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And One More Makes Three…

May 13, 2010 in Baby, Family by Tristina | 7 comments

Stephen is hanging out with the munchkin so I can have a moment with my mug of tea and this blog to fill everyone in on the events of the past week.  It has been a whirlwind seven days and the emotion is so indescribable.

One week ago today, Olivia Lynn was born at 2.18pm coming in at a healthy 8.1 lbs and 20.5″.  Her immediate crying made me cry and laugh all at the same time and my husband couldn’t stop grinning.

Her due date was officially yesterday, the 12th, but, last week at my OB appointment, I was already about 5cm and she was really low so my midwife asked me how I felt about induction.  She said we could wait and I might go into labor on my own in the next day or two but she offered to induce me the next day given the level of my discomfort at the time.  She was concerned about the severity of my sciatica and the fact that I could hardly move or bear any of my own weight without crying.  After talking it over at length with Stephen and weighing pros and cons, we decided to do it.

I called my mom and told her to get in the car and start driving.  She lives in St. Louis and, by driving all night, she made it to the hospital in time for the delivery the next morning.  This was actually the one thing that I really liked about the decision to induce – my mom had enough warning to get there in time.  I had her, Stephen and Stephen’s mom in the delivery room which was awesome to me.  I didn’t want anyone else there other than them and it was nice and intimate.  All three of them are the three most important people in my and Stephen’s life right now and it made sense to have them there during the labor and to see Olivia’s birth.

I was induced around 6am.  Broke my water around 11am or so after the epidural.

I love epidurals.

We’ll leave it at that.

I also had a ridiculous amount of water.  My midwife and the nurse helping her were both surprised at the amount that came out.  My mom had an insane amount with me, too, so it must be genetic to some degree.

 

My midwife had me sit up after my water was broken and just let gravity do its thing.  I was fully dialated but there wasn’t any pressure to push yet so I sat there and talked with Stephen and my mom and mother-in-law and snapped pictures of my labor room.  I napped a little.  Sounds weird and way too laid back looking back on it all but, at the time, it worked and my body just did its thing.

Because of this, the actual pushing part wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be.  I only pushed for about 30 minutes or so.  It is one of the weirdest, coolest feelings ever, though.  They set up a mirror so I could see the progress and see her coming out and it was incredible.  I highly recommend the mirror for anyone giving birth.  You may think you don’t want to see all of what’s happening but it’s so worth it and you don’t care about modesty or anything like that.  It’s so beautiful and life-changing, honestly.  And it’s motivating.  Feeling her head coming down and actually seeing her head slowly get bigger motivated me to push harder so she’d come out sooner.  I could see a finish line and it helped.

Stephen helped catch her.  After her head was out, he was told to grab her under the arms and, on my next push, pull her out and set her on my stomach.  That was pretty cool.  That on top of cutting the cord made him a part of the whole experience and he was thrilled.

I don’t think I stopped crying for a good 15 minutes, even while she was off on her warmer getting dried and weighed and checked.  I can’t even describe the amount of joy and relief I felt.  Joy because she was here finally and relief because she was healthy and alive.

After she was checked and weighed and measured and poked and prodded (which she was not happy about) for a good ten minutes or so – I was busy passing the placenta and being stitched up – they brought her little naked pink body back to me for some skin-to-skin under a nice warm blanket.

So. Awesome.

Feeling her little warm body against mine is probably my favorite moment out of the whole experience.  She quieted down and I just existed with her for a moment.  I didn’t even notice anyone else around me, didn’t notice anyone taking pictures, didn’t feel any pain as the epidural wore off.  I was just there with my daughter and it was, by far, one of the happiest moments of my life.

We ended up staying in the hospital for about two days total.  The staff at Northside was incredible, I have to say.  Everyone was so nice and very efficient.  Anything they had to do to check me or her, they did quickly and left us alone.  They only hung around if I had questions or if they had to explain something to me.  They were very quick to fetch anything we needed.  They only took Olivia to the nursery for her pediatrician checkups and her PKU tests – other than that, she stayed with us the whole time.  It was truly a wonderful experience and one I’ll be happy to repeat when we have another one in a few years.

Since being home, I’ve taken it as easy as I can.  My mom is here for about two weeks and she’s handled all the grocery shopping and house cleaning.  She’s even been taking Max on walks, keeping him brushed and bathed.  She’s up in the mornings when I am to make tea and breakfast and to hang out with Olivia while I go have five minutes of “me time” to wash my face and get dressed and say hi to Stephen.  Stephen has been really great about getting up at night to bring her to me for feeding and then taking her to change her diaper afterwards so I can immediately go back to sleep.

All in all, I’m averaging about 2-3 hour chunks of sleep through the whole night starting from about midnight and going until about 8 or 9am, which I think is pretty good, actually.  She hasn’t been overly fussy yet so I’m taking as much advantage of it as possible to stay rested so I can heal quicker.

