FYI- this is the last of the catch up posts! Starting Monday- frugal tips galore!
I desperately wanted the baby to be born on January 4th. It held no importance to me, other then the fact that it was convient for EVERYONE. My Mom was going back to work on the 6th, the 5th was my husbands last day off, my mother in law was leaving for Germany on the 14th and the midwife that I wanted to deliver the baby was on call. It HAD to be the 4th!
So I woke up the morning of the 4th around 3am with some pretty serious contractions. They were coming every 12 minutes or so and quite painful. I fell asleep at about 6am, and then everything stopped. I woke up at 8:30am and it was lame. I was only having the odd contraction and when they did come, they were very irregular and not lasting very long. They started to come again around 11am, about 1-2 an hour and they were painful. I talked to a good friend and told her that I thought I might be in labour, but that I wasn't sure and it was probably nothing knowing my past. We had some people from our church over for lunch and after they left we decided to go walking.
We got to Costco at about 2:30pm and started walking around. I was getting contractions every 20-30 minutes at that point and I wasn't able to walk through them. We moved on to Ikea, where they picked up to about every 5-8 minutes. We decided to leave around 4:20pm and head over to my parents house for dinner. By the time we got to their place, I was contracting every 4-6 minutes and they were lasting a solid minute to a minute and a half. Thanks to a wonderful app. on my iPhone I was easily able to keep track of my contractions. Everyone ate (I had a few homefries and some salad) and then we had to leave because the contractions were getting more intense and I was getting really anxious about not being at my house.
We got home at 6:47pm and I had one HUGE contraction so I decided to go upstairs and hop into the shower. I made it to the bathroom and then my water broke. It was a huge gush and my clothes were soaked. Immediately following that I had a huge contraction and called for my husband. He called my Mom and my bestfriend while I called the midwife. I got into the shower and laboured there until the midwife got there. She checked me and I went from 5-6cm during one contraction. That was the one and only time I was checked. I was officially in active labour.
I continued to labour, in a variety of positions until I had the urge to push. I gave birth to my son 3 pushes later. My mom, mother in law, and my bestfriend were all present. He was immediately given to me and I was able to lay with my new son on our bed. We had skin to skin contact for almost an hour before the midwife checked him. I showered and he was passed around those who attended his birth.
Mr. Man (FLRB) was born at home after a short, drug free labour, on January 4th 2011 at 8:51pm. He weighed 6lbs 10oz and was 20.5 inches long. He is the perfect baby and so completely different from his sister.
He is now 5 weeks old and growing like a weed. He probably weighs just over 8 pounds- which is what Miss C. weighed at 2 months of age. He LOVES to eat, and is very efficient which I appreciate in the middle of the night. He sleeps for 3-4 hours at night and is up every 2-3 hours during the day. Miss C LOVES her little brother and is always up in his face talking, kissing, hugging, yelling at him. I sometimes wonder how he can sleep through all of her noise- then I remember that he heard it the whole time he was in utero and that it is probably comforting for him. Go figure!
I am doing really well and have found adjusting to having two kids wasn't as bad as I had worked it up to be in my mind. There are challenges and days when I don't think we will all survive, but we do...and tomorrow always comes. We've had a lot of love and support from our family and friends and everyone has been really good at sharing the love.
Frugally Yours,
Erin B.
I desperately wanted the baby to be born on January 4th. It held no importance to me, other then the fact that it was convient for EVERYONE. My Mom was going back to work on the 6th, the 5th was my husbands last day off, my mother in law was leaving for Germany on the 14th and the midwife that I wanted to deliver the baby was on call. It HAD to be the 4th!
So I woke up the morning of the 4th around 3am with some pretty serious contractions. They were coming every 12 minutes or so and quite painful. I fell asleep at about 6am, and then everything stopped. I woke up at 8:30am and it was lame. I was only having the odd contraction and when they did come, they were very irregular and not lasting very long. They started to come again around 11am, about 1-2 an hour and they were painful. I talked to a good friend and told her that I thought I might be in labour, but that I wasn't sure and it was probably nothing knowing my past. We had some people from our church over for lunch and after they left we decided to go walking.
We got to Costco at about 2:30pm and started walking around. I was getting contractions every 20-30 minutes at that point and I wasn't able to walk through them. We moved on to Ikea, where they picked up to about every 5-8 minutes. We decided to leave around 4:20pm and head over to my parents house for dinner. By the time we got to their place, I was contracting every 4-6 minutes and they were lasting a solid minute to a minute and a half. Thanks to a wonderful app. on my iPhone I was easily able to keep track of my contractions. Everyone ate (I had a few homefries and some salad) and then we had to leave because the contractions were getting more intense and I was getting really anxious about not being at my house.
We got home at 6:47pm and I had one HUGE contraction so I decided to go upstairs and hop into the shower. I made it to the bathroom and then my water broke. It was a huge gush and my clothes were soaked. Immediately following that I had a huge contraction and called for my husband. He called my Mom and my bestfriend while I called the midwife. I got into the shower and laboured there until the midwife got there. She checked me and I went from 5-6cm during one contraction. That was the one and only time I was checked. I was officially in active labour.
I continued to labour, in a variety of positions until I had the urge to push. I gave birth to my son 3 pushes later. My mom, mother in law, and my bestfriend were all present. He was immediately given to me and I was able to lay with my new son on our bed. We had skin to skin contact for almost an hour before the midwife checked him. I showered and he was passed around those who attended his birth.
Mr. Man (FLRB) was born at home after a short, drug free labour, on January 4th 2011 at 8:51pm. He weighed 6lbs 10oz and was 20.5 inches long. He is the perfect baby and so completely different from his sister.
He is now 5 weeks old and growing like a weed. He probably weighs just over 8 pounds- which is what Miss C. weighed at 2 months of age. He LOVES to eat, and is very efficient which I appreciate in the middle of the night. He sleeps for 3-4 hours at night and is up every 2-3 hours during the day. Miss C LOVES her little brother and is always up in his face talking, kissing, hugging, yelling at him. I sometimes wonder how he can sleep through all of her noise- then I remember that he heard it the whole time he was in utero and that it is probably comforting for him. Go figure!
I am doing really well and have found adjusting to having two kids wasn't as bad as I had worked it up to be in my mind. There are challenges and days when I don't think we will all survive, but we do...and tomorrow always comes. We've had a lot of love and support from our family and friends and everyone has been really good at sharing the love.
Frugally Yours,
Erin B.
