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Hannah Sex: girl Born: 15 October, 2006 Age: 5 years & 124 days Birthday in: 241 days Starsign: Libra Development: See the 32 months page. Biggest achievement so far: 7-18-10 Hannah is almost 4 years old. Pretty well potty trained, I have to help her at night by waking her up and that`s about it. She has long wavy hair now...never thought THIS day would arrive since she was bald for so long. She talks amazingly well, just needs some more work pronouncing a few of the letters correctly. She can feed the dogs, dress herself, peel her own bananas once the top is popped, and she helps me a ton with her baby brother and sister. She really is a great little helper! She has been testing me with attitude here and there, but the firmer I am with her, and helping her to realize how other people feel and think has helped her and ME through this hurdle. :-)

Hannah is 2.5 years old in these two pictures...

Hannah is almost 2 years old in this collage of pictures...

Hannah has a new little brother!

Meeting her brother for the first time.....Looking in his bassinet........talking to him on his boppy pillow

Giving brother kisses.............Holding him with Daddy

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Five Generation picture when Hannah was 7 weeks old. We flew down to CA so she could meet her great, great grandma. From left to right: Tillie(100 yrs old), Jane(75), Donna(52), Michelle(23), and baby Hannah (7 weeks).

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*****Hannah's first horse ride at 2 months*****Four months old*******Amanda with Hannah and Buddy.

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******Bareback on Buddy*******First Easter 2007!!! (6 months)*******10 months old standing alone

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*12.5 months-tackled Bailey*****13 months with all the dogs*****14.5 months riding her rocking horse*

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Daniel Sex: boy Born: 29 March, 2008 Age: 3 years & 323 days Birthday in: 42 days Starsign: Aries Development: See the 32 months page. Biggest achievement so far: 7-18-10 He just went potty on the big boy toilet for the first time tonight...actually about 5 times, and pooed twice! He was so proud of himself and SOOO cute in his boxer briefs!

Here's our little guy and my best friend's baby. Daniel is 3.5 months and Rebekah is 2 months old in this photo.

Here's a picture of Daniel and my best friend's baby, Rebekah...Daniel is 7 weeks old and Rebekah is only a week old in this picture. She's absolutely beautful, just like her mommy! I'm jealous of all her hair too! She's almost back up to her birth weight already of 8#-5.4oz, her mommy and daddy are doing awesome with her! Daniel is 11#-3oz now and I'm pretty sure he's going through a growth spurt right now by how often he wants to eat all of a sudden. :-)

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(4-30-08) Daniel's hospital stay at one month old...he was admitted for low oxgen levels. The chest x-ray showed that he has pneumonia. We should be able to go home tomorrow morning as long as he does well without having the oxygen on all night tonight. So he had to stay in three nights...poor little guy! And he has an ear infection on top of all the junk in his lungs. He was a month old yesterday...not quite what we thought he'd be up to at this young of an age. :-(

(-: IT'S A BOY!!! :-)

3D Ultrasound pictures from 26.5 weeks. They verified that it's still a boy. :-) I've heard too many stories of them guessing wrong, so I asked alot...just to make sure. :-)

Ultrasound pictures from 20 weeks. Baby was appoximately 12 oz. They changed our due date to March 29th at the ultrasound. We're so EXCITED that it's a boy!!!

Me & my best friend...I'm 21 1/2 weeks in these pics, and she's 15 1/2 weeks along with her little boy or girl!

Amanda and me. I'm 24 weeks in these photos, she's 18 weeks. Hannah was saying hi to her baby brother!

Amanda at 26 weeks, and me at 32 weeks...Charlie's Angels!

Hi there! We just had our second baby!!! Our first baby, Hannah, was 17.5 months when he was born. We wanted a big family so we figured, why wait? Right? :-)

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******Dan with Hannah*****Me with Hannah******

We had our first baby appointment Oct. 3 at Salem Women's Clinic. We got to hear the baby's heart beat for the first time, got all our labs out of the way, and got our ultrasound order so we can schedule it for 20 weeks. Our next appt. is going to be at Salem Nurse Midwives...we figured we'd go there instead of the Women's Clinic cuz of all the legal stuff going on with them. No reason to stay at a clinic that won't be able to deliver our baby. So we'll have to go to Silverton Hospital now for the delivery...hope that goes well. Supposed to be one of the best or maybe even the best birth center in the state. :-)

I started to feel the baby's first little flutters on 10-8-07. I was so excited, didn't quite believe it since it was pretty early, but then I felt it again the next morning and it made a believer out of me. I wasn't just making it up...yay! We got to hear the heartbeat again 10-9-07 over at a friend's house. She has a doppler for her pregnancy. It was slow...125. So as the ol' wives tale goes...that means it's a boy. We'll find out on Nov. 13th what we're having and I can hardly wait!

