So it was a little debatable how far along I was. I was either 38 or 40 weeks depending on which doctor you spoke to. I was okay with either because although I was uncomfortable and wanted to meet the little one, I was kinda starting to enjoy being pregnant (maybe because I knew it was almost over). Here is a little summary of the week leading up to the birth. Sunday I woke up to blood. I continued on with the day, I had stopped bleeding so I didn’t worry about it too much. Tuesday I woke up again to blood. I called the clinic, and they told me to come in in the afternoon. By the time I got there, the bleeding had slowed down, and basically stopped - but I was still super worried because I did not have this bleeding with my first. I saw a doctor I had not seen before, and he bumped up my due date to 40 weeks (based on my very first ultrasound). He did a cervical check and said I was still dilated the same. The nurse checked the baby’s heartbeat, and it was there (thank goodness). The doctor said I was fine, with no explanation for why I was bleeding and sent me home. He said to come in again if there was more bleeding. Wednesday I woke up to a lot more blood (fresh blood, not old blood from the cervical check). I did not want to go back into the clinic because I was not a huge fan of the doctor and I wanted to know the reason why I was bleeding, so I went right into Labor and Delivery at the hospital. They had me fill out some forms and took me to a labor suite. They had me get dressed in a hospital gown, they did a cervical check, and then they put me on monitors to check the baby and contractions. I was having regular contractions for a while, but it was because of the cervical check. After about 20 minutes they then slowed down and stopped. They sent me to get an ultrasound. They checked the baby and the placenta. Everything was fine. They found out that the reason for the bleeding was my cervix (it was adjusting to prepare for labor). It was really comforting to know that that was all it was, but still weird because I did not experience that at all with my first baby. Since everything was good, they sent me home. Friday - Labor Day! 12:00 pm - I had a doctor’s appointment, so I went in and saw a nice new doctor. She checked everything and said everything was going great. I asked her if she could separate my membranes (one of the ways to possibly induce labor). She said she would. She also said that she hopes I go into labor on Saturday or Sunday - because that is when she would be on call to deliver the baby. I agreed, I really liked her so I thought that would be great if she could deliver my baby. After my appointment, I went on with my day. I went shopping, bought some pineapple core, and ate the pineapple core. I bounced on a yoga ball, I went on a walk with Squishy, and I walked/lunged up lots of stairs. I was just feeling uncomfortable, but not any different. 8:40 pm - The evening came and I checked Facebook. I saw one of my friends just had their baby girl. I thought “awwww, she is so cute! Wouldn’t it be so cool if I had my baby today,” then I forgot about it. I showered with Squishy and got her ready for bed. Then I laid down in bed with her to get her to go to sleep. While I was laying there I thought about how I was having Braxton Hicks contractions, and I thought that I wasn’t sure I could sleep through these ones because they were making me really uncomfortable. So after a while - and while waiting for Squishy to go to sleep - I pulled out a timer app and started timing these “Braxton Hicks” contractions. They were kinda regularly 3 minutes apart, but I was confused because the time apart kept getting smaller, and at times would vary by 30 seconds (so I wasn’t convinced they were regular). When they started to be 1 minute apart, and Squishy was asleep, I came out of the room. Husband was playing PUBG with our friend, and I was planning on joining them when Squishy fell asleep. I sat by him for a while breathing through contractions (I was in the zone that I didn’t care what he was doing, and I felt like I was fine), but then I finally decided it was time, and there was no way I would be able to play PUBG tonight. So I got his attention and told him that I think I am in labor, we probably should go to the hospital. 10:00 pm - Husband called our good friend who lives nearby, and she came over right away to watch Squishy for the night. 10:15 pm - We walked to the car, then drove to the hospital (just 5ish minutes away). We parked at the hospital then walked up to the doors to find them locked. Then we realized that since it was night that the main entrance was locked, so we had to go to the emergency entrance. We packed back up in the car and drove to the opposite side of the building where the emergency entrance was. The person at the desk called labor and delivery and had them send someone to come get me. They put me in a wheelchair and told me to wait. This is when contractions started to get worse. I was definitely starting to feel some pain, and sitting was starting to get pretty uncomfortable. All of the calling and waiting they were doing was making me really impatient at this point. The person from labor and delivery finally came and took me upstairs where at the labor and delivery desk where they had me stand up to fill out some paperwork (this part sucked), and then had me walk to my delivery room (also sucked), and then put on a robe (aaalllso sucked). 10:30 pm - The nurse put the monitors on, put in an IV, and checked my cervix. She told me she was dilated at a 7. She told me that she was going to go grab the doctor on call (and told me his name) because the baby was coming sooner than they thought he would. The doctor on call was the one I saw at the clinic at the beginning of the week, who I wasn’t a huge fan of. Once she left the room, the contractions got way more painful, I got more anxious (because the doctor I wasn’t a fan of was going to deliver the baby), and I was able to relax enough (instead of pretending I wasn’t feeling pain because that’s what I tend to do around people) that I just started scream-yelling. My body was surging with so much pain that somehow screaming helped. 10:50 pm? - I felt tons of pain and pressure then an explosion of water. My water broke. The nurse came back in and brought the doctor with her. I tried explaining to them between my very close contractions that I want some pain medicine NOW, that I know I said I wanted to go completely natural, but I wanted something to help it feel not so unbearable and to not feel like I had to scream in front of the doctor and all the nurses. I tried to list off the drug names that I heard of in my birthing class which probably made me sound like a druggie… but they just listened and smiled at me. The nurse told me, “well, you are just two contractions away from this baby, so let’s just wait through those two contractions and then we will talk about pain medicine.” Sure enough, I suddenly started feeling the urge to push. I scream-yelled and the head came out, then not long after, I scream-yelled again and the body came out ( 11:16 pm ). They handed him to me, and I held him while I pushed the placenta out. Husband cut the cord, the doctor stitched up my tear, and then all of the doctors and nurses left. We were alone for the first time with the little baby, and we were so shocked. We were super unprepared because even though it was almost time, we had no idea we were actually going to have the baby that day. I fed our Little Mister, and we talked about him for a while. We soaked in these quiet happy moments after all of the loud chaos of labor. About 30 minutes later, they came back to weigh and measure the little guy. He was 7lbs 4oz, and 19.5 inches (about the same as his sister - 7lbs 2oz, and 19in).

