39 weeks...and counting down!

Happy Labor Day...but no LABOR here!! Not yet so far. 4 hours and Labor Day is over. Today was one of my due dates!! Hahaha. But I guess Baby E had other ideas. There is nothing new to report. I have a few contractions here and there but really nothing consistent. Dr. Barnes told me to start walking to try to stimulate things, but nothing has helped. I have walked the beach, around Costco, around the block, through Target...over the river and through the woods...but nothing. This little princess is quite comfortable.

On a happy note, two of my friends that have been going through this pregnancy with me have both delivered happy and healthy baby boys. Nicole was first. She was due September 6th, but had a scheduled C-section on September 1st. Declan Michael O'Sullivan was born at 10:36am on September 1st and weighed in at 8 lbs 4oz. He is really sweet and mommy is doing great. I was able to go up to the hospital and meet him!

Then on Saturday, Janice was induced. She was due the day after me, September 13th, with baby number 4. She never finds out the gender so the anticipation was great and it was fun to find out. She had a bit of a longer labor because her baby was trying to come into this world hand first! But baby figured it out and she gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Blake Edward Batsch, on Sunday September 4th at 12:47am. He weighed in at 7lbs 15oz. She had the pleasure of being delivered by Dr. Barnes...one of his last deliveries before retiring. All 4 of her babies have been delivered by him. Today, Nicole and I went up to see her and meet Baby Blake. They took a picture of me holding both newborns on my big belly...trying to encourage Baby E to make an entrance. I asked the nurse if they had an open bed that I could use and get this party started! No such luck!

I have a check-up tomorrow with Dr. Boyd. We will see if I have made any progress. I understand he is not a fan of inductions, so we will see what he has to say.
Thank you to everyone for the sweet emails, texts, and calls checking up on us. We truly appreciate all the prayers and encouragement. We will keep you posted.

*In the pictures below, you can see the hospital gowns the girls sewed! Mine will make its debut soon!

Janice (38 weeks), Nicole (beautiful new mommy), me (38 weeks)

With Nicole and Declan

Nicole, Janice (beautiful mommy of 4!), me (blowfish face)

Blake and Declan telling Baby E to come out and play!

Bun is still in the oven!

So, we will call this little adventure our "trial run". We sat down with Dr. Barnes, the senior partner of the group, yesterday and had a much better conversation. This is the man that has delivered over 9000 babies!! He left us feeling much more confident in the decisions being made. He had no problems delivering a baby that could be 37 or 38 weeks. He said, either way, the baby is full-term and would do well. Especially since it is a girl, as their lungs mature faster. He was more concerned with the fact that I was not dilated at all. At the point we spoke with him, the urine test for pre-eclampsia was not complete. If it was positive, he would certainly induce me. But if negative, he did not want to induce for a diagnosis of gestational hypertension in a person that was not dilated. He said that would be a very rough induction, long labor, and would probably end up in a C-section. Since I only had 4 or 5 elevated blood pressures while hospitalized, he was comfortable sending me home on bedrest to keep my blood pressures stable and try to let my body dilate on its own. So, at 8pm, we received the news that the urine test was negative for pre-eclampsia and we were sent home. I am to remain off my feet and return on Monday for another check. Dr. Barnes will be retiring next week from deliveries. I am sad that my chances of him delivering our baby are very slim but so grateful he was on-call yesterday to handle this situation and put both of our minds at ease. Several people prayed he was the man on-call and we are so grateful for answered prayers!

Since I thought we were being induced, I went ahead and took some pictures on our way in. I will post them anyway as our "trial run". I also received some beautiful flowers from work!

Leaving for the hospital

Arriving at Baptist Downtown

Checking in

My first room, which flooded, and then had to move to room 7

Flowers from McIver Clinic

Possible pre-eclampsia

The past 24 hours has been a roller coaster of emotions. I woke up early, which is normal for me these days. Cubbie and I split a PBJ and then I did some things around the house. I headed downtown for my OB appointment at 10:00. I saw Dr. Foutz. She is the youngest doctor in the group. She is extremely nice, but I now understand does not have the experience to be confident in her decisions as they changed several times throughout the evening. Upon arrival, my blood pressure was 150/90. They waited 30 minutes and took it again: 138/84. Better, but still up. So she decided to induce me for presumed pre-eclampsia. I went home, got my bags, and headed back to the hospital with Matt. At 7pm, they started the induction by inserting Cervadil to soften the cervix because I was not dilated at all. 2 out of the 4 labs were positive for pre-eclampsia and 1 was borderline. Then the doctor realized there had been a discrepancy with my due date: Sept 5 vs Sept 12. Since the diagnosis for pre-eclapmsia was borderline, and my pressures looked better on bed rest for 3 hours, she decided to stop the induction. She was not comfortable with the thought of inducing a possible 37 week baby. She said she would have been more comfortable had my due date been solidified and I was definitely 38 weeks. All along I have asked for them to make a final decision about my due date and stick to it. I was told the difference of a week wouldn't matter so not to worry about it. Well here we are and the difference of a week DOES matter.

