He's Here!!!

Dane Barrett Rogers
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 (10 days early)
12:17 pm
8 lbs, 3 oz 21 inches


My actual birth story is about 4 pages long, which is obviously just TMI to post on here. So, here is my attempt at a really condensed version for public consumption.

I woke up around midnight Monday morning with cramping, like menstrual cramps. I got up to go to the bathroom and felt a large gush, which I thought was either my water breaking or me peeing myself. It was actually blood, and a LOT of it. We rushed to the hospital and were admitted and monitored for about 8 hours. I was about 2 cms and 80% effaced. I was having regular, but mild contractions. Baby was doing just fine in there, and my bleeding slowed. We were given the option of staying and being induced or going home to wait and see what happened. We headed home.

I spent the day trying to rest and dealing with moderate, but irregularly patterned contractions. Around 9pm Monday night the pattern was steady - every 3 minutes, 45-60 seconds long. By 10:30pm I was needing Vince's help to work through them. Our doula came and we decided to head to the hospital. Got there and I was a good 4 cms, which was a bit disappointing, but my contractions were really strong at this point so we stayed and walked the halls, got in the tub, etc. Around 8am the nurse checked me and I was 9 cms. I labored a bit longer and started feeling the urge to push, so they let me try that for a while. Nothing felt right, and it made me hurt really bad. So, nurse checked me again, and when she did, my water broke. She then said I was 8 cms. My water must have been bulging so much at the last check it was pushing my cervix more open than it really was, and when it broke it shrank back to the more accurate 8 cms.

I should add that my bleeding that started the morning continued all day, and increased as my labor increased. When my water broke it was a huge bloody mess all over. After my water broke the contractions immediately got really strong and started coming one on top of the other, and I was involuntarily pushing with each one - we tried everything to get me to stop and I just couldn't. Up to this point I had been coping really well with my Bradley techniques, but this was horrible and out of control, and I was begging someone and anyone to help me stop. Because I was pushing and wasn't dilated, my cervix started swelling shut, I was still bleeding everywhere, my vitals went haywire, and they couldn't get the baby's heart beat on the external monitor. So, within a matter of minutes, I had an internal monitor, an IV, an ekg monitor, BP cuff, pulseox monitor, epidural and a catheter placed. I instantly felt so much better.

With the epi we all got a break to rest, my cervix was able to recover and finish dilating, and then I got to push. The epi was kind of lopsided, so my entire right leg and bottom were totally numb, but I had some feeling and movement in my left leg, and I could still feel all my contractions in this area on my left lower belly, which honestly turned out to be perfect because I could still feel contractions (and had to breathe to work through them) and know when to push. It took 2 hours and a bunch of positions, but I got him out with only a very mild 1st degree tear and a couple of stitches. He was turned sort of sideways, so he didn't crown the way he was supposed to, so he had (and still has) some funky bruising and swelling on the side of his head, but he is perfectly healthy. He came right to my chest and his apgars were 8 and 9. He nursed like a champ from the start and really didn't cry all that much, and still doesn't.

When my water broke, everything changed, and I could tell the doc and the nurses were VERY worried. I thought for sure (as did my doula) that I was headed straight for a surgical birth. I think the universe gave me the perfect team of Vince, my doula and the hospital staff to get me through it with a lot of my goals for my birth intact.

Like I said, this is the short version, so if you have any questions, ask away. The long version has more details, and more of my after-the-fact thoughts and feelings in it. If you would like to read it, email me and I can send it to you.

These are my final belly pics, taken in between hospital admissions, 38 weeks 3 days.


And, my first attempt at loading video!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

And happy 4th birthday to our dear furbaby, Izzy. Here is a pic of Izzy and Tank just chillin' on her birthday...


Making faces for mommy...


Had another doctor's appointment yesterday - we met with midwife Trisha again. All the normal things are fine - I gained 3 pounds this week so I am up to 208, and baby's heart rate was 140 today. We went over our birth plan with the midwife and I think we have done a good job putting it together.

I am still having some crampiness and lots of contractions, but apparently I am only still in warm-ups - the main event is still to come, and could be a ways away yet.

We have most of the baby items put together and ready and waiting. Here is a bunch of it just sitting in the living room...


And here is the pack and play in the TV room...

