A Seussical #2

On April 16th our sweet little Malachi turned 2 years old.  As his birthday got closer and closer and our little miss Sabrina was still not coming, we decided to postpone the birthday celebration until after her arrival.  This worked out for the better considering that his birthday was a little bit hectic with me spending the morning in triage and then finding out that I was going to be induced a few days later.  

We did have a very small birthday celebration on his birthday with cupcakes and a few presents though.  So in a way, he kind of got two birthday parties this year.  

Our 2 year old!

This weekend we decided to throw his real birthday party!  Malachi is very into his ABC's right now so we decided to throw him a Dr Seuss ABC Book Birthday Party.  And since Malachi loves books in general we expanded on the theme a little bit to include One Fish Two Fish

                                                                And Thing 1 and Thing 2

I love how many of his pictures seem to include his buddy Elmo that he got for his first birthday.  Elmo is very much a part of our family and I would say 75% of our pictures of Malachi also include Mr Elmo.  In fact, most of the time when we take his picture he starts asking for his Elmo so he can be with him.

                 This little boy LOVED all the attention he got when it was time to sing Happy Birthday!

So we enter into a new stage.  I get weekly emails about child development and tips for his age and I was a little bit saddened to see these emails have now changed from a "toddler" email to a "preschooler" email.  When did kids start growing up so fast?  

I can't wait to see what this next year holds with our little boy.  I know he is going to do so many new and exciting things in this year of his life as he learns and discovers more about the world around him!  

Introducing.....

                                               Sabrina Fair Keyser - Born April 18th 2012!!!

We are thrilled to introduce our new little daughter to the blog world!  She was born at 3:48 PM on April 18th weighing 7 lbs 9 ounces and 20.5"  Long.  She is perfect and healthy in every way - God answered every one of our prayers!  

For those who like to read about the birth story, here is how it all went down:

Last week at my 38 week appointment my blood pressure and heart rate were high for the 3rd week in a row.  This started setting off some warning signals with my doctor and so she sent me over to labor and delivery for a non-stress test and bio-physical profile of the baby to make sure that the baby was still handling pregnancy well.  The baby showed perfect results on all of the tests ran so I was sent  home.  I was also told I was 3cm, 60% effaced and the head was fully engaged.  I figured labor would be right around the corner.

Fast forward to the weekend and for about the past  10 days leading up to this point, I was having "early labor" symptoms in the night.  This meant, like clockwork somewhere between 12:30 and 2:00 in the morning contractions would start up and would last until about 5:00 in the morning then fade away.  They were timed about 5 minutes apart, but just never strong enough to actually make me feel like I needed to go to the hospital.

On Sunday (the 15th) night I had about 5 or 6 very painful contractions in a row, and then they went away. I was kind of getting infuriated with the whole lack of sleep and fake labor thing so on Monday the 16th I gave my doctor's office a call just to see what they would say.  They wanted to send me over to labor and delivery to get checked out just in case the contractions were causing me to dilate more.  So that brings me to our second triage visit in a week.  I am so not the person who wanted to run to labor and delivery for every little thing. I got to triage, nothing much happening besides that I was still having high blood pressure.  I was told that I was still 3cm and that the head was now very high up.  Hmm, this was very discouraging news that now it appeared the baby was going the other direction.  But, after the nurse talked with my doctor they decided that due to my blood pressure ongoing problems that I should be set up for an induction on Thursday the 19th. 

So then, we come to Tuesday the 17th.  I had my weekly appointment with my doctor.  All my stats were about the same, but my blood pressure was a little bit better.  This caused my doctor to kind of reconsider the induction idea as she really wanted me to continue baking as long as possible but also wanted to weigh the risks of my health. She finally decided an induction should be perfect at 39 weeks so she told me to report back to the hospital at 6:00 AM the next day. I said that I was told it would be Thursday, she said no she wanted it to be done on Wednesday.  So to make a long story short, we ended up with a Wednesday the 18th 7:30 AM induction start time.  At the same time, since I had mentioned a major decrease in movement, my doctor sent me over to triage yet again for a final NST - yikes 3 trips to triage in one week!  

So, with the boys all settled in at Grandma's house, Peter and I went out for one final dinner date night.  After dinner we came home and cleaned house, got the final little things packed and then headed off to bed where I could hardly sleep as I anticipated meeting my baby in the morning.  It was kind of a cool thing to have it all scheduled and have everything perfectly in place.

