It's Pronounced "Big BooTAY."

Well, dammit, yesterday I took the plunge and tried to wear non-maternity clothes. The belly's down quite a bit (though I sure hope it goes down a bit more before stopping...) so I figured it might be safe. I have some shorts that are made for women whose waists are the same size as their hips, and since I actually have a waist I figured my belly would fit into the extra room up there in the shorts.

The problem was not my belly. It was my huge ass and hips. AUGH! At that point my mood took a nose dive that lasted for at least an hour. I do realize that I spent most of this pregnancy sitting on the couch eating ice cream, whereas the first time around I was cooking and eating healthy vegan meals every day and working out at the gym six days per week for at least the first two trimesters. But I gained the same amount this pregnancy as I did the last, and talked myself into believing that the weight was all in my belly, even though I did notice my bootie getting that "pregnant ass" look this time around. I guess I'll have to start doing some exercise... not that I wasn't planning to anyway, I'm just bummed that I can't just improve on what's there, rather than having to work out in order to fit into my regular clothes in the first place!

So here I am, stuck in my huge maternity clothes until further notice. I can't imagine taking both the girls clothes shopping, especially since I'd have to try things on. But I guess I could do that next week when Auntie comes to visit and she could run around with Sweet Pea while I tried things on. Maybe we'll do that. Yesterday I had a checkup with one of our midwives and she said that I am healing up very well and can start exercising. I can now sit cross-legged and move around as I please without worry of pulling out my two little stitches, and the skin is healed back together. Her recommendation on the clothing was to buy a couple pretty things that make me feel good so that I have a couple nice things to wear during this bodily transition period.

Oop - Petal is calling. Poor thing was having a nice nap in the baby swing and then our more annoying feline went and rubbed against the swing and it stopped moving and the baby woke up. Grr.

I Hate the Cars - the Cars That Go, "BOOM!"

I'm neither Bunny nor Tigra, and I HATE the "BOOM!"

Just wanted to say that. We have all-day-long boomage in our neighborhood. What cracks me up is the cars themselves. The guys driving them usually look really tough and gang-member-like, and they probably are, but the cars they drive vary from little primered falling-apart jalopies to - seriously, I just saw this yesterday - minivans. I'm not kidding.

Go figure.

Pillow Talk and Pictures

Were you a fly on the wall in our bedroom last night you would have heard all manner of cute sentiments coming out of Sweet Pea's mouth. She was feeling quite talkative at bedtime and how can you tell a kid to stop talking when she's telling you and your husband how much she loves you both, and things she thinks she remembers from when she was a baby?

But Slipshod and I were thankful that the lights were out when the following conversation was uttered, so that we could laugh silently without her seeing us:

Sweet Pea: "This is my poopie hole."
Me: "Do you have your hand down your diaper?"
Sweet Pea: "No. I took it out."

And on that note, I change the subject entirely:


Nobody reading this will understand, but I have to say: Gheeeeee!
She's just so cute, isn't she? If I do say so myself... hee hee.


Sweet Pea looks so LONG! And she is... she's a tall girl. But dang, Mom was right - she looks amazingly huge next to her newborn sister.


I ask you this: Has there ever been a cuter swimsuit? EVER?


I thought this might make you laugh as much as it does me. This is one of Slipshod's cousins. We gave the hat, and a little dress that matches, to this man's niece (Slipshod's other cousin's daughter) for her birthday last weekend. It's definitely cuter on the toddler, but SO FUNNY on her uncle!

Haste Makes Waste(d Mama)

To finish off my postpartum picks, I have to say that Lansinoh brand lanolin and Lansinoh nursing pads are absolutely essential. I used the lanolin every day for the entire 2 years and 2 months that I nursed Sweet Pea. Kept the ole nips moist, healthy and crack-free.

As for the breast pads - well, we tried store brand and others as well as the Lansinoh ones. Store brands tended to fall apart and leave fluff on my nipples, which if I wasn't watching would probably have been ingested by my sweet little babe, and who wants a baby drinking paper/cotton or whatever those things are made out of? Ugh! Some other brands didn't fall apart like that but were too thin or didn't have a plastic barrier to protect clothing. The Lansinoh pads just plain rock. I was completely sold on them the night when I had a plugged duct that let go while I was sleeping. I had nursed Sweet Pea with her chin toward the plug, as suggested, which made for amusing nursing, as the plug was at the top of my breast. Then we went to sleep for the night. Even though it hurt a lot I was able to get to sleep and didn't notice when the plug let go. In the morning when I got up and took off my nighttime bra to take a shower, the nursing pad which had absorbed the unplugged duct fell to the bathroom floor with a ten-ton "THUD!" I was shocked and then remembered the plug the night before. The Lansinoh breast pad had absorbed a whole ton of milk that had come out when the plug let go during the night, and held it all. I was amazed, and totally sold. Now that's the only brand I want.

