House Update; Building Permits

So I bet you are wondering what happened with the house we were in the process of buying.  I wrote about making the offer here and I wrote about the home inspectionhere.  It ended with us finding out that the garage that was finished and turned into a master bedroom and bathroom along with the enclosed florida room were done without permits.  On June 28th we advised the seller of this and asked them to get the appropriate permits.  After talking with the local building department we learned that it is sometimes easy to get an after the fact permit if the upgrades were done well.  The seller replied that they would get the necessary permits

Things move along in the process.  We extend our closing date to July 30th due to the longer processing time on our VA loan.  We provide even more documents for the underwriters.  They wanted a letter stating that I stay at home with our child and that we pay no childcare expenses.  I would have thought that to be obvious as we had not provided any proof of income for me but oh well.  They also wanted to know how old our daughter is.  Maybe soon they will need to know what we had for breakfast.  We keep sending stuff.  All we do is talk on the phone with home owner’s insurance companies and agents, our realtor, our loan officer, the local city building department.

We check up with our realtor and she claims that the seller has advised her that he is having the city inspector’s over to check out the house and that he has started the process of getting the permits.  This conversation happened in early July.  It happened after the mother-in-law came for a visit wich was the last week of June or so.  Mid July we traveled north to visit some other members of our family and to attend a wedding.  We return to Florida and check in with our realtor.

Thursday July 22nd she advises us that the seller will not be getting the permits, he claims it will cost thousands of dollars and something about having an engineer ocme out.  These are her words, so we are getting this all second hand.  Oh and the seller is also a realtor so I doubt he will talk to us direct and explain what he did in the process so as we may be able to pick up where he left off and figure out how much this permit mess will cost.  Because if we know how much it would cost, we could just talk that amount off of our offer.   I have a feeling things get lost in translation when you are talking through realtors.

We are set to close on the 30th and the seller is just now telling us he won’t be getting the permits, when all the while he was giving us updates like he was going through the process.  Talk about last minute.  Well, it feels last minute to us.  Maybe it is not last minute to people accostumbed to the process of selling/buying homes.

Anyway, so we spend Friday on the phone all day with various people.

We check with the city building department and discover that there is no record of the seller ever starting the process to get permits nor is there any record of anyone from the city going to the property.  Was the seller just waiting for us to pay for the appraisal before they told us they weren’t going to get the permits.  They wanted the results of the appraisal and didn’t want to pay for one, or they asume that we having paid for a home inspection and an appraisal already have too much in the house to walk away, or did they procrastinate too long to even start the process before closing.  Who knows?

When buying a house, it appears to be a good idea to always be ready to walk away.

The next group of calls we made that Friday were in regards to home owner’s insurance.  If we end up going through with buying the house we want to make sure we are adequately covered while we go through the process of getting the appropriate permits to make everything legit.

We spoke with insurance brokers, agents, company reps, and people in the claims department.  All assured us that they insure based on the appraisal and the lack of permits will not be a problem.  The claims department explained that they base the premium on the appraisal so if something is included in the appraisal that is not under permit it is still covered by insurance because it is included in the premium.

Our next group of calls was to the city building department.   We tried to get an answer on a ball park amount of what it would cost to get after the fact permits.  No one had any idea.  There could also be some fines involved, no one had any idea of how much that could be either.  We did speak to one woman incharge of enforcing permits.  She basically said that no one is going to come in and inspect while we are living there as our primary residense.  If we have renters or if our house becomes an eyesore like if we don’t mow our lawn and such, we could draw attention to ourselves and then have things inspected but for our primary residense we likely won’t be fined.

Then we spoke to our loan officer to see if the lack of permits on the upgrades would affect our loan.  She said that as the home inspection went well and so did the appraisal, we wont’ have any problems.

There are way too many people involved with buying a house.

Thus we need to decide if we want to still purchase the house inspite of the lack of permits.  We are leaning towards continuing with the purchase.  To get a house made of new construction or built recently we would need to purchase a home way to far west meaning it would be a lot further from work and the beach.  It would also be harder to find a CB Stucco house.  Most of the newer homes are wood frame.  These don’t with stand hurricanes as well.  We would also likely have to put up with the HOA (home owner’s association).  Some HOA fees are more than the mortgage.  In the area we want to buy all the homes were built in the 60′s and 70′s and as we saw 50 houses in the search process and they all had some sort of upgrades done without permits.  Practically everyone enclosed the back “Florida Room” once central air became readily available.  Thus if we walk away from this house we will likely just encounter other houses with the lack of permits issue.

