Had our little girl Monday (4-28) morning at 1:51am. Lena weighed 7.2 lbs and is doing well. She is a strong nurser and breastfeeding is going good so far. I am feeling okay. I forgot about the cramping when she nurses and need to get better and taking ibuprophen or Tylenol on a schedule before I need it. Rather then at the point where I am uncomfortable.

Congrats stephsyd! So exciting! Thanks for the reminder about taking meds on a schedule. I remember NOW if I forgot or delayed things were not fun later. What a cute pic you have!

So jealous! I'm ready now baby!

Hey mommas! Congrats to everyone having their babies!

Long story short, my doctors were trying to keep Emma in as long as possible and didn't want me to have her until tomorrow (36 weeks). However, last Thursday I had cramping and bleeding (not labor pains or period cramps, more like stabbing pains for 20 minutes or so) that happened twice and the blood was bright red. I have never bled or spotted with any of my pregnancies and the next morning Emma's anemia had gotten worse. As soon as my perinatologist found out I was bleeding they scheduled a C Section. Emma was born at 4:17 PM on Friday 4/25. She was 5 weeks early and only weighed 5 pounds. She is still in the hospital due to feeding issues as she is considered a "late preterm infant". It turned out my placenta had started to abrupt AND she had a knot in her cord, in addition to the other issues. They couldn't induce me because she was breech.

The C Section is not something I'd ever want to repeat again, but I went ahead and got my tubes tied like I wanted to since we were done having kids anyways, especially if this is what my babies will have to go through with my lupus and stuff like that! Recovery for the first few days was a real challenge but it's getting better.

Hey, all. update on me. It's been a very stressful week. I hit 40 weeks on Thursday (dr. says April 29th, I calculated May 2nd from my ICSI procedure as my due date so we settled on Thursday as an estimate). Blood pressure has been 110/70 consistently, our little girl, Cece, had a good heart rate of 144bpm. I'm 1cm, 75% effaced, and she is at station -1. I can't feel my contractions, but have been having them since I can tell when my belly gets hard, but they aren't consistent.

Anyway...I've been going for natural birth this entire time and Dr. knew it and was supportive. Next thing I know he is telling me that my hospital is booked up all week except for Sunday, May 4th, and wants to induce via tablet. I told him I want to try breast pumping first and he tells me it doesn't work. I tell him I at least want to try and to see if we can get in another day of the week. They call me later to tell me that Sunday is the only day and that he will break waters and then do pumping. If after 6 hours that doesn't work, we'll do pitocin. I'm just scramble brained at that point.

I didn't know her station so my husband calls back friday and finds out it's only -1; if they break waters before I'm 0 or greater, it causes a HUGE timeline issue and I would be either forced into pitocin or c-section. Again, I'm trying to do natural, no issues with baby or my health....so, i called after hours Friday and decided I'm NOT being induced. They can figure out another day and I'm now upset with our Dr. but at 40 weeks, too far to swap someone last minute.

Needless to say, she isn't here yet and I'm trying not to stress out! But, it's been a very long week...Hope all you mama's out there are having better luck.

I'm still here. My due date according to dr.s is this coming Sunday, according to my ovulation I have it as Friday. I am really hoping for a not overdue baby this time. I've been having contractions for a week. THey come for hours and then go away. Didn't have that with the first two. I was hoping it'd at least be dilating me, but nope, still 1-2cm, 50%. Asked my doctor to strip my membranes today since I'm 39 weeks. She did. BUT it didn't work for the last two kids, so I don't know why I bothered asking. We talked possible induction next week (because I brought it up). I wouldn't consider it after having such a crappy time the first time, but my doctor is going to be gone a lot. She will be out of town this weekend Thursday - Sunday (when I'm 39+4 - 40 weeks) and then again Saturday - Monday (40+6-41+1) and I'd really like her to be there, plus the contractions daily is starting to make me lose my sanity. But I'm still debating. I know babies come when they're happy and ready and I don't want to force them out but I really would prefer my dr deliver this one since she did the other two. I guess I'll just get through this weekend and see what next week brings. I'm thinking of inducing next Thursday (40+4) but not sold on it yet. Ugh. I can be thankful that except for the contractions/cramps/backaches, I'm feeling well!

Congratulations! I'm still 2 weeks away. So,so ready. I am working less now and trying to get my house ready for another little boy. I think my 3yo is starting to wonder if this is really going to happen. Seems like we have been talking to him about it forever

Thinking of you moms who are still waiting for their bundle of joy to arrive. Hope all goes well with labor and can't wait to see the update you had them.