Now, as for haste making waste - I find that 8 days after giving birth, I am impatient for my body to go back to normal. My belly is shrinking every day, but I want it all the way back to normal and not sore anymore. My pelvis is still sore, but I want to be able to move around quickly and easily again. I do feel better every day, so I find myself doing too much and not just sitting and nursing like I should be. Slipshod is home and we've got family visiting on and off, so I really don't need to bust my butt around here, but I am one who craves accomplishment every day. I measure that accomplishment more in visible things like clean laundry, clean dishes, thank you notes written, etc. than in more important things like well-fed baby and rested Mama. Somebody glue me to the couch! Because my increase in activity is sometimes leading to more bleeding and today, sudden abdominal pains (after none since day of delivery). Argh.

Violet's Postpartum Picks

The wee one has been sucking me dry all day. Yesterday I was engorged and had fountains of milk for her, but I guess I didn't drink enough because today I was all squishy all day and she just couldn't get enough of the boobs!

Anyway, I think she's asleep now - oh, nope, she's staring at the ceiling. Oh well. We'll see how much I can type here before she figures out I'm not holding her and she has a wet diaper. Everyone else is asleep and I really should be too, but I wanted to pop a little something up here that I've been thinking about.

It's a list of things that I find extremely useful and possibly even indispensable after having a baby. Enjoy!

FROZEN PADS - made with (1/4 cup per pad) witch hazel poured onto big, thick maxi pads and then frozen. SO awesome for a week or more after labor. Thayer's witch hazel with aloe vera smells really nice, too. Store brands - not so much.

DEPENDS - frickin' awesome for holding said frozen pads and keeping your clothes and furniture dry. Love 'em.

AFTER PAIN TINCTURE, SITZ BATH HERBS, and GOLDENSEAL ROOT POWDER from Herb Lore. Pam, who owns Herb Lore, is awesome, as are her products. The after pain tincture works instantly in my case to relieve uterine cramping pains after birth. The sitz bath herbs just kinda make things feel better down there, and give you an excuse to have to sit in the bath tub and relax after you have a baby. ha ha! The goldenseal root powder dries up the baby's cord stump very quickly and is an infection fighter. Good stuff!

Oops, that's all I have time for. Baby crying. Must change diaper and once again try to get her to sleep so I can get my sorry ass to bed.

Pictures For You

Wow, the anticipation almosted killed blogger!

The demand for news of Laboring Mama was so intense that it brought all of blogger down this morning. Wow, I didn't know there were so many of you out there, and you should really lay off the refresh button. If you hit that button too often you'll go blind.

Anyway, here's some stats on the new family member:

8lbs 6 oz.
21 inches
BIG head (runs in the Slipshod family - drove Mama nuts when she found out about it. Of course that might have been because she was several months pregnant when she found out about the genetic traits in the family... )
Red Hair, just like her sister (though you can't see it in the picture)

It's a GIRL!!!

Our new daughter was born this morning, and everyone is happy and healthy. Spectacular waterbirth - Mama finally got her home birth. The family is happy and healthy, and Sweat Pea is excited to finally meet her sister.

More later. Daddy is HIGH on the birth-juju right now and can't sit in one place for long!

Mama went into labor, and it's for real.

More later, kind of busy.

Back to Normal Around Here

Okay, I SO feel like the boy who cried "wolf!" Apparently this baby is not going to come until we totally ignore the fact that I'm still pregnant and just go back to life as usual. I'm sending Slipshod back to work today, and I'll go about my usual routine with Sweet Pea. Dirty dishes, here I come. ha ha!

Maybe the baby's waiting until we finally choose a name for her... Geez, I don't really think that's going to happen until she's born, though, so she'd better just come on out.

We have to go for a prenatal visit tonight. I don't want to be in the car, especially not on the narrow, winding Santa Cruz Mountain roads, particularly the one with speed bumps. ARGH... Oh well, maybe those will help things along.

