How I Continue to Hang Laundry

Hands free baby carrying is a must if you want to continue life without hiring a maid / servant. LOL. This carrier is great because it comes up over his head and I can tighten / loosen it to let him look around or hold him super close.

This carrier is the only way I have managed to EAT and DO LAUNDRY! So thanks again Heather and Peg!

A friend made me this wreath and it is made of diapers so you can take it apart and use all the items. Is it just me, or is it wayyyyyy to cute to ever think of dismantling??!!

Two Mommy Must-Have's...

Two things that have made this parenthood thing SOOOOO much smoother; having the changing table in the bathroom and the infant scale.

I'll admit it. When Nick suggested moving the changing table from the nursery to the bathroom I was skeptic. I told him "no one has a water source in the nursery," when he said his reason was wanting the sink close by. WELL NICK IS A GENIOUS! I'll learn that one of these days. Having the sink only a step away is so convient and I couldn't imagine it any other way!

Second, an infant scale has been so fun to have an put Blaine on periodically to see what he weighs. So it may not be as accurate as the hospital scale or pediatrician scale, but I figure it is accurate to ITSELF and I can see clearly my babe is gaining weight! YAY! So big shoutout of thanks to Peg and Heather for letting me borrow theirs! :)

Allergies

Growing up, I was an allergy mess. Luckily we found a great allergist who got them under control around my middle schools years and ever since then, I've been doing decent in the allergy department. Except in June. June is my only "month of doom". It is so bad in June that I often have to sleep in the basement because of uncontrollable stuffiness!!

Now I'm married to an even bigger allergy mess. Yep, an outdoors man / lawncare owner / avid gardener with allergies. He is a mess pretty much all summer. Nick swears he is even allergic to airconditioning. LOL.

Well I had heard that in pregnancy, you can be stuffy for 9 months without any good reason because of hormones. My grandma had that pregnancy symptom pretty bad and considering I inherited just about 99% of my grandma's tendencies including allergies, I thought I would be doomed all 9 months and REALLLY doomed in June.

What happened during pregnancy? NO STUFFINESS EVER! I sneezed a few times in June, but my allergies were nonexistent this year. Pregnancy suppressed my allergies??!! AWESOME! I might consider becoming the next Mrs. Duggar and being pregnant for the next 23 years.

kidding.

I saw this in a magazine and think it is BS by the way.

Blaine already got his farm visit taken care of on day 4, 5, 6, 7 and well you get my point. Everyday Nick says "hope he isn't allergic to corn" because with all the fields around here, he'd be doomed! I don't think he'll be able to avoid genetics though. blech.

Summary!

Let's start by saying that I was deathly afraid of being pregnant and even more afraid of labor and delivery. It was all those horror stories floating through my mind that I've been told over the years. "Pregnancy was the worst 9 months of my life and labor was even worse," I often heard from women most notedly my mom.

In fact I was SO scared, last summer I even said to Nick, who was planning on having children with me all along, "Would you be OK if we didn't have kids at all?" He wasn't on board for that.

I'm so glad I can sit here 1 week postpardum and report in my summary to you:

Pregnancy = CAKE!! I biked up to my due date, cross country skiied, ice skated, 4-wheeled, swam, hiked, had no swelling, no heartburn, no morning sickness. People at my church didn't even realize I was pregnant until May, when they asked, "When are you due," and when I said "July" they'd say "THIS JULY?!!"

Labor / Delivery = EVEN EASIER!!! I highly HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend epidurals. Most medical research shows they don't cross the placenta and don't affect the baby; why not get one? I had no trouble feeling my legs or feet. I could even pick up my legs myself while pushing and feel the fluids coming out. It blocked the pain it needed to block to make the experience so much better.

Recovery: Here is where the story gets iffy. "Some swelling is normal but THAT MUCH swellling is not!!" is a phrase I heard from nurses and doctors wayyy too many times during my hospital stay. Let's just say icepacks in my undies have been great and I'm almost back to normal. Looking back, recovery wasn't as bad as I thought it was at the time. LOL.

