SLACKERS!!

We've been super great at posting since we had this little girl.  Can you tell?  Our little boogs is 8 weeks old on Thursday.. time flies!  At her 1 month checkup she was 8 pounds, 10 ounces.  That's a 2 pound, 1 ounce gain.  Jamie was a chunky butt so maybe she's trying to follow suit lol.  Buttttttt we did find out that Jamie was being fed rice cereal at around 2-3 months so maybe that had something to do with it :p

We had some cutsie bootsie newborn photos taken of Sophia.  Want to see some??

 www.alexbeephoto.com

 www.alexbeephoto.com

www.alexbeephoto.com

We think she's pretty cute :)  Baby girl is doing really well too!  She pretty much sleeps through the night now, with the exception of waking up at around 3 or 4 to eat.  Other than that she's a big ole sleepy head at night.  She's still in our room, but in a cradle instead of her napper on her pack n play because she has pretty much outgrown that already.  We are really dreading putting her in her crib in her room, but I'm sure that's absolutely normal.  I don't know what we'll do when she spends her first night in her room.  Jamie is still on maternity leave and I am still unemployed so we're getting to spend lots of family time together, which is great.  Jamie will go back to work the second week in January and since I'm unemployed I will be staying home with Sophia.  I'm pretty nervous about having her for 8 hours a day all by myself.  I know her routine with eating, sleeping, playing and potting pretty much so we will see how it goes!  

That's it for now, folks.  Hopefully we'll be better about keeping up with the blog from now on.  Until then… Happy New Year!!!

We Had A Baby!!!

She's here!!
Little miss Sophia Ann was born on November 7, 2013 at 7:56 AM. She weighed 6 pounds 9 ounces and measured 20 inches long.

People tell us she's pretty cute and we tend to agree :)

I'll go ahead and do the best I can to give you all the birth story (this is Courtney btw). I'm sure I'll get a few details wrong, but here we go anyways!

Last Wednesday we went to our regular OB appointment and Jamie was 2 centimeters dilated. The doctor stripped Jamie's membranes really well and was hoping that that alone would send her into labor, but poor little Jamie was so ready to meet our little girl that she started crying and asked what they could do about induction. SO we were told to be at the hospital that night at 8:00 and they would be giving her cervidil. Now cervidil is only supposed to thin the cervix out for labor so it was the general consensus that after 12 hours on the cervidil, they would be giving her pitocin to start labor. The doctor informed us that only about 20% of women go into labor after getting cervidil so we were sure that she would be getting the pitocin the next morning. We go all checked in and she ended up getting the cervidil around 9:30. It was Jamie, myself and her mom in the room and we decided to grab some sleep afterwards. We all woke up around 1:00 when Jamie started having intense contractions. They started to be 7-8 minutes apart, but quickly went to about 3 minutes apart after that and were very painful for her. One of the nurses wanted to pull the cervidil, but they left it in so she would continue contracting. The contractions got so intense that Jamie was vomiting with every contraction and shaking uncontrollably and ended up getting an IV injection or morphine for that pain. She figured out that it did pretty much nothing to help with the pain so around 3 centimeters she ended up getting an epidural. Now I was just sure that they were supposed to pull the cervidil when she got the epidural, but they did not do that and quickly after getting the epidural hers and Sophia's stats started dropping. Jamie's blood pressure went down to something around the 80s/30s and Sophia's heart rate dropped down to the 80s. At this point her mom and myself were sure that she would be getting an emergency c-section. After about 5 minutes of that they started changing Jamie's position and put gas on her to try to improve the situation, but ended up pulling the cervidil and everything got better soon after that. Now after this her dilation progressed just as quickly and the doctor came to check on her around 6:00 and said that she was around 7. By 7:00 she was fully dilated and ready to push. She began pushing a little after 7 due to shift change. Funny, huh? She didn't push long before little girl was born and everything ended up being just fine. We should not have been surprised by this little booger being dramatic, but all is well and we got to take her home on Saturday. Now the fun baby updates begin!

Until next time..

40+3

Well....that's right. I am now officially overdue!! This little girl is very comfy in the house I've made for her for the last now 10 (!!!!) months. My last appointment didn't show much change, Dr. even stripped my membranes, nothing happened. We have a stubborn little girl on our hands. Like I said in my last post we have tried EVERYTHING! to get her to come out...she is on nobody's time but her own, she made that very clear.

