Baptism Day!!!

We want to thank all our family and friends that joined us in celebrating baby's baptism. It was a special and important day for baby and we are so blessed to have you all in our lives. Thanks!

As we were getting baby dressed in his baptismal gown, Junior walked in and said, "Awwww, he looks like an angel!" I melted!

Baptism

Easter 2011 and then some

Easter morning we made it to mass, enjoyed an egg hunt in our backyard (no pics), and then over to my parents to visit with family and another egg hunt. Junior was eager to get in bed the night before because he said he didn't want to be awake when the Easter bunny came. We think he was a little frightened as to what actually comes to the house!

Family photo

Egg hunt at Nana and Great One's

Baby's first bath in the infant tub

Junior and Gaga were eager helpers

Gaga loving on her brother

Awake and alert

Sound asleep

1st week home

We adjusted quite well this past week getting to know our new sweet baby boy. We loved having Daddy home to help Mommy and to enjoy being a family of FIVE! It's going to be sad to see Daddy leave to go back for work. :(

Since we didn't know what the gender of this baby was going to be we hadn't been able to prepare the kids with a certain name. Junior has been able to easily switch and call the baby by his name. Gaga on the other hand has been a lot slower at catching on to the baby's name. She is still calling the baby, "baby". Even though when told to say the baby's name she can pronounce it really well.

Daddy and baby snoozing

Baby getting weighed at our 48 hour check up at home (7lbs)

Footprint time...he was not a fan!

First picture of our new family of 5

A couple pictures of a sweet sleeping baby

I am in LOVE with my baby!

Junior likes to get close to baby and say, "Look, we are twins!" He also has let me know several times that our family now consists of 3 boys and only 2 girls, so they win!

My three little ones in bed one morning. (I don't realize baby's jaundice until he's next to my other WHITE babies!)

Great grandma came to visit

So did Great grandpa

Nana getting some snuggle time in

Gaga "reading"her books to baby

The kids meet their new brother!

Once we arrived home from the birthing center we tried to get some rest before our friend brought the kids back. That was not going to happen since we were so anxious and excited to see them meet their new brother and see how they would react.

Daddy's parents came over to meet their newest grandson and also brought us dinner. After we ate, we got word from our friend that she was on her way over with the kids. She also let me know that Junior had said, "t-h-i-k-k spells (baby's name)", which is very far from the truth. Gaga had said, "going to see baby sissy." She was convinced I was having a girl! I don't think she would have realized one way or another though. She just wanted a baby!

When the kids got home they had balloons and flowers for me and the baby. Junior walked in, didn't say hi to anyone and started walking through the house looking for something. We guessed he was looking for the baby. Gaga was next in the door and she was very excited to see us and say hi and give hugs. We asked her where the baby was and she came to me and lifted up my shirt. We told her that the baby wasn't in my tummy anymore and asked her if she wanted to see the baby. We had put the baby in his crib in Junior's room before they showed up so we could surprise them. So we walked into Junior's room and showed both of them the baby sleeping in the crib. I picked the baby up and showed the kids. We walked into the living room for them to sit on the couch because they both could not wait to hold him. Their smiles were priceless! They were both extremely cautious and curious. Both taking turns to hold him and checking him out from head to toe. They loved every minute of it...and him! Just see for yourself. The pictures show it best!

Baby meets Gaga...holding for the first time!

Baby meets Junior...holding for the first time and Gaga trying to steal him away

Junior's "too excited doesn't know what to do or how to act" face

She's smitten with him!


Checking him over


She doesn't want to put him down


My three sweet babies!

It's a BOY!!!

Welcoming to the world our precious baby BOY!

