She's here!!!

WOW!!!! That's all I can really say!!! I was starting to think I was going to be pregnant forever!!! Now that she's here it's a totally different feeling. She's the first thing I think about (other than my husband) when I wake up and the last thing I think about before I go to sleep! We are still at Methodist Mansfield Medical Center. My contractions started at about 11:30 on Sunday night. When I realized that these contractions weren't the regular Braxton Hicks contractions, I started timing them. I would always here people say that when real labor begins you'll just know....boy is that ever true!! They were 10 minutes apart. I waited until they were 5 minutes apart before I called the doctor. I finally called the doctor at 2:45 AM and told him what was going on. He told me to head to labor and delivery. Off we went. When we got to the hospital I had dilated to a 4 and was admitted. I chose not to get the epidural early because 1-- I was extremely nervous about it and 2-- my labor wasn't that bad. By 6 a.m I was dilated to 6 cm and things didn't progress after that. At about 8:30, I was given the epidural (which wasn't that bad:)) and I was also given pitocin to jump start my contractions again. That did the trick! I started dilating and soon after I was 8-9 cm!!! When we finally reached 10 cm and 100% effaced we had to wait for Dr. Diggs b/c I was performing a C-Section. We started to push without him in the room (per his orders). That pushing was SO serious! I had NEVER experienced anything like that before. They discovered that the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck and something was up with her heart rate. I can't remember what the term for it was. They had to suction her out and use forceps. I think the suctioning didn't work because this girl has a full head of hair. At 3:15 p.m she was born weighing 6lbs, 8oz, and she was 19 1/4 inches long!!!! I was so overwhelmed with emotions that I couldn't help but cry!!! I didn't get to hold her right away because I was busy being stitched back up because I tore pretty bad.

Right now, she looks a lot like Trice and has some of his same mannerisms! Maybe soon we'll figure out what she got from me.

So now, the blog will be about our new life with Ashlynn and not pregnancy anymore. Although it does feel strange to not be pregnant. Welcome back to sleeping on my stomach and hitting the gym after this 5-6 wait period is over!

she's so making me wait!!!

So I haven't dilated any past 3.5 cm!! I just knew that Tuesday's appointment would land me in labor and delivery because I just assumed I would be atleast at a 4. I had the bags in the car and everything!! So, she's just chillin' here! It must be comfy. As hot as it's been lately, she's probably like.." No Mommy, I'll just wait until it cools off!" It is hot! I remember thinking that she would come early! NOPE!!! I think it I didn't have an induction date, she would come at the last minute. That's my girl....fashionably late. I have started to have back pains and cramping again, but nothing consistent enough for me to get excited about!! It's amazing! It feels like I can't wait for all the "pain" to begin, but at this point, I'm just thinking, "get her out of me".

LOL. The one thing I was worried about was my paycheck. I didn't have enough state/local sick days to cover the entire bed rest. I got docked 10 days!!! 6 days on my June check and 4 days on my July check. Well, I just got my June check and boy was I shocked!!! It was almost half of what it normally is. I started to panic! Luckily, my husband and I had money put up so we're ok. The same thing will happen again in July. So we are going to be some super budgeting freaks until my checks return to normal. We are so a 2 income household. :) I can't wait for August!! My advice to any teacher planning on having a baby is to SAVE YOUR SICK DAYS!!! I'm glad I didn't use all of mine up. I didn't plan on going on bed rest so this was a total shock. I won't be using any of my sick days unless Miss Ashlynne is sick. I do plan on having another one so I have to build my days back up!

11 days until induction!!

It didn't happen!!

