Birth Announcement!

It's official!!

10 days old!!

I added a short video of Cooper falling asleep today.. so cute with his little smiles right before he falls asleep.. He is 10 days old today and he is doing great.. He is getting a little fussy every now and then and is going through a good growth spurt.

He has gained 5oz since birth, which is pretty good.. He is still nursing and we are getting much better at that. In short, he is a big healthy boy and Mollee even still likes him, even though we had some craziness the other morning when she cut the whiskers off two of our cats and flushed some of my hair stuff down the toilet... a little jealousy.. but we knew that would happen. :)

Sean goes back to work tomorrow and that makes me sad :( We have actually enjoyed each other's company at a time when i thought we would be ripping each other's hair out..

Cooper Lachlan Peters is Here!!

All covered up to go home! 14 hours post-birth!

His cute little duck outfit

Maddie and Cooper

Hsinyeh and Cooper

Sean and his son!! :)

Me and Cooper.. exhausted!

Mollee and her new little Brother!

Sean, Chris, and Cooper ( no one smiles!!)

Proud Grampy and Cooper!!

Our wonderful little boy!!

Cooper Lachlan Peters was born on July 19, 2010 at 8:22 am after only 8.5 hours of labor and 20 minutes of pushing.. it was nuts.

Labor started at 11:40 pm on July 18.. We had just laid down to go to sleep and were watching TV when i had this crazy contraction that felt like this pressure/pain in my intestine and in my upper legs.. we started timing. They were about every 7 minutes.. so of course, we got up and sat in the living room watching TV and timing them..they ranged from about 4-7 minutes. I called Dr. McCray and told her and she said to go ahead and head to the hospital in a couple hours and that if they were not consistent, we could just induce labor. So, at 3 am, Sean's dad arrived at the house to watch Mollee and we took off for Fulton.. at home my contractions were every 3-5 minutes. By the time we got to the hospital and sat in admissions, they were every 5 minutes.

We got to the room and they checked me and my cervix was still 3 cm but had gone from 50% to 90% effaced, so they figured i was in some sort of labor. We walked the hallways until 545 am because Dr. McCray was supposed to arrive at 6 am and was threatening Cytotek if i hadn't changed any. So, after 1 hour of walking, contractions were every 3 minutes but not too painful, just enough that i couldn't really walk or talk during one. They checked me again and i had dilated to 4cm and was still 90% effaced and baby was still at -2 station. They told me I could get in the jacuzzi, but that it might slow my labor some. So, we ran the water and I got in. I had two contractions that weren't really bad, but i couldn't sit with them because the pain in my legs was so bad and in my lower uterus, so i had to kneel through them. The next contraction i had hit me like a ton of bricks. All of a sudden, i had gone from breathing/moaning through them a little to bawling and begging for an intrathecal. Sean had been watching TV and he had to come over and help me through the contraction. I was crying and talking about how i didn't care about my birth plan, that I could not do it. I just didn't want to feel anything, I wanted it over with and i wanted drugs.

The nurse told me that the ONE anesthesiologist in the hospital was in the OR for a procedure and that i could not have the spinal until 8 am (it was about 630am) but that she could get me an IV with some narcotics to help me relax but they wouldn't do anything for the pain.. So, she called for the IV..

That took about 30 minutes. I was standing and swaying through contractions with Sean while he rubbed my back and I was crying. I didn't realize all of this was the sign that I was in transition labor...

I got my IV and in between contractions they checked me and found out i was 8 cm dilated (4 to 8 in about an hour) and 100% effaced and baby was WAY down. Well, after i had my IV, i was falling asleep between contractions but still dying with each contraction, there was SO much pressure. My water still had not broken. All of a sudden, there were these two guy residents in my room, some blonde guy and some African guy that was about 6'8" tall. They were ordering nurses around and acting all cocky. The nurse said that my Dr might not make it, so they were here to deliver the baby just in case. They both made me horribly uncomfortable. The one African guy kept trying to order me to breathe and checked me at about 730 am and told me i was 9.5 cm and the baby was at 0 station, but that i couldn't push because there was a small rim of cervix on one side. I was so mad, and he was so pushy about checking me, and there was so much pressure, i just wanted to push.

