Jennie Day
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Jennie Day Blog

Announcing

March 12, 2018 By jennie

Our daughter, Ramona, has arrived! She was 8 pounds, 7 ounces, and 19 1/2 inches long.

Her birth was a very positive experience, and I wrote it up in excruciating detail and wanted to share. This is without any gory details, but it’s childbirth so there’s a bit of TMI.

***

I’d been having Braxton-Hicks, the so-called practice contractions, for a week or two that had started to pick up in intensity. Every time, I’d think, “is this it? Will I know when real labor actually starts?” As it turns out, yes, I would. At 1am on my due date, I was woken up by a contraction that was obviously not just for practice, and they kept coming. “What a punctual baby!” I thought to myself. They were regular and about 10 minutes apart, so I knew it was just the very earliest stages but the excitement and anticipation, as well as the physical contractions, kept me awake until about 6am. At that point I finally was able to drift off and slept for about an hour.

I had an appointment with my OB that morning, so we got ready and headed out. The contractions had spaced out a bit, but I was having some other obvious symptoms that early labor was starting. The doctor checked me and confirmed that I had made some progress from my appointment the week previous and said, “I sincerely think you’ll have your baby this week.”

Joel had a class that morning, and I didn’t want to drive so I hung out and had a cup of coffee. I made it about 90 minutes before the contractions started to pick up, so I went back to the car to wait. I sent a text to let him know where I was, and about 10 minutes later, he showed up after walking out in the middle of a lecture!

We went back home to let nature run its course. While waiting for Joel, I’d emailed our doulas to give them an update, and the plan that we’d discussed with them was to labor at home for as long as possible. So that’s what we did. They’d given us some suggestions for comfort – I took warm baths and showers, ate and stayed hydrated as well as I could (which wasn’t much, as I was nauseated by every contraction), and used the TENS unit they’d loaned us.

By about 2am, I was miserable. The contractions were getting more intense and I’d had an hour of sleep in the 25 hours previous. My pain was tolerable if I was up and moving around, but I was so exhausted and all I wanted to do was lie down which intensified the pain. I called the doula to check in, and she said it still sounded too early to head to the hospital. She offered to come sit with us if we needed the support, but we all acknowledged that I was in for a long ride and decided to wait until morning.

That gave me a little boost – just a few more hours until morning, surely I’d have made enough progress to head to the hospital by then. I watched some TV and listened to podcasts to distract myself and Joel got some sleep so that he’d be safe to drive us.

By morning, though, more of the same. It was like this all day long. I’d occasionally get a break of 10-15 minutes and I’d nod off, but the next one would wake me up. I repeated over and over in my head, “every contaction gets me a little closer to meeting my baby,” and then, “every contraction gets me a little closer to getting my epidural!” Finally, in the early evening, the contractions were about a minute and a half long, four minutes apart, and that was consistent for over an hour. I called my doctor’s office and checked in with the doctor on call, who told me I could head in to labor and delivery whenever I wanted to get checked out, but I’d need to be 4 centimeters dilated to be admitted.

So immediately after talking with the doctor, I started obsessing and second guessing myself, wondering how far along I was, and the contractions basically stopped. We checked in with our doula again, and she decided to just come over and sit with us for a while to give her opinion.

By that point, I could talk and breathe pretty normally through the few contractions I was having. I was pacing around our living room, as I’d been doing basically all day. She said, “this is a tough call. We don’t see early labors this prolonged very often, and it sucks, and you’re obviously exhausted.” We ultimately decided to go to the hospital to find out where I was in the process, knowing we were very likely to be sent home, but that I’d be able to get some pain relief to let me sleep.

On the car ride over, I had four excruciating contractions. I was so mad that I was going through all of this when we were just going to have to turn around and go home again. Joel was optimistic and had brought our packed bags along, and I was really upset that he’d jinxed it.

Obvious foreshadowing aside, we got to triage and got strapped in to monitor the contractions and Ramona’s heart rate to make sure she was tolerating them well (which she was.) The nurse checked me and said, “you’re 3-4 centimeters, I’ll go ahead and admit you.”

