Fate, Disasters, and a 40 Week Check

Did you know that the word DISASTER comes from DIS and ASTER (meaning star) and therefore is Latin for ill-starred event? It makes a lot of sense bc the ancient people used to look to the stars for their fate. 

This applies to me right now bc none of my stars are aligned. Of course I've also been looking to God for my fate, but if He's talking to me I sure can't hear Him. 

Sigh... As you can tell my 40 week checkup tonight on baby #3 didn't go so well. The two doctors in the practice are married and on vacation for 9 days. That leaves the two midwives and one doc who only works at the Rossford practice to deliver this kid between now and Monday, July 7th... which would be five days past my due date.  The midwife on call tomorrow is the one I saw tonight and she is ALWAYS running late. If she were to deliver this kid, she would probably not even make it on time. At appointments she is usually 30 mins behind, but tonight I waited a solid HOUR for her. She was apologetic, but not overly and by then I was fuming anyway so it didn't matter. 

Turns out I was 1.5-2 centimeters after having been "fingertip to 1" at the past 3 checks, so I guess that's SOME kind of progress, but nothing too encouraging. 

The entire appointment was rushed and I was emotional, so nothing was accomplished. No membranes were scraped, no appointments were made (for either induction or a 41 week office check), and absolutely nothing was decided. Instead, I started crying and told her I'd call the office tomorrow after talking to my husband and my in-laws who have volunteered to watch the kids, but are going on vacation sometime soon.  Of course it's the holiday weekend, so the timing couldn't be worse... No one is home, no one is available to help, most people aren't even going to be able to visit me in the hospital, every freaking road is out around us for construction PLUS many roads will be shut down over the next three days due to local fireworks, it's quite likely a stranger will deliver this child, I'll likely be forced into having joint bday parties for Landon and this kid forever, and if the baby is born on the 4th I'll never be able to send him or her a card on the actual bday ... Ugggg, I know many of these things are trivial to you but for me it's a total mess. 

Now I have to either be patient for my body to evict this baby OR play God and choose when he or she will be born. I dislike both options, especially when I have to factor in so many other people's plans and lives when I think of the possibility of scheduling an induction. Everyone is busy, so there just isn't a good time. I suppose this is why I'm currently under the mindset of waiting it out and letting my body decide. However, with William and Landon once I set up my induction times I went naturally, so maybe that's the boost my body needs.  

Earlier I said this whole thing was a total mess. Let me rephrase that - I meant DISASTER. At least as far as logistics go.

All I can do is remind myself that what really matters is that we have a healthy baby. Better yet, a baby healthier than William and Landon, who were relatively healthy themselves although there were plenty of tongue-tied/jaundice/bili blanket/nursing issues with Will and a plethora of poop/rash/puking/nursing/allergy  problems with Landon. Maybe, just maybe, this baby will be clear of any minor issues.

That would seriously be amazing. I'll just focus on that vibe for now.  The rest of the logistical stuff can just work itself out. 

Ok, I feel... SLIGHTLY... better. I just needed to rant for a minute. Thanks for listening. And if you are a praying person, I would appreciate prayers for patience, understanding, and clarity in this chaos.

37 Weeks Pregnant: Update on the Li'l One!

I had my 37 week check up today and it took forevvvvvvvvvvver... not the check up (that took a total of about 8 mins) just the waiting "without bottoms" for 30 mins for the doc to enter, uncomfortable as all get-out (and no, sorry, I can't define all-get out but it sounded better than "hell") bc I'm sitting on a medical examining station with nothing to support my back and all of the weight of my belly getting scrunched between my boobs and my hips. Ugggg. Not fun.


What do you say when the doctor finally arrives and asks you how you are doing? When asked today, I just said I was feeling uncomfortable. The doc then gave me the knowing smile that says, "Yes all 9-month pregnant women are uncomfortable". No dude, what I meant was I was uncomfortable at your office for the past 30 minutes! Oh well, rather than respond in that fashion, I asked him how HE was doing and he said that after seeing 20 patients this morning, I was only the second to ask him how he was doing. Oh my, I love the guy but I'm always skeptical that he he's telling the truth. Part of me thinks he just knows how to make a patient feel special.


So the news you all want to know is about baby. Basically I'm 1 centimeter dilated with about 10% effacing. The baby is in good position, so that's encouraging. It was worth the wait to hear this news. :)

Later when I informed Dom of my progress, he sounded a bit panicked and asked, "So what does that mean? You could have the baby this week?" I reminded him that this is the natural progression and it isn't abnormal for this to take weeks and that the doctor didn't show any signs of being concerned I was going to deliver soon. Dom sounded relieved. Personally I felt some relief too, because as much as we love our little guy or gal and as much as we can't want to meet him or her... we really need more time... Oops, what I should say to sound like a better mother is that our baby needs to bake as long as possible so he or she will be as healthy as can be! I probably shouldn't even mention that I'd like to get out of June to avoid all of the family birthdays and anniversaries we already have this month...

The heartbeat led the doc who has guessed boy every time I've gone for the past 3 or 4 checks to guess girl. I reminded him that we don't know and that he's guessed boy every time so far. His response was, "Well now I've covered all of my bases." Whether or not he just guessed girl today out of guilt for guessing boy so many times OR if he sees so many patients that he doesn't even remember guessing boy in the past, I don't care. His guess today reassured me that there is still a possibility the Li'l Krupp is a girl. (See what I mean by I'm always skeptical of whether or not he's telling the truth?)

