2 week appointment

Eden just had her 2 week appointment today and she was a little trooper. She weighed in at 7 lbs 7 oz and grew almost 2 inches! She is our little bean pole! I always thought I would have a short little chubby baby but she is long and lean.

These past 2 weeks have been a good adjustment. I am learning to live on less sleep (well, less consecutive hours, not necessarily less sleep). We had her on a good three hour schedule until yesterday when she hit a growth spurt and was up every hour for like 5 hours eating like she had never been fed. This kind of stressed me out a bit because I have been fighting a cold and haven’t been sleeping the greatest because of it. But Garrett was a wonderful dad and husband and took care of her for the first half of the night while I was completely passed out. She is still eating more often today but I am guessing that the growth spurt is just about over. The doctor said she will most likely have one every two weeks – hopefully I won’t be sick for the next one!

I am healing very nicely. I only have a few aches and pains left and am trying to regain some abdominal strength because I can’t quite yet sneeze and cough well. I tried to work out yesterday but quickly realized I was out of shape. I did manage to do 25 sit ups and spend 20 minutes on my Gazelle. I was pooped! I am taking today off but will try and do 25 sit ups. My stomach is pretty much back to normal but the skin is really loose which causes me to have a muffin top when I wear my pre-pregnancy clothes. The thing that stinks is that I am too small for my maternity clothes but still not quite small enough for my normal clothes. One thing that has been nice is that about 20 of the pounds I gained was actually water weight (I was 25 lbs lighter the day I left the hospital).

Garrett and I are trying to transition Eden to her crib (just during the day) instead of having her sleep in her swing or the bouncer or with us holding her. She will still sleep in our room until she only gets up once during the night. It has been nice having her in our room since I breast feed and am the one who gets up with her during the night. I do pump but not a ton just yet because I am always with her so there is no need (last night it was helpful though for Garrett).

That is about it for now! I will update soon about our first trip to Waverly to see friends and then our next adventure is going to Omaha to a wedding…hopefully all will go well!

Happy Birthday!

As I promised, here is Eden’s birth story. I will warn you that there will be quite a few details but nothing gruesome.

Let me start from the very beginning…Monday morning I woke up and was having contractions that were five minutes apart but felt like mild cramping. I decided I would go to work and if they got worse I would go to the hospital but figured that they were probably just Braxton Hicks. Once I got to work the contractions stopped for like an hour, which kind of disappointed me. I decided to take a half-day since I had a chiropractor appointment and a prenatal appointment.

Garrett came and picked me up from work and we went looking at houses. I was still having contractions but they were very mild and were between 5 to 45 minutes apart. We decided to cancel my chiropractor appointment because we were still looking at houses.

Now comes the next 2 ½ hours – I still remember every detail. We went to my 39 week appointment as usual and this was my first cervical check since I was a first time mom with no risk. I was hoping to hear that I was dilated at least a cm and effaced or something. The doctor checks me and has this funny look on his face and then says, “Well, I think you need to head over to labor and delivery because you are already five cm dilated and you have a bulging bag of water.” This was a little before 5pm and we called our parents and told them what was going on and that it would probably be a little while.

By the time we got out of the office and got over to the hospital (maybe 20 minutes later) we were put in a triage room – they check to make sure you are actually are in labor. My doctor followed us over since we were the last appointment for the day and he comes into the triage room and tells the nurse that I need to be in a labor and delivery room. He actually walked us to our room and wanted to check me again (5:30ish pm). He checked me one more time and said, “You are 7 cm dilated and I think I want to break your water.” He breaks my water and I ask if Garrett can run home and get our bags and the camera. The doctor says sure and then leaves to go somewhere.

Garrett was gone and my nurse had left to get something that wasn’t in my room and I had the worst contraction ever that left me breathing through it by myself clutching to the bed. The nurse comes in and I ask for an epidural. She starts scrambling around because she knew Eden was coming fast. The next thing I know she is trying to start an IV and ask a few questions for the epidural. I had like maybe 6 contractions and was feeling pressure in my behind (6:15pm). The nurse checks me and tells me that I am fully dilated and that the baby’s head was right there. She tells me that there is no time for an epidural and I ask her to get my purse because I needed to let Garrett know that he needed to get here ASAP (later he told me he was speeding and running around). Garrett was right outside the room when I called and the nurse kept paging my doctor – I think she thought he wasn’t going to make it.

