-a warm house on these chilly days.
-being "mama" to the most adorable, sweet, adventurous, loving little girl.
-my husband, whom I would be absolutely lost without and who puts up with my craziness.
-my parents, they really coudn't get any better.
-a healthy family. -that we're able to put food on the table.
-my brothers, brother-in-laws, and sister-in-law, I'm so proud of them.
-my adorable nephews and nieces, I love them to pieces.
-our ward. They have been so good to us and we've made such great friends there.
-modern technology. I could not survive without an oven, washer/dryer, running water, electricity, computers, internet, etc.
-for a big, wonderful extended family on mine as well as Levi's side.
-that I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
-our cars and that we don't have to take public transportation or walk.
-ice cream, chocolate, cheesecake, cupcakes, brownies, cookies. They keep me going on bad days.
-in-laws that absolutely adore Claire.
-friends that I know I can count on no matter what.
-chapstick and gum. I may be addicted.
-hot chocolate and apple cider. Mmmm!
-fuzzy socks and slippers for my always cold feet.
-doctors and pharmacists.
-Claire's naptime aka my break time.
-kisses. Any variety, Claire's, Levi's, chocolate.
-hot showers.
-this beautiful state that I live in and love.
-reading a good book.
-Netflix.
-that we live in such a fantastic country.
-makeup and you all should be grateful that I wear it too. ;)
-TV.
-a dog that likes to snuggle.
-the weekends.
-Facebook and Blogger.
-Christmas music, you can't be in a bad mood while listening to it.
-quesadillas and pizza.
-that we are able to record totally cute things like Claire saying "huppy" instead of "puppy".
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
Claire's B-day Party
So what you are about to read is way overboard and totally more for Levi and myself making it through the first year than for our sweet baby who would never had known nor remembered if we had toned it down a little but we're just not those kind of people. And sorry for this being so late, life has been a little crazy.
Claire's birthday party was a butterfly theme (big thank you to Auntie for loaning us all the wonderful decorations!). We provided some super yummy food with the help of some fabulous friends and family. It was at my grandparents clubhouse as our house could never have held enough people comfortably (oh wait I forgot about her blessing.)
Thank you to all of her wonderful family and friends for all the love and support that you have shown her over the last year. She is so blessed to have so many people that truly love her.
She wore her tutu for the whole party except for the cake part of course. We put her on a tablecloth, in her diaper with her cake and she thought it was so great. She was grinning from ear to ear. She wasn't too interested in eating the cake but sticking her foot in it was quite fun!
She loves having tons of new toys and I love having new clothes for her! I washed all of the new clothes over the past week and, my oh my, does she look absolutely adorable in them! Thanks for all the presents, you guys are the best!
Claire's meltdown after seeing her toy kitty (it meows and walks)
The Birthday Girl
Her shocked face when we were singing to her
This is so tasty, I think I'll stick my foot in it
Can we do this every year mom & dad?
Claire had her 1 year appointment last week and the doctor said she's just perfect! She is 31.5 inches tall (98%) and 21 lbs 10 oz (50%). $25, 4 shots and a finger prick later, we were out of there!
Claire's birthday party was a butterfly theme (big thank you to Auntie for loaning us all the wonderful decorations!). We provided some super yummy food with the help of some fabulous friends and family. It was at my grandparents clubhouse as our house could never have held enough people comfortably (oh wait I forgot about her blessing.)
Thank you to all of her wonderful family and friends for all the love and support that you have shown her over the last year. She is so blessed to have so many people that truly love her.
She wore her tutu for the whole party except for the cake part of course. We put her on a tablecloth, in her diaper with her cake and she thought it was so great. She was grinning from ear to ear. She wasn't too interested in eating the cake but sticking her foot in it was quite fun!
She loves having tons of new toys and I love having new clothes for her! I washed all of the new clothes over the past week and, my oh my, does she look absolutely adorable in them! Thanks for all the presents, you guys are the best!
