Baby Weight Be Gone!

It's taken me six weeks to finally get a chance to write a new blog post. Being a mommy is hard work! I definitely have had it rough between sleepless nights, no time to myself, or alone time with my hubby. And even getting a chance to take a shower is a luxury. But with all the overwhelming craziness, it's still the best job in the world and I wouldn't trade it for anything else!



And finally, at six weeks old, my little munchkin is starting to sleep longer which gives me more time to do things for myself...such as blog! :) So today's blog will be about my BABY WEIGHT.. ahh!!! I gained 30 lbs during my pregnancy and thankfully, due to breastfeeding,I lost 20 of them in the first 4 weeks. But now, I have the stubborn last 10 lbs that will not budge. It's probably because I've kept some of my naughty pregnancy eating habits, and that can only lead to disaster. I already felt like losing weight prior to getting pregnant so I actually want to lose about 20 lbs at this point. SO I decided to start THE SOUTH BEACH DIET tomorrow! Woo hoo! I usually am a Weight Watchers kinda gal but when I want to lose a bunch of weight, I have to do more of a restrictive type of diet first, then switch over to something that will help me maintain it.

So since carbs are my biggest obsession, I figure it's best to try to go cold turkey to release the hold it has on my life! For two weeks I'll be in PHASE ONE which is the strictest part of the diet. I'll be able to have beef, turkey, chicken, fish, tofu, eggs, low fat cheese, and all the veggies I want. I will NOT be able to have sugar at all (not even fruit b/c of the sugar in them), and no bad carbs such as white bread, pasta, or even potatoes! Yikes! I'll update my blog with my results but I'm sure I'll be a cranky little monster by day 3.

I just want to make sure that I do it in a healthy way because I'm still breastfeeding and I don't want it to affect my milk production. So I'll be drinking tons of water, and eating six times a day... just healthy food instead of my usual coke and hoagie meal plan. Is it bad that I feel like today is my last day of sanity so I'm shoveling food into my pie hole as I type? I have been eating like a bear going into hibernation. It's really quite sad, but I figure I want to get my fill of tasty treats before I say goodbye. *cut to Boyz II Men song* - "It's so haaarrdd, to say goodbyyeee, to yesterdaayyyyyyy.. oooooh!!" God help me...

Michael Aaron Jr. - Here at last! (Part II)

Here's the conclusion of my birth story!!

5 am Monday morning (Mar. 1)- I had now been in labor for 23 hours... and I was spent. I mean I was seriously at the point where I couldn't talk through contractions, and in between contractions I just wanted to sit still and focus. That's when we knew I was in active labor. So off to the hospital we went! Btw, the ride there was horrendous... every bump made my cervix and uterus angry lol And they made sure I knew it!

6 am - I was checked and was 4 centimeters dilated. Now everyone in that room seemed to be excited... EXCEPT FOR ME. All I kept thinking was that I was in labor for this long already and still only 4 centimeters?! I was expecting 8 by this time and with this intensity of pain! Oh but wait... the pain got worse.

7am - 3 pm - This was the highest level of pain I have ever been through in my life. At this point I was completely confused. I didn't know what time it was, who's voices I was hearing, I mean I was completely in the zone. My L&D room was dark, and there was Christian music playing on the boom box in the background... the songs I had chosen weeks earlier to help me through this experience. Every so often I would hear nurses come in and say how impressed they were with me and how they couldn't do it, etc. etc. My hubs kept with the positive affirmations and our doula gave us direction with walking the hospital halls, sqautting to bring the baby down into the birth canal, and telling me that I could do it everytime I cried and said I couldn't. (I tell ya, hiring a doula was really the best thing we did since we were so gung ho about having a natural child birth! I just know that I would have given up after like 4 hours if she wasn't there.)

I just realized that I have been saying that I was in labor for 29 hours, but now that I'm re-counting, It was more like 33 or more! I experienced 33 hours medication free.. and the rest - well let me explain: Well ladies and gents... around 3 pm, I was checked again and was ready to hear that I was 10 centimeters and ready to push... what did the doc tell me? 6 centimeters... $%&%&#$!!! At that point I broke down and cried in front of the doc, the nurses, everyone. I tell you hearing that number really broke me down. I totally would have been able to have a FULLY natural child birth if labor ended at like, I don't know, say hour 20... but 30+ hours later my body (and sadly my mind) had completely given up.

4 pm - It was at this faithful hour that I turned to my hubs and said our code word for pain meds - PEANUT BUTTER. As soon as he heard it, he ran like crazy to get the nurses... and a short time after that the epidural was administered.

Initially I was a little heartbroken about my decision. Though I was now pain free, I cried and kept asking my hubby and our doula whether they were disappointed in me. Of course they said that they were super proud of me and that I was like a serious warrior for enduring all that I had. After I did a little grieving for the birth story I was hoping for, I focused on having a healthy baby and avoiding the main concern which was a C-section.

