Catching Up

I think the hardest part, and mind you, this is only two weeks into mother-of-three, is disciplining/fixing/helping etc. while nursing. For example, just this morning, I was feeding Lexi when Gideon walked up to me with fingers outstretched. I saw chocolate goo gooped onto 4 of his 5 fingers. For a second I was confused, and then I realized that goo was poo! Thankfully, I had just changed Lexi and the box of wipes was still on the sofa beside me. Gross and more gross, and yes, I used this word over and over so Gideon would get the hint that he ought not perform his own finger check again.

Anyway, this last month has been a whirlwind of activity, as you well know, and my blogging time has been limited. Well, to be honest, the few hours I could work on it in the afternoon, I’m napping, and that’s a must to get through the rest of the day until bedtime.

I’ve put together a little montage of last month. You’ll remember how desperate I was to get the baby out of my tummy. We took Gideon and Scarlett to a jump house (you know, one of those inflatable slide places). I didn’t realize pregnant women weren’t supposed to jump, but as you’ll see, Jeff got some footage to show me in contempt of the bounce house law, but didn’t bother telling me until AFTER I had attempted to bounce Lexi out.

P.S. The birth story is below for any who are interested.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Birth Story:

I’ll make this fast. My inducement date was Thursday, the 19th at 10 a.m. (since my parents were only in town until the next day), AND we had set up a pre-op appointment for the children on that same day at the same time. Well, Jeff and our sweet friend, Lisa, took the children to their appointment (which was thankfully right across the street from the hospital), while my parents took me to the hospital.

Jeff, in frantic mode, convinced the nurses (who obviously pitied this poor pappy) to let him in ahead of the waiting room full of people because according to him, if I was induced at 10, there was a possibility I could have the baby within the hour. I told him if that were the case, I’d be in the Guiness Book of World Records. Well, you know what men can be when they get an idea in their heads…there’s no stopping them.

It was barely 11, and I’d yet to receive the pitocin. I’d just finished all the paperwork, dad had gotten bored and left to go study, and mom and I were just chatting and relaxing. She hears pounding coming down the hall, as if someone were in a big hurry. Yes. It was Jeff running through the hallways, almost knocking people over, to get to me. He was breathing hard and heavy, so sure he’d miss the action.

Anyway, we laughed at him, and for the next 4 hours, the action was slow and almost un-noteworthy. By 3:00, I’d barely progressed to a “3”, and mom left to go meet dad so they could take care of some business (from the hail damage at the house). I asked the nurse if the pitocin was working because I wasn’t feeling any pain (just a few contractions intermittently), and so she said, “oh, I can bring on the pain.” Big mistake, Audrea. She cranked that i.v. up as high as she could, and within about 15 minutes, I was definitely feeling the contractions. Around 4, I asked if I could get that epidural anytime soon, and though I’d only progressed a little further (3-4), they said okay. By the time the anesthesiologist got in the room and set up his cart o’ fun, I was IN PAIN, and apparently, I’d jumped to a 6 or 7 within that next hour.

He told me my back was an anesthesiologist’s dream. Wow. Now, feeling big, chunky,n breathless, and pregnant, that was solace to my ears! Once that nectar kicked in, I was back to my happy self.

Now, this time, I told him ahead of time that I had had “hot spots” with the last two labors (a big spot where the epidural didn’t work), so he expertly inserted the needle more shallowly than other anesth.’s and it worked. This time, I wasn’t completely numb. I could still feel activity (sort of).

The doctor came in to check me, and said she’d break my water to get things moving. You know I was all about getting things moving. I called my mom and only got voicemail. Told my mom things were about to get interesting. Once the baby got moving, she wasn’t wasting any time.

And they did. Between 6 and 6:15, I felt pressure and Jeff called the nurse back in. She had me push once to see if she could get the baby moving, and then stopped me. The baby was all ready. They got the doctor, set everything up, and by 6:15 got me ready.

I either forgot how to push or could only do it while completely numb. Having a little bit of feeling totally threw me off. Jeff said my face was all red, my fists were clamped, and I looked like our children do when they’re straining to do “strong.” So, after I had urinated towards the doctor (yes, I know, gross, but not as gross as it could have been), I guess I figured out which muscles to use because 15 minutes later (9 pushes and 3 contractions), Lexi was out at 6:34 p.m.

The funny part was that Jeff was on one side of me rooting “come on little fella” and the delivery nurse was on the other side chanting “come on little girl.” The doctor pulled out the baby and turned her “parts” toward the nurse. The nurse said “Ha.” And Jeff said, “what is it?” “It’s a girl.”

A girl?? We totally weren’t prepared for that. We’ve thought this baby was a boy from the beginning. We were asked what her name was. “We don’t know. We thought it was a boy.”

Anyway, we figured it all out after an hour or so of deliberation and Alexandria (Lexi) Joy was named. She's named for my brother, Alex, and Jeff's mom and sister's middle name.

She’s such a sweet baby, a good sleeper, only whimpers when she’s hungry, dirty, or needs to burp. Who can complain about that?