Claire's meltdown after seeing her toy kitty (it meows and walks)
The Birthday Girl
Her shocked face when we were singing to her
This is so tasty, I think I'll stick my foot in it
Can we do this every year mom & dad?
Claire had her 1 year appointment last week and the doctor said she's just perfect! She is 31.5 inches tall (98%) and 21 lbs 10 oz (50%). $25, 4 shots and a finger prick later, we were out of there!
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Dear Claire
I love you so much baby! You are the light of our lives. It is really hard to remember what life was like before you were here, it must have been boring. You definitely keep us on our toes. We constantly underestimate what you are capable of doing; maybe because I still think of you as my sweet, little, not-so-mobile baby but things have changed and FAST (not the sweet part though)! Last week you somehow got out of the bathtub, unplugged the lamp, and just today you figured out how to use your Grandma and Grandpa Heintz's water cooler and I caught with your mouth under the nozzle and trying to turn it on.
You love anything and everything that you're not supposed to have. You have a real knack for finding pens, keys, and paper. When I find you with something you're not supposed to have you'll usually get a big smile on your face, throw the item down and start crawling away at hyperspeed, it's hilarious. You are so strong-willed that if you've been trying really hard to get something and I take it away, you throw a gigantic fit. You try to be independent but you don't quite have the abilities to do so yet, so you get a little flustered when you can't do something.
You've been giving kisses for the last couple weeks and they have got to be the sweetest little kisses in the entire universe. Your Daddy and me can't get enough off them, thankfully you give them out willingly. They're usually open-mouthed and a little slobbery but I love them even more than Daddy's kisses (shh, don't tell him!). You've also been giving loves (aka hugs) quite a bit. I love it so much when you get upset and come to me for some loves and kisses and then go back to whatever you were doing, that melts my heart. One of my favorite things that you do is tilt you're head to the side till it's laying on your high chair tray (or wherever you happen to be) and you get this super cute little smile on your face.
You took your first steps over 2 months ago but it's taken you till just this week to be mostly walking. You are so much faster at crawling that I think you didn't care to try very much with the walking. You do this super cute crawl when you have a dress on. We call it the bear crawl; your arms and legs are straight so your bum is in the air so that way you're not getting all caught up in your dress like you would if you were crawling normal.
You are so smart! We'll show you how to do something like flip the light on and you pick up on it right away. You babble constantly; we're really going to be in for it when you start talking! You say "dada" quite a bit, "mama" every once in a while and "uh-oh" when you drop something (sometimes intentionally). You also say "peeka, peeka, peeka". At first I thought maybe that was the beginning to "peek-a-boo" but the more I hear it (coupled with the fact that it's always in three's) I think it's actually "tickle, tickle, tickle". Only time will tell. You've also gotten very good a giving high-fives although instead of just slapping our hands once you keep slapping them till we pull our hands away.
You love our dog Roxcy. You tackle her and pull on her ears or tail or grab a handful of skin. She adores you too and would never think about biting you. Sometimes you'll just start laughing hysterically and we'll look and you'll be laughing at puppy. She gets concerned when you cry and sometimes freaked out when you get a little too excited and start screaming or making loud noises.
Everyday when Daddy gets home you'll either hear him unlocking the door or puppy barking and wherever you are in the house and whatever kind of mood you're in, you will go to where you can see the door. You have the biggest smile on your face even before he opens it and most of the time you'll let out a squeal/shriek when you finally see him. I love seeing you get so excited to see your Daddy. He is such an amazing Daddy and he loves you so so so much. Even after you go to bed you're usually the only thing we talk about. Daddy always begs me to wake you up because he misses you but we both know you probably wouldn't be very happy if we did. He actually wrote you a hand-written letter so I'll try to make sure it doesn't get lost.
What an amazing first year it's been! We have shared too many tears, smiles, and giggles to count. I have very mixed feelings about you growing up. I want you to stay 1 forever but I know that we have a lot of fun things to come. I thank Heavenly Father everyday that you were sent to us, we are so lucky to be your parents. You are such a fun, energetic, intelligent, sweet, and absolutely beautiful little girl. I can't wait to see what this next year brings. I love you so much Claire Bear!
