Ryan and I had talked about having another kid after we had Griffin. We talked and planned and decided that the Summer of 2012 would be a perfect time to welcome baby #4 to our family. So when we realized that we were pregnant 6 months sooner than planned we were understandably shocked. Excited but shocked.
(From the front I don't look half bad)
I figured something was up when I went to bed on or before 9pm every night for two weeks. Being a life-long term night owl this was out of my norm. I decided to take a pregnancy test and it came up positive.
We were actually in Houston visiting my parents and I was attending a conference for work when we found out. We told my family right away, but decided to wait 2 weeks to tell the Zielke side until we visited them. All were stunned, especially since Griffin was only 7 months old when we got pregnant.
(From the side I'm HUGE. I hadn't realized how big I was until I saw this picture.)
While we were in Iowa visiting Ryan's parents I had a bit of a scare. I had a bit of bleeding. I didn't have anything like this with my other kids, so this completely freaked me out and I thought that it meant that I might be miscarrying the baby. I told Ryan what was happening and he told his parents. Ryan's dad works as a CFO at a hospital and used a few favors to get me an emergency appointment for that morning. We were able to get an ultrasound and found a perfectly formed peanut with a heartbeat. The baby was fine and the bleeding was just a scare, nothing more. I was also told that I was 6 weeks along (which means that I figured it out at 4 weeks and started my symptoms right away).
(The first weigh in. You can't see it, but the scale reads a whopping 9lbs! The official weigh in came in at 9 lbs 2 oz- a full pound more than Kyra, my biggest up to that point and more than 2 pounds more than Griffin.)
My pregnancy progressed in my usual uneventful manner after that. As with finding out we were pregnant, nothing about this pregnancy was predictable. This pregnancy was so unlike any of my others. No complications, no issues, no morning sickness (YEA!!!), occasional heart burn (with Griffin I had heart burn for 9 solid months), and only physical discomfort near the end when she decided to camp out on my bladder. Over all, a really good pregnancy. Near the end I would go to work and people seemed surprised I showed up each day. They thought for sure I would have the baby before my due date. It was actually amusing when people would ask when my due date was and I told them, especially when I would answer "yesterday!"
(Look at the hair!!! It's thick enough that she might keep it and may even stay a brunette.)
On the morning of November 11th- two days after my due date- I checked into the hospital at 7:30am to be induced (my kids don't like to come out willingly). Needless to say it was a full house on the labor and delivery floor that day. The doctor showed up once I was settled. She checked me and I was 4cm (at my appointment two days before I was 2.5cm) and I was contracting fairly consistently. So she broke my water, bumping me up to 5 cm, and let me be for a bit to see what I would do on my own. Around 9:30ish, my contractions were still not consistent and strong enough to get things done in a timely manner, so the nurse started me on a low dose of pitocin.
(Having the first daddy-daughter moment...love it!)
I progressed nicely and then the contractions REALLY began to hurt! By 12 I was calling for the epidural man. Let me say that this epidural man was so much better than the last one. He was super fast. The last one took forever to get it in and was painful for a month afterwards. I was very grateful for the epidural. It was just enough to numb me to the contractions, but allowed me to still be aware of and move my body. I was still only 7cm at this point.
(Here you can see her eyes. She was born with really dark gray-ish, blue-ish, brown-ish eyes. They are clearing up to blue now.)
Things went pretty fast after that. I went from 7 to 10 cm in 45 minutes. Like I said before the epidural was perfect. By the time I hit 10cm I could feel the need to push. With my other kids I was numbed up enough that I had to be told to push, not tell them when I needed to push. I pushed for about 15 minutes and she was here. And let me tell you I felt every single ounce of her 9lbs 2oz giving birth to her.
(So sweet! I love pictures of newborns sleeping on/with their daddy's.)
Joselyn Rose Zielke joined to world at 1:41pm. The kids love her. Kyra treats her like her own personal doll and is a great helper. Adeline loves holding her and is great at helping me out when I need an extra hand. Griffin is 50/50 with her. When he's not stealing her pacifier or blanket or hitting on her he's bringing her the pacifier or finding bottles to give her when she's fussy. He's recently started coming over when I have her and tries to hold her. It's so sweet.
(I love this picture. She just looks so sweet.)