We are set to close this Friday the 30th of July.  I just spoke with our loan officer and she said on her end everything is ready.  So we will see what happens.

One Year Ago Today

One year ago today, I went home for lunch from work and took a pregnancy test. It was positive. Today we have a 4 month old beautiful healthy daughter.

Getting Back To That Pre Preggo Body Time Limit

So my mother-in-law was in town recently and while my husband and I miss our families from time to time her visit reminded us that there are some benefits to living with your spouse and your new baby at atleast an 8 hour drive from family.  I must say that it is common in both of our families for some members to express their love for us with negative comments and criticisms.  For  some of them I think that they are under the impression that they can only say they love someone a limited number of times in their lifetime.  Some of them are completely oblivious to their behavior.

During her visit my mother-in-law was at the grocery store with me, my husband and our 4 month old daughter.  We got in line to check out and began putting our groceries on the conveyor belt.  As we put each item on she criticized what we were buying.  We put on the belt a can of bush’s backed beans fiesta black bean flavor.  She said we shouldn’t be eating food from a can yada yada yada.  She said in that criticizing accusatory tone that mother’s have when they are just dictating and talking at you.  My husband and I just started laughing.  As a response he criticized the juice she was buying saying it was just suger etc.  He was not able to say much before she was offended and mad.  Amazing how family can poke and poke and poke sometimes and then we finally poke back and they get all mad.  I think it is evidence that they are oblivious to how their behavior affects their offspring.  But really who cares about someone criticizing their food choices, especially someone without formal training or a degree in the food industry.

What really got under my skin was her comment practically right after arriving.  She hugged us, said hello, met her granddaughter and proceeded to tell me I had a little more here and here.  She was motioning to my behind.  I was caught off guard by her comment.  Why was she telling me? Was she trying to be mean?  Did she think I did not know?  And more importantly, why could I not respond to her unfiltered comment with my own unfiltered response?

Of course I am carrying more weight on my butt and my breasts, I just had a baby 4 months ago.  Compared to how I looked 4.5 months ago right before I gave birth I look great.  You would not know because you have not seen me since before I was pregnant.  I mean I gained 30 pounds during my pregnancy.  It was blood and fluid volume, additional breast tissue, an amazing placenta and a WHOLE ENTIRE HEALTHY PERSON.  I then proceeded to go through labor and give birth to her without inductions, pitocin, an epidural or any form of pain medication.  In fact I gave birth to her on a Tuesday and did not even  take an Advil until the following Friday.  I have been catering what I eat to only affect my daughter positively in our breastfeeding relationship.  For the past 4 months my every waking moment has been consumed with making my daughter happy or supporting my husband.

Getting back to pre pregnancy body has not been my primary objective.

I weight about the same.  Now I am a little softer. Once I resume my work out regime my body will go back to what it was before.   I miss running but I am in no rush to get back to my pre preggo body.

I don’t understand why there is a fuss about getting back to shape.  I don’t know why other people would be at all concerned about my body.  Only my husband would be interested.  He seems totally unaffected by the change in my body.  He seems still uber interested.  So why freak out and rush back to shape 2 weeks after giving birth.  Enjoy yourself, enjoy your body.  Life is short.  And after watching my daughter grow the last 4 months, I know that kids grow up way to fast.

I intend to enjoy our life in southern Florida a plane ride away from Negative Nancy’s and criticisms for the time being.

Memory Loss While Breastfeeding

Oh shoot I forgot what I was going to write here…..

Wait, now I remember.  About a year ago, before I was even pregnant, my friend Kara told me about how she had a really bad memory while she was breastfeeding.  I remember her describing it like “they suck it right out of you.”

The memory loss for me is not as bad as I was imagining.  My daughter is 4 months old and we have been enjoying a wonderful breastfeeding relationship.  I do notice that sometimes I forget things that normally I would not have forgotten.

My husband can never remember where he leaves his things.  Our apartment is quite small but he still manages to misplace his things.  Usually he can ask me where his keys are and I know exactly where they are.  Every once and a while he asks me and I draw a complete blank.  This never happened before I was pregnant.

