Baby K'Tan

Let me share with all of you one of the best baby products I have found thus far: the Baby K'Tan .

I adore this product. For a wrap, it has a surprisingly small learning curve considering the lack of buckles and the variety of positions available once your baby is bigger than Saoirse. I use this thing almost any time I will be in somewhere more than 10 minutes and/or need 2 hands. 

I swear a third arm should pop out when the baby does. Cause that would be helpful. 

Sitting around at the Revenue office to get car tags renewed

I use this thing for solo runs to Target and to make it to where runs such as that can last long enough. Because my arm strength sucks and 10 lbs gets really heavy 20+ minutes in. And having both hands at my disposal is AWESOME. 

First time. We've gotten the fit and all down better since then. 

I'd wear it around the house more, but until she falls asleep she isn't happy to be in it unless I'm moving. Once she's unconscious, I can stand still, but until then movement it is. And there's only so much that I need to do that doesn't require bending over, therefore once again reducing me to one hand, or that doesn't require standing in one place. And it is not enough to knock her out. So this is largely used for walks and shopping.

However it did make trying on jeans for the first time since giving birth pretty easy. I got new pants and Saoirse got to sleep on me. Win/Win. 

The only complaints I have are that my baby is very exothermic and this thing is kind of warm and it is sized. But I get warm with her on me anyway so it's kind of a warm with one or no hands or warm with two hands kind of deal. Two hands is superior. Also, it isn't one size fits all, unlike some other carriers. There's no adjusting it between users which is both awesome and inconvenient in some ways. That's not a deal breaker for me, though. I haven't tried it on my husband but we tend to wear the same size in shirts so maybe it will fit him too. Its non-adjustability is actually the only way to make one of my favorite traits about it possible- the fact I don't have to figure out how to wrap it around me and tie knots while attempting to hold a baby against gravity. It's never going to be too loose, as the two loops that comprise it don't change length. Sitting her in the first loop while I get the other one into position doesn't leave me scared to death that if I don't have a steel grip on her she will crash to the ground. I obviously keep a hand on her but there is some support under her aside from me. The two loop system also seems to make this easier to use and less daunting, at least it did to me. 

We've only ever done the Kangaroo position since Saoirse is still small. While she pushes up against other things with her legs, she has yet to show an inclination towards doing so in the K'Tan. When she does, we'll definitely move to the Hug position, where she can't push her way out. That position doesn't look any more difficult to put her in. 

I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in babywearing. In fact, after using it, it may be a go-to baby shower present for friends who have any interest in wearing their baby. 

This is not a sponsored post. I just wanted to share. 

Typing With Two Hands!

DYou know you're a new mom with a very snuggly 6 week old when that is a moment of triumph. That is totally interwoven with the fact you managed to get said 6 week old to continue sleeping as you put her in her swing. And keep sleeping. For the moment anyway. This has a tendency to be very short-lived. Let's just be honest, the only real way to get anything done two-handed and not have a screaming infant in less than 10 minutes (usually more like 5) is to find someone else to snuggle her. And have her well fed. As the sole source of food, I am required for the food part. Speaking of which...

Breastfeeding.

I could ramble on about how it is best for your baby (it is), how it facilitates bonding (it does), how it can only be sanitary (when straight from the source anyway), etc etc. I won't. Google can tell you all of those things. I want to talk about the experience. And seeing as I can see Saoirse's eyes in that little swing, that may or may not happen in this post.

Let me be honest, that first week was incredibly rough. I can see how people give in and switch to pumping and bottle feeding. Or formula. I know that rough first week or so can be avoided with the perfect latch. But who the heck ever gets a perfect latch on a regular basis in those first few days? By the time I had a good latch going, my nipples had been abused by the sharp ridge on the backside of Saoirse's upper gum.

On second thought, razor blade might be a more accurate description. 

