Learning to live simply, joyfully, missionally.: Notes on Ian, life, and labor

Here are some random notes and updates about our life now with 3 kidlets:

-Ian is our most smiley baby yet. He began smiling at us, what I really and truly believe was intentionally, at 3 weeks. Now at 7 weeks he smiles and "laughs" all the time. He is like Micaiah as a newborn in that he is almost interactive and engaging with others with his eyes and sounds.

-He had the feeding tube at home for less than a week. I love how super supportive and "you're the parent, you do what you feel is best" our pediatrician is. The special cleft palate bottles the hospital gave us needed to have the nipples replaced every 3 weeks. It took me 6 weeks to read the directions and learn this. I had just noticed that it was taking him longer and longer to eat. Upwards of 45 minutes to take 3 oz where that used to take him 15 min. His ped gave me the freedom to try a different bottle (I had left the hospital with the impression that the Pigeon bottle was the only one I could ever use with him without dire consequences). So after spending a very small fortune, we have settled on a Playtex bottle which he takes very well in a normal amount of time and we should be able to use them until he weans.

-Speaking of feeding, I have tried multiple times to get him to latch on and nurse, but he just can't quite get the suction since breast tissue is considerably softer than a bottle. So I continue to pump and feed him breastmilk in the bottle. My initial goal was 6 weeks. His ped encouraged me to at least go to 13 weeks since "they" say that that's by when baby gets most of the antibodies. I used to dread it, but it has just become a part of my life now, so I continue on. When I do think of stopping, the only thing I can think of is "Is he worth it?" and of course the answer is yes.

-It took him 4 weeks to gain back his birthweight plus a little more. Since then he has been gaining steadily, and he is over 10 pounds as of last week.

-Having 3 kids has been a bit of a struggle for me. I pretty much have only managed the basics of kids who are clean, fed, and (mostly) happy and a house that is only macro cleaned so far. I was telling Scott last night how unproductive I feel in life and I'm tired of feeling so behind. He, wonderful man that he is, reminded me that I'm not behind on the 4 most important "tasks" of mine, so I'm doing all right since that's all that really matters anyway. I'll get back to dusting my home again one day.

-Ian has major gas issues. Dr Yu, the plastic surgeon who will perform his cleft repair, warned us that Ian would probably take in more air than an average baby, and that has proven to be true. We have to burp him about 2 times per ounce during a feeding, and give him gas drops after every feed. Even still he will burp a lot afterwards and still has some gas. Poor baby. At least it doesn't cramp his style unless it wakes him up from sleep.

-From about 5 weeks on, Ian decided he wanted nothing to do with a paci and gets very offended should anyone try to give him one. :)

-He has been swaddled for every nap and nighttime since he was born (save for times he's asleep in the carseat or moby or whatnot). His little arms and legs flail so much I can't imagine him staying asleep not swaddled. I love how Tracy Hogg, The Baby Whisperer, puts it. She says that as far as a newborn is concerned, their arms and legs are part of their environment. The flailing has a tendancy to stimulate them, which when you have a baby sensitive to stimulation like we do, wrecks havoc on a good nap! We use the miracle blanket.

-We have a lovely vine growing on the fence by our driveway, and until recently I had no idea what it was. Warmer weather brought out the honeysuckle blossoms! I was pleasantly surprised!

-Scott is still working at the Y. He's been there over 2 years now, and although we sound like a broken record to anyone who asks, it still feels temporary. We pray daily about where the Lord would have us go from here. Enough said.

-I'm looking forward to our vacations this summer. I can't wait to get out of Augusta and see someone else's 4 walls for a bit.

-Micaiah and Caeden are all work machines all the time lately. They turn other toys into work machines, and they create their own work machines. I wouldn't mind having a few more around here because we have quite a bit of scuffles over who gets what machine when.

