Roller/Scoocher

Hux *may* have a) rolled over for the first three times before he turned two months old, b) gained to about fifteen pounds by two months, and c) started scooching around (he can scooch off of the playmat, etc, but is definitely not crawling yet) by 2.5 months.  Gosh this kid is weird...

Zachariah Huxley; Born March 19, 2013

I went in for my 41 week appointment and had an induction scheduled (strongly recommended) and my membranes were "stretched" and I was told about it afterwards (which explains a lot).  I was a 4cm at my appointment.  Mom, Gabriel and I went to In-N-Out for lunch and I'd started having contractions at about noon.  At three or so, I texted Chris and let him know that he should plan to come home instead of going to PT.  During Gabe's naptime, I alternated between being in the front room...and then the bedroom on the exercise ball...and then finally made it into the bathtub right around the time when Christopher got home from work.  It took me FOREVER to finish watching the episode of Medium (while trying to time contractions to make sure) so that we could head off to the hospital.  Yes.  I'm weird like that and wanted to get to a good stopping point.  We headed off to the hospital at 5'ish when the pain (especially in my back...again...like I had with Gabe) was less than bearable and my contractions were 3-5 min apart.  By the time we got checked in, questions answered, and had my first cervical check, it was 7pm (I was told when I first got there that since my first labor was 14 hours, I'd probably have a 7-10 hr second labor).  I'd brought my birth plan with me, but pointed out when I first got there that if I hadn't progressed enough/if the back pain didn't get better, I'd scratch my entire birth plan and want an epidural right away.  I didn't realize I wouldn't even be checked until 7 hours after things had started.  When I had my first check, I was at 5cm.  Yeah.  Exactly.  I'd progressed one miniscule cm since 10:30 that morning.  Poo poo on that.  I wanted pain relief and I wanted it NOW.  I told the nurse as much.  It took until 10:00 to get said epidural.  And it took four times of getting sticked in order for them to find the right spot. 
Life is hard when you're me....
Please note that while we'd researched different ways to deal with back labor, they couldn't get a good reading on Baby b/c he kept moving, so I had to stay hooked to the monitors on my back for several hours.
That said: after I got the epidural, things got WAY better!  The back labor was 99% gone.  The contractions were 99% pressure, 1% pain (until the very end).  So I watched Grease (twice) and Willy Wonka (once, I think) and spaced out a lot.  Baby Fester kept having issues with his heart rate dropping (like Gabe did that one time) and I was warned that he may have the cord wrapped around his neck, so we were being extra monitored and hopefully things would go well.  Things didn't really get better.  I ended up attached to monitors, an epidural, an IV, and then oxygen by the end of things.  It was pretty crazy and I'm SO glad Gabriel never saw me like that.  I imagine I looked scary...(and scared)...  Blah dee blah blah smack... 
I was fully progressed, but Fester was having more and more issues with his heartrate, so I ended up getting rolled into the OR just in case they had to do an emergency cesarean.  By the way, this was WAY more terrifying than what happened with Gabe, but at least this time they let me know what was going on the entire way (whereas with Gabriel, no one told me anything, but 5 or so nurses ran into the room freaking out, etc when Gabe had issues with heartbeats).  Maybe it's because I let the initial nurse know what happened with Gabriel and that I wanted to be informed the whole way...Maybe it's because this time I actually talked, whereas last time I didn't really speak through the whole thing...Maybe it's just because people were nicer this time than they were with Gabe...
Zachariah Huxley was born at 0211 on 31913.  I pushed for a handful of times and then they brought out The Vacuum and sucked him out with the next set of pushings.  Despite having an epidural (which may or may not have been working uber well, since I remember two of the nurses talking about if they could get Dr Fields over in time and decided he wouldn't make it) pushing out a 10 pound (literally) baby was one of the most painful things ever!!!  Then again, I didn't have any tearing big enough to stitch and healed/am healing quickly.  And...Chris didn't get to cut the cord (again) but I'm assuming that's because the cord was, in fact, wrapped around Fester/Zach's neck and he was blue when he was pooped out, so they had to take care of that *minor* (
Oh yeah.  So last time the biggest thing was that I said maybe 3 words the entire time (and went natural for about half of it before getting hooked up to Pitocin and drugs).  This time, the biggest thing was that I was shaking...like...a LOT...because it was so painful (and later shaking because of a bit of pain and a lot of fear; sorta like how when I'm angry I go silent and shake with frustration, only this time I was shaking with pain and/or fear) and went naturally for 10 of 14 hours of labor...

