Heaven sent...

Piper Jane Joncas

October 21, 2011

8:48am

8 pounds 20 1/2 inches

On to the story...

It is no secret that the last few weeks of pregnancy are hard. I hadn't made any progress in the last 3 weekly appointments and was feeling discouraged. Along with some dissatisfaction with my Dr I was pretty beat. I went in on Thursday afternoon to an appointment and met with another doctor in the same office because mine was gone for 2 weeks. He was great and was on board with me wanting to get induced asap. I was 39 weeks 2 days and ready for a baby. He suggested stripping my membranes to see if that would help, I said sure. I have had some friends who had suggested doing it and had success so I was willing to try. When he went to do it he said I was already very soft and dilated to a 3. Yay! That was nice to hear. He said if that didn't work then he would see me bright and early Sunday morning.

That night Lee came over to watch the kids and I went out on a looong walk. I had a few contractions while I was walking but nothing huge. Jer was so sweet. He kept calling and texting me to see how I was. I kept telling him I was fine and we would probably be going in on Sunday so not to worry. After Lee left I took a relaxing dip in the tub and then went to bed.

Jeremiah came home from work around 1:30 and brought me some jalapeno poppers. My guilty pleasure. He brought them home a week or two ago and it made her go crazy inside of me. He gave them to me and told me he thought they would make me go into labor cause she would go crazy again. I laugh and said no I felt fine but would eat them anyway. We went to sleep and I started getting contractions around 2:30. I started timing them around 3:30 and they were consistently 10-12 min apart. Laine had a bad dream and I went into tuck her back in and went to the restroom. I pasted a huge mucus plug, fyi I will spare none of the dirty details here. I was so glad to be on the potty for that. I got up and laid down intending to wake up Jer and get things going but the contractions stopped. I was disappointed. They were gone for about 30 min until Laine had another bad dream and Jer took care of her. I sat up and they came back full force. Jer came in I told him I didn't think he would be going to work that today. He insisted on calling Lee and getting her down here as soon as she could come. I didn't want to rush things but he called her and I took a shower. The hot shower relaxed my body which was nice but it also brought my contractions harder and faster. Needless to say I was really glad he had called Lee and she was nearly there.

By the time we got in the car they were getting really hard. We stopped at a light during one and all I could do was breath through it and at the end I wiped my eyes and realized that I just had tears running down my face because of the pain. We made it up to the OB triage and they started to get me all check in. Finally the nurse realised that I wasn't even answering her questions because my contractions where so painful and coming so fast. She checked me and her eyes got all wide and she says you are at an 8. She hollered out the curtain to page the anesthetist, doctor and to get the room ready quick. Then she rolled me on my side and said not to move so my water wouldn't break. I turned and looked at Jer and not going to lie, I was feeling pretty panicky. An 8 is pretty far along and I was so not prepared to deal with the pain I was feeling. He looked concerned and looked about as anxious as I felt. 

They wheeled me into a labor room and it became a buzz with people getting things ready as fast as possible so I could get and epidural. I honestly don't remember too much of this time. I was just trying to get through the contractions. Jer was worried I might rip someones head off, I am sure that from his perspective it seemed like a valid point. Finally they got every thing in order for the epidural to be put in. I was worried with the amount of pain I was in that I would move or they would have problems putting it in and I would be out of luck. So I put my head down and starting to breath really deep and concentrated on not moving. I must have done a good job because soon the nurses were wondering if I had passed out. Thank goodness for the epidural doctor. He was awesome and got it in really quick and gave me a huge dose of medicine. It took about 5 minutes for some relief to come. They checked me again and said I was just about a 10 but that since my water hadn't broke I could wait for the epidural to take full affect before I started pushing.

We waited about 20 minutes for it to work and then I felt like I wanted to push. I pushed for about 20 minuets and she was so very close to coming but in between every contraction she would go back in a bit. So rather than tear she made a small cut and she all but flew out of me. She came out crying and beautiful. We had 4 names we were tossing around but right when I saw her I knew she was a Piper.

They put her straight on me skin to skin and there she stayed for about an hour. She nursed on both sides and latched on so well. She is a nursing pro, hopefully that trend continues. That was such a neat hour for me. Both Bode and Laine were cleaned up and weighed before I really got to look them over. It was so sweet to have that time with her.

The rest of our hospital stay was pretty routine. The rooms where nice and I like all my nurses. We had friends and family come and visit in the evening and the consensuses was the she looks just like a "Joncas Baby". Rather than rush home the next morning I asked if I could stay a bit longer and ended up coming home around 7 last night. It was just so nice to spend undivided attention on her and test a bit.

It was so fun when Jer brought Bode and Laine into see Piper.  I heard them out in the hall and I got so excited to have my whole family in the same room for the first time.  Laine and Bode we genuinely excited to meet her. Laine wanted to hold her right away. Bode was more of a look don't touch kind of visitor. That evening after the kids got home my little sister stayed overnight to watch them. She tuck Bode in and she said "Bode, you have 2 sisters!" He rolled over and said "yeah, wish I had 100 brothers". Sorry bud, two sisters might be it. He really likes her though. He likes to be close to her and call her Piper Jane.

She has been such a sweet, content little baby so far. She caught on to nursing very fast. She looks just like a "Joncas Baby" but still her own little person. I thought Laine had hair but I was wrong. Piper has SO much hair! All over her head. I love having a fresh new baby to snuggle. We all love having her here and are ready to get to know her.

