Pictures from November

Its almost been 8weeks since Caleb was born. He has changed my life for the better. You never know the power of love until you have a child.

1 month

1 Month!My baby boy is 1 month old today! I cannot believe how fast time is going. But at the same time, it feels like I've known him forever. I guess its just that connection that we had while he was in my belly for those 9months. He still has his nights n' days a bit mixed up but it is getting better. He is slowly starting to sleep longer stretches throughout the night and be awake more during the daytime. At his last appointment(3wks old) he weighed 11 lb and 3 oz. which the doctor said is wonderful. He is in the 95th percentile. He is a big boy! I am amazed by him more and more each day. He is starting to focus on things more and he turns his head towards me when I talk to him. I cannot wait until he smiles in response to things. So far the only smiles he has are when he is sleeping and they're just random. He loves his swing. He usually falls asleep in it but if he isn't tired he sits in it staring up at the lamp beside it. He loves bright lights. I am so excited to watch him grow and for him to be more interactive but I know i'm really going to miss him being this little.edit: he smiled later that day @ exactly 1 month old!

The Birth of Caleb Anthony!

I couldn't get to sleep on Sunday night so I decided to go try and get comfortable on the couch around 3am. I fell asleep and woke up around 4am and when I went to stand up I felt a leak of fluid. I wasn't sure if it was urine or amniotic fluid so I spent the next few hours trying to figure it out. I was googling all the ways to tell the difference. I tried laying down for 20 minute increments and getting up again to see if it would leak again. Sometimes it would and other times it wouldn't. I didn't want to the hospital in case it was just urine so I decided to call my doctors office when they opened. I tried at 9:00, 9:15, and again at 9:30 and continued to get the answering service so I decided I would just drive in. I asked to speak with a nurse and described what was happening and she told me to go to labor & delivery right away and they can do testing to see if it is amniotic fluid. I arrived at labor & delivery around 10:30am. The nurse had me put on a gown and belly band. She hooked me up to the monitors and checked me. She said I was 2cm dialated and she saw some pooling of fluid in my vagina so she was pretty sure it was amniotic fluid I was leaking. She did the ferning test. It was in fact amniotic fluid. They put in my IV and started up the pitocin around 11:30am. At this point I was having contractions 1 1/2 minutes apart but not feeling much. I had a slight backache and some menstrual type cramps. At 2pm Dr. Young came in to check my cervix and said I was still at 2cm but she needed to re-break my water(apparently it broke at the top before). As soon as she broke my water I instantly dialated to 4cm. This is when the pain started. I could actually feel my contractions coming and going and I finally started to feel like I was in labor. The pain was pretty intense and came on very suddenly. The doctor said I could have my epidural so I went ahead and put my request in for it incase the anestesiologist would be tied up and take awhile to get there. Luckily he arrived fairly shortly and I had my epidural in by 3pm. Within 20 minutes I was feeling good. No pain, just discomfort from having to stay confined to the bed. The doctor reviewed the monitor and said that they baby hasn't been having enough active periods so they got out the buzzer to wake him. It worked but he was back to sleep in no time. Around 4:30pm they decided to put an internal monitor on the baby. Dr. Young left and Dr. Konda came in to take over. The babies heartrate started dropping down so the doctor began to be concerned. I started feeling my contractions again so they paged the anestesiologist. He came back and gave me some more medicine and increased my epidural med. I started to feel good again. The babies heartrate continued dropping so at 6pm they stopped the pitocin. At 6:30 the doctor decided that I would need a ceserean. Caleb Anthony arrived at 7:37pm. He weighed 10lbs and was 20 1/2 inches. He is already the love of my life 3(I would really like to type up a more detailed birth story, and I will eventually... but for now... this is it)

here are some pictures:

CALEB HAS ARRIVED!9/29/08 @ 7:37PM 10LBS. 20.5IN.We came home on Thursday but I've been busyyyyy so haven't had much time to do anything more then take care of him. I hope to be able to write up the birth story soon.

Went to my NST yesterday. The nurse I had was a ding dong. She was ready to send me home and hadn't even checked my blood pressure. When she did it was high (138/90) sooo by the time I finally got out of there I had been poked twice for blood, peed in a cup and was sent home with a big jug to collect 24hours of urine. I am taking that back today and we should have the results soon. I see my midwife on Tuesday.

My 39wk appointment:No good news for me at my appointment yesterday morning. I have not dialated or thinned out any more. My blood pressure was high, I had protein in my urine, much swelling/weight gain. Soo she had me lay on my left side awhile and rechecked my bloodpressure. Thankfully it came down to a decent level. I am to go in to L&D for a NST on Friday. My next appointment is on Tues.(exactly on my EDD) I was pretty bummed out after that appointment.Nothing is happening with me except an occasional contraction just to tease me. I think I've accepted defeat and I'm probably gonna be pregnant until the 2nd week of October. I'm so irritable and sick of people telling me to enjoy my last nights full of sleep. They aren't full of sleep... I'm awake every hour with numb limbs, aching hips and a full bladder. I'd much rather be waking up with this baby..

