Roo Bear the Blue Bear's Third Month = a Week of New Experiences

I suppose every week Rosalie is experiencing new things, but this week was particularly full of newness. Here are the top three new things of the week.

New Thing #1: Our First Mama and Baby Group Hangout
Alameda has something called the Alameda Family Collective which is a group of over 300 local Alameda families with young children. The collective has a bunch of different meet-ups for all types of interests. On Monday, there was a meetup for moms and babies born in 2014. Our friend who we'll be nanny sharing with was hosting and invited me, so I decided to check it out. There were about 8 or so moms and their babies. For a couple of hours we hung out while our babies sat or crawled around on the floor. It was fun to get to meet other moms and talk about our baby experiences. I'm looking forward to attending a few more of these before I go back to work and hopefully make some good friends for both Rosalie and me. Rosalie seemed to enjoy sitting and watching all of the other babies.

New Thing #2: G-diapers
Being concerned about the environment, I struggled to decide what diapers we would use for Rosalie. In grad school I took a life-cycle assessment class where our final project was to compare two similar products and determine which was less harmful from an environmental perspective. I remember one group compared disposable diapers to cloth diapers. It's hard to definitively say which is "better" for the environment as each has its impacts for production, use and disposal. Disposable diapers like Pampers or Huggies take a lot more energy to produce, but use a lot less water and energy (because they're only used once), whereas reusable diapers create a lot less waste that goes to the landfill, but use more water and energy because you have to launder them.

For the first few months, we decided to just use Seventh Generation disposable diapers. But, this week we made a transition. Instead of going with straight cloth diapers, we went with a middle ground or hybrid approach. gDiapers have a reusable cotton outer shell, an inner reusable liner and a disposable flushable and/or compostable pad insert. Rosalie is sporting her blue gDiaper in the photo above. Using the gDiapers are a little bit more work than the disposables, but it's nice to know that we aren't sending as much waste to the landfill, plus Rosalie looks mighty cute in her colorful diapers.


New Thing #3: Swimming
One of the things I learned from the mama's group was about Aquatech - a swimming school on the
island. Every Monday and Friday they have infant hours where the pool is reserved for babies under 1 year old. We bought Rosalie a swimming diaper and headed out to the pool on Friday. We were in the pool for about 30 minutes and while Rosalie didn't seem to love it, she definitely didn't hate it. She didn't cry at all, and instead seemed to take everything in - from the bright lights, to the pool toys, to the warm 90 degree water. There were at least 10 other babies in the pool and one of the best parts was how friendly other parents were. It was fun to walk around the pool and meet the other babies and parents. We were too scared to put Rosalie's head under water, but may try in later visits.

Here is a video of Rosie getting into the water with Adam:

Rosie is a little peanut

I'll end with her third month photo(s). I'm liking the animated photos that Google plus generates, so you'll see a montage of Rosie on the changing table that can be compared to her other changing table photos. In addition, I took one of her in the rocking chair and next to a stuffed giraffe (thanks Julie). Uncle Jason so astutely observed in the 2 month photo that Rosalie looked like she was shrinking. So hopefully the rocking chair and stuffed animal will give a better sense of her growth over time.

Rosie at 3 months

Bottle Battle: Slip Slop Slippy Slippy Slop

In the last post I wrote how we are preparing Rosalie (and us) for my transition back to work in January by introducing a bottle once a day. 

The first night when she drank 2 ounces it was an anomaly, because she hasn't done anything close to that since. Instead, she shakes her head back and forth avoiding the bottle all together while Adam patiently tries to offer it to her. It's as if she's saying, "You fooled me once! But I won't be fooled again...."

Adam has tried the ole' slip in the bottle while she's just waking up for a nap or when she has sleepy eyes before drifting off, but she hasn't quite latched on to the imitation yet. Hence - the Bottle Battle! It is getting slightly better though. The first couple of days she would scream and cry while shaking her head back and forth. While she still won't drink from the bottle, she has at least let it in her mouth for a little bit the past few tries. We have 4 different bottle varieties and bottle nipples to try too.

Rosalie with Papa Adam

This bottle battle is reflective a slightly larger observation- I hate to say it - but at this point she prefers me (mama) to her papa Adam. And this isn't because Adam is not an active Dad. In the mornings, after work and on weekends he is all in - changing diapers, reading books, singing songs and cuddling with the little peanut. But because I'm with her all day during the week and am the one that is able to provide the nice warm and comfy milk straight from the boob source, she's pretty calm with me.