Last week at our regular Tuesday appointment, Dr. Diggs routinely checked my cervix and told us that I was already 3.5 cm dilated! He even thought that I would go into labor this past weekend. So I spent the entire week getting ready for Ashlynne to get here and NO SUCH LUCK!!! She's pretty comfortable where she is now. Either that, or she's just being stubborn and hard-headed like her daddy. I was so excited when he told me how far dilated I was. It made me feel like we were making some progress. I asked a friend how far dilated you have to be to be admitted to the hospital and she thinks it's 4. That's also what I thought. At tomorrow's appointment I'm hoping that I'll have dilated even more...enough to admit me and get this show on the road. With that being said, I need to finish getting Ashlynne's room ready (unpacked) and the rest of this house clean. :)

Ugh....I just knew she was going to come this past weekend.

This weekend is Trice's family reunion. I look forward to it, but part of me hopes I have to miss it b/c I will be a new mommy.

Wednesday will make a full 37 weeks pregnant allowing me to boast that I made it to full term and hopefully she will get to go home with me if I deliver this week. I get so many texts during the day and they all say the same thing "No baby yet?" LOL. I respond with "Unfortunately, no :)"

It seems like this is pregnancy season. I've got a friends due in October, November, December, and 2 friends in January. One friend just delivered earlier this month. WOW!!!

Keeping my fingers crossed about tomorrow's appointment. If not, I've got 14 days until I get induced!!!

time is winding down

This past Saturday was baby shower #2!! I had a ton of fun. The food was delish and the cake was so good!!

On Tuesday we went to the doctor and everything was looking good. I still hadn't dilated any further and Dr. Diggs removed me from bed rest at 35 weeks!! I was so excited about that. We scheduled my induction for July 7, 2009. I am to arrive at the hospital at 5:30 p.m. Dr. Diggs doesn't really think that I will go that far, but with this child you never can tell. I think I'm doing good to have made it to almost 36 weeks. The doctor is out of town this weekend on a trip to New York so he advised little Ashlynne to be still until he gets back. I sure hope she does. I would hate for another doctor to have to deliver her after Dr. Diggs has done so much for us.

I think labor maybe on it's way because I've started to get really tired and I've had a lot more crampy days filled with backaches. I hope that's the case. My total weight gain as of Tuesday was 22 lbs. I remember when I couldn't gain a thing. Hopefully, I won't go too far past this 22 lbs!! I wonder how long it will take me to get UNDER my pre-pregnancy weight. I want to weigh less than what I did before I got pregnant.

The baby shower was alot of fun!! Ashlynne got a ton of stuff!!!

a little over 3 more weeks!!!

4 more weeks...

Only 4 more weeks until I meet little Miss Ashlynne!!! There seems to be a light at the end of this tunnel! I really don't see how some women can be pregnant 4 and 5 times, or better yet, have has many kids as that Duggar woman. Please don't look for me to have too many more!! I think where I went downhill was that hospital stay that resulted in bed rest. I've been on bed rest for 6 full weeks...that's 42 days to sit around and think of all things I COULD be doing. LOL.

Yesterday we saw Dr. Diggs again and this visit was one of the shortest I've had with him since he became my doctor. Because I've reached 34 weeks now there would be no point in trying to stop labor. She's ( Ashlynne ) has been given steroids so if labor started she would be good to go! The transvaginal scans that showed the length and funneling of my cervix also stopped. I still get the weekly sonogram and checked to see if I've dilated. So far, I haven't dilated any further.

Praise God, he is taking me off bed rest next week and we are even going to schedule the day that I am going to be induced. All I know is that as soon as I am technically taken off bed rest, the walking will begin. I really went to swim but that would have to be at night were NO ONE can see me! LOL....

I went to school today to visit my class since it was the last day and they were out of control! They were so excited to see me. Top that with the fact that it's the end of the year and they were bound to be a little crazy. One student even had a gift for my little Ashlynne.

My 2nd baby shower is this weekend... I can't wait!!!

I used to think that she was going to come early, but I guess since I was on bed rest, her arrival was prolonged. Maybe she'll come before the day that I am induced in to labor... I hope so because Mommy's tired.

4 weeks and counting.....