We got up around 6:00 in the morning and got to the hospital right on time.  We got up to our room and were told that due to some unexpected c-sections we would be on hold for a few more hours, so we could just hang out and wait.  So we just sat there and waited.

Slowly but surely they got things going.  We went through lots of paperwork and got my IV hooked up and before we knew it, it was 10:30 and they got my pitocin drip going.  We were on our way!  I started my induction at 3cm and 80% effaced.

So we waited for the contractions to kick in.  My doctor had told me I could get my epidural anytime I wanted one, so I waited until the contractions were in a regular pattern but still got it in plenty of time to have a nice labor :)  By 11:30 the epidural was in place and I was contracting about every 1-2 minutes apart so we were well on our way.  My epidural wasn't quite as perfect this time, but I still was very glad to have it.  I had a "window" where I could still feel the contractions in a small spot on my left side.  However, my right side was extremely numb!

As soon as I got my epidural, my high blood pressure became very low blood pressure so I was being monitored closely for that.  Around 1:00, my doctor came in and checked me and I was 4cm and 90% effaced.  My doctor decided to break my water and really get the ball rolling!  

It was a pretty calm day.  We were just kind of hanging out and waiting.  I let my nurse know that once I hit 6cm with Eli I progressed to complete in 45 minutes so she went ahead and got the labor table all ready just in case I started moving along.  We had an awesome nurse who treated us so great and we had a lot of great conversations with her about adoption!  

At 2:45 I was checked again and was 5cm with the head really low.  I kind of felt like things weren't moving all that fast, but I also had a lot of confidence in my ability to progress quickly once labor got going.  

And progress I did!  Around 3:30 my nurse came in because the baby was having some heart decels and the heartrate was starting to stay down for longer periods of time.  My nurse decided to go ahead and check me and I was at 8cm!  She decided it was time to go ahead and give my doctor a call and get ready.  No sooner did she leave the room to call the doctor and I started to feel some pressure.

My doctor as in the room a few minutes later and they started getting ready for delivery. At 3:40 I was complete and started pushing at 3:45.  With the first push the baby was already mostly out.  At this point my doctor told me I needed to keep pushing and 3 minutes later I met my little girl!  After the birth we found out that I had an umbilical cord prolapse, which can be an extremely dangerous situation so we were very fortunate that she came out as quickly as she did.

This delivery went perfect!  They put her right on my chest and let Peter announce what we had! I was so happy!  They all knew how difficult of a time I had with Eli being taken right from me so they let me have as much time with her skin to skin as I wanted!  She came out perfect in every single way!  

After close to an hour of time with her on me, I told them they could take her and weigh her.  They said I could keep her if I still wanted her.  She wasn't gone for too long though and we found out she was a perfect 7 lbs 9 ounces and 20 1/2"

                                                                             
                                                       Peter got some snuggle time too!

                           After a few hours we had family come in.  I was very eager to see my boys!

                                                               Eli LOVED his baby sister!

                                                  It didn't take long for us to get her in pink :)

Things went so well for both of us that we were released a day early! We have prayed so hard for a healthy baby and she did so good with everything.  She was even very low on the scale for jaundice, and has done great with feedings.  It felt really good to get out of that hospital and home with our little family!

All the stress of these last few months is behind us.  I feel such a sense of relief having her here, MY DAUGHTER!  This has not been an easy pregnancy.  I have spent so much time worried about how everything would turn out and I could not have asked for a better ezperience this time!  I feel like my life is so full now - with 2 sons and now a precious little daughter - I don't think I could be any luckier!!!

38 Weeks

Yes, I can't believe I am writing that! I have made it to my stretch goal and I am thrilled and all the worry has been washed away! It feels really good to be this close to my due date and now we can just be excited about meeting our little one!

This week I had 3 nights of false labor which was not a whole lot of fun. I would have contractions starting at 12:30 or 2:00 in the morning and they would last all night long until 5-6 in the morning and then dwindle away. They were such a tease as they were regular, every 3-5 minutes, and were lasting :45-1:30 in length. These were textbook labor contractions and based on the "rules" of when to go to the hospital I was there. I just never felt like they were strong enough though. They were only slightly uncomfortable and I just felt like it would be a waste of time to go in if I could walk and talk freely through them. Then they ended up going away so I knew I made the right choice.