And look, our hospital bags are packed and ready to go!!!


I have been working on painting the dresser for the nursery, and it looks pretty good so far. Unfortunately the dark blue bled under the tape as I was painting, so now I am trying to figure out how to fix it. I'm not sure the white paint will cover it up, so I am considering painting the part of the drawer faces inside the trim all dark blue as well. The circle handles on the middle drawers are going to be painted a very light blue.

Maybe Progress?

So I was extremely tired yesterday and spent most of my day napping. The baby has finally dropped. I didn't even notice until last night when Vince pointed out how badly I was waddling, and then I realized it was true, and that I was now experiencing a lot of pressure "down there" and that it was easier to take deep breaths.

I went to bed early, but woke up at 12:30 with some serious cramping in my low back and lower abdomen. I laid in bed for a while and tried to sleep or get comfortable. The baby was moving a ton way down low, which never happens. I was also having really strong contractions. So I eventually decided to get up and see if moving around or eating changed things. I took a loooooong shower and then made myself some toast. I was still feeling a little crampy so I decided I had better finish up all my shower thank you notes, just in case. Got those done around 4:00 and headed back to bed.

I am still crampy this morning, though less so than last night. I know this truly could be nothing, but if it IS the start of things, I am now officially scared shitless, because there are a lot of things to do still! I need to get about 2 weeks of laundry put away, I have to finish painting the dresser so I can put Kermie's belongings away and out of his crib, and our bedroom is a disaster that I need to go clean. Oh, and maybe we should get on installing the car seat, eh?

Good news/Bad news

Just to prove there is indeed balance between good and bad in all things...

Good News (GN): 36 week doc appt went well yesterday. We met with one of the midwives this time, just to compare to meeting with the OBs. I lost another pound this week, BP and urine are good, I am group B strep negative (so no antibiotics during delivery are necessary - YAY!), baby's heart rate was a little fas but still normal, and my fundal height is still on track.
Bad News (BN): Midwife Trisha did a check and while baby's head is down, he is currently positioned anterior ("sunny side up"), which means if I can't get him turned around I am likely in for some terrific back labor. So, my mission is to do all things possible to encourage him to turn posterior.

GN: All the major items off our registry have been purchased and most of them are even put together, ready and waiting for baby.
BN: Our home is utter chaos from all of this stuff basically being stockpiled in our living room. Oh, and I still have about a gabillion thank you cards to write....

GN: We discovered that when/if the time comes, it will only take Vince about 25 minutes to get home to me from his work.
BN: We discovered this because our big dog Izzy seems to not be handling all this change very well, and she had a seizure on Friday. It totally scared the shit out of me because she couldn't walk and was breathing funny, and she's heavy so I couldn't carry her to the car, so I had Vince come home from work to help me get her to the vet. They can't find any medical reason for the episode, so we are just going to watch her for now, and log any other episodes or issues she might have. She still isn't back to her normal spazzy self, poor thing, so I'm worrying over her.

GN: Like I said above, I lost another pound this week (yes, it merits another mention!). Is it bad I secretly hope this downward trend continues?
BN: Theeeeeeyyyyy'rrrreeee heeeeeerrrrreeeee. Yup, the stretch marks have officially arrived. I am honestly surprised I made it this far. So far they are pretty small and light and are on my hips and just above my butt crack (two places that OBVIOUSLY have no business expanding whatsoever), so if they stay there and off my belly I will be pleased.

GN: We got our taxes all in to the accountant this past week, so that should be wrapped up this week sometime. Fingers crossed for a big, fat refund! Another large item crossed off the to-do list!
BN: No more bad news!

And now, for some pictures! This is me at 35 weeks 2 days, right before my "Nestie" baby shower:





Here I am at 36 weeks 4 days:



That's all for now. We have our second prenatal meeting with our doula tonight, and I really need to get the house cleaned (and dresser painted, and thank you notes written, and meals made for the freezer...) but I really feel like crap today so I think I am going to try for a nap instead. : )

Another week, another update

Had another doctor appointment this morning. Appointments will now happen weekly until Bambino is here. I saw Dr. Saunders today, and he was nice and answered all of my questions (though can I say how much I hate it when I tell someone I am planning a natural childbirth and then they insist on telling me in a passive aggressive way I won't be able to do it and that I shouldn't feel bad when I eventually do ask for the epidural? I need to just learn to keep my mouth shut. Grrrr.).

