Falling behind...

I really did have good intentions to start blogging again but where does the time go? Girls I really am working on getting my act together. Please be patient with me :)Until then here is a recent picture of Lucy and us.

Back after a LONG break...

I can't believe how long it has been since I blogged. I really don't even know where to begin and that is one of the reasons why I haven't posted in awhile. Being a mother has been the most amazing experience EVER! At the same time it has also been challenging in many ways. Right now I will only talk about the positives :) So here is the first part of my birth story. I added a lot of details so that I wouldn’t forget anything as years go by. L.ucy Marie’s Birth Part One… On August 17th, the evening before my labor, Louie made dinner (as usual since I was coming close to my due date.) It was a spicy red sauce over pasta, yum. I remember I had heartburn afterwards while lying on the couch. Lou was rubbing my achy, swollen feet and we were just chatting about the day and about the baby coming. The baby’s arrival was the most common topic of course since my due date was August 25th in my book and August 24th in the midwives opinion. I had just given notice and quit my job on August 13th. I really believed I would have a couple of week’s vacation before the baby would arrive. That is the wonderful thing about babies you just never know when they plan on making their arrival. So I thought wrong. I had two days vacation and then it all started. As Lou was rubbing my feet I was having sharp pains down in the V area which had been the most strong I had really ever felt them. I am pretty sure this was the pressure from the baby on my cervix. We went to bed as usual, nothing out of the ordinary was occurring that I can recall. At 1:00am I woke up with a warm wet feeling in bed. My sheets, pajamas, everything was drenched! I was shocked. I woke up Louie right away and whispered that I think I wet the bed. I honestly thought from the pressure I was feeling earlier in the evening that maybe I just wet the bed in my sleep. Louie was asking if I was sure and I said I really don’t know because I don’t know what it is like to have your water break. Maybe it was my water that broke. So many thoughts were going through my head. I am going to meet my baby in just a few hours. Oh my gosh is this really happening. Lou was really sweet about it and went to google “water breaking and what to look for” or something to that idea. I got up to go to the bathroom, change my underwear and go back to bed. Although the moment I laid down a lot of water came out. So I got up and was talking to Lou while he was in the bathroom and water kept running down my legs. I said that this is definitely water leaking and I am going to have the baby. This all happened so fast! I was dying to call my twin sister Candice but I just had to wait until the morning or else I knew she wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep either. I called my doula, S.arah P.axton at about 1:15am to tell her the news and she said we should try to go back to sleep and get plenty of rest. I agreed. Although one thing I didn’t get was rest, haha! I was soooo excited to have the baby that I couldn’t sleep. I told Lou to go get a bottle of wine and let’s have a toast to celebrate that this was all starting, labor was finally beginning. So we toasted in bed in anticipation to the baby’s arrival. Here is a little video of us toasting :)
I didn’t have ANY contractions so then we tried to get some rest. Lou slept pretty well for the most part and I couldn’t sleep at all. Thoughts kept running through my head, how was my labor going to be…what is my baby going to look like, will the baby be healthy, my whole life is about to change, etc. I had to get up out of bed a couple of times to change my underwear from all the water until I realized I needed to wear a pad and then wrap a big towel all around me like a diaper. It still didn’t do the trick. I was very uncomfortable so I didn’t fall asleep until around 6:00am. At 8:00am I woke up and called my mid-wife to tell her my water had broken at 1:00am and I have no contractions. She said for me to come into the hospital around 1:00pm whether my contractions had started or not so they can check the contractions on the monitor and see how they were progressing and how the baby’s heartbeat was. I agreed as long as I didn’t have to stay at the hospital if things were fine. She agreed as long as everything looked good then I would be able to go home and labor at home for awhile. I had to call our Doula again and give her the update. Then I called my sister and told her my water had broken. She was so excited and told me to tell her as soon we go to the hospital and she would be there to meet me. I then had to call my mom and tell her my water had broken. She had never heard of anyone having their water break and not going to the hospital. I told her everything was fine and there was nothing to worry about. She wanted to come to my house right away but I really wanted to labor at home by myself with Louie. This was just the start of updating every one throughout the day. I was really tired at this point so I showered and got ready for the day so I could try to take a nap before going to the hospital that afternoon. Around 10:00am-12:00pm I got to sleep for a couple of hours. I was really tired by this point from the lack of sleep but I was running on adrenaline at this point. When I woke up I panicked because I hadn’t packed anything for the hospital yet and I only had 30 minutes before we had to leave to meet our midwife, Leslie F.ehan, at St. Francis Medical Center. The time was flying by and before I knew it Lou was packing up the car with our things just incase we weren’t able to come home that day but had to stay overnight. I still didn’t really have any contractions to speak of. We were off to our first trip to the hospital that day full of anticipation that things were progressing smoothly. Here is a video of us getting ready to go to our first trip to the hospital.

