Ruby Jane - first few weeks

Well, so far, so good with little Ruby :) Our main concern this week was an apparent clogged tear duct that was getting worse. The poor little thing had a huge bump near her left eye that was draining and hurting her and just making her miserable. It was also really distorting part of her face so that the left eye looked considerably smaller and further away from her nose than the right one. We took her to see my doctor who suggested using warm compresses and massage from the corner of the eye toward the nose, but by the next week, it was hurting so badly that we decided on Wednesday that we were going to take her back the next day to see if the doctor could offer any more relief. That evening, I steamed up the bathroom and took her into a warm shower with me. When we got out, it didn't look any better - it wasn't draining and was getting bigger and more painful for her. She fell asleep, and a few hours later, it was completely gone! :D There was no drainage from her eye, which means the tear duct actually opened and drained through her nose like it should. There was no bump left at all! All that remained was a red spot where the skin had been stretched out over the bump, and by morning, all was completely better. Her left eye is actually a bit bigger than her right! She can open it all the way now, and we are so happy to be able to gaze into BOTH of her beautiful eyes.

We'll see what kind of adventures next week holds...

Ruby Jane King is here!

Ruby Jane arrived on Monday, July 5th, 2010 at 6:46pm. Here is her birth story:

I woke up at 8:00am with my son, as usual, and contractions were there, a little more uncomfortable than normal, but nothing too out of the ordinary. I had a feeling it was the day, though. I felt a strong contraction later that morning and my first thought was, “I’m in labor.” They started to get more uncomfortable, but not regular at all (they never did get regular, even at the end), so I called the midwife around noon and told her what was going on. I said I would eat some lunch and call her back to let her know if there was any progress. I called back at 2:15pm and told her to come over, since they were really starting to hurt.

She arrived at 3:00pm and checked me. I was dilated to 5-6cm outside and about 4cm inside, but stretched to 6cm during contractions. They helped Brandon set up the pool and everything. Around 4:30pm I told Brandon to fill up the pool, because it wouldn’t be long – the contractions were killing me. I got in the water around 5:30pm and she checked me. I was dilated to 6-7cm. The water was such a relief, though! I asked her to check me again around 6:30pm or so because I was feeling a lot of pressure and slight pushing. I was 7-8cm, but she said my cervix was so soft it would probably open with some pressure from the baby, so if I felt the urge to push to just go with it. About 5 minutes later I had a really bad contraction that pushed at the end, and I said, “Oh, she’s coming right now.” Then the pushing started and my body began to push her out – about 5-6 in a row with no time to breathe in between, but I really didn’t have much control over that – she was pushing herself out. Another few of those and her head was out. I felt it hurting in the front, so I pushed her toward the perineum a little to avoid the bad labial tear I had last time. No contractions for a few minutes, then another few pushes and she wiggled her body out at 6:46pm. I reached down to catch her and Brandon and I brought her up out of the water together. The cord was around her leg and pretty short, so I unwrapped that and laid her on my chest.

The placenta was born about 20 minutes later. We didn’t cut the cord for about 1 ½ - 2 hours. I stayed in the water for a few minutes after the placenta was born, then decided to get out and lie down in my bed, so off we went. We popped some pink champagne and made a toast. The midwife took a look at me to see if I had torn. I had one very tiny labial tear, but no stitches required and it’s not even in a place where I can feel it, so no pain at all. She nursed like a champ within about 10 minutes of being born, and nursed about three times in the first hour or so. We finally decided to cut the cord, but not to clamp it. Then she pooped and we did the newborn exam while I ate some dinner. She weighed 7 lbs. 12 oz. and was 19 ½ inches long.

She went out to the living room with daddy to see all our visitors while I nursed Leonidas to sleep. Then she and daddy came back and we all went to bed. I didn’t sleep much – just watched her a lot. Leonidas did great with her – a little jealousy once when nursing, but other than that, he was amazing with her.

As of today, she is 5 days old and doing great. She has a clogged tear duct, but nothing too serious. Leonidas has some jealousy, of course, especially when she is nursing, but today he's been really great with her and just loves her. The tandem nursing thing is going well so far - I've got the nursing-both-at-the-same-time thing down pretty well. The family bed is working well, too. We've all been getting plenty of sleep, and as of right now, are sleeping at the same time. I'll keep updating this of course...

Adventures in Childbirth - Part 2

Still no baby...still waiting...

Progress is being made, I suppose. Dilation, as of Monday, was 2cm. That's something, right?

So it looks like I may be making it to my due date after all - whichever date that may be, the 4th, 5th, or 6th. Maybe longer. Who knows? I'm still having contractions, and they're there all day long. Sometimes I'll go for hours with regular contractions 5 minutes apart. Then they'll stop or at least slow down for the next few hours. Maybe I'll be lucky and just labor like this all week long instead of super-painful, quick laboring all in one day! That would be ok. That would be well worth it, I suppose.

In the meantime, we are ready for her. I was in a crafty mood again today, so I hit up Jo-Ann for some elastic ruffles and fabric flowers for making headbands. Haven't made them yet, but I bought the stuff. One step at a time! Maybe it will give me something to do while I'm in labor...

We have our birthing pool, brought out of storage. We have the pump to blow it up. Unfortunately, we're not quite sure how we're going to fill it...last time we used a hose with a connector that attached to our faucet. This time, we don't have the connector, and our faucet is weird so it wouldn't work anyway. I guess we'll have to do buckets. Lots and lots of buckets.

