Pregnancy and Deliveries

Here is a little taste of my birthing history to just to give you a little mindset as to where I am coming from as the birth of our third child draws nearer. Vance's was measuring about a week ahead throughout my last trimester.  I remember feeling huge and being in a lot of pain beacuse my job required me to be on my feet eight hours a day.  Not sure how I managed that except that Heavenly Father blessed me to be able to do it.  Five days before I went into labor I was cleaning our apartment and threw out my back.  I couldn't walk or move for that matter.  Anyone who saw me during that time can tell you it was pretty bad.  Ifyou have ever thrown out your back you know that you can not move take that and add it to the fact that I was 38 weeks pregnant.  I've had back problems before that point and since and I can tell you that experience was the worst.  I'll spare you all the lovely details, but say that I started having contractions on December 21st.  I was relieved, but shocked because I was so certain that I would not be having a baby until the new year and definitely not before Christmas.  I suppose I thought this since my mother had five children and I was the only one who came before my due date.  Anyway, we went to the hospital late that evening when my contractions were a couple of minutes apart and coming hard.  Once there though, they made me walk around until my water broke. 45 minutes of fun there.  I'm pretty sure Stephen was wishing that I'd cut my fingernails before this point because I dealt with my pain by grabbing onto his arms for support (sorry sweetie!)  They wouldn't give me an epidural until I was dilated to a certain point so around 4 in the morning I got my epidural and tried to get some sleep.  Long story short, I ended up pushing for 2 and a half hours before the dr. came.  By then, my epidural had worn off and I was in a ton of pain.  (cursing the nurse)  Once the dr. came he got Vance out in a half hour with the help of a vacuum. The kid was posterior on top of it all. I was pretty incoherent throughout the whole pushing process.  I just remember being hot and in pain.  When the dr. pulled Vance out he said, "That looks like a 9 pound baby right there."  No way, was what I thought, but sure enough the kid was 9 pounds 4 ounces and he arrived 10 days before his due date.  I had a hard time recovering from this pregnancy.  My arms were bruised and so sore from pushing for so long I couldn't even lift them to pick up my big baby.  6 weeks to recover?  No, more like 9.  I'm still not sure what made us decide to have Tanner so soon after Vance except that it was the right decision... 

I was excited to be having another baby, but very nervous about labor and delivery because of the fun experience it was to give birth to Vance.  At my very first appointment, when the dr. was looking over his notes from my experience with Vance he was very encouraging and told me that we could induce if needed.  He mentioned that since I'd given birth to a 9 pound baby I could do it again, but he didn't want to make me do it again if we could help it.  My last trimester I would measure right on one week and then a week ahead the next.  It made me a little nervous everytime I was measuring ahead and I voiced my concerns so they did a quick ultrasound for me at my 38 week appointment.  Tanner was weighing 7 pound 6 ounces.  Ah, not so bad assuming I gave birth to him sooner than later.  They agreed to set up an inducing date at 39 weeks since this was my second pregnancy and I was dilated to a one.  I had lots of contractions the last couple of weeks before I gave birth to Tanner some painful, some not.  Anyway, the day I was to be induced I was having contractions and by the time I got to the hospital they were regular enough that the dr. just broke my water and got things moving along.  He told me I could have an epidural whenever I wanted so when my contractions got to the point of actually being real painful I got an epidural.  This was the worst part of my whole child birth experience with Tanner.  I felt nothing after that and I mean nothing which was awesome, except when  it came time to push and I couldn't feel a thing.  Tanner was posterior as well, but after 45 minutes of pushing he arrived.  7 pounds 11 ounces.  We went to the hospital arond 8 in the evening and Tanner was born just before 4 in the morning.  He was a week early and the perfect size (in my opinion).   I was feeling pretty good around 4 weeks after I gave birth to Tanner.  I had lots of back pain during my pregnancy, but nothing major.  Although Tanner was much smaller at birth than Vance he gained weight just as fast.  For some reason my babies think they need to gain a pound a week so by the time they are 2 months old even my little Tanner was huge.  I guess I have cream for milk.

Night and day experiences with my first two.  Onto my third.  Obviously I had to find a new dr since we moved. :(  I loved, loved, loved the dr. that delivered Vance and Tanner.  I've been measuring ahead my entire pregancy which really confuses me.  I won't go into details, but I know my due date couldn't be off so it's just been weird.  My dr. had me tested for gestastional diabetes from the get go (nope) and then again at the normal time around 24 weeks or so (nope again).  Side note- no gestational diabetes with my other two either.  At 13 weeks I had an ultrasound and it said I was measuring ahead so the dr. said we'd wait to see what my next ultrasound said and change it accordingly if needed.  Well, it said I was measuring 10 days ahead so my due date went from March 25th to the 15th.  The past four or so visits I've been measuring 2 weeks ahead of my new due date.  I'd discussed my history with my dr. before, but at my 36 week visit (measuring 38 weeks) I decided to bring up the option of inducing.  Well, turns out my dr. has no desire to induce based on concerns of having a big baby.  He says that inducing will increase the chances of having it turn into a c-section and we want to avoid that.  Well, true, but I also don't want to have to push out a 10 pound baby.  He did mention we could have an ultrasound done so I dropped the matter and at my appt.  yesterday I reminded him that he'd agreed to get an ultrasound done so he got me the order form and I called the hospital to make an appt. for this morning.  Well, folks by my new due date I should be 37 weeks along I am measuring between 39-40 weeks and this baby, according to the ultrasound is weighing 8 pounds 9 ounces!  That would be all fine and dandy if I were giving birth to this kid today!  The ultrasound tech. said she would fax the information to my dr. and let him know, but I don't have an appt. with him until next Tuesday afternoon.  I don't know how that will all go down, but I am going to be more persistent about inducing because I do not want to have to give birth to a 10 pounder!  Can you blame me?  Anyway, I've been downright miserable and in pain the past few days and now I know it is because my baby is birth size.  I am hoping and praying that this baby decides to come on his own sooner than later.  Giving birth to another big baby is daunting.  Sure, it's my third, but good heavens... I know that Heavenly Father will strengthen me to bear all the burdens that come to me and that helps some... So there you have this very long post to tell you that the baby I am carrying is trying to be my biggest baby et.