Introducing PRESLEY GRACE

Presley Grace was born on Thursday June 18th, 2009 at 8:40 pm. She weighed 6 lbs 8 oz and was 19.25 in long. Here is her birth story, well at least from her mommy's point of view...she might have a different story!

On Thursday we went to the OB's office for my weekly visit. My blood pressure was really high. When Dr. D checked me I was 4 cm dilated and my BP was so high that so she asked Jeremiah and I did we want to have a baby that day. I was a little shocked to say the least! To go from thinking it was going to be a regular day with a regular doctor visit, to all of a sudden having a baby that day was mind boggling!

I got over to L&D about 11 am. Jeremiah had to go home to get all of our bags. They started the Pitocin (the medication used to cause contractions) at 12:30 and by that time Jeremiah was back. I was already having some contractions earlier that week and even some that day, but nothing prepared me for the ones I was going to have on Pitocin! They were pretty strong, but the most difficult thing to endure was that they were so close together, I could barely rest from each one.

At 2 pm, Dr. D came in and broke my water. After that the contractions became impossible to deal with. The nurse said the reason for them getting so bad, was that there was no amniotic fluid now to help cushion the contractions. I got some IV pain medication, Fentanyl, sometime after that. It still wasn't helping AT ALL. The contractions were 2 min. apart, each one lasting one full minute and each one was excruciatingly more painful than the last. I mean I was nauseous, crying and shaking. I asked for an epidural and got one at 4 pm. The nurse checked me then and I was dilated to 5 cm. Not much progress from the morning.

My experience with the epidural could not have been better! I really got the best of both worlds. I couldn't feel my contractions, and my legs were numb, but I could still feel them a little bit. Since I was so comfortable then, my body was able to do the job it was meant to do. When the nurse came in and checked me at 6:30 pm I was 8 cm dilated and 100% thinned out. So the nurse said it wouldn't be too much longer and we'd have a baby here! She also said to let her know if I felt the urge to push. At 7:05 I felt the overwhelming need to push. In the birthing class, we were taught to "blow" through the urge to push, so we wouldn't actually push before we were supposed to. Well, we called for the nurse to come in but they were all in report because they were changing shifts. I think the night nurse finally came in at 7:30 and she checked me then. I was 10 cm!

They called Dr. D to come in so she could deliver our little Sweet Pea! Dr. D got to the hospital probably around 8:15-ish or so and Presley arrived at 8:40. Pushing was very tiring, but obviously so well worth it! Dr. D didn't announce the gender. She let us see for ourselves! She just held her up and we both looked at each other and said "It's a girl!" Then Jeremiah shouted it out for our family waiting in the hallway to hear! I was in shock that she was a she! I just thought it was going to be a boy the whole time...I guess partly because we always referred to her as a him!! Oh well, we won't ever tell her that!

Overall, our birth experience was awesome and blessed! I'm going to keep the blog in order to keep everyone posted on Presley's growing up! I'll try to keep it updated as much as possible. ;)

Full Term!

21 days left! Can you believe it? Because I can't! It seems like it was just October when we found out! Ah, time flew by so quickly. Well, here is the 37 week belly pic. It doesn't seem like I've grown outward any. Since Sweet Pea has been head down for the last few weeks, I think I've "dropped". Because it's a little easier to breathe and I have to pee every 5 minutes it seems like!

Expectations

Here is a poem that the birthing class instructor gave us last night. Next week will be our last class and couples who have gone through the class and subsequently have had babies, will come back and share their stories. I think it would be really cool to hear all of their different experiences with birth. So hopefully we'll make it to that class!

Anyway here is the sweet poem called "Expectations"

It is important to me
that I spend a part of
the next few hours here
alone with you
in the darkness.
You and I will never
be this close again.
By morning you will be
a tiny person
all your own.
No longer the kicking,
demanding bulge
in my body that
I have grown to love so well.
I pray God will safely
guide you on your journey
and I ask him for the strength
to help you all I can.
Again you signal your
impatience to be free.
Time to wake your daddy.
-anonymous


Oh my goodness, I cried when I first read it and I'm tearing up now! The end of pregnancy is so bittersweet! I thought a few weeks ago I was so ready for it to be over and for us to be able to hold our "outside" baby. But now I realize I'll never get this time back with my precious baby, where it's just the two of us. And s/he is safe inside my womb. Even though your husband or partner can support you 100%, they can't really know what's going on inside. A mother and her child are forever linked in a way that no other two people on earth are. And it makes me sad that in just a short time, it will be over. (I can see now how postpartum depression starts, good grief!) Anyway, I'm still excited for the birth and to be able to see Sweet Pea face to face. I'm just a little less gong-ho about it happening today!

So of course, that probably means that it will all happen today!! ;)

37 weeks = Swiss Chard stalk

How your baby's growing:

Congratulations — your baby is full term! This means that if your baby arrives now, his lungs should be fully mature and ready to adjust to life outside the womb, even though your due date is still three weeks away.

Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard). Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blonds or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz.

Sweet Pea's test run!

