Before the labor becomes a distant memory, I want to write everything that I can remember of Clay's amazing arrival. I thought the Saturday before my due date was going to be the day. We (me and Chris) were going to go to prenatal yoga but since I had contractions, I decided to skip it. Then, it stops, and a few days later my Aug 14 due date comes and goes. Then, finally, on a full "blue" moon I start labor in the early morning of Wednesday August 21. It was a hot day, as most of them are. I "slept" until about 6am when I got up, showered and put on makeup (it's a big day after all).
Karen kept her normal appointment at 9am and confirmed everything was good. Chris and I went for a walk in the woods behind the house. I don't remember a lot of the day (already?!) but we were in our room, I labored a lot on the exercise ball from Kerry. We listened to my dad's music mix as well as the hypnobirthing CDs. By about 6pm my contractions were getting more intense and were 3 minutes apart. We called Karen and she came over around 6:30pm at which time she checked me and I was 6 cm. They decided I could (finally) get in the tub.
My mom lit the candle (which prompted the neighbors to light their
candles) but I got worried that maybe I still had 8 hours or more to
go. The candles only burned for 8 hours so I would be very frustrated
if the candle burned out before I met my son. I kept thinking that it's going to get worse and this could last a long time. Trying to mentally prepare myself for a long night.
I got in the tub around 7 and immediately felt relief from the contractions. It got much better..I had maybe 5 contractions and then..TRANSITION! The next 6 contractions were the most painful I had experienced. It made me want to crawl out of my skin. I got on my knees in the tub, trying to find a less painful position but there just wasn't one. Chris talked me through going to the waterfall. He did such a great job and although I was in so much pain I couldn't interact, it was really helpful. I remember mustering all of my energy to ask him to keep going. I remember saying "go", hoping that he would know that meant to keep "go"ing with the story but realized that it could have been my invitation for him to leave...not what I wanted.
I remember seeing what looked like a balloon come out and I think that was my bag of waters but I could also just have been seeing things. Hypnobirthing prepared me to breathe through the pain and to remember this was the path towards birth. The more I resisted and tensed up, the harder it would be. If I could just breathe and try to relax, the contractions would actually be better. It only took those 6 awful contractions to get me to full dilated and I said "I think I need to push."
I pushed a total of 4 times
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Thursday, September 5, 2013
August 2013
Well, the much anticipated month of August, due date, 4-weeks with Mummi and Ukki...is over. Here's a video I made to remember some of the great times before and after the arrival of Clay.
Saturday, August 3, 2013
With the days winding down before we welcome Clayton to our family we find ourselves trying to soak in our time with just the 3 of us. Taylor is a precious little girl, constantly wowing her parents with her calm demeanour and quick learning. Today she and I (dad) read through her Babies first words book and she was saying, in her baby voice, guitar, piano, duck, blueberry, baby, and ball. She also recognizes many other words and points to them when i say them, like firetruck, ball, sun, rock, flute and a few others. It is such a proud (i'm not really sure if that is fully encompassing the feeling but it is a start) moment to see her learning and connecting with her as she learns new things. Maybe that is what being a parent is about, treasuring the journey and if that is what parenting is about then Libby and I surely are enjoying the ride.
Each morning for the last week or so when Taylor wakes up she and I get her diaper changed and then walk into Clayton's room to see if he's there yet. She looks around, checks out the crib and then enjoys a quick play on the rocking chair. We then head into see if Mommie and Jack are awake. Usually we try to be quite and Taylor goes 'shhhh' and puts her finger up to her mouth :), that's the cutest. We tiptoe around and head down to the kitchen to stur up some fun breakfast (usually one of a few things - waffles, oatmeal, fruit and a new addition muffins of carrot and some berry.
She is good about listening to us and one thing we have enjoyed that she listens to is our rule about eating and having to be on your pockets. That has been a life saver and we're glad she doesn't know yet that she can not listen to us, we'll save that for the teen years we hope.
Each morning after eating with her Mommie they call Mumi (which Taylor likes to say as Mimi) on facetime. That is something that calms Taylor when she is resisting sitting in her high-chair, amazing that Mumi. They talk and giggle, so wonderful to see her deeply connecting with her grandparents, dispite the distance that seperates us. And her Babba, well she really loves patting her head and saying Babba and letting her Dad know we should facetime him. Some mornings she will just go on a tear saying 'Babba, Babba, Babba, Babba' and pointing to daddy's phone - so we call him and it makes her very happy.
More later, daddy doesn't wont to miss out on a great morning watching Taylor run around the first floor, playing the piano, pushing her car or pulling her owl.
Each morning for the last week or so when Taylor wakes up she and I get her diaper changed and then walk into Clayton's room to see if he's there yet. She looks around, checks out the crib and then enjoys a quick play on the rocking chair. We then head into see if Mommie and Jack are awake. Usually we try to be quite and Taylor goes 'shhhh' and puts her finger up to her mouth :), that's the cutest. We tiptoe around and head down to the kitchen to stur up some fun breakfast (usually one of a few things - waffles, oatmeal, fruit and a new addition muffins of carrot and some berry.
