I Even Facebook While In Labor

Giving birth to Ellison was the easiest part of my whole pregnancy!

I was induced a week early, myh doctor could clearly see I was near the point of breaking, mentally and agreed to it. Bless her heart! So on June 8th 2009 we headed to the hospital to get the process going. I was thrilled not only to have the birth "scheduled" which really helps me when I know whats going to happen and when, but also that because it was an induction I knew my doctor would be able to deliver Ellison which was a huge thing for me. Having her see me through the whole pregnancy and then not be there for the birth would not have been fair!!

Alex and I arrive a little late to the hospital because my iPhone decided to break on me the evening before and I of course didn't realize it until the morning. I had to restore it back to factory options and then add everything back on it that I had accumulated in the past several months. I didn't think this would take an hour to complete...after it made me a half hour late I finally gave up, left the phone connected to the computer to complete it's cycle and arranged for my friend Mary Jo to pick it up on her way into the hospital that afternoon.

Yes, it is that important for me to have it with me. Though with out it, I maganed still to Facbook my way through labor using my lap top. And I really did keep everyone updated, every few minutes in fact!

I was given my epidural about 4 cm into labor, and then they broke my water. Things slowed down for a bit at this point, but I had my phone, computer, and family there to help keep me company. When I was espcially bored I would re-watch the New Moon movie trailer on my phone, and funny enough when I would my pulse ox machine would go off in sirens because my heart rate would drop to near nothing! LOL. Turns out that I really just have a very slow resting heart rate, it went off a million times through out the whole day. Rater annoying.

After an hour the nurse came in and checked me to find I was fully dialted and the transformation of hospital bed to delivery bed began and Team Amber arrivred and took their positions. Both my sister and my sister in law were presnet for the birth, along with Alex of course.

When Dr. Goudge came in, she sat down on her stool in front of me and said "Okay. Go" and laughed. The alughter continued through out the rest of the delivery, which lasted about 20 minutes - it would have been even shorter if I wasn't wasting 2 full pushes per contraction laughing so hard I coulnd't concentrate.

What could possibly be so funny, you ask? Well how about my sister ducking her head down near the doctors and saying "Why's it look like a rasin and all wrinkly".

Or my SIL reporting I needed a pedicure as she held one of my legs and then goes on to smell my foot. We have photos.

Or, what about when Ellison crowed and Dr Goudge commented on how much hair she has and then proceeds to give her a mowhawk before her head is even out.

It was too funny. That is until I looked up and realized my epidural drip was nearing empty..I asked if they were going to replace it. When Dr. Goudge said no, I pushed like a mad woman to get her out. Pain is a fear I do not like having!

Alex said Ellison came flying out all on her own. I pushed, relaxed and suddenly there was baby! It was by far the easist thing I had done in months, there was no pain and only my family could make something like Labor & Delivery a laugh riot!

Keeping the Masses Informed
Debbie and my foot, so what if I needed a pedicure!
Ashley and her job - taking pictures!
And here's the Baby! Go Team Amber!

Gimmie an E!! Gimmie an L!!

The baby's room is done and I'm so excited. The finishing touch was added last night, the hand painted letters of our little girls name....in order to show you the letters, we have to let out her full name....but only her full first name, you'll have to wait for her middle names :0)

Here's the letters hanging in her room - her full first name is Ellison - Ellie for short.

The coolest part of the letters, other then being made by her aunt and God Mother - and my sister...is the wooden letters she attached to them instead of painting the letters on. It really adds something special to them - Love it!

And if you want letters, or anything painted for your little ones room - contact me! My sister can help you out too :0)

There's An End In Sight!

I had my 38 week doctors appointment today, my wonderful doctor has agreed to induce me on Monday the 8th if I don't have Ellie before then. I am so relieved! I just am stressing out too much, where will Paige go? What if I go into labor when no one is here? I'm irritated that I can't drive myself anywhere anymore due to not safely being able to fit behind the wheel anymore....all things of that sort.

I don't know what I would do if I had to be on bed rest during this pregnancy! I would have lost my mind!

Here I am today - 38 weeks on the button...looking a little more "out there" LOL.


So you got 2 posts today, enjoy!

Sneak Peek at the Nursery, & A Baby Name

So, we've announced at least part of the baby's name to most of the family, I figure that everyone else deserves to know at least that much as well!

We will be calling our baby girl:

It is short for something, we're not telling you what yet - so just be happy with what we're giving you! LOL.

