Our Birth Story

It has been a year and a half since I last posted to this blog. I have missed it, but at the same time, I've rarely had time to think about how much I missed it. Since my last post, we moved, I started a new job, had a baby and then made the HUGE decision to stay home with our precious peanut. Needless to say, there has not been a lot of extra time for me to spend blogging. I am hoping to get back to posting regularly... about the food we're eating, the projects I am working on, and most likely, a lot of baby and family related ramblings.

I would like to jump back in with a post about the birth of our baby. There is something so special about a birth story. Every one is different. Every one so sacred to the family to whom it belongs. When I tell people I was lighting candles and drawing a bath in between contractions at 1:00am all while my husband snoozed away, the response is usually, "what? why?"

So with that, I should really start at the very beginning when I was about 4 months pregnant. I somehow got it into my head that I wanted to have a natural childbirth, that is, without any pain medication. I don't know if it was the epidural horror story I heard from a co-worker or just the hippie in me coming out to play. Either way, I really felt in my heart that I could have my baby without drugs. Even my doctor got excited for me when I mentioned it to her. She had both of her daughters without drugs and told me that for her it was like an endurance sport (she used to cycle competitively) and since I have participated in both swimming and running endurance events, I could totally relate to that! So I was starting to really think I could do this, but I also knew I would need some coaching. After a few Google searches, we found a place called Harmony Birth in Campbell, CA who offered several different types of classes to prepare you- mentally, physically and emotionally- for bringing a child into this world sans drugs. We signed up for their class called Birthing Naturally, which is based upon the Bradley Method of Natural Childbirth. I may do another post on the class and what I learned in my own journey because there is sooooo much to tell. I will say that what we were taught in that class was absolutely necessary in preparing us (my husband included) for what was to come. In all sincerity, after the class was over, I knew that if it came down to it- if there was an emergency or some crazy catastrophic disaster happened- I could deliver my baby without assistance or intervention from anyone. Like side of the road / back of a taxi / on the bathroom flood action. Really. And that is a lot of what The Bradley Method and other natural child birth advocates like Ina May Gaskin teach you- that the process of giving birth is natural, intuitive and can be accomplished by any woman with very little help. Anyone can do it. You just have to prepare yourself.

Our due date was 12/31/12, but I had a feeling she would be a few days late. I was feeling good so we went to an New Year's Eve party at a friend’s house. Here I am on my due date:

One of the women at the party was telling me a story about how she was leaking amniotic fluid when pregnant with her daughter. She went in for a routine check up and as an afterthought mentioned it to her doctor. She was tested on the spot and had to be induced way before her due date. They hadn't even packed their hospital bags, much less brought them to the appointment. I had periodically been experiencing some leaking fluid, and after hearing her story, I was starting to get a little paranoid, so on January 2nd, we went in to L&D to have it checked. The test strip they use came back negative for amniotic fluid, but as I was hooked up to external fetal monitoring, the nurse told me I was having some contractions. I was feeling something but I didn’t know that those were contractions; this was my first baby after all. I had been feeling little pains for a few days (and really, all throughout my pregnancy I had weird little twinges so I thought those pains were just normal pregnancy happenings). I took a mental note of what a contraction felt like and we were discharged from L&D. I felt GREAT relief that it was not amniotic fluid as I did not want to be induced. I was very concerned that induction would lead to pain medication and thus the snowball effect of medical intervention. It was bad enough that I was GBS positive and would need an IV for antibiotics at least 4 hours before delivery (which did not end up happening, by the way).

After visiting L&D, I went to see my acupuncturist the morning of January 2nd to try to get things moving naturally. We also had a regular doctor checkup at 3:15pm that day with my NP. She checked me (my first internal check ever during my pregnancy) and told me I was 3 cm dilated. I asked her to “sweep the membranes” while checking me which was something our doula was having us consider as another way to get things moving. We left the appointment confident that we would be meeting our precious baby soon! Scott was off work for the remainder of the day so we went home and had some time to relax together. “Real” contractions that we recognized as ones we should start timing started about an hour after our appointment, around 4:30pm on January 2nd. They varied anywhere from 10-15 minutes apart so we just did our relaxation exercises we learned in class and stayed distracted with watching Jumungi.  Per our doula’s recommendation, we went to bed at 9:30 and tried to get some sleep. 

