Week 39- ADDISON DIANE HAS ARRIVED!!!

April 14th- We started off our week by attending Grammie's Teacher of the Year banquet. It was hosted at Century Center and my mom was up against 33 other teachers for the teacher of the year. She came in the top 10 and received a grant and was a Special Honor Teacher! GO MOM!!!

After the banquet, we went to dinner at Yesterday's and just had a great dinner with my parents. They have fed us 4 days in a row now. We had Portofino's on Saturday, Easter dinner and leftovers on Sunday and Monday and then a big dinner on Tuesday too. We are very lucky! I am not complaining with this pregnancy at all! However this isn't out of the norm with my parents, as we always do dinner with them alot and its very special!

April 15th- today would be ironic if the little one is born, but mama isn't feeling any contractions yet. The little one was very good to me as my goal was to make it to today at work with all the deadlines and everything and WE DID!!! After I finished all my deadlines, we had a tax party like usual and I went. I was only planning on going for an hour or so, but I was feeling great so I stayed the whole time, 4-8. It was great to see everyone from my old department and then also introduce them to the new department that I have been working in for almost 2 years now. The belly received lots of touches from Steve, Joel, Tim, Jenny, Tammy, Sarah, Lisa, Kelli, etc. I think the funniest two stories of the night was when Sam danced with the belly and then Joel was obsessed with the belly button and kept wanting to touch it. I said its a little sensitive and he did so good. Our little one has so much love already and he/she isn't even here yet! Also, Ben compared his stomach to mine and I totally beat him out. It was funny!

Thursday April 16th- well I can honestly say that this was the first time I have worked on April 16th! (The party was different when you can't drink, but I am not complaining one bit)

So we had our doctor's appointment today and no dilation. I have gained 29 pounds total and blood pressure was 104/68. I am starting to swell in my ankles. I am continuing to feel great and I don't have alot of back pain. I do enjoy the foot and leg rub though! I am still sleeping good through the night and haven't been uncomfortable. I am very lucky so far!

Tonight we found out that Elizabeth and Adam would start the inducement process for Harrison and we should have the arrival of our nephew sometime this weekend!

Friday April 17th- Today would be my last day of work as I have a fear of my water breaking at work and since I am getting close to my due date that why over due anything. I know that our little one can have a few more weeks yet, but I just want to be in the comfort of my own home. Everyone at work was so nice and coming up to me and I went around and said my goodbyes letting them know I would bring the little one in once he/she has arrived.

Since Jeremy and I worked today and Elizabeth was still in the hospital and the process was going slow for her and Adam we didn't go and visit them. We are thinking of them and hopefully Harrison will arrive soon for mommy and daddy!

Saturday April 18th- Jeremy and I went up to the hospital first thing in the morning after receiving a few phone calls with updates. We took donuts, OJ and some milk up to the birthing suite as we figured they could use a little treat! Elizabeth looked great for being in the hospital so long and going through a long delivery process. Still no Harrison at 8:00 in the morning. We let them go as they needed their rest and the doc was coming in to do some checks. We knew that Harrison would definitely arrive today as they were talking C-Section. Jeremy and I said that we would be back later to meet our nephew!

We went shopping at Babies R Us to get our breast pump since I had a 15% off coupon. I also had a price adjustment to do on the rocker that we had purchased 2 weeks ago since we got the glider and ottoman combo we would save $100 so it was worth going and asking about the price adjustment and they did it for us! Bonus for Jeremy and me!!! Jeremy was super happy about this! We then did some running around and kept checking in on the status of our nephew. When we got home from shopping, our neighbor, Tom was vacuuming his truck out and I was like I need to clean my Jeep out so I asked him if I could borrow his shop vac so Jeremy didn't have to lug the vacuum cleaner outside. Tom was so sweet he brought it over for me to use as Jeremy decided to mow the yard and do other yard work things. As I was cleaning out my car, our neighbors that live behind us (Greg and Mary Lou) stopped by and asked about the due date and said that if we need anything they are just a phone call away. Our neighbors Dan, Jen, Shannon, and Neil all were curious too of the due date as they knew it was getting close. We are very lucky to have wonderful neighbors!

