After the fact: Birth Story Part 2

There isn't much left to my story, but my last post was getting really long.  I didn't exactly get the peaceful, calm birth I envisioned during my natural birth classes, but I'm glad I did it and I'm proud of myself.  Honestly I didn't set out to have a natural birth because I wanted the experience, I did it in the hopes of having a quicker recovery and a healthier baby.  I have gotten both of those, so it was worth it.

Welcome Maeve!! My birth story; Part 1

We are now a family of four :) Maeve Elizabeth joined us on January 4th, 2012, 4 days past her due date.

I had Braxton Hicks contractions pretty much my whole pregnancy; I started noticing them around 20 weeks.  I was very uncomfortable at the end of my pregnancy, it was a lot worse than when I was pregnant with my son.  I had back pain, sciatic pain that made walking really hard, rib pain, etc.  I was trying so hard to cherish my pregnancy and not wish her out sooner than she was ready, but I was pretty miserable, lol.  At 35 1/2 weeks I took a trip to the hospital for frequent contractions; not painful, just more often than my midwife was happy with. I got a shot to stop the contractions because we needed at least a couple more weeks. I was back in a week later at 36 1/2 weeks for the same thing (more often than before), but since I was so close to full term they skipped the shot, but I was on bed rest for 4 days to get me to 37 weeks.

37 weeks came... and went.  Then we had Christmas, then my New Year's Eve due date came and went, and I was getting anxious.  I was already 4 cm dilated, so it was just a matter of getting the real thing going.  My last few appointments I had my midwife sweep my membranes in the hopes of jump starting labor, but she just wasn't ready to join us.

January 3rd, I started noticing that my contractions were different.  They were coming every 10-15 minutes, which wasn't new because that had been happening for weeks, but they felt different.  A bit more uncomfortable, just "off".  I told my husband that I thought something was starting to happen, but I wasn't going to get too excited.  Later that night (around 1 am on the 4th) I thought that it was definitely happening, but I needed rest, so I made myself sleep.  I didn't want to start labor on zero sleep!!  I had contractions throughout the night, but was able to rest.

Update, 37 weeks tomorrow

Little Miss has been keeping us on our toes!  When I was pregnant with C, I didn't have any contractions at all.  I may have had one or two Braxton Hicks, but pretty much nothing until I was induced, and then I got the epidural ASAP, so I really had no idea what they felt like at all.  This time around is a different story.  I've been having Braxton Hicks since about 20 weeks, and they've been getting stronger and more frequent as the pregnancy has progressed.

A week and a half ago, when I was 35 weeks and 2 days, I went to the hospital because I was having frequent contractions (6 or more in an hour and my midwife wanted me to go in).  They had me drink water and gave me a shot to stop them.  The shot was some steroid that starts with a "t" that I have no idea how to spell, but it made me all jittery and crazy for a couple hours.  I was still having contractions (Braxton Hicks contractions are real contractions, except they don't change the cervix and they don't progress the way "real" labor contractions do) all day, but they were spread out and erratic and totally manageable.  Annoying, but not painful.

Then this week, I went back in because they were frequent again.  If I was relaxing, I had a contraction every 10-20 minutes, if I was up and walking around (say, to go pee or something) I would have a few in a row that were 2-5 mins apart, and then they'd spread back out.  When they first hooked me up to the monitors Little Miss' heart rate was high; around 209, and that freaked me out a bit.  Why was she stressed??  After relaxing and laying on my side, she went back to the normal range, between 130-170.  They didn't give me another shot because I was 36 weeks and 3 days, and full term is 37 weeks.  So they weren't going to do a whole lot to stop labor, but they definitely didn't want to encourage it.

At this point, Little Miss is fully developed and her organs are working, but these last few weeks of pregnancy are when she practices sucking/swallowing and when her lungs finish maturing.  If she were born now she could be totally fine and healthy, or she could have trouble breathing on her own, we could have challenges breastfeeding, or she could have trouble maintaining her body temperature.  There's no way to know for sure.  So, I was put on bed rest until Saturday.  37 weeks = full term which means that she's welcome to come at her leisure.  The good news is, even though I had all those contractions, my cervix isn't changing, so I wasn't in active labor.  Also today they've slowed down a LOT.  Tomorrow I'm back to full activity and then it's just a waiting game.

Of course, none of this means that she's definitely going to come before her due date.  I could very well stay pregnant up until or even past my due date.  There's really no way to know what will happen which is so frustrating sometimes, lol!

So now we're on baby watch.  She could come in the next few days, but she may wait 4-5 more weeks.  I wish real life were like the movies, where you're just going about your business and BAM your water breaks and that's the first sign of labor.  That would be so exciting!  But, of course, that almost never happens and it's a complete guessing game.  Anyway, that's all I've got.  Hopefully my next post will be announcing a new addition and not that I'm overdue and going crazy!!


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Thanksgiving is in a week...

and I have no idea what we're doing.  We don't have plans, we'll just have to see what happens or what invites come our way.  I'm sure we'll have a wonderful day no matter what :)  I just wanted to take a minute to think about things I'm thankful for.