At 12:30am on January 3rd, I was awakened by a pretty heavy contraction. I grabbed my phone and got the contraction timer started. They were about 6 minutes apart. I worked through a few of them in bed but soon became too uncomfortable and decided to try to get in the bath. I did not wake Scott up as I wanted him to get as much sleep as possible. In my mind, I was going to have a long labor and I wanted him to be as rested as possible. I drew a bath in the hall bathroom and turned on our battery operated candles. I also lit a few real candles… all of this was in between contractions. They were getting a bit debilitating at this point. I climbed in the bath and tried to relax. James Bond, our cat, was so curious and in and out of the bathroom checking on me. He kept me company as I breathed through 2 or 3 more intense contractions in the bath. They quickly got to 3-4 minutes apart and the water was getting cold. I got out and was milling about in our room, which woke Scott up. He called the doula and told her to head over to our house… things were happening! Just as he got off the phone with her, I started having a pretty intense contraction that made me so nauseous that I vomited... I was on all fours in our bed and asked Scott to grab the bowl that I had placed by the bedside. Afterward, I got up and walked to the bathroom and noticed some blood dripping down my leg. At that point Scott said we should go to the hospital.

Honestly, I was still thinking we had some time to labor at home. In retrospect, I was definitely in transition and should have recognized it with the vomiting and all. I think I was waiting for the contractions to get to the point of being unbearable since that is what everyone told me would happen… the contractions would be so bad I would be begging for an epidural. Since I was not feeling that yet, I assumed I was not even close. But the blood was a bit frightening so we decided it was time. We called the doula and re-routed her to Kaiser.

The drive was quick and we got to Kaiser at about 2am. We had to check in through the Emergency Room as the entrance to the hospital was closed after hours. They sent someone down with a wheel chair to wheel me up even though I felt like I would have been better off walking. By the time we got up to L&D and into a room and they checked me I was 9cm dilated! I reminded them that I was GBS positive and needed IV antibiotics. It was part of our birth plan for me to have a heplock instead of a full on IV for the antibiotics. I wanted them to be administered and then all of the tubes to be removed. I didn’t want to be connected to a bunch of tubes while in labor. The nurse hooked me up and began administering fluids along with the antibiotics. I told her I did NOT want fluids and that I wanted to her to get the the abx in me and remove the IV line. She wasn’t listening to me, but the midwife, bless her heart, asked the nurse why she had me hooked up to fluids when I asked not to be. She explained that she didn’t want the abx to burn going in so she was combining them with fluids. This procedure was making it take even longer to get the abx in, so the midwife instructed her to stop the fluids and do what I had asked for. She complied.

I was in hard labor, sitting cross legged with my fists pushing down at either side to lift me up a bit when the Midwife suggested I lay down. Apparently, I was “sitting on the baby’s head”. Any movement at this point was pretty painful but I reluctantly agreed. She brought in a birthing bar that they attached to the bed so I could pull myself up or lean on it. I ended up using it to push against with my feet as the midwife instructed me how to pull my body into a curve and push. The doula arrived and got some aromatherapy going which was the most amazing smell to me at that moment. I was so relieved to have her there. Just the peace of mind knowing she was on stand by just in case. Scott was doing all he could to make it bearable for me- holding my hand, giving me his arm to pull on, giving me water when I felt thirsty, which was pretty much every 2 minutes. I was definitely in the zone, focusing only on breathing through my contractions and drinking water (which was the best tasting water I've ever had, by the way).

 By 3:15am I felt the urge to push... About 30 minutes of pushing (and figuring out how to push and at the right time!) out she came! I wasn't really sure how hard I needed to push, so I think that is the only reason it took 30 minutes. I started out with some pretty weak pushes and after realizing that those were getting me nowhere, I started to really bear down with some effort. I was feeling everything, including the tearing that was happening. I let out a loud yelp with the final tear and before I had time to even think about it, our baby girl was on my chest. I was feeling her warm slippery body against my skin. What a surreal moment. I remember feeling so tired, but also so very alert. Above all, I was extremely thankful that everything had gone well. We were now a family of 3! Pretty amazing stuff.

Makeover (x2)

 My amazing husband and I are coming up on our two year wedding anniversary! It's pretty hard to believe... It feels like it has only been a few months since we took our vows and celebrated the night away with our friends and family. A few months after the getting married, we read one of Dave Ramsey's books and decided to make a few changes in the way we were going to approach our finances.... well, at this point it was a matter of deciding how to handle our finances now that we were no longer two people living our separate lives, but one family working toward our future together. One of these changes entailed us moving out of my beloved condo and moving into his.

