Moving is such so tiring.  I can’t believe that some people actually LIKE to move.  LOL.  We have all our necessities out, but we still have a pile of boxes to go through and put away.  There’s so much to do and it’s quite exhausting, but we do love being here.

Baby was a bit fussy during the move because I was busy and it’s just a different place.  Soooo, it was a little tough on her too, but I think we’re all beginning to settle in now and get a routine going.

Speaking of baby, she will be 3 months old soon!  She’s growing so fast.  In another month she’ll be going back for another well baby check and we’ll be able to see just how much she has grown.  I have a feeling she’s going through another growth spurt (or she’s just trying to deal with the change in our lives) because she’s been nursing more.  Right now she’s taking a nap.  My son is also taking a nap.  Like I said earlier, it’s nice to be in our own space where we have comfortable places to relax, play, and sleep.

Then of course, the places where I posted it are no longer online (my due date clubs), so now I have to try to re-write it months later.  Here goes…

So, for those of you who’ve been waiting, here’s my birth story.

Geez, when did it start?

Monday night (the 5th) I felt quite uncomfortable.  I almost thought I was going in that night.  I decided to lay down and see if I could sleep through what I was feeling.  I knew “real” labor would wake me up.  Well, I slept fine through the night and felt better in the morning.

On Tuesday, more Braxton-Hicks type contractions.  Nothing major.  I had a dr’s appt that afternoon which showed that I made progress from 1cm, long and firm with baby still “high” to 3cm, 60% and baby had come down a bit.  I was excited!  I thought there was a great chance I could give birth on the day I’d been visualizing.
On Wednesday, the 7th, the date I’d visualized as my delivery date, still Braxton-Hicks like contractions.  They were all very handle-able, but I knew that I had a chance of going into labor as long as they hung around.  However, they never really developed into anything more.

The next day, the 8th, still not a whole lot more going on.  I didn’t think I’d go much longer, but the contractions just weren’t feeling all that different.  I had a few episodes during the day when I felt “a good one” but those were very few and far between so I didn’t think it was really leading anywhere. All I could hope was that all these BH-like contractions were doing more of the work and helping me progress a bit more before the “real deal” started.

The afternoon of the 8th I got in the shower and started noticing a bit more of what I called “basketball contractions.”  It felt like there was a basketball in my stomach trying to push it’s way outward.  My stomach would get super hard and look reallllly strange - like I said, it made me think of a basketball in there trying to push out toward my belly button and beyond.  Those contractions got my attention and had me thinking maybe we were getting somewhere, but they just weren’t frequent enough to have me convinced.

So, my husband and I went for a little walk later that evening.  I really couldn’t walk far without the aches and pains in my hips and legs and back taking over, so I opted to just relax and rest and save my energy in case I really did go into labor.

That night I went to bed hoping that I was getting closer to seeing my baby.  I woke up a time or two to some “nice” contractions, but again, told myself to relax and go to sleep.  I didn’t want to lose sleep obsessing over whether or not I was in labor.  If I was going to be in labor during the wee hours of the morning I wanted to get as much rest as possible.  Plus, like I thought before, if it’s the real thing, it’ll wake me up.  I won’t be able to sleep through it, but until that point, I wanted as much rest as possible.

Well about 3:15 or so I woke up again.  This time it was like I felt my whole body warming and I woke up just before I felt a good contraction come on.  I still didn’t want to read too much into it.  I didn’t want to wake my husband up at 3 in the morning for “nothing.”  After all, if I wasn’t in labor, he was going to go to work, so I didn’t want to deprive him of sleep unless I was sure.

Instead, I got out of bed and walked around the house a bit.  I had a few more contractions where I thought to myself, “Ah, that’s a nice one!”  All the while I was trying to stay as calm and relaxed as possible.  Then I decided to go to the bathroom (as I had done the other times I’d woken up earlier in the night) for any sign that this was really it.  This time, I got it!  When I wiped I saw some pink on the toilet paper.  I had my confirmation.  That was enough for me.  I woke my husband up and told him that it was time to go to the hospital.

I was still able to handle the contractions quite well.  I didn’t bother to time them.  I just breathed and relaxed through them and even just “took in” the feeling of them.  I knew that each one brought me closer to delivery.  The more I relaxed and let my body work the quicker the birthing process would progress.  I didn’t wait for things to get too intense before leaving to the hospital, I just wanted to KNOW I was really in labor.  After all, most of what I’d been feeling to that point didn’t feel all that much different that what I’d been feeling all week.
As my husband and I (and our 2-yr-old son) rode to the hospital, the contractions did get more intense.  Thankfully, it was too early for traffic so the drive to the hospital was probably only about 35-40 minutes.  It would have been double that if we had caught traffic hour.

