eniarelocin: (Default)

Ewan-9403
Originally uploaded by NicoleRaine

Ewan and Darlene say goodbye to each other, and we say goodbye to Darlene. Disclaimer: Darlene had just delivered a baby a few hours earlier that morning and was a bit tired- but she still looks great with no makeup.

Yesterday was our final appointment at the Birthing Center. Now 6 weeks postpartum, we've been sent on our merry way. I'm pretty well healed, although the stitches have left some scar tissue and things where they shouldn't necessarily be. However, I've escaped infection free. I still have some tearing and other damage that will take longer to heal, but I've done pretty well.

Although we were disappointed not to have Darlene attend Ewan's birth we are very happy with the care we received there. If we ever decide we can afford to have another baby (and believe me, next time we save up first) I would definitely go back to Darlene and try for that home birth.

However, this is not really goodbye for us and Darlene. I will be shooting family portraits for them following the new year. I'm very much looking forward to that.

Oh, and although I told everyone that Ewan would be weighed yesterday at the appointment, he wasn't. Neither was I, actually. However, his 2 month visit with Dr Mark is coming up and he will certainly be weighed then. One thing is for sure: he's definitely grown!

eniarelocin: (Broken Wings)
Ewan and I saw Darlene today.

Ewan's weight: 7lbs 8oz.

I weighed in at 8lbs over my pre-pregnancy weight. Darlene says I need more calories. :(

Tomorrow is a long shift at work... not looking forward to that... and I'm pretty sure I don't have enough milk left at home for Ewan.

Looking forward to being gone this weekend. Me and the ocean have been apart for too long.
eniarelocin: (Heres lookin at you.)
Outlook says it's Wednesday the 24th already. How in the bloody hell did that happen? I swear it must be last week!

Ewan is almost 2 weeks old, and I think we're sort of getting settled in. Today I'm trying to get a few things done because I can't take any more of this resting crap. I feel lazy- and that's no good. I do realize that if I don't rest then I won't heal, but a girl can only take so much. So, Ewan is trying out the sling so I can type a little bit. I have 4 pages of a bigger update in draft on the laptop... I'll post it at some point.

Ewan Updates


Yesterday we went to our 2 week postpartum visit at the midwife. She checked out Ewan- he's good. She checked out me- I'm good, including my stitches, with which I was a little concerned. I've lost 20lbs of my pregnancy weight... still 14 to go. Apparently this is a good thing, but I was really hoping it would all be gone. Alas, I think I know where the rest of it can be found- most of it is in my bra... the rest is sitting on my hips. BAH! Freakin' mom body.

Oh yeah... I'm a mum. Weeeeeird.

Ewan's weight experienced the usual drop following birth. The bench mark is to regain weight and return to birth weight by two weeks. As of yesterday, Ewan weighed 7lbs 2oz, so he's a little ahead of the curve. He's definitely been eating enough! This means that nursing is triumphant. We had some major troubles with that for the first week, but I think we're getting the hang of it... mostly. Stephen and I both think he's getting/gotten his first growth spurt. He already looks bigger and I think he's put on a little more baby pudge- namely in his cheeks. He's already growing up! *sob* Ah well... it probably wouldn't hurt him to grow into the newborn sized clothing. He's still a little guy.

Sadly, Ewan got his first heal prick yesterday. He took it like a man, but I didn't enjoy it. So I guess we're getting the PKU after all.

Other than that... Ewan is super cute. He shows off his dimples pretty regularly. I found his ticklish spot on his neck and he seems to like a little bit of tickling. I definitely like the very near giggling. He also has semi ticklish feet. I think he and I are getting along pretty well. He likes sleeping on my chest and I don't like putting him down so that's working out alright. He really enjoys classical music (though right now we're listening to the bleepy stuff). He still keeps me up a lot of the night, but we're getting better all around.

[livejournal.com profile] squidyfishlove has had to go back to work this week, so it's been a bit harder for me, but we're getting the hang of it. I don't think I could have survived last week if Stephen had been working... somewhat literally. I've had to be on extreme rest to get these stitches to heal and I'm still bleeding. There is a very direct correlation between the amount of bleeding and the amount of rest I get. I spent the last two days pretty much hanging out on the couch and watching movies with Ewan and so was doing a little better- until I started running up and down the stairs last night and trying to get ready for company (there has a been a lot of that too). Today I'm trying to find a balance. I can't stand to sit on my arse anymore, but I don't want to end up with an infection. I actually have antibiotics here if I need them because I had a fever and some yucky symptoms at the end of last week, but I have held off on starting them because my stomach has been bad enough without allowing those to strip my system. No thank you. Eating is hard enough as it is. Especially since we've been living off of pizza for the last three days... I'm so glad it's gone. Thankfully the pizza was offset with a box of SUPER JUICY pears, apples and other goodies from Harry and David, sent by aunt Linda, uncle mark, and cousin Adam. (THANK YOU!) I wish I could just ask for a glass of juice and have it magically appear again like I was getting so accustomed to with Stephen free.

