matson has finally arrived! a friend suggested that i write down matson's birth story before i forget the details, so i figured i'd take advantage of my blog for that.
our due date of march 22 came and went with no sign that mats was interested in joining us, and other than the occasional light contraction, the trend continued as we hit 41 weeks and moved closer to 42 weeks. my doctor's practice doesn't deliver babies post-42 weeks and doesn't schedule inductions for the weekend, so they initially set us up to induce at 41 weeks and 2 days, which was a thursday night. we'd been planning on a natural labor all along and were really hoping to avoid induction if at all possible, and thankfully my doctor was willing to work with us to get the induction date moved back to sunday night, 41 weeks and 5 days. (i know that pitocin makes contractions a lot stronger and harder than normal, which makes it all that much more likely that you'll need an epidural; i was hoping to avoid an epidural because it seems as though it's better for your body to be able to work naturally through labor and delivery - better success with breastfeeding, easier pushing, etc.)
the friday before our induction, we had a non-stress test where i was hooked up to an external fetal monitor to check contractions, heartrate, and movement just to make sure things were still looking okay for matson. he was super active, i had all of one contraction in the thirty minutes i was hooked up, and as the doctor said, baby was just too comfortable in my womb to want to come out on his own! i wasn't quite a centimeter dilated and my cervix was still pretty far posterior, so they decided that when i came in sunday night, they'd do a cervical ripening gel (turned out they used a tablet) overnight to get my cervix in motion, then start pitocin in the morning if it was needed - about 30-60% of women who have the cervical ripening treatment end up having it jump-start their labor.
we spent all weekend hoping and praying to be in active labor by the time sunday night rolled around for us to head into the hospital, but while the irregular light contractions continued, they never morphed into anything more. as we were finishing packing up our bags, the full weight of the situation - heading to the hospital knowing that we were absolutely going to have a baby in the next day or so - hit us, and while we were so excited knowing that matson was coming, we also found ourselves grieving the end of the first part of our marriage. not that life with kids isn't good, but we've had a really awesome first five and a half years of marriage, and have so much fun together just the two of us. even if the change is good, having a baby is still a huge change for our relationship, and change is hard.
we still went to small group that night, then headed up to the hospital in snow flurries, to be there at 9pm. by the time we got checked in, monitored, and had the first tablet inserted, it was close to 11pm. they offered me an ambien to help me sleep through the night, and while i refused at first, i called the nurse in for it by 12:30 as i realized i was getting no sleep which wouldn't be very helpful for labor the next day. i slept soundly til 3am when they came back to check me and insert the second tablet - pretty shortly after that tablet started to work, contractions started coming on more strongly and quickly, and i dozed off and on until around 7am when i decided sleep was a lost cause and woke up scott to start our day. i had had grand intentions of taking a shower, fixing my hair, and putting on a bit of makeup before the induction started since i had to have it at all - the shower was as far as i got, though, and even at that, i had serious thoughts of sitting down in the tub to finish my shower as contractions continued. they started pitocin around 9, but by 8:30 i told scott to call our doula, liberty, to come in - i was already in such pain from the contractions that i figured we'd have our 10 hours of laboring with her, then just go ahead and get the epidural. (i think scott made the call just after i ate a grape popsicle and promptly threw it up.) she arrived by 9:30 to me sitting on the birth ball next to our bed, moaning, with my head propped up on some pillows on our bed and scott sitting behind me rubbing my back.
from there, everything is kind of a blur to me. i had my eyes open for maybe a cumulative grand total of 2 minutes in the next seven hours, and spent a bit of time sitting on the birth ball or leaning against it while kneeling on all fours on the bed, but most of it laying on my side in bed clutching at either scott or liberty's hands while the other one rubbed my back or my feet. at one point, since i was having crazy contractions but wasn't dilating, the doctor (dr. moore) came in and inserted a balloon to force my cervix to dilate - it would fall out naturally once i hit 4cm. i have no idea how long it was in there, but while it was still in, my water broke on its own - which was awesome news, since it meant that my body was starting to take over labor and things should be progressing faster. liberty left the room to tell the nurse that my water had broken, which i assumed (correctly) meant that there was meconium in my amniotic fluid.
