IT'S A GIRL!!!

So for those of you who don't know........I had the baby! Amelia Naomi was born 3 weeks early on November 24th at 5:43PM. She was 6lbs 6.5oz and 20 inches long. She is beautiful!! So people don't have to keep asking me over and over what happened and because I love hearing others' birth stories I shall share mine.....

It was just another normal Monday(23rd) night. I actually slept fairly well, for once, and then Noah woke up around 4AM and crawled in bed with us. About an hour later I woke up to put him back to bed so he wasn't fully woken up by Joey's alarm for work at 5:30.

Well, I put Noah in his bed and went to go to the bathroom, cuz that's what pregnant women do all too often, and it felt like I peed my pants a little bit right before I got to the bathroom. I thought that was a little strange considering I wasn't laughing or doing anything to provoke my bladder. I finally decided that my water broke and went back to bed and,unsuccessfully, tried to go back to sleep. I was really unsure if it was my water breaking because: a) I was 37 weeks along THAT day and b) I wasn't having any contractions. (Usually when my water breaks the baby is born in about an hour.)

So excited and a little nervous, I told Joey that I think my water broke and he sat right up and said, "Really?!?". I told him not too worry too much since I wasn't having contractions and to go to work and I would call him if we needed to go to the hospital. Funny thing is is that I had a doctors appointment that morning at 9 so we decided that Joey would take me just in case my water did in fact break and I was staying at the hospital. Unable to sleep and the boys asleep, I took a shower and got ready for the day fully expecting my contractions to start any moment.

Well, the time came for me to take Noah to preschool and to head to my appointment and still no contractions. So we dropped Elias off at grandma's and headed to my appointment. Walking back to see the doctor my nurse asked me how I was doing and told her I think my water broke. She said, "What?!? Well, we need to check you then". Sure enough I was right and I was about 3 and 1/2 centimeters and 60% effaced, still no contractions! So over to the hospital we went and was sarted on Pitocin to get my contractions going.

I have never had Pitocin and let me tell you that I HATE the contractions induced by it!! They hit you (at least me).....hard! I was getting less than a teaspoon an hour, but that was enough to put me into full blown labor. I had a lot of back pain labor with this baby, so I sat on the labor ball which helped, but after a little while I just couldn't handle it anymore. My nurse also realized when she checked me that I still had a big bag of water. I guess that when my water broke at 5 that morning it was just a little trickle and not a full blown break. Well, as she checked me it broke.......Bring on the Epidural!

I got an Epidural around 4:30PM......*sigh of relief*......the doc showed up at around 5:30 and I was ready to push. About 2 and 1/2 pushes later little Amelia was born and 5:43! The doctor thinks that I went into labor so early because of the kidney stone that I had. And I will tell you what, I would rather have a baby than another kidney stone! They are just such a different pain with no satisfaction at the end of it all.

This picture makes her look chubby, but she is TINY! At least to me and compared to her brothers. She is like her momma and is good at hiding her double chin unless she puts her head down. ;o)

She is our "litle sweetpea"!

Her brothers just love her and always want to hold her! The only bad thing is is that they are both sick right now. They have colds and are all boogery so they can't get too close to her for very long. When Noah found out that she was born he asked if they "punched the baby out of my stomach". LOL! Elias is always coming up to me, "I want to hold her!". It is kind of strange having something so small and pink around the house, but she is a wonderful addition to our little family!

Can't sleep

So the last couple of nights I haven't been able to sleep. And, no, it's not due to having any contractions. That would be nice. I think that I could live with having the baby 3 weeks early..... Anyway, I thought that I might try to actually update my blog since I was awake and everyone else in the house is still asleep. Let's just hope that the clickety-clacking of the keyboard doesn't wake up the boys. Darn kids and their super-sonic hearing! *Mom put her feet on the floor....I heard it.....it's time to get up!*

First I want to thank my friend Amanda for helping me find some super cute backgrounds for my blog! I thought I would go a little festive even though I know that it's not even Thanksgiving yet. My dad always had a rule that there was no Christmas music or decorations until AFTER Thanksgiving and here I am listening to Christmas music on Pandora and decorating, my blog at least.

I also thought that I would mostly put some prego pictures on here. Since most people that read my blog live nowhere near me maybe you would like to see how "fat" I am. Here we go.....

This is our dog and our cat. For some reason they both love to lay on me. Mostly while I am sleeping, but we caught this rare occasion. Here I was just trying to relax and read my book and they thought it the best opportunity for a nap on my lap. Jack is our dog (and, yes, I think he is full grown) and Zoey is our cat. Jack was supposed to be Joey's dog and Zoey was supposed to be my cat, but they opposite has happened. The dog follows me everywhere, literally, and the cat loves Joey even though he is mean to her. You can kind of tell that I am pregnant in this picture. Joey said that it really emphasized my belly, but I don't see it. I guess that's what I get for seeing myself pregnant everyday.

This next one is a tradition in our family. We have one with all our kids. Joey thought that we should have taken it with me standing forward. He says that it looks like I am wearing a fake belly. Well, it sure doesn't FEEL like I am wearing a fake belly! And of course Noah is trying to steal the show. *The camera is out?!? Look at me! Look at me!*

I will try to get more pictures on here. I want to take one with the whole family showing their bellies. I think it's only fair that if I have to show mine they have to show theirs. Noah and Elias wouldn't have a problem with it. They would go everywhere naked if I let them! For a little while there Elias thought that he had a baby in his belly too. I would pat my stomach and say they baby was in there and he would procceed to pat his belly and say "baby". Too cute!

Well, only 3 1/2 weeks to go! Oh time, please speed up! I want to be able to lay on my stomach again!

My New Blog

Ok, so I changed my blog address. Mainly because I didn't like the decorating options of the other blog site and I made the address of this one a little easier to remember.

So life is good right now. Last week was a little scary with the whole passing a GIANT kidney stone and the possibility of having an emergency C-Section. (Man, was I freaking out when I heard that!) But now my kidneys are fine and the baby is fine so I can breathe a little easier. At least for a few more weeks or less....hopefully less.

Well, Noah is loving preschool and Elias still hasn't gotten used to the fact that he goes there every day. Every time we get in the car after taking Noah to school he asks, "Where's Noah?". I always tell him he's at school and then he asks where 'Joey' is. (He is on a 'calling Joey Joey instead of daddy' kick.) Too cute! Noah comes home from school just rattling on and on about what he did at school. And even though he just ate lunch there he is "starving" when he gets home.

So, 36 weeks and counting until there is finally another female in this house! I'm still wierded out that we are having a girl. I'm not going to know what to do with her! Except dress her up and put cute little bow-bows in her hair! Can you tell I'm excited?!?