New toys

We went out to Target this morning and got Victor a new toy! It's an activity mat for him to lay on for tummy time and just general fun. I'm sure you've all seen them. We get reward points on our debit card and last week I cashed some of our points in for a $25 gift card to Target. Woo for free stuff! I have to say, there was a moment in Target that just kind of warmed my heart and made me love my husband even more. Victor had a power poop moment in the middle of the store so Matt took off with the Winnie the Pooh diaper bag slung over his shoulder and baby Vic in the other arm to the bathroom to change him. That picture of him being all daddy is stuck in my mind, it was soooo adorable! Taking a break from tummy time. It's hard work!

Tummy Time!

Playing with his new toy

He was having fun, I swear!

Before going to Target. I was excited cause we finally got him to look at the camera.

Another try, lol. He was being squirmy.

He's soooo adorable when he's sleeping that I just can't resist taking pictures.

This is his little baseball uniform. He wore it out to Target this morning, and also wore it home from the hospital. Our little Slugger!

2 weeks old!

He's starting to be awake a bit more during the day so we've started doing a few little activities. Nothing major of course, just putting the toy bar on his bouncy chair and letting him stare at those, or puttin ghim in his swing. Just small things to keep his attention without overstimulating him. And Victor's Great-Grandma Greta, Great-Grandpa Victor and Great-Aunt Vicki came through Charleston on a road trip and got to meet the little man. We were so glad they were able to stop by and we really enjoyed seeing them! It's still a pretty rough life though, lol.

Activity Time! Notice the big yawn on his face? yea, we're real exciting.

Playing

"What's up mom?"

Such a cute face :0)

Sleeping

Great-Grandpa Vic, Daddy and Little Vic

Big Vic, Great-Grandma Greta and Great-Aunt Vicki

Big Vic, Daddy and Little Vic again

Vic and Great-Grandma Greta.

Not too much else going on here. Just hanging out with the little guy taking it day by day. We're going to have some more visitors this weekend so expect more pictures!

We're still here :)

Little foot with long monkey toes

Holding the little man after a "power poop" I was laughing so hard I was crying!

Same :) I look awesome I know...

Daddy and Vic after his first bath. He just sat there staring at us, like, "What the HELL did you just do to me.."

He always gets his hands up bu his face in the cutest little poses.

"Hey guys!"

Precious baby

Victor is now 10 days old. It's been a whirlwind trying to figure out when he's hungry, when he's just fussy cause mommy had too much coffee (lol), when he's gassy, etc... I think we're getting the hang of it now, but why don't kids come with a manual? ha!

Victor Stephen Meyers

He's Here! He arrived Oct. 13, 2009 at 5:47pm. Weighing 8lbs and 15oz, 21 inches long, he's already on his way to being a linebacker!!

We arrived at the hospital around 7:45pm on Monday night. I got all hooked up to the machines and was already having contractions and didn't even know it! The nurse kept asking me, "did you feel that?" I was all, "feel what?" Too bad that didn't last long, haha!

Around 9pm they inserted the cervadil in order to try and ripen my cervix a bit more to make the pitocin more effective. After the cervadil was in, the contractions definitely got a little more intense, nothing major yet, but definitly there! I was able to sleep between them, but they were strong enough that each one woke me up and they were about 5min apart, so not much sleep :) Out came the Cervadil at 4am, then at 5am tried to start pitocin. At this point, I was dilated to 1cm. They started the pitocin drip and I immediatley had a ridiculously strong contraction and they lost Vic's hearbeat on the monitor. They stopped the pitocin and had me keep rolling back and forth making sure they could get his hearbeat. They finally restarted the pitocin at 6am with no further incidents.

They contractions kept getting stronger until I really had to keep breathing through them and couldn't focus on anything else. Around 8:30am the doc came in, checked me, I was only at 1 and 1/2 cm, and he broke my water. He also said that since I really wasn't progressing much, basically if there was no progress the next time he checked me we'd be having a c-section.

