Baby Ellen is Born

Amy's "first" bag (the outside layer) of water broke on 7/21 while she had taken Bailey to the dog park. Amy and Peter then waited for contractions to start. They took long walks, ate spicy food, worked on the house, and took herbal remedies to try to induce. 

The next morning, they tried a suggestion from the midwife, Rosanne to drink Castor oil in a juice or smoothie. Castor oil, is lubricant used for massage and skin moisturizer but when drank orally induces cramping and diarrhea which then is supposed to stimulate the uterus to contract and start your labor. 

This same day, they went in to the Birth Center and found that the main bag of water was not broken and so the midwife then proceeded to break it. This was at about 3:30p.m. on the 22nd. Amy was also given "baby spice" at this time which is a spice blend that you put on greasy food that the midwives made that is rumored to also help induce labor. Amy, Peter, and Grandma then went from the Birth Center to a pizza place where Amy experienced her first strong contractions  from the water breaking while also eating "baby spice" pizza. This did not make for the most pleasant dining experience! 

When they went home that night, contractions relaxed a bit but by 1:30 a.m. they were coming every 5 minutes. Amy called the midwife and she met Peter and Amy at the Birth Center in the middle of the night. When they got there, Amy was dilated 5 cm and they were admitted into the "labor suite" with a "birth in progress" sign on the door. At about 6 a.m.  the birthing tub was filled right as Amy started to experience transition into the most difficult part of labor. 

Soon after she got in the tub, Amy experienced the need to push and the pushing phase started as the tub's warm water helped to soothe this process. After about two hours of pushing in the tub, when the baby was crowning, it was suggested that they tried changing positions to push Ellen out. 

It was orchestrated by the midwifery team that she would get up and try to labor on a birthing stool but as soon as Amy was helped up, she felt unable to lift her legs out of the tub and knew that Ellen needed to be pushed out at that minute. The team readied around Amy to help brace the standing position, and catch the baby. In a couple of large pushes right after each other, Ellen's head came out and with a couple more in the same sequence, the rest of her body did. She was born at 9:43 am with the help of her midwife Jennifer, her daddy, and the Women's Health and Birth center team. 

Ellen was caught and was placed into Amy's arms while she was still standing and the cord was cut to bank her cord blood. She let out a small brief cry and opened her eyes to look around after she was wrapped wrapped with towels while still in her mom's arms. Then she was passed to Peter while Amy was helped out of the tub and into a bed. 

When brought onto Amy's chest she was alert, pink and opened her mouth and latched on with no coaching. 

Ellen's birth was fast, loud, un-medicated, and with no interventions except the breaking of the water. 

Both mom and baby were in a euphoric state from all of the hard work that was done.

Peter and Amy rested afterwards on a  queen bed together, cuddled with Ellen, talked to her, nursed her, ordered breakfast from the organic restaurant next door and Peter fed Amy pancakes while Ellen happily suckled. 

In 6 hours, they were able to go home if they chose. Though comfy and amazingly attended to by nursing staff there, they packed up their things when time ran out and were able to take their daughter home.

She was then finally weighed and measured and after a large poop which got all over the nurse changing her, weighed in at 6lbs, 11oz and was tagged as 20 inches long. 

Any routine newborn screens were done by the nurses climbing onto the bed to meet the family, while Ellen was held by her mom or her dad. 

There was an incredible feeling of strength, pride, power and love in the room.

The nurses walked the new family out to the car, helped carry their things and made sure their car seat was safe for baby. 

Peter and Amy hugged them goodbye and thanked them for sharing the experience with them. 

At 3:43 p.m. on July 23rd, 2009,  they took Ellen home to meet grandma who was waiting to meet her. 

The Papers are signed!!

Hello all!! The papers are signed as of yesterday. Later this week we wire the money in to them (gulp) and then we are moving on Saturday!! 

My mom and Mark are coming to visit which we are excited for (they are actually coming to work on the house) but we are saying "visit" because it sounds nicer. 

We had some pictures taken in Santa Rosa on Saturday as you can see on the top of the Blog. The one posted is just a sample and we do not own the rights to it at all but I posted it with the artists name in the middle of it for a sneak preview!! 

We are very excited about getting out of our cramped apartment and into our house. I have a feeling we will be spending a lot of time in the hardwear store in the next couple of weeks! 

Ulrasound

Ultrasound yesterday! Ellen is growing like a weed. Tis week she is almost 5 lbs and about 17-20 inches. Amy is having terrible heartburn and everyone keeps saying that Ellen will come out with lots of hair! 

