Introducing Ashton!

I know I've been pretty quiet on my blog about being pregnant.  I was pretty hesitant to post about it.  The reasons involve fertility treatments, thinking we wouldn't ever become pregnant again, and then actually becoming pregnant.  But that's not what this post is about.  This post is about our new, sweet baby Ashton!!!

I was due on November 29 which is this coming Thursday.  She arrived 10 days early, on November 19, for which I will forever be grateful.

I had a busy, uncomfortable weekend.  I was having irregular contractions that never turned in to anything.  They were anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes apart and not too strong.  I was incredibly uncomfortable.  I barely made it through the practice for our Primary Program at church and I thought I might go in to labor that night.  Saturday night I got between 2 and 2 1/2 hours of sleep.  I was happy that I was able to be at our Primary Program on Sunday.  My parents and grandma came down for the program and stayed for lunch.  The contractions started up again and my water broke around 11:15 pm before I had the chance to fall asleep.  The same thing happened with Lauren, so I had an idea of what I was in for.  I knew I was in for a long sleepless night and I was even more nervous about how tired I was going to be considering the amount of sleep I had the night before.

Eric's mom came over to spend the night with the girls and Eric and I left for the hospital.  

last pregnant picture of me

I'll spare you the gory details.  You're welcome.

Ashton was born at 1:36 pm.  She was perfect and healthy and I couldn't believe that she was here!

First picture of Ashton

She weighed in at 8 pounds 3 ounces.  The biggest of my babies by over a pound!  Yet another reason I was happy she was 10 days early.

After a few hours, we were ready for Kaylin and Lauren to come meet their sister.  It was love at first sight.  Lauren kept wanting to hold and kiss "her baby".

Our first family picture

Sweet baby Ashton

She's Here!

We watched a movie at the Greens' on Saturday night. We got home around 11:30 pm and my water broke the minute I walked in the house. I don't even think I'd taken my shoes off yet. I called the hospital and they told me to go ahead and come in. I wasn't having very bad contractions so I was a little nervous about how long this process could take.

Eric's mom came over to stay with Kaylin and we arrived at the hospital around 12:45 am on Sunday.

The nurse got me all situated in my room. I was still feeling pretty good and I wasn't having any major contractions.

Last picture of me pregnant!

At 2:00 am I was almost 4 cm dilated and 90% effaced. The test about whether or not my water broke came back negative, but we knew it was wrong. The nurse said she could feel that it was broken and I definitely knew that I was leaking fluid :-). Later it was much more obvious, I won't gross you out, though :-). So then they decided to get me on my medications and fluids. By this point I was shaking uncontrollably. The nurse said it was because I was going into labor quickly and my hormones were going crazy.

At 2:30 am the poor nurses blew three blood veins trying to get my IV in. Not fun.

At 3:45 my midwife and I decided that I should have an epidural. My contractions were coming faster and stronger, but the main reason was to try to lower my blood pressure. It had been really high all night.

The epidural worked, but not for the blood pressure. I had to go on magnesium sulfate for preeclampsia. That stuff is nasty and makes me sick. I had to be on it for 24 hours after delivery.

By 5 am I was 5 cm dilated, 100% effaced, and feeling NOTHING. It was fabulous. I was feeling sick so they gave me some medicine to help with that which also put me to sleep.

At 8:45 they basically woke me up to say it was time to go. I was so tired. The epidural worked so well that I didn't know where/how/when to push. The other drug had me totally drowsy. We went on that way for 45 minutes.

We decided to stop the epidural and to put me on pitocin to make the contractions closer together, they were coming around 4 or 5 minutes apart and the pitocin would bring them to 2-3 minutes.

At 10:20 am I started pushing again. This time I could tell what needed to be done, and our baby girl was born 14 minutes later.

Lauren Frances was born on 12/6/09 (all divisible by 3, how cool is that? ha, that's the math nerd in me :-)) at 10:34 am. She weighed 7 pounds and was 18.5 inches long. Her middle name is in honor of Eric's grandma.

Nana (my mom) made Lauren this adorable hat!

We're all doing really well. Lauren has mostly been sleeping, no surprise there. Eric got a lot of rest last night which I am happy about. Me on the other hand, not so much sleep. They took me off the magnesium a little early (YEA!) so I am starting to feel a lot better.

...Still here...

Just in case you're wondering.

I'm getting annoyed. It's still before my due date, so I guess I shouldn't complain yet.

Funny story from this morning:

K: Mommy, I want presents from Santa.

Me: What do you have to do to get presents from Santa?

K: I have to be a big boy.

Hmmmmm.... I guess we need to work on that one.

39 Weeks!

Today I am 39 weeks pregnant!

