Of course the other reason why I have been dreading this post is because by acknowledging my body is not where I want it to be means I need to consciously do something about it. The breastfeeding and running and sit-ups have not been enough so I now need to address my diet, dang it. I have more-or-less eaten whatever I wanted and thus the half muffin top remains. And I should clarify, my “eating whatever I want” is eating pretty darn healthy 80% of the time but the other 20% of the time is filled with chocolate, dessert and cheese, my vices! I have two and a half months until two weeks in a bikini so I need to suck it up and cut out the dessert.
Peggy had been gaining weight the entire season and it did cross my mind that she could be pregnant. What I never would have guessed was that she was far enough along to GO INTO LABOR without even knowing she was pregnant. I mean, seriously. How could you possibly go through an entire pregnancy without even knowing you were pregnant?
What so many wise parents had told us in the past is ABSOLUTELY TRUE, you have absolutely no idea how much you will love your child. I love spending time with Belén and Andy, I cannot get enough of it! Who would have ever thought?
it much at this point. She felt the same about the bottle until she realized there was milk in it and she was starving. Then, according to Andy, she “pounded” the milk and went through two bags of milk I had previous pumped and frozen. More on that later.
Last Thursday, my mom and I took Belén to St. Lukes Hospital for an ultrasound on her hips. Apparently there is a high percentage of first born, female, breech babies who have congenital hip problems so it is standard procedure to do an ultrasound on the hips of babies who meet this profile. Unfortunately Belén was a little hungry for the test so once I stripped her down and took off her diaper for the test, she became pretty fussy.
They had taken my catheter out Wednesday morning but then I wasn’t able to go to the bathroom on my own so they had to empty my bladder with a one-time catheter and when I still couldn’t go, they ultimately had to put the catheter back in for another 24 hours. These procedures alone made me glad that we didn’t have a full visitor calendar since I never knew when the nurses were going to need to come in and perform them. With a bladder full of over 1.2 liters of fluid (twice), they never seemed to come soon enough. Finally by Thursday, when they took the third catheter out, I was able to pee on my own. It really felt like a joyous occasion and I think I over-shared with the visitors we had. I felt like a little kid, “hey guess what, I can pee on my own now.”
My labor story for our first child.
After ten long months of pregnancy, we are having our baby today!
People at work keep asking why I am working and my response is consistently, “what else would I be doing?” I cannot imagine having at least work to fill the time. At this point, I don’t have a lot of pressing matters to deal with at work as my responsibilities have been transferred to the two people who are covering for me while I am out. It is not in my nature to pass off work to other people, so it has been hard for me to give all of my work away as it feels like I am dumping on others…but it has to be done for a smooth transition. Honestly by the end of the week, probably half of each workday has been spent talking with people who stop by my desk to discuss childbirth and get an update on how I am doing. People are really excited for me/us and it is fun to discuss their birth stories and theorize how things will be for us.
My sister, Anna, has not been overly interested in any part of the traditional wedding celebrations. It was with deep deliberation that we discussed both baby and bridal showers a few months ago. Our dilemma was that neither of us particularly like to go to showers so we felt hypocritical having showers for ourselves. My mom said that for the baby it was a must and I was actually quite excited about the baby showers as it was a great opportunity to see our close friends and family and receive some adorable baby garb. We pondered Anna’s bridal shower longer since everything about her wedding was untraditional.
One of the things that comes along with pregnancy, child birth and child rearing is unsolicited advice. Almost every person I talk to has at least one piece of sage wisdom that saved their bacon in their particular pregnancy, birth or first few weeks with new baby stories. If this week has taught me anything, it has reminded me that every person’s story is unique and unpredictable. This is really true with people’s lives in general, but the pregnancy/birthing case study is a microcosm of life.
