ILX Parenting 5: I'm a big kid now

A child is born!

congratulations!

Congratulations! She's adorable.

Glad you guys ended up having to go to the hospital. I didn't want to say anything (because like, trying to respect other people's decisions about pregnancy/parenting) but you guys doing a home birth with the nearest hospital being 30-40 mins away was making me so nervous. Glad that everything has turned out fine in the end.

Excellent news! Glad you had the care you needed, Congratulations! Wishing you a speedy recovery Tera xx

Yeah, that's all well and good but what did you do with the placenta?!

Kidding, of course. What a moosh face - I love her! Congratulations to you both. She's so sweet.

this baby!! this excellent baby!!! congratulations!!!

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8018/6968560520_187ff28f0d.jpg

awwww so small!

hey cool baby

btw I really like her name. Did you give her a middle one?

Were we foolish to think we only needed ourselves to bring the baby into the world? I am grateful for the nurses and the most of the staff here at the hospital, but in ways it has been the dreadful experience we were trying to avoid. When Tera was pushing with two nurses helping along with our midwife, she was close to crowning. then the doctor came in the room, flirted with a new nurse, talked on the phone, never introduced himself to us. There were people coming in and out of the room. the doctor would not let tera sh in the position she was most comfortable. finally she was having problems because of the doctor, he just said yeah we are going to have a c section. I could see the exhaustion and fear in Teras face and knew we had to, that Tera wasn't going to be able to continue. when the baby was pulled out she let out the worst cry I have heard. they were cleaning her very roughly and she ket crying, when they brought her to me and i held her, I sang 'The Way We Were' which is what i have sung to her for months now and she stopped crying. then they took her to the nursery where I had to stand outside the glass. she cried the whole time. now that it is over and we have bonded with or baby I'm no longer sad about being here. Tera tried her best and we did experience natural birth, and I see now how very little is within our control.

Were we foolish to think we only needed ourselves to bring the baby into the world? No but as a lot of people have said repeatedly itt - it's one of the most unpredictable things and best to keep in mind that things often don't go according to plan. Most of all I think it's important not to beat yourself up over what you had planned v. how it all panned out because, hey, you have a gorgeous brand new daughter and isn't that all that matters?

then the doctor came in the room, flirted with a new nurse, talked on the phone, never introduced himself to us. There were people coming in and out of the room. the doctor would not let tera sh in the position she was most comfortable. finally she was having problems because of the doctor, he just said yeah we are going to have a c section

Yeah, this is infuriating and you have every right to be angry. If I were you I'd just focus on that little bebe for now and try not to get too worked up about that (as hard as that might be) because you can't change that now and you have a healthy baby and wife which is really the most important outcome.

anna maria august is her full name but i call her august

beautiful!

congrats! too bad things did not go according to plan, but, yes, the important thing is that you've got that healthy baby! welcome to the wild world of parenting.

too bad things did not go according to plan

And welcome to the next 20 years of your life.

HA!! I guess i need to get that

lol yes.

Sunny and I attended our first parent-teacher conference yesterday. Standing outside of the classroom in the empty hallway, there was a bulletin board with drawings of fruit and vegetables made by the students. Out of the 20 or so tacked up there, I immediately recognized Beeps'. Hers was the only one where an attempt had been made to color every square inch of the paper.

ss and I stood there and looked at the results of Beeps' creative mind, noting how many blue markers she had probably used dry and how with a corner still left white, she was probably upset at the time that she didn't get to finish. It was still just a brief moment, my wife and I standing there in an elementary school hallway, nine years after meeting on a Silver Jews Bulletin Board, and looking at what this little person had done.

When we complimented her last night on her drawing, first thing she said was "Yeah, but I didn't get to finish it."

