Grace Holly is Here!!

Our rainbow baby, Grace Holly, has arrived! She was born on Monday, January 13, 2014, at 5:52pm. She weighed 7 lbs, 5 oz, and was 20.5 in long. She has beautiful dark brown hair and big blue eyes. She was born naturally and without any drugs, like her big brother, Caden. This was a harder labor than I had with Caden but it is all well worth it! I'll write about her birth and my experience in an American hospital another time.

We are proud and exhausted parents. We were able to leave the hospital the next evening, around 7pm. She did not pass her bilirubin test so her first doctor's appointment was when she was 2 days old. Her bilirubin was still really high but not off the charts. She weighed 6 lbs, 12 oz. We had to get blood work done to check her levels to see if we needed a medical person to bring us a light station for jaundice. Thankfully her blood levels were good enough to come in the following day to the doctor when she was 3 days old. She weighed 6 lbs, 13 oz. and her bilirubin levels were getting better that we don't have to go back to the doctor until she is 2 weeks old.  My milk came in on day 3 and that should help her levels normalize according to the doctor.  Overall, I had a wonderful experience and look forward to documenting her birth. A few highlights include around 6 hours, 22 minutes of active labor from when my water broke. Since I was going natural and drug free I was able to walk around, use the birthing ball, eat crackers, and drink water and juice until I didn't want anymore or delivered. I was able to get Grace out in 4 pushes, it took me an hour of pushing with Caden. I had a wonderful doctor, Dr. Kolar, who was 100% supportive of a natural and drug free labor and delivery. She helped "fight" for my wishes for my birthing experience. I didn't want pitocin unless absolutely necessary and a nurse tried to give it to me I told her no thanks and to talk to my doctor. Other than that, no other drugs were offered until after I gave birth, which was kind of strange. Although healing from giving birth is another story. I'll write more when I write about that experience.  One of my favorite memories will be Caden's huge smile when he first met Grace. He was grinning ear-to-ear. He loves his sister and is one of the proudest big brothers I have ever seen. I wish I had a camera to capture his smile. After she was born, Caden showed up with my parents, my older brother and his wife, and my sister and her husband. Her umbilical cord stump fell off today at 5 days old. We are so thankful to God for her safe arrival. Thank you all for praying for me and her. She is truly a gift.

Here are some pictures of our beautiful girl.

Before heading to the hospital

One of the first pictures with my daughter

First family picture

World's happiest dad!

First bath

Hearing test, she passed!

Getting ready for her first car ride home

My doctor

Proud Granddad

My parents and their two grandkids

Caden's First Basketball Game



It was a little cold out this morning but he was so excited!

Today Caden had his first basketball game. His team is called The Leopards! We signed him up for a basketball league called Upward.  It's a Christian athletic group and they meet at chuches to play. This church is 5 minutes from our house so perfect distance for an 8:30am game. Caden has been wanting to play since last year but we thought 3 was a little young. He had a blast! His team also won. He's not able to make a basket yet but hopefully as the season goes on, he'll be able to. All of the 6 year olds on his team made a basket. 4 of his friends from church are on his team - Kaison, Carson, Jacob, and Ben. I'm so glad there are so many sweet boys (and girls) who go to church with us. It's been a hard adjustment from living in Germany and we were so sad not to attend where we went before we moved overseas.  There are 8 kids on his team which is a good number to have.



Caden did great for his first game. He showed compassion to his friend who ws having a hard time. He listened well to his coaches. And most importantly he had a great time.

 

Here are some pictures from the game. These were taken with my cell phone so sometimes the kids moved a little too fast for my camera.

Trying to shoot a basket

His team

Getting ready for the ball toss

His friend passes him the ball

 

Running back across the court

When we got home later this afternoon we saw our neighbors and their son out riding his bike. Caden wanted to ride too so we walked while the kids road their bikes. We found out his friend, Aiden, is 10 days younger than Caden. I didn't know they were so close in age. This summer will be fun when we're able to go to our neighborhood pool again. We have some really nice kids who live in our neighborhood and it's neat to have a place where they can meet and play.

38 weeks and I carry on!



38 weeks!

