Popper a.k.a Flipper

Oh my beautiful beautiful Isabelle. You sure do know how to leave us scratching our head wondering what next you will throw at us. Today, we had our (what we thought would be) our last doctor's appointment before our scheduled c-section on Friday. Post below about the scheduled c-section. We hadn't seen my OB doc in a little over a month so it was nice to be back with him and our awesome nurse Bev. Our OB doc was the one who was going to preform the scheduled c-section on Friday as well. When he came in, he said, do you think she flipped? I laughed and said nope, I'm pretty sure she didn't. Please go ahead and refer to my June 28th post to really understand how sucky my mom instincts are. My doctor started the ultrasound and said oh my goodness oh my goodness. Lance and I both looked at each other, looked at the screen and I'll be darned if we weren't looking at her head in the downward position. Lance and I were stunned! The doctor was stunned too. His quote of the day was, wow, I haven't seen a baby flip this late in the game in a very long time. LOL thanks doc.

I knew the second she was no longer breeched, he would cancel the c-section, and I was right. Kaiser won't do c-sections unless they are medically needed. Which when she was breeched it was medically needed. Now that she's not breeched, not so much needed. My doctor said, aren't you so excited. And I just laughed and said, yep, but I'm still in shock. Here is the thing. I had 5 weeks to come to grips that I wasn't going to be able to have a natural birth. I finally accepted it and I was 48 hours away from holding my daughter. 48 HOURS AWAY! Now, it could be a week or so before I get to meet her. So yes, I am very happy that I don't have to be cut open. But oh my, I really wanted to be able to hold and kiss my beautiful Belle on Friday. The pros of not having the c-section definitely out weigh the cons so now we just wait. Place your bets on baby watch 2012. When will she arrive?!?!?!

My next appointment is next Wednesday if I don't go into labor before that. At the next appointment, he will check to see how far along I am (right now I'm only 1 cm dilated) and then schedule to have me induced if I'm not progressing on my own.

How quickly our weekend plans have changed! We were planning on being parents this weekend and now, we are planning on going to the fair. hahahaha I'll be 40 weeks on Sunday, so here is to hoping she comes soon! We can't wait to meet our beautiful Belle!

I'll keep you all updated!

Love,
Suzanne

We Have A Date!

Well, it's official, our c-section is scheduled for Friday, July 20th! I can't believe we actually have a day set. It seems so surreal so think that this time next week, my daughter will be 1 day old. I'll be an official mom and Lance will be an official dad. Crazy!

We still have an appointment with my OB on Wednesday, July 18th to make sure she hasn't flipped and to do one last check to make sure everything looks A-Ok. I haven't seen my OB in a month so it will be nice to have him back. He's the one who will be preforming the c-section on the 20th and I'm very happy about that. If I was going to have to have a c-section, I'm glad that my OB is going to be the one to bring Isabelle into this world. He's been with us since week 5, so it seems almost fitting.

I work up until the Thursday, July 19th, and then baby girl will be here on the 20th. Everyone thinks I'm crazy, being off today, I'm glad I'm working up to the very last moment. hahahaha If I was off next week, I would probably just be at home panicking and worrying all day. I have been working a lot of hours trying to get everything done, but just like coming to grips with having to have a c-section, I'm coming to grips with the fact that no matter what, and no matter how much work I do, the guy taking over for me just won't be ready. No fault of my own, and no fault to him, it's just that by the time I leave, we'll have only had 7 working days together. Unfortunately, he's new to my programs and the things I do at work, so he's slightly overwhelmed. At least I'm reachable. I promised him I'd answer my phone if he called for some help. :) I'm learning to let go when it comes to work and that's been hard. My career has always been super important to me, and balancing a husband and a career (especially a super supportive husband) has been doable. But now, with a baby on the way, things are changing. Baby beats out career. There will definitely be a balancing act when I get back to work after Thanksgiving, but the thought of being able to spend every day with Isabelle from her birth until after Thanksgiving sounds absolutely amazing!

I feel like we are ready for Isabelle to come home, hopefully when we bring her home we aren't running around like chickens with our heads cut off. But, if we are, I know we'll have a great support system that's here with us to help us out! My in-laws, parents, sisters, and BFF's will be there so we are well covered and will be well taken care of.

I still have a bunch of posts to do to show some pictures of all my wonderful showers. Hopefully I can get those done before Friday....hopefully! :)

Only 6 days to go, and yes, we are counting! We can't wait!!