She had a tendency to try for a shallow, lazy latch. Which hurt like hell. There was a lot of breaking the latch and darn near shoving as much of my boob as possible into her mouth to where my nipples weren't being gnawed upon. Those lovely hydrogel things lived on me and I'm not sure we would've survived without them. Even so, there was a lot of gritting my teeth and reminding myself that in a minute or so the pain would subside. And hoping that once my boobs got used to it, the pain would go away. As a light at the end of the tunnel to anyone reading, it did. 6 weeks later, we're still going strong with breastfeeding. And it doesn't hurt. 

But at the time, holy cow. The cluster feeds and Saoirse endlessly being attached to my boob for 4 or so days until my milk came in was brutal. I took Motrin more for my nipple pain than for the damage done down south. However, I am glad we stuck to it and I would never discourage anyone not to do so. I would and do encourage hooking up with a lactation consultant in the hospital or as soon as possible after birth. Get a good latch as soon as possible. But the fact is, your boobs have never experienced this amount of attention. There will most likely be some initial discomfort. I also found life got better after my milk came in when she didn't have to nurse quite so vigorously or constantly to be full. 

But things are working now. Wonderfully. She gained back her birth weight in a week, and she's up to 10 lbs now. 

iPhone photo dump

Some cute pics from the last 6 weeks as I sit pinned by a nursing baby. If you want more regular updates, I'd go to Instagram and follow me (@mikadavidson). 

Friday with my fun new wig

Going for a walk- staying in the stroller didn't last long. She's a snuggle bug and doesn't like not being held. 

No more pictures, please!

We made her a centerpiece once. So I could eat with 2 hands. 

Sept 1- ready to go home from the hospital 

Little newborn 

These are in reverse sequential order of you cared. 

5 am

I would rather not see you, 5 am. Especially not after seeing 2. 3, and 4 am. 

Yes, we are having one of those nights from hell. The likes of which I haven't seen since the hospital. Saoirse has, largely, been a great sleeper and a good nurser as far as time out of bed for night feedings if staying in bed just wasn't cutting it. 30 minutes and we were back snuggled up going back to sleep. 

And then there's tonight. Someone has a tummy ache. 36-48 without a good bowel movement, then only one blowout makes a fussy baby. 

In case that wasn't obvious. 

Saoirse has a normal routine of 2-3 nearly subsequent good bowel movements every night. As in change one and minutes within the clean one being put on, regardless of how long you waited to see if she was "done", poop #2 happens. Sometimes this process gets repeated. However, for the last couple days, we've only been having small poops. This leads to discomfort. For both of us, as I am very tired right now. 

Birth

This is the story of my labor and delivery. While there are no pictures, birth, by its very nature, is graphic. You have been warned that this may be TMI for some people. Reader discretion is advised. 

My blood pressure had been running slightly high since about 36-37 weeks. However, it went back down to normal (from 140s/90-100) when I would lie down so my dr wasn't too concerned as long as it kept doing that. Around 38 weeks, I was informed that if I hadn't gone into labor by my appt at 40 wks 2days, I'd be induced around 41 weeks as they didn't want me to go longer. At almost 40 weeks, I noticed my blood pressure was up unless I was lying down- it didn't matter if I wasn't doing anything strenuous. So Tuesday I called my dr and they told me that if it ceased to go back down when I would lie down to go to labor and delivery. It stayed down when I was down so I called Wednesday and moved my appt from Friday to Thursday. 

Thursday we went in and my blood pressure was, predictably, up. My doctor advised me to go on and head over to L&D, as, while I did not have preeclampsia, she would rather send me over there to be induced now that potentially have it become preeclampsia. We discussed it and the idea was to have me put on pitocin to start labor and see if labor would then progress on its own. 

However, so many things that I wanted from my birth plan- that had been approved by my doctor and that we showed to the nurses- didn't happen. I wish now I had been more of an advocate for myself and argued to have things go as I wanted them within reason. I think things would have gone smoother. 

