Sister is coming! Live blog

4:00am:  I wake up after a decent night sleep.  About 6 hours with only a few wake ups. 

4:30am:  Showered and ready to hit the road.

4:50am: checked in to hospital.  Room 706.  Nurses Jill and Emily get me hooked in and set up.  Blood given, IV in and all that jazz.  Blood sugar is 144 so a little high but only 40 minutes since I had breakfast.

6:10am: pitocin is started.  Jill checked me and only 2cm and 60%.  

6:30am: really trying to rest but cannot get comfortable.

7:15am: new nurse Trudy comes in.  She is a spitfire!  We love her!  She is done at 3pm and requires the baby to be here in time.  I'll see what I can do.

7:50am:  lots of regular contractions that I can't feel yet.  Pitocin is cranked up.

8:25am:  Dr Bennett arrived to break my water.  Nice and clear but still only about 2-3cm.  Ugh.  Internal monitor is in.  Contractions are regular and starting to pick up.  I'm just a little uncomfortable but epidural is ordered.

9:25am: Dr Greeley arrives to put in epidural.  It was a little more difficult than my previous one but that might be in my head.  I was anxious and ended up yelling at some point.  Whoops

9:35am: I get very very dizzy and BP tanks but Dr Greeley is still in filling out papers so she gets to work flipping me and getting this under control.  Adds some other meds to stabilize.

10:00am: still feeling out of it and BP low.  Sister isn't a fan and heart rate tanks.  They put me on my hands and knees which is hard when you cannot feel half your body.  She is not happy but eventually we get it under control by me laying on my stomach.  

11:30am: still on my stomach and gradually stabilizing more.  They call in a different anestiologist who decides to shut off my epi completely when my entire body is numb.  Not an awful problem to have when contractions are picking up!

1:00pm: meds are all back on and pitocin pumping.  I'm feeling tons better.  Trudy checks me and only at a 4.  Big bummer but hoping we can pick it up now that meds are strongly flowing. 

4:00pm: blah blah blah, we're bored.  Checked again and only a 5.  Feeling discouraged.  Epi is wearing off more and I'm starting to feel contractions some so hopefully there will be action soon.

5:00pm:  Trudy upped the pit again.  Contractions are getting harder and I need to stop and breathe through them.  Cannot hit my epi button enough.

ETA: Shiz got crazy and my epi stopped working. Least.fun.ever

7:35pm: Holland Jo Tissiere arrived after 10 minutes of pushing at 7 lbs, 7 oz, 18 3/4 inches long.

Weeks 35-37

written at 37 weeks, 5 days along. Barrett is 3 years old

We are in the home stretch! I haven't had any real changes since my last update but wanted to document the many more doctor appointments. At 36 weeks, I began my twice weekly visits. Mondays are set for ultrasounds and NSTs while Thursdays are set for NSTs.

My first Monday appt, I had a biprofile ultrasound. This is pretty basic where they check her breathing and heartbeat as well as measure the fluid. At this point, I was on bed rest with Barrett for low fluid but her check up went great! I was measuring at a 22 which is wonderful. Barrett was at a 6-8 at this point. The ultrasound took less than 10 minutes total. I got back out to the waiting room before being called to the NST room and texted Joe that she is kicking her brothers butt in the cooperation category. Barrett was always a bit of a pain to get some measurements but she passes them with flying colors. Let's hope that cooperation continues in real life because lord knows her brother is not one I would call cooperative.

All was well with the NST and then I went to an exam room to meet with Dr Bennett. Nothing exciting to report here. I did my strep B test (which later came back negative) and did get my first internal. Barely 1 cm and still pretty thick which was no real surprise.

My next NST a few days later was pretty standard as well. I had to bring Barrett with me which was pretty stressful but mostly in my head. It's not that often that I have to contain him while being strapped to a machine and covered in wires. I thought for sure he would need to go potty or want to run out of the room or mess with the machines but he sat in the chair with me and read books and played on my phone. He was so well behaved and I was extremely thankful for that. I really talked up that mommy and sister needed a checkup and that he need to be my special helper. The appt itself went quick and she passed again with no problems. Doc even came into the NST to chat quickly rather than going to a separate room. I really appreciated that!