We've also finished her nursery for the most part, only waiting on the letters my sister will be painting to hang above her crib. Here's a few shots for now of the room. It's been a long process, and for those of you who had seen the room when it belonged to Paige, you will understand.

It was originally the tongue and groove paneling you see, which we did decide to leave up but paint to save some money. All the trim had to be done as well as the walls, and then came the pink. I have to say that I am really pleased with how it turned out. Here's a little walk through our journey to finishing the nursery.

The room before we did anything to it at all!

This is the room after it had gotten a good coat or 2 of white

And after the pink walls and furniture has been added

This is where she will be sleeping - a perfect little nursery. We worked hard!!

Hello Double Chin!

Oh, what - you can't see it in the photo? GOOD!

Alex took about 14 photos of me this evening where I'm looking directly at the camera, smiling proudly of my huge pregnant belly. None of them turned out, I didn't even look like myself! Even Alex knew before he let me look through them that I was going to hate them.

So, new rule of pregnancy - in order to not photograph my double chin (lovenly names "Leann" by my sister Ashley...ha ha.) I will no longer be looking directly at the camera for photos! At least not until this baby is born!

That being said, I give you the masterpiece that is: 37 weeks Pregnant

A little update, I had my 37 weeks appointment today. The baby's heart rate was 131, perfect. I was dilated to just about 2cm, and Dr Goudge stripped my membranes so when I left I was around a 3 cm - and hopefully this will get things moving right along.

It's almost baby time!

All Swelled Up & No Where To Go!

I realized the other day, my wedding ring was stuck on my finger. Not a bad thing, I mean this way I couldn't lose it it. Only trouble was, I was starting to lose feeling in that finger and it was rather uncomfortable.

It took sticking my finger in my mouth, and using soap (in that order....don't worry) to pry the beautiful ring off my fat sausage like fingers.

I keep trying to put it back on, but it won't so much as go over my knuckle. Sigh. I don't know what I will do if I can't wear my ring for the next month.

If You Give A Pregnant Woman A Broom.

Have you ever read the book "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie" by Laura Joffe Numeroff? It's about a mouse who makes a million requests to the young boy who owns him, simply to get through eating a cookie. For instance, he couldn't possibly eat that cookie with a out a straw, could he? Or drink that milk with out a straw? No! And he'll have to lean up the crumbs, right?

Well if you are familliar with the book, you'll be familliar with my comparison from it to my rather ADD way I go about cleaning, or as it's so been called over the past few days due to my pregnancy - "nesting" . Let me explain....

A typical day of cleaning would consist of me tidying the kitchen, finding a book of Paige's on the table and returning it to her room. While in her room I'll notice her bed is unkempt so I will make it, making me notice the cup of water on her headboard. This will bring me back to the kitchen where I will continue on with whatever it was I was doing before heading to Paige's room. I'll get something partially done again and see that the laundry detergent hasn't yet made it to the laundry room from the last trip to Target, so I will being it down. While in there I'll see that the laundry is piling up, head back upstairs to grab the bin of whites from the bathroom and head back down to start a load of laundry.

This could go on forever. You can now see how it's very like much a "If You Give A Mouse a Cookie" kinda cleaning schedule, though we should call it "If You Give A Pregnant Woman A Broom".

I have went to clean the kitchen up only to end up emptying and straightening ALL the drawers, re-organizing them, and making sure that the 50 some odd markers and 200 pens we have all worked, so I could throw away what didn't. They all worked. Why do we have so many pens!?

I went then into the bathroom to find my hair binder and wound up cleaning out all the cupboards, closets and drawers in there, and re-organizing.

I went into the baby's room to put some hair bands away, and wound up finding a board to hang on the wall I could clip them all too and organize them from there....

By the time the baby arrives I will have cleaned everything that probably didn't really need it right away...and left the stuff that still is in dire need of being completed! Oh-well, I suppose I've learned to deal with my "Cleaning ADD" so far in life, I can deal with it now.

I'm off to find something to eat, which could very possibly lead to me cleaning out and scrubbing the fridge.....hey...not a bad idea :0)

It's A..........Kidney Infection?

Tuesday evening around 7:30 I started to have contractions, nothing major but I decided to use my handy little iPhone and the application iContraction to keep track, just in case. They weren't regular in anyway, until later that night when they were about 90 seconds long and every 5 minutes apart.

