Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving, I have a lot to be thankful for. My family is healthy and God continues to bless us. My daughter is growing each day...healthy and strong and my body is recovering nicely from child birth.

Also, I am thankful for a life well spent. J's grandmother went on to be with the Lord on Thanksgiving morning at the age of 93. She lived a full life but it was sad that she never got to see her great grand child (JOE).
Please keep J & his family in your prayers.

Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone!

A baby story...part 1

Hello everyone! It sure has been a while!!! I hope all my readers/fellow bloggers are doing well.

I have been very busy with Jordan and my mom who was here for 3-weeks took control of my laptop :-). I guess she figured I had enough on my hands.

In anycase, without further ado, here's my birthing story.

On Monday, November 5th, I had my regular weekly appointment. Prior to that, I had an appointment the Friday before and at my OB's suggestion, I started taking raspberry tea leaf. During that appointment, the OB said I was not effaced at all and also not dilated. Hence the suggestion to start drinking the tea.

After I left the appointment, I went to the organic food store and picked up a few boxes of the tea. Figuring I'd need a lot to get things moving. I started on the tea around 4pm that evening and by the time J got home from his grad school classes, I was having contractions! Granted, they were random so I didn't really do much timing at that point.
The contractions continued on through the weekend and by Monday, I went in for my next appointment. I thought I had lost my mucus plug and the doctor decided to check. She said it was indeed my plug and that I was 80% effaced and 1cm dilated. Of course, that got things moving. She asked if she could strip my membrane so I could make more progress and I said that was OK.
My contractions got more frequent from there and kept on coming.

I went to work on Tuesday to finish up lose ends and also just to pack up the items I left on my desk. I remember actually being on a telecon and having contractions. I had tears in my eyes and of course, my boss chose that moment to walk in on me. She asked me to go home and I said I just wanted to get through a few more things first.

Tuesday night, the contractions got more intense. On Wednesday morning (11/7/12), I called the doctor's office to say that I thought my water had broken. I was told to go to the hospital and she'd call it in. I packed my bags and went to the hospital. I thought for sure they'd send me home but I was told when I got there that my water hadn't broken. Whomp...whomp!!! However, I was already 3cm dilated and would be having the baby that day! I was admitted at 11:30am and was told I won't be allowed to eat anything until the baby arrived.

I won't bore you with all the details of how I spent the next 10-hours. However, my mother in law left work and came directly to the hospital as did my father in law. My mother in law was awesome! When my mom and J went to get something to eat, she stayed with me and gave me back rubs through my contractions. I will never forget that because she truly treated me like she would her own daughter!

I'll stop here for now but here are some pictures of our little Jordan...aka JOE (her initials).

A baby story...part 2

Between the time I was admitted and the time Jordan arrived, 3-nurses attended to me. The first nurse was OK but she couldn't find a vein on me to put the IV. Ummm...did I mention my fear of needles? Needless to say, I was ready to leave at that point. She had to call another nurse to put the IV in.

Nurse #2, was a nay sayer!!! She came in and her first words were "we have a problem!" Apparently, during my contractions, the baby's heart rate dipped. She alerted my OB and they decided that contrary to my birth plan, I won't be allowed to walk the halls. Instead, I was now confined in bed.
Shortly after 6pm, the baby's heart rate was consistently dipping and as a result, the doctor suggested a C-Section. I couldn't even process this. How did I go from wanting an all natural delivery to having a c-section? I started to cry and my mom and sister in Atlanta started to pray. I have to blog about my sister in Atlanta. She was praying the entire time I was in labor. She wasn't in the room physically but I felt her there.

God heard the prayers of my family. There was only one anesthesiologist in L & D that night and due to an emergency c-section, he was unavailable.

Around 7pm, the contractions got worse and I said I was ready to push. The doctor came in and said I was at 8cm and needed to wait a little while longer. Needless to say, the option for a c-section was now out the window since miraculously, everything was progressing great. She said within the next 2 hours, I would have my baby in my arms. She was right.
At approximately 9:20pm, I was told I could start pushing. My little JOE made her debut at 9:32pm. She came out screaming and I knew she'd be ok. J cut the cord and per my instructions, stayed with JOE from there on out.
Hubby was great the entire time. He encouraged me when I thought I couldn't do it and he was patient with me in everything. Gotta love that man.

