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
7.21.2013
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.
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.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gotta go. Baby girl is waking up and wants to eat. Also I'm getting a little emotional here. More later.
Xo
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.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gotta go. Baby girl is waking up and wants to eat. Also I'm getting a little emotional here. More later.
Xo
7.03.2013
12 Days Old
Today we took Ms. Baby to the pediatrician for her first check-up. She is 8 ounces over her birth weight ! We celebrated my ability to fatten up a baby by getting ugly at the Indian restaurant lunch buffet. Tomorrow Stephen goes back to work. Some serious anxiety here about my first day home with her alone. Send us your love and happy thoughts.
Xo
Xo
7.01.2013
New
Hello.
After just shy of fourteen months* of pregnancy our perfect, precious daughter decided to finally make her entry into the world.
On the Thursday before she was born I went for some acupuncture to try to get labor started. We then had a lovely, leisurely lunch at our favorite French restaurant. From there we headed to our midwives for an appointment.
At our checkup my cervix was dilating and we were all sure that labor would be just around the corner. I was feeling quite discouraged, but we made plans to check in with the midwife again on Sunday if no labor and make a plan for what to do to try to induce labor at home. The midwife suggested we go for a swim to relax and to try and get the baby to rotate into a better position. We ran home to get swimming gear and planned to head to Barton Springs after a biophysical profile at the neonatologists to check in on baby since we were postdates.
All of our plans changed completely after the ultrasound and we ended up with a hospital transfer instead of the homebirth we had been planning for. Today I unpacked and put away the homebirth supplies. The placenta pan is in the cabinet, all of the towels are back in the bathroom closet, and all of the medical supplies are in a box to give to our midwives to pass on to someone else.
Our hospital birth experience was fine. Beautiful, really, all things considered. I will write all about that soon. Our daughter is here safe. Welcomed with love and joy. But I am still really grieving not having her at home as we had hoped.
Right now her dad is snuggling her up and walking her around. They are incredibly sweet. I am a lucky, happy mama.
Hope you are all well and happy and thriving.
Xo
* actually 41 weeks and 5 days, but who's keeping track
After just shy of fourteen months* of pregnancy our perfect, precious daughter decided to finally make her entry into the world.
On the Thursday before she was born I went for some acupuncture to try to get labor started. We then had a lovely, leisurely lunch at our favorite French restaurant. From there we headed to our midwives for an appointment.
At our checkup my cervix was dilating and we were all sure that labor would be just around the corner. I was feeling quite discouraged, but we made plans to check in with the midwife again on Sunday if no labor and make a plan for what to do to try to induce labor at home. The midwife suggested we go for a swim to relax and to try and get the baby to rotate into a better position. We ran home to get swimming gear and planned to head to Barton Springs after a biophysical profile at the neonatologists to check in on baby since we were postdates.
All of our plans changed completely after the ultrasound and we ended up with a hospital transfer instead of the homebirth we had been planning for. Today I unpacked and put away the homebirth supplies. The placenta pan is in the cabinet, all of the towels are back in the bathroom closet, and all of the medical supplies are in a box to give to our midwives to pass on to someone else.
Our hospital birth experience was fine. Beautiful, really, all things considered. I will write all about that soon. Our daughter is here safe. Welcomed with love and joy. But I am still really grieving not having her at home as we had hoped.
Right now her dad is snuggling her up and walking her around. They are incredibly sweet. I am a lucky, happy mama.
Hope you are all well and happy and thriving.
Xo
* actually 41 weeks and 5 days, but who's keeping track
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