I woke up Alex at 1 am to tell him they weren't going away, and we called the L&D department of the Woman's Center where I'm planning to deliver. The nurse on the phone sounded half asleep but said that it sounded like I was in labor but I was free to stay home until my water broke. Being the hour it was, I did stay home, toughed it out and tried to sleep.

Alex and I went into the clinic first thing in the morning and had a variety of tests done. I was hooked up to the monitor and was definitely having contractions, but also Baby wasn't moving around quite as much as they liked so I then had to have what they call a bio-physical" where they use the ultrasound machine to monitor certain things on the baby for a time to make sure she is ok. She passed that part of the test, completing all the movements and things they needed her to.

We did a urine test and sure enough the constant underlining pain I was feeling between contractions, is due to a kidney infection. I had a lot of these with Paige's pregnancy but figured I'd get past this one with out one. Wrong! I'm taking amoxicillin, which by the way in case you didn't know - turns your pee bright orange so don't be alarmed (as I was) when you see it.

I'm still incredibly tired and the whole house has come down with some sore throat thing that's adding to the fun! Other then that, looks like we're staying pregnant a little longer. Which is good. I realized last night I had a bunch of things left to do :0)

We'll keep you updated on baby's arrival or delay when we have more information!

A Pregnancy Update from Mommy Central.....

No C-section required!

Yippie!

I was surprised to see that the baby was in fact head down at the ultra sound we had last Friday! The continued kicking on my left upper side, is her feet and the lump I feel on the opposite side is her butt. Most days I think she's trying to dig herself out the side! I may have internal bruising form the beating I'm getting, after I have her.

My doctor has me going in every week now, with the exception of this week as she is on vacation. I can not go into labor this week. Okay, I can.....I just don't want to because I want as much of a chance for her to deliver this baby as possible. Basically, if it's office hours, she's on call or not totally exhausted from an 80 work week to come in on her time off, she'll be there.

The ultra sound also determined that it's estimated the baby is a little on the small size. About 5 lbs she said. The machine is never really accurate, it's a "give or take a pound" kinda answer. So I'm trying not to be too worried about it. I, on the other hand am the correct weight. I've gained 24 of the minimum 25-35 required. I'm sure I'll have no trouble putting that extra pound on, and it will more then likely be accompanied by a few friends. Food seems to be a friend of mine these days.

There's nothing more to report on the pregnancy for now. So until next time please enjoy this photo of me balancing a serving bowl on my stomach while taking over sized bites of marshmallow, whip cream fruit salad. :0) Or as I like to call it, "Stupid Human Tricks"

35 Weeks - and counting

I'm 35 weeks pregnant this week - Woo Hoo! That means about 4 and a half more weeks until my due date.

We have a very stubborn little baby girl in there who refuses to get head down...and stay there anyway. Best we can tell at the moment she's favoring a diagonal position where her feet are on my left side and she she kicks I swear she's kicking me in the back!

We have ANOTHER ultra sound on Friday to determine her position for sure and if they don't find her head down, we may be scheduling a c-section (which I really don't want!) Aside from the long recovery time, it's hard to be in pain and scream "You did this to me" at Alex when I'm just having surgery...lol. And I was so looking forward to making sure he experienced that! :0)

Part of the reason behind the c-section option is because, as my doctor would put it "she doens't trust this little girl"...lol. Even if she goes head down, she doubts she will stay there and the worst would be going into labor, rushing to the hospital, laboring for hours only to find out she's turned wrong and then having to go have a c-section anyway....

Aside from all that in-utero information...I'm getting puffier, gaining more weight, and I can hardly wear my wedding ring anymore...*snif* *snif* that part really bothers me.

Here's a snapshot of the ever growing belly!

Puff The Magic.....Mommy? (a.k.a surviving the last month of pregnancy)

I've been trying to "nest", or at least clean for one of the million parties I'm stupidly having weeks before I'm due. :0) Paige's party this weekend took it out of me like you wouldn't believe. I puffed up like the Stay Puff Marshmellow Man, I even had a hard time getting my wedding rings off - which is odd I have always been able to wear at least my band. Now I feel naked, and like people look at me as if I'm that knocked up teenager....(okay, I wish I could pass for a knocked up teenager some days......)

My face is starting to resemble the days after I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth pulled and I can't get any shoes on other then my flip flops (or "thongs" for my European readers) Only about 4 or 5 weeks left then I can start the deflation process :0)

But, in order to get me through these last few weeks, I have found some pregnancy humor that's sure bring a smile to your face. Even if it's one of those "I'm so glad it's her and not me" smiles!

