After Week 1

So I made it through a whole week at home and I should say - this weekend things have really started to seem better. Maybe its a little more sleep, maybe Samantha is actually getting on a kinda schedule, or maybe I'm just getting used to it, but things definitely look up after the last 2 days.
Samantha had her first photo shoot today. I was a little hesitant, I guess I thought we had plenty of time, but a friend at church offered to do it for us and said newborn shoots were best before she was 2 weeks old. So I said great, wonderful and after this morning I'm really excited! I didn't really have any expectations and I let Beth do a lot of what she wanted, but then I got more into it and we brought out the rocking chair and cradle and some of those pictures should be awesome! I'm glad I said yes. :-)
It all just reminds me of how very blessed we are. I haven't spent any of our money on baby things aside from the crib and now we even have photos for free. It is all so amazing and I'm so thankful for all our family and friends who love us and Samantha so much! Our church was making baskets yesterday to give to fire department, police department, etc for Memorial day and we made it to the end of the event - with cookies to add - but after a few minutes, they presented US with a basket! (Lots of extra chocolate too) I'm just more amazed every day. I really wish we didn't have to move from this area, it seems like we finally found a niche, but alas, you go where life takes you. And we'll make it and hopefully find similar people in Katy. And I know God will take care of us because I've already seen it happen.
Our house went on the market Friday - finally! Now I just have to keep it neat and clean all the time since I never know when we'll have visitors. I hope soon, we haven't had any lookers yet. Strangely I have turned into super housewife. Maybe because I'm not working and I have nothing else to do, but keeping the house clean hasn't been too much of a problem. I'm currently waiting on little one to wake up so I can vacuum, but the dishes are done, the bed is made. I'm much farther than I have been in months, years, maybe ever!
And I think I want to bake some muffins now.... :-D

Here She IS!

Well, it didn't exactly happen as I imagined, but here she is!

Thursday I went back to work, taught all day - left at 3:10 for the dr. Got to the dr, they realized my blood pressure was high and sent me over to the hospital to check in for the long haul. I was supposed to be 'ripened' overnight and then induced Friday morning.

When I got checked in and finally up to a room (about 5:30pm) they hooked me up to monitors for the baby and for contractions and then to an IV. One of the nurses came in and said "so, are you having contractions?" I ssaid I thought I was having a few braxton hicks, like normal. She asked how often I thought I was having them. Seemed like 5-10 minutes to me - sometimes longer. She said "well, they're kinda close together - as often as 1.5-2 min apart" Whoops. She told me that they couldn't put the medicine in to 'soften' my cervix if I was having contractions that close. They checked and I was still only 1 cm dilated, and my dr was worried about inducing without me being a little more open. Kinda seemed like I was in a bind. After a few hours of fluids, they decided that my contractions were regular enough (though still only about 2 min apart) to put the ripener in. So that happened about 8:30pm. I went about an hour or so, maybe less and really started to feel my contractions. And so close together! I was standing, sitting on my ball, rocking - and Nathan had to be RIGHT THERE because it was a bit painful. The nurses didn't seem too concerned, saying I likely wasn't any more dilated and that they were waiting till morning to induce. I finally said to Nathan "I don't think I can do this all night - these HURT" So I 'caved' and got an epideral around midnight.

It was super easy, really didn't hurt at all - the worst part was going through a few contractions without Nathan - since he had to leave the room. However, I will say that my L&D nurse could not have been better! I love her and she's amazing and she helped me through them.

So now that I was a bit drugged up (I still felt contractions just apparently as a pressure sensation not as contractions - whatever, they still kinda hurt and got progressively worse) they decided to check for dilation again. Great news! I was at 5cm! So I got to tell Nathan when he came back in that we'd probably have her early morning :-)

The next 2 hours went as planned - 1 cm each hour. Then I quickly started feeling lots more pain. And I really thought I needed to push. I told my nurse and she kinda said "well, I can check again, but you probably have a little more time"

So she checked - 9.5 cm! She left to call the dr and came back in and told me my dr usually took about 30 minutes to get here so I needed to hold off on pushing till then. Because my water bag hadn't broke and they needed the dr to do that. So I'm really feeling some pain and holding on to the bed rail every 2 minutes to get through without pushing. She kept telling me it was very soon and that it would feel great to push and I just had a few more minutes. The seemingly longest part of labor was those 30 minutes. Then my dr called and said she was almost there, if I was ready, I could start to push. However, my water hadn't broke. So I rolled over on my back, went through one contraction and ta-da - gush of water! I think I had about 1-2 pushing contractions before my doctor came in. She looked and went through 1-2 with me then left the room and said "call me when she gets closer" So my amazing L&D nurse, Desiree and Nathan got me most of the way, called my dr in and after 50 minutes of pushing, Samantha Hazel arrived!

I'll post more later, but she is a little unhappy right now and I'm done.

Not bursting yet...

Well I have lots of energy! Mostly because I'm pretty done with school - all reviews are out, kids are working and exams are copied (I only found a few minor errors when I worked them myself, oops).
I've been at home yesterday and today 'resting' but I can't rest! At least my mom is over to help slow me down a bit. She's packing and I'm helping some, cooking, and sewing! I haven't super cleaned yet, but maybe this evening, lol!
I would really like this baby girl to come and not be late. I'm not sure how much longer I can take people asking "Oh, are you still pregnant?" Uh, yeah, doesn't it look like it??
So suggestions on helping your body go into labor?? Besides up and doing lots and doing...ya know.

Getting pretty ready...

So last week was pretty chaotic with Nathan's dad and friend here to help in odd jobs and paint fixing. Our bedroom and bathroom were redone (the colors were too much, the realtor told us) and the second bath got a texture fix and new color (only because we had that color left so we didn't buy more of the original color) All of the outside got a paint job (thank goodness we don't have much wood trimming outside), the ceilings got touched up and the living room floor got its trim all back in shape. Plus under our kitchen sink got repaired, the front door got a facelift (which may be my favorite fix-up), and our backyard got another fence side replaced (the one that was waving in the wind that fell over a few times after the hurricane and allowed Libby to help herself inside via doggie door to the neighbor's house to gourge on the neighbor's dog food)

So all in all, a good week. However with baby in belly, Becky spent the night at a friend's house Wednesday, then went to mom and dad's in Katy thursday evening through sunday morning to avoid paint fumes. A little longer than expected, but aren't parents wonderful when they cook the most interesting meals just for you and all your temporary diet restrictions? My dad is a great cook - and creative!

We got the crib up at our new location, then came back to our old location where Nathan had rearranged our room so that a rocking chair and pack-n-play (nap location plus changing station) still make our room look spacious! Plus the beautiful craddle (nighttime location) and new (antique) wooden rocker are set up in the baby's temporary 'nursery'. Please don't ask where unless you promise not to judge. So I'm READY for her - I even have 3 locations for her to sleep! What I'm not ready for is to leave my students at school. I don't have the last exam written for one of my subjects nor do I have their reviews finished or the last week of lessons ready. Plus I have a mountain of papers to grade. Why then am I posting on my blog? Good Question! I'm supposed to go to bed early!

From stories of others, I'm now thinking the tell-tale sign will be a sudden burst of energy the morning of or day before labor begins. Any thoughts on your sure way to tell its coming?