Breastfeeding seems to be getting much easier. My nipples are still a little sore, but I can tell that they are healing from the rough start we had. Our little girl is getting plenty. I love it when she is done eating and there is milk dripping from the corners of her tiny mouth. I love it when she drifts off to sleep in my arms with a full belly. It seems like all I do is nurse her, but that in itself is so satisfying.

We haven't started using cloth diapers yet, although I am looking forward to making that transition. I just figure that my mom and grandma have enough to do around here without me asking them to wash poopy diapers in addition to our other laundry. I want to start using cloth soon, though....plus, we're running out of disposable diapers and we are in somewhat of a tight financial spot right now.

Speaking of which, we have no insurance and now we have an unexpected hospital bill to pay for. I try not to think about that too much. I know it will get taken care of, even if we just chip away at it with small payments over a long period of time. The safe arrival of our sweet daughter is certainly worth a hospital bill, no matter how expensive.

I have put a lot of thought into how I will refer to our little girl in blog-land. I've decided that there is no harm in using her real first name. I Googled it to see how easy it would be for friends and family to find this page if they did a search for her name, and there are so many other pages that come up in the search results - I doubt that they would ever stumble across this one.

Her name is Scout.

One of the things I included in our birth plan was that we would celebrate the arrival of our new baby with a carrot cake from our local natural foods store (yum! my favorite!) Here is a picture of Scout with the cake her daddy ordered for her. Sure, we ate it a couple days after her actual birthday....but it was still special...and really delicious.



Oh yeah, and here is a pic of the very first time I met Scout:



I LOVE this picture. It makes me want to cry.

Labels: cloth diapering, finances, food, labor/birth

I am up watching t.v. and piddling around on the computer while DH is sleeping with the baby in the recliner (gosh, I need to think of a blog name for her). I SHOULD be sleeping as well - I know I'll regret it later - but it feels kind of good to kick back and wind down. **time elapsed** Baby woke up and I am now typing one-handed while nursing her. I'm getting better at breastfeeding without having to arrange 90 pillows all around me......in fact, I think I was making things way too complicated with the nursing pillow and whatnot. Now, just having her across my belly (which is a pillow in its own rite) seems to be the most comfy position for both of us.

Here is a pic from my labor at the birth center. DH didn't bring the camera or video camera to the hospital when we transfered, but I don't mind at all that we didn't get any pics or video of my labor at the hospital - at that point, things were a little too intense to be fooling around with a camera.



DH did, however, have his camera phone handy when our little girl made her grand entrance. He snapped an amazing photo of her as I was pushing her out. I don't think I'll share it here, though. It doesn't show any graphic nudity, but it's still a little personal, I suppose.

Labels: labor/birth

Thanks for all the congratulations! We are so happy. It's fun to share this excitement with others. Our little girl is almost a week old. It's hard to believe. The first few days at home with her have been quite an adjustment....but I expected that. I have been tempted on more than one occasion to give her a pacifier, but I've held out and would like to wait until our nursing relationship is more established to do that (if we introduce her to one at all, not sure). Nursing has been challenging in some ways, but it's getting much easier. I was having trouble getting her to open her little mouth wide enough for a good latch, but I feel like we've recently had a breakthrough in that area and my nipples are on their way to healing. Ahhhhhh. She is definitely getting plenty of milk. Lots of wet and poopy diapers. Woohoo!

She had her first pediatrician visit today. She is super healthy (which I already knew :) She weighs about 7 ounces less than her birthweight, but the doc said that was totally fine and judging by the nursing/diaper log DH and I have been keeping, she is on probably back on her way up to gaining that weight back.

It was nice to get out of the house today, even if we just went to the doctor's office and back. The sun shone as I was riding down the road with my wonderful husband (who is proving to be an incredible dad, by the way) and my beautiful baby daughter. Besides that, I actually took a shower and put on a little make-up (gotta love my mom and grandma for giving me time to do that!).....life is good.

Here are some more pics:

Hi everyone! Sorry about the delayed update. We've just been too swept up in the whole birth process to think about blogging. I'll give a more detailed report later, but here's the short of it.

My labor was progressing beautifully Wednesday afternoon. So fast, that by about 10 pm, I was already dilated to about 9, with just a small cervical lip on the right. The baby's head was still high and my bag of waters was bulging, but very tough and intact. My doc came over to the birth center at about 11:30 pm to break my waters and make sure that the cord didn't get in the way of the head. Long story short, I kept vomiting every bit of water and juice I drank. I never had the urge to push, even when I was competely dilated. I pushed for a long time at the birth center and I got so exhausted and dehydrated that my midwife thought it would be a good idea for me to get IV fluids @ the hospital across the street. That 1 block car ride was the longest car ride of my life! I pushed for several more hours at the hospital. My wonderful doctor and birth team would not let me give up, even though I kept saying, "I can't do this anymore" over and over again. Any other doc would've made me get a c-section with that many hours of dehydrated/exhausted pushing. But the baby's heartrate remained strong and she assured me that I was making progress.

