Wednesday morning, July 29, my baby girl was born. I woke up at five in the morning having contractions and she was here a short (and yet very long) three hours later. At birth she weighed 9lbs 1oz. I was able to have a successful unmedicated, VBAC and it was a wonderful experience. I will write out the whole birth story soon…it is quite humorous. But for now here are some pictures.
Last week my younger brother spend a few days with us. We had a great time! He was a huge help to me and played with Sweet Pea whenever I needed him to. He also ran errands with us and kept Sweet Pea occupied the whole time. Whenever Charles got home from work we would all head to the pool and Charles and my brother would throw Sweet Pea around. He had a blast! Sadly all the pictures I have from his visit are from my cell phone when we were at restaurant play place. But here they are!
I am now 37 weeks along in my pregnancy. At my 36 week appointment I was 3 centimeters dilated and this week I am 4 centimeters. The doc says it could happen anytime or I could still make it to 40 weeks! Who knows?!
Yesterday Sweet Pea got stung by a bee! Well…it could have been a wasp or a hornet. We aren’t completely sure. We just know it was a sting of some kind. And that is a first you want to put off as long as possible. It was a little scary because he was just playing in the grass and was all of a sudden screaming. When I picked him up he was kicking his legs in pain. He finally calmed down enough for me to find the sting and it was already swelling pretty good. My aunt is in town and she came to our rescue with her first aid kit. For stings there is a homeopathic medicine called apis mellifica. It is amazing! Within the hour we couldn’t even find the sting on his foot and he never complained about it again. Although he does remember it happening. Whenever we walk by the spot in the grass he says “bee sting!”.
Charles is still enjoying his first grad school class. He is devouring all information he can about education. So if you know of any good books let us know! We have also known for a while that he needs surgery on his knee and we finally made an appointment to figure all that out. So hopefully by Thursday we will have a surgery scheduled.
Our lease on our apartment is up July 31 and we finally decided to renew the lease. Much to our excitement we were able to negotiate a lower rent! So now that we know we are staying we have begun rearranging to try to make the most of our 850 square feet. With two little ones we are going to need all the space we can get and we are trying to figure out the best way to not waste any.
That is all for now!
A good friend of mine from church knows that I am going to be attempting to have this baby naturally, with no medications. So she lent me this book called Adventures in Natural Childbirth. The book is filled with birth stories of women whose goal was the same as mine, a non-medicated birth. I just finished the book and I would highly recommend it to any pregnant woman, even if a natural birth has never crossed her mind. It is filled with real women’s hopes and fears and accomplishments. It is very easy to relate to each one of them and it gives me the confidence that I can do it too.
The book is broken down into four sections: birthing naturally with a midwife, birthing naturally with a physician, birthing naturally with a doula, and birthing naturally unassisted. It makes it very easy to find women who fit your situation and see how their stories played out. I jumped straight to the physician section because I knew those were the stories I needed to hear. I needed to hear that it can be done in a hospital and you are allowed to stand up to hospital staff when they disagree with you. It also gives great ideas on what to do once you get to the hospital. One woman wrote a short version of her birth plan to give to the nurses. Once the nurses found out she wanted to do a natural birth a few of them didn’t want to be put on her service. Now this sounds harsh, but I would rather find the nurse that actually wants to help me at the very beginning of labor vs. having conflict during labor. This lady ended up with wonderful nurses who supported her because she planned ahead.
It is also interesting to read about other people’s choices and how they are different from mine and why they went a certain route. I am doing a VBAC (Vaginal Birth after Cesarean), so I knew from the beginning I wanted to be at the hospital. But it is still very inspiring to read stories about women who have given birth at home and other places.
Today we had our 26 week check up with the OB and baby girl is looking good! We got to listen to her heartbeat which was awesome. Baby girl wasn’t to happy about being poked by the nurse to be able to get a good listen. She kept kicking her away. She is much more feisty than Sweet Pea ever was. I remember having days where I didn’t feel Sweet Pea moving at all and would freak out. I went to the OB office multiple times with him to make sure he was still alive because I hadn’t felt him in over 48 hours. Apparently he was just really comfortable in the womb and didn’t feel the need to move about. This little one is totally opposite. I have not had to worry once about her because she is constantly changing positions.
We got to talk to our OB at length about our VBAC situation. A few weeks ago I wrote how I was worried we wouldn’t be on the same page. For the most part we are. I can labor at home for a while and then come up to the hospital to be admitted. I can have a heplock instead of an IV so I can still move around the room. This gives the doc and nurses comfort in knowing they can hook me up to an IV fast if need be. She wants me to be hooked to a baby monitor as a precaution. I am not a big fan of this because that doesn’t give me a huge radius of space to walk around in. But I am willing to do this as long as I am not confined to the bed. The back pain I am having during pregnancy is greatly relieved when I am not laying in bed on my back, so I can’t even imagine being confined to the bed with labor pains. Ouch! The only thing that we disagree on is the epidural. I am hoping that I can do this as naturally as possible and an epidural doesn’t really figure into that equation. But my OB is pretty adamant about me having one pretty early on in the labor for her own comfort. I do understand and respect that, but it’s not what I want. I am going to sit on it and pray about it for the next couple of days and talk to my Bradley instructor and see what her opinion is. Hopefully we can get this figured out soon…
Have I told you lately that I am loving our Bradley Birthing Class?!?! It is awesome! This evening the class was all about breastfeeding, which is something I have become very passionate about since having Sweet Pea. During the class our conversation turned to the many uses of breast milk. If your baby has “sleepy eyes” wiping a few drops of breast milk over each eye can clear it right up! If your baby is starting to get a diaper rash wiping a few drops over the rash can help make it go away. Breast milk is amazing!
