Friday, May 03, 2013

So I wasn't pregnant forever!

This is long overdue.  Can I just say my excuse is that I spend most of my time on the main floor with our kids, and my iPad is so much faster to use than the computer?  And blogging from the iPad isn't very much fun.

Holland Grace Friesen finally arrived on April 14, 2013!  7 pounds, 13 ounces, 20.5 inches long.  She was 2 days overdue, which really threw me for a loop.  But, I'm glad she came when she did.  God's timing is always best!

I'm going to post the birth story here, so if you don't feel like reading details about it, just close my blog now :)

Sunday, April 14th I woke up around 6:30 in the morning to go pee.  Glamorous, I know!  But that's the story of my pregnancy.  Anyway, I noticed right away that something must be happening... if you know what I mean.  Within a few minutes, I had my first contraction!
At this point, I was giddy, knew I wouldn't sleep more, and decided to sit down and time for a while, and then have a shower.  It was a gorgeous sunny morning, and despite still having tons of snow on the ground, I posted about what a gorgeous morning it was on Facebook.  Of course, that got a few people wondering right away if I was hinting at something, which I actually wasn't.

After I was showered and dressed, I went to wake up Keith.  From there, I called my midwife and my parents, who were going to come and take the kids to church.  If you have heard my previous birth stories, you know that my labours are not long, about 3-4 hours or so, and I wanted to get to the hospital before I was in really hard labour.

We arrived at the hospital at 8am and were sent right upstairs to the maternity ward where my midwife was waiting for us.  (From here on I will just call her L, ok?)  L was happy to see us, and quickly showed us to our room for the day.  It was right at the end of the hall, which was nice.  A bit more privacy :)  We chatted for a while and L checked baby's heart rate with the Doppler.  I had requested that she just monitor intermittently with the Doppler instead of strapping on the monitors.  Those things were always my downfall in the past, basically confining me to the bed, which I hated.

At this point, I was a little confused as to why my contractions were not very strong.  Usually by this time, I was having to breathe through and concentrate, but now I was easily able to handle them.  So, Keith and I went for a little walk around the quiet hospital.  We joked around and had a good time, which just felt strange to me.

I walked the halls for a couple hours, just stopping once in a while to use the doppler.  By around noon, my contractions were much stronger, and I decided that I wanted to move into the birth pool.  I was super excited to get the chance to have a water birth, or at least try the pool.  So, I got in and tried to find a good position.  This proved to be difficult, because I was experiencing back labour.  Ouch!

The contractions started coming really hard and strong, and I barely had time to rest in between.  I remember saying that I wished that I could know that it would just be like 1/2 hour longer.  It would make it so much easier to bear!  I whimpered and cried out a few times during this time, and my midwife told me she was pretty sure it would be in the next 1/2 hour.  That helped!

Just before 3pm I started feeling a bit pushy.  I knew that my water hadn't broken yet, and it was causing a lot of pressure.  Finally, at 3pm my water broke, and after a couple pushes, Holland Grace was born, in the water, at 3:04pm!  The immense relief is amazing, once that baby is out!

I was able to hold her to my chest for a minute or two in the pool, but she wasn't crying, and wasn't pinking up as fast as they liked, so they cut the cord and took her.  Of course, then she screamed right away, haha!  I was a bit disappointed about the early cord cutting, but I guess they figured it was too risky to wait since she didn't seem to be perking up.  Either way, I'm so thankful for being able to use the pool, and have a say in how things went.

I should mention too that Keith was amazing the whole time!  When I was in the pool, he just held my head and brought me a nice cold cloth when I was really getting hot.  L was great too.  She sat there so quietly, not wanting to disturb me at all.  It was a wonderful (yet very painful, don't get me wrong!) birth.


So Holland is our "out of the box" child.  2 days late instead of 1 week early.  She is also our smallest baby, which is kind of strange for being late.  And, I wasn't expecting her to be a girl!  I thought for sure I was going to have a boy.

Holland is now almost 3 weeks old, and doing well!  She's going through a growth spurt, so I've been nursing her almost every hour during the day.  Very exhausting, but I know it won't last.  She hasn't been the greatest sleeper.  Often she will be awake for hours at night, which is downright frustrating for me.  A few tears have been shed.

Overall, she's a real sweetie, and I look forward to getting to know her better.  I will admit that I've had a rough time accepting the fact that I have another child to take care of.  I'm trying not to dwell on that, and hopefully things will go a little smoother sometime soon.


Wednesday, April 10, 2013

The never ending pregnancy

Friday I will be 40 weeks.  I have never made it this far in a pregnancy before, and its driving me nuts!  I'm not sleeping well, my body hurts, and I just want to be done.  Last night I woke up with a stuffy nose and a sore throat... Yay.

