Announcing Isabel Amy!

Thursday afternoon and evening we helped my brother move and I think that after everything I tried to get labor going this is what did the trick. Robert was a trooper but on the way home he just couldn't make it without falling asleep, as you can see above. I'm sure he was sending vibes to Izzy letting her know that it was time for her to arrive!

Well that night after getting home late I decided to take the next day off of work. I texted my staff and e-mailed my boss...little did I know at that time that work wouldn't even be an option! I woke up a little before 5 to my water breaking and after quick showers for both Eric and I we were on our way to the hospital. It was really a blessing that both my mom and brother had slept at our house after the moving so leaving in the wee hours of the morning didn't disturb Robert. We were checked into our delivery room by 5:45am and shocked to hear I was dilated to 5cm already because as of Tuesday I was barely 1cm dilated. A couple of hours later they checked again and found me to be a 7-8 and with popping more of my water we were sure I'd be pushing in no time. Well Izzy had other plans and got stuck at 7cm for over 4 hours. At 1:00 it was decided to start pitocin to get the contractions a little stronger, and man were they strong. I didn't attempt an epidural (the 11 unsuccessful attempts with Robert didn't leave me to eager to try again) and up until that point the contractions were doable. Well from 1:30-3:00 the pain went from about a 7 on a 1-10 scale to oh lets say 35. I was crying/screaming with every contractions and even though they attempted some other pain meds it did nothing for the pain. Finally at 3:00 I called the nurse in and told her that either I had to push this baby out or I wanted a c-section (which had already been discussed) because I couldn't continue on. Luckily I was 9.5 and with 2 more contractions I was ready to push. I only pushed for about 10 minutes (unlike almost 3 hours with Robert) and Isabel was here. Although the pushing was shorter her birth was by far A LOT worse.

Isabel arrived at 3:13pm weighing in at 8lbs 11oz and was 21 inches long. She was as long as her brother but about a 1/2 pound lighter and had a smaller head! She is absolutely precious and we are enjoying getting to know her and learn her personality.

Apgar scores were 8 and 9 out of 10...not too shabby!

Izzy with dad and mom

First Bath!

Robert meeting his sister!

Cousin Lyric with her new GIRL cousin

Grandma Hempler meeting Izzy

Uncle Nick, Grandma Roberts and Izzy

We'll be here at the hospital until sometime tomorrow. My recovery is already night and day from Robert (again goes back to a smaller head size from Izzy!) and I'm feeling great. Izzy even slept for 3-4 hour stretches last night allowing us to get some pretty good rest. We'll post more about her later.

Trying EVERYTHING!

Well tomorrow I'll be 39 weeks and I am so ready for our baby to be here already! By now my doctor should be back in town, Eric's parents are back, and the only one still missing is Nick but since he'll be home tomorrow and can still visit me in the hospital I see no reason to prolong this delivery. Now if only a certain little girl would agree with her mom!

Last week at work I was very productive to make sure everything would be ready for me to leave and I feel confident that all is worked out and the staff would be fine without me around. Yesterday we did laundry and a few other little items so on the house front all is good. Now the only thing we're waiting on is for labor to begin! To help that process along I'm trying all of the suggested items. On Friday I started with getting a pedicure and sitting in the massage chair followed by walking around the grocery store, yesterday there were a few other tried methods that didn't work but included letting Robert poke my belly button and say get out Izzy (well in his own way of talking anyway!), and this morning Robert and I took off for a long walk to the park and then to the grocery store to buy pineapple. Now while posting this blog I'm bouncing on my exercise ball and eating pineapple, hoping something will get contractions going or my water to break. I know that she'll come when she's ready but knowing that she is plenty big and dreading pushing another large baby out I think she needs to be ready now.

So hopefully sometime this week I can post that she has arrived but until then here are some pictures of Robert playing at the park this morning.

I can do the stairs all by myself!

CONTRACTIONS...Quick get ready...Oops false alarm!

Well the title of this post pretty much describes our week. Monday night around 7:30 I started having pretty intense contractions and we decided to start timing them. After about an hour of having contractions 5 minutes or less apart, with each lasting 2-3 minutes, I decided it was time to call our doctor. That process took a little longer than I expected because he had left his pager in another part of his house but we did finally connect. He said that since it was my 2nd pregnancy I knew what was happening and he said we could go to the hospital if we liked but that it was also fine to stay home until either the pain got too bad or my water broke. Since I didn't want to be sent home from the hospital we decided to hang around home to see what developed. But with Robert it presents a little more of a challenge so I called my brother to have him come over and spend the night in case we needed to leave. Well of course by the time he gets to our house (around 10:15) the contractions are slowing. That night I had contractions off and on and didn't sleep well but nothing that warranted a trip to the hospital...but thanks for coming over Nick!

