So it's been a week and I feel so good. I went to the chiro 2 days postpartum. That helped soooo much. I highly recommend it to anyone about to have a baby and following the birth. I was so out of alignment from the birth.
I had my 1 week pp visit with the midwife yesterday and she was just amazed at how quickly I am recovering. My uterus is already the size of a peach. In just another week or so I would guess it will be impossible to find.
A lot of you have emailed to ask how I am feeling... mentally... well truth is I feel great! Mia is with wonderful and caring parents, she is nursing like a champ and has a big sister who totally adores her. What's not to be thrilled about the way this ended? I talked to Candace today and they had a decent trip home. A few things could have been better, like a cleaner train but all in all they were at least comfortable. The second train they were on was better than the first she said. Her mom and dad met them at the station with a limo for their ride home. She shared some pictures from the trip home. They are up on a website. It's amazing how much Mia's face has changed in just a week. Today is fathers day and I am just thrilled to death that Alex has his little girl in his hands to celebrate the day. I swear I couldn't have done this for a more deserving and amazing couple and I am just so unbelievably happy with how things turned out.
I am also pumping milk for my kids now too and am so happy with how much I am getting for them. I have decided to keep pumping and am trying to get my hands on a PIS advance to help facilitate pumping for them. Lance is really loving my milk and I think I want to keep this up for as long as he wants to have the milk. I am up to almost 30 ounces a day and now Lance is drinking more breast milk than cows milk again which makes me happy.
let's see... oh I have already shed 21 lbs. Kyra says my belly is no longer floppy(like how it is the first days after birth) and my bleeding is down to a trickle. I am already back into my size 10's. YAY!!! Although I want to tone up my mid section nicely. I am going to start microdermabrasion to help with the hyper-pigmentation I have had to deal with because of pregnancy. I go for my first treatment early in July. I have to do some other skin lightening treatment before starting the mda so that is why the wait.
Next week I turn 34 and I feel like I am exactly where I belong in my life.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Monday, June 9, 2008
The Birth
For the days leading up to the birth of this little miracle I had been just trying to make plans to keep myself busy during the day and resting really well at night. So Saturday my sister and I went out to Grapevine to the Winery to pick up a case of mead for Scott and then to GermanDeli.com to do some much needed german foods shopping (we Germans gotta have some of our faves and all.) We walked around historic downtown Grapevine for a little while and were invited to crash the candy favors line at a wedding they were having down there (by the mother of the bride.) We stopped at this little bakery and I picked up a scrumptious almond cressont and then headed home.
After we got home I called Candace and Alex to see what they had been doing all day and see if they wanted to come over to rest and relax and grill out with us, but they had been in the sun all day already and were pretty much spent so they were going to just run to the grocery store and take an easy night. I reminded Candace of some stuff she needed to pick up for the birth. And we decided to get together on Sunday for a nice chill day.
My sister cooked dinner for me and my family instead and she went to the bookstore. All day she had been having a terrible backache and I told her it was sympathy pains. She said I was going to be having Mia that day, because she couldn't handle the pain lol. It was kind of a running joke with us all day. Anyhow when she came home from the bookstore it was about 9pm and I was laying down with the kiddos and falling asleep. Lance and Kyra were watching the Herculiods (one of their favorite old cartoons.) Susanne came in to use the tub in the master bathroom(it's got jets and all, great for a backache.) Lance had been bugging me and I rolled over and told him he needed to be quiet and watch his show and go to sleep. I was right on the verge of falling over that sleeping edge by that point andI suddenly felt my bag of waters pop. It was very slow motion, like I could feel inside my vagina the actual membranes of the bag sweep through the area as the water rushed around and filled the canal and flowed out. It was the largest gush of waters I have ever had and the bed was soaked.
I got up and walked into the bathroom where my sister was standing as her much needed bath was filling up (so sorry you didn't get that bath Susanne.) She looked at me funny and I said, "my water broke." I had been wondering how this labor was going to announce itself and if I would even know I was in labor when it finally started, but true to form for me it was announced in a way you just can't doubt with that sudden rush of waters.
She saw that I was leaking all over the floor and told me to get into the tub. Lance jumped up out of the bed too to find out what I was doing so I asked him to bring me the phone and I made all the necessary phone calls. I wasn't contracting at that point so no one needed to rush over.
