Introducing...

Baby BOY

Max Taylor Fisher

Decemeber 25th

5:31am

8lb 12 oz

20.25in.

We are so in love with our Christmas Miracle.

(birth story coming soon!)

38weeks and 2days along

I had a dr appt last friday, dr was able to check me and let me know that i will still the same (as the tuesday before) 3-4cm dilated and 40%effaced. i was pretty down in the dumps after that appt because i thought for sure i would of had SOME progress....so all weekend long i've been waiting and waiting for some contractions to start...he did tell me that i could come in on monday to be induced basically...if i wanted...but i want this to be semi nautral...well here i am, tues, still pregnant (which is fine b/c i'm still 1.5weeks away from my due date, just soooo anxious) i had another dr appt today and he asked me if i wanted him to strip my membranes "yes please!"(this is the SEMI natural part) so he did. (he is leaving thurs to go out of town and wont be back until the 27th, i'm hoping for him to deliver me but we'll see) and wowza! that was quite uncomfortable, he even told me after that he tried to break my water with his finger...didn't work, but he tried. again OUCH. but i'm not complaining...whatever works! he was quite agressive so im hoping this helps. i asked him "will this work?" and he said "you should feel something after this" and i asked if it would put me in labor today and he said "if this doesn't work, i give up" haha so it's been about 4hours and no contractions yet...i'm  okay ebign pregnant still since i'm not really too near my due date but on the flip side i am SO anxioius that i literally have issues sleeping at night which is not like me...fingers crossed!

3am

Found out earlier today at my dr appt that I am 4cm dilated (just over 37weeks pregnant)...so here I sit (at home) waiting for something- anything to happen...I woke up hungry an hour ago and finally got up for a slim fast. I am so excited to meet this new baby...I can't express just how much. Ive known I'm 4cm dilated for about 16hours and already the suspense is killing me! When will contractions start? One min from now? One day? One week? Will load belly pics ASAP- Braden just woke up... Gotta go snuggle him back to bed.

I'm still here...

And i update when i can! I love reading back through my posts from time to time when i am trying to remember a bit more deatil about something and it always reminds me that i should be much more dilligent in journaling things-whethere that is here or elsewhere..there are so many details i forget if i don't jot them down somewhere...

Riley and i are part of a preschool co-op again this year. There are 6 kids and 5 moms (two of the girls are twins). Each mom is teaching for 7weeks, twice a week, for 2 hours. I did the first rotation and it went great. We have it structured but fun (i hope it's fun!) we really focus on letters and letter sounds, a bit on numbers, writing and reading stories but we also have an underlying theme and lesson...My "value" for my rotation was respect, so we talked about what this word means a little each week and my "theme" was "how things grow" so we leanred about how plants grow, and they kids got to grow sun flower seeds in a baby food jar so they could see the roots, etc, then we talked about how butterflies develop and then frogs...Next up is my cousin teaching, she is planning on teaching about the different seasons and also doing a thing on cooking/baking/measurments, i think. should be fun for the kids!

Riley really is doing great. She has been able to write her name since last year, so her favorite thing to do with letters right now is write random letters then ask me what it spells/says. She is getting good at her letter sounds and knows maybe 90% of them.  She is working on recognizing her #'s, she has issues with 6,9 and 10. But she can count to 20 (always says 18 for 15 tho-argh! we are working on it!) She is a master scissor girl, she can cut things out pretty dang good, if i must say so! She enjoys preschool but is not looking forward to having a new teacher, i hope she gets over that soon

These are riley on her first day of preschool-one of the mom's was nice enough to do such a great job! i didn't upload the one of her entire class b/c i wasn't sure which mom's were okay with that...but it's 3 girls and 3 boys, all cute and good learners.

 Someone from the city came and checked the fire hydrant...he let it flood for a good 15-20min or so...Riley and my mom had a blast splashing around in our flooded culdesac. Nice cool way to end the summer.