6pm - I dilated from 6 cm to 10 cm and was ready to push! Hip Hip Hurray! Our nurse's shift was over but she had gotten so attached to us and our story that she stayed on for the extra time to be present when Mikey came into this world.

The pushing was nuts! The pressure was serious, and my epi was wearing off so I actually started to feel the contractions again! But that was okay because with pushing, I had a purpose, and I was ready to meet our little guy FINALLY! At 6:53pm Michael Aaron Jr. was born! At the final push, he came flying out (according to my hubby hehe, projectile baby!) and he came out crying! When they placed him on my belly, it was the most amazing thing that I have ever experienced in my life. All the pain was washed away, everything I endured was totally worth it when I looked into his cute face. I was bawling and so was my hubby. It was truly a miracle!

Now I'm sitting here and looking over at my little one.. completely and utterly in love. Ya he doesn't do much as of yet - eat, sleep, poop, and cry - but in just a week, he has brought so much joy into our lives. Joy that we had no clue about before his arrival. Staring into his face, it brings to mind the verse that I would say to myself throughout the pregnancy: 2 Corinthians 9:15 "Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!" God is sooo good and we are so blessed to have Mikey in our lives! We love him dearly and couldn't ask for anything more!

Michael Aaron Jr. - Here at last! (Part I)

Our little one is finally here! He's such a cutie pie and we're so blessed to have him! As I'm writing, he's taking a nap in his crib, so I figured I'd write my birth story (plus my buddy Tricia wrote hers last night so that got me motivated!)

So here goes... Well Saturday evening (Feb. 27) the hubby and I went out to dinner, and all was well. I was starting to feel some twinges but my hubs didn't believe me since I had been saying that for the past week or more! I was already 40 weeks 1 day and getting seriously impatient with still being preggers! We then went to visit my mom and she took one look at me and said "oh the baby's coming!" I was like "how do you know ma?!" She said that she just knew from looking at me and the shape of my belly. Well that was exciting but I didn't' really put too much stock into that since I officially felt that I would be pregnant forever.

12 am Sunday (Feb. 28)- I lost my mucus plug in the toilet bowl (sorry TMI but this is a birth story after all so expect some craziness!) As soon as I saw it, I freaked! I mean full blown panic. I ran to my hubs and said "I'm not ready! I'm not ready!" and he just looked at me and smiled. He reassured me that I was ready and that we had been waiting fore this for so long. He then was all over the apartment excited, getting things together, cheering, doing peter pan leaps (sorry babe I had to say it) and made me feel happy and excited again about what we were about to experience.

6am - I was starting to have contractions every 10 minutes but they were totally manageable. I remember thinking "Oh that's what they feel like!" I called my mom to tell her the good news, notified my doula to get ready, and tried to take naps in between moments of pain. But again, they were totally manageable with deep breathing and focus.

10:30 am - Contractions were all over the place. Sometimes 8 minutes apart, sometimes 10 minutes apart, sometimes 15 minutes, and so on and so on for many hours.

3:00 pm - The contractions were getting stronger, but still not closer together. So the hubby and I took a walk around the neighborhood. I tell ya, it was definitely a weird feeling stopping every 8 minutes and leaning on him, all the while moaning and little old ladies and children passed me by with stunned looks on their faces. It took a lot of self control not to shout "Haven't you seen a woman in labor before you big dorks?!"

9:45 pm - Yup, you guessed it. Still in labor. But now the contractions were FINALLY 5 minutes apart and we called our doula, Shanon, to come over. Contractions still manageable but definitely a huge difference in intensity from the morning. So I started sitting and leaning on my birth ball, and the hubby massaged my back, put hot compresses all over me, and continued to encourage me. What a great support he was! (I'm totally proud of how he handled everything! If he was nervous, he never let me know it, which I'm very grateful for!)

After this point, all I can say is God was definitely with me because labor continued for many many MANY more hours. Our doula would help me breath and moan through the contractions, she rubbed my feet, my hubby would rub my back, we took walks, we went up and down the stairs (ya at that point I wanted to sock my doula in the head for having me do that during some seriously challenging contractions but they helped to get the contractions closer together which is what we wanted) Our doula helped me do visualizations of my bubble of peace to stay positive. I laughed, I cried, I ate, I moaned, yes, I even slept for minutes at a time. But it continued.. and continued...

Okay that's it for now! Mikey is starting to wake up and it's time for nursing! Stay tuned for Part II and click HERE when you're ready!!

Bah Humbug to Obstetricians!

So I had another Doctor's appointment yesterday and I tell you, it's amazing how one visit with an overzealous OB can knock down what took you weeks, or maybe even months to build up. What am I griping about? It's the idea that many OBs just aren't Natural Childbirth (NCB) friendly. It's so amazing that in this day and age we have to fight for something that has gone on since the beginning of time... naturally!

Why am I so cranky? Well...

1) I am not dilated at all yet, despite being halfway through my 38th week of pregnancy. But after speaking to my Doula, now I'm annoyed with myself because if the average baby stays in until 40 weeks, so what if I'm not dilated yet? Thank you Doula Shanon for knocking my head back into place! The baby's head is very low, and my cervix is soft, so in actuality I AM making progress and I need to stop fretting.

