happy birthday

Happy week birth day Aiden!

This week has gone beyond our expectations. I am such a cornball, and I can't stop replaying that Sarah McLachlan Ice Cream song in my head:
Your love is better than ice cream
better than anything else that I've tried
and your love is better than ice cream...
Your love is better than chocolate
better than anything else that I've tried
oh love is better than chocolate
everyone here knows how to cry

It's his birthday and he'll cry if he wants to...
P.S. Grammy and Auntie get all the credit for the hats and cupcakes...Aiden says Thanks!

photos

Pictures are worth a 1,000 words right? I hope so because plucking these keys with one hand while constantly nursing is slooow.

We want to thank everyone for reaching out to connect. We are surrounded by your good cheer and pretty flowers ;) The visitors (my folks, J's brother, sister-in-law, and nana) who drove through a tropical storm to visit us in the hospital. You made our day. We love you. I also can barely express how grateful I am to my parents (more to come once I can get a coming home story together) for being here to help... Aiden is so lucky to have such great family!

"Good" photos on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/gp/94324507@N00/HGe2e9

Aiden's first photo - ready to eat, eh? I love my baby bird...aw.

Our stork dinner - fancy schmancy

birth story cliff notes

This edition of Aiden's Birth is brought to you in cliff notes due to baby priorities.

SYNOPSIS: Labor begins in a very similar way to the false labor episodes that we had timed at least 7 other times to no avail. The disbelief that labor has really started leads into disbelief that we will have a baby soon. Labor in hospital progresses in less than 6 and half hours. The mood is much calmer than expected. The baby arrives and is able to stay in our arms in his most alert, new moments.

TIMELINE:
Labor begins after dinner time.
8:00pm - Timing gets close together
9:00pm - Still irregular contractions, then starts to really kick it up and become radiating
10:15pm - Contractions get close together to almost meet the every 5 minutes for over an hour goal
10:30 - Water gushed as I left bathroom. We don't believe it.
10:45pm - We call hospital to tell them to expect us.
11:00pm - We get to hospital triage. There isn't anyone waiting, but there is also no one to welcome us at admitting. Uh. Someone appears and says we can sit down and they'll be right with us. I refuse to sit, but move off to the side to wait somewhat patiently.
11:05pm - They move us into triage within a few minutes. Doctor checks and I'm still 2-3cm, but she confirms my water did break. I don't have to prove anything more. Orders are written up and I'm sitting in a wheelchair on my way up to my birth suite.
12:00am - Rapid gushing, birth ball action, leaning over back of bed, constant husband massage... asked about epidural and keep answering that I don't have a plan, but maybe...
2:30am - Contractions stop letting up in between... asked about epidural and without hesitation I say yes please...but I want to be sure I've progressed far enough. Checked and I'm only at 4cm - crap. Maybe I should not do epidural - ask doctor if I will slow labor and screw thing up - She assures me no.
2:45am - Epidural preparation and three insane awful shots.
3:30am - Epidural still not working. Extreme left leg pains, cannot feel left foot. Dose is increased. Then cannot feel right hand or right eye, but pain is gone.
4:45am - Start pushing while winking at everyone since right eye is down for the count.
5:40am - We have a family.

THEMES/NOTES:
- Superstar common thread... Doc calls mom a superstar in her dilation progress. Baby nurse calls Aiden a superstar nurser. Hospital protocol is to check baby out and your tag to the parking area is a superstar sticker.

- Water can break in many different ways. Babies head can seal off the gush. This story included more than 20 major gushes. I, for some reason, felt compelled to apologize after each gush.

- Using the restroom brings on the most productive labor. As our birth instructor insisted, "you must honor your blatter" - I believe this is what causes the story to progress so quickly.

- Epidurals are extreme. This story includes an epidural that was extremely painful going in and did NOT work for over an hour. They upped my dose and I lost feeling in my right hand and right eye. I winked my way through the rest of the labor.

- My doctor came by during our hospital stay and couldn't get over my "drive by delivery." I couldn't stop thanking her for being a membrane rock star.

CHARACTERS:
Dr. Vrees, the best doctor: Positive, encouraging, consistent. It was her first night back from maternity leave, so I promised to be good. She brought us a baby book of her daughter Jordan to inspire me. She was the sweetest, calmest dream doctor. She called me a superstar when she checked my dilation and I'd progressed from 4 to 9 in the time it took for the epidural (that didn't want to work).