He's really kicked in with the housework- I've been pretty impressed. He won't let anyone touch the kitchen- it's his area. I haven't done a single load of laundry since Ewan was born- I also can't find a lot of things, but oh well. Mom has been over here and there, but she mainly just gets to hold Ewan while I sleep or hang out and make food for me while I feed the little dude. The few days she's been able to come over have been really good. Now that everyone is back to work, except for me, and it's been a couple of weeks, I'm trying to adjust to life with baby. It's weird. I don't know where the time goes. It seems like I'm constantly feeding and changing him, I'm still pretty tired. But I really enjoy him being around all the time. It makes me weepy- in a good way. I fear I've gone soft.

Things I would like to do, however: get an entire night of sleep, feel truly rested, put on make-up, spend some time on skin care, ride my motorcycle!, clean everything, frame some things, hang some things, go visit [livejournal.com profile] kevbonium in Portland, go have some really good coffee, go snowboarding, etc.
eniarelocin: (Tiny Toes)

Bye bye Home Birth



So, I went to the birthing center so that Darlene could check that my water has actually broken, and it has. Unfortunately my blood pressure was 152 over 92 which puts and end to home birth.

We are being sent to Anacortes to have the baby. I am officially high risk now. The worry is that my blood pressure will keep climbing (Darlene says that's almost a given) and that it will/could lead to seizure. So, I will have to wear a monitor. I will most likely have to have an IV. I will likely be given Pitocin to hurry along labor as they will want the baby out.

Our new goal is no C-Section. I've been bawling and very upset, but trying to calm down and realize that it's better for the baby and better for salvaging our birth experience. The baby is moving and ok, but seems to have rolled over again all of the sudden.

On top of all of this, one of Darlene's other moms is in need of her care all of the sudden so she cannot attend our birth. We will be attended by Dr. Larson. Also, Darlene has arranged a Doula for us whose name is ... well I can't remember now, but she'll be there around 4.

So I need to finish doing what I'm doing to get ready and read out of here before someone takes my bed. They've kicked out a postpartum mother so I could have it. Losing that bed would really top off the day.

So we'll try to keep updating from the hospital, but I really don't know how that will go, or how easy it will be.

Fingers crossed.

We're going to have our baby. I'm really sorry baby, I feel like I've failed you already.
eniarelocin: (Default)
What a horrendous night!!!

So, that nasty egg concoction was not well digested by my body. The Castor Oil was not well received. Starting around 1am I was getting contractions, and by 1:30 they were coming hard and strong and three minutes apart and lasting about 1m 20 secs, on top of constant tightness. That was crazy no fun. Stephen was a champ and very helpful through that section, especially the part where I expelled the Castor Oil Eggs and goodness knows what else into one of the handy foot soak tubs I purchased for doing pedicures with [livejournal.com profile] to_rei_shi. That was a $1.56 well spent!

Given this, we called Darlene. I was pretty out of it. I was clinging to the counter at this point, managing to talk, but not that well. Seriously not fun. So... we decided to hold off the on the second does a little while long- I think it ended up being after 4am before I managed to really make it back to bed and stay there for longer than about 10 minutes at a time. 10 minutes in bed, 45 in the bathroom. GAH.

But... I had some show at 3:27, according to my log, and then more just before 4am. This means to me that those horrible contractions were doing something.

The good news is that after about 4:30 or 5 the priority switched to sleep- which we both desperately needed. At 9:45ish, I was getting up to use the loo again and felt rush of fluid, so I froze thinking maybe I'd soiled myself, but moved again and more fluid which I couldn't stop with Kegels. Then at 10:08 more fluid... and since then about 1 TBSP just about every time I move- so it looks like my water really has broken.

Stephen has been sent out to bank and to collect my thyroid Rx refill... so while he's gone, I'm trying to get contractions going on their own (which will work better when I actually get up and start moving more- right now I'm just wiggling in my chair). If they do, we go with it. If they don't then I do the second round of terrible Castor Oil via the chocolate milkshake. I think I'll do the milkshake anyway- something cold and creamy (soy creamy) sounds really good on my shredded intestinal tract. I'm thinking yoghurt is going to be high on the list of edibles as well...

