Presenting...the one...the only...

Brooke Elizabeth Vandehey

born March 18, 2009

1:47 am

20 inches

7 lb 14 oz

Overdue

We are now past our due date. She seems very content to stay put for now. I haven't had many contractions the last couple of days.

Maybe this is better though - then Andy can study for his final and not be distracted with baby. I have another doctor appointment tomorrow, and maybe we'll have made some progress in the dilation department. But if not, she's only got a week to come out on her own, then we'll induce on the 17th at the earliest.

And this was the same girl that wanted to come out and play on January 16.....funny how things work out.

Going into labor??.....Not quite

I really thought that we might be heading to the hospital in the middle of the night last night or this morning. It started around 7pm and I was starting to get fairly frequent contractions. They were less than 5 minutes apart accompanied with cramping and back-aches. I was thinking...uh oh...here we go! And the contractions continued on for about 6 hours, but they weren't too intense. I didn't need to do any of the breathing techniques to get through them and they were more of an annoyance than anything. The contractions started to space themselves out.

I may have just been dehydrated, and so I drank about a liter of water between 7pm and midnight that seemed to calm them down and I was able to get to sleep. This morning everything feels like it is back to normal.

Definitely was an interesting night - laying there awake - wondering if my water is going to break, or if I should call triage.

Now we wait some more

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In the middle of all these contractions, I decided to get the crib put together.

Now we just need a baby to lay in here. (and organize the rest of the room that you can't see)

Only 16 more days, or less??

It is really hard to believe that we are only 16 days away from our due date! After the little scare we had in the hospital over a month ago, I just Praise God that everything has worked out so good this far! Our God is an Awesome God!

You might think that with just over 2 weeks until Baby Girl arrives, I might be a little more prepared. Hmm...not quite. The crib mattress is still balancing on end in the crib - to keep the cats out of it. I am just now washing the mattress pad and sheets and *maybe* I'll get around to making the crib this weekend. All the 0-3 month clothes are washed and in bags waiting to be organized into the dresser that my gracious Aunt is bringing over to us on Monday. And really - if she decided to come tomorrow, we would be more than okay. She won't care if the crib bumper isn't in place, or the window valance put up. So I'm not worrying about having everything perfect. It surprises me that I'm content with not having everything organized. Must be the hormones or something.

Ash Wednesday is coming up next week - and I've been thinking about what I would like to change/improve/sacrifice during those following 46 days. When I'm not working, sleeping, eating or staring out the window, I have been spending quite a bit of time reading. And the books I have been choosing to read, are not the most spiritually fulfilling. As entertaining as murder mysteries are, they aren't really filling my head and heart with good things. One of the things I plan on doing, is replacing my murder mysteries with the study of God's Mysteries. What better place to learn about His mysteries, than in searching for what is revealed in the Bible. I would like to read the whole Bible eventually, and maybe I can work through a large portion this Lent.

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Baby Progress

We did have a doctor appointment on Thursday. And we seem to be progressing...
In 1 week, we went from <1cm dilated, to maybe a 1 1/2 cm dilated (but the first check was from a different doctor, so we may not have changed much at all)

Wouldn't it be ironic if she was late!

A little update

On Friday Jan 16, we had a little pre-term labor episode that actually granted me a 5 day hospital stay to get the contractions under control and stop the labor. I was having contractions at work and some of them were accompanied by a little cramping. Friday night I decided to go in and just get checked out by the midwives and I fully expected them to say I was just over-reacting and to go home, drink more water and rest. Well, apparently the contractions were being productive and I was starting to dialate (we were at 32 1/2 weeks). They immediately checked me in and hooked me up to a magnesium sulfate IV and that totally knocked me on my butt. Magnesium sulfate (aka "mag sulfate" or "mag" by the nurses) royally SUCKS. It makes you feel like you are on fire and makes you super weak. I was on the lovely stuff for 48 hours, but it seemed to do the trick. It is a muscle relaxer and also lowers your blood pressure. This is where things get tricky for me. My normal blood pressure is 100/60. Pregnancy was 90's/50's. And on this stuff, my BP was in the 80's/ 40's. It took them a little trial and error to find the right dosage that didn't make me pass out.