What a relief!! At about 11pm, the on call doctor came in to introduce herself and said, “your baby will be born tomorrow.” Now that I knew we’d be staying and that there was a light at the end of the tunnel, I relaxed and the contractions picked up again. We waited in triage for about 3 hours — apparently it was a popular night to be in labor! I was undressed from the waist down but needed to pee every half hour, so I’d get unstrapped from the monitors, wrap up in a sheet, waddle down to the bathroom, have a contraction on the toilet, waddle back to the room to get strapped back in, repeat ad nauseum.

Finally at about 12:30, my room was ready and my L&D nurse came to get me. I knew long before my labor started that I wanted an epidural – the only question was when. But at that point, knocking on the door of 48 hours of early labor and almost no sleep, there was no question. We got into the room, my nurse hooked me up to an IV, and the anesthesiology team was there within minutes.

The anesthesiologist placed my epidural, and then my nurse and doula helped me get set up on my side with a peanut ball between my knees so I could get some rest. Hilariously, before the anesthesiologist left, he explained how the booster button worked and accidentally pushed the button, so my epidural worked pretty much instantaneously. The doctor came in to check on me and was pretty skeptical that I was already so numb! By that point I’d dilated to 5, so we all settled in for some sleep.

Not that I could get much actual sleep – the blood pressure cuff on my arm went off periodically, the baby monitor went off because it ran out of paper, and at 3, the doctor came in again to check me as my contractions had slowed down due to the epidural. And … I was still at 5. The doctor broke my bag of waters to see if that would pick up the pace again, and when it didn’t, started an IV drip of Pitocin.

I know I finally got some sleep because next thing I knew, it was 7:30am and doctors would be changing shifts for the day. The on call doctor realized I hadn’t been checked since 3am, so she did that before the changing of the guard – I had dilated to 10 and baby’s head had dropped into the birth canal! I had zero pressure or urge to push, so they decided to let me labor down and the next doctor on call was my primary OB at the practice who I saw throughout my pregnancy so it was perfect timing that she’d be the one to deliver my baby.

She came in to check on me and explained that she had to go perform a C-section. I was awake but still totally numb and contentedly munching on gummy bears (I was restricted to a liquid diet, but apparently gummy bears are liquid. Who knew!) so I ended up waiting another 90 minutes or so.

We got set up with my doula and Joel each holding a leg, the two nurses setting up the baby warmer and keeping an eye on the baby heart rate monitor, and my doctor using her hand to help guide me where to push. I still couldn’t feel a thing but everyone in the room kept encouraging me and telling me I was doing great. My doctor assured me that my body was working hard and I’d be sore the next day – it didn’t actually set in until 2 days later, but by then I felt like I’d been hit by a truck.

I ended up pushing for about 50 minutes, and then in one surreal moment, everyone in the room stopped chanting “one last big push” or “you’re doing so great” and instead started oohing and aahing, and this slimy alien creature was placed on my chest.

I don’t know that I can describe my reaction in the moment – I was elated and exhausted and amazed. After all the heartbreak and worry, she was here. After the months spent daydreaming about her, she was both exactly like what I’d expected and completely not what I’d expected.

Her APGAR scores at 1 and 5 minutes were 9 and 9, but then one nurse suddenly whisked her off my chest and rushed her to the baby warming table and the other was calling a NICU team to our room. Later, when everything settled down, my doctor and the NICU team explained that because her delivery had been quite fast, she hadn’t been able to clear all the amniotic fluid from her lungs so she couldn’t breathe well and her heart rate suddenly dropped. They suctioned a ton of fluid out of her and watched her for a bit to make sure she cried and was breathing well. I was still totally numb on the table, my doctor stitching me up, and Joel went to Ramona to talk to her. This was the point I most needed my doula and was so glad she could stay with me and report what was going on. It was very scary and I’m tearing up writing it out, but I’m so grateful for modern medicine and that in the end Ramona is fine.

