today's snapshot: august 9th

 

 

Read the story behind this onesie here.

36 weeks......37 weeks

 

This picture was taken last week, at 36 weeks.  This week I'm holding strong at 37 weeks.  Well, actually I wouldn't say "holding strong."  It's more like holding on by my finger tips.  I've been having more pains, and sometimes I find myself just lying on the floor waiting for the baby to stop pounding on my stomach.  

Yesterday Callan came into the room and said, "Mommy, why are you sleeping on the floor?"  I told him the baby was hitting Mommy.  He said, "Oh, ok."  and ran out of the room.

I don't remember having this much pressure before in my other pregnancies.  When I get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, it's extremely painful to walk to the bathroom.  The dr. said this is normal.

All in all this pregnancy has been awesome.  No back pains.  No carpal tunnel like last time.  Not much nausea.  The only thing that's been different this time is that I have to drive when we go anywhere or else I get car sick.  I can't even ride in the front passenger seat.  It has to be the driver's seat.  I've even tried riding down the street just 3 miles to the store and found myself wishing I was behind the wheel.  

Oh, and good news!  We finally came up with a girl's name we think we agree on.  haha  It's taken 37 weeks.  We quickly agreed on a boy's name early on.  We're excited to see which name we'll be using!  I have a strong feeling that this baby's coming early...

36 weeks

This week I'm 36 weeks.  At my sonogram they said the baby is in the perfect position for delivery, which is great to hear considering the flip-flopping Kinsley did the last 4 weeks in my tummy.  We don't want a repeat of that!  I'm dilated 1cm already and 60% effaced.  I've never been dilated anything this early before, so that was encouraging. 

Right now we're looking at probably being induced on August 9th (a week early) for various reasons.  Instead of sending out 100 emails, we'll probably just do updates on this blog that day to let you all know what's going on....and, of course, to reveal whether or not Kinsley and Callan are getting a little sister or brother.  We're all very excited to find out!

Baby #3: week 21 bump

Poor Baby #3.  He/She hasn't gotten much blog-time.  BUT, the baby did make herself/himself known on March 10th.  I felt the first kick at 17 weeks.  

Here's the 20 week sonogram with a 21 week belly picture.  We don't know if it's a boy or girl, but Callan's most recent vote is girl.  Kinsley just loves to point at my belly and say, "Baby.  Baby.  Baby." over and over again.  I don't know.  I'm kinda feelin' boy lately for no particular reason.  Maybe it was all those newborn boy clothes I sifted through a few weeks ago that I fell in love with all over again and am hoping to be able to use at some future date.

We're all anxious to meet you, Little Huston #3!!  Hopefully your dad and I can come up with a name for you before your arrival.

today's snapshot: 16 week bump

Update

HOME UPDATE:
We're moved in, the boxes are basically all unpacked except for a few stashed in the basement, and it's all thanks to my mom who stayed for an extra four days to help unpack and watch Callan.

BABY UPDATE:
I'm almost out of my first trimester already, and I'm happy to report I haven't been nauseous for the past week and a half! Most foods actually look good again. I also already have a little baby bump that showed up at about week #9. I'm just entering into that "my-pants-really-don't-fit-all-that-well-but-it's-still-awkward-to-do-the-loop-thing-with-the rubberband" stage.

CALLAN UPDATE:
May was a busy month for this boy! While we were visiting his new cousin, Caitlin, in State College on May 28th, Callan decided that he wanted to learn to walk on his own. He had been taking 3-6 steps by himself for a few weeks, but while away he learned how to walk all over the place. Of course he had to do it while carrying a toy golf club and a little Fisher Price "popper" toy in his hand. We told him it was easier to learn to walk without the extra baggage, but he had to keep carrying the toys in his hand.

His current vocabulary has expanded to include: MaMa (he only says it when he wants to, though), all done, Dada (he loves to scream this in a high pitched girlie voice when Gene comes home from work...so cute!), and last night he said "rainbow" after he heard me read it to him in his book. So random.

Oh, and the newest "action" that he loves to do is wave like he's in a parade. My mom was waving like this to him last week, and he just picked up on it and now that's how he waves (side to side instead of opening and closing his hand like babies do). We were at a picnic the other day and Gene had Callan up on his shoulders. Callan started waving like that. It was so funny! We call it his "queen" wave.

