She's Here!

ABIGAIL JAYNE WEBSTER
BORN AUGUST 16, 2011 @ 7:08 AM

7LBS 8 OZS & 20.5 IN LONG

More stories and pictures to follow!

The story of how she came out...

So, after all the craziness of the weekend, Ben begged me to drink some castor oil Monday morning. Since I hate being pregnant, I consented. Plus, for those who do not know, it has worked 3 other times for me. :) So, for breakfast I made my castor oil cocktail. Monday was a pretty good day. Nothing happened. OOOOOOOOOOOoh well! I tried. The castor oil did do its job though and loosened me up--too bad it was so much that my toilet blew up and overflowed EVERYWHERE! So Monday night, I spent on my hands and knees cleaning the floor, the toilet and washing lots of loads on our sanitize cycle. I was super exhausted after that so I went to bed--before Ben & Xander even got home from soccer. I got a call around 830 that woke me up-it was my dear sister in law, Serena, letting me know that they'd be happy to help when that time came--that they'd even be available in the middle of the night. I told her how grateful I was and went back to bed. Sometime after midnight, before 1, I started cramping but figured it was more caster oil side effects and kept sleeping. Around 2 AM, they got worse but it was not that bad, I mostly could keep sleeping so I figured it was false labor and I shouldn't wake Ben. By 2:45, Ben had woken up having noticed I was breathing funny--by that time I was walking around seeing if I could get them to go away. :/ We uploaded a GREAT app that times your contractions--it's free and I totally recommend it! I was able to time while Ben prepared everything. Anyways, thank goodness Serena had called! At 4 we called the Websters because we knew they were on their way to the shift at the Sacramento Temple and asked them to call Serena & Seth. Seth got here around 445 and we left around 515. I was NOT convinced I was in labor and was not sure I wanted to go because I did NOT want to be turned away! My contractions were good and consistent but I've never had such peaks where I could rest in between--it was totally different than any other time! We got to the hospital, they immediately did an ultrasound to make sure Abby was still vertex, she was, did an exam and WHOA! I was a "roomy 6"! I have never gotten to the hospital and been more than a 4! The midwife said, the baby is coming. They wouldn't even let me walk to the room. They left me in the bed and wheeled me to a delivery room. I worked through the rest of the contractions, they popped the water and after 10 minutes of pushing, Abby came out! Sounds easy doesn't it? After all my worrying about possibly getting an epidural--I didn't even have time. She came out at 708 am. While she was smaller than all of my babies, she took the 2nd longest once we got to the pushing. I did a terrible job pushing this time--I was too anxious and excited and was not focused--I was pushing all over the place. :) Anyways, it was beautiful and calm. It was only Ben & I this time and since every one else had work and school, we got LOTS of time to bond and be together with our new baby.

First day of Kindergarten!

My first child has FINALLY begun school! YEAH!!!!! He was so stoked. We had a special breakfast that morning, packed his backpack, dropped the girls at Grandma's and took Xander to school. He is going to be in a Spanish program--it isn't quite immersion based but the theory is if he continues through high school, he will be able to start in 3rd year Spanish. My goal is to learn with him. :) We totally forgot the camera, so thank goodness for our phones!

Isaac and Xander are in the same class and Kaleb (all friends from soccer last year!) is in a different AM class--they were so excited!

Mommy made it to drop him off!

House Projects con't

I hate having toys in my kids bedroom. I hate having toys all over my house. Ok, I just hate most toys. :) When we originally bought the house, we thought we'd have the front upstairs bedroom be our playroom but then I realized that I do not want kids up and down the stairs all day dragging toys around, and let's face it, the kids want to be where I am anyways. SO, we attempted to have the toys in our living room for awhile. It was awful because there were toys everywhere. My ever thinking husband came up with a great plan and our friend Dave Rambo carried it out just before Abigail was born (that was the goal!) Now, we have a room just for toys:
Here are the before, during & after.

