Last Year: A Birth Story

OUR DUE DATE

I went to the salon to get a haircut. I had long hair and I wanted it gone. The lady at the salon was surprised at my response to her question, "when are you due?" I said I was due to give birth that day.

That night, I felt some mild contractions but didn't think too much about it. I went to bed at 10:00 pm to make sure I could get some sleep (one I didn't get with our first child because I went in labor right after I folded our clothes at 10:00 pm). 

THE BIG DAY

At around 2:00am, I was awoken to painful cramps on my belly. I still thought it was false labor so I stuck it out. With our first, I had some spotting at home, and my water bag broke at about 6 cm. dilation (we were already at the hospital and was preparing to get an epidural). So I was waiting for one of those two things with our second baby. I didn't time it anymore because I could tell it was consistent and the pain was increasing.

I decided to take a shower with hopes that it will alleviate the pain a little bit. It was 3:00 am. Everybody was still sleeping (our son, my sister, and YES my husband who was even snoring in bed). I was trying to deal with the pain as quietly as I could because I didn't want to wake up our little guy. The shower definitely helped. 

At 4:00 am, I decided it's time to disturb my husband. I tried to lie down to get some sleep. It was really painful but I haven't had any spotting yet so I thought I was probably just at 3 or 4 cm. I was groaning silently here and there and that woke my husband up. I told him, "yeah I'm definitely in labor." I asked him to blow up our big bouncy ball. Poor guy was still so sleepy when he was pumping some air into that ball. I tried to use it but to no comfort at all. So I just did what I've been doing all along without the ball. I told my husband the contractions were definitely more frequent and more painful with only a few seconds of interval in between. The funny thing was, he asked me to tell him when to take a shower before we go to the hospital. I was in labor (yeah, great excuse, right?) and I thought, "Oh yeah he'll take a shower right when I want to go" so I snapped and told him, "take it now!" It was funny - just like the movies!

At around 4:30 am, I called the hospital and the nurse told me to wait it out.

"Go take a shower."

"I already did that."

"Have you had any spotting yet?"

"No, but I'm telling you it's really painful and more frequent."

"Well, just wait it out, see if it still goes or not."

Sad, huh! She wouldn't listen to me! So I waited (painfully) 'til 6:00 am, dealing with the pain as quietly as I could (yeah, I was groaning with my face down flat on our mattress). 

At 6:10 am, I told Jesse we have to go. It was really painful but I could still bear it but I wanted to be around some people who knew what to do just in case I was ready to deliver. The hospital was just 15-20 mins. away but it felt like forever. The passenger seat was one of the most uncomfortable place any woman in labor could ever be in. 

We parked quite close to the entrance of the building but it seemed like it took us forever to get there (I had really painful contractions every 10 seconds or so - or at least that's how it felt like because I've only made 5 or 10 steps and another contraction was there). There wasn't anybody at the reception area so we used the phone (there was a note saying to call them) and an Indian nurse came out. She was so calm and taking things VERY SLOWLY! She didn't even put me in a wheelchair! I walked the whole way to the delivery room - I felt like I couldn't walk anymore. As soon as we entered the room, I told her I want an epidural (very wrong decision!).

I changed my clothes and she was still taking things slowly. It was around 6:40 am. She measured me and you can tell in her voice that she freaked out a bit when she said, "Oh! You're 8 1/2 cm. dilated!" Both my husband and I were like, "what?!?" Haha! I asked her if it was too late for the epidural (that's what I thought) and she said she'll see what the anesthesiologist will say because he's on his way. But he didn't say anything. By the time he arrived, I was probably more than 8 1/2 cm. I seriously think he just wanted to get paid. One of the things I hated while waiting for him was signing some paperwork in-between and during my contractions. I mean, come on! WOMAN IN LABOR HERE! And the nurse who answered my call earlier was there and introduced herself to me, "I was the one who answered your call." I thought to my head, "Oh yeah! Well so much for not believing I am in labor, huh!"

