Baby Time!

I went to the doctor this morning and she says I am ready to be induced! The hospital can't fit me in until Friday morning, but I will take it! So, if everything goes according to plan I will be at the hospital at 6am on Friday morning waiting on Miss Ana Blair Claunch to make her arrival!

Follow the Yellow Brick Road...

Olivia decided months ago that she wants to be Dorothy for Halloween this year. She has never once faltered on that decision, and of course the shoes were the most important detail of her costume. So when I saw this smocked Wizard of Oz dress, I immediately thought of another excuse to wear her ruby slippers. She was SO proud of her outfit this morning, so we attempted a photo shoot. It was kind of hard to get the dress and the shoes in the same pic, but these are some of the best attempts...

Bump Update

Well, I went back to the doctor this morning and they put me on the monitor and the baby is looking great. So, I guess whatever kind of bug I had is gone. She checked my cervix and I am now 2 cm and 75% effaced, so that is progress!
You can tell Dr. Walker is still anxious to get the baby out, but she says I am not ready today, but will be by Tuesday. I go Tuesday morning at 10:45 and am hoping to have myself a baby by Tuesday or Wednesday (preferably Wednesday because I have said all along her birthday would be October 1)!

Baby Mama Drama

I want to start this post by saying a huge thank you to everyone who called or stopped by or even prayed for my little family over the last few days. Michael, Olivia and I feel so blessed to have all of these wonderful people in our lives. Thank you!
And for those of you who don't know the long dramatic story or only know bits and pieces, I will fill in all the gaps here...
Wednesday after my doctor appointment, I felt absolutely fine-very pregnant, but fine. I went to church that night, came home, went to bed and about 4am is when everything went downhill. I woke up in so much pain. My back hurt, my abdomen hurt, my hips and thighs hurt. I was chilling and aching. I kept saying that it didn't feel like labor, just like I had somehow managed to get sick. Thursday morning I called the doctor's office (who is out of town by the way) and the nurse practitioner asked me to come back in to recheck my cervix. No changes. They put me on the monitor, baby looks good, did some blood work and gave me a shot of phenergrin (sp?). Thursday night I did much better, Friday and Friday night, gradual improvements. I thought I was on the way back to health! Oh, and Thursday after school my mom came to get Olivia because I did NOT want her getting sick. On Saturday morning, I had intentions of cleaning house, running errands, pretty much working this baby out of me one way or another! My mom was bringing Olivia home that afternoon, things were back to normal...
I guess my body had other plans. Because during the first quarter of the most ridiculous UT game I have ever tried to watch, I started chilling and feeling REALLY bad. I casually asked Michael to bring me the thermometer. You can imagine my reaction when the number I was looking at said 104.8!!! I sat it down and said its broken. Great. Five minutes later, I take it again...104.3, 104.6. I take Michael's temp, 97.4!!! I am pretty much freaking out at this point. I call the on call doctor and of course she says head to the ER. When I get there, they take one look at me and pretty much start freaking out themselves. They called Labor & Delivery to see if they wanted me to come straight there, but of course they didn't want this fever anywhere near their wing, so I sat in the ER until about 8pm. Urine tests and blood work, blah, blah, blah. As a side note, my veins are dreamy. Nurses love them. You should see my arms now from all the bruises it took to get all the blood they needed from me. As if feeling bad weren't enough. The only thing that any of these tests showed was a super high white count. The ER doctor said as high as it was, as high as the fever was and as pregnant as I was, they were going to keep me until my blood cultures came back in 24 hours and go ahead and start an antibiotic through my IV.
That night was horrible, the fever would start to creep up everytime the Tylenol wore off, but finally, Sunday night it broke for good. Every shift change of nurses that came through would look at my chart and say, you'll get to go home in the morning. Or, as soon as the doctor comes through, she'll discharge you. Nope, nope, nope, never happened. Word spreads that my doctor is out of town, her father passed away and no one knows when she'll be back. The on call doctor wants to take the baby, but you can tell hates to make a decision like that without my doctor. So, every 24 hours, we would hear, we're going to watch you today and tonight and figure out what to do with you in the morning. Up and down, up and down. I am not an overly emotional person, but this was really taking its toll.
Yesteday morning, Michael left the hospital at around 7:45 to come home, relieve my mom and get Olivia ready for preschool. At about 7:50, in walks my very own, wonderful, Dr. Rebecca Walker. She's back! She does an ultrasound, decides she thinks the baby is kind of sluggish, checks the cervix (no change) and tells the nurse to order Cervidil (sp?) to "ripen" (I really hate that word) my cervix because she's taking the baby. Finally! An answer! I am thrilled, just to know something definite. I start imagining my baby sharing a birthday with my oldest sister (today) and preparing myself. About 30 minutes later, my nurse comes in and says Dr. Walker called and after talking to the head neo-natal doctor at the hospital, he told Dr. Walker that under no circumstances were they taking my baby more than 2 weeks early. What?! But here's the kicker, they're going to watch me for another 24 hours, I'm being held hostage in this hospital. Dr. Walker comes back at around 4pm, does another ultrasound, looks me in the eyes and tells me what I knew all along, but felt like a knife through my heart....If she had been here when I came in with the fever, I would have a baby right now. I walked down the hall to get some ice, heard a doctor announce Its a Boy!!, walked back in my room and crumpled in the bed sobbing my eyes out for the next hour! I was a basket case.
But I have picked myself up and moved on and am determined to hold on to this baby until October, which is what I really wanted all along. So, this morning Dr. Walker showed back up bright and early and did another ultrasound, said the baby seemed a lot more active today, the best they can figure out is that I had a really bad flu and to see her on Friday morning. She told me again that she thinks the baby should be delivered by now, but that she was told in no uncertain terms that was not an option.
So, now I am home! And that is a huge improvement, so I am happy. And I do realize that every day she spends inside the healtheir she will be, so I am putting my own feelings aside. Its just been kind of hard with the roller coaster that we have been on for the past 4 days!