It took me a while to realize/admit this. During the week, Adam relieves me of baby duty from 5:30pm - 6:30pm and I spend time to myself - usually going for a run or getting some emails done. And usually during this time Rosalie is crying and fussy. It's a horrible sound when your child just cries and cries. I originally chalked this up to the fact that this is her witching hour - early evening. I would try and give Adam tips like - just sing to her or talk to her or "hold her like this." I would try and help him by taking Rosalie and demonstrating the tip. Of course, with me she would magically and instantly stop crying. I think Adam probably wanted to just bop me in the nose for the "helpful" tips. And it was just making him feel bad. Every parent wants to be able to comfort his/her child.

Adam changing Rosie

I finally realized (or admitted) that it really is that she prefers me...right now anyway. And I should let Adam figure his own way of comforting her. I certainly have figured out my own way by spending every minute of the day with her.

So for now, I will enjoy this time when I am able to comfort Rosie and pretty much meet all her needs. I know there will be a day when I won't be able to magically stop her from crying and when she will prefer someone else to me. And in the meantime, I'll hold my tongue as I watch Adam figure out his way of calming Rosie. Those ways include:

• Jogging around the house with her in his arms and singing Woody Guthrie's children song "I'll Eat You, I'll Drink You." This song is awesome. Thanks to Myrna and Leon for getting Rosalie the CD for her baby shower.
  
• Bouncing Rosalie on the big blue ball while talking, reading or singing to her. Usually she's crying/screaming and Adam is wearing his noise cancelling headphones so that he stays calm.

I'll end with a video and a few photos of Rosie:

Animated GIF of Rosie

Thankful for a Month of Milestones

With Turkey Day around the corner, I thought I'd write about recent Rosalie milestones that I've been so thankful to witness while on maternity leave. She's growing so fast and I'm sad to think that January 12th, when I return to work, is just around the corner. Not because I'm sad to go back to work - I'm actually looking forward to it - but I will miss spending so much time with my little girl. I have really gotten to know her well over these past couple of months and am always delighted when I see her developing and learning new things.




Milestone #1 - Hand in mouth
No - not hand in mouth disease, or foot in mouth disease for that matter. :-) I'm talking about Rosalie finding more coordination with her hands, enough to put her right hand into her mouth. They say that babies love their hands and Rosalie is becoming quite the drooly mcdrooly now that she's found her right hand. We have yet to see her find the left one, but I'm sure that will come soon.

Finding her right hand

Milestone #2 - Grasping and batting
In addition to finding her hand to put into her mouth, she's also started to use her arms and hands to bat and grasp at the dangling critters hanging from her jimney mat (thanks for the mat Nana Joy!). She has come a long way from what Adam called - her Astronaut newborn body - in which she was trying to figure out that her limbs were a part of her space suit - to now actually experimenting with them. I don't think she totally knows yet that she can control them, but she's getting there.

Rosalie in her "teacup baseball uniform"
She can pitch a mean knuckle ball (into her mouth) and bat at a dangling elephant with the best of them

Rosalie on her Jimney Mat

Milestone #3 - Chatty Cathy and Smiley McSmiley
Rosalie has been quite the chatty girl over the past few days. She's been cooing for the past couple of weeks, but most recently she is making more sounds, almost as if she's trying to talk. Check out the video. She also loves to mimick my ooooh's and ahhh's.

And, her smiles have become more plentiful these days whenever she sees or hears her mom and dad. They can make any bad day happy. :) She even has laughed a couple of times for us.

Milestone #4 - Rolling over
We've been practicing "tummy time" with Rosalie to help build her neck muscles. Tummy time - it sounds so fun, but initially she hated it. Poor thing would face plant her little head on the mat and kick her legs and butt into the air as she strained to lift her head. Tummy time wouldn't last but a minute or two before she'd be crying it up. But over the past week, she's spending more time on her tummy and just yesterday she figured out how to roll over from tummy position. Check out her tummy/roll over video!

Milestone #5 - Sleeping in her own room
Rosalie has been a pretty good sleeper ever since we brought her home. She regularly sleeps 6-7 hours every night with only one wake up. We've had her in a pack and play in our room, but decided to transition the crib in her room this week. We decided to make the big move so that Adam and I wouldn't have to whisper once we got her to bed. The transition was super smooth. I was nervous the first night, double and triple checking that the monitor worked so that we would hear her and leaving our door open in case the monitors failed. The monitor didn't fail and we heard her little wail at 5am that morning. It's been great getting her to bed by 8:30pm and having time to chat with Adam without whispering.

