....well, not really but sometimes it feels like it.
I choose not to breastfeed Jocelyn.
I know, scandalous, right? There is a great debate in this country on breast vs bottle and I'm sure every new mom wonders about her decision at some point. I actually am quiet happy with my decision. I think that it's a personal choice and it may differ from one mom to the next. With Adam I did try to breastfeed. That lasted all of about 3 days. My milk never came in. I couldn't pump enough to satisfy my little guy and so we went to formula. And loved it. It seemed so natural and right for us that I never second guessed or regretted that I couldn't breastfeed. So when I got pregnant again, naturally I decided that was what we'd do with the new baby. That is what worked for us, why chance it?
Throughout the course of my pregnancy and my time in the hospital after birth I have felt like formula feeding is a dirty little secret I should be hiding. They wrote on all my charts "bottle feeding" and asked me multiple times why I wouldn't/couldn't breastfeed. There's pamphlets in all the newborn kits about successful breastfeeding tips and even the free gifts from the formula companies have facts and tips about breast milk. On the top of my can of formula it says breast milk is best for babies.There are posters in every room in my doctor's office preaching "breast is best" with lists to support that claim. "Special bond between you and baby", "Formula feed babies tend to end up obese later in life", and my favorite "your baby's immune system will not be as good".
I say the last one is a favorite because Adam has been a picture of health his entire life. I can count on my fingers the number of times he's had a cold. He's never had anything worse than a fever and that was twice. In his 3 years of life he's never had an ear infection, never thrown up due to illness, never had any type of antibiotics. Obviously his immune system is stellar. I know plenty of breast feed babies that can't say that. Take my niece for example, she's just under 2 years old and poor thing seems to be sick all the time. My SIL breastfeed for just over a year. I don't think the mother's immune system has anything to do with it. Obviously I'm not a doctor and I'm sure there have been studies that can prove differently but I have living proof to back up that statement. I don't think you can determine a healthy child vs a sick child based on how they were feed as an infant.
Call me selfish but I like having the option to have someone else feed her. I love that her first meal was given to her by her daddy. I love that daddy can get up with her in the middle of the night if need be. I get so tired of feeling like I have to explain why I don't breastfeed. Like it's a lesser option. I feel that in the US nowadays if you don't breastfeed then you are looked as a bad mom. As if you failed at breastfeeding and had to resort to formula. I'm sure that had I tried again this time or even tried harder with Adam I would have been successful, but in my opinion I found formula to suit our family best. That's why it irks me to see "breast is best" everywhere. Sometimes its not. It's like saying vegetarian is best, or organic only. If it works for you then that's what's best. Doesn't mean it's best for everyone. It's hard enough figuring out how to be a mom, why would we want to make a person or group of people feel inferior? What does it matter what they are feeding their child as long as the child isn't going hungry? If we put half as much thought/worry into what older kids ate as we do breast vs. bottle perhaps we wouldn't have such a high number of obesity in school age kids. We need to come together as a community of new moms and support each others choices. Both sides have positives and negatives and it's up to the individual to chose what combination works best for them.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Pictures!!! lots and lots of pictures
Ok here's what everyone is waiting for..... pictures of Jocelyn :)
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| Her first breath |
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| weighing in at 6 pounds 5.6 ounces |
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| our baby girl |
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| first look at daddy |
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| meeting nana (jeff's mom) |
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| meeting gma (my mom) |
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| some aunty steph love |
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| john's not to sure he won't break her. lol :) |
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| aunt newt (jeff's sister michelle) |
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| Her first meal |
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| meeting uncle charlie, aunt selena and cousin natalia |
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| talia's not sure what to think |
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| grandpa (my dad) |
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| family love <3 |
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| getting some love from daddy |
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| Adam's not sure its safe |
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| getting ready to go home |
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| i think there's a baby in there.... |
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| sooo tiny |
Super long story of the birth of Jocelyn Ann Hubert
hi everyone. just wanted to share with those of you who couldn't be there the story of Jocelyn's entry into the world. Parts of this may contain TMI but it is a story of child birth so you should really have expected some over share.
It all started with a 5am appointment on Tuesday April 26th to check into the hospital to induce labor.
(Side Note-Adam was spending Monday afternoon and night with my mom who then dropped him off at my SIL Selena's house so mom could come to the hospital.)
