Already Embarrassing Her

I think my dreams have come true! Remember how I was terrified about having a girly girl? Well, Naomi is already showing great signs of being not so girly. 

1. She's CRAZY hairy. She-man hairy. She has a normal amount of hair on her head, but she also has hairy ears and a hairy back. No joke. 

I'm not a good enough photographer to do her hair justice but TRUST ME--she's hairy. 

2. Though this doesn't really have anything to do with being manly, it certainly isn't feminine. She's like a snake with that crazy skin shedding off of her! I know this is pretty normal with babies, but it's still crazy!

3. Whoever said that boys are the whizzers and girls aren't has not met me children. Neither of my boys EVER peed or pooped on me as babies. Really, I can count the total times with TWO boys where that happened on one hand and I'm pretty sure it was more a matter of bad timing than air exposure or whatever reason people say causes that. Naomi, on the other hand, can't get her diaper changed without excreting SOMETHING. Every. single. time. I'll spare you pictures. 

As silly as some of her traits may be, we're all completely in love with her. 

My Birth Story

We did it! Though not on her own accord, Naomi finally made it out! I must be REALLY comfortable because my children sure are stubborn about staying in my belly as long as they can. I'm pretty sure I did everything in the book to try to get her out before an induction and absolutely nothing worked. I even tried castor oil (per the doctor's approval, I promise) and she didn't budge. 

A few hours before heading to the hospital I tried looking up some perspectives on trying to deliver a baby with pitocin but without getting an epidural. Pretty much 95% or more of the opinions I read said something along the lines of "don't do it. You'll want to die" or "I tried but caved at 6cm." I already have a pretty low pain tolerance so I knew that I wasn't exactly the ideal candidate for joining the exclusive ranks of women who toughed it out. I wanted too, though. Lately, I've been feeling really weak. Emotionally, physically, mentally. I really felt like delivering Naomi without an epidural could show some hidden inner strength that I've been desperately looking for. Tom was ready and willing to support me completely in this, but I'm pretty sure he thought I'd back out of it once the pain got intense. I can't blame him, though, because I'm not sure I was fully convinced that I could do it either.

The night we got to the hospital, I had dilated to a 4 and was contracting every 3-4 minutes so they decided against giving me the cervidil. The nurse told me that I could potentially wake up in the morning and be far enough along that I could just get my water broken and skip the pitocin. Unfortunately, getting over-excited about this led to some extreme disappointment when I hadn't progressed overnight and was forced to start the pitocin. I felt completely defeated and figured that I had no chance of delivering without an epidural. I told the nurse to have the anesthesiologist informed that I would want the epidural as soon as I was allowed (which at this hospital, isn't until after the contractions start to hurt). My nurse said, "Great! Last week I had a girl say that she wanted to try to go without an epidural. She eventually caved and was begging for it but she was too close to delivery for her to get it. I felt so bad that she had to go through that." I actually really liked that story and told her "you know, I think that's ideally how it would work for me. I know I'd eventually cave, but I'd want to cave in the 'no turning back' zone so that I could tough through it." I'm pretty sure she thought I was crazy.

Shortly after that, they broke my water and the contractions started to get very aggressive very quickly. Even though they were ridiculously painful, I was able to get through them. I had been given a lot of advice for how to get through contractions but the one that really stuck with me was "finding my happy place." The night before we went to the hospital, Joey and Moses had been playing really well together in the living room. They both had their super hero capes on and would "fly" around the house. They played ring-around-the-rosey about a thousand times and their giggles were incessant. This was my happy place. Every time the contractions came I went back to that night and replayed their giggles over and over in my head. The nurse kept coming in and saying "Can I go get the anesthesiologist? You can have your epidural now" but I'd tell her that I was doing okay and wasn't ready yet. Perhaps I could actually make it through this!

I was stuck between a 6 and a 7 for an hour-ish and so the nurse had me lay on my side to try to get things moving. It worked immediately. The contractions reached a point that even my sweet boys' giggles couldn't get me through the pain. I was screaming bloody murder and my body was telling me "ENOUGH!" I begged Tom to go get the nurse to tell her that I wanted the epidural immediately. Sure enough, my dreams came true. The nurse informed us that the anesthesiologist was assisting with the C-section down that hall and wouldn't be available for another 20 minutes or so. I thought I would die. And then I felt this sudden urge to have a BM. Not really phased by what this meant, I yelled out to the nurse "I have to poop!," in all honesty thinking that this was really a poop that was coming and that perhaps she'd let me get up and go to the bathroom. Her eyes got huge and she said "don't push yet!" as she ran out yelling for the doctor to come immediately. The rest is a bit of a blur because it went by so fast, but somehow they got everything ready by the time I pushed. One push and out came her head. Her shoulders and body came with the second push. Healthy baby girl arrived in just shy of 5 hours total.

So will I go without the epidural again? Probably not. It was really cool to be able to experience it once. I'm glad I could say that I did it. But it hurt. It wasn't spiritual. I didn't have all that energy that natural laborers talk about having after a delivery. I was shaking and exhausted. I thought that once she came out the pain would be gone. Not so much. For 30 minutes I had to deal with getting the placenta out, getting stitched up (which --by the way-- is NOT fun) and calming my shaking body. With the boys, I was energized and excited to hold them immediately after delivering them. I was so exhausted and shaky after delivering Naomi that I wasn't even eager to look at her right away because I wanted to be in a happier, calmer place first. It was rough. I'll consider it a once in a lifetime experience. 

The Princess has Arrived

Naomi Darlene was born at 12:34. She weighed 8 pounds, 2 ounces and measured 20.5 inches. Labor and delivery happened without any complications and both mom and baby are doing fine.