So we went over to L&D and settled in. It took 5 IV attempts and 3 nurses to get my IV in to start the pitocin drip. My BP jumped to 170/110 with the first BP reading due to the cuff putting pressure on the 4 attempts in my left arm. Hurt like hell. 2 valves were hit, 1 vein blew, and another was a through and through hit. Doesn't mix well with a BP cuff. I was also hooked up to a heart rate monitor for Saoirse. This was all around 2:30 Thursday afternoon. We sat around for a while, with contractions being painless (I had to watch the monitor to make sure what I was feeling was a contraction). I was told I could only have ice chips and no food. Mind you, my IV drip was super slow. I snuck some food and water but not much. In hind sight, I should have just eaten and drank (light, easy things obviously) as I pleased. I was getting next to no fluids or calories for the duration of all of this. We walked some to try to encourage things and Saoirse regularly moved off the monitor. I was about 4 cm. 

At 9:30 pm, my doctor called L & D to see if I wanted my water broken. I was pretty torn on this one. I wanted labor to continue to progress, instead of stalling, but my mom had her water broken during her first labor to try to move things along and we now believe, 28 years later, that that is why my brother got stuck, was because they broke the water prematurely. Joseph and I went back and forth and I couldn't make a decision. Finally, we decided to call my doctor and talk to her about the benefits and risks of each option. He talked to her on the phone and then hung up to tell me what had been said. About 3 sentences in, I felt a gush of water. "I think my water broke." Well, that made that decision easy enough. Upon examination, it turned out my water hasn't actually broken, I had what they called a "high leak", where the membrane tears slightly further up away from the cervix. So there were still membranes across my cervix. But it seemed to have gone ahead and encouraged labor as I was soon 5 cm. 

At this point, things started being painful. I started having to breathe through contractions. Joseph did hip squeezes while I sat on the yoga/birth ball, just trying to be more comfortable than I was in the bed.  My lower back was starting to really hurt. I asked to get in the tub. They detached me from the monitors and covered the IV site and I got in and turned the jets on. We turned on my iPod to 30 Seonds to Mars and I maneuvered around in the tub for a while. The contractions were getting stronger and more painful. I was feeling crappier and crappier. I eventually decided to get out because I was cold, despite being in warm water. I shook horribly as I stood to get out of the tub, my husband doing a lot of supporting me as my mom helped get me back into a gown. I got back in bed despite my back hurting badly because I was freezing and I didn't want to sit up on my own or stand. I got a heated blanket. I labored on my back and my side for a while, warming up. The pain in my back was getting really bad so I switched to being on all fours. I was unfortunately really tired at this time and supporting myself in that position was hard. Hip squeezes now hurt. I eventually went into the bathroom, hoping maybe the toilet would be a helpful position to help move her down. It just hurt. Sitting in any position hurt. My contractions were rough, courtesy of pitocin (that was still being edged up), but what made it worse was that my back was killing me through everything. It didn't let up. The contractions would have been tolerable if not for that. If I had had any kind of break. I eventually asked for some kind of pain relief. I absolutely did not want an epidural, but I was exhausted and hurting badly. About 2 am or so, I got stadol. I spent the next 2 hours lapsing in and out, getting some rest punctuated by contractions. About 4 am, I started counting the minutes until 5 am when I could have some more stadol. At about 4:30 or so I was at 7 cm. The stadol was letting me relax some and make progress. We asked a couple different times to back off the pitocin so I could relax a little, make the contractions a bit less intense. It always had to be upped again to keep my contractions from spacing out too much. I had more stadol at 5 am. Somewhere around 6 am, I started feeling like I needed to push. Pushing was the only way I could handle the contractions. But I was only at a 9, so they didn't want me to. I did it anyway. I couldn't help it. At about 6:30, they had me start pushing. I was told to push on every contraction and also informed that there was no going back once I started this. Kind of a "if you want a c-section, now is your last chance to ask for one." I was exhausted, lapsing in and out of awareness in between pushes. They brought out the support bar for me to pull myself up on, but between being tired and the pain in my back, I had trouble getting to the bar to hold myself up. My husband and my mom ended up helping a lot, helping me hold my legs and curl into myself to push. I just had almost nothing left in me, courtesy of a lack of food or fluids. My IV was running a saline/dextrose mix in at a snail's pace. I didn't even finish a bag in the ~18 hours I was hooked up to it. I had nothing to run on. They brought in the mirror, so I could see what was happening. I didn't watch much, that took more effort than I cared to exert. At some point, the nurse left to go page the doctor and I asked Joseph for a c-blok from my bag. It's a kind of energy bar thing used by runners for marathons and such. I'm glad I got it because I was so tired. When the nurse came back, the doctor had suggested I push on my side. My mom helped me curl for the pushes and held on thigh while Joseph held the other. It was all I could do to touch my thighs, let alone pull against them. I found out later that at some point in all of this, they couldn't find Saoirse's heartbeat. We figure she had just wiggled off the monitor again, but we have no way of knowing. The nurses were concerned though. And the fluid coming out had some meconium in it. I knew none of this at the time. I was just pushing on contractions and lapsing out in between, getting a few seconds of rest. The nurses told me they could see her hair, that she had a head of it, and to keep pushing. 

