little feet, big sky

OMG. I have a baby girl! Pics to come soon, but she was a healthy 7 lbs. 8 oz. at birth. The home birth went well, but she was stuck at about +3 after about 3 & 1/2 hours of pushing. (Thank god I didn’t know I’d been pushing that long!) I was super active in labor (which was good), but so exhausted by then that the decision to transfer to the hospital for a vacuum-assisted delivery was an easy one. The car ride was sheer hell, but the L&D staff at Cedars-Sinai was great. I had five minutes to try pushing, and if that didn’t work, our doctor was for a c-section, so I agreed to the epidural. It took 10 minutes to kick in, I had 5 minutes of blissful relief, and another 5 minutes of pushing with the doctor’s help and she was born.

I honestly felt I had the best of both worlds and am extremely happy with how things went. Of course, finishing off the delivery at home would have been best, but this was a close second. She got little, if any, of the effects of the epidural, and my being pain-free for the delivery and after meant I could instantly put her to the breast, as well as advocate for her best interests myself in the hours later. Totally awesome.

More to come in a bit!

Sorry for the absence. Things are still going well, I think. The baby is dropping a fraction of an inch at a time, as I find myself with more abdominal cramps, lower back pain and more running to the bathroom to pee a quarter of a cup, even though I’m drinking so much more fluids. :-)

I’ve been busy working on a redesign for this blog, as Blogger templates are entirely fugly. I’m almost done with the design/HTML, and next up with be integrating with Blogger variables so the whole thing works. Kinda fun actually. I love small, easy projects like this.

I’m ordering some last minute things this weekend, too. Like AA’s baby karate pants (3/$30) and some comfy undies ($6) for me to wear post-partum. I also ordered a Gypsy Mama / Wrapsody Bali Baby Breeze ($67) for myself and since the spouse would probably be overwhelmed by the learning curve of wraps, I got him the Ergo Baby Carrier ($92) with the Infant Insert ($25). Not cheap, but both can be used from newborns to three-year-olds, so I hope to get some good life out of them. I already have a Moby Wrap, but even just trying it on in an air-conditioned house on bare skin felt hot, so I wanted another wrap that would be more comfortable in our god-forsaken L.A. summer heat. (I’m sure the Moby will be cozy and comfortable in cooler weather here.)

I bought them together through theslingstation.com, which has great information on babywearing, and a huge selection of carriers. They also offer free shipping on orders over $90, which is pretty cool and have a very comfortable return policy.

I’m hoping the babywearing thing works out. I always wanted to wear Harley as a kitten, a la Bucky Katt from Get Fuzzy. :-) Not that I’m that crazy, of course, but I’m sure I’ll get a lot less strange looks wearing a baby.

Impatient little bugger that I am, I’m starting to get frustrated that the baby has yet to “drop”. I can feel him/her getting lower, as my hips start to ache more and I feel more “pelvic pressure”, but I still look like I’m carrying high. Bleah.

I try to be reassured that some babies wait until labor to engage, or that you might not lose your mucus plug until labor starts. But I know this is unlikely. As a first-time mom, I worry that the baby is just too damn cozy in there. :-( I know too many moms that ended up with cesareans because the baby didn’t drop, or labor just never started and I’m frustrated that I’ll end up like that. I just want to have this baby at home; is that too much to ask?

I found on a thread on the Mothering forums that recommends things like walking, squatting, sitting on a birth ball and even dancing & “bumpy car rides”. *sigh* I’m sure I’ll try some of these things, but can you tell I’m getting depressed already?

Fuck.

Enough already – time to get showered & dressed for the day. I have a chiropractic appointment today, and I want to get all the baby things washed. I have cloth diapers to prewash and that will definitely take the rest of the day.

According to my favorite pregnancy calculator, I’m current 37 & 4/7 weeks pregnant. Now should be about the time for the baby to drop, so I’m trying to do everything I possibly can to encourage that. The acupuncturist did a some points to help with that, and starting today, I’m going to make myself walk every day.