It's now a week and a day post partum and everyone's doing well.  I guess the one upside to being nauseous for all of pregnancy and then pooping out a ten pounder is that I'm already back to my pre-pregnancy weight.  Yay?

It's my due date and I'll cry if I want to

40 weeks today.  I'm up to almost 165 lbs (from 148 starting weight).  Luckily (?) I've gained 5-7 lbs in the last month or so.  Woo hoo???  A few weeks ago at the doctors office, he said it could be any day now (that's what they said with Gabriel too and Gabe was born at 40.5 weeks).  I made a joke about Baby Fester being born at 40.5 weeks and Dr wasn't going out of town, was he (that's what happened with Old Dr; Gabriel was born the day she left town for a week)...  Little did I know, Current Doc is (what do you know) going out of town for 4 (or is it 5?) days starting 2 days after my due date.  Awesome.
What can I say?  My kiddos just love to stay inside of me for extra long!
I wouldn't mind so much if my back and feet weren't so owie (although it's not all the time, so I'm grateful for that) and if I, you know, wasn't still feeling nauseous (although it's also gotten rare'er this last month, so yay for that!)...
I'm extra glad my mom's in town.  She let me sleep in yesterday and has been uber helpful around the house and with The Gabe (who's been loving her visit).
On our way home from church on Sunday, I asked Gabriel if he was excited to meet Baby Fester and Gabe's all "yes I am.  I'm also excited to meet my baby brother."  He's such a cute weirdo.

So...Fingers crossed...Any day now...Just like I've been told for the last several weeks...

Feb 2

Yay!!!  Long story short: I've generally stopped taking nausea meds since Dec 21st.  I've had to take four pills since then b/c it got so bad, but haven't puked once since then and have only had to take the rare pill.  I'll totally call that a win.
I'm also now a good 10 pounds heavier than when I got pregnant (yea).  I'm honestly grateful to be able to eat *most* things again and not feel wretched, so now I've gotten to the point where I need to really focus on eating a balance of healthy things and delicious bad-for-me things while still moving my body (aka exercising) which I've not been very good about these last two weeks.
I'll be honest:  this is our last pregnancy.  I'm 100% sure.  We've already made plans to ensure this will be our last biokid.  I'm good with that.  However, I do still get the rare feeling where I'm semi-sad...like with Alien Belly (which seriously creeps me out): Fester's now so big that he doesn't really kick/punch all that much b/c there just isn't space.  Instead, you see this huge lump move slowly across my belly and it's really freaky.  (Seriously, it freaks me out.)  But then a small (very small) part of me thinks "Enjoy it; this will be the last time you get to be creeped out by Alien Belly on/in your own body, yo).
I don't remember getting middle back pain with Gabriel, but it happens pretty much every day with this pregnancy.  In the middle of my back?  That doesn't even make sense!
And Fester still prefers my right side.  Previously, he would try and kick through the right side of my belly (it hurt pretty bad sometimes b/c he'd kick and/or kick/stretch so hard).  Now, though, he seems to love to be nestled up under my right ribs...  I have no idea what body part it is, but it's always there...and it's generally just a weird type of uncomfy...Yesterday, though, he moved crazy fast and it felt like he almost broke my rib.  I literally gasped in pain.  Ah...  Good to know he loves me.  :)
So I have about a month left to go.  We'll see how long it takes.  I'd *thought* I'd read somewhere that second pregnancies often were slightly shorter than first times...but almost everyone I've talked to has said their second pregnancy went longer than their first (which is sorta scary since Gabriel came a half-week late).  Now it's just a guessing game.  I prefer him to stay in there for at least three more weeks or so...  We'll just see what he decides to do.

