Well… maybe a little exhausted & covered in spit up, but mostly fine.

November 16 at 2:01 pm our lives were turned upside down (in a good way). The baby formerly known as Boyshteyn was born and we officially became a mom & dad. (It’s so strange being someone’s mom.) My new goal in life is to be a trophy MILF*. The hyperemesis helped quite a bit as I came home from the hospital about 30 lbs lighter than before I got pregnant.

Enough about me (for now) I present the cuteness that is Avi Daniel:

Asleep at the hospital after nursing

Second day home!

Christmas baby

He likes his tiger cuddle

The baby in jeans with his cowboy boot socks! So not impressed with mom.

For more pictures see Months 1 & 2 albums and previous post.

He’s kind of awesome. Even the crying, abusive nursing and projectile spitting up hasn’t changed my opinion of him. (Okay, it’s only changed it a little bit.)

I’ve abandoned the blog for the past few months mostly because I’ve felt like crap. If I had blogged it would have been all about how pregnancy sucks, vomiting continuously sucks, and how miserable I was in general. I just wasn’t one of those women who enjoy being pregnant. I couldn’t wait for November. No, I don’t think we’ll have more kids, stop asking please.

The hyperemesis got somewhat more manageable as in I was mostly sick in the mornings & early afternoons, but felt okay-ish in the evenings. The nausea never went away, but at least it wasn’t as bad in the evenings & I didn’t usually vomit then.

At my 36 week (it was actually 36 weeks, 4 days) appointment with the perinatologist, she decided that since I was still so sick & the baby was healthy and at a good size I could be induced at 38 weeks. I could have kissed the woman & did in fact hug her. I seriously wanted to cry I was so happy. I never wanted to be induced, but the chronic nausea was messing with my head.

Birth story time (feel free to skip this part)

My OB decided that I would go in at night on November 15th to get Cervidil because I was only dilated 1 cm. We went to the Woman’s Hospital around 8:30 that evening & checked in to labor & delivery. I got my Cervidil a little after 9 (that was not fun) and went to sleep soon after. The thought was the Cervidil would work it’s magic over night & I’d be ready to go in the morning at 8 am. Ha! It only got me dilated to 1.5 cm.

At 7 am my day nurse, Liz, (I love her more than words can say) got me up to shower & get ready for the induction. We started the Pitocin at 8:30 and by 9:00 I was having some pretty good contractions. The OB arrived & broke my water a little after 9. She said since I’d had such a shitastic pregnancy she was going to let me get my epidural whenever I wanted.

The contractions were pretty strong & I’ll admit that I wasn’t really handling them well. Liz said the epidural wouldn’t slow down labor because we were using the Pitocin, so I told her I wanted it right away. She said it would take Dr. O’Neil** about 20 minutes to get there, but he was in the room just under 5 minutes later.

Getting the epidural then was the best decision. Like ever. I do not regret it at all. It’s a personal choice, but to me it made the experience so much better. I see no point in suffering through labor and being miserable. I don’t think getting it makes me a bad mom or less of a woman (as some people say). I think my delivery would have been a much less positive experience if I hadn’t gotten it.*** I didn’t feel a single contraction or have any pain at all during delivery or for hours & hours after. Once I did have some pain in recovery it wasn’t terrible & the nurses said I was doing quite well.

I was worried about the pushing part, but other than asthma issues I was fine. During contractions Liz would count to 10 three times in a row and I would push during that time. By the third set of ten my lungs would be burning & I’d be gasping. A couple of Albuterol puffs took care of that though. I wasn’t really paying attention to how long it took. My mom says it was 45 minutes from first push to delivery, but the time passed so quickly. Apparently I’m a very effective pusher or something like that. ****

Avi had a really bad first night & we only got an hour of sleep. Swaddling helped a bit, but by the time we went home we were all exhausted. I am so thankful that my mom was here for the delivery & the coming home bit. I would have had no clue what to do with him. She held him when he screamed, and well, most of the other time too! I was too tired to do much of anything.

It’s been a huge adjustment for our house. The girls are no longer the center of the universe, which is hard on them, but Zoë is madly in love with Avi & I think the feeling is somewhat mutual. He reaches out for her and as long as she doesn’t try to lick him he likes looking at her & will sometimes coo at her.

Avi seems to have lactose sensitivity, which has gotten better since I cut milk & cheese out of my diet. From what I’ve read this is resolved with most babies by 3 months. Hopefully this is the case with Avi, but nothing is ever that easy for me!

He rapidly went bald (he’s rockin’ some serious male pattern baldness) but the hair is coming back in already. We have good days & bad days***** but it’s really neat watching him change & develop into a person.

I think this post is long enough, so I’ll end here with my favorite pregnancy photo:

34 weeks, 4 days - exactly 4 weeks before delivery

*not really, but it sounds good.

** seriously, ask for him if you deliver at The Woman’s Hospital

***I’m not justifying my decision, just gloating. No, I don’t think women who don’t get epidurals are silly or martyrs… Really, honestly, I don’t!

**** No, that’s not enough to make me want to deliver ever again

*****Make that bad weeks in some cases