He had broken my water and they had upped the pitocin at the same time and I thought I was going to die. The contractions were about a minute apart and lasting at least 45 seconds a piece, there was almost no break between them. Doc said that even though I wasn't very far along yet, since he had broken my water we were in for the long haul regardless so I was offered the epidural. For a second I wasn't sure if I wanted to wait or not, then I had another contraction and said yes!

So at 9:45am I recieved my epidural. Thank God for modern medicine! I have no idea how people give birth naturally. Granted, my labor was being induced and if it had been naturally occurring it probably would have been a bit easier to deal with. Anyways... so I got to sleep for a couple of hours. I could still kind of feel the contractions in my bottom area, but def not painful like they had been. Around 1:30, 2pm he came in to check me again and I was at 3cm, yay! I was progressing and didn't have to immediately have a c-section. I was allowed to continue laboring and hoping things continued to progress.

Of course, we didn't have to wait long. About this time I started being able to feel the contractions more through the epidural. Not like before, but definitely strong and I was having to breathe through them. So they showed me how to give myself a little extra boost with the little push button. Except it wasn't doing anything. They quickly got bad enough that I couldn't even focus on breathing through them. They were 2 minutes apart and lasting about a minute apiece. Matt was unbelievable and was right there holding my hand, reminding me to breathe, and getting me ice chips or anything I needed. They even had the anethiseologist come back in to give me a second dose. About 2:30 the nurse decided to check me again (about a half hour after I had been checked and been at 3cm) and I was about 6cm. She said that she figured that's why the epidural wasn't working, I was prgoressing very quickly all of a sudden and it just couldn't keep up! At 3pm she checked me again and I was 9cm and I could feel her moving his head around. I dilated from 3cm to 9cm in an hour! I can't imagine what it would have felt like without the epidural!

Finally my body slowed down a bit and the pain meds were able to kick back in a bit. My legs were completely numb by this point. I could still feel the contractions in my butt, but I could sleep through some of them and they let me nap for about a half hour. About 4 or 4:30 I was at 10cm and we did a couple of practice pushes, and then decided to let me sit up in bed for a bit and let the baby come down a bit more.

About 5:15 we started pushing again. At 5:47pm little Victor was born!! I can not explain the feeling seeing him when the doctor held him up and put him on my stomach. I'm crying now again just thinking about it. It was just such an incredible feeling... First thought "holy crap, we really had a baby! He was really in there!"

They took him to the warmer to clean him up and everything and I was crying and Matt was kissing me.... hearing Victor cry was amazing, I hated hearing him cry but I was so glad that he was!

Then the told us they were calling in the NICU crew. Scared everything out of me.... The nurse said his color was very pale and his chest was retracting when he was breathing. Then a minute or two later when the NICU doc came in they said he was fine!! Apparently he just needed a minute or two to adjust to life outside the womb :) But geez, they scared the crap out of us!

Of course, during all this the nurses kept saying, "oh what big feet he has!" "what a big baby!" Finally they told us he was 8lbs and 15oz. I was amazed. When I had the ultrasound to check his weight about 4 weeks before they had said 7lbs 8oz and we knew it was possible he was going to be big, but we also knew there was some room for error. Apparently they were right on and he is just a little chunker!! The doctor said that if he'd know how big Vic was going to be he never thought I would have done it. He'd thought I was going to end up with a c-section from the get go, and then I delivered a 9lb baby, HA! Showed you doc!

I did end up with a few stitches, but nothing major and they really haven't bothered me that much, a little sore of course, but not like I had imagined. The first couple of days my back actually hurt more than anything. I could barely stand up without feeling like my back was going to snap in half, apparently a combination of the epidural and rolling up in the pushing position..you know, and just having a baby, lol.

I have to take a minute and tell everyone how I have the best husband in the entire world. He stayed with me in the hospital the entire time, even at the beginning when nothing was really going on. He asked repeatedly what I needed and immeditely got anything and everything, many times he got things he thought I needed but I just didn't want to ask for. He held the little tray for me when I threw up, and stayed by my side during everything. I love him soo much.... I can't believe how lucky I am to get to spend the rest of my life with him as my husband and the father of my beautiful little boy.

