Leslie Lee’s Weblog

Finally! She has arrived!

Tabitha Midoriwas born on Monday, May 25 at 2:39 in the afternoon. 3 weeks early, she weighed 8lbs, 2 oz and is 20 inches in length!

So, where do I begin??

Omg. Soooooooooooo much easier than Olivia’s delivery. Like so easy, it’s not even comparable.

I knew that if I wrote on the blog that I knew she wouldn’t come until her due date, it would happen sooner! (These girls, always out to prove me wrong!)

Saturday things started getting, ummmmm, mucousy. It was yuck-o! I looked it up, and it said that can happen weeks before labor actually starts. Sigh. It continued Sunday, sometimes sorta pinkish. Looked it up, it could be weeks before labor begins. Double sigh, still 3 weeks til my due date. Then Monday morning, at 2 am I got up to pee and it was bloody, like red-bloody. Looked it up, it could be hours, days or weeks til labor begins. Well, thanks a lot, not very helpful. I wanted to know exactlywhen this is gonna happen! I wanted to find an answer like…”after your bloody show (the technical term) your baby will be delivered within such & such time…” Yeah, no such answer, only the super vague which wasn’t very satisfying.

I tried going back to sleep, it took a while because my head was racing. I got up around 6am, when Olivia woke up. I was having some good contractions, by “good” I mean sorta painful, but they were like 8 minutes apart.

Around 8am they were pretty uncomfortable and about 5 minutes apart. I called my mom, she was in charge of Olivia when and if I ever was going to go to the hospital. I told her not to rush over, who knows if this was real or not. I’ve had contractions 5 minutes apart before, but then they would eventually just fade away.

We had gone to John’s parents house the night before and BBQ’ed, and I hella smelled like smoke, but was too lazy the night before to take a shower – so that should have been a sign right there that she was going to be born. I was stinky!

So after I called my mom, the contractions got closer, and I called L&D and OMG, they said to come in! Well, crap! I had to take a shower AND wash my hair! Which means I had to dry and straighten it too! By the time I showered and started drying my hair, the contractions were almost ridiculously painful and 3-4 minutes apart. There I am, sitting on the floor in front of the mirror with the straightening iron trying to get my hair done between hee-heeing through contractions.

So my mom arrives pretty quick, John and I are all ready to go. My hair is done and I even managed to put on make-up. I tell Olivia, who’s sitting on my mom’s lap, to be a good girl and give Mommy a kiss, she does and starts waving to me. Sheesh, bye.

On the way to the hospital, I have 3 contractions – Kaiser is about 3 miles from our house.

I get wheeled up to L&D, have one contraction. There is a pregnant lady in the waiting room, and one at the admitting desk, the receptionist lady tells her to wait & she’ll let her know when there is a bed available. Great.

My turn. I give her my card, and info. I start to have a contraction, hee-hee-hoo-hoo, ohhhh gawd!! I give her more info, another one comes on. John’s rubbing my shoulders (which I hate, but am in so much pain, I can’t even say anything. but by the time the contraction is over I forget) I give the lady more info. Another contraction, hee-heeeeee, John’s rubbing, he asks me if it’s helping, I reply in a somewhat devilish voice, NO!!!!!!!!!! It’s over. The lady is on the phone, saying, “…..quick, she’s pretty uncomfortable.”

I got a room before another contraction.

I get into the observation room, the floors are still wet from being cleaned. It was just after ten o’clock. I get in a gown, the nurse comes in, hooks me up to monitors, and tells me a doctor will be in soon. I think I had like 3 contractions and John was looking pretty worried, but trying really hard to hide it. He asks me if I want him to find someone and makethem give me an epidural. Lol.

We didn’t have to wait very much longer after that, maybe a few minutes, and the doctor was there. She checked me, and I was already at 7cm! I don’t really know why, but I was shocked. Shocked. I let them know immediately that I needed an epidural, and there was NO WAY I was doing this without drugs. The doctor, who was very nice, asked if I was sure because I had already gotten this far doing so well….I said she was nice, not sane.

I quickly got moved out of the observation room and into a delivery room. I had to get blood drawn and an IV hooked up. By far the worst part of having the baby. My veins like to become non-existent when in a hospital.

