Thursday's Thirteen Things: Girlie's Birth

1. The contractions started around 11pm on February 27, 2012. Thanks to our Bradley Method Childbirth Classes, we knew to try to get some sleep before the real labor began.
2. With help from our doula and doula-in-training and techniques from those Bradley Classes, I made it through the first stage of labor comfortably at home.
3. We drove to the hospital around 4pm when the contractions were consistent and before rush hour hit.

4. The anesthesiologist came in right as I hit the transition between first and second stage and as I was starting to feel the self doubt that goes along with that stage. Fortunately, I had a fabulous doula and coach and I was able to hold strong. Besides, I moved into second stage before I was really able to decide anything.
5. The actual birth was definitely a lot of work, and it took me a little while of figuring out how to push effectively with the contractions. I remember a lot of emotions during that time: fear, self-doubt, determination, etc.
6. Our beautiful baby girl was born at 11:21pm on February 28, 2012. She was only 39 minutes from being a Leap Day baby. I'm glad she didn't wait, because I was definitely ready to be done with being in labor.
7. Her birth was all natural, thankfully. I hemorrhaged afterwards and they were able to use the petocin to stop the bleeding.
8. I was able to hold her right away, but it definitely wasn't long enough. They had to take her because she had fluid in her lungs and I had some tearing the doctors had to stitch up. Fortunately, Robert was able to hold her for a while through my rough patch.

9. She went to the nursery so they could watch for signs of infection, and I went to the ante-partum section of the maternity ward so they could keep an eye on my blood loss.
10. I cried myself to sleep that night. I wanted my baby more than anything else. It didn't feel fair that I did all that damn work just to have her taken from me. All I wanted was to hold my baby!
11. I did get to where I could walk and go see her the next day in the NICU. I was even able to breastfeed her a little. It was still hard not to be able to be with her all the time.

12. The absolute hardest thing I have ever done in all of my life was leave my baby at the hospital after I was released. She had to stay a full 7 days so they could administer the full course of antibiotics they started after signs of pneumonia. Fortunately, she was healthy and made it through all of that ok. I still feel so terribly sad and miserable every time I think of her in that hospital all by her self with all those tubes and monitors. In fact, this is the first I've really written about her birth, including in journals and stuff, because it is just so damn hard to think about. I'm glad I have her sitting right here beside me.
13. Despite the difficulty we faced after her birth, it is still the best thing I have ever done. I have a sense of confidence I have never felt before. I gave birth to a child naturally. Me, the one with the congenital heart defect. I gave birth to a beautiful, happy, sweet baby girl whom I cherish. I am woman! I am mother! Hear me roar!

home from the hospital

her first night home

the sunrise on her first morning at home

Girlie's Sixth Month

This month has been like an awakening. Girlie is getting closer and closer to sitting unassisted. With this new semi-vertical position, an interest and awareness of the world around her has been kindled. She is so much fun. She seems to enjoy reading books more now that she can help turn the pages and put the books in her mouth. She enjoys interacting with people and seems to be looking for any excuse to laugh. She's eating solid foods now, another interaction with the world while sitting. She enjoys being propped up by pillows or my legs so she can play with toys. She did finally roll over from back to tummy, once. Her pediatrician said there's not as much incentive to roll that way, so I'm trying to let go of any concern there. She is still a delightful and easy going baby. Robert and I feel so blessed to have such a sweet, happy, healthy baby girl.

In the spirit of keeping things real on the ole bloggety blog, one of her socks that I've been using in the monthly pictures has been missing since I did laundry after her five month pictures. I used a pair of purple socks from the same package of socks, so we can still tell how she's growing compared to all of the other months.

We won't be able to take pictures this way if she gets too much longer.

I found the missing sock in one of the footies of her sleeper on Wednesday night, so I took pictures with it and a little bit of natural light on Thursday, August 30, 2012. It's been cloudy here this week.

Monkeying Around

Some pictures I took the other day for baby-photo-a-day.

Thursday's Thirteen Things: The Ole Bloggety Blog

1. This idea comes from a concept called Tuesday Twelve that my sister-in-law posts on her blog.
2. I plan to use Thursday's Thirteen Things to help me keep my blog posts organized and concise.
3. Thursday's Thirteen Things will contain thirteen points about one topic.
4. I have backdated the last few blog posts to avoid confusion, since I was blogging about Jak's birthday and Girlie's monthly birthdays.
5. I have at least seven posts drafted over the last year that I think will be publish worthy using the concept of Thursday's Thirteen Things.
6. I hope to avoid back dating blog posts in the future. I also recognize that I'm not perfect and backdating may happen despite my best efforts.
7. I had lots of ideas about posting on our moving in the house and making it our home. Then, I was pregnant and the moving in came to a grinding halt. I was too hormonal and too embarrassed at the state of the house to post anything about the house at that point.
8. I'm still embarrassed about the state of the house but plan to post anyway. It's all about keeping it real and hopefully finding kindred spirits among those other moms and homemakers who have AD/HD, are right brained thinkers, are INFPs, or just struggle with maintaining an immaculate home while living life.
9. Since I have identified this blog as a family newsletter and journal, I'd like to post more on the day to day life of being a parent and other journal like topics.
10. It's hard to find time to sit down at the computer to write blog posts with a baby.
11. I'm glad there's an iPhone app for that.
12. Basically, I'm hoping to blog more often and in raw, honest format.
13.  Thirteen Things is a lot.

Jak is Six

Our Jak is six years old! He's still young at heart though. He still gets into stuff and loves a good snuggle. He's even snuggled me while I was holding Girlie, just because he needed snuggles at that very moment. He still loves to play with curly fries (twisted pipe cleaners) and fishing pole types of toys. He's such a good cat. He's had a difficult year with losing Albert and then adding a baby to the mix. Here are a few pictures I've taken over the year. Enjoy!

Close up

Jak needs attention.

Jak snuggling while I feed the baby.

Jak helps with the groceries.

Jak looking cute.

Jak stuck in the laundry hamper.

Jak surveying the kitchen from a bowl.

Reagan and Jak

Sun bathing

hidden kitty

new nap spot

under the crib

Jak is always getting into whatever he may find in the kitchen sink!

Jak is watching the birds while I blog.