Fight the Power.

Proud Family

Bjorn Christian Houtsma

WELCOME BJORN!!!

C-Section

At 4am with Alli in severe back pain and Bjorn not making his way any further, we made the call to go to C-Section. As the medical staff removed Bjorn from the womb, there was a collective gasp as our 10 lb 4 oz baby came into the world. The nurses joked we should call him "Brutus", so he peed on them...twice.

Laboring

Tuesday - We recieved the call at 5 am to come in at 7am to be induced. Though Alli hadn't felt any contractions, when she was hooked up to the moniter it turns out she was having small ones at 3 minute intervals. With this discovery, we decided to skip the cervidil and go straight to the pictocin. It wasn't long before Alli was having regular contractions between 3 and 5 minutes apart. Dr. Holtzman came in at 1pm for another exam and after reviewing Alli's progress, decided it was time to break her water. Within and hour of her water breaking, Alli was having intense contractions at 2 minutes apart. Call in Mr. Epidural!! The subsided quickly and Alli was able to rest while Ladonna did some knitting and I worked on the computer and tried my luck at the Rubik's cube. By 1am Alli was dilated to a six but showing no other signs of progress.

No room in the inn...

They canceled my preinduction - cervidil dilation thing. All the labor rooms were filled. The doc had me go into the hospital to do some fetal monitoring and make sure Bjorn was doing OK. He is doing less OK than last Thursday and does need to come out. During the monitoring they like to see increases in heart rate with movement that maintain for a while or return nicely to baseline, but his little heart rate would drop more suddenly then they usually like to see. So, I was sent to have an ultrasound to check baby's breathing, blood flow, heart rate, the placenta, etc...The doc and the radiologist looked that over and things looked good from that angle, so they didnt see a need to continually monitor overnight and sent me home. So, yeah...I get to sleep in my own bed! I think I will actually sleep this way. Tomomrrow I am first on their priority list. They are going to call me around 6-7am. Then I will meet up with Dr. Holtzman and we will start the induction process. If I am still not dilated, then we will likely start the 12 hour cervidil thing then, but hopefully I have some dilation and can get to the good stuff - pictocin. For those of you at the hospital...I hope you hear my baby's chimes tomorrow!!!!

Still pregnant

Yeap, still pregnant. About to be 7 days over now, not dilated, no real contractions to speak of, just one huge belly with a very happy baby inside. We scheduled a trial induction for next Tuesday evening 7pm...hopefully Bjorn will be born before then. I am not really wanting to spend an additional night in the hospital waiting for labor to kick in. But it beats the alternative - staying pregnant.

Due Date

Well today is the due date. Bjorn has been cooking for 40 weeks now...that's 10 months.

Check out how big my belly is!

Autumn, Brendan, my mom, Jason, Bryant, Hilary and I have all put money (just a dollar) on what day Bjorn will actually be born. Brendan and I have money on today. But honestly...I am not feeling that lucky.

Still waiting....

On Tuesday (4/3/07) we had another ultrasound. They are estimating that Bjorn is 9 pounds now (of course the margin of error on these things are so high...so he could be anywhere from 8, 2 pounds and 9, 14 pounds). I saw Dr. Mora...he recommended waiting...no induction or c-section...and if and when I do go into labor- no pulling (so no forceps or vacuum), which feels good to me. 7 more days until the due date. It feels like an eternity. Next MD appt is on the10th.

So we are just passing time now. Mom is here. We celebrated her 60th birthday on Tuesday. We have also been gardening, cooking, hanging out with Bry and Hilary, cleaning, walking (lots of walking), Mosaic gatherings, ect...but it all just feels like waiting to me!