This evening I took a popsicle out of the freezer and ate it while messing on the computer.  I then brushed my teeth and was about to get into bed to go to sleep when I wondered where the popsicle I took out of the freezer was.  I went back into the office and looked for it and then I went back into the bedroom and looked in the blankets.  Then I finally remembered that I had eaten the popsicle already.

It makes sense that you can’t remember everything while you are breastfeeding your offspring.  Nature does not care if you remember where your husband’s glasses are or if you put the dishes away.  Nature has designed it so your primary objective is the feed the baby.  Thus there is a purpose to the memory loss suffered during pregnancy, breastfeeding while the kids are young.

Oh wait… damn, whole train of thought gone.

FEED THE BABY!

Do Rainbows Mean Good Luck?

When we were looking at houses in Jupiter I caught this rainbow. Hopefully it means we will have a good closing and have made a good choice on where to buy. Anybody else see signs from the universe as they make decisions?

Getting the Home Inspection

So we found a house we love, we made an offer, and it was accepted.  YEA!!!!!!

Now the real work begins.

When I was younger I always wondered why it took at least a month to close on a house.  I mean you find a house you like, you get a loan and you buy it.  Simple. Right?

Oh my gosh there is so much more involved.  But let me not get ahead of myself.

So after your offer is accepted you have a certain number of days to have a home inspection done.  After the home inspection you have the option to not buy the house, ask the seller to fix some things, ask for concession, or continue with the deal as planed or just walk away from the deal all together.

A home inspection can cost between 100-500 dollars.  It is usually dependent upon the square footage of the house, whether there are other structures on the property like a pool, a septic tank or sprinklers.  You can have someone who does a spot inspection randomly checking things or you can have someone who throughly checks every single outlet.

A lot of people seem to choose a home inspector based on price as in they choose whoever is the lowest.  We were less concerned about the price as we wanted someone through, experienced and a professional.  We wanted to know exactly what we were getting into in buying the house in question.

We chose to go with Florida Master Home Inspectors Inc.  Their website is not the most up to date but when I called and spoke with Anna she spent just short of an hour talking with us about their process and their home inspectors, the current licensing situation in Florida, mold issues, 4 point inspections and wind mitigation.  You can always tell when someone is knowledgeable about the industry they are in.  We did speak with other inspectors just to be sure about our choice.

The inspection cost us 370 for the 1500 square foot home with a pool, fence, shed and sprinkler system.  If we end up needing the 4 point inspection and wind mitigation for our home owner’s insurance then that will be an additional 150.  The inspection took place over 2 hours or so.  The home inspector was professional and friendly.  As he looked at things we were able to ask him questions and he gladly explained everything.  He gave us a brief hand noted documentation and went over everything at the end of the inspection and later he emailed a full report with photographs and an estimate of how much it would take to do the fix or update.

All in all the house is in great shape.  If we complete all of the fixes and updates that the home inspector recommends it would cost around 3,000.  We were relieved that there were no major issues with the house.  Or so we thought.

After the home inspection we called the city to make sure that the proper building permits were complete on the house.  The garage had been enclosed to create a master bedroom, a bathroom had been created and the Florida room had been enclosed.  As it turns out the owner had never applied for building permits.  This could be an easy fix or this could be the reason we don’t close on this house.

We Made An Offer On A House!

Over the last month we have been looking at houses.  I know people say it is a “buyer’s market” but I don’t know if that is true.  With so many forclosures and short sales on the market I would call it a “banker’s market”.  We looked at so many forclosures and short sales in such bad condition it was disheartening.  We expected to find a house that we liked that needed some TLC or some updating.  Yet some of the houses had been completely gutted or were so completely dirty that I had to exit the tour quickly.

In the process of home searching we even expanded our search area quite widely.  Finally we found one we loved that needed TLC and updating.  The backyard looked great with a big space to play and a pool with a slide.  We found out it was a short sale and we put in an offer anyway.  In the process of our realtor submiting our offer we discoverd there was already an offer on the house.  Our realtor explained to the seller’s realtor that we wanted to still continue and be a backup offer but the seller’s realtor said the first offer was solid and she took her time getting a hold of the seller.  In fact the deadline of our offer passed before the seller’s realtor even spoke to the seller about our offer.  It is just as well as we really didn’t want to wait the standard 4-6 or up to 2 years that it would take to purchase the short sale.