(10-15-07) It's our daughter's FIRST BIRTHDAY today! We went and got pictures taken of her at Sears and they're SOOO cute!!! Also...My best friend just got a doppler to hear her baby and she invited me over to listen to ours too. The heart beat was faster today, 148...so who knows what we're having? :-) It's all just fun and games to try and guess anyways. :-) It was fun to hear the little squirt tonight, and with us pushing the doppler, I felt a flutter kick back at it. :-)

(10-24-07) We had our first appointment at the new clinic...we met with one of the midwives and got the exam out of the way and got the ultrasound scheduled too. :-) It'll be on Nov. 13th, and I can hardly wait to find out what this little baby is! We let Hannah be a surprise and so we wanted to find out with this one and see which one we like better...Knowing or not knowing. :-) I don't really have any clue what it could be right now. I did have one dream about us finding out at the ultrasound that it was a girl...so we'll see. With my first baby I kept having dream after dream about having a baby girl and so I just KNEW she was a girl...with this pregnancy I've only had the one dream so far...

(10-31-07) HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! We took our 12 month old daughter out trick or treating tonight and then came home and had dinner and watched a movie with my best friend and her husband. She brought her doppler over so we got to hear her baby and then finally found our baby. She's a pro with her doppler, found it right away with her baby and it took me FOREVER. :-) She's letting me borrow it for a couple days to practice up on how to find it. :-) It'll be fun!!! Tonight the baby's heart beat was ranging around 150.

(11-3-07) Heard the baby's heart beat twice yesterday cuz my best friend lent me her doppler for a couple days, then we both got to hear our babies tonight. :-) YAY!!!

(11-5-07) We got to hear the baby's heart beat again tonight with my best friend's doppler! It was about 147-150. It kicked pretty hard at the doppler and scared me...it was kinda funny. :-) This little one is getting alot stronger!

(11-13-07) We had our 20 week ultrasound today! Everything with the baby checked out just fine. It's amazing what all they can look at...all the chambers of the heart, the brain, the kidneys, stomach, bladder, bones, etc. She found everything she was looking for, so I guess that's a good start. :-) She found an "extra" part too...IT'S A BOY!!! We're so excited!!! I was really hoping that it'd be a boy so we'd have one of each and Hannah will still be daddy's one and only little princess. :-)

(11-2007) Had a prenatal appt and everything was just fine. Heard the heart beat and scheduled our next appt...not a very long appt at all. Ultrasound results came back to them and everything was normal...but we already knew that. :-)

(12-18-07) We had a prenatal appt and everything checked out just fine. I only gained two pounds last month, so yay! She said I had a jump last appt, so it was just fine that it was only two this time. We measured at 25 weeks, heard his heart beat, and finally remembered to tell the midwife that I am still riding horses. Wasn't ever a problem with my first pregnancy, but I figured they should know just in case they ever feel that I should stop riding during this pregnancy. Our next appt. will be the one hour glucose test, so that'll be a nice and long and boring appt. :-) At least I've always passed with flying colors so I never have had to do the three hour test! Our 3-D ultrasound is on Dec 31st, I can't wait!

(1-8-08) We had our last appt at Salem Nurse Midwives. Did the normal check the heart beat and measured fundal height, then we did the one hour glucose test. Passed that part just fine, didn't pass the iron test. They said that my iron is really low and that I should take a supplement, but I already have been taking the max amount of iron...

(1-29-08) We found out that the midwives that we used to see were able to deliver again at the Salem Hospital, so we switched back to them and will be able to deliver in town instead of Silverton. :-) Had our first appointment with them, weight was fine, blood pressure was fine, measured at 31 weeks, heartbeat was 143, and then she saw the results from my iron levels from the other clinic and got pretty concerned. She said that as low as it is right now, if I lose much blood during delivery, I'll be a candidate for a blood transfusion...so she said to eat lots of red meats and I'll be on a liquid iron supplement now instead of tabs. It's supposed to get into your system better I guess...we'll re-test my levels in a month.

(2-12-08) We had our second appointment with Willamette Valley Midwives tonight. Got more questions answered, measured just right, heard his heart beat, got our lab order form to re-test iron levels, and got pre-registered with the birth center.

(2-15-08) Went in to get labs drawn, as long as they're good, we will find just out the results at the next appointment, otherwise they'll call us if there's a problem.

(2-16-08) Had a little bit of a scare this morning...nothing too bad, but I was having pretty bad contractions every 4-5 minutes for about 45 minutes. I couldn't even move during them cuz it hurt too much, and my back was getting really sore too...my back hasn't really bothered me at all this pregnancy except for this morning. I did what you're supposed to do though, I stayed laying down until they stopped, which ultimately they did...so it was just a bad case of Braxton Hicks I guess, nothing like I've ever experienced with either of my pregnancies before, so I was really hoping that I wasn't starting labor. We're 34 weeks, so he probably would be just fine if he was born, but my husband had just caught a flight to California, so if something were to happen, he was still in the air on his way down south...but we're all good now, it didn't happen again this morning, so phew! I have to say, it motivated me to get everything ready for when we go to the hospital though. :-)

(3-3-08) Had our baby appt today. Got the strep B test done, so we'll find out results next week since we go in weekly now til he's born. I brought my iron up a whole point in just two weeks, which is twice as fast as they thought it'd go up, so the liquid iron supplement is helping. He's not coming out any time soon from the sounds of it. He's still really high in there and his back is along the wrong side, so other than being head down, he's not in position at all...at least he's got the head down part taken care of. Breech delivery wouldn't be fun. They're going to start stripping membranes starting next week (37 weeks) to try to speed things up a bit so I don't go past my due date again. But...they tried stripping membranes last time too and it didn't do a darn thing, so who knows...we'll probably just end up being induced again.

