We went to try and lay down, but though the contractions stayed quite far apart, they were suddenly quite intense again after my water breaking and so we didn’t actually sleep, but we dozed for an hour or so until Meredith woke up at 9 (she had slept the whole time until this point, straight through the night except for stirring once and was settled easily back to sleep by Kris!). We got up and the contractions started again almost immediately. Kris called the midwife to ask her if it was okay to use the same water that had been in the pool all night now that my water was broken, and she said it was fine. I was having a contraction while he was on the phone and she asked if she should come. I said something along the lines of “I don’t care, whatever you want” lol. Kris emptied the pool a bit so he could reheat the water, and meanwhile my contractions were quickly becoming more and more intense. I’m not sure when they started coming right on top of the other but it wasn’t long afterwards. I couldn’t believe how fast it went from every 8 minutes to transition. And it was very intense/painful. Meredith’s labour had been painful, but in a different way. Lots of back labour, but not nearly so intense. Probably because it was longer. I was very loud, way louder than with Meredith. I’m sure the neighbours heard lol.

Through this Meredith was standing by the pool feeding me frozen grapes (thanks to Paxye for this idea, they were the perfect labour food), stroking and kissing my head, and doing her own thing quietly. She apparently asked Kris to watch a movie at one point and he told her I didn’t want the TV on and she said “oh ok Daddy” and went and found something else to do.

I’m not sure what time it was when the midwife and her student showed up, but I was very close to pushing. The time was actually kind of perfect as Kris and I had had all night to do our own thing together, but when it got really intense and difficult for me (and just when he was wondering how he was going to do things like reheat the pool when I refused to let go of his hand), they showed up. The midwife listened to a few contractions and commented that it sounded like there was a little lip of cervix blocking the baby. I have no idea how she would know that from listening to me! Anyway, she asked if I wanted her to check and potentially hold it out of the way a bit. She did mention that she certainly didn’t have to and it would get out of the way on it’s own if she left it. I had originally told her I didn’t want to be checked at all, but at this point I was feeling like I wasn’t coping very well and I remembered how much I enjoyed pushing with Meredith. I asked her if she did that if it meant I would push sooner and she said yes, probably, and I was like “do it, I want to push!” (I also made her reassure me that she’d stop immediately if it hurt or I wanted her to, which of course she did.) It ended up making the next contraction better and there was a lip, that the head managed to slip past.

The contractions really slowed down at this point, but when they came they were intense. I was yelling very loudly with each one and saying things like “I don’t want to do this anymore”. I had made clear how much I was looking forward to pushing, but when the pushing started I hated it this time for some reason. I really enjoyed pushing with Meredith. Anyway, once I started feeling pushy there was no stopping me lol. I wanted her out of there. I only pushed for 9 minutes and then she burst into the world and Kris caught her and put her on my chest. Meredith came over to check her out and then climbed into the pool with us. We sat and rested for a few minutes and then checked and saw that Meredith had a little sister.

My only real regret about the whole thing is that the water had got cool in that last little bit and I’d been too out of it to remember to mention it and they hadn’t noticed. Her cord was a little short. It wouldn’t have been a problem if the water was nice and warm but because it was so cold I was having a hard time keeping her out of the water enough that we could wrap her. I also couldn’t easily have gotten out with the cord still attached. She was nice and pink and noisy when she first popped out but after about 10 minutes in the tub she had gotten quite quiet and was turning a bit blue. We tried to wrap her up on my chest but I just couldn’t keep her out of the cool water and agreed to cut the cord. I had wanted to wait until the placenta came out to cut it but it had been 15 minutes at this point so I agreed that I was okay cutting it a little sooner. Meredith ended up being the one to cut it, and we tied it off with a braided tie I had made (I had actually made two just in case and am wearing the other around my wrist now ).

