Happy Birthday!

JACOB ANTHONY PIERCE

....has arrived! And boy he arrived with a bang. Completely unlike his big brother and we are all so happy that he is finally here. Here is the story!

At 1:45am this morning I woke up with sharp abdominal pains. I started watching the clock to time them and the first one I counted was 5 minutes apart, but after that they were about 3 minutes apart AND my water broke. I got up and went to the bathroom and they quickly got stronger. I woke Nick up and told him it was time! We immediately called his mom to come over and stay with Brad so that we could head out.

I stumbled around the house to gather our bags pausing every few minutes to struggle thru the contractions. I was NOT looking forward to the drive to the hospital. We got the car all packed and as soon as my MIL pulled into the driveway we ran off! I told Nick to turn on the flashers and fly! Let's just say he made the usually 30 minute drive in about 15 minutes.

Thankfully I had already filled out the registration paperwork and as I barely made it thru the entrance they stuck me in an exam room while Nick parked the car. It was about 3am at this point. The contractions were super bad and I was very afraid it would be too late to get an epidural. They still had to page the on-call CRNA and wait for him to come in. Anywho they checked me as soon as I got in the exam room and only 1 hour after my contractions started I was at an 8!!!!!

At this point it was all I could do to get thru each one, and I could barely talk in between to sign consent forms. I kept my eyes shut and kept saying prayers to have strength. They wheeled me into a labor/delivery room and I could hear all of the commotion and workers around me getting everything ready. I heard the on-call OB come in (who I know and work with) and introduce herself but I could only keep my eyes shut and breathe. Then I heard the magical words: "Brian is here". Brian is the CRNA to do the epidurals and I obeyed everything they needed me to do to get it.

By this time I was at 9cm and Brian thought it would go super quick so he only did a spinal injection of pain medicine that would last about an hour. I did get relief and it was so very welcome....until it started wearing off! Jacob was having trouble getting past my pelvic bone (just like his big brother) so it drug out for a couple more hours. Around 5am-ish I started feeling the super painful contractions again so we called Brian back. He stuck me in the back again but this time for an epidural injection. After that I couldn't even feel the butt I was sitting on!

 I did some pushing around 6ish then we took a break so that Nick could help the nurses position me differently to help baby move around. Around 6:45am the OB checked me again and he had moved just right to get past the pubic bone. She had me push a few times and he popped right out with no trouble at 6:58am!

 

 They immediately put him on my chest while they rubbed him clean and Nick cut the cord. I snuggled him under my gown for awhile before he nursed, then after he was done they did his newborn bloodwork and shots in the room.

 

 When he came out everyone was commenting how big he was. I figured since he came out so much quicker and easier than Brad that he couldn't be more than 8.5lb. When they finally weighed him.........I was way off!

 9lb 9oz

21.5 inches

Wow! A big boy indeed. He got a nice sponge bath then we snuggled him up in some clean clothes and got moved to a postpartum room just in time for breakfast! We have had lots of visitors today and everyone is so happy to see our little angel finally here. He has been a wonderful baby so far with a huge appetite. Tomorrow morning he will get his last few newborn screenings done and get circumcised, then we will head home hopefully in the afternoon! We are so very blessed to have gotten to this point and we are so thankful for everything God has given us. We have overcome infertility and heartache once again and are proud to introduce our precious baby boy.

The Birth "Plan"

I had my final prenatal appointment today! I am 39 weeks and 2 days along and I am booked to be induced on Monday evening. I was pretty gung-ho about not being induced, but I think things will go much better this time since my girl stuff already knows what it's supposed to do.

Last week I was dilated to about a 2.5cm and 80% effaced. They booked me to come in Monday the 13th at 6pm to begin the Cervidil overnight, then Pitocin drip in the morning. Today she checked me and I am dilated 3-4cm AND I talked her into stripping my membranes (ouch!). She said my cervix is all ready to go and we can skip the Cervidil! Now we come in at 10pm on Monday and they will start the Pitocin drip after I'm checked in and have an IV. With any luck my little one will be born Tuesday morning or afternoon and maybe we'll go home early Wednesday!!

I work tomorrow and it will be my LAST day before I start maternity leave. Hopefully they have mercy on me because these loins are feeling heavy! I was pretty crampy right after the doctor visit but I think it's subsiding a bit. Of course I could still go into labor on my own at any point--which would be ideal--so we are ready for that too, but either way he'll be here by the end of Tuesday! I have already been having frequent contractions for the last few weeks. Sometimes they are about 6 minutes apart even! I know they are just Braxton-Hicks and aren't the real thing but I have been on high alert waiting for the real stuff to start! I never had any of this with Bradley--he was just a happy camper staying in there until we dragged him out.