Born on April 4, 2011 @ 10:46am
Weighing in @ 7lbs. 6oz.
Measuring in @ 20 inches tall

I woke up at 3:30am on Monday morning with a contraction. I had been waking up in the middle of the night for the last few weeks with a contraction. I would only have one, get up to go to the bathroom and then go back to bed. This morning I did the same and got back in bed. I listened to the storm blowing through outside while I lay in bed and a few minutes later I felt another one which would have made them 10 minutes apart. A couple more contractions at 10 minutes apart each and I rolled over to let Daddy know that I was going to get in the shower. I knew this had to be it since I never had any contractions with any pregnancies that would come together at certain intervals until I was in labor. 10 minutes apart seems like plenty of time, but in the back of my mind I was constantly worrying that I would be delivering quickly since Gaga was born 4 hours after the first contraction.

While in the shower the contractions seemed to be one right after the other with no breaks in between, almost like I was having one long contraction. When I got out I called the midwife to see if she thought we should head up to the birthing center. (At each of my last few appointments, the midwives would remind me to make sure since Gaga was a quick delivery to give them plenty of warning if I went into labor in the middle of the night so as to ensure they would have enough time to get up to the birthing center, especially since I was already dilated 3cm.) It was 4:30am at this time and the midwife told me she would meet us at the birthing center at 5:00am. Daddy and I continued to get ready and pack things up. We decided to call our friend and godmother of this baby to see if she could come pick up Junior and Gaga. It just so happens that we planned the week before for her to pick them up this morning to take them and give me a chance to run errands or just get some rest without them for the day. We sure lucked out with that! She said that she would meet us at the birthing center and get the kids there. I continued having contractions while getting myself and the kids ready and packed up and then we headed for the birthing center (bc).

It was pouring down rain as we drove to the bc. My contractions at this point seemed to be getting further apart and all I could think about was...I better be in labor or I got the midwife and our friend up early in the morning and in the pouring rain for no reason! We pulled into the parking area of the bc and our friend was there ready to take the kids. We had a quick exchange of hellos and quick goodbyes to the kids and Daddy walked me to the front door under the umbrella in the pouring rain. Once inside the midwife wanted to check me to see how things were progressing. At 5:30am I was dilated to 4cm, still about 80% effaced and at a 0 station. So at least the baby had dropped lower since the week before, although I was still a little disappointed that I had not labored a little more at home and was not further along than I was. The midwife told me to go ahead and have Daddy bring our stuff in and get settled in the room upstairs, but as for me I was instructed to walk up and down the stairs for 30 minutes to get the contractions coming stronger. During that time the contractions were coming every 2 minutes and were definitely getting stronger.

Around 6:30am I asked the midwife to check me again and I was at 5cm. Definitely not going as fast as I thought it would. The midwife told me that baby #3 can always throw you for a loop. They can either be faster labors than the others or they can be slower. I was realizing that this one was going to be slower.

For the next couple of hours I was working through my contractions bouncing/swaying on the birthing ball, rocking in the rocking chair or listening to my ipod. The bed was not an option as it gave me no relief during my contractions. In between contractions I easily carried on conversations with Daddy, the midwife, birth assistant or my mom (it kept my mind off them).

At 8:30am I was 6-7cm and the midwife gave me some tea with an herb, cohosh, in it. She didn't think that my contractions were lasting as long as they should be or coming as frequently as they should. The herb would "irritate" my uterus and help those things along. I drank the tea around 9:00am and 30 minutes later at 9:30am I was 8cm, but mostly complete. The midwife wanted me to move in a couple different positions to get that last little bit of cervix out of the way. I started getting a little nervous at this point thinking about the pain that I would experience as the baby was being delivered. The birthing assistant told me that I had to think past that part and think about holding my baby. It was hard to do.