Agnes, the nurse: Cool, calm, collected. Her job is to type all details into computer and monitor rapid fire gushing. She held the shakey legs for me and made sure pushing wasn't in my legs.

Sue, the baby nurse: Peppy, personable, and prepared. She makes her first appearance as break relief for Agnes. I move from the birth ball into total birth delirium within minutes of her arrival. I think Agnes might have gotten off easy with me since poor Sue took me through the transition. Sue was back in full effect to help with Aiden's stats immediately after his birth. He was her little superstar. You'll see that this hospital likes the superstar status.

Dr. Epidural - Professional, disconnected. Name is not given or discarded after she explains gymnastics routine she would like me to complete while having never ending contractions, the shakes, and a huge belly. She is insistent that I have my feet on one end of the bed and my bottom on the other end creating a 45 degree angle across the bed - just like you are touching your toes (yep, can't do that normally!). AND she claims that this must be done while being completely still - for how long I ask - "a few minutes" is the response - uh, tears overflow because "I'm really sorry, I can't do that" - Well, I did it, buut it didn't work for over an hour. When it did finally work, it turned me into a winker (see above).

Anne, the best postpartum nurse: Informative, interested. After a dream two hours with my baby that only left my arms for J's arms or to be weighed, I move up to the postpartum room to be greeted with a barage of information. She took really good care to make sure we were completely in the know.

Acknowledgements: (This is a very sophisticated version of cliff notes)
Thank you to everyone for all your support and good wishes the past few weeks. We feel your warmth and we hope that you feel our gratitude.

We promise photos soon.

internet announcement

Something?

Lauren will be taking a break from blogging for the next few days. At least, in the next five minutes, we will be going to the hospital in the hopes of taking such a hiatus. Cheers, J.

simple snippets

Oooh, here are some snippets in between my somewhat unimpressive contractions today. I don't know what I was expecting, but I'm ready for these stripped membranes to kick it up a notch. Guess it's not that simple. When he's ready, he's ready. My friend and her adorable 5 month old came over for lunch today. I thought for sure once I started making plans to hang out with people, I'd go into labor, but it hasn't worked twice now. She brought me some soup, cake (spoiled again!) and the industrial electric breast pump I plan to use. I plan to nurse as much as possible and pump to store up extra milk. She helped me get it all hooked up with my personalized attachments and figure out how to use it. It didn't seem like that much suction against my hand, but I figured it must work. After she left I decided to give it a little test drive. Literally 10 seconds after it started suctioning I started collecting! Uh, weird, done with that for now - I stopped right away because I need to save that stuff for Aiden ;) Let's hope it's that simple to get him nursing. Somehow I'm guessing that's not that simple...

I can't remember what brought this up... but some where along the way during our doctor's appt today, she commented that her job is simple. She said that she could train for her most of her job through a correspondence course. It's the high risk and trouble cases that required her to get all the medical school training. Glad to hear that it's that simple.

baby sitcom premieres soon

We are "becoming a sitcom" according to our almost giddy happy doctor. She came in laughing at my blood pressure. Which is "better than hers ever is" now that I'm beyond full term and there is nothing to worry about. She was very reassuring and joking with us. She asked how I was doing and guessed that I qualify as a SOP - sick of pregnancy. That would be a big yes - check box double check (even though I swear there was a time that I liked being pregnant so much I thought I'd be sad for it to end). She said that she almost killed someone when she was sick of being pregnant. Uh, not quite there yet. She was mad at her OB because they had to strip her membranes over and over again. She glances over her glasses and asks me if I'd like her to try that because she's good at it... My response was an immediate, "yep, let's do it, can you do it repeatedly?!" Now I had researched this pretty extensively, so I knew it was safe and most assuredly painful (the short explanation of what it is: pushing the amniotic sac away from where it has attached to the cervix - if you google it you need to take in the real research and less discussion board crap on people's opinions). As she leaves for me to get undressed, she tells J to be ready to hold my hand. As I get ready, J asks me if I'm sure I know what she's about to do. For sure, this is the best reaction I can imagine from my doctor. I guessed she was going to declare nothing had changed and I was going to get a lecture on patience as pregnant virtue or some other eh-whatever-that's-normal head shaking routine.

