My Birth Plan for Baby G...

Below is my birth plan that Matthew and I came up with together. I printed off a generic one online and after each baby class, we reviewed our preferences. My doctor is on board with this, still waiting on some vaccine questions to be answered before it's final but I'm wanting to get my paperwork together sooner rather than later. Enjoy!

Birth Plan

*I would like my husband to be present during labor and birth. If he is not available then I would like my sister to be present.

*I’d like to bring music, experiment with the lighting and take pictures/video during the labor, birth and after birth.

LABOR

*I’d like the option of returning home if I’m not in active labor.

*Once I’m admitted:

- I’d like Matthew to stay with me.

-To stay hydrated by drinking clear fluids and eating popsicles as long as the baby and I are fine.

-To walk and move around if possible.

-Wear my own clothes during labor and delivery.

-NO LATEX IN ROOM!

*As long as the baby and I are fine, I’d like to be allowed to progress naturally.

*If appropriate, I’d like to try a birthing ball and/or squatting bar.

*When it’s time to push, I’d like to try:

            -Whatever feels right at the time.

-As long as my baby and I are doing fine, I’d like the pushing stage to be allowed to progress naturally.

*I’d like to try the following pain-management techniques:

            -Hot shower

            -Breathing techniques/distraction

            -Massage

-I would like to be asked at 4 cm if I’d like an epidural. If I deny, I’d like to be asked again when I’m at 7 cm.

VAGINAL BIRTH

*I would prefer vacuum over forceps if needed but I understand that either may be used depending on the situation.

*I would like to avoid an episiotomy if one is not necessary.

*I would like a warm compress to help the perineum to stretch.

*I’d like to hold my baby right away and breastfeed immediately.

*I’d like Matthew to help cut the umbilical cord if appropriate and baby is doing fine.

*I’d like for Matthew to tell me the gender of the baby.

*Matthew would like to see the placenta after it is delivered.

*I plan to donate cord blood to the St. Louis Cord Blood Bank.

C-SECTION

*I want Matthew present at all times during the operation.

*I want the baby to be given to Matthew as soon as the baby is dried, assuming s/he is in good health.

*I want to breastfeed my baby in the recovery room.

AFTER BIRTH

*I plan to breastfeed exclusively.

*I would like to see a lactation consultant.

*Only offer a pacifier and/or breast milk to my baby, nothing else.

*I’d like the option of having my baby cared for in the Nursery when I want to take a nap or shower.

*If the baby is a boy, we would like him to be circumcised at the hospital. Matthew would like to be present for this.

*I would like to receive my T-Dap shot while at the hospital.

Baby Class #4...

...It's been over 2 weeks since our classes ended and I'm just NOW getting to write about this so here goes, sorry for the delay! Again, some of this may not be the nicest things to think about but I'm sharing the knowledge...

The first part of the class we did a review of everything we'd learned, luckily, we all passed! Then we went on to learn about what would happen after birth and touched on some infant care.

*After birth, you will bleed for approximately 4-6 weeks. My response, "So we get 9-10 months of no period and then 4-6 weeks straight?" Our teacher said yes. Again, one of those things that I never remember pregnant women telling me before...

*Involution-uterus shrinking back to normal size; breastfeeding will increase this.

*After you return home, you need to call if you have a fever over 100, bad smell down there, increased uterine pain, heavy bleeding, pain or burning when going to the bathroom.

*Advice: Simplify your life! aka Blogging, FBing, Tweeting may not be a priority.

*Baby blues or post partum depression-if you feel depressed for more than 3 weeks, call your doctor and the doctor will usually see you within 24 hours

*If you are not breastfeeding, you will get your period back within 4-6 weeks. If you are breastfeeding, well it's up to your body when it returns.

*Although right after delivery, you will think that you never want to have sex again, at some point you will so think about family planning.

*Usually okay to walk 10 days after birth but check with doctor for exercise release.

*Start sunglasses early, like even as an infant. Sunglasses aren't just for looking cute, you'll be starting them early on protecting their eyes and they won't fight it later when you want them to wear them.

*Stork bite-birth mark on neck or forehead.

*Milia-clogged sweat glands like baby acne.

*Babies focus best 8-14 inches away and on bright colors.

