Birth Story

The Birth Story of Aydia Rae King
As written by her mother, Shana Marie King
Born 2/28/2009, 1:24 AM, 8lbs 9.4 oz, 21 inches long, 14.5 inch head circumference.

On February 27th Brandon and I were both excited for several reasons. First it was Brandon’s birthday and second it was Aydia’s due date! I had no indication that labor was close as at my appointment just two days before I was almost 2 cm dilated, 75% effaced and Aydia was still at -1 station in my pelvis. I didn’t feel like I had a full waddle even. However we were anxious to meet our little girl so I decided to do a partial dose of castor oil to see if it would bring on any contractions. I did 3 tablespoons instead of 4 over the course of 3 hours from noon till 3:00. It was disgusting! I threw up once but that seemed to be all that happened. I drank a lot of water to in order to make sure I was staying hydrated. Once Brandon got home from work we decided to go celebrate his birthday by going to Angelo’s pizza. Nothing was happening so I gave up on the idea that the castor oil was going to do anything for me. My parents happened to call right after we decided to go out to dinner and we invited them along with us.

After dinner we all came back to our apartment to play cards and got back here around 6:30. I still wasn’t having any contractions but I did have to use the bathroom several times. We played cards until about 9:00 when my parents decided to leave. Once they left Brandon settled down on the couch and I sat down with the laptop to check out some stuff online. About fifteen minutes later I went to use the bathroom and felt a slight pop near the top of my uterus but no gush of water or anything. I thought it was odd and didn’t mention anything to Brandon yet. I sat back down at the laptop and felt a contraction. 3-4 minutes later I felt another. I decided to go use the bathroom again in case it was just stomach cramps. I sat down and had a slight tiny gush of water come out. I came out and said something to Brandon that I thought something was going on. I started timing contractions and they were lasting for a minute just over 3 minutes apart. Ten minutes later I used the bathroom again and experienced the same little gush. At this point the contractions were getting stronger but still 3 minutes apart and I was having to kind of bend over to get through them. We called the midwife group at this point, it was just about after 9:30 PM.

The midwife on call, Carrie Frantzich, was hesitant to bring me in since we had just started the contractions but since I felt my water had broken she decided she wanted to get me checked out. We called our Doula at this point and apologized since we had only been having contractions for ½ hour but that we felt it was already time to head to the hospital. Megan agreed to meet us at Woodwinds and we also gave our birth photographer Melissa a call to give her the heads up. We arrived at Woodwinds right around 10:30. At this point the contractions were coming about 2 minutes apart and I was using my HypnoBirthing breathing to get through them. The nurse checked me at 11:00 PM and I was still only 2 cm and Aydia was still at -1; however I was 100% effaced. Because of those numbers we figured we were in for a long night. Megan suggested we go for a walk at this point which I first agreed to. I asked that a bath get ready for me though and they started running water in the tub. A few minutes later I was feeling quite a bit more through the surges and decided I couldn’t do the walk and requested to just get in the bathtub. Both Carrie and Megan didn’t think it was a good idea as I wasn’t dilated that much and a bath could slow labor. However I was pretty insistent and ended up getting in.

I was able to focus through those contractions and relied heavily on my breathing. Brandon and Megan took turns applying cold wash cloths to the back of my neck during this time. I’m not sure exactly how long I was in the tub for as I kind of went within myself at this point. After a while the contractions were getting really intense and I had to get out. They started coming on top of each other and I tried several positions to relax through them, the easiest being basically hanging off of Brandon or sitting on the toilet in a reclined position. The contractions were all in my lower stomach and I had Brandon lifting up on my stomach during the contractions. I started to lose focus at this point. I knew it had only been a short time since I was last checked and feared I still had many more hours to go. However it was becoming very painful and I was crying through them. I kept telling Brandon that I couldn’t do it anymore and that it hurt too much. He kept telling me that I was doing it and what a wonderful job I was doing. I started to feel a lot of pressure and the nurse decided that we should check me again even though it was only 1:00 AM and I was only 2 cm 2 hours ago.

