Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Schmupdate

So, it's been 5,000 years since I last blogged.

I'll update you a little on everything.

Almost 3 weeks ago, the girls got sick. It's that time of year for all kids everywhere to get sick and of course, ours weren't going to miss out on that. So, for almost a week, we were up all night, every night doing breathing treatments, administering medicine, and holding sick babies. It was pitiful. Then, Hugs and I both had to work during the day and the girls just didn't feel well and I couldn't risk getting sick. So, David's sweet parents offered to come up and keep the girls for us for a week. We got to rest and recuperate and the girls were having a great time. Then, my sweet parents took the girls for a week and now, today, they're trading off again.

It's been such a wonderful time of resting, spending time with David, and getting everything completely ready for the Suttsmonster. The apartment could not be any cleaner. The laundry and dishes could not be any doner. We could not be any more ready (for so many reasons) for him to get here. And we are so grateful to both our parents for giving us this time. And we kept thinking little man would be here by now, but alas, he waits for whatever. And we miss the girls terribly. But, with my leg/hip issues (old lady Ruth) and the fact that I'm the size of the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, I just couldn't keep the girls by myself during the week anymore. I can sit in my chair and work, but I can't bend over and no way I could get them dressed. But, we miss them so much.

Little David has been amazing. He always is, though. He helps me get up out of bed, get in the shower, get dressed, tie my shoes, picks me up into the car. Y'all, I was pregs with twins at one time. Thirteen pounds of baby. And I was never this ridiculous. I told Mom I should win an award for how arched my back is without actually doing a back bend. But, enough complaining. We are so blessed and grateful for an uncomplicated pregnancy and healthy rugrat on the way. God has provided everything for his arrival and I'm just a whinybox.

I've had a few emotional breakdowns (just hormonal cry-fests) over the past couple of weeks. It's looking like I'll have to have a repeat c-section. At my appointment last Wednesday, I still had not progressed any and Dr. Mac gave me this Thursday as the deadline. Their practice won't induce a previous c-section because of the risk of uterine rupture and they won't allow you to go past a certain time. He originally told me 38 weeks, but I've been doing so great and Sutton's not ginormous, that he's allowing me to go to almost 41 weeks. He's been so supportive and encouraging about me wanting a VBAC and he's been super optimistic about it. But, Sutton doesn't seem optimistic about it. And it's not that I don't want another c-section. I just don't want the recovery. Because, eventually, I'll have a newborn and two preschoolers and I'll be recovering from a c-section. I just makes me a little stressed. But, then again, I've heard of some vaginalblahblahgrossIhatethatword deliveries that were crazy and the recovery was pretty intense, so I guess you never know what might happen anyway. BUT, you know when you have a "plan" and it seems to be changing and it throws you off and there's absolutely nothing you can do to control it? I was just fighting that. I just had this idea I'd have a VBAC. But, it's like I told David and Dr. Mac...we prayed for a pregnancy. Not to have some type of idea delivery situation or experience. The end goal was to have a baby. And v-delivery or c-section, that's exactly what we'll get...our baby. However God chooses to bring him into this world, we'll soon get to hold him and watch him grow.

And having another c-section doesn't make me any less of a mom. I know that. And no one has ever once said a negative word to me about it. I just let myself do it to myself. :) I know having a c-section with the twins was the absolute right decision and I don't regret it at all. And if having a repeat c-section with Sutton is the safest route for us at this stage, then there's no question at all. And I truly believe Dr. Mac goes into every delivery with his patients in prayer. I am so thankful I've gotten to have two amazing pregnancies. It's such a short time and such a blessed time (most of the time).

At all of my appointments for the past 4 weeks, Dr. Mac has "stripped the membranes." If you don't know what that means (I didn't), it basically means the doctor gets a remote controlled bulldozer, sends it up your...area...and just rolls it around. It's quite painless. Ha. HAHAHA. That's not true. It's not unbearable, by any means, but it's not awesome. And every single time he does it, he says, "Just hang in there for a second. I don't mean to hurt you. I'm just gonna strip your membranes a little. This rarely ever works, but it might get something going."

Rarely ever works? Then...why...do you KEEP DOING IT?!?!?!

And he also says, "You're gonna feel a little pressure." Man doctors. Man doctors use the word "pressure" because they think it'll help us relax more during what's about to happen. Man doctors don't know what pressure is. Do you have a uterus? Do you have lady parts? Pressure. I'll SHOW you pressure. It's okay to tell me something is going to be painful. Tattoo artists don't sugar coat it for you. I don't think man doctors should either. Pressure, my foot.

Since I'm not being super vague today, I gotta tell y'all...the last name of one of the receptionists at the doc's office is...are you ready? Mangina. WHAT?! I've been giggling about that for months now. Mature, I know. I mean, you could not have a better last name for working at an OB/GYN office.

So, the plan is...if this stinker doesn't come on his own by this Thursday at 10 a.m., then I will be heading to the hospital to have him evicted around 12:15 p.m. Dr. Mac and the lady doctor who looks like Merida from Brave will be delivering him, which I'm excited about. Dr. Merida and Dr. Mac are my favorites.

I asked Dr. Mac how much he thinks Sutts weighs. And he said he thought he was gonna be a "big baby." I was expecting him to say 9+ pounds. He tells me "around 8" pounds. To be perfectly honest, I thought 8-ish pounds was an average sized baby. Apparently not. The average size is like 6.5-7 pounds. Whaaaaa? So, my month-early twins were gargantuan. I had NO idea. I hear of all these babies being born at 6 lbs. 10 oz. and I think, "Aw, they're so tiny!" But, nope. That's a normal kid. Who knew? I've never read a lot of baby books, so I don't actually know a lot about babies. Anyways.