On Tuesday I had my scheduled 37 week check-up. I am still measuring two weeks ahead but since I didn't grow any more the doctor decided he wasn't too concerned. He thinks that the main reason I'm all of sudden measuring big is because the baby has yet to drop and thus is just making me bigger than most women that have dropped by this point...wonderful! The other great, um Not!, thing about not dropping is that the doctor thinks until she does drop contractions aren't going to do much other than cause me discomfort and pain. Of course the contractions can also help her drop but so far this is not the case. I did have a slight change and was almost 1cm dilated so I guess progress is progress...right?

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful. I'd get a few sharp contractions but nothing that ever developed into anything consistent until this morning. This morning my strong and close together contractions were back but I was determined to not even time them since I've decided to hang out at home until my water breaks or the pain is too extreme. Well after finally getting ahold of my family to see where they were for the day and getting a few things finished around the house the contractions once again stopped. My brother said it best when I told him it was another false alarm..."typical woman not able to make up her mind." As annoyed as I was with the contractions stopping once again I couldn't disagree with his statement. Let's just hope it isn't a sign of times to come with her. :)

The good news about her not arriving last week/this weekend is that Eric's parents are out of town and return early this week. The bad news is that my doctor is now out of town for the week and my brother leaves for a long weekend concert trip this coming weekend. I know she'll come when she is ready but what about WHEN I AM READY?! Tomorrow I go see a different doctor for my 38 week check-up since mine is out of town. I'm not expecting any big developments since I am almost 100% positive Izzy has yet to drop and everything else seems to be progressing as expected.

So I'm ready to accept defeat for the week and wait until all of my important people are around for Izzy's debut. This will allow me to also finish up the current session of lessons at work and probably get the last session started next Monday. And when all else fails next Monday is a full moon so hopefully the stories are true and that starts my labor.

We're Ready!

I have had the majority of the last week off from work and we took advantage to get some projects done and prepare for bringing Izzy home. We started last weekend by sorting through all of stuff in the basement and making one big dump pile. Eric took that to the dump and then tackled replacing our sink in the basement (the old one was leaking everytime we did laundry and flooding was starting to be an issue!). The project wasn't as quick as he had hoped, thanks to old pipes, but between Eric and a plumber the job got done and doing laundry is now safe to do without wearing shoes to the basement.

Next on the agenda was to bring up the baby stuff from the basement, wash all of the bedding & clothes for Izzy, and finish the preparations on her room. After a lot of work the room is done, clothes are clean and all of the baby stuff is back upstairs. Along with this I have our bags packed for the hospital so we are ready for our little girl to arrive. Last week I had about 2 hours of consistent and long lasting contractions (2 minutes +) and thought for sure our little girl was about to arrive since I never had contractions with Robert until I was in actual labor, even during my failed induction. I of course hadn't completed all of the above tasks yet so after quickly packing for the hosptal and getting a few other odds & ends done the contractions stopped. UGH! My daughter is already testing me!!!

At my 36-week check up, which happened to be the day after the 2 hours of contractions, I learned that the contractions caused no dilation so any hopes of her coming soon flew out the window. I also learned that for some reason I was measuring ahead again (at 38 instead of 36) and there was a trace of protein in my urine but my blood pressure was fine so they don't think it is pre-eclampsia yet. The only good news from the appointment was that after a quick ultrasound we were able to see that she is head down but not engaged. I start weekly appointments now so we will see what my appointment on Tuesday brings.

To cap off all of our hard work over the past 2 weeks we joined in some of the Whiz Bang Days festivities for Robbinsdale. Robert, we learned after the fact, had a fever on Friday and didn't enjoy the carnival as much as we'd hoped. His fever lasted through yesterday and finally broke this morning. We're not sure if he picked up a virus or if it is his molars coming in. He's been chewing on his hands a lot and drooling more so we're hoping it was his teeth. Enjoy the pictures of our projects and fun over the last 2 weeks.

Putting a new Ikea Chair together for Robert

I think he likes it!

Izzy's room, still blue but with yellow touches in bedding, a picture frame in orange and yellow, and her name painted in the girly colors.

Robert testing out Izzy's carseat...a little too big for him now!

Look close and you'll see Robert driving his first car!

Riding the Merry-go-Round with Dad



We hope everyone has a great week and I HOPE that soon we'll have a post introducing you to our new member of the family. We'll be working around some challenging schedules with everyone on vacation so Izzy better cooperate and not arrive while Eric's parents travel to Missouri at the end of this week, while my doctor is at a convention all next week, and when my brother is out of town the following weekend. Basically the best time for Izzy to come is this week, well after July 26th would work too but 2 weeks seems WAY TOO LONG at this point in the pregnancy.