Well, we spent the night in labor and delivery on Tuesday night. I went to work as usual and things were going as usual and then BAM! 10 pm hit and so did the contractions. Very painful ones at that! Dr. D, my OB, had said to come to the L&D Triage area if I ever have more than 5 contractions in one hour. After the 4th contraction in 20 minutes, I decided to call Jeremiah and have him meet me in Triage.

I got downstairs at 11 and Jeremiah made it there by 11:15. They hooked me up to the monitors and I was having contractions pretty much one right after the other. I was dilated to 2.5 cm, which is only half a centimeter bigger than I previously was. The nurse started an IV, got some blood for labs, and a urine specimen. They gave me a shot of pain medicine around 1:30 am to see if I was in "true" labor or not. The theory was if these contractions were not true, then the pain medication would help me relax and hopefully make the contractions stop. Well, they didn't stop, although it was weird that some were really painful and some of them I couldn't even feel. The nurse came in about 2 hours after the pain medicine and said I was only dilated to 3 cm. (Not much progress!) So she called Dr. D and she wanted to observe me overnight since I had made a little bit of progress, though not much!

We got to an L&D room about 4 am and it was a welcome change! I got a real bed (not just a stretcher) and Jeremiah got to sit/sleep on a couch (not just an upright chair!). We both dozed on and off for the next few hours and Dr. D came in to see me at 6:50 am. She said I was still around 3 cm, but wanted to keep me at least until lunch time to see if the contractions I was still having would make me progress any more. We walked around the L&D floor for an hour and a half straight, but nothing else happened! So when Dr. D came in at 12, she decided to send us home. I was very frustrated, but could understand why she couldn't help me along with any medicine. I was only 36 weeks and 1 day, so it would be better if Sweet Pea cooked a little longer.

I haven't been that disappointed in a long while! We came so close to seeing Sweet Pea that day! And I'll admit it, I'm selfish. I'm ready to have an outside baby! I'm tired of being tired and uncomfortable 24/7 and I'm ready to hold and love on Sweet Pea. Not to mention to FINALLY find out if we have a Mr or Miss! But Dr. D did give us some hope! She said she didn't think it was going to happen on Wednesday, but that she definitely thought it would be within the next few days! So I guess we'll wait and see!

Clean house- check!

We are getting closer to being physically prepared for Sweet Pea's arrival! My awesome husband and mom scrubbed, and I mean scrubbed the entire house yesterday! They are so sweet and wonderful! The whole house is sparkling! THANK Y'ALL! Now Sweet Pea just needs to get here so the guests coming to see him/her can also see the clean house! Ha ha! And I've packed all of our bags for the hospital. So that's all ready to go.

I've just got to say that God is so good! We have been so blessed with not only a wonderful pregnancy, but also friends and family that have taken care of all of our baby item needs. We were so fortunate to have showers and people who love us that took care of everything. We don't need a single item right now....well, except for a baby! But thank you to everyone who has bought anything for Sweet Pea, it is so appreciated and not taken for granted! We thank God every day for all of the blessings that we have been given!

Food cravings :)

Yum! I'm sitting here drooling just thinking of yummy food! Lately I've been craving all things breakfast related. Omelets, pancakes, waffles, toast, french toast, chocolate milk, apple juice, Sunny D...pretty much anything. I have woken up at 3 am one day CRAVING a bacon and cheese omelet...so what do you do besides get out of bed and go make one? Ha ha! It was probably one of the best things I've ever eaten, or so I thought at that moment! I've also been drinking apple juice by the gallon lately. Mmmm...good stuff!

And my latest food addiction as of last night is Steak n Shake. Not just anything though. A steakburger with cheese and all the toppings and chili cheese fries. Soooo unhealthy for you, but sooooo incredibly delicious! Oh my gosh! I had it a few weeks ago after one of our birthing classes and last night we stopped by there and I had the overwhelming desire for these items after I saw them on the menu. Seriously I could eat it right now. I'm salivating! Ok I gotta go get my mind on something else! =)

36 weeks = Crenshaw melon (?)

How your baby's growing:

Your baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. She's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of her first bowel movement.

At the end of this week, your baby will be considered full-term. (Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term.) Most likely she's in a head-down position. But if she isn't, your practitioner may suggest scheduling an "external cephalic version," which is a fancy way of saying she'll try to coax your baby into a head-down position by manipulating her from the outside of your belly.


Well, Sweet Pea is already a good baby, in the fact that s/he is already head down and has been for 2 weeks now!! Yay! Hopefully no breech baby for us! It's so unreal that 28 days from now is Sweet Pea's due date! Jeremiah and I both are so excited and so ready to meet this baby! We feel like we've waited our whole lives to get to this point...which I guess we really have, because neither one of us has had kids before!

Good news on the furniture! I called today and they said it has made it to the warehouse and will be put on the truck to be shipped to Pensacola on Thursday or Friday. The store is going to call us on Monday with a definite arrival time! Yay! It's about time we got some good news on this issue! Maybe the furniture will get here before Sweet Pea does after all!