(3-8-08) BABY SHOWER!!! My friends threw a baby shower for me on Saturday at a pizza place in town. It was really fun to visit with everyone and watch the kids play, and it was fun to have the guys there too. We had pizza and cake and played a couple games and just had a great time! We got a bunch of cute little boy clothes for baby Daniel, we got a crib/changer combo from our closest friends, and my parents got our daughter a camelot princess bedding set since her brother will be using her old room when he's born. It's closer to our room and is already decorated neutral since we didn't know what Hannah was til she was born, so we made her new room all pink and girly and she loves it over there. We set up the new crib in her room so we wouldn't have to take the other crib apart and move rooms with it, I did give the new mattress to the baby so he'd get something new out of the deal. :-) We were going to have her just take naps in her new room for a couple days before having her spend the night in there, but she took her nap so well that we went ahead and had her spend the night back there right away and she loves it. She even knows that's where she gets changed now too...today she ran back there and said "UP" and I didn't even know she was dirty, but she was, she knew it too and she knew where to go now to get that fixed. :-) We're excited, everything is pretty much ready for this little guy once he decides to get here, we just have a few more items that we need to pick up since we'll have two babies now...wipes warmer, diaper pail, humidifier, and a hamper for Hannah's room since he's taking over her's. :-)

(3-10-08) Well we just got back from a baby appt. today. I was all excited about going to it cuz we were told last week that this week we would be filling out a birth plan, getting our strep B results, and they were going to check dilation and strip membranes since we'd be 37 weeks...well none of that happened, we had a different midwife today and she said that the results weren't in yet for the strep, the birth plan form wasn't finished, and that she doesn't check dilation or strip til 38 weeks...so yeah...next week we'll probably end up with yet a different one and who knows, maybe they'll say we have to wait til 39 weeks! Nah, it's not too big of a deal to wait an extra week, I was just so excited and then so dissappointed that nothing happened that I thought was going to today. She offered to do it anyways, but I got the feeling she didn't want to and I'm not one to jump up on the table and be excited about spreading my legs to people I barely know and she'd already asked me why I was in such a hurry so I felt kinda dumb. My stretch marks are getting worse by the day. He was at least on the left side today, so more in position for delivery, but she said that he can still move back and forth all he wants for quite a while. Also, last week we were told that she wasn't going to let us go so far over due this time, but today (different midwife) we were told that they can induce at 41 weeks as long as I'm already starting to dilate and thin out, but if not, they just wait til I am ready...I really hope I'm ready sooner than later...

(3-14-08) I've had a couple times in the last two days that I've some really light spotting. :-) Not that it's anything exciting, but something in the right direction. I was up on my feet alot both days, so that's probably all it was, but I haven't spotted at all this pregnancy til now that I can remember...so who knows. We have our appt. on Monday and if they actually check for dilation this time maybe we'll know more, if not, we'll figure it out when labor begins I guess. :-)

(3-17-08) Had our prenatal appt today. They checked us and we were 1 cm dilated, 20% effaced, and baby was at a -2 station. So, we still have a while to go, but nice to know that SOMETHING is starting to happen. :-) She stripped membranes today too, and WOW that hurt. They did it with my first pregnancy, but not near as good as this midwife did. They did it really fast, she grinded around for "30 seconds of pain" she said. So hopefully it'll help...

(3-20-08) Yesterday I started losing my "plug" and still losing big parts of it today. So I guess her "stirring up the pot" the other day DID help. I called to get the Strep B results since we forgot to ask at our appt. and it was negative this time, so YAY! I'm not a fungus this pregnancy! It's nice to know that we can stay home as long as we want to once labor starts now rather than having to go hurry into the hospital to get Penicillin. Our first pregnancy we had it, so it was kind of an added stress knowing that we'd have to rush in for that. But we're all clear this time around, it can change every 4 weeks, that's why they test at the end of each pregnancy.

(3-24-08) Had another prenatal appt today. Hopefully our last one if we're lucky. :-) We saw the same midwife that we saw last week, so that was really nice. We really like her. We are a little farther dilated now, she said she'd give us between a one or a two now. We're a little more thinned out, he's still not engaged, but she said that's not a big deal since he's a second baby. She said that your first baby "blazes the path" for the next ones. She stripped membranes again and OUCH it hurt, but there's more to come and she does it really well, so we're hoping it helps. :-) She got blood this time, hopefully that's a good sign. So we're hoping to go into labor soon...due date is now only 4 days away since it's techincally the 25th now, I just haven't gone to bed. :-) She said that if it were up to her, she'd induce around the 7th of April if we go over our due date...not all the midwives there will agree to that though. One of them prefers to wait for a full two weeks, so we'll see who we get for our appt. next Monday if we're still pregnant...

