Jonah Michael

Yep, I'm 2 months late with this post.... Let's get Jonah's birth on here!

Tuesday, June 20th, 2017.  We got to the hospital and I had not really progressed much overnight from my doctor stripping the membranes the day before.  They got the pitocin going shortly after we got there.  By around 10:00am I was starting to feel some small contractions so they ordered the epidural to get that started.  My doctor came in and checked me and both her and the nurses assumed that this would go fast since it was my third baby etc...."maybe we'll see a baby by noon!"...  Around 12:30 I was at 6 cm so obviously, not a noon baby.  The epidural definitely numbed up my lower half, I couldn't feel my legs.  But, I don't think it was quite right because I could still feel contractions - just not as intense but I could still definitely feel every single one of them.  I tried to up the dosage a few times but it didn't help - probably just made my legs more numb.  They came in to check me at 2:00pm and I was only at a 7 cm.  After that it progressed a bit quicker though.  Alittle before 4:00pm is when I was ready to start pushing.  I assume a few pushes and I'd see my baby.   Wrong.  After a few sets of pushing with nothing really happening, my doctor realized that baby was face up, meaning it'd be harder to push out.  Because of this they wanted to try to get baby's head to turn.  For me this meant them having me roll on my side, putting me sitting up, laying flat, sitting up, laying flat over and over again.  Because of the terrible heartburn I had the whole pregnancy, every time they would make me lay flat I immediately felt terrible.  One time I did end up throwing up from it.  After a good hour of pushing at this point, my doctors wanted me to get on my hands and knees as a way to get baby to turn.  Gosh, not a fun thing to try to do between contractions and when you have a big belly and a completely numb lower half.  My gosh.  They literally had to roll my legs over for me.  Miserable 10 minutes.  When they got me back to normal position though, they did think the baby had turned for us - thank God!  After this I was so tired and determined to get this baby out!  It didn't take much longer after that for us to hear the awesome words "It's a boy!"

Jonah Michael Ford was born at 6:15pm and weighed a whopping 9 lbs 5 oz and was 21.5 inches long.  Holy moly.  Way bigger than expected.  He was about 2 lbs and 2 inches more than Ashley and Bennett.  What a beautiful baby.  I honestly was not expecting a boy though - I was thinking girl pretty much the whole pregnancy.  Mike was guessing boy though and obviously Bennett was hoping for a brother too.

After he was born, Mike called my mom and told her to bring Bennett and Ashley to the hospital.  He didn't tell her on the phone what the baby was so they had to wait until they got there to find out they had a brother.  Ashley was alittle disappointed it was a boy but that only lasted a minute.

A little info about how we picked his name.  We had been trying for months to find the perfect boy and girl name.  I had a girl name we liked but the boy name was giving us lots of trouble.  A few weeks before he was born Mike told me just to pick what I wanted.  So...I picked Joey.  Well of course, he didn't like that!  (Then don't tell me to just pick what I want!)  For a week we were still trying to find one we could agree on and I was still determined to get Joey somehow.  So when I was looking in the Jo names I ran across Jonah and asked Mike if he liked that one and surprisingly we both agreed.  We still waited a short bit after he was born before we were 100% sure but I'm so in love with his name now and glad we agreed on it.  AND, I can still call him Joe/Joey if I want :-)

Look at his squished little cone-head.

So long.  

40 Week Baby Update

Due Date today (Monday) - 40 weeks - June 19th.  

I went to the doctor for a checkup today and I was at 3cm dilated which was a relief to me - I had progressed since my last appointment a few days ago.  Overnight on Friday night I had a few hours of pretty regular contractions.  I was beginning to think I was gonna know what real labor was like and that we were going to head to the hospital.  And then, just like that they stopped.  

So at today's appointment after she got the 3cm, she stripped my membranes which she said would help speed things up alittle bit.  (Holy moly I don't know if you've had that done before or not but major crampy feeling for a few hours afterwards.  I was beginning to think we were gonna be heading into the hospital soon afterwards this evening.)  

And after that we discussed being induced....why delay the inevitable.  I was induced with both Bennett and Ashley....Bennett after 12 days and Ashley after 5.  With Bennett I had barely dilated and with Ashley I was at around a 5cm but still no contractions to get her out.  So my doctor felt very comfortable with just letting me schedule to get induced.  