Post-Labor Weight Loss: I'll get back to you on this one but I'm down 21 lbs and have 13 more to go if I want to be at my "last August" weight of 138 lbs. I did put all my maternity clothes away in a box yesterday and it felt SOOOOOOOOOOO GREAT!

Here's my one week postpartum belly pic:

Going back, I think it compares to my 24 weeks pregnant belly. Not too bad I'd say!!

Next up: Allergy post! I've been meaning to do this for weeks now but didn't want to jinx anything :)

Child of the Patch

Calm as a cupcake: Luckily Blaine has an easy going demeanor so we could replicate as much as possible our favorite photo:

OK so he isn't naked, it isn't a studio (it's real life..even better!), we aren't professional photographers, and the flower wouldn't stand up. But I love the photo! We of course used that photo on the birth announcement; which maybe I'm partcial but it is the CUTEST birth announcement I've EVER seen! :)

~~~~~

EDIT....

Janelle convinced me that trying again would be worth it. Totally. :)

Blaine's First Week of Adventures!!

Blaine had 98% an angel baby week and 2% grumpy baby week. But all the new experiences were priceless and would overwhelm just about anyone I'm sure!! Let's just say if TLC were filming us for that show "Bringing Baby Home: The first 36 Hours", they wouldn't air our episode on TV because there was not enough drama!

These are my fav photos in no particular order:

Birth Story: A Timeline

Last 2 photos of me pregnant!! TAKEN THE DAY I WENT INTO THE HOSPITAL!!! :)

Happy family right after the birth! Nurse Joni took our pic :). I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE NURSE JONI!!

Reading a bunch of paragraphs is tough, so I thought I'd do my story with a timeline.

~ Friday went to see mom at Aultman Hospital (the place I would give birth). Her surgery went well! Now that is is over I can tell you that the "someone" is my mom; a 9 year cancer survivor won't let this surgery mess up her positive attitude!!

~ 8 AM Saturday: woke up, went to the bathroom, and to the kitchen to eat breakfast. I noticed some stomach pains but thought eating would take care of them (I hadn't eaten in over 18 hours so I figured that was the problem).

~ 9 AM: My sister picked me up visit my mom down at the hospital again and I took my hospital bag "in case my water broke or something wild".

~ 10 AM - 12:30 PM: Nothing wild happened except more stomach pain and now a very achy lower back. We stopped for Taco Bell on the way back home (wow healthy last meal before labor huh) and slushies.

~ 1 PM: While waiting mom's "home arrival" I googled "labor" and "false labor" and honestly didn't know what I was having!

~ 2 PM: Start timing what I feel are real contractions and they are from 5 to 8 minutes apart.

~ 3 PM: Call doctor because contractions are consistently 4-5 minutes apart.

~ 4:30 PM: Drive to Aultman for the 3rd time in 24 hours but this time for BABY!!

~ 5 PM: Seen by a suer cute / nice male resident doctor. Told I was "definitely not going home without a baby" when they checked me to find contractions 3 minute apart and a 5 cm dilation.

~ 9 PMish: (time is a blur now). Get my epidural earlier than I wanted it because they wanted to break my water and advised me to get it first. BEAUTIFUL blond female resident doctor breaks my water and says "looks like you'll probably have a 3 AM baby; I won't give you pictocin in hopes your labor progresses naturally".

~ 10 PM: Realize epidurals are amazing and I'm so relaxed I could practially sleep. Doze in and out for the next 4 hours. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND EPIDURALS! I saved so much energy for pushing but yet could wiggle my feet, and even pick up both of my legs the whole time. Not feeling the contractions were the key :).

~ 12 AM: Nurse switch. An older nurse comes in and does the checks and pokes my belly with a VERY concerned look on her face. I'm like "WHATS WRONG"?! She is just "perplexed" because Wilbur is in there so crooked (like always) but confirms he is down but says "I've been poking bellies 20 years and never seen anything like this!".

