She's here! Lila Evangeline Peeler has finally made her grand entrance into the world. She was born at 10:51 p.m. on Sunday, August 21st. She weighed 7 lbs. 1 oz. and is 19.5 inches long. Oh yes, and she's absolutely stunning! :)

It was a bumpy ride though. I don't feel like typing it all out right now (i'm taking a quick email break while she naps), but the short version is: I labored for 17 hours and then had to have a last-minute c-section. Mommy and baby came through the surgery fine and were able to come home from the hospital on Wednesday. On Thursday, we were back at the doctor because my incision had a seroma (i don't remember exactly what that means, so let's just call it an infection). Now I'm having to go to the wound care clinic at the hospital every few days and Doug is having to "change my packing" on the other days. There have been other adventures, but those details will have to come later in the full account.

I just wanted people to know that she's here and we're home and we love her to pieces!

This is a cute picture of Charlie snuggling with some Snoopies. I just felt like posting a cute photo. :) 

Still pregnant. I went to the doctor again yesterday and all still looks fine. The labwork that I had done on Monday all came back normal. Since I'm overdue, they put me on the monitor for 20 minutes to make sure the baby is looking okay (heartrate and movements). The doctor said she looks perfect - she's very happy in there. They also did a very brief ultrasound to check the amount of fluid around the baby.

I guess there's some risk of not having enough fluid for the baby to function properly or something. Anyway, I still have plenty of fluid - enough that the doctor was shocked. She said if my water did break in public, people would be disturbed. :o)~ I escaped without a physical exam, so I don't know if I'm any more dilated, but that's fine with me.

They did send me for more bloodwork again though because my blood pressure was still a bit high and there was a trace of protein in my urine (if that means anything to you). I'm also still on "modified bed rest". At the very least, I will have this baby on Tuesday. That's the day my doctor scheduled me for induction. Please pray that I will go into labor on my own though - I really don't want to be induced!

Stiilll pregnant! I went to the doctor on Monday afternoon because I thought perhaps my water had broken and when I talked to the nurse she said they could only tell for sure if I came in. So, I went and first they thought that it had (that was a crazy-feeling five minutes), but then determined that it hadn't. They double-checked just to be sure, and no amniotic fluid. That's a good thing though.

However, my blood pressure was high again and since I'm also starting to swell in my hands and feet, they were slightly concerned about pre-eclampsia. So, they sent me for some blood work to make sure I'm not getting really sick. And now I'm back on modified bed rest, which means I'm supposed to be a "couch potato." No more trying to walk myself into labor. Bah humbug! I have another appointment tomorrow.

My due date was Saturday. I am still pregnant.

There are going to be some very tired and cranky people in our neighborhood today. At about 11 p.m. last night, a bunch of trucks and heavy machinery appeared on our street, almost directly in front of our house. They proceeded to turn off the water and start making a *lot* of noise. Since when is it normal for the city to do work on the water system in the middle of the night?!?

They were at it ALL night long. I woke up at 4:30ish and could still hear these loud booming/banging noises. I don't know what they were doing, but they were gone by the time I got up. The only reason it didn't really bother us is because we have a fan and a humidifier going in our bedroom and we hear nothing we don't want to. I feel so bad for the folks around us though - especially those with bedrooms closer to the ruckus. Crazy...

I had an appointment with the doctor yesterday, but there's nothing exciting to report. Tomorrow is my due date - crazy!

This morning we gave Charlie his final dose of medicine (with minimal drama). I sincerely hope that we got enough doses down him to clear up his problem because I don't want to deal with this again! I'll have to check his litterbox later to see how things are looking. Exciting, eh? :o)~

We finally knocked out our Thank You notes from the second shower (and random gifts) yesterday. I was starting to wake up at night and worry about them. I didn't know when we'd get them done if not before the baby is born. Now I just have to wait for a few addresses to filter in from people and that is one more thing off the list!

Nothing new going on here. I don't want to talk about being pregnant or the baby.

We are having some continued adventures with Charlie. I went to the vet on Friday and picked up a prescription for him - some anti-inflammatories to try and get his little body back in order. Giving medication to a cat is never fun, but if it's something relatively non-offensive, you can usually trick them by sticking it in with some food. We tried this technique with Charlie's new medication and it did not work.

