Introducing.... Avery Marie Rhodes!

I remember in my blog last week Thursday, after getting my stitches removed, I wrote, "If I am still pregnant one week from now I will be in shock!" Well I just barely missed the one week mark by about 8 hours. Avery Marie Rhodes was born one Wednesday, July 18th at 11:59 pm. She was 7 pounds, 14 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. She has a full head of black hair and is of course, super adorable. :)

Here are the major events leading up to Avery's birth.

Thursday, after getting my stitches removed,  my cervix was already dialated to 3 cm and probably about 90 percent effaced (thinned out). I started having contractions, but they weren't really painfu. They gave me a pill to stop them and "ultimately" they sent me home from the hospital, thinking labor may start soon after, probably in the next day or two. I was totally expecting her to come over the weekend. I was having little contractions but they were nothing regular and I couldn't ever time them. So on Monday, I ended up calling my doctor's office and saying, "I don't think anyone expected me to still be pregnant, but I am. So I guess I should make a weekly check-up appointment for this Wednesday." I purposely picked Wednesday thinking, "Then I will be exactly 37 weeks and if my check-up starts my labor, they will consider me full-term and let me deliver." I know with both Gabe and Caleb I had a check-up the day previous or the day of their birth, so I was hoping it would speed things along!

Monday and Tuesday I was still just thinking, "I can't believe I am still pregnant." I got a lot of calls wondering if I had had her. But no. It was just the usual... taking Caleb to gymnastics, taking Gabe to soccer, seeing our weekly Summer movie in the cheap seats (it was Megamind this week...). I was beginning to wonder if she would stay in there till my due date! I started telling Gabe to pray she would come so that we could go foreward with our plan to go to Wisconsin for a visit in August. I said, "if she isn't born this week we probably won't go." That really got Gabe worried! He started including in his prayers at night that "our baby will be born soon."

Well, that must've done the trick! On Wednesday at 3:00, Diane (Josh's mom) got to our house to babysit the boys while we went to Idaho Falls for our appointment. I took my hospital overnight bag just in case. I told Diane, "I hope they check me and see that I am dialated to a 5 or 6 and decide to send me straight to the hospital to break my water." I think she thought I was dreaming because most women are in immense pain if they are dialated to a 5 or 6 and are actively labor in the hospital. But we told her we would call her from the appointment and let her know if we thought we would be back that night or not. I had a backpack for the boys to stay overnight at her house packed and ready at the top of the stairs in our house. I had this pretty planned out in my head for it to happen!

So, we got to the doctor and I had still been having little contractions but not too painful, just like my stomach was tightening. When we got to the doctor, we went in and saw Nicole because Dr. Huggins was really busy with other deliveries and stuff but I guess she was in and out of the office. Nicole checked me and told me that, guess what, I WAS dialated to what she said was "about a 5 or 6." I instantly thought, "Yes! Let's go to the hospital!" But Nicole was still reacting like, "Well, if you're not having contractions.... you can just go back to Rexburg until you're ready." And I was like, "Uh... no... I want to have my contractions monitored because I think my labor is starting and as soon as my water breaks she will be out in minutes." She finally was like, "Well, we have a room where we can monitor your contractions for a little while if you want." And I was like, "Uh... duh!" no just kidding. But seriously, I was thinking "Yes, that would be a good idea. I am glad I am telling YOU what needs to be done." So then I went into that little room where they hooked my belly up and watched me for about 30 minutes. At the end of that time, Nicole came in and got the print-out of all the little hills and valleys, indidctaing contractions, and said, "I need to go talk to Dr. Huggins and she what she thinks."

When she came back this time, she said, "I am going to strip your membranes and that will probably get your contractions going..." but then when I went into the little regular exam room again it was Dr. Huggins who walked in and checked me. She said, "I would say you are dialted to more like a 7. I am going to send you over to the hospital and come over and break your water because I am afraid if I send you home to Rexburg your water will break and you will have this baby in the car." I was thinking, "Yes, I am glad someone else recognizes that fact!" It made me really glad that I had kind of pushed it with Nicole and not just been like, "Okay, thanks! See ya next week!" and gone home.
If I would have, that could have been a totally different birth story - and a very scary one!

Then we went out to the lobby again and Dr. Huggins was trying to locate the results of my Group B strep test. I told her she wasn't going to find them because Nicole had just barely done the swab like, 30 minutes prior. They usually do that test at about 36 weeks, but I guess when I got my stitches out they all kind of forgot about it because I didn't actually go into her office that week, just the hospital.
The crappy thing about not having done it earlier was that they didn't have the results back yet, therefore they had to treat me like I DID have it, just to be safe, and put some antibiotics into my IV for at least 4 hours before my delivery. I guess Group B strep is no big deal to the mom but if the baby gets it during delivery, it can develop into a serious problem. But they can treat in by giving you penicilon for at least 4 hours in your IV before you deliver.