I had my baby 8 days ago! My first not late baby! She was 39+5/May 16th. Labor started like my last one, at 4am. Had my family come watch the kids a little before 10 am when contractions were 5 mins apart. We drove 40 mins to the hospital and walked up and down stairwells and around the building to get the contractions from 7-8 mins apart closer again. They told me I was too chipper to be in labor, but when they checked I was 5-6 cm about 11 am. I was THRILLED last time when I checked in the hospital with my daughter I was only 2 cm. So woo! Progress! (My doctor was gone at her conference, but my favorite midwife was on call and I'm so thankful that I had my baby with her as she was very encouraging about doing it without drugs and the one time I talked about wanting some she told me I didn't want them, she was amazing). About 1:50 they checked me and said I was only 6-7 cm with bulging water. Let me get in the tub even though they were hesitant because they didn't want to slow down my labor. I started having some sucky contractions around this time. Before I could just stop and breath through them. Now I was groaning a bit. 2:25 got in the tub while it was filling, had a bad contraction, said I would want drugs if they continued this way. Next contraction my water broke and my body started pushing (COULDN'T help it! OMG! I had an epidural with my last two births, this one was TOTALLY out of control without drugs). My husband ran and got a nurse as soon as my water broke, she wanted me to get out of the tub, the midwife came in, the hospital doens't allow water or tub births, their plumbing is not set up for that. They said when my contraction ended to try and get out of the tub, I was groaning and pushing and said the contraction WASN'T ending!! The midwife checked and said her head was coming so no getting out of the tub, so they drained it while I was in it and pushing. I'd say my water broke about 2:30 and the official time of birth was 2:38pm. The midwife and nurse and my husband and I were shocked it happened so fast! I was a little hysterical and in shock. I was like "IS THAT HER HEAD??" "WHAT JUST HAPPENED?" THey handed her to me and I couldn't believe it. Then my husband cut the cord and he got her for the next hour while they worked on me. I delivered the placenta easily, but then started hemorrhaging. I had no IV, so they gave me a shot of pitocin in the thigh. That didn't work. I got 8 pills of cytoteck rectally, that wasn't enough. Still with no drugs the midwife stuck her hand up me and pulled out some blood clots by hand. That helped, but I still wasn't clamping down quick enough so they gave me an IV and 3 bags of pitocin. The theory was third baby my uterus just didn't want to work with us this time (I had no problems with previous deliveries).

I am proud of myself for doing it without drugs, but really it was probably only because it happened so fast. I wish I would have drugs for the hour they were working on me. The uterus massage was terrible (before I'd had epidurals and didn't notice as much?) and everything they were doing for me to stop bleeding was worse than the birth was. The labor I really only had about 10 bad contractions, then it was just pushing. I really didn't hold my daughter for the first hour, I could have, but I didn't want to because I was in so much pain and a little worried as the next step was taking me to the OR to do a D&C. LUCKILY my blood work came back great and I wasn't anemic, didn't need any blood or iron. We were able to leave after 24 hours.

Kate is doing great, she's been awesome. She was my smallest baby - 7lbs 2 oz vs my others 7lbs 12 and 7lbs 15, but the other two were late and had more time to pack on fat. I'm still so thrilled she wasn't late like the last two! I had a second degree tear AGAIN. That is still tender. If I walk too much (I ran to target for a few items) I get really sore and the bleeding picks up. I'm annoyed that I've only lost 13 lbs when I only gained 22 lbs. But really I'm just relieved everything turned out well and could have been a lot worse. I've hardly had any bleeding since like 2 days postpartum, probably from them getting as much out of me as possible and making my uterus contract so much. I could probably get away with a panty liner instead of the huge pads, but I'm not sure my bladder is 100% yet. Now I've had 3 very different births (1 induced with epidural, 1 started on it's own with epidural, and 1 all natural). Afterwards I just kept saying I should have gotten drugs at least so the after part didn't hurt as much (the stitches I had to keep getting more numbing shots as I could feel her sewing me up). Breastfeeding is great. Kate only lost 2 oz, so the doctor is happy. She nurses constantly, and it doesn't hurt as much as it did with the first two, so I'm allowing her to nurse whenever she wants.

Hope all of you still waiting for your babies have a non exciting, easy birth with everyone healthy and happy after it!