a tater tot birth story

 

Hey there world, so it's been a month since Henry was born, how about a birth story?! 

 

I was waiting and waiting for this babe to come. My pregnancy symptoms were wearing on me, I was already on maternity leave, and all of our to-dos were done. I felt like he would show up early, but alas it was week 39....and still no tater tot. With Cora my water broke at midnight at home and we rushed to the hospital. So for some reason I expected this babe to come the same way- wake me up from the dead of sleep and we could excitedly run into the hospital. So every night that I would wake up to go pee, or have contractions...I thought ...this was it! But instead it was this Tuesday morning on October 29th that was a little different. Which let me tell you is also matt's dad and my mom's birthday.... super fun. Ok so let's talk birth story...

5:30 am

I woke up to contractions, but really I had been feeling contractions for about a month now. These felt a little lower however and a little more productive. The night before I had made a cake for matt's work but I hadn't finished the last steps. So at 5:30 I decided I should finish this cake. I also ran around finishing up laundry, cleaning the house. I kind of knew today was going to be different so I better get things in order.

7:30 am

Then I woke matt up when my contractions were a little more painful...and told him that we should probably go in. I really didn't want to be turned away, but my midwife had told me with second babes to watch for more painful contractions not the timing of them. So we took showers, had matt's wonderful parents come over to watch Cora and we gathered up our hospital bag (and cake) and left.

8:30 am

So we stopped at starbucks on our way. Matt needed a coffee if this was really "it." I don't think the lady at the drive thru window noticed I was contracting...so that was good, which made our love addiction to coffee a little less awkward. We then stopped by matt's work to drop off the cake...I  rarely make a decorated cake, so I wasn't going to have it go to waste.

9:00 am

We got to labor and delivery... I figured they wouldn't take us seriously with matt's coffee in hand. Who stops for coffee if they are truly in labor? I thought they would send us home in a second. Instead... I was checked and my water was fully intact and I was about 3cm dilated. I was elated. But seeing how I hadn't been checked previously they didn't have anything to compare it to. They asked me to walk around for an hour in the halls then I could be checked one more time at 10:15. If I dilated- sweet, they would admit me and we are having a baby today! If no change, they'd send us on our way. I did the walking with matt. This time was fun- I could actually move, walk, sit. Last time my water broke first so all movements were incredibly painful. I couldn't walk, couldn't get in the tub- nothing. Pure pain. This time I had painful contractions in which I would stop walking, stop talking....couldn't really hear or process anything but the pain. Then when it was over matt and I would resume our conversation and walk the rest of the hallway until the next contraction. It was grand. We were excited. I knew this was labor, and I knew I was having a baby soon.

10:15 am

They checked me and I was 5cm dilated! Amazing. Last time it took me about 12 hours to get this far along. My nurse said she would admit me, call my midwife and start an IV. She attempted an IV- missing it. I told her I could do a few more laps around the halls- get those veins to pop out. She said no... she had other plans for me. I am actually having this baby quite soon. She had already called anesthesia for an epidural- she could tell I was in quite a bit of pain and she needed an IV now. I laughed....excited that this was for real.... let's get that IV! Last time I hemorrhaged post partum, and I definitely liked (ok, needed) the epidural, so I was on board with her plans. Everything was kind of a whirlwind. We answered a bunch of admitting questions, they started an IV and started the bolus of fluids. Anesthesia came and started the epidural. It really wasn't a big deal- little uncomfortable to be sitting hunched over during contractions- but whatever. Contractions are uncomfortable period. Like 10/10 pain regardless. So a tiny poke in the back? Minuscule. So now I could just relax a little and wait. My sister came to be a part of the delivery, which was different from last time when it was just Matt and I. It was great... someone to take pictures, to witness the pure craziness of welcoming a human into the world, and to be an added support for me (which she was!).

12:00 pm

My midwife popped in, and checked me again- I was 8 cm! I think my water partially broke somewhere around this time. She said she'd go change her clothes and grab some lunch and then let's have a baby?! She is so laid back, I loved it.

