10 posts tagged “peaches”
Thumbs Down:
- That sticky, sweaty feeling after a workout. And the fact that my face looks like a tomato, too.
- Finding new ways of serving spinach.
- Postage costs.
- Rockin' workout - so good that I felt sick afterward. And yes, that is a good thing for me.
- Friends who come by bearing vanilla lattes from Cowboy's. Anytime, girls, anytime.
- Peaches and Gus doing the nap thing really well = me getting time to read, journal and pray.
- Oh, and watch the latest Grey's.
- If I'd ever wondered if Peaches would ever climb stairs, I can stop wondering. (But seriously, folks - she's only 8 months old! Gah!)
- Three Cups of Tea and In Defense of Food.
- Water. (I did just have a workout!)
- My bible study group. Good times.
Cheers!
- My parents are coming to visit!
- Coffee.
- Another month, another wishlist.
- A very good time with the in-laws et al.
- Surfing the interwebs. (Dial-up makes your really treasure the important things in life, you know?)
- Knitting project: finally got a good start on it. (I had bought the yarn ages ago and it was intended for Gus. Guess what Peaches gets to wear come fall? :)
- Easter weekend coming.
- Sunshine and warm temperatures. Finally.
Meh.
- Sore neck = limited range of motion.
- Couldn't stop to see my nephew on the trek home yesterday.
- Chores.
- Refinancing our mortgage = lots of paperwork and phone calls.
- Peaches thinking waking up every 1 1/2 to 3 hours is just a great way to pass the night.
Finally.
After months of trying not to hate the way I look and feel and simply accept my post-pregnancy body and my love of all things sweet and edible (together) but wanting to change all of it, I feel like things have changed. Just a little, but enough.
The first sign was when I hit the treadmill after a few weeks on the elliptical, including a few workouts that went well past my regular 30 minute mark. Suddenly, I could run again. I felt strong. I did not notice all the jiggly parts (though of course, they're all still there). It felt good. (And yes, I will ignore the fact that I was ticked off at my husband at the time. I can be strong with out being angry, right? :)
Then later this week I stepped on the scale and the gym and it greeted me, not in the usual fashion, but in a you're-3 lbs- lighter-than-your-usual-range kind of way. Cool. Nice to see you too, Ms. Scale.
Then followed an Abs and Buns class where I rocked. Or at least I felt like I did. Super cool.
Oh, and the love of all things sweet and edible? Well, I decided that both my spiritual life and my eating habits needed a kick in the rear end so I decided to observe Lent this year. And what did I decide to give up? You got it - processed sugar yummy goodness. No ice cream, doughnuts, cookies, gummies, chocolate, desserts, etc. and ad infinitum (or so it feels like some days.) Except Sundays. On Sundays I get a treat, but just a small one.
Two weeks until Easter.
We're hitting the road again tomorrow and will be gone for more than a week. Chris has work so we'll be staying at thin in-law's condo on the Harbour and then with them at their house, along with my brother-in-law and his wife who will be coming home from Manilla for a few weeks between years of med school. All family, all the time.
p.s. Even though I'm not a fan of my post-partum bigness, I got an awfully cute babe out of the bargain, dontchya think? :)
Thumbs Up
- Slowly starting to see people again. Slowly.
- Working out. Finding my way back to doing weights more methodically. It's nice to watch that leg press weight
climb, though it's only a fraction of my former glory. ;)
- Road trip! Back to the Island for a week. More friends, family and the ocean side. Lovely.
- That postpartum depression specter I was worried about is growing dim. Yep, had a good week last week.
- I think we've met a major parenting goal: Gus is potty trained! At least during the day - diapers only for naps and nighttime. (Probably road trips, too! ;)
- Still crafting when I can. Still liking it.
- Feeling good about darning Gus's blanket. (Knitters out there will appreciate this.) Managed to bring back up 3 consecutive stitches over about 30 rows. It' not perfect, but it's no longer a raggedy hole!
Thumbs Down
- Why do I find it so hard to post these days? Lots of stuff floating in my head and even written out... just not quite how I want it. Yet.
- Having to choose between getting to the gym during the day (which is far more convenient for me and the kidlets) and getting out to see people.
- Road trip = driving on roads, including a couple mountain passes, in the winter. Prayers, please. Yes for our safety, but mostly for my anxiety.
- The domestic diva has left the building. Sighs. Hoping for a quick return.
Celebrate! Peaches is half a year old!
Negatives
- Gus has a cold and, I believe, the croup to go along with it. Poor boy.
- This means I can't go to the gym today, since Gus is not welcome (and understandably so) at playcare.
- The result of not going to the gym means we might go a bit squirrely today. Perhaps the outing to get a humidifier will help!
Positives
- Despite the croup, Gus is in a pretty good mood - so far.
- Peaches went back to a 6 hour sleep last night after a week or more hiatus, reverting back to her infant ways where I get up about 3-5 times a night.
- Friends coming over for dinner tonight. You know what this means: dessert!
- Having a meal plan for the week.