They took her while I got out and decided to give her a little puff of room air, which worried me a bit seeing them put the little mask on her, but the midwife assured me it was mostly precaution and that she was just fine. She pinked up really quickly with the air and started squalling. Because I hadn’t pushed for long she was still a tad gurgly but nothing that concerned the midwives at all. I didn’t want the oxytocin shot, and at about a half hour after she was born my placenta hadn’t come out. I was lying on my back with Meredith nursing and holding the baby on the other arm, so she asked if I was willing to squat or change position to see if gravity would help the placenta out at all. I don’t think she was worried about it yet but wanted to be proactive. The placenta came out pretty quickly after I changed positions. Kris passed her back to me and she started rooting and latched on and nursed like a pro. I actually am amazed at how well she nurses; her latch is pretty much perfect already and she’s got a powerful little suck. I’m kind of glad I’m used to a toddler nursing already lol.

Meredith was fascinated by the placenta and the midwife showed her how it worked and how the cord attached to the baby (and where). About an hour after she was born they weighed and measured her. We all guessed how much she would weigh and everyone else was guessing under 7 pounds. I guessed 7lb 6oz. She ended up being 7lb 8oz so I was pretty close. (Maybe even right on if we had weighed her before she nursed. )The midwives left soon after that and Kris and I talked about names and settled on Fiona Siobhan pretty easily. We made our phone calls and have pretty much relaxed and just enjoyed our baby the rest of the day. Unlike Meredith’s labour, where I hadn’t slept in about 27 hours and so slept that whole day, I was feeling pretty good and only had a short nap in the afternoon when Kris and Meredith went out for some food.

We will be EC-ing with her as well, and we’ve already caught one pee and one of her meconium poops today, which is kind of neat.

I’ll post more pictures when I get a chance, but here’s one of Fiona. I was right when I had checked myself, she has tons of hair! It’s so strange to not be pregnant and that I have another little baby. Very surreal, but I’m loving it again. Meredith adores her right now and wants to hold her and touch her constantly. They were both nursing and looking in each other’s eyes while doing so, with Meredith’s hand stroking her head. I wish Kris had been around to get a picture. I hope Meredith continues to enjoy her so much as she realizes how much time and attention she will take up for a while.

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1. Meredith's Birth Story
2. Still Pregnant…
3. There’s really something there!

Considering that we went to four different grocery stores on Saturday, spent the whole evening cooking, then spent all day Sunday and I spent most of the day Monday cooking, Meredith was so patient. She mostly was happy to entertain herself and seems to realize that something is going on. I had a dream about the baby last night (I dreamed it was a little girl and I gave birth to her in water), and then the first thing Meredith talked about this morning (after asking if Daddy was home, which is always her first question in the morning) was about how the baby was a girl. I hadn’t mentioned the dream to her at all, so that was a bit odd. I still have a feeling the baby is a boy though. Not sure why. I don’t think I put much stock in all those old wives tales, but if you do, most of them point to this baby being a boy. So maybe subconsciously I believe them more than I think. We’ll see in just a few weeks or less at this point. (My ticker on the side is almost down to single digits, eep!)

I got a package in the mail yesterday that’s making me really want to have this little tiny baby to dress him or her in these adorable, tiny clothes. They’re from my sister-in-law. I have a few more shirts in the works too and another pair of pants, plus I am making a shirt for Meredith and one for a friend’s son and hopefully a few as gifts too. I’m not sure they’ll all get done before the baby gets here, but it shouldn’t be too hard to sew at least a little bit with a newborn in a wrap. On my to-do list for this week though is the baking, Meredith’s and my friend’s son’s shirts, and trying to clean out our study so we can move the change table down here. I’d like to get at least one more coat of paint on the kitchen and our living room painted this weekend, and then I feel like we’re mostly pretty much ready for baby to come whenever.

I’ve always wanted a spring baby. The weather has been absolutely beautiful and it looks like I’ll get my wish, even though it technically won’t quite be spring yet.

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1. In her own time
2. Hi baby
3. Happy Birthday Meredith!

Pregnancy is still going so smoothly, I often forget I’m pregnant. I can’t believe I’m in the third trimester already. It’s night and day from last time, when I spent most of the pregnancy nauseous, puking, or with terrible heartburn. I have gotten a little bit of heartburn, but so far nothing major. I also spent a lot more time thinking about being pregnant last time, whereas this time I have a two year old to distract me and life goes on as normal. The baby does move a lot now though, and I definitely love that part. Meredith loves when the baby kicks her while she’s nursing, and will often pop off and talk about how the baby is going to nurse too on whichever breast she’s not on. (I find this really cute, because I’d never mentioned that the baby would need to nurse too. She figured it out on her own.) She’s also started bringing me little bits of food and putting it on my belly and telling me it’s for the baby. I’m really curious how much she’s really internalizing about me being pregnant. Obviously she at least partly gets it, if she’s figuring out things like that the baby will need to nurse. She loves to look at and hold other people’s babies and nurses/potties her own dolls. I guess we’ll see in a few months!

