Au Naturale

Natural child birth has been a goal in the back of my mind since before I had Camron. Too many women today wont even consider the possibility of pain. They go into pregnancy already well researched on the types of pain medication they can take and are asking for it as soon as they hit the hospital in labour. Or there's the alternative, a "planned birth" or "too posh to push" women who go in for an elective C-Section and or being induced just to have their little one out on a certain day. There's no doubt in my mind that birth is a beautiful experience no matter what road is taken. But here is what bothers me about it. Little do these unsuspecting mom's know after giving birth 100% natural a "feel-good" hormone is released from the brain called Oxytocin, also called the "love drug". Oxytocin plays a very important part in child birth. This drug is at its highest right after delivery. Immediate bonding with your child after birth is essential. This hormone, along with the hormone baby secretes (cant remember what its called for the life of me) creates a very important bonding moment between you and your child. It also helps with certain other things such as you milk coming in, creating a good latch between baby and you, as well as creating an everlasting loving bond between you and your child. Many women refer to all the "pain" being gone after they held their newborn child after natural birth. This natural drug is to thank for that.

Why do women vote for a C-section? This I just don't understand and I guess I never will. A C-section is MAJOR surgery with a 6 week recovery time. Not to mention you don't get to hold your baby until you are out of the ER and recovery. That could be an hour or more in some cases. Why would you want to miss out on that bonding time? The C-section rate has gone from I believe 7% to almost 40% over the last 30 some years in the US. This is due to doctors schedules and the plain and simple fact that they don't study natural child birth.
Nor do they know how to turn a breached baby. I've learned this from a documentary "Pregnant in America" which unearths many interesting facts. Worth watching even if your not pregnant. The numbers will blow you away. Especially considering that the C-section rate with a midwife is around 3%!!!!

I didn't get to have my natural child birth with Camron due to circumstances that were not in my control.
I was scheduled to be induced on Monday June 19th 2006. My water broke and I was in active labour on the Sunday. Went into the hospital and my contractions stopped. My mom and I walked around that hospital so many times trying to get labour going again but nothing worked. They sent us home for the night and I had to come back in the morning to be induced. I was hooked up to the pitocin drip around 11am and HARD labour hit me around 12. Pitocin causes your contractions to be harder and longer and closer together. I didn't know at the time but this restricts blood and air supply to the baby while your having a contraction usually causing the baby to go into distress. Once baby goes into distress the doctors usually make you go for a C-section. I got a shot of demoral late in the afternoon because the pain was too much I had been in hard labour for hours. The demoral shot didn't take the edge off the contractions but I was able to sleep in between which was only for about 30 seconds to a minute. They hooked me up to the fetal monitor and Cam was in distress. My OB/GYN decided it was time to get Cam out. Instead of taking me down for a C-section like any inexperienced dr would he helped me along because my body was not ready to give birth. I don't even recall if I was 10 cm dilated or not. I do remember he had to get his hands up there and work something away in order for Cam to come through the birth canal. Cam was born at 9:23pm with 20 minutes of pushing. After he was born they placed him on my chest and cleaned him off. I was ecstatic. Then the nurses and my general practitioner took him so they could check him out and get his passageways clear. My OB/GYN wont touch babies, that's why Dr. Roux was there. I fully believe had I had another dr. they would have sent me in for an emergency C-section when Cam went into distress. For that I am thankful. The demoral had not 100% worn off at this point. I feel I missed out on important bonding with Cam and that is why I wish more than ever to do a natural birth with this little one. The drugs effected my state of mind, of this I am 100% certain.

I am going to write up a birth plan for this baby. Give one copy to my dr. a couple months ahead of time and bring extra copies with me to the delivery room. It is my goal to do this natural, the more prepared I am I hope the easier it will be. I am hoping I can have a good half hour with baby before they take him to be cleaned off and measured and weighed.. I guess we will see if this can happen. I am hopeful :)

OBSESSED!

Now that I've finally finished the baby blanket i was making for a friend ( whos baby will be 2 months old tomorrow ) I've been absolutely obsessed with printing out patterns of cool stuff I can make for baby on the way! I'm going to go shopping after I drop Cam at his dads for a sleepover tonight and hopefully start on my first project. I've decided it might be a good idea to get a 3 ring binder and hole punch to store my crochet patterns in, as I always misplace them and they are scattered everywhere. First on the list is Baby Converse booties. Which I am going to make in blue and pink and use them as a "gender reveal" to close friends and family. Then I've also printed out patterns for a Newborn Nest (for newborn pictures), A Munchkin Hat, a Woolly Owl Hat, and another sweet baby hat. Most of these will be for newborn pictures as having a baby in June means that little one is not going to need a toque on his/her head at all times. This is just what I have printed off so far and I'm really excited to start. I know I will be sitting at the computer trying to find other cool things I can make. Like I said, I'm obsessed. Well I best be getting ready for work, I was just so excited I had to blog about. Hopefully I can post a picture soon of one of my creations.
TTFN

Bumpity Bump

Here it is as promised... Drum roll please... The developing baby bump ;)

Dr. Appointment

Well, had an appointment this afternoon. The first part of my blood results came back and everything looks good. Which is awesome because this is the blood screening that tests for spinal issues as well as downs syndrome in babies. My jaw dropped when I hopped on the scale and I've gained 6 pounds in the past 4 weeks since my last appointment! Don't get me wrong, I'm 100% happy about my weight gain to tell the truth. I didn't think I'd be up quite that much. Second pregnancy must make a difference!

