Due late March, 2009. Still surprised.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

babygirl arrived

working on the story.
happened sunday afternoon
home now.
all well.
no meds
no interventions
amazing. . .

Long night's journey into day....

Sunday, midnight, contrax 20 minutes apart til 2 am
2-4, 15 minutes apart
4 to 5, I slept? who knows...
5 to 7 onward, 10 minutes apart, mostly exactly.
7:30, call labor/delivery. "I think you need to come down"
pile in car... arrive at 9,
measure at 5 cm

doula at 10:30, the show begins....
2:30, call local pastor at church where i volunteer, and know lots of kids -- a place which has had something amazing to do w/this conception. tell him am in active labor and ask to be put on prayer list for family service which begins at 4 (see below)....
ow ow ow ow ow ow ow
over and over
OW OW OW OW OW

stay calm, doula brilliant, walk around, sit on ball, lean on bed, lean on her and my husband. contract 1, 2, 3, 7, 8 minutes apart, 30 to 60 seconds. are they getting more painful? sometimes, sometimes not, it's a rolling hill of pain. my mind racing throughout.
(iwantanemergencycsectionnow!!!!!!!)
(this doesn't happen)
into the shower, it's 3. the dr. has left us alone. should I be measured again? why, what will I do w/the information. my doula is briliant. I am not measured again.
When is transition? when is it beyond unbearable?
into the shower, briefly.
onto the bed
lie down and contract and sleep.
last meal was 1 am, cheerios. last sleep was 1 pm saturday.
4 pm, contract contract
water breaks
I swear I can hear this.
Doula tells staff. Nurse enters. "From the sound of you you're ready to push"
Dr. comes in fully gowned.
I don't know how to push and the contrax have stopped.
I wait for someone (someforce?) to tell me what to do.
I feel like I need to keep going.
So I push, w/out contrax

babyborn, 4:31 pm
doula tells me later, YOU WEREN'T CONTRACTING YOU WERE PUSHING HER OUT BY YOURSELF.
Which I did.
babygirl stunning.
like a little elf. Covered with the essence of the outer galaxies
crazylong fingers w/pointed nails
dark blue eyes
long
crying
....

here...


(I finished this Saturday, and we have been in nursing bootcamp pumping sleeping hell since arriving home tuesday afternoon...)

ps: for the purpose of this blog, I will be calling her vivian tho that's not her real name. it was a close contender. she's 21 inches, 7.12 lb/oz.
pps: I called Pastor S. at 2:30. Family service at church begins at 4. That's when my water broke. The kids are called up to alter to read prayer requests. According to mrs. pastor S. lotsa kids wanted to pray for me (!) totally touching.
They would have been actively praying at 4:30ish
which is when baby was born.
all pretty amazing to contemplate.....

Saturday, March 28, 2009

saturday

the joys of early labor include:

the moment of recognition that "early labor can last from several hours to weeks"


I think I had so many violent and energetic contrax on Thursday b/c the doctor was measuring my cervix and as a friend noted, "They kind of like to get you started by moving things around up there"


Well, it worked. Today, the contrax are mostly died down except all last nite I was woken every hour, bizarrely ON the hour by heavy duty contrax and then babythrashing. Not a recipe for rest.

We walked around some today, and I'll climb the stairs. I can see what people are talking about in that "bringing on labor" stuff. Having not been thru this w/my son it is a WHOLE new world. we tried to induce him ourselves when I was overdue, and activities included some serious (I mean 4 hour) hikes up our local mountain. Spicy food, spicy intimacy, etc.

Nothing worked. So I had a 14 hour labor w/pitocyn drip, fetal monitor, the works. To go from zero to birth in 14 hours was brutal and my doula told me afterwards that 14 hours is typical w/pitocyn and that it's really tough. So if my body is taking its time in this labor process.....then so be it.......Today is my official due date, btw.

