The Princess has Arrived!!

Aren't I Sweet?, originally uploaded by PaulaK.

Beautiful Babe

Beautiful Babe, originally uploaded by PaulaK.

Paula and A

Paula and A, originally uploaded by PaulaK.

4 Days Old

4 Days Old, originally uploaded by PaulaK.

Mom and Babe

Mom and Babe, originally uploaded by PaulaK.

The Princess has Arrived!! (birth story)

She was born at 11:16am on Friday, Nov. 19, 2004, weighing in at 9lbs. 11oz., our smallest!

Had about one contraction per hour, but hard, all night long on Thursday, in fact even woke D at midnight to say "this is it" but when it didn't pick up after an hour, went back to bed. So I would just go back to sleep after each one. Got up at 6am, still felt very tired, went back to bed and water broke with one really hard contraction aided by a kick at 6:30am.

Got to hospital at 7am, and nothing was really happening! Contrax had more or less stopped altogether. By the time they did a monitor strip, checked baby's position with ultrasound, rechecked it because inept resident couldn't tell if that was a head or not (more on her later), checked my cervix (4-5 centimeters, stretchy but baby was way high) and got the IV antibiotics in, and moved me to my own room, it was about 9:15am and contrax had just gotten going with a bang, about 5 minutes apart and much more intense. Around 10am the resident checked again, now I was 6-7 and baby had come down to +3 station.

I began debating an epidural at this point, and spent a while discussing that with the anesthesia nurse, D and the resident. I wanted it but was afraid I couldn't keep still and that it would adversely affect the labor, delivery, baby, etc. D was trying hard to talk me out of it, even insisted they call my dr., who was already driving there.

By the time the anesthesiologist arrived, I was getting close to pushing, so we sent him away.

Then the resident attempts to check me again, concluding she "thinks" I'm complete, but can't really tell, so she has to go get a more senior resident to come and check. This resident, who would also be delivering if the dr. didn't get there in time, said I was 8-9.

After a few more minutes, I began to REALLY feel like pushing, and my dr. arrived, saying "Just give me a minute to get my scrubs on." Then she called the inept resident, who I thought she was going to allow to try to check me again and I said "She is NOT checking me again!" but dr. said she would check herself, but resident would assist with delivery. She wanted to have her hands free to put counterpressure against perineum and ease shoulders out if necessary, thinking this might be my biggest baby yet.

While they were dressing and getting stuff ready, I sat myself down on the bed, spread my legs and began pushing. Resident said, "We better hurry up, I see a head." Doctor ordered me to push more slowly so I wouldn't tear, saying, "I know you can shoot this baby across the room, but don't. Let her head be partway out to stretch you." The next push the head came the rest of the way out, and then they told me "OK now, give it all you got", and out came the rest of her body. I reached down and grabbed her, and they helped me get her on my chest. I thought I saw a penis, but then I asked (by now they'd thrown a blanket over her) and they told me to look for myself (D had already seen but wasn't saying!) and I saw she was a girl. I didn't have any tear or stitches, have a minor hemorrhoid, but feel great in general.

She has dark hair and looks like me, or like I did as a baby. The birth went exactly as I'd hoped, and I'm SO happy. I AM glad that I didn't have an epicural, even though I sure wanted it at the time! The only thing that didn't work out was that 3 of my kids wanted to be there, and they went to school, (I thought they should just stay at home but D didn't) and when my dad went to pick them up, he wasn't on the emergency list, so it took a long time to convince 3 different schools to release them, and they missed the delivery.

Human Pincushion

That's what I feel like--my nerves are very on edge. During the day I can be relaxed, but at dinner time I just start to lose it. Yesterday's arsenic hour featured:

Painter using shop vac very loudly
4yo and 7yo dds fighting, 4yo crying
7yo weeping hysterically at the thought of cleaning her rabbit's cage
Washing machine repairman showing up (supposed to be here between 1-3pm)
Lots of whimpering from the 1yo who was hungry, but I was struggling to make dinner with him hanging on me
Me trying to talk on phone to old friend who called from AZ


Dr. appt. update:

Dilated to 3-4 cm with bulging sack of waters
Biophysical profile done at hospital after nonreactive nonstress test in office--baby looks great
Induction which had been tentatively scheduled for tomorrow cancelled--hospital is swamped and I don't want to be induced
Dr. leaves to go out of town on Sat.

Lots of contrax, that hurt more than ever, but not real labor yet

My Favorite Room

Here is a not very flattering picture of me, with 2 of my cuties, T and K, taken by D who was sitting and looking up at us. This is the room we call the "quiet room." Behind me is my nursing chair. We just painted this room a week ago and we are just loving how it looks.

Belly Art

A friend came by yesterday with a henna kit, and made a design on my belly.

First is how it looked while henna paste was still on the belly:



and next is how it came out after it was done:




Hope it lasts till delivery, which better be soon!

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

No baby yet! And quit asking me! D cancelled a 1 day business trip to DC yesterday, at my request, just in case. That of course guaranteed that the baby didn't come yesterday! I did lose the mucus plug yesterday evening, so maybe today?

14 Toothbrushes

That is the number of extra toothbrushes (used, not new) that I threw away this week. How can a family of 8 have so many extra toothbrushes? The kids are each supposed to have 2 toothbrushes, one for regular use and a spare. For some peculiar reason, they are very reluctant to part with any old toothbrush, so any time they get a new one, and I say, "Throw out one of your old ones", they apparently don't. Then they promptly forget which brushes are theirs and so when they lose their regular toothbrush or leave at someone's house, and I say, "Use your spare," I am always told that they don't HAVE a spare, only the one, and now I need to buy them a new toothbrush. So now we are down to one toothbrush each, not counting a couple of electric ones they got as gifts. Everyone went to the dentist last week and got a new one, so they are all fresh.

Full Term Belly

This afternoon I was feeling strange: nauseous, crampy, some contractions, lots of fatigue. I'd spent the day doing laundry--lots of it! D came home and said "Paula's going to have a baby tonight." He said I had a certain look in my eyes. Nothing definite is going on, and I actually feel better than I did earlier.

Meanwhile, I did pack my bag, just in case!

Waiting is Driving Me Crazy!!!

Well, I'm to that point that most women who've had a baby will recognize--I can't stand the waiting and not knowing any more! Since being pregnant is all I think about, it's all I can write about at this point, too!

Last week my doctor offered to schedule an induction if I think I want one. She said that she would have to justify it but thinks she can due to previous large babies and previous gestational diabetes (I've had sugar in my urine the past 2 visits), but it needs to be requested at least a week in advance for non-emergency. I don't want to be induced, but it is tempting! I am going for an ultrasound next week to estimate the baby's size. Apparently any info,. no matter how inaccurate, is better than none. Did another nonstress test, this time with no toddler to mess it up, and it was fine.

We were disappointed by the election results. D is very worried--I think he is being melodramatic, although I do wish Kerry had won.

I've had some painting done--finish the foyer/staircase/hall area that D started and was never finished after we changed our minds about the trim color; finish the girls' room which was primed but never painted; and paint the parlor area we refer to as the "quiet room", which is theoretically an adult only area. I had that painted a warm peachy color with rich chocolaty brown trim, and it's beautiful. It was DIRTY flat white with cream trim.