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4 cm??
38w,4d
So I went in for my appointment this morning. DH thought I'd probably be at 2cm dilated, since I'd lost my mucous plug, and had been having more BH contractions. I said sure.. maybe.
Doctor goes in and says "Whoa!"
I'm at 4! I was completely closed a week ago, and today I am at 4 cm dilated! Shew.. I scheduled an appointment for next week just in case, but I'm supposed to go in if I have contractions that are 5 minutes apart. Dang! Guess this baby is on its way after all.
So of course, as soon as we got home, I finished folding baby clothes and have put most of them away, and when I'm done posting this, I'll be going back up there to organize some more, and probably put the glider together/set it up. And then the car seat needs to be put back in the car (we took it out so we'd have room to bring presents home from the baby shower). And I have a load of laundry to do. And I should probably finish packing the hospital bag.
I don't feel like I have that burst of energy that I'd call nesting, but it's more like- this stuff NEEDS to be done, NOW, so I'm doing it!
Oh, and I gained three pounds since last week, bringing me up to 164, which is +14 total. So far, anyway.
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8w4d- 150
12w4d- 148
16w4d- 149
20w4d- 154
24w4d- 159
28w4d- 159
31w4d- 162
33w4d- 162
35w4d- 160
36w4d- 163
37w4d- 161
38w4d- 164
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She's here! Here's the birth story I typed up for my birth club board.
After appointment after appointment with not much progress (cervix was closed but softening), my appointment on Tuesday, September 11 brought a surprise. I was 4 cm dilated! Doctor said he could rupture my membranes and induce if I wanted, or I could wait it out and see what my body did. I opted to wait.
As soon as I got home, I knew I had to kick it into high gear cause there was a good possibility our baby would be arriving SOON! So I finished folding baby clothes and put them all away, did a load of regular laundry and put it away, organized in the nursery (unwrapping packages of diapers to put in the changing table, putting together a changing basket for the first floor with wipes/diapers/cream/etc, throwing out trash, putting all the toys/stuffed animals in a bag in the closet), unloaded the dishwasher, made dinner, and had DH put the new glider/ottoman together. Whew!
Overnight, I was crampy and uncomfortable, but wasn't having contractions.
I woke up at 5am with contractions (the first real ones I'd had). They were eight minutes apart, and I figured it might take a while for them to get closer together, so I just came downstairs and chilled. I had some spotting, so I called the hospital, then my doctor to see if I should come in. He said the spotting was normal, and asked how far apart the contrax were. I told him eight minutes, and he said if they got stronger, to come in.
So I chilled some more. Spent a little more time in the bathroom, and they got strong and fast in a hurry. I was actually worried that I wouldn't be able to go upstairs and wake DH up without having a contraction on the way. I finally made it up there and shook him awake around 6am. He grabbed stuff and got dressed while I got on my hands and knees and rocked during contractions. Funny side note- in the midst of contractions, all I could do was whimper/yell, but in between, I was coherent and ordering DH around, making sure he hadn't forgotten to pack certain things, like his medicine or the camera.
I started to go out to the car between contractions, and realized 1) sitting wasn't comfortable, and 2) I had to throw up. So I went to throw up in the bushes while DH loaded the car. When I got in, he sat there and looked at me and asked if I was ok. I yelled GO! And he went. :)
Luckily we live very close to the hospital. We got there at 6:25, and my water broke at 6:26. (!) They checked, and I was fully dilated, so they wheeled me to the birthing suite right away and called my doctor. At that point, contractions were two minutes apart. DH did an awesome job talking me through them, and they said I did a great job breathing and pushing, although I don't remember much conscious effort to breathe a certain way. I was just trying to cope with the pain!
Doctor got there at 7:20, and Abigail Elise was born at 7:35. Right at the end, when she was about halfway out, they told me to stop pushing for a second- I think they didn't want me to tear- and I freaked out. I was in a ton of pain at that point and I was yelling about how much it hurt. They got in my face (which I needed) and told me to calm down, and to look down. I did, and I saw Abigail coming out, and it made it all worth it. It was what I needed to remember why I was there.
They put her on my chest right away, and we got to bond for a long while. She nursed about 20 minutes after birth, and chewed on me for about 45 minutes before stopping. I'm not sure how much she got, but she seemed content.
After that, they weighed her, and she is 8 lb 11 oz. She got her eye drops and Vitamin K shot, which made her cry a little, but as soon as they gave her to Daddy, she calmed down.
She conked out for a long while, but finally woke up to nurse around 4:30. She is so determined! Whether the nipple is in her mouth or not, she tries her darndest to latch on and suck. She's had her first poo, and is asleep in my arms again. I could hold this little one for hours!
I went all natural (which I was planning on trying), though I wouldn't have had a choice anyway! Check-in to birth was only an hour, so epidural/pain meds was never an option. It wasn't so bad..
