Alanna's Birth

On the evening of Thursday, July 29th, I started having fairly regular contractions. However, they were easy to talk through, weren't really getting any stronger, and by the time I had taken a shower before bed, they had subsided. Great, I thought, I will get to go back to my class tomorrow! At 2:30 in the morning, I woke up feeling like I had peed myself...sorry, too much information, I'm sure! With the other 2 boys I had never had my water break on its own, the doctor had always broken it for me, so this was a new, and very strange experience.

We got up and called the hospital right away. They questioned whether or not it was my waters...not sure why, I don't regularly pee myself, but anyway, we headed to the hospital after taking the boys to Leia and Ryan's house.


Here I am, nervously waiting....

After 2 hours of walking the Labor and Delivery floor in the middle of the night, my contractions were actually subsiding again! I felt ridiculous. If my water hadn't had broken, I would still be home waiting for the contractions to get more strong. I think that I was only dialated to 1 cm.

Finally, Dr. Hintz started pitocin and that's when things started happening. Slow at first, and then very, very suddenly!! I swear it took me FOREVER to reach 3 cm, but then I think I went from 3 cm to 9 in only a couple of contractions. I got an epidural, which only numbed my left leg and by the time the anesthesiologist tried to fix his mistake, I was ready to push. Dr. Hintz was doing a D & C procedure...I heard him tell the nurse that he would be done in 10 minutes and he would be back. Ha! He almost missed my delivery! Adam and the nurses were actually trying to get me to NOT push....seriously, NOT push??? Come on people, there isn't any way you can NOT push.

And here is the result, I'm finally writing about it:) Alanna Rae Thilges was born on July 30, 2010 at 1:20pm, 5 pounds 15 ounces, 19 inches long. What a dolly! :) She wasn't due until August 18th, but I would going to be induced on August 5th.

Her face was covered in angel kisses, or stork bites as others would call them. Adam said she looked like Wolverine. Nice daddy. They have already faded quite a bit.

Aunt Kate with cousins Gabbie and Paxton.

Aunt Jamie.

Big Brother Bennett.

Big Brother Ethan.

Leia and Ryan's daughters, Delphina and Arabella.

Aunt Brooke.

A proud daddy and his little girl.

Nana Thilges.

I can't believe I have a beautiful daughter to love. How blessed can I get??!! Thank you God, allow Adam and I to raise her to know how fearfully and wonderfully made she is. She is a gift from you.

35 Weeks Along!

I had a doctor's appointment today, no ultrasound, but I will add picks of my belly later.

Alanna is now lying transverse (sideways) in my uterus. I said to Dr. Hintz, "Oh good, this means that she is just slowly making her way head down because last time she was breech!" Dr. Hintz sarcastically just told me that I can think what I want, but now that she is transverse it will just be easier to turn her later! Due to her sideways position, I am not measuring correctly, but how could I be, right?

Her heart rate was 152 and my level of antibodies due to the Rh sensitization remained at 1:2, no change, which is great news!!

Dr. Hintz moved my ultrasound up a week (7/22) and said that he will also check my cervix again next week...he typically does not do this (he thinks it is pretty pointless), but he is going to make sure I am still not dialating at all since he will probably have to turn her head down eventually.

Please pray that she turns head down. I'm scared of the pain of him turning her again! Would I rather have a c-section, no, but it just REALLY HURTS!

33 Weeks and Ultrasound

Yesterday started my 33rd week of pregnancy with Alanna. We celebrated with another ultrasound. :)

Now that I have also been Rh sensitized, which means I am building antibodies against the pregnancy due to Alanna's blood being a positive type and my blood being a negative type and somehow they came in contact with each other, Dr. Hintz is examining the blood flow in Alanna's brain more closely to watch for anemia. It is extremely rare for this to happen randomly in a pregnancy without having experienced bleeding, and the majority of women with a negative blood type recieve RhoGAM around 28 weeks to prevent this from happening. I have officially decided that if there is a statistic, a percentage, a probability...Adam and I will break it!

Anyway, so far so good, the blood flow in her brain is as it should be. Her limbs are now measuring 7 weeks behind and her heart looks the same as it did the last time. Alanna had the hiccups for a good portion of the ultrasound so it was difficult for Dr. Hintz to look at her heart. He is not concerned at this time but will check again.

Alanna is breech right now, so we will have another ultrasound at the end of this month to see if she has turned head down. Dr. Hintz turned her (OUCH!) but by the time I got home she had turned back again. I have her head in my lungs! He will try and turn her again at 37 weeks if needed, otherwise I will need to have a c-section. I am praying that she does the right thing- make a good choice Alanna! ;)

Now for the important part, pictures!

Look at her big, pouty bottom lip. She is so beautiful, I'm getting so excited to meet her.

The umbilical cord is covering her lips in this picture and her hand is up by her face too:

I have gain 19 pounds so far, almost double what I did with Benne over his entire pregnancy, we are doing great! Well, everything I eat gives me heartburn, but hey, at least I'm able to eat!!

Okay, this is a first for me...I am going to show you my bare belly. CAUTION: You may want to put on some sunglasses at this point in the post as it is blindingly white:

Thank you for continuing to pray for Alanna. I can't wait to meet this precious gift that God has created.

