mollie's birth day

this will be my last pregnancy post...sad since i really enjoy being pregnant, but so excited because we welcomed our sweet baby girl.

i made it to june 3rd, my due date. so 40 weeks pregnant, the most pregnant i've ever been. at the advice of my midwife, i had an induction scheduled for that morning at 7:30am. since it was later in the morning, we spent the night at home and just drove down early on thursday.

we arrived at the hospital and got settled right away in a room. it was pretty calm and quiet and i got settled in my gown and bed soon after and answered the millions of admission questions from the nurse. my midwife came to check on me and gave me the plan for the day. i was given a pill that would help to start the process and then had to lay down for an hour. we tried to find something on tv...not much, but i settled on some good gossip tv on e and tried to relax for a bit.

after the first hour i hadn't really made any progress, so the nurse told me i could walk around if i felt okay to see if that would help move things along. i walked around the room and made some rounds in the hall.

my mom and sister arrived a little before lunch time, they had stayed home in the morning to make sure the boys got to the babysitter okay. lance went off in search of food and some magazines to keep us occupied since it was taking longer than i thought it would. with miles i had packed a ton of stuff and never used it since it happened pretty quickly, so this time i didn't bring anything really except one magazine to read, so we were not prepared for a long day.

i started having more regular contractions, but they weren't very strong or painful yet. heather decided to start me on pitocin at this point (i was 3cm and for reference i began that morning at 1.5cm) to help move things along.

lance arrived back at the room and brought some magazines and games for us to play. since i was STARVING by this time (hadn't had anything to eat since about 9PM the night before) my sister snuck in some of the flavored syrup that you put in your coffee so i could have it on my ice chips and make them seem a little bit more edible.

i still wasn't progressing that quickly (still at 3cm), so around 3:20pm they came in and upped my dose of pitocin. heather determined that anytime after 4cm i could get my epidural and i just needed to let them know. around 4:15 she came in and told me that she was going to break my water, but wanted me to have my epidural before that since it could get very painful right after doing that and things might move too quickly. so we started getting ready for the anethesiologist to come in. she checked and i was at 5cm right before getting the epidural.

after getting the epidural heather checked me again and my water ended up breaking on its own right before she was about to break it at 5:07pm. i decided to try to take a nap before things got crazy!

i was about 8 cm around 6:30 so i knew things were getting close. since i'd been crazy taking pics all day, decided to take a few more calm ones before it got too late. oh and i was freezing by this point (i guess from the epidural) and had about a million blankets on me.

right after we took these pictures heather came in and i had made it to 9cm, so they started getting everything ready for delivery. lance packed up his computer and headed to the waiting area. i started pushing at 7:00 and she arrived at 7:10pm.

heather had been coaching me to push very quickly and by that point i was ready to get things done so i was really trying to do it as fast as i could. i later found out that the reason she was pushing to get it done so quickly was because mollie's heartrate was going down due to the fact that she was coming out with both shoulders at the same time and her cord was pressed up around her neck. thankfully all was well and she was fine once she was delivered. they put her right on my chest and i got to hold her for a while before my mom cut her cord and they took her to be cleaned up.

happy birth day, mollie!

mollie katherine * 7:10pm * 6lbs, 11oz * 20" long

she ended up being my biggest baby...how funny for our girl to be the biggest of the bunch. she started nursing right away. lance came in and met his daughter for the first time. and soon we were on our way to our recovery room. but only after i had some french toast from ihop. yay! at 9PM, i finally got my first food of the day. :)

39 weeks!

less than a week until our baby girl is here!

we are so very excited to meet her!

37 weeks!

36 weeks!

so close to meeting our baby girl!

33 weeks!

how far along? 33 weeks

sleeping: not good at all. i know still better than when baby girl arrives, but it is frustrating to not be able to sleep when you know you need it!

total weight gain? 26lbs

movement: still lots of movement, though it is more stretching now with less kicks. and she is big enough now that you can feel little body parts pressing out...i guess elbows or knees or feet/hands??

food craving: raspberry lemonade! i have just been drinking the mix kind, but i found a recipe that i want to try out to make homemade.

what I miss: sleeping well and being able to easily get up off the floor :)

what i'm looking forward to: finishing up her nursery. the room just got painted this weekend (and i love it!!) but i can't wait until we can actually move in and start putting up all the things i've been saving up. seeing the boys with their new sister. i have no idea how miles is going to react, but i think ethan is going to be a great little helper. he has been playing with a little doll at grandmother's house and calling her "baby sister" and it is so sweet.

