Preludes And Nocturnes

I think this woman and I are twins. Except she knew how to lanolize her wool and I didn’t (hense my finding her with a google search so I could lanolize the wool covers Leone just made for me).

But her post made me laugh and laugh. Very good.

Mom and Leone are not here today. Julia went back to Vancouver (and soon she’s off to her new placement for Drs w/o borders). Leone is off to start finding her grown up teacher job (she just graduated!).  And Jim is teaching two summer courses so he is not in the house.  Who does that leave in the house? Me, beeb, and cats.

Cats not too helpful.

But on the up side Malcolm has decided to nap *not on me* for the last hour. I did dishes, bottles, laundry, and still need to brush teeth and lanolize covers.

Wish me luck!

Water broke 6:45am
Hospital 8am 0cm dialated
Still 0 cm dilated and started drip at 1pm
1st stage 4:30
2nd - 8:30pm
3rd…
Newborn birth 9:16
Placenta 9:19

6:45am water broke. I’m standing in the bathroom about to get ready for my first day of my new class. I had spent the previous day at the uni with everyone telling me how wonderful I looked and asking about when the baby was due. “Not for another four weeks,” I would say. “And everyone knows that the first goes late.. mom was 10 days to 2 weeks overdue with all three of her kids.”

And with that I kept photocopying my syllabus and planning my course.

Tuesday morning (May 13th) 6:30am. Feeling just fine, alarm has gone off, thinking that I could certainly sleep a little more, but excited about my first day of class. Getting ready to step into the shower while Jim is getting us coffee/tea for the morning breakfast. I take a step and something dribbles on the floor. Woah, weird! I think I just peed or something! Another step, and another little dribble down my leg.

I’m really letting myself go these days, I think to myself. Even as my other part of my brain wondered if this could be my water breaking.

But no gush, no woosh. Just.. piddle, puddle. Another step, another dribble.

I get a piece of toilet paper to see if it smells sweet. I can’t tell anything. I decide not to move and see if it stops. Realise this might not be the most effective method.

I call Jim. He comes upstairs. I’m looking weird and obviously trying to tell him something.. not good. Jim knows right away what has happened…

“What? Did Ruper pee in the sink?”

I point to the floor and he sees the bathmat with wet marks on it.

“Rupert peed on the floor?”

“No” I hold up the toilet paper.

“Rupert poo’d on the floor??!!”

“No, um, I think my water just broke.”

Jim stares at me in confusion. I can tell he is still wondering how this is the cat’s fault.

We then stand and consider the bathmat for a while. I test out walking and keep dribbling. I talk about going into work and seeing how I feel.

Jim makes me call my mom.

Mom is at coffee before work. Her cell rings and I say “so, how do you know if your water has broken?”

“Your water broke??!!”

“Erm, mayyybe…. can I still go to work?”

“No, go to the hospital. I’ll leave my phone on and you call once you know anything.”

I phone the hospital, they confirm the same thing. I’m in denial. My bag isn’t packed. I have written in my daytimer for May 13th evening (7-9pm) pack hospital bag and write birth plan. Jim and I wander about packing a bag. Actually, we fill the back of the car with everything from clothes to pillows to computers (in case I can get some work done). We eat a bit, I post on my blog, we crack jokes, we realise I should get the hell to the hospital. We drive the two blocks to the hospital.

Labour and delivery confirm my water broke. I’m not dilated at all.

Put on to monitors again for beeb’s heartrate and checking for contractions. She pointed out that I was having minorcontractions but I noted they were nothing compared to my braxton hicks I had been getting. Taken off monitor. Hung out. Watched tv. Walked around. Did antibiotics because didn’t get the strep test (was due that coming thursday).

checked at noon - no dilation

1pm started drip. I was in denial again. I still thought they were going to send me home. They pointed out the 24 hour re: water breaking. Yeah, I knew that… Bummer. I hated the idea of being induced. Started the drip and nothing. In fact, nothing happened until at the maximum drip for a while. About 2 1/2 hours later.

