Sorry For Leaving Everybody Hanging

So, I can tell by some of the comments on my very last post that I've been leaving everybody hanging about this baby! :)

But, right now is actually the first time the kiddo is not attached to my boob, so I'm getting a free moment!

I had a "feeling" on the morning of the Tuesday, the 16th, that something might be happening either that day or the next day. The contractions I was having were stronger than the previous few days, but they were still sporadic throughout the morning. By the afternoon, I was having some bleeding (TMI, I know...but it usually indicates something's going on...hehe). I called my mother-in-law to let her know to be "on alert" just in case. My mom was also on her way here from Texas because my step-dad had an interview on Wednesday, the 17th. They are thinking of moving back to Phoenix, and it just happened to work out that they would be here and the baby still hadn't been born. So, I was excited that my mom might make it here for the baby's birth.

After dinner on Tuesday night, my contractions were definitely coming in a more regular pattern, but still about 20 minutes or so apart. By 8pm they were getting closer to 10-15 minutes apart, so I called my mother-in-law again to let her know she might not want to go to sleep because we might be going to the hospital that night. She decided to come over just in case we had to leave in the middle of the night. The girls had already been put to bed, and we sat around and watched the Olympics and timed my contractions. By 10pm they were still about 8-12 minutes apart, so I decided I should go lay down to get some rest. As soon as I laid down to rest, the contractions started coming about every 4 minutes. I thought "Darn! Just as I get settled down to rest, here they come!" So, I waited until about 10:45 when I was sure they were consistently coming, and told Aaron that we should probably go to the hospital.

We packed up my stuff, and drove to the hospital and got checked in. I think by the time they were able to check my progress it was about 11:15pm or so, and I was dilated to 7 cm. They asked me if I wanted an epidural, and I declined. I had my last two girls completely natural, and I wanted to have this baby natural as well - but I have to admit that the contractions were pretty uncomfortable so I asked if I could have something via IV to "take the edge off"...and you know what they said? "No". I was like "What?" And they said "You are so close to delivering, that if we give you something in an IV, it will make the baby sleepy." OK...so much for that idea. So, I declined the IV altogether, because those things HURT, especially if the nurse isn't skilled enough to get the vein the first time.

At about 11:45pm they checked me again and I was 8 cm, so they called my doctor. She arrived at around midnight and they broke my water. My water NEVER breaks on its own for some reason. Weird. Anywho, I continued my labor standing up - it just felt better than lying in the bed, and I figured using gravity to help the baby make his or her way out would be good. They told me to tell them when I began to feel "pressure". That happened at about 12:10am, they checked me and said I was 9cm. My doctor said to try laying on my left side to see if that would help bring the baby down so I could push - but baby did not like that, and the heartrate went down. So, I had to roll over on to my back. The next contraction I had came with such force that I told the doctor I needed to push...like NOW. She told me to wait...umm...yeah, to wait. She hadn't got on her little paper gown thingie yet, and they hadn't dropped the end off of the bed to prepare for all the messy stuff that comes with babies. So, I "shhhhhhhed" through that one, but the next one came right away, and I pushed.

I didn't care if they were ready or not, I was pushing because this baby wanted out. And you know what happened? That baby's head came right out on my first push, and the doctor said "Well, I guess we are delivering this baby IN the bed". Ya think? On my next push, the baby was out!

And guess what, we had a BOY!! At 12:39am on Wednesday, February 17th, our first son was born. He weighed 9lbs, 1oz, and measured 21 inches long. I couldn't believe we had a boy. My husband cried...I just kept asking him "We made a boy?". hehe

It took us a whole day to name him because we hadn't really discussed names a whole lot since we didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl. We named him Aaron James Edward - and we're calling him "AJ". Aaron is after his daddy, James is my dad's middle name, and it's my husband's dad's first name, and Edward is my grandpa's name.

