I was pregnant, then I was not pregnant.
What's that? You want more details?! Ok, I'll do my best to recap everything. In September we celebrated Chris's and Terra's birthdays. Very small gathering, but still fun! For Terra's party we did a movie night - the girls showed up and we popped popcorn and let the kids just run wild downstairs. It was a blast! In October, we had visitors from both sides of the family the first couple of weeks and then the last part of October was pretty uneventful. Chris's parents and one of his brothers and his wife came out to visit. His brother is stationed in Italy for a few years, so this was a "good-bye" visit. It was great to see them, but we miss them a lot! My family came out and we had a Taste of Homes cooking day. We each made a new recipe that we found from Taste of Homes and had a day filled with fun and food. The kids even got to go pick pumpkins from a friend's pumpkin patch...they had a blast doing that! In November, still didn't have a whole lot happen, but I made it to the "full term" mark, which is what we had been shooting for, so that was a BIG day for me (the Saturday after Thanksgiving). We celebrated Thanksgiving with just us and then put up the Christmas decorations that night. The kids had a lot of fun doing that. Then we created a chain to count down the days till Santa came. This chain was also a count-down for me as well! The baby was still giving us fits though.
She was still not head down, so they scheduled a version (turn the baby from the outside). The day of the version came and baby was head down, so they canceled that appointment and figured that I'd just go into labor on my own. The next day, she turned transverse (laying sideways) again, so we scheduled another version consult with the OB's and the midwife was very adamnt that they just schedule my induction during the appt since the baby was doing what they call an "unstable lie" (meaning she couldn't decide which way she wanted to be). So we had the consult with the OB and they scheduled me for an induction on the 18th. I was to go in as if I was having a c-section (I was officially considered high risk and was under the care of the OB staff with the midwives being the assistants). The version came with so many "what if's" and risks that it was just one of the precautions they were taking (to have the OR prepped and ready for me with the anesthesiologist in the room). I was told that if I felt the baby turn head down before the 18th to go in and get it confirmed and they'd immediately induce me.
I had many emotional break-downs that last week because I really didn't want a c-section, I was scared, I was worried...many "normal" feelings right before having a baby. On the 15th, I woke up and felt her kicking my ribs, so Chris helped me feel around for her and she was still laying sideways, just with her feet up instead of down. So, I gave up that hope and just went about my day. I was sitting outside the school waiting for the kids to get out and noticed that she felt vertical instead of horizontal. I called Chris to find out when he'd be home and then called the office to schedule a time to go in and get it confirmed. I tried to find my babysitters and no one was answering their phones (and those that did weren't available). So, Chris sent me in and he stayed home to get the kids dinner and to find a sitter. I went in and, sure enough, she had turned head down, so they told me to get over to labor and delivery ASAP. I was in shock and really just expected to be sent home at any given moment and told to just come back on my scheduled induction date. They hooked me up to everything about 4:30 pm and we were underway! Chris showed up about 45 minutes later and I relaxed even more (thank heaven for our church and the many helpful people that came over to sit with the kids that night). Everything seemed to be going smoothly (except for the fact that they couldn't keep her on the monitors, she was moving too much), that is, until they couldn't find her at ALL...then they called for the ultrasound. 4 hours after everything started, she turned completely breech, so they shut everything off and had to turn her in between contractions (I hadn't had an epidural at this point). They got her turned head down and allowed me to move around a little bit more (while being very closely monitored) and they lost her again. Another ultrasound confirmed that she was beginning to turn again, so they turned her back and told me to lay down and try not to be mobile. So I figured at this point that if I had to lay there, I might as well lay there comfortably! Epidural heaven......ahhhh....well, only halfway to heaven. My right side was the only thing that went numb, I could still feel everything on my left side, but things were so bad at that point. After 6-7 more hours, I was very frustrated (my water had been broken and things were still not happening) and telling Chris to just go tell them to give me a c-section (point of desperation). He assured me it was almost over and that recovery would be so much easier without one of those. I glared at him and started crying (yes, I'm a baby). Then I started to feel a LOT of pain and pressure. They called in the anesthesiologist and she gave me something else to numb the left side so I felt a little bit better, but still felt a LOT of pressure. I asked to be checked and they said I was at a 7 and that it would still be a little while. I insisted that once I hit 7 we were ready to go. It took a little convincing, but the nurse agreed to page the midwife (my care had been turned back over to them with the OB's on back-up once the baby stayed head down) once I felt the urge to push (which happened as soon as she said that). She didn't believe me, really, so I told her to check me again - she had just barely checked me, so was reluctant, but did so anyway and immediately called the midwife because the baby was on her way out. They prepped everything while the midwife ran down the hall at full speed. One push - her head was halfway out. Two pushes - her head was all the way out and her shoulders were being coaxed out. The midwife asked Chris if he wanted to catch the baby and he said yes, so the midwife showed him what to do. Three pushes (12 hours of labor) - baby is completely out and crying and so very beautiful!!! She weighed 7 lbs 8 oz and was 21 inches long. She's been such a joy - we've had a few bumps along this past week, but she seems to be pulling out of the worst of it! Welcome to the world Aralynn Rose! We're all so excited to have you here!!!
There are many more pics on Facebook!
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