Baby's First Hair Style

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mothers Day to all the moms out there...which now includes me! As my sister said, I just got it in under the wire. It's been a good day hanging out at home, eating and sleeping and adjusting to this new life.

If you'd like to come see us, just call one of us or send one of us an email and let us know (we're trying to check email at least once a day). I'm sure we'll be around, although I can't promise we'll all three be awake!

Baby Becca is here!

I'm sure everyone has heard the news by now that Rebecca Estelle made her entrance into the world at 2:11 Monday afternoon. She was 7lbs 11oz at birth and 19 inches long. She is doing great. We were released from the hospital just before lunch on Wednesday and have been adjusting to life at home. She is sleeping some, nursing great, and only crying a little. Hopefully we won't eat these words, but for now I think we've been blessed with a very laid back baby.

I will say that all of my fears on being induced were for nothing. It was a very short labor and a very fast delivery. In fact, it was so fast that when the doctor told me it was time to start pushing I thought he was joking and asked for a few minutes to adjust to the idea that I would be in full-blown labor for about 4 hours instead of all day. They got everything ready, she was out about 30 minutes later, and amazingly I didn't feel a thing. Epidurals are a WONDERFUL thing! I'm feeling better every day.

I'll try to post pictures as often as I can, but it might be slow here at the beginning.

A final pre-baby update

Well, unless I go into labor in the next few hours, I'm scheduled to be induced tomorrow morning. I'll be 39 weeks exactly tomorrow. We're excited about finally getting to see Becca, even if I'm still not completely excited about being induced. Hopefully all will go smoothly. Even if it does, it could still be a long process and there may not be any news until late Monday or even Tuesday. So, we'll do our best to spread the word when she has arrived, and to let everyone know when we are up for visitors. Until then, keep us in your prayers!

Yes, I'm still pregnant

Went to the doctor yesterday. My platelets are a little lower than they were last week, even with me taking steroids. (They are abnormally low but not dangerously low, but if they get too low they won't give you an epidural during labor if you want one. I imagine that I will want one, yes?) He wants to see me back on Friday, when I imagine we won't be able to avoid a serious discussion about inducing. I came home today and took a nice long walk around the neighborhood, which got all sorts of contractions going but they've already stopped. Out, baby, out. Mommy doesn't want to be induced...

Are we having fun yet?

There's these things in your blood called platelets that make your blood clot. And apparently doctors get a little concerned when your platelets start to get low right before you do something like, oh, I don't know, give birth. (Do you see where this is going yet?) My platelets have been a little low for a few weeks - it's not uncommon for platelets to drop while you're pregnant. Then they got a little lower. And on Thursday I started steroid pills to get them back up. I go back to the doctor on Monday to see how well the steroids are working - I'll be 38 weeks that day. Hopefully they'll be working wonderfully and I'll go into labor sometime next week while my platelets are still high enough to not be an issue. If the steroids don't work, or if they quit working before I go into labor on my own, there is a the possibility that the doctors will want to induce labor to avoid complications.

Can't say I'm real happy about this turn of events. It's hard to go from 8 weeks of hoping you don't go into labor, to all of a sudden being told that if you don't go into labor soon you may be induced. I do NOT want to be induced.

So if there's anyone out there still hoping that she hangs on a little longer, go ahead and do us a favor and start hoping she goes ahead and shows up, will you?

That's a big belly.

So we were in Walmart yesterday and as I come around a corner I pass by this young girl with her dad, and I hear her say "That's a big belly." She was probably 6 or 7 years old, and I could hear her dad frantically shushing her, so I pretended not to hear so that maybe her dad wouldn't be too embarassed (although seriously, it IS big). She obviously had other ideas. She bounced right up to me, stood directly in front of me - eye level with the belly, I might add - pointed at my stomach with both hands, and asked "What's in there?" I'm telling you, she looked horrified. I couldn't help but laugh. I was explaining to her that there's a baby in there when her dad rushed up and apologized, saying that she has a tendency to say outrageous things to people. He asked what we were having, I told him a girl, and I'm pretty sure he looked at us with sympathy. As he guided her away, she took one last look at my stomach, and added in true disbelief, "There must be two babies in there." Thanks, kid.