Let’s see… funny things that have happened..

Tristan has been so attatched to my boob at times that he literally grabs a fistful of it in his little hand and holds on for dear life.  Funny, but sometimes painful.  He also falls sleep still attached to me.  He will stay asleep if his head is still touching bare boob, but the moment I cover it up is the moment he wakes and gets fussy…only to nurse and fall right back asleep as before with in a short time.

Tristan is a sniper.  He is skilled at peeing on both Chris and I and everything else.  Chris and I are diligent to try and keep him covered so he doesn’t spray us…but he seems to always pick the moment when we are switch him over to the new diaper or some how figures how to pee on us from inside the diaper.

The night before last he managed to pee on me twice from inside his diaper (which wasn’t really all that dirty or wet before hand) and puke on me…within about an hours time.    Not only did he get me, but also my bedding and a pillow.  He’s talented.

Also a couple evenings ago he was getting changed by daddy when he did a really good surprise attack.  Chris was wiping his tush when I see a yellow stream gush out… I jump back - immediately bursting into a fit of laughter - as Chris then realizes what is going on.  I believe Tristan got Chris, his crib, the crib bumper, his onsie, his blanket, and a pillow.  Chris has also been blessed with projectile poo a few days back (which got several things as well).  It’s amazing how Tristan knows just when to let it out.

We have also discovered that Tristan does seems to like music and lights.  He has a crib toy that generally entertains him (so long as he’s not super fussy already).  He also likes his owl mobile which plays music.  Today while he was a little fussy, I put him down and played a song I played while I was pregnant on the piano.  He quieted down for the duration of the song (which was pretty short).  I thought that was pretty neat.

I also love the fact that Tristan is staying awake more and more during the day time.  Not that he isn’t so sweet when sleeping, but seeing him awake, alert, and not fussy is such a joy.  Especially as he learns to use his facial muscles more.  He makes some funny faces sometimes.  Just staring into those little eyes is amazing.  It’s a new connection that I wouldn’t miss for the world.  I admit sometimes I marvel that Chris and I created such a wonderful new little being (even if he cries a lot too)!  I know he will change so much in the next couple years…and it’s already been incredible to see how he has grown and changed in only two weeks.  I am so thankful that I’ve been able to spend as much time as I have with him.  I am also so happy that Chris has had paternity leave and has/will be able to watch Tristan while I go to class.  It’s so hard to leave him…even for a couple hours.  Next week will be tough since I will be gone longer from him each day.  I mean…it’s nice to be away from the perspective of giving my boobs a rest.  And sometimes to be away from the crying… but on the other hand.. I miss him while I am gone.  I often wonder how he is doing, if he needs me (even though I know very well that his daddy has got things under control).

Well I am rambling…so time for me to call this post done.

Peace.