My wonderful and amazing husband and sister jumped into action and got the house prepared. Scott pumped up the pool and started filling it up while my sister cleaned the bathtub and got the water redy in the crock pot and cleaned the floors and oh heck 101 other little things they thought needed to be done. By then Kyra was already completely out but Lance was still needing to go to sleep so I laid down with him to rest a little more and put him to sleep. By 10:30 the house was quiet finally and everyone was just waiting for me to start contracting. I had started but didn't think they were anything. They were slowly building and I was timing them while talking to my dear friend Sherry on the phone. They were mild but coming frequently and I knew that they would pick up soon as the time between them was ripe for me to kick it in gear at anytime, so I called Bonnie back and told her I needed her there for my sanity. I just know that when I go I am going to hit the floor running, I just needed to get to that established labor point, the magical 4 cms and it would be all over. I called Candace back and told her that things would be picking up soon. I just wanted to make sure everyone was here and in place before things got heated.
It was around midnight when Bonnie arrived (I didn't realize it was so late) and I had her check me. I was only 3cms, but again I wasn't really contracting that much. I walked around some more to help get things going. I am not exactly sure when it started but I knew I had finally moved past the point and got into the pool. Reminding myself that what I was feeling at that point was nothing. Scott sat next to me (we were in the dining room) while everyone else chatted in the living room. At some point I asked Bonnie to check me again and I was finally at a 4. I guess that had to be around 1:45. She called her apprentice to come in as Kim (the other midwife) was at another birth. Right after that I had a few really strong contractions and one extremely long and intense contraction. At which point Bonnie texted the apprentice to hurry up. I asked Bonnie to check me again and told her that if she told me I was only a 6 I was going to DIE! Of course being the person I am she knew she could reply with some funny retort and she said everyone would surely miss me. She checked me and announced that I was 8 and she wasn't kidding. Everything was just a rush and blur at that point because she knew and I knew that it was going to be completely over with very soon. I was screaming for someone to give me some serious counter pressure and I could hear Bonnie rushing around, getting Alex to do the recordings of the details as the apprentice hadn't yet arrived to do that part.
I told them I needed to push but not yet I was almost there, asked Bonnie to see what was holding me back, she said a small lip, I knew any second I would be allowed to push and I would feel better. Now? not yet, and finally Bonnie said ok and I pushed and wondered why the hell it still hurt so bad. PUSH.... I could feel her moving down and though "HOLY SHIT she is bigger than Lance!" They could see her head already. PUSH....man it burned like a MF'er (yes I said that outloud, then quickly apologized to Abby who was sitting in the living room). She was so good! PUSH... she was at a full crown (oh the apprentice had arrived sometime before the pushing began but I don't recall any of that). I was just shocked at how much this hurt and was very confused, there was just no way she was that big. PUSH PUSH PUSH her head was out and I was pushing with all I had but they were asking for more. She seemed stuck but why? I could hear in my midwifes voice that she was concerned, Scott and Susanne had to hold me down because I was coming out of the water. Finally Bonnie said "Stand her up" and told me to push really hard, she could see why I was struggling getting her out now. Her hand was up by her face, and Bonnie tried to push it in but instead Mia forced her elbow out. What a stinker! BUt standing up I could finally get the leverage I needed to get Mia out and at 2:47am there she was, Candace was there to catch her little girl... I reached down too instinctively because the cord was so short and I could feel it tugging... Hurry someone bring her a towel the baby is cold, I could see her lip quivering. We were supposed to be in the warm water but weren't. I looked at Candace and was like "wow it's your little girl... hold her wrap her up... The cord was just too short though for her to hold her long...I told Candace that her cord was too short that she would have to give her to me for a moment(this is all in a matter of seconds really). I stepped out of the pool and started walking back to the bedroom so they could collect the cord blood. We were supposed to wait to deliver the placenta before we cut the cord but the cord was so short that we couldn't facilitate the cord blood retrieval right with it like that so Alex cut the cord and I could finally hand her over to her mommy. Bonnie collected the blood and then we delivered the placenta and she collected some more. It was an odd placental delivery as some of my bag of waters was coming out after the placenta. I could finally clean up a little and get my wet top off and put on something a little more modest(yeah).
My children slowly woke up at that point and all came out to meet the baby. Lance was the first :) Then he went to wake up Kyra and Erick after he had some time with the baby lol.