 Braden's 2nd birthday

Braden is VERY into "woody" from toy story...every morning he goes down stairs and says "watch a woody?" meaning , can i watch toy story?

Josh and i decided that the Rodeo would be the best way to celebrate his 2nd bday and his love for cowboys...We even tail gated before hand...hot dogs in the back of the truck, a cool cake, presents and off to the rodeo with family...

 He got a woody doll and stared at it for a very long time...he LOVES this doll.

 Josh turned a very plain 9x13 cake into an awesome rodeo cake!

 Braden, lovin' some cake in his new cowboy boots before the rodeo started.

 Braden got these awesome hand-me-down woody p,j's...could this kid be any happier?!

 I got a cheesecake factory gift card awhile back and invited my parents to come to dinner with me, josh and the kids one night...my mom decided to spoil the little ones a little with a carrage ride...riley thought she was the luckiest girl in the entire world...the horse's name was even princess.

 these 2 are inseperable...my mom is so good about spoiling riley with attention and love and riley appreciates and loves it all.

 I went for a walk and decided to wear this shirt since i knew it wouldn't fit for much longer...happy early halloween people! NO that is not a pumpkin in there...(mind you, this was taken on sept. 15...it's been over a month since then!)

 Braden slept the entire night with riley one night...too cute!

 Braden has a new love of scissors...a little scary, but we give him the ones with no blade on them usually...he can sit for about and hour straight and cut, cut, cut! he never wants help, and he has done pretty well!

 I'm so in love with this boy. He makes me ready for another baby though since he is getting more mature..Man, he can be S-T-U-B-B-O-R-N like you can't imagine, but he can cuddle better than anyone too and he tells me "luf you mommy" all the time awww melts my heart.

 Preschool field trip to the pumpkin patch

***pregnancy update. I am 31 weeks pregnant today! woohoo! Still have contractions all day long, they are not painful, they are getting more uncomfortable...but they don't bug too much. I saw the dr1.5weeks ago for a check up and i was measuring 4weeks ahead again. SO frustrating, i did another ultrasound the next day and am waiting to talk to dr this week to find out results and info on what we do...i think we are just at the "watch it" stage...no other problems besids this crazy rash i got...Braden got a rash on his face, arms and legs then two days later my belly had a HUGE, red, crazy rash, followed with a nice fever, trip to urgent care. all blood tests came back normal, dr said it must be a weird virus...almost a week later and it's deciding to clear up...thank goodness. It was strange. Braden's is still going away but it never got as bad as mine...

I WILL take a belly picture and get it posted this week...it's getting big! I am SO SO SO SO excited to hold this baby and see if it's a boy or girl, and just love on this baby with all my heart!

26 weeks 4 days

I had a dr appt yesterday and (i'm hesitant to say) things are looking good!  I measured at 26 weeks, right where i should be...if you remember i measured at 28weeks, 3 weeks ago! so not sure how that works, but my measurements are on track...The dr is not concerned with all my contractions (irregular as they are, around 4 an hour, sometimes more, sometimes less) i was scared he was going to put me on bed rest...but no reduced activity needed, hooray!

There is still that nagging 1% chance that this could all end miserably :( but as time progresses it's looking better and better that this is a great pregnancy and baby is doing well.

 After my appointment yesterday and a full night's sleep, i woke up feeling a huge weight lifted...i don't think i realized just how stressed this was making me. all the uknowns. I still have a bit of that stress but i am so excited, more than ever (which is hard to beat, i have been excited beyond all since day one) to meet this little baby of ours.

I just KNEW it was a girl until about 2 weeks ago, then i started doubting for some reason and i am desperatly trying to think of some boy names just in case.  My favorite it Troy again...josh isn't a huge fan, yet...and we are playing around with the idea of having a Max (or maybe Maximus, if it is up to me!) Josh likes Kole or Derek...i don't like either...for the most part neither of us can think of a boy name we like at all. It's all part of the fun.

I'll be sure to post my 28week, 7month photo when the time is right.

Thanks for all the support!

