dianaschnuth

37 Weeks Down… And A Change Of Plans

On Friday night, right before bed, my water broke.

Within 13 hours, at 1:47pm on Saturday, September 3rd, our son Connor was born. Weight, 5 lbs 15 oz; length, 21 inches.

All three of us are still in the hospital and doing fine; we’ll be discharged tomorrow. Once we get home and I can write on a device a little more conducive to long-form blogging, I’ll post a full-length birth story with photos.

No worries about his gestational age, by the way; he was assessed at 38 weeks instead of the 36w5d we had originally thought.

Aaron and I are parents! And we’re perfectly OK with it so far.

36 Weeks Down, 4 To Go: Baby Shower

This date, as with the Childbirth Express class, has been on my calendar for months. It seemed so far away for so long (just like my impending due date) that it seems weird to have it over already.

I was genuinely surprised when a total of 22 people RSVP’ed with a Yes to Sheryl’s baby shower Evite. In the end, though, only a dozen people could make it — Aaron’s aunt and uncle had to work, his one cousin with a car had to work (which took the rest of them out of the running), Aaron’s brother had to work, my BFF from junior high ended up unable to wrangle a 2½ hour trip with two little ones, and I’m sure I’m forgetting someone. Although I missed them all, I think it worked out better with a smaller group: we all fit around one hibachi table, and I was able to socialize with everyone without feeling like I was slighting anyone too much.

The evening started with appetizers and dinner at Sakura Japanese Steakhouse. I hadn’t been there for a couple of years, maybe, and had forgotten how much fun watching the crazy hibachi chef can be.

Almost everyone else had something from the grill; Aaron and I got sushi. Along with the appetizers that Sheryl ordered, I think we were all stuffed to the gills after dinner. And cake. Oh, my.

After dinner, most of us drove around the corner to Starbucks for the opening of presents, since Sakura wasn’t amenable to having us take up valuable table space (and there really wasn’t enough space for proper present-opening, anyway). Starbucks was pretty deserted, so the dozen of us didn’t feel too bad about invading for a while. I opened presents, girlie giggles were had by all (even the guys), and I really enjoyed connecting with everyone in a slightly more intimate and less noisy setting.

After all the presents were opened, I thanked everyone for coming and let them know that I wouldn’t be offended if they opted to leave at that point. I knew that Traeonna wasn’t feeling well after getting a tad sunburnt that morning/afternoon, and Erika needed to take eight-month-old Naomi home before she got too cranky (she was such a trooper, though, through two hours of dinner and maybe an hour of Starbucks). The rest of us hung around and talked about the random stuff that friends talk about.

Mark and Rocky took off after a while (she’s still experiencing first-trimester fatigue, so I didn’t blame them in the slightest), and we all hung around for a while longer before I just couldn’t hold my yawns in anymore (I’m experiencing third-trimester fatigue myself, and every night is an early one these days). Aaron and I got to take the cake leftovers home, along with all the cupcakes that didn’t get eaten due to the last-minute cancellations. (EVIL. Pure, delicious evil.)

That was a super fun time, and a perfect fit for my style in general. Sheryl and Amy were fantastic co-hosts (props to Sheryl for doing most of the legwork, being the local one and all), and they totally planned an evening that fit my personality and my social preferences. I had such a great time reconnecting with people I hadn’t seen in a while, and feeling loved and appreciated is always a good thing, too.

At the time of this writing, I’ve posted all but Aaron’s iPhone photos to my Flickr. We brought multiple digital point-and-shoot cameras and passed them around to everyone to get lots of pictures… and here they are.

(For a blast from the past, check out the pics from my bridal shower from Spring 2003, also hosted by Sheryl and Amy.)

Thanks again to everyone who showed up, and who wanted to show up but couldn’t. You all rock. I feel seriously loved, and you’re all welcome to stop by sometime in late October or November to meet our little one — just be sure to set up a date and time with us first, or you’re likely to spend some quality time with cranky, sleep-deprived parents and a potentially fussy newborn.

35 Weeks Down, 5 To Go: Childbirth Class

Most expecting parents who take childbirth classes through ProMedica go to class one evening a week for five weeks. Since Aaron works nights, that wasn’t an option for us, so we signed up for one of the monthly Friday/Saturday Childbirth Express classes (aka The Weekender). After months of having this event so far away on the calendar, it finally happened this past weekend. (Which means that The Big Event is that much closer, as well. Yikes.)