We were in our L&D room for about 2 hours after the delivery but it felt like 15 minutes. I know that after I held her a while, I was finally allowed solid food and I ate while Joel held her, then he ate and I held her again. Then the nurses helped me get out of the bed and into a wheelchair and hauled us up to the postpartum floor.

Ramona slept for the first several hours we were there. My dad stopped by with smoked salmon for me – after not being able to eat it during my whole pregnancy, it tasted so good! After my dad, my mom visited, then later Joel’s brother and family came by.

The postpartum room was a tiny little box just big enough for my hospital bed, a fold out bed for Joel, and Ramona’s bassinet. We were due to be discharged the next day, which meant we needed ALL THE TESTS before they’d let us go home. There were people in and out of our room every 10-15 minutes all day long. It was exceedingly frustrating and made me all the more excited to get out of there!

Life right now is lots of nursing and baby snuggles and very little sleep. No complaints. (Okay, that’s not true. I have some complaints. But baby Ramona is totally worth it.)

Filed Under: Baby

Baby Watch

February 20, 2018 By jennie

I’m still pregnant, but hopefully not for much longer … My due date is next week and as of Monday, I’m officially on maternity leave! I was really torn about starting my leave before my due date or working until her birth so I could have as much time off work with her as possible, but around Christmas I started to get more uncomfortable sitting in my desk chair, so it was a no-brainer. Also, I knew I’d be in for some comments from my coworkers, however well-intentioned, like “you’re still here!” or “no baby yet, huh?!” So far, I’ve been doing some deep cleaning projects around the house, prepping food for the freezer, and spending the rest of my time lounging on the couch watching The Great British Bake Off or reading.

Since I have a bit of free time, I figured it would be the opportune moment to share some updates!

Baby Showers

I had 2 – my mom threw a baby shower for the family, then my sister organized a shower for my coworkers. Both were lovely!

Mom ordered gluten free carrot cupcakes from Dukes (in the weeks leading up to the shower, we taste tested several gf carrot cakes – it’s a tough life) and thought of all the little details, like repurposing the vases from our wedding.

Thank you, Auntie Barb, for sharing your photos 🙂

My sister organized dinner at Moctezuma’s, where I’ve eaten quite often this pregnancy because I can’t get enough enchiladas. Hilariously, at the end of the night, our waiter brought me a dish of ice cream and sang “happy baby to you,” but about half the table sang “happy birthday.”

Thank you to all of you who celebrated baby Ramona and for your generosity – we are both so lucky to have so many people who care about us!

Nursery

I think Joel nested more intensely than I did in this last trimester 🙂 Well, that’s not entirely true, we just had very different priorities about getting ready for baby’s arrival. I wanted to deep clean every square inch of the condo (not that I actually had the energy to do so), and Joel wanted to make sure we had the nursery ready to go. I LOVE how it turned out, and wanted to share a few pictures.

When I moved into my condo in 2009, I picked what I thought was a light lavender for the spare bedroom … but no, it’s purple. I’ve always liked it, and I think it’s a great color for a nursery, so we left one wall lavender and picked a tan for the remaining three walls.

The La-Z-Boy recliner was our first baby related purchase – so glad we’ll have a comfortable chair and hopefully it will last long past the baby years.

And no, we didn’t really pick a theme for the nursery … just baby things. We chose our favorite prints and photos that we already had, and the black cat curtains were an impulse buy from IKEA, because how could we pass those up?!

Third Trimester Update

Picking up from where I left off after my last update … pretty much the day my pregnancy app popped up the notification that I’d reached the third trimester, I started feeling progressively more uncomfortable. I don’t want to complain much – after what I’ve been through in the last year, I feel very fortunate to be pregnant and that I’ve had an utterly uneventful pregnancy (so far, anyway! Don’t want to jinx anything right before her birth.)

