Motherhood thus far...

So far, this whole motherhood thing is pretty cool. Aside from my occasional "GROSS" freakouts (like milk shooting out and squirting poor Olivia's cheek, or milk gushing out when being pumped out... I guess most of my "gross" moments are milk-related), things are going great and well!!

I feel like I'm falling-in-love with Olivia more each day...AND I just feel more bonded (and protective) of her as time passes.

When she was first born, it was kind of like, "Okay, I just had a baby. Here's my checklist of what's coming up next..." But now, it's like, "OLIVIA!!! She's our baby! She's so beautiful!"

And before she was born, I had different ideas about being strict about this or that, and "not giving in", yada yada yada... but now I feel like one of "those" "typical" "hormonal moms"... hahaha... It's hard to see her cry. I made Tim take her in to get her heel prick because the thought of seeing/hearing her cry almost made ME cry! (I had seen one of my nieces get her heel pricked several years ago, and it was no big deal... )

Anywho... I'm excited to see this little girl grow and change... I already feel like I'm going to have a hard time parting from her for too long... I LOVE being around her and taking care of her... at least right now, I can't imagine getting bored of her or needing to be away from her. She's JUST SO CUTE!!!! I love her!

Olivia Update

So I may start another (private) blog so I can give more details (and cute pix) of Olivia... until then...

She's slowly been gaining some weight on her tiny bones. Took her in for her two week checkup, and she's doing fantabulous! Hurray!

Her bili. levels are at a normal "high" level, but is slowly dropping--I guess it's at a normal "breastmilk" level right now.

After getting blood drawn for a PKU test this past week, she's really started to use her lungs to cry. Before that, she would fuss a little and make some cute squeeks. We'll see how long she'll be "traumatized" by the heel prick... :( Poor Olivia...

Health update

I need to give a health update. On myself. Yes yes, Olivia is doing GReAT!

And myself...

My stitches from my tear are slowly-but-surely healing. The week after returning home from the hospital, I noticed that one day, things would feel just fine and dandy, and then the next day it'd feel itchy and slightly uncomfortable. Then the next day fine, then the following day itchy again. I noticed that the stitches "disappeared" sometime in that first week home... maybe around the fourth or fifth day?

Today, I'm still sore, and still have occasional "itchy" days (or just hours). Some days are better than others, but I no longer need the occasional Ibuprofan (sp? ... I took one about every other day, or one every couple of days... just when things felt more unfortable than "normal").

Also during my first week home, the second row of joints in my hands were sore!!! Ugh. Not fun. Now that I think back, I think the were a little sore during the last few weeks of pregnancy (which made it hard for me to squeeze my ring onto my ring finger). Except during the week, my joints were VERY sore. In fact, I'd wake up in the morning, and my left hand would be SO stiff...I'd have to clench and release a fist a few to times to "wake it up"... it felt like what I would imagine arthritis to feel like. :P

Let's see... what else... bleeding is tapering off. Nice. I need to remember to drink more water during my waking hours...otherwise my pee is quite amber-0range. Yuck.

The first few days home, it took me a while to adjust my posture since I'm no longer carrying a huge load in my belly. Still need to work on my HORRIBLE posture AND "turtle neck". haha... my back has been getting a bit sore the past couple of days...posture posture posture...

Fitting back into most of my pre-pregancy clothes now. Sweet! Lululemon pants are looking good!

My belly is slowly shrinking down. Interesting to see... I wish I had taken a side picture of myself when I first got home...it was kinda a cute belly. And now it's shrunk.

My feet were swollen for the first few days home...now they're back to normal.

I believe I weighed in at 120 lbs this morning... I'll check again tomorrow.

BIG SIGH...

I am WAY behind in blogging!!! My sis has been doing a SUPERB job of updating her own blog on recent events here in babyland... so I'd better catch up...

1 Week Old Photoshoot!

After some encouragment from my sis., I finally pulled out a strobe and my camera and shot some pics of the babe. :)



My sister was very helpful in setting up some of the shots, and even acting AS a prop in some of the pics. Thanks, dot!!



These are some that I've edited...

Poor child... won't stand a chance in avoiding my camera in the future. hahaha...

SHE's HERE! Part 4 - Recovery

Once we were settled, we had a slew of nurses come in to introduce themselves. The "mom nurses" came in and showed me/us the things in our room, the restroom, and how I needed to rinse down-there, etc. And how to make (what I like to call) my Pizza-Pad. I was going to take a pic of it, but decided against it. :) hahaha... basicallly, I had a pair of soft crochet-like granny-pants that I wore with a HUGE pretty-much-a-diaper-Pad, with: a small ice-pack placed inside; two witch-hazel Tuck-like-sheets on top of the ice pack; on the sheets, I needed to add two small dollops of prescription cream AND two small sprays of anti-itch-whatever. Phew! Tim had to help me out a couple of times... until I found a simpler combination for myself to use.



