Getting Somewhere? Daytime 11.22.11

So we walked and used the breast pump ALOT that day. I don't remember much else about the daytime of the 22nd, except for a few things. Tristan may remember more and he is planning on doing a post from his perspective!

1. Stacy Bailey came and dropped off an amazing painting for Levi (more on the painting in another post) and I barley got to spend any time with her because I was suppose to be focusing!

2. I was starting to get tired towards the end of the day due to the lack of sleep I had had the night before.

3. I opened a gift from my mom's cousin Linda..it was a handmade quilt for Levi made in memory of my grandma Betty. There was at least once I cuddled up with it during labor and cried because I was tired and really missed my grandma. I kept thinking about her..wanting to call her and tell her what was going on...or just have her say one of her straightforward comments to make me laugh.

4. If I wasn't outside walking I was upstairs with Tristan..not downstairs with my family watching movies and distracting myself like I had imagined!

5. Bethany and John Ryan arrived about 1pm(??), only to be shewed away(to Dan and Em's..more on their amazing hospitality later) with my dad per my midwife and her assistant's request later that evening. This was the most stressful part of the whole experience for me. I REALLY wanted them to stay at the house. I felt like Nina and Julia didn't understand how close my family was to me. That they didn't understand that they wouldn't be a bother or stress me out if they stayed. I didn't understand at the time how much I needed to NOT be distracted and really focus to help the contractions come on stronger and more consistent.  Because my water had broke before labor had started and things weren't progressing I had to do all I could to focus and get that oxytocin going in my body.

6. From what I remember my contractions were still not consistent or strong..I don't really remember any pain yet....later in the day I think things got more uncomfortable. My mood was pretty up beat the whole day...I was a little anxious though and ready to get the show on the road!

7. I continued to eat(maybe I had a sandwich or 2) and drink A LOT. I couldn't get enough water and gatorade or emergen-c!

8. Nina(Julia's assistant) was there on and off during the day and Julia arrived at about 6:30 pm?

Here is a video Tristan took at about 5pm. Shortly after this video I think we went for a walk which is when I remember things starting  to change!

Get your walk on!

At around 4am or so my parents made it to our house so it was nice to wake up with them being in our house ready for action! So the sun rose and by 8am(maybe earlier)  I could not lay down any longer and it was time to call Nina, Julia's assistant and tell her my water had broke.  I gave her the scoop and she told me to get walking to try to help the contractions to come on stronger and more consistent since I wasn't having ANY by this time.
 So the 4 of us went out for a walk around our condo complex! I had a few contractions while walking but looking back... I couldn't even really call them contractions compared to what I experienced later. But over all I do feel the walking helped bring on the contractions which was what we were going for!

I feel like in most cases  labor comes on strong on it's own and women don't have to "work" to make contractions come..they just come. And usually they walk to distract themselves and work through the contractions..so already by this point in "labor"... if you could even call it that yet...things were not going as I had expected.  I was thinking I would be trying to "ignore" the contractions and try to relax through them...you know..use all the techniques we learned in birth class to help with pain!

I remember being on the walks and thinking.."wow, this is easy"...little did I know..little did I know!

But, I have to say  that even though I was tired from not sleeping the night before the walking with my parents and Tristan was really exciting. The anticipation was so high and I just LOVED that!

Here are a few videos of our walks:

 

A sleepless night..

So the 21st spilled over into the 22nd.  We were still awake at 12am getting things done around the house because the day before I got behind on house work and EVERY meal I made or project I started I didn't clean up.  I just let it all slide.  I can remember telling Kaye I had to stop doing that so I didn't go into labor when things were a mess!!!  I still can't believe I said that to her because sure enough..that is what happened. It just happened to happen a lot sooner than I had anticipated!

I changed into something I thought I would be comfortable laboring in and something that would be modest enough to take pics and hang out with family in. 

I had just been given a sheet of instructions from my midwife on what to do if my water broke maybe a week or 2 before.  One of the instructions was to not call her if it broke after 10pm and things were ok(clear amniotic fluid,no temp, good fetal movement,etc, etc.) and I was not in active labor. Another instruction she gave was to get some sleep.  So once we were done getting stuff done we decided we would TRY to get some sleep.  This was A LOT harder to do than we thought it would be.

Here are a few videos from the wee hours of the morning on 11.22.11:

Take note of how chipper I look in this video...I was obviously feeling NOTHING!!! :) And we were so naive as too the long hard hours that were a head of us!

 

Take note of how Tristan describes my contractions in that video, "stronger menstrual cramps." That's for sure what they felt like at that time. Little did I know what I was experiencing was NOTHING compared to what the contractions would feel like later.

So at about 2:30 am after trying to watch a movie on the bathroom floor Tristan and I both got really hungry but we didn't have much food in the house and what we did have needed to be prepared, and neither of us felt like making any thing.  I got a text from my BFF Kate at 2:30am offering to do whatever we needed...actually she had sent the text a lot earlier BUT my phone was being stupid and I got it late. So thinking she was awake Tristan called her and asked if she could bring us some food...not realizing that we were waking her up! Ugh..I felt so bad... but Kate didn't skip a beat and was over to our place with a spread of great labor food. I am so glad she came over because the memory of the 3(4 including Levi!) of us sitting on our bathroom floor eating together at 3am  is priceless. 