After we were about half way there I remembered that we had planned to call my dr on the way in because I have a history of progressing pretty quickly.  Of my previous 4 deliveries, only once was my ob actually there when the baby was being delivered.  My dr had told me to call the main line of the office he worked for and have him paged. My husband made the call and the operator told him that usually the hospital just calls the dr when the patient gets there.  He explained that my dr specifically told us to call and have him paged when we were on our way.  The next thing I know, my husband is handing me the phone and I’m talking to my dr.  He asked me how far apart the contractions were.  Since I hadn’t bothered with timing, I just guessed.  I figured we had been in the car for about 20 minutes judging by where we were on the route to the hospital and I had had about 4-5 contractions so I just told him that they were about 4-5 minutes apart.  I don’t really remember much else except that he said he’d get ready and see us at the hospital.

Some of the contractions in the car were harder to handle, but I was happy that we’d definitely be getting to the hospital in time.  I was able to continue to breathe and work through the contractions pretty well.  Every now and then when it did get a little tough, I just said to myself, “Hi baby.”  I remember smiling and thinking “I know that’s you in there…trying to make your way out.”  I thought about how the baby and I were working together to make the transition from pregnancy to birthing.  It’s funny.  We didn’t know gender.  We’d been on team green.  For the majority of the pregnancy, I was leaning toward thinking baby was a boy.  But during labor, when I closed my eyes and thought of the baby during the contractions….all my thoughts were of a sweet baby girl.

We got to the hospital and my husband dropped me off to get up to labor and delivery while he parked the car.  I was glad to see that no other pregnant women were waiting in the reception area.  There was only one nurse/receptionist up front.  She asked my name and seemed to have been expecting me.  I think my dr called.  Even so, I still had to wait a bit.  My husband parked the car, walked from the garage, and still was there before I was put into a room.  I think I had another 4-5 contractions while waiting for them to take me in.

Thankfully, I was seen pretty quickly when I got it.  They checked me and I was at 7cm.  One of the first things I did was ask for drugs.  I didn’t necessarily want an epidural, but anything to help make the process a bit easier.  The nurse lightheartedly said that they’d have to take blood work and stuff before they could give me drugs and that I was already past the threshold of 5cm so they probably wouldn’t give me anything.  Then she said they wanted to do a quick ultrasound because she didn’t feel baby’s head when she checked me.  Baby had been head down for weeks, so I wasn’t worried.  In fact, I was kind of happy because my “easiest” labor experience was when one of my other daughters was “floating” all the way up to 9 1/2 cm when they broke my water.

Anyway, they did the ultrasound and baby was indeed head down.  I was surprised to find myself half wishing baby was breech so that they could just numb me and wheel me into surgery and get the baby out without me having to go through any more labor.  Of course, that didn’t happen.

They did move me from a triage room to a labor and delivery room pretty quickly.  My doctor ended up coming in and checked me during a contraction since the nurse checked me between contractions.  My doctor said I was at 8cm, but still not quite fully effaced.  He mentioned wanting to break the water bag so that the pressure of the baby would help open me up more.  I asked him if I’d be able to push after he broke my water.  He said only if I was complete.  Well, I knew if he broke my water then, I probably wouldn’t be fully dilated in the next contraction or two, but I did know that that urge to push would get very strong.  I didn’t want him to break my water until it was just about time to push.  Like I said….my easiest delivery was when my other daughter was “floating” and her water bag was in tact all the way up to 9 1/2cm and once they broke it, I could already push when that strong urge to push came on.  My doctor did hold off on breaking my water, but not for long.

They were looking at my contractions and, though I couldn’t see the tape, I knew they were kind of far apart for where I was at in labor.  I kept lying on the bed thinking that a contraction would come at any time and it always took longer than I thought.  I wasn’t complaining though.  I welcomed the breaks in between.  My doctor mentioned something about the spacing of the contractions and I told him that there was enough time in between them to get an epidural in me.  But of course, neither he, nor the nurse, acted on it.  After what seemed like a little while (about 5 contractions-probably more time than I think) my doctor decided to check me again.  He said I had made more progress and I could feel him pushing around in there.  He was going to break my water.  Sure enough, he kept pushing around until my water broke.

