You May Have A Newborn If...

*Your other kiddos say funny/sweet things like, "She's a champion burper!" or "We have the sweetest baby".

*You have a tiny bundle of warmth snuggled on your chest the majority of the day.  Either that, or attached to your chest. ;-)

*You have teeny tiny clothes mixed in with the other laundry, and it makes everything else seem GIGANTIC.

*You can be found brewing coffee at all hours of the day. And night.

*You forgot how shockingly forceful/loud newborn poops can be. 

*You get massively excited about pumping 3.5 ounces of milk in 5 minutes (from only one side!).

*You can't get enough of the smell of your baby's head.

*You have become very creative at dressing yourself to try and hide the post-baby flab.

*Tummy Tuck takes on a new meaning; you're literally tucking your tummy into the waistband of your pants in an attempt to not look like you're still pregnant.

*You love taking walks just so you can stroll around with your newborn in your awesome stroller.

*Even though you are bone dead tired, you never get tired of seeing your baby in the middle of the night and can't stop cuddling and kissing her sweet face.

Funny story about that picture up there... Nora was SUPER fussy during the photo shoot... she may have been hungry, hot, who knows.  Anyway, we were trying to get a last shot and Mariann, the photographer, started singing the alphabet song in a HIDEOUSLY off key and monotone voice.  And Nora fell asleep INSTANTLY!!! It was SO incredibly hilarious.  We were all laughing hysterically.  As soon as Mariann finished the horrible rendition of A-B-C's, Nora woke up and started fussing again. :-P

My little chickadee

Those are literally the only 2 pictures that turned out semi-well out of the entire 2 hour session. ;-)

Weigh In

I'm only 12 days postpartum, but I stepped on the scale just to see where things were at.

I've lost 15 pounds, and have 25 more to go. Yep, I ended up gaining a whopping 40 pounds; double what I've ever gained before.  I'm back to 170 now, and actually don't feel as fat and frumpy as I thought I would. 

I think I may lose maybe 5 pounds more from water weight, and then I'll have to work to get the rest off.  I'm not planning on doing or starting anything weight-loss wise anytime soon.  My main focus right now is making sure I have enough milk for Miss Nora.  So far, so good on that front.  I do plan to take walks with my family; we've done it a few times since we've been home and it's a nice, easy workout. 

I also plan to focus on choosing healthy, whole foods for the most part.  It's weird cuz during the day I forget to eat; I just don't feel hungry.  And then in the evening it suddenly hits me BAM and I'm STARVING.  So I am working on eating throughout the day, and making the nutrition in those meals count.

I've also been doing well with drinking water, mostly just because I get so thirsty while nursing.

So anyway, that's where I'm at for now.  I do plan to get back to weight loss blogging, but not quite yet. :)

If you'd like to see more pictures of Nora, I posted some on my other blog.

I hope you're all well! Thanks for the comments; it's nice to know people are reading. :)

Nora's Birth Story

I've been having so much fun snuggling my little bunny, but I want to write out the birth story before I start forgetting the details.  It wasn't AT ALL what I expected. ;-)

So the OB and I decided to induce at 39w4d because I'd been having contractions that were 2-3 minutes apart for days, and the baby's movement had slowed down considerably.  We both thought that a low dose of Pitocin would be what my body needed to go into labor and deliver the baby.  How wrong we were!

I got to the hospital at 7:30a.m. and got all checked in.  Everything looked great; my blood pressure was good, baby's heart rate was good, we were chatting and laughing with our (super awesome!) nurse.  I was still just 1cm dilated and 50% effaced, and still contracting but they weren't painful really.  They start the Pitocin around 9:30a.m. and increase it every half hour.

The contractions got a tiny bit stronger, but nothing even close to unbearable and I could tell it was mostly in my stomach and not in my lower uterus/cervix.  After being on the maximum amount of Pitocin for 10 or 11 hours (I can't remember exactly) I was still at 1cm and 50% effaced.  So the OB decided to turn off the Pitocin and insert Cervidil to help soften my cervix.  I got 2 doses of that overnight and was checked again in the morning.  No change.  Still 1cm and 50% effaced.  At this point it's been 24 hours and I haven't been allowed to eat anything since 6a.m. the morning before! 

The OB decides to start the Pitocin again, and I get up to a 14 on that.  20 is maxed out, and I can tell the contractions still aren't the right kind and aren't strong enough.  I'm really starting to think that this is going to end in a c-section.  After 2 or 3 hours of being on the Pitocin with STILL NO CHANGE, the OB decides to break my water.  It's the last step before a c-section and I'm praying it works.  It has in the past; once my water is broken things go really fast.  But it hurt like CRAZY cuz I wasn't dilated much.  He does manage to do it (and I manage not to pass out from the pain).

