Again, if you don't want to know, don't read.
August 1
The baby (Mystery--Misty for short--as the girls call her because we just can't pick a name) got hiccups this morning for only the second or third time. Her head is definitely still on my tailbone! Each hiccup reassured this with the pressure on the inside of a broken tailbone sensation.
August 11
I'm still experiencing new things with this pregnancy. I have Freckles! Never had those before. I also have this light rash all along my chin that has been there since the first trimester and just won't go away. At first, I tried acne treatment and that just made it worse. So I've just been living with it. It's not super noticeable and it doesn't hurt. It's just annoying.
I've also been experiencing Nausea in the third trimester! Why not? I had heartburn and indigestion in the first trimester so why not throw nausea into the third? (Note: sarcasm) I get very yucky when I go too long without protein or move in the wrong direction. The baby moving will trigger it too. Almost like a motion sickness. Dizziness also seems to accompany it. On Sunday, I couldn't even stand up for the rest hymn because the second I stood, the room started spinning.
I am out of clothes that fit and almost THIRTY POUNDS over my normal weight! Even my prenatal clothes feel tight. My bra that I've worn through the last two pregnancies makes me unable to breath.
Misty is at that fun point though where she plays with me. I can press on her foot a little and she kicks back or starts playing tag across my stomach. I also love to just sit and rub her bum and back which is usually hanging out quite predominantly on the right side of my stomach. These are the things I like about being pregnant.
August 21
Lost my mucus plug tonight. Never noticed that happening before. Chalk it up to yet another first with this pregnancy! Guess that means I'm at least dialated to a One. Maybe I should actually start washing baby clothes and such... or at least get it all out of storage?
August 24
Yep. I was right. Doc says I'm a 1+, almost a 2. This, of course, means absolutely nothing to me. I've been known to just sit at a 2 for a very long time.
I dreamt today that baby was born with brain damage from all the time I spent sitting on her head... my tailbone is getting more painful every day.
August 31
As I was saying... I sit at less than a 2 forever. Still 1+ and long. Had a bit of a scare, though. The baby's heartrate has been getting progressively slower at each visit. It was at 115 today so they hooked me up to the monitor for a while to check movement and heart acceleration after movement. Then they did an ultrasound to check fluid levels. Everything came out OK. But they have counting movements per hour whenever I can.
September 6
Had a moment of panic today. While sitting in Sacrament Meeting, I suddenly realized that with all the excitement of baptism yesterday, I haven't paid much attention to movement. When I finally climbed in bed last night, I fell right to sleep. But usually the baby kicks me as I fall asleep and I have no memory of her doing that last night. Then I realized I hadn't felt her move this morning either. I started to panic and prod at my stomach, trying to get her to move. Finally, after what seemed like forever, I felt a faint kick. But her movement all day has felt slow. Not the usual wiggling I'm used to...
September 7
So I decided to pull out all the natural induction methods today. Pineapple, dancing, tea, nipple stimulation, all that jazz that I was avoiding before the baptism. This stuff can easily take over a week to do anything if it ever works.
Jeremy insisted on taking me out for Spicy Tai tonight to get this baby moving. He seems to think I need to have a baby this week. I am not feeling... right. I feel kind of yucky and low on excitement. I think the weekend really wore me out. Anyway, the Tai food has definitely given me lots of contractions though I kind of doubt they're doing much. (Other than giving me the worst bloody nose I've ever had.) And the best part is: the baby is moving again!!!
September 9
Another first with this pregnancy! I made it to almost a FOUR!! And I'm 80% effaced! With a bulging bag! I've never gotten this far on my own before! Guess that spicy food on Monday actually did something. (Haha... but I did mildly contract all night on Monday)
The babies heart rate was low again though. The doc suggested sending me straight to the hospital and puting me on a tiny bit of pitocin. It was tempting. Having a baby on 9/9 would be fun. But I reminded her that I want to go natural with this one. So we arranged for me to come back at 4pm to have my membranes stripped. It's never worked on me before but this pregnancy has been its own beast the entire time so who knows. Anyway, she stripped my membranes (which hurt WAY more than I remember it hurting) and then put me on the monitor some more to check the baby. Then I came home with a few contractions. Jeremy decided it would be a great idea to put me in the truck after dinner and go for a bumpy ride up the mountain. I went along but told him if my water broke in his truck it would serve him right. My contractions got to every five minutes while in the truck but died down to more than ten apart once we got home. I just feel yucky now. I'm going straight to bed.