Love Always,
Your Mama
You love anything and everything that you're not supposed to have. You have a real knack for finding pens, keys, and paper. When I find you with something you're not supposed to have you'll usually get a big smile on your face, throw the item down and start crawling away at hyperspeed, it's hilarious. You are so strong-willed that if you've been trying really hard to get something and I take it away, you throw a gigantic fit. You try to be independent but you don't quite have the abilities to do so yet, so you get a little flustered when you can't do something.
You've been giving kisses for the last couple weeks and they have got to be the sweetest little kisses in the entire universe. Your Daddy and me can't get enough off them, thankfully you give them out willingly. They're usually open-mouthed and a little slobbery but I love them even more than Daddy's kisses (shh, don't tell him!). You've also been giving loves (aka hugs) quite a bit. I love it so much when you get upset and come to me for some loves and kisses and then go back to whatever you were doing, that melts my heart. One of my favorite things that you do is tilt you're head to the side till it's laying on your high chair tray (or wherever you happen to be) and you get this super cute little smile on your face.
You took your first steps over 2 months ago but it's taken you till just this week to be mostly walking. You are so much faster at crawling that I think you didn't care to try very much with the walking. You do this super cute crawl when you have a dress on. We call it the bear crawl; your arms and legs are straight so your bum is in the air so that way you're not getting all caught up in your dress like you would if you were crawling normal.
You are so smart! We'll show you how to do something like flip the light on and you pick up on it right away. You babble constantly; we're really going to be in for it when you start talking! You say "dada" quite a bit, "mama" every once in a while and "uh-oh" when you drop something (sometimes intentionally). You also say "peeka, peeka, peeka". At first I thought maybe that was the beginning to "peek-a-boo" but the more I hear it (coupled with the fact that it's always in three's) I think it's actually "tickle, tickle, tickle". Only time will tell. You've also gotten very good a giving high-fives although instead of just slapping our hands once you keep slapping them till we pull our hands away.
You love our dog Roxcy. You tackle her and pull on her ears or tail or grab a handful of skin. She adores you too and would never think about biting you. Sometimes you'll just start laughing hysterically and we'll look and you'll be laughing at puppy. She gets concerned when you cry and sometimes freaked out when you get a little too excited and start screaming or making loud noises.
Everyday when Daddy gets home you'll either hear him unlocking the door or puppy barking and wherever you are in the house and whatever kind of mood you're in, you will go to where you can see the door. You have the biggest smile on your face even before he opens it and most of the time you'll let out a squeal/shriek when you finally see him. I love seeing you get so excited to see your Daddy. He is such an amazing Daddy and he loves you so so so much. Even after you go to bed you're usually the only thing we talk about. Daddy always begs me to wake you up because he misses you but we both know you probably wouldn't be very happy if we did. He actually wrote you a hand-written letter so I'll try to make sure it doesn't get lost.
What an amazing first year it's been! We have shared too many tears, smiles, and giggles to count. I have very mixed feelings about you growing up. I want you to stay 1 forever but I know that we have a lot of fun things to come. I thank Heavenly Father everyday that you were sent to us, we are so lucky to be your parents. You are such a fun, energetic, intelligent, sweet, and absolutely beautiful little girl. I can't wait to see what this next year brings. I love you so much Claire Bear!
Love Always,
Your Mama
Friday, November 5, 2010
Claire's Birth Story
I was just thinking the other day that I had not yet typed out our birth story, my husband (you can read his here) had, but our views are very, very different. I figured her first birthday would be a good day to posty this. I still can't believe it's been a year! I will try to be as least graphic as possible because I know some people get squeamish about these things but labor and delivery are messy, so here goes.