Just then, someone told me Dr McCray was in the hallway.. it was 755. No spinal for me... She walked in the room and I told her i wanted to push and she told me to go ahead. So, the contractions started to space out some. I pushed about two to three pushes for each contraction for 5 contractions. I was pretty sure i was going to die.. ha because there was SO much pressure, more than i ever felt with Mollee, and everything had gone SO fast. I wasn't pushing very hard though because i was anxious and I knew it was going to hurt, but finally on the sixth contraction, I pushed really hard and his head literally flew out.. I know because i watched the whole thing in the mirror.. When it did, the water broke all over Dr. McCray because he was born inside the amniotic sac. She pulled the rest of his body out and handed him to me and he was wonderful and slimy and so tiny.

The rest is the usual labor story. Everything was fine, I got to hold him for probably twenty minutes before they took him to clean him and he was totally fine. He was breathing well and red and just wanted me to hold him... he didn't cry as long as i was holding him and they said that was fine, he just wanted to be held.

He weighed in at 7lb 15 oz and 21" long. Surprisingly, there was no tissue trauma even though countless OBGYNs had told me that my episiotomy scar tissue would tear very badly when i had a second baby.

I got to sit and enjoy the rest of my bag of saline and a nice hot breakfast while Sean held our baby. Sean was wonderful through the whole thing, breathing with me and rubbing my hand and trying to keep me focused. We have the whole thing on video and because of the narcotics, I look like some crazed maniac because my eyes keep rolling in my head between contractions. I also look really mad through most of it until Dr. McCray got there because of those stupid residents and how they acted. I had Sean tell the African guy to get out of the room while i was pushing because Sean was trying to get me to breathe and focus and here is this guy watching my lady regions and yelling BREATHE at me..

I am glad it is over. At 130 in the afternoon we decided to name him Cooper Lachlan Peters, which literally translates into Barrel Maker Land of Lakes Rock.. ha. He is beautiful and he has blonde fluffy hair and blue-grey eyes (for now).

We had no complications and were discharged from the hospital at 1130 pm that night. We went home after 38 hours with no sleep and had a crazy first night with Cooper. He goes from happy to completely angry in about 0 seconds.

Our time in the hospital, we had a few visitors. Sean's dad brought Mollee to come meet her baby brother, and then my dad came by to meet his new grandbaby. Late in the afternoon, Hsinyeh and Maddie came by to meet Cooper. Hsinyeh loves him I am pretty sure :)

Heading out..

We are getting ready to head out to the hospital. Contractions are about 6 min apart and i had started bleeding, so Dr told us to go ahead and come in. Looks like today will be baby's birthday.. Hopefully all goes well. I just want to meet him.

41 Weeks 1 day continued..

Unfortunately today has been sort of sad. My great uncle Leonard passed away this morning, and he will be dearly missed. He was my dad's father's brother and a hilarious man. He was mayor of his home town for many years and had a sense of humor that only a Clary could have. He was very sick and he is no longer suffering, but he will be horribly missed.

I unfortunately have not seen him since Mollee was very little, about 3 weeks old, but here are some pictures from then.

Uncle Leonard holding Mollee back in 2005...

Dad and Uncle Leonard. Dad looks just like him and acts a lot like him too.

In other news, I am completely exhausted, same old thing. Lots of contractions going nowhere. Against my better judgement, I paid $2.86 for a bottle of castor oil tonight and just swallowed a tablespoon of the nasty stuff, washed down with a Starbucks frappuccino. I would not suggest it to anyone, but i really just want to sleep and if my body is ready and just needs a kick start, maybe this will help. IF it doesn't help, then this baby will officially never come out.

41 Weeks 1 day...

Well, yesterday was our original due date so perhaps we are not too far off?? Otherwise, baby P is 8 days overdue.. ha. I never thought i would still be pregnant at this point. I finally got a decent night's sleep last night, I had Sean sleep on the air mattress (he woke up with no air left in the mattress thanks to our fabulous cats)..

My back is still really achy and i'm still having contractions like crazy. I had contractions that were somewhat painful yesterday in my back and front with lots of pressure that were 18 min apart at 3 pm and then by 6 pm were 12 min apart and were 8 min apart by 11 pm.. but then by 3 am, i was woken up by one crazy contraction and then that was it..they stopped.