(3-27-08) We have two more days and who knows if this little guy is actually going to come out on time or not. The night before last I actually thought I was going into labor. I was having contractions every 4-7 minutes for an hour and a half before I finally convinced myself that it was just early labor and I should go to sleep. I figured once the contractions got stronger that it'd wake me up...well I woke up a few hours later just having to pee was all. Dissappointing, but oh well. When I got out of bed in the morning I was SOOOOO sore, felt like I had fallen off of one of my horses, I think it was just cuz I was having contractions throughout the night. I took a shower and that made me feel better and loosened up the sore muscles, then I went back to bed and got lucky enough that my daughter slept in until almost noon! She usually wakes up around 10:15, so it was a really nice surprise to get to sleep that much longer. Last night I had some contractions, but nothing as regular as the night before so I didn't time them. Had some "yuck" start coming out the night of the 25th, all day the 26th, and then I still have it coming out so far today...so who knows...I don't know if it means anything or if it's just cuz she stripped membranes again on Monday. Hopefully we'll get to meet him tonight! :-)

(3-28-08) I'm not sure yet, but I'm thinking maybe I'm in the early stages of labor right now cuz I really just don't feel all that great today! Cramping, contractions that woke me up throughout the night last night and I had to breath through them, and brighter bleeding today...mostly just the contractions and cramping that comes along with them is what's so uncomfortable. We'll see. They're not regular by any means, but they are starting to stop me in my tracks until the contraction is over. I hope this is it, but I also thought that Tuesday night was it since I was having so many contractions. Different kind of contractions then, these ones make me have to stop what I'm doing. I really hope that this is it, I've heard of people having hard contractions like this for a week or two and then finally having their baby...I hope that's not going to happen to me! We'll see...

(3-29-08) HE'S HERE!!!

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IT WORKED, WE HAD A HANDSOME BABY BOY!!! :-)_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Birth details

Type of delivery: Vaginal (with pain relief)
Duration of labor: 4 hrs (in hospital)
Weight @ birth: 7#-14.5oz
Length @ birth: 20in.

I went horseback riding the night of the 27th but didn't feel quite right, so I took it easy and mostly walked. That night I started to get woken up whenever I'd have a contraction cuz they were starting to hurt. The next day (the 28th) I was still having contractions but they weren't regular and were pretty far apart. They did stop me when I had one. I had to concentrate on breathing and stop whatever I was doing. By that evening they were about 8-10 minutes apart and really getting stronger...it was making my husband nervous. We finally decided that we would just go to the hospital and see what they had to say even if it meant we would be sent home.

We got there about 1:30am on the 29th and were 4cm dilated, 90% effaced, and the bag of water was bulging out. But the contractions weren't close enough for their liking, so we walked for almost an hour up and down the hallways and progressed another half centimeter while walking, but that wasn't fast enough to be admitted, so we had the choice of staying a nother hour to see what happens or to go home, so I opted to just go home since I was kind of embarassed. We got home and I took a hot bath and then layed down on the couch with heat packs to "try" to go to sleep. By this point my contractions were every 5-6 minutes and REALLY strong. I couldn't have gone to sleep if my life depended on it. I finally managed to get myself up from the couch to go wake up my husband. He took one look at me and said "We're going back..."

So he got our daughter back up and loaded in the car and off we went right back to the hospital after being home for only an hour and a half. He parked in the drop-off area and I could barely walk to the building cuz the contractions kept hitting me really hard. This time, he signed all the papers and they gave me a wheel chair to go upstairs in. We were now 100% effaced, still at 4cm, and water was still bulging out. They decided that they would admit us this time, and just trying to walk from their triage room to the delivery room seemed like mile. I could see the door, but couldn't move.

So we finally got in there, I went to the bathroom one last time, they hooked up an IV to get a bag of fluids in me, then the guy came to put in the epidural. As soon as that was in and started working they layed me down in the bed and put the catheter in and checked me...I was now between 7-8cm dilated and the midwife asked if she could break the bag of water since it was right there. I said that was fine, and she said that as soon as she broke it, he moved down lower. It was only probably 30 minutes later when she checked us again and we at 10cm. dilated but she wanted the baby in a little different position, so she had me lay on my side for about 10 minutes, checked again and said that we're ready to push. I pushed through two contractions and he was out! He cried right away and they had me grab him and pull him up to my chest. It was so awesome to hear that cry...our daughter had the cord around her neck so she didn't cry right away. The midwife who delivered him is the same one who delivered Hannah. She was actually off duty at 7am, but she stayed around until 10:30 or so just so she could deliver Daniel for us too! We were so excited, we really like her, and it was SOOO nice of her to give up her morning just for us! :-) Overall my husband and I both really enjoyed this birth. It was nicer to only be in a bed for the last little bit of labor. We were induced with our daughter, so we had to have the monitors on the whole time, and we were in labor for 15 hours with her...in bed the whole time. Going into labor on your own makes it much nicer. :-) We love our little guy so much and his sister seems to really like him too. She gives him kisses and hugs all the time!

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Madelyn Michelle Russell Sex: girl Born: 05 April, 2009 Age: 2 years & 316 days Birthday in: 49 days Starsign: Aries Development: See the 32 months page. Biggest achievement so far: 7-18-10 Been walking since she was 9.5 months old...she RUNS now! Starting to climb on things like crazy...tonight she climbed up onto the toilet. She uses Toby, the dog, as a step stool so she can get up onto the couch. Starting to talk a tiny bit...`Hi Dada` `Uh oh! Whoopths!` and that`s about it for spoken words. She knows a few baby signs too. She`s got gorgeous blue eyes and cute little curled blonde hair! Almost always happy, but she`s been trying to see if throwing tantrums will help get her way. It won`t take her long to figure out that Mommy doesn`t play that game...she goes right to bed! I think she`s almost ready to cut her first one year molar in, but for now she just has her 8 little teeth. :-)

OUR BABY GIRL IS HERE!!!

