Six Months (and one day!) Old...

Christopher is six months old. He is mostly sitting by himself, for about 1-5 minutes at a time. He is starting to scoot backwards, but only because he's mad. I don't think he really knows he's doing it. Yet. He is still ebf, we are delaying foods for a little while longer. He is already in his "big boy" car seat! (On a side note, we'll be starting with convertible seats from day one next time. I HATED his infant seat.)

C is about 21 lbs and 28.5 inches long. (He was 9.6 and 22 at birth :)

Here are some pictures from our last 6 months, enjoy! :)

I finally found the password for this blog!!

I just wanted to do a quick status update. It has been almost 6 months since I wrote C's birth story. SIX MONTHS. I will post a real recap blog tomorrow (complete with pictures!) but today I was just so excited I can log in I had to post. I want this blog to be a venting place for me. I also want to talk about what works and what doesn't (for us at least!). I have gone through several different cloth diapering systems and I'd love to talk about the differences. Basically we started with AIO's and I am now preferring prefolds and wool! That is pretty much opposite ends of the spectrum! Anyways, I'm not sure if anyone reads this anymore but if not that's okay too. It can be just for me :)

Christopher's Birth Story

On Wednesday, July 6 we had our 40 week doctor's appointment. According to my midwife, my blood pressure was a little elevated and I looked puffy. My midwife was concerned so she wanted to refer me downstairs to labor and delivery. I was wheeled down there (I wasn't even allowed to walk!) at about 4:30 or so. I was checked out by the doctor on call and he decided to admit me and induce labor based on my blood pressure and the fact that we were 40 weeks, 2 days. I was only about a "loose 1" centimeter dilated and about 50% effaced. I got hooked up to pitocin, the fetal heart monitor, the contraction monitor and the blood pressure cuff. This is where the fun began...

Pitocin can be increased to 20 milliunits/minute and that's exactly what I got. The contractions started coming stronger than ever, but so far it was managable. We were supposed to sleep but there was no way I was falling asleep now. I also tested GBS positive during pregnancy so I had to get antibiotics during delivery, which they started at this time. I ended up having an allergic reaction to it so they stopped that one. About 8 hours into the pitocin, I elected to get a dose of Stadol thinking it was a better option than the epidural at this point in time. It was awful. It basically made me feel drunk. It didn't stop the pain, it just made me less aware of it until right when the contraction was bad. There was no way for me to relax or prepare for the contractions! I believe I was still right around 3 centimeters at this time.

The doctor was worried about me because my blood pressure was staying high so he ended up hooking me up to magnesium sulfate. Yuck! It basically makes you feel like your veins are on fire. It was no fun!! Our doula, Jade got there and was an amazing help. She made me feel so relaxed, but it was getting to the point where I was exhausted, starving and just plain done. My body was wearing down. About 10-11 hours later I elected to get the epidural. My pain was becoming pretty bad (the pitocin was now up to 30 mu/min!) and I was still only about a 4 or 5. At this point in time the epidural was the best thing to ever happen to me. After 19 hours on pitocin induced labor I was hurting bad and I guess I needed that extra bit of help. (If you fight the contractions too much the pitocin could become less effective at dialating you, and because I hadn't slept or eaten in almost 24 hours I needed to relax!) The epidural helped me jump to a 7 and 100% effaced. It took me about 5 more hours to get to a 8/9. By this time the pitocin was becoming ineffective. The epidural was wearing off, so they increased it to try to get me to completion. The worst part was about now when I felt like I needed to push. My body was ready but my cervix was not. I could NOT get from a 9 to a 10. Imagine being told not to push for 3 hours. THREE HOURS! It was awful. Honestly that was probably the worst part about my labor! After 3 hours I was starting to swell, which is very bad. They ended up taking me for an emergency c-section after about 29 hours of labor. For a moment I felt like a failure. There is honestly nothing I could have done differently, but after so long of wanting and preparing something and it was all changed. My birth plan was shot to heck. BUT in the end a healthy baby, healthy mom is the goal of Bradley Method and that is what we had :)

At 2239 on July 7, 2011 our beautiful baby boy was born. All I was able to hear was his cry, but oh what an amazing sound. DH went over to the nurses to watch while they cleaned him up. When they brought him to me to kiss and snuggle... I fell in love with him instantly. Oh and I about lost it when they told me his weight. 9 pounds, 6 ounces. 22 inches long. Are you kidding me??? He is definitely a hoss.