*Babies can recognize scent and taste. They love to feel your skin and hear your voice.

*Within 24 hours, a screening will be given to your baby. This is required by the state of Missouri.

*Set your water heater to 120.

*If baby has tummy issues, move clockwise on tummy.

*Newborns eat 8-12 times/ day.

*Hunger signs: sucking motions, movements/sounds, turns toward breast, hands to mouth. Crying is a LATE sign of hunger!

*Breastfeeding lowers the risk for obesity. Completely drain one breast before moving on to the next.

*You can start pumping 2-3 weeks after birth and can introduce a bottle.

*They will have breastmilk only for 6 months then you can introduce cereal and other food. Recommended to add new foods every 3 days starting with veggies then fruit. At 9 months, introduct meat, whole cow's milk at 1 year old and skim milk at 2 years old.

And that my friends is all the knowledge I gained in our 4 classes. I know there's a LOT more to learn. I'm wanting to take a breastfeeding class before Baby G arrives but just haven't had time to get signed up. If I do, I'll be sure to share that knowledge too or if any of you have and can send me a link to your post, I would greatly appreciate it.

My Saturday...

...Saturday was a BUSY day but a much accomplished day too. First off, I've been fighting major cold/sinus for almost 2 weeks now. I was doing everything in my power to NOT take medicine because so far aside from my fertility meds, I've only taken my prenatals. Last Thursday, I broke down and started taking Sudafed. Did you know a doctor has to call you in a prescription? Yeah, so my OB did and even though it says you can take 1-2 every 4-6 hours, I'm only taking one a day. Friday night was my last night shift at work until after Labor Day-woohoo!!! But being manager on duty with no voice is a bit difficult. I got home Friday night, slept AWFUL for many reasons but mainly because all the drainage was my throat SUPER sore!!! So on to Saturday...

I woke up Saturday morning and decided to bite the bullet and call my primary care doctor. We're so close to the end of this pregnancy and I don't want to risk anything. I ended up getting an appointment at 9:30 but having to cancel my alterations appointment for the bridesmaid dress I need to wear on April 28. Surprisingly, I got right in at the doctor's office right away, apparently everyone was out of town for the holiday. When the nurse took me back, she asked when my last period was to which I replied, "August." She gave me an uh-oh look and then I said, "I'll be 35 weeks pregnant tomorrow" OOOHH!! Then the light went off. Anyways, basically I paid $20 to find out that I DON'T have strep (and in a couple weeks, I'll have a strep test in the other end), keep taking the Sudafed, they couldn't prescribe anything else, drink cold fluids and keep doing the home remedies I'd been trying (gargling with salt water, drinking hot water with honey, standing over boiling pot of water).

I ran home for about 20 minutes trying not to fall asleep because I had an appointment at the fire station at 11 to have the carseat installed. I got there and I was SWARMED by 4 firemen-not that I'm complaining :) I'd barely gotten out of the car when they had the doors open and inspecting the carseat, looking at the manuals, giving me information, etc...I'm so glad I went there because I'd always assumed I'd put the carseat in the middle in the back. Turns out according to my car owner's manual, my car only has anchors for carseats on the outside in the back. The firemen told me it didn't matter but I went with behind the drivers seat for a couple reasons. 1. I thought I'd read somewhere that the second best place after the middle is behind the driver because the driver would take more of the impact before getting to the baby and the driver has the airbag. 2. If the baby was behind the passenger side, it would be easier to reach back to the baby and mess with him/her which is fine at stop lights but it's also more of a temptation to do that while driving which is not such a great idea. So my carseat is installed, it was a great experience and the firemen told me to bring the little one by after s/he arrives and they could help with any carseat situations in the future. I might add they were all pretty cute and participated in Master the Met so double thumbs up on that for me! :)

After that I came home for a bit then met my sister for lunch. Then we made a trip to Target. She's so awesome at coupons so it's fun to go with her to see what all she can get. We got 4 GE light bulbs for 15 cents!!! I also scored some Huggie wipes for 2 cents a wipe, not a great deal but pretty average. I went to Costco a few weeks ago to price their diapers and wipes so now I have a gauge as to what's a good price and what's not. I'm so glad I did this because I almost bought size 1 Huggies for 20 cents/diaper which is ridonkulous! As my sister was driving me back to my house, she commented, "This is probably the last time it'll just be the two of us to run errands unless we leave H and the baby with dad when you're in Cape."

