May 9, 2008
I’ve been blessed with a couple of minutes to update the ol’ blog without having a baby sleeping on at least one of my arms! Whee!
Things have been going pretty good. Navab has chill days and then not-so-chill days where she cries a lot and is inconsolable by everything except food. I’ve been getting out, going to Target or the grocery store, just to keep myself from going insane but also to “practice” getting her in and out of a car seat and a baby carrier. Sometimes this works well, sometimes it doesn’t. Delara (who is visiting/helping me for a few days, yay!!) and I had to turn the car around 1/2 block from our house today because the screaming was going to kill me. I hope Navab doesn’t remember someday me torturing her by not feeding her in that exact moment. Sorry kiddo.
Anyways, I’m doing good. My body is shrinking which is kind of funny after expanding so fast. I’ve got less than 10 lbs to lose before I’m back the way I was before all of this began. My stomach right now feels like marshmallow though and that’s funny to me. Heh.
I hear crying, gotta go drive the milk truck!
Filed by Lacey at May 9th, 2008 under Friends, Houston, Parenting
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May 1, 2008
Monday my mom went home. It was hard to tell her goodbye, especially because she’s been here since Navab was born to hold her when I had to go to the bathroom, to sometimes rock her when she cried, to clean up after me and to get me water when I was pinned to the baby…I miss my mom so much already. BUT, I guess I have to learn to do this mommy thing on my own sometime. Sofar, so good. But I’m going to still be really glad when Delara comes next week so that I can go to the bathroom and take a shower and stuff. Heh.
The past 2 weeks have changed my life. I look at my baby and think about her infinitely possible future. I now understand why people give up things I think are crazy to be with and raise their children. It all makes sense now. Don’t worry, I’m not planning any career changes, but I’m seriously glad that I’m taking 3 months off. I think my heart would break at any less time.
So, the birth: it was way longer than I expected–36 hours in all I think. I started feeling contractions on Tuesday night (after feverishly organizing the house for reasons only evolution can explain) and gave birth on Thursday morning. The contractions lasted so long and were so intense that after 24 hours, I caved and got an epidural (sigh). I really don’t feel bad, either, because it allowed me to get some sleep and push the baby out a few hours later (that part only took about 20 minutes…so fast that my OB actually missed it). I did it because I was tired, because things were going slow, and because I was going to lose my mind with no sleep and super intense contractions. So there’s my explanation.
Hearing that baby cry and holding her on my skin for the first time pretty much changed me (it was a whirlwind…but I’ll never forget it). Maybe it’s the hormones. But I have never felt so responsible in my life for something so important. Pretty much everything in the universe pales in comparison. Myk and I are just completely in love with her.
Okay so now this blog entry is out of the way. I’ve been typing and re-typing it for about 5 days now. And now it is done!
Filed by Lacey at May 1st, 2008 under Life, Pregnancy
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April 20, 2008
I’ll keep this short and sweet, but our daughter, Navab, has arrived! Born April 17. And GORGEOUS.
Labor was everything and nothing like I expected. I’ll tell you about it sometime.
But wow! Look at this beauty!!!! We’re so excited!
Filed by Lacey at April 20th, 2008 under Life
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April 14, 2008
I want to wear a sign around my neck that says:
- Yes I am still here.
- No I do not have a baby yet.
- I am due in 2 weeks. That’s so interesting that your sister’s/aunts/friend’s/monkey’s baby was born two weeks early/late.
- The nursery is done and we’re very proud of it (it’s just easier to say this than to go into the whole we don’t have a nursery thing).
- Yes, I know I’m huge. Thank you for pointing that out.
I’m Twittering more than anything these days. I love you guys.
Filed by Lacey at April 14th, 2008 under Life
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April 8, 2008
Holy crap, I could seriously have a baby any time now. I have felt BGG move slowly down and now she’s crushing my bladder, her head is up against my pelvis, she’s getting ready for her birthday. I seriously have been to the bathroom 15 times today, and it’s not because I’m just excited.
Holy crap, I could seriously have this baby any time now.