A photo of one side of Rosalie's room

Milestone #6 - Double digits!
The other week we had Rosalie's 2 month check up and shots. She weighed in at 9 pounds 4 ounces! Over the past few days she's been eating a lot more than she normally does so we weighed her last night to see if she's gained any. And guess what??? She's in the double digits! She's now about 10 pounds.

Milestone #6.5 - Weaning from the nipple shield and taking a bottle...kind of
I am still using the nipple shield to nurse Rosalie and so had another lactation consultant visit last week to help get advice on how to wean her from the shield. I had been trying to get Rosalie to nurse without the shield for a few weeks now, but she would only latch on for a few seconds and then cry if I didn't put the nipple shield back on. But whatdya know - the first time I try to have her latch when the lactation consultant is there she latches on right away and proceeds to do most of a feed without the shield. She did demonstrate trouble when I switched her to the other breast and so the lactation consultant gave me good advice on positioning.  I haven't been able to replicate the success since then, but we're working on it.

In addition to shield advice, we also got bottle advice. Since I'm returning to work in January, the lactation consultant recommended we introduce one bottle a day starting now so that we can be confident Rosalie will eat when I'm away. So starting the same night she slept in her own room, Adam started to feed Rosalie from the bottle once a day. He's only tried two times now. The first was super successful - she ate 2 ounces without a fight. The second day (today) he struggled to get her to eat 1 ounce and she cried much of the time. He tried again at a different time of day and she wailed the entire time. Hopefully, we'll be able to figure out the transition soon. It's actually pretty stressful - especially for Adam.

********
As you can see, Rosalie has been progressing a lot in her short 2.5, almost 3, months of life. And for that (and her health) I am extremely thankful.

I am also grateful that her Granny L was out to visit and help me take care of the little one while Adam was out of town for work last week. Here is a nice video of Granny L singing "A rose is a rose" to our little Rosalie.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. There are so many things to be thankful for and I am ever so grateful to have such loving family and friends in my life.

2 Months and Counting

Over the weekend Rosalie turned 2 months old. It's going by quickly and she's growing so fast and right before my eyes! Before we know it she'll be off to college :-( - okay so maybe that's still a little off. But it is amazing to see how much she's grown. Check out the comparison photo below. She was such a little peanut at 9 days and now she's filled in much more.

Where her milestone the other week was smiling, she is now cooing a lot more. Here is the latest video of her trying to talk.

Last week Adam had a work trip. Rosalie and I dropped him off at the airport on Tuesday at 3pm and he didn't come home until Thursday at 11pm. So it was just Rosalie, Heart Dog, and me for about 2 and a half days. We survived! But it was a lot harder taking care of a baby and a dog without a partner. I really can't imagine being a single parent. Luckily, Loni came over Wednesday night to keep me company and give me a break from holding Rosalie. I can't believe I forgot to take a photo, but here's an earlier photo with Loni and Rosalie. Loni also brought me a bunch of magazines that helped me pass the time when Rosalie was sleeping. Thanks Lon!

Loni and Rosalie

Rosalie and Heart Dog

Sorry for the short update, but gotta go eat dinner before feeding time.

Boo Who? Rosie Roo!

Rosalie's skeleton costume

To celebrate her first Halloween, we dressed Rosalie up as a skeleton. Originally I was going to try and make her an octopus costume that I saw on pinterest but when we couldn't find any cute tights, I went for the $10 glow in the dark skeleton onesie from Carters. It was a good thing too because Rosalie was in the Ergo with me for some of Halloween night so those octopus legs would have been cumbersome. Plus the skeleton was way easier.

My parents were visiting for the Halloween weekend and got to spend some quality time with Rosalie and her cousins, Ella, Mimi and Isaac. Check out the grandparent and grandkids (minus Logan and Max) photo. Ella was Dora the Explorer, Mimi was Boots (but not in costume here), and Isaac was Batman wearing a ghost shirt.

