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Friday, January 27, 2012

Thursday, January 26, 2012

It is close - But now Abby is Here!!!

9:15 -- Heather is now in the room with her watchful eye making sure all is okay.   Tianna is now starting to push a little through her contractions.  Abby is starting to feel a little lower.  Progress!  Progress!  Progress!

Jessa wanted to know on a scale from 1 to 10, how bad was the pain.  Tianna's response, "I am not answering that."  Then we tried to make a collaberative attempt at the right wording.  Intensity was the decided upon word.  With that Tianna's response to the word was this - "IT IS INTENSE!"  I think this answers our question, we are hitting the top of the scale.  But an onlooker would never know how bad it is because she is still purring through contractions.  Sometimes the purring is a little more aggressive, but still a purr.

9:42 -- Tianna just asked if she could give birth in a coma because she is getting so tired.   Man she would miss a lot if she did that :)  The pressure is getting a lot more intense.

9:53 -- CROWNING!!!!

9:56 -- Abby is here!!!
 
9:58 -- First Cry!!!  She has had a great heart rate - just waited for Abby to really make her voice heard.

10:00 -- Did the first check to make sure the baby was a girl -- IT IS A GIRL!!!

The end is in sight

8:40 -- Tianna is now in the birthing tub.  Leaning against the edge with two massagers now.  One for the upper back and shoulders and then the other for the lower back.  The best part is listening to her, she sounds like she is purring.  A content mother enjoying the miracles of life.  She may correct the wording later if she likes, but she does seem content from the onlookers point of view.

Off topic - not only is there a play by play blow her on the blog, but she has her own photographer (Jessa) that is getting the visual coverage of this amazing event.
 
Another side note - this is the best smelling delivery.  These essential oils help with the soothing ambience of the natural birth.  As I sit here and type, there are 3 people sitting around making her comfortable.  BJ is right there holding her hands with tender words of encouragement.  Jessa and I wait for our next chance to do our jobs.  Heather is out in the family room with another assistant.  All this attention for a special baby that is preparing to make her debut into this world.

8:57 -- and she is starting to get a little more labored in her breathing, but still holding strong.

The start of the baby - Or is it the start

So now the laptop has been turned over to me (the sister Jalin).   The champ (Mom) has been going all day.  She did some cleaning, face booking, playing with kids, making food and the typical mom activities.   She has been a little tired, but who are we to judge.

Here is the start of the night.  Heather ( the mid wife) showed up about 7:00ish.  She was acting as if it were a normal day, but with lots of people around.  They put a few homeopathic pills under her tongue.  Then we moved the party upstairs.  At 7:30 she decided to take a potty break, which to her surprise was a new experience.  Her water broke and sprayed the bathroom.  She came out laughing with a questioning voice "I think my water broke?"  We laughed and then agreed.

7:45 -- was the check from Heather.  As she is laying there laughing and acting as if it is just an routine visit, Heather declares that she is at an 8 on one side and almost a 9 on the other, Abby was really low.  Okay - what is up with that!!!!!  At this point, most women are dying and very uncomfortable.  Not Tianna, she is making jokes and laughing with the rest of us.

8:00 -- Tianna is receiving a full belly massage of fennel and something else.  Heather asked her if she felt a contraction.  Can you guess the response?  "Was that a contraction, I thought it was just the baby moving."

8:10ish -- She just went to walk around for a bit.  She was going to get her shoes and go for a walk outside.  Now I know she is crazy!!!  She didn't, she just walked around downstairs.  Should I reveal that she gets to be like a goldie oldie!!!  Sure why not, they gave me the permission to blog.  She gets to wear a depends while she is walking.  

8:20 -- She is now back upstairs and she is not so lively and animated.  

8:28 --  It is to the point she is breathing through contractions.  Sitting on the birthing ball, leaning against BJ while the doula gives her a back massage.  Soothing music playing in the back ground.  Lights down and candles twinkling in the background.  How much better could it be for this point in the labor!!!

8:30 -- She just informed us that it is getting to the point that she is starting to feel a small urge to push.  Abby's heart beat is sounding wonderful and The Champ is still the champ of labor.

Abigail, part 1

Remember how we blogged Kessa's birth story all along the way?  Well, here we go again with Abigail's!


Yesterday I went in for a routine appointment at my midwife's and decided to get checked.  (I had declined last week, but so many people asked me, I figured I should have something to tell them.)  Turns out, I was 100% effaced, dilated to a 6, and baby was at a +1. Heather (my midwife) kept saying, "She's just right there!"  There were two assistants that asked, "How are you even walking?!"  Uhhh… one step at a time?  I didn't realize I wasn't supposed to be walking.  :D  I honestly had no idea that I could possibly be this far along.  I had felt a few, what I assumed to be, Braxton-Hicks contractions, and I've been uncomfortable, but having never reached this point in labor before, I just assumed it was all just normal end-of-pregnancy woes.  Turns out, they've been productive!  Who knew?