When I had very first gotten pregnant I remember being really nervous and almost in dread of two things. The first was that my water would break in a public place and the second was the big D Day. I remember telling a coworker that I wanted as many drugs as they could pump into me because I didn’t want to feel any pain. Then about halfway through my pregnancy I had to switch doctors because my regular gyno who I had seen up to that point no longer was delivering babies, so she gave me a couple referrals. There were a couple doctors and a group of midwives. I was thinking what most people think about midwives which are that they are only for home births or water births and I did not want to do either of those. So I talked to some friends and found out that certified nurse midwives have just as much schooling and in a lot of cases more experience, than OB’s. So I did a little research online and I watched “The Business of Being Born” (which I highly recommend to any and all pregnant women) and so I set my first appointment with the midwives. I say midwives because there was a team of about 4 or 5 of them and every appointment you got to meet a new one that way you were comfortable with whomever you delivered with. I loved them; they were so supportive, knowledgeable and patient with my endless lists of questions. As my pregnancy went on I leaned more and more toward going the natural route. Everybody said I couldn’t do it or would laugh or snicker when I said I didn’t want any drugs. I could hear their thoughts “This naïve little girl has no idea what it feels like! She’ll be begging for meds in no time!”But I was determined. I read the Hypnobabies book; I did not do the program however. This book is great; it starts off with a history of labor and delivery and how women that didn’t know it was supposed to hurt just popped their baby’s right out. It also gives a great pep talk about how God made our bodies to do this; again I would recommend this to woman regardless of whether or not you are planning on going all natural. I decided to not get an epidural because I did not want to labor lying down, nor did I want a catheter. I would have gone crazy having to just lay there. I am also not a fan of needles and so the thought of one going into my back terrified me way more than dealing with the pain of not having one. Ok on to the good stuff.
My original due date was November 1, 2009. For some reason when I started seeing the midwives my due date got switched to the 4th and I never did find out why. I was still working and every day I came in that week my coworkers would make jokes about how they’re losing money on me because they had taken bets on which day I would go into labor. On November 5th I went to work just like normal and felt completely fine. At about 10:30 AM I started to feel a little weird but I just kept on working. Levi and me had plans to go out to the Glockenspiel in Mt Angel for dinner and he called about 11:30 AM to say that we should go to lunch (I had been working 8 hrs but this week I decided to take it a little easier and get off at 1) instead since it was cheaper. I told him we probably wouldn’t be doing either so not to worry about it. I had gone to the bathroom a couple times that morning and thought that maybe my water had broken and then by 12:30 I decided I should head home but not before stopping and depositing my check of course. ;) I called Levi and let him know that I was leaving work and that he should to since he’s a half hour away. He stopped on the way home to help a lady from work move her couch (really Levi, really!?) and got home around 1:30. I was trying really hard to time my contractions but I couldn’t figure it out or maybe they were just all over the place. We decided that now would be a good time to pack and then Levi called into the midwives to see whether they thought we should go in or not. They said it would be a good idea since I thought my water had broken and it was probably not so we would most likely just be going right home.
We left for the Salem Hospital at about 3 pm just dreading it since we thought they would send us home. By 3:30 I was laying on a bed in a maternity triage room. The nurse hooked me up to the monitors and a little later swabbed to see if my water had broken. We had to listen to this lady complain about how she was really mad that she was going into early labor while they were supposed to be hunting. And the guy kept farting, seriously! We hadn’t seen the nurse in a very long time and my contractions were getting pretty intense. I started crying because I was so frustrated about listening to the dumb lady and her tooty husband, being on a horribly uncomfortable bed and not having anyone check on us in a long time. Finally the nurse comes back, says my water didn’t break, and that the babies heart rate looks great. She decided to check my cervix before throwing us out and to everyone’s surprise I was already 5-6 cm dilated. I was sooooo ecstatic that I wasn’t going to be leaving without a sweet baby girl in my arms! At about 5 pm we were transferred to a birthing room.