SUTTON WILL BE HERE THIS WEEK!! I can't believe it. I'm so ready to hold that kid. Had an ultrasound yesterday to check fluid levels, etc. and Nurse Abby said he has "lots of long hair!" Mom asked if it was red and I said it was gray and black and pixelated.

So, the house is still being built. We are very excited. I don't even know if I've put any construction pictures on here yet. I won't load all the in-between stages since it all ends up the same. The framing happens super fast. And then it slows down while they do the walls and other stuff they do in houses. I don't know a thing about construction.

This is when they framed the foundation, before the concrete was poured. We've asked them to tell us when they do the driveway, so we can go out there and do our handprints. 

This was taken this weekend. We took Sara and Bryan out there to see everything. This is looking at the garage and patio.

The front...obviously.

Well, that's about it. We're just doing the norm this week. I'm working until Thursday. Then baby boy comes. And hey, Fall is in the air. My Steven Curtis Chapman Christmas CD comes in the mail today. So, lots going on.

Asking for your prayers this week. I have a tendency to be really chill about something, but then when it actually starts happening, I get really nervous and sweaty and shake uncontrollably and say incredibly stupid things out of nervousness that I horrendously regret later. I'll upload pictures of Sutts-Dave to Twitter, which you can link to on the top right. Everybody have a good week! Dollar General has Zachary's candy corn for $2, which is the only kind of candy corn I approve of.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

An Epic Tale

Once upon a time, there was a girl and her husband. They had two beautiful twin daughters and they wanted to try for one more youngin'.

God graciously blessed them with just that...a new little tater tot...a son.

And then that girl was pregnant for all eternity.

No one had ever been pregnant as long as she.

Also, she was quite dramatic.

Immensely pregnant.

But mostly dramatic.



The End.



Monday, October 1, 2012

Biggest Fake-Out Ever

If there's anything that's a certainty in life, it's that you can never predict when a baby will come. Even if you have a scheduled induction or C-section...that don't mean they comin' at that time. For instance, I "planned" on having Sutton this weekend. I've been planning for months. I had perfectly good reasons, too.

#1. It was right after 38 weeks, so he was considered completely full-term, but still early enough to avoid another C-section.
#2. He would be born in September, my favorite month.
#3. He possibly would be born on the 30th of September. The girls were born on December 30, so easy to remember. And...here's the coolest thing...the girls' birthday is 12/30/09. His would have been 09/30/12! Whaaaaaaaaaaaa?? I mean...that doesn't just HAPPEN, you know. How awesome would that have been?!
#4. His birthstone would have been blue and then I could have gotten a blue gemstone ring made for all of our birthdays...March (David): aquamarine, September (me and Sutton): sapphire, December (Harps and PL): blue topaz. I mean...COME ON!!!

However, God and baby Sutton had different plans. And that's okay, because God's timing and plans are always waaaaay better than what we had going on. Even if during your prayers, you may or may not remind God of how awesome it would be if he was born on September 30...like He doesn't know all of my weird number things. Anyways.

Friday and Saturday, I had fewer Braxton Hicks contractions than normal. I thought for sure my body was saving it all up for Sunday. I just knew that was the case. Sunday...still nothing. I was getting severely upset about this. I was starting to obsess looking at the clock. "Well, it's 12:37 p.m. That means I have less than 12 hours to go into labor and have a baby to still make this day." Y'all, it was getting ridiculous. Also, I was emotional and hormonal because I am SO tired and my back is killing me and my hips are killing me and I'm so ready to be unpregnant. I miss picking up and holding and squeezing my baby girls. I mean, I hug them, of course, but I can't play on the floor with them and they want me to pick them up and spin them around and I can't. I can't wait for them to get to hold their baby brother. I got a little snuggly giraffe for him similar to the little bear and lamb that sweet Brandi got them when they were babies and they want so badly to give it to him. I'm just ready, you know. And I know, technically, I still have almost 2 more weeks until my due date, but I need to him to come asap.

So, last night, about 5:30 p.m., I started having contractions. I decided to start timing them just to see. They were about 9-15 minutes apart...just out of the blue. And getting stronger. I timed for 2 hours. They had gotten to 6-8 minutes apart and I called the hospital like my little sheet said to do. You're supposed to call at every 5 minutes for the first pregnancy and at every 10 minutes for second and subsequent pregnancies. Dr. Mac was on call. He said to mark the time between the stronger contractions for another 2 hours. He also said it could be the barometric pressure. We had some rain yesterday and apparently, your uterus does weird stuff when it rains. WHAT? Who knew, right?

So, I timed for some more and the contractions got stronger...started hurting my back and lowers...but nothing was unbearable. I was like, "Shoot, I ain't going in unless my water breaks or unless I can't talk through a contraction." The last thing I wanted to do was get all the way there, they check me (which hurts like a fool), and then they send me back home like I know they do so often. I was gonna wait until I couldn't move. I took a shower and we went to bed. Strong contractions through the night, but they started spreading further and further apart. Just an overall feeling of being uncomfortable, which is laaaaame.

I swear he's holding on with grappling hooks, ice picks, and an iron grip. I can feel all of it. But it's cool. He's worth the wait. He'll get here when he's ready.

Also, guys...candy corn is out. The good kind. O happy month of October!