It’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that in less than a week, we’ll meet this little guy. It’s kinda ironic that this last ultrasound was by far the clearest picture we’d had of him so far. And we’ve had quite a few, going every month for the last half of the pregnancy.
This pregnancy has been quite the roller coaster to say the least. Maggie had just turned a year old when we found out we were expecting, so it took awhile to get used to the fact that they would be so close in age. Two in diapers and all that. Well, then came the news that this little guy had managed to get himself on the other side of my double uterus, something we didn’t think could happen. Would I be able to have the natural birth I wanted, or would I have to concede to a c-section? We agreed with the doctor that it would have to be a waiting game.
The pregnancy itself has gone really smoothly, even more so than my first. My morning sickness was hardly anything, and Maggie started napping for hours at a time, giving me some much needed rest, too. Most of the time, I had to remind myself I was even pregnant, it was going so well.
I don’t know what’s happened in this last month or so that’s turned it around. Maybe it was the swollen ankles and eight pound weight gain in only two weeks (but that’s already gone away). Maybe the fact that I have to go to the bathroom at least every two hours. Or it could be that Chuy is constantly stomping on my bowels and bladder. (I think Maggie must’ve had her feet pulled up most of the time, because I don’t remember that with her.) Possibly it was coming to the realization that I didn’t have a choice about having a c-section. Maybe it’s the fact that Maggie wants to climb all over me, and it’s just downright painful. Or maybe it’s because the baby’s head is at the top of my belly, and I feel like any minute now he is going to burst through like a scene straight out of Alien!
I’m sick and tired of being pregnant already! I met another mother who told me her due date was today, but that her first was 10 days late, so she didn’t expect to deliver any time soon. Yikes! I’m only at 36 weeks, and I’m having trouble waiting at the most another week! I wasn’t expecting Maggie to come as soon as she did. I wasn’t really ready for her. I wanted to be ready for this one, but now that I am, I feel like I’m drumming my fingers. Okay, any day now…
Jennifer and Jason welcomed little Xavier into the world around 9:30P last Thursday. It’s just raining babies in the Ellis clan. He’s a beautiful little boy. At birth he was bigger than Maggie was at her two month checkup! Anyway, here are a few pictures of the new arrival. I’m embedding a Flickr slideshow. Nifty feature.
Click here for the Flickr photoset. There are more pictures of Xavier posted at Jason’s Picasa page.
Our precious little girl was born on 9/27 at 12:03A. Maggie is 6 pounds and 20 inches long. She has dark curly hair and deep cobalt eyes. She’s beautiful.
We’ve been up almost four days straight, labor lasted 37 hours, Maggie was breach, and Debra had her naturally without medication. It was quite an adventure, but I’m too pooped to tell the whole story now. Maybe tomorrow. We’re off to bed.
Have a look at the complete Flickr photoset.
Update: Debra managed to get a little sleep. Thank goodness. Her water broke at 11A on Thursday. No real contractions at that point so our midwife told us to go about our usual routine. We walked and went to lunch. 2A Friday saw the first real contractions. By 11A Debra was in active labor. With the assistance of the midwives and a nervous husband, she labored at home until 8P. We found out then that Maggie was breach. We decided to push for a while to see how far we could get. Debra wasn’t able to keep anything down for most of the day so she starting pushing on an empty tank.
After an hour we realized she didn’t have enough energy left to push out a breach baby. We decided to head to the hospital. I can’t tell you how nerve racking that drive was with Debra laboring in the passenger seat. We were fully expecting a C-section, given the circumstances. The on-call OB, Dr. Lisa Jaacks, caught us completely off guard. She assessed Debra and said she was all for trying to deliver the baby breach. Debra’s eyes lit up. All along she’d wanted a natural birth with no anesthetic. That gave her the energy she needed to finish the job.
She pushed for another 3.5 hours through over 20 contractions. She was so tired she fell asleep between contractions. The baby started to crown. She was breach so she was coming out butt first. The OB joked that her first act was to moon the world. She definitely got the Baca mooning gene. Finally at three minutes after midnight she came. The room was full of awe-struck nurses. Jaacks is the only OB at that hospital that even considers delivering breach. I doubt many of them had seen one. I can’t describe the feeling I had at that moment. Maggie’s little blue eyes starring at us. We are so thankful.
I’ve all but avoided watching baby delivery shows on Discovery Health. I’ve heard many expectant mothers talk about how upset they get watching these shows. Debra’s watched a few but didn’t seem phased. We’ve watched a few episodes of Bringing Baby Home together. I find it strange that new parents would want cameras filming such a personal time in their lives.
Anyway, with Debra out with her co-workers this evening, I decided to watch an episode of Babies: Special Delivery. Uh, mistake. I’m a bit dense and didn’t realize the show is about special (i.e., difficult) deliveries. It was 60 minutes of ominous music and terrifying labor. I felt like I needed to be held when the hour was over. Ultimately the six mothers had healthy babies, but they sure keep you on the edge.
With four weeks to go I’m feeling very positive. But that didn’t help. Definitely too much information (TMI).
We’re starting week 35. Just five weeks to go! Debra is feeling pretty good overall. The baby is growing fast and moving all over the place. Most of her discomfort is from the baby pressing against her spine and various organs. She has some swelling in the feet and ankles (cankles), but that’s usually due to a long work day. We’ve gotten pretty good at alleviating the swelling with massage.
I have to say I admire her calm. Debra is handling the whole experience with such positivity. I’m sure she’ll be the one comforting me during the delivery. I took a few liberties with John’s iToony on some of the other pregnancy pics.
iToony is da bomb.
