Update

Today we saw the cardiologist. Caleb is looking great. He has gained weight and is now 19 1/2 inches long and 7.1 lbs. We were super excited to hear that. He is starting on a diuretic medication to help clear out the fluid build up in his lungs, and hopefully ease his breathing a bit. He seems fairly healthy though. It makes it all a little more real, I like having him at home and to pretend that nothing is really wrong, but unfortunately that can't go on forever.

On the other hand, aren't these boys adorable. We've been very lucky to have Amy here this week. She's been taking beautiful pictures of the boys and she has been super helpful. I seriously don't think I could have made it throughout this week without her here mentally or emotionally.

Collin has formed a special bond with Amy and physically has not let her rest from his assaults. I'm sure she'll miss him when she leaves tomorrow.

Here is me and my beautiful Caleb. This is the blessing outfit that he is drowning in. I'm sure it will fit better by the time he is blessed. (Don't mind the morning hair in the picture!) And, speaking of morning hair, check out Caleb's version:

Welcome Home

The boys getting their first look at their baby brother.
Collin has been very involved in helping and interacting with Caleb.

Talin has been a little nervous and stand offish, which has surprised me.

The oldest of three, it's crazy!

Collin is happy to finally have big brother status.

Caleb's first bath in the hospital.

Grandma Cyndee, trying to wake up our sleepy head!

He's coming home, yeah!!

Cyndee and the boys made this adorable welcome home sign. Hard to see with this lighting.

Tom is one of the few men I know that adores this newborn stage. He loves to sit and hold his little boy. And I love to sit and watch them together.

The crazy hair that hangs over his clothes.

The cutest outfit that Aunt Amy sent for him. It's preemie so I don't think he'll be wearing it for too much longer!

We are extremely blessed to be able to have Caleb home with us and to have him doing so well. We appreciate everyone who has had him in their prayers and fasted for his well being. He is a huge blessing and we are thrilled with how beautiful and strong he is. He thrills me with his screaming, he's definitely a fighter!

He's Here!!!

Caleb Allen Chambers is here!
He was born at 8:43, 6lbs 11 ounces, 18" long.

Almost

So, Megan is dialted to 7 cm and just got her epidural at 8:00 central standard time. Things are going to happen quickly!

Update

So hallelujah, I did not have to have an amniocentesis this morning. I've been full of nerves over this, but woke up with a surprising calm this morning. At the appointment they scanned my belly with ultrasound for a pocket of fluid to do it in, and found that my amniotic fluid was really low. So the doctor came in and took another look and said, well, we can't do an amnio today!
My heart literally sunk because I thought that meant I was being sent home and would not deliver. But instead her next words were that I'd need to deliver today no matter what because the fluid was so low. Then I was freaking out, is there something wrong that I don't have enough fluid?? Turns out no, that this is actually a natural process of your body preparing to labor, it just doesn 't get caught very often. I guess your amniotic fluid gets low as your body gets closer and closer to delivering. So it's all natural and there is nothing wrong. I'm just excited to meet my little boy today.
Right this minute I'm sitting in my hospital bed in a lovely gown, waiting for my nurse to come in and hook me up. Should be fun. I'll keep you all updated as much as possible.

Four More Days To Go!

Well on Tuesday I broke down. I’m less than a week away from being induced with this baby and I think the stress is definitely there, no matter how hard I try to push it away, it bursts forth at times and I can’t control it.
Tom was working Tuesday night, he didn’t even have time to come home for dinner, its finals week and he’s a ball of stress himself just trying to make it until Friday. So I was alone with the boys, and they had been having trouble listening, just really struggling at minding lately. It’s been frustrating, I’m hugely pregnant, exhausted, and trying to get things ready for Cyndee and baby to come.
So I grilled them out hot dogs and made some macaroni and cheese for dinner. Talin runs to the fridge and starts to get out the jar of pickles. I told him no, not tonight, we aren’t having pickles. My main reason being that I can’t stand the smell or look of pickles, but especially the smell, and especially being pregnant. So he puts them back. But when he puts them back he stacks them on top of other bottles on the side shelf of the door, so when I go to open up the fridge, the pickle jar falls to the floor, the lid pops open, and pickles and pickle juice goes everywhere! It starts to go under the fridge, and into the pantry, so I immediately grab a towel and try to stop the flood of juice as best I can, all the while screaming at the boys. I was so frustrated at this point, and so angry. I yelled at Talin that he would never be allowed to eat pickles again, and he sat there and sobbed, and then I screamed at Talin and Collin to leave me and go upstairs to their room. Then I sat on the floor in front of the refrigerator with the door open and just sobbed while I cleaned up the mess from the pickles. I cried and cried, my shoulders shook, it’s like all the exhaustion and frustration and worry poured out of me. And don’t get me wrong, I also sobbed because of the smell of the pickles, yuck. After awhile I got myself together and let the boys come down the stairs to eat their dinner, I think they were a little shocked at my complete breakdown. Then I called Tom and just talking about the disaster of it all made me cry even more, and every time I mentioned the smell of pickles I got even more emotional. He was so sweet and told me that when he got home that night he would move the fridge and clean up the juice underneath. I’m so grateful to have him; I don’t know what I would do without his continual support and understanding.

