have another baby

Here are some snapshots from last night; Shawn is two days old in these.

Shawn snoozing on the bed

Close up, so peaceful.

Groggy, half awake.

and…

back asleep

My last pregnancy photos. Tommy snapped these the day before Shawn was born – his due date, May 24th.

From the side

and

from the front.

Shawn Charlton W. was born last night, Monday May 25th 2009, at 9:15 pm.

It’ll be a long and exciting birth story when I get to share it (my mom rated it as “very dramatic!” as far as birth stories go) but I unfortunately don’t have the time to type it all out right now.

I’ll have photos soon enough too for anyone interested.

Be back as soon as I can. Thanks in advance for any well wishes. (:

The waiting is getting kind of hard… Even Tommy said to me the other night “ANY sign as to when that kid is going to make an appearance??”

Nope… just lots of braxton hicks and a kicking little child who has been head down for months already… Could be tomorrow, could be next week, could be into June. Clearly this baby wanted to be a Gemini and NOT a Taurus, so you can be born any time now, child!

On the other hand… these are the last few days of this amazing and sacred state for me… I’m cherishing this. It will probably be years before I can feel a little one moving around inside again. I’m not uncomfortable – I’M STILL NOT WADDLING! lol – and s/he’s not even “overdue” yet, so it’s just impatience on our part. With Gabriel I started obsessively “nesting” (frantically cleaning the house and trying to make sure everything was ready) and I could hardly sleep two weeks before he was born. Not so with this one… yet, anyway, lol!

My mom is kind of being stupid, saying the baby can only be born between _ and time, during and _ days so she can be home to sleep and doesn’t have to be up at inconvenient times through the night. Well, she can just stay home then, can’t she.

This is just the perfect time to work on a few other things I won’t be able to accomplish so easily when s/he is here.

Gabriel and I watched birth videos on youtube yesterday, and he really enjoyed seeing the baby born. I’d say “there is the head… do you see it? That’s the baby’s head and look! look! That’s the shoulders, look at the baby! The baby is born! We’re going to have one of those!”

His whole face was just radiant and awestruck. Regardless… Tommy is bringing his laptop and a couple of dvds that Gabe can watch if he gets bored. :P

And we still don’t have a name picked out! For a girl, we have a first and middle name, no changes, no doubts. But for a boy, we have a concrete middle name, but we’re unsure of the first name. We have two picks and we’ve flip flopped this whole time. We had picked out one in the beginning, and then changed it in January… and now we still aren’t sure! We agreed if it is a boy we’d wait to see him to name him. So come out so we can name you, kiddo!

Okay, so maybe not EVERYTHING…

I got my bloodwork results back today and FINALLY I am at an acceptable level for hemoglobin and ferritin. It’s still not sky high, but it is in the normal range. Very very pleased!

After the floradix, I started taking a supplement called Ferrous Sulfate which is a MUCH higher concentration. I’ve been taking one three times a day.

Here are some things I learned along the way:

This one is common knowledge, but is worth repeating anyway. Always take iron with Vitamin C. Vitamin C helps your body to absorb iron, which seems to be very difficult to absorb because of a variety of iron absorption inhibitors.

The culprits are surprising! Considering that the nutritional information on the side of a box of Raisin Bran says it contains 50% of your daily intake of iron… learning that the phytates in bran readily block iron is kind of like having a campfire in the rain. Add to that that calcium is very very effective at blocking iron absorption, and this is even more frustrating! In fact, a high fibre diet in general makes for a low iron intake.

Soy products are also good at blocking your iron intake… so soy milk on cereal isn’t exactly a great option either!

Coffee and tea (specifically the tannin in them) shield your body from absorbing iron. And this is what puzzles me – when I was the most deficient/anemic I ever was this pregnancy, I CRAVED COFFEE LIKE CRAZY. I guess because fatigue is a result of anemia, and coffee has caffeine… but still! How strange! Usually your body will crave what it really really needs… I should have been drooling over the idea of steak! lol

Speaking of steak, that brings me to my next point: the difference in heme and non-heme varieties of iron rich foods.

Heme foods are more readily absorbed by your body and less likely to be blocked by inhibitors – so I guess a steak with a glass of milk isn’t so bad. The downside for anyone who is vegetarian or vegan (both of which I am NOT) is that heme foods are only found in red meat, fish/seafood and poultry.

The best sources for iron in heme foods are any of the organ meats, like liver and kidney; beef, the dark meat of turkey, and clams, oysters, shrimp and sardines.

Non-heme foods are a lot harder to absorb, so be careful to not take these with a known inhibitor. One source I read said that only 3-8% of the consumed iron is absorbed!

