And baby makes five ....

Well, life certainly has changed for us again!  Very early Sunday morning (5/17/09) at 12:16 am we welcomed Aaron Patton into our family (yes, that's his middle name!).  After over a week of false labor days, he was nice enough to bless me with a quick delivery at Samaritan Hospital.  Many of you have inquired about how things went so I'll recount our story here.  I began having regular contractions that were 10-15 minutes apart around 9:30 pm on 5/16.  By 10:30pm the contractions were a little over 5 minutes apart and getting stronger.  We called the doctor at 10:55pm and were on the road within 10 minutes.  The hospital is only 15 minutes away but we sped down Rt. 7 (passing 3 cars in the turning lane and running 2 red lights) because my contractions were coming 4 minutes or less apart and very strong.  We arrived at the hospital at 11:25 (ish) where the nurses told me I was 7-8cm.  After several more contractions  (they were coming 1-2 minutes apart now) my water broke, I was 10 cm and the nurse was telling me that she "could delivery the baby if needed" since the doctor wasn't there yet!  As soon as I heard the doctor's voice I began pushing, which was somewhere around 12:05am and within a couple of pushes, Aaron was born!  He was 8 lbs., 2 ozs. and 21 inches long.  I was so surprised as, given my pregnancy size, I was sure he'd only be 7 lbs.!  The doctor was able to get some cord blood into the collection kit and the courier arrived to collect the cord blood within the hour!  I am so thankful to have our new baby boy finally here with us!  He is healthy and, so far, has been relatively easy-going (I know, it's early still!).  We arrived home yesterday from the hospital at 4:30pm and are getting settled in!  People have asked who we think Aaron looks like and I would have to say he looks a lot like Alex when he was born.  Both Alex and Emily have been SO happy to have a baby brother and have been so well behaved throughout the last couple of days!  We are truly blessed!  

As many of you know, we are most likely going to be moving to Ireland for about a year beginning this summer (probably July).  I've been informed that the job of documenting our travels has been officially given to me so I'll use this blog as a primary sounding board and resource for getting info out to friends and family.  

As I look back on the years we've had together as a family, I originally thought that 2007 was a crazy year of change with the construction of the house and job changes for both Tim and myself.  Little did I know that 2009 would trump that year ten-fold!  Thank you to everyone for your continued support and prayers for us as we continue on our journey. 

Keep checking back in the coming weeks for more photos and stories of our new adventures as a family of five.  

Still here, still pregnant!

At the request of a fellow mom friend,  I'm letting you all know that I'm "still here and still pregnant"!  Although I thought for certain I would have this baby over Mother's Day weekend, I was wrong!  Life is always teaching us things, right?!?  Well, the lesson I'm learning here is that each pregnancy is different!  I've never had the pleasure of experiencing false labor, until now.  While the contractions haven't been terribly painful, I've had several days in a row with a few hours at a time of on and off contractions that are uncomfortable.  Every time they start, I think "okay, this is it" and just wait for them to get stronger.  To my disappointment, they just go away.  I remember very clearly when I was in labor with Emily, I awoke in the middle of the night with one contraction that felt much like the contractions I've been experiencing lately.  Twenty minutes later, I felt another contraction that was noticeably stronger, and then 8 minutes after that, yet another one even more strong.  It was clear that I was in labor.  This time around, it's different!  I keep expecting that same course of events to unfold as it did 4 years ago, but nope!  This one is just taking its time getting ready!  I'm anxious for my next drs. appt. to find out how much more I've progressed.  With all of the pressure and contractions I've felt, I keep thinking to myself, "I MUST be more than 3 cm by now!".  I keep trying to tell myself that it's still early yet (I'm not due for another week) and to let nature do its thing.  It's difficult to maintain that perspective but I'm trying!

Baby will be here soon!

Disclaimer:  If you don't want to read about the stuff that happens before a woman goes into labor, stop reading now, although I promise it's not too graphic!

