 |
Ada Joy Sex: girl Born: 30 September, 2008 Age: 3 years & 139 days Birthday in: 226 days Starsign: Libra Development: See the 32 months page. Biggest achievement so far: - |
Birth details
Original due date: October 4, 2008
Type of delivery: Vaginal (without pain relief)
Duration of labor: 12+ hours
Weight @ birth: 6 lbs 13 ozs
Length @ birth: 20 1/2 in.
pregnancy: all the normal ups and downs
pre-labor/labor: Thursday through Saturday -- exhausted; Monday 12:00 a.m.--dh arrives home and we have sex; 1:30 a.m.--contractions begin and are consistently 6 minutes apart until 7:30 a.m.; 7:00 a.m.--called midwife, who said to drink water, milk, and eat a full meal (if it`s labor the contractions will continue in the same pattern); obeyed and contractions grew apar; contracted erratically the rest of the day; 10:30 p.m.--contractions become organized; 11:26 p.m. dh snuggles next to me; 11:30 dh turns over to turn off the television and then snuggles back up to me and my water breaks and then I go to the bathroom and immediately lose my mucus plug; 12:00 a.m. Tuesday, September 30--called midwife, began timing contractions (which are 6 minutes apart); 1:15-1:30 a.m. contractions become 1 1/2 minutes apart and intense; 4:00 a.m.-- anxious, peed on myself, hurts too bad to sit down, dh goes to sleep; 5:00 a.m.--called midwife (Where are you?); 5:10 a.m. -- midwife arrives; 8:30 a.m.--calmed down and focused and told my muscles to relax and I breathed through the contractions (hypnobirthing), which were one on top of another; 10:30 a.m. -- ready to push; 10:55 a.m.--dh helps Ada Joy out and puts her on my stomach
NOTABLES: I vomited intensely five separate times during labor, and as a result my baby had low blood sugar. Hynobirthing helped me endure the last two hours. My hips and thighs cramped during the pushing stage. I was aflame with every contraction. It was a very painful experience, and my tailbone was in tremendous pain as a result. I had been bedridden, and it was difficult to mother my child. I cracked and dislocated my tailbone while pushing. I refused to touch her or feel her coming out when the midwife wanted me to several times because I was in so much pain. I blew something out of my vagina that went back in. Ada Joy came out alert and calm and happy. She was a week early, even earlier than her due date according to the midwife. She looks just like her daddy and has his temperment--laid back. She scored a 9 on the apgar. Her eyes are already turning brown, and she is easy to comfort.
 |
Ella Sex: girl Born: 09 June, 2010 Age: 1 years & 252 days Birthday in: 113 days Starsign: Gemini Development: See the 20 months page. Biggest achievement so far: - |
6/8/10
All day Ella tries entering canal. She sits on my left buttock nerve. When I go to the dermatologist about the impetigo, I climb up and then down two flights of stairs, and each step is a chore and I feel tightening. I had been feeling tightening, but I thought it was just Ella curling up in a ball until about 5:15. I told Scott that I feel her tightening up, and he said, “That could be a contraction.” That’s when the light clicked on. I replied, “You could be right. I think it is.” So from then on, I mentally noted how often the tightening was and determined that it definitely was not Ella just curling up. My in-laws came over at 6:00 to eat dinner with us, and they left after 7:00. As soon as they left, I ran to my bedroom and told Scott to come rub my feet and left buttock because I was in so much pain from the nerve Ella was hitting. From then on, the contractions were painful and were 4-6 minutes apart. I told Scott we would be going to the hospital “tonight”. He didn’t really think so, but then the look on my face convinced him. After Ada was tucked in for the night, I finished packing for the hospital. Then, I lay down to rest before going to the hospital and tried to focus on breathing through the contractions. I stuck my Cranberries cd into the DVD player, and I relaxed and breathed until the end of the cd. Scott got in bed at midnight. I lay there until about 1:30 a.m. 6/9/10At 2:30 a.m. I woke up Scott and told him that it is time to go to the hospital. The contractions were stronger but were still about the same in time. Nevertheless, I knew if we didn’t leave soon, I would be screaming and crying and all that stuff, so I wanted to avoid that in the car and get to the hospital for some relief. Scott wakes Ada and hauls her over to his parents’ house, which is next door. We leave for the hospital around 3:20 a.m. and arrive just before 4:00 a.m. The doctor examines me in the admittance room at 4 centimeters , -2 station, 90% effaced, active labor. With each contraction, I hold Scott’s hand and squeeze. After an hour, I am moved to labor and delivery. The contractions are still manageable for about 30 min. after they move me there. Then, I’m dying and crying and shaking like a major earthquake. The painful part is not the tightening but is rather the pain in the groin area and the bottom of my buttocks where the nerves are. Contractions that hit there I call Ursa Major, and contractions that just tighten and feel uncomfortable I call Ursa Minor. Finally! I get an epidural at 6:05. I didn’t know it would hurt to get an epidural, but I managed the pain. Soon, I’m not feeling anything but movement. My right leg gets so numb that I cannot move it on its own. In fact, if I prop it up, it falls down. It fell off the table, and Scott had to hoist it back on to the table twice. When he held me up for the nurse to adjust some wires, I just fell backwards because I couldn’t hold myself up I was so numb. Before long I’m at 7 and then 8 centimeters dilated, and the attending physician is afraid I’m going to deliver before my doctor arrives. The attending physician holds