Those are the stats, now if you want to know the nitty gritty…

I went into labor around 5am (at least that’s when I woke up), and waited around until 6:30am to wake Chris.  I didn’t sleep much, since the night before I wasn’t super tired and didn’t get to sleep until 2 or 2:30am.  Since I had several false labors…I figured why wake him so early though if it wasn’t the real deal?  But by 6:30 I was definately starting to think that it was indeed the real thing.  He got up and we took a nice hot shower/I took a bath.  I was handling things OK and shortly there after Chris got in touch with our midwife, Erin, and she headed over to check things out. By the time she got to our house (probably around 7:15 or 7:30 is my guess) I was already at 6cm.  Within another hour or so I progressed to 8cm, but that’s when things slowed down and began to get very painful.  My hips and back were hurting immensely and with every contraction Chris and Erin had to press on the sides of my hips to give me some relief… otherwise it was intolerable.  The pain was radiating from the contraction out to my hips and back and then down both my legs all the way to my toes.  Something that wasn’t exactly expected.  It took another 1 and 1/2 hours or so to reach 9cm… and at that point we figured out that my cervix was swollen on one side and was having problems dilating further.  I was really starting to loose faith that I could manage with the pain level.  I know that aspect can go with transition…but I think the pain was just wearing me down more then it should have.  We tried taking another shower to help me relax, and it helped for a short time…until our hot water ran out.  Erin then decided to give me something called cramping bark (if I recall) to help with the swelling.  It seemed to help a little, but not enough.  Erin had to try and hold back the lip of the cervix while the baby descended.  Ultimately she ended up needing to break my water because I was loosing energy and needed things to move a little faster…plus Tristan wasn’t able to descend well with the waters still intact.  Unfortunately the breaking of the water was the worst part. But shortly after it was done, it was finally time for me to push.  At first that was very hard and painful, but once I figured out how it was supposed to be done…it was far better then the proceeding hours had been as far as pain levels were.  Erin did need to give me a little oxygen just to keep Tristan’s heart rate good.  He really did handle labor well though in general.  It was just towards the end that it was necessary.  Soon enough he started to crown, and then with one big push he shot out… head and body, and crying!  I only tore a tiny bit, nothing needing stitches or anything of the sort.  I am a little sad that I tore at all… but we figured out why!  He was sunny-side up!  After all my diligence of keeping my posture a certain way and doing exercises to ensure he would be anterior… he was still posterior!  Erin thought at the start he was anterior though because his heart beat was so strong.  He is just one little stubborn boy!  But once they told me that…it was no wonder it hurt so much and took longer to progress (although for a posterior baby…heck even for a first time anterior baby, my labor was relatively short).  Erin in the past had warned me that many woman cannot deliver posterior babies and that’s why it was so important for me to do all the things to prevent that situation.  So much for that!  Now all she had to say afterwards that next time if my child is in the correct position… then I will have to call my midwife at the first sign of labor since it went so quickly.  Lucky for me at least I have ample hips… and a not too big first baby (thank god)!  I have to say that I don’t think I have every felt like I did at the moment of his birth.  Between the sudden relief from pain, and the rush of emotions from meeting our new little one… it is indescribable.  It was something I hadn’t planned on.  I hadn’t figured I’d be the type to cry at our first meeting… but I did.  I think that perhaps that moment made it worth it.  I think parenthood hasn’t completely set in with Chris and I yet.  I will say that he was an excellent support during everything though.  He held my hand, press my hips, encouraged me, and held me.  I could not have asked for a better husband.  I by no means intend to down play how wonderful he was … and I know it was hard for him to see me in pain.  I hope that it was all worth it for him too.

After everything was over, Chris and I rested (but not slept…well not me anyway) and enjoyed our first moments of family time.  Tristan was very quiet and very sleepy.  Chris’s family came over for a short visit in the evening…which Tristan pretty much slept through.  After everyone left, Chris and I had a little wine to celebrate, and we tried to rest up a little more.  Unfortunately, our new little one is a night owl for sure.  He kept his daddy and I up a good part of the night.  Chris let me sleep from about 2am to around 5:30am (though it was a little choppy of a sleep), and right now I am letting him sleep while I keep Tristan quiet.  He prefers to be held almost all the time.  It is understandable though since he’s been kept inside me for the past 10 months…and so it’s no surprise to me that he would want that close comfort even still… perhaps even more so in this strange new world of his.  Needless to say though…I am doing the best I can to let Chris get some rest himself since I will need a nap later today myself.

Well I think I am going to wrap this up.  I don’t really need to say much more, and I am probably rambling.  All I can say is that I am happy that our little one has arrived finally.

Oh, and mother nature is still mean.  :-P

She is torturing me.

Tomorrow is my due date… and I have less then a week before school starts back.  I have no choice but to go back because of money reasons. It’s either that or get a job, neither would afford me recovery time or bonding time.  So I rather give up on those concepts in regards to this child.

However, you may ask… how has mother nature been torturing me? Well I had false labor all day on Dec. 24, and then for half the day on Dec. 25, and then ALL day yesterday.  At this point I truly think that I will be back in school for at least a week or so before this damn baby decides it is done.  This is very frustrating and I really wish it would just get done and over with.  I have already faced the fact that I won’t have time to be “mommy”… more like I will just be the dairy cow and that seems to be about it.  However, at least Chris will be home for a time with it.  I guess that’s something at least.  Just still frustrating.

Anyhow that’s what is going on.

Other then that, life has been pretty quiet.  Chris has had work off for the holidays which is nice.  However, he is still working from home because he says he’s got a bunch of ideas that he wants to use now.  At least he enjoys it.  We’ve mostly been hanging out at home enjoying that last bit of time we have together as just “us”.  (Chris is impatient too though)  I think Chris and I are just glad to be out of classes for a short time…a nice little breather.  That’s about it so far.

