Tristan's Birth Story

Here is my birth story! Forgive any typos....I'm typing with one hand while feeding Tristan!

I had been having contractions all night Wednesday night. They were strong, but not close together so I slept as much as I could in between. Around 5:30 am I woke hubby and told him that we were having a baby today because the contractions had increased in intensity and were anywhere from 3 to 6 minutes apart. They got a lot closer together and were no more than 4 minutes apart so we called my mother in law to come and wait with the other kids until their bus got here. In the mean time i called my mother to come up since she was going to be with me and hubby while we were laboring and delivering.

We got to the hospital around 7:30 am and got checked in and went up to L&D. They, of course, hooked me up to the monitors and checked me....dilated only to a 3 at that time. The nurse that was assigned to me was a real bitch and wouldn't listen to me that she had the monitor on my belly wrong because it wasn't picking up all of my contractions. I mean, this is not my first baby...I know what REAL contractions feel like. The nurse came in and said they were sending me home because I had been there an hour and had no progress and the contractions weren't close enough (we were timing them still.....they were 3 minutes and less apart while I was walking around but slowed once they made me lay flat on my back to "monitor" me). The real deal was that they had no rooms available and i wasn't progressing fast enough for them. We left and got lunch and went home. That was around noon.

I labored at home all afternoon with contractions still around 3 minutes apart. At about 5:15, the contractions got super intense so hubby took the older kids across the alley to mother in law's house and we got back in the van and headed to the hospital. We got to the hospital with contractions only 1 minute apart and super intense. I could not even get from the van to the door so my mom went in and got a nurse to come out with a wheelchair. Hubby went inside and got me checked back in. We waited for 5 minutes for the nurse from L&D to come down and get us and the pressure got so intense that the check-in lady got nervous and called L&D again to tell them to hurry! lol.

We got up to L&D and into the observation room. The nurse told me to get undressed quickly so she could check me really quickly. She did and I was dilated to a 7 and having contractions on top of each other. I was also having TERRIBLE back labor (had been all afternoon). Decided that an epidural was for me. I could take the contraction pain, but the back labor for hours on end was just too much. They rushed me into a room where they are getting everything ready for delivery. They hook me up to the monitors while I stand and sway through the contractions, since that was the only thing that helped with the back labor.

Once the monitors were on, they saw that baby's heartrate went up to the 200s when I had a contraction so they had me get in the bed on my side. As soon as I did I had a HUGE urge to push, told the nurse and just as she went to check me, my water broke. She went ahead and checked and I was at a 10 and baby was starting to crown. They called the doc, who rushed in. She told me quickly that they will have to take the baby to the warmer and take care of him as soon as he came out because there was meconium in my water. I, of course, start to worry, but don't have much time to dwell on that. The nurse asked if I wanted pain meds and I, of course, said yes (I was hurting bad!). She gave me a tiny bit in the IV that they put in (since I had said I wanted an epi, they put the IV in....never got an epi, though). As soon as the doc got sat down at the end of my bed I HAD to push.

I pushed 2 times and my little man came FLYING out! (and OMG, I totally forgot about the ring of fire you get when they are coming out!! lol.) It took him a second, but he started crying on his own. He was born at 6:41 pm. We were only in the labor and delivery room for 11 minutes before he came! I had a tiny tear that didn't even require stitches.

Tristan weighed 6 lbs 4 oz and was 19.25 inches long. He was perfectly fine, no issues at all because of the meconium in my water (doc says that labor was so fast that he didn't have enough time to inhale too much of it to cause problems). He's an angel and taking to breast feeding like a pro after a little issue with not latching correctly for the first 12 hours (used a nipple shield to get him started, now he doesn't need it!).

He had his first appointment yesterday and has gained 3 ounces since we were discharged from the hospital on Friday. I'm doing great. Don't even feel like I just had a baby 5 days ago!! I did have a tiny bit of pain meds during delivery, but they didn't take effect until after baby was born, so I DID have a natural birth after all!! I didn't get a midwife either, because there was no midwife on call that day! But the doc I had was great!

Here is a link to all the pics we have loaded so far of Tristan. We didn't get ANY pics of the delivery because it was just so darn fast!

http://picasaweb.google.com/prettywoman030981/Tristan?feat=directlink

Introducing.....

Tristan Kent!!!!

Tristan was born Thursday night at 6:41 pm. He weighed 6 lbs. 4oz. And is 19.25 inches long! He has a head full of brown hair and beautiful blue eyes. He came REALLY fast. We took the other kids to my inlaws at 5:30 Thursday night and headed to the hospital with contractions 3 minutes apart. By the time we got to the hospital (only a 10 minute drive) the contractions were a minute apart. Got up to observation and I was dilated to a 7 and had an insane amount of pressure. They rushed me to a room and 11 minutes after we walked into that room, Tristan was here! I only had to push twice!

There is more to this story and I will update that when I've had a chance to rest some more! We are all so happy he's finally here! He is precious and we already love him so much!

Dropping Babies!

NOT literally. I'm not over here dropping babies, but my belly has dropped!

I wish I had a "before" pic to show, but just imagine it: the top of my belly was a shelf for my boobs just yesterday morning.