However, we made a run to the Co-op last and got a lot of really good food. I have fresh radishes, yams, the BEST apples ever- almost as good as the huge one I got in Germany near Blenheim- two big jugs of organic apple juice, pear juice, the shampoo and conditioner I love, and generally healthy, yummy goodness. I shall masticate it and love it all (in little bits at a time of course, I really don't eat that much)... and hopefully it will all stay put.

So anyway... we're still not in consistent active labor but I think we're on our way to getting there. Baby is still moving around... can't believe we're going to meet our little peanut soon! I washed everything last night... so lots of clean, soft clothes and blankets await baby!

The Grandma's have been alerted and will be arriving later this afternoon.

I wonder how long this is going to take... will we have an 11th or 12th baby? Probably 12th.

K Stephen, hurry up! I'm finally hungry again.
eniarelocin: (Squishy Baby)
Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, get on up, it's bobsled baby time!

It Begins | 40 Week Midwife Appointment


There is nothing like going in to something like a midwife appointment at this stage in the game and hearing just what you wanted to hear.

After all of my efforts this week- Acupuncture, Thai Curry for lunch yesterday, walking for an hour with Darryl and Alice, "Indian Hot" Vegetable Curry for dinner last night, and thinking wide cervical thoughts- it turns out that we are in fact getting somewhere. Not only have I had some intermittent contractions and a lot of tightness, but I am, in fact, 3 cm dilated! My cervix is about 1 cm thick and the baby is at -1 Station (which is pretty good). I think the baby was quite surprised to get poked in the head for the first time EVER. Imagine its confusion.

So, the only not great news is that my blood pressure has crept up a little bit further, but that turns into good news because give that my cervix is favourable, Darlene doesn't want to wait until next week and possibly jeopardize our home birth. Basically we're looking to have a baby tomorrow or Friday. To accomplish this I have to find some happy balance between walking, controlling my urge to clean the whole world, and getting plenty of rest and then take 2oz of Castor Oil tonight at 2200, and another 2 oz tomorrow morning at 0400.

Mom has been alerted. The Mother-in-law has been alerted. Stephen's boss(es) have been alerted. I'm officially done with work for a while (other than photography stuff which never really stops). The house could use a last once over, but other than that we're pretty much there. The plan is to spend the afternoon with Charlotte and allow myself to be pretty much distracted with things until Stephen gets done with work for today. The plan then is to hit the co-op and get the last minute food items we may need in the next few days... and other than that, the plan is to spend some time together with just the two of us.

It's odd to think it won't be just the two of us again... probably not ever, really. Our lives, our relationship, we are about to change permanently. It's even more odd to know that these changes, this huge life event and everything that entails is just staring us in the face. We are a family- now more than ever. That's a pretty amazing feeling.

This morning I was so uncomfortable and rather grumpy with being uncomfortable... now I'm more excited than I know what to do with. I'm standing on the edge of a cliff overlooking a vast ocean- the winds of change are blowing across my face and my toes are wrapped around the edge of the sheer rock. I have my arms out just waiting to jump... and hopefully fly. Then, from the beautiful sunset on the not so distant horizon, a little butterfly flutters up and lands on my nose.

What a crazy ride.

Watch this space.
eniarelocin: (Broken Wings)
Where was I? *Ahem*

That was a much needed and much restorative nap, btw.

Midwife Appointment, Part 2 )

Butterfly Day )


eniarelocin: (Squishy Baby)

Baby-Shower-4
Originally uploaded by NicoleRaine

So apparently I'm huge and not in good ways. I can't believe how puffy I look. Oh well... deflation could happen very, very soon. And that's good news.
Baby Shower )



Other News )

Counting Down )

Thoughts On Impending Motherhood )

eniarelocin: (Belly Foot)

Lisa-DayOut-8
Originally uploaded by NicoleRaine

Lisa, our baby shower hostess, is in town. This afternoon she took me out to tea at a place I didn't even know existed. Apparently there is a very quaint little country village (see cutesy shops and touristy things) in Bothell. We had a lovely time... there are more photo highlights from our tea party on my flikr site.


Tomorrow is our baby shower. It's looking from the guest list like it may turn out to really be a baby shower and less like the BBQ get together we were originally envisioning. I think this should probably work out pretty well- there will only be a couple of male types and I'm sure the most uncomfortable of all of them will be Stephen. He has permission to bail should it turn into an Estrogen Fest. I'm hoping it will be a nice afternoon with friends.


I'm planning to bring my camera and hoping to try something different. I would like to get pictures of the gift givers holding the gifts instead of me with everything... might be nice as a memory- that way we're sure to know where everything came from years down the road.


