Pregnancy

So here we are just a few weeks away from having our third baby, a baby girl.  I am so overwhelmed with gratitude and excitement.  First of all, as any mom knows having kids is pretty much the best thing ever. The love that I feel for the two I already have is completely indescribable and in every way completes me as a human being.  Being a mom is simply the best.  Secondly, I love babies. I mean seriously. I melt whenever I see a newborn.  Even though taking care of a newborn is a hard phase, I love it. I love love love holding a tiny little human being so innocent and new in my arms.  Third, I know I am not in the majority, but I love being pregnant. Yup, I really do.  I am sure it has to do with the fact that I don't get sick.  Like I never even feel nauseous.  Feel completely normal except maybe loss of appetite, foods that don't sound good and being very tired. And that's it, until I get big and then I'm just plain uncomfortable. But nothing terrible.  And it totally gets overshadowed by all the fun things like looking at the baby at the ultrasound and feeling the baby move and kick and the plain excitement of a new person joining our family.

It has been fun having kids that are older this time because they are so excited about it. When we first told them, Logan was really excited although he had a hard time really believing it.  Savannah said, "Oh no thanks. I'd rather have a puppy":) But then when she really understood what I was talking about she was so excited and was convinced it was a girl and that she would have a sister. Logan of course, was hoping for a boy.  I kept telling Savannah that we don't know if it's a boy or girl and that we will be happy either way so she wasn't so disappointed if it was a boy. Well after we found out it was a girl, she told me for probably a month "I told you so!". So funny. Logan took the news pretty well.  He was disappointed for about 60 seconds and then he was over it. Love him:)

Here is the 11 weeks ultrasound and our first look at baby:

I think another one of the reasons that I love pregnancy so much is because I have been blessed with smooth pregnancies.  Not a single worry.  Go to my scheduled appointments and everything always looks normal and all tests come back great and we just go through the routine with hardly any stress.  Well that changed with this pregnancy and it was the first time that I thought, "This isn't so fun. I have a whole pregnancy to worry about her and if things are normal, etc."  Probably the way it is for a lot of women I just have been so naive and taken for granted the ease and blessing of no problems during pregnancy.  Well for this one the stress started when I got my 20 week ultrasound.  I felt a little more worried this time about making sure that things would be normal but was mostly thinking about the excitement of finding out the gender.  Jared and I had Savannah with us because we were running late and didn't have time to take her to my Mom and Dad's first but we thought it would be fun to let her be involved anyway (Logan was at school). So we got the ultrasound and found out it was a girl (which immediately brought on an "I told you so!" from Savannah:)) We were relishing in this for a while (it's not like it really mattered to us since we already have one of each) and then the ultrasound tech said everything looked normal, printed us some pictures and that was that. She said that the doctor would just meet with me really quick to finish up the appointment. So Jared took Savannah back out in the waiting room while I waited in another room for the doctor. When she came in she looked a little somber and started going over the numbers with me as far as the measurements go. When she got to the head measurement she said that the head was measuring abnormally small and that it was often a marker for a chromosomal abnormality and that she would immediately refer me to a high risk specialist so that I could get further testing and they would take blood work that day to determine my likelihood for genetic abnormalities.  She said the high risk doctor would do an extensive ultrasound but that the only way to know certain things for sure was to get an amniocentesis but that I could go over all of that with the high risk doctor.  So I got the blood work done and then told her I wasn't sure if I could remember all the details of our conversation to pass along to my husband so she said to bring him back and she could go over everything with him as well.  So I walked out to the waiting room and saw Jared's happy face thinking we were good and were leaving and had to tell him that actually there was a problem and for about 3 seconds couldn't hold in my tears. It was so horrible to go from thinking things were great to thinking that they were not good at all in about 5 seconds.  And then to pass along that news to Jared was heartbreaking.  So we go back to talk to the doctor again and she explains everything to Jared.  He asked how often she has seen this and her reply was that she never had.  So that made us feel pretty grim.  So we left the appointment with a million people to call to let them know boy or girl but there was this big damper on the whole thing.  What a weird change in the day.  There is also such a broad range of chromosomal abnormalities that it was so hard to even imagine what we were dealing with.  It could be something as small as a slight learning disability to a baby that will always need to be on machines and just be a vegetable for life or even die soon after birth.  It was hard and to say the least I was devastated. But within a few hours I was feeling better about it and Jared was a rock the whole time.  It was such a strengthening experience for us as a couple having to rely on each other and to have faith together.  I was so amazed and comforted by Jared's faith and strength through it. He never for one second freaked out (at least he didn't show it).  He just kept reassuring me that she would be fine and even if she wasn't that it was all part of Heavenly Father's plan and that everything would be okay.  And I did believe that.  We had to wait a week to be able to get in to see the high risk doctor.  Surprisingly that week, neither one of us stressed out too much and just went on like normal. I really feel like we were blessed and prayers for comfort were miraculously answered.  Our high risk appointment finally came and after the ultrasound was done the high risk doctor came in and talked to us and said that the baby looked absolutely perfect and that there was absolutely nothing to worry about and that we would just resume the rest of the pregnancy with our normal doctor. Talk about good news! It was such a relief. Even though we had felt good all week, it was so amazing to get confirmation that she looked totally fine.  She thinks the head measurement was just off because the baby was breech at that point and her head measurements may have just been off due to her position. The whole experience definitely was a faith builder and also made me realize that every healthy baby is nothing to be taken for granted and each one is such a miracle! Feeling so grateful...

