Let's begin where we left off... about 20wks pregnant.
We're having another GIRL!!
As most of you know, we've alway had trouble finding girls names we like. We come up with something individually and the other doesn't like it, and back and forth we go. We finally agreed that we both liked Sophia Lynn. It was different then what I thought I'd like, but the more I thought about it the more I loved it. Then suddenly it hit me. We had some friends at church who had a little boy around the same time we had Savannah, but at first they were told he was a girl. I was pretty sure, after having the thought that they were going to use Sophia for him, and now that they were pregnant again with a girl, they were going to use it. I was so bummed.
I had always overlooked the name Ava because I knew an Ava that kind of drove me nuts! I also kind of liked Brooklyn, I didn't like brooke by itself, and brooklyn didn't seem like a middle name. I decided to write a list....
here's what it looked like.
Ava
Brooklyn
Hmm...I looked up the meanings of both names.
Ava= filled with life
Brooklyn= small stream/ of the waterfall
then it hit me...life of the waterfall. Ava Brooklyn! I loved it, and Joey did too!
Fourth of July weekend came along and we had a lot of fun things to do. Friday Night we took the kids to the Drive In for the first time, we saw Toy Story 3 and Prince of Persia. Both girls fell asleep close to the end of Toy Story, but Kyah woke up and ended up watching the whole "princie" movie. (as she called it)
On Saturday we packed up some sandwiches and juice, and went and spent the day at the pool. Another Fun day in the Sun. Kyah was especially excited to swim, and even tried out swimming with just arm floaties!
On Sunday July 4th, we went to Church...
After Church we had a potluck, bbq'd and enjoyed fireworks!
I love this picture, because it captured a "moment" between me and Kyah!
Her excitement for the sparklers, my excitement for her!
After everyone left, we set up our tent, and I went with Donny to pick out a movie and some candy for the kids. Donny and Chloe camped out with us at the church. We projected a movie onto the side of the shed, ate candy, and enjoyed our campout. Well some of us did. haha I was thoroughly squished by Kyah and Chloe on an air mattress that quite easily deflated. Unfortunately we were having so much fun, we didn't take any pictures. (oh, and we were tired!)
The next morning, Dayna, Gracie and Everett joined us as we packed up, and we all headed to the River. Boy was it HOT!!
We walked, and walked, and walked...
Until we came to a nice spot at the river...the water looked SO inviting! Some ducks and geese decided to pay us a visit, and we fed them some goldfish crackers, it was quite amusing watching the ducks eat "fish."
We walked back to our cars...
And decided to go to Old Sacramento, where we went on a Scavenger hunt.
We took pictures at each of the clues... ( I won't post ALL of them)
I wasn't in many pictures as I was usually trying to find some shade, a drink, or a place to sit. It was tough on me! It looks like a great time, and the kids had fun, but it was Extremely Hot out, and it was a hard day for me. Bitter-sweet, memories.
The next day I was visiting with my Mum, I had spent the day with her, and as she was driving us home I told her I was having weird crampy pains. I said they didn't feel like contractions, maybe I just needed a drink. When I got home I had a big drink of ice water, and laid down. Mum kept an eye on the girls while I tried to rest. We decided we would go meet Dad at our favorite Thai place for dinner, but it turned out dad wasn't feeling well. So we just went by ourselves. Joey was going straight to Baseball from work.
On the car ride I kept thinking they are getting better, maybe the pains will be gone by the time we get there.
As soon as I got out of the car I doubled over in pain, mum asked if I was ok, and I said I'd be fine. As soon as we got in there, I had a drink, and then I went to the bathroom. I picked at my food, and tried to drink, but the pain was getting worse and worse. I kept going to the bathroom, so I could just cry and double over in pain. I was SO scared. At one point I was sure I was going in to labor, and I knew it was way to early, I cried out to God over and over to preserve my baby. I kept saying I don't want my baby to die! Our original plan had been to go visit Baby Maya in the hospital nearby, now the debate was whether mum should rush me to sutter hospital or make the drive to kaiser.
