Well it's HOT here, I woke in the middle of the night last night soooooo damn hot. Put the fan on, and got myself a couple of ice packs from the freezer ... pheweeee. Had to have a nap this afternoon too to escape the heat. I can't believe I have had three pregnancies and everyone has had my third trimester over summer! Anyway, there's apparently a big storm coming on Christams eve, so hopefully that will bring some cooler air, though it is a shame we won't be spending Christmas day on the beach. Merry Christmas everyone! Hope those of you nearing (or over) your due dates have your little ones in your arms soon.

Baby is here!

First off...congratulations to all of you who had your babies in the past few days! I have been kind of MIA, but see that there have been some exciting announcements that I missed!

Here's how Theodore's delivery progressed:

Monday, Dec. 17 - Had a backache all day. Assumed it was nothing. That night, had very light, very irregular contractions. Shrugged them off.

Tuesday, Dec. 18 - Contractions still irregular, but started becoming uncomfortable. At my routine OB appointment, they hooked me up to a monitor to see what was happening. I only had two contractions during that time...doctor said it was probably false labor. When she went to check my cervix, I was only dilated one centimeter...but she found that baby was NOT head-down. They did an ultrasound to find baby transverse, unable to drop down because of a large fibroid (we knew it was there, but it hadn't looked, at past appointments, like it would affect the baby). Had a long talk with the doctor...was told I would need a c-section. They scheduled one for January 2 but said there was a decent chance that I would go into labor before then...and that, if that happened, they would do a c-section when I went into labor.

Wednesday, Dec. 19 - Contractions still painful, but also still super far apart. By mid-morning, they were still about 12 minutes apart. Decided to take a short shower...during the course of the shower, contractions started coming 5 minutes apart. Freaked out....called doctor...they told me to relax but to come to the hospital to be checked out. By the time we got to the hospital, contractions were 3 minutes apart and almost unbearable. Nurse checked my cervix....completely dilated, and all she could feel was my bag of fluid, getting ready to break.

We had arrived at the hospital at 11:15. By 11:45, they were wheeling me down for an emergency c-section. Theodore arrived at 12:26 PM at 18 1/2 inches long and 6 pounds, 15.9 ounces. He was perfect. I, however, was not-so-perfect. They couldn't close my uterus with the fibroid where it was...so, they removed the fibroid on the spot (something they hardly ever do...out of the two doctors, one had done this one time and the other has NEVER done it in her 30 years of delivering babies). Surgery went as well as could be expected.

We were at the hospital from Wednesday until Sunday night...we were originally going to be released Saturday afternoon, but I spiked a fever and had to be put on an extra 24 hours of antibiotics. Was actually kind of glad for the extra day,...learned a lot while in the hospital, and had a lot of help with working through some breastfeeding issues (Theodore can do it, but it took a LOT of work and a LOT of special tricks).

It's been great having him home....he is a wonderful, sweet baby and I am so smitten. Had a rough first night at home...this is all so new to both of us, but we are learning. Baby had his first pediatrician's appointment today, and everything looked good...he finally stopped losing weight, and is absolutely perfect. Now if I can just get the breastfeeding thing down 100% and figure out how to clean up a poop mess in the middle of the night while half asleep with a crying baby trying to eat, we'll be all set..

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I posted this on the Dec 2012 due dates, too, but thought I'd post my story here as well!

Now that my baby is 3 weeks old, I guess it's time to post my birth story!!

Well, let's start at the very beginning of December... two of my 3 daughters got sick the first part of December w/ the flu (vomitting, fever, chills, ect.). I tried to keep my hands clean, house sanitized, ect., especially because I was only a week away from having my scheduled c-section. I just did not want to get sick!!! On Friday 12/7, I started to get sick. That weekend I was miserable in bed and couldn't hold anything down, not even water. Monday morning, 12/10, I called my doc office mostly b/c I was worried about dehydration, plus I was still just so sick (Oh yeah...my c-section was scheduled for Wed 12/12). I told them everything that was going on w/ me and they said just to go straight to Urgent Care. DH took me to urgent care, they sent me to the Emergency Department. Super long story short, I was taken to the hospital that day, hooked up to multiple IV's, medications, ect. I had a lot of tests done b/c they thought that I had had a heart attack (I was having bad chest pains), also thought I had a blood clot on my heart among other things. Fortunately, it ended up being fluid around my heart & lungs, something wrong w/ my gall bladder and a hole in a valve. This stuff doesnt sound good either, but better that what the docs were originally thinking. And I thought I just had the flu! Actually, didnt have the flu at all, just some other extremely nasty virus and the other issues. I was having trouble breathing, too. During all of this,the baby was being highly monitored, too. Movement slowed down quite a bit, but that was to be expected b/c of all the drugs and pain killers I was given. On Tuesday, 12/11, a bunch of different doctors got together to determine if baby should be taken out on 12/12 as scheduled or kept in til I got better. It was a tough decision, but it came down to the cardiologist. He had to determine if my heart and lungs were strong enough to handle the surgery. He thought it was best to keep w/ the scheduled date, hoping that having the baby out would help me to start getting better. All throughout that night, I had to do breathing treatments to try to strengthen my lungs as much as I could and to help prevent me from getting pneumonia.

Yeah - delivery day! Wed 12/12. I was feeling a little bit better...but so drugged! Docs came in to get me and I was told that they were going to give me some medicine that would probably make me experience some memory loss. I guess I didnt think much of it at the time, maybe b/c I was so sick or b/c I was anxious to meet my baby. I actually remember very little of that whole day. Its very strange to think about things that you should know, but dont. I had to ask my husband if he cut the cord, if my family met the baby, ect. I have very few memories of that day. I look at pictures and just cry b/c I dont remember anything happening.

Now, for the fun part....my DH and I have 3 beautiful daughters and did not find out what we were having this time. This is only one small memory I do have from delivery day, my DH saying we have a son! Zachary Nathaniel was born 12/12/12 at 8:50 am, 19 inches and 7lbs 2 oz.. He's now 22 days old and I am still trying to get used to having a boy! It's very neat, though. Zachary was perfectly healthy despite my sickness. I am feeling much better, just have to do a bunch of follow up appts to see if the fluid has gone down.

Now, it's just the normal newborn issues (at least for me)....not sleeping at night and breastfeeding problems, but that's a whole other post!!!

Congrats to all the other new mommies!!