The IV wasn’t as bad as getting blood drawn, but it wasn’t anything easy or painless. Anyways, so I get the IV in and the nurse tells me before I can get the epidural the whole bag of whatever it is has to empty. Seriously?? This thing was dripping once every 20 seconds! At that rate it would take literally 5 hours to drain! She realized how slow it was dripping, and so she was moving my hand this way and that and tapingthe tube to my finger and propping my hand up on a towel to make it go faster. It was like trying to get a signal from a rabbit ear antenna, it was ridiculous. Then this stupid nurse starts telling me over and over how my labor was going to go soooooo fast, because it’s my second baby. Uh, hello?? My labor is going to fast, and this f**ing IV is goingthis slow, and I needed an epidural like an hour ago?!? I started getting the shakes, and tears started running down my face, meanwhile I’m getting liposuction in my left hand with a itty bitty needle from this dumbass nurse trying to draw blood from my teeny tiny vein – it was just about time for me to have a total and complete meltdown.

The nurse couldn’t find a vein, so she went to find someone else to try, another nurse came in, adjusted something in the IV tube and it started dripping pretty good. Relief.

I got the epidural shortly after the almost breakdown. It went well, got it in one try. (with Olivia, it took two tries, and it was HORRIBLE)

I was happy.

Another nurse came in to try and get blood from me, she was super nice. She poked me only once on the arm, it was pretty painless, but couldn’t get anything. So as a last resort she had to go to my foot, which I guess is pretty painful, so they don’t like to do it. Well, I wish they would’ve just done that first, because it was a “pumper” and I had the epidural, so I didn’t feel a thing!

So my mom was with Olivia at home, and Jodi, Lisa, John and I were the “delivery team”. Jodi was in charge of the video camera, and John and Lisa were gonna hold a leg while I pushed.

I have no idea what time it was, around lunch time, I guess, because my super bitchy nurse, Dee, was very concerned about taking her lunch break. The very nice, very young doctor came in and checked me. I was at 8cm. My water hadn’t broken, so she asked me if I wanted to wait it out or if I wanted her to break it. I opted to have it broken, it would make labor progress faster, and I was starving – I hadn’t eaten since the night before.

Dee came back from her lunch, and I wasn’t sure if I had the urge to push, but I was feeling pressure down there. She checked me….WHOA! Was her reaction. The baby’s head was right there.

The doctor came in. I could start pushing. Now with Olivia, they wanted me to bare down and push to ten – you know the hold your breath and count to ten thing. With her, I pushed for a little over 2 hours. Well, this doctor wanted short little pushes. What? That’s weird! How do I do that? Jodi or somebody said something funny and I sorta laughed (epidurals are great, I was very pleasant!) and the doctor said, “exactly like that!”

So I pretty much laughed Tabitha right out of me! I started pushingat exactly 2:30, and she was born at 2:39. Can you believe it? It was weird!! The entire thing went by sooooooo fast! All of a sudden I had a baby! All of a sudden I am a mother of two, TWO! Holy crap.

She was born on Memorial Day, so the hospital volunteers had American flag beanies

no baby.

Today is 37 weeks, 3 days. That means two weeks & 4 days until my due date. WTF?? She’s not supposed to stay in there until the due date! Hello?!? What did I spend $400 on to spend those two awful nights in the hospital?? I thought it was because she was coming early!

This just goes to show that there really is no “willing” a baby out of your belly! I guess I was wrong, AGAIN.

So, how big do you think this girl is going to be? My bet is on 9lbs 2oz (if she goes til June 12 – her due date), John says 8lbs 1oz, Gramma Pat thinks 8lbs 8oz. What’s your guess? Here are my stats – so far pregnancy #2 I’ve gained 32lbs and my waist is 48.25″……

Well, Sunday has come and is almost gone. No baby.

This morning we got up early again and had breakfast with friends at Aqui’s in downtown Campbell. This weekend was the Boogie on the Bayou Festival down there too, we attempted to walk around but it was just too dang hot.

Instead we decided to go for a swim over at Grandma Pat’s house. We had a blast. Not really surprisingly, Olivia is fearless. She does not want to be held, she just wants to swim! She plays limp noodle and tries to wiggle her way out of your arms, it’s scary! We bought her a floaty thing for her to sit it, it’s really cute and had a nice canopy to keep her shaded. She liked it at first, but then got a taste of what it was like to “be free” in the water, and when we tried putting her back in it, she threw a fit. (And of course got her way) It was a really good day. Thank you, Grandma!

Finally! Today made me feel pretty good and took my mind off being a humungous baby making machine. We woke up early, everybody was bathed, dressed and out of the house by 8:15am – I don’t even remember the last time that happened! We picked up Grandma Jeri and headed to the Los Altos Pet Parade. We got there at a great time – which never happens either! And we got great parking as well as a great shaded spot near Starbucks to watch the parade. The only bummer was that we got up and left so early this morning that Olivia was exhausted by the time the parade got started. We still had fun though…

Olivia’s very lady-like pose, poor thing was so tired!

