Henry is born!

Wow, in a feat of human ability, Henry managed to surprise the hell out of us this morning! We were, of course, getting set for my induction of labor that was to start at 9:30 pm on Monday night. I was upstairs in our bed and David has relegated himself the bed in the basement so as to get better sleep (he was overly concerned about every turn I made and was sleeping poorly). Here is the play by play:
5:04 I wake up and feel hungry, then like I have to poop. Go back to sleep.
5:11 wait a minute, this feeling like I have to poop feels like a contraction. 7 minutes apart. okay.
5:16 There it is again, I'll see if I have to pee.
5:17 water breaks just as I'm getting to the bathroom
5:20 call Dave's cell, "water broke, contracting, get upstairs please"
5:24 Call Dr. Murphy's office and give the details about water and contraction timing.
5:26 Dr. Murphy calls back, "go ahead and go to hospital, it'll probably be 4-6 hours"
5:40 Call Becky to see if she can get Charlotte. yep.
In the meantime, contractions are closer and closer together. I try to use my cell phone's stopwatch feature to time them. I get a little confused but see that contractions are 2 minutes apart. Dave is throwing stuff together. Bags are mostly packed. Can't find phone. I'm on the floor every couple of minutes grunting.
6:00 Becky arrives and takes Charlotte, I think. It gets hazy here. We get into car and drive to hospital. Take a wrong turn, bend the traffic rules slightly.
6:15 check into triage. I ask for my epidural for the first time.
6:17 The nurse checks my cervix (in between contractions). I am at 5 or 6. I ask for epidural. They have to give me an IV fist (in between contractions). I don't know how long and IV takes, but we started just after one contraction and I still had another while they were working. Those suckers were right on top of each other.
6:20 I ask for epidural again. I tell dave that I feel like I have to push. They start wheeling me to delivery. I tell nurses I feel like pushing and scream like a maniac, possibly frightening all other patients.
6:25 I ask for epidural. They examine me. I'm at an 8 or 9. They say, "call dr. murphy again".
6:30 The lady comes in to have me sign stuff for epidural. I don't care what the risks are!!
6:40 They check me and I'm complete. I give up on epidural and just say "drugs, drugs, drugs" all the while being a complete coward. They say, breathe in through nose and out through mouth. concentrate on breathing. Very difficult. Moaning felt better. Plus, I wasn't sure they realized how much pain I was in. Instead of asking for epidural I said I want a doctor!
6:42 Doctor comes in (dr. Hicks I beleive) and they drop the bottom half of bed, pull down the death star looking search light from the ceiling and put my legs up. I'm instructed to push with contractions. I mutter plenty about how I can't and don't want to and how it really hurts. I can feel baby in my vaginal canal and it feels pretty bad.
6:45 dr. says we need to do a small episiotomy since I tore last time. I guess they gave me a shot of lidocaine for that. I head the snipping but didn't care. I am pushing on contractions.
Doctor puts some sort of lube on and in a few more pushes (with lots of horrible screaming from me, and the medical staff insisting that I"m doing "great" (liars)
6:56 Henry is out! Thank God it doesn't hurt any more! Whoops, there goes placenta (that felt weird).

Henry is 9 lbs. 9 oz, 20 inches. Great skin tone, he might not be as olive as me, maybe closer to Dave's coloring. Dave thinks he looks like Charlotte. I think he just looks like baby :-)

I got sewed up (with a little more lidocaine). And got to order a fantastic breakfast with cinnamon french toast, then showered (gingerly) and was moved up to my room. I have my cell if you'd like to call :-)

I feel pretty good. Just on motrin for the cramping and "bottom pain" (along with the ice packs). Baby Henry is doing well, seems to latch on okay, not great, but hey, he's not even a day old! Charlotte has fared well today with Becky and is currently with daddy getting our car seat and they will be back to visit shortly. My friend Chrsiti even brought a balloon and a "I'm a big sister" pin. She also took the picture at the top.

People for birthday ring

I didn't realize I hadn't put up pics of finished birthday ring people. Here they are:

Finishing up crafts...

Two posts in one day! Crazy!
I finished the birthday ring with some decorative painting. And the birthday crown is also done. And i got a great craft idea to do with Charlotte form someone else's blog (outline leaves with black marker and have the little one "color" it and cut out and tape to window. And charlotte is cute. Here are pics to prove it.

Gigantotron

Yep, that is what Dave calls me. Don't blame him. I move with all the grace of a robot. That is HUGE! Turns out there is a good reason (and a reason why I can't breathe well). Tuesday Doc did an ultrasound to find the baby was ONLY 9 lbs. He thought it was bigger, but as it turns out, I have a condition called polyhydramnia. This is too much amniotic fluid. Happens .5-2% of pregnancies. That doesn't sound too bad, right? Right, sort of.

Increases risk of other things like cord prolapse (BAD), baby not settling into pelvis properly (not good), chances of c-section :-(, and me bleeding out after the baby (also bad). He's mildly concerned about shoulder displaysia though I'm not as concerned. CJ was 8'10" so I figure I'm good with the biggies.

Talk of induction...going to do another non-stress test on Friday and have doc check my cervix to see if it is "favorable for induction". This would mean a combination of dilation, thickness, and baby station. Probably would induce by next Tuesday. So the end is in sight. But I"m a little freaked about these other risks. And the fact that this condition CAN be caused by problems with fetal development; my doctor feels that risk is low and that if that were the case we would have caught it sooner. But you all know that a tiny worry or risk to a mother turns into a giant scare pretty easily.