Madelyn Michelle Russell

April 5th, 2009

5:08am

7# 11.4oz

19 inches

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(Sears Photos done at 9 days old...)

Madelyn Michelle Russell

..................................Mommy holding her little feet.......................Wrapped around Daddy's finger already

Mommy, Madelyn, and Daddy

........................................Daddy cuddling little Maddie........................Mommy holding Maddie

.................................................Daddy with Madelyn...............................Mommy with Madelyn

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...............................Dan and me with all 3 of our babies..........................Maddie at the hospital

A few minutes after she was born...

We\'re moving into a bigger house and I\'ve been just exhausted from all the packing and hauling stuff to the new house. Then I started to feel nauseated too...so I started to wonder if I could be pregnant...I took two home tests and they both turned positive immediately. That\'s what happens when your husband won\'t use condoms and won\'t let you fill your prescription for birth control pills. :-) We want at least 4 kids total, I was just hoping for a couple year break in between this time. But, it\'ll be fun, and it\'s perfect timing since we just happen to moving into a bigger house now.

(8-14-08) Went in to get the pregnancy confirmed at the doctor office. It\'s a for sure thing...she guessed on the due date since we really have no clue right now. So she just picked somewhere in the middle and said that I might be 6 weeks with a due date maybe of April 10, 2009. We\'ll get a more accurate due date when we get our ultrasound.

(9-5-08) My best friend came over today and brought her doppler with her and we actually found the baby\'s heartbeat a couple of times, so that means that we\'re probably at least a week farther than we thought we were? My first appt with our midwife is in two weeks, so maybe she\'ll have a good guess for us about how far along we might be??? My mom and I went horseback riding tonight, that was really nice...the horses hadn\'t gotten out for a long time since we have been pretty busy with life...my husband\'s Dad passed away, we moved to a bigger house (still organizing), and then we just had to put our 3 yr old Lab down cuz she was in kidney failure. :-( On a brighter note, I think the baby might be a girl...I\'m not near as sick anymore, and my pregnancy with Hannah went really easy like this one seems to be going. With Daniel, I was at least a little bit nauseasted every day at some point or another...I rarely get it with this one except for right in the beginning when we first found out, I tested for it cuz I was sick and it made me wonder...

(9-8-08) Found the baby\'s heartbeat again on the doppler tonight. We got to hear it for much longer tonight. It didn\'t run away from the doppler as fast. :-) Still a pretty quiet sounding heartbeat so we probably aren\'t all that far along. Somewhere between 10 and 14 weeks maybe???

(9-10-08) Heard baby\'s heartbeat again. It was much louder tonight. We were able to get a good recording of it. So I\'m really not sure how far along we are. I know at a very minimum we were 10 weeks on the 5th the first time we heard it...we didn\'t try before that day though, so who knows? So...going with 10 weeks on the 5th would make the due date April 4th...that was my due date (going by dates) with my son...so exactly a year apart. I hope I don\'t deliver on his birthday. :-)

(9-26-08) Had our first doctor appt with our midwife today. She delivered both Hannah and Daniel. She walked in the room, saw us and walked back out. :-) We figured she\'d slap us for getting pregnant so quick again, but walking out proved the same point. :-) Nah, she\'s great, we\'ve really gotten to know her through our previous two pregnancies and we both really like her. Everything looked great as far as she could tell today. She did a Pap and the initial exam, Baby\'s heartbeat was about 160. She\'s guessing just by how big my uterus is that we\'re about 14 weeks, maybe only 13 since I JUST had my son and things might be stretched a bit. She wrote an order for an ultrasound though so we can get the exact date. Ultrasound is on October 7th, so another week and a half and we\'ll have a real due date and maybe even know the gender if they can tell what it is. :-) I have the order to go in and get all my first lab work drawn too, then we go back to see the midwife in 4 weeks. :-)

(10-7-08) We went in for our first ultrasound today. They measured the baby and said that our due date is April 5th. So we\'re 14 weeks and 2 days right now. That\'s puts us almost exactly where I had guessed before we went in to see the midwife. (I had guessed April 4th, midwife thought maybe March 28th) I was closer, Yay! :-) Baby was 3 oz today. She guessed that MAYBE it\'s a girl, but she said that it\'s really too early to be able to tell and she wouldn\'t put money on it being a girl, it\'s just her best guess...It was too small to zoom in on the chambers of the heart at this age, you could see it beating though. You could see the stomach moving too. The baby kept sucking her thumb and bouncing around in there, but I couldn\'t feel it when she moved on the screen. Hopefully I\'ll get to feel her moving soon. I can\'t wait!

