Baby #3 Arrives!

We welcomed Baby #3 into our family early. I went into labor on 10/2 and gave birth to my littlest baby yet - a 5 pounds 12 ounces and 18 1/2" long Baby BOY. He was about 3 weeks early. The delivery didn't go as planned and since he was early, he had a hard time with his oxygen levels. But with all the trials of the first few hours, things are great now. We came home tonight and are trying to settle in with our new addition.

Some pics to follow soon!

Baby #3 Update

My c-section is officially scheduled for 10/15 @ 5:00 PM. The time kinda stinks because I have to fast all day and that means I'll be anxiously watching a clock all darn day. But on the other hand, it's kinda good because then the kids won't have to wake up early and be taken anywhere and no one needs to stay the night the night before. I was looking forward to that last night alone as a family of 4, before we embark on the path as a family of 5.

Now if the baby would stay put for the scheduled c-section.....

Dr Appt Update

Went to the dr today. Things are still "no change". We are on for 10/15 to have this new little one. I surely thought it was coming earlier today though. I had some WICKED contractions, similar to when I was in the hospital having L and they inserted a balloon catheter while I was on Pitocin - MISERABLE!! The contractions medicine wasn't controlling them. It took an hour to get the contractions to slow down and then another hour or so to get them stopped. But they did stop, so no hospital visit. The dr had said he would stop the contractions before 36 weeks but after 36, he'll let me go and just take the baby. Well - that's next Wednesday so if these contractions come on again anytime after next Wednesday, we'll be having this baby.

The bright spot of the day were my wonderful children. They were so good. They entertained themselves during my few hours of contraction hell. L even rubbed my back for me for awhile - what a sweetie she is!! They are such good kids :- )

MOPS day again....

We had a fun time at MOPS today - all 3 of us. I put S back in the 3 & 4 year old room with his big sis and all went well for them. They had a blast with a bit more structured playtime - including playing outside on the playpark, highlight of the morning for them :-) They are learning more about God. This has brought up some interesting questions from the resident genius around here. I enjoyed conversing with other moms and even volunteered to be our table leader!

Tomorrow is another dr appt. Hopefully I haven't dilated any. We should talk more about the specifics of this upcoming c-section (3 1/2 weeks away). I wonder if he'll just take it early????

Maternity Photos

So I was so upset yesterday about our maternity pictures. Daddy Piper was great - saying we'll just try to do some at home. This was a major disappointment to me. I thought "We are never going to get good ones at home - just something that will be okay... not great". I was wrong. Yep I admit here - I was WRONG. We got a few good ones today. Like a few wonderful ones that I am so pleased with.

We set up the camera on the tripod. Daddy Piper got a few good ones of me and the kids and then he got in the picture himself (the main goal of the shoot - a family picture proudly displaying my belly, like the other 2). The kids had fun, pics look great and I spent less than $40 getting a ton of pics from Shutterfly!

Maternity Pics Gone Awry!

I am so upset right now. I'll start at the beginning. We have done maternity pics with both of our kids and of course I wanted (needed?) to do them with this baby too. I had looked at our photography who did them last time but her prices have skyrocketed so I picked another one, more reasonably priced. Unfortunately she is located on the other side of the world (I thought about an hour) from us. Well after talking with Daddy Piper yesterday afternoon, he said she was closer to an hour and 1/2 from us. The way I feel these days, I didn't want to make that drive and I KNEW he didn't want to for sure (when you drive for a living all week, the last thing you want to do is drive somewhere on the weekend). So I rescheduled her for our newborn pics (I already had a deposit with her) and I scheduled an appt at a place closer to us. I didn't think they would be all that great but they would suffice, it was closer and cheaper. I explained to them on the phone exactly what I was looking for and they were happy to oblige. Cut to today. We get there (after waking S from his nap to make it on time), they are running late, whatever let's just do these. We get with the photographer in the room with the black background and I show him what I want. He informs me they don't do bare belly shots - against company policy. Well why in the hell didn't the person who scheduled the appt yesterday tell me that?!?! We left with me crying. I was and am still so upset. It was a worthless trip and I still have no maternity pictures :- (

U/S, Baby Chain and other Misc. Stuff

We had another u/s today. Baby was measuring small last week, according to a physical measurement. Baby measured just fine on the u/s today. Of course, she did mention that the femur bone was on the small side of average but went on to ask what did the doc expect when I am obviously small :- ) The head and other measurements all came back fine. Baby weighs about 4.5 pounds - right on schedule. The kids enjoy the u/s appointments. They mostly love hearing the heartbeat, which was 139 today. Great to see the little munchkin!!!

We made a baby chain a few weeks back (about 5 weeks ago) to countdown the birth of the baby. It helps the kids be able to see how many weeks are left until the c-section. Also eliminates the million questions I was getting on how much longer till baby gets here.

L needed a haircut today since her hair has been super tangly lately and since we are getting our maternity pics done on Saturday. We are growing S's hair out a bit and it looks super cute - like a surfer dude since he has this awesome tan going. He was upset he didn't get a haircut and proceeded to tell me he needed one and I said no and he responded with "But my hair looks scraggly" Now I ask - where did my 2 1/2 year old learn the word scraggly?????

Dr Appt

I had my 32 week OB check today. I was put on Trebutiline for the contractions. I also have another u/s appt for next week to check baby's size. I haven't gained much weight or really grown in 2 weeks so they want to check on the baby's growth. The kids and I went to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch afterwards. It was fun! They usually eat a pretty healthy lunch because they know the sundae bar is open and waiting for them :- )

Backyard View & Other Stuff

This is what I saw from my kitchen window while cooking dinner tonight...I also went to the new hospital and took a tour of the OB department. Since they didn't allow little ones on the tour, Daddy Piper stayed home with them while I went alone. I hate going alone to this stuff but we didn't have much choice since the tour wasn't until 7 at night. It was nice to see the area where we'll be delivering #3. It is a very nice hospital. I really liked our old one but the dr isn't delivering there anymore so we had to switch to the new one. I know it's more important that I like my dr but boy I loved that hospital where my first 2 were born.

