Who needs a crib...

when you have a Queen-sized bed?!?!!?!

After a very long night of not wanting to sleep, Sipsey finally fell asleep in bed with us around 3 am. She was so comfortable that we all slept until 8 am! She didn't seem too upset that we missed a feeding. I think she takes after her mom and would rather sleep than eat sometimes!

Sipsey Elizabeth

Proud new parents! Sipsey is smiling!

Sipsey in her going-home outfit...not exactly very happy.

Leaving the hospital.

Sipsey in her Christmas outfit from Grannie (that would be her GREAT Grannie!).

The ONLY place Sipsey will sleep out of someone's arms. Thanks to the girls who got us this swing!

Sipsey Elizabeth made her debut at 4:52 pm on Tuesday, December 18. She weighed 7 lbs. 13 oz. and was 21 3/4 inches long! They discharged us from the hospital around 5:30 pm on Thursday (48 hours after her birth) and sent us home without an instruction booklet. We have already been to our first doctor's appointment on Friday. That was an adventure after our first night home with her. Without Mom's help, I don't think we could have made it. We have already learned many things about our new little one: she DOES NOT like to be out of someone's arms, she HATES pacifiers (she's not easily fooled), she HATES lying on her back and she HATES being swaddled! Well she hates being swaddled with her arms tied down. If you'll look back at her ultrasound pictures, her hands are by her face all the time. And if you look at the pictures above, she still loves her hands! These personality traits make it extremely difficult to put her to sleep. After many nights of letting Sipsey sleep on my chest in the bed (I don't even want to hear how dangerous that is...we were desperate) or BRIEFLY in her swing, Mom was bound and determined to get her to sleep in her crib, so today has been one big experiment. I don't mind getting up and feeding, consoling, changing diapers, burping, etc., but she simply would not sleep after I would do all these things. We think we have discovered the secret, but I won't be convinced until after tonight. We finally learned to swaddle her with her arms out and lay her on her side in her crib. We have some little positioner thingys that help do the trick. I pray that tonight Sipsey will be a different baby.

The good news is that we have a perfectly healthy baby who we love with all our hearts. Ben is a great dad and husband who waits on us hand and foot. Her first doctor's appointment went well and we go back next week for another checkup. Thanks to everyone who came to see us in the hospital and called to check on us and came to see us at the house. I have not returned any phone calls and I apologize, but I truly have had no sleep. Sipsey is extremely alert and strong and is not satisfied with sleeping the days and nights away!

Gameplan

Here's the plan, or as much of a plan that you can have with childbirth: The doc said on Monday that in her opinion, she does not think the baby is going to come on her own. I guess by this stage in pregnancy and with a baby of this size, something should have happened by now. So I'm going to wait it out over the weekend, but if I haven't gone into labor, I have an induction scheduled for Tuesday, December 18. So I see the light at the end of the tunnel (I hope it's not an oncoming train!).

If I end up having to be induced, we will go to the hospital at 5:30-6:00 AM (UGH!) and fill out paperwork, get admitted, and start an IV, etc. and wait for the doctor to get there at 7:30-7:45 (which probably means 8:30). Then she'll wave her magic wand and make a baby appear! That's how it works, right?

So that's where we stand right now. I plan on doing some last-minute baby preparations this weekend. Maybe going shopping will start labor! OH I JUST REMEMBERED! The WHEELMOBILE is going to be in Birmingham this weekend at the Galleria. I keep telling Ben that I want to go to audition for Wheel of Fortune if the baby hasn't come. He's thinks I'm joking but I secretly really want to go (not so secretly anymore I guess)! Anybody want to go with me? I bet there would be some real enthusiastic goofballs there and I can't compete with that. But I bet they'd call me up if they knew how pregnant I was! That would make for an interesting audition!

I'll get Ben to update the blog if I go into labor. He can get to his office at work from UAB Maternity without even walking outside, so I'm sure he'll have the opportunity to let everyone know!

Snug as a bug...until you get caught!