Big surprise, I was complete already at 10 cm and Aydia was at +2 for station! I heard the surprise in her voice when she said that and she said I really brought that baby down! They asked if I wanted to get into the water birth tub at this point but I didn’t feel like I could walk down to that room plus I knew it was going to take at least 15-20 minutes to fill up. The only position at this point that somewhat helped was actually lying on my back in a semi-reclined position. Carrie came in about 10 minutes later and was surprised as well that I was ready to push. No one prompted me when or how to push but I definitely felt the urges to breathe her down. At this point it wasn’t so painful anymore and felt like a relief to push. Brandon was up near my head and kept reassuring me that I was doing a great job. I really focused in on getting Aydia out and then Carrie told me to reach down and feel Aydia’s head as she was crowning. Several pushes later and Carrie told me to reach down to grab my baby as her head was out and all I had to do was get those shoulders out. One more push and I pulled her up onto my chest and started crying immediately and so did she! She turned pink almost right away and looked absolutely perfect to me. It was 1:24 AM when she was born, just missing her Daddy’s birthday! The entire labor from when I first thought my water broke until she arrived was just under 4 and a half hours and I only pushed for about 20 minutes. I fell immediately in love with her and each day I love her more. I’m absolutely in love with being a mom.

Just some pictures!

Announcing Aydia Rae King!

Aydia Rae is here! Born 1 hour and 24 minutes after her due date!

I first started feeling contractions around 9:00pm; they immediately started coming about 3 minutes apart! We got to the hospital at 11pm, I was only 2cm but since the contractions were so close they kept me. At 1am they checked me again because I was saying I couldn't do it, the contractions were right on top of each other and I was feeling pressure. I was already complete! They asked if I wanted to move the waterbirth room at that point but honestly I was feeling so much pressure that I couldn't do it. Plus it would have taken 15 minutes to fill it up. Good thing I decided no because Aydia arrived at 1:24am weighing 8lbs 9 oz and 20 inches long! I had minor tears and just had a few stitches.

We're very much in love with her even though she has a colossal set of lungs already!!! I will get pictures up later once we have the cord for the camera. The cell phone just doesn't do this beautiful little girl justice!

Almost 40 weeks; 2 more days till the due date!

Wow, am I suddenly ever ready to be done! Yesterday was the first day where I didn't feel like I was in love with being pregnant. Up until then I've really enjoyed every day of this pregnancy (with the exception of the morning sickness) and have been blessed. Yesterday all day I had some pretty awful back pain and in the evening it decided to move into my upper thighs. Sitting on the exercise ball helped some but not a lot. I went to bed fairly early (9:30) and woke up at 12:30. My hips were killing me! I got out of bed at 1:00 and used the exercise ball for a good 1/2 hour to try to stretch out those muscles, went back to bed...no go. Tossed and turned until 3:30 when I ended up taking a really long bath until 4:30. That helped a bit but I still didn't sleep from the pain in my hips, which sometimes decided to radiate into my thighs and back. Finally at about 6:00 when Brandon left for work I fell back asleep, only to wake again at 9:30 to get ready for my 40 week midwife appointment.

The appointment went well. Baby's heart rate is in the 130s still, like normal. She's still at -1 for station and I'm still 75% effaced. I dilated just a bit more, but not a lot. Stephanie (midwife) said that I'm almost at 2cm but not quite. She did say my cervix feels softer so that's a good sign too. She also mentioned that she doesn't expect me to make my next appointment but that she has been surprised before. Baby has to drop some more which will make me dilate and efface more and hopefully bring on some productive contractions. She did another sweep of my membranes as well so hopefully that will help do something. Since the appointment I've feel a little more pressure in my hips and my back has decided it wants to ache again so I'm taking that as good signs...even though it's uncomfortable!

And a shout out for my Mom who had today guessed as the birth day...she sent me an email this morning that really made me chuckle; let's hope it's right!

Subject: today's the day!!

"Shana's horoscope:
You are able to mobilize your energy and accomplish a lion's share of work. Understand what you have to offer and what you are capable of. PUSH COMES TO SHOVE!!
Tonight: Hang out.

Brandon's horoscope:
You are all smiles. It might be amazing to see how you could transform a situation through your attitude and reframing the problem. Open doors and greet options.
Tonight: All smiles.

Horoscopes are always right!!"

39 weeks and some progress!

Well things are starting to happen! Not a lot of change in how dilated I am. I went from 1cm funneled to a finger tip to a full 1cm all the way through now. Last week I was 30% effaced and now I'm at 75% so that's exciting! And the baby dropped a bit more! She is now at a -1 for station so almost fully engaged!