Despite her being tired, she still was so excited to see all the animals!

SOOOO EXCITED!

But it wasn’t all exciting, there were some boring parts…

And that weird looking dog…

Was just confusing!

After the parade, we went home and Olivia and I took a nice long nap, then we headed to a birthday BBQ at the park. When we first got there the heat was almost unbearable. I was dripping sweat, and I didn’t think I was going to make it that long. But once we settled in the shade it was surprisingly pleasant. We stayed way longer than I expected and had a great time. Olivia had a blast hanging out with all our friends, and got to experience a few new things too….

like boys…

And football…

And a keg…

She also got to hang with our great friends we don’t get to see as often as we’d like…

She even made a new friend, Cooper…

All in all, it was a wonderful Saturday!

Now if baby will just arrive by tomorrow night, that would make this like the BEST weekend EVER!

What a bummer. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING to report.

Those contractions that I told you about, well they last all night, they were so consistent that I actually called L&D around 12:30, but they were about 8-10 minutes apart so they told me not to come in. Once they get 3-4 minutes apart, then it’s time. Did they ever get to that point. No. 6-7 minutes apart for about two hours was the closest I got. Oh well.

At my appointment today I found out that I’m still only 4cm dilated. My cervix is super soft, but the baby is still high. And big. Well, duh. Just look at me, I’m freakin huge. She (my dr) asked me twice to make sure I didn’t test positive for diabetes. (Since diabetics usually tend to have larger babies) And no, I’m not diabetic. Big fat babies just run in my family. That was my glimmer of hope, so I asked if that meant that I could be induced, and get this whole pregnancy over and done with – but, again, no. They won’t induce until I’ve reached my due date – omg! That’s June 12. That is like a lifetime away. If I’m still pregnant then, I think I’ll die. Not just because I’m so miserable, but because that means I’ll probably be pushing a 24lb baby out of my baby hole. Uh, gross.

Anyways, so I’m gonna just walk, walk, walk from now until baby’s born. Today right after my appointment FamiLeezy went to the mall and walked around for about 2 hours, then I took a nap – very common these days. I have been absolutely exhausted. It’s been nice, John’s been off work all week (my surprisingly generous brother offered to take on all John’s pools to give him some time off and take care of me & O – YES, I’m talking about ERIC! Wasn’t that nice?!), and he got “laid off” from the bar on Monday (which kinda sucks because that was MY source of $$), but so he’s been home all week, and so I’m taking advantage of it. I no longer feel guilty about doing it either! Before, I’d feel bad for wanting to sleep in and asking him to do all the chores since he was working 16-18 hour days, but this week I’ve had a total change of heart. I’ve slept in all week until 10, I tell him atleast every other day that the house needs to be vacuumed, I haven’t changed a diaper since Monday, I haven’t touched a dish in I don’t know how long…. it’s great. I think that’s the only thing I’m going to miss about not being pregnant.

I’m sort of excited about tomorrow, it’s the Pet Parade in downtown Los Altos. I used to go when I was really little. I’m excited to take Olivia, she gets ridiculously excited over dogs, so I’m looking forward to this new experience with her. Then after that we’re headed to a friends birthday BBQ. It will be a packed day, hopefully not too exhausting or hot. It’s supposed to be in the 90’s tomorrow. I hate the heat. And I have nothing to wear. I swear, nothing fits anymore. The belly to my pants are too tight, my shirts are all too short. It sucks. I’m just going to wear my pajamas everywhere. They are seriously the only comfortable thing, my pajama pants and a sports bra. Omg, if I went out in public like that….

Anyways, here are some pictures of Olivia and her BFF….

Welp, another day has passed, and baby is still in there. She’s a crazy, active thing! Everyday I can feel her getting bigger and bigger, I’m actually pretty nervous about how big she’s going to be if she ever decides to join us out here. In the last 36 hours her little outward jabs that look like a pointy elbow or a knee have turned into an entire arm. YES. It’s no longer a little pointy thing sticking out, it’s the entire length of something – an arm, a leg, I have no idea, but it’s even freakier than just that little pointy thing. Being pregnant with Olivia was nothing, nothing like this. I mean she moved and was pretty active, but this one has taken it to a whole different level.

I’m also pretty nervous about this baby being born a boy. John’s cousin had a baby last August, and at the 16-20wk ultrasound (where you find out the sex) they told her it was a girl. After that you don’t really get another ultrasound unless there’s something wrong with the baby, well she got another one a little less than a month before the baby was born (for reasons I don’t know), BUT it turned out to be a BOY!! Omg, if that happens to me, I WILL DIE! JUST DIE!! I don’t like surprises like that. I couldn’t handle not being prepared like that.

