Almost two months since my last post! I've wanted to write many times, but haven't quite found the time yet! So now it's 8pm, kids are (finally) in bed, Dan is at the gym, seems like the perfect time to catch up! But I'll try a new writing style in which I briefly depict the main facts into "mini posts". Let's see how it goes!
"No Time for blogging"
It seems to me that I have plenty of spare time in my day! Well, I cook, I clean, I take care of my kids needs, I drive, etc. Mathematically speaking, the amount of time I spend doing all my mother/housewife duties is less than the number of hours I'm awake in a day. But sweet baby Vicky cry a lot when she is not given 100% of exclusive attention and toddler Nico doesn't nap anymore. So there goes my "free" time: out of the window!
"8pm? Sounds like a good bedtime to me!"
I've been going to bed as soon as I finish nursing Vicky for the last time before she sleeps, granted I finished my evening hygiene routine already. That ranges from 8pm to 9pm. It's been good specially since I can't take a nap during the day because of reason stated above. That means I'm taking my sleep time to blog! That's how much I care!
"Flossing"
Please floss your children's teeth daily before bed specially if your children happen to have practically no space between teeth. Also, don't let your young child brush his/her teeth all by him/herself. These measurements can save you $300+ in dentist services and a lot more worth of embarrassment, just saying........ Also, don't wait 6.5 years to take your poor child to a dentist for the first time (what were we thinking???).
"No Tae-kwon-do for Nico"
That's a sad story! Nico is a crazy boy! Not real crazy (we actually had him evaluated to confirm this). But he's different. Too excited. Too stubborn. You might mistake him for a deaf person if you don't know him very well and, in fact, I've seen that happening before, more than once. When he wants something there is no telling him "no". Of course we tell him "no". Multiple times. But he'll keep screaming and crying for a looooooooooooooooong time after that. But anyway, we love him very much, and he is definitely a cutie. In order to work on his discipline problem we had a great idea: let's enroll him in tae-kwon-do! Let Master X do the hard work for us!
Well, Nico loved every minute of it. I mean, he really loved it! He couldn't even wait to take his shoes off before sprinting to the mat. He would jump around and twirl of excitement between each movement. He actually had a kid trainer just for him. Truth is I could go on describing his craziness but I think you got the picture: Master X told us he wasn't ready for classes yet. After only two classes. It was really, really sad! He loved it so much and every time we drove by the academy he would ask to go there. We will try again next year, probably.
"Nico goes to school"
Crazy Nico also started pre-K in January. Twice a week, mornings only. Luckily for us, I *think* the school can't tell us he is not ready for it yet. Except that sometimes I think they can and they will. The assistant teacher is a sweetheart, but she's already been telling me that she has to chase after him everyday at least once.
Now being serious, though. I just had the insight that I *really*, *really* need to pray more for my children. Throughout the day. Lots of times. Pray that they will adapt and conform. In a smooth way. Possibly - hopefully - faster. That they will be happy meanwhile. That's been my proposition. Rebecca also needs the prayers too. She is great most of the time, but she can also be "not great" every now and then.
"Nico has a febrile seizure"
You possibly read my facebook post about it. Basically it's horrifying but harmless. If you never known about it before, you basically think your child is dying. I came across an article/story on The Guardian that describes exactly my emotions on the episode. Find it here. I think I am mostly recovered by now. My sis and her husband were here for a few days and that distracted me from the whole thing, thank you all for the prayers.
"Vicky is Catholic"
My sis and her husband came all the way from Brazil to be the godparents in Vicky's Baptism, her welcoming into the Catholic Church! What a happy and special day! We also had a GREAT time with them here! Ask the kids!!! I miss them already and it makes me sad we don't live near family. Sniff, sniff.
"Sweet Vicky, Crying Vicky"
Vicky is sweet and I wasn't wrong when I said she was our best baby between all the three of them. Actually, she was surprisingly good now that we know she is dairy allergic like her big sis! It took a while for me to notice it even with all my previous experience because she was such a good baby and her poop was orange-ish most days, but I could tell there was some mucus in it. On her last check-up I decided to ask our pediatrician about it! I *love* our pediatrician, she is great! I asked her if mucus in stools could be a sign of something else other than dairy-allergy and I got my feared answer: no, it can't be. It's dairy allergy, indeed.
So there you have it. It's been 25 days I have not been eating dairy per si. But I wasn't very careful in certain occasions (turns out everything batter-fried, all breads and all vegetables have either milk or butter on them!). And now she wails of pain almost every day and she actually passed some tiny blood spots on her stool (the definite proof of dairy allergy). I also highly suspect that Vicky is allergic to soy too even before I learned that almost 50% of babies with dairy allergy are also sensitive to soy. (If you saw my facebook post about a soy paste that tastes just like peanut butter, I actually bought that to definitely see if Vicky would bother or not if I ate that. And boy, did she!