My feet ache and look like walrus paddles... I hope they shrink after the baby is born. This swelling makes my feet look not-so-sexy.. lol

Tuesday I found out that I'm 1cm dialated. It doesn't mean much but atleast something is happening. I go back again this Tuesday. I'll be 39wks then... Wowwww

37weeks

Wednesday was my last birthing class. We took a tour of the maternity unit. I saw a cute lil baby in the nursery. That made me even more excited about meeting my lil boy. I am SO ready to get this baby out. My maternity clothes are getting too small and are now very uncomfortable. I can't sleep more then an hour or two at a time each night. My belly is burning and itching b'cuz i'm starting to get stretch marks on the lower part of my stomach. I'm moody and grumpy. My back hurts. I have a zillion complaints and on top of that I'm going nuts wondering what my baby is going to look like and just wanting to hold him in my arms. Please baby.... don't be stubborn and stay inside until 42 weeks... I'll take ya ANYTIME now. I'm anxious and excited to meet this lil baby.

I'm down to the final month! I can't even believe it... time has went by so quickly. I should have a baby in my arms next month at this time... but I may not. It'll be anywhere from 2-6wks and he will be arriving.I have a fear of going 2 weeks past my due date, being induced and ending up with a c-section after a long painful attempt at labor & delivery. I shouldn't think so negatively but that is my fear.My baby shower was nice. The baby got a lot of cute things. I had a good time, I'll post a picture or 2 from it. (Not sure that I will post any of myself b'cuz i look horrrrrible in all of them)Physically: I am doing alright. A lot better then some other woman that are due around the same time as me. They complain all the time and I'm not sure that I'm as miserable as they have been. I don't have much swelling but after a long day on my feet I do notice slight swelling in my feet/ankles. I have already gained more weight then I would of liked to this entire pregnancy, but I'm not going to worry about that until after the baby is born. The lower part of my belly is getting really itchy and starting to hurt. I think the stretch marks are starting to show their ugly face. I get up several times a night to pee. I'm always thirsty and constantly have a bottle of ice water with me. Walking is a task and somedays I feel as though my hip joints need oiled up. I don't feel the baby move near as much anymore (I think he is running out of room) although I often feel a foot poking out of my side and have to rub it until he stops poking it out. Emotionally: I'm ready for this baby to be born. I'm anxious to meet him. I can't wait to hold him in my arms and just stare at him. I often wonder what he is going to look like. A lot of things in my life aren't going as smoothly as I would like but I'm trying to make the best of it and stay optimistic about the arrival of my lil boy. I already have more love for him then I could possibly have for anyone. I'm ready to meet ya lil guy!! I think its time I get done packing my bags for the hospital... He may come any day now. (More then likely it won't be for atleast 2 more weeks, maybe not for 6) I like to be prepared for anything.

Its been awhile so I figured I better get on here and update. I failed my 1 hour Glucose Tolerance test so I had to go back in for the 3 hour one. I did not end up completing it because I got sick and they sent me down to the Emergency Room. I had a lot of tests done and got some IV fluids. I don't know what the doctor is going to decide to do to test me for Gest. Diabetes since I can't do the 3hour GTT. I will call on Monday and see what they say..I've been at a stand still with getting things ready for the baby. There is not much more I can do or buy until I see what I end up with after my Baby Shower. The shower is August 10th, I'm really looking forward to it. My goal is to have everything ready for the baby by the end of August so I can just relax the last few weeks. I found the cutest camo diaper bag on walmarts website. I HAVE to get it. They do not sell it in stores so I couldn't go get it. I added it to my registry and if I don't get it at my shower I will def be ordering it! Its adorable! I think I have the baby's outfit picked out for his 1st picture. I pick it up all the time to just look at it and can't wait to see my baby boy in it! I am planning to breastfeed, so am trying to gather as much information about it as I can. I want to be prepared. I also do not want to invest too much money into nursingwear/gear just in case breastfeeding does not work out for me. I just want to have the bare essentials and see how it works out before I buy too much. Okk.. enough rambling for today.9weeks left!!

2 months and 23 days until my lil boy is due.I can't even begin to describe how anxious I am to meet him. I'm so excited about having a family. "Baby Boy" has been an acrobat in my belly the past couple of days. He woke me up and kept me awake for a few hours in the middle of the night last night but I'm not gonna complain. Physically I've been more exhausted lately but feeling pretty decent. I get dizzy spells and feelings of breathlessness sometimes. I don't know what causes it, I'm guessing its the babys position. My belly button has gotten really shallow. I wonder if its going to pop out? I've been a major "innie" my whole life, so it'll be interesting to see if it pops out.I should be getting the crib/dresser/changing table this month and will finally be able to put his nursery together. I'm pretty excited to get that all set up =)We have not yet announced the babies name but I think i'm going to announce it at my baby shower. To you few people who already know the name... consider yourself special haha

100 more days left!