Well folks, with any luck, this will be my last post before you get to see a picture of our little bundle of joy!  I had an appt. with my doctor's office this afternoon and to my delight, the doctor informed me that I'm 3 cm dilated, 50% effaced and the cervix is soft (which we knew from 3 weeks ago).  I went to the appointment hoping that he would tell me I was 1-2 cm dilated and was prepared to be happy with that.  I suspected, though that much more has been happening since I've felt a lot of pressure really low for the last couple of days.  The Braxton-Hicks contractions have continued to occur often as they have since the fifth or sixth month of this pregnancy.  Now, technically, I could go another 1-2 weeks without dilating any more (so I have to put in that disclaimer) but my prediction is that we'll have our baby in the next week.  I'm hoping for Mother's Day!

Another update on baby:

Today I had another ultrasound and appointment with the midwife and Mom L was able to join Emily and I for the visit.  It was nice to see the baby again on the monitor and No..... we are STILL not finding out the baby's gender!  ;-)So basically everything looks good.  The technician said that the heartbeat was normal and all of the baby's limbs/organs looked good.  They estimate the baby's weight to be 2 lbs., 13 ozs. today, which puts our little peanut in the 41st percentile.  The due date is still unchanged (5/19/09) and the baby's head was down.  I visited with the midwife after the ultrasound who indicated that all of my bloodwork is "right down the middle for values" so basically, I'm average!  I'm down to scheduling appointments with the midwife/doctors now for every two weeks.  The picture below is of the baby's face (although it's probably hard to tell for most people).  The forehead and eyes are to the right of the image and the nose and mouth are toward the center from the right.  The blurry spot in the middle of the image is an arm that was sort of crossed over part of the face.  At one point, we could see the baby opening and closing it's mouth, which was neat!

Simply, an update ...

Our house and calendar have been bustling with activities over the last couple of weeks and a quick glance at the near future indicates that it will be more of the same!  On Friday, I had my monthly check-up with my midwife and although things went well, he indicated that I'm "measuring small" for how far along I am in my pregnancy so he's ordered another ultrasound in a couple of weeks just to be sure that the baby's growth is okay.  I seem to remember this sort of occurrence when I was pregnant with Alex..... (any indication that it's a boy? hmmm... well, my gut has always "told" me girl but that's off the topic!).  So I'll go for my ultrasound and another appointment with the midwife in about 3 weeks.  From there, I'll  meet with the midwife every 2 weeks.

I've been diligently working on readying the nursery.  With Tim's portion of the work done, it was time for painting and it's seems that the painting hasn't stopped in the last 2 days.  Today my task was to complete painting of the crown and chair rail moldings.  I also began a project a few days ago of constructing wall mount book bins to hang on the wall behind the closet door, which I was able to get painted today as well.  I'm hoping to have the moldings in place and the room somewhat put together by this weekend so that Tim can see an almost finished room when he arrives home from Virginia.

On Sunday we attended the Cub scout Blue & Gold Banquet where Alex received his Tiger Cub badge and 1 year pin.  We were very proud of how well behaved both Alex and Emily were during, what turned out to be a long banquet.  Of course, it helped that they ended the banquet with a 30 min. presentation by a magician!

That's all for now... check back again soon!

The latest Preggo Pic!

Well folks, here it is.... I'm about 15 weeks away from the end of my last pregnancy and here's a picture of me and my baby bump!  The four of us are all getting excited about our impending arrival and I think it's been more pronounced lately because the belly's more noticeable now than ever.  Let the stretching begin!

Getting Ready for Baby!

Now that the holidays are over and life is beginning to get back to normal, I'm turning my focus on the next few projects for the year.  One of which, of course, is getting ready for the baby's arrival.  Today Alex & Emily and I went to BabysRUs to register for a few items that we will need for the baby.  Although we have a lot of things that are needed, some items are nearly 7 years old and are either in rough shape or simply not recommended for use (like the infant car seat that is only rated for 5 years because, according to the manufacturer, the plastic quality degrades after that length of time).  Anyway, the main purpose for creating a registry is to take advantage of the close-out program that the store offers, in which they'll send me a coupon good for 10% off my purchases from the registry.  Keeping this in mind, I've included things on the registry that ARE gender specific, so that I can buy them after the baby arrives and still get the discount!  

