How far along? 40 Weeks and 3 months Postpartum.
Total weight gain/loss: I gained a total of 23 lbs during pregnancy. 1 Week after birth I was down 17 lbs of those 23. 4 Weeks postpartum I am down 18 lbs.
Maternity clothes? I'm still wearing maternity jeans because they are comfy, but I can get into most of my pre-pregnancy things.
Stretch marks? No stretch marks! But my belly button is still weirdly misshapen.
Sleep: Elliott so far has been a great sleeper. From birth he has given me 3 1/2 - 6 hour stretches at night between feedings. More than Anthony which I thought Anthony was really good as a newborn. Anthony was predictable. He was every two hours...Elliott goes for longer stretches so I really feel well rested. He now only wakes once to eat at night.
Miss Anything? I don't miss being pregnant, but it's all very surreal that within a day, boom, it's over. I had been longing for so many weeks to go into labor and now...no longer pregnant, I can see those tiny feet that were kicking my ribs, the tiny hands or fists that were punching my bladder.
Food cravings: I am consuming a large amount of food post birth, but no true cravings. It's true what they say about breastfeeding burning a ton of calories. I'm eating a lot, and losing weight which is AWESOME! But have unfortunately hit a plateau on the weight loss. Time to start crossfit again!
Anything making you queasy or sick: No I've been feeling really great, other than pangs of extreme thirst while breastfeeding again like I did with Anthony. While he drinks, I drink.
Special things I'm focusing on: Eating healthy, fueling my body for both myself, my milk production and feeding Elliott as healthy as possible through my daily choices. I've been eager to work out, and started a workout regimen back in October, but I think I pushed my self too hard too soon, because I started bleeding again. Once I cut back the workouts, it stopped again. Oopsie. So I'm slowly starting up again.
Belly Button in or out? Out. BOO! Go back in!! It's like a weird misshapen belly button now...what the heck!!?
Wedding rings on or off? The wedding rings this time around I didn't start wearing until almost 6 weeks after Elliott's birth. Might have been some water retention or just baby weight.
Happy or Moody most of the time: I had some days of the "baby blues" following Elliott's birth around day 5 postpartum this time. The placenta encapsulator I hired, once again had come to the rescue with that. Within an hour after taking placenta pills I started feeling myself again. Having a baby is very life changing...what you used to do daily changes...and that my friend, made me wacky for a bit. Having Anthony and Elliott alone was a new challenge that even know I knew it was coming, you can't plan for it...I didn't know what to expect, so those pills kept my hormones in check when I needed it the most learning how to care for both of them. Whether eating my placenta is a placebo effect or not...it worked for me.
Elliott Briggs's - Birth Story
This is the birth story how I remember it...
9.5.2015 ~ 11:30pm
I woke up with a sharp quick contraction and the urge to go the bathroom, as I stood up, I heard Anthony cry out, and I was already standing but out of routine Eddie jumped up out of bed and went to Anthony to give him his pacifier and came back to bed. I went to the bathroom and came back and laid back in bed, but I had a feeling that that first contraction would be followed by another one very soon. I laid there for about 15 minutes and the urge to go the bathroom came again so I went to go, but nothing would come out. Then I had another contraction. I went back to my bedside table and grabbed my phone, downloaded a contraction timer and waited for the next one. Not even 5 minutes went by and another contraction came. Contractions had started and they lasted anywhere from 20-30 seconds long. By 12:30 Eddie had to deal with Anthony losing the pacifier again and when he came back to the bedroom I told him, "I think we need to call your parents to come over .... I'm going to need to go the hospital very soon." He questioned my contraction timing and by then they were 2-3 minutes apart lasting 45 seconds or longer. I ran a warm bath and got in while he phoned his parents.
My parents were visiting at the time, so he went down the hall to wake up my mom to let her know what was going on. My Dad chose to stay behind with Grandpa Cas to hang back with Anthony. Grandma and Grandpa Cas came over with Aunt Christina, for she was visiting as well. Elliott's due date was September 4th, so everyone had anticipated his arrival a little early but 1 day late and it was go time. By 1:15am Eddie and I were on our way to the hospital with the Grandmas' and Aunt Christina following closely behind us to meet us there.
I was in a lot of pain. Riding in a car during contractions is terrible. Eddie and I arrived at the hospital around 2:30am. We didn't go to the ER. Oh no.... I walked. I walked the looooooong corridor during 4 contractions, stopped and breathed during each of those contractions, and stopped at the bathroom to pee as well until we reached the elevators to go to the labor and delivery floor.
9.6.2015 ~ 2:45am - Registration
I don't know whose idea it was to make a woman in labor answer a bunch of stupid insurance questions and sign papers during labor....But I'd like to hit him. I'm pretty sure it was a him. Eddie did most of the talking, my contractions felt like they were 1 minute apart, but by this point, I stopped looking at the timer. By 3 am they brought us back to check me to see how far dilated I was. I had to go the bathroom again. I had two contractions in the bathroom in the 5 minutes or less that I was in there.
