THE GOODS BLOG: Erika's Precious Little Life - February Edition

Alright. So that happened. I had a baby. There’s a new person who lives at my house now. He mostly sleeps, eats and poops.

I felt like I had spent such a long time being pregnant and it’s so strange for that all to be over now. I almost couldn’t remember what it was like to have a normal body anymore... And now it’s almost as if being pregnant was some kind of a dream.

January started out pretty low-key. I felt huge and often uncomfortable, so things stayed pretty easy-going. I celebrated my 35th birthday, and thankfully the baby did not decide to come on that day! Tim sent me to a spa called Bota Bota for my birthday so that I could have a 90 minute Prenatal Massage and a Spa Nail Care Pedicure. It was amazing to be pampered, especially at a time like that! I also went to my LAST pre-baby midwife appointment on my birthday.

The baby’s due date (40 weeks) came and went on January 11th and I was living in pretty intense anticipation of when this was all going to go down.

40 WEEKS!

Here’s the last little bit of BABY WATCH 2017 that happened before the birth:

Month 10!

This is what happened inside of my body in the tenth month...

On January 10th (my birthday!) I had my 8th midwife appointment. This one was with Nathalie again. I kinda hope that she’s the one that I get for the delivery, ‘cause she really seems to “get” me. But again, everyone has been so awesome. This appointment was about 45 minutes long and it was the same old thing; I was weighed, urine was tested, blood pressure was taken, stomach was measured, baby’s heartbeat was listened to, and baby’s position was checked. Everything was healthy and as it should be! Nathalie suggested that we do a vaginal exam, which I have not had done yet for the entire pregnancy. Typically, midwives don’t like to do many of them (they think that they introduce unnecessary bacteria). But she thought that it might be a good idea to try and find out where things are at. It definitely wasn’t the most comfortable thing ever!! She really rummaged around in there! HA HA! She said that my cervix was 50% effaced, but not really dilated. She also said that the baby’s head was right there. So baby seems to be locked and loaded. It could be any time!! She said that we would give it the week, and if I haven’t given birth yet then we’d start exploring some ways to get things moving. My next midwife appointment was scheduled to be in a week, but hopefully I won’t need it. (I didn’t.)

I also went to my last prenatal yoga class on January 13th and my presence surprised everyone at the studio, since they all assumed that the baby would have been born by then. (As did I.)

And then a few days later... I went into labour!

You’ve probably read Archie’s Birth Story by now. If not, the whole complete story is available for you to read! I really can’t believe that I’m a mother and that I have a son. I don’t feel “different.” Yet it’s such a momentous thing...

Life with Archie:

The first few days with Archie at home were pretty rough, which I expected. My milk took 5 days to come in (it’s supposed to take 2-3 days) so Archie started to lose too much weight. They expect newborns to lose 10% of their birth weight in the first few days, but he lost 12%. Because of this, we had to start supplementing with formula. It was a lot of work because they had us doing a whole sneaky system where Archie would nurse on my breast and we would sneak a feeding tube into the side of his mouth to feed him the formula. It was pretty genius, since my breast still got stimulated and Archie was still learning to breastfeed and he thought that the formula was coming from me. But it was a lot of tiring work. I also had to pump at the same time to help encourage the milk to show up. Thankfully it finally did! Archie has now surpassed his birth weight and is 8lbs 5oz (he was 7lbs 12oz at birth), which is great news. In his first week, the midwife came to our house four times to give Archie checkups and make sure that everything was going well and getting back on track with his weight.

On top of this, I was still trying to recover myself. After giving birth and getting stitches, everything in the vag region was extremely sore and uncomfortable. I could barely walk or move around or even sit upright for too long. Plus I was bleeding, of course (and I still am, except much less). And I couldn’t hold in my pee at all (and it burned when I peed). I would say that it took a good two weeks before I felt up and at ‘em again. The absolute worst part of all of this was going for a poop for the first time after having the baby. It was terrifying. The absolute last thing that I wanted to do was any sort of pushing down there. I cried more over that first poop (which took me days to do) than I did about child birth.

All I can say is: THANK GOODNESS for Tim because he has been doing everything. I don’t know what I would have done if he didn’t have the month off of work. He changes all of the diapers and cooks all of our meals. He really kept our entire ship afloat, especially when I could barely move.

I had gotten up to 152 pounds while pregnant and lost 15 pounds immediately upon giving birth. Since then I’ve gotten down to 129 pounds which is a loss of 23 pounds so far. I’d be happy to lose another 14 pounds, if I can, which would put me back down to where I started before getting pregnant. I feel like this should be possible once I’m all back into my yoga groove! My belly button is back to being an innie as well! It’s nice that things seem to be bouncing back! (I find the dramatic weight gains and losses of pregnancy super fascinating! Not in an obsessive way, or anything.)

Archie is a really good baby. He sleeps a lot and he understands how to breastfeed. We can usually get at least six hours of sleep at night, with one feeding in the middle. So we really aren’t that exhausted. We’re in the process of getting him off of the formula, since sometimes he still seems to need a top-up. I’ve been having some problems with breastfeeding being pretty painful and I went to see a specialist who corrected how I was doing it. So I really hope that that makes a difference.

Archie had his newborn photography done on the 23rd and I can’t wait to see the photos!

My parents came to visit for a week and it was really nice to see how excited they are about Archie. They love him so much, and I don’t think that I ever really expected them to get so attached to him. It’s weird to think of them as grandparents!!

Their visit was mostly low-key but we did get out a bit as well. Now that I’m feeling so much better it’s really nice to get out of the house. We celebrated Archie’s arrival with a bottle of Dom Pérignon (purchased by my parents) and we also got to take them to see the birthing center and room where Archie was born!

Right now I don’t have much else going on other than the baby... It’s amazing how one little person can demand so much and monopolize everything. But it’s also very important to me that I maintain my own identity apart from the baby. So I look forward to getting back to doing more “Erika stuff” as well. Thankfully my yoga studio has just started offering Mom & Baby yoga classes!!

February should be pretty quiet. Tim goes back to work on the 13th, which will be interesting to say the least. I should have some fun opportunities to get out and about as well, which I’m totally looking forward to.

THIS MONTH’S SHOUT-OUTS!:

February 9th is Laura Young’s 31st birthday!

I hope that you’re feeling pretty good and are able to celebrate your day and get spoiled by Matt! I love that we live pretty close to each other again. We need to make some plans to see each other soon and I can’t wait for our babies to meet and become best friends!! Love you tons! ♥

February 18th is Candice Weingartner’s 5th wedding anniversary!

I hope that you and Ryan get to have a special day just for you two! You guys have so many exciting things coming up!!