I've read lots of testimonies of mothers saying that after they stopped eating dairy and/or soy, the crying/colics actually got worse before they got any better. Well, we are definitely on the "worse" curve, right now. I really feel sorry for her. Poor baby. Damn genetics!!!
"Fitness"
I can't complain much about going dairy-free because it's a fail-proof way to slim down. And I needed the push. I don't know if you can tell but for the first whole month postpartum I still was 22lb heavier than before conceiving. It's been 3 months now, and I'm still 17lb overweight. As you can count, that's a work in progress as I'm nowhere near I want to be yet. I have also been trying to exercise. I plan to buy a fitness jump rope and go back to my old 8-min abs workout from youtube (find it here). I plan to stop what I'm doing everyday at 10am to do it. Seems like a good plan to me!
"Marital Problems"
You know? I just deleted three lines in which I was describing a discussion Dan and I had about kale and whatnot just to make my point valid: It was so stupid that I actually didn't want to finish writing the story (and it's getting really late too) and I really thought I would bore you all to death if you read it anyway. So here is the conclusion, anyway: sometimes marital problems are really silly things that happen to every couple every now and then. These episodes may look very serious and big when they just happened, but take a deep breath, let it go, say your sorry-ies, and forget about it. Yes, people have bad habits sometimes. Yeah, people will get mad at each other sometimes. Yes, you or him will say something not nice or considerate sometimes. Get over it, it's not the end of the world. You can work it out. I'm talking to you, because Dan and I already did! On the same day!
"Lent"
Have a good lent everyone. Please, a better one that I'm having. I still peek at facebook and instagram sometimes...... Shameful, I know......
xoxo
Monday, March 13, 2017
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Victoria Maria - Part 3
"Victoria Maria - part 3" OR "Vicky is everything we didn't expected her to be!"
Luckily for us, the differences are for the better or regarding aspects that don't actually matter! It's just that, for us, it took us by surprise!
Dan and I were suuuure Vicky was going to be a copycat of Becca and Nico since her siblings are identical, except for gender, of course! Jokes aside, really, Becca and Nico are very similar to each other! And even though they are 2 years and 7 months apart, random people often ask us if they are twins! My mom saw a picture of Nico with a winter hat and mistook him for Becca. And when Nico was a baby I had continuous flashbacks of when Rebecca was that age!
Dan and I used to say at loud and very frequently, that we only had one baby recipe! I was certain that all the kids we would eventually have, would look the exact same and I often wonder how would it feel to be one of those families that's always a surprise what your next baby will look like! I like to search for patterns on everything but I guess I forgot to realize that statistically, two kids were too little of a number to reach any conclusion, and - biologically, that would be quite impossible too!
Vicky comes! And - sure - you still can tell we are all family, but she is notable different!
The nose! Different! She escaped daddy's snub nose!
Hair! She is the only one that inherited daddy's hair line!
Eyebrows, she is the only one that inherited mommy's!
Mouth! She has a smaller mouth! Ears are also new! Her face is not so round!
Size! She has longer feet, longer hands and longer legs than both Nico and Becca!
But, the greatest difference? She doesn't have a ginormous head, like her siblings! And it looked so different to me that I have been asking all the pediatricians I visit with, if it looks normal!
Of course it is normal! Actually, it is too normal! She is totally proportional - unlike Becca and Nico! At her latest checkup, at 35 days, she was at the 45 percentile for weight and height and at the 53 percentile for head circumference!
I won't deny it! I love my overly disproportional big headed kids! I was a little bummed Vicky didn't get a huge head and my tendency to over examine each situation already made me doubt if Vicky will be as smart as Becca and Nico but it is just me being ridiculous!
Actually, I do think Vicky is smart indeed, despite hersmall normal head size. And like my psychologist mom noted, she already shows many signs of a good neurological development, like already crying tears on the first days of life, smiling really early on, staring, paying attention, etc.
Besides, I am so over the stupidity to think that a person should be good at math or reading to be considered smart! For at least a decade now, I understand and truly believe that there are many different types of intelligence! And what matters most is their soul, anyway!
Moving to a different topic, Vicky is also different in behavior! She is definitely calmer than her siblings! Poor Becca had terrible colics and reflux due to dairy allergy which I only found out at 4.5 months so she cried a lot! With Nico, I was already enduring a dairy free diet 2 months before he was born. He didn't have any allergies, it turned out, fortunately, but he had terrible gas pain and was (and still is) a very light sleeper! And like most boys, hungry all the time! He would wake up to nurse every 2h, most nights!
