In Lieu of a Nap

I guess I could tell you the whole birth story in great detail, but since it wasn't really that exciting, I'm going to see if I can give you the condensed-ish version.

Contractions started at around 4am on Tuesday morning. The kind of contractions that made me tell LJ when he woke up at 6:30 that he should consider staying home from work. He was happy to oblige.

At around 9am, we called our midwife, Joelle, just to let her know what was happening. She came over to check me and of course, I was really no further than I was at my previous appointment. The contractions were all over the place as far as timing was concerned so she said she'd call in a couple hours. Two hours later, nothing had really changed and we were just going about our day as usual (eat, nap, laundry, walk) so she said she'd check in before she left work at 4:30.

Enter the Wii Fit. A friend of mine had told me she was doing the hula-hooping the night before she went into labour, so I thought I'd give it a try. She and I are both now convinced that it worked for me too! I unlocked some sort of super hula-hooping and set two new records, plus set new records for step aerobics and unlocked a new level of that too - and I could feel it working.

Joelle came over after work and checked me again and I was only one centimeter further along so she said she'd check again in the morning. Well, that's not quite how it happened, is it? We called her back just before 7 to let her know we were going to head to the hospital. Of course, this was also shortly after we had touched base with Erin K. & Co. who were on their way over to a friend's house for supper, but Erin met us in the parking lot at the hospital and whisked away the Little Goat for a way funner evening than I had, that's for sure.

LJ and I walked very slowly into the ER and can I just say, pre-registration really is the way to go! The triage nurse recognized that I was in labour right away, asked my name and about two minutes later, I had a wheelchair and my paperwork to bring upstairs. When we got upstairs, they asked my name and said, "Oh! We have a room right here for you - #35." (I'm guessing Joelle called the hospital on her way there.)

So from there, it's not ALL blurry.....I laboured in the shower on the birthing ball for a while which was nice but funny because the ball kept rolling over the drain and the shower was filling up with water pretty quickly. Then I tried a few positions on the bed and/or floor, none of which felt really great because, uh, hello! I was in labour....not much feels 'great.'

There was a big kerfuffle with getting something for the pain because they couldn't find a stinking scale which they needed to determine what dose they could give me of whatever it was. Then I only got one tiny dose because it was too close to delivery and the meds can make the baby sluggish. (I suppose I should've learned from last time that the meds wouldn't do anything anyway. Any. Thing.)

Sometime or other, my water broke and in about 25 minutes, I went from 5cm to ready to push. Gack! My back has never felt that much pain! It was way worse than when the LG was born! So I pushed for not quite 45 minutes and then Sibling XX was born!

I ended up delivering in a very awkward position sort of side-lying, but she came out and that was what I wanted most - from about oh, May 1st onward.

LJ did great as my "Support Person." Joelle and Marla (our midwives) were great too. I only had a tiny first degree tear (but then, is ANY tear NOT painful?). I learned that laughing gas does not make me laugh, but it sure does make me sleepy. I also learned that almost falling asleep and then 'waking up' to push is no fun.

Total labour and delivery time was somewhere between 4 1/2 and 5 hours. L&D with the LG was 4 1/2 hours. So this wasn't shorter, it was more painful, they tried to hand me a slimy baby (thanks to LJ for jumping on that one), the LG did great at Erin's and we're all still alive. Score!

Our pastor and his wife (from Maine) have four kids and this running joke/saying: "Four and No More."

I think ours might be "Two and We're Through." At least that's what I'm thinking right now.....don't hold us to that though, okay?

Birth-Day(s), For Sure and For Sure.

Well. She's here. I owe you a birth story, but that will have to wait at least until next week. The Little.....we haven't got a bloggy nickname for her yet....is FINALLY napping in her bassinet and my midwife is due here any minute for my three-day postpartum checkup.

I'd love to tell you the name we finally (!) decided on (about an hour after she was born, though at that point it was at least down to two finalists), but you know, privacy and all. If you can hunt us down on the ol' FB, you can see more pictures there. Her first name we chose because we both really like it; now we're trying to teach the LG how to say it. Like the LG, the Newbie has two middle names; the first one is a variation on the name of a very dear friend and 'Mom' of ours from Washington, the second is a shortened form of the feminine version of a biblical masculine name that means "God is my strength."