I was so happy, I couldn’t stop smiling. I was just a couple hours away from meeting my baby! Levi had left all of our stuff in the car so he had to run down to grab the camera and something to eat while he had a chance. They opened up an IV site just in case there were any emergencies but I was not hooked up to anything. They allowed me to drink some broth and eat jello, I didn’t care anything was fine, I was so hungry but yet I would not have been able to eat anything substantial. I right away got in the Jacuzzi tub and immediately felt so much better. It wasn’t until that moment that I understood why women give birth in water, it felt so good. I felt so light and the contractions weren’t as uncomfortable. I remember Levi making some comment about floaties in the water; that guy can make me laugh even during labor! So at 7:45 pm Lenny (the only midwife I hadn’t met, go figure!) walks in to check on me and says I’m 8 cm and 0 station and to just keep doing whatever I was doing because it was working great. She said all the nurses just couldn’t believe how fast I was coming along for a first-time pregnancy and how happy I was. I bounced on an exercise ball for a while and then decided to get back in the tub as my contractions were getting more painful. Every hour or so they would have to hook me up to the monitors just to make sure both of our heart rates were good. I’m going to have to have a talk with the mister before our next baby because he would watch the monitor (it shows the waves of contractions) and say things like “Oh geez, this is a super bad one!”or “Oh that one must have hurt bad!”
We had originally decided that it would just be Levi and me when the baby was born but Levi texted everyone earlier in the evening. My mom (the others had to wait in the lobby) arrived at some point and I was glad she was there; I needed all the encouragement I could get. Although I did have to ask her to spit out her cinnamon gum because it was making me super nauseous. At 9:10 pm Lenny came back in to check on me and I was 9 cm and still smiling. My water hadn’t broken yet so we decided that she should go ahead and pop it. Wow, that was a weird feeling! I will never mistake my water breaking again. By 9:35 pm I was full dilated and at 9:40 I started pushing. This is where my smile faded and I was just ready to get this baby out of me. They kept saying that they could see a head covered in lots of dark hair and that it would go back in a little bit in between pushing. I remember that that irritated me. It was hard at first to get the whole pushing thing down but I finally got into the rhythm. I remember thinking right when the next contraction was starting that I needed just a couple more minutes and maybe if I didn’t tell everyone that I was starting a contraction that I could just skip pushing this time. But then I would remember that they all knew when my contractions were since I was hooked up to the monitors. I kept expecting to feel “the ring of fire” but I never did. I did feel a lot of pressure and pain with the contractions though.
Claire Elizabeth Fergus was born at 10:27 pm. They threw this little purple, gooey, slimy creature on my chest and I immediately fell in love. I had never laid eyes on someone so beautiful. She had a full head of dark hair and the most beautiful skin. She weighed in at 8 lbs 8.5 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. She received a 9 on the apgar scale and couldn’t have been any healthier. As soon as she popped out, my smile was back and I couldn’t stop smiling even if I had tried. I don’t even remember delivering the placenta. I had torn pretty badly and it took about 30-45 minutes to get all sewn up. I kept expecting it to hurt but I didn’t feel anything down there (endorphins are awesome painkillers!); I guess I was a little too preoccupied. The next day and a half in the hospital was a blur of visitors, good food, and checkups. I can honestly say that next to my wedding day this was the best day of my life.
I guess I wasn’t prepared for the aftermath of a baby. Everyone said you would bleed but I had no idea how much it would be. That part of the whole experience shocked me the most and how sore I was down there for weeks, I had no idea it would be that bad. I would go through 5 more natural births if it meant not having to deal with the aftermath.
I was so glad that I chose to not have painkillers. It was so nice to be able to just get up and walk to the bathroom afterwards, feel coherent and awake and be able to just soak all of these wonderful feelings in. I can understand why women do homebirths but I am just too paranoid of something going wrong. I know that the odds are pretty low if you are low risk but I am a huge worry wart and I’m sure I would just not be able to relax at home. I’m sure a majority of women that have babies in the hospital do have either epidurals or pain killers so it was kind of weird, the nurses treated me like a bit of a novelty. I only felt pressured once but after making my wishes known (hello, did you not see my birth plan!?) nobody questioned me again. I don’t want to have my babies any other way!