Between getting up 3+ times to use the bathroom, getting hungry in the middle of the night, and the hip pain, it’s been months since I got a good night’s sleep. And yes, I am well aware that I’m in for many more sleepless nights — but I’m looking forward to at least being able to lie comfortably on my back. Oh, and just when I was starting to think I was lucky enough to avoid the swollen feet and ankles, it set in and I’m down to two pairs of shoes that fit.

The last round of progress pics: 31 weeks, 34 weeks, 39 weeks. You’ll notice that I had to stop wearing my rings and watch because of the swelling. And I think I’ve pretty well maxed out my favorite purple tee.

I’ve definitely had more cravings in this trimester, and only sweet things. I woke up a few weeks ago and said to Joel, “we need to get strawberry milkshakes today.” I think it was the second or third strawberry milkshake I’ve had in my life – usually I like vanilla! We went to Dick’s Drive-In, where I can have not only the milkshakes but also French fries because nothing goes in their fryers except potatoes. I’ve also sent Joel to Trophy Cupcakes for a gluten free cherries jubilee cupcake, and I’m currently on the hunt for a caramel and chocolate covered apple.

***

I don’t expect to be blogging much in the next few weeks – I hope to post an announcement when she arrives, and maybe a birth story. But you will be hearing from me because I’ve finally finished my Belize recaps! Until then …

Filed Under: Baby

A New Day

December 11, 2017 By jennie

Hi! It’s been a while. I paid the hosting bill for my blog a month or two ago, and thought to myself, “oh yeah, I still have a blog. Maybe I should update that.”

Mostly because there’s one pretty major update: Joel and I are expecting a daughter in February <3

We are over the moon excited and I’m feeling pretty good, but it’s been a very anxious time because last fall, we got pregnant with a baby that we lost to miscarriage at 10 weeks, just before Christmas. Due to some complications from the procedure that ended that pregnancy, it took about six months before we were able to get pregnant again, which I realize is very average and not terribly long and we were actually very fortunate. But those six months stretched out like an eternity when I was in the middle of it, and it sometimes feels like I’ve been pregnant forever.

I’m currently 29 weeks along, which means I’m officially into the third trimester and slightly overwhelmed about how much we have to do before we have a small human being living in our home! I don’t have a fun story to share about finding out that I was pregnant, or about telling Joel – my emotions were all over the place, particularly in the earliest weeks. I was grateful and relieved, and a little hopeful, but mostly anxious and in denial and trying not to get my hopes up.

We’d learned from our previous experience that we’d want to share with our families regardless of the outcome, so we decided to share with immediate family and a few close friends pretty much as soon as we knew we were expecting. It was a weird place to be, hearing their excitement when I wasn’t ready to let myself feel excited.

The First Trimester

Due to our previous loss, my new doctor was willing to see me earlier than normal. At approximately six and a half weeks, we saw on an ultrasound for the first time a tiny embryo with a beating heart. Everything looked good, but the doctor reminded us that we weren’t out of the woods and encouraged us to come in more often than the “normal” once monthly schedule in the first trimester, mostly for my peace of mind. At nine weeks, approximately when our first pregnancy stopped developing, the little embryo had tiny arm buds flailing around and a little heart still beating. We scheduled our nuchal translucency scan at another ultrasound clinic in the eleventh week, and by then, our baby looked like an actual human baby with arms and legs and sass (direct quote from Joel!)

Morning sickness started in the sixth week, and I was SO RELIEVED every time I ended up with my head over the toilet. I turned my nose up at scrambled eggs, red meat, and melted cheese (I still can’t stand pizza.) There were a few weeks I survived on chicken nuggets and waffle fries, or really, potatoes in any form. But I didn’t really realize how bad I felt until it started to lift, somewhere in the twelfth week, so I was stuck in this weird mental limbo of feeling bad but worrying that I didn’t feel bad enough.

I know most women complain about fatigue in their first trimester; I struggled with insomnia due to the anxiety. In between the two pregnancies, Joel and I started seeing a therapist who specializes in maternal mental health, miscarriage support, and pregnancy after loss, and her help has been invaluable.

