The birth plan that wasn't.

I can’t even believe the day has come, let alone three days past, but Isaac Levi was brought into this world on April 26th, 2009. One week early of his due date. I thought for sure we would have a May baby and never in my life thought I would have the birth experience that I did!

I didn’t have any Braxton Hicks or false contractions, so I wasn’t positive that I was experiencing contractions Friday night, the 24th while shopping at Menard’s lol to finish up the nursery. The contractions lasted throughout the night, painful enough to make sleep impossible, but never regulating out. They were consistently between 5-8 minutes apart, but never closer and never consistent. I was finally able to sleep Saturday morning between 6-8 am, waking up again at 8 to strong contractions. I tried to doze from 8-12 and finally got up to go shopping with my Mom. We toured around a mall to pick out a going home outfit and a few things for the unpacked hospital bag, all the while I was having strong contractions.

At about 7 pm or so Saturday the 25th, I started timing them again and was surprised to realize after a bit that they were regulating out at 6 mins apart. By 9:30 pm I’d had about enough so I called Woodwinds to let them know that we were coming in. From where we live it’s a bit of drive and I didn’t want my first L&D trip to be a bust, so we didn’t leave the house until 10:00 pm. We never got far as my contractions completely fell apart and were then 12-15 minutes apart. I made the call to turn home. Yeah, I know. We turned around and went home. What crazy people do that?

As soon as we arrived home though my contractions again stayed consistent at 6 minutes apart for 5 contractions with a scary one coming 3 minutes after. We left the house again within minutes of the 3 min apart contraction. My contractions never started out as tolerable, they were always painful . . . but the contractions I was experiencing now were intense to say the least. The car ride to Woodwinds was absolutely terrible as my best approach to getting through them was standing at rocking . .. not an option in a truck! On the way to the hospital I told Tony in no uncertain terms that I would be receiving an epidural if we were admitted. After 26 hours of contractions I did not think I could handle much more!

We were brought up to Maternity Care and promptly examined. Our nurse did a fabulous job of treading the line between giving us information if we were staying and info for if we were leaving. As I lay on the bed to be examined it felt like an eternity, which Tony confirmed that it actually was several minutes. Our nurse honestly rooted around for a good 3-5 minutes saying she couldn’t feel the position of the cervix or something along those lines and that she wanted to wait until my next contraction! {not pleasant!} Finally as the contraction began she notified us that we were at a 5 and completely thinned out! We were staying. My contractions had amped up as well . . . seemingly only 2-3 minutes apart as the nurse asked me admission’s questions. Rocking was not helping me through the contractions anymore and even though the nurse offered all of her assistance in trying to achieve a natural birth I signed up for the epidural. After almost 30 hours of contractions I couldn’t bear the thought of potentially going 5 more. I was given an IV to get through a bag of fluids and that’s about as far as that got . . .

At 1:00 am I was roughly half way through that bag of fluids, necessary before the epidural when I felt the pressure build to start pushing. Sure enough as I was standing at the side of the bed trying to rock through a contraction my water broke. After getting me back on the bed, the pressure was confirmed. I was fully dilated and a plus 2 . . . the doctor hadn’t even been called yet.

17 minutes of pushing with my contractions later and Isaac Levi was born by the wonderful nurses at Woodwinds. It was the most amazing experience of my life.

I’m not going to lie to you, it was the most agonizing pain of my life . . . but still comparable to soccer practice. Running 120’s out of condition. J The relief of pushing and hearing his precious cry immediately removed any pain my body felt. The endorphins and what have you’s that I don’t even know about that our body’s produce are amazing and I was riding a natural high for a long time . .. complete with total body shakes from the adrenaline lol.

I couldn’t have done it without Tony. He was absolutely amazing. A complete rock for me. Don’t ask for any more specifics than that because I wouldn’t be able to tell you lol. Every step, every word that he said was what I needed and he was the picture of control, at a time when I couldn’t tell you what the word meant.

Our God is amazing: from the birth plan that was never written yet He was fully aware and in control of, the support we received, the incredible functions that He gave our body’s, to finally the masterpiece that is our son. We are so thankful.

{You guys are so sweet to comment on how I looked after the delivery lol, but honestly that's what 17 minutes of pushing will get you I guess!}

Isaac Levi.

