She is here!!

So, Friday August 21st was my birthday. Byron and I got up early that morning, we took our car to be worked on then had breakfast at Ihop. Afterward, we stopped by walmart to pick up the baby's crib being sent by some friends. Then we headed to BJ's Wholesale (like Sam's Club) to do my final shopping trip for the church and to do our big shopping for home. We then managed to have a date night. We went to eat at California Pizza Kitchen and watched District 9. It was probably one of our best days together. We were VERY productive and very cooperative with each other even though it was such a long day.

Byron was supposed to do a 15 mile run saturday morning with a guy from his ship. We were going to host him for lunch after. Byron had looked up 3 different recipes for grilled burgers. We went out at 10pm and got the rest of the ingredients for this meal. We stayed up until 2am just doing the prep work for this lunch.

At 5am I woke up not feeling very well. I felt very nauseous and just sick. After wondering why my stomach hurt so bad, I finally woke Byron up around 5:30 and told him I thought I was having contractions. He asked how sure I was. I told him that I did not have anything to compare it to but I was pretty sure. At our last doctor appointment, they told me I need to come in when the contractions are 10 minutes apart. And they were just under 10 minutes apart at this point. So at 6am we were heading to the hospital. We got there and they checked me and said I was only 2 cm dilated. They talked like I would not have her before my next doctor appointment which was wednesday and sent us home. We got home and the contractions just kept coming steady and becoming more intense. At around 3 we decided I should call my mom and see what she thought since my contractions had been under 5 minutes for about 2 hours. My mom said she would recommend me calling the labor and delivery number and asking them if we should come in. I called and they told me not to come in until the contractions were 2-3 minutes for 2 hours. So since they had already been that for one hour we decided to keep track of them for another hour. Sure enough, they were staying under three minutes apart and some as close as a minute and a half! This is not the time from when one stops until the next starts. It is from the beginning of one to the beginning of the next. So as you can tell, I was not getting much of a break in between. So a little before 4pm we went back to the hospital. They checked me and said I was still only 3-4 cm dilated. This was hard to hear since I felt like I was in a lot of pain and already fighting the urge to push. They said to walk around for 2 hours and come back up at 6 to be checked. So at 6pm, we got back upstairs to be checked and I told the nurse that she may be surprised at how far along I was. She said "oh, well I hope so too." Then she checked me and said "oh, wow...ok, I will be right back." She went out into the hallway and got the doctors and said that the head was coming. So they quickly came in and began wheeling me to delivery. As we are going, they are shouting numbers to the desks, reading me the medical waiver, and setting things up. We get to the delivery room and people are running around. They are begging me not to push. There is a man trying to put an iv in but I am moving too much. So the doc checks me again and tells the guy with the iv to forget it because it was time for me to push. So the broke the bed down and I began pushing. She was then born at 6:12 pm. Mind you, we came up to be checked at 6 pm. So actual time pushing was maybe 5 minutes. I got to go natural like I wanted, not even an iv for delivery. I also got to put her strait to my chest to warm her up instead of putting her under the warmer. It was a very emotional moment for us. I always wondered how I would feel at that moment. I always wondered if i would cry. Well, I did. She was perfect. This little person that had been formed in my womb for the last 34 and a half weeks was now laying on my stomach and looking right up at me. It was amazing!

The healing process is going great. I am in very minimal pain and breast feeding is getting easier every day. It is hard work to have a newborn who is SO dependent on you for everything and cries through the night. But then I look at her and she is beautiful and a part of me and the

man I love so much and it is worth every sleepless night.

She has arrived...

38 Weeks along...

Only 14 days until Isabella's due date. It is hard to believe we are so far along in this journey already. Nesting has started. I have been washing her clothes, organizing them by size. I have organized her diapers by size, and organized all the bath stuff by type and bottle size. This would be great but it is alternating with times of complete fatigue. I go from having energy and cleaning up the baby's area of our room and setting up her stroller/car seat, to just wanting to lay on my left side and do nothing. I am still working. I started to train my replacement this week. We are on a tight schedule and trying to finish all the training by thursday because she is going out of town. The ironic thing is that she will be out of town until my due date. So if I am too uncomfortable to keep working or if Isabella makes an early appearance then yet another person will have to fill in for me. I know God will make it all work out though.

I now wake up each day wondering if this will be the day that we get to meet our little girl. It is

a weird feeling knowing that something is coming but having no clue what it will be like. I am

SO excited!!

37 weeks and counting!

Well, freak out mode is officially in full effect. It is like I woke up Tuesday morning and realized Isabella is literally going to come any day now, and I then realized how much I need to do before she does. I am one of those people who kind of avoids or ignores a stressful situation until it is on the brink of happening, then I freak out and make it even more stressful than it had to be. I first realized this about myself when Byron left for his first deployment. We knew about it for months yet I chose to pretend it was not happening and just went about life as usual. Then the last few days before he left I started to realize how close it was and it felt overwhelming. I think I have done this with the pregnancy too. In the beginning, it felt like it was dragging on so slowly that there was no reason to hurry anything, there was plenty of time. Now all the sudden, I am three weeks away from my due date, and if I had her any day after today she would be considered full term. So I could literally have her any day now. That really made me wake up. I still have to install the car seat, pack my hospital bag, pack Byron's hospital bag, pack things for Isabella including her coming home and picture outfit, make sure there is enough cat food and litter to last until after the due date, train my replacement at work, find a replacement for the youth group, all while growing a baby. This baby that is growing inside me happens to be making me extra tired at the moment and at the same time keeping me from getting sleep at night.