Also met the Nursery Nurse that would help us with olivia that night, and the technician...or whatever.



After a nice dinner (which i already posted pics of), some relaxing, and some time with Olivia, we had some friends stop by.



Let's see...I don't think i'll necessarily do a day-by-day recap...



But we had some more friends stop by the next day.



And some photos shot by Our369.com. Tim bought the 8 pics on a disk.

Here's a pic of my point-of-view of our room. It was nice!

Here's Olivia and our doctor the day after birth.

Hmmm... anything else that was eventful during my recovery? Not that I can really remember... The second night, I had Tim sleep with me in my hospital bed b/c his poor back was all out-of-wack after sleeping on the small cot. We kept Olivia in the room with us until late in the evening, then had the nurse take her to the nursery.

The lactation nurse came in a couple of times to work with me on the breastfeeding bit. Too bad I hadn't read-up more on breastfeeding BEFOREHAND b/c after Olivia was born, I tried having her latch on. She didn't latch right. And NO ONE TOLD ME YOU HAD TO PRY THEM OFF WITH A FINGER FIRST!!! Hahahaha... So I think the most damage to my boobs were done THEN instead of later. Sigh... oh well. Asked for (and received) some nipple covers...we had called them something else, and it took the nurse a little bit to realize that we were talking about two different nipple-things.

Olivia's pediatrician stopped in to say "hi" and to give her her first checkup.

Tim got me an AMAZING 30-min massage...it was only $30 bucks or so... it felt SO NICE!! And it turned out that the lady giving me my massage was also LDS. We had a nice convo with her about immunizations and waiver forms.

Doh! See, now I've waited TOO long to finish up this post, and I don't remember what else I've been wanting to post about.

On the last day of my hospital stay, our friend Lilian helped us pick up my fam from the airport. They came to hospital to "pick me up", and we carpooled back home. It was cute to see my niece interact with Olivia...she was a bit nervous and didn't really know what to do about her.

Pictures

Me after delivery... in our room... with my dinner. Yum! i was Hungry!

Tim and Olivia. This is still in the delivery room.

Me and olivia. Still in the delivery room.

Olivia. In her bed-table thing while they monitored her temp and stuff. We had them wait a bit to put the eye-cream on her so we could see her beautiful eyes.

SHE's HERE! - Part 3 - Labor and Deliver

Okay... where was I?

According to Tim, Miss Nurse was chastised a bit by the stand-in doctor... first for calling her in too early... second for calling her in and not having "the table" or other nurses ready.

The contractions were really strong--there was just a LOT of pressure in my pelvis, along with the feeling of needing to push out a huge poop (aka the baby). I don't know if it was the strong pressure that got to me... it was more of the feeling that my legs/feet were cramping up. (I can get warts "burned" off my hands, no problem. But the minute one of my feet begins to cramp up, I'm screaming, "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" So I guess it just depends on what YOU consider "painful".)

Each time a contraction came on, and the "urge to push" began, it was a little hard for me to push "hard" because I felt like if I pushed too hard, it'd make my legs/feet cramp up. Does that make sense?? Anyway...

During each contraction, the doc would slowly count from 1 to 10 in three sets... I had to try and hold up my legs while pushing (AND curl my chin to my chest)... it was a workout! It was nice when Tim could help me hold one of my knees back, but I guess they eventually told him not too... supposedly it "worked" better if I held my own legs... ?

The doc/nurses would tell me "Push, push, push, push, push... Push Hard..." Honestly, it was slightly annoying b/c I had read in one of my books that the body could "push" the baby out on its own, and that if you LET it, you really didn't need to "push". Plus, you're more likely to tear-down-there if you push too fast before your body is ready to deliver the baby.

At one point, my doctor came into the delivery room and switched out the stand-in doctor. (Did I mention that my doc had a family emergency and probably wouldn't be there for the delivery? I guess once her family-thing finished up, she sped back to the hospital and made it just-in-time to deliver Olivia.)

Sometime during the pushing phase, I believe they turned the Pitocin back on to get the contractions more consistent and closer together so the baby would come faster (another "try-to-avoid" situation that some of my books mentioned).

There were points where I was thinking in my head, "I just want this baby OUT! I want this to be over!! When will this end?! Why didn't I just get the epidural? I can't do this anymore! This is all just a bad dream... this is all just a bad dream..." Yeah...I think I repeated the last phrase a few times as I kept my head buried in the pillow next to me. Yes. I kept my eyes closed, my head turned to the left, and my face buried in the pillow. I felt like an ostrich trying to hide my head in the ground (though i don't think ostriches really do that).

