The Story

Well, I guess it’s time for the story! :) 

Obviously, Miss Audrey came a little earlier than we had planned for… she wasn’t due until April 14th, and I had a scheduled c-section on the 9th.  So we were planning on at least one more week before she came… apparently God had other plans!

Tuesday we got the sad news that my Grandpa Price had passed away, so we headed up to IL on Wednesday.  As far as pregnancy goes, it was a pretty normal feeling day- I felt like a whale, but nothing different from the past week or two!  We got to Grandma & Grandpa’s house around lunch time, which was good because there was SO MUCH FOOD that they needed help eating it!  :)  Seriously, someone would come every 30 minutes with more food, and it was never a small amount- it would be a 20 pound bbq tray, or a giant meat & cheese tray, or a huge bag of cookies.  It was crazy.  Anyway, being surrounded by all this food, I ate too much, so Josh and I went for a walk.  We took it easy, just wandering up the road and a path to the big pond and back.  Nothing abnormal.  We even spotted the first May Apples, which I always love because they mean spring and my birthday! :) 

We really just stayed around the house all day, with more aunts and uncles filtering in and out, telling stories, eating more food, and giving lots of hugs.  My uncle Clint was so funny, because every time he looked at me he’d kind of frown… he was so worried about me going into labor.  Maybe he knew something I didn’t…

Towards evening, the women all ended up sitting around the kitchen table, while the men stood around and talked by the barn.  All of the wonderful weather meant everything had bloomed, so my allergies were (and are) killing me, so I headed to the van to get my contact case so I could switch to glasses.  As I’m standing at the back of the van, I suddenly have the sensation that I peed my pants just a little.  A little weird, for sure, but not that unusual when you’re 38 weeks, and I figured it would stop.  But as I reached up to shut the van door, it didn’t stop, it got worse.  I thought “Uh oh… and now I have to walk past all of the men standing by the barn, and all of the women sitting around the kitchen table to get to the bathroom.  And I think this might be my water breaking… You’ve got to be kidding me.” 

But, not wanting to freak everyone out if it wasn’t my water breaking, I walked past the men as carefully as I could, without making eye contact (which wasn’t hard, since it was getting dark!) and headed inside.  I plastered what had to be the fakest looking smile on my face and walked past the women at the table as carefully as I could, trying not to duck-walk too much as I continued to feel like I was peeing my pants.  I got to the bathroom and sat down, and there was lots more… and it definitely wasn’t urine.  I knew Josh was too far away, so I called for my mom, and told her, “Either I just peed my pants or my water just broke.”  To say she was surprised would be an understatement.  But she headed outside to get Josh, which was funny by itself- that group of men just scattered, laughing when she said “Josh, Liz needs you, she’s in the bathroom, she thinks her water just broke.”  Josh was dumbfounded, but headed inside.  By this time, all of the aunts knew, too, and everyone was trying to decide which hospital to go to.  Finally we decided on Carbondale, not the closest, but pretty close and probably the best of the ones in the area.  My aunt, Sarah, said she would lead us there, and we decided Mom would come, too.  And, with that, we were off, leaving Grandpa Price in charge of Laney, and pretty much forgetting to grab anything we might need at the hospital, except my bag with my toiletries, which I was still carrying!

As soon as my water broke, I started having real contractions.  I’d been having contractions for a couple of weeks, but they were all high on my stomach, nothing real.  These were real, and they were about 4-5 minutes apart.  We got to the hospital in about 45 minutes, which was interesting because, with such a long drive, we had plenty of time to call or text anyone and everyone who would need to know.  There were a lot of surprised people that night! 

We got checked in through the ER, and upstairs to the Labor & Delivery area.  The nurses there were really nice, they double checked to make sure I was really in labor, and called the ob/gyn on call when it was pretty clear I was!  The cool thing is that Josh’s cousin, Steve, got to come see us, too, because he goes to school in Carbondale!  So he got to hang out with Mom & Sarah in the waiting room while they took me and Josh back to the operating room. 

