Jackson right after birth

Twinkle, Twinkle

Asher singing "Twinkle,Twinkle". He often plays his guitar (that plays All Star by Smash Mouth) and sings this over the actual song. I will try to get a clip of that tomorrow. Notice how he pauses when he says, "Face a diamond in the sky." He know that isn't the right word, but he can never remember what the right word is.

Jackson's arrival

After being in early labor all day on Thursday, I had my membranes stripped at my midwife appt. My contractions got closer and more consistent so we headed to the hospital at 11:00 pm. By the time I was checked at 12:00 am, I was measuring almost 6 cm. My contractions were not all that horrible, so I was surprised that I had progressed that far. By the time I got to my room and my midwife arrived, about 1:15, I had progressed to 8 cm and she broke my water. Even in transition, my contractions were not that bad, intense but not unbearable.

At 2:45 I was ready to push, at this point I started experiencing the worst pain of my of life, no exaggeration. After pushing for about 30 minutes we realized why. He came out with his hand in his mouth! So not only did I have to accomodate his 14 inch head, I had to fit his fist as well. He was born at 3:27 am, perfectly healthy and really alert. This is where things started to go downhill.

Up to this point, I had had a fairly easy experience. When she tried to deliver the placenta, it was stuck. Now this should have been the easiest part. She worked for another 30 minutes trying to get it out, but it wouldn't budge. So in comes the ob on call to try to remove it. No luck. At this point I am told that I'm going to have to go into surgery to remove it. Great, so I made it through the delivery of the baby unmedicated, but I have to be put under general anesthesia to deliver the placenta. As she's handing me the consent forms to sign, she tells me that she will try to remove it but if it won't come out, she'll have to perform a hysterectomy, so no more children.

How do you take that news? Well, thank you doctor, I understand the risks and have decided to leave the placenta in? At this point I was losing enough blood that I didn't have an option so to surgery we go. Thankfully, the D & C worked and I didn't have to lose my uterus at age 32. We are so grateful that the Lord brought everyone through safely.

Tonight: Full moon, Tomorrow: Membrane stripping, part II

The title says it all. Supposedly, there is an increase in births at the full moon. So far today, or any other day since Saturday, I haven't had the first contraction. Maybe I will wake up in the middle of the night in full-blown labor. If the moon doesn't do it for me, my midwife is going to strip my membranes again tomorrow. Painful, yes, more painful than being pregnant for another week, absolutely not. I hope I go in tomorrow and she says in surprise, "I can't believe it, you're dilated to six!"

40 weeks and counting

Well, today is my due date, August 2, 2009. I'm not having any contractions so I'm not too optimistic about going into labor today. In fact, I'm not too optimistic about going into labor at all. I'm beginning to wonder if something is wrong with me and if I will actually be pregnant forever. Though realistically this is not an option, it certainly feels that way. My biggest fear is the size of this child. I had my last ultrasound at 28 weeks and he was measuring about a week and half ahead. Because my fundal height has been small (32 cm at 37 weeks, for example), they haven't done any more ultrasounds to determine size.

This brings me to my dilemma, Asher weighed 9 pounds at 39 weeks when he was born. My fundal height was also behind with him, though not quite as much as this one. I'm sort of afraid of letting Jackson get too big and then having a c-section. Given the choice between an induction and c-section, I'll take the induction every time. I guess we'll just wait and see because I won't get an u/s until he's 41 weeks.

Asher's questions

Asher askes the funniest things at the funniest times. He keeps me laughing, even when he's driving me crazy. Last night I went to check on him before going to bed. He sat up and asked if he could come and sleep in my bed. Because I know we won't be able to do it much longer, I let him come in there.

He was pretty sleepy, just lying there still, every once and a while touching my face or arm. All of the sudden he asked me, "Is baby Jackson still in your tummy?", to which I replied, "yes." Then he said, "Did you not walk him out of you?" I had told him earlier that the reason we were at the mall was to walk Jackson out of there. He's so precious!

Bedtime at our house...always an adventure

Every night it's something, some reason he can't just get in his bed and go to sleep like a normal person.