• First, for my wonderful husband.  He works so hard and I am so blessed to be able to stay at home with our child(ren).  Sometimes he drives me crazy, but my annoyances are truly minor and all in all he's just a really awesome guy.
• For my healthy, uncomplicated pregnancy.  As uncomfortable as I am and as much as I whine, I have had a relatively uneventful pregnancy this time around.  Yes, my ribs are on fire the majority of the time and some days I can barely walk (from time to time I'm trapped on the couch, even) because my pelvis is all out of whack and crazy, but I've had no bleeding, no bed rest, no cause for concern.  Little Miss is measuring perfectly on track at every prenatal appointment and has a good, strong heartbeat.  My "issues" are just my own discomfort, no health concerns or anything "wrong" with either of us, which is a huge blessing.  Here's a bump pic, 33 weeks and 3 days along: 

• For my sweet, amazing, crazy, exhausting, super awesome toddler.  C is seriously so great.  Sometimes I want to pull my hair out or just sit and cry (those are the days when he doesn't nap, lol), but most of the time he is so much fun.  He cracks me up on a daily basis and is such a ham!  This is what happens when he sees himself on the screen of my phone:

• Quiet time.  I don't get much quiet time, but I cherish it when it rolls around.  While I *should* use it to clean or be productive,  most of the time I'm either sleeping next to C or zoning out in front of the tv or computer to give my brain a break.  Sometimes I just sit and stare at my boy while he sleeps because I just can't get my head around the fact that I made something so amazing.  I mean, look at this sweetness:

• I'm thankful for chocolate.  Chocolate is sometimes the only thing holding me together at the end of a long, frustrating day.  Tonight I made these amazing cookies that I stumbled across on the blog Made.  Holy cow, these are soooo delicious!    I'll be whipping up a bigger batch for a cookie exchange party I'm going to on Saturday, tonight was just a test run.  I'm really glad I tested :D

What are you thankful for?

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A book review: Unwind

You may not know this about me, but I am a bibliophile and always have been.  My mom taught me to read very young because I was bugging everyone in my family to read to me multiple times a day.  When it was past my bedtime my mom would tell me to put my book down, turn on my tv, and go to sleep.  During the summer, my mom would have to make me stop reading and go outside and play with my friends.  I've always had a love for books and reading, and connect to characters and stories in a way that my moods, feelings, and perceptions change along with the book I'm reading.

In recent years, my pleasure reading has slowed.  Life has gotten in the way and there are just so many distractions, but I'm trying to change that.  I'm part of a book club with an awesome group of ladies, and we have different tastes in books, so I've been broadening my horizons and reading (and enjoying!) books that normally I wouldn't pick up.  This book, however, I was excited to read from the start.  It's right up my alley; young adult, future utilitarian society, suspense, rebellion, and something I can read quickly.

The book is Unwind by Neil Shusterman (title is a link to the Amazon page).  **No Spoilers below**

It's set in the future, where in order to resolve a civil war over abortion, lawmakers came up with the concept of "unwinding" as a compromise between the pro-life and pro-choice parties.  Under the new law, abortion was illegal, but you could send your teenager (starting at 13, ending at 18 when they were a legal adult) to be unwound.  Technically they aren't dying because every piece of their body is being used through donation.  All of them is alive, just split up among different people.

Medical science has advanced to the point where transplants for literally everything in your body are the most common way to heal.  Bad heart?  You get a new one.  Blind?  You get new eyes.  Brain injury?  They replace the injured part of your brain with bits and pieces of someone else's.  Instead of trying to fix or heal something that was broken, it was just replaced.  

While most of society saw this as a blessing and an easy fix, nobody really stops to consider that these parts have to come from somewhere.  From someone.  Unwinds, as they are called, are seen as troublemakers or criminals, people who had their chance and deserved their fate, so it was easy to dismiss the idea that they had to lose their life for another person to continue with theirs.  Further solace was found in the fact that technically, they weren't dead, they were just serving a greater purpose.

The book follows three teens who are destined to be unwound.  One is a troublemaker whose parents can't handle him anymore and sign the order, the second is a ward of the state who has fallen victim to budget cuts, and the third is a tithe; a sacrifice made to society by his parents, who are following the strict rules of their religion.  

It's a quick, easy read (I finished it in one day) but the characters are easy to relate to and easy to care about and the plot really makes you think.  It was an amazing story that kept me turning pages (well, clicking forward on my Kindle) and I was enthralled from the very beginning to the very end.  Read it.  Then come back and talk to me about it :)

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Ramblings on discipline and spanking.

I stumbled across this article today, and it got me thinking. Many people are firmly in the "never EVER spank" camp, many are in the "spanking is necessary for obedience" camp, but I think most of us are floating in between, not 100% sure how we feel about the subject. Here are my feelings on the subject as of right now, as a parent of a 1 1/2 year old boy.

Big News for my 100th Post!

First off, I'm very excited to announce that this is my 100th blog post!  Yay!! 
Secondly, I've opened an Etsy shop!  The contents of my shop will probably change as I take on new projects, experiment, and find different things I want to do.  I am very excited and hope that having a shop will encourage me to create more things.  Lately I've been using C's naptime to nap along with him, and I'd love to be more productive (some days... other days I really need a nap, lol).  Wanna see?? 
My Shop
Thirdly, I got the new iPhone 4S, and it is so. freaking. awesome.  Besides being WAY faster than my last phone, it's so pretty and I can talk to it (and it understands!) and the hands-free calling and texting features are super handy, especially now that NV law is changing to prohibit cell phone use while driving.  I'm totally in love with it.
Ok that's all I have (kindof a letdown for such a milestone post, huh?).  Hopefully I'll have more exciting things next time.  For now, I'll just leave you with an adorable picture: