Crazy Children With Odd Parents: Introducing Smiley

I wanted to at least go back and talk just a bit about the pregnancy with Smiley, because I tend to forget what pregnancy is like.

Moving to Oregon was a bit stressful for me. We were trying to get Lulu potty trained, trying to sell our house, packing the house, The Husband was training, in Idaho and Oregon, for his new position and finally actually moving. The stress showed through in my weight. I got down to 145 lbs. Being 5'10", 145 is my favorite weight. I feel great at that weight. It is how much I weighed when we were married. About a month after moving here I had a week of crazy eating and I gained 5 lbs. I was curious, so I took a pregnancy test and of course it came back positive. I thought, no wonder I am gaining weight. And then I thought, you don't gain 5 lbs. in week four, (which really means you have only been pregnant for two.) I was also starting to show a bit of a baby bump at five weeks. I thought for sure, I was further along then I had thought or <gasp> was having twins. My first Dr's appointment in October showed one baby due May 17th, exactly what I had thought it should be. Evidently my body was just ready to be pregnant again. With both girls I started with really bad morning sickness at week six. I never got sick this time, which made me think we were going to have a boy. This time around I wanted another girl. I figured it would be easier that way. We already had all the stuff and I knew how to deal with a girl. When we found out Smiley was a boy I got pretty nervous. It took me until he was born, to really wrap my head around the fact that we were getting a boy this time. At the 20 week ultrasound, they saw that the placenta was really close to my cervix and were calling it moderate placenta previa. We did multiple ultrasounds over the next few months to monitor it and luckily it corrected itself. If it hadn't, I would have needed to have a C-section and Smiley would have come 3-4 weeks before his due date. We're very happy the problem fixed itself.

Near the end I was much more uncomfortable than I had been with the girls. My joints were all a little too lose which caused me to have considerable hip and pelvic pain. The last few weeks I also had really sharp ligament pains on the top of my belly, that often brought me to tears and made me sit down unable to do anything for more than a few minutes at a time. I was definatley looking forward to getting the kid here and was hoping it would be before May 17th.

About a week before May 9th, I tried going to bed at around midnight, but couldn't go to sleep, because of contractions. I didn't have my hospital bag or any of the girl's overnight bags packed, so I stayed up until about 3am packing and doing laundry. When I got done and went to bed again, the contractions stopped. I did a lot of walking that week and no more contractions. On Monday May 9th I woke up around 4am because I was involuntarily leaking. I started having contractions every so often, but couldn't tell if my water had broken or not. I called the Dr. and was told to come in so they could check to see if my water had broken. The Husband had left for work that morning at around 8am. He came home from work, we dropped the girls off at a friend's home and got to the Dr's around 1:30pm, with the thought that we could be going over to the hospital for a baby after the appointment. We stayed at the Dr's for two hours and they determined that my water had not broken and I was only dialated to a 2. I had been at a 1 for a few weeks. So she sent me home. I think I had one small contraction there and hadn't had very many right before we went. I had an appointment to come back on Thursday. We picked up the girls, went home and all laid down for a nap around 3:30pm. I started having contractions again around 3:45pm and they were frequent enough that I never got to fall asleep. The Husband went back to work around 5pm and the girls woke up a few minutes later. I got bags put together and dinner ready and by the time we were done eating at 6:30pm my contractions were about 5-6 minutes apart and had been for the last hour. I called the Dr, who never called me back, and then called The Husband to demand that he come home. I remember that he asked me if my water had broken and I told him no, but he still had to come home immediately. He came home and we got the girls to a friend's home by about 7:45pm. The contractions were now between 2-3 minutes apart. We got to the hospital a few minutes after 8pm. The Husband let me out at the front door and I had 3 more contractions while he parked and walked back to me. I had 3 more contractions walking to the maternity unit.

My worst fear was that I would not be dialated enough and they would send me back home. Luckily I was dialated to a five and they checked me all in. I told them immediately that I wanted an epidural. I was told that the Dr on call and the anethesiologist were in a c-section and couldn't make it yet. The contractions just kept gettng stronger and closer and there was no epidural in sight. The nurse gave me something to take the edge off, which helped and I then realized there was no time for an epidural. I was terrified! My water broke at some point during all the contractions. I remember the nurse getting all the tools ready and telling me to push when I felt the need too. Then the screaming started. It was such an odd experiance. I felt like I had no control over it at all. I pushed 3-4 times and Smiley was here. I wouldn't ever choose to do it without an epidural, but now I know that I can, if I have too. Smiley was born at 9:13pm, about an hour after we got to the hospital. He was 7 lbs. 3 oz. and 19 1/2 inches long, heavier and a half an inch shorter than the girls. He was alert and healthy. The Dr made it in time to sticth me up afterwards. The nurse that delivered Smiley was so wonderful, I could not have asked for a better person to get me through the delivery.

The Husband was also a great help getting me through each contraction and helping me remember it wouldn't last forever. I feel bad that I scared him a bit with the screaming. As soon as we were settled The Husband left to get my bag and park the car in long term parking, neither of which he had had time to do before. He then left again to finish his homework for the class he was taking that was ending that night at midnight. Luckily he just had to find a WiFi hotspot in the hospital waitng room to finish his online class. The rest of our stay was uneventful.
It was nice being practically waited on and getting to know Smiley.

We left Wednesday afternoon.

The girls had stayed with The Husband's aunt and uncle at night and his cousin duing the day. They had loads of fun and Lulu didn't want to come home. Sticky had fun too, but was ready to come home and see mom and dad.