It's a GIRL!!!

I had the 20 week anatomy check sonogram on Monday the 30th of November and found out that we're having baby girl #4! This makes two girls in a row, which I've not had before. I am SO excited. She appears to be healthy in every way, too.



The sonogram technician got some really great shots of the baby for my pictures:

Well, its been a while since I posted our announcement, so I guess I better update on what is going on these days. I am just over 15 weeks and doing well, in spite of my busy schedule of working a full-time job (40 hrs/wk), taking 6 college credits this quarter (Chemistry), along with my work I do for our home businesses and then the home and child care aspects (though I must give Scott and the kids the credit for keeping up on the house chores, etc... they are so awesome to take so much of that load off me! Scott even does most of the shopping and cooking these days, what a man!).

I have found a midwife who has agreed to assist me with a HBA2C (home birth after 2 cesareans) - YAH!!!! She is so awesome! I am also seeing the OB I went to last time for prenatal care so we can keep track of baby and make sure we are both healthy and good to go for a homebirth. The reason I have chosen to go with both options is because my insurance will cover the OB and all testing we want/need and also the hospital birth if its needed in the end, but it won't cover the birth at home with a midwife. In order to save out-of-pocket expenses, my midwife agreed to take a lesser fee for just the delivery and we'll give her updates of my prenatal visits and test results as needed.

I have already told my OB that I intend to have a VBAC this time and that I know that it means I cannot have him deliver me in the hospital. He was not surprised to hear it since he remembered from my last birth how desperate I was to have one and was so devastated when it didn't work out as planned. He suggested I could transfer care to the University of Washington Obstetrics clinic since they do allow VBA2C. My biggest issue is going to be getting past the 42 weeks mark, though, since I always go close to 43 weeks. I told him I was thinking more along the lines of finding a home birth midwife to attend me at home (note that I already HAD found this midwife but she advised me to not let on this to him at this point). He immediately said, "I didn't hear that... I'm going to pretend I didn't hear you say that!" LOL!

I guess if I have to "fire" him in the end to keep from being pressured into another repeat section, I will do that. I would rather not have to though, and know that he is there as a back up if we need it, as the hospital is only 5 miles down the road. I don't know how the hospital administration would view that, though, him having a 42+ week patient refusing to come in for a c-section. I'd be happy to do NSTs again, whatever it takes to convince them all is well with me and baby. This midwife claims to have an induction method she uses when under the gun such as in this sort of scenario, so I'm curious to see if it would work on me when nothing else ever has to kick me into labor!

But I'm not going to stress over the finer points until the time comes to do so. Until then, I'm just going to enjoy this pregnancy, as it was a long time coming. Maybe this one is my last, though I certainly hope not. I'm only 41 right now and always thought I'd be fertile until my late 40s or early 50's.

I had a sonogram at 13½ wks. Its too early to tell what baby is right now but I would sure love another girl, as we're at 8 boys to 3 girls right now. I've already figured out the ratios this one will give us: if its a girl, we'll have 2/1 ratio of boys to girls, but if its a boy, the ratio will be 3/1!

As some of you may have already heard, we are expecting another baby! This will make #12 (in case anyone is counting), so we will get to find out if that old adage "Cheaper by the Dozen" is really true!


The news totally shocked me as I was pretty much thinking we were done since I was well over 1 yr beyond the biggest gap between babies we'd ever had. Savannah just turned 3, so she will be almost 4 by the time this baby arrives. Our biggest gap so far is 2 yrs 7 months, which is between #s 9 and 10, Reuben and Jesse. Since my last 2 babies had been c-sections, I figured perhaps scar tissue had formed and given me a natural tubal or something.

Anyway, my due date (at least that would be given by the medical community) would be April 17, but since I always go at least 2 and sometimes even 3 weeks past, I don't expect baby to arrive before May 1. That is, of course, assuming I can even find a provider that will let me go without cutting me open again, simply because I've had two prior sections! I SO want to VBAC and I think I may even be prepared to go it alone again if need be. Scott isn't quite for that option, but he does know how important it is to me, so I believe he will go along with whatever we need to do.

I have a Christian midwife friend who I have spoken with on several occasions, who has indicated that she would probably take me on if/when I do have another baby. I contacted her this week to let her know I am expecting and so I am now waiting to hear back from her. I guess she is seeking God's will for her in this situation.

I am thinking I may just go ahead and do the standard prenatal care with an OB, just to make sure everything is working as it should and baby is growing healthily. I mean, I *am* 41 yrs old now and expecting my 12th. I'm sure no spring chicken anymore! Not to mention, I weight a LOT more than I ever have before, even when I was full term with each pregnancy - UGH! I need to get more exercise - I sit on my butt at work for 8 hrs a day!

Speaking of exercise, I went to the city pool and swam twice this week, it felt so good!! Hopefully I can keep that up once school starts back up in late Sept. My schedule is always so full though, between work, school, homework, trying to get enough sleep, trying to maintain some semblance of family life, home business stuff, etc.... I recently took on the night shift at work, from 9pm - 5:30am, because I am allowed to do homework between calls, since it is like 45 mins to 1 hr between calls most of the time.

I hope I will be able to find time to update here regularly, so if you have any friends who you think might be interested in following along, feel free to share the link. I did a pregnancy journal once with baby #8, Charles, and by the end had over 150 followers. That was really fun. If I missed a week updating, I'd get like 10 emails requesting I get to it - lol! Not sure how often I will be able to this time, we'll just have to see.

Just wanted to share a recent pic of the family taken Friday, July 24, 2009 - the sun was low and right in our eyes, so everyone was squinting.

Just wanted to share this really timely pro-life ad....