The best feeling in the world is holding him in my arms. After 9 1/2 long months he is finally here. He is perfect in every way. He looks just like his daddy, but has my nose. :)

Christopher Aaron

July 7. 2011 2239

9lb, 6 oz 22 inches

PUPPPs

So I was diagnosed with PUPPPs at my 38 week appointment (though it appeared a week earlier). It is essentially an "allergic" reaction to pregnancy. Apparently there is something in my body that does not like the male hormone, those pesky y chromosomes are causing so much problems :)

Here are some pictures of my rash. It's awful. The rash first showed up on my belly (it normally appears in stretch marks first). It has since spread to my arms (underarms-hands) and legs (butt-feet).

The best things I have found for PUPPPs are Grandpa's Wonder Pine Tar Soap, Benadryl cream, Caladryl gel and Aveeno baths. I shower about twice a day and use the pine tar soap...in cold/warm water. Never use hot water. It makes things unbearable. (Apparently heat makes it worse, which makes like miserable considering how it's JULY!) I take a bath at night and literally rub the aveeno bath on the spots. It helps a little bit. Benadryl cream and Caladryl gel help...but only temporarily. OH! The best thing ever is using a hair dryer on the cold setting and drying off that way instead of a towel. Kind of like a car wash :)

Belly at it's worst

Side View

My poor fat feet :(

See?

Top of my leg

Looks like I have chicken pox

Poor spotty leg :(

Top of my legs

Fat feet!

The worse part right now is my feet and ankles. They itch like something awful!

Belly now. It's faded a little bit and doesn't itch as bad!

Arm

Other arm

37 Weeks

So this has been an interesting week for our family. Friday afternoon contractions started...they were about 20-30 minutes apart, not really going away but not getting stronger. They were waking me up throughout the night, but like I said, not really getting stronger. Saturday brought more of the same. Saturday night they got really close together...like 3-5 minutes. My doula suggested we go to sleep and see what happens. They continued through the night, but weren't really that strong. Now Sunday they were getting much stronger. They were starting in my back and moving forward. They never really got closer than 7-8 minutes, but they weren't stopping. Can you say frustrating??? I sure can. My 38 week appointment is on Monday so we decided to just wait until then so we can see what is going on. I wish he would either come or the contractions were stopping...

Basically this is what my doula calls the "putzy putzy" stage. Nothing really changing. Nothing really progressing. I'll update this later on so I can post what the midwife says! :)

36 Weeks

So DH, Abby and I went to GA for our baby shower and had such a wonderful time. We got to see a lot of friends and family that we haven't seen in a very long time...some as long ago as the wedding!! We got the last few things we needed and lots of clothes (which we got hardly any of last time...just the differences between guys and girls!!), which was awesome :)

On a side note, C is getting huge. He literally takes up my whole belly. DH and I were driving home yesterday and he was feeling the baby's foot and trying to find his back...I said something like here, you can feel him right here and DH said while moving his hand all over my belly, and here and here and here. Yep...all over. Apparently he's about 18 inches long and maybe 6.5 pounds now. So about the size he'll be when he gets here!!

It's very hard to believe that the next time I see my family I will have a baby. Literally in less than a month there will be an infant in our household...that is a very, very strange thought.

