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Sorry, it’s been a while since I last updated. As most of you know, our baby boy arrived on my birthday, Saturday, July 4th. What a blessed day! The best gift ever, completely unwrapped, placed in my arms at 5:26 am.

As I have previously posted, there was a lot of activity leading up to my actual delivery. I was supposed to be induced two days earlier but that fell through, I had been having random contractions for weeks prior to his delivery, I was carrying so low that it felt as if I were “walking around” him, and I was as big as a barn.

Well, here’s the timeline:

I had a regularly scheduled appointment with my OB on Tuesday, June 30th, at which time my membrane was stripped and I was already dilated to a two, and we discussed all the details of the induction. I walked four miles that  night, hoping to avoid being induced and, subsequently, had contractions five minutes apart for some hours. Thought maybe this was it…nope!  I spent all day on Wednesday, July 1st, preparing for a delivery the next day…exhausting when you can’t even see your own feet!  Got what I though was my call to come in on Thursday morning (July 2nd) but, in actuality, was really being bumped from the schedule…so frustrating!  Walked another four miles and spent a lot of time rolling around on the pilates ball (ooh, so sexy) followed up by a trip to triage at the hospital to have my cervix checked one more time by my doctor. OK, now I’m dilated to a three, am beginning to thin, and she can feel my bag of waters. As I’m driving home from the hospital, I start having contractions, serious contractions, three minutes apart. I’m not even trying to go directly back to the hospital so I decided to wait for them to intensify or for my water to break. Well, that’s not going to happen because, apparently, I’m carrying inside of myself a sac-o-steel. What the heck? This goes on for hours and then…nothing, wow.

Friday, July 3rd. I wake up, feeling normal, no contractions, no leakage, nothing. Four mile walk, here I come!  Look out pilates ball, fat lady coming!  All the while I’m praying that, if it is His will, God will bring my baby into this world as soon as my birthday gets here.

To be continued…

I’m going to make this short cuz my body is really hurting right now. I worked so hard yesterday, getting ready for today, cleaning, packing, preparing. I got the call around six in the morning and was pretty excited, however, they were not calling me in, they were postponing my induction until later that day. Later that day I got another call, this one from my doctor. She wasn’t calling me in either, the purpose of the call was to let me know that I had been bumped. They were apparently really busy and couldn’t fit us in.

“Forget that!” I thought, as I proceeded to call two of my sisters for “back up” on my “get this started” four mile walk. Am I crazy? Well, probably…but I lost my mucous plug yesterday, and I know that I’m close, and these constant yet random contractions are about to drive me nuts…so, maybe out of my mind is more like it.

Ok, back on track, I went in to the hospital, just to have my doctor check me for progress and she found that I was thinning and had progressed to a three dilated. She could feel my bag of waters and she stripped my membrane (gross) one more time. Now I have been contracting all day since then. I am exhausted and in pain and maybe, just maybe, I didn’t need to be induced today anyway. I guess I’ll find that out in the next few hours. as for now, I’m about to take a bath and go to bed. Please keep us in all your prayers for yet another day. I’ll update as much as possible.

I just tucked our twenty-one month old, D’Angelo (D’Lo), into his bed. He was exhausted, we have all had such a busy day, preparing for the last of us to enter the world tomorrow. I’m still concerned with how he’s going to do tomorrow, how he’ll feel without me for so long, and how he’ll feel sharing me every day after that. I rocked and caressed him, took some extra time kissing his tender baby cheeks, running my fingers through his beautiful hair, thanking God for the opportunity to experience his presence in our lives. Then I layed him down, covered him up, and took a good, long look at him, one last time before he becomes a big brother.

Our older kids are just excited. We are blessed to be able to share this with them again, they did so well in the delivery room with D’Lo. When he was born, they so lovingly surrounded me, my daughters holding my legs and coaching like old pros, my son cutting the umbilical cord of his first baby brother. It was truly miraculous. Now as we prepare for the birth of our last child, seems as though they have already worked out all the delivery room details. As Tony got to cut the cord last time, Devaney gets the chance to do the same for tomorrow’s miracle. Destiny, who will never have the opportunity, gets to be the first of them to hold their new brother, and that includes whatever length of time she chooses. They are packing their own hospital bags as I write this. Mine has been packed for a few weeks now.

My precious husband is on his way home from work now. We’re going to cuddle up, and fall asleep watching Gran Torino. Well, he’ll fall asleep, I’ll be plagued by thoughts of what I may have forgotten to pack. Alright, he just pulled into the driveway. I’m about to go hug him and kiss him, and then try to get some rest for our big day tomorrow. Please keep us in your prayers, Antonio, Donna, Little Tony, Devaney, Destiny, D’Angelo, and finally, A’Darius. His day is certainly going to be the hardest of all.

Hey Ya’ll, just checking in like I said I would. Not too much to say, just waiting one more day to meet our newest baby boy. I had my doctor’s appointment today and everything is good. I’m still dilated to two, all the way through. She said she could feel the baby’s head! She “stripped my membrane” which is basically a really gross way of saying that she sort of separated what’s going on inside my uterus from the opening of the cervix.  Stripped…my…membrane…hmmmm, that does sound nasty.  Sounds like something straight out of horror movie, like out of all the ways people are “offed” in those movies, getting your membrane stripped is the one way you don’t want to go. “Look out behind you! Run! Jason/Micheal/Freddie is about to strip your membrane!”

Ok, so it sounds way worse than it actually is…the purpose of this is to possibly stimulate the onset of labor and, so far, has been completely unsuccessful, boo for me. I do have good news though, I just saved a bundle on my insurance by switching to Geico. Just kidding, sorry, all these fake contractions are making me delirious. Really, the good news is that we will be having our little guy on Thursday, that is confirmed. They’ll be calling me in sometime after seven in the morning. Yes, tomorrow will be the last day of this, my very last pregnancy. Bittersweet. I will certainly spend some time alone with my belly, taking mental pictures and putting them into my “Forever Memory” book, as my mama would put it.

Just checking in, and yes, I’m still pregnant! I usually write new posts at night, but my unborn son has been kickin’ my butt! In addition, I am certain that, although my twenty month old baby boy can’t even get a terd into his little “pot pot” yet, D’Angelo certainly understands, senses, and is very disturbed about the fact that something BIG is about to happen here. I’m about to get him out of his bed, cuddle with him, give him some tender kisses and hugs, share some pancakes, strawberries and whip cream with him, and watch a little Elmo with him, all while thanking God for blessing me in abundance.

I have a doctor’s appointment today and will know more about the state of my cervix then. Regardless, my husband and I have opted for our scheduled induction on July second. So, unless this little guy decides to grace us with his presence either today or tomorrow, he will certainly be in my arms sometime Thursday.

I’ll try to check back in with you all tonight…