So, here i am.. I guess i'm just waiting? The only things i need to get done are science things and i can't seem to get myself excited to do them. Yesterday we cleaned the whole house. I finished baby's room, hung up all the paintings and pictures. Then I cleaned the top of my dresser, dusted my bedroom, and vacuumed the stairs. Sean vacuumed the living room and mopped the kitchen and i cleaned the microwave and counters and hung up the paintings and wall stuff in the kitchen.. granted we have lived here for 7 months now and I'm just now hanging stuff up.

I have dreams nightly about wearing jeans with buttons and zippers and not being pregnant any more. Ha ha. I have come to terms with the fact that this baby will be coming out at some time in the near future and it probably won't feel fantastic but I am so ready for him to be here and for me to feel somewhat like myself again. It doesn't really seem real, the baby part, like it should, i just want to be able to sleep on my back or stomach again.. I know, I sound selfish, I have just been pregnant forever!!

I can't wait to have him here either though because even though i was totally freaked out when i had mollee, she has really changed my life in amazing ways.. Without Mollee, who knows where I would be..I had to make really good decisions and learn to keep a job to support her and everything else, and i had to make very hard decisions (well not really that hard) about who was in my life...so, I'm sure that this baby will make our life even better... Mollee is already telling waitresses that we are a party of 4.. how cute.

Signing off,

KP

40 weeks 6 days..

well.. last night was interesting.

I was pretty sure i was in labor at one point. I could not walk becuase i was having so much downward pressure from baby in my pelvis and i had these sharp pains that kept happening everytime i would stand up straight or sometimes when i would sit down.

Then during dinner i was having mild contractions every 5 minutes..so i ate, and then we came home.

Then they were every 8-9 minutes and much more intense..i laid down on the couch. They were still intense and every 11 minutes, so they weren't regular at all.. Now this is all in a time span from about 6pm-10pm. By the time i went to bed at 11ish they were every 12 minutes and even more intense.. so i put three extra towels on the bed in case my water broke and went to sleep.

At around midnight i realized that my thigh muscles on the back were very sore, almost crampy, like i had been riding a bike or really exercising.. So i drank some water- because i do not want more Charlie horses..bleh. I had a horrible night of sleep... contractions woke me up sometimes, then sometimes stupid dreams would wake me up (like driving down a road with about 20 tornadoes on each side- really vivid) or Sean would pull the covers off of me and get all mad when i tried to get them back (he's very irritable in his sleep lately- which just makes me more mad).. at one point he told me "Either pick it up or I'm going to throw it away".. i have no idea what he is talking about.

I finally woke up at 6 am and I am hurting everywhere.. My thigh muscles hurt, my calves hurt, my back is KILLING me, my shoulders are sore, my arms are sore. I feel like i felt after i started running and lifting weights, like i have been exercising for hours.. I don't know if i was just subconciously tensing with each contraction in my sleep?? I shouldn't have.. i mean, i was ASLEEP.. you can't get more relaxed than that, right?

So, i'm awake..I'm going to waddle downstairs and drink some tea and maybe take a warm bath.. i'm exhausted. I want to go to sleep, but i can not sleep in the bed while Sean is in it. It just hurts. It hurts enough to be in it by myself.. urg.

40 weeks 5 days!! PROGRESS!

Baby has dropped down!

3 cm and 50%!! These contractions are doing something!! woohoo!! Dr said i should go into labor on my own no problem and might be sooner rather than later.. if i see her on the 24th, she said she will strip my membranes..

Yippeee! cmon baby Peters!

40 weeks 5 days..

Well, my guesses were for 40 weeks 3 days, but here i am..

Today is Mollee's birthday, she is 5! 5 years ago today, i thought i was dying.. ha. I hope this time is better :) We took her to the mall last night and got her ears pierced for her birthday, even though sean wanted to wait til she was older, he caved last night so we went. She cried a bit, but now she can't stop looking at herself in the mirror..

I need to get my second ones redone at some point, but i have to wait until i don't have a bunch of BSL3 work to do because you can't wear any jewelry in the lab.