When I had very first gotten pregnant I remember being really nervous and almost in dread of two things. The first was that my water would break in a public place and the second was the big D Day. I remember telling a coworker that I wanted as many drugs as they could pump into me because I didn’t want to feel any pain. Then about halfway through my pregnancy I had to switch doctors because my regular gyno who I had seen up to that point no longer was delivering babies, so she gave me a couple referrals. There were a couple doctors and a group of midwives. I was thinking what most people think about midwives which are that they are only for home births or water births and I did not want to do either of those. So I talked to some friends and found out that certified nurse midwives have just as much schooling and in a lot of cases more experience, than OB’s. So I did a little research online and I watched “The Business of Being Born” (which I highly recommend to any and all pregnant women) and so I set my first appointment with the midwives. I say midwives because there was a team of about 4 or 5 of them and every appointment you got to meet a new one that way you were comfortable with whomever you delivered with. I loved them; they were so supportive, knowledgeable and patient with my endless lists of questions. As my pregnancy went on I leaned more and more toward going the natural route. Everybody said I couldn’t do it or would laugh or snicker when I said I didn’t want any drugs. I could hear their thoughts “This naïve little girl has no idea what it feels like! She’ll be begging for meds in no time!”But I was determined. I read the Hypnobabies book; I did not do the program however. This book is great; it starts off with a history of labor and delivery and how women that didn’t know it was supposed to hurt just popped their baby’s right out. It also gives a great pep talk about how God made our bodies to do this; again I would recommend this to woman regardless of whether or not you are planning on going all natural. I decided to not get an epidural because I did not want to labor lying down, nor did I want a catheter. I would have gone crazy having to just lay there. I am also not a fan of needles and so the thought of one going into my back terrified me way more than dealing with the pain of not having one. Ok on to the good stuff.
My original due date was November 1, 2009. For some reason when I started seeing the midwives my due date got switched to the 4th and I never did find out why. I was still working and every day I came in that week my coworkers would make jokes about how they’re losing money on me because they had taken bets on which day I would go into labor. On November 5th I went to work just like normal and felt completely fine. At about 10:30 AM I started to feel a little weird but I just kept on working. Levi and me had plans to go out to the Glockenspiel in Mt Angel for dinner and he called about 11:30 AM to say that we should go to lunch (I had been working 8 hrs but this week I decided to take it a little easier and get off at 1) instead since it was cheaper. I told him we probably wouldn’t be doing either so not to worry about it. I had gone to the bathroom a couple times that morning and thought that maybe my water had broken and then by 12:30 I decided I should head home but not before stopping and depositing my check of course. ;) I called Levi and let him know that I was leaving work and that he should to since he’s a half hour away. He stopped on the way home to help a lady from work move her couch (really Levi, really!?) and got home around 1:30. I was trying really hard to time my contractions but I couldn’t figure it out or maybe they were just all over the place. We decided that now would be a good time to pack and then Levi called into the midwives to see whether they thought we should go in or not. They said it would be a good idea since I thought my water had broken and it was probably not so we would most likely just be going right home.
We left for the Salem Hospital at about 3 pm just dreading it since we thought they would send us home. By 3:30 I was laying on a bed in a maternity triage room. The nurse hooked me up to the monitors and a little later swabbed to see if my water had broken. We had to listen to this lady complain about how she was really mad that she was going into early labor while they were supposed to be hunting. And the guy kept farting, seriously! We hadn’t seen the nurse in a very long time and my contractions were getting pretty intense. I started crying because I was so frustrated about listening to the dumb lady and her tooty husband, being on a horribly uncomfortable bed and not having anyone check on us in a long time. Finally the nurse comes back, says my water didn’t break, and that the babies heart rate looks great. She decided to check my cervix before throwing us out and to everyone’s surprise I was already 5-6 cm dilated. I was sooooo ecstatic that I wasn’t going to be leaving without a sweet baby girl in my arms! At about 5 pm we were transferred to a birthing room.