Then I was told to stop pushing so they could get the doctor. I must say, that is one of the most ridiculous requests I have ever had made of me. My body was contracting and pushing on its own and as exhausted and weak as I was, that was the only option really. The only option was to follow my body. Finally the doctor, not my normal doctor, came in and introduced himself and we kept going. I pushed and holy cow, did that hurt. Given the state of things (missing heartbeat and meconium), I wasn't able to do crowning slowly like I wanted to. I remember saying owowowowowowowowowow as she came out in a gush of fluid. I looked down and she wasn't crying but she was looking around. They were suctioning her mouth out, trying to keep her from inhaling fluid (which is why she wasn't crying, they were actively working to keep her from doing so). The doctor asked if Joseph  wanted to cut the cord and I bounced in, saying we wanted to delay the cutting. The doctor then informed me that there was meconium and he wasn't comfortable delaying the cutting given the circumstance. I had plans, but many of those plans had been thrown out the window that night for far less good reasons. I watched Joseph cut her cord and she was whisked off to the nurses and waiting NICU staff (there because of the potential heart issue seen on ultrasound- she was fine and they weren't needed). The doctor then proceeded to see what damage was done. I had a 2nd degree tear he had to sew up, along with something that required stitches on the right side inner lips. Saoirse was brought to me while he did his work and the first thing she did was grab my finger. I was so tired, but for the first time in hours, I was awake. And thirsty. After the doctor finished his things, the nurse cleaned me up and we took pictures. Saoirse laid on my chest and we all slept for a while, getting over the ordeal. A bit later, they weighed and measured her. 8 lbs 1.5 oz and 20 inches long. Perfect. 

I think next time I may do a home birth. And next time I'm telling them screw it and eating and drinking within reason as I please if I am at a hospital. And I sure as heck don't want pitocin. Very little went as planned but I didn't end up with a c-section, which I really didn't want. And we both came out of it well and healthy. That's the important part in the end. 

Introducing...

Saoirse Flynn D.

08/30/2013
8:10 AM

8 lbs 1.5 oz

20 inches long

13.75 inch head circumference

Term Tomorrow

Well, tomorrow is the "due date" (and yes, I realize it's more of a guess). I've been having, off and on, what everyone says are Braxton-Hicks because they don't hurt. On Friday, at my last appointment, I was about 60% effaced and almost 3 cm, so there was progress from the week before. I was also measuring about 40 weeks at 39 weeks 2 days. It was also at that appointment that the nurse practitioner informed me they don't want to let me go more than a week over. So I go back on Friday, assuming I haven't gone into labor by then, they're going to be scheduling an induction for next week. Which I'd rather avoid. I know induction doesn't equal c-section but it increases the chances a large amount. I'd rather keep the odds lower. They don't want to let me go too far though, likely because of the fact my blood pressure has been going a fuzz higher than they'd like when I do things. My saving grace has been the fact that if I lie down and just chill it quickly returns to normal levels. 

So we've been eating spicy foods (curry with pineapple), walking, taking L.6W herbs, pressure points, and acupuncture. I'd kind of like to get this going.