Well, we go see the doctor today at 315.. i know she is going to talk about induction with me but i am going to see how long I can get it delayed next week. I have decided if i have to be induced, i am going to ask for Cervadil (a prostaglandin gel that can be removed if the contractions become too strong) instead of pitocin or cytotek. Cervadil has a much lower risk of uterine rupture. before any of that happens, i will try castor oil though. It is the one home induction method i have not tried yet..

I am still having contractions like crazy. Yesterday, i felt horrible. I woke up at 420 am with contractions every 8-9 minutes for 2 hours. I stayed awake until after i took Mollee to school and then came home and took a nap for 1.5 hours. I had contractions later that afternoon that felt more like a stomach ache and were 5 min apart for an hour and then they stopped. I was really thinking that was it. Apparently it wasn't, but i think something must be going on down there.

Last night I downed a dinner portion of super spicy thai soup which has been my number one craving for the last trimester ( i have probably had this soup about 6 times in the last two weeks.. it is so fabulous). It is a spicy broth with cilantro, mushrooms, bok choy, and scallions and then it has these giant pork dumplings floating in it.. Mmmmmmm...

Well, anyway, i went to bed early because i felt horrible and tired from my mere 5.5 hours of sleep.. If i fall asleep before sean, i can sleep somewhat better but he crowds me all the time now when he is asleep, whereas i used to be the one that crowded him and he gets all mad in his sleep when i tell him to scoot over. He tried sleeping in the recliner last week for about 45 min and said he couldn't and then he tried the couch cushions for about 2 hours, but couldn't sleep on those either. I feel bad kicking him out of the bed, but I can not sleep.. which is killing me!!

Well, hopefully this baby will come out (on his own) soon and then i can get a decent night's sleep. I've been reading articles this morning on painless childbirth (there is such a thing!) and i am going in with the attitude that these are natural processes of organs and muscles doing what they need to do. i was a little freaked out last week about the whole thing, but i feel very accepting now. The only thing i am nervous about now is being induced because i want to stay mobile, and i will have to be in the bed if i have pitocin.. bleh.

Wish me luck at the dr today!! Sprinkle some uterus dust for me!

KP

40 Weeks 3 days..

40 weeks 2 days..

So, yesterday was pretty uneventful uterus-wise. I woke up with contractions that were 10 min apart and lasted from 545 am - 1030 am, but then stopped. They came back last night around 7 and lasted until midnight and stopped again.. they were accompanied by general bleh feeling and back ache.. who knows.

I did accomplish a lot yesterday. Called to complain about neighbors' ridiculously loud music and found out their lease ends on the 20th which is fabulous! Then I called and set up interviews at 2 daycares on the North side of town, one we are meeting this morning. The price is better than the other daycare centers, so hopefully it will work and we won't have to go with a home daycare.. I also arranged for a pediatrician for Baby P at the clinic Mollee is going to. He has to be see within 3-4 days of discharge..

I did go buy myself some Thai soup yesterday at a 2.5 hotness level. It was pretty fantastic and made my day. I was so full, i didn't even eat a full dinner.. mmmm...

I also went and got my passport photo taken.. not attractive. Sweaty and shiny and bloated, oh my! Oh well, it's done at least. I went to get my actual passport at the post office, but they decided to close that line at the office at 4pm.. which sucks because passport prices go up by $35 today.. boo. Oh well. At least most of it is ready to go.

I also took care of some stuff for work and have to run in and ship a package this morning. Oh, and i picked up my year's supply of contacts, which is good because the trial ones i had were no longer sticking to my eyeballs.. ha.

Oh, i also picked up Mollee's birthday presents or some of them. I wanted to make sure she had presents here in case we were in the hospital and i couldn't got pick anything up for her. I think she will like them! We take cupcakes to school on Thursday and then after baby is out, we are having a small get-together with cake for her birthday.. hard to plan with a stubborn baby though.

40 Weeks 3 days

So this morning, we are meeting with the daycare at 930 and then i have to run into work and then i'm going to try to get all the figures put together for my paper and the materials and methods sent to Deb and start writing the results. I think i can get most of that done today because most of it is already done, just needs to be "finalized". I'm also going to finish these Thank You cards and get them in the mail. Time flies when you are waiting around for a baby.. hah.

Well, i'm off to drink some "coffee mix" and watch the Today show. Envy me. My life is terribly exciting. And then get miss Moo ready for some school. KP!