In the mean time, today is my day off with Charlotte and I plan to wrap up some errands, work on finishing touches of crafts and even hit the library to find a good book to take my mind off of all of this!!

no progress

I saw the ob today. Looks like I"m still where I was last week. Which is sort of okay, since I'm not actually due for 5 more days. However, he's getting concerned about the "size of the baby" and is thinking about induction. He said he doesn't want to induce me yet, unless i progress or the baby is "too big". I asked what is too big and he said 9 or 10 lbs. I'm pretty sure that Henry is about that. To be sure, I have an ultrasound Tuesday at 10 am so we can look at size. This will be nice because it will feel like I"m doing SOMETHING. Instead of just waiting, which is hard!

I finished making the little people for Charlotte's birthday. They are cute.

We went to the Boo at the Zoo thing last Saturday. Charlotte is a bee this year.She even has a squishy little stinger in the back. I made the "dress" but bought the wings and headband. lazy mama!

Living large...

I'm still hanging in there. My "personal" predicted due date (Oct. 17) has come and gone and Henry is cozy in there. I was a tad worried about movement but a quick call from good old Andy helped ease my mind..."you'll notice that the baby seems to move less because there is less room to really pull back and give a good kick and also the baby is sleeping more and more. If you are worried, have a small snack and lie down for 15-20 minutes. If there is no movement, call the doctor and you can come in for a non-stress test. Most likely, you are preoccupied and the movements are lower in intensity". So I feel better. There was lots of action last night. I mean that in more than one way. I've decided to try the old intercourse induction method, but it isn't pretty. It's worse than trying to conceive. Very little romance there.

Tonight we're headed to Muskegon to have a Laboween party with the Wiles and Jason and Uncle Jim will watch CJ. We might also get to pick up my plaster torso cast. The artist sent pics, but I'll wait til I get it tonight and take my own pics. It looks like it is very cool!

On Wednesday night it was raining and lately I've noticed what appears to be a shiny, mucas slug trail IN MY HOUSE by the side door. Now, I hate worms, but at least they are a gardener's friend. Slugs are friend to no one! THose things disgust me. So back to Wednesday night...as we enter the door I look down and sure enough a nasty old slug is sitting there munching on a stray bit of cat food!! Dave, of course, taught CJ that "slugs are cute" and the sound they make is "nee-nee-nee-nee-nee" with little fingers on head like antennae wiggling around. Here are pics of that.
CJ is fascinated with the buggers and now she goes to look for them and is so disappointed when they are not there.

Oh, I finished Charlotte's crown and birthday ring.

The dollhouse is coming along nicely, I repaired the crappy job on the roof and put in a couple of walls. Just thinking about painting/or not painting it.

I am making little "people" for Charlotte's birthday and they aren't something I'm proudest of, but my dear, sweet friend Tara was so kind and agreed to hunt for acorn caps for little hats for me. I just couldn't get myself to get all bent over hunting for anything on the ground right now. I think when I get the hair on and the caps, it'll make them look a little less homely. At least their faces turned out okay.

Progress

Here is a cute pic of Charlotte wearing her "Chip Day" shirt. Looks so cute!!

I am getting by, trying to be patient about baby. Thinking every minute, this could be it...but each day passes. I hit the wall last weekend. I just feel done. I'm sick of knocking CJ down. Sometimes it is because I don't see her, sometimes because I think I'm walking straight, but my waddle is so pronounced I just bop her to one side or the other. I feel good when I'm sitting :-) Getting up at night is getting even tougher. It takes so long just to get out of bed! Dr. said that I'm about at 3 cm. Funny, after 5 hours of labor with CJ (and pitocin) I was still only at 1. But my cervix is still "back" (whatever that means) so I'm going to go anytime really soon. I'm setting my sights on Friday! In the meantime, I'm still working on my projects. An update: Since a wooden doll highchair costs $40-50 I decided to make one. So for UNDER $10, I made this.












I also am working on her dollhouse. Coming nicely. It will be hard to wait until christmas because I think she'll really like it. I have the clasp on the end and the hinges on. Just have to finish interior walls, do something about the roof, and I think I'll polyurethane it. I was going to paint it, but I like the unfinished wood look so much.


I am, of course, also working on her birthday ring. The people are done, I got candles, I just have to find a way to drill the holes for the candles and people so it all fits well. Then maybe poly or paint the ring.
her crown is done. Might send pic of that later. Right now I'm also working on putting together a birthday book. Like a scrapbook, but oh so much easier using online ordering and pics we have from the last year. It is so hard, I love every picture of her!!

Nesting = Crafting?

Lately I have been seriously into crafting. I suspect that since housework sucks and it is hard to move around alot, I'm really just nesting in another way.
While everyone in my family was at Chip's wedding, I was at a pottery studio painting him a platter for a gift. I also did one for Dave's cousin whose wedding we're missing
because it is Oct. 25.(don't forget, click on pic to make it bigger)


I am making Charlotte a dollhouse for Christmas and it is coming along nicely. I used the router to cut out window holes and then I used the dremel to smooth it out a bit. Still needs lots of work, though.


I am making a German birthday ring for Charlotte's birthday. This is a ring with 12 little people on it and each birthday you replace a person with a candle. Here is the start of some of the people. I won't post a link to what I saw and am copying, mine doesn't look as good!


I am also making her a birthday crown that she can wear each year (hopefully). I saw these on another blogger's page and thought they were adorable. Some charge like $40 for them. I think it cost about $6 for this one.

We are enjoying fall and I put CJ into a cute Halloween outfit.

We went to the dr. office today. After I get on the table and the nurse finds the baby's heartbeat, Charlotte likes to get up onto the table and lift up her shirt, too. Monkey see, monkey do!
The doctor checked my cervix and said that I'm internally at 3 and externally at 1. Totally normal for a second pregnancy. I felt relieved that there were no signs of imminent labor. I thought I was having contractions last weekend and that really threw me. What about all my unfinished crafts? Better get them done!