Well well well! Look who I found in a chair he knows he's not supposed to be in! The first picture is when I peeked my head in the door with the camera. As I got closer, he got a little nervous and got outta there fast! We usually keep the door closed to the nursery, but I am actually doing laundry today and had the door open with clothes hanging in the doorway to dry. The MINUTE it was opened, he must've gone in there.

The other night, we thought Banjo was outside and called his name several times trying to get him in for the night. He likes to sleep outside in the boat sometimes, so we thought he was ignoring us. Just as we were about to get in the bed, out strolls Banjo from the nursery like, "Here I am you morons." He had been inside resting in the glider for HOURS! I guess this is good practice for keeping up with a toddler who disappears and then when you realize the house is oddly quiet, you find them in your makeup with lipstick all over the walls!

7 days away

Sorry I don't have pictures. I might try to add some later. I just wanted to let everyone know that I went to the doctor on Monday. She said I was 2 cm dilated and that there really is a difference between 1 1/2 and 2 cm, so I am progressing. She also said there is no way to know how fast I will progress from here. I could stay the same until next week, or labor within 24 hours. We have scheduled an induction for December 18. If the baby doesn't come on her own by then, I will definitely have her the 18th (or I guess the 19th, depending on how quickly labor goes)! I think I want her to come on the 15th, so I will be done with finals and have a day or two to get everything in order! I'll have a little talk with her and we'll see what we can work out.

I just thought of the episode of Saved by the Bell when one of their teachers was having a baby, and Zach was taking bets on who could guess the day that the baby would be born. Then Slater got stuck with this teacher on the elevator (having an elevator in your high school would be so cool by the way) and she went into labor. I think he delivered the baby and they wrapped it up in his football jersey, or something totally random like that. Could you imagine teaching high school and one of your students delivering you baby? Gross.

Back to reality. I go to the doctor one last time next Monday. She said she wasn't going to check my progress, so I don't really know why I'm going. All they do is check my blood pressure, weight and the baby's heartbeat. I can assure you without having to hear it that it's beating and she's alive and well in there. Sometimes I think she is trying to claw her way out of my sides! Lately she's been practicing her guitar skills on my sciatic nerve which basically sends painful electric shocks down my right leg every now and then. But by the time I feel it, it's already gone, so I can live with that for the next several days. Pray that she waits until I'm finished with finals before she makes her debut!

2 weeks to go

Ha ha! Isn't that first picture funny! Ben calls it "the torpedo!" I was going to post a picture with my shirt down but you just don't get the full effect. I also wanted to include some pictures of the nursery. I still need to hang stuff on the walls, and I always take FOREVER to make that step. I think I could go forever without hanging things on the walls. I'm scared to commit to anything because I know as soon as I do, I'll find something cuter that needs a different/bigger/smaller hole and then you have to make a mess and drag out all the leveling and picture-hanging junk all over again. Anyway, I was extremely pleased with how her furniture turned out. Her crib is my favorite. I included a picture of the detailing on each end. I love it!

I went to the doctor again on Wednesday and there's no great story to tell. She said I'm about 1 1/2 cm dilated, which is really nothing. I could stay that way for days or weeks or I could have the baby over the weekend. You never know. She did, however, want me to go ahead and make a decision about what to do if the baby doesn't come on her own by a certain date. Because they think she is so big, she needs to come earlier, rather than later. I think my decision is going to be that if she doesn't come on her own by the 18th, we'll schedule an induction. My doctor works all day on the 18th, so she'll be there to deliver. I don't particularly like planning an induction, but if she doesn't come on her own, we must have a backup plan so nothing traumatic happens. It's dangerous to go past 41 weeks anyway (Dec. 20 in my case), and because she probably weighs a lot anyway, we'd like her to be growing outside of my body instead of inside, as my doctor put it. But hopefully she'll decide to come on her own, and we won't even have to worry about it! I go back on Monday, and I'll get another update on my status then.

It's Still A Girl!

Our 37 week (well, 36 week, 5 day) checkup today went very well. All her measurements are in the 90th percentile (not a surprise when you have such large parents!). The software actually predicted her weight to be about 7 1/2 pounds!!!!! This is NOT accurate in our case because the estimates are based on the lengths of her bones, and her LONG bones skewed the results. So I will not be having a 10 pound baby. I won't even tell you how big they said her head was! The doctor did suggest, however, that because of her (estimated) size, we should be shooting for earlier than December 13 and not later! All of this is speculative, and she could tell me something totally different when I go back next week. If doctors could so easily predict when the babies would come, then all babies would be born on their due date, and we know that rarely happens.

