come enjoy the adventure and see where new things lead me

This week was my first week back at work. It does sound worse than it was, I had the luck of only having to work out of the house one day, and Clinton watched him that day. And since Clinton watched him, we got a photo shoot, and some really good photos again.

 

Not surprising, but reality hit, it is not easy to work from home when you have a baby who wants all your attention. So I worked this week, but let’s just be honest, it wasn’t anywhere near as hard as I should have. I needed to call and email teachers and set up appointments for January.

While I did call and email, having a talking, coo’ing, or screaming baby in the background just didn’t encourage me to call a lot. So I did a lot more emailing, and teachers just don’t move as quickly to email.

On Tuesday, I headed out to a school I had set up back in September. Thankfully, we worked it for Clinton to watch Tristan, so no daycare yet. They had a good day, but Clinton did say when I got home, “I have a new respect for you”. Guessing he didn’t realize just how much work Tristan is.

Now with the week over, and not a lot of bookings for January, I am heading to Phoenix for 9 days with Tristan, Clinton is going to follow, since he has to work. We are going to have Christmas Eve with the whole family, and it will be the first time Tristan gets to meet his Uncle’s, should be fun.

Then it is back to the real world. The first Tuesday of the new year, Tristan starts his first day in daycare and I head back to working everyday. I will do a post just about daycare, but think we have chosen a good fit!

What a week we had. First after 2 months, Tristan has finally outgrown his newborn cloth diapers, so here is in new stash of cloth. These one’s will fit from now until he potty trains. Love all the colors, and see the cool patterned one, keep an eye out next week for that in his 2 month pictures, it’s called ‘Whale Tale’!

Tristan loves to laugh and giggle now. He does it for his daddy all the time, and for me too, but mine are generally when I am a bit exposed, so I don’t get pictures of it He is definitely a happy baby, and we love that!

On Saturday we had our reunion with our birth class. There were 4 people in the class, and we are happy to say all 4 of us had healthy babies! 2 were early, I was on-time, and one was late, a perfect mix.

After the reunion, we decided to head into Seattle, and take a ride up to the top of the Space Needle. Clinton had never been up, and we had a great coupon BOGO, and since its December, Santa was up there. Of course we picked the day with very little sun and it is was pretty cold.

Our visit with Santa! Of course the little one slept through it all, but at least he was able to sit with him and get his picture taken!

Then it was time to leave and head home. It had been a busy day and we were all exhausted!

The little boy is growing up very quickly these days. Today he is officially one month old! It doesn’t feel like he has been with us for 30 days already, it feels more like 2 weeks.

Tristan is still making his way into this household, and teaching us everyday that he is truly in charge. His personality is showing through and we are learning a lot about our sweet baby boy.

He still goes from 0-60 in 2 seconds, but we have learned that it just means that he wants to communicate with us, but is frustrated that he currently can’t. With that knowledge it is a bit easier for us to deal with it.

Since he was 2-3 weeks he has been able to roll over, want proof, go check out the last post and click on the video. He is also smiling already and no not just when he has gas, but for reals. Tonight while trying to get him to lay down for a while, he was breastfeeding and in between latching, he was smiling not smiling smiling not smiling, it was so very cute.

Things I love!:
-This look he gets on his face while feeding, I can’t take a picture of it (no porno here), but basically he raises his eyebrows and looks at me with his big eyes and says thanks mom…… He also does this thing with is mouth, where he will roll out his tongue just a little bit then pull it back in.
-He is already starting to make noises. He is grunting all the time, awake or asleep.
-After feeding when he lays his head on my chest and just relaxes, you can almost hear him let out a sigh and know he is safe and sound!
-His cute little Elvis face is all of his pictures, I think its because he is leaning on that side.

Tonight he also started making a whole new face, he moved his eyebrows from side to side, no kidding really, while looking at me and you could tell he was thinking something and really wanted to tell me what he was thinking.

All in all everything is going well in the house. Would it be nice if he slept more? yeah! Today he woke up at 7am and until 7:30pm when I finally got him to sleep, he has only taken a 1 hour nap ALL DAY! That’s just not normal. Would I also like him to sleep in his own, yup. He still isn’t sleeping in his bed, but sleeps with me in bed or on the couch depending on the night.

