Too Many Pictures of Amelia's First Week

Amelia was sort of bundled up in all those hospital photos.  She is, however, more of a free range baby.  She just chills out in her diaper.

Tried swaddling last night, and she woke up half as many times for feedings.  No more than three hours went by at the longest (don't worry, not starving her!), but as a result, I am very well rested and she was very hungry all morning.

Not looking forward to when she stops sleeping so much.

Good news: I had been worried I wasn't going to be very interested in Amelia, but it turns out that when your body manufactures a tiny person and pushes that tiny person out, you don't really have a choice.  I'm so relieved!

I also think that she is amazing.  Even though she's only six and a half pounds, she has so much muscle tone that she can hold her head up and support her own body weight on her legs when held up.  Her umbilical cord stump fell off on only her third day (glad I don't have to tip-toe around that).  She's peed and pooed like a champ, helping me to not worry about how breastfeeding is going.  And although Ernesto thinks she cries a lot, she's really relatively chill, so far.

I just spoke to Anne Marie on the phone, and she informed me that I don't need to worry about you guys feeling overwhelmed by too many pictures.  I tried to pick a selection that were not all her lying around with the same expression on her face.

Funny Face

Funny Face

Tongue

                       

Those Huggies diapers she's wearing suck.

Chilling after work

                      
Anne Marie and Grandma Callahan are arriving in about...one hour or so.  So next week will be even more interesting! =-O

Labor!

Warning: I'm pretty graphic, if you care.  Also, you can see my boob in one of these photos.  Sorry, brothers.

Early Labor

Ernesto makes me frozen padsicles for postpartum
 while I'm in early labor. What a guy! I intended
 to do this myself, but was a bit overpowered
 by the contractions.

As I said before, it started with irregular contractions at 2am.  I tried not to pay attention and get some sleep, but that was largely unsuccessful.  I started timing them around 6am, and they were 5 minutes apart lasting 40 seconds.  When I stood up, their frequency increased to about every three minutes, lasting from 40 seconds to a minute.  I kind of doubted that it was really labor, though, and considered not asking Ernesto to stay home.  It's not like the contractions weren't hurting, they were.  It's just after so much time waiting for this to happen, even when the evidence is staring you in the face it's hard to believe.  Around noon, Ernesto started getting antsy and wanted to go to the hospital.  Meanwhile, my goal was to labor at home for as long as possible, and our doula hadn't even come yet, since she was having a hard time finding a babysitter.  She arrived finally at about 2pm with her shadow doula, and confirmed that I was still only in early labor.

Total early labor time: 14 hours

Active Labor

After making me do lunges up and down stairs, I finally moved in to active labor around 4pm.  I got this fantastic inflatable pool to use to labor in.  I love water, so it made sense to me I might really benefit from the pool.  So we get it filled with water when it starts leaking.  I got in anyways, while everyone else was trying to find the leak.  I only spent two contractions in there before I hopped out.  I was shaking and trembling uncontrollably, which made my doula worry about me being in transition.  A hot shower, however, did help.  Around 6:30, I said I didn't think I could take it anymore, and I would like to go to the hospital (and possibly ask for an epidural).

Total active labor: 3 hoursish?

The disappointing labor pool.

Before getting in.  This is one of the few pictures of us with my belly!
  This robe reminds me of what The Dude might wear.
Also, by a miracle, I didn't have any stretch marks!!  Thank you, good genes.

Transition...? and Delivery

Who knows when transition actually occurred.  We left the house at 7.  My water broke in the back of my car (thank you, doula, for putting an absorbent chuck beneath me), and we arrived at the hospital at 7:30.

As they were wheeling me up to labor and delivery, I started feeling the urge to push.  So imagine my surprise when they check me and tell me I'm only 5cm!  I was sooooo sad, and immediately asked for an epidural.  If I was only halfway, I didn't think I could take it.  They told me that sometimes people at 5cm want to push, but that I would tear my cervix.  So I felt terrible when I couldn't stop pushing.  With the epidural I had asked for, the fetal monitors on my belly, and the IV line to fluids I was hooked up to, I saw everything I had hoped for about this birth slipping away.  I wouldn't have minded an epidural, but I had really wanted to try without it.  But I'm worried I'm further hurting my labor because I still can't stop pushing.

My unbeLIEVable doulas, Malory and Krystal.
I don't know how anyone goes natural without a doula.