Baby Bump! and huge baby update

I'm such an awful slacker this time around. Even though i didn't have internet i still had a camera and i failed to take pictures of my growing baby until a couple weeks ago...I've been getting big really fast. I have mixed comments coming in and i never know who to believe (so i go with how i feel and i feel big most days) Some people tell me, "what?! big? no. you look great!" or "it's because it's your third" -which makes me feel larger'ish but still normal and lastly "wow! you grew since i last saw you!" -which is mostly from patients who i saw only about 2 weeks prior...hmmmm I'm definetly super emotional this time around which doesn't help. I hardly ever cry, but with this pregnancy i am close to tears all the time it seems (which is sort of a nice switch) but really i teared up during a youtube crash testing video of a car we are considuring! that was just a little too crazy!

I don't know why i have slacked so much on pictures, i was on top of it with the last two kids. well i do know. I haven't been so proud of my growing belly this time around for some reason. It came so fast and makes me feel fat not pretty! (one of the main reasons i think it's a girl-that's how i felt with Riley, with Braden i felt SO pretty most of the time!)

I am sad that i don't love it so much. I LOVE knowing their is life growing in me and it took quite a few months to get that to happen. So that is why i neglecting taking the monthly pictures even though i knew i would regret it.

Well about a week before this picture my nurse called and said they recieved results from my 20week ultrasound and i had TOO much amniotic fluid (polyhydrmanios) and that i needed to started doing weekly ultrasounds to monitor the fluid level until delivery or until my dr directed me to stop (he was on vacation). I was instantly nervous that something-anything was wrong with the pregnancy.  Pregnancies are so delicate and one little thing could make it go so wrong, ya know?

Let the googling begin! i googled a  lot on what this complication is, why it happens, what causes it, the risks for baby and for me etc. i found out that this happens to all of 1-2% pregnancies (lucky me!) it can be caused by gestational diabetes (which i was tested for a week later and do NOT have) it can be caused by swallowing problems with the baby or a complete intestinal blockage in the baby, 65% of cases are just unknown and there is a 1% chance a chromosomal abnormality with the baby is causing this.

Well about a week after this news i had my monthly check up, but this time with a new OBGYN in my same medical group b/c my dr was on vacation. I'm SO glad i got to meet him. i LOVED him and wasnt thrilled with my origional OBGYN. I let him know what was going on (what the nurse called and said). He did the normal lay me down and measure pelvic bone to top of uterus and did say i was measuring for 28weeks along and i was only 23.5weeks at that point! He sent me to a specialist the next day.

When i saw the specialist they did see a high level of amniotic fluid but no swallowing issues and no intestinal blockage issues. Since it wasn't that and i dont' have gestational diabetes he said there is a 1% chance for a chromosomal abnormality causing this. I was too overwhelmed with info at the dr's to ask him if there are certain ones that seem to cause this. So when i went home and googled again. I found out that IF it is a chromosomal thing (again 1% chance...but already i am the 1-2% chance of having this polyhydramnios) it is mosty usually associated with abnormalities on chromosomes 21, 18 and 13.  21 causing down syndrome and 18 and 13 both can cause severe mental retardation.  While i was googling it did say that if diagnosed with polyhydrmanios in the 2nd trimester there is a small chance it can go away all together in the 3rd (fingers crossed!)

So i had definit MIXED emotions. I was prouder of that big belly of mine, knowing that i only look and feel sooo huge because i am stretched to one month bigger than i really should be! (felt good for my prideful side)

but a little devestated (not going to lie) that this baby might not be the type of "perfect" all mom's are hoping for.  We are opting to NOT do the amniocentisis b/c it would be purely informational and there wouldnt be one darn thing to "fix" and we, of course, will keep and love this baby NO MATTER WHAT!

