a Return and a Birth

It has been nearly two and a half years since my last blog post. I don't know how all those mommy bloggers do it. The thing is, I miss having a blog. I don't care who reads it, but I like the record that it has become for my life. I want to get back to it as a sort of online diary. I have such a poor memory, but there are so many amazing moments that I would love to remember. Hopefully getting back to blogging will help.

The first thing I want to capture for memory is the birth story of our second baby.

It took seven months to get pregnant the second time, but it wasn't as difficult as the first time around because this time I expected it to take a while. I didn't want to find out if the baby was a boy or girl because I thought the surprise would help make a second pregnancy more exciting. I had a strong feeling it was a girl though. Coming up with a name was even more difficult this time around, partly because we tried to find both a boy and girl name we liked. Michael came up with Naomi about three weeks before my due date, and I liked that it was normal yet not popular and that it means "pleasant." Michael liked that she would have all the vowels in her name full name. For a boy, I really wanted Oliver, but Michael wasn't fully on board and we didn't have a middle name.

Ten days before my due date, my in-laws arrived to help out. That was also the first Sunday of my spring break from school. My brother-in-law and his wife arrived that Tuesday to visit as well, so it was a full house. Unfortunately, it was also a house full of the norovirus. Somehow, I didn't get sick. Praise God! At my 39 week appointment that week I was dilated 2cm, and I started having random contractions throughout the week. I was also trying to spend every free minute finishing the yearbook and grading research papers as both needed to be completed by the end of spring break. Friday, March 20, I spent several hours grading the last of the projects and having moderate irregular contractions at the same time. I had hoped to see Insurgent that Friday night, but with everyone getting sick and the grading hanging over my head, I decided we should all stay home. I finished my grades by 8pm, and the contractions also subsided. After watching a little TV, we all went to bed. At about 1:00am, I woke up with a painful contraction but went back to sleep. Ten minutes later I woke up with another one. I continued to fall asleep and then wake up to a contraction about every 10-20 minutes the rest of the night. I kept waiting for them to get closer together, but there were times where I wished I could go to the hospital and get an epidural because they hurt so bad. That should have been my clue to call the doctor or even just head to the hospital, but I kept waiting to reach the 5 minute mark between contractions because I didn't want to get turned away in the middle of the night. Just before 6am, Joel came to our room and woke Michael up. He heard the way I was breathing and asked if we needed to go. I got up to go to the bathroom, had another contraction and then another one right after it. I said, "Yes! Grab the bags. I'll meet you in the car." He quickly woke up his parents, handed Joel over and grabbed our stuff. I was running out the door trying to hold back my screams. The contractions were coming every minute; there was barely time to recover from one when the next one would start. I knew there wouldn't be time for an epidural and only hoped there was time to get to the hospital. I felt like it was a scene from a movie with Michael speeding and me screaming. We must have reached the hospital by about 6:20am. A guy in the emergency room rushed out with a wheelchair and hurried me to triage. I remember feeling so grateful to have made it into capable hands and for the nurses who were coaching me to breathe through each contraction. I was not prepared for this. In triage I was already 9cm, so they rushed me to labor and delivery. Somehow my doctor made it in time and showed up shortly after we did. I told her I felt ready to push, so she broke my water and told me to go for it. After just a couple pushes, the baby was out and they were telling me she was a girl. I was so surprised and elated that my feeling was right. Naomi Grace was born at 6:52am on March 21 weighing 6lbs. 11oz. She was so much smaller than Joel when he was born. I couldn't believe how tiny her little hands and feet were. With all the adrenaline pumping through me, I couldn't stop shaking for an hour after she was born, but I held her close anyway. I was shocked how fast it all happened and how different it had been from my first delivery. The immediate love and amazement was the same though. I am so thankful to God for this little miracle.

Ready for the Weekend

This was the kind of week that ended with me at the Starbucks drive-through instead of the gym after school.  I feel like I have not had down time in days, and I just wanted an iced coffee (despite the 13 degree temperature outside) and a few minutes to sit on the couch and veg. Fortunately, Joel fell asleep on the way home and is taking an unexpected late afternoon nap.

While I would love to go to bed around 9:30, every night this week I didn't get to crash until nearly 10:30. Joel has been getting up around 3:00 or 4:00am for several weeks (after four months of sleeping 6pm-6am), so that has been rough on my sleep too. Second semester started two weeks ago, and I have a new schedule and new responsibilities that have kept my head spinning. Today I had an Ohio State student shadow me, and I took my yearbook editors to the middle school to recruit 8th graders for next year's staff. I was also working on a surprise project for a co-worker. It was not a typical day but a fun one. I love my job and feel so blessed to work at something I enjoy. When I get up in the morning and head out the door, I never dread where I am going or what I am doing. All the same, I breathe a huge sigh of relief when that final bell rings at 2:42pm on Friday, and I count down the days to summer vacation.

