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Olivia Geraldine October 17th 12:41 pm 7 lbs 4 oz |
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Stories Evan is now 9 mo old- (ok a little more than that since I forgot to update this around his 9 mo bday!) He is talking up a storm- but he does not have any identifiable words yet. He is still cruising from object to object- I've seen him try to free stand just once. He held it for about 2 seconds before plopping his bottom on the ground. He loves to eat and has the cheeks to prove it! He has a smile that just lights up his whole face- everything crinckles up- it is too cute! He now has 3 teeth up top- one is althe way through the other two are just starting to poke through. He loves the water and being outside. Summer will be fun playing in the pool and the sprinklers in the yard. Emma is talking so well these days- She just got re evevaluated for her speech- we should know i a week or two what kind of improvements she's made. We also had a bit of a scare with her a few weeks ago- we get her thyroid checked yearly and have a CBC done at the same time just because she's getting blood drawn anyway. This year the CBC came back with some off numbers- she had to get another CBC done a week later that was a bit more detaile (CBC with differential for those of you medical folks) again it was not normal- but Ben spoke with the hem/onc dr at length and feels that everything is ok- she will get her blood drawn again in another week or so- hopefully everything will be back to normal and all the weird numbers were because she was sick for most of December. Owen is our heaven sent devil! he knows just where the limits are and loves to push right to them- but he is so loving and sweet. He loves to tell the special people in his life how beautiful (or handsome) they are and that they are so special! He is a beautiful little man and sharp as a tack. He and Emma have amazing imaginations and can play for hours with each other. I love being a mom! 1/6/2005 Our 8 month old super baby is into:
Emma & Owen were also sick through the holidays. Emma is still congested. WE had family here from the east coast and LOVED every minute of their visit!!! Makes me sad that family I love so much lives so far away. But I look forward to my visits with them in the future. We are still doing speech therapy with Emma- she is improvign in leaps and bounds! I am going to look into physical therapy for her to help her with her gait. Otherwise she is doing very well. She loves puzzles, writing and reading her books. She can site read some words, mostly very familar ones like family names. TIme to start a reading program with her I think!! Owen has developed a liking for puzzels as well, though I suspect he would have no interest if not for Emma's enthusiasium! He wants to learn his letters right now very much- he knows name and can read all of them, but has a tough time writing them unless he is tracing. He is a meticulus tracer! (hmmmm a little Type A in there?) Ben is working hard, bringing home some extra work for both of us to do. The extra $$$ is much needed and appreciated!! He has a year and a half to go. Then to Ventura we go! We are waiting to get his contract sometime soon. I am doing what every stay at home mom does. Everything! I love my job and wouldn't trade it for anything. We have found a wonderful playgroup that we see weekly. The moms are such a blessing to me. I look forward to Tuesdays as much as the kids. We are also invoved with a homeschool group that meets 2x a month for park day. This too has been a blessing. The moms are nice and there are sooooooo many families here that homeschool here. THough we are not doing any formal instruction (unschooling)we plan on adding some more homeschool activities to our lives soon - rock climbing, ice skating, and music.
