Tuesday, July 29, 2008

He's here!

Our baby finally decided to make his debut into the world and join our family on Sunday night, July 27th at 8:50 pm. We have decided to name him Daniel Glenn Turner, Daniel coming from the bible and Glenn is Brent's dad's middle name. Daniel weighed in at 9 lbs. 14 oz. and is 21" tall. For the labor, we had gone in to be induced but luckily after breaking the water I went into labor on my own and was able to avoid pitocin. The labor was just short of 10 hours and everything went well; except that, towards the end it got a little crazy but luckily he was born after 2 short pushes. All tests for Daniel came back normal and since I was doing well also we were able to come home Monday evening - lucky us! Jacob is enthralled with his new brother and wants to give him hugs and kisses every time he sees him. Brent is taking the week off from work to care for all of us and so far all is well.







Thursday, July 24, 2008

Cute pictures

Jacob loves to try and put Brent's shoes on and walk around (which is when he promptly falls). Sunday we took these pictures of Jacob in Brent's Sunday shoes



Today (while I was blogging, go figure) Jacob was in the kitchen making lots of noise. When I went in there this is what I found


His drawer where his play cookware is kept


Our pantry (there are a few things missing)


The microwave (his favorite place to stash things)

He is so much fun!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The update

So I am 41 weeks today and still no baby. I had an ultra sound this morning that showed he is still safely and happily cooking away in there. At my prenatal appointment my midwife stripped my membranes (for the third time) and said that I am still dilated at 2 cm but this time my cervix is soft, so I have had some improvement. She said she would like to give nature a few more days but that we could schedule an induction for this weekend if we wanted, so I am scheduled to be induced Saturday night (I will be 11 days over due by then). I will have my last acupuncture appointment on Thursday and go in to have my membranes stripped again on Friday. In the meantime I am still holding onto a tiny shred of hope that my body will somehow start labor on it's own. However, I am glad that there is an end in sight if it doesn't.

Statistically it doesn't look good for me, between my two sisters and I there are eight children, five of which were induced, one needed labor augmentation with pitocin, one was delivered by c-section and only one was natural (Mary went into labor on her own with her second and delivered without needing pitocin - go Mary!). If when my youngest sister has children and she also needs to be induced we will know there is something going on with our genetics that keeps us from going into labor (at least that is my theory).

I have done everything besides castor oil (which doesn't work often enough and usually does more harm than good) to help my body get ready for labor and start on it's own. If, despite all my efforts, I still end up being induced I am going feel let down. If I were living 100 years ago I would have been on the weak side of "survival of the fittest"... I wouldn't have made it! My can't-go-into-labor self would simply die. How depressing is that! Maybe I should end now and go to bed.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Today is my due date...

and still no baby. ::sigh:: I had my 40 week appointment today and I have not changed at all from my last appointment. The good thing that happened was that she gave me a much needed pep talk about respecting and loving my body for what it is doing and how well it is doing it and to let it do its job and do whatever is necessary to help make the waiting easier (ie: bon bons, ice cream, naps, whatever). Every day to me feels like 10 at this stage and I'm not a patient person, so this is hard for me but I am going to try and do what she said. It doesn't help that I get 5 calls a day and 5 emails a day asking if I've had the baby yet. I know people care and people love me, but it just makes it harder.

In non pregnancy news, Jacob has been such a fun little boy recently. He is immitating all the time and will copy what we say. We play together and he smiles and laughs all the time - I am just so in love with him. He is a wonderful little boy and, compared to the kids I see on those nanny shows, he is an angel as well. He likes to watch America's Funniest Home Video's and laugh at the animals or the mishaps the people get into... so hilarious. He also loves Sesame Street and is starting to copy the counting that they do. He says goodbye to the characters on the screen and dances to the music. I just love watching him and spending our days together.