It was so annoying (at the time) to hear them say (I'm not exactly sure who "them" is), "Just a couple more pushes. She's almost out," and then to go through one or two SETS of 3 pushing-reps. I thought they said a couple more pushes!! Plus, I overheard someone say something like, "It may be a few more pushes," to someone else in the room.

When the baby was almost born, I think I heard the doctor say that she may need to cut (episiotomy). Honestly, I can't remember exactly what happened around this point... another couple of hard pushes and the baby came out!! (According to Tim, she thought I might tear, so she was thinking she may have needed to cut me... she gave me some numbing shots down there just in case, and then I was able to push the baby out with slight average/"normal" tearing. yeah! no cutting!) Oh, by this time, they had brought out the stirrups, and put my feet/legs in them. I think they made me feel like it was harder to push, though.

I don't remember feeling a "ring of fire" (probably b/c of the shot), but i do remember feeling the baby's limbs pass through... the only way I can imagine describing it would be giving birth to an octopus... it just felt like a lot of limbs being pulled out. Hahaha... kinda gross. sorry. She came out, they wrapped her up, then put her on my stomach. (We can't remember if Tim cut the U. cord before or after this... all he remembers is cutting the cord, and having the doctor tell him to put the scissors down...at least twice. I guess he was in a daze after cutting the cord.)

At the time, I was seriously just thinking, "I'm glad you're OUT!" But it was cool to see the baby's eyes and to see how alert she was. After a few moments, the nurses took the baby to clean her up and take her measurements, and to get a "good cry" out of her. It was a wierd sensation to feel them pull the placenta out.

The nurses began to clean me up, and my doc stitched up my tear. Afterwards, the only male nurse in the room (Rueben) cleaned me up! Slightly wierd...but whatever. My legs and body were shaking. I had gotten so HOT during delivery, but now that it was over, I was freezing! (We had turned down the A/C ealier.) And my body was just SHAKING! It continued to do so for at least an hour afterwards.

We stayed in the Labor/Delivery/Recovery Room for a while afterwards... most of the nurses and my doc left, and a couple nurses stayed behind to clean up and to finish up with Olivia. Tim had a great time watching her in her little bed-table thing.

Finally, our room was ready for us to "move into". I got up, got a new gown, I think I went pee, then got in a wheel chair and wheeled to our room. Finally getting into my hospital bed and getting comfortable was probably one of the happiest moments. :) Haha... the baby was out and healthy, and I could RELAX and ReCOUP!!

SHE's HERE! - Part 2 - Labor

When we got to the hospital, we went up to the Labor and Delivery floor, and they took us to our Labor and Delivery room. Then we waited for our nurse.

The Nurse - It felt like we were in high school. And this girl was too-cool-for-school to talk to us. SO WEIRD! She really wasn't too interested in getting-to-know-you chit chat. She always seemed to be on the defense. She just seemed very I'm-the-nurse-you're-the-patient. Her attitude was a bit of "*I* do this everyday and know what's going on, so you just need to do what I tell you." We really should have asked to switch out for another nurse (but I guess the hospital was having a TON of peeps come in that "waited till after the weekend", and so they were pretty "booked").

Changed into a gown, got in bed. Nurse hooked me up to the IV. Monitored my contractions for a bit. SHE measured my cervix to be 3-4 cm dilated and 70% effaced. Hmmm... Well, I guess it ended up being for about 4 hours (but it went by quick). Our doctor actually had a family emergency up North, but was able to stop in and say Hi. The doctor actually wanted to get me on Pitocin at about 11am so that maybe she'd be able to get there (before heading north) to deliver the baby. But I wanted to hold out. The doc said we could walk around a bit, so we made two rounds around the floor, and some "steps" onto a stepping stool. At about 12:40, I decided to start Pitocin and got it going at about 1pm.

The contractions started becoming closer and more regular, but not unbearable. It was actually pretty cool listening to my HypnoBabies tracks and getting through the contractions. I would actually almost fall asleep between contractions because I was so relaxed!

It started getting "harder" as the contractions became stronger. I changed positions a couple of times that seemed to help at first. Sat on the exercise/birthing ball, stood and rocked with Tim...
The nurse checked me at one point...7 cm dilated.

After "rocking" with Tim a bit, and trying to find another comfortable position (like squatting), it was probably about 3, 3:30ish. The contractions were really strong. It just felt like really STRONG cramps right in my pelvis. I started feeling like I needed to pee... or that I needed to poop. The "cramps" were getting so strong that I decided maybe I should get the epidural. The nurse checked me to see how far along I was... she had a hard time determining... it was either 9cm...or gone. She called the doctor the see what she wanted to do, and I think (if I remember correctly), the doctor said I could start pushing if I felt the need.