Having a c-section while awake was definitely a different experience than being knocked totally out like I was with Elena.  It was really nice to have Josh there with me.  It wasn’t exactly comfortable, that’s for sure!  I didn’t feel any pain, but they make you lay with both arms straight out, which gets uncomfortable after awhile.  And they are pushing and moving parts around, and I could feel it, even though it didn’t hurt.  So that was all a little weird.  But the anesthesiologist stood by my head and told me what was happening, and when to expect a lot of pressure and pushing, so that really helped.  And there was nothing as cool as when I heard her cry for the first time.  It’s like the rest of it all just disappeared with one good scream.  And, boy, did she scream!  I was very impatient after they got her out, because they still had to sew me back up, and all I wanted was to be with my little girl.  I could see where they were taking care of her, but I couldn’t really see her. 

Anyway, after they got me all fixed up, they took me to the recovery room, where I had to stay until I started to get feeling back in my legs.  I tell you what, I was not a fan of  that whole epidural thing.  I mean, seeing as how they took my uterus out of my body and I didn’t feel any pain, that part I liked! :)  But the whole being numb from the waist down thing was kind of scary.  The recovery nurse kept asking “Can you move your legs at all?” and I’d try as hard as I could, and nothing would happen.  Not a fan of that, it made me a little crazy.  I felt a little better when I could finally wiggle my toes… not exactly moving my legs, but at least I felt like something was coming back!  And, of course, it did all come back eventually. 

After the feeling came back, I got to go to my room and finally meet my little girl!  Mom, Josh, Sarah, and Stevie all came, too, and it was so amazing.  I couldn’t believe how little she was, and how much I loved her already! 

I spent the next several days in the hospital, obviously… which meant I missed Grandpa’s visitation and funeral.  But I had lots of visitors from that side of the family, and I know that Audrey brought a lot of much needed joy to everyone. 

The hospital itself was wonderful… I mean, it was still a hospital, but all of the doctors and nurses we dealt with were wonderful, and took very good care of us.  It was a little scary to be having this baby so far from home, but we were so reassured by our doctors and nurses.  It was the coolest thing, to see how God put these doctors and nurses in our lives, because we just kept finding Christians, and people who had personalities that matched our needs.  The doctor that operated on me (Dr. Walker) was really nice and soft-spoken, but also had a really good sense of humor, which we appreciated.  And he freely talked about how this baby was God’s timing to help out the family, and he was very understanding about the weird situation we were in.  And the nurses all took really good care of me.  What a blessing!

Dr. Walker actually let me out a day earlier than I think he would have normally so that I could spend some time with my family before heading home on Saturday.  So they took out my staples and I headed home on Friday afternoon.  Or, at least to Grandma’s house.  I took it easy Friday evening, and Saturday morning, and then we headed home Saturday early afternoon.  It was a long trip, cars and bouncing are not very comfortable with a new c-section!  And we were under orders to stop every hour so that I could walk around for 10 or 15 minutes.  So we stopped several times, including in Warrenton at the Carter’s outlet, because Miss Audrey is so small we didn’t have many clothes that would fit her!  Plus, we weren’t planning on having her for Easter- so we didn’t have an Easter dress for her! 

Finally, we made it home Saturday night… with our new little girl and quite the story!  Josh blames me for the whole going-into-labor thing, because I had said something about how a scheduled c-section wasn’t much of a “story,” you know, like a going-into-labor, “my water broke in the middle of….” story.  Well, we have a story now!! :) 

So, there’s the story, although I’m sure I’ve left out details… not quite according to plan!  But, as my doctor said when I called and told her, “the plan is always to have two healthy people when were done, and we’ve got that. “  Praise God for that, and now we’ll learn how to be a family of four!  

SURPRISE!

Audrey Lou has arrived... in Carbondale Memorial Hospital in IL! It is a long story, and I will write it all out another day, but for now, here are the details:

My water broke Wednesday evening around 7:45. We headed to Carbondale and got all checked in by about 9:00. We met the doctor on call, got introduced to the anesthesiologist, and got prepped for surgery. Miss Audrey was born at 10:50 on March 31st, exactly 2 weeks before her due date, and sharing a birthday with her cousin, Leila!

Her stats:
6 lbs, 5 ounces
19 1/4 inches

She's definitely a little peanut, the same length as Laney was, but 10 ounces lighter! Even the newborn clothes are big on her! She looks a lot like Elena did, but she has more hair, and it's darker. Her skin is considerably darker, too. But pictures speak louder than words, so...