1:00 pm

My epidural wasn't really relieving the pain, I felt it quite low...and figured maybe something else was going on. I called my nurse in and my midwife came in also. She checked and I was 10 cm! My midwife threw on a face mask, and gown and sat at the foot of my bed... and said... so do you want to push?! I said uhh.... is it time to?! She said sure, if you want. I had forgotten how to and my legs were quite numb. So my sister took a leg, the nurse took the other and matt was up at my head coaching me to push. I pushed twice and I could hear the fetal heart monitor just drop each time. His heartbeat was either nothing, or rather close to mine (not good). My nurse and midwife said calmly.... "oh wow, he doesn't like this pushing does he! Let's go ahead and have this baby!!" I knew this was not a calm situation, but I appreciated their demeanors. Which is exactly why I chose my midwife to begin with...very calm and collected, soothing. With Cora I pushed for 2 hours, so I wasn't really sure what to expect but I couldn't freak out- I needed to focus on super good pushes. So I just closed my eyes and focused.

1:10 pm

Yep, about 10 minutes of pushing (4 pushes total) and he was out. I literally could not believe it. I think I was laughing or crying or in disbelief that this was it. Here was my healthy beautiful little boy on top of my belly now?! I was done? This was my "labor" experience, I felt like I was cheating. Way too easy. 6 hours? Not 17 hours like with Cora. Sweet!

So matt cut the cord... and our little Henry Oaks was born at 1:10pm on October 29th 2013. He was 8 pounds, 10 ounces and 20.5 inches long...with decent Apgar scores minus his super blue hands and feet.

Little Oaks latched right away breastfeeding, which just warmed my heart. What a boy... healthy, thriving and hungry.

 

 

 

I think I was hemorrhaging a little, but it was under control with Pitocin. I was able to walk a few hours later after the epidural wore off. I instantly felt amazing. Sure I was in pain, I just birthed a whole human... but I felt great, I was ready to do this mom thing, a little more experienced this time around.

After we got to our postpartum room we had Cora come meet her little brother. The grandparents brought her by....and it was precious. She climbed right up to the hospital bed into my arms and just starred at Henry. I'm sure she didn't know what to make of him, but she knew he was a baby and gently kissed him, all bundled up. She played for awhile in the room- unaware of how her little world just changed and then went home with matt and grandparents.

Kelsey (my sister) stayed with me for a few hours, until matt came back. It was glorious. We had girl talk, face-timed with our parents in California who would later come to meet him. And we ate sushi, and sipped champagne and reminisced about the glorious day while henry rested in my arms. It was perfect and exactly how I pictured a better postpartum experience could be. (thanks to Kelsey planning it out and executing it wonderfully)

 

Henry slept the first night off and on and more importantly breastfed perfectly through the night. He had a circumcision the next day and we asked to be discharged. I knew the real test would be at home... multitasking and survival of the sleep deprivation newborn stage.

 

We were ready. Let's do this Henry...

Our tater tot is born!!

[welcome to the world henry oaks]

 

Henry was born Tuesday, October 29th 2013 at 1:10 pm.

He was 8 pounds 10 ounces and 20.5" tall.

He is perfect and healthy, and definitely all boy.

He is eating well, adjusting nicely into our little family and just a content little guy.
I can't wait to tell you all about him, this has been a completely new and wonderful experience for us all.

 

first day of maternity leave...

not too shabby, me and tiny matt enjoying some finding nemo

Yes, I am officially on maternity leave, but no... no new little babe to speak of yet. The other night at work I was feeling a bit more on the patient side of things, instead of being the nurse. So I decided, it was time. I was contracting a TON...so much so that I thought I was going into labor- I was stoked. I went home around 2am... and everything died down and I had one of the best nights of sleep ever. I woke up at 7am...well shit. I guess I didn't have a baby after all. So I have been enjoying Cora, keeping the house clean and really doing much of nothing. All of my projects are done and baby shopping is done. Anytime I try to do something rigorous (ok...just a normal activity like grocery shopping) I end up contracting a ton and needing to sit down. So I guess maternity leave was due.  So me, tiny matt and regular sized matt are living it up, 38 weeks pregnant... just waiting for tater tot to show up and join the party.