They made me get on the bed (which I hated). Having contractions laying down I found, also very painful. The doctor or midwife maybe I guess it was, came in and checked me. 8 1/2 cm dilated. WHOA. They asked me if I wanted a wheel chair to go down the hall to the delivery room. "Ummmmm, no I'll walk." I think the nurses eyes bugged out when I said that...then the other nurse in there was like, "Really we can even just wheel you down on this bed, you don't have to get up." So this tid bit of walking or being wheeled down to the delivery room I could not remember how it played out. I had to ask Eddie, what was the verdict!? How did I get to the delivery room? He said I tried walking and basically got in a few steps and then, "yeah no, wheel me down on the bed, but I'm getting off the bed once I get in the delivery room." The nurses felt better about this decision. Once we went down, literally like three doors down the hall, a flood of nurses came in followed by my Mom, Eddie's Mom and Aunt Christina. There were so many nurses in the delivery room, I think Jackie made a comment to the effects, "wow, it's a party in here! It's a birthday party!!"
9.6.2015 ` 3:30 - Labor and Delivery
I chose to go medication free again, but the hospital still insisted on putting a heplock in my arm "just in case". This woman assigned to getting that in my arm had her hands full with me. My contractions were so close, I couldn't sit still on a bed long enough for her to complete the task. She must have jabbed me like 4 times and I finally yelled at her to just leave it out, "I don't need it!" But of course, she had to put it in. I asked for the lights to be dimmed but with all the commotion of all the other nurses, someone did hear me about the lights and turned them down and then the girl really couldn't see what she was doing. She did finally get the heplock in, but it was painful.
The contractions were long and hard, I went from standing on the side of the bed to sitting on an exercise ball like I did with Anthony. I was doing a lot of moaning to block out any discussions going on in the room. Eddie, my Mom and Jackie were all taking turns with hip squeezes on me, or holding my hand. Aunt Christina was fixing my hair when it kept falling in my face. Everyone had a part. My legs became very, very tired and I couldn't stand anymore. I got on the bed, very uncomfortably and went through what seemed like hours of contractions and felt like nothing was progressing. I faced backwards on the bed with my knees in the mattress. I kept asking the nurse, "Am I doing something wrong?" Why isn't he moving down. I remember her saying, "you're not doing anything wrong, you're over 8 1/2 cm dilated and not taking any medication, I'd say you're doing pretty fantastic!" Even though that was a compliment, at the time it didn't make me feel any better. So I convinced myself I needed to stand again, Gravity, gravity, gravity was my mantra, I needed to stand for him to get closer. So I stood again, leaning on the bed. There were no breaks in contractions at this point and I had doubts. "I can't do it this time. It hurts too bad, he's not coming down." Eddie kept telling me I can do it, "you did it with Anthony and you're doing it now." I remember thinking, it's different this time, it hurts so much more! I got on the bed again, I was so tired and exhausted. My legs were trembling. I still had not seen my doctor. The resident came in to check me. I told her I was afraid to know where I was at. She told me "well, let me check so we can be better prepared for you and the baby." I was 9 1/2 cm. She said, I could break your water and things will progress quicker. I asked her if it would hurt. I was initially so against breaking my water but the exhaustion at this point I was afraid I wouldn't have any strength to push him out. She told me, it wouldn't hurt any more than the amount of pain I was already in, but the delivery would go much quicker. So I agreed. Eddie held my hand and my Mom and Jackie were on the bedsides too. She broke my water and I was anticipating the moment of euphoria after my water broke with Anthony where all the pain disappeared for a few minutes. But this time that didn't happen. My waters trickled out, then a huge burst of water gushed out and boy did I have the urge push! The resident told me to push and I did. "Good" everyone shouted. But then the pushing urge remained, it didn't stop even though I wasn't physically pushing anymore, and the resident yelled, "stop pushing, where's the Doctor?!!!" I yelled back, "I'm not pushing, he's coming out!!! I can't stop him!" I started rolling over to Eddie, I felt so scared and it hurt, I wanted to close my legs together and roll on my side to stop it all, but the nurses moved everyone away, pushed my legs back to my ears and I just screamed, I felt like I was being split in two and I just stared in Jackie's eyes. She remained up at the head of the bed and continue to talk to me. I can't remember what she was saying to me but I just focused in on her eyes until Elliott was out which was a matter of seconds. Very slow moving seconds...
9.6.2015 5:12am Elliott was born
The doctor walked in, the Resident had panicked because the doctor didn't make it in for Elliott's birth. She cut the umbilical cord, which Eddie was suppose to do. I was very sad for Eddie to not have that initial bonding moment with his second son. I couldn't believe he was out, he was crying, I could hear him, but I couldn't see him, and they didn't bring him to me, and I needed to know that he was ok. "Is he OK??" Yes they are just cleaning out some fluid that he swallowed. A few minutes later they brought him over to me. He was already in a blanket. I was again sad that I didn't have that initial skin to skin bond immediately following birth. Then I heard the doctor say, "No, no tears." I said, "What? I didn't tear???" She repeated, "No, no tears!" I couldn't believe it! I was so happy, after what I had just felt, I imagined I tore worse than with Anthony.
After some clean up, my support group (aunt Christina, mom and Jackie) all went home leaving Eddie and I to bond with our new little boy. He was so skinny! Compared to Anthony, anyway...but that's all we had to go by. We needed to figure out a name for this little guy. It didn't take us too long because we had toyed with the ideas of several possibilities and Elliott stuck perfectly to this little man.
It amazes me how time changes things so quickly.....
And just like that I'm a mother of two.