And lo and behold, it works!  By now I'm 26 or 27 hours into labor and haven't eaten and am tired.  But contractions really start picking up and they are the real deal and painful.  I'm using my Hypnobabies techniques, but the contractions are really starting to hurt and I start crying.  Not sobbing, but quietly crying, with tears running down my face.  I didn't know it at the time, but Josh noticed and went out and told the nurse we were going to have a baby soon. ;-) 

So she comes in and the contractions are one on top of the other, with only 30 seconds in between.  And they HURT.  Like, really bad.  So I ask to be checked and I'm only 3cm and 60% effaced.  WHAT!?  If this is how bad it hurts at 3cm, there is NO WAY I can make it to 10.  So I ask for IV meds and the nurse goes out to get it.  But then the next contraction hits and holy moly it hurts so so so so bad! So I tell Josh never mind, run out and tell her I want the epidural! 

He does, and 10 minutes later the anesthesiologist comes in.  By now I'm writhing in pain on the bed, I can not find a position that helps alleviate the pain of the contractions, I'm begging them to turn down the Pitocin and I'm throwing up.  I get situated to start the epidural and he swabs my back with iodine and puts the sterile plastic sheet on it.  And suddenly there is just so much pain and pressure! I'm telling the nurse there is pressure and they're asking if they should go ahead and do the epidural or if I need to push. I'm so confused, because I was literally only 3cm just 20 minutes before and don't think it can be time to push already, and I just want the pain to go away.

But with the next contraction there is no guessing... she is coming!  My body plus the Pitocin was like a freight train.  I have never experienced anything like it.  My body was pushing with all it's might and there was not  a thing I could do to stop it.  There was no doctor there; they called out into the hall and a midwife came in and basically just watched as Nora came flying out. ;-)

It was all so fast and intense and crazy.  I couldn't believe it.  I went from 3cm 60% effaced to holding her in my arms in about 40 minutes. 

So, I got my natural delivery, but it wasn't at all how I pictured it, LOL! 

Nora came out wide eyed and calm and didn't cry.  She was just calmly looking around with her beautiful open eyes and was such a tiny thing!  She weighed 6lb 1oz and was 19 inches long.  She is a very happy, calm and contented baby.  I love, love, love snuggling her and all the kids fight over whose turn it is to hold her. ;-)  She is nursing very well and pretty much put herself on a 3 hour schedule.

I'm so incredibly thankful and glad she is here, safe and sound, and I feel immensely blessed. 

We named her Nora, which means "honor" and her middle name is Kristine after Josh's mom who had a brain tumor.  It took forever and ever to find the right name, but when we did, we knew it was perfect. :)

My Love

I've been busy snuggling this precious little thing. :)  I'll be back to post the birth story soon... if I can tear myself away from Miss Nora!

Introducing....

Nora Kristine
6 pounds 1 oz
19 inches long
June 10, 2012

She was literally like 5 minutes old when this picture was taken.  Here's one of her and daddy:

She is such a wonderful treasure and the most easy, laid back and happy baby.  Would you believe she is 3 days old and STILL HAS NOT CRIED!?!? She didn't cry after delivery, not through the 9 or 10 pokes she had to endure for her blood sugar, not when I change her diaper or bathe her, nada.  She fusses a little but I have yet to hear a full blown cry.

Her birth story is a doozy and I'll write it soon, but for now I'm kinda preoccupied snuggling my precious baby girl. ;-)

I'll add more pictures once I get the ones off my camera and my sister's downloaded. :-D

6-9-12

That'll most likely be Baby Girl's birthday if all goes well.

I just saw the OB and he said due to the fact I've had so many contractions for so long with no progress, and the fact that the baby's movements have decreased significantly, it's time to get her out.

So tomorrow morning at 7:30a.m. I'll be getting induced.

I've never been induced before and I'm nervous.  Excited, but nervous.  I had really, really, really wanted a natural, unmedicated birth and I just don't know if that's possible with pitocin.  He is going to start me on the lowest dose possible, and hope my body takes over.  If it does, then we can turn it off.

Here is a shot of me today, at almost 40 weeks:

So we'll see how it all goes down, but oh my goodness, I'm going to have my baby tomorrow!!!!!

Prodromal Labor

Hi All!
How are you?  I'm actually doing really good.  Which, is kind of miraculous, actually. ;-)

Yesterday I had ten solid hours of contractions that were coming every 2-5 minutes.  And they hurt. I thought I'd have a baby for sure.  But nope.  They weren't changing my cervix! That is what is called prodromal labor. Basically meaning labor/contractions that are "false" and don't lead to a baby at the end.  Fun times. :-P

I went down to the hospital in the afternoon because I thought my water had broken.  The nurse did a swab test, and as she was doing it (very ROUGHLY, I might add) there was fluid leaking.  So we thought FOR SURE my water had broken but 3 different tests came back negative for amniotic fluid.  We still don't know what it was! Weird, huh??  The whole time I was contracting every 2-3 minutes, but when she checked my cervix I was only dilated to a 1.  So she sent me home.

