Happy Birthday to Emily!

Here are Emily’s 12 months stats:

Weight = 21.5 pounds

Length = 30 inches (75.5 cm)

She now has 6 teeth (4 on top and 2 on bottom).  She is eager to move, so I don’t think it will be too long before she walks.  She is starting to say a few words like mama, dada, and hi.  She also gives kisses when asked; too cute!

Although this is Emily’s 2^nd Christmas, this one will be a lot more fun for her since for her 1^st Christmas last year, she was not even 3 weeks old!

Where has the time gone?

Emily is 6 months old!!!  She weighs 18 pounds, 10 ounces and is doing amazing!  I am so blessed to have 2 little darlings.  They are the light of my life!

Life is busy these days.  Julie is taking dance and soccer and then we try to have some playdates, time at the Y, and visits at my mom's daycare.  I feel like I am more busy now than when I was working!

We are having Julie and Emily dedicated at church on Sunday, so that should be good.

The lawsuit is still ongoing.  I have not heard a thing since the settlement conference and that was 3.5 months ago.  Not sure what the holdup is, but I hate being in limbo like this!  So stressful!

It has been a bit of a whirlwind

Turns out the health issues were related to my gallbladder, which I needed to have removed in February.  I had 100 stones!  Crazy!  Surgery went well, but part of my recovery was that I couldn't lift Emily for 4 weeks.  That was a challenge for sure.  But, we made it through just fine.

Hard to believe Emily is 4 months old now!  She weighs 17 pounds and is 26 inches long.  Big, healthy girl!

We also found out yesterday that my brother and his wife are having a boy!  Very exciting!

We had the settlement conference for the lawsuit in late February and it appears as though we have reached a settlement.  So, fingers crossed, the lawsuit could be over!  That would be awesome!

Life with 2 daughters...

... is amazing!  I am a happy mom!  Life has been very busy lately, but so good!

We had a great Christmas... lots of time with family. 

Emily Rose is now almost 8 weeks old!  We have been discharged from the midwives care now, so we're done with them.  I had my last appointment there last week and I almost thought I was going to cry.  I loved my midwife so much; she gave me a big hug when I left and I thanked her so much; she made the birth experience very enjoyable!  She told me again how great I did.  That could be our last time at their office, who knows.  At this point, we are undecided if we'll have a third child.  We could very well be done.  I have convinced hubby to put off that decision until Emily is at least 2 years old and then we'll revisit it.

We are so lucky with Emily; she is such an amazing baby!  Sleeps at least 4 hour chunks at night - sometimes as long as 6 or 7 hours!  She is a very good eater and has been gaining weight like crazy!  We'll find out exactly how much she weighs at her first doctors appointment on Thursday.  I think she probaby weighs at least 13 pounds by now.

I have been experiencing some health issues in the last few weeks.  On 3 separate occasions, I have had severe pain in my back and abdomen.  Looking back, I think it is the same pain I had once nearing the end of my pregnancy that landed me in the hospital.  Well, I think the pain is gallbladder attacks.  I have an appointment tomorrow morning for an abdominal ultrasound to try to get to the bottom of what has been causing my pain. 

Emily Rose is here!

She is already 2 weeks old and I can't believe it!

Emily's birth story... it was the night before my due date and I went to my prenatal aquafit class (the last one of the semester).  Earlier that day, I had an appointment with the midwife and I was already 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced, so she was able to do a stretch and sweep.  We joked saying that with Julie, I went into labour the same day they did that, so the pressure was on!

At about 10pm, I started having contractions.  They were about a half hour apart and very mild, so I was able to go to sleep.  By about 2am, they were much closer together (about 10 minutes) and I could no longer sleep through them.  So, I decided to get up and watch Private Practice (which I had PVR'd) and start timing the contractions.  Oddly enough, the episode was the one where Charlotte had the first of her triplets, so that was interesting to watch WHILE I was in labour!  By about 3am, the contractions were coming closer, so I decided to have a shower since I thought we'd be calling the midwife soon.

After my warm shower, the contractions slowed down quite a bit.  So much so that I was beginning to wonder if this was all a false alarm.  So, Carlos and I decided to try to get some more rest.  We were able to sleep some more.  Then, at about 7am, I woke up again with contractions and they were closer together again (about 10 minutes).  As the morning progressed, they got more intense and closer together.  By 11:30am, they were 5 to 8 minutes apart, so we called the midwife.  She came to our house just before noon to check me.  I was 3 cm dilated and 75% effaced.  So, not quite in active labour yet, but getting there!  Midwife left and told me to page her again once contractions were 5 minutes or less apart for an hour.