I should update you on the Evil Flu Plague situation. Basically, the flu left me with a horrible cough. This cough is so evil that it actually bruised one of my ribs (or something like that). So on Sunday, I felt stabbing pain every time I took a breath and was terrified of the next cough. Maybe it’s needless to say, but I started feeling very short of breath, dizzy, seeing stars…all the things that happen before someone blacks out. Fortunately I was with my friend/sister/birth assistant Atoosa and she drove me to the hospital. I went to Labor and Delivery and they checked me in, checked me over, checked BGG over, and finally sent me home with a prescription for some new cough medicine and advice to take Tylenol for the pain and Benadryl to help me sleep [and sorry there isn’t more we can give you but you’re allergic to all the good stuff and anything else might hurt the baby so, good luck with the Tylenol!].
The details of this whole escapade are probably not worth mentioning, but I will say that they did give me an ultrasound (my 2nd time) and I got to see BGG’s eye, a foot and a leg, some amniotic fluid, and…my liver. BGG is all good in there, she was just hiccuping away as I was wincing in pain. Thatta girl.
The pain is definitely better now, the cough is improving at a snail’s pace (I actually slept all night last night without coughing), and I’m starting to look ahead to the inevitable job of pushing a baby out of my you-know-what. Yep. After bruising my rib, I really am curious to see which is more painful. Several days of stabbing pain, or maybe a couple days with waves of pain (with a payoff that a bruised rib just doesn’t have, let’s face it). I’m really curious.
That’s my update! No BGG yet, but soon…
Filed by Lacey at April 8th, 2008 under Friends, Houston, Life, Pregnancy
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April 1, 2008
Dear Texas Department of Public Safety,
So, you remember that time in February when I went to your (hot, depressing, understaffed) establishment to get a Texas Driver’s License and spent 3 hours there only for you to tell me that you will MAIL me my new license? You ruined my whole day and the whole process sucked. If I didn’t have a passport and an airport ID I wouldn’t have been able to do crap since then. But you know what sucks more? When you tell me that there was an error processing my forms and I have to come back.
I’ve had licenses in Tennessee, Georgia, and Illinois and all my DMV trips were surprisingly efficient, not unpleasant experiences. You have officially nullified any positive experience I ever had with a DMV.
Did I mention that I’m about 9 months pregnant? I hate you.
***
Dear Newman-O’s,
You may just be the perfect food.
***
Dear Cough,
I will not let you ruin my life, but you’re really wearin’ me down.
–Lacey
Filed by Lacey at April 1st, 2008 under Life
9 persons have commented this post
March 27, 2008
I haven’t written lately because I’ve had the flu and didn’t want to complain on my blog in addition to Twitter. Needless to say, here’s the breakdown: baby is doing really good, I have a hideous cough, but I’m finally getting a little bit of sleep. I seriously was wondering as I got up for the 400th time last night (to either hack up my lungs or visit the bathroom) if this was God preparing me for having a baby. But some safe cough medicine has rescued me, and for that I am grateful.
Anyways. Being at home for the past 2 weeks more or less has given me a lot of time to look at my surroundings. Sadly, the boundless energy of my 2nd trimester has left me and so pretty much all I can do is…look…at all the things I want to do. Mini-makeover to the half bath (it’s really, really, really ugly), vacuuming the stairs, find someplace to stash all these shoes…how did we get so many shoes? Hang baby mobiles, wash rugs, stash my craft stuff somewhere, consider ugly coffee table again….the list could be infinite. But I know none of it really matters. I think we’re about as ready as we are gonna be for a baby to come into our lives.
Tomorrow I’ll be returning to work but from home, hooray! So I can do work without having to talk to people, which is good because whenever I talk I have a coughing fit. Now I must go and watch belly acrobatics, my favorite new sport!
Filed by Lacey at March 27th, 2008 under Life, Pregnancy
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March 16, 2008
This weekend, Myk and I attended our childbirth class at the hospital where I’ll be delivering BGG. It was 9am to 6pm (aka, longest day evar). It was pretty jam-packed and good, except Myk has been fasting and it was hard for him to stay alert the whole time, poor guy. But I think we hit all the “need to know” points and feel pretty secure in the decisions that we’ve made and what will happen when the time finally comes.
The nurse who taught our class was really a big proponent for natural birth, which both surprised and excited me. We watched videos of natural birth, medicated birth, and epidural birth, and out of the three natural still seemed the best for us, even though the woman was obviously in pain. I will avoid saying more because I don’t want anyone to feel like I’m judging them for however they gave birth–whatever you did was best for you! I just seriously, seriously hope I’m able to get some rest before I go into labor. You could just tell that all of these women were totally exhausted by the time the baby finally crowned. Shudder.