40 Weeks 1 day...

Still cooking. Looks like 7/11 will not be his birthday either..

We had a good day.. hung out around the house, cleaned some. We had a nice Arbys lunch and then went to Michaels in a rain storm and Mollee got a little bank to paint that is the shape of a pony and i got some more paintbrushes in the correct sizes. Sean was going to buy a model to work on, but changed his mind. We came home and I sorted laundry, then took a short nap. I was having some decent contractions for a couple hours with some back pain/crampiness but then they just stopped after i took my nap.. so sad!! Come on uterus! You can do it!

We had a yummy flat iron steak dinner and after Moo went to sleep i finished my second painting for the baby's room. I'm obsessed with birds lately, so it is a copper outlined tree with some birds.. I did another one that was birds on a wire for baby. I also sketched a picture of a girl but i have to finish that one.

There is a sketchbook competition thing that is hosted every year and i would love to enter it. For $25 they send you a sketchbook and you decorate the whole thing according to either a theme you choose out of 30 or a random one they assign to you. I would pick "in Flight" of course right now because of this bird obsession. After you finish, they digitize your sketchbook and then all of the books join a collection at some art museum. It sounds pretty fantastic to me, but maybe next year.. or maybe i could just draw a lot.

I would crochet something to stay busy, but the printer is disconnected and we can't find the software so i can't print any patterns. The frog cross stitch is almost done, well about half way. I'm trying to stay really busy. I am going to finish my figures for the paper tomorrow and run into work long enough to ship some stuff to another PI. I got about half of the thank you cards finished tonight also.

Well, here are bird paintings #1 and #2. If i finish the picture of that girl, I will post it tomorrow..

Waiting patiently,

KP :/

The first bird pic (with and without flash) done in acrylic on canvas - Birds on Wire

The second bird picture.. Acrylic on canvas with copper paint pen to outline the tree. The tree didn't come out the way i wanted it to, but i made the most of it..

"Birds on Copper Tree"

40 Weeks- 0 Days-- D Day..

Due date..

White trash party..

39weeks 6 days. i love this shirt.

So much for due date..

Well, it's 1048pm and i dont think this baby will have 7/10/10 as a birthdate.. darn. It would have been really easy to remember. I have gotten everything from "tomorrow" to "three weeks from now".. I had a good day. Hung out with Sean and Mollee, had a nice lunch at Ruby Tuesdays. Came home, watched Food, Inc and took a short nap. Then we walked an antique mall for about 30 min. I came home, got all dressed up and went to Tiffany's White Trash birthday party.. turns out all you need to look white trash is a pregnant belly.. it was a blast. spent 2 hours there (standing so gravity would help me out!) and then came home.. I'm getting ready to go to sleep.. thought i would include some pics..

The Chronicle of the Last few (or 14 days)...

39 weeks 6 days

Well, actually according to the stuff on the web, today is my due date, but according to the dr it is tomorrow. Only 4% of babies are born on their due date, the other 96% are born between 38-42 weeks.. well, i guess this one will either be that 4% or somewhere between 40-42 weeks. Dr really wants him out by 41 weeks, but we will see.. hopefully it will be sometime this week..

I have been having pretty good contractions (lots of pressure, some pain) for 3 days now that are about every 15 min.. Wed night i had them every 15 min from 4pm til 3 am and then they stopped.

Yesterday, they ramped back up and were every 10 min and about a minute long..i was ignoring them until i started shaking all over and then i went to call sean and ended up doubled over on the stairs with one, feeling like i was going to throw up and shaking everywhere. He wouldn't come home unless they were regular so i went and laid down for a bit and they just stopped.

Now this morning again, they are not painful, just pressure and they are every 15 min, have been since 9 am. I'm not getting my hopes up.

I will have a 40 week picture up tomorrow..i'm not looking too horrible. I'm a bit swollen, mostly my hands and feet, but you can't really tell except that my index fingers won't really bend any more from all of the accumulated fluid.

I'm off to distract myself with sunshine and watermelon..

KP

39 weeks!

39 weeks and 1 day

Me and Moo at Fireworks..

Sean and I at fireworks..

Feeling good.. not too fat!

Nothing big going on, no changes in the baby parts. no big deal! not thinking about it!

