Henrik Russell + birth story

Born [redacted].

For the 3 people who still read this blog and the 1 person who wants to know, I was induced at 41 weeks exactly (due to concerns regarding gestational diabetes), and had a natural birth without epidural. I did get a little something through my IV 5 minutes before he was born, which had no effect whatesover! So it wasn't 100% unmedicated, but I really only cared about avoiding epidural. I did not need stitches and recovered quickly. I can now independently confirm that pitocin transition labor hurts more than spontaneous transition labor. So. There you are.

random stuff

Ila peed in David's shoe a couple weeks back. I know I should be upset or something but it is the best place she could have peed, seriously. Like the proverbial dog:) It was hilarious!

Clyde is 1 now. I sorta skipped posting that. In fact, tomorrow he is 13 months. He has finally started to feed himself a little bit, which is great since it makes things easier for me. He still pick up bites I put on his tray, but if it is something really tempting and I put it into his hand, then he'll eat that. And he can drink from a sippy cup now, and can hold his bottle! He would not have anything to do with either until a couple weeks ago. I finally bought a new sippy for him to try and it helped a lot.

Ila sings or talks all the time. She has long convoluted sentences with multiple clauses and has a large vocabulary. I'm thinking of trying to teach her to read in a home schooling format soon. She already knows all the letters and sounds, so maybe she could do it. David supposedly started reading at age 3, so maybe Ila will too.

Birth

I will amaze you all and make a post.

Here it is.

My baby is nearly 5 months old now. Life is busy now with two kids. (Biggest understatement I have ever made, possibly.)

Here is the story of the birth. The day Clyde was born, I did many things. I can't even remember them all. Here is a list of what I do remember:

• shopped at Trader Joes. The cashier asked when I was due. "Monday," I said. Two days away.
• went to the library.
• made three loaves of meatloaf. One of these loaves was dinner for David and Ila that night. They were supposed to go in the freezer that night (for post-baby meals), but stayed in the fridge for 2 more days.
• Emailed a friend. "Baby has not come."
• emailed j the square. "mailed the choker yesterday." For her wedding. 
• went to a church dinner before Relief Society general conference. I ate tomato basil soup but could not eat the bread because it had wheat. Then I had ice cream. I thought my chair was very uncomfortable.
• sat and started watching conference. thought I had gas pain from the ice cream. Pulled out my phone to measure intervals just the same. 
• water broke one hour in. luckily, did not get onto church pew. dash to the ladies room. I guess it was not gas after all. 

After that, two friends got me home. One drove my car, another followed in hers. I was in serious pain when I got back. We called the neighbor to come over, called the doctor, wasted 30 minutes packing stuff. My contractions were around 5 or 6 minutes apart (before water broke). I was expecting a long slow labor. 7 minute drive to the hospital. Lots of screaming in the car, and 2 minutes apart by the time we arrived. Next, the wheelchair in the parking lot of the hospital. We should have gone to emergency, but we did not know valet would not be there on a saturday night. The security guard pushed me into the hospital, passing me off to another guard.

4th floor entry: Can you please spell your name? What is your date of birth? I thought, let me through before I am killed.

More screaming. The nurses can hear me down the hall and prep the room for me. The nurse tells me to breathe.

5 minutes later: baby comes out. His head was perfectly round. No time to be squished. Thank you Kate the doctor. It was 9:08 pm. My "gas" pain had started at 7 pm, and water broke at 8 pm.
Afterward, I was officially admitted to the hospital. 

I was wearing a yellow shirt (this one) and grey skirt during the birth. I wore that same skirt home 2 days later. Still mostly clean, amazingly enough.