So ... where's the clever baby blog entry?
It's been more than 48 hours ... no Clever Baby
Blog?!
In defense of our TechieNerd status, Dale did get info emailed out and pictures up within an hour of the birth of our son, "Buzz".
And in defense of my own cleverness, I composed an articulate, witty, and insightful blog entry last night around 3 am ... which of course was lost forever by the time I woke this morning.
It turns out I feel most creative using TWO hands to type, and have had very little two-handed time since Buzz's birth. Suffice it to say he is nursing excellently and likes to be held nearly all the time.
He passed his 2-day check up with flying colors today, entertained us by opening up his little eyes and looking around, and giving a little water-show during diaper changing time. I am doing well, but still quite tired. I've got enough energy to delegate work from the couch and nurse and change diapers, and use any extra energy to try to doze. Between that and drinking enough water to spend any free-hand minutes running to the bathroom, I find my days quite full. Buzz is gorgeous and sweet and snuggly and wonderful, I couldn't ask for anything better. The children all love him, and even LittleD is eager to hold him for 2 seconds or less.
Some of you have been waiting so very patiently for his birth story ... truth be told, I should have Dale write it since it's a little foggy to me, but I will do my best. If you're not into birth stories, go ahead and move along home now, this will be the last section of the blog for today.
Monday night I had a meeting for my food co-op and reassured everyone that, although I was hoping for our due date of 05/05/05, I fully expected to go later than that, and no, I wasn't experiencing any real signs of labor. I did have some contractions, but as you know, those are old news for me and I just ignore them. I was not seeing any signs that they were causing dilation. Monday night we stayed up late and I did my "nesting" - painting my fingernails, a very rare event. We went to be about 11:30 and I started to have annoying contractions. Until 3 am they woke me every hour and I got up to use the bathroom. From 3 am on it was much more frequent, each time getting up to use the bathroom, feeling somewhat stressed at the lack of sleep and wishing it was easier to determine their intensity but finding it hard to pay attention when I was so tired and being woken by them. On one hand not wanting to sleep through 'serious' ones like we did with Tobi-Wan's birth, and on the other hand not wanting to call or wake anyone too early, I grew more stressed and frustrated and tired, and finally at 5 am decided to get up and drink some water and move around and wait for them to stop. I did find I was shaking with cold most of the time, and hot and nauseated after each contraction ... At 6 am they still had not stopped and I determined the web searches for 'false labor' and 'prodomal labor' to be completely useless, even on the 6th pregnancy. So I treated myself to a shower. Which would've been pleasant without the chills and hot-nauseated contractions. After my shower I decided to wake Dale, who said I should call my midwife. So I called her around 6:30 am and she said she'd get ready and come over, it sounded like the real thing to her. Mom came over just before 7, and my midwife and a friend from church who was acting as observer & helper came soon after. I reclined on the loveseat and ignored everyone for a long time. Then I went to the bedroom and tried out some different positions. I wasn't too fond of being on my knees and leaning on my bed. I lay in the Bradley relaxation position for a nice while. (During this time I missed one of the things it would've been nice to have seen, but I was busy ... apparently Dale was resting in the green chair, my midwife on the stool, and I was relaxing through contractions ... Princess Leia came in looking hesitant and Dale held out his hands in a 'would you like to come sit with me?' gesture and, according to Kelly, Leia just lit up at the invitation ... ahh, sad that in some ways I missed some of the neatest parts of homebirth, busy giving birth!) Then I sat on the birth stool for awhile, and whined that I wished I could fast forward to the end. Gark commented that if I could fast forward, there would also be a rewind button. My midwife assured us all that she would NEVER use the rewind. Things felt very intense by then, a lot of pressure and intensity. But I was frustrated that my body didn't just 'take over' like it did at Tobi-Wan's birth ... I felt closer to 'pushy' but not quite pushy and certainly not like my body was just going to do it FOR me, and remember not wanting to look at the clock, afraid it would take forever, afraid it already had been forever, or maybe it was still early and time had stopped. I leaned on Dale and things were much more intense standing up. I decided to use the bathroom and found myself VERY pushy in the bathroom, and did NOT want to have the baby in there, alone ... so I came back and sat on the birth stool and the very pushy feeling went away. After a few contractions there, my midwife noted how much more intense things were standing up, and suggested I stand and lean on Dale again if I did want a 'fast forward' ... I felt trapped, not wanting it to be MORE intense, but not wanting it to last much longer. I was exhausted and ready to be done. So I stood up and had one intense awful contraction ending with a pushy feeling. The next one was all pushy and I could feel the baby coming ... and the next one just never ended until I could feel the head coming out and my midwife saying to try and slow down ... I did my best, but had little to do with it at that point ... by the end of that pushy contraction I could hear a baby crying and the girls somewhere behind us saying, "Oh, I see the face!" ... my midwife caught the baby, and passed it to Dale, and I sat back down and we wrapped baby up and brought him/her (still didn't know at that point) up to nurse ... the cord pulsed for a long time, so we went ahead and nursed and then eventually decided to check the gender. A boy! And a quick mental scramble to remember names that we liked for boys, since we had not decided going in to the labor ... we decided together on "Buzz", and cut the cord, and all that good stuff ...