The second middle name seems particularly fitting after the roller coaster ride we've been on since the beginning of December and we are still and will continue to be so grateful for God's grace in bringing us back to Manitoba and to a place that we are loving. We're excited to put down roots here and raise these girls around so many of our friends and their kids and cousins the same age.

Anyway, we are home and still exhausted. My parents are coming on Sunday to visit and help out for several days. In the meantime, we're trying to keep both these girls happy, trying to heal up (easier said than done, of course) and trying to get any amount of sleep we can (including me falling asleep at the supper table last night).

Without further adieu, here are her stats:
A. C. B. J.
June 16
11:22pm
7 lbs., 14 oz.
20 1/2 inches

Hair: copious
Eyes: leaning toward blue already (yippee!)
Lungs: fully functional

Birth-Day(s), For Sure and Maybe.

If I didn't procrastinate so much, I would've written this lovely sentimental post about how much we love our LG and how much we're enjoying her at this age. She's a little smarty-pants and her vocabulary has really taken off since we moved here. Clearly, this means the Canadian air is doing something for her and she fancies Manitoba enough to talk about it. Brilliant!

But here we are and it's her second birthday today and I'm doing nothing but having contractions and LJ stayed home from work today and the midwife has already been here once this morning and should be calling back in less than an hour.....so either the LG will end up thinking this is the best or the worst birthday present EVER. That is, if I can get past three centimeters sometime today. Argh!

Anyway, here are some pictures from her birthday party on Saturday and from after church on Sunday, modeling the cute, cute, CUTE outfit my Mom made for her. Seriously, try not to drool over her cuteness, okay?

When we bought the duck, she was kissing it in the shopping cart. Here,
her poor cousin can't figure out why she's screaming - HE loves the duck!

And of course, since she doesn't like the duck squirting water and doesn't want to
swim in her new turtle pool, why should she enjoy wearing her swimsuit either?

My attempt at a 'clock' cake. She knew what it was and it was darn tasty!

Eating the cake.

Checking out her new watch - a present from Sibling XX.

Excited about her doll house toy from Dad & Mama.
(We're so glad she got this right before the baby gets here because she loves it!)*

In her new outfit that Grama made. There are matching bloomers and a little knit jacket
with blue flowers on it too. How ridiculously cute is she?!

*And yes, that would be my near-to-bursting belly in the background.
That's the best shot you're gonna get so enjoy it.

On Notice

So I'm putting you all on notice this morning because I'm having irregular contractions or something. I am SO not good at timing these things and this is the first step in the online instructions I found:

What you will need to time contractions:

• A watch or clock with a second hand
• A pregnant woman having contractions

Yes, helpful, indeed. I can still talk through them. I'm just sitting here emailing and facebook-ing.....This is annoying, no? The waiting?

It's June. And Yes, it Has Been for a Couple Weeks Now.

So I'm not ignoring you guys. In fact, I miss you all quite a bit. I'm still trying to catch up on blogs from the beginning of May (wow, have I missed A LOT!).

No baby to report yet, just ridiculous amounts of itchiness that is like a form of madness. I had an oatmeal bath last night and was still scratching the entire time I was in there. Today I'm trying to ignore it (not working) and have a series of anti-itch lotions lined up on the bathroom counter.

I'm thinking today would be a great day for a baby. It's Friday and as you know, "Friday's child is loving and giving...." PLUS it's the 12th and that's a nice even-numbered day. I'm not superstitious about numbers, I just have always had some sort of inexplicable beef with odd numbers. Not only that, but my parents will be here by suppertime (the Little Goat's birthday isn't until Tuesday, but we're celebrating tomorrow) so you see? Perfect birth-day!

Anyway, there isn't much else to tell you right now. We went to the fair in my hometown last weekend and it was COLD. The LG enjoyed the (thankfully, indoor!) petting zoo though and while we would've thought the little ducks would be the highlight of her day. However, her favourite animal turned out to be, of all things, the TURKEY! Such a hideous looking thing. Really, who looked at that and decided "Hey look! Dinner!"? <- That is one awful mess of punctuation, isn't it?

Anyway, here's a picture from the Friday evening we arrived there and tried to take the LG on the play structure in the park behind my parents' house. She was NOT impressed with the sand. *sigh*

Much like her mother, she is not amused by the idea of spreading dandelion seeds all over the place.