She is here

Whew. The baby finally came out. :) I was actually starting to wonder, being 5 days overdue and a full 3 weeks later than my last kid.

My daughter was born on Tuesday, February 17th at 7:45 am after 5 easy hours of labor. She weighed 8 lbs 14 oz and was 20.25 inches long, and had a 13.75 inch head and 14 inch chest (big!). She's got 10 fingers and 10 toes and is absolutely perfect. The birth was wonderful. I really couldn't have asked for better. Despite being by far my largest baby, I didn't tear (!!!) and felt in complete control pretty much the entire time. Keith was able to catch his daughter, and I reached down and grabbed her as she completely emerged. It was awesome.

Now, at 5 days old, we are dealing with weight loss, jaundice, and a lack of pooping. This is something I've seen before and is very frustrating. We have a midwife visit later today so we'll see how it is going. Otherwise, things are going quite well. The older kids absolutely ADORE her. My body is healing very quickly, thanks to the easy birth. She's even sleeping a fair amount (though that might be because of the jaundice). If we could just get the milk flowing and get her weight up.

Officially Overdue

I can't believe it. My due date was yesterday. I'm still pregnant.

Granted, this is normal for most women. The average pregnancy is longer than 40 weeks. But MY pregnancies have all been weeks shorter. I've always known it was possible I could go longer, but considering my other two kids were 12 and 16 days early and were healthy and of good size (7,4 and 8,6), I really didn't think this pregnancy would go so much longer.

So here I am, weeks more pregnant than I've ever been, measuring much larger than I've ever been, wondering when this kid is coming out. I wonder what will be different since this baby has cooked so much longer. Will I notice less vernix and lanugo? My other kids were covered in it. My son had a pretty good case of jaundice too. Could we avoid that this time? Will this baby be more awake and alert because of the extra weeks? I hope so. Could breastfeeding be easier? That would be so cool. And of course, I AM wondering how much BIGGER this kid is going to be. Still curious whether it is a boy or girl too.

Today is Friday the 13th. I don't really have a problem if baby chooses to come today, though I think Keith is a little freaked by it. The kids both have colds right now and I'm getting one too. And I've got a new cold sore brewing. But I don't really want to wait until we are all healthy for this baby to come out. That might not happen until May.

So baby, please please please come out!

Is this what it feels like to be overdue?

I'm not overdue. In fact, I'm only 38 weeks 3 days pregnant. But this is now my longest pregnancy. My daughter would have been born yesterday, and my son 5 days ago. So it kinda feels late to me. With all the prelabor activity starting at 34 weeks, and the several false starts I've already had, I really thought I'd be holding my baby by now. I guess this is what they mean by "the third baby throws you for a loop!" My midwife laughed and admitted she was waiting for me to go 2 weeks overdue, though she also said she didn't think I actually would. God, I hope she's right. No way I can imagine this pregnancy being a MONTH longer than my other two, not to mention that my son was nearly 8.5 lbs at 37.5 weeks...so an extra month could mean a rather large baby!

I'm hoping this extra time means no jaundice or breastfeeding problems this time. And it would be cool if the prelabor lead to an extremely short and easy labor. Wishful thinking? Probably. But I've got a lot of time for thinking right now, and I'm choosing to think about that. :)

Ouch

I think I may have a broken rib. I can't believe this little critter inside me could be so mean to his/her mama. I guess quarters are getting very tight in there. This pain has been present for 1-2 weeks, but it is just getting worse and worse. I still have a cough too, which makes it so much worse. Certain postures and a cough or sneeze just make it feel like a knife in my side. Guess there isn't much that can be done, except wait for relief from the pressure once the baby is out. Speaking of which...I started seeing some mucus last night, but it was only very minor. It could be anytime. If this baby picks a timeframe similar to when my other two arrived, he/she will be born between Tuesday and Saturday of next week. I'm nesting like crazy, and in 2 days I will be free of all commitments. I can't wait to meet this new person.