Good news and bad news

Well, there isn't really any bad news except for me, for the fact that I haven't had a baby yet! ;) But in the good news department my doctor's appointment on Friday went well. They did another ultrasound, which showed Sweet Pea is doing fine! I also have PIH (Pregnancy Induced Hypertension), or high blood pressure caused by being pregnant. The doctor won't really do anything for this except watch it and if I develop protein in my urine, then they become more concerned. When Dr. D noticed how swollen my legs were, I just chuckled and said they're always like that. But only my feet/ankles used to swell, and now it's my whole leg up to my thigh. They are such a lovely sight!!

Last week in the birthing class, we toured the labor & delivery floor of the hospital. Which was extremely helpful because now we know where to go at (possibly) 4 in the morning and (hopefully) not get lost!

Random note- Sweet Pea gets the hiccups at least once a day now. The event is quite adorable! It's so funny to feel my belly move like it has the, well, hiccups!

BABY SHOWER #2

Sweet Pea's second shower was awesome!! The theme was "baby fiesta" mixed a little with "sweet pea"! It was very unique! My friend Karri hosted it at her house and did such a fantastic job! My friend Zarah also helped out, especially with the desserts! We had the greatest food: shrimp enchiladas, tacos, homemade salsa, taco dip, and fajitas. Yum =) In the dessert department (my favorite!) we had fruit salsa, cream cheese mints, and these cupcakes that were to die for! There were four different kind of icings (raspberry, peanut butter, key lime and chocolate buttercream) and I was in heaven! There were little sweet peas on top of the cupcakes...so incredibly cute!

We played some crazy, fun games! In the first one, two people were blindfolded and had to change a baby doll's diaper. Whoever did it the fastest won. It was pretty funny! The other game we played was who could drink apple juice from a bottle the fastest. It was much harder than I thought it would be! I don't know how those little babies do it!! Wouldn't ya know, my mom won that one!! She's becoming a pro at all these baby shower games!

It was such a fantastic party and I appreciate that Karri took time out of her very busy schedule to give us this shower! Thanks again to everyone who brought food and who came and celebrated Sweet Pea's impending arrival. It made me feel very loved!

Sweet Pea's stylin' ride all buckled in!

Here is the car seat actually in the car! We are going to have it inspected at a local fire department to make sure that it is installed properly. Hopefully that can be accomplished sometime this week. The bottom picture is of the adorable mirror that Sweet Pea gets to look at from now on! Well, starting when s/he can see that far away!!

Coming home ensembles

So these are the outfits I got this weekend for Sweet Pea's arrival to his/her new home! The top is obviously if she is a she. And the bottom one is if he is a he! I just love them...they are so adorable! The original ones I had picked out were just a little too pricey when it came down to it. So we had to settle for these...except I don't think we settled at all actually. I think Mr. or Mrs. Petty will be precious in either one. And a baby really doesn't care what they wear anyway.

35 weeks pregnant and 35 days to go!

Well, probably not really that long to go!! Here are some belly pics! Please excuse the blurriness of the first one (my camera was being bad!) and that I don't have on makeup (I'm just lazy!)! The belly just keeps getting bigger and bigger!!

Updates! (looooong)

I can't believe it's been a week since I've blogged! I'm so incredibly sorry! There has been a ton of things happening in Sweet Pea land. I have a few updates for everyone. This post is long, so hang in there!

First, I am going to the doctor every week now. This past Friday, Dr. D checked me and said I was 2 cm dilated and about 50% thinned out. (The thinning out part can be very subjective to whoever is checking it. Because the previous OB said I was 70%.) Anyway, I also got an ultrasound that day. They checked on Sweet Pea's weight, which was around 5 lbs 4 oz. They also measured head circumference and the length of leg and arm bones, all of which were fine. The last thing they did was check to see if Sweet Pea was "practice breathing", which s/he was! It was so cute to see his/her chest moving up and down in there! This is a good sign that if Sweet Pea did come early, hopefully s/he would be able to breathe and do just fine in the outside world!

Second, the furniture, ahhh, the stupid furniture!! Will not, I repeat NOT be here until the middle of June. Granted I know that it's already June 2nd, but still, this stuff has been ordered since March! I get so upset when I think about it, I want to cry. We don't even have a dresser that we can put Sweet Pea's clothes in. I can't finish decorating until we get the furniture in and we see how it all fits. Ahhhh, so incredibly frustrating, but there is nothing I can do about it. Sweet Pea will probably be here before the furniture is! BUT at least the walls in the nursery are finished. We did paint touch ups on Sunday afternoon and it's ready to have everything else put in now.

Third, I think Sweet Pea will be here within the next two weeks. Why do I think that you ask? Mother's intuition! ;) No, not really, I don't think that I have that yet! I just hope we make it to 36 weeks. That is my goal! But I have been nesting quite a bit lately. I washed all of the new blankets, towels, outfits, etc. today. And packed Sweet Pea's diaper bag for the hospital. We also put the car seat in the car tonight. It looks so weird in there! It just symbolizes that we are one step closer to bringing a baby home!

35 weeks = honeydew

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How your baby's growing:

Your baby doesn't have much room to maneuver now that he's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (pick up a honeydew melon). Because it's so snug in your womb, he isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times he kicks should remain about the same. His kidneys are fully developed now, and his liver can process some waste products. Most of his basic physical development is now complete — he'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.