I have two sets of bedding picked out for the baby's room.  The plan is to wait until our little one arrives to purchase the bedding and use the bassinette until the bedding arrives.  

If it's a girl, we'll get this bedding:  "Butterfly Meadow" by Kidsline, Inc. 

If it's a boy, we'll get this bedding: "Baby Noah" by Bananafish

For anyone interested in taking a peek at the registry, it's registry #94774637 at BabysR'Us.

  

PPD Test... is it safe for me?

Well, this seems to be the question of the week for me.  It all started with Part I of my physical exam required for my employment at Samaritan Hospital.  Employees are required to take a PPD (Tuberculosis) test unless otherwise noted by their physician.  I was advised by my future director to discuss the PPD test with my OB to determine if it's safe during pregnancy.  The director has indicated that other employees had opted to wait until after their babies were born to have the test done.  So I went online to do some research and found some sites that stated the test was completely safe and valid during pregnancy.  Other sites recommended against having the test because they stated it was a Class C injection, which meant that animal reproduction testing had not been done for the substance.  I also talked with a friend who is a nurse who told me that she waited with both of her pregnancies to have the test done.  Now, I've always taken a "better safe than sorry" approach to my pregnancies so I decided not to get the test done.  No problem, right?!?  WRONG!!!  I went to my routine OB visit on Friday and everything went fine, despite the rather monotone bedside manner of my physician, until I asked him to write a note excusing me from the test.  He refused to write the note and explained that the test was completely safe and he felt he couldn't lie and recommend that I not have it done.  

Well, needless to say, I was extremely upset when I left the office.  I'd had problems with scheduling of appointments with the practice in the past and was met with resistance by my doctor at another occasion and ultimately felt that I couldn't trust that my doctor would be on my side and communication with me throughout the pregnancy.  So I choose to request my medical records and now I'm in the process of finding a different OB and a different hospital.  I'm so frustrated because I feel like I've gone out of my way to ensure that everything goes smoothly with my doctor's office, yet it seems that no matter how much I try, it all ends up a mess anyway!  I just hope that I can find a doctor soon that will be supportive and informative so that I don't have to worry about all of this crap!  The doctors that delivered Alex and Emily gave me a hard time about WHERE I was going to deliver and tried to scare me into going to Albany Med instead of St. Peter's.  I even had to lie to my OB when I was in labor with Emily because she was arguing with me at 2am about which hospital we were meeting at (despite the fact that I made it VERY clear during the prior 9 months where I would be going).   I had hoped so much that I wouldn't have to deal with that sort of thing for this pregnancy, but sadly, it seems that with the way our healthcare system is run these days, my hopes may never be a reality.

First Ultrasound of Baby #3

Today I had my first ultrasound done of baby #3 and it was exciting for us. I was happily surprised when Tim showed up for the appointment, which was not planned since the appointment was in the middle of the day and he had to get out of work for it. We arrived at Seton's Imaging place a little early and the technicians took us back quickly. There was a more experienced technician training another technician so I think we spent a little more time "learning" about the baby (and me) than we normally would have, which was nice. Overall, I'm a pretty happy camper, now that I've seen the baby in there, and saw the little tiny heart fluttering! They said that the baby is measuring on target for what we had predicted my due date to be and that they consider me now at 9 weeks and 1 day pregnant. Here is a video and picture of our first ultrasound. Enjoy!