29 Weeks and Ultrasound

I am 29 weeks pregnant today and we got to see Alanna. Yes, her name is Alanna Rae. I am SO BEHIND on posting, I feel like there are a million things I have forgotten to blog about!

We chose Alanna Rae because Alanna (A-Lon-na) is my middle name and Rae after my Grandma Whitesell's middle name. There are several meanings that I have found for the name Alanna, but my favorite one is "precious". She is a precious gift, that is for sure.

Our ultrasound went really well today! Dr. Hintz measured my amniotic fluid right away. They measure this by centimeters. There are typically 4 pockets of fluid that surround the baby. In one pocket alone today I had DOUBLE the amount that I had total at the end of my pregnancy with Bennett. Right now it is looking normal and healthy...thank God!

Her limbs are all measuring 4-5 weeks behind. I looked back at Bennett's measurements at around 29 weeks and they were all 5-6 weeks behind. They are very similar little babies. She is estimated to be around 2 pounds right now.

Her brain and heart look great. Dr. Hintz can still see that one of her heart valves is a little bit thicker than on the opposite side, but the blood flow is very good through her heart so he is not concerned at this point.

I didn't get any pictures. I know!!! She is so beautiful too, so pretty. It is my fault for not asking for any, he usually gives me plenty, we were all just so focused on looking at her, I forgot to remind him.

I am continuing to grow, I have just felt so much better this pregnancy than with Bennett. On numerous occasions during a meal, Adam will just look at me and say, "It is so nice to see you eating while you are pregnant! Do you realize you didn't eat very much when you were pregnant with Bennett?" I only gained 10 pounds total during Bennett's pregnancy and I know that I am WELL BEYOND that with Alanna. I think I am as big as I was at 9 months with Bennett as I am right now!

I will go back in 2 weeks for another appointment (I can't believe I'm in the 2 week check-up zone!) and then 2 weeks after that I will have another ultrasound (June 30). She will be here before we know it.

Breathe

On Monday we had an appointment for Bennett at the University of Iowa Hospitals with Dr. Trapane, a genetics doctor. It was his yearly exam with them. They did a skeletal survey, which is basically x-rays of his entire body, in the morning, and then at noon we met with the doctor.

Once again Bennett continues to stump everyone! His bones look completely normal, nothing has changed over the past year. Praise God! They did an upper to lower segment ratio (measure from hip to toe and compare it to his arm span) and it is 1.6 with the average at his age being 1.53. At our last appointment in Iowa City his ratio was 1.9, so he is actually become MORE proportional over time. The doctor also feels that Bennett's upper-arm length looks shorter because he has big biceps:) He is our little muscle-man! They were very happy with the way he is growing. He weighs in at 23 pounds, 11 ounces (7th percentile), 32.5 inches (13th percentile), with a head circumference of 46.5 cm (10th percentile)...a peanut, but such a cute one!

We had a long discussion about the fact that the baby I am carrying now is showing the same signs that Bennett did. Dr. Trapane says that obviously it must be something that is being passed down in a recessive manner through our genes. This means that all of our children have a 25% chance of having whatever this is, and Ethan has a very good chance that he is a carrier of it. Of course, it takes just the right two people to come together to make these genes show themselves, and Adam and I are the right two people. We have the exact same genes that have a change in them that is creating this in our kids. Make sense? The stumper is, we don't know what it is! She says that the majority of children with skeletal dysplasias have a change in their bones that can be seen in x-rays. For example, the hip bones in children with achrondroplasia are actually shaped a little bit differently. THEY SEE NOTHING DIFFERENT IN BENNETT'S BONES!! :) This can change as Bennett continues to grow, but we just wait and watch...we are completely at peace with this.

On Monday, we also had an ultrasound with my OB, Dr. Hintz. This is the longer ultrasound that he typically does at 20-22 weeks. I didn't even know what to think, what to expect. When Bennett was inside of me every ultrasound we went to held grim news, and it only got worse the closer I got to my due date. This was not the case today!!!!!! Praise God!!!!!!!

The fourth ventricle in her brain that was dilated is, "unremarkable", nothing to really comment on anymore. Dr. Hintz said that it isn't even something that he would recognize as abnormal in another baby. It has shrunk down so much from 4 weeks ago.

There is still fluid around her heart, but NOT EVEN NEAR the amount that was there last time. He said the only thing that he can see that may be causing it is that one of the ventricles is a little thicker on one side, causing the blood on that side to flow through slightly faster than on the other side. There is great blood flow through it, so he is not overly concerned. He is going to continue to watch it.

Her arms and legs are measuring around 3-4 weeks behind. However, her bones look nice and straight. Everything else looks to be growing just as it should be. AND, I will only have to deliver in Iowa City if something changes with her heart.

Here are some ultrasound pictures of our precious baby girl that is a special gift from God.




Isn't she just gorgeous! :) Ethan, Bennett and this little sweetie are made just the way God wanted them to be made. I am going to be the proud mom of 3 beautiful children soon. Regardless of how short or tall they are, or what struggles they may face, I know that God has a plan for each of them.

Psalm 139: 1-18

O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.

You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!

Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake, I am still with you.