20 week ultrasound:

Fast forward in the pregnancy and about a couple of weeks ago my doctor started mentioning that the baby was still breech.  This was at about 33 weeks. I guess the babies usually flip by this point but it's definitely not unheard of if they haven't, it's just something that they start noticing at this point.  At my 34 week appointment the baby was still breech so she talking about different options of what would happen if baby stayed breech.  This pretty much always means C section which completely freaks me out on top of the fact that seriously, after two regular deliveries and a super speed recovery with my second, I was going to have a c section and terrible recovery. Terrible option.  The problem is that they won't typically medically intervene until 39 weeks to be sure that the baby is totally ready to be delivered.  At that point they would try manual manipulation to try to get the baby to flip or schedule a csection.  But I have never made it to 39 weeks before so it was looking like with this one if she was still breech at delivery I was going to have to rush to the hospital the second I felt contractions and either rush into an emergency C section or she said if I didn't make it to the hospital in time (I delivered Savannah very quickly and now I live 30 minutes from the hospital) to have a C section that they would just try to deliver the baby bottom first.  Another terrible option.  So needless to say I have been worried about this like crazy.  I read all about things online I could do to try to get the baby to flip and no matter how crazy it sounded I was willing to give it a try.  I read on tons of different sites that you should shine a flashlight on the bottom of your belly (I think the theory is that the baby will flip to put her head closer to the light) and also that you can put an ice pack on the top of your belly where her head is and that she will flip to turn away from the cold.  So no matter how ridiculous or voodoo-ish it sounded I was going to try it.  So that night while we watched TV I had a flashlight shining on my lower belly and an ice pack on the top. I was quite a sight:) She started moving like crazy and I swore to Jared that I felt one crazy painful big movement but I was sure it was all in my head. The next morning I had my doctor's appointment and sure enough....she had flipped!! No longer breech! I was so darn excited.  I couldn't believe it. I was so excited I could just enjoy these last few weeks without any anxiety. Now I'm not sure if it was coincidence or not, maybe she just flipped on her own at some point the previous week or maybe it was the light and cold pack....I'll never know. But I don't care. I'm just so stinking excited she's not breech.

Me and Savannah went straight from the doctor and got "Five Guys" to celebrate the good news. This is my "trying to show I'm happy, but instead just looks weird face:)":) I probably wouldn't have posted it if Savannah's happiness wasn't so stinkin' cute...

Here is the ultrasound from 33 weeks, looking cute as ever:):

And here is my belly in all of it's glory at 35 weeks, same day I found out baby flipped!:

So here I am at 35 weeks (Savannah came at 37 weeks and Logan at 38), 1 cm dilated, and on the countdown...WAHOO! We are really excited to meet this little bundle of joy. Now if we could just decide on a name:)