Pretty sure the creator of this comic knew me personally.....
Soon I won't have the "I'm pregnant" excuse when I fart or burp. I will however have the raging post partum hormone excuse and that might work even more efficiently. LOL
It's so true.
And in honor of another reason I am only wearing flip flops these days...

Would You Rather Have...

Alex and I were chatting about the upcoming delivery of our daughter, while we cleaned up after dinner. Paige was still seated at the table finishing up. We talked about what would help going into labor and I mentioned that his sister said today:

"Just have some Tai food and lot's of S-E-X" the latter of which I spelled due to the 5 year old set of ears listening in 5 feet away.

Alex got a huge smile on his face and very seriously meant it when he said "Ohhhh Tai food, yum!"

I started laughing and said, "Are you serious? I see that the choice between food and me is clearly made"

After unsuccessfully trying to remove his foot from his mouth, which only made me laugh harder as he explained that my saying Tai Food reminded him of the pace he went out to eat at with the guys from work and the appetizers he had. I vowed to tease him about this for the rest of our lives, and I will!

Men. SIgh. :0)

Aaah Chooo!

Normal responses to sneezing: "Bless you", Gesundheit", heck even something like "do you need a tissue". All acceptable normal comments, right?

Well yes, unless someone is in my house and I'm the one who's just sneezed. In that case someone would be saying "Did you hurt yourself?" or "Did you wet yourself again?"

Oh yea, the joys of being pregnant are never ending.

My sneezes have been so violent lately I literally almost pull a muscle each time. If my computer chair was on hard wood I would blow myself backwards ten feet from the desk each time. Thank goodness for carpet! And even worse then that, now from time to time I actually pee a little when I sneeze, I'm going to start needing to wear Depends to avoid ruining our furniture soon.

As the pregnancy winds to a close there are a lot of things I will miss about actually carrying my little girl but even more that I won't really miss too much. I can't wait to have full control of my bodily functions back and not be worried that if I sneeze in public that I'll cause a mess like a new puppy. Can't you just see that one happening in line at the grocery store. Ew.

The Baby Shower

My shower was on the 18th of April, and I apologize for not getting the photos up sooner. Seems like I go through spurts of either being extraordinarily tired, or extraordinarily busy. Ah, the joys of pregnancy.

My shower was host by My 3 Moms and I couldn't have asked for anything better! The food was amazing, the cake was beautiful, and the company of all my family and friends was better then any gift I could have received!

Here's a few photos from the big day.

This is the amazing cake my MIL designed and had made by the same lady who made the grooms cake for Alex and all the cookies at our wedding in August, Miss Sarah's Cakery

The cake, is covered in a fondant "blanket" to represent the beautiful white blanket MIL crocheted for for Baby Sweeney as part of her baby shower gift.

My hands hurt after opening all these wonderful gift! I'm very lucky and blessed to have so many great people in my life! This is one spoiled little Baby Girl I'm having!

My SIL organized a great baby shower game - NASCAR Stroller Racing! It was a BLAST! Guests pushed a doll stroller around a figure eight course in the front yard and competed to see who could get the fastest time.

This is the diaper cake my great friend Staci made for me and Baby Sweeney! I love it!

Looking over the photos taken with my camera, I notice that I don't have any photos of the food, or decorations really. I really bummed out about this because everyone worked so hard on this shower - hopefully someone else got some and I'll put those up when get them.

Belly Painting

After my baby shower on Saturday my sister, whose a great artist, painted my belly for me. Took us awhile to decide what to paint, there were so many choices and ideas! In the end we decided on this fish bowl. With Alex's love of fish and my big mouth these goldfish were a perfect combo! LOL

I'm 31 weeks 5 days in these photos.

3D Ultrasound

On Friday Alex's mom and dad took us to Premier 4D Imaging in Bloomington MN for an ultrasound as an Easter Gift.

It truly was amazing! She's a little mashed up in there, not much room left for her but we got some great photos none the less. Here's a few of the best ones.

Profile shot - I've been told she has my lips, and Alex's nose and face shape.

Hand over her face

The Offcial Maternity Photos!

They are here!! The ever fabulous Kari Layland has once again taken some amazing photos of Alex and I, marking another milestones in our life together.

Here's a few of our favorites from the photo soot, I'm 28 weeks along in these photos.

And just for fun, to capture the patience my husband has had with me through this whole "Twilight Addiction" I thought we'd mark the moment with a few, appropriate photos :0)
All photos copyright of Kari Layland Photography www.kariphotography.com