So, the crib has been assembled and placed/crammed into our room. Baby clothes are being laundered and put away. A changing area has been cleared. Having all this new stuff really makes me want to put our house on a diet, but I think that our living arrangement will probably change in the upcoming months, so we might have some relief there.
BGG’s been asking me to catch up on Lost, so I’m off!
Filed by Lacey at March 16th, 2008 under Uncategorized
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March 6, 2008
Thank you guys for your helpful advice on that last post. I think I was just having a rough day. I feel much better now.
So the other night I ordered some stuff from the internet for myself and for BGG. First, we needed diaper covers. We plan on cloth diapering at home and when she goes to daycare at 3 months, she’ll be doing whatever they want to do there (I’d like to try gDiapers, but I’m pretty sure disposable is what they will be doing). So last night I ordered a variety of diaper covers from DiaperCo and hopefully we will learn what works best for us. We received prefolded liners as a shower gift (thanks, Saniajoon!) and as great as I’m sure they are just by themselves, I really wanted the security that a cover can provide, especially since we’d like to wear BGG as much as possible those first 3 months and thereafter. Nothing like staining your nice new baby carrier, right?
…which leads me to my next thought, babywearing. Instinctually, before I was even out of my first trimester, I knew that wearing BGG was preferrable, for me, to putting her in a stroller. Myk knows this, but I like to be as minimal as possible at all times and pretty much my idea of a nightmare is a stroller in a mall for some reason. Not to mention the fact that we’re fans of Attachment Parenting and think/hope that it will build a stronger bond between her and us, especially because we’ll be separated during the work day for the most part. So, we have a couple of very awesome baby carriers that I’m super excited about (that I don’t mind taking to the mall at all). The first is the awesome Moby wrap, a gift from my good friend Shelby. The other is a GORGEOUS Sakura Bloom, given to us by the Wollabers. Initially, I was interested in more one-shoulder things like the Peanut Shell, but since I know something about ergonomics, I know that’s not going to fly (even though the prints are really cute…but heck, I can buy that fabric on Ebay. It’s made by either Michael Miller or Amy Butler!). I’m looking forward to us testing these out and we will let you know what we learn.
So anyways, this is just my little report. I hope to report back later and let you know how it all works out.
Filed by Lacey at March 6th, 2008 under Pregnancy
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March 4, 2008
So, people tell pregnant ladies all kinds of crazy things. Crazy things like, “You can eat whatever you want, you’re pregnant!” See, that’s crazy. What’s even crazier though, is when you listen to them subconsciously and then do something like, say, go to McDonald’s for lunch. And oh, it’s not the first time, is it? No, no it’s not.
I used to practically be vegan. I knew the havoc that meat, dairy, oils, fats, and salts would wreak on my body. I always told myself that when/if I got pregnant I would be the angel of eating so that my child would be the epitome of health. Nary a shred of cheese would enter my mouth! I would not dare think about eating MEAT or FRIED MEAT or drinking SODA. Oh God, it’s awful what I’ve done.
See, what I didn’t take into account is my mental state as a pregnant lady, not to mention the hormones. Hormones will make you do crazy things, like smell something and want to puke, for example. Something you maybe smelled every day of your life suddenly makes you want to vomit. This hormonal curse will make your brain go to extremes; extremes like only letting you eat massive amounts of cottage cheese for weeks or eating everything bagels with cream cheese. Not just any bagel, an EVERYTHING bagel. Or how about a specific ice cream with chocolate syrup? Yeah I had to do that once too. Oh God, the things I’ve done! I feel like I need to be banished to the nth ring of hell.
At one point during my pregnancy my doctor warned me about weight gain and said I should “be careful.” I listened to her and freaked out accordingly and then got back on track (whatever that is). I do eat healthily sometimes, most of the time even–I love fruit and most vegetables and don’t eat meat every day. But lately I love chocolate and fried chicken and Sprite and bean burritos from Taco Bell. It’s a slippery, slippery slope I’m going down.
I’ve gained 22lbs, but I’m expecting to be up at least 30lbs by the time this is all said and done. I’ve told you all this because I really do feel guilty, but also because I look to you for solace, dear readers. I need to know that I’m not a bad person for eating crap every now and then (even if that is more regular than “now and then”). I know that the baby will be fine because she’s one strong little wiggler, but I cannot keep doing this. I have to pull out! I have to get back on track! Help!
Filed by Lacey at March 4th, 2008 under Pregnancy
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