3-3:30 started walking again

3:30-4:40 labour started.

4:30 uncomfortable 1cm dilated. As Jim said, this is when I started to no longer interacted with anyone. I was in my own little world. Jim had to talk to people for me and advocate for anything I wanted. It was so important at this point that Jim knew everything that I wanted for the birth.

He made things into what I needed. He got me drugs when I wanted them, he listened to me when things weren’t working, and he told the staff what I wanted.

5-5:30 3cm - not a happy camper. I would like some drugs now please. But the gas was making me feel smothered so I couldn’t do it for any time.

6:30 got drugs (injection phentonol) Every 30 min or so, did three doses.

6:45- 7:15 mom was there and Jim went for dinner. We were in for the long haul. This great nurse took over (other nurse was fine, but more worried about the monitor than doing things to get my labour moving). This nurse got me sitting at the end of the bed with a table to lean on and a stool for my feet and a pillow and this how thing rigged up so I could be supported in sitting and twisting with each contraction to move the baby down. She then got on the floor to reach up under the table to keep the monitor on the beeb. Awesome. The doctor had thought I’d be fully dilated around midnight, but I think the twisting got things going. Mom talked to me about not fighting the contractions, but working with them. She got cold cloths. Very helpful.

7:45 mom left for coffee still thinking midnight.

7:50 started transition - major pain

8:30-8:45pm asked for epidural, nurse checked and I was fully dilated. She phoned/paged doctor - cue minor kerfuffle as I was having the baby sooner than we thought. Doctor was in the hallway at that moment. Nobody expected it to come that fast.

Got ready to push, managed to get the bed totally upright so I was sitting up completely, I felt really good in that position and everything was a go. Figured out how to push after a few contractions, Jim counted them off for me, we worked on getting three pushes per contraction. Mom got back just in time.

9:16pm - beeb was born!

Pushing didn’t hurt as much as not pushing hurt. The actual birth was fine. It hurt, but it felt like I had something to do. Mom and Jim watched Malcolm come out (I wasn’t able to focus on anything but me). Malcolm had the biggest “juiciest” umbilical cord according to the doctor. He actually suggested that he cut it rather than Jim. It was pretty cool to see. It was a super-charged umbilical cord.

Beeb was put on my chest, he was amazing. I just wanted to hold him and stare at him. He got checked out and Jim went along to keep track of things for me and tell me what was happening. Mom stayed with me as I got stitched up (for 30 minutes!) We used mom’s cell to call people, but I can’t remember most of that and actually suggested we call grama and grampa after we had already called them. Jim and mom were wonderful.

And all in all, a few hours were horrible - but it mostly went better than I had thought.

Quick wrap up: beeb had to get many pokes in the hospital and that made me cry. We were there for six days, but in the end he was just fine. He had horrible jaundice and had to do the tanning bed (we called it his spa treatment). He lost a fair bit of weight, but we had a bad time with nursing. We ended up doing tube feeding with a bit of breast and I bought a pump to keep things going. Thank god for the private room (thanks extended benefits!), and the wonderful nurses made it all good.

Thus ends my longish birth story.

Auntie Julia:

Uncle Jason:

Food at the shower:

With Great-Grandma:

Auntie Leone:

Sleeping hard:

Playing hard:

Auntie took some pictures of me after a marathon feeding. I was very very hungry.

…could somebody rub ma belly?

typing with one hand

pumping while on internets

moms must multi-task

*

*

napping with auntie:

Auntie Julia and Uncle Jason are here to visit! They brought many cute clothes and even more hugs and loves. Malcolm is one month old today and tuesday was the official due date. Weird to look at him and think that he could still be in my tummy or that he could have been born at his current size.

And when I say “weird” I mean “ouch”. On that note, my hooha is doing much better these days, if you were wondering.