I had an appointment Monday afternoon to have a folly catheter put next to my cervix to help dilate and soften the cervix. So since that was going to cause cramping and general discomfort we decided to pick up a few rental movies and some food on the way home and just take it easy. With the cramps and what not I wasn't super hungry and given that we had lunch around 3:30 I just had a piece of left over fruit tart for "dinner". We went to bed around 10, but I woke up at Midnight decided that I was hungry. I had a bowl of fruit loops and told myself to go to bed since needed to get up in 4 hours. I had managed to improperly set the alarm the night before but some how I was still able to wake up at 4:27. Which meant that we had to scramble to get out of the house and I had to skip a shower. Also stopping along the way to get something to eat was out of the equation. We did manage to make it to the hospital by 5 (I think we may have had a few minutes to spare).
I checked in and they got me all set up into the labor and delivery room. At 6am they hooked me up the the IV with saline and started the Pitocin. For those who don't know what Pitocin is, its a drug the mirrors your body's hormone that causes contractions and can allow you to contract faster. At 7am my doctor arrived and removed the folly catheter, also checking my cervix during the progress. I was dilated to 3 cm (which was the intended goal of the catheter). They left me alone for a while so the Pitocin could work its magic and get this progressing further. I was starting to have contractions about 2-3 minutes apart but they weren't all that strong. At about 9:30 I decided that I would go ahead and get the Epidural out of the way since the contractions were pretty strong and I was hoping my cervix was dilating.
At that point Jeff's mom and sister arrived and they got to watch the Epidural go in. The nurse also checked my cervix. Still at 3cm. So we played the waiting game. My mom showed up around 11:30 after getting Adam up and feed and dropping off at Selena's. Jeff and his side o the family decided to make a food run shortly after (about 1pm) and while they were gone the nurse stated that I was now at 4 cm. At this point she started getting the delivery tray ready since had already delivered once and statically this should be faster. But we were still waiting.
I continued to have pretty steady contractions but they weren't very strong and my cervix still hadn't thinned enough. They decided to up the Pitocin with hopes that it would move things along. The Nurse came back at 3pm and stated that I was a 6cm. WOOHOO!! 2 cm in 2 hours. This should mean that things were going in the right direction. The Doc came in and he upped the Pitocin again.
4pm- 6 centimeters
5pm- 6 centimeters. try laying on left side
6pm- 6 centimeters. try laying on right side.
-At this point, the Pitocin drop was wide open and I was the max amount available. This lead to worry among the entourage and they kept checking with nurse to make sure there would be no side effects of being on Pitocin for so long.
7pm- Nurses changed shifts and the new nurse stated that she thought 6 was a generous term for the size of my cervix.
At this time Jeff and his sister ran to the store to get some food. Nurse came in and decided that I needed to wear the oxygen mask. It seemed that every time I would contract Jocelyn's heartbeat would dip dramatically. She thought the oxygen would help level her off and keep her from stressing out too much. It was also possible that the umbilical cord was being pinched/around her neck which could cause the dip in heart rate.
8pm- Nurse comes in with another nurse and tells me there is a position I could try sitting in that may put some pressure on her and cause her to move further down putting pressure on the cervix which would cause it to dilate. Get put on my side, almost on the belly. Put pillow under belly to protect Jocelyn and get another pillow to wrap arms around and cuddle with. This was pretty much my favorite position to sleep on whilst pregnant. VERY comfy so I didn't mind too much, plus it allowed me to rest a bit. It seemed like it was about 20 minutes (was more like 30-40 minutes) and I started to feel some pressure on my pelvis. I let the nurse know and she checked. 7, maybe 8 cm!!!!! This was the magic position! So I stayed in that position and hoped that this would work. Also got word the Steph and John were heading down to come visit.