We kept looking and found a house in the same area that had the pool we wanted, the yard we wanted and lucky us it need a lot less work on the interior than the first house we put an offer on.  Oh yea and it had 1 additional bedroom.  Great! Room for more kids!  So Friday afternoon after a long day of looking at houses, we saw this house we loved and then drove to our realtor’s office and put an offer in on the house.  Luckily it is not a short sale so we will hear back soon.

Where Are My Blog Posts?

I used to post on the blog frequently so I bet you are wondering what I have been doing since giving birth March 2nd.  The pictures should demonstrate what I have been doing the last three months; breastfeeding

Fiona, born weighing 7 pounds, now weighs 14 pounds.  She has doubled her weight in 3 months, which is very healty and normal.  This means a lot of breastfeeding went on and when we weren’t breastfeeding we were snoozing.

There are more great posts to come.  They should also increase greatly with frequency, say to about 3-4 posts per week.  We have begun to hunt for a house so there should be some fun posts to come about this process.

The Aftermath of Having a Baby

About 2 months ago I gave birth to my daughter and as you can tell my blog writings have suffered.  They have suffered so much that I have not written at all.  I hope to start writing more regular as it is getting “easier”.

The First 2 Weeks

The first few weeks after I gave birth were difficult.  I wanted to be outside in the sun pushing my daughter in her neat stroller.  I wanted to easily take care of her needs quickly and efficiently.  I wanted to be one of those “good” moms.  This is what I wanted and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that even though I couldn’t quickly calm my baby, I was not as impacient or as frustrated as I imagined myself to be if things didn’t go smoothly.

We had a rough start breastfeeding but I just kept trying.  I didn’t loose it with her or with myself.  We had some great resourses like our midwife and a lactation consultant.  I also found it helped to just let everything else go and only focus on the baby’s needs.  I didn’t need to met her needs and my husbands and keep the house nice and clean and do the dishes.  My husband, although he may not like to, can fend for himself and I have the rest of my life to do those damn dishes.  I never really liked doing them anyway.  If ever you have a reason to put stuff off its after you have a baby. Right?

Sleeping Schedule

Oh my and her sleep schedule, I didn’t think that would ever change.  She would sleep 2 hours at a time and each day at one point she would sleep for 4-6 hours.  The catch is I never knew when that longer sleep was.  So I would sleep when she slept for 2 hours at a time.  Then I would finaly get up and take a shower while I thought she would be sleeping her 2 hour sleep and then she would go and sleep for 6 hours.  Luckily I wasn’t trying to do a lot during this sleep deprivation phase.  I wanted to do something.  Some days I felt traped in the apartment and wondered when I would every be able to leave the bedroom again.

Luckily when she was about 4 weeks it was like she figured out when night was.  She started having her long 4 hour sleep happen at night.  Wow did I feel good sleeping a whole 4 hours straight.  Some time after my parents came for a visit when she was 6 weeks old, I finally finished reading the ‘The Happiest Baby on the Block” by Dr. Karp. The night after my parents left I remember trying the swaddling technique and that night instead of just sleeping 5 hours she slept 9 hours.  HOLY SHIT.  I actually woke up before her and was actually anxious to have her wake up and nurse as I was a little engoreged.  It was amazing how swaddling her tight helped her sleep so well.  I am not sure why I was so surprised as all of the other calming techniques in the book worked beautifully.

Breastfeeding is a Breeze

Because we had a rough start to breastfeeding, I kept feeding in the same spot using the same position every time she nursed.  I felt like we could never leave the house as there were only 2 hours from when she stoped feeding until when she would want to feed again.  That did not leave a big enough window to leave the house and get much done.

Then one day my husband’s brother drove over and visited us with his 4 kids and wife.  They were in Orlando on spring break and wanted to go to the beach.  So I practiced what it would be like to nurse in public and set it up so we would go to the beach and I would just have to do it.  I didn’t want to miss out on the outing.  So we all went to the beach.  It was our daughter’s first beach visit.  She was about a month old and all she did was nurse and fall asleep.  She was not interested in the ocean or the beach but I was so excited to nurse in public for the first time.  I felt so liberated.  I could now leave the house and easily calm her if she started yelling.  WE WERE FREE!

