Bunches O' Boys...and one little girl!

We are proud to welcome our little drop of pink in our bucket O' blue....
Miss Abigail, born Jan 2, 2012!

She decided to come early, but we are happy to announce that besides being a tiny little thing - she is totally healthy!

Here is her birth story, and yes pictures too!

Our original plan was to induce labor on New Year's Eve. However, everyone's baby decided to come that day as well! Since I was stable and not in labor, we kept getting bumped from the schedule. All the labor and delivery rooms were full!
We kept waiting and wating and waiting all day. Finally that evening the doctors said they'd tried Cervidil over night to see if that would help get things started. But when the Dr. checked me I was 3 cm so no need for Cervidil! The plan was to use Pitocin bright and early in the morning to start things.
As the Dr. promised, we had a room at 5:30am and started Pitocin within the hour. Not much progress at first, to our disappointment.
I had contractions every 3 min or so but I didn't feel them much. Finally, I started to just get a little uncomfortable and I opted to have them start the epidural incase things went fast.
When I was checked, I was found to be 4 cm. The doctors said the Pitocin wasnt really kicking things into gear yet (labor).
More and more waiting...it was all still the same.
Finally around 9pm the doctors decided to stop the Pitocin for the night and give my uterus a rest to resume in morning. Talk about disappointing!
Laboring all day, to try again in the morning. We were all worried and just wanted her out. :( So I asked the Dr. to check me and see if any progress was made all day at least. She did, and I was 6cm. So they decided to keep going on the Pitocin through the night to see how things go...
Hubby and I went to sleep (epidurals work so great lol). At some point the nurse woke me up to tell me to turn over on my other side and that they were taking me off the Pitocin. I think baby wasn't tolerating it well and needed a rest. I was tired, no problem.
Back to sleep I went.
Then I was woken up a couple hours later with the doctor in the room saying she needed to check me. I thought that was weird since I wasnt really feeing any contractions and they turned the Pitocin off. Epidurals work great. lol I was found to be 9 cm!!

There was a little bag of water cushoning baby's head, so the doctor broke that and had me push a couple times to see if it brought baby down. She was still so high, that the doctor said she'd never seen someone dilated to  9cm and the baby being so high still!
Well that worked and baby came down nicely. The doctor told me to stop and rest and she'd get the rest of the team ready. Now I felt the pressure and it was hard not to push!
Finally, everyone was in place and I could start pushing. It took about two good pushes to get her head right there, and then several small pushes to get the rest of her out.
Pretty easy actually. ;) I felt like a dream..I was still waking up!

 Afterwards she did great and hubby went with her to the progressive care nursery (not NICU) to help with her bath, etc. Took an hour to get an IV in her, poor thing. :( And her hands and feet are so sore from all the poking from IVs and various blood sugar, etc tests. She was 5 lbs 1 oz and 18" long.

She's done great with breathing and eating from day one. She had a tiny setback with maintaining her temperature and had to be put in an isolette (incubator). However, she's getting taken out of that tomorrow and should be in my room with me!
The nurses can't get over how hungry she is, waking up to eat every 3 hours on the clock. They joke that she doesn't seem to know she's 6 weeks premature.
We should be on schedule to take her home by the end of the week...but some things are day by day, so nothing can really be predicted.

So with that...we welcome little miss Abigail to our family! The boys haven't met her yet, but I can't wait for when they do.

Tomorrow is the day!

These are my last few hours pregnant...its always a weird feeling. I think its almost better to just go into labor on your own - because then its there, its time, no going back. However, having this day set in mind makes the waiting harder and plays on the nerves.

I don't know when I'll get to start the induction tomorrow, but I'll post an update after the little miss comes. :)

Now, I just need to try and get some sort of sleep tonight! This is my last night of uninterrupted sleep for a great while. :)

New Year's Baby...Maybe?

So I haven't updated since 2.5 weeks ago...
After my last post, things were going pretty well. In fact I got to go home for a week (still on bedrest ) and we were pretty optimistic. Slowly the boys starting trickling back home from grandparents' houses.  However then Christmas Eve I noticed some suspicious "leaking". Although it was so sporadic and minimal that it could have been anything. My midwife told me to watch and see, so I just kept note of things and laid low.

Christmas Eve night I got to spend a glorious night in my own bed, snuggling with my boys. Christmas morning we had a nice time opening presents and having family time. However, the suspicious leaking was increasing so we decided it was time to get it checked out.

I hoped to be proven wrong.

But instead it was confirmed that my water was leaking...

In my town hospital, they can't take care of babies younger then 34 weeks. Since I was 33 weeks, that meant I had to be transported to a bigger city hospital 3 hours away. I got an ambulance ride to the jet (lights, sirens and all...but that was to not make the jet wait too long). Then the jet ride was only about 15 minutes!

The doctors here are great - so calm and reassuring. After all, they are used to much more serious cases and much more premature babies.

The plan is to wait here, let baby keep growing, until 34 weeks. Then I will be induced (yikes! Never been induced!). We're hoping to avoid a c-section, which should be a do-able. *crossing fingers*

We've been blessed to have so much great help with the boys these past 2.5 weeks. Although the boys are starting to tire of this and just want their normal back. :( Its hard for the younger ones to understand. In good news - Grandma potty trained the 2 yr old while she had him for the week! Yay!

