Lizard of Oz: September 2009

A new baby is always a miracle. This one was especially so.For those of you who do not know, not only do we have 3 sons (who we love, i love boys!), but Brandon's parents have 11 grandsons.. and now..finally..1 granddaughter. We didn't think it was possible for a Dorathy boy to make girls, but, miracles do happen.

Around midnight on Sept 10, 2009, I started dreaming I was having contractions. I finally woke myself up and realized, that, indeed, I was. Hmm, should I get out of bed and track them? Sure, why not. So, I counted contractions for 2 hours, 5 minutes apart, steady. Then I threw up, weird..never done that in labor before, but it pretty much clinched it that I was in labor. So...back to bed I go.

A little history in case you blocked me from your facebook feed because you were sick of all my complaining. I consider myself a "birth center mom". The birth center is here in tucson, run by midwives, on the campus of a hospital (TMC). I have birthed all of my kiddos different ways Ben was the medicalized hospital birth (epidural and pitocin), Isaac was natural in the hospital, and Jonathan was a waterbirth at the birth center. After experiencing Jonathan's birth, we swore we would never birth in a hospital again.

When I became pregnant this time, everything was different. From being horribly sick, to not finding out the gender, to having every test come back positive, even syphillis (don't worry the 2nd test was negative). I "risked out" when I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, and told I would have to deliver at the hospital. I was greatful that not only could I still use the midwives, but one of the midwives who I go to church with set it up so that she would deliver regardless who was on call.

Last week, I tested positive for Group B Strep. Which means (when birthing at a hospital), that the previous plan of laboring at home as much as possible was out...they want you to have 2 rounds of antibiotics before delivery, hopefully you arriving at least 4 hours before the baby arrives. Well, who knows when that will be! after having regular 3-5 min contractions that were getting srtonger all day, and brandon excusng himself from all the meetings he had that day, we called the midwife,and headed to the hospital. That was 1 p.m.-ish. After checking in and being strapped to a monitor (so sad I wasn;t at the birth center!), my contractions stopped. This has happened everytime and was the reason for the pitocin with Ben. I always thought that my labor "stalled". I now understand that for some people, especially who opt for natural birth, the body slows down labor before transition (the really strong, crazy contractions that dialate you from 8-10 and prepare you for pushing) to help your body get a rest before the really tough part. (I guess here I should say, that I don't consider my labor to be painful until transition. My contractions up til that point are uncomfortable but tolerable..no one ever believes I'm in labor). So, Brandon and I settle in, chatting with the midwife and laughing, enjoying our time. I whoop him in Phase 10. It's the most relaxed I've been in labor. I'm checked, dialated to 8 and 75% effaced, and it's now 6 p.m. I start to get annoyed, why is this taking so dang long? In the middle of our second game of Phase 10, I start to get SUPER strong contractions. Brandon says to the midwife, "oh look, she's making a face, this must be a strong one". Yep, it's transition time. I manage to finish off the game (I won, of course..) stopping for contractions. Just in time, because the contractions are really painful now and coming fast. I get thru these contractions by breathing and counting slowly backwards from 10. Miraculously, each one ends after getting to zero. I lean on Brandon during the contractions, because somehow I know I can't sit. Then it hits me..time to push. I know my legs are too weak to push standing up at this point, so I get on the bed on my hands and knees. Here's the part where I will spare you the details, but, MAN, I wish I was in the birthcenter in a tub, pushing was not this hard with Jonathan! After about 15-20 min of pushing, there it was...handed to me..move the umbilical cord...yep..a girl. Amazing. Brandon cuts the cord, they have to work on her a bit to get her breathing, but she pinks up, and she's beautiful! Sariah Elizabeth Dorathy, and get this..she's 7 lbs, 10 oz. WHAT? Ben was our smallest at 8 lbs, 10 oz. A whole pound smaller. (Isaac was biggest at 9 lbs 11 oz). She was born at 10:01 p.m.
And, she was born on the day we wanted.
pictures to come soon...

So, I have GREAT intentions, the majority of the time. It's the action part I still need work on. This last spring we ventured on a wonderful family vacation. We drove to Tennessee via Dallas, TX so that Brandon could go on the bi-yearly brother-in-law trek. This year it was in the smoky nountains. My sister, Sara, and her family live in Clarksville, TN. My sister, Becky, and her family live in Flower Mound, TX (Dallas suburb). So we drove to Becky's the first day, spent the night, got up early to drive to Sara's, then the kids and I got to play with Sara, Rachel (another sister) and all the cousins while the men + Seth and Emma went off to the hike from hell for 4 days. After our relaxing and wonderful stay in TN, we drove back to TX to spend a while hangin' with Becky and her kids (David, her husband, was out of town for work..we missed you, David!). All in all, it was a wonderful vacation! We returned home feeling refreshed and wishing we could turn around and go back!
So- my intentions were to have this blog up within a few weeks of the trip. However, in keeping with my personality...it is now 3 months later and I'm finally getting around to it. I guess at least I'm getting it up before this baby comes.

The drive was great! Yeah, it's a lot of driving, but the kids were awesome and we took a lot of stops to break it up. Here's our first stop, somewhere in west Texas. The boys were happy to get out of the car, look at the love being