Birth story of Cecily Jane (super long version)

This is really long and a birth story, so expect a few gory details. :)


The Birth Story of Cecily Jane Merkin
Friday, August 6, 2010 at 5:06am
7 lbs. 5 oz; 20.4"

Right at midnight on Thursday, August 5th 2010, I woke up after feeling a slight gush. I went quickly to the restroom where I thought perhaps my water had broken but I couldn’t believe it. So I put on a pad and went back to bed. It promptly happened again and I had to repeat that process several times throughout the night. That was a pretty rough night for us and we didn’t get much sleep. First of all, we were excited about my water breaking but also Libby had a bad cold and did not sleep well. So we really only got about 3 hours of sleep that night. I got up about 7 and took a shower and called my midwives’ office and talked to Tanya, the midwife on duty. I told her I didn’t want to go to the hospital right away so she suggested I walk around and try to be active and then check back in around noon. After that I called my mom and several other people and told them the news. Mom had been on call since I initially realized what happened so she was almost ready to come up. Tim went to work as I wasn’t having any contractions and I started cleaning up while waiting for Libby to wake up. She finally woke up about 9:30 and was obviously still sick. Still, I loaded her and the dog, Maddie, up to head to the park to walk. I really wanted to get labor going so I was willing to walk even in the 95 degree weather! I only lasted a little more than a mile before I knew we had to head inside. I still wasn’t having any regular contractions so I was getting a bit nervous. Back at home I finished cleaning up and ran up and down the stairs a few times. About noon I called the midwives back and talked to the nurse who told me I had to come in right away. I was quite disappointed as I still wasn’t feeling any regular contractions and I was deathly afraid of being induced. I called Tim tearing up at the thought of my plans going out the window and he agreed to come right home. In the meanwhile I called our babysitter and asked her to come over to be with Libby that afternoon. Since Libby was sick I wanted to minimize the time she spent with our friends who were planning on watching her. I got in the shower and then packed the rest of my hospital bag, trying to be as positive as possible. The nurse had told me to come in immediately but I dragged my feet, not wanting to be at the hospital too early. Ellen arrived after a while and we finally left and arrived at the hospital a little after 2pm. We went up to Maternal Observation where I waited for Gloria, the midwife on duty. She talked to me a little bit and then did an internal check where low and behold I was already dilated 4 cm! She did not think I would need any kind of inducement! I was also hooked up to the monitor, which tracked several nice contractions. I had brushed those off as just Braxton-hicks contractions but had been feeling those same ones for about the past week. So I guess they really were working! The nurse came back in and asked me about a million questions before we headed over to L&D where I answered more questions and had to do more monitoring before being allowed to walk around. While on the monitor the baby’s heart rate had a few significant drops so the nurse was a little concerned. After the midwife came in and checked it out she cleared me to go walk!
So walk we did! And walk, and walk! Mom also went and got us some dinner so I enjoyed a delicious turkey wrap and some banana pudding. My contractions picked up throughout the evening and gradually become more intense. After walking and then being monitored for increments the midwife asked to check my progress again around 8pm. At this check she discovered I was still at a 4 and hadn’t made any real progress. So we talked about it and she did a little “sweep” and discovered that my water hadn’t broken completely. She asked and I gave her permission to break it the rest of the way to keep things going. After that the contractions got quite intense again and I couldn’t simply walk through them. The walking and monitoring continued, along with a few soaks in the amazing tub, for a few hours until around 2am when I was monitored yet again and I actually fell asleep for about 20 minutes. During that time the baby’s heart rate didn’t really change and I didn’t have any contractions! It was amazing. It really seemed like my body just needed a bit of a break. But the midwife was concerned with the seeming lack of progress so she wanted to check me again. I was a little worried but didn’t have any need to be because I had progressed to 8 cm!! She was relieved and so was I because I wanted to avoid any kind of chemical induction. Her checking me and breaking my water was about as far as I wanted to push things. She wanted me to walk again to try to really keep things going and by this time that got very, very difficult. No longer were we power walking through the entire hospital. Now I was limping along next to Tim in just the L&D wing, stopping when a contraction hit so that I could lean on him and hum my way through it. During contractions I found it helpful to moan and “ohm” my way through them. I also repeated to myself, “I welcome the pain, with each contraction I am closer to meeting my baby”. And it really seemed to help! About 3 or 3:30 I got back into the tub and the contractions really hit hard! The warm water helped immensely and mom and Tim stayed by my side giving me ice and wiping my face with a cool cloth. After a while in the tub it became obvious I was getting close. I could feel the baby descending and the midwife came in. I started to feel the urge to push and did so for a while in the tub. I was having trouble getting into a good position and the baby wasn’t moving down. Unfortunately I had to move to the bed at that time. So incredibly difficult! They had to practically carry me to the bed but after a little while I was able to finally push her out! The whole pushing stage took about 45 minutes, which was quite a bit shorter than Libby’s but it was still pretty difficult. As soon as I pushed her out they handed her straight to me where I discovered we had another little girl! She started crying and rooting around and latched on almost immediately. The cord had been wrapped around her neck but the midwife was able to easily remove it before she came out all the way. Gloria said that the blip in the monitoring at the beginning of my labor might have been related to that. Thankfully the cord was nice and long and didn’t interfere with her blood or oxygen supply. The after pains were much more difficult this time around and it was a real struggle to deal with those. After a good long look my midwife proudly declared I hadn’t torn at all! Not even a “skid mark”! I was so grateful and it’s made my recovery a lot faster and easier. We rested for a few hours in the room before moving up to recovery where we were very well taken care of. Cecily didn’t leave my side the entire time we were in the hospital. Everything from the weight check to the pediatrician visit and hearing test were all done in our room. It was really wonderful to have her with me the whole time. I think that helped my milk come in the day after she was born. We had a great experience at Harris Methodist and will gladly use them again in the future!
I’m so grateful that my mid-wife was patient with me and never even suggested any kind of induction. I got to have everything I wanted: I wore my own clothes, ate the entire time, moved around when and how I wanted, and didn’t even have to have an IV! I had the baby with me the entire time and the nurses were very respectful of our wishes. I will definitely use that group and hospital again!