I pushed our little girl into the world (drug free) at 3:13AM on April 19th, 2007. She was 8 lbs 5.5 oz and 21 inches long. She is so gorgeous! I love her so much!

Email me if you want to know her name. I'll try to reply quickly. I haven't decided what her blogging alias will be yet.

Both DH and I are ecstatic and amazed at this little miracle....beyond what words could ever express.

Labels: labor/birth

I'm in labor!!! 5 cm dilated. Pink-ish mucus. bag of waters still intact. Ctx 6 minutes apart. We're @ the birth ctr. right now. Yay!

Labels: labor/birth

My mom and grandma got here Saturday afternoon. We are having a really good time sorting through all the baby's stuff and finishing the room. Here are some pics:



It's not quite finished yet, but it's coming along. I LOVE the curtains my mom made. She is so talented!!!! I think it's neat that the bedding and curtains are one-of-a-kind since my mom designed them especially to match the accesories I already had.

Today's my due date....and unless something freakishly weird happens and I have the baby within the next hour-and-a-half, we're not going to make it on the 16th. Dang.

Labels: pregnancy milestones

I'm about to leave for my appt w/ the midwife in a few minutes. I am 39w4d pregnant. I didn't have any crampiness last night....well, a few stronger than usual BH contractions, but that's all. Wednesday night I had some real doozies and almost started timing them, but they eventually fizzled out. They felt similar to the BH contractions, but tighter, more intense, slightly painful, and they seemed to start low and overtake my whole uterus slowly with each breath.

Overall, I feel really good - physically, emotionally, and mentally. My house is a mess, I have tons of laundry to do, and my refrigerator needs cleaned out badly......but I feel strangely calm and just plain ready. I guess it helps to know that my mom and grandma will arrive tomorrow morning, eager and willing to help out with the housework. But honestly, if I would go into labor this moment and have the baby in the next few hours (unrealistic, I know), and if there were no prospect of having help with getting the house clean and organized.....I would still feel perfectly at peace with it. It wouldn't be the end of the world to bring our new family member home to a less than tidy house. All he/she needs is to snuggle with DH and I.....I'm sure the dirty clothes in the hallway will not bother him/her a bit. (Gosh! I can't wait to find out if this little one is a boy or a girl!!!!!! That's what I'm most impatient about.)

I haven't been taking any labor-inducing herbs or anything yet. We've been having sex now and then, I drink 3 strong cups of red raspberry leaf tea every day (I guess most people would consider that to be a labor-inducing herb, but my midwife has had me drinking it through the entire pregnancy. She insists that it does not start labor, but just tones the uterus.....and I believe her because even when I drink a lot of it, I don't notice any increased contractions), I squat and do pelvic rocking frequently, and I've been walking for about an hour every day. Every now and then I pinch my nipples, because I've heard that nipple stimulation is good for jump-starting a stalled out labor....so I figure it wouldn't hurt to try and see if it helps get things going. I'm going to wait for my midwife to give me the green light on castor oil before I try it. I hope it doesn't come down to that (because I've heard it can cause bad diarrhea, and the last thing I want to do is get all weak and dehydrated during labor)....but if I get desperate, I'll do it. It's better than going to the hospital and getting Pitocin, IMO. Right now, I am thinking I'll have the baby on the 18th. A friend of ours, who has a knack for predicting dates said I'd have the baby on the 18th. That would be fine with me. Honestly, any time would be fine with me, even if it's a week and a half past my due date, as long as the baby is healthy. (I admit that I hope it doesn't come to that.) I just believe that some babies take longer to come out. I really don't agree with forcing them out with drugs if mom and baby are not in any danger. I would rather not go past 2 weeks, though, because I would legally have to have the baby in a hospital and my midwife would not be the one delivering the baby at that point. Although my wonderful back-up doctor would be attending the birth if that happened, I still want to avoid a hospital birth any way I can.

Labels: prenatal appointment

Still here. Still waiting. I'm not even over-due yet and I already feel like I've been waiting forever. Any time I start feeling a little crampy, I can't help but to get my hopes up that they may lead to something bigger. They always fizzle out, but I take comfort in knowing that they are probably causing some dilation/effacement.

