found this here: http://marvelouskiddo.blogspot.com/2009/12/baby-mamas.html
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Evan meeting Gemma
I was a little worried about Evan meeting Gemma. He has always been quite the "momma's boy" and I was worried he would be jealous and get upset about me holding her. He wasn't able to meet Gemma at the hospital like Ella was, since H1N1 has hospital visitor restrictions tighter. When mom brought him home, I had been laying down with Gemma in our bed. I carried her out, and he saw us. He got a huge smile on his face and said "it comed out?!" Then he just immediately started loving up on her. Here is a little bit of video of their introduction:
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Gemma's Birth Story
My third pregnancy...was, quite honestly, so uneventful that it is memorable because of that fact. We decided to try to have another baby, and right before we were going to start really"trying," I was pregnant....
I felt awesome the entire time. Sure, early in pregnancy I had to deal with normal pregnancy exaustion, but I don't know if it was due to other reasons, or simply because I didn't have the "luxury" with a 2 and 5 year old, the exaustion was not a big deal.
At our 20 week ultrasound, we were hoping we would be able to find out the gender. The ultrasound tech put the wand on my stomach, and "voila!" a perfect, in between the legs, "It's a Girl" shot!
I had decided, before I got pregnant, that I wanted to have a natural birth this time around. So, I did a lot of research and found an awesome group of 4 midwives (Generations), who delivered at a hospital (HealthEast St. Joseph's) that is known in the area for their support of natural childbirth. Which, is really really hard to find these days...but that's another blog post (coming soon).
My biggest concern going into the pregnancy, was that I had heard that your babies get bigger each time. Hmmm...Evan was 10 pounds, 8 ounces. I was completely terrified of having a baby bigger than that. Especially because I wanted to have a waterbirth, and one of the things that can prevent you from having a waterbirth is having an baby that is thought to be "above normal size." In talking with the midwives, they said that although it's not 100%, you have a good chance of keeping your baby smaller if you keep your weight gain down during pregnancy.
Translation, don't eat like a pig like you did the last 2 times so you gain 65 or 45 pounds...and you should be ok. Their suggestion...gain 15 pounds.
So, I kept eating like I had been eating for the last year (mostly whole, unprocessed foods)...and managed to keep my weight gain to 30 pounds. None of the midwives were worried about it, and I was mostly ticked because it seemed like if I had just done a little better on the eating I could have gained less. My biggest downfall the entire pregnancy was Coke/Pepsi. What is in that stuff anyway? I mean, over the last 2 years I have stopped eating almost anything processed...I mean, the thought of eating at McDonalds most days makes me want to vomit. However, I did find myself in their drive thru quite often for a large Coke....
Anyway...back to the story.
So, I was due November 28. Everything was going very well. I was feeling awesome. I attribute the fact that I was feeling so good to two things...only gaining 30 pounds, and finding an phenomenal chiropractor. Anyone who knew me during my last 2 pregnancies probably remembers. I hobbled and complained my way through the last trimester. I had horrible hip and low back pain with Ella, and with Evan I had Pubis Symphsis Dysfunction...basically your pelvis feels like it is going to crack in half. Ouch. I had both of those issues this pregnancy, but with weekly, or every other weekly trips to the chiropractor, I rarely ever hobbled. Most of the time I felt..almost not even pregnant!
Novemember 28th came...and went. Well, it went with my good friend giving birth to her baby, who was due 2 two weeks later. My "due date" seemed particululary vague this time around. I think it was the fact that with Ella, I had nothing else going on, and everyone said "oh, it's your first baby, you'll be late." So I didn't expect anything before my due date..and the extra 4 days after that wasn't a big deal. With Evan I was induced at 39 weeks, so I always had that end date in mind. With your third baby, a lot of people tell you that you'll go early. And this time around, as soon as I got close to 37 weeks (which is the "safe" date to go into labor an no one will panic) I started thinking it could happen any day now. So, when 3 weeks later I was still pregnant and feeling good.....I started to panic that it was NEVER going to happen on it's own, I was going to get induced, and there went all my plans and hopes for a natural waterbirth. Not to mention the fact that every day, starting at about 38 weeks, someone would ask me how I was feeling (meaning, are you going into labor soon?). Almost every day I got a phone call or email from someone I hadn't talked to in a long time just wondering how I was doing.....
Well, when I hit my due date...the calls/emails flooded in even more. I totally snapped at poor Nate one day when I got up 3 times while he was getting ready for work to pee....and he asked me if I was ok. Um, yes, I'm &^$**&(& fine! I have a baby bouncing on my bladder!!!!
