Ender Alexander

He's finally here!!!! I don't have time, or feel like it, for a long post but I just wanted to post some of the details! We were scheduled for a 7:30 c-section on August 28th. We had to arrive at the hospital at 5:30. We were in the prep room from 5:30 until 7:20. I almost thought that they wouldn't do it on time because it was so late. However, I didn't realize that with a scheduled c-section they'd do the epidural in the operating room. So at 7:20 they came and walked us down to the OR and it went really fast from there. I got the epidural, it went pretty good, and then they put the catheter in which was horrible! And then they prepped me and by the time I was prepped I was numb and ready to go. They started cutting, Randy came in, and they pulled baby boy out at 8:06 am! My epidural was great. I was numb to pain but could always move my toes. With Julietta I was numb from the shoulders down and it was really heavy. This one was just the waist. This means I could feel all the pressure and the prodding but it wasn't so bad. Randy said they had a hard time pulling him out and so at one point there was about 7 hands in me! They also had to use some forsepts on his head to get him out. I think this might have been because he was so low. They got his head out, and didn't even have to spank him he started screaming right away. He was still half in me and was crying! I don't think he wanted to come out yet :) Anyway, they then cleaned him up a little bit. I got to hold him which was wonderful! My arms were not tied down. Then Rands took him to the nursery with the doctor. I was in recovery by 9:00. I stayed there until 10:00. The epidural started wearing off on the right side so they had to get it right because I was feeling pain just on that side. Then I was taken up to my room and within about 5 minutes Ender was brought into the room! I couldn't get him to latch on, so sadly we are on the shield again. I have hope that we'll get off of it in two weeks. I will meet with another lactation consultant than to make sure that happens. But he is doing great on the shield so I'm thankful for that. Oh, Ender weighed 7.11 oz and was 20 inches tall. Almost a full pound heavier than Julietta and an inch shorter! Randy and I had a bet and I won. I thought he'd be 8 pounds and he thought 7.5! He has dark hair too, blue eyes (know these will change!). He also was pretty white with some peeling skin. The doc said they see this a lot with dark skinned babies so I'm thinking he might have my skin ton, but we'll see. Those Librande genes are really strong!
Mom then brought Julietta over. She was a little shocked at first! She's warmed up a lot though :) She likes to hold him, but really likes to look at him and see his eyes! She's struggling a little bit though, so prayer in that area would be much appreciated!
Ender got circumsiced Saturday morning. It went well, but the rest of the day I could not get him to nurse. This was a little frustrating. By Sunday morning he was down to 7 pounds 2 ounces so we did suppliment a little formula through a syringe. I wish we hadn't had to do this, but his health is most important. However, this last feeding he did really well! My milk still hasn't come in, but I have lots of colostrum. I'm hoping that the milk will come in soon.
That's all I can think of for now, but I'll post more later. He's adorable and about the most snuggly little thing ever! We may go home today, or it might be tomorrow morning.
I will post more pictures later :)

38 weeks!

Well folks, we are having a baby for sure this week :) Today is Monday and Friday at 7:30 the c-section is scheduled! I don't have a photo yet, but I promise to take one before we go in to have the exact size I got to! I am nervous. I think I'm mostly nervous just because it's surgery but still the thought of going in and having to get the epidural while not in labor is kinda scary. I would actually love if Thursday night my water breaks so it's more of a surprise but I don't think so. I'm not really feeling anything like labor is near so I think I'll make it till Friday. The cool thing is Randy gets 10 free days of leave and they aren't going to start it until Monday as long as it's Friday. So as much as I'm ready to have Ender I would like to wait until Friday so we get as much time with Randy off as possible!
I have Ender's bag all packed for the hospital. I brought a number of clothes, since we'll be there for a while I think I will most likely want to change him. I have not packed our bags however. The problem is I don't have that many things that fit anymore so I'm wearing them a lot, and they are always getting washed. Mom is coming Thursday afternoon. We have to be at the hospital at 6:00am so I figured by the time Julietta wakes up and mom gets her ready they can just head over to the hospital and we'll be back in the room! I can't wait to see Julietta's face when she sees baby brother :) Randy is going to stay at the hospital with me, but Saturday or Sunday he's going to switch for a little bit so he can spend some time with Julietta and mom can come to the hospital with me.
I'm super excited! It's crazy that it's only 4 days away. I just can't wait to be holding my little baby boy at the end of this week! I know these days are going to go by sooo slow. It's always when you get to the end of things that you can't believe you are here, and at the same time when I realize we found out we were pregnant over Christmas out at Nan and James it seems FOREVER ago!

Prayer Requests:
Ender will be a good eater!
Latching on will go easy!
SLEEP!
His circumcision will go smoothly!
Julietta's adjustment!
Randy and I will adjust to two quickly to get back to being able to give each other the attention we need!

