Welcoming Daniel Jacob

Caution this post is long. I wanted to record the day and what we went through and we all know a blog is a good way to do that.

We went to the hospital on monday night for a scheduled induction. We arrived there around 8:00pm. The plan: give me a pill to soften the cervix, start petocin when softened, break my water in the morning and have baby boy.

The tuesday before, I was barely dialated to a 1 and not softened at all. That whole next week I tried the raspberry teas followed by warm baths, I tried essential oils in the bath and mixed in with lotion and the ever familiar "what got you into this, will get you out of this" says my doctor. Which all of these are supposed to start labor. Labor never started, so I thought......

So we get to the hospital and by 9 (some times are approxiamate) I was admitted in my room with my beautiful gown on, after 3 attempts and a huge goose egg of blood (ouch, ouch and ouch!) on my left hand, had my iv line in and hooked up to the monitors, which showed I was having contractions maybe every 10-15 minutes. Which surprised me, I thought I was just uncomfortable and they weren't really painful, but I had been feeling them all day.

I can't believe I posted this picture. It makes me look HUGE, but I didn't feel that huge.


They finally checked me around 10 and lo and behold I was dilated to a 5 and mostly softened! What!? I guess all the things I tried worked somewhat. The nurse called the doc and he said give me petocin at midnight and they would break my water either when I progressed or at 7 tuesday morning.

After starting petocin the nurse turned it up every 15 minutes along with my blood pressure thing going off every 15 minutes it was a night with very little sleep. Come 6am I was still dilated to a 5 and contractions were gone. :(
The doc came in and broke my water at 7:31. Now you have to understand, with all my babies, they have broken my water and QUICKLY, 2 hours or less, they have all been born. The nurse that came in at 7 had been told this and took it very seriously, unlike the doc.

It was the same with Daniels birth. About a minute after my water breaking, contractions kicked in STRONG. I had told them I wanted/needed that epidural and was worried when they wouldn't let me get it before they broke my water, that I wouldn't get to have it at all since I was already at a 5.

Thank Heavens the anesth. doc was just around the corner and was in the room less than 10 minutes after! So I was numb and couldn't feel the contractions! But I could feel pressure like crazy. OUCH x 1000. I need to remember how bad that hurt, even with the epidural, just in case I think I want more.

So at about 8:45 I was at a 10. I could feel MAJOR pressure and wanted to push, but my doc had just let the office....in West Des Moines.....and had at least a 10 minute drive and I and the nurse had been instructed not to push until he got there. I guess he likes to walk in and catch the baby and walk out. (I really do love my doctors, but when your in labor and want to push but can't because they aren't there.....makes you not like them so much at the time)

After the doc walked in I said I couldn't wait, it was soooooooo painful and I had to push, so after 2 contractions and about 4 pushes during those contractions little Daniel was born weighing 8lbs 15 oz - which sometimes they rounded up to 9lbs and 21 inches long. We are so happy he is here and we finally get to enjoy him.....and I am glad he is out and healthy and now we are at home recovering. It is a very nice hospital and all the nurses were Fantastic but nothing beats home sweet home.





Lovely closed eyes picture. When he was coming out the doc asked if I wanted to see, I was in so much pain it hurt to even open my eyes and I was a little out of it after.











The kids coming to see him for the first time.






Joseph wasn't wanting to cooperate and be in many pictures.


First bath




He has some pretty cute hair that sticks up.

Right after I turned the video off, Sarah said "He is just so cute!"

a Good Day

It is a monday rainy morning and I thought I would list the things that would be good to do today:

- pick up house

-vacuum

- wash the bedding

- go to grocery store (hopefully in between bouts of rain)

- Spend time with kids

- greet mother-in-law into home to stay for a few days

- clean kitchen

-take a little nap if time allows (since I woke at 3:00am and didn't sleep again until 5:30am)

- maybe go to t-ball game (if rain lets up)

- go to hospital at 7:30pm

- have a baby before midnight

- if not before midnight sometime tonight or tomorrow morning

I thought this sounded like a great list a things to accomplish on a rainy monday! Don't you think?!

a few pictures:

Sarah took this one of me at the park, no belly shot, maybe if I feel not so huge today I will let her take a belly shot of me before going to the hospital. She did a pretty good job on this one.

Messy hair Sarah! So adorable!

As always the laughing goofy Joseph!

And sweet adorable Megan posing!

Next post: pictures and details of newest addition to the family, Daniel Jacob!

the latest

The latest with us:

- Joseph is done with pre-school. Yay! He is very excited to be done.

- I am not progressing yet. If I don't go into labor by Monday June 1st, I can go in and be induced that night, 7:30, there is an end in sight! I still hope I go into labor myself before then.

- We went to Brent's parents for Memorial day, had a good day there. took 2 little naps :) Kids played, grilled out, spent some good quality time with Uncle Chad and saw a newborn baby kitten, born probably just an hour or two before, my in-laws took it in because the mother abandoned it.

- Megan is remembering the baby kitten in all her prayers. At one point they thought it was dead and she was so upset and crying. A couple hours later they went to take care of it and it moved and meowed. She was soooo excited.