~ 1 AM. Cute resident doctor along with all nurses through-out the evening continue to comment about how well my labor is progressing naturally without pictocin. I am 9.5 cm dilated and they will have gravity progress the labor for me to cut down on pushing time. They have me sit up in the bed.

~ 2:20 AM: Nurse Joni informs me IT IS NOW TIME TO PUSH!! I was suprised to find out that while you push it is just you, your husband, and your gorgeous, super nice, super amazing, looks 24 but is 36 years- old nurse Joni.

~ 3:09 AM: The cute resident doctor who checked me in triage at 4 pm and throughout the evening now DELIVERS MY BABY while my doctor simply ducks in at the last minute to observe. I'm pleased at how nice and well everything went. When Blaine came out, it was almost like "what is that thing" but when they put him on me, it became real.

~ 3:15 AM: I see them pull out the placenta and say "are there any tears down there?" They said no but a tiny internal tear that they probably don't NEED to stitch but will stitch anyhow. Resident doctor to the rescue again!

~ 3:25 AMish: Super great Joni gets me started on breastfeeding. Blaine is a natural and she said "he's such a big baby, he'll have no problems eating!" (Wow was she right!! 5 days later and he's a champion eater and super champion pooper!)

~ 3:50 AM: They come to weigh Blaine and do footprints, etc. They say, "make a guess" and we guess in the 7 lbs range. Wrong. 8 lbs 11 oz??!! DAY-UMMMMM. If I knew that he was that big, I would've been a heck of a lot more nervous about childbirth! :)

~ The rest of the night: Who knows? I was so happy and in love with that baby I can't even remember what happened but I do know I only got 45 minutes of sleep that whole night!

Next post: SUMMARY!

5 Days Late....

Overdue, over-sized, over-loved :)

Ok ok ok; so there's no such thing as over loved but this little guy comes close! ;)

Just home tonight; will follow up this week with details :)

Blaine Jacob
7/18/2010
3:09 AM
8 lbs 11 oz
20 inches long

Headed to the Hospital Tomorrow

Zero updates what-so-ever in the Wilbur department. (Major TMI: I do walk around the house and check my underpants waaaay too much to see if my water is breaking or if the bloody show is coming or if more mucus plug is coming out. Worse than waiting on a late period! LOL.).

Bet I caught your eye with that headline! Tomorrow I'm headed to the hopital with my bag in the back seat in case (how convienent would labor then the be?!) because "someone I know**" is having a mastectomy.

**I BEG AND PLEAD TO YOU: DO NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT INVESTIGATE WHO THIS SOMEONE IS! Especially if you know me in real life (GEORGE). LOL. I would be murdered for "blogging" this. (She doesn't know about this blog either obviously or I'd really be dead!). haha.

This someone is a very strong lady who didn't even want to tell her mother OR daughter what was going on until after the surgery is over. I begged her and told her that she NEEDED to tell them, and she did, but gossip spread wayyyy more than she'd like and she is frustrated now with how many people know (church, cousins, etc).

She is my hero because she beat cancer in 2001 with a mastectomy and chemo and now that "precancerous cells" were found in the other breast, she really wishes the doctors would have honored her request 9 years ago and "taken them both off" like she wanted. However, she isn't angered or discouraged about the situation. Hopefully this surgery will be a quick fix and she'll never have to worry about anything again! Like she said, "The surgery was the easy part last time!!" So hopefully the surgery goes well and she'll be home the next day and not have to worry about any further treatment like she did last time.

So say a prayer for "someone" tomorrow and I just bet she'll have a quicker recovery if she has a Wilbur to meet afterwards :).

40 Weeks: Due Date has ARRIVED!!

Such mixed emotions waking up today STILL NOT IN LABOR! No water breaking, no contractions, nothing different from any other day!

On one hand, I feel like a failure. Overdue library book, late homework, failed quiz grade type of feeling. The books say 50% of babies are overdue, but in my circle, I can only name 3 people who went overdue with their kids! No one in my immediate family, that is for sure!

