Jazz is Born! (The girl, not the music...)

Due Dates. Ugh. They are an estimate that falls in the middle of the month our baby could be born. But in this day and age with lots of scheduled C-Sections and unnecessary inductions a lot of people don't realize that it's okay to wait it out for awhile. Jazz was 10 days "overdue" aka born in her perfect timing but because of that damn due date I was anxious, ready for her and bombarded with texts and calls saying, "Where is she? Get her out already! Aren't you going to induce yet? Does it need to be at the hospital now? Is she safe? Get the pitocin and get that baby out!" AAH! Thanks to baby-daddy (he's also my husband but baby-daddy is much more fun to say) I was reminded daily of this concept I've always struggled with, Patience. Lo and behold, she eventually decided it was time to greet the world! Before I describe that magical morning let's rewind.

In March 2011 our son Lyric was born. The birth was ideal (an hour and half of pain with a purpose, everyone healthy, fast recovery, women now hate me, bouncing baby boy). The timing was ideal (professor husband off work for the summer)! And nobody's getting any younger. So, when my 6-week post partum appt rolled around and it was time to discuss birth control options we opted to not. I figured breastfeeding would keep things at bay for awhile but with my sons severe allergies the nursing didn't last nearly as long as I'd hoped and BOOM! baby number two was on her way!
We were very excited! Kids 13 months apart sounded like quite the adventure. Plus daddy-o would be finishing the school year just in time to help me with both little ones for the summer!

38 wks
www.VoAlaska.com

38 wks
www.VoAlaska.com

Pregnancy #2 was...long. I'd just recovered from the first pregnancy so another 10 months of fattening up didn't sound too exciting. Not long after I started showing it became challenging and eventually impossible for me to pick up and hold my son and since he couldn't walk yet that was not cool! I'm a singer and I must admit that gigging pregnant is great for tips! But it's tough for things like, I don't know, SINGING! Can't breathe, where are my lungs?, who's on my diaphragm?, I have to pee again band! Exhausting. At least I still had a full wardrobe of maternity clothes, books on pregnancy and midwives I loved! This time we decided to find out the sex so it was a blast sitting around daydreaming about my baby girl.

Natural birthing was very important to us and the ease of the first birth just proved to us we chose the right path with a drug-free midwife aided experience. We utilized the Hypnobabies program again. LOVE! I prepared mentally for the birthing day, hoping that my strength, faith and perseverance would make the experience go smoothly. And it truly did! Through much research and questioning we learned that hospital births are notorious for checking you in and getting that baby out whether it's the ideal time or not. Pitocin leads to unbearably strong contractions which then leads to an epidural, which in turn slows things back down because you're no longer able to follow the natural instincts of your body. In the end your baby is born and it was all worth it and you now have a war story to tell your friends (please dont tell the pregnant ones your negative birth stories!) but if there was a way to avoid that path we wanted it! And there was. The natural way that's been used forever, all over the world with WAY less complications. (I'll touch more on primal mothering in a future post.)

Visualization Collage I made!

Flashcards to help me stay strong on birth day!

Early in the morning on May 4th we went to the birthing center knowing the baby would arrive soon. I wasn't as far along as I'd hoped so they suggested walking stairs. I did that for a bit but I was very focused on listening to my body and I knew it was more important for me to rest and save my energy for the intense part that was inevitably going to come whether I ran up and down the stairs or not. Hubby brought a guitar and we sang songs in between contractions which helped keep me calm and distracted. And it really entertained the midwives! We had the Hypnobabies CD's playing in the background the whole time. There are CD's specifically for your birthing time stages and the pushing stage. It was AWESOME! As ideal as it was, contractions still freaking hurt like hell! I'm not at all immune to pain but I just kept breathing, focusing, remembering the pain had a purpose and I looked in the mirror and told my self what an amazing badass mofo I was. Ha!
Ooh! I remembered this feeling...it was time to PUSH! Hallelujah! At this point I stopped worrying and focused on helping Jazz get out as smoothly and quickly as possible. 13 minutes later she was in my arms! It was the most incredible feeling!
A few hours later we were home with our perfectly healthy bundle of poop, tears and cuteness. No, I won't be having baby #3 this time next year. I want the energy to play with these two for awhile! Then we'll see...