Boy or Girl?

We've decided not to find out this time. I kinda can't believe it. I was so sure I wanted to know with both of my previous pregnancies, and though we told the ultrasound technician not to waste time hunting for it, we were relieved when baby made it really easy to guess their gender. But this time, the ultrasound instructions will be to steer clear of the goods! And we are totally comfortable with that plan.

I still think it is a boy though. I've just felt that way from a few weeks in. We didn't try for a boy or girl this time, so it really could be either. But I just feel boyish. Plus I've been sicker than sick (still puking about every other day...at 18 weeks!), and though I wasn't THIS sick with my son, I was certainly sicker with him than I was with my daughter. Each pregnancy has just gotten sicker and harder. We have plans for a 4th after this, but for the first time I'm actually dreading the whole pregnancy part of it. I just don't enjoy pregnancy very much. I like the idea of it, but my pregnancies have been very hard on me. Guess I'll never grow up to be a surrogate.

Baby is safe

It took a while, but baby is making him/herself known now. I've been pretty certain I'm feeling movement, and then today we FINALLY found the heartbeat on a doppler. Whew! Coming up on 16 weeks and all is well.

#3

Notice tickers on the left. :)

D-O-N-E!!

This morning I turned my final revisions into the graduate school for my dissertation. It almost required a degree just to turn it in and meet all the requirements (10x13 inch manila envelope with metal clasp with 2 flyleafs, 3 extra title pages, 1 extra signed abstract, taped title page on front, receipt for archiving fee, etc etc). My revisions were pretty simple - took about 3 days. As of this afternoon, my online transcript says "Doctor of Philosophy degree requirements met on May 8, 2008." DONE DONE DONE DONE!!!

In other news, I've attended two births in the last two weeks too. Birth stories coming soon. One was a 92-hour marathon birth (I was only present for the last 25 hours). The other was an induction with hx of embolism complications that ended well with 4 hours of pushing. Both were good. Can't believe I fit them in there with all the defense stuff going on.

So now I'm taking a little time off from school. Gonna work on relaxing and reclaiming my sanity and health, develop my childbirth classes a bit, go see a movie, and go meet some new babies...

FREEDOM!!!!!!

Welcome Baby D!!

Super-duper happy for Franny and Dave as they welcomed Baby D at 2:24 this morning. :) Can't wait to see him! Congrats guys!

Mama!

Alder's first word: Mama. He's not even 8 months old, but it is crystal clear that he is trying to talk to me. It sounds more like mamamamammaamammama, but he ONLY does it when he WANTS me and it is really obvious he's trying to get me to come pick him up. If Keith picks him up instead, he continues to say mamamamama. I just love it. Ava wasn't identifyably saying mama until like 12-14 months, so this just really speaks to my heart.

Yep, Alder is a mama's boy.

Peas

I know it is normal for kids to be picky eaters at times. But what about an infant that doesn't want to eat anything but peas? Alder is just nuts about peas. He won't touch fruit. He is not a fan of cereal. He doesn't even like sweet potatoes. But peas? He'll chow 3 jars for every meal. (no, we don't give him 3 jars of peas for every meal) I'm hoping this phase passes soon, or else my kid is going to turn into a pea.

Toddler cuteness

Despite the raging illnesses in our house, I've have seen glimpses of some darn cute kids lately. Ava is definitely in that phase where you wish you had a tape recorder going at all times. The things that come out of her mouth are sometimes hysterical, and sometimes amazing.

While at the doctor's office a few days ago, the doc came in and chose to start examining Alder first (both kids were sick and going to get checked out). So Keith started taking off Alder's clothes and the doc came over to take his temperature and Ava got REALLY upset...muttering that the "doctor is going to poke Alder". Poor kid has some obvious associations with the doctor and getting injections now. Anyway, it was both sad because she was so upset, but also endearing that she showed such strong concern for her little brother. (and no, Alder didn't get "poked" at this visit)

Today while playing on the floor with some blocks, I overheard Ava saying, "No Ant! You are supposed to be outside. You are not supposed to be inside. You better go outside!". Then she came and got me to help her take the ant outside. It struck me as amusing that she spoke to the ant so directly, as if she expected it to speak back. But I guess all her books and the few videos we let her watch do involve talking animals and bugs, so why wouldn't this ant talk back? Luckily she wasn't too attached to the ant, because I promptly squashed it.

