Filed under For better or for worse …

Oct 02 2010
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Childbirth, Fav Post, For better or for worse, Happy Thoughts, Parenthood, Pregnancy, Sickness and Health

A Princess is Born

Not sure if I’m going to stick with this moniker (read about its origin here) … we’ll see.

Yesterday, at 5:23 pm, our little girl came into the world. I started the Pitocin at 8:45 am (ish) and the doctor broke my water around 9:30, I think. Then the contractions started and I wimped out — getting the epidural around 10:45. The original nurse made a prediction of 1:00 pm and I think that got my hopes up. So when 3:00 rolled around and the next nurse came in and stated I was only dialated 3-4 cm, I was very discouraged. She along with my surrogate nurse, my MIL (who did wonderfully, BTW, in keeping my spirits high), kept informing me of the major contractions I was having, trying to cheer me up (I was REALLY numb and couldn’t even feel my left leg).

But then the epidural started to wear off and I could feel a little more pain and pressure (I kept telling the nurse it felt like I had to poop really bad and had severe constipation cramps) and the contractions were definitely strong. DH helped by reminding me of the breathing techniques. By 4:00, I had dialated to 5 cm and by 5:00 I was at 10 — with a “top off” on the epidural for the finale!

The doctor came in and within 5 contractions and 10 pushes, our little girl was out! It was SOOOO easy. Thank God for modern medicine!

Sep 27 2010
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Childbirth, Deep Thoughts, For better or for worse, Pregnancy

Random pre-game thoughts

No, not football.  Birth (I’m sure many of you already guessed this.)

I WANT MY BODY BACK!  In the worst way, seriously.  People keep telling me that I should cherish this time because at least I’m not getting up in the middle of the night.  These people obviously either A) have never been pregnant or B) have completely forgotten what the end of the third trimester is like.  I’m already getting up at least 4 times a night to “pee” — I’m using quotes because sometimes it feels like I’m going to pee 5 cups full and all I get is a tiny weeny trickle.  Not to mention the hip pain which causes me to switch positions, oh I dunno, maybe 25 times a night (poor DH having to deal with that).  Anyway, wah.  Looking forward to fitting into real clothes and being able to move about without pain or feeling breathless.

It has really come to my attention recently that DH and I have this parenting one kid thing down.  We’re pretty good at just taking responsibility for various tasks and chores and the load on most nights is pretty evenly split (depending on work schedules, etc.).  And here we are, brilliantly adding another human being to the equation.  Reminds me of that one New Order line, “Work your way to the top of the world, then break your life in two.”  That’s what we’re doing essentially.  I only pray that since we’ve assimilated one kid into our lives and finally have it down that the next round will be shorter.

The big day is Friday.  I decided to get induced this time for a number of reasons.  As many of you can probably tell from recent posts, I don’t make the best pregnancy candidate.  I HATE being pregnant.  But giving Monkey the sibling I never had was important for me, thus the second go at this.  Also about 3 weeks ago, the sonogram tech said that baby girl was 6 pounds.  And if she truly gained a pound per week since then, well then she’s 9 pounds now and would have been 10 by her original due date.  Didn’t quite find the idea of squeezing out a 10 pound baby that appealing and I really want to avoid a cesarean.  Monkey was born vaginally and it went well.  I’m hoping for the same this time.

I’m nervous about this decision because I’ve read too much crap online basically.  The doctor has assured me that getting induced doesn’t mean automatic cesarean or two days worth of labor.  And I’ve done my own poll of friends/co-workers and the majority of them who were induced didn’t go much beyond 8 hours (the same as what the doctor said).  It’s hard not to worry though.  Am I pushing things too much?  What if something goes wrong?  Will I then regret getting induced?  I need to put these thoughts out of my head and just trust that my doctor is correct and that everything will be fine.

Sorry for the randomness of this post.  Blame it on the hormones. :)

Sep 03 2010
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For better or for worse, Letters to Monkey

11 rules your kids did not and will not learn in school

A co-worker of mine added a link to this guy’s note on her Facebook page (you may have already seen if  you’re on FB).  Not sure if Bill Gates really said these things or not but I thought I’d post them here for future reference for myself and my kids.

Rule 1: Life is not fair – get used to it!

Rule 2: The world doesn’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

Aug 09 2010
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For better or for worse, Parenthood

Multitasking Fool

I posted earlier tonight on FB that I’m a multitasking fool.  And I think it bares further explanation as to the magnitude of the multitasking I was performing.

Within a fifteen minute span, I was cooking a grilled cheese for Monkey’s dinner (this happens often when I have to work at night), peeling a carrot as his “side dish”, printing out copies of instructions for tomorrow’s meeting at the client, testing workflows for another project AND posting on Facebook.  Plus fielding the numerous questions Monkey usually throws my way like “Can I have cookie?  What about after dinner?  Can I watch Mickey?  Where is daddy?  Is he bringing me something special?”

I hate the nights I have to work in order to meet deadlines or make up for other mishaps at work.  But to pat myself on the back, I handled it pretty well tonight.

Aug 03 2010
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For better or for worse, Parenthood

Juggling Two

In roughly two months, we’ll be embarking on a new phase of our parenting journey … raising TWO.  This concept still scares me and most days I just try to ignore the nagging thoughts of “How will Monkey take it?”, “How can I juggle their bedtimes, feeding (especially breastfeeding)?”, “Where will I find the energy to do it all?”  There are many other thoughts I try to suppress regularly for fear of drowning my brain in situation planning or forecasting but those three questions I would say are my top worries.  With the energy one, I’d like to finally get rid of the baby fat since this IS OUR LAST KID so help me.

So my question to all of  you out there dealing with two OR MORE kids, how do you handle …

Jealousy?  Feelings of neglect from kid A or from others?

Bedtimes?  Feeding times?  BREASTFEEDING … in front of kid A or no?

Energy, sleep woes and exercise?

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