And this is what my belly looked like yesterday evening (at 35 weeks 3 days):

We have a dropping baby!!!

Update galore!

I've been slacking a little on updating here. A lot has been going on. We have about 8 weeks left to go and it is just FLYING by! I can't wait for Tristan to be here and am so excited to be able to hold and love on my little man in a few short weeks!!

Here is my bump at 30 weeks 5 days:

We had an appointment last week that went well. I had to have an ultrasound to check placenta placement because at my 20 week ultrasound the placenta was really low. It has moved and is in a good place now! (WHEW) We only got 2 pics from the ultrasound, though because Tristan was moving around a LOT and was not in a good position. The ultrasound tech TRIED to get 3D pics of Tristan's face, but he had his face smashed into the side of my uterus and she couldn't get a good shot. We did get a peak at his nose and he is going to have a tiny little nose! They estimate that he was weighing 3 lbs. 10 ozs, so he is growing right on track! I go back next week for my next appointment.

Only issue we have right now is that Tristan is laying transverse, or sideways. He hasn't flipped to head down yet. We have time for that, but I REALLY hope he flips soon and stays that way! I DON'T want a c-section!

Here's the ultrasound pics we got:

We had Smarty-pants C. for a month this summer and had a lot of fun. Brilliant B. took all the boys camping while Diva D. and I had some mommy-daughter time with shopping! And I managed to remember to get a pic of all 4 kids together! This will be the last pic of JUST the 4 of them....the next pic they'll have, there will be 5 in it!

Here they all are:

School started this week for the kids. So far they are doing good. Little J. is having a fun time in 1st grade. He likes his teacher and has almost all the same kids in his class that he did last year. Diva D. is having a bit of a rough start of her first year of middle school (tear...my baby is in middle school :( ), but is starting to get used to it. She is signing up for band and want to play the flute (like her momma did in school). We will know soon if she got in or not. Big J. has started 10th grade at a small high school here and we are hoping the smaller size will help him not get into as much trouble. He's also playing football for another school since his school doesn't have athletics and is going to be a starter on the JV team. No clue what position, but we know he'll be a starter.

Here's Big J. on the first day of school:
Here's Diva D. on her first day of school (in the uniform she HAS to wear):
Here's Little J. on his first day of school (he picked his clothes out that he wanted to wear!):

Well, that's it for now. Still trying to get prepared for Tristan's arrival and have a lot to do!

Growing belly: 26 weeks 5 days

Here's my growing belly at 26 weeks 5 days!! Just one week left in the second trimester now!!

Time is flying!

Well, this pregnancy is flying right on by. Our days left have now gone from triple digit numbers down to double digit.

We have 99 days left and I'm blown away that in around 3 short months we will get to meet our precious baby face-to-face! We still have a lot to get ready. Guess we should get on the ball with it all!

And I'm selfishly hoping for a baby shower so we can get the rest of the baby things we need! We will see, though. There is still time, though no one has shown any interest in throwing one. We just really need one, since we have NOTHING left from Little J.'s baby days.

Patiently awaiting the arrival of our little miracle,

Baby Stuff!!!!

We got some baby stuff shipped over the past two days! I'm getting so excited to be getting ready for Tristan's arrival!! We got a bassinet and carseat brand new. We bought a used crib at a garage sale (for only $45!!). And we have received a playpen, bouncy seat and high chair/booster seat as gifts! We have almost all the BIG things we need for Tristan!

Here are pics of the bassinet and carseat. I'll get pics of the other stuff later on.

He's such a proud big brother. He's almost as excited as I am to be getting baby stuff!!!

Growing belly: 22 weeks 4 days

Here's my bump at 22 weeks 4 days! (growing with NO weight gain!)

Belly button hasn't popped out yet!
My view:

It's A........

BOY!!!!!

There is no doubt about it....we have a little man joining our family in October!!!

The ultrasound was wonderful! The tech was AWESOME and we got to watch our little guy for about 45 minutes while she did measurements and worked to get good shots of our wiggly guy! He was moving around the ENTIRE time and was even pretty active (and being a bit of a stinker to my midwife) while the midwife was listening to the heartbeat during my appointment after the ultrasound!

We took Big J., Diva D. and Little J. with us so they could share in this moment with us. We wish we could have had Smarty-pants C. with us, but he still has school at his mom's house and we won't see him until July!

Here are pics of our little man, Tristan Kent........

Nesting....THIS SOON???

I do believe that I have started nesting! WTH????

Nesting at 19 weeks???

I'm not going to lie, our house is cluttered. We have stuff and not enough space. It sucks. And it doesn't help that I've been so immersed in school and exhausted from the beginning of this pregnancy that I haven't been cleaning. Brilliant B. cleans some, but he's a bit of a pack-rat, so things don't always get thrown away when they should be.

I started today with scrubbing some clothes to get the crayon out of them (we had an incident with a crayon, some clothes, and the dryer a few weeks ago). These clothes have been sitting for a few weeks, with crayon on them, waiting for me to figure out how to get them clean. I managed to get it out.

