5.05.2009
Ramona was born at 7:20 pm on Sunday, March 29th. According to Navajo legend, she revels in nudity and is bonny, blithe, happy and gay (If you've never been to Grandma Daines' house. don't expect that to make sense). She was 8 lbs and 19 inches long.
For now, she mostly goes by Mona. Also, Pearl is no longer "Baby Pearl." Sad but true, life goes on and now we have Baby Mona. The "baby" in front of their names helps people distinguish between them and all the grandma's with whom they share names. If you feel you need to youthanize Pearl's name still, call her "Pearly." That's what we do.
Pearl adores her sister! She was kind of in shock when she first got to the hospital, but it didn't take long for her to warm up. While I was being transferred to recovery, Mona was getting her bath and all that stuff. Pearl went to watch then came back to my room. The whole time she kept saying she wanted to go back and see her sister. She's pretty gentle with her and very helpful. I think having my parents here for the first two weeks was helpful not only to me, but for Pearl. She got loads of attention!
Pearl talks all the time about how much she doesn't like sharing (for example, she's good and asks for jelly beans and I give them to her and then she informs me "I not has to share my jelly beans! It my jelly beans" However, she often follows a statement like that with "I share my room with Mona. I share my toys (pronounced toes) with Mona." I wish I could write the way Pearl speaks. She has the greatest intonations and she annunciates every letter so well. We love listening to her.
Mona sleeps fantastic!!! The first night she did 8 hrs, the second night was pretty horrid, apparently that's when their digestive system kicks in and can cause some indigestion. Other than that though, she goes to bed around 10, sometime as late as 11. and rarely wakes up earlier than 4:30, but usually not until after 6 am. Kind of nice.
Before any moms get to jealous, let me tell you, she is just making up for how disgusting she is. I don't know how she's gained so much weight already (10 lbs at 5 weeks), because she doesn't seem to keep much down. I have nearly 30 burp cloths and still have to do a baby load at least twice a week or we're using dish towels and wash cloths with her. She always smells like sour milk, even though I am always wiping up her sticky face, neck and hands and changing her clothes (good thing we have lots). It's so bad some days I think I would rather have a baby who slept less than one who spit up this much. Not that I have a choice or would give up my Mona. I spent a fortune on some pills that may or may not help yesterday, so we'll see.
Labor and delivery were amazing! Greg and I took hypnobirthing classes, and they helped us to look forward to labor and delivery rather than view it as a necessary evil. Hypnobirthers believe in going into deep relaxation and having pain-free births. Those who get an epidural are probably the only ones who truly experience a pain-free birth, but it was pretty remarkable to come close to that through relaxation. One of the affirmations I was supposed to repeat to myself was: "I will turn my birthing over to my baby and my body." That gave me the giggles, but it really worked! While it was not exactly pain-free, I can honestly say it was not that bad. It was really different to not be so consumed by pain (Pearl was induced that it was just so intense and unlike anything that my body had ever done, that it was not that great an experience) that I could focus on nothing else.
I had been having braxton hicks for nearly 4 days at pretty regular intervals, but when I woke up Sunday morning I had my first real contraction. I knew it because it was all in my back, just like the with Pearl. The picture is of me at about 10 am, a few hours into labor. My body took lots of breaks while laboring, so I kept doubting I was actually in labor, which is why by the time I actually got to the hospital I was dialated to a 6.5 and having 60 sec contractions, 90 sec apart. It went pretty fast from there, and probably would've gone even faster had my water broke earlier. She was born about an hour and a half after I was admitted.
The whole process felt instinctive and natural. The most amazing part of all was delivery. I know it generally goes much faster the second time, but I really didn't think it would go from 45 min. of pushing with pearl, to just a few minutes of relaxed breathing for Ramona. Instead of "pushing" her out, I did these things called "J" breaths and she pretty much just slid out. I swear it's true. I had been skeptical of the hypnobirther's delivery method, but when I did my first "J" breath (hard to explain how that works), I got this huge silly grin, IN THE MIDDLE OF DELIVERY, because I knew Ramona would be here any second and that it was going to be easy! My body recovered quickly too! I had my doubts and reservations, but I LOVE the hypnobirthing method.