Mother's day with all the cousins!

We've just been plugging along here. Last week Miah started to gradually extent her fussy time to whenever she was awake and then on Sunday I got mastitis (sp?) I had it so bad with Allie that I actually stopped nursing her. Luckily I recognized the signs immediately and had antibiotics the next morning. However poor Miah was getting more colicky. It was like a nightmare of what Allie went through. She had screamed and had no personality for the first 6 months of her life and I was not prepared to let Miah or me go through that again. So along with my meds I picked up some prescription gas drops from the pharmacy as well. Miah is doing much better, though I still can't eat dairy or even look at chocolate.

This weekend my brother and his family and my parents all came down for a Mother's day visit. It was fun having everyone here and we got some great pictures with all the grandkids. Well, minus my sister's newest which is still a few months from arriving. She's due the first part of September with another girl. That will make 6 granddaughters and poor Tate is the only boy. At least he has lots of uncles!

Two weeks old!

It's pretty crazy to think that yesterday (the 26th) was Miah's due date. I am so glad I was not pregnant for that long! However, it might have been a little less stressful to have no hot water for a week without a having a newborn too! Yes, the day we got home from the hospital the water heater was leaking and it turned out that our land lords "couldn't" get it fixed for a week. Actually not only did we have no hot water, but soon realized that it was still leaking and so had no water at all for a couple days. We spent a lot of time at my in laws. Finally they came and replaced the water heater with a new one, but that first week was pretty rough with no water and a new born.

Miah has been wonderful. Such a sweet personality and a great sleeper...as long as I don't eat ANY dairy or chocolate-tear:( And Tate and Allie absolutely adore her. Today was her two week doctor's appointment and here are the stats:

Weight: 7.45 lbs - 21%

Length: 21.26 in - 81%

Miah Lynn Cornwall

The day after my last post, Saturday the 10th, I started having contractions again, but didn't really give them much thought since they were just like all the others I'd been having for the past two weeks. Alex and his mother teamed up on me and made me go to the hospital to get checked out just in case. Of course it had to be at 10 o'clock at night since that seems to be the only time I go to the hospital :) At the hospital they checked me and I was at a 4 and 80% effaced and still not in "active" labor. But since I needed to have the antibiotics for the GBS they kept me and started my IV. And just like the last two weeks the contractions slowed...and stopped! So from 1:30 to 2:00 in the morning me and Alex were walking the halls trying to get things started again. No luck! So they had to start some pitocen (sp?) When the nurse checked me at about 6:00 I was at a...(long pause for dramatic effect)...5+ and 90% effaced! Seriously?! And the contractions were still not real. Dr. Ott arrived around 6:30 and broke my water. That's when the party started.

I have been planning on a natural deliver for some time now and felt that I was mentally prepared, but once the contractions started I realized that I had hardly had any sleep and was exhausted. My mental preparedness wavered a little as the contractions came harder and closer together. "Never mind. I don't want to do this natural anymore."But Alex was amazing and kept reminding me of my goal and my nurse walked me through each contraction. I refocused (with the help of Enya and my ipod), closed my eyes, and sat like a statue of Buddha only moving to nod to Alex when he needed to push on my knees. It was getting intense when I felt like I needed to push, but by then the Dr. was there and so was my sister. Pushing was tough, mostly because I'd never experienced this sensation of my body taking over before and couldn't quit figure out what was just pressure and what was a contraction. But after a little refocus and another good push it was all over and there was my baby girl!

Miah was born almost exactly 1 hour from the time my water was broken and I had my first real contraction. She was 7 lbs. 1 oz. and 19 1/2 inches long.

The kids were so excited to meet "baby sister"

We came home Monday afternoon to our closet being completely water logged. The tankless water heater sits in our closet and it was leaking and had soaked underneath all the flooring in the closet. So my dad and Tate ripped out the floor while Alex was at work. It's made things a little bit awkward and messy, but Miah is such a good baby that it really isn't too big of a deal.

Despite some rebellious behavior from Allie and a melt down or two from Tate the kids are adjusting to Miah. Although I don't know what's to adjust to, she sleeps 22 hours out of the day! No seriously last night she slept for 6 hours straight before I had to spend a half hour waking her up to eat! Such a good baby!

Quick update

So the chiropractor visit didn't work quit the way I'd planned. I had been having contractions that weren't getting worse, but that were staying consistent at 6-8 minutes apart. Then I went and got an adjustment and would you believe that all the contractions, braxtons hicks...everything stopped! Apparently it just wasn't time. That was on Monday and I spent the entire week feeling great and getting a lot done.

My doctor's appointment was today and I was seriously expecting no progress to report, but low and behold I am dilated to a 3! However, I am still only 70% effaced which is the only hold up. So Dr. Ott stripped my membrane to see if that would help a little. We'll see!

