No more pain

I'm happy to report that the carpal tunnel that I had during pregnancy seems to be all gone! Yea! I had to wear those dreaded wrist guards once or twice after coming home from the hospital, but ever since then the pain has gotten less and less. I haven't had numbness in my hands or fingers for about a week now. Praise God!

Birth Story...Mommy's version

Gene wrote up Callan's birth story last year, which is now part of our "2008 Huston photo/scrapbook album." So, our 2009 Huston album will not be complete without a Kinsley birth story...

DECEMBER 12:
Arrived at hospital at 10:00pm. They checked to see if the baby's head was still head-down...and it was! The nurse put the IV in so that it would be ready to go for the morning. She also gave me Cervidil to help prepare me for the induction the next day. I had to spend the night in the hospital so that they could monitor my contractions and the baby's heartbeat while I was on Cervidil. This made for a VERY uncomfortable night's sleep because I had to sleep on my back to keep the monitor's on my stomach. Getting up to go to the bathroom every hour or so was also a major event. All the cords had to be unplugged and then replugged when I returned. They gave me a sleeping pill, but it only helped me sleep until the next bathroom run. After that it was hard to fall back to sleep. Nothing like going into a day of labor with having a horrible night's sleep!

DECEMBER 13:
Woke up and was given permission to get a shower to get ready for the big day. At 6:57am they started me on pitocin to get contractions going. I believe I was about 1.5 cm at this point.

At 8:23am Dr. Apgar broke my water. He said after my water is broken the baby will not turn or flip again. Good news to hear!

They kept checking me all morning, but I was not having any contractions (just like when I went into labor with Callan). At 10:45am they checked me again, and I was about 3cm. They said even though I didn't feel the contractions, they were doing something!

The nurse said she had increased my pitocin to the highest dosage as she could without getting permission from the doctor to go higher. She called Dr. Apgar, and he gave her permission to increase the dosage...but by 1:20pm I was starting to feel the contractions. They were light but steady. I began the first stage of breathing, which lasted about an hour.

I was afraid that the "hard" contractions would kick in fast since they did with Callan, so when the nurse said that the anesthesiologist was in doing a c-section and would be out in about an hour and could do an epidural then, Gene quickly answered for me and said, "Yes, she wants an epidural as soon as he can get here." I didn't want to get it before I needed it, but my wise husband "put the order in" for it for me so that it would be available before I got to the real painful contractions. Thank goodness for a wise husband who knows me better than I know myself!

At 2:45pm I received the epidural...and just in time, too! I was just beginning the next level of contractions and things were picking up more. As he was doing my epidural, he got two calls from a c-section patient and another patient who needed epidurals...so it was good that I was first in line! It might have been another 2 hours or more if I would have had to wait for him to come to me. It would have been too late by then!

The epidural kicked in right away (which it didn't do with Callan...so I was grateful it did this time). The nurse said I was about 4cm at 3:30ish, so I should get some rest and she would check me again at 5:30ish.

At 4:10 I began to feel a lot of pressure. I never had this feeling with Callan because the epidural had numbed me SO much during his labor. I had heard friends say that when they had to push they felt this "pressure," so I figured maybe this meant I was ready to push! I had only been 4cm at 3:30pm and now it was only 4:00pm. Did I really go from 4-10cm in half an hour?

I told Gene to go get the nurse and she checked me. She said I was 10cm already! She told Dr. Apgar and he said to wait 15-20 minutes before we started pushing. He was eating Chipotle, his dinner, then. :) I told the nurse that I was jealous because I was SOOOOO hungry!

A minute or so later I really felt pressure, so I told Gene to quickly get the nurse. She came in and said that she could help me start pushing. It really helped to push through and not just let the contraction pass. She went to get Dr. Apgar a few minutes later (about 4:30) and just a few pushes later, out slid Flipper at 4:49pm! I only pushed about 20 minutes (compared to the 2 hours that I pushed with Callan).

The Dr. said that it was really amazing because Kinsley actually pushed herself out without any pulling from the Dr.! Dr. Apgar was actually yelling at me to "Look at this, Renee! She's doing this all by herself! I'm not touching her! This is amazing!"

We all waited in anticipation while the Dr. turned her over and exclaimed, "It's a girl!" I actually got to witness Kinsley's first bath, weigh-in and breast-feed her within the first hour...unlike Callan. With him they had to take me to the Operation Room after delivery to fix some major problems that occurred during delivery. All the nurses said that it was great that Dr. Apgar could deliver me since he delivered Callan and knew all about the complications of that delivery. He even said that he was able to fix some things from my previous delivery, and hopefully I'll have a smoother and less painful recovery this time. Praise God for ordaining every moment and detail of Kinsley's birth!

Baby #2 - Post 2

Does anyone think it's a little crazy that I'm the one (yeah----me, Renee) updating the blog right now instead of Gene??? I'm just here browsing the world wide web waiting to start feeling some contractions. I'm 3cm now, but not really feeling anything yet. (The nurse this morning said I was 3 cm when I woke up, but Dr. Apgar said I just made it to 3cm.) I'm sure that the pain will change.....hopefully sooner than later. Everyone wants this baby born today! (My nurse, Jamie, would like it to be born before 7pm so she can see what name we picked before her shift ends.)

