Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Sunday, August 19, 2007
My Personal Post Partum Diary
Ok, this is sort of more for me than anyone else out there reading, so you can feel free to ignore it! In fact, unless you're pg and interested, please do ignore! I just wanted to kind of keep track of what is happening when post partum. Somewhat for me, and somewhat for a pg friend of mine.
Sat, Aug. 11- 162.5 lbs, false labor pains all day
Sun, Aug 12- more false labor, then real labor started 2pm-ish, delivered 7:41
Mon, Aug 13- 150 lbs, went home less than 24 hours later
Tuesday night into all day Wednesday, milk started coming in
Wednesday-Friday, engorged, settled by Friday
stitches got sore at this point, more of a reaction to "Always" brand than anything, switched brands, got better
Sunday, August 19th, 145.5 lbs
Monday, August 27th, 144 lbs, had my two week midwife check in appt. No exam, just an office visit.
Monday, September 4, 142.5 lbs, and I fit into my size 10 shorts now!
Sat, Aug. 11- 162.5 lbs, false labor pains all day
Sun, Aug 12- more false labor, then real labor started 2pm-ish, delivered 7:41
Mon, Aug 13- 150 lbs, went home less than 24 hours later
Tuesday night into all day Wednesday, milk started coming in
Wednesday-Friday, engorged, settled by Friday
stitches got sore at this point, more of a reaction to "Always" brand than anything, switched brands, got better
Sunday, August 19th, 145.5 lbs
Monday, August 27th, 144 lbs, had my two week midwife check in appt. No exam, just an office visit.
Monday, September 4, 142.5 lbs, and I fit into my size 10 shorts now!
Friday, August 17, 2007
What is a Boy?
This was on the wall at the pediatrician's office today, and I thought it was so perfect! The receptionist kindly gave me a copy.
What is a Boy?
Between the innocence of babyhood and the dignity of manood we find a delightful creature called a boy. Boys come in assorted sizes, weights, and colors, but all boys have the same creed. To enjoy every second of every minute of every hour of every day and to protest with noise (their only weapon) when their last minute is finished and the adult males pack them off to bed at night.
Boys are found everywhere-- on top of, underneath, inside of, climbing on, swinging from, running around, or jumping to. Mothers love them, little girls hate them, older sisters and brothers tolerate them, adults ignore them, and Heaven protects them. A boy is Truth with dirt on its face, Beauty with a cut on its finger, Wisdom with bubble gum in its hair, and the Hope of the future with a frog in its pocket.
When you are busy, a boy is an inconsiderate, bothersome, intruding jangle of noise. When you want him to make a good impression, his brain turns to jelly, or else he becomes a savage, sadistic jungle creature, bent on destroying the world and himself with it.
A boy is a composite-- he has the appetite of a horse, the digestion of a sword-swallower, the energy of a pocket-size atomic bomb, the curiosity of a cat, the lungs of a dictator, the imagination of a Paul Bunyan, the shyness of a violet, the audacity of a steel trap, the enthusiasm of a firecracker, and when he makes something he has five thumbs on each hand.
He likes ice cream, knives, saws, Christmas, comic books, the boy across the street, woods, water (in its natural habitat), large animals, Dad, trains, Saturday mornings, and fire engines. He is not much for Sunday School, company, schools, books without pictures, music lessons, neckties, barbers, girls, overcoats, adults or bedtime.
Nobody else is so early to rise, or so late to supper. Nobody else gets so much fun out of trees, dogs and breezes. Nobody else can cram into one pocket a rusty knife, a half-eaten apple, three feet of string, and empty Bull Durham sack, two gum drops, six cents, a slingshot, a chunk of unknown substance, and a genuine supersonic code ring with a secret compartment.