After 5 painful tries, the anesthesiologist finally got the epidural in (the first 3 were "wrong" pokes and the 4th one was right but the catheter broke so he had to remove it and do it again). It was literally painful!!! I seriously thought it was more painful than my contractions. I was crying without any sound, just tears flowing endlessly down my face. I know he could've done better. The anesthesiologist who gave it to me with our first baby did it only in one strike, and I wasn't even as steady as I was with our second baby. When I was getting an epidural with our first baby, the nurse didn't even help me sit still (that's when my water bag broke). But with our second child, our Indian nurse helped me stay still (and I was) and that guy had to poke me 5 times!!! The only thing I hate about epidurals is that it hurts my back so bad after a few hours of delivering the baby (and goes on for weeks) and it makes my labor a lot slower.

At 9:30am, they broke my water bag with hopes to speed things up. It's one of the things I hated. What's the rush? I wasn't in any risky situation, he wasn't tangled, blah blah blah. The baby will come when he wants. No need to break my bag. But I didn't say anything.

We thought we were going to have a different ob/gyn for my delivery because my ob/gyn was going to go camping with her husband and his family that day for a week. At 9:45am, she popped through the door. We were glad to have OUR ob/gyn there. At 10:00 am, I started pushing. I was so numb (more numb than I was with our first) that I couldn't feel where to push. With our first, I at least felt where it's supposed to be. It took me 30 mins. to push J out (10 mins. with our first). I'm glad she tried everything to avoid giving me an episiotomy. 

At 10:30 am, our 8 lbs. 6 oz. and 20 inches baby joined our little family with a big cry.

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE FELLA! It's been a fun journey with you in our family. 

39...

I haven't updated this blog for a while. I haven't had the time to blog lately because I usually used my son's nap time (the time I usually use to blog) to take a short nap as well.

Well, I had my second to the last appointment last Tuesday, the 9th. My doctor said I'm already at 3 cm. She thinks my labor/delivery will be quick. I hope so. She also thinks this baby will be smaller than Caleb so we'll see. I guessed otherwise.

We're basically pretty much settled down now in our new home. Although I'm pretty sure a house is harder to clean than an apartment, I'm still glad we're done with apartment living. It's our first time to live in a house since we got married.. and it's so good. We just need a few more items for our little one before his birth, and a little bit of cleaning here and there then we're good to go.

When I was pregnant with our first baby, the last week seemed the longest wait for me. This time around, the last 2 weeks seemed too long. Maybe it's because I still had 5 weeks left in my pregnancy when my doctor told me I was 2.5 cm. dilated. I really hope I can go into labor sometime before next Saturday (the 20th) so that I can have my doctor deliver our baby (she'll be gone during the week I am due). But first, I need to finish packing up our hospital bag.. haha! I'll be 39 weeks this weekend.

I Got By With A LOT of Help....

Today was kind of an interesting day and I just want to write it down so I can write it down in my journal once I catch up again (I'm more than a month behind).

I signed up for babysitting in my ward at our Church here in our area BEFORE I got pregnant in hopes that I can somehow help my husband earn some income. A few weeks ago a sister from our ward emailed me asking if I wanted to do babysitting for her, 3 consecutive days a week from 7:30am-4:30pm for three weeks. I was like, "sure"  (because I could still move around freely those days even though I had my baby bump already). I figured I would be done by June which would be my "uncomfortable" month to move around belly-wise. But then she got back to me asap and told me that she didn't need me to babysit for her anymore which I totally understood.

Then yesterday morning, I opened my email and BAM! There she was again - a last minute favor to babysit for her (today and tomorrow). Unfortunately I have something coming up tomorrow but I agreed to babysit for her today because I felt bad saying no. She just seemed like she needed someone to look after her kids. Anyway, I wasn't sure how I was going to do it, though, because I have been really uncomfortable moving around lately. I didn't think she'd want me to be her permanent babysitter (knowing that I'm pregnant) so I didn't charge her (she was asking how much I want to charge her).