Overall I'm really loving these stages with my kids. They are both just so fabulous. Next big challenges will probably be night potty training and FINALLY taking the pacifier away from Ava (still used at night only), and crawling for Alder and all the new challenges of babyproofing with tiny toddler toys around all the time.

Sick babies

We are weathering our first double-kid cold in the house. This is actually Alder's very first bug - not too bad making it all the way to 6.5 months! Anyway, it has proven to be fairly mild for both of them. There were slight fevers (under 100) and lots of snot, but it kept flowing so no bulb suctioning was necessary. Yesterday was the worst day. Today is looking slightly better. They both even slept okay. I kinda like this...a nice, gentle warm-up to what I'm sure (with the addition of daycare starting Thursday) will be a killer cold season.

6 months!!

It was 6 months ago at this very minute that I was holding a newborn Alder. Just minutes old even! I can't believe how the time flies. Now he smiles and laughs, he talks his special language, he is nearly up on all fours and is trying to crawl, and he is almost sitting. AND he sleps through the night almost all the time.

We are really starting to see more of his personality now. We are seeing that he is more attached to me than Ava was at this age. He's very laid back and happy almost all the time. He loves his bananas, pears, and carrots, but is not nearly as fond of the sweet potatoes. His hair is starting to fill in and it appears to be light - maybe blond or strawberry blond, but possibly a very light brown too. There are quite a lot of red hhighilghts in his hair too. His eyes seem to be headed in the direction of hazel.

Alder's 6 month check-up was yesterday too, and he looked great! He weighs 15 lbs 14 oz (~15th %-ile), is 26.25 inches tall (~35th %-ile), and has a 17.5 in head (~65th %-ile)! He sure doesn't look skinny with his chubby cheeks, double chin, and rolly thighs.

Anyway, happy 6 months Alder!

Solid foods

Yep, that much time HAS passed. Alder is eating solids. We started him about a week ago...right about at 5.5 months. He's been exhibiting all the ready signs for 3-4 weeks anyway, and as much as I wanted to reach 6 months, it started to feel like we were just counting off days for no reason. So we have him a little sweet potato. He thought it was tolerable. He ate it fine - no tongue reflex. But he wasn't gobbling it down like our sweet potato monster Ava. So then we tried banana. That was a hit. And now he's onto carrot, which seems destined to be another favorite. We got our first solid food poop too, and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I guess when you are on a diet of 98% breastmilk, your poop still comes out mostly smelling like breastmilk.

Anyway, my little guy is growing up. He's nearly on his hands and knees now, and he can spin and roll around with ease. And maybe it is my imagination, but I hear a distinct "Mama" when he is upset and wants me to pick him up.

TWINS!!

One of my very good friends had identical twin girls yesterday morning. She made it all the way to 38 weeks 3 days before giving a little nudge to get things going (out of desperation, and out of impending induction date set by docs). She arrived at the hospital at 10 cms, pushed out Baby A (6 lbs 12 oz) with a nuchal hand, and then 14 minutes later pushed out the double footling breech Baby B (7 lbs 12 oz). And she didn't tear at all. And now, 24 hours later, she fighting to get out of the hospital and home to her two other kiddos (2 and 4 years old). She is my hero. :)

Donor milk

Last night Alder got his first taste of donor breastmilk. I feel pretty good about getting 4.5 months on just my supply, and I might even have another week of my own in the freezer. Right now I seem to be 2-3 oz short of what Alder takes every day, so we've been slowly eating up the freezer milk. I'm soooo thankful that we have a donor we trust here in town (my doula!). She truly has the supply for twins. So now I breastfeed most of the day and night, but when I'm away from Alder I never pump what he takes in. So the donor milk fills the gap. Thank god for boobies.

