Little Seth's Birth Story

If you have been reading my blog at all, you know that we have spent 8 or so months preparing the kids and the nursery and ourselves for having a baby Maggie. Well, we are very excited (after much crying on Natalie's part...I think she's over it now) to welcome little Seth Isaiah into our family. Here's the story... I went to the doctor on Tuesday and decided to be induced on Thursday. I was tired of being pregnant and having so much false labor that I decided "she" was ready to come (with a little help). The doctor estimated 8-8.5 pounds.

Thursday morning, my mom came to be with the kids and we headed off. We got there and requested the whirlpool room. It was being cleaned so they said we could walk the halls until it was ready. We walked for 40 minutes or so. Some good contractions, but nothing was sticking. We got into the room around 9am and the nurse said I couldn't use the whirlpool because I was scheduled to have Pitocin (isn't that how all inductions work? Why didn't they tell us that before?) and needed to have the monitor on the baby all the time. So sad, no whirlpool for me.

They started Pitocin around 9:15 and I was at a generous 4 cm. She started the Pit really slow hoping I was far enough a long that I would just need a little jump start. Well, "Maggie" did not want to come:) Finally, at about 1pm, I was having regular but wimpy contractions, so when my OB came in, she broke my water. Her words were, "In about a half-hour, you should start feeling some good contractions." I don't think she was out the door before I had 2 right in a row that HURT!

I tried to just breathe through them and George asked me if I wanted my MP3 player. This is how I made it through! I blasted the music on the MP3 player (so loud I couldn't hear George talking right next to me). As each contraction came, I just thought, "This contraction will be over before this song is over." This was my focal point and it worked. The only bad times were if the song ended during a contraction and when George switched sides of the bed (I was supposed to be turning over as well but the contraction happened too soon). George's hand had to be on the bed rail, under mine but not squeezing mine or on top of mine in any way. As he is reading over my shoulder, he says he wishes I had told him that instead of the indiscernible grunting that he endured as he moved his hand around to try and please me.

After 1.5 hours of hard labor, I started feeling pushy... you know, the contractions where you finally get to DO something. They called the doctor right away and about 5 contractions later, I was pushing out baby "Maggie". "She" was really quiet after birth and I kept asking, "Is the baby ok?" They had to detangle the cord from baby's neck and finally I got to push the rest of the baby out (the baby comes in 2 pushes... head first, then body). About a minute later, the doctor looks down and said, "This is a BOY!" We were sooo surprised, along with all of our nurses and the doctor who had been talking about Maggie all day. So we had no name for our big, 10 pound baby boy. But he was healthy and scored really high on his Apgar:) He had low blood sugar, but we gave him a Snickers bar and it came right up... just kidding, but he did get to nurse right away and that helped and he didn't have anymore problems (unlike Sam who had to spend the night in the NICU).

The name game was rough, he just couldn't be a Maggie, but we couldn't figure out what else fit. George and I are very planned when it comes to these things. We have never come to the hospital without a full name chosen. So, we pretty much just decided to steal all of Becca's ideas for boy names for her future children and we decided that he was a Seth Isaiah.

It was a wonderful experience, and it was done without any pain meds at all!!!! Yippee!! Just the way we wanted it. The rest of the hospital stay was uneventful and sooo nice! I mean, where else do people wait on you hand and foot, take the baby so you can get some sleep and bring you room service 24 hours a day? It was great:)

Life at home with 4 is quite the adjustment. Let's just say I am SO glad that I will have help for 2 solid weeks. Hopefully, we'll all get used to Seth and get a bit more sleep than we did last night (1.5 hours). He's a sweet boy and we love him! Yea for new babies!!!

Good morning!!

Our little baby "Maggie" is here! Except, she came as as a 10 pound, bouncing baby BOY!!!! Can you believe it...2 ultrasounds and actual ultrasound pics of her labeled "girl". So, here it is, 4 am, I can't sleep so I am thinking and looking for boy names on the internet. Pretty nice...internet is available right across the hall from our room and baby is sleeping in the nursery.

I will have to write all the birthing details when I have a bit more energy, but thought I would just let the cyber world know, we have a Boy!!!!

PS I am SO GLAD we didn't paint the nursery pink;) Poor kid might have to go home in the cutest pink outfit ever, though.

Doctor's Visit

Here's the update: I am up to a 4 and my body is killing me. So I scheduled an induction for Thursday! She will be here tomorrow! Yippee! And I will immediately lay flat on my back:) I think that this works out best for all involved and the fact that I am having false labor for a good part of every day and I am dilated so far, I think she is ready to come anyway.