We are heading to the hospital tomorrow morning (Tuesday June 20th) to start the induction at 8:00am.  Hopefully because of the stripping, I'll be even further dilated by morning and none of it should take that long. 

Stay tuned...prayers appreciate.

Also, prayers appreciated for my kiddos.  Bennett and Ashley, even though being very excited, I can tell are pretty nervous about tomorrow and the changes ahead.  Ashley especially.  She was almost in tears with me today and said she was afraid that the baby would be a boy and that she'd never have a sister.  We had a good talk about it and I convinced her that even if she did have another brother, she'd still love him and be a great big sister.  I also told her that hopefully the boys would get married some day and that when they do, then she'll get sisters then.  For her sake, praying for a girl.  But obviously happy for a healthy baby no matter what.

 

Baby Update

As of today I'm 1 month away from my June 19th due date....I'm in my 35th week.  I've been feeling good for the most part....except the not sleeping decent, heartburn, always feeling out of breath, not moving very fast and waddling, and having a hard time bending over to pick up anything.  Really though, I'm feeling pretty decent (even though I complain alot haha).

We're pretty much ready for the baby to come when it wants - the crib is up and the room is ready, the bottles are washed, I have alittle stockpile of diapers, wipes and formula and the new car seat is in the garage for Mike to get in the van when we need it.

Things to do still - pack the last-minute things for my bag, finalize the baby name (this name has been SO much harder than Bennett and Ashley) and wash the baby clothes (which I'm not actually that concerned about since I have both boy and girl clothes - I'd rather just wait to see what we have and wash the one gender instead of washing alittle of both).

At my 35 week appointment yesterday my doctor told me she can definitely tell the baby has dropped and that the head is way down there already.  I'll take that as a good sign!...even though with my history of going late, I know better.  But I'll take any progress news I can get.  She'll start checking me for dilating at my appointment next week.

23 Weeks

35 Weeks

Mike's Pictures

 Mike has taken some great pictures in the past year.  

Air Expo Show in Eden Prairie

Lutheran Island Camp

 Same fence post in our backyard, different seasons - spring and summer

 Feeder at our house.

 Camping/Fishing Trip Mike took with his friends in May.

Goose Berry Falls

Halloween 2016

Mike and the kids did the pumpkins this year one night when I had a meeting.  It's fun to do but I actually did not mind missing the mess of carving pumpkins. 

 Best costume of the night goes to Josh...aka Cliff Clavin from Cheers

 

Fall 2016

What a busy fall again.  And it didn't help that I spent most of the fall (Oct, Nov & Dec) not feeling well!  Here are a few of the fall high-lights.  

One last fall fishing trip.  

The kids school does an annual Walk-a-Thon fundraiser every September.  Usually they go to a local nature park but this year we walked the trail which runs from Mayer to New Germany.  I was the walker with the girls in Ashley's Kindergarten class.  It's about a 4 mile walk and the last mile was really hard on these girls.  They started out so happy and cheerful walking along but towards the end I didn't think they were going to make it.  Once we got to NG we went to St. Mark's gym and playground for the rest of the day playing scavenger hunts and games with the rest of the school.  

I chaperoned Ashley's class trip to one of the local apple orchards.  Ashley doesn't eat apples though so she wasn't willing to try any of the varieties of apples, apple ciders and apple donuts - silly girl.

Many many nights spent in Mankato watching Kristen's last year on the volleyball team.  She personally had another great year and it was fun to watch.  Ashley loved coming to cheer her on too.  Bennett liked to go because he knew he could convince Grandma or Dennis to buy him popcorn from the concessions.

Senior Night.  Kristen was the only Senior on the team.

Last game - pretty sure she had the most family fans 😀

Baby Update

There's something Shocking about our Stockings!

Alright lets catch you up about this baby!  Starting at the beginning...  We always said we'd have another baby, we just wanted a break after the first two and then life got in the way for awhile (night school, work transition, etc.).  So we started trying for the baby in March.  Yep March!  But then, we didn't in April....April has been our magical month it seemed since that is the month I got pregnant with both Bennett and Ashley.  Being 9 months pregnant in December was something I didn't want to repeat again!  Looking back, we probably should have just gone with April and been done with it.

Fast forward to September.  At the beginning of September I still wasn't pregnant plus I had this weird side ache crampy feeling so I went in to my doctor for check on that and also discuss how it has been 6 months and we weren't having luck getting pregnant.  Well for the side-ache she pushed on my side and belly and all of that and it didn't hurt or anything and they did a blood test and urine test and it all came back fine.  And as far as the baby, she said to use ovulation tests  this month and if that didn't help, in October I'd go to the OBGYN and have a blue dye shot up into my ovaries to see if there was some blockage.  

