His 'n Her Towels

Baby Stuff I Like (and Don't Like): Swaddle Edition

Every mother thinks they know what is best for ALL babies in the ENTIRE world. I am no exception. I've been a mother for a whopping 4 months, and here I am giving my expert opinion on what I think other mothers must have. Maybe you have a baby like mine though: a short ninja  baby who sleeps more like a manic floppy fish out of water, than like a baby. In that case, you will NEED what I have.

Swaddles:

We've tried them ALL.

First, we had the Halo Sleep Sack/Swaddle.

 

(By the  way, this is not my baby)

Sorry to say, I hated this one. We have the shortest baby, which is weird because neither Carl nor I are all that short. Della has been hovering around the 5th-10th percentile in height since she was born. She is très petite, and the newborn sized Halo Sleep Sack/Swaddle was just too much for her. Kind of hard to explain, but there was too much extra fabric in the sleep sack part, so when we swaddled her it would bunch up in the middle by her face. During the night, no matter how tight we swaddled it (which we couldn't get it as tight as possible because of all the extra fabric) she would shimmy all the way down in the sack and it would end up covering her mouth and nose. HATED that. Drove me insane and it scared me every time I woke up to find just her little eyes peering out at me over the swaddle.

 

 

 We also have a Miracle Blanket.

 

(again, not my baby. )

I liked it because the fabric is lightweight and it has arm cuffs, so you can pin your baby’s arms down so well that it would take a miracle for baby to breakout of this thing. This would work well for the criminally insane. However, it takes a very patient and calm baby to get them strapped in. If you have a baby like mine, who fights bedtime, fights the swaddle, thinks she fights crime, and definitely fights sleep...then this will NOT work. Della's limbs are always moving very rapidly. The upside of that is she has fantastic looking abs and great upper body strength. The downside is we could never get her in this complicated apparatus fast enough before t-minus meltdown happened. We needed something simpler.

 

My favorite swaddle in all of swaddleland is the Summer Infant Swaddleme.

 

 

It met all my requirements. No extra bulky fabric, simple enough to get a Tasmanian baby into, good enough for short baby-folk. The only thing that scared me is that she could, and would, easily breakout of it. I was nervous that she would break free, and then grab the swaddle and bring it up to her face (like she does with everything she can get her hands on) and cover her nose and mouth with it. I'm paranoid like that.

 SO, we also bought this Summer Infant Swaddle Pod that we zip up over the Swaddleme.

 

 (also not my baby. This baby looks like she enjoys sleeping too much to be mine)

This way she is double swaddled. If she breaks out of one, she is still trapped in the other one. And to date, she hasn't found a way to unzip herself from the swaddle pod. She can, however, fit her tiny fists up through the neck of it and punch herself in the chin. Resulting in a wide awake baby. That's why we have to keep double-swaddling. Two layers of protection. That's always been my motto.

 

 (my baby.)

What's her name?

Delphine (Della):

Very early on in our relationship Carl and I started playing the "let's name our future children" game. At this point, I still wouldn't let him see me without makeup and he still wouldn't pass gas in front of me, but we were adamant about naming all ten of the children we were destined to have. By the way, I'm working on finding a way to go back in time, so that I can throw past-me over my knee and give past-me a well-deserved spanking for being so dumb. Obviously I didn't realize back then that ten kids meant ten pregnancies and ten people to wiggle out of one very sensitive area down below.

For two years, whenever one of us thought of a name we would say something like, "what do you think of Lallulah-StormTrooper?" And of course, the other would then throw-up in his/her mouth. We could never agree. One day, we went over to Carl's 90 year old grandparents’ house so I could interview them for a Women's History paper I was writing for class. His grandpa brought out a picture of his mother from the 1900’s. She looked so polished and striking, like she could be in a James Cameron directed period piece about an epic romance and a ship. In the picture she was tightly corseted into this gorgeous dress and wearing a titanic sized hat loaded with feathers. She was a very beautiful, exotic looking woman with dark, piercing features. Carl's grandpa told us her name was Della. We both looked at each other in that moment and said "Della" simultaneously. We had a mind-conference, and telepathically agreed Della was our future baby's name. Then we found out Della was a nickname and her given name was actually Delphine. We loved both names, and there was no question from then on, that was what we would name a girl if we had one.