38 weeks 6 days...

That tittle sounds like I have been trapped on a desert island... like it has been 38 weeks and 6 days since the plane went down. I have successfully made shelter and my fire starting skills are top notch. Wilson and I are in a fight...

But no, it has been 38 weeks and 6 days worth of pregnancy. This is officially the longest I have ever been pregnant.  I would be lying if I said I was taking it well. The last weeks are hard. You are just so sick of being pregnant and so ready to move on from the miserable pregnant part onto the labor, no sleep, huge milk boobs, newborn part. Lucky for me I have a sweet husband who as the days drag on get more and more sympathetic to my needs. He has been a huge help with grocery shopping, watching kids and being a shoulder to lean on. I have a loud symptom always in my last few weeks of pregnancy of snoring. Loud, loud snoring. He is so sweet to give up the bed, sleep on the extra twin in Laine's room, and let me have the bed. I however feel horribly guilty waking up alone knowing that I was so loud he had to leave the room. 

This is a picture from one of my many walks in the past weeks. Lee was down and we pushed the little girls in the strollers. Laine would get a bit bored and want to walk. She thought it was really fun to hold Daisy's hand while we walked. I think Daisy was a bit unsure about the whole situation.

I have been trying all those natural remedies to try to induce labor. Raspberry leaf tea, black licorice, eating fresh pineapple, spicy food,walking, walking, and walking among other things ;) but to no avail. She is really quite content to stay in there. I guess she will come when she is ready. I have an appointment on Thursday and will discuss getting induced. I have said the whole time I do not want to be induced, still don't, but maybe just having a day to look forward to will make me relax enough to get labor going.

Jer is interviewing this week to change positions in the department. Still doing police work just a different type of squad. He is low on the totem poll so it might be a stretch to actually get it. He is pretty hopeful though. So am I.  His area is testing  a new work schedule program. They would for work 3, 13 hour shifts for 6 months to test the program. He would probably get the night shift. It would be 3 really long days, a day to recover and then 3 days off. I guess it won't be the worst thing in the world, just not looking forward to making that change. If he gets the new position then he would work the same hours and still have 3 days off. Either way we are grateful to have a steady job.

Bode had fall break last week. He came to the conclusion that he likes school. He likes being with people and being kept busy. He did have fun playing with Laine everyday and she enjoyed his company as well. One day we decided to kill some time by going to McDonalds to play and then walk around Target for the afternoon. When we came home it was quiet time so the kids headed to their rooms. Bode wanted to play with the cushions on the couch to make a fort in his room. I told him to go ahead. He later yelled down to me that there was a spooky spider on the couch and that he would take care of it. I didn't think anything of it at all. He had been making Halloween decorations and playing with fake spiders and ghosts all week. So awhile later he comes running down the stairs with a cup and told me to look inside. And sure enough there was a huge spider in there! A real spider! That sure got me off the couch quick. Freaked me out. I asked him why he didn't have me come kill it. He said,"Well I know your face and you don't like spiders. So I took care of it for you." Sweet little boy, protecting me.

Laine, Laine, Laine. What to say about that girl? She has been my sweet little buddy that last few weeks. She has been very cuddly and helpful. Her little vocabulary has grown so much. She can say just about anything she wants but gets talking so fast that it can be hard to understand.

Hopefully my new post will showcase our newest addition. 8 days until the due date...

The waiting game...

It is hard to put down in words how much these kids love their daddy. He works 4 long days and then has 3 days off. Those three days are the best days ever for these kids. They just cannot get enough of him. They are constantly vying for his attention. Loving on him, crawling on him and wanting to be with him every second possible. I know that them crawling all over him must really get old but he is a good sport and plays the roll of jungle gym very well. I am glad my kids have such a wonderful father.

We had family come down to visit us this last weekend. Of course I didn't snap a picture of Bode playing with his cousins. He loves all his cousins. I am grateful that he has so many to play with. Laine loves her "dwama". When she is around I just don't cut it. She would rather have "dwama" hold, bath, cloth, feed and play with her. We went out to lunch and Laine swiped my phone. I figured out after a few minutes that she was trying to take a picture of Grandma. I asked Laine to go sit on Grandma's lap for a picture. Normally it would be a little fight to get the phone away from her and then to get her to sit still for a picture. Not for this though. She really wanted a picture with Grandma. She gave me the phone crawled up there are posed for a picture. Thanks everyone for coming to our house.

I am now nearly 38 weeks pregnant and anxious to meet this new baby. I know she has dropped and according to my dr there hasn't been much change. The last month really drags along and I am ready to be done. I always feel pregnancy is kind of time changing. You are constantly waiting for the big event. Especially right now. There is no making plans just waiting for labor to come. I was feeling some rather consistent contractions on Saturday and decided I should get things all picked up just in case. It has been a productive days of shopping, cleaning out the garage, putting up Halloween decor, cleaning the house and other things. And through it all I was having back pain and contractions. Not really painful contractions but noticeable ones that really tightened my belly. Around 10 I thought well is I really am going into labor I should pack my bags and take a shower just in case we need to leave in the middle of the night. And of course, right when I was done packing the bags they stopped completely. Oh well. I guess she will come when she is good and ready. Just wishing she was ready now. I would really prefer to go into labor all on my own but man getting induced sounds better every day.