- Going to the gym FIVE times last week. Still pumped about that
- Having a stack of books I'd like to read.
This week our local library system is holding its annual book sale. Love it. All fiction (hardcover and softcover) is only a quarter and non-fiction is a buck. There are also coupons at the local library for one free book a day. (They are continually re-stocking, so it's worth going every day as the selection changes constantly.) So guess where I spent my Gus-free morning?
Here's what I picked up:
Anybody know about this one?
I picked up The Birth House as my contribution to our cheap-o book swap as part of our book club Christmas festivities.
I got these 3 illustrated Bantock books. They are fascinating reads for any interested in that sort of thing. There are actual envelopes pasted inside and you have to pull our the letters to read them. I feel like I missed some of the cryptic-ness when reading these a few years back, but enjoyed the beautiful artwork all the same. Mostly I picked them up for inspiration with collages.
All that for a grand total of $1.50.
Peaches allowed me to move her, sleeping, from the car seat to the wrap with only a few minutes of fussing and then settled down. After my biblio-wanderings, she hardly peeped when I transferred her back to the car seat and, now at home, it moving on a 2 1/2 hour nap. Glorious. I even had time to post! Now I'm going to attempt to make lunch and even eat it before she demands her own.
Loathing:
- When I can't get Peaches to sleep. So she cries. A lot. And wants to eat. Frantically. Then spits it all up. Repeat.
- Party politics.
Loving:
- Book Club. First pick: The Kite Runner.
- Incoming in-laws.
- Having to decide how to spend some free time with grandparents around to entertain the grandkids.
- I finally decided to what baby carrier to get. My Moby wrap should be here within a day or two!
- Sunshine.
- Waterdeep.
- Making fun envelopes.
- Getting my voting card in the mail.
Dis-Liking:
- That Harper can't deal with a minority government and tosses his own fixed-date election law before we even get to that first date. [See Steve, the thing is, the way things went down in the last election should indicate to you that the people don't fully trust a majority conservative gov't. We want you guys to all, oh, what's the term?... GET ALONG.]
- Not allowing Elizabeth May to speak at the federal leader's debate. [So the Green MP is a turncoat. Remember Emerson, Steve-o?]
- When my keyboard randomly won't allow me to use certain keys, like brackets, the number eight, and the exclamation mark.
Liking:
- That Gus asks for hugs. Exclamation mark. Yay. Exclamation mark. He's always been so 'whatever' about them before.
- Grapes. Especially when they are on sale.
- Peaches - the fruit. Ditto.
- Peaches - the daughter - is getting chubby. According to the doc, she's in the 50th percentile for her height and weight. Good to know all that eating is doing what it's supposed to! (ah! the exclamation mark magically returns.) Ah - same with brackets!!!!! yay!!! Told you it was random.)))
- Gus going to daycare one day a week. We both like Tuesdays.
- Voting. Yeah, even though I'm kind of ticked off that an election was called, I do love going to the polls. And the next several months will see me getting to vote for all three levels: municipal, provincial and federal.
Things I'm Not Loving:
- Cluster feeds at night.
- Being tired.
- The non-return to school. Feels strange not to go back with everyone else yesterday. I'm a bit melancholy about it. I didn't feel this way with Gus, but I think this time it's because I actually have a specific school and my own specific job and, well, I'm not there. Don't get me wrong - I'm not ready to rush back or anything. This just feels strange...
- Forgetting to eat more fruit and veggies.
Things I am Loving:
- My husband: C. does most all of the cooking, pretty much all the cleaning, gets Gus out for chunks of time during the day (and Gus has been going through a two-year-old can't-make-up-his-mind-on-anything episode which requires infinite patience) and will be the one to get up with Peaches to burp her or generally settle her down during the night. Talk about loving and serving!
- Visitors from afar: my mom, my in-laws, my sister and brother-in-law, my best friend and her husband. Yay!
- Frozen casseroles in my freezer and homemade pizza coming on Friday. Are our friends taking care of us, or what?! Blessings indeed.
- Gus's return to daycare (he'll be going one day a week) after his summer hiatus went so smoothly much to my relief.
- My new pajama bottoms.
- Peaches's increased level of alertness during the day. She loves looking around, almost too much... "ok, time for sleeping, kiddo!"
- That our camera is not broken, after all.
Warning I: Birth Story ahead. If you are squeamish or just don't want to hear it, skip down to cute baby pictures over which you may gush and coo. :)
Warning II: I typed this up over some late nights (which partly explains my new header - I've been doing a lot of my computer time at night, one handed during breastfeeds!). I've tried to edit, but you'll have to forgive the errors of a sleep-deprived woman.
The tale begins:
It all
begun during the night. I was having another bout of insomnia, and
so was up and down, dozing and not. I spent a bit of time reading
(actually did finish my book that night) and so the actual time line
is a bit fuzzy. During that time I did note that I felt a change in
my belly and figured the babe had dropped. I also noted that the
show made an appearance, so I knew things had begun. However, while
both signs mean that labour is on its way, it may mean there's still
a week or more of waiting! And by this stage I was entirely
convinced that I would go into labour much closer to my due date, which was still 11 days away, and
possibly even later than that.