So what has brought on this sudden panic? Well, I’ve had this little twinge of worry for a couple months now, just because of how different this pregnancy is from my first, especially the way I’m carrying this baby, so low! And then today, I was at Costco and this sample lady was asking me about Olivia and my pregnancy, and she said there was no way I was having a girl, my belly is saying it’s definitely a boy. WTF? First of all, who is this lady?? A baby-sex predictor? For gawds sake, she works at Costco! And I’m letting her totally freak me out. Tomorrow I have a dr’s appointment, and I’m thinking of INSISTING on another ultrasound.

So anyways, I’m actually excited about my appointment tomorrow. I’ll be 36wks pregnant, which is considered full term (and Olivia was born at 36wks + 3 days). I’ve been having quite a few strong contractions lately, none of which are consistent, but I’m hoping that that means that I’m also dilating. So maybe tomorrow will be the day! Best case scenario, I go in, I’m something like 6cm, I get admitted and BAM! Baby is born within a few hours. Second best scenario, being checked by the doctor triggers labor, my water breaks the next day and the baby is born in less than 22 hours. (If you remember “way back when”, I had a dr’s appointment on a Tuesday – where she said I was probably going full term – my water broke on Wednesday, then a very long 22 hours later Olivia was born on Thursday) I would just like to get this over and done with asap!

So, enough of all this pregnancy junk. What else is new? Well, Olivia is still not walking. I think she’s sort of just being lazy. I think crawling is just easier, so she’s not putting that much effort into walking. But that’s okay, she’ll do it in her own time. She has been walking really good holding on to one hand though. We walk all over the house like that, it’s way easier than trying to pick her up and carry her with this giant belly.

Tonight I tried something new for dinner with her. I don’t know why, but it gets me all excited when we find something new that she likes. And tonight she loved it. Veggie burgers. She ate an entire patty all by herself, too! Plus two spoonful’s of spinach & cheese tortellini! She must be growing or something. I’m not trying to make her a vegetarian or anything, but these veggie burgers are sooooo delicious, they’re easy to make (microwave, 2 minutes!) and that’s what John and I were having for dinner. If you haven’t tried them, you should, they really are good. Morning Star Tomato & Basil Pizza flavor, I get them at Trader Joe’s – they have them at Safeway, but they’re way cheaper at TJ’s. But, yeah, so I cut the patty up so that O could pick it up and eat it herself, and she ate every last bite of it – well minus one, she gave it to her BFF, Cash.

and her favorite “dessert” – Orange Peach Mango juice! Mmmmm!

Another fun and exciting thing to happen in the world of Olivia is apples. She loves them, and she can hold them herself and eat slices at a time. I know, big deal. But it’s such a big girl thing and it’s so weird that she’s such a big girl. That it happened so quickly. Like, my head is spinning at how fast this whole parenting thing is going. Gawd the next thing you know she’ll be going to kindergarten and middle school, and prom and driving…..I sound like such a cliche, but it’s so true. It sorta makes me a little more excited that baby 2 is on her way – not that I don’t appreciate and love what Olivia is growing into – but I think that maybe I’d be wanting to have another baby soon, so it’s better that I’m already pregnant and ready to pop, so that I don’t have to wait to fulfill that desire again. Does that make sense?

Well, so far since I’ve started writing this I have had 5 pretty hurty contractions, all about 10 minutes apart – did it really take me that long to write this?? Well, I have been eating dinner, too. So, anyways, who know, tonight could be the night! Psh, doubt it. Either way, have a great weekend!

I don’t know when she’s coming out. I don’t think she is, I think I’m just gonna have to accept that I’m gonna be miserably pregnant FOREVERRRRRRRR!

Yesterday was Mother’s Day, my second one! It was very nice (woulda been better had I become a mother of 2) But John did a really good job & cooked for everyone – my fam & his – and Olivia was very entertaining and in a good mood. She’s so funny. Then me, my mom, Jodi, Olivia and John went to the Great Mall, I was hoping all that walking would put me into labor, but NO. Stupid gravity is not working! I’ve still been having contractions, like a lot of them, and they’ve started to get pretty hurty, but they’re not consistant, which is the sucky part. Like they’re every 7 minutes for about an hour or so, and then I don’t get any for another hour or two. It’s so frustrating!