Because I was a full 1 cm my midwife was also able to get in to sweep my membranes. Not exactly a comfortable procedure, but I didn't find it as bad as I've heard. Basically what this means is that she is able to get a finger through and run it between the baby's bag of water (and her head since she's almost fully engaged) and my cervix, kind of like breaking a seal. It can do nothing, or it can help me dilate/efface more and encourage her to drop or it could even trigger labor in the next 24-48 hours. We're of course hoping for that last option to happen!

If you're confused on the terms here is some help:

Station: How far the baby is "down" in the pelvis, measured by the relationship of the fetal head to the ischial spines (sit bones). Measured in negative and positive numbers. -3 is a floating baby, 0 station is said to be engaged in the pelvis, and +3 is crowning.

Effacement: This is how thin your cervix is. If you think of your cervix as funnel-like, and measuring about 2 inches, you will see that 50% effaced means that your cervix is now about 1 inch in length. As the cervix softens and dilates the length decreases as well.

Dilation: How far your cervix has opened. It starts at 0 through the pregnancy and toward the end starts to open. 10 centimeters being the widest.

Other comments: I gave my midwife a copy of our birth preferences (some call it a birth plan) this week. She commented that it was very well put together and that it was a great plan. She also said that with our preferences we are going to have a beautiful birth! That's what we're hoping for! I also called our doula right after the appointment to give her the updates and she said to walk walk walk tonight and try to get a good romantic evening in with Brandon (wink wink). Both can help bring on labor, so who am I to argue! She mentioned that her water broke the morning after her membranes were swept, so hopefully we end up with a similar experience!

My midwife is on call Thursday through Friday morning and again on Tuesday during the day this week...so again, we're hoping that if labor happens that she comes during those times! Of course we'll take her at any point though.

38 weeks

Not a lot of change going on. I had my appointment today and now I'm JUST over a cm dilated and then funneled to a finger tip still. A little more effaced but the baby still has room to drop down still. So I'm supposed to keep up the walking (been doing that a lot lately!) and hopefully she'll be making her entrance sooner rather than later. Her heart rate was in the 140s and she's still in the right position. Measuring on track as well. Next week if I'm a bit more dilated she said she'll sweep my membranes if I want! That could possibly jump start labor for us.

I just have to take a minute to say how much I absolutely LOVE my midwife as well. I really really really am hoping that when we go into labor she'll be the midwife on call. There isn't a big chance of that happening but she's WONDERFUL and really knows me as a patient! She's on call tomorrow 6am-6pm, Sat 6pm-Sun 6am, and again next Tuesday 6am-6pm. So if you're sending labor vibes my way send them for those specific times!

37 Week Midwife appointment

I just got back from my 37 week appointment (I'll be 37 weeks on Friday) and things are looking great! I have to be 37 weeks to have a water birth, so we'll be making that for sure. I'm 1 cm dilated at the opening of my cervix and just about a fingertip near the top and she's dropping but not yet fully engaged. She didn't mention how effaced I was today but did say I was pretty soft so I know that's a good sign too! Her heart rate was in the 150s today since she was moving around when the midwife was using the doppler and I had the fun GBS test done today as well. I'll get the results of that back next week, if I am group B positive that means I have to have an antibiotic via IV every 4 hours once I'm in active labor.

I'm measuring right on track now instead of ahead, 36.5 weeks but I still look small! I've had a lot of women ask me how far along I am and when I tell them they don't believe me! lol, even my midwife said today, "wow, your baby is all stretched out in there, she's not squished at all since you have such a long torso." I am getting tired though, hips are aching a bit more and I can't seem to sleep for more than 2 hours at a time! We have our newborn class on Monday and then she's MORE than welcome to come out! We have everything ready and bought now and my bag is packed. I'm going to make cookies and freeze them to bring them to the nurses and other than that I've got nothing else to do to really prepare for her! I'm super excited and anxious yet nervous at the same time.

Doula Workshop

I just had the BEST two days ever! I had my doula workshop/training on 1/29 and 1/30 and I wish it would have been longer. I learned so much more about the birth process and natural birth than I could even imagine. The fact that only 8% of women want a natural birth blows my mind. Found out how lucky I am to live in MN as 1:35 births are attended by a doula vs. the US average of 1:650 and that MN is rated #2 for births. It's also illegal in MN for a hospital to tell a mother that she cannot have a doula while other states it's perfectly legal for that to occur. Okay, just some random birth facts now that I figured some of you might find interesting:

1:3 birthing women end up with a c-section, your chance of having a c-section is over 60% lower by having a doula.