Midwifery Update )

Baby/Pregnancy Updates )


...and on that note... it's time for midnight snack and then bed.Edit: Stephen gets the curry... I get a glass of Almond milk and a purple carrot.


We hope to see everyone tomorrow at 4pm!

eniarelocin: (Squishy Baby)
Hopefully this post will be much calmer than the one I intended to write last night.

I'm not sure where to start, so I suppose it will be the end and then we'll back up from there.
It's not pretty. )

This is not the start I wanted for our baby.

Edit: P.S.: This whole persistent anxiety attack thing this really devastating my work day. *Big. Thumbs. Down.*
eniarelocin: (Squishy Baby)
Sorry... posted late. From Thursday, 30 August, 2007.

Project Pollywog: 34 Weeks, 3 days


Yesterday was our 34 week Midwife appointment. The topic of the day was home birth. As the reader knows, we have been reconsidering this possibility and leaning strongly towards it since discovering that our new insurance will not cover birth by midwife. Yesterday we discussed more in depth the logistics of it, some more details and addressed Stephen’s concerns of safety. Included below are the answers to our questions and hopefully many of yours as well.
Our big hang up has simply related to which hospital we’d rather be closer to. Both hospital options for the birthing center and being at home are not optimal, but it’s hard to know if one is worse than the other. If there is a life in question who can we trust? I think that in the end we’re taking a leap of faith that should we need it, Cascade Valley Hospital will not kill us. Home birth it is.
Home Birth FAQ )
General FAQ )
Other Things We've Discovered )
eniarelocin: (Moonlight Mother)
So, this puts things into perspective a little bit:

Lilypie Expecting a baby PicLilypie Expecting a baby Ticker
Not long to go!

This shall be a short update.

Baby shower invitations should be going out shortly, hopefully in next couple of days. Was supposed to be seeing [livejournal.com profile] redcanoe this weekend but have a sudden house guest in the form of [livejournal.com profile] echo_echo, so that may not be happening. Haven't heard back from her.

Have been adding more things to the registries. What a time drain that is! I'll probably spend time deleting a lot of it again later. That's what I do.

Quick Update on the financial situation: Egad. Did more digging with regards to insurance. Called Premera (our previous provider) as a long shot to see if they would cover since we started with them. They won't. They won't be cause Regence will cover someone to deliver the baby. So, they suggested we switch providers. So... we're just going to have to fit the bill for this one because I'm not ok with a Nurse Midwife and a hospital.

I'm actually looking forward to a home birth at this point. I think it's pretty exciting.

Other than that... baby class again today. Still haven't talked about that much. Perhaps soon.
eniarelocin: (Default)

The Cost of Having A Baby


We had our 32 Week Midwife appointment this morning. Despite a rocky start in getting there and me walking part of the way post tantrum, I think the fact that it turned out well is proof positive that Darlene really works for us.

The big question was whether or not we can stay with her. We found out that what it's going to cost us to stay there:
Facility Fee: $2,000 normally but she'll only charge us $1,000 given the situation if we decide to birth at the birthing center.
Professional Fee: $3,000 normally but she'll knock it down to $2,500, or if we pay it by 36 weeks (one month from now) she'll reduce it further to $2,000.

If we choose to have a home birth, there is no facility fee and the grand total should be $2,000 if we can pay her this month. She's cutting it in half for us, basically.

Needless to say, we're strongly considering a home birth.
About Home Birth )
The bottom line here is that we do not want to change care providers. I'm sure you're wondering, and YES I did call our new insurance provider. They will not reimburse us a penny and they actually told me that they wouldn't have covered the delivery by a midwife anyway... though I didn't get full details on that bit. Regardless, we had a hard time finding someone we were really comfortable with and I don't want to start that all over again so late in the game. I feel like we'd be potentially compromising my health and that of the baby just to save the 80% or whatever the insurance covers (and even some of that is questionable at this point). It's just not worth it to me. We'll figure it out.

I'd rather work harder to make it work than compromise on this one. I'm just not comfortable with that and the last thing I want is added anxiety, which equals added risk. I guess this is where all those parenting choices come into play, huh? We want what's best for the baby. This is what we think is best. So here we are. We need $2,000.

So... other things:About the Baby )

Mom is going to Canada to pick up our Quinny Zapp tonight. I may go with her, or I may go to the Clutch show with Stephen... dunno yet.

More about La Leche League meeting later.

P.S. Nose bleeds suck and I'd like to be done with them now... and Pickle likes bubbles. Silly goldfish.
eniarelocin: (Tiny Toes)
Well... 8 weeks to go until the due date. This likely means another 9 1/2 until the birth.