There are so many more pictures and so many words necessary to try to get you guys up to speed! I'll try to write the birth story tonight. Momma, Daddy and baby Isaac are doing well at home!

no words

Isaac Levi was born this morning at 1:17, weighing 7 lbs 4 ounces and is 19 3/4 inches long.

He's perfect and we are amazed by our God. There's a bit of tale in the birth story, so that'll be coming in the near future!

Thank you for your support and prayers, love you guys.

Welp, a whole lot of nothing.

After my earlier update my contractions stayed about the same. Regularly inconsistent as I texted Rachel. I've still been maintaining 4-5 per hour, but their timing leaves something to be desired.

I'm absolutely exhausted, as I just returned home from the mall with my Mom. I finally now have a going home outfit for Baby bless!

We'll have to see what this evening holds.

AJ told me to rest up. :)

I did come home to the most adorable sight though, Tony went shopping for our little man at Baby's R Us. We now have 4 baseball outfits and a Mauer T lol. :)

No sleep for the weary.

Sorry you guys, I should have clarified what type of contractions I'm having.

I am very excited by the contractions and the obvious losing of the MP, since I've had literally no evidence of contractions . . . until last night/now.

However, they are very irregular real contractions. Although they have not subsided in the past 12 hours, they have ranged fthe gamut of 5 to 10 minutes apart . . . which I why I'm excited, I have them, they have to be doing something, but they're not consistent enough to be REALLY excited about yet.

I was literally up all night because they were so frequent I couldn't exactly sleep through them, finally attempting to sleep again at 6 am. I got a good two hours in . . . we'll see what today holds.
Oh and there was additional dilation at my appointment on Thursday. I was at a solid 2 cm, with Baby Bless' head nice and low at a -1 station, but still extremely thick.

Very real contractions.

From a girl who didn't seem to have any Braxton Hicks, I can say with certainty that I am experiencing very real contractions right now. I've been to bed and up several times. My cats are not happy with me, they'd much rather I just say peacefully in bed with them.

And for the record, I'm definitely losing my MP.

Things are happening in this body of mine folks.

Plans for October?

Well, I'm no Julia {although I may try really hard to be in the next coming months! :)}, but I also have some October plans to share.

I just signed Tony and I up for this bad boy.



Do you know what this means you guys? It means I'm actually starting to think about having my body back. To shape and will and challenge into the performance producing body that it was {I'm not saying the results were stellar, but when I asked my body to do something it usually did and that's good enough for me}.

A month ago Tony and I were watching the NCAA Hockey Finals. As we were sitting on the couch I was completely overwhelmed with love for my game. The development of play between hockey and soccer are so similar that I literally teared up telling Tony that I can't wait to play again. Mark your calendars, I'll be taking the field again in July. I have to. My mind and body have to.

So on that note, I loop back to the beginning of this post lol. The marathon. I can't say it's been my life's goal to run a marathon, but ever since my first successful 5K I wanted to find out how much I could challenge my body. A marathon ought to about do it. :)

That being said, Tony and I do not have any expectations than to run a half marathon since I will not be able to devout the time necessary to adequately prepare {something to do with the due date of this child and a 19 week training program}. And while I say our expectation is to run 13.1 miles, we're going to see if we can't finish it out with a combo of walking and jogging the remainder. That sounds insane, I know, but Tony doesn't want us to fail the first marathon we ever registered for {even though that was the original plan lol}.

So I've got a date on October 4th!

Snoring Cats.

So this morning, I was semi sleeping and took notice that one of our cats was snoring. I was awake enough to realize how odd that was, as we don't have snoring pets. Allie sometimes makes snore-like noises, but never the cats! Sure enough though the sound was definitely located on my side of the bed . . . which would only mean the cats.

Unless . . .

I was woken by my dear Ton, asking me to please stop snoring!

I don't snore ladies! Except for now. Apparently I do. And I can't blame it on the cats.

There's paint on them thar walls!

Tony at first raised some objections to the paint color, declaring it "too purple," but his opinion was quickly vetoed since he's color blind. He didn't disagree that his opinion should be overuled based on my arguement lol.

And this is why, even when my lovely husband decided to tear out and gut the nursery 2 months ago, assuring me that it would be done in 2 weekends tops, that I'm still speaking to him. Unfortunately, the upper stroke of the Y is still visible lol.

And here we have it! A painted nursery, for all of those wondering it's Dutch Boy Refresh Missoula Blue.