And on the other hand, I’m really kind of getting scared for this baby to come. Every mother and father hopes for one thing, and that is to have a healthy baby, and yet here is Tom and I, knowing that our baby will not be healthy when he’s born. It’s very upsetting and difficult to think about sometimes. I try to imagine how it will be when he is born, how he’ll be taken away, and how long it will take before I can see him. I’m frustrated with that. I want to hop out of the bed after I give birth and follow him down the hallway to the NICU. Obviously that’s not possible. Hopefully I can feel more at peace with this when the time comes. I’m trying to think of the positive things, the fact that he’s gained a lot of weight and that will be very helpful for him in medicating him and so forth. The fact that I won’t be pregnant in a week and that will be very nice too. Also, all the help that has been offered and that I’m receiving from my family. I’m so grateful that my mom is here and that Amy and JoDee will be coming as well. I couldn’t do all of this without so much support. They’ll be a huge help.
Now I’m just wondering if it would be too evil to go wake up Cyndee and start the day, she came in late last night and I’m so excited to have her here!

I want my body back.

There I am, early one morning trying to force myself out of bed when the boys come into my room. Of course my pajamas consist of undergarments only, and I've never invested in maternity ones, so they only cover the essentials while the rest of me hangs out in this pregnant state. And that morning I happened to have the covers off of me exposing the frightfulness of my figure these days.

So there are my two little boys standing by my bed, when Talin points to my hip and says, "what's that mom?"

Hello? Don't they know what a hip is? "That's my hip, Tal". Is the obvious response.

Collin immediately pipes in. "That's a big hip mom."

Yes it is. Yes it is.

Isn't that license to stay in bed for the rest of the day?

Labor Pains

With a normal pregnancy I might be feeling very frustrated right now, but not today. Today I feel like I’ve dodged a bullet.
It all started yesterday, the family laid down for an afternoon nap. The boys went right to sleep, which was a pleasant surprise. So Tom and I took full advantage of the uninterrupted time before falling asleep ourselves. The problem was I couldn’t fall asleep. It was around 3:30 and I just felt terribly uncomfortable. Finally I got up and took a bath, thinking that would help to ease my pains, not really acknowledging what those pains were.
Then I went in to wake up Tom and told him I thought I was having contractions. He was pretty sleepy, I felt guilty waking him up. But when I screeched at him for touching my stomach during a contraction, he said I needed to go into the hospital.
I so did not want to go in, so I decided to call the doctor first and see what he said. He was super wishy washy on the phone and pretty much left it up to me on whether or not I should go in. I hate making decisions! So I decided to start making dinner, with Tom’s help of course.
After dinner I laid on the couch and started to realize that they were pretty close together, so on the basis of better safe than sorry we decided to go into the hospital.
Dropped the kids off at a friend’s house and drove to the hospital. You have no idea how annoying pot holes and bad weather are in a car until you drive over them while in labor. Let’s just say that Tom is a very patient man with me.
At the hospital I got hooked up to the monitors and the contractions were intense, coming every three to four minutes and getting harder. Tom and I looked at each other and silently freaked out. Hello! We are so not prepared to have this baby tonight!!
After awhile the nurse decided to check my cervix. With the first try she couldn’t find it, and that’s when I sighed in relief thinking, I’m not having this baby tonight, thank goodness! I didn’t stay happy for long because she called in reinforcements to help her out with the cervix finding. Yeah…not pleased about this one. The second lady looked like a gentle girl that is until she tried to stick her fist up inside me for the hunt! Holy crap! Tom looked horrified, and I just felt violated. In the end I was only at 1 centimeter.
NEVER have I had a pregnancy like this one. After the nightmare of cervix checking was over the contractions slowed down and calmed down and eventually ebbed out completely. I have never had false labor, never not dilated to at least a three a month before labor. It’s all so odd to me.
So we stayed there for another hour and a half to make sure everything was really stopping and then we were released.
Once home I was up several times in the night with hard contractions, but nothing ever picked up consistently and I’ve been perfectly fine since this morning.
So I feel relieved that I have not had the baby, but I’m scared that he’s going to come sooner than Cyndee can arrive. She comes on the 12th, a week and a half, I’m hoping to hold out. Tom is hoping for that too, he’s kind of freaking out. I’m not aloud to do anything today, no laundry or cleaning, he’s so afraid of the baby coming sooner than Spring Break. Can’t blame him though, midterms are a week and a half away. So we’ll see what we can do!