I feel like this baby seriously will never come.  In previous pregnancies, I never had noticeable Braxton hicks contractions, but this time I have woken up at night, convinced that I was in labour.  I wasn't.  I no longer trust myself to know real labour when it comes.  This is ridiculous!

I just want to curl up and have a good sleep.

And since every one of your guesses for my baby's arrival were quite wrong... Anyone want to make a new guess?

Thursday, April 04, 2013

38 weeks, 6 days

How far along? 38 weeks 6 days


Total weight gain/loss:  26 pounds.

Maternity clothes? Most definitely ;)


Sleep: Keith and I have had this nasty struggle over sleep for the last while.  I keep him up from my snoring, and from the potential to go into labour at any time, and then he gets restless and can't sleep, so I get restless and can't sleep.  It's not cool.  Last night was better.  I'm hoping this game is over soon!

Best moment this week: Pregnancy massage... seriously SO good!

Movement: I've had some very rough nights due to incredible movement from baby.  Like hours of so much movement, it was painful!  Baby seems to be wide awake as soon as I lay down, and then stays active til around 2 am.  

Food cravings: I'm loving Mini Eggs... but I wouldn't call it a craving :)  It's my favourite Easter candy, and I think it's OK to indulge a little once in a while.  I don't normally buy any candy or chocolates.

What I am looking forward to: Birthing this baby!  Well, I'm a tiny bit nervous about the whole labour thing, but I just want this baby to come already!  If it's anything like my other kids, it should be arriving any time now... as in today or tomorrow.  We shall see.

I have had to really get over some irrational fears this time around, for some reason.  On the nights when baby was so incredibly active, I thought for sure I would go into labour, and I was seriously scared!  But I've been praying through it, and I know that God will give me the strength to make it through.  I've done it before, and I can do it again!

Hopefully my next post will be introducing the newest little Friesen!

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Guesses?

Tomorrow I will be 38 weeks!  I thought it would be fun to have you all guess when this little one will arrive, and how big he/she will be.

Here are my previous stats:

Rowan
8 days early
8 pounds, 0.2 ounces

Bria
7 days early
8 pounds, 2.2 ounces

Emery
7 days early
8 pounds, 10 ounces

I don't remember their exact lengths, and since I have their keepsake boxes all packed away, I won't be pulling them out to check.  They have all been between 20 and 21.5 inches long, from what I remember.

What is your guess?

Monday, March 11, 2013

35 weeks 3 days

How far along? 35 weeks and 3 days


Total weight gain/loss:  26 pounds.

Maternity clothes? Yup.


Sleep: What is that?  Seriously... getting up every 1.5 - 2 hours and then struggling with hip pain has made nights seem very long sometimes.  I'm still able to function during the day though!

Best moment this week: I was able to set up the nursery last weekend, just after we moved in.  Clothes are washed and put away.  We just need a bit more storage in the room, and I need to prep the cloth diapers.  Otherwise, we're ready!

Movement: Baby like to push really hard on my side for some reason.  I can feel little feet trying to poke their way out.  It can be painful, but it's also really fun!

Food cravings: I'm still craving snow.  It's starting to melt a lot now though, so it's not very tempting :)

What I am looking forward to: Hearing the news of my sister-in-law's first baby!  She's due in two days, and I can hardly wait to be an auntie to that little one!

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

She's 3!

I still can't believe it's been 3 years since Emery Shae came into our lives!  She's a bundle of energy, fun, and cuteness.

For most of the last three years, I have thought that she would be my last baby, so I have tried to treasure so many of the little moments.  Obviously, God had other ideas, and she will no longer be the baby.  But we sure do enjoy her!

Emery is currently over 37 pounds and 40 3/8 inches tall.  Her growth curve hasn't levelled out yet, and I fully expect her to be around 6 feet tall when she's fully grown!  Crazy thought.  So far all my kids are destined to be much taller than me.  Sigh.

Emery loves to play with her dolls and dress up in "princess" costumes.  Anything beautiful and she's all over it!  She also likes to get into my lip balms, lotions, etc.

Here's a little interview we did this morning, just for fun.



Happy Birthday, Emery Shae!

Friday, February 08, 2013

31 Weeks

How far along? 31 weeks


Total weight gain/loss:  22 pounds.

Maternity clothes? Yup.


Sleep: Nothing new to say... I'm tired.

Best moment this week: Emery spent some time talking to the baby and kissing my belly.  Too cute!

Movement: Still lots of movement.  I'm really hoping that soon I will be able to feel that the baby is head down... so far it's been breach.

Food cravings: My snow craving appeared for the first time this pregnancy.  Weird.

What I am looking forward to: Getting our move over with.  3 1/2 more weeks and we'll be in our new house!