My mom and my grandma will get here sometime ths Saturday morning. Woohoo! I'm excited about them being here for the big event. I'm glad that it will just be DH and I at the birth, but I really do think it will be wonderful having the 2 women that raised me here to pamper me and take care of the house while DH and I enjoy time with our new baby.

This is going to sound a lot more gripey and mean-spirited than I intend for it to, but I must say that I am so TIRED of some of the dumb comments people make. I want to hide and skip church tomorrow because I just don't feel like hearing it.

"You haven't popped that baby out yet?" Why, yes....yes I have, but I decided to stuff a basketball up my shirt and leave the baby at home. Alone.

"Are you getting nervous?" Okay, I can understand the "Are you getting excited?" comments. (even though that's sort of a silly question too)....but c'mon, "Are you getting nervous?" DH is the master of sarcasm, so it's tempting for me to want to reply, "Yes. I am petrified. I have no faith at all that this birth is going to go smoothly. If there's one thing I've learned from Christ's teachings is that worry and fear helps. I am nervous. Oh. My. Gosh....am I NERVOUS!!!!!!!" (and then break down in tears, curl up in a ball in the corner, and rock back and forth maniacally)

"Have you dilated any?" Besides the fact that I think it's weird for people to ask about the condition of one's cervix (especially if I don't know the person all that well), I find the question annoying because I then have to tell them that I don't know because I don't get internal checks. They inevitably ask why, so I have to go into this spiel about how my midwife doesn't feel they are beneficial or necessary until labor because they pose too much risk of infection and offer too little information, and even during labor she will ASK me whether or not I want her to check my cervix. People just look at me like I'm nuts when I tell them that. Sheesh. I'm not the one who just asked you if the inside of your hoo-ha is opening up!

"Have you picked a name?" This is an innocent enough question, but sometimes when I reply that we have but that we're keeping the name a secret until after the baby is born, the person seems a little irritated with me.....like they're hurt or insulted because I won't tell them. What DH and I SHOULD have done is come up with pretend names to tell everyone just to appease them, but use the real name we chose instead.

"I bet you're just miserable!" My knee-jerk response to this one would be similar to the one about being "nervous"......That's just great - a faith filled brother or sister in the Lord assuming that I am feeling awful and that my body is riddled with pain, discomfort, and agony. I always set people straight by declaring how wonderful and energetic I feel.

I know there are plenty more, but I'm sleepy. If you think of any frequently-heard insensitive pregnancy remarks that have personally rubbed you the wrong way, feel free to comment. Commiserate with me. Let's all gripe together :)

Labels: pregnancy whining

Still having a few cramps here and there, but have not lost anymore pluggage. Phooey. Oh well. I have pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I will see my due date (the 16th) come and go. As long as I keep thinking that way, I won't get my hopes up too high for an early delivery. Whenever I have BH contractions now, I feel it a little in my rear-end.....so I think that means the baby is getting lower.....well, that and my belly button has slid down and is almost pointing at the ground. Hooray for progress!

The chiropractor must be brainwashing me, because I don't think it's weird at all that your children got chiropractic adjustments when they were just teeny babies, Shawna. In fact, DH and I are considering fitting regular chiropractic care into our budget sometime in the future. It's not so much that the baby turned vertex after just 3 adjustments that made me less skeptical. It's really the chiropractor's claims that almost all the kids she treats have little or no incidence of sickness. They are an extremely healthy bunch of kids that hardly have a reason to go to a medical doctor. I'm sure that also has a lot to do with the fact that most of the clientelle there are the type that embrace an overall healthy natural lifestyle that including things like exercise, whole foods, probiotics, etc. in their everyday lives.

Only had a few period-y cramps today. I did, however, discover a glop of mucous whilst wiping this evening. It didn't fit the description of being stringy or blood-tinged, though. More like yellow and jiggly. Yeehaw.

I've been continuing my chiropractic care even though the baby is vertex now. I think I'm beginning to warm up to the profession and may even think that chiropractors are not quacks afterall. Well some of them may be, who knows. I've been feeling really good lately. I'm full of energy (okay, I still take a 2 hour nap every day) and my body just feels less bloaty and icky. Yeah, bloaty and icky - those are scientific terms. I could chalk it up to eating better and walking, but I have to wonder if I don't owe at least some of this to the chiropractic adjustments.

Labels: labor/birth, pregnancy milestones

I've been having that I'm-gonna-start-my-period feeling all day yesterday and today. Sorta crampy, but nothing too strong. I know this could go on for weeks before anything big happens, but I'm still excited. I'm just assuming that my body is doing something productive in there.

Labels: labor/birth, pregnancy milestones