Mom and Dad with the CA grandkids

Because our neighborhood is known for some pretty good trick-or-treating, we invited extended family over for the evening. That meant that I had to put at least some decorations up. I had big plans for making a graveyard of tombstones in  our front yard, but was only able to get around to decorating our garage. The idea was again from pinterest and I got some of the templates from good ole' Martha Stewart. Adam put up the fence and I enlisted my dad to help me cut out the bats, mice and other halloween animals that we taped to the garage door. The final product came out pretty good. It rained most of the morning, so we quickly put this up in the late afternoon once the rain subsided.

Our Halloween Decorated Garage

In total, we had 17 people at our house for Halloween night. Mom made a yummy dinner and all of the kids had fun trick or treating in the neighborhood. 

While the kids were out trick or treating, Adam and my dad passed out candy and my mom and I played with Isaac and Rosalie. Mom read them books while I tried to get photos of them side by side. The first picture of them is a little deceiving because it looks like Rosalie is about the same size as Isaac. The second photo more accurately shows the size difference between the two. Isaac is 6 weeks older than Rosalie and is about 6 pounds heavier.

Isaac and Rosalie (sans her skeleton suit)

The Skeleton and the Ghost

Rosalie was a little overstimulated with the gathering and cried it up big time before she went to sleep that night, but I think overall she had fun. At least we did. :)

She continues to sleep really well and her smiles keep coming. In addition, she's cooing more which I hope to catch on video sometime soon.

Til then, I'll end with two more photos of her with her grandparents.

Rosalie and Nana Joy

Rosalie with Nanna Joy and Grandpa Ernie

Smile :-)

Rosalie's major milestone over the past week and a half is her voluntary smile. They say the smile and cooing are what make the crying worth it. I got to say, her smile is pretty darn cute and melts our hearts. She coos sometimes, but not as much as she smiles. We can't make her smile on command but she usually will smile at us when she hears our voices or is looking at our faces. It's super super cute. I've made it a routine to read Rosalie a story and have a little chat with her after her morning feed. Usually our chat consists of me telling Rosalie what the plan is for the day. During this chat is when she is usually the smiley-est and when I try to catch a few photos of her. Below are the latest smile captures and a video.

And here is a video of trying to capture her smile:

Things are going well. As we approach the 7th week of life with Rosalie, we have begun to settle into a routine. It revolves around her feeding times which are surprisingly reliable and well spaced. Her usual feeding times (give or take 30 minutes) are: 6:30am, 8:30am, 11:00am, 1:30pm, 4:30pm, 6:30pm, 8:30pm, 1:30am.

Since the last post, Rosie also got to spend some quality time with her California cousins (Logan and Max - we wish you were there). Check out her and her cousin Isaac. Isaac is just 6 weeks older! She's a small fry compared to him.

If you had to make up some thought bubbles...what would they be thinking?

Rosalie, Ella, Mimi, & Isaac

We're off to check out a daycare - so til the next post!

A Ros(alie) by Any Other Name

What's in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet;

- William Shakespeare from Romeo & Juliet

A fair number of folks have asked us how we chose the name Rosalie.

To be honest, there is (or was) no great story behind it. Adam and I individually brainstormed names we liked and wrote our favorites on a whiteboard.

Sample of Adam's top names

• Clara
• Maria
• Catherine
• Theresa

Sample of my top names

• Cecilia 
• Maya 
• Rosalie (My twin sister, Ren, suggested this name to me and I really liked it. I also liked Rosie)
• Everly 

Adam wanted to name her after someone inspirational and while I liked that idea as well, I also just wanted a name that sounded nice and could be shortened to a cute nickname. Clearly, I have my priorities. :) So while I liked Clara, Adam's top choice, it didn't meet my, could be shortened to a cute nickname requirement.

I was thinking about the name a lot more than Adam, as evidenced by the many emails I sent him of possible names and the more I thought about it, the more I really loved Rosalie. Now I only had to make the case to Adam for why it was inspirational. That's when I remembered Adam's paternal grandmother's name was Roz. I asked him if her full name was Rosalie but he thought it was Roslyn since they called her Grandma Roz as opposed to Grandma Rose. Since Rosalie was fairly close to Roslyn and we liked the way the name sounds, we agreed on Rosalie.

The last name is a whole other conversation that I won't get into here, but after much discussion which included creating a new last name of Reynburn, we settled on Rosalie Reyna Bernstein. It sounds better than Rosalie Bernstein Reyna and is more practical than Rosalie Reyna-Bernstein. So her middle name is Reyna and her last name is Bernstein.