Mum rushed me to the hospital. They found I was having contractions, and that I was severely dehydrated! I guess the little I had drank all weekend, plus the constant activity and hot sun took it's toll.
They decided to give me an IV bag of fluids. How fun! IV's and I do not mix well!! They got me hooked up, and got the fluids started. Joey arrived sometime after that. I was so glad to see him. I filled him in on everything, and he was glad to hear the baby was ok. We were both tired and ready to go home. So we waited for the bag to be done. When it was done they let me up to go to the bathroom and test again to see if the dehydration was any better. During this time I also threw up in the toilet. Blah! They said I was STILL severely dehydrated, so they would be starting another bag of fluids, this time sugar water to hopefully help it absorb better. They also ordered reglan for the nausea, (which never helped me) and zofran (my go to med!) I was SO relieved when they came because I felt on the verge of throwing up. The nurse put the meds in the IV and said "I hope they help", she turned and walked away, and I threw up all over the side of the bed and floor. So much for helping! haha
The nurses sent for a cleaning lady, and she came in muttering and venting about how she's not supposed to clean that cos it has pieces etc.. GROSS! It was quite irritating, what am I supposed to do. The nurses were irritated that she was "venting" in front of a patient, and handled the situation greatly, and helped me feel better. They decided to keep me over night and give me another bag of fluids over a slower time frame. The nurse that came in to look after me over night was none other than the famous "Nazi nurse" from Kyah's birth!! I looked at Joey, he looked at me. We nodded...It was definently her. She was very to the pint and let's get things done, so in THIS situation, it was ok. I told Joey she's lucky I'm a nice, forgiving person. Cos she caused a lot of trouble in Kyah's birth.
They sent me home with a diagnosis of severe dehydration and hyperemesis. NO KIDDING!
On July 23rd, we had a wedding to be in...my sister in law and good friend. We had lots of fun, preparing, getting ready for, and being in the wedding. (I even made the flower girls baskets). My hubby made us proud performing his first wedding! :) All for his lil sis.
And then...we headed off for Australia! Yep, me almost 8 months pregnant, with two toddlers in tow. And our trip was non-stop!
Right after we got there, Kyah started getting sick, then Jojo, and then it hit me. (Joey seems to be immune to these things!) So we tried to do a couple things the first few days that didn't require visiting with people.
Like driving down the coast...
Enjoying Fish and Chips...
Visiting the Wildlife Park, and seeing the pure joy in my girls faces...
And then we visited Precious Family...
The girls found the bead things I made as a child at Auntie Dossie's.
And friends...
We went to the city, and Taronga Zoo...
We did all kinds of things...
About a week or two after we got back from our big trip, I started feeling "tightening feelings" in my belly, quite often I would feel my belly and it would be so hard, I didn't think much of it at first. On Sept 10th, i spent most of the day busy with my girls, but by about lunch time I realized I hadn't get much movement, but my tummy was rock hard! I did the whole drink juice lay down on your side thing, and didn't feel any movement for an hour or so. I eventually thought I felt a movement or two...but it was WAY less then what it should have been and by then I was worried. Ava was normally VERY active. So we decided to go the the hospital just in case. I always end up going to the "better safe then sorry" motto!
Joey drove to the hospital and I was going through a million scenarios on the way, we tried to lighten the mood joking that she would start kicking and moving as soon as we got to the parking lot, but he didn't. Well I got all set up in L&D and they notified me that I was having contractions. They asked me if i felt them, I said that I did, but it just felt like tightening. So I didn't realise they were contractions. They gave me some ice water, they wanted me to drink the whole JUG. As soon as i started drinking Ava started kicking, plus she was kicking the tummy monitor a lot. (ouch) SO I don't think she liked that being there. I drank TWO pitchers of ice water. And after checking everything out decided to send me home. Since I wasn't in labor or anything.