Overall, I only picked up a few things I didn’t already know: Lamaze breathing patterns, pros and cons of analgesic pain relief options (as opposed to the ubiquitous epidural), different labor positions, and lots of videos. Aaron, not having read the crapload of books and websites I have, definitely got more of a data dump than I did, but we both feel much better having gone. We had some unexpectedly close bonding time with massage and relaxation, and we both got more used to the idea of not just going through the act of childbirth, but having a child of our own to bring home after it’s all said and done.

This Cabbage Patch Kid (Brett George, my only boy Cabbage Patch of six, in case you were wondering) was the first object Aaron has ever diapered. As a first try, I think he did great. Granted, as a couple of our friends pointed out over Facebook, a Cabbage Patch Kid doesn’t squirm or have explosive diarrhea, but I still think it was a good start.

That brings up something else that’s been an intriguing exercise in observation: Aaron and I imagine that we can tell what kind of parental experiences our parent-friends have had so far by what kind of “advice” they give. A few people have been so positive and supportive and helpful; others tend to dwell on the negative and the “you just wait until…” factor.

We’re not kidding ourselves. We know about the feedings every two hours and the loose poops and the sleep deprivation. We understand about the frazzled nights and the bleary days. We expect the crying for no discernible reason (both from me and from the baby). We honestly don’t need to be reminded — if you’ll all recall, this wasn’t our idea. But we’ve accepted and embraced the reality that we’re going to be parents soon, and what we need now is support. Friendship. Helpful tips. A few last adults-only meals with friends, perhaps, since we might be holed up in our house for a while this Fall.

Next Saturday is our baby shower, thrown by my bestest gal-pals Sheryl and Amy. We’ll get to see people from out of town whom we haven’t seen in years — Aaron will get to meet some people for the first time ever — and we’ll get to touch base with some local friends we rarely see anymore. Honestly, while it’ll be nice to get more baby stuff, I’m more interested in being social with my friends one last time.

It’s only going to be The Two Of Us (Plus Our Cat) for as many weeks as I can count on one hand.

Holy crap.

34 Weeks Down, 6 To Go

Our baby acquisitions are finally winding down. This weekend’s purchase was a crib mattress from Baby Depot, with a 15% off coupon. Score! Even more win: the cheaper mattress was the firmer mattress (and firm is good when it comes to crib mattresses).

Now we wait until the baby shower on the 27th to see what our friends and family have decided to bestow upon us — then we hit up Amazon.com or Baby Depot to purchase the necessities that may be left, like a play yard (aka playpen) or changing pad or bottles or bouncy seat or whatnot.

Next weekend is our Childbirth Express class: Friday evening and all day Saturday. Normally, the class would be taken for five weeks, one day a week, for two or three hours each session. Since the only sessions are in the evenings, though, and Aaron works nights, we’re rocking the two-day express course. We’re both looking forward to learning about our options and how this is going to go down: pain management ideas, labor positions, and so forth. Aaron’s never changed a diaper in his life, and it’s been YEARS since I have, so learning/relearning some basic childcare skills will be mighty helpful, too.

The breastfeeding class comes separately with this option, so I’ll be flying solo one of these evenings to take that (because I’m definitely going to be breastfeeding, Flying Spaghetti Monster willing).

New and notable this week: increased fatigue, continued swelling of hands and feet, sore and achy knuckles, and a change from feeling hungry to feeling queasy and lightheaded (which apparently means the same thing now: eat something). Also, I’m not entirely convinced that today’s chiropractic adjustment helped a whole lot, as I’m still feeling the very slight numbness of sciatica in my right buttcheek.

Overall? Feeling mighty pregnant right now. Starting to get used to the idea of being someone’s Mom soon, although it’s still a little freaky (and I’m guessing it still will be, even after we bring our son home). I’ll probably feel more secure after this weekend’s class, though.

32 Weeks Down, 8 To Go: A Place To Put Baby’s Stuff

The biggest item on our agenda, after securing a place for Junior to sleep, was a place to put his stuff: a dresser. Aaron and I had been hitting the antique mall every Sunday after Starbucks, checking Craigslist, scouring the thrift stores… until finally we got a solid lead.

Two-piece baby furniture set, the listing read, for $65 total.