off on breaking my water. She believes that when she does, Ella will arrive within 15 minutes. At 8:30, Dr. Mitchell breaks my water, but the contractions pretty much stop because Ella decides to take a nap. The nurse gives me oxygen to get Ella and the contractions going again. Around 10:15, the nurse decides that we need to birth Ella, so the nurse asks if it’s okay to give me Pitocin. I tell her that it is in a small amount. She is happy about that and says she is only going to give me a sniff to get a few stronger contractions. The nurse gives me ½ a starter dose of Pitocin, but it was pointless. The Pitocin did not have time to kick in before Ella was ready to come out. About 10:30, the nurse tells me to give her a trial push to bring Ella on down, and I push just enough for Ella to crown. The nurse tells me to stop and wait for the doctor, who comes in immediately. The nurse said that if I have the urge to push, go ahead and she will catch Ella, but try to wait until the doctor finishes dressing. I feel the urge to push just as the doctor turns around, and with one push, Ella slides out easily at 10:34 a.m., June 9, 2010. No tears! No bruising! No pain! Ella is handed over to me, and while the nurse and doctor clean up, I push once more and deliver the placenta. **********************************
NOTES1. The contractions are stronger and closer together when I walk. I try not to do any extra walking. I feel like just peeing in the bed because I don’t want to walk.2. My labor and delivery nurses were awesome, especially Christy. There is a difference in getting a paycheck and loving your job. Dr. Mitchell, an intern, was fantastic, as well. Dr. Gray’s name is actually on anything concerning Ella because he was the overseeing physician. 3. The nurses in patient rooms are just so so. I did get one excellent nurse who really cares about her patients. 4. Dr. Griffin, my ob/gyn, only popped in once before Ella was born to say, “Hi.” That’s it. She was performing a c-section when Ella was born, and that is why an intern delivered Ella.
5. Ella roomed with me instead of going to the nursery due to the impetigo. However, on the last night there, I sent her to the nursery because there were so many interruptions that made her wake up. People came and went all night long. 6. We had to use hand sanitizer and long-sleeve shirts and covers and gloves to handle Ella. 7. I feel certain the hospital was trying to dehydrate me. 8. Hospital food is DISGUSTING! I feel certain I would have lost all my baby weight if I had to stay there a month. I may even would have starved to death. 9. Ella was exhausted from the work of birth and then by being held by many. The doctor only expects Ella to eat 15 ml at a time or even in one day because she is still tired after birth. 10. The hospital can find more than one way to try to kill a person. My bed must have been a slab of concrete from Hell. My back, yes, the hospital was trying to break it. 11. Toilets. Can we talk about toilets? The toilets were so tall, only my tip toes reached the ground when I sat them. How do short people sit on them without falling in or over? This is a mystery. How can I have a bowel movement when I’m practically having to stand up to sit on the toilet? 12. Scott cut Ella’s cord.13. Ella’s hair is so dark brown it might as well be black. 14. I’ve still go fluid, but it should go down after two weeks. 15. A doctor came in at 6:25 a.m. on Friday (6/11/10) to talk about releasing me. I asked him why when I lie on my back I still feel pregnant and hurt. He said that my uterus is still very large and that it will take a bout 6 weeks to shrink to normal size and that the uterus is still sitting just beneath my ribs. *I felt that my innards just weren't right for about a year. I told my husband repeatedly that something just wasn't right. Sex hurt. I felt like my guts were all rearranged. I told him I needed to see a doctor. Finally, I began seeing the chiropractor again, and after only two adjustments, everything felt normal again, and sex stopped hurting.
16. At 10:00 a.m. I go to the WIC class. At 2:00, we are discharged. At 3:00 we arrive home. 17. Ella weighs 7 lbs 1 oz and is 20 1/4 inches tall and has a head circumference of 12 ½ inches. 18. Getting home is overwhelming, particularly because of the impetigo, which requires changing bedding, towels, and clothes daily. So, I had a mountain of clothes to launder after I had already laundered everything on Tuesday. 19. I don’t recall with Ada that it would be painful after delivery, but oh boy am I in pain. Gosh, my guts need to get back in place soon. 20. Having company over the day we arrive home is a bad idea: too much pain, too many bags to unpack, too much to think about. 21. I take a nap after getting home, and then we go eat at my in-laws’ house. When we get back home, we have company. My mother and I argue, and she leaves. 22. The day after arriving home feels even more overwhelming because I feel like there is a mountain to climb, but I manage to somehow put one foot in front of the other and get most of it taken care of. Now, we have to concentrate on settling Ella in and getting rid of the impetigo, which could not have happened at a worse time. *We later discovered that it was ringworm and impetigo. Ella got ringworm on her head at 3 weeks, and it took about a year to cure. For the first six weeks, I had to wear long-sleeves to hold Ella. What a bummer!
23. Scott nearly froze in the delivery room.
24. The first thing I said when I held Ella is, "We have a dark-haired Ada Joy."
25. When I held Ella for the first time, I saw that her bottom lip was hanging to the left. That worried me. I was hoping it wasn't stuck that way, and it wasn't. Sometimes though she makes a face that includes her lip sliding to one side.