Pictures to come at some point. We still don't have internet, so blogging is not a regular thing yet.

A Special Christmas Gift to Look Forward to...

Due date: December 20th!
Ho, Ho, Ho...

This week our baby is the size of a baby

No more comparing our baby to fruit like the baby emails Renee used to get. Our baby is now a real live BABY!

Here's a quick run down of the stats:

Name: Callan James Huston

Callan: the Australian form for Caelan. Caelan is Scottish for Nicholas and Nicholas in Greek for victorious people. Callan with an "a" is Australian for "Sparrow Hawk."

Pronunciation: like Allen, but with a "C"

James: My favorite book of the Bible, famous explorers James Weddell and James Cook, etc...

Huston: He was kinda born into it :)

Born at 10:19pm April 1, 2008

Weight: 7 pounds 9 ounces

Length: 20.5 inches

Labor Updates

Well April Fool's Day 2008 was a long hard day for the three of us (no this doesn't include He-Man).

We went in to the hospital around 7:15am yesterday morning to be induced.

Labor (with the help of pitocin) officially began at 8:40am

We sat around for three hours watching tv, not much to report.

Around 11:30am Dr. Apgar broke her water.

We sat around for a few more hours....no contractions yet.

Her contractions started around 3:00, and we began using breathing techniques we learned in our class.

Around 4:30pm Renee got an epidural which didn't take effect until 5:15 when they upped her dosage. It helped a lot and eliminated the pain (excluding the baby's feet to her ribs). She did get "the shakes" which her nurse said was a normal side effect. Only 4 cm.

Around 7:00pm she amazed the nurse by being 10 cm, ready to push, but our doctor said he needed to finish with another patient who had had some complication but everything looked great for us.

Around 7:40 pm Renee started pushing.

The doctor said she was pushing great but the baby's head was cocked to one side and we needed to try to get it to turn so she pushed for awhile on her side.

She pushed courageously and without complaint for 2 1/2 hours, but after she got a fever the doctor said he'd try to suction cup the baby out while she pushed. If this didn't work by the third contraction he said he'd have to do a C section.

On the third push, during the second contraction our baby was born (details and pictures to follow) at 10:19pm.

Without giving too much unnecessary detail, Renee needed a LOT of stitches and ended up needing to go to the operation room for surgery to stop the bleeding.

Long story short, my wife is a trooper and never complained, even though she was never able to hold our baby until 3:30am after she recovered from the extra surgery and paperwork.

Now she's resting up and we hope to be home with baby on Thursday or possibly Friday afternoon.

God's presence was evident during the entire labor and even with surgery, Renee was calm and able to trust Him. Thanks to ya'll for your prayers. They were greatly needed and appreciated.

April Fools Day is no joke this year

(My adaptation of "Leaving on a Jet Plane")

Well our bags are packed and we're ready to go
I'm loading the stuff piled beside the door
We are going to find if our baby's a girl or guy
No water breaking
but it's early morn
the mini van's waiting
to go have our baby born
He-man's fed so he won't starve or die

So listen and smile for he/she
tell me that you'll pray for we
you'll all hold our baby and not wanna let it go
cause we're leaving in a red van
don't know when we'll update again
Oh Babe, it's time to go

An eventful morning that has now slowed down

Well, our day started off eventful. I woke up at 4am with a few signs of early labor. Nothing painful or real alarming, though. When Gene asked me what was wrong I said, "Ummm, I don't think you're going to work today." He then proceeded to (in his "spastic Gene sort of way") jump out of bed, flip on all the lights, start a load of laundry (something that was on my to-do list for the day), jump in the shower, and walk back into the bedroom chugging a bottle of Mountain Dew. This whole time I was just laying in bed thinking, "What in the world is he doing?" I told him that he should just come back to bed and get some more sleep for now. He proceeded to say that he was going to go to work to make sub plans and get things together for the week. I said, "Ok. I'm tired. I'm going back to bed."

I woke up at 9:30. The phone was ringing, and it was Gene saying that he was on his way back home from school. I called the dr. to see if he would want to see me today because of my symptoms. The receptionist said that my dr. is not in today. I told her my symptoms and she told me that he wouldn't want to see me anyway because everything sounded like normal signs of early labor and to just stay at home.