Baby Bump Update

At the doctor today, she said that I am 1 1/2 cm dilated and about 50% effaced. So, I guess that's progress in the right direction! She also said that she touched the baby's head, which was kind of freaky. With Olivia, I was 1 cm adn 50% for about two weeks, so I'm definitely not banking on heading to the hospital any time soon, but it is nice to know that I'm taking steps in that direction!

Halloween Time!!

For those of you who know me well, you know that I am a holiday nut. Nuts, nuts, nuts. And believe it or not, my big giant husband is a closet holiday nut. The years before we had Olivia, he and I would diligently get the decorations out for each and every holiday and sit and enjoy them by ourselves. You really wouldn't believe it if I elaborated on all the family functions I planned for us last holiday season. Halloween and Christmas are my favorite and any kind of festival, hayride, train ride within two hours from home is going to get a visit from the Claunch family. So when it comes to decorating our home, I get a little over zealous. Michael has to be the timeline stickler or I would start putting Halloween out on July 5th! However, with the birth of Ana Blair approaching, I convinced him to go up into the attic and bring the decorations down a little bit early this year. I just couldn't fathom going to the hospital and not having time to decorate once we got home!

As I was pulling everything out, all of my dreams came true! Okay, maybe not all of them, but for a Halloween fanatic like myself, it meant a lot! Olivia came to me and said, "I'm so happy! I'm so happy! Its Pumpkin Time, Its Halloween Time!" And for the first time I realized that all of my hard work had a purpose! I am creating a little Halloween monster of my own! But the cutest part came last night once we had everything set out. Michael and I went in to tuck Olivia in before we went to bed and she had to get up to go potty. And her daddy, being the big teddy bear that he is asked her if she wanted to go all around the house and see the Halloween lights at night. As I followed them from room to room, I thought about how special that would be as a child and how lucky I am to have the both of them. And I'm so happy that its Pumpkin Time and they enjoy it as much as me!

If I feel really productive, I may post a couple of pics later.

Tired Little Cheerleader

My little cheerleader all tuckered out from a day of making up cheers, most of which involved the word Popcorn. Don't ask why, because I don't know.

Fun at the Cove!

Last Friday Olivia, Nana and I took advantage of the slightly cooler weather and took her to the Cove for some of her favorite things in the world...outside and swinging. Those of you who know my child know that since she was a day old, she could swing for hours on end. When we are at the park, I literally have to bribe her to get out of the swings to let other kids have a turn.

Funny thing about her wardrobe choice is that this was taken on a Friday morning. Everyday she starts the day by asking what we will do each day followed by what she will wear (the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, huh?). Michael and I had been so disappointed by the first UT game we hadn't even discussed the upcoming game. She comes up to me and asks, "The Tennessee Balls (Vols) are playing a football game in the morning?" I answer, "Yes, does that mean you want to wear orange?" and she said yes. I have zero idea how she even knew they were playing, but I think we have a little Vol on our hands!
Just a Swingin'
This is a picture of Olivia's proud face after she climbed up the "ladder." Any of you moms who are familiar with the Cove know that this particular spot can cause a mom to have a heart attack just by watching your child walk past this open area on their way to the slide, I hate it!
Saying hi to the ducks.
Notice the rubberband around my child's wrist...apple not falling far again, right? The other thing is that everywhere she goes she picks up a piece of trash, rubberbands, rocks, sticks and insists they have to go home with us. I hope this doesn't mean she's going to grow up to be a dumpster diver.

Pics from the Week

This is Olivia practicing for her first show and tell tomorrow...what a disaster waiting to happen! Her teacher pulled me aside Thursday and asked that we work on her shyness. Anyone who has any pointers on that, let me know. She is involved in tons of activities and doesn't seem shy around people that she knows. I think its just going to take a while for her to get accustomed to this environment, plus I think there are a few dominant personalities in her class. Anyway, show and tell starts tomorrow and the theme for the week is Oceans. I was pretty proud of her when I told her the theme and asked if she had any ideas what she would like to take and she got her Splash the Pelican stuffed animal from the baseball game we went to when we were at the beach!
Holy Giant Belly! I know. There really are no words for how ridiculous that is. I've already started getting those looks from strangers when I tell them I'm still five weeks away...you know, the look that says, "What?! Are you joking?"
And finally...yay! Push present day! My sweet husband decided that since we are a month away from the due date he would give me a sweet little something today! I was so surprised and so happy! When I had Olivia, I asked him not to buy me anything because I couldn't decide what I wanted. Fast forward two years and I decided I wanted a pink or blue band for each child with their names and birthdays engraved on the inside. So today, I got both of them! I just hope my ridiculous fingers don't get any fatter before this baby comes so I can keep wearing them! I know the picture isn't that good, and I know I need a manicure!

The Cherry Tree 123

Thanks to Miss Melia for our cute back to school dress!