Anyways.  I've been in the hospital itself for about 5 minutes.  The nurse is lackadaisically charting my intake while I'm on all fours still pushing (trying not to!).  Obviously, I'm very inexperienced with the sensations of labor and giving birth, but I swear I felt the baby moving down, but thought I must be wrong, since I was only 5cm 5 minutes ago.  Finally, during a contraction, I put my hand down to check myself, and felt the baby's head RIGHT THERE.  I told my doula, I think I can feel the baby with my hand.  She, awesomely, asked me if I wanted to ask the nurse to check me again.  I said yes, the nurse checked me, and flew out of the room to call my OB (he lived five minutes away, luckily), since the baby could already be felt.  People quickly flooded in (I didn't know that surgical techs attended births). Needless to say, I didn't get the epidural, nor did I want one at that point.  It looked like my OB wasn't going to make it, especially when he apparently couldn't swipe in to the after-hours door, but he made it up with about 10 minutes to spare.  I honestly didn't care at all at this point, though it was nice to see him.  He let me push at my own pace, in whatever position I wanted (which ended up being on my side with my legs supported), and just sat at the end of the bed letting things unfold.

I didn't push voluntarily at all.  I vomited the baby out my butt.  It just came.  Twenty to thirty minutes after arriving at the hospital, Amelia finished sliding out. (Five centimeters my ass!)  All the sensations involved in this are so crazy that I feel like they'll be burned into my memory forever.  I never want to have a baby again, but that was amazing.

Just being in the hospital was weird, too.  Food=awesome.  But being so wired from birth that I couldn't sleep combined with super frequent vitals sucks.  Also, other than tearing, no one ever talks about what your whole crotch feels like afterwards (I had a minor tear on the inside of my vagina. Dr. Ma said it was practically first degree, but he stitched it anyways just to be on the safe side, he said).  Everyone says, oh, natural birth is so wonderful, I was able to get up and go to the kitchen and have dinner with my family.  What?!  A bloody dinner that you can barely waddle to, yes.  Oh, also, I have identified the smells of childbirth, and they are blood and witch hazel.

My whole team.  Elated it's over (and just beginning)

Coming up next: How we've been doing at home, what Amelia's like.

Diapers and Knitting

I plan on giving cloth diapers a try.  I like the one size diapers, but even snapped down to their smallest size, they seem a bit too big for newborns.  So I've bought a few one size pocket diapers to give a try after this baby has grown out of newborn size.  While affordable in the long haul, cloth diapers cost a lot up front ($15-$20 per diaper).  Since I don't know if this is something I'm going to want to do, I've bought six super affordable ones from China on ebay.  The cloth diapering community calls them "China Cheapies."  Some people say they fall apart in the first wash, others say they can't tell the difference between them and the expensive ones.  Sounds like it's a bit of a crap shoot.  If I end up liking these, I'll invest in broadening our cloth diapering selection.  There are so many different kinds out there.  The only ones I have are pocket diapers, but it sounds like in the world of cloth diapering there's a kind of diaper for every situation.  So here are my lovelies that arrived today!!  The colors are kind of hard to see in my tungsten-y light, but it's bright yellow, soft yellow, bright green, mint green, bright orange, and cream.

Also, I realized how ridiculous it is that I haven't knit anything for this baby yet.  So with one week 'til my due date, I've begun a blanket!  The question is, how far from finished will I be when I deliver??

Fourth of July

Exhibit A

NEW COUCHES.  I think that this might be the first brand new item of furniture I've ever owned as an adult.  Yes, they look pretty boring, but I really like the fabric up close.

Exhibit B

We went to one of many fireworks displays.  This one was in a park right next to Peoria's little zoo and botanical gardens. We watched the Peoria Municipal Band perform, though there were many other performances, too. The fireworks were long, but without variety.  I've decided to spare you fireworks pictures.  They all look the same.

Exhibit C

The little subdivision that I live in had a bicycle parade (like two blocks long).  It finished right in front of my house, with a neighbor grilling for the neighborhood. It concluded with the firetrucks that led the parade turning the fire house on for all the kids immediately in front of my house, to the delight of the kids.  As all the water poured endlessly out into the street, right in front of my house, I wanted to ask them to just turn the house a little to the left and hit my lawn as well.  :-P  I didn't go out and talk to people at all during this, because I was too shy.  Ernesto would have dragged me out to talk to people, but he's out of town this weekend.

Pregnancy Report

People, I am 38 weeks and 4 days pregnant.  Freak out, and also hope that I don't go into labor while Ernesto is away.  That would SUCK.  My belly is measuring like I'm 33 weeks pregnant, which I think is great (no stretch marks yet!!), but the baby is still measuring healthy. I'm not swollen, and I'm actually sleeping better than I was earlier in the pregnancy. I'm one lucky woman, so far. Also, I'm 1cm dilated and 50% effaced!  I've been like that for two weeks now, though, so I don't think it means much for my delivery time.

Also, I posted pictures of Ernesto in his sailing class on Facebook. Go check them out.  He went every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday for 3 hours for a month.  I got the classes for him as a present, and I still feel like the best gift-giver ever.