By the time the middle of that 40th week rolled around, I was so stressed. Then I convinced myself that if I stressed, I would never go into labor either. Lucky for me I have a few good friends and a great doula who conviced me that no matter what I did, the baby would come eventually. And when I had my 40 week prenantal they didn't even mention the word "induction," which made me feel a lot better. By the end of the week though, I was really starting to feel "pregnant." I was hobbling around. I was ready to be done. I started to try out some of the natural ways to induce labor. I drank 2 boxes of Raspberry Leaf tea in about 36 hours. And so on....
On Saturday, December 5, Nate and I got up and cleaned Ella's room. My hips hurt so bad that day, that should have been my first clue. We spent about 4 hours cleaning her room. Then that afternoon, Nate took the kids to a Monster Truck show down at the Metrodome. My mom and I had planned to get together and do dinner and a movie. I had been having lots of painless contractions all day (as I had for the last several weeks). I laid down to take a nap and then got ready to go to dinner. As I was getting ready I realized that I was having really sporadic, but crampy, contractions. I remembered from my labor with Ella...the contractions that felt like menstrual cramps, were the real deal. During dinner at the Green Mill they continued, but were still really sporadic and mild. During the movie (The Blind Side) I pulled out my neat-o little iPhone, where I had downloaded a contraction timer app months ago....and they were like 15 minutes apart. I took my mom home...and of course didn't mention a thing. I was still not conviced that this was going to turn into anything, and I didn't want her up all night worrying about me. Nate came home around midnight, I had tried to go to bed at 11, but was so anxious that I couldn't sleep. I told him that I thought I might be in early labor, to go to sleep and try to rest up.
I got into bed, and slept off and on until about 2:15. By then they seemed to be regular enough that I thought I should try timing them again, even though they still were very mild. As soon as I got out of bed, they came back to back to back. Like every 2-3 minutes. I had a snack and a bunch of water, and sat down to watch a movie. When I sat down they decreased to every 4-5 minutes for a while....but then they increased again. I tried to call the midwife. Twice. No luck. At around 3 I called the hospital, and they said I could come in whenever. By that point they were back to every 2-3 minutes. But still not strong. I had it in my head that they needed to be stronger to warrant going to the hospital. But, they were increasing in intensity, and I did have a 45 minute drive ahead of me....
So, at 3 or so I called my mom to come over. I called the doula to tell her we were heading in, and then I woke up Nate. By about 3:30 we were on our way. I was still doubting whether or not this was the real deal...because the first almost 8 minutes we were in the car I didn't have a contraction. But then, I had a very very strong contraction. Luckily, they didn't increase in pace...they stayed 7-9 minutes apart on the car ride, I don't think I could have handled more than the few I had...they were that strong.
We got to the hospital, and at 4:22 I called my mom to tell her we had arrived. It took a few minutes after that before the L&D nurse came down to get me and we walked up the Maternity Care unit. So, I would guess we got to our room sometime after 4:30. The contractions were pretty strong by then, and as soon as I got in the room they hooked me up to the fetal monitor and had me lay down to do the initial test strip of monitoring. It seemed like the longest 20 minutes of my life. It had to have been longer than that....being flat on your back like that when you are having intense contractions is no fun at all. Which is why with my first 2 I handled it for about 5 minutes and then requested the epidural. She also checked me and I was dialated to 5.
After the 20 minutes were up, the nurse still wasn't seeing what she wanted to see on the monitor...so she kept me hooked up. But she finally told me I could get up. I had never wanted to stand up so bad in my entire life. My entire body was screaming at me to stand up and lean over. Which made the contractions so much easier to tolerate. At some point during the first 20 minutes, our doula had arrived. She was helping by giving Nate cold washcloths for my neck and face, cold rocks to rub my back with, etc. Honestly by that point I don't really remember much other than leaning over that bed and feeling really nauseous.
It probably was another 15 minutes or so and the nurse finally took off the monitor. I went and got changed into the tank top I was planning to wear into the water. I had more contractions, all leaning over my bed. All of a sudden, I felt all this pressure and my body responded by pushing. I didn't realize I was pushing...but that's what the midwife said. And not a moment too soon, the birth tub was finally full! The midwife didn't think I should walk across the hall, she said if I was already pushing if I had another contraction I could have the baby. Yep, sure didn't want to have my baby in the hallway.
So, the loaded me up on the bed and wheeled me across the hall. When I got up on the bed the midwife checked me...yep, I was complete! So in about an hour I had gone from 5 cm to fully dialated. Those were some strong contractions!
