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Labor Flashback

Dang, I realized I didn't type out my labor process, not that my few readers are deprived but it's been almost 5 months and I'm pretty sure I've lost some of the details and I want to remember this for the baby book. My contractions of D day were slightly different and I had more pressure in my lower abdomen I noticed taking Isabelle to school that morning but didn't get my hopes up. They were somewhat persistent in the way they tightened and I told Katie on the phone hmm maybe I should be timing these, I am two days past my due date. I remember calling Mitch in the afternoon telling him I'm thinking maybe something is happening but don't come home they don't hurt much. I laid down on the couch that afternoon to see if that would go away, they had been 15 minutes apart, and I only had two in the hr I laid down, but they still had that weird lower ab tightening, I didn't have that with the other two, it was more of pain going into my lower back. I picked up Isabelle from school and her sub teacher asked something to the fact of when are you going to the have the baby??? I told her I thought I was in labor. She probably thought that was weird, yeah I think I'm in labor, just driving the kids around... When we got home they stayed about 10-15 minutes apart, and I called the hospital to see what the nurse thought, to come in and get checked or not... this is always more of a dilemma when you have kids that need watched should you go in. Our friend Sara come over at 8pm after the kids went to bed so we could go in. I was uncomfortable butnot bad yet. So fastforward 9 pm, I was hooked up to monitors for 20 minutes or so, then checked, I had been 1.5 centimeters a couple days before and I was to 2cm, while the ob on call was not impressed, I WAS!! :) Since I hadn't progressed much for the past month this was a big deal. So I had to walk around to convince them. So I was booking through the halls, I could walk and talk through them and we got them 3 minutes apart, got checked again and monitored blah blah, long process, I was to 3 cm at that point. I knew I was in labor but I was still not being told I was not being sent home. I went on another round of a walk 20-30 minutes. This time I couldn't walk as fast and I had to stop and do the leaning on the wall rail and breath through them which for the first time and I acredit this to yoga I actually breathed and didn't tense through the pain as I had always done before, on the bed on my side, gripping the rail in pain. I actually even in the room would get up off the bed and lean over for my contractions and they were a lot easier to deal with than just sitting or laying. I told the nurses, I KNOW I am in labor. So got checked again I was to 4 cm. I asked if I was staying, they said yes you're staying. I was over it and said " call the epidural man." Here's where things got less zen. You have to have an iv of fluids beforeyou can have an epidural and that's the downside to the drugs is being hooked up to so much crap, blood pressure cuff etc; They had trouble with my iv, so I've my contractions every 2 to 3 minut's while I am stuck in dug around, I think by 3 or more people. ( Mitch was NOT happy) I have to break for contractions then have them try again. All the needle digging makes me start to feel faint and nauseous and I start the shakes. I had this with the others Mitch remembers but the poking got it rolling this time. I asked them if they could just iv me in the inner elbow, I know THIS works because I get my thyroid checked regularly. So counting the blood draw required before the epidural I got stuck a total of 8 times and it ended up in the inner elbow. They checked me again I was to 5 cm. I can't remember at what time the anesthesiologist got there but it was a challenge to stay still through the contractions and the shaking but I was still. I got relief really fast and I could feel what felt like cold water running into one side of my lower back and it was an achey feeling it was weird when he was putting in the meds. So it was a wonderful warm comfy feeling. I still shook and it made the blood pressure cuff go really tight, I ended up with bruises from it and of course the needle jabs. The dr came to check me, I was expecting to be ready to push because that's how it went for the other two. I was to 6cm, I asked her, is that IT?? The dr decided to put me on pitocin because when I wasn't walking my contractions spaced out. I had never had it. Another weird thing, she still hadn't broke my water. Never had a dr not done that for me. I did start to feel it break or leak after the pitocin. Which was weird. I was hanging out trying to sleep for a couple hrs but it was hard because of the shaking and my blood pressure dropped a couple times which made me stop shaking go figure and I ended up needing ephedrine. So it's about...4:30ish at this point and I told then nurse I felt the pressure and sure enough she said, I was presenting. This was the first time I actually felt like I NEEDED to push!! The nurse kept telling me to wait since I don't push for long. The dr came in and actually had to snag the bag right before I pushed. I thought that was weird! ( I still can't get over the not breaking the bag thing can't you tell?) There is something nice about feeling so relaxed right before delivering, that's just my personal experience. So I pushed a few times during one contraction, I was trying to take it all in because I knew this was the last time I was doing this. I still remember the "stop pushing" while they suctioned and finally pulling out her little slimey body and putting her up on my chest, for the first time having a baby, I cried a little., it was the end of an era for me, savor the miracle for the last time. ( 5:02am) It's an amazing moment you can't describe, to finally meet that person you've been waiting 9 months for. I could tell she was not a huge baby. It was so nice and relaxed, I held her, I even told the nurses, she's gurgling you might want to sunction her again, I got to nurse her right away and it was a while before she was even weighed, they said they could do that whenever I wanted. The cool thing about nursing is that you can calm them right down out of the womb, they're geared for it right after coming out. She pooped, no diaper... lol it was still cool. The dr had Mitch take a picture of the cord, that had a "true knot". She said " she's a lucky little girl". I know a sovereign God sustained and protected her as I was none the wiser.
There, well that was more lengthy than I thought...

