We're having a baby!

Well, obviously we decided to induce...I was tired of the waiting game and not much progress had been made anyways.  It was quite a relief to actually know when the baby was going to come.  It took a lot of stress off and we were able to enjoy our evening at home and get ready for Elliott's arrival.

We knew that bad weather was scheduled for Wednesday, February 9th and it came in full force! We got up extra early to keep and eye on it in case we needed to leave early and sure enough it started sleeting very early that morning around 5-6 am so we set out for the hospital early.  I think it ended up snowing most of the day that day but I don't really know since I was otherwise occupied! :)

We arrived the hospital and was all ready for us.  We got lucky and my favorite nurse was there, Nurse Kim!  She is the one who taught the labor and delivery childbirth class that I attended with Erica and I was SO relieved to see her.  It's nice to have a friendly face that you know (besides your husband/family) be there during a stressful time like that.

Dr. Downey got me started on picotin (spelling?) and broke my water around 7:30 am.  I was handling contractions pretty well by breathing through them, however when Mom decided to help I think she almost hyperventilated!   It was when they began to come one right after another that I went ahead and decided to do an epidural.  It wasn't so bad but it was kinda scary, uncomfortable at first to get the IV in, and her hands were COLD!  Also, it was annoying to have people push on my back when I was hurting from a contraction.  I know some women might have liked it, sort of massage, but now when her hands were so cold and her fingernails were really annoying as she was probing for the correct space between my vertebrate.

When I went into labor and was thinking about the labor process, I really wanted to try for natural.  But not if that meant "cooking" baby much longer past his due date. Mainly because I could already tell he was big enough in there and things needed to get moving!  The weather didn't cooperated with me the week before while I was home either.  I was basically iced in and couldn't get out and walk to get him down into position.  Plus, the day he was born was Warren's late fathers birthday, which is special to him.  Truthfully, if that day hadn't been available, I might would have waited till the end of the week just to see if Elliott was going to decide to come on his own, but since the 9th was open for inducing then I/we decided to go for it.  Of course, that meant drugs and since the drugs were what was stimulating my contractions I couldn't rest in between them like I might could have with natural contractions. I'm still for trying it natural one of these days...

Hence, epidural time...once the epidural IV (I prefer to call it that than a needle, because it's more like a flexible little tube in there than it is a stiff needle) is in you get pretty numb and it's very quick!  What people don't tell you that you will get very very sleepy.  This could be bad if you wait to long into labor to get an epidural! I was at a 4-5 I think, so it was perfect timing.  Another problem with waiting too long is you won't be able to hold still long enough for them to get it in there.  Have them do it while you still are having contractions several minutes apart.  This could be why people have so many stories about having pain where their epidural needle was (duh if you are moving around too much!) and not being able to push because they can't feel anything. The other thing that no one says about getting an epidural is that one of your legs will be more numb/have less feeling than the other leg.  This is perfectly normal apparently.  But it can make you feel lopsided when you push if you don't have someone really holding you in place.

Once pushing began, it wasn't so hard but you do need people to hold your feet so they don't fly around and for you to have something to push against. Something else people don't tell you...you don't really use the stirrups at all for that whole pushing thing.  They are more for after a contraction and you rest your legs in them. (movies are so wrong!).  I know this will sound gross and it's not very talked about either but you will poop.  However, I found the pooping helpful that there it was coming out down there! I was able to feel that sensation and it was how I knew I was pushing "correctly." I know, ew, but you have a good focal point! lol

Things got frustrating once Elliott was down far enough but not really coming out.  His head was transverse (turned sideways) and wouldn't come down the birth canal that way.  Dr. Downey and Nurse Kim tried to get him to rotate as well as us trying several different pushing positions trying to get him to turn the right way.  But no luck...after 3 hours of pushing he was not turning so Dr. Downey suggested a c-section.  He told me we could keep trying to push but that in 3 hours he had turned very little.  I gave the go ahead and we prepped for surgery.

