Bonus video - Raley coos

OK, so I know I said that this blog was going to be less about the baby and more about the craft, but have you noticed that flickr lets you upload videos now? How could I resist giving Raley the chance to show off her new vocal stylings?

Enjoy!

Six Weeks

Raley turned 6 weeks old on Monday, and we had her well-baby check-up. And what a well baby she is! Here's the stats:

Weight: 9 lbs, 12 oz; 50th percentile
Length: 22 1/4", 75th percentile

What a relief! I figured the length would be fine, because she keeps outgrowing her footed sleepers (we're now firmly in the 0-3 month size rather than newborn, and edging towards 3-6). But I was worried about her weight - she seems like a skinny little bean! And of course we always worry about getting enough food into her, especially with our crazy feeding combo (breast, pumped milk, formula) - which I'll have to devote an entire post to later. But it seems like we've nothing to fear; as her doctor said, "Keep doing whatever you've been doing, because it's working!"

Here's a few photos of the munchkin:

Whoa - birds and leaves and things!

She's recently really been able to focus on things a few feet away, and she'll watch them for minutes on end. As well as this swing, she loves the animals that hang from the bar on her bouncy seat, especially the elephant.

Playing in the fresh air!

my serious baby

To keep the baby from entirely taking over this blog, so that I can eventually go back to crafts again (well, assuming that any crafting is occurring!), I'd like to announce that Raley has her own blog for daily photos:
http://raley365.blogspot.com
Also, this firmly proves that I am a new parent in the digital age with long-distance family. Please visit and feel free to leave comments!

And, in the category of "things I wish I didn't know" I now have special expertise in self-diagnosing mastitis. Yep, it came back... exact same symptoms, exact same spot. Same antibiotics, new dose. Hopefully this will get rid of it (again)!

One Month

Dear Raley,

Today you are one month old. That's right, 31 days ago you joined our family. I can hardly believe that it's been such a long time and I can hardly believe that it's been such a short time. We're still getting to know each other, but here's some of the things I've learned about you this month.

1. You tend to be a very serious, calm baby when you're awake. You like to study the world around you, and you tend to have a slightly furrowed brow as if you're trying to figure out just what is going on.

hmmm...

I've always loved what I call "serious" babies, and I can't wait to see if you become one. In recent days, though, you've opened up a bit more and look around with a more open face. If you become a happy-go-lucky baby, Mommy will be fine with that, too!

the happy side of Raley

2. Of course, you still make some funny faces, and Mommy loves to capture them on her camera. We call this one Mr. Yuk:

If you see this symbol, it's poison!

3. You're growing up surrounded by yarn. You will either accept this and become a knitter (crocheter would also work) or you will rebel and reject all things fiber. Or both, depending on what age you are. However, I am doing my best to start you out right. One of your very first outings was to a yarn store:

Pretty yarn!

Then you went to the yarn party (where mommy forgot her camera), and just this week we went to hear the Yarn Harlot in Annapolis. Of course, this is what you did for her entire talk:

zzzzzz

but maybe you picked some things up by osmosis. At least you didn't cry! And when she put the knitting needles in your hand, you grabbed on tight, even in your sleep. You even got your picture put up on her blog!

And of course, your next big outing will be to Maryland Sheep and Wool, which is less than a month away. There's even a countdown blog to help you get excited from the folks at the Cloverhill Yarn booth, which will have lots of cool indie dyers and yarnies. Yay!

4. You rock the zip-front hoodie.

Babyz in the hoodz!

5. Your family loves you. Your grandma was here for your first four weeks, and your grandpa got to come visit for a little while, too. They spent a lot of time cuddling and snuggling with you, and had a really hard time leaving (and mommy had a hard time letting them go!).

one side of the family

Just today, your other grandmother arrived to spoil you for the next couple of weeks.

Hello to you!

And sometime next month your aunt and grandfather will get to visit. You hardly know what it's like to only have two parents to hold you. Can you feel how loved you are?

There's many more, but I'll save them for later. Don't grow up too fast, OK?

Love,
Your Mommy

Raley's Birth Story

I've been composing this entry in my head for the past four weeks, and hopefully I can steal some time to write it all down. Le bebe is asleep on the couch beside me (not on me!), giving me some valuable typing time. This is the story of how she joined our family! This is primarily written for me (I don't want to forget anything!) but as a first-time pregnant woman, I also loved reading other stories to see just how things really happened, so it's up here for everyone.

