Highs and Lows

Today was a tough day. Evie was super cranky and Lex didn't want to sleep much. I think we're starting to get toddler tantrums from Evie. Oy! Not something I want to start seeing.

On the other hand, good things happened today too. Last night (well, early this morning) Lex went 6 hours between feedings. Yes! Sleep! Though I was freaked out when I woke up thinking that something was wrong.

Then, later in the day, Evie started standing without holding onto things! When we saw her doing this we'd clap and cheer for her. She'd stand and wobble and giggle, all proud of herself. Hopefully walking is soon to follow!!!

Wordless Wednesday: Beautiful children :-)

Few and far between

Things seem so crazy busy around here that I'm not really updating much. Sorry! Some day, when things settle down, I'll at least get back to the once a week posts.

Other than the lack of blogging, things are going good. Not much sleep happening but both kids seem happy. Evie has actually been sleeping a little better, as in sleeping until 6 am. Lex is up at least every 3 hours for an hour each time so I'm one tired momma, but it gets better soon, right? Much thanks to my mom for coming over to help last night. I actually got 5 hours of sleep at once! We're definitely thinking that when Shaun gets home he can do a bottle of pumped milk every other, maybe every, night so I can get some sleep.

Headed to Arizona on Wednesday for Jane and Phil's wedding. First flying trip as a family. Should be interesting. Lots of photos will be taken and posted when we get home.

2 week well visit

Happy to announce that Lex gained 1.5 lbs since we left the hospital! He was down to 7 lbs before we left and now weighs in at 8 lbs 8oz. Falls into the 40th percentile for height and weight. Evie and I both also got the flu shot today. Our Dr strongly thinks the flu we had about a month ago was H1N1 so he thinks we can skip getting that vaccine when it comes out. Otherwise, we're all healthy.

Wordless Wednesday: Some randoms

Happy Birthday!

To my wonderful husband, Happy Birthday! I love you Shaun!!

Alexander Thomas, 7lbs 10oz

On Tuesday (38w1d) I made a trip into the midwife’s office for a membrane sweep. While there she informed me that I was already 4 cm dilated and she offered to break my water that day and see how things progressed. Unfortunately, Shaun was in Duluth and it would take him 2.5 hours to get home. I didn’t feel comfortable getting things started with him gone and work wouldn’t let him come home unless things were already under way. So I went to visit my mom instead.

All the rest of the day I contracted every 5-10 mins inconsistently. No pattern ever emerged and they mostly went away when I went to bed. On Wednesday I barely had any contractions at all, much to my disappointment, but on Thursday (38w3d) Shaun and I dropped Evie off at his mom’s and headed back to the midwife (Fern) for another sweep. We fully expected she would offer to break my water again and we intended to take her up on it.

We were seen by Fern at 7:30 am. She attempted to do another sweep but it hurt so much I asked her to stop. Turns out I was still 4 cm dilated but she could stretch me to a good 6/7 cm. We decided to head over to the hospital, which is connected to the clinic, to get admitted and break my water.

Once there I was hooked up to the monitors for a while. I knew I wasn’t really having good contractions yet so I worried the hospital staff would want to send me home, but I was surprised to see the contractions were actually coming every 6 mins or so. My mom showed up while we were going through the admission process and let me know that the contractions were registering at the same level as when I was admitted with Evie. I was handling them so much better this time around, they were still so easy! Shaun was a big ball of excess energy and tried cracking jokes with the nurses. We must have gotten the nurses with the least sense of humor because they never laughed, once, and I was a bit worried that this would be a long day.

After some monitoring I was disconnected and allowed to wander the halls. I managed to start getting about 3 contractions per round of the maternity halls. They all seemed too light to me, and still irregular. I was worried about the decision to break my water. What if the baby wasn’t ready to come and that’s why my contractions weren’t establishing themselves? Was I making the wrong decision to induce this labor even if it was considered a ‘natural’ method of induction? Was I going to end up on pitocin to further help get labor going?

It was around this time that Shaun decided he had to run home to grab a couple of things, even though we had brought the hospital bags we had packed. Turns out he wanted to make a run to the store to get a gift for me and the baby. While he was gone Fern showed up to break my water. Not going to lie, I was terrified. I was worried about making the wrong choice and afraid of how the pain was going to change. We still did it anyways. Fern broke my water at 9:10 am and I was 6 cm dilated.

I was back on the monitors. My contractions didn’t start right away. While we were waiting around, a flurry of nurses hurried into the room. Apparently my admitting nurse put I was at 9 cm dilated rather than 6. The nurses that rushed in were worried that nothing was set up for birth. We let them know I was only at a 6 and things quickly calmed down. It was a bit of amusement for my mom and me. After a bit the contractions started up again right where they left off – very manageable.