Now we go all kinds of fun places and nurse.  I am just waiting for someone to say something mean about breastfeeding in public.  I had no idea it was so controversial.  I’ll be sure to post when that happens.

Life With a Newborn; 4 Weeks Old

This week was my daughter’s fourth week out in the world.  It is quite amazing to think that it has only been about four weeks since so much has happened and changed.  Now that she is here, I can’t imagine life without her.  Whenever I have a few minutes of free time after I have squeezed a shower in, I wonder what I ever did without her.

Breastfeeding Update

It was challenging starting breastfeeding.  Now, we are experts.  I think it comes from having so many opportunities to practice.  She usually has a 2-3 hour nursing/ burping/ diaper change session and then sleeps for 3-4 hours.  Thus everyday we get a lot of bonding breastfeeding in.  It seems to be working quite well because she has already gained about a pound.  It is really magnificent to see the breasts work after all these years of carrying them around.  I now don’t understand why they are so over sexualized in western culture.  They don’t have much to do with sex and everything to do with eating, nurturing and bonding.

Yesterday we went to beach about 6pm and she decided she was hungry so I managed to breast feed in public on the beach.  I did cover up with a light blanket so I was not exposed.  It was liberating and very nice just relaxing watching the ocean waves and breast feeding.

Gaining Weight

It is probably not the most accurate way to measure how much weight my baby is gaining but I have been using our home scale.  I weigh myself holding her and then I weigh myself without and the difference is how much she weighs.  She has to date gained about 2.5 pounds.  It feels great to know that all of that time she spends attached to my breast nursing is working.  I see her everyday so it is hard to notice the change but when I compare it to earlier pictures of her I can see a difference.

Sleeping

She is not sleeping through the night yet.  This makes life transpire in blocks of 3 hours.  She wakes up I nurse her for an hour or so.  She drifts back to sleep. I drink water and eat a snack.  3 of this episodes I also sleep when she sleeps.  Then sometime during the afternoon I get up for the day and take a shower.  I try to clean up the apartment a little or do some laundry.  I get very little done so I try to focus on the essentials.  Getting enough sleep is a big priority so some days when she is hungrier all I really do is sleep.  If I add of all the hours together I manage to get about 8-9 hours each day.  I bet it would feel more rested to sleep that long all at once but this is how it is.  I don’t know how I will manage when we have other children.  I doubt they will like this type of schedule but I guess I will cross that bridge when I get to it.

What You May Not Know About Breastfeeding

I gave birth to my daughter, Fiona, 19 days ago and I was not prepared for the challenging first week of breastfeeding.  In the back of my mind I know it could be a challenge as its my husband and I’s first child and the baby does not come out an expert breast feeder. At one point my husband was like, ‘lets just give her formula, I can’t take her crying, it hurts’.

What were some of our obstacles?  As it turns out, we were able to fix the ‘problem’ very easily.  What made it so easy to fix?  We met with a lactation consultant and it was the best thing we could have done.  Just speaking with her the night before our meeting during a challenging feeding lifted a huge weight off our shoulders.  IF YOU ARE HAVING ANY QUESTIONS, CHALLENGES, ANYTHING RELATIVE TO BREASTFEEDING, SPEAK TO A LACTATION CONSULTANT. It is totally worth it.

In my case, while I was in labor my midwife noticed that I had a possible yeast infection on my nipples.  I asked if it would hurt the baby and she said no but it will hurt excruciatingly when she latches.  I did not even know this was possible.  So I gave birth about 1am on Tuesday and about 40 minutes after birth Fiona was breastfeeding and it was wonderful.  The next day when she latched it hurt so bad I screamed.  The midwife stopped by in the afternoon to check on us.  While I showed her how we were trying to breastfeed and when she heard my scream she was like ‘yes, you have a yeast infection on your breasts and that is what it sounds like”.

She advised monistat 3 and genician violet and said it should hurt less after 3 treatments.  She was right, after 3 treatments it was starting to feel better.  We did have to feed the baby some formula and the midwife advised to do it by syringe instead of by bottle.  We spent the next 3 days (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) doing the treatments, trying to breastfeed, trying to pump, and supplementing with formula by syringe.  It was really stressful as we thought we were loosing the breastfeeding start window and that we would have to go to formula and we really wanted to breastfeed.