Then we reach Week 37 and I have another ultrasound but this time it was to check on growth. I don't believe I've mentioned yet that I did get put on a low dose of insulin at dinner so I was a little leery about where she would be growth wise. Statistically, insulin babies are bigger babies but she is measuring perfect! 6 lbs, 11 oz which is 52%. Nice and average! And the best part is that she was 51% at our growth 3 weeks prior so she is staying in her curve. I was really happy with that. They also checked fluid again and I'm staying steady at 22. She is kicking butt! which means my labor and delivery is sure to suck.

Thursdays appointment was for another NST and again I had to bring Barrett. He was pretty squirrely in the waiting room but my emergency stash of suckers helped. We were called back and I did my usual urine sample and met up with Nurse Brittney to get some measurements before hooking up the NST. My weight has been fluctuating by a pound for the last two weeks but I'm officially up 14 lbs total. BP and urine and all that jazz is still great. No swelling yet either. My rings even still fit. They were off pretty early with B but summer baby makes a big difference in the way my fingers swell. It's been nice to get to keep wearing them. I got hooked up again to the machine and had no problems here either. My little nightmare came true when about halfway through Barrett got up and went to leave the room saying he had to pee. He got the door open and I told him he would have to go with Brittney and that stopped him in his tracks pretty quickly. "Nope" he said and back to sitting with me, he went. I was so proud of him because he managed to hold it until we were done. He is getting to be such a big kid, it's crazy.

Back to an exam room where I was sure Dr Bennett would want to check me but she walked in and right away asked what I thought of an induction date of March 23 (39 weeks exactly). YES! I could have kissed her! No way was I going to argue with that. I'm totally jinxing it by agreeing with it at this point, I'm sure but it helps my anxiety so much by knowing an end date and being able to figure our childcare. Would it be wonderful if she comes on her own before then? Heck yes but if not, the end is near. She said that she wouldn't check me today but that we would check both on Monday and Thursday next week and then that will determine induction time. If I'm still only 1 cm by next Thursday, then we are to go in on Sunday evening (March 22) for cervidil which is exactly how it went with B. If I'm dilating more and showing some progress than I go in on Monday evening (March 23). So it appears Sister's birthday will either be March 23 or March 24. I can handle that!

That's about it really for updates. This whole time period, I've officially began my role as stay at home mom which is tough being full time caregiver while being this far along. Barrett is with me every second of his awake time and darn near every second of mine as well. It's almost 11pm as I'm writing this and that is the only time I can sit down with a computer enough to think. He is going to be a handful for our sitters when I'm in the hospital, for sure. A month straight with hardly leaving his mother's side will make for a difficult goodbye but it's only a few days.

That is where I will leave off. 10 days and counting! I should do one more update in a week to recap how my last week goes and then I plan to do another live blog of the birth so stay tuned.

Day 4-Epcot

Our fourth day of the trip was Monday, January 5th and on tap would be a full day of Epcot. We got to sleep-in a decent amount and made it to the bus station around 8am. Epcot was opening at 9am so we would have plenty of time to make it over there since it was our shortest bus ride. Our bus mojo worked this morning too and we arrived after maybe 20 minutes. My parents had driven themselves and arrived about the same time as us and we all lined up to wait for the gates to open. Weather was so nice this morning, not cold but not hot either. Sun was shining nicely.



Our first thing on the agenda was to do Test Track before it got busy. We decided to save our Fastpasses for Soarin later that morning so we knew to hit it then or wait for a while. Rachel and I couldn't do this so we stayed back with Barrett and Landry. B was NOT HAPPY. He wanted me almost every second of the trip but this exact time is when he wanted his Dad. Hello 3 year olds! There was no one around so he just screamed while we walked around for 15 minutes waiting to be finished. Fun times! And why not keep a good thing going and send the boys to Mission Space while Buddy continued to give me a run for my money. It made for a good moment to take a time out and hopefully start over on a new foot.

