He's Here!

**Same post I put at at my other blog, but keep reading here even if you did there. You guys get the link to newborn photos!*


So sorry that I haven't had time to update my blog. I've been a wee bit busy.

Jonah Benjamin was born at 5:26PM on March 26th. He was 7 lbs 3 oz and 20 1/2 inches long. (Can you believe how tiny he is compared to my last big baby?!! I still can't.)

He is an adorable little baby. We can't get enough of him.

Sorry that I don't have any photos loaded on my computer yet to share. You'll just have to take my word for now that he is beautiful.

Or you can go see our newborn photo session from the hospital at www.bellababyphotography.com and enter in the password:tmil0326schmunk. (I wish she'd gotten some with his eyes open. He is one of the most alert newborns I've ever seen!)

We are still in the hospital. He had been really healthy and well, then he developed jaundice. They chose to treat him under the bili lights for a day. We should be able to come home tonight as long as his numbers stay down. So far so good. Just seeing how he's doing out of the lights now. I'm glad he's back in a room with me now. We don't foresee any problems and should leave this afternoon with him.

I had a great delivery and can't wait to share about it. I was in a long labor, but when he decided to come...boy did he! It was a wild and crazy ride...that my OB didn't make it to!

But that's for another time. I'm feeling great and doing well. I haven't had any problems...unless you count my swollen stumps that I used to call feet/legs. Geesh!

That's the update for now. I'm sure I'll have more photos and things to share as we go. 

Baby Day!

Tomorrow morning is the big day! Despite our attempts, I did not go into labor this weekend. So we go with the induction tomorrow bright and early. I'm hoping that the baby will be here before lunchtime.

I am a tiny bit nervous, but mostly just excited at this point. I'm still supposed to be taking it easy, but it's been hard to do that today. Just knowing he'll be here tomorrow anyway has me finishing up stuff around here. To be honest I haven't had much to do.

My bag is packed and ready to go. I will add my toiletries when I finish getting ready in the morning and we'll be off. My mom is on her way here. She's staying the night, so she can get Zachariah onto the bus in the morning. We'll be leaving too early to see him. Then she (or someone) will go get him after school and bring him to the hospital.

I have to say that the one thing (other than meeting the baby) that I'm looking most forward to is introducing him to his big brother. Zachariah has been so excited this whole pregnancy. It was nice to spend his last day as an only child with him at home (snow day) today. He really doesn't know what's coming, but he's thrilled about having a new baby. I know he'll be a great big brother, and it will be fun to watch the interaction.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. I appreciate them as I go in the morning too. I will be updating here when I can, but I'll be able to post on Twitter and/or text some of you pretty quickly after he comes.

No Baby Yet...But Soon!

I had a feeling that I was going to have the baby this week. So far, I haven't but I will have him early next week. At 39 weeks, he'll be born just like his brother was.

It's been a strange week. My blood pressure has been up most of the time since my appointment last week. When I called my numbers into the doctor's office, they put me on bed rest. On bed rest my blood pressure is fine, which is what we were hoping for. But it seems any time I'm up doing things, it rises. For now until the baby delivers, the best thing for me and him is to stay in bed or on the couch laying down and resting.

At my appointment Wednesday we did want I didn't want to do earlier. We scheduled an induction. I knew it was coming, and I think with my on bed rest and not much progress going on it's time. So next Tuesday morning, I'll be reporting to the hospital bright and early. And I know that the baby will be delivered by one of the two doctors that I've been seeing regularly, so that's good. (Lucky for me the 3rd in the practice, who I met once, is on vacation.)

I really didn't want to go through another induction. But it ended well last time, and I did have a pretty good delivery. I know the end result will be fine. I was a little disappointed that I haven't progressed in a week. In fact this doctor thought I was less effaced than Dr. K said last week. Boo! And being stuck on bed rest, I can't do too much to try to get the baby out. It doesn't stop me from hoping and praying that I'll go into labor before Tuesday!

I appreciate your thoughts and prayers at this time. Bed rest is quite boring. And I'm big and uncomfortable (and a bit grouchy today). But I'm trying to just enjoy my last few days (ahhh!) of pregnancy. And I know it's all to meet this beautiful little boy.

I will definitely put an update on here as soon as I have the opportunity after the little one makes his appearance. I will most likely update Twitter first, because that's easy to do. If you aren't on there much and really want to be in on the news right away, email me your number if you'd like a text update. I can add you to my list.

By this time next week, I should be sharing pictures of my beautiful new baby from home!

The Birth Plan

So, now I'll tell you about my birth plan discussion with my doctor. (Sarah, I'm seeing Dr. K at Women's Health for Life. I'm thinking that's who you had for your last birth. I've also seen the newer Dr. C there.)

I printed out a simple birth plan from BabyCenter and just marked some things that are important to me. I'm a pretty easy-going person, and I understand that birth requires some flexibility. I'm good with that. But there are some things that I would really like to have happen. Some because I missed out last time, and others because I feel they are important.