We love him just the same and can’t wait to see him grow into an amazing adult, but a but slower please!

Tristan turned 3 weeks on Wednesday, and had the privilege of both a midwife visit and a doctors visit. Let’s just say the little one was poked, prodded, and smiled at more then he was used to.

Everyone says he is doing amazing, and a bit too advanced for his own good. For example, he is still just sleeping 3-4 hours, but then is up for 5-8 hours from there. The doctor was like ummm that is what a 4 month old is supposed to be doing, not a 3 week old. For the past couple of days he has also been doing this: (click on the link to see the video) IMG_0262

Yeah, someone tell him to slow down on this growing up. He also is adding on the weight, he now weighs 9 pounds 13 ounces, but we aren’t sure where he is putting it, no chubby thighs or arms, just chubby little cheeks (the ones on his face).

As a family we are all working on figuring everything out. Tristan and I sleep on the couch most nights, partly to allow Clinton to get rest, but also because we are a bit more secure together on the couch.

Once Clinton is up, we sometimes head into the bedroom and finish sleeping in there, which is a bit more comfortable for me.

Last weekend we headed out to the mall because someone was very cranky and didn’t want to sleep. He was so against sleep the 20 minute ride to the mall in the car, all he did was cry. It wasn’t until 15 minutes into the mall in his stroller that he finally went to sleep.

I will update more soon, but someone demands my attention.

While he didn’t come in any way that we had planned, he did arrive and is safe, healthy, and happy, and that is all that matters.

Our original plan involved having the little one at a birth center in Seattle with a midwife. No part of me wanted to go to the hospital, or have drugs, or any of those typical ways to have a baby. I had done my research and I knew the birth that I wanted. Well it would seem, that Tristan had other ideas and was very stubborn about them!

So the process to his birth follows…. it is a long story, so good luck following along!

Sunday 10pm

The contractions started, now in all the classes and books I read said the contractions would start slow and build up, HA! I had contractions 3 minutes apart for 1 minute from the very beginning all night! Poor Clinton didn’t get a lot of sleep listening to his wife breathing heavily and panting trying to make it through the contractions. I called my midwife, we decided to let me keep laboring at home, since I was still “talking” through my contractions…. what she forgot is  I have a crazy high tolerance for pain…… I took a bath around 4am just to try to relax, it helped slow down the contractions a bit, so I was able to go back to bed and get some sleep.

Monday

I was able to get a couple of hours of half decent sleep, basically every time I had a contraction I would wake up and pass back out after it passed. Decided that I needed to get some things done, and walking around would help move labor along. My parents arrived on Sunday, so we went out shopping. After about 3 stores I was getting tired and the contractions had returned to about 6-7 minutes apart for roughly 45-1 minute. While at Sam’s Club they were getting strong enough that I would need to stop during them, but we made it through. It was pretty funny, while in the check-out line, I had a contraction that I grabbed my mom’s hand for, and the clerk asked if I was ok, I said yes, just having a contraction. You should have seen her face, like I was going to have the baby right then and there! And the lady behind us was like WHY AREN’T YOU IN THE HOSPITAL, ummmm since when is my birth plan your damn business? And because it isn’t time. Generally babies don’t just pop right out, and I am pretty sure I know my body better than you!

We headed home so I could rest and try and get a nap in. We had dinner and just waited to see what was going to happen.

Tuesday

As I went to bed, the contractions started getting stronger again, and around 3:30am my water broke. That meant another call to my midwife. While talking to her, my contractions were getting pretty bad again and the talking wasn’t occurring anymore. She told me to go eat a good meal, try and get a nap in, and to call around 6am. After calling at 6am we decided it was time to head into the birth center and to arrive around 7am. We all get up and get ready for a little one to arrive…. and yet he had a different idea!