I got in the tub, it must have been about 5:45 and it felt so wonderful. All I remember is the urge to push. That's all I could feel. I couldn't feel those horrible contractions anymore! They just told me to push whenever I felt the urge. What a different experience! With my other two, I was told when to push and for how long. This time I just did what my body was telling me. All of a sudden, I could feel the baby crowning, and then her head was out, and then she was out! It literally happened that fast. So fast in fact, that I remember the midwife saying something about "ok, push slowly" and then the baby was out. I guess she didn't have her gloves on? So she just plunged in and caught the baby with her bare hands. They also said that my water never broke. I don't remember all the details of this, I'll have to ask our doula Alissa and post more info, but she started to come out with her amniotic sac intact. I guess this is called being "born in the caul" (google that, it's really interesting). Nate said the midwife broke it as her head came out? I don't know....
And at 6:05 she was born! They placed her on my chest, and we stayed in the water for a while (it's all a little fuzzy). We waited until the umbilical cord stopped pulsating and then Nate cut the cord. Then I got out and onto the bed to deliver the placenta, which came out right away. Then we just bonded with the baby for a while, tried nursing and snuggled. I must say...with Ella and Evan, after I gave birth...they didn't cry. I just remember being in this post delivery haze, wondering what was wrong with my babies that they weren't crying. Nothing was wrong...they just were calm. Drugged? Well, the lack of any drugs kept this little baby howling. She showed up right away she had some good lungs on her! She was quite lively. Eventually she calmed down, latched on to nurse for a bit. We got back to our room, had a bit more time and then I was ready to have her weighed and checked out. That's when they told us she was 9 pounds, 8 ounces, and 21 inches long! Big baby...we had no idea!
Finally, sometime around 8, things had calmed down. The doula had gone home, the baby had been weighed and measured and checked...we had breakfast....then we all laid down to sleep. I'll write more in another post about how different this birth was than my other two, due to it being natural....but all I know is it was wonderful!
I felt awesome the entire time. Sure, early in pregnancy I had to deal with normal pregnancy exaustion, but I don't know if it was due to other reasons, or simply because I didn't have the "luxury" with a 2 and 5 year old, the exaustion was not a big deal.
At our 20 week ultrasound, we were hoping we would be able to find out the gender. The ultrasound tech put the wand on my stomach, and "voila!" a perfect, in between the legs, "It's a Girl" shot!
I had decided, before I got pregnant, that I wanted to have a natural birth this time around. So, I did a lot of research and found an awesome group of 4 midwives (Generations), who delivered at a hospital (HealthEast St. Joseph's) that is known in the area for their support of natural childbirth. Which, is really really hard to find these days...but that's another blog post (coming soon).
My biggest concern going into the pregnancy, was that I had heard that your babies get bigger each time. Hmmm...Evan was 10 pounds, 8 ounces. I was completely terrified of having a baby bigger than that. Especially because I wanted to have a waterbirth, and one of the things that can prevent you from having a waterbirth is having an baby that is thought to be "above normal size." In talking with the midwives, they said that although it's not 100%, you have a good chance of keeping your baby smaller if you keep your weight gain down during pregnancy.
Translation, don't eat like a pig like you did the last 2 times so you gain 65 or 45 pounds...and you should be ok. Their suggestion...gain 15 pounds.
So, I kept eating like I had been eating for the last year (mostly whole, unprocessed foods)...and managed to keep my weight gain to 30 pounds. None of the midwives were worried about it, and I was mostly ticked because it seemed like if I had just done a little better on the eating I could have gained less. My biggest downfall the entire pregnancy was Coke/Pepsi. What is in that stuff anyway? I mean, over the last 2 years I have stopped eating almost anything processed...I mean, the thought of eating at McDonalds most days makes me want to vomit. However, I did find myself in their drive thru quite often for a large Coke....
Anyway...back to the story.
So, I was due November 28. Everything was going very well. I was feeling awesome. I attribute the fact that I was feeling so good to two things...only gaining 30 pounds, and finding an phenomenal chiropractor. Anyone who knew me during my last 2 pregnancies probably remembers. I hobbled and complained my way through the last trimester. I had horrible hip and low back pain with Ella, and with Evan I had Pubis Symphsis Dysfunction...basically your pelvis feels like it is going to crack in half. Ouch. I had both of those issues this pregnancy, but with weekly, or every other weekly trips to the chiropractor, I rarely ever hobbled. Most of the time I felt..almost not even pregnant!