Anyways, all continues to be well. I weighed in at 206 lbs today, so I am down a pound from last week (GREAT way to start the day - woohoo!). Blood pressure is perfect at 110/76, urine was good, fundal height is right on, and baby's heart rate was 152. They swabbed "down there" to check to see if I have group B strep (standard procedure at this point in the pregnancy) and I'll get the results from that at the appointment next week. Doc and I also talked about the hepatitis B vaccine that they routinely give at birth (with a follow up dose at a later date). Initially I was going to delay this shot, but now that I know about a family history of HepB infections, we will go ahead and consent to it just to make sure we are being super safe. We also discussed the size of the baby, and my hesitation to go for an early induction. Doc was in full agreement it is way better to just wait and let him come when he is ready, since this will dramatically reduce the likelihood of a c-section (he said from 35-15%, which is a HUGE drop).

I made the next appointment with one of the midwives. I am really starting to get concerned that we may not have the best support from some of the OBs with our wishes to avoid meds and limit interventions at our birth. So I am hoping that maybe switching to the midwives will be a better fit. Here's hoping....

Vince and I interviewed a couple of doulas last week and I think we have a decision made. We also packed our hospital bags last night, and were lucky and received lots of awesome stuff at our baby showers this weekend. Vince got the new door to the baby's room installed yesterday, and I think he plans to wrap up the trim work in there tonight. I will make a trip to the store to pick up the last few things we need to get the room ready, and then hopefully we can get the rest of the room finished this week. Also on tap this week are pediatrician interviews and getting all my thank you notes written. Seeing how much we still have to do exhausts me.

Oh, and the best highlight of the week? Finding out that my sister is also pregnant! I am beyond thrilled to get to be an Auntie, and to know that our little one will have a cousin so close in age. She is due sometime in August, and I can't wait!!!!!

It's 3:27 am....

...so why the H-E-L-L am I awake?!?!?! @$%*#^ this is aggravating. I am a girl who likes my sleep, so the increasing difficulties I am having with it is getting old. I know this is how I will be prepared for the sleepless nights with the little one to come (but really, how prepared can I be? I think I would rather dive into that cold turkey!). So, since I am up and grumpy, now might be a good time to chronicle some of my discomforts and complaints as of late.

Disclaimer: I know how blessed we are to have had such a healthy and easy pregnancy, but sometimes a girl still needs to bitch, you know?

Heartburn: Oh.my.God is this miserable. I have had spurts of this off and on for a while now, but the past few weeks have gotten downright horrific. I can't seem to take a sip of water these days without an immediate backlash of acid burning my chest and throat. And of course lying down to sleep makes it worse. Tums are my new sidekick, and heaven help anyone who gets between me and them. I have so much empathy now for people who deal with chronic reflux and my heart(burn) truly goes out them.

TBS: aka Tiny Bladder Syndrome. Any of you who know me even remotely well know that I have always been cursed with a small bladder so I go to the bathroom more often than is normal. But at least I used to be able to make it through the night. Well, I am SO over this getting up every 2-3 hours to pee thing. I wake up, pressure in my bladder making me worry I won't make it in time, only to get there and manage only about a teaspoon into the toilet. This is what urgently awoke me and forced me to heave my whale-ness out of bed? It's cruel I tell you. Oh, and every now and then this kiddo moves and I swear he punches my bladder causing me instinctive terror and clenching to avoid actually peeing all over myself. That's fun too. Note sarcasm, please.

Random gripes: sore joints, feet that look like sausages about to burst from their casings (see photo of my pretty pedi from today - I LOVE my feet and like to show them off, and to see them this way makes me want to cry), the continued acne on the face and back/chest/shoulders the likes of which I haven't seen since I was about 14 years old, the atrocious pregnancy brain that makes me feel like a crappy friend, family member and wife on a daily basis, feeling so out of shape and out of breath at even the most minute exertion (I require pep talks to myself before even attempting to roll over at night now), having trouble getting into the car and reaching to close the door and then trying to get the seat belt around me, and the never-ending SI joint pain that persists despite yoga, adjustments and massage.