Things are falling into place though. The baby items are almost all bought (just need to be set up). I have started on the hospital bag. I have papers everywhere with Byron's contact information should I go into labor while he is at work. I have been washing baby clothes like it is my job. I have been relaxing and reading books about labor while holding my stomach. Things are going well for us. There is just still so much to do before our little girl meets us for the first time.

With only 3 weeks to go, I would say I am blessed to be stressed. At least I am thinking of these things now instead of when it is definitely too late to do anything about them.

Latest doctor appointment

We had a doctor appointment this past friday. Everything went well. They said i had gained the right amount of weight. Her heart rate was 152, which is well in the normal range. She measured at 39 which is big but nothing to be worried about. I have been aching in my lower abdomen and i told them about it. They just said it was my body getting ready for the baby. They could not tell for sure by feeling around on my stomach as to how she was turned. So they used the bedside ultrasound machine. She is head down (thank goodness). This will make labor much easier. They did not show us the screen as they did it or even take any pictures, but we now know what the lumps are so we forgave them. They did not check for dilation or anything like that. I thought they would, but i am not having any signs of labor so maybe they are not worried about it. We dropped off the pre-admission forms so i am set to go into labor at any time. Now begins the waiting game...

36 Weeks...WOO HOO!!!

We have done it again! We made it another week without Isabella making her appearance. That is a good thing for her because that means another week of her growing and gaining strength. It is a hard thing for me though. It means less room to breath and a harder time getting up after sitting. As the birth gets closer, I am finding myself getting somewhat nervous. I am not scared at all, i know i can do this. But i am nervous like a person is on their first day of college. You know you are capable, but it is a completely new experience. My plan is to go natural. I get a lot of mixed reactions when i tell people this. I know many people who have done this and have been very successful. Knowing this is very encouraging. I know that God made my body to do this. I have done a lot of research and read books on this and am preparing my body even now for this big event. I know this is the right choice for me and my family and our new baby.

My next doctor appointment is this friday. I only have one more scheduled appointment after this one. That is so crazy!! I look around my house and there is hints of baby stuff everywhere. It still comes as a shock when i think about us being parents sometime between now and September first! I am so excited! Byron will be such a great dad! He is sitting here next to me singing along to songs that he does not know all of the words to. He makes his own words up instead. So, he is dancing in his seat and lip syncing and then adding his own words too. Isabella is going to enjoy goofing off with him and dancing with him. He can be serious when he needs to be but can really loosen up too. He is great and i cant wait for Isabella to meet him.

I cant wait for our family to be complete. We were so happy with just the two of us, i cant imagine how much more happiness she will bring into our family!

35 Weeks!

As of today, we are 35 weeks along! Only 5 weeks until we get to meet our little God made princess. I am so excited to be able to teach her just how special God has made her. I also can not wait just to meet her and hold her. Byron will be back at the beginning of August and we will be scheduling all of the classes that have to do with babies after that. We will only have one month available to take these classes and there are like 5 of them we want to take. It will be hard work to make sure we get them all in with such a short amount of time but we know it will be worth it. We are both research kind of people. We like to do as much research on something as possible before we approach it. So we know these classes will offer even more much wanted knowledge before the big event. My first class is tomorrow and it is called Breast Feeding Basics. I have done a lot of research on breast feeding, but I just think that knowing more never hurt anyone. After that class, I will be going by the doctors office to pick up the August class schedule so Byron and I can schedule our classes asap.

As for how I am feeling. Well, i have been very fortunate up until now with having a pretty smooth pregnancy. No real complaints. Things are starting to get somewhat uncomfortable now though. My back is feeling the extra weight in my stomach. My sinuses have never really

let up. And I like literally eat children sized portions now because I have no room. I guess these could be counted as complaints. They are not meant to be. This is a journey that I am blessed to be on so I am just trying to take it for what it is. Understanding the symptoms and why you have them makes it easier to not be upset about it. Plus there are only 5 more weeks of this getting worse, then I get new problems and pains. So all in all, I would say I feel pretty good. Here are some pictures I took right before typing this so it is the end of the day (when I am the biggest). I figured that made for better pictures anyway.

34 Weeks

Well, just as I suspected, my life has been hectic lately. Byron came back from a 13 day underway on tuesday and left again toady. So needless to say I was not interested in sitting down with my computer to write a new blog when i could instead be spending time with Byron. So, this is my 34 week post that should have happened on tuesday. My latest doctor appointment was wednesday. She measured at 35 which is slightly big but they said it is nothing to worry about since she has measured right on track the whole time up until now. I lost 5 pounds but they said that i am still on track. I had gained a little extra on my trip to Ohio (the food is just so good there!). So they are not concerned about it. Her heart rate was about 140 bpm and we actually got to hear it spike to 153 as she started really moving in there. I believe she was practicing her break dancing moves so she can show her daddy. They said that a heart rate of 120 to 160 is completely normal for a girl. So everything is looking great! I am now far enough along that if i were to go into labor, they will not try to stop it! That is a crazy thing to think about. I still remember waking up the day after Christmas and taking the pregnancy test and seeing that it was possative. I remember running in to tell Byron and him hugging and kissing me so much that i didnt even get to tell him that it was possitive, only that i had taken it. Now here we are needing to be preadmitted at the hospital, pack our bags, have a labor plan, and a list of who to call when she is born! At times i feel like it has gone so slow. Right now i feel as though it has gone shockingly fast. I think that it takes 40 weeks so that the anticipation builds so much until she is born, that when she comes you could care less that she is so demanding and keeps you up all night. Who knows. But i know Byron and i cant wait to finally meet her and have her home with us.

6 more weeks...