Novemember 28th came...and went. Well, it went with my good friend giving birth to her baby, who was due 2 two weeks later. My "due date" seemed particululary vague this time around. I think it was the fact that with Ella, I had nothing else going on, and everyone said "oh, it's your first baby, you'll be late." So I didn't expect anything before my due date..and the extra 4 days after that wasn't a big deal. With Evan I was induced at 39 weeks, so I always had that end date in mind. With your third baby, a lot of people tell you that you'll go early. And this time around, as soon as I got close to 37 weeks (which is the "safe" date to go into labor an no one will panic) I started thinking it could happen any day now. So, when 3 weeks later I was still pregnant and feeling good.....I started to panic that it was NEVER going to happen on it's own, I was going to get induced, and there went all my plans and hopes for a natural waterbirth. Not to mention the fact that every day, starting at about 38 weeks, someone would ask me how I was feeling (meaning, are you going into labor soon?). Almost every day I got a phone call or email from someone I hadn't talked to in a long time just wondering how I was doing.....
Well, when I hit my due date...the calls/emails flooded in even more. I totally snapped at poor Nate one day when I got up 3 times while he was getting ready for work to pee....and he asked me if I was ok. Um, yes, I'm &^$**&(& fine! I have a baby bouncing on my bladder!!!!
By the time the middle of that 40th week rolled around, I was so stressed. Then I convinced myself that if I stressed, I would never go into labor either. Lucky for me I have a few good friends and a great doula who conviced me that no matter what I did, the baby would come eventually. And when I had my 40 week prenantal they didn't even mention the word "induction," which made me feel a lot better. By the end of the week though, I was really starting to feel "pregnant." I was hobbling around. I was ready to be done. I started to try out some of the natural ways to induce labor. I drank 2 boxes of Raspberry Leaf tea in about 36 hours. And so on....
On Saturday, December 5, Nate and I got up and cleaned Ella's room. My hips hurt so bad that day, that should have been my first clue. We spent about 4 hours cleaning her room. Then that afternoon, Nate took the kids to a Monster Truck show down at the Metrodome. My mom and I had planned to get together and do dinner and a movie. I had been having lots of painless contractions all day (as I had for the last several weeks). I laid down to take a nap and then got ready to go to dinner. As I was getting ready I realized that I was having really sporadic, but crampy, contractions. I remembered from my labor with Ella...the contractions that felt like menstrual cramps, were the real deal. During dinner at the Green Mill they continued, but were still really sporadic and mild. During the movie (The Blind Side) I pulled out my neat-o little iPhone, where I had downloaded a contraction timer app months ago....and they were like 15 minutes apart. I took my mom home...and of course didn't mention a thing. I was still not conviced that this was going to turn into anything, and I didn't want her up all night worrying about me. Nate came home around midnight, I had tried to go to bed at 11, but was so anxious that I couldn't sleep. I told him that I thought I might be in early labor, to go to sleep and try to rest up.
I got into bed, and slept off and on until about 2:15. By then they seemed to be regular enough that I thought I should try timing them again, even though they still were very mild. As soon as I got out of bed, they came back to back to back. Like every 2-3 minutes. I had a snack and a bunch of water, and sat down to watch a movie. When I sat down they decreased to every 4-5 minutes for a while....but then they increased again. I tried to call the midwife. Twice. No luck. At around 3 I called the hospital, and they said I could come in whenever. By that point they were back to every 2-3 minutes. But still not strong. I had it in my head that they needed to be stronger to warrant going to the hospital. But, they were increasing in intensity, and I did have a 45 minute drive ahead of me....
So, at 3 or so I called my mom to come over. I called the doula to tell her we were heading in, and then I woke up Nate. By about 3:30 we were on our way. I was still doubting whether or not this was the real deal...because the first almost 8 minutes we were in the car I didn't have a contraction. But then, I had a very very strong contraction. Luckily, they didn't increase in pace...they stayed 7-9 minutes apart on the car ride, I don't think I could have handled more than the few I had...they were that strong.
We got to the hospital, and at 4:22 I called my mom to tell her we had arrived. It took a few minutes after that before the L&D nurse came down to get me and we walked up the Maternity Care unit. So, I would guess we got to our room sometime after 4:30. The contractions were pretty strong by then, and as soon as I got in the room they hooked me up to the fetal monitor and had me lay down to do the initial test strip of monitoring. It seemed like the longest 20 minutes of my life. It had to have been longer than that....being flat on your back like that when you are having intense contractions is no fun at all. Which is why with my first 2 I handled it for about 5 minutes and then requested the epidural. She also checked me and I was dialated to 5.