EW! So, this morning – actually just now – I was feeding Olivia breakfast out here in the living room, we finished, she started poopin, and was workin on that for a little while, so I called John in here to get her – cuz I cannot carry her any more

And, well, the last couple nights, I swear Olivia has been eating adult size portions. The last two nights it’s been turkey spinach lasagna… She just did the biggest, nastiest poop EVERRRR!! John was gagging, it all came out of her diaper all the way down her leg, out the top back abover her crack, up the front so it got all over her shirt. All over the wipee case, the changing table cover and her feet. LOL!! So NASTYYYYY!!! Now she’s in the bathtub. But while John was getting the bath ready, she was standing there waiting, John went to get something and said to me, “watch her, make sure she doesn’t sit down in case there’s still poo on her…” then she started peeing, it got all over her legs and she’s looking down like, WTF?!? And started crying, like super upset crying;  it was theeee funniest thing ever, I couldn’t help laughing.

So anyways, we are pretty much all ready for this baby to arrive. I mean as ready as we could be, I think. We got a really cute new “bassinet” for her. The bassinet we used for Olivia is over at my mom’s house, being used as a playpen, so that when we’re over there or when Olivia spends the night, that’s where she sleeps. So we got a new Graco travel lite playard…

It’s a “lite” travel crib, which means it’s 20% smaller than the traditional playard thingy, which I think actually works out better anyways. It saves space in our room, and the pattern is just the cutest!

The other thing we’ve done is rearranged the house. We have three bedrooms, but decided that baby deux isn’t getting her own room. I didn’t really get into the “nesting” phase till very recently, and I’m not sure what to do yet about the crib situation. I don’t want to buy a crib for the baby if by the time she’s out of our room and out of the bassinet, Olivia could be ready for a “big girl bed” – when are kids ready for big girl beds? 18mos? 2yrs? 3yrs??

Well, either way, we didn’t do a nursery for her. We moved the computer room out to the living room, which looks actually really good, and I got my living room back. It’s no longer overflowing with toys and baby junk! (so exciting!) We painted the old computer room, I bought a new little shelving unit thing and baskets, painted some canvases in fun bright colors, moved all the toys in and VIOLA! We now have a playroom! It’s wonderful, I didn’t think I’d like it this much. It’s nice to let her play in there, throw things around, then come out to the living room to watch TV and it still be somewhat picked up. Plus I figure that once baby arrives, we can hang out in the playroom (there’s a comfy chair in there for me) and Olivia will be pretty much contained in one room, rather than in the living room where she can go in the kitchen and the eating area and down the hall…anyways, I love our new room!

Friday will be the first day of week 36 of being pregnant, which is the A-OK day for having a baby. Olivia was born at 36wks + 3days. I think this baby will be here soon, hopefully I’m not jinxing myself by actually publishing that statement. I’m shooting for no later than the end of this week. Wish me luck!

That’s it, 9 days til I’m off “bedrest” and I have the thumbs up on having this baby! Thank GAWD!

I don’t really care what people say though, if she comes earlier I’ll be more than happy. Today I am 34 weeks and 5 days, and I’m pretty confident that if she came right now she would have no problems. I dunno, maybe it’s mother’s instinct, but it’s probably just wishful thinking. But I am pretty sure she’ll come when she’s ready. I’m just afraid that that will be later rather than sooner.

I think the day is approaching though. I thought for sure she would make her big appearance on Monday. I felt like crap all day, and she totally dropped way low. I feel like my belly is down to my knees. Olivia never dropped like this, which also makes me think that this one is bigger than Olivia was. When I was pregs the first time, I didn’t get any stretch marks on my tummy. Since Sunday, I’ve gotten like a bazillion! All under my belly button, or I should say what was formally known as my belly button, now it’s something that represents a funky, mutated third nipple. I don’t think that it will ever be the same.

Anyways, so on the pregnancy front, look for news any day now…

So what’s new with Olivia? Welp, she’s still not walking! Remember back when, when we thought she’s just skip crawling all together and start walking? Wow. Were we wrong! I think she can do it, but just refuses. She’ll take steps here and there, but refuses to commit. She totally will walk for John though! He just asks her to walk, and she’s like, “ANYTHING FOR YOU, DADDY!” I ask her to walk and she turns into a limp noodle.

She has also gotten really smart lately, I mean she’s not doing calculus or anything, but she just surprises me with the things she understands. I ask her to put her binky on the table, she does it. Put the milk on the table, she does it. She points people out in pictures, she knows the kitty cat’s from the doggies and horses and cows in her books. I dunno, with her being so small, and not really saying words yet, I’m just surprised at how much she knows. I guess I shouldn’t underestimate the brain power of such a little person.

Anyways, this one is quick, cuz it’s 2:30, she’s napping and this is my only chance to shower…

Hopefully next thing you’ll read is the announcement of little sister’s arrival!

Wish me luck!