Daddy- still in shock! We just kept saying "I can't believe this is happening, I can't believe we're at the hospital."

An unhappy Audrey, minutes after she was born... hearing her cry in the delivery room was the coolest thing. Best feeling in the world...

Hanging out with Grandma, who got to be there (in the waiting room, anyway) while Audrey was born. In a strange hospital far away from home, we wanted (or I wanted) my mommy!

Cleaned up and ready for bed time... as we all were!

So that's the brief update... there is, of course, quite the story! But I'm still in the hospital (gotta love wifi) and still a little overwhelmed! Look for more pics and the full story next week! For now, we're relaxing and hoping to go home soon!

Progress

…but not really on the whole labor front, which is A-Ok with me! :)  Instead, we’re making progress in getting ready for Miss Audrey!

Our accomplishments over the past week:

Last Saturday we finally got a second rod hung in the girls’ closet!  It doesn’t actually look like this anymore, because I had to put back the 6 tubs of Laney clothes!  But soon it will be cleaned out and organized, with clothes on both rods!

The bassinet came in, and I got it all put together.  Ok, so I didn’t get it all put together by myself, Josh definitely helped when I was ready to start beating it like they do in Look Who’s Talking.  But it looks pretty sweet with Audrey’s pink blanket hanging out of it!

But the funniest story of all is definitely the stroller.  I wouldn’t tell it, because I’m rather ashamed of how high maintenance I ended up, but it probably should be preserved for humor later! :)

So, I posted before that I decided to splurge on a new car seat cover so it would match a double stroller, since they didn’t make the strollers in the Pooh pattern.  It came, and I loved the pattern I chose, which was called Brentwood.  So, a couple of weeks later (a couple of weeks ago, now) I got asked about it.  online and ordered the stroller to match from Amazon.  Pretty quickly, they canceled my order because they were out of stock.  Bummed, I looked around and found another site to order it from.  They processed my order, and then said it was backordered and it would take a couple of weeks.  I decided I could be patient… meanwhile, as I looked around online, more and more sites seemed to be running out of the stroller, which made me nervous.  So I emailed Graco, and asked about it.  Yeah, they emailed back and said it was being DISCONTINUED! 

Worried, I looked eBay, assuming that anyone selling it on eBay, would already have it.  So, I found one and bought it from a guy, and canceled my other order for it.  I waited a day or two, then asked the eBay guy for a tracking number when it said the product had shipped.  Yep, not so much- he said “Oh, I just tried to order that and Graco said it’ll be 3-4 weeks.”  Not cool.  So I called Graco, and asked someone in service whether it was actually discontinued or just backordered.  After SEVERAL minutes on the phone, he tells me that it’s not discontinued.  But, it’s scheduled to be discontinued, there aren’t any in the warehouse, and they aren’t making anymore.  Which sounds like it’s already discontinued to me, but whatever! 

The customer service guy was not too helpful, except that he finally admitted that, if a retailer didn’t have the stroller now, they weren’t getting it.  And he said that the only store that physically carried the strollers (and therefore might still have some in stock) was Baby Depot, a part of Burlington Coat Factory.   None of those near here…

So after this conversation, I called Josh to update him on the whole situation… and he suggested that it would be worth it to drive to St. Louis to a Baby Depot if it meant we would actually get the stroller.  So, he called the store, and found they actually had one in stock!  And the most wonderful husband in the world grabbed his Garmin and his new cds, and headed to St. Louis Tuesday after work!  He had success, though, FINALLY, and brought home the stroller! 

All in all, probably way more work than the stroller was worth… but I got it put together, and it is awful cute! 

Laney was fascinated with me building it, and had to try it out once it was done:

It really is a nice stroller, though.  It folds up as easily as our single stroller, and it’s the same width so it’ll fit through doors, etc. without much trouble.  It has a cup holder on the front, and on the handle, and a nice little closed compartment, too.  So, yeah, I love it… I just wish it’d been a little easier to get ahold of!

And, the best part of having stuff to build, at least as far as Laney is concerned, is the bubble wrap! :)

As far as doctor’s appointments this week, nothing much to report.  I gained 1.5 pounds (!!!!!), but I guess that’s not so bad… still a couple of pounds under where I started.  Audrey looked good, although she was more interested in napping than in doing her practice breathing!  I haven’t really progressed any farther, she said I was still about 1 cm, and maybe a little thinner.  So I’ll probably still be pregnant for awhile, which, since we’re headed to Branson this weekend, and my doctor is gone all next week, I’m ok with! 