Because of the induction, I am scared that I will want to get the epidural. The main reason I don't want it is because I had big back problems this summer and someone suggested that they might have been caused by the epidural...and that scared me. The doctor says she doesn't think it would have and I was doing a CRAZY hip-hop dance aerobics class at the time that my body was not ready for which probably added to any kind of stress on my back. So in short, I am going to try every method in the book (George and I have it all planned out) and try to make it through. If I am crying and screaming (I can't really imagine this being me:) and not progressing, I am ok with the epidural. I hope that doesn't disappoint anyone...and maybe it will make some of you happy (Joanna:)

I am SO EXCITED of the reality of not being pregnant tomorrow! And continuing that trend for a while:) "Time to slow down production and work on quality control" says George's boss.


PS Levi's funny quote of the day, talking about mopping the kitchen floor: "Why would I EVER not want to do that!!" I hope I can convince him that he said these things when he is a teenager!

This weekend...

was uneventful. Well, that's not really true. All of George's siblings were in town and it was quite the event! We had a huge egg hunt, visited, played games and ate tons of good food (including these fabulous chocolate eggs that are a Jones family tradition).

But my belly was uneventful. In fact, I got worried that perhaps the baby wasn't moving very much, but then I realized with everything going on, I probably just didn't notice. I go to see the doctor tomorrow and I am technically not due until Wednesday. I am sure she will let me go over if that's what I want. But she would be happy to induce if that's what I want. She is very easygoing. If you ask me at night, I am dying to be induced (oh, to just lay on my back!) but during the day, I just want to hold out and go all natural.

The one thing that I would like to avoid is another Sunday at church. I wore makeup yesterday just to avoid the "Oh, you look so tired!" comment. It didn't work. I just want to yell, "Of course I am tired! I have to go to the bathroom every hour through the night. I have 3 kids, 4 and under. I am carrying around a hundred pounds more than I would like. And I am growing a baby, here! Would you like to trade places for a day and see how tired you are?" I know that people don't mean anything, but I would LOVE for someone to come up to me and say, "Wow, you look fabulous!" THAT would make me smile! :)

Labor!!!! True or False?

No, I am not in labor. In fact, I believe that I will probably be pregnant forever. Has that ever happened? Just curious. :)

My problem is I have been having all the signs and strong contractions for soooo long. Every sign in the book....except the baby coming out. This past week seemed really productive and I was having regular, strong contractions all afternoon before the Dr's appt. I got there and she said 3 cm. Again. Same as last week. Labor continued until 11pm when it promptly stopped and the only reason I didn't get any sleep was because I had to go to the bathroom every hour. Argh. I know there is still a week before my due date and perhaps I would have been ok if I hadn't had false labor for so long. I am really trying to not get my hopes up when this happens. But it's tough.

Ah well. My sister went 10 days over with her last baby. Maybe that what I should shoot for and if anything happens, I will be pleasantly surprised. :)

Last night...

So I watched Charly. Dumb idea:) I , of course, cried my eyes out. I knew what was going to happen. I'd read the book many, many times! I also ate an entire bag of popcorn. The combo of the crying and the salty popcorn ended in a VERY swollen face, hands and feet in the morning. I finally feel like my eyes are wide open and it's 6pm. I seem to remember being this swollen before when pregnant with Levi. Some of you may remember that the term "water buffalo" fit me. I am thrilled that it's warm enough for me to wear my flip-flops, since I am miserable in my tennis shoes because of my swollen feet.

Today was a super productive day. I had tons of energy, I got lots of loads of laundry done, I went shopping for the last few things that we need for Maggie, the kids and I cleaned the house and Levi and I cleaned out the car (Levi did most of it:). It was a good day. Maybe this is my nesting, eh?

Ok, tomorrow would be a GREAT day to have a baby:) George is home, child care is covered, mommy is READY! Which means I will probably go the weekend after my due date:)

The baby can come now!

Thanks to Jennifer, the nursery is now done. There are a few things I want to hang on the walls, but that will come in time, probably. So, as is, it's very cute and functional (of course, George would have said it was functional when we moved in:) . But now, it's cute, too!!! I love how the yellow looks on a sunny day. And today was sunny...warm and sunny! Finally! Anyone is welcome to come over and see how it really looks. It was hard to get good pics. Plus, the cutie crib set is what I built the whole thing on and you can't even see it in the pictures. But the stripes showed up really well, so at least you can see those! And the curtains from Jennifer are adorable in there!

