Abigail is 10 today

I decided to post her birth story from 10 years ago.  

Abigail is our third baby. I waited patiently with her birth. I was due on April 30. Well, April 30 came and went, and I continued to wait for her. On May 7, I knew I was in labor all day but didn't say anything to Brent until I was getting somewhat uncomfortable. Her labour was the very best of all of them thus far. We were staying with a group in Independence Missouri. I was in the kitchen area with Brent and some of the women there. I remember how we were all talking and laughing. One of them (who had just had her baby a week earlier) asked me how far apart my contractions were. I casually looked at the clock and when I timed it, I said they were 2 minutes apart. She then got somewhat frantic and said Brent and I needed to leave for the hospital (it was about 30 minutes away). One of the other women (who was a nurse) laughed and said we knew when we should leave, and that we would be fine. Shortly after that, Brent and I got in the car and went to the hospital. Our friends there said they would watch Sadie and Hannah, since it was the middle of the night, and they were sound asleep.

I didn't have any pains until I got into the car. Sitting still, and knowing I was going to the hospital, stressed my body and cause the contractions to become almost unbearable. I had Brent keep the radio on, and I sang the entire way to the hospital, except when I couldn't due to a contraction.

When we got to the hospital, Brent parked the car and helped me into the emergency room area. I was in so much pain that I was cramped into a doubled over position, and couldn't stand upright. The nurses led me into an observation room, put me in bed and hooked up monitors to see where I was at. I'm not exactly sure how long I was in there. It felt like hours, but was probably closer to 20-30 minutes. The nurses came in and took me to one of their birthing rooms. The staff was very friendly, but the on calldoctor was a little 'strange'. She just seemed kind of out of it, like she was asleep. I think she was just an odd person, but very friendly.

Shortly after getting to the birthing room, they broke my water. At that point, the pain got very hard to handle. I asked the staff for an epidural. As we were waiting, I found something out that I shared with Brent and the nurse. I told them that it felt so much better during the contractions when I pushed. It took so much of the pain off the contraction and substituted it withmanageable pressure. The nurse did not say anything to me about it, and left. About an hour after requesting the epidural, the anesthesiologistcame in with his assistant. I was in pain, and do not remember anything about this time of the labour. I am completely blank and do not even remember the epidural being administered. Brent said that the anesthesiologist had trouble with the previous woman (that is why it took so long for them to get to me) and he had blood spattered on him, and he had his assistant performing the epidural. While she was trying to put it in, he was yelling at her. That is not an ideal situation, in my opinion.

Shortly after the epidural, I gave birth to my little Abigail Marie. She was born with dark hair, almost black.

The doctors wanted to keep an eye on her. Herbilirubin level was high. They said she wasjaundiced and put her on a bililight. I was still kind of 'out of it' and the doctor said something about liver failure and a blood transfusion. I lost it and started crying. I know that they were trying to explain the worst case scenario, but I didn't understand what they were saying at that time. We took her home, and she spent the first week with a biliblanket. I somewhat joked that I had to plug my baby in, but I was actually battling depression at that time. I had a hard time bonding and I was frightened for her. She did great, though. She ate like a champ, and gained all her birth weight, plus some, back within two days of being home. We had a home nurse come and prick her little heal every day to check her bili level. It was sad, and hard to do, but she did great. After a week, the nurse said she was fine and didn't need the biliblanket anymore.

It's Gone

Baby Z is 6 days old.  This afternoon his little belly button fell off.  Ok, it wasn't his bell button exactly, but his cord stump.  

Either way, it's both sad and a relief to see it go.  It's like a piece of his newborn stage is gone.  However, now I don't have to worry about it getting pulled, or getting damp from the cloth diapers. 

Bye bye belly button plug. 

Post baby belly

So, it's early, but I'm thinking about when I start getting back in shape.  I won't start running until probably September.  I can't fathom starting my running during the Missouri summer.  Not unless I plan to run around 6am.  I'm not a morning person, but it's always a possibility. 

Anyway, I've been eating a lot since Zechariah was born.  Like, a lot.  I can't seem to get full.  I'm ok with that. I'll eat to get my body ready to feed him.  However, I need to watch my foods.  I did have a cookie and ice cream binge the last few days.  Thankfully I've also been eating a lot of salad, veggie soup, homemade whole wheat bread, water, etc...  

