A Birth Story

Thought I'd never blog again, did ya?

Wrong.

Honestly, Rosalia's birth, though only a month ago, seems like a very fuzzy lifetime ago. So much has transpired between July 31st and today. So much that today was the very first time I even looked at the pictures from her birth. And since I promised I'd start sharing all the events of the past month, the perfect place to start would be the birth of our beautiful girl.

July 31st, 2012. (Times are approximate.)

2:00PM - 38w4d OB appointment. Found out that I was 5cm, 80% effaced. My lovely doctor decided to "stir up some trouble" by stripping my membranes. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Immediately upon leaving the doctor's office, I start feeling uncomfortable.

5:30PM - It begins to rain. The kids' football and cheerleading practices get cancelled. I take it as a sign that tonight would be a perfect night for a birth. I begin to have very infrequent, yet painful contractions. Le husband and I decided to head out to the mall and do some walking. 

7:00PM - In the middle of the DVD section of Wal-Mart, I have one very uncomfortable contraction that takes my breath away. I demand that le husband take me home before I start moaning and people start staring. I begin to get the feeling that Rosie is definitely coming that night, though contractions are still not timeable.

7:30 - 9:30PM - Home. Try to time contractions while bouncing on my exercise ball and watching the Olympics. Contractions are coming anywhere between 6-15 minutes apart. And getting painful. Le husband spends half an hour trying to convince me to call the doctor, even though contractions are still too far apart to be considered active labor. I finally give in and make the call at 9:35PM.

9:40PM - Doctor calls back. He says to head in to the hospital. I finish grabbing a couple last minute things. Kiss the kids bye a couple million times. 

10:00PM - Immediately upon pulling into the parking lot, I have a contraction that makes me rethink the whole "No Epidural" rule I had put into place. 

10:05 - 10:10PM - Get escorted up to L&D. The nurses ask me if I have a history of quick labors. I answer, "I guess so." I grossly underestimate. The next half hour is a big blur honestly.

Nurse quickly checks me and I'm 6-7cm. Within two minutes of being checked, I begin shaking uncontrollably. I remember this feeling very well.

Transition. Oh crap.

There will be no time for pain relief. I begin to very vocally freak the freak out and insist that I cannot do this. In fact, I repeated it, loudly over and over again to all five nurses very quickly preparing me and my room for Rosie's impending arrival.

Nurse checks me again. 8-9cm dilated. Obviously, I'm still very vocally freaking the freak out.

Pop. Whooosh. Yep, my water just broke. Though burst with a gusto would be a more accurate description.

10:30ishPM - Doctor calmly whisks into the room. The nurses set me up to push. Three pushes later..

10:40PM 

Rosalia is born.

Moral of the labor story? If I had waited until contractions were in the standard 3-1-1 pattern, I would have had a baby on my kitchen floor. I'm still amazed that only one hour had passed from the time I was told to head to the hospital until she was in my arms. The whole experience was fantastic. The nurses, my doctor, the hospital..they were all a Godsend. 

I'd even wager to say I'd do it again??

Just kidding. (That loud thud was my husband dropping to the floor.)

<3

IV chronicles - {38 weeks}

Well, if Rosalia Belle doesn't make appearance by tomorrow at noon, this will officially be the longest I have ever been pregnant.

But... 

The end is in sight. My doctor did say that if I was still pregnant at 39 weeks, he would admit me and get this "show" on the road. I'm not sure how I feel about that, just because I really didn't want to be induced. But if it's a means to an end of many nights of false labor, I'm there!

I'm still walking around at 4 cm dilated, 60% effaced (as of my appointment earlier this week). Lots and lots of aches and pains and pressure. Not surprising. Still didn't stop me from going for a four and a half mile walk earlier this week.

How do I put this lightly? If le husband asks me one more time if I'm having contractions or if it's time or if I could just go into labor already, I'm going to very politely punch him in the face. (I love you, honey.)

I'm currently down to about 3 shirts and a couple pairs of stretch pants that still comfortably fit. I find myself fantasizing about fitting into regular clothes again. That and being able to carry Remy up the stairs without hyperventilating.

I can't wait to hold this sweet little lump of sugar in my arms. Soon y'all..SOON!

IV Chronicles - {37 weeks}

This post has been brought to you by one giant red bouncy ball, three jars of dill pickle spears, and an entire week of waking up at least five times a night.

Obviously blogging has sort of taken a back seat to life this week and probably will continue to do so until this little one is here. Heck, who am I kidding..blogging has taken a back seat to eating and napping. Both things I have been doing a tremendous amount of this week.