As for nicknames, we have a bunch that we call her including:

• Rosie
• Rosa-pose
• Rosa-roo
• Roo
• Rosie Posie
• Rosa-lee-lee
• Rose-my-pose

It's also a great name to rhyme with, which is key when you're making up words to songs in the middle of the night. For example this is something I made up yesterday - sung to the tune of Barney's "I love you song."

I love you

You love me

You're our sweet little Rosalie

With a great big hug

And a kiss from me to you

You-oo are our little Roo.

Nice boring name story you say? Well...come to find out, there is some excitement to it. A week or so after Rosalie was born, her Granny Laura and Grandpa Joel were in town. Check out the photos of them with Rosalie below.

Rosalie, Joel, Laura and Heart Dog

While they were here, we had Aunt Louise (Joel's sister) and cousin Brent over for dinner. During dinner, Aunt Louise told us that her mom's full name was Rosalie. Joel was in disbelief. All along, he also thought it was Roslyn. Aunt Louise didn't realize it either until she saw her mom's birth certificate. Because Joel couldn't believe it until he saw it, he asked her to send him a photocopy of it. And low and behold - her name was Rosalie! Rosalie Sheinberg. Check it out below:

Copy of Grandma Rosalie's birth certificate

I love how nice the cursive handwriting is on this birth certificate. It's also cool to see her parents names (Louis and Lilly) and their professions. Louis was a tailor and they were both from Russia. Pretty neat.

So even though we could have named Rosalie any other name and we would love her all the same, the fact that she is actually named after her great-grandma Roz, even if it was by accident, makes it all the sweeter.

p.s. Rosalie had a great one month check up last week. She is now 7 pounds 10.4 ounces! We also don't have to wake her up for feedings any more. So all is well in the Reyna Bernstein household. Here's a recent photo of her:

Celebrating Rosie's One Month B-day

Today is Rosalie's one month birthday. Happy month birthday Rosie! Boy does time fly. 

Check out the weight gain! Go Rosalie.

Below are five things we're grateful for that have really helped us through the first month:

Nipple shield

1. The nipple shield...but only because it has helped Rosalie gain her birth weight and then some. I actually hate the shield because it gets slippery and is annoying, but it's needed. Rosalie was a little under weight when she arrived and we had to make sure she was getting enough to eat. In addition, her tongue tie (see earlier post) meant it was harder for her to latch on. The nipple shield has allowed for breastfeeding to progress. Now if I can just transition her off the dreaded (for me) shield. If anyone has tips, let me know. But take a look at her bigger tummy in the photo below - for that I am thankful for the slippery shield. 
   
2. Rosie is a champ of a sleeper..at least for now - Rosalie sleeps quite a bit. According to the books it's normal for a newborn to sleep 16-18 hours a day. I think Rosie is a little more on the 18 hours a day side. The strange/good/slightly unsettling thing is that she usually sleeps a 5 hour stretch followed by a 4 hour stretch at nights. The books say that most babies wake up every 2-3 hours for feeding - which means several night time wake-ups. Even though we're only waking up 1-2 times a night, we're still exhausted because the interrupted sleep in the middle of the night with the feeding and bouncing/rocking back to sleep does take time, but it's way better than multiple wake-ups. We have her one month doctor's check-up tomorrow and will ask if this is normal behavior. The video below shows our sleepy girl in sleepiness action. While she does sometimes wake on her own to eat, we're usually the ones waking her.
   
   
   
3. The blue exercise ball - at our labor and delivery class the teacher recommended that we get one of those exercise balls. Apparently they are also called labor balls. While the ball was not useful for my labor, it has been a life saver for getting Rosalie to stop crying and for general calming, especially in the wee hours of the night. The first picture of Adam with Rosalie on the ball is the normal position. The one with just Rosalie on it is not. Adam just thought it'd be funny to include a photo of Rosalie on her beloved ball. It's more like our beloved ball.
   
   
   
4. The 5-S guy - All new parents have likely heard of the 5-S's - Swaddle, Shhhh, Side or Stomach position, Swing and Suck. They teach it to you in the labor and delivery class and there's a video called, "The Happiest Baby on the Block" that goes over the 5 S's in detail. We checked it out from the library and have been implementing all but the suck (aka pacifier) one because Rosalie hasn't latched on to the real nipple yet. The S's really work, especially the swaddle.
   