A boy is a magical creature-- you can lock him out of your work shop, but you can't lock him out of your heart. You can get him out of your study, but you can't get him out of your mind. Might as well give up--he is your captor, your jailer, your boss, and your master-- a freckle-faced, pint-sized, cat-chasing, bundle of noise. But when you come home at night with only the shattered pieces of your hopes and dreams, he can mend them like new with the two magic words--"Hi Dad!"
by Alan Beck
Boys are found everywhere-- on top of, underneath, inside of, climbing on, swinging from, running around, or jumping to. Mothers love them, little girls hate them, older sisters and brothers tolerate them, adults ignore them, and Heaven protects them. A boy is Truth with dirt on its face, Beauty with a cut on its finger, Wisdom with bubble gum in its hair, and the Hope of the future with a frog in its pocket.
When you are busy, a boy is an inconsiderate, bothersome, intruding jangle of noise. When you want him to make a good impression, his brain turns to jelly, or else he becomes a savage, sadistic jungle creature, bent on destroying the world and himself with it.
A boy is a composite-- he has the appetite of a horse, the digestion of a sword-swallower, the energy of a pocket-size atomic bomb, the curiosity of a cat, the lungs of a dictator, the imagination of a Paul Bunyan, the shyness of a violet, the audacity of a steel trap, the enthusiasm of a firecracker, and when he makes something he has five thumbs on each hand.
He likes ice cream, knives, saws, Christmas, comic books, the boy across the street, woods, water (in its natural habitat), large animals, Dad, trains, Saturday mornings, and fire engines. He is not much for Sunday School, company, schools, books without pictures, music lessons, neckties, barbers, girls, overcoats, adults or bedtime.
Nobody else is so early to rise, or so late to supper. Nobody else gets so much fun out of trees, dogs and breezes. Nobody else can cram into one pocket a rusty knife, a half-eaten apple, three feet of string, and empty Bull Durham sack, two gum drops, six cents, a slingshot, a chunk of unknown substance, and a genuine supersonic code ring with a secret compartment.
A boy is a magical creature-- you can lock him out of your work shop, but you can't lock him out of your heart. You can get him out of your study, but you can't get him out of your mind. Might as well give up--he is your captor, your jailer, your boss, and your master-- a freckle-faced, pint-sized, cat-chasing, bundle of noise. But when you come home at night with only the shattered pieces of your hopes and dreams, he can mend them like new with the two magic words--"Hi Dad!"
by Alan Beck
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Pictures!
Moments after birth. I was wearing a flesh colored bra, I'm not naked here! Eek!
The brothers meeting for the first time. The little panda was Daniel's gift to Nicholas.
The brothers meeting for the first time. The little panda was Daniel's gift to Nicholas.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Nicholas Logan
He's here!
Nicholas Logan was born on August 12th at 7:41pm. He weighed 7 lbs, 3 oz and was 20 inches long. I'll add a picture here as soon as I have a chance to!
Short birth story: I had false labor all day Saturday and Sunday. It finally settled into active labor Sunday afternoon, and we headed into the hospital. I arrived and was 3-4 cm. After only about 2 hours, I had the ob check me again, and I was almost fully dilated! During labor I was so focused on relaxing that Doug couldn't even tell when I was having contractions. The ob said it was a "silent labor." (Not pain free mind you, just silent! LOL! I went med free.) He broke my waters, and 15 minutes of pushing later, Nicholas Logan entered the world. He scored 9/9 on his Apgars, and is just perfect! We got to come home less than 24 hours later, and it's great to be home.
Nicholas Logan was born on August 12th at 7:41pm. He weighed 7 lbs, 3 oz and was 20 inches long. I'll add a picture here as soon as I have a chance to!
Short birth story: I had false labor all day Saturday and Sunday. It finally settled into active labor Sunday afternoon, and we headed into the hospital. I arrived and was 3-4 cm. After only about 2 hours, I had the ob check me again, and I was almost fully dilated! During labor I was so focused on relaxing that Doug couldn't even tell when I was having contractions. The ob said it was a "silent labor." (Not pain free mind you, just silent! LOL! I went med free.) He broke my waters, and 15 minutes of pushing later, Nicholas Logan entered the world. He scored 9/9 on his Apgars, and is just perfect! We got to come home less than 24 hours later, and it's great to be home.
