Christian's birth story

Pre-labor drama

At my 39-week appt I had my membranes stripped to hopefully get things moving. Nothing happened except for a little cramping. They told me I could come back every day to have it done if I wanted. I opted to come back on Thursday and have the midwife do it again. This time it was painful and I almost immediately started having back labor. I went back to work and dealt with the cramps. I didn't get much sleep that night because of the cramping. 

Friday morning we got up to go to work and Nathan asked if I wanted to go in again to have a midwife check me and strip the membranes again. I left him at home and went in for a check. My blood pressure was high (I always have had normal BP), and they found protein in my urine and the midwife was little concerned about pre-eclampsia. She told me she was sending me to the hospital as a precaution to get monitored and for more tests. I ran back home to grab Nathan, texted my boss that I wasn't coming in (maybe I was going to have a baby!) and headed to the hospital. Long story short, they sent me home after a few hours of monitoring. We were bummed, but the good news was that I WAS having contractions (I was feeling them all in my back) and they were showing up on the monitor. "Enjoy your last weekend without a baby," the nurse said. 

Went home and napped. A few hours later the hospital called me and said something about my lab work being a little different than when I left (?) and they wanted to be safe and have me do a 24-hour urine collection. I'll spare you those details.  

Saturday, at the conclusion of the 24-hour period, we went back to turn my stuff in and they wanted to hook me up again to monitor the baby. Everything looked good, the baby was very active (as usual) and looked happy in the womb. Still having back labor and my contractions were 10 minutes apart. They sent us home. Eye roll. 

Sunday (February 7th, my due date) we went to church and then went to the mall because it was someplace we could walk and stay out of the cold. After a few miles we came home and I was exhausted, sore and grumpy.

40 weeks

Monday morning I went to work (yep!) and went to my 40-week appt mid-morning. The midwife checked me and I was another centimeter dilated (now 3 cm) and I was relieved. At least all that walking did something. And she did the Bishop's score matrix and delivered the news: I could be induced...the next day! I started crying I was so happy. Went back to work and made the announcement as soon as I walked in the door: "I'm having a baby tomorrow...or Wednesday if labor takes forever!" 

Labor

Checked into the hospital on February 9th at 6:30 am. Started pitocin around 8. The midwife came to break my water at 8:30. I knew once this happened my contractions were going to be more intense. 

My personal goal was to make it to a 5 before an epidural. From stories and all my research I knew the epi would slow down my progress. By 9:30 the contractions were strong enough that I was needing to breathe through them, couldn't talk. I was at a 4 and needed to go the bathroom. After that the contractions felt even more intense. I was 4+ and asked for the epidural. The anesthesiologist came around 10:15 and I had my drugs by 10:30. I FELT GREAT. On top of the world! I was so happy. Seriously. 

Now that I was drugged the nurses (I had 2 that day) could check me better. The stomach band monitor wasn't picking up my contractions very well since they were all in my back so they placed an internal monitor (this is why Christian came out with with some red marks on his head) to better track my contractions. ALSO at this time they concluded C was posterior or "sunny side up." Hence all the back labor. To help him twist, they had me lay on each side with a peanut exercise ball between my legs. I switched sides every 30 minutes.

We queued up The Office and waited. As I predicted, I stalled and was at a 5 for over 1.5 hours. Things picked back up and by 3:30 or 4 I was at 7 cm. I noticed that I was starting to feel discomfort on my left side. I pressed my button for more meds but it made my right side more numb. The nurses asked me the most annoying question of all time, "Are you sure it's pain or is it pressure?" It's pain, ladies. 30-ish minutes passed and I was in serious pain by now. We weren't watching the office any more. I could feel the contractions on my left side but not my right--I was sooo numb on my right. 

By 4:30 my mom and sister showed up and it was the worst possible time. I was

in a ton of pain. I was a hot mess. I was gripping the bed, moaning and sobbing during contractions that were now a little over a minute apart. The nurse had called the anesthesiologist but he was in a c-section and I had to wait to have my epidural fixed. 

I could barely breathe because I was so congested from third trimester and the start of a cold. Nathan had to blow my nose for me as if I was a toddler because I was gripping the side of the bed so hard. I had to wear an oxygen mask because of the the baby was showing some signs of stress.

Finally the anesthesiologist came in (probably an hour had passed from the time I had determined I was "feeling pain") and he explained what he was going to do which I completely ignored because I couldn't even see straight, and then he shot me up with something. I would say within a few minutes I had complete relief again. Glory glory hallelujah.

The nurses checked me. I was at a 10!!! And the baby had twisted!

"No wonder why you were in so much pain." 

-____-

Go time.

Actually, no.

They told me we were going to take some time for "rest and descend."