After the 20 minutes were up, the nurse still wasn't seeing what she wanted to see on the monitor...so she kept me hooked up. But she finally told me I could get up. I had never wanted to stand up so bad in my entire life. My entire body was screaming at me to stand up and lean over. Which made the contractions so much easier to tolerate. At some point during the first 20 minutes, our doula had arrived. She was helping by giving Nate cold washcloths for my neck and face, cold rocks to rub my back with, etc. Honestly by that point I don't really remember much other than leaning over that bed and feeling really nauseous.
It probably was another 15 minutes or so and the nurse finally took off the monitor. I went and got changed into the tank top I was planning to wear into the water. I had more contractions, all leaning over my bed. All of a sudden, I felt all this pressure and my body responded by pushing. I didn't realize I was pushing...but that's what the midwife said. And not a moment too soon, the birth tub was finally full! The midwife didn't think I should walk across the hall, she said if I was already pushing if I had another contraction I could have the baby. Yep, sure didn't want to have my baby in the hallway.
So, the loaded me up on the bed and wheeled me across the hall. When I got up on the bed the midwife checked me...yep, I was complete! So in about an hour I had gone from 5 cm to fully dialated. Those were some strong contractions!
I got in the tub, it must have been about 5:45 and it felt so wonderful. All I remember is the urge to push. That's all I could feel. I couldn't feel those horrible contractions anymore! They just told me to push whenever I felt the urge. What a different experience! With my other two, I was told when to push and for how long. This time I just did what my body was telling me. All of a sudden, I could feel the baby crowning, and then her head was out, and then she was out! It literally happened that fast. So fast in fact, that I remember the midwife saying something about "ok, push slowly" and then the baby was out. I guess she didn't have her gloves on? So she just plunged in and caught the baby with her bare hands. They also said that my water never broke. I don't remember all the details of this, I'll have to ask our doula Alissa and post more info, but she started to come out with her amniotic sac intact. I guess this is called being "born in the caul" (google that, it's really interesting). Nate said the midwife broke it as her head came out? I don't know....
And at 6:05 she was born! They placed her on my chest, and we stayed in the water for a while (it's all a little fuzzy). We waited until the umbilical cord stopped pulsating and then Nate cut the cord. Then I got out and onto the bed to deliver the placenta, which came out right away. Then we just bonded with the baby for a while, tried nursing and snuggled. I must say...with Ella and Evan, after I gave birth...they didn't cry. I just remember being in this post delivery haze, wondering what was wrong with my babies that they weren't crying. Nothing was wrong...they just were calm. Drugged? Well, the lack of any drugs kept this little baby howling. She showed up right away she had some good lungs on her! She was quite lively. Eventually she calmed down, latched on to nurse for a bit. We got back to our room, had a bit more time and then I was ready to have her weighed and checked out. That's when they told us she was 9 pounds, 8 ounces, and 21 inches long! Big baby...we had no idea!
Finally, sometime around 8, things had calmed down. The doula had gone home, the baby had been weighed and measured and checked...we had breakfast....then we all laid down to sleep. I'll write more in another post about how different this birth was than my other two, due to it being natural....but all I know is it was wonderful!
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
The baby is here!
Hello! We are happy to announce that our baby is here! Gemma Caye Ovall was born at 6:05 am on Sunday December 6. She weighed in at 9 pounds, 6 ounces, 21 inches long. Gemma and I were both doing very well, so we came home yesterday (Monday) afternoon, and we are very happy to be here! Ella and Evan are loving their new baby sister. Nate is staying busing waiting on me hand and foot.....
I will post more stories and pictures later, but I wanted to at least get this out there!
(Also, for those who are wondering, Gemma is pronounced in a similar way to "Jenna.")
I will post more stories and pictures later, but I wanted to at least get this out there! (Also, for those who are wondering, Gemma is pronounced in a similar way to "Jenna.")
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
The Official Kindergarten Photo.....
Complete with a goofy smile, one missing tooth, and everything! Isn't she cute?
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Happy Halloween!
One house had spooky music playing...Evan didn't like it. Even now, a few days later, when someone asks him about Halloween he says "I didn't like that spooky music." So cute....Getting ready for baby!
Nate and I have discovered a few things....
With every added helper....it takes about twice as long as the time prior to set the crib up.....
With each new child....their space gets smaller and smaller. Before Ella was born, we slaved over her room...re-drywalled, bought all new furniture, etc. Evan got some new bedding and a shelf with some boy toys in Ella's room...This poor baby is getting everything third hand, in the corner of our room.
With every added helper....it takes about twice as long as the time prior to set the crib up.....
With each new child....their space gets smaller and smaller. Before Ella was born, we slaved over her room...re-drywalled, bought all new furniture, etc. Evan got some new bedding and a shelf with some boy toys in Ella's room...This poor baby is getting everything third hand, in the corner of our room.
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