The first time he ate around the pill, so the next time we crushed it up and mixed it with the food and he just refused to touch the food at all. We also tried tricking him by giving him a couple of treats and then slipping him a pill. No luck. So, we had to resort to holding him down and putting the pill down his throat. This is still only marginally effective though.

If it doesn't work the first time and he gets all freaked out, it's nearly impossible to get his jaws back open - he's strong! Also, apparently these pills are very bitter and Charlie finds them to be the most vile thing he's ever encountered. If it takes a couple of attempts to get the pill down him and it starts to disentigrate on his tongue, he foams at the mouth and gets these long drool strings on either side like a slobbering dog!

He's actually convinced that we're trying to poison him. We had so much trouble over the weekend that I went back to the vet's office on Monday and bought a "piller". This is like a long syringe that allows you to sort of pop the pill into the back of his throat without sticking your whole hand in his mouth. It still took me a while to get the hang of using it.

I was being too nice at first and only putting it on the back of his tongue, which meant that he could just spit it back out and run. It has to go all the way into his throat and then you quickly rub the front of his throat to encourage him to swallow. This also has the benefit of keeping the pill from dissolving at all on the tongue, so he doesn't really taste it.

I think we've successfully gotten the pill down him the past two attempts, with a minimum of backflips or foaming at the mouth. Now, hopefully, it will do him some good. Although dosing will be disrupted again once I go into labor. Well, we shall see. I tried explaining to him that this was for his own good, but he didn't believe me...

I'm 39 weeks pregnant now. I would prefer not to be pregnant at all. Did you know that only 5% of babies are born on their expected due dates, meaning 95% are either earlier or later? I'll bet you can guess which side of the due date I'm hoping for! She could be born any time now or she could make us wait. The absolute latest that my doctor will let me go without inducing is August 25th though.

At least I know I don't have to wait indefinitely! At some point, this baby *will* come out of my body. However, I'm really hoping to go into labor on my own. Labors induced with Pitocin are generally more painful and intense than those that start naturally. In the meantime, Doug and I are trying to relax and have as much couple-fun-time as we can. We went to a show on Friday night and a movie on Saturday night.

Poor Charlie has stress colitis. He does not like it when we change things and sometimes he gets so stressed out that he gives himself diarrhea. This time the change that he doesn't like is that they aren't allowed to sleep with us at night anymore. Remember when I said they were handling that change so well that I was nervous and waiting for some kind of revolt? Well... this is pretty revolting. :o)~

On a totally different note, I'm finding myself nervous about postpartum depression. I know that I might not have a problem, but given my tendency toward depression and anxiety anyway, I'm afraid I will. Some of those feelings are normal after a baby - 60 to 80% of new mothers get the postpartum blues. Only about 10 to 20% get postpartum depression. Well, I know what to look for and we'll see what happens!

We're all still just waiting around for this birth thing to happen. Doug is trying to get things wrapped up at work. I'm reading up some more on breastfeeding (The Nursing Mother's Companion). Lila is studying for her Apgar tests. She's a bit nervous about the one minute test, but feels confident about the five minute. (ha... haha... that was a joke.)

When I'm home, I spend a fair amount of time tidying and preparing. But I'm also starting to feel a strong urge to be out of the house. I don't know if it's because I really need a break from all this waiting or if it's because I know that leaving will not be so easy soon. Either way, spending a little time reading and relaxing at Border's seems to do the trick. :)

I'm 38 weeks pregnant now and my due date is coming up soon! Lila's just waiting for the right time to be born. Her lungs and brain are developed enough for her to function now but will continue to mature right into childhood. By my estimations, her arm and leg muscles are very well developed too! I plan on taking it easy for the next couple of weeks. I mean, I have a lot to do, but there's no point in stressing/wearing myself out.

This may be my last opportunity to relax for a long time! I only wish Doug had more time to relax too. I can't imagine how different this will be when I already have a child to think about and make arrangements for. Of course, at this point, I don't ever want to be pregnant again! But I know that in a couple of years pregnancy/childbirth amnesia will have set in and we'll be planning on another one...