Now we're on to casement for the windows and trim!

I didn't want to cramp her style

By announcing it first, but my very fabulous friend AJ welcomed her baby boy on Saturday!

Unfortunately he was quite the sleeper at the hospital . . . and not so much now at home. :( I only feel a little bit badly for AJ in that regards, because boy did she ever luck out on her labor and delivery!

Not only did the girl manage a completely med free waterbirth, the whole thing from start to finish was only 5 hours! 5 hours!

In addition to that, he's the cutest little baby boy ever {well, until you know when. :) Love you AJ}

For the record, AJ was just a bit over 1 1/2 weeks ahead of me. We were in this together, from the beginning. Lamenting every pregnancy twinge, weight gain and odd thought in our heads. And now, she's a Mom. And I'm pregnant. And this is going to happen. Soon.

The Answer

In order to wear the dress that I did for the shower, {which btw thank you! I had no idea it would get such reviews. It's not maternity, it's actually a sample from my Target corporate days, so I have no idea if they actually even ended up selling it as the sample I'm wearing!} I had to shave my legs.

Just as an FYI bending down or over really is just as bad as you would assume! So I did what any woman without a bathtub would do. I sat down.

That's right, I just plunked myself down in the middle of that of that neo-angle base and did the best I could do given the circumstances.

And then. And then.

I got stuck.

There was literally no way for me to get up. It was a toss up between pulling on the shower curtain and crawling out on my hands and knees.

So there I sat on the bottom of the shower with my freshly shaven legs and I hollered for my hubs from the basement. He came and rescued me.

It's the most pitiful moment of our relationship lol.

Do you know what happened here?

Anyone want to guess what happened in this space? Keep your mind clean too! Remember we're not trying to induce labor lol.

Friends Baby Shower!

I have so many more pictures to post from this weekend, but this'll have to do for now {who really believe me anymore when I say that?}.

On Saturday I was blessed by a lovely baby shower hosted by Nadia, Kier and Nancy - all affiliated to me by soccer. Oh what that sport has done for my life! :)

The food was fabulous and again tailored to my likes, which made me a happy pregnant girl! So many friends attended and it was great to sit back and watch as they all interacted. I just find the group dynamics to be so interesting! I only took pics extremely early and when there were only 7 of us left lol.

Nadia, Kier, myself and Nancy

Mi Madre y yo

Hoppe and I, another soccer connection.

And Abby and I!

It was a fantastic day spent with friends, food and presents that turned into a bit of a rowdy night! :)

38 Week Appt Update

We're still looking good for a May baby! :)

I've had a little progression, still 1 cm, but as my doctor said "it's 1 cm and a wiggle." I mean really, who says that?! Lol.

I'm officially unwed as of yesterday. I just don't feel comfortable with my ability to take my ring off due to water retention fluctuation. I tried wearing a couple of different rings on my wedding finger, but the bands are all so thin that they basically feel weightless, which defeats the purpose of wearing it in the first place!

It's ridiculous the small actions I'm still making with my hands when I wash them or do my hair. You guys know what I'm talking about right? The little corrective shake or the automatic readjustment with your thumb when you just know your right has slid a little much to one side? I still do that, even without a ring on!

I gained 2 lbs this week, so I'm officially at 30 lbs.

Still no stretch marks, but given Rachel's experience I know that I'm not in the clear until Baby Bless has made his appearance!

It suddenly occured to me that Baby Bless could be born on either Tony or my sports number. Is it sad, funny or cool that I thought of that? Lol.

37 weeks

VOTE IN MY EXPECTNET POLL! :)

Holy crizap you guys, I just counted and April 26th is only 11 days away. That means that in 11 days I could go into labor and I'd be okay. Okay, as in I'd actually get Short Term Disability and not be concerned about my job or trying to make it through leave without any pay. Eleven freaking days! That's so soon!

So, on average, at this time, a baby weighs about 6.8 pounds and measures about 14 inches from crown to rump and 21 inches total in length. Baby bless is still growing and gaining weight and may gain as much as 1 ounce a day at this point.

Also, his testes should have descended into the scrotum by this time, although about one percent of boys will have undescended testes. {not that I know any implications if they haven't!}

At this point I'm still hovering under 30 lbs for weight gain. My initial weight at 6 weeks was 137.5 and for the past two weeks I've stalled out at 166. At this point all bets are off regarding whether I will still gain or not, since it's actually common for the last two weeks to post a weight loss instead of gain.

