UPDATE

9 pounds 3 ounces, 22.25 inches long

"A new baby is like the beginning of all things..wonder, hope, a dream of possibilities. "

Happy Birthday, Lucas Kenneth Fletcher!

11:42, 8+ pounds



Mother and Baby are doing fine. Pictures to come.

9:15 AM

9.75cm dilated! hoping to start pushing by 10!

8:00AM

Laura's between 7-8cm, 0+ station, contractions are 1 minute apart. Hoping to start pushing in two hours.

5am update

As of 5am, Laura is 6.5cm dilated, 0 station, and the nurse felt hair! Contractions are about a minute and a half apart. She and Jason are finally getting a little bit of much needed rest. Jason looks quite cozy in his man cave.

3:30am

She's up to 5cm now. They've increased the pitocin and have her laying different ways to try and help. She's on oxygen right now just because at one point Luke wasn't too happy with it all. (It's ok and wasn't a big deal at all, the oxygen just helps.) Right now they've got her sitting straight up and so far this seems to be Luke's favorite position. She'll be like that for about 20 more minutes and then will be laying back down on her side again.

2:45 AM

The Dr. just came by and Laura is 4.5 cm dilated. The Dr.'s best guess is 6-7 more hours. The little guy needs to hurry up!

1:15am

Laura just got the epidural and started pitocin to help move things along. She's 4cm dilated and 90% effaced. She's much happier now. :)

Midnight Update

Things are moving along!

Laura is 3cm dilated, contractions are becoming more frequent, and she'll be getting an epidural any minute.

9:20 Update

Hey everyone! It's Karen, Laura's sister. Seeing as Laura and Jason are a little preoccupied, I've volunteered to update everyone on Baby Luke's arrival! :)

Laura was just checked and is 2 cm dilated. Contractions have picked up to 2 minutes apart, so things are progressing!

It's go time!

My water broke about 4pm or so. I was at work and had gone to the bathroom and then it seemed like I just kept going and going. :) By the time I got over to the hospital (just a few minutes away and one of my coworkers drove me) my pants were pretty soaked. At last check I was still only 1cm dilated. Contractions are about every 5-6 minutes or so and while painful, aren't excrutiating Right now they feel like really intense menstrual cramps. I'm sitting on a ball right now - it's more comfortable and I guess can help things open up. We're going to start walking the halls in a little bit too to see if that helps things go along.

Jason will probably be updating here if you want to check back!

38 weeks

"Your baby has really plumped up. He weighs about 6.8 pounds and he's over 19 1/2 inches long (like a leek.) He has a firm grasp, which you'll soon be able to test when you hold his hand for the first time! His organs have matured and are ready for life outside the womb.

Wondering what color your baby's eyes will be? You may not be able to tell right away. If he's born with brown eyes, they'll likely stay brown. If he's born with steel gray or dark blue eyes, they may stay gray or blue or turn green, hazel, or brown by the time he's 9 months old. That's because a child's irises (the colored part of the eye) may gain more pigment in the months after he's born, but they usually won't get "lighter" or more blue. (Green, hazel, and brown eyes have more pigment than gray or blue eyes.)"

Sorry for the delay this week! Work has been pretty overwhelming and I've been exhausted by the time I get home. At least it's overtime pay, right?!?

I thought the paragraph above about the eye color was interesting. Jason has blue eyes and I have brown (although have blue in my family) so it's anybody's guess! I also wonder what color hair he's going to have. Looking at us, you'd think brown. But I just recently went through Jason's baby book and he had blond hair (WHITE blond hair!) until elementary school. So if Luke comes out with blond blond hair - that doesn't mean that he's the milkman's baby!

I've been starting to get pretty miserable. It's mostly my feet - I had no idea they could get this big and swollen. They look like elephant feet - I honestly don't recognize them. There are times in the day that it's so bad that I really don't think I can bend my toes. I try to keep them up and drink water, but geez!

And now for the appointment update (that was on Tuesday.) I'm measuring right on track and his heart rate is great. No dilation yet, but cervix is "as soft as can be." They don't really tend to check effacement, because it can be so subjective, but her best guess was about 50% effaced. His head is "as close to be engaged, without being engaged" as possible. So some progress - basically he could come tomorrow or he could wait until the induction on the 24th. I'm hoping for sometime before then. (Although if he wants to wait until after my 30th birthday, I'm happy with that!)

Lastly, please pray for my friend Maggie, her husband Chris, and their little boy Aidan. He was born at 28 weeks, and after fighting for 8 days, he passed away. They can use all of your thoughts and prayers.

37 weeks and the sick house

"Congratulations — your baby is full term! This means that if your baby arrives now, his lungs should be fully mature and ready to adjust to life outside the womb, even though your due date is still three weeks away. Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard). Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blonds or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz."

We hit 37 weeks yesterday and celebrated that by spending almost 6 hours in the hospital. Around midnight Sunday night/Monday morning I started having severe abdominal cramping, vomiting, and other fun stomach flu symptoms. By noon yesterday I still wasn't able to keep even ice chips down and was very dehydrated. They had me come in to triage at labor and delivery to get some fluids. They got the IV hooked up and also pushed through some Zofran for the nausea.

They also hooked up the monitors to watch Luke's heartrate and if I was having any contractions. The first thing they asked me was, "Are you feeling these contractions??" Um, no not really. I'd been feeling them off and on for a few days, but really nothing yesterday. And half of what I've been feeling lately I thought was just the baby balling up. Turns out (at that point) I was having a contraction every minute or so. Once the nausea started to subside I could actually feel them. They weren't painful, but I could tell when I was having one and they caught my breath.

Like I mentioned, I was pretty dehydrated and it took almost 2 bags of fluid, plus a glass of water, and 16 oz of sprite before I could even provide a urine sample for them. (A lot different from peeing every hour or two like normal!) That came back that I actually also had a bladder infection on top of the flu. That probably explains a lot of the lower pressure and frequent peeing I've had. (And here I thought it was all because Luke was lower!)

The fluid helped to slow down the contractions to about 5 minutes apart. (Dehydration can cause them.) Of course, this didn't keep them from coming in and asking all of the fun registration type questions - have you taken prenatal classes, do you plan to circumsize, do you plan to breastfeed, do you want the birth announcement in the paper? For awhile I thought they weren't going to let us leave!

They checked me to see if there was any other progress and I'm still not dilated at all. So they finally decided to let me go home - with another nausea med (phenegran) and an antibiotic for the infection (macrobid.) I was still feeling like crap when I came home and only attempted a popsicle. (I had tried jello at the hospital and that was a fail.) The phenegran knocked me out so I was able to get some sleep.

I woke up this morning still having some issues, but luckily have managed to mostly keep in 2 popsicles and saltine crackers today. I've also slept pretty much the entire day. And sadly, I'm pretty sure I could go to bed right now and not wake up until the morning.

Unfortunately Jason came home around 1:30 today with what seem to be the same problems. So if I were you, I'd avoid our sick house.

So anyways, that's our update. I'm starting to feel better and the contractions aren't all that often anymore.

Also, on a slightly different note - our induction is scheduled for February 24th. So he has 22 days to get here, or he's being evicted.