The midwife stopped by on Friday to check on us.  I was healing really well and able to walk around the apartment some and had taken a shower.  Breastfeeding was not going smoothly yet.  We worked with the midwife some and she observed that Fiona preferred the football hold.  It still was not going smoothly.  There was still a touch of the yeast infection but it hurt a lot less.  Fiona would not seem to stay latched on.  Our midwife called the lactation consultant and told her what was going on and the lactation consultant told her to have us call her after we were finished with our midwife appointment.  We called the lactation consultant and left a voice mail.

Saturday, 5 days after Fiona was born, we were at the height of our frustration.  I kept doing the treatments.  I did have some luck pumping.  I think this was because my milk came in Thursday night/ Friday morning and the engorgement started to push the colostrum out.  As it turns out it is quite hard to pump colostrum as it is quite thick.  You need a strong pump and while mine is good it is not super strong.  Saturday was good because I was able to pump a decent amount .  At this point we were able to feed Fiona breast milk by syringe but we still could not get her to stay latched on.

The midwife called to check up on us and see if we had set up anything with the lactation consultant yet.  I told her we had left a message but had not heard back and we were still struggling with keeping Fiona on the breast but we had figured out pumping so that was good.  Our midwife said we should try calling the lactation consultant today and see if we can get an appointment.

We called the lactation consultant and spoke to her and explained what was happening.  We set up an appointment for the next day; Sunday.  She also said if we had any issues in the meantime to go a head and call her.

After a hour of trying to breastfeed Fiona, I took the lactation consultant up on her offer and called her.  It was about 9pm on Saturday.  My husband and I felt so much better after talking to her.  She explained a lot; most importantly, the first 3 weeks are hard, sometimes very hard.  Our biggest fear is that we were missing our window to start breastfeeding.  She assured us that the window was larger than we had thought.  I remember starting the conversation with her with a question of how long should we try to breastfeed during a session.  I so did not want to give up, because I thought I was giving up on breastfeeding and my daughter so sessions lasted as long as 2 hours.  2 hours of us trying to get our daughter to latch while she was screaming.  Before we talked to the lactation consultant we were feeling so discouraged and defeated.

Luckily when the midwife came for an appointment the day before (Friday) she had weighed the baby and our baby had actually gained weight.  The vast majority of babies loose 10 percent or less of their body weight during the first week.  Our baby who we were having breastfeeding issue with and worried we weren’t feeding her enough, had actually gained weight.  She had gained weight. Amazing.

So the lactation consultant came on Sunday (March 7th) when Fiona was just 6 days old.  We had scheduled the consult for when Fiona’s next feeding should be.  Fiona was asleep when she arrived so we talked about what we had been doing up until then and she went over some of the remedies she had for getting breastfeeding going.  We also talked about how no one really talks about how hard breastfeeding is during the first couple of weeks.  I had no idea. I totally thought I was doing something wrong and totally messing up breastfeeding.  She assured me that the beginning is just tough, and it is a learning curve/ process for mother and baby.

It was so nice and exciting to to talk with her. I felt so relieved.  I didn’t know what the problem was; latching, my nipples, position.  I felt like I had a plan and some resources.

Thus we set up to start feeding Fiona.  We discovered she preferred the football hold just like my midwife had said earlier in the week.  We also discovered the main problem was the genecian violet that I applied for the yeast infection.  Fiona did not like the taste.  According to the lactation consultant it has a sort of bitter taste.  So what I was applying to prevent her from getting thrush was the obstacle in breastfeeding.  So we set up a way to get Fiona past the initial taste and she latched and stayed on beautifully.

That day I nursed her for an hour; about 30 minutes on each side.   It was so amazing beautiful to feed my daughter, words can not describe it accurately.

Over the next few days we kept working on breastfeeding.  The yeast infection cleared up so I was able to stop the treatments and that made starting breastfeeding a lot easier.  Each day we both get better and better at breastfeeding.  As newborns feed often it offers a lot of opportunities to practice.

The first month of breastfeeding can be a real challenge, don’t hesitate to hire a lactation consultant.  The results are amazing and it is quite affordable.

*If you live in South Florida  and need recommendations / referrals for lactation consultants, doulas or midwives, contact me 305-767-4027 or email me tarraguna {at} gmail.com.

It’s a Girl!!!

At around 1 am March 2nd Tuesday morning we had our baby. She was a girl we named Fiona Olivia and she weighed exactly 7 pounds. We are exstatic to say the least. She is healthy and beautiful.

