Working on that new body

Well, I've taken greater steps at becoming healthier.  I've cut 99% of the crap out of my diet and really focusing on wholesome and organic foods to feed myself and subsequently my baby.  On one of my favorite blogs, Le Petit Owlet, she writes about all the benefits of juicing and got to try out The Healthy Juicer.  Reading about this awesome contraption on their website has me convinced not only of the benefits of juicing, but also of wheatgrass!  On all the research I've done throughout the years on PCOS and infertility in general, I've heard of the amazing benefits of wheatgrass on egg quality, but had no idea all the other added ones such as organ detoxification and immune system boosting.  I'm sold!  I'll be adding wheatgrass to my Whole Foods grocery list from now on.  Maybe I'll even be able to win the Healthy Juicer since Le Petit Owlet is giving it away on her blog!  Check it out!  :)

28

It's my birthday today and I'm a mommy.  It's pretty crazy to look back on everything that happened in one year.  Even though this day will probably be the most lowkey birthday I've ever had, it will most definitely be the most profound.  I look at my little Judebug and wonder how I got so blessed.  He is truly my everything.

No major plans for today.  Phil and I are going to go grab dinner at a deelish Mexican restaurant and my parents will watch Jude for the evening.  I sure miss being away from him, I'm so attached!  It's hard working full time during the week that I feel absolutely guilty when I go on a date or have to be away from him for any period of time on the weekends.  This is why I feel practicing the B's of Attachment Parenting works so well for a family whose parents both work fulltime.  We are able to bond every second we are together, and that means the world to us.

In an attempt to lose all my extra baby weight that I am STILL carrying around, I am starting P90X on Monday.  I know a few people who are dedicated to it and they are seriously RIPPED.  So, after Jude goes to bed every evening, I will be dedicating an hour a day to this regime.  I used to dance 8 hours a day, 6 days a week for years, so I'm not worried about the physical demands or the dedication that is required of me.  The only worry I have is if it will have any impact on my milk supply.  I always hear of people warning about starting up a fitness routine causing their milk supply to tank.  I've been looking into this alot over the past few weeks and it seems like the warnings are more towards newer breastfeeding moms whose supply hasn't been established yet.  On kellymom.com, she mentions some studies that point to milk supply increasing with more physical activity.  Also, breastfeeding immediately after cardio could cause a fussy reacion in the baby due to lactic acid buildup in the breastmilk, but this should subside in about an hour post- working out.  I'm already taking fenugreek, blessed thistle, eating oatmeal and drinking tons of water to keep my milk supply going strong at 8 months.  I want Jude to have nothing but breastmilk (and solids) until one year.  I didn't realize how important it was to me until my supply started to tank around 6 months.  I've been doing everything possible to keep up with his demands in regards to my pumping output and so far, things have worked. 

I will report on my P90X progress in this blog.  I will also be posting before pics soon.  Ouch.

I'm Back (and Jude's birth story)

I feel so awful that I've neglected this blog when really, it should be such a wonderful way to document and remember my sweet baby boy and his little life! I guess I should go back to where we left off. It looks like my last post was from 36 weeks. I'll recap:

On June 17, I was at work and I started to have crampy lower back pain. It was the kind of back pain I usually get whenever AF arrives, so it wasn't completely unbearable. I continued to work throughout the day and before I left to go home, stopped to go to the restroom. Lo and behold, I had lost my mucous plug! Still, I know that this didn't necessarily indicate baby arrival right away, but I knew that things were definitely changing! That night, I just laid around and watched TV while the lower back pain continued. I went to bed. I woke up around 3 am to go to the bathroom for the thousandth time that night. After I crawled back into bed, while I was lying there trying to go back to sleep, I heard a *POP*! Then, a huge gush. MY WATER BROKE! Apparently, that lower back pain was contractions! I woke Phil up and we got ready to go to the hospital. Here comes a funny part of the story: the night before, Phil had a work emergency (he is the area director for a beer company) so he had to grab a Coors Light van and was planning on returning it to work the next day to go get his car. So, I was driven to the hospital in a Coors Light truck! Oh the stories to tell this little one. :) Anyways, contractions started on the way to the hospital.  Once I got to Bergen Mercy Hospital, my water had broken again and again. Yeah, that’s right…one of the many things nobody tells you about labor: your “water” keeps refilling to keep the baby hydrated, thus, you keep having gushes of it breaking over and over and over…. By the time I waddled up to Labor & Delivery, my overstretched maternity jeans were soaked and sagging. Lovely. There were no questions: I was most definitely in active labor. I got hooked up to a fetal monitor and the mister looked good. I was dilated to four centimeters. The nurse asked if I wanted an anesthesiologist paged to start my epidural. I stupidly said “Nah, this is nothing, I’ll be fine until it gets to be a little later, I don’t want to wake anyone up, “ (Stupid, stupid, stupid) So, I waited. I facebooked, drank some water, read a magazine, grimaced and winced at contractions, listened to classical music, laughed with my husband. This labor thing was cake. The nurse came in to check my progress. Not much progress, maybe another half centimeter.

