The postpartum mom

As I am nearing my 6 week postpartum check-up, I would like to write about what postpartum life is like. First of all, if you have recently given birth to your child (doesn't matter if it was vaginal birth or c-section) give yourself a pat on your back. You did it! Welcome to being a mommy! Whether this is your first child or you just added to your brood, becoming a mom (or a mom again) is such a beautiful thing. Hopefully you have had some time to rest and recover and things are starting to normalize for you. If you have not had your baby yet (and you're feeling like this pregnancy is bound to last forever) let's see what you can expect after you deliver your baby.

Baby Monkey's birth story.

   I am happy to write my birth story here in little spare time that I have now. For the last few weeks I was getting really anxious about Baby Monkey not arriving early. For some reason I was really convinced that he was going to be an early baby. And I had lots of Braxton Hicks daily to convince me that maybe I was right. But then this horrible sickness invaded our family and we all got very sick. It started with Girly Monkey and then Little Monkey got it, and then Daddy got super sick and finally me and Funky Monkey got it too. It was a really nasty bug that made all of us miserable. Most of us would have coughing fits that would lead to throwing up. I am suspecting that what we really went through wasn't a case of flu but a case of whooping cough, at least the symptoms fit the diagnosis.

Sunday Snapshots - Welcome Baby Monkey!!!

   Guess what happened Friday? Friday, the 29th, Baby Monkey's Due Date! At 7:28 am, after 24 hours of labor (5.5 hours of active labor) Baby Monkey was born. He was 8 lbs 13.5 oz, and over 21 inches long. His labor was a hard one, and just like my other monkeys he was stuck in his shoulders so I am pretty bruised up. But we had a wonderful home birth and both Baby Monkey and I are doing very well. We are all so in love with him! Here are some pictures for your enjoyment.

Well hello there Baby Monkey

Meeting his siblings

Daddy and Baby sleepy

Meeting Big Brother

Meeting Big Sister

Meeting Little-Big Brother

Rest time

Meeting Grandma

Grandma and 2 Monkeys

Bath time

First bath

Not liking bath at all

More first bath

Proud Daddy

Breaking into Advent Calendar

Meeting Great Grandma

Girly is on the mends, and I am all worried.

   So yesterday we finally got the prescription filled for Girly Monkey. She is on day 2 of the antibiotic and I am hoping that tonight I can get more sleep. I am not even wanting more sleep, I would just like to enter REM sleep once. She has been waking me up every night with coughing fits so I never even get to the REM sleep. It torturous! She has a coughing fit and if I don't go over to her room and pat her back and make her drink some water she coughs herself into throwing up. But now that she is on medication I am hoping she gets better. I hate seeing her be so sick. She has lost about 6 pounds (or 15% of her body weight). She is very pale too, and has no color about her. It's not very fun seeing you child be sick. But she is coughing less today, and she is eating more too. So maybe, just maybe she is on the mend today.
   So if Girly Monkey is looking like she is getting better then why am I worried? Last night I had a lot of pressure in my pelvis and I am worried that our baby boy will be eager to come before I am ready for him. There is still so many things to be done. I did a second load of baby clothes today and did a quick inventory. I think that we have most of the things that we will need. I am slowly collecting all the items on my Homebirth list and I will have to start putting it in a large storage container so that it's all easily accessible when I go in labor. I would also like to try out the water birthing pool soon to make sure that it's holding up fine from last time. I am not even sure if I will use it this time. From the amount of contractions I have been having I might be walking being 5cm dilated already. The last 2 times my water broke before real labor started, so it might be the same this time around.
   I am just worried that I will not get it all done before Monkey In-Waiting arrives. I had visions of being all disorganized and drowning in things needed for the birth but not being able to find anything. Pregnancy gives you the strangest thoughts. Dreams are not any better when I do have them. They all start off normal but usually end up creepy and scary. Kind of like in that episode of Fraser when Niles and Daphne have dreams about baby and pregnancy. I do not read anything into them except that they are an image of my worries and needs that manifest themselves more in pregnancy (since we have more worries in pregnancy). I am just crossing my legs and not letting Monkey In-Waiting arrive before the weekend is over since I need the weekend to finish everything up. Nope, he is not arriving before the 11th. Crossing legs better work!

End of a chapter melancholy.

   As I am nearing my 33rd week of pregnancy I am getting a bit sentimental. For few weeks I thought that it was the influx of pregnancy hormones that enter pregnant-woman's brain in the last trimester, but then I realized that it's something profoundly different. I have been pregnant 4 times (not including the molar pregnancy); that means four times morning sickness, four times getting my ultrasound, for times entering my third trimester, and this is going to be fourth time I go through labor and delivery. It also means 7 ultrasounds, over 20 blood tests, five Glucloa drinks ingested to test for Diabetes testing, four B-strep swabs, 40 uterus measurements, 45 times hearing baby's heartbeat, over 60 prenatal visits, and 36 months spent being pregnant. The result of all of this will be four beautiful kids that I helped to bring into this world.

   After four times being pregnant I think that I finally figured things out. I know what to expect of my pregnant body. Unfortunately, I learned all this just in time to quit having more kids. It seems a little insane to me that when I finally understand all the intricacies of being pregnant it's time to stop. It's similar to driving blindly three times and finally finding a map at the end of fourth trip just in time to never drive again. And since this map is specific to just only my trips I can't even share it with anyone else, at least not in it's entirety.

I would much rather be teaching art now than making a birth plan!

   I am 32 weeks pregnant today! At my last midwife's visit I was asked about my Birth Plan. Well, since I have been through this routine 3 times before I never thought that I needed it. Since none of my previous births went as I envisioned I would rather just "wing it". With Funky Monkey, I had envisioned a peaceful birth, surrounded by people I love, in a privacy of my own hospital room, with the whole thing lasting no more than few hours from start to finish. Well, was I wrong. The labor lasted over 30 hours, I spent 2.5 hours pushing, ended up with whole bunch of interventions, and there were more people looking at my nether regions than I care to discuss (they must have had about 15 different students coming and going, and all of them wanted to see how everything was with me).