My Birth Story

I know this has been a loooong time coming, but hey!

Better late than never!! 

:)

My Birth Story.

Well...not my birth story, hehe, its the story of my little Baby Bear's birthday. 

His birth day story actually starts almost three days before he was actually born.

I went in for one of my weekly 9th month check ups. There was a bit of trepidation

on my part since the boy hadn't been moving around a whole lot and lets face it...

I wanted that baby OUT! Every. Single. Tactic was used to 

coerce him to eject himself and it just wasn't working.

Dr. Espana took a look via ultrasound and was concerned the the boy

wasn't really moving. His heartbeat was fine, but he wasn't moving. 

I think my heart stopped at that point, I had wanted to be told that I was in labor

 (did I mention that I wanted the baby out?) but I hadn't counted on there

actually being something wrong that would cause us to induce. 

Ok, so I was freakin' huge. No judging lol

We were admitted to the hospital Tuesday night.  We decided that we had time to

 show the nurses our birth plan later so the nurses tried a gel

that was supposed to open my cervix. After a slightly uncomfortable

night of trying to sleep and instead talking of how excited we were, 

Barry and I woke up to find that I hadn't dilated AT ALL!

The doctor decided to wait the day to see if a little pitocin would help.

Round Two!

I finally got to eat wednesday night. Best. Sandwich. Ever.

Wednesday night the doctor inserted a Cervical Ripening Balloon. 

It works JUST like you think it would. There is this balloon, that 

goes...ahem. They fill the balloon with saline, leaving you incredibly 

uncomfortable, say good luck and expect you to just go to sleep. 

There was no sleeping. 

Thursday morning (super early) it seemed that I had done well overnight and 

they upped my pitocin. I was dilated 4 cm. so technically I was in active labor.

Finally.

At 4am my labor (in my eyes) started. The contractions were getting

harder to where I was actually noticing them but I wasn't noticing them in

the front but rather in my back. After four hours of this I realized I was having

back labor and that was when the shit really hit the fan.

I swear to you, I only felt a single contraction in my uterus. Every single other

contraction was a knife in my back. Thursday day and Thursday night seemed to 

fly by in a flurry of contractions and downtime. I'm kidding. It only seems like it 

flew by because I can't really remember what happened lol.

Friday morning it was announced that I was a whole five freaking centimeters 

dilated. Dr. Espana decided to go ahead and break my water. In the beginning, I was completely

against any sort of induction, breaking of water, epidurals, etc. At this point I had

been in labor a full day and I began to see that if I didn't get this show on the road I'd 

end up getting a C Section. I consented to the breaking of the waters.

Holy. Freaking. Cow.

My labor started in earnest and it was still freaking BACK LABOR!!! Dr. Espana

asked me to get an epidural after five hours of that nonsense. I needed to rest so that

when it came to the pushing part I would have the strength to actually push. 

Best thing ever, I tell ya! For a minute.

My epidural wore off within three hours of received it. During that time I dilated

from five cm to seven. Then...poof! It just went away. Unfortunately, during that

time the anesthesiologist was in the middle of a surgery and couldn't help me. 

I felt every single minute of seven cm to ten cm. 

Finally the anesthesiologist came by and gave me a double dose of 

God-Only-Knows-What and it was amazing! Just as the epidural started working

again the doctor was like "Oh, you can start pushing now." ;) Silly doctors.

I think I only pushed for around twenty minutes before I got to meet little Barry.

Seriously, that alien head threw me off lol

I'd like to get all teary eyed and tell you how beautiful of a moment it was but

in the spirit of full disclosure, I was vomiting in a tiny blue bag when I saw him. 

I was stitched up and Barry's family literally flew into the room to oh and ah over the baby.

Barry's dad with the boy.

I was still throwing up. Not fun. 

With my mommy, shortly after my vomiting fit.

The next thing I really remember clearly is seeing my son for the first time (not vomiting)

and the first thing I said was "He's PINK!" See, the first first time I saw him he

was covered in slime and blood and I swear to God he was purple. The next time

I saw him he was a cute little pink baby! lol 

It was finally quiet in our room and I got to hold my son (finally) and we were whisked

away to our recovery room where the boy was given a bath and I slept like a log!

Things I Learned:

1. Show your nurses the birth plan, otherwise family will burst into the delivery room

while you're still vomiting and bleeding and you have no one to blame but yourself.

2. Have all the paperwork signed and ready for the epidural even if you don't think you

want it. We did and not waiting that extra ten minutes while having contractions is a 

beautiful thing.

There will be more "What I Learned" but that will be a different post.

:)

I will say that it is hard for me to look back on Barry's birth with joy in my heart.
Every single thing we planned went wrong. I was in labor 41 hours and I had
people barging into my room before I was ready. I can easily say I was in complete
shock over what happened and short of my mother...no one noticed. I was in the middle
of a break down and everyone was too busy oohing and aahing over the baby to notice
that I was in shock. I had to get nine stitches, the doctors were worried that I was bleeding
too much and I was vomiting all over my mother and no one noticed.

No one tells you what happens when it all goes wrong.
No one tells you that it is perfectly normal to have a mental break down
when your baby is born.

I think it is important to tell women that sometimes birth doesn't go well and it is important
to not feel guilty if you look back on your baby's birth and you feel violated. It is ok,
there is nothing wrong with you and feeling this way does not mean you love your baby
ANY LESS!

Sometimes it is just hard and there is nothing you can do about it but accept it and
move on. Love your baby, do the best you can and just ignore all the posts you
see on Facebook about everyone and their perfect lives.

