The Shuffle

This morning I did the shuffle....you know that run/walk thing that you giggle when you see people doing because they could probably just walk faster?  That was me.  But at least I was exerting a little more energy than just walking, so I'm considering it a success.  It didn't surprise me that I would have to jog that slowly given the minimal exercise I've had the last few months.  What did surprise me was that it wasn't comfortable to rely solely on the built in bra in my workout top like I've done all my life.  Yikes and ouch! (ok, to be completely honest I was slighly pleased that I had something to bounce around - ha!) 

My mom has been here since Friday and I've been able to get out for a couple walks while she stays with the baby - Cody had a big catering weekend and was working all weekend, so it's been really nice to have mom here to help watch the baby so I can get out for walks or to run errands. 

Yesterday was Cody's 31st bday, so we're going to take advantage of having Gramma J* here and are going downtown tonight for a dinner date.  The restaurant opened fairly recently in a really old, historic building and we've been wanting to get down there to try it:  http://theriegerkc.com/

*We're still working out what we're going to call mom...this is the latest.

FYI

I didn't realize this was an option until just the other day, so I just now added the "Follow By Email" option on the blog.  If you enter your email address, it will email you every new post we make.  My mom had been asking about this since I started the blog, and I am just now figuring it out! :) 

Introducing Daniel Jack Lewis

Born May 16, 2011 at 11:30 a.m.

Weighed 7 lbs, 0.5 oz

Measured 19 inches long

The Labor Story

I had high hopes for Saturday May 14th - to do some final touches to the nursery, finally get the hospital bag packed, finish thank you's from shower gifts, etc.  Instead, I woke up at 7 that morning throwing up and having diarhhea and feeling like I had the flu.  I was worried that me being sick was posing some sort of risk to the baby, so I called the clinic and they told me it was one of two things: prelabor (apparently some women experience flu-like symptoms as pre-labor and it's the body's way of preparing itself for the child birth) or a flu bug that had been going around.  Since my due date wasn't until May 31st and since I had been in for a check up on Thurs May 12th and they told me I was not dilated at all and that the baby was still "way up there," I figured it must surely be a bug.  Nonetheless, I forced myself out of bed for long enough to pack our hospital bag just in case.

After pushing lots of fluids and sleeping tons, I felt completely fine by Sunday May 15th.  We got up and went to church, made brunch afterwards, and went to Cody's cousin's graduation party that afternoon.  I got a lot of questions from his family about how I was feeling and whether I felt like the baby was coming soon, and my reply was that I thought I still had a long ways to go. 

Went to bed around 11 p.m. on Sunday night and at 1 a.m., I woke up to myself wetting the bed - or at least that's what I thought was happening.  I was hesitant to tell Cody I just peed the bed, but didn't figure I could hide it and didn't want him rolling over into it :)  He asked if I thought it was my water breaking, but I wasn't feeling any sort of contractions and it really just felt like I wet my pants.  Ugh - I was so embarrassed.  He convinced me to call the clinic to report what happened and I was apologizing to them that this might be a false alarm and I may have just wet the bed, but they told me to come to the hospital anyway just to be sure.  So we threw our final items into the hospital bag, somewhat feeling like this could maybe be really happening, but somewhat feeling like the hospital would send us right back home after telling me I had bladder control issues. 

We got to the hospital right at 2 a.m. (the doors they told us to come in were locked, wtf?!?, so we took a fairly long walk around the outside of the hospital to the right set of doors.)  Thankfully I was in no pain and was able to walk around just fine.  When we got into our Triage room, the nurse told me to undress and put on the hospital gown.  As I was doing this, another gush of fluid came out all over the floor of the triage room.  Eek!!!  Quick, I told Cody, help me clean this up so they don't know I peed on their floor!  So we scrambled to dry the floor before the nurse came back in.  She checked me then, and sure enough it was my water breaking.  What a relief - it wasn't a faulty bladder after all!! At that point, I was at 2-3 cm.  She said the baby was very low, but my cervix was still behind his head (or something like that).  She hooked me up to a couple monitors and we heard the baby's heart beating steadily and then another monitor showed that I was actually having contractions.  The nurse told me I was in the middle of a contraction right then and asked if I could feel it.  Oh....that's what the nagging feeling of pressure was that I'd been having off and on for the past couple weeks.  Who knew that was what a contraction felt like?! 