That crotchety feeling has still made a few appearances, but so far it has not been consistent {thankfully!}. Additionally, there have not been any Braxton Hicks or signs of false labor as of yet.

Our plans for a natural birth are totally by the seats of our pants, so I truly hope that it is not a disappointment to any of you all if we are not successful. I want to go into it with the mindset that childbirth is something that God artfully created my body for, although that whole bit of adding pain to childbirth in the Garden of Eden doesn't mean that He completely shaped our bodies so that it was easy per se lol. I've always been told that I have a high threshold of pain and am stubborn to a fault, but if we get in there and I just can't do it. Then I'm not. I'll ask for that epi and my husband will support me through that as well. Our absolute main goal, of course, though is to avoid a c-section - if avoidable, obviously we will not put the baby in any jeopardy!

Baby bless might just stay Baby bless too if Tony continues at the same pace in narrowing down the list of potential names! He's down to two, but absolutely no progress on middle names.

I thought the results of the poll were very interesting. It came up because surprisingly my Mom is very understanding of our decision regarding family in the room. Tony and I have agreed to our parents being allowed to come and go throughout the labor, but when it comes to the delivery . . . it's going to be all Tony and I {well and Melissa, a crew of nurses and our doctor lol}.

The Nursery!

From this.

To this.

To present day.

I've got to be honest. I came home on Friday and had a little breakdown on Tony. I just feel like some days that I'm not even aware of the fact that we're actually going to have a baby, because my countdown is so focused on when the nursery and bathroom will be completed.

The problem is that when I have meltdowns they come across very controlled, which means that their effectiveness leaves a little something to be desired. I don't feel like I'm truly voicing how I feel and Tony doesn't end up responding to the depth that I hope for because I'm really not communicating how much pain or frustration I'm enduring.

It's just like an episode of A Baby Story that Ton and I watched a couple weeks back. The first time mother opted for and was successful in a natural birth, but while going through transition she kept stating how much pain she was in. Based on her tone of voice, you would think she was saying the sky was blue. There was no urgency, no pain, no need for action. That's how my breakdown felt. Like I knew it wouldn't change anything anyways, but I just had to say it because it was the truth.

Anywhoo, Tony's Dad is coming over tonight and will be helping Tony tape the seams, complete with stilts for the ceiling! After the taping and mudding, there will be sanding, priming and finally paint! But there will not be a crib. At least not for a while, we're not sure on it's timing now . . . it was supposed to ship last week at the latest.

Tony is the epitomy of smooth.

Oh yes my friends.

Within a span of five minutes at church yesterday, I had these gems spoken to me.

1. In reference to the daily concern that my ring will not make it off my finger {still okay for now, but it's getting tight!}, Tony almost said my finger was fat . . . instead what he managed to salvage the situation with is that I have more skin now!

2. In reference to my purple feet due to a Florida sunburn and increased blood circulation, what did my dear precious husband call me? Barney. I kid you not.

____________________________________________________________________________

I have a couple of posts that I owe attention to: Tony's progress on the nursery, a craft show with my Mom and my #2 baby shower!

Rocco at Easter

Aww, I love holidays! Before it was just for the food, now it's because I get to snap shots {SOOC as always} of this little bruiser - Rocco (He was just over 2 months old at Christmas and has grown so much!)!


Note the one tooth - he actually did have two, but got a hold of the coffee table and yanked the 2nd tooth out, root and all. He's living up to his tough guy name! :)

Some funnies.

I never shared that right before I caved and bought maternity jeans, I made an appearance IN PUBLIC wearing my husband's jeans to the grocery store. I don't know what is more embarrassing that I actually went out in them or that they actually fit and were such a relief!

Additionally, two weeks ago, as I'm entering work and ascending the stairs at a good clip, feeling pretty good about my ability to move so agilely . . . I bit it, in slow mo. I literally fell up the stairs and could only stop myself with my right arm grabbing frantically at the stair rail. I had my coffee cup and purse on my left arm, so it was completely useless. Thankfully I did connect with the rail and was able to slow my fall, but I looked ridiculous and ended up with a bruise on my left knee. The poor guy behind me was besides himself trying to assess whether or not I was alright!