Then things started to change. All of a sudden, my uterus started contracting HARD. I vomited. And vomited. (Another thing I didn’t know, labor makes you nauseated. Go figure.) The short waves of pain became intense, long, and knocked the wind out of me. I breathed through them. I had decided ahead of time that I was going to try to make it as long as possible without an epidural since I have a high pain tolerance and really wanted to experience med-free labor for as long as possible. It was at this time that the nurse mentioned that the anesthesiologist was there for another patient and if I wanted the epi now, she would grab him. YES YES YES! And it was a good thing too. Right before the godsend administered the epidural (which was NOTHING, by the way), I had a contraction so long and painful that it seemed like it lasted an hour. After the “zap” of the epidural, my legs started to go numb and the pain from the contractions subsided. I was back in good spirits.

But then, my blood pressure dropped. Hard. I was on the verge of passing out. Cold water was administered on my brow and I struggled to keep my eyes open. My face went white. Ahhh, the third thing they don’t tell you. A side effect of an epidural can be a drop in blood pressure. For the next several hours, ephedrine had to be administered to me to bump my BP back up. And then, my progress pretty much stopped. Right before I got my epidural, I was at 6 cm. Two hours after, I hadn’t progressed much further than that. Another side effect. My labor slowed. They administered pitocin. (Something I didn’t want to happen, but because of my choice of an epidural, was probably inevitable.) The contractions became very strong and violent and I did feel the pain, but nothing I couldn’t handle.  I am totally rethinking pain management during labor for the next babe, more to come in this topic in the future.

 Two hours later, push time.

I was a champion pusher. I only pushed for twenty minutes before I heard my beautiful, wonderful son scream his entrance to the world. When they handed me my baby, time stopped at 12:46 pm on June 18, 2009. It was just him and me in a world frozen around us. I had never felt such love in all my years and knew that life would never be the same. The moment lasted but a second, but will stay with me forever.

36 Weeks

Less than a month to go before my estimated due date! I started my weekly appointments on Friday and had my first internal. I am 0 cm dilated and 70% effaced. Not that dilation or effacement numbers mean anything. I've heard of people being completely closed and delivering that night and then others who have been 3 cm dilated and not going into labor for another two weeks. But the Dr. said that everything is softening, the baby has dropped, and things are progressing. So, yay! I really hope I don't have to be induced. I want him to come whenever he feels ready. (So, if that decision is 38 weeks, I sure welcome it!) :)

The hot weather has caused major puffiness. I've been blessed in that I haven't experienced too much swelling...until this weekend. It seems like whenever I walk or do any sort of activity, I just get puffy. Goes with the territory I guess! I've also been having TONS and TONS of Braxton Hicks contractions. Basically, I will get one whenever I flex my stomach muscles. Yesterday morning, I sat at work and recorded over 30 from 6 AM until 1 PM. They were running about 8 minutes apart from about 8 until 9 and then tapered off. I know that you're *supposed* to call the doctor if you have four or Braxton Hicks in an hour, but honestly, they weren't painful, I was drinking tons of water, they were irregular, and they stopped. My doctor even told me that if this happens, to not call and just drink lots of water and put my feet up. What is the point of going in to Labor & Delivery for them to send me right back home telling me I was in false labor? My big worry is that I won't know when I'm actually in labor. Everyone reassures me that I will definitely know. I always wake up with big Braxton Hicks (from a full bladder) in the middle of the night and they can be a bit painful and always think OMG THIS IS IT. But I pee, and it's gone. :)

I've started nesting a little bit, but not to the extreme that everyone talks about. I kind of wish it would start because there is SO much deep cleaning that needs to be done and whenever I start to do it, I run out of energy after just a little bit. Plus, I'm just getting too darn big to maneuver around like I used to. I'm hoping these bursts of nesting energy all the books speak of are around the corner here soon, because I need some serious cleaning action going on in my house before the babe gets here!