Nicholas Logan's Birth Story
This is the long detailed version of Nicholas' birth story.
He was due Saturday, August 11th. I was very big, hot, tired and ready to be done by then. My primary midwife, Elaine, was going on vacation that day, and the secondary midwife, Jolene, was so new to the practice that she didn't have hospital priveleges yet. They did tell me that she'd be able to be there for the birth however, which I was grateful for, just not to do the actual "catching."
Saturday during the day I started having false labor contractions. These were basically the same as regular contractions, but they weren't in any kind of pattern and were all over 10 minutes apart. Had them all Saturday, Saturday night, and Sunday morning. Sunday morning, I thought they were regular to every 7 minutes or so, and called my mom to come over and watch Daniel. Wouldn't you know it, after I got out of the shower, they stalled out! Went back to being very far apart again. So mom went home, and I tried to rest.
I took a nap that afternoon, or tried to, but they started getting strong enough that I wanted Doug to provide some counter pressure on my back. (Doug and I had been trained in the Bradley birth method, for any who are curious, which is strong on husband-support and relaxation techniques.) Doug started timing them for me at 2pm, and they were regular again to every 7 minutes or so. We called mom back over, puttered around at home a little bit to make sure, and headed into the hospital around 4ish. I had not been able to reach Jolene on her pager, so called the office to let them know I was coming in. The doctor on call said he wasn't even sure Jolene's pager was working yet, but to come in and get checked out to see if this was it.
When we got there, we were checked into the room around 5 I believe. The doctor came in to check me around 5:20. Now, I was very nervous about having a complete stranger instead of my midwife, and a male at that. But the first words out of his mouth were "I was a former Bradley instructor" and I knew we had the perfect match! He was totally on board with our birth plan. I was hooked up to the monitor, and he checked me and said I was about 3-4 cm, so get comfy. (We actually ended up switching rooms at this point, as I wanted one with a jacuzzi labor tub instead of just a plain shower. The staff there was so accommodating!) We did notice that the contractions were much closer than 7-8 minutes. I think I was able to relax once I was in the hospital, oddly enough, as I had been nervous about making it there in time based on Daniel's quick birth.
Once in the new room, I tried out the tub first. I had heard great things about laboring in water, but found for myself that I wasn't able to keep a handle on the contractions while in there. So I got out, and tried walking around some. That worked a little bit, but still wasn't the best position for me, as I couldn't get myself to relax. Finally around 6ish I decided to try laying on my side on the bed. (This was a position that totally did NOT work for me when I was laboring with Daniel!) Doug sat in a chair beside me, ready to provide pressure on my back. I started to realize that I actually didn't want him to do that, as it was distracting me more. So he backed off completely and just basically sat and watched me. (And scarfed down half my tuna sandwich they had brought for me earlier, I might add!)
As I lay there, I just kept telling myself in my head "Don't fight the contractions, let your body do what it needs to do. Relax, work with it." I did that for every contraction, and totally concentrated on staying relaxed, to the point where Doug was only able to tell I was having contractions once or twice. Otherwise, I basically looked like I was sleeping. He later said he figured we'd be in for a long night of it, just based on how quiet I was.
(Now, I'm not saying that the contractions didn't hurt, because they did. However, once I decided to stop fighting them and work with them, it was much easier to get through each one. There was only a small time for each one that was hard, and once I got through that time, I knew it would get easier.)
After a while, I started to realize that I was feeling a lot of rectal pressure at the end of each contraction. I felt this for about 3 contractions and was thinking of having a nurse check on my progress just as my new nurse came in. The ob also came in at this point to check on me. I believe this was around 7:20ish. The nurse asked me how I wanted to be monitered, for 10 minutes every hour or 15 minutes every 2 hours. I chose the second, and chatted with her calmly in between contractions while she hooked me up. The ob asked how I was doing, and I told him about the pressure and asked if he'd check my progress. He said sure, as it had been about 2 hours since he'd last checked me. (Remember, that was 3-4 cm.) So he checked, and said I was almost complete, with only a little anterior lip left! I had basically not even noticed transition, practically slept myself through it. The ob said he could break my water for me, and the resulting pressure of the baby's head would probably start me pushing soon. I was very much in shock that I had gone to almost complete in 2 hours, and asked him to clarify again exactly what would happen if he broke my waters. I said "So I'm past transition? I didn't even notice it!" He told me there was such a thing as a silent labor, which I guess is how you would describe what I had been doing. (Doug later said the ob looked a bit surprised too when he checked me.) I decided to go for it. He said they'd get some things ready first, and would be right back. While I was waiting, I was chatting with the nurse again, and I remember asking her if it was normal for me to be chatting with her like that. She said she wouldn't describe it as "normal" but she's known for it to happen before!