(10-21-08) I\'m about 99% sure that I felt three little kicks last night. I was playing with our baby sounds monitor thing, pushing it down where the baby is to try to see if I could hear anything and I felt a little "kick" at where I was pushing, so I waited and felt it again, then moved the monitor over a tad and after a while, felt it again. So...I\'ll try to see if I feel it again soon, then I\'ll know if it was truly baby or not. :-)

(10-22-08) I felt the kicks again last night, so I guess that must mean that it really was the baby kicking. They\'re still pretty faint, I have to be laying still to even feel them, but they\'ll just get stronger from here on out! :-)

(10-24-08) Had a visit with the midwife. All my lab results came back just fine. I\'m not anemic yet, I\'ll be shocked if I\'m not towards the end. Baby\'s heart beat was in the 150\'s. She said that on the ultrasound report it said that the placenta is low. She said that it\'s not placenta previa, and it may even fix itself before our next ultrasound (Nov. 14th). I guess it\'s not something she\'s worried about. I asked if riding horses was still okay or if I needed to limit activity or anything and she said to just keep doing what I\'ve been doing. So overall, the visit went just fine. I go back in a month. :-)

(10-29-08) My son is 7 months old today! Wow time flies. I just found out today though that he and my daughter were both exposed to chicken pox on Monday...I\'m hoping it\'s not going to be a problem. I\'ve read up on it and chicken pox and pregnancy don\'t mix well. It can really mess up the baby...malformed limbs, muscle dystrophy, etc. I THINK I\'m immune cuz I had chicken pox as a kid, and my doctor\'s office is closed on Wednesdays so I can\'t call to see if I\'m immune to it. If I\'m not I need to go in and get some sort of serum injection to reduce the chances of getting it. Hannah may not get it cuz she had the immunization, but so did her cousin who has it now. Little Daniel will probably get it cuz he\'s too young to be immunized for that just yet. We\'ll just wait and see...incubation for it can be 9-21 days, so I\'ll just keep a lookout for spots...

(11-14-08) We had our 20 week ultrasound done today. Everything looked great as far as the tech could tell. Baby was moving around like crazy in there! It was hard to get decent pictures, but she printed off 8 total for us, so we got quite a few good ones. It\'s a GIRL!!! I knew it was a girl this time...I just knew it! This pregnancy is just like my pregnancy with my daughter, I would have been really shocked if it was a boy. We did have a really cute boy name picked out, but that\'s okay...maybe next baby will be the boy? I THINK we\'ve picked a girl name, not sure yet though, we\'re bouncing back and forth between a couple different ones. Anyways, she found everything she was looking for: stomach, heart, legs, arms, toes, fingers, etc...so everything should be fine I hope. We go back for our 3-D ultrasound on Jan. 13th. They offer the 3-D one just for fun at that clinic. That\'s why we go there. :-) Baby was 11oz, heart rate was 151, and they came up with April 7th for a due date, so 2 days later. I\'ll see if my doctor wants to change it or not when I go to my appt on Monday. I can JUST barely feel little kicks with my hand now too, so they\'re getting stronger! She\'s way more laid back than my son was in the womb, so her kicks aren\'t very often...made me think there was a problem at first, but today they said that my uterus is probably just de-sensitized since they\'re so close together...

(1-9-09) Ok, so it\'s been a while since I\'ve done an update. :-) I\'ve had a couple prenatal checkups. Nothing really that interesting happened at either of them really, guess that\'s a good thing. :-) The last one that we just had before New Year\'s kept getting rescheduled cuz they were closed due to the snow storm, so I went 6 weeks in between checks this last time. And in those 6 weeks apparently I didn\'t gain ANY weight, not sure how that happened with the amount of cookie dough that I had been eating through Christmas time. I measured at 29 weeks, and I was 26.5 weeks at the time of the checkup, her first measurement was during a contraction though, so she waited, then remeasured and it was 28cm...so I measure about a week and a half bigger, but that\'s not a surprise since this is the third baby in a row. :-) They gave me my lab orders to go in a have my one hour glucose test and a CBC. I went in on Monday and had those drawn, then today I got a call from my clinic with the results. I passed the diabetes test, but the CBC showed that I\'m anemic again and I\'m already taking an iron supplement tablet, so now they said that I have to be on the liquid iron again to bring my levels back up to a safer level. I was also given my "birth plan" to fill out and I\'m supposed to start counting kicks now...wow this pregnancy is going FAST!!! We have our 3D ultrasound coming up next week, so it\'ll be fun to see our little princess again. She\'s sure been getting busier in there, not as busy as Daniel was, at least not yet. ;-)

Well, it\'s almost 3:00am, I just got back from the grocery store...Dan(my husband) and I put the kids to bed and as soon as we climbed into bed, little Daniel started screaming bloody murder. So we waited it out for a while, but it didn\'t stop, so finally we caved and went in there and it looks to me like he\'s teething again, so Orajel and Tylenol should fix it right??? Well, we didn\'t have it ANYWHERE in the house! So...Dan went back to bed and me and my little man went to Winco to go get him some meds. But since I was there, I figured that I might as well get the groceries that we needed too, so I did. Then when we got home, I medicated my little man, fed him as much as I could shove down him and then put him back to bed. He seems to be content now. :-) So...wish me luck, last night was a rough night, probably due to teething as well, so I would LOVE a good night\'s sleep...what\'s left of tonight... :-)

(1-25-09) We\'re 30 weeks now, Yay! That means in about ten weeks, I\'m going to have THREE babies under the age of 3! My little man turns 1 year old in just nine more weeks, I really hope this little girl doesn\'t decide to be born on his birthday. :-) We\'re doing some remodeling at our house, getting our third bedroom all ready with a new closet in it and carpet to make it an official bedroom. Then I can start to set up the new baby\'s room. We have a third crib now and a crib mattress to go with it, my mother in law got us a cute little girly bedding set, and we have a few clothes that people have gotten special for her, so we\'re getting there. I can\'t wait til our new bedroom is finished though so we can start getting more ready. :-) I passed the one hour glucose test, but not the iron test, so now I have to be on a liquid iron supplement til the baby comes. I had to do that for my second baby too and it worked really fast, so I\'m not worried about it at all. :-) We have our next baby appt. on the 28th!

