<--she's here a few days early (38 weeks 6 days gestation)! Meet Amelia Rose, born Sat April 27 at 9:13am EST. 8lbs 9.4oz, 21.5"" long, with a head full of hair! I'll give the whole story whenever I get the chance - still in the hospital a couple days thanks to my c-section.

:frown: I am so sorry you are having a tough time. It's not like you're being unreasonable - these are real things that are totally screwing up what should be a smooth plan! Keep in mind that your mom will understand, and although it is no fun to be getting up throughout the night with a toddler with croup, especially when it's someone else's kid, this is your mom we're talking about. If I were in your mom's situation and, say, it was one of my sister's kids, I would be fine. Also, can she stick around to help after the new baby comes so that your toddler is cared for without having to come into too much contact with you and the baby?

I know you're probably hoping to go sooner rather than later, but I hope you end up going at least a little later so that you are further into your older son's recovery! But that mucus plug and contractions sound like you are close. I hope it all works out and falls into place

Thanks everyone for the support! It helps to be reminded that I'm not just a crazy, irrational, emotional pregnant lady!

Great news - baby didn't come overnight, my mom got an earlier flight and should be here in a few hours, and our "sick" toddler has coughing fits in the night, but he didn't call for us once in the night! That's even better than when he's NOT sick. I guess I was stressing out when it wasn't necessary. Guess we are ready as soon as little man shows up after all

Have a great night all!!

Anyway, I posted this question on the post-partum pack board, since they've all done this recently, but I figured I'd ask you guys in case you all were taking any precautions for clean-up in case your water breaks in the middle of the night.

We have a mattress protector, but rather than leaving my husband to try to deal with messed up sheets and whatnot, last time I remember sleeping on old towels as a precaution. My water didn't break on its own, so it ended up being pointless, but I want to say I started it at 36 weeks.

However, I get hot at night (it's practically summer here in SC, plus our bedroom is over the garage --> always warmer/colder there than anywhere else in the house), and my son was born in the wintertime, so sleeping on old towels didn't cause any temperature issues the first time around.

Are any of you ladies taking any precautions? If so, what, and when did/will you start?

Here's my birth story!

Friday evening we finished dinner and I felt pretty bloated and full so I decided to lie on the couch for a little bit. First I wanted to use the bathroom, so I went in and immediately doubled over in pain that shot from under my rib cage down my right side into the right side of my pelvic region. After an hour of lying on the couch and the pain not dissipating, I called the hospital (it was about 8:00 so my doctor's office was closed) and a nurse said it was round ligament pain. Now, I've felt round ligament pain before - especially with the twins, when I stretched a LOT - and this didn't feel like it. Especially because the pain was continual, not sporadic. But that's what the nurse said, and she said if I came in, she wasn't sure what they would do to help. So whatever. The rest of the evening, I was on the couch in pain that wouldn't leave my lower right side.

We went to bed around 11:00 and the pain had toned down to just a dull, persistent ache. I slept for about 45 minutes-1 hour, but then woke up when I wanted to roll over. I couldn't because the pain was too intense, but I couldn't stay sleeping on the left side because it was too uncomfortable after staying on that side for so long. So finally I woke up my husband around 2 and asked him to run a warm bath, in hopes that some of the pain would ease up. It helped a lot, and I got out of the tub at 2:45. I had him pull one of our recliners into our bedroom so I could sleep in it (I didn't want to try lying down again and starting up that pain again). He fell right back to sleep after that, but I noticed I was having contractions. I don't know if I'd been having them already since the right side pain had been so overbearing, but now that that pain had eased some, I was noticing the contractions. I started keeping track of them at 3:05, hoping to sleep but figuring I'd jot down the times if I was awake for them. Well, between the pain of the contractions and the dull ache of my lower right side, I never went to sleep and noticed that I was having contractions every 4-7 minutes.

Since I was going to have a repeat c-section, my doctor said we would do it ahead of schedule if I went into labor; i.e., if my water broke or I was having contractions with cervical change. My water hadn't broken and I'd been at ZERO dilation at my appointment that previous Tuesday, so I didn't know if these contractions were real labor or not. I'd had contractions earlier on in the pregnancy and they obviously had not caused me to dilate.

Finally after 2 hours of tracking my contractions, I figured I should probably call the doctor on call and see if they wanted me to go in to be checked. He said he wanted me to go in, because if it WAS labor, the contractions could cause complications with my existing incision/higher risk of uterine rupture/etc. So we called up a friend to come over (it was about 5:15/5:30 Saturday morning) and headed to the hospital.

After getting checked in, they put me on the monitors and confirmed that I was having regular contractions. After about 30 minutes of this, the nurse checked my cervix and - lo and behold - I'd dilated 1 cm! I know that's nothing compared to most of y'all who have been at or beyond that point for weeks already, but my body has never dilated on its own! (And never even progressed past 3 cm on pitocin with my first daughter) So I was sooooo excited! The nurse called the doctor on call, and he said it sounded like we could go in for surgery. I asked the nurse to try calling my doctor, even though he wasn't on call, because he likes to deliver his patients' babies as much as possible. It turned out he was in post-op at the neighboring hospital, and could be at mine in 20 minutes! So we went ahead and did all the pre-op stuff and went in to surgery.

Everything went PERFECTLY. My spinal block worked the first try and I didn't even feel the pain of the 'sting' when they numb the insertion site. The nurses were all awesome and chatty, talking about how I was going to be so busy with so many kids as young as they are, but they were positive comments, not the negative ones I've received from other people. One nurse, upon hearing that I had 3 kids at home age 3 and under, gasped and said "that's why you're so skinny! From chasing them around all day!" so that made for a good laugh.

Amelia Rose was born at 9:13 Saturday morning - she's 3 days old in my profile picture. She weighed 8 lbs 9 oz at birth and was 21.5" long. She came at 38 weeks 6 days. She has a head full of dark hair which was a surprise since 1) none of my other kids were born with anything more than peach fuzz and 2) my other kids have light brown and blonde hair. So she's already her own person, which I love.

My mom was able to drive up to watch my kids (I'd called her when we were headed to the hospital to give her a heads up, and then my husband called to say we were definitely having the baby, so she got on the road ASAP) and she was a huge help. I got discharged midday Monday, so she was able to stay with us until midday Tuesday and still make it home in time for my brother's award ceremony Tuesday evening. I'm so glad all that turned out fine and wasn't worth the worry....but I sure could've done without the drama in the first place!

Now we're 4 days post-partum and life is great! One newborn is WORLDS easier than two newborns, and my other kids are loving having their baby sister home. I'm still recovering from surgery, but my husband is being awesome at doing 99% of the stuff around the house (he'd be doing 100% but I've been 'bad' and doing that last 1% without his permission) so I'm doing pretty good overall. I'm just focused on enjoying snuggling with my baby since this is probably our last one!