Before birth it's normally the mother who is very gun-ho about having the doula present while the Dad might be feeling a little hesitant as he fears he might be "replaced" during the labor and birth. After birth the Dads are quite often the doula's biggest fans and can't stop recommending a doula to other expectant couples.

By just NOT peeing every hour in labor you increase your chance of a c-section because of "failure to progress". Emptying your bladder allows several things to happen. 1: you are getting up and gravity is helping move that baby down, and 2: the bladder could be too full and not allowing the baby to move past a certain point, emptying it gives that baby more room.

A mother's emotion's are about 20 minutes ahead of where the cervix is. If a mother is acting like she's in transition and were to get checked right then she might be told she's only 4 cm. Immediately her thoughts would be, "if this is what 4cm feels like how am I going to handle 7 or 8?" Wait 20 minutes to get her checked and her body is further along and her emotions could be calming down as her body is starting to move out of transition stage.

When endorphins are released it's 100X more powerful than any drug they can give you. You can tell when they are released because that's when the mom suddenly gets really tired and just wants to stop. That tiredness is your body putting you into a more relaxed state.

Right before the baby is born Oxytocin is released, that hormone is not only important for the mother for bonding but it also goes into the baby and helps that baby fall in love with their parents. With drugs your body won't release as much oxytocin.

The greater the interventions during birth, the greater the postpartum depression.

All the serial killers have had something in common: mothers with severe postpartum depression, so postpartum support is VERY important!

Did you know that the flight vs. flight study that was done only on men? Women actually don't get that same response in reaction to high stress. Women's body automatically go into a "Tend and Befriend" mode. They immediately gather their loved ones and support people (tend) and after the event they want to talk about it a lot. How this relates to labor: Women want other women at their births, whether thats a doula, a nurse, a female midwife or a female doctor, sister, friend, mother is dependent on her individual needs. Just having another woman present in the room reduces the chance of a c-section as something in our brain makes us feel safer. After labor and delivery that mother will want to talk about her birth for days and day after to anyone who will listen, other women will share back their stories.

Women with Alzheimer's might not be able to tell you what they had for breakfast but the majority of them will be able to tell you about their labors and births. It imprints our lives that much.

If you ask an articulate child before the age of 3 what their birth was like they will be able to describe it to you. There have been children who have gone into the delivery room to visit their mother in labor with a younger sibling and they will rearrange everything in the room to be exactly how it was when they were born, including telling daddy and the nurses where to stand. That just blows my mind.

Accord to an OB in one of the videos we watched, 95% of births would be better off and safer to do in a home vs. at a hospital because of the interventions that can happen in a hospital and lead to bigger risks. A labor and delivery nurse in the same video said that often a home is a cleaner and more safe environment to birth in than the hospital.

Countries where midwife attended home births is higher than hospital births have a LOWER infant and maternal mortality rate than we do here in the United States where over 98% of our births are done in the hospitals.

Oh I have so much more but I don't want to bore you all with them. This workshop really re-enforced my decision to have a natural birth. Do you know that some of the drugs they give during birth to "take the edge off" can remain in the baby's system for up to 6 weeks and can have MAJOR effects on breast feeding and their development? We all focus so much during pregnancy about what to avoid putting in our bodies for fear of how it will effect our babies but then during labor we all throw that out the windows...what's the point?

I think I've really found my passion in life now. Even if their choices for their labor isn't what I would choose. I'll be basing my business philosphy around the quote: "Freedom of choice based on knowledge of alternatives." Eventually I would like to get certified as a childbirth educator and a postpartum doula and possibly even a lactation consultant. I'm so excited about becoming a birth doula!

36 weeks!

I had my 36 week midwife appointment today. I get to do the fun GBS test (google it if you don't know...) next week since I have to be at 36 exactly or past in order to do that. I'll be 36 weeks on Friday. I was all prepared to have it done today! Oh well! lol. Baby is dropping, but still fairly high. My cervix is starting to thin and I'm about 1 cm dilated already! Her heart rate was 144 and she's of course still head down. I'm really staring to get excited! I'm hoping she'll come early, but trying to not get my hopes up to high on that!

I've had a busy day. After my appointment I met up with an old friend who had a contour changing pad, a tummy time mat, a bouncy seat and a screened in bassinet type thing. I met with a photographer and it went really well, she's really excited to be able to capture our birth on film and I'm really excited as well! She's just starting to do birth photography and she's actually doing our labor and birth pro-bono for her portfolio and website. I also plan on putting her down as a referral on my website once I get my Doula stuff started. Later my Dad came over after he was done with work and we got the mirror on the dresser really secured to the back and hung all the decorations and now the nursery is finally looking complete instead of just a storage room for baby stuff. I took a few pictures!