I need to stay healthy for me, but also for Zeke.  I want to be healthy, but also get in shape eventually, when my body is ready.  

So, here I am.  Today's 4th Trimester tummy picture. 

Adjusting to the change

You would think there wouldn't be much to adjust to.  I'm used to this, right?  Never.  There's always the adjustment period.  

I'm finally able to breath again.  After every baby I tend to have trouble breathing.  Right after birth it's like my lungs need to adjust and it takes a day or so to breathe properly.  I'm still sore and can't do much more than eat, sleep, use the bathroom, and feed baby. I'm also rather irritable from after birth pains.  Those really suck. 

As for Zeck, he's doing great.  He cried most of the first night.  Last night he did great. He slept a lot of the night, allowing me to sleep some.  

He is finally learning how to nurse, and my milk is coming in, so that helps.  He still likes to try to bite off my nipples, and I'm scared to nurse him.  It's getting better though. 

He is just the favorite person in the house. The kids (even Joy) keep petting his head and kissing him.  I love holding him, and he loves to sleep on my chest.  He's so strong too.  I put him in his tummy and he lifts his head and looks back and forth.  

He's just an an amazing little guy. 

Welcome Zechariah Bruyn To The World

I'm going to start earlier in the week. I went to bed Monday night at 40+1. I will admit that I had been ready for a couple weeks, but still thinking that he could hold on like Joy did and wait until almost 43 weeks.  

Ok, so I went to bed Monday night exhausted.  What did I do all day. I cleaned all day long. 

"My house is ready. My birth kit is ready. I organized baby's clothes and diapers. Dinner was ready by 4 (a little crazy on getting dinner going early). Showered, did laundry, organized. No sewing today."

I had the nesting bug.  I I had been sewing cloth pads and a few fun craft projects all week. 

I'd been having pretty hard contractions for 5 to 7 hours at a time starting Monday.  They would go on for hours, me breathing through them, then stop.  

Wednesday night I decided to take a picture. I thought "This could be my last picture of this pregnancy". 

So, come Thursday night, I was tired and ready.  We went to bed and at midnight (12:04am actually) a very hard contraction came along.  My eyes popped open.  Ok, this might be it.  I fell back asleep.  Another contraction.  It was one hour apart.  This happened until 4am.  Then they picked up.  I stopped timing at that point.  

I went back and forth between bed and the bathroom. I lost track of time at that point.  I listened to music on my phone. I spent a lot of time in the bathroom between laboring on the toilet, hanging on the counter, and kneeling over my birth kit box.  At some point I got on the couch and slept between contractions.  Waking only to moan, cry out, and at the end sob through the last few.  

I went back to the bathroom and labored between my triangle of locations.  None were helping.  I kept telling myself that it was getting close.  I could feel baby's bag of waters bulging.  I waited and labored longer.  I moaned and yelled through my contractions.  I kept talking to baby, saying it was time to come out.  

**Later that day Hannah (12) apologized because she said she smiled hearing me because I sounded like I was singing opera.  She said I was hitting the notes rather well.**

I could feel the bag of waters, and knew I couldn't go on for much longer.  I was exhausted physically and mentally.  I pinched to break the sac, and a little liquid did come out, but the bag was still intact.  I labored a bit longer and tried again.  This time water splashed across the chux pad.  Things picked up from there.  

My oldest daughter Sadie (15) was hanging around outside of the bathroom.  She asked if I needed anything.  I said I needed her dad.  

They both came in, but I had kind of wedged myself into my triangular area where there wasn't a lot of room.  I hadn't wanted to move to far to change positions.  He had no space to get in by me.  He said to come to the living room where there was plenty of space to have baby.  I began roaring and said I can't move. I could feel baby's head.  At this point I was stuck leaning over my birth kit box facing the wall. 

He asked Sadie if she could get behind me.  If she would want to catch the baby.  She jumped at the chance, although very nervous since she hadn't done that before.  She had only helped with Bekah's birth, but didn't catch.  She was afraid of dropping the baby. Brent told her to be careful because baby will be slippery and come out with some force.  He then said to watch for the head. 