I tried pushing on my side for a little bit, and then on my back. It was hard to do! Pulling my legs back, pushing through the contractions. The nurse yelling push push push... Some of the contractions were easier than others... some of them, the pushing felt good... some of them were so tough that I really didn't know how I would get through it.

It was a really interesting sensation... at one point, the nurse called the on-call doctor in, and other nurses. Ugh... maybe it's too close to the event for me to be thinking-back on all these things. :) Taking a break now.

SHE's HERE! Part 1 - Going to the hospital

Monday - Memorial Day. Tim had work off, so we all had a nice long weekend. After going for some Chinese food in Chinatown with some friends, we headed home, relaxed, then ran to Target to pick up some things. On the way home, Tim made a comment, "I hope she doesn't come at 3 o'clock on the morning. I'd be exhausted and wouldn't be able to drive you to the hospital," (or something like that... he was teasing). He also expressed slight sadness that Baby Girl wasn't born yet, and how he might need to go into work the next morning.

We stayed up until about 10:30pm, then headed to bed. Tim fell fast asleep real quick. I was in-and-out until about 1:00am. I'd get hot, I'd have to pee, I'd get thirsty, I'd get hot, reposition... I'd fall asleep for an hour here, an hour there. At one point, I noticed that my contractions were pretty frequent, so I finally got up and started noting the times. I was having slight (and non-painful) contractions about every 2-3 minutes apart. I also noticed some slight leakage that felt like it was NOT coming from my pee hole. :)

From about 1-ish to 2-ish, I kept a record of the time and started gathering extra things together in case we had to go the hospital. I also got on the internet to checkup on some work HR stuff, and to read my cousin's blog about HER recent labor and delivery.

It was close to 3am, and I thought how funny it would be if I woke up Tim and it was time to go the hospital (since the comment he made earlier). But then I decided that if it were a "false alarm", he'd be EXHAUSTED the next day if he had to work. I remembered reading in lots of my books (and online forums) that it's best to "labor" at home for a bit, and THEN go to the hospital. I was feeling really tired, so I decided to get back into bed and get some sleep. (Plus, I guess if my water HAD broken, I would REALLY know by laying down for a while, and THEN getting up.)

Tuesday - We both woke up at about 6ish. Tim mosied around for a bit, getting his work laptop ready and making some phone calls. He came over to crawl into bed with me and noticed my pad of paper with my contraction times written on it. I told him that I didn't know if my water had broken or not, but was thinking that it hadn't yet. He wanted to call the doctor...I didn't. But he did anyway. He called her at about 7ish, and JUST as he was hanging up the phone, it felt like the baby KICKED my belly (with a slight "pop" sound), and I felt a river of warm fluid running through my body towards the exit. Woah! I hopped out of bed and ran to the bathroom. It took us a little while to get a hold of the doctor again, after which she told us to head to the hospital.

We hit a little morning traffic, but made it to the hospital in great time... so fast, in fact, that the nurse assigned to us wasn't there yet. So we got another nurse (whose patient hadn't arrived yet). What an INTERESTING nurse (interesting, in this case, was NOT a very good thing). :)

Back

Oh how i would like a chiropractic adjustment right now! :) My upper back just feels like it needs a good "pop".

Here I am lying on the couch (with my belly hanging between the couch and ottoman) so that Tim could try and press on my back to "pop" it. It didn't work.

Since it won't "pop", I try and stretch it out as much as I can...it'll help for a little bit.

Food food food

Tim always loves the strangest pictures of me. Here are some that he took a week or two ago when he brought some hamburgers home for lunch. They are HUGE burgers from a shop just down the street... huge and messy!

I guess I was getting sauce all over my face (thought I can't really see it).

Lovely... :P

Widget Moment

Again, just capturing my sidebar widget so I'll have it in my blog-book (when I eventually get around to making it).

Wedding

Last Saturday--a day before hitting the "safe zone" (meaning 36 weeks)--our friends got married. It was nice to REALLY get out of the house and go do something. :)

It was a really good wedding... the bride was gorgeous! Here are the bride and groom "at the altar" of their Methodist church:
*Note: The organist was a Korean girl... she played well, but was off-tempo a LOT! ESPECIALLY for the bridal song at the end! Maybe I should practice my organ... I hear you can make buko-bucks playing it...

Here I am outside of the church after the ceremony:
(Look how huge my belly is!!!)


We then headed over to the reception. Here's my place setting:

Here's the bride and groom entering the room:

After lunch, the bride and groom made their way around the room. Isn't her dress beautiful?

It was quite refreshing to attend such a traditional reception. (With so many people not wanting to have a "traditional mormon reception", you end up attending some very interesting "non-traditional-mormon" AND "non-NORMAL-traditional" receptions.)