10/24/2004 - 10/24/04 At 6 months old Evan: ~Eats solids twice a day ~Can go anywhere he wants on his belly ~Tries to pick objects up with his finger and thumb ~Smiles and belly laughs at funny things ~Can almost sit unassisted ~loves his daddy ~loves his brother and sister ~Has fat dimples Everywhere!!!! ~has his first cold- he has a very "chesty" sounding cough. He goes to his 6 month check up on November 1st so I'll post his stats after. Emma and Owen are both sick as well- Owen's went to his ears so he's on antibiotics, Emma is taking cough and cold meds so far. 10/8/2004 - 10/8/04 At 5 months old Evan............. *eats avocados *crawls on his belly "commando" style *gets on his hands & knees and rocks - usually ending in a face plant! he is really trying hard to lift his hand and crawl. *still eats 2x at night- we went through a rough patch where he'd eat then cry for up to an hour & a half usually between 1 & 4 am! He is now back to eating and sleeping. Thank God! *laughs aand giggles at Emma, Owen & anyone willing to make a silly face *weighs between 16 & 17 pounds at least! *is a chubby rolly polly baby- he even has fat wrists!! *has no teeth but chews hrd on everything!!! 9/1/2004 - At 4 months old Evan............... ~ weighs 15 lbs 13 oz and is in the 75th percentile ~ is 25.5 inches long & is in the 75th percentile ~ rolls front to back & back to front ~ drools lik crazy! ~holds toys ~talks & coos when he's happy ~ laughs out loud ~ can sit with assistance Emma and Owen have their own computer now. The are loving it! 7/29/2004 - At 3 months old Evan can: *Hold up his head & look around easily *coo & make wonderful little noises *smile & laugh *roll from front to back * "stand" on my lap *occasionally sleep all night *grab at toys that dangle in his reach *put his face in the water when swimming *scoot in circles on his belly 7/22/2004 - We've been adjusting well to life where the kids out number the grown ups! Evan is smiling all the time now and he makes all those cute baby sounds. He is awake more often during the day, but still nurses through the night. I don't really mind though since I sort of nurse him half asleep! Emma is really talking well now, her speech has improved tremendously. She loves her baby brother and does a lot of pretend baby play with her baby dolls. She also knows her alphabet and can write many letters. She can read her name as well as most family names, including the dogs. she is soaking up knowlged right now at an incredible pace. She can also swim quite well. Owen is full of energy and quite a character. He also knows his alphabet, but is not able to write his letters. He is overcoming his fear of putting his face in the water, he can do it, he just forgets form summer to summer. He also enjoys his baby brother, he is very gentle and loves to talk to him and sing hi songs. 5/25/2004 - Labor & Delivery of Evan Antonio Here is our story I should start by saying that my goal for this L&D was the same as it was for both Emma & Owen I wanted a drug free birth. With Emma I took Bradley childbirth classes but we never finished them, Emma came too soon. I ended up with both pain medicine and an epidural. I had problems pushing her out and she ended up being delivered by forceps. With Owen I had again hoped for a med free birth, but really did nothing to prepare for it and again I ended up with both meds and epidural, and while pushing him out, again had problems. He was assisted out with the vacuum. This time I tried to prepare myself. I saw a midwife instead of an OB. I read countless birth stories of women who went without medicine. I really tried to educate myself on various methods of handling the pain. I dont think I could have gone in any more prepared. My labor started Thursday April 22 around 2 in the afternoon. I should say this is when the contractions started coming every 5-7 minutes with mild to moderate discomfort. For a week prior to that I had be having regular contractions around 10-20 min apart with little to no discomfort. I had seen my midwife in the morning and because I had just lost my plug she checked to see if anything was going on. I was 1-2 cm dialated but the head was still high at 2 to 3. In order for her to deliver I would have to hold out till Tuesday. Kaiser Sunset is the only Kaiser in LA that doesnt have a midwife on call 24/7. This is why I had hoped to go into labor on the 20th or 21st. Those were her 2 days on. We left Susans office and went to visit our friend who had delivered the night before (and she got to have Susan!!) During our visit I was noticing contractions but I didnt time them. They were probably every 10 min or so. We went home then I went out to run some errands. Ben stayed home with the kids and worried about me running around. I wasnt too worried, I was going with Murphys law- If I was out and about, I would really be in labor, but if I came home itd go away! So I went to Target, the bank and to Ralphs. I got home around 4 and the contractions were defiantly 5 min apart (and had been for some time). We called Bens mom to come down, got the kids ready for going next door to wait for her and I finished getting all my things together. I was not really in any big hurry to get hooked up to monitors. Ben was a bit more nervous, he kept thinking how fast it can change from mild to severe