2) My OB said he was concerned that I gained 7 lbs this week instead of the average 2-3 lbs so he scheduled me for a sonogram next week to make sure my baby isn't becoming a "Maury Baby". You know what the "Maury Baby" is.. it's the 100 lb baby that gets fed pizzas and spaghetti for breakfast. In any event, all that did was put a little fear in the back of my head that I might have a massive baby shooting out of my crotch, which did not fair well for me or my "bubble of peace" that my Doula keeps trying to help me stay in.

3) My OB seems to have changed a bit... or maybe he's just showing his true colors. Initially when i first "hired" him (which is what it really boils down to) he swore up and down that he respected my wishes for a NCB and was all gung ho about it - in the beginning. But recently, he's been doing a lot of epidural and induction talk which is very off-putting! At every visit he throws in the "and don't feel as if you have to be a hero.. you can get the epidural and go from excruciating pain to reading a magazine in minutes!" Ya doc, not to mention the 4 inch needle in my spine, the lack of mobility, the constant fetal monitoring, the catheter in my bladder... shall i go on? That is just SOME of what occurs right alongside the epidural, but NO of course he won't mention those little juicy tidbits of information.

So with all of that, I came out of my appointment nearly in tears because I felt that A) I'm going to be pregnant forever and B) My doctor isn't supporting me. And that is NOT how you should feel when you're days away from delivering your baby. But after speaking to my hubby (who is sooo amazing with how supportive he is) and after speaking to Doula Shanon, I now feel that I am back on track. And all my OB did is give me more gumption to have my NCB and be extra smug about it to him afterwards, tee hee.

The one thing I'm certain of is that if we're blessed with another baby, I will be searching for a great MIDWIFE, and OBs will not be in my field of vision at all. Do you know that you could have a Midwife patient in one room and an Obstetrician patient in the very next room, but they both are given totally different "rules" of laboring? Most Midwives will allow you to have clear fluids such as water, or chicken broth, during labor. Guess what Obstetricians allow you to have? Ice chips... That's right, ice chips. What's the difference between the Midwife patient and the OB patient? They are both in the same hospital. Both could be low risk pregnancies. The difference is the mentality that OBs have of wanting to control everything, bill insurance for as much as possible, and make it "easy" for themselves and their staff. Ugh.. don't get me started!! I've learned so much during this pregnancy. I've gone from being 8 weeks and saying that I would be making a bee-line to the anaesthesiologist at delivery, to now at 38 weeks wanting to avoid the anaesthesiologist like the plague! In any event, I now feel as if I have regained control and am looking forward to meeting my little pumpkin! Even if he IS a hefty sized pumpkin. :)

My Poor Swollen Feet!

I am now 37 weeks and 4 days and I FINALLY have experienced the dreaded swollen feet! I totally thought that I was on the road to going through the whole pregnancy without it. Besides early first trimester drama, this pregnancy has been pretty smooth sailing. Once I hit the second trimester, I really felt great! No heartburn, nothing swollen, and I gained weight mostly in my belly as opposed to every place else! But alas, my feet... my poor swollen feet!

It's like it happened exactly when I hit 37 weeks. I have no idea why or how but one evening, while watching TV with my hubby, I looked down at my feet and they looked like Fred Flinstone's! What the! I was in shock! My hubby looked down at them and just shook his head lol I immediately elevated them and drank water. The next morning they were back to normal, however, every evening they seem to balloon up. I read that it's common for feet to get swollen towards the end of pregnancy, and especially in the evening. So as long as I keep them elevated and keep drinking water to eliminate the water weight, I should be fine. They're very uncomfortable though when they get like that! I feel like I'm walking on bricks!

Other than that, I'm just sitting here, playing the waiting game. As nervous as I am about labor and delivery, I'm really ready to meet our little guy and move on to the next stage: actually being parents! I wonder what he'll look like. Will he look more like me? More like my husband? What type of temperament will he have? So many questions!! It really is amazing. Just think - this time next month I'll be a mommy! :) And I'll be posting baby pics! This truly has been an amazing journey. I learned so much and am so glad I have tons of supportive people around me.

OH, and last week was our last Bradley Method birthing class. The series was really great, I highly recommend it to those who are interested in natural childbirth and want as much information as possible. There are a lot of things that we are unaware of in terms of hospital protocol when delivering babies so it was great to learn all of that so we could make educated, informed decisions about the birth. We learned all about the stages of labor, pain management, pros and cons of medications, C-section, and breastfeeding. We saw tons of videos of actual births which I think was great preparation. Most importantly, the class left me feeling like I CAN BIRTH NATURALLY. There was empowerment there. When I first started the class I was so unsure of myself and scared but now I know what to expect, and I know that I'm strong and brave! God will see us through it. :) I'll try to write another post next week but I'm hoping that the next time I write I'll be a mommy!!! Yay!