Happy birthday!

Jensen is two weeks old today!

And so I continue his story from the day he was born...

After a few days in the NICU for abnormally low blood sugar level, Jensen was brought to room in with me at the hospital. He was quite a screamer, as we were trying to teach him to breastfeed after several days of being bottle fed by hospital workers.

Things are much better on that front, and he now switches back and forth between breastfeeding and bottles since he is hungry all the time.

We are adjusting to life at home, which is sometimes great, sometimes really, really stressful.

We are lucky that we've had several people come by to bring food or watch the baby for a few hours while I take a nap.

The doula has also been here for a few days. I have one paid day left, so I am saving it until the end of the week, when I will probably be the most sleep deprived.

Michael is doing well as a dad and is really helpful most of the time, letting me sleep and taking shifts on feeding and diaper duty.

As a final bonus, here is one of the only pictures of me hugely pregnant:

I don't know why I was so suprised that he was so BIG!

The White Flag

Even though there's a lot to tell, I'm pretty tired, so it'll probably come in bits and pieces over the next few days.

On Friday, several hours after my water broke, we finally headed to the hospital. We didn't go right away because I still wasn't having contractions, and we knew they would try really hard to speed things along. Also, I tested negative for Strep B, so I wasn't worried about infection, and I knew not to get in the tub after my water had broken.

We got to the hospital around 10:30. Still, no contractions, and I was still only "fingertip" dialated. They inserted a pill that was supposed to help soften my cervix so it would begin to dialate.

Patty showed up not too long after that. My contractions finally started, and we worked through them using our natural methods, like taking hot showers, rocking on a birth ball, walking the hallways, and hypnotherapy.

They checked me again several hours later, and I was only 3 cm. They started talking about Pitocin. I convinced them to let me wait a few hours later to dialate further on my own, because I knew Pitocin would basically wreck any real plan of having a natural pain management experience. At this time, I had already labored overnight and most of Saturday. At 6 pm, I was checked again, and still only gotten to 3 1/2 cm. I was told they really had to give the Pitocin since I wasn't progressing on my own. I was, of course, upset that things were not going the way I had wanted, so I did take a few more minutes to allow myself to be sad and cry a bit, because I saw this as the real point where things were going to turn.

After the Pitocin was given, I was also hooked up to a saline IV, which almost immediately made my hands and feet begin to swell. I could barely bend my fingers, they were so engorged with fluid. I continued to labor naturally for some time, and to be honest, I really have no clear idea how long it was. The contractions became much closer together and much more painful. The whole experience is now a really big blur. Patty told me that she thinks I labored naturally through about 3 hours on Pitocin.

Finally, I gave in and asked for epidural. Of course, the hospital was glad to comply, as they had now been waiting for me to deliver this child for more than 24 hours. The epidural really did help a lot, but it wasn't exactly heaven, either. Most people have heard that sometimes an epidural doesn't always "take" on both sides. Mine had a similar effect-it had what is referred to as a "window." There was only one part of my body that felt the complete, unrelieved pain. That happened to be my left butt cheek. I know, that sounds funny, but if you've ever had a charly horse in your calf, and then multiply it by 100, you'll know how I felt. The Pitocin was still on, so there was not really a break between contractions, and there was not really a way to relieve the pain. The staff told me to try to sleep, as there was nothing I could do until I was fully dialated, and then I would need all my energy to push.

I slept for a while, although I woke up every 2 or 3 minutes-with each new contraction. Finally, at around 5 am Sunday morning, they told me I was "10 plus" cm dialated, and that it was time to push. Patty tells me that I pushed for nearly 4 hours, although mainly what I remember is holding onto the railing of the bed yelling at her that it was impossible for the baby to come out that way.

And in reality, it turns out I was right. I was taken in for a C-section after approximately 40 hours of labor. By that time, I was so exhaused, both from the emotions and the physical work and the fact that I hadn't had solid food since Friday, that I actually fell asleep during the surgery.

Jensen Michael Cigala was born at 11:11 am on Sunday, October 14, weighing a whopping 11.1 pounds and measuring 38 cm. His big 'ol head, which wouldn't fit through my pelvis, has a circumfrence of 55.5 cm. And it is totally covered with the finest, most golden blonde hair. He looks like a surfer baby!

