Today is my birthday, and one thing I realize as the years go by is that the actual celebratory date of my birthday is less and less of a factor every year.
I think in high school is when people, friends/family, started playing down the day. My parents never treated their days as "special," and very few of my friends really had big birthday bashes (though when they did, it was a lot of fun!). I want to have that.
I've always loved birthdays, and it's not that people don't love me, it's just that very few people know the art of throwing a wonderful birthday party. It's also not about the size of the gift. I was thinking about this, and you know what? It really is true that ONE THING that is heartfelt and has meaning is so much better to me than the most random gift, even if it's like, some new, fun technical gadget that everybody is talking about, or an expensive, all inclusive cruise package to the Caribbean (though, that would be very thoughtful and original).
Well, anyway - I woke up early this morning, read my Bible and had my quiet time, did a load of laundry, washed the dishes, emptied the trash, took a shower...and my baby and husband are still sleeping. lol. Well, it's nice to have time to myself too! Happy birthday to me!
Love languages. I think that as far as receiving, I am an acts of service type of gal. When someone does something for me or puts himself/herself out there for me, it makes me feel very special and warm and gooey inside. Quality time is a close second. I love people and spending time with friends and family is A1 to me! As far as what I give to show love, I think I am more of a gifts kind of girl, as well as acts of service. I just want somebody to know that I am thinking about him/her, and that he/she is special to me!
Well, right now I am spending a lot of quality time with Jr., the little man in my belly. He is tossing and turning and making himself known night and day. I love my little boy, and am very excited to meet him this December.
My little girl's birthday is this Sunday. It's hard to believe that on the 11th of August last year, I was at work having Braxton Hicks contractions and feeling awful. I knew that would be my last day of work before the baby was born. I was due to have her on the 21st, but I knew she would be coming early. The 11th was a Wednesday last year, and that Thursday and Friday I felt horrible. I had a doctor's appointment, and I was already 4cm dilated, so I thought for sure when I was at the doc's that she was going to tell me to go to the hospital. No such luck. She had said, however, that she felt I would have the baby that weekend.
Sure enough, Friday the 13th of last August around 2100 I started having my regular 90 second contractions every 5 minutes. Brian had requested off work that day to take care of me, as I was really in a sad state Thursday and Friday (nothing how I pictured a woman in labor to be like. It's always portrayed as a surprise and an "ahh! My water just broke!" type of thing). We has just watched the movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," and I felt that searing pain from the front of my abdomen to my back. Well, not to mention I lost my mucus plug. It wasn't like a flood of water, or even like I peed my pants - it was a lightly bloody mucus discharge I noticed when I went to the bathroom.
So I called the doc office, and they said "OK, some to the hospital." We drive to the hospital with our bags, because we were almost certain that I would be admitted. Surely enough in triage they said "OK, you're going to have baby!" This was the happiest thing anybody could have told me, because I felt more than ready to go....
So they do all that they do in the hospital for a normal birth - they hooked me up to IV fluids and took my vital signs. Then we walked. We walked the halls for a long, long time. The labor and delivery unit was surprisingly barren for being the middle of August (the most popular birth month). There were MAYBE two other women on the unit? I walked for hours, and that didn't really help me. I was still only dilated 4cm, and the pain was kicking it up a notch. I was trying to hold out on the pain medicine, not because I wanted to "be strong" or have a baby like they did before the times of modern medicine, but because I only wanted them to stick a needle in my spine (epidural) as a last resort. I know epidurals are pretty routine in a hospital birth, but that doesn't mean there aren't women who have suffered nerve damage or paralysis from such a stick. Why risk your spine?
So I took the Nubain (like fentanyl), which helped for a bit, but when those contractions came back, man, they came back with fury. I was shaking uncontrollably for a long time, and was NOT dilating. I felt like I couldn't control anything. Brian was freaking out (quietly, but the look of horror was evident on his face). I figured I ought to take the epidural. It had been hours at this point, of shaking an shaking and I was not dilating - and in the recesses of my mind I had a bit of lucidity and figured that if I didn't find some way to relax, I would never dilate enough to get this baby out. Reluctantly but confidently, I asked for the epidural. Obviously I did not suffer any adverse consequences or the stick or the Ropivacaine (the nerve block used in the epidural), but even that they had to let wear off by the time it came time to push.