Now Gene is at home with me again, and we're just sitting around waiting for something to happen...like we've been the past two weeks. My goal for today is to get Gene to take a nap later. He had one Mountain Dew, one energy drink, and a large coffee drink from Caribou...all before 10:00 this morning. He only had four hours of sleep last night. I predict he'll be crashing in about two hours.

There were many blessings this morning, though:

--Gene's principal told him to split his class up into three groups and distribute them among the other three fourth grade teachers for the week. This means he didn't have to make sub plans for the week. For any teachers out there, you know that this is the BIGGEST blessing a teacher could get.
--Gene also found out that his report card grades are not due until next Monday, meaning he'll have all next weekend to complete them. Originally we thought he might have to be filling in bubble sheets in between helping me breathe through contractions. :)
--After talking to my mom today, I found out that she "happened" to wake up this morning at 4:30am, right when I was waking up here in MD with pains. She said she suddenly felt that she needed to pray for me, so she did. I was wondering why I didn't freak out this morning when I woke up with these symptoms. God had already positioned people ahead of time to be praying for me so that I would feel His peace and not anxiousness. This fills me with hope for tomorrow!

Good News from the Dr.

No baby yet. I'm not even in that "I'm so miserable and can't even walk anymore...just get this baby out!" stage yet. In some respects, that's a good thing because I'd hate to have to just sit around in pain waiting for Tuesday to come when they'll induce me. On the flip side, not being uncomfortable probably means this baby has not dropped anymore. Like Gene keeps saying, "It's high and happy!" I guess so.

The good news, though, is that my doctor's office called this week to confirm my induction date. She said, "OK! We'll see you Tuesday morning at 7am!" I told her that Dr. Apgar wanted me to come in to the hospital on Monday night to give me extra medicine the night before they induced me. She said that he decided to scratch Monday night and just have me come in early Tuesday. Yippee!! This means one less night in the hospital, which I am VERY happy about.

We'll keep waiting....

40 weeks & 2 Days

We just got back from my doctor's appointment. The baby wasn't moving around as much as Dr. Apgar would have liked it to be, but it didn't quite fail the non-stress test. (There's basically "Looking Great", "Good", and "Bad".....and Jokull was right in the middle with "good.") The dr. wanted to make sure that everything was ok, so he had me get a sonogram done, too. The best score that the baby could have received on the sonogram was an 8, and that's what Jokull got! (He/She already received its first 100% on a test and they aren't even born yet. What a smart baby.....)

So, since the songram test looked great, they will let me go another week before inducing. But, there's still a little twist to the story. When he checked me today, I was not any further along than I was last Wednesday at my appt. Since I'm not progressing in cm, if I make it to next week without having the baby then I'll have to go in to the hospital on Monday night for them to give me some overnight medicine to get things started so that my body will be more ready to be induced on Tuesday morning at 6:30am.

Praise & Prayer Requests:
1. Praise God that Jokull looked good today and is still healthy.
2. Pray that my body starts labor on its own early this week (because Gene is on spring break this week).
3. Pray that I would not be anxious as I wait for God's will to be done.

Easter has come and gone...

Easter has come and gone, and there's been no sign of this baby wanting out. Since Gene and I couldn't travel to PA to eat a ham dinner with our family today, we made our own little Easter dinner for two here in MD, homemade mashed potatoes and all. We also took two walks today, and like I said to the gentleman on the street who asked when I was due, "Yesterday. I'm trying to walk this baby out of me!"

Please pray for my doctor's appointment tomorrow where we'll find out if Jokull is healthy enough to stay in there for one more week.

40 Weeks...Happy Due Date!

--It's hard to say for sure how big your baby will be, but the average newborn weighs about 7 1/2 pounds (a small pumpkin) and is about 20 inches long.
--The biggest part of your baby's body is her head, but her still-pliable skull will give it the flexibility necessary to squeeze through the birth canal.
--Many parents are surprised by how long and sharp their newborn's nails are from the get-go. Clipping them right away (ask a nurse for help) can prevent your baby from scratching her face.

Thoughts from Mommy:
"Happy Due Date"......that's what I said to Gene this morning when I woke up. Today marks 40 weeks with this little guy/girl inside of me. Jokull seems to be quite content in there! I guess since it's 8:30pm right now, this baby will not make its due date. For not even being born yet, Jokull really has everyone on the edge of their seats. Our parents keep calling, ready to leave their Easter dinner plans behind and head south at the mention of those three magic words....."I'm in labor!" It's obvious that Jokull will have no one rush him/her. This baby will make their entrance into this world when they are good and ready.