With Vicky, she sleeps periods of 3-6h at night! Mostly it consists of a first period of 4h/5h and then 2 periods of 3h. Not bad at all! She also doesn't cry much during the day, except for her witching hour, which actually counts for 2 or 3h of fussiness before bed. Of course this can be challenging at times, but again, comparing her to Becca and Nico, it's not so bad! It's manageable!
Vicky seemed to be used to all the noise her siblings (and momma) make from day one! She actually seems to enjoy it! At times, she would be crying but then I lay her on the baby chair in the living room where all the action is, and then she is quiet again. Listening. She enjoys when Nico and Becca are talking to her too!
Vicky is a joy! We love her very much! I'm so happy we had her!
Luckily for us, the differences are for the better or regarding aspects that don't actually matter! It's just that, for us, it took us by surprise!
Dan and I were suuuure Vicky was going to be a copycat of Becca and Nico since her siblings are identical, except for gender, of course! Jokes aside, really, Becca and Nico are very similar to each other! And even though they are 2 years and 7 months apart, random people often ask us if they are twins! My mom saw a picture of Nico with a winter hat and mistook him for Becca. And when Nico was a baby I had continuous flashbacks of when Rebecca was that age!
Dan and I used to say at loud and very frequently, that we only had one baby recipe! I was certain that all the kids we would eventually have, would look the exact same and I often wonder how would it feel to be one of those families that's always a surprise what your next baby will look like! I like to search for patterns on everything but I guess I forgot to realize that statistically, two kids were too little of a number to reach any conclusion, and - biologically, that would be quite impossible too!
Vicky comes! And - sure - you still can tell we are all family, but she is notable different!
The nose! Different! She escaped daddy's snub nose!
Hair! She is the only one that inherited daddy's hair line!
Eyebrows, she is the only one that inherited mommy's!
Mouth! She has a smaller mouth! Ears are also new! Her face is not so round!
Size! She has longer feet, longer hands and longer legs than both Nico and Becca!
But, the greatest difference? She doesn't have a ginormous head, like her siblings! And it looked so different to me that I have been asking all the pediatricians I visit with, if it looks normal!
Of course it is normal! Actually, it is too normal! She is totally proportional - unlike Becca and Nico! At her latest checkup, at 35 days, she was at the 45 percentile for weight and height and at the 53 percentile for head circumference!
I won't deny it! I love my overly disproportional big headed kids! I was a little bummed Vicky didn't get a huge head and my tendency to over examine each situation already made me doubt if Vicky will be as smart as Becca and Nico but it is just me being ridiculous!
Actually, I do think Vicky is smart indeed, despite her
Besides, I am so over the stupidity to think that a person should be good at math or reading to be considered smart! For at least a decade now, I understand and truly believe that there are many different types of intelligence! And what matters most is their soul, anyway!
Moving to a different topic, Vicky is also different in behavior! She is definitely calmer than her siblings! Poor Becca had terrible colics and reflux due to dairy allergy which I only found out at 4.5 months so she cried a lot! With Nico, I was already enduring a dairy free diet 2 months before he was born. He didn't have any allergies, it turned out, fortunately, but he had terrible gas pain and was (and still is) a very light sleeper! And like most boys, hungry all the time! He would wake up to nurse every 2h, most nights!
With Vicky, she sleeps periods of 3-6h at night! Mostly it consists of a first period of 4h/5h and then 2 periods of 3h. Not bad at all! She also doesn't cry much during the day, except for her witching hour, which actually counts for 2 or 3h of fussiness before bed. Of course this can be challenging at times, but again, comparing her to Becca and Nico, it's not so bad! It's manageable!
Vicky seemed to be used to all the noise her siblings (and momma) make from day one! She actually seems to enjoy it! At times, she would be crying but then I lay her on the baby chair in the living room where all the action is, and then she is quiet again. Listening. She enjoys when Nico and Becca are talking to her too!
Vicky is a joy! We love her very much! I'm so happy we had her!
Thursday, December 29, 2016
Victoria Maria - part 2
I purposely ended last post talking about Blessed Maria Vittoria de Fornari Strata. I hope I was clear in my intent to show how I didn't plan for my Victoria Maria to be born on the death anniversary of Bl Maria Vittoria! Actually, I want to write a bit more about the process of choosing our baby's name.