37 weeks and nursery :)

crib with the star wars pics i ordered....
chair with blanket, and an awesome star wars RM painting :)
gotta have bubba in the room right?! and notice the bubba bobble head!
the rug, and the crib, and changing table. i love the boxes. i never had any with julietta and it makes me like the changing table so much more!

and the giant belly at 37 weeks :)

WHAT'S UP WITH US:
well not much is going on! i'm full term which is awesome! at this point he's just adding weight :) i'm very uncomfortable, and in a nice amount of pain, but i'm trying to remind myself that we are almost done. i had a doctors appointment today. met the doctor for the first time. i like him. he's not dr. simpson down in florida but he's nice enough! he checked me because i told him about the contractions i've been having and the fact that i lost my plug, but i'm still closed! when i told randy this his response was just that i don't open :) On "kinda" (i say "kinda" because i'm not sure if it'll really become a problem or not?!) a bad note my antibody tighter has gone up. it's still not high enough to cause a problem yet and they think that it won't get that high in the next week. i have to get it checked again this week and next to see. also in the ultrasound my fluid was a little bit low. i'm not sure what this means. also ender didn't move enough in the ultrasound so his "breathing" movements were low? again, not sure what this means. all this to say is tomorrow i have to go to the hospital to get another nonstress test and again on friday. i see the doctor next tuesday for my last appointment! if all goes as planned at these appointments then the c-section is set for august 28th at 7:30am!!!!!! not too bad, 10 days left. i'm so ready and sick of being pregnant that i keep hoping everyday my water will break, but i'm going to try and get some patience and realize that 10 days is nothing!
other than that, we are just trying to "nest". we have got a lot done, but there still needs to be some stuff. our new couches are coming next wednesday! so super excited about that! julietta turns 3 on friday! i can't believe it. i'll do a seperate post about that :)
i'll keep posting after all these doctors appointments and we'll keep u up todate on everything! pray for patience becuase i'm out of it :)

36 weeks

Well folks we have at max 15 days left of little Ender Alexander in the belly! And boy am I thankful. I am quite done! I feel HUGE, and am in all kinds of pain all the time. I've been having a decent amount of strong contractions everyday, but they always go away in about an hour. I don't have a doctors appointment this week so I don't have anything to report on that. I'll see the doctor on the 17th. This will be the first time I meet him, so I'm hoping that goes all well.

Randy got to come home early! He got home yesterday. I'm so thankful. Being this pregnant and taking care of Jules has been kind of hard. And this way, if something happens early we won't have to worry about getting him home.

I got to go to Maryland this weekend. I was so happy! Everyone got to meet Julietta and I got to see everyone. I wish Randy could've gone with me but we live pretty close now. DC traffic made it a little bit longer, but still close enough to go up for a weekend!

I'm getting pretty annoyed at strangers saying comments about how massive I am. I can't wait for that to be done! I almost hit this woman at McDonalds. She came out and asked me if it was twins, and then when I said no went back and laughed about it with her friend. So annoying. I'm fine with the simple comments of "I bet you can't wait!" or "You must be so uncomfortable." But seriously some of these people might as well just come up and call me fat ass!

Ender is moving a lot these days. I think my fluid level is slowly getting lower and he's getting bigger because of how I can feel him. His room is almost done. I know I keep saying that but I promise I will get pictures up this week! I packed his bag for the hospital in my awesome diaper bag that mom got me for my birthday! So I just need to pack my bag! We are praying that he comes sooner than the 28th, but if not we still don't have much longer to go!

35 weeks

So there you have the belly this week! Still no more weight gain, which I'm VERY thankful for. The less I have to lose after the better! One of my best friends just got engaged!!!!!!! But it gives me another goal to be skinny for :) I have a goal and a timeline that's very reasonable, and I'm excited to get started on it! As you can see the belly comes straight out unlike with Julietta where I was kinda round everywhere! This is great and all, but has given me a couple new stretch marks :(
What's up with us?!
Well, Randy is still gone. Julietta and I miss him like crazy. I am almost done with the nursery! I'm putting up the pictures tomorrow night so next post I'll post pictures! I'm thinking about packing our bags this week just to be ready. I went to fayetteville this past weekend, and that was a wonderful break. Made those 5 days fly by. Mom is coming up here tomorrow and we are going to Maryland on Friday. I'm so excited to see the Saavedra family :)
What's up with baby?!
Well still dropped, obviously! I had the doctor go ahead and check me out today because I've been feeling some bad cramping and am just really aware of that whole area so I wanted to know if it was in my head or something was going on. Well my cervix is closed so no dilation yet, but I am 70% effaced. On a gross note my plug is slowly coming out. And my colostrum came in this weekend. I was super excited about that because that didn't even come in right away with Julietta so at least things in that area are going well so far! The doctor also said she could feel his head during the exam! CrAzY!!!!!! She went ahead and did an ultrasound to check fluid and everything looks great there. She couldn't tell me how big he was exactly, but said that he was most likely still on tract to be a pound or two bigger than Etta.

Well that's it for now, If anything is different on Friday I will post it :)