Finally! It's a ....

Here is my pride and joy!!!! She is 3 days old in this picture. (More pictures to come)

This is going to be super short post because I am delirious and soooo tired. I want to announce that my baby girl, L.ucy M.arie M.assett was born on August 19th at 6:46PM weighing 7 Ibs 15 ounces and 20 inches long. I feel like I am living a dream right now and I am choked up even typing this. She is so precious and such a joy to have in my life. Once I adjust and recover fully from my c-section I will type her birth story for you all to know the details. At the moment it is all a blur so I will have to have Dh remind me of what happened during her birth :)
Thank you all for your prayers and support!

Prayer requests/ intentions

So girls I have about 2 weeks left give or take until the arrival of Baby Massett. If anyone would like me to take there intentions with me into labor just let me know. I need to offer all this pain up for someone/something so it would be helpful to have your intentions in mind :) Just email if you would like: ambermassett at gmail dot com

Here's a little update. It is getting much harder to move around. Every joint in my body aches even my fingers which is weird! I really don't have much enery during the day. Saturday morning I slept in and actually caught up on my lack of sleep lately. So Dh and I got dressed, went to the Farmers Market, S.tarbucks, and then to Maymont Park to walk around the japanese gardens, then Dh drove me to the Mall so I could get a couple nursing bras, then we went to my parents house to go swimming, and I made peach cobbler with my sister while Dh grilled ribs (YUM!!!!). It was a very busy day to say the least but I kept telling Dh that I really wanted us to do a lot before the baby comes. Needless to say Sunday I crashed!!!! I felt so sick tired that I did nothing! Absolutely nothing! Just sat on the couch and watched T.V. I was so wiped out!

Anyways, Saturday really taught me a lesson. I really need to pase myself lately with what I plan on doing for one day at a time. I am really getting anxious for the baby to come. I have such a mixture of feelings from being scared, nervous, and anxious to go through all the pain to being excited, and overjoyed to finally meet my little one.

We have another midwife appoinment tomorrow so hopefully she'll tell me the baby has turned around and things are progessing. After all I have been taking that eveing primrose oil at night and (TMI) it makes me feel like I wet my pants ...so uncomfortable! it is so difficult to sleep right now that the smallest thing wakes me. It is such a huge process to roll from one side to the other that I constantelty wake up just to flip over. I really can't believe how pregnancy changes your whole body.

I think that is probable one of the reasons I have been in hiding lately. I haven't visited with anyone in awhile just because i get so uncomfortable sitting for a long period of time. Mass has been a killer lately so the movies are definelty out of the question, haha! I don't want to have anyone over and then be like "excuse me I need everyone to sit at the dining room table so I can lye down on the couch." That would be crazy. But that is how I feel.

I think I am really going to miss being pregnant when this is all over with just because it has been a dream come true but it will be nice to get to moving around like normal and feeling like myself again. And if I hear one more time "are you sure you're not having twins" "are you sure there is only one baby in thre" I just might break down and bawl my eyes out :)

Hospital Tour (video)

We finally went on our hospital tour! I posted a little clip of Dh and I outside of the hospital, Yeh :)It was so special...I was choked up in the labor and delivery room. I just couldn't believe we were actually there preparing for the birth of our baby. Just to think in a few weeks we'll be there for the actual birth of our baby...AMAZING!!!! I was just so wiped out afterwards because we had to stand for an HOUR during the tour. It was rough! I was so tired physically and emotionally afterwards.