Hard to believe… two weeks from tomorrow and we’ll be meeting this little girl!!!

Week 36 Checkup

Well, it has begun… the weeks of “waist down” appointments started yesterday with my 36 week appointment.  I figured they were coming, and I dreaded them as much as I did last time!  But, well, I guess they’re a necessary evil! 

Other than having to sit on the table with no pants on and a sheet covering my lap as best I could manage (I really think I’d rather just wear the gown, something about wearing my sweater but not having anything on the bottom is what makes it so weird), this week’s appointments went pretty well.

In the ultrasound, they checked Audrey’s size… they think she is about 6 lbs, 3 oz, which is the 63rd percentile, right where she has been the whole time as far as size goes.  If she gains about 1/2 a pound a week like they expect her to, then she’ll be a little bigger than Laney when she’s born.  Of course, it’s all a guess! 

Some cute pics… I can never manage to get important appointments (like checking weight) to coincide with getting good pics during the ultrasound.  So, these are actually pictures of Audrey at 35 weeks… but close enough! 

 

Ok… so this is a profile shot, with her head to the right (the bright white part is her forehead down to her nose).  Then, the two little balls on the left are her hands- she was sleeping with her hands curled up by her face.  Thought that was pretty cute!

 

This one she’s looking at you, her head to the right again, and her hands still up by her face.  Not a clear, but still pretty cute!

 

And, just for fun, a 36 week belly shot, because I feel like a massive whale… (yes, I’m wearing cat pjs… not much is comfortable anymore!)

  

As far as being pregnant… it’s still not too bad.  I’m definitely less comfortable this week than I have been.  I’m having contractions pretty often (although nothing real or regular).  Dr. B. said I was 1 cm dialated, which is about where I was at this point with Laney, too.  As far as weight, I gained about another 1/2 pound… I’m about 5 1/2 pounds in the negative still… so looking at probably going into the hospital weighing about what I weighed when I got pregnant… so that’s not so bad! :)  Sleeping is not working so well, it’s just not so easy to get comfortable.  Blood sugar is still pretty well controlled, as long as I control myself! :)  Which I’ve done pretty well, I just give myself an occasional meal “off.” 

I am definitely nesting, though… I have a whole list of stuff that I want/need to get done over spring break… we are putting in a second closet rod this weekend, so I can get out Laney’s newborn clothes and hang them.  I am thankful to have spring break that week before my c-section, so that I have that time built in to really get ready… now I just have to make it that long! :) 

So that’s about it… 3 more weeks…

Week 34 Appt & Belly Shot

Appointments this week went fine, I had a meeting afterwards so we were kind of in a hurry!  Luckily, Audrey cooperated and did all of her “tricks” for the ultrasound right away!  And we managed to get one good picture to take with me, which is one of the best profiles we’ve gotten so far.  She just likes to bury her head and face, so profiles have been hard to come by! 

So that’s a hand on the left, then you can see the profile of her forehead and face starting on the right.  She’s got her lips pursed, so that’s what the big bump is there!  And the bright shiny white part is her chest.  She had her lips moving the whole time: sticking her tongue out, licking her lips, yawning… it was pretty funny!

I gained just under half a pound this week, which is about what they want her to gain per week at this point, so that’s good!  And everything else looked good.  I’ve been having a few contractions, but nothing serious… The only real complaint I have right now is the restless legs!  Anybody have any good suggestions?  They’ve been keeping me awake at night, and it’s exhausting!

And, just for fun, although it’s from a couple weeks ago (and I feel like I get bigger every day right now), here’s a belly shot from our weekend in IL, which makes it when I was 32 weeks. 

Just looking at it, I already feel like I’m way bigger.  But I thought that right after we took it, too!!

Prest-O Change-O

So, I said that we decided to splurge on a new car seat cover, since they don’t make our Winnie the Pooh pattern in a double stroller.  I ordered the new cover last week, and SURPRISE!  It came today!  I was pretty excited, so I decided to go ahead and switch them!

Here’s the before… Pooh is cute, but…  

 

…this is cuter!