Julie, you're right, I don't think I'll get to MNO tonight - ha ha. Would love to see you, but going out in the car sucks - and we'll probably be just coming home from our prenatal appointment around the time that you all are getting together.

On the plus side, all of this "gearing up" has gotten me to sleep a LOT more in the past couple days. I've taken naps with Sweet Pea and gone to bed with her at night, which means I've added 3 to 4 extra hours to my time in bed, and I'm feeling the good effects of that.

Sweet Pea is so difficult to wake up (gives me hope for her not waking when the baby does after she's born) that we opted not to give her her 1:30am dose of Tylenol. It was hard enough to wake her up for it at 5:30am! She is fine again today. I haven't taken her temperature but she's EATING, YAY, and drinking, which she has been doing pretty well all along except for a couple hours on the bad bad day.

Slipshod did a ton of work around the house yesterday and the place looks awesome. I just hope he didn't hurt his hands & elbows too much. Somehow he even managed to move large pieces of furniture!

Well, we slept nice and late and now it's time for Sweet Pea and I to have some breakfast. Sorry about all the ups and downs with this, I'm really not just trying to get attention - ha ha! Our midwives think that this gearing up work my uterus is doing is really good, and that I should just go about my days as I'm doing today, ignoring it. One of the midwives said, "I always think that any contraction that can be ignored should be ignored."

Last night's contractions were much stronger than the previous night's, which is why once again I truly thought labor was starting - but oh well... it was nice to be able to go to bed early and get some sleep and not be in labor all night. But the baby's really got to come out soon. Really. I insist.

*** By the way... *** Yes, I did notice my husband's not-so-subtle infiltration of my blog. Yeesh. Geeks. Can't keep your computer safe from 'em, but they sure are handy when your computer hangs or crashes. Hee. My favorite part, besides that right on my blog he wrote, "shh, don't tell her..." was that I received an e-mail telling me that I had invited him to join my blog. ha ha ha! Dork.

OK, maybe not...

Laboring Mama has gone to sleep, and I'll be following shortly. The contractions settled down, but it did get my Mom to come down and bring us dinner! :)

That's all for now - maybe we'll have some good news tomorrow...

Looks like we're starting up again.

Mama is having regular contractions again, and they're noticably stronger. Looks like we may be in business again. Or not, while I was writing this they have slowed down. could be a long night one way or another.

Sweet Pea is still calling the baby "Boggle-Joggle" (oh sweet revenge some day, sis-inlaw), and seems to be largely back to normal. The fever is mostly gone - 99.3 last check.

Shhh. Don't tell anyone.

I added myself to the home daily news so I don't have to post as her, but she doesn't know it yet. This is the dark, never-spoken-outloud downside to marrying a geek - nothing on your PC is safe. Sure all the gadgets are cool, and the fast internet access is great... But your digital secrets are never safe from beady-little prying eyes.

Unless I'm too busy playing games on the Xbox 360.

Uh... okay, stand by.

Hi there,

This time it's me again. I just read Slipshod's post below from last night and got a giggle about the way he wrote some things.

Sweet Pea appears to be better today - her temperature is all the way back to normal and she is talking and playing and actually EATING a little bit. But we're still taking her to see the doctor at 11am. And we gave her a dose of medicine after we got up and her temp was normal - don't want to have a repeat of yesterday!

As for labor, dude, I have no idea what's going on. I had contractions throughout the night and my belly is sore but I was also able to get decent sleep, which is great. Found that setting an alarm for Sweet Pea's medicine times helped me to sleep much more restfully between doses (the past two nights I figured I'd be getting up to pee anyway, so I'd be awake at the right times - but my potty breaks didn't actually mesh with medicine times most of the night).

Anyway - I am still having contractions every time I move and they feel stronger than Braxton Hicks contractions, but nothing else is going on, and they're not regular. This morning Slipshod suggested that perhaps my mind is holding off labor until I'm sure that Sweet Pea is out of the woods. When I spoke with one of our midwives this morning, she said the same thing and suggested that maybe when we've been to the doctor and I'm feeling better about Sweet Pea's illness, maybe I'll let go and let labor begin. But she also said, "just play, go for walks, have a great day and don't think about it. It's not a mind game."

I was kinda grumpy when I woke up because I kinda feel like, "okay, if I'm in labor, let's get going and get it over with." Oh well. The baby's moving a lot, which is reportedly good. Stay tuned for further developments.