a tater tot name

We have a name folks! I'm so excited about this. It was a hard one for us. Matt and I both have never actually pictured ourselves having a son. We have a sweet little sister name picked out, but the little brother name was tricky. Nothing really felt "right." We started calling our little spud Cora as soon as we had our 20 week ultrasound. Then we shortly after came up with the middle name elm. We love trees, we had elm trees living all around us at the time. It was just right. Our little girl was going to grow up to be strong and tall like an elm tree.

So... fast forward 18 months, at our last ultrasound when we were shocked to see a tiny boy floating around, we had not a clue. So for weeks we have been tossing around a new boy name everyday, writing them down, and contemplating this huge decision.

I am not one that will just "know" when the babe comes out..."oh he looks like a...." Its not me. Cora didn't look like a cora, she just was. So I needed to have a plan. I got frustrated a few weeks ago and told matt that we were making a decision. I don't even care if its a so-so name, we are choosing one. I need a boy name to make this feel real.

contender first names:
Graham
Eugene
Gene
Dell
Dean
Glenn

contender middle names:
Robert (huge family name on both sides)
Linden (the tree theme)
Alden
Bay

I have been admiring the name Henry for some time now... and it just felt the most right of our choices. It's an old soul name just like Cora. Oaks- for the oak tree, I really wanted to keep the tree middle name theme going for the siblings. And now we have it. Henry Oaks.... and his initials will be HOP. Like beer hops. How the heck did that happen?!

Cora and Henry... I love it.
Now we call tater tot  "little oaks"....we are in love. And now he feels more real...our son, henry oaks.

tater tot's nursery

We have less than two months before our little tot arrives, so I suppose I should get on his little room. Here is my inspiration so far....

It's going to be a little eclectic,  a little retro modern (maybe, if I can pull it off).

Grey, dark brown, navy, burnt orange. Colors totally out of my comfort zone, but I'm excited about it.

1. wall color (Martha Stewart's driftwood gray)
2. DIY crib sheets (made from Out to Sea fabric)
3. navy curtains
4. espresso crib (baby mod crib from walmart)
5. globe (cost plus)
6. airplane mobile (etsy)
7. some kind of fun orange retro lamp (pinterest)
8. chevron orange diaper changing pad cover something like this fabric (pinterest)

It's a... gender reveal card

So we came up with this idea on our own... I know, no pinterest inspiration. CRAZY. We are super excited with how they turned out, so I want to share it with you. Most of our family lives outside of our state. So we couldn't have a gender reveal party, just like last time. We decided to make a fun card to share the suspense, because last year it was a hoot.

Last time we made scratch-off cards to share the news, super fun. I don't know that we topped that idea, but at least it was a blast to do.

We had to do a little prep work, because as soon as we found out our tater tot's gender...we had to move fast. We were vague to our family/friends about when the ultrasound was to buy us a little time to get the cards in the mail.

We chose tie dye...because we love it. A kid in a tie dye? Adorable. Grown-ups in the same exact tie dye outfit? Hilarious. We chose to do a family tie-dye event for our Tour de Fat costumes last year- so fun. This Christmas I think we are doing a tie-dye Christmas for Christmas morning. Cheesy. I love it.

Prep work:

so sad, pink tie dye shirts. so long.

- make tie dye clothing- a set of pink and blue for matt, cora, and I. This is easy. A bunch of cheap white shirts from Old Navy, and a tie dye kit from Jo-Anns.
- make a pom pom garland in blue and pink. Fun excuse to make crafts.

make your own washi tape... cut pieces of fun paper into strips

apply removable tape adhesive- done!

- Make colorful DIY washi tape. I chose to make our own washi tape, because real washi tape is see-through, which doesn't look so hot on black envelopes. I wanted a bright strip of rainbow paper as the first color seen in the card.
- pre-assemble cards. I bought 30 sheets of grey 8 1/2"x 11" paper, then cut them down to be 5"x7" cards.

