Month One (and a week and a few days)

Claire, this is for you.

My goal is to try and document all of your milestones every month. Unfortunately I'm a bit behind the first month and being that my mind is mush I'm going to make this more of a bullet-point type list.

I've never held or been around a newborn before, so one of the really cool things to watch develop are your eyes. During your first week one eye would go left, the other would take a sharp turn to the up-right. I've never seen eyes do that before and the nurse told us this was due to lack of motor skills. After the initial 1.5 weeks, you worked your eyes out to where they would go in the same direction. YAY! Although one eye still looks a little wall-eyed, but we're thinking that because you still have some eye skills left to develop.

One activity that is highly recommended is tummy time since it is forbidden for babies to sleep on their belly. "They" believe that contributes to SIDS. I'm not really sure that it does, but "they" had beaten the thought enough into my being that I am truly paranoid about allowing you to sleep that way. So, tummy time is recommended to help strengthen your neck and shoulder muscles. And guess what... you do NOT like tummy time at all. I've never seen a baby get so frustrated. It's as if you know what needs to be done and because you can't do it perfectly you just start fussing and crying and getting frustrated beyond belief. Now, when you're lying/sleeping on our chest your a bit calmer and will hold that neck up time and time again. Needless to say, we've learn to enjoy our "chest" time because it's the only way we're going to get you to exercise your muscles.

During the last two weeks leading up to your one month of life, you've refused to sleep during the day, which doesn't allow mamma to get her nap time in, which in turn leaves mamma in a fragile state leading to an emotional breakdown based on sheer exhaustion. And I know that are only one month old, but I totally believe that you know -- on some cosmic level -- that when I desire a nap. This is because as soon as my head hits the pillow and I start to fall into a nice, peaceful sleep I start to hear *WHHIIIINNNNEEEE* *CHOKE* *SHRILL CRY OF BLOODY MURDER*. Ummm.. didn't I just put you down 5 minutes ago and weren't you zonked out cold? So I retrieve you from your crib of burden only to have you fall asleep on me, making my sleep next to impossible. *grumble* *grumble*. Thanks Claire. I love you too.

Ah yes, and your cry. Dadda and I have tried hard to keep your cries to a minimum because the completely-ramped-and-ready-to-shatter-glass cry is the funniest yet most disturbing cry ever. You could seriously be the voice for our home alarm. You sound like Yoko Ono singing on the Imagine album. Yet much louder and much more shrill. It amazes me that your lungs and voice box can produce such a sound. Especially when compared to all of the cooing and gurgling noises you make throughout the day. Claire, you are a talker. You talk while being fed, you talk in your sleep, you talk to just talk. I couldn't imagine where you got that from. Dad is going to have his ears full when you start speaking words. Between you and me he won't get a break from the bambling.

On the downside, we discovered you get gassy very easily. We've had quite a few nights where you couldn't get to sleep. Mylicon and Colic tablets have become our best friends. It would help if you burped when we try to get you to burp, but there are times where you are stubborn and refuse to let it out. I guess you enjoy holding it in because you know that will keep us up with you and we can stay up all night as a family. Oh the joys of no sleep. Because it makes for a cranky mamma, dadda and baby. Ollie, on the other hand, goes and hides. He's fortunate that way.

Happy one month baby-girl. I'll try and be on time for your next update.

The Conversation We Had Within Minutes of Claire's Birth

XKCD captured it perfectly:

Labor Continued

OK. It's been a week since my last post. Figured I'd catch you guys up on what happened.

Ollie: he ended up with a sprained toe. I know. It's insane, but yes. He sprained his toe and was given medication to deal with the pain. How ridiculous is that?? Seriously.

So we headed to the vets office that is closest to us, only to find out that all electricity has been cut in that plaza. I immediately let the techs know I was in labor (yes, it was official) and suddenly every set of eyes bulged out of their sockets. A call was quickly placed to the vets second location letting them know our situation and that we were on our way over. I don't believe I've ever received such fast service at any doctors/vets before. It was AWESOME.

Ten minutes later we're at vet location #2 where we waited maybe 30 seconds before being sent to a room. Ollie was poked and prodded, brought into the back and x-rayed. Twenty minutes later, the vet took us to look at his x-rays and we saw exactly what was predicted -- a sprained toe. Nothing too serious, but enough to cause him to limp. So a prescription was written for some pain killers and away to home we went. He's doing MUCH better now and you would never have known that he was hurt.

