Announcing...

3:54 PM, Sunday, February 17, 2013.

8 lbs 8 oz, 21.75" long.
Mother and baby are healthy but tired.

"But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him:
for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them
to inherit the land which thou shalt see."
Deuteronomy 3:28


8 lbs, 8 oz


Wide Awake


Mommy & Baby

And the Pressure's On...

It has been for a while now, but it's getting worse. Still, there is no new baby here.

Tuesday morning I woke up with a flaming sore throat. By Thursday it was feeling better, but now I'm congested. And it's going to my lungs. (That's where most things end up with me).

Thursday Sir and I finally made the last decision on a baby name. I know it wasn't a huge deal in reality, but it always has been a huge deal to me. So having complete names for both genders was a big relief for me.

Friday I saw the Dr. I told you, I thought the due date might actually be tomorrow right? Well, paperwork rules in these parts, and the numbers said I was 5 days overdue. I was 5 minutes late, but that's usually not a problem because they make you wait 30-40 minutes before they get to you most days. I ran up the two flights of stairs anyway and when I walked through the door... there wasn't a single person in the waiting room. I submitted my urine sample, they rushed me to the scale - down 3 lbs from last week to their surprise, not really to mine since I've been battling this cold all week. I had less than five minutes to wait for the doctor to show up, and then it wasn't my normal doctor! I do not adjust to quick surprise changes very well. On top of that, this new doctor's original language WAS NOT English, so that made communication that much better. I did figure out my normal doctor was in the building and would join us later. Ok great, so now I have a doctor in training. I figured if my normal doctor was going to come in later, I could handle a newbie for a few minutes. So first she takes my blood pressure, but I had to sit 'just so' while she squeezed my arm off. I could feel the stress levels increase at each step of this appointment, so I was only a little surprised when she claimed my pressure was high. It's never been really high, so I asked her what it was, and she said it was 155/80. For most of the pregnancy it's been 110/70.

Anyway, my normal doctor came in right after that, and there was someone to communicate with! She re-took my blood pressure and got 120/80, which was understandable I think. I also think I've mentioned that this baby seems smaller than the rest of my kids... the chart has backed me up on that. I've been measuring smallish throughout most of the pregnancy. All the more reasons to think the due date might just be a little off. Wait until I tell you about the dating ultrasound way back in July...
It was scheduled for 6pm and they'll cancel it if you're not there 15 minutes early, so I got there and checked in at 5:42. There was no wait. I was in, scanned and driving away at 5:58. It was a "so when do you think you're due?" I answer "Feb 10-17ish probably". Jot jot jot - they write down my answer, took a few ultrasound snapshots and sent me on my way. It seemed like, yeah, the baby appeared to be in that range... let's just pick a day. But somehow my doctor missed the actual EDD (estimated due date) indicated on the report. That said Feb 12th (kindof in the middle of the range I gave, huh?). And somehow the 10th was written across the top of my paperwork and that meant the prenatal chart said I was 5 days overdue - only 3 based on the ultrasound report (which I did point out). So, I now have 4 days left to have this baby whether the baby or I think it's ready or not.

They've already scheduled a 'non-stress' test for this coming Tuesday. That's where they put a belt on me and monitor the baby's heart rate for 45 minutes. And their plan is to send me in on Wednesday (a whole 24 hours later) to be induced if the baby isn't already here by then. Believe me, my blood pressure never went back to normal yesterday. I was a wreck. Ask my family - actually, don't.

Now if I can stop stressing about getting over this cold in time to meet my 'deadline', I'll probably just have the baby already. But you kindof need to breathe during labor... at least that's been my past experience. It would probably help if I can somehow also ignore the feelings of being pushed into doing something before I'm ready. But for now, I have other things to do, like feed my children breakfast before they finish taking the house apart.

And taking a deep breath.

On a more cheerful note: Ricka came to me this morning with her diaper down her pajama leg and fussing about 'potty'. So I let her rush to the bathroom and she successfully went! Usually, she fusses after the fact so this is progress for us. :)

Fattening Up...

I figured if we're all going to be waiting around for this baby to decide to make it's debut, we could play a little estimation game in the meantime.

Object: Guess the exact weight or be the closest to the actual birth weight.

To help you out, I've included pictures of the other kids and a small blurb of information regarding how close they came to their due dates.

Dolly in grams and pounds/ounces.

I thought Dolly was due around January 15th that year. The detailed ultrasound indicated she'd be born around the 22nd. She was born on January 30th.

PC in pounds/ounces. He would have been 3345 grams.

I expected PC to arrive around July 5th. The dating ultrasound suggested the 7th and the detailed ultrasound claimed the 10th. He was born June 30th.

Emma in pounds/ounces. She was 4369 grams.

My calculations indicated her due date was September 12th. The ultrasound opted for the 18th. Emma was born on September 22nd. I did know before she was born that she was going to be bigger than both the other kids had been.

Butler in pounds/ounces. He was 4301 grams.

For a change, everyone agreed on the due date for this guy - Mama, ultrasound and baby. He was born on his due date - November 8th. I did think Butler was going to be bigger than Emma though, and the nurse actually laughed at me when my first response to his weight was, "That's all?!"

Ricka in grams and pounds/ounces.

I expected Ricka on June 20th, the ultrasound said she'd come around the 19th, and she surprised everyone and came on June 11th.

For this baby, my original due date guesstimate was either February 10th or the 17th. The ultrasound suggested the 10th and that was yesterday. I think this baby is small compared to most of the others if that helps any, but that doesn't mean much... remember Butler?. Now we just wait and see how long this little one wants to fatten up before meeting the rest of us. :) I'll start the guessing off at... 8lbs 4oz on February 17 minus an ounce for every day sooner and plus an ounce for each day after. So if it's born tonight that would put my guess at 7lbs, 14oz.

What do you think?