I'm a ticking time bomb! Watch out world!

So.. yeah.. i'm incompetent..

OK, well not incompetent. That is a negative word. Let's stay away from negative right now. I'm a little depressed. So first let me say that i switched doctors and hospitals to prevent unnecessary medical interventions, like induction.

You will understand this if you read my blog post a couple weeks ago about Mollee's birth. yes, I had a beautiful baby and she was healthy and i was mostly healthy and i made it out alive, but it made me very angry and frustrated for 4 years and i know it can be better than that.

So, I went to see Dr today after my crazy contractions the last two days and being completely exhausted. I was hoping for good news like, "you are dilated to 6cm, holy crap, this baby is coming out now!!" which i knew would not happen in all reality. Sean had his bets that nothing had changed from last week.

Well, one thing had changed. My blood pressure. My BP was 152/90, higher than mine has ever been.. i usually run 120/60, even pregnant. I also have terrible swelling and have been having some weird visual stuff, like flashes of lights.. all of these things are signposts of preeclampsia. Yay.

So, of course the cervix has been uncooperative. Baby has come down a little more, but i"m still 2cm and 25% effaced and very posterior, but at least it is ripe and ready.. ha. So the doctor asked how i felt about induction.. i explained to her about my experience with pitocin previously. She offered cytotec, aka misoprostol, aka RU486, aka the abortion drug.. a drug they used to use as a pain killer and then they found out that pregnant women taking it started having miscarriages because it softens the cervix so much. They normally use this to induce labor in women but it is not actually mandated by the FDA for that use so there is no information or clinical trials on dosage, etc, which has led to some serious complications in some births including uterine rupture, death of baby, death of mom, or emergency hysterectomy.. All of these things i would like to avoid.. so i declined cytotec.

She told me that she could give me some pitocin and see if my labor started and then take it off and let me just labor without it, but my fear is that either 1) i won't labor without it because baby will not be ready which would lead to the following: --> Strapped to fetal heart rate monitors because you have to be continuously monitored on pitocin--> stuck in bed and can't move (this hospital is not so high tech!) --> begging for pain killers (they only offer spinal block, not epidural.. do not want to go down that road) --> which could lead to other complications, like me not being able to push and them having to use forceps, vacuum, crazy episiotomies, or C section.. all things on my list of no-nos unless absolutely medically necessary.

Now, i would be willing to try pitocin to "augment" labor if i could come off of it and then move freely, but i would really like to stay away from it if at all possible. So, she told us to think about it and to let her know at our appt next Tuesday. In the mean time, I 'm going to ignore these contractions unless i start getting really uncomfortable and i'm going to go about my business as usual, clean house, write my paper, read up on the host response, and call it good.

She told me at the most, she would let me go to 41 weeks without being induced, which is July 17.. so, let's hope the fireworks this weekend set something off. I'm going to be patient with this baby and my body and hope that something happens. As long as baby is OK, i am willing to wait for him.

Wish me luck!!

KP

38 weeks.. urg..

Well, here i am at 38 weeks and 5 days pregnant.. I am really tired.. that could be because this is the second night in a row that I have been awake at 430 am.. Of course, last night, i was going back to bed at this time.

So, night before last, Tuesday, i stayed home from work to get stuff done and i did really good throughout the day.. I wasn't even lazy, i actually worked from home. But, about 7pm, we were out in the car and i got a contraction (nothing new here, i've been having these forever!) but this one was a little different and made my back twinge really bad. So, then we started eating dinner and i could hardly eat because my back hurt so much. So, Tuesday night i ended up having contractions with a horrible back ache about every 10-15 minutes until 11pm. The back ache did not let up between contractions, but just hurt. I finally got out of bed at 230 and stayed up til 430 trying to get comfortable before i went back to bed.

So, Wednesday morning, i woke up and was a little uncomfortable, and i went to work for about an hour. The back ache came back with a vengeance. I went home and tried to sleep. I started having contractions every 8-10 minutes and was so miserable that i was sure this was "it". I finally fell asleep for 2 hours and felt much better, back ache sort of went away. Then Wednesday night, we went out to dinner and while sitting at Red Lobster, I all of a sudden got the back ache again and started having contractions (once again around 7 pm). By the time we got home from dinner ( i was miserable), the contractions were every 5 min timeable but were not intense. I would call them a 2 on a scale of 0-10, but the back ache was like someone had stepped on my back with a pair of cleats on. These contractions have lasted until now, 4-5 min apart and it is now 440 am on Thursday.