After some preparations, and one more contraction which the ob said pretty much brought me to completely dilated, he broke my waters. After that he said go ahead and push if I felt like it. Now, I had been very calm and relaxed up to this point, but for some reason, during pushing, I didn't know what the heck to do. Being on my side didn't work, being on my hands and knees didn't work. I just didn't have control anymore. I finally asked Doug to come sit behind me on the bed so I could lean back against him. I also told myself again to stop fighting my body and work with it and push with it. I think some of my problem was I still couldn't believe it was "safe" to push! Anyway, I finally started to do some honest to goodness pushes, and was totally the opposite of how I was during labor. Instead of being silent, I hollered like a banshee! Not an "OMG this hurts!" kind of holler, more like a primal, karate chop, force be with you holler. What can I say, it seemed to help me push! Doug said if he'd had more hair on the back of his neck that it would have stood up. After a few pushes his head was out, and I recall saying "Oh good, the rest will be easier right?" It pretty much was! Nicholas Logan was fully delivered at 7:41pm August 12th, less than 3 hours after we entered the hospital. They put him on my chest right away while the ob stitched up my old tear that had reopened and the placenta was delivered. He scored a 9/9 on his Apgars! We did try to nurse not long afterward, but it was awkward and he wasn't ready. He and I did much better with that a little bit later.
(I'll update this later with Daniel's first visit with his new baby brother.)
The next morning, the pediatrician said Nicholas looked great, and he was fine with him going home with me whenever I was ready. Boy was I ready! The room, while lovely, had not a single soft surface in it. The bed was basically 2 inches of foam padding on plywood, I swear. When the ob came in to check on me, he said I could go home whenever I wanted to as well. So we spent the morning doing paperwork and other final tests. I need to bring Nicholas back in Wednesday morning for another PKU test and to have his cord clamp removed. We went home around 2pm, less than 24 hours after arriving! It is so good to be home now. Nick is doing great, he's very mellow and seems to be a champion nurser already. My dad and stepmom and mom are taking turns providing us with dinners this week, which I HUGELY appreciate! (Thanks guys!) Doug has the week off, and I'm looking forward to getting to know this new little guy. Daniel is too! I'll have to post more later about how "big brother" is adjusting. (Very well, I might add.)
He was due Saturday, August 11th. I was very big, hot, tired and ready to be done by then. My primary midwife, Elaine, was going on vacation that day, and the secondary midwife, Jolene, was so new to the practice that she didn't have hospital priveleges yet. They did tell me that she'd be able to be there for the birth however, which I was grateful for, just not to do the actual "catching."
Saturday during the day I started having false labor contractions. These were basically the same as regular contractions, but they weren't in any kind of pattern and were all over 10 minutes apart. Had them all Saturday, Saturday night, and Sunday morning. Sunday morning, I thought they were regular to every 7 minutes or so, and called my mom to come over and watch Daniel. Wouldn't you know it, after I got out of the shower, they stalled out! Went back to being very far apart again. So mom went home, and I tried to rest.
I took a nap that afternoon, or tried to, but they started getting strong enough that I wanted Doug to provide some counter pressure on my back. (Doug and I had been trained in the Bradley birth method, for any who are curious, which is strong on husband-support and relaxation techniques.) Doug started timing them for me at 2pm, and they were regular again to every 7 minutes or so. We called mom back over, puttered around at home a little bit to make sure, and headed into the hospital around 4ish. I had not been able to reach Jolene on her pager, so called the office to let them know I was coming in. The doctor on call said he wasn't even sure Jolene's pager was working yet, but to come in and get checked out to see if this was it.