^ that whole post is amazing

yeah pplains you really pulled on my heartstrings there

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5328/7115739675_19e25a6614.jpg

The best advice I can give you for the next few weeks or so is just focus on making the baby and yourselves as comfortable as possible. And order lots of delivery or have people bring you food or whatever. Don't be ashamed to buy ready/frozen meals at the supermarket. Do what works for you and the baby and don't worry too much about following the prescriptions of any one baby expert too closely. I think I've already said on the thread how we found that to strictly follow attachment parenting with K didn't seem to suit her, because, for example, she would sometimes just squirm a lot in the carriers (this was after the first few weeks, really) and also seemed very happy to have time on her back in her crib looking at her mobile, but at the same time, focusing too much on developing "good sleep habits" and the like seems to have been kind of moot this early on because she needs a lot of comfort at night and won't go to sleep otherwise.

And don't be afraid to expressly limit the times and durations of family and friend visits or even to deny them.

Also, be prepared that you're going to see a lot of changes in her development even within the first few weeks, and that after the first few weeks you're going to find that stuff that "worked" may suddenly not "work." This isn't because you did anything wrong, they just tend to change as they get more aware.

It was still just a brief moment, my wife and I standing there in an elementary school hallway, nine years after meeting on a Silver Jews Bulletin Board, and looking at what this little person had done.

This in particular strikes me as strangely profound.

Well, yes.

eyelashes!

thanks Hurting, really

pplains, that makes me want to go home to the girls immediately.

I think it might have inspired an immaculate conception in my ovaries!

well done!

yeah things never go according to plan

congratulations, she is beautiful.

congratulations (n/a)

i cant believe i didnt see this . CONGRATULATIONS!! She really is remarkably beautiful <3

Thank you all very much. It felt good to get bak on here again and read the posts.

I did experience labor from the mild onset to a painful yet manageable peak to one continuous contraction that was non stop. I was stuck at that point for several hours. Our midwife was EXCELLENT! She gave me several options. We did break my water in the hope this would bring on dilation faster but it did not. It was a few hours later she said let's go to the ER, get an epidural, have you sleep and then induce with pitocin so I could still birth naturally. I was dilated to 8 when we arrived and then with some pitocin was soon up to a 10 finally. However, I was already in one continuous contraction before we arrived at the hospital this made it more painful. They had me pushing and I finally got into things and that is when we were interrupted. We were in creative positions and all in fear of the doctor coming in and shutting the party down. He came in twice and said things were not progressing so let's do a c-section. I got angry at one point and told him he was impeding my labor and had to leave. Things progressed after he left twice and the nurses noticed this. Finally he and the anesthesiologist and a head nurse came in and all used scare tactics. I went ahead and gave in, after all I had been awake since Monday morning, I wanted to meet her. Before I did I had them each tell me what they were going to do and answer questions.

Epidurals are weird. They just numb you to pain but not any other sensations. So I didn't have my dream birth, had someone else's. Plenty of women opt for epidurals and c-sections. I gave it my all, feeling sore from surgery and in my arms, neck, have broken capillaries even. It was an experience, quite a story for her when she asks one day.

Gratz!

Congratulations to you all! What a beautiful baby girl :)

Anna Maria August

love this name btw!

CONBABYLATIONS

ok I have a dumb question...is this a general parenting thread or specific to JS and Tera's kiddo?

bc I might need to start my own thread

when i started this thread i meant it as a general one, for everyone.

m bison: !!!!!?!??!?!??!?

ok cool
xp

oh nbd it's early buuuuuuuut my wife is pregnant

Congratulations! welcome to the club!

:D yayyyyy!

way to go tera and jacob and most of all, AUGUST!!!!

m bison!!!

http://yeeeeeeeeeeeeeees.com/yes.jpg

My little girl has been giving us kisses for a few months now. She opens her mouth and thrusts her face at your cheek or nose or mouth or elbow (or whatever is closest to her face when she decides that she love you) and plants a big sloppy wet one. But in the past few weeks, her front teeth have really started to come in and those kisses sometimes cross the line into "bites". Still cute, but sometimes surprisingly painful.

Also, if I make an "mmmmmmmm" noise, she'll shove her cheek at me to receive a kiss from me (close-mouthed, of course).