I should have stayed in college

I discovered today that being a mom would be a lot easier if I had an engineering degree. While I was still pregnant with Megan I decided to buy a sling. With two other kids and a house to take care of, I knew I would need some help in comfoting the baby, but still being functional. A sling seemed like a really good idea. I got one that has the rings so it is adjustable and it has a long tail that can be used to cover up for nursing in public. Let's just say I should have gone with the other kind, which is one piece of material and requires no adjusting. Getting it on is relatively easy, but then when I put Megan in it nothing seemed right. She looked almost like her head was lower than her feet and was really scrunched up. She cried instantly, so I took her out and headed to the computer to look for some help online. After reading the instructions several times I think I have it figured out, for now at least. I'm worried that the next time I try to use this thing I'll have to start all over and read the instructions for another 20 minutes to get both of us comfortable.

"I think I like her"

Sean did bring Emma up to the hospital for a very short visit on Monday. She held Megan and after a couple minutes decided, "I think I like her." Then she said, "I think Megan likes me too!" She is so excited about the baby. She is constantly "checking" on her, but is really doing well with being gentle and not constantly touching/poking her. Hopefully Nathan will be just as good when he gets a chance to interact with her.

Our new addition

Well, after getting no sleep Saturday night because of irregular, but uncomfortable contractions, my water broke at 3:50am. I woke up Sean and said, "Honey, my water broke." He said, "That means we need to go, right?" You would think having been through this twice before that question wouldn't need an answer, but he just sat and looked at me until I said yes. We got up and got dressed, told Sean's mom we were leaving and headed for the hospital. Luckily the trucks had already been plowing the roads, so they weren't too bad. After my water broke the contractions really slowed down, and actually got less painful. We got to the hospital and got checked in and the OB on staff actually had to some and check to make sure my water had broken. I said if it wasn't my water breaking, I want to know what came out of me! Of course my water had broken, and they called my dr. who said I needed pitocin since my contractions had practically stopped. I was already dilated to 4, so my dr. said I could have my epidural whenever. Around 8:30 the contractions picked up, but were still tolerable. I decided to get my epidural then because I didn't want to be miserable and trying to hold still for my epidural. The anestheseologist came and it took 3 tries to get my epidural in right. A little bit later I was still having some pain, so they tried to give me a litle boost in the meds to see if that would help, but it didn't. The anestheseologist came back and gave me a dose of some other medicine, which helped just enough that I could get some rest. I woke up in a lot of pain and the nurse checked me and said I was 9cm. I had gone from 6 to 9 in about an hour. She called my dr. and got all the delivery equipment ready. Sean helped me through the next several contractions by reminding me to breathe. I was in a lot of pain and wanted to push so bad. I felt like the baby was going to pop out any minute anyway. My dr. arrived, put on his gloves and I finally got to push. She was born literally 5 minutes later! Megan Elise arrived at 1:35pm, weighing in at 7 pounds 15 ounces, and was 20.5 inches long. Originally they said she weighed 7lbs. 6 oz., but after being weighed on another scale later, we found out she was a little bigger. I am feeling pretty good. I'm amazed at how good I'm doing. I think feeling so good is going to make it hard to not overdo it. Megan is doing great and only gets really mad when we change her clothes or her diaper.
Unfortunately, Nathan is sick, so when we got home today Sean had to take him to the dr. Nathan has a double ear infection and some sores in his mouth, so the dr. gave him some antibiotics and some tylenol with codeine to help him rest. Hopefully we can keep him away from Megan until he isn't contagious anymore and we can keep Megan well.
Thanks for all the kind thoughts and prayers. I'm sure we will need all the help we can get in the next couple of months. Love you all!

big weekend

Well I did it! Sean's mom arrives today and she really wanted me to wait until after she got in town before I had the baby, and I did it. I'm actually surprised I'm still pregnant with the way I've felt for the last month, but this just proves that my body must make a very nice home for the baby. Hopefully it won't be long now before I have the baby because I don't want his mom just sitting around bored and waiting. I'm sure she'll enjoy spending time with the other two grandkids in the meantime.
Tomorrow is my brother's and my cousin's birthday and they have both been convinced the entire pregnancy that I will have this baby on their birthday. I keep saying our family doesn't need another Januray 19th baby, but they think it's a great idea. It will be interesting to see if they are right.

back to the hospital

Yesterday I started feeling pretty crappy all over. I had severe body aches and the chills like you wouldn't believe. I didn't think much of it until I remembered that running a fever this late in pregnancy could be a sign of infection in or around the uterus, which is not good for the baby. So I took my temp, which was 100.2 and called my dr., again. He said I was probably just coming down with something, but we would probably be better off to go to the hospital and make sure there was no infection. My mom came over to stay with the kids because we had no idea how long we'd be at the hospital.
After getting checked in and peeing in a cup, which I'm really getting good at now, they determined I was severely dehydrated and also had low blood sugar because my liver was producing keytones, which is what your body makes when there is no sugar to burn for energy. So I got an IV and they ran a bunch of tests on both me and the baby. Everything came back normal and the baby was doing fine, jumping around in there as usual. They sent me home and said I probably just have some kind of virus. So today I feel awful and I'm just hoping I can recover from this before going into labor. I was sick with a pretty bad cold when I had Emma and Nathan, and being sick and in labor is not fun.

39 weeks

I'm not officially 39 weeks until tomorrow, but I changed my appointment to today since Sean was off work, so this will be this week's update. We had to go to my dr.'s other office, and when they weighed me I had gained more weight than I should have. I'm chalking it up to a different scale so I don't freak out. Everything else was normal and I'm now dilated to 3cm! Yea for more progress! The dr. asked if we had a name for the baby yet, and when I said not for sure, he gave me a very strange look. I asked if it we needed to decide on one and he said, "yeah, I think so." I don't think he's expecting me to be pregnant much longer, little does he know what my body is capable of! haha!
We also talked about the ice storm that hit this past weekend. He said it was pretty bad where he lives, and was shocked when I told him we got almost no ice. Then I asked if he lost power and he said, "yes, we just it back about an hour ago." And then the power went out in the office. It came back on and then went off, and then came back on for good. Kind of weird.
I'm hoping this baby will get here soon. I've dilated more than I ever did with Emma or Nathan before labor, so hopefully my body will do this on it's own.

amazing news

I'm sure a lot of you heard about the Amber alert for the kid missing here in missouri. This happened about 45 minutes from our house. Today they found the missing boy, and at the same place they also found a boy who has been missing from our area for 4 1/2 years! Both boys were from rural areas and they disappeared without a trace. I can't even imagine what these boys have been through but its amazing they have both been found alive.