Now we can talk about her cute little face! We could barely get a good picture because she always has her hands in front of her face! Even when they did the first 4D ultrasound back in the middle of my pregnancy, she had her hands in front the whole time. The ultrasound technician today could see both hands and a foot around her face! I don't know what kind of position she is in, but it does not sound comfortable. And where did those luscious lips come from?! I know I was really good at poking mine out when things didn't go my way as a kid, but they were never like that! Maybe she could be in a Zoolander sequel, if any of you are familiar with that movie. If you look at the side profile picture, she definitely has a nice set of smackers! She might look nothing like this when she gets here, but it's fun to imagine. Oh, and the ultrasound tech confirmed that it is definitely a girl and that she has hair. We could see it sort of floating around her head! I guess that means she has a lot! We also got to see her heart beating and watch her breathing!

I go back next week, Wednesday I think, and the doctor will check my "progress." That is, she will check to see if I have dilated any. It could be none or a lot. We'll just have to see. That's what I hate about this whole process. Just like when you were a kid and asked if you could spend the night at so-and-so's house on Friday night. "We'll see" was always the response. I understand the concept now, but I still hate it. I'm not taking anything the doctor tells me about when she will come seriously until next time when we see, whatever that means.

36 Weeks

Until the baby gets here, I really have nothing to talk about besides my pregnancy. So I will warn you now, if you don't like to hear things like uterus and other pregnancy words, you might want to stop reading! I promise I won't get graphic. But I live with words like this everyday, so it's nothing to me anymore. Yesterday I reached Week 36 of my pregnancy. I went to the doctor Wednesday, and everything was fine, except that I wasn't "measuring correctly." I'm not going to get into all that but basically my uterus was much lower than it was supposed be. We think the baby (who does not have a name yet) has "dropped" (when the baby descends lower into the mother's pelvis; this does not mean I will go into labor any sooner or later), which is totally normal. However, I am going back on Tuesday for a checkup, and I will also have an ultrasound done to take measurements of the baby and to check for fluid to make sure that nothing is wrong. I guess I should've listened to the girl at Arby's who took my order on Sunday and who took one look at me and said, "Oooohhh girl, you look like you 'bout to drop!" Maybe I should've mentioned this to my doctor. It probably would've cleared up any of her concerns! :)

The baby is moving around a lot! I hope that she waits until her due date (December 13) or later to make her debut because I have to finish finals! I have spoken with all my professors and they are all letting me take them a couple of days early, but that won't matter if she comes really early! Technically, 37 weeks is full term. This means that on Thanksgiving day, this baby is ready to live in the outside world! But she could also go until 42 weeks, which is the end of December, which I do not want to even think about. The doctor told me if she hasn't come by week 41, she will make her come out!

Because she could come at any time, Ben and I have been instructed to take it easy and hang around Birmingham until her birthday! If I travel somewhere this far along into the pregnancy and go into labor, my insurance won't pay the hospital fees. It's really good insurance, but it's UAB insurance, and they want you to have your baby at UAB! And who wants to go into labor out of town? It's not safe at this point to be driving all over the place anyway. This weekend we are going to buy all the extra supplies we will need to take care of a new baby. Ben is a nervous wreck already, and I will be packing my hospital bag this weekend as well, or so I have been told!

I will try to think of some more funny things people have said to me about being pregnant. I don't really get out much. Actually I go to school and come home and study and that's about it. Ben does all of the grocery shopping and errand running for us now since my back starting hurting. But on a hunch, I started sleeping with a pillow between my legs 3 nights ago, and the back pain has pretty much vanished. I wish I had thought of that mid-October when it started! I lived in agony for 4 weeks for nothing! It was actually my pelvis and hip joints that were hurting. Anyway, now that I've recovered, I'll get out and about and maybe people will give me more ridiculous advice!