Plum:

I was given complete middle-naming rights, it was considered my “push present” seeing as I was the one with stretch marks plastered on my mid-section and a baby traveling through my body. Personally, I think middle names are silly. They are like cheese graters, everyone has one, but no one knows why. (You can buy cheese already shredded you know.) Middle names are not really good for anything except as insulation between the first and last name. So, I wanted to have a little fun with it, since it’s basically just a conversation piece anyway.

I loved the names Rose, Grace, Mae, Rae, etc. and they all would’ve worked wonderfully as a middle name, but I wanted something a little crazier than that.  I started coming up with non-name names, like, Winter, January, Snow, Snowflake, Snowman, Shovel….if you can’t tell it was the middle of winter. Carl just sat in the corner and shook his head in shame.

I tossed around some nature names like, Lake, Rice, Wren, Bird, Sun, but what I was really sold on was the name Blue. Later, I found out John Travolta’s kid is named Ella Blu, so I really couldn’t have a Della Blue, that would look like we copied them. We don’t run in the same social circles as the Travolta’s, but how awkward would that be if we bumped into each other one day and had to introduce our Della Blue to their Ella Blu? Oy.

After Blue was out, I kept thinking along the lines of color. My favorite color is purple or plum. I liked the sound of Plum, it wasn’t as hippie-ish as Strawberry and a little less shocking than Apple. I looked Plum up and it is an actual (sorta) name, used over in Europe. The name Prune (the equivalent to Plum in French) is becoming quite the popular name there. There is also an author/vogue editor from England nicknamed Plum Skyes. And since she is from England, and they’re used to the U.S. stealing all their television programming ideas from them anyway, I didn’t think she would mind if I used Plum as a middle name for my daughter.

And there you have it Delphine (Della) Plum.

 

Some people love the name, some hate it. Some say, aren’t you worried she won’t be able to get hired for a job with a name like that? I say, REALLY? First of all, I have never worked at a job where sharing my middle name was a requirement. Nor do I know the middle names of any of my co-workers. Second, the CEO where I work, his middle name is Nutmann. I only know this because he loves it and openly shares it with others. Thirdly, Barack Hussein Obama also has a unique name, and he got hired.

Others say with an uncommon name she will grow up thinking she is too special and entitled. I say again, REALLY? A few people around my office have different and unique names, and some are hardworking, and successfully moving up the corporate ladder. Some are playing angry birds. I don't think it has anything to do with their name, but how the people who named them raised them.

Others are concerned about her getting teased….umm, as long as there are other kids out there being named Brodini and Sycauphony, I think she’ll be alright.

  

3 Months

Della turned 3 months old on 5.28.11! I realize this update is over a whole month late. I'm a bad mom.

 

Dear Miss Della Plum,

For the first few months you've been here, time went really slow. I think that's because we only slept two hours a night, so we had a lot of extra time to kill. Now you sleep relatively well and life is flying by so fast, probably because we're sleeping through a lot more of it!

This month you've really changed. You’ve become quite the refined little infant. You calmly take baths like a normal person now, instead of like a rabid, wet raccoon. I think you even secretly enjoy them! You also are a very polite and well-mannered eater, gone are the days when you stop eating just to ninja-scream in my face while you Jason-Bourne me in the ribs. You still are a little squirmy, but much more delightful at mealtime. And it shows! You were 11lbs 1 oz at a 3 month checkup.

  

Sleep. What an odd concept, huh? You are starting to get the hang of it though. We have to double swaddle you (put you in one swaddle, and then zip you in another swaddle-pod-straight-jacket-thing over that one.) so that you will sleep soundly and ensure that you don’t prison break out of it. We’ve tried not swaddling you, but you still have that startle reflex, where if your arms are free you startle, then violently cry and frantically grab onto your mattress as if the world is tipping on it’s axis and your crib is about to slide into the shadowy underworld…. It’s that dramatic.