September 10
Another first!! Stripping my membranes actually worked! She's here!!!
I woke up at 1am with a really hard contraction. I could feel it actually pushing everything down. I waited but only a few mild ones came after that so I went back to sleep thinking I'd probably get woken up again soon. At 6am, I woke up to nothing. No contractions at all. I assumed the stripping hadn't worked and got up. Jeremy and I took a walk and enjoyed it. I decided to just do that every day until she came and began planning projects around the house to fill the time. When we got home at 7:15, I was having contractions but nothing consistent or hard. I did notice they had changed though. My whole stomach wasn't hard anymore. There was just a lot of pressure in my hips and crampiness with each contraction. Anyway, Jeremy got ready and left for work and I got the kids off to school. By the time I dropped Kassi off at her second day of preschool, though, the contractions were at a consistent five minutes apart and getting stronger. I called Jeremy who had just sat down at his office and suggested he may want to come home. Then I began doing some last minute prepping for things. I almost called Jeremy and told him to hold off though. I didn't want to labor a lot at the hospital because I hate the monitor when in labor and I didn't want to cave and get an epidural. But I didn't and he came home. We made arrangements for Kassi with my friend, Melissa, who had decided to stay the night when I got my membranes stripped just in case I had to leave while the kids slept. Then we left. My contractions began to slow down in the car, though. They were still hard, but I was really doubting our decision to go in so soon.
I was almost a six when we got there, 100% and stationed at -1. We still had a bit of laboring to do. I labored for two hours. The first one just walking and being hooked up to the dumb monitor. Then I spent my 40 minutes off the monitor during the second hour in the jacuzzi tub. I liked the tub. The contractions seemed a bit easier to bare. They were coming faster and harder but I didn't want to get out. They made me for monitoring but the baby was wiggling so much and I was moving for contracting so much that they couldn't get her heartrate to stay on the monitor. "We have to get 20 minutes of monitoring" the nurse kept saying but after almost 20 minutes of failed attempts at just ONE minute, I started to lose it. I didn't want to be on the monitor. I wanted to move around and focus on staying calm through my contractions. I could feel my time was short. Jeremy told the nurse I was acting like I was headed for transition so she checked me. I was still just a six. The doc was not going to come until I dilated more or my water broke. That's when I really lost it. I could tell the baby was coming. The pressure was so intense and not stopping between the increasing contractions. I'm not sure what happened next. Jeremy says he insisted I was transitioning. I heard the nurse call to have doctor come. I was on the the bed and couldn't take the pressure anymore so instinctively I got on my hands and knees. That's when Jeremy said the nurse panicked and started getting stuff out and yelling for help from the hall. In the one minute she was doing that, I had two hard contractions in which I lost control. My body was delivering a baby and there was nothing I could do about it. The first contraction crowned the baby, the second burst my water and my baby girl literally fell out of me onto the bed. The nurse kind of caught her.
I went from a six to delivery in less than a minute.
The baby was crying but was a purple-turning-blue I guess. (I was in so much shock that I only managed to turn my head in time to catch a glimpse of her before they took her away.) Her oxygen levels were really low so they had to work with her for a while.
We are both OK now, though. It took something like 40 minutes to get her and me to a point where we could be reunited. But when they handed her to me, she was beautiful and pink. Now we just need a name. We went through all the names on my list but none of them seem to fit her. Jeremy then said Lily, which surprised me because I've been trying to get him to agree to that name for years with the other girls. I think Lily fits her but I'm not sure. :) I'm not a super big fan of Lillian. The girls like it. Kassi is super cute when she says "Lily." I'm just not sure... we shall see what tomorrow brings.