I got very close to calling the dr yesterday, but they went away, so i decided to wait because i have a dr appt in about 6 hours. I don't know if i am in very early labor, apparently some women have labor on and off for three days and then all of a sudden, BAM, they are in serious labor. I'm hoping that this is that and not nothing. I'm hoping to at least be dilated more or effaced more or something, anything, that lets me know that this has all been doing something. I'm absolutely exhausted, one from losing sleep (Sean is so asleep that he acts like I'm horribly annoying for flopping all over the bed) or two because i am having a really large muscle contract constantly.. i liken it to running for two days straight.

I am wondering if this "slow labor" is because the baby is posterior. IF the baby's face is facing up and not towards the back, it can cause the bony part of the baby's skull to rub the back of my pelvis which can create horrible back pain and slow labor because the baby just doesn't fit as well. I am trying to change positions to get baby Peters to rotate, but nothing yet. I guess i will have more information soon. I think i'm going to go make a cup of tea and read some reviews and watch horrible morning TV.

Oh, as far as names, we have settled on 3 that we really like. Once baby Peters pops out, we will see what he looks like and he will either end up as Cooper, Wesley, or Lachlan. I'm becoming very fond of Lachlan (Land of Lakes in Scottish) because it is different, Scottish, but manly and strong. It is also not SUPER different, it is in the top 1000 names..so, yeah. We have made some progress.

Tired of being pregnant and in pain,

Kristen

Good article..

http://www.self.com/health/2010/07/birthing-plan-controversies

I thought this article was great, especially now.. This is what i wrote to Self magazine:

I am 37 weeks pregnant with my son and am having trouble realizing that this birth does not need to be like my daughter's birth. I was induced at 39 weeks with her (i was 21 years old) because they said she was 9lb 1 oz (ultrasound) and would be too big the next week for me to deliver.. i wanted a natural childbirth but thought i could go without pain meds during induction. I was on pitocin (nothing used to ripen my closed cervix) for 12 hours the first day with nothing happening and no eating or drinking that whole time. The second day, they started my pitocin again at 6am. (they should have sent me home). At 830 am, my dr came in and said i was 1 cm dilated and broke my water and left me sitting in the puddle. They wouldn't let me get out of bed because they needed to monitor me, so my mobility was completely taken. After that, the contractions came like gangbusters. I asked for an epidural and they told me i had to be dilated to 3cm before i could have one. I got up to use the bathroom at one point and the entire toilet was filled with blood. At 12 noon they checked me and i was 3 cm so they called the anesthesiologist down to place my epidural. It took him 20 min to get there and I was shuddering from the contractions that had no breaks in between. They examined me one last time and said, "you are 10 cm, sorry, no epidural" I began pushing and after my daughter's head was out, the dr told me to stop pushing ( i could see the whole thing in a mirror) and told me she needed to give me an episiotomy. I told her that it was in my birth plan not to have one and her words were "well, you can't argue with me now.." after that, the rest of my daughter came out, with me passing out between contractions. I had severe post-partum depression that lasted about 6-12 months and I had an episiotomy that was tender until my daughter was 3.5 years old. My medical records said that my daughter was macrosomic. Oh, and she wasn't 9lb 1 oz. she was 8lb 2oz. So, here 5 years later, i find myself pregnant again and I had been going to a dr from the local hospital who seemed very nice, but too busy to remember my name after 22 weeks of seeing me, so at 26 weeks, i switched drs. I am now delivering in a very small hosptial 25 miles away with one OBGYN, but she is great. She doesn't mention induction until 42 weeks, doesn't want to examine me unless she has to, and doesn't do episiotomies. She is fine with my ways of doing things and prefers to deliver women without epidurals. I keep telling myself that if i can go through induction and a 5 hour labor with my daughter without pain meds, i can do a natural birth without them. It will be trying, but i needed to take back my birth too.

37 weeks!!

34 weeks- baby dropped!!