I will be recouperating and I expect to not be able to update this blog during the next 2 weeks or so. I will be posting a long detailed account of our wonderful birthing experience, but it will probably take me to mid April to complete.

37 Weeks Pregnant; Loss of Mucus Plug

This morning as I layed in bed, I thought I felt almost as if I were going to pee my pants.  I got up and looked at the bed to make sure I had not broken my water yet.  Nope, no dampness. But then when I went to use the bathroom, I heard and felt a small thud. No, it was not a bowel movement. I had just lost my mucus plug or had my bloody show as some people say. I wish this meant labor was immenent but it still could be 3 more weeks or so. I still feel excited as loosing the mucus plug means labor is coming, I just still don’t have any better idea as to when. I would like to think it will happen today as my whole lower half of my body is acheing as we are shopping for some last minute baby prep items like diapers. It would also work out great as my husband is off work for the next 3 days. Oh well, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

36 Weeks Pregnant; Pelvic Bone Softening

This week marks my 36th week of pregnancy.  This is probaby the first week that I have felt uncomfortable, well aside from the 6 weeks of nausea during the first trimester but that was different.

Sunday night I was unable to sleep at all.  I had a sore throat and a congested head.  This was either caused by a head cold contracted while going out to the movies the day before to see ‘The Wolfman’ or it was just due to my sinuses being aggrevated by the low humidity caused by unseasonable low temperatures over the past weekend here in southern Florida.  Either way not sleeping Sunday night left Monday a long tireing day of a sore throat and congestion that also prevented naps.

Tuesday I awoke to my aching pelvic bone.  I felt as if I could barely walk.  It was quite odd to go from walking 3 miles a day and doing pre natal yoga to feeling like I could barely walk.  Oh and when the baby’s head would move and accidently get too close to my pelvis, it felt like it’s head bones were knocking into my pelvic bone and the pain would just echo through my already achey bone.

I of course had to google pelvic pain during the third trimester and found some scary posts.  Some people and posted on forums that they began having pelvic pain at 30 weeks of pregnancy and that it did not end until they delivered.  The pain was bearable and I knew that it was a result of hormones being released that were softening my pelvis so that it could streatch and open up to allow the baby out.  I am a big fan of the pelvis softening for passage of the baby as opposed to the alternative.  Not being able to walk and to feel immobile was much more freightening.

Luckily the pelvic pain subsided the next day.

35 Weeks Pregnant; Preparing for Labor

This week marks my 35th week being pregnant.  I have really started to notice that the baby is getting a lot bigger.  I really feel like I am busting out.  Up until last week I was quite comfortable.  I can’t at all say that I am miserable and hopefully we won’t get there.  It is getting harder to find a comfortable position to sit in.  I also know need to sleep on my side laying into 2 pillows with the lower half between my legs.  Before I was quite comfortable with just one pillow.

Preparing for Labor

I find myself now quite occupied with preparing myself for labor.  I am trying to do this physically and mentaly. Physically I am keeping up with my PreNatal activities; those being pre natal yoga, swimming and walking 3 miles.  I try to do all three of these daily.  This is not always possible, but I always do atleast 2 activites.

Preparing mentaly is challenging as I have no idea what I am in for as this is our first child.  For women who had a natural/ unmedicated childbirth experience their description of the pain varies greatly.  Some women have reported it feeling orgasmic while others report it being the worst pain in their life.  Other things that I have read imply that the woman’s attitude shapes her pain experience.  It is extremely painful because she expects it to be.  What I am trying to determine is how you can expect it to be orgasmic and still prepare for it to be quite painful so that if you do feel some pain you don’t loose your head and get swallowed up by the pain.

Instead of deciding on the best way to prepare for the pain, I have decided it would be better to focus on the point of labor; the baby.  I am going to try to see the pain as secondary and just something necessary to the process of birthing my baby.  My idea is to follow the flow of my body and feel it out and try to relax and work with my animalistic instincts.  Giving birth is not something you need to think your way through but you do want to try to keep high stress and anxiety away.  Those 2 are never a good thing to have.  I have been trying to visualize the baby inside of my uterus and then I try to visual the path it will take to be born.  Hopefully if I focus on the baby and the amazing process of giving birth, the pain, if any, will be very tolerable.

Next Page »