Pregnancy Craziness Take 2

Here we go again! The first time I got pregnant with munchkin number one we weren't really trying per say.
We had decided that if I did get pregnant then great. Well that plan happened right away.

Here he is a few months ago at his 1st birthday party!

This time around we knew we wanted another one so they would be about a year and a half apart.  My body wasn't ready just yet so we knew we would have to wait until it was.  I was nursing so I thought I would have to wean munchkin number one before even thinking about munchkin number two.  Not so!  It did happen when number one was eight and a half months old.  This time around I had started to chart.  We used information from the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility.  Well, two months later, I discovered munchkin number two was on board!  

I knew within days.  I became very tired that first week and it seemed different.  I mentioned it to hubs and we excitedly hoped it could be.  He thought we should wait until that Saturday(FOUR whole days later!)  Well, I got to Thursday and couldn't wait any longer.  It was in the morning and I knew I had a test in my  bathroom so I did it!  I took the test!  It was very faint, but it was positive!!  I wanted to take a second-just to confirm so I was going to head out to the store to get one.  I went to get a coupon for one in a box under my sink and lo and behold there was another test that I had forgotten about!  So I took it.  This one was the fancy digital one that had words.  It came back positive too!  I was so excited that I couldn't contain myself!  First I knew I had to go to hubs work to surprise him with the news.  I had a plan.  I first took a picture of the tests as proof :) then I put munchkin number one in a special outfit I got for just this occasion, then off we went!

I took the bottom one first then confirmed with the top one!

There is no mistaking the top test!  I just stared at it in unbelief.  Wow!  Another little miracle that God will bless us with!

 He posed so nicely for the picture too.

It was so much fun going to hubs work to surprise him.  Munchkin one was only ten months old and he wasn't walking yet but he excited to share with daddy.  When I got to his desk the first thing I did was to let Munchkin share the news.  I held him up to show Daddy.  He was so excited.  We didn't want to share with too many people for a few weeks as a precaution, but of course we called family right away.  Hubs' brother and his kids were in town so we were happy to tell them.  Munchkin donned his outfit. I actually made a two layer pink and blue cake with white frosting to bring.  We waited first for everyone to notice the outfit.  MIL didn't notice until I help munchkin up for her to see.  No one noticed the cake colors until I mentioned it. Hehe.  It was fun planning though.

We called my family and got to tell my sisters they would be aunts again.  My parents were of course very excited too.  Munchkin got a lot of use out of that outfit.  He wore it to church on the next Sunday.  Everyone was very excited.  

So far this pregnancy has been different than the first.  I am just as tired, but I was rarely queasy-so far.  I wanted to remind myself all that I felt and when I felt it so I made myself a 40 week pregnancy calendar.



The first pregnancy I started having trouble with my neck and jaw/ear around 10 weeks.  This time around I started noticing pain about 6 weeks.  I knew it wasn't an ear infection so I tried taking ibuprofen for the pain and inflammation.  That seemed to work for a while.  When I had my consultation with the midwife she suggested going to my chiropractor.  That did the trick.  I had my neck adjusted and while it hurt quite a bit the next day, it quickly started to feel better.  I'm so glad that this pregnancy will be relatively medicine free.

So far I have only had to go in about once every month or so.  I'm also learning how to adjust my neck at home and doing certain stretches and exercises to strengthen my neck joints.  Speaking of strengthening, long before munchkin number two was on board I decided that I would be sure to exercise the whole time the next time I was pregnant.  So far I am so glad that I am.  I'm feeling great!  I've also noticed that I'm not showing as soon as I did with preggo number one as I am in much better shape.  I've definitely had to modify some of the move on workout DVD's so as not to give the munchkin any seasickness.  I'm also enjoying using the elliptical hubs got me for Christmas last year.