So today, I was honestly not looking forward to going to the doctor. I just had this feeling that I hadn't made any progress. Well, to my complete surprise, I had made tons of progress! I even blurted out "Thank you God" when my doctor told me and she got a good laugh out of that. It has just been really miserable to be kept up all night with contractions that go away. For those that like the details: I am now 3cm, 60% effaced, and baby is at 0 station. I was ready for my epidural at 3cm with Eli so it is kind of strange to be that far and still be walking around like normal. I think the biggest piece of that puzzle is the 0 station which really means that labor is probably very close!

There was some concern at my appointment because for the second week in a row my blood pressure and heartrate were high. The blood pressure wasn't too bad, but my heart has been in the 140's-160's and I know it has been racing at home too because I can feel it pounding in the back of my head. The doctor was concerned enough to want to do a complete work-up of the baby just to make sure s/he was handling that stress okay.

So off she sent me to labor and delivery. They quickly got me hooked up to the monitors for a non-stress test which basically means I lay there and they watch the heartrate and kicks for 30 minutes or so. Baby passed that with flying colors! Then the lab came up and drew some blood and then I was wheeled off (they refused to let me walk, so this perfectly fine pregnant lady had to be paraded around in a wheel chair) to radiology for a Bio Physical Profile of the baby. Basically an ultrasound where they have to look at certain markers - like practice breaths, movement, amniotic fluid, muscle tone. The ultrasound wasn't too exciting. The baby was really squished and hard to make things out. We couldn't even get a face profile since the head is so low. But in the important news baby scored a perfect 8/8 on the ultrasound! So then I was wheeled back to labor and delivery where I had to sit and wait and wait and wait for test results to come back and the release from my doctor to go home. It was a long morning spent at the hospital but baby looks good and that is all that matters!

So we are anticipating that we are very very close to baby being born. Of course there are no guarantees and we will have to wait and see, but we're almost there!

Easter Photo Bomb

We had a really nice and laid back Easter with our precious boys this year. I actually wasn't completely sure if I would make it all through Easter without a baby so just in case we dressed the boys up in their outfits and took them out for some pictures Saturday afternoon!

I could not love these precious and such handsome boys anymore :)

Eli was not a fan of the grass:

After pictures it was time to color some eggs! That is quite an undertaking with two young boys. They mostly watched, but got to participate just a little bit! Malachi's main way of "helping" was eating the super sour koolaid that we were using as the egg dye.

And he also colored on a few eggs.

Eli just stood there being cute and played with a spoon:

On Sunday we went to my Grandma's house where the boys had a lot of fun playing with eggs. The egg hunt using the giant eggs was hilarious. The boys LOVED the giant Easter eggs!

Then Malachi did the more traditional egg hunt:

And Eli chilled in a toy box :)

Some really fun memories were created over Easter and I'm glad I wasn't in the hospital where I would have missed out on their fun. There is something really amazing about watching these two boys as they grow more and more!

37 Weeks 1 Day

We are "full term" in this house! It's been quite the ride, but wow, what a relief to know that baby SHOULD be healthy at birth and we will hopefully have a very "normal" birth experience this time! So nice to know, barring any unforeseen complications that I won't need to have a room full of people there for respiratory support when this little one makes his or her arrival!

I had my 37 week appointment today. Not much to report at all. My doctor and I were both just thrilled that we've made it this far! I haven't made very much progress since last week, which is just fine. My doctor is thinking I will probably make it to 38 weeks but we're not sure since I am just getting to a full activity level now. She also is guessing that this baby is already considerably larger than Eli was - oh boy!

I don't think I have really mentioned it on here, but now having a second pregnancy we are really beginning to think more and more that Eli is quite the little miracle baby. Eli never really moved around much at all. I just figured that was normal, but now that I have a baby with a normal activity level, I would be seeing huge red flags by how little he moved around. Also, after Eli was born we found out that his placenta was not formed properly - hence his low birth weight and possibly why he struggled so much when he was born. I feel very strongly that he was struggling the whole pregnancy and it may just be for the better and a miracle that he came out early so he could thrive.

So that's where we are at! I am very happy with how far we've come and I am LOVING the freedom to move around again! Peter did a great job of doing the basic housework and taking care of the kids while I was down, but it is nice to get in and do some of the other things that there just wasn't enough time to in the hours he was home to accomplish! The house is getting clean and I'm moving around as much as I can and enjoying these last days or weeks with my family of 4!