SHE'S HERE!!!

The day has come to welcome Ms. Sydney Jo Larsen. She was born on Tuesday, July 19th at 9:28 am at RiverBend Hospital.  She was 9lbs. .4oz and 21inches long. Our adventure started at home on Monday night. We walked around the neighborhood for almost an hour, had dinner and then Phil and I went back out for another few laps. Let's just say, that walking DOES work! When we came home after the first walk I used the ball which actually stopped my contractions. When we were doing our walks we were timing contractions, we ended up going to the hospital when mine where 2 min. apart.
We made our way to the hospital where they admitted me and immediately got me hooked up to drugs to help. I ended up with 2 epidurals. We started with one that only did half of my body, so they gave me two boosters of drugs that only lasted an hour each. After getting to 8cm and getting stuck and not being able to handle the pain because the boosters were not working, they decided to take out my other epidural and put in a brand new one...which worked wonders!
After I made in to 10cm I finally got to push, I pushed for 13 min. : ) and out she came. Let's just say her head was definitely not the biggest part of her; her tummy was. Though the pushing and delivery went quickly the next few hours were horrendous! After I had Syd I hemorrhaged very badly and lost 6 units of blood. They said that part of the hemorrhaging was from my placenta not breaking away correctly. I had to go to the OR to have a partial D and C. Because of all the blood loss I had a blood transfusion of 2 units and stayed in the hospital for an extra two days.
Now that we are out and home, things have been a little rough. I have no energy and my blood counts are very low that it has been very hard to take care of Syd. Thank goodness for my wonderful husband that has helped with Syd and taking care of me. As well as all the wonderful new grandparents that have stayed at our house to take care of Syd so I can recover. Still to this day, I am hour by hour of how I feel and how much I can do. I still get very light headed and have already gone back to urgent care because of blood levels. Though we have had some major issues over the last week, which has made it a little hard to bond with Syd...she is perfect! She is a great sleeper, eater, and all functions are a go. I could not ask for a better daughter or a better support then our wonderful family and my husband. If not for them, I don't know what I would do.

Thank you to everyone for your love and support and kind thoughts. I will update as much as I can, but please be patient about pictures and visits. Here are some pictures to hopefully hold you over for a little while.

Trying to hang in there.

Went to what we thought would be our last doctors appointment on Monday, but it looks like we may have another. Everything is looking positive for her to come sometime this week. For this pregnant mom, "sometime this week" is not very satifying. Blood pressure was normal at 118/78 and I didn't gain an ounce from last week. The doctor checked me again and I am 2 almost 3 cm dialated and 70% effaced. He was a little surprised that I changed that much in a week on my own. He also tried to calculate how big she is now. At 36 weeks she was weighing in at around 7lbs. 11oz. but that was three weeks ago. Now he thinks she is around 9lbs. I am hoping that the whole +/- factor comes in on this one. As of right now we are just waiting. I am becoming more and more uncomfortable as the days go on. I have been trying to do my walks with Phil and bounce on my ball, but my hips are so out-a-wack that just getting in and out of bed hurts! I am trying not to become frustrated, but when you really have to just hang out at home because everything is sore, it stinks!
The doctor told us to make another appointment no later than Monday, but he thought (with a high chance) that he would not see us. I'll believe it when I see it. Sydney's due date is Sat. the 16th, so hopefully she will come then. Cross your fingers. Here is one of the last pregnant shots...hopefully the next photos I put on here will be me not prego.

New Blanket!

Finally finished Sydney's new crocheted blanket. I LOVE IT!! It is so soft and cuddly. I can't wait to bring her home in it. Thanks grandma for teaching me how to crochet, now you will be with her forever.

Week 38...and still counting.

Went back to the doctor again yesterday. Pretty boring appointment, everything was normal. Blood pressure was 120/80 and gained a couple more pounds. The doctor measured my belly and it is finally shrinking a little, it only measured 40 cm. He said my belly will get a little smaller because she is coming down in my pelvis. I guess that's a good thing. I asked the doctor what we will do next and he said only about 10% of women come early or on their due date. BOOOO! We had a little discussion about if it were not for work coming so soon, I would let her bake in there until she wants to come out, but I mentioned to him I would really not like to let her go past her due date. 1. because she is supposedly big, 2. I told him I would like at least 6 weeks with her until I go back to work. After I mentioned that, I think he had a different perspective on the situation. He decided that checking me would help to see where we are, so he did...now I am 1-2cm and 60%, which is better than two weeks ago when I was 1cm and 30%. Dr. Copper said we will scrape my membranes next Monday which hopefully will get something going as well. We go back on Monday to have another check up. Hopefully something will change soon.