We were fortunate enough to be able to go home the next day. It was nice to be home, but also nice to have some more time to visit with my parents who were here watching the other kids while we were in the hospital.
Welcome to our family sweet girl. We love you!!!
(From the front I don't look half bad)I figured something was up when I went to bed on or before 9pm every night for two weeks. Being a life-long term night owl this was out of my norm. I decided to take a pregnancy test and it came up positive.
We were actually in Houston visiting my parents and I was attending a conference for work when we found out. We told my family right away, but decided to wait 2 weeks to tell the Zielke side until we visited them. All were stunned, especially since Griffin was only 7 months old when we got pregnant.
(From the side I'm HUGE. I hadn't realized how big I was until I saw this picture.)While we were in Iowa visiting Ryan's parents I had a bit of a scare. I had a bit of bleeding. I didn't have anything like this with my other kids, so this completely freaked me out and I thought that it meant that I might be miscarrying the baby. I told Ryan what was happening and he told his parents. Ryan's dad works as a CFO at a hospital and used a few favors to get me an emergency appointment for that morning. We were able to get an ultrasound and found a perfectly formed peanut with a heartbeat. The baby was fine and the bleeding was just a scare, nothing more. I was also told that I was 6 weeks along (which means that I figured it out at 4 weeks and started my symptoms right away).
(The first weigh in. You can't see it, but the scale reads a whopping 9lbs! The official weigh in came in at 9 lbs 2 oz- a full pound more than Kyra, my biggest up to that point and more than 2 pounds more than Griffin.)My pregnancy progressed in my usual uneventful manner after that. As with finding out we were pregnant, nothing about this pregnancy was predictable. This pregnancy was so unlike any of my others. No complications, no issues, no morning sickness (YEA!!!), occasional heart burn (with Griffin I had heart burn for 9 solid months), and only physical discomfort near the end when she decided to camp out on my bladder. Over all, a really good pregnancy. Near the end I would go to work and people seemed surprised I showed up each day. They thought for sure I would have the baby before my due date. It was actually amusing when people would ask when my due date was and I told them, especially when I would answer "yesterday!"
(Look at the hair!!! It's thick enough that she might keep it and may even stay a brunette.)On the morning of November 11th- two days after my due date- I checked into the hospital at 7:30am to be induced (my kids don't like to come out willingly). Needless to say it was a full house on the labor and delivery floor that day. The doctor showed up once I was settled. She checked me and I was 4cm (at my appointment two days before I was 2.5cm) and I was contracting fairly consistently. So she broke my water, bumping me up to 5 cm, and let me be for a bit to see what I would do on my own. Around 9:30ish, my contractions were still not consistent and strong enough to get things done in a timely manner, so the nurse started me on a low dose of pitocin.
(Having the first daddy-daughter moment...love it!)I progressed nicely and then the contractions REALLY began to hurt! By 12 I was calling for the epidural man. Let me say that this epidural man was so much better than the last one. He was super fast. The last one took forever to get it in and was painful for a month afterwards. I was very grateful for the epidural. It was just enough to numb me to the contractions, but allowed me to still be aware of and move my body. I was still only 7cm at this point.
(Here you can see her eyes. She was born with really dark gray-ish, blue-ish, brown-ish eyes. They are clearing up to blue now.)Things went pretty fast after that. I went from 7 to 10 cm in 45 minutes. Like I said before the epidural was perfect. By the time I hit 10cm I could feel the need to push. With my other kids I was numbed up enough that I had to be told to push, not tell them when I needed to push. I pushed for about 15 minutes and she was here. And let me tell you I felt every single ounce of her 9lbs 2oz giving birth to her.
(So sweet! I love pictures of newborns sleeping on/with their daddy's.)Joselyn Rose Zielke joined to world at 1:41pm. The kids love her. Kyra treats her like her own personal doll and is a great helper. Adeline loves holding her and is great at helping me out when I need an extra hand. Griffin is 50/50 with her. When he's not stealing her pacifier or blanket or hitting on her he's bringing her the pacifier or finding bottles to give her when she's fussy. He's recently started coming over when I have her and tries to hold her. It's so sweet.
(I love this picture. She just looks so sweet.)We were fortunate enough to be able to go home the next day. It was nice to be home, but also nice to have some more time to visit with my parents who were here watching the other kids while we were in the hospital.
Welcome to our family sweet girl. We love you!!!
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