunch and a Frosty. ;P To top of the excitement of the day, we were able to sit next to a grandmother and newborn while waiting. The funny thing though, was that DD was almost too shy to look at the baby for more than a few seconds at a time.
The visit went well. I have been apprehensive about it, since the false labor/ kidney stone incident last week, and the fact she didn’t check me. It was apparently a kidney stone, because not much had changed from the exam 2 weeks ago.
I’m now around 4 cm, 50%, and -3 to floating when pushed (you moms will know what all this means). Given I was more than this at 32 weeks with DS1, and have had to be induced when I was around 6 cm once or twice and still walking around fine – I just didn’t see an urgency to induce her the day I hit 39 weeks.
DH still feels more comfortable with an induction – given my last labor was so fast, and that none of them have been more than 4 hours really. Plus, he works quite a ways away, and the hospital is quite a drive itself. So, although it’s not something I’m still wild about, I set up the induction for next week.
It’s not my first choice, but neither is going into labor while he’s at work, having to call someone over to watch the kids and/ or take me to the hospital, or having the EMT’s take me. I would be heartbroken if some strange EMT guy was next to me when she was born instead of my husband!
But the good news is, once hubby gets off work Thursday night – he’s off til he goes back after the baby – which will be 2 or 3 weeks! So, I’m praying the Lord will start the labor BEFORE they have to give me pictocin. I’m still keeping the date itself quiet for the most part, so stay tuned.
Little Mommy
Dysautonomia, or better explained by saying the autonomic nervous system working backwards, is bad enough – but add it to pregnancy and it’s not fun.
Earlier in the week, at 37.5 weeks, I had two nights of “episodes” where my heart was doing things that just felt weird. That second night, I had hubby get the stethoscope out and we could hear that my heart was completely out of rhythm, and restarting itself every 2 or 3 beats in an attempt to get back in sync.
I’ve been to my cardiologist for this, along with my mitral valve prolapse, for years and years, and it’s never been a big concern for her. BUT, this time I was worried because I have a little babe inside, and if I felt short of breath, was she getting enough oxygen?
I also gained 3.5 lbs. over 48 hours, which was strange because my weight has been the same for weeks now – and I wasn’t eating any differently. My foot turned blue at one point, you couldn’t see the bones in my feet from the swelling, and besides going to bed earlier/ sleeping later/ AND taking daily naps – I was still exhausted.
My blood pressure would go as low as 70′s over 40′s and as high as 110 over 70 (which is above my norm of 100/60). Overall, I’ve just felt yucky, and while everything could be explained by late pregnancy, the quirky heart episodes couldn’t.
My cardiologist felt a trip to either her or the OB was in order, and soon, so in I went today. Of course, I’ve had no problems during the day, the skips and restarts are only at night. This means today’s EKG was fine, though my pulse was a little high.
She is pretty confident it’s my “thing” with dysautonomia to have what is called ????PVCs, or ?premature ventricular contractions. Basically, there’s a premature beat trying to initiate the normal heart beats. I’ve had these show up on stress tests before, so she knows I have them – but whether or not that’s definitely what was going on the other night? That’s impossible to say.
I do know that it was more than a simple extra beat, because there was no rhythm whatsoever to my heart, and my EKG from last year w/ the PVCs showed the consistent rhythm with the extra beat thrown in.
All we can do is wait for it to happen again, and either go to the hospital for monitoring, or we’ll try to capture it on our baby heart monitor and email it to her. I can just see it stopping the minute we would get to the hospital. 
I did read that besides mitral valve issues, these episodes can be caused by magnesium/ potassium deficeincy and/or calcium excess (which *could* be related to the kidney stones I have?). Given the amount of frozen fruit (which has bananas) and banana bread that I’ve eaten over the past few weeks, I’d think my potassium should be fine.
She just said to increase my water even more, as well as my salt intake (for the low blood pressure moments).
Where are we? I’m 38 weeks today and will go in on Monday to be checked. If I’m much past 3 cm, like 5, I’ll be more likely to listen to the docs recommendations for induction sometime before 40 weeks. It’s just too risky for me to be 45/ 50 minutes from the hospital with my quick births (the last was only 2.5 hours total), with 4 kids at home by myself, and hubby being that same 45/50 minutes away at work.
I want to let her perk as long as she can in there, but prefer NOT to deliver at home in front of my children or on the side of the road – LOL! It’s strange to think that we’ll more than likely be holding a new baby two weeks from today – I’m so excited!!!!
