Today is Miriam's official Due date!  Don't know if it means much, since most babies do not arrive on their due date.  But one thing is certain, I am one day closer than I've ever been before to meeting our darling girl.  I had a (final?) visit with the midwives today.  I am 3cm, 70% effaced.  Baby is low and ready at a -2station.  Very similar to where I was with Caleb.  But, I might add that it took more than a week to have Caleb after I made it to that point!  I am measuring really small this week...I am 40 weeks today, but measuring 36 weeks.  This just further confirms that she has dropped really low (no surprise to me! My legs keep falling asleep because she is sitting so low in my pelvis)  The midwife said it will probably go very fast, once labor starts and gave me instructions to head in pretty quickly once I feel consistent contractions (umm...like last night?) Sorry, but I'm not sure I'll know when real labor hits after all the excitement we've had before!  She said if my water breaks, I should head to the hospital immediately. Good to know.    I hope my next post will be pictures of our baby girl!  Both the boys were born on Thursday afternoons, so I'm thinking tomorrow, Thursday April 14th, would make a lovely birthday.  We can only wait and see!

"Mommy, we need to get Coco broomed"
"Umm...do you mean groomed?"
"Yeah; we have two brooms at our house"

I never get bitten by mosquitoes.  Well, maybe a few times a year...but it's quite a rare event.  I've been told that people with low iron are seldom bitten because the female mosquito is seeking iron rich blood necessary for making and laying her millions of eggs.  Since my blood has always been iron deficient, I've been lucky enough to avoid most bites.  But tonight, while standing and talking to the neighbors, I got THREE mosquito bites!!  Wow!  I think my iron levels must be on the rise   Just in time too...I'm due on Wednesday!  Thank you God for mosquitoes...a reassurance that you are at work even now to make this delivery go well. 

Anywhere I go, people see the belly and ask "How are you feeling?"  My response is always the same: "I'm tired!"  Fatigue at this stage of the pregnancy is normal for anyone, especially chasing two young boys.  It's hard to know which part is related to normal pregnancy fatigue and which comes from the anemia.  One thing I know for sure, though, is that the dizziness and blacking out is definitely from being anemic.  Last night, Aaron was away at a Deacon's meeting and so I was on my own.  I cut the boy's hair, bathed them and dressed them.  I was combing Caleb's hair in front of the mirror when I suddenly felt the room moving around me.  I looked up in the mirror and saw my reflection - ghostly pale face and white lips.  The room lurched again and I immediately got down on the floor.  My vision went dark and I became aware of a loud pounding in my ears.  My head hurt terribly and my arms and legs felt numb and useless, as though they didn't belong to me.  I thought I might throw up. I fought hard to stay conscious.  I lay there for a long time, waiting for it to pass.  Caleb rubbed my back, worried.  "It's okay Mommy...soon baby Miriam will come out of your tummy and then you won't be sick or hurt anymore."  Pretty sweet for a four year old boy   It doesn't normally get that bad.  Usually, I feel it coming on and can drink some juice or eat some raisins and sit down until it passes.  This time, it just happened too fast.  Only six days left until my due date on Wednesday.  Hoping that the end of pregnancy will be the start of feeling better

I thought April 2nd would be a perfect day to deliver...then my in-laws invited us to the beach house that weekend...so I changed my mind and decided that 04/04/11 would look lovely on a birth announcement.  And about midnight of the third, I woke up gritting my teeth in pain with sharp strong contractions.  "This is it" I thought, and tried in vain to sleep as much as possible through the ensuing contractions.  But everything stopped at around 4am, much to my disappointment.  You would think for all the pain and suffering I've been through, I'd have a baby to show for it!  Apparently Miriam didn't want to come yesterday.  I can't wait to meet this little girl and I'm on pins and needles waiting for her to come!  My body apparently thinks I've already given birth because I've had weird things happen that don't normally happen until after delivery.  Such a peculiar pregnancy!  Perhaps God is keeping her in just long enough to get my iron up Meanwhile, my jaw is sore from gritting my teeth and my body is weary from all this false labor.  I'm sure I won't know when to head to the hospital with all these false alarms I've been having!  I did have a dream that we had her on my living room floor...perhaps God is preparing me for that eventuality   Here are some beach pics for the memory book:

It was pretty cold, so I didn't pack swimsuits

But Caleb took Jackson for a walk in the ankle deep water.  Overcome by the cold water, Jackson tripped and got dunked entirely in the water...he was NOT amused!