Took me a while to write it... (TMI)

Long story short, 3.5 weeks ago, I ended up in the ER.  I'd stopped taking Zofran (thinking that Gabe's nausea started getting better at 20'ish weeks and was pretty much totally gone at 7'ish months) and had been six days "off the stuff."  But then I felt worse and worse and worse and finally took a pill at 3/3:30 on Thursday.  And puked at 6...and again at 7...and again at 8 (this time, it caused several contractions, but I could tell when they started and they ended up going away, so I figured it was all good).  Thank *goodness* Yost got home just after that.  I tried sipping a bit of water and went to bed (and would take a small sip of water each time I woke, because I could tell I was dehydrated, but still felt REALLY bad).  Then I woke up at 2'ish and ran into the bathroom to puke...only to wake up on the floor.  I'd passed out.  But I still had to puke.  I *tried* to call to Chris (who'd finally come to bed at midnight or one or whatever), but was too afraid to get on my knees to puke in the toilet.  I ended up crossed legged on the floor, afraid I was going to pass out again, puking all over myself, the floor, the dirty clothes, etc.  Poor Chris tried to help, but there was nothing that could be done...  So anyway, once I was done, he helped me get my puke-covered body into the shower...Okay FINE.  I also puked so hard that I'm pretty sure I peed myself.  Thanks for making me say it out loud, you mean-farts!  Chris helped me into the shower and stayed close in case something happened again, and he also cleaned up my vomit by the time I got out.  Then we struggled to get everything ready (me dressed, him and all of his work gear ready to go, the animals squared away, and finally get Gabe up...poor child) and went to the ER to make sure everything was fine.  Fester was/is fine.  They never said anything about the contractions and pass out'age, save that it was probably from the strain of pregnancy, then puking and dehydration and had no hints to make sure it doesn't happen again (save for continuing to take my drugs).  So they monitored Fester for a while, pumped me full of fluids (felt MUCH better) and gave me a liquid zofran then sent me on my way.  Poor Hubster still had to go to work after absurdly small amounts of sleep.  Gabriel and I ended up back home and pretty much lazed (and dozed) in front of the tv watching Disney movies all day.  I'll be honest: it took me about two weeks to recover...and I'm still utterly terrified of puking pretty much all the time (worse than before).  But I guess I'm extra glad that Fester's doing well and seems so strong (and sometimes mean...like when I'm about to puke and he goes frickin' nuts and flails his entire body everywhere making my stomach feel even worse).
So I'm almost to 30 weeks and just started weaning off of zofran again.  I figure we'll just see how it goes.  I really *shouldn't* be that nauseous anymore.
Ooh!  And due to the fact I can finally eat again...and eating more carbs this last week, I'm finally almost up to a positive four pounds.  Be jealous.  Be very, very jealous.  We shall see if it happens like Gabriel's pregnancy...where I gain pretty much all 30 lbs in the last three months.  That would be...funny?

Cravings

So with Gabriel, the only things that stood out in regards to food was Blue Powerade and French Bread...but I didn't consider them cravings.  They were simply some of the only two things I never ever threw up and didn't make me feel horrible when I ate them (while still keeping up my caloric intake to keep me from losing more weight).  I normally like these things even when I'm not pregnant.

With Fester, I haven't had anything weird (like pickles and ice cream; NASTAY), but!!! I have been liking peanut butter/chocolate things a lot more than I normally do.  Normally, I like PBC things, but now I really *like* them.  Specifically, the peanut butter chocolate chip cookies I make.  So yummy!  Normally they're just good, but not good enough where I'd make three batches in three months.  Anyway, just throwing that tidbit out there.  I've also had the normal things.  I've eaten some french bread.  I've like gum b/c it settles my stomach.  And York Peppermint Patties/Andes Mints (which I normally love, but are extra awesome b/c they normally help settle my stomach as well).  But the peanut butter/chocolate things is the only thing that's normally just good, but is now uber great!

Finally there!

According to my weight the last three days, I'm finally back up to my pre-pregnancy weight (and it only took me to 21/22 weeks)! 
I'd like to send out a big thanks to peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, both delivered and frozen pizza, Andes Mints from Yost and Tierney, the amazing don't-throw-up-drug Zofran, and Halloween candy.  Without you fattening fellows, I'm pretty sure I'd still be at a negative number.
AND, I think, thanks to Ann for encouraging me to walk the half-marathon, which has made me either take a nap or be in best almost every day since by 9:30 b/c I'm so worn out.  I've pretty much been too worn out since then to do any real exercise at all (even though my body's not sore).  Yea?