35 Weeks

Well our household had an interesting night last night (which at 35 weeks, 6 days it applies to this blog!). After about 3.5 hours of pretty regular contractions I finally called my doula, Jade. She advised me to go ahead and call Labor & Delivery. The advice I got was pretty standard since I'm under 36 week, they said come on in. Once we were there, DH and I went to a triage room and I gave a urine sample and then got hooked up to the monitors. ....on a side note, do you realize how hard it is to pee in a cup when you can't see into the toilet??? It was ridiculously hard.... It was neat to be able to hear the baby's heartbeat. Also very strange to see my contractions and the correlation of his heartbeat and my contraction (during one his hb would speed up). Anyways, turns out I was hydrated enough and because I was only about 1.5 hours short of 36 weeks the midwife on call said she wouldn't want to give me anything to stop labor. I could in fact be in early labor, but I wasn't dilated at all so she gave me an ambien to "make my uterus go to sleep". She just told me to come back if any of the normal things happened: water broke, bleeding, contractions were so bad I couldn't walk or talk through them.

So I took the ambien and promptly fell asleep (but that could have been just because it was 11:30 at night!). I woke up a few times to more contractions and they have continued today, but not serious enough for me to want to count them. I know they are happening pretty frequently, and we've resolved the fact that we probably won't have a July baby, though hopefully he'll stay nice and comfortable until AFTER the weekend because we are going to GA for our baby shower! I'm super excited about it. I just hope baby C cooperates :)

34 Weeks

Well....since I didn't post last week I figured I'd post pictures we took last week instead :)

I bought a groupon for Picture People, it was pretty good...though I don't know if I saved any money in the end or not. Oh well. It was fun to have our picture made :)

My favorite one :)

33 Weeks

OOPS! I forgot to write during week 33, so here I am at 34 weeks writing my 33 weeks blog :)

We had our birthing class this past week...it was okay. It's incredible how many people go into labor/birth without knowing what will happen. Our class was supposed to last from 10-2...we were done by 11ish. And that included a tour of the delivery room. Hmmm....how the heck is someone supposed to be ready for this after that amount of "training"??? Do you not train for months for a sporting event or say a marathon?? How is this any different? The average labor can last a long while...come on people, get prepared for something this important?? I've been taking birthing classes for the past 10 weeks, and I couldn't imagine this without them. AND I'll have a doula there. I doubt I'll even be prepared enough for this!

Whew. Enough ranting. We also had our 32 week appt. It wasn't bad! I should have gotten yelled at for my weight gain, but they were busy so I don't think my midwife even noticed. On the bright side DH got to see baby C on an ultrasound and hear is heartbeat. I am so thankful they did that for us. It's hard because he's been gone the entire time, and seeing your baby via skype and email just isn't the same! :)

I've gained almost 40ish pounds. I weigh more than I've ever even dreamed of weighing. It's awful. I HATE being this big. I love being pregnant, and I am convinced we will have more children, but I just hate the end of the pregnancy. I'm tired. Ready for baby. And ready for my body to be back!!

This week should be a busy one, we'll be traveling a lot. From Wed-Sat we get to be all romantic by ourselves for our "babymoon"and then we'll be spending time (Sat-Mon) with DH's brother and his sweet family. We haven't seen our niece in months, and she's growing like a weed. We can't wait to be there with them :)

32 Weeks

Oh what a fun weekend!! We had our first baby shower and oh how our friends and family blessed us. I was convinced that no one would buy us expensive gifts (because, I sure as heck wouldn't spend like $100 on someone I barely knew...but that's just me apparently!), but boy was I wrong. These guys spoiled us and baby C rotten! This shower was mostly for DH's Army guys and I'm pretty sure if their hadn't been alcohol these guys would have been even more terrified walking in. It was so funny :)

We ended up getting a lot of good things, and a good amount of stuff off our registry which is always nice! OH! And DH put together the crib, it looks so good! We ordered the dresser and it should be here soon. As soon as we get it and DH puts it together (and the room gets organized!) I'll post pictures. It is super cute and I can't wait to see it all put together!

We have our birthing class through the hospital on Tuesday. And then as soon as that's over we go upstairs to the Women's Center for my 32 week appointment (yes, I realize I'll be 33 weeks...). So not looking forward to being in trouble about my weight. I'll report how much I've gained next time, maybe that way people will feel better when they gain a ton of weight and it's all in the belly. (We'll just ignore the fact mine is also in the butt and thighs...whatever.) HURRY UP JULY....I'm ready for my body back. And I don't even feel bad saying that...