milestones: going to to the doctor every two weeks now!

how i'm feeling: okay. i am definitely noticing that things are a lot harder this time around than they were the first and even the second time. i felt pretty good up until the end with both ethan and miles, but i am wearing out a lot quicker this time. plus she is scrunched up on my right side and something is jabbing up into my ribs and it is definitely not pleasant! but all in all, i am having a good pregnancy and i know i will miss being pregnant (i do after each time!)

the 3D ultrasound and 30 week appointment

i haven't ever done one of these before, but decided to do one with baby girl. partly because i wanted to make sure there was a baby girl in there and partly because i wanted to see how they would turn out.

yes, there is still a baby girl in there! and she is an active little thing. the doctor had a hard time capturing lots of pictures because she kept moving around. she even had her little foot up by her face. by the end she was tired of all the pictures and poking a prodding though because she brought both of her hands and one of her feet up by her face in an effort to hide.

the craziest thing was when we got a picture with her eye open...too freaky to share here! and then when we watch on the live view and could see her eyes opening and closing. that was just crazy!

my appointment went well and everything is progressing along normally. i am now up to appointments every 2 weeks! i can't believe it has gone by so quickly. i am very excited to meet her, but not ready for my pregnancy to be over quite yet...but i bet by 9 months i'll be ready!

28 weeks!

THIRD TRIMESTER!!! exciting, comforting and a bit scary all at the same time!

how far along? 28 weeks

sleeping: not great (but of course better than when i have a newborn, i know!) between the heartburn and not being able to get comfortable on my stomach (i'm still trying!) i'm often not asleep until well after 1am.

total weight gain? 19lbs.

movement: lots of it! she is especially active at night and around lunchtime.

food craving: blueberry scones. i love the ones from starbucks and have been trying out a few recipes of my own.

what I miss: being able to sleep on my stomach easily!

milestones: third trimester! passed my 1-hr glucose tolerance test...got to take it with jelly beans this time. i thought it would be easy to eat 18 jelly beans in 5 minutes, but there is such a thing as too many jelly beans. though much better than drinking the orange drink! blood test showed i am still anemic (no big surprise) so i just need to keep taking the iron i've been on and we'll go from there.

how i'm feeling: pretty good. i've been keeping up with my exercising, though it has now slowed down to walking only (i had been jogging) and some light weight lifting. i am going to be walking in a 5K at the end of this month and am looking forward to it. i am REALLY looking forward to the warmer weather and dresses and skirts. i feel so much more comfortable in those type of clothes and am ready to ditch the jeans. so come on spring!

belly pics!

i found this blog through a mom board i am on and the woman who writes it is a photographer. if you have time, her story is AMAZING and i guarantee you will cry your eyes out. thankfully i read it for the first time when lance was away otherwise i know he would have been wondering what in the world was wrong with me.

she had so many beautiful maternity pictures, some taken by her and others by friends, that i got inspired and wanted to try my hand out at a few. i'm not quite ready to do my monthly pregnancy update, but i couldn't wait to share these taken at 23 weeks.

20 week pregnancy update

how far along? 20 weeks

sleeping: no real change

total weight gain? 9.5lbs

movement: definitely feeling her move now! not anything regular yet, but little kicks every few days. i just love it! like ethan and miles, she is especially active at night.

food craving: not so much on the mozzerella sticks lately, which is a good thing! i have been dying for some red lobster, but we haven't been able to make it to one yet. laughing cow cheese! coke.

what I miss: nothing right now. i can still sleep on my belly, so that makes me happy.

what i'm looking forward to: decorating the nursery! we'll start building our new house very soon and i am already thinking of how we'll do her room.

milestones: as i already posted, the ultrasound was very positive. baby girl looked very healthy and was growing right on track.

how i'm feeling: good! i even started exercising again. it had been a while. the morning sickness killed me and then it took me a while to get back into the swing of things. hopefully i can keep it up for a while. i exercised a lot when i was pregnant with ethan and it really helped me feel good and helped A LOT with my recovery. been getting more heartburn lately, mostly at night, so i am trying to eat smaller dinners and earlier and then sit up and read or watch tv when we first get into bed. next appointment is february 8th.

a daughter...