5. Rosalie's library of books - my sisters and mom thew us an awesome baby shower where the theme was books. Everyone brought Rosalie a book and just like that she had a full library of some wonderful reads. When you're hanging out with a baby all day, it's nice to have some good books to read to her. We've certainly been loving our collection, which we still have yet to get through. It's fun reading her a new book every day. So thanks to everyone who got Rosalie a book!  

Adam reading Rosalie - Sophie's Squash

 Stay tuned for the next blog post where I'll describe Rosalie's name origin. :-)

Hee Hee Hee Hoooo: My Birth Story

Warning - this post is long because I found it hard to concisely capture the experience. So hee hee hee hoo - here it goes:

PART 1: Preparing for labor

This being my first baby, I didn't know what to expect on the big labor and delivery day. I was at the birth of my nephew 10 years ago, but I mostly remember it being like in the movies. It was Christmas eve and at 2am my sister's water broke; we rushed to the hospital; and Logan was born four hours later. I was so focused on my cute little nephew, I didn't store in my memory bank everything else that went on that day.

So I was surprised to learn at our labor and delivery class that most births were NOT like in the movies at all. Our teacher told us the average number of hours a first pregnancy labor takes is 24.  That's twenty-four hours people - a whole day! And that's on average - so it could be more (or less). I was shocked. That seems like an awful long time of discomfort and pain. I was glad we were taking this class so we would know what to do. 

My main takeaways from labor and delivery class

1. The majority of the labor will take place at home, not at the hospital. In fact if you go to the hospital too early they will send you home! The general rule of thumb is 4-1-1. The hospital usually does not admit you unless your contractions are 4 minutes apart or shorter, last for at least 1 minute and they are that way for at least 1 hour.
2. Drink - Pee - Move - Time - Eat: Every hour from the beginning of labor I should stay hydrated, empty my bladder, move/change position, time contractions and eat! They called this "Basic Comfort."
3. Breathing was essential: I should start and end every contraction with a "cleansing breath," breaths should be slow, deep and relaxed with one example being "hee hee hee hoo." The hoo was low and extended - like this - hoooooooooooo
4. Items that might be useful to get: an exercise ball (good for laboring and for bouncing a crying baby once it's born), popsicles and comfort foods for eating during labor, and a music playlist in the event that I'd want to listen to my favorite tunes while in labor. I got all of these, but used none, except a half of one popsicle.

Adam at our class

In addition to making sure I memorized all the helpful tips from class and stocked our cupboard with the recommended snacks, I read about how to prepare for labor on babycenter.com and watched real life labor and delivery videos from the site.

The best preparation, however, was being with my twin sister when she gave birth to my nephew Isaac just 6 weeks before Rosalie was born. I was there to see her labor at home for over 12 hours and then also at the hospital where she labored for another 12 hours before my beautiful nephew was born. My takeaway from that experience was - oh schnikees this looks like it's going to hurt!

PART 2: The pre-labor signs (Sunday and Monday, September 7th and 8th)

1. Exhaustion - Rosalie's original due date was September 4th and my sister Nikki was in town from the 3rd - 7th in hopes that Rosalie would be on time, plus or minus a day. But alas, it was not to be and after dropping Nik off at the airport on Sunday, Adam and I headed to Ikea to get a few picture frames for Rosalie's room. I was so exhausted afterwards that  I took a four-hour nap once we got home. We had stayed up a little late the night before, but I hadn't been that exhausted in a while. We didn't do much the rest of the day and had an early dinner before heading to bed at around 9:30pm.
2. Bloody show - As soon as I laid down to sleep, I felt a little rush of fluid and immediately thought my water broke. However, after referencing my handy dandy "What to expect when you're expecting " guide book I determined what I felt and saw was something called "bloody show." According to the book, "This show  usually means labor will start within 24 hours." I was uncomfortable, nervous and excited all at the same time. Adam had already dozed off to sleep, but I couldn't sleep at all. So I assumed my position out on our lazy boy couch (where I slept when I got heart burn - a frequent occurrence towards the end of pregnancy) and surfed the net to learn more about this blood show business.
3. Increase in urination - It was a sleepless night as I was up often to go to the bathroom.

The next morning I was pretty exhausted, but very excited about the prospects of going into labor. I still hadn't felt a contraction, at least that I could truly identify. My plan was to sleep most of the day in order to be well-rested for the labor that I knew was soon to come. But instead of sleeping I spent the day writing email, reading the news, and watching a very unexciting US Open men's final. I didn't feel any contractions during the day, but did feel a little bit funny and kept seeing the bloody show.