Welcome Jazz! :)

What were the major differences in your 2nd+ pregnancies? Did you change your birth plan the second time around?

Welcome to the World, Lyric!

Part 1: "Honey, how much time do we have to waste dating when we already know we want to get married and have kids?"

When Eric and I decided we wanted to have a baby we wasted no time and the extent of my thoughts about it were, "Fun! Babies are cute and soft and this is without a doubt the best potential Dad I know. Sweet, lets try to make one!" Clearly I put a lot of thought into the details... Once that stick said my eggo was preggo life became an intense whirlwind of ups and downs, what if's, and excitement! I put amazing amounts of energy into facing issues I've had for years knowing that I could no longer cover all my problems with the assortment of unhealthy distractions I'd become so accustomed to. I wanted to be the best Mom I could be and I knew I wasn't mentally prepared. I grew leaps and bounds over the past 10 months (P.S. Pregnancy is 10 months, not 9 like they taught me in school! Not cool.) and Eric was an incredible inspiration and encouragement through every obstacle. The pregnancy hormones made it all the more fun! I stayed a busy girl for the 1st 8.5 months of pregnancy. I worked days and then in my spare time did lots of fun singing gigs and I also was in a play. The activity helped me stay positive and in good shape but it was exhausting! The last month and a half I rented movies and pigged out every day. (Seriously.)

Lyric 10 months.
Pic by Vo Photography.
http://www.voalaska.com/

A huge highlight of my pregnancy was, Hypnobabies, a program that Eric's brother turned us onto. For over 6 months we listened to hypnosis cd's and followed a program to help me create my own anesthesia during the birthing process. It was AWESOME! For anyone pregnant, check out the website! http://www.hypnobabies.com/ It helped me feel fearless throughout the pregnancy and when crunch time came I was able to endure most of my contractions (or pressure waves, as they call them) with more ease than expected. 

My body handled pregnancy very well so I can't complain. (I tried complaining but it resulted in lots of dirty looks from women who had a more difficult time. So I learned fast to appreciate my lot.) I even really enjoyed about 7 months worth of pregnancy! My belly was hilarious. I had so many fun new things to think about. And I'd never been treated so nicely by women in my entire life. The end was very uncomfortable though and I was ready for Lyric to get outta my belly!

Part 2: Birth Week!

Lyric 10 months.
Pic by Vo Photography.
http://www.voalaska.com/

Eric and I chose to give birth with midwives and no drugs. I'm so thankful that he encouraged this route. It was perfect for us. We went to Geneva Woods Birthing Center. All the staff was incredible! I didn't know what to expect with my birthing time. I was constantly thinking, was that a real contraction? Is it time yet? Will my water break? I was in early labor for at least 2 days. I had contractions coming fairly regularly, between 4-9 minutes apart. After checking in twice with the midwives to see how close we were sent home to wait until the contractions were EXACTLY 4 minutes apart. Contractions were getting stronger and I was getting extremely restless. Then, at close to 10pm on March 28th my water broke! I was surprised since only 8% of women have their water break before they are in active labor. But Eric and I were excited because we knew now the baby was coming out one way or another. We met the midwives at the birthing center at 10:15.  The contractions were much stronger now and after about 5 tough ones my body suddenly started to push! That FREAKED ME OUT! I had no idea my body was going to take over and push the baby out whether myself and the nurses were ready or not. I've only ever seen movies where the Dr says "Okay, time to push". But apparently that's the deal when you have an epidural and cant feel your lower half. Thank God I was prepared to go drug free because with how quickly things went that would not have been possible. I focused hard on pushing with the joy of knowing this was the final step to Lyric being here. It was empowering for me to experience pain with a purpose! I've survived terrible worthless pain in my life and finally I was feeling pressure that was going to result in something beautiful! At 12:07 (007 military time. Lyric's gonna be a playa!) he was here!!! It was by far the most intense 90 minutes of my life and I will never forget it! 3 hours later Eric and I were home with our beautiful healthy baby boy!

I wanted to share my positive experience. While I was pregnant I heard one ideal birth story and about 100 traumatic, negative birth stories and it scared the crap out of me so I want to make sure other women know that it doesn't have to be a scary and horrifying experience. Our bodies are designed for this and fear is the #1 thing tainting the experience. So embrace it! Be open to things not going as planned but know that it can be beautiful!

What was the best part about your first pregnancy?