Monday, January 25, 2016

Against the norms parenting

There are so many things that people always make sure they tell you when you are pregnant. They have their silly wives tales and shitty advice. I remember being so annoyed at the amount of crap I had to listen to. You know, make sure you sleep now, you won't ever get your body back and so on.

Fast forward to the birth of my second child and no one can give me advice because I have done it all different than the norm and end up with a toddler and a newborn, both breastfed!

My first baby was all attachment parenting. I breast fed on demand, did skin to skin daily and shared my bed with her.  Every night she slept next to me in some way shape or form. There was a time period that she slept in the crib but I would welcome her with open arms when she woke up in the middle of the night. As my second child was approaching his debut I started to panic about feeding times and bed time. The thing was, although close to weaning my daughter drastically reduced the amount of times she was nursing but it started to increase more once the due date got closer. We have an amazing bond together and I was also so scared I would lose that or not have a good bond with my son.

In the hospital she was very excited to meet him but she didn't want anything to do with me. I wanted to be home so bad with everyone. All of it killed me emotionally.

I don't remember verbatim what happened that first night but I know it wasn't pretty. How do you keep your toddler, bed sharing, breastfed baby asleep when a newborn is crying every hour? Where was the advice on that?where was the advice when the newborn wanted boob and so did the toddler at 3am and the toddler is screaming her heady off because she wants attention too and you haven't quite figured out the whole tandem nursing thing.

I Will admit I lost my mind a few times. At one point begging my toddler for forgiveness. The nights continued on this way until we decided to just let the toddler be up if she was woken up. I tried so hard to shoot out of bed and grab the screaming newborn as fast as i could but when the other child is attached to the boob its not that easy. Then we realized how crabby she was because she was so tired. Oh.my.God. am I cut out for this shit? I'm starting to think maybe not

I have questioned my efforts as a mother just about every other day. The lack of sleep, the constant nursing between the two and trying to juggle attention for a toddler a newborn and a fiancé is not easy to do. Eventually the toddler got her own bed and lucky for us she loves it and not only sleeps in it but doesn't come out.

In the end it is all coming together,there will be good days and bad days but I just always keep in mind that these days won't always be here. I could  start tears right now by saying how one day they will be going to school or moving out of the house and the last thing in Want is to feel regret for acting like an asshole because I was lacking sleep.

So basically parenting is hard and parenting with  toddler and a newborn will make you question and second guess everything you say and do but in the end just remember one thing, the day will come when they won't be nursing, oneday it will just stop. One day they will be picked up for the last time and you won't even know it. Cherish these times,good and bad andi am leaving this blog for once in my life taking my own advice.

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

C sections for life and first time mom advice

Throughout this entire pregnancy my main focus and the thing I was most determined to do was to have a vaginal birth after c section. Women do it all the time and I knew I could suck it up and push a kid out the old fashioned way (that is if they decided to come out thecorrect way). I worked out until 39 and a half weeks and all I kept hearing were people praising me for stepping foot in the gym and how easy my labor would be. I was also already tainted by Facebook posts from friends or people in groups discussing how they were only in labior for an hour or two and pushed out a kid in thuirty minutes or less. For real that shit happens? I knew the birthing process for me wouldn't be that easy but I was determined to do it on my own, determined to wait to go into labor on my own but not against pain meds as long as I could go as long as possible enduring the pain.

So we continue December 29 or was it the 28 I had my last doctor s appointment and I requested a membrane sweep. I figured it was my last shit before having to be induced since sex at this point was just not a pleasurable outcome.  Anyways I was home and all of a sudden felt some liquid come out and after a call back from the doctor we were on our way to the hospital. Unfortunately Aubrey obviously couldn't stay with us so Andrewhadto drive me to the hospital with her and drive her back home where she was having a sleep over with her friends. It killed me to be without her and worry how she was doing. 


Once I was admitted I waited for Andrew and started off at about 2.5 CM contractions very light.  This was at about 7pm. They didn't check me often but my contractions got longer and were more painful. I felt like I was doing great and managing the pain as best I could with no pain meds so I kept going. The first time they checked which was around 1030 pm I had very little progress at around 3cm.  I was already discouraged BC it seemed as if this was starting to take me back to the labor with Aubrey.  Three more hours went by and I was reluctant to have them check again BC I was so scared and when they did I still had not much progress so they gave me a very low dose of petocin. I muscled through those heavier and longer contractions being in labor a total of 10 hours with no pain meds but they could tell I was getting tired and they didn't want my body to stall progress. At this point they could tell that my body was doing things on its own so they shut off the petocin but at this point decided to take a light pain killer I believe it was called newbane? Not too sure.


Anyways the time gets fuzzy here but the last time they checked I still had not progressed any further so they called my doctor who then checked me and said that his head still wasn't even down that they couldn't turn the petocin on BC his heart rate dropped a little bit already and they didn't want to take chances that at this point she dubbed me as having pelvis bones that just would never cooperate with a vaginal birth BC the babies head can not get where its supposed to be. So I needed to be prepped for a c section. I balled my eyes out during the epidural that I think I scared the anesthesiologist.  They all knew how badly I wanted the VBAC but at 6:01 am I gave birth to my handsome son Noah John :)


It is disappointing when your birthing plan doesn't go as planned but my advice to first time moms is honestly don't have a plan. Practice what you need to practice for breathing and a vaginal birth but your biody and your baby make the decision of how they will be delivered not you

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Pregnant with a toddler

When I found out I was pregnant for the second time I was pleasantly not surprised. I knew it. There were a few doubts in my mind but in that deep down uterus I knew implantation was going on. My first sign of it? My second last day at my job I was deathly ill to the point where I literally told my co workers I wasn't doing shit that day. I also remember them trying to require me and they did not give two fucks that I thought I was about to die.. Assholes

Fast forward to the pregnancy...in the beginning I felt like I knew I was in for a different pregnancy than the first, right again. I felt nauseous but never puked and the summer heat was dreadful. Another aspect to this pregnancy was that this time I had a toddler which made it 10x more challenging because on the regular I had to push through for her no matter how hot,tired or lazy I felt. She needed to be in constant motion because that's what her life needed. I remember many fun trips to the splash pad and park,grandma and grandpa's pool and many walks that got shorter and shorter ad the pregnancy went on 


The third trimester was by far the hardest as the pounds set in and Noah decided to make a new home on my sciatic nerve. At this point being pregnant with a toddler was an everyday battle between feeling like the worst mom in the world and trying my hardest to be as active as I could for my daughter. I feel as if I was pretty successful but I noticed myself complaining more and more about the pain, the breathlessness and the exhaustion. I was ready for him to be here and I still had a good month Left 


Luckily for me my daughter is incredibly smart and when I tell her I am soreahe understands and so when I tell her I can't hold her for long or sit on the hard floor and would say "mommys sore?"" Yes mommy is sore" "OK"


Then the pregnancy hormones kick in and I find myself contemplating what kind of mother I am going to be,how I am going to keep the m!significant bond that my daughter and I have and more importantly how the fuck do you take care of a newborn and a toddler when both of them will want the boob all day long?! I was losing my mind with my own thoughts and worries. 


I also was pressured by the docs at the end to makd a decision about being induced, what day I wanted it to be since my due date was Christmas this that and the third. All I knew was I didn't want to be induced and I didn't want to have another c section unless medically necessary.  


Then I noticed my water broke on Sunday December 28th,2015 and my doctor sent me in to the hospital where it was confirmed to be amniotic fluid.......