Introducing....

Lucia Alise! Born Friday, October 30 at 2:07am. She weighed 6 lbs 10 oz and measured 22 inches long.

We are both home now, healthy and happy after a very fast delivery.

Thank you to everyone for their well wishes and prayers. I truly appreciate each one!

Coming Soon.....

This is it! I'm heading to the hospital!

Standing in Line for Peace of Mind

About a week ago my doctor highly recommended that I get the H1N1 flu vaccine. I have put much thought into it and decided after literally half the neighborhood and 10% of the elementary school got sick I needed to do something to protect my family. (I'm sure not the entire school had swine flu, but at least 170 kids have been out with something.)

After my doctor appointment I called the list of Health Departments across the valley to see if they had any vaccinations. The first several told me that they only had them for children ages 6 months to 47 months. Okay, I thought. I will see about getting Livy one at least. Then the very nice receptionist (Seriously, she was very helpful. It caught me off guard.) Told me that they were having a shot clinic that Saturday. This was perfect and we would all get our shots then. Little did I know!

Saturday morning I wake up at 5 am for the clinic that starts at 7 am. After waking a very sleepy toddler, who was beyond cranky (I told her this is how mommy feels when you wake her up, but I'm sure she wasn't paying attention.) we were on the road. I drove 45 minutes to discover the line.

I was expecting a line, but nothing like what I experienced. The clinic was at one end of the block and the line snaked back and forth through a huge mall like parking lot and down three large city blocks. All of this for one of the 1700 doses available that day! I stood in line for about an hour when the line started to disperse. We were told the vaccine was gone. I can't tell you how frustrated I was that I drove 45 minutes for nothing!

Once home, I search my county's health department website and find that they were having a clinic on Tuesday. "Fine!" I thought, I will try it again. I don't want my family to get sick!

Tuesday comes around and we are in line 1 1/2 hours prior to opening. We waited an additional 1 1/2 hours to actually receive the vaccine. I felt oddly calm afterwards, knowing that at least we were somewhat protected. My next worry is if I can handle standing in line again for Livy to get a booster shot in a month.

Have you experienced the lines to get your H1N1 vaccine?

I feel that even though we received the vaccine we still need to use some caution with illness. Not only will I have a newborn baby, who I certainly don't want sick, but I have a small history of being sick. Last winter I was literally sick every 2 weeks from December to April. I don't think I can deal with that again this year.

So what is my game plan? I wish it was an easy one, but mentally, socially and physically it will be tiring.

Here are some things that I'm going to use to help prevent us from getting sick as often. (I don't think it's possible to avoid everything all together, but at least cut down.)

* I'm going to avoid people! I wish this one was the easy one, but I don't plan on taking my baby out for several months after she's born. After 7 weeks of bed rest, this one hurts the most. I need social interaction, but not if everyone is sick. I guess I could always screen everyone before they visit me or I visit them. But it might be a little much to ask them if they are sick, are their children sick, have they been around anyone who might be sick.

* Sanitize, Sanitize, Sanitize! I mean this in every way possible. I will sanitize all toys after any play date at my house. I will periodically sanitize all doorknobs, light switches, phones and computer key board. Hey I will even sanitize our toothbrushes regularly if it means I get sick less often!

* Keeping hands clean! When I ran my daycare, I was the hand washing Nazi. Every child had to have their hands washed once they arrived at my house. I had no idea when the last time they washed their hands. I would then set the kitchen timer and every hour everyone had their hands washed. It may sound a little over the top, but I truly believe it helped. We were rarely sick during my daycare years. I am strongly considering using the timer again to help remind us to keep our hands clean.

* Air out the house! Back in the daycare years, I was required to take classes and attend A LOT of training. Some classes I really enjoyed and learned much. One thing that I found interesting was the air quality in our houses. It's actually pretty bad, especially when we're sick. It was recommended for us to air out the house for 10 minutes everyday. I know this sounds crazy in the winter when it's freezing outside and you don't want to let the warm air out, but if you do one room at time for 10 minutes it will help.

What else are you doing to keep your family healthy this winter?

Pony Rides

Over the weekend at a local farm, Livy had her first pony ride. Something I'm sure she'll be repeating soon. What can I say, she LOVES horses!

Bed rest is no fun!

I have decided that an update would be a good thing about now. I am hopeful that soon the bed rest will end and I will have more important things to blog about. Namely a baby!

For those who don't know, I was put on bed rest on September 9th for having low fluids (amniotic). I was told with lots of rest (doing nothing) and drinking extra water (gallons upon gallons) that we may see improvement. Of course there was a lot of scary talk of what could happen if I didn't get things up. I did not want a preemie, I was 31 weeks at the time, and knew that I had to behave myself.

So for the past 6 weeks I have spent much of my life on the couch dreaming of fun things like cleaning and laundry. (I really do enjoy cleaning and it's driving me crazy that I can't do anything!) My little girl has had WAY TOO MUCH tv during this time which makes me feel guilty. Not necessarily due to watching tv but because I haven't been able to interact with her how I normally would.

For the past 2 weeks my fluids have stayed in the normal range. This simply means that bed rest is working. My doctor scheduled an induction date for November 2nd which I have mixed feelings.

I had Olivia at 41 weeks. People have commented in the past, why didn't your doctor start you? The reason was simple, because I asked not to. There was an absolute end date that if I hadn't had her they would start me no matter what and I was being watched closely. I wanted to know what it felt like to go naturally into labor, how my body would respond and know that this was the time my baby was supposed to come. I look back now and I would do it all over again. Although I would probably get to the hospital a little sooner. Once I got there I was complete and ready to go.

With this pregnancy I was told that they would not let me go over, too dangerous with low fluids, and I would be lucky to make my due date of November 6th. When I was given the induction date of November 2nd one of my responses (in my head) was that is only 4 days early. I am so done being pregnant, please take me now! Another thought was that perhaps I will have the baby on my own before that. I like that thought! I know it's better for the baby to stay as long as possible, but I am still fearful of some of those scary things I was told about back in September.

I run the risk of having to have a Cesarean, which is worse (in my book) than being induced. But the worse thing is that my odds of having a stillborn are slightly higher than normal. Can I tell you that this terrifies me! That would be the absolute worse thing that could happen. To plan and prepare only to come home empty-handed! With that in mind, I'm hoping to have this baby soon.

At my last NST (Non-Stress Test) Appointment, which I go in for twice a week on top of my regular weekly prenatal appointments, my fluids had dropped from a normal 12 to a low 7, the lowest I have been. I was warned that this could happen. My doctor said at 37 weeks they tend to see a drop in fluid. It means the placenta is starting to shut down. If I get too much lower, they will take me sooner.

So today, Tuesday, I am heading in for another NST. I have mixed thoughts. A part of me hopes that the levels are low and they will induce me this week, the other part wants the levels to be up and for me to have this baby on my own. We will see!