The brilliance of indoor parks

I can't believe we didn't join last year. Man. Whoever came up with this idea deserves a medal. Yesterday I took Ava and Alder to preview one of the local indoor parks. Brilliant! Ava was instantly in love and she talked about it all day, even though we were only there for about 20 minutes. It is cheap ($40), it is open every weekday, everyone gets a key, and there are lots of toys, climbing structures, and slides to wear the kids out for naptime. My only complaint has to be the somewhat limited hours (9:30-3:00), which I assume is a function of the building the indoor park lives in (local fire station).

There are two parks in Corvallis - one for younger kids (~6 months to 3 years) and one for older kids (~18 months to 5 years). I've chosen to join the younger one this year. I think it is all new enough that Ava will stay engaged this year, and this way it is more appropriate for Alder as he grows this winter. The trick will be negotiating their naps so we can come and play, since they will be on opposite nap schedules for much of the winter. But I'm confident we can do it.

Man, the brilliance of indoor parks...especially for the rainy Pacific Northwest. I think I'm in love.

Book club

Tonight I attended my first book club meeting. But this isn't any ordinary book club. This is the "I want to get pregnant" book club. :) Last spring I was invited as a special guest to the book club, since I was largely pregnant with my second child, and I was a doula. So I went, and spoke, and discovered that of the 5 regular members, I already knew 2 of them. We had a great time that night. I've run into the ladies a number of times over the summer, and I basically invited myself to join the book club cause well, I want to be pregnant again soon. And they welcomed me with open arms.

Tonight's meeting was supposed to focus on the first trimester in honor of one of the book club members who is now 9 weeks pregnant. So we talked about her first big OB appointment, her first ultrasound, prenatal testing, and all that fun stuff. The book they are reading and using as a guide is Body, Soul, and Baby: A Doctor's Guide to the Complete Pregnancy Experience, From Preconception to Postpartum by Traci Gaudet and Paula Spencer. My feelings for the book (I've only read one section so far) are mediocre. The author is obviously uninformed about midwifery (she claimed there was no certifying body for lay midwives, which completes ignores NARM and all CPMs in the US), either that or she choose to omit information so as to steer readers to choose an OB. Plus, she claims when things go wrong in birth, that it happens very quickly, and that is exactly the opposite I've heard from most midwives. Perhaps the difference is that midwives are actually THERE and paying attention to their laboring patients.... But anyway... I don't especially like the book, but I do appreciate that the authors encourage a lot of self-checking about emotions, physical feelings, etc. It encourages quite a bit more self-care than the standard OB books I've seen.

ANYWAY! The entire reason I started this post was so I could share pictures of the cakes I made for tonight. One was for this book club meeting, and the other was for the monthly potluck at my midwife's house, which was also tonight. The cakes were a huge hit at both events. :)

The larger one is a two-layer orange-scented chocolate cake with buttercream icing and filling, covered in marshmallow-almond fondant. The babies are made of the fondant as well and are 100% edible (and 100% yummy). The smaller cake is a two-layer also, with the same icing, filling, and fondant. One layer is the same orange-scented chocolate cake, and the other layer is vanilla-almond cake. Both were delicious.

Low milk supply

Life as a low milk supply mom is hard. Sometimes I wonder what I did to deserve this fate...if there was anything I could have done to make my milk supply flow freely. I can certainly say that low milk supply moms suffer. It is torturous.

