I Came Back From the Kitchen...

...and what did I see? Our baby girl all grown up(sniff)! Ok, not quite, but I had put her on her tummy and she was on her back! I was so much more excited than I anticipated I would be. We celebrated all day. She did it 3 more times. What a show off :) This is my favorite job ever. (I caught it on video, but the video seems too big...stay tuned for when I get that figured out).

Cute Things

My sister asked me to update her on some of the cute things Belen is doing lately... this was my update:

Belen does lots of cute things. Some of them are hard to explain in words, I will try to get them on video. One of the things I love is her stretches. She stretches after nursing and waking up. She arches her back and pouts out her lips, it's super cute. She stretches so much she actually has gotten ME stretching. It feels great! :) I love her smiles and her laughs probably the most. I will definitely get that on video.

Just now she did something really cute. I put her down in her crib because I could tell she was ready for a nap. I gave her her pacifier and, although her mouth was full of pacifier she proceeded to mumble, protest and basically scold me through it. I thought I could get her to calm down while still in the crib at first (I'm trying to teach her to go to sleep more on her own - yeah right, ha ha!), and her scolding me made me laugh all of the sudden. It was just so cute and so I scooped her up, buried my face in her neck and kissed it, letting a little chuckle out in the process. And to my surprise she started laughing too and her lips widened into a smile behind her pacifier. Then I started rocking her and she did some more protesting which made me laugh again and it made her laugh again too. A few minutes later she was asleep. It was so cute. It made our relationship seem for a moment less mom-daughter and more spirit to spirit enjoying this life we have here on earth... learning from each other.

She's my buddy, goes with me everywhere, it's great!

PS - another "cute" thing she's doing... sleeping from bedtime until 2:30 and sometimes longer!

7:15pm - 2:38am

That is the chunk of time our cute bundle slept last night. Yahoo! The ironic thing... I couldn't sleep when I went to bed, and then it took forever to get back to sleep after nursing her at 2:38. Ah, c'est la vie!

Swinging VIdeo

Belen is 6 weeks old now. We don't know how much she weighs, but she was 8 pounds, 13 ounces at her 4 week appointment. She feels like she is gaining lots of weight and she slept almost the whole day Monday, just waking up to nurse, which we think means she was having a growth spurt. We made the big decision to move her to her own room on Sunday night. I was planning on her sleeping in her co-sleeper in our room for around 3 months, but we wondered, and Sunday confirmed it, if we would all sleep better with this new arrangement. She went right to sleep, not a single cry and that was it. They grow up so fast (sniff).

I apologize for the annoying voice in the background in this video ;).

Birth Story

Sorry to keep you all in suspense - just haven't had the time, energy, etc. for blogging until now. So early Tuesday morning, June 9th, I started having regular contractions close together and so we went to the hospital after calling our midwife. We got there and I was in good spirits, making jokes and not expecting to have a baby that day since my contractions were not very hard yet. They hooked me up to machines to check everything out and concluded that since they didn't know how fast or slow I would labor they wanted to do a c section as soon as possible. Uggh! Reality started setting in, that our baby really was not going to come naturally as we had hoped. We prayed, Holden gave me a blessing, and I cried. A lot. But I signed all the consent forms and they took me down to the operating room alone. Holden was allowed to come in only after I had received the spinal thingy. Whatever they call it - where they put the needle in your back (shudder) and your whole bottom half goes numb (yikes!) I was really nervous about this part and proceeded to have a minor panic attack. I couldn't stop crying and shaking and I was nervous they were going to try to put the needle in at that time and hit the wrong spot because I was shaking so much. That thought didn't help matters. I finally was able to calm down as I focused on the baby. I knew I had to move forward because in our circumstances this was the best thing for her. I calmed down immediately with this thought, and allowed myself to lean on the doctor's shoulder while they put the needle in. They said it would burn, but I hardly felt anything. Soon they brought Holden in and he held my hand. The doctor and all of the staff were really amazing. They seemed to understand how hard it was for me and did everything they could to make it a positive experience. As she was operating the MD was saying all kinds of encouraging things like "We're about to have a birthday party!" She did a really great job. All I could do was stare at the ceiling at a round knob that said "oxygen" on it and say to myself "I can do this", "I'm ok", "Everything is going to be ok". When we heard Belen cry for the first time we both cried too. Then I heard one of the nurses say "Wow, she has long eyelashes".

In the recovery room they laid Belen on my chest and she breastfed right away. My recovery has been really great so far. I read a lot of things about c sections that made me nervous, but our experience has been as positive as possible. We were really blessed, and have a lot to be grateful for, especially, of course, all the special moments we have had so far as a family with Belen. Thanks again to everyone for your support and prayers. And I apologize for all the unreturned phone calls, I promise to get better at that as my recovery continues to progress and I get into a more predictable routine with the baby.

Much Love,
The Higginbothams

Belén

Baby Update

Here's the scoop. Baby is not here yet. We had a c section scheduled for June 4th because she is still breech, then we changed it to the 8th (today), and now we have pushed it back to this coming Friday, June 12th. Today I went in for a non stress test which is where they check the baby's heart rate, the amount she is moving, the amount of contractions I am having and the amount of amniotic fluid that is surrounding the baby. All is well. I have another appointment on Thursday for the same thing.