Stephen got hired on full time at the place he's been contracting which means we now a new insurance plan. He was happy and anxious to stop paying out of pocket for the Cobra Plan (continuation of our original insurance through his last employer) and I've been apprehensive about dropping the Cobra ever since he suggested just not paying for it back in July. Turns out all of that apprehension was completely founded. Call it woman's intuition. This new insurance plan does not cover the midwife. It will not pay for the birth - unless something goes wrong and we end up at a hospital. I, for one, am not ok with that.

So, I'm at work at the college right now. It's my second to last day before we have a five week break and there is really no certainty of any hours after that as the college is trying to cut funding (go figure). I'm really freaking out right now. I'm really trying not to lose it at work. Edit: Just talked to my boss and we will get some hours, but as per usual there are a certain amount and he leaves it up to us to divide them between us... so it's really dependent on how generous everyone else will be as to how many hours I get.

I've called the midwife just to double check with them and they do not work with this new provider at all. They said they are happy to bill our previous insurance for everything up until the 1 August when our insurance changed. Our next appointment there is Wednesday when they are going to talk to us about how much this is going to cost out of pocket for the remainder of our care including the birth.

We've already lost our vision coverage and are having to pay for my new contacts out of pocket this month. We haven't bought the carseat yet (they're supposed to be available this week at some places and later in the month at others- so that's what we've been waiting for). We haven't bought a breast pump. We've been putting all of this off until this month or next (I've been pushing for sooner rather than later, but in the end it's really not my decision).

I'm really not ok about the idea of having to change away from our Midwife. I would sooner have the baby at home by myself than go anywhere near an OB. All I need is someone to catch the baby and the afterbirth, cut the cord, and we're good to go, I think.

Maybe another job isn't such a bad idea after all... legalities aside do you think anyone would hire a woman at 8 months pregnant?
eniarelocin: (Tiny Toes)
Today we had our 24 week midwife appointment. More about the midwife visit. )

In the meantime, the baby is growing and developing. [livejournal.com profile] squidgyfishlove asked me to post some interesting facts about its current development. See Through Baby )

For those of you who have been asking about the sex of the baby (which is pretty much everyone I run into), I should mention that we are not likely to get another ultrasound. The only reason to do so would be if there is a problem, and therefore, I'm not hoping for that. I think it's a wonderful to surprise, the biggest we'll ever have, to find out then. I hope that everyone else can be as happy at we are that it's a baby. I mean seriously... would you love it any less if it were a boy or a girl? We won't. So what difference does it make? [end rant]

Weird thing for today: Although I don't ever forget that the baby is there, I seem to keep surprising myself in front of mirrors or when I discover that my turning radius is not what it used to be. Apparently I forget that my size and shape have changed.

I think there needs to be more yoga.

I know that it's normal... but I've gained 5 pounds since our last visit (8 weeks ago?). And this makes me sad. I think it's sort of ruined my day actually. I realise that this is one of the more ridiculous things I've ever said. But that's how it is. :(
eniarelocin: (11w3days)
Today was our first official midwife visit. I started out a little stressed due to other things but I think it went pretty well. We got to ask our questions. Stephen piped up with his, which is great. We're going to skip the Quad Screening in favour of just getting an ultrasound which is scheduled for next week. We are hoping we'll be able to find out if Ellie is really an Ellie or there is a penis- in which case we have a lot of debating ahead of us.

I have been reassured that all of the round ligament pain is normal and likely to hurt a lot for another ten weeks or so. So at least that is normal. This is good. Well, the pain isn't but the normality sure is. Even though I keep worrying that something is going to go horribly wrong, this pregnancy is turning out to be, knock on wood, pretty by the book, healthy and generally non-scary. So I feel pretty good about that.

Of course, the fun part is listening to the heart beat. We have a little ninja on our hands, here. I called it. When the midwife, Darlene, put the Doppler mic to my tummy, the first thing we got was big, immediate HI-YAH! from the baby and then it promptly swam down. I'll bet it gave us the finger while it was at it. But it has a good strong heartbeat (and she said so do I), and it likes to move. That's pretty cool. I have liked being able to feel it move more often lately. Darlene says in about 4 weeks Stephen should be able to feel her from the outside. He seemed pretty excited about that.

Best part of the visit: Watching [livejournal.com profile] squidgyfishlove grin like an idiot while we listened to the heartbeat. What a good papa. :D

I like the midwife. Every time we go there, it increases my loathing for OB's. Screw you and your God complexes.

P.S. [livejournal.com profile] squidgyfishlove and I both rode motorcycles today. The midwife did notice and didn't say it was a concern. Just so you all know.

June 2010

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