Tomorrow and Friday I have my doula workshop from 8am-6pm! It will be a long couple of days but I'm super excited about it!








The stickers say: Dream; Fly with the angels; and dance with the stars.




Ha! And you thought I was going to cave and share the name! Nope! But that's what's behind the photoshopped smudge!

Trip to labor and delivery!

I've been so busy this month that I forgot to update everyone on the little adventure we had the other day!

I ended up in L&D on Tuesday January 13th. I felt off most of the day with sharp pains into my cervix and then eventually in my lower abdomen. The midwife on call wanted me to come in to be checked for an UTI and monitoring to be safe. Turns out I was having contractions but not feeling them. After being monitored for about 2 hours they started subsiding but then the little girl's heart rate was erratic. So I got an IV for fluids in the hopes that would stabilize both of us. They also sent us for an ultrasound to check on her and she passed with flying colors. Her heart rate ended up stabilizing but then my contractions were erratic again. They gave me a shot of Terbutaline to stop them and monitored me for another hour or so. Seemed to have worked. They sent me home with something to take to counteract the jitteriness I got from the shot and said it should help me sleep. Otherwise no restrictions thank goodness!

With the ultrasound we were able to see that she has hair already! And the tech said there was no mistaking it that we were having a girl. She said it was MORE than safe to take the tags off the clothes and wash them!

I did have a midwife appointment the next morning and baby hadn't dropped at all and I wasn't not dilated either which is good news that she likely won't come too early. Just kind of one of those weird things that happens. My midwife also commented that she doesn't feel like a big baby, but she does feel long. At that appointment she had a heart rate in the 150s, she was very active that day.

I have my 36 week midwife appointment this Wednesday and I'll be going every week from now on! Pretty exciting! We have one more class as well, which is a newborn preparation class on 2/9. I will be 37 weeks on 2/6 which means that she can come at any point after that and she will no longer be considered a premature baby. Because of the class on 2/9 we're hoping she'll hold out till 2/10. But let me tell you, the minute that class is over on the 9th we'll be trying every little old wives tale in the book to get her out! We're getting so excited to meet her and to be able to share her name with everyone!

In other non-baby related news, I'm now 28! My birthday was the 19th, we went out to eat over the weekend and on my actual birthday I didn't do anything honestly to celebrate it. I have my doula workshop this Thursday and Friday and I'm SUPER excited for that. Brandon also is starting in a first shift position on Monday!!! I'm so happy about that, even though it means I have to give up the bed which I've blissfully had to myself for the past 3 years! It will be so nice to have him home in the evenings and when the baby is here I think he'll really enjoy that as well because he'll feel like he'll have more time for her. And something else...oh yeah, TOMORROW IS OUR 1ST ANNIVERSARY!!! We're going out to eat at Water Street Inn in Stillwater to celebrate. We're exchanging cards but that's it with the budget we're on, but I'm so excited to have been married to this man for one year now tomorrow. :-)

Baby Showers and Painting

Well now that I've had my second (and last) baby shower figured I should let you all know how they went!

Shower number one went okay. I was honestly pretty worried about it going in and probably shouldn't have agreed to the date in the first place. Every year my parents invite my Dad's side of the family up to their house to celebrate New Year's Day. Normally quite a few of the aunts/uncles come and some of the cousins. Well it was brought up that since we were all going to be there anyway that we should have my shower that day as well. I agreed as it seemed convenient for everyone...on the condition that the shower was made a separate event and not just thrown upon my mother and honestly I wanted the attention since it took us so long and I wanted a specific baby shower! My aunts agreed and promised that it would be a separate event, things would be planned, and invites would go out in advance with a specific time for the shower.

Fast forward to the WEEK before and we find out that invites have NOT gone out until that day, meaning another day or two before they would get the invites. That means that a ton of my cousins who would have made an effort to make it to a baby shower for me but don't always come to my parents for NYD weren't going to be able to make it. For all my other cousins invites are always out at the minimum of 2 weeks before the shower and honestly I felt neglected and cheated out of a real baby shower. We weren't sure if anything special was going to be done at all or if it was just going to be "look, here are baby presents, now we're moving on".