one memory i do have is, as they came back to remove the balloon for me since my water had broken, was scott saying, "woah, is that her mucus plug?!" (apparently it came out attached to the balloon.) i think around this time, after a few hours (scott thought maybe 2?) of pitocin, they stopped pitocin since my body had taken over - hooray! i was relieved to hear it, but when someone said that i could now labor away from my bed and liberty was running through my options - walk around, birth ball, tub, etc - all i could say was "tub". (scott said that i only spoke in verbs and nouns the whole time.) i was in there for maybe 40 minutes (again, per scott, who wasn't positive) when i started feeling like i needed to push, so they made me get out. i was very sad about this, because my legs were shaky and i was super cold in the room, having just been relatively cozy in a warm tub. i was only at a 7, so they let me back in the tub for a while more. i think i felt the urge to push again, so i had to get out maybe a half hour later, and didn't get back in again. i did some pushing on the bed, got checked a few times, and after approximately an eternity, was finally at a 10 - again, hooray! i was super cranky, because while i was able to continue pushing for a while, when they were able to see the head, they made me stop pushing until dr. moore made it to the room.
finally dr. moore came in, and i was able to commence pushing again. i know i'd been falling asleep between contractions throughout the day (probably because i'd only gotten about 3.5 hours of sleep the night before), and while i feel fairly certain i was awake throughout the final pushing, i can't be sure. scott thinks i was only pushing for about 10 minutes after dr. moore arrived, and it felt like each time i pushed people were saying, "just one more push and his head will be out!" so i'd push, then, "just one more push!", etc. about two minutes before matson came out, i felt my leg on scott's side being shifted, and realized that a nurse was taking my leg as he was being led to a chair - he said later that he was pretty sure he could have made it, but was starting to feel woozy and didn't want to be that dad who passes out in the delivery room. his head was finally fully out after an enormous pushing contraction, and then i think just one more push and his body followed. i'd been in intense pain all day, and it was suddenly just ... gone! someone told me to open my eyes, and i saw a gray-ish baby being taken to the warmer in the corner so that mats could be checked out by a nicu nurse for the meconium in my fluid. he was in great form, though, and checked out wonderfully other than a pinched nerve in his neck so that his head was pulling to the left and his left arm was sticking out at a wonky angle.
matson is a fabulous baby. his neck thing was fine by the time we got to our room, he started nursing right away and is a champion feeder (he only lost about 5.6% of his birth weight in the hospital, and was up 2oz from that at his 4-day pediatrician checkup today, which she said is pretty remarkable). he's got adorable blue eyes and loves snuggling. hands down the hardest part right now is that he doesn't like to sleep unless he's being held - sweet during the day, but makes for reeeeeeally long nights. i got about 6-7 hours total sleep two nights ago, but other than that have averaged about 3-4 hours a night/day since sunday night when we went in for our induction. my parents are here to help out, which is awesome, but if they have him and i'm trying to sleep, i wake up as soon as he starts to fuss. i discovered cotton swabs this afternoon to take a nap, but was only able to sleep for an hour. sigh. i'm trying to remember the joys of being matson's mommy, though, because there are so many, and that he'll figure out the sleep thing sooner or later and we'll be a little rested again. he's been going longer stretches on his own, though, and the pediatrician suggested letting him sleep in his car seat since he likes being snuggled up in close quarters. (he also likes his bouncer seat and the curved pad on the changing table??)
so that is matson's birth story! overall, i am so happy with how things went, and incredibly proud that i was able to make it through labor with no pain meds. liberty has since told me that it's incredibly rare to have a pitocin labor and not have an epidural. honestly, even though i didn't mention her much through the story, i don't think that scott and i could have made it through without her. her encouragement and support (and massages!) gave both of us the energy and motivation to keep going without an epidural, and made the pain bearable. if you ever have any intention of doing a natural labor, i 100% recommend getting a doula - she was completely awesome, and a great supplement to scott's incredible help.
done and to-do
nursery is getting closer to completion by the day! this weekend, i made and framed a collage for the wall above matson's crib, had scott paint the edges of the closet where i spackled last week, we got the closet doors re-installed (and by we, i mean i mostly watched while scott did all of the work), i got fun fabric put into embroidery hoops to hang on the wall above matson's changing table, i ordered everything remaining from our target registry (have a few more things to get from babies r us, as well as finishing buying our cloth diapers and accessories), and i sorted through all of his clothes, took tags off, and bought a free and clear detergent to wash them in. yes, i am nesting, why do you ask?