Daddy and little Victor.

Victor being cute :) He sleeps in the bouncy chair alot, but don't turn on the vibrator! He doesn't like that part of it yet.

Victor cuddling on mommy. I love his little cheeks and his lips..... I know I'm biased, but he's just so stinking cute!

here we go!!

We are going to the hospital tonight at 8pm to be induced!! The other doctor that I saw before is going to be taking care of me, so at least Ive met him before and I know my doctor trusts him. I've been running around this morning since I found out trying to finish up a couple little things. I'm going to try and take a little nap before I have to pick Matt up from work cause then we are going straight to the hospital!!

I'm sooooo nervous!! All this time I've known that labor and delivery is going to happen but now it's really REAL! I have to give BIRTH!! hahaha! I'm a little anxious, not gonna lie! Matt's just been grinning nonstop and saying "I'm gonna be a daddy!" He's so freaking cute, I can't wait to see my little man look just like him!! I get to meet my baby, finally!!! Yaaayyy!!

wow.

The doctor he wanted to do the induction is out of town until Monday. At that point he will review my chart to see if he even wants to do the induction. His office doesn't consider me "post dates" until 1 week after my due date, I don't even know if they'll care about the puppps. In the meantime..... if I go into labor, I don't have a doctor to deliver my baby!

You'd think with my due date approaching, he would have had some back up plans in place, not to mention for his other patients as well. I just keep thinking about going into labor and some strange person I've never met, who doesn't know me or my husband, calling the shots about my child's birth.

I want my baby and I want someone I know to deliver him. this is sooo frustrating.....

ok, 40 week appt.

If you read the post below this one you'll see how my night went and how ready I was for this appointment.

Appt starts off normal, I only gained 1 lb since last time hooray! everything else is fine, then I go in to wait. That's always the longest part of course.

Doc walks in and says hi. I also say hello. he says "I'm not even going to ask how you're feeling because I'm pretty sure I know, you're SOBP (Sick Of Being Pregnant)." I laugh and say, "well, it probably wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the damn rash." he then asked if I'd tried the benadryl cream that he had told me to use, I told him that I had and that nothing was really working. I then told him how I haven't been sleeping, for example, last night I fell asleep around 1am, tossed and turned for a couple of hours, woke up at 4am and couldn't get back to sleep. I didn't even have to get real worked up about it and he was dead serious, "That's not right, we've got to get you delivered. You've got to get some sleep." So he examined me real quick, still fingertip dilated but now about 80% effaced (yay for SOME progress). Then told me to get dressed but stay put because he'd make a few phone calls and be right back.

A little background here. A few months ago he broke a vertabrae in his back and for the month of July wasn't even seeing patients. I had been referred to his old partner for my appt that month. Apparently he has recently reinjured his back, either the same injury or a new one, I'm not for sure. Anyways, he is not currently allowed to deliver babies or exert more than 20lbs of pressure on his back.

So he came back in and told me that because of what was going on with his back he would not be able to deliver my baby, otherwise he'd have sent me to L&D right then. As it is, he had made a few calls and no one he was comfortable with was available to deliver today. So he has a call in to his old partner (the one I saw in July) to see if he's available to do it Sunday/Monday. Right now I'm just waiting to hear from them as to what's going on.

I knew his back was still bothering him, but hadn't realized he was still unable to do deliveries. Now I don't even WANT to go into labor. Cause if I do, I won't even have a doctor!!! So now I'm hoping that this new doc will be available and my little man will hold on until then. I don't even want to know what would happen if I went into labor and who would end up working on me. At least if it's this other doc, I've met him before. So that's what happened and what's going on. I'll update as soon as I get a phone call!

Oh, and for kicks and giggles here are a few photos Matt and I took last night. We figured it would be the last ones we took so we goofed around a bit.