At 6:30, the doctor came running in (my parents said he was running through the hall to get to my room) and I was starting to push. Pushing was the hardest thing I ever had to do. The contractions hurt and made me want to push and it did help but it was by no means a great feeling. People were running in and out of my room because she was coming so fast and nothing was set up. I pushed for 30 minutes and joked around between contractions and smiled for pictures and then Eden Grace Hufford was born at 7:02! One thing that is amazing is that as soon as the doctor handed me Eden I felt no more pain and can only remember that it hurt but not how bad. After she was born my nurse asked me all the questions that are usually asked before the baby comes and I got to hold her and kiss her and feed her.

I am so thankful to have a wonderful husband who supported and encouraged me the whole way! He was amazing and I am tearing up just thinking about what a wonderful man God blessed me with. I can’t stop thanking God for the support He provided through Garrett. I am also amazed at my little girl who is the most beautiful little baby I have ever seen (I may be a little biased). I can’t believe she is here and couldn’t have asked for a better birthing experience (everything from my wonderful doctor to the great nurses and even the fact that I had no epidural)!

I can’t believe how fast she came – most first babies take over 12 hours but my labor was only about 2 hours. We joke around that it was because of all the squats I did! LOL Anyway, the only thing that scares me about having a fast delivery is that your second child is supposed to come in half the time…

I am now at home with my wonderful daughter and am healing nicely. She is a wonderful eater and pooper and sleeper. She is absolutely precious! Below are some pictures!

She's Here!!!!!!

I will write her birth story later but she is perfect!

7lbs 2oz

20 inches long

Born 7/13/2009 at 7:02pm

Garrett and I can't stop smiling!!!!!

A full moon and still nothing

Yesterday was a full moon and there is speculation that the gravity pull of the moon can cause a woman’s water to break (they even have extra staff on the night of full moons because of this). I, of course, had nothing happen. Oh well. I am okay with it, still ready to be a little less uncomfortable though.

Garrett and I did get to go to our birthing class. As usual, we were late because Garrett needed to get coffee. This is to be expected in our house hold though. I am the one who likes to get somewhere before we have to be there and being on time is almost like being late to me. For Garrett, getting somewhere five to ten minutes late is on time for him. Drives me nuts sometimes but I love him anyway! Next week we are going to try and be early for our class…

The class went pretty well. I had already read about most of it and have asked my doctor plenty of questions that I might have. I was the only person in the room who had less than 2 weeks until my due date. Everyone else was either due late August or September/early October. I guess I should have signed up for our classes earlier! I did learn a lot about the actual hospital that I will be delivering at. Once the baby is born house keeping will come and clean up my room and then pull down a queen sized bed for the rest of my stay. That means Garrett can sleep right next to me! He was planning on staying anyway but I am sure he wasn’t looking forward to sleeping on the couch or a cot. I will also have one nurse during my labor who will assist me in anyway that she can and I will be her only patient. There was a lot of other things that I loved about St. Luke’s but it has escaped my mind.

Other news, oregano is like eating furry little leaves. HATED IT! I decided that I will just add the dried stuff to some foods I eat. The basil wasn’t as bad but gave me indigestion. Obviously neither of these things caused me to go into labor so I am not sure how religiously I will continue with those. I am still a squatting machine and yesterday Garrett grabbed me by the arm and told me to stop because I was going to hurt myself (of course we both laughed as I continued to squat while he was telling me not to). The funny part is, squatting actually feels really good. I will continue doing them but will probably decrease the amount since my legs are still really sore. While at work I bounce on my exercise ball like a crazy woman. It’s kind of fun! It is also helping with my back pain quite a bit.

I know that my body will go into labor when it’s ready or by pitocin (I am praying this does not happen). It’s just fun to try out these so-called labor inducers. My next attempt will be to push mow the lawn…first step, find a lawn to mow!

150 squats and 3 mile walks

The above title is so true but I would like to add that now I can’t move and am still pregnant! LOL My legs have never done that many squats in their life! I do them in sets of 10 and made myself do them while at home between trips to the bathroom, commercials on tv, and in the shower (Garrett thought it was funny that I would bust out the squats at random times). Boy am I regretting my eagerness to do this. Plus, my wonderful husband and I have been going on long walks each day. None of this really bothered my glutes or my thighs until yesterday. I am guessing that they hurt more than usual because I was a squatting machine on Saturday! Today I am doing alright and can at least get out of the car without it taking me five minutes to turn myself and find things to hold onto and boost myself out the passenger seat. I can also lift my leg to flush the toilet (public toilets). I think I will be starting up my squats again today. If this does not produce a baby soon, at least I will have a nice behind!