About 5 days later the cntx were still going on and were starting to hurt more. I kept trying to wait it out, but decided I better go in, just in case. Plus they were getting painful and tiring! (try having your stomach muscles involuntarily contracting all day every day for a week.) This time they hooked me up to the monitors, and saw contractions again, they decided to give me meds to stop the contractions, but they couldn't try them and see if they worked, because I had driven myself. So I picked up my prescription and went home and took it. Finally, some relief. The meds stopped the contractions. But we also realized that the meds made me feel very weird. At first I felt all heady and dizzy, then I felt like I needed to run around crazy... These were anti anxiety meds. Go figure! My husband thought it was funny as I was writhing around the bed moaning and saying "whaaaat's wrong with meeee?" He would laugh and say, "you're high" Very funny! Needless to say I decided I did not want to take those anymore. I did have to take them a couple times, when the contractions felt really bad, and I warned Joey before hand. lol "I'm gonna go take one of those crazy pills, just so you know"
When I explained to my midwife the effect the meds had on me she said not to take them anymore. She also said that it seemed like I had an irritable uterus and would probably continue to have contractions right up until delivery, she was encouraging and hopeful that the contractions would help prepare my body for labor. I was hopeful that it would mean a quick labor. (Boy was i wrong!)
In the midst of all this we had Kyah's third birthday to celebrate!
Kyah, Savannah and I went to Fairytale Town on Kyah's actual birthday, Sept 22nd, it's becoming quite the birthday tradition for Kyah. (She spent her first birthday there too)
On the Saturday after her Birthday we had her Ladybug Party, with her PINK ladybug cake. It was all she talked about looking forward to the party, and after! Bonus points for mommy!
Pass the Parcel...
Food...
Making Ladybug cookies... (with Aussie "biscuits")
THE Pink Ladybug Cake!!!
The Gang...
Gifts...
And one very tired pregnant momma...
On October 2nd I was back in L&D after having strong painful contractions all day! I was scared. The only clue they had given me on previous visits was to come in if they got worse, and they had. They did the usual drink water, check cervix etc. They even did a quick ultrasound to check the fluid levels and said that they were good. ( I wish they had looked at the CORD!) They gave me a shot of terbutaline, which my midwife described as "it will feel like you drank a whole pot of coffee" Nice...I don't even drink coffee. :) It just so happened that MY midwife was there that day, she works one saturday a month, and each wednesday at the hospital in L&D. I was so glad she was there, and she got to see first hand how even after the meds, my contractions were still going strong. They started to space apart a little as time went on, and they felt it would be ok to let me go home.
Here's an excerpt from my pregnancy journal on Oct 8th:
Having cntx all the time, sometimes they are super strong and painful. Feeling so done with all these cntx, but also hoping Ava waits to come til term. 2 more weeks at least til then (37wks). SO exhausted physically and mentally!
On Oct 18th, my midwife appointment went well. Everything was fine. (other than the constant, annoying, painful, exhausting cntx!) We were hoping at that point that I would have an easy fast delivery! (once again, little did we know) She also told me "just gotta make it to your next appointment, after that hopefully we'll be having a baby"
On October 22nd, I was cleaning like a mad woman, I believe it's called ...nesting! I wanted everything to be spotless if I went into labor, so despite my constant contractions I cleaned like crazy. (just so you know, I rested as much as I could during the day, and Joey let me go lay down while he looked after the girls usually at night) We al went to Joey's basketball game that night. I was having such strong contractions, I though FOR sure that I was going into labor, I kept putting off saying anything, cos I figured the longer I waited, the closer I'd be to actual labor, and wouldn't have to go to the hospital for another time to be sent home. I had already said I did not want to go back to the hospital to only be sent home again. I had Super strong contractions, for about 4-5 hours, 6-10 min apart...That was a long night. AND I WAS STILL PREGNANT...
This was taken 11 days before I had Ava!! And as Far as I know
it's my last pregnant picture. (maybe ever)