Oh yes, make no mistake about that one. By the time push came to shove (well, actually an hour or so before) they stopped the Ropivacaine so that I could be full alert to push - and I felt EVERYTHING.
Ouch is an understatement, but should be noted....
And she felt like she'd never come. I was one of those idiots who asked for a mirror to watch her come out, and it was torture - for every good push I had, I'd see her head come out more and more, only to be sucked back in with every "relaxation." Again, I felt as if she would never come and stay in there forever.
Well, forever only took 45 minutes and then she was a slimy blob of goo in my arms! I couldn't quite conprehend that she was "mine," but accepted it none the less with great happiness. I didn't even feel the afterbirth come out. I did tear, however (I didn't feel it when it happened), but I did feel the doctor stitching me back up. However, after pushing a human out of a hole that small on my body, do you think I cared about being stitched up?
Brian made it out OK too. I only slightly raised my voice to him one time when he kept repeatedly rubbing the same spot on my thigh as I was pushing. I must have said something like "Will you PLEASE stop that??" because he was like, "Oh, sorry...Sorry, sweety!" To this day he tells me every time he rubs my thigh that he thinks of that morning in the delivery room when I snapped at him...
:)
You don't forget it immediately you know. My mother said to me a long time ago, "you know what Michelle? Right after you have that baby, all the pain goes away, everything goes away and you are ready to do it again."
Really mother? It took me WEEKS before I could even BEGIN to fathom having a baby. They don't talk about AFTER birth. I was sore down there for weeks. You also bleed down there for days afterwards (which is expected and necessary for cleaning out the uterus). Because of being stitched up (for tearing), I was tender there and wiping after pottying hurt. I had to have a sitz bath after every time I had a BM (sorry if that's TMI, but it's the truth). Also not to mention the fact that your belly feels like play dough until it all goes down over time. I hadn't had my pre pregnancy belly back for a few weeks before I found out I was pregnant with number two!
So we get to do this all again in December. It's all worth it though. All of it. I have the cutest, best and sweetest little girl on the planet (albeit curious, fast and smart).
Here's to an uneventful pregnancy and birth! May it continue to be uneventful!
I think in high school is when people, friends/family, started playing down the day. My parents never treated their days as "special," and very few of my friends really had big birthday bashes (though when they did, it was a lot of fun!). I want to have that.
I've always loved birthdays, and it's not that people don't love me, it's just that very few people know the art of throwing a wonderful birthday party. It's also not about the size of the gift. I was thinking about this, and you know what? It really is true that ONE THING that is heartfelt and has meaning is so much better to me than the most random gift, even if it's like, some new, fun technical gadget that everybody is talking about, or an expensive, all inclusive cruise package to the Caribbean (though, that would be very thoughtful and original).
Well, anyway - I woke up early this morning, read my Bible and had my quiet time, did a load of laundry, washed the dishes, emptied the trash, took a shower...and my baby and husband are still sleeping. lol. Well, it's nice to have time to myself too! Happy birthday to me!
Love languages. I think that as far as receiving, I am an acts of service type of gal. When someone does something for me or puts himself/herself out there for me, it makes me feel very special and warm and gooey inside. Quality time is a close second. I love people and spending time with friends and family is A1 to me! As far as what I give to show love, I think I am more of a gifts kind of girl, as well as acts of service. I just want somebody to know that I am thinking about him/her, and that he/she is special to me!
Well, right now I am spending a lot of quality time with Jr., the little man in my belly. He is tossing and turning and making himself known night and day. I love my little boy, and am very excited to meet him this December.
My little girl's birthday is this Sunday. It's hard to believe that on the 11th of August last year, I was at work having Braxton Hicks contractions and feeling awful. I knew that would be my last day of work before the baby was born. I was due to have her on the 21st, but I knew she would be coming early. The 11th was a Wednesday last year, and that Thursday and Friday I felt horrible. I had a doctor's appointment, and I was already 4cm dilated, so I thought for sure when I was at the doc's that she was going to tell me to go to the hospital. No such luck. She had said, however, that she felt I would have the baby that weekend.
