At my routine 40-week OB appointment, I brought up the question of what would happen if I didn’t have the baby by the weekend of the 16th-17th. I would be 41 weeks at that point, and I wasn’t really comfortable going past that. (In addition, Tom’s sister was getting married on the 23rd, and we were hoping to be able to be there rather than in the hospital.) The doctor agreed that he didn’t want me to go past the weekend, so he scheduled me to be induced on Sunday night, July 17th. He said he doubted I’d make it that long, though. But when Sunday came along and I hadn’t had the baby, we figured we should drop the kids off with my parents and head up to the hospital.

It was a slow night, and we were practically the only people there. I guess no one wants to be in the hospital on a Sunday night! I was having non-painful contractions every 10-15 minutes when we arrived, so they gave me one dose of Cervidil to see if they could jump start anything. They wanted to be able to break my water and not have to give me an IV with pitocin, but it turned out that the baby’s head was too high up and that didn’t work out. The Cervidil did jump start something, though, because around 2 am I started having contractions every 3 minutes. We walked around for a while, and Tom slept for a bit. Around 5:30 they started the pitocin; I think I was about 4-5 cm dilated. I had decided that I wanted to get an epidural at some point, so Tom and I talked about when would be a good time. Part of me figured that I might as well get it when they started the pitocin, since I knew I wanted it sometime anyway, but we decided to wait for a while. Eventually I decided that I wanted to get it while our nurse was still on duty, because I really liked her, and she was leaving at 7:30. It turned out well because by the time the anesthesiologist actually got there, I was ready to be done with all the pain.

After I got the epidural, my blood pressure dropped a bit, and the baby’s heart rate also dropped. It was only temporary, but enough for the nurses to keep a close watch on how the baby was doing. The contractions were getting stronger and longer, and the baby’s heart rate kept dropping a bit with each one. They broke my water when I was 7 cm, and from that point everything went really fast. The doctor seemed like he was going to leave and come back in a while, but the baby’s heart rate was down and I was suddenly at 10 cm. It was kind of scary hearing the slow beep-beep-beep of the baby’s heart rate when it had been so much higher all night. I just wanted to get him out so he would be ok! A couple of pushes and he was out! The doctor held him up so I could see him…I had wanted them to give him right to me, but they didn’t…I’m not sure if they wanted to make sure that he was ok or what. But that was fine. He was 7lbs, 14.5 oz and 20.25 inches long. At first I didn’t think he looked like the girls, but I do now…definitely like one of our kids. I love him to pieces. I’ll be posting a protected post about his name and how we chose it in a little while. If you want the password, let me know. I’ll call him C here on my blog.

Overall, it was a really great experience and I feel blessed that everything went so well.

Here’s a little slideshow of pics from his first week.

I have to confess that I’ve been frustrated and discouraged this week. My due date was on Sunday, and honestly, I didn’t think I’d make it that long to begin with. But here I am, four days past that now. When I say it out loud, four days doesn’t seem like much at all. It seems silly to be feeling so frustrated.

But last week at my doctor’s appointment, they made it sound like I could have a baby any.minute.now. (And then I was having regular contractions for several hours on Sunday night. We were making plans like we’d need to go to the hospital. And then they petered out.) So I’ve been waiting on pins and needles every day. Every day I have felt like I need to have a plan for what to do with my girls if we go to the hospital suddenly. I have felt like I couldn’t thaw meat for dinner because I might not be home to eat it. And I’ve woken up every morning and thought, “Rats. I didn’t go into labor during the night.” I’ve been living every minute feeling disappointed that I’m not in labor yet.

Except now. All of a sudden, I feel completely peaceful. I made dinner in my crockpot today. I didn’t bring my daughters’ overnight bag when they went to visit Grandma this afternoon. I didn’t go for a walk around the neighborhood or do Wii Fit to try to stimulate labor. I’m just at peace. And it feels so much better. I regret wasting so much time in the past few days wondering and worrying. Hindsight is 20-20, of course, but I’m determined not to continue living like that. I’ll have the baby eventually, and until then, I’m going to enjoy living my life.

Today was ultrasound day at our house! I always get super nervous before ultrasounds, so I just tried to chill out and not think about it too much. Dropped the kids off at Grandma’s, picked up Tom from work, and off we went!

It was fun, as always, to see the baby! I get so nervous before ultrasounds, but I love them when I am there. Just love seeing the baby, all its little bones, and it’s fun to see it moving at the same time I can feel it inside.

This one is definitely a little boy! Not shy at all, although someday he’ll probably hate me for posting pictures of his private parts online. (Oh well.) It’s still really weird to me to think of it being a boy, for whatever reason. Probably because I’m so used to girls. Tom and I agreed on the way home that we’re kind of nervous and have no idea what to expect from a boy. I’m sure we’ll figure it out, but it’ll take a little while for it to sink in, I think.

This is a 3D shot of baby with his hands in front of his face. I think 3D pics are a little strange, but if you look hard you can see it. (Heck, I guess all ultrasound pictures are kind of strange. You really have to know what you’re looking at for some of them.)

Anyway, it was really fun to get to see the baby and find out that it’s a boy! JJ guessed boy, and J guessed girl (and said she was a little disappointed that it was a boy, haha), but I think they’re both excited to have a little brother.

I had to convince someone I’m pregnant today. She saw a comment I made on Facebook but didn’t believe it. “So–are you really pregnant?” she asked me today in the middle of a conversation. “Were you just joking on Facebook?”

“No!” I protested. “I really am!”

“How many weeks are you?” she demanded. “You don’t look pregnant or act pregnant at ALL.”

“14 weeks,” I replied. Then I started thinking…what on earth does it mean to “act” pregnant? Go around whining and complaining all the time? (I’m personally of the opinion that you shouldn’t use pregnancy as an excuse to do that. Or eat whatever you want. But hey, that’s just me.) The truth is, I feel great. I can barely tell that I’m pregnant. In fact, every time I visit my OB, I comment that I wonder if I’m still pregnant. They laugh and assure me that I am. But really, I’m not going to act any differently just because I peed on a stick and there were two lines instead of one. Ok, I know there’s way more to it than that. But still. How *should* I be acting?

You couldn’t tell that I’m pregnant by looking at me, either. I can tell, personally, because I know what I’m “supposed” to look like. And this isn’t quite it. But your average, everday person on the street wouldn’t know. Neither would my friends, I think. Unless you’re my sister-in-law, who scrutinizes me every chance she gets and then pronounces, “You’re SHOWING!” That doesn’t make me uncomfortable at all, no sir. (But I love my sister-in-law, so it’s ok.) I’ve been meaning to take pictures of myself so I could see the difference, but it isn’t as easy to do that with my DSLR as it was with a point-and-shoot. Maybe I can get J to do it if I put the camera on a tripod. (How do you other moms with expensive cameras do it??)

Anyway. I’m really enjoying being pregnant. I keep thinking that it’s probably the last time, whether it’s a boy or girl. Obviously Tom and I will have to decide after the baby is actually born, because so many things can change. But I’ve always wanted three kids, and four seems like a lot of kids somehow. (I’m sure it’s not, really!) I’m so excited that we’ll (hopefully) be adding a new little one to our family. J and JJ are excited, too…J prays for the baby every night at dinner. And I thank God often for letting me be pregnant again and for how easy things have been. I know this baby is part of His plan, and I’m excited to see how it all plays out!