Right now my biggest worry is not being able to eat anything because my stomach is growling! I've already licked down two popsicles.

Flipper-roo, a-roo!

This week I'm 38 weeks.

This week the baby flipped AGAIN back to the head-down position (in case you are still following this baby's crazy story, it was breech, then head-down, then breech again, and today it's head-down again).

This week the Dr. is amazed at the activity of this little baby.

This week I found out I'll be induced on Sunday morning since my Dr. is on-call at the hospital all weekend and I'll be 39 weeks that day (he won't induce before 39 weeks).

This week I'll finally get to meet this crazy thing they call a "baby."

I won't miss...

What I won't miss about being pregnant:
--having to park on an angle in our garage just so I have enough room to open the door to get out
--parking too close to the shopping cart corral at the grocery store and having to crawl across the front seat to the passenger's side door to get out because the door won't open far enough on the driver's side
--carpool tunnel syndrome
--not being able to wear my wedding ring because my fingers are swollen
--feeling like I can't take a good deep breath
--bumping into Callan's "ABC radio" that's on the fridge with my belly while I'm cooking and setting it off...all the while looking around wondering where that voice is coming from

--trying to explain to everyone that the baby is in the breech position....no I mean the head-down position...no actually it's in the breech position again...(What will this week bring???)

Flipper-roo!

Flipper.

That's our new name for this little baby because it seems as though it has managed to do another flipper-roo again into the frank breech position! I had my dr. appointment today, and all the pain that I was feeling last night before bed must had been this little one flipping again. We'll have one more sonogram next Wednesday to determine the position before they decide if I'll need a c-section or an induction on December 15th.

PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray that this little one would not get tangled in the umbilical cord while it's flipping around. We are praying for a healthy baby...c-section or natural, it doesn't matter to us.

It just goes to show that this baby is in God's hands from start to finish! Only He knows what is going on inside this big stomach of mine!

Baby #2 keeps things interesting...

After my weekly appt. today, another sonogram showed that this crazy little baby inside of me TURNED on its own! It's no longer in the breech position but is head down! I'm no longer scheduled for a c-section on December 15, but instead they will probably induce me that day. The dr. said once a baby turns head-down, they usually don't flip back to breech. I guess all that movement I've been feeling lately really was this baby doing somersaults in my stomach!

One thing is for sure...this baby is keeping things interesting!

Baby Sherman: 35 weeks

I had my 35 week sonogram this past Wednesday....which revealed that the little stinker is in the "frank breech" position. That means that he/she is folded in half, with the feet & head up top and the butt down. The only way to get Sherman out is to have a C-Section. We are scheduled to go in on Dec. 15th.

We'd love your prayers as we approach the 15th. Surprisingly, I'm actually doing really well with this news. I had a lot of complications with Callan during delivery and afterwards, so the dr. told me that this could be a blessing in disguise! He said I'll be in and out of surgery in about an hour and a half. That's my kind of "labor!"

I was actually really comforted by this poem from E. Elliot:

Stilled now be every anxious care;
See God's great goodness everywhere;
Leave all to Him in perfect rest:
He will do all things for the best.

I was looking through my prayer journal the other day after hearing the news of the c-section. I had written this poem down back on April 18th when I was journaling about Baby #2 and wanting to trust in God for a healthy pregnancy/birth. Little did I know how profound these words would be to me literally 7 months later...to the day. God is good!

33 weeks...then and now

I had Gene take a 33 week picture of my belly the other day. I went looking through my pictures to find my 33 week picture with Callan....and found out that I was wearing the same outfit! haha

33 weeks with Baby Sherman

33 weeks with Callan

32 Weeks

While this second pregnancy is flying by much faster than my first, some new developments have occurred, which have left me wishing the pregnancy would move along even faster! At my last appointment I told the Dr. again how my arms and hands were falling asleep at night while I was sleeping. The last time I mentioned this to him, I was just having mild cases....and he said that it was just the "joys" of pregnancy.

Well, this last time I emphasized how the numbness in my fingers had now spread to my whole hand and even up my arm. I could no longer shake my hands and have them "wake up" in an instant. Now the numbness was causing me GREAT pain in my hands and arms (both of them) and was lasting sometimes up to 15-20 minutes at a time. You know when you get a charlie horse in your calf and you think you are going to die from the pain for a few seconds? Well, this was similar...only the pain was in my arms and it lasted more than a few seconds, or even a few minutes. Poor Gene has been woken up many nights with me in tears saying, "Please pray for my arms right now! They hurt so badly!"

The Dr. told me that I have carpal tunnel syndrome, which is common for pregnant women to get. He told me to wear wrist guards on both arms while I slept. This only seems to help some of the time. Most nights I'm up a half a dozen times during the night trying to soothe the numbness in my arms and reposition myself. From what I've read, my CTS should go away after I give birth. I can't wait!