I had my 39 week appointment today. I am 1 cm dilated and 60% effaced. My midwife said that the baby's head is really low and that she feels "smaller than average" and will probably be about the size of Kaylin (she was 6 lb 8 oz). She stripped my membranes in hopes that the hormones will do their job faster. We'll see how that goes.

I put a poll on my right sidebar. You can vote on when you think I will have this baby. The poll closes on Thursday the 3rd at 11:59 pm. If the baby comes before the poll closes, don't change your vote! :-) If you want to be more specific, like a time of day, then put it in the comments. In case it makes a difference, Kaylin was born 3 days early and at my 39 week appointment I think I was 2 cm dilated. My official due date is December 7.

I put up some Christmas decorations today, including our stockings. Kaylin was so excited. She was quite distraught that "baby sister's" stocking doesn't have an initial like everyone else. She kept saying, "There's no letter! What are we going to do?" She decided that we should put an "S" on the stocking for "sister" since the baby doesn't have a name yet. We'd better get on that.

Baby shower!

Kristina threw me a FABULOUS baby shower on Saturday. I told her that I didn't need one, since I'm having another girl, but she insisted. I didn't complain :-). We had a great time.

We played the game where you sift through a bowl of uncooked rice and safety pins with your eyes closed and try to pick out the safety pins. It was actually pretty tough.

Pam, Stephanie, Toni, and Aubrey

Carly and me. My eyes are closed on purpose, it was my turn for the game.

Angela, Krista, and Stephanie holding Bosten (Krista's one month old).

Opening presents and modeling the "body bib" from Angela. I think I might use the bibs until I have this baby ;-).

Kim and me with the AMAZING princess and the pea quilt she made. If you look closely you can see a little green "pea" button near the bottom.

Thanks everyone for a great shower.

Ruffle pillow, quilt progress, and 36 weeks

Tonight I made this:

A ruffle pillow for the baby's room. I LOVE IT. I thought my back would appreciate a pillow during late night nursing sessions. I also thought the glider needed something to dress it up.

For you crafty types--I used a 12x16 pillow form and cut my front piece 13x17 to allow for 1/2 inch seam allowances. I cut 6 pieces 3x26 for the ruffles. I serged the edges of the ruffle pieces (THANK YOU Kristina and Kristina's mom for the use of your serger, you are seriously the best). I then sewed the ruffles down and gathered by hand as I went. I pinned each ruffle piece at the center, then the ends, and then half-way between each end and the center to help distribute the gathers evenly. I cut two pieces for the back, both 11x13 and hemmed one 13" side of each. I used this tutorial for the back. The only change I made is that I pressed the outer piece 1/2" and then 1 1/2" (instead of 2"). When I used this tutorial previously I found that 2" did not give me enough overlap. Then I sewed the front to the back and there you have it.

Baby's room:

Notice the curtain panels are up. I finished them last week and we hung them up on Wednesday. I'm not a huge fan. I think the valence needs to be higher, but we have a double curtain rod that makes the two hang at the same height. I might just have to make Eric install another rod up higher. I do like that they make the room dark during the day. So at least they're functional. Since I don't really like them you're not getting a full picture yet :-). I also hung up the bow holder I made. The nail was already there from the cross-stitch I made Kaylin. The baby's cross-stitch will probably hang there eventually, so the bow holder might need to find a new home. It works for now.

Today I finished quilting Kaylin's quilt! I think it turned out well. If you don't think so, keep your mouth shut ;-).

This was a daunting process. I worked on quilting it for 6 days, with most of the work taking place on 4 of those days. It took me somewhere between 8 and 10 hours. I used over 700 yards of thread. This is only the second quilt I have free-motion quilted and the first one I've done on my machine. I bought a darning foot for my machine so I could do it myself. I used this tutorial for reference, I highly recommend it. I love that I can do this on my dinky machine. Next up is making the binding and sewing it on! That's next week's project.

And in case you're curious, here's how I looked at 36 weeks (Tuesday):

I'm now 36 1/2 weeks. Only about 3 1/2 weeks left! It's stressing me out. I still have a lot to do. But I am making a lot of progress. And whatever is done when this baby comes is done. That's my new mantra :-).

Craft Night! And a pregnancy update.

In my attempt to get as many Christmas presents done before Halloween as possible, I held a craft night at my house with a few friends. We ordered kits that came with most of the needed supplies, it was awesome.

If you are related to me DO NOT click on the next link. I might have made a present for you and I don't want you to figure out what it is. We ordered the kits from Windmill Lettering. They were great to work with and I love how the projects turned out. I will post pictures of the finished projects AFTER Christmas :-).

Angie, Kristina, Michelle, Laura, and Ashley. Aren't they all so cute?

Kristina decided that I needed to be in a picture too. I'm 33 weeks pregnant here.

I am now 34 weeks pregnant. I can hardly believe it. I only have about 6 weeks until this baby is born. Here are a few things I did on Saturday and today to get ready:

1. Painted Kaylin's dresser, my grandpa made it for me when I was little and it still had its original coat of paint.

2. Painted the small bookshelf in the baby's room. It was painted probably 10 years ago and needed a new coat.

3. Finished all 7 projects I was working on during my craft night, which finished presents for 6 people.

4. Started the curtains for Kaylin's room. I am using this tutorial.

I'm hoping to get the curtains finished this week. A few things still on my to do:

1. Curtains for the baby's room.
2. Coat of paint on baby's changing table.
3. Pillow for rocker in baby room.
4. New nursing blanket, diaper and wipes pouch, changing pad.
5. Finish Kaylin's quilt.
6. Make some dinners for the freezer.
7. Do some other cleaning and organizing.
8. Let's just end here, shall we?

6 weeks.

Happy birthday and 32 weeks pregnant

Yesterday was my birthday. Not quite the same as it used to be. I did get Kaylin to tell me happy birthday, so that was nice. She was excited to help me open presents and eat cake, too bad for her I didn't really open presents like she's used to from kid parties. We had a *rough* day and I was really glad once it was time to go out to dinner.

Eric's parents took us to 5 Guys for burgers. Yum! Thanks, again! Eric brought along cupcakes from New York Cupcakes by his office. I'm not a huge cake fan, but these are pretty darn good. Kaylin waited as patiently as she could until it was time to eat them.

She's saying "Cheese!".

Cute cousins and their daddies (Eric, Kaylin, Ryanne, Chris). Loke's in the background trying to be awesome. She says she's the old one now because she's in high school.

And here I am preggers on my birthday. 32 weeks. I had to stand in front of the tv so Eric would actually take the picture during the football game. That's not completely true, it was his idea to take the picture. Also, that's not a maternity shirt! How sweet is that??

Eric insisted on taking this lovely picture:

That's pretty much what I look like on most nights. Except normally Eric has the remote. Also, not a good pregnancy angle. I look more like a pot-bellied man. Ha! At least I have somewhere convenient to set my food.

I had my 32 week appointment today and everything is looking good. My weight gain is awesome, blood pressure is great, and she is HEAD DOWN. I sure hope she stays that way. Kaylin was breech and I had to go to the hospital on Christmas Eve so they could pump me full of drugs and try to flip her around. Not fun. I do not want a repeat. I can't believe my due date is coming so quickly, she will be here in no time!

Thanks to everyone who helped make my birthday so wonderful!

26 Weeks

I have been terrible at taking pictures of this pregnancy. I wanted to take a picture every 4 weeks. During week 20 I didn't have a camera, during week 24 I was in Bellingham. And I just didn't take any pictures during that time. I guess I'm just lazy.

Here I am today, at week 26.



Only 14 weeks (plus/minus) to go! It's going by really quickly.

I've been feeling great. Sleeping is a slight issue, but not too bad. I have definitely started the "nesting" phase. I have a 2 page word document with all of the things I need to do. This includes cleaning/organizing and baby/birthday/Christmas presents. This list does not include the various things I want to make for the baby and her room and for Kaylin and her room. I've been trying to pick a couple of things from the list to do each day. Plus I'm trying to finish Kaylin's scrapbook and the quilt for her twin bed.

It's a...

GIRL

The final poll was 11 votes for boy and 8 for girl. If you count a few votes from Eric's office, the total was 13 boy (57%) and 10 girl (43%). Sorry, the majority was incorrect. Apparently the Chinese calendar was WRONG and my sister-in-law was right. In case you're wondering, for her method you take the age of the mother at conception and add the number of the month the baby was conceived (as in 1 for January, 2 for February, etc). If you get an even number you're having a boy. If you get an odd number you're having a girl.

Kaylin came with us to the ultrasound today. She loved looking at the baby on the screen. She's starting to understand that "there is a baby in Mommy's tummy". Although she probably thinks it's a funny looking black and white baby.

We're excited to be having another girl!!

Kaylin is thrilled...

to announce that she's going to be a

big sister!!!!!

Stats:

Due date: December 7

How preggo am I: 12 weeks (3 months)

How long did it take this time: 18 months. 1 surgery. 2 IUIs (intrauterine insemination) with clomid. This child can NEVER say it wasn't wanted.

How do I feel: I've been better.

Will we find out the gender: Oh yes. I am calling to schedule the ultrasound today so that I can get in as close to 18 weeks as possible.

I had my 12 week appointment today. The doctor couldn't find the heartbeat, so he brought in the ultrasound and we got to see the baby instead. I am happy to report that the baby has a heartbeat, a head, a torso, and legs (that's what we saw :-)).

So there you go. Now all of you who already knew don't have to worry about not telling anyone else. And anyone who knew and thought they "weren't supposed to know yet" can pretend like they just found out.