Babywatch Update

Cary and I (Jeanne) are sitting out in the waiting room. I tiptoed into the room about an hour ago, and all three of them (Alyssa, Jeff, and Eleicia) were sound asleep -- good!

Cary just went back, found Alyssa awake, and had a good talk with her. She's still stuck at 6cm, and they're going to check again at 1am (it's 11:45pm now). She really needs prayer that she'll make progress. The baby is still doing okay, but is showing some slight signs of stress. Alyssa is in good spirits; Jeff & Eleicia woke up briefly but went back to sleep.

Whew -- keep praying!

Babywatch Update

Hi -- Jeanne here again. Here's the scoop: she's 6cm dilated, and her contractions are irregular and weakening (the baby is fine!). Alyssa hasn't been able to rest at all, or keep down any nutrition, although she's hanging in there like a trooper. SO -- they're going to give her an epidural, and Pitosin (sp?) if needed, to bring on the labor, because she's been in a a race against the clock since her water broke. They were hoping to go a much more ... natural ... route, but they're going to need their strength and restedness after the baby comes ... !

So, here's the prayer: that she'll take the epidural well, that she (& Jeff) will get some rest for a few hours, that the epidural itself will induce the labor so she won't have to take the Pitosin, and that we'll have a healthy baby and some happy parents in a few hours.

Thanks for praying!

Babywatch Update

This is Jeanne -- Cary and I are in charge of updating the blog now. Alyssa is now 5cm dilated; her contractions are regular, about 3 minutes apart, lasting about a minute or two, and getting stronger. Sue, her midwife, feels that she's doing a lot better with the hydration that the IV is providing. The baby has moved to Station 0, which is good progress. Her heartbeat is strong, and Alyssa is doing well, with the help of Jeff and Alyssa's friend Eliecia. The nurses are very nice and helpful, and respectful of her birthing plan. For you life group members, Alyssa is loving the cornbags.

Babywatch Update

Patience is, apparently, a virtue.

Our amazing midwife, Sue, came and checked everything out a few hours ago. Effacement has improved, dilation has not. She said she sort of figured that with the kind of contractions I'm having. Not super constructive in terms of dilation. The good news is that I'm not real uncomfortable, but the bad news is this "limbo land" could last a while and my body is doing it for a reason. She thinks that if I'm well-fed, well-hydrated and well-rested, real good labor could set in on its own.

Before she came I talked with her on the phone and basically said we would either like to dial it up or down -- either encourage my body to sleep or get into real good labor. Given the dilation situation, we all decided it would be best to try to dial it down. I'm eating right now, then I'm going to take a bath to try to calm the contractions down and then take some measures to get some sleep.

We'll see where we're at in the morning. For now, this will give me and Jeff some good time to process everything that's happening. I'm on total emotional overload right now. A bath and some good sleep will definitely do me some good.

Speaking of doing me some good, I just need to give a shout-out to Eliecia, who was amazing all day today. It was so fun to converse with her, confess my feelings of frustration in these uncharted waters, ask questions, etc. PLUS she's bringing me a donut tomorrow. :) Thanks Eliecia!

Babywatch Update

Took a long walk in the hope of speeding things up, but it's still puttering around between barely noticeable and too strong to sleep. Hmmmm....

Time to call Sue!

Babywatch Update

I got a few more hours of sleep out of putting hot corn bags on my back before the contractions became just a little too much to sleep through again. Then I took a shower. Now that I'm up and around I feel a lot better. Jeff and Eliecia also got some sleep, so that's really good.

Apparently my body adapts to change as slowly as I do, so this thing just continues to slowly, slowly progress. Obviously it's not too bad since I'm still typing these myself. We haven't timed the contractions since I woke up and took a shower, but I'm pretty sure they're still regular but less frequent and slightly more intense than they were. We may call Sue and ask for ways to get things going a little faster while I still have energy.

So that's the update. Thanks for all your comments and prayers! It's much easier not to need to call a whole bunch of people and to have all the information going out in one place.

Babywatch Update

I could kiss our amazing midwife, Sue.

