Happy Birthday Little Girl!

On Tuesday the 22nd, we welcomed our little girl, Juliana McKinley, into the world at 10:57am (at a measly 6 lb 11 oz!). What a wonderful experience it was! I had a relatively easy labor and delivery with Tyler and thought I wouldn't get off so easy this time, but I was lucky yet again.

I had my last day of work the Wednesday before baby was born because I was so mentally exhausted and the commute to Harrisonburg and back was killing my back. My due date on Friday came and went with no baby and I was super frustrated. Tyler was 6 days early so I was expecting this princess to enter the world early as well, but no luck. So on Monday, 3 days past D-day, I went in for my 40 week appointment and saw Marty, the midwife who delivered Tyler. She knew I was anxious to have baby here, but I didn't want to plan for induction at all. I know pitocen (the drug used to induce labor) causes very painful contractions and I didn't want to deal with that while trying for another natural delivery. We planned to have a non-stress test (where they monitor baby's heart rate) and an ultrasound (to check amniotic fluid level) on Friday to ensure I could safely continue to carry baby, and to set an induction date that day as well. She told me we could plan for 42 weeks (which would be the following Friday) so hopefully baby would have plenty of time to show on her own before then.

Well, she did. That day I cramped all afternoon and at midnight I started to have contractions. They were about 8 minutes apart and not terrible, so I waited awhile to see if it was the real deal. I couldn't sleep and decided to clean around the house and shower and they picked up in frequency and intensity. In fact, I had to get on my hands and knees in the shower to deal with the pain (although it really wasn't as bad as labor gets... maybe a 7/10). Well Tyler woke up coughing (he's been fighting a cold) so I laid with him for a bit and my contractions slowed down but continued to be intense. Once Jordon and I realized Tyler wasn't going back to sleep and my contractions weren't stopping, we decided to take Tyler to Grammie and Da's and slowly make our way to the hospital. By 6:30am we were checking into labor and delivery.

My contractions kept spacing out when I'd lay down, to about one every 8 minutes, but when I was up and about they were about 5 minutes apart. I was nervous that they'd send me home once we got there because they were so far apart when they were monitoring me, but they checked my cervix and I was 6-7 cm dilated, so it was go time! They were going to break my water to speed things up (with Tyler I didn't dilate past 7cm until they broke my water), but Marty was coming on at 8am, so I told them to hold out until she got there so she could deliver. I walked around a bit, used the birthing ball and labored until Marty got on. She offered to break my water and I chickened out because I knew the pain would get so much worse so she told me to walk around a bit more and then we'd check back in a little while.

So we walked the halls and I had some pretty bad contractions, but they really weren't coming any closer than 4-5 minutes apart and then would space out anytime they had me in the bed to monitor me. I finally decided I was ready to celebrate my daughter's birthday, so I asked Marty to break my water. Before she did, she checked and I was 8-9 cm (much to my surprise!) so I knew we wouldn't have to wait long. Marty stayed and helped me labor through contractions in bed for about 20 minutes after they broke my water, and then we decided I should get in the jacuzzi tub to labor more since the contractions were definitely more intense.

I got in the tub and it was wonderful. They told me I could stay in 20 minutes, they'd check the baby's HR, and then if I wanted to stay in another jet cycle, I could stay in 20 more minutes. Well after 18 minutes I felt something drop/pop/ or lock (I really don't know how to describe it), but after that moment I was in a lot of pain and had an intense urge to push. I yelled at Jordon to get someone, and the nurses rushed in to get me to the bed and ran to get Marty. It was time to push and at first I was terrified (because I remembered how much it hurt and I really didn't want to tear) and exhausted from not sleeping at all, so my push attempt was so weak haha. But once I put my mind to it, I was able to push her out in ten minutes. Much easier than my 1+ hour of pushing with Tyler! And no tearing (thank goodness!). We had a little scare because baby's heart rate did start to decelerate and her cord was wrapped around her neck, but my midwife is amazing and handled the situation so well I didn't know until after I delivered that anything had been wrong. I was able to pull her out once her shoulders were delivered (just as I did with Tyler) and hold her for about 40 minutes after she was born before they even took her to weigh her. It was an amazing and really peaceful experience. Definitely easier than my last labor, and I feel like I can't even brag about going natural again because God blessed me with such a relatively easy experience. I saw one nurse in the hallway the next day and she said "Oh you're the natural laborer! You were cool as a cucumber at 7cm!" I wanted to say, "it really wasn't that bad!", but I appreciated the credit haha. Maybe I just have the world's highest pain tolerance or determination. Either way, I'm just happy to have a healthy baby girl now.