We are getting close to meeting our sweet baby.  I keep telling myself that anyway.  I'm not sure if Gracie will ever come. I'm in my 38th week, am 4 cm dilated, and 70% effaced.  I'm also having very regular contractions and have had to stop my blood thinners.  I'm exhausted, am having horrible heartburn and reflux, and am ready to meet my baby!  I know lots of women don't have their babies until 40 weeks or later.  That could be me!  I thought that would be what would happen when I was pregnant with Caden but he came naturally at 38 weeks.  The labor I'm experiencing is called prodromal labor. Every day, many times, multiple times a day, I have regular hard contractions.  Sadly these contractions lead to nothing.  At least I'm dilating, I wish it was more.  My doctor swept my membranes on Thursday and said she thought she'd probably see me in the hospital this weekend. Well, not sure if that will happen or not. 


Friday I was bleeding quite a bit and I called and the nurse told me to get checked out.  I really didn't want to go to the hospital but I went and sure enough nothing really was progressing.  After laying in bed for a while they checked my contractions and I had 2 strong ones in 15 minutes so I was able to leave.

 

Last week my OB said she could break my water on Monday if I wanted and hadn't had my baby yet. I don't think I'm going to do that. I'd rather he strip the membranes some more and see if something happens then. Since I need to be on blood thinners and can't, it's not good for me to go too many weeks not being on them. So maybe next Wednesday. I really don't want a lot of medical intervention but am also exhausted.

 

We finally saw her sweet face on Thursday. I think she looks like Caden did. She's been so low and hiding that we hadn't been able to see her. I think since we turned her some last Sunday she was at an angle we could see. Her poor face was smashed up against the inside of my belly but at least we saw her. Her nose and lips are not that big. When we saw her moving around and after she moved her hand away her features weren't so exaggerated. None the less, she is beautiful. It was so neat to see her blinking her eyes too. She measured a little smaller than on Monday at 7 lbs, 2 oz. Seems like a perfect size to me! :) 

 

As my daughter's birthday is coming nearer every day, I am reminded how precious life is and how truly blessed I am to be pregnant and carrying a baby again.  I know many women would give an arm or leg to have a baby of their own. I think about my past and how a year ago I sort of gave up the hope of having a child. Then I ended up getting pregnant and now here we are. I'm also trying to enjoy these last days with Caden who is so excited about having a sister. God has blessed us again. We are truly thankful to Him. And I want to hug and send my love to the women who are trying to conceive but haven't yet or who have lost a baby or more. I am sorry.

 

 

Long Labor and 10th Wedding Anniversary!

Gracie is still not here. I'm learning to have more compassion toward women who have long drawn out labors. It's truly exhausting! This is such a different experience than I had with Caden. We thought she might be coming on our anniversary and if I would have stayed at the hospital she would have! Friday night we thought my water broke. We headed to the hospital and the test came back positive. They had me lay in a bed and wanted to continuously monitor the baby's heartbeat and my contractions.  That was uncomfortable. Laying there they were a consistent 2 to 3 minutes apart. I was dilated at 2cm like Monday and about 85% effaced. However, I thought it was strange that more water wasn't coming out. I thought I'd be sitting in a puddle. I finally asked the nurse about it and she said they have gotten some false positives.  I asked if they could check again or open a new batch. She said it would be inconclusive if they had a positive and a negative. My doctor was away on family business and the doctor on-call agreed to do another kind of test like they used to. I told them that if my water hadn't broke I'd rather go home and labor there. The nurse wanted to keep me over night and induce me Saturday morning. When the old kind of test was done and came back negative I was told I could walk around a bit. I walked 30 minutes and came back my contractions were really strong at 1 to 2 minutes apart but I wasn't dilating anymore. I asked to go home. It was 1am. Finally about 1:30am they let me go and told me to come back in the morning. I was there 7 hours and nothing! It was nice to sleep in my own bed. There was no way I could sleep in the hospital bed with the monitors on my belly. My parents kept Caden for the first time at their house. It was really nice of them.



Our 10 anniversary! I'm so tired here!