Non-heme foods are dried fruit like dates, figs, raisins, apricots; blackstrap molasses, kidney beans and pumpkin seeds. Spinach is NOT that good for iron, and neither is broccoli. I read that spinach is actually an inhibitor!

Further frustrating is that a high fibre diet is really important to maintain to avoid one of the most common symptoms of iron supplementation – constipation. While I’m thankful I have had no such problem, what are you supposed to do if you ARE affected by the iron?

There is just no winning, is there?, though keep in mind you don’t necessarily have to eliminate these from your diet, just eat them at different times. How far apart? Good question, but I’ve heard at least an hour.

Another thing that doesn’t seem to be greatly known knowledge is that folic acid and Vitamin B12 complex are important to have in order to build up hemoglobin, not just iron.

Anyway… hopefully that was informative to anyone who can benefit. I’ve been meaning to do this for awhile. (:

Currently at 38w,3d, which is when Gabriel was born. (He turned two yesterday, lol.) I’ve been getting more “braxton hicks” contractions (aka non-painful contractions, or “trial” contractions), and the other night I had one that just wouldn’t end. I went to bed figuring that I’d wake up at some point in the night in labor, but nope! It made everybody BUT me freak out, and my mom has been asking me frequently since then “ANY CONTRACTIONS!!!!?” in addition to fielding phone calls from my grandma and my mom’s friends if there is a baby yet.

You’d swear it was all of them going to give birth. They are all panicking! I’m the relaxed one! lol! I sent my mom off on a mission to youtube to watch birth videos so that MAYBE she will finally stop sweating about the idea that she might have to help with the birth if he comes too fast. I told her she’d be freaking out so much that I’D just do it!

Though… about a week before Gabriel was born, I DID get a bit scared. I’d heard so many negative things from people and it finally got to me… probably a good bit was pre-labor hormones, too. So I sat down with a notebook, and wrote out a bunch of positive affirmations. Even just writing my name helped me focus and regain my confidence. I wrote out everything from “pain is a state of mind”, “a moment in time”, “the journey will be over soon” and “you can do it” to “faith”, “joy”, “love”, “positivity” and “confidence”, among many many others; just anything I could think of that cheered me. I ended up with a HUGE list! And it worked.

My birth supplies are all together and ready to go. (My mom insisted she buy a new sleeper for the baby, which was really nice, but took us all over town and two days of shopping to accomplish. How hard is it to find a newborn sleeper?! Goodness sake! We tried five different places!)

So now we’re just waiting for the little one… and every chance we get, Tommy and I try to naturally induce labor, heeheeheehee. Clearly so far it hasn’t worked, so I tell him we have to try harder! (;

I DON’T have to have a hospital birth after all! THANK GOODNESS!

I don’t get my homebirth though, either… but something that is pretty darn close. Gabriel was born at the midwives clinic, and that is where this one will be, too. It’s a home setting, it’s just not our home. Fine by me! I like the idea of both children being born in the same spot. Anything to stay out of the hospital!

Yeah, that water birth idea? HAHAHAHAHA! The hospital doesn’t even have a bathtub to go in, and they don’t “allow” water birth. Oh I can have a shower... like that will help with back pain. ::eyeroll::

And Gabriel wouldn’t be allowed at the hospital, either. MY OWN CHILD ISN’T ALLOWED TO BE WITH ME. I am limited to two people as well – Tommy and ? My mom wants to come, my sisters both want to come, my grandma would like to be around (thought not in the room), so HURRAY HURRAY HURRAY, I can stay out of the hospital! I wonder if I would be “allowed” out of bed, too, or eat, or drink, or go to the bathroom, or…

I’m SO relieved!

Tommy has told his boss that when I’m in labor, he won’t be in to work. —Is this uncommon? because she replied that he would take a “point” – a mark against him for missing a day without a reason. He said I know, and she said “well, it’s up to you.”

???? WHAT? Is it normal for fathers to miss the birth of their children because work is just tooooooo important? He isn’t in the military!

For those who are interested, click the links for the photos. I understand not everyone likes pregnant tummies (there is something wrong with you!) so they are neatly tucked away for your convenience. (:

Click here

This is from a month ago – 32/33 weeks.

Click here

And this is from a few nights ago – 35 weeks. STRETCH MARKS! lol

My bloodwork came back the other day, and to make what could be a long story into a shorter one, despite being on a strong supplement, my iron levels have not improved. Therefore, it is likely I will have to give birth at the hospital, rather than the home birth I had hoped for.