About 9:30 I started feeling more pressure on my pelvis and booty and let the nurse know. I was pretty confident that things were finally progressing and that it shouldn't be too much longer. I was also starting to get the shakes since I hadn't really eaten anything since the day before (minus a small travel box of fruit loops on the way to hospital, but nothing really substantial). I decided to tell the nurse that I was pretty sure that it was time to push and have this baby. It was about 10:00 at night. She called the doctor (mine had left earlier in the day so I was left with the on-call doc from his office. Coincidentally her last name was Hodges) and she said to have me do some "test pushes" to see how long it was going to take to push. So I did a couple sets of 3 pushes and the nurse stated that it wasn't going to take long. Things were finally ready! More nurses came in and started getting the room prepared for the doctor to do her thing. I remember Steph saying "well, I was going to take off at 10:30 but I suppose I'll stay for the exciting part" and I looked at the clock. It was 10:27. The pushing began and then I hear Jeff's sister Michelle and mom say "oh she has brown hair!" (My one worry/want was that she have dark hair like mine. Instead of blond/red like Jeff and Adam) So at this point I'm super relieved and then I hear someone say, "Ali, grab her" and I looked down and the doctor was putting Jocelyn on my stomach. =) YEAH!!!!!!!!
The official time of birth was 10:32. Apparently it took 5 minutes once the doc got there to get her out but with the "test pushes" I'd say there was like 15 minutes of pushing total. AWESOME. At least after all of that waiting that part was quick. She was so tiny sitting on my chest that I couldn't believe it. My doctor had said she was a big baby so I wasn't at all prepared to see something so small. She weighed 6 pounds and 5.6 ounces. The nurses said that they round up so officially its 6lbs 6ozs. The nurses took her over to the warming station, cleaned her off and got her wrapped up.
I was lucky enough that there was no tearing and the pain was not bad at all. Through the entire process I wasn't in pain (thank you drugs!) and so I wasn't at all miserable or begging for it to be over. I was over all comfortable and my main thing was just getting her out and eating some food!
I ordered some food and while we waited everyone took turns holding her and getting some Jocelyn lovin'. After that the crowd thinned as it was 11-11:30 at night and everyone was tired.
My food was brought in and I scarfed it down and a nursery nurse came and measured her head (13 inches) and her height (18.5 inches). Once that was taken care of we were moved up to the 8th floor for recovery. It was about 2am when Jocelyn went to the nursery and I was able to get some sleep.
WHAT A LOOOONG DAY!
Over all, of course she was worth it. I really don't think of it as a long labor since I wasn't actually pushing or in pain but I suppose it really was 16+ hours worth of labor. Today I am feeling great and don't really have any pain. Some cramping but honestly, I've had worse cramps during "that time". It really doesn't feel like I gave birth yesterday. Its an odd feeling having almost no pain the next day. (
(Not that I'm complain)
She is such a little perfect thing and I'm sorry I have no pictures to post with this story. I'm still at hospital and have no cord for my camera. I promise tomorrow's post will be nothing but pictures. Well, maybe a few words but no where near this long winded story. Thanks for sticking through the graphics and come back tomorrow for the good part. I'll try to keep the blog updated with stories and pictures so remember me and visit often :)
It all started with a 5am appointment on Tuesday April 26th to check into the hospital to induce labor.
(Side Note-Adam was spending Monday afternoon and night with my mom who then dropped him off at my SIL Selena's house so mom could come to the hospital.)
I had an appointment Monday afternoon to have a folly catheter put next to my cervix to help dilate and soften the cervix. So since that was going to cause cramping and general discomfort we decided to pick up a few rental movies and some food on the way home and just take it easy. With the cramps and what not I wasn't super hungry and given that we had lunch around 3:30 I just had a piece of left over fruit tart for "dinner". We went to bed around 10, but I woke up at Midnight decided that I was hungry. I had a bowl of fruit loops and told myself to go to bed since needed to get up in 4 hours. I had managed to improperly set the alarm the night before but some how I was still able to wake up at 4:27. Which meant that we had to scramble to get out of the house and I had to skip a shower. Also stopping along the way to get something to eat was out of the equation. We did manage to make it to the hospital by 5 (I think we may have had a few minutes to spare).
I checked in and they got me all set up into the labor and delivery room. At 6am they hooked me up the the IV with saline and started the Pitocin. For those who don't know what Pitocin is, its a drug the mirrors your body's hormone that causes contractions and can allow you to contract faster. At 7am my doctor arrived and removed the folly catheter, also checking my cervix during the progress. I was dilated to 3 cm (which was the intended goal of the catheter). They left me alone for a while so the Pitocin could work its magic and get this progressing further. I was starting to have contractions about 2-3 minutes apart but they weren't all that strong. At about 9:30 I decided that I would go ahead and get the Epidural out of the way since the contractions were pretty strong and I was hoping my cervix was dilating.