Teach Mom Run

A friend of my friend writes a blog called Teach Mom Run. Hello! I'm in all those clubs too. What I want to know is how she has time for her blog. I have wanted to start blogging again for at least a month. I even thought about making it a New Year's resolution to blog more, but I have struggled to find both time and words. So much has been happening in my life since I was last blogging, and I miss writing about it if for no other reason than I have a terrible memory, and a personal blog is a perfect way for me to keep track of life and go back to remember and reflect.

Part of the writer's block is the guilt I feel when I tell myself that I need to catch up on everything I have missed in the last seven months, so I am letting that go. I am starting here, today, now. We'll see what happens.

Hocking Hills

With the in-laws in town, we decided to treat them to a couple nights in Hocking Hills. Only an hour from home but featuring secluded cabins, hiking, and hot tubs, it seemed the perfect place for the whole family to get away for baby's first trip.

Our first of two nights was stormy with lots of wind, rain, and thunder. Though our cabin had a complete kitchen, the power went out as Michael was in the middle of cooking dinner. The weather also kept us from using the charcoal grill outside, so we settled for sandwiches and decided to "tough it out" without power or water for the night. Fortunately, the lights came back and the water started pumping again at 8:00 the next morning, so we were able to stay for the second night too. We spent the day hiking around Old Man's Cave and Cedar Falls. Both Joel and Polo enjoyed the experience.

 

Michael and I went hiking on a day trip to Hocking Hills last year for our anniversary, and we were sad that due to Ohio's lack of rain this season, much of the creek and falls were dried up. His parents just did not get the same experience we had.

 

May 2011 vs. June 2012

Nevertheless, with good company and good spirits (and of course that hot tub!), we had a lovely time.

What's in a Name?

Maybe deciding on a baby's name is easy for some people, not these people. Michael and I had a difficult time finding a name that we both really liked. Because I'm crazy like this, I created a spreadsheet of potential names with columns for popularity ranking, meaning, and our individual feeling about each one. I was hoping to find something Biblical and/or literary while Michael wanted something that had personal significance. We both hoped to stay out of the top ten list. So, while I really liked Jacob, the fact that it is currently ranked #1 and means "supplanter" took it out of the running. Other names were vetoed simply because one of us didn't really love it. There is a lot of pressure when it comes to deciding what someone is going to be called for the rest of his or her life.

I thought that I had done a pretty thorough search of the Bible and pulled out all the potential candidates, but in late January I was reading Hosea during my quiet times. When I finished, I turned the page to the book of Joel and immediately thought, "Joel! Why haven't I ever considered Joel?" I emailed Michael later that day from work to ask him his opinion. His response:

"I like it. a lot."

Joel was ranked #115 in popularity, and according to babynames.com means "God will be willing."  I loved that meaning because during the nine months it took us to get pregnant, and even in the months leading up to our trying, I constantly prayed for God's will in our ability to conceive and for Him to bring everything together to create the child that He wanted us to have if it was His will for me to get pregnant at all. Michael also really likes Billy Joel and was personally named after a famous musician, so the name has some personal significance for him.

Even after that we were not quite ready to commit. Michael wanted to keep our options open, but I kept pestering him to make a decision. Finally in April we decided to stick with...

Now it was on to the middle name.

Since I teach English and love to read, I hoped to find a name of literary importance. Unfortunately, I could not find any suitable names based on my favorite books or authors. Clive Staples, really? Mr. Darcy... I think not. Frodo? Nope, my computer already claims that name :) We also considered names based on places to which we traveled, and it just so happens we had been to Boston shortly before our little dumpling was conceived. While there, we visited the homes and grave sites of several famous American writers including Ralph Waldo Emerson, so I suggested Emerson. It took Michael a long time to come around to that one, especially since I had to admit I had not really read anything by Emerson before. To build my case, I downloaded some of his work to my Kindle, started reading, and found some good stuff.

"Life is too short to waste
In critic peep or cynic bark,
Quarrel or reprimand:
'T will soon be dark;
Up! mind thine own aim, and 
God speed the mark!"
- Mithridates

"Again I saw, again I heard,
The rolling river, the morning bird;-
Beauty through my senses stole;
I yielded myself to the perfect whole"
 - Each and All

About three weeks before my due date, we finally agreed on Joel Emerson, and we are very happy with it. We've also gotten a lot of compliments on it since he was born, so (if everyone's being honest) our friends and family also like it. Yay!