It was a good learning experience. Ever since the kids (3 and 5 y.o.) got out of their car, I've been wondering how my stay-at-home sister-in-law ever did it when she was pregnant with their 4th child.. or any other parent for that matter. I guess what made it kind of "stressful" for me was the fact that I didn't have it slowly, it wasn't like an additional child in our family every year or so - it was BOOM! Here you go with two more kids TODAY (making it three if you count my son)! And that freaked me out, I guess. Plus, I am very much inexperienced taking care of children older than 2 years old. Sure, I taught the primary (ages 4-7 y.o.) in Hawai'i but it was only for an hour. This day was different, it was longer than 1 hour. 

Well, I'm glad to say that I didn't just do it alone. My very good friend (and the bombest.com person ever) Erin helped me out. The older child was asking for a videogame as soon as he walked into our door earlier this morning - and we didn't have any. We don't even have cable to have them watch something and I didn't want to let them spend the whole day watching movies. I figured they might get bored being stuck in our little condo. So I let them play a little while with my son's toys (it's pretty cool how creative kids can get with their imaginations) while I asked Erin if she could help me take the kids to the park. Luckily, she said yes. I didn't have the kids' car seats so we had to walk ... under the hot sunlight ... before lunchtime... only to get there and they didn't want to play much. Well at least we tried. It was a good thing I had a stroller and a little bike so at least only one of the three kids had to walk (they all took turns walking). 

I felt like I was going to pass out on our walk home from the park (it was darn too far to walk and too hot). Erin was really so nice to me when we got home. I thought she was going to go home as soon as she helped me take the kids back to my home. But she stayed with me and did so much in helping me feed the children some lunch. Now I know it can really get frantic when you have more than 2 kids. I almost always forgot about my own son ... and I always forgot what I was about to do and for who. My mind was occupied with different things (and being pregnant doesn't help remembering things either) while the children asked for this and that at the same time. Other than the mealtimes (I also served them breakfast this morning from our own stash because all they had packed for them was their food for lunch), everything else was better (though not mellow) because they were just content playing with each other. My son was kind of left out all the time, though, but that's okay. He's still trying to learn some social skills because he mostly spends his days just with me. I did encourage him every now and then to join the other two children in their "pretend-play." I guess their pretend-play is far too advanced for him and he still couldn't talk in a complete sentence which made it harder for him to play with them.

I tried to put them down for a nap, all three of them. But the siblings just wouldn't go to bed. The little girl (3 y.o.) was really tired but her older brother kept playing with her in our bedroom so she couldn't sleep. We (Erin and I) waited and tried quite a few times to let them take a nap but it was just hard because the older brother just wouldn't take a nap. So I decided to stay with them in our bedroom (I was exhausted too) and Erin went home to take a nap. It wasn't long 'til I snoozed a little bit and the little girl fell asleep (they behaved the whole time I was there). The two boys (the older brother and my son) didn't take a nap, though. C RARELY doesn't go down for a nap by himself. Today was one of those days. 

Their mom picked them up an hour earlier than she said she would which is always a good thing. I had to wake up the little girl from her nap, though. I cleaned up our little condo (a place where it looked like a tornado just passed by) before Jesse came home and it reminded me of the post (a joke) I had earlier about stay-home moms. All in all, they were nice children with great imaginations and I learned a lot from them today - especially on how it MIGHT (because not every family is the same) look like for me someday.

I Won't Have it Any Other Way

My mother's day has been a very simple day so far. But I love it the way it is.

Our little kiddo woke us (actually, just me) up this morning at 9:30am. We bugged Daddy for a while in our bedroom before I got ready to start the day. I didn't even remember that it's Mother's Day today. I was busy doing my usual morning routine with C. When we got out to the living room, Jesse was already awake and up even though he looked like he still could go to sleep for another hour. Then he greeted me, "Happy Mother's Day!" That's only when I remembered what day it is today.

I was taking care of C when Jesse asked me what I wanted for breakfast. I didn't want him to fix me anything (because I don't eat breakfast), but I really found it sweet and very thoughtful. Then he washed some dishes for me (C's things mostly). He was really looking for something to do for me today and it really made me feel special and appreciated.