At that point Jeff's mom and sister arrived and they got to watch the Epidural go in. The nurse also checked my cervix. Still at 3cm. So we played the waiting game. My mom showed up around 11:30 after getting Adam up and feed and dropping off at Selena's. Jeff and his side o the family decided to make a food run shortly after (about 1pm) and while they were gone the nurse stated that I was now at 4 cm. At this point she started getting the delivery tray ready since had already delivered once and statically this should be faster. But we were still waiting.
I continued to have pretty steady contractions but they weren't very strong and my cervix still hadn't thinned enough. They decided to up the Pitocin with hopes that it would move things along. The Nurse came back at 3pm and stated that I was a 6cm. WOOHOO!! 2 cm in 2 hours. This should mean that things were going in the right direction. The Doc came in and he upped the Pitocin again.
4pm- 6 centimeters
5pm- 6 centimeters. try laying on left side
6pm- 6 centimeters. try laying on right side.
-At this point, the Pitocin drop was wide open and I was the max amount available. This lead to worry among the entourage and they kept checking with nurse to make sure there would be no side effects of being on Pitocin for so long.
7pm- Nurses changed shifts and the new nurse stated that she thought 6 was a generous term for the size of my cervix.
At this time Jeff and his sister ran to the store to get some food. Nurse came in and decided that I needed to wear the oxygen mask. It seemed that every time I would contract Jocelyn's heartbeat would dip dramatically. She thought the oxygen would help level her off and keep her from stressing out too much. It was also possible that the umbilical cord was being pinched/around her neck which could cause the dip in heart rate.
8pm- Nurse comes in with another nurse and tells me there is a position I could try sitting in that may put some pressure on her and cause her to move further down putting pressure on the cervix which would cause it to dilate. Get put on my side, almost on the belly. Put pillow under belly to protect Jocelyn and get another pillow to wrap arms around and cuddle with. This was pretty much my favorite position to sleep on whilst pregnant. VERY comfy so I didn't mind too much, plus it allowed me to rest a bit. It seemed like it was about 20 minutes (was more like 30-40 minutes) and I started to feel some pressure on my pelvis. I let the nurse know and she checked. 7, maybe 8 cm!!!!! This was the magic position! So I stayed in that position and hoped that this would work. Also got word the Steph and John were heading down to come visit.
About 9:30 I started feeling more pressure on my pelvis and booty and let the nurse know. I was pretty confident that things were finally progressing and that it shouldn't be too much longer. I was also starting to get the shakes since I hadn't really eaten anything since the day before (minus a small travel box of fruit loops on the way to hospital, but nothing really substantial). I decided to tell the nurse that I was pretty sure that it was time to push and have this baby. It was about 10:00 at night. She called the doctor (mine had left earlier in the day so I was left with the on-call doc from his office. Coincidentally her last name was Hodges) and she said to have me do some "test pushes" to see how long it was going to take to push. So I did a couple sets of 3 pushes and the nurse stated that it wasn't going to take long. Things were finally ready! More nurses came in and started getting the room prepared for the doctor to do her thing. I remember Steph saying "well, I was going to take off at 10:30 but I suppose I'll stay for the exciting part" and I looked at the clock. It was 10:27. The pushing began and then I hear Jeff's sister Michelle and mom say "oh she has brown hair!" (My one worry/want was that she have dark hair like mine. Instead of blond/red like Jeff and Adam) So at this point I'm super relieved and then I hear someone say, "Ali, grab her" and I looked down and the doctor was putting Jocelyn on my stomach. =) YEAH!!!!!!!!
The official time of birth was 10:32. Apparently it took 5 minutes once the doc got there to get her out but with the "test pushes" I'd say there was like 15 minutes of pushing total. AWESOME. At least after all of that waiting that part was quick. She was so tiny sitting on my chest that I couldn't believe it. My doctor had said she was a big baby so I wasn't at all prepared to see something so small. She weighed 6 pounds and 5.6 ounces. The nurses said that they round up so officially its 6lbs 6ozs. The nurses took her over to the warming station, cleaned her off and got her wrapped up.