 

I don’t know how, but sometimes you still manage to get your hands free of the swaddle contraption and in the morning your face looks like a crime scene. You will scratch at your face until there is enough DNA under your fingernails to convict you of a crime. So, we will keep swaddling for now, it keeps the peace. And we don’t want you to go to baby jail or anything.

 

Della, this has been by far my favorite month with you. I’m so in love with you that it’s hard for me to concentrate on anything else, especially work. I hate leaving you in the morning, and going back to work was really, really difficult for me. All I want to do is play with you! And you love being silly with mom as well. We play games like, What weird stuff will mom put on her head next, or, If I smile big enough, I bet mom will keep making a fool of herself.  Everyone who watches you during the day just loves you, and I know you are getting the much needed attention you crave.

 

This month was a little scary in the beginning because you caught your first baby cold. I was a worried mess, but you recovered wonderfully, and you are now the happiest baby in the whole Midwest. I would say in the world, but I’m sure there are some babies over in L.A. that have awesome nannies who let them pee freely in pools and make bibs out of hundred dollar bills for them. You get to chew on Tupperware and dog hair though. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

 

 

Here’s what else you’ve been up to:

- Everything goes into your mouth, and you like to put it there. You’ve gotten so good at holding objects and then shoving them into the open hole in your head.

-  Whenever anyone gets close to you, you open your mouth like a baby bird and wait for them to stick their cheek in your mouth, so that you can drool on it. Sometimes you aggressively go chomping after people, like you want to snack on their face like a baby vampire. It’s cute.

- You don’t just coo, you coo in elaborate paragraphs. We have long one-sided conversations. I can’t get a word in edgewise.

 

- Your bedtime is around 7:30pm, with a dream feed at 10:00pm. You sleep uninterrupted until 3:00am, after that it’s hit or miss on if you’ll wake up or how often. Usually, after we put the pacifier back in a couple times you’ll go back to sleep. We couldn’t ask for more though, this is way awesomer then sleeping in 10 minute increments!

-  You and Dad wakeup at 5:00am to eat breakfast and spend some time together, and then it’s back to sleep until 7:45am when mom comes to get you ready for daycare. This is your happiest time, thanks for being such a sweetheart in the mornings!

-          You’ve been taking naps 2-3 times a day…not consistently of course, or for any set amount of time. 

- Still size one diapers, and size 0-3 month or 3-6 month clothes.

 

- For Fathers Day, at daycare you made Dad an outline of your hands and put it in a homemade frame. It was the sweetest thing. You also had a great time hanging out with Dad! (and grandpa Tom)

 

 

-  We went on our first road trip this month to South Dakota. It was a 12 hour car ride. You did beautifully on the trip out there, slept the whole way. On the way home you were sick and cried for the last 4 hours. Next time, I think we’ll fly.

 

This has been the greatest month, your smile is addicting, and I can’t wait to see what you’ll come up with next!

 

Love,

Mom

Della's Law

Della’s Law: If you tell a room full of people you have the perfect baby who is a genius at sleeping - that is the week you will get no sleep, whatsoever.

In Della’s defense, she is one poor, sick baby. Eye infection, ear infection, nose infection, I think she has all the face infections one can get. I feel so sorry for her, her little head must feel like it is going to ignite.

She’s a newbie to this cold thing, and she’s handling it about as well as a freshly graduated college student on his first day at a new job: dehydrated, crabby, and helpless. At times she tries to smile, and she still tries to coo and talk to us, but her coo’s are coming out more depressing sounding. Like, “coo-ah-oowwww.  Mom, my head feels like you’ve been dragging it  across an Astroturf lawn and snot is leaking from every hole in my face, but I still want to say what up to all my peeps out there, love ya, even though I am miserably, miserably  sick. Also, I’ve been sitting in my own toilet for about twenty minutes now. Help a girl out. Coo-oww, ah-goo. Oww-oww-ow.”