All right. I'm done. I'm gonna go drown my sorrows in some Tums, put on my (leak proof) big girl panties, and try to wrestle the dogs for my spot back in bed. G'night.

Some photos!!

Here are some recent photos!
This is us celebrating early Christmas on 12/15 with the Denver crew. I am 29 weeks in this photo.


This is my sister's wedding on 12/22 (so I'm 30 weeks). Not bad looking for a big 'ol pregnant bridesmaid, eh?



Christmas day - Here's my awesome grandpa and Vince playing shuffle board. Notice they have a similar taste in shirts? : )

Us at Christmas dinner:

My super-cute mom and dad at Christmas dinner. I think this might be one of the best photos of them ever.


We went to the CHL All-Star game in early January (we are Rocky Mountain Rage season ticket holders) and we got to see the Stanley Cup. As a canuck, I can't tell you how cool it was to see and touch it!!!!!


And finally, some more belly shots. These were taken at 32 weeks, so around 1/4/08.

A few more updates

The crib is together and the mattress is in it, airing out as we speak (or "outgassing" as I think it is officially called). Vince plans to get the trim moulding done and the new door installed this weekend. Then he can get the dresser up in there for me to paint or stain (I haven't decided which finish I will do on it yet). That will then pretty much wrap up the big things for the nursery.

Both of my baby showers are this weekend, which I am really excited about. I am so lucky to have such awesome friends and family to host and attend these showers for us and our little guy!

We have now finished all of our Bradley childbirth classes, and have taken our breastfeeding and baby care classes at the hospital. Vince has been a superstar good sport about all of these, and now officially knows the appropriate "holds" for feeding, how to change a diaper, do cord care, bathe the baby, etc. Tonight we will do our hospital tour and get pre-registered, and then we are all finished with classes. Also checked off the to-do list - make appts with prospective pediatricians (I will be visiting 4 practices next week and will hopefully have one chosen by next Friday, 2/1. This is important because my friend Dana assures me our baby will be born on 2/2.), and set interview appts with prospective doulas (we have already met with one awesome candidate, and will meet with another on Sunday. Hopefully at that point we can make a choice and get the right help hired.).

I spent time this week with a friend who is a cloth diapering guru of sorts, and she taught me all about cloth diapering options for our son. After learning from her I am more convinced than ever this is the path we will take with our children. It amazed me how different they are from the cloth/pin/rubber pants get ups they used to be. I am actually really excited to get online and do some shopping and get our little one all set up with prefolds, prowraps, snapeez, all-in-ones, etc. Just learning the terminology was a big effort!

My other big effort this week has been spent 0n researching information about vaccinations and whether or not a delayed schedule is right for us. Vince and I are completely FOR vaccinating our children, but we are looking into possibly delaying some shots, or avoiding a few unnecessary ones all together. There is still so much more research to do on such a huge hot button topic. Wish me luck!

:::holds hands out for a slap:::

Yeah, I know, I have been a naughty blogger. But all of you griping at me about not updating makes me feel loved that you are at least checking up on me and people are reading this! Here are the three (yes, 3!) doc appt updates since I last posted:
Friday 12/14/07

• Weight is up 5 lbs this time. I am now officially over 200 pounds and miserable about it
• BP, urine, baby's heartbeat and fundal height are all right on.
  
• Had an ultrasound. Still didn't get great views of the baby's heart (he insisted on covering his chest with his arms and hands the entire time), but we did get to confirm again that there is indeed man-junk down there and we can continue to plan on him being a boy. Also revealed - baby is measuring way ahead of the curve. His head circumference puts him around 98th percentile. That pushes his due date based on size to 2/8/08. Yep, that's like 3 weeks ahead of schedule. His shoulders are broad, and he is long, so at least he isn't just a freak with an "orange on a toothpick" for a head. He's just a big boy. They estimate he is closing in on 4lbs already. Do the math - that puts him at the potential to be as big as 10 lbs if his growth rate doesn't slow.
  
• Due to big size (both mine and the baby's) they rechecked my gestational diabetes test results just to make sure they didn't screw up, but my numbers were indeed perfect. They need to be under 140, and I got a 68.
  
• Doc wrote me a script to let the airlines know that basically even though I appear HUGE, I am indeed only 29 weeks and safe to fly.
  