Also, my belly finally popped. It's not huge but it's there! I've definitely had a lot of muscle pain due to the ligaments in my uterus growing. So I don't think it's going to slow down much over the next 4-5 weeks as baby is now 500 grams at 17 weeks and grows to be 1 lb by 21 weeks. I will post a belly photo soon!
TTFN

I Feel Cheated!

Such a disappointment. I feel robbed. Of sleep and my baby bump. haha childish I know. My darling husband must love me so much he feels it necessary to crowd my side of the bed and use my pillow. May I add he did this multiple times last night. I love him dearly but I think I may just love sleep and being in a good mood just a smidge bit more. I was waking up and shoving him over and jumping out of bed due to charlie horses in alternating legs several times last night and Cam came in at 5:44 asking if it was time to wake up yet. Regardless, I'll just get to the point. One of the times that I got up then returned to bed I had my hand resting on my stomach and it was sticking out. My reaction? Right on, Yahoo, I'm finally going to show in the morning and not be bloated Yippee. I was wrong. Here's the kicker, as strange as it sounds. I sneezed three times and am going to assume that the pressure caused my belly to stick out. Strangest thing I've ever imagined. It has to be true, I woke up this morning and no belly bump! I bet Shawn is going to wake up in an hour or so and ask me what crawled up my A$$. I got up because I had a charlie horse, laid down in bed and there was hardly enough room for me and Shawn was hogging my pillow again. I snapped! (again childish) I snapped up out of bed, ripped my phone off its charger, stomped out of the room and I didn't slam the door but I wasn't exactly quiet either. I look back at it now and it makes me giggle, what a night! For those of you who know me well, you are quite aware that I can have a raging temper. I'm actually pretty surprised that after not getting much sleep I didn't actually "snap" on Shawn. I must be having an off day.. Or maybe I just love him and know he's tired and didn't feel it necessary to shake him awake and tell him to shove over.

Hope that makes someone smile if not a giggle.

Have a good day folks :)

TTFN

Good Things To Come

Although my last post was not the happiest of posts I do have good news. I believed it wouldn't be fair to add my good news on a post devoted to my friend Kelsey and her baby girl Colby.

Shawn received a raise just recently. He got a $3.00/hr pay increase. I guess the company has had enough with a quick turnover rate due to low starting wages. Not to mention when Shawn has been there for 3 months he will receive another $3.00/hr pay increase. So things are definitely starting to look up. Shawn's boss has told him over and over again how happy he is that he hired Shawn. My thoughts on this are " Are you kidding me... He's an excellent worker and your lucky he dropped his resume off and harassed you for a position. " haha.

I have my monthly check up on Wednesday January 18th. I will be 17 weeks at this appointment and will be able to book my ultrasound at the hospital to make sure everything looks good with baby and I will also be able to book my gender scan with my ob/gyn. Both will be done around 20weeks pregnant. To us that is very exciting. It will be nice to know what we are having so we can start preparing for baby in a more "gender specific" way! I am hoping to book these ultrasounds both on Shawn's days off. Especially the gender scan. I am really excited to share that moment with him :)

Sure feels like time is going by so slow. But I know it is indeed going faster than I think it is. I am currently in my 4th month of pregnancy on a 9 month basis. I believe the last time I posted about my gender scan I had 5 or 6 weeks to wait. Now I'm down to approx. 2-3 weeks. Super, Very, Extremely Excited! Can you tell?

Still not showing. It will come in its own time I suppose. Baby isn't very big right now, only about 5 inches. But on the bright side in another 3 weeks 3 days I will be exactly halfway done my pregnancy. How crazy is that. From what I can remember with Camrons pregnancy the last 20 weeks went way faster than the first 20 weeks. Almost there. I do believe the last 2-3 weeks are incredibly painful in the "waiting dept" we will just have to see. June is a busy month maybe it will just fly by.

I got a gift in the mail the other day from Shawn's Aunty Barb. It's a pregnancy tracker book where I can record all the milestones and belly pictures and dr. appointments etc. I have all the dates filled out so far. Now I just need to make sure I keep it in my purse at all my dr. appointments.

That's all I have for today. If I keep typing I will bore everyone to death and then when Shawn gets home from work I wont be able to talk his ear off for an hour.
TTFN

Busy, Stressful Couple Of Weeks

Well, It's been a while since I posted anything on here. It's been a crazy couple of weeks. One of my very close girlfriends went through a really tough time with her incredibly strong baby girl Colby, who was only 2 months at the time. I had received news that Colby was in the Dawson Creek hospital hooked up to IV as she was not keeping down and fluids. Like any parent they figured it may have had something to do with the formula she was on. When switching formula didn't help at all they decided to take her in to see what was wrong. They got admitted into the hospital with baby Colby on IV. The hospital was going to let them go home for the night after they had an ultrasound first. The ultrasound turned up a problem. Colby was diagnosed with Pyloric Stenosis. "Normally, food passes easily from the stomach into the first part of the small intestine through a valve called the pylorus. In pyloric stenosis, the muscles of the pylorus are thickened. This prevents the stomach from emptying into the small intestine" Therefore causing poor baby Colby the inability to pass her food. 