Much before knowing the gender of our baby, Dan and I had selected two names for her in case she were to be a girl. Victoria Maria (which was one of our top choices for a couple of years already) and Lavinia Maria. If the baby were to be a boy, we were pretty much clueless as to what name him. We try to find names we really like that have the same spelling in english and portuguese. This is slightly easier for girl names, we've found out.
Anyway, for a while we really considered calling our baby Lavinia. But there were a couple of problems to it but I will attend to just one of them. The situation was that people I personally talked to about choosing the name Lavinia tended to think we made the name up! And there are few things I dislike more than made up names.
So it was kinda settled, Victoria Maria was our name for a girl. But what if it was a boy? So here I go trying to find inspiration on the saints. I looked for December saints. No clues for boy names there, but what I found out was that in December, precisely, there was a martyr St Victoria (from the early church) and there also was this Blessed Maria Vittoria. I didn't pay much attention to the feast days because they didn't match our December, 17th due date anyway, but it was enough for me to really stick with our chosen name, if it were to be a girl.
Fast forward to when I had already scheduled my last appointment, the last week my mom was here, we were eagerly waiting for baby Vicky to come out, but she wasn't showing any signs of coming out anytime soon. I thought to myself: "I'm starting to think this is all because of that Blessed Maria Vittoria. but when was it that she died? I can't remember". So I look it up again, there it was: December, 15th.
And sure enough, that's when our Vicky was born.
I will now finally describe the labor and delivery, because - like Dan told me - you might also be thinking that I wrote and wrote, but I said nothing on my last post! haha
Okay, so here it goes.
I went to bed at around 9pm or even before. At 11pm I felt the first contraction and it was already a little painful. It woke me up from my light slumber. I took a print screen of my phone with the time on it. Went back to sleep. The contractions kept coming, but in a random fashion. I would take another print screen and went back to sleep. At 1:45am I started having painful contractions every 12 min apart.
After one hour, I woke Dan to let him know we would probably be going to the hospital some time soon. But I let him sleep a bit more. After a short while, I got off bed, brushed my teeth, changed clothes. At around 3am I called L&D telling them a bit about my situation asking them if I should head to the hospital at that time.
Big mistake! Although I was VERY sure I was in labor already, and the contractions were really painful, the person who answered my call replied with the go-to answer that the contractions should be close to 5 minutes apart. But of course she added that if I was feeling really uncomfortable we could come to triage. Well, that's something too subjective for my math/objective brain to deal with. Was I too uncomfortable? I don't know!!!!
So I waited a little longer. But the pains were bad. To make things worse, I even had some contractions skip the 12 min period so it all seemed a bit off and not too regurlar. But my guts told me to make it official and to wake my mom up so she could take care of the sleeping kids. Then I woke Dan up. I went out to the garage to start our car so it could heat a little bit before we go. By then everybody was up, including the children! Nice! Let me add that the children were sick. Real nice. And easy.
Dan and I left for the hospital! The car was still cold but I wasn't thinking much about it! I thought I had a few contractions that were 7 minutes apart. I remember telling Dan: "I don't care what they tell me at triage, I'm not leaving that hospital". But there was no need for such drama and impositions of my own. Entering the front desk, Dan already pulled a wheel chair for me. And I must have done a really painful face at some point because when somebody was ready to take us upstairs they already put me in a delivery room, not the triage booths. We entered the room at 4:15am.
Nurses kept coming to settle me in. One of them checked my cervix: "oh, eh, she is 7, 8cm dilated. No cervix on this (left side) and a tiiiny bit left on that side (right side)". I cried: "I knew it". Doctor was already in the room, I think. We briefly discussed my options. I decided to have the epidural anyway. Something we talked about made me think it was worth it, although it wasn't guarantee the baby would wait for it or that it would be totally efficient.
So first thing to be done was to settle an IV for fluids. And then things got too adventurous. Trying to stay positive and polite here! Long story short, after 20 min, 3 nurses, 6 pokes and 3 blown out veins, they finally got an IV on me! And I'm not exaggerating one bit. I can surely assure you that it wasn't the best time to waste precious 20 minutes just to hook up an IV. The doctor visited me a couple times to tell me that if I felt an urge to push we would just stop everything and have the baby!
She also checked me again and I was 9cm dilated already. My water was still intact. She also told me: "I know you must be really struggling now, but you really don't show it. Most women at this stage are already screaming". Not exactly comforting, I tell you, specially when I was still waiting to get my epidural in.
Miraculously, I wasn't making any sound out of pain, I was controlling my contractions, baby was holding up. Then the anesthesiologist came (ps. I just have to kudos myself for writing "anesthesiologist" down without auto-correct at first try!). And there goes another 20-30 minutes just waiting for the epidural process to be settled down. The nurse kept telling him: "she is 9cm dilated but her contractions are 4/5 minutes apart. That's the only thing that's backing us up now".