After Buzz nursed a bit, I went to take a quick bath and the doorbell rang. My sweet friend Betsy had been running errands with her 5 children, stopped at the bagel store, and thought of us. She bought us a big bag of bagels, just to be nice, and dropped by - to find a whole slew of cars, and that we'd just had the baby. I sent word to invite her in (to the family room, not the tub) and we finished up the bath and I got dressed and went out. Betsy and her children were able to be there for the impromptu homeschooling once-in-a-lifetime placenta check, which my midwife did for all the children, showing what all the parts where and what she looked for on a placenta, and explaining what the placenta did. That was pretty neat. Then Betsy and her children left and my midwife weighed and checked Buzz. 8 lbs, 8 oz, gestational age 40 weeks, 10/10 apgar scores ... She checked on my bleeding a few times, and left after being reassured it was going down and we were doing well.
So I've spent the 2 days since then on the couch, mostly. A wonderful 2 days, really. Moogie has been here every morning to be a huge help with laundry and feeding and entertaining children, and Dale has been home to sweetly wait on me and give me potty breaks regularly. The children have been a big help not only holding the baby, but also taking over some of my chores and keeping things picked up. Leai is my number one baby holder, and is even willing to change poopy diapers - if they're Buzz's, not LittleD's.
So ... no clever blog entry, but at least you got the birth story and a little glimpse into the last few days here at the AndFam home. If you haven't seen all the pictures with the other children holding Buzz, ask me about his site, they're worth your time. :-)
In defense of our TechieNerd status, Dale did get info emailed out and pictures up within an hour of the birth of our son, "Buzz".
And in defense of my own cleverness, I composed an articulate, witty, and insightful blog entry last night around 3 am ... which of course was lost forever by the time I woke this morning.
It turns out I feel most creative using TWO hands to type, and have had very little two-handed time since Buzz's birth. Suffice it to say he is nursing excellently and likes to be held nearly all the time.
He passed his 2-day check up with flying colors today, entertained us by opening up his little eyes and looking around, and giving a little water-show during diaper changing time. I am doing well, but still quite tired. I've got enough energy to delegate work from the couch and nurse and change diapers, and use any extra energy to try to doze. Between that and drinking enough water to spend any free-hand minutes running to the bathroom, I find my days quite full. Buzz is gorgeous and sweet and snuggly and wonderful, I couldn't ask for anything better. The children all love him, and even LittleD is eager to hold him for 2 seconds or less.
Some of you have been waiting so very patiently for his birth story ... truth be told, I should have Dale write it since it's a little foggy to me, but I will do my best. If you're not into birth stories, go ahead and move along home now, this will be the last section of the blog for today.