After I got home my sister was  doing some acupressure on my legs and they were so swollen that there was an indentation from where she had pushed for over an hour later! :-O I also started feeling really sick, threw up, had a headache, etc... so we went back down to the hospital.  Turns out I was fairly dehydrated so I got some IV fluids (after 3 rather painful pokes; one in each hand before the nurse finally listened to me about which vein to use) and I felt a lot better after that.  The baby perked up, too.  It was kinda crazy; she showed me the printout of the baby's movements and it was basically a flat line before the  fluid, and then after she was wiggling and moving all around and her heart rate was better. So I'm glad I went down.

Overnight everything stopped and today I've had only a few Braxton Hicks.  But the amazing thing is, I'm okay with it.  I have total rest and peace to just wait for her to be ready.  Labor WILL start.  She WILL come.  I have a doc appt tomorrow and I'm going to see if he'll strip my membranes, as that worked with both my boys.  I feel comfortable doing it because it only works if your body is ready anyway.

I'll keep you posted!  For now, I'm a cleaning fiend. Albeit a very slow, 90-year old granny moving, cleaning fiend. ;-)

Emotional

Hey there,
So, today I can't stop crying. I am so ding dang emotional!  I am so so so tired of having contractions that aren't doing anything, and that aren't progressing to real labor.  They wake me up, they hurt, but they are doing nothing. Nothing.

I'm really, really trying my best to just be patient, to give her all the time she needs and know that she'll come when she's ready.  But today, it's hard.  I am so mentally, emotionally, physically exhausted.  I just want this part of pregnancy to be over with.  My body hurts everywhere.  I can't walk without it hurting.  I can't get in or out of bed, up or down on the couch, drive, cook, pretty much do anything without pain.

I'm hoping I'm close.  I remember when Christian was born, the morning before I went into labor I called my mom sobbing because Kate (who was just 14 months old) was throwing her food on the ground and it was just too. much. to. handle.  So I took her to my mom's, went home and started cleaning and went into labor.

I hate to come on here and just complain; no one likes to read whiny words.  But I'm just keeping it real.  Right now, it's hard.

Hopefully really soon I'll be holding a baby girl, and my body can start going back to normal.  Until then, I'll just keep my Kleenex box handy. :-P

Come out, baby! Please?

Hi All!
How are you?  I'm doing pretty good, actually.  Last night I had contractions off and on all night, and really thought I'd have a baby by now.  But then they stopped. :(

My ankles and feet are SO swollen.  I don't even recognize them; it's so weird.  I've never had issues with swelling before.

My fingers are just as bad.  My joints hurt like crazy; I can hardly squeeze the shampoo bottle!

But, it's just a time and season and I think (HOPE!) that once I have the baby all the swelling will go away.

Here is my little baby corner that I set up in the living room:

The pictures of my backyard aren't uploading right now, so I'll have to post those separately.

Mostly, I'm writing to ask that you pray/send good vibes/ etc... that Little Miss will come out soon.  Like, today.  It's a full moon and babies are historically born on full moons.  I've had so many contractions over the last week and I'm kind of just mentally exhausted with all the waiting and wondering.  I'm ready.  Everything here is ready. The kids are ready. Josh is ready.  We're just waiting on  my body and baby to be ready.  So if you could say a quick prayer that today is the day, we would be eternally grateful!

I will try to get on here somehow and post as soon as she is here. :)

Friday Update

I had my 38 week OB check up today. 

Everything looks good! My blood pressure was up a bit, and I'm extremely swollen, but it's been really humid and hot today.  I'm not worried about it, and just hope it goes down quickly once Baby Girl is here.

The doctor checked me and my cervix is closed, but starting to efface.  The better news is that her head is firmly engaged in the birth canal and is pressing on the cervix.  He  said that is actually a better indication that labor/delivery are near since in women who have had prior pregnancies the cervix doesn't even have to thin all the way before it dilates, and it usually goes quickly once it starts.

I've been having Braxton Hicks contractions every 3-5 minutes for a couple of days now, so I'm really, really hoping she comes this weekend, or on the full moon Monday. ;-)  I'm currently drinking red raspberry leaf tea, in hopes that it'll help the contractions get stronger and progress to the real thing.

The baby is also back in a good position. I can totally tell when she is facing the wrong way because my back absolutely KILLS me.  And when she is in the right position there is little to no pain.  So I'm praying she stays where she is until she comes out!

All in all I'm doing very well.  Not too uncomfortable and everything is ready for her to make her grand appearance!

Hopefully you'll have sweet baby pictures to look at soon! :-D