At this point I was feeling baby's head and knew the progress of what was going on. Unfortunately the only communication I could give them was my primal roars.  I would push through contractions and feel his head very slowly make it's way down.  Oh how I wanted this finished.  I kept thinking how close it was.  How I would meet my baby soon.  His head got close to crowning and Sadie told Brent she could see his head.  They both began encouraging me.  The excitement was in the air.  Baby was almost here. 

I pushed a couple more times and his head began to crown.  I took a break between contractions and slowly pushed him in just a bit.  I needed more time to stretch.  I pushed again on the next contraction and still couldn't get him out.  On the next, with Brent and Sadie encouraging me, I pushed and roared.  I thought his head was out, but they said to keep pushing.  I guess I stopped about his face.  It was like his head went on forever.  Then, finally, his head was out!  They said how he had a perfect head!  I found out later he was sunny side up.  

Next contraction I didn't wait.  I began pushing.  Brent readied Sadie.  I'm not exactly sure what's really going on with them, as I'm facing away from everyone.  I hear Sadie ask why baby is blue (a bit scared) and we both said that how they are, it's ok.  Then Brent said the cord was around baby's neck, but it was beyond the point of stopping.  Baby was out.  (The cord was not looped around the neck, but draped across his shoulders.)

I hear Brent say "It's a boy!".  What a surprise to me!  I felt the entire time baby was a girl!  

He asked the time.  11:20am. I said it sure felt like 4pm.  

I was exhausted.  With my others I wanted to immediately hold baby.  This time I could only drape myself across the box and rest.  After a few minutes I was able to shakily stand up and see my baby boy. I don't know how long I waited, but he was cleaned up by that time. I guess he was really cheesy.  I grabbed a towel and sat on it while I finally held my little (not so little) guy.  I stood up and felt movement.  I squatted and pushed the placenta out. We then tied the cord and Brent cut it. 

Brent then asked everyone what their guess was on his weight.  Sadie said 7lb something.  My eyes got huge.  I laughed and said I guess 9lb 10oz because his head was so big.  Brent guessed 9lb 16oz.  I laughed and said that was 10lbs.  He said it's also 9lb 16oz.  Ha ha!

They took him out and I sat in the toilet for a while.  I was cold and shaking so hard I couldn't do much else for a while.  After I gathered myself, I was able to shower.  After I got out and dressed I went to the living room and found out he was 9lb 10oz on the dot!

Brent then looked at me and asked about names.  We had thought of girls, and I mentioned boy names, but nothing was decided on.  He said "What about Zechariah?".  I was so happy!  It was one I wanted since Moses.  He asked about the middle name.  I had no idea.  Then he said (since Zechariah was a family name) what about Zechariah's middle name, Bruyn?  Perfect!

Zechariah Bruyn

Born 4/25/14 at 40w 5d

11:20am

9lb 10oz

21 1/2 inches long

15 inch head

40+2

End of the day. 

So, I cleaned some more.  The water to the entire town was out from 10am until about 7pm.  It's finally back on, however we will likely have a boil order for a couple days now.  

I'm tired.  I'm tired of people asking how I'm doing.  I'm tired of mean people online.  I'm tired of moving.  I'm tired of my feet swelling every time I eat.  

I've accepted the fact that I'll probably be pregnant for another week or two.  I'm tired of that too.  I just had my first contraction all day today about 30 minutes ago.  

Baby's moving though.  Not as much today, but moving around right now.  

Anyway, I'm getting ready for bed.  

40+1 - Nesting

I'm nesting like crazy! I want to stop but I'm obsessive today. 

Cleaned/bleached the bathroom, did laundry, swept twice, cleaned the living room, kitchen partially clean, back room needs some organizing, sorted and organized baby clothes and NB diapers, sorted and organized 15 month olds clothes, still need to pull baby's first outfit, prepped my birth kit again, dinner has been in the crockpot since 9am, kids are off to clean their rooms...

I'm driving myself crazy.  I had to stop and rest.  I wasn't able to walk well after all this.  I'm staring at my piano and it is making my brain twitch. There are things out of order that need organized.  

Make me stop!