Caleb, on the other hand, couldn't get enough of playing in the water...

And rolling in the sand!  Is it any wonder we never have clothes to hand down to Jackson?? Caleb has stained, ripped and torn nearly every outfit.  Jackson may be the younger one, but notice how much cleaner he is in all these pics!  Caleb LOVES to get dirty


Here he is, playing in the sand for 1 hour and still so clean!  I love both my boys for how uniquely different they are.  Caleb with his exuberance, dashing in and living life to the fullest.  Jackson for his cuddly quiet temperament, content to sit with us and play.

Some pictures from one of our walks to the park.

I'm not one to judge other runners for how slow they go...I've always been a slow runner myself.  But when the 9 month pregnant lady pushing a 150 pound jogger with two kids and a dog passes you, you must really be out of shape! As Caleb noted (loud enough for everyone to hear) 
"That man is running too slow!!!" 
 

And here is my sweet husband, a wonderful father, reading to his boys.  They don't know how blessed they are to have a father who loves them so much!

I can't believe we've made it this far!  I had spotting at 21 weeks, and four hours of real labor at 34 weeks, but we made it through and here we are at just 13 days away.  My iron still hasn't gone up, so we discussed worst-case-scenario options at my Monday appointment.  Apparently it all depends on how much blood I lose during delivery. A one or two point drop is normal in delivery.  If I drop two points, I will need a blood transfusion.  But the real comfort and blessing is that my dear husband is the same blood type as me! 

He is such a comfort and support to me in this time.  The boys and I have been sick and I am so weary.  We were putting the boys to bed last night and Jackson was all wound up and whacked me in the face with a board book, giving me a busted lip.  It broke me.  I started sobbing uncontrollably.  And my sweet husband is such a warm safety net.  He wraps me in his arms and I feel my whole body relax, all the tension flows out of me.  I thought I loved him when I married him, but now I know and love him so much more than I ever imagined.  He offers to give me a night out with friends...but he is my best friend and I can't imagine spending the evening away from him.  Nobody is as comforting as he is.  I share everything, even my darkest secrets and he still loves me.  I remember how horrible my labor was with Jackson.  How on that Thursday, after two nights of no sleep at all, and feeling poured out and empty, he carried me through when I was spent.  What a neat bonding experience it was for us.  It brought us so close.  Though I could never hope for such a difficult labor ever again, I do look forward to whatever is in store because I know it will only bring us closer.  What a treasure my husband is!  What a blessing to be sharing this life with him

"Caleb!  Why did you take all of the toys out?!!"
"But Mommy!  The alligators are hungry!" 
(what on earth?!)

Three weeks left until D-Day!!  Although, I decided that April 2nd sounds like a lovely day to have a baby.  I talked with Miriam and she's thinking it over   If she agrees with me, that means only 9 days to go!

A few months back, they did a routine blood test and discovered that my iron is really low.  Not surprising, since I tend to be anemic anyway - a condition that is often worsened by pregnancy.  With my first pregnancy, it was low but not too bad.  Second time, they had me on a prescription strength prenatal vitamin with extra iron and still I ended up with iron supplements.  Now, third time around, the prescription prenatal and the iron supplements together don't seem to be cutting it.  They've retested my blood multiple times and despite my best efforts, it hasn't gone up at all...not even a 10th of a point!!  It is still too low for me to safely deliver this baby.

Conventional wisdom says there are a number of things you can do to get extra iron in your diet.  Cook in an iron skillet, eat meat (especially red meat), spinach, nuts, raisins, etc.  All of this is I have been doing.  But for some reason, my body is failing to absorb the iron.  I've been drinking orange juice and upping my vitamin C intake, which is said to enhance your body's ability to absorb iron.  But my last test revealed no change in my iron levels.  My doctor says to take more iron pills.  But considering that it hasn't worked at all, I don't think more is the answer.  (add to that the fact that iron overdose is a leading cause of fatal poisoning in young children, and I definitely think taking more iron is out) 

So, we are just praying that it will somehow go back up and everything will go well through delivery and recovery.  Right now, my low-iron symptoms include weakness, fatigue, dizziness (including blacking out), numbness in my hands and feet, insomnia, depression, etc.  Apparently delivering with my iron low like this could mean greater blood loss, extremely long recovery time, and more severe symptoms like I'm already experiencing.  Not exactly what I had in mind as a mommy of three small children!