Took Bailey to the beach this past weekend and she enjoyed playing with another small poodle named Maggie. It was fun to watch her play. She is really nice and is always on the submissive but playful end of things. 

Our realtor says we should close next week. We're keeping our fingers crossed!! 

Uncle Joey (Joe Conti) is coming to visit tonight and we are excited to have the distraction from all this pent-up house frustration. 

Have our second birthing class tomorrow night at the birth center and are looking forward to that! 

It's like we're on Jeapordy with that annoying timer music

Last week we celebrated Peter's Birthday. In this past year, he has accomplished some things like...moving to California and FINALLY moving in with the love of his life,  starting up his company's business here, making a baby, proposing, getting married, buying a house, adopting a dog, and now waiting to have a baby. 

Whew! Did you catch all of that?

Peter deserves a lot of hugs for all these major life changes!!

We spent the day with friends and Bailey (puppy) getting lunch and going to the beach. The pictures are Peter laying on her and her snuggling with him. She was off-leash most of the day and we don't really worry about it. Really great dog but but we're not naive to the fact that she's still a baby and needs some training. 

Went to our first baby-birthing class last week and found out what it means to be soon-to-be residents of Sonoma County (hippies galore!). About half of our class is planning on eating the placenta when it comes out for nutritional value. Amy does not eat a lot of meat and was SUPER grossed out when thinking about this! 

DISCLAIMER: she does not mind other people practicing this. If you'd like to learn more about this practice though you can go to http://pregnancy.about.com/od/placenta/a/placentarecipes.htm

We are planning to have the baby "au natural" at the birth center and we have requested the room with the large birthing tub and are going to try water birth. Peter is going to be the coach or "doula" and will try to catch the baby as she comes out and he is growing more and more excited about this. 

Baby Ellen is kicking up a storm and mom is getting less sleep! Got some new products this week such as swaddle blankets and breast pump whoo hoo!

Went to our first meet-and-greet with a moms group in Sonoma County and found out that a young couple with a baby lives one street down from the new house we are buying! This will be awesome for us! Sarah is super nice and we have not yet met the hubby. 

The house is still in-progress. The price needed to be re-negotiated because it did not appraise for what the bank wanted for it. This stinks in that it will take more time. It's a good thing that we will not be paying as much for it!!

Seems to be little snags here and there but the closing process is working itself out. 

Found a contractor for the popcorn ceiling removal and have some connections for carpet now so we can take care of that as soon as we move in!

And the wait continues...

And now we wait. It is the beginning of June and the days are getting longer as we wait for our closing date on the house we are buying. As it approaches, we try to prioritize all the immediate things that need to be done to the house before we move furniture in such as "popcorn" ceiling removal, painting, and finishing the kitchen off. 

We are also waiting to move in because we will get to take home our pup Bailey from her foster family. It's getting harder and harder to bring her back to the foster house after spending a long day with her. We miss her when she's not around.

Also waiting on the baby....Amy is going to prenatal yoga a couple of times a week and next week we start the childbirth classes. 

Peter is 26 next week and we have a lot to celebrate this year. 

House and Home

Peter has recently been working a lot in Moss Landing, which is hard for us to be away from him. We miss him cuddling with us at night. Besides that, the house paperwork is slowly getting done. It is difficult to buy a bank-owned home because they are overloaded and thus on a different time frame with getting back to us on things. Physical contingency has been removed. Inspections look good. 

I am really enjoying the Midwives at the birth center much better than my previous OB/GYN. The midwives spend about an hour a visit with me and really seem to care where previously I was treated much more like a patient and I felt very rushed. The midwives are much more lie a family member caring for you. 

Next month we start the childbirth classes but I have read so many books that I'm not sure if it'll be new information! Other than that, I have been going to prenatal yoga and have an amazing teacher. The class feels like you never want to leave. I want to have my baby in yoga, it feels so calm in there!! I am also now drinking this herbal pregnancy tea that is supposed to help with everything from calf muscle cramps, to heartburn, to stomach upset. 

My thesis is coming along at a snail pace but I am motivated to get it done before the baby. Work is coming to an end and though I care deeply about what I do, I will be happy to have the next few months to devote all of my energy to myself. 

Weekend and House

So Today we have signed the paperwork for a house. We are moving to Santa Rosa! Got to spend a relaxing weekend in Santa Cruz, Monterey, and Carmel. Peter and I tried to go kayaking to see the sea otters but they wouldn't let me because I'm too pregnant! Oh well, next time!