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The Birth of Richard Roland
I had a lot of morning sickness with my first baby. Actually, I had so much morning sickness that I weighed slightly less when I checked in for his birth than I had before I was pregnant. At one point an elderly doctor I was seeing before I signed up for the clinic gave me the straight scoop: I would score some pot, take exactly one toke before each meal, or he would have to put me in the hospital on IVs. That, he explained, was what they had done before marijuana was illegal.
The Birth of Lilith Joycelyn
I was born four and a half months after Pearl Harbor and the entry of the U.S. into WWII.
My father had tried to enlist , but no branch of the service would take him because he had flat feet and was deaf in one ear. He thought that he could do a desk job or cook and so free up someone who could march and hear to fight; but all soldiers must be able to march at need and hear orders, so he couldn’t. Instead, he spent the war working as a welder between the hulls of battle ships,
thereby losing the hearing in his good ear.The Birth of Sophia Katharine
It all started that Friday morning. I had the OB appointment with the horrid doctor who, I think, stripped my membranes without asking. It was a painful examination, not least of which because her fingers were so short.
I was quite crampy from that appointment on throughout the day, and then progressively more crampy with back achiness added in for good measure. All along, they had been telling me that if I don’t feel it in my back, then it probably isn’t contractions. So, about 2:30 that afternoon, I started feeling twinges in my back in addition to the contractions that started to come more regularly. Now it’s funny to look back on these "contractions" compared to what came later. I wasn’t mentioning them to Aaron at this point because I could still walk around and talk and joke while having them. I decided to experiment around 10 pm and tried doing a little nipple stimulation. Yikes! Things picked up then. Apparently, the stimulation released the right amount of oxytocin and convinced my body to get things moving along. I wrote an asterisk next to the 10:10 pm time recording because it was a noticeably stronger contraction. I had the same strength contractions until 11:30 when Aaron convinced me to call the OB office to check in and see what they would recommend. At this point, it was either try to go to bed or go into labor. My sister and mother had very short labors and I was a bit worried that if I stayed home, I’d end up having her here. I ended up not needing to worry about that.
The Birth of Sadie Grace
I was having what shall henceforth be referred to as "contractions." We were rushing out the door to the hospital. We were all really anticipating a lot of "pain" in our planned natural labor. This shall henceforth be referred to as the "age of innocence" or "we had no idea the hot flaming hell into which we were haplessly marching." No, no, it wasn't that bad; I'm just being melodramatic because I enjoy it.
The Birth of Selah Solis
This
pregnancy was very unlike my first. I had so many aches and pains, and my groin
hurt throughout most of it! I had major swelling to the point that it would
hurt to walk; and I thought my feet were going to burst at any second!
Seriously! I did not, however, have anything close to high blood pressure,
so there was no worry about pre-eclampsia. My blood pressure always stayed at a
low 90/60. Towards the end of my pregnancy, I could no longer fit into ANY SHOES. This
becomes a problem when in the middle of November you're walking around in the snow
in either flip flops, or Crocks. This makes for very wet feet!At
35 weeks I was 75% effaced. The doctor put me on part time bed rest. I thought,
"Oh, this will be great! I'm gonna go early and all the misery will
stop!" Yeah, right, I'm not that lucky. For the next five weeks I continued
to make it to my weekly appointments. I was getting fatter and more depressed
by the day. At my 40 week appointment, the doctor stripped my membranes. This is very
uncomfortable. She actually stuck her hand in there and seperated the bag from
my cervix. Yowza!! Then we left the office and went walking around the mall
until my poor fat feet couldn't take it anymore. I was
having mild contractions, but nothing to get excited about.That
night I couldn't sleep. I was having some pretty good contractions, so I
decided to get up and walk around the house. It was about 4am, and I didn't want to wake
up my husband or my mother who was staying with us to help out when the baby
was born. So I walked around by myself until 6am. Then I decided that since
the contractions were coming about evey 3-5 minutes I'd wake up my mom. They
still weren't very strong, just very regular. My mom didn't like that they were
so regular and insisted that we go to the hospital. So, we woke up my husband and our other daughter. . . and drove to the hospital.We arrived at the hospital at 7am . . me, my husband, my daughter, my mother, my suitcase, my Boppy, and my husband's guitar. I walked up to the desk in the maternity ward and said very calmly, "My doctor said I should come in when my contractins were about five minutes apart, and they're about 3-5 minutes now. (I said this with a smile, and I actually took time to put on make-up and fix my hair before we went in!) The nurse replied, "Well, we'll check you and then decide if we're going to admit you or not. My, you brought a lot of stuff. . . hope you didn't jinx yourself!"
I was put in a room, and I started
reading my book. The nurse came in and checked me. I was dialated to 6cm!! She
said "Well, I guess I'll let you get back to your book like nothing's
wrong!"
An hour later at8am...and the contractions
still weren't strong, the doctor came in and checked me. I was now dialated to
8cm! She thought I should walk around the halls for a while. I walked, and
talked to other women who couldn't believe I was dialated to 8 and smiling. I walked until my swollen feet
started to hurt. Two hours later, at10am, I was still only dialated
to 8cm. I sat straight up in bed...because I heard that this position is great
and gravity will help bring baby out. By11:30am
I was still dialated to 8cm! The doctor told me that maybe I needed to change
positions. I decided to lie down on my left side. BAM! Just like that I
was ready to push! My contractions were still only about four minutes apart. I
would push, then wait four minutes, then push, then wait. I only had to do this four
times and my beautiful baby girl was out! She weighed 7 pounds 14 ounces and
was 19 inches long. She was born on her due date, December 8, 2005 at 12:02pm (Only 2% of babies are actually born on their due dates).
My husband was sick, (that's why
he's wearing the mask...) and ended up passing a kidney stone an hour later!
The Flipflopmamma is 28 years old with two beautiful daughter's ages 10
years and 8 months. She's a stay-at-home mom with too much time on her hands. She is
married to a pastor and loving it. Her blog is about her family, her faith, her everyday life and the joys that
come with it. She's a mommy blogger, a Christian blogger, a journal blogger...she doesn't fit into any one category, and she's learning how great that is. She's a little flip, a little flop, and a whole lot of mamma!A blog is born
