Just a quick post to say hi and let you all know that I am officially the mother of 4 wonderful, little men now. Our newest addition was born Saturday night, June 6. He weighed in at 9lbs 4oz and 21 inches long. I ended up being induced a week past my due date and, though I really wish it didn't have to be that way, am now glad that they did it. I guess nature just needs to be helped along sometimes.

Things are going very well with both him and I. And his big brothers are adjusting very well. My two year old keep calling him 'my baby' and gets mad if anybody else tries to do something with him. So much for him being jealous for me - I am chopped liver and he just wants 'his baby'! Right now, he is a great sleeper ... but we are not sure yet if that is from his jaundice or if that is really how he will be. We'll just have to wait a few days and see I guess. Here are a couple pics of our new family member.

His face looks purple because it is bruised. A combination of his size and the fast rate at which he went through the pelvis caused my pelvis to bruise his face. Poor guy ... but it doesn't seem to bother him at all.

His 3 big, adoring, brothers. Wonder when they will ever all sit this quietly again?

Not the best pic of him ... or my hubby ... but I just love how he looks so small compared to the size of my husband's hand.

I am in the home stretch of this pregnancy now - the last couple of weeks before the anticipated due date for baby boy #4. It is the phase where you become more and more uncomfortable every week. Your body starts to adjust to the lack of sleep that you will be getting after baby comes, as you are often too uncomfortable to sleep much. (And when you do finally fall asleep, you are awoken by the sudden urge to use the bathroom.) I am more uncomfortable with this pregnancy than I have been with the previous 3 and am very ready to be done being pregnant and meet our new baby boy. To add to my sense of urgency, some 'complications' arose and I needed to have another ultrasound done a week ago. Turns out baby and everything is fine and things were just thrown off because I was sick and retaining excess water. However, the ultrasound revealed that - at 37 weeks according to my due date - the baby was already 7 1/2 pounds. If you go with the estimate that babies at this point gain about 1/2 pound a week, we are talking about a 9 pound baby (and my other 3 were actually about a week late.) Plus, all of his head measurements actually measured at about 40 weeks meaning there is a big head in there for me to push out. So, as you can imagine, I (like many other pregnant women) am getting anxious for this baby to arrive. This has caused me to google 'natural labor induction' many times in the past week.

Keep in mind here that I am not a fan of medical induction where the baby is forced to come out, ready or not. Natural induction - or, what some midwives call labor suggestion - uses methods that can help encourage labor to start or contractions to intesify but will not cause you to go into labor if your body is not ready. These methods (may) only help you go into labor a bit earlier than you would have on your own. None of them are guaranteed to start labor.

There are many methods (if you can really call them that) of natural labor induction - some a bit more 'adventurous' than others.

There are many different herbs that you can try that are believe to either stimulate the uterus or ripen the cervix. Some of these include black and blue cohosh, borage oil, evening primrose oil, goldenseal, mugwort and yarrow. These seem to actually be among the most controversial of the natural labor induction methods as some believe that they are just as dangerous as natural labor induction - especially if used without the supervision of an OB or midwife.  

Nipple stimulation if one that, at first, may sound fun. But if you really look into what is suggested for this method - and take into consideration the sensitivity of a woman's breasts during pregnancy - really isn't all that fun. For this method, a large amount of nipple stimulation is suggested. It involves rolling your nipple between two fingers. Some sources say to do this on one nipple until a contraction starts, then stop with that nipple until the contraction stops and move to the other nipple. Other places talk about stimulating each nipple for 15 minutes each - alternating for an hour or more - until you start having regular contractions. No matter what source you look at, we are not talking about a small amount of stimulation here ladies and your nipples can get sore. (Though, it may be good preparation for the rigors your nipples will go through for breastfeeding.)

Sex is another method that is often joked about. The thought behind this is that there are prostaglandins in semen that help ripen your cervix and that an orgasm produces oxytocin, the hormone that causes contractions. So, if you are comfortable enough to take a romp in the sack, it won't hurt anything and may help to start labor.

Another, slightly less enjoyable, method is to take castor oil. Castor oil is a very thick, not very tasty oil that is often used for constipation. Basically, it causes you to have diarrhea and the cramps involved with the diarrhea can cause 'sympathetic' cramping of the uterine muscles. There are many different recommendations as to how to take the castor oil and how much, but know that it will probably mean spending a few hours (at least) on the toilet. Two of the concerns with this method are dehydration and the possibility of the castor oil passing to the baby and causing the baby to release meconium (though MOST professionals say there is not a link).