The wedding ceremony was also very nice.

36 Week Appointment

STATS:
135 lbs
Uterus measured 35
90% effaced
3 cm dilated

SO:
My doc was like, "Well, would you like to go the hospital to be monitored?"

We came home instead. She said that I didn't look like someone in labor, so just wait until my contractions begin to get more intense. (While waiting in the waiting room for about an hour, I measured some of my contractions... they were about 10 minutes apart... but I didn't measure how long they lasted).

My sister is hoping and hoping and HOPING that the baby will stay in until Thursday so that she can be there for the birth... but I guess we'll see if we'll even make it through the weekend. :O HOW CRAZY! :)

We stopped at A&W afterwards to grab some grub.

Elephant

I totally feel like an ELEPHANT! hahaha...

Even though I measure myself each week, the numbers don't seem to be increasing very much... but my belly feels HUGE! And so do my thighs! Hahaha! Strangely enough, I don't think my boobs have gotten any bigger. According to Tim, maybe it's because I "milk" myself. J/k.

I'm still lounging around a bit... but my feet and hands are slightly swollen. My ring HURTS to put on AND to take off...so I leave it off.

I purchased an exercise/birth ball the other day from TJMaxx... but I think it might be too soft. How soft/firm are they supposed to be?? I tried pumping it up with more air, but that doesn't seem to help...I think the plastic itself is just soft.

Today I go in for another appointment...I'll let you know how it goes.

Oh! Have had regular BM's all week. Nice! :)

This is how I still wear my "normal" clothes...

Look how far my belly is sticking out! My sister asked me if I'd be taking me pics of myself... Don't know yet. Maybe... it just takes some time and thought, and slight work... but then again, I guess I don't have TOO much to do...just wait...

See how big I am?!? Rolling over in bed is starting to get annoying...well, REALLY annoying. :)

Hahahahaha...

So an intern (from BYU) at Tim's work told me about a blog...

I guess it's become quite a hit recently... apparently some girl was tired of reading "stereotypical mormon blogs" and started this one as a joke. It is hilarious! And so true! There are so many posts this lady writes that are TOTALLY like other peeps' blogs that I've read... And I must admit, there are even some that *I* am guilty of (like a Couponing Post that she recently posted).

I guess there's a TON of people that LOve her blog, and a TON of peeps that get offended by it (probably hitting too-close-to-home??). Hahaha... anyway, if you've got a minute, check it out:

Seriously, So Blessed

Hospital Tour

This past Sunday, we went to the hospital for a tour. After running around a bit to find the classroom, we joined a huge group of people there for the tour. We missed the first half of the "presentation", but still got some valuable information. Then we were off to see the Labor and Delivery floor and rooms.

I had a wheelchair. Yeah! :) When I had signed us up, I requested a wheelchair since I'm on bedrest. I think some of the other moms-to-be were a little jealous. Hahaha... ;)

The hospital was really cool! It's a hospital that has been around for a while, but they have recently built a new wing, and are in the process of renovating the rest of the building. Nice! First we went up and looked at the standard recovery room, and then one of the upgrade suites. Nice, typical hospital room. Poor Tim... the bed/couch/cot looks like it'll be a little small.

Then we headed up a floor to the Labor and delivery area. We went into one of the LDR rooms and our "tour guide" (who was pregnant herself) told us how things would typically go. I guess she also teaches childbirthing classes, and she recommended that once you arrive at the hospital, try and stay off your back (and out of the bed) for as long as possible. She recommended leaning against the bed, or using a birthing ball, or just walking around the room a bit... she told us that the belly monitors had really long cords attached to them, so unless you had an epidural already administered to you, you should try and stay up and about. (Hmmm... as she talked, I got the feeling that she would be a "natural" birther...)

She also went over the "rules" of the hospital (i.e. only 3 guests can be in the delivery room with you), how the nurse-patient situation would work (i.e. one patient per nurse...if you don't "click" with the nurse, request another one), and what exactly might happen after you've given birth (i.e. you can request to hold the baby immediately after birth, or you can have them clean it up first).

As we walked down the hall back to the elevator, we could hear some lady moaning out. :P Ick. hahaha... At one point, we paused in the hallway and a nurse came out of an LDR room. Tim looked in and said he saw a lady with her legs up and everyone surrounding her. He was like, "Woah, I want to watch." hahaha...so maybe he WON't faint. :)

Just before leaving, I asked the tour-guide-lady some questions. She was pregnant with her third child, and her first two did come naturally (w/o an epidural). She said she just used a "wait and see how I feel" stance, and decided that her contractions (aka "birthing waves") weren't too bad, and so declined the use of the epidural. She told us that once we got to the hospital, the nurses would most likely automatically start prepping for an epi, but that we should let them know that I want to "wait and see", or whatever.

