Breastfeeding is hard

LOL

Every mammal does it, in fact that's where the word mammal comes from - the mammary gland is what produces the milk for the offspring. After the first few days of breastfeeding I had Nick go pick up The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding by the LLLI. In the chapter titled "Latching and Attaching" a sentence reads, "Babies need to choose their own timing. We used to be told to 'latch the baby on' when her mouth was open wide. But mammal mothers never take that much control over a feeding, and babies don't expect it." Now, if you've followed my blog for any amount of time or even read my birth story, you probably know how gung-ho I am about doing things the "natural" way. So if it's so natural and supposed to come so easy... why isn't it?

The Bradley Method & Me

You might remember this post where I basically dismissed the Bradley method as a bunch of cow poop but had spent the money for the class so figured I might as well finish what I'd started. After all, it couldn't hurt, right?

Well, I'm going to have to take back everything bad I said about it. All of the coping methods I used during my labor and delivery were learned from the Bradley classes we took. I never would have thought of vocalization had it not been for that class. I never would have thought to explore the positions I did throughout labor had it not been for that class. I probably would have been begging for drugs.

Our Birth Story

It's taken a while to process exactly what happened surrounding Annaliese's birth. Everything happened so fast, I'm not sure exactly where to begin. If you ask my husband when labor began he would probably joke that I had been in labor for the entire last half of the month of September.

But the exciting stuff started to happen Saturday, October 8th. I woke up around 9 to find I had lost my mucus plug, I texted my doula and waited for Nick to wake up so I could share the news with him. I went to doctor google asking questions like, "how long after you lose the mucus plug do you go into labor?" I got excited with answers like "half an hour" and disappointed with the other answers like "2 weeks." We took Saturday to visit with family and attend another couple's baby shower - trying to keep ourselves preoccupied with something other than kick starting labor. I went to bed Saturday content and mentally prepared to be pregnant for another 2 weeks. 

I woke up at 10:15 on Sunday morning, disappointed I had slept so late since I was going to have to get up early for work the next day. I had been having contractions all weekend so the ones I felt all day were nothing that hinted to the start of labor. I spent the day in bed, watching 30 Rock on Netflix and at about 6 o'clock Nick and I made a trip to the Urgent Care Center because Nick had a pretty bad cough and was running a fever. He had some x-rays done and was prescribed medicine for Bronchitis and we went on our way. Nick went to bed at 9 but baby girl was so active I couldn't sleep. She kept me up until almost 1am with non-stop powerful kicks and rolls. Dr Google told me that movement slows down as labor approaches, so labor was the last thing on my mind. I fell asleep thinking about what I was going to wear to work.

She's here!

Annaliese Marie came into the world on her due date: 10/10/2011 at 6lbs 9.5 oz and 19 inches.

I woke up with contractions and lots of blood at 2:34am, water broke at 4am and she was here by 7:10am! I was successful in fulfilling my hopes for a natural, medication free birth and we're all back home now just loving it up!

I'll post a more detailed birth story in the days to come :) Thanks everyone for your support and wonderful encouragement. It was the hardest and most fulfilling thing I've ever done.

The power of the full moon

So.... there's supposed to be a full moon on Wednesday...

Source

You know what they say about full moons right?

On timeliness

I live by the old saying, "If you're early you're on time; If you're on time you're late; If you're late you're fired." I start getting nervous if I'm not to my destination by fifteen minutes of the decided time, and this causes me to be usually fifteen minutes early for everything. Since apparently no one else lives by this rule and is always late to everything, I end up waiting by myself for a good half an hour. I'm usually frustrated an annoyed that the other person can't be responsible or manage their time well enough by 15 minutes into my waiting - so even if they truly were right on time I'd still be pissed that they didn't find our meeting to be important enough to be a few minutes early for.

You can see how this may present a problem as I wait for this labor show to get on the road. Going into labor at 38 weeks is my "on time," 40 weeks is "late" and 42 weeks is "I'm going to shoot myself." Right now I've been at the destination for a week already and the person I'm waiting on has not yet arrived. They still have another week until they're technically still "on time" but I'm already starting to tap my toe and wonder what the hell is keeping them.

No such luck

12 days to go and still pregnant. While I've been having contractions, they're no where close to the consistency the ones on Saturday night and into Sunday morning were.

I have been experiencing some really strange pains all day, though. They only last for 1-2 seconds but feel exactly like the peak of a contraction. When I called about them I was told that it may just be the baby moving and hitting a nerve - sending a shooting pain. Either way, I'm just ready for it to be over. I know I'm only 38 weeks and therefore still possibly have another 4 weeks to go... but I don't want to think about that part.

That being said, I'm starting doses of Evening Primrose Oil in the form of capsules tonight. They say past 38 weeks it's safe to insert up to 4 a day, but I think to cut down on oily discharge during the day, I'll stick to one when I get home from work and one when I'm ready for bed.

We'll see how it works and I'll report back in a few days!