The Fleming 4.

The past three weeks have gone by so fast! I'm getting used to life with two kids and thankfully most days Jude is super chill. Night time is another story. He has had a few rough ones. I don't think you ever get used to not really sleeping.

Second time around though with a baby has been 210398120983 times less stressful than the first. I'm pretty sure we didn't let Livvy cry for more than 2 seconds for the first three weeks of her life. Now with Jude I know he can cry for a minute and be fine. Usually he has to deal for a bit because I'm helping Livvy in the bathroom or getting her breakfast or something.

Sometimes Livvy has to deal without her every need being fullfilled "RIGHT NOW" (a phrase she has picked up) because I'm nursing or changing Jude.

She is doing ok considering the huge change her life has undergone. She is a bit emotional and sometimes clingy to me or Lincoln, but overall she is a great big sister. She loves to throw away Jude's diapers and always is so excited to see him awake.

Every morning she asks to hold Jude and says in a high pitch voice "He's sooooo cuuuute!" She loves to give him kisses and always asks if she can "go look at Jude".

Lincoln's busy season has been pretty mellow so far, and I have been SO blessed with wonderful family and friends that have helped me so much! I would die without my mom and sisters to play with Livvy and hold Jude so I can sleep during the day.

Overall, life is good and I'm loving my "little buddy". Jude is already looking older and starting to hold his head up. He's a sweet boy and we love having him around. =)

The arrival.

Jude Lincoln Fleming was born August 9th at 11:10 PM. His 12 day debut was quite the surprise to Lincoln and me.

The morning of the 9th I went in for my 38 week check up. My doctor about made me pass out when he told me I was already dilated to a 4 and that the baby was super low. So low in fact that he told me to not call him at home when I went into labor but to be driving to the hospital, so I wouldn't have the baby in the car.

Welp, that freaked me out! Only 5 days earlier I had been 1.5 cm! Livvy and I had a whole day of shopping and park-going planned, but we dodged the errands and started timing contractions. I was having good contractions, but nothing super consistent. Lincoln came home and I went walking at the mall with a friend to get the contractions to come more steadily.

Not wanting to go to bed without knowing how much progress I'd made, we headed to the hospital at about 6 pm.

My doctor came and saw that I had made progress and was almost a 5. He broke my water around 7:30 pm and then the glorious process began.

My contractions were coming, but every time I sat down they would spread out by more and more time. I had to constantly walk the halls and try to get them to come more frequently. Around 9 pm my doctor said I was at 8 cm and he wanted to get me on Pitocin to speed the process up and help my contractions stay consistent.

I was SO nervous for the added pain and less breaks that the Pitocin would cause, but we turned it on. Oh my intense. At first not so much, but the doctor kept upping the dosage and it soon became out of control crazy pain. And I became out of control crazy Vindie.

The last hour from 10-11pm, I thought I was going to die, but at 11 PM I finally felt the need to push so I hopped into bed and with three big pushes Jude came.

I was so relieved to see his little face and bald head! The labor went so much faster and better this time around (minus the added Pitocin pain). I didn't think I was going to do it naturally again, but my doctor was super supportive and having Lincoln and my mom to coach me made a world of a difference.

So far Jude is a chill baby. He looks nothing like is sister and everything like a Rosdahl baby. We love him so much and feel incredibly blessed to have him in our lives now.

I swallowed a watermelon.

Ahhh...37 weeks and 6 days. What beauty that ball in my stomach.

As of Thursday I am 1.5 cm dilated and 80 % effaced. So there is some progress in the right direction...with Livvy I was 2 cm the week before my water broke, so I guess it could be a while still but hey dilating is happy no matter what.

I have been consistently measuring 3-4 weeks behind my due date. Despite the extra ultrasound I did about 10 weeks ago where the baby was measuring BIG, they sent me for another ultrasound today.

And....he's still big. Currently they think he is around 7 lbs 15 ounces.

Please believe me next time doctors when I tell you that I carry big babies.

Also, I had them look to see if he had any hair and they only saw some fuzz. (With Livvy they saw inches of hair swooshing in the womb). Which makes it really hard for me to picture what this little dude will look like. What if he's got blonde hair fuzz? What if he actually looks like me?

I really hope I don't have too much longer to wait to see his cute little face. This watermelon is getting a little hard to maneuver.