As we were leaving, I ran into a coworker of mine who's wife just gave birth (via c-section) to twins that past Wednesday.

I brought my camera...but OBVIOUSLY forgot to take a pic of me in the wheelchair. Darn! Tim says we'll get a picture later. :) it would have been a good one, though...we both had some nasty bedhead.

My Grandpa

On the 15th day of the 5th month, at 15 minutes past the 15th hour (according to my parents), my dad's dad passed away.

(Bottom right is my grandpa).

This is one of a series of pictures I took of my grandpa doing some exercises. :)

This is an old video I found of my grandfather and I celebrating my birthday.

34 Week Appointment (34 weeks and 3 days)

My appointment was originally for later this afternoon, but the PA I was going to see had a family emergency, so we went in earlier to see my actual doc.

Since it was earlier, Tim came home and we went to grab some fast Chinese food.

After waiting in the waiting room for about 15 mins, we were called back to the exam room. Urine sample. Weight (133! Must be all the rice). Blood pressure. Etc.

Then we waited for almost an hour for the doctor to come in.

My cervix is the same as it has been...about 80% effaced and 1 cm dilated. I'll go back in two weeks for another appointment. Phew!

I asked her some Q's about doulas and epidurals...

She said that the hospital I'll be delivering at has one nurse for each patient, as opposed to other hospitals that might assign 3-4 patients to one nurse.

My doc has two kids, and had epidurals for both. She said with the second one, she was thinking of doing natural, but her contractions were harder than the first so she still got an epi. She said she'd allow me to get an epi from 1cm to 6cm.

Hmmm...

Yogurt and Granola

I had Tim get me some Yoplait yogurt this past weekend (with coupons!) to eat during this week. Yum yum!

I don't know if it's the yogurt, but I've been pretty regular the past three days! For the past bit, I've been going once every couple/few days... but the past three days--every morning. Niiice. :)

"I love these baby shows!"

That is what Tim has told me as he's flipped through the channels, then stopped to watch Baby Stories on TLC. :)

"Look at them...they're so cute! I love babies," he says.

What a cutie... he'll be a great dad.

Natural? Epidural?

I don't remember how I got on this topic, but...

I'm opening up to the idea of giving birth naturally. Well, at the very least, IF I get pregnant for a second time, THEN I will DEFINATELY give natural-birth a try.

I've heard from a couple different ladies from church that they've gone the Hypno-Birthing route. I've researched it, and it's quite intriguing. I found some CD's that I've been listening to (called HypnoBabies) that are basically relaxation/meditation type sessions... but from what I've read, people have been able to have pain-free births from listening to these things (well, there's also some books and stuff you're supposed to buy and practice with...).

I guess if you "practice" enough, and gain a good understanding of what your body is doing during labor, you don't feel contractions as PAIN...simply pressure.

I figure I watched my sister give birth to one of her daughters, and the nurses were too slow at giving her an epidural, so she HAD to do it naturally. It went pretty quick...

What's going through my mind is...

1. From what I've read, the "hardest" part of giving birth is when your body is dilating from about 6 to 10. Before and after that time period, it's not that bad.
2. IF I am lucky enough to dilate fast like my sister, then that's really only about 10 mins (?) of "hard labor" that I'd have to go through. Would I want to stick a fat needle in my spine for 10 mins of relief? (maybe...)
3. IF this hypnobirthing stuff works, "hard labor" really won't hurt at all...just pressure. (Then again, I really don't like to "push" myself...running, sports, etc.)

Hmmm...

Here are some videos from YouTube (don't worry, they don't show anything):

This is someone's first-hand experience with Hypnobirthing...


This is of an old news story about hypnobirthing...

Is it supposed to get worse?

The other day while eating dinner, I realized that I haven't (or atleast I don't THINK I have) had one of those situations where I'm "so hungry! so hungry!", then take a bite of something and being completely full. I've heard from other peeps that that's usually what happens...but I don't recall every having that... is that yet to come?

I space out small meals/snacks throughout the day...or if I don't, I'm still able to put down a normal-size lunch/dinner. Is this normal? AND, my ankles aren't swollen at ALL. (Maybe this is from all the good "bed rest" I've been getting... or maybe I've been eating a LOT less salt). :) Either way, aside from this huge BELLY GROWTH, I feel pretty normal...

Oh. AND my belly button doesn't hurt. I guess it was slightly tender in the middle at one point...but it's not now. Maybe it's because I'm always picking at it.

Slap-Happy Belly Dancing

So I had posted a pic earlier of this same situation... anyway...

Here I am getting our girl to dance. :) I'm really not hitting my belly very hard! It just sounds that way! (Don't worry, Tim scolded me once he realized what I was doing...hehehe).