Her room is mostly finished now. She chose blue, and was pretty insistent from the first day I asked her what colour she wanted that it would be blue. Occasionally she would mention purple, but that was rare. I got some blue paint and some purple paint to try out in the room, and was doing the purple paint first and she said “No Mama! No purple. Blue room.” So, blue it was. I’m quite happy with the colours. There’s a little more that needs to be done in there, but it’s coming along. I want to either paint all the trim white, or replace the baseboards with white ones, but the white paint I have is oil-based which isn’t recommended for pregnancy. I have a good friend who’s offered to paint them as a Christmas present, but she’s really busy too so not sure if it will end up happening.

Meredith adores the room. She talks about it all the time and likes to go in and touch the walls. A couple of weeks ago she wanted to nurse in her bed and I wondered if she was going to fall asleep there. She didn’t, but I wonder what I would have done if she had. Likely brought her back into our bed with me. She still rarely sleeps through the night so I prefer her to be with me where it’s easy to just nurse or cuddle her back to sleep. Plus she still wakes up and looks for me, even if it’s just to wake up briefly to put her hand on me. If I’m not there she will wake up the whole way and call for me. I think I may start putting her down in her room for naps though if she seems interested.

Speaking of sleep, I’m pretty comfortable where we are at as far as night nursing. In the beginning of the pregnancy she always had to nurse back to sleep; sometimes it would take her 45 minutes or longer each time. I worried that with a newborn who would likely wake her up each time he/she woke up, both would want to be nursed back to sleep every single time. I really didn’t want to night wean her though. I opted to try for plain old honesty. When she is settling in for a long nursing session in the night and I am really tired or the nursing is uncomfortable or painful (which luckily for me hasn’t happened often), I will ask her to please keep it short this time and then we can cuddle instead. Most of the time, she’s quite happy to just have a quick nurse and then roll over and we’ll cuddle until she’s asleep. The times she nurses longer there’s almost always a reason, such as illness. Prior to pregnancy, she really had never fallen asleep on her own without nursing, now she does quite often. In fact there were a couple of nights where she didn’t ask to nurse at all, and just cuddled into me when she woke up. I think that was the few days my milk dried up and she wasn’t nursing much during the day either. Then my colostrum came in and she’s loving that lol. Back to nursing frequently during the day and usually at least two to three times overnight too.

Anyway, so much for this being a short update post. I do have more to post in the next little while, if I get a chance. I’m still reading lots of blogs. They’re in my RSS feed on my e-mail though and I haven’t commented much lately. But I’m really enjoying reading all the posts and seeing the Christmas baking and crafts being done, and hope to share some of our own holiday activities too.

Related posts:

1. Sleeping through the night
2. Baby Moon
3. In her own time

Things are still moving right along. I occasionally get mild heart burn, but other than that this has still been an extremely uneventful pregnancy. I’m not complaining at all lol. A few more weeks to the third trimester. We’ve pretty much decided on two girl’s names, though we won’t decide which one for sure until the baby’s born probably. Funnily, neither of them were on our list before I got pregnant this time. Boy’s names are once again harder. We have about ten on the “short” list still. That’s better than with Meredith’s pregnancy though, where we could barely get a short list at all that we were both happy with.