I am 38 weeks as of today. I had my usual doctor’s appointment today with nothing much new. I am now measuring two weeks ahead and while this doesn’t mean much, it gives me hope that she is about to be ready to come out. My blood pressure was border line high but the nurse said that it was probably a combination of walking so far to the room and her taking my pressure right away and the fact that I am retaining water. Eden is doing great though! Still moving (very painful to me) and still head down and happy. Hopefully she will decide that being upside down means she needs to come, for mom’s sake.

Garrett and I completely finished up Eden’s room on Saturday. Garrett managed to drill 10 holes in the wall for one shelf…he got so mad (which is not like him) but I thought it was so cute! Eventually he got the hang of it (no pun intended) and got the shelves up. He also wanted to make sure that there was no way they would potentially fall off the wall and 1)startle Eden or 2)hurt Eden (he is going to be such a good daddy), so he 3-Med those suckers up along with screwing them to the wall. I will be taking pictures of her room probably today but I need Garrett to get the pictures off the camera to the computer – I am not that tech savvy.

In other news…Garrett and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary yesterday! I can’t believe that it has already been a year – it seems like we have been together forever as husband and wife (a very good thing!) but I still can’t believe that a year ago we were promising forever to each other! What a beautiful day! What a beautiful thing! We spent the day going to church and just hanging out with each other. We went to a really nice dinner at the Iowa Power Company and just enjoyed being married! The waiter even had Happy Anniversary written on Garrett’s plate (the cook got confused and was supposed to write it on mine but it didn’t work out that way)! What a wonderful day to just be…I am still smiling!

Well, hopefully the next time I post I can tell you something more exciting like – all my efforts to help labor along worked! Today I am going to head to Hy-Vee after work and pick up some fresh oregano and basil. I read that these herbs might have properties in them to help labor along but they weren’t sure in what quantities, so I am going to eat them as my after work snack. Not sure how well that will go but right now I am willing to try anything. If standing on my head could cause me to go into labor, I would do it for ten hours straight. When I do something I do it big (can’t you tell from the 150 squats???) so I will probably eat the whole package of each!

37 weeks and still pregnant

I had my 37 week appointment on Monday and the doctor said everything looked great! I am measuring one week ahead and am now considered full term. So the waiting begins…

Since I will probably have 4 more weeks to go I decided to get started with some little projects to finish up Eden’s room. I went to Michael’s and bought some craft supplies and spent part of my night painting letters to be hung on the wall. I am finally finished putting together her room (sans decorations and rocking chair) and feel really good about her coming any day now. I also packed her little hospital bag. Garrett thought I went a little overboard with the amount of clothing I am taking for her but who knows what she will look best in…she is a girl you know and girls have the right to change their minds:)

Last night we installed our car seat in the car and now I am driving around with an empty car seat but it still makes me smile because soon it will have a baby in it! Garrett is so determined to put everything together perfectly that it took us almost an hour to install the seat because it had to be “just so” for Garrett (even though it was installed properly). The funniest part was when we were carrying the car seat and base down to our garage and Garrett accidently grabbed the release button (this removes the seat from the base) and the car seat went tumbling down the stairs. We both just stood there and laughed and decided that it was a good thing we were installing the seat now and not later. He is really going to be a great dad. With all the hard work he has put in to setting everything up it truly makes me realize how blessed I am to have married such an amazing man! He has also been taking such good care of me…putting my shoes on my swollen feet, feeding me yummy food, buying me ice cream, rubbing my back and legs, painting my toe nails, etc…

While Garrett was installing the car seat I decided that I was going to start my exercising back up so I did jumping jacks in our garage. Garrett told me how ridiculous I looked jumping up and down (I would hardly call it jumping). But once he finished up the car seat we went for a nice long walk. I decided I was going to jog for a little bit and realized just how out of shape I was with an extra 30 pounds on my body. Garrett did take the pleasure of recording me running and grabbing my groin because my inner thighs were killing me. I watched the video and let me tell you, it needs to go on YouTube and I am sure some people will get a kick out of it! I sure hope me making a fool out of myself will bring me a baby soon:)

But for now no labor. No signs of labor starting any time soon. Just me holding my belly up and having everyone tell me I look like I am about to pop. I have started looking up ways to naturally induce labor and right now I am going with the whole gravity thing and am taking evening primrose oil pills that will help soften my cervix. Because I guess the softer your cervix and the more effaced you are, the better chance you will go into labor soon than how dilated you are. So for now no baby. Just two parents excitedly awaiting the arrival of their baby girl.