Kinda gross looking, eh? And don't you just love the commercials playing in the background.

Random LIFE pictures... during my bed rest...

This is me (well, my belly) lounging on the couch watching T.V. (Good Eats, to be exact). There's Tim playing WoW with his new "brotherhood". :P hehehe...

Speaking of Good Eats, here's something good we ate recently... Greek food!

And for some reason, I got a bloody nose in my left nostril the other day. Wierd! I haven't had one of those in...forever!

Contractions

So I've had less contractions...but I still have occasional ones. Here's a video of myself showing how tight my belly gets during a contraction...and how "soft" it normally is.

More Belly Dancing

This is a really short clip that I captured of some slight belly dancing (note: the "clicking" in the background is me "fishing" for Tim's character in WoW):

This is a better video... I'ved edited so just the "dancing" is in the video. (This reminds me of watching those ghost-hunter/paranormal shows on T.V....)

33.6 Week Photoshoot (Bed Rest Day 8)

I've been meaning to shoot some more photos of myself, but have just kept putting it off.
Well, for some reason, I decided Today was the Day! I figured that my hair would only grow longer, I would only feel grosser (as each bed-rest-Day passes), and I will probably only get plumper. Haha... (BTW, my skin seems to be much smoother and clearer the past couple of days...niiice.)

Here are some of the better pics I took...
(I don't have Photoshop installed on my laptop, so I had to use a Canon program to try and edit/crop the pics...they turned out okay).

I feel like my belly is HUGE! I feel like it's SO much bigger... but then again, I don't know if it HAS grown any bigger. Hmmm...

33 Week Appointment (Bed Rest Day 7)

So yesterday we went in for my weekly checkup. The wait was loooong. Oh well.

Everything was good!
Weight: 130lb
Blood Pressure: Good.
Baby's Heartbeat: Good...she kept moving around, so it was hard for the nurse to find it and "read" it.
Uterus Size: Good.

I guess I'm dilated 1 cm, and still effaced at about 80%. Still in bed rest...

My doc said that if we can make it to 36 weeks, then she'll take me off the drugs and bed rest.

I must say, it was SO nice to get out of the house. But even then, I started to get tired and just wanted to go home and lay on the couch. :P I guess I should have taken a pic of my "outing". Oh well...

Bed Rest Day 5

I'm laying in bed right now. Munching on some cold red grapes. Mmmm... I have my work Remote Desktop open so I can see if I have any new emails.

Not too shabby. :)

It's actually quite nice and relaxing to be able to work from home. Though, I think if I thought about it TOO much (being in bed rest for several more weeks), I might start getting antsy and crazy... but I just take it one day at a time. It reminds me of running on a treadmill (since I hate running outside). Once I get on a treadmill, I can't think about how long I'm going to run/jog for...I just have to do it. I have to focus on the T.V., or music, or something. The moment I start thinking, "Ah! 30 more minutes!", I feel like I can't do it.

So I try to space my day out so that it's still relatively "normal". I've been able to wake up easily at about 5 or 6am...usually I'm begging the alarm clock for more time, but maybe b/c I'm working at home, it's actually fun to wake up. :)

Anyway. Then I'll read some scriptures, then get up and brush my teeth, then head back to "bed" and login to work on my laptop. If nothing's going on yet, I might start working on a project...or grab something to eat. Then I try and do job-related stuff for a while... I basically try and stay in the bedroom until about lunchtime when Tim comes home. Then I get back into bed. Find something to do, and just keep myself busy till about 4pm. Then I usually feel better about going into the other room and watching T.V. (as if I had just returned home from work).

The days ususally go by w/o any problems... it's when it starts getting dark...and I have to stay inside. And just sit there. :P

Today I set aside some time to clip my Sunday Coupons and put them away in my coupon-folder-thing. I also registered online with my hospital, and went through other paperwork that I have to complete.

Pic of my setup...

My point of view...

Another couponing deal...

Look what I bought for $7.00:

But the $7.00 DID come out of my Walgreens gift card. So I actually didn't have to pull out my credit card or cash for this one. Not too bad of a deal, considereing the EDGE shaving gel retails $3.99, those TUMS retail $9.99, the face moisturizer retails $9.99... yada yada yada...

The hair dye (that's auburn) had a coupon...but I couldn't use it b/c it would have made Walgreens OWE me money. But from what I've read online, I can take it back, RETURN IT, then start another transaction where I use it to buy other things (it was on clearance for about $1.30...and I have a $4.00 off coupon).

Still working on it... Oh. And I ended up returning 8 Vitamin Waters to Randalls b/c they only double coupons on the first item. (This probably will only make sense to one or two people reading this post).

Bed Rest Day 2

Day 2. This is how I spent most of my day. Hmmm... I'm "back-posting", so I don't remember what I was going to write about this...