We have just taken it day by day and we feel really good about this decision. We have also looked into every possibility of turning her or finding someone skilled in delivering breech babies - so far with little success. We have read and heard lots of information about the pros and cons of c section with a breech baby and whether or not it is best to have a scheduled or unscheduled c section (there are conflicting opinions on this one, but in our circumstances feel better trying for an unscheduled one).

We feel good about giving the baby more time so she can get things rolling when she's ready, even if it ends in a c section. And even though it is rare for a breech baby to have the room to turn at this point we feel like giving her a few more days to work with her on it is the right thing to do. We have also heard that sometimes a baby will be able to turn vertex (or head down) during labor. The doctors have said we cannot go any longer than Friday since there are no available appointments on Monday, and they don't recommend going more than 2 weeks past the due date.

This has been a faith building experience for sure. We have asked for a miracle, but are also asking that the Lord's will be done. He has led us step by step down the path we are taking and whatever the outcome is, I know we have had His guidance and I have felt His Spirit reassuring me that everything will be ok. I have my moments, but most of the time I have been able to feel calm and peaceful about the approach we're taking, and the outcome whatever it may be.

Thank you to everyone for your support and prayers, we will be updating again soon....we're excited to meet our little girl!

Temple Boogie

We wanted to go the temple one more time before our baby was born, but found out it was closed for cleaning until June 2. Since she was due on June 1 I thought maybe we wouldn't be able to make it one last time. We were thankful to be able to attend a temple session last night and our baby girl moved like crazy the whole time, especially about the first hour or hour and a half of it. (For those who aren't familiar with temple sessions, it lasts for about 2 hours and we go to perform ordinances for people who have passed away that didn't have a chance to perform the ordinances for themselves. It's a reverent and spiritual experience.) Her movements were big, insistent and continuous. I was sitting down for much of the time and she does like to move more when I'm sitting, but she definitely seemed to be trying to make a statement. I think she likes the temple.

Much Better Midwife Appointment

Thanks everyone for your support on my last midwife post! Just thought I would let you know we had another appointment last Friday and it was much better. It was a different midwife, and she told us it is much too early to worry about the baby being breech, to trust my body and trust the baby because she is smart. Even though we were saying these things to ourselves, it was nice to hear it from her. So we're still trying to get the baby to turn, but we are feeling more relaxed about the whole thing which is good. We really appreciate the prayers of our wonderful families and friends... keep 'em coming! :)

Midwife Appointment

Today we had an appointment with one of the midwives at UNC where we will be having our sweet baby girl. We heard her heartbeat as usual, all was well there; I have gained 30 pounds in my pregnancy which is more than I had hoped, but not terrible.

There was one upsetting thing though. When the midwife felt the baby she said she is "breech" or in other words, not facing head down. I'm almost 33 weeks along in my pregnancy so there is a great possibility that she will be able to turn in the amount of time left, but if she doesn't, they will schedule a C-section. Holden came out breech when he was born, but I guess they don't allow that anymore, they think it's too risky. I have been preparing for a natural childbirth and the possibility of having to do a C-section was quite jolting. And for some reason it made me worry about our baby which I haven't done much of up until this point; I feel confident that she's very happy and healthy in there. I have made an effort to avoid a fearful way of thinking which can be common in regards to pregnancy and in my opinion unnecessary and counterproductive. Really, she should be just fine in the case that we have to have a C-section, it's just not my most desired outcome, and not what I was preparing for.

In any case, that's the story for today. As time goes on there will be less room for her to turn around in there, but according to Wikipedia "Twenty five percent of fetuses are in the breech position at 32 weeks gestation; this drops to three percent at term.The increasing size of the fetus near term traps the fetus into the head down position normally." Yay for Wikipedia! So we are still hopeful for a natural childbirth. I am doing some exercises to see if I can get her to turn, putting peppermint essential oil on my stomach, Holden is trying to persuade her with coaxing words and jokes... but we're also trusting Heavenly Father to help her arrive safely however she comes. Baby tricks and prayers welcome!

Pregnancy pics by request...

29 Weeks

24 Weeks

23 Weeks...
(sorry the second one is so small, I'm done messing with it)

Not hard to guess which ones were taken by the awesome photographer husband in my life and the ones that I pronounced 'good' after a few self-timing tries, but you get the idea, right?

Baby News!

Hi Everyone, we had an ultrasound on Friday and it was so much fun to see our baby moving around and to find out we're going to have a baby girl! Now for a name... nope we don't have any possibilities we're ready to release yet, we're still very much in the brain-storming stage, which hasn't been too productive, but I'm sure it will come! :) Thanks to you for all of your love and support. We feel extremely blessed, humbled and excited for this opportunity to become parents.

What Ever Happened to the Stork?

Yep, we're expecting a baby in June. Anyone know of a good stork still in the baby business? This "carry-it-yourself" for 40 weeks method leaves a little something to be desired. Yes, I've been converted to the week system. Whenever a woman used to tell me she was 25 weeks along (or whatever) I would always think to myself, "you know we've all learned to keep track of time in months for so long, why change now and make me do math?" Then when she becomes a mom her child is 20 months old. Great, again with the math. Oh well, I guess I'll join the ranks of women who enjoy making people do math in casual conversation. I'm 10 weeks along and really looking forward to that 2nd trimester I hear such good things about!