(1-28-09) Had our baby appt today. The midwife said that she is a small baby, so YAY! She\'s head down, heartbeat was about 160bpm, uterus measured right at 30 weeks. We go in every two weeks now. She\'s really starting to kick like crazy in there and stretch her legs out which kinda hurts sometimes. I don\'t think Hannah was THIS active in the womb, but this little girl isn\'t near as active as Daniel was. Boys hold nothing back! :-) Our next apt. is on the 12th!

(2-13-09) Had our baby apt. yesterday evening with a different midwife. There are four that work at the clinic we go to and one of them will be on call when we need to deliver...just not sure which one. So, we thought we should at least see the other three once before delivery. We've seen them all before for appointments with our previous pregnancies, but they probably don't remember us since we haven't seen them at all with this pregnancy. So...baby is still head down, heartbeat was about 150, she kicked the doppler, it was kinda funny...I gained 2 pounds in the two weeks since I was in last. Gave them a copy of my birth plan and they took a copy of the kick count sheet that I've been filling out every day. Other than that, nothing really exciting. She said that I can wait three weeks to come in instead of coming back in two since I've already had two babies and should know when to come in if there's a problem. I appreciated that...it's alot of work getting a 2 year old and a 10 month old ready to go to a doctor apt. So next apt. they are doing the lovely Strep B test. Hope it's negative! It was positive with Hannah and negative with Daniel, so ya never know...that's why they test at the end of each pregnancy. We booked it with a different midwife again. This one MIGHT remember us...she saw us in the hospital the next day after delivering both of our babies and we've had a few prenatal apts with her too. Then we just have one more gal to meet with, probably the next week, and then we'll go back to our main midwife til delivery! :-)

(2-25-09) I just finished packing our bags for the hospital, so now I feel ready to deliver whenever the baby is ready. She's not considered full term for two more weeks, so hopefully she'll wait that long...I'm pretty sure she will. :-) I still need to write up a list for whoever ends up staying at our house with Hannah and Daniel with the basics like where the dog food is, what time the kids go to bed, etc. Just to make it a little easier on whichever Grandma decides to stay here. My mom pretty much knows where everything is, but Dan's mom lives an hour away and doesn't come over as often as my parents who live 4 houses up the street. :-) I'm excited for our little girl. We got a few cute little girly things for her the other night (all pink or purple)...a light-weight blanket, a "taggy" blanket (security blanket) that was too cute to pass up, some bows since she's most likely going to be bald, some bibs, and newborn size diapers. I got her dresser filled with newborn- 3 month size clothes and have her changing station all ready with the newborn diapers too. When she gets here it'll only take a few minutes to set the bassinet and bouncer seat up, so I think we'll just wait on that for sake of space. Plus, it'll give Daddy something that he can help with. :-)

(3-8-09) We had a baby apt. on 3-5-09 and got the lovely Strep B test done. And the midwife wants me to get my iron re-checked, so I need to go get blood drawn on Monday. We should get the results for both tests at our next apt. which is 3-11-09. Baby was still head down, heartbeat was 155, and she said that my uterus is measuring well. We go in once a week now til delivery. I can't believe we're already to this point...and I'm going to have THREE babies. Our family really will feel complete then and I wouldn't be upset if she is our last baby. That probably means she'll be a little extra spoiled since she might be the baby in the family forever, but that's okay. I'm really getting anxious to see what she looks like and am curious if she'll have any hair. Hannah and Daniel barely had ANY hair at birth, so she'll probably be the same, but who knows?

(3-10-09) I got a call today from the midwives...the strep B test came back negative and my iron level is improving, they said to just keep taking my Floradix (liquid iron). Yay! Good results are always nice...makes me nervous when they call in between appointments, that usually means bad news that couldn't wait til the next apt. Next one is tomorrow...

(3-11-09) We had our apt. today. Everything was fine with baby. We were talking about birth control options before she listened for the heartbeat and the baby was kicking like crazy, it was funny looking. It was like she was saying "HEY!!! I'm still in here...you can't be shoving things up here just yet!" We all got a good laugh out of it. She talked about my iron level again in more detail. I guess it came back a 10.5 and it's supposed to be a 12. So she said that they'll need to draw my blood when I get to the hospital to deliver to make sure it's up by then. I'm supposed to take the liquid iron supplement for at least 2 months after delivery this time too, or until my levels are back up where they should be. We scheduled all the rest of our baby apts. each week until just past delivery...hopefully we won't need the one AFTER our due date.

(3-22-09) Yay...so I just took a nap and this is the first time that my contractions kept waking me up, so they're finally starting to get a little harder. :-) Other than that, there's really no other sign that things are progressing. We still have two weeks til our due date, so we'll see...our son turns ONE next Sunday...wow time flies! He's walking around everywhere now too!