• I broke down crying in the office after all of this. My worries about going for the natural birth with what could potentially be a ginormous baby finally got to me. It also made me feel badly that maybe I am doing something wrong and that I am putting my kid on the path to weight issues right from birth, and it makes me feel AWFUL. Vince and Dr. McCollum were wonderful and did their best to console me. I had a shitty night and next couple of days. After the pity party, I decided to put on my big girl panties and buck up and deal. So, I am doing my best to just make sure we are prepared, and am getting lots of good advice and support from other parents who have been there and have good experiences delivering big babies. Of course I hope it won't be an issue, and that his growth tapers off and he ends up at a more reasonable weight at birth, but I guess we had better be prepared.

Monday 12/31/07

• Saw the DO in the practice this time. She was super cool. Very talkative, very excited, very passionate. We are trying to finally cycle through all the docs in the practice, so it was nice to meet yet another awesome doc.
• Believe it or not, I actually LOST weight over the past 2 weeks. I was down a whole pound to 202. It's not much, but it absolutely made my day hearing that. Oh, and PG or not, I don't think I have ever had a Christmas holiday or a visit home where I lost weight. To do it while PG strikes me as nothing short of a miracle.
  
• Everything else is perfect and right on track - fundal height was 32 cm today.
  

Monday 1/14/07

• Saw Dr. Cowles today. She seemed nice, if not maybe a little standoffish. But, she answered all my questions thoroughly, so I am happy. All vitals and such are normal. I gained almost 5 pounds over the past 2 weeks (WAHHHH!), but doc was convinced most of this was water retention since my leg swelling has increased a lot.
  
• Today was the very first doctor's appt that Vince was not able to attend. Work is psycho busy for him and since basically appointments now are just pee in the cup, get on the scale, listen to the heartbeat and measure the uterus, he isn't really missing much.
• Next visit will be our last one at 2-week intervals. We'll be going weekly after that.
• Per doc, next visit they will palpate to check the baby's position and use ultrasound to confirm if they think he happens to be breech. Fingers crossed he is in an OK spot. (My suspicion is he is actually transverse right now, with his bum on my left and his head on my right.)
• I talked to her a little about getting a birth plan together and about the practice and hospital's management of couples attempting med-free births. She said only about 10-15% of their patients attempt it (why does this seem shockingly low to me?). She informed me there were explicitly 2 items that, while I can ask for them, neither the hospital nor the doctors will budge on. The first is IV access. I can deny an IV, but they will absolutely require that upon admission that they at least establish the access and put in the port. This does NOT make me happy (mainly because I absolutely despise having an IV stuck in my arm or hand), but I guess I at least have time to deal with it. The other item is that once I am in hard, active labour, they will require continual monitoring of the baby. Intermittent monitoring is not an option at that point. This worries me a little, since that will confine me to a very limited area in our room, tethered to the machines, and it means I likely won't be able to use the tub or the shower to manage my pain. This may require some discussion on mine and Vince's part as to how to handle it. I plan to bring up these 2 items when we take our hospital tour next week just to confirm if they are indeed hospital policy, or if the doc was stretching the truth a bit.

Random stuff:

• Sister's wedding on 12/22 went well. I felt like a whale in a black satin bridesmaid's dress, but everyone was nice and said I looked good. I managed to flash the church my maternity cleavage while signing the marriage register, so that was a nice bonus for everyone, I am sure. I overdid it a bit that day and ended up with some bleeding and cramping by the end of the night, but lots of rest the next few days took care of it.
• Christmas with the family was good. The drive home was hell. Can I say again how much I HATE driving through Montana and Wyoming in the winter? But, we made it home safe and sound. We made a pit stop in Fort Collins as we neared home and checked into the Trailhead for some yummy food. The dogs seemed to do great at the kennel where we had them boarded, so that was a relief too.
  
• I spent the past 2 weeks training my replacement at work, and have shut down my massage practice for maternity leave, and 1/11/08 was my last official day on the day job. It feels weird to officially be a SAHM (stay at home mom). Maybe it will feel less strange once the baby is actually here. : ) In the meantime, the to-do list seems a mile long. I'd better check out now and get on that.
  
• I hope to download stuff off the camera in the next day or so and post some pics.