For those who haven't been here, the kids are in the living room. And that door is a closet that was once the pantry--but remember we had one built into the kitchen. Then you have the stairs and the family room. Well, we ripped out that closet and found LOTS of space under the stairs and that is now where the kids can store and play with their toys! It isn't huge but it works and as the kids grow older we can change things around. Some day the room will have a beautiful mural and a revolving bookshelf that closes it off but for now, most of the mess stays in there as does the kitchen and tool bench. It is fabulous! (Oh, and it's U shaped, it goes all the way around where we built a little storage closet under the lowest steps)

Wrights Lake 2011

After such an emotional night Friday, Ben let me sleep in and had made us all a yummy breakfast--I woke up to the smell of bacon, YUM! During breakfast I told him that I needed to get away. I told him we should run away to Lake Tahoe for the day or Folsom Lake or somewhere. That even though the house was a disaster, the yard is a disaster and I was a disaster--we just needed to go. We decided to go to Wrights Lake--it's a lake my mom went to as a kid and in turn I went to as a kid and it's only about an hour and a half from our house. We invited my folks to go too. I called them at 8:55 and we were on the road, with a picnic lunch by 10. It was the PERFECT day!

This is Ms. Joanne. While the kids were playing on the rocks, she offered to take the on a small ride around the lake in her kayak. Xander & Eliza LOVED it. When they got back, Vi thought it was her turn. We let her sit for a minute before she got bored.

I love small, family camping places such as these. And I love the memories I have as a kid swimming to the big rocks and jumping off. Our kids were SO happy the entire time. Might have been because I told them they were camping so they could eat whatever they wanted but whatever it was, it was a fabulous day. We were there from 11:30-3 and if Vi didn't need a nap and we didn't need to get at least a few things done, we could have stayed forever. It was gorgeous and the perfect temperature--and just what I needed to help me get over my little disappointments.

to Breech or not to Breech

A little update...

After all the drama of trying to decide what would be best for me, the baby, our family; after the insanely emotional week of wondering how this was all going to happen...we got our appointment for any and all procedures for Friday at 6:30 PM. We packed up the kids & myself for a possible c-section and took them to the Webster's. We got to Labor & Delivery and got all settled in to triage...it was really weird being there and NOT being in labor. We got all our vitals done and everything organized and they came in with the ultrasound and TA-DA our little gymnast had flipped herself back around.

Hmmm, so now what to do? Our lives are insanely busy right now--Ben's work schedule is more than insane. The doctor says, we can induce you since you are 39 weeks. Let's just do a pelvic exam and see where you are at. Uh-oh he says, You are not dilated, not effaced and not favorable. Well, you choose. You can be induced although it is unlikely to work and you'll probably just sit in the hospital FOREVER or you can go home. At first I was like, we were like, we are here. Let's just do this thing. The doctor did not like our choice. The more I thought about it, the less I liked it. So we left. We came home. It's been super emotional. I thought I would be bringing home a baby this weekend. Instead, I'm totally deflated by knowing that my body is still not even showing labor signs and yet I grow more uncomfortable and in more pain every minute. I could barely wear flipflops to church today. I'm at 40 lbs gained-which is 50 lbs more than I normally weigh. It's depressing. I think there would be less postpartum issues if doctors started screening you around 36 weeks pregnant.

On a good note, I've still got a bottle of castor oil from Violet that will be part of my breakfast this week.

Have I ever mentioned--I HATE being pregnant. If it weren't for the 9 months of agony, I would seriously have more kids. And I do not even have difficult pregnancy's for the most part. :/

BREECH!?

I'm sure everyone has heard by now but just in case you have not, I found out last week that our baby is breech. She was not breech at my 36 week appointment but was at my 38 week appointment. My doctor said let's do a version. Having heard a friend who is a L&D nurse about this manual flipping of the baby I said to my doctor, "If that's my only choice but I will not leave the hospital without being induced." See, my friend had said, yah do the procedure (at the time this was hypothetical about labor not me) but do not leave the hospital --there are so many complications that can arise. So I reiterated that to my doctor. She said I could be induced IF the baby stayed put or if she does not stay put, I could do a c-section.

At first my reaction was: Avoid C-section at all costs. So for the past week since my appointment, I've been doing all the things I can. And then I met some people randomly and I've been researching things and I just am so torn. I do not think I want to have my baby manually flipped.

So, tomorrow is the big day. I am suppose to go in and see where she is at and we will go from there. I am 39 weeks pregnant and oh so done with being pregnant--so in that respect, this is all very good because my pregnancy will end this weekend. BUT I am so FREAKED out! Maybe I'm psycho or a baby or weird but I'm seriously nervous about everything. I know the Lord will take care of me & the baby but I am so apprehensive and nervous--we all are--Ben, the kids and I. I mean, the kids do not understand but they feel our stress.

Anyways, I needed to vent. We'll let you know how things work out as soon as we can!