Birth Story

I have been meaning to write this for a long time now. Already, six weeks later, the memories are starting to fade.
On the Monday before I had gone to the doctor and gotten a strep test. I ended up bleeding a lot, I was also having contractions, so I got admitted to Labor and Delivery. I was in Labor and Delivery for a couple of hours getting monitored and everything was okay. However, I am pretty sure I lost my mucous plug that day or the next and was super mucousy for the rest of the week. I was also having Braxton Hicks contractions all week. Saturday rolled around and we went out for lunch with Erik's mom and did a little shopping. By evening, I was super tired. We made a big dinner and I did some yoga. After dinner I was going to relax on the couch and my water burst. I could feel it inside me pop open and then we had liquid everywhere. This was at 9:10pm. It had started snowing, so it took a bit to get to the hospital.

Total labor and delivery was 4.5hours. I pushed for 40 minutes. The doctor told me I only had a few pushes left and I think it was about 20 later that he came out. Pushing was so much better than contractions. The pain was so much better. Contractions were the most painful thing I have ever experienced.
I will never, ever forget my first view of Ivan after he was born. He was covered in that white stuff, pale, on his stomach draped over the doctors arm and he let out an immediate cry.  His face lookubg mostly like it still does today. I will also never forget him laying on my chest for the first time. Making his soft ah,ah,ah cry. The older he gets the less I hear of that cry. I really loved the sound of that. He wasn't unhappy it was more of a I am now comfortable cry.

Milestones

Well Ivan, we have come to two milestones. First, was your one month birthday. I took pictures of you that day. I promise. I was basically still too stressed out about you gaining weight to make a huge deal out of it. Which leaves us at the second milestone. We graduated from lactation on February 22. We weighed you in and you were 8lbs 3ounces. You gained from 7lbs 10 ounces on the Thursday before. I was tired of hearing how to feed you and the lactation nurse agreed we were safe to let you go. What a relief. It is now February 28th and I am still worried about you eating, my nursing, my milk coming in, etc. but you are doing great and we love you very much. What a huge obstacle we have overcome.