Grandparents

Baby Julian got to meet some grandparents and Audrey got to get reacquainted with folks she is used to seeing on a little Skype screen.

Gammy came up from Denver for the weekend and we went for a nice hike to Mad Creek.

Audrey and Julian

It has been so interesting and entertaining to watch Audrey try to make sense of, and adjust to, life as a big sister. Sometimes she wants to be a baby too, asking for her turn on the changing table when Julian is getting a diaper change, getting snuggled, sitting in the baby bouncy chair, or trying to put on baby clothes, as seen here:




And a lot of times she copies what I'm doing with Julian using her "baby dollies". She'll line up her dolls and stuffed animals for diaper changes, baths, turns in the car seat, you name it. Last night when I vacated my spot she scurried up there and got herself arranged so that she could nurse her baby, as seen here:







She has been very sweet with Julian as well, giving him kisses and, mostly, gentle pats. Here's Audrey giving Julian a kiss on the head while he sunbathes:



And here is a video with some more sweetness on YouTube

All this love makes for sweet dreams

The Birth Day

I was finally able to give birth on Wednesday, August 7th! After a week and a half of contractions and thinking "surely today is the day", every day, the contractions on Tuesday evening really were the beginning of the real thing, and I didn't even call Suzanne with an update! And after all the encouragement that those early contractions would surely make labour that much easier and all the great stories from second time moms about second time births being shorter and easier, I labored twice as long as the first before bringing my second beautiful baby into the world. Being a language lover I think about the truth of that phrase "giving birth" and reflect on all the effort I gave in order for Julian to be born (it was a lot, in case you didn't guess) and as my dad's doctor said about his current recovery from breaking his femur, "no pain, no gain"; the truth there is that all the effort I gave and pain I went through was more than worth it to gain the company of our dear boy, Julian Mark Rundall.

So, here's the last chapter of the story of my pregnancy, the chapter that gets really exciting, but is much longer than the other two chapters, so if you're not into storytelling go ahead and skip to the pictures below.

Tuesday morning Suzanne called me and accused me of standing her up again because I had called her with yet another fruitless FYI update on Monday night then gone to bed and had all action fizzle out, yet again. She told me on the phone that I should come by her apothecary and get some herbal extract to move things along over this seemingly unsurmountable hump that had been leaving me with a giant bump in my belly. So Tuesday afternoon I started taking doses of blue cohosh and Tuesday evening I had a couple hours of mild contractions on average six minutes apart, nothing monumental and quite possibly another false start, so around 10pm we went to bed. Then at around 1:30am I was slapped awake by some contractions that said "this is it f@#!er, go time!" A couple of those type of contractions confirmed it was time to wake up Chris, but then they mellowed way out so we had a little backgammon tournament. Chris was able to use his obviously unfair advantage to win 2 of 3 games. After his exciting and rare victory Chris needed to rest so he laid down while I continued to work. I decided to call Suzanne after I'd had about 45 minutes of more consuming and quite frequent contractions, she arrived at our house around 4:30am and again things seemed to slow down. We really got cranking around 10am and that's about when I lost any sense of time or place except for the thought that this was taking a long time and wondering how much longer I could do it. Things may have moved slowly because my water never broke so there was always a cushion between that bony head and the birth canal, or because Julian had both arms bent and hands up to his face making him that much wider, or because he just wanted to take his sweet time moving on out, who knows why but I know it made for some excruciating passage of time. One thirty post meridian, or 1:27 pm to be exact, was the time of birth, I'm not complaining just giving the facts. Very shortly before that time, I sat down on the birthing stool and discovered the baby had maybe 3/4 of an inch to go before I could be done with my work, what a short but excruciating distance! So, pushing time had arrived with no urge to push, that was okay, I'd push anyway, even though it is one of the most counterintuitive and excruciating (am I overusing that word? its just so fitting) things to do, it was the only way to get the baby out. A few pushes and his head was out of the birth canal but still in the amniotic sac, which is a phenomenon that is rare and considered good luck. I then had to wait (yes more waiting) for the next contraction to push out the rest of his body and finally got to hold him in my arms. Because he was born "in the caul" he inhaled some amniotic fluid and his breathing and cries were a little gargly at first, but Suzanne did some rubbing on his body and he did some sucking on my finger and the fluid worked itself through quickly. Hurray, Julian was born! Chris and I had a boy name and a girl name picked out already so as soon as we saw it was a boy we started calling him by his name and telling him how precious and amazing he is. Here are some pictures of him as he was examined by Suzanne:



Seven lbs, seven oz

19.5 inches

Here's Big Sister, home from the neighbor's house and ready to meet the baby:


She was tentative at first, but quickly warmed up to the baby brother, started using his name (pronouncing it "julie IN"), and asking to hold him.

Julian's second day:



By this time Audrey was forgetting his name and calling him Teagan which is a friend's baby sister's name.

Julian's third day:

Start my fire

I feel like I've been rubbing two sticks together, getting a lot of smoke, but the spark is not catching. In non-metaphor speak, I have been doing lots of things the past few days that stimulate contractions, but when my efforts stop the contractions stop. You'd think being squeezed so much this baby might try harder to find the exit, but then again my womb is probably a really awesome place.

So I checked in with my midwife this morning and she has no concerns about the starting and stopping of contractions or me starting or stopping my efforts. My next scheduled appointment is next Wednesday at 41 weeks and if the baby is still hiding we'll start to see each other more often for massages, herbs and whatever other treatments she has up her sleeves. One thing she said that really stuck with me is she doesn't know how babies choose their birthdays, it's a mystery. I thought about that when I ran into a friend later this morning and she asked when I'll be induced. If I was working with a doctor I probably would have been pressured to be induced early this morning so that the doctor could be sure to have the weekend off and the pregnancy wouldn't go "too long", and the doctor would get to choose the birthday. So anyway, I trust Suzanne and Suzanne trusts the natural unfolding of the process and I'm trying to practice patience and acceptance as I wait and wait.

Speaking of birthdays, we've been gobbling up those birthday cupcakes and talking so much about birthdays that now Audrey is randomly singing happy birthday, pretty darn cute! Here she is getting dolled up to party.


This entertaining website has a funny list of labor jump start suggestions, most of which I have been trying, ya know when I get tired of the patience thing.