First, the birth plan. The short story is that there wasn't one. I've been a junkie for reading birth stories and watching all of the baby shows on TV, and I have yet to see a birth that went according to the "plan." I decided that as long as the outcome was a healthy baby and healthy mom, I'd be fine with however we got there. That said, I did have some visions of my birth - laboring at home with Dan, driving to the hospital breathing through contractions in the car, laboring there with the birth ball and walking the corridors between contractions, possibly using the showers, etc. (spoiler alert! none of this happened). I wanted to be as drug-free as possible, but I wasn't ruling out the use of an epidural (which I knew deep down meant that I'd probably get one). But other than that, I didn't really have much of a "plan." Which was good, because I couldn't have imagined how it went.

The rest of the story is below the cut, for those who aren't interested or who don't want to know all of the (gory) details :).

Of course, if you want to know how I can possibly be knitting and happy while in labor, you'll have to read on (click on "MORE" below) :)

I'm smiling now!

I had a doctor's appointment on Friday March 7th and was 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced - basically no progress since the week before. However, on Saturday I lost my mucus plug... again. Yes, I'd previously lost a plug two weeks before, just after my first internal exam, and nothing had come of it (obviously). This time, though, the plug contained a little bit of brown tinge, but I didn't think too much of it, having been there before with no results.
Over the weekend, we walked around Costco and some other stores, but didn't really do anything else to bring on labor.

My due date was March 21st. The week of March 10th was supposed to have been my last week in the office, and there were a flurry of scheduled meetings for me to brief folks who would be filling in for me during my absence. I had prepared files and lists of all of the information well in advance of this, but this week was to be the "passing of the torch." One of the meetings was even scheduled for Friday the 14th, but I did tell my co-worker that I wasn't sure I was going to make it that long. But I went to sleep on Sunday night (the 9th) ready to go back to work for 5 more days.

Monday morning at 6:45 AM I woke up to feel my water breaking. At first I did wonder if possibly I had just lost what little bladder control I had left, but there were 3 distinct "trickles" and I knew. At that point, I realized that I would have a baby within 24 hours. I knew that if I had the baby by midnight on the 10th, she would share my mother's birthday; if I managed to be in labor for 18 hours before she was born on the 11th, she would share a birthday with my friend Kelly, my friend's daughter Lily, and of course Meli!

The alarm was set for 7 AM, so I had gotten a full night's sleep, and I didn't feel bad about waking Dan up a few minutes early. I poked him and said "I think my water just broke" and he said "Oh, wow." When I got up to go to the bathroom, a whole bunch more fluid came gushing out, solidifying in my mind that my water had indeed broken.

Dan called the doctor's office, who told us to go ahead and come in to the hospital - and we got the hospital that we wanted (what a relief! - my OB/GYN practice was delivering at 2 different hospitals, and you didn't know which one you would get until you called). So much for laboring at home with Dan! We rushed around the house like mad people (with me continuing to "leak!"). I gathered up pieces of knitting to take with me (I have my priorities!), and threw some extra clothes in a bag. We had packed our bags before, but they weren't quite "complete"! In all this time, I had yet to have a single contraction.

Dan put some plastic down on the seat of the car (yes, still leaking) and we drove the 15 mintues to the hospital, still sans contractions. I took the elevator to L&D and checked in, and was show to a room... still no contractions. I met my daytime nurse, Danielle, who was FABULOUS. I managed to do some knitting (still no contractions) - see picture above.

My doctor (Dr. B.) arrived and checked me, and I was still 1 cm and now 75% effaced. Then we started on pitocin - there would be no waiting around to see if I would start having contractions normally.

I got plugged into the (external) fetal monitor when I arrived, but now the contractions really started and there were some things of concern. Basically, the baby's heartrate tended to drop after every contraction. If it was dropping during the contraction, that would be normal, but with it happening afterwards, that was not right and indicated that the baby's oxygen levels were dropping. The distress was worse when I was lying on my back, better on my left side and best on my right side, and the very best when I was on a full oxygen mask. Aside from one trip to the bathroom (before the contractions really started), I spent the rest of my labor on the bed, generally on my right side. So much for the birthing ball and walking the corridors!

That was the first time that we had the c-section talk. Basically, if the baby continued to be in distress even with me on my right side and on oxygen, the doctors would opt for a section. For the time being, we were OK, but they wanted to bring it up.