I’ve been sleeping curled up on the floor in her bedroom, at the foot of her crib, with a booger sucker in my hand. I’m scared that she’s going to choke on her own snot, so I want to be able to get to that air-passageway-blocking-phlegm as soon as possible. Plus, she’s been waking up every 20-30 minutes coughing, hacking, sneezing out her snot, and then sniffling it back in, so it’s easier not to have to get out of bed each time that I need to wrestle Della’s head still so I can suck up all the boogers.

Flashback: 7 years ago, it was quite possible that you would find me passed out around a bonfire, sleeping on the hard rocky ground, hugging a tree stump. Present day: now you can find me passed out in a baby’s nursery, using a stuffed lamb as a pillow, hugging a humidifier.

UPDATE: Unicorns do exist

(I am a believer in TheJinx, so in order to avoid TheJinx I am going to replace a certain word in this post with the word “unicorn”. Hopefully you’ll be able to figure it out.)

The reflux beast has been slain.

The first week we had Della on The Zantac things had improved, but were not completely better. She still fussed all day long, but she was unicorning at night in longer stretches. (p.s. when I say “fuss”, I really mean a long series of whining and “eh-eh’s”, eventually escalating to her turning into a feral cat and forcefully thrusting her whole head and body back towards the floor while trying to scratch my eyes out.)  We called the pediatrician after the required wait time of 7 days and she then recommended we up her dose to 1.5 mil two times a day. I will always remember  that day, May 5^th, 2011, because that is the day miracles happened.

The Zantac is like, a really wise baby wizard who performs miracles on babies. The Zantac transformed our cranky baby into a brand new (quieter) baby. I liked the old one just fine…but this baby is like the old version, but way better and with cooler features. Plus, she doesn’t make that weird creaking noise anymore when we plug her in. She’s Della 2.0.

Della still spits up, but she does it without crying in pain. She is content most of the day, and dare I say, a happy baby! The only time she fusses now is when she’s tired or hungry, just like a standard baby would. Best of all, she UNICORNS!!! She unicorns from about 9:00pm, depending on when we last feed her, until 5:00am when Carl gets her up to eat. Then she goes back down to unicorn until 8:00am. Sometimes she still gets up between 3-5am, but we think it’s to poop. We just leave her to do her business, and then she puts herself back to unicorn. It’s amazing!

She is so incredible at putting herself to unicorn now. We just swaddle her, put her pacifier in, and lay her down and she goes to unicorn all on her own. We rarely have to reinsert her pacifier anymore when it falls out. My daughter is a genius!

Naps, however, are not as magical. She goes down good for a nap, but she still has trouble staying aunicorn for longer then 30 minutes. Baby steps, people.

Della is awesome. Unicorns do exist!

2 Months

Della turned 2 months old last Thursday!

 

For these last two months we’ve been battling (and losing) with the Acid Reflux Monster. Like, we’re hardcore losing - losing sleep, losing our mind, losing her lunch all over my lap. But I have faith that things can only get better from here!

We were finally prescribed Zantac on Thursday and I hope that helps our situation, because up until now we’ve had the Amy Whinehouse of babies. She gets fussy and crabby for a good portion of the day, and she will actively fight sleep. When she finally falls asleep she will catnap for about 2 to 10 minutes and then, like an English singer/pubcrawler we all know, she will go on a three day bender of being all awake and cranky. We try to make her go to rehab sleep, but she cries NO, NO, NO! I absolutely love my little Whinehouse, but I am so tired. If I were a celebrity I would have been checked into rehab the hospital for “exhaustion” by now.

 
 
I know Della is not doing this just to be a drama baby. She is in pain and uncomfortable and it truly breaks my heart to see her suffer. I’m sure she’s wondering why we aren’t doing anything to help her, but I promise, I am doing everything in my power to get my sad-faced baby some relief.