(3-24-09) Just had a baby apt today. Baby's heart rate was 140, she's still head down, and we're measuring just about at 38 weeks. She checked for dilation today...the front of my cervix was at a 4, but the back of it was still closed...so I'm not considered 4 cm dilated since only part of my cervix is a 4...it's just considered "soft" or something right now, not quite sure...all I know is that she said that we probably will be just fine for our son's birthday party in a few days. She also gave us her personal cell phone number so that we can call her when we're in labor and she can come deliver our baby for us. I'm so excited! She delivered Hannah AND Daniel, we'd LOVE for her to be able to deliver Maddie too! She lives an hour away, but said to call her and if she can get there in time, she will. :-) I'm so much more excited now! She's our favorite one of the midwives that work there! We go back and see her again next Tuesday for another prenatal visit...

(3-29-09) Yay..it's after midnight, so technically it's now the 30th of March. My son turned one today and we had a bunch of family and friends over for his birthday. The party went pretty well for being a one year old's party. It was fun to get to visit with everyone. And the one day that I didn't want this new baby born on...we've missed it now since it's not the 29th anymore, Yay! I didn't want them to have to share the same day for their birthday. We're already cutting it close enough, so NOW she can come whenever she wants to, and I'm all for it! :-) I'm ready...my hips are REALLY sore all the time and now I think I'm getting a pinched nerve in one of my hips too cuz OUCH! So...it'll be nice to be able to walk normal again pretty soon...bending over will be easier without the big belly too. :-)

(3-31-09) Just got home from our baby apt, maybe our last one??? She checked for dilation and it still wasn't a clear number...the front of my cervix was now dilated to a 5 and this time she couldn't reach the back so it may or may not be opened yet. She separated it some trying to pull it forward enough to reach and to strip membranes, but because it got pulled apart some, she said that we might have the baby tonight now. That'd be nice. :-) We'll see...I feel just fine so far, lots of Braxton Hicks, but they don't really hurt. We're going to eat dinner and then take a walk later on this evening and see if anything happens. This baby might just be holding out til her due date??? :-) I hope she's right though and we have her tonight. Oh...and because we're already sort of at a 5, she said that labor is probably going to go really fast this time around. So I asked if she thought I'd get my epidural...she said "You might..." but she was chuckling at the same time, so pretty much, I'm LUCKY if I do get it. :-) At least it'll be over quick, right? Ha Ha...

(4-2-09) Okay...no baby and no signs that I'm going to have her soon either. I spotted after my apt when things got aggravated in there, but now it's pretty much done spotting. So...back to the waiting game. We were excited too, oh well...she'll be here in at MOST two weeks if we go way over and they have to induce us...I think they'd induce on the 15th or 16th, they like to wait until 10 days past the due date. My Birthday is the 15th, so that'd be an awesome birthday present to get my daughter. :-)

(4-4-09) So, I think I might be in early labor today. I'm having contractions that are much more painful than the braxton hicks that I'd been having. My 2.5 year old daughter just asked me "What's the matter Mama? Your tummy hurt?" So, I guess they ARE worse than what I'd been having if even SHE noticed. I hope she's born this weekend. The contractions aren't lasting very long yet, and they're coming about every 10-15 minutes. Maybe by tonight or even tomorrow night at the latest we'll get to meet our new little princess!

(4-5-09) She's here!!!

Birth details

Original due date: April 5th, 2009
Type of delivery: Vaginal (with pain relief)
Duration of labor: 5 hours in active labor, 22 hours total
Weight @ birth: 7#-11.4oz
Length @ birth: 19 inches

Madelyn-Michelle-Russell`s birthstory

I woke up on April 4th to contractions that we`re the normal Braxton Hicks contractions, so I thought that maybe I was in early labor and let my husband know to keep his phone close since he was at Army drill for the day. The contractions were coming every 10-15 minutes for most of the day and some were really bad and others were bad, but not quite as intense. My 2.5 year old daughter was really cute...she said `What`s the matter Mama, Your tummy hurt?` I told her `Yeah, Mama`s tummy hurts...baby Maddie is trying to come out today.` So, when my husband got home from work, we went on a walk around the neighborhood and then came home and had dinner and put the kids to bed. Then the contractions started picking up more...they were mostly 5 minutes apart and were getting much stronger. We went to the birth center about quarter to midnight and they checked us and we were `a good 5-6 cm dilated` upon arrival. She had us walk for 40 minutes which didn`t change things, so she had us wait another hour and then said she`d re-check us. That hour is when the contractions really started to hurt. She checked us again and said that the water was bulging now, so we got admitted at that point and moved into a delivery room. It took them 4 tries to get an IV in my arm...on top of the really hard contractions, I wasn`t too thrilled with the extra digging around. Once the IV was in, they called for my epidural, so the guy came in to put that in and that REALLY hurt going in. It didn`t numb me up as well as my previous epidurals either, but way better than no epidural at all by far. Once that was in, the midwife broke my water and checked dilation and I was at 9cm. So she said to let her know when I feel pressure and she`ll see if we`re ready to push. It didn`t take too long and we were at a 10 and I was told that I could start pushing. She came out in a matter of minutes...her head first, then her hand popped out waving at us, then the rest of her came out. She`s so laid back, she had to be rubbed pretty good to make her cry. She`s perfect, we love her!!!



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