Induction (Part One)

On Friday, March 9th Jeff and I left for Riverside to be induced. I was exactly 39 weeks on the nose! We had to be at the hospital at 7 AM so we got an early start and headed out to Tim Horton's for "last supper" donuts:)

And being the "early to everything" people that we are, we ended up getting to the hospital about 20 minutes early and got checked into our Labor and Delivery room. The nurse got my IV started right away and we were on our way to meeting our baby. Since I was Group B Strep + they put penicillin into my IV along with the Pitocin (to jump start my labor). I was able to be in the bed or on the labor ball. Since I did not have to have an internal monitor I had more mobility than I had with Samantha.

At 1 PM the contractions got pretty uncomfortable and we called for the anethesiologist to get my epidural. Due to my previous back surgery, getting an epidural caused some anxiety. But once they put it in they can tell right away if it took well and mine did. So that was a huge relief. The only negative of having the epidural is that you can no longer get out of bed. And it's kind of hard to just lay in bed for a long time. But Jeff and I were both able to relax a little. Both his parents and my mom came for a visit and it was nice to have the distraction.

Labor was progressing fairly well until I hit 6 cm dilated. Once we got to 6 cm, I stopped dilating and her head had regressed a bit. After 3 hours of no progressing they had me get up on all 4's and try and get her head to come down a bit. I was allowed to be in that position for 20 minutes. And it was kind of a last ditch effort since I would be considered FTP (Failure to Progress) if her head did not come down. And despite our best effort, her head did not come down. Since the baby was handling labor well we had the option to wait it out a bit, but my Dr. really did not think that time would make a difference. So at 5:45 PM(ish) we made the decision to go ahead with the C-section. Once we gave them the go ahead there was a flurry of activity. The OR was called and we were put on the books for a 6 PM C-section. The anethesiologist came back in and game me more epidural medicine. Then they gave me a bunch of different medicines for various different things. One of the medicines was a liquid that was like a shot of Shock Tart tasting stuff that was for acid reflux, I think. Jeff was given an outfit to wear in the OR and information was being hammered into us. Stuff like, you are going to feel sensations but not pain, you have to stay behind the blue curtain, it will take about 15 minutes from when we start cutting to when the baby comes out, it takes twice as long to sew you back up than it did to get in, etc. It was quite a whirlwind and then they were wheeling me down to the OR.

Mom was in the room when all this was going down and it kind of freaked her out, but she just kept telling me to do what was best for the baby. So that is exactly what we did...

Pictures from this week

Roller Skating

Today Nick and Mandy took Samantha to the roller skating rink for some fun with her cousins! Jeff and I snuck off to do some retail therapy @ Jeffersonville while they were skating. Mandy said that as soon as they got there the "teacher" asked who would like to show how to do the "crabbie" and Samantha did not hesitate to say "I DO"! (This did not surprise Jeff and I at all....she loves to be the center of attention.)

Grady and Samantha holding hands!

Nick called her a "big skater" and she just thought that was so funny. She talked about that all night long after we picked her up. She said, "call me a big skater!"

Jeff and I missed watching her skate and will have to take her again just so we can watch our "big skater"!

New Things

Jeff and I went to Target today just to shop around and I found these shoes on clearance ($8.99) and had to get the for Samantha. And, Samantha loved them and said they are her new dancing shoes! Cute and Cheap....my kind of deal!

A new show came on Nickelodeon this week called Mike the Knight and Samantha loves it. Everyday when we get home from Miss Sara's she wants to go right in, get her "princess nightgown" on and watch Mike the Knight!

And last night Jeff and I went to buy her The Little Mermaid on DVD (I think it is one of the only "old" Disney movies that we do not already have but we could not find it. So she ended up getting Tangled instead. As soon as we got home she set up her little pillow fort in the play room and was glued to her new princess movie. In fact, when I got up this morning, Jeff and Samantha were all cuddled on the couch watching it again. Samantha loves all things princess!

Vikki's (Late) Birthday Celebration

Jeff, Samantha, I, Vikki, Larry, Tara, Nebbie, Nick, Mandy, Grady and Chase all went to a Mexican restaurant to celebrate Vikki's birthday. At the end of the meal all the servers came over and put a huge sombrero on Vikki's head while they sang Feliz Cumpleano's. Samantha loved all the excited and had to try on the sombrero too. Cute, I know!

Valentine's Day Fun

This year Samantha is much more aware of Holiday's. At the babysitters they had been talking about Valentine's Day and making little Valentine's Day crafts, so she had multiple days of celebrating. The above picture was taken on actual V-Day. And she was so excited to wear her special outfit, (Thanks Gram!)

Jim and Libby made Samantha a V-Day bag of goodies and Samantha loved digging right in. She especially loved the heart necklace and heart bracelet.

"Reading" her card from Mawmaw and Pawpaw.

Ripping open her V-Day card!

Not shy at all about digging right in to her bag of goodies! She LOVES surprises!

The day before V-Day Samantha and I had gone to Hallmark to get Jeff cards from us and some cards for Samantha to share with her friends at the babysitter. I have to interject, when we were at Hallmark, she would pick up a card...open it...and say, "Mommy Loves Daddy" or "Daddy Loves Mommy". It was super cute. And as soon as Daddy got home from work she ran and told him we got him cards and there for we celebrated a day early. When Samantha and I got back from gymnastics's Daddy surprised us with flowers and Samantha got a balloon too.

She was very excited to have flowers of her very own just like Mommy!

The week before V-day Gram sent Samantha (and baby girl #2) a box of V-day goodies. The above picture is the aftermath after Samantha pulled everything out. She is one spoiled little girl. At least she is very grateful for all the surprises she gets.

She loved her Dora hat and gloves!

So excited!!!

Checking out her new dress with matching leggings.

Opening up the box and being so excited for the "what could it be inside"!

It has gotten to be a lot more fun for Jeff and I too b/c Samantha is so much more interactive now. She loves to tell us stories about her day and things she likes and dislikes. She has an opinion on EVERYTHING, and is not afraid to share it! And she is really loving...she gives lots of hugs and kisses and please and thank yous. She is a joy to our lives and we cannot wait to bring this new little joy into our lives as well!

Ultrasound Today!!!

Today, Jeff and I went to Riverside for another ultrasound. (Just to triple check her kidney's.) And her kidney's still look pretty much the same as last time but we will still take her to the Pediatric Urologist when she is 2 weeks old just to be sure. We were able to get some really good pictures for her being so big now. In the above picture her left foot is up by her mouth. And wouldn't you swear she has a dimple in her left cheek? I know her Daddy hopes she has his dimples just like Big Sister Samantha.

After they measured everything the computer calculated that she is currently 7.1 lbs. But they say that they could be off by 1.1 lbs. So that really means she is anywhere from 6 lbs to 8.2 lbs. The tech also mentioned that she has really long legs. And her head is already measuring at 40w3d! Let's hope this little girl comes sooner rather than later! I know Jeff, Samantha and I are all so excited to meet her!

Her foot is up by her mouth still in this one with her left hand behind her foot. And I think it is her other foot up by her right eye.

Pretty close to the same as the one above.

More of the same...

Again... (I will mention that the ultrasound tech said she could see just a little bit of hair on her head but she said not a whole head full like we described that Samantha had.)

Foot up by her head in 3 D.

Foot up by her head again in 3 D.

A short video of her opening and closing her mouth.