By 2:15pm, the contractions were 4-5 minutes apart for an hour, so we called the midwife again.  She suggested we meet her at the hospital.  So, we loaded up the car and were at the hospital by 2:45pm.  She checked me again and I was 4-5 cm dilated and officially in active labour!  At this point, I decided to labour in the tub for awhile, so I got into the tub around 3pm.  I laboured in the tub for about 2 hours until I started bleeding, so I had to get out of the tub to be checked again.  My water broke just as I got out of the tub and then things started to change.

I was 6 cm dilated at this point and I was starting to bleed... a lot.  The midwife suspected it was a problem with the placenta, but she suggested consulting the OB on call.  So, he came to the room and checked on things.  I needed to be hooked up to a continuous monitor for the baby to check the heartrate and contractions.  The OB told me that it appeared I either had a tear in my plaenta or it was detatching early (at least part of it).  So, to prepare me, he said I can continue with a vaginal birth as long as the baby is still doing okay.  If the baby starts to show signs of distress, I would need a C-section in a hurry, so they hooked me up to an IV just to be prepared for that scenario.

I was very worried at this point.  I did not want to have a C-section, but ultimately, I would do whatever it took to have a healthy baby.

By 6pm, I was 7 cm dilated.  The contractions were fast and furious!  Way more intense that with Julie.  And much closer together.  By 6:45pm, I was 8 cm dilated and still bleeding an awful lot.  Baby was still doing fine, so the blood was obviously from me then.  Huge relief.  I went from 8cm dilated to fully dilated in less than a half hour.  Most painful half hour of my life!  At this point, I was more focused on the welfare of my baby than my own pain.  At 7:10pm, I was fully dilated and it was time to push!

Emily Rose was born after only 31 minutes of pushing at 7:41pm.  When she was born, they laid her on the bed to be assessed and at that point, I could only see her head and shoulders, so I could not see if she was a boy or girl.  Carlos checked and then said "It's a girl!"  We were so surprised!  We thought I was carrying a boy for sure!  She is in perfect health!  Turns out I had a placental abruption, which means the edge of the placenta had detached.  Another surprise: she was born in the posterior (i.e. face up) position!

There were no beds on the floor, so initially, my midwife said we may be able to go home later that night.  Then, she changed her mind saying I needed to stay for observation because of all my blood loss.  We stayed in the delivery room overnight.  They put me on oxytocin overnight to help control the bleeding.  By the next morning, I was fine and ready to go home!

Emily Rose's stats at birth:

Born (on her due date): December 5, 2012
Weight: 8 pounds, 9 ounces
Length: 54 cm (21.25 inches)
Head circumference: 36.5 cm

So, Emily weighed 2 ounces less at birth than Julie did, but Emily's head was 3 cm larger and she was 3 cm longer than Julie.

I can't believe I went through another labour and delivery completely drug free!  That's 2 for 2!  :)

39 weeks

And we're still hanging in there.  No sign of baby yet.  I have my next appointment with the midwife tomorrow, so I am curious to find out if I'm dilated at all yet.  If I am, then they could do a 'stretch and sweep' to try to get things going.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but I think it would be worth a try if the conditions are appropriate for them to be able to do it.

Yesterday, I finished my Christmas shopping!  So, I am all done - yay!  Very nice to get that all done before baby comes.

This coming Friday is my company Christmas party.  I am sort of hoping I'll either already have the baby by then or be in labour so we don't have to go.  We'll see.  If I'm still pregnant, we'll go.  We already have J lined up to go to my parents overnight that night since we'll be out way past her bedtime.

Today is my great-aunt Margrit's birthday (whom I am named after).  So, today would be a good day to have the baby!  So would tomorrow, my birthday!

38 weeks, 1 day

Getting so close!  I could go into labour at any moment now - exciting!

On Saturday, I had a day with tons of energy.  So, I went shopping (my first couponing shopping trip using the strategies I learned at a couponing workshop I took last week).  We also got the nursery all ready and packed the hospital bag.  Plus 4 loads of laundry.  So, I am feeling much more prepared now.  If I went into labour today, we're ready.

I am getting really nervous about the whole labour experience.  I know I have been through it before, but it is still a little scary.  I just have to remind myself that I survived it once, I can do it again!  And really, it wasn't THAT bad the first time around.  Just really long!  I'm hoping this one will be quicker.  From what I've heard from others, usually the second labour is about half the length of the first with a much shorter pushing stage.  So, my first was 20 hours from start to finish with 3 hours of pushing and needing a vacuum assist.  So, this time, I'm hoping for 8-12 hours from start to finish with an hour or less of pushing :)  That would be great!

I'm getting very excited to meet our little one!  We have gone back and forth several times with our boy name.  For the first half of the pregnancy, we thought we had the boy name picked and were struggling with the girl name.  Then several weeks ago, we decided on the girl name and have been going back and forth between 3 possible boy names.  Time for this baby to come so we are forced to finally decide!