Husband Coached Childbirth

We went out to dinner tonight. We ended up going to Erins Irish Pub. The food was pretty good, EXCEPT the screwed up my order.......they ended up giving my burger to Matt, and then realized it.....so they had to scrap his burger (wrong cheese) and start over........my burger was NOT cooked enough (I liked mine Well Done), but I didn't want to wait any longer, so I didn't complain.

So, I finally finished reading Husband Coached Childbirth by Robert A Bradley, M.D. Overall the book was informative & I really like the idea of the Bradley Method, BUT I did not really like how the book was written & organized. Some things should have been in the front, that where in the book, and vise verse. I had read enough to help me a little while I was in labor. I probably will not read this book again if I have another child, but will probably look for a different Bradley Method book to read.

Christmas

So Connor, Savannah, and I are sitting here watching Toy Story 3, waiting for Scott to come home from bowling, so then we can go to bed. I was messing around with my wrap I bought, and I think I have it figured out......at least I think so........Savannah is comfy enough & passed out, so I guess that's a good sign.

Christmas has come and gone, and although it is probably one of my favorite days of the year, I'm glad its done with. With all the presents, my house is still in the process of recovering.......its better than it was this morning, but there's still a pile of presents on the couch to put away. Christmas Eve we decorated cookies, then went to church, and then spent the night with Scott's dad side of the family opening presents at GG's house. We didn't get home until after 11 p.m. Christmas morning we woke up at 6 a.m., opened presents from "Santa", then got ready and went over to Scott's parents house. We opened a ton more presents from them, and then Scott's mom side of the family, from Milwaukee came over, and spent some time with them. We then ran home so Connor could get a quick nap in before going over to Aunt Missy's. Had some great food, and then the bazillion people who were there all got to open presents. We then went home & crashed for the night, then went over to John & Carol's house the next afternoon for another round of food & presents. Like every year Connor got way to many toys, and Savannah got way to many clothes. But I guess I can't complain about a family who loves to spoil my children.

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth

A couple of more days before Christmas and lots to do! Connor & I have dentist appointments tonight, and then Connor has a make-up Gymnastics class tonight. Tomorrow Scott has bowling, Wednesday is our work Christmas party, then it's Thursday & then Christmas Eve!! This week is just going to fly by!

Well, a couple of months ago I decided I did want to buy a couple of pregnancy related books. I read What to Expect with Connor, but wanted something more aimed in natural childbirth. So I ordered two books online, one of them being Ina May's Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin. Even though I didn't finish the book until now, I did have more than half of it finished when Savannah was born. The first half of the book is dedicated to stories about mothers having a natural childbirth, and the second half is more about what actually goes on in labor/delivery, and talks about complications that can arrise with using interventions & medications. Even if you aren't for 100% natural childbirth, I completely recommend this book. I will definetly be reading it if/when there is a #3 on the way.

The Girl She Used To Be

So Miss. Savannah is 2.5 weeks old aleady, and Christmas is less than a week away. Wow, time goes fast!! We are getting adjusted to having her at home, and Connor is doing pretty well with her. We have our tuff times, but it could definetly be worse. I'm blessed to have a wonderful husband and now two amazing children. Some nights Savannah sleeps for 5 hours!!

So two weeks ago we had book club. Jessica picked out the book, and it was "The Girl She Used To Be" by David Cristofano. I did not finish this book in time for book club, but I did finally get around to finishing it. Overall I liked the book. It was a pretty quick read. A story about a women whose been in witness protection for almost her entire life and her struggle to find out who she really should be since shes switched identities so many time. The only part of the book I did not like was the ending......not that it really could have ended up any other way, its just one of those endings that makes sense but you want it to end better for the characters.

Savannah Lynn's Birth Story

So it's been 8.5 days since she was born, and I figured I should get around to posting her birth story. I posted it on BBC the day she was born, but for some reason or another just haven't gotten around to posting it on here....oh well, I guess I can blame it on being busy, even though that doesn't really seem like a valid excuse.

So it’s not exactly the 100% natural birth that I wanted, but I guess you don’t always get what you want.

11:30 a.m. - water broke at work! Was thinking she was trying to be a November baby, but she decided to hold off until December! (part of this was my doing......if I would have done some things quicker I could of gone in November, but oh well)

Drove home, finished packing my bag, at some food.

2:00 p.m. - arrive at hospital

6:30 ish - they let me eat!! Who ever heard of a hospital letting someone in labor eat, but mine did, and I’m so glad!!!

Tried everything & anything to try to get contractions strong & consistant, but nothing worked. After knowing that I wouldn’t be getting any sleep (I was comfortable enough to sleep, but there was no way I was turning my brain off!), decided to start the pitocin (they were not pushing me, which was very nice, but I was just afraid that I would get super tired from no sleep & a super long labor, and it seemed like I would have need the pitocin eventually anyways since it was going so slowly….at this point I was only 3-4 c.m., and I was a stretching 2 c.m. the day before at my appointment)

9:00 p.m. - started pitocin (usually they up 2 units (whatever that means( every 30 minutes)), but they knew I wanted as natural as possible, so we took things very slowly, and only upt it 1 unit every hour. They also usually start it after about 6 hours after your water had broken, but my Dr. was nice enough to give me a couple of more hours to try to get things progressing, so I ended up waiting 9.5 hours intead of the 6.

**note**If you are fully maxed out on pitocin you’re at a 90(at least by the measurements on their machine), but I only got up to 24 since they were being nice enough to slowly increase it.

4:30a.m. - 5 c.m.

5:04 - birth. (probably only 10ish minutes, 4-5 contractions of pushing)

Other than the pitocin it was drug/intervention free!! It was super intense when pushing. They were trying to get me to stop, because they didn’t think I was complete yet, but I couldn’t stop! It was crazy fast and I almost wanted to ask for some pain medication, but obviously you can see why it was so painful……less than 35ish minutes from 5 c.m. to baby!!

I did not tear at all this time, and I feel great. I took some ibprofin a couple of different times while at the hospital, but not very often.

My first birth was 12 hours from water breaking to finish, so this one was a little longer BUT that’s because I was in control of the pitocin! Last time I pushed for over an hour, and he was born sunny side up, and this time she was the right way. So even though overall it took longer, and was more intense at the end, I’ll take that short amount of intenseness and the short pushing!

So:

December 1^st, 2010

5:04 a.m.

6lbs6oz

17.5 inches