Titus' Birth Story

So, it's been a long time in coming, but I finally wrote the story of the birth of my husband and my second child.  I seem to wait until I'm pregnant to feel the need to do so as I'm newly pregnant with my third and I wrote my oldest's birth story after I found out I was pregnant with my second.  My midwife actually inspired me to write it as she asked for home birth stories for a website and I volunteered. So here it is:
I had a much healthier pregnancy than my first as far as exercising and eating somewhat healthy.  I had gained a lot of weight with my first, not done much exercising, had a stressful job, and thought pregnancy was my free pass to eat what I wanted.  I paid for it at the end of my pregnancy with terrible braxton hicks contractions and gaining so much.  My knees hurt from the stress of the weight on them.  I decided once I got down BELOW my pre-pregnancy weight that I would never again get that heavy.

 4 Weeks

 24 weeks

39 weeks 5 days

With this pregnancy, I never had any braxton hicks contractions.  I made sure to exercise every day but Sunday, my day of rest and I ate much healthier, even though I craved desserts this pregnancy(salty foods were my friend with baby #1).  I was positive baby would be early because I had such bad contractions early on with my first baby.  By the 37 week mark I was exercising extra to get baby to come.  Long walks and jumping jacks were my way to try to hurry things along.  My mother even came early from out of town to help out with my older child.  Much to my chagrin, baby waited.  

About 6pm on my due date, April 4, 2013, I went to the restroom and thought I felt my water break(it had broken with my first so I knew the feeling).  I thought if I laid down and my bag was broken, water would gush out.  So I laid down for about 20 minutes and nothing happened so my husband and I decided to run an errand.  I guess walking around helped and on the way home at 7:08 I had my first contraction.  When I got home I told my mom and she got a paper out and recorded it and subsequent contractions' time apart and length.  I was having a friend watch my oldest and wanted to make sure it was the real thing before calling her.My contractions were stead at 10-11 minutes apart, but they were intense enough that I couldn't handle my toddler being there. 

 Once he was at our friend's house for the night, things really got started.I had to really concentrate for contractions.  They were between 3-4 minutes apart.  I let my midwife know.  She was surprised they progressed so fast since she knew my first baby took 25 1/2 hours from when my water broke to his birth.  She, assuming a long labor, had made plans and couldn't get away right away.  I should add that she was located about an hour and a half away!  She told me to call my childbirth teacher/doula.  About 10pm she came and sat with me, encouraging me to try different positions during contractions until I found one that made me comfortable.  I felt better kneeling against the sofa.  Upon her arrival my contractions eased back up to about 10 minutes apart.  I did some walking back and forth down the hall to get things going and they did.When they were back to about 3 minutes apart I felt the need to get into the bathtub.  The warm water was so relaxing, but that didn't slow labor down as I thought it would.  It just eased the pain of the contractions.  I was getting anxious about the midwife arriving on time and was assured by Robin that she would assist with the birth if needed.  My midwife came just as I was starting to push.  I pushed for about an hour.  He came out a little then went back in then out a little more etc.  Right before his birth he came out up to his nose and stopped. This time he didn't go back in.  That hurt so much and I screamed in pain.  I begged the midwife to "pull him out!!"  She was so patient with me and just calmly said that she couldn't and the next contraction I needed to really push hard.  He came out quickly after that and she put him to my chest right away.  She rubbed his back and suctioned his nose and mouth.  He didn't cry right away even though he was breathing so she was working at cleaning out his airway to annoy him enough to get him to cry more.  It worked and a few minutes later he was wailing.  The placenta was an easy birth as I didn't do anything to deliver it and it was out. Titus Matthew Hall was welcomed into the world at 3:19am on April 5, 2013.  

 Titus Matthew Hall 6lbs 10oz 18 1/4 in 3:19am

 Meeting brother for the first time.

It was such a wonderful experience and I know that if he were born in a hospital under the same circumstances the doctor would have given me an episiotomy and possibly pulled the baby out and roughed him up or taken him away from me for an unknown amount of time to examine him to make sure he was okay as his breathing wasn't the best right away.  I am very thankful for my midwife, my doula Robin, and especially my husband for all supporting me in this special time.  I am happy to be planning another home birth for my third baby due in early June, 2015.