The first trimester wrapped up while we were on our road trip to see the solar eclipse, celebrate our wedding anniversary, and be in/at my friend Morgana’s wedding! I plan to write about our road trip in a separate post.

The Second Trimester

Lucky for me, the morning sickness let up – if I remember right, I only got sick one time after I reached the second trimester. Most of my food aversions subsided, and my appetite ramped up dramatically. The hunger is 0-60 – one minute I’m too full from my last meal to even think about eating, and a few minutes later, I’ll be so hungry it’s painful. As far as cravings … just chocolate 🙂 It’s funny because I never wanted chocolate in the first trimester, only gummy candy and jelly beans, and now it’s exactly the opposite.

We were surprised (although not disappointed) to find out at our 20 week anatomy scan that we’re having a girl! Although we never got to find out, I had a strong gut feeling and frequent dreams that our first pregnancy would have been a boy. I never had a strong feeling either way this time around. One person made a prediction: my dental hygienist, when I got my teeth cleaned at 12 weeks, proclaimed, “your gums aren’t bleeding very much — it must be a boy! Women who are pregnant with girls usually have more bleeding.” Most of our friends and family who’ve had babies in the last few years have had girls, so it follows that someone would have a boy.

The sonographer started by showing us the spine, the extremities, the heart and lungs and kidney and digestive system. Baby’s head was low in my pelvis so the tech said she’d want me to get up and use the restroom to see if that encouraged baby to move so we could see the skull and brain. “But first!” the tech said, “let’s find out what you’ve having,” and zoomed in on baby’s bottom. It was a very anticlimactic moment – baby’s little ankles were crossed so we couldn’t tell for sure. I got up to empty my bladder, thinking “I’ve only ever heard of baby girls crossing their ankles …” and sure enough, it turns out she’s a she.

Oh, and I passed my gestational diabetes screening! I had no real reason to worry that I wouldn’t, but the prospect of needing to change my diet was giving me a lot of anxiety. Between eating gluten free, the pregnancy diet restrictions (no soft cheese, smoked meats, sushi, etc.), and some lingering food aversions, my diet feels pretty restrictive to me. I’m relieved that I can eat peppermint bark and bake gluten-free cookies this Christmas.

I’m not great at remembering to take pictures, but here’s the progression from 17 to 22 to 28 weeks.

Baby

In spite of my doubts and anxiety, baby is doing really well. We chose to have genetic testing done in the first trimester because we don’t know what caused our miscarriage and the overwhelming likelihood that it was due to a chromosomal abnormality. It’s helped my anxiety so much to have had that extra screening and know that our baby is normal/low risk for Down’s Syndrome or neural tube defects.

She’s remained as active and wiggly as when we saw her on those early ultrasounds. Joel said to me at one of them, “you’re going to love that when baby is bigger,” which I think he meant sarcastically as in, “you’ll love it when baby is big enough to punch you in the bladder!” But actually, I do! Feeling her movements has been very reassuring, and I think I actually started feeling her really early (around week 14) which is not typical for first time moms.

At first, I could feel movement only occasionally, and only when I laid really still on my right side and my bladder was completely empty – the best way I can describe the sensation is like champagne bubbles, if that makes sense. Within a couple of weeks, I was sure what I was feeling was baby, and the sensation was stronger, like popcorn popping. A couple of weeks after that, I started feeling distinct movement, like “that has to be either an elbow or a knee,” particularly just after I ate. Now I can not only feel but see her movements from outside my belly – Joel jokes that she’s destined to be a powerlifter.

***

Well, that’s probably enough out of me. I’m hoping to start posting more often, but I doubt it will be at all regular, particularly after baby arrives! I haven’t fully decided how much about her I’ll share on my blog or social media – my inclination is not much, but I’ve thought about starting an email list for family members who want baby pictures and updates. I’m open to input – how much do you want to hear about baby Day? However, I do want to share about our road trip, what I’ve been reading, and what else I’ve been up to. I miss blogging, especially taking pictures.

Until next time!

Filed Under: Baby

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