Everyone's guesses & 38 week check-up

Girl: 7
Boy: 9

Before due date: 7
On due date: 3
Post date: 6

I don't feel like figuring out the other stats but I don't think anyone thinks this babe will be massive. Thanks, y'all!! :-D
I would also like to hope that the baby doesn't come on the 7th. That is our anniversary and I don't want to share that date. Of course that's probably when he/she will make their arrival. :)
Thanks for guessing! I can't wait to see who is closest to being right!!

Today I'm 38 weeks and 3 days pregnant but who's counting? ;) I think this is right about the time my friend Kacie went into labor and stole my due date. Since her son was 10 days early and I ended up being 10 days late (and took her due date!) I think it's only fair that this one come early. Hmmm, unfortunately babies don't get fairness. ;)

At my appointment today I learned that I tested negative for GBS! Hurrah! That means no IV for me! Good dealio. It wasn't too bad last time but it was annoying getting those antibiotics twice during my labor. I'm also still measuring small and hadn't gained any weight but oh well! I guess the baby is just tucked way up in there. Everything else looked good so we're just waiting to see if anything happens. I don't want to start worrying about going late and having to deal with inducement so I'm just not going to stress about it. If I do end up going past my due date they'll want me to do a sono to confirm fluid levels but that's ok.

All-in-all everything looked good and I'll see them in another week!

37 weeks!

Well, I made it! I'm officially "full term"! I didn't really have many doubts that I would and I'm fully expecting to go over again but it's still nice getting to this point. I have a lot of tiny little clothes washed, a lot of tiny diapers ready to go, and even the baby bed set up in our room. I've been nesting like crazy and it's causing my house to stay very clean so that's been nice. :) I guess I'm scared that the house will be messy when I do go into labor.

Libby is doing really well. I've been encouraged recently by her interest and excitement about babies. Lately she's started knocking on my belly and saying "knock knock knock". Its really precious. And today after running errands we came inside and as soon as she got through the door she started calling, "baby! baby!" as if she thought the baby would be here!! And tonight when I saw Tim pull up I said, "Libby! Someone is here! Do you know who it is?" And usually she says "Daddy!" but today she said, "baby? baby?" Too cute. :-) Unfortunately she's also pretty jealous of me with other kids so we'll just have to be sensitive and work out any potential issues.