With my first pregnancy I was induced at 39 weeks with elevated blood pressure and knowing I was having a large baby. I had a pretty good birthing experience. There were a few things that I missed out on, that I'd rather have had. I found out before I had Zachariah that the doctor would not let me hold the baby after I delivered. He would pass him off to the nurses to clean and assess, then eventually give back to me. That's just the way he did things. He was very sterile/surgical about delivery. It was probably 10 minutes or so before I finally got to hold my baby after only having a brief glance at him.

Discussing this with my current doctor went really well. She agreed that I could have the baby flopped on me right away. She said we could hold off on all cleaning and major baby checks for a while. We would have plenty of time with the baby right then and could even breastfeed immediately.

Getting a great start on breastfeeding is really important to me, because I had a difficult time before. Zachariah was born with an infection, which lead to a week long stay in the special care nursery. This started off a bad nursing relationship. He was too sick at first to try breastfeeding. And my supply never really came in good. It was a battle for months.

I'm hoping by more bonding time with the baby right away, we can get off to a great start. And my doctor is all for that! Hurray! I'm also feeling better, because I tested negative this time for Group B Strep. I did have GBS with Zachariah, and that's likely what caused his infection even after receiving antibiotics during delivery. Because I had this happen before, I will be treated with antibiotics as soon as I arrive at the hospital for delivery. But I feel better about our chances of having a really healthy baby by testing negative this time.

The doctor agreed that I can push as I need to instead of being told, unless circumstances are different. She's willing to let things progress naturally as possible. After experiencing labor through pitocin before, I'm hoping everything can happen as naturally as possible this time.

Then after discussing all this, she said she would even be OK with letting me grab the baby as he's coming out and pulling him up onto myself if I'd like to do that. I would love that. I told her that would be great. Assuming I'm feeling decent as he's being delivered that may be a possibility. How neat! I never even thought about that possibility  And since Matt doesn't want to cut the cord (the thought grosses him out), she said I could do that too. I'm a little concerned that the baby may come out quickly, and I wouldn't be able to grab him. But that's OK. I won't have my heart set on it. I just know Zachariah came out quickly in one push.

I can't wait for this birth experience  I'm sure hoping that I'll go into labor on my own, so I don't have to think about being induced. At this point she thinks I'm good to go to about 41 weeks. I have already made a little progress too. At 36 weeks I was thinning and baby's head was right there. Last week I was almost 1 cm. This week I was definitely 1 cm, 80% effaced, and baby's head was right there. The baby is definitely down. I'm hoping with this progress, when I do go into labor it will go quickly.

I think I'm more ready to have the baby after this last appointment than I was before. Plus I've gone into major nesting mode in the past two days. For now I'll wait and prayer for a good delivery, healthy baby, and great breastfeeding with this baby.

38 weeks!

I am officially 38 weeks pregnant today. I can't believe how fast this is going. And I'm very excited to be meeting me new little boy very soon. At this point I know it will be no more then 2-3 weeks. It is a little surreal.

I had my checkup with the OB yesterday. Things went pretty well. They were a little concerned at first, because my blood pressure read 140/100. Yikes! That's high for me, especially since I'm on medication for previous blood pressure concerns this pregnancy.

Everything else looked good. The baby's heartbeat was normal. My urine sample came back with everything normal. And I am experiencing no other symptoms to indicate blood pressure (or really preeclampsia) issues. So after waiting a little while, the doctor rechecked my blood pressure. It was back to normal and even a bit lower in my left arm. Because everything else was good & it was fine now, this set everyone's mind at ease.

I'm under instructions to rest for an hour every day. Check my blood pressure occasionally and call if it goes up like that & stays there again. Otherwise, we'll wait another week and see what happens. It did earn my a non-stress test (NST) to check on the baby though. So we were at the office longer than planned. Fortunately Matt's job is pretty flexible for things like that, and he was able to stay with me. The NST results were good. I'll have an appointment in a week & another NST scheduled then too.

Before I left the doctor wanted me to talk game plan. She said at this point she wants to have an idea of what we'll do if I go over my due date. She doesn't want to pressure me into rushing into things, but just wants to know my thoughts. Being due around a holiday makes it a little odd too, but we've made no plans for Easter this year. I'll either be waiting on baby, in the hospital or have a newborn at home. Too much  to try to think about doing anything else.

I should mention that the doctor is fine with my going to 41 weeks too. I'm happy about this, but it's so different than last time when I was induced at 39 weeks (because of elevated blood pressure & a big baby). She doesn't think this baby will be quite as big. And I agree, I don't think he's as big as Zachariah was.

And we also talked birth plan at this appointment. I'm pretty easy going, but there were a few things I wanted to have done if possible. Mostly about mommy/baby bonding immediately after birth. My doctor with Zachariah wasn't into that, and I feel like I really missed out. This doctor is all on board and in fact added her own thoughts. I am so excited. I was really happy to hear her ideas, but I think I'll save that for another post.