Around 3 a.m. we got moved into the room I'd labor and deliver in.  It was about this time that I lost my mucus plug (I really despise that name of that, for the record).  From 3-5 a.m., we had to take care of some hospital paperwork, go through some questions with the nurse, and then just kind of waiting for this to progress.  At this point, my contractions are manageable and I still have the "I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar" mentality - I was going to tough this thing out:, one contraction at a time:

I had requested a room with a jacuzzi tub in it because I had prepared myself for doing this the good ole natural, unmedicated way and was told that soaking in the jacuzzi tubs can help you relax.  Got in around 5:00 a.m. and the tub felt good for about 10 minutes, I even had a People magazine that I was starting to read.  But not long after I got in the tub did the contractions start getting more intense and more frequent.  They were about 4 minutes apart at this point.  I couldn't focus on People, and needed Cody to help me breathe through each contraction.  I eventually wanted to be in a different position to work through the contractions, so after about 40 minutes of soaking, I ditched the tub:

Before and after the tub I used the birthing ball (which I really liked rocking back and forth on that, by the way) (note: "liked" is a relative term here!):

By 6 a.m., the contractions were coming so close and so intensely (Cody had been breathing with me and coaching me through them and helping me to try to visualize myself somewhere else: honeymoon, beach, etc.) that we called the nurse in to check me.  I was at 5-6 cm.  WHAT?!? That's it?  The pain of each contraction was literally taking my breath away and I was moaning and whimpering and nearly in tears by the time each contraction got to it's peak.  I was dreading each contraction when I felt it starting.  And I started questioning why I felt the need to be so tough.  By 6:20, I had made up my mind that I wanted the epidural, but of course you don't immediately receive it.  Waited for about 30 minutes for the anethesiologist - and the contractions during those 30 minutes were the most awful since I was so ready for the epidural at that point and didn't want to fight the contractions anymore. 

Within about 5-10 minutes, the epidural had taken effect and LIFE WAS BEAUTIFUL again:

From 7:30-10:00 I laid in the bed and relaxed, closed my eyes a little, sent some texts, forwarded work emails from my phone, etc.  I could feel pressure when a contraction was happening, but it wasn't painful at all.  I seriously did not regret for one second (and still don't) getting the epidural.  It was so much more enjoyable that way.  People had mentioned the enjoyable thing to me before, but I brushed it off thinking I'd enjoy it just the same if I did it naturally.  Ha - Wrong answer. 

At 10:00, the nurse checked me again and I was ready to push she said!  I looked at Cody wide-eyed - it was really happening - we were really about to meet our baby!  It seemed so surreal.  Like it was happening to me, but not really happening to me, if that makes any sense.  No - that doesn't really.  But I don't know how else to describe it.

By 10:30, I was starting to push.  My contractions were still about 4 minutes apart, so I had a nice break in between each push.  Cody had one leg and nurse Meri had the other leg.  Both were awesome coaches.  We were so so lucky that it happened to be my OB's day to be in the hospital, so he actually got to deliver the baby.  The chances of that happening weren't real good - so thankful it turned out in our favor!  At 11:30, I gave my final push and Daniel entered the world.  The picture at the top of this post is from right after they cleaned him off.  Here's a picture right after he was born and the nurse is handing him to me, an indescribable moment.  I don't even know how to try to begin explaining that rush of emotions.

 

Daniel is named in loving memory of Cody's father, Daniel Lynn Lewis, and his middle name, Jack, is in honor of my two grandpas: Gerald "Jack" Meyer and John "Jack" Mack. 

Catching Up

Well I fell off the blogging wagon a bit, but for good reason I think - Daniel Jack Lewis arrived 15 days early on May 16th, 2011.  In lieu of one super super long post to catch up, I think I'll start posting little bits of pieces of the past few weeks.  Cody had to work all weekend, so mom came down to keep me company and help me out.  It's been a huge help already and I'm able to get some things done I've been wanting to do for weeks.  So here goes with updating the blog...