So at this point, I am on bed rest. They are collecting my urine for 24 hours. The collection will be done at 6:15pm. It will take about an hour to get the results back. The doctor will then decide to proceed with the induction or possibly send me home on bed rest for 1 week or so. Dr. Barnes is on call tonight. I have total faith in whatever he decides will be best for the baby.

More sewing

I guess this is the nesting phase I hear about. I am sewing like crazy. I am sure Matt would like me to put some of this energy into cooking but I get these bursts at weird times, like 4am!! Here is a onesie that I did a flower applique on last week. I had some of this fabric left over from the carseat canopy and I love it, so I decided to make a flower applique out of it. This morning I attempted to ruffle the butt of the onesie. It was harder than I thought it would be. I will certainly need more practice.

36 weeks? 37 weeks? Who knows?!?!

I had my appointment today with Dr. Barnes. If you remember way back at the beginning of this journey, they had a hard time determining my due date. It was between September 5th and September 12th. Based on my first ultrasound, the doctors decided to stick with the September 12th date. But today, Dr. Barnes told me he thought I was more in line with the September 5th date and he didn't think I would make it until September. He did not examine me, so I am not sure what he is basing this on, but he just delivered his 9000th baby on Wednesday, so I will give him some credit!! Either date, it is up to Miss Everett when she would like to make her appearance and I am sure she is not consulting a calendar in there. Atleast, I don't think there is room for one in there! Here is a picture of my foot. Maybe he is basing his opinion on my swelling?!?! Who knows!!

Taggy Lovey

This was my second favorite project. The carseat canopy is still my favorite, but this was really fun and really easy too. I made my own taggy blanket! It is more the size of a lovey, not quite a blanket. I used pink flannel with little white polka dots. For the ribbons, I used pink grosgrain, pastel rainbow grosgrain, and white satin. All of the different textures are fun. When I was little, I used to rub my lovey (named Bauble) on my upper lip when I was tired. The whole time I was making this, I could picture Baby E doing the same! It will be interesting to see what she likes to sleep with and what her "signs" are that she is tired.

Sewing fun!



Hospital Gown!





With ribbon belt

 So, back in May, Nicole, Janice, and I started taking sewing lessons. Matt bought me a sewing/embroidery machine for my birthday (at my request). He definitely did not think I would use it as much as I have. Nicole and Janice, both pregnant and due the same week as me, also bought the same machines. We took a few lessons with an instructor that came to my house. From her, we were able to learn the basics. From there, we have been reading a lot of tutorials online and consulting with Janice's mom and each other. We have been able to get together a few times to sew together, but mainly have been emailing and texting back and forth with questions and advice. Both Janice and Nicole made adorable nursing covers. I have received several as gifts, so I did not make one. My big undertaking was my very own hospital gown!! Nicole made her's first and was able to give Janice and I some pointers. I learned a lot about technique and tried some new things with this project. I do not plan to wear the gown for delivery. I will wear one from the hospital and let them deal with that mess. I plan to wear my own afterwards. It certainly isn't perfect...but it is so exciting and rewarding that I was able to take a piece of fabric and turn it into this hospital gown that I will wear after my baby is born. It even has snaps along the shoulders so it can open up for nursing or if I have an IV.

My next project was a carseat canopy. Nicole said that when Liam was little, they used to drape a blanket over the carrier if they were in public and it started to rain, he was sleeping, or it was noisy. It will also be nice to protect the baby from people that want to get too close. Since Baby E will be born at the beginning of flu season, it will be important to keep her protected. We met with the pediatrician last week and he could not stress that enough! So a carseat canopy was a must! It was acutally easy to make and fun. I had a hard time choosing a fabric. The carrier is charcoal grey, so I wanted something that matched. There aren't many girly prints in that color scheme. Then I came across this black fabric with coral, charcoal, and white butterflies. It is a bit busy, but the colors are really pretty. I used a coordinating coral and white flower fabric for the underneath. It really turned out well and I am happy I did this project.

I have also been working on appliqueing some gowns, but I can't show those...they have the baby's first intial! Appliqueing is fun and I hope to start doing some shapes soon and not just letters. I have also done bibs, burps cloths, and blankets. My next project is a taggy blanket. Will post pictures when I am done. We also took a class on embroidery. I am still confused on that aspect of my machine and need to practice.

I am "sew" happy I am learning to sew and that I have Nicole and Janice on this journey with me. It was been a great way to prepare for this baby!

Butterfly carseat canopy

Button detail (straps actually velcro on)

View of the underneath