32 weeks...

Today, I am really ready for this baby boy to be out of me... he hurts! He is the size of a head of lettuce... and I have to say that I feel like he's more like the size of a giant beach ball... cause that's what my stomach looks like. Normally I wouldn't opt for a serious blog... because there are many fun things I could blog about... But, those will wait for another day I suppose... today as I was thinking about baby boy Link being outside of me I had my momentary, hormonal pregnant moment that hits me every once in a while and I teared up looking at my sweet baby girl asleep next to me and thought that it would change her world so much more than I could imagine. I am so very excited to be able to give her a sibling but I know that it will be very different for her little world for me not being free for snuggles all day long, or coloring at the drop of a hat or picking her up constantly because she's a little spoiled :)

She just turned 18 months on Sunday and we celebrated by making her waffles, well, +Marty made the waffles and I ate them... he did a fantastic job! But that's besides the point... back to my hormonal pregnant point... I started thinking about HER birth... and the birth story that I never wrote down... it was probably on purpose that I never wrote it down... I started to many times and just could never finish. But now with another birth on the horizon I figure that I should write it down so I never confuse the two... can that happen?

Gabriella was born on a Sunday afternoon, after a looooonnng night of waiting. We were living in Baltimore but my hospital was in Annapolis, I don't think I have ever seen Marty so stressed out driving that 45 minute drive (but let's be honest, between my screeches of pain and the insane construction on 97 who can blame him??). He even called the State Patrol at one point... praise God we made it to the hospital at all! We called the friends and family and they staked out in the waiting room... looking back we should have let them all sleep... but the damn midwives told us at 8pm that we'd be parents by midnight... they lied. All night long they kept giving us 3 hour increments that our girl would be born in, finally at 8 am I told them to stop telling us when (note: don't get a pregnant girl's hopes up!). Things went south around that time though... Gabriella was a face presentation baby, and we knew that, but they were hoping that she would turn face down by herself. But around mid morning her heart rate dropped from 160 down to 70 and nothing would bring it back up... I will never forget (or maybe I will, hopefully I will) having a swarm of midwives and doctors in the room, talking like we weren't there about c-sections and possibly getting her out soon if nothing else worked... they decided to try putting me on oxygen to see if her heart rate came back up... I don't think I have ever been so scared in my entire life... for 40 weeks we had waited to meet this little person and there she was inside of me, trying to get out and she couldn't. Marty just looked at me and said "calm down, she needs you to calm down and breath." That's why husbands (especially mine) are the best. Not one doctor or midwife said that to me... and as soon as he said it, I snapped out of my own fear and concentrated on her. Slowly, slowly her heart rate came back up and we were 'back on track' to start pushing... now ladies, you know... pushing feels like eternity. I think I pushed for three days, but really they tell me that I only pushed for about 3 hours. I'm just saying... it felt longer! Because she was face presentation, she had a hard time coming out... hard for her, and hard for me... I remember at one point telling the midwife that she better get her out of me soon, and I didn't care how. Marty, who hated the midwives, said at this point they were sitting in a bed of daisies while waving incense around my hooha... I don't remember if they did or not... but finally after 20 hours of labor and 3 extra hours of pushing our little girl was here...

same open-mouth sleep as above

There's more, there's always more... but for now that's all I can think of... she was worth every single minute of labor. I think the women that tell you that you forget about the pain completely when you look at their sweet little face are either taking drugs or didn't actually go through labor. I look at her face and I remember the pain... but it's a pain that brought forth a beautiful new life... something that was honorable and life-changing. Gabriella Sophia Mariae Link came into the world on Sunday, September 30th at 12:36pm, weighing 8lbs, 8oz and was 20 inches long...

Today, 18 months later, Gabriella is a whooping 22lbs and 33 inches long... and our biggest joy to date...

So we're almost there... almost to 40 weeks and with lots of changes coming up in our lives I figured that I would just spend every second of these next 7 weeks and 5 days cherishing my life as it is...