So, there you have it. Our son finally arrived on his 10th day of being overdue. He's officially one week old today, and we're just trying to adjust to family life with a newborn again. It's been wonderful and challenging all at the same time. Just about every one of my daughters is sick - so NOT what I needed right now, but we're chugging through.

Here's a picture of AJ from the hospital - I'm sure I'll be posting more later. :)

Dude...Seriously??

OK...we are now 6 days past my "due date" - or the estimated, they-really-have-no-idea-what-the-heck-they're-talking-about, due date...aka EDD.

Thursday night I was having contractions about every 15 minutes for 4 hours, but they never got closer and they never got any stronger - and finally when I went to bed at around 11pm, they went away completely.

Friday morning, I had to go in to the hospital for my first monitoring appointment - which consists of a fetal non-stress test, and an amniotic fluid index - NST and AFI for the hospital staff. They listen to the babies heartbeat for 15 minutes, and then they do an ultrasound for the AFI. For the AFI, they are checking to make sure the baby still has enough fluid to swim around in. hehe. The results were that the baby's heartrate sounded great, and my fluid levels were within normal range. The baby is pretty much comfy, cozy, fat and sassy in there. They showed me the baby's face on the ultrasound, and the cheeks were really chubby and the lips were really full. I got a little teary I have to admit - so I told him or her "It's time for you to be out here now...come out of there!" hehe.

I went to lunch Friday afternoon with my mother-in-law, and during the day yesterday, every time I stood up I would have a contraction, and they were pretty decent intensity. But again, no consistency. I was also having some good ones in my sleep last night.

But...this morning, Saturday...not a whole lot going on. I got up with the girls, we ate breakfast - Aaron had to do some work today so he left around 8am. The girls played outside, we had a snack of sliced apples and then my oldest daughter came home from spending the night at a friend's house. She had a school dance last night. Aaron had called and said my mother-in-law was going to come over around noon to give Baby Pants her birthday present. This whole "not knowing when the baby is coming" thing royally screwed up my ability to schedule an actual birthday get-together for her. We usually only do family anyway, instead of trying to have a big production with a bajillion friends - but I still wanted to be able to give her a 'party' of sorts. All she really cared about was cake and ice cream. :) So - after my oldest got home, she babysat while I went to the grocery store to pick up ice cream and a small cake.

After we ate lunch, my mother-in-law got here, and we sang "Happy Birthday" and let Baby Pants blow out her candle and eat her cake and ice cream. Then, she opened her presents - which were two new Signing Time videos! YAY! Baby Pants was VERY excited - she yelled "Signing Time wif Alex an' Leah!" (Alex and Leah are the two main character children on the videos). So that's what we're doing right now - watching the new videos. :)

I also called my Dad, because today is his birthday. We never thought I would make it so far past my due date that it would be a possibility that the baby would be born on his birthday - but we still have 11 hours of today left. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day - and both my grandpa and my best friend were born on Valentine's day. :) Maybe baby would like to be a Valentine's Day baby. I just wish it would be a 'sometime soon, like right now' baby. hehe

Alright, well Baby Pants and I are going to go take a nap now - YAY for naps!! :)

Happy Birthday!

To my Baby Pants. She turned TWO today.

Ha! You thought this was going to be a post on the new baby didn't you? No...that little booger is still in there.

My little Baby Pants is Two...I can't believe it. Two years have gone by already? Really?

This morning after Baby Pants played with her sisters for a few minutes, she came busting into our bedroom and was singing as loud as she possibly could..."Happy BURTDAY to MEEEEEEE!"

Then she kept telling me " 'Ahna burtday cake" (where 'ahna' equals 'I wanna')

I told her I had cookies to take to her babysitter's house. She was excited, but even after she saw them, she kept calling them a 'burtday' cake. I bought a package for the babysitter's house and a package for our house, so that we could celebrate tonight after dinner. We're not going to have her birthday party until after this baby comes, because I knew as soon as I would plan a birthday party, THAT would be the day I would go into labor. So, we didn't schedule it for this past weekend, and I only 'tentatively' scheduled it for this coming weekend - so we'll see when we actually have it.

