Noelle's Birth Part 2

I had one main goal this pregnancy.  Make it past Thanksgiving. The week of Thanksgiving started out like any week during my last trimester...I was miserable and ornery. I had an appointment scheduled with Danielle on Monday morning, but it was snowing and I didn't want to drive up the canyon so I cancelled. I think the weather was actually okay up that direction, but I was really uncomfortable and didn't want to drive that far alone.

Later in the morning I became unplugged :) and the bleeding, cramping and contractions that are associated with that started rather quickly. I generally have my babies within a couple of days after this happens, so I was slightly annoyed thinking I would no longer make it until after Thanksgiving. Although the next few days followed in due course, by Wednesday afternoon, it was clear that the baby's birth wasn't imminent so I trudged up the mountain to the appointment I had rescheduled with Danielle. Paul was home so he came with me and the kids were out of school so I didn't have to worry about carpool pick ups and getting someone to watch Eli.

I basically whined to her in the same manner I had for the last few months and told her how miserable I was and she checked me and said I was a 2 plus. I am not one of those women who walk around dilated for weeks at a time before having a baby, so I was a little disappointed realizing that I most likely would not make it to December, but I decided to take it easy and hopefully keep it in a bit longer. Yes, I do realize I must sound insane not wanting the baby out at this point and while I was done being pregnant, I was not ready for a baby and all it entails. I had made it clear to anyone who inquired(and even those who didn't) about my condition that I was DONE being pregnant...on Dec 1.

After the appointment, I was starving and wanted Cafe Rio(even though I knew it would make a prompt reappearance that wouldn't taste nearly as good), but Paul spied a new place called Freebirds World Burrito and I was feeling generous and non-argumentative for maybe the first time in 9 months so we gave it a shot. Just a little word of advice...when you are 9 months pregnant and have a craving for something, go with it. There is no substitute when you want Cafe Rio dressing on your salad and chips and queso. Paul did, however, leave this contribution to the foil art gallery.

After we returned home, I was more than uncomfortable, but thought we should probably prep food for the following day of gluttony so Paul took the brunt of that on while I took a bath. Still uncomfortable, but with food prep done, I took a sleeping pill and got one last night of semi decent sleep with only a couple of appearances from my Freebird burrito lunch. Asher, however, had had a rough night with appearances by various foods as well.

I woke up the next day feeling the same as before with contractions now coming consistently around every 30 minutes, but they were nothing to write home about. We left poor Asher home sick and went to Thanksgiving at my Uncle Bruce and Aunt Melissa's house where I ate and powered through and made the mistake of mentioning that we hadn't settled on a boys name, but liked Noelle for a girl. I then spent an hour listening to all kinds of suggestions including spelling options for Noelle, No-L being the forerunner. There were also the classics like Burt and Debbie that we have had thrown at us for 15 years with no success.

Upon returning home, Paul, my dad and brothers went to see Interstellar(Paul for the 2nd time) and I took Abbey, Emma and Eli to hang out with my sister-in-law, Lacey, my niece, Fallon and my mom while Claire opted to stay home with Asher. We watched Maleficent and Emma and Eli got Fallon to warm up to them, but she still gave me the stink eye from across the room.

Before we left for my mom's, I had Emma snap this picture and I had a feeling it might be the last one of me pregnant.

Fallon, my brother's little mini, loved playing with Emma, but wanted nothing to do with me.

She also thought Eli was one cool dude.

I continued to have contractions throughout the movie and had to get up to use the bathroom about 5 times, but it wasn't until it was just finishing up around 8:30 that things changed. There was one single contraction that took my breath away and I knew I was in for a long night. My mom offered to drive me home and Abbey was afraid I would wreck the car driving like that, but I just waited for another contraction and then we raced home in between. It's a good thing my mom is just 5 minutes away. At this point they weren't awfully close, about 10 to 15 minutes apart, but I texted Paul to come home straight after the movie...