Then I moved on to my room....or the dump if that's what you want to call it because that is where everything seems to make it to be dumped! I have managed to get all my pre-pregnancy clothes that I was wearing packed into a plastic tub and cleared out all my "skinny" clothes to pack them up and put them in storage. I'm also making Brilliant B. go through all of his clothes so we can either pack up the stuff he doesn't wear or drop it off at good will! Hoping to get the clothes gone through and put in their proper place before bed tonight.

Tomorrow looks like I'll be tackling the rest of the junk in our room and having Brilliant B. moving the furniture around to make room for baby stuff we'll be getting soon!

Ugggggggg, nesting started too soon!!! Oh, well....maybe I'll get everything ready now while I still have some energy!! (secretly hoping for the cleaning fairies to find my house so they can do all this for me!!) Maybe I'll get it all done before the third trimester!!

Growing belly: 19 weeks

Here is my belly pic for 19 weeks! Baby is growing like crazy and moving a TON!

Week 17 appointment

I had my 17 week appointment today and all went well. Baby's heartrate was 168 this time! I have gained 2 pounds in the last 4 weeks, so I'm right on track with my weight gain and am now back up to my pre-pregnancy weight!

We scheduled our ultrasound finally!! We will know (crossing fingers baby cooperates) if we are having a boy or a girl on Friday, May 21st!!! We can't wait!!!!

That's about all. Feeling pretty good. Allergies are still killing me, but I'll live. After all, I have to deal with them every year about this time!

Growing belly: 15 weeks

It has been a while since I've posted a belly pic! So here I am in all my preggo glory at 15 weeks!

13 weeks appointment

Well, I had an appointment with my midwife this morning for a regular check up.

It went good and was short and sweet.

We heard the baby's heartbeat again and the heart rate is in the 160s, which according the the old wives tale indicates that the baby is a girl! We got to listen for about 2 minutes, then heard a big SWOOSH and couldn't hear the heartbeat anymore! It is so neat to hear the baby move!

My midwife gave me the ok to take chewable kid vitamins since the prenatals are causing me severe constipation and stool softeners do not work. My only other option was to take milk of magnesia a few times a week and I don't want to do that. So I'll take the chewable vitamins! She also told me to take claritin or zyrtec for my allergies instead of benadryl, since benadryl makes me very sleepy.

Oh, and I can finally dye my hair!! I'm saying BYE-BYE to my dark roots and gray hair!! I've been holding off on doing it until we made it to the second trimester because I didn't want to cause any ill effects on our rapidly developing baby!

I go back in 4 weeks for a regular appointment and we should schedule our BIG ultrasound at that appointment too!

Hello, second Trimester, nice to see you!

WE MADE IT!!!! Today is officially the beginning of my second trimester of pregnancy!!

I'm so thrilled to have made it this far!

And what a blessing that the second trimester is starting on Easter Sunday! Totally awesome!

Houston, we have movement!

I was laying on my bed today after I took a shower, just relaxing a bit before getting dressed and I felt something. Something moving. Something stirring. IN MY LOWER ABDOMEN!!!!

I waited for a few hours to wait and see if I was just gassy and would pass gas.....but I DIDN'T!!!!

I'm 99% positive I felt our baby move for the first time today!!!!!!

I'm on cloud 9 right now!!

First OB visit

I had my first regular OB appointment today and it was pretty uneventful. They just did a physical, did blood tests and tried to hear baby's heartbeat. My midwife did move my due date to October 10th.....10-10-10!! She moved it based on the ultrasound I had a while back, since that was the due date it said!

We were not able to hear the baby's heartbeat this time, but that was because of the doppler they use. My midwife said that they usually can't hear a heartbeat with that until between 10 and 11 weeks. Well, I'm 9 weeks, so it was no biggie. We heard it before and I'm confident that things are still going good.

I did gain one pound since my last visit a month ago. I think that is good, especially since the baby bump is getting bigger and bigger!

They asked if we wanted the testing for down's syndrome or cystic fibrosis and we declined those tests. It will not change anything and we will not terminate if those conditions exist. And really, they are not necessary tests. We will take whatever God gives us happily! Even a child with disabilities or health issues.

Ultrasound!

Everything went WONDERFUL!!

The baby is doing great! It is measuring 7 weeks 1 day, instead of the 7 weeks 3 days based on my LMP.

We heard the heartbeat too!!! It is a STRONG 150 bpm. That was the most wonderful sound I have heard in a VERY, VERY long time!

Now I can relax and enjoy this pregnancy!

Here are the first pics of the baby!!

Nerves, Nerves, Nerves

In about 2 hours, we will be getting our second ultrasound and hoping to see a heartbeat this time! I'm so damn nervous about this, it is not even funny.

I did not sleep well last night and when I did sleep I had horrible nightmares about the ultrasound results (and one weird dream where I cussed out the nurses and called them all morons and walked out of the office).

I know that my nervousness and worry is probably going to be for nothing, but after losing a baby a few months ago, I can't help but worry.

This baby is something we've wanted and gone through so much to have and I just don't want anything to go wrong! I want to meet this baby face-to-face in October!

I'll update when I get a chance to later tonight. Right after the ultrasound I have to go to class, so I won't be home until later tonight!