I believe we've been asleep for like 3 hours. I'm going to go for another round! Going for at least noon. We've gotta get some rest.

The only hard part is going to be getting back into the rhythm of the contractions, which feel much more painful after feeling like I had some time off....

Babywatch Update

Sue, our amazing midwife, came to allay my fears that my bag was leaking -- it's not. That is very good news at this point.

We were sort of confused as to where we were in this process -- the contractions are painful and regular, but just not... I don't know how else to say it... painful enough. Sue was able to clarify that we're still really early. She recommended sleep (yes, that would be the hope) and made some suggestions that will make that possible. We're going to try to sleep and then kick things back into gear this afternoon/evening. That is pretty welcome news because we're wayyyyy to tired to take on the hard part right now, and fatigue can complicate matters.

The official stats are that I'm fully, or nearly fully effaced, cervix is soft and favorable, dilation is only 2 cm, but that's progress from where we were! We're just happy things are moving forward....

Off to try some new things to get some sleep.

Babywatch Update

Decided to go the other direction from paying attention, timing contractions, etc. Put on "Cheaper By the Dozen." Now we're thinking we're gonna try again to get some sleep.

I'm very tired, but I have a total inability to sleep in any position other than horizontal, and horizontal seems to intensify the contractions. Soooooooo, I've got a conundrum. If you're still watching, pray that I am tired enough that I can sleep through the contractions.

Sue, our wonderful midwife, called to check up. We still think we're doing okay, too early for her to come. Eliecia is a huge help! It's great to have another set of hands and ears. :)

Babywatch Update

Contractions 5 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute each, getting stronger and closer together.

Eliecia is here. We called Sue, our wonderful midwife. We talked with her and decided we could wait it out longer without her coming. We're still doing really well, but I'm craving shredded cheese again....

Future updates may or may not be posted by Eliecia.

Babywatch Update

10 minutes apart, 30-45 seconds each, still hoping to get SOME sleep....

Babywatch...

I totally hesitate to post this because we're working so hard at NOT getting our hopes up, but on the other hand we are true believers in prayer and we would really, really like everyone to pray.

I've had very mild contractions since about 1:30 this morning, and they've gotten a little more noticeable this afternoon. We started timing them while we played Yahtzee tonight and they were 7-12 minutes apart and pretty regular, but not very painful at all.

We went ahead and called our amazing midwife, Sue to ask if she thought this meant anything and to give her a heads up about what was going on. She said, "This sounds like it might be the beginning of the real thing." She told us to go to bed and get some sleep, and she'll keep her phone close in case.

I just want to ask for everyone's prayers that this is the real thing, and that the real thing goes very smoothly.

If you are praying and are willing, please do leave a comment. We find them very encouraging.

This blog is the first priority to update as things progress, but we've never been in labor before so we have no idea whether that will happen or not. We'll do our best!

Yesterday

Well, Lilia did not choose yesterday.

But I had a lovely day. My parents came down and we went to Tempe, looked at some vacant houses (no, we're not moving. Dad's a realtor.), had lunch, and walked around the Tempe Town Lake. It was very nice of Mom and Dad to come down and babysit me for the day! :) It gave me a lot more emotional energy to keep going.

Today Jeff and I decided to stay home and "take a personal day," which feels very good. We're still disappointed, but a little less severely so than yesterday and Friday. And tomorrow is the day we set with the midwife to look at some natural induction methods, so that's some comfort.

Here's hoping it's today or tomorrow!

The Roller Coaster

Last night was pretty rough. Jeff and I are both feeling so discouraged as we watch his leave time with Lilia slip away. Every time there's a "good sign" we get our hopes up, and as the hours tick away without any active labor we come back to reality. It honestly feels like the baby will never come. Well, maybe it just feels like the baby will come the day before Jeff has to be back at work. That would be so very sad for us, especially for him.

Last night we just begged God together to bring Lilia into the world today. I guess there's no harm in asking. If you think of it, please pray with us that Lilia comes very soon so she can spend some time with her daddy.