An amusing anecdote from this morning: Slipshod's cell phone rang in a weird phone-sounding way, and Sweet Pea asked me what that noise was. I told her that it was Daddy's phone and she said, "no, it's the baby! It's her voice!" ha ha ha! Geez, I hope not.

Baby watch begins...

This is Slipshod, guest-posting for the laboring Mama. She's been having contractions for a couple of hours now, though they are not regular nor frequent. They are reported as being "stronger than a BH" and "Oh yeah, that's a contraction."
We've let the Midwives and Dula know, and are settling down for the night to get some rest. Unfortunately the big sister came down with something evil on Friday, and is fighting off a fever that got quite high today (praise be to Motrin and Tylenol, for in their glory we find salvation from fever). Got a bit excited when it went higher than 103F, though the advice nurse talked me down. Appearantly as long as she's not _actively_ exhibiting signs of brain damage it's no big deal. Or something like that. It sounded good at the time anyway, and after the Tylenol she started acting like herself again. So looks like we're continuing the medication rotation (or the analgesic shuffle if you prefer) tonight to make sure this thing is banished. Grandma may end up taking her to the Doctor tomorrow if we're "otherwise occupied".
Anyway looks like tonight/tomorrow could be a long day. Keep us in your thoughts and wish the Mama a short and complication-free birth. We're both eagerly awaiting the new addition to the family - even though we don't know her name yet. Maybe we should talk about that sometime, it might be important.

Cheers,
Slipshod

*Yawn*

Okay, first night in new bed not as deliriously wonderful as I was hoping it would be.

Sweet Pea has adopted a very annoying habit of whining lately, which we're trying to break her of. She was whining during dinner last night and wanted me to keep my arm around her while I was trying to eat (yeah, the one with the hand on it that I was using to get the food to my face). She hardly ate all day long, and wasn't opening her mouth all the way at dinner even when I tried to feed her. She didn't want to drink. We told her that if she was too tired, we could just take her to bed. She chose that option. That should have been a tip-off that something was wrong, but I just put her to bed and we didn't think too much of it.

When I got into bed hours later and touched her naked back, my hand practically burned off! I told myself that she was just hot because she had a sheet and light blanket on. I pulled down the covers and waited for her to cool off. But she didn't. And her breath seemed to be coming too quickly. So I finally asked Slipshod to get the thermometer and a cup of water. He did, and the thermometer did its job and started beeping frantically within seconds. It read, "102.7." YIKES! Sweet Pea did not want more than two sips of water. We gave her Motrin and all went back to sleep.

I kept waking up to feel her skin to make sure she wasn't burning anymore. I kept waking up to make trips to the bathroom to relieve my poor squished bladder. I kept waking up because I was really hot, even though I wasn't sleeping with any covers on (this is not new - it's a nightly occurrence while I'm pregnant; doesn't matter how cool or warm it is in the house). I worried about Sweet Pea, but also about whether or not I will get sick from her, which is particularly frightening to me since I'm due NOW and need whatever strength I have for labor.

Her skin cooled down pretty quickly after we gave her the Motrin, and did not heat up to burning again during the night. Her temperature is still around 100 this morning, but we can deal with that. She is acting normal and says she feels fine. Hopefully she'll eat. And she is drinking today - hooray! She loves popsicles so if she stops drinking again later I'll give her a couple of those to get some liquid into her. Actually, I think I have some homemade ones in the freezer that I made with Pedialite.

As for the bed, it was so nice that all three of us could be in there together, and having another body in bed bought me some space! Sweet Pea started sleeping RIGHT up against me during the winter and never stopped, and that can be difficult to deal with when I'm getting up multiple times at night, not to mention trying to turn my whale-sized body over several times during the night. Last night she rolled over and magnetized herself to Slipshod, and I had all kinds of room! I don't know how well he slept because he was crammed over all the way to his side, I think, and was probably trying not to squish her. But I'll tell you what, he got plenty of sleep for the many hours I had to listen to him snoring. I forgot to mention that on my list of reasons I kept waking up. Ugh. Gotta get used to his night noises again.

And no, I'm still not in labor. Stay tuned!