Surreal Mother's Day

Well, today, Mother’s Day 2009, I am 34 weeks pregnant. Seriously? I feel like time is racing by and I haven’t done all of the things I wanted to do this pregnancy! Phil wished me a happy Mother’s Day this morning and told me that I’m the luckiest out of all the moms since I get to spend every second of today with my baby and plus I don’t have to hear him cry or anything! LOL. Part of me is so incredibly excited that I can hardly contain myself and the other part of me wants these pregnant moments to last forever. I am so scared for labor and delivery and terrified that I won’t be a good mother because I just don’t know what I’m doing. It doesn’t matter how many books or articles I read, I feel like I’ll just be left in the dark fumbling around trying to be a mother and that I’ll end up not meeting all of his needs. I know these are all normal, rational fears, but I think they are contributing to my constant and severely emotional state lately. Last night was my amazing husband’s birthday. We went out to dinner with another couple and then he wanted to go bar hopping downtown for a bit. Just the thought of parking downtown and battling all of the crowds at the bars and being so big and pregnant started to really overwhelm me, coupled with the fact that a bunch of friends bailed on the birthday dinner for him already had me kind of sad. Cut to me just sobbing uncontrollably on his birthday and telling him that he would have way more fun without me anyways. He is so amazing and told me how much he loved me and to go home and rest. I just felt awful that I didn’t spend the latter part of the night with him. I drove home feeling like a HORRIBLE wife. Although I know he had way more fun with his buddies than if I would’ve been there all uncomfortable and tired and just PREGNANT. I’ve reached that stage where I’m just never comfortable longer than a couple of minutes.

On a happier note, I had my first baby shower last Saturday, May 3. It was so much fun and so many girls showed up. I was a little worried that there would hardly be anyone there and it would just be the sound of crickets in the background. Our little boy is so spoiled already! We got tons and tons and TONS of clothes and books. We also got quite a few other things that we need as well, like breastfeeding supplies, bottles, wipes, healthcare items, etc. I have another shower on my in-laws side on May 30 (hopefully I don’t have the baby before then!) and then my work is throwing me a post-baby shower in August so they can all see the baby while I’m still out on maternity leave.

At my 34 week doctor appointment, she said the baby is about 4 ½ pounds and everything is right on track. I only gained two pounds in the two week period between appointments, making my total weight gain thus far 24 pounds. Not too shabby. Hopefully I can keep it around thirty. She was really encouraging when she told me that in her experience, most women lose about twenty pounds with delivery and the week after with water weight being flushed out. If I can get through this pregnancy with only ten post-baby pounds to lose, I’m throwing a party. With food! Haha.

Our little boy’s nursery is 99.99999% finished, I’ll post pictures soon. We have most of our “big” items already: crib, dresser, stroller, bouncy, pack & play. The only thing I need to get is a breastpump, which I think I’m going to bite the bullet and get the Medela Freestyle, which is the best one you can buy unless you go hospital grade. I’m still considering renting one of the hospital grade ones initially, but since I plan on breastfeeding for a full year, that will be SO expensive. I’m nervous about breastfeeding and returning to work. My job is so go go go and stressful that I worry that it will cause me to have to stop breastfeeding sooner than I anticipated just because it’s hard to catch a break around there. We’ll see. I’m going to try my very absolute best at this. We also still need to get a swing and various other items, which of course escape me right now. I guess we’ll realize what we are forgetting when he’s here and we don’t have it!

One of my good friends, Joanna, just gave birth to her baby girl on May 7. She was only 4 weeks behind me, due May 20. Eeek! I’m anxious to speak with her and get her whole birth story and to ask her so many questions, but of course the last thing I want to do right now is bother her for details. Part of me is so jealous, I want to meet my little baby too. We’ve been waiting so many years to meet our little miracle, it can’t come soon enough. But keep cooking for just a few more weeks, little mister, for we’ll have the rest of our lives to get to know one another..