We got the phone call around 2:45 at home that our nephew, Harrison Dean had arrived and mama, daddy, and Harrison were doing great. Elizabeth didn't have to have a C-Section so it was perfect. Harrison was 8 pounds 12 ounces! If we go back to week 31 in the blog you will see that from our childbirth classes that I said Adam and Elizabeth would have a big boy and I was right, but I think everyone guessed this too because big babies run in Elizabeth's family! I was just so thankful that he was healthy and everyone was doing good. Jeremy and I made it up to the hospital around 5:00ish as we knew it would take sometime in the birthing suite to get over to the regular room. When we arrived, Harrison was in the nursery getting his bath, measurements, and tests done. We were all guessing on how long he was going to be because he looked so long. Grandma (Adam and Jeremy's mom) guessed 22inches, Grandpa (Jeremy and Adam's dad) guessed 23 inches, I guessed 21.5, Adam I think guessed 22 I can't remember and Uncle Jeremy guessed 20 3/4 and he was right. We should have played the lottery that night!

They brought Harrison back to the room and I was so excited to hold him and Elizabeth was so good about everything. She was doing great and looked wonderful. It was so amazing to me how well she was doing for going through a long delivery. We are just so excited to spoil our nephew with lots and lots of love!!! Jeremy and I are finally an uncle and aunt.... how exciting!!!

So when we got home from the hospital and since I cleaned the car, I decided to do some laundry. I was in a cleaning mood (nesting). However not with the rest of the house like putting the laundry away and cleaning the bedroom or dusting. I decided I had enough and went to bed around 9:30. Jeremy was still watching TV. I woke up around 11:48 as Jeremy was coming to bed as I was having some cramping in my stomach. I was like is this a contraction? I had no idea what to expect since I hadn't been uncomfortable, I was sleeping good and didn't have back pain... all signs that you are going into labor. Well I starting to time these crampings and they were 6 minutes apart. I started to get a little nervous and scared and called my mom to ask her if I was having contractions. She thought I was just so excited from the announcement of Harrison and just getting ready for my baby that I could be having or not having contractions. She was like it's been 30 years since I have had contractions! She said if it continues to just call the doctor. Jeremy was helping me time my contractions and they decreased to 5 minutes and then to 4 minutes apart. We called the doctor around 2:30ish (I think) and she said that this is just normal, but if I wanted to go to the hospital I could go. I decided to go and we arrived around 3:30 in the morning. The doctor on call checked me and no dilation whatsoever. I was like what was I going through every 4-6 minutes. He said that this is normal and just my body getting ready and going into "pre-labor". They hooked me up to a monitor and monitored the little ones heart rate and also the contraction. The contractions were starting to get further apart because I was more calm now in the hospital and talking to the doctor. He gave me a dose of Ambien for me to take if I needed help sleeping and I wasn't going to get any sleep with these contractions every 4-6 minutes. The doc did ask me if my contractions were just uncomfortable or if I wanted to rip someones face off. I just said uncomfortable.... again a sign of pre-labor I guess. We were discharged from the hospital and on our way back home. We got home around 4:45ish. About 5:30 I asked Jeremy to get me the Ambien because I was still having contractions and not getting any sleep. I took the dose and slept till about 6:45 and wanted to get up with the contractions and go to the bathroom. I couldn't even walk. I had to wake Jeremy up (I was conscious to do that). I couldn't walk straight and apparently I was hallucinating that stuffed animals were all around me. I was like "watched out for the stuffed animals" as Jeremy was trying to get me to the bathroom and help me walk. I was pretty much up from this point and Jeremy was timing my contractions and writing them down. I ranged from 4-8 minutes some at 13 minutes apart. My mom came over in the afternoon and sat with me for awhile as I was having these. They were tolerable during the day as I did my breathing. Jeremy's mom came over too and checked in on me. Both moms were great with me and I appreciated this so much.