On a good note, God has blessed me with MUCH sleep the past few days. This has been a humongous answer to prayer. The past few nights I have gotten around 11 hours of sleep! It's been wonderful. Gene's been able to sleep that long, too, so that's helped him quickly get over his pink eye and sinus infection. We've been quite the couch potatoes lately. We figured that God is giving us the calm before the storm. We're storing up sleep as much as we can for now.

Dr. Appt. Today

Dr. Apgar said that I'm barely 1cm dilated but that I'm about 70% effaced with -2 station, so not much progress since last week. Since my due date is this Saturday, I'm going in for a non-stress test this Monday if the baby doesn't come by then. That means they'll just monitor the baby's heartbeat for 45 minutes or so to make sure the baby is still safe to stay inside of me for a week longer. If the baby is showing signs of wanting out, they'll induce me that day. If not, they'll induce me possibly on April Fool's Day, April 1st. The only good thing that I can think of with inducing is that we can schedule it around when my dr. will be on call, but inducing would not be my preference. Everyone seems to think that April Fool's Day is meant to be our baby's birthday, knowing "the crazy Hustons." Maybe they're right.....we'll see!

Week 39: Have I dropped yet, Mom?

--Your baby's waiting to greet the world!
--He/she continues to build a layer of fat to help control its body temperature after birth, but it's likely the baby already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds, a mini watermelon. (Boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls.)
--The outer layers of the baby's skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath.

Thoughts from Mommy:
--My mom wanted me to post a picture (maybe for the last time??) to see if I've dropped yet. You know how mothers get all excited over these facts.
--Daddy and I are actually praying that you, Baby Huston, don't come out until the weekend or next week because your dad was just diagnosed with pink eye and a sinus infection. We're afraid that if you come in the next day or two the nurses at the hospital may not allow your dad to hold you!


Those reading this post, please pray for God's perfect timing in the birth of Baby Huston, and that Gene would recover quickly and I wouldn't get his sicknesses! I'm just guessing that labor will be hard enough without having to worry about having pink eye or a stuffy nose at the same time.

OH MY!!!!!!!!

I was looking at our blog this morning and saw that our little "baby ticker" at the top of the page said, "I'm done squirming around in here. Only 7 more days to go!" SEVEN DAYS!!!! Where did the past 9 months go?!

This baby seems to have a little mind of its own. It seems that this baby is NOT done squirming around inside. Gene and I have been freaked out plenty the past two nights when it pokes its little foot or hand at my stomach. It's sooooo weird to see this little lump move around my stomach! At least we don't have to count baby movements to see if it's still breathing in there. It's moving around plenty on its own!

Baby Huston is due to have yet another friend born today....hopefully! I got a message at 5:00am this morning that my good friend, Kristin, was on her way to the hospital! I went to elementary school all the way up through college with Kristin. Her and her husband, Jay, don't know if they are having a boy or girl either, so the suspense continues. I talked to her yesterday while she was counting contractions, but she was able to talk right on through them, so we both knew that it was only the beginning of labor for her. Hopefully by now she's pushing that baby on out!

Pregnancy Playground Photo Shoot

Thanks to Laura, here are some serious, along with some not-so-serious, photos of us during the last trimester of pregnancy.

The Microbes are Here!!

A few weeks back I did a post about this awesomely unique website, www.giantmicrobes.com

Anyway, with my month's allowance I decided to pick three microbes that were not only awesome, but also that would match our pack 'n play. My original plan was to replace the three ugly tan bears, which presently hover over our pack 'n play. I guess I'm a tad bitter because they were supposed to be safari animals, though the small print on the pack 'n play box said, "Mobile animals may vary. " And they did.

Anyway I'd like to introduce you to our top choices. (Yes, Renee helped me choose these microbes.)


SCUM




























Description: phytoplankton which grows on sides of aquarium or on seaweed
Favorite Food: Ammonium and nitrates
Enemies: Glass shrimp and Algae Eaters

LYME DISEASE




























First identified: in the 1970's in Lyme, Connecticut

POLIO





























Fact: by 1957 polio cases in the USA had dropped by 90% because of vaccines against the disease