As for baby C, he's getting big. And heavy. He's about 17-18 inches long and just about 4 pounds. Just about 6-7 weeks left! :)

I was looking back through my blog and saw this from 19 Weeks (was I supposed to do this more often...oops!). Enjoy :)
How far along?  32 Weeks, 6 days 
Total weight gain/loss?  We'll find out for sure next week, but I think I'm at like 40 pounds...
Maternity clothes?  Oh boy am I ever. I'm even OUT of some of my maternity clothes. Looks like it'll just be sundresses and skirts for me for the rest of the pregnancy...
Stretch marks? On my thighs (inner and outer)...they are not pretty :(
Sleep?  What's that? I wake up several times a night...play solitaire then go back to bed. It's ridiculous.
Best moment last week? Our baby shower was probably the highlight of the week :)
Movement?  All. The. Time. It's no longer cute little kicks, he is mostly rolling around so I'll get like a knee and/or elbow slide across my belly...which is very uncomfortable.
Food cravings? Fries with ranch dressing. That's pretty much the only thing. I like a lot of things and have random daily "cravings" but I don't like have to have them!
Gender? Boy :)
Labor signs? Nope, just BH.
Belly button in/out? Outish. The top part is out, the actual button sticks out but not all the way out.
What I miss: My body. Sleep. Eating and drinking without heartburn. Reading at night without falling asleep.
What I am looking forward to: In the next week? The birthing class at BACH and our 32 week appt, it's the first one DH will be at!
Milestones: It looks like the main one is his chance of surviving without breathing mechanisms is greatly increased this week. Yay baby C, keep those milestones coming! :)

31 Weeks

What a WONDERFUL week!! My DH came home from his one year deployment this past week...that was incredible and definitely the highlight of my month!

The next best thing that happened is that he got to feel baby C kick for the first time. The look on his face was priceless. He now keeps his hands on my belly and lights up when C is moving (which is all the time now!). It is the coolest thing ever and I truly feel like I'm getting to experience all the firsts again now that he is home!

Apparently baby C is about 16 inches long and weighs about 3.5 pounds...though those are the stats for 31 weeks and I am 31 weeks 6 days...so he may be bigger by now! Sometimes I wish my belly had a sunroof so I could see what he's doing in there :)

OH! And we went to Once Upon A Child just to look and ended up buying our pack n play. It seems smaller than the other ones out now which is good because we have next to no space available. It's really very cute. A few weeks before baby we'll have to move our room around again so it can go next to my side of the bed for the first few months...then he'll move in to his crib, which we also got thanks to my in laws! DH is going to set that up in a few weeks and I can't wait!! I also can't believe that we are almost to the 8 weeks countdown. That's if he even waits until his due date...which going early is entirely possible considering how big I am already!

This next weekend we have our first baby shower and I cannot wait. I'm so excited about it :)

And then after that we have our birthing class at the hospital, complete with a tour and my 32 weeks visit (I'll actually be 33 weeks, but I really wanted them on the same day and because I'm low risk my midwife said it was fine!).

30 Weeks

I'm getting exhausted. I still have 9 weeks left...and I don't think I'm going to make it. I'm huge. The first thing out of everyone's mouth is...I don't think you're going to make it to July! Well I don't either so I suppose we're even! THOUGH....I think they are all jinxing me. With the way people keep talking I'll probably stay pregnant until the end of July!

So Abby Grace and I are getting ready for DH to get home. The next blog will probably include him...because HE'S COMING HOME!!!!! AHHHHHHH!!! I'm getting so excited. So we've been cleaning. Actually I've been cleaning. She's been sleeping! :)

I just realized that I don't think I've talked about Abby...so you might be confused. She's my loving puppy. Who's graying around the mouth because she's almost 4. Old woman :)

This is my princess. She's spoiled rotten. But she's my baby and I love her.


And here is the another baby of mine. Only he's hidden in the belly :)
30 weeks, 6 days :)

Baby C is good. He's a beast and likes to be big. Which he tries to do all the time. I try to explain to my loving son that he can not stretch out because there's not enough room but he tries anyway. :)