On the other hand, I feel like I reached this super exciting milestone that not everyone even reaches! LIKE I SHOULD CELEBRATE!! Plus the fact that I'm still getting loads of sleep is pretty darn nice too :).

Thought it'd be nice to take a journey through photos at this point:

13 weeks:20 weeks:30 Weeks:40 weeks:

I go to the doctor today so we'll see how that goes. I have a feeling the scale will hit a number I never thought it could (LOL) thanks to Wilbur staying in there longer than I thought he would. Hehe.
------------------
Back home from doctor!! I WEIGH 172 LBS (gahhhhhhh), low blood pressure, Wilbur's heartbeat in the 140's, 3 cm dilated, 80% effaced. Induction scheduled for 7/22 with my fav doctor; thank goodness no one thinks it'll come to that. Wilbur can come out 7/15 if he'd like because that is the other day that my fav doctor is on call :).

Funniest Email EVER

Sent from a pumpkin friend in Oregon:


Tip for Early Arrival‏
Sent:
Mon 7/12/10 1:39 PM

Well, it's too late at this point, but in your diary, you posted the rhetorical, "why isn't this kid out yet."

Easy answer: because you let Nick spread the manure instead of doing it yourself. Mom was due with me on 5/20. Dad was having troubles with the manure spreader, so he had mom climb up onto the Farmall 100 and drive while he rode on the manure spreader and held it in gear (the things you'll do as a farmer...but I digress).

Anyhow, mom's water broke that night, and I was born the next day, May 6th. So...there you go. A four wheeler won't do it, but apparently the combination of bouncing around a field on a tractor combined with the stench of chicken manure is enough to force any kid out of the womb.

Or maybe, even then, I just like the smell of fertilizer...hmmm, sweet, sweet fertilizer.

1 down! 2 to go!

Remember how I said there are 2 other girls who went to high school with me who are also due July 13th? Well one went to the hospital today!!!!!! AND HAD HER BABY!!! SOOOO EXCITING! It is so weird how excited / nervous / scared / super pumped I was for her to hear the news.

I did not go to the hospital today. LOL. Here are some pics from today though.

Nick mowed down his sudan grass (cover crop).


Nick spread out cow poo and manure on next year's patch!

I picked and tried PEAS TO THE EXTREMMMMMMEEE in the Babycook!

I rode the "little" 4-wheeler; it is sooooooo cute and is my fav :).

Maybe tomorrow Wilbur will come; not looking good for today!

BABYCOOK

My cousin gave me this Babycook for my shower. It is around $150 (!!!) so definitely something I wouldn't have spurged for myself (I'd go with the low-tech food grinding). However, now that I have it, I'M IN LOVE! With the buckets and buckets and buckets of beans the garden is producing lately, I figured I'd get this puppy out of the box and give it a whirl. Then I would freeze the baby food in icecube trays to save for when Wilbur is old enough to eat it!


Cleaning beans:

Snapping beans:

You load the beans (above) and the machine steams them and then grinds them:

YUMMY BABYFOOD FOR WILBUR!!! :)
I also did zucchini and can't wait to try other things as they ripen!!

New Shorts and Cold Front!

Two things might just make this pregnancy-end turn out OK afterall. First, the longest heat wave in 4 years has ENDED!! YIPEE!! I survived without airconditioning at my house (let me interject that I know they manufacture room a/c units but I wanted to tough this out just like my mom and her mom and her mom and her mom did in pregnancy). Let me also say that I spend from 1 pm - 9 pm each night at my mom's house in her airconditioning. hehe. So yeah, I cheated a lot but it was still hot sleeping in my bed this week! LOL.

Secondly, not counting underwear and bras (whole other post entirely!) I have spent less than $30 on maternity clothes this pregnancy!! I bought 2 skirts, 3 shirts, and 2 pairs of pants ALL at goodwill to survive this. I was lucky because a friend gave me all her clothes :).