An hours went by and my contractions weren't being detected by the external monitor anymore (with several repositioning efforts), so Dr B. came back to insert an internal monitor. Any hope that I had of getting out of bed died at that point! She checked, and I was still only 1 cm dilated.

Then I just settled in to the labor - I was having contractions every few minutes, lasting for 30 sec - 1 min. I was able to breathe through them, especially with a little musical exhale that I just made up. I told our nurse that I was going to try and make it without an epidural. When not contracting, Dan and I watched A Baby Story (despite our childbirth class handouts which said not to dwell on the upcoming labor) and the Cartoon Network. I particularly remember Scooby Doo and Tom and Jerry.

New doctor - Dr J. - came in to do another check just after noon, and I was only 2 cm. He wished me well, and left me to keep laboring on. The worst part about the labor at this point was the blood pressure cuff. It automatically went off every 20 minutes, and seemed to have uncanny timing to start inflating right in the middle of a contraction. I hated that thing!

After a couple of hours, the contractions were piling up on top of each other and I started feeling very hot, faint, and unable to breathe. I ripped off the oxygen mask and then started to vomit. (Yes, 38 weeks of throwing up was not enough - I kept going into the delivery room!) At that point, I decided that I didn't need to keep on without any help and asked for the epidural. It was put in with relatively little trouble, and I was blessedly pain free again. I was even making jokes with the nurses!

At about 4:30 - just after the epidural - Dr J. came back to check again, hoping for 5-6 cm. Except I was barely at 4. So we had another c-section talk - Dr. B. would be back to check on me at 6:30 and if I hadn't made significant progress by then, we would be looking at surgery. Honestly, at this point, it didn't sound like such a bad thing.

After he left, I kept having contractions and then they started piling up - exactly like just before I asked for the epidural. I got hot, sweaty, felt like I couldn't breathe, ripped off the oxygen mask, and got the bedpan ready for the vomit. And then the damned blood pressure cuff went off... and my bp was 160/something, which made an alarm start going off, adding to the panic I was feeling. I told Dan that he needed to get someone because I needed help. I don't think he actually had to move, though, because I think the nurses came in again on their own. It was now about 6:15 - just before Dr B. was coming back. The nurse checked me, and lo and behold, I was at 10 cm and ready to push.

Yep, 4 to 10 cm in less than 2 hours. No wonder I felt like I was on a freight train!

I heard the nurse intercept Dr B. as she was coming into my room, and she said OK, turned around and put scrubs on. She came in, took out the internal monitor, took out the catheter, and I got in position to push with Dan on one side and the (new) nurse on the other holding my legs. The baby was "right there" and I started to push. For those that haven't had the experience, a push is timed with a contraction (since I'd had the epidural, the nurse was helping me to figure out when they were), and consists of: deep breath in, bearing down for a count of 10, big exhale, big breath in, bearing down, exhale, inhale, bearing down, and you're done.

I did three pushes (cycles of 10). Dr. B said that she could see the head and it looked like red hair! Then everybody got up and truly got prepared - Dr B. put on a face shield, etc. One more push and the doctor said I could touch her head if I wanted to - it was much softer and slipperier than I expected. One more count of 10 and then the doctor said that the head was out and I should stop pushing. I admit that I felt something at that point, but it still suprised me that the head was out already. One more push and the rest of her came out - which I definitely felt - at 7:18 PM. She started crying, they laid her up on my chest, and I was a mom!

Dan cut the cord, and we stayed there for a few minutes looking her over, counting toes and fingers, before they took her over to the side of the room for all of the weighing and measuring. Dan went with her while Dr B. tended to me - I had a 2nd degree tear (no episiotomy) which required stitches, and I delivered the placenta. Her APGAR scores were 8 and 9, and she was 7 lbs 4.2 oz and 21 inches long.

Hello, beautiful

So, if you read this far, you probably deserve a medal, but here's my summary. I did get an epidural, but I think it is probably why I managed to have a vaginal delivery - I relaxed enough that I was able to make a lot of progress in a little amount of time. The first 10 hours of labor were pretty slow, aside from the vomit highlight, but a lot happened in the last 2. From 4-10 cm and then 5 pushes and she was here! I think that the "labor" part went about how I'd imagined, painwise and sensationwise; the "delivery" part was so much easier.

And now I have a little munchkin! She shares her grandma's birthday (best birthday present ever!). The munchkin is now sleeping on me - this post took about 4 hours, 2 diaper changes, 3 feedings, and 2 naps to write!