My MIL Penny has graciously accepted our request to stay at our house with Bradley while we are in the hospital. That way he doesn't have to miss school and she can watch our house and cats. She will still bring him up to visit us of course and she won't have to make the hour drive from our house to her house while things are going on.

Thank you for following our intense and emotional journey to parenthood! We are in the final days now and my next blog post will be all about our new bundle of joy! Check back soon!

36 Week Update

I had my 9 month checkup today! We were a little nervous about this one because at our last US a month ago the baby was breech. My doc told me then that if he was still breech at this US then she would want to schedule me for a C-section. Well I had a feeling he would be turned around and I was right! He is head down, measuring at about 6 1/2lbs and doing fabulous! And even better, I am already dilated to 2cm!!!

I got another 3D pic of his face, and that is about all that we could get because he is so big now you can't really tell what you are looking at! All of his fingers and toes are accounted for, and he has chubby cheeks and a button nose just waiting to get kissed. Three weeks from tomorrow is my LAST day of work until I go on maternity leave. I have been picking up extra call and extra shifts to get every little bit of money saved for my time off.

As far as the nursery goes, we have made pretty good progress on that. One big thing I wanted to have done was a ceiling fan installed. That room was the only one that didn't have one, and we had put a little clip-on fan for Brad but I wanted a ceiling fan to cool both boys and to update it a little in there. It was the first time Nick installed one but he did great and it turned out really nice!

Although I am planning on breastfeeding, I have still requested free samples from formula companies. I remember with Brad I got several single-serving packets as well as high value coupons for tubs of formula. I was very glad to have these because my supply starting dwindling around 4 months and we ended up having to start supplementing. Well this time they not only sent me the packets, I also got 4 FULL SIZE tubs of formula for free! All of the expiration dates are good thru the middle of next year so even if I never need them, I could still donate them to someone.

 One of the only good things to come out of the "Affordable" insurance changes is that they now cover breast pumps! I ordered mine online and received it a few days later---absolutely NO cost to me. It is a Medela double electric pump and it is all mine.

We don't have a crib yet but I'm not too worried about it just yet. I plan on keeping baby in the pack n' play in our room at least for the first 6-8wks until he is sleeping mostly thru the night and won't disturb Brad too much. My coworkers are having a baby shower for me on the 29th and I look forward to celebrating with them! I have started prepping my cloth diapers and soon I will start washing all of the 0-3mo clothes that I have so they are ready for use.

The time is passing quickly now, and we are all very excited to welcome a new addition to the family! It is so nice not being all crazy nervous like we were when Bradley came. The second time around is much more chill and we know we survived it once, and can do it again!

DIY Maternity Pics!

Today I am 35 weeks along (!) and we finally took some maternity pics! Last time I was pregnant I had a friend come over and use my camera, then I edited the photos myself. I was very happy with the results so I knew I wanted to do that again! Professional maternity pictures would of course be wonderful to have, but this single-income family does not have disposable money for that right now! Mine cost $0 (unless I get a few prints made) and you can't beat that!

95% of the poses here are ones I {attempted} to imitate from photography online. There is an endless variety of ideas to choose from but I went with simple yet classic and flattering. I don't really understand the reasoning behind the whole "boudoir" maternity shoots so needless to say I did not do any of those...

I just have a basic Samsung point-and-shoot camera, and for all photo editing I used PicMonkey (which I love!) because it is FREE and very easy to use. Hopefully these will inspire you if you are in a similar situation to take the plunge and go the frugal route with your maternity pictures.

{Robot} Baby Shower!

Today was my baby shower hosted by my SIL Amy and my mom! The theme was "robots" and everything turned out so well! We all pitched in to make it special. Handmade invites were sent out and since robot stuff is hard to find, we had to get creative with decorations! Amy drew this great banner:

 

There was lots of good snacks and desserts to munch on! We had fruit kababs, veggie cups, cupcakes, a robot cake, pinwheels, blueberry trifle, banana pudding, pretzels, crackers and dip, and blue punch. Yum! Check out this amazing robot cake that Amy made:

 

 

These little bags were filled with popcorn for take-home favors

There were 4 different games (with prizes!) that we had ready. For this one, you cut a string to the length you think will go around my belly! (My mom won this one)

There was also a word scramble (Regina won this) and a questionnaire to see how well everyone knew me! (Margaret won this one)

For this one we filled a large bottle with kisses and people had to guess how many were in it. There was 138 and Margaret guessed the closest at 132! She got to take home the candy.

 

Of course Brad wanted to help people fill out their answers!

 Everyone was so sweet to bring presents and baby Jacob got a lot of much needed goodies! We all had a fun time seeing what each gift was.

 Everyone had a great time and I am so appreciative for those who came to celebrate our new addition! I will leave you with a picture from our US on Thursday of what my little one's face looks like.....

Only 7 weeks left to go!