Babywatch, due date plus 3

Lots of Braxton hicks and contractions, but nothing regular or "getting closer together and more intense." Went on a walk with my mom at halftime.... :)

Babywatch... Update?

No news. I hate to blog this every time, but I know there are a lot of people who wonder if I don't! So, no news. :(

I'm getting a little bummed, but I'm meeting my parents at the zoo so I'm excited about that! I'll do a lot of walking....

Babywatch Update -- No news is... frustrating

The only things that happened on babywatch so far today are:

--One big contraction that woke me up this morning, then nothing but Braxton-Hicks stuff.
--Had a non-stress test at the OB today (I'll have one every Friday until birth-day) and the baby is doing very, very well. Again, they mentioned that she's a very active baby! :)

I went on a long walk, I'm drinking water, and looking up all kinds of natural induction methods. Planning to eat pineapple, drink red raspberry leaf tea, take black cohosh root supplements, watch a sad movie, and anything else I can think of! As always, I'll keep everyone posted.

You know the thing about me and change?

This is a general update that I sent out to our small group today. So much to process for my little pregnant brain!!!

Hey guys,

Just a few updates from the ever-more-lively life of the Brooks-Dowtys:

--Having more and more pre-labor contractions, including two periods of time where they got regular and then stopped. But they're getting more intense with every "false start" so we're thinking things are getting close on the baby front. YAY!

--PRAISE #1: I sat down with my contract and my paystubs earlier and figured out that my school still owed me like $2500 or so because they paid me based on 12 months, but I worked half the contact in 5 months. That may not make sense, but anyway I got a paycheck today from my school that I didn't expect, and they still owe me like $500 so I'm really excited about that!

--PRAISE #2: Y'know the job that Jeff applied for "just to get his name out there"? They offered it to him today. They needed to know right away so we discussed and calculated fast and he took it.

--PRAISE #3: The increase in base salary for the new position makes up for the lack of commission, which is what we were praying for, so it looks as though Jeff has been able to move out of sales for good and just be in tech support, and we have a workable one-income budget.

--PRAYER #1: The new position is a graveyard shift, from 10pm-7am. It makes us a little nervous to make that leap, but it's very likely that it's only for 6 months or so. It's just kind of a big 6 months while we have a brand new baby. Please pray that we can handle it and make reasonable choices about our life. The great news is he'll continue to be able to do church and small group.

--PRAYER #2: The training for this new position is Monday. So we're not sure how that works with Jeff's leave or whether he'll need to come in one extra day or what. Please pray that they have another training he can go to that's more like 2 weeks away.

This is all happening so fast and I just wanted to ask for everyone's prayer and support while we navigate it all. It's a lot of change in a small period of time!

***************************UPDATE*********************************

Jeff got into a February 2 training class!!! YAY! Now we need to have this baby....

Babywatch Update

For those of you who are wondering when the heck our little one is going to make his/her debut, so are we! We frequently get asked if there's "any news," but the problem is that as a first-time mom I'm not super good and figuring out what's newsworthy. I don't know what it's supposed to feel like! I'm sure I'll know when I go into serious, late first stage labor, don't get me wrong, but I'm not sure I know the "early signs."

But in case anyone has a better crystal ball than me, here's what we have:

• "Due Date" is this Thursday.
• First babies are actually an average of 8 days "late" and the due date is supposed to be an average, so if you're figuring it that way it would be Friday, January 23.
• I've had a lot of cramping, mostly at night, since last weekend. Our midwife says that's a sign of cervical changes, which could be good.
• Last OB appt. was Monday and I was 1 cm dilated, not effaced at all, and the baby was at -2 station. These all generally mean that the baby won't come soon, but they're not certain signs. They can, but usually don't, change quickly.
• I'm having a lot of pre-labor/warm-up/Braxton Hicks contractions. That may or may not mean anything.
• I've gone through several nesting periods, but I don't think I'm in one at the moment.

So that's the baby watch. Bottom line: your guess is as good as ours! Anybody want to guess or make a bet?