(speaking of clothes, by the way, we are so set! i was looking through our stash thus far, figuring that i had enough newborn clothes and debating whether to get a few more 0-3 month items. my friend jami has a 10 month old son, though, and graciously offered to lend us his clothes if we were interested - i said sure, and holy cow! she gave me a box and bag of just newborn/0-3 items, and between her clothes and what we had for mats already, we filled his hamper to the brim, all with tiny, adorable clothes for his first few months of life!)
remaining on my list is having a maid service come in next week (my birthday gift from scott :)), washing matson's clothes, organizing the nursery and closet, attaching the cushion to the gliding ottoman (ahem), hemming/cute-ifying matson's curtains, doing some general house organization, freezing some meals for nights we don't have family around and no friends scheduled to bring us food, and trying to remind myself that mats won't really care how perfect his room and our house looks or doesn't look.
(speaking of clothes, by the way, we are so set! i was looking through our stash thus far, figuring that i had enough newborn clothes and debating whether to get a few more 0-3 month items. my friend jami has a 10 month old son, though, and graciously offered to lend us his clothes if we were interested - i said sure, and holy cow! she gave me a box and bag of just newborn/0-3 items, and between her clothes and what we had for mats already, we filled his hamper to the brim, all with tiny, adorable clothes for his first few months of life!)
remaining on my list is having a maid service come in next week (my birthday gift from scott :)), washing matson's clothes, organizing the nursery and closet, attaching the cushion to the gliding ottoman (ahem), hemming/cute-ifying matson's curtains, doing some general house organization, freezing some meals for nights we don't have family around and no friends scheduled to bring us food, and trying to remind myself that mats won't really care how perfect his room and our house looks or doesn't look.
squeaky clean towels
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labels:
house
last summer, a coworker and i were talking about how frustrating it is when your towels begin to get that stench - you know, the one where you pull a freshly laundered towel out of the closet, and as soon as it hits your wet skin it gives off that over-used, needs-to-be-washed bacterial/mildewy odor. her solution is to throw out towels once that happens.
throwing away perfectly good towels and buying replacements just doesn't work for me, though, so when it seemed like every towel in my linen closet had reached that point a few months ago, i started looking for a real solution. (all of our towels are a lovely chocolatey brown, by the by, so bleach is not an answer.) turns out that it's a fairly common problem caused by using too much detergent, which builds up in the fabric and thus traps icky odors. the solution? i googled around and found out that we needed to strip our towels. i ran them through a hot wash with an extra rinse cycle (no detergent), put vinegar into the fabric softener cup - and voila! clean smelling towels! (i also did them a second time with baking soda, but apparently with a high efficiency machine, you have to add water to powdered detergents first, making a paste, which i didn't do, so i kind of ended up with a very grainy lint tray after drying them.)
anyway, super easy, and much more efficient than throwing away and replacing a full set of towels. also easy: halving the amount of detergent i had been using, so that i don't get fresh-yet-stinky towels again.
throwing away perfectly good towels and buying replacements just doesn't work for me, though, so when it seemed like every towel in my linen closet had reached that point a few months ago, i started looking for a real solution. (all of our towels are a lovely chocolatey brown, by the by, so bleach is not an answer.) turns out that it's a fairly common problem caused by using too much detergent, which builds up in the fabric and thus traps icky odors. the solution? i googled around and found out that we needed to strip our towels. i ran them through a hot wash with an extra rinse cycle (no detergent), put vinegar into the fabric softener cup - and voila! clean smelling towels! (i also did them a second time with baking soda, but apparently with a high efficiency machine, you have to add water to powdered detergents first, making a paste, which i didn't do, so i kind of ended up with a very grainy lint tray after drying them.)