I have been extremely tired and having TONS of false labor. It's almost as bad a real labor because you get your hopes up that the end is in sight and then, BAM, everything stops. Argh. I am just so tired of being pregnant. Plus, think how much more fun it will be to read my blog if I am not just complaining about pregnancy:) Of course, then it will be all baby talk because I won't have time to think of anything else, right?

So, I am off to watch a chic flick and eat popcorn and cry my eyes out. I need to get rid of some of this pent up emotional junk. Has anyone seen Charly? I haven't, but borrowed it from a friend and I think I will watch it tonight. Seems like a good night for it!

A quick note at Midnight!

Boy, this DST has us all messed up! I don't get tired until 1am (but I could take a 3 hour nap during the day:). Anyway, we just finished de-taping the room. Took way longer than painting! I like it, but it's VERY yellow. Now I'd like to put some stuff on the walls. My mom gave us a cutie little shelf thing that I would like to hang. I really will take a pic of the finished room, but not yet!

Dr's note: Dilated to 3cm. She stripped my membranes. I thought I was in labor for an hour earlier today...strong contractions, 5 minutes apart then nothing! It was better this way because Sam just spent 2 hours screaming and up and down and all that and it would have been really tough on someone that wasn't Mommy. Shoot, it was tough on Mommy! I guess he is warming us up for the "sometimes babies just cry" mentality. Lately, everything has been fixable with a Nuk for him.

What a day!

60 things about me...I'm so cool:)

1. What is in the back seat of your car right now? 2 carseats with 2 kids, usually.

2. When was the last time you threw up? The day the Pizza Man order came in for Levi's preschool...maybe in October?

3. What's your favorite curse word? Dangnabit!

4. Name 3 people you made smile today. Levi, Natalie, and Sam:)

5. What were you doing at 8 am this morning? Waking up with a start because Levi had to be dressed, eaten breakfast and leaving for school at 8:45 and I wanted to take a shower before he and George left.

6. What were you doing 30 minutes ago? Painting stripes on our nursery wall.

7. What will you be doing 3 hours from now? Sleeping...or trying to sleep.

8. Have you been to a strip club? No, but I have driven by them many times...FW seems to have a ton!

9. What is the last thing you said aloud? To George: Can I just throw all this away? (talking about painting stuff...he washed it all:)

10. What is the best ice cream flavor? Mint Chocolate Chip...which I really want RIGHT NOW

11. What was the last thing you had to drink? water with lots of ice in it...is it just me, or does everyone want to eat ice when they are pregnant?

12. What are you wearing right now? A shirt that is too small and crawling up my belly and pants that are too small and are crawling down my belly...darn that belly!

13. What was the last thing you ate? Lite popcorn

14. Have you bought any new clothing items this week? Yes, but for the baby

15. When was the last time you ran? Last April for a 5k, I think.

16. What's the last sporting event you watched? Basketball on the news.

18. Who is the last person you emailed? My sister

19. Ever go camping? Yes, I love to camp, especially in Northern Wisconsin.

20. Do you have a tan? No.

24. Do you drink your soda from a straw? Yes, I would rather.

25. What did your last IM say? I haven't IM'd in years. Yes, I am getting old.

26. Are you some one's best friend? Yes!

27. What are you doing tomorrow? My parents are coming up to visit, so talking a lot, maybe running some errands, and then going to the Dr!

28. Where is your mom right now? I am sure she is at home.

29. Look to your left, what do you see? George playing on the other computer.

30. What color is your watch? I don't have a watch.

31. What do you think of when you think of Australia? Michael Johns on American Idol.

32. Would you consider plastic surgery? No

33. What is your birthstone? Emerald, I think.

34. Do you go in a fast food place or just hit the drive thru? Depends on who I am with. Most of the time, drive-thru.

35. How many kids do you want? I'm pretty happy with 4.

36. Do have a dog? No. I am lucky that my kids are fed and taken care of!

37. Last person you talked to on the phone? Becca

38. Have you met anyone famous? Yes, a few General Authorities while on my mission. Also, Donny Osmond.

39. Any plans today? Watch the 11pm news.

40. How many states have you lived in? 2.

41. Ever go to college? Yes.

42. Where are you right now? Our family room.

43. Biggest annoyance in your life right now? STILL being pregnant:)

44. Last song listened to? Indiana Jones theme song and George can't stop whistling it.

46. Are you allergic to anything? Nope.

47. Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time? My tennis shoes.