I’m pretty bummed out, but trying to find the positive side. I think the hospital has birth pools, so I could have a water birth, one idea I entertained at the beginning of my pregnancy, but then decided against. (We don’t have the room for one, they take a LOT of water, Tommy would be back and forth emptying and filling the pool with warm water, they are kind of pricey…) so maybe being in a hospital will make the water birth a possibility.

Another thing is I’m not looking forward to fighting with the hospital about placental rights. It is viewed as “medical waste” and they feel it must be disposed of immediately.

However, because it WILL be with the midwives and there really is no reason for the nurses/doctors/etc to be there, I don’t know if that WILL be an issue.

Last week I came across something that fascinates me:Lotus Birth. (Some nudity in that link, btw.) I’m completely enamored with that idea, and this is what I want. We delayed Gabriel’s cutting cord until it stopped pulsing, and while that was preferable than the pointless and downright stupid procedure of immediate clamp-n-cut, I like this so so so much more.

I understand the ick factor, but the stories I’ve read said it comes so natural that you don’t feel weird about it. I’ll need a bit of sea salt to sprinkle on the placenta, which will help dry it out. Wrap baby, cord and placenta up together. And that is it.

In the meantime, Tommy is going to make abelly cast for me! I have 35 days left til my due date – hard to believe!

In fetal development, Baby is about 19 inches long now and all of his/her organs are “finalizing”.

People’s perceptions are WEIRD. I’m off work now (thank goodness!) but when I was still there, one morning when we were off and walking out, my one coworker, who had returned from mat. leave just a month before, asked me how far along I was. I told her and she mentioned “you’ve already got the waddle!”

This really puzzled me because… I’m not waddling. My other coworker was beside of me, and as she veered off in another direction, I asked him if I was. I didn’t think I was, but…

He said no, no way, I don’t know what she is talking about. You didn’t waddle with Gabriel either.

So I conclude that I don’t know whose butt she was looking at, but it wasn’t mine! lol!

I remember when my mom was pregnant with my little brother, at about 7 months onward she required my sister and I to tie up her shoes for her, goodness just to put her shoes on her! The other day, apparently my grandma (my mom’s mom) was in a bad mood because all she had to say about ANYTHING was negative, but the one that applied to me was “I don’t know how Lauraly is going to put in a garden this year. She’s so big she can’t even bend over.”

What?

Not only has she not seen me for like two months, but the icing on the cake is that others who also haven’t seen me for awhile say “you’re so TINY!”

WHAT? I am very confused! I’m certainly bigger than I was with Gabriel, but uh, that is kind of to be expected as my stomach muscles are stretched out and my uterus has already carried one little person. It’s gently used, lol, it’s not brand new anymore! But I’m not a whale by any means. (Another coworker told me about when his wife was pregnant with their second child, he asked her what she had in there – a whale? Amazingly, he is indeed alive today to tell the tale, though I don’t think he ever asked her that again!)

I joked that I wasn’t aware I was going to be pregnant til October, as our last frost is generally around this baby’s due date. We have seedlings, but the actual planting IN THE GROUND outside won’t be for a bit. Had my grandma forgotten that it is an ELEPHANT’S gestation that is 22 months and not a humans?

Anyway…

My pregnancy otherwise is great at this point. I’m very very thankful to be off work… Not only had I broke my toe about a month ago, but it really was time to be off. I don’t NEED to work right up til labor, so why should I? I think my coworkers were happy to see me go – not because they couldn’t stand the pregnant girl “waddling” (eye roll) around anymore, but out of consideration for me. My one coworker liked to joke “don’t go into premature labor or you’ll see every man in the building running around yelling “WHAT’S THE NUMBER FOR 9-1-1?!”“

I’m not yet sure on how my iron deficiency is going as at my second to last midwife appointment we decided to wait til my most recent to draw blood, and give me a bit more time to recoup my iron stores while on the supplement. This past Wednesday I had more drawn, so I’ll find out shortly if I’ve improved and how much so.

I’ve finished my supplement, too – the bottle is empty, so I started on iron pills. I’m awful for taking vitamins… Just awful. It’s not the remembering so much as I have a hard time swallowing anything, even tylenol. I now take a multi-vitamin as well, but I have to cut that up into 4 or 5 pieces in order to choke it down.

I just had a cup of red raspberry leaf tea, which I swear by. I was drinking a jug of it a day in the latter stages of Gabriel’s pre-birth days. RRL is known to be a uterin tonic as well as containing large amounts of Vitamin C and E, as well as calcium. Not only that, but I love the taste! It’s best to avoid it until the third trimester because it CAN stimulate contractions in the first and second part of pregnancy.

I know that charlie horses are very common when you’re pregnant, too, so it wasn’t surprising when I started to get one the other morning. However, since I’ve started making sure I get more calcium, potassium and magnesium, and stretching my legs throughout the day, I haven’t had one since.