Right at this moment, he is making our dinner - coconut shrimp with apricot sauce/dip - which I found yesterday in one of our cookbooks (Betty Crocker cookbook). I was originally the one who was going to make it tonight. Today at Church, he told me he's going to make our dinner instead... and here he is now being the sweetest chef in the world in our little kitchen.

C gave me lots of kisses today both at home and at Church. It's been a while since he really cuddled with me for a long time (since I got my baby bump) without getting distracted by other things. Today he cuddled with me at Church and when we got home after. Also he was a very good boy at Church today during the sacrament meeting. He's always been an easy little fella but today he was twice as easy at Church. I love it when he says, "I la loo Mommy" or "I la loo Daddy" (I love you Mommy/Daddy). It just makes my heart melt.

Our little one was a bit more behaved today inside my belly. He's more active than C was when he was in my belly. But today he decided to be mellow, even though he still gave me strong jabs here and there once in a while.

This is my second mother's day holiday so far and this has been the simplest one (last year Jesse took me to this massage place for a full-body massage) but guess what...

I won't have it any other way!

I love spending time with my man and my little guy. I love playing games with Jesse. For one I think it's funny and kinda cute when he gets all competitive. I love playing with our son. He's so cute I could squeeze and kiss his cheeks all day long. I love feeling our little one inside my belly. They all make me happy more than the gifts I receive. No material things or hours of full-body massage can compare to the joy I feel by just being with them than anywhere else in the world. I love my little family so much! The acts of appreciation for me is more than enough. I feel so blessed to have them... my boys (oh my I'm being outnumbered). I am especially thankful and really appreciative of my sweet husband who always makes me feel special both on special days and on regular, ordinary days - well, even much more on special days like our anniversary, mother's day, my birthday, and Christmas. I often feel that I haven't done enough for him and he has done so much for me. 

Outback Special

We had another appointment with my ob/gyne yesterday.

She was running late.

There were too many of us there waiting for her

instead of the other doctors.

We waited in the lobby for over an hour.

They had t.v. in the lobby so I watched the Travel channel first,

then it became the Food channel (that's what it said).

They showed different steakhouse restaurants,

and it felt like total torture (hunger-wise) for me... 

because I was hungry right at that moment

(it was lunchtime)

AND I've been craving steak for a long time now.

By the time we were called, everybody else was gone

(except for one more person besides us).

Then we just sat in the room for about less than 5 mins.

They didn't do any other check-up other than

the baby's heart (but we didn't know the heart rate).

The nurse then told me my doctor has to leave

(we haven't seen her that day yet)

because she's late for her scheduled c-section.

It was really frustrating.

I was kind of upset but I let it go because

I know that she is where she needs to be and that pregnant lady in labor

might be going crazy right then waiting for her.

I spent the whole afternoon almost by myself

because C took a nap right after we got home 

(after his lunch)

'til about a half an hour before Jesse came home from work.

He's really a good sleeper.
We put him back in his room AGAIN 3 days ago and

he's been sleeping on his own both for his naptimes and bedtimes.

Anyway, Jesse called me up on his way home from work

and surprised me with a dinner date with my

choice of place to eat.
He gave me some options and I just said, "OUTBACK!"

"... 'cause I'm sure they have steak!"

Hahaha!

He even arranged a babysitting schedule for C before

letting me know about it.
Our friends were C's babysitters that night! :)

Oh, I felt so pregnant (I usually don't) yesterday night.
The waitress asked for our order and I was like,
"I'd like to try the Outback Special..."

Her: "Ok. You have two choice of sides."
Me: "Ok.. Aussie Fries and mashed potatoes."
Her: "Ok." (started turning to Jesse to for his order)

Me: "OH! And can I have the grilled shrimp with that too?"

Hahahaha!!!

Sorry lady, pregnant lady was starving!
I just thought it was funny.

When she served us the food, I had tons on my plate.

(I just found this picture on Live to Feast's blog)

It looked exactly like that one on the picture,
with the mashed potato included (not in the picture).
I told Jesse I felt like a starving pig.