When we got there, we were checked into the room around 5 I believe. The doctor came in to check me around 5:20. Now, I was very nervous about having a complete stranger instead of my midwife, and a male at that. But the first words out of his mouth were "I was a former Bradley instructor" and I knew we had the perfect match! He was totally on board with our birth plan. I was hooked up to the monitor, and he checked me and said I was about 3-4 cm, so get comfy. (We actually ended up switching rooms at this point, as I wanted one with a jacuzzi labor tub instead of just a plain shower. The staff there was so accommodating!) We did notice that the contractions were much closer than 7-8 minutes. I think I was able to relax once I was in the hospital, oddly enough, as I had been nervous about making it there in time based on Daniel's quick birth.
Once in the new room, I tried out the tub first. I had heard great things about laboring in water, but found for myself that I wasn't able to keep a handle on the contractions while in there. So I got out, and tried walking around some. That worked a little bit, but still wasn't the best position for me, as I couldn't get myself to relax. Finally around 6ish I decided to try laying on my side on the bed. (This was a position that totally did NOT work for me when I was laboring with Daniel!) Doug sat in a chair beside me, ready to provide pressure on my back. I started to realize that I actually didn't want him to do that, as it was distracting me more. So he backed off completely and just basically sat and watched me. (And scarfed down half my tuna sandwich they had brought for me earlier, I might add!)
As I lay there, I just kept telling myself in my head "Don't fight the contractions, let your body do what it needs to do. Relax, work with it." I did that for every contraction, and totally concentrated on staying relaxed, to the point where Doug was only able to tell I was having contractions once or twice. Otherwise, I basically looked like I was sleeping. He later said he figured we'd be in for a long night of it, just based on how quiet I was.
(Now, I'm not saying that the contractions didn't hurt, because they did. However, once I decided to stop fighting them and work with them, it was much easier to get through each one. There was only a small time for each one that was hard, and once I got through that time, I knew it would get easier.)
After a while, I started to realize that I was feeling a lot of rectal pressure at the end of each contraction. I felt this for about 3 contractions and was thinking of having a nurse check on my progress just as my new nurse came in. The ob also came in at this point to check on me. I believe this was around 7:20ish. The nurse asked me how I wanted to be monitered, for 10 minutes every hour or 15 minutes every 2 hours. I chose the second, and chatted with her calmly in between contractions while she hooked me up. The ob asked how I was doing, and I told him about the pressure and asked if he'd check my progress. He said sure, as it had been about 2 hours since he'd last checked me. (Remember, that was 3-4 cm.) So he checked, and said I was almost complete, with only a little anterior lip left! I had basically not even noticed transition, practically slept myself through it. The ob said he could break my water for me, and the resulting pressure of the baby's head would probably start me pushing soon. I was very much in shock that I had gone to almost complete in 2 hours, and asked him to clarify again exactly what would happen if he broke my waters. I said "So I'm past transition? I didn't even notice it!" He told me there was such a thing as a silent labor, which I guess is how you would describe what I had been doing. (Doug later said the ob looked a bit surprised too when he checked me.) I decided to go for it. He said they'd get some things ready first, and would be right back. While I was waiting, I was chatting with the nurse again, and I remember asking her if it was normal for me to be chatting with her like that. She said she wouldn't describe it as "normal" but she's known for it to happen before!