48. Are you jealous of anyone? Yes, of mothers of young children and clean houses.

50. Is anyone jealous of you? I wouldn't guess so.

51. What time is it? 11pm, time for the news.

52. Do any of your friends have children? Lots of them do.

53. Do you eat healthy? I eat healthy, along with junk food:)

54. What do you usually do during the day? Play, clean, read, blog, chauffeur, cook, nap.

55. Do you hate anyone right now? No, that's a waste of energy.

56. Do you use the word "hello" daily? Yes, answering the phone.

58. How old will you be turning on your next birthday? 30...ahhhhh!!!!

59. Have you ever been to Six Flags? Nope.

60. How did you get one of your scars? My brother pushed me down on the pavement and I still have a scar on my knee. I am sure he didn't mean to:)

Our poor snow dude!

Here's the pics that wouldn't upload earlier....

I live my dreams through my daughter. I LOVE short hair and would love to cut mine off (why is it that husbands like long hair?) So Natalie, who HATES having her hair brushed (seriously, we could go an entire week without brushing it!) agreed to just cut it off. And she never looked back. I really like the haircut, though it may take a bit of maintenance. If only it were me....




Here's the bedroom all taped up...if we were having a boy, we could just leave the tape up, right?
It is actually painted now (YIPPEE!) but I'm not posting any pics until we get the tape off and the stuff setup. I want a finished product! I must say, after 3 DAYS of taping, 1 hour of painting was nothing!



Here is our sea turtle, the latest Jones family (well really, it's just George:) snow creation. It was made from what was left of the snowman that actually lost his head. Back to that Calvin and Hobbes comic....

It's Spring!

So there is still a few inches of snow on the ground, so what? At least it's sunny and above 30! That means the kids are outside!!!! Yippee! I hear we are to get more snow later this week, so I am sending them out while I can.

I tried to upload photos of the room (prepped for painting) but blogger doesn't want to cooperate. It looks pretty cool with all the bright blue stripes of painters tape. I HOPE we get to paint it tonight (it's been too cold to open the windows) or tomorrow and just get it done. Then, I will include pics of before and after. I am SO READY to have it all done. Nesting, nesting...

ALL I can think about is baby. With Sam, I was induced so I knew when he was coming and pretty much how it would all go and with Natalie, she came a week early, so I was caught off guard and didn't have this WAITING issue. This spontaneous labor thing is weird and a little annoying, I am afraid, to the people who talk to me often. My mom said to me the other day, "Your life is pretty much baby, huh?" Yep, that sums it up. I have 3 other kids. You would think I would have lots of other things to think about. Nope, just baby. I also think part of me is just ready to be NOT PREGNANT for quite a while. I only had a 6 month break between the last 2 pregnancies and that was not enough. I am going for at least a 3 year break this time:)

I go into the Dr tomorrow and let's all hope I am in labor and just don't know it:)

Funny quote of the day:

Levi: "If this world can't stop snowing, I'm off to a new world!" :)

Also, nursery update: Since the weather is nasty on a Tuesday night YET AGAIN, my signing class was cancelled and we got the entire room plumb-lined (you know, with the chalk and all that so we can get our tape straight?). So, all that's left is taping and painting. I also got the closet and clothes organized (uh, there wasn't much...looks like I need to go buy baby girl clothes. Tough job, but somebody's got to do it:) and convinced the kids to help me scrub their bathroom with Clorox wipes. Levi is one good cleaner when he wants to be...which is often thank goodness!

Well, I am off to watch American Idol (recorded so as to not have to watch the commercials. Man, would I love TeVo!)

More Pregnancy Info!!!

So, the doctor said 2 cm!!!! Yippee! And that it could happen anytime! Which probably means I will be pregnant for 3 more weeks. I refuse to get excited. Well, ok...I am a little excited:) But, I have lots of things on my to do list so I hope that will keep me busy until the end.

I decided that we needed to paint the nursery and last night we started taping the walls to paint stripes. Has anyone done this??? It's sooo crazy hard! I don't get it! The DIY internet site I went to made it sound so easy....it was not! After we had done the shortest wall, we were done for the night. Now that we at least have a method, maybe it will go quicker. But I am not sure when it will get done as this is a busy week. It's only 2 week tape, so the tape has to be off by March 15. Then, the crib and the curtains have to go up (thanks, Jennifer!) and I have to organize her hand-me-down clothes and her closet. That sounds way more fun than the painting stuff. Yeah, the baby will probably come tomorrow and sleep in her carseat for 6 months because George and I will be too tired to finish the project. :) Ah well...