We weren't sure how long we were going to be living here, so for the first year or so I just left things as they were decor-wise. We did do a few basic upgrades like new carpet and new flooring in the kitchen, but as far as the little things, I just wasn't too concerned with changing them.

We've been here for a year and a half now, and as we plug away on our Total Money Makeover, following the motto "If you will live like no one else, later you get to live like no one else" we're doing our best to stick through these years of living in a condo when we'd rather be in a house. Doing coin-op laundry when we'd rather have a laundry room and planting our garden in a raised bed on the patio when we'd like to have a huge amazing garden in a backyard.

“The cause of most of man's unhappiness is sacrificing what he wants most for what he wants now.”

Gordon B. Hinckley

 

We are sucking it up now, though I like to think of it as being content in all circumstances, so that we can have what we truly want later. It's about not over extending ourselves now, even if we reeeeeeally want something, so we will be able to live comfortably without money worries later in life. It's not really a concept I was taught growing up since I pretty much always had what I wanted, and it is definitely counter to the instant gratification society we live in today. It is not easy. I am constantly battling the feeling that I "deserve" the things I want because I work hard. The mentality of entitlement is everywhere, and it's difficult to loosen it's grip. I highly reccomend the Total Money Makeover to anyone and everyone. Seriously.

All of that to say that after 18 months of looking at the black and white framed print of "guy on motorcycle" that hung on the wall in our little dining nook, I was beginning to not even notice him. He's pretty cool, maybe just not really fitting for that area anymore. We needed some photos of family and friends and a little warmth in the lighting department.

Enter the DIY twine lamp shade. I saw something similar whilst blog-cruising and thought it would be perfect. Off I went to buy supplies and craft away. This is the site I used to get an idea of how to make the twine ball. And then I just had a few photos printed up that I wanted to frame... some from our engagement session with Ashley Maxwell, some from the wedding, and a few of our family and friends. I hunted for cheap frames at thrift stores/Michael's/theDollarTree. I picked varying textures and styles ignoring the color since I was going to spray paint them white anyway.

Above is what it looks like on the dimmer when the rest of the room is dark. And below is what it looked like before. If you can look past my husband and cat (sorry! I didn't take a "before" picture) you can see there was a sort of retro semi-flush mount S shaped track lighting thing going on and then the print I mentioned up before of the motorcycle guy. My sweet awesome husband used to race dirt bikes and has a true love for motorcycles, so this was here when our place used to be just his place.

So with one makeover came another. And I have to say I am very happy with both!

Happy New Year!!

Even though it is the 26th of January, I still feel the need to say that since I have not posted since December!!

2011 has already brought some incredible blessings and also a disappointment or two....

First and foremost, the major blessing was the arrival of my sister's baby boy, Brett Thomas. He is so precious!! He is the little guy for whom I made the diaper bag I posted back in December.

I have heard it said time and time again that new babies put life into perspective. They remind you of what is important, and make the things that used to seem important become totally unimportant. I love this little guy to bits and am so thankful for his safe arrival into this world.

As I said before, this year has also brought some disappointments that I have been trying to make peace with... and this morning I came across a quote from Hind's Feet in High Places:

"For disappointments accepted with praise always seem to turn into EXTRA-RADIANT BLESSINGS."

I love this. I love that I know that even though I am not getting what I thought I wanted, I can have faith that there is a bigger picture in the works. There is a bigger and better blessing that will result. I am coming to realize (or rather I am re-realizing) that to force something means compromising what I really want.

So now, I just continue living my life, loving the people in it and trusting the God who holds it in his hands.

Happy Good Friday!

Easter is a time of joy for me because it is essentially the reason behind the faith I have. As the book of Isaiah says, "He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed." With whatever craziness/struggle/heartbreak/stress or hurt we experience in this life, we can take heart knowing that He bears our burdens so we can have peace. We are a new creation in Christ; the old has gone and the new has come! How awesome is that?

M.I.A.

Hi everyone! My husband and I have moved house (although 'moved condo' is more accurate) I have not been baking or making anything in the last couple of weeks ... unless you count tacos and chocolate chip cookies, but those serve as less interesting blog entries so I am saving you guys the details. But packing, moving and unpacking takes a lot out of a person. I hope to be back on the baking track soon.

I have a friend's baby shower this Saturday, so I plan on sewing up some cute baby items as a gift. I also found a recipe to make Girl Scout Samoa's from scratch!! Hello shortbread, caramel and chocolate dipped and covered in coconut!! This recipe is slightly intimidating to me, but I know how much everyone loves those Girl Scout cookies! I promise to post soon... Stay tuned!