Way too long

I can't believe that it's been over a month since my last post. Yet here I sit, 33 weeks into my pregnancy! I still can't believe that the end is near and my little baby boy's arrival is just around the corner. I feel so unprepared! I'm starting to freak out just a bit. I filled out and turned in all of my FMLA papers for maternity leave. I think I'm going to take ten weeks off to be with him. I can take up to twelve weeks, but only at 50% pay, so not sure I can even afford the ten weeks. We shall see. It would be so nice to be a stay at home mom, but things would be SO tight if I were to do that. Maybe if we have two kids under school age, it would be a little more realistic.

I have my first baby shower on Saturday! My friend Sybil is throwing it for me at my mom's house. I'm really excited. I'm just nervous that not a lot of people will come. I don't have that many friends that live in town, so I'll guess we'll see. I think my husband's mother is planning on throwing me one on Memorial day weekend and then work is throwing me one once the baby is here.

It's so late and I'm utterly exhausted. I guess I didn't want all of April to go by without a single post. I am making a promise to update this more frequently as my due date draws ever nearer...

AW: Our Nursery Furniture is bought!

We bought our baby furniture yesterday! It should be here in 7-14 days! The nursery is coming along so well. I can't wait until I can post complete pictures of our little Sailboat Nursery. Until then, this is the picture of the crib and dresser that we have!!

AW: Our little boy has his stroller!

It's the Chicco Cortina Coventry travel system. Perfect stroller for a handsome lil guy!

The home stretch

Holy crap! I officially start my third trimester this week! It honestly feels like yesterday that I was staring in disbelief at the digital pregnancy test before work on the morning of October 6 at the words ‘Pregnant’. I remember shaking my head and squeezing my eyes shut, half believing that when I opened them again, the word ‘Not’ would’ve preceded it. I will forever be grateful for that moment when I realized I wasn’t alone at 5:00 am that morning in the bathroom. Even if my ovaries only worked that one time and never work again, I will always be so thankful for this gift that has been given to us.

My little boy is moving around like crazy lately. I feel a leg kick and then I feel his little butt scoot into me and elbow jabs. I would love to see what he’s doing in there when I feel those. Of course, he just goes nuts when I’m trying to go to sleep. Ahh sleep: a luxury that I honestly no longer receive. I got three good hours last night. I invested in a body pillow and it does help some, but it’s the pressing bladder every few hours that really gets me. I just feel bad for Phil! Every time I get up out of bed during the night, the 80 pound dog that insists on sleeping with us, let’s out a big old groan and has to reposition himself as well. Phil has been a very good sport about everything, God love him.

The baby weighs about two pounds! At my last visit a week or so ago, I hadn’t gained any weight since January, but I’ve gained a total of 9 lbs. Most of it is baby and uterus and whatnot! That’s kind of hard to believe because lately, my appetite has been out of control…especially when it comes to the sweets. I really need to tone it down. I have my GD test the first Friday in April. I’m kind of nervous for it. Diabetes runs in my family and my mom is also a diabetic specialist, so I know enough to know that it is one condition you wouldn’t wish upon your worst enemy. I need to cut back on the sugar!!

The nursery is coming along. Phil has most of the wainscoting up and we got the walls painted. We are buying the furniture next week, so we’ll have that into place soon. I would like to have the nursery all put together and ready by the time I’m 34 weeks along. I think that’s doable, considering I’m 26 weeks and change right now. I was freaking out last week about how we had NOTHING for the baby yet. Well, we finally bought and received our stroller travel system! We bought the Chicco Cortina Coventry travel system. It’s just so adorably boyish and I LOVE it.

I guess I don't have anything more exciting to share. More to follow!

We started the nursery!

I'm posting all of the "before pictures" right now. We're going with an ocean/sailor theme. I know it's been done over and over, but there is just nothing cuter than a baby boy sailor room. I'll be posting photos throughout the nursery construction process over the next three months! It's all going by so incredibly fast!! The room is a mess right now as we tore everything apart, but it already looks soooo good with what we've done. More photos next week with progress!