I absolutely cannot believe that I am in the last month of my pregnancy. Drake came 10 days early so we really are on the final stretch with this little girl. I can tell you that this winter pregnancy thing is the way to go. I was so swollen at this point with Drake that I didn't even have ankles and with Allie, I can still wear my wedding and engagement rings. Here are the comparison pictures:
36 weeks with Allie:
Here is my 28 week picture as promised. I can tell a HUGE difference in my 24 week picture and now and all I can say is that I am growing larger by the day! I still think that my belly was a lot bigger when I was pregnant with Drake. As for the old wives tale about a puffy face with a girl pregnancy, I am a believer!
28 weeks with Allie:
As of last Thursday, I am 27 weeks pregnant, which means, the 3rd trimester. How did this happen so fast?? On Thanksgiving, I will be 28 weeks, which is just 10 weeks shy of when I went into labor and had Drake. I've always heard that subsequent pregnancies go much quicker and I can definitely say that is the case here. I'm anxious to meet this little girl but I'm still so nervous about having 2 kids at home! We painted (we being David) the nursery this last week and put up the crib last weekend and it is so surreal having 2 cribs in my house! Drake is loving his "big boy room" and once we finish a few finishing touches on it and the nursery I will post pictures.
On to other news, baby girl has a name! Well, we've really known for awhile what she would probably be named, but it's been hard for us to commit this time for some reason. With Drake, we knew before our big ultrasound what his name would be, but this time we just really haven't talked much about it-2nd child syndrome already :)
So, without further adeiu, her name will be...
Allie Jo. Allie is a name that I've always thought was really cute-it's nice and short which is great with Wasemiller and it's not extremely popular. Jo is my mom and grandma's middle name and I've always known that if I had a girl, her middle name would be Jo. So there it is!
I will post in a few days with my 28 week preggo picture. I'm feeling huge at this point but I know I have a lot more growing to do and that is scary :)
I haven't been very good about taking pictures of this pregnancy. With Drake I took one every 4 weeks starting at 16 weeks. With baby girl, I just took the first yesterday at a little over 24 weeks. I feel like I'm bigger this time, but looking at the comparison, I really don't think that I am.
Baby girl at 24 weeks:
GIRL!!!!
I still am in shock. The entire pregnancy I kept calling the baby a girl and we were really hoping to give Drake a little sister but I never thought that it would actually happen! Drake went with us and was talking to her on the "tv". It was really cute. She had her legs crossed for most of the time (just like Drake did when we went for his 18 week ultrasound) but we finally got a good view. Now to figure out a name...
Here are a few of the pictures from the sonogram of our daughter:
(the face pictures always look alien like to me)
I know but I have a good excuse-this new life that I have working from home and being a full time stay-at-home mom is crazy busy (not that I expected anything less)! I am ready for fall so that the little mister and I can get out of the house because, let's face it, August in Texas sucks. Although, when I think about fall, I think about September, and when I think about September, I think about the 17th and how I will be 30 soon. THIRTY?! How did that happen so fast? I swear that I just graduated college (7 years ago, WHAT?!)
I definitely am already feeling at least 30, if not 50, but that is probably due to other factors. Which brings me to a little announcement that Drake would like to make...
Drake Mason Wasemiller was born 10 days early on Friday July 25th at 12:09 am weighing 7 lbs 5 oz and measuring 21 inches long. He is gorgeous and looks just like his daddy!
Drake's birth story: July 24th started off like any other day during the end of my pregnancy-I was exhausted, huge, and my back was killing me. The only difference was that today would be the day that I would go into labor. I was in my 38th week (38 weeks and 3 days pregnant to be exact) and I knew that something was a little different-I could hardly walk (well waddle because I hadn't been "walking" in weeks). I thought to myself "I'm not going to be able to work much longer if it's going to be like this".
I went home for lunch to eat with my mom and by that time my back was feeling progressively worse, I went back to work thinking that I might have to come home a little early.
At around 1:00 pm, the pain in my back was coming and going in sort of a pattern, so I realized that I was having back contractions. By about 2:00 pm, the contractions started to get worse so I called Mom to come and get me. By the time I got to the house-I was in terrible pain. Mom was timing my contractions, they were coming every 3 minutes and lasting 30 seconds. Since I had never done this before I was in total denial that I was in labor and I was completely against calling the hospital for fear that I would get there and they would just send me home. But, after about 30 more minutes of horrific back pain and of my mom begging me to, I agreed to call the doctor. Dr. McClintock was out of town so I called to speak to one of her partners, Dr. Ryder-who had just seen me on Tuesday-and of course she was already out of the office. They connected me with yet another doctor in the practice, Dr. Ruk. He was great on the phone and told me that he would tell the hospital that I was coming in. He made me feel better by telling me that if I wasn't in labor they would just send me home, but if I was-I would be meeting my baby soon! I called David and told him to hurry home that I thought this might be it. After what seemed like forever, he finally arrived-and proceeded to pack his bag. Next time I know that packing David's bag is just as important as packing mine and the baby's, ours had been packed for weeks and were already loaded in the car ready to go. He finally got everything together and we were on our way.