All in all, I can't wait to have another baby and give natural birth another go.
I truly feel that if we had not induced I would not have had back labor and
I would not have been in labor for so long. We shall see.

This was not the perfect birth and this has not been the perfect adventure

that I thought it would be but I am happy. I love my family and I can't wait
to see what kind of trouble we can get in to.

:D

Love,

Maria

Menu Planning Monday: Chicken Stock/Soup

In case you didn't know...

I love Pinterest. 

Pinterest has single-handedly saved my hubby and me from eating the same

six meals every week. In honor of that I've come up with 

Menu Planning Monday!

Each week I will post one new recipe that I have actually tried. Some

will be awesome...and some will be horrid. :)

*******

This past week I made one of my most favorite dishes to make

for the hubs. He ADORES it and I rarely ever get the chance to freeze the

leftovers. He's a hog.

The recipe I follow is from Skinny Taste and it is amazeballs. 

Yeah. I said it. 

Recipe can be found: here

I decided to change mine up a bit:

Ingredients: 

1-5lb. Young Chicken

(You can also use regular chicken breast)

1-Yellow Onion, Quartered

1.5-Cup of Chopped Baby Carrots

1.5-Cup of Chopped Celery Stalks 

(I left the leaves on)

1-Cloves of Minced Garlic

1-tsp. Sesame Oil

1-Cup of Chicken Broth (or Bullion)

Fresh Parsley

Bay Leaves

Thyme

Black Pepper

Directions:

1. Place the giblets (all the stuff that comes in the chicken) in a cheesecloth and tie it up.

I actually used a leftover corn husk from when we made tamales. You can be creative.

2. Place the chicken and giblets in your crockpot with all the other ingredients and 

fill with water until there is an inch left to the top. 

3. Cook on high for 4-6 hours or you can simmer in a stock pot for 4 hours. Your goal

is to cook the chicken thoroughly and slowly. Each stove and crock pot is different.

4. Separate the stock from the chicken and veggies using a strainer. 

5. Once the chicken is cool to the touch (but not cold, it is easier to pull apart warm),

 pull apart the chicken and tear the meat into bite sized pieces. 

Discard or use the giblets as you see fit. Let the chicken and veggies

sit in the fridge over night.

6. Let the broth sit in the fridge over night. This will allow the fat to come to the top and

harden making it easier to skim. Instruction #4 is very important, I left the veggies in the

broth once overnight and I had to try and skim the fat from the veggies. No fun.

6. Skim the fat.

At this point you can either use the chicken and veggies in another dish and save

the stock for later use or you can return the chicken and veggies to the stock and

have a pretty amazing chicken soup. Add rice or noodles to your liking.

I truly love making chicken soup this way because you really get all the good stuff

in the stock. I think broth tends to be a bit thin while stock, being made from

the WHOLE chicken and some veggies, is heartier and better for you. 

Hope you enjoy!

-Ri 

Pinterest FTW: Dawn/Vinegar Miracle Bathtub Cleaner

I have a problem with my bathtub. It's never clean.

My home sat vacant for 4+ years, and during those years my bathtub 

just had a mental breakdown. The last occupants left the chain to the tub

stopper on the tub so I now have a nice rust spot in the bottom of the tub.

Also...I'm pretty sure my tub is from the seventies meaning that the finish 

is just GONE (meaning it is impossible to clean properly).

So, when I stumbled across this nice little picture on pinterest, I 

was intrigued.

Now SUPPOSEDLY this miracle occurred by the simple application of

a dawn and vinegar solution, a lengthy wait, and an easy wipe down.

I didn't believe the pin.

This is the original pin:

from: life, crafts & whatever

So I waited for my tub to get filthy, it didn't take long. The hubby loves to take

long baths and so there is a perpetual ring around my tub. 

When you see the "before" picture try not to judge...or scream.

Remember! Remember! 4 year vacancy!

And I did NOT pick out the blue tile...I just wanted to throw that out there.

I followed the oh-so-simple directions:

Items Needed:

1-Spray Bottle

1/2 cup of White Vinegar

1/2 cup of BLUE Dawn Dish Soap

Everyone seems to specify the Blue dawn...I'm not sure why. 

So! You preheat the white vinegar in the microwave for two minutes

add the dawn to the hot vinegar

pour the vinegar/dawn mixture into the spray bottle 

gently shake

spray down your filthy tub and walls

**I would like to take the time to warn you that this mixture stinks...

like really...really stinks. Like you might want to go see a movie...

as in I ran (waddled) out of my bathroom just to take a breath

Seriously, the vinegar is overpowering**

Then you wait two hours. 

I came back in two hours and my tub did not look any cleaner. I will

admit...I was distraught. I did a little bit of a wipe down and I was still not

seeing this miracle of housekeeping happening. 

I had to scrub. And scrub I did! I was 39 weeks pregnant and dying to 

get this baby out of me so the scrubbing was good for me (I think).

I took the rough side of a sponge and went to TOWN on that tub.

I was going to take a shower in a clean tub that night, by god!

After a fair amount of scrubbing I started to see progress and then

I started to realize that stains I thought would never come out...started to 

come out. 

I seriously could not get a good enough picture of how much my tub sparkled.

So my verdict:

WIN!*

*My disclaimer is that this is NOT a no-scrub solution as advertised. I did have

to scrub but I will say that this dawn/vinegar combo cleaned my tub in a way

I have never seen before. Now, to be fair, this pin was saying this solution

is for soap scum and since soap scum isn't really my problem I can't really say 

how it works against shower doors, etc. 

So take it as you will, it still worked. 

-Ri