When Kate let we tried to go to sleep. Tristan climbed back in our bed and I stayed on the pallet on the floor by the toilet since the contractions were still making me feel like I needed to pee all the time! 

I tried to go to sleep and I think I did some but there was a really loud thunder and lightening storm that kept me awake more than the contractions. Actually I don't think I was having any contractions a little after I tried to go to sleep.  And there started the trend of my on and off contractions, something I never expected.

A video

Here is a video that I forgot to put on the post for 11.21.11.  It's a video Tristan took right after my water broke. It's a sweet memory to me. I remember just looking at Tristan thinking how we were about to go from a family of 2 to a family of 3..it just took a little longer to get there than I had expected!

11.21.11 - My water broke!

Ok..time to backtrack and capture memories from where I last left off in my pregnancy..........

It was 11.21.11.


I was 38 weeks and 2 days.


Seemingly a normal day.

Me and Elijah at Whole Foods.

I had went with Kaye and Elijah to Whole Foods earlier in the day. Funny story about that..Tristan had said, "going to Whole Foods may be doing to much, you might go into labor." I laughed and told him I would be fine.
  NOTE: we didn't want me to go into labor yet because in order for Tristan to get an extra 3 weeks of paternity leave added to his time off he had to have been with PWC 3 months and it wouldn't be 3 months until the 29th of November.

I took these pictures of my belly:

Fortunately I had just bought the car seat a few days before.

And..not that we needed it right away but we had put together the crib the Sunday evening before.

Later that night my water broke at 10:27 while laying in bed. I had had no signs of labor yet. Tristan had just gotten home from a short run and was walking around the room. I felt a pop and next thing I knew I could feel a gush of fluid. Fortunately it was clear with a little light bloody show. Tristan brought me a towel to sit on and it just kept coming for about 2 minutes. I felt like I had to pee so I went to the toilet peed and had to poop...just like I had read. We called my parents at about 10:45 to tell them and then called Tristan's parents at about 10:55.  I then took a long hot shower, blow dried my hair, brushed my teeth and put on makeup while Tristan scurried around emptying the trash, doing laundry, dishes etc. I then started doing a bit of prep work...taking off our good bedding, getting out the mattress cover from the birth kit, taking my cal mag supplement (just like my mom did right when she went into labor), and taking some Emergen-C. Still no "real" contractions...just some light braxton hicks, a little more trickling of fluid, and good baby movements.

That was about it for 11.21.11!

what i learned from em

I have this friend ..who is very organized and because she is ...she is able to (in my opinion) use the amazing gifts God gave her to the Max!

I have been so inspired by her and all that she does since I met her! She is gifted in many of the same ways I feel I am, except she has the gift of "getting it done"...jealous?  Yeah...but I have been asking God to change me. To remove the selfishness and laziness that hinders me from being a good steward of my gifts ...and heck...even having more joy by planning and making time to do the things I love!

I have felt God's spirit showing me that I needed to re-evaluate myself, my gifts, my life. To TAKE TIME. To PLAN. To ask myself, "what am I doing? Who am I living for" I often just fly by the seat of my pants. Go with the flow. Let life just fly by. Without intention.

Well Emily, my friend...just happened to post several posts on her blog about how she plans, organizes and structures the different areas of her life. Eureka!  Thank you Lord. Help in the very area I needed it..that came from the exact person I wanted to learn from! Thankful?  Yes!

Tristan and I were very encouraged by her posts and we plan on sitting down and taking stock, planning and organizing when his accounting busy season is over at the begening of march. We have dubbed this our "new year" time.

But before then I am praying Levi takes some naps that last longer than thirty minutes so I can get started on this all...NOW! Maybe the house might even be clean and I could sip some hot tea while I do it?

OK...that's probably asking for to much....but it sure sounds nice! :)

So, what you have all been waiting for..the links to Emily's posts!! Please go visit her for awhile and leave her some comment love! Follow her even eh?

http://emilyorodriguez.blogspot.com/2012/01/my-obligatory-new-years-post-part-1.html

http://emilyorodriguez.blogspot.com/2012/01/my-obligatory-new-years-post-part-2.html

http://emilyorodriguez.blogspot.com/2012/01/my-obligatory-new-years-post-part-3.html

http://emilyorodriguez.blogspot.com/2012/01/my-obligatory-new-years-post-part-4.html

Still Alive

Just wanted to let you know...inn case you were wondering...I am still alive! And we are no longer two but THREE!!  :) 

I have this weird mental block towards blogging until my house is clean...I guess I view my blogging time as a treat? Anyway....this past week was all about me and Levi and Tristan settling in...and honestly I didn't get much done other than a little laundry and caring for my 6 week old son.

WHAT...I have a SON...and he is SIX weeks old all ready...crazy!  

So after being gone for 2 weeks over the holidays our stuff exploded when we got home and Tristan and I are still trying to clean up and re-orgainize the damage!!

But soon folks..I will return and catch up!  There is SOOOOOOOOOO much to tell. 

Until then, here is a little teaser: