Avery Grace

Finally a name and finally some pictures of our sweet girl from her birth day! We have had two full names (first and middle) for the past 24 hours picked out. One continuing on with the initials A.C. and the other a name that we have both loved for a long time with some meaning behind the names. After much consideration, which I know is evident in the amount of time it took us to reveal the name, we have decided to use the first names of both. Here is Avery Grace from yesterday!

She's Here

It's a girl!!!!! Our little girl was born at 11:54. She is healthy and beautiful. She is 20 inches long and weighs in at 7 lbs 12oz

Go Time

We are at 10. Time to Go!

Epidural

Contractions picked up even more, about 2 minutes apart. Epidural was just put in. Catherine is the nurse, and she is great. She bumped us ahead in front of another patient to get the epidural sooner.

Status Update

I'm back at the hospital now. Amy sent me to work for 2 hours. The pitocin drip has been increased twice. Contractions are about 3 minutes apart and getting stronger. They were planning to break Amy's water within the next hour but it just broke on its own. Things are seemingly progressing quickly.

The Wait Begins

We checked in at 6:30. We had a little wait with 5 admissions ahead of us, all walk-ins in labor. We are now in our room with pitocin drip on. The doctor checked and Amy is at 4cm. The wait begins......

Finally here....

well almost. This little boy will soon be a big brother and Anna will have another little one to love on.


I would have never of guessed that five weeks ago tomorrow when I checked out of the hospital that February would pass, then all of March and we would be welcoming this little one in April. We have surely seen God's faithfulness throughout the last month. But after spending a lot of time at the doctor's office for twice a week non-stress tests in addition to regular visits, feeling pretty crummy and having little energy, not to mention just being on stand-bye for over a month, we are ready to meet him or her. I told Kevin this weekend I have made at least five "last" grocery runs before the baby arrives, cleaned our house for the "last" time more than I care to count, gotten things laid out for the children and more or less just lived our life in limbo for the last five weeks that I am ready for tomorrow to arrive. This baby has made it full-term. Woo hoo! This past Wednesday I was 40 weeks, so tomorrow AM we are headed to the hospital for a 6:30am induction. Who would have guessed?! We will keep you posted!

Expectations...

***A version of this was written on Valentine’s Day, February 14th. Yes, over a month ago, but when I hit “post” all of it disappeared. I almost decided to give-up, but at the request of my husband I have FINALLY decided to move forward, to let go of my expectations (ironic this was the title of my post) and just begin somewhere. So a month later, back to the title of this post…

Expectations.

Or lack thereof in the case of my husband. Kevin does not put pressure on me as a wife and mother. This is truly a blessing as I often put expectations on myself, most of which are fairly lofty. I also often extend those expectations onto Kevin and at times expect him to do things I haven’t even asked him to do. Kevin on the other hand rarely requests much. Thus, I realized the other week when he kept asking me to do a task I had better take note. Not to mention it was something I wanted to accomplish too. However, it was something I had not done in so long and because my expectations were so high I had opted just to not do it. I kept putting it off because I felt so far behind and didn't know where to begin,so I just didn't, which only put me further behind and more frustrated with myself. Kevin on the other hand had a simple request---a blog post a month. Keep it simple, as something is better than nothing.

Speaking of expectations, I had always hoped to have a curly blonde haired little toddler running around. I knew this would not be the case with Anna as her hair was stick straight from the beginning. As a side-note, I envy those with straight hair, so I am surely thankful for my daughter’s easy to manage straight hair. Aiden was without hair for so long that I didn’t think he would be the one that would give me those blonde curls. However, he surprised me with his light-colored curls and lots of them. Therefore, cutting those sweet curls was not a high priority. Actually, it was something I kept putting off in case the curls disappeared for good after being cut.

Finally his hair had gotten so long that it was a complete mess in the mornings unless you completely wet it down and combed out all the tangles. And let’s be honest, I have a hard enough time getting out the door that I don’t need any extra steps. Of course this is not a quick and easy process as this little boy already begs to play with his match-box cars for just two more minutes before we head out the door in the morning. The task of “fixing” his hair only interferes with him lining up his cars and makes for a morning battle. This extra step is also not needed when I am trying to get a very opinionated four-year-old out the door who is determined to pick out her entire attire from her clothes to her socks (or lack there of, if she had her way) and shoes (her fancy shoes as she calls them would be her choice no matter where we are headed). This is a whole other post for another day. Not to mention there is a pregnant momma trying to make it out the door who is not a morning person. So, who needs an extra step? Obviously not me! Yes, I should have caved sooner and given into the haircut.