-A little bit (okay, a lot a bit!) about Ian's labor, for anyone who cares and hasn't yet heard. The other two boys came before their due dates, so I foolishly expected that this time. Foolish. Never will I expect that again. My midwife left to go out of town after my 38 week appointment, so I knew she would not be able to be at the birth. I had come to terms with that. I was increasingly frustrated every morning I woke up that 40th week still pregnant. I had a whole lot of false labor too.

The doctor I saw for my 40 week appointment required me to set up an induction for the day I was 41 weeks (actually she didn't even trust me to do it, she set it up for me!) I didn't show up for it. The next day (41 weeks and 1 day) I needed to get in to the office for an appointment for the week. They had told me if I didn't show for the induction (at least the realized they couldn't force me to go!) then I needed to be seen on Monday, the day after. It took me all morning to try to get something for that day. No one there seemed to feel my same sense of urgency. After texting back and forth with my midwife, who was still out of town, she pulled some strings for me and I went in that afternoon.

I had had my membranes stripped with Caeden and went into labor the next day, so I let the doctor I saw do that this time. I'd rather that over a pitocin induction (which I had with Micaiah) any day of the week. I went home, went on a walk, and then helped my mom fix eggplant parmesan for dinner. I had heard the old wives tale about that sending women into labor, but I hadn't heard of Scalini's before a friend told me about it that morning. We decided to fix this recipe. It certainly couldn't hurt. We ate dinner late around 7 that night. It was storming that night and Micaiah was having a hard time sleeping with the thunder, so I laid in bed with him chatting and telling stories until it passed. Sometime during the 30 min I was in his room contractions began. I don't know if it was the stripping, the walk, the egglant, or a wicked combination of all 3.

By the time I came out I knew I wounldn't end the night without a baby. All 3 of my labors have started with contractions already 2-5 minutes apart. I woke up Scott (who had been up since 3:30 that morning for work, and had only been asleep for the night for about 10 minutes at this point), he took a quick shower, called his parents, and loaded up the car. He was trying to push me out the door since it was already getting kind of intense. Since my labor with Caeden was on the quicker side of things and we knew with your 3rd baby it can possibly go even quicker, he didn't want me hanging around home too long and end up delievering in the car. However I was terrified of going to the hospital too early and wanted to wait, in the words of my midwife, until I felt pushy. I told Scott I didn't want to leave until 10:30.

It's about a 15 minute drive to the hospital of which I spent in the backseat on my hands and knees. By the time we got there, walked from the parking deck to the ER (about a 15 minute ordeal in itself since I had to stop walking to stand still during contractions), checked in, took the agonizingly long wheelchair ride to the L&D floor, and got the the triage room, I was already 8.5 cm. It began to be somewhat of a blur from there. I remember not being able to pee in a cup like they wanted me to and having a hard time answering their questions. I remember one nurse saying "yeah, she's not going to be in here very long."

They moved me to a L&D room where people started flooding in getting things ready. I already was feeling pushy, but they wouldn't let me do anything yet. I thought "they can't stop me", and just let my body do what it wanted to. While they were trying to get my IV lock in, Scott passed out and hit his head. I was so in the zone that I didn't realize what had happened right away. Thankfully I didn't have back labor this time like I did with Caeden, so I wasn't needing Scott to massage. I just wanted to stand still or sway. He quickly came to, but they wheeled him out of the room to the ER since he hit his head and Ian was born 12 minutes later. I hate that he missed it, but out of all 3 labors, this was the best one for him to miss since it was so fast and I didn't "need" him quite as I had in the others.

Since my labor with Caeden was unmedicated I knew what to expect, and though it was a wonderful experience and I willingly wanted to repeat it, it caused me to have a good bit of fear about this labor. I prayed and worked through it though feeling mostly confident in God's ability to sustain me. And sustain He did; it was another wonderful experience.

A few pictures...

This is my shining face at 40 weeks pregnant. I had meant to take a picture at 41 weeks just to document the misery (that's how I felt at the time, anyway. In retrospect it wasn't all *that* bad. My attitude then was significantly less than stellar though.)