 

So this is the other pattern, it’s called Brentwood.  It wasn’t my absolute favorite, but the ones that were my favorites and fit our car seat only came in double strollers that were $200+ and that just wasn’t happening!  So the stroller we’d been looking at came in Brentwood, and I thought it was pretty.  What’s cool is that it ended up having a little green in it, which is good since the straps are green from the Pooh pattern.  Anyway, I think it’s pretty cute!  Now I just need to order the stroller…

It was actually really easy to change the cover over, but what was weird was seeing how little the space for the baby is after I put the straps back down to the bottom hole, and put the little head thing on.  Hard to believe Laney used to be that small, and scary to think we’ll have another one that little soon!

In other news, the doctor’s appointments went fine this past week.  I gained just over a pound!!  I guess it was inevitable, at some point I have to gain some weight!  That actually puts me at 2 pounds in the last two weeks!  I’m still down about 7 pounds total, though, so I guess I should be happy about that!  And I spent all of last weekend in IL with Grandma Price’s candy drawer, so maybe a pound isn’t so bad after all!

6 more weeks until we get to meet this little lady!  Can’t wait!

Weight Check!

Well, this is a little late because last week was a CRAZY week, and then I was in IL all weekend hanging out with Grandma & Grandpa Price, but I thought I’d go ahead and update on last week’s appointments, since we got to check Audrey’s weight!  She now weighs about 4 lbs, 5 oz, which is around the 63rd percentile, which is right where she was a month ago, the last time we checked her weight.  Anyway… so that’s good news, because it means she’s staying at the right size, not growing too big too fast. 

Other than that, not much to report.  I gained a little weight- about 8/10ths of a pound.  Blood sugars still all look good, and my blood work all came back normal.  As of last Friday, 7 weeks until my c-section!  Crazy to be thinking about it in a matter of that FEW weeks!  I know they will fly by!

As far as non-medical stuff, I am still pretty much liking being pregnant!  I haven’t been having many BH contractions, so that’s good.  And I’m still not so huge that I’m uncomfortable.  Audrey moves TONS, and I really love feeling her move around.  I remember with Laney that I was almost sad in the days after she was born because I couldn’t feel her moving around inside me anymore… seems silly, since I could now SEE her moving around OUTSIDE of me, but that’s how I felt.  And I imagine I will feel the same with this one.  It’s just such a special feeling.

Anyway… we’re slowly picking up the things we need for Audrey.  There really aren’t that many things we need, since we are reusing so much from Laney.  I decided to have one major splurge and replace the cover on the car seat.  They don’t make the pattern that we have anymore, so I couldn’t get a double stroller to match.  And neither of us really liked the closest pattern… anyway, so I decided it was worth a splurge… I ordered the cover today, in the Brentwood pattern from Graco.  Then all that’s left to buy is a bassinet, the stroller, and a spare closet rod so we can have twice the cute little girl clothes in the closet! :) 

Well, just to reward you for reading a long post… here are a few pics from my latest ultrasounds!

Audrey Lou, at 32 weeks!

To help decipher the ultrasound: her head is on the right, and she’s turned looking at you.  The white line is her nose, then the rounded part is her right cheek.  The darker line beneath the nose is her mouth.  Chubby cheeks, anyone?! :)  

 

This one is funnier… this is actually from my ultrasound 2 weeks ago, so it’s Audrey at 31 weeks.  Anyway, with Laney, they kept telling me how much hair she had.  Seriously, every ultrasound they would mention it.  And then she came out bald!  So, just for fun, I asked the ultrasound tech whether she could tell if there was hair.  And, yep, sure enough, it looks like there’s lots of hair!

So, I’m interested to see if Audrey actually comes out with hair, or if she’ll just have the little old man fringe like Laney did!  Just from ultrasounds, they seem like they look pretty similar- chubby cheeks, hair, Holt chin… but their coloring will probably make all of the difference!  Audrey could come out with dark hair and light eyes!  You never know…

Anyway, so there’s the update!  I did take a belly pic this weekend while I was in IL, but Jess actually took it, so I’ll post it when I get the pics from her!  It’s not that exciting, I don’t look all that big!  Although I am definitely clearly pregnant now, there’s no mistaking it! 

6.5 weeks… hard to believe!!