When we were with friends last week I was helping our friend's little girl with something and Libby got really, really upset. So we had a little chat with her about sharing mommy and she put three words together for the first time and through her tears said, "I share mommy." It was precious. :-)

Speaking of...we went and stayed over the long weekend with some friends up in New Jersey! It was so much fun and I'm really glad we went. I'm sure some people thought we were crazy traveling so late in the pregnancy but we got the go-ahead from my mid-wife and we felt comfortable so we went! And everything was fine. I'm sure I was more tired than normal and walking around a bunch got to be difficult, but other than that it was great! We went for a wedding so there wasn't any way around the dates. The wedding was beautiful and it was so fun being in our old stomping grounds and visiting friends. We're planning on getting our NJ friends down to TX in the spring so that will be a lot of fun, I'm sure!

Well, here's my little preggo update thingie before I sign off:
Pregnancy: 37 weeks

Weight Gain: 10 lbs. total

Sleep: HA HA. Apparently my body is preparing for a newborn and suddenly despises sleep.

Gender: No clue.

Name: Depends on the above

Feeling: Very chill and zen about the whole labor process but excited and a bit nervous about having two kiddos!

Health: Much better these days. Feeling very good and energetic.

Movement: Very, VERY squirmy

Belly: Very high, not that big but for some reason I think this baby will be bigger than Libby was.

Next Appointment: Thursday morning, most likely will do GBS test and REALLY wanting to avoid testing + again. Being hooked up to an IV and stuck on a bed for 45 minutes during hard labor was NO FUN. Would love to avoid that this time.

Well, that's about it!! Oh here are some pics for ya. :)

PS. Blogger is stupid so for some reason all of the above text is underlined. I've been fighting with it all night and am ready to go to sleep! Good night!

At a great petting zoo, Libby had a blast.

Libby and Mathilda, the little girl of our friends in NJ, who we stayed with.
In the city outside a very dangerous store. ;)
Scary dude.

Libby LOVED the stuffed animals, especially the piggies. Daddy told her to give them a hug and then put them back, it worked really well!

She did make it out of the store with a small piggy. :)
Throwing pennies in the fountain.



All dressed up for the wedding. Libby didn't come. :) Made for a fun date night.
On a nature trail in Tarrytown. See the Hudson behind us? It was a terrific view.

The result of a large sippy cup of Jamba Juice at the airport. Apparently the sugar went straight to Libby's bloodstream. She went NUTS!! It was a bit scary but after a little bit of screaming on the plane she sacked out. :)

34.5 weeks! (or is it 35.5??)

Life has been very busy and full these days! It sure helps time go by faster and helps me get more tired which, in theory, helps me sleep better. ;)
Like I've mentioned before, I haven't gained much weight and at my last midwife appointment my fundal measurement was a bit small. So my mid-wife wanted me to do another sonogram just to check on the growth of the baby. Well, we certainly didn't need to worry about Baby M! He/she is measuring about a week ahead! I'm technically 34 weeks and 3 days today and the baby averaged out to about 35 weeks and 5 days! The legs alone were measured closer to 36.5 weeks! So I am guessing he/she will have long legs? They calculated the baby's weight to be around 5 lbs. 13 oz. with an error of +-1 lb. Not sure how they figure the weight but measuring the bone length and head circumference seems to make more sense. I would be thrilled for a July baby either way, but I'm going to try to not get my hopes up. :) I would like to think that after going 10 days over with Libby I'm due for an early arrival. ;)
Here's a couple of belly shots for ya. I always forget to get Tim to take a nice one when I'm dressed in "real" clothes and not just shorts and a t-shirt, so oh well. This will just have to do.

Side shot, with a nice popping belly button

Dare I post a bare belly shot? Apparently I dare. ;)


After the appointment I "celebrated" by hitting up some great sales at the mall. I haven't really bought anything for this baby so I splurged and bought a couple of boy things and a couple of girl things. And once again I was reminded of how much cuter baby girl clothes are.
Exhibit A:

If you can't tell this is a little one-piece outfit with a pink animal print. Sooo cute!!

Exhibit B:
Aaahhg! Aren't they adorable?!

