Evalette's Birth Story (A little jumbled sorry...)

8-17-2015:

2am:
Started contractions at 10pm the night before. An average of 45 seconds every 8-12 minutes.
Each contraction I would close my eyes and think different thoughts to make it easier like,
"It's only 45 seconds."
"This won't last forever."
"My body knows what it's doing."
"Time to get this over with."
It was 100 degrees that day so our house was hot and Pria was moving a lot trying to get comfortable. All I want is for her to sleep through most of the night at least. I don't want to have to wake her up earlier than 5am...
Each contraction I was experimenting with what helped be less uncomfortable. Different positions, thoughts, distractions, moving my hips in certain directions...etc. I wanted to see what worked best before I got to the birth center and contractions would be worse making it harder to think clearly.
There was no way I was going to actually fall asleep during these contractions. Déjàvu to last time when contractions started around the same time and I had early labor contractions ALL night before we even went to the birth center... I was afraid of doing that again but oh well. Hopefully it won't take as long overall. Again I am already so tired. Frustrating.
3am: "I should probably shower..."
The hardest part in beginning is deciding at what point should we go to the birth center and how long should I push time so Pria can sleep longer? When should I call and wake up the photographer to get ready to go? Is like to be home for as long as possible but at the same time this is the second time around and who knows how fast things will pick up?! Will I be that lucky?....
4am: Contractions are really intense. I'd consider it active labor stage.
5:18am: We woke up Pria by changing her clothes as she was asleep. She opened her eyes wondering why we were doing that and we said, "It's time for the baby to come out Pria, we need to go to the birth center." She responded with a smile and said, "Pria hold baby? Yeah okay." Love her.
5:23am:
Leaving the house. Contractions super strong and short
Was fully dilated when I got to Thrive Birth Center. The midwife Caitlin said she hadn't planned on it but would check if I wanted. I wanted to out of curiosity and so it might give me encouragement if I was farther along than I thought.
I got in the tub not too long after she checked me and was in there for about two hours before Dustin came in to help support me. Their tubs have no armrests or handles to make it easier to brace myself. I feel like a lot of the soreness I had later was mostly from me trying to support myself as I pushed. With Dustin sitting behind me and hold me up I was able to focus on pushing comfortably. He whispered words of encouragement to me while supporting me
 She was posterior making it really hard to push her out comfortably. At the very end we had to get out of the tub and sit on the birthing stool which I wasn't excited about, but the pressure and gravity was needed to get baby girl out. It burned so bad. The ring of fire...
Dustin again sat behind me while I was on the stool. He was sitting on the bed with me sitting on the stool against the bed.
Pushing her head out was the hardest part. After that I waited for them to say they were ready to catch her, I pushed not to hard and she was out. I remember that part not being that difficult or as painful.
Pria did really good. She wanted to come in the tub at the very end but was too late. She sat on the tub watching mommy majority of the time which I was happy she was there being involved.
My mom and sister were there in case Pria needed anything but like I had thought, she handled very well and didn't want to leave us. My dad was with patients all day but he did come and sit in the lobby with my mom for a while before the office opened.

Born at 9:49am
Weighed 9.02
Height 21.25

Jelina said when she looked at me and I looked at her at one point, that it was like I wasn't there and I was in another world. It is true that during that whole process everything is a blur and I am unaware of a lot of things going on in the room. When Dustin said Evalette was born at 9:49 I thought it was night time and not the morning still. I thought the room was completely dimmed and dark except for a couple candles when in fact it really wasn't that dark at all he said. It is strange. It's like I was for that time in another place, on another side...because I was bringing a little angel into the world, I was able to be that close to where she was before she was earth side.

After they cleaned us up on the bed and checked me I nursed Evalette and we rested for a bit. The photographer left for a couple hours to go eat and rest since she got one hour of sleep that night. While we waited we gave Pria her "gift from the baby" which was this toy horse stable with 8 little horses in it that she had played with before at a friends house and loved it! We also asked Jelina to snap pictures of the 4 of us on the bed so we would have some of our own pictures from that day, not having to wait for the photographer. Plus I don't think Pria would have been as comfortable doing pictures all together with our photographer. She was better with Jelina...
When the photographer came back around 2pm, all 4 of us got back in the tub to do some pictures in the water since I was unable to push her out in the water. It was nice getting back in the warm water to not only get relaxed but feel cleaner too. I am grateful the photographer recommended doing that because the pictures came out beautiful and so spiritual for me.
Dustin and Pria left right after the pictures to go nap at my parents while I rested/napped with Evalette at the birth center. They came back about 6 and we packed up to go home finally.

8-18-2015:
We put frankincense on Evalettes crown and myrrh on her naval/umbilical cord the next day.

8-20-2015:
Evalette lost her umbilical cord today. The myrrh helped it heal properly

40 Weeks

Counting down days...