I bled a lot more than normal. I decided I needed to get the pump on but it only produced some small contractions that didn't seem to help too much at that time. At some point in the night I just knew Bonnie was going to need to massage my uterus and so I asked her to at which she got a large fist sized blood clot out. Finally my bleeding was slowing. I was so tired. Everyone had already moved out of the bedroom at that point to give me some down time and I think it was around 6am when Candace, Alex, Abby and Mia got to go back to the hotel for some much needed rest.
After we got home I called Candace and Alex to see what they had been doing all day and see if they wanted to come over to rest and relax and grill out with us, but they had been in the sun all day already and were pretty much spent so they were going to just run to the grocery store and take an easy night. I reminded Candace of some stuff she needed to pick up for the birth. And we decided to get together on Sunday for a nice chill day.
My sister cooked dinner for me and my family instead and she went to the bookstore. All day she had been having a terrible backache and I told her it was sympathy pains. She said I was going to be having Mia that day, because she couldn't handle the pain lol. It was kind of a running joke with us all day. Anyhow when she came home from the bookstore it was about 9pm and I was laying down with the kiddos and falling asleep. Lance and Kyra were watching the Herculiods (one of their favorite old cartoons.) Susanne came in to use the tub in the master bathroom(it's got jets and all, great for a backache.) Lance had been bugging me and I rolled over and told him he needed to be quiet and watch his show and go to sleep. I was right on the verge of falling over that sleeping edge by that point andI suddenly felt my bag of waters pop. It was very slow motion, like I could feel inside my vagina the actual membranes of the bag sweep through the area as the water rushed around and filled the canal and flowed out. It was the largest gush of waters I have ever had and the bed was soaked.
I got up and walked into the bathroom where my sister was standing as her much needed bath was filling up (so sorry you didn't get that bath Susanne.) She looked at me funny and I said, "my water broke." I had been wondering how this labor was going to announce itself and if I would even know I was in labor when it finally started, but true to form for me it was announced in a way you just can't doubt with that sudden rush of waters.
She saw that I was leaking all over the floor and told me to get into the tub. Lance jumped up out of the bed too to find out what I was doing so I asked him to bring me the phone and I made all the necessary phone calls. I wasn't contracting at that point so no one needed to rush over.
My wonderful and amazing husband and sister jumped into action and got the house prepared. Scott pumped up the pool and started filling it up while my sister cleaned the bathtub and got the water redy in the crock pot and cleaned the floors and oh heck 101 other little things they thought needed to be done. By then Kyra was already completely out but Lance was still needing to go to sleep so I laid down with him to rest a little more and put him to sleep. By 10:30 the house was quiet finally and everyone was just waiting for me to start contracting. I had started but didn't think they were anything. They were slowly building and I was timing them while talking to my dear friend Sherry on the phone. They were mild but coming frequently and I knew that they would pick up soon as the time between them was ripe for me to kick it in gear at anytime, so I called Bonnie back and told her I needed her there for my sanity. I just know that when I go I am going to hit the floor running, I just needed to get to that established labor point, the magical 4 cms and it would be all over. I called Candace back and told her that things would be picking up soon. I just wanted to make sure everyone was here and in place before things got heated.
It was around midnight when Bonnie arrived (I didn't realize it was so late) and I had her check me. I was only 3cms, but again I wasn't really contracting that much. I walked around some more to help get things going. I am not exactly sure when it started but I knew I had finally moved past the point and got into the pool. Reminding myself that what I was feeling at that point was nothing. Scott sat next to me (we were in the dining room) while everyone else chatted in the living room. At some point I asked Bonnie to check me again and I was finally at a 4. I guess that had to be around 1:45. She called her apprentice to come in as Kim (the other midwife) was at another birth. Right after that I had a few really strong contractions and one extremely long and intense contraction. At which point Bonnie texted the apprentice to hurry up. I asked Bonnie to check me again and told her that if she told me I was only a 6 I was going to DIE! Of course being the person I am she knew she could reply with some funny retort and she said everyone would surely miss me. She checked me and announced that I was 8 and she wasn't kidding. Everything was just a rush and blur at that point because she knew and I knew that it was going to be completely over with very soon. I was screaming for someone to give me some serious counter pressure and I could hear Bonnie rushing around, getting Alex to do the recordings of the details as the apprentice hadn't yet arrived to do that part.