So my Mom asked one of my aunts 2 days before if anyone was planning anything specific or bringing a baby cake or anything like that. The response was, "oh, I don't know, but I suppose I can pick up a cake!" I was dreading the worst at this point. The day of everyone shows up around 1:00 (the invites said 12:30) and things were fairly disorganized. Luckily the aunt who brought the cake also brought some cute decorations and we hung them up to make it look somewhat like a baby shower. Then we opened baby gifts and I was amazed at the generosity that was given toward us and I'm very thankful for that! They had everyone put their name/address on envelopes (saves time for those thank yous!) and I drew some out of a hat and they won a "prize". Then...that was it. It didn't go as bad as I feared, but I did still feel kind of cheated. Not to mention that I felt bad that several people who normally would have come weren't able to make it. I don't mean to sound ungrateful as obviously we received some wonderful gifts and I'm very thankful to those who came, but I just wish it would have been more "baby showerish."

Anyway...I had shower number 2 today. This one was thrown by my mother's side of the family by my aunts Kay and Barb. The invites for this shower were out about 3.5 weeks before so plenty of advance notice there! They arranged a diaper raffle...anyone who brought a package of diapers got put into a drawing for a grand-prize. The food was wonderful (and plentiful!) and the cake was adorable. It was a "duck pond" complete with blue frosting and little rubber ducks. Each of the ducks had a number under it and I got to pick one of them to find out who won the diaper raffle...of course my mom won! We played several games, the traditional dice game (always fun!) and the guess the size of Shana's belly game! Haha! String was passed around and everyone cut off a piece that they thought would equal the distance around my stomach. Almost everyone OVER guessed by several inches! My friend Tricia however came in at 1/4 of an inch! We opened gifts and again I'm amazed at the generosity. Our little girl is NOT going to be short of adorable outfits for sure, especially pink ones! The shower was a lot of fun and I'm so glad it went well!

So since getting all the gifts we've been organizing the nursery a bit more. We painted back on January 3rd and it looks adorable! We actually painted the room kind of an aqua blue because everything else is pink and we didn't want to go to overboard with the pink. My Dad and Brandon did most of the painting, my mom helped paint around the edges a bit. I kept getting kicked out, they were worried about me being around the paint fumes too much. It turned out so cute and we still have to hang stuff up (waiting to get a mirror attached back to the dresser and waiting on our glider/ottoman set before hanging stuff.) Things are getting organized otherwise!

We're pretty much set as far as stuff but still need some basics, like some baby care items, bottle nipples, diaper changing contour pad, a boppy, breast milk storage system and some other small things. On another exciting note, I've been jonesing after a specific baby swing since BEFORE I got pregnant. It's the Graco Sweetpeace Newborn Soothing Center. Well it's around $180 at Target and Babies R US, you can get it through Walmart for slightly cheaper, but still expensive. Several online baby stores sell it cheaper and I've been watching their prices. This weekend one of them put it up for $99.00! I googled coupon codes for their site and also found a $10 off coupon so I ordered it for $89.00! With the shipping it's only costing us $102.81...take that Target and Babies R US! I'm so completely excited about this swing! Now watch...she won't even like it! lol. If she just sleeps in it I'll be happy!

Alright, this has been a LONG post...I'll end it with some pictures of the nursery and from shower #2. I forgot the camera at home for shower #1.

33 week ultrasound

Well...it looks like I'm going to have a rather large baby!


I'll be 33 weeks tomorrow and she's already measuring 35 weeks and about 5 lbs 7 oz. I believe the average weight for babies at 33 weeks gestation is 4.23lbs...I'm growing a monster! The tech didn't give me an estimated length since she said she was so squished in there that it was hard to get that at this point, but did mention that she had really long legs. Everything about her was measuring 35 weeks, her head circumference, leg length (actually 36 weeks there), abdomen, and arms. Brandon is of course holding out that this means she's going to arrive early, which who knows, but I'm trying to not get my hopes up! Her heart rate was 132, so it's starting to comedown a bit, which is normal at this point, plus she was sleeping at that point and their heartrates are higher when they are awake.


She was pretty sleepy the whole ultrasound and like all the others kept her hand up over her face so it was hard to get some decent shots. I have two to share though, she has some chubby cheeks already!





The solid circle above her nose there is her hand on her forehead. I bet she'll sleep like that after birth! And she definitely has Brandon's nose, mine is MUCH bigger, Brandon's is nice and small and round like hers. (yay for that!)

Belly Pictures!

Just a quick post, I'll have to update on the shower and the painting later. I just wanted to show off these pictures!