wow! it seems so crazy to be able to say that. even today, a few days after finding out, i am still kind of surprised! though i was hoping for a girl (not so secretly either, i know), i still thought deep down that we were going to have a boy. for some reason, i thought i was destined to have 3 boys. i know i would have loved having 3 boys, but i am grateful that i will get a chance to experience a daughter. there are so many things that i look forward to doing with her. i know ethan and miles are going to be great big brothers to her and i love the fact that she'll have the two of them to help take care of her and protect her.

she is healthy. we got lots of photos of her. and we even got to see her yawn, it was so cute! she is very active and was moving around a lot. all of her measurements look good and i was only 1 day off from the original u/s, so due date is still the same. the doctor told us right away that she was a girl, but i needed a lot more convincing than that...he had to tell me about 4 times before i believed it. i was just expecting something so different that it took me a while to get it in my head that she was a girl. lance didn't quite believe it either. he was so sure it was a boy going in. but he was almost as excited as i was...he even included an exclaimation point in his text he sent out to family and friends letting them know. if you know lance, he is NOT an exclaimation point kind of guy! especially in text form.

as we walked out of the hospital, we kept talking about how we were going to have a daughter. it sounded so wonderful to say. on the way home, i celebrated by buying her first outfit. pink, with ruffles on the pants. so fun!

here are a few pictures of baby girl at 19 weeks, 4 days:

a little yawn...

little hands - the doctor said we got lucky to see an open hand since a lot of the time their hands are in little fists

little feet!!

16 week update

in a way it is hard to believe i am 16 weeks already, but in some ways it didn't seem like it would ever get here! 16 weeks was my light at the end of the morning sickness tunnel (or at least that was the time with both ethan and miles when i really started feeling better) so i had that in my sights from the beginning this time.

*thanks to kristi and cindy for this great little layout to keep track of things!

how far along? 16 weeks

sleeping: other than the random leg cramp here and there in the morning, nothing has really been disrupting my sleep yet (other than a teething miles!)

total weight gain? 7lbs (i may not be happy i included this later on down the road)

movement: nothing yet, but i bet pretty soon!!!

food craving: sonic mozzerella sticks and marinara sauce. and only sonic. puffy cheetos. strawberries (thankfully something healthy in there, right?)

what I miss: nothing right now. i am feeling pretty much back to normal and that is a good thing!

what i'm looking forward to: feeling the baby move! that has always been one of my favorite parts of being pregnant. should be pretty soon!!

milestones: nothing right now

how i'm feeling: sooo much better! i feel normal again! i didn't even realize how bad i felt for those first 10 weeks or so now that i feel good again. i am just thankful that my midwife (whom i just love!!) offered me some medicine to make it through. i have started getting heartburn a few days a week, but nothing too bad yet...still definitely better than the morning sickness any day! my belly has popped in the past few weeks (it is like it happened overnight) and i have been in maternity pants (or at least pants with a bella band) for the most part since about 15 weeks.

doctor appt update: had a routine visit last time. heart the baby's heartbeat on the doppler and all looked well. next appointment will be january 11th and i will have the ultrasound!!

26 weeks - give or take...

until we can expect baby #3 to make his or her arrival!!! i think i should have titled the post 14 weeks, which is how far along i am, though because that makes it sound like we have longer to prepare. even though 26 weeks is a long time, it sounds kind of short! and while i am nervous about having 3 (eeek!!), i am very excited that we'll be welcoming another little one to our home. i think the boys will make wonderful big brothers!

i am officially in my second trimester and am enjoying feeling better! my morning sickness lasted several weeks longer with ethan and miles, so i wasn't expecting relieft this soon. i am very thankful though, as this time around it seemed to be much worse. there were nights when i made lance eat in another room (or hide his food at the least) because i just couldn't stand it. in the past few days, really since thanksgiving, it seems like my morning sickness has almost gone away. i still just have a bit in the evenings, but that is a huge improvement from what was pretty much all day sickness since about 5 weeks.

nothing really to report, just a typical pregnancy so far. i did get to have an extra u/s at my last appointment because we couldn't hear the hearbeat with the doppler yet, so that was a fun bonus. the little one moves around like crazy though and that is why it was too hard to find...got to see all the kicking and movement and that was really fun. looking forward to when i can feel that again.

my next appointment will be the following week and hopefully we'll be able to schedule the ever exciting mid-pregnancy ultrasound. verdict is still out on whether or not we'll find out...