pain and just wanted to be in the hospital! I tried to get him to stop at Starbucks on the way so that he could go in and I could honk at him, but he didn't want to look that shallow- but we did think it would be funny. We went to triage and they hooked me up to everything and sent a resident to check me out. For delivery we asked that it an attending handle it, no residents. Because of my history, we wanted someone who had a lot of expierence in case of a problem. But for spot checks and so forth we had no problm with a resident. So I was 2-3 cm dialated at this point but the head was still very high (-2-3) so she basically gave us the option of being admitted or leaving. We opted to stay, figuring that labor would only increase and we didn't want to upset or confuse the kids by coming home. So they did an ultra sound - a friend of Ben's did it actually, she is a Family Practice resident and I had met her te last time I was admitted for the hernia back in December. Ben took advantage of the situation and asked her to teach him u/s stuff so they had some fun being doctors. I was still fairly comfortable at this point so it was all good. They transfered me to the Birthing Center where the midwife was just leaving. We settled in the suite- it was a huge room- very nice, had a stereo and a good reclining chair for Ben. I dimmed the lights, put my headphones on and basically walked around the room. Ben left to get a drink and something to munch from the cafiteria. At this point he was already thinking that I was going to have a c-section. I didn't know this until much later, like a couple of days after the delivery. By this time several residents had seen me - 2 or 3 in triage- and every one who talked to me commented on the size of the baby. They all thought this one would be bigger than my other two, by a pound or so. I think that thought along with the head not moving down and my previous birth expierences is why Ben and I'll assume the other doctors were thinking c/s. As the contractions became more painful I spent them sitting on my birthing ball. I also had a heated rice pack that I would place across my belly when a contraction would hit. These two things made a world of difference for me. Every hour I had to get hooked up for 20 min to get monitored. This is when I could really tell how much the ball and heat helped. I also took a couple of hot showers during this time. I met the first attending around 9:15, when he checked me I was around 5cm but the head was still the same. He was off at 10pm and figured I'd have the baby during the next Dr's shift. He wished me luck and I didn't think we'd see him again. The next Dr on was very nice, she was all for pain meds, but was very respectful of my wishes. She offered to break my water, but then after checking me changed her mind because of how high the head was. she said she'd check on me again in a couple of hours. So somewhere around 1:30 or 2 am she checked again. the head was still high, but I guess she felt better about it because she said she'd break my water for me. At this point I was physically exhausted. I'd been actively contracting every 5 min for 12 hours, the last 6 with moderate to pretty bad pain. Hoping it would help things along I gave the ok. Unfortunatley they wanted to keep me hooked up for a while just after to make sure the baby was handling it ok. in hindsight I wish I would have insisted on getting up for the first bit. The contractions came hard and fast at this point. I was doing ok at first, but was having more andmore difficulty with each one. I found it hard to breath in a controlled way so I was hyperventilating. This made it tough even when the contraction was over because my O2 levels dropped and I felt sick. I eventually said it was time for pain relief. Ben asked the nurse to have the dr write the order for epidural so that it would be available if I wanted it and I was given pain medication in my IV. The nurse misunderstood and sent up the anesthesiologist. The pain meds did wonders for me and I considered sending the anesthesiologist away. I decided to get the epidural. It was 3:30am at this point and I was feeling like I would pass out from exhaustion. the medicine took the edge off, but no way was it enough for me to get any rest and at this point I was dialated to 7 but the head hadn't budged. I knew the epi would probably slow down the ctx, but I needed to sleep or at least doze and I was afraid if I didn't I wouldn't have the energy to push and I really wanted to avoid any assistance with delivery. The epidural seemed to take on only one side(my right). I could stillfeel pain on the left and pressure "down there". I was able to doze, maybe even sleep, time sort of got away from me here. the ctx did slow down this point. Some where around 7 or 7:30 am they checked me again, and there was no change. at this point I was told that I could either try pitocin to see if it would give my ctx the umph they needed to get that head moving or Icould just go for the c/s. In no way did I want a c/s so I took the pitocin. within a half hour I could feel a lot of pressure. With my other 2 kids I never felt that, i never knew what it felt like to "need" to push- I was told when to push and for how long. So I really wasn't sure if what I was feeling was right. The nurse checked me and low and