 

On top of the acid reflux pain, she also got her 2 months shots at her checkup. Oh boy, was that ever traumatizing, for both baby and mother. I’ll always remember the terrified look on her face when the nurse stabbed her tiny baby legs with those three big needles. And I’ll never be able to forget the saddest scream in the world, like she was witnessing one hundred kittens being drowned or something. I swear, Della, if 16 years from now you find this blog and read this, show it to mommy and she will go out and buy you a new car that day! Whatever you want, it’s yours! That is how guilty I feel right now.

Here’s what else my Plum baby has been up to:

 

• She weighs 10lbs 1 oz and is 21 inches long. But we think that her length might be incorrect, because that means she only grew an inch since birth and it puts her in the 5^th percentile. That doesn’t seem right to me…
• She is now in 0-3 month clothing. She outgrew her newborn clothes around 8 weeks. She is also now in size 1 diapers.
• We are trying to work on tummy time, but she screams when we do it. So, we need to work on that.
•  When Della isn’t in pain, she is smiling! (this is how I know she is hurting, and not just a grumpy baby) She loves smiling. Whenever she sees a smiling face she will smile right back. She’ll even look in the mirror and smile at herself. It’s so cute.

 

• Her stuffed animals are her friends. She intensely stares into their faces. She coos and talks to them all the time. We have plenty of girl talk too; if I coo at her she’ll coo right back. And we just go back and forth. She loves talking!

 

•  From birth, everyone has always commented on how alert she is – even the pediatrician, eye doctor, and my obgyn. Not sure if that is just something people say, but everyone who meets her seem amazed on how alert she is. They wouldn’t be so amazed by her alertness at 2:00am when we are trying to get her to sleep and she’s in her crib just staring up at us.
• Speaking of eye doctor, Carl noticed a few weeks ago that one of Della’s pupils wasn’t dilating. One of them stayed small, while the other grew larger. It was odd, so we brought it up to the pediatrician and she referred us to a specialist. It turns out she just has two different sized pupils. I guess it’s somewhat normal…but it really freaked us out at first.  
• She likes when we read to her. When her dad reads to her she gets these big eyes, and is just mesmerized by him.

 

• Her first holiday was Easter, and she got a lot of goodies in her Easter Basket that she was eager to tryout

 

 

Overall we have a really sweet girl. Her personality is starting to show through, in-between her bouts with reflux. We are praying the reflux gets better so we can keep getting to know the real Della.

1 Month

It’s been a month (actually, it’s been 6 weeks, I’m late posting this as per usual). And in this last month I’ve learned a few things about being a mom:

1. I may never eat a hot meal/never finish a meal, ever again.
2. I may never get to shower ever again.
3. I may never be able to use both arms at the same time, ever again.
4. I may only ever sleep in two minute increments, for the rest of my life.
5. Sleeping standing up and draped over a crib is totally possible, and sometimes necessary
6. I will always be covered in bodily fluids that are not my own.
7. I will always have an enormous amount of love for my little plum baby. Even if it’s not always reciprocated.

 

(I'm stealing this monthly newsletter and weekly/monthly photo idea from many other bloggers.  Too many to credit the orgin of the idea though.)

 

Dear Miss Della Plum,

You are a month old now. I’d like to say that time has just flown by, but at 3:00 am while we are both up watching the Smart Mop infomercial for the 5^th night in a row, time could not move any slower. You are definitely the best and most challenging thing I’ve ever done though. Before you were born other parents would comment on how much our lives would change and how little sleep we would get. I laughed, because really, how hard could a tiny baby be? I mean, babies are so small and can be easily manipulated, right? Then you joined our family and I quickly learned that with only 2 hours of sleep a night my negotiating skills fail me and even the simplest tasks are mission impossible.

 

 

From the second night in the hospital you did not want to be put down to sleep. The nurses even had to take you so we could get some rest. When we brought you home, your dad and I took turns holding you all night. We all slept on the couch for the first week, and we were waking you up every two hours to eat. Then we got a little smarter and eventually tried transitioning you to the bassinet and then the crib and letting you wake up on your own to eat. It’s still a work in progress, but now on a good night we can get four straight hours of sleep from you. Then you wake up at 2:00 am and want to have an after party in our arms until 6:00am. From then on, you’ll sleep in 10-15 minute increments, and you’ll wakeup for the day at 7:20am on the dot, each day.