We arrived just after 7am and decided to do a NST (non-stress test). Basically putting me on a monitor for both his heart rate and my contractions.  After an hour of monitoring Tracy the midwife was a little concerned because he was having very small decals at the end of some of the contractions. In general, I could have stayed at the midwife’s office, go home and labor some more (the contractions had slowed a bit), or since there was a tiny bit of concern about how he was handling the contractions I could go to the hospital and have them do a NST again and see what they think. Well Clinton had a couple of scares with stillbirths before, so to ease his mind we decided to head to the hospital to be on the safe side.

Tuesday 9:30am

We arrived at the hospital, and as soon as we arrived I had to fight for my birth…. they wanted to put on an IV, which I didn’t want! She agreed for now, but I knew that it wasn’t going to be the end of it. They hooked me up to the monitors and the doctor came in to check on me. The midwife had specifically called this doctor as he has taken several of her transfers and was very ok with natural birth, even in the hospital.

The overall issue at this point,  I was on the clock. Since my water had broke, I had between 18-24 hours to deliver. Up to this point in my pregnancy I hadn’t had a single pelvic check, which was my choice! Now they wanted to know where my cervix was at, so they could have a base point. I agreed to the check, and was fairly disappointed in the result, I was only 1cm. Keep in mind I had been contracting since Sunday at 10pm, so I have been contracting for 36 hours.

At this time, we also did an ultrasound, so see where he was positioned. We knew he was head down, but were pretty sure he was sunny-side up, which explained my HORRIBLE back labor! We were right, basically, we were back-to-back, which generally causes the back labor. The doctor came in and gave me my options and asked what I expected. The NST didn’t show any decals, so I was really hoping to get to go home and keep trying for my natural birth. However, the doctor didn’t think that was the best bet, since my water had broke (which they checked with a fern test [google it if you want to know more]). He recommended a couple of different options: pitocin, a progesterone based pill that would help soften my cervix, or let me continue on and see what happens on its own. He gave me time to call my midwife and talk with the family. After calling Tracy we decided to try the pill to see if it would just help my cervix along.

To get the pill, I had to agree to a hemplock (which is the line in the arm, but nothing hooked up to it). That didn’t go so well….. In the pictures check-out my arm, I have two huge bruises from the first two tries to get the IV in. I actually still have the bruises and I am almost 2 weeks out. The other nurse moved to the other arm and managed to get the line in, but not without some serious pain! Oh and yeah I have a bruise on that arm too, its just not as big.

What was not mentioned about this pill, that it was going to KILL ME! Not literally, but with pain. My contractions started coming 3 at a time, with maybe 20 seconds rest after the 3. So basically I had no time to recover. Notice in the picture below, the contractions are at 100% the whole time. And that contraction on the monitor, I was still walking the halls through it!

The pill was to last 4 hours and then see what everything looked like. With how bad the contractions were, I was in serious pain, so decided to get in the whirlpool tub to hopefully help me relax a bit and ease some of the pain. Unfortunately, it didn’t help much, and the pain never really let up. Prior to getting in the tub, I had ordered lunch, but it would take 45 minutes to arrive.

While in the tub, I turned into the crazy in labor pregnant lady. Basically, I was having the pain and issues normally seen in transition. I was telling Clinton I couldn’t do it anymore, I was screaming at him no matter what he said, and I couldn’t breathe through the contractions. After 45 minutes, I called my mom in and begged her for drugs. I had begged Clinton too, but he knew what the original plan was, and was trying to talk me through it. When I told my mom I needed them, she knew I was serious and I wasn’t able to control my body anymore. The nurses offered me a shot of narcotics which would take the edge off, but not eliminate all the pain. I was hoping the shot would let me recover after the contractions, and calm down a bit, I wasn’t ready to give in to the epidural.

It took me 30  minutes to get out of the tub, the pain was so crazy bad. I did finally make it out and tried to eat my lunch. But I couldn’t even sit down on the edge of the bed the pain was so bad. After getting the shot, it didn’t help much, I think it just made it so I wasn’t going to go insane, which I am pretty sure I was on the verge of!

Ok you have sat through enough for now…. Part 2 will arrive soon, with more pictures, and a cute little boy arriving into this world!