behold I was 10cm and the head was finally at 0. I could push! It was just Ben, the nurse and me in the room. it was very mellow and calm, the nurse let me dictate the when, and both she and Ben would count to 10 3 times per contraction. I started out sort of sitting but on my back. this felt like I wasn't doing anything. So I asked if I could try laying on my side - I had done that with Owen and it seemed to help. That too just didn't feel right. I could completley feel my left side, and somewhat my right, so I asked if I could get into a squat. The nurse said sure whatever I wanted. I'm not sure why I felt like that would be comfortable- I used to tease Ben about birthing our children this way- but it just was something I felt like I needed to do. so with the next ctx I pulled myself up, Ben supporting me on one side the nurse on the other. I should also mention that with each ctx Ben was putting counter pressure on my belly button- so my hernia wasn't getting blown out. Right away I could tell that this position was different. I could feel the baby move down. WOW it was amazing. I'm not sure how many contractions I went through like this- maybe 3. on the next conraction they counted to 10, and maybe I should have said something- because I knew the baby was moving- but I didn't and I started the next push. They got to 6 and the nurse all of a sudden yelled stop pushing! Yeah right! She was actually holding the baby in place with one hand, and calling the dr in on the phone with the other. Meanwhile I am yelling at both of them that I wanted to push. It was horrible having to wait.... I was thinking that Ben was a dr let him catch- problem was he was helping support me so was the nurse, so there was no one to catch the baby. A dr ran in and then I'm yelling at her asking if I can push. she's running to wash up and get gloves on, then the doctor from the night before (they first attending that saw me, who we thought we'd never see again) come in after the female dr. Turns out she was a sr. resident with only 2 months to go. I figured she was a resident, but at this point all I cared about was pushing and I knew that there would be no problems. As soon as she got in place Evan practically flew out! It was so amazing I can't even put it into words. I felt so good, so empowered that within minutes said "I could do that all over again right now!" This shocked most in the room, since that is not the usual response after 18 hours of labor. I have never felt so connected to a birth. I think that dispite getting medication and epidural, I had the most amazing and empowering birth expierence. I felt control and a sense of knowledge of myself that I have never had. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. I can't say I'd change a thing- maybe if I would have had Susan, I wouldn't have gotten the Epi- but It was the pitocin that got this kid moving- my conractions were not effective and hadn't been through out. And I am in no way dissappointed with the expierence. Yes I wanted it to be med free, but ultimatley I got what I really wanted and that was to be in control of my birth. My recovery has been awsome as well. I was up and going a day later and had to remind myself to slow down. I did get my hernia repaired when Evan was 2 weeks old. That is a whole different story for another day! 4/16/2004 - Well, I've been in early labor since yesterday. Actually I think it started the night before, I had severe lower back pain and slight cramping across my abs. Most of yesterday I had mild contractions roughly every 10-20 minutes, I really wasn't keeping close tabs on them since they we're too bad. When I sat down last night at 9 (to watch The Apprentice!!) I started keeping track.....They were 5-7 min apart through the whole show, but still not too painful. just annoying. I took a bath then walked around a bit, and had a small glass of wine (on the advice of my midwife!)I went to bed at 1am with the hot rice pack (THANK YOU LAUREN!!) on my back and crashed for the next 4 hours. I woke at 5am had a cotraction when I rolled over but was able to fall right back to sleep for another 3 hours. It is mid afternoon and I feel pretty good. The contractions are back to 10-20 minutes apart. I am really hoping this pattern continues through the weekend! So my guess is that this is part one of my labor story........ 4/13/2004 - April 13, 2004 My next visit with the midwife is April 22. My hope is that the appointment will be cancelled because the baby will have been born already!! I am taking a walk around the block with the kids daily. This is something I had stopped doing due to too many contractions earlier on. I felt my first contractions around the 24th week of pregnancy. I have "nested" off and on through out the latter half of this pregnancy. Lately I have deep down cleaned *something* just about every day! I am going to try and avoid epidural with this delivery so any positive vibes you can send me are much appreciated!!! That is another reason I'm really hoping for next Tuesday or Wednesday.... the way the hospital runs their stuff, they only have midwives M-TH and my MW is scheduled for T/W deliveries. Though if I get the other MW I'll be happy as well, I just LOVE Susan, she has been great to get to know these last 9 months!
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