I guess I’m nesting. I’m still doing some major decluttering and reorganizing, especially upstairs though over the weekend we reorganized our living room too. It feels much more spacious the way we have it and Meredith’s toys don’t feel so cramped. Her room is starting to actually look fairly empty. I have the change table set up so I can start putting some baby stuff away on it. I need to sand and paint her bed and finish getting rid of the stuff that’s left, but compared to how it looked when I started it’s looking great. I’m not going to post any pictures until it’s done though, the before pictures will be too embarrassing without seeing that I really did get it done. I’m excited about it. We plan to use it as a space where Meredith can keep things she doesn’t want the baby to get into. She can nap/sleep there if she wants but I don’t plan to push her into that at all, I just want her to have the option because she’s such a light sleeper and I’ve read some kids actually prefer their own room with a cosleeping new baby. I may set our crib up there too and if this baby will actually sleep out of arms I have a feeling he/she may end up being put down more often for naps, so that I can spend some one-on-one time with Meredith and won’t have to be constantly asking her to keep her voice down. I haven’t decided about that though, as it would mean when the baby is sleeping she wouldn’t be able to go up there, and I also really loved having Meredith nap in the mei tei on us and didn’t find it too disruptive. But I didn’t have a two year old at the time either. I’m not really a fan of cribs though (we only have it because my mom bought it for us after I told her we didn’t want one), so more likely if baby goes down for naps it will be in our bed like Meredith does now.

I’ll end with a picture from Halloween. My talented friend Kyre made the shirt and it turned out perfectly. (Check out her site to see the gorgeous cake she recently made for a birthday party.) I got a lot of comments on it when we were trick-or-treating and I’m sad I only get to wear it once. Meredith was Nemo, which was perfect for her as she loves the colour orange and she adores fish (it’s her favorite part of the zoo when we go). She loved Halloween and still talks about the candy and balloon she got that day, even though she really doesn’t eat much candy besides Smarties. Kris and I ended up eating most of hers while she chose to eat healthy things like eggs, bananas, and avocadoes, even though we left the candy bucket out. She would open a bag, sometimes have one or two, and then give the rest of it to one of us. I think just the excitement of everything was really neat to her though.

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I did a bunch of organizing, decluttering, and moving  of stuff last week and felt fine afterwards. Then suddenly the next afternoon my back started hurting, and it still hasn’t gotten any better. I’m not sure what I would have done, as I was careful about what I moved and how I picked things up and have never had problems with my back like this before. I don’t think it’s pregnancy-related at all yet, but being pregnant probably doesn’t help. I have a chiro appointment set for tomorrow and I can’t wait. I’ve been trying to take it really easy but if anything my back is worse today than it was yesterday. Maybe because yesterday it was feeling a lot better so I probably didn’t take it as easy as I had been. I’m really hoping the chiro helps. It usually does. I can barely walk today without pain, whereas up until now it’s mostly been just bending over and getting up from a sit or from lying down that’s been painful.

The worst part is, because I had started the decluttering, the rooms I was working in had boxes and stuff pulled out. But I haven’t had a chance to go back and finish, so some of them look worse than before. Oh well, hopefully the chiro will help and I’ll be able to finish up sooner rather than later, though I’ll take it even easier just in case. My dishes have been piling up too, even though I’m trying to get at least a load a day done. Anyone want to come do my dishes?

Here are some belly shots from last night. Excuse the funny cropping on some of them, Meredith wasn’t wearing pants as usual and I don’t want to post nude shots on the internet or on Facebook.

Notice my belly button sticking out already? lol It didn’t do that until much closer to the end last time.

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3. It's true

5 weeks and 6 days

6 weeks and 4 days – what a difference in just 5 days! This is in the morning when we just got up and hadn’t eaten yet, so not bloat. I thought maybe it was twins (but I’m measuring right on so I doubt it). I just woke up one morning and thought, wow, a belly! And it never went away.

9 weeks and 1 day – obviously not actually a belly shot but you can see my belly peeking out there

14 weeks and 5 days – I think I’m definitely at that stage where people start to wonder if I’m putting on weight or pregnant lol

Still 14 weeks and 5 days, but my hands are covering it a little bit in the one above so thought I’d include this one too.

Meredith wanted to be included in the pictures, and when I squatted down to be on her level for one, she thought she should squat down too.

Related posts:

1. Update: Good-bye First Trimester
2. Hi baby
3. Coming Back

This time, I’m already feeling nesty. Last week, I finally put up a clothesline I’ve been talking about for, well, two years. My yard isn’t the greatest spot for a clothesline since we have a forest directly south of us, but it gets enough sun that it’s good enough. I had ordered a bunch of used prefold diapers for the new baby, and they came more stained than I had expected.  But they were super cheap, so I can’t complain too much. I had put them aside in a “to do closer to baby” pile, when it occurred to me that if I want to sun them before baby comes it will have to be now. So those are all hung up in the sun sunning out.