At that point, I wasn’t in the mood to argue, so I just braced myself with what I knew would be intense contractions.  The first few weren’t so bad thankfully.  But about the 3rd or 4th one I started to have to groan.  My doctor wanted to check me again.  I didn’t let him.  I didn’t want him to check me and tell me that I wasn’t ready because that was going to be very uncomfortable and I would really want to be getting the show on the road if I had to change position and let him check me.  So I just stayed on my side until I couldn’t stop from pushing any longer.  A contraction hit and I told them I was pushing.  The nurse and my doctor started moving around quite quickly and my doctor was saying something about letting him see if I was complete.

I wasn’t worried about it.  I was pushing.  My body wanting to push and I wasn’t trying to stop it.  I don’t think I could have if I wanted to, but I didn’t want to.  That is HARD!!!  Not being able to push when the urge is that strong is one of the hardest, scariest things.  Thankfully, my doctor confirmed that it was okay for me to push.  With this baby though, things were different.  With my other babies, I have that strong urge to push with everyone telling me to wait and to breath through it.  Then finally when they said it was okay, I’d turn from my side to my back and the feeling would go away.  I wouldn’t have that overwhelming feeling anymore.  I thought it would be the same this time around.  I thought, once I turned from my side to my back, just as with the others, things would settle down and the intensity would ease up.  It didn’t happen that way.  I was pushing and pushing.  I couldn’t stop.  I couldn’t even get into that position of holding my legs and tucking my chin to my chest.  I’d been able to do it just fine and hold my own legs in my previous three deliveries and yet, this time, I felt myself arching the other way!  I knew that wasn’t the ideal way to get the baby out, but I just couldn’t stop.  I was screaming the whole time.  I never screamed that much during the pushing phase ever.  My husband was telling me I had to breathe.  I was telling him I couldn’t.  I was having a hard time getting that nice deep breath in because I just kept yelling.

The other thing that was worrying me a little was that, after my first, all the other kids basically were out in 1-2 pushes.  The head out with the first push and the rest of the body with the second.  My son, the youngest at the time, was the only one that needed two pushes for the head.  This time however, I felt like I was pushing and pushing and I wasn’t feeling the baby move down the birth canal.  What the heck was happening?  My whole body was sooooo tense (my back, my butt, my hamstrings).  It wasn’t supposed to be this way.  My last two deliveries I’d been so in control during the pushing phase.  No yelling, I told my husband; it was a waste of energy.
I had always half laughed at those women who say, “Get it out!”  This time though, I found those words at the very tip of my tongue.  I actually almost told my doctor to “get the baby out.”  I was shocked to have that thought at the forefront of my mind and on the verge of actually coming out of my mouth.  It’s funny now and even in the midst of all that was going on, it was almost funny then too.  It was at that point that I tried as hard as I could to get in a better position and take as deep a breath as I could and work toward getting this baby out.  The ring of fire came not long after that (along with more yelling which is another thing I couldn’t believe was happening) and I don’t even remember how many more pushes it took, but baby was out not long after that.  She was screaming from the start.  At this point my son, who had been checking out what was going on from a chair nearby, stood up to try to catch a glimpse of the baby he could hear crying.

My husband and the nurse announced that the baby was a girl and she was put on my chest. She got to stay there for a while which was nice…she was screaming the whole time….nice strong lungs from the start.  My doctor and the nurse said I did a good job even though it felt like the hardest delivery I had yet.

I couldn’t believe how sore I was after that.  Because my body was so tense, my legs and back still weren’t really that relaxed.  Plus my bottom hurt so much I was trying not to just sit on it and I couldn’t get comfortable.  My back and my legs were still tense because I was trying to hold myself in a position so as not to sit directly on my sore parts.  I was so uncomfortable that I couldn’t really enjoy just looking at my baby and holding her.  I was glad when my husband asked if I wanted him to take her.  He and our son got to spend some time with her while I tried to recover a bit.  I was just so sore.  When I got up to walk to the bathroom, I felt like I had just run 10 miles and done 1,000 sit-ups!

Thankfully I was able to get comfortable later and enjoy my baby.  It was also great to see how much my husband and my son already loved her.  My other daughters came to the hospital later.  Even though they had all been hoping for another brother, they all loved her at first sight too.

During my whole pregnancy I had wanted a drug free delivery, but toward the end began to doubt I could do it.  Ask me right after baby was born if I’d have anymore and hands down the answer was No! No! No! No! No! No way!  That was too tough!