My next appointment was scheduled for next Thursday as well, only 15 mins later than this one was. I'm hoping that it won't take nearly as much time! By the time I got out of the office, it was already noon and there went 1/2 of my day!

Email from 11-18-09 - The Birth of William

Here is the email that I sent my family, coworkers, and Masters classmates the first full day we were home from the hospital.  I thought I had posted it on this blog as well, but I see that I didn't. My apologies!

"I can't type much now, but I'll do my best. Here are the basics that everyone is asking about... I'm sure Jan really has been wondering about all the nitty-gritty details, but I'll leave them out.

I had been having mild labor pains all day Friday and finally after timing the early labor contractions at 3-5 minutes apart lasting for about 45 seconds to a minute, we decided to go to the hospital at 2AM. Luckily I showered before we went b/c I didn't get to for a loooooooong time after! :-P

After a really rough 29 hours, I delivered William Elixander at 7:32 am on Sunday, Nov. 15th. Dominic and I were both Sunday babies and our bdays were on Sundays this year, so we think that's pretty cool. Will was 21 3/4 inches long and weighed 8 lbs 14 ounces. Both the OB and nurse on duty said that the longest baby they had ever delivered was 22 inches, so our big boy was almost a record-tier. And I beat Carrie's baby size with Xavier so now I have all the bragging (or complaining) rights! William doesn't look that BIG right now, he's just really long. (Allison, our stories were unfortunately rather familiar! Have pains all one day, go in another day, a deliver a day after that - I think you cursed me when you told me your story - JK!) BTW - William is Dominic's middle name and Elixander is a name that my Mom found in my family lineage while doing geneology. Dom and I both loved the name Eli, but with Elijah being so popular now and that just not seeming like a name we would use we instantly fell in love with Elixander (pronounced like Alexander, but with an "L" sound at the beginning.) It is our hope that since we named William after Dom's middle name that Will will one day name his son Elixander something.... and he can go by Eli if he wants. Of course, you all know me to be the one who has her first grandson named already! Such pressure for poor Will!

BIRTHday Gift from St. Luke's

William Elixander Krupp - Born on 11/15/09 at 7:32am.  8 lbs 14 oz, 21 3/4 inches long

The "only two people per room" rule with the H1N1 virus made the time at the hospital really tough b/c we never knew if people were sitting in the waiting room waiting to visit ... so we'd talk to the people in our room for a long time without even knowing other people were waiting to see us. Due to this rule, we had to tell the same stories over and over when it would have been simpler to have all our guests listen to it once and stay in our room for a while and talk to one another as well as visit with the baby. Instead we were pretty much flooded with visitors from the first minute he was born until the day we left, which was awesome but didn't allow us much time to rest.

Proud Mommy - 11/16/09

Proud Daddy - 11/16/09

So anyway, we were at the hospital until Tuesday evening. Tuesday was the worst day of Will's little life because he got circumcised first thing in the AM, and right after that he had his tongue snipped b/c he was tongue tied, then he had three blood tests done, got immunized, had his hospital pics taken, had his hearing test, and on top of everything else he had to take a bath. :-( The entire day was a huge emotional roller coaster for both Dominic and myself.

We just got home last night (Tuesday evening) at about 5:30. It was crazy to be outside for the first time since Friday night, and it was really bizarre b/c the radio was playing Christmas music so I felt like I time-warped about a month... oh 101.5 The River.... but it was really cool b/c it just made us even more excited for Christmas now that we have the best gift ever. Anyway, we left later yesterday that we wanted to b/c Will had an elevated level of jaundice (his level was 14 and anything 12 or higher is considered elevated... if it was 20 or so he would have had to stay at the hospital) and so he has to be on a Bili Rubin (sp?) blanket. Sooooo we had to wait around because he had to get that blanket set up from a company who brings it in and explains it all to us. Don't worry if you have no idea what that means, b/c I didn't until yesterday, but it's better than having to be under the Bili Rubin lights. So all last night we hung out with our little glow worm and felt terrible for him. So much for playing fun dress-up games and hanging out in the bouncy seat. :-(

Our Little Glowworm - 11/18/09

We took William off of the blanket for a little bit, just so we could hold him better. 11/19/09

Sooooooooooo after our first night at home, we had to go back to get bloodwork tested today at St. Luke's to see if his level had gone down at all. Therefore we were right back at the hospital this morning on day 3 of his life. Sadly, his test results came back even higher, so we have an appointment with the pediatrician tomorrow and after that we have to go AGAIN to St. Luke's for another blood work test tomorrow. This is all so sad, emotional, and overwhelming. I just wish we could enjoy this time at home together on our first day as a family, but instead we went to St. Luke's this am and just got back .... and it's already 3:45. I feel like it was just morning! Added to the fact that we haven't slept much at all.... I have only slept 18 hours from the time I went into the hospital Friday night/Saturday morning at 2:30 AM until today...

Anyway, if you are a praying person please just pray that William's Bili Rubin level is down tomorrow so he can finally be off of the blanket and able to move around more.

I hope everything is going well for all of you."

Father and Son on Day #1 ... This Makes My Heart Melt <3