 

- I chose to cut down normal end-opening 4 1/2" x 9" envelopes to fit a 4x6 photo. Then just sewed up the ends to close them off. Then used permanent spray adhesive to attach the fronts of the envelopes to the card.

- do the photo layout on photoshop elements- " its a..." So that I could just throw the photo in after taking it Monday afternoon- make a black and white photo version and then the "little sister/brother" versions for the color photo.
- pre-address the envelopes and stamp them.

Day of the Ultrasound:
- go to the appointment. YAY!! Hold in the excitement and resist urge to call EVERYONE.

outtakes. many of them.

 

- go home, take a photo on a quilt in our backyard with the appropriately colored clothing/pom poms.
- at night, upload photos and edit in elements with text and color/black and white.
- upload 4x6 photos to 1 hour photo at Costco.

Next Day:
- pick up photos from Costco

- assemble cards, gluing, stuffing.

 

- admire and get excited that the secret is almost out.
- send off in the mail!


Then just wait for some phone calls...

Oh yea...and a little boy?! Eeeesh!!! CRAZY. We expected a little sister for Cora. I think we have about 20 weeks to let it sink in. Right now our minds are blown.

baby names, round 2.

where's cora?

We have been debating on the list of baby names for awhile now. Matt and I don't really agree just yet. It's tricky, you know. So as we come up with potentials, I write them down...to let them marinate a while, diffuse some emotion, some biases...then we throw them in here and there in conversation. Oh wow, Douglas sure is grumpy today. Cora and Della let's go swimming!!! Eunice!!!

Here you can choose the decade to search through the top 100 names for the year based on the social security card database. I personally like the old fashioned names... so searches like 1900's make me happy.

Did you guys see portlandia's skit on the 1890's. Ok Hilarious.

Anyways... Cora happens to be #70 in 1900, super fun. Perhaps her tiny sibling will have an old soul name as well. Our strategy- this time, we aren't going to tell anyone our name choices. We are so wishy-washy this time around, I really don't want to be swayed by people's opinions. We will find out the babe's gender in June-ish, then we can start narrowing down our options. Do we use potentials that we had for Cora? It just feels wrong, like they were meant for our first babe. Do we come up with an earthy middle name, like Cora has Elm? Unlike now, we knew immediately without question our spud would be a Cora. Now tater tot deserves a whole fresh list of names. This is a toughie. But uber fun. We have about seven months to figure it out.

Do you all have some favorite old fashioned names? Please do share!!

the first trimester of pregnancy (tater tot style)

tater tot's 10 week ultrasound

So it's not really my style to keep secrets. I hate it. Let me re-phrase, I don't mind keeping other's secrets, I just don't have too many of my own. I'm a share-er. So the fact that we kept our pregnancy a matt-cora-me-and tater tot exclusive secret, I have some updating to do now...

Want to hear about the first 3 months of pregnancy, this second time around? I thought so!

Matt and I had finally just this January started talking about, hey we could probably have another child. Before that I wasn't ready physically...and we were adjusting to our new lives. I thought that perhaps getting pregnant may be hard again (it took us a year with Cora), and I wanted our babes to be about 2-3 yrs apart, so perhaps we should start thinking about it. Matt agreed- lets start getting pregnant after summer (ha.) And if we got pregnant now... it would be ok.

4 weeks(Feb 18th)
My initial symptoms? Flushed face. Weird right. Matt even commented- why is your neck all red?! I didn't know, so weird. I wasn't nervous or anything. Then I just missed my period by a day... so I took a test- negative. Still no period, some period-esq cramping and MAJOR grumpies towards matt. Oh man, I was awful and couldn't even help it. So 3 days later....took another preg test for the hell of it. Pregnant. CRAZY. I walked out to show Matt (and Cora)...we both smiled in disbelief. Seriously?! We didn't even try. This was too easy. No way. Seriously?!