We are all at home now and getting used to our family of four. Tyler absolutely adores his sister. The first thing he said when he saw her picture was "she's tiny" and when he met her for the first time he pointed to all her features and said "her eyes... her nose... her mouth..." haha! And while holding her at home the other day he looked up at Jordon and said "I'm happy." It was the sweetest thing. It is definitely harder bringing baby home when you have a toddler, but we are all adjusting and working on balance now.

37/38 Weeks

Blogging on-time this week (although a week late for last week haha). Jordon had to leave at 5:45 am for JMU since he is off to UVA for tennis this weekend and I could not fall back asleep. Since I've officially finished my maternity plans for school and all my grading for this week, I am going to try to be a good blogger!

So pregnancy-wise I've been feeling good, but oh-so pregnant. I forgot how big you feel in the last month! It's not terrible, and I know I'm going to miss the little things about being pregnant like feeling baby move inside me, the built-in hand rest my belly provides and semi-decent sleep (compared to having a newborn that is haha), so I've just been trying to enjoy these final couple weeks. I am VERY anxious to go on maternity leave from work now (especially because I've planned it out so I could go into labor this weekend and have coverage for my classes), so that is the only thing that has me looking at the calendar/clock and counting down the days until the 18th.

This final month of pregnancy has been quite different than it was when I was pregnant with Tyler. It's crazy how our lives and bodies change. With Tyler, I had false labor contractions ALL THE TIME from week 35 on. I'd go for a walk and boom, contractions for 2 hours, I'd do anything else physical and boom, contractions. This time, I've had one single bout of false labor contractions, which weren't really even contractions at all, more like general cramping (although it was not comfortable!). I'm almost afraid I'm not getting the head start I got last time I was pregnant and will go into the hospital in labor and be a lousy 2 cm dilated as compared to my check-in dilation of 7 whopping cm last time. Let's hope my body is doing some work behind the scenes and I'm just lucky enough to not feel it.

I've also had NO heart burn this time (knock on wood) when last time I was trying to balance out my overwhelming desire to eat anything with "spicy" or "chili" in the name in order to jump start labor with my fear of being up all night feeling like my heart was on fire.

Lastly, my nesting instincts this time have put on hold not due to the fact that we don't have a room for baby (like last time when we were prepping to move before Tyler came), but because I have a very rambunctious and busy toddler and a very hectic work schedule. I just want to nest!! Tyler has "helped" me organize the diaper closet and get some things in order, but he also tends to make a mess in the process and I have to spend just as much time cleaning up as I did organizing. I've been anxious to get baby girl's crib set up but I've had to wait on getting Tyler a twin bed (which we FINALLY did last week!), but now it's a matter of having time to go pick out sheets and bedding for him (hopefully this weekend). I also have been hanging a dust-ruffle sewing project over Jordon's gma's head for months now and cannot find fabric (at a reasonable price) that I want. I'm considering just buying one pre-made now since Target has some decent options. But that needs to be done before I can really get the crib all made up. Busy busy busy.

I've been wanting to take maternity photos with Tyler but our schedules are so nuts that we haven't had any free time to really plan that either... I told Jordon if I haven't had this baby over the weekend, we are definitely at least doing an informal photo shoot in the backyard on Monday. maybe. haha. We had an ultrasound last week to make sure baby was head down (and thankfully she is) but she didn't want to show off much to us! I had hoped to get a good 3d picture of her face, but it was so smooshed against my uterus that it just looked like a blurry mess. Even the pictures we got of her hands and feet are blurry because she is running out of room. I did have to laugh, however, because we got one, clear as day, 3d image of her lady parts haha. There is no denying she is a girl now!! Of all her body parts, she decides to give us a clear image of that... how lady like! I'd post the picture to show you just how clearly she was showing off, but it may be considered child pornography because it is just that distinct haha.

Anyway, on the toddler front, Tyler has been awesome as usual. He loves his new twin bed, but has only been napping in it since we just got the side rail for it yesterday and I was too nervous to let him sleep in it overnight without one. He naps great in it. He found my boppy nursing pillow and will ONLY use that pillow as his pillow for his bed. We're going to have an issue here in a couple weeks when I need it for nursing! It is pretty cute to see him cuddle up in it though. He's been doing great at school and goes without any tears now, which makes this momma proud. He even came home with a couple art projects the other day, and I was all smiles looking at how proud my little boy was of his work. He's growing up so much!

He's learned all sort of new words and phrases and it always surprises me what comes out of his mouth. The other day I asked him was shoes he wanted to wear, and was floored when he told me he wanted his "Nikes." hahaha! He definitely learned that one from Daddy! He's still giving baby sis lots of attention in the belly and I know he's going to be excited when she finally gets here. I'm so excited to see what his reaction will be!