And through all this, our baby girl was perfectly fine. She was on the monitors and just doing her thing. Monday morning, they took me off the Mag and put me on a pill that would do the same thing but without the dramatic side effects. Then I spent two more days in the hospital being monitored and checked to make sure I wasn't dialated anymore.

I think one of the scariest parts for me was when my blood pressure crashed to 60/30 and they started talking emergency c-section and blood transfusions and the NICU (newborn intensive care) nurses came to talk to me about what I could expect with a preemie. Fortunately, they were able to find the right balance of mag for me and we didn't have to go to these extremes.

I am so thankful that our baby is doing great and I praise God that things turned out ok.

I have been home now for about 3 weeks on bed rest. Of course I would go out of my mind if I actually stayed in bed, so the daylight hours are spent out in the living room or in front of the TV with my new subscription to Netflix. And since we made it past 36 weeks, if I go into labor now, then we'll be having a baby. Which honestly makes me a little nervous...ok, a lot nervous.

My mom thinks we are going to have a Valentines baby (uh, yeah...that's this saturday. I'm trying not to panic)...which would be fun, except she is going to be in California (Bay area) this weekend and the LAST thing I want my mom to do is drive all the from San Fran, thru Oregon and half of Washington just to get here. Yes, she would do something this crazy - it would take her about 5 triple Venti latte's from $t @ rbuck$, but she would probably drive without stopping.

I'm thinking that we won't be having a baby this weekend though, since I haven't been having contractions.

Changing Tables

Here is a funny conversation Andy and I had last night about baby changing tables:

Andy: "why do we need a changing table?"

Andrea: "Where do you suggest we change the baby"

Andy: "On the kitchen counter"

Andrea: "You have got to be kidding me. No way...you are not changing the baby on the kitchen counter. That is just gross"

Andy: "The cats stick their bare butts on the counter. I don't see how this is different"

Andrea: "Touche...but still not happening. We are getting a changing table."

Dog Tales....and more Dog Tails

Cinder (our dog) is so lucky this weekend, he gets to run around with another dog ALL weekend! Hunter is staying with us for the weekend and things have been going great so far. In fact, they have been playing so much - like dogs do - that I think they'll wear each other out and I won't feel guilty if I don't take them on a walk.

It's been really cool seeing these two dogs get along so well, and to also see their personalities. Like just now....Cinder was chewing on his favorite bone - and then they started to wrestle for a couple of second - and then Hunter took over Cinder's bone. Now Cinder is whining because he wants his bone back, but won't just go in and take it. Oh...now they are wrestling again.

The cats....they aren't too happy about this arrangement. They just find the highest spot they can get to and observe the chaos.

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Earlier this week, Andy's mom wanted a picture of the bump. Even though we'll see them in just 2 weeks for Thanksgiving....so we took one out front in all the pretty fall colors.

Also in the pic you can see what I'll be doing this morning since it isn't raining....raking leaves! Andy did it last week, so I thought it would be a nice surprise while he is out buying parts for the Nova and then meeting his group for a grad school project.

So the picture is a little blurry, but he took it with our nice new camera. Andy downloaded the picture to his computer, but the file size was too big to open it with some picture program that came with his computer. So he let outlook compress the picture so he could email it. Why have a nice new camera if you don't have software to be able to open and modify your pictures? So we got into a little discussion about getting some software. Here is one of the many ways we are different....I would like to legally purchase some photo editing software ~ he would like to get his buddy to burn a copy of the same software for us (probably a "gift" from another buddy). I just can't do that. Especially when the program doesn't cost that much in comparison to whatever legal ramifications using copied software has. So there is me...the "rule follower"...always have been, probably never gonna change. And then there is Andy...."the rule ignorer"....maybe I can change that. (Ha! I must have put something really good in my coffee this morning if I really believe that one)

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On Thursday...Andy was so sweet and said we could go and register for baby stuff, which I had been nagging him about (he would have rather stayed home and worked on the Nova). So we spent almost 2 hours with the registering gun and zapped away. And then....I started to feel like I made a mistake. I went over the list of junk we registered for and starting taking stuff off the list because we probably couldn't justify using it, especially for the price. Or we really didn't have room for it and frankly don't need it.

My mom has some very very generous friends who are giving us almost all their baby stuff, so we don't really need much. Maybe I'll just cancel our registry - I just don't feel really good about it now.