Next up, us girls head over to meet Chip and Dale while the boys finished up at Mission Space. The line was only about 5 minutes being so early so we wanted to get that knocked out early. They were cute and Barrett loves them from some random YouTube video he found with Donald. He was still surprising me like crazy on how much he loved the costume characters.





We were still waiting for the boys (they are not efficient movers) so we went next door to the aquariums. They have a 10am feeding in the tanks so we were able to see some of the divers in doing the feedings. Barrett really loved this area. We ran around each floor in no particular order and he probably would have been fine just going up and down the stairs. We finished up there (another little meltdown from making a certain someone leave) and caught up with the boys. I was mentally exhausted from the strong willed child and we really needed some backup help. We had 10am fast passes for Soarin but we needed to split up so some could stay with B and L. Joe, Allyson, Eric and I took the kids to Living with the Land next door while the others used their Fastpasses. LWTL is one of my favorites and Barrett thought it was cool too. The beginning is a few scenes of various landscapes and weather and he really enjoyed pointing out the effects. We switched and Joe ended up staying back with the others and skipped out on Soarin. His stomach was getting the best of him this morning (but he went on Mission Space?!) so he took a break. Soarin is my very favorite ride. It could go on forever.

We finished with the Land and went next door to do Journey into Imagination. It was a literal walk-on and a cute little ride to learn about the senses. It lets you out in the Imagination center with a bunch of different games and fun things for people to play with dealing with imagination. We lingered for a little while but wanted to head back toward Nemo to use our next Fastpasses. Oh no you di'nt! We had our most epic meltdown from Barrett while leaving here. It was really just one of those mornings where nothing could go our way with him. He woke up on the wrong side of the bed, I guess. We just let him do his thing while the others walked ahead to probably pretend they didn't know us. :) It was here that I just felt bad for the others in our party. There was nothing I could do about his cranky mood. It was the biggest setback to taking a vacation with others. It had to have been a bummer on their morning to listen to him this whole time. It wasn't fun for any of us.

It really was here that things began to turn around for me though. I think it was just a lot for him those first few days even though we moved slow and did very little. It was overstimulation to overstimulation. We moved back over to Nemo and got in our clamshells. Barrett was a little weary of the darkness at first but then loved pointing out all his favorite characters. The end of the ride lets you out back in the aquariums so we moseyed around there for a little while again.



It was nearing our lunch reservations so we decided to head towards World Showcase. Couldn't stop by the ball without a family picture.



This is where my Dad took over and did his great grandpa thing and literally raced Barrett from Future World to by Germany in World Showcase. They ran back and forth a few times too so they stayed close to us but this was perfect distraction before we sat down for lunch. It wasn't long before we were checked in to lunch at Via Napoli. Most everyone ordered pizza and a few ordered pasta. I'm a big fan of the restaurant. After finishing up, we checked out the mini train set in Germany before heading to the boats for a ride back to the park entrance. This was the first time we had done this (to my knowledge) and it was very pleasant. It may have been Barrett's first real boat ride if my memory stands.





We took a break at the hotel from about 2-6pm and then came back to Epcot for the evening. This night was one of my favorites and it was really because we did nothing special. It was pretty chilly but pleasant.





We checked out Canada but some of us were on a mission for food so we hit up the bakery in France. I wanted ALL THE CARBS. Breads and croissants and eclairs and almost everything I couldn't have. I did manage a quiche which was really good and plenty for one person even though it looked small. I really really really wanted some gelato at the shop next door. The boys were in the mood for sushi so they went in that direction. We found a bench in Japan while they went inside to get food. We spent like 30 minutes just hanging out and relaxing. Barrett entertained himself jumping from bench to bench. My parents and the Baumans were off doing some of the shows in World Showcase but B was more than happy to not be confined. We did a full loop around the countries and then decided on a spot in Canada. It was open and while not incredibly ideal for fireworks viewing, it worked.



We watched Illuminations together and then my parents went off the International Gateway while the rest of us joined the masses to head for the buses. It was pretty shoulder to shoulder but we strapped B into the stroller and dodged our way through. We managed to just barely squeak onto the same bus as the others by some fate. We were in our room well before 10pm and asleep in no time.

Animal Kingdom was up next!