And now for the little boy outfit:

Yes, its cute, but not nearly as precious as the little girl outfit. But I will be happy either way and I know that little boys are precious and wonderful. :) And I'll just add a few more bows to Libby's collection if this is a little brother. ;) We will be very thrilled with whatever Baby M *is* and I feel a lot better about it being a girl now that we have a girl name that we love. I was getting a little worried until my bro Nathan made a great suggestion. So now we have two boy names picked out and one girl name. It's going to be so exciting when we find out!! I was super tempted to take a little peek today but I stood firm. :) I guess if we've waited this long we can wait a few more weeks.

Well, that's all I've got for now. Until next time!!

33 weeks!

About time I posted something on this poor, sad blog. I have been gone a whole lot and just haven't really felt like writing much down. This pregnancy has been a lot more difficult than Libby's was. I'm sure it has to do with the fact that I have a busy little toddler and I can't just nap whenever I want. Thankfully, sweet girl takes a looong afternoon nap which gives me some peace and quiet for a while every afternoon.

I'm stealing this from Katy because I'm lazy. :)

Weight Gain: Uhh, around 5 lbs. Yeah, I know. I had gotten up to 15 a few weeks ago when I actually lost 10 lbs. in two weeks. The midwives were not too pleased.
This is a main area where this pregnancy is sooo much different from Lib's. I had gained at least 30 lbs. by now and was super hungry all the time. This time I have NO appetite and literally have to force myself to eat. Yeah, very, very weird.

Sleep: HAHAHAHAH!!!! Yeah, umm, I have a "good" nights sleep probably 3x's a week. Still working on that, trying to get a routine down that works.

Gender: Dunno!

Name(s): Not telling :)

Health: Pretty good besides the lack of weight gain and sleep.

Movement: A good amount of strong nudges and pushes but this babe isn't quite as active as Libby was. It feels different too, which is pretty awesome.

Next Appointment: This Friday! I went last week and hadn't gained any weight so they want me to come in and do another check. Baby's heart rate is strong and was around 140 bpm last time. I was also measuring right on target at 31 cm so my belly is growing nicely!

Can't see my toes, this makes Tim laugh, not sure why.
Gotta pee a lot but not too bad.
Braxton-hicks contractions All.the.time. OUCH these are no fun and pretty painful. My stomach gets super tight and its not comfortable. Helps if I take lots of sitting breaks.
Caffeine is really affecting me this go-around. I have a cup of tea or coffee first thing but I can't have anything after around 11am or so or else I can't sleep.
Cravings? Hmmm...not really into food this time but I do want sour gummies a lot, probably not the best thing I could crave!
Acid reflux is bad again so I try to eat small meals throughout the day, drink dairy before bed, take tums and papaya enzyme, and prop myself up to sleep.

Anyway, I keep reminding myself how grateful I am to get to be pregnant and how wonderful it will be to have this new baby, but things are a lot more difficult the second time around. My mom had seven kids and she said each time was worse. Yippie. Not sure how people like Mrs. Duggar make it being pregnant or nursing all.the.time. I am not one of those women who really enjoy pregnancy but I am getting really excited about meeting our new little bundle in August!!

Since I'm 33 weeks he/she could technically arrive anytime after four weeks from now!! WOW! That's soon! I have a lot to do before then. The 'official' due date is August 3rd. and Lib was 10 days late so I'm guessing 8/11 because that's my mom's bday. :) Of course a July birthday would be awesome too. ;)

Preggo update - 29 weeks.

About time I posted a new update, huh? Being pregnant with a toddler is quite a bit different than what I experienced last time! I am TIRED!! :) But life is good and I'm so grateful for our what we have.

Baby M. is turning into a little jack rabbit! Libby was always very active and moved a great deal and this baby moves but much differently. He/she is very, very rough! I am constantly feeling very vigorous kicks, usually on my right side or very, very low. Doesn't seem like babe is moving around much but kicks hard enough to make up for it. :)

Like I said, I have been very tired but I remember feeling tired with Libby. Right now I'm chilling on the couch while I should be getting things done while Libby is napping, but yeah... I'm blogging instead. :) Also, I have not been too hungry lately and consequently have not been eating very well. It's a real chore to cook a full, nutritious meal and do all the clean-up when I simply am not hungry and am tired. Unfortunately I need to eat for the baby and I need to cook for Tim and Libby's sakes so I'd better get on that. You can only serve so many PPJ sandwiches before there's a mutiny. :) A grocery store run is on my agenda for today so hopefully that will get done at some point. Plus, I need to drink more water and I'm really working on that.