Saturday was our 10th anniversary. We spent our 5th at a castle in Germany and our 10th at the hospital mostly at home. I was pregnant with Caden on our 5th and Gracie on our 10th. That's pretty neat. I should write a whole post about the last 10 years. They have been great! We exchanged gifts Friday night before going to the hospital. Collin gave me beautiful diamond stud earrings and a beautiful necklace with 1 Corinthians 13 on it. I gave him a Pebble watch and a Bento Box wrapped in foil. For modern gifts it's diamonds, for traditional gifts is aluminum and tin.  He went with modern and I went with traditional. Love him!! We woke up Saturday morning and got ready and picked Caden up from my parents and went to lunch at Outback. Contractions were still going on but it mainly feels like lots of pressure with some pain. Saturday night my dad got back and he was able to watch Caden so we could go to dinner. I wasn't very hungry so we ate at Boston Market. I'm so glad throughout our marriage we've eaten at so many nice restaurants. Originally we were planning on going to Del Friscos but since we weren't sure if the baby was going to come we needed to stay within about 10 minutes of the hospital and ate at Outback for lunch. We thought about going to Red Lobster that evening but I couldn't stomach it.

 

My parents were not able to keep Caden Saturday night.  Thankfully, our preacher and his wife took Caden Saturday night to their house. It was his first time to spend the night at a friend's house. They have 3 kids and he didn't want to go. I felt horrible making him go while he was crying and begging not to go. He knows them and their kids and has been to their house a number of times so I knew he'd be fine. They said he stopped crying shortly after he was in the car with them. The next day he told me he was scared but ended up having a lot of fun at their house. I was so glad! He wanted to go back over and play.

 

Meanwhile, Saturday night I was bleeding some. I decided to see if I bled a lot or my water broke before heading back to the hospital. I was still really tired from the night before and decided to just go to bed. Sunday morning I woke up with bad contractions and lots of back pain. I was hurting all over. We waited until 7am to go to the hospital since I didn't want to enter through the emergency entrance. I had a better experience Sunday morning. The head nurse was great and when I mentioned how bad my back hurt she said it sounded like the baby was sunny side up and if we could turn her the back pain should go away. She showed me how to do the runner's position and after about 15-20 minutes I felt her turn. When I sat up the pain went away. My contractions also slowed down. The nurse helping me Sunday morning was really nice. They wanted me to get a sonogram to check everything out. Gracie looked perfect and since I was dilated to 3cm she gave me the option of going home and staying. If I was at a 4 then I would have had to stay. I told her I wanted to go home.

 

We made it to the end of church service and got Caden. Then we went to lunch and I came home and rested all day. I took a shower and got in my pajamas. My back pain is mostly gone, the contractions are still going on but overall I'm feeling better.

 

Laying in a hospital bed will not help labor progress

This morning I had a doctor's appointment. My doctor said some women just have long labors. The baby seems like she'll come then will stop. She said since things moved fast with my son then I needed to be prepared to have her at home. She gave us cord clamps and a bulb syringe. She told my husband what to do if we got in that situation. She said she's right there and could come anytime. I asked about stripping the membranes. She said to come back Thursday if she's not born and she'll do it then since I'll be 38 weeks. That's a more natural way of helping move things along. The baby is measuring 7 lbs, 12 oz. By law she can't induce until 39 weeks unless one of my maternal fetal medicine doctors approve it. Which the older one in the group I go to most likely would. So if stripping the membranes didn't work she could break my water Monday and we'll have her then. However, I would rather have as little medical intervention as possible. So hopefully she'll either come before Monday or the stripping of the membranes will work. I also don't want to have a super big baby. Caden came at 38 weeks naturally so maybe she will too. Thankfully her head is engaged my body just has to release her.

 



We are ready for anything!

When I was getting my sonogram this morning the nurse said, "your baby is really moving around!" I looked down and she was. Since she's constantly moving and I'm having constant contractions I've learned to block them out more.

 

Please pray for a safe delivery and a healthy baby and mama. When I was pregnant with Caden and thinking about delivering in Germany I would remind myself about how Mary gave birth to Jesus in a barn with Joseph and most likely no doctors and lots of animals around. Not the most clean or ideal situation. I live in a clean house and the hospital is 10 minutes away. I didn't have any drugs with Caden and I'm not planning on having any with this baby. If I'm induced I have heard that the pain increases greatly. I'm not opposed to pain medicine I just would rather not have any if I'm doing okay and the baby is. Now I'm going to go rest. I'm tired.

 

By the way, when we showed up at the hospital Friday night. There was a baby being wheeled into the nursery. Caden asked, "is that my baby sister?" I told him, "nope, she's still in my belly." Haha!