I didn't get taken right away, the anesthesiologist had to get me drugs going in my epidural IV and someone else had a baby so I was on hold for maybe 30 minutes.  I'm sure they also had to get an OR ready.  Once again the anesthesia made me very sleepy, I don't really remember much from the surgery.  I know I could have been more awake and aware if I wanted to be but I decided to just close my eyes and not look (not that I would have seen anything).  I don't remember Warren being back there but he says he was patting me on the shoulder.  All I do remember is that occasionally I said, "ouch" or "ow" which I don't think I should have been saying!  I could feel a burning (I'm assuming slicing) sensation once and then again just kind of painful pressure when I think they were pushing Elliott out of the opening.  I made sure to say something though so he would push the meds! Because I really didn't want to feel any of what was going on down there.  I remember Elliott crying, or at least I think I do, and after that I relaxed and I think I slept for a little bit while they closed.

Afterwards, I woke back up in my room with everyone there! I have no idea if I was out very long or if I woke up as they wheeled me back in.  I just remember being awake with people there and then they brought Elliott over.  Warren was excited he'd been back to the nursery with him while they took his vitals.  8lbs 11oz, 20.5" long!! (Told you he was done cooking!).  We nursed practically right away.  I stuck my finger in his mouth when I was holding him and felt how strong of a suck he had, I knew he was hungry then and that we should try to nurse as soon as possible.  They do tell you to try to do that especially if you have a c-section and are planning on breast feeding.  So we got the lactation consultant in the room, again good karma as it was Nurse Vanessa our teacher from the breastfeeding class.  I couldn't have asked for a more perfect delivery as far as staffing was concerned!  Elliott latched on very well right away.  Vanessa said she hadn't seen such a strong suckle in a newborn in 15 years!  That should have clued me in...

Not too much longer we got moved to our regular room and stayed for 4 days.  Elliott had his circumcision, which created a sucking monster out of him.  His nickname became "Barracuda Baby" because he started off on me for like 2 hours of feeding...my nipples almost fell off!  Then we realized that he had no nipple confusion between me and a pacifier so we plugged him in and he sucked on it all day and avoided having a diaper because his man parts hurt...when it got to be well over 24 hours and the possibility that we wouldn't go home because he hadn't gone, Vanessa came down to try some tricks on him.  She tried air/blowing on exposed man parts, no luck.  Next she tried a cold wash cloth..it worked..not immediately but like a few minutes later when she had gone down to the nursery to get something else to try, I stepped into the hallway to wave at her and give her the thumbs up!  We did a little dance in the hallway :0)  She weighed the wet diaper...it was at least an oz of fluid he peed!

Elliott lost just over a lb in the hospital, enough that we supplemented with formula for a few days until my milk came in.  He also had a benign level 1 heart murmur.  He was still evaluated by a cardiologist and had an echo (EKG?) done just to check everything out.  I wasn't that worried about it since I had a murmur too as a baby.  But with our heart problems it was good to get the echo done and know there weren't any surprises.  Because of his weight loss we had to schedule an appointment with his pediatrician two days after being home to make sure he was gaining weight and for her to look him over.  He'd gained 3 oz in those two days so we scheduled our normal two week follow up appointment.

Since we've been home, we've just been trying to get into a good feeding routine but we are all eating, sleeping, and pooping so all is well.  :0)

Waiting on baby...

40 weeks.  Due TODAY.  I think he doesn't know that in there. 

I am so tired of just the waiting.  Am going to call my Dr.'s office pretty soon and see when they can get me in for a check up and to see what Dr. Downey thinks about delivery.  I've not seen him in 2 weeks because of weather last week (appt. cancelled) and the week before I saw his NP because he had to go to a delivery.  So I'm not sure on how long he'll wait, if he'll do a sono to check things out in there, how/when he decideds too big is too big to come out down there...etc. :0)

Meanwhile, I've finished thank you cards to all (69 cards! that's counting the ones I had to do for school before I left!) and those will go in the mail today. 