I then got home and started this creation:

Not our best handy work (you can't tell but we ran out of icing so there's none on the bottom of the tie) but you get the idea. This is such an easy cake to make, I just hate icing it but luckily, Matt did that for me. Unfortunately, we missed church Sunday morning so therefore so did his sister and brother. We also skipped lunch at Grandma G's because I was still feeling not the best and I knew there'd by lots of baby questions and the doc told me to try to save my voice. His sis took the cake for us and his mom called to tell me they were using it as the center piece.

I spent Sunday sleeping in, not talking too much and putting away baby stuff. I started packing my labor bag and laid out things in the crib that I'm going to pack for Baby G. We have 2 potential boy outfits for going home but no girl outfits!!! Hope you all had a good Easter. 

Hfield Baby Shower...

...Last Sunday, I had my shower on my dad's side of the family. My sister, H and my grandma threw it for me at the Rosebed Inn. It's this historic bed and breakfast in Cape and the chef there makes AMAZING food! I think he was less than excited when I told him the menu I wanted, as my sister says, I wanted bar food: spinach artichoke dip, potato skins, teriyaki chicken: it was all AWESOME and I even got to bring some home. I also may or may not have eaten the swizzle chocolate sticks off the leftover pieces of the Chocolate Resurrection cake :) Oh this is also where I threw my sister's baby shower when she was pregnant with H.

Here are the favors they made. It says, "Hugs, kisses, baby wishes. Make a wish for Baby G!" It is frosted with the word WISH on the side and is filled with Hershey kisses. People could reuse it with a votive as a candle holder.

H was my helper and did a fantastic job. I was so overwhelmed by everything we got for Baby G! It was a good thing we left the doggies back home with their Aunt Liz because we definitely did not have room for them on the way back. I won't bore you with the 500 pics of me opening gifts so here's just one:

My sister made me this adorable diaper cake! My dad gave me that piggy bank with change in it. It's from his bank and they give it to kids when they open a kid savings account with them. My friend's son was sitting by me and when I opened it, he said, "I have one from Mr. Butch!" It was super cute.

As we were sitting around visiting before the shower, Kristal's mom said, "You don't know what you're having? Oh, well...don't read my card then!" She definitely got me a boy card but it's my fault because we do refer to Baby G as a him.

There were all kinds of people there...family, friends I've known forever, my second grade teacher, one of my part-timers, my sister's MIL, my dad's former secretary, who geesh she's been a part of our family for over 15 years at least! I remember in high school if I couldn't get ahold of my dad, I'd call her and she'd take care of whatever I needed and I'm sure she loved when I'd call and ask random things like, "What temperature should I bake this at?" or "How do you clean this out of the carpet?"

A big thanks to everyone for showering Baby G! We are so happy to have you all be a part of our lives and can't wait for Baby G to meet each of you.

Baby G at 34 Weeks!!!

Just got home from my 34 week check up and all looked great! Baby's heartbeat was 132, s/he weighs 5 lbs 7 oz (give or take a pound), s/he is in the 50th percentile and all my fluids looked good. I was measuring EXACTLY 34 weeks and 3 days. Baby is head down (yah!!!) and should end up being about 7-8 pounds when s/he is born. I did have a HUGE weight gain but the nurse told me that it could be because of fluid retention and then she took a look at my feet and was like, "Oh yeah!" Now on to the excitement then I'll ramble again at the bottom.

Here's Baby G sleeping with his/her hand in face. I'm pretty sure that's an Hfield nose the baby has, my sis agrees.

Another shot of our little one:

This is the same as the first pic but Matt couldn't go with me. The tech printed off a separate picture that says HI DADDY. I put it on his timecard at his work so he saw it when he got off.

Let's discuss a few things now, shall we?

*I read that breastfeeding is directly associated with your prolactin levels. UGH! Luckily, the nurse and I discussed and despite my high levels pre-pregnancy, she doesn't think this should affect my ability to breastfeed and my favorite fellow agrees.