First OB Appointment

Well, today I had my first OB appointment and it was somewhat anticlimactic. Since I'm a new patient to my doctor's office, I wasn't sure of ALL that I could expect from the appointment. The doctor seemed nice enough, although very monotone and serious, and the nurse was very friendly and chipper. The doctor was relatively thorough in going over my medical history and following our discussion, he completed the exam. He said that it seemed as though I'm around 8 weeks along and so he wouldn't even attempt to look for a heartbeat with the Doppler since he would likely NOT hear one (the instrument usually isn't sensitive enough to pick it up until 10 weeks). He scheduled me for an ultrasound next week just to get an accurate due date and check things out. So I walked away from the office, happy that I met the doctor and encouraged by his promptness in getting me in to the exam room, but disappointed that I didn't get to even hear a heart beat. Oh well, I guess it will be worth the wait another couple of days to get an ultrasound and see everything and hear a heart beat that way! Another disappointment - I learned today that they do not allow videography during delivery..... something that I was hoping to capture in a relatively non-graphic form since I wasn't allowed to tape Alex's birth and we accidentally taped over Emily's arrival! Hmmm..... Maybe I can get my sister to somehow sneak some shots of labor.... (wink wink) if she's there with us!

Baby Names and such ....

To my disappointment, my doctor's office called yesterday morning and cancelled my appointment for the afternoon. After some difficulty and frustration, they were able to "squeeze" me in for my first prenatal visit on Oct. 10th. I must admit, besides the disappointment I felt, I'm also worried now about my decision to switch doctors. It was a necessary evil to switch since my former OBGYN docs don't even have hospital privileges at St. Mary's Hospital. But the cancellation concerns me, especially after a friend of mine mentioned a few weeks ago that she had issues with the office consistently cancelling her OB appointments when she was pregnant with her last child. I guess I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and try it for a couple of months, but I don't want to get too far into this pregnancy feeling a lack of confidence in the medical care I'll be getting.

So on to a happier note..... in thinking of our future arrival yesterday, I spent a half hour or so searching online for baby names. While on vacation this summer we compiled a list of baby names (mostly girls, though) from a geneology database that Tim's Uncle and Aunt have been working on (Thanks Dean & Laura!), and I thought I'd look for some other names last night. Here are some of the names I like so far (in no particular order):
Boys - Aaron, James, Evan
Girls - Anabel, Evalyn, Charlotte, Sarah, Adeline (pronounced with the long "I" sound), Juliet, Sonia

Update on Medical appointments

Well, we've had a busy month (and it's not over yet) for follow-ups on medical issues but this seems to be the month to clear the air! Alex had his 6 year old checkup a couple of weeks ago with his pediatrician and everything seems to be normal. We brought Alex on Tuesday morning to Dr. Bulford to get the lab results and follow-up on the minor lesion removal from his lower lip. Dr. Bulford said that, as suspected, the lesion was a mucoscele which he described as a spit gland that got clogged with saliva. He said it shouldn't recur and we don't need to see him again. Also, this afternoon, we visited with Dr. Cevera (ENT) to re-check Alex's ears. Several months ago, Alex developed fluid in his ears that caused a very mild hearing loss. It's taken many months of wait and see and a long course of Nasonex, but today the doctor said that all of the fluid is finally gone (Yay... no tubes!) and that we'll just re-check again in 3-4 months to be certain that the fluid hasn't come back. He'll go back to the doctor in January which will be a good time since that would probably be the timeframe (cold season) for the fluid to come back if it were going to.

And lastly, I have my first prenatal visit with my new OB/GYN doctors this coming Monday. I'm excited about the first visit. Although it's all sort of "old hat" for me, this last pregnancy will be different in some ways. The first difference is that this baby will be born at St. Mary's Birthing Center instead of at St. Peter's Hospital and the doctors/midwives that will deliver the baby will be from a different practice. My first appointment next week has been scheduled a little early (with my last two pregnancies, I didn't have the first appt. until I was about 10 weeks along) and so I'm not sure that they will do much more than review my medical history and confirm the pregnancy with a test. Normally they'd listen to the baby's heartbeat but, again, I don't think you can hear it until around 10 weeks so I'm not getting my hopes up for anything too exciting. I should be about 7 weeks pregnant at my first appointment and if my calculations are correct, the estimated due date is May 19th, 2009.

Chaos vs. Control

You have to check out this video that I made! It's about a subject matter that is very near to my heart and I think you'll find it interesting and fun!