8.18.2013


Stephen : ( carrying unhappy Baby around and around the living room ) " She's getting heavy. "
Me : " That's what she's supposed to do. Grow. I've been growing her. "
Stephen : " It was a lot smaller when I put it there. "
Me : " I'm magic, motherfucker ! "

7.21.2013

My daughter is one month old today. We took a bath and now we are snuggle nurse napping. We are going to get up in a bit and go see how much she weighs. We have a daughter ! Wow. She's pretty great.

Hope everyone's weekend is perfect !

Xo

7.15.2013

Yawn.

Hello !

It's raining here in Texas. In July. It's refreshing and bizarre and honestly a bit frightening.

We had a nice weekend. Saturday Stephen had daddy/daughter time while I went and had a pedicure and a facial. It was heavenly. Sunday we all three went to McKinney Falls State Park to see my parents and sister and then everyone came here to hang out and play dominoes. Yes dominoes - we really are that awesome.

Right now Ms. Baby and I are going to take a nap ( please ! ) as she has decided being awake from 0230 on is a really good time and then we are going on our first solo trip out into the world to run some quick errands and take Stephen some lunch.

I almost have the second part of our birth story ready and will post it as soon as I have time to fire up the laptop and give it a quick spell check and edit. I can't believe it has been almost a month since this tiny precious girl entered the world.

Hope your week is starting gently.

Xo.


7.05.2013

Our Birth : Part I

The day before our daughter was born, when I was 41 weeks and 4 days pregnant, we went for a biophysical profile to make sure all was well. We had seen our midwife earlier in the day and my cervix was dilated to almost 4 centimeters. We fully expected to hear that everything was fine. We planned to go for a swim after our appointment and then home to finish getting everything ready for labor and birth.

At the neonatologist's office I was relieved to see the very sweet ultrasound technician who did our 20 week anatomy scan waiting for us when they called us back. She started the exam and baby's heart rate was high, much higher than it had been at our midwife appointment. There was very little amniotic fluid remaining around the baby. The ultrasound tech went to get the nurse practitioner. The nurse practitioner came in and wanted to take us to another room to do a non stress test. She was concerned with the heart rate and also because there was some fluid around the baby's heart. I sat in the chair while the test was going on and just cried.

During the NST the baby's heart rate was not as high, but there was also not much variability. The baby also seemed to have stopped really moving around much. The nurse practitioner called the neonatologist and our midwives. The nurse practitioner advised us that both she and the doctor felt the baby needed to be delivered that day, at the hospital. Our midwives were still at their office and asked that we come there to make a decision about what to do. On the drive from one office to another I sobbed.

When we arrived at the midwives' office our primary midwife Mary was on the phone with the obstetrician taking call at one of the two more 'natural birth friendly' hospitals in town. She said she would talk to me and give her a call right back. Another of the midwives had just gotten off the phone with the other hospital to find out who was on call there. This is when it became real for me we would be having our baby at the hospital. I was incredibly sad and afraid. We chose which hospital to go to and Mary called back the physician on-call. She explained to her the situation and as she was hanging up I was surprised to hear her say " I love you, too. " It has to be a good sign when your midwife and the physician she is transferring your care to love one another, right ?

By this time it was 17:30 and Mary wanted us to drive directly to the hospital rather than home in rush hour traffic and then back. Stephen was in his swim trunks and beach shoes. We had next to nothing with us since we had planned to go to the pool from our appointment. This is the way we arrived at labor and delivery. We parked and wandered in, I am sure looking completely bewildered. We checked in at the nurses station and waited to be assigned to a room and a nurse.

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Gotta go. Baby girl is waking up and wants to eat. Also I'm getting a little emotional here. More later.

Xo