That's all folks.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Still no baby. I am still 2 cm dilated, which is ok I guess... it's better than nothing. I am due one week from today! And like every other pregnant woman at my stage, I am SO READY to have the baby out. I'm looking forward to not having my liver and other insides kicked on a regular basis. I'm also looking forward to being able to roll over at night with it waking me up and hurting... plus it feels really weird to feel the baby shift from one side of me to the other due to gravity.

We watched Superman Returns last night. I thought it was a well done movie, however I didn't care for the part at the end where he gets his trash kicked and then stabbed in the back twice by Lex with kryptonite - too graphic and mean for me. One part of the movie was so "Titanic" that I found it funny. Brent really liked the part where he got shot close range by a gun aimed directly at his eye and it simply bounced off like nothing. Superman is a rad comic hero in my opinion. I think I like the orignial series better and it made me want to see them again.

Today just before putting Jacob down for his nap the phone rang, it said it was from a pay phone so I expected it to be a wrong number. I answered anyway and was completely shocked to hear my sister Teresa on the line. She was in the airport waiting to board the plane for Tokyo Japan. She has been in the MTC for a full 12 weeks learning Japanese and today was the big day for her to go and serve. I didn't think I would get to hear her voice until she came back and so of course I cried like three times. Even Jacob said "hello" and "bye" to her, which was so cute. We talked for about 8 minutes and it was so awesome! I have missed her so much already and it was great to be able to tell her I love her one more time before she left. I am so proud of her and how well she is doing so far, she is going to have a wonderful time in Japan I just know it.

Another bit of good news, my brother John who is serving in Iraq for the third time has his date set for coming home - August 23rd. He left last September and I am so glad that the year has gone by quickly for him. I am really excited to see him and for him to home and safe on American soil.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Doing well

No baby yet... but things are at least starting to happen. I've been having lots of braxton hicks contractions and at my 38 week appointment I was examined and told I am already 2 cm dilated! Miracle of Miracles... I had nothing even close to that with Jacob (even at 41 weeks) so I'm excited to be showing some progress. I've started taking a bunch of herbs to help get my body ready for labor and I think they must be working. I had my last session of acupuncture on Tuesday - this time it was actually quite nice and relaxing. For those interested, these are the herbs I'm taking (per my midwife's instructions):

- 2 cups of red raspberry leaf tea per day (tastes yummy with honey), I up that by 1 cup each week until I reach 4 cups per day. I'm hoping I don't make it that long - 4 cups of herbal tea a day is a lot in my opinion.
- Black and Blue cohosh that I switch off taking every other day
- 2 capsules of Evening Primrose Oil every night before bed

It has been hot and muggy up here for a week now and the result is that I have swelling in my hands and feet and some in my face along with a few other symptoms and was told me I am dehydrated. I always get told that even though I drink a lot of fluid throughout the day, so I'm not sure what more to do.

We finally have the help lined up for Jacob that we need for the few days we spend in the hospital. This has been a big stress for me as the two girls I had lined up ended up not working out. I have a teen from my ward that will spend the night here and take care of his night and morning routine and then he will spend the day with my friend Mettina and her two daughters that live two buildings down from us (he loves it over there). He will most likely not get a nap during the day (he does not sleep in other places) and I can forsee that being a problem, but it is only for a few days and so I'm not going to worry about it. I am simply relieved to have a situation set up for him that I feel good about.

Big news! (For me at least). I finished the scrapbook I made of my courtship, engagement and marriage with Brent. I think I have worked on it only twice since having Jacob and knew I would never get it done at the rate I was going. The problem I had was getting my stuff out and setting it all up. So I set up my table in our spare room and left everything out. Then a few nights each week I worked on it while Brent was gaming on the computer after Jacob was in bed. That way we could still talk to each other and each do something we each wanted to do. I completed 36 pages in about a month and finished the album the other night. I am so excited that I actually finished something! Hurray for accomplishments.

We are excited to celebrate the forth of July tomorrow with my sister and her family. We will be barbequeing and making homemade ice cream and root beer.. it doesn't get much better than that. I hope that all of you out there have a wonderful and safe weekend.