A visitor

My friend Jen came over to visit us this past Tuesday with her little girl Taylor. I knew Taylor was a big girl now, but I still always looked at her as a little one. When she walked in I was like, "Jen, she is huge!" It's so funny how small a newborn baby is compared to a 16 month old:) Here are two cute pics from their visit.

Almost 2 weeks old

I have so much I want to write about how wonderful Charlie is and how advanced/brilliant...but I'll keep it brief.

He left the hospital weighing 7lb 13 oz. This was on a Monday. That Thursday he weighted 7 lb 15 oz. We had another weight check yesterday and he was up to 8 lb 8.5 oz. What a big boy!! The nurse practitioner told me I must have super milk. Well...with a son that is eating every 1 1/2 hours most of hte day, I'm guessing he just loves to eat. I try to give him a variety of foods to broaden his palate.

During the day it is hit or miss with him sleeping alot. Most days he is up most of the time. His fussiest times are usually 5 pm ish til 10/11 pm ish. However, he sleeps like a champ at night so far. He has slept for 5 hours two different nights, but most nights he sleeps for about 3 hours, eats, then goes right back down. He is so good. Even his fussy times aren't terrible.

I got out by myself a few times which was very good for me. Its a double edged sword though...I love getting out, but then I end up missing him. Sometimes if I am in the apartment too long I feel a little cabin fever/claustrophobia. It's good to get out with him as well. We went to the mall yesterday for a couple of hours. He was so good!! I think he likes to shop with mommy. Not many people do so that's a plus:)

Thoughts about being a new mommy so far:
It's amazing. I cant believe how much I love him and how I can't stop staring at him most of the time.

I have to keep track of gifts that people gave me so I can write thank you cards...when?!?

It's been a time warp. I get around to emailing/calling/blogging whenever I can..but time slips away.

I'm tired, but I have bursts of energy throughout the day. The tiredness isn't really sleepiness although I could fall asleep. It's more like full body exhaustion. Once I sit down and chill....I'm fine.

Breast feeding is going really well so far. However, it sucks the life out of you. Literally... I pumped and my dad gave him a bottle for the first time a few days ago. I thought that I'd be happy that I could skip a feeding. Instead, I watched my dad thinking....I should be feeding him. Again, double edged sword:)

Charles Henry

My baby son is here... He was born on August 8, 2009 at 5:59 am. He weighed 8 lb 3 oz and was 20 inches long. The labor and delivery was swift and intense to say the least.

As you could see on my blog, by midnight I was having moderate contractions every 6-7 ish minutes apart. My sister came over around 12:45 am and we continued to track the contractions. By about 1:30 am they were 4 ish minutes apart and pretty painful. This is when I couldn't really talk through them but I was walking around and trying to breathe through them. By about 2:00 am they were 3-4 minutes apart and we decided to give them 20 minutes at this rate and leave for the hospital. I sat down on the couch to watch my DVR'd So You Think You Can Dance. Within a minute I heard a pop. Literally...I heard and felt it at the same time. MY water broke. I turned to my sister and kind of freaked out. At that point, I went to the bathroom and jumped in the shower to clean up a bit. I changed my outfit and we were out the door. The contractions really started coming on heavy at this time. They were 2-3 minutes apart on the drive to the hospital. That was the worst drive I've ever had... Sitting and contracting sucked. We arrived at the hospital where they took me into triage. The nurse looked at me and asked if I thought my water had broken. Now...without getting too graphic...I was VERY sure that it had. She was like, well we want to make sure you didn't urinate and mistake it for your water breaking. Within a few seconds, she realized that it had broken:) So, then they start taking my vitals. Im banging out contractions every 2 minutes. They were intense to say the least. My blood pressure spiked and she was like, I'm going to need you to lower your blood pressure or else you will have to take Magnesium. My friend Jen had to get the Magnesium and it was terrible. So, with my sister's help, I tried to breathe through the next couple contractions. I brought it down and that satisfied them. They come in and check me to see how dilated I am...I was only 3 cm. I look at the nurse and say...so, how long do I have then? She says that it could take a couple of hours to get to 5 cm and then an hour a cm on average. So we were looking at 8 hours as the minimum amount. I go....Yeah, I dont know if I can do this. HAHA...like there is a choice right?!? Then I tell her, I have a birth plan to go natural. She looks at me and says, You are contracting every two minutes...don't be a hero. So we walked over to labor and delivery ( i had to stop twice to deal with my contractions...drama) and as soon as we entered the room I turned to hte nurse and said, "I'm going to vomit". I then proceeded to power vomit three times as I was contracting. My sister was literally right by my side rubbing my back the entire time. Later I told her that I would have left her at that point as I cant stand vomit. Im shaking, vomiting, contracting and then my body starts to push. It was so weird..involuntary. I tell the nurse and she tells me to NOT PUSH as it isnt time. It's just pressure she tells me. Okay... Then I'm like a drug addict begging for pain meds to take the edge off. My sister looks at me and says, "Take the epidural". And I did...a little touch and go through the contractions but once it was in I felt like a champ. However, I told the nurse that I felt like I was going to poop my pants the entire time I was waiting for the epidural. They told me it was pressure. We start trying to take guesses as to when Charlie will be born. It's about 5:00 am. The nurse says she doesn't want to give her pic until they check me again. A doctor comes in, checks me and gives the nurse a look like "Oh Sh*t". She says, "She is 10 cm dilated and the head is in position". My sister and I are like...WHAT? They then had to lower the epidural at a pretty quick rate as I had just gotten it. I was shaking kind of crazily, had to get oxygen and a shot to raise my blood pressure. After about 20 minutes, I started to push a few times. The doctor then told me that she had to use the vacuum and get him out right away. I pushed a few more times and he was out. They put him on my chest and then whisked him off to the warmer.