I have good and bad days. Good days where i feel so BLESSED to be pregnant and to feel this super duper active baby always bumping, nudging, kicking and rolling around and SOOOOO excited to meet him or her. and Other days where i am overcome with worry and guilt. Worry that this baby will not be the "perfect" i mentioned before, that this baby could possibly have a lifetime of trials ahead, and for me and josh too. and guilt for caring about that.

There is a big risk of premature labor and delivery because i have so much fluid, there is an increased risk of miscarriage. I already have contractions every day, about one an hour or so. Dr didnt seem too worried yet but did confirm they are real contractions (probably becasue all the fluid is stretching my unterus, he said) they don't hurt but every time i feel one it just makes me worry how this pregnancy may end?

I normally HATE telling other people my "problems" but because i get sooo many people saying "how far along are you?" and i have to let them know i still have until the end of December i feel, for some reason, like i have to explain myself. So PLEASE do NOT feel like you have to ask me how im doing...all the attention about "issues" is hard!

I promise to keep all updated!

I found may!

so i was downloading photos from an old camera's memory card and wa-la! ( no clue on the spelling for that one) i found may!

We vacationed in Torey Utah this year. My mom and step dad took their trailer (thank goodness, it was a life saver at some points) my parents got a cabin for me, josh and our kids, and one for my brother and his wife.  We met up with our cousins from Idaho and their grand daughter who is just a year older than Riley.

We had a blast exploring the national park and just playing around the camp site.

Unfortunatly (for me) it went from 70 degrees and beautiful to rainy, to windy, to hail, to thunder storms and finally SNOW on the last day. crazy crazy weather but fun spending time with family none the less.

 Josh and Braden saying Hi on a super tall rock

 Braden learned how to throw a frisbee back at camp

 Riley just hanging out in the rocks and dirt

 It was about 12+ hours to get their and the kids did SO GOOD. seriously. i thought it would be a kind of hard trip their since we dont have a dvd player or anything...we came prepared with snacks, games, coloring etc but they really did good the entire way, josh and i didn't get frustrated once on the way there...the way home is a different story...i thought it would never end!

 This is the hike where Riley found a HUGE snake...unfortunatly i don't have a copy of the picture yet, but we all walked right over/around it somehow and she found it!

Riley and Alexia having fun on the hike

 There were a lot of little cut outs along the way so the girls stopped to hide in one and scare me

 going...going...

 gone! (it's really rough being given a ride the entire time)

 Our cute little cabin. thanks mom!

 And the crazy snow as we were trying to leave!

2011 Update# 3 July

I'm finally updating...be sure to scroll back a few posts and catch all the updates!

My cutie pie Braden

4th of July

Riley let me do her hair...waddaya think?

Pool time with Opa and cousin Hailey

Braden loving time with Uncle Daniel

Uncle Matthew got Riley to jump in the water off the edge and from then on she wanted to swim without her floaties...he is a dog paddling champ now since she still wont put her head under water...she loves being a fish though, and we are proud of her.

After swimming we went to Josh's parents house for homemade icecream and fireworks. Braden was doing a little clean up duty and licking the icecream maker clean!

2011 Update# 2 June (i had no pictures for may)

I guess in May i was a little depressed with the lack of internet and blog posting abilities so i didnt take any pictures May! sad... so on to June.

My parents alwasy get a camping spot in Big Bear the week of July 4th but this year we did it the week before the 4th...

Here are the kiddos getting snuggled down in Grancy and Papa's trailor...

The next day, the guys (my step dad and josh) dropped me and the kids off at a fun little spot along the lake and then they went to find the best bow-fishing spot. We set up chairs and played with toys in the water.

Braden was figuring our the kayak

Riley has my mom wrapped around her finger...they collected flowers that riley wants to keep for her wedding day (so riley)

Riley must of been on this rock singing to my mom for atleast 20minutes....my mom adores riley and gives her so much attention, i'm very lucky to have her as a mom and grandmother for my kids...

Riley was just singing randomly about things she could see from the rock....ohh so serious

Back at the camp site...Braden was being allll boy...so dirty and with his camo hat

And last but not least...Josh with his catch for the day.