12 weeks down...

This morning after dropping Anderson off at school Jeff and I went to my Dr. appointment. Jeff is so sweet about going to the appointments. He was the same way with Anderson. He just doesn't want to miss a thing. Anyway, we did all of the usual lab stuff and then came the scary part...finding the heartbeat with the doppler. For some reason it just scares me to death that they won't find a heartbeat, even at 12 weeks I was more nervous than I thought I was. Sometimes it takes a while to find it because it is on the outside of the belly (unlike an ultrasound) and you never know where the baby is when it is this small. Luckily it didn't take the nurse long to find it at all and I (as I always do) teared up to hear the strong heartbeat of our child growing away inside me. The heartrate was 170 bpm and music to both our ears.

While we were there we went ahead and scheduled the c-section for Friday August 8th bright and early in the morning. Dr. Madden even joked that he would shoot for an 8:08 am birth time! Anderson was breech and had to be delivered by c-section, and my Doctor felt very strongly that a V-bac was not safe for me. At the time of Anderson's birth I had so many complications with two hospitilizations for pre-term labor and 6 weeks of bedrest that I didn't really care how he got here. Our little angel was still an early arrival at 4 and a half weeks early because my water broke in the middle of the night. He was perfectly healthy though and never went to the NICU. It was nothing short of a miracle thanks to a wonderful team of Doctors and steroid shots for his lungs. Since he was a whopping 7 lbs 4 oz and a month early, it's pretty clear that I have BIG babies. With the risk of a uterine rupture due to a large baby we decided it just wasn't worth it. I am a little disappointed that I won't have the whole "pushing the baby out experience", but I am just grateful for a healthy baby! Not to mention I know what to expect with the c-section. I had a great experience last time with a quick recovery that was not nearly as bad as all of the horror stories I heard! Plus the convenience factor is great with a scheduled c-section. I need to get Anderson squared away before going to the hospital to have this baby, which with no family in town other than an aunt that I need to video the birth is quite the dilemma! Hopefully, I will make it to August 8th with no surprises!