Little Mommy
I’m not sure if I’m just getting older, but the past few weeks of this pregnancy have hit me hard! I’m going to bed earlier, sleeping later, AND taking a nap most every day. I think I’m sleeping more now than I did that first trimester.
I’ll start with the stats: I’m 37.5 weeks, had gained up to 25 lbs/ but lost back down to 24 the past couple of days – holding steady at 146, I was 3 cm last week, 50%, and -3 station. Besides sleeping, the only other big change I’ve noticed is my appetite, or should I say my lack of appetite.
I’m perfectly content eating frozen fruit, granola, or banana bread. This probably isn’t helping me gain any extra…
I can’t tell if she’s dropped or not – but sometimes she looks lower than others. I know my legs/ sciatic nerve are bothering me more, as well as my low back.
Just a couple of nights ago, I was about 70% sure I was in labor. I woke around 2:45 to go potty, and then became very uncomfortable and began having an upset stomach. After I realized I couldn’t get comfy any place but the toilet seat, I started to panic. I did that w/ the last baby – up until we thought we was going to have to be birthed at home.
My teeth started chattering uncontrollably, as well as my whole body shaking and being covered in chill bumps. I know I’ve had uncontrollable shaking with my induced births, but couldn’t remember my natural ones, so I called labor and delivery. The nurse there said it could be a sign of labor, but she put me through to page the doctor to see what she thought.
My doctor was on call, and I sure did hate waking her up by what was probably around 3:30 AM now. She didn’t seem to think the shaking sounded like labor, and much to my surprise, she didn’t call me in. I was partly okay with this, because 1) I didn’t want to wake up anyone to watch the kids for us should it be false labor, 2) I didn’t want to wake the kids and take them with us should it be false labor, and 3) hubby wouldn’t let me drive the 50 or so minutes to the hospital by myself.
After nearly two hours, I started to get sleepy, and felt that although I might sleep too long and miss the time window to go to the hospital should things continue, I needed to sleep! I woke to a few hard contractions here and there, but overall, things stopped.
It was very strange, and I’m almost wondering if it wasn’t another one of my kidney stones passing (I still have 4, I think?). I was having some symptoms of that before going to bed – feeling like I had to potty, but not being able to go. Tricky thing here though is, pregnancy can do the same thing. In fact, labor is very similiar to kidney stones.
Who knows what really happened, and while I thought I’d find out today at the doctor, as it turns out, she didn’t want to check me today! I had kinda wanted to know if anything had changed, especially if I’m walking around at 6 cm or something.
On the other hand, they don’t do inductions before 39 weeks, so it wouldn’t have mattered if I was 8 cm – I’d still have to wait a week and a half. She’ll check me next week, and she seemed eager to schedule me for induction next Friday, which will be 39 weeks/ 0 days.
I’m not comfortable setting it that early, and part of me really doesn’t want to be the one to call the shots as to her birthday – I like the Lord’s timing. That said, we’ll have to see where I’m at next week, and if it’d be safe for me to go into labor on my own. Again, remember, it’s a 50 minute drive and with my last, from the time I was certain I was in labor, he was born 40 minutes later. I really don’t want to have a baby on the side of the interstate!
I am surprisingly very nervous. I realized how much so the other night. My body tensed up so, where as last baby I was able to let my body do what it needed to. While I waited to see the doc this morning ( a LONG wait, which I later realized was due to my not paying attention to the appt. card and getting there 45 minutes early), I began praying that God would either give me a song or verse to focus on during labor – to know HE is with me and guiding me through each step.
Part of me was calm thinking that at least the full moon was the other night when I had my false labor. Turns out, I was wrong. TONIGHT is the full moon! Yikes! Sorry, I know I shouldn’t be scared, but after two “possible” labors already with this baby (kidney stone at 28 weeks and something the other night), I’m just not sure I’m strong enough to go through it all again – even just mentally.
We’ll see – and in the meantime, we’ll get more and more excited to meet this little one God created and placed in our family! We have the first name narrowed down to two favorites, both Bible names. Both have meanings that could fit her well, we’ll just have to pray about what the Lord would have us name her!
Time to get some sleep, it’s been a long day and for some reason, my mitral valve is acting up a lot tonight – a very jumpy, irregular beat. Strange…
See you soon, little one ~ Little Mommy