Due to the quick descent into my pelvis, he had black eyes, bruising all of his face and broken blood vessels in his eyes. The cord was wrapped around his neck and his heart rate dropped significantly. This is why they had to use the vacuum. Getting him out so quickly caused a fracture in his clavicle. Once they checked him out they decided that he should go tot he NICU for 24 hours because of a high respiratory rate. This was also caused by his quick delivery. Hey...Charlie was ready to come out and wasn't taking no for an answer:) My body did a number on my son huh!??! The nurses in the NICU were fantastic. they were so kind and patient with me. They helped with the breastfeeding and were so supportive. I cannot say enough nice things about them.

We were discharged from the hospital with a clean bill of health on Monday, August 10th. Charlie was circumcised that morning and a few hours later we were on our way home.

God really does have a plan for us all doesn't he? The road to get where I am now was filled with speed bumps and potholes the size of a house! However, Charlie always kept me focused and positive. His birth just reinforced what life is all about. Life is about family, love, support, commitment and hope. I'm sure all you mothers out there already know this....I'm just learning it now though... Seeing your child look at you as if they know you is amazing. There was a moment in the hospital when Charlie and I were alone and we were just staring at each other. I thanked him. I never would have gotten through the past 7 months without him. He'll never know how much I owe my life to him... I was on the brink a few times but he was always there inside me routing us on!!

A few final thoughts about labor:
Contractions were the worst pain I've ever felt in my life. Hands down...

My sister was beyond amazing as a labor coach. Her support and strength really helped get me through....

Next time I will know my body better. I know now that I can't take the hard core contractions for an extended period of time. However, I could have dealt with them for another 30-45 minutes. So...if I have a fast labor like this time I will try to do it natural. If it is slow and painful...bring on that beautiful epidural:)

Breathing definitely helped with the pains. Yoga was such a wonderful practice during my pregnancy. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Labor and Delivery mix CDs that I made were useless. In fact, they pissed me off.

I never used any of the relaxation stuff I packed in my bag. Again, it would have annoyed me.

I brought my own pillow...awesome.

I packed a suitcase with alot of options for myself and Charlie. Awesome. He didn't go home in the fancy outfit I had picked out for him. He went home in super cute pjs...much more comfy.

My gal parts hurt.

This could be it.

I am writing this at 12:12 am (forget what the stupid time stamp says). I started to feel crampy around 10:30 tonight. I went to take a shower becuase the crampiness got a bit worse. Then I started timing my crampiness. They were between 7 and 8 minutes apart and lasting 30 seconds. Now...they werent that bad. I mean, they were not comfortable by any means but I could breathe through them. So I called my doctor. she asked me a bunch of questions and told me it souned like I was in early labor. She told me to come into the hosptial when they are 2-3 minutes apart. I called my sister...she is on her way to stay with me. My parents are up and ready to go too. Im so excited and so scard at the same time.
PS...i feel like someone may be stabbing me in my back a bit. Please no back labor, please no back labor.
More to follow....

40 Weeks...Can he really get any bigger? Can I?

So I am 40 weeks pregnant. Wow. I could leave it at that and that would be saying alot:)

I went to the doctors on Wednesday. I am 1 1/2 cm dilated and 60% effaced. He is head down and ready to go:) I only gained a pound this time..thank God. The doctor is estimating that he is in the high 8 pounds. I pushed back my induction date and now it is scheduled for August 17th. I will go in on August 16th at 9:00 pm and they will "ripen" my cervix. Then, if I don't go naturally, they will give me Pitocin on Monday morning.

So...I do not want to go that late at all!!

I've been trying to keep myself busy. I went to yoga last night for the last time in my pregnancy. It was really good... I'm going to miss it. Ive been going pretty much every week for the past 26 weeks! It really has been a wonderful thing to do during my pregnancy. It's so grounding and it has made me feel strong (both mentally and physically).

My last day of work was on Tuesday. That has been nice as well. I have felt so much more relaxed yesterday and today.

I can't believe this is it. I made some mixes for labor and delivery. I have a relaxing mix, an inspirational baby mix and a push mix. I was listening to them the other day in the car and I just broke down and started to cry. It's just so amazing how much my life has changed in the last 7 months. So many heartbreaks alongside so much happiness. So much regret/questioning about the choices I made with Mr. Straus but then....I'd never have this beautiful life growing inside me without the choices made exactly the way they were. Everything was meant to happen the way it did.... This baby is exactly what was meant to be:) I can't wait to meet him and tell him how much he has meant to everyone in his life.

PS. My prediction still stands as tomorrow sometime:) We will see!!