More on our adventure later, and pictures to come also.

Pop

Okay, kids, it's about that time! After a whole week of waiting past the expected arrival date, the baby is finally on his way.

I took a long nap today (thank goodness!) and when I got up, I heard a popping sound and then felt fluid coming out of me. For the record, I still haven't had any contractions yet, so it still might be quite a while of waiting.

I've already called our doula and the OB, and we're gathering last minute stuff and getting ready to head to the hospital. We'll send out the phone announcement ASAP after Jensen makes his appearance.

Love you all, and keep us in your prayers!

Backing off

Sigh.

Things are back to overdue normal. The backache has disappeared and there are now no contractions in sight.

All there is to do now is go back to waiting. Maybe he'll want to show up at lunch. :)

Signs? Dunno...

Okay, so I might be in the early, early stages of labor.

No noticeable contractions yet, but as the non-stress test from yesterday showed that I was already having small contractions....

I am having a low, dull backache again, this time has been going for several hours without letting up. I called my doula, and over the phone she actually told me that it is possible for a woman to be in the earliest stages of labor for a week or two before the big show starts. This explains those stories you hear of women who walked around for a week or so being a centimeter or two dilated or whatever. So, she thinks it's possible that my body HAS been in labor - probably since the full moon when I wrote about having those other random symptoms.

I also feel PMS-y. I've a couple of menstrual-like cramps, but only a couple, and so far, only on one side. Hahaha. Explain that...

To top things off, I went ahead and made plans to have lunch with two wonderful ladies from church tomorrow. Personally, I subscribe to the theory where if you are really hungry and go out to eat, the most likely way to get the meal to come is to get up and leave the table and go to the ladies room. In other words, I think that since I now have something more fun to do then sit around and wait for him, Jensen will probably take that opportunity to come. Again, I laugh.

I'm going to go take a nice long bath now and see if contractions start or if, heading the other way, my back feels better.

If contractions do start, there's a good chance I'll be up most of the night, especially since I took a nice long nap earlier today, so there might be another post or two before morning.

Another new plan

Well, I went for my testing and everything is fine.

The non-stress test was actually kind of enjoyable. I was put in a bed and had two monitors strapped to my tummy. One "watched" me, and the other was for Jensen. Then, you wait. The one for me told the nurses that I am actually having contractions, they're just very little and not totally consistent. The one for Jensen told them that he isn't having any physical problems, like a lowered heartrate, as his body responds to the contractions. Overall, they pronounced him "perfect." It was cool to be able to see the tape that showed both of us at the same time, but even better was when I started to fall asleep, the nurse encouraged me to take a nap and even turned out the lights for me.

Then, I went to another room and had another sonogram. He checked the amount of amniotic fluid around the baby, which was again billed as "perfect." Then he wanted to check his size/ This is where this gets interesting. I had a sonogram 3 weeks ago, and they told me that they believed Jensen was about 7 lbs. Well, low and behold, today they have totally changed their tune and are telling me that he's "now" 10 lbs, maybe more. (Um, how does a baby gain a lb a week when I haven't changed any of my eating habits?) When I told the doctor that really surprised me based on the previous sonogram, he actually started to backpedal and said that maybe the last sonogram didn't include the weight of Jensen's head, because sometimes they just leave that part out. After some more conversation, he reconfigured his idea and is now claiming he could be anywhere between 8 and 10. Since I've only put on 25 lbs total, I'm not going to stress too much over how big he could be, especially since sonograms are still not such an exact science. I have been routinely told that they could be off as much as 2 lbs, which is a big difference when you're talking about a baby!

When I thought I was all done, the sonogram doctor told me that he was going to call my regular OB and that I should conference with him by phone right then. He actually told me that he didn't want me to leave the hospital unless he knew that I was going straight to my OB's office. I did think that was a little weird, since he's pretty much told me everything was good...but okay.
I ended up going to my OB's office, where he just confirmed the results I'd just had and we decided on yet another game plan for having this baby come out.

Since everything is fine so far, we're going to give him until the end of the week. If no baby by Saturday afternoon, I'll go into the hospital for induction. That gives him time to prove my theory that his due date was off by a week anyway, and gives me a definite light at the end of the tunnel to being pregnant.