She comes back in and examines me (a bit over 2 cm- bleh), comments that Aiden is really low and she can feel hair! Then she goes to work. She explains as she's doing it that it's like separating two pieces of cellophane. She said that it may lead to my water breaking and going into labor within 48 hours...oh the fantasy! I get the best compliment yet, and she says that I'm tough because I took that pretty well. She ought to feel the pains I've been having for three weeks. I'll show her tough! She then monitors the baby and comments on my rock solid belly (which wasn't even as hard as it gets). She says she probably will not see me for my next appt, and she is laughing as she bounces out the door.

I can't imagine anything more anti-climactic at this point. Yep, same old contractions. Yep, same old so far. I am laying on top of my waterproof sheet not watching any bad sitcoms or baby shows... I'm just hoping that we make our own baby show sooooon.

best rest yet

Last night I slept for nearly 5 hours straight. This was after almost a full day of inconsistent CRAP (you know what that stands for). I can hardly believe I slept so well. I'm usually up in fits and spurts and then I get tired during the day. I can hardly believe that he is not here yet. I can feel him getting bigger and dropping lower. I think his little thigh grew into pinchable range from last week to this week. I'm back to the doctor this morning. I don't think I quite comprehend that it's been another week. I want to meet him and spend time with him. I can relax and really feel him especially since he's getting big and his movements are less pronounced now that he has less room to shift. I really appreciate this time with him.

I am not sure how to cope if I'm not further dilated or something today. J was trying to help me reframe it ahead of time so I don't get frustrated. The idea is that I should just think about how quickly some women dilate. It isn't about how much more I'm dilated but instead that my body is more prepared when that time does come. I still am not sure I will believe it if these contractions really aren't doing anything to change things. I was literally looking up how they can really know how many centimeters you are by feeling around with their fingertips. Doesn't that just seem crazy? How is it possible that people are consistent? I guess they use rings to learn and it becomes part of their muscle memory. Uh yeah, ok. So I have two coping strategies: "eventually it will happen and I will be ready" and "it's hard to really know, so it could have happened a little bit". I know there goes the crazy again. At least I have a bunch of good rest to keep me feeling fresh.

techy talk

I knew it would happen. The cable went out for over three hours this morning during prime tivo time. It missed picking up all my baby shows. Maybe that means it's time for me to have my own baby show. I turned to sew up J's jacket pockets and button. Consuming time the good old fashioned way. Next time I'm going to churn my own butter.

In other techy talk, J got us on board with the new Mac Leopard system. It rocks when it comes to previewing photos, so I am happy. We also hooked into the iChat for the first time. Instead of our typical phone calls, we have the video chat in full effect. It even let's you play with the video effects from Photobooth. We will be able to blab with the baby from a distance when he's out of town or even just at work. But for now he just gets to see my tired bloat ;)

this day in history

The history behind a birthday is fun to think about. What people may associate with an individual day can range from significant to mundane. The History Channel online has a "This Day in History" series that is highlighted online: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do

There is another quirky site, http://bornonthisday.info, that has bits of random day celebrations:
Today is French Fried Clam Day, tomorrow is Piggy Bank Day, the 3rd is Sandwich Day, the 4th is King Tut Day, the 5th is National Doughnut Day, the 6th is I Love Nachos Day, the 7th is National Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day, the 8th is National Cappuccino Day, the 9th is National Scrapple Day, the 10th is Marine Corp Birthday, the 11th is Ones Day, the 12th is Chicken Soup for the Soul Day, the 13th is Start A Rumor Day, the 14th is National Guacamole Day, the 15th is America Recycles Day, the 16th is Birth Of The Blues Day, the 17th is Take A Hike Day.

And if this baby is still cooking on the 17th, you better believe I will be hiking until he gets moving!

it's not a costume

I've been haunted by labor pains all day. They haven't spooked me at all, but the major symptom is that I did not feel like taking off my robe. It is a perfect 60 degree day where kids don't have to cover up their costumes with big fat coats, but you feel nice and cozy in a big fuzzy robe. Outside of that my rough and rugged belly feels pretty beat up and I can't bear the idea of wrapping it up in maternity pants. I didn't think much about the fact that I'd be meeting some neighbors in my bathrobe, fuzzy pj pants, and down wrap slippers. J was washing up from dinner and as I passed out some candy, I joked through my mild embarrassment... "This is the real deal, it's not a costume..." The nice neighbors were asking when I was due and offering up their kids as babysitters (can't believe we may be hiring babysitters in the next few years!) We kept our door open and as I rocked around on my birth ball I was keeping my eye on the glass door. All of a sudden a scary kid dressed as a bloody doctor with a big vile of blood jumped up to the door out of nowhere, and I nearly broke my big bulging bag of waters. We ended up with about 72 kids and about one extra bag of candy that is going to be hard to resist.