I was so happy, I couldn’t stop smiling. I was just a couple hours away from meeting my baby! Levi had left all of our stuff in the car so he had to run down to grab the camera and something to eat while he had a chance. They opened up an IV site just in case there were any emergencies but I was not hooked up to anything. They allowed me to drink some broth and eat jello, I didn’t care anything was fine, I was so hungry but yet I would not have been able to eat anything substantial. I right away got in the Jacuzzi tub and immediately felt so much better. It wasn’t until that moment that I understood why women give birth in water, it felt so good. I felt so light and the contractions weren’t as uncomfortable. I remember Levi making some comment about floaties in the water; that guy can make me laugh even during labor! So at 7:45 pm Lenny (the only midwife I hadn’t met, go figure!) walks in to check on me and says I’m 8 cm and 0 station and to just keep doing whatever I was doing because it was working great. She said all the nurses just couldn’t believe how fast I was coming along for a first-time pregnancy and how happy I was. I bounced on an exercise ball for a while and then decided to get back in the tub as my contractions were getting more painful. Every hour or so they would have to hook me up to the monitors just to make sure both of our heart rates were good. I’m going to have to have a talk with the mister before our next baby because he would watch the monitor (it shows the waves of contractions) and say things like “Oh geez, this is a super bad one!”or “Oh that one must have hurt bad!”
We had originally decided that it would just be Levi and me when the baby was born but Levi texted everyone earlier in the evening. My mom (the others had to wait in the lobby) arrived at some point and I was glad she was there; I needed all the encouragement I could get. Although I did have to ask her to spit out her cinnamon gum because it was making me super nauseous. At 9:10 pm Lenny came back in to check on me and I was 9 cm and still smiling. My water hadn’t broken yet so we decided that she should go ahead and pop it. Wow, that was a weird feeling! I will never mistake my water breaking again. By 9:35 pm I was full dilated and at 9:40 I started pushing. This is where my smile faded and I was just ready to get this baby out of me. They kept saying that they could see a head covered in lots of dark hair and that it would go back in a little bit in between pushing. I remember that that irritated me. It was hard at first to get the whole pushing thing down but I finally got into the rhythm. I remember thinking right when the next contraction was starting that I needed just a couple more minutes and maybe if I didn’t tell everyone that I was starting a contraction that I could just skip pushing this time. But then I would remember that they all knew when my contractions were since I was hooked up to the monitors. I kept expecting to feel “the ring of fire” but I never did. I did feel a lot of pressure and pain with the contractions though.
Claire Elizabeth Fergus was born at 10:27 pm. They threw this little purple, gooey, slimy creature on my chest and I immediately fell in love. I had never laid eyes on someone so beautiful. She had a full head of dark hair and the most beautiful skin. She weighed in at 8 lbs 8.5 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. She received a 9 on the apgar scale and couldn’t have been any healthier. As soon as she popped out, my smile was back and I couldn’t stop smiling even if I had tried. I don’t even remember delivering the placenta. I had torn pretty badly and it took about 30-45 minutes to get all sewn up. I kept expecting it to hurt but I didn’t feel anything down there (endorphins are awesome painkillers!); I guess I was a little too preoccupied. The next day and a half in the hospital was a blur of visitors, good food, and checkups. I can honestly say that next to my wedding day this was the best day of my life.
I guess I wasn’t prepared for the aftermath of a baby. Everyone said you would bleed but I had no idea how much it would be. That part of the whole experience shocked me the most and how sore I was down there for weeks, I had no idea it would be that bad. I would go through 5 more natural births if it meant not having to deal with the aftermath.
I was so glad that I chose to not have painkillers. It was so nice to be able to just get up and walk to the bathroom afterwards, feel coherent and awake and be able to just soak all of these wonderful feelings in. I can understand why women do homebirths but I am just too paranoid of something going wrong. I know that the odds are pretty low if you are low risk but I am a huge worry wart and I’m sure I would just not be able to relax at home. I’m sure a majority of women that have babies in the hospital do have either epidurals or pain killers so it was kind of weird, the nurses treated me like a bit of a novelty. I only felt pressured once but after making my wishes known (hello, did you not see my birth plan!?) nobody questioned me again. I don’t want to have my babies any other way!