So I am officially full term and walking around at 4cm dilated. People tend to get a little bug-eyed when they hear that. As if me sneezing will cause the baby to suddenly drop to the floor. But alas, this is completely the norm for my pregnancies and really does not indicate when labor will start.

Even though I should probably be getting really impatient and irritated and ready to get this whole thing over with, I okay am surprisingly okay with being pregnant for a couple more weeks. Or at least until le husband and I get at least one or two date nights in. We haven't had one in six months or so? Yikes!

37 week belly..

See y'all next week? Maybe?

IV Chronicles - {36 weeks!}

36 weeks! How the heck did that happen? 

I celebrate 36 weeks the way most pregnant ladies probably celebrate reaching full term. Owen was born, healthy as can be, at 36 weeks. And I think it finally hit me this week that I will actually be holding another sweet newborn sometime in the next 3-4 weeks. 

I started weekly check ups on Wednesday and oh I finally packed the dang hospital bag!

Rosalia has firmly planted her head in my pelvis and is causing some major discomfort in my lower back. In the past 24 hours, even walking up and down the stairs has become almost impossible. And forget lifting Remy for more than a few seconds. It's a good thing I have reinforcements (Hi Mom!) flying in on Monday!

I'm still not getting my hopes up that she'll come any earlier than 39 weeks. But it seems everyone else is betting on an early arrival.

One more week and then I will serve an official eviction notice!

And for good measure, my 36 week belly and a pile laundry. Real life, y'all.

Hot. Hot. Hot.

Blah, blah, blah, pregnancy, wahhhh, blah, blah.

I think from here until this baby makes an appearance this blog is going to become one whiny, hormonal rant. At least I warned you?

....

It was the fourth of July and it was hot. 

We played with sparklers. Well, the kids and le husband played with sparklers and I sat comfortably in an adirondack chair and took pictures.

....

Once again, the kiddie pool has been the best $25 we've spent all summer.

....

Remy cut three molars in the past week.

THREE.

Pray for us.

....

Since the beginning of this pregnancy, I've been betting that I'm going to deliver at 39 weeks. Mostly because my previous children have been born at 36, 37, and 38 weeks gestation and I kind of have a nice pattern going.

But I think I may be wrong. The signs of impending labor are showing up. The same way they did before I had Owen (who was born at 36 weeks on the dot). 

But Rosie dear needs to stay put for at least another 12 days. Why 12 days? That's when my mom gets here to help us out for a few weeks. 

Stay put Rosie!

....

Only 5 more days to vote!

IV Chronicles {34 weeks-ish}

As I tried to type the first sentence of this post, my husband threw a Nerf ball at me from across the room. 

Boys...

I teeter back and forth between feeling like this pregnancy has flown by to feeling as if it's never going to end. I will never again underestimate how difficult it is to be pregnant when you have a toddler running around. A very spirited toddler at that. Add summer heat and a house with too many stairs and NO central AC and you get a very cranky lady.

But other than the normal aches and pains? This pregnancy has been abnormally good to me. With Remy, I suffered through months of terrible rib and back pain. I've yet to experience any with this pregnancy. Baby Rosie is measuring large (5lbs5oz at 33 weeks!) according to ultrasound, but I'm not convinced that she will be a terribly large baby. 

As for preparations, poor Rosie is getting the fourth baby treatment. I've washed a couple batches of laundry and talked about getting her port-a-crib set up. 

That's it. Yikes. 

Oh and I've had multiple discussions with le husband about my "birth plan." The term birth plan being loosely used. So what's the plan?

I want to avoid an induction if at all possible. (Though if I'm still pregnant in 5-6 weeks, all bets may be off.)

I want to labor at home for as long as possible. (Or until I sufficiently scare the children.)

I don't want any pain relief. (Seriously. I birthed Remy without any pain relief. It was simultaneously the best and worst experience of my life.)

And no one is allowed to count loudly as I'm pushing or they risk getting kicked in the face. 

(I'm kidding. Sort of. Maybe.)

....

That's it for now. 

What's up.

I'm a little over 28 weeks now and this picture does absolutely no justice to how large my belly feels at this point.

My legs are KILLING me. And charlie horses are becoming a nightly occurrence. Rosalia isn't a terribly active baby. She moves enough to not make me worry, but there is a noticeable difference versus when I was pregnant for Remy. Speaking of Remy, his new favorite thing is to lift my shirt up and slap and poke at my belly. Yeah..ouch.

....

A certain little girl made a split second decision to chop all her hair off today. Now I can't stop staring at her. She just looks so grown up. ((sob))

....