The epidural hadn't kicked in yet, but the doctor broke my water. No meconium! I cried of relief a little bit! Then it all happened too fast. Four or five nurses and the doctor all around me, it was time to push. I could still feel the contractions. The monitor was of little help. It seemed to me that everything was under my half-numb-body control and blundering discernment. "did I just have a contraction?"- "hum, we can try to push". Or "I think we just lost a mini one" (mini one?? Was that a thing?).
I really don't know exactly what happened but it seemed to me it took an eternity for baby to crown. I started crying: "I can't do this. I can't push." I felt too numb. On Becca's and Nico's delivery I proud myself I was able to successfully push even with the epidural. But not with Vicky. They explained to me because I was so far along they gave me the strongest and fastest epidural, so something about that made pushing too hard for me.
I asked them if I could do a weird motion with my hands on the air to help my brain visualize the pushing movement. They said "sure". And then it worked a bit. Doctor said: "I don't know what you did there, but keep doing it because this push was much better the all the other ones you did so far". And then a little later, baby was crowning. And then 2, 3 more quick pushes and I felt the whole baby coming out, but apparently I didn't know that was it:
Me: "Aaah, what was that?"
Doctor: "IT'S YOUR BABY"!!
All I know baby Vicky was ready in my arms practically right away. We did skin to skin, she nursed. I talked to her about our family. That she will love her sister Becca because she is so much fun! Vicky was too sweet. Too content. Too alert. Too perfect.
Nurse 1: "Aw, she is so calm"
Nurse 2: "Oh third babies, they have to be".
And Vicky surely is a very good baby!
But part 2 ends here!
__________________________________________
Much before knowing the gender of our baby, Dan and I had selected two names for her in case she were to be a girl. Victoria Maria (which was one of our top choices for a couple of years already) and Lavinia Maria. If the baby were to be a boy, we were pretty much clueless as to what name him. We try to find names we really like that have the same spelling in english and portuguese. This is slightly easier for girl names, we've found out.
Anyway, for a while we really considered calling our baby Lavinia. But there were a couple of problems to it but I will attend to just one of them. The situation was that people I personally talked to about choosing the name Lavinia tended to think we made the name up! And there are few things I dislike more than made up names.
So it was kinda settled, Victoria Maria was our name for a girl. But what if it was a boy? So here I go trying to find inspiration on the saints. I looked for December saints. No clues for boy names there, but what I found out was that in December, precisely, there was a martyr St Victoria (from the early church) and there also was this Blessed Maria Vittoria. I didn't pay much attention to the feast days because they didn't match our December, 17th due date anyway, but it was enough for me to really stick with our chosen name, if it were to be a girl.
Fast forward to when I had already scheduled my last appointment, the last week my mom was here, we were eagerly waiting for baby Vicky to come out, but she wasn't showing any signs of coming out anytime soon. I thought to myself: "I'm starting to think this is all because of that Blessed Maria Vittoria. but when was it that she died? I can't remember". So I look it up again, there it was: December, 15th.
And sure enough, that's when our Vicky was born.
I will now finally describe the labor and delivery, because - like Dan told me - you might also be thinking that I wrote and wrote, but I said nothing on my last post! haha
Okay, so here it goes.
I went to bed at around 9pm or even before. At 11pm I felt the first contraction and it was already a little painful. It woke me up from my light slumber. I took a print screen of my phone with the time on it. Went back to sleep. The contractions kept coming, but in a random fashion. I would take another print screen and went back to sleep. At 1:45am I started having painful contractions every 12 min apart.
After one hour, I woke Dan to let him know we would probably be going to the hospital some time soon. But I let him sleep a bit more. After a short while, I got off bed, brushed my teeth, changed clothes. At around 3am I called L&D telling them a bit about my situation asking them if I should head to the hospital at that time.
 |
| My contractions! The second picture on the bottom line shows my call to labor and delivery |
Big mistake! Although I was VERY sure I was in labor already, and the contractions were really painful, the person who answered my call replied with the go-to answer that the contractions should be close to 5 minutes apart. But of course she added that if I was feeling really uncomfortable we could come to triage. Well, that's something too subjective for my math/objective brain to deal with. Was I too uncomfortable? I don't know!!!!