I really wanted my sister, Jalin, to be there for this labor, since my mom is gone on her mission, but she lives 10-12 hours away, so it didn't seem likely that she'd be able to actually be there for labor.  To make matters worse, her husband is going to be out of town starting next Tuesday and will be gone for a week.  So in order for Jalin to come stay with me for a week, I needed to go into labor right away or wait till my due date of Feb. 3rd*.

All things considered, we decided to try a natural induction.  This is much different than a medical induction.  From what they told me, a natural induction includes some capsules (like elderberry or something?  I can't recall edited: evening primrose), then an hour-long massage followed by an hour walk.  (And of course, it's raining.  So I think we'll go walk around the church.)  Worst case: my body isn't actually ready and won't do anything, but I'll get an hour massage out of it. Best case, I'll have a baby by morning!

So we're doing that tonight in about 20 minutes.  Wish us luck!


*Due date is Feb 2 according to my LMP and Feb 3 according to the ultrasound.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Out of the mouth of Kessa

Kessa is getting really verbal.  And she says some pretty hilarious things.  I've been trying to do better about writing them down, so here's a few from the last few days (these are copy/pasted mostly from chats to BJ):

  • Hah!  Kessa is upstairs entertaining herself and I just heard her say, "No whining!  I didn't!  I didn't!"
  • Kessa is playing Trainyard (on the iPad) and just exclaimed, "Oh! Holy Night!" Sure, she loves the song Silent Night, but to pull that out as an exclamation? Haha. Cracks me up.
  • Kessa wants me to come help with a puzzle, so she's been hollering at me, "Mommy, mommy, mommy!" And I keep telling her just a minute, because I'm writing on a facebook wall to answer a question for a friend. Suddenly she says, "Holy night!  I want to do this!"
  • Kessa has had a bad habit of waking up in the middle of the night and coming into our room. So we've started telling her that she can wake up when the sun wakes up. When the sun wakes up, then she can come wake up mommy and daddy. Well, last night she came in, but when BJ got up to take her back to bed, she very easily went back with him and went back to sleep. She knows the drill now, apparently.

    This morning BJ got up around 8. I had no reason to get up, so I kept sleeping. Finally, close to 9, I heard Kessa yelling, "Mommy!  Mommy!  Mommy!"  She often does this when she wants me to come or doesn't know where I am. She doesn't stop even when I answer her. So I heard that at a distance and figured she was downstairs with BJ and wanted me to come downstairs. So I took my time getting up, going to the bathroom, etc.

    Finally  I stumbled out of our room and realized that Kessa's voice was coming from her room. Not from downstairs. So I went into her room and found her sitting in bed, smiling. "Mommy!  There you are!"

    As I sat down next to her I noticed snow on the ground, so I pointed it out to her. She liked the snow. Then she looked up at the sky and said, "Sun not awake yet?"  It was quite cloudy, so I told her, "Oh, it's awake. It's just hiding behind the clouds. Is that why you're still in bed?  Because you thought the sun wasn't awake yet?"  To which she replied, "Want to make Mommy happy!"

    Awwww. Touch my heart. Seriously.
  • The other day Kessa hollered this down the stairs: "Ok, I'll bring it downstairs so that Mommy will open it. So stay there!"

    When did my little baby start talking in full sentences?

Sunday, January 8, 2012

36.5 weeks


People are starting to comment that I haven't posted any pregnancy pictures.  Well, that's because I don't have any.  With Kessa I took at least one per week (Even though I can't seem to find those pictures).  My second baby hasn't even been born yet and already I'm one of those moms.  I guess it was inevitable.  Anyway, so here I am at 36 weeks and 3 days.  Thursday I'll be considered full term.  I definitely feel bigger this pregnancy than I did with Kessa.  BJ thinks my belly looks like a bell curve in this picture.


And for everyone who missed it in one of my latest really long updates, we plan on naming this baby Abigail Pearl Homer.

And in the spirit of full disclosure, as I've realized there are people I'm quite close to that had no clue about this, I'm also planning a home birth.  I haven't really told a lot of people because I know some people freak out about it.  And I don't want negativity surrounding this birth.  So let's play by the rule here that if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.  K?  I figure it'll come out eventually, once I post the birth story.  And I want to make sure that those people who really care know about it.

*Yes, there is a hospital nearby.  Yes, I plan on transferring to a hospital if anything goes wrong during labor or birth.  No, I'm not scared about giving birth at home.  Yes, I've researched it.  Yes, I will have a midwife present.  Other questions are welcome, so long as they abide by the being nice rule above.