I was lucky enough that there was no tearing and the pain was not bad at all. Through the entire process I wasn't in pain (thank you drugs!) and so I wasn't at all miserable or begging for it to be over. I was over all comfortable and my main thing was just getting her out and eating some food!
I ordered some food and while we waited everyone took turns holding her and getting some Jocelyn lovin'. After that the crowd thinned as it was 11-11:30 at night and everyone was tired.
My food was brought in and I scarfed it down and a nursery nurse came and measured her head (13 inches) and her height (18.5 inches). Once that was taken care of we were moved up to the 8th floor for recovery. It was about 2am when Jocelyn went to the nursery and I was able to get some sleep.
WHAT A LOOOONG DAY!
Over all, of course she was worth it. I really don't think of it as a long labor since I wasn't actually pushing or in pain but I suppose it really was 16+ hours worth of labor. Today I am feeling great and don't really have any pain. Some cramping but honestly, I've had worse cramps during "that time". It really doesn't feel like I gave birth yesterday. Its an odd feeling having almost no pain the next day. (
(Not that I'm complain)
She is such a little perfect thing and I'm sorry I have no pictures to post with this story. I'm still at hospital and have no cord for my camera. I promise tomorrow's post will be nothing but pictures. Well, maybe a few words but no where near this long winded story. Thanks for sticking through the graphics and come back tomorrow for the good part. I'll try to keep the blog updated with stories and pictures so remember me and visit often :)
Monday, April 18, 2011
time is a tricky beast
Looking back on the last 9 months I feel that it has been so long getting here and yet seems like it was just yesterday at the same time.
In a week or so I will have a new baby girl to snuggle with. I can't believe that she is almost here but I have a feeling that the next week is going to be one of the longest weeks of my life. Last week we found out the Jeff gets 2 weeks paid paternity leave that we didn't know about so in addition to the 5 days vacation he was planning on using he gets to hang out with us longer. Plus side- he's around during the day to help take care of Adam and to get my to-do list done. Negative side- he's around during the day. LOL.
We've gotten so much done in the 2 days that he has been off so far. Finally got the computer moved out of Jocelyn's room and set up in the kitchen/dining room. Once that was out we (and by we I mean Jeff, hehehe) were able to move in her dresser and organize her room. We got the bassinet from Jeff's parent's house. Jeff's step-dad built it 20 years ago for Jeff's little sister and all of the grand kids on that side have used that bassinet. Glad to continue the tradition with her. :) Yesterday, I took apart the car seat that was Adam's and gave it a good cleaning. Can't believe how dirty it was. So now it looks like she is officially ready to come home! Whenever she decides that's going to be. lol
So far I haven't had any contractions to indicate that she's going to be coming early. At least I know that if she doesn't come before next week then she's going to be evicted. (Jeff came up with that line and I like it). lol
So this week will be spent hanging around the house finishing up the last minute details and giving everything a good cleaning cuz who knows when the next time I'll feel like cleaning is. lol.
In a week or so I will have a new baby girl to snuggle with. I can't believe that she is almost here but I have a feeling that the next week is going to be one of the longest weeks of my life. Last week we found out the Jeff gets 2 weeks paid paternity leave that we didn't know about so in addition to the 5 days vacation he was planning on using he gets to hang out with us longer. Plus side- he's around during the day to help take care of Adam and to get my to-do list done. Negative side- he's around during the day. LOL.
We've gotten so much done in the 2 days that he has been off so far. Finally got the computer moved out of Jocelyn's room and set up in the kitchen/dining room. Once that was out we (and by we I mean Jeff, hehehe) were able to move in her dresser and organize her room. We got the bassinet from Jeff's parent's house. Jeff's step-dad built it 20 years ago for Jeff's little sister and all of the grand kids on that side have used that bassinet. Glad to continue the tradition with her. :) Yesterday, I took apart the car seat that was Adam's and gave it a good cleaning. Can't believe how dirty it was. So now it looks like she is officially ready to come home! Whenever she decides that's going to be. lol
So far I haven't had any contractions to indicate that she's going to be coming early. At least I know that if she doesn't come before next week then she's going to be evicted. (Jeff came up with that line and I like it). lol
So this week will be spent hanging around the house finishing up the last minute details and giving everything a good cleaning cuz who knows when the next time I'll feel like cleaning is. lol.
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