We've been really preoccupied these past few weeks with the house. 

And as much as we love this house and can appreciate the character and charm, it is becoming very apparent that a change is in the cards for us. Six people using one and a half bathrooms? 

Not so much. 

We don't necessarily have a timeline worked out yet and just thinking about all the work (and STRESS) that lies ahead of us in the next few months, on top of the new baby, makes me practically break out in hives. But I can't help but be excited about finding our "forever maybe not forever, but definitely long term" house.

....

So..that's what's up.

IV Chronicles&Happy Things {Quick Edition}

26 weeks.

So, it's pretty official.

I am so uncomfortable.

Pukey, out of breath, feeling as if I can fall asleep at the drop of a hat. Name it and I have it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still relishing every second of this pregnancy. But I'm just huffing and puffing as I'm relishing.

....

Happy Things.

Star Wars Day. May the Fourth be with you.

Waking up to a certain little girl snuggling up in her dad's spot in our bed.

Little boys in overalls.

IV Chronicles - {24 weeks}

Well, well, well...another week has come and gone! I'm actually feeling pretty dang great..sleeping like a baby..eating more than my husband..can't complain about too much. I did momentarily freak out when I looked at a calendar and realized that if the rest of this pregnancy goes as quickly as the first half, baby will be here in what seems like no time!

24 week bumpage..

....

I actually had someone ask if I derived baby IV's name from the Twilight series. As in the sparkly, broody vampires. Take that in for a second. 

The answer the question is NO.

Rosalia is actually a family name, as it was John's maternal grandmother's name. Though she was from Austria and the pronunciation was a bit different. After deciding on Rosalia, we realized that it had the same amount of syllables as Olivia. So, in trying to keep their names sort of similar, we decided to go with a single syllable middle name, just like Olivia's middle name. After le husband shot down my favorites (Jane, Mae, June) the name Belle was thrown out there and it just seems to fit perfectly. 

And since it was also asked what all the kids' names are..

Owen Marshall

Olivia Shea

Remy Allen

Rosalia Belle

....

Sorry for the super sporadic posting this week. It's always something, eh? Last week it was a sick dog..this week we've had internet connection troubles. I've had a couple days where I had no internet in the evenings. Add that to the fact that we live in an area where AT&T has yet to introduce 3G and well..no blogging it is.

Hope y'all have a swell weekend!

<3

IV Chronicles - {23 weeks}

Earlier this evening, after le husband returned from his work trip, I caught him taking a second glance at my belly as I walked by him. 

He said something to the effect of..."you look really pregnant."

Apparently my belly grew an enormous amount in four days. 

Nothing really new to report. Just a blazing amount of heartburn and a couple meltdowns over my clothes no longer fitting.

....

I'm quickly learning the way to my daughter's heart is through anything pink and sparkly. She's currently having a love affair with a new pair of shoes.

....

TGIF.

Appreciation.

Oh y'all..I'm blown away by the wonderful words of congratulations that we've received the past few days. From parents at the kids' schools, blogger friends, facebook, I'm absolutely overwhelmed by all of your kind words. I'm sorry if I haven't been too great at responding to comments and messages, but we've had a couple of crazy busy days.

So thank you! <3

....

We registered big girl here for Kindergarten yesterday. I only teared up once, thankyouverymuch.

....

We've known about Rosalia for two days now and I still have not bought a single, frilly baby item.

I hope to remedy that today.

Have a great weekend!

Hopelessly in love. {It's a...}

Meet baby IV..

HER name is Rosalia Belle.

Pronounced  ro-zah-LEE-ah.

Or as pronounced in this song.

(Yes, I've been humming the above tune all afternoon.)

She's absolute perfection. From her adorable face to her dainty little toes.

I am practically on the verge of tears with excitement. The older kids are over the moon. Remy is absolutely clueless. And le husband plans on stockpiling guns to ward off his daughters' potential suitors.

....

Oh sweet Rosie girl, we are already completely, hopelessly in love with you. <3

Crap and babies.

(I wrote this little nugget of wisdom a couple months ago and it has been sitting in my drafts folder waiting to be finished. After a conversation I had on Sunday, it only felt right to publish it. Unfinished and all.)

Let me preface this whole entry by saying that there will be some of you who don't agree with me. There will be some of you who will say "but I loved my diaper genie, wipe warmer, etc..etc and can't imagine my life without it.."

To each their own.