After a month of not sleeping or showering, I have come to the conclusion that you are well worth the stink. You are too cute to be mad at.

 

 

 You are a very good eater, when we left the hospital you were 6lbs and a month later you are now over 8 lbs. You are just starting to fill out your newborn clothing and newborn diapers.

 

 

You don’t cry that much (partly because mom does not want to see you unhappy at all and does whatever she can to stop you from crying. I would do a one-handed cartwheel holding a bowl full of grape juice on our white carpet if it made you stop crying) but you do fuss A LOT! It seems like you are never comfortable or happy, it makes me sad when you fuss…I feel like it’s something I’m doing wrong when all day long all I hear is “eh, eh, eh, eh,”  I hope you get happier soon!

 

 

Things you like: my boobs, the sound of the tub water running, the sound of the vacuum cleaner, stroller and car rides, my boobs, and whining.

Things you dislike: SLEEP, baths, dad’s cold hands, redlights, SLEEP

Birth Story - Part 2

We arrived at the hospital around 4:00 am. They hooked me up to a monitor to see if I was actually having contractions or not. And lo and behold, I was! They were coming every 4-8 minutes, and I was dilated to 4 cm! I was in active labor and far enough along that I didn’t have to be sent home. I was relieved to know that I wasn’t imagining the pain, but I was kind of in shock that I was actually going to have a baby on that day! It seemed to be happening so fast. I was ready for her to get here, but it was taking awhile for me to process that my March baby would be born in February.

The nurse asked me if I wanted an epidural. I had planned on trying to have a natural childbirth, without any drugs, but also realizing that I could change my mind if I wanted to. Well, my “plan” didn’t go as planned. I opted for an epidural ASAP. The contractions HURT, and I wanted to enjoy the experience as much as possible and I couldn’t do that through the pain, so I reneged on my natural childbirth plan and it was the best decision I’ve ever made. After the epidural kicked in, my body and mind were able to relax and I started to get really excited about getting to meet our daughter! It was a fun morning as Carl and I spent the last moments alone as a couple.

Things did get a little scary when the doctor came in and told us the baby’s heartbeat was dropping with each contraction, and she was in distress. I was put on oxygen and monitored closely. Around 8:30 am I was 5 cm dilated, so they decided to break my water in hopes to get things moving. They wanted to get the baby out of me as soon as possible, as did I. When my water broke the doctor also noticed there was meconium in the fluid.

We progressed quickly, and by 9:00 am I was fully dilated and ready to go. I was feeling a lot of pressure down below, and I remember telling the nurse that I felt like I am pushing out a poo…she assured me that I was not pooing.

At 10:10am I started pushing. I do not remember much else, except pushing really hard, and feeling a lot of pressure. Carl has more graphic details about this part as he had a front row seat and was fully alert. At about 10:50 am her head was out, and the cord was wrapped about her neck. As the doctor tried to take the cord off, it snapped and blood SPLATTERED everywhere! I could tell they were beginning to panic a little and they had me push one last time to get her shoulders and the rest of her out. Della Plum was born at 10:52am and was rushed to the warming area where the NICU nurses worked on her and made sure she didn’t breathe in any of the meconium. She started to cry about a minute later. Carl didn’t get to cut the cord, because it had already snapped, but they did give him a little section to cut for tradition’s sake. After they cleaned her off, I finally got to meet my baby! She was perfect and healthly!

 

 

 

 

A few things about her birth surprised me. I had thought in my head things would go one way, but they came out completely different. For example:

-         I thought I was going to have a HUGE baby, when she actually was very teeny at 6lbs, 5 oz.

-         I thought she was going to be overdue, and she was early

-         I thought I could handle the pain, when in fact I could not

-         I thought she was going to have a lot more hair than she did.

So, I’ve officially learned my lesson, that babies are unpredictable and my daughter is no exception! For example, just when I think she is going to sleep, so that I can too….she reminds me that she makes the rules!