She is good about listening to us and one thing we have enjoyed that she listens to is our rule about eating and having to be on your pockets. That has been a life saver and we're glad she doesn't know yet that she can not listen to us, we'll save that for the teen years we hope.
Each morning after eating with her Mommie they call Mumi (which Taylor likes to say as Mimi) on facetime. That is something that calms Taylor when she is resisting sitting in her high-chair, amazing that Mumi. They talk and giggle, so wonderful to see her deeply connecting with her grandparents, dispite the distance that seperates us. And her Babba, well she really loves patting her head and saying Babba and letting her Dad know we should facetime him. Some mornings she will just go on a tear saying 'Babba, Babba, Babba, Babba' and pointing to daddy's phone - so we call him and it makes her very happy.
More later, daddy doesn't wont to miss out on a great morning watching Taylor run around the first floor, playing the piano, pushing her car or pulling her owl.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
First Words
Taylor's first word is....DOG! She's been saying dog for over a month now but every day she seems to add more words - her list (in loose chronological order):
1. dog
2. Dada
3. mama
4. baba (Grandpa Boyd's nickname)
5. owl
6. buh-bye
7. hi
8. shoes
9. baby
10. hot
1. dog
2. Dada
3. mama
4. baba (Grandpa Boyd's nickname)
5. owl
6. buh-bye
7. hi
8. shoes
9. baby
10. hot
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
14 month mile stones
An update as to all the doings of Baby Taylor:
WALKING -
T is almost 14 months old and she's walking like a champ. We worked with her in Hawaii, walking between Jarad and mom at the airport. She really started going for it when she was 13 months and is now walking everywhere. She started pulling up in October in Minnesota and was walking around furniture since 10 months old so it was a bit surprising it took 3 months to actually walk but life definitely got much busier with the walking.
TEETH -
Taylor has 8 teeth - 4 up and 4 down and I talked to the dentist about plans and they want us to be brushing her teeth twice a day. Such a grown up!
FOOD -
We have started to make plates up for dinner and lunch with cheese, graham crackers with peanut butter, blueberries, butternut squash, ravioli. Taylor still doesn't like milk so we need to make sure she gets enough dairy. I am also struggling giving her finger vegetables. She will eat spinach, peas, etc, if it's blended and fed to her but she hasn't liked green beans, etc. for finger food.
SLEEP -
We have moved to one nap a day - as her morning nap was compromising her afternoon/mid-day nap so we now put her down around 11:30 or 12noon and she will sleep from 1-3 hours. At night, she goes to bed around 6 or 6:30 and Chris and I wake up around 7am and she is always awake but just playing in her bed. Chris gets up and feeds her breakfast - waffles with peanut butter, oatmeal, etc.
Taylor is starting to recognize us and will usually be able to point at herself, at mama, dada, dog...Although "D" is about the only "word" she says. All is great and she is more fun each and every day. Rarely cries - 2 cries if it's not bad and 3 if she takes a hard fall (which she does fairly often now that she is walking).
WALKING -
T is almost 14 months old and she's walking like a champ. We worked with her in Hawaii, walking between Jarad and mom at the airport. She really started going for it when she was 13 months and is now walking everywhere. She started pulling up in October in Minnesota and was walking around furniture since 10 months old so it was a bit surprising it took 3 months to actually walk but life definitely got much busier with the walking.
TEETH -
Taylor has 8 teeth - 4 up and 4 down and I talked to the dentist about plans and they want us to be brushing her teeth twice a day. Such a grown up!
FOOD -
We have started to make plates up for dinner and lunch with cheese, graham crackers with peanut butter, blueberries, butternut squash, ravioli. Taylor still doesn't like milk so we need to make sure she gets enough dairy. I am also struggling giving her finger vegetables. She will eat spinach, peas, etc, if it's blended and fed to her but she hasn't liked green beans, etc. for finger food.
SLEEP -
We have moved to one nap a day - as her morning nap was compromising her afternoon/mid-day nap so we now put her down around 11:30 or 12noon and she will sleep from 1-3 hours. At night, she goes to bed around 6 or 6:30 and Chris and I wake up around 7am and she is always awake but just playing in her bed. Chris gets up and feeds her breakfast - waffles with peanut butter, oatmeal, etc.
Taylor is starting to recognize us and will usually be able to point at herself, at mama, dada, dog...Although "D" is about the only "word" she says. All is great and she is more fun each and every day. Rarely cries - 2 cries if it's not bad and 3 if she takes a hard fall (which she does fairly often now that she is walking).
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Happy Birthday Taylor!
We had about 30 friends come over for Taylor's birthday party. I tried to make it fairly simple but I did bake cupcakes with less sugar and I made a banner of a few pictures.
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