Weight gain is pretty good so far. Last week when I went to the mid-wife they had me at 17 lbs. so far. On my scale it was a bit different (about 14 lbs.) which is understandable due to do differences throughout the day. Yesterday I weighed again and I had lost about 3 lbs according to my scale. Probably due to my crummy appetite. Another reason to eat healthier, gotta help baby grow!!

It looks like we're going to be staying put for at least another 6 months. We're currently living in a 2 bed-room apartment/town-home and it's ok. The rent is not that cheap but it's a good location, safe (for an apartment), and the maintenance is great. I'm hoping we'll be able to move into a rent house after 6 months. Its hard to know where to pick to settle as DFW is a large area so hopefully we'll know more in a little while. Plus, I really do not want to move a couple of weeks before my due date! :)

Life has been so busy lately! Seems like every weekend we're out of town or have things going on here. My big sis graduated from Sam Houston State University on Saturday so we drove down to the parent's house for that this weekend. After she gets married though we don't have anything planned until July 4th when we're going to visit NY! Yes! We're going on a major trip four weeks before my due date. Are we crazy? Probably. :) But that's when our friends are getting married so there ya go. I think it'll be a lot of fun! Hopefully I won't be too exhausted. The good thing about having so much going on is that it will help time pass quickly.

My tummy is nice and round and I'll have to post a picture soon but until then this will have to do! Can't believe summer is here and it won't be long at all until we meet our new babe.

Belly shot -- Finally :)

@21 weeks!!! Over half way there!
For anyone keeping track I'll be 23 weeks tomorrow.
I think this photo makes me look huge but oh well. :)




Some random things...

I keep telling Libby there is a baby in my tummy and he/she will be here at the end of the summer but she has no idea. She thinks my belly is funny and actually set a cheerio on it in church the other day and then laughed her head off. At least she has a sense of humor. :)

I'm feeling really great so far! If I have a very busy day then I'm sore at the end of it but no other troubles. I was pretty blah during the whole first trimester but now I feel a lot better.

I feel baby Merkin moving somewhat and my mom was able to feel him/her a couple of weeks ago so that was fun for her.

We have a boy name picked out but cannot for the life of us think of a girl name. :(

I'm not looking forward to the summer heat but I am looking forward to having a precious little one at the end of it!! It's so fun to imagine holding a new squirmy little baby and call me crazy but I'm actually looking forward to the whole labor process. It's such an amazing feeling and I've never felt closer to Tim than when we were going through that together. I'm praying for an even better birth than last time. I have an amazing group of midwives here in Fort Worth and I am really looking forward to having that support this time.

Well, gotta run, have a great day!!

Rumors

Yes, the rumors are true!!
We are expecting a new little bundle of joy sometime at the beginning of August! The "due date" is the 3rd, but after Libby arriving ten days late I don't really trust those. :) I'll be thrilled if he/she arrives before my mom's birthday on the 11th.

That puts me at 11 weeks tomorrow so I'm almost out of the first trimester already! This time around has been quite a bit different. I've been more queasy than I ever was with Libby. Thankfully that has stopped but there are days when I can hardly eat anything. With Libby I was starving all the time but thankfully that has not been the case! The last time I checked I hadn't gained any weight so that makes me happy because I really didn't need to in the first trimester.

I found a group of mid-wives at an area hospital that we're going to use. They seem really nice and just right up our ally. I looked into using a birthing center but, strange as it may sound, it's hugely important for me to have unlimited hot water! And that was a concern especially with one place we looked at that had 3 rooms and only ONE bathroom! No way! This is a very highly rated hospital so I think we'll be happy with it.

So far we have no names picked out at all. We had Libby's picked out years ago, but don't really have any others we both like! We want something that has strong meaning, is beautiful, and not very popular. So there are lots of names that fit two of those criteria but not many that fit all three. We haven't even decided if we want to find out the sex of this baby, but we still have a while to figure that out. I do think it would be really fun to be surprised and all of Libby's bedding and gear are all gender neutral anyway. We'd just have to perhaps buy some gender specific clothing. And maybe towels, could I wrap a baby boy in a bright pink towel? :) We'll just have to wait and see! Oh and if the babe is a boy the middle name has to go with Bryan (Tim's middle name) in case you have any suggestions. :)