(Good thing I only ordered the smallest portion of the meat - 6 oz.) 

He just gave me a smile.
What a stud! I love that guy!

Oh and I finished everything!

YOU SHOULD TRY IT! It's awesomely good!

Lately...

Well, I'm 15 weeks pregnant now.

My baby bump is showing just a little bit now,
especially whenever I wear my new jeans from Motherhood Maternity.
(Have you ever noticed how ridiculously expensive good maternity clothes are?
Except when you buy them from Ross, of course, or Walmart).

I go to bed at the same time our son goes to bed.

I try - ALL THE TIME - not to, because hubby wants/needs my company

every night (let's watch "24"... shall we?)
We just recently finished the last season of 24 which I am happy about.
We watched 5 episodes (45 minutes each) on our
last night watching it.

In 2 weeks, we'll find out the gender of our baby.
We are planning to do it this way:
Jesse will be the only one to know first, and then
he'll/we'll do something soon enough that will let me know the gender
of the baby.
I'm excited!

C is learning to express himself more and more each day,
including his tantrums - which are not so bad.
He's pretty good with time-outs, although he'll cry at first.
He tries to talk now even though most of the time
they're still just babbled words.
Sometimes I can make out what he's trying to say,
sometimes I can't.
When we can't, he'll take our fingers (he'll say "hand"), and take us
to wherever he was talking about.
It's really cute.
All in all, he's a happy little guy, and very easy to take care of.
I love his sweet personality.

Baby #2

We had our first appointment two days ago.

We finally saw our baby!

Caleb was such a good boy the whole time,

and he seemed really curious at the ultrasound image.
We told him that the baby in the picture is his little sibling.

He's still kind of oblivious about it all, I think.

Anyway, our doctor is really nice.

She is really friendly.

We were actually in doubt at first if she IS really our doctor

because she looked young to be one and 

she was really friendly. 

We were expecting somebody like Dr. Chapman 

whom we had in Hawai'i (really serious person).

Dr. Ivie (our doctor now) just seemed like one of the nurses there,

but no, she's our doctor and I'm glad to have her.

She made everything exciting and friendly.

The staff were really nice and friendly, too.

They said I was 13 weeks and 3 days pregnant

and that my due date will be on Aug. 20.

When Dr. Ivie did the ultrasound, she was like, 

"oh yeah, you are very far along, all right!"

I was surprised to see the baby, too.

I was expecting like a peanut-size, no-baby-figure kind of image

before I saw the ultrasound,

but our baby is there in a baby form! 

We saw the heartbeat.

So cute.

back side

hello world!

We will know the gender next month.

Maybe I can ask our doctor to get us some

"feetsies" shot.. :) 

Emotional Roller Coaster #1

So here's the thing...

I've been looking forward to this day since we got back

from the Philippines.
This was supposed to be the day that we'll see

if there's really someone in my belly.

You see, since the day I found out I was pregnant,
it seemed unreal - up to this point.

Except for the food cravings every once in a while

and the need for nap times more than ever,

I feel normal.

Even much more normal than I did when I was pregnant with Caleb.

Add my "still kind of flat" (but feels bloated) belly to that,

I don't feel pregnant at all.

Two lines won't be enough for me,

though I am already grateful for that confirmation.

But I still need to see our peanut-sized (or is it smaller?) baby.

I understand that we should've arrived a little earlier

than my scheduled appointment today.
But come on... 4 mins. late wasn't that bad!

The receptionist was still going to let me go through the check-up, 

but not even a minute after we got in 

(I literally haven't finished writing my first name),

the Dr. called and said she's leaving.

AND THEY DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING TO HER!
I was there!

I would understand if we weren't there and they had to reschedule us,

but we were there.

I was literally holding back my tears while the receptionist

rescheduled my appointment for next month on the 11th.

I guess that's another confirmation, besides the two lines,

that I am pregnant.
I was so emotional today, I cried.

Poor Jesse.

I didn't want him to see it but I couldn't hold it back anymore

as we started driving back home.