Welcome Wade William Wallace!

Our hearts are so full of love for this tiny little guy. We are undone with pride and joy at the beautiful boy God has given to us. I completely underestimated how completely devoted I would feel the moment I saw him!

I want to write the experience down before I forget all the details but the pictures were more fun! Thank you Jenn for taking such amazing pics for us!

Story to follow!

Twas the Night Before Baby...

First things first. Here is the last known photograph of me pregnant. I was 39 weeks along and the elastic waist on those jeans was screaming! We took one last photo on our way out the door to check in at the hospital at 7:30pm for our 'ripening'.

We took Shay over to "Hotel Jantzen" for a few days of R&R while we were at the hospital having the baby.

Our last meal was Panera. I discovered that my beloved "Siera Turkey" has a thigh packing 970 calories in it! So what did I do after I ate it anyway? Went to Braums and had a chocolate pecan sundae. It was Sunday afterall. Add 3000 calories and a belly ache.

1 Day till Baby

We wanted to mark the moment...last Saturday as a married couple without kids. The day started off so good. Breakfast at BBD, our favorite Brookside hole in the wall. The weather was a perfect 65. We decided to drive through Tulsa with the windows down and just enjoy not having anywhere to go. It was a perfect morning.

The afternoon was slow...we took naps. We got a little bored. Justin has been talking about shaving off his beard for the birth. A way to celebrate. I have never seen Justin without some facial hair so it was a big deal!

It was emotional, there was nausea at some point. But, he did it! Who is this guy!!??!!? He looks so different. It's just hair. It will grow back.

3 Long Days Till Baby!

My poor feet!

Since my last note we have had a lot of ups and downs, baby speaking.

Last Friday, my OB told me that I was making ZERO progress towards labor and wanted to start talking about the idea of a c-section. NO!!! I think my womb shuddered at the mere mention of the word! She went on to explain that we have 3 strikes against us having a vaginal birth---1) Diabetes 2) Big baby 3) Unfavorable cervix for induction. Sounded series to me at first...then I realized that none of this was new information! I asked her if it was normal for a first time mother not to be thinned or dialated at 37 weeks and she said yes, totally normal.

So, fighting against this gut panic reaction to slice and dice, I told my doctor to give me one more week to start dialating.

I did a lot of great contracting this week. Lifted things. Ate spicey foods.

My week was up today.

Nothing. Zero. Nada. Heartbroken.

Not so fast, put the scalpals away.

The plan is in place to try to kick start my body into labor one last time. We are going into the hospital on Sunday night to have my cervix ripened. Yum. This 'procedure' will do what my body was supposed to be doing on its own in the last few weeks. I should have strong contractions causing dialation, thinning, softening, etc... As long as we are cooking on high by Monday morning, let the induction begin!

The "C" word is still out there but I am putting mind over matter. Prayer works. We serve a God who made this body of mine as well as the large baby that inside me. We trust that He has us in His hands.

Either way, we will have a baby on Monday!

? Days till Baby

We should find out tomorrow when she is going to induce! We want Friday February 18th but I have heard that if she is not on call over that weekend she will not do it and we will have to wait until the 21st. But, I have an evil plan!

Somehow I found myself in the hospital on Tuesday waiting to have a contraction stress test! I swore I would not do this to myself. I was weak. My ob's nurse called me on Monday and called me out! She said, "dr. tran knows that you are planning on skiping the cst (she told on me!) and she said you absolutely have to go." what do you say to that? well, now I can think of 10 things I could have said but at the time all I could say was, "yes ma'am." So, I was put in a labor and delivery room, strapped to a monitor and told to stimulate my nipples (one at a time) for two minutes. This started some serious contractions which baby Wade survived beautifully. Of course, then they had a hard time getting my contractions to stop! Ouch! I will say the silver lining is:
1. Learned what contractions feel like---I HAVE been having them!
2. Got to experience a dry run in the delivery room. I have to admit I have been nervous about being there. Feel much better now.
3. No castrol oil to induce labor for me! Just got to pinch a nip! It's a slam dunk.

That is the plan. No more cst's. I am going to be strong.

You can guess what I'll be doing bright and early next Friday morning!

14 Days Till Baby

Here we are at 37 weeks! In a pair of jeans and a t-shirt that are too small! What can I say. This is a fancy outfit compared to my standard sweats:)

15 Days of Baby

Wade will be here before we know it! And we are ready. Really ready. We owe a large part of the readiness to Blizzard 2011 which dumped 14 inches on us and kept us house bound for 4 days! During those long long days, we were able to tie up some loose ends and put the last few things in order for our little buddy to arrive. Along with things like setting up the pack n play in our room and putting the baby safe mattress cover on the crib, we also cleaned the house! I mean, really cleaned. Used Magic Eraser on almost every surface I could reach! Those things are amazing. I don't know what is in them so I am perfectly fine believing it is magic. Curtains got washed, ironed and re-hung. Floors were mopped (hardwoods are ususally very neglected in my house). Took pictures and shelves off the walls and power washed them before they were hung back up. All this to say, thank you storm, you have changed our lives for the better.

It was also really fun to be home (I'd say until day 3.5) with my hubby! Not that we fight much anymore, but we got along very well and had a lot of fun together! 24/7 with someone usually gets old but not the Wallaces! We can't get enough of each other! :) By the way, they are predicting 5-8 more inches for Tuesday....

In all the storm chaos, I did manage to miss 2 doctors appointments and evedently for a diabetic I might as well have put a gun to my head. I am sure I will make up for it this week. The truth is, God be the glory for a fantastic pregnancy. I have had NO problems! The 36 doctors that are attempting to manage my care are completely turning a blind eye to this fact. I don't think that wellness is even considered. Oh you are a diabetic, well, you and the baby are gonners if we do not micro mangae the life out of you ourselves. I will say, I have not been a very good patient. I have refused and lied to my doctors to keep them at bay. I am not proud of this but they went to far! The one test that has been called for by our high risk OB Dr. Blake, is a contraction stress test where at the hospital they monitor the baby during strong contractions. I will spare the details of how they get those strong contractions started but it's a little over the top. Justin and I feel very at peace about deciding not to participate in those tests. Especially, since all the information I found showed that this test is called for only when you baby is failing the non-stress tests, or you have a crazy doctor:)

I want to close by saying that I have every intention of blogging regularly from now on and especially over the next 15 days. I didn't journal (even though I have 3 beautiful pregnancy journals) and I want to have a record of where my mind was during this time, while I am still sleeping and collected enough to sit at the computer.

Alissa's Pregnancy Tip of the Day:
Take 2 Benadryl every night before bed. Saved my life.

Lissy out!

ps--Have not taken any pictures lately. I will make it happen today. Maybe just from the chest down. Thunder neck is back, this time with a goat coat!