Of course, I felt that way after most of them and I still had more.  I dare not say anything definite this time around.  I leave it in God’s hands.  I’m thoroughly happy with the family I have right now.  I don’t feel like it’s incomplete or missing anything, but at the same time, I’m not closed to God blessing us with more if that’s what’s in store for us.  We’ll just have to wait and see.

Baby’s birth information

November 9, 2007

7lbs 5.8 oz (by far my biggest)

20 inches

It’s a girl!

Technorati Tags: family, kids, life

Baby is doing well and I will be taking her in for her 2 month check soon.  She’s growing so fast!  The other kids are adjusting well, though my son (3) is finally showing a few signs of “acting out.”  But overall, things are going well.

We’re still waiting on news for the house.  The appraisal is what’s going to make or break this deal.  The appraiser did go out to the house, but hasn’t finished the report yet, so hopefully we know something by the end of the week.  It’s already been 2 weeks since the appraiser went to the house.

Well, that’s about it for now.  Gotta go because baby is grumbling.  I have to feed her before we leave to take the kids to school…will check in later.

Then, there were the sniffles.  Our son had been battling a runny nose from before Stacallen’s birth.  Then he started coughing.  Then he ran a fever for about 3 days.  Of course, he always wanted to hug and kiss his sister and lay next to her when she was in bed.  We tried to keep him away, but how do you tell a 2-yr-old that he can’t love his new baby sister?  I tried explaining that he can’t cough near her, that he needs to wash his hands before he comes by her.  I think it did help some, but she still caught a bit of the congestion.  Thankfully, she hasn’t gotten a fever, but she did start coughing.  So, we took her back to the dr and got some antibiotics because one of her ears was just beginning to look infected.  Thank goodness we took her in when we did so that we could catch the infection early.

The medicine seems to be working.  Stacallen’s sleeping better at night.  The congestion had started to interrupt her sleep and make it tough for her to get back to sleep at night.  Also, she seems to be coughing less, so that’s good.  She does still have a bit of congestion, but hopefully that will all go away as we finish up the antibiotics.

I do not like seeing any of my kids sick and under the weather.  I wasn’t sure if we would be able to give Stacallen anything to help, but I’m glad there is something to help her get over the congestion she has.  Hopefully whatever antibodies I have in my milk help too.

We had a couple of commitments already planned in the weeks after baby was born.  Then there was wrapping up the last details of the sale of our house.  In addition to that there were daily blood tests for baby which required daily visits to the doctor’s office to monitor her jaundice.  Apparently, the insurance company now requires a daily blood draw in order to cover the blue light machine they sent home with us.   I sure hope they change that back to the way it was because having to take your newborn to the dr’s office EVERY day to draw blood is just not a fun thing and really doesn’t seem the least bit necessary for the dr’s to make their decisions about whether or not the baby still needs the blue light machine.

Anyway - I’m sure there were other things going on as well, but we were out doing something or running some errand just about every day in the first few weeks following baby’s birth.  My husband was off of work for two weeks and as much as I wanted to just relax, we had so much to get done that we both wanted to tackle as much of it as we could while he was home and available to help 24/7.  That way, I would have less to try to do on my own with all the kids once he went back to work.

So now, here we are.  Baby makes 4 weeks tomorrow and she’s probably been out of the house more than all our other kids put together in their first month.  Now it’s December and the holiday season is upon us.  We have soooo much Christmas shopping to do.  It’s a bit more challenging with a newborn, but you just have to accept that it will take longer than usual.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that my husband has been on jury duty this week?  This means he has to drive to town each day and he gets out of jury duty later than he would get out of work which means he’s home later than usual.  On top of all this, the weather recently has been nuts.  There has been so much wind and rain that some schools were closed the last few days.  The ground in our yard is saturated with water and yesterday we were without power for about 17 hours.

Yes, things have certainly been hectic…..and…..there’s more, but I’ll save that for next time.

Technorati Tags: newborn, baby, life, family, kids, children

BUT - both baby and I are doing fine, and, for now, here is the “short story” - just the stats.

It finally happened!  Our “surprise” baby arrived safely on November 9th at 6:14 am.  Baby weighed 7lbs 5.8oz and was 20 inches long.  My previous heaviest was my son at 6lbs 8.3oz, so this baby was quite a bit heavier than my others.  In fact, this baby’s birth weight is over a pound more than all the older sister’s birth weights.

Oh yes, and of course, the answer to the question everyone was asking…..It’s a girl!

She’s beautiful and we’re both doing well even though we haven’t been getting as much rest as I’d like.

Will share my birth story and pictures soon.

Technorati Tags: labor, birth, birthing, pregnancy, pregnant, maternity