I did have a 2nd degree tear, which the nurse said is the kind you want to get if you have to get one. It goes to the perineum but not to the rectum (I think that's what she said). They stitched me up, and the hard fast pushing (combined with the big baby) also gave me some monster 'roids. But hey, not too bad of a recovery, I'm hoping, since it was all so fast. And whoever said to sit on ice.. brilliant! It feels very nice. :D
Now a few pictures:
With Daddy-
http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/PIC_1614.jpg
With me, right after birth, doing skin on skin (I tried to make sure nothing was showing- hope it's not an indecent picture)
http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/PIC_1608.jpg
Our first family picture-
http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w...art921/Fam.jpg
Ready for her close-up
http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/PIC_1620.jpghttp://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/PIC_1621.jpg
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And vital stats!
Abigail Elise C. (former member of Team Yellow)
September 12, 2007 at 7:35 am
8 lbs 11 oz
20 3/4 inches long
born at 38 weeks, 5 days (unless you go by doctor's count, which was 39 weeks, 4 days)
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Abigail- 4 days old
There are lots of things I adore about this baby and being a new mom, but one of my favorites is the little noises and faces she makes. I love the way she scrunches up her face and shakes her head back and forth when she's first latching on to feed. I love the way she moves her fingers as she's in the middle of feeding, as if she's making sure her meal is still there in the right place. I love the way she rests her head in the crook of her elbow and tucks the other arm under her own chin.
This girl has my heart!
PS- I tried on my jeans today (I gave up wearing them around 5 months or so). They totally fit! Very exciting!
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appetite!
Abigail- 14 days old
Since giving birth, I have noticed a HUGE increase in my appetite! I am hungry all the time, and every single food commercial on tv leaves me craving their product, whether it's the fruit crepes at IHOP or a double cheeseburger from McDonalds. When I was pregnant, it was a struggle to eat. I knew I needed to, in order to keep the baby healthy, but nothing tasted great, and I couldn't eat much at a time. Big difference now!
Breastfeeding is going well. We definitely have the hang of it, and my sister-in-law got me a Boppy, which makes it even easier. Abigail likes to switch things up occasionally, but I've been able to roll with it.
She's been sleeping pretty well. It takes her a little while to settle into it, and she wakes up often in those first couple hours, but then she'll sleep for 3-4 hours in a row before waking up to eat. We enjoy those times!
You know, I have no idea when babies are supposed to hit certain milestones. Wonder if there is a link on this website somewhere that talks about it.
Right now, the only one we've hit has been the cord stump falling off on Day 9, and her going up past her birthweight by Day 5 (went up to 9lbs from her discharge weight of 8lbs3oz three days earlier).
OH I forgot to talk about her first doctor's appointment! It was when she was five days old, and they said she looked great. However, they kept her waiting a long time, and then poked and prodded her. She retaliated by peeing on their examination table. :D They said she was looking a little yellow, so they wanted to check her bilirubin levels (jaundice). So we had to take her to the pediatric lab down the hall, where they pricked her heel and squeezed it to get blood out. She was NOT a happy baby! I got a call from the doctor a few hours later saying they had not drawn enough blood for the test, and that we would need to take her right away to get it drawn again. I said "are you kidding me?" Doctor said "yeah, I'm not happy about it either." So we took her to another lab, and she had to get pricked and squeezed again.. Poor girl! I felt horrible knowing that she had to be in all that pain and that she didn't understand why. The lab was supposed to call in the results to the doctor on call, who would then call us and order a bili-blanket right away if needed, which would be delivered that night.
We didn't hear anything, so at 10pm we called the doctor. He said he had not heard anything from the lab, so he called them. When he called us back, he said her numbers were a little on the high side, but since she was eating well and had plenty of poopy/wet diapers, he didn't see a need for the bili-blanket. He told us if anything changed, or if we were concerned, to bring her in.
Whew!
Ok, DH is on his way home from work, and we're going out to dinner, so I need to change Abigail and put her in her carseat.
More updates to come!
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Abigail- 3 weeks, 6 days
I cannot believe it's been almost a month since Abby made her arrival! Wow.
She's getting so big- I know she's still just a tiny baby, but she's so much bigger than she was a month ago that she just seems huge to me. Her next appointment is in about a week. I'll find out what her weight is then. The last I heard, she was 9lbs, but that was over three weeks ago!
I finally weighed myself a few days ago and was pleasantly surprised to find out that I am down 25 pounds! Since I only gained 14 total during the pregnancy, this means I'm more than 10 under my starting weight. I'll take it! I don't think I've weighed this little since about 11th grade, back in the days when I was crazy busy and playing sports three seasons a year.
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Am I allowed to keep posting on here? Or do I need to go find a journal board for people whose pregnancies are over?
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My best friend came over this weekend and took some great pictures of Abby- this one is my favorite.
http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w...rt921/Em03.jpg
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Ok, I've finally moved over to the Baby Journals page, so I won't be posting updates here anymore.
Feel free to follow me over there to stay in the loop!
Here's the link- http://www.pregnancy.org/bulletinboa...d.php?t=121574