cat cuddling

J and I have two cats with two very distinct personalities. Sophy prefers J and Peanut prefers me. It's a good thing their names correspond in order to avoid confusion, eh? Sophy is the cat that I previously mentioned is scared of the big belly. She sleeps perched on my pregnancy pillow and when I switch sides I take away the queen's throne. She purrs so loudly at J that it sometimes keeps me awake. She is the best cat to play with because (as my aunt will attest) she will play with light reflections for hours. She is good company in this big empty house, but I prefer her during the day. Peanut is the cuddliest cat on her own terms. My dad calls her a crazed alley cat and only after witnessing her hiss at him did I understand how my cute-cuddly-curl-ball could induce terror. She will jump up on my lap, which is mostly just boney knees now, and look at me desperately asking me with her eyes to move that big belly out of the way. When I try to just pet her and get her to cuddle up on the available lap, she will pace back and forth across my knees occasionally trying to perch on top of my belly. Here's her normal cute balancing act:

dracula visits a day early

Halloween eve I start getting contractions that feel like Dracula bites. It's a day before Halloween and Dracula wouldn't come out before dark, right? So I try to ignore them. I had a project to fix up J's leather jacket, but I couldn't bring myself to go upstairs to grab it. You'll remember the day before I was cruising around the house just to count my steps, so this uncomfortableness is different. J went to the store to pick up Halloween candy on his way home, so that must mean that I will go into labor and we will end up eating it all ourselves. By the time J gets home I am getting them pretty frequently. J starts timing (since it makes me mildly crazy) and they are somewhat consistent at about 5-6 minutes each for just about one hour, then they start to do their crazy random crap again. Dracula is getting fickle. I try to keep calm since this will mark at least the sixth time that we have monitored really close, hard contractions that fade away. I get into the shower and they don't seem to melt like they had before. I talk to my sister on the phone and I can't ignore more of them. They are radiating down my leg making my left foot nearly numb. I start to get this feeling that during the hard contractions Aiden is frantic. He is kicking like he's stuck in a really bad haunted house and he's scaring his mom. This prompts me to call the doctor and give him the rundown. I want to be reassured that Aiden's increased activity isn't a big deal. He assures me that any baby activity is good activity and I should really watch for increased fluid and really consistent, hard contractions. Dracula keeps coming back in fits and spurts, but my blood must not be sweet enough for him to keep them at under 5 minutes for an hour. We'll see if my little pumpkin wants to come out and scare off that meany Dracula sometime today.

Apparently he can come out and scratch out Dracula's eyes with the fingernails that need to be clipped. Those crazy ticker writing people go from concentrating on brain and lung development to fingernails!?

yea for friends!

My friend brought me lunch. She even brought me a cookie. Since I've only interacted with J and my doctor for quite a while, it was beyond nice to have someone else to talk to in person. We weren't even talking about babies, at least not for the entire time! She was only here for about 2 hours, and we laughed for at least an hour. It will be an excellent test of whether laughing puts you into labor.

tuesday tidbit

Here is a Tuesday tidbit: "Tuesday is the most popular day for babies in the U.S. to be born, with 13,000 births on average in 2003. There are about 16 percent more babies born on Tuesday than on any other day of the week. Saturday is the slowest day with an average of about 7,500 births (this is partially due to the fact that doctors don't schedule c-sections and inductions on weekends)." (from babygaga.com)
Poll as of October 30, 2007
Before Halloween
9 (37%)
On Halloween
3 (12%)
After Halloween but before Nov 17th due date
11 (45%)
After alleged Nov 17th due date
1 (4%)
Change your vote
Votes so far: 24
Days left to vote: 18

pumpkin pics

Oh, the excitement. I was over stimulated really. The baby on the brain does take over the pumpkin design for 2007.

Lifting and shaking a 5 lb pumpkin does not induce labor - I tried it.

J wins the husband award again for doing all the seed picking. Yummy new addition to the snack repertoire.

Proof of over stimulation is that I can't keep my mouth shut.

3D additions may make it look like some sort of dog according to J - But I think you'd have to eat more than pumpkin seeds to see what he sees.

Wouldn't it be nice if this pattern glowed on my belly when he was ready to come out... yep, that would be nice. Then I would be staring at my belly all the time. Just like watching water boil.

doing nothing highlights

Today's highlights in order:

I had J bring down old boxes of fabric and stuff I couldn't reach easily. I rearranged stuff.