I spoke with my mom who was debating whether or not to come that evening or the next day. I told her it was probably fine to come the next day as I thought Rosalie probably wouldn't come til the following evening…

PART 3: Laboring alone begins (late Monday night, September 8th)

Monday evening we had an early dinner and headed to bed at 9:30pm. At about 11:30pm I woke up suddenly with a bit of a cramping feeling and the urge to go the bathroom. I didn't register that this was a contraction, but this was the start of my labor.

Adam was snoozing soundly and I didn't want to disturb him with what I thought was just going to be me getting up to go the bathroom constantly like I did the night before. So I took my pillow to the living room and propped up on the lazy boy couch again.  I was so tired from not sleeping much the night before or during that day and craved some shut eye.

I leaned back and closed my eyes and probably 15 minutes later the uncomfortable cramping feeling along with the  bathroom urge came on again. I kept feeling the need to have a bowel movement, but couldn't go. For the next hour I was getting  up like this every 20 minutes or so. The discomfort got progressively worse and I started having to get up more often. No longer could I even lean back on the couch before having to get up and the discomfort was turning into pain. It finally clicked with me that I was in labor.

Various Laboring Positions

I started using my "hee hee hee hoooooooo" breathing technique and also got my water bottle to make sure I drank in between contractions. The best I can describe the feeling was a super painful menstrual cramp combined with a need to take a really painful poo. In the beginning I sat on the toilet when having a contraction, but after a while I couldn't take sitting and the only comfortable position was standing and leaning against the wall while swaying back and forth. I tried many of the laboring positions we learned in class (see photo) but the only one that I could get through a contraction was the standing and leaning against a wall one. In between contractions I would walk to the bathroom and try to go and would also drink water. I was not hungry one bit. So of the Drink-Pee-Move-Time-Eat advice, I was doing 3 of the 5.

PART 4: Time to wake up Adam

Finally, at 3:30am I couldn't bear it any longer and woke up Adam. My legs were so tired from standing and I was exhausted from lack of sleep. I was worried that I wasn't going to have any energy by the time I got to the hospital and hoping that Adam would somehow help me rest a little.

The problem was that I only felt comfortable standing up. I asked/told Adam, "How am I going to get to the hospital if I can't sit down in the car? I have to be able to get through a contraction sitting down." I had set up a chair backwards against our dining room table and put a pillow on the table earlier in the morning with hopes of straddling the chair and resting during the contractions. But I hadn't tried that position in a few hours. With Adam there I was relieved to try it again.

"A contraction is like climbing a mountain..."

What was getting me through my contractions was my "hee hee hee hoos" and the image I remember from class. Our teacher told us to visualize a contraction like climbing a mountain. The contraction is small at first and then builds up to the most intense pain; but as soon as you reach the peak, it's all downhill from there. You just have to reach the top and you're through to the other side. She also told  us that during a contraction you obviously will tense up, but if you focus on relaxing as much of your body as you can, like your face, limbs, etc. it would really help with the pain. With these three ideas, I was finally able to sit down through the contractions.

Adam dutifully timed my contractions and made sure that I drank water. He brought me popsicles which were helpful for a little while, but I didn't have much of an appetite. All I remember was being so thankful to be sitting down and resting my head. I would fall asleep for what I thought was 15 minutes, but Adam said it was only about 2 minutes, before saying "here it goes again," and starting my breathing routine to get through a contraction. After about 2 hours of having the 4-1-1 contractions, Adam called our doctor's office to see if they agreed that it was time to come in. It was around 7am. The doctor called us back 30 minutes later and told us to come on in.

I stayed resting my head on the table while Adam scurried around the house gathering our bags and the last minute items I had written down on a post-it note. He texted our families that we were headed to the hospital and my phone started ringing with calls from my sisters and mom, who wasn't landing until 1:15pm. There was no way I could even talk. "I can't talk to anyone," and "Adam - we need to go now!"  I remember saying, as he was stuffing a small cooler with popsicles in one hand and carrying the exercise ball in his other hand. I yelled, "I don't care about the popsicles!"