This was kind of a bummer because I got to the hospital at about 6:00 and Dr. Huggins was going to break my water right away, but then she realized I needed to delay it for 4 hours. So I had to just kind of lay there and wait until 10:30 when she could come in and break my water and send baby flying out! In that four hours, I was like, "Time for my epidural!!!" I really wasn't in much pain when I got checked into the hospital but I was like, "I know it will get worse, so let's get this rollin!" The epidural man came in at about 6:30 and I sat on the side of the bed while he got it going into my back. Getting an epidural isn't super fun, and it's kind of scary to be putting so much trust into someone who could make one wrong move and potentially parylize you forever, but let me tell you, this labor and delivery was so easy it was crazy. That epidural man is a genius. And God is a genius for making man create the epidural. I had told him about my experience in Wisconsin where only half of my body went numb and he was like, "Well we're going to make you a believer in Idaho medicine." He totally did. He was really funny. When it was about done I was like, "I heard some women have this special button to push when they are in pain and want more drug pumped in..." and he was like, "Yup! Here's your button!" I was so excited. I have never had a button. :)

Like, as I was laying there, watching TV and kind of dozing in and out of sleep while I could see the monitor was registering my huge, mountain sized contractions, I was thinking, "Pioneer women would hate me if they could see this labor. This is insane how calm and relazing this is." Gabe and Caleb's births were both sooo painful. Gabe's was the worst. Caleb's hurt but not as bad and for not as long. Avery's was like, 4 relaxing hours that ended with pushing a baby out in 2 pushes and no pain. So crazy. When Dr. Huggins broke my water at about 10:30, she checked me and said, "You're really close to being ready to push but lets give you some pitocin to just speed it up a little and get you there." So then I guess she had to go perform an emergency C-section on someone else nearby and I didn't really mind anyways because I wasn't in any pain. When she came back in the room it was exactly 11:55 pm and she asked, "Well, do you want to have this baby on the 18th or the 19th? Do you like evens or odds?" And I was like, "I just want this to be done so I can have something to eat!" (I hadn't eaten since lunch time! So my only pain was hunger pain!) So, we got into position (they had to lift my leg into the stirrups because they were so numb) and she told me when to start pushing during the first contraction. I did like, 3 big pushes. Then I waited about a minute for the next contraction and did about 2 or 3 more pushes and they told me she was out! I seriously would not have even know it unless they told me. Then they set her up on my belly while Josh cut the cord and nurses buzzed around getting things ready. She was covered in the white cheesy stuff and looked kind of gross but of course, I was still so excited to see her! She did cry a little bit but not a ton. I think they just needed to suction her out a little bit. They didn't seem concerned and then they took her over to the other side of the room and wiped her off and weighed her and everything. Dr. Huggins was pretty surprised at how big she was. I wasn't though. :) I grow'em big. Also, I was born at 38 weeks and weighed 8 lbs 3 oz. Josh weighed over 9. Caleb weighed 7 lbs 15 oz at 36 weeks. It was about what I expected.

Josh was sooo exhausted because he had been working night shift and then a few things during the day between court and K-9 training, so I think he was running on something like 8 hours of sleep in the past 48 hours. When the sweet little old lady nurse asked Josh if he would like to come help give her her first bath, I could see on his face he was thinking, "No... I want to sleep now..." but he lied and said, "Um... sure..." and went to help her. By the time she was all clean and things were all kind of wrapped up, it was about 2:00 am and they moved us into a different, smaller recovery room. I had fed her for the first time and she did pretty well. She nursed for about an hour but I think she was half asleep the whole time. The nurses asked me if I wanted her to stay in the room with us over the night or if they should take her to the nursery so we could get some sleep. Josh gave me "the look." I said, "I think it would be best if we got some sleep. Just bring her in to me when you need her to eat."
I will admit, I wanted some sleep too. And food. We had stopped at Subway at 6:00 on our way to the hospital so I was finally able to eat my sandwhich. So then we slept from about 2 to 5 am. When they brought her in again at 5:00, we had a little trouble getting her to eat because she just seemed so tired (like me!) But over the next couple of days, the lactation lady helped me a lot and I am hoping we continue to get the hang of it in the coming days.

We ended up coming home from the hospital on Friday at about 4:00. The hospital food was nasty and I was ready to get home so our kids wouldn't have to be babysat by Diane anymore. Josh had slept at the hospital with me that first night, but the second night I told him to stay at home with the boys and get some sleep. Funny enough, Caleb peed in the bed next to him and Gabe woke up with a bad bloody nose everywhere so I guess he still didn't get much sleep!