There are about 20 preemie prefolds and 20 infant prefolds, a mix of natural and “bleached” (though they’re actually whitened without bleach). I plan to embellish the infant ones. I may dye them as well, I haven’t decided yet. I’ll probably do some of the preemie ones too, simply because I don’t care as much about those ones if I mess up so they’d be good testers. The preemie ones will be great for the meconium poops and for avoiding the umbilical cord before it falls off, but I’m sure baby will grow out of them pretty quickly and then they’ll be used for spills and as burp cloths or inserts. I have some old clothes of Meredith’s that are too stained or torn for donations even, so will use those, and probably see if I can find some cute new fabric ends or something too. It means a lot of them will be girly, but that’s okay, even if baby ends up being a boy. Real men can wear pink, right? I also want to buy some plain white t-shirts (or kimono shirts, haven’t decided which would work better yet), and make some that match the diapers. Meredith spent the first 6 weeks of life pretty much naked and skin to skin with me, and I assume it will be similar for this baby. My mom complained that I rarely got dressed the whole time she was out here, ha. He/she may even spend more time naked, since he/she will be born at the beginning of spring instead of near the end of summer. So I figure some diapers and t-shirts and we’ll be set.

I also have spent some time cleaning and tidying, and even got around to vacuuming our sofa that we’ve been talking about selling pretty much since we moved here. We ended up selling it and replacing it with a love seat that fits much better in that spot (though is ugly, I need to invest in a slip cover for it!). I’m going to finally clean out our spare room upstairs and turn it into a space for Meredith, if she ever wants it.

I have a few other projects in mind too, like reorganizing our kitchen, cleaning out the pantry, painting at least the bedrooms, gutting our study, going through our big boxes of books and figuring out a better way to store them for now… I’m not going to count on getting it all done before baby, but hopefully can get a good chunk figured out.

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Last pregnancy, at six weeks when many of the moms in the due date club I was posting in were already complaining about fatigue and morning sickness, I was still feeling great. I remember saying to Kris that it seemed like I would be one of those lucky women who wouldn’t get symptoms, but that to get a little bit so the pregnancy would feel more real. Then seven weeks came and the morning sickness hit and I was throwing up every day until I was twenty-two weeks along. When I started feeling nauseous at six weeks this time, I thought “uh oh, it’s going to be even worse this time”. There were a few really bad days where I felt terrible, but I’ve only puked the one time (in the car, so it was as much the fault of motion sickness), and otherwise have had many days of feeling mostly normal. Weird! I’ve been tired, but not the passing out on the couch every night exhaustion that I had last time. Last time I had a little bit of spotting, but again, nothing this time.

I did crave fast-food burgers a couple of times right in the beginning, which is really weird. I don’t eat fast-food burgers ever, so the fact that I wanted one so badly was strange to me. And last time, I never had any cravings to speak of. In the first half, I mostly ate carbs, but that wasn’t because I was craving them. It was because I couldn’t keep anything else down. This time, I’ve been craving apples and other fruits, and eating lots of veggies and good whole foods. Much more like how I wanted to eat last time.

I think perhaps I’ve felt movement already a couple of times, but I’m not sure and it’s still really early. I felt a little swipe and then a tap a few nights ago, but later in the night I had some gas so it could have been that. I’ve felt tiny flutters a few other times too. We went swimming and I was crouched down walking through the water (you know how you do in shallow water if you want to keep your upper body still under), and I could feel a little hard lump where my uterus is, so that was kind of neat.

For the most part this pregnancy has been a non-event so far. For some reason though, it feels more real than last time. Maybe because I’ve done it once and I know that there really is something in there. Or maybe because I’ve been feeling well enough to actually enjoy the fact that I’m pregnant and get used to the idea, instead of spending most of my time trying not to throw up or pass out.

I really can’t wait until my first appointment though. I didn’t schedule it until I’m already 16 or 17 weeks along, I can’t remember exactly. I know about prenatals, eating a good diet, exercise, etc. I don’t really have any questions or concerns. The only thing I’d love is to be able to hear the heartbeat, but I’m just trusting that everything is okay.