This is harder than it seems to be, for me, at least. Here are some of my fabulous excuses for not walking more often, all of which elicit much eye-rolling from the spouse:

• It’s hot. By the time I wake up and get dressed, it’s heating up enough that it’s too hot to go for a walk outside.
• In the afternoon/evenings when it’s cool enough, I’m too tired.
• We live on a bit of a crest of a hill. Which means that walking in either direction requires an arduous walk uphill. (Okay, okay – only arduous when you’re 8 months pregnant.)
• Walking around the neighborhood is boring.
• Walking around the neighborhood while listening to something on iPod/iPhone is only slightly less boring. (I used to love this. While pregnant, I find it oddly annoying. No idea why.)

Now, I realize these reasons would never get me out of hell, but they’re all quite true, to some degree. Still, I realized the importance of walking to get the baby to drop, even as the 21-year-old in me shrieks at the thought of voluntarily doing something to shift a bowling ball into my pelvis. So I’ve figured out a plan that only someone in Los Angeles would think of: I shall drive somewhere nice to walk and walk around there instead! :-)

Some of the locations I have in mind are: the beach, near Malibu; Huntington or Descanso Gardens; Sunset Plaza; the Grove; Aquarium of the Pacific; and West Hollywood.

Any other tips/advice for getting the baby to drop? Factual tidbits or old wives tales welcome!

A couple of months ago, I wandered into a Pottery Barn Kids and saw these adorable onesies. They were plain white and had a single cute embroidered shape on each – a yellow duck, an orange giraffe, etc. I picked one up to see the price and nearly died of sticker shock: $28 for a single 0-3 months onesie!

After picking myself up off the floor, I put it back with disdain; hell, I could make that! So what if I’ve never embroidered anything real before? Life is for learning, right?

I ordered Sublime Stitching ($14) by Jenny Hart from Amazon, swung by a local Joann’s for a few handfuls of DNC embroidery floss and an embroidery hoop, picked up some cheap onesies from Target, pulled out my old sewing box and got down to business.

Of course my first one was a bit of a botch, but I think I’ve gotten the hang of it. T-shirt material is a slight pain to work with – if you stretch it just a little too much on the hoop, your threadwork with sort of crumple inwards when you take it off the hoop. And if it’s not stretched enough, then you have this hill/valley up/down thing going on every time you push or pull the needle through. In the book, Hart mentions using stabilizer to avoid this, but cautions on the use of readily-available iron-on stabilizer. She mentioned that an older technique was to use tissue paper, which I tried, but it kept tearing on me. In a desperate pinch, I grabbed a nearby tissue, folded it in half and used that – voila! it worked like a charm. I think it’s just soft enough to be a little flexible not to tear so easily.

• Buy the book, Sublime Stitching, from Amazon. ($14)
• Or, order patterns, kits and more from sublimestitching.com.
• Order floss and hoops online from Joann.com, or visit your local Joann’s.
• Pick up cheap onesies from Target (5/$10), or organic sweatshop-free onsies from American Apparel ($14).
• Make a cup of tea & get started. :-)

Got a chance to test out a loaded car seat in my new VW GTI. :-) I was visiting my sister and we moved her LATCH-system car seat into my car so we could pick up my nephew from daycare in my car. It was super easy to set up. The lower anchor tether “bars” are well exposed in the seats, so there’s no digging around between the seat and the back trying to feel for it. Just snap in, tighten and go. :-) My nephew loved the ride, and kept saying “Roof open! Roof open!”