The first time the boys met Avery was on Thursday morning at about 11:00 and Diane brought them down. They thought she was "sooo cute!" and Caleb is prone to poking her and loving on her - but a little too much sometimes! Gabe is able to hold her with a pillow on his lap without giving me a heart attack. :) She really is a cute little girl. I was kind of worried in the ultrasound when the lady told me she had daddy's nose, but she looks very feminine and sweet. Even the nurses said, "We see a lot of babies... and she is really very cute!"

We are so happy to have her here now and I am so excited to be done with the pregnancy! I have had some soreness and some swelling, especially in my feet. My boobs have felt like rocks that past couple of days as my milk has come in and my belly is still looking about 3 months pregnant. I asked Josh, "How long do you think it will be once we get hime that one of the boys asks me why I am still fat?" Caleb asked me about an hour after we got home, "Is there another baby in your tummy?" Yup, about as long as I expected. But I know soon I will be back to normal! (I hope)

Here are some pictures of our sweet baby girl!

No more stitches!

The day finally came after waiting for what seemed like forever! I finally got to see what had been inside me for so long! I got to meet my little...... stitches! Haha. You thought I was going to say baby.  Nope! She decided to stay in there for a little while longer and keep us all waiting some more. What a diva.

I was so excited for yesterday to finally come. I was busy getting my laundry done, a hospital bag packed, I got a babysitter lined up and a back-up sitter just in case we ended up being there all night. It was totally prepared for me to have my baby yesterday. So I guess it would just figure that of course she wouldn't come.

We arrived at the Idaho Falls hospital at about 7:30 am. My neighbor was at my house waiting for the boys to wake up so she could take them to her house for the day. I was pretty nervous on the ride down. I kept thinking about stories I had read online about the stitches being removed. Some said it was no big deal while others said, "It was the most painful 20 minutes of my life, worse than labor!" I was hoping to be in the "no big deal" category. Then I was also wondering if I would be going into labor shortly after, but that didn't even scare me as much because I knew I would already be in the hospital, being monitored and under a very controlled environment. I am always more scared of the unknown and the getting to the hospital part.

So anyways, we arrived at labor and delivery and my doctor happened to be there already behind the desk talking to the nurses. I went right into a room and got changed into a gown. It wasn't too long before my doctor came in and was ready to take the stitches out. I wouldn't say it was a fun experience but I also wouldn't say it was worse than labor or that it was super painful. It was painful, but I didn't have any drugs or anything. Kind of like a really long and really uncomfortable pap smear. TMI? Girls will understand. Then after that they wanted to monitor me for contractions for about an hour. After an hour, the nurse came back in and told me I had been having contractions but they lasted less than a minute (about 40 seconds) and weren't very big. They would come regulary for a few minutes then kind of stop for a while. So she had called my doctor and the doctor told her to give me a 20 mg Niphedipine to try and stop the contractions. I kind of didn't want to take the pill because I wanted her to just come and be done with it all but the nurse handed me the pill and the water and watched me take it. It was kind of a bummer. So then they monitored me for another hour and then they decided to send me home at about 11:30. The nurse had checked me again and I was still dialated to just a 3, which is what I was even when I had my stitches still in last week (except for the section that was stitched shut.) So, no change there.

We left the hospital and decided to go to Kohl's and a couple other places. After a couple more hours we decided it was safe to go back home to Rexburg. My doctor told me she wants me to keep taking the Niphedipine pills (10 mg, 3 times a day) that I had been taking for about the past 2 months. I guess the goal is at least 37 weeks. I thought it was 36 weeks. Maybe they just keep punking me and want me to go to 40 weeks. But I guess at that hospital they have a policy about having to keep any baby in the NICU for at least 12 hours that is born at less than 37 weeks. No exceptions. So I think they are just trying to avoid that "pre-term" label that would get her any time in the NICU.

Who thinks I will make it till next Wednesday??? (37 weeks) I don't have any clue. I guess we'll see! I am laying here feeling really yucky right now. Almost like, nauseous. I think my stomach keeps tightening like it was in the hospital but I don't want to go to the hospital until I am sure it's real labor. Plus I don't want a Friday the 13th baby. Then after that it's the weekend and that's kind of a hassle. Then Josh works again starting Monday so I think I better just hold off unil next Wednesday or Thursday. She couldn't just come yesterday! Dang it.

Oh and P.S. I turned 28 on Wednesday. Happy Birthday to me. 

Squeezing in lots of Summer Fun

Another week down.... hopefully only one week left to go!