I will be 34 weeks on Saturday, New Year's Eve...so I will either have a New Year's Eve baby or maybe even New Years! I'm nervous but hoping for a quick and relatively easy birth. I'm really nervous for afterwards and how baby will do. She could be here a few days or a few weeks...chances are she'll do great though. Apparently preemie girls do better then boys!

So that's my update for now..little miss attention getter keeps changing the plans though, so really its day by day.

I hope to have a great update with adorable pictures in a few days!

Little Miss Drama Queen

So...I post this blog update sitting from the hospital. Not where I expected to be during my finals week for school, and not at 31 weeks pregnant!
But, I'm where I need to be for now, so that's all that matters.

Long story short - I woke up Saturday morning with unexpected bleeding issues and some minor contractions. We went to the hospital and was soon diagnosed with some sort of partial placental abruption. I was put on a variety of meds to stop the contractions, however they didn't seem to be working. We were told they were sending me to a bigger city hospital via helicopter (!) because the hospital here doesn't deliver babies/keep them here until 34 weeks. I was given steroids to mature baby girl's lungs and the OB tried one more thing, some lovely magnesium sulfate (sp?). It worked and I didn't have to go anywhere!

Today is day three...I was set to go home, but after a trial run last night of allowing me bathroom priveledges (uggh!) I had some more contrax this morning and a little bleeding. So back on some meds I go, and not going home today.

Baby has been doing great throughout...loving the attention. ;) But she is giving the nurses a workout-she moves so much that they have a heck of a time chasing her around with the heartbeat monitors!

So that's my update for today. I hope to have great news next time I update, and I hope to have a January/February baby still!!

30 weeks down...10 weeks (or less!) to go!

Its hard to believe that I'm in the final few weeks of my pregnancy now. The time has gone really fast. Of course, now, the next 8-10 weeks will crawwwwwwl by.

Everyone is getting very excited. Thankfully we have the holidays to keep us entertained for now. However, once January 1st hits...its going to be all baby baby baby talk.  I could have the baby as early as the last week of January. SO...I *could* say that I "may" have the baby next month! Wohoo!
Alex was born 2 weeks before his due date and Gabe was born 1.5 weeks before his due date. The other three boys were either on or within a few days after their due date. So...who knows?!

In other exciting news, we DO have a name! AND we were going to keep it secret, but the boys knew and they started spilling the beans. To keep it fair we announced it to everyone. Little sister's name will be.....Abigail! Nickname Abi is possible, but I also love Abigail just as it is. The middle name is up in the air, however we'd really like to honor Billy's grandmother Bonnie.

That's about it for exciting news right now. We've been busy with preparing for the holidays and me finishing up my classes (which end the week after next, wohoo!!!!).  I have some cute pictures of the boys decorating the Christmas tree, which I'll post later when I'm not hiding from my homework (as I am presently...haha).

Happy Holidays!

October Catch-Up

 Wow what a month!

I can't believe how fast October has gone by.

First to start the month I had a birthday. It was a big one. I said goodbye to my 20's. *sniff* Now I'm officially starting my 30's!  Honestly, it wasn't that big of a deal. I still feel 29 at heart. ;)

Then the rest of the month was spent finishing up soccer. With Billy coaching two teams this year it was a bit crazy! We were happy to have our final games and trophy parties to wrap things up.

I have also been busy with my classes I'm taking. Pregnancy does NOT do good things to my brain. I feel the most stupid I've ever been! I can't concentrate and I just don't have any motivation to actually do my homework either. Needless to say, its been quite a struggle this month. I hope next month will be better, and then my classes will end the first week of December. YAY!

For Halloween we got pumpkins for each of the boys to carve themselves this year.  Tonight we had an epic pumpkin carving session complete with junk food. We didn't finish until 10:00pm! Gabe, 2 yrs old, was begging to go to bed poor thing.
At least the boys are getting older so I didn't have to help as much with de-gutting and carving of the pumpkins. I only  had to "de-gut" two pumpkins and help with a third.

I look forward to November, the holidays and spending time with family. The next two months will go by very fast I'm sure. Before I know it, it will be January and we'll be preparing the final WEEKS before the little princess comes. It seems unreal!

Okay...now on to the pictures:

Alex's end of year soccer party, this is the "trophy" this year...a personalized sweatshirt. The boys love it!

Gabe enjoying a dandelion at Alex's trophy party:




Or is he eating it?!

Playing in the leaves at Brayden's soccer party:



Billy Jr making a leaf-angel



Gabe and Billy's close-ups (I love Fall photos!)





Brayden getting his sweatshirt:



The whole team (minus one)



Pumpkin carving time!  A full kitchen...

Finished products...



All a-glow!

What's in a name?

Naming a person is hard.

I think that some parents don't realize this or don't put as much thought into it. That's where you get names such as Envy Burger, Bread White, I.P. Freely, Jus-N-Tyme, Violence, Holly Wood...the list goes on. (Taken from http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/23631411/ns/today-parenting/t/harry-pitts-worst-baby-names-all-time/ )

However I like to consider all aspects when I choose a name - possible tease-worthy names, correct spelling, and how does the name sound on a sophisticated adult? For example, you probably won't see the next president of the United States named Talula Does the Hula from Hawaii (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2452593/Talula-Does-The-Hula-From-Hawaii-not-a-girls-name-New-Zealand-court-rules.html) .

Then you've got TWO people trying to agree on names they like...even more added to the baby naming equation.

I don't know if we'll ever come up with a baby name, honestly. Maybe on her birth certificate it will just say "Baby Girl".

So...any ideas or suggestions? We are open to them!