Sanctus Real

This is worth a watch/listen. Not many things strike a deep emotional cord with my husband, unless it's anger when it comes to football that is, but this did and he shared with me. Life is a battle everyday to love the Lord and minister in the most important way you can as spouse or parent, to your spouse and your children.

The Baby

Oh you little adorable thing you. Here is Aliza's 4 month update. She has started getting me up at night, and I mean for the past month or more and sometimes twice. Lately it's back down to one. I wondered, cereal? Not ready, spits it out. She is easily distracted when nursing lately, drives me crazy!! She has started cluster feeding in the evening and staying up 3-4 from 5-9 pm instead of 8 pm which is ok as long as I'm feeding during the waking hours. If she is not hungry, she gets TICKED if I try to nurse her and she has also started to bite me with her gums. I yelp, she looks up at me and laughs. mmm hmm. When she is hungry she gets right down to business, so it's like I'm having to relearn her at this stage. She loves her saucer, she plays in there forever, as in I can vacuum and dust while she plays. She is a snuggle baby doll that nestles in your chest and sucks her thumb. Oh that thumb sucking is SO cute. I'm sure it won't be at 3 yrs old but for now it's so cute! She is a giggler, screamer, loves to pick up toys and chew on them now. Grabs Christian's hair and won't let go. She is more of a fusser than a crier for the most part. Her stats are 12 lbs 5 oz weight and 24 inches long both 30%. And her head is 50% can't remember the measurement.

So that's it, this adorable little morsel has me running to the Lord for strength, wisdom, and sanity right now while she wakes me up in the night. She has grown SO fast already and I'm trying to soak in all the babiness for the LAST TIME. ;)

OH and I keep meaning to say, I'm going to be an aunt!!! My youngest brother's wife is 14 weeks pregnant, and the bigger surpise is, with TWINS. I'm pretty excited our kids will finally have cousins and Aliza will have some playmates when we go back to my folks to visit.

My Boy...

Christian, is crass, he comes up with it on his own, he trys to incorporate, poop, pee, boogers, privates, bottoms, belching, farting and the like into everything. He gets in trouble everytime, yet he just can't help himself and someday I might think this is as funny as everyone else does...

Here is his latest funny quote. The senario: it's election time so we have all the political ads running. One is for Chuck Grassely that says " Chuck Grassley works for us.... I'm Chuck Grassley and I approved this message." We were eating some sara lee new york cheesecake, which is YUM after lunch this week when that ad came on. So Christian says " CHuck Grassely works for cheese. I'm Chuck Cheesey, and I like cheese." It still makes me laugh...

Mitch Update

Mitch had his follow up apt today from his MRI where they injected his arm with dye. Which, by the way, made his arm hurt even worse. Anyway here is what we know so far, his labrum is NOT torn. His rotator cuff is torn on the back side and his bursa sac and everything else in there is and I quote "gnarled". He may not need surgery, we will see in 6 weeks. Today the dr gave him a cortizone shot which should help with the inflamation and pain and he is to do his exercises at home that the therapist had shown him. The dr wants to try this first, surgery may still happen but maybe this will work, and that would be AWESOME if it did. I could tell Mitch was in better spirits after the visit and the shot also some numbing agent in it and his shoulder was starting to feel some relief already. I'm praying that the Creator enlightens the dr as to what needs to be done for him to heal. So we will see what happens!

Shutterfly

Check out my link list above. I made sort of a little sister Shutterfly site to the family blog. As usual please don't share my sites with others without my permission. ;) Flickr has limited storage and I ain't payin for it.