The waiting game is hard. Only because you don't know if you should plan anything and you just have to see how things go day to day the weeks around your due date.

So far we have passed up a couple birthday dates of others and our anniversary which we are grateful for. We didn't really want to share our anniversary date with a kid. Just makes planning easier...

This pregnancy hasn't really been much different than when I was preg with Pria. Although, I have had more heartburn this time around during the last couple months. I also have had plugged eardrums in both ears the last month which has been very weird and FREAKISHLY ANNOYING. I constantly feel like I am in an airplane trying to pop my ears so I can hear properly. I read online that if it is pregnancy related it should go away right after having the baby. Lets hope it goes away...otherwise I have a problem...

I know Pria will be helpful and a good sister. She is very gentle already and loves seeing being around other babies. She gets excited and then asks when she can hold our baby. I just say a little bit longer. She's not ready yet...
As far as feeling any difference in my stomach it is also similar with kicks and moving around. This one, just like most girls, wants to take her time and is in no hurry to come out. I just hope the labor isn't as long as Pria's was...

Pria has watched multiple birth videos and gets really happy/smiley when the baby comes out and it is fun to watch her face. :)

Some thoughts

I try not too think too much about how painful birth can be. I think il keep it out of my mind so i don't have a build up of a fear that some women have most their pregnancy. I have had a couple people say, " Aren't you scared/nervous?" I usually answer that there is no point to being scared because it will happen either way, it won't last forever and it's just one day out of this kids life I'll have to endur this kind of labor. I will get through it just fine. Or to avoid too much explanation I just say "nope" depending on the person. Haha

Having done it naturally once I know what it's like. The last couple days I've been trying to relax my mind and actually think about when I'm in pain how I should handle it because there is no ignoring it then obviously. It's mostly a mental thing. I just need to have some good encouragement from Dustin and the midwifes saying I'm doing good and that my body knows what to do so there is no need to worry. And I have to relax my mind from any distractions that raise my anxiety or stress level to delay the process...

My hopes are that it is not as long of a labor and that we will be able to have a water birth this time. And of course that Pria will have a positive experience.
We hired a photographer that is a slight worry to me as she isn't very good at communicating or checking in. She lives almost 2 hours away and doesn't respond to me very quickly. So I'm praying she #1 shows up and #2 she shows up. So there's that...

The midwifes and videos all day it's good to make noise and moan but honestly I feel stupid and uncomfortable doing that around people. I prefer to just breathe deep breaths and try to relax my jaw because I've read there is a direct connection they doing that to open up more. But when it is in the most painful times/transition/last pushing stage I know it's hard not to be like that unfortunately.

I have two weeks left and in so done being pregnant. I dislike hearing women say they "looove" being pregnant. I don't get it. What is so fun about it?... I swear I won't do this more than 3 times. Whatever gender the third child is, will be the last one either way. I'd like to be done having kids by the time I'm 30. I don't want to be pregnant or nursing a baby for the next 10 years. I want to go on family vacations while we're still young and physically able...

34 Week Pics

First & Second Trimester Summary

FIRST TRIMESTER

December 2: I took a test and found out I was pregnant.

December 25: I told Dustin we were having #2 in my Christmas card to him. I had a little nausea in December but not for long. Only got sick once in the 2 weeks I was nauseous.

January 29: Heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time.

SECOND TRIMESTER

February 4: Had our first ultrasound to make sure the baby was healthy and the due date was correct.

February 5: We told Jelina we were having a 2nd baby. She found out from reading through our 2014 family album I made. The last page had our announcement on it. She was surprised!

February 8: We told my parents by playing scrabble and I spelled out "pregnant" "due" "August".

February 26: We had our initial appointment at Thrive Birth Center, a new birth center that opened June 2014. VERY nice inside and is a gorgeous facility with skilled midwives.

March: Started feeling a lot of "flutters" and movements from baby #2. Its weird how much earlier I feel it with this one.

March 3rd: Had my first prenatal yoga class this last Tuesday with like 10 other women.

March, Friday the 13th: This week we find out the gender! Dustin wants a boy. I want another girl. But neither of us will be disappointed if its the opposite. We will be excited

either way.

March 15: We officially tell the public we are expecting a 2nd!

I got noticeably bigger earlier with baby #2. They say that is normal because your body is more prepared this time having done it before. Kinda relieved about that actually.

The 2nd trimester you start having funky dreams. I have had nothing weird about the pregnancy/baby yet but I have had some weird dreams. But I honestly enjoy them. It is kind of fun for me to have dreams I can analyze and think about after. Something different from my day to day regular routine...

Pria at first didn't understand the idea of a baby growing in my tummy. But after a couple weeks she caught on and likes to point (or smack) my stomach and say "baby."

Loss of Appetite

I have to force myself to eat some days. So I don't feel nauseous or sick to my stomach. I look in our fridge and the things I normally enjoy eating just don't seem interesting to me. I love salads. But when I see them in the fridge