So, some pictures. Malcolm loves his fancy chair:

And his auntie Julia (from today):

This morning I bought a bunch of prefolds, 2 bummis covers, 4 proraps, 1 wool cover, and 1 diaper pail liner (all gently used) for $50 from a local mom. Sweet!  The proraps are still just a little bit big for Malcolm, but that means I’ll get maximum use from them. The bummis are bigger than the proraps, and the wool is right between.  With some kushies covers I had already, I think I”ve got a good start.  I now just need some bumgenius and/or monkeydoodlez (is that the name?) pocket diapers for nighttimes.  I also have on my wishlist some liners and doublers.

Again, my beeb is so cute I can’t believe he’s mine. Jim and I keep saying “that is OUR baby!” and then we kiss him. I am very lucky to have hours each day to snuggle with him and he just sleeps and sleeps and cuddles and gurgles and smiles. He is a wonderful beeb.  I also made him some index cards with black lines (as suggested online rather than buying the “newborn” cards) and he is in love with the cards. Pic included below.  I don’t know if I’ve said already, but he gained half a pound last week and is up to 7.5 lbs now.  GO BEEB!

This is supposed to be tummy time, but Malcolm calls it naptime!

My younger sister arrives back in Canada.. right now actually. She’ll be here soon! How exciting!

Sooo, beebs take a fair bit of work. Add to that the tub guy coming over, unpacking, the painter was here, three nurse visits, two doctor appointments, buying stuff, returning stuff, another fellow to fix some lights, another fellow to fix some misc stuff, trying to get the suite ready, beeb eating schedule, pumping, taking meds, getting (lately) a good 3-4 solid breastfeeding sessions in a day, chiro every two weeks, dentist, and some other stuff for kicks - and it has been insane.

Also, I’ve gone on some antidepressants for some hormonal stuff that is happening - mostly anxiety. Yep, me and Ms. Shields - screw you Tom! I’m glad I’m on something. I was getting wacky. Crying at the weirdest things. It had actually started near the end of the pregnancy, and I decided to not suffer through this any longer.

Beebs is amazing. He is so cute we get stopped by strangers.

Mom got me flowers:

Beeb says, “Dad feeds me good”

And then I sleeps with dad holding me:

Sears is so stupid. I won’t go into detail as I’ll start seeing red, but Julia wanted to send a gift and for me to have local pick-up. Otherwise the delievery was about the same as the gift (about $50). Can’t do pick up on gift. Nine million emails later, yes Jenn can do pick up but must produce credit card used to buy gift. Credit card in Bangledesh. Must use credit card, though, as it is an out-of-country purchase.

See the logic puzzle they’ve created here?

Solution (this is after I called them from this end as well as julia emailing from her end) - cancel order, I’ll buy mattress for crib at a local store, julia will give me cash when she’s here next month.

Second part to this solution is me taking my sears gift registry off my blog. I’ve got one on the go at Chicken Little (a cute little local store) and I’m going to The Bay this week to do another one. But really, I’ll be happy if everyone just buys me diapers I have emailed my various gift registries so far to mom and she is going to throw me a shower next month. One friend has asked about something “big” I want. I have no clue what to ask for. Any input? And I never know what is “big” - like a BumGenius 3.0 big or like a stroller big?

In other news, I just can’t wait until he can actually fit into some of the diapers. I have a local connection for some prowraps, I think, that are used. She has four prowraps and four bummis and some prefolds. We’ll see how that goes.

Random cat info: Rupert will carry the soother around by the nipple if given the chance. This would seriously compromise the non-air-flowyness of the soother. But it is pretty funny and cute.

Pictures:

Orange cat says, I might be fighting a losing battle here…

Thanks for all the comments everyone. I’m reading blogs, but usually with a beeb in one arm so comments are rare. I really love reading everything here, and never tire of just hearing that you think he is as cute as I think he is…

xxoo

I has a bath:

I made faces:

I take naps on the couch with the blanket auntie Leone made me:

I get foods. Many many foods. Nom nom nom:

And Grandma bought me a new chair. But she stressed that it doesn’t replace grandma snuggle time. To prove this point, I slept on her for no less than three hours this afternoon.