- Finally finished getting ready for Daniel. Crib ready, bassinet ready, clothes ready, diapers bought, all feminine products stocked up on, now we just need baby.

- Had a successful primary activity saturday. Glad it went well.

- The kids are going to be in bed and asleep everday by 8:30. This is my goal, since lately they have been going to bed later than 9:00.

- it is 4:30 right now and I am already to send them to bed ;)

- Just found out my brother and his wonderful sweet wife are having TWINS!!!!!!! Congrats Trevor and Kristine!!!!!!!

thank heavens

Megan's teacher informed me that she was 1 out of 4 out of the 23 students who did not get sick! Thank Heavens!!!!!! (HUGE sigh of relief)

This weekend I used my valentines gift from Brent and the kids.....a pre-natal massage. Our neighbor is a massage therepist that specializes in this. It was sooo nice! If you are expecting or know someone who is I HIGHLY recommend our neighbor Christine and a massage. It is in her home and she just started her business I believe a little over a year ago. She also does post-natal and infant massage. I think I will have to return after this baby boy is born and my aching back isn't carrying around so much baby weight! check her out here! Soooo worth it.

The massage was so nice but I messed it all up by cutting down my rose bushes saturday night. They were big last year and I didn't cut them down enough so this year when they started growing all the long stuff was still dead with new growth under all of it. They are thorny, thorny, thorny, and I had to cut them down into little pieces to fit them into the yard waste bag and the bag still tore! Argggg they do look alot better now though.

Anyway, I have hopefully less than two weeks left in this pregnancy! We are getting so anxious to meet the little guy. If there is any news I will update as soon as I can.
Sorry these posts have no pictures lately. I will have to upload some soon.

knock on wood again and pray really hard...and sanitize

Megan has 23 kids in her 1st grade class. Yesterday she came home and told me that there were only 6 kids there yesterday. What?!?! I thought she must be mistaken. Then she told me that there were originally 9 but 3 went home sick so by the end of the day there were only 6!
6 out of 23 kids?!

In her backpack was a note from the principal confirming this. They think it is the Norovirus. The day before most kids were there, the day after, they were all sick (2 on vacation). Has me a little worried. Hopefully and prayfully my Megan (and the rest of us at home) will continue to have strong immune systems and not get sick!

6 out of 23 not sick! WOW!

Knock on wood

We are hardly ever sick. I don't remember the last time we missed church due to someone being sick in our household. Usually when we do miss church it is because we are out of town or I have had a baby.

Joseph had a runny nose lately, just barely, it would be runny to the end of his nose then dry up quickly. He passed this on to Sarah, although she had clear runny nose for maybe a day and a half, then passed it on to Brent, who bless him, is miserable.
Anyway, Sarah woke me at 4:30am this morning whimpering. She had wrapped herself in her blankey and when I took her to lay down again, started cry/screaming. When I finally got her to calm down she said her ear hurt. Mind you, this girl NEVER complains unless something is really wrong.

I ended up coming downstairs with her, giving her medicine and we rocked and told stories and I tried to keep her cozy in between bouts of crying and just laying on my lap. Finally at around 9:00am she fell asleep. I had called the doc for a 10:50am appt.
I always think, I am just worrying to much? will this go away on its own? We hardly ever go to the doc. and this time I knew I wasn't worrying to much and this most likely wouldn't go away on its own. If it was an ear infection, she needed meds.

I grew up with ear infections and had them ALL the time, so I completely sympathize. Still to this day if I get a cold and don't constantly blow my nose, I will get an ear infection. Thankfully my kids have not inherited this from me.

So I took Sarah in....and as we are waiting she is happy and active and acts completely normal. I just love when that happens...it makes you think "was she really crying and screaming just an hour ago?" "did I really need to bring her in?".....well, her ear drum burst sometime between this morning and the doc. visit. She had a whole bunch of drainage in her poor ear. I felt soooo bad. I had NO clue. She has acted like her happy self this whole time and if her ear ever hurt before this, she never told us. (and this girl is smart enough to tell us). She told the dr. all about everything she could think of, so he saw that she was probably in pain but acted totally happy.

Now she is peacefully sleeping and hopefully will stay that way for a couple of hours. Maybe I could get a nap too?!

So here is to 10 days on meds, $60 for ear drops to help her ear drum heal, praying Brent feels better soon and knock on wood that me and Megan avoid this cold, especially before baby Daniel comes!

100th post!

I just saw that this is my 100th post! Craziness.

I thought I would post my to do list before baby comes:

a Dr.'s appt every week starting next wednesday.....Home Stretch!!!!!

pull up car seat from basement

install car seat base in van

pull up baby boy clothes from 0-12 months

wash the clothes that I will need (if needed)

3 dentist appt.'s for the kids

dr.'s appt. for Joseph's 5 year check-up

spring clean baseboards and doorways from dirty kid hands getting them all grimmy (try)

clean out pantry

numerous t-ball games

finish registration papers for school next year for Megan and Joseph

find a story or write one for primary activity on May 23rd

I am sure there is more I want or need to get done, but this is just what I can think of right now. and with all this I am hoping he comes early! Wish me luck!