Some guys get it

This guy didn't get it:
I was taking the stairs at work from 1st floor to 2nd floor (nothing impressive about this - it's not like I was taking them 2 at a time or jogging up them or anything) and this guy looked at me with surprise that I'd be taking the stairs and said "Not giving up, huh?"  I was a little confused....why would I be throwing in the towel?  Do I look incapable of handling a single flight of stairs? Or was he just feeling awkward around a pregnant woman and that's the only thing he could think to say?  Should've resorted to the standard "Good morning" passing comment.  He was trying to be nice, I should cut him some slack. 

This guy also needs a clue:
I was walking down the hallway and heard someone yell "Lewis!" from behind me.  So I turned around and saw one of the guys from the Accounting dept and waited for him to catch up to me so I could say hi and chat quick.  When he caught up to me, he said "I could tell it was you from your waddle."  Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Scenario #3, finally an appropriate one:
Guy #3 and I were approaching each other from opposite ends of the hallway and as we got closer, I noticed he was smiling at me differently than you would normally smile in passing - kind of like in an "awww, that's cute" kind of way.  I assumed he was smiling like that b/c of my waddle. B/c I know him pretty well, I asked him if I was waddling.  He didn't outright confirm that I was waddling, but just said "You make it look classier than anyone."  Thank you, John.  Please give these other guys some lessons! 

Music to my ears

Today at our appointment Dr Heit estimated that our baby would be around 7 1/2 to 8 lbs at time of delivery.  I have been preparing myself for a 9 1/2 lb baby since that's how big Cody weighed in at, so 7 1/2 lbs was sweet music to my ears.  Let's hope Dr. Heit has an accurate estimate!

Best Piddler around

So, 26 days til due date.....OMG!!!  The closer it gets, the more anxious I get.  It's crunch time!!!  I am hoping that by the end of this weekend I'll feel much less anxious - I'm planning to be super productive this weekend.  This is the first weekend in awhile that we'll be home and don't have any plans, so it'll be a good opportunity to get things crossed off the list.  The list:

• Pack hospital bag
• I've been talking about doing this since about month 5 and it's still not done.  Cody is convinced it's going to be left up to him to do at go-time and that he'll pack all the wrong things.  So I really need to get this done to ease his mind. 
• Make returns & purchase things we still need
• Home Depot/Lowe's for closet organization supplies for baby's closet
• Install car seat bases (have to get inspected at police station)
• Find lamp for nursery
• Get rod for window valence and some shears
• Pick up a couple shelves for baby's walls
• Put up crib mobile, wall art, etc.
• Discuss insurance - evaluate whose to add baby to, should we all 3 be on one, etc.
• Upload all the fun photos from the last couple weeks
• Thank you's from last 2 showers (how embarrassing that these aren't done yet - especially the ones from my April 23rd shower - I'm ashamed)

There, now that I have a list, maybe I'll actually hold myself to it.  I told my mom I need her to come down and light a fire under my a$$.  Whenever she comes down to help me get stuff done, we are super productive and she keeps me focused.  This week I've spent 3 nights organizing the nursery - you'd think there'd be nothing left to do - but you'd be wrong.  My Gma Mack, God love her, was the queen of piddling - but I'm finding that I probably could've given her a run for her money in a "best piddler" contest.  I remember always thinking "what is Gma doing all day?" and now I'm wondering "How did I just keep myself busy for 3 hours and have nothing to show for it?"  (If you ask Cody, he'd say maybe it was all the facebook breaks I took.  Oopsy - he's on to me.)  It's like I'm moving things from one pile to a different pile.  Sigh. 

Anyway - I hope to report back on Sunday night that I am now ready for the baby.  Then I'll feel like can relax and take it easy the rest of May and just wait for him to make his grand arrival.

Here's a picture taken on Tuesday, May 3rd when I turned 36 weeks:

Here's to a productive next few days!!!  And here's to the baby NOT inheriting my piddling and procrastination tendancies.