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Halloween Happenings
We had soooo much fun with Claire this Halloween!
We started out our Halloween festivities last week with some good old pumpkin carving. Neither of us had done it in several years. Claire really just wanted to eat all the seeds. We found seeds all over the house for a day or 2, they must have been stuck to her. She would pull the guts out and then put them back in, it was so darn cute. Maybe next year she'll get it. And yes, Levi's pumpkin is throwing up!
Last week we went to Bauman Farms and had a blast. There was however an "incident", a gaggle of geese (there were only 3 I just love that phrase:) ganged up on a poor little goat! They actually took him to the ground! Claire was standing right in front of the goat pen when this happened so needless to say she was way freaked out and lucky us, we caught the whole thing on video. Blogger for some reason won't let me upload videos so you'll have to check out either mine or Levi's facebook video, it's pretty funny and a little sad. But before that she was having fun petting/feeding the animals and walking around (still holding onto our hand). After the goat attack we put her on the swings and she loved that! She was smiling and dancing, in her puffy winter coat, it was so precious. That's also on our Facebook pages. She loved riding on Daddy's shoulders when we were walking around. She holds on to his ears (or sometimes sticks her fingers in his ears) like handles and after a while his ears hurt too bad so she has to come down. We all had a fantastic time!
Friday night we had a babysitter (the very first non-family member) come and watch Claire while we went to a Halloween party. We had so much fun and weren't nearly freaked out as we thought we would be leaving Claire. And did I mention the food was awesome!
Then Saturday was Levi's aunt's massively awesome Halloween party. Claire went as a kitty and we were her vets. She was really good about keeping her costume on and not fidgeting with it. Auntie asked us to come up with a game to play and so we decided to do Halloween charades and it ended up being super fun, we'll definitely have to play again next year!
Sunday we dressed Claire up in her costume for a couple pictures and for passing out candy. We decided not to take her out trick-or-treating because she wouldn't be able to eat the candy and we definitely don't need to eat any. But next year for sure!
And now comes the part I hate, taking it all down. Maybe I could pay someone....
We started out our Halloween festivities last week with some good old pumpkin carving. Neither of us had done it in several years. Claire really just wanted to eat all the seeds. We found seeds all over the house for a day or 2, they must have been stuck to her. She would pull the guts out and then put them back in, it was so darn cute. Maybe next year she'll get it. And yes, Levi's pumpkin is throwing up!
Last week we went to Bauman Farms and had a blast. There was however an "incident", a gaggle of geese (there were only 3 I just love that phrase:) ganged up on a poor little goat! They actually took him to the ground! Claire was standing right in front of the goat pen when this happened so needless to say she was way freaked out and lucky us, we caught the whole thing on video. Blogger for some reason won't let me upload videos so you'll have to check out either mine or Levi's facebook video, it's pretty funny and a little sad. But before that she was having fun petting/feeding the animals and walking around (still holding onto our hand). After the goat attack we put her on the swings and she loved that! She was smiling and dancing, in her puffy winter coat, it was so precious. That's also on our Facebook pages. She loved riding on Daddy's shoulders when we were walking around. She holds on to his ears (or sometimes sticks her fingers in his ears) like handles and after a while his ears hurt too bad so she has to come down. We all had a fantastic time!
Friday night we had a babysitter (the very first non-family member) come and watch Claire while we went to a Halloween party. We had so much fun and weren't nearly freaked out as we thought we would be leaving Claire. And did I mention the food was awesome!
Then Saturday was Levi's aunt's massively awesome Halloween party. Claire went as a kitty and we were her vets. She was really good about keeping her costume on and not fidgeting with it. Auntie asked us to come up with a game to play and so we decided to do Halloween charades and it ended up being super fun, we'll definitely have to play again next year!
Sunday we dressed Claire up in her costume for a couple pictures and for passing out candy. We decided not to take her out trick-or-treating because she wouldn't be able to eat the candy and we definitely don't need to eat any. But next year for sure!
And now comes the part I hate, taking it all down. Maybe I could pay someone....
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