*I have had major sinus/allergies added to the third trimester and my lack of sleep and I'm seriously EXHAUSTED! I think this is God's way of preparing me for when Baby G arrives. I'm trying to avoid meds as long as I'm not running a fever or have green snot. I'm going to give it through the weekend then if I'm not feeling better, start taking some meds. I promise though, my voice makes it sound worst than it actually is! However, the whole being tired thing plus swollen feet does make my productivity level decrease which worries me about getting everything done at work before I leave. I've been trying to do one big task a night at home to get ready for the baby. I'm going to get the carseat installed this Saturday and I'm cleaning all the baby stuff we've borrowed this weekend.

*Okay, I've had hanging moles before on my neck, no big thing. However, in the past month, I've gotten a skin tag on my butt, more hanging moles (the nurse says they are also skin tags) and all the freckles I have on my chest are now raised. I asked the nurse if this was my imagination or a result of pregnancy, sure enough pregnancy hormones create this. Glad I asked so I can rest easy now.

*Next appointment is in 2 weeks and then I go every week and it's pants off every appointment to check my cervix. How exciting! I can't wait to meet our little one but I want to enjoy as much of the next 6 weeks as possible!!!

Matt's Birthday...

...I have SO much to blog about and I had great intentions of taking pictures to make my posts more interesting but alas, I did not. Hopefully, since we aren't traveling for Easter this weekend, I'll have some time to catch up on this blog but here's a quick post about Mattie's birthday.

Yesterday, my pretty husband turned the Dirty Thirty!!! I had big plans for him and then we all remember how he treated me on my birthday plus add in sinus junk and big plans didn't turn out so big. However, I still think I did a great job making the day special. I got up early and made him cinnamon rolls for breakfast (we usually never eat breakfast at home so this was huge for us!).

I also wrote on 30 notecards reasons why I love him and/or memories I have of us. I figured he'd think it was corny and silly but the smile on his face when we read each one was great! When he got home from work, he commented, "I've only found 17 so far..." and he kept each and every one of them. Finding 30 hiding spots was especially difficult. Sorry if this is TMI but I'd hid one in the hall bathroom because he normally goes to the bathroom in the morning there. But, of course, he didn't so I had to tell him he should check there. Other hiding spots included in his shirt stack, between his belt, taped on a Snickers bar, tape to the radio in his car, taped on the door when he got home, under his dinner plate...by the end of the night I just made a trail down the hallway of the last 3 notes! It was such an easy and non-expensive way to really make someone's day.

For dinner, I told him I was going to make "gross spaghetti" because he HATES spaghetti. Let me rephrase, he doesn't HATE it, he just thinks we have it all the time so he never wants to eat it. Usually I just brown burger but I went all out and made homemade meatballs, my sister's secret recipe!, and we had garlic bread too. I had enough meatballs leftover that he had a meatball sandwich for lunch today. After dinner, we headed to Oberweis for dessert. I also got him a couple new shirts. So nothing too fancy or exciting but I think he had a good birthday.

OH! And the belt went out on our dryer. While I was making dinner, he was checking it out and I asked him to lay the clothes out in the backyard so they wouldn't get mildewy plus it was 70+ degrees out so I figured they'd drive fast. After Oberweis, I went to sit in the backyard with the doggies to write some thank you notes when I realized that he'd hung my underware up on the fence along with our shorts and shirts!?! I quickly brought them in. This morning before I headed to work, I went outside and brought in the rest of my maternity clothes because I can't afford to lose any of those!!!

So happy birthday Mattie! I hope 30 is fantastic for you!!!

"Maternity" Pics...

...I say the words "maternity pics" loosely because this was the best I could do with Matt and H as photographers and my mom and the self-timer taking the pics of Matt and I. I'm not a huge fan of getting my pictures taken and as you all know I'm totally self-conscious of my "bump" but I still felt it was important to document this milestone. So these are some of my favorites. Thank goodness for Picnik to be able to spruce them up a bit! I may post more when I have time to edit. Click on the pictures for it to be bigger and to read the chalkboard.

Matt's idea and I LOVE how this one turned out even though it doesn't show the bump very well.

We were also very blessed at the Hfield Shower today. So many family and friends excited for the arrival of Baby G! I'll do a post on that later this week but this tired momma is headed to bed right now. Rabbit, rabbit and only six weeks to go!