Aside from that little hiccup I think we're all set. We've got our birth kit ready with all our supplies. We've got plenty of clothes for her. I got an extra waterproof wool pad for our bed (half-price remnant at Jo-Ann - score!). Now all we need is Ruby!

Adventures in Childbirth

With Leonidas, it was pretty simple. I went to my appointments, found out I wasn't dilated, not really having many contractions, went home and waited. Then suddenly one day, my water broke, I started having contractions, they got stronger, and I had a baby.

Ruby Jane...why can't you be like your brother? I've stopped jumping on the "I think I'm going into labor" wagon and just started dealing with the fact that I'm going to continue to have contractions for the rest of my life with no baby to show for it. She's never coming out. I go to my appointments. I find out I'm very slowly dilating (about 1 cm as of yesterday). I'm having semi-regular contractions that are sometimes painful, sometimes close together, and never leading to anything significant except a backache. When's the baby coming? No idea. Could be tonight. Could be four weeks from now. Who knows? I'm pretty sure that when she does finally decide to show up, I won't believe it until I see her head popping out. Then she'll look at me, as if to say, "Mommy, why weren't you ready for me?" To which I will reply, "Let me tell you a little story about a boy who cried, 'wolf'..."

Leonidas Update - 12 months

Ok, so it's been a lonnng time since the last update. Let's see...

Walking! Leonidas took his first two steps at 7 months...then would only take one or two steps at a time for two months after that, lol. He officially started walking at nine months - by which I mean, he took seven steps one day and has been running ever since!

Throwing and kicking a ball: He's been doing this since about 10 months. Such an athlete!

Teeth: He now has 10 teeth. Yes, he's still nursing. No, it doesn't hurt.

Speaking of nursing: We're still going strong. He's still nursing on demand, which is several times a day (I don't count). He just snacks all day - a few minutes here and there - and only has "meals" at naps and bed time. I wonder how he'll react to me nursing the new baby...

Baby-Led-Weaning: We have been doing BLW since about five months. I absolutely love it and will never do purees or cereals after this experience. He eats everything. It's been so nice not to have to spoon feed him or deal with solid-food-introduction bowel problems. He can join the family at meals and we all get to eat together, which is priceless. Of course, saving money on baby food is also a plus. Now if only restaurants would have something other than pizza, macaroni and cheese, and chicken nuggets on their kids menus...it's really nice that he will eat healthy meals like steamed vegetables and seafood, but it sucks to have to spend $15 on a meal for my one-year-old, even if I do have leftovers.

Baby's First Piercing: Leonidas got his ears pierced last weekend! He was so brave and only cried for a few minutes (thanks to mommy, the human pacifier). We've decided to make it a tradition to get all our children's ears pierced when they reach the one-year mark - their first "coming of age" ceremony, so to speak. I know that even more people will think he's a girl now, but we did our best to make them look manly - he put in 16-gage labret studs facing backwards so the flat disk is on the front, which is a bit more masculine in my opinion. He wears them quite well, actually :)

Talking: We've had a bit of a language explosion lately. He now knows how to say about 40 words consistently and learns more every day. He favorites are "flower" (followed by "mmm" and leaning forward to smell the flower - or plant, tree, grass, as the case may be), "book" (his favorite past-time), "bird" (a new fascination), and "banana" ( I usually have to spell this in front of him, otherwise he will be terribly upset if he can't have one).

I'm sure there are more, but it's late and I'm tired, so here's where it ends for now. :)

EC Update - 12 months

A year has gone by, and we are still EC survivors :) Leonidas has had his share of potty strikes, but right now, we're in a pretty good spot (knock on wood). He's talking more now, and so he can tell us when he needs to go (when he feels like it). I was so proud of him today. This afternoon, he came inside and said "ba ba" (which is Leo-speak for "pee pee") and took out his little potty seat and tried to set it up on the floor, lol. I took him to the potty and he went :) Then, this evening, while sitting in his high chair, he pointed to the bathroom and said "bope" (aka "poop"), and did just that when I took him in there! I think this cancels out the peeing-on-the-floor incident from this morning :/ I've only really been home one day since I've stopped working, so I'm not quite sure how the day usually goes, but I'm guess we have about 2-5 misses per day on average. Since he probably pees at least a dozen times a day, I guess that's not bad for a one-year-old! Sometimes he tries to tell me that he has to go and I don't realize it until after the fact, but mommy's learning, too. The great thing is we're communicating, and most of the time I just "know" when he has to go (even though I ignore the feeling at times, not being sure of myself). I feel so close to him, being able to know what his needs are and meeting those needs. More than anything, I think that's the point. Pee on the floor once in a while is not a big deal, but feeling this close to your child is unparalleled.

Yes, I'm still here...

I don't think I've written anything here in months. I'm not dead. Really. I'm just busy - too busy living life to write much about it I suppose :) Anyway, where were we...

Leonidas is now a year old! That went by so quickly. I'm not sad about it. I'm loving every moment of it. I love where he's at and I'm looking forward to where he's going. He's grown so much and is so smart. I'm so proud of him!

I'm graduating in one week! There's really not much else to say about that except: Whew!

I guess I'm a stay-at-home-mom now for a while. I love it! Don't get me wrong; I liked my work and I think I do a pretty good job at what I do, but I love being able to be home with my hubby and my baby :D

So our little Ruby Jane is on the way in a little over two months. If her in-utero activity is any indication of what she'll be like on the outside, I'd better start working out now! She's going crazy in there, and I'm so huge, I often wonder how I'll ever make it to nine months.

Ok, so I guess that counts as an update, in a nutshell. Let's see if I can keep this up from now on...