At my appointment last week, I had to undress for my first internal. As I prepared for the violation, I went to place the provided sheet across my lap. No matter how I tried to unfold it though, it never got larger than a 2x3 section of plastic fabric. Suddenly I realized I'd been given a pillowcase to cover up with! Lol. So I did what any resourceful girl would do, I ripped the seams and made do!

I just realized something!

I lost my mind.

I'd show you evidence to support this realization, but that would require some brain power, which I am clearly lacking.

I can't believe you guys are sticking with me. In all honesty, it truly floors me.

I love you all for your support, regardless of the mish mash that I'm throwing out.

36 weeks

So, hey, um, we're getting down to it. Baby bless now weighs about 6 lbs and measures about 20.7 inches in length. Crown to rump measurement is about 13.5 inches.

I never really went through a phase of feeling breathless, but supposedly I can expect a return to my lung capacity as my baby boy drops. I don't think it's happened yet though based on pictures . . . I kind of think it will be very apparent when it does happen!

His face has filled out and the cheeks now look plump and full. Fat baby cheeks are caused by fat deposits, but also by powerful sucking muscles which he has been honing by sucking his thumb {or not, as neither Tony nor I did suck our thumbs}.

Additionally Baby bless's skull is firm, but it is not hard as it needs to give a little when it is passing through the birth canal {yikes, that's actually going to happen}.

I'm finally moving into a bit more of an uncomfortable phase. Oddly I feel like a whale, but not in my stomach - mainly my legs, butt and arms, you know areas that I could still theoretically work out and make myself feel better. And yet, I don't. I continue to just come home and sit on the couch . . . but that may have more to do with the random twinges that make me feel like my body is splitting in two lol. Other than these twinges, no contractions or Braxton Hicks to speak of, which I kind of think is a good thing.

I do however seem to have a constant sideache, minus the cardio, due to a precious baby butt lodged into the upper portion of my ribs.

On two completely random notes, I realized two major things that I never shared:
1). We're cloth diapering
2). I'm preparing for a natural birth

Oh and 3). I'm on drugs. JK

Well that's interesting.

So I don't know if it was made clear or not, but Tony left without taking a 35 week picture and he will not be back home in time to take one, as this whole time I've been wrong about the due date.

How freaking silly is that? Apparently the first ultrasound was a May 1st due date and the second was a May 3rd due date . . . I apparently switched to the 3rd, but the doctor did not since the initial ultrasound was more accurate. I know at this point a few days is absolutely nothing to squable about, but I still feel ridiculously silly for having my due date wrong this whole time!

Anywho, that's not the only thing I learned at the appointment today. I also learned that I gained as much as I did last month, in one week, two pounds . . . but guess what Abby, it was completely worth it last night! lol.

Additionally and this is the big news, I'm already one centimeter dilated, but still apparently really thick.

Photo Op!

Well ladies it's that time again. You know where I highlight a local photographer? Oh wait, I don't make a standard practice of that, it's only when I get photos done? Well, shoot, then I'm breaking my own rules because Amy hasn't taken my photo, but from what I know of the girl she's amazing.

I just wanted to get the word out to any of my Minnesota locals that this fantastic photographer, with plenty of experience and skill under her belt, is having a studio day this Saturday! You can check out this link for more details and I highly suggest that you do, as she does have some availability for a mere $50!

So this royally sucks.

Tony's gone. I dropped him off at the airport yesterday. For my easterner's he's in Pittsburgh. I hate the way that I feel right now, which in a word is resentful. I don't know why my attitude changed, when he was presented with the opportunity he was the questioning one. I was the one who knew that he had to go. Because really, he had to go. He will never again have an opportunity like this to ref on a national stage . . . or I should say, without taking this selection, he might never again be able to ref on such a level.

Did you know that refs have resumes? They do. Every high level game, every tournament, every training seminar, they all count. Who knew.

Anywhoo. I'm having fun feeling sorry for myself. I miss him so much and yet I do feel very resentful that he left me (for effect) with barely a month to go. I really don't do well when he's gone, see here for evidence.

I slept the night at my Mom's last night and it was awful. I'm seriously debating whether or not I should just sleep at home tonight. It's a toss up between waking up every hour at home (or more), but sleeping in my bed. Or sleeping at my Mom's again, waking up relatively infrequently, but feeling beat to all heck due to the mattress.

It's not Tony's fault and yet it is. I want an attitude change and a good nights sleep.