I've packed for the hospital...again.

I cleaned house last week because I didn't have anything better to do.  It being a frozen mess outside.

I made cookies!

I read Chalice by Robin McKinley.

I'm almost done knitting a baby/toddler hat that I think I started like more than a year ago.

I decided daytime TV is boring.

On the bright side, my body has remembered how to sleep and I'm sleeping now like I was in the first trimester.  I don't know if that's just because I'm so immobile or if I'm trying to get a jump start on the sleep deficit that is to come. lol

I told W last night that I felt like one of those sandbag punch things, only all my "sand" is in the middle so I just roll around instead of pop back up! ha

Aunt Yvonne's Baked Potato Soup

4 large baking potatoes (or 8ish small/medium russett potatoes)
1 smallish yellow onion, chopped
2/3 c. butter
2/3 c. flour
6 c. milk (go for the whole, it will taste better or use 1 quart + 2 more c. of what u usually drink - like 2%)
3/4 t. salt or to taste, I ground the sea salt about 7-10 times :0)
1 t. pepper
1/2 t. ground thyme (if no thyme, then do 1.5 t. of pepper)
4 green onions, chopped
1 lb. bacon, fried crisp or 1.5 containers of Hormel Real Bacon Pieces
8 oz. (one package) Sharp American Cheese slices

OR
1 1/4 c. shredded cheddar cheese
8 oz. sour cream

(the last two were in her recipe, but I used all of the top listed ingredients)

Peel and slice potatoes, put them in separate pot to boil for about 20-30 min.  Don't worry about chunk size.
Chop onion, put in soup pot with heat on medium-low, add butter, cook until onion is tender.  Stirring constantly add the flour, yes it will goup up and look funky...just keep stirring.  Slowly stir in the milk and continue stirring until thickened and flour/onion mixture has kinda separated.  Add seasonings and cheese slices, turn heat on low and stir occasionally to melt cheese until potatoes are done.  Add bacon.  Drain potatoes and put back in pot to mash with a potato masher or fork until lumpy, you aren't going for a creamed potato smoothness just a chunky mash.  Transfer to soup pot and stir altogether.

Garnish with leftover bacon, green onions, and shredded cheese.

Mmmmm! Enjoy!

Zombie Brain

I had a good topic/thoughts I was going to write about like a day ago, but now I can't remember what it was...

This whole "baby brain" /no memory thing is really irritating.

It's also interfered with my attention span.  It's almost like ADD?!  It's hard to focus on stuff for a length of time (like knitting) and I feel distracted.  Maybe it's just multi-tasking on overdrive.

Anyway, back to the laundry for this afternoon.  W has gone to Bass Pro (he's taken up fishing) so I'm having a relatively quiet morning with the dog and the laundry and the basketball under my shirt.

Hm, maybe I'll go try to focus on some pretty yarn for a while and put my feet up.

Late Night Blogging

Ok, so here we go...new address txlibrarymom.blogspot.com and new title :0)

Can you tell I'm not sleeping? 

Between the slight snoring from the other side of the bed (he must be tired tonight, tho the humidifier fixed most of the snoring problems) and the 20 lb "medicine ball" attached at the waist, sleep is a little hard to come by lately.

38 weeks. 10 days until due date.

At least tomorrow is my last day of school before maternity leave starts.

I probably should have started LAST week, but I made it through this week and it gave me time to finish up piddly stuff like weeding up to a certain point (the 800s), telling my PK/K classes I'm going out on leave, getting the required stuff like my mentor evaluation turned in, putting in for TLA leave, etc.  Now if I can get some spine labels printed tomorrow and on the books then I'll feel really caught up before I leave. :0)

ps~does anyone know if there is a facebook widget similar to the twitter one that I have on the side?