Regarding labor: when I last posted I wasn't sure if I was in labor or not. Well, I called my doula that morning and she was 99% certain that I was in the early stages of labor. How exciting! Both the man and I were thinking way to optimistically -- Claire could be born today. Perhaps in a few hours! Oh, what noobs we are.. what noobs.

As the day wore on, my back pains only worsened. Casey kept asking if I wanted to head to the hospital and I kept putting it off. I think boredom got the better of both of us and so by 3pm I gave in thinking that the pains were the worse they were going to get. With packed bags, we get into the car and hope for the best.

Did I mentioned what noobs we were at this? Once in triage, they had me hooked up to the baby monitor for over an hour before coming back and saying that I hadn't progressed much (still 2cm dilated -- same as what was stated the previous day at my doctors appt). We were sent home.

In the interim, my doula had met us at the hospital. She gave me some good ideas about what I could do to try and turn this baby around so that she wasn't giving me the back labor pains. Apparently, these comes from the fact that the baby is "sunny-side up" in the womb, meaning her spine was hitting mine. YIKES!! Just the thought of it sounds painful right? Not nearly as painful as the actual experience. Anyway, once we got home Casey made a weird concoction of pillows for me so that I could lie on my stomach -- so to speak -- in hopes that gravity would give her room and allow her to shift.

3 hours later, no shifting and the back pain only intensified. Damn!

Now I was getting desperate. Poor Casey didn't know what to do for me and I just wanted to sleep. I ended up calling my doula at 10p to see if she could come over and help me labor.

The next 5 hours were spent mainly in my bedroom as I writhed in pain. My doula pulled some awesome doula magic to help try and minimize the pain I was feeling. Considering she had the same kind of labor with her last child, she knew exactly what I was going through. There was counter pressure applied during the contractions, I tried several hot baths, continued to hang out on all fours for gravity's sake. Of course, baby girl was a stubborn one and refused to shift. Wow! We know she's definitely got the trait from both me and Casey. Excellent.

As a side note, I shouting out my sincere thanks to my doula. Without her, I think the whole experience would have been a lot harder. She was an absolute life saver. Even Mr. Skeptic turned his opinion around seeing how much she helped during the L&D process. So, once again THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!!

Right, back to the story. It was now 2:30am Thursday morning. A consensus was made to head back to the hospital ... again. But before leaving, I was told to try and eat something considering I hadn't eaten for about 13 hours and wouldn't see food again until after delivery. Try as I might, the idea of food made me sick to my stomach. I managed to squirrel down a few microscopic bites of a bran muffin then another contraction got the better of me. It was hopeless, so we piled into our respective cars and headed back to the hospital.

Did I mention how much fun it was to labor in a car? No?? Well, it's a dream, let me tell you. Especially when you hit those potholes. YOWZERS!! That's when the pain shoots up into your eye sockets and you wish you would just black out.

Hello hospital. We're back! After getting wheeled back up into into triage, I was told that I would be staying. I was now 6cm dilated and fully effaced. I was also severely dehydrated and had to be hooked up to an IV drip. The nurses had asked me whether I wanted an epidural and I was about to accept the offer, but decided to hold off a little while longer. Okie-dokie... so now we were off to the delivery room.

Unfortunately, I ended up laboring for another 4-5 hours and being that my body was hydrated again, the contractions were getting further apart. What were once 3-4 minutes were now 7-9 minutes and lasting for about 2 minutes each. This sucked!!

Once my OB arrived she said that she was going to have to break my bag of waters. She also said that once this happened the pain that I was feeling would only get worse. Was I sure I didn't want an epidural. Hmmm.. ok. It's been 31.5 hours of labor. I've had maybe 2 hours of sleep. AND I feel like my spine is about to disintegrate. I look at my OB with tears in my eyes, "Give me the epidural. Please!" Casey wanted to be sure that I wouldn't regret the decision, and I wanted to be sure that he wasn't disappointed. Seeing that we were both fine the situation, the anaesthesiologist comes in to work his magic.

This was the least painful shot I've ever had!

Ahhh.. sweet paralyzation! And now, for another 2 hours of sleep.

When I awoke it was maybe another hour before I started to feel some slight pressure in my nether regions letting me know that baby wanted out. My OB checks on the situation and sure enough baby girl is at +3 station. LET'S PUSH!!!

Again, another surreal experience. Trying to push in an area that is completely numb is quite a challenge. I had to visualize my Kegel exercises in hopes that I hit the target. Feedback from the nurses, Casey and my doula encouraged me that my visualization was working. Yes!!

1 hour and 20 minutes later Claire came into our lives. *massive tears of joy*