I have taken today off work to try to de-stress and relax a little...and walk a lot :). Our next appointment is this Wednesday, I have a feeling we will be talking induction at that time...REALLY not the route I'd like to take, but to keep everyone healthy I will do whatever it takes.

Right now, Court is cooking some breakfast and I am having some coffee and orange juice. This is a pretty boring post, I was hoping the next time I updated it would've been with a birth story...oh well :)

Sophia has other plans. Today is my Grandma's 88th birthday. Our 3rd birthday without her. I wholly believe she has had her hand in this pregnancy from the beginning, maybe she has a trick up her sleeve for today too? Either way, I can't wait to tell this little girl all about her great grandma and the amazing woman she was!

Come on Sophia, we are all ready to meet your sweet face!

38+0

Soooo things are moving along swimmingly. Last week's appointment showed I was 70% effaced and still closed, but she was low. This week's appointment showed that I am not all the way effaced yet, but almost (Courtney and I said we are going to tell ourselves that means I'm 90%)...and I was 1cm on the outside, closed on the inside. Apparently that is normal (for 2nd + moms hahaha) oh well, I knew I'd be a little different than the normal First Time Mom at some point. She also felt her body and said she was in a great position.

I have been rocking, swaying, walking and constantly moving to try to get things in motion. I ate a whole pineapple earlier this week (maybe that had something to do with the dilation on Wednesday?) Anyway...I continue to eat pineapple, because it is so darn tasty and at this point really can't hurt. :) I have been drinking some red raspberry leaf tea...not the tastiest thing ever but I don't mind it. Eating spicy foods and drinking sodas...they have the same effect as spicy foods these days haha. Last night I lost part of my mucus plug. That was weird...it wasn't much, so I imagine I will see more in the days to come. My contractions are becoming more regular...still not consistent, but we are getting there. I know she is still really low, and getting lower by how many times she makes me go pee. My back/hips are more achy...also a good sign she is in the launch position :)

Courtney, love her heart, is so anxious to meet this little one! I am too, but I keep trying to tell myself I know this is all on her time...she is going to come out when she is good and ready. Of course, I'd be happy with an early arrival!! I think 10/20/13 sounds like a great day for a baby, what do you say?

Things really are starting to happen...I know that doesn't mean anything at all, but maybeeeeeee I will be part of the 19% of first time moms to have their baby before their due date. Fingers Crossed!

36+4

How many of you made it all the way to the end of pregnancy without those crazy cravings everyone always talks about? I thought I was doing really great about not craving anything too out of the ordinary...until yesterday. I decided at lunch time I'd have some wavy potato chips with my chocolate ice cream. Then last night before bed (heartburn was acting up) I wanted ice cream...with corn flakes on top. Both were dishes delicious.

Our appointment last week went very well. I don't think I was warned that when the doctor "checks you" it will most likely be uncomfortable. I should've known, duh...Baby girl is clocking in around 5.5lbs. She is very low, in fact the u/s tech had a hard time measuring the top of her head she was so low. I was not dilated yet and she didn't put a % to the effacement, but I'm guessing if anything it wasn't much. I have a feeling that since she has dropped down so much this week will be a different story. We made her check again to make sure she is still a she...I had some pretty weird dreams about twins and not being able to tell what sex one of them was. Shew. All in all things are moving along like they should. I have puffy feet almost every single day now...totally normal as long as my BP stays low and no protein shows up in my urine. I am congested most nights, but I am also up to pee more than I can count so I don't really mind sitting up to sleep :) I still have a pretty high energy level, I am waiting for the extreme drowsiness to kick back in. Apparently this whole not sleeping now thing is getting me ready for the not sleeping when Sophia is here!

We packed most of our hospital bag stuff over the weekend. I have been having lots of loose stools, yes I know you love to read those types of things :) I've read that can be one of the first signs of actual labor. I want to start walking more in the evenings since it has cooled off so much here...it is relaxing and beneficial in the baby moving department. My hips have started to ache more, I think that is also her getting in the ready position. I feel pretty great right now...and I am not taking it for granted, a friend of ours is due in just 5 days and is feeling really miserable. I am hoping her little girl makes an early appearance so Momma can start feeling better!!