Let me be 100% honest. I get a gnarly case of the wants every so often. Trying to avoid the whole "keeping with the Joneses" nonsense that seems to have taken over my generation is difficult. And it's damn near impossible to avoid when it comes to pregnancy and having a new baby. I mean, hello! There's an entire multi-million (billion?) dollar industry devoted to making new moms feel like they NEED to buy thousands of dollars of crap in order to be a good parent. Yes, I called it crap. Because most of it is.

Well, your baby doesn't need so much crap.

(...and that was all I wrote.)

....

Sunday afternoon, I started in on le husband about NEEDING another crib. There will only be a nineteen month age gap between the last two kids and God knows Remy's little wild butt will not be ready for a toddler bed by July and so on and so forth.

Le husband, ever the voice of reason, very calmly asks, "but won't this baby stay in the portable crib in our room for at least six months?"

FACEPALM.

Duh. 

We don't need another crib. By the time this baby is ready for a crib, Remy will be ready for a big boy bed. If I would have just stopped and used my brain for a second I would have recalled that little detail.

So after some back and forth discussion, we concluded that the only things we need for this new baby will be diapers, a double stroller, and if baby IV is of the female persuasion, a little bit of clothing.

That's it. 

Our baby doesn't need a bunch of crap. Sometimes I just need a little reminder.

IV Chronicles - 20 weeks..say what?!

We have reached the halfway point. Actually, if my prior pregnancies are any indication, I'm over halfway. (I've never made it past 38 weeks gestation.)

People are starting to notice that I'm pregnant. From acquaintances at the kids' schools to strangers in the grocery store, glancing at my belly and then visibly counting the number of children around my cart. 

I can't help but giggle when that happens. 

So what's new this week? Nada. 

Just more pregnant. Boring, I know. But it is what it is.

So here's my belly photo for the week..

Psssttt...we find out what we're having this coming Thursday! Which means this will be the longest, slowest week ever.

You can vote here..

What do you think Baby IV will be?
	Girl
	Boy
pollcode.com free polls

Embrace the Camera & IV Chronicles

Whoa guys! These past couple weeks have been flying by. I'm nineteen weeks tomorrow! NINETEEN! Where the heck did that come from?

Newest symptoms? 

Very easily getting out of breath. And feeling HUGE. Baby IV seems to be growing bigger and stronger by the day. Just this morning, I was able to feel movement from the outside. Such a cool way to kick off my Thursday. 

Things I've been craving this week: lemon water, avocados, smoothies, and of course Mexican food.

....

I'm glad that I never announced our chosen names because we ended up changing our baby girl's name. It sort of came out of left field the other day, but I'm so so so so so excited about the names we've picked now. 

Only 14 days until the big ultrasound!

Linking up with Em again this week and embracing the camera with my Remy and the bump. Can you excuse the sad state of my patio? Although it's starting to feel like spring, it's entirely too early for any planting. I can't wait to start sprucing up the exterior of the house! A few more weeks perhaps!

Ouch.

Let me take a moment and be a stereotypical whiny pregnant woman. 

I know that the all knowing "they" say that due to muscle memory, you will begin to show sooner with subsequent pregnancies.

But y'all.

Y'all...

I lost count of how many times this weekend that I accused le husband of impregnating me with the Jolly Green Giant.

I don't remember feeling this rotund until waaaaaaayyy later in my first three pregnancies. And I know it's not all in my head! I spent half of last night, dramatically sighing, trying to find a comfortable position, all while seriously considering just running to Wal-Mart at 3AM for fluffy pillows to help prop myself up.

And the round ligament pain? Oy. No joke. 

....

I'll be back later today with an actual post! Stay tuned!

Embrace the Camera

We're linking up with Em today for Embrace the Camera!

We're embracing the webcam again this week. 

Olivia is obviously still embracing the goofy face.

And check this out! A 15w6d baby bump, which is starting to look very much like a baby bump.

Duh.

Last night, as I was lounging on the couch eating cookies and watching Glee (I have a really tough life y'all.) I mentioned to le husband that my belly felt weird. 

He gave me a look of "Wow. You are incredibly dense."

"It may be that there's something growing in there. Don't cha think?"

Yeah, oops. My name is Jessica and I often forget that I am, indeed, nearly 16 weeks pregnant.

When I was pregnant with my first, I swear I spent the entire nine months obsessing over every single little symptom and what if. And here I am now, a hop, skip and jump away from half way through my fourth pregnancy, and I have to remind myself that lifting that 46 pound box might not be such a great idea.

Also, today marks the first day of Lent and I have chosen to refrain from swearing for 40 days. Wish me luck.

Happy Wednesday..I'm waiting on the pest control man. What are y'all up to today?