I told them I needed to push but not yet I was almost there, asked Bonnie to see what was holding me back, she said a small lip, I knew any second I would be allowed to push and I would feel better. Now? not yet, and finally Bonnie said ok and I pushed and wondered why the hell it still hurt so bad. PUSH.... I could feel her moving down and though "HOLY SHIT she is bigger than Lance!" They could see her head already. PUSH....man it burned like a MF'er (yes I said that outloud, then quickly apologized to Abby who was sitting in the living room). She was so good! PUSH... she was at a full crown (oh the apprentice had arrived sometime before the pushing began but I don't recall any of that). I was just shocked at how much this hurt and was very confused, there was just no way she was that big. PUSH PUSH PUSH her head was out and I was pushing with all I had but they were asking for more. She seemed stuck but why? I could hear in my midwifes voice that she was concerned, Scott and Susanne had to hold me down because I was coming out of the water. Finally Bonnie said "Stand her up" and told me to push really hard, she could see why I was struggling getting her out now. Her hand was up by her face, and Bonnie tried to push it in but instead Mia forced her elbow out. What a stinker! BUt standing up I could finally get the leverage I needed to get Mia out and at 2:47am there she was, Candace was there to catch her little girl... I reached down too instinctively because the cord was so short and I could feel it tugging... Hurry someone bring her a towel the baby is cold, I could see her lip quivering. We were supposed to be in the warm water but weren't. I looked at Candace and was like "wow it's your little girl... hold her wrap her up... The cord was just too short though for her to hold her long...I told Candace that her cord was too short that she would have to give her to me for a moment(this is all in a matter of seconds really). I stepped out of the pool and started walking back to the bedroom so they could collect the cord blood. We were supposed to wait to deliver the placenta before we cut the cord but the cord was so short that we couldn't facilitate the cord blood retrieval right with it like that so Alex cut the cord and I could finally hand her over to her mommy. Bonnie collected the blood and then we delivered the placenta and she collected some more. It was an odd placental delivery as some of my bag of waters was coming out after the placenta. I could finally clean up a little and get my wet top off and put on something a little more modest(yeah).
My children slowly woke up at that point and all came out to meet the baby. Lance was the first :) Then he went to wake up Kyra and Erick after he had some time with the baby lol.
I bled a lot more than normal. I decided I needed to get the pump on but it only produced some small contractions that didn't seem to help too much at that time. At some point in the night I just knew Bonnie was going to need to massage my uterus and so I asked her to at which she got a large fist sized blood clot out. Finally my bleeding was slowing. I was so tired. Everyone had already moved out of the bedroom at that point to give me some down time and I think it was around 6am when Candace, Alex, Abby and Mia got to go back to the hotel for some much needed rest.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Quick Update
After 62 minutes of active labor she arrive with her hand/elbow up by her head. It was scary because she was hard to push out with her elbow up by her head. They had to quickly stand me up and I had to push with more than I knew I had. It wasn't until after she was out they explained why she was so hard to get out.
anyhow the details are 9lbs 8oz 21inches long. Even with her hand/elbow up by her head no tears.
anyhow the details are 9lbs 8oz 21inches long. Even with her hand/elbow up by her head no tears.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Still No Baby
I have had 2 appt's since my last post. 39 weeks today. I had my last appt. on Wednesday and I was 2-3 cm dilated and 60% effaced. It's anyones guess but I am blaming Alex's genetics for Mia taking her time(hehe). According to Candace, Alex was born at 42 weeks. His poor mother!
We went to the movies today. Saw Kung Fu Panda. It was a cute movie and a nice way to pass some time. Tomorrow I have plans to drive out to the Vineyard to pick up some mead for Scott. Watch I will go into labor because I have plans. I have actually started making plans almost every day so as to jinx myself but it doesn't seem to be working.
OK it's Sat morning now and still no baby. I thought something might happen last night but after I went to bed it all petered out. It was nothing strong so I knew better than to try to stay up and exhaust myself trying to jump start labor. Plus I have to get Scott his doggoned mead today.
Well I am off to shower and get my day started.
We went to the movies today. Saw Kung Fu Panda. It was a cute movie and a nice way to pass some time. Tomorrow I have plans to drive out to the Vineyard to pick up some mead for Scott. Watch I will go into labor because I have plans. I have actually started making plans almost every day so as to jinx myself but it doesn't seem to be working.
OK it's Sat morning now and still no baby. I thought something might happen last night but after I went to bed it all petered out. It was nothing strong so I knew better than to try to stay up and exhaust myself trying to jump start labor. Plus I have to get Scott his doggoned mead today.
Well I am off to shower and get my day started.
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