Sisters

Its amazing to me the love 2 sisters can share before they even know the definition. I watch my girls growing together and am inspired daily. I can't wait to see how our lives unfold.

Song of the day

Helplessness Blues
-Fleet Foxes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9qUzfozpNs&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Song of the day

Collector by Here We Go Magic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNcRz5BIBFo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Favorite Things at The Moment

Here are a few of my favs right now...

B&B Curl Conscious Creme
Sleep Sheep
Ring Sling for wearable baby
Old Navy flip flops
Pretzels and peanut butter

Birth Story #2

Elie has arrived!! And in grand fashion, I must say. Please forgive the typos, I am using an iPad.

First, let me apologize for not posting an update in almost a year. It has been one CRAZY and exciting year though and I look forward to backtracking a little and plan to post some of the great things that have taken place during my time away.

Now back to Elie, Elizabeth Reeves Yother. She was one week late and trouble from the start ;) My pregnancy with Elie was the exact opposite of my pregnancy with Anna Claire. I was ok with this because I thought for sure she would be an exact opposite newborn and with AC's colicky first 3 months I welcomed a calm #2. I'll talk more about that later. I had naussea and extreme fatigue throughout this pregnancy, especially the last 2 months so when I started having regular and painful contractions at 38 weeks I was overjoyed! Little did I know that the next 3 weeks would be so difficult, for me and JF who took a lot of time off work during these 3 weeks.

I was going through something called prodromal labor. Most ob's call this false labor but there was nothing "false" about my contractions and dilation. I was dilated to 4 centimeters at my 38 week check up, was 70% effaced and the baby was very low. Everyone predicted I wouldn't make it to the next weeks appointment but I did...and the next week and the next. My doula reminded me of all the things I could do to help progression; birth ball, red raspberry leaf tea, evening primrose oil, among other things. I tried them all. Doula Kelly reminded me that if I was having painful, regular contractions to go to the hospital since my first labor and delivery lasted 6 hrs from start to finish (water broke at home with AC which was the first sign of labor I had) and she was concerned that I might not make it to the hospital on time due to 280 traffic. She didn't want me to deliver in the car on the way. So, on Wednesday after my 39 week check I went to the hospital around 7:30 with contractions 3-4 minutes apart. They monitored me for a while, confirmed my contractions and offered to admit me since I was 4 cm. I knew they would try to induce so I decided to go home and since the baby was under no stress they said it was fine to go. I had spells like this every other evening but stayed home because the intensity of the contractions weren't increasing.

Friday of the next week I was having the same symptoms but the contractions were intense. We went to the hospital again and my doula met me there. I had only dilated to 5 cm!!! I was crushed and so emotional because I was exhausted and not sure how much longer I could go through this slow labor. I couldn't sleep through the contractions any more so I was not pleasant to be around and was having a hard time caring for my 17 month old. My mom and JF rotated days to help out with AC and I was more than thankful to be able to rest whenever my contractions had eased. But they admitted me. We walked the halls, used the hospital birthing ball but no progression. We left at 7 am the next morning because i was unwilling to start pitocin. Let me mention that for the past month something kept telling me that Elie would be born on a Monday. But the Monday's kept coming and going and I was running out of Monday's before my ambitions of having another natural birth were crushed under mandatory intervention.

At my 40 week appt my doctor was floored that I hadn't had the baby yet and mentioned we would talk about intervention if I made it to my next appt, which was the following tuesday. I was really starting to worry that I wouldn't be allowed to have a natural birth. I kept doing everything my doula recommended but the days just kept passing. On Monday, the day before my intervention discussion, I was having the same sort of contractions. I insisted on cooking dinner, doing laundry, bathing and putting AC to bed In hopes it would get things going....but nothing. At around 8pm I was eating dinner while bouncing on the birth ball and felt a severe pain. I had to put my plate down and lean over the couch to get through it. I looked at JF and said, this might be it. The next contraction came 1 minute 30 seconds later as I was walking up the stairs to change into my birthing dress, which is a ritual I was used to by now just in case, and the pain was so that I had to rest on the stairs. We called my mom to come over to sit with AC while we went to the hospital but the pain was so fast and so intense that I knew it was go time so we woke her up, packed her in the car and headed to st vincents. We beat my doula and in-laws there who both live really close to the hospital. Mobility makes it easier to cope with labor pains so I refused a wheelchair. And I'm sure the nurses were flipping coins to see who had to take me, the "natural" birth diva with the birthplan and 2 doulas.

We were admitted to a birth suite and JF immediately set up the soft music and tried his best to make the room as calming as possible. The nurse needed to check my dilation but I asked her not to tell me fearing it would psych me out and slow down progression if I wasn't much past a 5. I was in a lot of pain and was trying not to focus on what was going on around me to stay on top of the contractions. The nurses started setting up the baby station and all the tools so I knew we were close, what a relief! With Anna Claire i was able to zone out and ride the waves of my contractions but this time was different! maybe it was because i had been through it before but it was so much harder to get through and I was really wanting the pain to go away!

After about an hour and a half of laboring at the hospital and not progressing fully ( I was 8cm when we arrived at the hospital) the doctor came in to ask if I wanted to have my water broken, he thought it would progress me enough to get to pushing stage. I hesitated at first fearing the pain would be much worse but eventually agreed. By that point I was begging for "the juice" (something I never did during my labor with AC but this time...) so I knew I needed to speed things along. About 30 minutes later I was pushing (against doctors orders but how do you not push?) and 20 minutes later we had a 9 pound 14 ounce baby girl! We were all shocked at her size, 2 lbs more than her sister! It was definitely a more intense labor and delivery but I was so thankful I was finally able to hold my sweet girl.