So I waited a little longer. But the pains were bad. To make things worse, I even had some contractions skip the 12 min period so it all seemed a bit off and not too regurlar. But my guts told me to make it official and to wake my mom up so she could take care of the sleeping kids. Then I woke Dan up. I went out to the garage to start our car so it could heat a little bit before we go. By then everybody was up, including the children! Nice! Let me add that the children were sick. Real nice. And easy.
 |
| but they look adorable! |
 |
| playing soccer at 4am. |
Dan and I left for the hospital! The car was still cold but I wasn't thinking much about it! I thought I had a few contractions that were 7 minutes apart. I remember telling Dan: "I don't care what they tell me at triage, I'm not leaving that hospital". But there was no need for such drama and impositions of my own. Entering the front desk, Dan already pulled a wheel chair for me. And I must have done a really painful face at some point because when somebody was ready to take us upstairs they already put me in a delivery room, not the triage booths. We entered the room at 4:15am.
Nurses kept coming to settle me in. One of them checked my cervix: "oh, eh, she is 7, 8cm dilated. No cervix on this (left side) and a tiiiny bit left on that side (right side)". I cried: "I knew it". Doctor was already in the room, I think. We briefly discussed my options. I decided to have the epidural anyway. Something we talked about made me think it was worth it, although it wasn't guarantee the baby would wait for it or that it would be totally efficient.
So first thing to be done was to settle an IV for fluids. And then things got too adventurous. Trying to stay positive and polite here! Long story short, after 20 min, 3 nurses, 6 pokes and 3 blown out veins, they finally got an IV on me! And I'm not exaggerating one bit. I can surely assure you that it wasn't the best time to waste precious 20 minutes just to hook up an IV. The doctor visited me a couple times to tell me that if I felt an urge to push we would just stop everything and have the baby!
She also checked me again and I was 9cm dilated already. My water was still intact. She also told me: "I know you must be really struggling now, but you really don't show it. Most women at this stage are already screaming". Not exactly comforting, I tell you, specially when I was still waiting to get my epidural in.
 |
| these pictures show my bruises one week after delivery |
 |
| this one I actually just hurt again today while making the bed.... |
Miraculously, I wasn't making any sound out of pain, I was controlling my contractions, baby was holding up. Then the anesthesiologist came (ps. I just have to kudos myself for writing "anesthesiologist" down without auto-correct at first try!). And there goes another 20-30 minutes just waiting for the epidural process to be settled down. The nurse kept telling him: "she is 9cm dilated but her contractions are 4/5 minutes apart. That's the only thing that's backing us up now".
The epidural hadn't kicked in yet, but the doctor broke my water. No meconium! I cried of relief a little bit! Then it all happened too fast. Four or five nurses and the doctor all around me, it was time to push. I could still feel the contractions. The monitor was of little help. It seemed to me that everything was under my half-numb-body control and blundering discernment. "did I just have a contraction?"- "hum, we can try to push". Or "I think we just lost a mini one" (mini one?? Was that a thing?).
I really don't know exactly what happened but it seemed to me it took an eternity for baby to crown. I started crying: "I can't do this. I can't push." I felt too numb. On Becca's and Nico's delivery I proud myself I was able to successfully push even with the epidural. But not with Vicky. They explained to me because I was so far along they gave me the strongest and fastest epidural, so something about that made pushing too hard for me.
I asked them if I could do a weird motion with my hands on the air to help my brain visualize the pushing movement. They said "sure". And then it worked a bit. Doctor said: "I don't know what you did there, but keep doing it because this push was much better the all the other ones you did so far". And then a little later, baby was crowning. And then 2, 3 more quick pushes and I felt the whole baby coming out, but apparently I didn't know that was it:
Me: "Aaah, what was that?"
Doctor: "IT'S YOUR BABY"!!
All I know baby Vicky was ready in my arms practically right away. We did skin to skin, she nursed. I talked to her about our family. That she will love her sister Becca because she is so much fun! Vicky was too sweet. Too content. Too alert. Too perfect.
Nurse 1: "Aw, she is so calm"
Nurse 2: "Oh third babies, they have to be".
And Vicky surely is a very good baby!
But part 2 ends here!
__________________________________________
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
Victoria Maria - part 1
I like traditions! And because I like traditions I should write how baby Vicky came about because that's what I do!
Also because I like to keep track of things so I know where to go back to in case I need some information or reference in the future! I'm thinking about baby number four already or even if it's just somebody asking me for advice!
Anyway, I think there were a few sentences I said the most in this pregnancy. They were:
"I'm not feeling well." - Dan can attest to this one, mournfully, I'm sure.
"This baby is going to come early" - if by early I mean less than two days before my due date, and only after my doctor stripped my membranes..... Vicky is a joker, I tell you.