Mary really wanted to deliver without an epidural or any other pain medication. When they started her on pitocin and broke her water she thought that option was practically off the the table. However, whenever the nurse asked her if she wanted an epidural she kept pushing it off. Around 12:00 she finally demanded that I call the nurse in so that she could get the epidural, but by that time the anesthesiologist was in a C-section and unavailable. Had he been available I don't think he could have helped much. In just over half an hour Naomi was here. I'm so proud of Mary for toughing it through and sticking to her plan.

Splash

The doctor, nurse, and residents just came in at around 9:00 and broke Mary's water. She is dilated to a 3. They are hoping that breaking the water will help get more effective contractions in, and hopefully get the baby here soon. Mary is really hoping that the baby will come quick so that she can experience labor and delivery without an epidural.

Bringing the pitocin

The baby hasn't descended far enough to automatically break my water so the doctor will be coming in soon to give me the pitocin. Not our ideal circumstance but hopefully this can be short and sweet. Epidural it is!

At the hospital: night 1

Dear family and friends,

We figured this would be the best way to keep any and all who care informed about the progress of Naomi's birth. A text message can say only so much and making a million calls is tedious.. We figure this gets the job done most efficiently.

We arrived at the hospital last night at 9 and they got me all set up in a room and hooked up to the monitor. The baby was doing fine and I was having consistent contractions every 4 minutes (no shocker, this happens every night). He resident came in and checked my cervix. I was at somewhere between a 3 and 4 and 70% effaced. After consulting with my doctor, they decided to skip the original plan of administering cervidil overnight. Though this made the whole point of coming in tonight void, they still had us stay and have monitored the baby a little throughout the night. Sometime around 7 or 8 the doctor will come and examine me and start he induction. We are very eagerly hoping that he is willing to break my water and hold out a few hours before administering pitocin to see if my body will take the cue on its own. My first nurse of the night seemed to be an advocate for these hopes but my current nurse seems to be more of a "follow the rules" nurse. I guess we'll learn more as the morning progresses.

If this post doesn't make much sense I apologize. I'm running on about 5 hours of Ambien-assisted sleep and am not quite using a full-capacity brain.

We love you all and are grateful for all of your support.

Psycho Toddler

(Beware that this is a highly detailed explanation of Moses' response to shots. It will surely bore you. I blog this not so much for social entertainment but more for my own documentation to remember for next time. Feel free to read, but it's pretty depressing and long winded)

Moses is normally our angel baby. He has always been my peace through Joey's terrible twos. Moses was able to make up for 18 months of lost time with 5 days of constant, non-stop, ever present TORTURE.

Let's back up to Wednesday October 10th. That was the day that Moses had his 18 month wellness check up. We knew he'd be getting shots and we knew he'd be likely to 1) hate them and 2) get a fever because neither of my boys respond well to shots. As expected, Moses hated the shots (who doesn't?) and soon after got a mild fever that passed quickly. We were warned, though, that the MMR shot could potentially give him a fever up to a week later. Sure enough, the following Tuesday night Moses' fever came back. He started to act exhausted. His energy was gone and he just wanted to be held. Then Wednesday afternoon he started to burn up. Like HOT. We checked his temperature and it was at 105. We went to the doctor and she couldn't find anything else wrong with him so she sent us on our way, telling us that if the fever persisted for 72 hours to come back. So for Wednesday and Thursday, he was totally spent. He hardly ever moved. He just sat in my arms and either slept or just sat with a glaze over his eyes. He wouldn't eat or drink. Too much energy required.

The fever finally broke on Friday and that's pretty much when Psycho Toddler arrived. The fever was going down but the madness was going up. For starters, he continued to only want to be held all day and night. He refused to sleep in his bed, only in Tom's arms. All. Night. Long. That's the other thing. Only Tom could hold him. I turned into a monster, apparently, and couldn't come anywhere near him. He continued to refuse to eat, drink, or sleep. Screaming was a constant noise in our home. Even if Tom was holding him, he was screaming. It was just a significantly less thrashy scream than if I tried to hold him or we tried to put him down. He was delirious. It was almost as if he was constantly living in a night terror (haven't experience this, but from what I've read, the behavior sounds the same). Saturday night we gave in and went to Urgent Care, who found nothing wrong with him except concern over dehydration. So they sent us over to the children's hospital to get further examination and an IV. Same story at the children's hospital. I'm pretty sure everyone thought we were crazy because his ears were fine, his throat was fine, his temperature was fine, and he was distracted enough to stop screaming. They did hook him up to an IV to get some liquids in him and then just sent us on our way. Moses still had a rough night sleeping that night and was a bit of a terror for the first part of the next morning. We feared that the fluids had done NOTHING. Thankfully, things shifted in the afternoon. He started eating. He started drinking. We had to revert back to the recently exiled bottle but it got him drinking. He started SMILING. We finally started to breathe again. There was a light at the end of the tunnel.

Today the tantrums are still present but not constant. I can hold him again, though Tom is still the preferred comforter. He is catching up on all of the lost sleep (though only on the floor. He still refuses to sleep in his crib. We'll take what we can get). He's walking around. He's eating. He's drinking. He smiles from time to time. We're on the up and up.

Despite the madness of this week, we have a lot to thank our Heavenly Father for.We're hopeful for a week of fun ahead. We are SO grateful that Tom had this past week and this upcoming week off as a break between mini semesters. I think we all would have been put into an insane asylum had Tom not been here to help. And THANK GOODNESS Naomi didn't decide to show up early. That would have been out. of. control. I'm grateful that Tom could give Moses a blessing in the middle of this madness. I'm immensely grateful for the love and prayers of our family and friends who were constantly there to check in on us. Life is hard but life is good.