When I got home, Daddy Piper was outside with both kids looking for the dogs. They both escaped, which was a first. Kazoo never leaves the yard but for some reason decided to follow Jay-Jay.

The nice part of the evening was I had brought DQ home for us and we sat on the couch and ate some yummy ice cream while chatting about the events of the evening. It was a nice way to end the night!!

Car seat and hormones

With all the baby excitement over the past week, I thought I had better get the newborn car seat out of the garage and cleaned up. Daddy Piper brought it in for me tonight and I totally melted down when I saw it. I haven't really taken this whole baby #3 seriously yet or rather it hasn't seemed like reality yet until I saw that car seat. I was crying and a million thoughts were running through my head - all pretty positive ones. I am getting down right excited about this baby!!!

Oh yea and about Tuesday

I forgot to come back and write about the excitement on Tuesday. I had to visit the hospital to check on baby. I woke up with more bleeding and called the dr. While L was in dance class, they called back and instructed me to head right to L&D immediately. Well I let L finish her class and called a friend to watch the kids (thanks Erica!) and dropped them off. Now first off this was upsetting in itself. I never leave my kids. They did great though and it was nice to know they were in good hands. Daddy Piper was working quite a ways away and anyway, any time off for him is loss in wages so we handled it pretty well without him. So I headed to the hospital for a 4 hour stay. I had blood work, an exam and an u/s. Things looked fine and they couldn't find the source where the bleeding was coming from. I guess I am having more contractions than I was aware of, so they watched those too. Baby looked great on the u/s. 3 pounds 3 ounces - right on schedule according to my weekly pregnancy newsletter thing. Still don't know what it is but man is he/she cute : -) I got to see it sucking on its toes. It is pretty well folded in half in my belly right now. They let me go about 4:30 with instructions to take it easy and they would probably see me back sooner than mid Oct. I picked up my babies and while they were super happy to see me, they were just fine without me for the afternoon.

Thank God for good friends, health insurance and a hubby who has really stepped up to help since Tuesday!!!

Hospital

I have a rather legnthy post about going to the hospital today but can't get my arms around it right now. Baby is okay - just upsetting. More later

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful for many things this Thursday - mostly for my wonderful family. We have so many blessings - a nice roof over our heads, plenty of food in our tummies, clothes on our backs and mostly the thing we have is each other.

Daddy Piper got rained out today so he got to spend some quality time with S while I took L to her last swim lesson and then to the dr with me for another OB check. It is nice to get time alone with each child. Such fun to have great conversation without any interruptions. So we went to my OB check and things look great still. Dr seems pleased my weight gain, heartbeat was 130 (does that mean boy??) and the baby measured right on the money. Then we grabbed some Quiznos and brought lunch home to "the boys".

This evening after naps and dinner, we went out in the pool for a bit. That is always fun family time!

Now off to bed with a grateful heart for my blessed life.

Congratulations to New Baby F

Another of my best friends in the whole world gave birth to healthy baby girl today. Congratulations to the F family on their newest addition!!!!

Baby #3

So I went to bed right after my last post and laid there and BAM this baby started kicking like crazy. I realized that I haven't wrote much about this pregnancy. Probably because it has been mostly uneventful, unlike the other 2. I LOVE feeling my babies kick inside me. It is the most incredible feeling and impossible to describe. I am so lucky to get to experience this one more time. I know this will be our last baby (unless I can get some miracle advice on how to change my hubby's mind!!) so I am trying to enjoy every minute of it. Being pregnant is completely awesome and being pregnant without complications - a true blessing!!

Baby #3...

Had another couple appts this week to check out Baby #3. Things are progressing on schedule and even more... NORMAL! I had more bleeding last Saturday before the big party but everything looks fine. The baby is even measuring big. The HB came back in the 160's so who knows if its a boy or a girl :-)

New Baby!

One of my very best friends in the whole world gave birth to a healthy, bouncy Baby Boy today! I can't wait to meet the latest member of the Z Family. Congratulations!!!!

Baby #3 Update

We had an u/s today. It was our big 20 week ultrasound!! We don't find out the sex - leaving it a surprise until the big show. Daddy Piper was supposed to come with but problems with scheduling at the dr. office (they said my u/s this afternoon was actually yesterday - even though my paper says today - ARGH) so I threw a hissy fit and they got me in this morning. Daddy Piper couldn't be there which totally bummed me out. Anyway - everything looks great! We got to see all the major body parts and everything was functioning properly. I have been so worried that something was wrong since the baby isn't very active. I even had a dream last night that it was born without an esophagus (WTF?)! But everything checked out wonderfully. I had both kids with me and they thoroughly enjoyed the u/s. They love hearing the heartbeat, which was 140. We didn't want to find out the sex, which was good since the little one didn't spread his/her legs to show the tech :- ) Mother's intuition says boy, and it was right with S so maybe we'll be adding another boy to the family. Who knows though until the little actually gets here. All in all - another successful visit!!

Another Boy!

Found out today that one of my best girlfriends in the whole world is adding a boy to her collection of girls. Congratulations S family!!!!

Baby #3

I had a checkup today. I was able to have another u/s because of some problems a few weeks ago. Everything looks great. The baby's heartbeat was 171 - that says girl to me. Any takers???