I sort of feel like a ticking time bomb right now, so I am just trying to squeeze in as much fun stuff with the boys as possible lately and get done any last minute little projects that have been on my to-do list around the house. We also had lots of notable things happen this week! Here is the list:

1 - 4th of July fun
2 - New trampoline
3 - Caleb got his training wheels taken off
4 - Gabe started soccer
5 - Caleb is loving gymnastics
6 - Dad and boys went fishing down the river
7 - Mom had her last doctor's appointment before stitches come out

Josh had off on the 4th, except for he had to work the Rexburg parade from 8 am to 12:00. Which I don't really mind because he takes our lawn chairs and claims a good spot for us and we just have to show up at 9:55 and park our car right behind his police car and sit down in our good spots. :) No one gave me dirty looks either. Maybe the big pregnant belly scared them off. Then after the parade, we went up to Ashton and ate lunch at Ben and Heather's (Josh's sister). After that, we went over to Egin Lake and let the boys and Zoe cool off in the water a little. By about 5:30 we got home and relaxed for a bit, ate dinner, washed all the sand out of our clothes... Then that night we decided to just go up to the temple and watch all the fireworks we could see from the hill. It's a pretty casual, easy way to see some fireworks, without having to worry about getting in and out of a crowded location and getting home really late with cranky kids.

Second big news: We bought a trampoline this week! I think Josh wanted it more than anyone, but it's keeping the boys entertained so I like it. So now our backyard has a playhouse with a slide, a sandbox, and a trampoline. Not to mention two dogs.... it's like a little boys' paradise. "Spoiled, spoiled, spoiled!" (Gini will laugh that up...inside joke... good times...)

Third: Caleb has had his training wheels still on his new bike since we bought it for him in May. I really think he has stolen Gabe's bike previously and rode it around without training wheels for quite some time, but didn't want us to take the training wheels off his bike because he considered them more of a cool accesory. But this week we just did it and he has been riding like a pro since. He actually enjoys riding his bike more now I think because he can go so fast.

Fourth: Gabe had his first soccer practice on Thursday night! It is totally relaxed and they don't even have goalies when they play their games. It's just enough of an accomplishment for them to get the ball down the field into the goal. Gabe is actually really good though. We have never even really worked with him, but he totally knows how to get control of the ball and kick it and run with it all the way down the field. Some of the younger kids (they have some 5 year olds and one 4 year old) just kind of stand in the middle of the field and pick their nose as the ball rolls by them. The poor coach is yelling, "Get the ball! Chase it!" and they look at him like, "Huh? What? Me?" It's pretty funny to watch. Their first game is on Tuesday and they picked the name the "Cheetahs". We'll see how good the Cheetah's do! :)

Caleb also got to choose a Summer activity from the rec department catolog. He didn't have as many choices because he is only 4, but gymnastics was one of them and he loves it! They have even more boys than girls in his little class I think. He is always showing us things he's learned, like hand stands, "table tops", and "skin the cat" on the bar at the playground. He goes every Tuesday for an hour. Here is Caleb on the balance beam!

Josh and the boys had a little fishing trip on Thursday morning. They met up with Bryan (Josh's brother) and their cousin, Brennan, who is 4,, and floated a river in Rigby. I think they caught 2 fish but threw them both back. It was the only day this week that wasn't super hot and sunny. Josh was pretty glad it was overcast and 65. He said it was the perfect temperature. The boys had a lot of fun too.

Finally, my doctor's appointment and ultrasound went well on Thursday. I went by myself for the first time. The ultrasound tech was estimating the baby's weight to be 5 lbs 10 oz, but I seriously think she is bigger than that according to how she has been measuring throughout the pregnancy, This lady was just a fill-in because the real lady is out of town on vacation. I am going to go out on a limb here and say that she's going to weigh about 6.5 to 7 lbs when she is born and she will be born sometime between 36 and 37 weeks, with lots of dark hair. We shall see!!!!

Next Thursday, I report to the hospital at 7:30 am to get ready and get the stitches out at 8:30. Then they will observe me and see what happens. The nurse practitioner that I saw Thursday (the "ultimately" lady... who only said "ultimately" 3 times in our conversation.... I counted) said that I should bring my overnight bag to the hospital just in case. There's no telling what will happen once the stitches come out, but it could start labor right away. Just my luck, it will probably be fine that whole day and then I will start contracting that night around midnight and have to go all the way back to Idaho Falls and scramble to find a sitter in the middle of the night. I could see myself going another day or two after the stitches come out, but I wouldn't think I would go another week. I am hoping she is just born on the 12th, but if it is say... the 18th and I am still pregnant, I will be in total shock.

So, that is the LONG update! We are planning to go to Wisconsin on August 4th for a week long vacation and Josh already took his days off, so I sure hope my baby is at least a couple weeks old by then!!! She better get here soon!