She's Here!

YAY! The wait is FINALLY over and Isabel is now a big sister. Addison Emma was born on January 25 at 6:04 PM. As you may know, I was due on February 9, but Addison has been measuring big since the 19 week ultrasound and her large head was causing much concern to Dr. G as well as the specialist he sent us too. Because Isabel was born with Anencephaly, we run the risk of all of our children having some form of neural tube defects like Spina Bifida, all the cephalies, cleft lip/pallet, clubbed feet, etc. In Addison's case, her head measurements concerned our regular doctor because they indicated that she might have a condition called Hydrocephaly, or water on her brain. But, after a trip to the specialist, we told that her brain appeared to be healthy and that his concern was that I wouldn't get her out without a c-section because of how big she was.
So, from 32 weeks on, we worried that maybe the specialist was wrong and there really might be something wrong. We worried that she wouldn't come out sooner rather than later and as the due date got closer, Addison got bigger and bigger and bigger. By our 37 week appointment, the doctor was estimating Addison's weight at 8 1/2 pounds. And, if she was growing the average weight, by 38 weeks she would be 9 pounds. Still because Addison went from being breech to head down, Dr. G really wanted me to go into labor on my own in hope of avoiding a c-section. And I was so done being pregnant and worrying that she would be okay that I was begging Heavenly Father to let her be born already.
The days passed by after my 37 week appointment. My mother-in-law's birthday was on the 24th and she had really hoped Addison would be her birthday present. Mark and I hoped so too. However, I had hoped that Addison wouldn't come on the 25th because the Jazz were playing the Lakers and it was the State of the Union Address, so I really wanted to watch both. Yet, the 24th came and nothing happened. As we went to bed that night I was so sad she hadn't come, and so done with the pregnancy, that I didn't think anything of the contractions I was having. That is until they woke me up at at 2:30. I had been having regular contractions every day for 6 days on and off, so when these woke me up I got very annoyed. Seriously? How much sleep can a pregnant woman live without? But when I realized they were getting stronger, I woke up Mark and we started timing them. By 6:30 Mark took me to the hospital and we found out I was already 4 cm. YAY! But, like with my last pregnancy, I had developed polyydrominos again and again the doctor wanted to break my water in a controlled setting so we could insure that Addison wouldn't go into distress. So we did that and then, of course, he HAD to put me on pitocin because my water had been broken, blah, blah, blah. Then it was I wasn't contracting enough for them, so they turned it up and up and up. Soon the pitocin was up at 24 and I wasn't dilating AT ALL. I ended up getting an epidural because I couldn't handle the contractions without sobbing and right after the epidural went in, the nurse and doctor started talking about a c-section. Great. That is exactly what we were trying to avoid and begged the doctor to turn off the pitocin and just let my body do what it needed since Addison wasn't in distress(surprisingly). But within an hour I was going in for a c-section after 20 hours of labor. Addison was born, totally alert and ready to eat, at 6:04 PM.
Mark and I are so happy that she (1) is healthy (2) came early and (3) is the happiest little baby. She only cries if she is hungry, then she howls because she is "starving" (can't you tell by looking at her?). She really has been the perfect baby for us after the heartache we feel for losing her sister. But we can feel Isabel close to us right now, proud of her little sister.