We arranged to drive out past Perrysburg to see the furniture in its native habitat, and when we got there (and a prettier Middle Of Nowhere I haven’t seen in some time), we agreed that the four-drawer dresser and three-drawer changing table were exactly what we needed. The seller was kind enough to load them into his truck the next day and deliver them to our house after work for no additional charge — and by Thursday evening, we had a place for Junior’s stuff.

I spent a little time Sunday evening getting his stuff into the dressers, at which point I realized that Junior’s gonna need some more stuff. But all the stuff he’s already managed to accumulate is put away.

As for me, physically, I’m still not quite miserable yet. My feet and hands are swelling — so much, in fact, that I’ve given up on wearing my wedding band and engagement ring and have swapped them for Aaron’s high school class ring, which is a size or so bigger. My lower back is stiff sometimes, and my hips take turns with my knees to ache enough to keep me up at night (yes, despite a pillow between my knees). My right knee is feeling the excess weight and lack of glucosamine/chondroitin supplements, crunching and squeaking with every deep-knee bend and stair step.

I’m keeping my weight gain steady and controlled and healthy; I’ve gained just over 20 pounds so far during the whole pregnancy. The last time I weighed this amount was when I joined Weight Watchers in April 2008. Luckily, I’ll drop a good ten pounds when I deliver, so getting back to where I was shouldn’t be a problem. In fact, I’m not really worried about that at all. I’m mainly just irritated at the pregnancy symptoms that I know are due to (or exacerbated by) weight gain.

Next OB appointment is tomorrow; they’re every two weeks now. Kiddo has been bumping and grinding on a regular basis, shoving what I assume is his ass up against my ribcage, so I expect my doctor to make comment (as she always does) about how active he is.

Eight more weeks; less than two more months. I’m trying to savor this last bit of time and commit everything to memory. These months have flown by so fast.

31 Weeks Down, 9 To Go: The Crib

Aaron had asked his dad to drive his SUV out to our place this past Saturday to help us with buying a crib for Junior — or, rather, to help us get it home, since we wouldn’t be able to fit the box into the trunk of our trusty-but-not-made-for-haulin’ Kia. So, Dad showed up around 2pm, as planned, and (after some pleasantries and catching-up) we headed out to Burlington Coat Factory (home of Baby Depot), just down the road from our house.

The place looked surprisingly un-busy when we got there; the parking lot was just about empty. Sure enough, when we drove a little closer, we could see a handwritten sign taped to the front doors: “Closed due to power outage.” Either they’d been affected by the recent summer thunderstorms, or the massive heat, or both.

Luckily, we did have a Plan B: Wally World had a similar model for a similar price. So, we headed a few miles west to Walmart and picked up the Graco Stanton crib (instead of the Graco Lauren crib). It fit in the back of the SUV with no problems (well, Aaron was a little cramped in the back seat with one of the seats folded down), and we got it home much easier than we would have with only the Kia and some rope.

Aaron assembled it all by himself today, while I was at work. Sounds like it was kind of a pain in the ass — OK, more than “kind of,” but he managed it quite well on his own and didn’t add any new scratches or dents above and beyond the ones that were already there.

We still need a dresser (we’re working Craigslist for that right now), but with the crib put together, it’s starting to look and feel more like our son’s room than a minty-sage-green storage room.

The cat’s not happy about having her litter box evicted from the room, but that’s another story…

30 Weeks Down, 10 To Go: Hospital Tour

I remember putting the Toledo Hospital maternity tour and the childbirth class on our calendars months ago; they seemed so far off then. Well, this past Sunday was our maternity tour, and Childbirth Express is scheduled for August 19-20.

We showed up early for the 1pm tour, along with about eight other expecting mothers and their support (significant others, parents, etc). Our tour guide, lactation consultant Melanie (if I’m recalling correctly), first showed us the way up from Entrance #1 to Labor and Delivery (elevators are just past the Mom & Me Boutique, conveniently enough).

First stop: Post-partum Recovery. (The group after us was going to Labor and Delivery first, so we took the tour backwards.) The hospital encourages “rooming in” with baby, so they have a bassinet for baby and a comfy recliner for Dad (or other support partner) in each room, along with the hospital bed for Mom. Most rooms are singles; there are some double-occupancy rooms, but they’re rarely used as such (usually Dad gets to sleep in the other bed instead of the chair). The hospital also encourages breastfeeding and skin-to-skin contact; lactation consultants are on staff 24 hours a day to answer any questions.