There are also said to be pressure spots on a woman that can cause the uterus to contract - though you would of course need to know where these are and how to apply pressure to them to have any success with this method.

Walking, squats and some other exercises are also said to help start labor as they can help to open the pelvis and encourage baby to move down further into the pelvis.

One that seems to be in the middle between natural and medical is stripping of the membranes. Yes, it needs to be done by a doctor or midwife, but does not use anything unnatural - such as drugs. This involves your doctor loosening the amniotic sack from the area around the cervix via a pelvic exam. Some report that this can be very painful, while others say it is only slightly less comfortable than a normal pelvic exam and the discomfort is short lived. The main danger with this is that the bag of water can be accidentally punctured which can lead to needing to medically induce labor to get baby out if you don't go into labor within a certain time frame after the bag of water has broken.

Like I said, none of these methods are guaranteed to start your labor and many of them are debated as to whether or not they have any effect. I have tried a few of them with this pregnancy and have not had any success yet. However, I tried castor oil with my second pregnancy and had my baby the next day - could just be coincidence though. It is best to talk to your OB/midwife before trying any of these methods. But if you are getting impatient towards the end of your pregnancy, most of these are not going to hurt - though there is also no promise of them helping.

What do you think about natural labor induction methods? Have you tried any of them - successfully or not?

Today has been one of 'those days'.

I didn't sleep well last night. Probably a combination of my children not sleeping last night and me being in the uncomfortable last weeks of pregnancy. But whatever the reason, I woke up feeling pretty yucky. I am really hoping that it is just lack of sleep and not that I am tired, as I have my little sister's baby shower at my house in a couple days. This, of course, means I have a whole slew of things that need to get done today ... and I don't feel like doing any of them.

So, after breakfast, I decide to cuddle with my youngest infront of a movie for a while. I kind of half doze off with him in my lap and, suddenly, the movie is over, it is already 10 and I have not gotten anything done yet. So I got up and showered quickly, left my son at home with hubby and headed to to grocery store to pick up needed groceries for the aforementioned baby shower. On the way home, I forget to stop at the hardware store to pick up the screws we need to attach the top the a patio table we refinished and wanted done for the party. So, I turned around to go back to the hardware store and get there to realize I also forgot to bring the old screws to compare. So I guess as close as I can and end up getting two different kinds of screws hoping one of them will do the job (that has yet to be seen). Of course, after getting home, I realize there are also a few things I forgot to put on my grocery list so I will be making another trip to the store later.

I got home around lunch time ... with my 2 year old absolutely refusing to eat the lunch that dad made him and screaming at me about wanting to cuddle. (I love to cuddle with my kids ... just don't care for the screaming so much.) I got him calmed down and managed to get some food in him, cuddled for a bit and then laid him down for his nap. About 10 minutes later, as my mom is arriving to drop off something I need for the party, my newly potty trained son get ups from his nap having just pooped in his underwear. So we get him cleaned up and get clean sheets put on his bed. But, since grandma is now here, he refuses to lay back down without a royal hissy fit. Let him give grandma hugs and kisses and got him back in bed.

By this time, it is already 1:30 and I still haven't accomplished half of what I wanted to in the day.

My mom left and I start decluttering things I need to. Hubby goes out to put a final coat of paint on the patio table we refinished. (The garage is covered with a thin layer of black spray paint dust that, now, also needs to be cleaned up before the party.) Then we sit down to do some prep for one of the games we are going to play at the shower. We are in the middle of this when he reminds me that I needed to start supper in the crock pot ... half an hour ago. Darn! Oh well, we will just eat a bit later than usual ... no big deal.

Now finished with the game prep, my husband runs off to get the kids from school and pick of the frozen meat we were storing at his parents house that we now need to get here and thawed out for the party. I go back to cleaning up while he is gone and realize I completely forgot about that laundry that I wanted to get done. It is now 3:30 in the afternoon and only 1 of the 5 loads of laundry that I wanted to get done today has made it through the wash. While I a rushing through the kitchen to go deal with some laundry, I look at the crock pot - which looks suspiciously cool.. Go to take a closer look only to find out that, in my haste to get it started, I accidentally put in on the 'keep warm' setting instead of the 'high' one. Guess the kids are having pizza for supper tonight and I will be eating chicken around 8pm.

So, that has been my day so far. It is just after 4pm now and I just needed a break from it all. But, alas, I do have more cleaning that I need to get to yet today before having to run off to check out a friends rummage sale early so I can get my hands on the good stuff before others do. Then, tomorrow, two of my sisters are coming over to help with final prep and decorations for the party. I just want to sleep for the next 2 days!

What do you do when your day falls apart and everything ends up crazy?