anyway, super easy, and much more efficient than throwing away and replacing a full set of towels. also easy: halving the amount of detergent i had been using, so that i don't get fresh-yet-stinky towels again.
new camera
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labels:
bargains
so our 6-year old point-and-shoot camera finally died. i think it actually died on our chicago trip last september, but i haven't used it since then and finally got around to troubleshooting it last week. it had been turning itself off when you would try to take a picture, even with brand new batteries.
i discharged and fully recharged my batteries last weekend, and was able to take a few pictures when i put them back in. i turned it off and let it sit for a week, though, and it now powers down as soon as you turn it on - with the lens out! very sad. i do have my lovely dslr, but it's nice to have a smaller camera on hand for easier portability for traveling and long hikes. in particular, though, with matson coming soon and scott being designated photographer of freshly-newborn matson, i think it's a good idea to have an easy to use camera alternative.
thus, i spent the last two days scouring camera reviews on amazon, consumer reports, and cnet.com (my favorite go-to spot for tech product reviews) ... and we bought a camera last night! if you know me at all, that is pretty much record-breaking turnaround time on a buying decision.
i was debating between the canon sd1400 is, which consumer reports picked as one of their "best buys", and the canon sd1300 is. they are essentially the same camera, both rated "very good" by cnet.com and with glowing customer reviews on amazon, with the slight difference that the 1400 has 14.1 megapixels where the 1300 has 12.1 (not a huge deal with the size of the pictures that they take), and the 1400 has slightly better video - a feature we're unlikely to use a great deal.
i vacillated between the two (and approximately 45 other cameras) and finally decided on the 1300 on sale for $110. yesterday afternoon, armed with my $30 office depot rewards card and $20 off coupon and excited to get a nice camera for $60+tax, i went to officedepot.com and clicked "add to cart" ... and got a pop up saying that it wasn't available at that price any longer! grrr. i spent the rest of the day re-researching cameras, finally deciding to go ahead and do the 1400, which would be $130+tax after my discounts. i decided to sleep on it, though, and talk it over with scott. we had to return a dvd last night, though, so while we were out, we decided to drop by the office depot down the street from us to look at their cameras in person ... and lo and behold, they had the 1300 in store for $110! hooray! final price was $66 after discounts and tax.
today i'm going to utilize my amazon prime membership and get a case and a good memory card for it (memory cards are atrociously expensive at office depot), bringing our total cost for the whole camera package to ... $86! great bargain shopping if i do say so myself.
i discharged and fully recharged my batteries last weekend, and was able to take a few pictures when i put them back in. i turned it off and let it sit for a week, though, and it now powers down as soon as you turn it on - with the lens out! very sad. i do have my lovely dslr, but it's nice to have a smaller camera on hand for easier portability for traveling and long hikes. in particular, though, with matson coming soon and scott being designated photographer of freshly-newborn matson, i think it's a good idea to have an easy to use camera alternative.
thus, i spent the last two days scouring camera reviews on amazon, consumer reports, and cnet.com (my favorite go-to spot for tech product reviews) ... and we bought a camera last night! if you know me at all, that is pretty much record-breaking turnaround time on a buying decision.
i was debating between the canon sd1400 is, which consumer reports picked as one of their "best buys", and the canon sd1300 is. they are essentially the same camera, both rated "very good" by cnet.com and with glowing customer reviews on amazon, with the slight difference that the 1400 has 14.1 megapixels where the 1300 has 12.1 (not a huge deal with the size of the pictures that they take), and the 1400 has slightly better video - a feature we're unlikely to use a great deal.
i vacillated between the two (and approximately 45 other cameras) and finally decided on the 1300 on sale for $110. yesterday afternoon, armed with my $30 office depot rewards card and $20 off coupon and excited to get a nice camera for $60+tax, i went to officedepot.com and clicked "add to cart" ... and got a pop up saying that it wasn't available at that price any longer! grrr. i spent the rest of the day re-researching cameras, finally deciding to go ahead and do the 1400, which would be $130+tax after my discounts. i decided to sleep on it, though, and talk it over with scott. we had to return a dvd last night, though, so while we were out, we decided to drop by the office depot down the street from us to look at their cameras in person ... and lo and behold, they had the 1300 in store for $110! hooray! final price was $66 after discounts and tax.
