1 more month

March 26th is my due date. I'm pregnant with baby boy 2 and we are so excited. It's no secret that we struggled with infertility for a long time, so when the baby factory finally started working, we decided to not shut it down. The kiddos will be 22 months apart and we couldn't have planned it better Iker is such a good listener and loves babies; I have no doubt that he will be a fantastic big brother.
Before we enter the realm of a family of 4, I thought I should write down iker's birth story so that when #2 arrives I don't merge the two or mess up the details. We all know that happens, I can't tell you how many times my mom called me my brother's names and the dog's name before actually saying mine! Mommy brain I suppose.
When I was pregnant with Iker, I was told that my glucose levels were high so I was referred to an endocrinologist that specializes on high risk pregnancies. The gestational diabetes was diet controlled and I honestly was so tired of eating, they had me on some crazy amount of food, I had to eat right before bed! I remember my first consult very well because it was on my birthday- April 13. So I celebrated counting grams of protein and pricking my finger.
After many appointments, worrying about paying for all this out of pocket because Don's insurance hadn't kicked it and a couple of additional ultrasounds, we were told that our baby could weigh 10+ pounds.
My original due date was June 9th, but was later changed to June 6th. Dr Murdock- my lady parts do doctor, recommended that I be induced on my due date. Not knowing any better and totally trusting her we agreed.
I went to work on June 3rd, worked a full day, the next day was Saturday and I went swimming, I had been swimming 2x a week for a class at SAC and I really missed it, so I went to my inlaws pool for a while. Sunday I went to church, nothing really out of the ordinary- except for one thing. After dinner at my in laws Rob (Tamara's husband) asked about my due date and so I told him that I was going to be induced the following day, that I was supposed to go into the hospital at 3 pm and they would get started around 6pm.
He then, very calmly and assertively spoke to my very big belly and said to the baby that he was being evicted. To consider that his eviction notice haha! We all laughed!

Around 4 ish am the next day I felt the first contraction, I had no idea what was going on and thought I had gotten 'glutened' because I felt the need to run to the bathroom and I felt like I was going to die!!! After a few more of those pains, I realized DUH! I'm in labor! Don was supposed to go into work at 7 am, so I waited to wake him up just in case it wasn't the real deal, I mean- this was my first rodeo and I had no idea what I should expect. Besides, I had been told, time and time again that a first baby always took forever. Because I knew that Don would be skeptical I downloaded an app on my phone to help me track the contractions. I took a shower, and went back to bed to try to relax. I was sleeping in the guest room at this point because the bed was a lot firmer and more comfortable on my extremely pregnant body and that is how Don was completely oblivious to the first couple of hours of labor. I decided to wake him up around 6:30 am, I told him that I was in labor and just as I expected he didn't believe me so I took out my phone and showed him that I was keeping track of the contractions and how close they were. At that point, I think they were about 10 minutes apart. He called into work and let them know that we were possibly having a baby sooner than the scheduled induction time of 3pm, he had planned on going to work and then we would leave for the hospital. I wanted to wait as long as possible at home, I wish I had drank more water and eaten something, but I was just concentrating on riding out the contractions. Around 9 am, I couldn't wait anymore and asked him to take me to the hospital. At this point my sense of urgency had severely increased, but my lovely husband wanted an orange Julius, so he proceeded to make one before we headed out the door. I should mentioned that the he forgot it in the car when we got to the hospital, so he didn't even drink it. Poor guy!

 I called the dr's office to let them know that I was on my way and when I get there the receptionist asked me if I was sure that I was in labor because most moms can't even talk when they are in labor, part of me wanted to punch her and the other part of me was happy to find out that I wasn't a total wuss. I told her I thought I was and so she sent me back and after getting checked I was immediately sent to Labor and Delivery. I walked over there only to find out that online registration was useless and had to fill out all kinds of paperwork- Again! So I'm 3cm, having contractions super close together and filling out paperwork. It was interesting to say the least. Once I got settled in the room, I decided to ride out the contractions as long as I could on my own, I think it was around 11 that they put an epidural in, as much as I would have loved to just do it naturally, there was a concern about my hips crapping out and having to be wheeled to an OR for an emergency C section. Dr. Murdock agreed on a walking epidural, and although it didn't mean that I could actually go walking after this was done, I could still feel my legs, but more importantly, I could still feel the contractions. Again, I didn't know any better so after a couple of hours of not having things advance as quickly as doctors would like, Pitocin was administered. They assured me and reassured me that it was going to be ok, but I still don't know why I was so uncomfortable with them administering it. The nurses kept telling me that it was going to be a long labor and just to sit back and relax. Boy! We proved them wrong, because around 4pm the nurses came in because they couldn't hear the baby's heartbeat on the monitor, they moved it and moved it and couldn't find it. I pointed out that my belly had shifted down and so one of the genius nurses decided to check the undercarriage and said, "Um, yea. Let me go get a doctor".

 Iker Donald Mitchell was born at 4:23 pm on Monday June 6th of 2011. 8 lbs. 5 oz of pure perfection, measuring at 20 3/4 in. I'm so blessed to be his mom.