Friday, April 13, 2012

Grocery Store Conversation

I took three kids grocery shopping today. Getting groceries always involves two carts and if we are able to make it through the store without any crying, running, or yelling, it's a good trip. The kids were great today.

When I pulled up to the cashier with my two carts and three kids, this was the conversation:

Cashier: You have your hands full!
Me: Yep, I have one more at home.
Cashier: Oh, wow. With all of these apples you must be making applesauce.
Me: No, we eat that many.
Cashier: Oh! That's great. (turning to Maeve) Are you in school?
Maeve: No
Cashier: How old is she?
Me: We homeschool.
Cashier: You really do have your hands full!!

I have a feeling I'm going to have many conversations like this. It's not like I woke up one day with four kids and decided to homeschool. The cashier was being kind and curious, but I find the "you have your hands full" comments to be funny.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Tillie Niamh

I was 39 weeks on Tuesday and when I went in for my appointment, I hadn't made much progress since the previous week. I was dilated to 3 cm. My contractions had mostly stopped and I figured I'd make it, again, to my due date. 

Wednesday morning came with a surprise and lots of digustingness. My body was finally starting to cooperate. I figured things would start to happen within a few days so I spent most of Wednesday catching up on laundry and putting it all away. That turned out to be a very good decision. 

Wednesday night around 9 pm, I emailed my husband to tell him that I'd been having a contraction every 20 minutes and then every 10 minutes for an hour. My contractions continued at 10 minutes for a bit longer and then came every eight minutes. Mathew did not think I was in labor and figured it was my body teasing me. I knew I was in labor, mostly because the dog had been acting strange all day toward me. She would not leave my side. Our dog, while extremely annoying, has an uncanny ability to sense things. She once prevented toddler Finnegan from falling from the top of the steps. She does stuff like that all of the time.

By the time we left for the hospital, my contractions were 4-5 minutes apart. I think we got to the hospital around 10:30 pm and I was dilated to 5 cm and 100% effaced. I was a bundle of nerves and couldn't stop shaking. My midwife was terrific and able to calm me down and get me to focus. God bless midwives and if you've never considered having a midwife attend your birth, you should.

I labored lying on my side. It's interesting how every birth has been different. I loved the birth ball with Finnegan and labored leaning forward on an inclined bed with Oren. I don't count my labor with Maeve because I was induced with pitocin and had an epidural. 

I had my midwife check me when I started to feel pressure and I was 9 cm. I told her to go ahead and break my water. I had wanted to give birth on all fours, but that was uncomfortable so I asked for the squatting bar. Unfortunately, Tillie had other plans and was born before they could get the bed set up. I guess my midwife had said to wait through three contractions before pushing, but I didn't hear her because I was busy pushing. My legs were all over the place and I was in the crappiest position possible, but I was ready to be done and stopping a baby from coming out is impossible. 

Tillie got stuck for maybe 15 seconds and everyone was yelling at me to push. I'm not sure if her head was stuck or if I had pushed out her head and her shoulders were stuck. In any event, her stuckness (yes, I realize this is the second word I've made up) was due to me being in a crappy position, but I got her out and all was well. Tillie did have some bruising on her forehead and nose, but was perfect otherwise. 

I had to have a bag or so of pictocin and two shots of stuff in my legs to control the bleeding. I honestly, don't think the bleeding was any worse than the other births, but everyone was being cautious and I guess my uterus kept feeling soft. 

Tillie Niamh (pronounced like Neeve) was born at 1:33 am and weighed 8 lbs 2 oz. She was 20.5 inches long and her head measured 13.5 inches. 

Recovery has gone well and I feel great. I can bend over, turn around, and sleep without complaining. We are all smitten with our newest addition and life is good.