Other things I learned at this stop:

Next stop: The Nursery. There really are giant windows in the front of the nursery, just like on TV, but they’re usually covered with mini-blinds, and you can’t just ask the nurse to hold up the baby you want to see. Each baby is fitted with ID bands that the staff match against Mom and Dad’s, as well as an electronic tag that alerts hospital staff if a baby is taken out of the permitted area. It sounds like babies aren’t frequently in the nursery, since they’re usually rooming in with the parents — in fact, when our tour came through, there were only a few babies in the nursery (the nurse was kind enough to raise one of the blinds so we could see in).

Next stop: Labor and Delivery. The room we all wanted to see (or at least I did, anyway). Very spacious; homey but utilitarian. Large windows let in lots of natural light, but Aaron did notice the giant surgery lights recessed in the ceiling above the labor bed. There’s also a storage closet with giant accordion doors, wherein they keep the necessary equipment (including, I’m sure, the machine that goes “Ping!”)

Here I learned what the process was all about, and it set me at ease in a big way. They’re all about upright birthing positions. They can provide a birthing ball if requested, and the labor bed can be fitted with either stirrups or a birthing bar (and I’m assuming it adjusts to a near-upright position). Fetal monitoring is only done if necessary. As I mentioned above, they’re also all about skin-to-skin contact, and they routinely postpone any procedures on the newborn (vitamin K shot and eye ointment) until after about an hour of bonding and breastfeeding.

Last stop: Where You Go If You Get a C-Section. It’s a separate section of the L&D floor, and, of course, we couldn’t enter the actual surgery area, as it’s a sterile area. They still encourage rooming in and skin-to-skin, even after a c-section.

So, a bit backwards, but that was the tour. Aaron and I did see my OB during the tour, which was cool and unexpected. She didn’t see us, though. We went in for our 30-week appointment today, and I told her that we saw her — seems she got to be on-call that day, and work the next day at her office. Good times. I also told her that all my questions were answered and all my fears assuaged, and I asserted that I’m a big dork for having been all worried about the whole labor and delivery process.

I really am feeling a LOT better about this whole thing, knowing that nothing overly medicalized will be forced upon me, and that they’re trying to conform to the latest practices. Toledo Hospital isn’t officially certified Baby-Friendly yet, but it wouldn’t take much for them to be.

As anyone who knows me will attest, I’m one of those people who needs to know what to expect. Not that I don’t like some surprises, but I like to be prepared for whatever situation I may find myself in. This tour was a HUGE help for my preparedness and my state of mind. Once we finish the childbirth class next month, I’ll feel even better.

29 Weeks Down, 11 To Go

The short version: the third trimester is definitely sneaking up on me. After a few months of deciding that this whole being pregnant thing isn’t actually all that bad — now I’m getting lower abdominal muscle soreness, lower back soreness, major fatigue, swelling hands and feet… It’s still not as bad as it could be (or will be), but it’s becoming an annoyance. Not being able to do the things I used to be able to do… it bothers me. I’m not ready for the “pregnancy waddle” to be taking effect, either. Not yet.

We bought some clothes for Junior this weekend, both at a yard sale and at Old Navy. At the yard sale, we picked up a hat and a few onesies, and the Old Navy grab bag scored us a couple of shirts and several onesies. Next up on the shopping list for Junior will be pants and sleepers. As my Mom pointed out on Facebook, I never really fit into newborn clothes, so we’re keeping to mainly 3-6 month sizes, although we do have a healthy collection of 0-3 month stuff and a few newborn clothes (just in case).

I also splurged on a few online purchases for myself: a dress from Destination Maternity (hopefully to be worn at my baby shower), a couple of Bravado nursing bras, and some maternity underwear (because the larger-sized plus size undies just aren’t cutting it). I hate to buy stuff that I won’t be wearing after September or October, but I just can’t justify being uncomfortable for the next few months, either. Plus, the nursing bras will be in use for who knows how long, and should be worth the investment.

My main goal for this week is to get the kid’s room ready for a crib, since Aaron and his dad will be purchasing and transporting and assembling next week or the week after. (Well, his dad will be involved in the transporting part, anyway.) We’re also on the lookout for an inexpensive dresser that can double as a changing table. We have a few leads on Craigslist — which reminds me that I need to e-mail said leads shortly.

Slowly but surely, we’re getting ready.