Can’t wait to set it up with the Orbit when we have our own munchkin. :-)

I’ve had an easy time so far with weight gain in terms of eating well and gaining just the right amount. Thought I’d share some tips from various sources & just from my own meandering experience. :-)

• Pick one type of indulgent junk food to keep in the house and toss the rest. Don’t think too hard about it being wasteful, or if you just can’t do that, try giving it to friends or taking it to work to leave in the lunchroom. :-) Chances are good that there are only so many Doritos you can eat repeatedly.
• Stock up on fresh fruits and keep fruit juices to a minimum. Drinking lots of fruit juice may seem healthy at first glance, but fruit sugar is still sugar. Eating your fruit whole increases the time it takes for the sugar to hit. You can only eat a few oranges at a time, whereas one 8 oz. glass of juice probably has the sugar of say 6-8 oranges, without the fiber to slow the sugar rush. Pregnant women are already more insulin-resistant (meaning that you have a higher blood sugar than normal by default) and pushing those blood sugar numbers up can lead to serious complications and interventions later in pregnancy. Plus, fiber is good in helping you feel full.
• Cut the caffeine & sodas. Your baby really doesn’t need extra sugar or caffeine. My rationale is that the effect of caffeine or sugar on a person is similar to stress: the heart races, the adrenaline picks up, etc. It’s been proven that babies exposed to stress in the womb can suffer all sorts of problems, mainly because while we can respond with the fight-or-flight instinct, our pre-birth babies can do neither! I love my crazy caffeine drinks (candy, chocolates, etc ), but I don’t want my baby to be any more stressed or jittery than he/she would be after birth, so it’s a temporary sacrifice on my part.
• Start your morning with whole grains and a huge glass of water. This has been a lifesaver for me in terms of keeping those freak hunger attacks under control until lunch. For something cold and quick, I’ve taken to Kashi’s GoLean Crunch with a mix of almond and regular milk. If I want something hot, I whip up some quinoa, topped with fresh fruit, a bit of yogurt and a drizzle of maple syrup. The water is a must for preventing constipation, another delightful pregnancy experience.
• Drink only water. You really do need those annoying 6-8 glasses of water a day when you’re pregnant, in spite of the hassle of peeing every few hours. If you have trouble with this one (as I do), cut out all other drinks other than water. I’ve taken to drinking my water at home with a mere splash of juice in it for flavor. Treat yourself to the occasional tea once a week, or a soda or coffee once a month.
• Evaluate your meal choices and ask yourself nutritionally, “Would I give this to my two-year-old?” If it’s junk food, overly greasy, has few natural ingredients, has a high sugar content, your answer will most likely be no, and that’s a good sign that you should find something better. Remember that your baby only gets the nutrition that you give yourself.
• Get used to eating half portions. Your stomach (and intestines) are getting squeezed and pushed, so you’re likely to suffer indigestion, heartburn, and bloating. When eating out, I eat about half, or until I just start to feel full, then ask for the rest to go. If this is tough because it’s really tasty, a friend recommended boxing up half to go before even eating. I find I’m usually hungry again within an hour or two and can finish off the other portion then.
• Walk around for at least 30 minutes after eating. Failing that, remain upright (sit, stand) to let gravity help your food digest.

Overall, just make the best choices you can, and feel good about doing right by your child. The better you eat now, the more your taste buds will change and you’ll eat better later. In turn, you’ll pass on healthy eating habits to your children. :-)

The Pregnancyandbaby.com blog had some great tips for entertaining curious babies:

Move activities to a better setting: Say your little one discovers that overturning a water cup results in mass fun and mess. No scolding, a simple, “We don’t pour water on the carpet” will do. Move your baby’s fun to the tub or an empty outside wading pool. Give her cups, sponges, and squirters, and let her go to town.

- Pregnancy & Baby Blog » Blog Archive » Supporting curious babies

I don’t know the gender of my little sprout, and I don’t think I’ll want to find out before the birth. :-) A friend suggested that we ask the doctor or the ultrasound tech to write the gender on a piece of paper and seal it in an envelope. So we did just that.

It’s currently sitting on the window ledge next to my desk in our home office space. We opted for this choice because it’s convenient in case we change our minds on wanting to know. :-) I’d suggest it for anyone, though because honestly, would you rather find out over a romantic dinner with your SO, or curled up with a nice cup of tea, or in a cold, sterile doctor’s office with goop on your belly?

We tried to tell a few people that we have the gender written down and sealed, and the response is usually some kind of surprise that we’re not more tempted to open it.