West Coast Atkins

Syrahav is getting great at lifting her head up during tummy time! The video was taken on June 18, when she was 10 weeks old. There is also an album of her lifting her head up at our photo page.

June 26th, 2009 | Leave a comment

This video was taken on June 13. Just 2 months old. We are a little slow at posting things as of late!

She talks like this almost everyday. We can definitely tell she LIKES to TALK!

June 24th, 2009 | Comments (1)

Syrahav sure was talkative for her 2 month birthday!

June 16th, 2009 | Leave a comment

May 19th, 2009 | Comments (1)

Edited things that were added later are in RED.

I started writing a condensed version of my birth story for our website, but I’m already hitting way too many pages in Word.  So instead, I decided to just write some bullets that are highlights or interesting parts of the labor/birth process.

• Syrahav was 17 days late.
• I planned on having her at a birth center, but because she was so late, I had to be transferred out of midwifery care to the hospital to be induced with Pitocin.
• I was on Pitocin for almost 24 hours.
• It took me from noon to midnight to go from 1cm to 4cm dilation.
• I was poked 4 times when trying to get an IV inserted.  The last poke had to be done by the anesthesiologist.  His name was Lonnie.
• Because labor went so long, there were three full shift changes in hospital staff.
• The hospital had an all-you-can-eat room service, complete with a gluten-free menu.
• Painful labor contractions didn’t stop me from talking and asking questions.  Apparently, these must be my coping mechanisms.
• I felt extremely nauseous during the painful labor contractions.  I ended up puking everything I ate right when I got the epidural.  So once I had the epidural, I was starving.  I think Jake and my friend Rachelle fed me about 8 containers of strawbery jello (you’re only allowed to have clear fluids).
• I had a hard time not talking during pushing, even though I was instructed not to.  The nurse told me to stop talking several times and that if I was “able to talk while pushing, then you’re not actually pushing.”
• Jake thought I was absolutely hilarious during labor (but didn’t let out even a giggle until it was all over and the coast was clear).
• My midwives were certain I wouldn’t have a baby any more than 7.5 lbs, even this late.
• All of the doctors were certain she’d be a “huge baby”.  The head OB was there at the birth ready to vacuum, but it wasn’t necessary.
• The attending OB was ready to C-section thinking pushing would take another 1.5 hours (there was a threat of infection for Syrahav).  She gave us 30 minutes to think about it.  I pushed Syrahav out in 15.
• There were 18 people in our room when Syrahav was born, not including us and two other friends.
• Jake thought Syrahav and the amniotic fluid smelled like the beach (kind of salty).
• Syrahav weighed 6 lbs and 13.9 oz.
• Babies are expensive.  The total cost of our hospital stay that was submitted to insurance was just about $20,000, which includes:
  • vaginal delivery
  • 2 night hospital stay
  • epidural
  • Pitocin
  • stitches
  • cervical catheter
  • newborn tests/screenings
• After giving birth, I didn’t take any pain medication for almost two days, because I thought the midwives wouldn’t have had me on it.  Turns out, they recomend it as well.
• I think the OB thought I was weird by not wanting to take the pain medication.  She said, “It’s not bad!”  She knew I was a naturopathic medical student (aka- hippie, in her eyes).

the beginning

 

note the puke pan

 

in a lot of pain

looking into papa's eyes

happy mama

happy papa

jake trying to find something edible on the gluten-free menu

placenta tour

May 13th, 2009 | Comments (2)

Today, Syrahav is 3 weeks old!  

She’s teetering between newborn (NB) sized clothes and 0-3.  Some of the NB clothes are a little too tight over the cloth diapers, but then some of them fit really well.  Like NB sized pants.  For some reason, NB sized pants are soo big on her.  The waist of them is so loose around her tummy!  She needs a nice bulky cloth diaper to keep the NB sized pants on!  But she definitely is drowning in the 0-3 sized clothes, so she’s kind of in between sizes.

We’ve also finally started using our cloth diapers, which we love.  We have to stay on top of washing them, though, which I think is the hardest part of using them.  Jake LOVES using them too.  They’re really pretty easy, so I don’t know what the stink so many East Coasters make about them.  My only complaint is that the cloth diapers make certain clothing a little too tight—like she could be wearing all the NB sized clothes right now if she wore Pampers.  But most baby clothing is made to fit over disposables, unfortunately.

Syrahav usually wakes me up twice a night—which I think isn’t bad at all.  She will wake up three times, if I get in bed super early.  So she usually gives us about two 3 hour long sleep stretches.  She is sleeping in our bed, in her snuggle nest (if you click here, you can see what I’m talking about), although she isn’t as fond of the snuggle nest as we’d like.  Actually, she doesn’t really like it.  We usually have to sneak her in it while she’s really sleepy.  However, she can be in the middle of the deepest sleep possible, and as soon as she goes in the snuggle nest, her eyes pop right open.

Breastfeeding is going well—except for the fact that sometimes her hands get in the way and then she gets frustrated that she can’t get on the nipple for milk.  But her hands are preventing her from doing so!  And she doesn’t really like being swaddled—because I got that suggestion (to swaddle her so her hands are kind of “tied down”).  Actually, when we swaddle her now, she wiggles and squirms until she can get her hands out of the swaddled blanket.  I’m not used to how breast milk seems to get everywhere…whether from a messy breast feeding time (when she lets go of the latch, sometimes milk continues to pour out) or squirting out of her mouth from a spit-up.  It seems impossible right now to have to breast feed in public, but that will come later.

This post turned into something longer than I expected.  The main reason for posting was to give you a brief update on how everything is going (GREAT!) and also to say that I hope to post my birth story soon.  I need to pull out my writing skills in sharing the birth story with you—so that I can write the condensed version without leaving out the important details.  So stay posted for that…hopefully soon!

April 29th, 2009 | Comments (2)

Edited by Josh Ambrose (above).

Edited by Josh Ambrose (above).

We named this one “Meditation.”  Edited by Jake (above).

Edited by Jake (above).

This one is the same one we had up in an earlier post, but its edited by Josh Ambrose and has different coloring.  We really liked it.

April 23rd, 2009 | Comments (3)

I wanted to put this pic on facebook because its soooo beautiful–but I decided its too precious for FB and that Syrahav doesn’t have a choice in me plastering her body all over the internet.  So I’m just sticking it up on our family blog!  So beautiful.  Thanks to Jake for the photography skills and Josh Ambrose for the editing skills.  Oh, thanks to Uncle Jer & Aunt Christie for the beautiful blanket in the picture!

April 18th, 2009 | Comments (2)

Some pics from today… Happy 1 Week of Life, Syrahav!

April 15th, 2009 | Leave a comment