And:
"It's amazing how much you forget from one pregnancy to the other." - And I used to attribute the fact that it's been almost four years since I was pregnant with Nico.
But last Sunday after church, waiting for daddy to pick me up at the curb because it was freaking cold (and it was also raining) to walk to the car with baby Vicky (in her covered infant car seat), I started talking to a mother of three. We asked each other about how many kids each of us had and their spacing.
People everywhere say my kids spacing is GREAT. Rebecca and Nico are 2 years and 7 months apart and Nico and Vicky are 3 years and 9 months apart.
And while I will not be stubborn to disagree I saw some advantages to it, I'm usually not a big supporter of our spacing. I always wished Rebecca and Nico were at least 6 months closer to each other, and almost four years between Nico and Vicky is already asking of me for a fourth child in the very near future so Vicky won't feel so lonely when Nico starts school next year.
So no, I'm not a fan of our spacing. But people usually think it's perfect. And so did the mom of three I was talking to after church. She had one of those 2 under 2, 3 under 3 spacing. So I replied to her with my go-to sentence, "the problem with our spacing is that you forget how everything is done.". But then she said she has been feeling the same way with baby number 3 too, calling her mom about things and having her mom say to her: "it's not your first kid, your know?"
So I guess it's just pregnancy brains, cubed.
FYI, pregnancy brains just don't go away with the pregnancies. They stay with you (forever?) to make you company!
So yeah. Pregnancy brains cubed and counting. I really need to write things now or I'll forget everything again.
Interestingly enough, baby Vicky and her birth turned out to be everything I didn't prepare/expect for. Last start talking about how I progressed at 32 weeks and then at 34 weeks.
By my 32 weeks appointment I was feeling the baby so low in my pelvis that I couldn't even wear my pregnancy pants anymore. I would also have terrible back pains after a regular day of chores around the house. Driving was really hard some days. I was having contractions. And carrying heavy Nico when he refused to walk in the middle of the parking lot or some place else was making me think baby Vicky was in for a pre-term delivery, FOR SURE. A killer mix of "I'm not feeling well" with "this baby is going to come early".
Also, premie babies scary me. Because I already have very petite full term babies, imagine a premie. NICU stays scary me. I don't think I could handle the separation anxiety I would feel for sure. And a ton of other fair reasons.
So I asked my doctor to check me at 32 weeks. I was 1cm dilated and 20% effaced. So not too bad! It gave me comfort that everything I was feeling was actually normal. But at my 34 weeks appointment, my doctor was the one who wanted to check me. I said oookay. And then I was 3cm dilated and 80% effaced. OMG, I freaked out. My doctor thought it was best to give me two doses of steroids shots just in case and, talking to Dan, we decided it would be best for me to stay in partial bed rest.
And then I had my 35 weeks appointment. And then came the 36w, 37w, 38w and the 39w appointments. And I was still 3/3.5cm dilated and 80% effaced. And - mind you - I was no longer in bed rest from my 37.5w mark, already.
At my 38w appointment my doctor asked me if I wanted to have my membranes stripped to help start labor. I said not that week, but maybe the next, because I thought as soon as I get on the go when my mom gets here, baby Vicky would promptly make her debut. Well, my mom arrived around those days and we went to a lot of different stores and places and I even did all the driving myself, look at that! But baby Vicky was probably thinking it was too cold outside to come out.
I also realized I failed to schedule a 39 weeks appointment because of, surely, "this baby is going to come early". And when I tried to schedule it last minute I could only fit later on the next week, mere four days before my mom comes back to Brazil. Yikes. Think about presumption and regrets.
I started to freak out a bit. I actually added a fourth most said sentence to my above mentioned repertoire: "baby Vicky is not coming out anymore". I prayed to the Immaculate Conception, and then to Our Lady of Guadalupe! Surely baby Vicky was just waiting to be born in a super special Mary Feast day. But nope! I even headed to triage on the evening of December 12th for the hall of shame pregnancy episodes of them all: the false labor experience!
So it was finally time for my next appointment, December 14th, Wednesday, at 3pm. I had my membranes stripped and we even scheduled an induction for the next day in case I was still not in labor by then.
But by 11pm that same evening, my first labor contractions started.
Thursday, December 15th came! The day Bl Maria Vittoria de Fornari Strata passed away. And also the feast day of a St Cristina (my mom's name!).
End of part 1.
__________________________
Also because I like to keep track of things so I know where to go back to in case I need some information or reference in the future! I'm thinking about baby number four already or even if it's just somebody asking me for advice!
Anyway, I think there were a few sentences I said the most in this pregnancy. They were:
"I'm not feeling well." - Dan can attest to this one, mournfully, I'm sure.