At 10:00am the midwife said that I could go ahead and get into the birthing tub and to start out by getting in on my hands and knees. She also told me that if I wanted to have this baby then I could have it at any point. My body and the baby were ready but I was the one holding back. I alternated between my hands and knees and sitting Indian style with each contraction. They started to space out again and gave me good breaks between each contraction. At 10:42am my water broke and within a couple minutes the baby was pushing down which gave me no other option but to push with it. While on my hands and knees I gave one good push and the midwife had me stop to slow the baby down from coming out too fast. She then let me push one more time and the head was out. She had me stop again to check for a cord around the baby's neck and then she had me turn over and sit back against the side of the tub. Then with one last push our baby boy was born at 10:46am! Daddy was the one to look and announce the gender of the baby. When he said it was a boy it really didn't faze me. I had the feeling all along that it was a boy. Nonetheless, it was still an amazing moment to finally know for sure what our baby was and to hold it in my arms. We cuddled for a couple minutes and then Daddy cut the cord. The baby was wrapped up and handed to Daddy so I could get out of the tub and into the bed to deliver the placenta.

The next few hours we spent resting in the bed, eating (both baby and I), getting checked and rechecked, passing baby around to my parents or Daddy and enjoying our new little guy. Around 3:45pm, baby and I checked out fine and were on our way home! The whole experience was more than I could have imagined and would definitely do it again. The midwife and birthing assistant were amazing! We were able to have the birth that we wanted and the expert care all in one place!

Baby #3

38 weeks

Nothing too exciting to report from this last appointment. Baby's heart rate was in the 150's yet again, my weight was fine, blood pressure fine and my measurements were consistent with the last few weeks. I had the midwife check me and I had only progressed to 3.5cm dilated, still 80% effaced, and still at a -1 station in a weeks time. I guess I was expecting a little more. Since I felt like this may be the last time I took pictures with baby inside my belly, we decided to get a few with the kids again. They really enjoyed taking turns rubbing on my belly and giving the "baby" kisses.

Getting ready

Since finding out at my last appointment that this baby could be here sooner rather than later, we decided now was as good a time as any to get things out and ready when baby arrived.

Daddy, Junior and Gaga putting together the baby's crib

Gaga has decided that everything we have brought out for the baby needs to be tested out by her own baby including the crib, swing and car seat as seen below. She will tirelessly put her baby in and out of these items all day long.

We can't wait for baby to be here!

37 weeks

Weekly check ups sure make the last few weeks of a pregnancy fly by! I found out at this appointment that I was GBS negative (a very good thing) that they had tested last week, that my blood pressure had remained good, that I was weighing the same as last week, that baby's heart rate was in the 150's and that I was measuring smaller again (34 weeks for being 37 weeks). No worries to be had though. The midwife still felt plenty of fluid and could tell that the baby was a good size. I was originally thinking that I would ask to be checked at this appointment to see if I was dilating (even though you can hardly tell when labor will start with this information, but was just anxious to see if the ball was rolling yet). Since my midwife last week asked if I wanted to be checked I thought this midwife would do the same, but she didn't and I was almost out the door when I asked if she minded checking me just for grins. Good thing she did! I was already 3cm dilated, 70% effaced and at a -1 station. We had previously been talking about me having to work that night and she strongly suggested that I did not (seeing as I was still a couple days away from being exactly 37 weeks). She did not want me going into labor at work that night with the possibility of not being able to go to the birthing center. (They highly prefer all patients be at least 37 weeks to birth there.) So I called into work that night and took it easy! Not at all a bad deal! Stay tuned...the ball is definitely rolling!

A girl and her shoes

Gaga's recent routine when going down for naps has been that she requests her pants, socks and shoes be taken off. I tuck her in and leave the room. She then proceeds to get out of bed and play with toys for awhile before getting back in bed and tucking herself back in. I will go in and check on her later to find a good majority of her toys and clothes from her drawers strewn about. Only this time she only wanted her pants and shoes off. But when I went to check on her later she had put her shoes back on before getting back in bed. Silly girl! She LOVES her shoes!

36 weeks

No exciting news this week, just stats from my appointment and pictures. I am measuring just a week smaller this time and I had gained weight. My blood pressure was still great and baby's heart rate was in the 140's just like last week. I have just started this past week feeling a lot slower when doing just about everything. Work was a bit more challenging and every day household chores and two kids running around accounted for a lot of it. Here's hoping I get a burst of energy towards the end and go out with a bang! (Start going for weekly appointments now!!!)