Another study our instructor told us about was a researcher took a cup of formula and a cup of breast milk. He introduced live staph bacteria to each cup. After four hours the researcher came back and checked the level of staph in each one. In the formula the staph bacteria had started to thrive. In the breast milk, the staph measured at half of what he put in there! After eight hours in the formula the staph was still flourishing. In the breast milk it was gone.
Every new thing I learn about breastfeeding and breast milk is amazing. I know to have a successful breastfeeding relationship with your baby it is important to have a wonderful support group around you. For me, I had a suppportive husband, family, and a great lactation consultant. I hope every new mother has the same opportunity I did. It’s worth it!
My hubby and I started our birthing class last night. The class is using the Bradley Method and I feel like I have already learned more this time around in one class than I did the last time. We met at our instructor’s house along with five other couples and will continue to meet there over the next seven weeks. It’s a wonderful, relaxing atmosphere to be in someone’s home instead of a classroom somewhere.We love the class! I highly recommend a Bradley birthing class for anybody who is looking to take one.
Our first class has put a lot on our minds. Sweet Pea was a c-section birth and with this one I am attempting a VBAC. In one session, this class has helped me see that my c-section was most likely uncalled for. Which is bringing up some anger toward my OB that I had with Sweet Pea. It is more obvious than ever that she did not try everything possible for me to deliver Sweet Pea naturally. For her, my birth was just another birth. Not something that was special.
We have moved since then and I now have a different OB, but I am learning that I need to be much more assertive with my doctor about what I want. So next week at my appointment I will come with a list of questions and if we aren’t on the same page I will be looking for a new OB. I really hope I don’t have to do that because I like her a lot. But I want to be fair to her and to me. I don’t want to put her in a position that would compromise something she believes. And I don’t want to be in a position where I disagree with her. I want to trust that whoever I end up with knows what I want and will be on the same page. That way when labor comes I don’t have to worry about any decision my doctor makes on my behalf. I am well aware that I may end up with another c-section, but I want to be 100% positive it is necessary. And that is only possible with a doctor we trust. Updates to come…
As you can see from my Wordless Wednesday post yesterday we had an exciting visit at the OB office a few days ago. We got to do our one and only sonogram to see the baby! They measured the baby and it turns out she is measuring as big as a 22 week baby even though I am 20 weeks. Of course this doesn’t really mean anything. She will come when she is supposed to despite how big or small she is. Sweet Pea was three weeks early and weighed in at over seven pounds so I am not surprised that she is big as well. We also got to see her kick her feet and cross her legs. We never got a great face shot because she kept moving her hands. Every time the sonogram technician went to take her picture she would cover her face. We also got a great shot of her having the hiccups. Sweet Pea just sat in his daddy’s lap the whole time staring at the screen. It was so fun!
Our visit with the doctor also went well. She is pleased with the baby’s measurement and my progress. We got to talk a little bit about my having a VBAC and she is on board. Of course she had to go over everything that could go wrong during a VBAC before she agrees to it, but that is just procedure. I am planning on taking a birthing class with a lady who has had a c-section and a vbac so I feel confident that I will be able to make a good decision about what to do when the time comes. Starting to think about signing up for birthing classes is exciting!! It means we are getting closer! yeah!
This week marks the twentieth week of my pregnancy. It is such a weird feeling to get to the halfway point. I am getting a real pregnant belly and all the aches and pains that go along with it. Everyone always asks about morning sickness (which I never had), but never about the back pain or the leg pain or the knee pain or the hip pain. And the list goes on. The only thing that makes the pains worth it is the little little baby kicks I am now starting to feel. When I am laying awake in the middle of the night trying to get comfortable and frustrated that I can’t, I suddenly feel a little jolt in my tummy and I smile and the pain gets shoved to the back of my mind for a brief second.
The only thing that is strange about this pregnancy is I still can’t picture myself with another baby. Sweet Pea and I have such a strong connection and our daily schedule is finally coming together. I just can’t picture us as a family of four. I know in my head that we will get to celebrate all the holidays this year with a brand new baby, but it’s not connecting to my heart. Weird? I hope it’s not too weird. So when does a second baby finally feel real?! I guess maybe when they are born.
So this evening for dinner all I wanted was green beans and cheese all mixed together. So I indulged myself. At least it was healthy, right?! What are some weird cravings you have had?