Sure enough, Friday the 13th of last August around 2100 I started having my regular 90 second contractions every 5 minutes. Brian had requested off work that day to take care of me, as I was really in a sad state Thursday and Friday (nothing how I pictured a woman in labor to be like. It's always portrayed as a surprise and an "ahh! My water just broke!" type of thing). We has just watched the movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," and I felt that searing pain from the front of my abdomen to my back. Well, not to mention I lost my mucus plug. It wasn't like a flood of water, or even like I peed my pants - it was a lightly bloody mucus discharge I noticed when I went to the bathroom.
So I called the doc office, and they said "OK, some to the hospital." We drive to the hospital with our bags, because we were almost certain that I would be admitted. Surely enough in triage they said "OK, you're going to have baby!" This was the happiest thing anybody could have told me, because I felt more than ready to go....
So they do all that they do in the hospital for a normal birth - they hooked me up to IV fluids and took my vital signs. Then we walked. We walked the halls for a long, long time. The labor and delivery unit was surprisingly barren for being the middle of August (the most popular birth month). There were MAYBE two other women on the unit? I walked for hours, and that didn't really help me. I was still only dilated 4cm, and the pain was kicking it up a notch. I was trying to hold out on the pain medicine, not because I wanted to "be strong" or have a baby like they did before the times of modern medicine, but because I only wanted them to stick a needle in my spine (epidural) as a last resort. I know epidurals are pretty routine in a hospital birth, but that doesn't mean there aren't women who have suffered nerve damage or paralysis from such a stick. Why risk your spine?
So I took the Nubain (like fentanyl), which helped for a bit, but when those contractions came back, man, they came back with fury. I was shaking uncontrollably for a long time, and was NOT dilating. I felt like I couldn't control anything. Brian was freaking out (quietly, but the look of horror was evident on his face). I figured I ought to take the epidural. It had been hours at this point, of shaking an shaking and I was not dilating - and in the recesses of my mind I had a bit of lucidity and figured that if I didn't find some way to relax, I would never dilate enough to get this baby out. Reluctantly but confidently, I asked for the epidural. Obviously I did not suffer any adverse consequences or the stick or the Ropivacaine (the nerve block used in the epidural), but even that they had to let wear off by the time it came time to push.
Oh yes, make no mistake about that one. By the time push came to shove (well, actually an hour or so before) they stopped the Ropivacaine so that I could be full alert to push - and I felt EVERYTHING.
Ouch is an understatement, but should be noted....
And she felt like she'd never come. I was one of those idiots who asked for a mirror to watch her come out, and it was torture - for every good push I had, I'd see her head come out more and more, only to be sucked back in with every "relaxation." Again, I felt as if she would never come and stay in there forever.
Well, forever only took 45 minutes and then she was a slimy blob of goo in my arms! I couldn't quite conprehend that she was "mine," but accepted it none the less with great happiness. I didn't even feel the afterbirth come out. I did tear, however (I didn't feel it when it happened), but I did feel the doctor stitching me back up. However, after pushing a human out of a hole that small on my body, do you think I cared about being stitched up?
Brian made it out OK too. I only slightly raised my voice to him one time when he kept repeatedly rubbing the same spot on my thigh as I was pushing. I must have said something like "Will you PLEASE stop that??" because he was like, "Oh, sorry...Sorry, sweety!" To this day he tells me every time he rubs my thigh that he thinks of that morning in the delivery room when I snapped at him...
:)
You don't forget it immediately you know. My mother said to me a long time ago, "you know what Michelle? Right after you have that baby, all the pain goes away, everything goes away and you are ready to do it again."
Really mother? It took me WEEKS before I could even BEGIN to fathom having a baby. They don't talk about AFTER birth. I was sore down there for weeks. You also bleed down there for days afterwards (which is expected and necessary for cleaning out the uterus). Because of being stitched up (for tearing), I was tender there and wiping after pottying hurt. I had to have a sitz bath after every time I had a BM (sorry if that's TMI, but it's the truth). Also not to mention the fact that your belly feels like play dough until it all goes down over time. I hadn't had my pre pregnancy belly back for a few weeks before I found out I was pregnant with number two!
So we get to do this all again in December. It's all worth it though. All of it. I have the cutest, best and sweetest little girl on the planet (albeit curious, fast and smart).
Here's to an uneventful pregnancy and birth! May it continue to be uneventful!
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