October 8th I took a pregnancy test and low and behold, there was a very faint line!  Whohoo.  So then, instead of going to the OBGYN for the blue dye, I still kept that appointment and went in to confirm pregnancy and also to ask her now about my side-aches.  She confirmed a baby and also had me go get an ultrasound of my ovaries to be sure nothing was wrong there, wondering if that was the cause of my discomfort.  The ultrasound showed that my ovaries are fine!  But, since the baby was sooo small, it was only measuring a heart-rate in the 80's.  So because of this, I had to go in the following week to get another ultrasound done of the baby.  Talk about a nerve-wrecking week!  So that following week when I went in, thank God the heart-rate was in the 130's!  

Following this a few weeks later I had my first regular monthly baby appointment where the pap smear also determined nothing wrong which was another relief.  

My regular appointment in November right after Thanksgiving went well too and she was able to pick up the baby heart beat immediately, even only at 11 weeks at that point.  

Now this week!  What a week.  On Sunday morning, I threw up my breakfast.  There have been plenty of icky feeling days where I felt like I could have thrown up but I never did.  But now, in week 12, I threw up my breakfast.  The rest of that day I was feeling pretty ok I guess.  Later on Sunday we found out some bad news about our pastor - kidney cancer.  Now obviously I know this affected me to some point since one, he's our pastor but two, I work so closely with him.  But seriously, I never expected all of this to happen.  Sunday night overnight I threw up a few more times.  And then Monday morning, Mike stayed home from work since he knew I wasn't feeling good.  Since I had him home and since I had just heard that terrible news, I made up my mind that I was going into the doctor again and I wanted real answers this time about my side-aches.  I ended up seeing that OBGYN again and she ordered an ultrasound this time of my kidneys, bladder area.  For the rest of Monday, I threw up everything I ate or drank - like everything!  It was terrible.  Then Tuesday morning, I continued to throw up even on the way to ultrasound appointment - there is puke along side the road somewhere.  

Even though I didn't have the full bladder of water like you're supposed to have for an ultrasound she was able to still do it.  After checking my kidneys and all the organs around there, she did let Mike and I peak at the baby.  Oh gosh guys, it was a real baby now!  Head, legs, spine....way more than 6 weeks ago when it was seriously just a blob on the screen.  So exciting.  

So from the ultrasound I decided to stick around for a few minutes and ask my doctors nurse about all the throwing up.  They decided I needed to go to the ER and get an IV with fluids to help so I don't dehydrate.  That was my first experience ever in an ER setting.  But, I felt so much better after that.  And, since I was actually in the ER, the doctor saw I was just in for an ultrasound so he put a rush on those results and I had them back within an hour instead of 48 hours which was nice.  My kidneys, bladder and uterus are completely normal!  Thank you Jesus!  They are suspecting that the cause of my discomfort might be a muscle or just something being pinched/pulled when I sit wrong or lay wrong etc.  I'll take that any day as long as it's nothing super serious.  

I was able to start eating alittle bit now again yesterday (Wed) and today and I haven't gotten sick again.  That IV did wonders, along with a nausea pill.  But man, what a miserable week.  It was seriously like once I started throwing up, I just couldn't stop!  

If you were keeping track, that's 8 appointments since September!  5 regular appointments, 3 ultrasounds and 1 ER visit.  I know Mike has good insurance.  We'll get to see how good it really is. 

So now I am about 12.5 weeks and for the most part feeling good.  I've been very very tired and my energy level has been terrible but I can tell it's starting to get alittle better.  I know my belly is getting alittle bigger but I've actually lost about 15 lbs since I became pregnant since food wasn't appetizing and then now with throwing up for two days.  Hopefully by Christmas, food will be a wonderful treat and I'll plump up alittle bit maybe.  

Sorry this got so long.  I told you I'd post more when I had time.  And now that I waiting another week to do so, I had lots more to share with all my excitement this week.  Please keep baby and me in your prayers for health.  

Oh and Mike is very excited (even though he won't always show it), Bennett loves me more now than he ever has I think, and Ashley is realizing she won't be the baby anymore and has reverted to calling me Mama instead of her normal Mom.