Easter!

Here are my two cute kiddos in their Easter wardrobe ready for an Easter egg hunt!

In between conference sessions we took a walk to the temple. They got sunglasses in their baskets and Allie absolutely would not take hers off for anything. Ooooh! Aren't they sweet? If only they would always be this nice to each other!

After a trip to grandma's house they got more candy of course and these cute galoshes. They have both been wearing them ever since! Allie's are pink with polka dots and Tate's are firefighter ones. Very cool and helpful when they are watering the garden!

And we ended up returning our adopted dog Milo. He was a good dog (but he did shed and I plan on writing a strongly worded email to the site that listed Jack Russel Terriers with the non shedding breeds!) The problem was he loved to escape any chance he got and poor Tayden would have a full blown anxiety attack whenever it happened. It was seriously not healthy and so when I brought up the option of letting Milo go to another home where he couldn't run away Tate was so relieved and has mentioned a few times since he's been gone about how nice it is not to worry about Milo. Not having a dog right now is perfectly fine with me.

Just a quick update. I am 37 weeks, but only measuring at 35 because baby is practically in the birth canal, she's so low! As of Friday I was dilated to 1 cm and 70% effaced. Since I've been positive for Group B Strep with my other two we are just assuming that will be the case this time as well. One problem is that I will need 4 hours worth of IV antibiotics before delivery and chances are I won't have that much time. So the doc said that if by this coming Friday I've progressed but still not in labor they will try to get things started and just have me hooked up to the IV. I really don't want that. I'd like to go on my own since he also said that if things do go quickly then the likelihood of the baby getting anything goes way down too. So I've been doing everything I can to go into labor and so far I've had lots of contractions that don't go anywhere! But I just went and got an adjustment which has proven successful to put me into labor within 24-48 hours on two out of two labors. So any day now!

Getting ready for baby!

I've been feeling the need to really get ready for this baby lately. At the same time I've also been hording my own time because I know I won't see much of it for a few months. So this last weekend I decided to ride up with my mother-in-law to Salt Lake for a baby shower for Alex's cousin (she's due 4 days before me) Alex would be home with the kids and I could have my last get away. We stayed at grandma Wilcox's house and really just had a huge girls weekend with girl ranging in age from 15 to grandma's 29 1/2 and holding ;) It was fun and a much needed break. The kids didn't suffer too much without me either. They had Daddy's undivided attention and got to go to the movies and make cookies. My hubbies so great!

But as soon as I got home Sunday night I started having contractions which were painful enough that I couldn't do anything during them, but most of them not bad enough that I couldn't talk. They stayed like that until Monday afternoon! Never getting worse, never getting better and consistently 3-5 minutes apart for a day and a half!

Tuesday morning though, I felt great. In fact I think I did a full days worth of cleaning in just a few hours. And when Alex came home for lunch I made him rearrange our bedroom just so I could vacuum under the furniture and so we could fit our big sofa chair in there so I'd have someplace to sit while I nurse. He just shook his head and laughed at me, but did it anyway! I haven't gotten him to repaint the base boards yet. (Okay so I'm nesting a little).

By Tuesday afternoon the contractions started back up again only worse. But yet again, they never progressed. My amazing little sister Amanda with her 16 month old little girl came over and gratefully made us dinner and got the kids ready for bed since Alex was at school. Alex was prepared to rush me to the hospital to have a baby and Amanda was ready to stay the night with the kids, but I told them not to worry nothing was happening tonight. And I was right. By 11:00 that night the contractions were nothing but harmless braxton hicks.

I feel fine today but am very anxious and annoyed at all this back and forth. Of course I called my doctor on Monday and he didn't seem worried at all. I am 36 weeks which seems really early to me, but I guess we're in the safe zone now so if I go into labor it's okay. I have a doctors appointment on Friday so I'd better be dilating and effacing or something after all that.

Actually I'm not quit ready to have this baby. Even though I took care of a lot of things on my to do list I just would prefer for her cook a little longer and enjoy Tate, Allie and our little family just the way they are right now. I'm very excited to meet our new little girl, but for now I'll just put Alex and the kids to work to fulfill my nesting instincts and relax until she's ready.

Tate started soccer last week! Although his face doesn't show his excitement he had so much fun. It was a little more like a swarm of 5 years old chasing a ball than actual soccer, but they did good. His soccer team is the Colts. It's not part of an actual league because they are 4-6 year olds. So they just go every Wednesday and practice and then they scrimmage with another team. Mostly it's just to teach the kids some basic skills and rules and to have fun. I think we laughed just as much as we cheered! Go Tate!