So far, she’s awesome and beautiful and I love every moment of her.  I could sit and stare at her all day long.  She’s my little bug, my precious, my angel, my princess and definitely a daddy’s girl.  She has him around her little finger already and it’s adorable.

More to come later but I wanted to drop by and tell everyone the story and let y’all know that we’re doing great.

Now I’m off to cuddle…

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Wait, tomorrow?

May 5, 2010 in Baby, Family by Tristina | No comments

I’m having a baby tomorrow.

There are so many emotions in that one sentence.  And, yet, I don’t think it’s quite hit me.  I think it’ll hit when I’m actually at the hospital tomorrow.

Right, let me back up.

I just got home from my 39 week appointment with my very favorite midwife, Christine.  Two things happened at this appointment – first, she announced I was about 5cm dilated, which is halfway there.  In fact, she was a little surprised I hadn’t gone into labor yet given that much dilation and that the baby is “really, really low.”  Second, she stripped my membranes.  Yeah I didn’t know what that was, either, but it’s really uncomfortable.  Basically she separated the amniotic sac from the surrounding membranes, which can send all the right signals to the hormones saying, “Hey, let’s get this show on the road.”

So, there’s a really good possibility I’ll go into labor tonight on my own.

In any case, after all that, she asked me how I was feeling to which I responded with a very reserved and toned down version of how uncomfortable and in pain I am.  She asked how the baby was moving and I answered that, while I was getting my 10 movements in 2 hours thing, she’d calmed down a lot.

Then she asked how I felt about induction.  Then, before I could answer, she says, “I can induce you tomorrow if you want to.”

We’ve gone from “hopefully she’ll be here by or on her due date next week” to “she’ll be here tomorrow” which has sent both Stephen and I into a “wait, what just happened” mindset.

Stephen and I talked about it at length and decided that it was the best option.  No, insurance won’t cover it which means our bill with the hospital will undoubtedly go up, but Stephen said he hates seeing me so uncomfortable and in pain so we’re going to just figure it out.

How am I feeling right now?

An odd mixture of emotions all blanketed by a very surreal calm.  I figured I’d be jumping up and down with joy, but, like I said, I don’t think it’s quite sunk in yet that I’m having a baby tomorrow.  I guess I’m scared, anxious, excited, nervous, joyful, relieved, etc.  I hope everything goes smoothly and she’s healthy and I’m healthy and Stephen doesn’t faint.

And there you have it.

Here is the very last belly shot at 39 weeks exactly.  Thank you, everyone, for being a part of this journey with us.  Wish us luck as we move onto the next stage!

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“About to pop…”

April 28, 2010 in Baby by Tristina | No comments

Today marks 38 weeks, 2 weeks before my official due date of May 12.  It’s also only 6 days before the potential earlier due date of May 4 but who’s counting?

Me.

The back pain has reached nearly intolerable levels, the heartburn is a constant companion, my shin feels broken in half, and if this baby drops any lower, my hoo-hah will be between my knees.

I kept all these complaints to myself when we went to the midwife today.  I’m sure they hear it all the time and there’s not much they can say or do.  Unless there’s a medical reason to warrant it, induction or C-section just isn’t happening for me.  So far, I have a fantastically healthy, normal pregnancy.

Which, in the grand scheme of things, is exactly where I want to be.

Today was the first day they check dilation, cervix thickness, etc.  For those of you who don’t know, cliff’s notes:

Dilation is measured in centimeters from 0-10.  0 means the cervix isn’t open yet for the baby to pass through.  10 means it’s all the way open and it’s time to start pushing Junior out.

Effacement is how thick the cervix opening is where the baby will pass through.  The higher the percentage, the thinner it is and the closer it is to pushing time.

Most first timers don’t have much, if any, dilation or effacement at this time or so I’ve heard.

I am 2-3 centimeters dilated, my cervix is thin, she could feel the baby’s head and she described my amniotic sack as “ready to pop.”  She even went as far as to say there’s a very good chance I could go into labor before the end of the week.

Before the end of the week.

Now, I’m trying really hard to not get my hopes up and stay focused on that May 12 due date they originally gave me.  Granted, I’m failing miserably.  I just want to meet her so bad and I want to start having my own body back.  I’d like to be able to get in and out of bed without having to come up with a proper leverage and rolling game plan.

Seriously.

Mostly though, I’m ready for her.  I’m ready to hold her, smell her, touch her, hear her, see her, everything.

So, this is probably my last post before the big day (unless she doesn’t come before my anniversary this Sunday in which case, there will be one more at least) but, never fear, I will do what I can from the hospital be it Twitter, Facebook or here.  My phone connects to all of them and Stephen will have his laptop.

Almost.
Done.

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