Regular photo :) I probably should have picked a better sweater, but it was the first one I grabbed, haha! I shouldn't be wearing stripes at this point....

This one, Matt caught me in the middle of saying something and he laughed so hard at this one I promised I'd post it. Cute, I know.

My sweater is working WAAAY too hard in this one..... whoa. "Please come out baby!" "Why won't he come out? Doesn't he like us?" lol.

Sleep? what's that?

After taking my benadryl and smearing my body with benadryl cream, I fell asleep around 1am. After tossing and turning, waking up several times with either a braxton hicks contraction or itching some part of my body, I woke up at 4am and could not go back to sleep. This has become the norm over the last several days or so. My doctor's appointment is at 8:30am. I'm going to tell him how miserable I am and show him how the stupid rash has spread all over my legs and arms now. I know he probably won't induce me today. It's friday and he wants to have his weekend so I'm sure he'll just tell me to suck it up a couple more days and induce on Monday. I am going to tell him that if he doesn't induce me today that I WILL go into labor tomorrow night just to mess with his weekend.

If it weren't for the PUPPPs I would be fine with waiting even another week if I had to, but I just can't take this anymore!!! I'm really going to go insane..... I can't remember the last time I slept longer than an hour and a half without waking up. I know, I know, the baby is not going to let me sleep much longer than that anyways. But at least then it won't be because of my own discomfort and I'll finally have my son! Anyways.....that's my little middle of the night rant. Hoping for some good news later!

Lumps.

See the large lump on my right side? Yep, that's my baby. Part of him anyways. I'm not even sure which part.... He's just kind of all over the place. This picture really doesn't do it justice, it looks much stanger in real life. Oh and the red marks all over my belly? yea, that's my PUPPPs.

Now the lump has moved a bit more to the middle. I wish i could have gotten a video of this, it was really very funny! He was moving like crazy all over and Matt was dying laughing cause my belly looked so funny. All the time he does this! Instead of coming out he just tries to stretch me out more. I think he's going to stay in there forever.

Week 39

Still Pregnant! And I tell you what, he's really enjoying himself in there. I told Matt the other day that if little man acts the same out here as he does in my belly than we are screwed because he never seems to sleep!! I swear he is always squirming and doing his best to stretch me a little more. I just keep telling him that if he wants more room he's gonna have to come out! I do love watching my belly stretch and contort into strange shapes. It makes me laugh! He's definitely out of room.

My PUPPPs rash has started to spread to my legs and is about to drive me crazy. I'm doing my best not to scratch because that just makes it worse. I feel like I have chicken pox or something, lol! Thank goodness for Benadryl or I would not be sleeping at all. I didn't take any last night and slept maybe 3 hours. Luckily today was my last day at work!! I'm officially on Maternity Leave so baby needs to hurry up and come out!!!

I had my weekly appointment this morning. There is a little bit of progress! I'm still fingertip dilated, but instead of being 40% effaced I'm up to about 60% and baby's head dropped from a -2 station down to between 0 and -1. So Doc got pretty excited about that! From the way he'd been talking I thought for sure he'd want to set an induction date for this week, but he was really excited about my progress. Apparently it's harder to efface than it is to dilate and effacement is more a measure of whether or not my body is ready than dilation is. So he said we'd go ahead and set my appointment for next week and that hopefully I wouldn't make it. If I am still pregnant at that appointment than most likely he'll induce me that next monday.

I love these cartoons :)



Update on my mom:

I got to talk to her!! I cried a little bit, I'm not going to lie. I haven't talked to her in over a month! The last time I talked to her was the day after her surgery on August 21. She's a little soft spoken and its harder for her to talk now for a long time. Considering how long she had tubes in her throat and was sedated it's not surprising. She's in the rehab part of the hospital now and is working on getting muscle strength back so she can walk and do more things on her own. She'll probably be there at least a couple of weeks. But she's getting better! Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers!


I asked Matt if there was anything he wanted me to put in here for him and all he said was "It's almost baby time!" So I guess that sums it up!! haha!