Monday night I had a meeting for my food co-op and reassured everyone that, although I was hoping for our due date of 05/05/05, I fully expected to go later than that, and no, I wasn't experiencing any real signs of labor. I did have some contractions, but as you know, those are old news for me and I just ignore them. I was not seeing any signs that they were causing dilation. Monday night we stayed up late and I did my "nesting" - painting my fingernails, a very rare event. We went to be about 11:30 and I started to have annoying contractions. Until 3 am they woke me every hour and I got up to use the bathroom. From 3 am on it was much more frequent, each time getting up to use the bathroom, feeling somewhat stressed at the lack of sleep and wishing it was easier to determine their intensity but finding it hard to pay attention when I was so tired and being woken by them. On one hand not wanting to sleep through 'serious' ones like we did with Tobi-Wan's birth, and on the other hand not wanting to call or wake anyone too early, I grew more stressed and frustrated and tired, and finally at 5 am decided to get up and drink some water and move around and wait for them to stop. I did find I was shaking with cold most of the time, and hot and nauseated after each contraction ... At 6 am they still had not stopped and I determined the web searches for 'false labor' and 'prodomal labor' to be completely useless, even on the 6th pregnancy. So I treated myself to a shower. Which would've been pleasant without the chills and hot-nauseated contractions. After my shower I decided to wake Dale, who said I should call my midwife. So I called her around 6:30 am and she said she'd get ready and come over, it sounded like the real thing to her. Mom came over just before 7, and my midwife and a friend from church who was acting as observer & helper came soon after. I reclined on the loveseat and ignored everyone for a long time. Then I went to the bedroom and tried out some different positions. I wasn't too fond of being on my knees and leaning on my bed. I lay in the Bradley relaxation position for a nice while. (During this time I missed one of the things it would've been nice to have seen, but I was busy ... apparently Dale was resting in the green chair, my midwife on the stool, and I was relaxing through contractions ... Princess Leia came in looking hesitant and Dale held out his hands in a 'would you like to come sit with me?' gesture and, according to Kelly, Leia just lit up at the invitation ... ahh, sad that in some ways I missed some of the neatest parts of homebirth, busy giving birth!) Then I sat on the birth stool for awhile, and whined that I wished I could fast forward to the end. Gark commented that if I could fast forward, there would also be a rewind button. My midwife assured us all that she would NEVER use the rewind. Things felt very intense by then, a lot of pressure and intensity. But I was frustrated that my body didn't just 'take over' like it did at Tobi-Wan's birth ... I felt closer to 'pushy' but not quite pushy and certainly not like my body was just going to do it FOR me, and remember not wanting to look at the clock, afraid it would take forever, afraid it already had been forever, or maybe it was still early and time had stopped. I leaned on Dale and things were much more intense standing up. I decided to use the bathroom and found myself VERY pushy in the bathroom, and did NOT want to have the baby in there, alone ... so I came back and sat on the birth stool and the very pushy feeling went away. After a few contractions there, my midwife noted how much more intense things were standing up, and suggested I stand and lean on Dale again if I did want a 'fast forward' ... I felt trapped, not wanting it to be MORE intense, but not wanting it to last much longer. I was exhausted and ready to be done. So I stood up and had one intense awful contraction ending with a pushy feeling. The next one was all pushy and I could feel the baby coming ... and the next one just never ended until I could feel the head coming out and my midwife saying to try and slow down ... I did my best, but had little to do with it at that point ... by the end of that pushy contraction I could hear a baby crying and the girls somewhere behind us saying, "Oh, I see the face!" ... my midwife caught the baby, and passed it to Dale, and I sat back down and we wrapped baby up and brought him/her (still didn't know at that point) up to nurse ... the cord pulsed for a long time, so we went ahead and nursed and then eventually decided to check the gender. A boy! And a quick mental scramble to remember names that we liked for boys, since we had not decided going in to the labor ... we decided together on "Buzz", and cut the cord, and all that good stuff ...
After Buzz nursed a bit, I went to take a quick bath and the doorbell rang. My sweet friend Betsy had been running errands with her 5 children, stopped at the bagel store, and thought of us. She bought us a big bag of bagels, just to be nice, and dropped by - to find a whole slew of cars, and that we'd just had the baby. I sent word to invite her in (to the family room, not the tub) and we finished up the bath and I got dressed and went out. Betsy and her children were able to be there for the impromptu homeschooling once-in-a-lifetime placenta check, which my midwife did for all the children, showing what all the parts where and what she looked for on a placenta, and explaining what the placenta did. That was pretty neat. Then Betsy and her children left and my midwife weighed and checked Buzz. 8 lbs, 8 oz, gestational age 40 weeks, 10/10 apgar scores ... She checked on my bleeding a few times, and left after being reassured it was going down and we were doing well.
So I've spent the 2 days since then on the couch, mostly. A wonderful 2 days, really. Moogie has been here every morning to be a huge help with laundry and feeding and entertaining children, and Dale has been home to sweetly wait on me and give me potty breaks regularly. The children have been a big help not only holding the baby, but also taking over some of my chores and keeping things picked up. Leai is my number one baby holder, and is even willing to change poopy diapers - if they're Buzz's, not LittleD's.
So ... no clever blog entry, but at least you got the birth story and a little glimpse into the last few days here at the AndFam home. If you haven't seen all the pictures with the other children holding Buzz, ask me about his site, they're worth your time. :-)
Posted: Thu - May 5, 2005 at 08:24 PM
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Published On: Oct 15, 2005 01:50 PM
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Published On: Oct 15, 2005 01:50 PM