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3. Update

This has been something that has been on my mind quite a bit the past couple of weeks, since I found out I am pregnant. She still nurses a lot, more than she eats. I’m okay with that. I trust that she will eat when she needs to eat, and that she is getting the nutrition she needs from my breastmilk. She’s growing well, healthy, and happy. She’s not a picky eater, she just doesn’t eat much. I’ve noticed she is starting to eat a lot more recently too. So far, nursing and being pregnant hasn’t bothered me at all. I’m hoping I’ll be one of those people who it never does. I’ve always had problems with oversupply, not undersupply, and last pregnancy I started having to wear breast pads around 22 weeks or I’d leak. (Apparently that’s really early for a first pregnancy.) So I don’t think my milk will dry up, or if it does hopefully it will only be for a short time. One of the reasons we waited to get pregnant (besides my cycles not coming back, ha!) was that I didn’t want her to be forced to wean if I am one of those women whose milk does dry up in pregnancy, especially since she still relies on it so much.

My concern (and even that is far too strong a word at this point; I’m not concerned, just thoughtful) is the night nursing. Meredith is a very light sleeper. When I’m in late pregnancy and tossing and turning, am I going to be waking her up each time? And if so, will I have to nurse her back to sleep every time, making it harder for me to get back to sleep? Trouble sleeping was one of my most annoying symptoms last time and has already started this time. What about after the baby comes? Will the baby wake Meredith up each time he or she wakes up in the night? I can’t side lie and nurse two kids, so that means I’d either have to sit up and nurse them both, or make one wait while I nurse the other. Meredith will be over two and a half, so I’m sure she would be okay waiting while I nurse the baby, but I don’t want to nurse them both every single time the baby wakes up.

Really it’s all conjecture at this point. In 8 months, it’s quite possible Meredith will be falling back to sleep on her own without nursing, or that she will be a heavier sleeper and wouldn’t wake up. But again, I don’t want to count on that, and I don’t want to night wean her. If she sticks to her current sleeping pattern of sleeping until 5 or 6 in the morning, or even waking more when she’s sick/teething, I’d be fine with that with a baby. My concern is having to nurse them both every time the baby wakes up.

Thinking about it, and talking it over with Kris, I think we may try and have her start the night on Kris’ side. We have two queen beds in our bedroom pushed up against each other. (Which is heaven by the way, I love having so much space!) Meredith and I sleep on one, and Kris sleeps in the other. But really it’s like one huge bed because obviously we can move around from one to the other at will. Occasionally Meredith does crawl over to his side for a cuddle. Our thought was that I could nurse her to sleep for the night on Kris’ mattress, and the first time she wakes up at night I’ll bring her back over to my side and she’ll stay there the rest of the night. Which means on the nights she sleeps until 5 or 6 I have space the whole night, and the nights that she is waking up more frequently I would bring her over earlier and be right there for when she needs to nurse. That gives me space to toss and turn when heavily pregnant without risk of waking her up, and when there’s a baby in the equation he or she would be less likely to wake her up too. And of course, if we try it and for some reason she is really unhappy about it, we’d drop it for now. I can’t see that happening though, she does love to snuggle with daddy.

Related posts:

1. Baby Moon
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3. Sleeping Baby

We were a bit surprised it happened so quickly this time, since it took quite a bit longer with Meredith, but thrilled too.  I’ve always wanted an early spring baby. The only problem with the timing is that my first-choice midwife is off in March. But I really love my second-choice one too (and in fact, until my first-choice one helped a friend recently with her birth, it was very close about which I actually preferred) and she is available. My first appointment isn’t until mid-September.

My only symptoms so far are some minor cramps and hunger. I’m hungry earlier than last time, but that’s not surprising considering I’m nursing too this time. I read on one site that I should be getting about 3300 calories a day. I’m going to try and follow the Brewer’s Diet pretty closely right from the beginning, since I had blood pressure problems last time that the diet really helped. I bet I’ll be really tired of eggs and chicken by the end of this pregnancy. The only problem is we’re thinking of going dairy-free for a while because Kris is definitely allergic, and we’re wondering if Meredith is too. I don’t like soy as a substitute for milk. I may just not worry about going dairy-free myself until the baby is born, and limit the amount of dairy Meredith gets for now.

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