Jeremy got the trash bags out on the couch and recliner just in case my water did break. He also got the blow up bed out so he could sleep downstairs with me as going upstairs I didn't want to increase my contractions or waste the energy. We were watching the Simpsons and my contractions started to really increase and started to hurt and I was squeezing Jeremy's hand. He did great getting me through them by coaching my breathing. It was around 9:45 when I told him that we needed to call the doc as the contractions were getting worse and I felt like ripping someones head off... at least I was getting close to that point. I talked with my doctor and said I would be more comfortable going and getting checked and he said ok come on in. Jeremy and I head to the hospital and arrive at 10:30 at night. I get checked by my doc and he says "you aren't smiling like you are when I see you in the office" Yeah definitely could tell that I was in some pain. He checks me and sure enough I am 80% effaced and 5 cm! I was like I made it half way with our drugs can I do this and then I was having some hard contractions and I've been pretty much going through contractions since 11:45 on Saturday night and here it was 24 hours later and I was only 5 cm and haven't slept but maybe an hour at this point. I started to think that my breaking point for the epidural was 7/8cm and I was like this could go quick or not. By the time they moved me to the birthing suite and checked me I was 6 cm and it was 12:30 at this point and here comes the epidural. They had to break my water after the epidural. I was thinking this little one should be here in a few hours. Both sets of parents came and were in the delivery room and were so good. The room apparently was freezing, but I was nice and content. At 5:30 in the morning I had progressed to 8 cm. I was moving right along, but a little slow. I was getting excited. Then the shift came at 7am for the doc and I got checked at 8:30ish and I was still at 8cm and they started petocin on me to start getting me to get to 10cm. The little one was also in a Texas roll position so I had to do some special positions to get the little one to come down more at the right angle. Finally around 11:30ish I hit 10 cm. This didn't mean start pushing at this point. My docs do a laboring down process which means once I hit 10cm I still need to stretch naturally which would mean less time pushing and also less chance of tearing. Finally at 12:15 I started pushing. My mom had my right leg and Jeremy had my left leg. My dad was behind my mom just observing! When they broke my water, the little one had taken a bowel movement in me and they might have to get NICU involved just to be safe. I was worried and prayed that everything would be ok. The little one's heart rate was good so that helped me remain calm. I did 4 sets of 3 pushes and she was here!!! Dr. Lyons delivered her and he was so great and he said I was a good listener during the delivery process. The most amazing part of delivery was seeing her still attached to me and Dr. Lyons telling Jeremy to finish the delivery and pull our little one out and put on mama's chest. Once he did this I asked do we have a boy or a girl and Dr. Lyons had Jeremy announce.... it took a few seconds because the umbilical cord was in the way and Jeremy wanted to make sure. He said "It's a girl". Jeremy placed her on my chest immediately and she was just so perfect. Since she was under my chest for a good 30 minutes noone really saw her face. Eventually we did and I asked Jeremy what you want to name her and he whispered in my ear and I said ok. We got Jeremy's parents in the room and Jeremy made the announcement, "everyone meet Addison Diane" The grandparents had tears and lots of hugs were passed around. It was just so amazing and our prayers were answered. Addison was so good to mommy while she was in the belly. Now to find out how she is going to be in the real world!

Ok now if we go back to the game that we played at one of the showers and what we thought she might have and how she entered the world.


Here is the breakdown;

Eyes- Prediction- Jeremy
Reality- She got mama's eyes... Blue and big!

Nose- Prediction- Daddy
Reality- Daddy!

Hair- Prediction- Mama
Reality- She has tons of hair and its dark but lightening up. We are going to say Mama on this one.

Legs- Prediction- Daddy
reality- Daddy- she has long legs. She is already 1/3 of the height of mama.

Feet- well this is a toss up... but we are hoping for daddy. I do have smelly feet and have to wear inserts, so we are hoping for daddy's gene on this.

Reality - she has my 4 smaller toes and daddy's big toe. She has a curve in one of her toes just like mama.

Hands- prediction- we are hoping for mama's. Jeremy has small hands so we are hoping my side of the family carries over on this. My Grandpa Totten has huge hands and if we have a boy then palming the basketball might be helpful!

Reality- She has super long fingers and finger nails so we are going to say mama because she could get a manicure today because her nails are so long!