They were then rushed to Grande Prairie hospital, as the hospital here in Dawson is not able to preform the procedure to bring baby Colby back to perfect health. Kelsey (mother) has a type of hemophilia and brought this subject up in concern that her child may have this blood disorder as well. The risk was too great to preform the surgery without knowing if Colby was a hemophiliac as well. From Grande Prairie they were flown to Edmonton where a hemotologist was able to determine whether or not Colby had this condition. It took a few days to get the results back. They were negative! Thank god! 


They were then able to preform the surgery in the Edmonton hospital. Where everything went perfectly. Kelsey and Colby came home a few days after the surgery. Both are doing well and it just shows how strong one little girl can be. Not to mention her mother. Even though Kelsey has no idea how I feel about her, she is my beacon of strength. It just amazes me at how much she has been through in her life and she always tries her best to keep a smile on her face. Kelsey Jo Pattie, sweety I am so proud of you! You are an incredible mom, friend, and fiancé. I pray that your hardship is over now and you can sit back and enjoy life. You are a fantastic role model. I love you!

4 On 4 Off

I miss my husband dreadfully! I'm not used to him being gone. Shawn is working a 4 on 4 off shift. 12 hour days, 2 shifts of days and 2 shifts of nights. So far he's just been working days. He's had to travel north of fsj temporarily for work. That means he's gone well before I get up at 6 and doesn't get home till after Cam goes to bed. It has been an adjustment for sure. It doesn't feel right to sit and eat dinner without him but we don't have much of a choice. I've even been ambitious and left the house to visit while he's at work but there's still too much emptiness to fill. Here I am just whining away haha well on the bright side it's not the rigs :) Baby has been super active lately. Seems that baby is most active about half hour after I've eaten, or maybe I can just feel it better when bloated out like a balloon haha. Shawn's missing out on that. But it's not like he doesn't get time off either. Yup I think it's official, I just wanted to whine :) until next time my friends ( when I'm not a whiner ) ttfn

Bump In The Night

Shawn and I we're sitting at the kitchen table last night deep in conversation when all of the sudden I felt a bump. I couldn't believe it. I'm sure the look on my face was priceless when I said " I think I just felt the baby kick. "
You would think that being a second time mom that there would be no doubt in my mind. But there sure was doubt. Sometimes it is super difficult to tell especially when everything you eat makes bubbles all the way down your digestive tract. Sure enough we laid down on the couch to indulge in the series "The X-Files" and I felt it again! So I made Shawn put his hand exactly where mine was and wait. Although he had to wait about 15-20 minutes he felt it too! Which is rare, usually no one else can feel it for about a week or so after I can feel it. I think I'm safe to assume that being so slim had a big part on that.
Earlier that day we had gone through all of Cams toys so that we could possibly get rid of a few, currently our spare bedroom (babies room) is a play room for Cam. I decided yesterday that I was going to start moving all his toys out of there for two reasons. 1. I don't want to wait to do it till just before baby comes because then he might be upset with his new baby sister or brother. 2. I had yet to have any real connection with being pregnant. I want that room set up so that it starts to feel more real that we're bringing a baby into this world. Nothing like being 15 weeks pregnant and not feeling pregnant at all. It's kind of an awful feeling that I don't wish upon anyone. Regardless, I got all of the toys out of the play room as well as organized and am now just waiting for my crib to come from GP. I do feel much better that I've made progress in that room. It looks like its waiting for something which is very relaxing to me!

Still no baby bump. Most likely one of the reasons why I'm not feeling connected with being pregnant yet. I did feel the baby kick, but at this stage those movements are usually few and far between. On the bright side, we are progressing. In two weeks or so I will have my next dr. apt and from there we will most likely book my gender scan. Which I'm trying to wait patiently but it is very hard. I'm just too excited to start preparing. Today I am officially 15 weeks and in another 5 weeks I will be halfway through my pregnancy. Very exciting!
I should get off the computer and start getting ready for work! TTFN

Happy New Years

My first official post of 2012! Very exciting I'd say. 2011 was fairly good to us and was pretty busy. We moved from Fairview back to Dawson, got married, Cam started kindergarten and last but not least we found out we were pregnant! I left one thing out Shawn started his new job. Hopefully one that he will have until retirement! Haha.

2012 is going to be a great year. Can not wait to find out the sex of the baby so we can start preparing. I will officially be on maternity leave in 5 months. Then a few weeks later we should have a new addition. Then our 1 year anniversary will be shortly after that. Our biggest struggle this year will be getting out of the place were renting. It's a pretty steep goal as our lease will be up in August and Shawn just started a steady job. But he's hoping to get some property set up out at his parents with a modular. So I guess we will see what happens. Only time will tell I suppose. Hope everyone had a safe and happy new year! All the best in 2012!