she's here!

Our baby girl, Cora, arrived on July 31, 2017 at 6:17 am!

(I'm sorry that I'm so late in posting this. Chasing after a toddler and nursing this newborn have kept me quite busy. I've had this post saved in draft form for a few days because every time I tried to update and post it my son would run into the room and want to jab at every button on my computer - so then I had to hide my computer.)

We are so thankful for our embryo donors and embryo adoption. I can't write it enough! When I look at my kids I'm just stunned with thankfulness! Our journey to become a family is a miracle.

I got my VBAC! I went into labor in the early hours of July 30. I went back to sleep and called my mother in the morning to pick up Logan and bring him to her house. That being done the only thing my husband and I worried about for the rest of that day (Sunday) was keeping my labor going and stocking up the house for the new baby.

By midday Sunday I was having contractions every 10 minutes or so, they progressed to become 5 minutes apart at around 5 pm. I got in the tub. I thought the contractions were pretty strong, but when we called our doula and she dropped in she said that they could get a lot stronger and she stayed with us and helped my labor progress.

I didn't know that labor naturally intensifies in the evening, but that makes sense. My contractions continued to pick up and get stronger between 5-7 pm. At that point they were 3 minutes apart. My doula had me walk around the block and swing my legs in a half moon in front of me pivoting from my hip joint. She also rubbed my feet with clary sage and jasmin and put some clary sage on a cotton ball and had me inhale it as I walked. By the time we made it around the block my contractions had doubled in intensity.

I then sat on the birth ball and let the contractions keep coming. With each contraction my doula pressed on a pressure point in my lower leg and my husband pressed on a pressure point in my hand. She then had me walk up and down the stairs - doing the same time of movement with my legs that I had done on my walk around the block. At this point it was after 11 pm and I was just howling with each contraction and trying to breath.

Sometime after 11 I felt the urge to push. I sat through a few contractions on the toilet and then we headed to the hospital. (Which was only 7 minutes away.)

At check-in I was 4 centimeters, but the time we made it to the room and I got an epidural I was 6 centimeters. I had my bloody show between getting into bed and getting the epidural. A few hours after I got the epidural the Dr. broke my bag of waters because I wasn't progressing.

At that point everything went into hyperdrive. My body started shaking and I was fully dilated a few hours after my waters had been broken.

I pushed for a few hours and we started to see her head, but due to the fact that her heart rate was going down the Dr. wanted to use forceps if I couldn't get her out in a few more pushes. I tried a few times and then let the Dr. use the forceps. Out she came - beautiful and perfect and howling to beat the band.

Her cord was wrapped around her neck 2 times.

There wasn't a mark on her from the forceps. (I on the other hand needed a few stitches.)

So that's our birth story. It worked out for the best! Healthy baby and healthy mommy.

I'm holding her now and she's nursing like a champ.

Praying for all of you on this journey.

xo Jill

37 weeks

It's a quiet Sunday morning and my little man (now almost 20 months old) is sleeping in - despite the fact our sheltie raised the roof at 6:20 a.m. to alert us that a neighbor was walking his dog down the sidewalk in front of our house.

We have all been doing very well.

Baby girl is measuring right on track and is kicking and squirming what feels like all the time - especially at night!

I'm currently 37 weeks 3 days pregnant. With my son I went into labor at 38 weeks five days. Because of that fact everyone's bags are packed. Baby girl's diaper bag is packed for the hospital. Son's bag is packed for grandma and grandpa's house. My bag is open with some items in it - and ready to be tossed full of stuff at the last minute when we get ready to leave for the hospital.

This time around we hired a doula to help with my labor.

I've also been doing spinning baby exercises to try to ensure baby is in the optimal position for delivery. She's head down, but I'm hoping she's facing my spine when I deliver. (She was in that position at my last ultrasound - but babies shift all the time.)

Son was sunny side up and that could have been one of the contributing factors to my 59 hour labor with him and unplanned c-section.

We're hoping for a VBAC, but want a healthy baby most of all, so we're just trying to do everything we can to tip the odds toward a vaginal delivery.

It's been a hot weekend around here. We stayed inside all day yesterday I got a lot of housework done. I'm in hyper clean mode. I washed the interior side of the windows and cleaned out some of the kitchen cupboards.

I tossed a bunch of the supplements that my husband and I took 4-5 years ago when we started our journey toward our babies - I can't believe how many bottles there were! It's nice to chuck them and forget about them!

It's nice that infertility treatments are not taking up so much space in my mind anymore!

Prayers to all of you on this journey! (Hope you get to chuck the supplements very soon!)

xoxo JILL

19 weeks - baby girl!

We had a level two ultrasound yesterday that went great. We found out that we are having a baby girl. I was stunned. I really thought we were having another boy, but I'm over the moon to have a daughter.

When we had our ultrasound for our son I saw his penis right away. This time I didn't see that, so I wasn't surprised when the ultrasound nurse told us about 3/4 of the way through the exam that she was a girl. I'm so excited!!

I'm so grateful that she's looking healthy and strong. Embryo adoption has changed our lives. It is such a precious thing to be able to be pregnant with our children.

Sending prayers to all of you on this journey,

Jill

12 weeks

[Fit Pregnancy says the baby is the size of a jelly donut hole]

:) :) :) :)

Going on 12 weeks here.

Things have been going good. I have my final blood draw tomorrow to confirm that I can finally stop my PIO shots. I'm really looking forward to that.

I had my first appointment with my OB yesterday. I got to hear the baby's heartbeat. She found it right away.

It's the first time I've heard it this pregnancy!

I attempted to go to a midwife for this pregnancy, but she said that her practice did not take on patients who are on lovenox, so I decided to go back to the OB and practice that I went to with my son and I actually felt really happy and safe to be there.

I was told that I can try for a VBAC and that I will be monitored more closely in my third trimester because I'm on blood thinners.

So far so good!

I'm starting to feel a little less tired and I think I've already felt baby bumping around in there.

Praying for you all on this journey.

xo Jill