Sometime while I was on the monitor Shaun came back with his gifts. I still can’t believe that he felt the need to go shopping as I was being admitted into L&D. I got off the monitors and walked around the room or sat on the stools. Still no regular pattern to the contractions but they were slightly stronger. I was stopping during the contractions and whispering to myself “relax.”

I was now at the point where I couldn’t get comfortable during contractions. We played around with different positions and ended up with me on the yoga ball and Shaun sitting in front of me so I could lean into his back. During contractions I had to run my hands over Shaun’s back to remind myself to stay loose and relaxed. The contractions were definitely stronger even if they weren’t forming a pattern. I finally got to the point that I couldn’t concentrate through them on my own and stay relaxed at around 11:45 am and requested to get into the water. I was in the water by noon.

Two contractions in the water later and I felt the urge to push. Shaun was standing by the room’s door and my mom was sitting behind me near the bed. All I could manage to say was “bearing down.” Shaun gave me a look like I was speaking Russian and my mom said “I think it’s time to get the nurse.” Shaun still looked at me perplexed so I managed to utter “pushing” and my mom said “now.” Shaun opened the door to get the nurse’s attention.

The nurse, I really wish I could remember her name, came in and started getting things set up. She checked me and thought I was fully dilated. A few minutes later Fern came in completely out of breath. We think she ran all the way from the clinic. All through this I was feeling like pushing during each contraction. Fern assured me that I could do whatever felt right. I started saying all the typical things the books say you utter during transition – is it too late for the epidural, I’m done, I don’t want to do this anymore, etc. I knew it was too late to change anything and that the only way out was to push the baby out, but I was very terrified of the new pain level. Surprisingly, my mom says I only uttered the F-word once, and I whispered it.

After a couple ineffective pushes Fern checked me and said that I had a bit of a lip on my cervix. She asked me to change positions and breathe through the next contraction. This was the last thing I wanted to do but I rolled onto my left side and tried not to push during the next contraction.

During all this time Shaun was amazing. He was leaning over the tub behind me holding me up in the water under my arms so I wouldn’t slip under water during pushes. He kept reminding me that screaming was ineffective (also damaging to his ear drums, lol) and to keep my head down (also to protect his head, which I banged a few times). I know he was tired and sore but he did exactly what I needed to keep going. He did learn his lesson that he shouldn’t do an upper body workout the day before his wife gives birth.

After breathing through the one contraction I was back to pushing during the contractions. I have to admit that I kept holding back because of the urge to poop during the contractions (a good sign, the baby causes that feeling). Logically I knew I was being ineffective but I was having a hard time changing the way I was pushing. Fern said that if we weren’t seeing any progress within 15 mins she was going to have me get out of the water and try sitting on the toilet. There was no way I was moving from where I was so I redoubled my efforts at pushing. I had finally mentally said “F--- it! I need to do whatever I need to do to get this baby out!”

During the next push I felt something pop, like he was slipping past my cervix. I was suddenly grunting and groaning during and between the contractions and pushes. The noises were definitely an involuntary reflex, I didn’t decide to make those noises, it was just natural. Not long after I felt the ‘ring of fire’ towards the end of a contraction. I didn’t have enough umph left to push longer but I was glad for the feeling. Fern was trying to reassure me that the burning was painful but ok. What she didn’t know was that I was mentally welcoming the pain. I knew it was almost done. I was determined to push my baby out within the next few contractions.

I was pushing with all I had at this point. The contractions felt one on top of the other and the ‘ring of fire’ came back with a vengeance. For the first time since labor started I felt a sense of ‘I am woman, hear me roar’ because of my determination. The entire rest of the pushing stage I felt so ineffective and unproductive. I pushed past the pain and his head was finally out! I paused at Fern’s request, mentally knowing why – physically hating the wait, and then got the go ahead to push him out the rest of the way.

Fern helped pull him up onto my chest. All I could do was stare at him and think about how amazing it was that the pain was gone. I feel a bit guilty about that now. Instead of being amazed by my baby I was thankful that the pain was over. I just looked my baby over and felt stunned. Pictures were taken, his cord was cut and he was taken to the warmer (the water was cold by this point) while I was helped out of the tub by Shaun and Fern.

On the bed I delivered the placenta and received 3 stitches for a very minor tear. The baby was then brought back to me and placed on my chest again. Shaun and I looked at him, still trying to decide on a name. It was about an hour before we chose his name and he was checked for height and weight.

On September 24th, 2009, Alexander Thomas was born at 12:50 pm, 3 hours and 40 mins after my water broke, via water birth weighing in at 7 lbs 10 oz and 21 in long.