Doctor, doctor

I had my second ob/gyn appointment in Peoria today. It takes about 35 minutes to get up there, so it's not quite as bad as it could be. My doctor is Dr. Pepperell and I really like her. She's probably in her late 30's and I can tell she loves what she does. She is a great listener and is willing to "work with me" with this pregnancy. I have decided to try a VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section) with this baby and she has given me her full support. There are a some caveats, of course. In a normal VBAC situation there is a 1/200 (1/2%) chance of uterine rupture from the previous incision site. Because my c-section was less than 18 months ago, my odds go up slightly (she guessed to maybe 1% chance). The good news, though- the best indicator of a successful VBAC is a previously successful vaginal birth. I had one of those. Of course we have to take into consideration that Ellie had to be vacuumed out. But she still came out! As long as things go smoothly, there really shouldn't be a problem having this baby as a VBAC. I will not be induced (not interested anyway) and there will be no augmentation whatsoever (meaning no pitocin if by chance my labor stalls). The hospital I will be delivering at (OSF St. Francis) has an on-staff OB and anesthesiologist 24/7, so there is no concern about any of that. I will receive an epidural regardless of my request (duh- I want one!) just so that if there happens to be an emergency the catheter is already in place ready to do the block for surgery. She also stated that I will not be encouraged to do much laboring at home. The sooner I get monitored, the better. They'll most likely do internal monitoring of the baby to keep an eye out for any distress and they'll most likely do internal monitoring of my contractions as well to get an idea of how strong they really are. The external monitoring isn't quite as accurate in that regard. So, as long as the baby cooperates and is presented correctly and isn't too big, I think we'll make a go of it! They'll do an ultrasound around 37 weeks to judge head size and size of baby to give a guesstimate of whether the delivery will work. I'm praying for a successful delivery- one that does not include cutting me open again!!! So that's how all that fun stuff is going.

I never wrote after my first appointment to say how it went. But, we had an ultrasound and the baby (Sarah) is right on schedule with her due date. 2 weeks ago she was around 2 1/2 pounds. Mom and the girls came in to see the ultrasound and Ellie was quite interested in all that. I'm not sure she completely understood what it all meant, but she heard the heartbeat and saw some fingers and toes and that was pretty cool for her. I have some pictures that were printed out- I'll see if I can get those scanned. They didn't turn out too great. The baby is kind of scary looking... but ultrasounds aren't meant to be the greatest snapshots anyway.

Katie is getting closer and closer to walking. She loves to grab hold of your hand in her left hand (not right) and walk all around the house. When she really wants to get going fast she'll take both hands. She looks like a cowboy that just got off his horse- it's really cute. She still insists on waking up at 5:30 every morning. I tell ya- this is the first time I have EVER looked forward to moving my clock forward an hour in hopes it will get her sleeping later. Everyone keep their fingers crossed.

Ellie is growing again. We stuck a pair of size 4 pants on her that actually fit- I can't believe it. It's good we're almost to summer as her shirts are getting shorter and shorter on her. She has learned how to crab walk (her way of getting the attention like Katie gets when she walks). She's actually quite good at it, too. That's a tough thing to do! We've completely abandoned the potty training thing for a few days and we'll see if we can spark her interest again soon.

Steve is doing well. We get to talk on the phone every day. They closed down his Internet cafe, so we don't get to use the webcam until they get another one up and running. That's a bummer- the girls LOVE to see him and of course he loves to see them as well. It's fun to see both the girls get excited when they see his face. "a-da" is what Katie yells out when she sees him.

I guess that's it for now. Mom heads out to Utah first thing in the morning, so Dad and I will be roughing it for a week ;-) She's really excited to go spend time with everyone out there.

I'll try to get some pictures up soon, so you can check back on here or I'll let you know if I get more up on our website. :-)