Friday, March 27, 2009

friday

some contrax, nothing like yesterday. but 3 an hour sometimes. manageable. I'm going to bed, probably not to sleep. We'll see what happens. Have tried to eat sparingly today, but have more energy now. Labor is way more complicated than I thought. It is not like shooting an arrow. It is like a winding path through the woods where you can't tell when you've achieved elevation.


still clumsy tho...

Thursday, March 26, 2009

25, 2, 13, 1, 8....

bigger numbers are numbers between contractions the contractions are getting vicious. it's 2 in the morning. i don't know if i'm going to be able to sleep thru this nite.

OB visit

BP normal, wt up 2 lbs, trace plus 1 in urine and 2-3 cm open plus 50 percent effaced. Yow. Looks like the braxton hicks are doing their job said my OB. We have made appt in labor/delivery for tuesday morning in case I don't go before then. I think I may. The plug is gone, and there has been mucously leakage today....

uh.....


my head is spiinning. doula alerted, I'm walking w/difficulty, the contrax continue but in a nonpredictable non accelerating way. The body has done this once before, the body is remembering what to do the body is following directions. The leakage could be from tear high up in membrane that baby's head is basically plugging so if I move/change position, there may be more leakage. Breaking water is a cup, more than a cup. I write this so I can remember. Will I make it thru the nite? I would like to......

March ram baby it looks like.....

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

something different

I've been staying up late doing various projects -- i mean really late, deep into the night early morning radio late -- there is SO MUCH to do and before I finally collapsed there was, um, some bloody show. That's actually a sign of labor, not some britishism. It was more pinkpale than bloody and the mucous plug is apparently still engaged but I have no gone into modest freakout mode. This is called "early labor" and tomorrow at 3 when we see the OB she will check me. I called the Ob this morning and got the info re: contractions 5 minutes apart for more than an hour. I'm feeling contrax plus baby moving. There was more mucous in the afternoon and my parallel parking, which is usually award-winning totally sucked today. I hvae no spatial relationships. I have no sense of proportion. My husband bless hiim has gone thru the little pile of duds and put on shelf in our son's playroom so that's done. And car seat ready to go in. And my bag is packed. And now I have another contraction.

So I think it's soon. I ran into a woman I know who's a photog. who takes lots of pix of kids and moms and said she could tell from my face I wouldn't last ths wkend. Tomorrow is the new moon. So a fresh start. I was thinking we'd be in that fullmoon zone, april 8, but I don't feel I'll last.

It's really hard to get off the couch. I'm trying to drink a lot of water. Am trying not to be too freaked out. I was induced for my son so this is all new. . . .

Saturday, March 21, 2009

nearly 39 wks

Huge, tired, losing weight from sleeping so much. I mean A LOT. On my left side. Baby moving vigorously and purposely so clearly not ready to get on the launching pad, never mind the gantry. OB appt on Thursday, wt. 164, bp 120/54, urine trace of protein (lowest level, per previous weeks). Next. appt. 2:50 Thursday, March 26. Then the following Monday, 3/30 is 40 weeks.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

38 wks monday, 2nd round of A/B

I've had bronchitis since 2 fridays ago. Saturday was at the E/R, missing a huge event I'd put together. Thank goodness it was in good hands

I'm wiped out. Same old braxton hicks, next appt is Thursday. then one more then....who knows. I dread another induction, but this is wearing me down. I'm sleeping 3 hours, up for 45 minutes, sleeping more. I need to be in shape for labor damnit....

Friday, March 6, 2009

36.5 / OB visit

negative on strep test, yea, b/p normal, trace of protein in Ur (also normal), baby active, good heart rate. U/S Monday. Counting down, freaking out, got another cold, can't lie down for coughing. Very very tired of this....

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

36 weeks

Have been feeling nauseated. Baby superactive. No names yet. Ob appt friday; u/s Monday. Tired early and Sunday I felt horrible and slept for 3 hours in the daytime. Due date of 3/30 looms for real. DH thinks 3/24. Not having had any normal labor last time I have this feeling, "will I know when I'm in labor?"

I tend to think I will....