We did the math super fast. I would be due in October. Cora and tater tot would be 18 months apart. WOW. That means a super prego- summer. I hadn't planned on that. We were going to be stress-free trying to get pregnant this summer, meanwhile camping the hell out of Idaho. Hmm. Interesting.

5,6 & 7 weeks
Still just fine. Minimal cramping...moderate grumpies...pretty exhausted. And just a tad bit of feeling uneasy, but not super nauseated. I just find that if I eat all the time, no empty stomach I feel better. (...yeah, I have no idea why I gained 50 lbs with my last pregnancy) But the first time I was much more nauseated, so I was pleasantly surprised.

We had our first prenatal appointment with our midwife at 7 weeks... she was ecstatic to see us. I think because we are easy patients- no questions, just happiness... pure joy.

8,9 & 10 weeks
Some nausea- uneasy days and days that kicked my butt, but mainly so incredibly exhausted. Last time during this stage I was able to loaf-around, sleep (when I wasn't in nursing school or working nights) but you know... not take care of a super mobile almost 1 yr old. So that's new. I constantly felt like I was so groggy ...like I just woke up from not enough sleep and needed a coffee badly...or that it has been the longest hang over of my life. All day, everyday. Didn't matter how much sleep I had. Night shifts- grueling. But I knew I would get my energy back in a month. It was short lived. And thankfully I had matt to let me sleep/take naps.

11 weeks
At 11 weeks we had our first ultrasound. We thought it was week 11, but turns out I was only 10 weeks along, so the due date was re-calculated to a November babe. We could have had an ultrasound earlier, but quite frankly I wanted to see a baby...not a comma or a gummy bear. I wanted to see our little tater tot. So I thought we could wait. Even though it killed me everyday- feeling like this whole pregnancy wasn't really real. For three reasons...#1 we didn't try #2 we didn't tell anyone to celebrate #3 all I had was some positive pee sticks. So an ultrasound could have helped, but we waited.

At the ultrasound we saw 2 arms, 2 legs...a beating heart and a sweet wiggly body with hiccups. The U/S tech said...oh wow... looks like you have an active baby. Ha! Well that will be brand new to us. Cora in utero was flopping all around, hiccups galore... and hasn't slowed down yet.

At 11 weeks all of our family came into town for Cora's birthday party. On friday morning we planned a breakfast for all to convene at. I put cora in her big sister shirt and put a zip up sweat shirt over it. When all were around matt took off her sweatshirt... the first to notice was my sister and matt's sister jenni. It was all so fast, but they basically said...umm...cora is not a big sister. Like I had accidentally bought the wrong shirt. But I don't buy shirts with words on them- its a pet peeve of mine. Anyways, I said...yes... she will be a big sister in November. They were all so excited and shocked. It was grand.

12 weeks
I feel great, my energy is mostly back, a little uneasy from time to time. But good. I almost forget that I'm pregnant chasing after Cora. Still some food aversions... but that's not hard to navigate. My waist line is increasing... I am feeling fat, but I have only gained a pound. But overall this pregnancy is much easier. Which makes me think it will be a boy. We shall see!

And just like that it seemed like the first trimester flew by. It was fun to have it be our little secret but difficult. For those 3 months we kept on secretly looking at cora and beaming that we will have a second one just as awesome, but totally a brand new human being. Pregnancy is exciting, I love it. And I love even more being done with the first trimester hang-over.

pregnant...again!!

...big sister...

Yup! We are pregnant! We are expecting our little Tater Tot this November 3rd. He/she is about 11 weeks along in utero-land.
 

Cora was the one to "tell" our family at her 1st birthday party weekend. Our parents and siblings traveled from afar to see enjoy her birthday, so friday when everyone was in town we had a little breakfast party...with cora wearing the news on her shirt. So much fun.

The reaction was... "cora is not a big sister." Oh yes, she will be.

So are you doing the math yet? Spud (cora) and tater tot (to be determined) will be 18 months apart. Closer than we expected... but more on that later.