Birth Story Part 1

At my 38 week doctors appointment (2/24) I learned that I was 1-2 cm dilated for the 3^rd week in a row. I had absolutely no signs of labor, and no contractions. It didn’t look like baby was coming anytime soon. Even the doctor was pessimistic about the baby making a prompt arrival as she prepared me for a possible induction if I went a week past my due date. Then she gave me a long pitiful look and walked out the door. I did my ritual post doctor visit cry as I mentally tried to prepare myself for being pregnant another 3 weeks.

It was a little discouraging knowing I’d still be pregnant for 21 more days when we were all ready for the baby to get here now. I had a hair appointment that Saturday, and Carl had to finish painting the baby’s bathroom, but other than that I was out of stuff to keep my mind off birthing a hippo baby. She needed to come soon, before I changed my mind about this giving birth idea entirely.

That weekend I went to my hair appointment and even got a manicure and pedicure. I figured I would try to fix myself up a bit to distract my husband from the 60lbs of weight I gained in my chin(s). It worked, because that Saturday night Carl took me on a date. We went to see Black Swan, and afterwards had jalapeño burgers with spicy Japanese sirachi sauce on it, all very calculated efforts in order to coerce/scare/smoke the baby out of me.

On Sunday (2/27) morning I woke up with a stomach ache and umm… bad diarrhea, which I thought was a result of all the spicy food I ate the night before. I also had what felt like a painful migraine in my pelvis, which I was convinced, was brought on from watching Black Swan.(don’t ask me how)  I decided to walk it off by going to the grocery store with Carl. While there I was getting many strange looks from people. Carl said it was because it looked like I was about to give birth in aisle 12. With the shape I was in, he bet that I would go into labor within the week. I just scoffed at him. How dare he mock me.

That night I made spicy enchiladas and went to bed early to watch the Oscars. I was still having bad stomach aches, but again I attributed it to all the spicy food I was shoving down my throat.  I attempted to sleep, but my stomach pains kept getting worse. Carl had just crawled into bed at 10:00pm after he finally finished painting the baby’s bathroom.

Monday, February 28^th, 2011, 12:00am:  The stomach ache was feeling more like cramps now, coming about every 5-10 minutes. I started timing my cramps just in case it could be contractions. I still wasn’t convinced though, so I got Carl out of bed at 1:00am to assess my “stomach aches”. We timed them for about an hour and they were coming every 4-8 minutes now, lasting between 30-60 seconds. I was in HOLY P-A-I-N at this point, but I STILL wasn’t convinced I was in labor. I called the hospital to see if they could tell me what to do. They told me to drink water and take a bath and call back if the “cramps” haven’t gone away.

The only thing the bath did was make me wet and in pain. I called my mom around 3:00 am and she told me to just go to the hospital. Better safe than sorry.

Now here comes my favorite part of the whole birth story (besides the actual birth of my daughter of course)….

We packed in a hurry and drove to the hospital. Lucky for me it was only 5 minutes away. We were told to use the emergency entrance, when we pulled into the parking lot the emergency entrance was to the left, but Carl was turning right.

I screamed at him, “Where are you going?!! Drop me off! I don’t want to walk!!”

He said, “But the sign says “Deliveries” are this way….” 

Haha, I had to explain to him that those “Deliveries” are for packages delivered to the hospital, and NOT for deliveries of babies! I could not stop laughing! What a good way to take the edge of the contractions.

Part 2 coming up….

 

 

38 Weeks

It’s been awhile since I updated my pregnancy stats. My current status is that I am no longer pregnant. If I was, I’d be going on an impressive 42 weeks pregnant. But no, I was lucky not to have to wait that long to meet my baby. We were at 38 weeks when this sassy thing made her way out of my vagina and into the world :

 

DELPHINE PLUM S.

6 lbs. 5 oz., 20 in.

February 28th, 2011

10:52am

 Her full name is Delphine Plum (yes, Plum is her middle name), we call her Della for short.

 A birth story to follow.