today i'm going to utilize my amazon prime membership and get a case and a good memory card for it (memory cards are atrociously expensive at office depot), bringing our total cost for the whole camera package to ... $86! great bargain shopping if i do say so myself.
more baby preparations
this has been the month of preparing for baby - we started off the first weekend of the month with our childbirth class, have taken infant/child cpr and breastfeeding since then (and have a baby care class this upcoming saturday), signed up for a doula, had my work baby shower, began weekly doctor appointments, packed my labor bag, and have finally begun to finalize nursery decor plans. i think that's about it.
regarding the baby classes - i think we're both glad that we're taking them. as i've said before, we've been reading through "natural childbirth the bradley way", so there wasn't a ton in the childbirth class that we were surprised by, but nonetheless we found it both helpful and affirming. some of the things that the instructor talked about, such as relaxing through contractions to manage pain (even for women who are planning to get an epidural), are right on par with what the bradley book talks about. we came out of the class feeling like we've been doing the right things in preparing and that while some parts of the book are outdated (which we recognized already), others are right on track. breastfeeding and cpr both gave us a little more confidence with things that neither of us is familiar with, which i think will be helpful. (hopefully no need for familiarity with cpr, though!)
we signed up for a doula through our hospital a few weeks ago, and i finally got to chat with her on the phone for a bit this weekend. from her website, in which she offers crystal healings and features a photo of herself at her wedding wearing fairy wings, i feared that she might be a little flaky - but after talking with her, i think she'll be great. she worked as a nurse for 12 years and has been doula-ing for about 2 years, so she's been through a ton of births and seems like a great source of experience and calm. she was excited that we're planning to do a natural (pain med-free) birth, but is supportive of whatever clients end up doing and says that her goal is to make sure that however baby comes out, that we're happy with the experience. i'm down with that!
you'll notice, by the way, that i earlier said "begun to finalize nursery decor plans" - i don't yet have any nursery decor completed, and changed my mind on half of it last friday, but i do have plans! i think it'll be cute when it's done, but you'll have to wait until then for pictures. (and by the way, mom, i finished the ottoman cushion!!!! i'm going to stop at joann's tonight to pick up some sturdier thread/cord to adhere it to the ottoman - but the cushion itself is done and looks great. i actually did it last monday on my day off, but slacked on picking up the thread all week.)
regarding the baby classes - i think we're both glad that we're taking them. as i've said before, we've been reading through "natural childbirth the bradley way", so there wasn't a ton in the childbirth class that we were surprised by, but nonetheless we found it both helpful and affirming. some of the things that the instructor talked about, such as relaxing through contractions to manage pain (even for women who are planning to get an epidural), are right on par with what the bradley book talks about. we came out of the class feeling like we've been doing the right things in preparing and that while some parts of the book are outdated (which we recognized already), others are right on track. breastfeeding and cpr both gave us a little more confidence with things that neither of us is familiar with, which i think will be helpful. (hopefully no need for familiarity with cpr, though!)
we signed up for a doula through our hospital a few weeks ago, and i finally got to chat with her on the phone for a bit this weekend. from her website, in which she offers crystal healings and features a photo of herself at her wedding wearing fairy wings, i feared that she might be a little flaky - but after talking with her, i think she'll be great. she worked as a nurse for 12 years and has been doula-ing for about 2 years, so she's been through a ton of births and seems like a great source of experience and calm. she was excited that we're planning to do a natural (pain med-free) birth, but is supportive of whatever clients end up doing and says that her goal is to make sure that however baby comes out, that we're happy with the experience. i'm down with that!
you'll notice, by the way, that i earlier said "begun to finalize nursery decor plans" - i don't yet have any nursery decor completed, and changed my mind on half of it last friday, but i do have plans! i think it'll be cute when it's done, but you'll have to wait until then for pictures. (and by the way, mom, i finished the ottoman cushion!!!! i'm going to stop at joann's tonight to pick up some sturdier thread/cord to adhere it to the ottoman - but the cushion itself is done and looks great. i actually did it last monday on my day off, but slacked on picking up the thread all week.)
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