A list of 8 products to help you survive pregnancy, and make you as comfortable as possible.

Our journey from college students, to engagement, marriage, then the long and expensive process of applying for and becoming a permanent resident.

The birth story, and birth photos of our Baby Squishy.

Alternate Christmas gift ideas focused around experiences and time spent with family, instead of toys.

I saw this idea on Instagram the other day, and although they were selling it as a kit, I assume you could put it together yourself (it only requires a Nativity set and a cut out star (or if there is one that comes with the set and it is movable… that works too). Similar to how the Elf moves to different places/does different things every night - with this you have a nativity set and the star, and you move the star every night. The next morning, it is the kid's goal to find the star where it is at in the home, and move the Three Wise Men to that spot. You can do this for the whole month of December. On Christmas morning, the star is placed above the rest of the Nativity set , and then the Wise Men finally get to meet Jesus. It is a great reminder for Children (and parents) of the journey those men had to take to see the Savior after he was born.

So like I said in the last post (HERE) Aunt Flo was a few days late, so I was starting to think something was up… but also, I knew it was fairly normal for me to be a few days late anyways. I had taken a test at 1 day late, and it was negative, and I think I took another one a couple days after with the same result. But the longer it was with no murder scene in my pants I was (surprisingly) freaked out, and worrying that something was wrong with my body - and not actually thinking that I might be pregnant (because all of the other tests said I wasn’t).When husband and I decided we were going to start trying, we went to the dollar store and bought about five of those cheap tests (I always heard they work great, and are soooooooo much cheaper than the other ones you can buy), and then Keishi went with my friend and bought me another more expensive one when I started freaking out about my body doing weird things (not bleeding…), and thinking I was going to die. I decided to save that expensive one for when I was a week late, just in case I needed more of those hormones in my system to have a more accurate result (and husband made me promise to wait a little longer and not take a pregnancy test every day ← basically the real reason).About five days after Aunt Flo still hadn’t come, I broke my promise with husband and decided to take one of those dollar store tests again. Since we share a house with our friends, and my friend was out on the couch doing her homework - I came out and told her what I was about to do. She was excited. Then I went into the bathroom and went through the whole awkwardness of operating a dollar store pregnancy test, and waited a bit. I had seen that even if the second line is suuuuppppeeerrr suuuuuppper faint, it counts as a positive. And after waiting for a minute, my test showed the freaking faintest of lines. Slightly freaking out, I ran out of the bathroom, and into the living room to get the expensive test out of the Wal-Mart bag (because we were too lazy to actually put it away/I didn’t want it in the bathroom to tempt me) and I peed on that stick (so much simpler than dollar store tests by the way). That test showed the extra line, but suuuper freaking strong. I was pregnant! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :DI was so excited I started to run out to tell my friend, but then stopped just about before I turned the corner where she could see me, and thought that I should probably tell my husband first, and turned around and went to tell him first. He was still in bed, but he opened his eyes when I got in the room. I went over to him and said “so guess what, we are having a baby!” his eyes got all sparkly, and he looked at my tummy and touched it. It was basically the sweetest thing ever. He isn’t much for words, but the moment was adorable. Then I ran out and finally told my friend and we both squealed in excitement for a while. :) Everyday Joey~this post may contain affiliate links~