+4 and a half

I have an appointment today at 11 for a sonogram and a stress test. Even if he's doing fine, they'll probably go ahead and recommend that he gets medically persuaded into coming out. I'm still hoping and praying that he decides to make an appearance of his own free will. We'll see what the tests say and then make a decision from there.

Most of the books and websites that I've looked at say that it's perfectly normal to have a baby grow into a 41st week of pregnancy, but that around the 42nd week it starts to be progressively less healthy. Of course, that's assuming that the 42nd week is the actual 42nd week, and not a guess.

Whatever is going on with him, he's starting to seriously impact my physical abilities. Up until the last few days, I've actually been okay with most of the complaints of pregnancy. Of course, it was no picnic, but it wasn't so, so bad. Now, it is bad. My tummy gets in the way of everything, and I can't bend directly over the sink to brush my teeth or wash my hands anymore (I stand sideways and lean in that way). I also run into doorknobs on a regular basis, and the corners of the backs of my dining chairs poke me a lot more than they used to.

After my marathon shopping walk the other day, I never totally got back to where I was physically, and I pretty much have to lay down and slide across the seat to get in and out of the car. Turning over in bed has become its own Olympic event that has had me near tears on a couple of attempts.

Adding all of this to the fact that in order for me to 1)leave or enter the house 2)go to the bathroom or 3)start, switch, or retrieve a load of laundry I have to climb a flight of stairs, I have gotten to a point where even just hanging out at home is just barely tolerable.

So, the ending to the story is that I am somewhere around 99% sure that by the end of the week I'll be posting that I have had the baby. Whether that is because the doctor said he had to come out, or he comes out on his own, or his momma says it's time to come out seems to be the only part of this scenario that remains to be seen.

Twiddling thumbs

I called the hospital testing unit to arrange another sonogram, but nobody answered the phone. My theory is that is would be a waste of time to go all the way there, spending cab money, then to find out they either can't fit me in, OR that to fit me would take several hours in uncomfortable chairs waiting.

So, I left a message and hopefully they will call be back so I can get an appointment tomorrow. Baby seems to be doing well, as he is still busily twirling around in there.

After yesterday's long walk, I still feel a bit like I did after having a personal training session for the first time-like I've been hit by a truck! Not sure exactly how that came about, because I really have been pretty active, especially for this far along. I don't think I'm so far out of shape that my walk should've been so difficult. I've come to the conclusion that Baby J is manipulating my sciatic nerve yet again, because the pain is similar to what I've been used to, only it's now shooting down the other side of my leg.

I've already soaked in a bath for about an hour, and my plan for the rest of the day is to watch movies and keep my feet up. And in that regard, Conner, thank you again for the Crocs-they have saved my life. They are now the ONLY shoes my poor sausage feet will fit into and therefore, I wear them with everything. Not kidding. Everything.

Will post more either when I have news or am bored my not having news.

+2

Another day, another waiting game.

We did the walking thing...went to TJ Maxx, Target, and Babies R Us. Sheesh, am I tired. My back started to ache again, but this time, I think it was just all the walking.

I'm hoping labor may be close, tho. I think I got my nesting urge and I cleaned the kids' room. I'm actually not quite done, but it's a lot better. I also think it's possible that baby sensed I wasn't quite ready, but he's been really active the last few hours, so maybe he's gearing up to make an appearance.

However, if he STILL doesn't show, we'll be heading to the hospital for that other sonogram tomorrow.

I still, even tho I am very uncomfortable, would like to wait a few more days before being induced. Since they weren't able to be totally 100% on his conception date, and what they said actually didn't match with my journal, I think he may still be right on time if he comes this week. We'll see what happpens.

+1

One full day past the due date.

Still waiting....

Not doing anything special, just puttering around, wondering about very little twinge, "Could this be it, finally?" Then realizing, um, nope. Not yet.

Come and gone

My due date, that is.

We went to the doc's office again today as scheduled, since Jensen didn't seem to want to come out before the appointment. :)

He did another internal exam, and I am a whopping "fingertip" dilated (apparently this translates to "just barely") and 60% effaced.