I have found that just because something is common, doesn’t mean it is inevitable or simply to be suffered through. There is usually a very simple cure!

Whew, this is long enough by now. I’ll close up here.

I’ll post more, but for now, would anyone like to play the Baby Guessing Game?

Enter in your guess for the baby’s sex, weight and DOB. It’d make me happy. (:

I found out why I was so exhausted last month…

Now that I’m 7 months (29 weeks; 7 months and 1 week) and in the third trimester I’m going to the midwives every two weeks rather than every month. My last appointment was two weeks ago and my midwife was able to take my blood right there rather than me vainly trying to make it to the cursed laboratory to have it taken there.

So today I had an appointment and my midwife says we got your bloodwork back… She FREAKS ME OUT by saying “you have…” and then shuffling through the papers. I KNOW I don’t have HIV or any STDS so it’s kind of scary to be told that, but then she tells me I have very low iron levels. I mean very very low. My mom has always had a hard time with iron and she takes a supplement to keep anemia at bay. One time she was so low she was smelling phantom smells – mostly coffee, but a few other things. I did some poking around online and found out that is caused by anemia and she talked to her doctor – no more phantom coffee, lol!

She told me that when SHE was very anemic, her iron level was about 16 or so. LOW. No wonder she felt so awful and was getting the phantom odor thing.

MY iron level… is 6.

SIX. When I told my mom that, she FREAKED. I mean, if I was in car accident tomorrow… I’d die! Especially because I’m pregnant!

I’m really disappointed in myself, but not exactly in myself because I DO eat well, but… just because. This is frightening. I feel like I’ve let my little guy down because sure all my iron reserves are going to him, but I need to be healthy for him. I know most Canadians don’t get enough iron and I try – especially because I’m pregnant – to watch the iron levels of food I eat. We even cook in a cast iron skillet!

My midwife recommended several supplements for me to buy, which is exactly what I did immediately afterwards. I bought Floradix as that came the highest recommended at the health food store. The health food store saleswoman said that she was really anemic when she tried to become vegetarian – she admitted when she cut out red meat she didn’t make the necessary adjustments – and she felt better just 3 days after taking the supplement. She also recommended cream of wheat cereal because they fortify it with iron. On top of all that, I also bought orange juice, molasses and raisin bran cereal, all good things for iron levels or aiding iron absorption.

And for supper tonight – liver!!!

My mom asked me if I’ve felt tired and I have a little bit, but not excessively so like I was when I was put on leave for those two weeks. I mean, I’m not getting a whole lot of sleep and I’ve actually been almost energetic! My coworkers all agreed before I was on that emergency leave that I was looking “gaunt” and underweight and that I looked a LOT better when I returned. I wonder if by the time that my bloodwork had come back, in the two weeks between midwife visits my iron didn’t increase. I don’t imagine it could have increased THAT much, though!

We had plans to go out tomorrow for lunch… but now I’m kind of nervous about leaving the house! I’m not sure if that is paranoid and unreasonable or prudent and wise!

At least I found out NOW before anything really bad happened. I’d tried to get that stupid bloodwork done so many times, but it’s been one thing after another after another. For starters, working nights makes it hard to get out to the lab, and even harder was that we only had the one vehicle and Tommy works afternoons. Mornings never were very good for a whole host of other reasons. On top of that, you have to pay to park at the lab, or park way way down the road, and THIS WINTER HAS BEENSO BLOODY COLD! Usually we get a thaw in January, but this winter it was basically snow, snow, snow, storms and frigid temperatures through the whole month, then by February I didn’t leave the house when I was off… then when I went back, my midwife says “Oh, I can take blood here!”

...! No one ever told me that before!!! lol!

So I’ll be on the mend now, and I have my last week of vacation coming up next week which will help me recuperate any I still need, too. I was planning on going off for leave at the beginning of April, but I started feeling better, so I was rethinking it… My next appointment is for the 25th of March, when I’ll have more blood taken and we’ll figure it out from there to see how my levels have improved.

I also asked, out of curiousity what would happen if the baby was breech and she said that depended on the breech – a footling breech was avoided at all costs, but a frank breech was possible with the help of a doctor from another town. She said that only about 4% of births are breech anyway.

Then I laid down for her to check my measurements and she did a bit of belly mapping on my stomach. Baby is head down and we got a nice, solid, clear heartbeat on the right side of my stomach. You could hear the heart valves opening and closing! It appears the placenta is at the top of my uterus, but at the FRONT, or anterior, as compared to what was originally believed, that it was positioned at the BACK, or posterior. So we got to hear the blood pumping through the placenta, too.