Our weekly appointment is tomorrow afternoon. I am hoping for a little more progression than last week...maybe I will go for a walk around the building to up those odds :)

Until next time!

A Little of This And a Little of That!

Hello again! This is going to be a long post because we haven't updated in a while! I seriously almost typed bc instead of because. I mean, really? It's not like I don't have time to type the whole word.. I am unemployed. Anyways..
Yay the fair is over and has been for a bit. I believe Jamie touched on this, but I had to share this awesome picture

Wow isn't that pretty? I thought so.

Now on to more. We had two baby showers and got most of our big ticket items. Friends and family are great :) One shower was for friends and another was for family and church members at Jamie's parents' church. I was, to say the least, a little stressed about the church shower. I mean we are a lesbian couple in East Tennessee. It went a lot better than I expected. Only one person asked me how Jamie and I were related ;) People insist that we look like sisters, but I don't see it. Oh well..

Before our first shower we had a "special delivery" class at the hospital and Jamie's friend Stacey was amazing enough to enlist some help and fly all the way in from California to decorate Sophia's nursery. It is gorgeous. It seriously looks like something from a magazine. Here are a few peeks!

It's feminine while not being overwhelmingly girly at the same time. I'm super excited about it and I could not be more thankful for all of the hard work our little nursery fairies put in. 

                                                   

 

We also did a little decorating for fall. I love decorating :)

Last night we also got a visit from our lovely friend Alex over at alexbeephoto.com and she did a maternity shoot with us. We even got our pup Charlie to run by in a few pictures. She's not very cooperative to say the least :p Here is a sneak peek of that.

alexbeephoto.com

She is absolutely amazing and some of our engagement photos that she took for us were featured on A Bicycle Built For Two. How fun! Maybe I can insert the link to that? (This is all I know to do haha, but it works )   http://www.onabicyclebuiltfortwo.com/2013/09/engagement-sesh-jamie-courtney.html

Annd lastly we have our 36 week appointment for baby girl on Wednesday. I believe we will get our last ultrasound this time and hopefully we'll get to see if Jamie is dilated or effaced at all. We both are thinking she will come early because Jamie's practice contractions (BH) are getting stronger.. or maybe it's just wishful thinking because we want her here already. I'm sure we'll have an update for you all on Wednesday. Until then!!!

A different kind of TWW

Two more weeks until our 34 week appointment. Then two more until our weekly appointments start! AHHH!!! I can't believe we are getting so close :)

Today's appointment was pretty boring...aside from the whole "how would you feel about a Halloween baby" question hahaha. Our doctor came in the room with that question. She is basically saying that since everything is going really well and everything is on track...the only real worry we could have at this point would be meconium (the first tar-like poos for a baby) in the fluids. It is more likely that this could happen going past the due date...so she has given us the "go ahead" to start all the natural labor inducing tricks at week 39. I want to labor in water (or at least have the option to if I'm feeling up for it) and she said if my water breaks and there is meconium, I can't labor in the water.

I love that she is doing everything she can to let me have the labor/birth I have planned out in my head. At this point I am feeling pretty confident and happy with everything! Things are falling into place, slowly...but surely. I can't wait for our Birthing class...I think that coupled with the hospital tour will reallllly make things feel real and not just like plans anymore.

We washed a load of tiny clothes last night...it was so cute! And loud haha...those snaps really do sound like a bunch of pennies tossing around in the dryer :) We still need to prep the prefold cloth diapers...that's right. We are going for it!! We won't let ourselves feel bad if for the first few weeks we have to use newborn disposables...but we are going to be ready with the cloth if we want to start right away too :)

My pal text me on Monday "17 days" I can't believe he will be here in less than 17 days!!!!! He is decorating our nursery for us and I won't be able to thank him enough...I was really having a hard time figuring out exactly what I wanted for her nursery. He offered to fly out and do it for us! So while we are out he is going to decorate and then we have a shower the next day to add to the mayhem of his decor haha. It's going to be great :)

I think that is everything...We are going to be busy little bees for the next week, so I am glad I was able to write this out now! Until next time...