I have had to take piano III this semester and I think it is useless.  They have gotten rid of the exit level piano IV, and have instead pushed the proficency into the piano III semester.  I think this was a total mistake in a big way.  No one in my class are ready for it, and we are all just feeling frustrated.  Not only that, but our teacher (who is brilliant as a pianist and a real nice guy) isn’t a good teacher.  He expects to know things we don’t, and cannot break it down in a way that helps us.  Either he breaks it down too much - thus boring us - or he doesn’t break it down enough and we all are just lost.  Not only that, but at the beginning of the semester, we were told that we had 21!!! mini tests (3 tests, with 7 parts per test).  Ok, fine, I could deal with that should I have to.  However, they would be testing us over basically the same material…how does that makes sense?  Well it doesn’t.  Anyhow, we all figured that they would be like little 5 minute tests as we had with our last teacher last semester.  That was the original plan.  However, that hasn’t happened.  We should be at this point, done with test #2 and all the parts within it.  We aren’t…in fact…we aren’t even done with test #1….not even close!  I just got to take part 2 of test #1 this past Thursday.  Most days I sit doing nothing while my teacher gives tests…and not 5 min. tests either…more like 20 min. or more long.  That right there should tell him he needs to adjust how things are running.  He hasn’t though.  At this point, we will be lucky to finish test #1 by the end of the semester.  I see no other way for this to work at this point.  Which means, I’ve benefited from absolutely nothing in that class this semester.  In order for me to go out into the work world and do my job and my students justice…I will need to take private piano lessons and pay even more money on skills my university should have ensured I gain while here.  What an absolute waste of my time and money!  ARG!  It is one of the most frustrating classes I have ever had.  I’d drop it, but there is no promise of a better teacher next semester, and I’d loose all my money, and it would go as a bad mark on my record.  GAH!

Anyways.  Besides that, school is going alright.  My grades are pretty good, and I am just needing to worry about my jury at the end of the semester.  Once that is over, I am golden.  I admit I don’t get to practice as much as I want, but I will be changing that VERY soon since my other classes are starting to relax a bit.

Other new updates…

I am 4 days away from hitting 8 months along.  People are only now realizing that I am pregnant and not just fat…go figure.  Oh well.  On the upside, I guess that means I’m not carrying large.

So far the pregnancy has gone well overall, but last week I started getting some little warning signs of pre-eclampsia.  I contacted my midwife, and she changed my diet and told me some other things to try to help ward it off.  This week has started better, so I am hoping it truly is working.  I so want things to turn out as I want.  I just need to be able to chug along for another month…then I can rest.  I just need my body to work for me really, for the next 2 months.  I really don’t want to end up having the baby in a hospital if I can avoid it.  I will if I must, but not happily so.  So, pretty much for the next several weekend, I am going to minimize how much I have to be away from home…and maximize rest when I can.  It’s all I can do for now…and I just hope it is enough.  So, that’s life lately.  Maybe I’ll update again soon…who knows.

School keeps me pretty busy most days.  Tomorrow is a 5am morning for me so that I can go do some school observations…then I will rush to school just in time for my classes.  Needless to say with how busy my days often are - I can’t wait for the weekends.  However, my weekends always have something planned too! LOL what a life!  And it will just continue to get busier as time goes on.

I have my baby shower coming up on the 24th, which I am excited…but also a bit nervous about.  I like to see all my friends and family…but it always makes me nervous of how things will go, how people will mix, and also making sure that everyone feels comfortable.  I hate when someone doesn’t feel comfortable hanging out with me.  At least we still have some time before all of that takes place.

The baby seems to be doing well…very active much of the time these days.  I can tell that I will have many sleepless nights in my future at that.  I suppose I expected that anyhow though!

Well I guess that’s a very basic and general update about how things have been.  Rather “same old, same old”…only I am busy too.

I admit that as time goes on, I am both excited and scared…which I know is normal.  I always feel awkward though when I start showing my excitement.  I know that’s silly - but I am weird like that…just ask poor Chris.  I am glad though that he is excited too.

Oh and I finished another book a little over a week ago called

Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must be Fixed to Put Women and Children First  written by Marsden Wagner M.D.

It was a pretty interesting read and really affirms to me that the path I’ve chosen is the best I can do where I live.  I would also say that I highly recommend it.

Let’s see, besides that I have started painting the baby’s room again.  I started on the milky way on the ceiling today.  I hope it comes out as I want!  That’s all for today!