Thanks to our dear friend Katie for making these beautiful letters for his room.

Footnote: I later discovered that a more accurate meaning of Joel is actually "the Lord is God," but I like that too.

Recently Arrived: Joel Emerson

Nothing like the birth of your first-born child to get you blogging again...

I was pretty confident that May 31st was my due date, but officially (aka according to my doctor) it was May 28th. Either way, I figured baby wasn't coming until June because I had heard most first-time moms go past their due date.  I'm not sure of the validity of that rumor, but it turned out not to apply to me.

On Monday, May 21st, I subbed for a math teacher at Coffman High School. It was a relatively easy day of work, and when I finished I stopped at a friend's house to chat before heading to my 39 week OB appointment. After the typical blood pressure/weight check and an extremely uncomfortable cervical check, the doctor determined that I was not dilated yet and sent me on my way. I made my 40 week appointment with the receptionist who said, "If I see you next week..." I replied, "Don't worry. I have a feeling you'll definitely be seeing me." From there I went straight to the gym for my Monday BodyVive class, a low-impact whole body group fitness class. That evening I was feeling especially uncomfortable, but I attributed it to that lovely cervical check and possibly my workout. As I crawled into bed at the end of the day:


Michael: "You're going to have the baby tomorrow."

Me: "Don't do that. Don't do one of your prophecy things where you say something and then it happens."

At 5:15 a.m., I woke up to go to the bathroom and discovered that my water had broken. At least I was pretty sure, but since the nurse at our birthing class told us that it is common for women to mistake the baby squeezing your bladder and causing you to leak with the bag of waters breaking, I thought I'd wait a while. I fed the dog, let him out, and picked up around the house just in case, and then, sure enough, I experienced a mini gush of "water." After waking Michael up with the news, I finished packing our hospital bag. We ate a quick breakfast, got ready, and quickly headed to Dublin Methodist Hospital.

In triage, the nurse was getting ready to run a test to confirm my water had broken when there was a big gush, and she said, "Yep, that's your water. Let's get you up to labor and delivery." We had arrived at the hospital shortly before 7:00am, which meant the nurses were just going through a shift change.  I was very encouraged when my labor and delivery nurse, Kristy, told me it was her goal to get the baby delivered before the end of her shift. 

shortly after arriving in L&D

sitting on a birthing ball, breathing through a contraction

 The doctor started me on pitocin around 9:00am because my contractions were not getting regular or very strong. That seemed to do the trick and moved things along quickly. When the midwife checked in on me around 10:00 and I was at 4cm, she said I could get an epidural anytime and should not be concerned with it interfering with my progress. I held out a little while longer but called the anesthesiologist in by 10:40. While I am impressed by women who want a natural birth and have to give them props, I am SO glad I went for the epidural. Just watching those contractions on the monitor and not feeling them was ah-mazing :D  Each time the nurse came by, she helped me move into a new pose to try and get the baby moved into the optimum birthing position.

checking my email while sitting in one of the various poses

The next several hours passed by without much ado thanks to the drugs; it was actually quite boring. Unfortunately, I did not get cell service so I couldn't really text or call anyone unless I had Michael take my phone over to the window. We mostly passed the time just chatting and hanging out.


By 2:45, the nurse said I was 10cm and ready to push. An hour and fifteen minutes later, at 4:00pm, Joel Emerson was born weighing 8lbs. 3oz. and measuring 21in. - absolutely perfect in my eyes. 

love at first sight

Except for happening a week early, the whole labor and birth process were about what I expected. In fact, it was probably easier and less hectic than I anticipated. Michael was incredibly supportive. We both fell in love immediately. I was amazed at how much I wanted to cuddle and kiss this little person I just met and who still had residue all over his head and body and was screaming in my face.

The following day was our three year wedding anniversary. Even though the hospital food was pretty good, Michael ran out to get us Chinese food to celebrate. He brought back three fortune cookies, so Joel got his very first fortune at only a day old:

After two nights in the hospital, on May 24th, we took our new little bundle of joy home. We feel so blessed and thank God for His goodness and provision.

Cut Off

For Lent, I decided to give up social media (Facebook, Twitter, online chat rooms/communities). As luck, fate, or God's intervention would have it, my cell phone broke on Fat Tuesday. I am now on day three of feeling completely cut-off. As I sit here and think about how bored I am, I remember that the point of this sacrifice is not so that I check my email more; it is to shift my focus outside myself to God and to my neighbors. I would like to take the time I normally spend online in social media outlets and use it to read, reflect, and pray. So, I should probably stop writing this post and get to it ;)