Where is this going? Since I was so sure that Wilbur was genetically programed to be born early, I have been surving this last month of pregnancy with only ONE pair of shorts that fit me right! AND THEY WERE MADE OF HEAVY SWEATPANT MATERIAL! I refused to go buy any more because I was like "oh this will be over soon". Well, as a 39 week and 3 day gift to myself, I bought a new pair of ultra thin, super comfy shorts. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND A 39 WEEK GIFT TO YOURSELF because heck, not all women even make it to week 39! My mom likes to remind me that she "wouldn't know what week 39 is like". The scummy scum. haha.

Heck with these new thin shorts, I'm sure I could go ahead and be pregnant a whole more month and not even mind!

KIDDING! :)

And lastly, Nick "might" just have jumped on the "you are crazy" bandwagon. Here was our conversation an hour ago:

Nick: Hi
Me: Hi
Nick: Where are you?
Me: At the towpath
Nick: Doing what?
Me: Riding my bike
Nick: You are CRAZY!
Me: I'm at 9.2 miles and still not back to the parking lot!
Nick: You are REALLY CRAZY!

Don't know why he jumped ship today!!! I've been riding my bike every-other day since the snow has melted, and I'm actually making a promise right here, right now, that if Wilbur is still in my belly on July 13th (his due date), I WILL ride my bike :). Don't worry, rescue is a phone call away and I know my body well enough to know what I can handle!

PEAS TO THE EXTREEEEEEEEME: garden update

We have this little saying that we say in high pitched, cartoon-like voices. It goes like this: "PEAS TO THE EXTREEEEEEME!!!!"

I have no idea who started it or why but now we say it every time we either plant peas, pick peas, shell peas, freeze peas, or eat peas.

BROCCOLLI TO THE EXTREEEEEEME just doesn't sound quite right.

And BEANS TO THE EXTREEEEEEEME is even more pathetic.

But today is a pick and freeze beans and broccolli day. Tomorrow will be peas.

39 Weeks

Being a math person and all, I like to think in statistics. I've read that only 25% of women have their babies early; however by doing family research and ALSO reading that your odds of being early / late can directly correlate with pregnancies other women in your family have had, I gave myself a 90% chance of going early.

ie. I NEVER THOUGHT IN A MILLION YEARS I'D BE DOING A WEEK 39 POST.

But here we are.

Some random thoughts from the weekend:

~ Something in my lower back can now pop out of place while sleeping. One night it corrected itself before morning. This morning, it has yet to do that and so every step I take is accompanied by a POP.

~ I need to take my own advice regarding "Avoiding Pregnancy Insomnia" and never EVER sleep 11 hours in one night EVER again!

~ Here I am about to give birth and my sister still has bigger boobs than me. (I'm actually relieved about this).

~ I can sleep in a bedroom that is 85 degrees if I have no covers or sheets and keep 2 fans blowing on me.

~ Weather in the 90's is good for nothing other than swimming and complaining.

~ I want peanut butter pie and plan on making one today :).

~ CORN BEAT WILBUR! Yummy!!

Excerpts from Doctor's Visit

Today I met the last of 7 doctors at the practice where I go. It was a girl doctor (one of three) and she was delightful! Let me take you through some tidbits of the conversation:

Dr. V: Wow you have a long torso! I bet people tell you that you don't look 9 monthes pregnant!

Me: TWICE ALREADY TODAY! :) In fact the cashier at the store guessed 4 monthes along.

Dr. V: Women with long torsos tend to have easier labors so that is a good thing.

Me: (I'M THINKING "WOW THANKS FOR JINXING ME INTO A HORRIBLE LABOR FOR SURE"!!!)

Dr. V: He's sure in there pretty lopsided.

Me: Everytime I come he wedges over onto the left side!

Dr. V: His head is WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY LOW!! And your cervix is still tightly closed but it is thinning and softening. So you are 0 cm dilated but 70 % effaced; just how you want it to be!

Me: (I'm thinking "ACTUALLY I 'want' this kid out yesterday" LOL).

So yeah overall the visit made me smile because it everything was A-O-K. My blood pressure was at my pre-pregnancy super low ammount and I'm back down 2 lbs from last week; totaling 26 lbs gained.