Happy One Week Birthday!

Happy one week birthday Sadie!

Today was a perfect day to celebrate some great milestones.

Last night you went off the ventilator and all medications!

Mom and Dad went to see you and got to hold you for the first time in 6 days!

You got to drink some of the milk mommy made for you for the first time since you went to the special hospital!

The hospital is going to continue monitoring your feedings and oxygen over the next few days until you get completely well and mommy can feed you. Your doing great and mom and dad can't wait for you to come home!

Sadie's first night with mom

You can tell I am still under the anesthesia since I am worried about Brian using too much memory on the camera!

Our beautiful girl

Date of Birth: October 22, 2007
Time of Birth: 1:24pm
Weight: 8lbs
Height: 21 inches

The Things Sadie Will Do

According to the documentry called The Human Footprint, Sadie will more than likely:

• eat 10,354 bars of chocolate - 138 a year by the time your 75? Why is obesity a problem?
• take 7,163 baths - which only equals 19 1/2 years worth of baths if they are taken everyday...
• have 104,390 dreams - yes, we supposedly have more dreams than baths on our lives
• speak 123,205,750 words - which equals over 1,600 words a day if you live to the age of 75
• walk 15,464 miles
• cry 121 pints of tears
• make 1,700 friends
• take 59 trips abroad - wow, Brian and I better start saving up
• read 533 books - 7 a year if you live to 75...I have some catching up to do
• get 628 Christmas presents

Shucks!

I went today for my last doctor's appt. I have been having a lot of contractions and cramping, so I was hoping that I would be a few centimeters dilated. Nope. I am still at 1, but have effaced more. I really wish I would go into active labor so that I can have my c-section and meet my chubby little baby (who, by the way, they think weighs almost 9lbs now).

Hikes Point Fall Festival

Last Saturday we went to the Hikes Point (where Brian's dad preaches) Fall Festival to celebrate Halloween. Brian dressed up as his dad from 1979 and I was...pregnant. I think Brian looks more like a Columbian Drug Lord than anything else...

Poor Brian...

Have you ever seen Father of the Bride 2? You know the scene where Steve Martin is bundled up like an eskimo to keep warm? My poor Brian has been sleeping in long sleeve shirts that are tucked into pants that are then tucked into his socks just to keep warm at night. I am still waking up sweating though! Thank goodness he thinks it's funny...

Decorations for Sadie's first Halloween

Baby Sadie's Nursery

Here is the room that our beautiful girl will be coming home to...

This baby is cooked!

Sadie is now considered full term and mom and dad cannot wait for her to get here. We have tried to be very active to get things going, but there is speculation in the medical world as to whether or not that even helps :). I feel better trying though! The last two nights I have had pretty strong contractions and have been having painless ones all throughout the day. We go for our last appt tomorrow, so I really hope that they are going to say "Oh No! You're really dilated!" and move up my c-section. I am keeping my fingers crossed!

C-section date

I finally got a call from the hospital yesterday and the earliest they can get me in for my c-section is the 26th at noon. I am so frustrated because the doc said she was going to try to get me in on the 23rd. I realize that it is only a three days difference, but three days are three LONG days with PUPPP. And three days longer until I get to meet my little girl!

I will be 37 weeks this weekend and considering Sadie has already tried to make her debut once, I am hoping I will go into labor before the 26th. Looks like we are going to be a little more active to see if we can get things going!

Sadie at 36 weeks

Sadie is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. She's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. The baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of her first bowel movement. Can't wait to change that!At the end of this week, Sadie will be considered full-term. And believe me, I plan on taking a lot of long walks next week to get this process going!

Here we are at nine months...

Our friends Jen and Lafe came up from Arkansas this weekend. We were so excited to get to have lunch with them and go to Ear-X-tacy. Here are some pics:

Not much longer...

I went to the doc today and had another ultrasound. The measured her length and weight again she is approximately 7 pounds! The doctor, Brian, and I discussed whether or not we wanted to schedule a c-section and after weighing all the reasons for having one, i.e. the baby is big, babies with diabetic mothers tend to get stuck in the birth canal due to putting on excessive weight in different places, and I have tested positive for group strep B (which means I am just a carrier). I talked to the doc for a long time and discussed my fear of having a long labor and then having to have a c-section anyway. I would hate to have to recover from a vaginal delivery as well as a c-section! She explained that most diabetic mothers do have to have a c-section, so we decided to go head and schedule it.

Sadie will be born sometime on the 23-25th, depending on when the hospital can schedule me in. I should know within the next day or two!

I am excited about having a date set so that I can meet my chubby little girl! It also gives me a countdown to getting rid of PUPPP. Most moms would be able to deliver at 37 weeks (which would only give me a little over a week), but since children with diabetic mothers tend to have lungs that mature a little slower, the only way I would be able to deliver earlier is if I had an amino. I don't think it is worth having her a few days earlier to go through and pay for that procedure, so I will just have to itch for a few more days!

Keep us in your prayers that Sadie does not try to come early again and also that my PUPPP will stay bearable and I can get some sleep!

P.S. I am so glad that Sadie will be home for Halloween!

The life of Sadie this week

Because Sadie's so snug in my womb, she isn't doing somersaults anymore, but instead she's is wiggling around and pushing her bootie and arms and legs out as she tries to get comfortable. Her kidneys are fully developed now, and her liver can process some waste products. Most of her basic physical development is now complete — she'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.

I have noticed that I have dropped or "lightened". Most of my heartburn has gone away and Sadie isn't pressing into my ribs so much.

C-Section

This Thursday we have another ultrasound to measure the baby and see how big she is now. We will also discuss if and when we will be doing the C-Section. We are 99% sure that we will have to have one at this point. Due to PUPPP and my inability to sit comfortably in my own skin or get a good night's sleep, I plan on asking to have it done as soon as the doc feels that Sadie's lungs are developed. So hopefully I will only have to live with this for another week and a half! But if I have to wait longer, my little girl is definitely worth it!

Bed Rest and PUPPP

No, Brian did not get me a dog. (come on, do you know us at all?)

This week I was diagnosed with PUPPP, or Pruritic Urticarial Papules and Plaques of Pregnancy.

In layman terms that's: itchy (pruritic) - reddened, irregular, elevated hives (urticarial) - imflammatory elevation of the skin that does not contain pus (papule) - a scaly patch formed on the skin (plaques) - with child (pregnancy).

In Debra's terms that's: The itchiest skin condition I have ever had.

It only affects about 1% of pregnancies and you know what the cure is? DELIVERY. Most women get prescribed steroids, but since I am diabetic I cannot take them. So I have been taking Claritin, taking oatmeal baths twice a day, and rubbing hydrocortizone cream and a mixture of aloe vera and lubriderm on my rash whenever it get to the point of unbearable.

The rash is covering all of my body (including my hands and feet) with the exception of my chest and face (thank goodness).

I am still on bedrest this week and will probably get to come off of it this weekend. Yeah!