After some preparations, and one more contraction which the ob said pretty much brought me to completely dilated, he broke my waters. After that he said go ahead and push if I felt like it. Now, I had been very calm and relaxed up to this point, but for some reason, during pushing, I didn't know what the heck to do. Being on my side didn't work, being on my hands and knees didn't work. I just didn't have control anymore. I finally asked Doug to come sit behind me on the bed so I could lean back against him. I also told myself again to stop fighting my body and work with it and push with it. I think some of my problem was I still couldn't believe it was "safe" to push! Anyway, I finally started to do some honest to goodness pushes, and was totally the opposite of how I was during labor. Instead of being silent, I hollered like a banshee! Not an "OMG this hurts!" kind of holler, more like a primal, karate chop, force be with you holler. What can I say, it seemed to help me push! Doug said if he'd had more hair on the back of his neck that it would have stood up. After a few pushes his head was out, and I recall saying "Oh good, the rest will be easier right?" It pretty much was! Nicholas Logan was fully delivered at 7:41pm August 12th, less than 3 hours after we entered the hospital. They put him on my chest right away while the ob stitched up my old tear that had reopened and the placenta was delivered. He scored a 9/9 on his Apgars! We did try to nurse not long afterward, but it was awkward and he wasn't ready. He and I did much better with that a little bit later.
(I'll update this later with Daniel's first visit with his new baby brother.)
The next morning, the pediatrician said Nicholas looked great, and he was fine with him going home with me whenever I was ready. Boy was I ready! The room, while lovely, had not a single soft surface in it. The bed was basically 2 inches of foam padding on plywood, I swear. When the ob came in to check on me, he said I could go home whenever I wanted to as well. So we spent the morning doing paperwork and other final tests. I need to bring Nicholas back in Wednesday morning for another PKU test and to have his cord clamp removed. We went home around 2pm, less than 24 hours after arriving! It is so good to be home now. Nick is doing great, he's very mellow and seems to be a champion nurser already. My dad and stepmom and mom are taking turns providing us with dinners this week, which I HUGELY appreciate! (Thanks guys!) Doug has the week off, and I'm looking forward to getting to know this new little guy. Daniel is too! I'll have to post more later about how "big brother" is adjusting. (Very well, I might add.)
Saturday, August 11, 2007
The Brickery
This site has instructions for every possible Lego kit you can imagine! A great place for ideas on new things to build with your Legos too. The Brickery.
From their homepage:
From their homepage:
We have the fastest growing collection of LEGO manuals on the web today. If you have lost the building instructions to one of your LEGO sets or are just looking for something new to build have a look in our Building Instructions section.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
39 weeks, 4 days
I had my midwife appointment this morning. I haven't dilated much more than last time. She said I'm about 1.5 cm, 50% effaced, and -1 station. We decided to not do the membrane sweep right now, as I'd rather be closer to 3 cm before we try that. Elaine agreed with that, said it's better to let my body do what it needs to on its own time. Besides, I have a feeling if we'd done the sweep today, with such little dilation, all I'd get out of it is some pain and cramps and no labor. So on to my massage this afternoon, and more waiting!
Update: My massage was wonderful as always. It's so nice to lay on that pregnancy pillow face down, and for an hour not feel the weight of my belly. She did some acupressure points for me, which was interesting. We'll see if it does anything!
Update: My massage was wonderful as always. It's so nice to lay on that pregnancy pillow face down, and for an hour not feel the weight of my belly. She did some acupressure points for me, which was interesting. We'll see if it does anything!
Sunday, August 05, 2007
The Ultimate Guide to Free Books
This is very cool. It's a list of websites where you can get your greedy little paws on books in all sorts of different ways. There are links to free downloads to your mp3, places to trade with other book lovers, short story podcasts and many more interesting sites.
Best Places to Get Free Books- The Ultimate Guide
Best Places to Get Free Books- The Ultimate Guide
Thursday, August 02, 2007
38 weeks, 6 days
I had my midwife appt. this afternoon, and things are going well. No action yet baby-wise, as I'm only about 1cm dilated, but that's ok. I got to meet the new midwife, who is I think younger than me, and is very sweet and gentle. Elaine, my primary midwife, said they both will be unavailable from 7am to 11pm Saturday, so not to have sex (HA, right!) until Sunday, just in case. There will be a female OB from the office on call though. My next appointment is Tuesday morning, where we'll check on progress and possibly do a membrane sweep, depending. Then that afternoon, I get my next massage. :)
Stay tuned!
Stay tuned!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