It all started with my daugther. I never imagined I wouldn't have enough milk. When she was born, I'd done all the reading and was ready and excited to breastfeed. Ava appeared to have a great latch from the start too, and boy did she love to breastfeed! Unfortunately, I had some excrutiating pain problems (which will be the subject of another post). At 3 days old, Ava had lost 8 ounces. At 7 days, she was up 4 oz. At 10 days, she was up 2 more oz. At 23 days, she was only up 2 more oz. So obviously around the 1.2-3 week area, my supply was no longer able to keep up with her demand. It showed too - she was ALWAYS trying to nurse, was always crying when she wasn't nursing, had pooped a grand total of three times in her life (minus meconium), and was always rooting. I never leaked. I was never engorged. I never felt letdown. I never heard Ava swallow. So at 23 days old, after a strong talk from my very pro-breastfeeding pediatrician and lactation consultant, we started supplementing with a little bit of formula. I had intended on getting my supply up enough that we could wean off the formula, but it never happened. I tried everything - pumping ALL THE TIME, nursing ALL THE TIME (despite serious pain), herbs, teas, meditation, and a prescription drug called Domperidone. The drugs helped, but not quite enough. So Ava continued to get 4-10 oz of formula every day and gained only 1/2 oz/day at best. It hurt every time I had to give her the formula because it was something I never ever wanted to do.

Fast forward to Alder's birth. I was prepared with what I might face again. We watched carefully to see what was happening with his weight and nursing. At 3 days, he'd lost 12 oz. At 7 days, he was still down 12 oz, he still had jaundice, and he hadn't pooped yet (minus meconium). The pediatrician told us to supplement right away. I asked for a few more days to work on it. I had my Domperidone and herbs at home and started them right away. I pumped after every feeding. I woke the baby every 2-3 hours to make sure he was feeding at least 10-12 times/day. I used breast compression. Thankfully, Alder gained 1 ounce/day for the next 2 months after that. It has slowed down now, and I'm worried about it. But he's still gaining in the acceptable range. So I've managed to avoid formula so far (at almost 4 months!). Now that I'm away from Alder (at school) a few hours a day, he's taking in more expressed milk from bottles than I can pump. I'm slowly losing ground and my freezer supply is disappearing. Soon it will be gone. Thankfully, my good friend and doula has volunteered to donate her extra milk to us. I will be grateful for that gift forever. But I just wish I didn't have to worry about it at all.

A true, low milk supply is actually quite rare, though the term gets thrown around a lot. Unfortunately, many doctors and nurses are not very educated in breastfeeding and mistakenly advise moms to supplement when they don't need to. So many women think they have a low supply, but very few actually do. I've breastfed for a total of 16 months now between my two kids, and I've tried EVERYTING and seen all the experts to try and figure this out. I always keep this little glimmer of hope that it will get better. Perhaps with my next child. But so far, it appears I'm one of the unlucky few with a true low supply. And we absolutely cannot figure out why, because I don't fit the typical profile for a low supply.

In treating my low supply, I've had GREAT success with the drug Domperidone. This drug is normally prescribed for gastro-intestinal issues, but it has the side effect of increasing prolactin levels and therefore milk production. For me, it has been a wonder-drug with absolutely no side effects besides the increase in milk. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to get. The FDA has not approved its use for lactation (though the AAP has approved its use in breastfeeding mothers), and for some unknown reason, they have cracked down on physicians and pharmacies that still prescribe and distribute it. Jack Newman, perhaps the world's leading breastfeeding expert, has a few choice words for the FDA on this issue. It has been used safely and effectively around the world for decades, and has far fewer side effects than the other drug Reglan that is commonly perscribed for increasing lactation (which is also not FDA-approved for lactation, but they aren't being jerks about that drug). With my daugther Ava, our pediatrician was hesitant but did write the prescription for me, which I filled via the internet with a Canadian pharmacy. With Alder, I jumped ahead by ordering from this New Zealand company that ships from Vanuatu, thereby avoiding the need for a prescription. Plus, it is far cheaper this way.

I wish low milk supply wasn't something I had so much experience with. Like I said, I have this hope that with my next child, perhaps it won't be a problem. But if I continue to have problems, I feel well-prepared to deal with it. My heart goes out to any mom who suffers with this problem. I understand the heartache and feelings of inadequacy. It hurts.