This was fiiiine with me. I was exhausted. I had Nathan queue the best Spotify playlist of all time (called "Deep Focus") and I rested and ate ice chips (and some jell-o that I quickly regretted).

I hadn't made a final decision as to whether to have my mom and sister in the room when I delivered. I decided then that they could stay and made Nathan tell them, "but I don't want anyone talking."

About 30ish minutes passed and the nurses told me the midwife was going to come in to do "test" pushing.

Did my first push and the midwife said, "I can see his head!" Nathan took a peek and was ecstatic. "He's right there! You have to keep pushing!"

The nurse was trying to hang Tylenol for my IV because I spiked a fever a few minutes prior. She realized she got the dosage wrong and told the midwife she would go back to the pharmacy to switch it out and the midwife told her she didn't have time because he would be out before she got back.

I was pumped.

And now I was feeling some SERIOUS pressure on my tailbone. It wasn't pain. It was pressure. This motivated me to push. I pretty much begged to push and guided the whole thing (or so it felt like). Pushing was liberating and exciting for me. I felt in control. It was my favorite part of labor for sure. 

EIGHTEEN minutes later at 6:02 pm, Christian was born. The rush of emotions was unlike anything I've ever experienced. Immediate relief from not being pregnant anymore and I was finally holding my baby. And he was crying! And Nathan and I were crying. Actually, I was wailing. I was (and am) so happy. I wish I could get those feelings that you have right after birth in a pill. It felt soooo good.

He was 7 lbs 15 oz & 21 inches long. He has dark hair that is fine but has curl. He has olive skin that is so yummy.

Christian is a very sweet baby and rarely cried for the first couple months of his life. (Right now at 3 months it is a different story.) He loves to eat and is very curious. Prefers to sit up and look around as opposed to laying down. Being a mom is fun and hard and complicated and easy and exhausting and exhilarating and so many more emotions. And seeing Nathan as a dad is so ahhhhhmazing. My heart exploded when I saw him holding C for the first time.

Time is flying. We still can't believe Christian's ours forever.

outer banks

north carolina is a magical place. we literally did not want to leave this vacation.

it was almost perfect. i say almost because we couldn't bring Minnie.
but it will be perfect when we move there someday.

LA beaches have nothing on these. you can't beat shallow, warm, and dolphin sightings.

our first house project

i know you all have been waiting for me to make my debut as a DIY blogger and the day is finally HeReee crooked pictures and ALL!

Even though we love basically every square inch of our house, there are still a few things we have on a project list. We knocked off the first one last month--paint the laundry room.

I mentioned previously that the linoleum in the laundry room was ripped when the washer and dryer were installed. The moving company finally processed our claim, so we got the money to replace the floors. We decided to take advantage of the fact the W/D would be out of the room and decided to break out the stencil.

Sometime while we were waiting for the house to be built, we (I?) came up with the idea to do something in the laundry room. I really wanted to do something girly/fun since it was my favorite room and it didn't really matter (no one sees it regularly). Was tempted to do a wallpaper, but liked the stencil option because it is more "temporary" and easy to remove aka paint over.

[We got the stencil here & now I want every single one...]

nathan watched all the YouTube videos about how to use it and assured me it would be SOoooOOOOo easy. We forgot about the giant, permanent shelf in the middle of the wall...

the stencil came with two pieces: a big piece (that has half of the design), and a small piece to do the perimeter. we also got the kit that came with the stencil level + brushes (v. helpful).

1

Taped off the wall. It was about a 6'x6' area. I didn't feel like doing the part of the wall that no one would see.

2

Used a paint/primer in one.

3

Started stenciling. This part took the longest (probably 3-4 hours total to do the area). We had to figure out how to line up the stencil to make the pattern cohesive with the shelf. That took me a good 30 minutes to comprehend. I also messed up the bottom portion because of the partition in the middle. oops. had to re-do and added another 30 minutes.

4

Minnie glaring in resentment because she was ignored two nights in a row. Melissa came to the rescue on night #2.

5

Bottom has finished edges (what the smaller part of the stencil is for) top is what it looks like without. This was kind of a hot mess and I can see how it would be stressful if you are a perfectionist. I was over it at this point. You can't really perfectly line up the design to have it stay in place. ultimately you have to contort your body (& stencil) to make it work.

6

all done.

Now I'm thinking about replacing the light fixture...chandelier?

Total project time: 5-6 hours
Cost: ~$100
Type of paint used: Pint of random white paint from Home Depot + 1/2 pint of Benjamin Moore "ben" in "crocus petal purple" flat
Points Nathan gets for putting up with my pessimism about how it would turn out: 1 million
Payment Melissa received for babysitting Minnie on night #2: art city donuts (actually I think she bought those herself, so $0)

p.s. if anyone wants to use the stencil...it's just sitting in our closet...