Anyway, it's me just lying in bed with my laptop.

Bed Rest: Day 1... and just one more shot...

Should we always reserve a couple hours when we visit the hospital? For some reason, it always sounds like we're just going to a quick in-out thing. Nope. We went to the hospital for my second shot, and were there for at LEAST an hour and a half. I guess part of the hold-up was that there weren't any standing "discharge" orders for me...so they had to call my doc (or the person on standy-by) to see what they wanted to do with me.
So I guess this was a stress-test for the baby. Everything went perfectly fine. Got the shot in my hip. Ouch. And we were good...

Oh, and this was Day 1 of my bedrest. Went very well! Got setup to remote access my computer at work...nice.

On our way to the hospital, we stopped by my office building and Tim ran up to grab some of my stuff (i.e. my birthday flowers, some of my snacks/treats, my rice heat pack, etc.)

Baby Bjorn and Hot Sling

So here I am playing with the baby bjorn (practicing with it) and a new sling that Tim's parents sent me for my birthday. Very cute! (I'm wearing my LuLuLemon capris and a tank...trying to do a quick photoshoot...maybe I'll post those later).

Baby Shower with Ward Friends

My friend Jan threw me an awesome baby shower with ladies from church a couple nights ago. Lots of good food! Lots of good people to mingle with!

The "gift table"...

Pics of me opening gifts. :) Not posting other pics of peeps sitting on couch watching me b/c you probably wouldn't care too much to look at them anyway. :) (But I've posted them on facebook).

Got some great things! Already wrote out 20 Thank You cards that I'll send out soon...

32 Week Appointment

Tim took a pic of me in the waiting room...

Let the fun begin...

We went in for my 32 week appointment today.

Weight: good. 30 lbs.

Blood pressure: good.

Urine sample: good.

Uterus size: good. 31 inches.

Baby's heartbeat: good. 151(? Don't remember what it was exactly).

Things looked great! Chatted with the doc a bit, then Tim was like, "Okay. Cool. Are you going to check her cervix now?"

I don't know if the doc was planning on doing that, but she was like, "Okay, let's do it."

So she checks my cervix. Everything still seems quite fine and dandy... she mentions that it's thinned more and that she's glad that we've still made it this far.

Tim probes her about the thinning cervix thing, and my docs like, "Yeah, it's pretty thin now. Last time it was about 50% effaced, and now it's about 80% effaced."

What?! Tim was like, "Uh, so 'work'. Should she quit?"

And my docs like, "Yeah. Don't go in to work tomorrow. I'll write you a doctor's note."

Woah! Just like that. And I'm done. CRAZY!

She gives me a prescription for something that will reduce my contraction (Braxton-Hicks?), and then sends us over to the hospital across the way to get some shots to stop the contractions AND to help develop the baby's lungs (in case she decides to come sooner-than-later). It sounds like it should be a quick trip.

3 hours later... :P

Another urine sample. Then they put a baby-belly monitor on me and measured my contractions for a while. Then they gave me a shot in each arm (spaced out about 30-60 mins...i don't remember) to stop/reduce the contractions. They monitored my heartrate to make sure it worked right (it made my heartbeat race for a bit, and made me feel jittery for a little while), and then gave me a shot in my hip for the baby's lungs.

Those little shots "stung"! :) Tim couldn't watch the nurse give them to me (even though I asked him to...hehe). When the nurse was going to give me the shot in the hip, Tim's eyes went bug-eyed and he was like, "Woah! That's big!" TOTALLY freaked me out a bit...but it was pretty much the same as the two in my arms. I slapped him (on the arm) afterwards and told him not to scare me next time. ;)

Then the nurse brought me a menu to order some food. She never exactly said how long we'd be there. Tim was starving so he went out and found a vending machine. I ordered some food from the menu...they said it'd take about 45 minutes. So we sat around...and waited... and watched T.V. (Seinfield...the Nazi episode).

FINALLY, it's almost 8pm and the nurse finishes up. She schedules me for the final round of contraction-shots for the next day at 5pm. . OH! And I guess I have a urinary tract infection. Who knew?! She called our doc to let her know the results of our visit, and our doc called in a prescription for some UTI medicine for me. This is getting complicated. :P

On the way home, I called my manager and let her know my situation. We'll see if we can set me up to access my work emails and files from home so I can continue to do design work while on bedrest. Ugh. Bed rest.

It'd be one thing if it were like a "bed-rest-cation'...but I'm supposed to ONLY get up to use the potty, to shower, and to grab something to eat. Otherwise I'm to stay down. No walking around. No shopping. No eating out. No church! :(

My next doc appointment was supposed to be in two weeks, but she wants to see me next week. So more baby updates in one week...