Baby Sherman: 24 weeks

This is Baby Sherman's belly bump at 24 weeks. I'm a week late in posting them, though, so I'm actually 25 weeks and 1 day today. No complaints right now, except my arms constantly fall asleep while I'm sleeping. No matter what position I lay in, I'm waking up several times a night in order to violently shake my arms awake. Weird.

scrambled eggs...not just a breakfast food anymore

Another pregnancy dream....

My sister and I were at my Mimi's house in PA. We were looking around her house for some plants to re-pot. Apparently I had read somewhere (while in my dream) that if you use scrambled eggs instead of soil, the plants will grow faster.

Bet you didn't know that, did you? :)

And the weirdness continues...

Pregnancy Dreams

I've been having some very vivid and strange dreams lately. It's to the point now where Gene just rolls his eyes and says, "Didn't you realize at all during that dream that it was a dream and not real?!" Last night was no exception.

Last night I had a dream that "the end was coming." You know...Jesus was coming back. Doesn't everyone dream about that?! :)

In my dream, my sister's husband, Brian, was one of the main characters. He was telling us all that we had to gather in this small room and burn pieces of cardboard in a pot. Then the air would fill with smoke and we'd all suffocate and die. This would be the end of life on earth, and then we'd all go to heaven together. Sounds great, huh? I know....pretty twisted.

We tried to tell Brian that we weren't sure that's what it said to do in the Bible so we were a little skeptical. Somehow we decided not to do it. Then more weird things started happening. People started disappearing. We were told that they had been taken to hell. Then some cars started rolling by with caskets and dead people jumped out of them because they had been raised from the dead.

Gene came in the bedroom soon after and woke me up. I said, "You woke me up from my dream, so I never got to see Jesus!" haha

What weird things go on in your brain when you have a little person growing inside of you! :)

21 weeks & 4 days

Baby Sherman had a photo shoot today. Everything is looking great and is right on track! I'm 21 weeks and 4 days along, and he/she is weighing in at 15 oz. It's still looking like we're going to have a Christmas baby. And, yes, we actually did manage to say that we didn't want to know the gender again. The Dr., nurse and sonogram technician all cheered us when we said we wanted to keep it a secret. So....only God knows if Callan will be having a baby sister or brother come December!

kick

We have now entered into the next stage of pregnancy...kicking! On July 23, in the middle of the night, I felt the first kick from Baby Sherman. Week 18. Everyone said it would be sooner the second time around (20 weeks for Callan). It's a great feeling...for now. I know soon enough I'll be saying, "I can't wait for the baby to be born so that I don't have to feel this kicking any more." For now, I'm enjoying those little pecks at my tummy.

Baby Sherman: 16 Weeks

My friends have been saying that I haven't posted much about baby "Sherman" lately. During my pregnancy with Callan, I was getting emails every week telling me what fruit my baby was imitating that week. During pregnancy #2 I'm too busy eating fruit to read emails about fruit. It also makes your pregnancy go a lot faster when you are chasing a 15 month around.

Other baby updates:
--no more sickness (this went away around June 1)
--no movements yet from the baby (although the dr. said I could feel them as soon as Week #17)
--my energy level has been pretty good
--all food tastes good again but no real cravings (I LOVE fruit, but this is not anything new)
--Oh, and in case you haven't asked yet, no we aren't finding out the sex with this baby either. That was the fun part of delivery Callan. We can't wait to be surprised again!

Here's a baby bump shot of me at 16 weeks with Baby Sherman (top) and Callan (bottom).

So I guess the weight does pack on a little bit faster the 2nd time around...

Food

Food has taken on a whole new meaning lately. I eat something, and then a few hours later I can't even think about that specific type of food again. I was craving gross things last week. I NEEDED some McDonald's french fries while I was out running errands. I got some and now I can't even think about those fries without thinking I'll be sick.

Panera Broccoli Cheddar Soup has been another favorite of mine lately. Yum!

I also had a week of craving pizza. I think we had four pizzas within four days. (Even Gene got sick of eating pizza!) Gene asks where I want to eat for our date nights, and I say that I won't be able to tell him what type of food I'll be hungry for until 20 minutes before we leave (and even that might change while in the car driving to the restaurant).

My first pregnancy was similar during the first trimester, but Gene said it's much worse now. I'm hoping this food nonsense will all end within a few weeks.

Sherman's 1st Picture

This past Wednesday was a very happy birthday for me. We got to meet Baby #2 for the first time and hear its heartbeat! We weren't sure what to expect when going to the appointment because we had such a rough time with Callan's first ultrasound. By God's kindness, they found the heartbeat right away this time and everything looked great! So, with Sherman (what we are calling Baby #2 while it's in the womb) due to arrive at Christmas, I figure I better get my Christmas shopping done this summer.

I've been slightly nauseous, and all foods have taken on a different taste. Just going into the kitchen makes me hold my stomach. I'm hoping this will end after the first trimester. My first pregnancy was similar, and come 2nd trimester it was smooth sailing until the end.

It's been crazy around here this week, though. I'm trying to pack our house while also taking many breaks to just sit on the couch and eat snacks. One step at a time.

We are so excited for our special Christmas gift to arrive this December!