We had a long conversation about inducement, with the deciding compromise to be that if Baby J has not appeared in the outside world by the end of the weekend, we'll go the hospital on Monday for another sonogram and then have another discussion based on those results. He is still convinced that I'm diabetic and says he is concerned that the baby will get too big to deliver without a C-section.

So, we did what we thought was normal after hearing this news...we went to the health food store and got some Red Raspberry Leaf Tea, which, depending on what you read, will help "tone the uterus" and help it to "contract more effectively." Hhhmmm. Honestly, I dunno, but raspberry tea sounds a helluva lot better than pitocin!

We purposely parked a long way from the store, so getting there and back was a pretty long walk. Then, to relax, we went to see a movie (The Heartbreak Kid---not fantastic, sorry) and then to a really beautiful Italian dinner at a new place near the theatre called Cinema Paradiso.

We're back at home now, and Michael has agreed to give me a hypno-massage to get me in the mood to have a baby. I've been having BH contractions for several hours straight, so there's at least a chance that at some point they'll start helping me "progress" and we'll have to start thinking about going to the hospital.

If you're reading this, think productive thoughts for us, please!!

Gearing up to go??

Last night I had a pretty prolonged backache, with some mild tightening in my tummy. However, nothing was consistent enough to try to time, and really, I wouldn't have been able to tell when one "contraction" would have started and stopped. This went on for about 2 hours, but I'm supposing that it was false labor, since I still don't have a baby. :)

Most of the books say that if contractions start at night to try and sleep through them, which is what ended up happening, and when I woke up today, everything was back to late pregnancy normal.

We'll see what happens again today...

Distractions

So, we went and had brunch at IHOP, which was very, very good. I had cinnamon apple pancakes and Michael had eggs and bacon. All were happy!

At brunch, Michael mentioned wanting to get his hair done, so we did that.

Then, we went to the movies and saw Game Plan. Sugary-sweet but actually not a bad film.

After that was a quick trip to the grocery store where we got a few staples, and then headed home.

Now we're sitting around watching Dirty Sexy Money.

Still waiting for a baby...

Brunch

Okay, since I haven't been talking about anything except waiting (and how fun can that be to read about?) I am going to now mention food. Yum.

We are about to go out for brunch, with my vote being for IHOP. Then, (again, way fun to read about) we're going to go to the grocery store and Target for supplies.

Everything for Jensen is about as ready as it can be. I keep packing and unpacking my "bag o tricks" because can't stand my ipod, camera, and cell phone being put away, but I'm also paranoid that I'll forget them. Pregnancy brain is a true disease, people! A pregnant woman's brain really and honestly does shrink in size only to regain its former stature several weeks after the little one comes. This is really why they tell you it's not a great idea for a brand new mom to drive herself anywhere for a while. The ability to focus is just about nonexistant.

For the rest of today, I will (drumrolllll, please) attempt to accomplish something besides sitting around. For this, I will have to make a list, which honestly, may end up being the accomplishment all by itself. :)

Good day, and TTFN!

Anything left to say?

Blah.

Still waiting, still uncomfortable, still unable to sleep.

Wish there was more to say. Instead, I'm just trying to pass the hours and hopefully get some housework done, one small step at a time. It's been nearly impossible to sleep for more than about an hour at a time over the last few days. Last night, I woke up around 3 and watched tv for 2 and a half hours before finally getting back to bed. I guess it's training for when the baby comes.

Beached whale

Okay, I know that only 5% of babies are born on their due dates. I'm fine with that. It just surprises me how amazingly uncomfortable this last week has been. It would seem to me that Jensen would get tired of being all stuffed up in my tummy and want to stretch out a bit.

However, apparently, I'm wrong.

So, I am still sitting around, with occassional bouts of walking, waiting for him to change his mind. Over the last few days I have gotten increasingly less friendly to Michael, but he has been really good. He asked me how I'm feeling, and when I went down the whole laundry list, from swollen fingers (still) to heartburn waking me up about every hour I try to sleep, he was wonderfully sympathetic and since has been fixing all the meals, carrying all the laundry, helping me in and out of the car (which is torture, by the way) and in general, being very, very good.

Maybe Jensen should stay in there, after all. :)