I "hee hee hee hoo'd" during the 15 minute car ride with my eyes closed the entire way. Adam pulled up to the hospital's valet parking, about 20 feet from the entrance. He helped me out of the car and I couldn't get 5 steps without a contraction rearing it's ugly head and stopping us in our tracks. Good thing a nurse walking into the hospital got us a wheel chair or else I don't know how long it would have taken us to walk in.

PART 5: At the hospital (Tuesday, September 9th - 8:45am)

Lovely chart showing stages of labor

Once on the third floor of the hospital, Adam checked us in while I sat in the wheel chair doing my hee hee hee hoos. They took us to the triage room and a wonderful nurse, Jenn L., had me get on a bed so she could check how far along I was.  Eight centimeters! She couldn't believe, and neither could I, that I labored at home for all that time. I jokingly asked, "So you're not going to send me back home?" "No," she said, "we're taking you to a delivery room now."

We requested one of the bigger rooms that had a bathtub. And I'm so grateful we did because that bathtub was key to getting me through to 10 centimeters. Jenn filled the bathtub up with hot water and had me get on my hands in knees in the tub with my head resting on a ledge. She placed a warm towel on my back and Adam's job for the next hour and a half was to shower my back with hot water. This relieved my horrendous lower back pain almost immediately because being in the water helped the baby to float, relieving the pressure..but only for a while.

Jenn was preparing the delivery room but kept checking on us every so often. Soon I felt the urge to push and it was pain I had never felt before. Jenn had me get out of the tub and onto the bed. During this transition from the tub to the bed, my twin sister, Renee arrived. My lower back was killing me and Ren and Adam took turns massaging my back and squeezing my hips together to help relieve the pressure. Soon I was on my back and the doctor arrived. It was 11am and it was time to start pushing.

PART 6: Let the pushing begin! (Tuesday, September 9th - 11am)

When it was time to start pushing I was spent. But Adam, Ren and Jenn were cheering me on as I took deep breaths in and then "beared" down trying to push out this little baby. It really does feel like you're trying to take the biggest poop of your life...and you're constipated. In other words - it frickin hurts and is way uncomfortable.

To give you a decent idea of the set-up- I was on my back on the bed that was titled up so I was somewhat sitting up. My legs were spread open. Adam was on one side of the bed and Jenn was on the other. During a contraction (when I would push) I would put one foot in Adam's hand and the other in Jenn's as they held my legs up. I would grab the underside of my quads, curl my neck and head towards my stomach, take a deep breath and then push like I was going number two. The idea was to try and hold the push for 10 seconds, which was really hard to do.

When it comes to the pushing stage, most women must push pretty fast because I remember Jenn saying it would probably  only be another 10 minutes or so. But I knew, from seeing Ren push for 3 hours just 6 weeks before that it could take longer. The doctor gave me some Lidocaine, a local anesthetic to help numb the burn for what they call "the ring of fire" or expanded opening where the baby comes out.

After about an hour of pushing, the top of Rosalie's head was showing. The doctor was worried about Rosalie because the external monitors weren't reading her heart rate very accurately. The doctor asked if she could attach a monitor to Rosalie's head to get a better read of her heart rate. We didn't want her to at first, but eventually complied. They also gave me an oxygen mask, which only made it harder for me when it came time to push. What did help was a stand up mirror they brought in so that I could see what was going on down there. I was having trouble holding my pushes long enough (I was exhausted!) and so my pushes weren't super effective. The mirror helped me see how I was doing during the pushes.

The doctor was worried about Rosalie being stressed and also could see that the umbilical cord was wrapped loosely around her neck. There were about 10 times where they thought I'd push Rosalie out. It's funny to watch the 10 iphone videos that Ren took because she thought it was going to be THE push! It was the doctor's threat that she would need to use the vacuum to get Rosalie out that motivated me to the finish line. With two more pushes Rosalie's whole head was out. The doctor told me to stop for a second while she unwrapped the cord from Rosalie's neck and then asked me to push again. And with a super easy push the rest of Rosalie's body came out.

They quickly put Rosalie onto me while they wiped her off and did the visual checks to make sure she was okay. Rosalie was crying up a storm - a good sign! She was delivered less than 4 hours after my check-in at 12:33pm weighing 5 pounds, 14 ounces and measuring 19.5 inches long. 

First photo of Rosalie - she came out crying!

Our first family photo: My face was super swollen and my eyes were bloodshot. Apparently I was pushing a lot with my face. Rosalie spent the first night in the NICU because she had low blood sugar levels.