What I've been up to...

Daniel Joseph

He's here! I know I didn't get back while pregnant, but he's here now, so I hope to a little more. At least as often as I have two hands!

Daniel was born two days before his due ate at 7:54 in the morning, 30 hours after my water broke. He was 7 lbs. 6 oz. and 21.25 inches long. He is beautiful and we love him more than could have ever imagined.

As for my birth story, absolutely nothing went according to plan, but I'm okay with that. My water broke in the middle of the night. Contractions started shortly after, but only about 10 minutes apart. So we cleaned up and went back to bed. After about 4 hours of contractions every 10 minutes, I fell asleep for about an hour. Then woke up and they had stopped completely. I spent a couple hours washing my sheets and trying to get them started again, but with no luck. We called the midwives and they asked us to come in that afternoon.

By the time we got to their office, the contractions still hadn't started back up, no matter how many times I climbed the stairs. The midwife checked me and I was dilated to a big fat ZERO, 0% effaced and all the way to the back. Not good. At this point, my water had been broken for 13 hours.

 Since there we no signs the contractions were starting again on their own, we concluded my water had broken early (stupid full moon) and decided to go get induced. I was a little upset at this point, but we really had not choice.

10 hours into labor, I was only a 2-3, but finally 100% effaced. I was devastated. I had spent time in the tub, even tried some nubain at half-dose. But nothing was helping. i had thought for sure I was in transition: I was shaking terribly, I kept throwing up and on the monitor, my contractions were plateauing. I broke down when she said I was barely at 3cm. We decided to get the epidural. I didn't think I had any energy left, especially not enough to push. At this point it was VERY early Thursday morning and I had had about 5 hours of sleep since Monday night when I went to bed.

 The epidural let me get some on and off sleep for a few hours, after which I was dilated to 10, finally! I was checked in the middle and we all gave a little sigh of relief when I finally from 3 to 5, my mom especially. I could start to feel my right leg a little, and just a hint of a contraction when they came, so I started to push.

I pushed for nearly 3 hours. I tried to get three good pushes with every contraction, and towards the end I was vomiting with about every other one. I think they still weren't very regular, thanks to the pitocin, and my energy was fading quickly! At the 2:45 mark into pushing, the midwife called the doc and we all decided to use the vacuum. A few good pushes assisted, and he was out! My beautiful little boy! He was very alert, looking around, and nursed great right away.

8 days old!

He's been doing great ever since. We're loving parenthood, and I'm dreading my return to work. He's putting on weight like a champ.He was down about four ounces when we left, and at his 1 week check, was already up to 7 lbs. 11 oz.! And now, at 5.5 weeks, he's 11 lbs. 3 oz.! He's focusing, tracking and holding his head up great. Breastfeeding is awesome, and we're loving his cloth diapers.

Same outfit at 5.5 weeks. He's so big!

There is now a link to Kelly's Closet in the right-hand tool bar. It's where we've gotten nearly all his diapers. We love them. They have some great coupons and deals all the time, and great customer service.  It is an affiliate link, so buying from them through me will help me out just a little! If you're interested in cloth diapering, please check them out. Enough of the cuteness for now. Hopefully we'll be back to some regular programming soon. I need some good recipes and meal plans in my arsenal before I head back to work next month!