**** Note 4.5 hours after waking: My throat hurts and is slightly red. Sweet Pea is still not eating, except for popsicles. I'm guessing her throat hurts too. I gave her some Kids Chloraseptic spray a half hour ago. Her temperature is back up slightly past 102. AUGH! DAMMIT! We can't be sick right now! Especially me! But at least she is still acting normal and wanting to play. That makes me feel better about the fever. It's when she gets listless that I worry.

Not Yet

Okay, if you're checking by here to see if I'm in labor, no, I'm not. Today is my due date, and I seriously think that if this baby gets any lower she'll be hanging between my knees, but nothing yet. I thought I was starting labor between 5 & 7pm two evenings ago, but then it stopped.

The California contingent of my family is officially all out of state as of today - Mom and Dad flew out this morning to the East Coast for my oldest niece's high school graduation next Tuesday, and my sister and brother-in-law have already been there for nearly a week. They were all loathe to go knowing that I'll most likely have the baby while they're gone, but whaddaya gonna do. I think it was important for them all to go to my niece's graduation. She has always lived across the country from us so we haven't been able to watch her grow up, and I think that makes it especially important for them to go celebrate this milestone with her. Plus, she will remember them all being there for her special day, whereas the baby will not remember a single thing about her birth, much less who was around to come see her right after she was born.

We DO have some exciting news around our house today, though - we FINALLY got our big, cushy, soft, luscious, huge new bed delivered! YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I am SO excited. I'm washing tons of bedding today so we can sleep on it tonight. It is a California King and we have never had anything bigger than a double, if you can believe that, until now. Which means that all of the sheets and stuff are new too. I washed one set a couple weeks ago but let the others sit because it didn't look like we were getting the bed anytime soon. So today I've washed the second set and they're in the dryer, and the kick-ass waterproof mattress pad is in the washer, and after that I just need to wash the light blanket, and then we can make up the bed. Since I'm pregnant we have to make it with waterproofing in case my water breaks while I'm in bed, and since we're doing a homebirth we're double making it with waterproof pads under each set of sheets so that if my water does actually break in bed, or if I do part of my labor in the bed and the top set of sheets gets dirty, after the baby's born and it's time for bed or if I just want to get into bed afterward, which I imagine I will, our birth attendants will be able to just strip off the top set of sheets/plastic and the bed will already be made with a fresh set.

Whee...

Anyway - Sweet Pea is absolutely thrilled with the new bed and that we now have a bed big enough for Daddy to sleep in with us too. So tonight all three of us will snuggle in there together. Yay! When the baby's born she will sleep in a co-sleeper snugged up to my side of the bed, like Sweet Pea did for her first 9 months of life.

Well, even though we have made it to my due date and finally gotten the big bedroom clean enough to have the new bed delivered, we still have a bunch of work to do. More boxing up of stuff in the big bedroom (the bed's in there with two computer desks and a book rack - doesn't exactly look or feel like a bedroom yet, and our bedroom furniture & all our clothes are still in the smaller room), even more gathering of birth supplies, and preparation of notes to family, etc. about how to operate the washer and dryer, what Sweet Pea likes to eat (not much!), and very important things like Sweet Pea's OCD yogurt smoothie ritual. Gotta let Grandma know about that in advance so we don't have a screaming Sweet Pea while I'm in labor. ha ha!

Just for kicks, here's how the yogurt smoothie ritual goes:

Adult opens refrigerator.
Sweet Pea selects yogurt smoothie from bottom shelf in fridge door.
Sweet Pea goes and kneels on bench at kitchen table.
Sweet Pea shakes yogurt smoothie.
Sweep Pea hands bottle to adult.
ADULT DOES NOT SHAKE YOGURT SMOOTHIE!
Adult unscrews bottle cap and removes foil cover from top of bottle, then lets go of bottle.
Sweet Pea picks up bottle and slowly and carefully, by herself, pours yogurt smoothie into cup (she's actually very good at this - I only had to tell her once that she had to pour it slowly and carefully so she didn't spill, and she hasn't spilled since).
Sweet Pea picks up lid and attempts to put it on cup.
Adult is usually permitted to hold cup while Sweet Pea is pouring smoothie, and to help put lid on cup if it is a snap-on type. Otherwise, if we're using a screw-on lid, she puts it on by herself.

This is her most OCD ritual so far, though other things do come up from time to time, and it has become really important to her to at least attempt doing most things by herself. I'm thrilled to have her doing stuff by herself and feeling so excited and proud about it. Very good timing. Now if she'll just decide it's time to potty train.