My Baby Pants is SO much like her daddy, it's not even funny. She comes at life with full force, full of energy, and ready to take on whatever challenges come her way. As soon as she is dressed in the morning, she is ready to be outside doing something - her daddy is definitely an outside dog. It's been an adjustment for me, because I'm not really an outside person - but I'm getting better at it. :) She loves dirtbikes, quads and monster trucks - she watches UFC with her daddy and yells at the fighters - "No BITING boys!" (but her 'biting' means 'fighting'). She's rough and tumble and doesn't mind getting extremely dirty.

But don't get me wrong, she definitely has a girly side too. She likes to dress up like a princess, and if she gets TOO dirty, she tells me she needs to wash her hands.

She's a goldfish addict (the snack, not the actual fish)...she has taken to sleeping with her 7 yr old sister...she goes potty on the toilet...she loves to read...she still pulls on my ears when she needs comforting...she turns everything into a song (kinda like me)...she likes to wear my lipgloss (and when it gets returned it's REALLY gross and slobbery)...her favorite movie at the moment is 'Lilo and Stitch'...she still loves to use the sign language that she knows, and to learn more signs...she thinks its funny to tell me that she "fahted", but then she says "excoos me"...she's obsessed with Sponge Bob Square Pants...when she pretends she is leaving to go somewhere with my keys, she says "I going to church" or "I going to ride da bus"...she has extremely long hair that she tolerates me putting into two ponytails every morning...she loves her sisters...and she calls the new baby her 'baby butter' (butter=brother, even though we don't yet know what we're having).

I'm thoroughly enjoying watching Baby Pants grow up...she does have her moments, as all toddlers do...because she has discovered the use of the word "No", and when I start my warning counting, she just counts along with me and thinks it's hilarious. But every day she does something that makes me smile or laugh - tonight's laughing thing was "teeth kisses". She wanted to see my teeth while she was in the bathtub - so I showed her. Then she showed me her teeth. Then she came in for a kiss with her teeth showing, so I copied her...and we both giggled and gave each other a bunch of teeth kisses.

Seeing her get this big reminds me that my older girls are getting even bigger - I'm trying to focus more on their individual stages as well. It can be easy to let what they are going through get lost in the shuffle because they are "older". And now with the new baby coming, I'm kind of afraid of losing the experiences I'm having with Baby Pants. But all of this is exactly the reason I started my own business last year, and fully intend to make it my full-time work so that I can be with my children more often because it's a business they can be involved in too...and will hopefully require much less working hours away from them. It's time for life to be about them, and making whatever sacrifices are necessary to make that happen. It's just where I am right now, and where I think God wants me to be. Sorry, didn't mean to go off on a tangent. :)

So, Happy Birthday to my Baby Pants - I love you with all my heart. And lucky you, it looks like your brother or sister won't be sharing a birthday with you after all. :)

4 Things (aka 'The Cop Out Post')

So - I don't really have anything cool or noteworthy to post about today, other than complaining that the baby isn't here yet...so instead, I'm totally just using an email that I got from my mom today and posting my answers here. It was one of those "getting to know you" type emails, except it's just 6 questions, where you enter 4 things for each question. Feel free to participate if you wish. :) You can post your four things in my comments, or create your own post. Happy Friday!

1. Four places I shop: Target, Costco, Safeway, Frys

2. Four people who e-mail me: Mom, Nana, Sandie, Gina

3. Four things I like to smell: Ocean, Babies, Cinnamon, Citrus

4. Four places I would rather be: California, Mexico, Getting a massage, Having a baby (hehe)

5. Four people I think will respond: I don't like these questions..hehe

6. Four TV shows I watch most: NCIS, Gilmore Girls, Sponge Bob (not by choice), Ghost Whisperer (just started watching this again)