Friday, February 19, 2010

Harper Grace is Here

This post comes a little bit late, but it’s very hard to type when you have the most adorable little baby craving attention. Harper is two weeks old today after a very surprising appearance (a quick 2 hour labor followed by an unplanned home delivery). She’s doing well, and the whole family is just in love with her.  (Click here for her birth story.)



Unfortunately, I gained more than I had hoped with this pregnancy — 50 lbs! I lost 14 of that at the hospital, then another 13 during our first week home. So even though I’ve lost 27 lbs so far, I still have another 23 to go just to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight (and 60 lbs total to get to my goal.) I haven’t “dieted” yet because I’m breastfeeding and cutting calories can interfere with your milk supply, but now that Harper is getting the hang of it and gaining weight well, I’m thinking about trying Weight Watchers.

Numbers on the scale aside, I’m really nervous about my actual fitness level. I stopped running in October and stopped going to the gym altogether in December when my shoes stopped fitting. Apparently, they frown upon working out in flip flops. I’m not supposed to do any vigorous activity for another month, but light exercise is okay, so starting tomorrow, I’m going to be doing the C25k program… again. It feels weird not being able to run for a minute since less than a year ago, I ran a half marathon with no problems. I know I have to start somewhere, but I’m really worried I won’t get my endurance back in time for the Marine Corps Marathon in October. Registration is in April, so I need to figure it out and fast! Sadly, I can’t get back in the gym due to child care issues, so I’m going to be doing 30DS every other day until I can start P90X next month with my husband. I’ve never had much luck working out at home, but I don’t really have many other options.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Storm of the Century

Well, not quite, but Charleston, South Carolina actually has snow.  Not just flurries, but actual accumulation.  It's not much and I'm sure it will be gone by the afternoon.  Get this though -- the roads are COMPLETELY clear, yet everywhere is closed.  I guess after living in Kansas for so long and growing up in West Virginia, this is just weird to me.

The snow only lasted for a few hours before it melted, but it sure was pretty. 

Thankfully, she still had her winter outerwear from Kansas.

Scout didn't have nearly as much fun as Kaelin.




Monday, February 8, 2010

Welcome, Harper Grace

I woke up from a nap having contractions. They were irregular, but fairly intense so Jason and I figured that tonight would be the night. We had planned to spend most of the labor at home watching movies and relaxing with the techniques we learned in our Bradley class.


Unfortunately, I wound up chained to my toilet. I started having really bad diarrhea, and every time I would get up, I felt like I needed to go again. Half an hour after my contractions started, my water broke. Even though I had been in labor for less than an hour, we decided to go ahead and call the doctor. He told us to head to the hospital and he’d meet us there.

Jason and Kaelin started taking our bags out to the car, but shortly after my water broke, the contractions really picked up. They were still irregular, but coming between every 1 and 5 minutes. Jason was trying to get me to relax, but I just couldn’t stand to be touched. I was leaning over the bathtub thinking that there was no way I’d be able to have a natural birth because the pain was just way too much. There may have been some screaming involved.

 
I finally make it downstairs when I get the urge to go to the bathroom again. I figured the hospital was half an hour away so I better go before we leave. I sat down on the toilet and realized that it wasn’t a bowel movement coming out. I yelled for Jason who walked into the bathroom to find me crowning on the toilet. He asked Kaelin to get some towels and the video camera then made me squat on the floor holding onto his shoulders for support. I kept trying to sit back down, but he wouldn’t let me. While I was squatting, the baby’s head came out without any pushing. One push for the shoulders and less than two hours after labor started, she was here!

Thankfully, she didn’t have any emergency issues when she was born. She came out screaming, was pink, and tried to nurse right away. Jason called the paramedics because our hospital was more than 30 minutes away and it was rush hour in Charleston. They came, cut her cord, and put us in the ambulance. Of course, it was raining, and they didn’t give me time to put a robe on, but we made it to the hospital in one piece.


Looking back, I realize that we got the birth we wanted. There was no medical intervention, at least not until after she was born. Jason got to catch the baby (something our OB refused on our birth plan) and it was just our family to welcome her into the world.

You can view Harper's birth video here.  (Note:  It's a birth video.  If you don't want to see a baby coming out of a vagina, don't watch it.)