On our way to get his first haircut. Love those sweet curls and those sweet eyes.

Aiden did smile for this one picture, but he was very serious during the entire haircut. He sat perfectly still. He didn’t even budge when the hairdresser asked him to tilt his head down and keep his chin tucked. His eyes just got a little wider and he waited patiently to lift it and look in the mirror.

Last look at some of those curls.

Looking more like a big boy.

On our way home with a lollipop in hand.

I am happy to report that as these pictures were taken over a month ago, the curls have returned and actually Aiden could probably use another haircut. Here's to a start in blogging and hopefully many more posts to come (or at least one a month).

And happy belated Valentine’s Day to the man everyone says this curly blonde haired little one looks just like. Thanks for being patient with this post.

On a final note, we are still awaiting the arrival of Baby Sasser #3. We surely thought he/she would be here by now when over three weeks ago I was sitting in the hospital pretty miserable. But we are thankful they decided to stay put for a bit longer. They are keeping close tabs on this babe as I am at the doctor twice a week for non-stress tests and then a third time for just a regular appointment. All seems well and we will be 39 weeks in just a few days! We will keep you posted.

Baby Update- 35 weeks and counting

Yesterday was a whirlwind. Amy went to the doctor to get checked on Thursday. She is currently 35 weeks along. She did not feel good after the appointment and slept poorly all night. She had fever and chills and felt as if she was going into labor first thing Friday morning, also having nausea. We called the doctor and they wanted us to come into the office first. The doctor said there was no change in the progression since Thursday. She was still 1cm dilated and 50% effaced. They did a non-stress test and sent us home after determining everything seemed fine despite not much movement from the baby. Amy still felt horrible and we ended up calling the doctor later Friday night when her temperature had gone back up to 103 and since she was feeling so bad.
The doctor wanted us to come in due to concern of infection, although he wasn't sure where the infection was, either Amy or the baby. We got to the hospital last night just before 10:00pm and had to wait a bit before we were seen. They checked Amy out and put her in a temporary, and uncomfortable room. Amy was feeling horrible at that point and time. Her blood pressure was very low, heart was racing, and the baby had an elevated heartbeat as well. The blood work came back with white blood cell count that was more than double normal, which confirmed an infection. They did a catheterization to check the urine, which came back clear. All this time Amy wasn't progressing into labor like she did with the Anna & Aiden. Thus he didn't know if the baby was in danger and needed to be delivered, but he also didn't want to deliver a premature baby. The doctor was in consultation with a specialist at Wake Forest in which they reviewed the past pregnancies as well, knowing there were 3 options; start labor, do antibiotics, or do an amniocentesis. They didn't feel like antibiotics were a good option since they didn't know exactly what they were treating. They decided to try doing an amniocentesis but could not locate a large enough pocket of fluid so they ended up not doing the procedure. This was a blessing as Amy was very concerned about having the procedure done with potential risk to the baby, which could end up sending Amy into emergency labor and having a C-section. They did a chest x-ray to be sure nothing else was going on. They consulted the specialist again and decided to start Amy on antibiotics. They finally admitted us and we got into the antenatal room around 5am. We were able to get about 3 hours of sleep. Amy initially was feeling much better today. She is not having any contractions and does not appear to be in labor. The white blood count has gone down but is higher than normal and baby's heartbeat is higher than they'd like to see but not high enough to induce labor. They want to be very cautious to make sure there is no harm to the baby. They said Amy would be staying in the hospital at least until tomorrow and will continue to receive antibiotics. Her fever has since come back which means she will not be coming home tomorrow. It keeps coming and going. Her heart rate is elevated still as is the baby’s. We are not sure if they will want to induce labor or just keep monitoring. We are hoping the baby will stay in utero longer and that Amy will be able to come home soon. We appreciate your prayers for a healthy baby and for Amy to feel better soon.