TO BE CONTINUED:
Now I am continuing this post today after our midwife appointment (TMI ahead). I guess I am not dilated at all and my cervix hasn't softened at all so now I am taking Evening Prim Rose Oil orally and vaginally to get things ready. Hopefully that will do the trick :) We talked about our birth plan and stuff like that which I feel much better about. So now I just wait and see until next weeks appointment :)

3 weeks and 6 days left...maybe

Only 3 weeks and 6 days left give or take. I can’t believe it but at the same time I really feel ready to have this baby. I can’t wait to meet him/her!!!! Every morning I wake up and feel my stomach first thing to see if this is all still real, still happening to me. Of course when I get out of bed and feel the ache of my feet and joints it couldn’t feel more real. I feel huge at the moment and I think I am just having a hard time carrying all this extra weight. Every part of me feels “puffy” and I am drinking a lot of this pregnancy tonic tea to help with the swelling. I really have been having a lot of pressure in the V area. This may be TMI but sometimes I feel sharp stabbing pains there like the baby’s hand is going to pop out! I am only being so specific because before I was pregnant I always wanted to know what pregnant women experienced….
So, the baby’s movements are much different now than they were at around 20 weeks or so. Now that there is less fluid in there and the baby is getting bigger sometimes it really hurts. I actually talk to the baby and ask him/her to PLEASE settle down and then I try to adjust where I am being kicked or punched ;) The baby still makes me laugh with all these movements. I can’t believe how blessed I am to experience all of this!!!! A lot of people especially at work ask me how I am doing and most of the time I just say “everything is fine” or “I feel good” but really what I would like to say is that I am terribly uncomfortable most of the time right now especially around late afternoon after sitting most of the day. My tail bone kills me to sit on which I think is because I have had a couple bad falls in my life. I really don’t think I’ll be laboring sitting on my tailbone that’s for sure! I am not complaining about being pregnant just telling you all the truth about how I feel at the moment :)

I have my diaper bag packed and all the baby’s clothes organized. There are still a few things I still need to get like a nursing bra, etc. Everyone was so generous at my baby showers. I have to laugh though with how many receiving blankets I have received! I doubt I’ll ever run out of those. I think because we don’t know the gender that people must have thought that was a safe bet to give receiving blankets, haha!

We finished are birth plan and have yet to discuss it with our midwife. Hopefully we’ll be able to do this at our next appointment. We went ahead and hired a doula who I think is going to be extremely helpful with having a natural delivery. I really like her a lot and actually everyone in my birth class ended up hiring her as well. I'll definitely update how that all goes.

Last night I got up to go to the bathroom and when I was coming back to bed I ran into the corner of the bed with my shin, ouch! Needless to say I bent over and said ouch. Dh popped up out of bed super quick and ask what’s the matter are you having contractions? It was so cute. He actually thought it was “time”. I told him I just ran into the corner of the bed and not to worry. I am sure he must be thinking I am going to go into labor early just because I keep having a lot of contractions in the evening, etc. I assure him this is normal and doesn’t mean anything. I think we are both just excited to meet our little one.

So, this post has been all over the place I feel like…I’ll try to update more in the coming weeks.
Oh, before I forget I have about two weeks left of work!!!!!!!!!!! YEH! I can’t believe it. I still don’t know what the plans are after my maternity leave it up on Oct. 11th. I’ll just have to wait and see what God has planned.

Before I forget to mention it I am off of progesterone and baby asprin now. I just decided I have had enough progesterone and that's it!!! So we'll see what happens now :)

Nesting...or being a bitch?

I seriously don't know what my problem is lately, but Dh is taking a verbal beating from me almost every evening because I am wanting everything to be perfect in the house. I am absolutely no fun to live with at the moment and most evenings I end up crying from exhaustion. So I have to ask myself, "am I nesting or just being a huge BITCH?" Why do I do this? The baby isn't going to notice anything but for some reason I just want every drawer and every nook and cranny spotless. This is killing me...I am so tired but then I get very anxious if I am not working on something or organizing something my way only. I need to get a grip! I realize this. Now if I can get a grip and have some peace of mind ;)

This past week I took all of our drawers out of our credenza and just dumped them upside down on the dining room table to sort through. How is it possible for every drawer to turn into a junk drawer? It is possible at my house!!! Next, I dumped out everything in the kitchen cabinets and started organizing from the top down. I thought I would sleep so much better knowing where everything is in the house but now I am having a heck of a time falling to sleep at night. Any suggestions? I have been lying there FOREVER trying to fall asleep and no luck. Then I start to feel sick tired during the afternoon from lack of sleep. It is an endless cycle.

I think this is a really negative post so I am going to blame that on a severe lack of sleep :(

By the way, we have a midwifes appointment tomorrow and get to meet with our doula next week for our first meeting to see what we think of her. Yeh, I can't wait!