I finally did fall asleep but woke up to gas pains around 5 am. Went to the bathroom a couple of times but nothing really happened. It was about half an hour later that it occurred to me that the pains that were waking me up could be contractions. I had to check my pregnancy books though to check – with Gus the contractions never felt quite like that – but sure enough, contractions can feel like gas pains. About half an hour later when C. woke up, I told him I was pretty sure I was in labour. I wanted him to let me sleep instead of waking me up later like he normally did. I figured that I had a day ahead of me so if I was sleeping, I'd need the rest. Little did we know...
Within half an hour – about 6:30, I realized the contractions weren't going to let me sleep so I started completing the packing of my bags, tidying, etc. Shortly after that, I realized the contractions were about 5 mins apart, sometimes a bit less, and figured we'd better be planning on heading to the hospital sooner than I'd thought.
We made phone calls. My mom was staying at my sister's a few hours away and was already planning on heading to our place that day. We called to let her know I was in labour; she offered to head out right away and we told her not to hurry, after all, we'd have to send Gus to a friend's house before she'd be able to make the 3 hour drive here. I said I'd call in half an hour to let her know how things were going. Instead, C. called her in 20 minutes to say things were definitely moving along and gave her the number of the place where Gus would be so she could pick him up. Our friends had graciously answered the phone at 7 am and agreed to take Gus for the morning. Our last call was to the labour and delivery ward at the hospital to let them know we were coming.
We finished packing, dropped off Gus and headed to the hospital which was only 5 minutes away. By this time, I was working hard to deal with the contractions and God brought a lovely verse (one I also knew as a song) to mind which I repeated to myself aloud and in my head:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness, oh Lord.
I think the part about new mercies every morning really struck me. I knew by the end of the morning we'd have a baby – talk about getting things we don't deserve!
C. took note of the time when we walked through emergency to head up to labour and delivery – 7:47 am. We skipped the elevators and I took the stars, remembering that movement and gravity can be a good thing in labour. (Like I needed help at this point!) Plus, I think just moving when I wasn't contracting felt better.
I had just enough time to gown up before transition hit and I moved into a (very short) period where the pain was intense and I didn't handle it with any particular grace. I do recall yelling asking for drugs. There was simply no time. Within a contraction or two, I felt ready to push. The nurses were working quickly to prepare for the delivery and gave me the go ahead as they could tell the head was already right there.
I only had to push about 5 or 6 times before Peaches was born. We learned pretty quickly that the cord was wrapped around her head. The nurses were fantastic – at no time did they register any alarm at this, but were calm the whole time. That translated to a calm for me, too. I remember at this stage feeling quite clear headed and wanting the next contraction to hurry so I could push; I remember being aware that I had a lot of energy since I wasn't worn down by hours and hours of labour. And given the cord placement, getting the babe out as soon as I could took on an even greater urgency.
As soon as Peaches was delivered she was blue-looking and quiet. The nurses whisked her to the table next to me and began what looked like a big rub-down. I imagine they were trying to stimulate both breathing and blood flow. Chris and I were very, very relived when we heard her finally cry. We later learned that she went about 2 minutes before she was breathing strongly on her own, though she was getting oxygen at that time. They figured her condition was likely a combination of both the fast labour and delivery and the cord placement.
Oh, and remember how we walked in to the hospital at 7:47? Peaches was born at 8:08.
(Aside: IF we ever have another, I think I'm just going to have to camp out at the hospital once I hit term, or just call an ambulance as soon as I have a contraction!)
My doctor arrived about 5-10 minutes later to deal with all the after effects. I had more blood loss than they like to see so they set me up with an IV for the next 6 hours as a precaution. I also had a bit of tearing, which isn't surprising given how quickly things went. Peaches was just fine.
We were moved to the maternity wing a few hours later after I had breastfed Peaches who took to it very well. She then slid into a roughly 12 hour recovery period where she ate little and slept a lot. This wasn't surprising because, as one nurse put it, she came out so quickly, she probably had a big headache! Another result of her fast delivery was that she spent the next 24 hours or so spitting up clear liquid and it took me a bit or time to realize it was likely fluid from her lungs; most babies have the water cleared out through the labour process, the contractions helping push out the fluid. In her case, there was no time for that to happen.
We stayed just one night in the hospital and excepting when he went home for a few hours to put Gus to bed, C. stayed with me the whole time. We were discharged the next day late in the afternoon and were home for dinner. Even with Gus running around, I knew home would be more relaxing than our hospital wing which had (non-maternity) patients in the hall, so full was the hospital that weekend.
And I
(think) I was right. It was good for me to see Gus and simply to
have my mom around, not to mention just being in one's own home. Oh,
and Gus has taken to his sister just fine. He keeps us updated:
“[Peaches] sleeping,” “[Peaches] sad,' “[Peaches] eyes open,”
and “[Peaches] dirty diaper,” just to name a few! And now we
figure out how to live as a family of four.
So there's the tale.