The drive to Medical City Hospital was miserable. By this time it was 4:30 pm, which is the beginning of rush hour in Dallas. The "quickest" routes were totally backed up-so we took the back roads. It only took about 30 minutes to get there, but it seemed like hours. I was experiencing terrible back labor and just wanted some relief FAST.
We finally arrived and were taken to a room, where I changed into a gown and was hooked up to monitors to see if I was in "active" labor and if they would let me stay. At this point my contractions were coming every 1 1/2 to 2 minutes and I vowed to myself that if they didn't keep me and administer pain medicine ASAP that I might kill someone. The nurse checked me, I was 3.5-4 cm and she told me that she would be surprised if they sent me home. She called Dr. Ruk and he agreed to let me stay, which meant that I would be getting an epidural soon-yay! I asked the nurse the ETA on the epi and she told me that it would only be about 20 minutes. 25 minutes later, the hero of the day, Dr. Hart came in and gave me the epidural-complete with a "happy button" for a shot of medicine whenever I started to feel anything. The epidural was amazing. I have a whole new respect for those women who are brave enough to attempt childbirth without it!
Neither Dr. Ryder or Dr. Ruk were on call that night, so yet another doctor from Dr. McClintock's practice-Dr Campbell came in to let me know that she would be my delivering doctor. She was really great and practiced under my doctor at her internship in Florida. My new l & d nurse Brandi was incredible and used to be my doctor's practice nurse, so at least Dr. McClintock was there in spirit!
At 7 pm my nurse came in to check me and I was at a 7. So in the beginning things were moving along very quickly, but when they came back at 10 pm, I had only progressed a little more to an 8.5. At this point they decided to break my water and administer pitocin to get things moving again. I am lucky that I had an epidural because I can tell you that pitocin is super strong, after they gave it to me, there was a small area on the front of my stomach where I started to feel contractions. I pushed my happy button about 10 times and it finally went away. Lucky for me, I pushed the happy button at the right time, because when they checked me at 11:30, I was at a 10 and ready to start pushing.
This was the part that I was most afraid of about labor. I had only been given a 10% chance to deliver naturally because of a narrow pelvis-so I thought that all of my effort would just end up in a c-section. At this point we also knew that Drake was face up, so they let me know that even 2nd time mothers usually push for 2 hours with babies that are positioned this way. It looked like I was in for a lot of work.
Pushing was much harder than I expected. I thought that my head was going to explode, or that I might give myself a brain aneurysm. After a few pushes, I knew that I absolutely wouldn't and couldn't push for long, and my determination turned me into a great pusher. I started pushing at 11:55 pm and at 12:09 am after only 14 minutes of pushing, Drake Mason Wasemiller was born!
Seeing him across the delivery room was the most surreal moment that I have ever experienced. David was the first one to hold him and then my mom. I was shaking uncontrollably from the labor and the medication, so it was about 20 minutes before I trusted myself with him. When I held him for the first time, I knew that he was meant to be ours. He truly is a miracle and we are so blessed to have him in our lives.
Went to the doctor yesterday and saw Dr. Ryder since Dr. McClintock is on vacation. Everything is still looking good, no major changes and I'm still progressing on my own. Dr. Ryder thinks that I'll make it until my doctor gets back (on Monday July 28th) and I'm hoping that I do. I'm really ready to meet this little guy, but I would love for my doctor to deliver him. It's just crazy to think that it could be any day now!
I can't believe that I am starting my 38th week of pregnancy. We are now 14 days away from our official due date, and baby Drake can come at any time now. This is becoming the longest wait of our lives!
We go to the doctor tomorrow for our weekly check up. I hope that there's some progress because David and I are more than ready to meet our son!
Here we are in the waiting game! Only 19 more days until baby Drake is due and we're so excited! We went to our 37 week appointment yesterday and we had an ultrasound. Drake's estimated weight is 6 lb 10 oz, he is supposed to be gaining about 1/2 lb (8 oz) per week so the doctor expects him to be 7 1/2 to 8 lbs when he arrives. Doctor McClintock is on vacation until the 28th so she gave Drake explicit instructions not to come before she's back.
I am feeling pretty good, just swollen and hot and ready to meet this little guy!
This is a picture of me at 36 weeks pregnant.