I unfortunately had second degree tear so I had to get some stitches. The road to recovery hasn't been great but seeing the look on my daughter's face makes it all worth it.

Here are some more pictures of our little JOE. I just love looking at her and taking pictures of her. She is changing already.
One is of me before I was asked to push...yeah...that smile was strained!

PS:
My push gift to myself (not to be confused with my push gift from hubby which I am yet to pick out) was a new iPad 2. I hope to get back to blogging more now during my nightly pump sessions.

She's here!

As some of you may have guessed, our little girl arrived on Wednesday evening.
Stats:
Height - 19 inches
Weight - 6lbs 4.9oz
Crown width - 33 inches
Time of birth - 9:32pm
Delivery method - all natural!
First & Middle Name: Jordan Oyekemi (means honor favors me)

More information and pictures to follow soon. We are overwhelmed but also overjoyed and so in love with her!

Progress pics & pregnancy updates...@ 39+ weeks!

I have been in a little bit of a funk because I have FINALLY hit the "I am ready to have this baby" stage of pregnancy hence my not posting anything last week. But now, I am trying to be more positive so here's an update that should have been posted last week.

How Far Along? 39+ weeks. I am now a couple of days away from my "full 40-week pregnancy".

Size of Baby? She has reached her full birth length (19 - 21 inches). Now all she is doing is packing on the pounds!

Maternity Clothes? I am still able to alternate maternity clothes and pre-pregnancy clothes. Not sure if the pre-pregnancy clothes will still fit after though since they are sometimes being stretched. But we'll see.

Stretch Marks? No new stretch marks. BUT I did get some bio-oil on advise from my sister in law to use after just incase. 

Sleep? I wake up MULTIPLE times each night to use the bathroom! 2 nights ago, I got up SIX times!!! And then was up for 2-hours cause I couldn't get back to sleep. Not fun at all.

Food Cravings? Still nothing. Appetite hasn't changed. As of my appointment last Friday, I was up +17-lbs for this pregnancy. I guess the baby is taking everything she needs to plump up.

What I'm Looking Forward To:  We are now more prepared for our little one's arrival so J & I are looking forward to welcoming her into our family and just basking in the glow of being new parents. Notice I skipped the birthing process??? :-).

Symptoms/Movements? She is definitely lower but apparently, not low enough. I am hoping for significant progress this week because my OB has said they'd set up an induction date on Wednesday if I haven't showed much progress by then.

Belly Button In or Out? Still in. YAY!!!. 

Labor Signs? I had quite a few last week Wednesday and got excited. Called my mom who immediately flew in from MA. The contractions stopped by the next morning. On suggestion from my OB, I got some raspberry leaf tea and started taking it on Saturday evening. It immediately caused quite a few contractions back to back. One was so painful that I could barely walk back in the house after dinner. Thinking this was it, I got excited. But that stopped and so far, not much has happened since even though I have been drinking the tea. Urgh!!! I really really really do not want to be induced! :-(

Best Moment of the Week? FINALLY finishing the baby's dresser. It was quite an ordeal. First, it took almost 2-weeks for it to arrive. When it arrived and we opened it up, a couple of parts were broken and we had to wait 2-weeks for the replacement parts to arrive and THEN we discovered that a part was missing when we were done assembling the dresser (this part was not even mentioned in the instructions booklet until the very last page of the booklet!) which then required multiple trips to Lowes because the guy who cut the replacement part apparently didn't understand what 32-5/8 means. Oi! Thankfully, we were able to go back and get it re-cut and the dresser turned out FABULOUS! Will try to post a pic later on this week if i am not in labor.

Weekly Wisdom: Be anxious for nothing. God's time is the best time. I am trying very hard to remember this.

Pictures? Yup. Here's one from week 39 (taken 2-weeks ago) and week 40 (taken last week) for progress comparison. Yup...the week to week comparison makes me realize how much she really is growing!

Week 39:

Week 40:

Have a fabulous week everyone. Please keep me in your prayers. I am ready to have this baby.