Love,
Suzanne

The Name Game

Naming Popper wasn't as difficult as I had thought it was going to be. Here is how it went for us. I threw out a bunch of names, he said no. He threw out a bunch of names, I said no. I threw out Isabelle, he loved it, I loved it. Perfect. See, how simple was that?!?!? HA! The tricky part with picking the first name was that we wanted a name with a double letter. Why you ask? Because Lance married a crazy person! Here is my reasoning. My first name has two N's. When I married Lance, my new last name has two L's. My mother in law's first name has two R's, my father in law's first name has two N's, Ryan married Emma, which has two M's and they had Ella which has two L's! I mean really how cool is that!! So basically Ryan and Lance are the only two who can't play in our double letter first and last name game! hahahaha As a disclaimer, there is absolutely no pressure on Ryan and Emma to continue the double letter name game when they decide if/when they are going to have more kids! Like I said, I'm the crazy one and I just think weird things like that are neat! So that's how we came up with Isabelle. We call her Belle for short, though my sister Cat calls her Izzy. I like calling her my beautiful Belle.

Speaking of beautiful Belle, here is a picture from our 3D ultrasound we did at 30 weeks.

This is the picture I have hanging in my office. I love it. That is her hand on the side of her cheek. The lady doing the ultra sound said, ooohhh look at those cheeks. I just shook my head and apologized to Isabelle now because unfortunately for her, she's never going to grow out of them. Her mother is speaking from experience!

This one is cool because you can sort of see her right eye which is open and then her cute little hand in front of her left eye.

Here is another cute one with her hand rubbing her eye. She was pretty cooperative during the ultra sound but almost all of the pictures we got of her have her hand trying to block some part of her face. She wasn't a huge fan of the paparazzi! Her lips look like she's trying to give kisses to us!!!

The whole 3D ultra sound experience was absolutely amazing. I would highly recommend it to any parents who want a sneak peak of their little one. For us, it was worth every penny! We were able to Skype with my in-laws during the ultra sound so even though they were in Tucson, they were able to experience it with us. We had my family in the room along with my BFF Wendy. Having everyone there (and on Skype) seeing Isabelle for the first time was one of the coolest experiences ever.

Isabelle's middle name is going to be Olivia. I can't really remember how we came up with that name. It was a name we both liked and it went well with Isabelle so we went with it.

Isabelle Olivia arriving July 21, 2012!!!

Love,
Suzanne

37 Week Update

Well, we are coming to the end of week 37 and my stubborn little girl is still breeched. I was certain when we headed in there at week 36 she had turned. I guess my mommy instincts suck. I hope it improves soon! haha My regular doctor who we have been seeing since week 5 is off having his own baby (well at least his wife is) so we have 3 appointments without him. Unfortunately for us, they are 3 of our last 4 appointments and right about now I'm really wishing he were here with us to keep me calm. The midwifes that we've had the last two weeks have been very nice and have been very helpful but it's just not the same. The midwife last week really put the pressure on us to schedule the version flip right then and there and I just couldn't do it. I was terrified of the thought of having someone take their hands, place them around my stomach and the outside of the baby and try to flip her. I decided at that point my fear of the flip was greater than my fear of a c section so I guess c section it is. I've heard many stories of friends and family who have had babies flip the day they went into labor or a few days before their scheduled c section. But, if she doesn't flip, she doesn't flip and I think now, I'm at the point where I'm ok with it. What other choice do I have?!?! hahaha I'm sure this kid will wait until the c section is scheduled on the books and then flip. She's my daughter, why wouldn't she be difficult?!?! :)

We had an ultra sound scheduled for yesterday so they could determine how big she was. I was pretty confident she wasn't 10 lbs or anything like that since my stomach isn't very big. My doctors still wanted to check because if she was big, I think they would have recommended a c section sooner rather than later. As of yesterday she is weighing in at about 7 lbs. The thing with the ultra sound weight measurement game is that it's not an exact science. When they told us she was approximately 7 lbs they said, but that could be higher by a pound or lower by a pound. hahaha um ok, so really, she could be 6, 7 or 8 lbs right now! hahaha Either way, at the end of 37 weeks I'm perfectly happy with a 6, 7 or 8 pound baby. Though if she is going to flip and I am going to push 6 lbs is starting to sound even better! :-P

Lance and I could not be happier than we are right now. We can't wait to meet our little girl! And to think that she's going to be here in about 2 weeks just rocks our world! We have truly felt so blessed this entire pregnancy. When I got up on the ultra sound table yesterday, the ultra sound lady said, are you so over being pregnant? I said nope, I've had a super easy pregnancy and I know it. And I am grateful for it! If I didn't want to meet her so bad I could easily carry her for another couple of months. But lets not get crazy 40 weeks of carrying a child is enough for me. I'm starting to miss my coffee, and my occasional adult beverage and my Pei Wei, oh my goodness do I miss my Pei Wei! I know my coffee and adult beverage aren't coming for awhile longer since I'll be breastfeeding, but that's ok. Because Pei Wei's Pad Thai has my name all over it as soon as this little girl gets here!

I just realized I have not done a blog about what our baby girls name is going to be. I think most everyone knows it by now, but in the next blog, I'll share her name, along with some pictures from the 3D ultra sound we had at week 30!

Love,
Suzanne