Alexandra's birth...

On May 14, 2011 we welcomed our newest additon, Alexandra Grace, to our family 6 weeks early. She was born at Good Samaritan Hospital at 10:56am and weighed 4lbs. 3oz. and was 16in. long. She is beautiful, and doing wonderful. I am doing great as well. Alexandra had to be sent to the NICU to make sure she was doing well. She did very well, was breathing on her own and kept her temperature up as well, the only "problem" she had was learning to eat. She was just a very tired baby and having to eat was a lot of work so she wouldn't do it. They ended up having to put a feeding tube in her nose so she could get all the nutrition she needed to grow. She was so teeny tiny the first time I got to go to the NICU to see her. My husband was wonderful, he made sure that I was the first one to hold her. That was so sweet of him to do. The birth was an exciting time, the night before, actually several nights before, I was having a lot of pain to what I assumed was heartburn, really bad, painful heartburn. I tried to go to bed thinking that I just needed to get some rest, but couldn't go to sleep because of the pain. So I got up and went to the living room, my pain got so bad that I actually got sick, and when I stood up my water broke. I called everyone that I had to, and went to tell William. We finally left for the hospital around 10:30pm. When we arrived at the hospital, I was taken to triage to get everything started up and check all my vital signs. Apparently, my blood pressure was up so high that I was developing preeclampsia, which was part of the pain I was feeling. That's when they knew they needed to get her out as soon as possible. They let me go on my own for a while before inducing me. When I first arrived I was only at 1cm, then in one hour I was at 3 then quickly went to a 4. That is when the Dr. recommended that I have the epidural because of the issues I've had he wanted to be sure that I was comfortable and if for any reason something happened I would already have it in. So I got the epidural, which to my suprise, wasn't too bad to get. The Dr. that gave it was wonderful, he talked to me before doing things and made me feel very comfortable. I liked that. Once the epidural was in I was a bit more comfortable, no more pain in my chest which meant that I was able to go to sleep for a bit. The dr. came in to check and I had progressed to a 5/6 at around 10:40. Then comes the exciting part. It was like maybe 10 min later that the nurses came running in and threw the covers off me to discover that I was bleeding a lot. Apparently my placenta was pulling away, and they needed to get her out asap. I was fortuanate enough to be fully dialated and pushed her out with two good pushes, I think the dr. helped too by pulling her out. I was so glad that I was able to push her out instead of having to have an emergency c-section. Later he told me that my preeclampsia had gotten so bad that I started having placental abruption, and if I wasn't at the hospital when this happened I and baby could have died. I am glad that I had the epidural too, because from what I hear having the placenta tear away is very painful, and lucky for me I didn't feel a thing which is why I was a little scared about all the hussle and bussle going on moments before her birth. I believe that someone was looking out for me, and that is why the Dr. recommended the epidural. I wanted to have a natural birth like I had with Aiden, but even though it didn't end up that way I am still very happy and thankful to all those that helped.

This past weekend was Mother's Day (May 8th) I am so grateful to be the mother of these 3, almost 4, wonderful children. I had the best day ever with my husband and our children. We woke up early that morning and took them to Pump It Up. It's a place here in West Chester, that has inflatables for kids to jump around in, along with a big inflatable slide too. They had a blast, and because it was Mother's day they extended the playtime to 12 noon. We ended up playing from 8:30-11. It was so much fun to see how happy they were. Then we went to Lynn's (My mother in law) house and had pizza and played outside with kids again. It was such a special day. I got the greatest gifts too, I got a wonderful new cannon camera and a new purse. I am so happy, now I have an excuse to take more pictures of my kids, besides using my phone. (Not such good quality) Great news for all of you guys. The day before we took the kids to Build a Bear Workshop in the Kenwood Mall. They thought it was the greatest thing to be able "make" their own bears. Sarah picked out a pink multi-colored bear and dressed hers in a sleeping beauty dress. Hannah picked out just a pink bear and dressed hers in a Tinkerbell dress. Aiden he liked the brown bear, I tried to see if they had some Toy Story outfits since that is his favorite movie, but alas they did not so he picked out a boy outfit, some jeans and a nice shirt. Needless to say they had fun making their bears.

Well tomorrow marks my 34th week. I can not believe we or should I say I have made it this far. Just from what has happened in the past and with being put on bed rest then taken off, it has been quite a trip. I am very happy to have made it to this point in my pregnancy because even if she is born this week (which I doubt) she has a 98% chance of survival. So I feel at ease. I also found out that my darling little Hannah was born early, I had no idea, but she was born on January 26, 2007, but her due date wasn't until February 18. She wasn't too premature but 36 weeks 5 days. I always thought she was 37 weeks and something, guess I was wrong. I just can't believe that my due date is only 6 weeks away, unless she would like to join us sooner, but not too soon. I would like to leave you with some videos of my wonderful Mother's day.