"This baby is going to come early" - if by early I mean less than two days before my due date, and only after my doctor stripped my membranes..... Vicky is a joker, I tell you.
And:
"It's amazing how much you forget from one pregnancy to the other." - And I used to attribute the fact that it's been almost four years since I was pregnant with Nico.
But last Sunday after church, waiting for daddy to pick me up at the curb because it was freaking cold (and it was also raining) to walk to the car with baby Vicky (in her covered infant car seat), I started talking to a mother of three. We asked each other about how many kids each of us had and their spacing.
People everywhere say my kids spacing is GREAT. Rebecca and Nico are 2 years and 7 months apart and Nico and Vicky are 3 years and 9 months apart.
And while I will not be stubborn to disagree I saw some advantages to it, I'm usually not a big supporter of our spacing. I always wished Rebecca and Nico were at least 6 months closer to each other, and almost four years between Nico and Vicky is already asking of me for a fourth child in the very near future so Vicky won't feel so lonely when Nico starts school next year.
So no, I'm not a fan of our spacing. But people usually think it's perfect. And so did the mom of three I was talking to after church. She had one of those 2 under 2, 3 under 3 spacing. So I replied to her with my go-to sentence, "the problem with our spacing is that you forget how everything is done.". But then she said she has been feeling the same way with baby number 3 too, calling her mom about things and having her mom say to her: "it's not your first kid, your know?"
So I guess it's just pregnancy brains, cubed.
FYI, pregnancy brains just don't go away with the pregnancies. They stay with you (forever?) to make you company!
So yeah. Pregnancy brains cubed and counting. I really need to write things now or I'll forget everything again.
Interestingly enough, baby Vicky and her birth turned out to be everything I didn't prepare/expect for. Last start talking about how I progressed at 32 weeks and then at 34 weeks.
By my 32 weeks appointment I was feeling the baby so low in my pelvis that I couldn't even wear my pregnancy pants anymore. I would also have terrible back pains after a regular day of chores around the house. Driving was really hard some days. I was having contractions. And carrying heavy Nico when he refused to walk in the middle of the parking lot or some place else was making me think baby Vicky was in for a pre-term delivery, FOR SURE. A killer mix of "I'm not feeling well" with "this baby is going to come early".
Also, premie babies scary me. Because I already have very petite full term babies, imagine a premie. NICU stays scary me. I don't think I could handle the separation anxiety I would feel for sure. And a ton of other fair reasons.
So I asked my doctor to check me at 32 weeks. I was 1cm dilated and 20% effaced. So not too bad! It gave me comfort that everything I was feeling was actually normal. But at my 34 weeks appointment, my doctor was the one who wanted to check me. I said oookay. And then I was 3cm dilated and 80% effaced. OMG, I freaked out. My doctor thought it was best to give me two doses of steroids shots just in case and, talking to Dan, we decided it would be best for me to stay in partial bed rest.
And then I had my 35 weeks appointment. And then came the 36w, 37w, 38w and the 39w appointments. And I was still 3/3.5cm dilated and 80% effaced. And - mind you - I was no longer in bed rest from my 37.5w mark, already.
At my 38w appointment my doctor asked me if I wanted to have my membranes stripped to help start labor. I said not that week, but maybe the next, because I thought as soon as I get on the go when my mom gets here, baby Vicky would promptly make her debut. Well, my mom arrived around those days and we went to a lot of different stores and places and I even did all the driving myself, look at that! But baby Vicky was probably thinking it was too cold outside to come out.
I also realized I failed to schedule a 39 weeks appointment because of, surely, "this baby is going to come early". And when I tried to schedule it last minute I could only fit later on the next week, mere four days before my mom comes back to Brazil. Yikes. Think about presumption and regrets.
I started to freak out a bit. I actually added a fourth most said sentence to my above mentioned repertoire: "baby Vicky is not coming out anymore". I prayed to the Immaculate Conception, and then to Our Lady of Guadalupe! Surely baby Vicky was just waiting to be born in a super special Mary Feast day. But nope! I even headed to triage on the evening of December 12th for the hall of shame pregnancy episodes of them all: the false labor experience!
So it was finally time for my next appointment, December 14th, Wednesday, at 3pm. I had my membranes stripped and we even scheduled an induction for the next day in case I was still not in labor by then.
But by 11pm that same evening, my first labor contractions started.
Thursday, December 15th came! The day Bl Maria Vittoria de Fornari Strata passed away. And also the feast day of a St Cristina (my mom's name!).
End of part 1.
__________________________
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