35 weeks

36 Weeks (my 26th bday!)

37 Weeks



So, i haven't updated this in a while. Baby Peters is full term now. The nursery is set-up, the bags are "packed" and i am ready? Well, I have experiments i would like to finish, but who knows.. they are mostly done.. one more week would be helpful. I am finally pretty uncomfortable. I have contractions all the time, mostly Braxton Hicks, but they still make me very tired. I have been working every day, and even pulled a 12 hour day yesterday.. that was nuts. but i got a figure out of it for my paper, so maybe it is worth it. We are reading about natural childbirth and practicing our relaxation techniques. I have complete faith in my body, but am still having trouble reckoning with Mollee's birth and how unnecessary all of the medical interventions were. I love my new Dr.. she is fantastic. She is fine with my hippie ways and is very empowering. At 34.5 weeks i went in and found out (week after San Diego) that i was 1cm dilated and about 25% effaced. Baby dropped at 33 weeks, so he is down there head down. She put me on bedrest until i was 36 weeks.. which meant i only worked 43 hours that week (sitting down most of the time!!). At 36 weeks 3 days, i saw her again and was 2cm dilated and 25% effaced. Baby is not as low as he needs to be, but hopefully that will change. I bought some raspberry leaf tea which is a uterine tonic ( if you are already having contractions, it makes them more efficient- does not induce labor) and since i started drinking it, I am having more pressure and some pain in my pelvis. I have also been walking a lot and taking the stairs at work just to make sure everything works properly.. i have unfortunately put on 40 lbs with this pregnancy, but I'm not very worried about it. I know how to lose weight now and I will be nursing after, plus I'm pretty sure about 10-15 lbs of that is in my chest since i have gone up 3-4 cup sizes already.. crazy.

I also jumped on a trampoline today.. that actually felt pretty good. Wish me luck with finishing up all of this stuff i have to finish. the stress of this paper hanging over me is driving me crazy..

22-28 weeks?

22 weeks

L-->R 23, 24, 25 weeks..

27 weeks..

So my due date got bumped up a week, I'm now due on Juy 10th, which currently puts me at 28 weeks 3 days.. baby is getting very big and kicking a lot! No new stretch marks at least..but i get tired very easily now and am still having problems with contractions all the time, to the point that my Dr is making me go in tomorrow for an ultrasound to make sure that there is no dilating or effacing going on. I hope there is not because i really want to go to ASM in about 4 weeks.. I just have to make it to San Diego.. sunny San Diego :)

I feel really huge, but i'll let you judge for yourself..

20 and 21 weeks..

This pic is 20 weeks..

Baby is getting bigger!! Supposedly weighs 1 lb now and is 10-12 inches long.. He is kicking like crazy.. Mollee got kicked in the head today. He mostly kicks down really low, but sometimes I get an elbow or something to the side. I feel pretty good.. i actually ran the other day (only for about 3 min, but that is something, right? Only 18 weeks left to go!! Here are some pictures!

Here is 21 weeks..
The stretch marks are from Mollee..not this baby.. hopefully this one will just grow into hers and not make new ones!! I'm still thinking I'll get a bikini and wear it to the rec center pool just to gross out all the little college girls in June or so.. haha.

20 Weeks!! Morphology Scan!!

It's a BOY!!

Had my 20 week ultrasound today!! Baby is good.. things are good.. here are some pictures!

Baby Peters is a boy for sure!! see penis picture above :) He has all his parts..

Dr. checked me because i've been having contractions.. things are good, but she wants to keep an eye on me and my BP is too high, so i go back in two weeks to check that.. I've been labeled high risk.. anyway, otherwise, it's all good!!

19 Weeks!

I'm still feeling pretty good. The other day I had some contractions, about 2-3 every hour and i get them every once in a while. They aren't Braxton Hicks, they are more painful and they last longer. It's apparently normal with a second pregnancy. Baby is also moving around down real low and that doesn't feel very good. We find out Tuesday what I'm harboring when we go in for our ultrasound and full morphology scan. Other than that, just the usual week... i've been trying to take it a little easy..

Here's pictures from this week..

19 weeks 6 days..

17 and 18 weeks!

17 weeks, 3 days (above)
The rest of these are from Valentines night (18 weeks, 0 days!) Baby Peters is starting to make his presence known!

The whole family together!

Tons of Pictures!