I untangled a bunch of yarn.

I decided to make a hat to match the fuzzy blue baby blanket I finished for Aiden weeks ago. Now I just need a baby head to check if it fits.

I fussed with Aiden's cuddle duds.

I tested out new pillow arrangements while watching the announcements on the community channel. I informed J I liked the music on this channel and he was disappointed in my music taste once again.

I tried to get the last bit of wax out of my candle and accidently dropped the glass container. It shattered and I spent tons of time being sure all the glass was picked up. Baby proofing early, since he will just lay around with us for a while.

I read two domino magazines.

I walked in a circle around our house 37 times in a 30 step path - That's 1110 steps. No labor yet.

And the highlight of the day: Pumpkin carving! I'll post photos later on...

I was tempted to paint my belly and I still might, so let's hope the baby comes before I get the chance. I know, boredom can play games on your mind...

whole lotta nothing

So I'm not sure what it is about watching baseball, but it manages to get me to sleep. I woke up with a fierce contraction just as the Red Sox clinched the World Series, but then a few more "nothing-contractions" to make the rest of the night uncomfortable. A nothing contraction is nothing that you want. It hurts like nothing you would believe. It's doing nothing. They say it does nothing to the baby. It's nothing I would wish on anyone. It's nothing you want to happen to you repeatedly without warning for over two and a half weeks. The Red Sox won the World Series and I have nothing to show for it. Ooh well, nothing to do today? Nah, plenty of projects on my "to-do-if-you-have-nothing-else-to-do" list. I'm off to do nothing...if you're lucky I'll tell you about nothing later on...

world series baby

I lost my coupon. I swear the pregnancy test box had a redeem for one baby NOW coupon that was going to expire soon. I would really, really like to get in on that deal. Maybe it's in one of my old purses in the basement...

Oh, the delusions continue... I am convinced that this baby will get on his way today or the Red Sox will not win game 4 tonight. He wants to be a World Series Baby, so I need to be in active labor in order for them to win. Call Francona and let him know...maybe he can get me some magic cervix melting cream (I'm reaching the point where I might get my sister to see if they sell that over the border at those Mexican pharmacies - only kidding). It looks like J wins and the Red Sox may have to be this kid's team. It's hard to believe that he will have an identity that includes being born in New England on a year that the Red Sox won the World Series (and it looks like it may be a repeat of 2004 with the Patriots winning the Super Bowl). J, even as a semi-non-sports-watching-man, is excited.

During the pre-game last night, I had a nerdy-craft-urge. It's difficult to tell the difference between this type of urge and my normal idea of a good time, but this was one of those nerdy ideas that required J's participation. Since he is in amazing husband mode (he just intuitively knows how to rub my back), he willingly made a collage. These collages are for Aiden. You can look at them thinking of them as symbolic of the end of this pregnancy or symbolic of our hopes for Aiden... oh, I'm glad that I hoard old magazines to create patience-inducing-time-filling-crafts-to-torture-my-husband (and by torture I mean in order to show off his incredible husbandness). You can click on the photo to get a gigantic version.

I know deep down you are all thinking this blog is getting boooring, I don't want to look at your stupid collages, I want to hear about birth - I keep refreshing the page because I want to hear about exciting-crazy-rushing-around-labor where babies pop out in the car. I'm guessing it won't ever get that exciting, but if he pops out during the winning world series pitch TONIGHT I will write a book about how interesting it was... Now that I think about it, that really doesn't seem that interesting either... Oh well, I just need to go find that coupon now.

what do you call this?

Bebe Au Lait, Hooter Hiders, Modest Momma Wrappers. These are all names for a nursing cover that is propped open a little bit at the top so you can see your baby without exposing yourself. All claim it's better than a blanket (since the baby may be smothered or something, I dunno). Now I just wish they had a device to type on the computer without using both hands. There are some of these nursing covers online with really chic, fun fabrics. Despite the temptation to spend $35 on one because the fabric is so cute, I was pretty sure I could make one (and it would cost less than $2). I didn't even need a trip to the fabric store (another fabric hoarding bonus). I had boning left over from my wedding dress, velcro scraps, and decent light fabric. Good crafty project to pass the time...

Please ignore the black stretchy pants. They are only supposed to be a layer under my clothes, since I can go from cold to hot in two seconds. Shoulda caught a photo during a cold second. Remember I don't leave the house very often.