I have so many little matters to tell you of, that I cannot wait any longer before I begin to put them down.
The doctor broke her water, and the baby reacted negatively. Apparently, baby began pressing against cord. So they rotated Em until pressure alleviated, then they added fluids back in and stopped the pitocin. So we’re going to slow things down because baby isn’t ready. Baby is fine now, heartrate good. An epidural will be coming shortly.
Mar 19th, 2013 by ECM
I was sortof too distracted to do a major update earlier today, but here are a few quick developments for our 23 month old.
She is talking more and more, and she enjoys repeating phrases and sentences over and over. She loves to sing–in the car, during family worship, at play, while I’m trying to sing to her at night. Favorite songs include “Holy, Holy, Holy,” “Jesus Loves Me,” and “Ho-ho-ho-hosanna!”
She really loves to help clean up, put books on the shelf with the spines facing out, fold wipes, and dance.
She has no clue how much her world is going to change tomorrow.
After three and a half weeks of agony, today’s my last full day of pregnancy. Yep, we decided yesterday to go ahead and schedule an induction for tomorrow. My mom is flying here tonight, and this will maximize her helpfulness. I’ve been contracting more and more, and more painfully, but I was still only 2 cm yesterday. Since I’m 80% effaced, he assures me that this will not be one of those nightmare inductions that several of my friends have had. My body is in labor, but it just can’t get over the hump into productive labor.
So I celebrated this morning by boxing up my maternity clothes and sticking them in the garage until I can get them to a friend who is first-time preggo, enlisting the kids’ help in a massive cleaning session, stocking up on staples at Walmart, and baking a fresh batch of bread. Stay tuned tomorrow…
Mar 18th, 2013 by ECM
It’s that time again…time to gloat that our cloth diaper investment is paying off even more with the prospect of a fourth child in diapers! Derek casually asked me this weekend if we had everything we needed for the baby, and I replied that I’d picked up a couple little packs of disposables for until the meconium clears, but we don’t need much because the infant cloth diapers are ready and waiting! We don’t need to buy any more cloth diapers, and our utilities will not change since we’re already washing Susie’s diapers. We’ll just be a little more efficient because the washer will be fuller. After six years of parenting, this was seriously one of our best investments.
So it made me extra happy that afternoon to look out and see the diapers drying (for free!) in the sun, and it was so cute when the girls decided they were going to go out and help me get the diapers off the line. It took a little determination on their parts, but they managed the entire task without any help from anyone four or older.
Mar 15th, 2013 by ECM
Susanna’s move to a big girl bed has been rocky, to say the least. She stayed up until 10 several nights in there, and when she woke everyone up at 5:15, we gave up and threw her back in her crib. Now we’re letting her stay up with the big kids and start the night in her big girl bed, but as soon as she gets out of bed once, she’s back in the crib for the night. Unlike a couple weeks ago, this is a huge punishment now.
All of this means that Q is staying up until 7:30 with the big kids, so she’s gotten to join in family game nights. She’s actually not too bad at Go Away, Monster!
Mar 15th, 2013 by ECM
So last night, I was minding my business, making dinner, when I started feeling the now-familiar contractions that have enriched my life this past month. Except by the time we ate, they were getting more intense, and I found myself taking an early evening shower in an attempt to calm things down. Instead, things got even more intense. I have been in real labor three times now, and I actually felt like this was the real thing. I waited another hour and called my mom (just to start looking at tickets) and Sarah (to have her bags packed in case I needed to call her later). And Derek bathed the kids and put them to bed (because he is a superdad) while I lounged on the couch, waiting for things to progress. But they stayed 10 minutes apart. And I finally went to bed, so exhausted from a busy day with the kids that I was actually able to fall asleep undrugged and with hard contractions. And I woke up at 3:30 this morning to a contraction, but that was kindof it. Today has been all Braxton-Hicks and dull lower back pain, which really does feel different than the real thing. By the time the kids woke up, I had resigned myself to another false alarm.
So today Derek took Tommy in to work with him and I took the girls to Stroller Strides and told the instructor that we really couldn’t do too many lunges and squats today, because I’m so ready to have this child. And I ran three errands on the way home for good measure. (As a sidenote, bagels and cream cheese may seem like a good brunch-y option for little girls who have to go to two grocery stores and a post office. They’re not, unless you enjoy washing carseat covers and straps.) So I’m worn out, but that’s it. Off to take a nap and try to improve my attitude.
Mar 14th, 2013 by ECM
Back before Christmas, when I was really on a shirt dress roll, I got this great idea to make dresses for our friends Claire and Adelie (who we were conveniently going to visit right after Christmas). After all, I’d made more than enough for my girls. How handy to have another pair of sisters to sew for, right? And I got started, but third trimester stalled things. So this week, I realized that maybe this baby was just waiting for me to finish my sewing projects, and I pulled the sewing machine back out. The Haney girls are built more like Susie, so her pocket dress was an important experiment in slimming down my pattern. I finished just at dusk, in time to snap a picture before mailing out a very belated Christmas package tomorrow morning. I’m out of sewing projects…surely a sign that this baby should make his or her appearance, right?
Mar 13th, 2013 by ECM
One of Susie’s current obsessions is pockets. She is happiest when wearing multiple articles of clothing with pockets, but since it’s currently 81 degrees, we’re not wearing pants or hoodies. So I revisited the Sweet Little Dress pattern and used one of my too-short maternity shirts to whip up a quick little dress with pockets. I skipped cinching in the waist and turned the cuffs into the pockets, and since the shirt was on the short side, I used the original shirt hem rather than doing the big folded over hem I used with Elizabeth’s shirt dresses. I’ll have to adjust the pattern a little more next time–it’s still on the big side for my little peanut.
Susie had a better night last night, falling asleep at 9 pm rather than 11. It was still party central in there for an hour or so…so we have a way to go. Her first words in the morning were “big girl bed!”
And I had my 39 week check-up today. 1-2 cm, 60-70% effaced. So essentially no progress since last week. The good thing is that I wouldn’t want to have the baby today because there’s no one close by to watch the kids if I go into labor–the friends we’d been planning on are sick, our back-up family is down to one car and Jesse has to work late all week, and our back-back-up option is the Pelttaris who live 75 minutes away! So at this point, I’m rationally hoping to wait until my mom gets here next week. (The irrational, crabby-with-being-pregnant part of me is struggling to accept this.)