Little Hands

What is it about little baby hands? 

I love looking at my newborn's hands.  They are so small, but perfectly formed.  He has long fingers-just like his daddy's.  As he's still a newborn, he moves his hands around a lot without having real control over them.  Sometimes he'll punch himself in the eye and then glare at his hand as if to say "What did you do that for?".  To his sister Angel's delight, he wriggles sometimes so that it looks like he's waving at us.  The Little Boss also likes to grab onto my clothes when he's breastfeeding.

The one thing that he does have control over is holding hands.  He likes to hold hands...only he's so small that it's not really holding hands.  It takes his whole hand to hold on to one of my fingers.  In fact, when he was first born he gripped on to one of daddy's fingers and held on with surprising strength.  He likes to fall asleep in my lap or on my chest clinging on to one of my fingers.  I think it makes him feel secure being able to hold on to us.

If you feel like a bad parent, read this to feel better...

So it's an ordinary afternoon.  I'm breastfeeding baby and the girls have been playing a game together.  When Angel disappeared from the room for a few minutes, I didn't think anything of it.  I just figured she was getting another toy for their elaborate game (which seemed to involved as many different toys spread across the floor as possible).  I didn't get worried until she started crying, and even then I didn't think it was anything serious.  I could hear her walking back into the room with me, so I didn't even bother getting up at first.

Then she came in holding her eye.  "I was putting on make-up," she sobbed, "and it got in my eye and it hurts."  I looked at her and realized that she was not just putting on makeup.  She had found a bottle of sparkly nail varnish and had used it to try to do her eye make up.  That's right.  She had painted all around her eyes with nail polish.  Glittery pink nail polish, to be precise.  I did the obvious thing and started screaming for my other half to come help.

It took two of us, the sink, and a lot of wet wipes to get her eyes (mostly) clean.  Let me tell you---nail polish does not come out of eyelashes easily.  Also, stupid sparkly nail polish means that even if you manage to get the polish mostly off, your toddler still ends up with glitter all over them (and potentially in their eyes).  Since she had painted around her eyes, we couldn't use anything like nail polish remover to try to get it off.

Luckily, thankfully, miraculously she did not actually get any of the nail varnish on her eyeball (as far as we could tell). 

Sometimes I feel like I'm really on top of things and a good parent...then inevitably something like this happens.  The funny thing is that I am not a yummy mummy.  I don't normally wear nail polish.  I had just painted my nails for the first time in about six months, and so had pulled out the nail polish from its dusty hiding place in my bedroom.  I guess I'm going back to my normal, nail-coloured-nails again from now on.

Moral of the day: toddlers and nail varnish do not mix...or at least they shouldn't.

The Birth!

I just spent about an hour writing up a lovely blog post with the whole birth story.  Then I hit the publish button and the whole thing inexplicably disappeared.  So now don't have the time or the inclination to rewrite the whole thing,

I'll just sum up the major points.

It was a planned c-section with a spinal block.  It wasn't planned for the doctors to still have to use forceps.  (Luckily there was only a small red mark on one side of his head and it faded quickly.)

My husband got to cut the cord.  Then they laid our little boy across my chest.  He cried and wriggled and gurgled.  I got to enjoy skin on skin contact with him.  My husband put out a hand to help steady him, and he immediately grabbed on to one of daddy's fingers.  He kept holding on until he had to be moved.

The little boss was covered in blood and vernix, and absolutely perfect.  After years of waiting, I was thrilled to finally meet our little boy.

Pre-birth/At the Hospital

After a lot of waiting and intermittent blogging, the big day finally came.  I said in my last post that he was born, but didn't really give any details.  So here's my birth post.  It's a bit belated as I've been enjoying time with my newborn while trying not to neglect the rest of the family.

As it was a booked c--section, we knew when the birth was going to be way in advance.  The night before going in to the hospital I took my first batch of medications and started fasting.  The morning of the birth I took my next batch before going in.  (For planned c-sections they give you things like ant-nausea med's to take in advance.  The medications should help you to be more comfortable and also help to avoid complications.) 

First thing in the morning we dropped off the girls to be watched for the day for us and then went and checked in to the maternity ward at the hospital.  I had to fill in standard hospital admission forms which was entertaining as the nurse had to ask me questions like, "Is there any chance you could be pregnant?" and whether I was wearing a hair piece or dentures.   Then we went through the paperwork for the c-section. 

My husband and I were shown to a hospital bed in one of the wards to wait while I was prepped for surgery and we waited for our turn in the operating room/theatre.  It was all very relaxed, and they took their time talking to us and getting things ready.  It was so different from my previous experiences being rushed in for emergency surgery.

Some of the things that took place during this time:

-The anesthesiologist came to discuss the spinal with me and have me sign more consent forms.

-I changed into a very stylish hospital gown.  And by very stylish I mean flapping open under the ties and printed in an orange and brown pattern.  Weirdly it had labels on it telling you that it was for hospital use only, not to be removed from the hospital, etc.  If anyone has other uses for them or wants to steal them I really don't think I want to know about it.  Also my husband had to go wash his hands, etc. and change into scrubs (including hat and slippers).

-My blood pressure, temperature, etc. were checked.  They also listened to the baby's heartbeat.

-My husband and I played several rounds of backgammon on his phone.  I don't remember who won.

-They put tape over my wedding ring and made sure that I wasn't wearing any other jewelry.

Then it was our turn.  The nurse led us down to the c-section birth room.  I got to walk there.

He's Here!

I am happy to announce that our little boy finally arrived!  The little boss was born recently (I'll do some separate posts about the birth soon).  He's healthy and happy, and I'm recovering surprisingly well.  To sum up...he's perfect.

I'm sorry that you don't get a peek at his handsome face, but here's a peek at lovely baby hands & feet.  I just love his long toes and fingers.  Angel keeps picking up his hands & feet making comments like, "He has hands! I'm holding his hand!" and "He has lots of toes!".

Preparing for the Birth

I had the best plans for being totally prepared in advance for my baby to be born.  I was going to have loads of home cooked meals stored in the fridge and freezer, an immaculate house, good hair, etc.  In short, everything was going to be perfect and ready before he was born.  Obviously this is real life (my real life to be more specific) and not a TV movie, so everything isn't as pristine as I had hoped for. 

However, we are ready.  I'm ready to meet my little boy.

Knowing that I'm booked in for an elective Cesarean makes preparing for the birth a little different from preparing for a "normal" delivery. 

Most pregnancy books/websites/etc. will give you helpful lists of what to pack in your hospital bags.  In my experience, all of these are focused on what women need during labor, and they're totally unhelpful if you're having a c-section.  I packed two hospital bags: one for me & one for baby.  It was actually exciting to pack them together with my husband.  Mostly we used common, sense on what to pack, but we did look up a couple of lists to make sure we weren't forgetting anything.  (Click here or here for sample hospital bag lists specifically for Cesarean births.)  As this is my 3rd section, I knew from experience to pack snacks (for both parents) and to pack normal (preferably black and baggy) not disposable maternity underwear (these tend to hit right on a c-section scar line).

There are some preparations we're being sure to do, like having my husband help me shave (way better than having a stranger dry shave you on a hospital bed).  Also trying to eat well (or at least healthy other than the tub of Ben & Jerry's we treated ourselves to) and get some rest.

Here are some resources I found on-line on preparing for a C-section:
"Preparing for a C-Section"
"A Step-by-step Guide to Preparing for Your C-Section"
"Preparing Yourself For a C-section Delivery"

Full Term & Things to Remember

Here's me full term.  Yes, I'm huge.  Yes, I'm counting down the days.

As my pregnancy days are numbered, here are some things that I want to remember about this pregnancy.

-This baby loves the sound of his daddy's voice.  He always responds perfectly on cue when my hubby talks to him.  He can be quiet all day and then start wriggling around in excitement when daddy gets home and starts talking to me.  (My husband jokes that this is probably the only time in his life when he'll listen to his dad this well, but I know it makes him happy.)

-In general I'm not overly affected by serious or weird food cravings.  At various points during this pregnancy, though, I have eaten huge amounts of fresh lychees, apple flavored rice cakes, and peanut m&m's. 

-Yes, soon I will have three kids fighting for my time and attention.  Ever since we told them, though, our girls have been very excited to have a baby in the family.  They talk a lot about the baby and what it will be like after he's born (usually including nice things they can do for him, like let him play the prince in their games or sing to him).

-This is probably the last time I'll be pregnant.  I want to remember the miracle of feeling them kick (it sounds cheesy but it is a miracle), seeing them in ultrasounds, hearing their heartbeat, etc.  I'm impatient to meet and hold him, but I know that right now is the closest that the two of us will ever be.

-Sensitive skin galore, but no new stretch marks (hurray!)